Goose Island Green Line and my "Beers" notebook. Martha has a "Birds" notebook as well, which means all that's missing is a "Blastbeats" notebook.
Thursday in Chicago was to be our big night out, as we had no daytime commitments on Friday other than exploring the Loop, visiting museums, and nearly killing ourselves with the cheese and tomato casserole some Chicago eateries call “pizza.” We made plans to meet a number of friends at Hopleaf, an Uptown beer bar that had been recommended by many, many friends ahead of our visit.
We arrived early, so I decided to start the night easy with the Goose Island Green Line pale ale, which is a draft-only beer available only within Chicago city limits. I figured the novelty made it worth a try, but I found myself with no desire to have a second. Forgettable pale with a bit of a soapy aroma and flavor.
Bell's Cherry Stout. Tastes nothing like vomit.
I had a taste of Jolly Pumpkin’s Madugara Obscura, which is a sour stout. It resides in a bizarre land between a Flanders red ale and an imperial stout, which is to say it’s interesting, though you have to be in just the right mood to have it. And I wasn’t in the right mood, so I tried the Bell’s Cherry Stout. I was slightly apprehensive, as the last craft brew I tried that used Michigan sour cherries (which shall remain nameless) holds the dubious honor of being the worst craft beer I’ve ever tasted (my tasting notes said simply, “vomit”). My fears were unfounded. The interplay of sweet and tart cherries with the roast malts is quite lovely. Something like a licorice flavor results, which is curious. There’s a tart, cleansing finish with a light lingering coffee-like bitterness. My only complaint is that the body was a little thin.
For third round, I decided to give one of the sour ales from New Belgium a try. New Belgium is best known for Fat Tire, a well made and drinkable if unspectacular amber ale. Their brewmaster came to them from Rodenbach, who are known as one of the finest Flanders red ale producers. The Rodenbach Grand Cru is an essential experience for anyone exploring sour ales. I’ll admit I was intrigued by this fact, and I’d been curious about trying a New Belgium sour for some time. It took all of two sips of La Terroir to convince me that if Fat Tire is all you know about New Belgium, then you are vastly underestimating the capability of that brewery. La Terroir, a blonde ale aged for 2 years and dry-hopped with Amarillo, is deliciously fruity, tart and refreshing. Marmalade and jam plus sweet and sour fruits jump out at you in both aroma and flavor, with a slightly puckering tart finish that refreshes like excellent lemonade. Highly recommended. Easily the beer of the night, and up there with the Dreadnaught as best beer of the week. Naturally, I didn’t take a picture.
Bell's 25th Anniversary Ale. The beer is not as fancy as the label. Also, our clever candle lighting solution didn't help my cell phone camera as much as we hoped.
Round four was the Bell’s 25th Anniversary Ale, which was hugely malty with a moderate hop presence. I remember thinking that it was far less spectacular of a beer than you might expect for such a significant anniversary. Round five was the always awesome Three Floyds Alpha King pale ale, which is one of the few American pale ales I get excited about. There was also a great deal of good food, including steak frites, mussels, and squash in phyllo dough.
Most importantly, there were good friends and good conversation, but I didn’t take notes on that part. So it goes.
I must second all of this review. The Bell’s Cherry Stout was a wonderful beer, and Le Terroir was a revelation. Lovely, lovely brew, that. Oh yeah, and the unnamed beer mentioned in the graf with the Bell’s was pretty bad. I didn’t quite get the “vomit” impression that Doug did, but I had two sips and ignored it for the rest of the evening. I suspect we got a bad batch, or the lines weren’t clean at the pub where we had it.