Pub Pics - Paramount Room

Since my birthday in March 2008, I have enjoyed many times at Paramount Room, which opened in Fall 2007. Paramount Room is about 2 blocks southeast from the Grand/Halsted/Milwaukee intersection and just near a train track bridge (and it always smells like chocolate outside because of Blommers Chocolate nearby). I enjoy their frequently rotating taps of craft beer (always with an updated list), their excellent Kobe burger and tempura fried green beans, and the comfortable modern pub atmosphere. We usually sit in the underground lounge space, but this time we sat at the first table by the front door. Featured in this edition of "Pub Pics" is a pint (being thoroughly enjoyed, hence the "glass is half full"!) of the recently available Two Brothers Long Haul Session Ale. This ale is light in body and alcohol (only 4.2%) but has such fantastic flavor with oaky notes, due to the aging in French oak fermentation tanks (foudres). Maybe I need a little break from all those strong IPA's lately, but I seem to be enjoying this one a lot more than other reviewers. Plus it's a great session ale to have while watching all the Chicago Blackhawks games - who are hopefully "in it for the long haul". And that's why it's my Beer of the Month this April 2010.

And it Stoned Me at the Spoke (Stone Brewing at Twisted Spoke 04-01-10)

This past Thursday, April 1 2010, I went over to one of my favorite beer/bourbon bars, Twisted Spoke (Grand and Ogden) for a special event with Stone Brewing. As many of you have probably heard, Stone Brewing is pretty much taking over many bars/taps/stores this week with a large selection of their beers, which have never been sold in Illinois before now. On that note, I have never before had the chance to try any beers from Stone Brewing before this event, which was the first day to kick-off the "Stone Beer Week in Chicago". All 20 of the taps were Stone beers! I got there around 5:45pm, and by about 6:15pm the place was packed as you can see from the photo.

Even though we had to wait a while for our first round of beers, it was worth it and the bartenders were trying their best to accommodate the early crowd. We first got the Double Dry Hopped IPA (which was excellent and maybe my favorite), Sublimely Self-Riteous Ale, 13th Anniversary Ale, and Smoked Porter (which was also excellent). Second round was Arrogant Bastard Dry Hopped, Levitation, Ruination, and Vanilla Porter. You can find lots more great information about all the Stone beers on their website here.

The beers that we tried are noted (by check marks) on the full list of beers available, which is shown here in this post (click it to view larger). We also met a very nice and knowledgeable guy who marked on list which beers you can find in bottles or not. Glad I got that Double Dry Hopped IPA before the tap ran out! I might attend another Stone beer event next week, where I may try some of the other rarer/stronger beers such as the Bel-Go Barley Wine or the Russian Imperial Stout Barrel Aged. But I just couldn't handle these during my time at Twisted Spoke. All the beers I had there were a great introduction to Stone Brewing for me, and they left me, well, kinda stoned!

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:

AleFest Chicago (3rd Annual)

This Saturday July 11 will be the 3rd Annual AleFest Chicago.
It will be in a large field just outside of Soldier Field Stadium from 2pm to 6pm.
We went last year and had lots of fun and overall thought it was excellent. Therefore, I am definitely going again this year.

It is $40 for admission, but that gives you 20 samples from a selection of over 150 craft beers, a commemorative AleFest sampling glass, and event sampling guide with informative beer and brewing references, along with many other features. This year, the proceeds will go to support the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, and on their website they elaborate on this year's special "ReplicAle" which will be the style of Belgian Wit.

If you love beer like me, and this time and location is convenient for you, you should try to make it.

Last year, I wanted to write about my AleFest 2008 experience but never got around to it, even though I had plenty of material (reviews, photos). Hopefully I will write about my AleFest 2009 experience, soon after attending this Saturday.

I also have literally tons of new photos and beer reviews that I have been meaning to post, but have been extremely busy for the past 6 months. I will have to figure out a way to get this blog up to speed this summer.

Pub Pics - Elephant and Castle Pub in Chicago

Pub Pics - Small Bar in Avondale, Chicago

Oktoberfest & Pumpkin Beer at Delilah's Follow-Up

A couple weeks back (I gotta write more often on this blog!) I went to Delilah's in Chicago for their Oktoberfest & Pumpkin (& Autumn Beer) "Festival". I did not buy the $20 tasting for all the beers (2 oz. each, I think). I have already had many of the beers on the list. So, I just had four beers that I have never had before. I also tried to get some photos, but as expected Delilah's is just too dark.
To the left, you can view the list of beers offered at Delilah's - just click it to view larger.
Here are my ratings.

Weihenstephaner Festbier - The glass is full

Arcadia Jaw Jacker Spiced Ale - The glass is half empty

Breckenridge After Rakin' Autumn Ale - The glass is half full

Lakefront Pumpkin Lager - The glass is empty

In general, I am not really into pumpkin ales. I say ales, because as you can see from my rating of the pumpkin lager above, I just don't think pumpkin works well at all in a lager. Recently, I had a pumpkin ale that I thought was really good and enjoyable to drink, so I made it the Beer of the Month for this October. It's Brooklyn Brewery's Post Road Pumpkin Ale.