Last week I got the chance to go to the Windy City for a weekend vacation. It was an awesome experience. Due to my hyperactive personality Chicago became a perfect location. We did several fun things such as eat a deep dish pizza, the Billy Goat Tavern, Willis Tower (formally Sears), John Hancock Observatory, Shedd Aquarium, Field Natural History Museum, and a Cubs Game. Add in some beer related places and it was a great but very busy trip. You guys don't care about that, you want to hear about da beers.
My wife and I arrived in Chicago at 8:00 pm, so that gave us a chance to see a couple things. Beerwise, we stopped at the Clark Street Ale House. It was very similar to the Anchor but not as good as selection. We sat outside in the beer garden as that was the only place to get a table. Of the interesting beers you can't get in ICT, there was Three Floyds Beers (Indiana), Two Brothers (Chicago) and a Summit Beer that was casked.
Since I haven't had many cask beers (you can't really get in ICT very often), I decided to go with the Summit Extra Pale Ale. If you aren't familiar with cask ales, they are bottled in a barrel and naturally carbonated using sugar and yeast (versus most beers that use forced CO2 for carbonation). In addition, the beers are not served with CO2 pressure. This results in the container (cask) having to be empty a day or two after opening (because oxygen will make it go bad). This cask beer is the traditional style of English beers. So in normal English Style it was served really warm (I'm guessing in the low 50's). Overall, the beers wasn't that good. Since it was served warm it really tasted like Hop Tea versus a beer. Low carb and high hops isn't for me. Still, it was interesting. I believe cask ales should be served with beers normally considered served warm such as porters, old english ales and stouts. Maybe even an english pale ale but definitely not a "extra" pale ale.
After the
Clark Street Ale House, we went across the street to
Celtic Crossing. This was a classic Irish Style Bar. It was very cool inside and a guy was playing the guitar and singing so the mood was good. I had a couple of Carlsberg Beers (Denmark). Classic Euro lager that was refreshing but nothing to write home about.
Saturday we went to the
Goose Island Brewpub (Clayborn Location). GI doesn't actually give tours at its commercial factory which was a bit of a letdown. Still, the Clayborn location was great. They had the normal GI beers (estimated 8 styles) but also carried a whole bunch of trial beers (estimated 8 more styles). To explain why going to the brewpub is way better than drinking GI in ICT , just look at the selection I tasted (smoked helles, ipa, white ipa, summer spice, raspberry soured belgium ale called Luciano, a chef collaboration kolcsh wit pear, and a beer called pvk (don't remember what was in it.)). My favorite out of all the beers was between the smoked helles and Luciano.
The tour was kind of weak considering the guide was a brewer and just stood at his mash tun and talked the whole time. I believe he was too technical for the crowd but I enjoyed the knowledge. The testing part of the tour was good. They laid out 6 six beers and explained the tastes, smell, aroma, etc before they actually told you what style of beer it was. Arien had me guess the beers and I was 100% correct on them correct. Pretty good considering they had hybrids such as a Belgium IPA.
On Sunday, we went to another beer destination
Piece Pizza and Brewery. The are famous for their New Haven style pizza but most importantly their beers. Piece has won awards every year from
Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup and in 2006 earned the title of Small Brewery of the Year (World Beer Cup). The pizza was awesome and I'm still craving it a week later. I know, its not even a Chicago style pizza but it was the best. The beers were good too. I could see why they win a lot of awards. I got a sampler of all the beers they had on tap. All beers were true to style but I was more impressed with how clean the finish was, meaning they were real easy to drink. My favorite was the Full Frontal Pale Ale and Arien's was the award winning Top Heavy Hefeweizen. This was an awesome place with great pizza and beer and small enough to seem like a corner pub. My dream is to someday own a place like this.
After Piece, we went to the must-see hole-in-the-wall,
Billy Goat Tavern. This place is kind of sketchy but has the character you can't find anywhere else. It's across the street from the Chicago Tribune and several writers apparently started famous articles there. More importantly, its the reason the cubs haven't won the world series in forever.
The story goes that the last time the cubs were in the World Series, the Billy Goat owner took his pet goat to the game. Apparently this was allowed but it smelled so bad that the security had to kick the owner and his goat out of the game. Thus the curse of the goat was born. The burger was different but nothing fantastic. They had their own beer line: Billy Goat Lager and Billy Goat Dark. I got the Dark. It was decent and easy drinking but not much flavor to set it apart.
I traveled to Dana Point, CA for work and wouldn't you know that it's right by the GABF small brewer of the year, Pizza Port in San Clemente. It was awesome. It was a two story quaint mom and pop pizzeria with an awesome selection of homebrew. I got the Sharkbite Red Ale which was an excellent American red ale with a lot of hops. In addition, when a coworker and me decided to get a spicy pizza, the Pizza Vallarta was just that. Look at those jalapenos.
The highlights were the Schlafly Taproom that was having a Mussel Mania Party. This allowed me to get Curried Mussels and since Mussels are a traditional Belgium dish, Schlafly had plenty examples and I enjoyed them all (Belgium Single, Double, Tripe and Quadrupel). 
I do have to brag a little. A buddy of mine got married and gave me the honor of providing homebrew for the rehearsal dinner. I made a Hefeweizen and a Brown Ale. Both were a hit and I left with empty kegs. If you're interested in the recipes take a look here. Now I just need to figure out how to make money on brewing. 
