Solidarity! Celebrating Craft Beer in Chicago. Tomorrow, March 31st, 1pm.

Stone Brewing Company, one of the nation's largest, most popular, and arguably tastiest craft breweries made their entry into the Chicago market, officially, two years ago this weekend! Joyous quafting of their delicious beers happened everywhere. A bacchanalia of Stone beer hit the city between the eyes and in the liver. Celebrating that two year anniversary, Stone invited some other heavyweights, a couple local, to join them in pouring beers this weekend.

1pm, Timothy O'Tooles. Downtown Chicago AND Gurnee locations.

Joining Stone with rare beers and the usual selections:
Two Brothers Brewing Company
Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales
Three Floyds Brewing
Great Lakes Brewing Company
New Belgium Brewing Company

New Belgium - Two new Lips of Faith beers

Two new beers on the scene from New Belgium, makers of the ubiquitous Fat Tire.

Dunkelweiss - an imperial, lips of faith version of the classic dark german wheat, cloves, bananas, and chocolate notes, 9.0%ABV, in 22 oz bombers

Le Terroir - an Amarillo dry-hopped sour ale, 7.5% ABV, in 22 oz bombers

Vrienden - Fountainhead and The Hopleaf

Vrienden means "friend" and Fountainhead and The Hopleaf have teamed up with the makers of Vrienden, New Belgium and Allagash, to do two collaborative dinners. Fountainhead's "Earth" dinner takes inspiration from New Belgium, while The Hopleaf's "Sea" dinner takes inspiration from Allagash. Presumably though, there might be beer from each brewery used each night?

Wednesday, February 9th - "Earth" dinner at Fountainhead, $75, 6 courses
Thursday, February 10th - "Sea" dinner at The Hopleaf, $75, 6 courses

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.

Some Midwest Seasonal Releases

Leinenkugel's Fireside Nut Brown - 4.9% ABV, 15 IBUs. A sweet-leaning, easily sessionable brown ale with hazelnut flavor added. One of the better offerings from Leinenkugel's in our humble opinion. A lot of the color comes from the use of red wheat, which isn't the typical way to make a brown ale as far as OMG Beer! understands the style, so I expect something a little lighter than your usual brown ale, and with the focus more on the hazelnut, and less on the earthier nutty flavors you find in nut browns.

New Belgium 2° Below - 6.6% ABV, 32 IBUs. Probably best classified as a winter warmer. Still a sweet beer, there's a touch of balance from the hops, and definitely a nice spicy pepper and floral nose from the hop usage. Under that nose, expect a slightly nutty, caramel and bread flavor.

New Belgium Frambozen - 6.5% ABV, 15.5 IBUs. A sweet raspberry brown ale. Most of the color is from the raspberries, and the beer looks just as much red as it ever does brown, in any light. The malt and yeast used do add a fruitiness sometimes found in brown ales, which here compliments the use of raspberries.

Boulevard Seeyoulater Doppelbock - 8.5% ABV, 35 IBUs. A sweet german lager, brewed extra strong. Boulevard's spin on this beer is more banana in aroma and flavor than most doppelbocks (think dunkelweizen aroma perhaps). Cedar aging lends some spiciness according to the Boulevard website. Might come off as a bit boozy, and definitely is a rich and powerful beer for the fireside drinker. Don't sit too close, no one wants to catch on fire taking a beer-induced cat nap.

Summit Imperial Pumpkin Porter - 7.5% ABV, 40 IBUs. Dark and chocolately, full bodied, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Well spiced with a hint of pumpkin. Quite a nice list of ingredients on the Summit website for those homebrewers wishing to take a shot at making their own pumpkin porter at home (take it easy on those spices though, or you'll wish you'd just bought this beer).

New Belgium Lips of Faith Sahti

New Belgium's latest Lips of Faith series brew, Sahti, hits the shelves and kegs on October 1st. Inspired by Finnish Sahti, a traditional Finnish brew, Sahti is a rye ale brewed with juniper berries. To the pale, crystal (think bready caramel malt flavor), and rye malts, New Belgium added whole oats, cascade and amarillo hops (think grapefruit and other citrus), juniper berries, orange and lemon peel. Quite a complex medium-bodied ale to sip on a nice fall day, at 6.0% ABV.

The Quest for Beervana, 2010, #1: Two Sour Ales, Two IPAs at the Map Room in Chicago

The Map Room offers over 200 of the world’s finest beers, approximately 30+ on tap, representing about 30+ styles of beer (perhaps OMG needs to start the 30/30 club). The quote of the night, delivered at OMG Headquarters during the hazy morning hours: “There’s no such thing as a person that doesn’t like beer, just people who’ve yet to find the right beer.” Sometimes, even in the dead of winter and with snow on the way, a touch of sour, funky fruity beer transports you to a different place, maybe a field of strawberries in Flanders, or a monastery cellar.

Bocker Cuvee des Jacobins (Brouwerij Bocker, 5.5% Flanders Red) - won the sour battle for the night, with plenty of complexity underneath its sour aroma and bite

Hanssens Oudbeitjie Lambic (Hannsens Artisanaal, 6% Lambic)– initially interesting, the funkiness eventually overpowered and the strawberries remained too subtle and overwhelmed. Not usually one to say this, but a slightly sweeter malt bill would have helped too.

IPAs don’t go out of season, and here at OMG, we’re getting ready to brew our spring IPA. For ideas, we sampled two arguably west coast interpretations.

Port Wipeout IPA (Port Brewing, 7% American IPA) - a hoppy west coast IPA from the San Diego area. Bitter grapefruit and pine flavors. A touch of malt holds the beer together, but this beer is about hops. Fantastic.

New Belgium Ranger IPA (New Belgium Brewing, 6.5% American IPA) - though arguably still a west coast IPA, there's more malt here, for a slightly more balanced flavor compared to the Wipeout. A touch darker as well, almost reddish. One of the few American styles offered by New Belgium, but a fantastic addition to their lineup.

New Belgium Mighty Arrow Pale Ale

Very clear orange-gold beer with a thin white head and nice lacing. The aroma is a mix of citrus and bread, and the first sip is grapefruit and toasted bread, a hint of caramel. Bitterness is well-balanced against the bread and caramel, which according to New Belgium comes from honey malt. The carbonation level reminds me of soda and your mouth is left feeling refreshed, but also dry. This isn't an overwhelming beer, very drinkable, and at 6% alcohol, suprisingly light and not overly sweet. Budweiser wishes their American Ale tasted like this. Definitely check out the Mighty Arrow Pale Ale page for some food pairing ideas.