Beer Under Glass

Local beer drinkers enjoying the beautiful weather
with fresh craft brews in hand

Meg's Impression:

This year's Chicago Craft Beer Week (CCBW) started with a celebration at the Garfield Conservatory at the "Beer Under Glass" event. With over 40 food and beer vendors present, offering up delectable treats, there was a little something for everyone. Not only was the venue beautiful and not too crowded as many beer "festivals" get, but the beer tasting was amazing!

There were lots of local vendors that you can find around the Chicagoland area, but having them all in one place was convenient. One of my favorite surprises of the night was "Scarlet" by Goose Island. Being huge sour beer fans, this was a "must-try" and a great addition to the tasting. The brewers for Goose Island said that they are planning to make more sours and have them distributed more widely in the near future. Apparently, they have a new brewing and storage area dedicated just to this cause. (Score one for Goose Island!)

Another nice addition was Red Streak. Cider beers are generally very sweet and sugary in nature...sometimes to the point that you can only drink one before you have to move on. Red Streak, specializing in cider beers, was sampling Virtue, a nice, light, fairly dry, cider beer. We found this beer to be easily drinkable in larger quantities, and a solid introduction back into ciders for those who have already written them off.

Overall, it was a great start to CCBW and gave us both motivation to check out venues across the city. Our next mission is to gather two stickers from at least 6 different neighborhoods, so that we can earn VIP access into the Revolution Party on Friday, May 25th.

With beer, there is always something to look forward to!

Meg and Jen enjoying a sample

Jen's Impression:

This was my second year attending this "official" kick off event to Chicago Craft Beer week.  It may actually be only the second year it has been held.  The event is held at the beautiful Garfield Park Conservatory.  I'm not much into plants, but this place is a sight to be seen.  Unfortunately, last summer, a wicked hail storm damaged much of the glass roof that covers almost the entire place, and they lost a lot of their plants, and had to incur a massive bill to rebuild.  It looked in pretty good shape last night, but I'm sure there is still work to be done.

I wasn't totally blown away by any one beer in particular that we sampled - if I had to pick, I really liked a couple that the Goose Island folks brought - Scarlett and Maude being the two favorites. I was disappointed that we made it to the Half Acre table too late and missed their special offerings (only Daisy Cutter was left). What I was really impressed by was the sheer number of NEW breweries - not just ones that were new to the event, but ones that were newly opened.  In particular, Red Streak (cider maker, run by former Goose Island brewer Greg Hall), Solemn Oath (Naperville, IL), Tighthead Brewing Company (opened in 2010), and a few more I'm sure I'm missing.

Overall, I think this event was really well run.  The decision to use some of the outside areas for serving was smart as the lines were pretty manageable overall.  Just as with last year, I was a little disappointed with the food.  The food lines are by far the longest, but when beer is the star, you can't come expecting a gourmet meal.  Smart move of the night goes to the food trucks who showed up right in front of the Conservatory as the night was ending.

As Megan said, this was a great kickoff to CCBW and we're looking forward to many more exciting events this week.


Cheers,

Meg & Jen