Celebrate Regional Brews with the Chicago's Finest Craft Beer Fests

Spring and summer are some of the best seasons to take in the Windy City. The beaches are hopping, Navy Pier is warm and walkable, and the city plays host to some of the hottest festivals in the country, including world-renowned music fest Lollapalooza and the Just for Laughs comedy festival. There’s always something to do in Chicago.

If it’s beer you’re into, the warmer months are also high season in Chicago. During spring and summer, the city hosts some of its biggest craft beer festivals and events.

Wheaton Brew Fest

Roughly 20 miles west of downtown, Chicago suburb Wheaton, Ill., plays host to the Wheaton Brew Fest, a single-day event that takes place at the town’s Memorial Park. Food is on the grill and live music takes to the festival stage, as attendees sample more than 100 beers from area brewers, one of the largest gatherings of breweries in the area. Tickets go on sale in early spring for the late summer event, and attendance is limited, meaning you won’t be spend the entire event waiting in line.

Summer Brew

Downtown Chicago’s Lincoln Square is home to the city’s Summer Brew, a single-night street festival that features 15 local craft brews and their makers, with food available from select local restaurants. As a visitor to Chicago’s Summer Brew, you not only get a chance to taste craft beers that aren’t always available to the public, you also get to talk to the creators of those brews. If you’re into home brewing, it’s the perfect opportunity to learn the tips and tricks of pros.

Chicago Craft Beer Festival

Launched in 2012, the aptly named Chicago Craft Beer Festival is one of the newest in the city. The festival takes place over a weekend in early summer on the grounds of Old Town church St. Michael, one of only three structures to survive the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Modeled after traditional Belgian beer fests, the Chicago Craft Beer Festival hosts microbrewers from all over the U.S., serving up more than 75 craft brews, an arts fair, and local musicians.

Fischman Liquors and Tavern

Describing itself as a “friendly neighborhood bar,” Fischman Liquors & Tavern has been named one of the “6 Best Craft Beer Havens” by Chicago Magazine, so it’s worth a stop no matter when you’re in town.

Fischman also has some of the city’s finest craft beer gatherings throughout spring and summer. The tavern’s regular Thursday-evening Tap This! event brings artisanal beers and food trucks to the venue to serve up a rotating-combination of craft beers and regional delicacies, meaning no two events are alike.

Solidarity

No matter what time of year you are in Chicago, keep an eye out for the city’s Solidarity events, which feature 15 to 20 breweries presenting their best or their latest craft beers. These events are held every few months around Chicago with the intention of evening the playing field between the big brand names in beer and local crafters. Hosted by local bars and taverns, Solidarity provides locals and visitors alike with the chance to sample local breweries finest offerings.

Whether you visit Chicago in early spring or late summer, there’s always a tap flowing with craft beer somewhere. Once you know where to look for it, you’ll find Chicago a local brew hotspot.

Review: Upland Sour Wild Funk Fest

So I couldn't make it to the this summer's Upland Sour Fest, but thankfully a good friend of mine could. Katie Gilmore is a local beer enthusiast and home brewer for the Evanston Avenue Brewery with her husband. 

My husband and I recently went to the first Upland Sour Wild Funk Fest at Developer Town in SoBro. We live nearby, so we rode our bikes to the event. This turned out to be a wise move since there was plenty of beer to go around.

The premise of the event was to offer samples of sour beers along with food pairings. The idea of food pairings drew me to this event, since previously, I preferred my sours as part of a 3 ounce tasting flight at Twenty Tap. I liked to sample the different varieties, but sours didn’t strike me as something to sip on while catching up with friends.

Upland’s executive chef, Seth Elgar, put together the food pairings for the Sour Fest. The event was set up so that the program listed the sours available for tasting, and next to each sour, it listed the suggested food pairing. This was very helpful as we made our way through the event.

The food was set up buffet style (with a hilarious sign that read, “This isn’t Golden Corral”). It was easy to grab a little bit of each item to try with the beers as we visited each tasting booth. I waited about an hour to get any food because the room was very warm. But after we had a few samples, it was time to eat.

As for the pairings, I think the heat had a lot to do with my interpretation of whether or not I liked a pairing. (This is obvious when you see that I basically liked the fruit pairings and not the meat or heavy cheese, which I typically enjoy.) For example, the Petrus Dubbel Bruin with capocolla seemed too heavy for me to appreciate. But the Bell’s Oarsman with cantaloupe was excellent. Since we’re headed into summer, it’s probably just as well that I know what works for me in the heat. Some of my favorite pairings were:

• ·       Bell’s Oarsman with cantaloupe (contrast)
• ·       Goose Island Juliet with brie (complement)
• ·       Goose Island Lolita with honeydew (contrast)
• ·       Barley Island Old Helen II with mini chocolate cheesecake (body)
• ·       Upland Blackberry Lambic with blackberries (complement)
• ·       New Belgium La Folie with white grapes (complement)

Not to detract from the other great beers that I sampled, here’s a list of the other sours I enjoyed as a stand-alone:

• ·       Sun King Sour Princess
• ·       Brugge Pooka
• ·       New Belgium Biere de Mars
• ·       Mad Anthony Ruby Raspberry Tart
• ·       Upland Gilgamesh Imperial Flanders-Style Red Ale

I would recommend this event to anyone who, like me, has appreciated a small serving of a sour here and there, but maybe hasn’t had the chance to really get to know all of the varieties that are available. I also appreciated the way that Upland approached this event. Tickets were limited, and they did a good job on the logistics of the space relative to the crowd size. We were at the event from 2 p.m. until 5-ish, and I don’t think we waited more than 2-3 minutes for a tasting at any of the booths.

I hope you’ve found this to be helpful!

Broad Ripple Brew Pub - BRV 175

BRV 175

ABV: 6.0%

IBU: relatively low, not bitter at all and a bit sweet

SRM / coloring: Mid range

Guess what y’all? The Broad Ripple Village Association is turning 175, which is straight insane in my mind, especially since I’ve just been kicking it around the Ripple for twenty some years. Best way to celebrate that anny is Broad Ripple Brew Pub style with their new creation, the BRV 175.

The BRV 175 is a full-bodied amber with a bit of a twist to it. Instead of that characteristic tangy amber taste, this has more of a deep malty flavor with a sweet after taste. I guess I kind of picture ambers to be the perfect balance between browns, hefeweizens and pale ales, the lights and the darks. This is a unique take, the opposite end of the amber spectrum, instead of starting sweet and ending tangy / sour, this starts malty and ends sweet.

“(He curls his moustache tips) …intriguing.”

Triton Brewing Company - B-Java Brown

Getting back to beer has been somewhat hard for me and pretty much it has been all March's fault. The storm of dates, St. Patrick's day, and wonderful weather requiring cheaper mass quantity beer has really pulled me away from my roots. I'm here to say though faithful fans that I'm back and here to provide you all with some brew information.

It's been a hot minute since I've visited the boys at Triton, so when my friend who lives on the Northeast side invited me over, I had to jump on the opportunity. Final Four basketball and a couple of growlers couldn't fail in any circumstance.

The only bad part about spring and the warmer weather is that I can't get the dark beer that I love so much, it's all transitioning to pale ales, blondes and saisons. Walking into Triton though they still had a couple of options left on the menu, of which the B-Java Brown caught my eye.

Typically browns are a good middle ground between your thick porters and stouts and lighter options. I'm used to getting that dark coffee flavor with a thick ale, but with the warmer weather outside having a lighter beer is somewhat of a necessity. The B-Java Brown solves this problem; really heavy on the coffee / nutty flavor but with a crisp light body. And, since this is a variation of their sweet Brown beer, it came off smooth and seet on the end instead of the normal coffee bitter. Honestly one of the best beers I've had in some time.

Upland Brewing Co. - Schwarz Black Lager

Schwarz Black Lager

ABV: 5.3%
IBU: 25.3
SRM / coloring: 28.3, pretty much black go figure right

Winter is dwindling fast so I gotta get my dark beer fix in before everyone transitions into the lighter varieties.

Schwarzbier, literally meaning black beer, is a german variety lager that typically is characterized by those malty flavors and additives of other ales.  The only difference is the body is much lighter and it comes off smooth and crisp at the end.

Upland's Schwarz is the epitome of this style of beer.  It looks pretty scary with it's jet black color and large head, but when you dive into it it tastes about as clean as any other lighter beer option.  The smell is very strong with hints of chocolate and coffee, but take a sip and it's much more subtle, actually tasting like a classic lager.  Coming off clean makes a fantastic beer for malt enthusiasts and people just looking to try something new.  This is a good one.

Upland Brewing Co. - Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh Flanders Red Ale

ABV: 10.5
IBU: 21
SRM / coloring: bright red almost to orange

Beer is a funny thing.  Initially after trying it for the first time, most people think to themselves why would anyone consistently drink this stuff?  Then, as time progresses and you're around beer more often, you get used to it and it grows on you.  The grainy flavor and different variations become intriguing and you have to explore more options and different styles.  I'm the perfect example for this, starting off hating beer to now being in love with it I'm on a personal quest to explore every nook and cranny of the beer world and to find something truly unique and out there.  Ladies and gentlemen, it comes in a champagne like bottle from Upland Brewing Company.

Disclaimer, most people would be very opposed to this beer and to be honest, I'm not quite sure if I like it yet either.  The flavor of beer comes as an acquired taste, and to then find a beer that is so far from tasting like beer that it borders on something else entirely is a little bit shocking.  Still, sometimes you just have to roll the dice and try something crazy.

A little background first, flanders style red ales are sour beers, which do in fact taste sour.  In order to make a sour beer the brewers allow in bacteria and other yeast strands into the brew which alters the flavor, something that traditional (or should I say typical) brewers tend to avoid.  By doing so the beer comes off with a yeasty kick and does truly taste unique.  Other ways to achieve this is to add fruits into the mix to add another fermentation cycle.  As a result you get a sweet, yeasty flavored taste that borders more on sparkling grape juice or alcoholic cider than your average beer.

This is a medium bodied beer that looks like an amber, smells like a strawberry daiquiri, and tastes like a yeasty variation of the fruitiest beer that you've probably ever heard of.  Even just smelling this beer you get an overwhelming kick of fruit and yeast, but then take a drink and it seriously attacks your senses.  It has been bourbon barrel aged which kind of mellows out the flavor at the end, bringing it down a notch, but this is a super sweet beer bordering on too sweet.

Personally, I'm a dark beer malty man and I like to stay away from fruit flavored variations, so this ain't exactly my thing.  I do know one thing though, that this is one of the strongest beers I've ever had, in taste, alcohol, and just overall feel.  Too many of these and your head will probably explode the next morning.

Thr3e Wise Men Brewing Co. - Wise Ass White IPA

Wise Ass White IPA

ABV: 8.0%
IBU: 93
SRM / Coloring: Cloudy Gold

I gotta say Thr3e Wise Men has been impressing me lately.  To be perfectly frank they don't have the same focus on beer that most other breweries in town have, offering on average of five beers, one seasonal and four standards, all year round.  While most other breweries would have upwards to ten beers on tap, Thr3e Wise Men Keeps it simple.  Recently though, they've been stepping up their game in a big way and pumping out some different variations on their beer, including this one.

Scotty Wise is known for naming all his beers after his experiences: Golden Zoe is named after his golden retriever, Two Lucy's after his daughter and wife.  Wise Ass makes complete sense in that regard, and the best way to describe this white IPA is as a cross between a more moderate IPA and a wheat beer.

Looking at this one you'd even guess it's a wheat beer, but the nice thing is it has a light hoppiness on the back end, complimented with the sweet wheat flavor.  There's a hint of orange and fruit on the nose, but the taste is light and crisp which doesn't overpower one way or another.  This is a great springtime beer to welcome in the warming of the weather (or in our case the cooling of the weather off again to most likely warm back up to a snotty rain which will then freeze over and make my morning commute a real turd).  Not a beer to push the maximum boundaries of taste and flavor, but ideal for people on the fence with regards to IPA's or Wheat beer.