Two Brothers Sidekick – There comes a point where every beer nerd needs a break from the boozy onslaught of barrel aged stouts and tongue-thrashing bitterness of imperial IPA’s. Sometimes you just want to drink a beer (or three). SideKick is a subtle, sessionable option – it practically drinks itself! It’s crisp and delicate with a touch of sweet malt. There’s a nice balance of citrus, melon, and strawberry, and it finishes with just enough bitterness to remind you you’re drinking a pale ale. (5.1% ABV) -Tom Bergman, Binny’s Highland Park

Saugatuck Pathfinder Pale Ale – We need more beers like this. Proof that a beer you can drink more than one of can have just as much complexity as the rarest 15% ABV stout. I’ll be enjoying this one often. (4.9% ABV) -Pat Brophy, Binny’s South Loop.

Founders All Day IPA Session Ale – At less than 5% ABV, this is one of the tastiest session ales on our shelves. May also be referred to as a lawnmower beer or porch pounder by your local Binny’s beer manager. Available through September; will be unavailable during winter months. (4.7% ABV)

Prairie Standard – A hopped up saison with detailed picture instructions on the label about how to noodle a catfish on the label (this has absolutely nothing to do with the beer, but we thought it was hilarious). If you are a fan of funkiness in your beer & Belgian yeast, give this a shot. Oh and also, this is one of the hoppiest Belgian-style or farmhouse ales on our shelves. (5% ABV)

Central Waters Hop Rise Session Ale (coming soon) – Central waters describes this as an explosively hoppy yet sessionable IPA, bursting with a citrusy array of mango, orange and pineapple pleasantries, Hop Rise is a brewer’s beer for one and all. Generously hopped throughout the boil, then dry-hopped at the tail end of fermentation for a large bouquet. (4.5% ABV)

We spent day six with the Van Steenberge brewery. As usual, this brewery has been in the same family for generations and produces some top notch Belgian ales including favorites such as Piraat, Gulden Draak, and Augustijn.

Van Steenberge Sign

The brewery itself is very large and sprawls around several acres and has its own water source. They have been on this same property since 1784. Van Steenberge pioneered conditioning beers (carbonating naturally) in kegs and has a lot of space dedicated to conditioning rooms which hold bottles and kegs at slightly higher temperatures to allow the yeast to reactivate and carbonate the beers. Currently Van Steenburge produces about 65,000 barrels a year, of which 75% is exported. This is done on an impressive 100 hectoliter brewhouse that turns out six batches a day.

Van Steenberge Brewhouse

What impressed me most at the Van Steenberge brewery was their yeast management program. They use seven different yeasts and only use yeast for three generations. They use two different yeasts for bottle conditioning, one for flavor and one to remove oxygen. Yeast management is crucial when so many of your beers tip the scales at over 10% abv.

 

A conditioning room at Van Steenberge

The standout beer for us from Van Steenberge was the Piraat Privateer, an intensely hopped up variation on the classic Piraat. This is currently only available in the Van Steenberge mixed six pack, but I think we managed to talk them into bottling this up in 750′s. Keep an eye out on the Beer Buzz and the Binny’s Blog for more info on this going forward. Speaking of which, it looks like we will see a whiskey barrel aged Gulden Draak in time for the holidays. This will be very limited, so check back with us later for more information.

The library at the St. Augustijn monastery, for which the Augustijn line is named

Our final full day in Belgium was in the city of Brugge at the Halve Maan brewery. Halve Maan started as the Henri Maes brewery and is currently run by the 6th generation of the Maes family. Bruges Zot, a zesty blonde ale, is Halve Maan’s most famous beer and can be found everywhere in the city of Brugge. The brewhouse at Halve Maan is unique.

Halve Maan

It was installed in the 60′s and was very modern for its time. It has a SQUARE brew kettle/mash tun that looks more like a time machine than a brewhouse. The brewery is also a museum, and the tour through this part is extensive and goes all the way to the rooftop of the brewery with a stunning view of the city around. Brugge is a wonderful city to visit and I highly recommend a stop at De Halve Maan.

View of Brugge from the Halve Maan rooftop

Transportation for the day

Our time in Belgium has been predictably fantastic, with the exception that our trip is ending and poor Nate still hasn’t seen his luggage.

Every time I go to Europe I try to appreciate the age of everything around me. Many buildings we saw are hundreds of years older than anything in the US. We visited several breweries that have been in the same spot for 200+ years and have been operated by the same family the entire time. Things like this make the beer business so rewarding. I love supporting families that have been making these special beers for so long. I can’t wait to go back!

Hop Farm in Poperinge

We spent day four with the Van Ecke brewery, makers of Poperings Hommel, among others. Our first stop was a hop farm in the town of Poperinge. This was by far my favorite stop of the trip to this point. It was a small, family farm called ‘t Hoppecruyt. We toured the fields, which were just past the initial sprouting phase and the vines were starting to climb.

Hops Growing

 

This farm grows Kent Goldings, Challenger, Magnum, and Saphir which are all supplied to local breweries and even a local distiller who makes a Challenger fresh hop gin that is just fantastic. Our tour guide even entertained us with Flemish drinking songs at the end of the tour while we enjoyed a fresh Hommel bier. Hommel is one of my favorite Belgian ales, but can be misleading in the states. While very hoppy for a Belgian, it is fairly mild by our standards here, but is incredibly well balanced and complex. Van Ecke finally switched this beer out of a green bottle and into a brown bottle which we should see rolling into the stores shortly.

Van Ecke’s Sas Brewery Brewhouse

We spent day five at the Silly brewery near the town of Ath. This was the most rural and removed brewery we visited and once again another family that has been making beer for generations and is currently run by the 5th and 6th generations.

Silly’s Brewhouse

The site of the brewery was once a farm that made saisons for the workers during the winter and still makes beer in some of those same buildings. Silly Saison and Scotch Silly are fantastic beers, but what really got us excited was the new Silly Sour. This is a blend of 70% old, soured Saison and 30% fresh Saison. The beer was darker than i expected, and didnt have much of a nose, but holy sour! this beer rocks. These bottles should ship to the US within a couple of weeks, so look for these at your local Binny’s soon.

Tasting Silly Sour straight from the barrel

exotic, but not too exotic ♦ what California chardonnay should be ♦ wine and food from Nantucket to Washington State ♦ a buyer’s vintage ♦ a bit of chantilly cream ♦ a wisp of creamy smoke ♦ spring flowers, crushed rocks, smoked game ♦ steamed buns ♦ what Oregon pinot is all about ♦ Walla Walla 

Yes! So for all that and more, be sure to check out the newly updated  Wine Hotline.

Been a while. Day 4 was a travel day, but we got some stuff done early. Drove the A95 to near Fogwatt and discovered the small drive that leads to Coleburn distillery. A distillery from 1897 until 1985, it was important for production experiments for DCL (now Diageo) but lost as so many others were to the economic downturn and sinking popularity of whisky in the 80′s. It’s now being renovated as a B&B/Restaurant/event space for live music by a Scottish musician called Mark Winchester. The grounds will make a beautiful resort, alas, no distilling will take place.

Next we went to Aberlour, a pretty place set at the Aber (east coast Gaelic for “opening”) of the river Lour, where it flows into the Spey. This reminded my just how good a’Bunahd (original) is. Drove all day after that to Ayr.

Day 5 morning was spent at AD Rattray Whisky Shop. Under the ownership of Tim Morrison (think Morrison Bowmore) and the direction of Nick White, this is a company that will be heard from in the US. The whiskies are excellent, the conversation with Tim even better. It’s always great to have a chance to talk and ask questions to a person with such a deep history in the business. Particularly good were a 1991 Auchroisk, a 1997 Glen Grant, a 1992 Glentauchers, a 1991 Glen Garioch and a 1996 Bowmore. I hope to see all of these available soon in the US.

Then met with Stewart Laing and saw the new headquarters of Hunter Laing, his new venture with his sons Scott and Andrew. After a generation Stewart has parted ways with Douglas Laing and his brother Fred, moving Old Malt Cask, Douglas of Drumlanrig and adding First Editions with him. We wish both the best. Got to dig around in the first samples that will be entered into the new tasting room, as always found a nice Lochnagar, Inchgower and a Glenallechie 2005 that was quite mature for its age. Keep an eye on the blog for breaking news about new entries and possible special projects with these folks.

Day 6, I went to a chorale concert at the Royal Conservatiore of Scotland, i.e., I took a day off and hung out with good friends Steve and Kyoko Galloway and their kids. Had some great curry….

What type of beer is it?
Goose Island 25th Anniversary is an Extra Special Bitter based on an obscure pub recipe called Honker’s Deluxe, which was basically double Honkers. The final recipe is a collaboration of three minds: Brett Porter, the current Brewmaster, Greg Hall, the former Brewmaster, and Nick Barron, the pub Brewmaster.

Why an ESB?
It harkens back to the original roots of Goose Island, namely founder John Hall’s trips to England where he fell in love with the those classic styles that inspired him to open Goose.

Where is it brewed?
Right here in Chicago…in fact, there are two variations: the one brewed at Fulton available in six packs on our shelves and the batch Nick brewed at the pub, which is available on cask (!!!!!!) for the month of May.

What’s it like?
It’s a lovely, stylistically accurate ESB. It pours a russet orange/amber with a fluffy bone white head. The nose is toasted grain and green, floral hops, with a hint of sweet orange peel. It has a medium body with an onrush of toasted white bread, which melds into a honey on biscotti kind of flavor, finishing quick with snappy, herbaceous hops.

What kind of food would you enjoy it with?
This is just begging for a herb crusted pork loin with asparagus, but if you want to go traditional, shepherd’s pie.

Drooling… thanks Adam! You can stop by Binny’s in Lincoln Park on Saturday for a Chicago Craft Beer Week event with Goose Island. Current Brewmaster Brett Porter, Former Brewmaster Greg Hall and Pub Brewmaster Nick Barron will be on hand to talk everything Goose Island and sample some of Goose’s award winning beers. We will sample two special beers as well, Bourbon County Baudonia & Sofie Paradisi.

Be sure to check out all of the Chicago Craft Beer Week festivities going throughout the week, including our very own.

Troubadour beers are outstanding across the board. They have a Blond, Obscura (a light stout), Magma Triple IPA, Westkust (a black IPA), and an imperial stout. It’s great to see a Belgian brewery embracing US Craft brewery ideas and creating hop forward beers in a country typically completely devoid of them. If you haven’t had Magma, do yourself a favor and pick one up. There also may still be some of the limited edition Sorachi Ace Magma floating around at some of our stores.

 

We ate and drank well in Antwerp, and I discovered a pub game that I am going to try to recreate at home. It’s a coin toss game, played with heavy brass coins that are tossed onto a board with holes with different scoring values. It’s kind of like darts where you can start at 300 points and as you make certain values it is subtracted until the winner gets to zero first. This game was a lot of fun, or maybe it was the Troubadour.

Day three we spent at the Bavik brewery and its nearby town of Kortrijk, a small town on the French border. Bavik is a very large brewery, the 5th largest in Belgium, and churns out 180,000 hectoliters of beer annually. Bavik also produces the Petrus line, one of our favorites. Petrus is known in the US for their sour beers, which are all aged in large oak foudres. These foudres are massive. The original 9 are 200 hectoliters and had originally held Alsatian wines and then Calvados. 12 new foudres have been installed over the past several years that have 220 hL capacity. One of the highlights of the trip so far was tasting Petrus Aged Pale right out of the foudre.

More to come tomorrow, and hopefully Nate’s luggage!

Most of the Walla Walla wineries we visited, with the exception of Woodward Canyon, source their grapes from the Columbia, Cascade, and Yakima Valleys. The vineyards in Walla Walla have to be in elevation above 600 feet to avoid damaging frost when the vines start to bud. A primary characteristic of these valleys that create such rich and full bodied Cabernet Sauvignons, Syrahs, and Cabernet Francs is that during the warmer months the valley floors get very warm but the vines enjoy drastically cooler nights. The sun warms the soil during the day so that it radiates heat throughout the night, keeping the vines active even when the temperature cools. Average rainfall in Walla Walla is only 17 inches per year, so most of the agriculture in the area is dry farmed wheat while vineyards utilize drip irrigation.

Several of the wineries we visited in Walla Walla are located on the property of the Walla Walla Regional Airport. It was an Army Air Base during World War II where pilots learned to fly B-17 bomber aircraft. While the airport still flies small commercial planes, The Port of Walla Walla overtook ownership of the property in 1989 and the older barracks, firehouse, hangars, and buildings associated with the base are now home to 20 plus wineries including three of the biggest. We got a chance to visit Tamarack Cellars, Buty, Dunham. The quality of product and volume of production coming out of these small facilities is astounding, with production on the scale of both very large and very small. From 100,000 case production wines to just a few thousand. We tasted barrel samples at many of the wineries we visited, and one of our favorites was at the Long Shadows vineyard. Customers will love Michel Rolland’s 2012 Pedestal Merlot when it finally hits the shelves at Binny’s – in a few years.

John Kaiser is the Wine Manager at Binny’s Bloomington.

We also checked out the iconic Mannekin Pis. It’s very small, maybe 20 inches or so, and not much to look at. So I did what any forward thinking beer nerd would do and popped into Mort Subite for a glass of their house blended lambic, whose deliciousness words cannot describe.

Then we went to the Brewers Guild house in The Grand Place, the central square of Brussels surrounded by city hall and guild houses for all the trades. The brewers guild is the richest and their building is adorned with gold. There is a small brewing museum inside and always beer on tap from one of the Belgian Family Brewers.

We then left Brussels and headed to Brouwerij Boelens in small town of Belsele. It is a rustic, family owned brewery. Boelens only has one beer in the states, Bieken, a honey ale. We got to try two of their new offerings, Triple Klok and Dubbel Klok. The triple is fruity, yeasty and dry. It hides its alcohol well and pairs fantastically with some local cheeses. I really like the double, it has the expected dark fruit and yeast character, but with a very dry finish and not a hint of alcohol. A session dubbel? Sign me up. Expect to see them within a few months.

While at Boelens were were served a homemade dinner of salad, frites, a beef and veal stew made with the dubbel, and homemade ice cream. I really enjoyed this brewery, tiny and rustic. Their brew system is 30 hL capacity, but the brewer hinted that they never see that yield for any of their beers. They have a smaller copper and brick brew house that is still working and they use for special brews from time to time. They had a small bottling and labeling line, maybe 15 feet long. Great to see that after the 50,000 square foot monolith we saw at Abita a few weeks ago.