Beer Hiking Chicago: Discover Scenic Trails, Local Breweries & Hidden Gems with Dan and Jessica

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Sylvia
 Here's a question for you. What do hiking boots, IPAs, and the Sears Tower have in common? Well, not much unless you're my next guest. They're the couple behind Beer Hiking in Chicago. Yep, there's an actual guide for that. It pairs scenic trails with local breweries all across the Chicagoland area. And not to worry, it's not just for beer nerds. These hikes are legit gems, and the whole thing is surprisingly family-friendly. Think fresh air, cool views, and a cold one waiting at the end. So whether you're trail-loving, beer-loving, or just looking for a new weekend adventure, this one's for you. So let's hit the trail.

[01:00:48:15 - 01:00:52:03]
Sylvia
 Dan and Jessica, so nice to meet you guys. I love your book.

[01:00:52:03 - 01:00:54:18]
Jessica
 Awesome. Thank you so much.

[01:00:54:18 - 01:00:58:20]
Sylvia
 It is so much fun. Beer Hiking Chicago, and beyond. First of all,

[01:00:59:23 - 01:01:12:20]
Sylvia
 I have to say, when I think of hiking, I don't think of the city of Chicago. And I think of hiking as a healthy outlet. But then to combine that with beer, that's awesome. How in the world did you guys come up with this idea?

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Dan
 That's a good point. I mean, we didn't have a huge big moment. But it was just something we naturally did, where we would go hiking with our family, with our sons 13 now. And then Jusk and I, being big beer people, were like, "Where's the nearest brewery?" That was our initial combination. And then during when COVID hit, we really picked that up during lockdowns. And then at the time, Jusk was writing for Chicago Magazine and did an article on beer hiking. So it was a natural progression that led into this book.

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Jessica
 The city has done a lot of really cool things to create these green spaces. In Chicago, take city parks and add these natural areas to have all these nature walks. So we really wanted to highlight some of those.

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Jessica
 Like Palmosano Park, for example, and Bridgeport. That was an old quarry. And now it's this gorgeous space with a beautiful view of downtown. So we wanted to bring in some of those. So we have nine city hikes, I think 16 suburban hikes and five day trips. So in the end, we decided we thought we could find enough diversity and hikes to pull it off. And so we said yes to doing it.

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Sylvia
 So it was a team effort, Dan, huh? Because what was your role in this then?

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Dan
 Yeah, we worked together in finding the hikes and the breweries. But I was going to say, the publisher has done, they do a whole series called Beer Hiking.

[01:02:37:19 - 01:02:51:01]
Dan
 They have one in Berlin, they did the Pacific Northwest, they've done New England. So when they came to us with the ideas, Jessica was saying, like, are you sure Chicago's a fit because Pacific Northwest, we understand. But yeah,

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Dan
 Jessica was originally going to sort of work on it herself. And I was like, well, this is kind of a big project with full time jobs. And I'm a writer. So

[01:03:03:12 - 01:03:24:09]
Dan
 for me, so like, yeah, so I helped. We so then we did it together. We went to the maps, find the hikes and the pairings and tried to sort of mastermind what we thought was the best sort of narrative that we wanted to tell the publishers did let us kind of put our own personality and what we thought would be would be best.

[01:03:24:09 - 01:03:56:21]
Sylvia
 Yeah, very fun. And you both are kind of in the media world, marketing professionals, public relations. So you kind of have that part down. But how fun to put a passion of hiking and beer and bring it together as a family. And to write this really fun book, which I can't wait to delve into this with you. But what I really love and the thing that surprised me the most is one of the comments in the book where you said, most breweries are great place to take children. Now that surprised me. You have a son. Tell me why is that?

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Dan
 Yeah, and that's what I was saying when we would go hiking or even when we go on vacation or whatever. It's just the first thing we think of is what's a nearby brewery. And it's because we love beer, but also because they do, they tend to cater to family experiences. A lot of times, you know, there's going to be board games, there's going to be pinball game machines.

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Dan
 And they have french fries almost always.

[01:04:21:10 - 01:04:25:00]
Dan
 You could it's the safest place to take your kid despite having beer.

[01:04:25:00 - 01:04:44:02]
Sylvia
 I love it. I love so many of these wonderful ideas, including yours were born of the pandemic boy, the pandemic did really open up the doors for us to try other things as well. Okay, so let's talk about Illinois, first of all, as a brewery state and specifically Chicago. We rank up there, don't we?

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Dan
 Oh, yeah, definitely. Yep. Yeah. I forget the exact number of how many breweries there are.

[01:04:50:07 - 01:04:53:10]
Sylvia
 I read your book and it said 300 breweries in Illinois.

[01:04:53:10 - 01:05:08:08]
Dan
 And it's probably beyond that now because of how quickly so many come up. We're up, we live near the Raven's Wood corridor where there's just breweries, you can walk up and down everywhere. So it's like, yeah, it's an amazing city for beer.

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Sylvia
 Okay, so let's get right to the book. The fun part here, so much fun. I love the illustrations. I love the guides. I love the hiking. It's so easy to maneuver. Tell everybody how does this book work? Jessica, we'll start with you.

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Jessica
 So it's interesting. So I don't recommend that people actually have the book open. It just depends on where you are. When we were in Starved Rock, where I was like, we were on this beautiful hike, but there was no railings and we were walking around on a cliff basically. And I have a note in there, don't have your book out during this part because you don't want people to hurt themselves. But I think there are two ways that you could do it. So we have in there instructions on what to bring on the hikes. We have a lot of backstory about the hikes. And then when it comes to actually doing the hike, we did curate a specific height. We have turn by turn directions. We tell people where to start and where to turn and all of that. So you could do that or you could just look at the map and kind of do your own. A lot of times there's offshoots with fun little like other areas that you can go. So it's sort of a build your own. You can do exactly our hike. And we put together what we think are really great hikes with like nice things to see. But you could also go off with that a little bit and make it your own.

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Sylvia
 Okay, very fun. And Dan, let's talk about this. What came first, the hikes or the brewery?

[01:06:31:01 - 01:06:46:02]
Dan
 Kind of both. We wanted to spread as much as we could throughout all the different suburbs. And then we even included some day trips. But then we would kind of make a list of the breweries we loved. And then we would make a list of the hikes we wanted to include.

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Dan
 And then we just started crossing the lines. Like what can we make work fit? And what was the closest? Because we wanted to make sure all the breweries were, I think, we're all less than 10 miles.

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Jessica
 Okay. Yeah, less, no longer than like a 15-minute drive. Yeah.

[01:07:04:02 - 01:07:04:23]
Dan
 Yeah. Yeah.

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Sylvia
 So help. So walk me through this. Because initially when I heard about beer hiking in Chicago, I'm like, oh, I'm going to interview these two people who are hiking from a brewery to a brewery to a brewery to basically get trashed and have a good time.

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Dan
 But that's not the case.

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Dan
 No, that's funny. No.

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Jessica
 So we, you know, and we, some people did expect it. I think we got one negative review that people expected the hike to lead you to the brewery. And man, that would have been amazing. But then there just would have been no book because there's not, you know,

[01:07:41:14 - 01:08:15:17]
Jessica
 yeah, there's beautiful places to hike, especially in the suburbs, more traditional hiking, but there's just not a brewery right at the end of the trail, which would be so wonderful. But so we did have to, but we tried to get them as close as possible. But the idea is that you go for the hike. You're seeing all these like beautiful spaces, even the city or the suburbs, which is, you know, a part of the community, especially like the urban hikes. It's just, it's all about community. And that's really what the book is about. And then a brewery, there's just, it's all about community. Like when you see families, you see the neighborhood in the, in the brewery. So the idea is that you go, you're sweaty,

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Jessica
 you're thirsty. You, you know, you're, you're, if you're with your kids, they got their energy out and then you can go sit down, have a beverage, something that you love, be in another community space, play a board game, have a refreshment. We encourage people to either order food if it's there or bring in food, if not, because eating while you drink is important. I like to get smaller pours to try different beers.

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Jessica
 I like to get five ounce pours so I can try different ones. So we definitely encourage hydrating, eating while you drink. We have public transportation suggestions for every single hike. We encourage that if possible.

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Jessica
 So hopefully, hopefully that helps. Yeah, it's not just about getting trash, but it's really about, it's about community and just taking kind of these two things that a lot of people love that we didn't really realize people love and put them together.

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Sylvia
 So I'm looking through this book and I love this because it starts with, you know, some suggestions, how to prepare, trail etiquette. And then you finally get to the different areas. So you have 34 hikes, nine in Chicago, 25 in the suburbs, including the day trips that you mentioned, Dan. But let's start with you, Dan. What is your absolute favorite beer hike?

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Dan
 My favorite one, and it's probably just because it's selfish and it's close to home, is the North Park Nature Center. It's one that we went to a lot as a family.

[01:09:37:23 - 01:10:04:02]
Dan
 So that was like one of the kicking off points. And so it's still my favorite. And it's such a beautiful hike because you can see woodland trail in a savannah area and a wetland. They just do a beautiful job with giving you different nature spaces. And then there's even this like hidden walking stick woods portion that's like really fun. And then you can actually walk to Alarmist from this one, which is one of my favorite breweries. It's just, it's the essence of neighborhood brewery,

[01:10:05:07 - 01:10:12:12]
Dan
 great new styles every time you show up. And it's just that feeling of community really shines through on that type of a hike.

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Sylvia
 Okay, so let's talk about Alarmist. That's the brewery. And we, so I go to the brewery, I look it up where you're talking about, I go to Alarmist, tell everybody, describe what they find on that particular page, since that's your favorite. Because we've been talking about the hike, but really, you know, the beer is a huge part of this. So tell me about that one.

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Dan
 Yeah, yeah, yeah. So with the hike, we sort of drive it to at least one flagship beer that they tend to have. So we recommend something to pair with the hike. And we'll, in this case, it's their Lejeux, which is like their flagship Northeast paleo, which is really good.

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Sylvia
 And pale.

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Dan
 Yeah, yeah. But it's got like a nice,

[01:10:52:00 - 01:10:56:22]
Dan
 piney kind of flavor at times. And which is my favorite? If I can taste the Christmas tree, that's my favorite beer.

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Sylvia
 I love that. I love that. Okay, Jessica, your turn. What's your favorite? And where and why?

[01:11:01:18 - 01:12:31:10]
Jessica
 So I, I really enjoyed the city hikes. So McKinley Park, have you been to McKinley Park, the actual city park? I think they have. So it's in the neighborhood of McKinley Park, but they added on a natural area. And that's what a lot of the city parks have been doing right now. They added one in where we live across from in River Park, in Washington Park, which is also in the book in Humble Park, they add on, they take what is already existing, and then they plant Illinois prairie flowers, and they create wood chip trails and sometimes waterfalls. And they create these what they call natural areas, which are little hiking spots. And it's really cool. So McKinley Park was a city park, and we included the city park in it, you can walk around and see like the baseball games and things like that. But then we you walk around the lagoon and you walk through the natural area. And it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. It's just really lovely. You forget when you're walking around the lagoon, and you're in the natural area, you forget like you're in the city. And that's that that hike just feels like Chicago to me. And then close by is Mars Community Brewing, which is a great, great brewery. It's an industrial space. It's just beautiful. They like to feature local artists on the walls. There's a fun game room in the back. The night that we were there, they were playing loteria. And our son won and he won some beer for us, which he gave to us, which we were thankful. Wait, what were they playing? A lot of families in there. I'm sorry. What were they playing? Loteria, which is similar to Bingo.

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Sylvia
 Oh, okay.

[01:12:32:08 - 01:12:45:22]
Jessica
 Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And lots of families in there playing. And that we I love that brewery. So we both chose City Hikes. But I think, you know, there's just kind of something special about them.

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Sylvia
 Well, and I'm glad you found all these City Hikes, because like you said, you know, it's crazy to have a Chicago Hikes book without real City Hikes. I want to ask you about a couple of places. But first thing I want to say to you is, okay, I love your book so much. I am not a beer drinker at all. Like beer is just not my thing. But there was something that caught my eye as I was going through your book. Besides the fact, after reading your book, I thought, Oh, maybe I will try some beer.

[01:13:12:02 - 01:13:29:21]
Sylvia
 Let's talk about is it a Palmasano Park hike? Okay. The reason I'm bringing this up, because in the book, you said that the beer is fermented with wine. Tell all of us wine lovers about that. And if we could still enjoy your beer hikes, but that one caught my attention.

[01:13:31:05 - 01:14:10:20]
Dan
 Yeah, I mean, I certainly think on a from a beer perspective, you can find a beer like but that yeah, that denier brewery is is fabulous. And it's like a sort of an elegant experience. But I wouldn't say you're not it doesn't taste like wine. So it has a little bit, but like it's it still has that refreshing kick of beer to me. But there are like barley wines and they're all are different types of beer and like sours and saisans that I think would lean more toward like a wine drinker to try. And again, if you do those four ounce pours, you kind of just get a little taste and, and then experience the brewery itself is worth it.

[01:14:10:20 - 01:14:15:04]
Sylvia
 I love that idea. I think your next book though is is a wine hikes. What do you think?

[01:14:16:08 - 01:14:26:11]
Sylvia
 I think that's your next book. And tell me about that park because you casually mentioned it earlier, Jessica. Tell everybody about that one.

[01:14:26:11 - 01:14:38:12]
Jessica
 Yeah, so that used to be an old quarry that they was not a park at all. And but they decided to transform it. Do you remember what year it was, wasn't that long ago?

[01:14:38:12 - 01:14:41:10]
Dan
 No, it was fairly recent, but I don't remember off to that.

[01:14:41:10 - 01:15:14:00]
Jessica
 And they took what used to be part of the quarry and they have this whole system. There's waterfalls that lead to this lagoon. And they have these beautiful trails that lead up to a little bit of a hill where you have a gorgeous view of downtown. And actually, when you're coming in on the interstate from 94, you can actually see it. So if anyone, if you see a hill, when people hike around, when you're just just in the south loop, that's it. But a beautiful view of downtown, gorgeous park. It's not long, it's only a mile and a half. So that's why we kind of stretch the idea of hiking a little bit.

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Jessica
 But again, we thought it was important. And, you know, it's, it's still getting out there. It's still walking in nature, maybe more some of them are more nature walks. But yeah, that's okay.

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[01:15:32:12 - 01:15:52:09]
Sylvia
 Hey Foodie friends, if supper with Sylvia feeds your soul like it feeds ours, show us some love. Subscribe, like, leave a kind review and share it with someone who loves a good story and a good meal. Thanks for joining supper with Sylvia. It's the love of food that brings us together, but it's the stories behind each bite that brings this to life.

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[01:15:56:23 - 01:16:27:06]
Sylvia
 You also bring up an area that I'm very familiar with because I live in this area, but a lot of Chicagoans never make it here. And I love that this is in your book. And that is the Chicago Riverwalk. Because a lot of people who have lived in Chicago don't realize that really, it was recently completed, I think it was 2016, where you can go from one end of the city all the way to Lake Michigan. And you've discovered it's a great beer hike. Tell everybody about that one. Who wants to take this one? Dan?

[01:16:27:06 - 01:17:01:12]
Dan
 Well, Jessica actually did this one. She walked along the riverwalk for that portion. I did find that secret beer in the restaurant that is made by Red Beach. That's how we were able to squeeze that one in. We were like, how do we get city type hikes in? And the riverwalk was one, but we were like, there's no brewery. You could walk maybe downtown. But then we found that the one Brewhouse had a revolution made beer there just for them. Jessica?

[01:17:01:12 - 01:18:08:05]
Jessica
 Yeah. So we had been before, a lot of people just pop on, maybe off Michigan Avenue or might go inside and have a drink, have a wine, city winery, things like that. But we wanted to do it from beginning to end. So I started in the west, I walked to the east, and I walked back. And it's just an architectural wonder really. And there's a lot of nature elements to it. So in the very beginning on the western trailhead, when you walk up, they've created an animal habitat. You'll see geese there. It's right on the water. It's really cool. And you walk through the tunnels and there's so many different memorials and art. And it's really so cool. And I just love how there's so many different components to it. And yes, we found a place, it's a beer museum, actually, you walk in, they have facts about beer and how a lot of the beer that we drink is made from Lake Michigan water, which you don't really think about, but it's true. So lots of different facts about beer, you can try so many different beers. And we chose this one. That's a collaboration with Revolution Brewing. So you get your beer, you sit outside, or you can sit inside. But it's a fun thing to do in the summer.

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Sylvia
 Okay, so now let's go to the suburbs.

[01:18:11:18 - 01:18:17:19]
Sylvia
 And you have quite a few out there, suburbs, which would make more sense. There's a lot of forest preserves, right?

[01:18:18:22 - 01:18:22:06]
Sylvia
 But Dan, let's start with you. Which suburban hike is your favorite?

[01:18:24:00 - 01:18:31:11]
Dan
 I love Raceway Woods up by Huntley. And it's got, it used to be like an old race track. And it's

[01:18:32:11 - 01:18:56:01]
Dan
 now got these really funky hills where kids come and do big mountain biking trails and stuff. But that one gets pretty rugged. And I don't know, I just love walking through this prairie grass land, and then you get into these woods, and then you walk up and we're just like, this was a race track for old cars. And it feels kind of ghostly in a way.

[01:18:56:01 - 01:18:58:14]
Sylvia
 Okay, and what beer goes with that?

[01:18:58:14 - 01:19:07:17]
Dan
 And then that one we go to Scorched Earth. And that's one where we actually get a stout. We recommend a little motor oil to go with your,

[01:19:09:04 - 01:19:18:15]
Dan
 so there's in that regard, we do try, we did think about stuff like that with the pairings in terms of like, what kind of fit a narrative or whatnot. So that's a fun one.

[01:19:18:15 - 01:19:22:04]
Sylvia
 That's very cute. Jessica, what's your favorite in the burbs?

[01:19:22:04 - 01:19:54:00]
Jessica
 For your day trip? Oh, gosh. Yeah, we loved our day trips. But I'll talk about the south suburbs, because there's this Palos Park trail system that's really kind of special. And we chose a little red schoolhouse, which is a nature center, but they have these great different trails. If you put them all together, I think you can get up to two, three miles. But it's a great nature center. It's a great place to bring your kids. They just redid it. And there is indeed a little red schoolhouse that you can go and visit.

[01:19:55:15 - 01:20:32:13]
Jessica
 And they have a wheelchair accessible trail too, which is kind of cool. We didn't put that in the book, but that was really neat. And yeah, it's gorgeous. And that whole Palos trail system is really beautiful too. You could write a whole book, I swear about that. And then the beer, I believe that we paired with that is Pollyanna Brewing Company, which is a nearby Lamont. And I think that was a Porter, right Dan? The Eleanor Porter. Yeah. We don't drink... The darker beers are not my favorite, but we had to include beers for everyone. And this is actually a really delicious Porter. I'm called Eleanor. But describe it. What's it taste like?

[01:20:33:13 - 01:20:34:05]
Jessica
 You want to take it?

[01:20:34:05 - 01:20:48:20]
Dan
 They're always going to be a little bit coffee-like, which is sort of what we like in a stout. But yeah, it's really smooth though. It's not overwhelming, which some Porter's and darker beers can be.

[01:20:49:20 - 01:21:02:00]
Sylvia
 Was there anything that you discovered while you guys were doing your research for either the brewery or the hikes where you went, "What? Oh my gosh, I had no idea. Any surprises?"

[01:21:02:00 - 01:21:26:23]
Dan
 Wow. Other than just sort of the wildlife aspect at times, it's like you kind of get surprised what you see out there. The Grove, which is a small hike, it's like every time we go, we see deer and snakes and that kind of that element. Sometimes I think we're just going to walk and be by ourselves and grasp, but now there's creature friends out there that we love.

[01:21:28:00 - 01:21:42:12]
Dan
 But other than that, the one you mentioned, like Palmosano, that element of the city, I think, we'd lived here for 25 years and we never went to these parks and kind of overlook the innovation that they're doing there. And that was a surprise in a way.

[01:21:42:12 - 01:21:57:19]
Sylvia
 And that brings me to the Bloomingdale Trail, which most Chicagoans know as the 606, right? Now that's something I've heard that has just been an incredible marvel in our city. I'm going to make it there. I haven't made it yet.

[01:21:59:01 - 01:22:09:23]
Sylvia
 But if you can, Jessica or Dan, whichever would like to jump in here, tell everybody a little history about the 606 Bloomingdale Trail, how it came about, and what's it like now and where's the beer?

[01:22:11:20 - 01:22:23:00]
Jessica
 Yeah, I can take this one. So this was similar to the Chicago Riverwalk, where this is something that most people know about, right? It was highly publicized when it came out. People have been waiting for this trail,

[01:22:24:02 - 01:23:58:13]
Jessica
 but we wanted to include it because it is a special thing. And just like the Chicago Riverwalk, they have added in so many cool nature elements, art, everything like that, everything that we think of when we think of community. So yeah, so elevated trail, technically the street is called Bloomingdale, so that's why it's called the Bloomingdale Trail. But yeah, we wanted to take this. So we started at the Eastern Trailhead. We walked west and came back, wanted to do the whole thing. And my favorite part of it is that they create hiking trails off of the bike trail. So that's what's so cool about it. So everybody that goes on, they walks along the bike part of it. But then there are some cases where they have actual dirt trails that they added onto it to almost make it feel like a nature experience. They have that in two different areas across it. And all the local art, and it's such a cool thing. And it's really important to the city because it's the only way that you can get on the north side anyway, east to west. We don't have that, right? We have Lakeshore Drive, but we don't have any big pathway that goes east to west. So this brings that for people. So it's important to the city. We wanted to include it. And then we did have our first brewery that closed. We included a brewery in the book that's just right off of it that unfortunately closed shortly after the book came out. But luckily we were able to include Peace Brewery, which is a pizza place and a brewery that is beloved. And it is only a couple blocks from the 606. And so Dan, you can talk about Peace if you want.

[01:23:59:15 - 01:24:04:20]
Dan
 Oh, yeah, yeah. Orkonolia was the brewery before, and it was literally steps off the trail.

[01:24:06:06 - 01:24:32:12]
Dan
 But this one, just a little bit further away. But we have a second printing of the book that they have already done, which will come out as soon as the first one's run out in the next couple of months. So that will include Peace Brewery instead, which is classic New Haven style pizza in German inspired beer. So it's your classic sort of beer and pizza combo

[01:24:33:16 - 01:24:34:02]
Dan
 location.

[01:24:34:02 - 01:24:37:04]
Sylvia
 Okay, what is New Haven pizza?

[01:24:38:06 - 01:24:39:00]
Sylvia
 I don't know that.

[01:24:40:21 - 01:24:48:05]
Dan
 The Connecticut style pizza, it's like what they do with the crust, it's more charred, I think. And there's like a tangier sort of sauce.

[01:24:49:18 - 01:25:04:15]
Dan
 But yeah, they've been around for a long time in that Wicker Park neighborhood as a staple. One of the first sort of rest brew pubs in the city for sure is one of the ones that carried the torch.

[01:25:04:15 - 01:25:12:17]
Sylvia
 Yeah, I've definitely heard of Pete's. Okay, another question for you. So you have a section on trail etiquette, hiking.

[01:25:14:03 - 01:25:19:10]
Sylvia
 Let's talk safety, because when you think of the city of Chicago and hiking, a lot of people worried about safety.

[01:25:20:16 - 01:25:35:16]
Sylvia
 What do you want to say to people who read your book about this? Are there certain times that are better to go than not? Are certain areas to stay away from? Obviously, all the hiking trails that you have put in here, no matter what you feel good about. But I thought that's something as Chicagoans we should address.

[01:25:35:16 - 01:25:56:17]
Dan
 Yeah, I mean, one thing is all those parks are going to close at dark anyway. So it's not like I would recommend ever walking at night. So that would be more unsafe. But like, every hike we did was just absolutely amazing. It was the greatest, safest experience you could have had no matter where we went.

[01:25:58:05 - 01:26:05:21]
Dan
 We tended to go, yeah, you go earlier in the day, but we would always make sure to have our two bottles of water, bring your snacks,

[01:26:07:00 - 01:26:11:20]
Dan
 sometimes even have a change of shoes in case it rains or the day before,

[01:26:13:04 - 01:26:24:13]
Dan
 it can get a little sloppy. And that, you know, it also, you know, if you have first aid kit and stuff like that, because you can get scratched and things like that, that element of safety is always important to have.

[01:26:24:13 - 01:26:31:05]
Sylvia
 So I'm curious, what is the end goal with your book? What do you want people to get out of this? Jessica, we'll start with you.

[01:26:31:05 - 01:27:07:19]
Jessica
 I think that I'm hoping that people will go out into some of these spaces that they didn't know existed, right? There were some places that we wrote about that I didn't know that we existed. I knew a lot of what we wanted to show, but in doing research, you know, I learned about places that I didn't know about. So I think that's the goal. If you're in the city, you love the city, right? Or if you're in the suburbs, you're here because, you know, you want to be here. But keep exploring, right? Keep learning more about your city, keep trying new places. So I just, I hope that people learn a little bit more about their city than they knew before and that they get out and do some more exploring. How about you, Dan? Same?

[01:27:07:19 - 01:27:26:15]
Dan
 Yeah, 100%. It's to inspire people to get out. I mean, it's that perfect coffee table book that you look at and says, maybe we should get outside and go visit like these communities that we have haven't been before. Like I said, we've lived here for 25 years in the city. And a lot of these places we just never went to.

[01:27:28:02 - 01:27:48:09]
Dan
 And, you know, we finally forced ourselves to do it. And then you see the fabric of, you know, Illinois and these day trips and the city, how all the neighborhoods slightly change and what makes them unique and the people that sort of power those communities. You see it on the trail and you see it at the brewery. And I think it's a cool way to visit the city.

[01:27:48:09 - 01:27:50:09]
Sylvia
 I got to ask you, how old is your son now?

[01:27:51:16 - 01:27:53:23]
Sylvia
 13. How does he feel about beer?

[01:27:53:23 - 01:27:59:20]
Jessica
 He

[01:27:59:20 - 01:28:15:02]
Dan
 hates the smell of it, man. When you first take it going, you'll be like, here we are another brewery. And then it's like, he smells the beer getting made. I'm like, that's magic. I don't know. Just go grab the Uno. Let's start playing. Yeah.

[01:28:15:02 - 01:28:24:13]
Sylvia
 I love it. Okay. I have to know before we wrap it up. This has been so much fun. Tell me what are the plans for the future? Is there something coming up next besides my idea of wine hikes?

[01:28:26:19 - 01:28:30:12]
Jessica
 No, nothing in the works, but I do like that idea. I've had people,

[01:28:31:16 - 01:28:36:20]
Jessica
 we've had suggestions for other kinds of books before, I think maybe pizza or something. I don't know. Yeah.

[01:28:36:20 - 01:28:45:04]
Dan
 I mean, I think we have a dog as well. And I'm like, I would love to find trails you can bring into it like best dog. Maybe it's a wine and dog friendly.

[01:28:45:04 - 01:28:50:01]
Sylvia
 There you go. Those are two things I absolutely love. Thank you for thinking of me, Dan.

[01:28:51:15 - 01:29:22:14]
Sylvia
 It was so great to talk to you guys. I love it. Beer Hiking Chicago and Beyond is the name of the book. The tastiest way to discover the windy city and the suburbs. Actually, you guys, this is so much fun. Love the cover. Thank you so much for talking to me today. And I can't wait to get out and try some beer at your locations. Happy hiking. This podcast is produced by Jane Stephens, audio engineering and original music by Donnie cutting, social media and promotions. Magali Blasdell.