3 Sheeps Brewing marks 14 years, returns to Chicagoland market

3 Sheeps Brewing is using its 14th anniversary to do something that matters far more than looking back: it is pushing core beer back into Chicagoland. The Sheboygan brewery will reenter Chicago and Northern Illinois in May through Brew City Distributing, putting Chaos Pattern, Fresh Coast, Wisconsinitis, Rebel Kent and three variety packs back on shelves after sales in Illinois began in 2017 and then stalled during COVID.

The anniversary itself is set for May 30, with the taproom celebration running from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. It will bring together live music, food vendors, vintage barrel-aged bottle sales and a fundraiser for the Sheboygan Lion’s Club. In the brewery’s own anniversary framing, the story starts “with a few beers, a big idea, and some space in the corner of an old sock factory,” a nod to the industrial roots that still shape the brand’s identity.

That origin story now looks a long way from the corner where Grant Pauly opened a small packaging brewery in 2012 in the old Wigwam sock factory. Back then, 3 Sheeps says it was brewing only 300 gallons at a time. Today, the brewery says it is Wisconsin’s third largest craft brewery, with a 10,000-square-foot, dog-friendly taproom and 25 taps serving as the public face of a business that has outgrown its first footprint without abandoning it.

The Chicago return is also more than a distribution note. 3 Sheeps’ own beer finder says the brewery can currently be found throughout Wisconsin and Chicagoland, and the move back into Northern Illinois suggests renewed confidence in both demand and the logistics needed to support it. For regional breweries, that kind of market reentry can matter as much as a new release, because it restores presence in one of the Midwest’s most important beer corridors.

The anniversary year also shows 3 Sheeps leaning harder into Wisconsin as a brand platform. Wisconsinitis, the brewery’s year-round 5% ABV, 14 IBU Wisconsin ale, is being used as a tribute beer for Les Paul, the Waukesha-born musician. In 2025, the same beer honored Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer LeRoy Butler, and the brewery even hosted a Wisconsinitis tailgate with him. Stay Golden Lager has also been selected by Wisconsin’s Semiquincentennial Commission as an official beer for state events tied to the U.S. 250th anniversary.

Taken together, the birthday party, the Illinois return and the state-centered releases show a brewery treating its 14th year as a launch point. 3 Sheeps is not just celebrating what it built in Sheboygan. It is using the milestone to widen its reach, deepen its local identity and set up the next phase of growth.