Night of the Living Ales, the region’s largest celebration of cask-conditioned beers, was held on March 1. Twenty breweries from Chicagoland and beyond provided 40 casks of real ale, while over 500 attendees sampled the beers and cast ballots to decide the 2008 Champion Real Ale of Chicagoland. After spirited voting, Surly Brewing’s Tea-bagged Furious (Hoppy) emerged as the champion. Goose Island-Fulton captured second place with its Imperial Stout with Chicory, while Rock Bottom-Orland Park took third with its unusual M&D Peanut Butter Brown. Congratulations to the champions, and thanks to all the breweries for supplying such an outstanding list of beers.
NotLA IV simply could not take place without the support of CBS members and guests. We also owe a great debt to the Siebel Institute of Technology and World Brewing Academy and the Brewers Supply Group for their sponsorship this year; Roth Kase USA for supplying the fabulous cheese for the fourth straight year; above all, we want to thank John Hall and Goose Island Beer Company for their unstinting support for CBS over the last 20 years. Goose Island Wrigleyville has been our gracious host every year. Thanks to Reggie, Minda, Daria, and all their staff for their help.
We realize that this year’s event was much more crowded than it should have been. We’re sorry that we oversold tickets, but can assure everyone that we will substantially limit capacity in future years. We know that this may exclude some of you, but this will definitely provide a more comfortable environment and a better experience for all who attend.
Here’s the full list of breweries and their beers:
Goose Island Brewpub - Clybourn Avenue
1. Debbie’s Special Bitter
2. Pub Stout
Goose Island Brewery - Fulton Street
3. Matilda w/Juniper Berries & Branch Tips (pre-brett)
4. Honker’s Ale (dry-hopped)
5. Matilda w/Lime & Orange Peels (pre-brett)
6. Imperial Stout w/Chicory (Bourbon County pre-barrel)
Piece Brewery & Pizzeria
7. Big Black Moriah Smoked Porter
8. Mooseknuckle Barleywine
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery - Chicago
9. Blitzen Belgian Strong Golden
10. Siegle d’Houblon de Moineau Belgian Rye-P-A
11. Who Are You Wit?
America’s Brewing Co - Aurora
12. Rex Grossman’s Big Play Barleywine
13. Kyle Orton’s Statistically Strong Scotch Ale
Brass Restaurant & Brewery - Lake Barrington
14. Anticipation Pale Ale
Emmett’s Tavern & Brewing Co - West Dundee, Palatine, Downers Grove, Oswego
15. McCarthy Red Ale
Flossmoor Station Restaurant & Brewery - Flossmoor
16. Bitter Harvest American Pale Ale
17. Milky Way Stout
18. X-IPA
Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant - Bolingbrook
19. Schwarzbier
Govnor’s Public House - Lake in the Hills
20. Randall Road IPA (dry-hopped)
Lunar Brewing - Villa Park
21. Kind Ale IPA
22. Orion’s Oatmeal Pale
Mickey Finn’s Brewery - Libertyville
23. Rye Stout
24. Irish Red Ale
M.T. Barrels - West Dundee
25. HopHead Heaven IPA
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery - Orland Park
26. King of Hearts Imperial Red
27. M&D Peanut Butter Brown
28. Naughty Scot
29. Hopbomb IPA
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery - Warrenville
30. Belgial Dubbel
31. English IPA
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery - Yorktown
32. Valentines’ Double IPA
33. 630 Suburban Wheat
34. McCoy’s Pomegranate Stout
Two Brothers Brewing Co. & Taphouse - warrenville
35. Cane & Ebel
Lagunitas Brewing - Petaluma, CA
36. Old Gnarlywine
Three Floyds Brewing - Munster, IN
37. Decimator Doppelbock
38. Blackheart English IPA
Surly Brewing - Brooklyn Center, MN
39. Oak-aged Bender (Malty)
40. Tea-bagged Furious (Hoppy)
