Orange Sunshine 2022 Release & Weird Studies Beer

Good day to you, earth eaters!

You know, say what you will about this complicated intersection of life forms we participate in, but it's not so bad.

Sure, you might think Earth is just a stage for you to play act whatever false identity you try to convince people you have on social media. You might even be so far down that tawdry little rabbit hole that you think that that identity actually IS your identity. Or that you have a static identity at all for that matter.

You can think that. It's Ok. I'll accept that as rules for this game, for now. It's lame, but I'll accept it. I'm an easy going guy, after all.

Assuming those rules for the game, imagine what a bummer it would be to ruin this perfectly built theatre here, all constructed and maintained, all in the service of the pageantry of your neurosis' and half-baked ambitions. If we burn this off-off-off-off-broadway puppet house to the ground, well, where oh where will you fill that hole in your soul? You might just have to get reincarnated and do it all again. And nobody wants that.

The answer to the above quiz will be released next week, so hold tight.

In the meantime, we have a brand-spanking-new-super-fresh-yummy-as-holy-hell batch of ORANGE SUNSHINE to excite your nerve endings and inflame your Id. And, I tell you with only a little bit of bias, this batch is fantastic.

You can get ORANGE SUNSHINE on tap and in cans at IBW LODGE #1. Cases start rolling out to your favorite bottle shops next week.

We've also got a new batch of BEER HERE NOW, MR. MONK'S CREAM ALE and a new, delightful session stout available going by the mysterious name CLURICHAUN TRAP.

If you're wondering, a Clurichaun is a kind of drunk, trouble-making earth elemental known to live in breweries and cause general mayhem and havoc. They drink up stashes and break equipment when brewers aren't around. I'm not saying that we for sure have a Clurichaun running around IBW LODGE #1, but, if you've spent any extended time around our humble little tree house, you've probably noticed one or two anomalous occurrences go down.

Maybe your glass slid across the table unprovoked? Balloons spontaneously popped? Doors opened at seeming whim? Strange noises in the brew house? Shapes catching your attention from the corner of your eye? If you've hung out at IBW LODGE #1 for any significant time, you've certainly noticed one, if not several, of these things.

Now, I'm not the kind of person to say for sure, hands-down that the cause of these phenomenon are a Clurichaun. But I'm also not the type of humanoid to tell you they're not either.

So, we've made a beer to appease our little brewhouse friend. All reports is that he's digging it. Why not make the most of a strange situation and get a little of his liquid for yourself?

At 4.8% you can drink CLURICHAUN TRAP session stout for 12-14 hours at a time, and, if you weren't believing in Clurichauns when you started your bender, I can assure you that you'll be entertaining that and all sorts of other odd ideas come the end time.

Speaking of odd ideas and end times, we're doing a collaboration beer with the WERID STUDIES podcast. Phil Ford and J.F. Martel are the hosts of this bi-weekly jaunt into the slippery world of mind and perception. These two affable and confounded gentleman are the perfect guides down the parallax loops of reality and fictions. Covering much loved topics such as Philip K. Dick, David Lynch, the I Ching, Gnosticism, John Keel, E.T.A Hoffmann, Stanley Kubrick and other eldritch artifacts of popular and marginal culture, Phil & J.F. practice the dangerous art of asking questions that have no reasonable answer.

Weird Studies has become a kind of deranged and delightful graduate school for me, Matty and Pritch (the troubled ex-youth who painted our mural) and it's one of the great delights of owning and running a brewery to have an opportunity to introduce these big-brained Canadians to you.

We'll be releasing WEIRD STUDIES BLACK IPA on May 23rd and, to celebrate this auspicious moment in strange, WEIRD STUDIES will be recording a show live at IBW LODGE #1. More info will be coming on that soon, so stay tuned.

I'll say this much now: if you're the kind of person who walks into IBW LODGE #1 and feels like this was the club house you've been looking for your whole life, than you should definitely drop whatever sick thing you're up to right now and start listening to WEIRD STUDIES. And make definite sure to join us on May 23rd.

Have you heard? NONAGON is playing a free show at IBW LODGE #1 on Saturday April 30th at 10pm. Come on out and enjoy Chicago Math-Rock the way your mother intended.

There's a ton of other stuff going on and I'm running out of patience with writing this email. So check our Instagram page or our Facebook page for more information on upcoming events. We've got something really special in the works for you Dad's on Father's Day. Do you like beer? Do you like barbecued pigs? Then stay tuned!

And, please, if you haven't yet (or if you have), come play with us on Tuesdays for TUESDAY TRIVIA NIGHT. It remains the most dangerous night of trivia in Chicago!

Norwood Park's St. Pat's Parade TOMORROW & Slushy V

Oh, hi.

I didn't expect to see you here.

You look... radishing with that lampshade on your head.

Have I ever told you that I love you?

Tomorrow is the first St. Patrick's Day parade in Norwood Park in 3 years now. I think that's right? 2019 was the last one. And it's 2024 today. So, yeah, 3 years.

And I hear tell it's gonna be a bit nutty.

So, look, we're going to open at 9:30am tomorrow to accommodate what ever strange and disturbing practices you all pursue to celebrate the ghosts of your DNA. Ok? All we're asking from you in return is your money. And, just a little bit of decorum.

Is that too much to ask? I certainly don't think so. But, if you're the kind of person that wakes up at 9 in the morning, wipes the green barf from the side of your mouth and gets back at it again right away, all in the name of some country you've never visited and some saint whose biography you're a little fuzzy on, than you're probably also the kind of person who doesn't really care what I think. So, if that's you, you can go on to your next email and the rest of us civilized monkeys can discuss our plans for tomorrow.

Hell, what am I talking about? You're probably already knuckle deep into your second bottle of Basil Hayden's at this point and finding the act of reading more than a little bit challenging. Even more challenging than normally. So, go on now, get back to it. Me and the rest of the choir folk are gonna be chatting over here and only affording you a few sideward glances while we do it. It's all good, bro.

So, for the rest of you nice people. Let's talk.

We're opening at 9:30am tomorrow. There's already some very technologically impressive port-a-potties in the parking lot. And there's also going to be some plainclothed police milling about to deal with that other dude we just asked to leave. For the rest of you, we're going to have our regular portfolio of delicious draft beer and some $5 can specials. We're checking IDs at the door and will be issuing wristbands to all you fine people over the age of 21. If you're not 21 and are thinking you might make some great memories trying to drink illegally tomorrow, please make those memories somewhere else. Oh, and for tomorrow only, all the beer is being served in plastic cups because, apparently, the City of Chicago thinks - oh, wait, I'm sorry... knows - that you don't know how to act.

If you don't know already, IBW LODGE #1, has been strategically blessed by being at the tail-end of the parade. I mean, we're not the only people on the corner there, but, let's be honest, how many people are going to want to capstone their St. Patrick's Day parade festivities by doing a load of laundry and huffing slurpees at the 7-11? I mean, one or two of you probably, but the rest of you savages I'm sure are going to want to keep drinking. So, we're here for you. And, our good friends at WineStyles are also willing to deal with you - for a measured amount of time - in exchange for some cold, hard cash. Be nice to us. Be nice to WineStyles. Hell, be nice to each other. I mean, isn't that what St. Patrick was known for? Wasn't he the one that spoke to animals and is the patron saint of trapeze artists and ice cream men? So, come on. Naturally, good old St. Pat would want you to to be good to each other, being the animals that you all are.

While you're here yelling at each other about how much you love each other and how you can't stand that new guy at work, maybe you'll consider picking up some to-go beer as well? We've got a freshly packaged batch of ASTRONAUT JUICE and, I'm very excited to tell you, our newest in the line of SLUSHY THING seltzers... this one has strawberry, guava, pineapple and marshmallow in it. And, I'm gonna be straight with you for once, because I know you're already drunk enough to not remember this tomorrow, this is our best Slushy offering to date. Yes, even better than #2. This one is fantastic. AND, I have had first hand experience and can testify that SLUSHY THING V: THE GREATEST CHALLENGE is not only good for intoxicating you, it's also very good at curing the ensuing hang overs. So, when you over indulge tomorrow - and we all know you will - I strongly recommend grabbing 4 or 5 4-packs of SLUSHY THING V to help get your head straight before work on Monday.

For the rest of you nice folks that won't be ruining an otherwise lovely Sunday with binge drinking, you can get SLUSHY THING V, TRUST, and ASTRONAUT JUICE at any of the self-respecting bottle shops and liquor stores in the city and the suburbs you always can.

That's it for now. Any questions? Hit us up at info@ibw-chicago.com and we'll see you tomorrow!!

Trust & Astronaut Juice Are Back!!

Happy Friday, good people of Earth...

I've been obsessively listening and relistening to "Cry Baby Cry" from the White Album these past few days for no good reason other than its a relatively sane and salient escape from the dumb chest-thumpings happening on the news machines constantly barking for our attentions.

These are hot and heady times. And there's nothing like a haunted and haunting song played on a harmonium to take the sting out the garbage that passes as the "real" world. Real? Really? Real what? Real crummy? Real stupid? Real waste of time?

Real tawdry.

But, yeah, "Cry Baby Cry". Lennon thought pretty low of that song apparently, but I'd go to wall that it's one of his best, in tone if not in construct. And, hey, "Long, Long, Long", man, that's another leveling sleeper hit now, isn't it?

I mean, how do you wrap your head around a world that can, in the same breath, create something as sublime as the Beatles and all that flashed and disappeared around that phenomenon and all the things as hollow and horrible as just about everything that is happening in the world right now?

I suppose they can't exist without each other, somehow. By some arithmetic anyway.

Oh yeah, beer. We just tapped a fresh batch of TRUST lager, JAQUE RENAULT'S NECK, a 6% marzen, and some fresh ASTRONAUT JUICE for the weekend. ASTRONAUT JUICE will be released in cans next Wednesday along with a fresh batch of TRUST lager and SLUSHY THING V. This slushy is loaded up with 30% fruit (Strawberry, Guava & Pineapple) and topped off with marshmallows. It's a rrrreeeeeallly good.

Tomorrow, Saturday, our neighbors at WineStyles are doing a Happy Lobster Food Truck Meal Kit Pick-Up. If you follow this link you can buy a lobster kit, pick it up at WineStyles and then walk into IBW Lodge #1 and get 20% off a growler of Trust. What a world!

Tomorrow night (still Saturday) at IBW LODGE #1 the wonderful and strange HUNGRY MAN will be celebrating the release of their new album, "PERMANENT CRISIS", with a FREE live performance starting around 10:15pm. Come out and give them some love!

And, of course, every Tuesday we have the MOST DANGEROUS TRIVIA NIGHT IN TOWN. Bring your brains and your braun and claw yourself to the top of the smallest hill in the Chicago! Win prizes. Drink.

Oh and we're getting that back patio licensed for the summer. So get your minds right, friends.

Celebrate MARDI GRAS @ IBW LODGE #1 Saturday, February 26th!

Greedings and salivations, my unusual friends...

Tomorrow starting at 4pm IBW LODGE #1 is going to do some space traveling down to the wonderful and strange Crescent City to celebrate Mardi Gras!

We'll be flush with fresh, delicious IBW beer and we'll have plenty of FREE FOOD to fill your swollen belly's. We've got boudin, muffulettas, king cake and other yummies. If you want to bring some treats to share, don't be shy! Come in costume and get your first beer on us! Here's the creepbook page for the event.

In other news....We dropped Magic Alex's Amazing Electric Granola Berry Beer this week and folks seem to be digging it. It tastes almost exactly like a 7% berry RX Bar. I do love it when a plan comes together. We've got it on tap here and in 4-packs to go at IBW LODGE #1 and you can find it at your favorite bottle shops in and around Chicago.

That's it for now. Any questions? Hit us up at info@ibw-chicago.com and we'll see you tomorrow!!

Vocoder Karaoke Thursday Night!!

Greetings from the End of the Bar...

Couple two, three reminders for you all for stuff coming up in the next few days:

THIS WEEKEND, Saturday, February 19th, starting at noon we'll be releasing the extremely rare and thoroughly delicious collaboration we did with Old Irving Brewing, ANCIENT MAGICK, that has been lovingly barrel aged in W.L. Weller barrels for almost 2 years.

This stuff is incredible, just so good. This 11% stout with peanut butter and marshmallow has relaxed into a black velvet and lace throne for the vanillins, oak and bourbon notes imparted from almost 2 years cozied up in wood. The IBW BEER CULT gets first dibs at the stash, but we'll release whatever allocations are left to you, the uninitiated, once they are done having their way with it.

If you don't want to wait and make sure that you get a slice of this deliciousness before the Cult is done with it, you can still JOIN OUR CULT and secure your dibs.

As you know, most cults have a bad reputation of usurping your will or your bank account or your ties to family members or normal society. Well, our little cult promises ALL of that and SO MUCH MORE!! You will not find a more efficiently bad-intentioned cult anywhere this side of the Manson/Nixon line. And we'll get you hammered. Just hit this link and get yourself signed up...

BARREL AGED ANCIENT MAGICK is packaged in 750ml bottles and will be available out of IBW LODGE #1 exclusively for $24.99 while supplies last. We open at noon on Saturdays. Again, this is NEXT SATURDAY February 19th.

And TOMORROW NIGHT!!! we've got VOCODER KARAOKE starting at 8:00pm. This is all the humiliating & exuberant shenanigan's you've come to know and love from karaoke with the added benefit of having the option to run your voice through the vocoder to make it sound like a robot.

We do this every third Thursday of the month and it's always a pretty hilarious time. We'll have Dagger Flute on special for $5 a pint and prizes for the folks that we deem to deserve them! Come on and shake your tail feather and show us what you goooooot.