Why I Oughta...

Add this beauty of a mug to the collection from the Bavarian Lodge in Lisle.  But, before we talk more about the mug/glassware, can we say a word about this place?  We had never been there before.  But, we took the three savages with us and decided to try an early dinner one night.  And... I... Loved... It! Loved the place.  Loved the food. We ordered the pretzels and they might have been the highlight.  Also went with the schnitzel and a knockwurst along with a side of kraut.  All-in, German-style.  Loved the schnitzel, didn't have room to take on much of the knockwurst. And when we were there, Nat's brother's favorite brewery - Stone Brewing - was doing a takeover of the lodge's taps , so we both enjoyed a few of those, which was nice. Here's a few pics of the Stone takeover menu front and back: And here's my beautiful partner in life hoisting one of those tasty beers in the gorgeous mug that's part of the 'pinched collection'

Over the weekend, Dr. Jeff brought over a flight of sours for us to taste along with some pizza and besides the nice conversation and friendship, these were the standouts:   Allagash FV 13 , Perennial Von Pampelmuse and Allagash Farm to Face .   He's done this before - here's the series of stouts that he brought earlier this Spring and one of the sours from earlier this summer .  This time....I liked the two Allgash's, but the peach one stood out for me.  I believe that they're brewed with different processes aside from being different fruits. If you head to the links for each of the beers above, you'll see that the two Allgash ones score very high on BeerAdvocate but the Perennial one isn't scored.  When Dr. Jeff brings and shares knowledge around various beers, they're always really good and/or rare ones.  He's pretty passionate about beers and spends plenty of time at Binny's finding interesting things.  Making pizza and sharing some of

A few weekends back, we found ourselves up in the Madison Wisconsin area and decided to take a trip to campus.  And, after drinking a Spotted Cow up on the Memorial Union Terrace, I had to ask myself:  Who know that Madison was so great? I think it was the limited view of the collegiate world that Lincoln-Way gave me:  after all....if you were able to think about moving on from LWHS and think about a big, land-grant, state university, why wouldn't you go to the University of Illinois?  And if not there, it seemed like the other choice was Iowa.  Or...maybe Indiana?    But Wisconsin at Madison?  Nope.  Not on my radar.  Don't actually know anyone who went there from my high school days. Subsequently, have come across some folks who graduated there.  There's a bunch of guys in our neighborhood in Elmhurst who are Badgers.  And, now?  I kinda get it.  Beautiful place.  So alive, too.  Between the campus and the Capitol, and the lakes.  My god...the lakes.  There's a

It wasn't just Rockets and poutine up in Toronto , I also had a chance to grab what I thought was a local cider.  Turns out, it is from the Danish brewer Carlsberg Group and sold all over the world .   Didn't love it.  But, kinda liked the whole "Cidre de Pommes Aromatise" on the can.  

Last week, I posted a little update to the new restaurant coming to the Elmhurst City Centre right across the street from the York Theatre .  At that time, I didn't know the name, but today we do: One Fifty One Kitchen and Bar.  There's that new sign you can see above hanging on the fence if you walk by the site and you can check out their site here .  The url is 151 Elmhurst, so maybe that's how people will type it when they search for the location instead of [one fifty one Elmhurst]?? The sign proclaims:  An exciting new restaurant concept celebrating the bounty of the Midwest.

I had a few of these Virtue Ciders that are listed here on the menu above at Cindy's inside of the CAA a few weeks back and it struck me funny that they listed the location as "Chicago, IL".  If you go to the Virtue site, it says they're right in the middle of Fennville, Michigan - which we're familiar with being right by Crane's Orchard.  Weird, right? But, if you poke around, you'll see that Virtue sold out to Goose Island last fall .  Which...means, Virtue is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.  Which makes it 'big cider', right?  Doesn't make it bad, but might explain the 'Chicago' address instead of Fennville, Michigan? Also, for the record, I did also have one of the Butterfly Flash Mobs from the fellas at Solemn Oath.  Rootin' for the home team, and all, right?

If you head down York Street through the City Center, you'll see this construction site that is just north of BW3 on the east side.  Directly across from the York Theatre. There's an interior gut going on as they transform the former Cocomera into the Elmhurst Craft Kitchen and Bar (or some other name!) as well as an exterior facelift. I posted about this place here on the blog back in February and I heard that they were planning a big out front on the sidewalk outdoor seating section, so the facade work is likely to make it a bit more inviting?  Based on the looks of things, they're a ways away from opening, so I'm thinking that this will be a fall opening at best?  Should be a nice addition to the City Centre and we'll be sure to give it a proper shot with the kids once it opens.

Earlier this month, we got all gussied up in tuxedos and fancy dresses for a wedding and I gotta tell you:  there's nothing I like more than a good wedding reception photo booth.  We had one at our wedding a while back, and I try to make sure we pose for a few sessions whenever we come across one.  This wedding was no different, so we spent some time (well....I actually spent *more* time in there than Nat!) doing our thing.  I don't wear a tuxedo very often (gasp! I know!), so photos please! Btw...for those keeping score at home *this* was my wedding tuxedo!  We're coming up on 8 years of marriage, so having this thing fit (everything!  The pants, the shirt, the jacket) was a nice thing and made me feel good about myself for a minute or two.  Also...this helped me amortize - in my mind - the cost of owning the tuxedo across at least another event. Oh...the wedding?  It was pretty awesome.   Lots of tasty craft beer was served at various locations throughout the wee

I have to tell you:  something just *had* to give in terms of St. Joe's Michigan restaurants.  I mean...the wait at Silver Beach Pizza sometimes gets to be like 2 hours on non-holiday weekends and sure...the pizza is great(!!!), but it also tells me that there's a huge unmet demand for eats in town. Couple that dynamic with the craft beer movement and what pops out the other end is the new Silver Harbor Brewing Company that has opened recently in Downtown St. Joe's.   Silver Harbor has a taproom that opened up in a 100 year old building and is located on the 'other side' of the main drag through town.  You can comfortably park anywhere in town like near the bluff and still walk to Silver Harbor.   We decided to bring all three kids and give this place a try on a Friday night.  They have a system of texting you when your table is ready, so we were given a 45 minute wait and we went to town to walk around and check out the public art.  Once we were texted, we

While in Italy, we had one of these bottles of Peroni at lunch on a recommendation from the waiter.  It was served in this very fancy beer glass: And...it was really great!  But...the snobs over at Beer Advocate only gave it a 75 .

Dr. Jeff brought over this Terreux Fruct Passion Fruit Berliner Weissbier from The Bruery for one of his beer tastings recently.  There aren't enough ratings over on Beer Advocate, so it isn't rated, but based on the other things he brought, I'm guessing it will rank pretty highly.  I tend to like these fruity-wheat beers (that's what this is, right??? I'm *so* not a beer sommelier!), and this one was interesting.  Can't drink tons of it, but enjoyed my half-a-glass.

Last weekend, we had some friends over and had a little pizza party and beer tasting.  The husband of the pair, is a crazy beer guy.  I mean...like totally a beer guy.  As big of a craft beer expert as I've seen and that says something when you think about Nat's two brothers who are big craft beer guys. Well...it turns out that Natalie likes stouts.  Me?  Not so much.  But...I'm always up for a tasting in a little glass of just about anything.  Above are three of the (I think) five or six stouts that they brought and we drank.  Did I love them?  Nah.  But they were all unique.  And all interesting. On the left is Prairie Pirate Bomb.   Which has a 98 on Beer Advocate . In the middle is Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout.   Which has a 100 on Beer Advocate ! On the right is Perennial 17 Mint Chocolate Stout.   Which has an 89 on Beer Advocate . Despite the scores, I *think* I liked the Mint Chocolate Stout from Perennial the best.  It tasted like - and smelled just

I had one of these tasty cans of Vander Mill Blue Gold Michigan Cider last week and it was a tasty combination of apples and blueberries.  Both from West Michigan.  Vander Mill looks to be from close to Grand Haven on the west coast of Michigan.  Further up the lake than Coloma/St. Joe's is, so I'm not to familiar with them or the place.  I've been drinking more and more ciders and based on the menu expansion, I'm not the only one.  I had this one over ice and that's the way I normally roll with ciders.  Maybe that's why I'm into them?  Can't have a craft beer on ice and not get sideways looks from the waxed mustache'd crowd.  But ciders?  Nobody bats an eye.

 I snapped this photo of the six-pack holder for this year's Christmas Ale from Anchor Brewing the folks who make Anchor Steam.  For 41 years, they've been making an annual Christmas Ale and packaging it up with a unique mix and a unique label featuring a different tree. I posted about the 2010 Ale here on the blog , but my brother-in-laws pick up the beer EVERY YEAR in both six packs but also - on occasion - one of those huge magnum bottles.   They keep one or two from each year and don't drink them so they can plan a 'vertical' session where they pass out little tasting portions of like five years of the beer to a group to note the differences from year-to-year.  If you look at that 2010 post, you'll note that the tree was a Ginko.  ( Here's a really well done catalog of all the trees they've used over the 41 years .)  I think one of Nat's brothers has a poster featuring all the labels.  Like I said...they're REALLY into this stuff - and f

We picked up this bomber of Crispin Hard Apple Cider at Costco recently and Nat broke it out for our block party this past weekend.  It was mighty tasty and I wasn't ashamed to be drinking it out amongst the other folks drinking craft beer from all over the place.  (By the way...Costco has really stepped up their game of craft beer with dozens of bomber sizes of various types.  Kinda neat way to spend a few minutes while Nat looks through the book section.) It is interesting to me that ciders have moved from kind of fringe - almost feminine - beverages (I remember back in the 90's some folks drinking Mike's Hard Cider back in college and me looking down at them while I was shotgunning my Miller High Life Light!) to totally mainstream. For me, Nat has been leading the way for a few years as she's sought out ciders at bars and restaurants while I was sticking to the draft beer menu.  The first time I had a Crispin was a sip of one of Nat's at dinner one night p

Tomorrow over by the Elmhurst History Museum there's what I *think* is the inaugural Elmhurst Craft Beer Fest being put on by the Elmhurst Heritage Foundation and the Rotary Club of Elmhurst.  $35 tickets for 18 tickets that are good for 3 oz samples.  18 x 3 = 54 ounces of beer.  That's 4.5 12 ounce beers for your $35.  Seems like a fair deal. I'd call this a nice addition to the event calendar in town.  Hoping it is a success and that it becomes a repeat event.   There's quite a few breweries represented.  No Solemn Oath, though?!?  But lots of big guys and some interesting ones like Nat's favorite Stone and Revolution from Chicago.  Good job by the organizers to get *so* many breweries/beers lined up.   From the Brew Fest's site: This is the current list logo's of participating breweries. Check back often! We continue to add to the list. Goose Island  Ommemgang  Boulevard Brewing Founders Brewing New Belguim Sam Adams Angry Orch

Each year, Anchor Brewing puts out a Christmas Ale .  This is the 36th version and each year the recipe changes a bit (although they keep it a secret!).  Thanks to the refined palate of my brother-in-law Charlie, this has become a mainstay at the Moran household during Christmas.  I don't drink all that much these days, but I always make room for a few of these - as a treat.  I *think* I've had the '07, '08, '09, and now the '10.  (ah....the aughts were fine years, weren't they?!?) Can't tell you much about the flavors and/or taste, but it certainly was effervescent.   The bottle, on the other hand, is quite handsome.  In fact, they change the tree on the label each year, but this year's tree has meaning for me!  It has a Ginko on it - and those of you who are loyal readers know that we planted a Ginko tree earlier this summer! Turns out, if you keep them over the years, the flavors age and the ales taste differently the longer you keep them.  Or.