Finch is Everywhere

Great news, but Finch beer looks like it is getting major play in the city. Just checking out their Facebook page shows that it is at Hop Leaf, Acre, Finnegan's, Maple Tree Inn (!), Bar on Buena, Bad Apple, Sheffields. Amazing. It is nice to see a local brewery start up and getting accounts quickly in the city. It shows just how much support Chicago has for locally produced beer. It's also an encouraging sign to other breweries that are starting up in the city. When people talk about local economy, this is what they mean. Not only is there the actual production, but also the roots in the community and the secondary economies as well. Hats off to Finch.

Beer Menu

I've been stumbling around the Internets looking for more information on where to find great beer in the city. Luckily, my eagle-eyed wife, Karen, came across perhaps one of the greatest inventions of mankind: Beer Menus. It's a website that lists the different bars around the city and where to great good beer. I know places in my local neighborhood (Bad Apple, Fountainhead, etc.), but when it comes to other areas, I'm lost.

It lists places by neighborhood or what places have cask beers (11 so far, which I hope more places embrace). It lists events and has deals. Just from looking over the events, these stand out:

Evil Twin debuts in the Midwest at Local Option on May 2. The weakest beer listed is 8%. That sounds like a fun Monday.

Medusa and burger pairing at the Bad Apple on May 5. I haven't tried the beer, but the burgers at Bad Apple are worth the trip alone. Plus, add in all of the other great beers and you can't miss.

Craft beer night at Mitchell's Tap. OK, the selection isn't out of this world, but it is Bridgeport and to see craft beer making its way into this area is a good sign. I remember when Mitchell's Tap was Puffer's, a dive-type of bar that had decent beer and jazz on Thursdays. I think the owners sold and it sort of changed and became, for a bit at least, more hoodish, with signs banning baseball caps and the like. Halsted in Bridgeport has the character to become one of the great art/shopping/bar/restaurant strips in the city. There is a lot of great character, easily walkable, lots of great storefronts and the Ramova theater, which needs to be rehabbed. Ah, Bridgeport.

With a city exploding in craft beer, it's great to have more and more resources available.

Craft Beer Week: History Style

Chicago is celebrating Craft Beer week May 19 to May 27. Much like Record Store Day or some other type of week-long event, the craft beer week intends to heighten the visibility of craft beer around the country. In Chicago that means Half Acre, Finch, Revolution, Metropolitan and others (sadly no longer Goose Island as it is now owned by Bud/InBev). There will be ton of events, and you can check it out over at The Brew Bros.

To celebrate, the Chicago History Museum is holding an event to coincide with Craft Beer week. There will be pub crawls, including dive bars in the city and a theme centered around bootlegging (of course). There will also be a focus on German bars in Chicago and the history of IPA.

For such a relatively new city, Chicago has an interesting background, especially when it comes to beer. German immigrants were highly influential in bringing beer and its culture to Chicago. The labor movement had many of its roots in German activists, and the drinking of beer was essential to their culture. Even when Bathhouse and the Hink were running the vice ward, many temperance activists were trying to make Chicago dry. This was also a way to discriminate against the pro-labor heavy drinking German immigrants. Of course, the labor movement, temperance and the multiple cultures in Chicago helped to lead to one of the most infamous periods: Al Capone, Machine Gun Jack McGurn and the mobsters of the early 20th century.

See, beer doesn't have to be all about detecting fine notes of caramel or admiring the lacing on the side of the glass. It also doesn't have to be about getting wasted. Learning and liquor are synonymous. Check out the Chicago History Museum and Chicago Beer Week for more information.

Come back for more information about Craft Beer Week and what's happening at Finch brewery.

Two Big Beers Coming Out of Chicago

It's spring in the city and summer is around the corner, but two breweries are about to offer two heavy beers to sip while you watching the buds grow. Haymarket Pub & Brewery has an imperial stout fermenting away and will be going to bourbon barrels later. Depending on how long they lay this beer down, it could come out in the fall, which is a much better time for imperial stouts. Well, actually any time is good for imperial stouts. This time of year though I'm starting to look for lighter beers, perhaps a saison. Even though these were meant to be drunk during late summer, I find having a saison on a nice spring day does the trick. For a lighter beer, Haymarket is offering its Bridgeport IPA. I was a former Bridgeport resident, so I might go check this out, for research. A nicer tribute would have been a pilsner to reflect the area's historical Lithuanian and European roots. Today I guess, with all the hipsters, you could just pour a PBR into a fancy bottle.

The next big beer is a barleywine coming from Half Acre. This will be available April 8 and should be a pretty big beer. I associate this more with winter, but what the hell. Half Acre will also be putting out a one-off Kolsch beer. It's one of my least favorite styles, but it's a nice spring/summer beer. Cheers!

Revolution to Start Bottling Beers; Learn History While Drunk

Even though Goose Island got into a pact with the devil, at least Revolution Brewing in Logan Square is helping to fill the void. The brewery/brewpub announced that it will start selling beers beers in bottles and cans. This is great news for Chicago beer lovers. Even though I am mixed on Revolution's beers, this is a step in the right direction for small local breweries. Once, Chicago had hundreds of breweries that usually served the immediate neighborhoods. Why people like Goose Island feel that having a multistate operation is the only way to go, amazes me. Perhaps it is about money. However, running a good brewery that employs people, stays local and stays creative should be the goal. I'm hoping that Revolution goes this route, instead of the Goose Island path, which Revolution's brewer already hinted at. Perhaps, one day we can see the value of just making a good product before a good profit.

Several years ago I went on a literary pub crawl in Dublin. It was a great way to drink beer and learn about Irish literature. It was also the time I was introduced to a Sussex girl from around London who couldn't believe that I hadn't heard about Sussex girls. Quite an interesting evening. Well, the Chicago Architecture Foundation is getting on the act by hosting an architectural pub crawl to honor its 40th anniversary. Seriously, being in one of the greatest architectural cities in the world, learn about architecture and drinking beer? That's one amazing night.

Rereading the Goose Island Sale

Much ink has been spilled over what it means that Goose Island has sold out to Bud. Is it good for the city of Chicago? Is it good for craft beer? Many liken this to the transformation of Marshall Fields to Macy's, and if that is any indication, what we can expect to see is a watered-down version of a once-loved Chicago icon.

In an article defending the actions of Goose Island, the owner of the Hop Leaf, Michael Roper, likens this to a win-win situation: Bud gets a craft beer and Goose Island gets money. For some reason, this means that craft beer drinkers have "won" because Bud acknowledges it can't brew a good beer and Goose Island wins because it gets money to get a new brewery. So, Bud wins and Goose Island wins. Does that mean the people of Chicago win? Hardly.

Bud buying Goose Island is not about craft beer victories or Bud hanging its head in defeat acknowledging that it can't brew beer. It's about money and market share. Like any good megacorporation that wants to cloak its true intentions, it hides behind a front that claims to be "local" or "organic." In the green movement, this is know as greenwashing. Cutesy Burt's Bees is owned by Clorox. Tom's of Maine sold out to Colgate, which tests on animals. People don't know that some of their favorite "ma and pa" brands are funneling money to huge corporations that care little about the environment or their communities.

To see a great example of this, we have to look no further than Bud. When InBev took over Bud (and it was allowed for pure profit), people in St. Louis started to look at more community-oriented beers. (You can read an article here.) The people in St. Louis know firsthand how Bud has turned its back on the community, which is even more impressive considering how depressed the economy St. Louis really is. So, while Bud gets to rake in the cash, the pride of St. Louis is gone. If Bud can do it to its own hometown, is there any indication it won't do it to Chicago?

Perhaps because he is a businessman, Roper looks at everything through the prism of capitalism. It seems that all business activity is good business activity, regardless of what it means to the people that those businesses serve. He seems to assert that if Macy's didn't take over Marshall Field's that it would still be a vacant building. Hardly. It's the same line we've been told by Walmart, Target and Bud: only large business corporations can salvage any part of any city. Without their help, everything will decay. This seems to negate the point of community-driven business, which is one of the appealing parts of craft beer.

Craft beer is a way for communities to support themselves and to take part in the creating of their own identity. As everything does become Walmarts and Targets and Bud, we take pride in those small differences that make us unique. Portland has its beers. So does San Diego. So does Chicago, but now one less. Will buying a brewery suddenly make Bud changes its ways? No. It is far too large and powerful to really care about what one small segment, even if it is growing, does. Profit does not lie in craft beer. My guess is that Bud will pump money into Goose Islands less exciting beers, especially 312, which shows up at every summer festival. They can reduce the cost and jack up the price. It will be slightly more costly than a Bud but double or triple the price because Bud thinks that by labeling something "craft" will put it at a premium. Roper is deluding himself if he thinks this is some altruistic part on Bud. Sure, they might let someone at Goose Island toy around, but if lines need to be cut, look for that first unprofitable area to go.

For a better idea of what $30+ million means to Bud: in 2010 Bud spent $1.2 billion to be the sponsor of the NFL. That's enough to buy around 30 Goose Islands, and that's just a marketing expense for Bud. This doesn't include individual team deals or the Super Bowl. The Goose Island acquisition is akin to Google or Microsoft buying a company, toying with it and then shutting it down.

Where does this leave Chicago? With one less craft brewer and a bit more of its identity gone. Perhaps this is part of being a global city: it's common in London and New York, but not so in Chicago, which has a history of independence. Lately, we've seen the Sears Tower change names, Marshall Fields disappear, Carsons on State turning into a Target and numerous small community stores turn into chains. More and more companies want to get into Chicago, and with that a bit of the identity of the city dies. Why would anyone even travel when all cities are beginning to look alike? Are we too far off from a Goose Island chain opening in Las Vegas or Orlando?

Only time will tell if Goose Island suffers or changes. Regardless of what Mr. Hall thinks he might have arranged, a corporation can and will change what it wants to. I work in a large Fortune 500 company that buys out smaller companies. It does change. The culture changes. The people change. The decisions move to corporate. It's how the business world works. At first, there is a lot of hand shaking and getting to know everybody and promises that things will stay the same. As people move in and out of positions, slowly the company comes into the fold, losing the identity that once made it valuable. It just becomes part of the company. Soon, Goose Island will just become part of Bud and it's ever-expanding empire of cheap beer and high margins.

Tribune Looks into Craft Beer

The Chicago Tribune ran an article about the explosiveness of craft beer. There really isn't much detail or anything new. It's mostly a reaction against Goose Island and how people are starting to wake up to craft beer, especially in Chicago. It also does highlight how close to the edge these brewers are and how difficult it is for them to keep up with demand, and demand is booming. I walked past Half Acre today, and there was a half-block long line for the tour.

It's interesting to see how craft beer is taking off. Let's not kid ourselves, macro beer is still king, especially in places outside of metropolitan areas. Perhaps it's a movement toward more taste. I think for a lot of people choosing craft beer is a way to buck the major corporations that tend to run our lives. If we can't avoid using big banks or slaving away to some faceless corporation, perhaps through what we drink we can support regular people who have dreams of opening a brewery. It's also something that is maybe every beer drinker's dream: that long talked of goal of opening a bar or brewery. Maybe we live through these people by drinking their beer.

With the selling out of Goose Island, it'll be interesting to see how many of these brewers stay independent and how many sell out to a larger organization. I'll be watching the events unfold as I hoist a Half Acre.