Yesterday, we were excited to see an email in our inbox titled “Portland Brewing is Coming Back.”  This time the west-coast brewery will hit the market with more firepower in the form of the previously available 22oz bomber bottles, as well as new to the market 6-packs.  Check out part of the press release below regarding the 6-packs, which are set to debut in late March or early April.

It has been a full two years since Firestone Walker debuted at Binny’s. They have had great success, thanks in part to things like being one of two breweries in the world they still employ primary fermentation in wood barrels (Marston’s). To commemorate being available in Chicago-land for two years, Firestone Walker has released three new to Illinois six-pack offerings:

DBA: An excellent choice if you are looking for a beer to session. This ESB is incredibly balanced with hints of vanilla and fruit. Binny’s Lincoln Park Beer Manager Adam Vavrick told us “DBA is literally my #1 favorite beer in the world.” DBA is a year round offering.

Pale 31: ”Pale 31 is an ode to our home California, the 31st state to be added to the union.  Beer may not be associated with terroir the way wine is, but we believe that where we’re from impacts how our beers taste. This dry-hopped California Pale Ale represents the bold yet approachable spirit that embodies our state.” Pale 31 is a year round offering.

Velvet Merlin: “A decadent Oatmeal Stout brimming with cocoa and espresso aromas.  This beer features a rich, dark chocolate and roasted coffee flavor with a creamy mouth feel and wonderfully dry finish. The addition of U.S. grown fuggles hops contributes the perfect amount of bitterness to this exceptionally balanced beer.” Velvet Merlin is a seasonal offering.

All three of these new offerings are available at most Binny’s locations. To see if your local Binny’s has them in stock, give them a call or email beer@binnys.com.

Tighthead Brewing of Mundelein is planning to quickly expand distribution of their beers south of Armitage Ave. This means that the beers of Tighthead will be available at several additional Binny’s locations. So far, only our Lake Zurich and Algonquin stores have been able to sell Tightheads beers because of their proximity to the brewery. Tighthead is Draft only, with several beers available in both the 1/6th and ½ barrel sizes. But there is good news on the horizon for beer lovers sans a kegerator, or those who don’t like to drink beer a keg at a time: Tighthead plans to add canning and bottling lines in mid 2013.

Tighthead offers us 4 different styles: A Blonde, IPA, Pale Ale, and Amber Ale. If you wish to order a keg of any Tighthead beer, inquire at your local Binny’s or send an email to beer@binnys.com. Otherwise, keep an eye out for their delicious offerings in bottles and cans later this year.

In May 2012, the International Trappist Association approved Engelszell to be a Trappist Brewery. This was a big deal, as Engleszell became only the eight producer of Trappist beer, and only the second outside of Belgium (Austria). In one sentence, a Trappist Brewery is a brewery where the beer is still brewed by monks. For more info on Trappist Breweries, check out this link.

Binny’s is now featuring two selections from Engelszell. First is Gregorius, a dark triple brewed with honey that clocks in at 9.7% ABV. The second offering is Benno, a 6.9% ABV saison. Both are available in 11.2oz bottles for $5.99 apiece. If you are interested, please contact your local Binny’s for availability.

One of Binny’s newest brewery’s is O’so Brewing hailing from Plover, Wisconsin. There are a few things that make O’so unique, and which also make Binny’s proud suppliers of them. 5% of all sales from their Memory Lane German style pilsner beer goes towards the Alzheimer’s Association of Wisconsin. It’s not every day that you can say you helped out the community by drinking beer, but here is your chance! Also, all brewery tour proceeds go to local charities.

Besides being awfully charitable when compared to a lot of other small brewery’s, O’so crafts some extremely unique beers. For instance, their Lupulin Maximus contains at least 1 hop cone in every bottle, something we at Binny’s have not seen before. Some bottles even have 4-5 hop cones in them.

Also available from O’so at Binny’s is 3rd Wheel, a Belgian style blonde ale. Hop Whoopin, like Lupulin Maximus, is a hop bomb and an all out bitter assault on your taste buds. Hopdinger is a very aromatic and balanced pale ale. Finally, The Big O is a light and easy to drink beer with big citrus flavors of orange and lemon.

We have some more breaking news coming in from our two mid-state stores!  The beers of AleSmith Brewing Company will be available very soon at our Bloomington and Champaign locations, hopefully within a few weeks.  AleSmith is one of the premier craft breweries in one of the premier craft beer cities, San Diego.  Our mid-state stores definitely have the advantage when it comes to San Diego craft beers in distribution; another award winning San Diego craft brewery, Ballast Point, is only available mid-state and not in Chicago-land.

We have some breaking news from our mid-state locations! Victory Brewing has arrived, and is now available at our Bloomington and Champaign stores. With the addition of our two mid-state stores, Victory’s Flagship Hopdevil, as well as Prima Pils, Golden Monkey, Headwaters Pale Ale, and Storm King Stout can now be found at every Binny’s destination.

Binny’s is doing all it can to bring as many breweries to our mid-state locations, and we will not stop with Victory.

Unity Vibration is one of the latest, and possibly most unique breweries to hit Binny’s shelves.  Instead of traditional brewing practices of using mainly malt, hops, yeast, and water, the Michigan based brewery uses Kombucha.  What is Kombucha?

“Kombucha is a sweet and tart fermented drink that usually is naturally carbonated. It is made from a Kombucha culture (symbiotic colony of friendly bacteria and yeast), water, sugar and tea. Kombucha Tea originates from China and Russia – people have been drinking it for thousands of years!”

 
Thanks to the Kombucha, the resulting liquid is organic, gluten-free, and vegan.  The beer is also brewed with dried hops, and either fresh raspberries or ginger (the beer comes in 4-packs with 2 bottles of the ginger and 2 bottles of the raspberry version, and also 22oz bottles of both variations).  Lastly, Unity Vibration treats their beers like lambics, by using open air fementers and by barrel aging them.  Funky lambic qualities are the highlight of these beers.

Look for these beers in your local Binny’s gluten-free or lambic section.