Zoo Brews: Howls and Growls

About This Event

The 21-and-up answer to Boo! at the Zoo — trick-or-treat your way between craft beer and cider sample stations set up across the zoo grounds, with roaming entertainers, a costume contest, and a live pumpkin-carving demo. Two nights only, and pricing climbs the closer you wait.

This is one of several 21-plus beer events the zoo's own Auxiliary Board runs throughout the year alongside the free-admission programming — sibling events like BrewLights and Craft Brews follow the same model, and they're not just a fun night out. Lincoln Park Zoo is one of the only free, privately funded zoos left in the country, and these adults-only fundraisers are part of how it stays that way; one past BrewLights alone raised over $114,000 toward the zoo's capital campaigns.

Worth knowing: Oct 23-24, 2026, pricing starts at $65 and climbs to $70 day-of. No confirmed start time was listed as of this writing (just 'evening'), so no calendar entry here; check lpzoo.org for exact hours.