Chicago 2013 Day 2

Urine Trouble collaboration
at Northdown

6/11/13

Chicago 2013 Day 1

To start Day 2, we were on the hunt for a Surly collaboration ale with Three Floyds called Urine Trouble that Al read about that morning.  We found it online at Northdown and decided to head out before it opened.  We were happily rewarded with it still on tap:

Three Floyd/Surly Urine Trouble: Heather liked the hoppy funk of the smell but the grassy taste put her off. Lemon and orange without the grapefruit integrated well with the clean and bright brett. Burnt orange ale with a delicate white film after the tightly bubbled head fell. Very fun and interesting beer from two of the industry's best hoppy breweries.

To follow up the first pint, I recognized a brewery that I liked from my Denmark trip: To Øl.  Brewmance, an Imperial bourbon Barrel Aged Wild Honey Stout is a collaboration with a brewery new to me, Omnipollo.  Brewmance has a deep black body with a dark head in the tiny pour of this 12% stout to start the day. Alcohol in the nose without being overly hot and plenty of barrel, fig and a hint of dark cherry chocolate. Sweet and winey on the tongue and then the stout, wood and liquorice hits on the back of the tongue to counter point the sweetness.

Northdown is a nice local with a small but well curated selection of very cool beers. Unfortunately I will have to leave the 't Gaverhopke Quad for another day since we're planning to have lunch at the Local Option with a friend a mine, a former debater from my days teaching in LA.

Mural at Local Option

Local Option feels a lot like Triple Rock in Minneapolis—a pissed off punker vibe except that the beer selection is much stronger.  Unfortunately, the kitchen didn't open until 3 p m, so we were only able to drink but not get any food.  Looking at the website later, it doesn't it make it clear on the menu or the front page that food and operating hours differ, so I feel a little better that it wasn't my research that left us starving through a few beers.

Local Option brews its own beers at other breweries.  Today, we sampled the La Petit Mort brewed at Central Waters and Militiagan brewed at Dark Horse.  At one time this would have stigmatized this very good beer, but Local Option categorizes itself (rightfully) as a brewery since they brew their beer themselves on someone else's equipment because. Since I believe the art is in the brewer and not the equipment being on site, I praise them and wish more places would follow their example and make use of brewing capacity that already exists.  We followed this up with an excellent Dark Horse draft of Old Man aged in Templeton Rye barrels and shared a bottle of Iron Throne by Brewery Ommegang, the latter brewed in connection with the show Game of Thrones. While not a watcher of the show, maybe I should if it's half as good as the beer.

Half Acre brewery front

Hungry, we headed off to find food and add local friends from the speech world.  En route, we happily stumbled upon a pizza by the slice place called Chicago's Pizza, a micro-local chain of three restaurants in this part of town. I had just said I wish I was in New York and could just grab a slice and there appeared our salvation. Since it was thick slice, they asked if we wanted to sit for our slice; odd, but it sounded nice so we did.  I ordered a Metropolitan Krankshaft Kolsch and Al got a Finch's Golden Wing. Both are Chicago breweries I haven't had yet; Al won this one, picking the better of the two.  Pizza was good, but not a slice I would go out of my way for in the competitive deep dish pizza market of Chicago.

Next stop was the taproom of Half Acre Beer Co.  We've seen a lot of Half Acre around town and they seem to be the up and coming brewery of Chicago.  While I like the beers I sampled and all were well brewed, my initial evaluation was that the beers were all of the same mold with little variation. From what I tasted, Half Acre seems like a one trick pony that happens to have a very good trick. Next time I see Half Acre on tap, I will start with their draft early to give them a better shot.

The Bad Apple draft and bottle lists

The Bad Apple Bar is just down the block from Half Acre. Very cool local bar with a wide selection to drink.  We were in full social mode at this point, so my lone note besides my drafts was that the beer battered cheese curds are light and fluffy. For dinner, I remember having a Strange Famous, a mushroom and seiten veggie burger that was tasty and unique. On the stop, I finally added Spiteful Brewing to my database with their Bitter Biker and expanded my sampling from Solemn Oath with the Snaggletooth Bandana, both very good brews and well served.

With the help of some local friends, we took the 50 Bus to the famous Hopleaf, avoiding a longer trip toward downtown on the L and back out on another line.  An altercation between the bus driver and a rider (not us!) cut into our drinking time as we filled out incident reports so the driver could prove that he was in the right.  Not what we expected but an interesting story for the weekend.

Back bar at Hopleaf

Walking into Hopleaf, I found it impossible to resist starting with Atomium by Brouwerij van Steenbergh because I visited the incredibly over hyped namesake of the beer last summer (Atomium in Brussels created for the 1958 World Fair ). The beer disappointed nearly as much as the tourist trap. Al then bought bottles of De Cam Oude Geueze 2000, a decade older version of the extremely excellent beer I tasted for the first time last last summer at the Lambic Discovery Center, which was absolutely sublime when aged, and De Ranke XX Bitter, also excellent. My local friend Ben and I responded with two bottles of Founders from the "special" case: Doom and Bolt Cutter, each living up to Founders' fine reputation. I ended the evening with a Ballast Point Sculpin, a legendary IPA that I've never been able to taste before.  To top off the evening, a former student who was training downtown for her job was able to meet up with us at the stop as well. Overall, Hopleaf provides the beer geek (for a price) with the option for a truly transcendent experience and I look forward to spending more time there in the future.

On the day, two of my former students, one from LA and one from Minnesota, plus speechie slash beer friends from Minnesota and Chicago, all gathered together for various parts of the day to hit some excellent beery spots without a single clunker. In short, a near perfect pub crawl with friends old and new.

Chicago 2013 Day 3

Moeder Lambic Fontainas (Brussels, Belgium)

Real men eat quiche

7/30/12, 7/31/12

I found Moeder Lambic during my planned walk listed on Cantillon's website.  If heading to the Cantillon tour, a stop at Moeder Lambic is a great before or after combination.  I thought I had my return down pat when I noted in the morning that the bar is near the Anneessens metro stop.  However, when exiting at Anneessens, it's important to follow the signs to Fontainasplein. Underground walkways lead to several separate "pleins" (open places) and they are two blocks from each other.   I was hoping for a easy up and getting a beer, and got a walk through an interesting immigrant neighborhood instead.

Zwarte Piet by Brasserie de la Senne here in Brussels is the first beer of the night. Zwarte Piet means "black Pete" and is a helper of Santa Claus in the Netherlands, but I understand little about Pete beyond that.  In this case, I got a robust, dark beer that is a nice contrast to the lambics and golden Belgians I've been drinking this week.  Flowing brown lace on the glass leads to a deep ruby ale that's opaque, and smooth without being light.  Dark cherry and chocolate mix with a spice in the nose and taste that seems to be from theyeast but could also be hops—probably a blend.

Zwarte Piete and my view at a table just inside the door

Second beer of the night is Bitter Sorachi Ace from a French brewery, Brasserie du Mont Saleve.  From my trip, I've noticed that bitter styles are starting to make inroads into Belgium, but my impression is that they still shy away from hops compared to Americans.  This is a hazy, pale yellow ale with a giant head in a small footed glass. Very pretty but the taste disappoints.  I love Sorachi Ace as a hop when placed front and center in a beer by Brooklyn Brewery, simply called Sorachi Ace. This use is less than masterful, and while I understand the critique of over-hopped American beers, American brewers have really pushed the limits of hop science and know how to use them.  This is a nice attempt by Mont Saleve, but it falls a little short.

For dinner, I expanded my horizons and ordered the salmon quiche, which was excellent. Those shocked reading this fact, I added fish back into my ovo-lacto diet recently and this is the first I've tested it overseas. The Bitter Sorachi Ace complimented the quiche fairly well.

Moved on to Noir de Dottignies by Brouwerij de Ranke.  A Belgian strong dark ale with a clean tan lace and dark brown to ruby in the glass.  A very light nose of dark fruits and alcohol spice on top of a smooth maltiness.  Body is a bit light with a slickness letting the same fruits and spice slide right off the back. The beer came with a small amount of malt, but not sure why and the waiter left so quickly that I couldn't ask. Nothing on BA either.  This is listed as a "dark and bitter" beer, so my guess is that the sweet malt is supposed to compliment or reduce the Challenger and Saaz hops dosing.  Can't say the combination does much for me besides leaving chunky grain in my mouth instead of slightly hoppy dark beer. Confirmed the next night that the malted barley is meant to be a "chip" to snack on—a sweet to counteract the bitterness.

After a month in Belgium and France, I came home and gain only two pounds, drinking and eating as I wished.  I love the smaller portions of food and beer in Belgium, maybe Europe in general.  Delve into the full list of 2012 Belgium and 2012 France posts; the reader will note that I've had a fairly large number of beers—all glasses of 25 centiliters.  Food is served in manageable portions as well, so a meal ordered for one doesn't make me feel like a glutton.  A very safe and sane way to to eat and drink.  Moeder Lambic is the epitome of this idea.  This, I think, the US could learn a lesson on how to do.

Finished the night with Rose de Gambrinus, the framboise from Cantillon that I visited this morning.  I didn't have it on-site since I planned to get here later to try several lambics.  Amazing pink head that lingers fluffily on top of a dark red lambic.  My info from Cantillon says 150 kg of raspberries are macerated and placed in the kegs per 500 liters of beer and left to soak for five to six months.  Incredible raspberry in the nose with a light twang from the lambic pushes its way in from the background.  Take a sip and—wow—what sour: vinegar-like kick with the fruit just barely keeping up, almost achieving a balance.  This is a framboise for lambic lovers instead of an introductory lambic like Lindeman's with the fruit leading the sour by a ways.

In spite of the weird, techno backbeat from the bar's music, Moeder Lambic is a great beer adventure.  Besides, the music isn't loud and the focus of the place is light conversation.  I'm pretty sure that one of the workers I saw today at Cantillon is sitting at the bar, so others seem to think that it's a good stop as well. Also, the bar has an especially strong WiFi signal, so I'm catching up on emails while digging deep into the beer list.

Finding Moeder Lambic on my second attempt went much better.  After my adventure at the Atomium (giant model of an atom for the 1958 World Expo that attracts loads of tourists), I emerged from the subway looking right at the bar.

Started tonight with Dupont's Monk's Stout. Black and opaque, even in the mini-imperial pint glass.  Roasted malt and chocolate in the nose that smells like a standard good stout except for a light Belgian yeast funk underneath. More spice appears in the taste to compliment the Guinness-like quality of this beer.

Kerkomese Tripel from Brouwerij Kerkom is a hazy yellow with a stark white head in a glass.  A triple with an amazing spice and fruitiness on top of a light body. The 9% is completely hidden in this smooth drinking beer.  Next, when in Belgium, drink Norway.  Nogne O Imperial Stout is on tap as a special beer, so it's hard to resist this absolute black ale with a creamy tan head. Nose is light for the style, but the taste is fairly spectacular: full bodied, roast, chocolate, slight cherry and an alcohol slickness that makes it smooth. Opens up well as it warms.

My last beer at Moeder Lambic was Tilquin Gueuze on tap.  This was one of my favorites at the Lambic Vistor Center and is just as good on tap. Stark white, fluffy head over a hazy straw gold beer. This is one of my favorites of the trip: a pleasantly sour beer that's not overwhelming. A very perfectly balanced lambic blend.

So I lied. When I said the Tilquin Gueuze was very good, the bartender said the Lambic Blend on tap was better.  Had to give it a try.   Bracingly tart without being overwhelming and a light malt sweetness underneath, probably from a younger lambic in the blend that hasn't dried out yet.  Looks identical to the gueuze, understandably, since both are a blend of the same base lambic.  Tilquin is fast becoming my favorite lambic brewer/blender along with Oud Beersel.

Time spent is my recommendation—check out Moeder Lambic.