"Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, You moonshine revellers, and shades of night."
- William Shakespeare

I have to admit that I am not necessarily the most up-to-date person regarding Chicago beer spots. Particularly when it comes to the wave of new brewpubs, breweries and micro brewers. Sure there's Goose Island, Piece, and the new brewers like Metropolitan and Half Acre. Maybe my lack of knowledge is because I don't venture too far south of Touhy Avenue any more (that's a Chicago joke meaning I don't get down into the city as often as I should, for those of you from Green Bay and named Matt).

However, as of tonight, I think I have found my favorite new spot for in-house brewed beers in Chicago. It's a little spot called Moonshine at 1824 Division in the city. Their website is www.moonshinechicago.com. I don't know how long they've been there, but they have a nice spot with parking, and there wasn't a wait on a Thursday before New Year's Eve. The brewer there is also apparently an ex-Goose Island guy (per their website).

We started out with a sampler of the five current house brews. They had an American Pale Ale, an Irish Dry Stout, an American Blonde Ale, an American IPA and an American Double IPA. While that is a somewhat standard lineup, I will say that the beers themselves were great. I went with the Blonde Ale, for the record. It was a very pleasant and light beer, with a slight grassy sweetness and a quick and smooth finish. Not quite the standard fare for a very cold Chicago winter night. But we were there for the pizza, as well as the beers.

And the pizza was very good too. We got bacon on the pizza, so maybe it was simply the rule that "Everything is better with bacon". But I really liked the pizza. I would have personally liked to see a little less cheese on it, but I'm certainly not "normal" when it comes to my pizza preferences.

Finally, the staff was great too. Our server was very nice, knew plenty about the beers and was great. The scene was subdued, as it wasn't jammed with people. There was the Nebraska bowl game on the TV. And I got stuck with the bill because I lost a bet in week 9 of our fantasy football season. But that's another story.

I've always been a big fan of Piece. I've also been a fan of supporting the places like Piece, and now Moonshine, that try to create something of value in the microbeer world. While the beer menu at Moonshine is not as long as Piece most of the time, the quality was in my opinion right up there with any other place.

If you're in Chicago and looking for a spot, I highly suggest this one.