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Chicagoist isn't one to brag, but we had a golden ticket to see Tom Waits last night at the Auditorium Theatre. While we were blubbering like a five-year-old on his first day in kindergarten as Waits sang an appropriately boozy rendition of "Tom Traubert's Blues", we wondered if we could name a beer that we wrote a review over a year ago "beer of the week." We decided, "Why not?"
With all the happenings going on at Goose Island lately, it was easy to miss that this is the first year their reserve line of ales - Demolition, Pere Jacques, Imperial IPA, Bourbon County Stout, and Matilda - would be available to consumers and beer nuts year-round. As Goose Island brewmaster Greg Hall claimed during our interview with him back in June, Matilda, in particular, is proof that American craft breweries are making Belgian-style ales as well as Belgian breweries.
You can go back and read our tasting notes for Matilda from last July, or check out a wider range of opinions at ratebeer.com's website, which gave Matilda an overall score of 93. The structure of Goose Island Matilda raises brewing to an art, to the point where we would offer it as an alternative pairing for meals, in place of wine. Best of all, because it's beig produced year-round, you don't have to hoard a case in your pantry for a special occasion, and it can still cure Tom Traubert of his blues. Goose Island Matilda is Chicagoist's "beer of the week."
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That sounds terrific, but where can you get this stuff? Do you have to go to the brewery?
Finally a damn Chicagoist beer that I've tried. Damn fine brew I must say! So when will Goose Island products be back at Chicago's Metro? The sooner the better please.
Back in December I picked up the Bourbon County Stout, one of the other Goose Island reserves, at Binny's by Clark & Halsted. So I'd try there or perhaps Sam's near North Ave. & Sheffield.
Any Binny's should have it, as well as Sam's around North/Clybourn.
It's probably worth noting that Matilda is based off a more famous recipe, Orval, that dates back to about 1070 and is (in my and RateBeer's opinions) far, far better.
Any Binny's should have it, as well as Sam's around North/Clybourn.
It's probably worth noting that Matilda is based off a more famous recipe, Orval, that dates back to about 1070 and is (in my and RateBeer's opinions) far, far better.
That's why I linked to my old tasting notes, nickd. Matilda's similarity to Orval was already covered.
West Lakeview liquors has it (and Demolition) too. Leavitt (I think) and Addison. GREAT shop.
nickd:
slow down!--Orval, like most Belgian trappist *beers* (even abbeys, actually) dates to the early 20th cent. The Orval recipe was created by a German brewer shortly after the current abbey (destroyed in the French Revolution) was rebuilt in 1929. So, this is not an eleventh-century beer. Sorry to burst your (a)historical bubble! ;-)