NORTH CENTER — When Whole Foods opens its new Streeterville store next week, shoppers will notice a familiar name in the beer aisle, with an unfamiliar label.
Begyle Streeterville American Pale Ale was brewed specifically for Whole Foods, the first in a series of collaborations between the brewery and the grocery store chain that will roll out over the course of 2015 as Whole Foods opens stores it purchased from Dominick's in 2013.
"It's an exclusive recipe for Whole Foods" brewed with "as many local ingredients as possible," said Kevin Cary, who along with Brendan Blume and Matt Ritchey co-founded Begyle in 2011.
The brewery, at 1800 W. Cuyler Ave., which typically obtains most of its ingredients from purveyors in the Pacific Northwest, is sourcing its hops from Michigan and Wisconsin for the Whole Foods beers, Cary said.
As successive Whole Foods stores open — Lincoln Park/DePaul, the West Loop and Edgewater are set to come online by spring — Begyle will tweak the recipe, and the name, to produce a variation of the ale unique to each store.
"Every beer is going to be different," said Cary. "We'll change the yeast and the hopping schedule to have different nuances."
The partnership is the first in the Midwest between Whole Foods and a brewery, according to Steve Braun, a purchaser in Whole Foods specialty department.
"Our specialty team, myself included, went out to Begyle and actually helped brew the beer for each new store we are about to open over the next four months," Braun told DNAinfo.com via email.
"It was, and continues to be, a great experience," he said.
Begyle has already shipped 100 cases of the Streeterville ale, which will be sold at all Chicago Whole Foods, according to Cary, and will also be available on tap at the Streeterville location at 255 E. Grand Ave.
The whole idea of having its beer sold by a major chain would have been inconceivable to Begyle just two years ago.
"Oh yeah, for sure, we're like 'Why does Whole Foods like us?'" said Cary. "We're just a bunch of goofballs. It's kind of crazy."
The trick for Begyle is maintaining its cache as a small craft brewery (think indie band with a cult following) while meeting customer demand (think major-label band on a stadium tour).
Begyle's fourth-largest draft account is Mariano's Ravenswood store, 1800 W. Lawrence Ave., just a couple miles north of the brewery itself. It's a partnership Cary said he and his partners never would have anticipated.
"It's really driven by the consumer," Cary said of Begyle's growth.
"We take every step and we assess 'Why are we doing this? Does it make sense?'" he said, noting that for every collaboration the brewery agrees to, it turns down five.
With a taproom now in the works, Begyle is looking at adding more fermenters and possibly staff, according to Cary.
Currently only 25 percent of Begyle's beer is sold at the brewery, a number that could rise significantly once the taproom is up and running.
(And when will that be? Cary said he's learned to never predict a timeline. The licensing and permit processes are under way and once approved, "Then it's full speed ahead," is the most he would venture.)
But the cornerstone of Begyle's business model, he said, remains its subscriber base — the members of its community supported brewery program.
"Having that whole community of people who sign up ... that's powerful for us," Cary said.
As Begyle's most stalwart fans pay their monthly, or in some cases weekly, visit to the brewery to fill their growlers, the brewers are able maintain the face-to-face interactions with customers they envisioned in their original business plan.
Said Cary, "We always want this to be Kevin, Brendan and Matt."
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