Among the the big and outstanding events is Goose Island’s 25^th Anniversary Block Party Sunday May 19 starting at noon the Fulton Brewery. Tickets are available for $25, and it will include special tastings and tours.

Of course, if you have not been to Beer Under Glass, I hope you already have tickets for this year’s event. It sold out in a few hours. No wonder really, more than 100 beers from more than 30 breweries in an amazingly beautiful setting. BUG is one of the kickoff events on Thursday.

BUG will also features some lovely fare from Fountainhead chef Cleetus Friedman and from Marion Street Cheese Market. Say hello to the cheesemongers, pair some of those Marion Street cheeses with some Chicago beers and you will be in Cheese and Cheers heaven.

Before and after parties for BUG will be held at Haymarket Pub and Brewery.

Other fun features include:

• Stuff at Owen and Engine, Map Room, Maria’s and around 250 other venues.
• Beer Bus neighborhood tours.
• Special $4 drafts all week at Marion Street, for more cheese and beer action.
• For cheese and beer in the city, try Bar Pastoral in Lakeview.
• A big closer on May 26 on Fulton Street in the West Loop.

Some of the ticketed events are benefits for charities, and the entire, 11-day long event benefits the reputation of Chicago beer. Have fun!

The expo, held at the Rosemont Convention Center, allows off-premise and on-premise retailers to do the same. Those attendees are often there for the new and the buzz-worthy, and this year that included Gigantic Brewing Co., Tieton Cider Works; both from Oregon and both new to our market; Chicago’s own Latin flavored 5 Rabbit Brewing; and Furthermore, the Wisconsin brewing company introduced to Chicago by Glunz just a few months ago.

Furthermore's Proper was introduced to the Chicago market to coincide with the Glunz World Beer Expo.

I did not have a chance to try Gigantic’s beers, in part because the booth drew a huge crown, but I look forward to doing so in the near future. I may also investigate any connection to the song by the Pixies. Tieton’s four ciders included a dry cider made only with cider apples, a semi-dry from a blend of cider and dessert apples, and apricot infused product, and a dry hopped cider made with just a touch of three American varieties. Four nice drinks, if you ask me.

5 Rabbit was sampling its year-round beers, and some extras including Missionario, a seasonal wheat beer made with muscat grapes and aldrich almonds, and retailers lined up to figure out which beers they would carry. Furthermore was pouring several beers, including its uncommon Oscura (a summer coffee lager) and the wonderfully traditional Brit-inspired Proper. Those two were rolled out here to coincide with the expo.

Distributors like Louis Glunz Beer have played a major role in the making Chicago a great place to drink beer. I, for one, am thankful for their efforts.

See link for pairing ideas for Proper.

First the beer: Pepe Nero is a black saison-style beer. Goose says it is made with peppercorns and that it has sweet malt and roasty flavors.  I like the beer a lot, but I get more of a bready/fruity yeast flavor with a hint of roast and a suggestion of pepper at best. It’s a highly carbonated beer with a light-bodied effervescence. Mine poured with a huge tan head, and that fruity/bready aroma.  Fruity, slightly malty flavors, as I expected.

Next the cheese: Oh, we could write an entire article about this cheese and its siblings, but I will be brief.  This is a French goat cheese made in America, and it is SO GOOD!  The geotrichum rind is wrinkly like a brain. As with any good soft-ripened cheese there is a gooey, soft segment just under that rind, and then, the creamy and  firmer (depending on how ripe the cheese is) center. Bijou smells like a forest and mushrooms and it tastes like truffles and cream, with a a bit of tangy acidity on the finis. The texture is super-dense, creamy.

Bijou w/ maple and black pepper.

Beer and cheese together: I tasted the cheese by itself and with some maple syrup and black pepper (nice accompaniment). I chased the cheese with the Pepe and then swished them around together. The flavors were pleasant together but with or without the maple and pepper they did not create anything startlingly new.  Bijou is SO dense and creamy, that the effervescent beer seems to slide off of it. This cheese may need something with a richer body and more sweetness or roast—maybe a dubbel or a brown ale or porter. Pepe Nero might be better suited for a fresh chevre. That said, these two are so good that I will still give the paring a four out of five.

I first tasted Furthermore Brewering Company’s Wisconsin-brewed beers back in 2010 and was impressed by what was in the bottle, and even by the graphics on the bottle. There is a nice company story to tell as well, too, so I told it here and paired one of the Furthermore beers with a couple of outstanding neighboring cheeses. Well, one of the pairings rated a perfect five stars, which is pretty rare.

That’s all great, but this week the buzz is about distributor Louis Glunz Beer introducing Furthermore’s American pale Knot Stock, and Belgian golden Fatty Boombalatty to the Chicago market, with more beers to follow. Initially the beers will be on draft only but six packs might follow.

“Furthermore Beer is very excited to be jumping on board with Louis Glunz and entering the Chicago Market,” says Joe Collins, a representative at Furthermore.  “We have had great feedback for years from the people crossing the border to get their Knot Stock fix or replenishing their Fatty Boombalatty stash.  Now that we are on board with Louis Glunz, it’s our turn to make the drive.”

Glunz is hosting a launch event from 6 to 10 pm tonight at High Dive in Ukranian Village.  Hope to see you there.

At the Brewpub Shootout

Here are a few random thoughts:

• As organizer Jeff Sparrow noted, it was great to have 5 Rabbit Cerveceria among the 13 breweries competing. One of the brewery’s principals, Randy Mosher, helped start the BPSO back when there weren’t so many brewpubs around. On Saturday he served as the brewery’s chef, presenting a savory cheese cake made with triple crème.  Most days he also serves as 5 Rabbit’s creative director.
• This is the second year in the Zhou B Art Center, and despite my own personal nostalgia regarding the Irish American Heritage Center (I walked there from home a few times for past Shootouts, and it’s hard to beat the Fifth Province when the fireplace is lit), I am warming to the new home, especially now that the beer society added some lighting.
• About one-third of this year’s entries involved desserts.  This included a nice Chocolate Torte with a Smoked Porter Glaze, from Flossmoor Station Brewpub; Three Floyds Brewing’s Pan-fried Pound Cake, w/ Dark Lord Ice Cream, and a Bacon Rice Crispies dessert that Half Acre paired with its Double Daisy Cutter.
• That plethora of sweets might have been inspired by the success of Revolution’s beer-ice cream offering in 2012.  Rev pastry chef Courtney Baldy came back this year with a Spicy Mocha Sundae w/ Guajillo Ice Cream and Porter Sprinkles. This year’s dessert paired so well with brewer Wil Turner’s Coffee Eugene Porter, that Revolution took the prize for best pairing. Expect the desserts trend to continue next year.
• Among my favorite beers were Pete Crowley’s (Haymarket Brewery & Pub) Cranberry Saison, the Double Daisy Cutter and the Citra-laden American IPA bonus beer also from Haymarket. But there were so many great beers.  Three Floyds’ Dark Lord received the first place nod from the voting attendees.
• Was there cheese with the beer? Well, maybe not enough, but some cheesy dishes, (in addition to 5 Rabbit’s) included a brie and Cream of Brie Soup with Cremini Mushrooms from Blue Cat Brewing (Blue Cat ALWAYS brings great soups), and there was Capriole goat cheese in the lovely, complicated micro green salad from Haymarket.
  

  Revolution's Award Winner

So, hats off to my fellow board members at CBS for putting together another nice event. If you missed it this year don’t miss it next year, and watch for other events from CBS, which has been promoting great beer in Chicago for more than 35 years.

Rogue River Blue was out of season, but I came across a cheese called Vermilion River Blue. “Wait one second,” I thought. “I have waded, rafted, and fished in the Vermilion River, who in the hell is naming a blue cheese after it?”

The answer, of course, is Ludwig Farmstead Creamery, located in Fithian, Ill. There are only a couple or three farmstead cheesemaking operations in my home state, and I believe that Ludwig, which was founded in 2010, might be the youngest.  The farm has been around a lot longer—for five generations to be precise.  After completing a chemistry degree, Farm Manager Jake Ludwig  decided to make cheese from some of the milk from the farm’s award-winning Holstein’s. Ludwig is primarily a breeding farm. Sadly, Ludwig was killed in a car accident that same year.

Veteran cheesemaker Fons Smits (Cowgirl Creamery, Traders Point) now leads the cheesemaking efforts, and Ludwig Creamery has introduced several Dutch style cheeses, selling them through farmers markets and directly to restaurants in the central Illinois and Indianapolis.

Vermilion Blue, however, is the creamery’s first American original, Smits says.

“I wanted to do something very different,” he says. “What we ended up with is a triple crème blue.” Triple crème cheeses are made from a base of whole milk, but with extra cream added to increase the fat content in the finished cheese. The extra cream gives the cheeses a luscious, soft texture and creamy flavor.

“Most are whole milk, and most are very strong in flavor,” Smits says. “With a triple crème, you are able to cut that strong flavor and it sort of melts in your mouth—it makes the blue flavor more subtle.”

The food grade cheese coating is commonly used for Dutch style cheeses, and Smits used it here too to keep the cheese neater and to prevent the spread of mold to other cheeses without the need for segregation. The cheese coating also allows some aspiration as the cheese ages and for the development of a slight rind under the coating.

On Christmas day, while visiting my friends Dave and Sarah, we tasted the Vermilion with a few hoppy beers.   The paste had a golden to pale milky color in the paste, blue steaks in the center and dry brown pock marks closer to the rind. The texture looked slightly crumbly to fudgy. Aroma was milky with a hint of acidity and even some barnyard.

The flavor was a nicely creamy with a noticeable acidity and a bit of salt. Overall this is a very nice cheese. More flavorful than expected, and quite unique. It’s one to look for.

The cheese seemed strong enough, so we paired it with the Bengali Tiger from Sixpoint Brewery, in Brooklyn, NY. This is a mid-sized (6.4% ABV) American IPA.  Ours poured with a nice orange color and a tight creamy head.  Big citrus and bread aromas greeted the nose.  There was a burst of toast, and caramel malt, plus fruity flavors from the hops. It finished dry and bitter.

The cheese and the beer did pretty well together, with the creamy flavor of the cheese mingling with the fruity hop flavors.  But the Vermilion’s salt became more pronounced with the beer and it seemed to overpower the malt flavors. I would give the pairing a 3.5 out of five. This cheese might do better with a sweeter beer like a Belgian double, or perhaps something with some roast malt like a flavorful brown ale or porter.

Look for the cheeses of Ludgwig Farmstead Creamery in Whole Foods Markets in Indiana and Illinois and at Marion Street Cheese Market, in Oak Park, Ill.

A group of beer writers, bloggers and podcasters had a chance to tour the brewery and sample a brand new seasonal from 5 Rabbit, designed to celebrate new beginnings.

The brew house

Ki’Chun  Cerveza con Chanterelles is a strong beer (9.5% ABV) made with Vienna and melanoidin malts, palm sugar and toasted oats. It is spiced with Chanterelle mushrooms and New Zealand Rakau hops, and fermented with a Belgian yeast strain. It was delicious and deceptively drinkable.

The name translates to Tasty Start, and the story behind this 5 Rabbit beer is that it marks not so much the end of  the world, but a more pleasant reading of the conclusion of the Myan calendar–which takes place on Dec. 21.  The beginning of a new epoch coincides with the brewery finding its first home.

At Wednesday’s event, Brewmaster John J. Hall and other brewery principals showed off the new equipment and poured young beers pulled from the fermenters.  Creative Director Randy Mosher put together a tasting of four cheeses to accompany the Ki’Chun beer. Of the four, the best cheese companions included a French triple crème and Carr Valley’s Cocoa Cordona.

5-rabbit hopes to fire up its bottling line within the next week or so, and the first bottles of Bedford Park-brewed six packs should hit the store shelves shortly after the first of the year. Modern calendar, that is.  

And to celebrate the new beginnings on Friday, 5 Rabbit will be at several Chicago beer bars, introducing the Ki’Chun on draft. They add that you are invited to raise a glass to their Tasty Start at one of these locations:

Hopleaf, 5148 N. Clark St.
Fountainhead, 1970 W. Montrose Ave.
Bad Apple, 4300 N. Lincoln Ave.
Simone’s, 980 W. 18th St.

Rush Creek Reserve, from the legendary Uplands Cheese Co., Dodgeville, Wis., is a soft-ripened cheese similar to Camembert or brie, but about 20-times more luscious than those lackluster mass-produced pucks you will find in the supermarket.

We paired Rush Creek with a Chicago-area Brown Porter a couple of years ago when the cheese was first introduced. Please read that post for a complete, mouthwatering description.  I’m  going to pick up a wheel this week and maybe I’ll pair it with a couple other beers. Stay tuned.

A rich, silky cheese like this goes really well with malty beers. Think brown ale, porter, or a Belgian-style  Dubbel.  For you Chicago-area readers, I have already checked, and both Marion Street Cheese Market and the Pastoral stores have gotten first shipments. You may want to call ahead and have them reserve some for you, as they are selling out periodically. If you do not have a great cheese shop nearby, you can order directly from the Uplands Cheese website.

Bon appetite!

Beecher's Best of Show cheese, Flagsheep.

For the past few weeks I have been pondering how to approach the Cheese and Cheers Medal Pairings for 2013, and for the past couple days I have been tinkering with combinations. This morning I saw a Facebook post from Windy City Distributing, one of a couple of Chicago beer wholesalers that have in recent years blessed us with great beers from nearby and from other regions. Windy City is congratulating the brewing companies in its portfolio for the recognition they received earlier this month at GABF. That should be enough to get me off first base in posting some of my thoughts about pairing the award winners.

The Cheese Societies judging includes a best of show award that pits the winners from all categories against one another. In recent years that has been expanded to include a second- and third-place best of show. This year’s Best of Show winner is Flagsheep, a sheep’s milk variation on Flagship, a sort of bandaged cheddar made by Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, Seattle.  This cheese has an earthy, milky flavor with a hint of lanolin and barnyard. Its texture is slightly dry and crumbly.  I am tempted to put it with an English style brown, and the gold medal winner at this year’s GABF was Sierra Blanca Nut Brown Ale from Sierra Blanca Brewery, Moriarity, NM. I won’t be able to get that beer in Chicago, so I might pair it with a Bell’s Best Brown or the Eugene Porter from Revolution Brewing Co., Chicago.  Sierra Nevada’s fall seasonal is the Tumbler Autumn Brown, which should be available coast to coast. I would think that Flagsheep might sell out pretty quickly, but Flagship should be available at good cheese retailers in most regions of the U.S.

At the Great American Beer Festival, 2012.

Included in Windy City’s list is a silver medal nod to Ebel’s Weiss, a traditional Hefewiezen made by Two Brothers Brewing Co., of west suburban Chicago.  If I were inclined to put together an Illinois pairing, I would try this with another sheep’s milk cheese, Black Sheep, from Prairie Fruits Farm and Creamery, Champaign, IL. That cheese took first place in the sheep’s milk division of the soft ripened cheese category during the cheese competition at this year’s conference in Raleigh, NC.  Another good match might be Bear Republic’s Cafe Racer Imperial IPA (California, silver), with Carr Valley’s 4-year Cheddar (Wisconsin, 3rd place).

Oh, the possibilities are nearly endless!  Would love to hear from readers trying out their own pairings of these highly recognized products.  For the record, there were more than 1,700 cheeses in competition at ACS this year and more than 4,300 beers were vying for medals at GABF. Next year the Cheese Society conference will be in Madison, Wis., so I will finally get back. I would encourage readers with even a vague interest in cheese to attend the public events that are geared toward consumers. And everyone should attend GABF at least once.

For those of our readers who are more familiar with craft beer than with artisan cheese, this certification program may have a familiar ring. Four years ago, the Certified Cicerone Program was launched to help set and maintain standards for the care and serving of craft beer.

The Cicerone program now counts more than 16,000 certified beer servers, more than 470 Cicerones, and four Master Cicerones among its ranks. Putting my own one-time affiliation with that program aside, I can say as a serious enthusiast and consumer of craft beer that the Cicerone program has played a significant role in the evolution of craft beer in the U.S.  I don’t think it is mere coincidence that beer selection, beer care, glassware choices, draft system care and attention to other serving and selling details have improved across the spectrum of retail establishments that currently sell and serve craft beer in the United States.  Retailers and wholesalers alike make up the bulk of the craft beer professionals who have entered the Cicerone program (and done the self-study/and or training needed to successfully complete the exam).  Having helped grade the exams at one time, I am pretty certain that those who complete any level of the program end up toting around more knowledge and fewer myths and clichés as they work in the supply chain.

Having been familiar with the Cheese Society for around 15 years, I have the impression that its program has the potential to deliver similar results for artisan cheese.

The average beer consumer now has a much more appropriate understanding of beer than 10 years ago, and that makes it easier for brewers to continue to innovate and make and sell great beers instead of trying to explain what they are doing to each new customer.

Artisan cheese could benefit from heading a bit more in that direction too.

Well, the 29^th ACS conference should be a fine affair. And if (like me, sadly), you were not able to make it to Raleigh, perhaps you will get out to Denver in the fall for the 31^st Great American Beer Festival.  Whatever your interest in craft beer and/or artisan cheese, you should in the future, find that you are benefiting from an increase level of professionalism.