KISS ME: A trip to Goose Island's Clybourn location on Friday, Nov. 19 netted two bottles of Bourbon County Vanilla plus a delicious draft pint of Goose Island's Sweet Southern Kiss Stout aged in 18-year Elijah Craig Bourbon barrels.
I’ve got to just come right out and say it: 2010 has been a really shitty year. My hometown of Nashville flooded in May, two of my relatives died in recent months, friends’ close family members have passed away or been tragically killed, and just last week one of my dogs was diagnosed with what might be terminal pancreatic cancer. It’s enough to make me want to try playing a country music record backwards—you know the joke—so you can get your truck back, your house back, your dog back.
Fortunately I do have a great family and we’re managing despite fate’s onslaught. More specific to the topic of this site, my wife has been exceptionally encouraging with regard to my interest in homebrewing and craft beer. As a result, I was able to go on several beer-related trips this year, or even parlay non-beer trips into new beer experiences through bar visits or brewery tours. Such was the case on a recent unexpected trip to Chicago, Nov. 17-21.
(Note: Given the headaches that this year has brought, I’m behind on plans for both my homebrewing and this site. In other words, I have a lot of posts to catch up on. As 2010 comes to a close, I will be remembering some of the better days of the year through articles about my 2010 beer trips that I have yet to chronicle on this site—Montreal, Florida, Philly Beer Week, NYC, and a Dogfish Head Craft Brewery tour with Sam Calagione. But first up, the most recent: Chicago.)
The sudden death of my wife’s uncle a few weeks ago precipitated a hurried road trip to Chicago. And to clear the air, yes, I’m a bit of a cold-hearted bastard for turning a funeral trip into a beer hunt. Truth is, I’m actually a very compassionate and empathetic person—sometimes to a debilitative degree. But life experiences (shitty 2010 included) have jaded me and I maintain a pretty solid emotional force field that I’m very reluctant to let down. On top of that I don’t deal with death well. So the beer scavenger hunt was a much needed distraction.
Oddly enough, prior to all of this I had RSVP’d for a “Goose Island Beer Academy” event at Chuck’s Wine & Spirits in Bowling Green, Ky., which I was now going to have to miss for the Chicago trip. When I called to cancel, Chuck’s revered beer guy, Blake Layne, gave me a tip to look for Goose Island’s Bourbon County Vanilla since I was going to be in Goose Island’s hometown around the time of the beer’s release. Mission accepted.
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS: Half Acre Beer Company owner and founder Gabriel Magliaro greets a Saturday tour group at his brewery. The tour was a highlight of the Chicago trip.
Fast forward to Thursday morning at the Binny’s Beverage Depot in Skokie, Ill., where I asked for the just released Poppaskull (a collaboration beer between Dogfish Head and Three Floyds) as well as the Bourbon County Vanilla. I was shot down on both, though the super helpful clerk (whose name I missed but who turned out to be the store’s beer manager) put me on a waiting list for the Vanilla—meaning there would be two bottles held for me when the beer was put on sale two days later.
I thanked the clerk and was shopping for some wine for my wife when I heard footsteps and a “Psst.” I turned to see the same clerk handing me a bottle of Poppaskull, one that he said had been allotted for employees but hadn’t been purchased yet. More evidence that craft beer people are amazingly good. I thanked him profusely, picked up the wine, added some Ska Brewing Modus Hoperandi, some Half Acre Daisy Cutter, and some Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, then checked out with spirits lifted.
Following the somber yet lovely visitation and funeral, we enjoyed a very nice meal with family and friends at Hackney’s on Lake, where I was pleasantly surprised to find two favorites—Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale and Founders Red’s Rye—on draft. That night, my wife and I blew off some steam with a trip to Goose Island’s North Clybourn Avenue location. Here I was able to pick up two bottles of Bourbon County Vanilla before enjoying a delicious draft Sweet Southern Kiss Stout, which had recently won gold at Chicago’s 2010 Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers (FoBAB). I also got a call that night that my wait-listed Vanillas were ready for pickup at Binny’s, so we grabbed those and about $60 more in craft beer on the way back to our Chicago accommodations.
We ended up staying an extra day to spend time with family and relax a bit. My wife and I took advantage of the eager babysitters (read: grandparents) for a few hours to visit Half Acre Beer Company on Saturday. I called the brewery the night before to learn that the well-regarded tours were booked till June 2011(!), but Kate from Half Acre was incredibly hospitable to a couple of out-of-towners and squeezed us onto the tour.
IT'S A WRAP: A pallet of Half Acre Daisy Cutter Pale Ale is ready for distribution. Half Acre is a production brewery, meaning it only brews beer to distribute—not to serve at its own brewpub or restaurant.
The greatest part about the Half Acre tour was that it was given by owner and founder Gabriel Magliaro. Well, that and the fact that it is incredibly laid back with bottomless pitchers of Half Acre beer. After an introduction in which Magliaro explained how his brewery’s “production” status differs from brewpub breweries, he then walked the tour group through the brewing process by taking us to different areas of the brewery. Starting on the second floor, he encouraged everyone to taste some grain while explaining how the recipes use 2-row malted barley and the occasional specialty malt. Downstairs, he outlined how the 15-barrel brewhouse, the various fermenters and the canning line work together (and seemingly nonstop these days) to keep Half Acre beers rolling out the door to bars, restaurants and stores.
As one of only two tour-goers who raised a hand when Magliaro asked if there were homebrewers present, I was up to speed on the brewing steps—albeit on a much smaller scale—as he walked us through them. It was very insightful to see the art and science of brewing scaled up, with larger vessels and hoses (yet still small relative to many other craft breweries). Two fun facts I learned on the tour: Half Acre acquired their brewhouse from Ska Brewing in Durango, Colo., and Magliaro said the brewery conducts no test batches before taking a new recipe from paper to 450-plus gallons. If you are looking for a great primer on the brewing process, you’d be hard pressed to find a better one than the Half Acre tour.
Immediately after the Half Acre visit, we wrapped up the beer portion of our trip with a quick visit to the Wild Goose Bar & Grill next to Half Acre, and a rendezvous with iBrewToo‘s Jake Koeneman. I had met Jake, a Chicagoan, earlier in November at the 2010 Beer Bloggers Conference. This time around he was able to take a few minutes from a chaotic working weekend to meet up with me and my wife at the Wild Goose for an in-person beer trade: some Yazoo and Terrapin beers to him, a few 3 Floyds bombers to me, including the tasty Half Acre/3 Floyds collaboration India Pale Ale, Shewolf. Thanks again to Jake.
Half Acre Tour Highlights
During the Half Acre Beer Company tour I noticed a fellow attendee filming much of the tour. We talked afterward and this kind jack-of-all-trades and author of the blog 80 Till 30, Nathan Havey, agreed to send me a link to the edited footage. Here it is for your enjoyment. Thanks again to Nathan.
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