f96h2 CBS Events

12th Annual Chicagoland Brewpub & Microbrewery Shootout (Sold Out)

Come out and enjoy the best beers and best foods from Chicago area brewpubs and microbreweries as CBS presents the Chicagoland Brewpub & Microbrewery Shootout for the 12th consecutive year. Sample a bunch of beers and each brewery’s food item and then vote for your favorites (beer, food item, and beer-food combination). Winners will be announced at the end of the event. Support your favorite brewery or brewpub – or discover a new favorite. Either way, you get to taste the very best beer and food that Chicago has to offer.

The Shootout runs from 1-5 pm in newly-remodeled space at the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N Knox Ave, Chicago. An event flyer and ticket order form was mailed to members (valid as of December 1, 2009) in early December. As of Sunday night, December 27, orders have been processed and the event is now officially sold out. There will be no ticket sales to nonmembers. If your order arrived after the sellout was reached, your check will be returned. Tickets were mailed in early January.

If you weren’t lucky enough to score a ticket, your best bet is to check our CBS-HB listserv, as occasionally there are a handful of last-minute cancellations.

To our members who we could not accommodate, we are very sorry. We have looked into expanding the event, but the participating brewpubs, breweries, and their staffs have said that expanding the attendance would be too difficult for them to handle logistically.

f96h2 CBS Events, General CBS News

33rd Annual Fall Tasting and Dinner at Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro

Join us at Mrs. Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro (3906 N Lincoln Ave, Chicago) on Saturday, November 14 for the 33rd edition of the country’s oldest tasting of commercial beers. This will be a blind tasting to allow you to judge the specially procured beers strictly on their own merit. When the formal tasting ends, all the beers will be available for your enjoyment. There are a limited amount of seats available. Reservations are due by November 7 and pre-payment is required. Everyone must be 21 or older to attend. NO REFUNDS.

Mrs. Murphy and Sons specialize in contemporary Irish cuisine and they’ve prepared a great menu for us that includes:

  • Irish Cheese and Meat Platter
  • Field Greens, Toasted Walnuts & Cashel Bleu Cheese with Cider Vinaigrette
  • Cider Braised Pork Loin -and- Irish Stew
  • Roasted Red Skin Potatoes -and- Sweet & Sour Red Cabbage
  • Irish Brown Soda Bread and Butter
  • Apple Crumble with Whiskey Whipped Cream

Tickets are $45 for CBS members, $55 for nonmembers. As always, nonmembers who sign up for CBS when making reservations get to pay the member rate. Check out the official event flyer for all the tasty details and use the attached form to reserve your tickets. We look forward to seeing you on the 14th!

The Chicago Beer Society emphasizes responsible consumption and recommends public transportation or the use of a designated driver for all our tasting events. Mrs. Murphy and Sons is located a short walk from  the CTA Brown Line stop at Irving Park and is convenient to multiple bus lines and easily accessible by cab.

f96h2 CBS Events, Past CBS Homebrew Events

2009 Spooky Brew Review Homebrew Competition

Hard to believe, but our wacky annual Spooky Brew Review homebrew competition is celebrating its 18th consecutive year!

Emmett's LogoOur host this year will Emmett’s Ale House at 110 North Brockway Street in Palatine, IL (conveniently located virtually adjacent to Metra’s Union Pacific Northwest Line station). As usual, SBR will feature judging in all categories of the BJCP Style Guidelines. But the highlight is always the judging of the special Spooky (scariest) and Smashed Pumpkin (Worst of Show) categories, which definitely should not be missed. For the third year in a row, we’ll also include Witches’ Brew, an open category for beer, mead, and cider brewed only by women.

NOTE: All entries for the Spooky and Smashed Pumpkin categories must be drinkable. Anything deemed otherwise by the Competition Committee will be DISQUALIFIED, and that’s very hard to do.

So, please plan on entering, judging, stewarding, or just attending Spooky Brew Review 2009 — it definitely doesn’t get any crazier than this!

The competition package (including rules & regulations, entry forms, bottle labels, and a style chart) is now available for download here in PDF format.

Judges and Stewards – we need you! If you are interesting in serving as a judge or steward on October 31, please contact competition organizers Joe Preiser (joe @ chibeer.org, 630-759-4569) or Steve Hamburg (stevie @ chibeer.org, 773-878-0177). All general questions can also be directed to the organizers.

f96h2 CBS Events, Other Beer Events

Great Taste of the Midwest (Soldout)

The Great Taste of the Midwest at Olin-Turville Park in Madison, WI is always one of the country’s best beer festivals. It’s become so popular that the limited (now 6000) tickets sell out WAY in advance. This year was no exception – the event was declared a sellout almost as soon as tickets went on sale. But, as has been the case for eons, CBS offers its members an exclusive festival package that includes a coveted ticket to the Taste and round-trip bus transportation from either Chicago or Warrenville. Tickets were sold via a members-only mailing and, not surprisingly, were completely sold out by June 1.

Tickets will be arriving via snail mail very soon. If you didn’t make the cut, your checks will be returned.

Here’s the 411 for those who have scored tickets:

  • City bus departs from Goose Island Clybourn (1800 N Clybourn) at 9:30 am, returns ~9 pm
  • Suburban bus departs from Rock Bottom-Warrenville (Winfield Rd & I-88) at 9:30 am, returns ~9 pm
  • No smoking or glass containers on the buses
  • You must be at least 21 years old to attend
  • Festival tickets will be distributed on the buses
  • Don’t be late for the ride home – most hotel rooms in Madison are already booked!
f96h2 CBS Events

A Midsummer Day’s Ales at Murphy’s Bleachers

The Chicago Beer Society and Murphy’s Bleachers present A Midsummer Day’s Ales, Saturday Aug. 1 at Murphy’s, directly across from the bleacher entrance to Wrigley Field. Weather permitting, Murphy’s will swing open its French doors and offer up the sidewalk café for another fantastic CBS event. Attendees will also be able to take a guided tour of the Murphy’s rooftop.

Summer is flying by, so don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy an outstanding selection of beer and some great al fresco dining. The beer theme for the event is session beers and summer seasonals, and the line up will include a 3.5% farmhouse table beer from the maker of Saison Dupont, two beers from Jolly Pumpkin Ales, and many more from our friends in the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild. We’ll have k ölsch-style beers from as far away as Cologne and as nearby as Bolingbrook and Fulton Street.

Are you partial to hops? We’ll have a couple of APAs, a hoppy lager from one of Chicago’s newest breweries, and a dry-hopped Pils from Rock Bottom Chicago. Looking for some malt and body, we’ll have a brown ale from Wil Turner of Goose Island, and the new Golden Cap Saison from New Holland Brewing Co.  We’ll also throw a Berliner Weisse into the mix. The current beer list includes:

  • 1809 Berliner Weisse, Brauerei Weihenstephan, Freising, Germany
  • Avril, Brasserie Dupont, Belgium
  • Bam Bière and Weizen Bam Bière, Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales, Dexter, MI
  • Gaffel Kölsch, Private Brewery Gaffel, Köln, Germany
  • Amarillo APA, Brickstone Restaurant, Bourbonnais, IL
  • Willow Street White Ale and Hex-A-Gone Brown, Goose Island Clybourn
  • Goose Island Honkers Ale and Summertime, Goose Island Fulton Street
  • Blueberry Wit, Lunar Brewing Co.
  • Hugh Hefnerweizen and Dry-Hopped Czech Pils, Rock Bottom Chicago
  • Flywheel Bright Lager, Metropolitan Brewing
  • Helles, Rock Bottom Orland Park
  • Summerbrau Kölsch, Gordon Biersch, Bolingbrook
  • Dog Days Dortmunder-style Lager, Two Brothers Brewing
  • Golden Cap Saison, New Holland Brewing, MI

Bring your appetite, and you won’t leave hungry. The ploughman’s lunch created by Murphy’s Bleachers chef Jeanne Carlson will be built around three great cheeses:

  • A British classic from Neal’s Yard Dairy (probably Lincolnshire Poacher)
  • Bermuda Triangle, an award-winning aged goat cheese from Cypress Grove Chevre, CA.
  • Grand Cru, the flagship Gruyère from our award-winning friends at Roth Käse, Monroe, WI.

This ploughman’s lunch isn’t just cheese and baguette. Look for fresh tomato chutney, house-baked Irish soda bread, fresh fruit, thinly-sliced smoked duck breast and country-style pate. And then save room for a pig roast with sides, prepared by Murphy’s Bleachers proprietor James Murphy. Once summer is gone you’ll be crying in your beer that you missed this event!

Tickets are $35 for members, $40 for nonmembers. To reserve yours, just download and mail in the official ticket order form.  Nonmember tickets may also be ordered online via Brown Paper Tickets. A limited number of tickets will also be available at the door. Of course, you must be 21 or older to attend. Valid ID required.  All ticket sales are final.

As always, we recommend that you take public transportation or arrange for a designated driver.  Murphy’s Bleachers is located at the corner of Waveland and Sheffield, across the street from the bleacher entrance to Wrigley Field (approximately 1/2 block west and 1 block north of the CTA Red Line Addison station).  The CTA Clark, Addison, and Irving Park buses run late and are a short walk.  Taxis are also an easy option.

We look forward to seeing you at the Bleachers!