Event Preview | Mikerphone Brewing Smells Like A Beer Fest

By the time you’re done reading this sentence, tickets for Mikerphone Brewing Smells Like A Beer Fest would have sold out. An exceptionally lucky 400 people obtained tickets to the inaugural event that will be held at the brewery on April 28 which features a star-studded lineup of breweries both local and from around the country.

The festival replaces Pale Pauper Day which had been held over the past few years as an alternative to the popular 3 Floyds Dark Lord Day. 

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Kerri Gatz | General Manager of Illinois’ Best Beer Bar 2018

Kerri Gatz, general manager of the 2018 Craftbeer.com Illinois’ Best Beer Bar, has cultivated a craft-beer environment that showcases small, local brewers with as much enthusiasm as it does well-known brands. Though operating under the umbrella of the Brass Tap franchise name, the independence offered to Gatz at her Orland Park (Chicago) location has allowed her to provide patrons with beer choices, events and an overall vibe that reflects her personality and love for beer. She’s more than a bar operator; she is a craft beer ambassador.

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Platform Beer Co. | Haze Jude

The New England IPA (NEIPA) was once only available via bottle trades or to those willing to wait in long lines. But that has slowly started to change because larger breweries are making this style and distributing them in much larger volumes. That’s good news to those that previously couldn’t get their hands on these beers. However, it is worth asking if the large scale production can mimic what made this style so unique and special. Cleveland’s Platform Beer Haze Jude helped answer that question.

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2 Days, 2 Nights | A Complete Guide to Chicago’s Craft Beer Scene

Chicago has always been a weekend destination as people look to explore the city’s rich history, culture and of course, have a slice of deep dish pizza. It’s also now a place where craft beer fans can indulge in the wide array of breweries that the city offers. If anything, it might be overwhelming when trying to think of how to tackle all the breweries within the city limits. Spoiler alert—it would be virtually impossible to visit every single brewery in a weekend.

So if you’re coming to Chicago for a weekend, here’s a guide on how to get the most out of the Chicago craft beer scene in a limited amount of time. Understand that like I said above, it would be virtually impossible to do every brewery, so I had to leave some out. It’s nothing personal and you can alter this itinerary however you like. You’ll also notice that there are no suburban breweries on this list. I’ll be doing another itinerary in a couple of weeks that will focus on just suburban breweries—don’t worry guys, I didn’t forget about you!

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Ultimate 6er | Packing Up & Moving Out

Let me start by saying that I’m currently in the process of writing this Ultimate 6er while packing up and moving, so I hope that earns me a bit more credibility with this post. There is nothing that’s needed more than a beer while moving, and six beers is probably a good number to have at the very minimum.

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Lil Beaver Steals the Show at Chicago’s Stout Fest

All the big names were at the Goose Island Brewpub for the return of Stout Fest. While well-known and established breweries like Half Acre, Pipeworks, Goose Island and Revolution were pouring some great stouts, it was a small brewery from Bloomington, Ill. that stole the show.

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From Barrels to Cans | Fulton Brewing’s New Mixed Four-Pack

Back in the Spring of 2015, Minnesota breweries entered a canning frenzy, as brewers like Surly and Badger Hill realized the benefits of the convenient packaging format compared to the archaic growler variety. Fulton Brewing also joined the canning fray during that period, becoming one of the first breweries in the bustling Northeast Minneapolis area to do so. A myriad of canned Fulton favorites can be found on shelves across Minnesota. Now, they have announced a new aluminum-clad offering.
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Zipline Brewing Co. | Copper Alt

It is paradoxical that a long and happy life means you get to watch your parents age and die. It should be said that death is—hopefully—still years off for my parents, but it now lingers under every conversation like a guest who has long worn out their welcome. February brought for me an unplanned and unscheduled trip to my home state of Nebraska to look after my ailing parents. In a strange coincidence, all of this took place during the church season liturgical Christians observe called Lent, during which, among other things, we embrace the reality of our own mortality.

Countless others before me have had to navigate the vast, barren seascapes of the wintry Midwest in order to be delivered the gut-punch of their parents’ transience. But when it comes to commiseration in a glass, what is a craft beer lover to do? Thanks to the craft beer explosion, even in the more sparse stretches of America’s breadbasket, one is rarely more than 30 minutes away from solid craft beer. Enter Zipline Brewing Company’s Copper Alt. Read More

Half Acre Beer Company Expands its Creative Studio – Here’s Why

Half Acre Beer Company has always pushed boundaries with their beers. Whether it’s experimenting with their hops or sourcing exotic ingredients, the folks at Half Acre are well aware that what ends up in your glass is only a small part of the overall process of a beer’s creative journey. This comprehensive approach to creativity has manifested itself in other avenues of their business as well. They’ve had a woodshop for a while that sourced the wood pieces and artwork in their new Balmoral space, but they never had a formalized program for it. That has all changed given Half Acre’s recent announcement that they were expanding their creative studio into a fully-fledged business. Here is what you need to know about Half Acre Build Company.

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With More Space, Off Color Brewing Expands on its Uniqueness

So, there I was, standing outside on a cold March night in Chicago watching Off Color’s social media manager Ben Ustick and co-founder Dave Bleitner (lovingly called “The Other Guy”) methodically put together the fence that would block off their soon-to-be-open patio space. There was a palpable excitement shared between Ben and Dave as they hammered each 2×4 into place. The patio meant something more than just providing extra seating on a swanky summer day. It was validation that Off Color’s grand experiment had paid off.

The new taproom space, dubbed the Mousetrap, has been a smashing success as it has provided Dave and the other Co-Founder Jon Laffler (the one you usually see in the papers) with more room to share their craft beer genius with hordes of willing Chicagoans. While 2017 was an exciting year for Off Color Brewing, with more momentum and new experiments in the hopper, 2018 is shaping up to be even better. Read More

Beer Showcase | 3 Floyds Dark Lord Vertical 2014 – 2017

The Dark Lord Himself Has Arisen.

I recently had the honor of conducting a 3 Floyds Brewing tasting that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do. About two and a half years ago, when I was just starting out with craft beer, I did some research and threw together a short bucket list of beers I wanted to try before I died. Well, I’ve completed that list already because, in back-to-back days, I tried Pliny the Younger and engaged in a Dark Lord vertical tasting.

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Illinois Craft Beer Week Set to Kick Off May 18

As the number of craft breweries expanded rapidly in not only the suburbs of Chicago but all across the state of Illinois, there was talk if Chicago Craft Beer Week was feeling a little restrictive.

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Founders Pop-Up & KBS release April 3 | Tribes Beer Co. (Chicago)

Founders Brewing is bringing its freshly-released KBS and the entire Grand Rapids experience to Tribes Beer Co., located in Chicago’s southern suburb of Tinley Park, on April 3. Along with the 2018 KBS, there will be a special menu, live music and a host of highly regarded beers such as ’17 KBS, CBS, Doom, Backwoods Bastard and Frootwood.

The event starts 5 p.m! All you need is an appetite and a thirst for good beer.

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Listermann Brewing Company | Call To Farms

In the late 1930s, much of the world was at war. As time marched on, and the turmoil of afar reached over the ocean to impact American society, men volunteered to serve in the military. Great navies carried American men from both coasts to fight the ideologies of totalitarian regimes while patriarchal American society now found itself reliant on a female workforce to take up the slack. Call To Farms, by Listermann Brewing Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, is a triumphant expression of collaboration and hard work.

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Founders Brewing Company | Solid Gold Premium Lager

Trends and tastes are cyclical. And as we’ve detailed on this site before, such is the case with beer. Sure hazy IPAs and pastry stouts are all the rave right now, but it certainly won’t always be the case. And just as American craft beer lovers currently crave innovative over-the-top ingredients, it’s likely the trend will eventually shift back toward sessionable, traditional styles.

That said, for the past several decades, what most American beer consumers think of when they hear the word lager, typically drifts to the watered down macro lagers that have dominated sales for so long. For years American Lagers have been associated with the blue collar, no-nonsense, no taste domestics that rule the beer industry. Founders Brewing is seeking to change that with their latest release of Solid Gold Premium Lager.
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The Mitten Brewing Company | Country Strong American IPA

I love a good IPA. I know I’m not alone in this, and I do not mind. Because when people love good IPAs, they make good IPAs, and that means more for me. In Michigan, it’s not hard to find good IPAs, which is why when one stands out to me, it’s for good reason. The Mitten Brewing Company’s Country Strong American IPA is just one of those standouts, and it has become my new go-to brew.

7.2% ABV | 58 IBU

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Chicago’s Howells & Hood | One Last Summer Fling

Chicago’s Howells & Hood restaurant and pub, with its 119 beers on tap, lies at the confluence of two Chicago icons—the “Mag Mile” and The Tribune Building. Besides the lauded culinary program and extensive beer list (and draft wine, and cocktails and more), H&H boasts of a fabulous patio that provides patrons with an exceptional, photogenic view of the Chicago skyscape. On March 1, Howells & Hood raided the Bourbon County barrel cellars of Goose Island for its five-year anniversary. The Goose presence served to be somewhat symbolic, sort of speak, as is proved to be Howells & Hood’s Anniversary Party swan song; renovations to the Tribune building will force H&H out on September 30. That leaves fans of the pub (and tourists) one more summer to drink beer surrounded by Chicago’s architectural big shoulders.
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Gluten-Reduced Beer is Having a Moment

Craft beer seems to go through phases. Right now, you can’t find a new brewery that isn’t making something exceedingly bitter, hazy or barrel-aged. In some ways, consumers’ preferences for different craft beer styles mirror their often-fleeting style, dietary and exercise obsessions. Every year there seems to be a new trend popping up that captures the minds of the economically important 25-34 age demographic. One dietary preference that has weathered the storm of fleeting fads has been the rise of gluten-free and gluten-reduced diets due to its digestive health benefits. Now, several prominent craft brewers are joining the fray by introducing gluten-reduced beers. Are these new options a simple novelty or a beer style that is set to explode? We asked two brewers leading the charge.

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Two Brothers Adds Three New Beers to Their Lineup

For over two decades, Two Brothers Brewing Company has been making solid beer and is a mainstay in the Chicago beer scene. Just recently, they added a new year-round beer to their rotation as well as two seasonal/limited releases.

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Full Details on Bell’s Brewing’s Oberon Day 2018

Much like seeing flowers bloom for the first time, many craft beer drinkers associate the beginning of spring with the release of Bell’s Brewery Oberon Wheat Ale. Bell’s signature ale has been around well before craft beer was in vogue, and its popularity continues to this day thanks to a great flavor profile and a myriad of clever marketing tactics – the best being Oberon Day.

The beer was actually called Solsun up until 1998, but a naming dispute with a Mexican brewery prompted the name change to Oberon… and the rest is history. The day-long event celebrating the release of Oberon for the year has become a fan favorite for Michigan beer fanatics and casual drinkers alike. On March 26, Bell’s plans to make this year’s Oberon Day the biggest ever – here are the details.

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