Half Acre Brewing - Chicago, Plus a Few More

I took a long weekend trip to Chicago recently with my wife and a couple of friends to celebrate my 45th birthday and I was allowed to check out a lot of good beer both locally and from other locales during the visit.  Here's a quick run-down:



Started in 2006, Half Acre Beer Company  was at full production by 2009 in Chicago on N. Lincoln Avenue.  They produce some great canned and bomber-only-bottled beer.  We were lucky enough to take their Saturdays-only tour which is limited to 60 people.

 

They mean to keep it sterile and clean here at Half Acre!
So hands off!



I had my first Half Acre brew (their Daisy Cutter Pale Ale) on my last visit to Chicago.  I was so impressed that I swore to seek them out next time I was in town and we did just that.  Thanks to my wife, Ashlee, and my friends, Wayne and Rex, for going along with my little obsession in finding them, but I think they all enjoyed the tour - given by company president, Gabriel - (a snippet of which is in the video below) and, of course, the great beer samples.  Along with more Daisy Cutter, we also got to try their brown Over Ale and their Chocolate Camaro Stout.



I found some more great canned beer (it's really becoming my favorite container for craft beer if I can't get it on tap) at a little hole-in-the-wall store just up the street from our condo.  It looks like your typical quick-stop market, but their beer selection is amazing.  I tried a four-pack of Hop Slayer Double IPA from Wild Onion Brewing in Barrington, IL, and a four-pack of Red Racer IPA from Central City Brewing in Surrey, British Columbia.  Both were excellent.

My friend, Wayne, snapped this picture of me (sporting my sad excuse for a playoff beard in support of the Predators)on our first night in town at The Hopleaf Bar up in the Andersonville neighborhood near the condo we rented.  This was a great bar with a wide variety of beer selections. Here I was having the Dirty Bastard Scotch Ale poured from a bottle by Founders Brewery in Grand Rapid, Michigan.  On another visit I even got to try the uber-popular and hard to find Zombie Dust APA from 3 Floyds Brewing just outside Chicago which Ashlee and I visited on our last trip to Chicago by car last summer.  All tried were delicious. 

The Quest for Good Beer (and good times) in Vegas Continues...

I recently got yet another cheap, cheap flight to Las Vegas ($150 RT!) on Frontier Airlines and in between poker tournaments and some more sightseeing I was able to try yet more new beer in Sin City which is quickly becoming on of my favorite beer towns in the country.



First up was Chicago Brewing Company, despite the name, this is a local establishment that has won best Las Vegas microbrewery on more than one occasion, most recently in 2010.  I thought their beer was very good.  Their Hardaway  IPA was stinking of hops which I love.  I also tried their Cocoa for Coconuts Porter which had a great finish to it.  This place is open 24 hours and has video poker machines in it, so I drank for free while I played and even made enough at $1 blackjack to go see the movie "Red Tails" at a theatre next door.  The beer was much better than the movie BTW.




Among the new sightseeing I did in between poker and beer was nearby Mt. Charleston, the closest ski area to Vegas.  The peaks had just gotten a fresh snowfall the night before, and the drive up from the desert valley floor was breathtaking to say the least.  The half-hour drive from Vegas was well worth it.




With a quick elevation change, the world changes drastically from the flat desert roar of Vegas to the green and white rugged tranquility of the mountains.



Gordon Biersch is a large chain microbrewery found across the U.S. and their brewpub in Vegas on Paradise Road which runs parallel to The Strip, is definitely a flagship facility.  The brewery is surrounded by a beautiful restaurant as well with some tasty food (I had the garlic fries as a snack...yummy) and some descent German-styled beers.  I had a nice big 22 oz. glass of their signature Schwarzbier (dark lager) on a quick stop-in one afternoon.   Speaking of German beer and such, I have to give a big disappointing thumbs down to the Hofbrau House just down the street.  I stopped in this huge German-style beer hall/restaurant for a quick beer and found it to be quite the tourist trap.  Man, what a cheese-fest.  Plus their beer was bland (I had their seasonal dark wheat - the hefe weizen dunkel ) and at $9 a pop, I can see why the place was completely dead??? Yep, $9 for a glass of weak beer, that is not a misprint. Schweinhunds!!!



My favorite new pub in Vegas is The Crown & Anchor, this British-influenced hole-in-the-wall is located a few minutes from The Strip and is open 24/7. I drank free here as well thanks to playing video poker/blackjack while I was there (plus I won $20 on top of that).  I chose the Bombardier IPA, a California-produced concoction from Pizza Port Brewing.  It was great.  Speaking of English pubs, I have to give another huge thumbs down to The Queen Victoria Pub in the Riveria Casino.  The place was dead when I walked in and I figured out why quick...a crappy, overpriced beer selection...I paid $7 for a glass of Boddington's....really, people??  You know I can get great beer FOR FREE at other places in town???  Yet another tourist trap.  Of course, the three goobers who had come into town for the "World of Concrete" convention seemed to really being enjoying their Coronas....yeah, at a "British pub"......ass-clowns.

Of course, when you go to Vegas you always have a good chance of seeing someone famous.  Best of all was  Ronald McDonald in the car behind me at a red light having his girlfriend take him to work.  In the Aria poker room I saw 2-time World Champion and living poker  legend, Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, popular, young poker pro, Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari, World Poker Champion, Huck Seed, and I even played at the same table with former MLB star and budding poker pro, Jose Conseco.  He seemed a nice enough guy and chatted with the whole table, but was complaining a lot about bad luck at the game which is weird to hear from a guy whose obviously seen a lot of money come (and go?) his way and is playing in a cheap, daily tournament with the rest of us grunts (roid rage maybe?).  Speaking of rotten luck, the closest poker success I got on this trip was 13th out of about 70 people, but they were only paying the top nine.  Close, but no ceeeeegar.

Another fun trip to Vegas is in the books.  Incredibly, I still have a couple of breweries to visit out there, so I can't wait to go again!

SoCal Suds

My wife and I got some cheap airline tickets out to LA earlier in the year and made a New Year's trip out of it.  Fortunately, my wife has become quite a fan of craft beer as well, and she indulges me in my passion of seeking out great beer by letting me incorporate some of our trip around that search.  Here are the results from Southern California...so far....:

December 29, 2011:  First stop of the trip was San Pedro Brewing just 20 minutes off the plane at LAX.  Great location in the shadow of the spectacular Vincent Thomas Bridge at the big shipping port of San Pedro.  The beer was so-so (their Red Ale was decent), but their food was excellent and definitely the star of the show along with the ambiance.




December 30, 201: Today was the official "Brewery Day" of our trip.  We visited five in total in the north San Diego area that is known for its great craft beer.  First up was Ballast Point Brewing.  Here's a look at their board of offerings.  Excellent beer overall.  We had their sampler and my fave was the Sculpin (it's a type of fish) IPA.  We brought two bombers of the Sculpin IPA and the Victory at Sea Imperial Stout home with us for an upcoming Calfornia beer-tasting we are going to have at our house.

 




Our second stop was close by at the tiny Alesmith Brewing.  We had their sampler as well and I was
actually disappointed in their hoppier offerings, their IPA and the Horny Devil.  Both had a weird baloney
 (not kidding) taste to me.  Their Speedway Stout was very good, however, with a nod of interest also to the
Special Speedway Stout which contains chipotle and morita peppers for a heck of kick.

  




Green Flash Brewing was next and all their beer was excellent that I tried.  I had the  Double Stout, a taste
 of the Winter's Folly and a glass of the  I Plead the Fifth Black IPA.  This brewery is a real up-and-comer with
bottling distribution to a large section of the country (no, not Tennessee yet).  They recently moved into a much
larger facility which was spacious and full of taps as you can see in the picture above.

  


Mecca achieved!!!
 I finally made it to my favorite brewery of them all!!  Stone Brewing is the granddaddy of all California craft brewers.  Incredible products available throughout the country including Tennessee, thank goodness!.  This is a glass of the Self  Righteous Ale.  It was awesome.  I got a bomber of it to take home as well.






Our last stop was The Lost Abbey Brewery.  It had a been a long day so I only had the Hot Rocks Brown
German Lager which was very good.  This little artisan brewery is a favorite among locals here and for good
reason.  They are producing some amazing beer here.  My wife actually brought me some of their other offerings
a few years ago when she was out here without me.

 

Date unknown......What the???  Who took that???  Hey, it was $3 and I bought at a Rite-Aid near our hotel.  And I never had Corona Familiar before.  I was not impressed.  Turns out its the same as Corona Extra, just in a bigger bottle. 

 I also had a decent IPA at Stuft Pizza and Brewing, a regional chain restaurant with a location near our hotel in Dana Point.  They actually have their beer brewed off-site at Firestone Walker Brewery, a central-California brewery with a good reputation.  The IPA was pretty good.

beer updates



The beer can hotel in Denmark...yeah, I'm totally going!

 A recent Mt. Juliet Beer Company variety six-pack that I put together included:

1. Grand Circus IPA (can) - Atwater Brewing, Latrobe, PA

2. Sam Adam's Latitude 48 IPA - -Boston -  bottle - very good

3. Harpoon Octoberfest - back to Boston - bottle

4. Highland Clawhammer Oktoberfest Lager - good - bottle

5.  Stranger American Pale Ale - Left Hand Brewing - Colorado - bottle

6. Yazoo Fall Lager - pretty good - bottle

Milkman's Autumn Amber - home brew bottle from my friend, Chris, with his own cool labels
I also had his Milkman's Nut Brown Ale which was my favorite and his Milkman's Summer Light.  Nice job, bud, keep up the good work!

I also had a Chattanooga Brewing IPA at Taco Mac on a recent trip back to Chattanooga

Christmas Cheer and Christmas Beer

This year's Christmas tree with a beer theme was my best-looking one yet thanks to some feminine touches by my wife Ashlee and our friend, Tarryn, who added silver ornaments throughout and spruced up the six-pack cartons with some glittering spray-on snow.  We also tied on a few empty bottles as ornaments including a home brew made by Tarryn's husband and my friend, Chris.

The beer tree got even more adornment when our friends, John and Monique, surprised me with several strands of beer-cap garland that they made by hand!!  They had a bartender at their local watering hole save caps for them and then drilled two tiny holes in each one and ran steel wire through each.  Above is a close-up view of their fantastic work.

Some of the new-to-me beer that I offered at our annual Christmas party (and whose cartons I displayed on the beer tree this year) were Saranac Brewing's Season's Best Nut Brown Lager, their Big Moose Ale (a hoppy winter pale ale) and their Caramel Porter (by far, my favorite).  I also picked up a six-pack of Abita's Christmas Ale which was very good also.  Thanks to the Mt. Juliet Beer Company for providing such an excellent selection of beer to choose from again this year.

I had a New Belgium Snow Day Winter Ale at my friend, Caroline's Christmas party.  It was tasty.

I also got a couple good high-gravity pints in my stocking from wife including:

Missing Elf Double Bock (9.5%) and Lobster Lover's Porter (8.2%) from the Rinkuskiai Brewery in Lithuania

NOLA & THE ATL

I took a quick trip to New Orleans and Atlanta this past weekend and was able to try several new beers during my journey.

While in New Orleans, my wife, Ashlee, and I stopped in the International Beer House on Bourbon Street late on Friday night.  They had a good selection of craft beers on tap.  I settled for the locally-made Hopitoulas from Nola Brewing.  This 6% ABV West-Coast style IPA was delicious.  Ashlee had the Strawberry Ale from Covington's Brewing which is also Louisiana-based.   I had a sip of it and thought it was OK.

A classic sign on Bourbon Street.  Not good ones particularly, but definitely big ones.



Bright lights, Crescent City.



On Saturday I flew up to Atlanta to meet my friends Wayne, Jim and Ryan for our second annual G.A.M.E. (Grown-Ass Man Extravaganza) Weekend where we travel to see our beloved Tennessee Titans play a road game.  The night before the game we had dinner at Max Lager's Grill & Brewery.  The food was excellent and their house IPA, the Hopsplosion, was pretty darn good.

We spent A LOT of time at the Phillips Arena location of Atlanta's own regional chain, Taco Mac, where they have 130 beers on tap.  I did my best to try as many new ones that I could including the following:  Breckinridge 471 IPA (Colorado), Eye Patch IPA (Monday Night Brewing - Atlanta, GA), Drafty Kilt Scotch Ale (Monday Night Brewing), Sweetwater Crank Tank Rye'd Ale (Atlanta), Breckinridge Christmas Ale (Colorado) and Wild Heaven Ode to Mercy Brown Ale (Georgia).  My friend, Rex, who lives in Atlanta and was kind enough to show us around a little on Saturday night actually introduced me to the Wild Heaven brown ale at a very cool bar called Ormsby's, but I had a full pint the next day before the game back at Taco Mac.  I enjoyed them all with a nod to Monday Night and Wild Heaven for producing some great products out of fledgling local microbreweries.  Hats off to Taco Mac for continuing to make these unique beers available to the public in a great setting with delicious food as well.

The Titans unfortunately lost to the surging Falcons on Sunday afternoon, but we had a great time at the game and enjoyed some sweet seats near the field in the fabulous Georgia Dome.  The photo above was taken from our seats just before the game started.  Taco Mac has a set-up inside the dome as well,  but I didn't find it until late in the game.

Taking another gamble on good beer in Sin City

I got a couple of really cheap flights to Las Vegas recently ($150 RT!) and went out to play some poker and, of course, drink a little beer.  After a little research, I found a few new places that I hadn't been to before and also visited a few of my old favorite spots as well.

First up was Big Dogs Brewing Company.  They have 3 locations in the Las Vegas area and I chose the Draft House Barn in N. Las Vegas, Their beer was excellent.  I had the Dirty Dog IPA and their Red Ale.  I even got to meet their master brewer, Dave Otto.    A return here is without a doubt.



I found out about Barley's Casino and Brewing thanks to a buy-$50-in-gift-certificates-for-$25 deal I found online.  It's located over in Henderson, Nevada, which butts up to the east of Las Vegas.  I had their Red Rock Red Ale and their Black Mountain Stout.  Both were pretty good, but I will give a nod to the stout.  I used one of my $25 gift certificates to have the two pints and a huge sirloin steak that was delicious.  I returned on the second trip to use my other $25 gift certificate and had two more pints of the stout and another huge porterhouse steak while watching some NFL games.  The pints turned out to be only a dollar on NFL Sundays...wow!



On a non-beer note:  on my first trip, I stopped in Gold & Silver Pawn which is where The History Channel's "Pawn Stars" TV show is filmed.  None of the "pawn stars" where on site when I visited, but it was kind of cool just seeing the place which was packed with visitors.

Another non-beer Vegas first was that I actually got to see the volcano in front of The Mirage erupt.  I have been here a half-dozen times and never saw it occur in person even though it goes off every hour on the hour.

On my first trip I also returned to a couple of my favorite Vegas beer-spots also.  First was Yard House, a restaurant and bar chain which has over 100 beers on tap.  It was actually a new location for me as I visited the one near the Red Rock Casino which is about 10 miles west of the one I usually visit on Las Vegas Blvd.  I tried two of their "shortys"  i.e. half pints, that I hadn't had before.  They were the Squatters Hop Rising, a double IPA (9% ABV) from Utah, and the Firestone Union Jack IPA, out of California.  Both were excellent.  Back over on the The Strip,  I had the Deadlift Double IPA out of Oregon at Pour 24, a good beer bar in the NYNY Casino, and the Humboldt Hemp Brown Ale out of California at Burger Bar which is located between the Luxor and Mandalay Bay casinos.



On my second trip I checked out Ellis Island Casino and Brewery over on Koval Street which runs parallel to The Strip.  I had heard of this place for a while, but never had a chance (or the nerve)  to check it out since its in an albeit seedier side of Vegas.  I walked over since it's only a couple blocks from where I was staying up on Las Vegas Blvd. and made sure it was still daylight.  I encountered no problems and the place is actually not bad at all.  Their craft beer is pretty good and the kicker is that the pints of it are  free if you are gambling.  I had their pale ale which was OK, their stout which was better and their Octoberfest which was weak in color and so-so in taste.  I also made $6 playing video blackjack...so who's complaining.  By the way, if you don't gamble, their pints of beer are a whopping $1.75 each!   Hoo-ray for the "seedy" side of Vegas!!



Just a cool shot of the Bellagio Fountains going off around midnight on The Strip with Bally's and the Paris casinos in the background.



Another great non-beer find was Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area 20 miles west of Vegas.  This beautiful area has a cool 13-mile motor trail through it with some amazing vistas.  Yes, that's snow on the mountains in the background of this shot.  It actually spit snow on me at one point of my tour in a place accurately called Icebox Canyon.



I also got to be in the audience during part of the live filming of the final table of the 2011 World Series of Poker on ESPN.  First prize: $8.7 million.  The eventual winner was Pius Heinz from Germany (he's the one in the white hooded sweatshirt in Seat 6).