Drinking
PHOTOGRAPHS: NICK MURWAY, COURTESY SCHLAFLY
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crafty Toast fall with these exceptional full-flavored brews. By Karl Klockars
The plummeting temperatures have one major upside: Chicago is absolutely awash in new seasonal beers. But among the many Oktoberfest brews, stouts, boozy barrel-aged beers and, yes, pumpkin beers out there, some clear winners rise to the top. We, along with some top Chicago beer pros, have selected five can’t-miss Midwestern craft brews to sip and savor this fall.
Surly Brewing Co.’s Cacao Bender The Minneapolis brewery offers this classic brown ale with cacao nibs, vanilla beans and coffee, a brew that Max Cavanaugh, the beer manager at Howells & Hood, is psyched to serve this fall. “The nibs will give it that dry cocoa taste, where you get that perception
of sweetness, but it’s still nice and dry,” he says.
surlybrewing.com
Schlafly Beer’s Pumpkin Ale St. Louis’s Schlafly Beer didn’t enter the Chicago market until last fall, so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the brewery’s highly regarded pumpkin beer. Available now through October, Schlafly’s Pumpkin Ale is brewed with a blend of spices, including cinnamon, nutmeg, clove and pumpkin. It checks in at 8 percent ABV, so it’s sufficiently boozy to keep your cheeks warm on cold nights.
schlafly.com
Metropolitan Brewing’s Afterburner Oktoberfest
Brewers don’t seem to make many Oktoberfest-style beers (instead churning out
pumpkin and harvest ales), and when they do, they’re often nothing to write home about.
That’s why we’re thrilled to see a beer like Afterburner. Available through October, it has big, bready and sweet malt flavors, a rich body and a crisp lager finish. It’s an outside-the-box Oktoberfest worth savoring, not one to slosh while slurring another verse of “Ein Prosit.” metrobrewing. com
Goose Island Beer Co.’s Proprietor’s Bourbon County Brand Stout
Sure, you can find regular Bourbon County Brand Stout year-round, but when the annual variants are released in fall, it’s practically a national holiday for beer fans. This year’s stout is
own review at
timeout.com/ reviewchicago
Edited by
Amy Cavanaugh
food.chi@
timeout.com @AmyCavanaugh
For more fall beers, visit
timeout.com/ chicago/bars
the Chicago-only Proprietor’s, featuring toasted pecans, bourbon-barrel-aged maple syrup and guajillo chilies for a touch of heat. It sounds strange, but Bourbon County has rarely, if ever, done us wrong. The beer is released on Black Friday.
gooseisland.com
Une Année’s Airing of Grievances We have no grievances with this well-crafted stout from Une Année. “It’s a Russian Imperial Stout [with] a hint of a Belgian character, so there’s a little bit of that dark fruit going on,” says Chris Quinn, the owner of stockist the Beer Temple. “If you like that dark fruit, plum, sort of raisin-y stout, it’s a really good example of that kind of Russian Imperial.”
uneannee.com
September–November 2015
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