Man, where the heck did September go? Don’t get me wrong - October is definitely one of the best months of the year for drinking beer, but it seems like just a few hours ago I was nursing a variety of beers on a beach somewhere.
So it goes.
I realized I haven’t mentioned what has become a reliably big beer event over the last few years — the Chicago Beer Fest at the Field Museum brings together dozens of breweries at one of the city’s iconic attractions for hundreds of beer lovers to drink among the bones of dinosaurs.
Over the years I’ve attended a few evening events at both the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry where drinks are involved. I have to say, being able to enjoy a beverage while, say, looking at the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun is pretty rad. I have admittedly not attended this event, but it does seem pretty cool and the lineup is a nice cross-section of Chicago-area beermakers. Check it out if you feel so inclined.
Let’s wrap up the month with a few celebratory…
This Weekend:
Goose Island is celebrating the 10th birthday of their Barrel House this week, so for the last few days they’ve been putting some pretty amazing beers on tap at Fulton Street. They’ve got some more stuff planned for today, tomorrow and Sunday too. Including ‘15 Rare. Yeah, apparently, they’ve still got some.
Tomorrow continues the big weekend for birthday parties:
Midwest Coast turns five and will be partying accordingly.
Marz Brewing turns ten years old (!) and is hosting their Liquid Dreams festival at the Mothership on Saturday as well.
Hammond’s Foreign Local hosts their BURN THE BARREL event to celebrate their 2nd birthday this Saturday also.
…and if all that Marzen you’ve been drinking for the past couple weeks is too much sweetness, The Open Bottle - Tinley is hosting a pickle beer tasting tomorrow too.
And, of course, Oktoberfests are still Oktoberfesting.
Later This Month (and Beyond):
Chef Dan Jacobs of Milwaukee’s DanDan (and the most recent season of Top Chef) is apparently the brother of Goose Island brewer Mike Jacobs, so on October 6th, they’re hosting a Family Meal event at Salt Shed.
Now that it’s autumn it feels more appropriate for Great Lakes to have announced this year’s First Taste event for their Christmas Ale, set for October 17.
These Friday emails remain free and unrestricted thanks to the generous support of our Premium Subscribers, because we want to give you a reason (or three) to visit a local brewery or beer event each week.
If you want to help us spread the word about the cool beer-y stuff that catches our eye, please share this email with a fellow beer lover who might not know about these weekly emails.
Special thanks to our amazing Premium Subscribers for helping to keep this whole email series in existence!
If you loved what was coming out of The Beer Temple’s kitchen, get there ASAP - they’re closing their food program on Sunday in order to make way for “a partnership … with a local restaurant you know and love to bring their food to you right from our kitchen!”
The first batches of Suncatcher Brewing beer are in the tanks.
Dovetail is on the hunt for some Oktoberfestiversary volunteers.
Lots of breweries have steins available as merch this time of year, but only Off Color has this awesome Bavarian-checkered knit vest.
This pre-selected mixed sixer of popular pumpkin beers is pretty smart, Bitter Pops. I often only want one of each, and I bet I’m not alone in that.
The latest brewery to add a line of seltzers to their offerings is Gnosis Brewing, whose G-Candyz are available now.
Coming to Off Color next Friday: Double Stuffed Dino S’mores, a 12% ABV monster version of the OG.
Clark Street Ale House celebrated Oktoberfest recently, which I’m mostly posting here because I love seeing a wooden keg next to a Jager machine.
Here’s something you don’t see very often: An Indian-style lager from MORE Brewing. I often get a bomber of Kingfisher when I go to an Indian restaurant so this would be a very nice option to have instead.
When your name is Peckish Pig, you are gonna occasionally have a pig roast, right? Well, they did and it looks like it was a good time.
Laschet’s is celebrating their birthday on October 1st with something called Tuba Force, which I’m going to assume in advance is something awesome. (Also, go get some schweinshaxe!)
Cans of New Glarus aren’t just great as containers for beverage, they also help in automotive maintenance, apparently.
Carmel-based Moontown Brewing announced that they’re bringing a new taproom to Nashville.
Nice to see more construction underway at the Lake Effect Brewing taproom space.
Demo Brewery has already added a couple of new fermenters to their facility.
There are only a few more days to vote in Craft Beer & Brewing’s “Best In Beer” survey so go tell ‘em what you think.
Great Central has a bunch of events coming up but I’m mostly intrigued by the “Show and Tell for Grownups” scheduled for Halloween.
We shared this new Goose Island 312 variant label for the Chicago Marathon in a labels email a few weeks ago, and they shared it with the rest of us this week.
Here’s something I didn’t expect: Short Fuse is apparently releasing a batch of Metropolitan Afterburner at the end of October.
If you found anything in this email informative, enlightening or entertaining, I’d genuinely appreciate it if you would join us as a Premium Subscriber:
Or, just send this email to whomever you’d want to try some resurrected Afterburner with:
Don’t forget to keep in touch with us on our socials:
Thank you all for being here! Have a great weekend.
~Karl