09/12/08
There's late to the party, and then there's so late to the ball that Cinderella has already turned back into a scullery wench. Case in point: West Lakeview Liquors, ranked the nation's ninth-best beer store by ratebeer.com and the only Chicago retailer to crack the top 20, celebrated its 20th anniversary this year on the corner of Addison and Leavitt Streets—but I only found it last week. Fortunately, some wrongs can be righted. Get this Cinderella a beer...
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08/14/08
While Chicago confronted what sounds like a hailstorm of biblical proportions last week, Texas, where I had road tripped, was busy sandwiching the half-hearted tropical storm Edouard with raging, relentless, stick-to-the-car-seat heat. What better way to wash down rain and rampant sweat than with more moisture, in the form of cold beer? If you're ever in the Texas Hill Country—that incongruous swath of elevation that rides the Lone Star State's belly like a giant belt buckle—find yourself a bottle of...
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07/30/08
If the name Pierre Celis doesn't ring a bell, maybe his hometown will: Hoegaarden, Belgium—as in the birthplace of the beer that continues to collect trophies from here to eternity, including Best Belgian-Style White at this year's World Beer Cup. (Hoegaarden, by the way, is now brewed by InBev, the company that just bought Anheuser-Busch. Pay attention. There will be a quiz.)...
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07/23/08
Frat boys across the nation, rejoice! The rest of us (spoiler alert): Meh. Behold, Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer. Any resemblance to ABBA or Meryl Streep is purely coincidental.
Thanks to devout garage brewers Tom and Athena Seefurth of suburban Campton Township, we now know the answer to that age-old 3 a.m. question: What would happen if we mated pizza and beer? Hint: Some pairings make better friends than lovers. The beer, now brewed by Sprecher in Wisconsin, earns points for originality (yes, that is basil, garlic, oregano, and tomato you smell...
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07/11/08
Three things to do this weekend:
1. Stage your own taste test of Bud versus Beck’s, and see if the possible InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch is worth getting worked up about.
2. Nurse your way through Ale Fest, the traveling ode to craft beer that’s camping out in Soldier Field from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday the 12th. Admission is $40 and gets you 20 samples, plus a take-home glass and a bottle opener. GTTP recommends cozying up to Abita, Allagash, Great Lakes, and Lagunitas—and show some love for locals Piece, Three Floyds, Flossmoor Station, and Two Brothers.
3. Or avoid the crowds and drink a Flossmoor Station IPA in the comfort of your own home. The much-lauded microbrewery (2006 Small Brewpub of the Year, Great American Beer Festival; 2002 Best Brewery in Chicago, Chicago mag) just started bottling its beers this past April. In addition to the Station Master Wheat and Pullman Brown, look for a rotating IPA from the never-the-same-twice “Brewer’s Whim” series; the color of the wax dip crowning the cap indicates which IPA is inside. I found the Pretty Big IPA (gold wax) last night at Provenance ($10.50 for 22 ounces). Brewer Andrew Mason says the next in the series, the Lady Columbia IPA (blue wax), a slightly belated toast to the Fourth of July with American-grown Columbus hops, will start popping up around town next Tuesday, the 15th.
Extra credit: Keep tabs on what Mason and brewmaster Matt Van Wyk are up to in their own blog.
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07/03/08
The stars were aligned.
I'd just about given up on a former neighborhood favorite, Kuma's Corner. There are only so many times you can hear "45-minute wait" before you gather your dignity and look elsewhere for ridiculously oversized burgers and ear-splitting heavy metal. But last night, signs pointed tentatively to yes: A full day of ominous skies meant the patio crowd might have stayed away, and, if we hustled, we could scoot in a hair before 7 p.m., the hour when all bets are off. Plus, I was...
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06/26/08
We're in the beer. This summer has seen two new brewpubs pop up in the greater Chicago area, although they couldn't be more different. Think town and country: One is stationed in an already established bar, smackdab in the midst of Drinktown Central (i.e. Wicker Park); the other is nestled in the idyllic Northwest Indiana enclave of Crown Point. The two brewmasters, however, share a pedigree that includes degrees from Chicago's Siebel Institute, stints at Goose Island, and a boundless enthusiasm for beer. We talked to both...
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06/18/08
New Belgium Brewing's past is inextricably linked with biking: Then-homebrewer Jeff Lebesch found his beer muse while cycling through the Belgian countryside nearly 20 years ago, and that trip is forever memorialized by the brewery's signature amber ale, Fat Tire, named in honor of Lebesch's trusty, big-treaded mountain bike. Today, the Fort Collins, Colorado, brewery's lean, green, eco-friendly mandate inspires such events as the 11-city Tour de Fat, a traveling-road-show slash bike-gospel-tent-revival slash suds-fest that rolls into Palmer Square this Saturday, the 21st (9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; free; intersection of Palmer Street and Kedzie Avenue; proceeds benefit West Town Bikes). The event centers on one person...
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06/03/08
If, on a map of Wisconsin, you drew one line north from Madison and another west from Green Bay, those lines would intersect, allowing for a degree of artistic license, in Amherst, Wisconsin, home to Central Waters Brewing Company.
Until Memorial Day weekend—the bulk of which I spent shivering at a lakeside campsite in chilly Wisconsin—I'd never heard of Central Waters. For me, the ulterior motive behind any Wisconsin trip is restocking my inventory of New Glarus, the beer that first piqued my curiosity in Midwestern microbrews...
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05/23/08
You've got to love the little guy.
Deep in the heart of Bud country, Schlafly is sticking it to The Man one all-American ale at a time. Launched in 1991 and bearing a subtly audacious tagline, "The Saint Louis Brewery," the microbrew mecca turns out six no-nonsense beers year round (a pale ale, a pilsner—almost as if the brewmasters were trying to prove simple beer can still taste good), as well as a lengthy roster of more adventurous seasonals, including...
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