CU Bars in the News, Dozens of tickets issued during bar checks in Champaign

From the News-Gazette

Dozens of tickets issued during bar checks in Champaign

CHAMPAIGN – Bar checks performed by local and state authorities late last month and early this month resulted in a number of citations for underage drinkers and bar, restaurant and convenience store employees.

Illinois State Police and Champaign police, as part of Operation Campus/Tap details on Feb. 27 and March 6, issued 64 citations.

Here's the highlights:

– CO Daniel's, 608 E. Daniel St.; 1 citation.

– Cowboy Monkey, 6 Taylor St.; 0 citations.

– Station 211, 211 E. Green St.; 9 citations.

– It's Brother's, 613 E. Green St.; 9 citations.

– Legend's, 522 E. Green St.; 2 citations.

– Murphy's Pub, 604 E. Green St.; 7 citations.

– Chester Street Bar, 65 Chester St.; 7 citations.

– Fire Haus, 708 S. Sixth St.; 5 citations.

– Boltini Lounge, 211 N. Neil St.; 0 citations.

– Joe's Brewery, 706 S. Fifth St.; 7 citations.

– Guido's, 2 Main St.; 0 citations.

– Blind Pig Brewery, 120 N. Walnut St.; 0 citations

– Campus area streets: 17 citations.

Why they put in the zero citations is confusing, but it shows that some bars are doing their job. Those were Cowboy Monkey, Boltini Lounge, Guido's, and Blind Pig Brewery. You'll also note those are all downtown and not campus bars.

the Guinness exBEERiment

Thursday, March 11, along with a couple other people, I went out attempting to find what bar in downtown Champaign has the best Guinness Draught.

Before we went out, I put together a little information on Guinness (most of the information was from Wiki)

Guinness Drought is a stout, specifically a Dry Irish Stout. Originally the beer was called a porter and was brewed by Arthur Guinness at the St. James’s Gate brewery in Dublin. In 1759, Arthur signed a 9,000 year lease on the St. James’s gate brewery at 45 pounds per year. The St. James’s Gate brewery covers 64 acres and has (at times) been the largest brewery in the world; it is still the largest stout brewer.

All Guinness Draught is brewed at the St. James’s gate brewery. Other versions can be brewed elsewhere. The Guinness extra stout that you purchase in stores is brewed in Canada. There are several versions of Guinness: Guinness Draught (served in kegs, cans, and bottle); Guinness Extra Stout; and recently the Guinness 250^th anniversary.

Guinness is served on nitro (you can tell by the long black thing on the tap). Nitrogen provides the creamy head and creamy mouthfeel. Draught Guinness is served with a nitrogen/carbon dioxide mixture (normally 70/30 in USA; in Ireland 80/20) The nitrogen isn’t as soluble in the liquid as is the co2, so that the beer doesn’t have a co2 fizzyness. On tap the beer is pushed through a plate with holes to help in the formation of the “surge”.

Flavors that can normally be detected while tasting Guinness are coffee, possibly chocolate, and a "roasty toasty" flavor. Guinness has an ABV of 4.1 to 4.3%. It is made from water, barley, hops, and brewer’s yeast. Additionally, it is treated with isinglass finings that help to remove solids in the wort prior to fermentation. Isinglass finings are made from fishes’ air bladders.

The “perfect pint” (according to Guinness) should take 119.53 seconds to pour. It should also be a double pour. Draught Guinness should be served at 6 C (42.8 f)

*soft history* The double pour comes from previous traditions of serving people a mixed aged beer (three threads?) Old beer was poured into the glass until it was ¾ full, then let stand. Then newer gassier beer was added which produced the foamy head.

Guinness is owned by Diageo.

So, with a little bit of info about the beer we headed downtown to attempt to try Guinness on Draught at as many bars as we could find it on.

The group had a person who loves Guinness (Jon); a person who hates Guinness (Kristy); a person who used to like it but is now indifferent (me); and a person who doesn't really seem to have an intense like or dislike for it (Brandon). Andy, GM of Seven Saints also accompanied us to another of the bars. We took a thermometer with us and asked the bartenders as much info about their Guinness as we could.

+ We started out at Seven Saints. 7S sells Guinness in an Imperial Pint (20 oz) for $4.50. According to Andy, the keg we were drinking from had been tapped 3 days prior. He said they normally go through about a keg and a half a week. Their nitrogen to carbon dioxide mixture was 75/25, which seemed to be the norm in downtown (as opposed to the 70/30 mixture that was mentioned in the wiki article). Andy said they clean their beer lines every other week. The beer was served at 41.9 degrees.

Since this was our first stop, it served as the baseline for the evening.

Appearance:
Kristy: "looks like a milk shake"
Andy: (biased but still valid) a perfect pour, has a finger of foam
Jon: dark with foam rising to the top, about 3/16" foam above the glass

Aroma:
Jon: little coco smell, bread
Brandon: slight bread
Me: a bit chocolaty, coffee, and roasty
Andy: balanced hop, roast, acid and barley

Mouthfeel:
Andy: perfect head and body
Kristy (an imperial stout lover): thin
Me: creamy, kinda thick, drying
Brandon: smooth

Taste:
Brandon: smooth, kinda roasty
Jon: bitter, foamy
Kristy: bitter finish, slight coffee aftertaste
Me: Dark toast, bitter, subtle vanilla

Overall:
Me: Not a bad pint, gets "burneder" as it warms
Jon: an OK Guinness
Andy: "nothing wrong... we'll see if someone is more right"

+ Our next stop was next door, at Mike N' Molly's. Murph was bartending and knows his product. He was also very accommodating to our questions. He believed the keg went on Wednesday at around 9 pm. They do a 75/25 nitro/co2 mixture. They normally go through about 4 or 5 kegs of Guinness a week. The beer was $4.75 and served in an imperial pint. It registered at 41.9 on the thermometer.

Appearance:
Me: 1/4 inch of head
Jon: Foam travelled to the top fast (the surge)

Aroma:
Me: almost has a sour/tart smell
Jon: has a woody smell
Andy: less bready, more acidic

Mouthfeel:
Andy: perfect feel
Brandon: good
Jon: feels good
Me: creamy, feels colder, drying
Kristy: thin and smooth

Taste:
Kristy: not as roasty, not as strong
Me: Not as roasty, finishing bitter
Jon: little smoother with a slight dark barley aftertaste
Andy: less bready in flavor, more round, more acidic finish

Overall:
Kristy: seemed weak
Jon: tastes like Guinness
Brandon: not as enjoyable as Seven Saints
Me: not bad
Andy: weaker flavor, colder?

Noted differences:
Me: no chocolate flavor at first, warms up with a bitter chocolate flavor
Andy: weaker flavor, colder?

+ Our next stop was Jupiter's (Classic). Andy got called back to work, so he wasn't able to spend the rest of the night with us. Jupiter's also uses a 75/25 mixture (we didn't' get any other answer, so I'll be leaving out the nitro mixture from now on). The keg had been changed out on Wednesday. Jupiter's goes through about a keg and a half a week. The beer was served in a normal pint (shaker) glass, it didn't appear to be a cheater shaker glass, so it should have been around 16 ounces instead of 14. It cost $4 for the glass. Jupiter's is running a special for $5 you can get it in an imperial pint and keep the glass, and there are $4 refills; this special runs through St. Patrick's Day. Ours was presented at 45 degrees.

Appearance:
Brandon: presented with a clover, which is not as pretty
Jon: beer glass instead of a Guinness glass
Me: 1/2 inch of foam with no apparent surge
Kristy: not a good pour, settled weird

Aroma:
Kristy: smells funny
Me, Brandon, Jon: smells fishy

Mouthfeel:
Jon: normal, compared to the others
Kristy: slightly thicker
Me: thinner but still creamy... gritty

Taste:
Kristy: a little bitter
Me: astringent, not as bitter, almost grape-y
Brandon: not the funky aftertaste of Mike N' Molly's

Noted Differences:
Me: thinner, less flavor, bleachy
Brandon: weird

Jupiter's was the first place where the differences in the beer were really apparent. When we were there, the bartender didn't know any of the answers to our questions about the age of the keg, and how many they go through. Jon went back later, and asked one of the managers and got the answers. He also got an imperial pint in the keeper glass, and said that the fishy smell was gone.

+ The next stop was Guido's Bar and Grill. We talked to Foo, he said they go through about 1 or 2 kegs a week. The keg we were drinking from was probably put on, on Sunday. Based on the frothy-ness of the pour, he assumed it was near the bottom of the keg. Due to it being so foamy, the pour took significantly longer than 119.53 seconds. When we got our beer, it registered 56 degrees. It was served in a regular 16 ounce pint/shaker glass and cost $4. Did you notice I said it was 56 degrees when we first started drinking. I thought the thermometer broke, so we got a glass of icewater, and that registered 31 degrees, so 56 is probably close to correct.

Appearance:
Me: similar
Kristy: little head

Aroma:
Brandon: I could smell that one
Jon: not much smell
Kristy: no smell

Mouthfeel:
Me: thinner, less creamy
Brandon/Jon: warm
Kristy: thin, warmer than the rest

Taste:
Me: sweeter, oddly not bitter
Kristy: not a lot of bitterness
Jon: like a warm Guinness

Overall Impression:
Jon: not any kind of bitterness
Brandon: not as smooth
Me: "wow, hot!!!", almost like a Pepsi

Noted Differences:
Brandon: warm Guinness
me: way to hot

+ Our next walk was down the street to the Blind Pig Brewery (the Piglet). The bartender was busy, so we didn't get the opportunity to ask any questions. The beer cost $4.50 and is served in an imperial pint. It came to us at 41.6 degrees.

Appearance:
Kristy: good pour, nice head, really thick head
Brandon: good head
Jon: thick foam
Me: thicker head, probably a more recent keg

Aroma:
everyone: there is no smell

Mouthfeel:
Jon: little more satisfied than the last
Kristy: thicker
Me: milkshakey

Taste:
Jon, Me: bitterness is back
Brandon: not fishy
Kristy: bitter, smooth

Overall Impression:
Me: this might be the best of the night
Jon: m m m good
Brandon: I like it

Noted differences:
Me: It's a much better experience when not by the upstairs shit tube.

+ We left the Piglet and headed to the main Blind Pig, right down the alley. As we were walking down the alley, we said "candyman" three times, and of course, he appeared. Brandon talked to the bartenders, and Blind Pig goes through a keg about once every other day. It was served in an imperial pint for $4.50. Our beer was 43.4 degrees.

Appearance:
Kristy: good pour, nice thick head
Jon: looks like Guinness
Brandon (seeming to lose interest): yummy
Me: 1/3 inch head or so

Aroma:
Jon: not much
Brandon: same, not fishy

Mouthfeel:
Kristy: thin
Jon: cool and refreshing
Brandon: smooth

Taste:
Me: kinda like a cream soda
Kristy: bitter, smooth
Jon: bitter with a barley aftertaste
Brandon: (sticking with his new adjective) yummy

Overall Impression:
absolutely no comments

Noted differences:
Jon: similar to the brewery
Me: bitter chocolate, not a bad pint, some vanilla tones

+ The final bar that we managed to get a Guinness at was the Esquire Lounge. According to our bartender, Esquire goes through about 3 kegs a week, almost one every other day. It costs $4.50 for a traditional pint/shaker. It was served at 43.5 degrees.

Appearance:
Me: good dimpling, surge still present and visible (downward moving bubbles) with a shamrock
Jon: normal
Kristy: nice pour, good head, thick
Brandon: had the down buttles

Aroma:
Jon: like Guinness
Brandon: similar

Mouthfeel:
Kristy: slightly thicker
Brandon: not as smooth
Jon: normal

Taste:
Me: coffeer, more roast, more acidic
Kristy: more flavorful on the front end
Brandon: a little more coffee

Overall Impression:
Brandon: ehh... meh...

Noted differences:
Esquire has peanuts available.
Kristy: don't eat peanuts with the beer
Jon: not good with peanuts
Me: doesn't work with peanuts

+We then walked down to Bentley's pub. We walked in and the bar seemed completely full, for Karaoke. We didn't anticipate it being that full right around 10, and we had hoped to save Bentley's for last, as they probably go through as much Guinness as any other bar. However, due to their being full, and no place for us to sit and do our exBEERiment, we weren't able to finish there.

Overall, there wasn't a hugely clear cut winner. The best of the night was probably the Blind Pig Brewery. Any of the bars serving Guinness in an imperial pint were perfectly acceptable beers. I was pleased that many of the bartenders and managers knew what they were talking about with the beer. They seemed able to guess the fullness of the keg based on how it poured, which I found interesting. A foamier glass usually meant the keg was getting empty.

There definitely was a big loser on the night. Guido's definitely had the worst beer. It was warmest, by about 10 degrees, and had the most differences in feel, aroma, and taste. Based on the rate they go through kegs, I would recommend never going there on a Thursday night for Guinness. If they go through 2 kegs a week, then pretty much every Thursday will be the end of a keg. If it's changed out on Sunday morning, then the keg will routinely run out around the end of Thursday night, and then they will go through a keg on the weekend and put a new one on, on Sunday morning.

Other lessons learned are that in the case of Guinness on Draught, the newer the keg, the better it is going to be. If it's older, it just seems to be not as lively. It's had more time to interact with the nitrogen and carbon dioxide. It doesn't seems as good.

Also, don't eat peanuts while you are trying to drink a Guinness, nobody enjoyed that.

We believe the Jupiter's fishy smell was probably from a dirty glass. Kristy claims that there is a distinct onion smell in both Jupiter's downtown and at the Crossing that gets into her clothes. Even though the glass is glass and shouldn't absorb smells, it seemed to have something distinctly off. We believe this may be because any washcloths that are used to clean/dry glasses will also have absorbed the onion smell. As Jon's keeper glass was never used before, it didn't have the opportunity to get the onion smell.

The bars didn't really know that we were coming, so it was almost a surprise inspection. Murph at Mike N' Molly's was aware we were going to be doing it at some point, and Andy definitely knew we were coming, but they didn't do anything special. If an average person just walked in off the street, the beers we got were representative of what they would have gotten. This could have been their impressions.

From best to worst, the Guinness that evening would be:

1. Blind Pig Brewery
2. Blind Pig
3. Mike N' Molly's
4. Seven Saints
5. Esquire
6. Jupiter's downtown
7. Guido's

2-4 are pretty much interchangeable.

Big Brad's Birthday

Last night, Skot, Big Brad, Kriddy, and I (later joined by Paddy) went to the Blind Pig Co. for some alcoholic beverages in celebration of Big Brad's 51st Birthday Bash.

Brad and Skot started their evenings off with tulips of Samichlaus '08 (at least the bartender said it was '08). I went with a Duchesse De Bourgogne. The Duchesse was better than I remember. It was a lot sweeter than I thought, and did have a drying red wine feel to it.

My next beer was the Flensburger Weizen. This one was ok. It didn't quite have the fruity banana flavor to it that I had hoped, but it was still passable. While I was drinking this, Skot went with the Brugse Zot. That beer had LOTS of floculation, probably too much. I saw him stir up the bottle at the end of his pour, but he claims he didn't. So, I think it's party his fault for the cottage cheese consistency he got out of the beer.

Next, Skot and I split a bottle of Altenmunster Maibock. This one was ok too, not that great, and hardly memorable. At some point Kriddy showed up and got a glass of Founders Breakfast Stout. It's not a bad go-to beer, when you don't know what else to have. Nothing looks too appealing... fine, I'll have a b'fast stout. Wouldn't you possibly kill to have that kind of let down?

Brad then got a sampler platter of all the beers he hadn't had yet. There were 7 glasses in front of him, so I'll see if I can find them all.

Atwater Voodoo Vator, came out being very smokey.

Unibroue Maudite, for being a belgian strong ale, it had better hefeweizen qualities than the weizen that I had earlier.

Delerium Noel, surprisingly good, considering my pure hatred for the DT, and DNoc.

Two Brothers Northwind, seemed way to smokey. Wasn't bad, just had a lot of smoke in it.

While Brad was drinking these, Skot and I started to split a bottle of the White Winter Sweet Mead. Brad demanded we get him a glass, so we did. As it was a mead, it did have the appearance, and some of paint thinner. But, it was one of the most deliciously sweet paint thinners you'll ever huff.

While drinking that, we headed back and played some cutthroat cricket. I somehow managed to win the first game, and then when we abandoned the second game, I think Brad was in the lead.

The beer following the mead for me was Samichlaus. Either this years seemed better to me, and had fruity undertones that were rather delicious, or the mead was still coating my tongue. It was WAY better and more drinkable than the last time I had it. I'll need to try it again, to see if it's as good as it seemed yesterday.

Paddy showed up during darts, and he walked in with a Duchesse. Kriddy finished her Bfuzz, and went with an O'fallon Smoked Porter. This one had lots of bacon in the flavor. More than she expected. She really liked the Pappy van Winkle barrel aged version, but doesn't like the plain, as much. The aged, is just soooo much smoother. Skot then switched to a Scaldis Noel. I don't know if I tried any of it, or remember the profile. Brad was given a Founders Backwoods Bastard from the bartender for his birthday.

We closed out at Blind Pig, and went searching for food. We settled on (as though settling is a bad thing) Guido's. I, of course, went with the prime rib sammich with onion rings, Kridz got a grilled cheese with bacon and fries, Paddy left (I think) as he ate at the house before leaving, Skot and Brad split some chicken nachos and chicken wings. I drank a Sierran Nevada Pale, Brad and Skot both had Dark horse Skotty Karate's, and Kriddy had a North Coast Red Seal.

It had started to rain, or, I guess ICE when we left the Pig, and conditions were getting bad quickly, so Kridz and I closed out and headed home around 9. From Guidos, to my place, to Kridz, it's 12.3 miles. With the conditions last night, we made it in 45 minutes, and the ass end of her truck only tried to put us in the ditch like 3 times.

So, if you see Big Brad, tell him happy birthday, and let's hope he can make it to 52.

Bar Review, 2 Downtown Champaign bars

Friday night after work, Meat, Big Brad and I decided we'd head to downtown Champaign to the Blind Pig, for some beers.

The Blind Pig is an AWESOME place to go to have a beer. If you are just coming down for the day to CU (say... to pick up your kid from college) and are looking for THE place to have a beer. The Blind Pig is the place to go.

BP is an English style tavern (or so I'm told, never been to England to see for sure). There is lots of wood and burgundy paint inside. There are free metal tip dartboards and... that's about it for entertainment. There are plenty of lights, but all the wood and the dark paint absorb it, so the bar seems very dark. There are no TV's. So if you want to watch a game, you can't do it there.

The interior isn't what brings you to "the pig", it's the beer. I count 26 taps on their website, which is on of the biggest numbers of taps in town. (Radio Maria across the street is right up there too). The cheap beer on tap is PBR. There is also Blue Moon, but that's about it of macro offerings. Their beer turns over real quick, so even if the menu was printed that day, it may not be accurate that night. On Friday, there were at least 3 beers that were on the menu that weren't available.

One of the huge drawing points of the pig is the cask ale.

According to their website...

Cask-conditioned beer, or “real ale”, is allowed to mature naturally. The unfiltered, unpasteurized beer still contains live yeast, which continues conditioning the beer in the cask. This process creates a gentle, natural CO2 carbonation and allows malt and hop flavors to fully develop, resulting in a richer tasting drink with more character than a standard keg beer. Real ale is served at cellar temperature, 55ºF.

Most of us associate cask-conditioned beer with flat warm beer. While that may sometimes be the case, it's not always true. They have a large selection of bottled beer, that also turns over relatively quickly.

There's no food in the pig, so if are looking for a place to sit and watch the game while eating something... don't go there.

The pig's patrons are an eclectic bunch, but they are pretty much all driven by a love for good beer. On any given night, you might see a hippie with dreadlocks in a hemp shirt sitting next to a guy who looks like he's on leave from the Army (the guy in the army is probably there looking for some beer similar to what he was drinking back over in Germany). You'll see some guys in suits and ties next to the motorcycle gang (ok, so that's Meat and Big Brad). Conversations will invariably go to beer, and are easily started with "whatcha drinkin?" It's very easy to approach anyone at the pig with the simple line of "whatcha drinkin?"

Since you don't eat at Blind Pig, you are probably going to have to get your grub on. When we drink there, we then head through the alley to Guido's. Guido's is, of course, a Carlos bar. This place has the most... um... normal person food in downtown champaign. This is the place to go to get a plate of nachos. Kriddy says it has the best grilled cheese sammiches in all of CU. She would know. I go there for the Prime Rib Sammich. It's about $7 and is a hearty portion. You will not be too disappointed eating it. I normally get the onion rings to go with it. We used to have our pool team at Guido's, just because of the prime rib sammich. There are worse reasons to go to a bar. Their beer selection is ok, but that's not why you go to Guido's. The place is a decent sports bar from open until about 9 p.m. The kitchen is good, there are plenty of tv's. There are two pool tables upstairs and two downstairs. The bartenders are friendly and are professional CU bartenders, all having worked at various other CU bars.

The beer selection isn't that great. There is probably something in every style, but they aren't really a specialty beer bar. They do make some strong mixed drinks, I'm told.

Most of Guido's business probably comes after 10 on Friday and Saturday nights (that I know of for sure) Guido's is one of the largest MEET MARKETS in CU. Groups of guys head there, as do groups of girls. It's one of the places that people go to when they are looking for a date, not when they have one. The manager out at Billy Barooz used to manage Guido's. I had initially heard that he moved out to the crossing because he hadn't gone to bed before 3 a.m. in about 2 years. Guido's routinely has to kick patrons out at closing time. It's a bar where last call means there's a rush to get as much MORE alcohol in you as humanly (or not humanly) possible. When people leave Guido's, they will normally be looking for a place to eat something.

Last year, Guido's opened their basement, which has the full bar and two pool tables. It's normally a little dark and crowded. You'll find no shortage of fraternity guys and sorority girls at Guido's. It's definitely at bud light bar after 10. It's still fun to go to every now and then, but I'd rather go elsewhere, at least after 10.