The good suds grace the cover of Chicago Magazine this month.

The July issue of Chicago Magazine is covering readers with the good suds, 10+ pages of it. The centerpiece is a guide to the 36 locally produced beers that the Chicago Mag writers loved–how do I get that job? They cover a lot of ground and make it through a nearly exhaustive selection of Chicago’s breweries.

Check out the $12 digital subscription deal or find it on stands.

You’ll also find the writers’ favorite bars (Hopleaf, Map Room, Quenchers, Maria’s Packaged Goods, Sheffield’s), gastropubs (Bluebird, Fountainhead, Gilt Bar [at first I thought, "Really?" Then I looked up their beer list], Owen & Engine, Publican), and liquor stores (Armanetti, Binny’s – Lincoln Park, Lush, Vas Foremost, West Lakeview Liquors).

I have to give Chicago Mag props for knowing who to go for expert advice. They interview Ray Daniels of the Cicerone Certification Program on tasting beer and Beejay Oslon of Pipeworks Brewing on homebrewing. You’ll also find tips on beer and food pairings from The Publican (oysters), Bangers and Lace (sausage), Marion St. Cheese Market (take a guess).

It’s great to see craft beer get the front-page treatment and a nice little nod for homebrewing, too. Add this to the body of evidence that craft beer is becoming more mainstream. Hopefully the resources here will nudge more swill-sippers toward the many great local, hand-crafted brews that are readily available. And maybe some oenophiles will come to realize–gasp!–that beer is a better mate for food than wine.

To top it all off, the guys at Pipeworks Brewing have developed a special batch of summer brew for Chicago Magazine that they will be pouring at a time and place that I won’t share with you because I’m going to drink it. All of it.