GatewayRedbirds.com

I spent the weekend in Asheville, NC amongst bourgeois and hippies and enjoyed several beers.

This was outstanding:


This place made a great saison ale:


This was OK

I like Honker's Ale

Jim, I warned you.

thrill wrote:Yeah I like Goose Island, but I feel like a badass city like Chicago deserves a better local brewery.

That's a great way of putting it. And I agree. You'd think a major metropolitan area in the upper Midwest would crank out a ton of top-shelf beers.

I like the Schlafly Oktoberfest. I think it's got a lot to do with me liking the Oktoberfest style as much as anything. Once a year, for about a month and a half, it's beer heaven for me. This is one of my favorite Oktoberfest brews:

Boulder Beer Co. just celebrated its 30th anniversary. Popeye should have one of these in his collection.

JL21 wrote:

thrill wrote:Yeah I like Goose Island, but I feel like a badass city like Chicago deserves a better local brewery.

That's a great way of putting it. And I agree. You'd think a major metropolitan area in the upper Midwest would crank out a ton of top-shelf beers.

I like the Schlafly Oktoberfest. I think it's got a lot to do with me liking the Oktoberfest style as much as anything. Once a year, for about a month and a half, it's beer heaven for me. This is one of my favorite Oktoberfest brews:

When do they come out with that? I'll be up in Wisco within the next few weeks closing out the trout season.

I've had some consistency issues with Goose Island .. in fact a couple months ago I just had to return a 12 pack because it was just sour. I like Honkers Ale and the 312, when it's not sour of course.

It just came out a few weeks ago, so you're cleared for takeoff.

thrill wrote:Yeah I like Goose Island, but I feel like a badass city like Chicago deserves a better local brewery.

Couldn't agree more. With Two Brothers (DuPage Co) and Three Floyd's (Hammond, IN) nearby, it's not a lost cause, but it would be dogger to have a top-notch brewpub within a bike ride of my yurt here in Lincoln Park. Metropolitan just opened up in Ravenswood, but only produces two decent lagers right now.

Hungary Jack wrote:

thrill wrote:Yeah I like Goose Island, but I feel like a badass city like Chicago deserves a better local brewery.

Couldn't agree more. With Two Brothers (DuPage Co) and Three Floyd's (Hammond, IN) nearby, it's not a lost cause, but it would be dogger to have a top-notch brewpub within a bike ride of my yurt here in Lincoln Park. Metropolitan just opened up in Ravenswood, but only produces two decent lagers right now.

Goose Island has quite a few beers available at their North/Clyborn brew pub that aren't available in bottles. Piece in Wicker Park has some decent brews of their own. Haven't tried Metropolitan yet.

The dearth of microbrews produced in the city limits isn't a big deal though, imo. There's a lot of breweries within a few hours drive whose beers are widely available almost everywhere in the city: Two Brothers and Three Floyd's as you mentioned, but also Bell's, Capital, New Holland, Half Acre (in the city), and lot's I'm forgetting. We're also lucky to see wide distribution of coastal craft beer juggernauts like Dogfish Head and Lagunitas. You can find at least one of their beers on tap at just about any bar with a half decent beer selection.

Yes, we have quite a good selection here in Chicago. I am friends with the manager at Binny's, which makes life much easier finding certain beers.

IIRC, Half-Acre is contract brewed elsewhere.

Take this beer snobs.... I just bought a 12 pack of this tonight:



It's good too. I love it.