Chicago Beer Society

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 compeleted, 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

Day & Night of the Living Ales, the region’s largest celebration of cask-conditioned beers, was held on March 7. Twenty-two breweries from Chicagoland and beyond provided 41 different beers, while 500 attendees sampled the beers over two sessions and cast ballots to decide the 2009 Champion Real Ale of Chicagoland.

In very tight balloting, Surly Brewing‘s Tea-bagged Furious  IPA emerged as the repeat champion. Rock Bottom-Yorktown captured second place with its unique ShamRock Stout, while California’s Bear Republic took third with its Apex Imperial IPA.  In addition, the cellar staff (also consulting a list of nominees from the 12-1 professional brewers session) awards an annual Golden Tut Award to the brewery/beer that best exemplifies the overall cask ale experience. Moylan’s Batch #1000 Double Kilt Lifter was chosen for its superior clarity and conditioning.  Congratulations to the champions, and thanks to all the breweries and their brewers for supplying such an outstanding list of beers.

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. To all our devoted members and friends who put in many hours and traveled great distances to help us, we can’t possibly say “thank you” enough!

We also owe a great debt to the Brewers Supply Group for their sponsorship; Marion Street Cheese Market (Oak Park) for their fabulous cheese; Andy’s Deli for the creative meat trays.  Above all, we want to thank John Hall, Greg Hall and Goose Island Beer Company for their unstinting support of the Beer Society over the last 22 years. Goose Island Wrigleyville has been the gracious host of this event every year. Thanks to GI-W’s General Manager Reggie Snead, GI Catering and Special Events Director Sandra Duncan, and all their staff for their help.

Of course, events like this could not take place without the support of our members and guests who buy tickets and attend. Last year we sold way too many tickets than the limited space would comfortably allow.  Many of you spoke up about this and we listened. More importantly, we acted. That’s why we split the event into two sessions and capped ticket sales so we had half the number of people at each session. We’ve already heard some positive feedback, but we know we can always improve, so keep those cards and letters coming.

Cheers!

The 11th Annual Brewpub Shootout is over!

There were 12 participants this year (with the area Rock Bottoms pairing up in North/South and East/West teams; two scheduled brewpubs couldn’t make it at the last minute due to extenuating circumstaces) and the usual sellout of some three hundred CBS members. Awards are presented in three categories (Favorite Beer, Favorite Food, Favorite Beer/Food Pairing) , with the top three in each taking home an attractive trophy. The attendees vote and submit their ballots before the event is over 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.

By the way, the awards as announced at the Shootout were presented as 1,2,3 when they should have been 3,2,1. So, the list below is correct and apologies to all for the mix-up. The 1st and 3rd place plaques will be swapped at the February meeting of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. We promise to be much more careful about this next year!

11th Annual Chicagoland Brewpub Shootout Awards:

Beer
1. Rock Bottom E/W (Chicago & Warrenville)
2. Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery
3. Rock Bottom N/S (Orland Park & Lombard)

Food
1. Rock Bottom E/W (Chicago & Warrenville) – Seared Kobe Beef Medallions with Andouille Potatoes, Spinach, Balsamic-Chipotle Glaze, Tomato Emulsion and crispy carrots.
2. Gordon Biersch – Ahi Tuna marinated in Sriracha, soy sauce, toasted black and white sesame seeds. Served on a fried wonton topped with namasu.
3. Rock Bottom N/S (Orland Park & Lombard) – Seared Barley-Encrusted Lamb Chop and Porter Marinated Sea Scallop served atop Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Cilantro-Lime Pesto and Chipotle Mango Sauce, topped with crispy onion slivers and fried carrot strings.

Pairing
1. America’s Brewing – Bol Le Hautes Terres with Peat Smoked Scotch Ale.
2. Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery – Killer Chocolate Silk Tart with Killer Kapowski Baltic Porter.
3. Rock Bottom E/W (Chicago & Warrenville) – Seared Kobe Beef Medallions with Andouille Potatoes, Spinach, Balsamic-Chipotle Glaze, Tomato Emulsion and crispy carrots. Paired with CBS Düsseldorf Alt.

As always, this was a spectacular event. Thanks to all of the Brewpubs, Brewers, Chefs and their Assistants for coming out to support us. And, of course, thanks to our great members who continue to make the Shootout such a popular and enjoyable day.

On the rainiest day in Chicago history, a dedicated crowd of approximately 75-80 members and guests crowded under the permanent shelter and a virtual village of E-Z Ups to sample eight commercial beers, homebrewed beer and root beer, and the food entries in our annual War of the Ribs/Chili/Salsa/Desserts.

Given the smaller attendance and the travel difficulties, we limited the beer list to those that were stored closest to the picnic site or brought by attendees (special thanks to Greg Brown of Mickey Finn’s for enduring a 3-hour drive from Libertyville!). This was half of those originally advertised, but proved to be the perfect quantity for our own “Barmy Army.” The menu: America’s Brewing Baltic Porter, Founders Centennial IPA, Hacker-Pschorr Oktoberfest Märzen, Lagunitas Dogtown Pale Ale, Mickey Finn’s Hefe Weizen, Ommegang Rare Vos, Sprecher Hefe Weiss, and Southern Tier Phin & Matt’s Pale Ale.

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 only 3 rib competitors this year, but remarkably we had 11 chilis, 13 salsas, and 7 desserts.

The Winners:

Ribs – Popular Vote and Blind Judging (identical results)
1. Randy Mosher
2. Paul Marvine
3. Pigsilicious

Chili – Popular Vote
1. Thomas Griffin
2. Robert Watts
3. Doug Lenzo

Chili – Blind Judging
1. Julie/David Rice, Fred Hersh
2. Robert Watts
3. Thomas Griffin

Salsa – Popular Vote
1. Ray Spangler (special guest Bloatarian)
2. (tie) Linda Maher
2. (tie) Camille Romero

Dessert – Popular Vote
1. Jennifer Caputo
2. Julie Rice
3. Nancy Cline

Thanks to everyone who braved the elements to turn doom and gloom into a wonderful afternoon of beer, food, and friends. While we hope for better weather in 2009, this year’s edition will stand as one of our most memorable picnics ever.

Night of the Living Ales, the region’s largest celebration of cask-conditioned beers, was held on March 1. Twenty breweries from Chicagoland and beyond provided 40 casks of real ale, while over 500 attendees sampled the beers and cast ballots to decide the 2008 Champion Real Ale of Chicagoland. After spirited voting, Surly Brewing‘s Tea-bagged Furious (Hoppy) emerged as the champion. Goose Island-Fulton captured second place with its Imperial Stout with Chicory, while Rock Bottom-Orland Park took third with its unusual M&D Peanut Butter Brown. Congratulations to the champions, and thanks to all the breweries for supplying such an outstanding list of beers.

NotLA IV simply could not take place without the support of CBS members and guests. We also owe a great debt to the Siebel Institute of Technology and World Brewing Academy and the Brewers Supply Group for their sponsorship this year; Roth Kase USA for supplying the fabulous cheese for the fourth straight year; above all, we want to thank John Hall and Goose Island Beer Company for their unstinting support for CBS over the last 20 years. Goose Island Wrigleyville has been our gracious host every year. Thanks to Reggie, Minda, Daria, and all their staff for their help.

We realize that this year’s event was much more crowded than it should have been. We’re sorry that we oversold tickets, but can assure everyone that we will substantially limit capacity in future years. We know that this may exclude some of you, but this will definitely provide a more comfortable environment and a better experience for all who attend.

Here’s the full list of breweries and their beers:

Goose Island Brewpub – Clybourn Avenue
1. Debbie’s Special Bitter
2. Pub Stout

Goose Island Brewery – Fulton Street
3. Matilda w/Juniper Berries & Branch Tips (pre-brett)
4. Honker’s Ale (dry-hopped)
5. Matilda w/Lime & Orange Peels (pre-brett)
6. Imperial Stout w/Chicory (Bourbon County pre-barrel)

Piece Brewery & Pizzeria
7. Big Black Moriah Smoked Porter
8. Mooseknuckle Barleywine

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery – Chicago
9. Blitzen Belgian Strong Golden
10. Siegle d’Houblon de Moineau Belgian Rye-P-A
11. Who Are You Wit?

America’s Brewing Co – Aurora
12. Rex Grossman’s Big Play Barleywine
13. Kyle Orton’s Statistically Strong Scotch Ale

Brass Restaurant & Brewery – Lake Barrington
14. Anticipation Pale Ale

Emmett’s Tavern & Brewing Co – West Dundee, Palatine, Downers Grove, Oswego
15. McCarthy Red Ale

Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery – Flossmoor
16. Bitter Harvest American Pale Ale
17. Milky Way Stout
18. X-IPA

Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant – Bolingbrook
19. Schwarzbier

Govnor’s Public House – Lake in the Hills
20. Randall Road IPA (dry-hopped)

Lunar Brewing – Villa Park
21. Kind Ale IPA
22. Orion’s Oatmeal Pale

Mickey Finn’s Brewery – Libertyville
23. Rye Stout
24. Irish Red Ale

M.T. Barrels – West Dundee
25. HopHead Heaven IPA

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery – Orland Park
26. King of Hearts Imperial Red
27. M&D Peanut Butter Brown
28. Naughty Scot
29. Hopbomb IPA

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery – Warrenville
30. Belgial Dubbel
31. English IPA

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery – Yorktown
32. Valentines’ Double IPA
33. 630 Suburban Wheat
34. McCoy’s Pomegranate Stout

Two Brothers Brewing Co. & Taphouse – warrenville
35. Cane & Ebel

Lagunitas Brewing – Petaluma, CA
36. Old Gnarlywine

Three Floyds Brewing – Munster, IN
37. Decimator Doppelbock
38. Blackheart English IPA

Surly Brewing – Brooklyn Center, MN
39. Oak-aged Bender (Malty)
40. Tea-bagged Furious (Hoppy)

The Tenth Annual Brewpub Shootout is over!

There were 15 Chicago area Brewpubs invited and they served beer paired with a dish of food for more than three hundred CBS members. The awards for the CBS Brewpub Shootout are awarded based on popular vote from those members that attended the event. There are awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd Favorite Beer, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Favorite Food Dish and 1st, 2nd and 3rd Favorite Overall Beer and Food Pairing.

The attendees vote and submit their ballots before the event is over and the votes are counted and awards are presented near the end of the event.

The Awards Follow:

Beer
1. Kind Ale IPA – Flossmoor Station Restaurant and Brewery
2. Hvedegoop Wheat Wine – Three Floyds Brewing Co.
3. American Barleywine – Rock Bottom Yorktown

Food
1. Emmett’s Tavern and Brewing Company – Grilled Duck Breast with a Blackcurrant Glaze, Jasmine Rice Cake and Braised Leeks.
2. Rock Bottom – Crispy Prosciutto wrapped Shrimp atop Barley Encrusted Beef Tenderloin with Blood Orange-infused Wort Glace.
3. Gordon Biersch – New Orleans Style Marzen Barbeque Shrimp on French Bread

Pairing
1. Rock Bottom – Crispy Prosciutto wrapped Shrimp atop Barley Encrusted Beef Tenderloin with Blood Orange-infused Wort Glace. Paired with American Barleywine (Yorktown).
2. Goose Island Brew Pub – Braised Beef Oxtail served on a Crustini with Bone Marrow Demi Glace. Paired with aged La Deuxieme Beligian Dubbel.
3. Emmett’s Tavern and Brewing Company- Grilled Duck Breast with a Blackcurrant Glaze, Jasmine Rice Cake and Braised Leeks. Paired with Destitute Dick’s Colonial Ale

As always, this was a superb event (and the tenth anniversary!). We wish to thank all of the Brewpubs, Brewers, Chefs and their Assistants for coming out to support this event. We also wish to thank our great members and we hope you had as much fun as we did!