Jinx Remover Released Today in Bottles!

When the Paramount Room came to ask us to create a beer that would pair perfectly with their wagyu beef burger last fall we came up with Jinx Remover. We knew that any beer to properly live with a burger made from wagyu beef needed to have a plenty of caramel to accentuate the crust, but it also needs some tools to cut through that butter-rich fat.

To achieve this we blended our 100% brett fermented Cult of Ed and a caramel rich pale ale and, once combined, we dry-hopped the combination with American hops.

Jinx Remover hits the nose with the funky hay and horse known well to lovers of the Brettanomyces family.  With both b. lambicus and b. claussenii used in the fermentation of Cult of Ed, you get plenty of funk up front. But the nose doesn't end there. We believe there's no better hop aromatic than Columbus' piney and floral bouquet to play along with the funk of brett, so we went against common knowledge and dry hopped with Columbus to great results. For a closing act, we've used one of our favorite yeasts to ferment the pale ale side of this blend - the same one we use in Brainwash - which creates a tart finish to clean up those fats and make way for another bite of Paramount Room's fantastic burger.

You can get Jinx Remover on draft with one of Paramount Room's wagyu burgers any night of the week for $16 only at the Paramount Room. That's a screaming deal and should not be missed.

But now - as of this very day - you can get your Jinx Remover, bottled conditioned in 750ml bottles at a few select stores here in Chicago. This is a very limited run that will be released slowly over the next few months. It's not to be missed, both because the beer is fantastic, but also the bottle artwork is spot-on.

Made as an homage to those magic candles you can find at your favorite bookstore or Botanica, Jinx Remover comes complete with mis-spellings, testimonials and even a ritual you can do to free yourself of the jinx that is hounding you.  

We've topped each bottle with a color wax that relates to how the beer was conditioned: red wax means the beer was conditioned on brettanomyces bruxellensis, black wax means it was conditioned on neutral yeast & silver wax means it was conditioned on brettanomyces lambicus.

Here's where you can get this first round of Jinx Remover:

• Bitter Pops
• West Lakeview Liquors
• Vas Liquors
• Beer Temple
• Bottles & Cans
• Puerto Rico Liquors
• Iron & Glass (for you folks in the burbs)

HEY! This Friday February 24th we have our IBW Cultural Calibration evening for prospective cult members at Logan Arcade.  We'll have 3 beers on tap, including the SUPER RARE CULT OF SUNSHINE (that's our Orange Sunshine fermented on 100% brettanomyces). Arman and Brian will be playing some mind-controlling music and we will be scrubbing your hearts and minds with the greatest movie ever made (aside from "Inherent Vice") "Evil Speak"!!! There will also be a few shirts and posters that will be given away, or, if you want to support the cause, available for purchase.

Also, this weekend, we'll be pouring the last keg in existence of BLACK LODGE, our cherry and coffee stout made with coffee from our friends at Abacus Coffee Roasters. The two Brians - Brian Buckman from IBW & Brian Frain from Abacus - will be pouring this at the first session of Uppers & Downers at Thalia Hall.

Using our advanced skills of bi-locality, IBW will also be pouring beer at the Naperville Ale Festival on Saturday February 25th. Stop by and inquire how we achieve this and all of our feats of miraculatude.

Look folks, there has NEVER been a better time to be an alcoholic and there's NEVER been a smarter time than now to join a cult. At IBW we can feed both of those monkeys for you. So what are you waiting for? Give your life over to IBW!!!

One of us! One of us!

4 IBW Beers on Tap @ Bucktown Pub

For some strange reason, everybody's favorite neighborhood watering hole is transforming itself into one of those crummy velvet rope clubs tonight for one night only.  And IBW will have 4 beers on tap to help confuse the message!

Up is down, black is white, dogs are marrying cats and neighborhood bars are being pimped out with disco balls, fog machines and schmarmy music. We will be very exclusive tonight so come dressed to impress. It will be tremendous.

Ok, we'll see you there, brah.

Cult of Fnord RARE Tapping This Saturday w/ Cokegoat!

How rare is rare? SUPER FREAKING RARE. That's right.

There are only 3 sixtels of Cult of Fnord that will be tapped in Chicago this year. That's it. And one of those sixtels will be tapped THIS SATURDAY at the Burlington Bar.

This Saturday, February 11th at the Burlington Bar Cokegoat will be systematically removing faces, cooking them up with a hydrochloride powder and feeding them back to their unwitting audience drenched in metric tons of thunderous metal.  And IBW will be tapping Cult of Fnord to help with party.

If you don't already know, Cult of Fnord is our 7% wit beer that is fermented on 100% brettanomyces in lieu of our house wit strain. We then dry-hopped this beauty with 3lbs per barrel of Amarillo & Columbus and blended with another Templeton Rye barrel aged farmhouse. The result is the wonderfully funky, freak-out of a beer that explodes with tropical fruit and citrus.

This beer is a real victory for Freedom and for Flavor, we promise you. Real patriots will love this beer.

I'll say it one more time... Cult of Fnord will only see 3 draft tappings this year! That's it. The rest of it will be bottle conditioned and released in our standard 750ml bottle format later this spring. Stay tuned for more details.

To help you keep track of everything IBW has going on, we've finally updated our Events page. We've got a bunch of events coming up this month so check out the Events page for info on these.  And keep checking back, I promise to be more vigilant about keeping this updated as we go forward.

Hasselhopf - with it's smooth, juicy notes of citrus and candy - has been all gussied up in it's 8% zoot suit and released to stores this week for your troubling pleasures. You can get the Hopf at:

• Beer Temple
• Vas Foremost
• Grand & Western
• Bottles & Cans
• Bitter Pops
• Madison Vine Wines
• Beermiscous
• Maria's
• Binny's Marcey
• Binny's Lakeview
• Binny's Grand
• West Lakeview Liquors
• Logan Liquors
• Beer on the Wall

Jinx Remover - our beautiful 5.1% brett Pale Ale made with a blend of Cult of Ed and a tart finishing farmhouse - goes out to stores next week. Stay tuned for more info on the locations next Wednesday.

Black Lodge Tapping @ The General This Thursday!

Hey everybody look over there, the world is on fire!

And let's be clear: this is exactly why you have IBW in your life. Our fine, feathered cult of delinquents have been delivered here to spaceship earth to help you make your few remaining days enjoyable.

And, to be clear, the trip to get here was long and miserable and fraught with peril so it'd be great if you could do us a solid and just take advantage of at least some of these offerings we've made available to you over these next few days. There's some good ones, we promise.

Aside from more of our mind-bending tart farmhouse Brainwash being released to your favorite bottle shops in Chicago this Friday, we've got these exciting events that you are implored to attend.

Here you go:

This Thursday our friends over at the General will be tapping into one of the few remaining kegs of Black Lodge, our 8% stout made with sour cherries and 3lbs/barrel of Abacus coffee. We'll be playing Season 1 of Twin Peaks on the TVs and members of our cult will be filling the air with music.

This Friday, the upstanding gentleman at Local Option will be pouring Brainwash (7% Tart Farmhouse) directly into your moufs as part of their celebration of diversity and inclusion, Mucho Chingon.

Next Saturday, February 11th the dark wizard's of Cokegoat are playing the Burlington and we'll be tapping an extremely rare keg of Cult of Fnord for the event. Cult of Fnord takes Fnord, our 7% wit, and feeds it to a blend of brett claussenni and brett trois for 5 months. Just before packaging we dry-hopped this little bastard on 2lbs of Amarillo per barrel. We'll be releasing Cult of Fnord in bottles come April, but this Cokegoat show is one of the only chances you're going to have to drink it on draft. Don't miss it.

That's it for the time being.  Later this month we'll be releasing Hasselhopf and our brett pale ale Jinx Remover.  We've also got a couple of tap take overs around town at Bucktown Pub & Logan Arcade (where we'll be watching the incredible horror film "Evilspeak"!!!) and, of course, we'll be pouring Black Lodge at the Uppers & Downers coffee and beer event. But we'll tell you more about those as we get closer to them. 

Ok, folks. Hang in there, keep your eyes open, stay fighting and remember to always maintain at least a little buzz, it will help you see clearly while the world heats up it's Fnords.

Frozen Mind @ Chicago Psych Fest VIII This Weekend!

We're over our ski's with joy that we've been asked to make a beer for one of the best weekends in music here in Chicago. Chicago Psych Fest VIII: Frozen Mind will be at the Hideout Friday and Saturday night featuring Post-Animal, Magic Carpet, Daigonal and a whole bunch more psyche-rock monsters.

We brewed a batch of dreams to keep you warm & hydrated and to bring you back to earth should you freak too far the fuck out. FROZEN MIND is an 7.5% ABV winter farmhouse ale with a rich herbaceousness wrapped in citrus and pine. FROZEN MIND is available this weekend at Hideout's Psychfest VIII and a few other venues until it's gone. 

If you're lame and don't want to come to the Hideout this weekend, we'll also be pouring at the Winter Ale Fest at Navy Pier.

Next week will see a new batch of our highly coveted 7% tart farmhouse, BRAINWASH, making it's ways out to your favorite Chicago bottle shops. Stay tuned for more info on where and when you can get that.  

Alright, ladies and gentleman, let us prepare to not feel our faces!