Results tagged “ales”

While in DC the previous weekend we decided to dive deep into the beer menu at the Brickskeller. Our favorite selections from our visit belonged to Green Flash Brewing in Vista, CA, particularly their hop Head Red Ale and West Coast IPA. We were back in town in time for all the "OMG! BIG STAR IS OPEN!!" twittering going on. We went to Big Star last week and made sure not to use any tasty adjectives that would draw the ire of the Twitterati.

Craft breweries may receive (deserved) recognition for the inventiveness they're using to raise the profile of beer in the marketplace. It's wise to remember that today's brewers are merely dusting off techniques that date back generations, to those first groups of friars who discovered that fermenting malt made for a nice loophole to their fasting. The brewing history of the De Landtsheer family starts in the 1600s, but Emmanuel "Manu" De Landtsheer's Malheur (French for "misfortune") listed his first beer for public consumption only 12 years ago. The Malheur brews we'd shank a man with a sharpened toothbrush handle for are the ones brewed in the "methode champenoise" style.

Our biggest issue with pumpkin beers is an imbalance between the flavor of pumpkin and spice, usually favoring the latter. Ideally a pumpkin ale should bring to mind memories of good pumpkin pie. You know, with the graham cracker crust and all, some gingerbread or some cloves balanced delicately with the flavor of pumpkin. In short, If you're going to make a spiced ale, make a spiced ale. we want to taste pumpkins in our pumpkin beers. Southern Tier gets it right with Pumking, one of Karl's favorite beers this time of year. Pumking will blow your mind, you'll ask for ice cream for an a la mode.

Our nose was assaulted by the scent of apples and spices from the moment we opened a bottle of Two Brothers Avalon. It was the olfactory equivalent to hearing Christmas carols in October, but much more pleasing. Avalon is another in Two Brothers' "Artisan Bottling" series — Bonfire Dunkle Weiss is part of that series. get past the nose of this beer and you'll immediately pick up a pretty serious hop flavor to Avalon. Most beers or ales brewed with apple cider or must err on the side of malt. Since there is a fair amount of spices in Avalon, the hops work to complement that aspect of the taste profile.

We were at otom last week checking out some of the offerings of new executive chef Thomas Elliot Bowman, who's slowly but surely transformed the menu from the moto light of his predecessor Daryl Nash to the more traditional bistro fare originally envisioned for the restaurant. otom has a $25 Tuesday tasting menu that is the very definition of value. For an extra $15 you can add wine pairings or you can pair one beer with the menu for $6.

It was Labor Day Weekend and we just finished watching "Inglourious Basterds" downtown. Nowhere to go and nothing to do we wandered around and found ourselves at Jake Melnick's (41 E. Superior, 312-266-0400, jakemelnicks.com). Within minutes we were wolfing down their burger of the month and begging not to be served the Budweiser they give away for free with the burger. The bartender went out of the way to comp us a Surly Bender. She poured us a Surly Furious, instead.

We admit that sometimes we tend to fall into ruts here with the "BotW" installments. We find ourselves visiting the same styles and same places. No excuses, really. Now that we upgraded our cell phone from the universal remote we used to carry to a smart phone, we can also take photos on the go again.

We had a scheduled softball with WBEZ called because of rain on successive Fridays. A shame, really: we were looking forward to hearing Carl Kasel do the play-by-play while we made Justin Kaufmann cry and slid with high spikes into "Sound Opinions" producer Jason Saldhana. Digressing, with the first game called we retreated to some shelter underneath a bridge like the blogger trolls we are and commenced to drinking. Which would have been the end result of the game, win or win by slaughter rule.

Decided to cook with beer Sunday and whipped up some amazing buckwheat pancakes using a cup of Lost Abbey Inferno ale. Damned if they weren't some of the fluffiest we've had in a long time. the beer was good, too.

The adjective to describe Sunday was "epic." There was a lot of eating involved with going to Fiesta del Sol; there were two trips alone Sunday. In between was a visit to LUSH Wine & Spirits University Village location for their free Sunday wine tasting (2-5 p.m. every Sunday). After we ran through the wine selections, a palate cleanser was needed and another customer cleaned them out of Gumballhead. Scouring the cooler we came upon some organic beers. Our history with organic brews is not a good one, but we're anything if not an equal-opportunity drinker and one bad experience won't deter us.

It's common knowledge that the four basic ingredients in brewing beer are malted grain, hops, yeast and water. Most breweries tend to stick to variations of a grain: e.g. barley; wheat; rice if you're Anheuser-Busch or Miller. Belgium's Bosteels Brewery utilizes a 310-year-old recipe for Tripel Karmeliet using wheat, barley and oats in the brewing. The result is a smooth and sweet Belgian Golden ale that can appeal to both serious beer drinkers and folks looking for something cool to drink on a humid day (rare as they've been this summer).

The soup outside is not exactly conducive to enjoying a hoppy India Pale Ale, but this is one you might want to search out.

Jesus: Oh, great! Just what I need: a gum resin!! What am I gonna do with a gum resin?"

          

Staff at Delilah's, take note. We love that you put together an annual barrel-aged beer festival, but the size of the bar just doesn't make it enjoyable. Let's take a look the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild's 6th Annual Festival of Wood and Barrel-aged beer, held Saturday at the Journeyman Plumber's Union Hall (1340 W. Washington).

In keeping with our stated goal of focusing the remainder of this year's "BotW" selections on breweries we've not covered, we turn our attention this week to Dark Horse Brewing Company in Marshall, Michigan. It's a 3 hour drive to Marshall from Chicago and — as with New Belgium Holland, Founder's and, naturally, Bell's — worth a day trip.

A visit to the East Coast isn't complete without lifting a pint or four of selections from the Boston and Vermont-based Harpoon Brewery. Harpoon's UFO hefeweisen is probably my favorite American weiss beer. But that's like saying that the girl you're dating is the best looking one at an all-girl college.

Dan Roush wrote his main choice in the header of his e-mail, along with a couple other selections that we needed to hunt down for later. Thankfully, Dan stayed local, recommending Two Brothers "The Bitter End" Pale Ale.

First, a disclaimer: we've been thoroughly underwhelmed by Sam's new South Loop store, which just seems like it was thrown together ad hoc in order to start generating revenue for South Loop residents starved for retail and has all the charm of a run-down Armanetti's.