Chicago Foodies

Double IPA's For Single People at Jerry's Sandwiches

Think your are going to spend the night of Valentine's Day sad and alone, or at one of those "I'm not bitter. No really" Screw Cupid bar events drinking $2 jello shots?   Well, we're not having it.  Those are for losers.  The winners will be out drinking double IPA's at Jerry's Sandwiches in Wicker Park which is featuring Double IPA's For Single People night.  Jerry's is spreading the love with elite double IPA's destined to set your forsaken heart aflutter. 

Northdown Cafe's Half Acre Brewery Night Tuesday 1/31, 6:00 p.m.

Always an inviting spot for a beer event, Northdown Cafe and Taproom is having Half Acre Brewery Night Tuesday the 31st at 6:00pm.

Before getting to that, note that I saw an outstanding film tonight, Maxwell Street Blues.   It screened at Transistor book and record shop on Lincoln Ave. as part of their free movie screening series (BYOB!).  Maxwell Street is a 1981 documentary about the dying Chicago blues scene on legendary Maxwell Street, a transient home to some of the all-time blues greats.  The focus is on the street bluesmen that time forgot, the ones not named Muddy Waters or Buddy Guy. 

This is a Land of Misfit Toys where the discards are weathered black bluesmen playing their last act, with withered fingers, leathery faces, and turquoise eyes blinded by glaucoma and cataracts.  It's vividly alive with brilliant music that in the span of a few strums will make you sad and make you laugh out loud.  Filmmakers Linda Williams and Rual Zaritsky deliver you a Chicago that's as real and tangible as that post-snow gunk you've been cleaning off your shoes.

Three Floyds Brewing – Cimmerian Sabertooth Berzerker

Why that name, I have no clue.  That's Three Floyds for you.  And thanks to Northdown Cafe, which continues to deliver the freshest selection of unusual, unique, rare, and interesting craft brews in town, I got to try some "CSB", a pub-only imperial IPA from Three Floyds.  Northdown tapped their small barrel of this Saturday night, which surely disappeared in a few hours.

As for stats, it's described as being about a 9% monster with 100 IBU's.  That's not unusual imperial IPA territory.  What sets this apart is how much it replicates the West Coast tropical IPA experience.  The color is a light amber.  It hits your nose with a decent amount of floral notes and a citrus perfume.  Its body is the lighter side of medium and it easily slides along the palate with maybe a touch of oiliness.

Lincoln Square Beer Festival At Dank Haus

Winter hasn't been that tough on us yet but don't take that to mean there isn't trouble ahead.  You could be experiencing the winter blahs before you know it if you aren't already.  And if you're already in the doldrums over winter, well, you clearly live  in the wrong city.  But there is hope.  There's a sure-fire means of coping out there and it's called beer.  In fact, the denizens of Lincoln Square want to remind you of the healing power of beer through their winter beer fest starting at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 28, 2011, at the Dank Haus on Western Avenue in the Lincoln Square neighborhood. 

Brooklyn's Brewing's Shackmeister Ale And New York's Shake Shack

I have returned from a visit to my beloved Big Apple with a report on a beer whose parent restaurant is far more interesting than the beer itself.  I'm talking about the Brooklyn Brewing Shackmeister Ale served at the incredible Shake Shack in New York.  Here's a bit of my review which you can read in full at my beer blog: 

"Yet, as a beer fan, one of my main purposes in visiting this establishment was to try Brooklyn Brewing's Shackmeister Ale, a beer which I have known for years to have been brewed specifically for the Shake Shack.  The Shack sells you a pint of Shackmeister for around $5.  That's reasonable.  During my first of two visits to the Shack, I dined at the 8th Avenue location. The line was short when I got there and grew incredibly long as I waited on my meal, snaking around an airport ticketing type of adjustable canvas rope divider.   I drank my Shackmeister while waiting out my to-go order."

Enjoy it and let me know what you think or if you have had any Shack Shack experiences of your own. 

Shake Shack has already expanded to at least 5 New York City locations and is in Florida too.  Like Five Guys, I hope they find their way to Chicago per the rumors, and bring the same level of quality here.

--M. Sheppard

Local Option Beer Event - Thursday, December 15, 2011

It is being referred to as "biblical."  Maybe so.   Under any moniker, The Local Option in Chicago is having its final beer event of the year, featuring some rock solid beer offerings including some of the Evil Twin lineup, Dark Horse 4 Elf, Jolly Pumpkin La Parcela, Lost Abbey Angel's Share, Surly Darkness, and Victory Yakima Glory.  Stouts, stouts, and more stouts dominate this event, so expect a lot of dark, chocolatly, viscous, amazing, sludge-in-your-glass beers to be featured, and to disappear fast.  Here is the list.

This insanity begins at 3 p.m. Thursday night, so be there to get your favorites.  Local Option is located at 1102 W. Webster Ave. in Chicago.   

Brooklyn Brewing Black Ops

Does it exist?  You tell me.  It's not listed on their website.  I'm not talking about Area 51, Smoking Man, the black cancer, or the Trilateral Commission.  I'm talking about Brooklyn Brewing's mysterious barrel aged stout, the Black Ops, which has just returned to Chicago. That is, if it really existed.  Had I taken a break from all of the Christmas brews that are out there, that I plan to write about en masse soon, I would have gone over to Armanetti's Beverages or perhaps Lush Wine & Spirits and perhaps purchased some Black Ops.  I might have even had a glass of this possibly non-existent beer. 

Had I done so, I perhaps could have told you that it comes in a large black bottle with the brewery name impressed upon it in old school raised glass.  I might have added that it emerges from the bottle into your glass in ninja black color with a dark tan head.  Maybe I would have mentioned that it smells of bourbon, chocolate, bourbon, pumpernickel, and, as an added bonus, bourbon. 

Darkness – Surly Brewing

* NOTE– Sheffield's is tapping a keg of Darkness at 6pm Monday night

As I posted on my  beer blog – I got to try the rarely seen Surly Darkness, Surly Brewing's Russian imperial stout, last night at a bar in Chicago you can probably figure out via the clues.  Hat tip to my buddy Dave for the heads up on the tasting.  I can't say a lot about Darkness because I'm convinced that I could never fully capture the experience.  It presents itself beautifully, oily black with a creamy light tan head with gorgeous pockets of bubbles starkly contrasting with the black pool beneath.  Delicious smells of baked bread, coffee, and roasted nuts emerge.  The body is dense and velvety, almost buttery, feeling somewhere in between a chocolate malted and a big Syrah. 

 The taste is hard to describe because everything needed is in there and yet so fleeting.  Flavors such as roasted coffee, blackberry, smoke, almond, earth, and bitter cocoa dip in and out on the palate, one second there, the next, gone, overtaken by something else.  It finishes long and opulent. 

This is a beer I'd drive through several states to buy.  I'm given little choice otherwise because I understand that you can only buy it in its native Minnesota.  It's said to be released one day a year, just like Dark Lord Day.  Perhaps it's known as Darkness Day.  If both beers were released on the same day, all things equal I'd be in Minnesota embracing the Darkness.  That's no slight upon Dark Lord, a singular, exceptional beer.  Darkness is just that much better, or dare I say it, perfect.

Firestone Walker Brewing Parabola Imperial Stout

As the craft beer market explodes violently in Big Bang-like fashion, forming galaxies of new breweries, and constellations of brews in Chicago and beyond, it has my mind wrapped around two thoughts that are not necessarily positive. 

1.  There are getting to be an excessive number of craft brewing choices out there.

2.  In 2009, there were a lot of great beers available in the Chicago market to which no one paid any attention. 

Regarding thought No. 1, it's good to see all the new entrants into the local craft beer market, some are  local fledglings, others are expanded lineups of more established locals, and others still are out of staters.  This is all creating increasing interest in craft brewing and driving demand.  My brother, a Chicago native himself, recently noted in the context of describing his new-found love for Great Lakes Nosferatu, that he's seeing craft beers popping up in bars and places he'd never expect them.  Rock It is a party bar. Sure it's styled as upscale but you would not expect to find a limited release Great Lakes beer there.  But it's there now.  At McGee's in 2005 I watched the White Sox slay every opponent thrown their way while probably drinking "premium" offering Sam Adams light.  They now feature drafts of Founders.  Establishments have captured the demand for craft brewing. 

Dark Horse Brewing Perkulator Coffee Dopplebock

Michigan brewing leaders Dark Horse Brewing can't make up their mind regarding their branding.  Oddly, they have flipped from packaging their beers with bright tan backgrounds that contrasted nicely with dark lettering, to dark, murky backgrounds which muddle all of the nearly-as-dark lettering.  I have no idea what's fueling this.  Survey data?  The desire to appear mysterious?  A pact with the man down below?   Perhaps a reflection on Michigan's soured economy?   I'm not sure.   But if you need some mental stimulation for pondering this or other issues, start with their coffee dopplebock, The Perkulator.

Bridgeport Brewing Hop Harvest

Bridgeport Brewing dates back to 1984 in Portland, Oregon.  They style themselves as pioneers in the Pacific Northwest beer revolution.   That's a bold claim. We're talking about a brewing movement that has resulted in outright brilliant producers such as Deschutes, Hair of the Dog, Full Sail, and dozens of others that never leave the region.  Thanks to an influx of corporate funding, Bridgeport indeed sent their brews east and started showing up on Chicago taps in 2010. 

The corporate connections paid off for Bridgeport and they ended up on, as I'm told, InBev's mighty distribution train.  If you are like me, you met them with suspici0n, as their "first" beer "Hop Czar" began appearing on taps at the type of bars that list Corona as a "premium import".   That's as much of a misnomer as calling Coldplay "indie darlings".  I tried the Hop Czar and it was what I expected: a watery, thin bodied attempt at an IPA - or maybe a pale ale.  Entirely forgettable.  I figured I'd never have much to do with Bridgeport.

Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA

After seemingly 3 weeks of receiving posts, pictures, and testimonials from friends of mine about it, I finally picked up a Dogfish Head Brewing 120 Minute IPA.  It's one of those event beers you have to post about.  The story is legendary. Dogfish Head brings in a new brewer.  He struggles to make the beer, destroying three batches due to an inability to correct flaws in the yeast.  Finally, he gets it right on try number four.  It hits the market in bombers and 12 oz. bottles, outrageously selling at $11 a bottle for a 12 oz.  Is it worth the buzz?

Aged 2008 Founders Breakfast Stout: The Wow Factor

With all the fanfare this week surrounding the recent first-ever release of Founders Brewing's Canadian Breakfast Stout (good luck finding any), the beer that provides the foundation for the "CBS" and its celebrated cousin, Kentucky Breakfast Stout, has gone unheralded.  To wit, I am talking about Founders Breakfast Stout; you know, the one that you can actually find somewhere, and not have to trade a bourbon barreled Angel's Share to get it. 

Barrel aging is all the rage these days, particularly with stouts, and the base stouts feel neglected.  Ask any Goose Island fan if they'd like a Nightstalker and you might not get a pulse.  Yet they'll crash through walls for the Bourbon County line.  Founders Breakfast Stout has been similarly shunned; you don't hear beer lovers discuss this beer with great passion. Even I have overlooked it on beer menus even though we should all feel blessed to have it show up on tap and in bottles every fall.

I'm here to renew your interest or perhaps pique it.   Recently, Lush Wine Store unveiled some 2008 Breakfast Stouts that it had been sitting on, aging in a basement.  Not having previously had a Breakfast Stout older than a current release, I felt it imperative to try one of these. I am glad I did.

What I found was breathtaking.  Breakfast stout is brewed with oatmeal, coffee, chocolate, and a boatload of hops.  A virgin batch has a sharp bite from this java and hop overload. Oh, what 3 years of sedentary life does to an imperial beer.   Protected by 9 percent ABV, the 3 year Breakfast Stout forged into a beautiful potion.  The harsher elements of the hops and coffee dissipate into the ether, and their residue combines with the heap of chocolate and residual sugars to create a dark pool smelling of roasted nuts and ground coffee beans, that tastes of bitter chocolate, toffee, roasted chestnuts, smoke, and mouthwatering goodness.  It is remarkable, seamless, and absolutely decadent:  the equivalent of eating a melted bitter chocolate bar.

Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout Release --IN BOTTLES--

Beer fans, this is big news.  Many of you probably know that Founders Brewing has started releasing certain limited release beers in large scale bomber, 750ml 22oz, bottles, and you might have seen the Blushing Monk Ale at Whole Foods.  In case you are not aware, Founders' next planned release in the series is  its most legendary beer, the Canadian Breakfast Stout, a maple syrup and bourbon barreled Breakfast Stout, a companion of sorts to the incredible Kentucky Breakfast Stout.  The "CBS" is an amazingly complex beer and in the conversation for being the best beer I've ever tried. 

According to Founders, the beer will be available in its Grand Rapids, Michigan, taproom on October 1, and will be distributed on October 3.  There will not be a lot available.  A party is planned for the taproom release, and beer lovers will be able to purchase up to 2 bottles of the heavenly brew that day.  Good luck.  Get some for me.

Three Floyds Brewing Zombie Dust: Now In Bottles

One of the biggest revelations of the 2011 beer scene in Chicago has been the emergence of Three Floyds Brewing's Zombie Dust pale ale, fresh from the makers of all things hops in Munster, Indiana.  With this beer, Three Floyds has taken the pale ale to a new level of greatness.  It's entirely accessible yet replete with complexity.  It's sessionable, attention-getting, and utterly delicious.  It disappears off taps within a day of showing up. 

Arcadia Brewing Loch Down

Michigan's roster of craft brewers is deeper than any other midwestern state right now.  Hailing from Battle Creek, Michigan, Arcadia Ales sets themselves apart from their Michigan co-horts by focusing on British Isles-style beers - creamier stouts and IPA's, Scottish style beers, and the like.  The Map Room usually has Arcadia's Starboard Stout on a handle, which is a creamy, mellow departure from many of the hopped up efforts on draft there.  

The folks at Arcadia were kind enough to send me some samples of some of their offerings and I could think of no better place to start than the Loch Down Ale, a Scottish style beer not dissimilar from Founders Dirty Bastard, a beer often found on Chicago area taps. 

The Great Leap Forward: Acre Restaurant's Killer Taps

I've been to Andersonville's Acre Restaurant a handful of times and during each visit it has increasingly grown on me. It's a pleasant space, having taken over the for the former inhabitant, Charlie's Ale House, whose beers were sometimes good but usually lacking.  At Acre, you can stay out on the street until at least 11 on a Friday and still get service there.  (Hello, City of Chicago.)  The food, as I understand it, is sourced from local, sustainable growers.  The pork burger was exceedingly fresh. 

But the heart of the matter here is beer and Acre is nailing it in that department.  The first few times I ventured in there I didn't see a lot of impressive handles.  They featured a lot of the best stuff that you can find at many Lincoln Park sports bars.  Well, that has dramatically changed.  Several weeks ago, Acre held a Stone tap takeover.  While there have been a number of these since Stone's 2010 Chicago arrival, few that I recall have featured such unique beers. 

Ommegang Gnomegang: Take Their Advice

The label clearly represented that this would be a beer with a serious mission in mind:

 Pour slowly so as to not disturb the yeast sediment, but with enough vigor to create a luxurious head and release the rich bouquet. 

It’s best to take such strongly worded advice that has no immediately apparent downside. Following orders, I rather carefully poured this into a Duvel snifter glass, the perfect vessel – the bottle notes that Brewery Ommegang is part of the Duvel family of ales.  Working up a massive head on this beer was hardly problematic. It erupted out of the bottle like a towering cumulus cloud bubbling up on a hot day, ready to fire into a raging thunderstorm.  This generated an enormous, bulbous head nearly spilling out of the glass.  The bouquet was indeed rich and exquisite, as the yeasts spread apricots and melons to the nose, along with floral hops. 

Quattro Mani "Toh-kai" 2009

Some of the best values attainable among white wines are those originating from the region encompassing northeast Italy and Slovenia.  Quattro Mani "[toh-kai]", a 2009 Slovenian bottling, is a prime example of these gems, as it beautifully demonstrates the much disputed Tocai Friuliano grape.  After Hungary joined the European Union, it sought exclusive rights to use "Tocai" and all similar names to identify grapes of genetic identity to Tocai. For centuries, Hungary has produced a wine called Tokaji, a sweet white wine that shares little similarity beyond genetics with Tocai's Italian and Slovenian expressions.  Hungary ultimately won superior naming title to "Tocai" and a package of similar names, rendering obsolete the Italian, and, by extension, Slovenian, usage of "Tocai Friuliano" and its progeny.  This explains vintners use on this bottle of the brackets and phonetic breakdown, "toh-kai", to not-so-subtly clue in wine buyers as to the contents.

Dogfish Head Tap Takeover at Bavarian Lodge

Sporting one of metro Chicago's best reputations for beer selections, Lisle, IL's, own Bavarian Lodge is hosting a Dogfish Head Brewing tap takeover beginning at 4:00 p.m. on August 11.   Along with the legendary Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA, they're also offering amazing DFH brews including the rare 120 Minute, the amazing Palo Santo Marron, the stunning Midas Touch, and some beer called Hellhound On My Ale.  I have no idea what that is but if it's Dogfish Head, it's guaranteed not to taste like anything you've had before or like turpentine. Well, if it tastes like turpentine (as if you've drunk enough paint thinner to the point of familiarity), it will be the best turpentine you've ever tasted and probably at 12%.  They are indeed a singular brewer.