Pollyanna Brewing To Revive Alarmist Taproom And Its Award-Winning Beers

SAUGANASH — Northwest Siders missing Alarmist Brewing’s award-winning Le Jus hazy IPA are in luck.

Alarmist, which closed in February after almost a decade in Sauganash, has been bought by Pollyanna Brewing and Distilling. Ryan Weidner, the president, CEO and co-founder of Pollyanna, said the taproom, located at 4055 W. Peterson Ave., will be renovated and will reopen before the end of the year.

Pollyanna — which is headquartered in suburban Lemont — also purchased all of Alarmist’s recipes. That includes the Le Jus hazy IPA — which won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival in 2018 — the Crispy Boy German-style pilsner and the Pantsless pale ale, Weidner said. Pollyanna will brew the beers out of its Lemont location and eventually shift production back to the Sauganash location.

The beers will retain the Alarmist name and will likely start being available in bars and stores this fall.

“That brand really means something. It put Chicago IPAs on the map,” Weidner said. “We think it’s really important for the legacy of the Alarmist brand to live on.”

Gary Gulley opened the Alarmist tap room inside a Sauganash warehouse that used to be home to the Siebel Institute of Technology in 2017. Before the taproom could open, Alarmist had to lift a liquor moratorium that had kept bars out of the neighborhood for decades.

Without other bars and restaurants nearby, Gulley said Alarmist struggled to bring in foot traffic. He said the business finally started turning a profit in 2019 — and then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

There was “a real nose dive” in the number of people drinking after the pandemic, Gulley said, a trend that has hurt breweries and wineries across the country.

Shortly after Alarmist announced its closure, Norwood Park’s Illuminated Brew Works and Whiner Beer Company in Back of the Yards followed suit, and a few weeks later, Half Acre Beer Co. and Maplewood Brewery & Distillery announced a merger they hoped would help them navigate a “rapidly changing craft beer and beverage market.”

Pollyanna started with a taproom in suburban Lemont in 2014 and now has four locations, all in the suburbs. Weidner said the business is “not immune” to the challenges the craft beer industry has seen. However, Pollyanna has found success by offering activities like live music and trivia at its taprooms, hosting private events and adding a craft cocktail menu.

About 4,000 square feet will be added during the renovation of the Alarmist taproom, which Weidner said should take about four months once all of the necessary city permits are secured.

The new taproom will seat 200-225 people and will include a private event space with an additional bar. A kitchen will be built, and garage doors will connect the taproom to the beer garden, creating an outdoor courtyard, Weidner said.

The Sauganash taproom will be Pollyanna’s first location to offer food. The menu will feature artisanal pizzas, salads, flatbreads and other shareable bites, Weidner said.

Gulley said he thinks food will be a great addition to the business because the area doesn’t have many other restaurants or bars.

“I think this is going to be a huge, huge plus for the neighborhood,” he said. “Everyone’s going to be happy they’re going to have a place to go back to.”

When Alarmist announced it was closing, customers started pouring in, Gulley said. He and other Alarmist crew members had befriended a lot of the regulars, so there were a lot of tears shed in the final few weeks, he said.

“My head had been so buried in the day-to-day and trying to figure out how we could keep the doors open, I never had chance to take in what Alarmist really meant to people,” Gulley said.

The strong community around Alarmist is a big part of why Pollyanna was interested in the business, Weidner said. He plans to reach out to Alarmist’s customer base and host a town hall in the next month or two to hear what residents want to see at the taproom. Those interested in attending the town hall can email Weidner at info@pollyannabrewing.com.

“This is their third space,” he said. “We want to know what they want.”