{"id":81406,"date":"2018-07-01T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=81406"},"modified":"2018-06-30T20:12:45","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T01:12:45","slug":"sunday-sesh-support-your-local-beer-scene-chicago-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/sunday-sesh-support-your-local-beer-scene-chicago-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Sesh: Support Your Local (Beer) Scene – Chicago Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Beer no longer supports the event, it is the event.<\/p>\n

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Like many people in my age group, I have fallen down the craft beer rabbit hole. Maybe a little too far. If I have to travel somewhere, the first thing I think about is what breweries I can hit on the way. I\u2019ve spent hours in line for beer releases. I go to obnoxiously expensive festivals. I\u2019d say I try at least 15 new beers a week (many of them 1oz samples at bottle shares, so it\u2019s not that problematic, I swear). I\u2019m all in.<\/p>\n

The Illinois Craft Brewers Guild has encouraged my insanity this summer by releasing the \u201cBeer Passport\u201d. If you can hit 40 breweries in 3 months and get a sticker from each one, you get a free yearly membership that gets you some mildly cool benefits. Though I am at a very sad looking 6 (planning on getting 2 more today), I have had beers from many of the 150+ locations on the list and can give you a must-see guide to the city.<\/p>\n

Where else to start but with Goose Island<\/strong>, the godfather of Chicago craft, but controversially still considered \u201ccraft\u201d for the obvious reason that they are 100% owned by AB InBev. I\u2019m reading a book that goes into detail the history of Anheuser-Busch and Goose Island, specifically about the 2011 takeover, which is giving me mixed feelings about my continued support. That being said, I\u2019m still getting in line every Black Friday for the some of the most consistently great beers in history (let\u2019s not talk about 2015). Their barrel aged program is the gold standard, and even their plain Bourbon County Brand Stout is one of my favorite beers ever. Their wild ales can\u2019t be ignored either. 312 and other their other middling brews can be found all over the world, but don\u2019t let those steer you away from their good stuff.<\/p>\n

The other big name on the block is Revolution<\/strong>, who has one of my favorite BYOFood taprooms in the city, mostly due to it being gigantic. Their \u201cHero\u201d series is made up of consistently good IPAs and their barrel aged program (primarily Deth\u2019s Tar) is catching up to Goose in quality. I was lucky enough to be able to share my last can of Deth by Cherries with the Dischordia boys, so ask them how good it is.<\/p>\n

Corridor<\/strong> came out of nowhere to become (arguably) the Double Dry Hopped (DDH) champions of the city. Currently, the only way to get their beer is at their little brewpub, which is probably for the best since freshness is key to this New England style of beer. Added bonus, they are neighbors with this car wash that has some spelling and syntax issues.<\/p>\n

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Mikerphone<\/strong> is the brewery that has jumped the shark when it comes to experimentation, which leads to very mixed results. I\u2019ve had perfect beers by them (their Imperial Smells Like Bean Spirit stout series is usually solid), and others that have I poured out two oz samples (a Pi\u00f1a Colada beer attempt comes to mind). They\u2019ve recently brewed a beer with Fruit Loops (yes, dumping the actual cereal in the tank) and another with Chicago-staple Portillo’s chocolate cake. So if you head out there\u2026 good luck picking your beers, you\u2019ll need it.<\/p>\n

Now if you\u2019re tired of every brewery mostly just doing the same things, I\u2019d suggest you try out Dovetail<\/strong>. They use super traditional brewing methods to make super traditional beers, like lagers, hefeweizens, rauchbiers, maibocks, and dunkels. A lot of current beer snobs aren\u2019t really into these European styles, and I usually am not either, but they do them so well that I always enjoy stopping by. Sometimes I just want a beer that tastes like beer, ya know?<\/p>\n

A few other highlights:<\/p>\n