Drink Up For Good

*Made possible by donations from: Breckenridge Brewery, Five Rabbit, Great Lakes, Lagunitas, Perennial Ales, Revolution, Solemn Oath, Stillwater, Virtue Cider, Glunz, River North, 12 Percent Imports, Vanberg & Dewulf, Windy City.

Someone's Having a Birthday...

Surprise! It's us! Bangers & Lace turns three years old and we're celebrating by throwing a joint birthday party with Old Forester’s Birthday Bourbon. This special bourbon, released annually since 2002 to celebrate the birthday of the distillery’s founder, arrived at Bangers & Lace via caseload — when most bars in Chicago only received one or two bottles. The 2013 edition of Old Forester’s Birthday Bourbon is receiving extremely positive reviews, so we expect it to move quickly. What we mean is, get in here and drink it up!

Complimentary passed appetizers, provided by yours truly, and bourbon-infused cookies are all we need to make this a real party!

It's A Sour Batch, Kids

We’re not normally into name dropping, but we’ve got some bold names coming by on Thursday night when we feature New Belgium’s exceptional Sours. New Belgium’s Lauren Salazar and Eric Salazar, two of the finest palates in the brewing world, stop by to sip by your side and answer your funkiest questions.

We’ll feature the sours we’re sweet on: La Folie, La Terroir, Tart Lychee, Eric’s Ale and NBB Loves Leopold. Not familiar? Here’s the rundown on two of our favorites:

Eric’s Ale: Named for longtime New Belgium brewer Eric Salazar — yes! that same Eric Salazar that will be at Bangers & Lace on Thursday, and points to you for close reading! — combines a dry, sour beer aged up to three years in oak foeders with a semi sweet, higher alcohol base beer. The resulting blend is re-fermented with peach juice, creating a smooth ale with subtle peach tones and a warm, spicy finish. The aroma has pleasant hints of vanilla and tropical fruit, the wood characteristics are present but nicely muted. A sour beer for those who don’t like sour beers. And a fruit beer for those who don’t like fruit beers.

NBB loves Leopold, aka, Oscar in Blackberry Whiskey Barrels: In the glass, this Oscar is molasses in color with a hint of haze in its dark depths. Like a vat used to crush berries, it smells like moist ripe oak and blackberry jam, while faint flaky crust aromas remind you of a berry pie. A whiff of chocolate and ginger add complexity. As expected, a brisk, puckering, enduring sourness is in the fore, offset somewhat by the slight berry sweetness in the background. The medium body finishes crisp, readying you for another sip of a complex sour berry journey.

Your Week, In Advance

Consider this your Save the Date for all the cool things we’ve got brewing at Bangers & Lace next week. You might as well just set up shop with us every school night, because we can’t think of one good reason to miss any of these events.

Tallgrass Beer Dinner

Tuesday, November 12

We're partnering up with Tallgrass Brewing next Tuesday to bring you five of their stellar beers paired with five amazing courses from Chef Adam Wendt. We'll be featuring Velvet Rooster + Zombie Monkie + 8-Bit Pale Ale w/ Cranberry + 100% Brett + Buffalo Sweat with Coconut & Mint from this Kansas brewing company.

Grab your tickets for this incredible event here! 

But wait, there's more! 

It’s a Sour Batch, Kids

Thursday, November 14

6pm-9pm

To (unofficially) kick off FOBAB (Festival of Barrel Aged Beers), Bangers & Lace will debut New Belgium's release of their upcoming sour line, with four unique barrels on draft! Lauren Salazar, “Sensory Specialist” for New Belgium, will be there to talk about their amazing sour line. 

Vote for George! On Tuesday, November 5th!

It’s almost Election Day! And yes, you’re still on the Bangers & Lace blog. We know that if you wanted politics, you’d definitely spend your time on a very different website, because as far as we’re concerned, bipartisan means you’re into beer and whisky. We don’t usually make a point of taking a stance on government, but we always make a point of using any excuse to throw a party.

So we’re putting forward our own candidate for you to party with on Election Day: George Dickel. You can’t technically vote for him, unfortunately, because George Dickel isn’t exactly alive. The real George Dickel died in 1894, but not before he put his stamp on a little distillery in Cascade Hollow, Tennessee, which now produces his namesake whisky.

Absolutely unique to the Dickel distillery is the fact that they are the only distillery in the country to have its own working US Post Office branch on-site. If only we could mail ourselves home after a day spent tasting.

Notice the traditional Scottish ‘whisky’ spelling, as opposed to the American ‘whiskey’ option? That’s typical of Scotch whiskies, which Dickel always proclaimed his product was on par with.

You’ll have to come in and see if Dickel was right on Election Day (that’s Tuesday, November 5th), as we serve up $5 George Dickel #12 Tennessee Whisky pours — including rocks and highballs — and $7 George Dickel #12 Manhattans.

You’re in Chicago, so we say ‘vote drink early and often!’