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Plenty of us at Lakeshore Beverage were inspired by the Bank of America Chicago Marathon earlier in the month, so we decided to hold our own marathon at Navy Pier! Except it wasn’t 26.2 miles. But it was very competitive and we had plenty of fun and Michelob Ultras along the way.
We hope all of the runners at the Chicago Marathon had a happy and safe run, and we can’t wait to see you again next year. Cheers!
The weather is finally cooling off and leaves are beginning to fall – autumn is officially here! Prepare your wardrobe for warmer layers and sweaters, hot mugs of pumpkin spice lattes, and switch out your beer rotation with the following autumn themed beers and ales that will keep you all warm and cozy while the temperatures (and leaves) drop.
Who said you can’t enjoy some candy and beer at the same time? For your upcoming Halloween party, be sure to bring a pack of Ommegang’s All Hallow’s Treat. This concoction of chocolate and peanut butter will put you under a witch’s spell. It’s a smooth delicious treat in the midst of a bundle of tricks!
We’re smack dab in the middle of Oktoberfest 2024! This yearly tradition celebration once started as a festival honoring a royal wedding, but now it’s a bash of all things German, especially beer. The true Oktoberfest experience might be across the world, but you can have a taste of the Bavarian tradition in Chicago thanks to several breweries at home and abroad.
If you’re looking for some Oktoberfest beers for your party, try out these!
Eight different beers each create their own specific tribute to the yearly German tradition. Try out a few, or all of them, and transport yourself to Oktoberfest!
The best thing about Fall is that there’s soooo many pumpkin themed foods and drinks. Pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cinnamon rolls. I often include beer in my yearly pumpkin-fication – and this year, the folks at Elysian made it easy for me. They have a pumpkin variety pack featuring four of their pumpkin flavored beers – including Night Owl, a seasonal fan favorite, but also three other beers that can only be found in the variety pack.
An easy NFL kickoff backyard party can be simple as Bud Light, snacks, and games.
The NFL season is here! NFL football usually conjures up cold Sundays indoors huddled around the TV, serving up gameday chili or burgers. Well, as much as that’s true, a good portion of the NFL season is still played when it’s warm outside (for us Midwest folks). Why not take advantage of the remainder of the warm sunny days, and hold a backyard football party in celebration of NFL Kickoff, Thursday September 5th. Kind of intimidated by throwing a party? Don’t worry – it’s easy to hold a football kickoff get-together, leave it to your friends at Bud Light to make it easy to watch football with friends on Sunday! Want to learn some inspiration and how to win an outdoor screen and projector for your own backyard NFL kickoff party? Keep reading below!
ERIS Co-founders Katy Pizza and Michelle Foik
Situated in Chicago’s Old Irving Park neighborhood, lies a unique but comfortable mainstay of the area. ERIS Brewery and Cider House was founded by Michelle Foik and Katy Pizza, two people with completely different backgrounds but a fate encounter led them to opening one of Chicago’s premiere Cider Houses.
Michelle Foik is a tried and true craft veteran. Starting out at Goose Island, she made her way to Virtue Cider and Revolution Brewing, and through some encouragement through their current chief strategy officer that she met at Revolution, she decided to open her own place.
“….he’s the one that really encouraged the idea that I should open up my own place. And so, I said no a lot of times but he’s very persuasive. So that is how I got the opportunity to actually meet Katy. We sat down and made this business plan, and from there we looked at each other and said, might be kind of nice to work together in a company and be, you know, woman owned.”
Katy Pizza’s road to ERIS is much different. As someone with Celiac disease, she strayed away from beers and the such, but ciders were something she always enjoyed. In addition to that, Katy’s origins were far away from the beer and craft industries.
“This wasn’t a direct path for me. … My professional career was in project management through a bunch of different industries. I was at a dot com, I was in telecommunication, … in health insurance, and then medical devices but it wasn’t until I had been kind of on the beach for a while … that I got introduced to Michelle …”
Michelle mentions that working at Virtue got her excited to open ERIS, she realize that there were plenty of misconceptions about hard cider. People would mention to hear and say that they believe cider is always sweet and sugary, part of ERIS mission statement was to educate the appreciation of different styles of hard cider.
“I felt that people just needed to be educated on cider, and if we brought people to Eris, they could try all the different types of ciders we had on draft and honestly, end up liking something. I can’t tell you what cider to like, I can’t tell you it’s not going to be sweet unless you try it.”
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So what’s behind the doors at ERIS? Since opening in 2018, their Old Irving Park brewpub has built a following that voted them 2023’s Best Cidery in the US. Here are a few of the power hitters.
Pedestrian is like “Biting into a Granny Smith apple”, we relate you to the apple. Almost everyone knows what a Granny Smith Apple is, it’s going to be green, it’s going to be crisp. It’s going to be a little bit on the tart end and it’s going to be dry.
Van Van Mojo – Van Van Mojo is ERIS’ “craft beer cider”, according to Michelle. Mosaic hops are very relatable and identifiable, thus making them a great addition to the blueberry cider – giving Van Van a leg up with craft beer drinkers.
Blush – Sweet and sour cherry blend with apple – ERIS Blush is reminiscent of the blush on one’s cheeks. It’s a summer favorite among ERIS’ drinkers.
So what do Michelle and Katy see with the future of both ERIS and cider as a whole? Well, it’s complicated. They have long term aspirations of going out of state, but firstly the short term goal is to be Chicago’s “Home for Hard Cider”
“It’s been really cool to see our name (ERIS) and our ciders out in the market, and the fact that people are in love with them and enjoy buying our brand… Technically we are kind of “The Unofficial Cider of Breweries” in Chicago and Illinois.” – as ERIS is available in a number of local brewery tap rooms in Chicago.
Katy adds to this. “I want them [bars and restaurants] to have a cider section on their menu. I don’t want to be lumped in wines, or Meads or fruit beers, … just a cider section.”
Regardless of what happens, ERIS has made a name for itself as a cidery that welcomes everyone, no matter what your preferences are. Be prepared to see them lead the charge of the new cider renaissance in Chicago.
It’s beginning to actually feel like winter in Chicagoland now and when the chilly temperatures arrive, that means it’s time to break out the winter warmers! Here are five beers from local breweries that I usually keep on hand to enjoy while getting the feeling back in my fingers after clearing snow.
Alter Brewing Company’s Swedda Wedda is not only fun to say – it’s really fun to drink too! Even at 6.0% ABV, you can usually start feeling the warmth pretty quickly. As an oatmeal stout, the layers of complexity really mask the higher ABV. With notes of chocolate, coffee, toffee, and vanilla, this smooth and creamy stout usually satisfies my craving for a hot chocolate.
Moody Tongue Winter Ale can only be found on draught but I think you’ll really enjoy it if you happen to be at a bar or restaurant that serves it. This 6.5% ABV Belgian-style dark ale has notes of toffee and candied orange peel along with cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger aromatics. As a Moody Tongue beer, it’s made to be paired with food. They suggest braised short rib, roast leg of lamb, a panettone, or date honey nut cake – anything rich and indulgent can work.
Spiteful Brewing’s Jingle Balls is a winter ale that comes in at 6.7% ABV and is perfect as an afternoon beer. Perfectly spiced with ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, this winter ale starts off as an amber ale made with Maris Otter malt so you know it’ll have a nice subtle sweetness to it.
Hopewell Brewing Company’s Long Shadows was something I’ve been waiting to crack open for the first substantial snowfall but I couldn’t wait that long. This red-hued Winter IPA is piney and citrusy with a toasty malt backbone. At 7.5% ABV, this IPA is a great pairing for a holiday roast or a beer to end the evening with.
Of course we had to include Goose Island Bourbon County Stout if we’re talking about local winter warmers because every single BCS is a great winter warmer. As the originators of the barrel aging style, their newest 2023 lineup was packed with great collaboration like the Bourbon County Brand Eagle Rare 2-Year Reserve Stout and Angel’s Envy 2-Year Cask Finish Stout but the one I look forward to most every year is their Proprietor’s. It’s usually the most experimental and most out of the box and I really enjoyed this year’s. Unofficially, I’m calling it the BCS Rice Pudding and I think it’s a perfect treat for the holidays. The toasted rice, vanilla custard, dried fruit, and spice flavors make me feel like I’m in a Dickens novel. At 14.3% ABV, it’s going to be a winter heater for some but it’s perfectly toasty for me.
Here’s the warmth scale just because I liked the way it looked. Maybe I’ll make a Winter Warmer Flight out of it!
Halloween is coming up faster than you know and with all the parties coming up, do you have a costume ready? I know I don’t! So, if you’re a beer or cider lover like us, why not let some of our amazing spooky-themed beers be your costume inspiration this year?
A perennial favorite for peanut butter fans everywhere. The iconic Absence of Light monster from the can will surely draw some attention. Throw on some short horns, put on a brown shirt and make sure you have plenty of peanut butter cups on hand to share.
As the antagonist of one of the greatest horror movies in recent years, this goat could be the GOAT for drink-inspired costumes. Made with real fruit, this blood orange and cranberry hard cider could easily fool some into thinking you’re drinking something much spookier. Find some goat horns and drape yourself in something black with vvhatever you can find!
Darkness is an apt name for a stout this massively opaque! Chocolatey and sweetened even more so with tart cherry and raisin, this beer is balanced by its piney resinous hop character. Every year the packaging is done by a different artist and this year’s eyeball-filled eldritch horror could be too much for some. Grab a pack of self-adhering googly eyes and embrace your inner goth for a quick and easy costume.
A lot of alliteration for Alien Avatar Amber Ale. This smooth and malty beer has a nice hop backbone that should please IPA drinkers. Go retro with an 8-bit themed saucer costume or make it your own by going full Roswell Grey. If you can find it, go with the classic Alien Abduction costume – it brings a smile to my face every year.
All Hallows Treat hopes to rekindle your favorite childhood Halloween memories with the aromas and flavors of dark chocolate, creamy peanut butter, and soft vanilla swirl. This rich and malty beer will have you entranced! The artwork from the can gives you two options – zombie searching for “graaaaaiiins” or the classic white sheet ghost!
A barrel-aged take on a classic German style – this lager is transformed into something out of this world with complex wood and whiskey notes over a soft roastiness. Go check your parent’s attic to see if they kept your costume from your solar system project. Or rush out and find a moon-texture printed tee shirt to pair with this lunar-themed doppelbock.
What is more quintessential to Halloween than a Jack-o-Lantern? Ill Repute is chock full of pumpkin pie aromas and flavors. Built upon complex layers of caramel and chocolate to create an imperial stout, this beer is an ideal pairing for all that Halloween candy! Pumpkin-head masks and costumes are sure to be around but if you’re in a real last minute pinch, a real pumpkin on your head will surely spark some interesting conversations.
Apples and oven roasted pumpkin – yum! This delicious and naturally gluten-free choice might just be what you’re looking for. If you have the face painting or make-up talent, this would be a great chance to break out those reds and oranges. Go half apple, half pumpkin face and watch the confused faces until you break out a pack of Apple Lantern!
Also called “The Patch” – this wild pumpkin ale from no other than Jolly Pumpkin finally broke the streak of no pumpkin beers from this brewery. Fortunately for us, they did make La Parcela and it was worth the wait! This ale is packed with real pumpkins, hints of spice, and a gentle kiss of cacao. I’m going to admit that I’m not familiar with this bat-winged cat but if you have a cat that will put up with it, get a few pictures of them doing their best La Parcela impression. You can always up your cat costume from the past with a pair of wings too.
Are you someone who goes against the trend? Don’t want all those porters and stouts coming out for the fall? Well Duvel 6,66 might be exactly what you want! An easy drinking Belgian blond Ale with 6 refined hop varieties. Keep your summer glow going a little longer and dress up not as a devil but a Duvel – yellow jumpsuit and some tiny yellow horns will have you feeling lively and zesty just like the beer itself!
The entire Beer Hug series from Goose Island has been flying off the shelves this year. From Hazy, Neon, and Tropical, these local Chicago IPAs are perfect for any Halloween party. Throw on those big shades or go all out with a bear costume and make sure to bring a pack of Beer Hugs.