07/30/08

Six Degrees of Pierre Celis

If the name Pierre Celis doesn't ring a bell, maybe his hometown will: Hoegaarden, Belgium—as in the birthplace of the beer that continues to collect trophies from here to eternity, including Best Belgian-Style White at this year's World Beer Cup. (Hoegaarden, by the way, is now brewed by InBev, the company that just bought Anheuser-Busch. Pay attention. There will be a quiz.)...

Posted at 03:23 PM in Get to the Pint | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/23/08

Mammas, Don’t Let Your Pizzas Grow Up to Be Beers

Frat boys across the nation, rejoice! The rest of us (spoiler alert): Meh. Behold, Mamma Mia! Pizza Beer. Any resemblance to ABBA or Meryl Streep is purely coincidental.

Thanks to devout garage brewers Tom and Athena Seefurth of suburban Campton Township, we now know the answer to that age-old 3 a.m. question: What would happen if we mated pizza and beer? Hint: Some pairings make better friends than lovers. The beer, now brewed by Sprecher in Wisconsin, earns points for originality (yes, that is basil, garlic, oregano, and tomato you smell...

Posted at 04:08 PM in Get to the Pint | Permalink | Comments (0)

07/11/08

Beer Homework

Three things to do this weekend:

1. Stage your own taste test of Bud versus Beck’s, and see if the possible InBev takeover of Anheuser-Busch is worth getting worked up about.

2. Nurse your way through Ale Fest, the  traveling ode to craft beer that’s camping out in Soldier Field from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday the 12th.  Admission is $40 and gets you 20 samples, plus a take-home glass and a bottle opener. GTTP recommends cozying up to Abita, Allagash, Great Lakes, and Lagunitas—and show some love for locals Piece, Three Floyds, Flossmoor Station, and Two Brothers.

3. Or avoid the crowds and drink a Flossmoor Station IPA in the comfort of your own home. The much-lauded microbrewery (2006 Small Brewpub of the Year, Great American Beer Festival; 2002 Best Brewery in Chicago, Chicago mag) just started bottling its beers this past April. In addition to the Station Master Wheat and Pullman Brown, look for a rotating IPA from the never-the-same-twice “Brewer’s Whim” series; the color of the wax dip crowning the cap indicates which IPA is inside. I found the Pretty Big IPA (gold wax) last night at Provenance ($10.50 for 22 ounces). Brewer Andrew Mason says the next in the series, the Lady Columbia IPA (blue wax), a slightly belated toast to the Fourth of July with American-grown Columbus hops, will start popping up around town next Tuesday, the 15th.

Extra credit: Keep tabs on what Mason and brewmaster Matt Van Wyk are up to in their own blog.
 

Posted at 04:31 PM in Get to the Pint | Permalink | Comments (2)

07/03/08

Brotherly Love

The stars were aligned.

I'd just about given up on a former neighborhood favorite, Kuma's Corner. There are only so many times you can hear "45-minute wait" before you gather your dignity and look elsewhere for ridiculously oversized burgers and ear-splitting heavy metal. But last night, signs pointed tentatively to yes: A full day of ominous skies meant the patio crowd might have stayed away, and, if we hustled, we could scoot in a hair before 7 p.m., the hour when all bets are off. Plus, I was...

Posted at 11:59 AM in Get to the Pint | Permalink | Comments (0)