The Dixie Highway Brewery Trail

Chicago Southland is teeming with delicious craft beer and the best way to experience it is to blaze your way through the Dixie Highway Brewery Trail. The trail consists of eight of the Southside’s finest breweries. 

The trail follows the historic Dixie Highway, which was the brainchild of Carl G. Fisher in 1914. The highway was originally part of the National Auto Trail system, consisting of a network of paved roads, rather than one single highway. The western route of the Dixie Highway ran from Chicago to Miami, allowing a way for northern automobile tourists to drive to Miami for vacation. 

The Dixie Highway Brewery Trail runs from Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood in the north to the far south suburb of Crete. Featured breweries directly on the Dixie are Horse Thief Hollow, Open Outcry Brewing, Blue Island Beer Company and Evil Horse Brewing. Located just a short distance off the Dixie are Rabid Brewing, One Trick Pony Brewing, Thornton Distilling and Brewing Co. and Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery. Many of the breweries have won awards for their beer. Most recently, Flossmoor Station won the 2020 Best Beer in Illinois by RateBeer.com. Last year, Evil Horse won a gold and a bronze, and Blue Island won two bronzes at the 2019 Illinois Beer Competition.

Trailblazers can pick up their passport at any of the eight breweries and have six months to complete the trail. In order to receive a sticker, a minimum of one beer must be purchased at each of the breweries. Once all stickers have been earned, a cool prize is awarded at the last brewery visited. 

The DHBT breweries host an annual Oktoberfest featuring popular German-style beers, German food and music, and a contest for the most authentic German attire. It’s the best way to sample beers from all of the Trail breweries in one setting!

For more information on the trail and the individual breweries, please visit Facebook.com/DixieHighwayBreweryTrail or DHBTrail.com. We hope to see you on the trail soon!