Une Annee Brewery Reviews

I can't say enough about this brewery. Because this place always has multiple stouts on tap and the bartenders are extremely friendly and knowledgeable, other breweries are dead to me. In addition to the Stouts and the Sours, they also carry good IPA's. On some nights, if there is a friendly vibe going on, you may get some good conversations going.

Matt, Shannon, Paul, Andrew...you rock. Thank you for taking care of us when we come in.

Who would have thought that a brewery in a strip mall would have world class sour beers? The flavors are absolutely to die for. Equal to the best Belgian, or better, with inventive fruit combinations. Far away from the normal tourist spots, but worth the trip if you are a sour beer fan. Try a bottle from your local store if you're not sure, and I bet you'll be converted.

Have only visited for pick-up, but can attest that the beers are first-rate. Had sampled a few from local markets but wanted to take advantage of a wider selection at the source. Look forward to coming back to eat sometime.

A great place to stop and have a couple beers. They have a lot of sours and heavier beers (stouts and porters). We had samples of 9 beers and loved 8 of them. The staff was really knowledgeable and nice. We were there for an hour but the woman behind the bar came by multiple times and gave us free samples of beer from bottles she just opened. We plan on stopping by again.
Lots of restaurants next door so plenty of places to get food to bring in.

What a hidden gem! Located in an industrial park in Niles, this brewery checked all of the boxes - excellent beer, good food and wonderful service in a lovely atmosphere. Huge outdoor partially covered space with both picnic and regular tables. Loved that they did not have music blasting. The service was fast and friendly and we really enjoyed our time. We will be back!

I have had a few beers from Hubbard cave and was excited to visit... I left never wanting to have another. First, the flight pricing is horrendous, twice as expensive per ounce. just order pints you want. There is going to be one horrible beer in each flight. The cherry in the flight of murder hornets tastes like cough medicine. The food is not good... I ordered the Cave monster(pulled pork sandwich), it was horrible... dry, randomly spicy, a train wreck in a bun... fries were just ok. when I complained, the waitress just said everyone has different tastes and walked away... space and decor are fantastic. Music selection is very random and not my style...

I enjoyed a very nice Belgian Imperial Stout and picked up a couple of bottles for later. Took home a bottle of Quad and Hubbard's Cave Coffee and Cakes Imperial Stout.

Happily adrift on a sea of freshly brewed and locally produced IPAs, IIPAs and hazy late hopped and dry hopped frothy headed high gravity beers over the course of this year, my wife, a devotee of Belgium beers, suggested that we visit Une Annee Brewery in Niles, Illinois, to quaff some fresh Dubbels, Tripels, Trappist styles and Abbey Ales…or maybe a Lambic or a sour beer.
So, I looked over Une Annee’s beverage menu, and selected a couple of possibilities, and continued to look over the beer menu, and chose a few more interesting brews, and then I turned the page of the beer menu…eventually had to go back to the top of the menu and start again – paring down my order conceptualization.
With the vast variety of Lambic beers and fruit ales that the brewery produces, before I even ordered, I determined that I would have to return to Une Annee many times to simply satisfy my peaked beer curiosity. Surprising myself – I actually determined that he best course of ordering action was to order a ‘flight’…which I rarely ever do, knowing very well my personal beer palate preferences.
While the extensive menu is certainly worthy of mentioning here, I found that the quality and flavor of the beers we tried was exceptional. The sours were not cloyingly sweet, made with delicious Belgium yeasts, had wonderfully tiny bubble carbonation, were tart but not super sour with crisp finishes and thoughtful fruit selections and combinations. Une Anne’s Lambic and fruit beers are fantastic and refreshing.
We tried, Blackberry/lemon, Boysenberry, Kriek/Blackberry/Raspberry&Red current and Plum. I found the Boysenberry to be a real surprise. The ephemeral flavor of summertime boysenberries was captured, not either too tart or too sweet. We will return for Une Annee's, mango, peche, framboise, grapefruit, pineapple, blood orange…you get the notion – more Lambics than one can shake a fruit tree at.
Another reason to come back, Une Annee also produces a numberl of IPAs and Stouts under the nameplate of Hubbard’s Cave (Chicago centric;)) which are also thoughtfully conceived of and well presented. We tried a Citra IIPA and a Mosaic IIPA, both beautifully cloudy and zingy and topped with sturdy heads. These IPAs were enjoyably hop-centric and served as a refreshing counterpoint to the fruit beers we sampled. The stout selection includes Russian, Imperial and Double stouts as well as some interesting flavored stouts.
We purchased several bottles to take home with us, settled up with the bar keep, and then realized – we didn’t even try one or two or three of Une Annee’s flagship beers; a series of dubbels, tripels , quads, wheat ales, abbey ales and even an Oud Bruin sour – we will be back long before the passing of Une Annee – more likely, in une semaine.

Hubbards Cave/Une Annee is in a unique strip mall location in the suburbs about 30 minutes northwest of Chicago. It is well worth the trip if you are in town looking for amazing IPAs, Imperial Stouts, Saisons or Sours! They have a beer for everyone.

Don't let the strip mall location scare you, the inside is chic and the decor is very simple, clean and modern.

Matt was bar tending when we arrived and he was a pleasure to chat with at the bar. We told him about our first Hubbards Cave IPA experience in Atlanta and planned to stop by the brewery on our trip to Chicago. We were so surprised by their small/lean operating facility in the back of the brewery. It's amazing they're able to distribute products all the way to our home in Georgia!

After chatting with Matt, he let us sample a few of the darker beers (which were excellent). My husband and I both had 6oz flights (I tried V8, V16, V7) & the Salted Caramel Imperial Stout was the best thing EVER.

If you're in the Chicago area and looking for excellent craft beer, COME HERE. We loved it.

If you are a sour beer lover, this is your place. They have 9 sours on tap, and 3 non-sours that are worth trying as well. My 3 favs were the sours with lemon and ginger, passion fruit and kiwi - I had 6 oz. tastings and that was plenty. I was also allowed to sample any number of the other beers by the friendly server (never got her name, though). My friend enjoyed his Mosaic-hopped IPA, and we finished with tastes of the chocolate raspberry imperial stout - yum!

A friend and myself went to Une Annee on September 3, 2020. We ordered the brisket tips and of course a beer. The brisket was 50% FAT at least. After eating the small portion of meat and drinking a beer, we mentioned this to one of the staff and he stated that he would mention this to the chef. IMHO, this was a WRONG answer and he should have given us a voucher for our next visit for the the brisket tips. If you want repeat business that would be very acceptable.