We passivated the tanks last night with a 1 gallon of water per ounce of Acid #2 solution, running it through CIP in both the boil kettle and the mash tun. This should strip the top layer of the stainless off as well as any contaminants that may be present. Once that happens, exposure to oxygen in the environment will allow the chromium oxide to rebuild. All this keeps our tanks from rusting.

This is basically our final step before we are ready to brew. Now we just tap our fingers waiting and hoping that Illinois provides us with the licenses we applied for.

While we wait for that let me tell you a bit about our party coming up on September 20th.

We've booked all 3 bands already, it's going to be a great show. We've got Brickfight opening (think late 80s/early 90s east bay punk like J-Church and Jawbreaker), followed by the rockabilly sleaze of The Columbines.

Our headliner... is killer, but we can't tell you about them yet. We have to keep you guessing on that for now. But what I can tell you is that I've heard them very appropriately described as if "early Motley Crue and Zeke made babies". Good shit.

We'll have the burlesque crew from last year's Sacrifice! Sacrifice! Sacrifice! there as well as some other great surprises. Surprises like the Can Car. That's right, it's still a surprise because you have no idea the power and awesomeness of the Can Car until you live it and breathe it in person.

Of course there will be kick-ass new shirts that we'll be giving away as well as tours of our subterranean brewery and so much more. Oh yeah and we'll have pours and collaborations from Une Annee, Local Option, Hamburger Mary's, Dry Hop Brewers, Inebriate Brewing, Fled Gluten Free Homebrew and a whole bunch more.

Oh and did I mention yet that this mind blowing orgy of flavor and rock is totally, no strings attached FREE? FREE I tell you. FREE like a shirt-cocking Parrothead on the 4th of July.

The one catch is you have to RSVP if you are going to be let in. No exceptions to this rule as this is a private event and not open to the public. So please RSVP to star@ibw-chicago.com.

Can't wait to see you there!