This Week's Fruited Gueuze & Beer News:

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Anyone get a chance to try the options from Tilquin Gueuze at Hopleaf or Beer Temple?

When I saw that only 20 bars in America were getting an array of fruited gueuzes from Tilquin, I thought to myself, “man, I bet that’d be fun to try. Too bad that’ll never happen.”

I mentioned on Friday that Hopleaf was part of the release, and then I saw that Beer Temple was also. Two in one city! Lucky Chicagoans. Here’s the rest of the list; California and Washington also had a couple locations available.

Then, thanks to some diligent social media scrolling, I found out that another one of the twenty bars was actually my local: 7 Monks in downtown Traverse City was getting five different options to try. I never get to play in the big beer-release reindeer games, so I of course went in to check it out. Let me tell you quickly: That clementine version is a treat. If you’re able to get a taste, it’s pretty dang good.

I also got to try the fig and the pomegranate versions; both were really tasty but the clementine stood head and shoulders above them both. Fun stuff all around, and about as close to a Zwanze Day as I’m going to get, where every barrel is tapped at the same time around the globe. This was a really fun chance to drink something special that’s been shared with a select array of destinations around the country. I don’t take those opportunities for granted now that I’m not living in quite as much of a global marketplace as Chicagoland is.

I guess this is a long way of saying “support your local beer bar”? I don’t know; I don’t have a larger thematic thread to weave through this. I do have a bunch of beer news to share with you, though:

• Both the Chicago Tribune and ABC-7 gave some more coverage to the new “Beer Hiking Chicago and Beyond” book that just came out. If you want to pick up a copy, you can do so here! (No Amazon affiliate link there or anything! Just buy the book!)

• Patch.com previewed the pet market that took place at Soundgrowler Brewing this weekend.

• Now that Goose Island Clybourn is gone and other tenants have moved out of the building, what’s next for the property? Well, they might knock the whole thing down and put a 50-story apartment tower in there.

• Tinley Park’s Ale Trail trolleys return on June 5th and takes place on Wednesday evenings through August.

• The Beacon-News looks at changes coming to downtown Aurora in the coming months, which includes a mention of the forthcoming Foreign Exchange brewpub.

• 400 beer drinkers. A dozen breweries, including Lena Brewing, Bent River and Confluence. One riverboat. The Battle of the Belle recently took place on the Mississippi River near the Quad Cities and looks like it was a lot of fun.

• Valpo Life has the full release from Journeyman Distillery on plans (and the new head brewer) for their Sea of Monsters brewery.

• Axios Indy really loved the new Mach Ten beer from Daredevil Brewery. Especially notable in light of the Indy 500 partnering with a non-Indiana brewery — Atwater, in this case — for its new official craft beer partner.

• Upland Brewing launched a new brand called rāe with a sparkling golden ale in a slimline can.

• Highland’s Fuzzyline Brewpub was once again named the best in the region by the NWITimes.

• Also at NWITimes (if you can get past the paywall) there’s a story about the beer trading scene that takes place at DLD each year. I assume that’s what it’s about,anyways, because I couldn’t read it either. For sake of completeness, though, I’m linking it!

•  With brats, pretzels, currywurst and lager, the Des Moines biergarten is back for the summer.

• The Detroit Metro Times covers the release of the three new Bell’s Oberon Shandy flavors, as does WXYZ and Fox 2 Detroit.

• Coming to Wolverines football games this fall: Alcohol sales.

• PorchDrinking previewed the Nucleate Festival coming soon to HOMES Brewing.

• Now open in Linden: Linden Brewing Company.

• RacketMN tells the story of how Falling Knife Brewing became the city’s best Timberwolves bar.

• In Spring Grove, Fat Pat’s Brewery and Texas-style BBQ restaurant is now open.

• WCCO has a story about the work going into opening Bubble Line Brewing Company, which would be the state’s first Black woman-owned brewery, sometime early next year.

• Bent Paddle held their 11th annual “festiversary” celebration.

• 417 Magazine has a nice feature about the Best Craft Breweries in Southwest Missouri.

• It sure looks like Hudson’s Hop Tree Brewing Company has shuttered.

• OnMilwaukee went inside some of the lagering caves of an old farm brewery from the 1800s, and does an impressively deep dive on the life and times of Leonard Bodendoerfer, the farmer and brewer who originally owned said caves.

• Port Washington’s Inventor’s Brewpub location is officially open.

• The Milwaukee Record’s Meet a Brewer series has a long chat with Luther Paul, longtime head brewer for Lakefront Brewing.

• This is fun - the Milwaukee Record went to their thirty-tap self-serve beer space to drink what they’re calling “the Milwaukee River”, which combines everything on tap into one single mug. It ended up being a “a multi-colored New England AND West Coast style IPA/fruited sour/barley wine/imperial stout/hard seltzer/lager/red ale with a dash of Pinot Grigio.”

• InsideHook has a look at why Trillium started a line of spirits, and why more breweries are also becoming distilleries as well.

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