Leading into next week's "Reader's Choice" selections, we figured we'd stick local. You'll remember that last month Flossmoor Station Brewpub launched a bottled beer program. One of the three selections they bottled also happens to be a longtime favorite of ours whenever we take the Metra Electric down that way. For folks who think brown ales start and stop with Newcastle you are in for a treat with Flossmoor's Pullman Brown Ale. This monster ale......

After a full day in trade show hell, we needed a beer to the point that we might have accepted a Budweiser if it was presented to us. Lucky for us we moseyed past the Food and Wine of Australia booth before it came to that. The Australian-based Coopers Brewery is noted for making simple, clean beers, and home brew kits. We've actually experimented with their malt and yeast extracts in the past and came......

Beer is made from four ingredients: water, malt, yeast and hops. It's the hops that provides bite and spice to the mix. Hops also help preserve beer, making it last longer. Back in the days when the sun never set on the British Empire, brewers working in India would add extra hops to their English bitter in order to survive the trip home around the south African Cape Horn and ensure its drinkability when it......

We had our gripes about DarkLord Day, to be certain. But there were some good things about heading down to Munster and waiting for four hours in line with nothing to show for it except a farmer tan. For beer lovers it means getting to hang around with your own for a day, sampling from folks' private collections. At times, the combination of beer and the crowd made DarkLord Day resemble "Heavy Metal Parking......

Sometimes we come across a beer that not only puts hair on our chest, it removes said curlicues. Such is the case with this week's "BotW" selection. Night Tripper is the latest entry to New Holland Brewing's "high gravity" series, and it is a monster. This imperial stout is one viscous mother, with the carbonation forcing its way to the surface (head: nonexistent). It teems with the flavor of roasted barley malt and dark......

A couple weeks back we had the opportunity to sit down for a few beers with Jon Cadoux, founder of Peak Organic Brewing Company in Portland, Maine, at the Streeterville Elephant & Castle. Like many craft breweries, Peak evolved from both Cadoux's home-brewing hobby and commitment to organic and sustainable agriculture. He was in town making the rounds, help his distributor place his beers into some new accounts. He was pretty successful: in addition......