Urban Knaves of Grain (UKG)

Wortapalooza
2025-06-21 09:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Phase Three Brewing, 932 Donata Ct, Lake Zurich, IL, 60047, United States
Judging of the 3rd annual Wortapalooza competition, sponsored by Club Wort. Entries open April 21. Judging will be at Phase Three Brewing, 932 Donata Ct in Lake Zurich. There will be additional judging sessions on Mon, Wed, and Fri; the Monday night session is at Church St. Brewing in Itasca.

UKG Social Afternoon
2025-06-22 14:00 - 17:00 | Penrose Bewing, 509 Stevens St, Geneva, IL, 60134, United States
UKG Social Afternoon at Brother Chimp Brewing, 1059 W Orchard Rd in North Aurora. Brother Chimp is a brewery taproom with 14 taps, plus guest ciders, seltzers, and wine. No food is served, but you can bring your own.

Monthly Club Meeting
2025-07-15 19:30 - 21:00, 2025-08-19 19:30 - 21:00 | Bubblehouse Brewing, 2121 Ogden Ave, Unit A, Lisle, IL, 60532, United States
Monthly meeting to announce the latest club news, competition wins, upcoming events and happenings.
It’s also an opportunity to share some of your brews with the rest of the club and get feedback as well as taste other club members’ brews.
We welcome all visitors interested in the club. Bring homebrew if you have it and want to share.
This month’s meeting will be at Bubblehouse Brewing in Lisle. Their taproom doesn’t serve food, but you may bring your own.
The June, July, and August meetings will start at 7:30 rather than 6:30 because we won’t have a tech session in the first hour. Tech sessions resume in September.

UKG Social Afternoon
2025-07-20 14:00 - 17:00 | Ike & Oak Brewing, 6315 Main St., Woodridge, IL, 60517, United States
UKG Social Afternoon at Ike & Oak Brewing, 6315 Main St. (Rt. 53) in Woodridge, on the outskirts of the Seven Bridges mall. Ike & Oak is a brewpub with a full menu of pizza, sandwiches, salads, and a few entrees. They have about a dozen brews on tap.

Drink Dan's Beer Party
2025-07-26 14:00 - 20:00 | Dan Acheson’s, 27W359 Aspen Ct, Winfield, IL, 60190, United States
Join us for a day of drinking some excellent homebrews! Winning Midwest Homebrewer of the Year and a gazillion other trophies has left Dan Acheson’s cellar overstocked with award-winning beers. We’ll help him drink the surplus. Please don’t bring any beer, there’s way more than enough for everyone. There will be food, but feel free to bring more.

UKG Social Afternoon
2025-08-10 14:00 - 17:00 | Goldfinger Brewing, 513 Rogers St, Downers Grove, IL, 60515, United States
UKG Social Afternoon at Goldfinger Brewing, 513 Rogers St in Downers Grove. Goldfinger is a German lager specialist, with a decoction brewhouse and horizontal lagering tanks. Their flagship beer is an American/international pale lager, and they have about 6 lagers on tap. No food is served, but you can bring your own, or check here for their constantly changing food truck schedule.

CHAOS BrewBQ
2025-08-23 14:00 - 19:00 | CHAOS Clubhouse, 2417 W Hubbard St., Chicago, IL, 60612, United States
Annual CHAOS BrewBQ, 2:00pm-7:00pm, sponsored by the CHAOS homebrew club at their unique clubhouse, 2417 W Hubbard St in Chicago. This event brings together all of the Chicago area homebrew clubs, with clubs providing and pouring kegs of their own brews, and CHAOS providing all the food (though donations are accepted).
Ray Nonnie’s Jock(ey)Zilla will be on display and needs to be supplied. If you can provide a beer, cider, or mead, please indicate what can bring here.
The CHAOS Throwdown chooses the club with the best beer in a specified category. This year it’s focused on Catharina Sour (BJCP style X4), and Mica Zaragoza will be representing UKG. Good luck Mica.

Monthly Club Meeting
2025-09-16 18:30 - 21:00 | Bubblehouse Brewing, 2121 Ogden Ave, Unit A, Lisle, IL, 60532, United States
Monthly meeting to announce the latest club news, competition wins, upcoming events and happenings.
It’s also an opportunity to share some of your brews with the rest of the club and get feedback as well as taste other club members’ brews.
We welcome all visitors interested in the club. Bring homebrew if you have it and want to share.
This month’s meeting will be at Bubblehouse Brewing in Lisle. Their taproom doesn’t serve food, but you may bring your own.
6:30-7:30pm: Our first technical session of the fall will discuss ciders and how to make them, plus details of an upcoming bulk cider buy. This will be the kickoff of our newest Knighted Knave Cup, targeting ciders. The ciders we’ll make in this challenge will be judged at the January meeting.

UKG Social Afternoon
2025-09-27 12:00 - 15:00 | Church Street Brewing Company, 1480 Industrial Dr Unit C, Itasca, IL, 60143
UKG Social Afternoon at Church Street Brewing, 1480 Industrial Dr in Itasca. A perennial supporter and host of UKG events, they typically have 30+ beers on tap. Their kitchen (in the main taproom) serves sandwiches, salads, and pizzas.
Anyone who brewed beer on Big Brew Day, please bring a bottle or two to share. We’ll be in the Steeple Room, next to the loading dock; please don’t enter the main brewery! Friends are welcome to join us as well.

Brixtoberfest
2025-10-04 08:30 - 17:00 | Imperial Oak Brookfield, 9526 Ogden Ave, Brookfield, IL, 60513, United States
Judging of the Brixtoberfest competition, sponsored by Brixie’s Brewers. Entries open July 14, max 250 paid entries. Judging will be at Imperial Oak Brewing, 9526 Ogden Ave in Brookfield (not the Willow Springs location). There will be additional judging sessions on the preceding Sunday and Wednesday.

UKG Social Afternoon
2025-10-19 14:00 - 17:00 | Skeleton Key Brewing, 8102 Lemont Rd #300, Woodridge, IL, 60517, United States
UKG Social Afternoon at Skeleton Key Brewing, 8102 Lemont Rd in Woodridge. A consistent friend of beer education and supporter of UKG, they typically have around 15 beers on tap. No food is served, but you can bring your own.

Monthly Club Meeting
2025-10-21 18:30 - 21:00, 2026-01-20 18:30 - 21:00, 2026-02-17 18:30 - 21:00 | Bubblehouse Brewing, 2121 Ogden Ave, Unit A, Lisle, IL, 60532, United States
Monthly meeting to announce the latest club news, competition wins, upcoming events and happenings.
It’s also an opportunity to share some of your brews with the rest of the club and get feedback as well as taste other club members’ brews.
We welcome all visitors interested in the club. Bring homebrew if you have it and want to share.
This month’s meeting will be at Bubblehouse Brewing in Lisle. Their taproom doesn’t serve food, but you may bring your own.

Learn How to Brew Day
2025-11-01 10:30 - 17:00 | Ray Nonnie’s, 817 Dugout Trail, Carol Stream, IL, 60188, United States
Ray Nonnie is hosting Learn How to Brew Day. Ray will be brewing an all-grain batch of his own using a stainless steel mash tun with a RIMS setup to control mash temperatures, for those interested in learning how to brew all-grain. Visitors are welcome to bring their own equipment and brew a beer, or just come and observe. Beginners are welcome! Bring snacks and homebrew, if you have some.

UKG Social Afternoon
2025-11-09 14:00 - 17:00 | Riverlands Brewing, 1860 Dean St, unit A, St. Charles, IL, 60174, United States
UKG Social Afternoon at Riverlands Brewing, 1860 Dean St unit A in St. Charles. Riverlands has 16 taps, including a couple of seltzers. No food is served, but you can bring your own.

Monthly Club Meeting
2025-11-18 18:30 - 21:00 | Bubblehouse Brewing, 2121 Ogden Ave, Unit A, Lisle, IL, 60532, United States
Monthly meeting to announce the latest club news, competition wins, upcoming events and happenings.
It’s also an opportunity to share some of your brews with the rest of the club and get feedback as well as taste other club members’ brews.
We welcome all visitors interested in the club. Bring homebrew if you have it and want to share.
This month’s meeting will be at Bubblehouse Brewing in Lisle. Their taproom doesn’t serve food, but you may bring your own.
For the technical part of the meeting (6:30-7:30), Eileen and Mike Uchima will talk about all-in-one brewing systems.

UKG Annual Holiday Party
2025-12-16 18:30 - 22:00 | Two Brothers Roundhouse, 205 N Broadway, Aurora, IL, 60505
UKG Special Holiday meeting, 6:30pm at Two Brothers Roundhouse. From the entrance, walk to the left all the way to the end, and take a left before the main banquet room and proceed upstairs. (An elevator is also available.)
A limited buffet will be provided. +1s are welcome. We need to provide a headcount for this in advance. Please RSVP here.
You can pay your membership dues for 2026 at this meeting, $20 cash or check payable to UKG. You can also pay online using this link.
Holiday Brew Roulette: bring a 6-pack of your holiday beer, mead, or cider, and leave with a mixed 6-pack of your fellow UKG members’ holiday brews! You’re encouraged to create a holiday label for your contributions, but a key will be distributed after the gathering so it’s not a complete mystery what’s in your 6-pack. We’ll use our Holiday Brew Slack channel to talk about the brews.
To participate in the Holiday Brew Roulette, bring your 6-pack (all the same brew) to the party. To help us reshuffle the brews quickly, please preregister them in this Google doc.
This event replaces the regular club meeting for this month.

UKG Social Afternoon
2025-12-21 14:00 - 17:00 | Miskatonic Brewing, 1000 N Frontage Rd c, Darien, IL, Darien, IL, 60561, United States
UKG Social Afternoon at Miskatonic Brewing, 1000 N Frontage Rd, suite C in Darien. Miskatonic has been a friend and supporter of UKG and the Drunk Monk Challenge for the last 10 years, but sadly they are closing their doors on Dec 31. This special social event will be our final thanks to them.

DMC Entrant/Judge/Staff Registration Begins
2026-01-03 12:00 | IL
Beginning of entrant, judge, and steward registration for the Drunk Monk Challenge.

UKG Brew-In!
2026-01-10 09:00 - 16:30 | Tim Devitt’s, 1675 Whispering Oaks Dr, West Chicago, IL, United States
UKG Brew-In at Tim Devitt’s house, 1675 Whispering Oaks Dr in West Chicago.
Visitors are welcome to bring their own equipment and brew a beer, or just come and observe. We’ll start at 9:00am, and everyone must be finished by 4:30pm.
What to bring:
Burner, propane, pots, buckets, carboy, ingredients, hops, chair, etc.
Homebrew, of course!
Provided:
Space to brew in garage.
Hose and water for chilling.

DMC Entry Registration Begins
2026-01-11 12:00 | IL
Beginning of entry registration for the Drunk Monk Challenge. There’s a 3-entry limit per person initially, but this will expand to 6 entries on 1/25 if our entry capacity hasn’t been reached yet.

DMC Entry/Drop-Off Opens
2026-02-16 | IL
Entry shipping/drop-off opens for the Drunk Monk Challenge.

31st Annual Train Crawl 2026
2026-02-21 11:00 - 19:00 | IL
Please join us for the 31st annual UKG Train Crawl! First stop will be 11am.
Breweries include Half Acre, Spiteful Brewing, is/was, Hopleaf, and Demo Brewing. Dinner is planned to occur while at Hopleaf.
MAP: 2026-UKG-Train-Crawl

DMC Entry Deadline
2026-03-06 17:00 | IL
Deadline for arrival of shipped or dropped-off entries for the Drunk Monk Challenge. Entry registration will also end today if the entry cap has not been reached yet.

DMC Unpacking
2026-03-08 10:00 - 14:00 | Two Brothers Roundhouse, 205 N Broadway, Aurora, IL, 60505
Unpacking of entries for the Drunk Monk Challenge at Two Brothers Roundhouse, 205 N Broadway (Rt. 25) in Aurora.
Lots of volunteers needed! Bring 6-pack carriers if you have some. Homebrew welcome for sampling after we do our work.

DMC Judging
2026-03-10 18:00 - 21:00, 2026-03-12 18:00 - 21:00 | IL
Judging of a few tables for the Drunk Monk Challenge, location TBA. Schedule:
5:30pm: Organizers arrive.
6:00pm: Judges arrive. Dinner served.
6:30pm: Judging begins.
Please be on time! Everyone has to wait until the last judge arrives before we start.

DMC Judging
2026-03-11 18:00 - 21:00 | Two Brothers Roundhouse, 205 N Broadway, Aurora, IL, 60505
Judging of a few tables for the Drunk Monk Challenge, at Two Brothers Roundhouse, 205 N Broadway (Rt. 25) in Aurora. Schedule:
5:30pm: Organizers arrive.
6:00pm: Judges arrive. Dinner served.
6:30pm: Judging begins.
Please be on time! Everyone has to wait until the last judge arrives before we start.
