Distributor Locations: Lakeshore Beverage (IL)
Last month the annual Great American Beer Festival was held in Colorado. Thousands upon thousands of beers were submitted in varying categories but only a handful came out on top. Many award-winning beers were created by some of our great brewery partners. So what award winning beers do we have in our lineup? Keep reading to find out!
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!
Last year we gave you some delicious pairings by picking a specific dish and a specific beer to enjoy together. But with so many amazing beers and BBQ at Windy City Smokeout, we thought we would go even bigger this year with our pairing guide. Here are the numbers – with fifteen beers at the craft stand available and twenty-five BBQ booths, each with an average of three offerings, that’s over a thousand combinations! Now, I love me some beer and BBQ but the Smokeout only lasts the weekend and I’m trying to watch my figure. That is why we decided to get real nerdy for you this year and put together an ultimate pairing guide chart.
So here’s what I’m imagining the situation going like for you:
It’s warm – you’re at a festival – you just got inside and you go straight for an ice cold beer. Now that you have your drink of choice, you start to smell the enticing scent of BBQ cloying pulling you towards the booths like a cartoon pie on a window sill. But wait! You picked a very hoppy IPA to start the day (you do you) and you’re worried you’re going to pick something that doesn’t pair well with your drink of choice. You then remember that you saw an Instagram post from LakeshoreBeverage with the text “Windy City Smokeout Beer and BBQ Guide” and decide to open it up. Boom – day saved. Awesome BBQ to pair with your equally awesome beer and your day just got even better and you found $20 in your pocket you forgot you had.
Alright, maybe it won’t turn out exactly like that (I don’t have enough twenty dollar bills to sneak into everyone’s pocket) but even if it helps a handful of people navigate the sometimes complex worlds of craft beer, BBQ, and food & beverage pairing, I think this was worth putting together. Remember though – beer and BBQ are, first and foremost, supposed to be fun! Pair whatever you guys want because everyones’ palette is different and there’s no law on matching beers to food. This is a guide that we feel will steer most people to a wonderful eating and drinking experience based on expert opinions gathered over time.
So without further ado…
(left to right) 2M Smokehouse BBQ – TEXAS STYLE JUMBO BEEF RIB WITH CHIMICHURRI SAUCE, Pig Beach BBQ – BBQ LAMB SHOULDER TACOS, Salt Lick BBQ – WORLD FAMOUS SMOKED BRISKET & ROPE SAUSAGE
(left to right) Lexington Betty Smokehouse – T&T PORK SPARE RIBS, Ubons BBQ – PULLED PORK SANDWICH, Wright’s Barbecue – FRIED BRUSSEL SPROUTS WITH SMOKED BACON, Jack Stack Barbecue – HICKORY PIT BEANS, Hoodoo Brown BBQ – SMOKED HALF CHICKEN WITH YUCATAN WHITE SAUCE, Green Street Smoked Meats – LOADED ELOTES WITH CRISPY PORK BELLY
(left to right) Chef Art Smith Restaurants – STICKY CHICKEN BISCUIT SANDWICH, Meat Mitch – KANSAS CITY BURNT ENDS; JALAPEÑO CHEDDAR ROPE SAUSAGE, Dampf Good BBQ – SMOKED ITALIAN BEEF SANDWHICH W/ JP GRAZIANO’S HOT GIARDENIERA, Operation BBQ Relief – BANANA PUDDING, Hogapalooza – BABY BACK RIBS
This year’s spread is some of the best BBQ we’ve ever had! Thank you to all the BBQ vendors this year for providing us these amazing dishes for us to photograph and taste! Can’t wait to see what’s coming next year!
As we prepare to celebrate fathers everywhere this weekend, you have probably seen plenty of advertisements for things dads like. Even though every father is unique, it seems like marketers pretty much have dads zeroed in on what they want to be gifted or buy during this season. As a new father myself, I catch myself browsing these Father’s Day ads a lot longer than I had in the past. Checking the BTUs on that new grill, debating if I do need that extra cutting width while mowing, wondering if I can convince my wife that this swing trainer is what will finally fix my slice.
That got me thinking about all the dad stereotypes I swore I would never become and that’s when I realized the clown nose I was wearing. I can’t pinpoint when it happened but I think all fathers out there may have experienced something similar at some point after having children. Some traits seem universal for fathers – our sneezes get louder, we get a sixth sense for thermostat manipulation, and everyone seems to leave the lights on around you – but some dads specialize into very specific types of dads. So for the next few minutes, let’s delve into these specific types of dads, find out which of our products best encapsulate them, and maybe pick around the minds of some of our team members that are living examples of them.
Throwing a baseball around with your dad is as American and wholesome as having an apple pie during the Fourth of July. Sharing a love for America’s favorite pastime is a great way to form a bond with your children and even more so if your children want to play it. Youth athletics is a lot of work for parents – driving to practices and games, the cost of equipment, all the fees and dues – but all of it seems worth it when you can watch your child out there giving their best effort and developing their skills.
Baseball Dads are unique because after working all day, they are happy to haul their kids’ equipment, keep track of their stats, cheer them on, and sometimes even “advocate” for their kids due to visually impaired officials. These dads often pass on their competitive spirit and take great pride in their children. I am sure General Sales Manager Scott is amazingly proud of his son as he watched him go from little league to playing Division 1 baseball for Ball State University. Dads like Scott are a classic dad archetype that is as timeless and withstanding as the beer I think represents Baseball Dads – Budweiser. As the Official Beer of the Cubs as well, it’s a perfect beer to celebrate Baseball Dads.
Do you know a dad that can throw down when it comes to creating a feast? The house you want to go to for cookouts and dinners because you know that they’ll always have something new, exciting, trendy, or all of the above? If you don’t, you really should try to make friends with a Gourmand Dad. Brand Manager Tony loves to cook – especially with his daughters. Cooking together is a great way to learn about safety, tool use, and the importance of cleanliness. Breakfast pancakes and Belgian waffles are their speciality but they also enjoy making a nice Sunday pasta dinner with their homemade sauces. Tony and his daughters have also started creating their own spice blends.
Tony gets great satisfaction in watching his girls experience new flavors and foods and watching them turn simple ingredients into gourmet meals. That is why a great beer for food pairing represents Gourmand Dads, especially one that can be served in a fancy chalice or straight out of the bottle. After creating a delicious meal in a hot kitchen, an ice cold Stella Artois is the perfect beer to bring over to the dinner table.
Eating a great meal is amazing but as we dads get older, we also have to remember that our metabolism isn’t the same as it used to be. Many of us will settle into that classic dad-bod shape but there are some dads that make it a priority to keep fit. Brand Manager Eric is a great example of an active dad and he likes to impart the importance of physical fitness to his son by spending a lot of time outdoors with him. Sharing in the beauty of nature while keeping an active lifestyle is a great way to spend time with your kids and can set them up for a lifetime of good exercise habits and an appreciation for nature.
Eric enjoys biking with his son and camping whenever possible. Eric and his son have hiked all across the country in places like Red River Gorge, Tonto National Forest, and even at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I am sure they have many more trails to conquer together. When it comes to living an active lifestyle while enjoying a beer, Michelob Ultra is the obvious choice for the Outdoors Dad.
I spent most of my middle school years locked in my room trying to maximize my KPMs and ward off ling rushes with expert probe micro. If that means absolutely nothing to you, you may be my dad. My dad was definitely not a Gamer Dad but fortunately for kids growing up now, there are far more fathers who know their way around a controller. Gaming can be a great way to bond with kids, especially when you can share the games you grew up with with your children. Ray, with his impressive collection of retro video games and hardware, is well equipped to show his kids what it was like to game in virtually every decade.
From Pong to the latest gaming craze, sharing a part of your childhood while learning about what your kids are playing can bridge a gap through a mutual love of tech and games. Those late night gaming sessions can be quite exhausting though and that is why I think Ghost Energy is a great drink that captures the essence of what it’s like to be a Gamer Dad.
The ultimate dad sport – golf. It seems like most fathers get into golf at one point or another and its popularity doesn’t seem to be slowing down. It’s a great game to learn self discipline, consistency, and that things don’t always go according to your plans. Our President, Mike, has been golfing since he was 12 years old, working at a golf course, and playing for his high school team. He passed on the love of the game to his two daughters, Paige and Kelli and even brought in a son-in-law with a single digit handicap to the fold.
While many think it’s a way for dad’s to get away for a few hours, it has become more common to see fathers out on the course with young children enjoying the scenic views, learning their swings, and just bonding over a game impossible to master. I didn’t start golfing until much later but now it’s something my father and I enjoy doing together whenever possible. A cocktail synonymous with golf, the Transfusion from Cutwater, perfectly sums up a Golf Dad – always found on the course, a little sweet, and surprisingly strong.
New fathers happen every day and Lakeshore Beverage has our fair share. Even with lots of preparation, it certainly isn’t easy.
Some of Lakeshore’s Newest Fathers
So on a great day such as this, we here at Lakeshore Beverage would like to raise our Easy to Enjoy Bud Lights to fathers everywhere. Happy Father’s Day!
