Why I Oughta...

A few weeks back, we went to a birthday party at a brewery that I didn't even know existed:  Miskatonic Brewing.  It is located in Darien - on a frontage road, but from Downers Grove, it is pretty easy to travel to for a beer.  The party room is in the back - like a lot of breweries, it seems.  And we had a great time.  I stuck to just one beer:  This Little Gray Belgian Wheat Ale which has a 3.8 from Beer Advocate .  I compare everything I come across to the home team over at Solemn Oath.  I'm sure this beer from Miskatonic is great - and I will be the first to admit that I'm a total craft beer amateur - but with all the craft breweries that have sprung up, they're starting to run together in my mind.  That's ok.  I'm not their target customer.  Since this place is so close, I'm guessing we'll be back.  And maybe then I can grab a coaster to join the online coaster collection here on the blog. 

Now that we're based in Downers Grove, we're A LOT closer to The Bavarian Lodge in Lisle .  We've been a few times when we were out in Naperville with Nat's folks, but it was a hike all the way from Elmhurst.  We took the kids and had a pretty good meal (Schnitzels all around!) with some great pretzels.  The place has a strong reputation for a pretty amazing beer selection.  We're way, way, way out of our element when it comes to appreciating all of the greatness in the ever-changing beer menu. Doesn't mean we don't try things.  If there's a Solemn Oath Brewery offering on the menu, I think that Nat and I will usually go in that direction (Rooting for the home team and all, right??).  But this past time?  No Solemn Oath it seemed, so we had to go elsewhere. Being summer, I ended up with a Radler.  The Pfungstadter Weizen Radler to be exact.  It came in this tall, lean glass and was a delicious treat!  If you're there this summer,...

This past weekend was Oath Day Five out at Solemn Oath Brewery in Naperville.  We weren't able to make it because the Bird's birthday was the same day and we were, ummm, tied up with cake and presents and rainbows.  Yeah...rainbows.  Lots of them.  That's what she wanted, so Nat delivered!  Anyway, I've posted about Oath Day in the past.   Here's a post from 2015 showing off a cool van sticker I scored from the festivities .   If you're wondering what happens at Oath Day, check out this post from Solemn Oath  that details everything or tune into their Instagram feed for a post-event roundup showing some of the sights from the weekend.  It covers all the what-have-yous that go on including how they created a new deck of cards for the event .  But, just because we didn't get to go to Oath Day this year, doesn't mean we aren't fans.  And, we even showed off a little bit of our own craft beer nerd chops by introducing Dr. Jef...

Saw these at the taproom of the Solemn Oath Brewery out in Naperville on a recent visit.  Added to the Coaster Collection here on the blog.  By my reckoning, this marks the 14th coaster in the collection that you can see here . This isn't the first time I've written about the fine folks at Solemn Oath Brewery.   You can see all the posts here on the SOB tag page .

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?

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 vari...

I wrote about how we attended Solemn Oath's "Oath Day Three" earlier this month here on the blog , but I had another 'encounter' with the brand this weekend when Nat and I went to the new Whole Foods out on Route 83.  Nat has been there a few times, but it was my first time.  (More on that later) While she was poking around the bakery section, I was drawn to the "Ales and Lagers" section of the beer cooler - as one is naturally - and spotted this sign for Solemn Oath Brewing Company above the cooler.  Have to give Whole Foods credit:  they're really into promoting hyperlocal offerings and they go above and beyond to call some vendors out.  One of those is the guys at Solemn Oath - where they note the brewery is a mere 20 miles away.  Pretty neat to see them get some promotion. If you haven't checked it out already, go back and read the post about Oath Day Three .

Back in May, Nat and I joined some of our closest friends (and family!) at Solemn Oath Brewery's "2015 Oath Day " - which was a celebration for their third anniversary.    We had a great time with some good beer (and one bad one!  One of the 'tea' ones was terrible!), lots of laughs and a new appreciation for what it takes to grow a brewery from scratch to a major regional player. The folks at Solemn Oath bill Oath Day as "Arcades, Beer, Vans, Babes, Motocycles, DJ, Miniramp".   From their site : There’s no need to dress up, but Oath Day 2015 will rock a not-so-subtle ’80s vibe. Again we’ll be skipping out on long lines and obnoxious crowds in favor of closing down for the day and opening up as much of our entire facility as we can, including a massive chunk of the parking lot and brewery. Oath Day is Saturday, May 16th, and here are the details. Again this year we’ll have two sessions and there will be even more room to spread your wings. We’ll h...