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It’s working out to be a big spring for Chicago’s Revolution Brewing.

Though only open since 2010, the Logan Square brewpub’s beers have garnered rave reviews since day one. Demand is great enough to warrant expansion with a 45-barrel production brewery on nearby Kedzie Avenue. A grand opening was held there late last month during Chicago Craft Beer Week and featured 28 Revolution brews plus additional guest pours.

Adding even more zest to the Kedzie facility’s opening was the Revolution crew’s haul at the World Beer Cup in San Diego. Held every other year at the Craft Brewer’s Conference, the WBC really is a ‘World’ competition with brewers from 54 countries competing in 95 style categories. Revolution was the big winner for Illinois with two gold medals – one for the appropriately named Cross of Gold in the English-Style Summer Ale category and one for Rise, an American Stout.

Other area winners included a gold for Haymarket’s American-Belgo style Last Chance and a silver for Goose Island’s King Henry Bourbon-Barrel-Aged Barleywine. Bronze medals were won by Flossmoor Station with their Intercontinental Pale Ale and Brickstone for American Pale Ale.

Speaking of Brickstone, they’ve certainly come a long way since first starting to brew in 2006. The Bourbonnais restaurant’s original set up consisted of soup pots and homebrew wort chillers doing 20 gallon batches. They soon upgraded to a bigger kettle and partial mashes, but kept the chillers! By 2008 brewer and owner Tommy Vasilakis felt confident enough to install a new 10 barrel Newlands brewhouse. Now, four years later, Tommy along with assistant brewers George Giannakopoulos and Phil Waide are expanding the brewery once again prior to starting distribution. Kegs will be going out to local draft accounts in July, to be followed by six-packs once a bottling line is found and installed.Midwest WBC winners include, from Michigan, Bastone Brewery with three medals, Dragonmeade with two and Founders with one. Kuhnhenn Brewing also brought home one, but that was Michigan’s only gold medal. Double-Rice IPA bested 153 other entrants in the hotly contested American-Style IPA category.Public House Brewing in Rolla, MO brought home the only Show-Me state’s medal, with a bronze in the Session Ale category.

Congratulations also go out to James “Otto” Ottolini of the St. Louis Brewery (Schlafly) on receiving the Russell Schehrer Award for Innovation in Craft Brewing for his work in dry hopping and reducing milling dust in the brewery.

Over the last year or so it seems as though the opening of another brewery or brewpub has become almost routine. By some accounts over a dozen breweries are in the planning stages in Chicago alone. However, a recent announcement was big news indeed. Lagunitas Brewing revealed plans for a new facility in the Douglas Park neighborhood. With Lagunitas being one of the fastest growing craft breweries owner Tony Magee needed additional capacity to supply markets in the Midwest and East Coast. A Chicago native, Magee felt that a brewery here made perfect sense. Plans call for a 250-bbl brewhouse with an annual capacity of 600,000 barrels per year.

Happy 10th birthday to Stockholm’s. Head over to Geneva and grab a pint!

Pipeworks Brewing has started shipping beer. The small batch brewery aims to release a different beer weekly! Reviews so far have been very, very positive. Check their Facebook page for new releases. Perennial Artisan Ales is new to the Chicago market but the brewer isn’t. Phil Wymore is a veteran of Goose Island and Half Acre who is now returning to his roots. Or his beer is, at least. Perennial Artisan is releasing Hommel Bier, Saison and Black Walnut Dunkle for distribution in Chicago and New York City. Look for 22 oz bottles and limited draft availability. Perennial will also host a Belgian Beer Fest on July 28 in conjunction with St. Louis Craft Beer Week.