Chicago Beer Society

Day of the Living Ales, the region’s largest celebration of cask-conditioned beers, was held on March 5. Twenty-six breweries from Chicagoland and beyond provided 44 different beers, while 500 attendees sampled the beers over two sessions and cast ballots to decide the 2011 Champion Real Ale of Chicagoland.

The winners:

1. Goose Island Beer Company Skully (saison aged in oak barrels with fresh strawberries, honey, and Champagne yeast)
   
2. Goose Island Beer Company Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout
   
3. Three Floyds Zombie Dust

In addition, the cellar staff awards an annual Golden Tut Award to the brewery/beer that best exemplifies the overall cask ale experience. The winner for 2011:  Firestone Walker Double Jack Double IPA.

Congratulations to the champions, and thanks to all the breweries and their brewers for supplying such an outstanding list of beers. Take a look at the event program to see what was featured.

DotLA/NotLA could not take place without our great volunteers, sponsors and supporters. Any beer event requires a lot of effort, but the logistics of a cask event are even more complex. And everyone who organized, set up/broke down, stillaged, spiled, tapped, served, sold, etc. was an unpaid volunteer. Many put in many hours and traveled great distances to help us – they all deserve your thanks.

We also owe a great debt to our sponsors, the Brewers Supply Group, Cicerone Certification Program, and Owen & Engine. Thanks also to Goose Island, Marion Street Cheese Market, the Cellars at Jasper Hill, and Gene’s Sausage Shop & Deli for the great selection of appetizers, meat & cheeses. Goose Island Wrigleyville has been the gracious host of this event every year. Thanks to all GI-W staff for their assistance during the planning and functioning of this event, especially to manager Daria Olechowski.

Of course, events like this could not take place without the support of our members and guests who attend and make DotLA so much fun. The two sessions sold out in record time and proved once again that the passion for real ales is growing every day.

Cheers!

The usual sellout crowd of approximately 300 CBS members attended the latest, greatest, and luckiest (13!) edition of our annual Brewpub Shootout at the Irish American Heritage Center‘s Erin Room on January 22.

There were 14 participants, including our area’s newest brewpub,  Haymarket Pub & Brewery. Awards were presented in three categories (Best Beer, Best Food, Best Beer/Food Pairing) , with the top three in each taking home an attractive trophy. The attendees cast their ballots and the awards were presented near the end of the event.

Talk about making a statement: Haymarket wasted no time by earning an award in each of the three categories. Flossmoor Station and Gordon Biersch Bolingbrook were also very impressive, both grabbing two awards. The other two prizes were won by Revolution Brewing (1st place pairing) and the Rock Bottom North/South team (Lombard, Orland Park). Congratulations, all!

To see what you missed, check out the program (PDF) listing all of the featured beers and pairings.

13th Annual Chicagoland Brewpub Shootout Awards:

Beer
1. Haymarket Pub & Brewery
2. Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery
3. Rock Bottom North/South – Lombard & Orland Park

Food
1. Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery
2. Gordon Biersch, Bolingbrook
3. Haymarket Pub & Brewery

Pairing
1. Revolution Brewing Company
2. Haymarket Pub & Brewery
3. Gordon Biersch, Bolingbrook

As always, this was an unbelievable event. Thanks to all of the Brewpubs, Brewers, Chefs and their Assistants for making this possible; to the staff at the IAHC for their assistance;  and, of course, thanks to our great members who continue to make the Shootout one of the best beer events in the world.

The results are in from the latest food, beer, and fun-filled picnic that was attended by another record crowd. Here is the rundown on total entries:

Salsa: 34
Chili: 23
Ribs: 10
Other Meat: 13
Dessert: 26

The Winners:

Ribs – Popular Vote
1. BBQ-tioners (#6)
1. Bogyo’s Mojo (#7)
3. Pigsiclicious (#2)

Ribs – Blind Judging
1. BBQ-tioners (#6)
2. Zemo Holat (#9)
3. Dan Luksetich (#8)

Chili – Popular Vote
1. Thomas Griffin (#12)
2. Dmitry Shub (#15)
3. Jason Arrigo (#6)

Other Meats – Popular Vote
1. Fish Team (#52)
2. Pigsiclicious (#51)
3. Planet Tim (Norris) (#56)

Salsa – Popular Vote
1. Linda Maher (#24)
2. Bryan Welsh (#7)
3. Dori Kaminski (#21)

Dessert – Popular Vote
1. John Warnik (#3)
2. Livia Glatz (#13)
3. Lowell Defrance (#19)

Thanks to all who prepared food, donated beer, set up, broke down, and cleaned beer taps and lines, schlepped kegs and/or soft goods, coordinated the competitions, DJ’d, checked in members and guests, and did whatever else was necessary to pull off such a major undertaking. Above all, we thank all our members and guests for taking part in one of the best beer and food events in the region.

We know we can always improve our events and thank everyone who has taken the time to offer suggestions here, on the listserv, and in emails. You can be certain that the Board will address your concerns and ideas to assure that the CBS Picnic remains a great time for all who attend.

Congrats once again to the winners! See you next year.

The results of the 12th Annual Brewpub Shootout are in.

There were 14 participants this year, including the soon-to-open Revolution Brewing, recently-opened The Lucky Monk , and first-time participant, Half Acre. The area Rock Bottoms once again paired up into North/South and East/West teams, and the usual sellout of some three hundred CBS members gathered in the Irish-American Heritage Center‘s beautifully-remodeled Erin Room.

Awards were presented in three categories (Best Beer, Best Food, Best Beer/Food Pairing) , with the top three in each taking home an attractive trophy. The attendees cast their ballots and the awards were presented near the end of the event.

To see what you missed, check out the program (PDF) listing all of the featured beers and food items/pairings. Kudos to Three Floyds for providing a bonus beer & food pairing.

12th Annual Chicagoland Brewpub Shootout Awards:

Beer
1. America’s Brewing (Bourbon Fass Bavarian Gerste Wein)
2. Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery (Dry-hopped Panama Limited Red Ale)
3. Goose Island Clybourn (Frankenporter)

Food
1. Rock Bottom N/S (Lombard & Orland Park)
2. The Lucky Monk
3. Rock Bottom E/W (Chicago & Warrenville)

Pairing
1. Rock Bottom N/S (Lombard & Orland Park)
2. Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery
3. BrickStone Restaurant & Brewery

As always, this was an unbelievable event. Thanks to all of the Brewpubs, Brewers, Chefs and their Assistants for making this possible; to the staff at the IAHC for their assistance;  and, of course, thanks to our great members who continue to make the Shootout one of the best beer events in the world!

Approximately 120 members and guests attended one of the most memorable Fall Tastings in recent memory. Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro was our host for the evening, and wow – they were great. The room was beautiful, the staff couldn’t have been more helpful, and the food was both plentiful and delicious. And then there was the beer…

Thirteen outstanding beers were presented in a walk-around blind tasting, and after the ballots were cast, Older Viscosity, a wood aged Imperial stout from Port Brewing, San Marcos, CA was selected as champion beer. It narrowly edged out Claire’s Impure Thought, a Russian Imperial Chocolate Raspberry Stout from Rock Bottom Chicago. The voting was so tight there was a tie for third place between 1871, a pre-prohibition lager from Emmett’s Tavern & Brewing Company and Daisy Cutter Pale Ale from Half Acre Beer Company.

Filling out the rest of the impressive field (in presentation order):

• Capital Oktoberfest (thanks to Louis Glunz Beer, Inc.)
• Lakefront Local Archer (Harvest Ale)
• Flossmoor Station Black Magic Black IPA
• Shoreline Batch 200 Black IPA
• Goose Island Clybourn Black Cat Export Stout
• Mickey Finn’s Gudendark Dunkelweizen
• Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel (thanks to Map Room)
• New Belgium Tart Lychee Wild Ale
• Lunar Darkside Dubbel

CBS thanks all of the brewers, distributors, and bar-owning friends who made such an incredible selection possible. We also owe a great debt to the organizers and volunteers who made this event possible and who did their hardest work behind the scenes.

To our members and guests and attended, it was great having you! Hope to see you at our next event, the 12th Annual Chicagoland Brewpub & Microbrewery Shootout, coming up in the new year. Make sure your membership is current to assure your exclusive opportunity for tickets.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2009 Chicago Beer Society Spooky Brew Review Homebrew Competition. We had 304 entries this year, the most ever! Thanks to all the brewers who entered beers in this year’s competition.

When the dust settled and judging was completed, Calvin Rowland of Bolingbrook and the Urban Knaves of Grain won Best-of-Show with a superb Applewine (BJCP category 28C); CBS’s own Dave Phillips and his team (Kyle Swansen, Tony Kline) were runners-up with their Specialty beer (category 23), a hoppy Belgian Pale Ale with brettanomyces; Ron Stazuk kept his streak alive by capturing the Spooky and Smashed Pumpkin awards again. After a post-event review revealed a clerical problem with the Witches’ Brew scoring, co-winners were named:  Cindy Pillar and Katie Quiter with “Scary Spice,” who brewed a pumpkin ale with cinnamon and clove,  and Stephanette Smith with “Inky Pawprint,” a very fine dry stout. Also, special kudos to Michael Shannon of the Midnight Carboys for earning 1st place honors in 4 categories and 9 ribbons overall. Well done! The complete results are available here.

The organizers owe a great deal of gratitude to brewers Ryan Clooney and Rob Hunter and all of the staff at Emmett’s Tavern & Brewing Company in Palatine for their incredible hospitality in hosting the event. Everyone on site was unbelievably helpful and patient; the lunch and beers were outstanding. We encourage everyone in the region to visit Emmett’s – great businesses like these deserve our support!

But even more, we really have to thank all of the Chicago area judges and stewards who stepped forward and did such a great job getting through our record number of entries.

Cheers,

Joe Preiser and Steve Hamburg, Organizers

Perfect weather brought out a record crowd (approximately 470 wristbands were distributed) to LaBagh Woods for our umpteenth annual picnic. Suitably we offered 15 beers and 1 cider, all of which were completely drained by 6 pm. The list, in alphabetical order:

• Belhaven Wee Heavy (6.5% Scotch Ale)
• Founders Centennial IPA (7.2% American IPA)
• Goose Island Special Ordinary Bitter (3.5% English Ordinary Bitter)
• Gordon Biersch Schwarzbier (5% Schwarzbier)
• Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest (5.8% German Oktoberfest)
• Half Acre Daisy Cutter (5.2% American Pale Ale)
• Lakefront East Side Dark (5% Munich Dunkel)
• Metropolitan Krankshaft (5% Kölsch)
• Mickey Finn’s Hefeweizen (5.5% Bavarian Hefeweizen)
• New Belgium Hoptober Golden Ale (6% Autumn Ale)
• North Coast Red Seal (5.9% American Amber Ale)
• Rock Bottom Saison (5.6% Belgian-style Saison)
• Rogue Maierfest (6% American Octoberfest)
• Southern Tier Harvest Ale (5.7% English Extra Special Bitter)
• Tyranena Bitter Woman (5.7% American IPA)
• Woodchuck Amber Cider (5% amber cider)

Attendees voted in the featured food competitions and the winners were awarded attractive trophies. We also had separate blind judging for chili and ribs and awarded 1st place trophies to the champs. There were 8 rib competitors this year, 20 chilis, 24 salsas, and plenty of desserts (I don’t have the official count, sorry!).

The Winners:

Ribs – Popular Vote
1. Tim Norris
2. Pigsiclicious
3. Randy Mosher
4. Todd Boza

Ribs – Blind Judging
1. Todd Boza
2. Pigsiclicious
3. Rich Larson
4. Howard Miller

Chili – Popular Vote
1. Thomas Griffin
2. Rodney Kibzey
3. Adam Murphy
4. Dmitry Shub

Chili – Blind Judging
1. Thomas Griffin
2. Jean O’Malley
3. Dan Lehnerer
4. Robert Watts

Salsa – Popular Vote
1. Ed Seaman
2. Jennifer Proesel
3. Brian Bernard
4. Tom Stetter

Dessert – Popular Vote
1. Lowell Defrance
2. Livia Glatz
3. John Warnik
4. Adam Murphy

Many thanks to our friends for their generosity: Laura Blasingame (Map Room), Kevin Blodger (Gordon Biersch), Greg Browne (Mickey Finn’s), Pete Crowley (Rock Bottom Chicago), Matt Gallagher (Half Acre), Doug & Tracy Hurst (Metropolitan), Patrick Karnick (Woodchuck), Russ Klisch (Lakefront Brewing),
Harry Mihailidis (New Belgium), Wil Turner (Goose Island Clybourn), and Rogue Brewing.

With tremendous weather, record-breaking crowds, and tons of great food (and just enough beer) the 2009 CBS picnic may have been our greatest ever. Thanks to everyone – members and nonmembers – who made it such an excellent day.

The Chicago Beer Society and Murphy’s Bleachers presented A Midsummer Day’s Ales, Saturday Aug. 1 at Murphy’s, directly across from the bleacher entrance to Wrigley Field.

Approximately 90 members and guests thoroughly enjoyed the great selection of beers and the amazing food prepared by Murphy’s Bleachers chef Jeanne Carlson and Murphy’s Bleachers proprietor James Murphy (man, that was a great pig roast!). Thanks to Murphy’s for such splendid hospitality – we hope to come back for other events very soon.

Those in attendance also cast ballots for the top Session Beer and Summer Beer. The winners:

Most Favorite Session Beer:
Flywheel, Metropolitan Brewing Co., Chicago IL
Honorable Mention (Tie):
1809 Berliner-style Weisse, Brauerei Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany
Hex-A-Gone Brown, Goose Island-Clybourn

Most Favorite Summer Beer:
Amarillo APA, Brickstone Restaurant & Brewery, Bourbannnais IL

Honorable Mention:
Golden Cap Saison, New Holland Brewing Co., Holland MI