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.

The freshest IPA to ever hit our shelves is returning, thanks to Chicagoans swiftly gobbling up everything that came our way during the last release.  The beer who shares its name with its expiration date, and whose expiration date is only around a month from being bottled, is set to return next week.  You would be hard pressed to find another beer that is both bottled and shipped on the same day.  Stone’s new brew has a mind boggling array of hops:

Beer details:
Stats:  9.4% abv, 88 IBUs
Hops bill: Calypso during the mash; Super Galena hop extract for bittering; Simcoe, Delta, Target, and Amarillo for flavor; Motueka, Citra, and Cascade for aroma; Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy for dry hopping.

Be sure to check your local Binny’s next week so you can get this brew in time for Thanksgiving dinner!

A few weeks ago, the most recognized beer awards in the United States were handed out at the Great American Beer Festival. We were excited to see many beers available on our shelves represented, from old favorites like Shiner Bock, to up and coming breweries like Chicago’s very own Revolution Brewing. Below is a list of winning beers available at Binny’s, along with the style category they took home a medal in.  For a full list of winners, visit the Great American Beer Festival website. These beers represent some of the best beers in the world for their respective styles. Congratulations to all of the winners!

Gold
Green Flash Le Freak, American-Belgo-Style Ale
Point Oktoberfest, American-Style Amber Lager
Firestone Walker Wookey Jack, American-Style Black Ale
Shiner Bock, American-Style Dark Lager
Pabst Blue Ribbon, American-Style Lager, Light Lager or Premium Lager
Green Flash Trippel, Belgian-Style Abbey Ale
Boulevard ZON, Belgian-Style Witbier
Goose Island India Pale Ale, English-Style India Pale Ale
Revolution Cross of Gold, English-Style Summer Ale
Point Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale, Field Beer or Pumpkin Beer
Sierra Nevada Estate Homegrown Ale, Fresh Hop Ale
Shiner Oktoberfest, German-Style Märzen
Shiner Bohemian Black Lager, German-Style Schwarzbier
Firestone Walker DBA, Ordinary or Special Bitter
Boulevard Reverb Imperial Pilsner, Other Strong Beer
Rogue Hazelnut Brown Nectar, Specialty Beer

Silver
Lakefront Fixed Gear American Red Ale, American-Style Amber/Red Ale
Miller Lite, American-Style Lager, Light Lager or Premium Lager
Old Style, American-Style Specialty Lager or Cream Ale or Lager
Avery White Rascal, Belgian-Style Witbier
Summit Pilsener, Bohemian-Style Pilsener
Uinta Sum’r, English-Style Summer Ale
Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy, Fruit Wheat Beer
Samuel Adams Double Bock, German-Style Doppelbock or Eisbock
Uinta Baba, German-Style Schwarzbier
Two Brothers Ebel’s Weiss, German-Style Hefeweizen

Bronze
Revolution A Little Crazy, American-Belgo-Style Ale
Redhook Winterhook, American-Style Amber/Red Ale
Keystone Light, American-Style Lager, Light Lager or Premium Lager
Mickey’s Malt Liquor, American-Style Specialty Lager or Cream Ale or Lager
Laughing Dog IPA, American-Style Strong Pale Ale
Domaine DuPage, Belgian- and French-Style Ale
5 Lizard Latin-Style Witbier, Fruit Wheat Beer
Firestone Walker Double Jack, Imperial India Pale Ale
Port Brewing Hot Rocks Lager, Indigenous Beer
Left Hand Sawtooth Ale, Ordinary or Special Bitter

There are several breweries that don’t distribute in Illinois that we get asked for daily in our stores, such as Yuengling, New Glarus, Alaskan Brewing Company, and Kona Brewing Co. Binny’s is proud to announce that come Late January or early February, we are going to be able to provide you with the beers of Kona Brewing Co.

Longboard Lager, Kona’s flagship brew and most oft requested, will join Big Wave Golden Ale, Fire Rock Pale Ale, and a rotating seasonal on our shelves. Depending on the time of the year, the seasonal may either be Koko Brown Nut Brown Ale, Wailua Wheat, or Pipeline Porter.

If you can’t wait until after the new year to imbibe in Kona’s brews, look for the new variety packs on our shelves that feature beers from Widmer, Redhook, and Kona.

Over the last month or so, brewers across the country have eagerly anticipated overnight deliveries of just harvested hops to in order to fashion their annual wet-hopped ales (also commonly referred to as fresh-hopped or harvest-ales). Within days and sometimes hours of being picked, brewers add the fresh, whole cone hops to their brew kettles. The resulting outcomes are fresh and hoppy flavors unique to this style of brew and this time of year. Fresh hopping can be likened to cooking with freshly picked spices and herbs, or fresh vegetables just harvested from your garden. Vegetal, earthy, floral, citrus, and herbal flavors and aromas that are sometimes diminished by the processing and pelletizing of hops are abundant. These beers are not dominated by bitterness like some hoppy beers are, instead the above listed flavors are much more pronounced.

For the optimal beer drinking experience, wet-hopped ales should be consumed as soon as possible. The one of a kind aromas and flavors exploited by the fresh hopping process tend to fade quicker than they would in your everyday hoppy beer.

One of our favorites, which also has the most widespread availability of any wet-hopped ale, is Two Brothers Heavy Handed. This unique brew is really five different beers sharing the same name; check out this blog post for some insight into this. Also keep an eye out for Sixpoint Autumnation. This is a wet-hopped pumpkin beer; a valiant and successful attempt at harnessing two of the most popular fall styles of beer. Many breweries make wet-hopped ales, however most are very limited. Be sure to stop in your local Binny’s soon to see if your favorite brewery’s wet hopped-ale is available.

Great news Chicagoans: Revolution Brewing cans are finally in stock! Anti Hero IPA, Bottom Up Wit, and Oktoberfest are now available at almost every Binny’s, with western suburban stores scheduled to receive shipments later this week.  Eugene Porter is on pace to arrive in about a month or so.

It has been awhile since a new porter on our shelves has really wowed us, but Eugene did just that. The velvety and creamy mouth feel is wonderful. Roastiness and flavors of milk chocolate, toffee, and a hint of coffee balance spectacularly. Anti Hero is probably the best IPA brewed in Chicago, need we say more? Bottom Up Wit and Oktoberfest are great examples of their respective styles.

Binny’s is proud that Revolution Brewing calls Chicago home. We think it is just a matter of time before Revolution is recognized as Chicago’s premier craft brewery. Do you agree?

Adam Vavrick is the resident beer expert at our Lincoln Park location. He has worked at what some locals refer to as “Castle Vav” for the past three years. Among other accolades, Adam is a certified beer server in the Cicerone program, has tasted for the 2011 and 2012 World Beer Awards, and has been a panelist for the Beverage Tasting Institute since 2010. He is well known in the local beer scene, having been featured in Ale Street News, The Chicago Tribune, The Red Eye, Metromix, BeerDownload, The Chicago Sun Times, and WGN Radio.

Adam is originally from Washington DC, turns 30 on October 2nd, and is engaged to a Windy City Roller. Besides beer, Adam’s other love is the audio industry. He owns a modular synthesizer, and used to work in the audio industry doing synthesis, sound design, and audio engineering.

Adam is a valuable asset to the Binny’s team to say the least.  You can find him in the aisle at the Lincoln Park Binny’s, or on twitter @beeradam. We wanted to dig a little bit more into the interesting life he lives, so we lined up a few questions for him:

Continue reading →

We hope you can join us for Binny’s & Sam Adams first ever stein hoisting contest.  If you think you have what it takes to be crowned the Midwest stein hoisting champion, just show up at Binny’s in Champaign anytime during the scheduled event time.  There will be big prizes for the contestants with the best times, including trips to Boston for the best female and male times.