We met the nice guys from Destihl at the Beer Hoptacular in Chicago back in June. They were one of the lone stand outs at that event, both in their seeming genuine enjoyment of their hobby cum job and also in their beer – they offered the only sour at the event and, sour or not, it stood head and shoulders above everyone else’s phoned in contributions.

So you could imagine my excitement when I got news from their facebook page that Destihl is hosting an Oktoberfest at their brewpub in Normal, Illinois September 25th. They’re promising some suckling pig, fresh brewed Marzen, and a bavarian influenced menu. Willie and I have been threatening a bike trip down there since June and an early fall ride through middle Illinois’ shifting colors seems just what the doctor ordered.

Now I just gotta go get my freaking bike out of the shop.

Pelican is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary of deliciously textured instrumental metal this year with a box set, limited to 500 in a wooden box containing their 4 LPs and 3 EPs on Viva Hate Records. They’ll also be playing a show at the Bottom Lounge on October 23rd. And, yes, 3 Floyd’s is releasing an as yet unspecified doppelbock to help mark this momentous occasion.

It’s times like these that make a fellow proud to be alive.

This here’s a video documenting the creation of the ‘Death to False Prophets’ mural at the 3 Floyd’s brewery in Indiana. The video features music from Bible of the Devil and was pulled off my new favorite blog Bomb Chicago which documents graffiti and street art in this city of broad shoulders.

Friday saw the release of Half Acre‘s collective hat tip to America’s most sexually articulate rock duo, Ween. They had been hyping this collaboration with Short’s Brewing since Ween came to town back at the end of June.

Right from the nose you know this is a Half Acre effort. Aside from the noticeable addition of guava there is the recognizable Half Acre musk that anyone who has enjoyed a Daisy Cutter will notice. It’s almost moss-like. I suppose some might find that description less than appealing, but I’m running into a block trying to find a more appropriate way to explain what strikes me as a moist, earthy, almost fecund smelling aroma that Half Acre has mastered. There’s some slight evergreen and citrus, but really I fall back onto those terms out of social habit and not out of an honest response to what I smell. And the guava tends to occupy those scents with this brew leaving the earth tones of the beer to really stand up.

But, sticking my nose in the beer is not the part of this past time that keeps me coming back for more, I happen to actually fancy the drinking of the stuff. And drinking Freedom of ’78 is pretty enjoyable. Again, a lot of similar notes to the Daisy Cutter – that delicious Half Acre biscuit is there for sure, does that come from their yeast or from Victory malts (or both)? Then follows an expertly balanced hop bitterness with less flavor than the DC, and then the guava coming on the back side of the flavor with plenty of personality, but not overly sweet. Where a fruit beer like Dogfish Head’s Festina Peche is just too much for me to enjoy more than one, the Freedom of ’78 kept me company during the 12 hour smoke of our brisket as well as accompanying the ceremonial consumption of said beast.

On a side note: I was drinking Freedom of ’78 from a growler yesterday and I must say it was a bit better than the bomber I’m sipping on now, but I suppose that shouldn’t be a huge surprise. The guava flavor was a bit more pronounced and the slight alcohol flavors weren’t as prevalent as they seem to be in the bottled version. Also, the head retention and body was a bit better from the tap, but, again, that’s nothing that should be terribly surprising. I guess the moral of the story is buy it in a growler while you can and stock up on bombers for when you can’t.

Once again, my hats off to Half Acre, they continue to bring unique and interesting one off batches of beer to Chicago in addition to the stables of their portfolio all the while hoisting that delicious freak flag for tasteful degenerates like Ween. If I had a cult I’d give serious consideration to using this beer as my kool-aid.

God speed.

American Homebrew Association members are invited to a, uh, rally (?) tomorrow at the Goose Island brewery in the fulton market. It looks like the rally includes a brewery tour, complimentary samples of Goose Island beer, a meet and greet with the brewers and a chance to chat up some folks from Siebel and White Labs.

This is from 6-9pm at the Goose Island brewery 1800 W. Fulton Street in Chicago.

If you’re not an AHA member you can sign up at the door. This is free for members. You can RSVP here.

If I don’t go see Inception at the IMax again, I’ll probably be there. Come and rub my belly.

Last weekend was remarkable, one for the record books. Friday I got up at 6 in the morning and dawn patrolled with Trevor. We came home around 9:30am and toured through several New Glarus brews in honor of his *cough* 43rd birthday. We hit the Enigma, the Old English Porter, the Two Women Lager and the Golden Ale. We wrapped up our impromptu celebration with Dark Horse’s Perkulator, their dopplebock with coffee which seemed the proper elixir to get my head back in the working game for a while. Alas, the Perkulator’s power to inspire work is not as powerful as the brews wicked ass label would have you believe.

Like any good morning of drinks, this one inspired us to eat steaks for dinner. Trevor went home to wrangle his daughter for the afternoon and I hopped on my motorcycle for a visit to the Paulina Meat Market to pick up 4 prime new york strip steaks. Nobody gets cuts in Chicago like Paulina and nobody is as eager to charge you as Paulina either. Honestly though, if I’m going to get jacked for my meat (heh heh) I’d prefer to get jacked at Paulina. Their staff are consummate professionals, butchers with a great understanding of their product that are always willing to share that wisdom with their customers. And they’ve got the mustaches to prove it.

It’s hard for a fat alcoholic to stay focused in Paulina, the place is wall to wall of the finest cuts of meat you’re bound to find anywhere. Packaged in all kinds delicious manner. Someone needs to create a religion where Paulina is the reward for a life well lived. Of course, that “life well lived” would require plenty of time spent at Paulina in proper preparation for that sweet, sweet after life as well. So to help bide my time waiting for my number to be called I developed my shopping list into a respectable effort. In addition to the 4 new york strips, I would pick up 6 of their Jumbo Grilling Wieners, some bisquits to go with our dinner and, at Matt’s recommendation, a package of 6 veal cheeks.

The Jumbo Grilling Wieners were transcendental. The wiener is about the size of a baby’s arm, which is to say slightly smaller that John Holmes’ private collection. I shit you not, these wieners were at least 10″ long with about 3.5″ of girth. The flavor was of the finest beef I’ve had in a dog and the snap was audible. I don’t know who the wizard was that developed these Jumbo Grilling Wieners, but when I start my religion with Paulina as the after life that guy is probably going to have to be the first pope or at least get some kind of sainthood or a holy day or something.

I dropped off the steaks at Trevor’s and we each had a Jumbo Grilling Wiener (I just enjoy hearing that combination of words). Did I mention the snap on these things? Later that evening we enjoyed all the beauty that is a new york strip with our lovely brides under the fantastic summer night with a sultry soundtrack of Tejano music oompa-paing from Trevor’s neighbors.

Saturday I was up again with the sun to spend a lovely day of relaxation in the blistering summer heat smoking a pork shoulder. Something we’ve learned with these pork shoulders is that you definitely want to get boneless pork shoulders. The bone-in pork shoulder has too many layers of fat and other junk that makes it more challenging to pull. There’s enough fat in a boneless shoulder to keep your meat plenty juicy.

Sunday was a banner 4th of July as a bunch of us headed out to Winnemac Park for the best 4th of July celebration in the city. Amateur pyrotechnicians flooded the baseball diamonds to assault the skies with professional fireworks. There was nothing planned about this assault on the neighborhood and nothing regulated about it either. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate freedom than to stroll through a city park while literally hundreds of people indulge in illicit fireworks displays without any bother from police.

Monday I awoke from my long night of yelling at explosions to drop into the Wilson pool for the first time. 1 year of work and daydreaming finally paid off. I did eat some shit a couple times, but I managed to stay up at least as much as I fell. After we finished Dawn Patrolling Trevor dropped me off at the Fireside Lounge in Ravenswood to enjoy some delicious Arrogant Bastard Ale and a sandwich with our crew of delinquents. We spent a few hours putting sobriety in it’s place before hitting the Foster Street Beach. After a couple hours drinking delicious Daisy Cutter from cans and playing catch in the water we packed up our goodies and headed back to the Fireside for some more cocktails. After a few more beers we made a bee-line for Chicago’s best pizza, Pequod’s, and indulged our sun-satiated selves on a couple large pan pizzas (garlic, basil, onion and pepperoni on one and sausage, mushroom, giardinara on the other… definitely with a side of ranch, sucka).

Still not quite finished, we retired to Matt’s for some 12 Year Macallan with an ice cream chaser.

It was a banner weekend, my friends, the kind that reminds you just why you built that nervous system in the first place.

Wow, holy shit, all this was just a preamble to talk about the amazing meal we had last night. Remember those veal cheeks I picked up at Paulina on Friday? Me neither. Well, I finally got around to cooking those buggers Thursday night. And what an amazing treat it was. You could literally eat these these without teeth, you certainly didn’t need a knife.

Strange thing these veal cheeks. They’re about the size of a pancake when you get them, or, more specifically, the size of a 6 month old calf’s cheek. When you cook them they puff up into something more the size and shape of a small hamburger patty. At first they tend to get very hard, but over the 3 hours that you cook them they eventually turn into the most tender piece of meat your liable to come by.

Here’s the recipe I basically used courtesy of Ron Eade and the Ottowa Citizen. I skipped the juniper berries and replaced the veal stock with reduced chicken broth for no other reason than I didn’t have those ingredients. Essentially, it’s a beef bourgingon that’s a bit easier to make and much more tender. Imagine a pot roast that literally dissolves across your tongue and you’ve got a fairly close approximation of what this majestic little monster tastes like.

– Six veal cheeks, each about the size of a closed fist

– 1/3 cup (75 mL) olive oil

– Salt and pepper, to taste

– 3 1/2 cups (875 mL) of robust low-salt veal stock

– One small piece dark chocolate, about 7 grams

For the marinade:

– 1/2 large carrot chopped

– 1 medium onion, chopped

– 1 teaspoon (5 mL) dry thyme

– 1 large clove of good garlic, chopped

– 1 bay leaf

– 10 sprigs of Italian parsley, chopped

– One 750-mL bottle dry chardonnay

– 6 juniper berries

1. Place all marinade ingredients in a stainless steel saucepan; bring to boil and simmer 5 to 7 minutes to evaporate the alcohol. Cool to room tremperature, then immerse veal cheeks in marinate. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. At noon the next day, preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Remove meat from marinade and strain to separate liquid and solids; reserve both. In a saucepan, bring liquid to boil and simmer until reduced to 1 cup (250 mL). Set aside.

3. Pat cheeks dry with paper towels, season lightly with salt, pepper, then lightly dust with all-purpose flour. Heat about 1/3 cup (75 mL) canola oil in a heavy cast-iron Dutch oven and brown cheeks well on both sides, working in batches if necessary to not overcrowd the pot. When browned, transfer cheeks to a plate and, in the same Dutch oven, saute reserved vegetables from the marinate for about 4 minutes.

4. In a large saucepan, warm veal stock to almost-boiling and toss in chocolate to melt; stir to combine. Return cheeks to the Dutch oven and nestle over the bottom, trying to not overlap. Add reduced marinade and veal stock just to cover and bake, covered, until meat is very tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, about 3 hours.

5. When done, carefully transfer intact cheeks to an ovenproof casserole with a lid, and set aside. Strain liquid into a clean saucepan (discard solids) and simmer to reduce to gravy consistency, stirring as necessary to avoid scorching.

6. About 40 minutes before serving, pour thickened sauce over cheeks to cover, and return to oven to reheat. Serve with side dishes that will take best advantage of rich sauce.

The Chicagoist blog named Metropolitan’s I-Beam their beer of the week.

And they right. That shit is delicious.

“Alt” refers to the pre-lager method of brewing, except the Germans of Westphalia used a top-fermenting yeast like a Pale ale yeast to ferment the beer, then stored the beer at the lower lagering temperatures. Over time, the yeast adjusted to the lower temperatures, resulting in a cleaner tasting, drier beer than an ale. Chibe is an avid homebrewer and a master of the altbier style. He and Doug Hurst have brewed one of the maltiest alts we’ve ever tasted. The flavor profile includes bread, nuts and apple, with some nice bitterness from the hops. Head on this forms a very tight cap with medium to heavy bubbles and leaves thick lace rings as it dissipates. I-Beam finishes dry, with some welcome but unexpected astringency on the back of the palate.

Abita Brewing Company in New Orleans has recently launched a weizen pils to show support of the clean up efforts in the Gulf Coast. For every bottle of SOS (Save our Shores) beer that is sold Abita will donate $0.75 to the ‘SOS Charitable Fund’, a charity set up by Abita to assist “the rescue and restoration of the environment, industry and individuals fighting to survive this disastrous oil spill.” Abita describes the SOS beer as an “unfiltered Weizen Pils… made with Pilsner and Wheat malts. It is hopped and dry hopped with Sterling and German Perle hops. It has a brilliant gold color, a sweet malt flavor, and a pleasant bitterness and aroma.” Sounds tasty and all for a great cause.

Chicago’s favorite beer brewing, god fearing, patriots Half Acre are at it once again, brewing a beer tribute to the everybody’s favorite tiger riding, mollusk licking, heathens WEEN! They’re pairing up with Shorts Brewing and Piece to make Freedom of ’78 a guava IPA in honor of Gene and Dean. And what’s more, to celebrate this and the unholy high holiday of Ween stopping back through Chicago they are offering a 15% discount to anybody with a ticket to the show.

So go bring your ticket to Half Acre, get loaded on the best beer in Chicago and dance your ugly self silly to the musical stylings of two of the finest degenerates still working in the music industry.

Amen.

This looks suspiciously hippie-like to me, but, regardless, I may roll down and check out New Belgium’s Tour de Fat at Palmer Square on Saturday. That is if I’m not too beat up from the Ween show the night before.

Shit, I still need to post the review of the Beer Hoptacular.