Okay, I’m about to reveal an embarrassing fact.
I did not watch the premiere of “Brew Masters” on the Discovery Channel Sunday night.
Seems there’s no room in the household budget for cable these days. And with two sick kids, no time to head out to one of the bars hosting viewing parties.
This just at the time the ol’ Beeronaut got a little link love from the Trib’s “The Stew” blog assemblage of food writers, in the form of the “You might also like…” links at the end of each article. And I got five times as many hits as normal. But I also saw that most of the searches on this blog concerned finding “Bitches Brew in Chicago.” D’oh! Opportunity missed.
So on Tuesday night I’m making up for it by acquiring a copy of “Brew Masters” for later review. But right now, following is my list of places known to be selling or serving this special Dogfish Head tribute to Miles Davis.
If you haven’t heard, Bitches Brew is a 9% abv Imperial Stout made with gesho, an Ethiopian sweetner and brewing ingredient and honey. In my review on RateBeer, I gave it 3.9 out of 5.0, saying;
Chocolate and bitter coffee smell starts as we pour. The glass shows a nearly solid black body, with a parfait type brown head. In tasting, the texture is like a Coke, nicely bubbly. Dark and bitter impy stout taste with the expected chocolate roast. Honey is well established, as well. Don’t know if the gesho adds to it, but the total sweetness is like buckwheat honey. Finishes a little lighter than most overdone strong stouts. Ends up more like a strong porter, or even a braggot/mead.
I thought my sense of propriety would prevent me from saying this, but just using the name of this beer swing the article into “NSFW” territory, so “Where’s the Bitches Brew at?“
Bottles:
- Binny’s Beverage Depot, check ahead with your local store.
- Barley & Hops, 18452 S. Halsted St., Glenwood, IL (708) 754-9999
- Finnegan’s Irish Pub, 24102 W. Lockport St., Plainfield IL (815) 773-5177
- The Bad Apple, 4300 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago 773-360-8406
Draft:
- Bavarian Lodge, 1800 Ogden Ave., Lisle, IL (630) 241-4701
- The Tribes Alehouse, 11220 W. Lincoln Hwy, Mokena, IL (815) 464-0248
Update: I have managed to catch the first episode, and have episode 2 in my queue. I can see the pattern of how they censor on the show too: “Bitches brew” is acceptable as it’s the name of the album and the beer, but when someone at Savor asks Sam for a pour with “I want my B***h,” that gets bleeped. So I’m bleeping in that instance and taking off the “Possibly Offensive” tag. Hey, the offense was already in the title of the piece.
Bottle:
- Drinks Over Dearborn, 650 N. Dearborn St. 2nd Floor (at Erie), Chicago (312) 337-WINE (9463)
- Andersonville Wine and Spirits, 5201 N. Clark St., Chicago (773) 769-0858
- West Lakeview Liquors, 2156 W. Addison St., Chicago (773) 525-1916
- Barley House, 1520 Randall Rd., Algonquin IL (847) 658-5530
- Blokes & Birds, 3343 N Clark St., Chicago (773) 472-5252
- Durty Nellie’s, 180 N. Smith St., Palatine, IL (847) 358-9150
- Lunar Brewing Co., 54 E. St. Charles Rd., Villa Park, IL (630) 530-2077
- The Grafton Pub and Grill, 4530 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago (773) 271-9000
Prices per 750 ml bottle are around $12-15 for retail stores, $17-$30 at bars. Beermenus and RateBeer both show more places carrying the beer, so they must have gone back for a second batch.
