- I didn’t review all that many packaged beers this year. These are most of them, in fact.
I wrote 32 Beer and Metal posts in 2014, down from 42 last year, but the Chicago craft community was busier than ever. Though I like to think I made up for the drop in quantity with an increase in quality (and I did break a few stories, in my own way), I definitely overlooked some solid breweries. When I finally meet Clint Bautz from Lake Effect, I’m going to feel like apologizing to the guy.
- An early taste of Aquanaut Brewing’s core lineup “Early” turned out to mean earlier than I’d hoped when I wrote this in late July, but Aquanaut’s beers have been pouring around town since early November. Better late than never—and they’re at least as good as I remember. For reasons unclear to me, this feature had the longest average “time on page” of any 2014 Beer and Metal post—eight minutes. I guess even a few people listening through the 12-minute Buried at Sea song I embedded at the end could’ve bumped that number up.
- One of many beers I barely remember trying at this year’s FOBAB
- Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beer gold medalists include Pipeworks, Revolution, and Off Color I’ve been writing about beer professionally for more than four years. I should never end up so drunk after a festival that I have to concentrate with desperate intensity in order to walk. As far as I’m concerned, the only good to come out of this post was the phrase “pretty badly FOBABed.” I don’t care to revisit the rest of it, because of the shame.
- RIP this guy at Dark Lord Day
- Goose Island’s 2014 Bourbon County beers, reviewed by six increasingly drunk people This year my living-room Bourbon County tasting became an annual affair. I don’t know what I like more, the company or the beer—let’s just call it apples and oranges. On top of the 2014 Bourbon County variants, we split an old bomber of Rare, a fresh growler of Revolution’s Riot pils, and a bottle of Fantome’s La Dalmatienne, among other things. A crowd of friends is the best way to prove that the value of shmancy beers can’t be realized when they’re accruing gravitas in a cellar or fridge—until you pop the top and pass it around, even the finest bottle is just an expensive paperweight.
