Jared Rouben, the new head brewer at Goose Island’s Clybourn pub just declared Tuesday the new Monday-after-the-Craft-Brewers-Conference. Maybe now I don’t feel so bad myself about being off schedule on just about everything! 

The CBC was amazing, but honestly, by the time I got through the first two days, I was tugged back into more ordinary (though no less important) activities. Such is the downside of having a great trade conference pull up and park in your hometown, I’ve always found. I tweeted trough part of the pre-Easter events, the wonderful opening ceremony and bits of the first day and evening.  My final tweet, from the amazing Thursday night open-house at Goose’s bottling plant, got lost in somewhere between my Twitter clumsiness and the dozen-or-so versions of Big Ol’ (Bourbon County and otherwise) stouts Goose Island was pouring. What I had meant to say was that it was an amazing immersion into food-and-beer nirvana. Around a dozen chefs were cooking on the spot and pairing dishes specifically with an outstanding variety of Goose beers including the stouts, standards and session beers, and a full cast of Belgo-inspired beauties.

Rouben summarized the party well in his Chicago Brewhouse blog. In person on Thursday I offered Greg Hall a much shorter review involving nothing more than an expletive adverb, a glowing adjective, and a pat on the back. I must agree with Rouben that (Hot Chocolate owner/chef) Mindy Segal’s array of stout influenced desserts, (including Bourbon County Stout-sicle) might have taken the beer and food cake. It was so good, I didn’t even mind that cheese didn’t make it to the party—honestly.

Earlier in the evening I spent a (too) brief spell at the Map Room for the Flossmoor Brewery past and present party. Nicely done, no surprise. Laura and staff at the Map Room figured out a way to throw a special party during the conference, without taking away from the usual Map Room ambiance. The night ended at The Publican, one of the outstanding gastropubs in attendance at the Goose open house. The Publican had, at 10 p.m., thrown all its tap handles over to the Belgian-esque barrel-agers from the likes of Lost Abbey, Goose Island and Allagash Brewing.

By Friday I was left following the rest of the conference through Twitter posts and blogs from Mark McDermott, Ray Daniels, Charlie Papazian, Jay Brooks and Michael Agnew. Sounds like it never let up, and I hope the visiting brewers were impressed with Chicago’s craft beer community.  My friend Daniels apparently swore off beer for life on Sunday, with the commitment lasting until around lunch time Monday.

By Sunday I was with two other friends converting about 19 pounds of barley and hops into 10 gals of American amber ale. I’m trying to get back to a normal schedule, and I’ve got a great Midwestern pairing lined up, which I’ll try to post tomorrow or Thursday. Cheers!