Results tagged “beeroftheweek”

We were at otom last week checking out some of the offerings of new executive chef Thomas Elliot Bowman, who's slowly but surely transformed the menu from the moto light of his predecessor Daryl Nash to the more traditional bistro fare originally envisioned for the restaurant. otom has a $25 Tuesday tasting menu that is the very definition of value. For an extra $15 you can add wine pairings or you can pair one beer with the menu for $6.

It was Labor Day Weekend and we just finished watching "Inglourious Basterds" downtown. Nowhere to go and nothing to do we wandered around and found ourselves at Jake Melnick's (41 E. Superior, 312-266-0400, jakemelnicks.com). Within minutes we were wolfing down their burger of the month and begging not to be served the Budweiser they give away for free with the burger. The bartender went out of the way to comp us a Surly Bender. She poured us a Surly Furious, instead.

We admit that sometimes we tend to fall into ruts here with the "BotW" installments. We find ourselves visiting the same styles and same places. No excuses, really. Now that we upgraded our cell phone from the universal remote we used to carry to a smart phone, we can also take photos on the go again.

It's common knowledge that the four basic ingredients in brewing beer are malted grain, hops, yeast and water. Most breweries tend to stick to variations of a grain: e.g. barley; wheat; rice if you're Anheuser-Busch or Miller. Belgium's Bosteels Brewery utilizes a 310-year-old recipe for Tripel Karmeliet using wheat, barley and oats in the brewing. The result is a smooth and sweet Belgian Golden ale that can appeal to both serious beer drinkers and folks looking for something cool to drink on a humid day (rare as they've been this summer).

We've mentioned before that local brewing is entering something of a golden age. With both Half Acre and Metropolitan planting roots with breweries, Josh Deth finishing up construction on Revolution Brewing and bringing on Jim Cibak as his brewer, there's no shortage of good local beers.

We like coming home to a package of beer samples on the doorstep after a long bike ride; it lets us imagine we're at the general store by Kettle Moraine after a long day on the trails.

A near-religious experience with Aventinus Wheat Doppelbock got us to thinking of other darker wheat beers that would be enjoyable for summer sipping. With that in mind, we set out for some good local options and looked no farther than Two Brothers. Local beer geeks know and love the Warrenville brewery's Ebel's Weiss, but it's available year-round. A run to your local liquor store is in order to pick up a bomber of Bonfire, Two Brothers' Dunkel weiss.

At the time of our visit to Half Acre's new Lincoln Square brewery in April we said of the limited edition Baume' Rye Stout:

The soup outside is not exactly conducive to enjoying a hoppy India Pale Ale, but this is one you might want to search out.

It just seemed fitting that we make a New Holland beer this week's selection, given all the time we spent writing about the brewery this week. We're going back to the sure thing that is their High Gravity series. Both Night Tripper and Pilgrim's Dole are previous "BotW" selections. Joining those high gravity selections today is Black Tulip. This is a sweet-malted Trippel-style ale brewed with Belgian ale yeast and beet sugar. Beet sugar is a common ingredient for brewmaster John Haggerty and it gives the yeast a little something to snack on during fermentation, creating more alcohol and giving the beer a denser consistency.

Other reviews of Aventinus Wheat Doppelbock begin with descriptions of its head that, taken out of context, could read like a recap of a very good night on the town. Descriptors like "huge", "beautiful", "long-lasting", "thick" and "persistent" abound. And they're spot-on; the photo accompanying this was taken a solid 10 minutes after decanting.

Folks have asked where to get a good lager from the Far East, given the similar taste profiles of Asahi. Sapporo and Tsingtao. Chang, a Thai lager we first encountered nearly two decades ago, might be worth a look. This is a malt-forward lager perfect for tropical climes and humid Chicago summers, where you don't want the cloying flavor of hops weighing you down. The sweetness of the malt isn't heavy, with a light citrus that's refreshing. At 5 percent ABV, this is also a great session beer. It's perfect for extended patio/rooftop excursions, grilling in the backyard and picnics.

In a week that's been very focused on beer over here on the Food and Drink side of things, it seems fitting to end the week where it began: focusing on Half Acre. From the moment the first cases of Half Acre Lager popped up on retail shelves and in bars throughout the city, one question over all others stood out: Can they succeed? Can a beer company calling Chicago home, brewing its product on contract in Wisconsin, be able to tread water until it finds both the equipment and space to start brewing within the city limits?

The word "scrumpy" sounds like a schoolyard diss: "Let's go pick on that scrumpy looking kid." A scrumpy is actually a type of farmhouse cider. The term comes from western and southern English slang for a withered apple. Some English scrumpys have a tartness and alcohol content that are among the roughest ciders we've ever encountered.

Looking toward Belgium yet again for inspiration this week. A few months back our predecessor as food and drink editor went to the Publican and Twittered about the best beer she ever had. Erin Twittered a lot about that beer, it sounded like the highlight of her dinner.

When tasting out heartier stouts and barrel aged beers, it's best to have them at a warmer temperature to really get a sense of the taste profile. One of the reasons we think people pound back Guinness, besides brand recognition and a perverse romanticizing of Irish culture, is that it's often served too cold to fully unleash the flavor of roasted barley malt that's the heart of its brewing.

A "session beer" is described as follows:

There are some of us out there who don't like the taste of champagne; its understandable. But from the moment we tasted this week's "BotW" selection, we knew that no other brew we profiled this year would even come close to being named Chicagoist's "Beer of the Year." Well, Unibroue's 2002 Queleque Chose came close. But from Brouwerij Bosteels — makers of Kwak and Tripel Karmaliet — comes this unique offering that appeals to both beer geeks and wine snobs.

Jesus: Oh, great! Just what I need: a gum resin!! What am I gonna do with a gum resin?"

Goose Island's been working a lot with rye malt recently. Their Juliet ale, brewed with rye, marionberries and aged for six months in Robert Kraig cabernet casks, has been a popular selection among those Chicagoist staffers who've tasted it (Jacy and myself). This week, we're featuring another rye-based Goose Island offering that's been flying off shelves.

We're gonna focus December's "BotW" selections on new(ish) winter selections, including the new Goose Island "Mild Winter" ale and Lost Abbey's "Gift of the Magi" in the next two weeks. today, however, we're tuning our attention to back to Magic Hat Brewing Company.

Weekend before last we were at a birthday party at Quencher's and the bar was at least four deep with customers the entire length. It was the third consecutive year that the hosts of this party set a record bar ring for the bar. Normally, we'd be sampling from Quencher's extensive beer menu, but we're getting old and wanted a drink fast. $2 cans of LaCrosse Lager was music to our ears.

    

Growing up on the Northwest side of the city meant that we looked forward to "carnival season," that period during summer when every Catholic parish transformed their parking lot into a sticky mélange of sawdust, neon lights and electric cables; horny teenagers acting like fools and skeevy laborers sizing them up like slabs of beef while blaring hair metal at full volume on questionably constructed thrill rides; games of skill offering prizes ranging from stuffed animals and toys to Def Leppard bandannas and coke mirrors; beer tents, soda syrup and vomit. One day we hope one of the local brewers will pay homage to carnival season with a line as tasty and with labeling as bright and freakish as Schmaltz's "Coney Island" line of lagers.

Our favorite new wine store, hands down, is Perman Wine Selections in the West Loop (802 W. Washington Blvd., 312-666-4417). Craig Perman (a former Sam's Wine and Spirits staffer and avid wine collector) has taken the space formerly occupied by Bennett Wine Studios, done some slight expansion for small tastings and events, and stocked the shelves with a wide variety of wines. Perman is also free with his opinions on his selections without the slightly domineering tendencies of his predecessor in the space, former Bennett Wine Studios owner Liesel Bennett.

No, that's not a joke. Contrary to popular belief, we've been known to put a mass-produced beer to our lips from time to time. One thing we'll be able to tell our grandkids about last night is that we had a Pabst Blue Ribbon in our hand when ABC's Charlie Gibson called the election for President-elect Obama. (Wow! That sounds good.)

Many pumpkin beers taste too sweet, as though the brewers are afraid to let the flavor of the autumnal gourd stand alone. Since this is the brief time of the year where all things pumpkin are in season, we found a worthy selection for "BotW" at Risqué Café, home of the deep-fried bacon and an obnoxiously overpriced beer menu.

                 

While doing a deep cleaning of the kitchen and pantry over the weekend, we bought some ceramic magnets and crazy glue at our local hardware store, then glued the magnets to some bottletops we'd saved over the years in a Chinese takeout container atop the refrigerator. When we were done we had 43 brand new bottletop refirgerator magnets.

In keeping with our stated goal of focusing the remainder of this year's "BotW" selections on breweries we've not covered, we turn our attention this week to Dark Horse Brewing Company in Marshall, Michigan. It's a 3 hour drive to Marshall from Chicago and — as with New Belgium Holland, Founder's and, naturally, Bell's — worth a day trip.

A reader mentioned last week that Hackney's South Loop location has an excellent beer selection. We think it's probably one of the more underrated beer bars in the city. Their draft selections are a creative and varied blend of some of the best European and American craft brews around. Minnesota's Surly Brewing Company is one of the latter. We've profiled their "Smoke" Baltic style porter earlier this year. While we wished we could get our hands on some 16-ounce cans, drinking Bender from the tap isn't a bad alternative.

Few things are as satisfying as an ice cold beer after a pounding bike ride. Whether it's an extremely hopped IPA after a day of riding Kettle Moraine's Emma Carlin Trail or turning a scenic tour of Chicago's boulevards into a sprint, the two go hand-in-hand.