FOBAB & Pareidolia Bottle Release

We here down in the IBW underground bunker are very excited to announce that 2016 will be our first year participating in the Festival of Wood & Barrel Aged Beers in Chicago.  The festival - the largest of it's kind - is this Friday and Saturday at the UIC Pavillion. All three sessions are sold out already, but, we'd venture to guess that most of you have tickets already.

Here are the beers that we will have at FOBAB this year:

SON OF TOUCAN SAM (collab w/ Haywood Tavern)

The Son of Toucan Sam is a Belgian Bock, for lack of a better style indicator. We used an all Munich grist, boiled for 4 hours to bring out a beatuiful ruby-red color and finished with Executive Chef Rodney Staton's "Fruity Loops" spice blend and the Rochefort yeast. The base beer was a complex and crushable thing of beauty which we then took and put into a red wine french oak barrel for 9 months to transform it into something truly magical. We're very excited about this beer. If you don't have a chance to try it this weekend at FOBAB there will be some opportunity to get it in 750ml bottles later this year.  Stay tuned...

40 ROUNDS

40 Rounds is a Black Farmhouse beer made with black cardamom, black strap mollasses & black prinz malts resulting in a dry, slightly smoky farmhouse beer with hints of black cofee and bitter chocolate. We then took some of that 40 Rounds and aged it in a Buffalo Trace barrel for 9 months to create a whisky barrel aged beer that, in many ways, defies the style by creating a toffee, vanilla and whisky rich beer that is incredibly drinkable at only 5.7%.

ALL COLOR OF THE DARK

All Colors of the Dark takes our Black Maw black licorice stout and aged it for a year and a half in FEW rye barrels letting the Rodenbach blend of yeast and bugs work their magic. We then blend and balance that back with a farmhouse aged on the same bugs to create a rich tapestry of dark and sweet fruits balanced on an inky black base.

Next Wednesday, November 16th, will see the release of our most recent collaboration series with Parachute Restaurant.  The 2016 version of Pareidolia is a buckwheat farmhouse aged on Asian pears with Amchur used to accentuate the fruit. The bottled version that will be released next week is naturally conditioned on a mix of brettanomyces lambicus and brettanomyces claussenii. This is a very limited release and you will need to move very quickly to snatch this up.  We will release a list of stores carrying this beer next Wednesday.

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Last week saw the release of Brainwash, a 7% tart farmhouse. Brainwash glows a hazy, post-hypnotic yellow and smells of mellon, passionfruit, white pepper & grain. The taste is juicy and tart, very much like a wild ale, but it achieves it’s flavor profile simply with water, hops, grain and sachromyces (non-wild) yeast.  At 7%, Brainwash is efficient at bending the mind, yet drinks like a beverage half it's weight in booze. You can get Brainwash at any of the stores that carry IBW. You can search locations at http://www.ibw-chicago.com/get-illuminated

Finally, please don't be an idiot, go out and vote tomorrow if you haven't already.

Publican Burger Night Tonight & More....

So yeah, we know, the Cubs lost last night and that's a GIANT freaking bummer.

But the good news is it means another Cubs game... tonight!

And still more good news... our Publican Quality Meats Burger Night is tonight from 6-8pm!

So, you can come to the Publican Quality Meats Burger Night tonight from 6-8pm get jacked up on IBW beer and burgers from competing chefs from Giant & Dixie and still be home in time for the 7:40pm game start.

We'll be pouring our Farmhouse Porter, Pazuzu's Pedals, made with delicious black cardamom. No kidding, this porter is perfect for a fall evening and earns every ounce of it's Babylonian's namesake.  

We're also pouring our warm fermented lager, King Mob, full of delicious esthers evoking banana & apricot. This brings together two oppositional worlds, the flamboyant Belgian pale ale with the clean, dry finish of a German lager.

Enjoy both of these beers in Publican Quality Meats beer garden while we prep for the game tonight. That game which we will win. Trust me. We have arranged for your future and have secured the Cubs a victory. 

In Other News...

Next Tuesday we'll have a new batch of Pareidolia released at Parachute Restaurant. It's the same basic beer as the previous batch - a Buckwheat farmhouse with Asian pears & Amchur added for acidity - but we've increased the amount of pears and Amchur to create a version of Pareidolia that is perfect for the Harvest season. We're all very excited about this batch.

In other Pareidolia news, we will be releasing a very limited amount of bottles of this years batch that have been conditioned on b. clausenii. This will be released to a few bottle shops around town towards the middle of November.  Stay tuned for more info on that.

We've also got REDRUM, our barrel aged dark farmhouse aged on cranberries and cherries, that will be released on October 26th at a select number of bottle shops.  We'll release more info on that as we get closer to that date.

On October 23rd you would be a villainous creep to miss THE 39TH ANNUAL ILLINOIS CRAFT BEER AWARDS brought to you by the good freaks behind Lumpen Radio & Marz brewing. It takes place at the Chop Shop on Sunday, October 23 from 4pm–7pm and will award a series of “Foamie” trophies to a group of beer industry professionals. Attendees will receive complimentary beer and Malört while enjoying live music and entertainment. There will be paparazzi, a red carpet and swag bags to make a beer-focused version of the Academy Awards. Tickets are $35 and proceeds go to Doctors without Borders.

Unchristian Thoughts!

As promised, our Unchristian Thoughts will be released today.  This is a very small batch only going to a handful of bottle shops, so, if you want a bottle, I strongly suggest you get out there today and grab one.

Unchristian Thoughts is a pilsner & wheat farmhouse aged in a multi-used oak barrel for 4 months and refermented on mangoes. We conditioned the bottle with brettanomyces claussenii so you can definitely let this beauty sit for a few months and develop some more.

All bottles of Unchristian Thoughts, like all the bottles in our barrel aged series, are hand written with name, style, ABV and bottling date.  These recipes will not be brewed again the same way.

Here's the shops where you can get your Unchristian Thoughts:

This Friday our head brewer Brian Buckman will be at Standard Market Westmont celebrating the release of Coffee Fnord and offering samples.

Monday, August 1st, we'll be at the General celebrating our new collab with the General, the 15th Regiment.  15th Regiment is a water-thin, wine-dry farmhouse refermented on tamarind & passionfruit.  This is our liberal interpretation of a Berlinner Weiss where we're using the tamarind for the acidity instead of lactobacillus.  This is a really unique and fun beer, great for crushing the summer heat armed with some tacos.

Last, but not least, we've done some long-needed updates to our website including an events page. Please go to www.ibw-chicago.com to have a look.