Midwest
Listermann Brewing Company & Cincinnati Zoo | Team Fiona NE IPA
June 8, 2017 | Kristen Ballinger
Feature Photo: Cincinnati Zoo
Listermann Brewing Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, has paired up with the Cincinnati Zoo to create a beer for the lovable baby hippo Fiona. Members of Fiona’s care team actually helped brew the beer, a New England Style IPA coming in at 6.2% ABV with Citra and Centennial hops. The beer will be released in cans on Saturday June 10th at the brewery.
Event Preview | Door County Beer Festival
June 7, 2017 | Taylor Laabs
*Feature image courtesy of Katie Sikora*
Set on the scenic shores of Lake Michigan, the Door County Beer Festival boasts one of the most unique backdrops of any beer fest in the nation. Door County has been a destination vacation for many years due to its beautiful location, but it’s the recent rise of the local craft beer scene that has added to the luster of the premiere Wisconsin peninsula getaway spot. The Door County Beer Festival celebrates all of this by combining locally sourced food, local beer and a good vibe to create a truly unique beer festival experience.
Brewery Showcase | Saint Benedict’s Brew Works
June 6, 2017 | David Nilsen
Featured image courtesy of David Nilsen
I had never met a nun before. That feels important to establish at the outset.
Though I grew up religious, the spiritual instruction of my youth came mostly from non-denominational preachers with overactive sweat glands and a predilection toward sermons about the end times rather than from black-clad Catholic nuns. So I had no idea what to expect when my wife and I arrived at Monastery Immaculate Conception, home of the Sisters of St. Benedict in Ferdinand, Indiana. I was there to interview Bruce Luecke, the brewmaster at Saint Benedict’s Brew Works, the only brewery in the country housed on the grounds of a women’s religious community. The graceful but imposing dome of the monastery’s century-old chapel rose above us on a hill as we stepped out of our car in front of the Kordes Center, the monastery’s guest lodging facility. The brewery was nowhere in sight as we entered the doors of the retreat center.
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Dear Chicagoans: Don’t Ignore the North Burbs Brewing Scene
June 5, 2017 | Mathew Powers 10
The breweries that lie north of Chicago’s Saison-Dixon line regularly play the role of the ugly red-headed stepchild. Granted, Mikerphone receives endless, well-deserved praise, but Mikerphone is a transplant that gained its fame prior to moving to Elk Grove Village. Meanwhile, breweries located in the North Burbs, such as Light the Lamp, Ten-Ninety, ZumBier, Chain O’Lakes, Side Lot, Tighthead, Only Child, Flesk — a brewery in the process of moving to Barrington, and countless others are oft-ignored among the pantheon of Chicago-area breweries.
Don’t do it. Don’t rob yourself of that joy. Refuse to ignore northern-suburban breweries. The brewing scene of the North Burbs is too good to miss!
Cruz Blanca | El Train
June 5, 2017 | Craig Gonciarczyk
Everyone in Chicago has taken the elevated train (or “L” train) at one time or another. Most typically have some story or stories about an adventure they had on a ride. Cruz Blanca is trying to give you another probably less grotesque story to tell with their El Train IPA.
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Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap – Two Brothers CCBW Collaboration: Decades in the Making
June 1, 2017 | Mathew Powers
Sometimes, a beer event comes along that encapsulates the enormous impact the craft beer industry has had on modern imbibe culture. For example, the pairing between suburban-Chicago’s Two Brothers Brewing and Chicago’s Jake Melnick’s Corner Tap during the last day of Chicago Craft Beer Week seemed ordinary on the surface, but a deeper meaning lied underneath. Yes, the two craft-beer-focused operations collaborated on a beer — an American Wheat Beer with melon, but the beer did not take a few weeks to make; it took 30 years.
Great Lakes Brewing Cans Are Now Available!
June 1, 2017 | Kevin Risner
The wait is over! Great Lakes Brewing Company cans are now available for purchase. The brewery made an announcement in March that it would begin packaging some of its products differently. GLBC has been creating a solid product for 29 years, and what better way to continue this legacy than by promoting some of their newer offerings just in time for the summer season?
Ultimate 6er | Pour Lists from 6 New STL Brewers for Heritage Festival
May 31, 2017 | Jordan Palmer
Call it experience, call it trial by fire, but I have found that the best way to maximize your beer festival participation is to have a plan. After perusing the attending breweries, all of which I love, I found a thread for this years plan – The New Kids On The Block.
Goose Island Migration Week Returns to Lincoln Square
May 31, 2017 | Mike Zoller 1
Goose Island’s Migration Week, which serves as an opportunity to expose fans to Goose Island’s portfolio and collection of rarities through education and activation events has already spanned the globe. Now Migration Week returns to Chicago and the Lincoln Square neighborhood the week of June 12th.
Event Preview | St. Louis Brewers Guild’s Heritage Festival
May 30, 2017 | Jordan Palmer
Featured image courtesy of St. Louis Brewers Guild.
It was a big deal to move a festival as large as the St. Louis Brewers Guild’s Heritage Festival from Forest Park to the Arch grounds, but I think it is one both local brewers and beer lovers agree is worth it.
There is no other beer festival in the city that offers the rugged poetry of the Mississippi River and the majesty of the Gateway Arch as its landscape (which, I must say, takes on new meaning after a few beers and a clear starry sky). Read More
Event Recap | CCBW Putt-Putt at Revolution Brewing
May 22, 2017 | Taylor Laabs
Chicago Craft Beer Week means beer lovers can expect a bevy of fun and unique events from local craft brewers. One of those events, hosted by Revolution Brewing over the weekend, had both good beer and mini golf – which is something that no other brewery could offer.
Fast Facts on Ravenswood’s Newly Branded Malt Row District
May 22, 2017 | Taylor Laabs
*Feature image courtesy of Greater Ravenswood Chamber of Commerce
Ravenswood is embracing the vibrant beer culture within its Northside neighborhood by re-branding a two-mile stretch of road into Malt Row, which will feature six local breweries along with one distillery. That two-mile stretch, mapped here, will expand from Balmoral Avenue to Irving Park Road.
Event Recap | Beer Under Glass (BUG) – Chicago Craft Beer Week
May 22, 2017 | Mike Zoller
* Featured photo taken by Eric Dirksen and was from the 2016 BUG event
For the second year in a row, Beer Under Glass — the official kickoff to Chicago’s Craft Beer Week — was the benefit of great weather on the evening of the event. Although the temperature dropped 30 degrees throughout the night, that pales in comparison to recent years plagued by rain and bitter cold, which turned the outdoor grounds of the Garfield Park Conservatory into a muddy disaster.
Warped Wing Brewing Co. | Trotwood Lager
May 22, 2017 | David Nilsen
Image courtesy of Full Frame Studios.
ABV: 4% | IBU: 20
When the temperatures begin creeping into the 70s here in Ohio each spring, we begin shedding our winter coats and making plans for summer. As we put our fuzzy mittens into storage, we start opting less often for stouts and other heavy beers and reaching instead for lighter, sunnier fare. For those of us in the Dayton area, that often means Warped Wing Trotwood Lager.
Event Recap | Craft and Cuisine at The Park at Wrigley
May 18, 2017 | Taylor Laabs
*Feature image courtesy of The Park at Wrigley
On a glorious Saturday evening, Chicago beer lovers got to experience the first ever non-baseball event at The Park at the Wrigley – and boy was it a good one. The inaugural Craft and Cuisine event had everything you’d want in a beer festival – great beer, access to brewers and unlimited pours. Read More
AleSmith and Around the Bend Collaboration, Chicago Craft Beer Week
May 18, 2017 | Mathew Powers
The annual Beer Under Glass (B.U.G.) at Garfield Park Conservatory serves as the formal opening to Chicago Craft Beer Week (#CCBW), and brewers are more than happy to provide special offerings for the unique event. One such brew exemplifies the true meaning of craft beer — industry first, beer first, a collaboration between two “competing” breweries, Alesmith Brewing Company and Chicago’s Around the Bend Beer Co. This special brew will enjoy its first pouring at B.U.G, and then during select events (and sold in stores) thereafter.
Event Recap | Chicago Beer Classic at Soldier Field
May 17, 2017 | Mathew Powers
Although the last vestiges of winter traversed Lake Michigan and infiltrated the Chicago Beer Classic on May 6, glorious blue skies and both golden sunshine and beer screamed, “spring.” Besides, a little cool breeze couldn’t ruin an experience provided by 100+ brewers pouring beer at a venue that provided plenty of proverbial “wow factor.” Produced by Red Frog Events, few venues exceed the uniqueness offered by a chance to sip a beer while standing on the Chicago Bears logo at the 50-yard line. Go Bears, or go beers — both applied. The additional component of the stadium’s role in paying homage to America’s soldiers only added to the fest’s positives.
Streetside Brewery | Suh, Brah? New England Style IPA
May 17, 2017 | Danele Bova
ABV: 6.7%
Are you on the haze train? If you enjoy a craft beer that looks more like a glass of juice than a glass of beer, Streetside Brewery’s Suh, Brah? is the hazy beer for you!
Event Preview | CCBW Putt Putt at Revolution Brewing
May 16, 2017 | Taylor Laabs
Feature image courtesy of Revolution Brewing
Beer and golf are a perfect combo. So, if you’re the masterminds at Revolution Brewing, combining the two for a 9-hole putt putt course at their brewery only makes sense—which is exactly what they’re doing May 19-21 for CCBW. Revolution Putt Putt will give beer patrons the opportunity to play nine beer-inspired holes throughout their Kedzie facility, all with a can of their new Sun Crusher wheat ale in hand.
Schlafly Debuts New Frugi-Four Sampler Pack
May 15, 2017 | Jordan Palmer
Fruit or fruity beers are not for everyone. But that could be said about sours or stouts, and I let them into my life, so why not fruit beers?
So how do these popular spring and summer brews fit into my life and how can you, too, welcome them into yours? This is the question I decided to tackle for no other reason than I love exposing myself to new beers or in this case, beers that have been around but I’ve simply avoided.
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