Happy 4th of July

We wanted to get a blog post out there before anyone skated off for the holiday weekend.

Happy 4th of July to all of you.

There's something great about an all inclusive holiday that celebrates everyone standing in our country by lighting off explosives and consuming in excess. Everyone can get behind the 4th. Do some neighborhoods become reckless, dangerous places hazed over with smoke & combustion, yes, yes they do, but embrace it this weekend.

Enjoy yourselves.

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

Dripping over Everest

Two things folks:

First, tomorrow we release Dripping Saison. We're really happy with this effort. We aimed to carve this beer from the heart wood of what a Saison can achieve during the warm months. Quenching.

Draft only: $12 growler refills / $16 with a new growler
Released at our brewery at 12noon on June 29th, 2011.


Second, we have some friends that like to stomp around the earth seeing new things. They've always been kind enough to throw on some Half Acre T's when visiting far flung places and snap a photo for the guys in the brewery back home. They're trying to win a competition that would send them to base camp in Nepal. All they need is votes. Voting is super easy, just two clicks of your mice. If you have a minute, click this link and vote for them -- they're really close to being in the top few that actually get to go and walk up the big hill.

Many Thanks,

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

Dripping Saison

The Dripping Saison will be released on Wednesday June 29th.

This is an all draft / growler pour beer, so bring your glass and take home 64oz of summer.

Cheers,

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

Southside

You may have read yesterday's post on the Chicagoist.

We wanted to follow that up with one of our own:

As a brewery we don't take on any additional accounts, whether that's the northside, southside, Milwaukee or Denmark.
That means if you are a bar two blocks from our brewery and you're jazzed about carrying our beer, we can't accept the business today. We can't because we run out of beer on an all too regular basis at the bars & stores that have already been supporting our brewery. Our added capacity that we create in our brewery allows us to make good on the relationships that exist today.

These aren't distributor issues, these aren't law driven decisions and they certainly aren't preferential treatment towards one side of a city or location.

We appreciate the people and establishments doing interesting things across this city and hope with time we can access them without the concern of flubbing the brave soles that already hooked their cart to our scrappy wagon.


Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

Forklifts are King

We knew a long time ago that our forklift was the key to our brewery. Pretty much everything we do gets heavy real quick, so using our forklift is crucial, but these days someone is using a forklift almost continuously in our brewery.

We had a forklift called the Pork Chop Express, but the Chop was experiencing some technical difficulties and kept crapping out on us, so we brought in another forklift we're tentatively calling Digital Señor. We're putting Digital S. through the paces.

To illustrate our point that any self respecting outfit needs a forklift, I'm sharing with you a couple things accomplished with a forklift today.

First -- we got another 60bbl fermenter today. This chunker is sorely needed and will be the bookend in the almost complete line of new tanks. The last one comes in about three weeks. We used two forklifts to get it in and upright.

Second, when Matt innocently pulled up in front of the brewery today, ready to brew and do his part, the ground gave way and Matt and his car fell in. In my mind there are a couple things that you should invariably be able to rely on -- one of those is the earth below you. Not so today.

Fortunately, we were armed with a slew of forklifts and were able to pick up Matt's car and restore what simple truths we have left.

If you don't have one, do yourself a favor and go grab a forklift for your home or business. Father's Day is this weekend -- might I recommend a 5000 lb truck with a quad lift and side-shifter, they are the answer to most any lifting question.

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

New Saisons; An Introduction

We want to start by thanking all those who came out for Small Animal Big Machine. You guys crushed that beer in record time and turned out in record numbers. Steering clear of an emotional, Tom Hanks sort of sappy moment, I'll just say thanks and extend our appreciation for supporting our endeavors.

Next endeavors:

At Half Acre we typically only maintian one house strain of ale yeast, so if we veer off the reservation a bit we usually source another strain and try to get a couple beers out of it. A one brew stand is no way to treat our one-celled sugar metabolizing friends.

We just scored some Saison yeast so we're brewing two back to back Saisons -- the first is a draft only beer called Dripping Saison. This is aimed at a core Saison to aid us all in gliding through the summer season with a stable go-to session anchor. We took a bit of it and roughed it up with some off-beat treatment that may or may not eek it's way out to you, but the bulk will be poured into growlers at our store.

The second Saison is part of a two-part double brew with our friends from Short's Brewing in Bellaire, MI. For the first half we hit the road and brewed it in MI at their facility this past Monday. The second will be brewed this Friday here on Lincoln Ave before heading out to the My Morning Jacket show.

The beer is called Captain Fantasy. We're brewing identical recipes at each location with two separate labels of our own interpretation. Captain Fantasy is a Saison brewed with pears and Sorachi Ace hops. The beer should be pleasantly off kilter and our time with Short's is always time well spent.

Captain Fantasy will be available in 22's and for growler pours.

See you here or there.

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

Small Animal Big Machine this Friday

Our latest collaborative effort, Small Animal Big Machine, is set for release this coming Friday, June 10th.

Small Animal Big Machine will be available ONLY in 22 oz. bottles.

Brewing trailblazers, Pipeworks & De Struise co-outfitted our foray into the funky realm of sour mash brews, fermented with dark cherries and red currants. The fruit cuts the funk but jumps back before crossing into candyland. A three-point landing for this steampunk: aroma complexity, balanced flavor, ABV punch.

Bottles will retail for $11.99 each.

There will be a four bottle limit per customer.

Half Acre / City Provisions Farm Dinner

Every year we team up with City Provisions to take a bus out to a farm where we dine on that farm's offerings and pair our beer.

This year we're headed to Dietzler Farm where we'll be checking out the ways of their farm, having a meal amongst it all.
In addition, Koval Distillery is joining us so we'll enjoy a cocktail hour featuring their spirits.

Every year we have a nice time spacing out from the city and mucking it up courtesy of a farmer who provides a lot of the restaurants that serve fresh & local products.

We hear there are still spaces to be had. For more details and to reserve contact City Provisions.

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL