Bottom Lounge - Super Focused, No BS Beer & Spirits Festival

Discussion in 'Great Lakes' started by MarkFy, Apr 26, 2012.

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  1. MarkFy

    MarkFy Initiate (0) Dec 18, 2009 Illinois

  2. billywan

    billywan Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2009 Illinois

    Anyone got any details on this? Haven't seen mch info out there.
     
  3. JakeT469

    JakeT469 Initiate (0) Jan 13, 2012 Colorado

  4. MarkFy

    MarkFy Initiate (0) Dec 18, 2009 Illinois

    I have 3 extra tickets for this. If anyone is interested, BM me.
     
  5. Dontcounttoday

    Dontcounttoday Initiate (0) Apr 23, 2010 Illinois

    Well maybe I haven't been to enough beer festivals, but this was very underwhelming to me. All the breweries they listed were there, and each had 2 beers on tap for you to choose from. There were also a lot of spirits to try but I am not into straight hard alcohol much. Also, upon entering you were given a glass to keep for all your free drinks. The one up side to this was it was only $25/person after taxes and unlimited drinks, so I did drink my fair share easily.

    The first thing I didn't like was that most of the breweries did not have specific labels on their taps, and no additional information on the beer they were tapping. You had to ask the guys pouring what they had and it must have annoyed them because every 10 seconds someone was asking what they had to pour all night. A simple piece of paper on the tappers would have sufficed for the most part. Also, almost none of the brewers had a single special beer of any kind on tap. Half Acre alone (I believe) had a beer on tap that is not normally available, Chocolate Camaro, and even that is being released this week at their brewery. Bells had Oberon and (I think?) their Porter or Pale Ale for tasting, while downstairs you could order and pay for Black Note which has been on tap since Wednesday.

    Almost every beer there was beer you can find off the shelf year around somewhere in the Chicagoland. Exceptions being FFF, Half Acre, and Virtue Cider. Correct me if I forgot any but I don't think so. I would like to say that I was really impressed with Virtue's Red Streak. I had it on tap at Goose Island Clybourne and I remember it was very dry, almost no sweetness, and very bubbly, very much like a champagne. My 3 friends and I all had it there and agreed on that at the time. Yesterday my girlfriend and I had it, and the bubblyness was for the most part gone, it smelled strongly of fresh apples, and was sweet and tasted like apples. Not overly sweet mind you, but just enough. Still pretty dry. Really enjoyed it. The lady doing the pours said it shouldn't have been any different than the GI batch except maybe fresher/different apples used. I don't know what they did differently, but it excites me to see what else they do with ciders.
     
  6. Dontcounttoday

    Dontcounttoday Initiate (0) Apr 23, 2010 Illinois

    Also, fuck them for having done this on a Friday night, and with a 8pm start time. Unless you lived next door to the place, and I don't know why you would want to in that neighborhood, most people have to work early on Monday and couldn't stay late and enjoy themselves. Then again with the beer selection there wasn't much worth staying for anyway.

    Also I am pretty sure they never sold out of tickets
     
  7. nucmedmario

    nucmedmario Initiate (0) Sep 1, 2010 Illinois

    edit: it was a sunday, not friday.

    i had a good time there. yeah they had a lot of beer there that is easily available off the shelf, but the experience of being around fellow beer lovers was fun. i agree that the represenitives should've had signs for their beers. i felt bad asking the FFF guy what the name of the beer was (mushy p.) about 10 times. lincoln anderson also showed up which was a cool surprise. all in all it was a good time for me, well spent $25.
     
  8. billywan

    billywan Initiate (0) Jan 20, 2009 Illinois

    Yeah, it was decent. Not a super rarities fest. Just a chance to try a bunch of stuff. Three Floyd's was the highlight, since it saved me a trip to Indiana. But first time I'd had Firestone Porter and Dragon's Milk, which were both excellent. Chocolate Camaro tasty as well.
    But the highlight was easily the Black Note in the downstairs bar. Didn't have high hopes for it given some of the talk about it on here lately. I loved it. Really, really good. It's steep at $12, but worth it for a one time tasting.
     
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