Get This Allium/Begyle Brewing Collaborative Brew While You Can

By Chuck Sudo in Food on Oct 26, 2012 7:35PM

Chicago chefs have long been hip to the quality brews being produced by the area’s growing craft beer community and the number of collaborative beers between chefs and breweries has exploded in recent years. So it takes a good recipe, if not a name chef, to have a collaborative beer stand out among the throng these days.

Which is why we implore you to head to the Four Seasons Hotel and sample some of Allium’s Beta Beer while it’s around. This is chef Kevin Hickey’s second collaborative beer and the first one he’s brewed with Begyle Brewing, the North Center-based “community supported brewery” that will open soon. Beta Beer is a Belgian-style ale brewed with sugar beets from Nichols Farm, Saigon Cinnamon and Bangladesh Bay Leaves. Hickey said he used roughly 15 pounds of sugar beets in the mix, which lends an extra sweetness to the beer’s flavor profile, while the cinnamon and bay leaves add a unique spice complement to the bubblegum esters from the ale yeast.

Hickey and the folks from Begyle intended this beer to only last as long as the autumn season, but at the premiere party we attended the taps were constantly flowing. Get your hands on this beer while you can.

Allium is located at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, 120 E. Delaware Pl.