Black & Gray Brewing Co., 311 Barrington Ave #B Dundee, IL 60118 - #224-484-8200
website: BlackAndGrayBrewing.com/
Hours: Monday-Thursday 3-10 pm | Friday-Saturday Noon-Midnight | Sunday Noon-7 pm

Experience before you go . . .

There are definitely stages of life and I'm not talking about the simplicity of you're born, you get older and everything hurts and then you die! No there's more to it than that, I know some of you are saying to yourself, "I sure hope so"! But what I'm talking about are the major events.....born, school, party time, drink beer, college, work, drink more beer, marriage, kids, drink a lot of beer, family time, scrimp and save and hopefully retire early and spend time drinking beer. There's a pattern here but I just can't quite put my finger on it so let me sit here for a moment, drink a beer and maybe I'll figure it out. So along the way there are hundreds of times to show a lot of love and celebrate these moments. Now everyone goes through these stages and then your kids go through these stages and then your grandkids go through these stages and if you're lucky enough and hopefully you can still think straight and you're not on oxygen and riding in a wheelchair your great grandkids start the cycle. So long boring story later, friends second daughter was getting married up in Chicago so we hopped a plane so we could partake in the festivities.

The Chicago area is where we used to live and we still have family and friends up there so we started with staying with family. Marilyn and Mike live in Carpentersville, then a nite in downtown Chicago at the Chicago Athletics Club on Michigan Ave for the wedding and ending the trip staying with Beer Drinking Buddy Brad and wife Lynda for a couple nites in Naperville. Hangin' with M&M in Carpentersville was great except for the cold windy weather and the morning snow but on the second day we rallied and in true Hoppin' Brewery Tour fashion managed to get out to visit Black & Gray Brewing Company located in the downtown area of Dundee, Illinois.

Black & Gray is pretty easy to find and has adequate parking. Front sign selfie and in we went. Big space with hi-top tables to the front, beer production behind in a separate area and the big wrap around bar off to the right and then continuing down to the right there are many tables and chairs continuing all the way down and around the corner which was a recent expansion by leasing the space next door.

We were there at lunch on a Friday and they did have the option of ordering pub food from D.C. Cobbs next door and they'll even delivery it, which is what we did. But of course we needed some brews before the food arrived. Being a sitting at the bar kinda guy we commandeered 4 bar stools and made them our own. Long hair Chris who is their versatile, what needs to be done I'll do it employee was behind the bar and greeted us with a smile and a "whatcha drinking". I went with the Minuteman IPA - New England IPA (6.3%) smooth, hoppy and refreshing, what you'd expect from a main stay IPA. Mike did the Herr Hefe Wheat - Hefeweizen (5.3%), colander and banana. Marilyn ordered up the Eastside Pils - Czech Pilsner (5.3%) soft and malty and Kat went with the B-Shift Blonde - Belgium Blonde (6.8%) not your typical blonde, with Belgium yeast, clove and banana and at 6.8 ABV packs a Belgium punch... Ooh La La!!

No hair Chris & Teresa I assume are the owners and they weren't there during our tour but knowing what goes into a brewery of this caliber they've made a considerable investment in the historical downtown Dundee area. I absolutely love and respect the entrepreneurial spirit required for an endeavor like this! The brewery is well laid out, clean, great artwork, friendly staff, cold refreshing craft beer...checks all my boxes!!

Go to downtown Dundee, Illinois and stop by the Black & Gray for a beer. Say hey to long hair Chris and tell'em Clyde sent'cha!!

Until next time and remember......

Go get'cha one!!