Gulf Coast Trip 2012

Gulf Coast Trip 2012

The Chicago Beer Belly headed down south for a few days in the middle of November. Breweries visited were: Abita, Lazy Magnolia, and Pensacola Bay. Also attended the first ever craft beer festival at Wahoo Stadium in Pensacola.

After arriving in Gulfport, MS, went to Hog Heaven in Biloxi for some barbecue. Their pulled pork sandwich was pretty darn good but not quite as tasty as the pulled pork sandwich I had this summer in Indianapolis from Dick's Bodacious BBQ.

Next day it was off to Abita Brewery in Abita Springs, LA. Arrived there right as the tour was about to start. Belly up to the bar and go pour yourself a beer, well heck this tour is getting off to a great start, cheers. I've visited Abita once before a few years back and they have some great beers and a pretty good tour. After they showed a couple of videos it was time to head into the brewery. They show you the brew kettles and mash tun and then it is off to the fermentation tanks. Wished they would of shown us the bottling and kegging line on the tour but after the fermenters it was out back to the bar area and pour yourself a beer. My last sample I did one of their suggested mixes, Turbodog with Amber. They call it a Hound Dog, Elvis has left the building.

Got back on the road and headed back towards Mississippi in order to get to Lazy Magnolia Brewery and do their tour. I guess back in July they changed the laws in Mississippi and now they allow you to sample some of their beers on their tour. I've also been to Lazy Magnolia in the past like Abita. They give you 6 samples throughout their tour. Finding the place in the first place can be a bit of an adventure and now that they are growing in popularity they might want to invest in a bigger sign. Along with the change in the law, they can now brew beers that are as much as 10% ABV and  thus Timber Beast was born. It is the first beer brewed in the state that has a high ABV and it was actually pretty darn delicious. Was one of my faves along with Southern Pecan that I have had before. Nice to see the south slowly catching on to the craft beer movement.

On the road again, this time go east young man not west. After a quick visit to the National Navy Aviation Museum it was time for some beer at Pensacola Bay Brewery. I had thought the tour started earlier than what it did otherwise could of checked into the hotel first. Never the less, sat around Pensacola Bay Brewery sipping on their Pumpkin Vanilla Porter. I love pumpkin beers but don't like pumpkin pie go figure. I really didn't taste the vanilla or pumpkin in the beer so maybe next time they brew this they may want to bump up the spices a little more. The place sure was a busy little location with people coming in to get their growlers filled. Speaking of which, while on the tour I learned that the growlers they sell are 128 ounces or 32 ounces. Typical growler size is 64 ounces but due to the law there they can't sell or bottle anything between 32 and 128 ounces. Heck, if you come in with two 64 ounce growlers they won't fill them. Was a pretty small brewery, they have only been in operation for two years and looks like they could do some more expanding to quench the locals thirst for craft beer.

Next day was the first ever Craft Beer Festival at the baseball park where the Blue Wahoo's play. Outside a Mopar car show was going on as well and that was nice, got to see the car from Stephen King's Christine movie. Was hoping to see more older cars but pretty much was mainly newer vehicles. Bring on the beer now, wait what's this a plastic sampling glass, come on get some glassware instead. Sampled a lot of different beers there that are not available here in the Chicago area. My favorite by far was Sweetwater Brewing Company from Georgia. Love their 420 Extra Pale Ale but my favorite of theirs is the LowRYEder. I love red and rye beers and this one was pretty darn good, not too bitter, just right.

After dropping my friend off in Mississippi, I was headed back home. On the way home I stopped off at Railyard Brewing Company in Montgomery, AL. Oh my the bison burger I had there was yummy for my tummy. It was so good. Because I still had a long ways to drive, I was stopping in Atlanta to see a buddy of mine, I did not sample any of their beers. But if I'm ever down there again I'll be sure and try their beers.

Well, got to Atlanta and found out Sweetwater only has tours in the last half of the week and not on Sundays or Mondays, rats. So instead, I went to Max Lager's Wood Fired Grill and Brewery. Had myself a Alernate Ryeality, well this rye beer just wasn't quite as good as Sweetwaters but I still drank it anyways.

Made sure I stopped off at a 'package' store to bring back some beers that are not available in this area. Was a very good trip and am now planning on where my next road trip will take me to.

Cheers :)

International Stout Day

Time to join the dark side... and celebrate all things stout. So grab a pint of Guinness and celebrate the nectar of the Gods.

Stout beer is a dark beer that is brewed using roasted malt or roasted barley and were the strongest beers produced by a brewery at 7 to 9 percent ABV. Course nowadays in the craft beer market we have seen beers that have upwards to 25%ABV.

The best known stout in the world is Guinness and is a very good example of an Irish or Dry Stout, which is dark in color and has hints of coffee flavors to it. In today's craft bee market there are many variations of stouts. Besides the aforementioned Irish/Dry stout, there also is Imperial Stout or what some refer to as Russian Imperial Stout. Oatmeal stout is a dark stout in which oats are added to the mix. Chocolate stouts refer to stouts that are dark in color and tend to have a chocolatey taste to them. Coffee stouts as the name suggests refers to stouts that are quite bitter and taste like coffee. Oysters have been associated with stouts so there also are Oyster stouts that are brewed. Plus there is Milk Stouts that contain lactose that adds some sweetness to the stout. A good example of this is New Holland's Dragons Milk Stout which is very good. And last but not least, porters are also referred to as stouts. Personally, I think porters are a separate style of beer from stouts.

So sit back and relax and sip on a pint of stout. Cheers :)

Micro Brew and Food Review 2012

Micro Brew and Food Review 2012

The 5th annual Micro Brew and Food Review was held once again in downtown Oak Park, IL. And was the first time that the Chicago Beer Belly was able to attend. They bill this festival as a zero waste festival and they had all the garbage cans covered and instead had separate containers to collect trash and recyclables. The festival was right at the train tracks so there was no need for anyone to drive there. You should of either taken the Metra train or the green line.

The guys from 5 Rabbit were like man you are here at every festival and I'm like well I try and get to as many as I can cause I am the Chicago Beer Belly and I love craft beer. It's too bad that they wound up running out of beer though. Their 5 Lizard wit style beer with the passion fruit in it is so good. I can't even find it at Binny's. It's one of the best fruity beers that I've had. Their 5 Grass is very good too.

I can't tell you how the Peanut Butter Porter from Hamburger Mary's was cause they ran out of beer. Oh here is an amber, no I didn't wait in line for your amber, I want my peanut butter. No wonder why they ran out of beer, they only brought a 5 gallon soda keg of it with them. It's a beer festival, do some better planning and bring more beer with you next time.

I'm not so sure I will go to this festival again in years to come, sure there's a good variety of craft brews to sample but then what's the point if they are going to run out of the beer before the festival ends. Your there to drink the beer, right?

One more thing, the display that Metropolitan Brewing had there was so cool. They had like a couple of robots and the tap handles were on their hands. Danger, Will Robinson, that's some good craft beer.

Cheers :)

Great Taste of the Midwest 2012

The Great Taste of the Midwest 2012

Well, the Chicago Beer Belly finally made it out to Madison, WI for the Great Taste of the Midwest. The Great Taste is one of the longest running beer festivals in the country. It has gotten extremely popular amongst the beer nerds over the past several years.

With its popularity on the rise, one would think that they would add another day to the festival or at least have two different tasting sessions the day of. Though some of the bars in the area so have special events taking place the night before the festival so I guess that makes up for it. Another thing they need to do though is get with the times and sell their tickets online. There are so many choices these days for selling tickets online via either Paypal, eTix, Brown Paper Bag, Universal Ticketing etc So, I don't understand why they sell them via a mail in lottery system. I would think it would be much more easier to sell them online. I obtained my ticket from a scalper cause some guy on Beer Advocate forums that was going to sell me his extra ticket never got back to me after we had a deal worked out.

The cheeseheads do know how to throw a party, people were all camped out waiting in line to get in. There was thousands of them there. I managed to get up towards the front so by the time they started letting people in, I was able to have a few samples of beer before the masses arrived. By far, New Holland Brewing Company had the best display with their zombies theme. The Superman capes that Bells Brewery had were cool too.

There was so many beers there for you to sample, around 500 different beers from 150 breweries. I bypassed most of the timed releases and heck I didn't even use the program guide or the app on my phone to choose which ones to sample. I just went around the 5 big tents they had set up and if something sounded good then I'd go and get a sample. I think I had the most samples that I drank from Lakefront Brewing Company. They have become one of my favorites. I really liked their Pumpkin Lager and the smoked pumpkin as well. Both were well spiced, lots of pumpkin taste to them as well. The Pahoehoe from Two Brothers Brewery was good too and I don't even like coconuts. They would take a coconut and then pour a little bit of the coconut milk into the beer sample.

So many beers were sampled since it was unlimited sampling and plus since I wound up paying extra due to buying my ticket from a scalper, I wanted to make sure I got my moneys worth. Some of the other beers there that I really liked included beers from Surly, Bells, New Albanian, Half Acre, and Revolution. Was well worth it and for sure I would go back to this festival.

Cheers :)

Wheaton Ale Fest 2012

Wheaton Ale Fest 2012

Well, this years festival was considerably better than last years fest. They had a bigger location, nice shaded park instead of on a street in downtown Wheaton. They had the cure for what ales me, my thirst for craft brew.

It was a really hot summer day so the shaded park definitely was needed to be able to take a break from the hot sun and drink some good craft beer. There was some good food there as well. Steakwich food truck was there again and their ribeye steakwich was just as good as having a steak sandwich at Pat's, the King of Steaks, out in south Philly.

We are all here for the beer though so lets sample some. First one that I came upon after entering the festival grounds was one of my favorites, Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale from Kentucky Ales. By far the best beer ever that's been aged in oak bourbon barrels. If you love bourbon and craft beer then seek this beer out, you won't be disappointed.

There's a revolution calling you to drink your local craft brew. Speaking of which, Bottom Up wit from Revolution Brewing Company was just the kind of beer to drink on this hot summer day. It was way too hot to be sampling stouts or porters or some of the darker beers, that's more for fall and winter time. It was light, and refreshing and went down easy and but I was thirsty for some more so I had a 5 Lizard from 5 Rabbit. They are an Mexican craft brewery from Chicago. Their 5 Lizard is a wit style beer and it was so good. You could smell and taste the passion fruit that they used in this beer. It was so good that I just had to have another but they ran out of it unfortunately. Another beer that I really liked from the festival was the Pumpkin Smasher from Big Muddy Brewing. There was a long line to get a sample but I bypassed the line by buying some merchandise from them and they were so kind enough to pour me a sample of it.

Overall, the festival was way better than last years, last year I swear half the beer vendors were out of beer before the festival ended. I did hear though that they ended the festival an hour early this year due to a severe thunderstorm that came through the area. Oh and one more thing, leave your babies at home, what is up with people bring their babies to a beer festival anyways? They shouldn't be there, get a babysitter.

Cheers :)

Hitting Rock Bottom

Hitting Rock Bottom

I hit up the Rock Bottom in Lombard, IL for a visit before going to the movies to see Ted. But we wound up just staying there and didn't even get to the movies lol.

Was my first time ever at this location, I've been to the one in Indianapolis which is nice and the one in downtown Chicago which sucked in my opinion. But the Lombard location is very good. The bartender was quite knowledgeable in all the beers they had to offer and also gave us some samples to try as well.

The Nanner Fluffer hefeweizen was a big hit with everyone and casue of it having been so damn hot that day it went down quite well. You could definitely smell the banana cloves and it was quite refreshing. Another one that we all enjoyed was a smoked kolsch. It smelled just like bacon and would of gone well with some steak and eggs. They had one beer there that they used like 60 pounds of raisins in it and it was quite strong in ABV due to all the fermentable sugars in it so we just had a sample of it and stuck with pints of the hefeweizen. To go along with the beer we had the giant Bavarian pretzels and the mustard sauce that went along with it was so damn tasty.

I would recommend this location in the western suburbs of Chicago over the downtown location. The staff was much more friendlier and had better service here. So if you ever in the area go check them out.

Cheers!!!!!!!!!!

Summerfest

Summerfest in Milwaukee!!!

Okay, first off they need to go back to math class cause this year was not their 45th anniversary if it started in 1968, it would only be the 44th. So, learn how to count cheeseheads lol.

This was the first time that I had been to the Summerfest and it was a pretty good time. They advertise it as being like the largest music festival but I really didn't see many bands play because with there being 11 different stages and being on a huge festival ground there's no way to see a lot of bands play. The few that I saw were Bush and Hailstorm. Both were playing at the same time so I was unable to listen to their complete sets.

Was way cool to get on a Harley and ride one. Well, actually really didn't ride it, just sat on it and went through all the gear changes lol. I now know why they wear leather pants when riding cause I burnt my leg when I first hopped on.

Now on to the beer that was available for purchase there. Well, with it being Milwaukee they of course had that triple hopped water for sale. Darn straight I did not have any of that. I did have some Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat which wasn't too bad. And the hefeweizen from Water Street was pretty damn good. However, the best beer they had there was from one of my favorite breweries, Lakefront. Not really sure why they call themselves Lakefront when they are actually located on a river. Anyways, their Fixed Gear and Wisconsinite were pretty damn good. One being a wheat beer that was light and refreshing and the other being a nice red ale.

Cheers!!!!!!

Chicago Craft Beer Festival

Wow, the skies were pitched black as we left to go into the city to the Chicago Craft Beer festival at St. Michael Parish in Old Town section of Chicago. But then the heavens opened up and as we got to the church it was blue skies and a perfect day for a festival.

No, we did not attend mass before partaking in the sampling of some fine craft brews. They had some good food there as well but we were there for the beer, cheers. The beer gods were upon us since the threat of rain and showers had passed over us.

There was a pretty decent selection of craft beers to choose from. Among those that were there was Finch's, Half Acre, Two Brothers, Lakefront, Lagunitas, Flying Dog, Chicago Beer Company, Stone, Ommegang, etc.

Most of the beers that I had sampled I liked but then there was one from some brewery from Missouri that was so awful I had to spit it out hahah. Ah and they had one of my new favorites, Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale there and since my brother didn't like it I was able to have his sample as well so double the pleasure. The Howling Wolf unfiltered wheat was another excellent beer there that I enjoyed quite a bit.

Good food, great beer, some god music, and a beautiful day. Alternative Theory was the only band that we saw perform but that's okay cause we were mainly there for beer. It was a fun day and you just should of been there.

Cheers!!!!!!!!

Brew Ha Ha in Indy

The day after the Louisville Brewfest, I worked my way back north towards home and stopped in Indianapolis for the Brew Ha Ha. And now I know why they call it that because I saw a Budweiser tent there. I mean come on now, you are at a craft beer festival and you want to stand in line just to drink Bud Light when you could have some good craft beer from New Albanian, Sun King, Upland, etc. hell even Samuel Adams is better than Bud, hahhahahahah.

Wow, I could not believe that it was just a $5 cab ride from my hotel to the beer festival. I was expecting to pay at least $20 but hell I wasn't going to complain hahahh. And as soon as I arrived, there was my friend, Officer Friendly, so see it pays to take a cab or have someone else do the driving when you go to beer festivals.

The Brew Ha Ha was on a street outside a theater that they were raising money to help renovate it.  There were long lines just like the night before in Louisville but not quite as long. As I made my way through the crowd though it looked like just the middle was where the long lines were. I was thirsty so I just went to the shortest line that I could find. I sampled beers from Sun King, New Albanian, Upland, Bells, Finch's, Triton, Shipyard, Bloomington Brewing Company, Flat 12, Crown Brewing, and Oaken Barrel. Oh and yes Kentucky Ales was there so you better believe it, I had to have their Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale.

The pulled pork sandwich from Dicks Bodacious BBQ was so damn good that I had two of them hahhaha. They serve it with the sauce on the side so you had your choice of sauces. It was so yummy and delicious. If you ever find yourself in Indy go to their restaurant and have some good BBQ.

Was a beautiful day of unlimited sampling of some craft brews and not that Budweiser crap hahah, some good food and they had some good music as well. Definitely a festival worthy to attend if you ever find your way at the crossroads of America.

Cheers!!!!!!!

Keep Louisville weird

Keep Louisville weird!!!

So, I went to the Louisville Brew Fest again this past June. After last year of having warm beer my first time ya think I wouldn't of gone back but I did. Gotta love it that they give you full size pints for being a VIP. Sure do need it too cause of the long lines they have there your standard two ounce sample size just wouldn't cut it.

This years festival was way bigger than last year. They had it in downtown at Slugger Field so it was just a short little walk over to the ballpark from my hotel. No need for Orange Taxi Company this year since the fest was so close to where I was staying but if you do ever need a cab in Louisville, The Chicago Beer Belly highly recommends using Orange Taxi. Cause you know if you drink then don't go driving or you will be up shits creek without a paddle.

I reckon they had over 6000 people attend this years festival.  But please do everyone a favor and leave your babies at home with a babysitter. It's a beer festival so no children or for that matter, babies should be allowed entry. So, next time don't bring them.

They pretty much had the same breweries there that they had last year, BBC, Upland, New Albanian etc. I know they like to think local and get people to buy local but it would be nice if they could get some other craft brewers from around the region to participate.

The best beer that I had there was by far the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale from Kentucky Ales. It is so nice to know that they are now making their way to my neck of the woods and its available here in Chicago. Goose Island may have been the first ones that started doing the aging of beers in oak barrels but this here beer puts Goose's Bourbon County Stout to shame. It's simply that good. You get a kaleidoscope of flavors in your mouth in every sip. The mix of bourbon and beer is a perfect combination. You must try this beer.

Some others that I had sampled that I really enjoyed as well were the Moonbow Wit from Cumberland Brewery, the hefeweizen from BBC, Black and Bluegrass from New Albanian Brewing Company and Upland Wheat. Speaking of the hefeweizen from BBC, even though I liked it I don't know if I will drink it anymore if I'm in Louisville again. reason being is the guy pouring my beer was rude, didn't even fill up my pint glass all the way either. I don't know if the guy worked for them or was a volunteer.

As for the food they had there, the BBQ brisket was damn good. Plus they had the shortest line too so that was a plus in my opinion. Cause less time standing in the food line leaves you with more time for standing in the beer line to quench your thirst for some craft brews.

Overall, it was a better experience than last years festival. I think they should set a limit though on the number of people they admit in the festival. Was a better location too but if they have that many people then they better get a bigger facility for next years fest. So, I wouldn't give them a grand slam but they came close to it. Cheers!!!!!!

The Land of Cheese and Beer

Welcome to the land of cheese and beer aka Wisconsin. Took a trip up to Milwaukee in June and visited the Miller Brewery and the Lakefront Brewery.

First stop was Miller Brewery. First off I am not a fan of the big mass produced breweries but I went here anyways cause a couple friends of mine had not been on their tour before. The tour is pretty lame, you start off at their gift store then walk down the street to where they bottle and can the beer. Ho hum, moving on up the street you get to one of the few highlights of the tour and that's the old cave in which way back when is where they would store the beer before refrigeration came to fruition. Now to the good part, sampling the beer and it is a major letdown cause the first beer sample they give you is triple hopped water ie Miller Lite yuck. Across the street in the beer garden you get to choose what your next samples are of beer that they either make or distribute. I started off with Blue Moon Summer Honey Wheat, well that was a bad choice on my part cause it sucked. Last beer sample I had was much better, Leinenkugels Sunset Wheat, now this is what a wheat beer should be like, nice aroma to it, light and refreshing, very smooth finish. Optional part of the tour was seeing the brewhouse and that was pretty lame since all we did was just go up there and see it and the tour guide didn't really say anything. I don't recommend this tour.

On to Lakefront Brewery and we were planning on going to Stubby's for a bite to eat but lo and behold they are closed on Mondays. Will have to go there another time and check it out since they offer 53 beers on tap. So, we went and did the earlier tour at Lakefront. Now this is what a brewery tour should be like. You get your beer samples right away before the tour starts unlike Miller down the street and the tour guide was way more entertaining as well. They give you 4 beer samples plus you get a coupon for another sample from one of the local bars as well, not bad for $7. Or you could opt to get a discount on their merchandise. I wished they had their Wheat Monkey there for us to sample cause that is a really good wheat beer. Never the less, I had their Wisconsite, their Fixed Gear, and their White as well as their IPA and you could not go wrong with any of them, Lakefront has been in operation for quite some time now and they definitely know what they are doing cause all their beers are pretty darn good. If you are ever in the land of cheese and beer, do yourself a favor and go take a tour of Lakefront Brewery.

Cheers!

Scottish Festival & Highland Games

I've been wanting to go to this festival for quite some time now and used to always have to work all day the weekend that it takes place cause it's our annual open house at the golf course when this festival is going on. Well, this year I didn't have to work until later int he day so I had some time to check it out for a few hours.

They had a British car show there that was mostly a few Mini Coopers and a couple of Lotuses and thats it so it really wasn't much as far as cars go. You would of thought they could of gotten some Aston Martins, Austin Healey's, and Bentley's there as well. But anyways the festival really isn't about cars, it's about celebrating the Scottish highland games.

As for the games themselves, I was only able to see the contestants throwing the 25 pound hammer during the hammer throw. Amazing how far some of these guys can throw it. Over on the other athletic field they had a whole bunch of local rugby teams playing and I watched that for a bit.

It's a Scottish festival so the beer of choice was from Belhaven Brewery. The first beer that I had was their Twisted Thistle IPA. Well, it wasn't very twisted at all in my opinion. I'm used to IPA's being bitter and this one was not that bitter at all so if you have never had an IPA before then this one might be a good choice to start off with since it wasn't overly bitter like most American IPA's are. Next up was their Scottish Ale and that was pretty good, it had a sweet, smooth finish to it. Thanks to the beer lady for giving me two drink tickets instead of just the one that I had paid for, I was able to have a couple more beers before leaving to go to work lol. Had another IPA and then I had a lager that had good mouthfeel to it and was very refreshing to drink on a hot summer day.

There also was a whole bunch of drum and pipe bands from the Chicagoland area and that is always a fun time hearing them playing the bagpipes. It may all pretty much sound the same to me but I enjoyed it. If I didn't have to go to work, I would of just spent all day there listening to the pipes and drinking down somw good Scottish beer.

Cheers!

Brew at the Zoo!!!!!

Brew at the Zoo in Baltimore was fun time. What a great way to take a couple hours away from the death metal at the Maryland Deathfest by going over to the zoo and seeing the animals and sampling some good beer.

Speaking of the beer, they could of had a better selection than what was there. I mean come on, why were people standing in long lines just to sample Blue Moon and Leinenkugels? The craft brews that were there that I enjoyed was from DuClaw Brewing Company and from Shipyard Brewery.

The food was phenomenal!!!!! Man the crabby melt from Grilled On was so yummy and delicious. I asked the guy what I should get and man oh man I'm glad I took the guy's advice and had the crabby melt. Best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had and no they didn't use Old Spice in it cause that's a cologne lol.

I just wished that they had the beer vendors throughout the zoo so that when you are walking around and looking at the animals you can sample the beer. That's how it was at the brew zoo in Pittsburgh that I went to a few years ago. This one they have all the beer vendors in one location and then if you want to see the animals you can walk around and then come back for more beer. They probably wouldn't have such long lines if they did it that way with the beer all scattered out in the zoo.

Overall though even with the lack of craft brews it still was a fun break from the death fest.

Cheers!!!!!!

Got the blues? Grab some brews!!!!

Got the blues? Well, then grab some brews to wash them away.

Was at the Craft Brews and Blues Festival this past spring in May over in the western suburb of St. Charles, IL. There sure wasn't much of a selection of craft brews at this beer festival. And then later on we noticed that one of the craft breweries there, Rogue, well they spelled their name wrong on the table and spelled it Rouge lol. If you were there and had a few beers in ya then you would of found that funny too!

Well, a couple of beers from the few that were there that I really liked was Firestone's IPA and Rogue's Yellow Snow. Other than that it was slim pickings since it was such a small little beer festival crammed into a little room. If they have this again then I suggest they book a bigger room for it.

As far as the blues music goes, it was pretty darn good. And later on I found out that one of the regular golfers at where I work, was the drummer for the band. Some day I will have to go and hear them play again.

Oh and the Wheat Monkey from Lakefront Brewery was pretty darn good as well.

Cheers!!!!!!!!

Peoria International Beerfest April 2012

Back in April of this year I decided to go down to Peoria and see my brother and check out the Peoria International Beerfest. My brother has been living there for like 15 years now and has never been to the beer festival and it was so close to where he lives too lol.

Anyways so the first night of the festival in the middle they had some food vendors and some of it was pretty good too especially the shepards pie. We hit up the food first so that we weren't sampling beer on an empty belly.

One of the best beers there was from Erdinger and their Ur Weisse beer. If ya don't know me by now well you should know that I do enjoy German hefeweizens, one of my favorite styles of beer. This weisse beer was a bit different and had a strong spicy aroma to it. At first when the guy was pouring my sample I thought he said that it was Euro Weisse lol. As for the American craft beers that were there on the first day none really stood out for me. I did get a lot of questions asked to me about the shirt I was wearing that night, Saluki Dunkeldog from Big Muddy Brewery. People wanted to know if they were there and they weren't there but to come back the next day and see them.

Day 2 of the festival there was a lot more beers on hand to sample and some of the ones that I liked was the Mad Hatter IPA from New Holland Brewing Company, the Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye, and the Vanilla Honey Weizen from Rhodell Brewery. I think I must of gone back and had about 6 samples of it cause it was that good. There was one Belgian Red that we tried that was so damn sour and tasted awful that we dumped it out. Left Hand Brewery had a pretty nice display there, they had a car and on the back of the car there was a couple of tap handles. Now that's the kind of car I need as long as the police don't pull me over lol.

Overall, there was plenty of beers to choose from at this festival since they had over 300 beers they were pouring on the second day. There was some good food and music as well and I would definitely go back again some time. Oh and one more thing that I forgot to mention was the chili beer that I had sampled. It was like drinking some jalepeno juice lol.

Chicago Beer Festival March 2012

After getting through a pretty mild Chicago winter it was time to leave hibernation and get out and have some beers. The first ever Chicago Beer Festival took place at the end of March in the Great Hall at Union Station. They had two sampling sessions and I attended both of them.

After standing in line to get in they finally let us in only to be all crammed in one little spot inside before they let us downstairs to the Great Hall. In which we had to wait some more before finally letting us in. Was it worth the wait to get in? No, not really since most of the beers that were being poured was from the big mass produced domestics, ie Miller Coors and Budweiser. Who wants to drink that swill when there are so many craft breweries. Was disappointed that some Chicago breweries were not even represented there. Oh and the sampling glass should be glass next time and not plastic.

One of the highlights for me was seeing Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale there from Kentucky Ales. There was a long line to get a sample and with good reason since the beer is that good. A perfect combo of craft beer that has been aged in bourbon barrels gives you a whole kaleidoscope of flavors. Another outstanding beer that I had sampled was the Mad Hatter IPA from New Holland Brewery. It was so good I had to have another one lol.

Had to have something to eat and I must say the Korean Beef grilled cheese was delicious. By far the best thing they had there as far as the food goes.

Both sessions the Great Hall was packed with thousands of people there in attendance. If they have it again next year, I'd like to see them have less mass produced beers and more craft beers to get new people tuned on that there is a whole plethora of good beer out there that ya don't have to settle for something that is less filling.

Bean Town last fall

Went and visited Bean Town last October. It was my first ever trip out east to Boston and no I did not visit the Boston Beer Company while I was there. Though I did see Samuel Adams grave during the trek through the Freedom Trail. Sure did need a beer after having climbed all them steps to the top of Bunker Hill monument.

First course of action upon arrival and checking into the hotel was to go and visit Harpoon Brewery. It was well worth the visit. Was one of the best brewery tours that I have been on. They give you a sample of their hefeweizen before the tour starts. Next they went on to explain the brewing process and then it was off to the fermentation process where they poured their IPA straight from the fermentation tank. Moving on to the bottling and kegging process and then it was back up to belly up to the bar and sample as many of their beers that you wanted within about 20 minutes before the next tour. I must say their fruity hefeweizen that they had was quite good and refreshing.

Visited Salem and will never ever go back there. It was crowded since it was October. Couldn't get into the Witch Museum due to so many people there and getting into the bars to have a drink was a big hassle. What's up with asking for two forms of ID's and if we have credit cards? We got cold hard cash to spend on beer and ya don't want us to come in well screw you we will take our tourist dollars elsewhere.

Champions Sports bar in the back bay at the Hilton was an awesome bar for a hotel bar. Plasma TV's all above the bar and an extensive beer list was the ideal place to watch Da Bears game while we were there. Then it was off to Spooky World at Fenway Park that night and it sure was a howling good time.

After hitting up numerous bars while walking along the Freedom Trail we then went and visited Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and they had some good beer bars there like Cambridge Brewing Company, and John Harvard's Brew House.

I would definitely go back there but next time I will avoid going to Salem.

the beer slacker

Been so busy between working and going to beer festivals that I've totally slacked off on here. Will catch up soon on here and  post what I have been up to the past few months.