Event Preview | 2016 Festival of Barrel Aged Beers (FoBAB)

Every November since 2003, the craft beer world descends on Chicago for the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers – more commonly known as FoBAB. It’s the largest festival celebrating barrel-aged and wood-aged beers featuring more than 150 brewers and more than 400 beers for fans to try.

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Rankings for Goose Island’s 2016 Bourbon County Brand Stout

As the calendar gets ready to turn to November there probably isn’t anyone happier than Goose Island as they get ready to release 2016 Bourbon County Brand Stout. Following a tumultuous year that featured two separate refunds of four of the six variants of 2015 BCBS, the new lineup has been announced and craft beer fans around the country are getting ready for the Black Friday release.

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Ultimate 6er | Chicago Cubs

This next week will be the most agonizing emotional roller coaster for any Chicago Cubs fan out there. The Cubbies are in the World Series for the first time … Read More

Mikerphone Brewing | Blue Hast Mich Batch #2

Right now there is no hotter brewery in the Chicagoland area than Mikerphone Brewing. Head brewer/founder Mike Pallen has created such a buzz with his craft beers inspired by music that many of the releases fly off the shelves within hours in the handful of stores that actually receive his beers.

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Revolution Brewing Recalls 6 Beers Due to Off Flavors

Another major Chicago brewery is recalling beer due to yeast issues that are causing the beers to taste different than the brewers expected. On October 17th Revolution Brewing issued a product withdrawal of six of their beers because of an issue with the house yeast they used in the brewing process.

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Inside The Tank | Blue Moon Brewing Company’s Keith Villa

Walk into nearly any bar in American and you’ll likely spot a beer served with an orange slice. Immediately Blue Moon Belgian White comes to mind. First brewed by Keith Villa at the Sandlot Brewery attached to Coors Field in 1995, Blue Moon Belgian White was originally called Bellyside Belgian White and bars served it with lemon. Things have changed over the years and I met up with Villa at the Great American Beer Fest to talk with him about his brewing background, the history and growth of Blue Moon as well as his thoughts on the craft beer industry.

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GABF 2016 | Our Favorite Beer Names

There were more than 3,500 beers being poured at GABF this past weekend. You probably did’t try them all. In fact you probably didn’t even stop to look at every single beer being poured at the festival. Well I definitely didn’t try all of the beers either, but I did do some extensive investigating of the beers at GABF and compiled a list of my favorite beer names.

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Off Color Brewing & Miller High Life Releasing Collaboration Saturday

Big meets small. Corporate meets…well whatever the most opposite of corporate can be. That was my initial thought when I heard that Off Color Brewing and Miller High Life were collaborating on a beer together. The result – Eeek! an American Wild Ale set for release this Saturday at Off Color.

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Goose Island Beer Co. | Brewery Yard

When drinking your favorite craft beer, how often do you think about the history behind it? To be honest there isn’t a lot of history behind most craft beer. In an industry that isn’t very old and more typically focuses on the new and exciting release, history often doesn’t make its way into craft beer. But Goose Island’s Brewery Yard is one beer that features a unique and interesting historical tale.

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Goose Island Announces Variants, Changes for Bourbon County Stout

With the announcement of the 2016 Bourbon County Brand Stout line-up Goose Island is metaphorically closing the book on a rough 2015 for the iconic barrel-aged beer series.

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Event Recap | Goose Island Clybourn’s Belgian Fest

Quality over quantity can be a beautiful thing for a beer festival. It seems that every festival nowadays boasts that they’ll the most breweries and the most beers. But at this past weekend’s Belgian Fest at Goose Island Clybourn, it wasn’t the number of breweries that people were talking about; it was the quality of the beer being poured.

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Guinness Brewery | Antwerpen Stout

ABV: 8%  |  IBU: 52

In the U.S., for the longest time, when you heard Guinness you thought of only the iconic stout that is a staple at every bar. But over the past few years the brewery has been dedicated to branching out and highlighting other beers to become known for more than the stout with the unique tap handle. Guinness‘ latest release, Antwerpen Stout, is just one of several beers that are hitting shelves in the U.S. to help diversify the Guinness name.

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Chicago’s Goose Island Migration Week Comes to Logan Square

Chicago’s Goose Island Migration Week comes to Logan Square September 26th thru September 30th with a full week of craft beer inspired events at a variety of locations.

The brewery has been doing Migration Weeks throughout 2016 and have visited cities not only around the United States but all over the world. Goose Island Migration Weeks have been to the UK, China, South Korea and still have plans to go to Guadalajara later this year. Migration Week has been in Chicago once before, when in June the brewery was in Lincoln Park for a week.

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Chicago’s Best Craft Beer Bars to Watch the Bears

During this football season don’t be subjected to drinking subpar beer while watching the Chicago Bears. We have a continuously updated list of Chicago’s best craft beer bars to watch the Bears, which includes the surrounding suburbs. These game watch-spots serve top-notch craft offerings, while also turning up the audio during the games.

Want to add a brewery or craft beer bar to the list? Email us. We’ll update this list daily. Read More

Illinois Craft Brewers Guild Announces New Executive Director

After a search that lasted most of the summer, the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild has announced they have hired Danielle D’Alessandro as their new executive director. D’Alessandro replaces Justin Maynard who left the guild back in June and is now working at Baderbräu in Chicago.

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Chicago Prepares for 8th Annual Cooking Up a Cure Benefit

Not too many events in Chicago can pair the city’s best chefs alongside a wide variety of local craft beer, spirits and wine. On Thursday, Sept. 15, the 8th annual Cooking Up a Cure will take place at Galleria Marchetti to raise money for the Greater Chicago chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation.

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Wedtoberfest Combines Wedding Show with Beer Festival

Wedding shows – they’re typically geared towards the brides to come walk around and talk to different vendors to book for their big day. Usually you don’t see many guys at these shows… until now. Wedtoberfest takes place Sept. 22nd from 6-9pm at Artifacts Events in Chicago and combines a wedding show with a beer festival.

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Two Brothers Brewing | In the Flesh Pineapple

Is there any beer style hotter than sour beers right now? While sour beers have been common in some areas in Europe for a long time, they’re beginning to grow in popularity here in the United States. Chicago-based Two Brothers Brewing has just started an entire series of beers that will only be American sours. To kick-off the series they have released In the Flesh Pineapple.

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Inside the Tank | Revolution Brewing Company

Walk into a bar in Chicago and you’re more than likely to see the colorful fist tap handles at the bar. Those fists let you know that Revolution Brewing is on tap and have become synonymous with Chicago craft beer.

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Fischman Liquors Set to Open at Six Corners in 2017

Just 24 hours before Fischman Liquors was set to close in their current location at 4780 N. Milwaukee Ave., husband and wife owners Gus and Shanna Karamaniolas announced they would be reopening in a new location sometime in 2017.

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