We’re not big on chest thumping at Horse Thief Hollow Brewing Co. We’d rather just put a great pint in front of you & let it speak for itself. But after 13 years of brewing on Chicago’s South Side — & 11 national & international beer awards to show for it — we figure it’s time to tell our story properly.
Since opening our doors in the Beverly neighborhood in 2013, we’ve quietly become the most award-winning brewery on the South Side of Chicago. We’ve taken gold at the Great American Beer Festival. We’ve beaten out thousands of breweries from dozens of countries at the World Beer Cup. We raise our own Angus cattle three miles from the brewery to supply our scratch kitchen with fresh, locally grown beef. And we do it all right here on South Western Avenue, in a neighborhood we love. Here’s how we got here.
The Beer: 11 Awards, 13 Years, Zero Shortcuts
Every beer we serve is brewed right here on site. Our head brewer Jake Nelson approaches each recipe with the same philosophy we bring to everything at HTH: use the best ingredients, don’t rush the process, & never settle. The judges at some of the world’s toughest beer competitions have noticed.
Little Wing Pilsner — Our Flagship. The World’s Best Pilsner.
Little Wing is our baby, & we won’t apologize for saying so. Named after the Jimi Hendrix classic, this crisp, clean American-style pilsner has been years in the making — & the work paid off in a way we never could have predicted. In 2020, Little Wing earned a Bronze Medal at the Great American Beer Festival in the International Pilsner category. We were thrilled. We kept refining. Then 2023 came around — our 10th year brewing on the South Side — & Little Wing swept the two most prestigious competitions in all of craft beer. First, a Gold Medal at the World Beer Cup for International Pilsener, one of the competition’s toughest categories, drawing entries from over 1,400 breweries across 58 countries. Then, just months later, Gold at the Great American Beer Festival.
Brewed with American malt & German Tettnang hops, Little Wing is the kind of beer that’s easy to love & hard to stop drinking. We’d love for it to be Chicago’s pilsner — & honestly, we think it already is.
Bière de Voleur — The Thief’s Beer. Twice on the Podium.
The name means “beer of thieves” — a little nod to our name & to Beverly’s colorful past. The beer is a French-style farmhouse ale: amber, complex, with a toffee-like malt sweetness that rewards anyone willing to slow down & explore it. It’s not the first thing everyone reaches for, but once you dig in, you get it. We entered Bière de Voleur in the 2017 Great American Beer Festival, where it beat out more than 50 competing beers to earn a Silver Medal in the Belgian & French Style Ale category. We knew we were onto something. We refined it further & brought it back — this time to the 2018 World Beer Cup, where it earned Gold among more than 8,000 entries from 66 countries. Two competitions. Two medals. We’re pretty proud of that one.
Wrenly Rose — Barrel-Aged, Twice Gold
Not every beer we brew is meant for an everyday Tuesday. Wrenly Rose is one of our special projects: a Belgian-style Tripel aged in Pinot Noir barrels sourced from California’s Wren Hop Winery. It’s layered with complexity & made for the kind of drinker who wants something to linger over. The barrels bring out notes of vanilla, honey, clove, pear, & orange peel — just enough wine character to make it something genuinely unique. In 2020, Wrenly Rose took home Gold at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beer in the Strong Pale Beer category. We were thrilled. Barrel aging is one of the most technically demanding things we do, & seeing it recognized at that level meant a lot to our team.
This latest batch spent 26 months in oak Pinot Noir barrels before it went anywhere near a competition — & the wait paid off again. In July 2026, Wrenly Rose won Gold in the Barrel-Aged Pale Beer category at the U.S. Open Beer Championships, one of the largest brewing competitions in the country. Two gold medals for one beer, six years apart. That’s the kind of patience that goes into everything we make.
Hilltop Weizenbock — First Place at FoBAB 2016
We love pushing into ambitious styles, & the Hilltop Weizenbock is one of our proudest experiments. It’s a strong Bavarian wheat beer aged in Palo Santo wood barrels. Think banana, clove, & dark fruit from the classic hefeweizen character, deepened by the warmth & richness the barrels add. We entered it in the 2016 Festival of Barrel Aged Beers alongside 90 other breweries from across the country, & it took home First Place in the Classic Beer category. We still smile thinking about that one.
Prunckle’s Dunkel — Bronze at the GABF 2016
Dark lagers deserve more love, & Prunckle’s Dunkel has always been our case for why. It’s a traditional German-style dark lager — nutty, smooth, malt-forward, & deeply drinkable. At the 2016 Great American Beer Festival, where more than 7,000 breweries competed for just 286 medals, it earned us a Bronze Medal. We were in good company on that podium & proud to represent the South Side of Chicago.
Cheval Deux — Silver at the 2014 World Beer Cup
We were barely a year old when Cheval Deux put us on the map. This limited-edition sweet potato–infused French brown ale bested more than 50 entries to earn a Silver Medal at the 2014 World Beer Cup in the Field Beer or Pumpkin Beer category — in a competition featuring breweries from 58 countries. It was a hell of a way to introduce ourselves to the world.
18th Rebellion — Bronze at the 2014 GABF
Right alongside Cheval Deux in our early medal haul was 18th Rebellion, our take on a Kellerbier — an unfiltered, unpasteurized German-style cellar lager with roots stretching back to the Middle Ages. Among more than 5,500 beers submitted by over 1,300 breweries at the 2014 Great American Beer Festival, 18th Rebellion earned a Bronze Medal. An obscure style. An elite stage. A South Side brewery making its mark.
The Kitchen: Scratch-Made, Locally Sourced, Southern at Heart
We take the food as seriously as the beer. Our kitchen is a full-service scratch operation — everything is made in-house, from the BBQ rubs & smoked meats to the sauces, sides, & cocktail mixers. Our menu is rooted in Southern-inspired Americana, but we keep it seasonal, creative, & connected to the best local ingredients we can get our hands on. On any given night, you might find house-smoked ribs, pulled pork, smoked chicken, & handcrafted links alongside elevated salads, grilled fish, & dishes like our beloved Old Man Tom’s Gumbo — a South Side staple that keeps people coming back.
We source from local suppliers throughout the season & partner with surrounding Beverly businesses whenever we can, because supporting this neighborhood isn’t just good values — it’s who we are. Weekend brunch has become its own thing. Huevos Rancheros, Steak & Eggs, bottomless mimosas, Bloody Marys, or any HTH draft for $25 per person — it’s become a Beverly ritual, & we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Our Beef: Raised Three Miles Away, Fed on Our Own Spent Grain
This is the part of our story we’re maybe most proud of — & it starts with a partnership we love. Our founder Neil Byers — chef, brewer, & avid outdoorsman — partnered with the Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences to raise our own herd of Angus cattle. Neil sources Angus calves from a cattle farmer in Southern Indiana & brings them to Chicago Ag, home to the city’s only working farm & barn, where they roam the pasture just three miles from our brewery. They graze on fresh grass, hay, & — here’s the part we really love — our own spent grain from the HTH brewing process.
The brewery feeds the farm. The farm feeds the kitchen. It’s a closed loop we’re genuinely proud of. The result is fresh, high-quality, locally raised Angus beef with a tiny carbon footprint — & it ends up in some of the best burgers on the South Side of Chicago. Our Double Stack Smash Burger features two quarter-pound patties of fresh-ground HTH Angus beef on buttered brioche with American & cheddar cheeses, roasted tomato aioli, & Merzy’s squickles. Our Backyard Grilled Angus Burger keeps it classic on a toasted challah bun with your choice of cheese & all the right toppings. These aren’t brewpub burgers — they’re just great burgers, full stop, & they come from an animal we raised ourselves.
Beverly Built, South Side Proud
We named this place after a piece of Beverly history — a colorful story from the 1850s that fit our spirit perfectly. And we built it out ourselves, with family involvement & reclaimed materials, into a 5,900-square-foot space with a restored vaulted wood beam ceiling that feels like it’s been here forever. Because in a lot of ways, it has. We’re independently owned & operated. We partner with our neighbors. We support local causes & show up for the community that’s shown up for us since day one. In 2015, Neil was selected from more than 70 entrepreneurs to receive the James Tyree Award from the Chicago Chamber of Commerce — a $25,000 prize that went straight back into the brewery.
Eleven beer awards. A herd of Angus cattle down the road. A scratch kitchen that means it. And a whole lot more beer still to be brewed. Cheers.