Pollyana Brewing Acquires Alarmist Brewing In Chicago, Illinois

Hello, Chicago!

We’ve got some exciting local beer news to celebrate! We’re expanding again and this time, we’re opening our 5th location in Chicago at 4055 W Peterson Ave in the beautiful Sauganash neighborhood!

If that address looks familiar, it’s because it has some meaningful Chicago beer history to it. At one time, it housed the Siebel Institute of Technology (the oldest brewing school in North America, which our co-founder and head brewer, Brian, happens to be an alumni of) and most recently, it was the home of Alarmist Brewing. We mention the latter because we’ve officially acquired Alarmist Brewing as part of our expansion into Chicago!

This new location (to us) will open as a Pollyanna location with all sorts of fun upgrades while we are fully committed to honoring the legacy that Gary and the Alarmist Brewing brand brought to Sauganash. We are already knocking down walls and working on enhancing the guest experience with a focus on creating a warm, community‑oriented environment, an improved hospitality flow, a private event space, an expanded outdoor beer garden, and a new kitchen with a pizza‑driven, artisanal shareables menu designed to complement our award-winning beer, spirit, cocktail, and coffee program.

Oh, yeah…we also plan to bring back the award-winning beers that made Alarmist famous…Le Jus, Pantsless, and more! We’re doing a lot of work inside the building, so the grand opening is a ways off, but the Alarmist beers will be back sooner rather than later! We’re actively working to get Le Jus into tanks and back on shelves and draft lines as soon as possible with the other core beers to follow. We’re extremely grateful for the opportunity to bring back some of these legendary Alarmist brews and yes, Gary, we’ll name a pizza after you or something.

The loyalty, passion, and unbridled excitement that our fans in Lemont, Roselle, and St Charles have shown our small business over the past 12 years has been humbling and truly means the world to us. We can’t wait to bring our irrepressibly optimistic outlook to Chicago and share Pollyanna with Sauganash.

Thank you for all the support,

Brian, Ryan, Ed, & Don