Midwest Coast Brewing’s Rooftop Expansion Elevates Chicago’s Craft Beer Experience | Project Spotlight Q&A
Picture this: It’s winter in Chicago. Snow is lightly falling outside, and you’re cozied up beside a warm fireplace. But not just any fire—you’re at Midwest Coast Brewing Company’s new rooftop taproom, savoring a craft beer. Above you, a stunning 64-foot-wide retractable glass roof offers breathtaking views of the Chicago skyline. Now that’s something to raise a glass to!
As we toast to Midwest Coast Brewing Company’s newest addition, we reflect on the adaptive reuse conversion they’ve achieved. In 2018, ARCO/Murray partnered with Midwest Coast to convert a former rust-proofing facility into their first-floor brewery and taproom. Fast forward to 2024, we’ve completed our second project together, building out a second-floor rooftop featuring a new taproom, lounge, and event space.
We were fortunate to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse into their brewing process and learn the inspiration behind the adaptive reuse rooftop expansion. Owners of Midwest Coast, Cameron Compton, Lanie Veckman and Suzie Smelyansky, shares their experience, giving us some insights on the business and all things beer.
Q: How has Midwest Coast Brewing grown since opening in 2019? How will the rooftop expansion further growth?
Cameron: We’ve grown from a little brewery producing 250 barrels of beer our first year (about 7,500 gallons or about 62,000 pints) to over 1,000 in annual production. We had more aggressive plans for growth, but obviously COVID threw a massive wrench in them. But rest assured, we’re still growing nicely, and we’ve built an amazing community here which we’re incredibly proud of. We already have one of the best taproom experiences in Chicago, and we expect the second floor rooftop to make this a truly premium destination.
Lanie: When we opened our doors in 2019, neither Cam nor I had any experience running a client-facing business or hosting events. It was all new to us. The moment I realized we were really onto something was when the doors opened, and there were more people here that we didn’t know than those we did.
That has continued over the past four years, with the taproom becoming a central part of the community. People love meeting friends, gathering, and watching games here. We host a ton of great events, and those have driven a lot of our growth. Now, with the rooftop deck, we’re physically doubling our service space, which will hopefully help us expand our community accordingly.
It’s going to be gorgeous, with a full skyline view, a beautiful fireplace wall, and a glass ceiling that opens entirely to the sky. It’s going to be such a lovely space for people to gather and enjoy, continuing what we’ve built here at Midwest Coast: a place for the community to come together.
Q: What excites you most about the new rooftop space?
Cameron: Definitely summer evenings. Chicagoans earn their summer, and drinking beers outside is a huge part of the reward. Add that beer drinking to an elevated surface with a killer view of the skyline and you’ve got a real winner.
Suzie: I think it’s about being able to connect with the community even more. We’ve been doing a lot of exciting things in the space, and now we’re really excited to expand on those.
Our family days, which are super popular, are a fun way for us to open the brewery to families. We even have children’s entertainment. Having a larger space for that is going to be amazing. We also have a lot of people hosting engagement parties and baby showers, so having a dedicated private space for those events will be perfect.
We’ve also been hosting many charity events, and having an elevated space will hopefully allow them to raise even more funds. That’s something we’re really looking forward to offering. And of course, just having something new in the neighborhood that people are excited to visit, bring their friends to, and hang out at is exactly what we’re hoping this new space will provide.
Q: One of ARCO’s favorite beers, ‘Elevator to Nowhere,’ originated due to the installation of an elevator that quite literally went nowhere during our first project together. Now that the elevator is functional and brings guests up to the rooftop, do you have any change in plans for the beer ‘Elevator to Nowhere,‘ or is it here to stay?
Cameron: We certainly have no plans to change ‘Elevator to Nowhere,’ actually named by one of ARCO’s Project Managers on the original build. It’s always a top mover in the taproom when it’s on draft. The only change we’ve discussed is adding a small sign above the elevator that says “NOWHERE,” so even though the elevator will actually go somewhere, it will always be the ‘Elevator to Nowhere.’
Q: We love how Midwest Coast Brewing is local to Chicago. Can you share a memorable moment when your brewery brought the local community together or supported a great cause?
Cameron: Easily the most important event is our ongoing efforts supporting the Ukrainian war efforts. It’s an incredibly personal effort for us as my wife Suzie was born in Odessa, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) and came over to the US with her family as a baby. We partnered up with Varvar Brew in Kyiv to collaborate on a Ukrainian Golden Ale that we use to raise funds for various organizations doing amazing work over there, and since the war started, we’ve raised over $12,000 through this beer. This beer will always have proceeds donated from it, and we hope it will continue to make an impact. It’s also a pretty decent beer, earning a gold medal for its category in the 2022 US Beer Open.
Suzie: My favorite event to attend, and the one I probably go to the most, is Family Day. A lot of our friends have kids, so it’s a perfect way for us all to meet up. The kids are entertained, and we can hang out and catch up.
I also love the comedy nights. They’re really cool because they offer a unique way to use the space, in ways we never originally thought of or knew were possible. It’s fun because it feels like they fit the character of the building—the brick, the wood, the old-timey Chicago vibe. Hosting a comedy show or a concert here is just awesome.
What’s also great is seeing people who might not be part of the usual craft beer crowd come here and enjoy the space, getting the best of both worlds.
Q: What is your favorite part of the beer making process? What types of beer do you typically gravitate towards and why?
Cameron: For me the best part is the initial mixing of crushed malted barley with very hot water. The bready aroma that fills the brewery on every brew day doesn’t get old. I tend to gravitate towards simple beer styles that have been around forever – German lagers of all varieties, English pale ales and stouts – that sort of thing. I certainly have an appreciation for most other styles like IPAs, sours, barrel aged beers, (except Belgian beer – I just can’t stand it), but simpler is better for me.
At a very high level, the brewing process involves the soaking of malted barley in water to extract the sugar from the grain, boiling that sugary liquid and adding hops, and then cooling down the liquid and adding yeast, which eats the sugar and turns it into alcohol. Depending on the style, fermentation will take anywhere from 3-10 weeks, and then we carbonate what is now beer and package it either in kegs or cans.
Raise a glass at midwestcoastbrewing.com.
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