Chicago's Brewing History fading away, but...

Check out this great piece over at Forgotten Chicago on our city's brewing history, but also on the very few remnants that remain.

You can also join Josh Deth (Chairman of the Revolution Party) and others at Forgotten Chicago's Save the Brand Brewery event on November 21st.

Belgian Beer Tasting at Monk's Pub

Tonight, 5-7 PM. Monk's Pub on Lake St, just west of Wells.

The initial list of available beers:

Lefebvre Hopus - 8.5% ABV Belgian IPA. I've enjoyed everything I've had from Lefebvre so far, and definitely look for their Barbar Winter Ale in the coming months (last seen, The Long Room).

Malheur - unclear which Malheur brew Monk's is serving. Great little write up about the brewery here (from the beer guru himself, R.I.P., Michael Jackson).

The two Timmermans offerings below are pretty typical fruit lambics, with the added bonus that if you like the framboise, you can actually sometimes find it in cans. Cans, the future y'all.

Timmermans Framboise Lambic

Timmermans Strawberry

Plenty of surprises as well!

AlphaBeer V!

Who: The Local Tourist
What: AlphaBeer V, A-Z beer tasting, 26 samples of some of the best beer available
When: June 25, 2011 - 6:00pm

Where:Cactus Bar and Grill

$40 in advance, $50 at the door.
Bring 5 friends for a Table of 6 ($200), and you go free!

Here's a repost of the A-Z list.

• Allagash White
• Bell's Two Hearted
• Cerise (Founder's)
• Dark Horse Amber
• Ebulum Black
• Fat Tire (New Belgium)
• Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold
• Half Acre Daisy Cutter
• Iron Horse Efes Pilsner
• Jever Pils
• Krusovice Ceme Dark
• Lagunitas IPA
• Metropolitan Krankshaft
• Newcastle
• O'Fallon Hemp Hop Rye
• Paulaner Hefeweizen
• Quelque Chose
• Rogue Dead Guy Ale
• Southern Tier HopSun
• Two Brothers Domain Dupaige
• Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
• Victory Moonglow
• Weihenstephaner Hefe Weizen
• XX Lager
• Young's Double Chocolate Stout
• Zephyr (Lagunitas)

The Brewmaster leading this alphabetical tour de beer is Christopher Tourre. Here's what AlphaBeer posted:

Christopher Tourre is an artist, educator, self-proclaimed "social aggregator", and of course, beer lover and brewer. Born and raised in the countryside of Western Pennsylvania, Tourre earned a BFA in Sculpture from the Pennsylvania State University in 2005 and an MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2009. Tourre's art projects have engaged communities from raising chickens in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen to building furniture with torn down houses at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago). In 2010, Tourre began a new project titled Public Brewery. The project's goal was to entwine communities, stories, personal narratives, and education through the creation and distribution of beer and soda-making. After brewing great beers for (and with) the public for over a year, Tourre decided he wanted to take the spirit of the project into the craft beer industry. In 2011, Tourre founded Arcade Brewery with friend and director of Threadless.com, Lance Curran. The two are dedicated to make Arcade Brewery fun, and sincerely socially engaging. Arcade Brewery plans to be operational in the fall of 2012.

Finch's Beer Project:"Big Shoulders" Collaborative Beer

Finch's announced yesterday an upcoming collaboration brew that takes collaboration to the collective level. Currently called "Big Shoulders" in honor of one of Chicago's many nicknames, this beer shall be born out of the entire collective of Chicago craft beer. Each brewery participating is going to at least add a hop addition (so I'm thinking this is going to be some kind of Imperial IPA or barleywine). Participating so far, as of the announcement yesterday:

Lunar Brewing
Metropolitan Brewing
Goose Island Clybourn/Goose Island Fulton Production
Two Brothers Brewing Company
Emmets
Limestone Brewing
Haymarket Pub & Brewery
RAM
Finch's Beer Company

Half Acre Update

Some new beers and events from the folks at Half Acre.

Half Acre is taking over a Filipino BYOB joint on Lawrence Ave called Isla Pilipina. $35 dollars for a 6 course meal starting at 7pm. Registration is on the front page of the Isla Pilipina website. Do it.

Half Acre's latest collaboration, Small Animal Big Machine, comes out 6/10. This is their collaboration with De Struise and Chicago's own Pipeworks. Very limited amount of this three way collaboration, and very few growler pours. This is belgian yeast, a lot of fruit (cherries and currants), and a sour mash.

And finally, and highly recommended, is Half Acre's City Provisions Farm Dinner, at Dietzler Farms on Saturday, June 25th. Koval Distillery cocktail hour, followed by a meal of Half Acre beers paired with food fresh from the farm. $225 gets you on the bus with some drinks and snacks, and pays for everything for the evening, from the rather large pairing meal, the cocktail hour, the transportation back into the city, etc. Limited spots left.

Chicago Craft Beer Week & Iliana Mayfest

Chicago Craft Beer Week starts next week, and starting later today, I'll post some even highlights.

Here's the link to the website: http://www.chibeerweek.com/

And if you're not in Chicago, but you're in Illinois or Indiana, check out Iliana Mayfest, an Indiana and Illinois craft beer festival on May 21st, hosted by Crown Brewing company. http://www.illianamayfest.com/

Crown Brewing makes some great beer, and Barley Island, one of my favorite lesser known Indiana breweries, is also attending.

Celebrity Chef Restaurants + Lagunitas Brewing + Celebrity Tattooist = Lagunitas Zephyr

Lagunitas brewing teamed up with Big Star and The Publican of Chicago for their first ever restaurant collaboration.

Inspired by pre-prohibition lagers, which were made with corn, 200 kegs of Zephyr will hopefully appear at Big Star, Publican, and other Chicago-area restaurants (obviously, anything Paul Kahan touched in the past).

Tattooist Hannah Aitchison is doing the art, presumably for the tap handle.

June 6th is set for the debut of this beer.

New Belgium Sour Beer Tasting at Sheffield's

Who: New Belgium Brewing
When: Friday, November 5th, 7pm
Where: Sheffield's

Beers on draft La Folie, Fall Wild Ale, Trans Atlantic Kriek, Eric’s Ale, Belgo IPA and Ranger.

$10 in advance, $14 at the door.

Smuttynose Brewing comes to Chicagoland

Celebrate the inaugaural month of Smuttynose Brewing Company entering the Chicago market at Sheffield's in Lakeview. At least initially, the Portsmouth, New Hampshire brewery will be offering Chicagoland it's year-round beers. Fingers crossed this eventually expands to include their seasonal and Big Beer series.



Shoals Pale Ale
Old Brown Dog Ale
Finestkind IPA
Big A IPA
Star Island Single
Robust Porter

Expect some OMG Beer! reviews over the next month or two as we get our hands on these East Coast-based beers.

Beer and Sausage

As any OMG Beer! reader knows, beer and sausage go together quite well. Our tasting last March paired five beers and five sausages. The owners of a few Chicago restaurants/bars have combined their mighty food and beer powers to bring Chicago Bangers & Lace, Wicker Park's new home for craft beer and craft sausage. Over 30 beers on tap, 70+ in the bottle, and a Ciccerone-certified beer sommelier in Ria Neri. Expect about a dozen sausages to pair with their beer menu. OMG Beer! will post a break down of potential pairings just as soon as we get inside. Now, we just need to convince them to let us brew on the rumored small-scale homebrewing system. Tonight's the opening night for Bangers & Lace, so get yourself a sausage and some beer to complete your Tuesday night.

Chicago Beer News - Surly Brewing Company

Sad news, Chicago beer drinkers. Surly is withdrawing from the Chicago beer market and all other markets, besides the Twin Cities. Todd Haug, Surly brewer, cited the need to meet accounts locally, while a brewery expansion takes Surly to a new level (they're the fastest growing brewery in the US, and if you've had Surly beer, you know why).

Check out the story at Chicagoist.

OMG Beer! bids you adieu Surly, and wishes for your swift return.