How One Chicagoan Modernized Her Great-Great-Great Grandfather’s Pre-Prohibition Pale Ale

Laurin Mack loves Chicago and loves beer. So maybe it was inevitable that she would go on to tap into her great-great-great grandfather’s brewing legacy, and share his story of the beers that “built Chicago.” She re-opened the Conrad Seipp Brewing Company in 2020, and began the process of excavating the recipe for his pre-Prohibition pale ale. Several years, and two styles of beer later, you can now purchase Seipp beer at select Binny’s and Jewel locations. Reset sat down with Mack to learn more about “the beer that built Chicago” and the process of re-creating the past for the present moment. For a full archive of Reset interviews, head over to wbez.org/reset.