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.

Worship with the Cult of Sunshine!

We're very excited to announce the first bottle release from our 'Cult Of' series will be released tomorrow! 

Our 'Cult Of' series takes one of our standard offerings - in this case Orange Sunshine -  and ferments it with 100% brettanomyces yeast. We have released these as draft only in the past, and now begins their serial offering in the proper format, 750ml bottles ready to be aged and developed.

Expect notes of pineapple, stone fruit, hay and floral earth. These evil-doers finish dry with a closing acidity to make the unholy elixir slither down your throat and change your mind almost immediately. We strongly recommend picking up 2 bottles, one to drink immediately and a second to let develop for another 4-6 months and turn into the multi-brained millipede god that it is. To be clear, these larval gods are still very developed when you purchase them, but, like any good beer, these gods are living and will continue to grow in captivity.

Each bottle is affixed with a "Cult Of" sticker assuring you of it's elite status as well as a short-form comic in the style of those old tracts fundamentalist Christian's used to hand out on Clark & Belmont to educate wayward heathens confused about their eternal soul.

This is a very limited release in Chicago so you want to jump on this grenade fast. Our soul-cracked army of witless drones will be delivering these by end of day Wednesday to the following accounts:

• Beer Temple

• Binny's Marcey St.

• Binny's Lakeview

• West Lakeview Liquors

• Bottles & Cans

• Gene's

• Bitter Pops

• Vas Foremost Liquors

• Warehouse Liquors

• Grand & Western Liquors

As with the Unchristian Thoughts, these bottles will not last long - most sold out from stores the day they showed up - so get on top of this fast.  

Our next "Cult Of" release will be Cult of Ed, a 100% brett fermented variation of our Ed's Legs American farmhouse.  Expect this in early October.

In other news... We'll see you this Friday for a tasting at West Lakeview Liquors and Saturday at the Beverly Brew Fest.  Please come out and say "Hi" as we prepare the masses for our earthly communion with the alien overlords.

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:

• Bottles & Cans
• VAS Foremost Liquors
• Warehouse Liquors
• Beer Temple
• Grand & Western Liquors

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.

Coffee Fnord, The Map Room, Local Option & Unchristian Thoughts

This week sees the release of our Fnord Coffee Wit.  This idea came to us from our friends  at Abacus Coffee Roasters.  

Brian Frain's Abacus Coffee Roasters is just down the hall from us. Brian and Page will periodically drop in to bring us coffee, have a beer or bitch about work. One afternoon we got to talking and Brian suggested we put cold-pressed Abacus in our Fnord, his favorite of our beers.  

I have to admit that, at first, I was extremely skeptical.  My fear was that the acidity of the coffee would make the bright and fruity Fnord undrinkable, but Brian insisted that, not only will the flavors work great together, but that it won't effect the color much.  The hook of a straw colored coffee beer was what finally got me and I accepted the collaboration.

The results exceeded even my best expectations.  We went very light on the coffee addition - 1 gallon per barrel - the result is a rich coffee nose and a creamy, almost candy like coffee note in the taste, where the coffee pulls the fruit notes up from the beer and the beer pulls the fruit from the coffee.

We're all very excited for this collaboration and are already planning our next.

Bottles hit stores this week, look for it at all of your favorite bottle shops in Chicago including Beer Temple, West Lake View, Binny's Marcy, Vas Foremost, Bottles & Cans, Bitter Pops and many, many more.  We'll also have it at Beer Shop in Oak Park and Standard Market in Westmont.  We're going to have a couple launch events as well, stay tuned for more info on those.

Tomorrow night, Wednesday July 20th, the Map Room is hosting an IBW tap event.  We'll be pouring the very last keg of our sour stout, "All Colors of the Dark", our Extra-Special Belgian "Two Headed Dog" and one more very special beer that you'll have to show up to find out what it is.  We'll get started around 7pm and over-stay our welcome.

Also, this Friday is The Fucking Catalina Wine Mixer at Local Option.  This is an epic evening that combines the best tap list in the city (IBW, De Struise, Alesmith, Scratch, Pipeworks, Maine Beer Company, Jester King and so much more great stuff) with a shred-off where guitar bullies put their licks on pageant to compete for your adoration and prizes.  Don't miss this.

Lastly, there's a VERY limited number of bottles of "Unchristian Thoughts" that will seed out to the world next Wednesday.  In case you don't know, "Unchristian Thoughts" is a farmhouse aged in a Templeton Rye barrel and then refermented on mangoes and bottle conditioned with brett clausenii.  This is real special stuff and won't ever be made again. If this sounds good to you I would recommend that you act fast and grab one as soon as they go out, I can assure you that they will not last long.  We'll be sending out one more email next week to remind you and let you know the locations so you nice people will have the best chance possible for acquiring a bottle.  You really don't want to miss this.

GOOBLE! GOBBLE! GOOBLE! GOBBLE!

We're excited to announce that we've added some fresh blood to our beautiful cult's extended outreach program.  This newest recruit was poached from the Faygo stained hands of the Jugallo's Inner Order, so you know she takes no prisoners.

Please join hands and shiver your chi a loving shade of purple for international mystery maker and IBW's newest sales rep, Nicole Yalaz.

YEAH!