260: Eris Brewery and Cider House | Building a Cidery Part 6

What is Eris?

Eris is the name of the goddess of chaos. Her splendor in creating chaos is exactly why co-owners Michelle Foik and Katie Pizza named their craft beer and cider bar Eris, but there is more. Katie's "elevator pitch' for Eris tells it all saying, "Eris is a brewery, cider house and full service restaurant all under one roof in Chicago."

Eris situated in the Howler Building

The path to Eris

Michelle and Katie began conceptualizing Eris back in 2014, though the actual name of the bar came about much later. It took four years before they could opened the door in February of 2018. The building itself was originally used as a Masonic Temple. Today, the cidery is situated in the basement, the brewery and restaurant on the first floor and the second floor is sighted to be a 200 person event space. There is also outdoor seating, which got a major boost when infrared heaters were added this past November, making the covid safe space super toasty even in the winter months!

Katy Pizza and Michelle Foik

Planning ahead

What equipment feel out of favor?

• The cross flow filter is used to ensure that the cider stays stable on the shelf. Michelle found that it couldn't keep up with the flow of cider being canned.

Tanks through the window

What equipment did they get right?

• Building for the future by having a 30 barrel brewery and enough tank space in the cidery to avoid the need to scale up for a very long time. Both women noted that with the cidery in the basement they had only one shot to get the tanks in. To do so later would be impossible. That said, perhaps they could have gotten away with a smaller brewing system, but something tells this podcasters that in time they will be very happy to have the larger system in the long run.

] Summer Patio and now a winter patio too with infrared heaters outside at Eris

Contact for Eris Brewery and Cider House

Website: https://www.erischicago.com/story

Address: 4240 W Irving Park Road, Chicago, IL 60641

Telephone: 773-943-6200

Mentions in this Chat

• Fermentis by Lesaffre -This week's Q&A with Kevin Lane from Fermentis:
  • Q: I though Apples were filled with nutrients, so do I need to add nutrients to the ferment and if so which ones?

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