Illinois Craft Beer Week 2023

For the first time in four years, the ILlinois Craft Brewers Guild is issuing a physical passport for beer drinkers.
I will compare the breweries from 2019, what is the objective it wants beer drinkers to achieve, and what is the payoff for 2023 compared to 2019.
I pulled out my passport from 2019. I will begin by annotating which breweries which participated in 2019 are not participating in 2023. I will denote which breweries I am aware of that have gone defunct separately. The roster of participating 2023 breweries is here.
Not participating in 2023:
359 Brwg. Co.
Anvil & Forge Brwg. & Distilling
Bixi Beer
BrickStone Brwy.
BuckleDown Brwg.
Elder Brwg. Co.
Emmett's Brwg. Co. - all four locations
Flesk Brwg.
Forge Brewhouse
Greenstar Brwg.
Hailstorm Brwg.
Half Day Brwg. Co.
Horse Thief Hollow
JT Walker's Brwy.
King's & Convicts Brwg. Co.
Lake Effect Brwg. Co.
McHenry Brwg.
Mickey Finn's Brwy.
Middle Brow Beer Co.
Mikerphone Brwg.
Peckish Pig
Piece Brwy.
Pipeworks Brwg. Co.
Prairie Street Brwg. Co.
Ravinia Brwg. Co.
River Hawk Brwg.
Rock Bottom - all four locations
Rolling Meadows Farm Brwy.
Side Lot Brwg.
Spiteful Brwg.
The Old Bakery Beer Co.
Twisted Hippo Brwg.
Two Brothers Brwg. Co.
Two Brothers Roundhouse
Two Doors Down Brwy.
White Rooster Farmhouse Brwy.

Defunct Breweries:
Blue Nose Brwy.
Dry City Brew Works
Empirical Brwy.
Gino's Brwg. Co.
Motor Row Brwg.
Rock Bottom - Chicago
Scallywag Brwg.
Smylie Brothers Brwg. Co.
Vice District Brwg. - two locations

In 2019, ICBG wanted you to collect forty or more passport visa stickers. If you accomplished this, you would receive a one-year membership to the ImBIBE program.
In 2023, ICBG wants you to collect fifty or more passport visa stickers between 19 May and 19 August. If you accomplish this, you will be eligible for entry to a drawing for a gift card to the passport brewery of your choice.
At your last brewery, have the Authorization Form on the last page of the passport verified by a brewery employee. It must be postmarked by 19 August.

This is a selective vista of the campaign. I did not annotate the new breweries which have opened since 2019 which are participating.
There are distinctive breweries which did not participate in 2019 and are not participating in 2023, such as Metropolitan Brwg. and Wild Onion Brwy.

I will not go into the weeds to identify perplexing listings in the Illinois Brewing Spring 2023 magazine except for - in Lockport, placing Nik & Ivy Brwg. Co. at 1026 S. State St. in the "West Suburbs" section, and Lock & Mule by Tangled Roots Brwg. Co. at 1025 S. State St. in the "Southwest" section. To split these two locations across the street from the other is total ridiculousness.

I am revamping this with the addition that I got my passport at Hopewell. On my second stop, at the Revolution Brewpub on Milwaukee Ave. {My Friday route was down Milwaukee Ave.}; I opted to have only one beer before moving on. It was the Hopfen beer. Wben you do "one-and-done" at Revolution, the tab is settled before you are actually served the beer you ordered.
I had the misfortune to be served by Magnolia C.. I did not tip her the default 20%. I tipped $1.24 on a $7.00 tab.
When I subsequently asked for my passport visa sticker; it could have been placed almost anywhere on page 1 or 2.
Magnolia C. placed it on page 14.
What a petty [and I do not mean Tom] way to reprise against me for not giving her the default 20%.
When you go to Revolution on Milwaukee Ave., do not let her serve you. Fib if you must and utter "somebody else got my order".
Elsewhere, I got the visa sticker from Pilot Project. Life on Marz did not have any stickers; but this was ameliorated by the canned beer I had being on special for $4.00. It will get stickers, and I will get back to Western & Armitage sometime this week for Still Life by Solemn Oath.
My last stop for Friday was amended to Maplewood Brwg. off Diversey Ave. (via Western Ave.). I also deposited my plastic 4- and 6-pack can holders there.
I have begun my seven-day Ventra pass, which this year, is valid on Pace bus routes.
I am currently at Short Fuse Brwg. on N. River Rd. It can't locate where are its stickers. I will depart here to ride the Pace route #330 bus to Hop District Community Brwg. on 31st St. in LaGrange Park. It is also its 3rd Anniversary. I phoned it. It has the stickers. If you are out here in the western suburbs, you could encounter me at Hop District from ~4:30 - 8:10 pm Saturday.
Where I will go on Sunday is currently undetermined.

Also, as I visualize the long faces of publicans like Chris Quinn, Michael Roper, and Brad C., _please remember to patronize beer bars during these upcoming months_.

 

21st October 2022 [!].

 

~Days #2 & #3 of ICBW 2023~

Get on with it, Pudgy.
I got back to the abode here on Saturday night; not too late, but that did include a multi-transfer Pace and CTA route.
I likely cannot include or link to the beer weblog of him here, and he is not actually on my regular bookmark page, but there is an English beer blogger who goes by BRAPA. His beerblog is now on WIX. [It used to be on Blogspot. He did not necessarily have a problem with Google, but he prefers WIX's photohandling capabilities.]
His mission is to get to every pub which has been, is, or might be listed in CAMRA's "Good Beer Guide".
He has an ally: His father, who occasionally will motor him to far, far, faraway pubs which cannot be reach by public transit (and he joins him on other explorations). In the U.K., public transit routes, both rail and motor coach, are sporadically cancelled.
I mention this here and now because, waiting for the last NB route #330 bus @ LaGrange Rd. & 31st St.; from 8:05 pm, and not having that bus appear until 8:26 pm, when it should have arrived @ 8:19 pm - in those minutes between, your heart will race, and your brain will begin computing "What will I do if it does not show up?"

I did have a beer at Penrose. I am currently at Art History in Geneva. The handpump offering 'Dance Card w|coffee' Brown Ale is quite good.
For statistical purposes [I.E.: I have to get to fifty this year.], I will have a beer at Stockholm's. I am not looking forward to it.


Do I need to remind you I do not have a mobile phone? The moment outside Hop District might be a moment when it could be useful. But is it worth surrendering my Fourth Amendment rights? This is something I cogitate. It amplifies when I read on fora, beyond BeerAdvocate, where subscribers to mobile phone plans vent on how horrid is their phone plan provider.
But they feel "locked in" and they perceive they cannot discontinue, much less switch, their phone plans.
I hope to never fall into such a trap like this.
It seems to me all the contemporary mobile phone plans are scripted like this. You will never get out. They will soak you until you die, and then they will try to soak whoever is your survivor. And all this while, they perform the "unreasonable searches" which are prohibited to the United States Government.
Should you ever become an "enemy of the state" (How? Have you ever supported an event benefiting a woman's right to have an abortion? There have been a number of brewery events and beers brewed with the proceeds going to an organization like that.), you may be redefined as such. If the presidential administration changes in 2024, it is so possible as to be likely that it will strive to disenfranchise people like you, especially if you reside in a 'swing' state like Illinois, Ohio, or Colorado.
It will obtain a court order to turn over all your phone calls, and texts to it. Your mobile phone carrier might object, but when confronted with possible hugh fines for non-compliance, will give the administration everything it requested.
Supposedly 'confidential' data on mobile phone subscribers is hacked so often to be part and parcel of what will occur. It is not just teenage boys living in their parents' basement. It is 50+ aged persons who never had a 'golden era', and now want that nobody else ever has one either. They are equipped with the malware scripts originally written for the C.I.A. and N.S.A.*, but which were hacked and released onto the Internet.

Your identity will be "doxxed" on the internet to all the vigilantes whose miserable, solitary existence is messing with the lives' of people they loathe.
Like (now) you.
Is this worth having a mobile phone?

Ohmigawd. I am really sorry. I know most of you hit the BeerAdvocate forum to seek relief from the day's stresses.
Then I go off on this tangent.
Haymarket Brwy. @ Randolph & Halsted in Chicago might still host the "Drinking and Writing Club". Some of my best writing is done while partially intoxicated.

I have not yet figured out where I will go on Monday. I have to be cognizant that a number of participating breweries are not open on Monday.
I have some future days planned out. But they do not have to be scheduled during Craft Beer Week. I will check the Beeronaut's beerblog to see if breweries which were not on the roster to visit are hosting something which may get them on it.

Tuesday looks like the day I'll ride the #390 bus to Imperial Oak Brwg. in Willow Springs, IL. It will host a Pinball Tournament starting @ 7:00 pm. I need to be out of there by 9:21 pm to catch the #390 bus back to the Orange Line "L" Midway terminus.
Wednesday may be the day to hit the District Brewyard area. Midwest Coast offers $5.00 on its beers (but they're not participating in the passport {WTH!}), and I can likely get passport visa stickers for On Tour, Great Central, Goose Island Fulton St. (!), and the District Brew Yards. This could also be when I check back with Life on Marz.
Thursday is a day when, if I was staying at the abode, I would take part in a ZOOM Chat called the "Drunk Do" by a member (in NYC) of the FlyerTalk Forum. If you are not averse to chatting with (AFAYK) 'strangers' who are also members of the FlyerTalk forum, this is an intriguing event. (I am familiar with a bunch of people on both FlyerTalk, and with whom I trafficked in Tokyo, Japan in early April.) You may already have an account at FlyerTalk, but you have not accessed it in years. If you want to participate in this Zoom chat, you need to sign on to your FlyerTalk account, surf to this event in "Community Buzz", and respond there. The admin (in NYC) will send the Zoom URL to your mailbox earlier in the day on the 25th.
I will appear there, but since my Windows 8.1 laptop doesn't seem to have an audio port (but I will hear you), will confine my chat responses to text.
As to where I will be: That is unknown.

* = Yes. The best malware out here was written with your U.S. tax dollars behind it. But should you complain publicly about that, it is another element which could get you named an "enemy of the state".

 

Revision #3: I am up to twenty-six breweries, including one which does not count to ICBG. After learning at Beer Under in a Glass there are breweries which are participating in the passport program, but which were not listed in the physical document, I will e-mail breweries which are not listed to query if they are in fact doing so. I think breweries like Lake Bluff Brwg., Mickey Finn's Brwy., Crystal Lake Brwg., Packish Pig {honestly, this venue has rubbed me the wrong way - were I to visit here to learn if it is participating, a "no" answer would see me depart without having any of its beers}, may be more venues as such.
There are breweries which can be combined on public transportation jaunts. On Monday (29th), I will visit Une Annee / Hubbard's Cave, and Illuminated Beer Works (to which, if you are there, I will make an eye-popping admission, with illustrative backdrop).
Another day will view me making the full jaunt down Western Ave.: [Horse Thief Hollow, Open Outcry, Blue Island Beer Co., and maybe Life on Marz; if I haven't gotten back there.]
For mentioning Life on Marz, Still Life by Solemn Oath should be hit, and so should Middle Brow Beer Co. The latter is not listed, but it may be included.
Another day will be the Evanston swing: Howard St. Brwg., Sketchbook (Evanston), Double Clutch Brwg., & Temperance Beer Co.
Another day will be the west suburban flight: One Lake Brwg., Lunar Brwg., More Brwg. (Villa Park), Noon Whistle Brwg. (Lombard).
Old Irving Brwg. will be tacked on to something from the north or northwestern suburbs {e.g.: Mickey Finn's}.
Moody Tongue will be part of an expedition for breweries like Duneyrr Artisan Fermenta Project.
Marz Community Brwg. and Whiner Beer Co. will be another day's effort.
Half Acre Brwg. and Spiteful Brwg., despite the latter's seeming non-participation, will get a visit.
Imperial Oak Brwg. can be spotted on either one of the three weekday Metra outbound Heritage Line trains, or the weekday U.P.S. shift-day Pace route #390 bus (from Willow Springs & Archer); or the special Saturday-only trains which may begin next Saturday (but I haven't glimpsed any publicity for it). This is also the route for Pollyanna Brwg. (Lemont) and the two breweries across the road from each other in Lockport, but which ICBG put in two different sections.
There are numerous breweries which, as far as I can discern, can only be visited on their own. These include [e.g.:] Flossmoor Station Brwg., and Crystal Lake Brwg. Flossmoor Sta. is on the Metra Electric line, which offers half-price fares from downtown Chicago to there every day.

 

Another day.
I routed myself northwest today, Memorial Day.
I took three buses, including Pace's BRT Pulse route on N. Milwaukee Ave. and walked east from Touhy & Milwaukee to Une Annee | Hubbard's Cave (listed as on Gross Point Rd.).
Getting in here on foot from the west is tricky. You should turn into the west parking lot for the Leaning Tower YMCA, walk north, and look for a closed (but unlocked) gate on the north edge of its parking lot. Unlatch the gate (but reclose it after you), and there will be an open gate on the western edge of the property line. Passing through that gate brings you to door 3 of the brewery.

After all this, I must sadly announce that the brewery is not participating in the passport program.
{But, I did make it give me an unofficial passport seal. I was here; whether ICBG wants to know or not.}
Another customer ordering beers here asked about the passport, and was similarly informed.
So, some breweries which are not listed in the physical passport are taking part, but not all of them. Do not let this be the complete lockout | bypass for the location. There are twenty-four beers on draught here, divided evenly between the two named concerns.
I am heading for Illuminated Beer Works after here. It is summarily done by riding the Pace route #290 Touhy bus west to the Park Ridge Metra train station, and transferring to a CTA route #68 NW Hwy bus southeast to IBW.

 

After a more or less mandatory day off, I resume the Ventra 7-day pass Wednesday with a rearranged order of disparate Illinois breweries.

1. Sketchbook Brwg. - Skokie
2. Alarmist Brwg.
3. Howard Street Brwg.

They were rearranged because of their opening times, and the weekday rush-hours-only operation of the CTA route #54A North Cicero bus.

The key question to be asked at Alarmist is, "How many people have appeared here and asked for an Orange Sunshine or Trust?"
("What is Pudgy talking about this time?" Have the Spring 2023 issue of the ICBG's official Illinois Brewing magazine? Turn to page 43. Inspect the lavish description of Illuminated Beer Works. Then notice the address given in the sidebar.) (So many ghastly errors in this. I would have proof-read it for a case of Illinois beer.)
The three Evanston breweries will be swung through on another day. The three breweries on south Western Ave. in Chicago and Blue Island shall occur on another day with another Ventra pass. Marz Beer on S. Iron St. and Whiner Beer could be their own day, or could be tacked on to Moody Tongue Brwg. and myself visiting Duneyrr | Dutchbag Brwg. to see if it might be participating.
Adams St. Brwg. (ex-Berghoff) will be corraled with Haymarket Brwg. & Cruz Blanca Brwy.
Rabid Brwg. will be a special day all to itself, because I its space and I can couple it with either BBQ from Uncle John's, or chicken from Harold's of Homewood. The Pace route #352 Halsted bus runs 24-hours-a-day, and the route #353 departs from the Pace Homewood park-&-ride as late as 11:18 pm on weekdays.
[Yes, it will take over two hours to get to | from there from the abode. But I am going there.]

 

I got to the three breweries on Wednesday. Rearranging them provided one benefit. Sketchbook Skokie has 'Happy Hour' from 2-6 pm on weekdays.
The interval of the route #54A bus is sufficiently lengthy enough that I was able to exit the southbound bus at Skokie & Jarwath, cut through the parking lot of Lincolnwood Toyota to find the gap in fencing on its southeast edge, order fresh bagels from New York Bagels & Bialys, and hoof it back to Skokie & Jarwath before the next southbound #54A bus.
{You should avoid the intersection of Skokie Blvd. and Touhy Ave. as much as possible. Motorists are maniacs here with the expressway literally drawing blood from them.}

Here are key photographs for when you're on foot and striving to find Une Annee | Hubbard's Cave; walking north from Touhy Ave. I mentioned the Leaning Tower YMCA. It has a traffic light. But this is the parking lot through which you should stroll. It does not have a traffic signal covering its entrance | exit.
If you glimpse this, you are on the correct route.
Does it look forboding? It might, but it is not impassible. After you pass through that gate, you will espy this gate. Just beyond this gate is entrance 3.
But again, it is not participating in the passport program. It is up to you if you want to visit.
I am up to twenty-seven breweries, of which 25 count for I.C.B.G.
Today being the first Thursday of the month means it is time for the Chicago Beer Society to have its monthly assemblage at The Beer Temple on N. Elston Ave. Yes, a beer bar gets a break from all these brewery and taproom jaunts.

 

Here is what Friday is looking like.
Flapjack Brwy. does not open until 4:00 pm (even on Friday). I will leave the abode here at about 2:00 pm. Go directly south on CTA route #54 Cicero to Cermak Rd. Have another italian beef sandwich from Scatchell's.
Get back to Cermak and Cicero and ride the Pace #302 bus west on several streets, but mostly Stanley. Exit at Oak Park Ave. and walk to the next block - Flapjack Brwy.
With my drinking hours compressed, I will have only one beer here (and really could not wait to be served and eat its pizza). Back at Stanley & Oak Park, ride the Pace #311 bus north to Lake St. This stretch included the now-defunct Oak Park Brwg. Co. Ride the Green Line "L" back east to Austin Ave. Head to One Lake Brwg. Again, just one beer here. The Pace route #309 bus is on a thirty-minute headway (at the top & bottom of each hour). It is a 51-minute ride to Elmhurst Brwg. Perhaps there I can order a second beer. The final eastbound #309 bus back to Austin & Lake is at 9:19 pm.

 

Sometimes things just do not go as planned. It is especially frustrating when it is due to someone else's nonperformance.
It has taken me a few days to post this Passport program update.
On Friday, I went to Flapjack Brwy. in Berwyn. I arrived seconds after it opened at 4:00 pm, yet there was people already in attendance. I utilized the Pace route #302 bus which, in a portent, had been adjusted from the route still shown on its map on the Pace World-Wide Web site; due to construction on Stanley Ave. which had it detoured from westbound traffic. The bus went westbound on 31st St. It did not head south on Oak Park Ave. to try to get back on its route. When I realized this, I rang out and was physically egressed at the block just west of Oak Park. {which was OK, because Flapjack is west of this block}.
I had a Berwyner Czech Pilsner (& got the passport sticker). It was good. I was able to connect to its wifi network. It showed that a northbound Pace route #311 Oak Park Ave. bus was due in another 15 minutes after I had finished the beer.
I left the venue and walked back to Oak Park & Stanley. There is a bench where you can sit while waiting for a northbound #311 bus. You have a nice view of the BNSF Metra train line running in the median.
The bus was supposed to arrive in 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes became 30 minutes, then 45 minutes, and then 60 minutes without any Pace vehicle arriving! Yes, Pace gets a W T F. This was a weekday rush hour run! What happened to that bus operator? Why was there not any coverage?
After this, I decided I should walk westward to Harlem Ave., where I was (at this moment) clearly shaken, but still resilient that there would be northbound service on route #307. I wanted to transfer to a westbound route #309 Lake St. bus west to Elmhurst and Elmhurst Brwg.
I successfully walked the distance along 31st St. A route #307 Harlem Ave. bus actually boarded me about five minutes later. It ran fairly well. But, when it got to Harlem & Lake St., It discharged me just too late for the westbound #309. There it went.
The schedule showed the next westbound #309 bus was not for another 55 minutes. Again, by now, I have no confidence that any Pace bus is going to appear when a posted schedule shows it should.

Elmhurst Brwg. gets dumped for another day.

I opt for heading upstairs to the Chicago Transit Authority Green Line "L" Harlem terminus, which I have faith is not going to have any 30-60 minute gaps in service, and go to One Lake Brwg. It was a participant in the 2019 Passport program, but is not listed in the 2023 Passport. However, as an observer here on Beer Advocate has relayed, there is (at least) one brewery which is not listed in the Passport that actually has the stickers, so I felt - let's give it a shot.
Astonishingly (or perhaps not), a Green Line "L" train actually runs in a timely fashion between Harlem and Austin.
I go inside One Lake Brwg. I was actually here about a month prior. I did not mention it anywhere because I ate here. Its food menu was unavailable to me because it is only on its app , and what I wound up ordering was a fish & chips entree which cost $18.00 for a diminutive amount of each. It should have had either more fish or chips, or charged around $15.00 for it.
I ordered a draught beer from it. I displayed the Passport, which drew a revulsion from my female server who thought the ICBG Passport bore too close a resemblance to the United States Passport. [This is actually a valid point. How about selecting a color more familiar to beer drinkers? Something else about ICBG which I could complain, but which a certain listserv administrator who should remain unidentified, but is Roger Deschner, would not release to his listserv, which is on its deathbed as it is. "I'm not on it anymore, Roger! Take that."]
(ICBG can issue a handbill at Beer Under in a Glass urging people to contact their state legislators to demand that direct shipping of beer be allowed since direct shipping of wine has been legal since 2007, but were I to include this detail in a prospective post to a just-mentioned listserv, WOULD BE REJECTED AS "POLITICS".)
Anyhow, One Lake is not participating in the Passport program, but I impressed the staff manager there to opt to give me an unofficial sticker. I am mildly discontent that it takes up two spaces in the Passport, but it is there. It is not the first brewery I have visited which is not participating.
I have other breweries which are not participating in the Passport program on my list of venues to visit between now and 19 August, including breweries which are not members of ICBG (of which I have already been to one).

Wednesday night; I am taking advantage of a program by Tinley Park to visit at least two of the four ICBG breweries there.
Look at that. Tinley Park has four breweries, but two of the four are not participating in the Passport program {if they are, I have not heard about it from anybody}. Flipside and Soundgrowler are the two which will definitely get my visit. I hope that Banging Gavel Brwy. (whose beers I had in Summer 2022) is really participating, because I will terminate there. The last Rock Island District train [half-price for everybody] back to Chicago is at 10:11 pm.

I am now going to open another can of worms relating to ICBG. I am composing this from Cultivate by Forbidden Root in Ravenswood. It counts, but the brewpub where I will head is not a member of ICBG. It is close to Lawrence Ave.
In 2019, ICBG asked you to get to forty breweries. If you did, the prize was a year's membership to IMBiBE, its frequent drinker program (which is something else you should urge your state legislator to legally permit - and again - would be "POLITICS" on the mentioned listserv).
For 2023, ICBG wants you (& me) to visit at least fifty Illinois breweries which are listed in its Passport. There are numerous breweries which took part in 2019 which are not participating in 2023.
The 'award' for visiting this year is

Notice that the amount of the gift card is unspecified. If it is not at least one hundred dollars, this has 'class action lawsuit' embedded. {Really?! Would ICBG try to get away with after specifying members spend multiple hundreds of dollars at participating breweries with a twenty-five or fifty dollar gift card?!}
How many people will actually get to fifty listed breweries?
Then, they also have to identify which brewery from which they want to get the gift card. Let us claim that there would be fifty-one people who make the grade. The fifty-one of them specify the brewery from which they want the gift card select Goose Island, Hop Butcher for the World, and Mikerphone.
Of the seventeen people selecting this brewer(ies), only one will get the gift card. The other sixteen get a "Thanks for playing!" e-mail message.
Lucidly, the way you have to play this game, and it is a game, is to choose a brewery which you believe will not have a lot of qualifiers entering its drawing. You really want to be the only person wanting the gift card from it!
What brewery might that be? If you think I am going to identify a brewery which might go into this classification, you are wrong. I will scribe my selected brewery will not be any of the three I mention above.

Concluding - I will be out-&-about on Wednesday in Tinley Park. If you seek me there, I will go even deeper into this topic.