AleFest Chicago 2009 Follow-Up and Photos

Just as it was last year, AleFest Chicago 2009 (3rd Annual) was a fantastic time this past Saturday, on a beautiful day near Soldier Field. There were about 150 beers from which to sample, although I have actually had a lot of them before, so there wasn't much beer new to me. I still enjoyed tasting beers that I haven't had for a couple years or having some of my old favorites. Some of my favorite breweries were there, including Two Brothers, Lost Coast, Dark Horse, Charles Wells, Goose Island, Great Lakes, Unibroue, Wychwood, Lagunitas, and Founders. A brewery that's newer to me is Barley Island from Indiana and I very much enjoyed their Barfly IPA and Dirty Helen Brown Ale (which I favorably reviewed last year) which were poured from their great looking taps. Unfortunately, one of my favorite breweries Three Floyds was not there again this year, so it seems they are never interested in participating in this AleFest, even though they are so close to Chicago. For the special ReplicAle 2009 event, for which many breweries brewed their version of a Belgian-style wit beer, I only tried the ones from Piece Brewery & Pizzeria and Emmett's Tavern & Brewing, which were both excellent (as expected). Enjoy my slideshow of photos that I took during my time at AleFest Chicago 2009, along with my girlfriend Lin and her dad Denny: