There are few sectors of the American economy that remain unaffected by the Trump administration’s most recent bombardment of tariffs. For Pete Ternes and his team at Middle Brow — Logan Square’s beloved craft brewery, natural winery, sourdough pizzeria and bakery — the tariffs are already impacting every facet of their operation.

On March 12, 2025, President Trump imposed a 25% global tariff on steel and aluminum products. On April 2, the Trump administration declared that the tariffs would apply to both imported beer and imported empty aluminum cans.

Ternes, cofounder of Middle Brow, University of Chicago law school graduate and trade policy enthusiast, said that these policies will raise their prices dramatically. 

“The aluminum market will be impacted tremendously by these tariffs. Everyone will suddenly have to buy American metal if they want to avoid the tariffs, but then the (price of) American metal is going to go up because of the demand,” Ternes said.

Ternes and many fellow beer, wine and pizza makers in Chicago share feelings of apprehension about the ways that domestic sourcing is being indirectly punished as a result of the tariffs.

“Everyone’s freaking out about it,” Ternes said. “It’s not even necessarily just aluminum. It’s so much more complicated than people can appreciate.”

Middle Brow currently sources their cans from Ball Corporation, an American aluminum company based in Colorado. For their cans, Ball uses an aluminum blend that is primarily composed of American-sourced metals. Despite purchasing their cans domestically, Ternes said that a price hike from Ball is on its way. 

“They still have inventory, but their inventory is dwindling, and as soon as it’s gone, we are due for a price increase,” Ternes said. 

Before opening their flagship restaurant Bungalow in Logan Square, Middle Brow was a nomadic brewery operation, brewing and packaging their beer with equipment they didn’t own. Since they began operating in 2011, Ternes and his team sourced their cans domestically. 

“We were already operating at effectively a 0% margin trying to get the business off the ground, and something like the tariffs, frankly, would have completely crushed us. We would have been losing money from every batch of beer,” Ternes said.

While brewing nomadically, Middle Brow’s beer program was esoteric and experimental. They produced a variety of wild beers: a special kind of brew fermented by naturally occurring microorganisms in the environment. Middle Brow continues their tradition of experimental beers but has since introduced several more straightforward lagers, sourcing their grains and hops from farms around Illinois, Michigan and Indiana.

“With their beer I almost feel like I can taste the ingredients. It’s really earthy,” DePaul senior Tyler Aspeitia said.

 In an effort to differentiate themselves from the pack of emerging breweries and taprooms in the mid-2010s, Middle Brow unveiled their pizza program in 2016. Ternes said that their pizza program was what got them off the ground. 

“The 50 pizzas we were making on a Friday quickly turned into 300,” Ternes said. 

The flour for their pizza dough is sourced from Meadowlark Organic Farm in Wisconsin. Most of their toppings come from organic farms around the Midwest. Middle Brow sources a portion of their tomatoes from Mick Klug Farms, an organic farm in southwest Michigan that serves some of Chicago’s most renowned restaurants. With the volume of pizza they produce, they have to import cheaper tomatoes from Chile, Mexico and Europe, Ternes said.

For Philip Pahl, a 29-year-old Logan Square resident, Middle Brow’s pizza program, diverse offerings and spacious outdoor patio make the spot a go-to. 

“Even though Chicago is famous for deep dish and tavern style, I really appreciate the Neapolitan style pizza they do here,” Pahl said.

In 2019, Middle Brow launched its wine program. Using dry-farmed, handpicked grapes from up and down west Michigan, they use grapes that “represent the future of sustainable American winemaking,” according to their website. All of their wines are produced naturally, meaning that they don’t use yeast, fining or filtration. 

The ingredients for Middle Brow’s beer, wine, pizza dough and bread are sourced entirely from the Midwest, yet  as the price of imports is on the rise, the demand for domestic goods will rise, and subsequently, the price of these goods will rise, Ternes said. 

“The second the market is disrupted, even the American prices have to go up. We are going to be crushed in beer not just from aluminum prices, but from all of our other inputs. Hops are going to be impacted in a big way,” Ternes said.

Ternes said hops production is currently very strong in America, and that grain production is less prevalent. He notes that the prices of both goods are likely to increase.

“(The tariffs) will result in an immense loss in wealth for a lot of people who need it: people who are retiring, to people who might invest in my next project,” Ternes said. “We’re trying to build a winery in Sawyer (Michigan) right now and our investors have to wait because the bond and stock market are totally upset and no one knows where things are gonna go. This is impacting people’s jobs in ways we can’t predict.”

On April 14, the U.S. Commerce Department announced that Mexican tomatoes will be subject to a 21% tariff starting on July 14 if an alternate agreement is not reached. As threats of more tariffs loom, small business owners like Ternes remain flustered, not certain of what’s to come. 

“There will be piles of unintended consequences here, and we can’t even tell what they all are,” Ternes said.

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