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Chicagoist's Beers of the Weekend: Chicago Craft Beer Week Edition

By Karl Klockars in Food on May 20, 2011 6:30PM

2011_05_20chibeerweeklogo.jpg Last night's "Beer Under Glass" event kicked off Chicago Craft Beer Week, and rather than point out one lonely little beer today, we thought we'd highlight some of the brews we're most excited about stumbling into over the next few days. There's a lot of events, both official and unofficial, and plenty to keep track of, so here's a short list of some of the brews we want to get in us.


Two Brothers Askew:
We weren't thrilled with the first DosBros sour we tried (last year's Moaten) but the Askew still has us interested. On draft at Owen and Engine as of last night, Askew is part of their Project Opus series and has taken 3 years to get to us, so we really want it to be worth the wait. It's worth a shot regardless.

3 Floyds / Half Acre Collaboration Night at Maria's: Here's a list (according to their Facebook page) of what will be on draft tonight down at Maria's Packaged Goods and Community Bar: Dogfish Head Hellhound On My Ale, Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine, Half Acre Brandy Barrel Aged Ambrosia, Three Floyds BlackHeart English IPA, Three Floyds Owd Engwish Barleywine, Three Floyds Evil Power Pils. 'Nuff Said.

Goose Island Marisol: This GI beer brewed in collaboration with Rick Bayless comes with the flavors of tangerine zest, coriander and ugli fruit. WTF is ugli fruit? We answered that when Marisol was a BotW last year.
Lillie's Q has a short pour on draft for $6. No, it's not super-new, but it previously was only on at Frontera and will soon be more widely available shortly, so grab it before it goes supernova.

Half Acre Gossamer on Firkin: Small Bar Fullerton hosts "Local Beer Night" on Saturday, featuring the aforementioned Askew on draft as well as Half Acre's "Meat Wave" English IPA, but do yourself a favor and queue up for the cask selections. Cane and Ebel is a great cask beer and the firkin of Gossamer should really let that nice Half Acre hoppiness shine.

Metropolitan Brewing Black Pepper Iron Works: Remember a few weeks back how we really dug the new Metro Iron Works Alt? Well, they'll be putting a version of that infused with black peppercorns on at In Fine Sprits in Andersonville. It goes on tap tonight, so be there before it disappears. (That caveat applies to every other beer in the city this week.) We're also psyched about the bitter orange and coriander Krankshaft that'll be on at Blokes and Birds next week as well.

Haymarket's Michigan Beer Day is on Sunday as well, but since we don't have a tap list for it we can't recommend anything specifically. But we feel safe in saying that if they have anything on draft from Shorts, get as much of it as you can. Since they don't normally distribute in Chicago, don't hold your breath, tho. (Jolly Pumpkin, Arcadia, North Peak and so on would be lovely too, Haymarket.)

The CCBW events continue throughout the week, but we think these events should have your liver working overtime through Monday. We'll keep you posted as to some of the other events we'll be hitting up throughout next week as well.