A reader mentioned last week that Hackney's South Loop location has an excellent beer selection. We think it's probably one of the more underrated beer bars in the city. Their draft selections are a creative and varied blend of some of the best European and American craft brews around. Minnesota's Surly Brewing Company is one of the latter. We've profiled their "Smoke" Baltic style porter earlier this year. While we wished we could get our......

For those of you asking about when the Publican, Paul Kahan's new beer, seafood and charcuterie palace in the Fulton Street Market (845 W. Fulton Mkt.) helmed by Executive Chef Brian Huston, is finally opening, pencil in Thursday. This definitely trumps "Must See TV."......

You're probably looking at the logo on that glass in the photo and asking yourself, "Is that a cherub taking a leak?" It sure is, one of many reasons to order a glass of Blanche de Bruxelles at Hackney's South Loop (733 S. Dearborn, $5.50). This witbier selection from the Lefebvre brewery, located in the town of Quenast in Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia region, is teeming with wheat malt. This gives the beer a thick cloudy......

Now that's more like it! We had long given up hope of tasting a hop bomb out of Colorado. Turned out we just weren't looking hard enough. Thanks to the Avery Brewing Company and Archer Liquors (5996 South Archer Ave., 773-582-4767), we got a couple bombers of Maharaja Imperial IPA and stand corrected on much of what we assumed regarding Colorado breweries. Autumn is the season for bold, hoppy beers. At 105 IBUs, Maharaja certainly......

As a general rule, we avoid sports bars. We only like watching live sporting events, and the combination of yelling, beer, big screen TVs and generally mediocre food don’t draw us in. However, sometimes a sports bar manages to charm even us. Rocks, which opened in August, is a comfortable neighborhood bar with an interesting menu, a good location and an attractive space, and our visit last week was thoroughly enjoyable. The menu, both for......

Every year the rag tag group of homebrewing enthusiasts known as the Homebrewers Pride of the Southside (aka HOPs! gathers at a VFW hall in Bridgeport for their annual Oktoberfest celebration. The group ranges in experience from novice beer makers to notable brewmasters like Mat Van Wyk of Flossmoor Station and Wil Turner of Goose Island's Clybourn brewpub. This year HOPs! members created 56 different beers, sodas, wines and liqueurs for those attending to taste.......

There are a slew of breweries we've never covered for "BotW." As we face the final four months of the year, we're going to remedy that. A Saturday afternoon running errands and checking out friends' bands at street fairs ended with us at our Zero Point for purchasing beer: Lush Wine and Spirits in University Village. We placed dibs on some Three Floyds Moloko when it arrives (hopefully in time for next week's installment)......

Back in the Dark Ages of the "guest" commentor we selected Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy as "BotW." This led to a lot of hand-wringing from "guest," "guest" and "guest." Their basic argument being that Leinenkugel sucked and (by extension) so did we for choosing the beer. You might want to brace yourselves, then. We found another shandy that we would kill a "guest" to get our hands on. And it's a real shandy, from Malta,......

We're on record stating Unibroue to be the best brewery in North America, for their amazing recreations of Belgian-style ales. There are a few other breweries of note that pray to the Belgian shrine. One of them is Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, NY. Oh, God, oh, God the poetic we could wax about their Hennepin, Three Philosophers or Rare Vos brews! Then we went through previous posts and realized that we've never featured an......

With apologies to Susan Sarandon in "Bull Durham," "This is the damnedest year. The Cubs and Sox are both in first place and Bell's is back in Chicago." Yes, it is and all is right with the world for now. Except that the Bell's product won't be rolling out fully until we can finish the Kalamazoo brands. Both Larry Bell and Bell's local sales manager Jim O'Connor told us that the Kalamazoo line will......

We're never bored with pairing beer with food. One reason for that is we seem to never exhaust the possibilities of finding surprising and unexpected pairings. This, and the $49 cost, was what attracted us to last night's beer dinner at Brasserie JO featuring selections from Van Steenberge brewery in Belgium. The saying goes, "In order to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs." Not all of the pairs worked last night.......

Lots of festivals, tastings and food-related events this week, people. Tonight: If you want to learn about warm weather wines, the Chopping Block's Merchandise Mart location is hosting a Wine Goddess class on the subject this evening from 6-7:30 p.m. You'll also be able to sample some lighter reds, whites and blushes. Suite 107 in the Merchandise Mar, $60. Tonight-Sunday: Chuck's Southern Comfort Café in Burbank is throwing their annual Cajun Fest, sponsored by Abita......

A West Side woman has been charged with first-degree murder after she allegedly stabbed her 77-year-old boyfriend because he was drinking her beer. Regina Williams, 55, was, according to police, sitting with her boyfriend, Willie Anderson, in his car. She became mad that Anderson was drinking her beer, pulled out the knife she carries, and began stabbing him. Anderson yelled for help, but Williams continued to stab him, Assistant State's Atty. Susanne Groebner told Desierto.......

"A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey..." - Deuteronomy Chapter 8, Verse 8 The Schmaltz Brewing Company, makers of the He'Brew line of beers, make both tasty ales and have a good sense of humor about their Yiddishness. The above quoted Scripture, where the presence of barley, wheat and pomegranates proved the bounty of the Land of Milk and Honey, formed the......

We'd been hearing rumors about Bell's coming back to Chicago almost from the moment they launched the Kalamazoo line last autumn. Local media were sent a press release this morning making the rumors official. Bell's has struck distribution agreements with the three wholesalers they currently use to market the Kalamazoo line. We spoke with Larry Bell by phone this morning. While Bell downplayed the recent acquisition of Union Beverage by Judge & Dolph as the......

Nights out on the town that end at sunrise are few and far between for us these days. But then, this site's editor-in-chief only has a birthday party once a year. After an evening of karaoke and cheap beer, we headed for the train looking for one more for the road. Which is how we found ourselves in the Note (1516 N. Milwaukee), of all places, at 4 a.m. ordering a Sprecher Hefe Weiss on......

Flossmoor Station Brewpub and Restaurant has this nice little luau-themed brewmaster dinner planned for next Tuesday at 6 p.m. The guest of honor for the event will be Wil Turner, the extraordinarily talented brewmaster for Goose Island's Clybourn brewpub. Andrew Mason, Flossmoor Station's head brewer, said in an e-mail that Turner will be bringing along Goose Island's 20th Anniversary Celebration ale and a Belgian black ale called "Noire." Having attended a couple of Goose Island......

Pitchfork's organizers are pretty strict when it comes to what one can bring into the fest. Among the regulations are no outside food and a maximum of two sealed bottles of water. During our visits to the fest over the weekend we were searched thoroughly to ensure we were keeping in line with those rules. Walking from stage to stage in the humid weather smothering the area all weekend all but guaranteed that we were......

The featured chef for tomorrow's cooking demonstration at Green City Market is Susan Goss of West Town Tavern. West Town Tavern is long a fave of the Chicagoist food and drink staff; Goss is one of the few to get us to eat fried chicken in the summer. The demonstration starts at 10:30 a.m. Hard to believe that when we mention pinot noir to casual wine drinkers, they still start quoting from "Sideways" three......

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. The focus this week, however, is on Harpoon's India Pale Ale, which is a lighter version of the style. That lightness can be attributed......

I remember my first beer. Hopefully, so will this kid:......

A problem we have with Skylark — a good one to have, mind you — is that we've managed to work our way through their entire draft beer menu, save for the most recent additions. Last week while enjoying the grilled tuna sandwich (the address for Skylark is in the "One Great Sandwich" post that went up yesterday) we were equally blissed on the beer we were drinking. Lagunitas doesn't get enough of the "BotW"......

Hard to imagine that Chicago, a city who's seen its major breweries go belly-up decades ago (save for a brewpub or two) could become the homebase for the offices of both the Silver Bullet and Purveyors of the High Life. But it could happen. Crain's reports today that the joint beer venture MillerCoors are eyeballing locations in both Chicago and Dallas for their headquarters and offices. Where might MillerCoors put the approximately 400 new hires......

This week's selection was born from a desire to do something positive for a friend in need. Shortly before her 40th birthday, Virginia MacLean was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. MacLean was already raising funds for cancer research running triathlons and endurance events, so she enlisted the help of two longtime friends to assist her in a new fundraising endeavor. Those friends just happened to be Alan Shapiro of SBS Imports and Pete Slosberg of Pete's......

We've got a Taste of Chicago preview for you later. In the meantime, here are some things around town to check out in the coming days. The Red Witch Pirate will set sail this evening for a 2-hour cruise and dinner with food catered by Bonsoiree. Cost is $45 and interested parties may RSVP here. The churrasco-meets-slow-food restaurant ZED451 (739 N. Clark St.), which has become one of the hottest destination restaurants in town largely......

Occasionally I receive e-mails from readers asking what taverns or restaurants they can find the "BotW" selections and if I could include them in the reviews. Admittedly I take for granted that readers know I buy most of the selections from one of two stores: Lush Wine and Spirits University Village location and Archer Liquors. But knowing that a certain bar carries a "BotW" selection may spur some readers to both seek out the beer......

New Belgium Brewing's Tour de Fat is only four days away. Already, someone's decided to trade in his vehicle for a bike and it's a longtime Chicagoist reader. Matter of fact, it's someone we'd thought would do it. Joe M500 is taking the plunge Saturday, trading in his 2001 Jeep Cherokee for one of the bikes New Belgium is offering at the Tour de Fat. Having participated in Critical Mass rides and hung out......

There are many things to like about New Belgium Brewing. All employees are also owners in the company; they practice open book management; they're a sustainable company using wind power and methane from processed water treatment to produce their own electricity, recycle waste water and utilize the latest green practices in their buildings; they give their employees a bike after one year of employment. Biking and New Belgium are almost symbiotic. Their latest folly,......

Our second annual "reader's choice" month here at "BotW" begins with a simple question from Dan Jones: "How about Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter?" How about it, Dan? We've been on a porter kick lately as grilling season is starting to kick into high gear. The smell of smoke normally suggests to our senses barbecue and smoke is what you get on the nose with Edmund Fitzgerald immediately upon pouring, along with a deep black......

After a full day in trade show hell, we needed a beer to the point that we might have accepted a Budweiser if it was presented to us. Lucky for us we moseyed past the Food and Wine of Australia booth before it came to that. The Australian-based Coopers Brewery is noted for making simple, clean beers, and home brew kits. We've actually experimented with their malt and yeast extracts in the past and came......