The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [95]
The German and Central European immigrants who settled here certainly engrained a cultural thirst for the good stuff, and now breweries and beer bars are delving into life beyond—light years beyond—pale, watery lagers. It’s a wild time: in 2011, Anheuser-InBev, the once proudly Midwestern but now foreign-owned makers of Budweiser, took control of the most famous craft brewery in the region, Goose Island, for a cool $39 million. Craft beer’s march keeps gathering steam, and ambitious new breweries emerge almost monthly. From Chicago’s world-famous Map Room bar to Nebraska and Missouri, where a bunch of rebel upstarts are helping remake the beer landscape from the geographical center of the nation, it’s nothing short of a sea change. Or perhaps, wardrobe change is the better phrase: Beer Belt has a nice ring, doesn’t it?
ITINERARIES
1 – DAY
The Local Option, Map Room, Goose Island, and The Publican (Chicago)
3 – DAY
One-day itinerary plus Hopleaf (Chicago), and New Glarus (WI)
7 – DAY
Three-day itinerary plus Boulevard (MO), the Rathskeller (IN), Heorot (IN), and Jolly Pumpkin (MI)
Illinois
Chicago
THE LOCAL OPTION
1102 W. Webster • Chicago, IL 60614 • (773) 348-2008 localoptionchicago.com • Established: 1988
SCENE & STORY
With black walls, a tattoo-like skull illustration on the wall, and a good-sized chalk-board of hard-to-find beers that unfailingly makes the savviest beer lovers weak in the knees, this Lincoln Park beer bar has another quality many of the top beer bars in this country haven’t quite nailed: humility. Service is knowledgeable and friendly without being overly solicitous nor irritatingly aloof. There are twenty-five taps and fifty-five bottled brews drawn from the most eagerly savored American, Dutch, and Belgian brews, and the lineup often includes beers from Denmark-based Mikkeller, always an educational choice, as the beers are often formulated to highlight a single defining element, such as a hop variety or yeast strain.
PHILOSOPHY
As the motto in the skull says more colorfully in German, bad beer can be fatal.
KEY BEER
Jolly Pumpkin’s Oro de Calabaza. Technically speaking, this is a bière de garde, or French for “beer to keep.” It’s earthy, oaky, spicy, floral, slightly tart and incredibly delicious.
THE MAP ROOM
1949 N. Hoyne • Chicago, IL 60647 • (773) 252-7636 maproom.com • Established: 1992
SCENE & STORY
True to its name, the Map Room is equipped with old issues of National Geographic and huge colorful topographic charts, and the 26 taps and 230 bottled selections (and one cask at all times) reflect the worldly outlook. A Bucktown neighborhood standby, the cash-only bar has high ceilings with black tin tiles hung with various flags, red walls and a half dozen round tables along a polished wood bar, and chalkboard tap lists that require a lot of attention, because beers turn over so often. The Map Room’s owners freely admit they had no idea what they were doing when they started, but quickly fostered a community of committed beer lovers who held beer club meetings, brought back travelers’ tales, and even taught “beer school” classes, a tradition that continues in the bar to this day, led by brewer Greg Browne of Mickey Finn’s Brewery in Libertyville, north of the city.
PHILOSOPHY
The best kind of journey is one for the love of interesting beer. The Map Room’s owners and staff go to great lengths to bring back treasures they can share. As founder Laura Blasingame writes on the pub’s home page, the Map Room started out as a place “where ideas could be exchanged, where people could come to get some good social nourishment. What a better beverage to feature than beer?”
KEY BEER
Muncie, Indiana’s Three Floyd’s Dread-naught, a 9.5% ABV Imperial IPA, a lush panoply of tropical and fruit flavors like mango and peach balanced with a hefty dose of resinous hops.
SHEFFIELD’S BEER AND WINE GARDEN