After eight years of celebrating craft beer in and around Chicago, the party is going statewide: Chicago Craft Beer Week is becoming Illinois Craft Beer Week.

The rechristening is one of several tweaks to the weeklong event held every May that celebrates the rapid growth of Illinois’ beer industry. Ten years ago, the state was home to 41 breweries. Today the figure is up to about 225, with another 20 or so in the planning stage.

In addition to a new name, Illinois Craft Beer Week is also starting a day later — on a Friday — and finishing with a new closing event. The name change, in particular, had become increasingly necessary, said Danielle D’Alessandro, executive director of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild.

“We’ve seen expansion in the number of breweries opening in other parts of state — northwest, past Rockford, and in the central and southern parts of Illinois — and we want to make sure we’re highlighting success throughout the state,” D’Alessandro said.

Illinois Craft Beer Week runs May 18 to May 25, beginning as usual with Beer Under Glass, a festival featuring 110 breweries amid the lush greenery of Garfield Park Conservatory. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday. This year’s incarnation will mark the first time Beer Under Glass isn’t staged on a Thursday.

Last year, Craft Beer Week was trimmed from 11 days to eight — a Thursday to a Thursday. Starting and finishing Illinois Craft Beer Week on a Friday is meant to be more consumer-friendly, D’Alessandro said.

Staging major events on Thursdays “can make for a rough day if you have a little too much fun at one of our festivals and have to report to work the next day,” she said.

The guild is also introducing a new closing event, which will be themed every year and aims to be a bit more “intimate and exclusive,” D’Alessandro said. This year’s motif: Good Libations — “tropical, beach and fruit beers,” with patrons asked to dress to match the theme.

Fifty to sixty breweries will take part in the closer, which will be held May 25 at Theater on the Lake, with at least one beer from each maker matching the motif. More than 2,000 tickets will be available for Beer Under Glass; Good Libations will be limited to about 500 tickets.

The shift from Chicago Craft Beer Week to Illinois Craft Beer Week will include more events farther from the city, including an outdoor beer festival in the western suburbs that is still in planning, D’Alessandro said. She expects more enthusiasm from brewery owners who hadn’t taken part in Chicago Craft Beer Week.

Among them is Ben Rossi, co-owner of Only Child Brewing in Gurnee. The 5-year-old brewery, which launched in Northbrook and moved to Gurnee in 2015, has participated in a few scattered Craft Beer Week events in the past. This year it will be all-in.

“We never saw a lot of enthusiasm and participation up here,” Rossi said. “It’s not like I felt unwelcome — I’m just not in Chicago and Chicago Craft Beer Week didn’t feel like it applied to me and Only Child.”

Rossi and his taproom manager are “in the process of coming up with some really cool events to do at the taproom and tap takeovers,” he said.

Only Child also will pour beer at Beer Under Glass for the first time. Rossi joined the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild this year after a conversation with D’Alessandro in which she laid out a vision to expand the guild’s focus beyond Chicago.

D’Alessandro admitted that some Chicago-based brewery owners aren’t thrilled with extending Craft Beer Week beyond its urban roots. But the soul of Craft Beer Week remains in the city, she said, which is why Chicago will host the opening and closing events.

For the second consecutive summer, Chicago also will be the site of Friday Night Flights, a series of mini beer festivals co-sponsored by the city and the guild. Last year’s version of Friday Night Flights featured rotating crops of breweries pouring beer in six neighborhoods.

This year’s version will feature four neighborhood events — in Ravenswood, the West Loop, on the South Side and along the Milwaukee Avenue corridor — flanked by higher-profile opening and closing events. The closing event will be along the Riverwalk, D’Alessandro said, and the opening event will be announced by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in the coming months.

Each Friday Night Flights this year will feature 10 or so breweries and cost $15 in advance and $20 at the entrance.

jbnoel@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @hopnotes

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