Chicago Craft Beer Week

The first 4 people who give me a high five at the West Loop CCBW closing event will get a really nice beer.... I will be the tall bald guy wearing a red sweatshirt with a ninja riding a bike on the back..... best ccbw events so far are #1 local option event they did last firday, they had a ridiculous beer taplist and the crew there are some of the best in the world!! #2 half acre anniv party, they had their great beer and a ton of awesome food and the music and the warehouse was AMAZING! #3 Half acre open house was the real deal...if you were there you know they cracked crazy beers and chilled with all who came by to grab a pint..#4 Hamburger Mary's event was only $20 for 20 pours of the local breweries..... they did not over sell it so it was small and personable and everyone was able to talk with the brewers and there were no lines.....#5. Beer under glass was a great space and great weather but no hard to find beers were served except the rev brew straight jacket with 6 more months in the barrel... Cya all tomorrow!!

 

What about our CCBW tasting

 

How was the west loop closing party?

 

I enjoyed it. Particularly bizarre though were the two possibly-homeless scrappers wheeling a overstuffed park district garbage can full of rusty metal. As in, sharp rusty metals sticking out, and they were just plowing right through the crowd in the middle of the street (the sidewalks were wide open, mind you). I hope no one got tetanus due to those guys.

The VIP was a mad dash of an hour to use all the food tickets we were given, but worked out to effectively unlimited food for that hour. You got 10 food tickets and any menu item at the various vendors was 1 ticket. So I got a half pastrami sandwich with slaw (that pastrami sandwich was great, by the way, as was that slaw), a mini pulled pork with slaw, a banh mi slider, two orders of donuts, a meatstick, and a couple of things of spicy smoked almonds for later and STILL didn't manage to use all my tickets.

Beer-wise, I was glad for some porters, stouts and high gravity options. Tried pretty much anything I wanted to all day. Getting Baudonia again was nice, as well as Buffalo Trace BCS and a few pours of the Haymarket Acrimonious, a beer I very much have enjoyed at the pub. Plus some Sculpin, Rock Bottom Yorktown (I think) brought some tasty stuff, and numerous others did too. I was plenty happy with the fest. Lines for beers were mostly short other than the "FoBAB" station, and even that never really took all that long.

 

weird being at the point where youve ticked 90% of that stuff and wouldn't pay the $$ for the small samples.

 

At their barrel-aged event, the owner said he'd put out some of the stuff (like the GI Imperial Brown Goose) somewhere around that price point, but no one bit on them. So, take that as you will.

 

So? Highlights? People's Top 3? Let's hear it!

 

best two events were the beer temple and the first local option event, both for different reasons. i doubt any event could have been worse than the gi 25th block party. gi tap takeover at the logan theater wasn't so much an event as it was...no one there (but at least the beer was good).

i can't really remember if i went to any others. i had to skip a few events i wanted to hit up due to this being a lean month money-wise, but it sounds like i didn't miss anything earth shattering (though beer under glass would have been awesome).

 

1. Half Acre - echoing everyone elses sentiments,the place was great, the beer was great, the food was great. I would have like a little Mecha Hugs though.
2. Sour mixing at Beer Temple. Hearing these guys talk about the future of beer in Chicago was fun and the mixing part was a fun experiment. Super value for $35.
3. Perennial at Bangers and lace. Awesome beer, food, service. The pours were solid 10 oz of just about everything, including Savant Beersel, and BA Abraxas. You would be hard-pressed to find a better beer dinner for $75.

I made a pit stop at the afters of the Local Option event after the HA party, but was pretty "tired" at that point. Had a BBA Plead the Option and was done. What parts of CCBW I took part in were awesome.

 

forgot one. bangers and lace's solemn oath/lost abbey takeover. great taplist (cuvee de tomme with carbonation is awesome), however it was quite crowded (not GI 25th crowded though) and they were doing a one in one out policy due to being at capacity.

 

Only made it to one event this year (after completely destroying myself last year), Acre's FauxBAB which turned out to be super slept on compared to last year. Awesome tap list (Cherry Rye, BCS Coffee, Baudoinia, Framboise de Amorosa, BA Baume, BA 17, Sucuba) and a very small crowd. Then over to Hopleaf where KBS was still on tap (although I opted for FFF/Off Color Tonnere Neige). Do people just not go to Andersonville any more?

 

$20 for a Doom on draft??? That's just silly but then again he did tell us at BUGS the Doom was a "bonified mega whale"