Brew House Ready & Bands Booked!

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!

Dissecting the Slug of Intent

The other morning I laid awake in bed turning over and over the work we're doing (and planning on doing) at IBW in order to distill down what the criminals in the film world call a logline.  It's that one sentence that provides your character, your conflict and the arc to resolution in one snappy moment.  

When a fanatical U.S. general launches an air strike against the Soviets, they raise the stakes by threatening to unleash a "doomsday device," setting the stage for Armageddon in this black comedy.

For good and ill, it's meant to make your product engrossing and ultimately marketable in a tight, tidy and extremely portable package.  We could spend the rest of our lives arguing about the merits of film's - or beer's for that matter - need to be marketable... and tidy.  But none of that matters.

What I've always liked about loglines is their unapologetic service to efficiency.  They force you to think and think and re-think your goal, to discard fat and ultimately get an alignment that, without a logline, might otherwise evade you.

So here's what I came up with for IBW's logline:

IBW is a Chicago based artisanal brewery producing distinctly American interpretations of Franco-Belgian farmhouse styles.

Here's what that means, broken into essential parts:

IBW is a Chicago based artisanal brewery = We are an urban brewery in Chicago, not the suburbs.  We love this terrible city and are proud to call it home.   Additionally, we happen to be a very fucking small brewery, working in a  creepy, demon-haunted basement with equipment we have hand made.

Franco-Belgian =  The Franco-Belgian region is the south eastern part of Belgium that stretches from Brussels and bleeds into France.  Wallonia, as this area is called, is distinct from Flanders (the Flemish more North-Easternly part of Belgium), so much so that they are always bitching about one another and talking about secession.  It's so crazy that, if you are in Brussels, every street has 2 names, a French name and a Flemish name.  If you ask a Franco-Belgian about a Flemish street, they will act like they have no idea what you are talking about.  I shit you not.  I won't be surprised when threats of secession are made good in our lifetime.

Wallonian breweries that we take inspiration from include Fantome, Orval, La Chouffe, Rochefort, Blaugies, Vapeur… these are breweries that typically take a more culinary, less stylistic approach to their beer, creating idiosyncratic, flamboyant spice and herbed beers as opposed to more defined and conservative offerings of say the German and Czech traditions for sure.

 Farmhouse styles = Farmhouse is a broad family of beer styles which are generally rustic, varied interpretations of beers made with some combination of 2-Row, Pilsner Malts, a wheat or other protein addition (oats, spelt, buckwheat, quinoa) and a spicy, earthy yeast strain.  Historically, most farmhouses clocked in around 3-5% ABV with some exceptions.  Farmhouse beers were generally "working beers" made in the winter (usually November-December) and stored in oak barrels to be consumed while working through the hot summer months.

Distinctly American = We are deeply in love and inspired by Belgium, by their beer, their culture and the warm "Fuck You" attitude they've rendered after centuries of playing host to warring Europe.  But we aren't Belgians, we aren't pretending to be and we definitely aren't limiting ourselves to only Belgian influences.  

We also proudly count the many beers and rich culture of our own fucked up homeland amongst our many influences.  It would be insanely stupid not to.  We're as inspired by William S. Burroughs as we are by Dany Prignon from Fantome.  Our beers pay as much honor to the DIY punk rock movement as they do to Orval or La Chouffe.

There you have it.  The anatomy of our baby.  The brains, blood and soul of our little tyrant.

IBW's First ICBG Meeting

Jason and I attended our first ICBG meeting last night at the Lagunitas compound in Pilsen.  

It will be a very long time and a whole lot of self-abuse before I forget walking down that long hallway, the ceilings and floors shifting around me in laser lights and mirror balls while Willie Wonka's "Pure Imagination" played from speakers resting on empty kegs.  Even amongst the whole stoner tongue-in-cheekiness of the installation, I'd be lying if I pretended that it didn't still convey a very real - albeit coy - bit of magic.  

We've spent a considerable amount of time, energy, and ideas to move down this path to becoming a Chicago Brewery and last night was a pretty lovely milestone.  As Jason and I stood on the catwalk and looked down on the dozens and dozens of 750bbl fermenters and the array of 10 hop-backs - any one of which was bigger than our only 5bbl fermenter - it was hard not feel inspired, intimidated, as well as more than a little coerced by the Lagunitas trickster spirit.  

If you're reading this now, it's likely that you have supported us in some way on this journey and helped make yesterday possible.  From the bottom of all of our black, black hearts, we thank you.

Tanks Are In, Electrical Installed, Circuits Blown

We crawled our youthful selves down to the shop yesterday to install our brewhouse.  Or begin installing it.  Me, Matty, Jason, Jason Kowalewski and Rob schlupped the cauldrons into our dank subterranean birthing canal.

They look downright lovely.  The stuff nerd dreams are made of.

Once they were in and we had a decent flow worked out, we plugged in our 4 electrical elements (we picked them up from brewmation.com and comfortgurus.com) and filled her full of that deliciously balanced great lakes water.

It was a lovely site to be sure.  1 element came on-line.  2 elements.  3 elements.  All 4 elements were on-line and cranking that water up.  It was so lovely it almost sobered me up.

And then around minute 33 we blew a breaker... somewhere.  Not in our demon-haunted section of the building but... somewhere.

Jason and I are heading back over to investigate and spill some cat blood should Pazuzu demand it in exchange for proper working conditions.  All Hail Pazuzu, dark underwriter of Sumerian power issues.