The Bar Towel

We participated in the Chicago Real Ale Festival on Feb 28-Mar.1.
The venue, Goose Island Wrigleyville is a beautiful brew pub which produces fine beer. There were over 175 cask ales in competition in various catagories. American brewers seem to like their cask beers on the strong side, as the average alcohol was around 6%. We submitted both Dry Hop and Black Irish Porter. Unfortunately, we were shut out of the medals. (We think it's the French Judge).A couple of comments... There were some truly bad beers there, some truly weird beers (cranberry milk stout) and some great stuff. The venue was very crowded and it was hard to enjoy the beer in your glass while clutching it close to your chest so it wouldn't be knock out of your hand. It was also hard to mingle with patrons and with other brewers. After our disapointment with our lack of medals, we went to Clark's Ale House ( the one with the huge "Stop and drink" sign out front) and cheered ourselves with copious amounts of Three Floyd's Alpha King Ale on draught. Worth going, yes. Going again, probably not.

Perry, I heard that there was going to be a few firkins of British cask ales at the Real Ale festival. Did you try any?

There were 12 different casks from the UK. I tried them all. Oakham JHB was not quite as good as I remember it, but I chalk this up to the journey. Dent Aviator,Woodforde's Wherry, York's Yorkshire Terrier, Gale's HSB, Mordue's Radgie Gadgie, Swale IPA, RCH Old Slug Porter, Wye Valley's Dorothy Goodbody's Wholesome Stout, Woodforde's Norfolk Nog, Harviestoun Old Engine Oil, and J.W. Lees Vintage Harvest Ale. This last one was phenomenal. It was 11.5% alc, but it was not apparent in the nose or mouth. It was aged in Lagavulin Malt Whiskey barrels. The result was a rich, toffee coloured ale that tasted for all the world like a 10 year old tawny port. It was so smooth that I had two pints of it before I looked up the alcohol content! Most of the other casks were underwhelming, I think due to the voyage. Cask ale does not travel well, in fact many lose a lot of character by being shipped 50-60 miles let alone across the sea and half way across the continent.

Thanks for the review, Perry. Your description of the crowds and being unable to chat with anyone made me think of the Toronto fest. However, it sure sounds like there were an awful lot of great beers to try.

I'll do my best to appeal the judging for your beers