Illinois Craft Beer Week 2023

It is time for me to let you know how I am doing on my quest to get to fifty Illinois craft breweries for the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild's "Summer Passport" (2023) program | scheme.
I am up to forty-eight breweries as on 15 June 2023. There are also four breweries visited which do not count toward the fifty, and another two which are not member breweries of ICBG, and both could increase. {You may query which they are.}
Here are the "easy" breweries which I have yet to visit.

• Cruz Blanca Brwy.
• Solemn Oath Brwy. Still Life
• Half Acre Beer Co.*
• Crust Brwg.
• Hop Butcher for the World Brwg.
• Marz Community Brwg.
• Whiner Beer Co.
• Elmhurst Brwg.

* = This will cause a visit to Spiteful Brwg. which seems to no longer be a member brewery of ICBG.
Here are the "difficult" breweries which I want to visit.

• Alter Brwg.
• Crystal Lake Brwg.
• Ike & Oak Brwg. Co.
• Light the Lamp Brwg.
• Macushla Brwg.
• MyGrain Brwg.
• Pollyanna Brwg. - Lemont
• Rabid Brwg.
• Two Hound Red Brwg. Co.
• Broken Tee Brwg. Co.
• Holzlager Brwg.
• Liquid Love Brwg.
• Nightshade and Dark's Pandemonium Brwg.
• Tighthead Brwg.
• Brothership Brwg.
• Arrowhead Ales Brwg.
• Milk Money Brwg.
• Sturdy Shelter Brwg.
• Whiskey Hill Brwg.

There is also a select number of "difficult" breweries I will strive to visit before 19 August, at the least to try to learn why they are not a member of ICBG. This includes Kings & Convicts Brwg. in Highwood. Yes, this is the entity which now owns Ballast Point Brwg., and has shifted much of its activity to San Diego, CA., but a search reveals that the diminutive brewpub in Highwood is still open. On the same UP-North train line is Lake Bluff Brwg.
I leave it at that for now. On Friday, I anticipate going downtown. I will hit Cruz Blanca. I should get to Still Life by Solemn Oath. Of the south breweries, Rabid is top-of-the-list. Breweries along the half-price Rock Island train line are present. Pollyanna - Lemont will be hit on a weekday afternoon when I buy a full-price ticket on the Metra Heritage train line to Joliet. In the fine print on Metra tickets is stopovers are permitted. You have to alert the conductor when he | she appears to punch your ticket. Catch the first afternoon train out of Union Station to Lemont. Catch the third (final) train from Lemont to Joliet. Go to MyGrain Brwg. in the Joliet train station complex. Ride the Rock Island line train back to La Salle St. station in Chicago.
To hit Soundgrowler Brwg. in Tinley Park; you need to go on Wednesday when Tinley Park runs a free Trolley from 5-10 pm between Flipside, Soundgrowler, Hailstorm, and Banging Gavel. Banging Gavel is adjacent to the SIP wine bar, which is adjacent to the Tinley Park Rock Island line train station. I do not recommend trying to walk from Soundgrowler to Hailstorm. I somehow managed to accomplish this once. I will never do that again.
Not-quite-P.S.: I have bought a ticket to Craft Brews at Lincoln Park Zoo on Saturday night (General Admission). I'll be stripped down to just me, my camera, and a fanny pack. I will have PQRS, Ltd. business cards.

 

(I edited out the remainder of the episode which ended catastrophically.)

I had Black Horizon at the Lincoln Park Zoo beer festival on Saturday the 17th. It was fine.
Anyhow; I got to fifty Illinois breweries with Solemn Oath Still Life on Friday.
I went to Ravinia Brwg. on W. Diversey on Sunday the 18th. Similar to Horse Thief Hollow Brwg., it is issuing official ICBG visa stickers despite not being listed as doing such.
From there, I got to Half Acre Brwg. Balmoral, which gave me an official visa sticker, and Spiteful Brwg., which is apparently not a member of ICBG anymore.
I have enough brewery checks-in to send the page off to ICBG, but, owing to a background in
Chicago politics, will get a few more to prevent ICBG disqualifying some of my brewery visits.
I have signed up for another 7-day Ventra pass. Be on the lookout for other posts here on Beer Advocate.

 

I know; Just what am I going to get for all this?
I got to Ravinia Brwg. on W. Diversey, Half Acre Balmoral, and Spiteful Brwg. on Sunday. Spiteful is the second respectful Illinois brewery which is no longer a member of ICBG to where I got. {"Respectful" because we have heard about breweries with abhorrent public attitudes not being members of ICBG.} I had Spiteful sign to an unofficial visa seal.
I took days off until Wednesday. I went on the Ravenswood beer crawl then. When it ended, I hopped on a northbound route #50 Damen bus and went to Hopleaf for three beers, including Anchor Porter.
Thursday, I went all the way to Rabid Brwg. in Homewood. On public transit, it is difficult and time consuming. It could have been shorter if I was able to ride the Pace route #353 from 95th-State, but I missed the southbound bus by nine minutes and the next one was not for another 50 minutes. So I wound up on the Pace #352 S. Halsted bus. Returning later, there was a northbound #353 bus from the Pace Homewood Parn-and-Ride station, but it was not until 11:18 pm, and Rabid closes at 10:00 pm on Thursday.
Let me inform you; the #352 is a wack route at times. I literally had to put an aura around me so as not to react.
Today, I went to Whiner Beer and Marz Community Brwg. Co. on S. Iron St. I arrived at the address at 8:24 pm, to find a sign taped to the door it was closed for the World Business Council assemblage until 9:00 pm.
So I walked down the path of an abandoned train line which, if I had to guess, has not been active since the late 1980s. But the rusted tracks are still on the ground. There is an Amazon facility relatively close to where is this track [singular]. I wonder if Amazon could be influenced to kick in some funding to restore this, with a direct connection to this warehouse?
I thought this would complete all my Passport stops for the City of Chicago. It does not. There is one remnant brewery where I have not gone.
For Saturday, I suspect this will be when I finally get to Elmhurst Brwg. via the Pace #309 route from Lake & Austin. My 7-day Ventra pass expires at 1:33 pm on Sunday. I will likely have Sunday be the enforced day off.
Concluding: I am over 50 Illinois breweries that ICBG will count. There are other ICBG member breweries which are not participating but where I have gone. Pretty much all the other ICBG breweries where I want to go are along Metra commuter train lines.

 

Ding, ding, ding. That was me. It is a bought again Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3 camera [Black], originally issued in 2009. I originally bought the silver model. It was lost in the early 2010s (2011?) at the Great Taste of the Midwest festival when it slid out of my satchel while I was sitting on a slope eating something, but I was already so far pixilated I did not notice this. (I hope whoever found the camera uploaded the pictures somewhere.) I attributed this to the bad karma I harvested for attending the 2009 GToTM on the day after my mom died. This camera was bought for much less the second time around (five years ago?). At times I worry about somebody walking off with it when I leave it on a bartop to go to the washroom, but if I am cogent, I realize 'What are they going to do with it?' The thief would be sneered at by pretty much every pawn shop operator.