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.

The Snow is Blowing

Yep, it's like a blizzard outside in Chicago. Hopefully you've got some good beer in the fridge or your close-to-home bar is serving up some good selections.

Here's what I'd take in weather like this:
Barley wine -- lots of alcohol, thick, good for sitting by the fireplace
Stout -- dark, lots of rich textured malts
Scottish ale -- Something with a high ABV
Barrel aged beer -- Whiskey preferred

Basically, what I'd look for in this type of weather is a good, dark beer with a lot of alcohol to warm you up.

One of my favorites is the Sprecher Black Bavarian. This is currently on tap at Tiny Lounge in Lincoln Square (try the ahi tuna tacos). It's a dark schwarzbier with roasted malts and a nice texture. It's nice to see this around. I remember awhile back that this was more difficult to get. I'm glad to see it returning. Now only if more New Glarus beers would make their way down.

Here's to a cold night, good beer and staying warm. Slainte!

Pipeworks at City Provisions

On December 21, the fledgling Pipeworks brewery will be showcasing some of its beers at City Provisions deli on Wilson Avenue in Ravenswood/Lincoln Square. I've written about Pipeworks here before, and they are still looking for donations to their Kickstarter campaign to get their operation up and running. If you have the time, you can check out some of their beers to kick the tires in a sense.

Scheduled to appear at the event is a smoked porter, pastrami on rye (?), a Belgian wit and an imperial stout, which at 11 percent will keep you warm on the walk home. The event runs from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. The Damen Brown line isn't too far away.

Pipeworks is trying to get its operation off the ground. With the soon-to-be opened Haymarket, Half Acre, Piece, Goose Island and others, this is another great addition to the city, and hopefully than can continue to keep putting Chicago on the map of great beer cities. Throw a couple of bucks their way on their Kickstarter page to help them along.

City Provisions is a great local business that supports local farms. There's beer and wine, butchered meat, sandwiches and coffee, in case you had too much good beer the night before. Come out to this event, and you'll be support two local businesses.

Historic Bars of Chicago

Craft beer is great. History is great. Old bars with great stories are great. Hmm... there's a trend here. There's a book from Lake Claremont Press called Historic Bars of Chicago. It details some of the bars in Chicago that have witnessed some pivotal moments in Chicago history. This 273-page book by Sean Parnell looks at the oldest bars in the city, places that Nelson Algren drank, and places that survived prohibition. What does this have to do with craft beer? Not sure, but I'm sure some of these places serve craft beer and local craft beer, and if they don't, we should go there and start demanding they do. Plus, in a city with such a rich history as Chicago, being able to go to historic bars where some amazing characters and stories have occurred makes going out a bit special. If you have a beer/Chicago/bar lover on your Christmas list, this might make the perfect gift. Oh year, there's like more than 100 pages of pictures, which makes it great after a couple of pints have already gone down.

Haymarket Brewery to Open

Great news on the Chicago craft beer front: Haymarket Pub & Brewery is getting ready to open in the next week or so depending on inspections. Even though it is 9,000 square feet, I'm sure it is going to be quite crowded, as we have seen with Revolution Brewing in Logan Square. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get there before the new year, but I'm sure I will within the next month. There will be about 15 beers brewed on site from Pete Crowley, formerly of Rock Bottom brewery.

From Haymarket's Facebook page, it looks like there will be a theater also included (something called drinking and writing). The bar and space looks great, and there are numerous taps behind the bar. They say that they will have about 75 craft beers featured. It'll be a few weeks before you can get any in-house brewed stuff. The space boasts a 100-year-old building, mosaic tiled floors, space for 300 hundred, and house-made sausage.

I'm thinking that this is a place that is going to make its mark on the craft beer map not only in Chicago, but also in the Midwest and soon the nation. It can only add to the diversity that Chicago is enjoying in its craft beer scene.

Pastoral Midwestern Dream

This is what I want for Christmas. I'm notoriously difficult to buy for as my tastes generally just run to literature, music and craft beer. Because the latest Audubon guide at auction sold for more than anyone I know can afford and there's only so many jazz and blues records I can fit into my apartment, this is a nice little enjoyment. This momentary experience of delicacy is transient and worth the money. I'd rather support local producers of cheese and beer than get another piece of electronic that sits on a shelf unused after a couple of months.

Called the Midwestern Beer Lover, this gift set includes Goose Island's Sofia, orange marmalade and crackers from Wisconsin and goat cheese from Indiana. Even though gifts at Christmas tend to be individual, this is something that you can get and share with other people. I like that concept: receiving a gift that you can share with others. The cost is about $70.

I've only been to the Pastoral stand at the French Market downtown. I've enjoyed their offerings. You can order this directly from Pastoral's website.

The Grafton

The Lincoln Square and Ravenswood areas are quickly becoming the haven for craft beer in Chicago. This past weekend, my wife and I had a successful run at Waters Elementary's craft fair, and to celebrate, we went to the Grafton to get some food, enjoy some beer, watch the snow fall and sit by the fire. The Grafton's always had a decent beer selection and good food, but when I got the menu, I was blown away by how much craft beer was on tap--especially the winter beers. I ordered a Brown Sugga, which at 9 percent alcohol was what I needed on a winter's day in Chicago.

With the Foutainhead, Bad Apple, and now the Grafton, there are more and more places that are selling not only craft beer, but also harder to find and more specialized craft beer. The Fiddlehead Cafe, which is on Lincoln and is soon to be rebranded, also boasts more than 100 beers (I haven't been in.) The new flatbread restaurant coming to the square in 2011 also boasts it will have a microbrewery on site. I'm not sure if this is just some flash in the pan or a conscious effort among the people in this area to seek out great beer, but it is a welcomed change over the swill usually found at typical sports bars or faux-Irish pubs. Perhaps with Half Acre selling out of its winter event so fast, we can safely say there is a foundation of support that will encourage other small brewpubs and beer bars to enter into the area. I'd like to hear what some owners of these places think, what drives them to keep offering new and exciting beers. My next push is to get some good cask offerings in the area.

Goose Island Bourbon County Stout

I'm not a big one for spending time tracking down special releases (e.g., Dark Lord Day). I think that the best beer is one that is available and consistent. Hunting down a beer to squirrel away isn't my thing, most of the time. However, there are times when a special beer is released that I salivate over. This time, it is Goose Island's Rare Bourbon County Stout. It's aged for two years in 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle whiskey casks. Normally, these beers can be hit or miss, but I have great faith in this. At $45 a bottle, I'm probably not going to be getting my hands on it any time soon, and because it is only a limited run, many others will be wanting. If you're lucky enough, I'd get one to drink during winter this year and then lay the other one down to let it mellow for 2011. Lucky bastards.

Read about it on Chicagoist.

Sunday Morning Webs

It's a gray Sunday morning in Chicago. Time to check out what is happening in the world of beer.

I just came across a Web site for a bar in Chicago called Local Option. Never heard of it before, but I'm definitely going to be checking it out. The draft beer list looks delicious including Brooklyn Cuvee Noire, Founder's Breakfast Stout, Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast and Three Floyds Drunk Monk. While nothing out of this world, the food looks like good pub grub. Once the holiday hubbub quiets down, I think I'll head over for a pint or 10, plus it's right near the Brown line.

Do you like beer? Do you like school? Well, the Map Room is putting on a beer school November 27 that will cover holiday beers. If I had the money, I would definitely be there. The great thing about beer is its seasonality, and learning about holiday beers is a great way to celebrate that. It's $25 Mickey Finn's brew master Greg Browne.

Sure, some people will be out shopping the Friday after Thanksgiving, but why bother with sharp elbows and haggard sales folk when you can get your hands on some rare beers at Binny's across from Goose Island on Clybourn. There will be some Goose Island beers and some other rare treats. Perhaps I'll try to convince the family to skip the socks and head here instead. Hmm.... Read more at Rate Beer.

December 2, head down to Jerry's Sandwiches on Division for a winter beer tasting. Yes, it's Chicago. Yes, it will be cold. All the perfect reason to get some belly-warming winter brews to fight the snow. It's $25 and details are still coming in, but the weather is a good enough excuse to drink as any.

When Does Craft Beer No Longer Independent?

I'm sure you've heard by now the merger of Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom breweries. (If you haven't you can read about it here.) I've never been a fan of "franchise" brewpubs and this news makes me never want to even come close to entering any of these places.

For the record, the new entity will be called CraftWorks and will include the Gordon Biersch, Rock Bottom and Old Chicago brewpubs. There's going to be something like 200 locations, 12,000 employees and 17 different "brands." To me, it sounds like nothing but opportunism and a chance to cash in on the craft beer movement. If you carefully read the press release, it is liberally sprinkled with those words: craft, made-from-scratch, finest craft beer. Basically, what I'm seeing is that we are getting another type of Bennigans or Applebees on our hands: a place to get Irish nachos or chicken fingers with some watered down version of a cherry tart wheat beer.

As someone that works in marketing and the corporate environment, the press release also shows those telltale marks of leverage, diverse solutions for complex challenges and all the other jargon meant to appease investors, especially Centerbridge, the entity that is putting this all together. It is trying to diversify its position by entering the casual dining and fine dining white tablecloth establishments.

I'm not sure where this will leave everything or what it portends for the future. What I'm guessing is that the pulling together will increase advertisement of these places. Because genuine craft beer is such a small percentage of the overall market, I would say that this merger will siphon more sales away from the larger breweries. It also might provide a good stepping stone for those that are looking to expand their beer pallet. Still, there seems something very corporate about the whole deal, which might continue to dilute the whole craft beer movement (similar to green washing for eco-products; maybe we can call it craftwashing or localsizing or something).

Looking at the menu of the establishments, it looks like a standard suburban bar and grille: lots of fried food with servers wearing flair. Interesting enough there isn't an Old Chicago location in Chicago, and I can't really see anything it has to do with Chicago at all. The beers at Gordon Biersch seem pedestrian. Time will tell.

Visit the CraftWorks site here.

Bangers & Lace: A Cicerone Lands in Chicago

Bangers & Lace, a new restaurant opening in Wicker Park, has 32 draft and 68 bottle beers with your own cicerone to help you select the right one for your meal.

The name of the place sums up the concept: sausages and beers. However, this is Cheesehead country, so don't expect a bunch of green-and-gold mustachioed guys eating brats and shotgunning beers. There will be more artisan-style fare such as bacon-wrapped kielbasa skewers, Merguez lamb sausage and feta flatbreads, a Bavarian pretzel with chocolate-stout mustard and desserts that include Black Dog gelato and Hoosier Mama pies. (Black Dog gelato is a great locally produced treat.)

Bangers & Lace will also feature a cicerone, a person that acts like a sommelier but instead of wine, pairs beer with food. The owners seem to want to make the learning of beer as important as the drinking of it. Instead of taking a backseat to the food, the beer will be an integral component. I hope that places such as Bangers & Lace will continue to elevate the idea of beer as a part of a meal that extends beyond take-out pizza and ballpark hot dogs.

How Far They've Come: Half Acre Video

I just stumbled across the great video profiling Half Acre. It debuted in early 2010, and you can see how much the brewery has grown in the meantime. Even though Half Acre has seemingly grown, it is interesting to see how it started and what craft brewers face in Chicago. In a way, it is an inspirational video to keep drinking local beer and supporting local craft brewers.

Drinking Wake of the Flood

Stopped by Half Acre on Saturday and it was crowded with people picking up growlers for the weekend. I actually stopped at Bad Apple, which is across the street, to have a beer and wait for the crowd to thin out. If you haven't been to the Bad Apple, I highly suggest it. There are a lot of great beers on tap and in bottle. I had Stone's Sublimely Self Righteous Ale. A great dark IPA. I'm personally very happy that Stone has finally found its way to the Chicago market. If you have a chance, stop by the Bad Apple, grab some good craft brews and food, and then head over to Half Acre for a growler.

Now to the beer: I picked up a growler of Half Acre's Wake of the Flood. This newly released beer is designed for the fall harvest season, and it works. Full of grain and balanced with hops, this slightly tarnished brass colored beer is chewy and thick and perfect for an October night or afternoon (or morning for you adventurous folk). It's smooth and easy to drink. I hope this continues a great trend of Half Acre making seasonal beers.