Beer Run to West Lakeview

I didn't mention on here (I don't think) that yesterday I was gonna go up to West Lakeview Liquors for a backyard party. WLV was having Mikkel, his twin brother Jeppe, and their older half brother Kasper over, as Mikkel was over at Three Floyds brewing the next special release.

This years beer is going to be Havregoop, and is going to be an oat-wine-ish beer.

I got to spend an amazing amount of time with all three brothers; I wasn't really expecting it, but it kind of felt like I (and Zoe) monopolized their time from about 5 until 10... oops.

Let me backtrack a little. No one was available to go up there with me. Everyone I called was busy, or was too whiney (hippie!) to make the trip. So when I woke up on Saturday, I texted Zoe to see if she was free. I didn't even hear back from her, so I head up 57 around 1:15 (the party started at3, and that would put me slightly fashionably late). Just as I passed Gilman, Zoe texts me saying she's doing nothing, so I call and tell her where I'm going, and she says sure she'll go, sounds fun.

So I had just passed Gilman, and Zoe lives in Chenoa... So, I drive up to the next exit and turn around. This is Interstate 57, the next exit was 9 miles up the road. !8 mile turn around, then a drive on Route 24 for 45 or so minutes, and I pull into Chenoa around 3. Chenoa still has about 100 miles to Chicago on 55, so we head on up again. We finally pulled into the wrigleyville area around 5, but it's cool, I'm going with a good friend.

We find our way into the backyard party, and have a beer. They had three beers on tap (well, only two at first) Great Lakes Blackout Stout; Surly Fest Lager; and then eventually Founders Devil Dancer triple IPA. They also had some good food out: Zoe really like the goat cheese and was raving about the pork too. Also, the stuffed grape leaves were outstanding. Oh, and the potato salad that Kristina made was amazing.

Earlier I asked Kristina what time the store closed, she said 11. I saw an empty bottle of Sierra Nevada Chico Estate Harvest Wet Hop Ale, and asked her how it was, she said amazing, and said she'd sell me a bottle or 2, someone later mentioned they only got something like 8 bottles.

This was a very informal backyard gathering, but still, as informal as it was, how do you go up and start talking to the guy who's listed as one of the best brewers in the world? I did it by asking which one of them was Dr. Erikschon. After that, Kasper (the older brother) came up and videotaped me for something for the guy who did that video.

As Kasper and I discussed their blog, doctor erection, and other things. We moved from where we were standing, to go sit on a bench at the side of the party. Zoe had already sat there as Kasper and I were talking for a while, a bit about politics, some about cartoons. Kasper works with people moving into Denmark; teaching them to ride bikes, helping them get jobs, and other things. After a bit, Jeppe (the twin) came over and we started talking about beer. Jeppe runs an import business bringing in some great beers to Denmark.

How hard is it to go into a brewery and ask them to ship you beer, when your twin brother is Mikkel? They were going to be going to Michigan today, to go to Bells, Founders, Jolly Pumpkin and I think another brewery to try to set up some distribution.

After a bit longer, Mikkel came over and chatted with us too. I tried to keep the conversation somewhat light, but when you are sitting there having a beer with the guy who brewed two of the beers that got you messed up on Wednesday night, and also on Saturday, when you had the beer and went "Holy SHIT" you gotta talk some about the beer.

So I thanked him for making beer, and mentioned Saturday with the Black, and then Wednesday at pool with the Monks Brew, and It's Alive. I asked about how it works for him, being the gypsy brewer and all; he said he can only work with breweries he trusts, and basically, they correspond over email while the beer is fermenting, and when it's done, they let him know. He doesn't babysit the beer the entire time it's being made.

I had mentioned about how I'd love to reduce the Black down to even more syrupy and put it on pancakes, and he said that they'll be putting out a stronger version on Black, I think called Ice Black (or Black Ice) which will be the Black, but Iced. He mentioned it would be about 24% ABV. I asked if "It's Alight" would be coming to the U.S. and he said it had to have a different name, and would be called "It's Alright" (it couldn't have "LIGHT" in the name, due to some stupid U.S. rule that says that a light beer has to have nutritional information or something stupid like that). Another of his beers that had a naming issue was the American "Monk's Brew" which every where else in the world is known as "Monk's Elixer" but can't be "elixer" in the U.S. because that means it's a medicine.

The brothers got tired of sitting around chatting, so we went over and played bags for a bit. It wasn't played the way I normally play it, but I had fun playing anyway. (We played it where one side was the team instead of the familiar my half... uh.. how to describe it... North was a team, and South was a team, not East vs. West... I guess that's about it).

I guess we did kind of fanboy out and took our pictures with them, but hell, they were cool, and we spent an afternoon and evening with them, so we kind of deserve it...And they were cool about it too.

After that we went shopping inside.

Here's the haul:

Founders Harvest Wet Hop ale (4 pack)
Avery the Beast 2006
Struiselensis (yes I've had it before, but it was amazing, and I think I'll let this get old)
Struise Witte
Baladin Xyauya (the last bottle they had on the shelf; not sure exactly what I'll do with this; either me, or Andy, or send it to California)
J. W. Lees Harvest Lagavulin
J. W. Lees Harvest Calvados
J. W. Lees Harvest Sherry
J. W. Lees Harvest Port
Dogfish Head Theobroma (2 bottles)
Sierra Nevada Chico Estate (2 bottles)
Mikkeller Black (it was too awesome to not get another one of)
Hanssens Mead the Gueuze
DFH 120 (heading to California)
Taras Boulba (because last time, I just didn't remember it)

Zoe picked up a bottle of cider, I think this one, .

So that was a cool day, I got home around 1, so it was a long day.