Great Lakes Chillwave Double IPA

Beer:  Chillwave Double IPA (CDI)

Brewery:  Great Lakes

Date: March 14th, 2014

Style:  Double IPA

ABV: 9.4% 

Description:
Ah, the thrill of airport bars (and those near airports):  bad beer selections, institutional food, annoying crowds, lethargic waitstaff.  Not unlike Wrigleyville without the intoxicated coeds.  It was with this high opinion that I headed for such an establishment, at roughly the midpoint between my house and those of the other 2/3rds of the Greater Chicago Gentlemen's Fermented Beverage Appreciation Society (we've got to hold our monthly meetings somewhere, after all).  Misgivings aside, the evening was enjoyable not only for the company, but also for the surprisingly broad selection of taps and bottles.  Of all of the aforementioned knocks against bars of this type, an above average list of beers more than makes up for the other shortcomings.  Either that or I'm getting to be far too forgiving in my old age...

First Impression: 
I like the concept of the "Chillwave", though I'll probably like it even more in retrospect, come July, when the mercury's topping out at about 70 degrees warmer than it was on this evening.  

Smell:
Citrus fruits and maybe some pineapple(?) but mainly a lot of hoppiness.  I can already tell this one is going to be bitter.  Small white head that dissipated very quickly. 

Taste:
Oh yeah, that's a DIPA alright.  Very bitter and malty, with strong flavors of grapefruit, orange, and something spicy like pepper at the finish.  Quite a strong alcohol taste, but that's to be expected in this style. 

On the Palate:
Thick but surprisingly effervescent which makes it go down very smoothly. 

Why You'll like It:
A very good, strong DIPA.  If you like flavorful, fruity IPAs, and can take a step up to something with this much bite, you'll be well rewarded.  

In Closing...:
Another fine beer from GLBC, another excuse to enjoy one or two with the boys.  Bring on the next Chillwave!

Rating (out of 5):

Lindemans Kriek

A balanced Dinner including Fruits and Vegetables

Beer:   Kriek (BLK)

Brewery:  Brouwerij Lindemans 

Date:  March 9th, 2014

Style:  Lambic

ABV: 4.0%

Description:  This was one of the first krieks that I tried, more than 20 years ago, and I've still to find another variety which captures all of its charm.  I've heard BLK described as tasting like everything from dessert wine, to soda, to champagne, to chocolate milk (not really), the common thread being its approachability and broad appeal.

First Impression:
Deep red with a pinkish hue.  2 finger pink head which leaves behind lots of lacing.  Clear and sparkling.

Smell:
A strong and fairly tart cherry aroma, which becomes noticeably sweeter as the beer approaches room temperature.

Taste:
Starts out full of sweet cherries which are offset by a slightly crisper tart finish. 

On the Palate:
Very smooth and highly carbonated.  Goes down entirely too easily.

Why You'll like It: 
Light and fruity, with just enough tartness to give it balance.  An excellent introduction to lambics for anyone who's not a beer fan and could be put off by a stronger or more tart version of this style.


In Closing...:
Probably the sweetest kriek that I've had, but, like all of Lindemans' lambics, that's part of what makes it so accessible.  

Rating (out of 5):

Bockor Cuvée Des Jacobins Rouge

Beer:  Cuvée Des Jacobins Rouge (CJR)

Brewery: Bockor Brewery

Date:  March 8th, 2014

Style:  Sour Ale

ABV:  5.5%

Description: 
There was a time, several years ago, when I used to drink CJR like it was going out of style.  If it was available, there was no question as to what I'd be ordering that night.  Though my opinion of it hasn't changed, I've become much more adventurous when presented with an unfamiliar bottle list, and find myself ordering CJR (and other old favorites) with ever-decreasing frequency.  On the occasion of a friend's wedding, my wife and I found ourselves alone at the end of the evening, and decided to have a quiet drink away from the crowd before heading home.  Confronted with an expansive drink menu containing many unfamiliar options, this was an excellent choice.

First Impression:
Dark reddish brown, with a light brown finger thick head.  Fairly good head retention (despite the above picture).

Smell:
Tart apples and cherries, this beer even *smells* crisp.  I can practically feel my eyelids puckering and that's actually a good thing.

Taste:
Every bit as flavorful as I recall.   Very tart throughout, but with an undercurrent of fruit which surfaces as your palate warms to the sourness.  Not a beer that I've ever been able to consume quickly but as soon as I've finished one, I want another.

On the Palate:
Tart with low carbonation.  

Why You'll like It:
An excellent example of what a sour beer should be:  Tart and fruity but not so acidic as to affect your enjoyment.  Compared to other sours, the acidity is actually almost (mild), making this remarkably drinkable.

In Closing...:
A great choice for sour beer lovers and for anyone who's curious about them.  It was also nice to revisit a beer that I enjoyed so much and to discover that my taste hasn't "evolved" past being able (read: grown too critical/fussy) to appreciate it.  If anything, CJR tastes even better than I remember.

Rating (out of 5):

Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA

Beer:  Torpedo Extra IPA (TEI)

Brewery:  Sierra Nevada

Date:  March 7th, 2014

Style:  IPA

ABV:  7.2%

Description:
Though it's been almost 20 years, I can still remember my first Sierra Nevada beer quite clearly.  I'd just returned from a semester abroad in France, the greatest parts of which were spent playing soccer and enjoying rather heroic amounts of European beer.  What I recall about that Sierra Nevada was how distinct it was from anything else I'd had for the last several months, which ran the gamut from lagers like Kronenbourg 1664, to Trappists like Chimay and Westmalle, to a whole slew of lambics, including St. Louis and Mort Subite.  What stood out for me about that Pale Ale, was its intense mixture of piney hops and tangy citrus, which I'd never before tasted (or smelled) in that combination.  It's with that memorable first experience (and several subsequent positive ones) in mind, that I turn to reviewing my current favorite Sierra Nevada beer, Torpedo.

First Impression:
Golden body with a 2 finger foamy head, with good retention.

Smell:
Floral hops with a sharp citrus aroma. 

Taste:
Profoundly hoppy from start to finish, underscored by a tart citrus zing.  Mildly sweet maltiness in the background.  The citrus and malts really complement and help to balance out the rather staggeringly hoppy character.

On the Palate:
Smooth with a moderately rich mouthfeel. Mildly carbonated.


Why You'll like It:
Perfect for hop lovers looking for a strong IPA with more than just a big dose of bitterness.


Rating (out of 5):

Goose Island Barrel Aged Outfoxxed

Beer:  Barrel Aged Outfoxxed (BAO)

Brewery:  Goose Island

Date:  March 2nd, 2014

Style:  Brown Ale

ABV:  8.0%

Description:
As Chicago breweries go, Goose Island's already about as well-known as the Bears and roughly as successful as the Blackhawks (of the last 5 years).  With that considerable pedigree and with the great commercial (312, Honker's Ale) and critical (Bourbon County Stout) successes of many of their best-known beers, my expectations for them are understandably rather lofty.  Despite their recent change of ownership, BAO is an encouraging sign that it doesn't appear that they'll be resting upon their laurels any time soon.

First Impression:
Deep, chocolate brown with a two finger beige head.

Smell:
Bourbon and chocolate abound, with malts in the background.
 
Taste:
A wondrous combination of chocolate, vanilla, bourbon, and those underlying roasted malts which I smelled previously.  The cocoa taste complements the bourbon admirably.  Sweet but not imbalanced.  Moderately strong alcohol finish.

On the Palate:
Mild carbonation, though a surprisingly light mouthfeel for such a flavorful beer.

Why You'll like It:
In writing this, I fully realize that BAO won't appeal to everyone.  It's strong, fairly sweet, and unabashedly chocolaty.  Well worth a taste for anyone who appreciates a good barley wine, imperial stout, or other robust, flavorful styles.

In Closing...:
Not your typical brown ale, but, for all of the above reasons, a must-try.  

Rating (out of 5):

You call that "Head Retention"?  Now *this* is...

Hazelnut color, bourbon aroma, dark chocolate and vanilla flavor, medium-rich body. Aged 8 months in 12 yr Elijah Craig Bourbon Barrels.

Goose Island Tongue-in-Cheek

Beer:  Tongue-in-Cheek (TIC) 

Brewery:  Goose Island

Date:  March 2nd, 2014

Style:  Saison / Farmhouse Ale

ABV:  8.0%

Description:
Another morning of family fun, followed by a trip to our regular weekend lunch spot, the Goose Island Brewpub.  Other than the company, the best part of these visits has been the variety of beers that are only available at the brewpubs or at festivals, many of which are one-offs.  TIC is one of these tap-only varieties, a surprisingly light and fruity-tasting saison.

First Impression:
Dark reddish-brown, cloudy body.  Thin, light brown head.

Smell:
Fruity and tart aroma, with a hint of vanilla.

Taste:
Tart raspberries and a nice malt background give this an almost lambic-like character.  Not sweet, by any means, but you definitely taste the berries and hints of raisins and plums.  Not a strong alcohol taste, despite the higher ABV.

On the Palate: 
Quite light and effervescent, with a smooth mouthfeel.  

Why You'll like It:
An enjoyable fruity saison.  Great for anyone who appreciates this style or similar ones, such as sours.  

In Closing...:
Another visit to the brewpub, another positive experience.  My only regret is that it may not be produced again, as I think it would go very well with football, come autumn.   

Rating (out of 5):

Great Lakes Christmas Ale

Beer:   Christmas Ale (GCA)

Brewery:  Great Lakes Brewing Co.

Date: February 28th, 2014

Style: Winter Warmer

ABV:  7.5% 

Description: 
I've had a lot of very good beers from Great Lakes this year, and their 2013 Christmas Ale certainly continued that trend.  Christmas beers and winter warmers tend to be a bit of a mixed bag, as one can only do cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves so many ways.  GCA was a welcome break from that standard, the only disappointing part of which was the bottle art (above), which looked more like a craft store circular than a fine representative of the style.

First Impression:
Dark, golden brown with a thin, white head which rapidly dissipated.

Smell:
Cinnamon predominates, but there also an underlying fruitiness, and sweetness, likely from the honey mentioned on the label. 

Taste:
Cinnamon and ginger, with a pleasant fruit (berry?) taste in the background.  There's also a great honey/caramel sweetness that makes this go down very easily.  Surprising amount of maltiness which balances the sweet and spice flavors. 

On the Palate: 
Rich, and smooth, more so that many Christmas ales.

Why You'll like It:
If you enjoy winter warmers but are looking for something with a more complex and varied palette of flavors, I'd highly recommend it.  Not overwhelmingly sweet, but about as well balanced a beer of this style as I've had.

In Closing...: 
GCA's yearly release is heralded with as much fanfare in Cleveland as Bourbon County Stout's is in the Chicago area.  Based on my experience, I'm beginning to understand why.

Rating (Out of 5):

 

Three Floyds Robert the Bruce

Beer:   Robert the Bruce (RTB)

Brewery: Three Floyds 

Date: February 22nd, 2014 

Style:  Scotch Ale (Scottish Ale)

ABV: 6.5% 

Description:
I've a soft spot for Scottish ales and RTB's no exception.  I enjoyed this one on a cold night out in February and it perfectly complemented the BBQ and several shots of bourbon which followed it. 

First Impression:
Reddish brown with a medium tan head.  Held up to the light, it casts an almost ruby colored shadow.

Smell:
Malty, sweet caramel aroma.

Taste:
Heavy on the roasted malts and moderately sweet, just what I look for in a good Scottish ale.  Hints of caramel, brown sugar, biscuit, and yeast.

On the Palate: 
Creamy and smooth, with moderate carbonation.

Why You'll like It:
Malty, slightly sweet, and a good alternative if IPAs, hoppy, or bitter beers aren't for you.

In Closing...:
Very solid take on an under-appreciated style.  I'd like to think that one of Scotland's national heroes would be proud of his namesake.

Rating (Out of 5): 

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout

My Quarry

Beer:  Kentucky Breakfast Stout (KBS)

Brewery:  Founders

Date: February 21st, 2014

Style: Imperial Stout

ABV: 11.2%

Similar To:  Founders Breakfast Stout (shockingly enough), Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, Great Divide Chocolate Oak Aged Yeti 

Description:
It would be fair to say that I've been hunting for this one for a long time.  Thankfully, I've got a good friend in Michigan who's eagle-eyed when it comes to tracking them down.  When he visited Chicago earlier this year, we hit a couple of South Side mainstays, one in Flossmoor and one in Blue Island, both of which provided me with some excellent fodder for my musings.  Overshadowed by the beers which we enjoyed that evening was the ostensible purpose for his visit, to swap beers on our wish lists, the most ballyhooed of which was Founders KBS, their acclaimed Imperial Stout released each April to much fanfare. 

First Impression:
Pours dark brown with a thin dark brown head, dissipating almost immediately.

Smell:
Coffee, bourbon, vanilla (but not very sweet), and roasted malt.  Pleasantly smoky.  Even without knowing the ABV off the top of my head, this smells powerful.

Taste:
There is a *lot* going on here.  Strong, bitter coffee and bourbon right up front, followed by chocolate, vanilla, and a smoky, bitter finish.  Comes on like a Breakfast Stout's big brother who spends his nights lifting and blowing through boxes of cigars in the garage.  I had to taste this one several times to pick out all of the subtle nuances.  About halfway through, I picked up some maple and port notes, and the alcohol finish became more pronounced.

On the Palate:
Medium bodied, not as thick as I would have expected for something with so much kick.  Quite warming going down.

Why You'll like It:
An imperial stout lover's dream.  After appreciating the bourbon and mocha, you'll want to savor this one and all of its subtleties.

...and why You won't:
This is a rewarding but very challenging beer.  Its robust flavors and bitterness may drive off anyone who's not a fan of the style.

In Closing...:
When you hype up a beer in your mind for so long, it's almost impossible for that beer to be anything other than disappointing when you finally try it.  Not so, here.  KBS was exceptional, though I'd prefer not to wait another 6 years to have my next one.  My only regret is that I probably won't get to try one from this batch after cellaring for another 9-12 months.  Would have loved to see how that broad spectrum of flavors matured.

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

Sumerian Beer Dinner - The Gage and Great Lakes Brewing Co

In the Beginning...  
Among tree-lined streets in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood stands a grey stone building whose Gothic facade, airy galleries, and Art Deco fixtures harken back to a time when universities embodied loftier ideals like Indiana Jones-style exploration, scholarship for its own sake, and congruous campus architecture*.  This is the University of Chicago's renowned Oriental Institute where such luminaries as James Henry Breasted and Leo Oppenheim laid and built upon the foundations of Ancient Near Eastern scholarship.  Our story begins within these halls, with a doctoral student whose professional and academic interests collided with his passion for beer, resulting in a truly memorable evening.
*If you've visited Hyde Park in the last 10 years, you'll understand this reference.

Back to the Present 

Following up on the success of their previous Sumerian Beer Dinners, Great Lakes Brewing Co held their first installment of the 2014 version at the Gage Restaurant on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago on the evening of March 19th.  Here, 40 or so attendees were treated to some of the Cleveland craft brewer's best-known contemporary beers paired with a specially chosen menu, in anticipation of the evening's main event, the tasting of Great Lakes' painstaking recreation of a 4000+ year old Sumerian beer.

  

Tate Paulette, Pat Conway, and John Brinkman (l-r) discussing Sumerian Drinking Games

In addition to the staff from the Gage, in attendance were several representatives from Great Lakes, including Pat Conway, U of C alumnus and one of Great Lakes' founders, Luke Purcell, their Brewmaster, and Michael Williams their resident "Sumerian Beer Specialist".   As with previous Sumerian beer dinners, they were joined by Tate Paulette, the aforementioned U of C doctoral candidate who has written and lectured extensively on brewing and storage practices in ancient Mesopotamia.  Some of Paulette's work in this area has involved trying to determine the techniques and ingredients used by Sumerian brewers, an effort which has, not surprisingly, been quite challenging.

The Lecture 
After the pre-event cocktail hour had warmed up the audience for the serious business of drinking, Paulette launched into his lecture, providing first an overview of relevant Sumerian geography and culture, then analyzing the "Hymn to Ninkasi", dedicated to the Sumerian goddess of alcohol.  It was this poem which provided the basic recipe for the beer which was to be served later that evening.  Now, let that sink in for a minute.  We were about to sample beer based on a recipe derived from an almost 4000 year old poem written in a language that's well understood by a hundred or so people worldwide.  I'm starting to understand how John Hammond must have felt in Jurassic Park.  Finding a clay tablet with a complete beer recipe would have been like discovering an entire Brontosaurus trapped in amber stuffed in the crotch of a tree.

Humor aside, this is exactly what made this evening and the whole enterprise so very compelling.  If it were a matter of simply following a recipe anyone could do it.  It's the complex and scholarly nature of this process and the need to fill in so many gaps with educated guesses which makes this such a intriguing topic as well as a labor of love for those involved. 


Creating the Beer

The Bappir

One of the principal mysteries surrounding the reproduction of Sumerian beer is how yeast was introduced into the mixture during the brewing process.  There are several plausible theories for how this could have occurred, three of which were discussed that evening.  The yeast could have been passed along in the earthen vessels in which the beer was fermented, likely kept alive in the vessels' ridges from batch to batch.  It could also have been introduced in the "bappir", a type of bread used in brewing, and mentioned explicitly in the Hymn to Ninkasi.  Another theory is that it could have arrived through wild yeast strains present in the air, in what is known as spontaneous fermentation.  While elements of each of these theories support and diminish the likelihood that they were the source of the yeast, without further evidence, there's no way of confirming which one is correct.

A Brewing Vessel.

An even more basic question that Paulette and the brewers had to answer before starting was which ingredients to use.  Not surprisingly, the poem provided much of this information, but as with the yeast, they had to extrapolate where the recipe was incomplete.  The ingredients from the poem were supplemented with those known to have been available in Mesopotamia at that time, including:

• Farro wheat
• Dates (and date syrup)
• Fennel
• Juniper
• Cardamom
• Coriander
• Grains of paradise

Not content to simply duplicate the recipe, Great Lakes took the process a step further and used both historically accurate brewing vessels and even cooking techniques, though thankfully not the cooking fuel, (hint:  there was a lot of livestock in Mesopotamia) to prepare the evening's featured beers.

Tasting the Beer 

Great Lakes provided 3 Sumerian-style beers for this event.  Gilgamash (named for the Sumerian King, supposed demigod, and sometime epic hero, Gilgamesh), Enkibru (named for the wild man, Enkidu, a central character in the epic of Gilgamesh), and Enkibru with Date Syrup.  Of the three, only Gilgamash was produced using modern brewing equipment.  Below are brief descriptions of each. 

Enkibru with Date Syrup 

Enkibru w/ Dates

• First Impression:  Light gray, almost like milk mixed with water.
• Smell:  Tart citrus and slightly malty aroma.  Smells a little like bergamot.
• Taste:  Quite tart and lemony, with some maltiness/wheat and some underlying sweetness (presumably from the dates).  The closest analogy I can come up with is Earl Grey tea with lemon, which explains the bergamot aroma from earlier.  
• On the Palate:  No carbonation, slightly thicker than average mouthfeel.
• ABV:  ~3.5%
• Comments:  Despite the description above, I enjoyed this, as it was so different than what I expected (though it probably doesn't hurt that I'm a regular tea drinker).  Sweeter than I'd anticipated.  The date syrup was introduced to the beer just a few hours before the dinner which imparted its pleasant taste but not the added potency of adding it earlier in the brewing process. 

Enkibru without Date Syrup (Enkibru Light)

• First Impression:  Virtually identical to the date-infused version.
• Smell:  Same as above, though when I compared the two side-by-side, the aroma of this one was more lemony, likely due to the lack of competition from the syrup.
• Taste:  Very tart/sour and lemony. 
• On the Palate:  Same as the sweeter version.
• ABV:  ~3.5%
• Comments:  Pleasant, though it suffered a little in comparison to its predecessor for the lack of sweetness/balance.

Gilgamash 

• First Impression:  Clear golden color (the other two beers were cloudy), with a finger thick white head, which lingered.
• Smell:  A malty wheat aroma with lemon and some herbal scents in the background. 
• Taste: Malt, citrus, and what may be coriander or basil at the finish  Similar to a hefeweizen or another weissbier.  My palate was too dulled by that point in the evening to be able to distinguish which herbs.
• On the Palate:  Moderate carbonation, medium body. 
• ABV:  ~5.0%
• Comments:  Made with the same ingredients as Enkibru, but produced with modern techniques and equipment.  Who knew several thousand years' worth of technological advancement would make such a difference.  Almost hard to believe that it started as the same beer.

Enkibru w/Dates, Enkibru, Gilgamash (L-R)

In Closing...
While the beer may have stolen the headlines, no small amount of the evening's success was due to the intimacy of the surroundings provided by the Gage and the approachability of the organizers from Great Lakes Brewing Co. and the University of Chicago.  The subject was compelling on its own, but everyone's enthusiasm and candor made it that much more so.   Additionally, the excellent food and modern beer pairings provided by The Gage and GLBC, made the night a real pleasure.

While any beer event is cause for at least minor celebration, this one was especially enjoyable for me, having spent much of my childhood roaming the halls of the Oriental Institute when my father was Director.  While my visits to the OI are rare these days, it's even rarer that Dad and I (and my better half) get together for a beer, as he's more of a cider drinker.  For that reason and those mentioned above, this was a congenial way to mingle our recreational and professional interests.  Now all that we have to do is wait for someone to brew an Akkadian beer, and we're really in business.

The author, sampling some Enkibru from the source.

Tate Paulette

Dark Horse Fore Smoked Stout

Beer:  Fore

Brewery:  Dark Horse

Date: February 20th, 2014

Style:  Stout, Smoked Beer

ABV: 7.0%

Similar To:  Surly Smoke Lager, Rogue Smoke Ale 

Description:
If asked to provide a subtitle for this evening, I'd have probably come up with "News Flash - Would-be Beer Fop realizes that ordering Food to complement his Beer enhances his Drinking Dining Experience".  Better yet, how about "Light Bulb City - Smoked Beer and BBQ taste great together"?  While I'm at it, I hear the PB and chocolate combo is pretty popular these days, too.  Anyway, I think you get the point... 
 
I've always felt that one of my shortcomings as a beer "enthusiast" is that I rarely take the time to marry my drink choices to my food in more than a superficial way. Choosing sweeter, darker brews with rich deserts, and barley wine with strong cheese has been about the extent of my planned pairings.  It's with great joy, then, when I stumble upon a congruous beer-food partnership as I did recently while dining at one of my favorite BBQ spots on Chicago's Near West side.  I'll discuss why this worked so well In Closing... at the end of this post, but first, more about the beer involved, Dark Horse's Fore Smoked Stout.

First Impression:
Thick black body with a very thin, light brown head which dissipates quickly.

Smell:
Mmmmm, smoky. Reminds me of a dying campfire or roasting nuts. Smokiness is consistent, but not overwhelming like some smoked beers I've tried. Roasted malts in abundance as well as coffee and a hint of sweetness in the background.

Taste:
A lovely nutty roasted malt flavor. The smoky character is prominent, but not alone as I can definitely taste coffee, chicory, and that elusive sweetness that could be molasses or even sasparilla. Slight alcohol bite in the finish.

On the Palate:
Rich with low carbonation, not unlike root beer.

Why You'll like It:
If you like single malt scotch, cigars, and campfires, then this one if definitley for you. The complexities of its character began to reveal themselves after the initial tasting, and are certainly worth its robust personality.

...and why You won't:
A challenging beer. Its smokiness is what you'll encounter first and for some that may be a lot to overcome to be able to enjoy this one's more subtle flavors.

In Closing...:
From early on, I knew that I was going to enjoy Fore.  What I didn't realize was how much more

A Re-creation of my Beer-Food Epiphany

enjoyable it was going to be once dinner arrived.  When I'm tasting a beer for the first time, I make an effort to not distort the experience with flavors which could significantly alter the beer's taste.  The same holds true when I order an enjoyable meal.  If I do order a beer, it's something that won't overwhelm my food.  Add to that the fact that I rarely drink any type of beverage when eating, and you can see why wining and dining are usually separate activities for me.

This evening, I ordered pulled chicken, seasoned fries, and grits.  I'd ordered all these dishes before, so I was fairly certain that I knew what to expect.  Alright, big swig of beer and onto dinner...  After the first bite of chicken, I literally stopped eating to look at the menu and wondered if I'd ordered a different dish than the one I expected.  This smokiness, this smoldering convergence of sweet and salty flavors, this almost euphoric exaltation of tastes so completely enhanced my beer's innate qualities.  Did you hear that brain?  Food can make beer taste better!  After going back and forth between the beer and chicken for a couple of minutes, I tried the seasoned fries and grits too, and God help me, they also tasted better!  I can only imagine that this is how cavemen must have felt when they first set fire to themselves, or whatever it is they were doing in dark caves when they weren't busy fighting dinosaurs or getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden.

If there's something to be learned from this experience, it's lost on me.  For the rest of you, however, I'd recommend doing some research on food and beer pairings, in the hope that you can at least slightly recreate the type of mystical adventure I had that night.

Beer Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)

Transcendental Dining Experience Rating (Beer Included):  ∞ Stars (out of 1).

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Barley Wine

Beer:  Bourbon County Brand Barley Wine (BCW) 

Brewery:  Goose Island

Date: February 17th, 2014

Style:  Barley Wine

ABV: 12.1%

Similar To:  Founders Backwoods Bastard, Young's Old Nick

Description:
There are times when I head out the door with a destination in mind and a beer as my goal.  Then there are times when beer expectations are strictly on the back burner and I luck into something outstanding.  My experience with BCW definitely qualifies as the latter.

The venue for this evening was the restaurant in a high-end hotel in the Loop, where I was meeting a former manager for dinner on the occasion of his leaving the company.  Conversation that night was enjoyable and certainly wasn't hurt by the presence of 3(!) of Goose Island's Bourbon County line on the menu:  Bourbon County Stout, the subject of this post, and Proprietor's BCS, only the first two of which were available.  

First Impression:
Dark brown/black with a slight reddish tint and no head.

Smell:
Not surprisingly a strong aroma of bourbon, as well as brown sugar, vanilla, and plums/cherries.  Smells sweeter than I remember from Bourbon County Stout.

Taste:
As expected, massive bourbon and very sweet malt, though not cloying.  Lots of brown sugar, caramel, vanilla, and the dark fruits I mentioned previously.  Surprisingly well hidden alcohol taste, due, no doubt to the sweetness.  I could have probably put away another 3 or 4 of these, even if I would have been sorry for it later.

On the Palate:
Luxuriously rich and thick with a warming finish.  Low carbonation.  Very smooth going down, despite the high ABV.

Why You'll like It:
What's not to like?  Seriously though, a top-notch barleywine whose complexity

...and why You won't:

Sweet and strong is what BCW delivers, and does so in almost epic proportions.  Buyer beware.

In Closing...:
Coworkers can be strange animals.  Having congenial people to work with can make a terrible job easier and having awful ones can suck the life out of the most rewarding employment.  Naturally, the moral of this platitude is that really good beer trumps a really bad job, at least for a few hours.   

As a side note, I've had great luck finding hard-to-locate beers in places where people wouldn't usually go to find them, such as hotel bars, wine bars, and good restaurants where the beer is a generally a secondary consideration.

Rating: 4 1/2 Stars (out of 5)

Goose Island Identity Crisis

Beer:  Identity Crisis (GIC)

Brewery:  Goose Island

Date: February 16th, 2014

Style:  Porter

ABV: 8.5%

Similar To:  Nothing else I've tried

Description:
Having a young child, part of the plan for each weekend is finding interesting activities for the family and seeing the excitement on the little critter's face each time she tries something new.  These activities usually involve spending time outdoors, but this winter we've had to get more inventive in searching for things to hold back the cabin fever.  One of my personal favorites is to take Little Dingbat to Chicago's Field Museum and let her run (relatively) amok down the galleries filled with the "stuffed animals", which are excellent examples of early 20th century taxidermy.  She's at the age where animals that hold still are more exciting than those uncooperative ones at the zoo which seem to make themselves scarce whenever we visit.  Also, the museum smells better.  After a morning out, we often retire to a child-tolerant watering hole for a spot of lunch and, with any luck, a decent pint or two.  It's one of these "watering holes", the Goose Island Brewpub on Clybourn, which will be the backdrop for several upcoming posts.  I've gone through most of their taproom-only beer selection recently and have found a couple that were really worth sharing, beginning with the aptly named Identity Crisis.

First Impression:
Deep black color with a small, very faint, white head.

Smell:
Sweet dark fruit - plums, or cherries soaked in brandy.  Thinking on it, the aroma reminds me of sherry or another cordial.

Taste:
Wow, not what I'd expected from a porter. I wasn't far off with the cordial analogy.  Plums, cherries, and roasted malt.  The taste is similar to a lambic or a mild sour ale.  Very little bitterness.

On the Palate:
Very low carbonation, somewhat thick but not syrupy. 

Why You'll like It:
Good for fans of strong fruit beers, sours, and even barley wines.  This covers all those bases and does it pretty well.

...and why You won't:
The flavor's somewhat incongruous to the style, which may disappoint you if that's not what you're expecting.

In Closing...:
There's no further question in my mind as to why they named this beer Identity Crisis, but rather why they thought to categorize it as a porter.  Regardless, an enjoyable experience after a tough morning of fatherhood.  As I've lamented frequently when visiting this place "If only they served it in growlers...".

Rating: 4 Stars (out of 5)
 

The stout on the left or the "porter" on the right?  Eenie, meenie...