A HAPPY PROSPECT.
Sing a song of wondrous things
A city full of sights:
Common folks and queens and kings
Enjoying the delights.
When the fair is opened,
And all the world is here,
We’ll have a jolly time throughout
the Exposition year.
(from The Illustrated World’s Fair, May 1892)
For a jolly time throughout the current year, consider a taste of “All the World is Here,” a new beer inspired by the 1893 World’s Fair from Temperance Beer Company of Evanston, Illinois.
While not a recreation of a beer from 1893, the dry-hopped cream ale is made using some of the barley malt and corn varieties that were on display at the Columbian Exposition. These historic ingredients are part of the botany collection of the Field Museum, which collaborated with Temperance and the Chicago Brewseum to produce and promote the brew.
Inside the Agricultural Building on the fairgrounds, brewers displayed new technologies and methods for beer brewing. Big companies such as Anheuser-Busch, Pabst, and Schlitz battled for recognition among many smaller breweries. To learn more about how Chicago showcased a new gilded age of American brewing, check out the Brewseum’s exhibit Brewing Up Chicago: How Beer Transformed a City at the Field Museum in Chicago, which runs through January 5, 2020.
Temperance describes “All the World is Here”—with its “a blend of hop bite and malt flavor”—as a beverage that “embodies the many meanings of Chicago’s greatest fair.” The can label notes that “the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 put a star on Chicago’s flag because it progressed and defined a city. New ideas mixed with old, prejudices mixed with hope, and the future came into focus.”
The can label design lacks any imagery from the Columbian Exposition, which is a bit disappointing. (In contrast, Chicago’s Revolution Brewing offers their “Fist City” beer in handsome cans that feature golden images of Daniel Chester French’s Statue of the Republic.) The name “All the World is Here” was a common motto to describe the incredible convergence of people and cultures in Chicago during the six months of the Exposition in 1893.
In 2018, the Field Museum partnered with Journeyman Distillery of Three Oaks, Michigan, to creating “Field Gin,” a small-batch spirit made using botanicals displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition and also part of the Field’s botanical collection.
“All the World is Here” is sold in a six-pack of twelve-ounce cans, available in their Tap Room at 2000 West Dempster Street in Evanston, at the Field Museum’s restaurants and bars, and at some Chicagoland beverage stores.
