KOVAL Distillery Shakes Up the Shelf With Canned Cocktails — And Ravenswood's Spookiest Season Is Just Getting Started
By Socialhood News · Ravenswood ·
Ravenswood's most celebrated distillery just made it easier to bring a piece of the neighborhood home. KOVAL Distillery, the grain-to-bottle pioneer that helped put the Ravenswood Industrial Corridor on the national spirits map, has launched its first-ever line of ready-to-drink canned cocktails — a genuinely new chapter for a brand that has spent years earning its reputation one barrel at a time.
The debut line includes two sparkling canned classics, according to the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce, which spotlighted the launch in its community news feed. For KOVAL, the move into ready-to-drink territory marks a significant shift in how the distillery reaches customers beyond its tasting room and retail shelf. Founded in 2008, KOVAL became the first distillery to open in Chicago since Prohibition — and it built that reputation on certified organic, small-batch spirits made from scratch inside a working Ravenswood production facility. Canned cocktails are a natural next step for a brand with deep roots in the neighborhood and growing reach across the country.
The timing couldn't be better. October is shaping up as the most event-packed stretch of Ravenswood's fall calendar, and KOVAL sits right at the center of it. On Wednesday, October 28, KOVAL Distillery will host the after-party for the Ravenswood Costume Crawl — an annual neighborhood tradition that sends costumed neighbors on a sampling tour along Montrose and Ravenswood Avenue from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. before everyone converges on KOVAL's space to close out the night. The Costume Crawl after-party at KOVAL has become one of the most anticipated stops on the fall calendar, offering a warm landing spot after the outdoor crawl with the neighborhood's favorite spirits poured in the place where they're made.
Before that, on Thursday, October 16, Ravenswood Community Services hosts Spirits of Ravenswood at the Ravenswood Event Center, 4025 N. Ravenswood Ave. Tickets are available now through Ravenswood Community Services at 4550 N. Hermitage Ave. (773-769-0282), and the event supports the organization's Food Pantry and Community Kitchen — a direct investment in the neighborhood's most vulnerable residents. Proceeds from the Ravenswood Run, the neighborhood's beloved annual 5K, also benefit the same pantry and kitchen, making Ravenswood Community Services one of the most consistently supported local nonprofits in the area.
Taken together — a Ravenswood-born distillery launching a major new product, a spirits celebration benefiting the local food pantry, and a costumed neighborhood crawl ending at KOVAL's own doors — the next three weeks draw a clear line between what Ravenswood makes and what Ravenswood celebrates. The industrial corridor along the Metra tracks has always been defined by makers: glassblowers, brewers, metalworkers, game designers. KOVAL's canned cocktail launch is the latest reminder that the businesses anchored here aren't standing still.
For neighbors who want to try the new canned line, KOVAL Distillery operates a tasting room where the full product range is available. The Spirits of Ravenswood event on October 16 at the Ravenswood Event Center is a ticketed fundraiser — contact Ravenswood Community Services directly to purchase. And for the Costume Crawl on October 28, the Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce has full details at ravenswoodchicago.org. Show up in costume, sample flavors from local businesses along Montrose and Ravenswood Avenue, and follow the crowd to KOVAL for the after-party. It's exactly the kind of October Ravenswood does best.
Sources:
1. https://ravenswoodchicago.org/category/community-news/
2. https://ravenswoodchicago.org/
3. https://ravenswoodcommunityservices.org/events/