The term contract brewing (when a business hires another business to brew its beer) may sound foreign, but it’s not totally uncommon. In fact, a little company called Sam Adams got its start that way. Magliaro, the cofounder of the Half Acre operation, likes to point out that tidbit, but he quickly follows up that he and his partners are in no way hoping to become “big-time beer.” In addition to the now-available lager, they’re looking to introduce an ale, and then perhaps a few seasonals. But the aim is to keep the Half Acre portfolio small. “Having a lot of different types of beer would be hard for us,” Magliaro says. “We really just want to focus on making a fantastic lager, a fantastic ale and developing a fan base for those.”

“Chicago is a huge beer town,” he continues, “It’s the center of the country, but for such a beer-friendly city there’s only one local brewery, Goose Island, that sells retail.”

A little more than a month ago, Half Acre Lager hit the shelves at about a dozen shops and made its way behind an equal number of bars. The full-bodied, hearty beer with a cloudy, deep amber hue is a little hoppier than your typical lager, a category that includes all of those gulpable mass-market brews like Bud and Miller. It has enough complexity to satisfy beer drinkers looking to try better suds but who aren’t quite ready to gulp head-spinning Belgians.

“We’ve worked on this recipe for our debut beer for over a year, working really closely with the guys at Sand Creek to make sure it’s exactly how we want it,” Magliaro says. “We’re truly dedicated to making a quality product, a craft beer, but we had to get creative on how to start a beer company because we don’t have a gazillion dollars to do it.”—Heather Shouse

Find Half Acre retail locations at halfacrebeer.com.