wacky1980

cubbies gonna mess around and go from best in the league to not even getting into the playoffs. this is the 1909-2014 cubs fan coming out, btw.

i think the new series were dropping in august up until this year? idk for sure. but it seems like they were usually through the season a good two months before the xmas special aired.

that double bean dream was actually really good. wife talked me into buying two kegs, and i'm sure we'll have no trouble moving it.

wife latched onto a cream ale with vanilla and hazelnut. it's called "double bean dream", i lol'd. same place also made a brandy barrel aged scotch ale that was delicious, probably my favorite for the whole day. another brewery we hit had just released a wet-hopped pale ale this week, that was maybe one of the freshest-tasting beers i've ever had. it was called "so fresh so green" and the name was quite fitting. we stopped in on 3 breweries altogether, and set up distribution with two of them. the third one didn't have any great beers and also didn't have distribution ability, so we didn't bring anything back from them.

we survived the trip, and came home with a van full of beer. ended up with 5 kegs and a few cases. and a hangover. but it was worth it.

leaving the bank in about 45 minutes, then it's brew tour time. gonna fill up the van with a few local breweries' kegs, and probably drink a few pints along the way.

i never watched those other two. but i do love me some angela bassett.

i mostly liked the season with angela bassett...coven maybe?

if i'm watching a musical, it had better be best little whorehouse. that or the buffy tv series episode.

one of my favs.

one more mile until we get to the chicken ranch, where history and aggie boys get made!

there was a scene in raiders(?) where someone was packed away safely into a basket or something, which turned out to be the back of a box truck that took off. but this sounds like it could have been temple of doom too.

there can be only one.

scottish antique dealer falls in love with police officer while on a killing spree in nyc.

chicago has boat loads of micros at this point. there's a bar about an hour from here, where one of the owners makes regular trips up to chicago to pick up kegs from all the popular micros to tap down here.

yeah, obv dogfish head. i've heard people talk about sly fox. i follow a lady on twitter who is a maine-based beer ... blogger? i guess. but she's pretty awesome and seems to know quite a bit about the NE beer scene. i'll have to block off a whole week to check out that corner of the map.

i'll let you know when i get a few beers scraped together to send out there. we'll figure out the details then.

i'll send you a sixer next time i get the chance. got a preference on style?

i've made a couple that i can honestly say i'm proud of. most of what we've made came from other people's recipes, but having a good recipe doesn't guarantee quality. my sabro ipa (my own recipe) turned out pretty good. that one's going in my rotation for sure, if/when i start doing it professionally.

rolling meadows is actually a farm, from what i've read on them. the other four are all small operations contained to one or two storefront-size buildings. i went to what was definitely the smallest brewery i've ever seen, the brickside brewery up in copper harbor michigan, about three years ago. i'm pretty sure the brewery and the taproom combined were <2000 sqft. and they made some fucking delicious dark beers.

anheuser-busch is impressive, don't get me wrong. you get to see the stables where they keep the clydesdales, and the 3-story stainless vessels are definitely a sight. the bottling building is stupid big. but it's just way too corporate and you don't really get much in the way of good beer on the tour. i enjoy the garage-size breweries because they're just more personal and creative. there are several about 2 hours east of here, but absolutely nothing withing about 75 miles of us. that's bound to change soon enough, because everyone and their cousin is opening a nanobrewery these days. hell, we've kicked around the idea if we could snag a building next to our bar.

so i bet you don't have herpes now.

a panel of actual doctors. or was it actors posing as doctors? it's not important, really. just doo eet.

they say if you rub it on your balls, it will burn the herpes clean out of your system.

living in the middle of ass crack illinois gives one little opportunity to visit breweries (unless you want to tour anheuser busch...again). wife and i have been mulling a weekend trip to hit up several central-IL breweries to pick up products for resale in our bar. looks like we're finally gonna do it this saturday. our itinerary so far includes five springfield-area stops: hand of fate rolling meadows engrained buzz bomb anvil & forge hand of fate is probably the most commercially-successful one on the list. we've served their 1818 farmhouse ale in the past, but they don't have distribution for anything else so we have to go to them to get some. anvil & forge is technically not even open yet, but i have an in with the ownership and i'm gonna try to finagle a keg or some package out of them. they make some really good beers, so as long as they're not terribly overpriced, i'll try to come home with a lot of their stuff. i've never tried anything from the other three, so that should be fun. -------- illinois area users: what is your favorite local brewery / beer?