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Suburban craft breweries have virtual events on tap for Friday

Statewide stay-at-home orders have shuttered tap rooms at craft breweries across Illinois, but some suburban breweries are hosting virtual beer tastings tonight to connect with their fans from afar.

Among those participating in the event, which is coordinated by the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, are 2 Fools Cider in Naperville, Black Horizon Brewing Co. in Willowbrook, Mikerphone Brewing in Elk Grove Village and Side Lot Brewery in Wauconda. Each livestream will start at 8:30 p.m.

Side Lot owner and head brewer Phil Castello said he and his team have hosted livestreams on the brewery's Facebook page several times during the lockdown.

He said he has enjoyed getting a chance to connect with their community via livestream.

"One night we did bingo and had a bunch of people tune in," Castello said. "The beer tasting seems like another creative way to get people involved and looking in your direction."

This week, Side Lot has been selling special tasting night six-packs containing three styles of beer and two Side Lot branded glasses. Castello said he'll lead a tasting discussion on the beers in the pack and will gladly speak about any of Side Lot's other beers.

Black Horizon Brewing will host its livestream via Zoom. Throughout the week, customers buying to-go from Black Horizon have been able to sign up for the virtual tasting. Today, each customer who signed up will get an email with login information for the call.

"It's a way to connect breweries to customers that haven't seen us for a while, other than coming in and getting beer to go," co-owner Kevin Baldus said. "It's a good excuse to sit back and talk to people about our beer."

"It'll be nice to socialize. Not that we don't like our family members, but it'll be nice to see other faces," Baldus joked.

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