Yesterday, I went to Beer Under Glass, which is a beer fest at Garfield Park Conservatory here in Chicago. I believe it’s also a fundraiser for the conservatory, but I’m not totally positive. I hope so; it’s a pretty cool place. And, frankly, the best of it’s kind I’ve attended. The space to spread out makes it decidedly more comfortable, and the venue was gorgeous and educational. Just my kind of thing.

“Leaves take what they need from the air.”

I have two draft posts ready to go, almost. They’ve been ready to go for well over a week. Unfortunately, one needs FILM photos, of all things, scanned in and the other just needs Bill and I to discuss it and we’ve not made time. I think you all will see them next week. Assuming I can find the photo albums.

It’s Chicago Craft Beer Week. That means I’m extra-obsessed with beer, as there’s a bunch of special events going on. I’ll try not to bore the non-beer drinkers with too much of this.

I’ve been cooking, some. It’s the time of year when the CSA is largely lettuce. You know what isn’t delicious? Hot lettuces. So, I have salad on my mind. Salad can be delicious, but I don’t have a lot of creativity when it comes to them. So if you all would, again, share your favorite salad recipes, I’d appreciate it. I’m also going to see if I can dig up the last post where I asked for this. There were a lot of good things in the comments.

I have been, of late, surprisingly tempted by the pre-cut fruits at the grocery store. Particularly the pineapple. I’m not sure why this is. I mean, other than the fact that pineapple is often delicious.

I’m probably making carrot soup tonight. It was pretty good the last time I made it, but I’d like it to be better. We’ll see. I’m considering steaming some asparagus to go with it, because asparagus is delicious.

I’m rereading a book called Fading Feast and trying, again, to read a book called Renewing America’s Food Traditions. The publication dates are 1998 and 2008, respectively, though most of what was written in Fading Feast was published in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I think it’ll be interesting to see the difference time and perspective makes on what foods we should be “saving and savoring”, as Renewing puts it.

The difference 30 years makes

Finally, I kind of wish we could be Amazon affiliates again. It only made us about $1.50, but that’s $1.50 we didn’t have before the blog. That said, without that and with my aversion to advertising, at least it’s pretty clear that most of what this blog does for me is let me talk about things I want to talk about. So, for $1.50, maybe it’s a wash

Awhile back, Bill mentioned that his mother, Rosa, used to make an avocado pie when he was growing up, and that it might be his favorite dessert of all time.

Me, I was like, “Pie… made from… avocados? Really?”

Turns out, yes, really. And it’s really good. Even when, like me, you forget to make the crust fairly regularly and turn it into mousse instead. It’s good either way, but it’s best when you have a crowd to feed it to. Amazingly, it’ll stay good for awhile in the fridge, but it starts separating a tiny bit around the second day, and by the third day the protective powers of the lime juice start to fade and the avocado starts to oxidize.

It’s never gotten fully brown on me, though. I assume we eat it too fast. Because IT’S DELICIOUS. I’m glad Rosa makes it, and I’m glad she shared the recipe.

Avocado mousse, in a little jar. YES, this photo is from my old place, what of it??? We made this dessert the other day, which is how I know about over-whipped cream.

Ingredients

3 – 4 Haas Avocados (I like four, but then, I love avocados)
5 limes
1 can sweetened condensed milk
8 oz heavy cream

Instructions

Okay, so, easiest thing ever. You juice the limes as hard as you can into a blender or food processor. Fish out seeds as needed. Then, you drop the avocado flesh in there. You can, and maybe should, mash it some first. I never have, but I always get at least one major chunk in my mousse. Dump in sweetened condensed milk. It’s really sticky, so use a rubber spatula or at least a spoon to get out as much as you can.

Then? Whirr that mess up. Whirr it up super good, so you can pour it fairly easily, and make sure it’s fairly smooth.

Then, pour it into whatever you want to serve it out of. I like those little 4 oz jars, because it’s cute & I can pretend someone will think I’m super good at food presentation. I also like ramekins of various sizes, though smaller is better if you have enough of them. Cover it, and put it in the fridge for at least 4 h, so it can set.

At serving time, whip up the cream into yummy whipped cream and dollop some on top. Don’t over-whip it. If you do, you could end up with butter. Or almost butter, which is actually worse. Almost butter is hard and butter-like, but still whipped-cream-like enough to make you want to put it on your mousse.

Trust me, you shouldn’t do that. It has the texture of regret.

I was really at a loss, I have to admit, after Rob and my off-flavors class seemed to agree that my issue wasn’t infection. Indeed, at the class, “infection” was presented as a single flavor. Since I don’t know a ton about brewing, and my microbiology classes are far behind me, I wondered if it meant that only a few bacteria could live in beer, and they all produce a similar flavor profile.

Twitter to the rescue. I tell you guys what, Twitter has been a huge help to me as I learn more and more about beer¹. There are other resources too, but having the power to ask a question of someone who probably knows the answer and often get a reply? Truly amazing. We live in the future, you guys².

So, vomit flavors. Apparently, this is caused by a compound known as butyric acid and is, in fact, often indicative of a bacterial infection. Just not the common beer infection(s). In fact, it’s apparently so uncommon that this guy seems to think some focus too much on it. (Note: The opening artwork at that link is of the gross-out & potentially offensive type.)

I got it in my 1d4th batch³. Go me?

It’s actually been kind of interesting to read about butyric acid. I can’t say I’m glad to have encountered it, especially in one of my own brews, but the silver lining is certainly that I’m doing some learning⁴.

Wikipedia’s entry on butyric acid (above) indicates that it’s produced by a variety of species, most of them falling in the Bacillus and Clostridium genera. Brew Your Own Magazine’s site has a story that specifically points to C. butyricum as the source in beer.

These two genera? They both produce something called a “spore”, which in this case is, specifically, an endospore. It’s an extremely hardy physical form of the bacteria and is basically suspended animation. Thus, the bacteria can persist in its environment until the conditions are right for it to grow and reproduce, at which time it will do so.

Some of the species in either genera can make humans pretty damn sick. Clostridium botulinum is why we take such precautions with canned goods. Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax. And part of what makes them such trouble makers is this spore-forming ability.

Now as far as I can tell, most of the likely culprits in my horrible beer are unlikely to make a healthy human adult sick, though to be very clear, I am NO expert.

As spore-forming bacteria, their ability to persist in hostile (to them) environments means I decided keeping the equipment I’d used for that batch was not worth it. I chucked the bung, airlock and tubing and I recycled the container. As my lab days taught me that the reason we use both heat AND pressure (autoclave) to sterilize things is because of spore-forming bacteria, I figured keeping the equipment was an invitation to have vile beer all over again.

The Wikipedia link above, about endospores, indicates soaking/submerging in a 10% bleach solution for five or more minutes will do the trick for removing the spore form. I didn’t know this at the time that I decided to get rid of the old stuff. Frankly, I just looked long enough to realize I was looking at Bacillus and/or Clostridium and decided it wasn’t worth the hassle to try and sort it out. Given the cost of the supplies (under $10) and my then-upcoming move, I figured I’d buy new and (hopefully) uncontaminated later.

Where does this leave me? Well, glad for the brewing I’ve done with Rob for one! This way I still have some beer I can call “my brew” around.

But secondly, and more importantly, it leaves me wanting to learn more. While my friends can (and will) teach me a great deal about brewing, none of them has ever experienced a butyric acid problem before (and I hope they never do). This means none of them can tell me what I did wrong, aside from a very generic “keep it clean!” (the mantra of brewing, it seems).

So, I’m going to take a class or 18 at Brew Camp. Starting, of course, with their introductory class “Making Beer at Home.” After I’ve got that down, I’ll take the rest. The Brew Camp guys were at Beer 1Up! giving a homebrew demonstration, and I had a chance to tell them this story. They agreed that it’s clear I need a class or something, and gave me a code to take “Making Beer at Home” for free.

They also gave me one to give to a lucky reader who is interested in starting homebrewing. Which I am very grateful for, and I hope is vastly appealing to all of you!

So, we’re going to keep it simple. The giveaway starts now, and will run until 10:00 pm CDT on Monday the 13th of May. To enter, leave me a comment saying what sort of beer you’d like to be your first homebrew. If you’ve already brewed some, as I did, but still think an intro class would be good for you, tell me what beer is daunting to you.

I’ll notify the winner by email, so make sure the email you leave me is valid. If I don’t hear back from the winner within three days of emailing them, I’ll select an alternate attendee. If no one enters or no one responds, I’m giving the code to my acquaintance, Kristen. (Kristen, if you’re reading this, you can still enter, but you really better respond if you win.)

Here’s to DELICIOUS homebrew in the future!

¹ And I wonder if Mr. Fahey is going to get irritated that I keep asking him questions and linking to his feed for his expertise. I hope not!

² It’s just not the future we thought we’d have. I’ll take this over flying cars, I gotta be honest.

³ It just depends on how you count. Third or fourth batch if you count all the brewing I did/helped Rob with. First if you only count it, since I wasn’t just helping.

⁴ And totally justifying my loathing of Bill’s beloved Kombucha.

Mt. Hood hop pellets, just before they go in to boil. Theresa, a homebrewing friend, gave them to me. You might say she’s an enabler. I still have about half an ounce left.

At some point long ago, my friend Rob (of the attractive cuff) shared with me a link for a peach-blueberry lager and asked if I wanted to brew that with him. I, frankly, am ALL OVER peaches and blueberries and beer, so the answer was an instant and immediate yes. We had to modify the plan a bit, but we ended up with a shared 10 gallons of peach beer, blueberry beer and peach-blueberry blended beer. They were pretty darn tasty, but 5 gallons of beer is a great deal of beer for one beer drinker. I gave a lot of it away.

Apparently, that’s normal in homebrewing. Still, the thought of having to make beer mostly to give away if I wanted to engage in the hobby put me off. I decided that I’d probably keep helping Rob homebrew, maybe also my friend Theresa, but generally I’d buy my beer or be gifted it from homebrewing friends, and generally that’d be good.

Enter Angelique’s husband, Marty. They visited us while they were on the way to a wedding near us sometime in the summer of 2012, and Marty noticed I had a glass gallon jug and commented that it’d be perfect for small scale homebrewing.

One gallon of just-pitched wort on it’s way to becoming beer! I thought.

I’d never considered the possibility that brewing on a one gallon scale was possible. A seed was planted. By the time Marty came out to join me for FoBAB in November 2012, I was definitely interested in trying it. So he brought out some malted grains¹ I could use and took me shopping at a homebrew store for a bit of equipment and helped me brew a batch. Basically, he helped me out in the same way I normally help Rob out, but with more advice. So this ended up being the first batch I was incredibly hands-on with.

It kind of looks like a bowl of cereal, doesn’t it? It basically is. I bet it wouldn’t taste great with milk, though.

It was fun, and kind of exciting. Bill laughed at me as I checked on my little jug daily. He laughed at me as I realized I didn’t know quite when, or how, to bottle it. He teased me when the beer sat on the yeast for awhile longer than it needed to as I figured it out. And he laughed and helped when Kristi came over to help me bottle my little gallon.

I was supposed to try it no sooner than two weeks later. I didn’t get to it right away. By the time I remembered it, Bill and I were so close to going out to Marty and Angelique’s area, that I figured I’d just take two bottles and we all could try it then.

Let me tell you what; your heart never sinks so fast when your best beer buddy cracks into your homebrew, gets the first taste, says, “Huh” and passes it to you with no other commentary.

I mean, until you sniff it and it smells odd and you take one taste of it, gag, and say, “Oh, fuck that beer.” I mean, I knew it wasn’t good when Marty’s only commentary was “huh”, but I had no concept of how bad it was going to be.

Folks, it tasted like vomit. Flat-out, no other description will do. I had made vomit-flavored beer². And that’s just as gross as you’re imagining.

We puzzled over it, and eventually concluded the flavor had to be from some sort of bacterial infection of the beer. Marty says he’s never had infected beer, and certainly never tasted anything like that, so he was at a bit of a loss. But, really, for something that nasty, that had to be the only choice, right?

Well, I’d given a bottle to Rob. Upon returning home, I sent him a message apologizing for sending in vile beer. He mentioned that he’d only tried it the night before, and that was his thought too. Vile. However, when I mentioned we all thought it was an infection, he said, “Doesn’t taste like it.” He didn’t have any other ideas, though. Or if he did, he didn’t share.

The off-flavors class I took covered “infection” as well. And, tell you what, Rob was right. What I tasted there as “infection” was in no way, shape or form what I tasted in my beer.

So what the hell happened?

This entry was getting pretty long, so I split it into two parts. Come back on Friday for the answer. If you’re in Chicago, or planning to visit, and interested in homebrewing, you’ll really want to come back on Friday. Trust me.

¹ He brought the grains so I wouldn’t have to buy 5 gallon sized amounts and have malt extract sitting around.

² And now I’m telling the world about it… Huh…

I’m sure no one is surprised by this.

So, Speakeasy Ales and Lagers. I didn’t know a darn thing about them, except their name, until I got there. I tend to like to be surprised. This probably makes me the complete opposite of your average blogger who gets an invitation to a launch of a brand they know nothing about. I figured I’d go in, meet some folks, and taste the beer with no preconceptions or expectations.

The company hails from San Francisco, California. They brought three beers, all in bottles, to this launch party. Big Daddy IPA, Tallulah Extra Pale Ale and Prohibition Ale. From that list, I’m sure my readers aren’t surprised in the slightest I went straight for the Prohibition Ale.

The Prohibition Ale I grabbed. I really love the Speakeasy labels, actually. Looking at the Beer Advocate pages, they clearly redesigned labels at some point, and this is much nicer.

It was a solid beer, but a bit hoppy for my taste. And I was reminded, once again, that being from America’s west coast can almost be as much a philosophy as it is a geographic reference. In beer, that philosophy seems to be Everything Hoppier Than Everything Else, particularly with the bittering hops. Frankly, this philosophy is part of what gives the second place winner in our beer t-shirt contest at Beer 1Up!, its humor. It’s a Stone Brewing shirt, and they definitely enjoy hops.

Unfortunately, while I love the shirt, I don’t share the philosophy. I tend to prefer substantially less hoppy beers, and the very hoppy beers I’ve enjoy have also had a lot of malt to back-up the hops. Apparently this is “well-balanced”, but I’m not that advanced in my beer knowledge.

I will say, though, if you DO like “west coast style” beers, I think you should seek out Speakeasy’s offerings. The beer I did have was solid, and I liked it enough that I’m curious about their Russian Imperial Stout and other, maltier offerings. The Big Daddy IPA and the Prohibition Ale are very well rated at Beer Advocate (links above). I’m glad I got to check out the beer.

As for the rest? The event itself? It was a fine time. I’m very glad I went.

This launch party (apparently one of many) was held at the Chrome Industries Chicago store. I admit, this is not a venue I ever would have thought of for a beer launch, but I’m new at this sort of thing. I’d have expected a restaurant or bar.

But the shop worked well, for the most part. It was pretty open and wide, so there was plenty of space for people to cram in there (and cram they did), though as wide as it was, it was VERY crowded, a small area for a bar to dispense bottles and a spot for a table for snacks. Frankly, it was kind of fun to be in a whole new space and check it out. I probably wouldn’t have gone into the store otherwise, and now I’m pretty curious about it and their products (more on that in a moment). The only bad thing about the space was that it was face-melting hot in there.

When I walked in, there was a woman in a flapper outfit sewing a bag. It was kind of neat to watch, and I loved the colors. Black and “traffic cone” orange. What I didn’t realize, until later in the evening, was that the bag was one of a few prizes for attending and tweeting during the launch.

Little did I know what this orange signified. Winning!

I suppose a launch is a place where getting buzz out via Twitter makes sense. I certainly had no issues with it. Plus, I hoped to win a bag. Or some glassware. Or whatever they were giving away. But only if the tweeting & winning didn’t come at the cost of paying attention to the people I was talking with.

For me, an in-person conversation almost always wins. I’m a “people person.” But I can pay some attention to twitter at the same time. It’s a bit like another conversation going on at a party; I slip into and out of it as is polite and easy. Sometimes I miss my mark. Sometimes I hit it. And sometimes (okay, once so far, and only on twitter), I win an awesome bag in the process. Custom made & waterproofed on the inside.

The completed bag.

I’m very grateful to Chrome Industries, Speakeasy Ales and Lagers, and River North Beer, the Chicago distributor for Speakeasy (as I understand it) for putting on the party and donating the bag. I love the bag, and I suspect it’s going to prove to be so nice that I’ll be looking at them again when I want a new backpack or similar. Indeed, before this event, Bill had suggested Chrome several times as I tried to figure out a new laptop bag.

If these beers make you curious, between the descriptions and the Beer Advocate ratings, check them out. Poking around on the River North website, I found that their event calendar includes several more launch parties, some with different beers than I tried featured. And one tomorrow, at Haymarket (a very nice brewpub), is also giving away the same awesome bag. Just so you know.

Close up of the bag, with logos from Chrome and Speakeasy.

I did get into this event for free, because Jeremy Teel of SubBeerBia invited me to join him (he also got in for free – it seemed to have been invite only). He was an invited guest of, I believe, River North. I assume they hoped he’d write it up on his blog. They didn’t know me, and had no idea I also keep a blog. This entry was written because I wanted to, not because they asked me to write it up. As I write this, they don’t know I’m writing about it, and won’t until after it’s published and I let them know via Twitter. I’m telling you all about future events because my Chicago-based readers might enjoy them; especially since I seem to be in the minority of my beer-drinking friends for disliking very hoppy beers.

It was more like 60 to 80 of my nearest and dearest. Holy Crap. It was unexpected and unbelievable. It was fun. It was so much fun. It’s actually been hard to write up, because it was so much fun that it’s been difficult to take it all in (still) and then put it all back out there for you.

Still, I want to do a bit more of a wrap-up than just the t-shirt contest post. (Still running, by the way! If you haven’t voted yet, please do!) Ale Syndicate gave us a gift, day of, in support of our event – one of the cool brewery tin signs that so many folks collect. We loved it so much, we made it the 2nd prize for the beer t-shirt contest. We thought it seemed appropriate.

Her shirt says “I’m Very Bitter and I Like It”. I’m not an IPA gal, but this cynicism is up my alley sometimes. Photo by Jeremy Teel

All sorts of amazing breweries came out and had fabulous people with them. It was a good time getting to chat with everyone. As you all know, that’s what I do best, so I was in my element. What I wasn’t doing, though, was playing my rounds of pinball (I only managed one!) to support the bloggers in the Bloggers vs Brewers Pinbrawl. Luckily, Eric of Blah… Blah… BEER! pulled through for us and won the whole shebang. Will of Flesk Brewing was close, though, and did a great job. I suspect that at Beer 2Up! Eric’s going to have a challenge on his hands.

Eric (left) and Will are about to metaphorically duke it out over pinball. Photo by Jeremy Teel

I watched some of the Brew Camp homebrewing demo. It was, frankly, awesome. It definitely makes me want to try again after my last disastrous attempt. I chatted with them after the demo too, and they are SUPER nice guys. I’m definitely going to be taking a class or 17 with them, as well as buying my equipment up there.

Brew Camp giving a homebrewing demonstration at Beer 1Up! I did not manage to get everyone’s name, but from left to right of the onlookers, we have Ari (background), Nelson and Aaron.

As I previously mentioned, the guys from Aleman gave us the first prizes for the t-shirt contest, which were highly appreciated. Both by us and by the winners. Those are some super nice guys, and I’m sorry I didn’t get a great photo of them.

Brewers! People from breweries! Left to right we have Chris from Arcade Brewing, Abby from Ale Syndicate, and the two nice guys from Aleman whose names I have totally forgotten. I feel terrible. I am clearly not to be trusted with names.

In addition to the breweries I name-checked above, Urban Legend was there. Arcade Brewing was there. Lake Effect was there. Atlas was there. It was amazing.

Begyle was there. Sadly for me, I missed trying their beer on tap! Too much chatting & the bar ran out before I got to it. Luckily for me, I tried their stout the very next day, thanks to a friend.

Begyle Brewing’s “Flannel Pajamas”. I was THRILLED my friend brought it over the day after Beer 1Up, since I’d missed Begyle’s “Crash Landed” the day before. This beer? It was a solid and tasty stout.

4 Paws had to cancel at the last minute due to an emergency. We were bummed, both to miss them and because emergencies suck, but raised a glass to them. We’re thankful they were planning to come. I’m really looking forward to meeting these guys and trying their beers. They combine two of my favorite things: beer and dogs.

And, finally, I have to give a special thank you and shout-out, again, to my fellow bloggers, Jeremy of SubBeerBia and Eric of Blah… Blah… BEER! and their wives, Sadi and Sarah. Without all of them, this would not have happened. And it was EPIC. I couldn’t be a luckier blogger than to have these folks in my corner.

Eric (left), Jeremy (center) and I after Beer 1Up. It’d been a long day, but we were still going strong and planning future shindigs! Photo by Sadie Teel

5 May 2013 Edit: Jeremy & Eric now have their posts up too. You should go check them out! It’s fascinating to see the ways in which we saw the event the same way & the ways in which we saw it differently. So, check out Brewers, Bloggers and Brawls over at SubBeerBia and The Day That Was – Beer 1Up! over at Blah… Blah… BEER!.

Also good times? Last minute, the kind folks at Naperville Ale Fest gave us two tickets to add to the grand prize here! NICE. Talk about the fate of beer. The winner here is going to get to have a brewday and then have a day of trying all KINDS of new beers.

One of the features of Beer1Up was a t-shirt contest. We had categories of “beer-themed” and “video-game-themed”. The plan was to award a bottle of Dayman Coffee IPA, donated by Aleman to the winners of each category. The winners being picked by having the brewers who were in attendance and the three bloggers voting.

However, we felt the grand prize was so grand we wanted more input. SO! It’s up to the public now. These are the winners for each category. Take a gander at each photo, and then wander on over to this Facebook poll on the event page and vote for which of the two you like best. The public’s choice will win the Flesk Brewday and Naperville Ale Fest Tickets! (I’m pretty envious right about now, folks.)

There were a TON of beer-themed shirts, so it was hard to pick a winner. This one won by a few votes, partially because there were so many t-shirts to vote for that voting was spread thin. Still, most votes is most votes, and several of us liked the simplicity of this shirt.

It’s liquid bread. Yeast, grains, water? What more do you need??

As for video game shirts? Well, we certainly loved this one. And it was, by far, the most thematically correct t-shirt. We loved it. However, it got 0 votes. Or infinite votes, depending on how you look at it. It was the only game-themed shirt there! So, winner by default. I did tweet about this before voting began, hoping to entice more folks out.

This kind of mushroom gives more lives! More lives for everyone! 1Up!

Thanks again, folks! I hope you like one (or, better, both!) of these two t-shirts. Please let us know over here and come back tomorrow for a full recap of the event. Spoiler alert: It was amazing.

That said, I’ve been reading a few things, in particular over at my friend Jen’s blog. It’s the week of the year when she particularly highlights her job and the work of others who hold similar jobs. And, frankly, it’s fascinating. I’ll have something up based on an interview she gave me about her job next week, but I don’t want you guys to miss out. Here’s all the entries she’s ever done for “Lab Week”, and I encourage you to check them out.

However, if you just want to read one, in particular, I suggest Life as a Rural Med Tech. It’s an interview she did with a friend who moved from a big hospital lab to a little one, and it’s a neat look into the differences. I found it particularly interesting to consider why, aside from expense, a rural hospital may choose not to invest in the newest, biggest instruments for their lab.

Please, go check it out. And if you like it, let Jen know.

I was probably also going to mention Beer1Up, which is my current focus and obsession.

But, frankly, given that our friend Jason passed away last night (not unexpected), instead I’d just like to ask that everyone head on over to this post from about a month ago and read about what a great guy Jason was and how fabulous his wife, Heather, is.

Tomorrow we can talk about beer and blood banks. Thank you all.

Jeremy over at Subeerbia, Eric over at Blah…Blah…BEER and I teamed up with Arcade Emporium to bring a fun beer event to Chicagoland for those beer geeks who didn’t manage to get tickets to wander down to Munster, Indiana and buy some very special beer. There’ll be some envy in our group, for sure, and you know we’ll be raising a glass to those making the hike, but we have a little something to console ourselves.

And by “a little something”, I mean, “holy shit, this shindig has ballooned!” The plan started at the three bloggers wanting to run a beer event and Arcade Emporium being willing to be our venue. Once we discussed with Arcade Emporium how to most make the thing successful, in particular having a theme or specific beers we wanted to have pouring would be incredibly helpful, the whole thing came together. Jeremy, who is also a field correspondent for Illinois Brewers Guild, figured he could contact a couple small, local brewers he knows and ask if we could pour their beer.

From this, magic happened. Flesk, Begyle, Ale Syndicate and Lake Effect will all have a beer on tap. Brewers from each place will also be around to meet folks. Atlas, Aleman, Arcade, 4 Paws and Urban Legend will all send brewers to meet folks.

More magic came from Eric, who has done a stellar job of contacting various places to get our event in front of people and let them know we’re coming. He created our Facebook event page. He’s contacted so many outlets it makes my head spin. He’s also been the best cheerleader for the whole event, checking in with Jeremy and I regularly.

Finally, and in further awesomeness, Eric contacted BrewCamp and asked them if they wanted to attend and answer homebrewing questions. Not only did they say yes to that request, they’re bringing a rig to do a homebrew demonstration. Holy cow!

All the details are right here in this Facebook Event link. So you know, we’re also having a competition for who is wearing the best beer-themed t-shirt and who is wearing the best video game-themed t-shirt. The prizes here? Going to be awesome.

So, I hope those of you who are in Chicago and not headed to Munster, Indiana (or are going earlier or later than our event!) will come. Meet some up and coming local brewers! Drink their beers! Play video games! Win prizes with your stylish threads!

Oh, and maybe you could be so kind as to cheer me on in the brewers vs bloggers pinball contest? It’s going to be intense, and while I love pinball, I’m not awesome at it. Lots of flailing with the flippers.