Capsule Found

The capsule has been found tucked under the power box behind the Lincoln statue where his quote reads in the park at North Ave & Clark.
Thanks to all who were eagerly hunting.

Cheers,

Half Acre

Friday is hunt day.

Ok, today is another hunt. In honor of summer and the backyard party, we’re offering the winner of this week’s hunt a keg of Daisy Cutter for their own backyard affair. We wish you luck in finding the capsule.

If you find it, you have to immediately call, text or email 773 351 5709 / Gabriel@halfacrebeer.com

So, go ahead, find it and bring it to us.

Your clue:

Find the power “Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.”

Best of luck,

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

Digs

Another big week in the brewery.  Pictured above you'll find the latest in handicap accessibility, chicago safety features and brewery allure.  

The glass storefront is in, the interior of the store is only lacking the reclaimed oak flooring & wall work, draft set-up and pesky licensing.  The new railings on the newly built second floor look very nice, and even though it never bothered me, it's nice to no longer have the huge, life threatening holes in the second floor.  Most folks felt a little uneasy about their presence.  

Half Acre Beer Co

Chicago, IL

Pig roast at Jack's. Daisy Cutter flowing in the garden.

The Hunt

To our loyal hunters:

We unfortunately will not have the hunt today.  Our capsule has not been returned to us, so we have nothing to hide and you have nothing to find.

We're sorry, but plan on having the hunt return next week.  

Till Then, 

Half Acre Beer Co

Chicago, IL

OK, one more experiment

And just one more experiment.

Attempting our first mobile blog. We'll see if this works.

Skull Rattle

Putting in some new floor drains for the new tanks we scored.  At one point I appreciated the accomplishment associated with jackhammering, but I now only associate it with skull rattle.  Either way, new drains are a good thing.

Half Acre Beer Co

Chicago,IL

It's Official

We officially have a storefront.  After 10 months of living in darkness, light now shines through. Now that we look like those kids from "Flowers In The Attic," we can finally begin to restore pigment in our bodies.  Fortunately no one was slowly poisoning us with donuts.  

Some more work to do, and we've had much bigger hurdles crossed, but this one brightens things in very concrete way.

Half Acre Beer Co

Chicago, IL

The Glass

For all you folks that have been inquiring when the store will be open...  Look here, we have glass installed.  A proper storefront is almost ours.  Almost.

Half Acre Beer Co

Chicago, IL

Great Taste of the Midwest

We're going to be pouring beers and having a good time at The Great Taste of the Midwest. Are you going?  If not, you'll probably want to alter your schedule and change that. Check things out here.

Hope to see you there,

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

Capsule Found and Tampered With

The capsule has been found in Humboldt Park. Unfortunately it had been moved and emptied of it's contents. Someone has meddled in things. We're investigating the events and reviewing the structure of our process.

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

The New and The Hidden

This week we got some new gear. See the 60bbl tanks above, thanks to Three Floyds, and some new kegs thanks to those in China who monopolize the stainless steel market. We also got a new second floor that’s capable of supporting tremendous amounts of weight. All the grain can now move upstairs and out of the way. All this has put a good vibe in the brewery and we finally feel like we’re getting close to finishing the “buildout,” on the brewery. The store is close behind, which is great for us both. The store will allow you, the faithful fan, to come and hang out and leave with beer in hand.

In addition, today is Friday and the hunt is on. So, go out and find it. Bring it to us and be rewarded with 22oz bombers of Daisy Cutter and a chance to check out the progress first hand.

It’s very important that you call, text or email when / if you find the capsule: 773 351 5709 or Gabriel@halfacrebeer.com. And just a reminder, the capsule is a tin cylinder approximately 3” round by 1”deep. Our logo is on its top.

Enjoy the weekend, good luck and here is your clue:

“They used his name twice in Illinois alone even though he only visited the USA once and never touched Chicago soil. Look to where the sun and wind power this place.”

Farm Dinner

This weekend Half Acre hopped on the bus with City Provisions and 40 other folks to visit River Valley Ranch, a Wisconsin mushroom farm, and eat a 5 course meal paired with Half Acre beers.

You can read about it here, thanks to Chuck Sudo.

The entire day / evening was a choice experience for us at Half Acre.  Eric, the owner of River Valley, has 36 beautiful acres where he grows mushrooms, corn, tomatoes, shallots, pumpkins, asparagus, onions and cabbage.

Having never seen a mushroom farm, it was wild to learn more about the process.  They grow them inside temperature controlled buildings in what basically looks like bunk beds for mushrooms.  They do everything, including harvesting, by hand.  

After checking out the farm we sat down for five courses of delicious food prepared by the folks at City Provisions, all served in a field.  Cleetus puts these meals together at farms all over the area -- I suggest checking one out.  Each course had Half Acre beer paired alongside, most had our beer actually incorporated into the recipe.  

We capped the night off with a bonfire.  You have to love bonfires.

Thanks to Romie for hooking us up with these photos that we promptly tagged.  It's always great to get out of the city and spread out a little.  Thanks to City Provisions and Eric from River Valley.  A great time was had.

Half Acre Beer Co

Chicago, IL

Construction buried the hunt..

Another week tramples by and we get closer to ending the long saga of construction that we’ve been dealing with sporadically over the last ten months. Today marks the most crazy it has ever been. There were guys in every corner of this place doing work. The biggest thing is that we’re basically removing the second floor in order to rebuild it about 4X the strength. On the east side we will do all of our milling and grain storage. Each pallet of grain weighs 2500lbs, so storing multiple pallets in one area above our heads could be dangerous without the proper reinforcement. The other side will serve as general storage. The retail area got a big sep further today when the new concrete was poured. We made a bunch of plumbing changes and upgraded the handicap accessibility. We also applied an acid to all the construction adhesive that was left over from the old signage and power washed the exterior. It looks a lot better without that gunk mucking up the joint. With all that said, I couldn’t get away to hide the capsule.
The hunt will return, fear not.

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL

No Ale Fest

Sorry folks, we will not be at Ale Fest this weekend at Soldier Field.  We have prior commitments to a farm dinner with City Provisions in Burlington, WI.  We will be pairing Half Acre Beers with the meal cooked on the farm with their harvested bounty.

Should be great - Maybe you'll be on the bus, too.

Half Acre Beer Co

Chicago, IL

Why The Half Acre?

We’ve been getting a lot of the same question lately, “Why is it called Half Acre?” It’s not something we address on the website, and we don’t layout an explanation to connect a specific meaning because we’d prefer people look at it in their own way.

We’re also not trying to be overly obtuse and have no reason to keep it under wraps, so….

In concept: The Half Acre is anywhere you can grab some peace and quiet, an opportunity to step back, a chance to sit and enjoy a beer and not do the other things that keep us occupied for so many of our waking hours.

How the concept came to be: I grew up in a very small town along the Delaware River by the name of Lambertville, NJ. This is where George Washington made his fateful crossing to shanghai the Red Coats and claim our independence. He camped right behind my family’s property. Across the bridge in Bucks County, PA, just slightly north, is an even smaller town named Devil’s Half Acre. Devil’s Half Acre is literally a half-acre of land with a bar on it. That’s it, that’s the town. It was built and illegally run when the canals along the Delaware River were being dug to give the men a place to go when done with work so they could drink some beer, relax and take stock before going home and being with family. A town for this exact purpose. It was dubbed Devil’s Half Acre because some men would stay too long, drink too much and fights would break out. Inevitably some men would be killed and buried on that same Half Acre of land. With all things, there is a line where a good thing morphs into something else.

We brought the Half Acre here, as for the Devil, well I suppose he’s here, too.

Enjoy the holiday weekend; take some time away from the daily course. This is what it’s about.

Half Acre Beer Co
Chicago, IL