This Week's Chicago-Centric Craft Beer Events & Socials: Live from the West Coast
Happy Friday, friends!
The World Beer Cup awards were announced Wednesday night and I’m always thrilled when the most competitive award goes to a Midwestern brewery — even more so when it’s one of my favorites in Chicago. Old Irving Brewery’s Beezer beat out 325 other beers to earn the Gold Medal for Juicy/Hazy IPA. Between this award and their GABF Gold, Beezer is the beer that all other hazies are being judged by at this point.
Other Illinois-centric takeaways:
Pretty impressed to see Tonality Brewing take home a medal (silver, for their dubbel) after being open for business for just a couple of months.
I’m not very familiar with Decatur’s Golden Fox Brewing, but if they’re winning gold for Imperial Stout, then I should probably get to know them, huh?
Most of the chatter is usually about Brothership, so it’s also really nice to see Brother Chimp walk away with a lager Gold for their Vienna.
Also nice to see Sundial Brewing & Blending earning honors for their Table Coupage; big IPAs & stouts are great but small, delicate beers are very hard to do — so earning a national award is a pretty big deal.
Finally, a quick programming note: This email is being sent while I’m in transit to California’s central coast for a few days, which means that Monday’s email is unlikely to happen. I am briefly back in the saddle on Wednesday so I’m hoping to still support my Premium Subscribers with some fresh labels on that date, but then I’m back in the air for a quick trip to Florida.
Will I savor both IPAs from Alvarado Street and J. Wakefield fruited sours in their native environments within a 72-hour timespan? I’m sure going to try. Got any other beer recommendations in Monterey? Hit me up. Beyond that, TBD what actually emerges next week. Who knows, your inbox might benefit from a quick break from me.
Now on to some upcoming…
Here’s one more mention for tomorrow’s Fruhlingfest 2024, hosted by Church Street and featuring about a dozen other suburban brewers on hand. This would be a great way to try beers from the likes of 206 Brewing, Wolfden Brewing, Nik & Ivy, Fox Republic and more.
If you’re closer to Elkhart, Indiana tomorrow, we got a heads up that the Bottlecaps & Corks fundraising event is taking place, which is held by the St. Thomas Homebrewers and features amateur beer, wine and mead makers raising money for the church’s health center in Tanzania.
Off Color’s Saison Day celebration with a ton of Allagash beer is also happening Saturday, and if you happen to be in downstate Sparta, White Rooster Brewing is celebrating their Seven Year Spectacular with a ton of tasty-sounding beer.
And don’t forget: One week from today, the ICBG hosts Beer Under Glass at Union Station. Tickets are on sale now, and 100 breweries will be in attendance, so go try as many as you can and then safely take public transit home. Oh, and they just announced that there’s a Distiller’s Court this year.
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For all our Premium Subscribers who remember seeing the Gumballhead line extension labels a few weeks ago, we now know where those landed: In this Three Floyds mixed 12-pack.
Midwest Coast is trying to collect “two Pauls and a Holly” worth of Pak-Tech containers by Memorial Day. Bring ‘em your plastic.
Beers from Fair State are coming to the entire state of Illinois via AJ Maka distro.
I agree with Penrose: Spring is a very good time to release a hazy IPA called Rain Boots.
Fresh from their April Fools-defying release of Orange Creamsicle, Old Nation Brewing has their annual Tart Strawberry M-43 out now.
Just a reminder that one of the best front-porch views of any Midwestern brewery can be seen at the Traverse City Jolly Pumpkin on Old Mission.
One Lake Brewing shared a few of the ways they’re eco-friendly on Earth Day, including these fun details: “Floors from the first Ford dealership outside of Detroit were used to make our dining tables. Bathroom doors are from the old Molly Malone’s in Forest Park.”
Ever had a fruited hard seltzer that was aged for 14 months in rum barrels? Guess who’s got one for you to try! (Of course it’s Mikerphone.)
You can now watch Jeopardy every day at Lunar Brewing. IDK why this requires an update; every place that’s open when Jeopardy is on should be showing it.
Surly’s Darkness Day lineup is already out, including a band that’s “the first Darkness Day act to appear on both MTV's Buzz Bin and Yo Gabba Gabba.”
If you’re interested in trying the Tighthead hefeweizen we showed you the label for last week, here’s details on its release.
Here are all the breweries that will be in attendance at MORE Brewing’s MOREFest in Huntley this July. It’s a lot. Not quite BUG numbers but still pretty impressive.
Nice of Monochrome to keep us up to speed on their efforts as they get ready to open; now that Industry Ales is open I’m watching this team and the Homewood Brewing Company accounts eagerly to see when their doors open.
Twitter users are not big fans of the new label Goose Island released this week for Sofie. Guess that’s one I don’t have to grab for next week.
Happy 20th birthday to Michigan’s secret weapon when it comes to beer: Keweenaw Brewing Company.
Wow. That’s a lot of stuff going on. If you found anything in this email informative, enlightening or entertaining, it’d be wonderful if you considered joining as a Premium Subscriber:
Or, just send this email to whomever you’d want to make fun of the new Sofie label with:
Until then, see y’all … sometime! Have a great weekend.
~Karl