In which I try once again to write up brewpubs that I’ve visited. One day I’ll have several pages of these, with a list of their beers I’ve had.
Last week I had an actual in-person job interview in Rosemont. Still waiting to hear their decision, but I mapped out possible stops on my way home. One of those was the much-regarded Short Fuse Brewing Co. in Schiller Park (5000 River Road). They’re a production brewery, established in 2017, with an industrial park type taproom, and they’ve placed their canned beers with liquor stores and retail stores like Jewel/Osco and Trader Joe’s.
The place is easily spotted off River Road, and there’s parking around the building. Inside is a long bar in front of their brew works, with a barback showing off their many beer awards, including their 2021 Great American Beer Festival award as Brewer/Brewery of the year (2001-5000 barrels).
The lunch time crowd was light, being a Tuesday. They had a tap list of 20 beers plus a cider. The taster flights were a reasonable $15 for seven 4-oz. tasters from the first 14 beers on the board, or $18 for including any of beers #15-#21. There were plenty of imperial beers on the $15 list, so I got a balanced tray from that selection.
I ordered a small lunch plate, and thus the Smoky links and Parmesan fries above. As their menu promised, the links were very smoky and savory. Their menu offers a list of hickory smoked barbecue meats, along with the usual hamburger (and Impossible Burger) and chicken entrees.
For the beers, I tried to order a mix of lighter fare, leading up to big IPA and Imperial brews:
Classic American Lager – 5.0% abv
Bright gold color, thin layer of foam. malty nose with maybe a whiff of corn. A nice coat of lace stays with the glass all the way down. There’s a definite American Light taste. Like a Hamm’s or other “old” beer brands whose current corporate owners never fiddled with the recipe. A nice bit of fizziness throughout.
Amber Ale – 5.8%
They’ve had a Red Rocket Amber Ale in cans for some time, but this is just described as an Amber ale. A different recipe, perhaps? Lighter than the usual amber color. A small ring of foam. Equally malty and hoppy nose. Taste is a little “chewy.” Much more like a brown ale. Guessing German and English hops. Goes down very easily.
Dark Gourd – 5.5%
A “brown ale with pumpkin spice latte.” This is one of their beers that makes it out to store shelves; mostly in the fall, of course. It has Brown ale color, and a smell with more coffee to it than anything else. Some more coffee figures further down. The taste has a distinct vegetal quality you don’t get with pumpkin “spice” ales. Don’t know where the “latte” comes in, I would expect some milk sugar, but this has no extra sweetness. Just a bit different, which still makes it interesting.
For Goodness Shakes Tutti Fruity – 7.5%
So they have a line of Milkshake IPAs, mostly with fruit flavor added. This was the latest “For Goodness Shakes” to go on the tap. The taste is fruity for sure, but not too powerful, enough to imagine some of it may be from the hops. Still, the nose is mild, with just a pleasant hit of fruit. And yes, a tutti frutti juice mix in the taste.
Carnival of Darkness – 11.0%
Imperial Stout with Intelligentsia coffee, plus maple syrup and cinnamon. I can surely smell cinnamon and maple here. Slightly brownish black color. Taste has very little coffee, actually. Just a mild cinnamon and strong malt taste. Nothing wrong with that at all. I’ll hopefully have some other Input Syria to compare to.
Black Watch – 11.0%
A Scotch Whiskey barrel-aged stout. But oddly, this had a similar cinnamon and maple nose as the Carnival of Darkness. Maybe the previous beer just overwhelmed me? Or maybe it’s the extra alcohol mellowing the roast of the malt. And yes, there’s much more alcohol apparent in this one.
What the Night Brings – 12.0%
Imperial Stout aged in cognac and bourbon barrels for 2 years. Recirculated on figs and dates. 2022 FOBAB Bronze Medal Winner. Here’s the big bang of this row of seven beers! More properly black in color, and it carries a strong and lovely bourbon smell. The taste is a true “Wow!” There’s full-on cognac taste, but still some slight roasty bitterness asserting itself.
Selected Short Fuse Beers at Retail.
As I come across Short Fuse beers in the store, or on tap at other outlets, I’ll be tracking them here.
Bear-ie White Wheat Ale, 4.8%
Probably their best known packaged beer, in that it’s made with plenty of added Gummi Bears. It pours very hazy, visible floaty bits appropriate to a weizen. Kicks up a spongy head that takes a while to dissipate. The smell has a bit of tartness like a fruit beer, and some wheat beer spice, but not a lot. Tasting gets me a bit of sweetness and fruit flavor, I am suspecting from fructose in those gummies. After the first half, the taste kind of becomes saccharine. It’s okay, but you need to be ready for it.
Bottle Rocket Belgian Style IPA 8.0%
One of their earlier packaged beers, when they were naming them after kinds of fireworks. Untappd shows the last check-in in 2021, so I’ll need to keep an eye out. My last can was in 2019: Dark amber pour under a fizzy head. A little hop and candi sugar in the nose, some aromatic malt and a note of spice. The taste was pretty sweet. Hop bitterness is low. Instead there’s a bit of fruit; like apple and grape, perhaps. Slight bite of yeast suggests a secondary ferment, but it’s very subtle. And the beer is pretty clear. Sweetness forces attention away from any extra alcohol.
IPA Bomb, 6.9%
I’m supposing this was their flagship IPA, before they got all caught up in the Milkshake stuff. It does turn up on tap, still. Then the nose showed solid pine and resin American Pale Ale. Pours a slightly hazy copper beer under a foamy off-white head. The first thing on the tongue is a very sticky malt presence. For once, malts that try to push aside the strong American hop profile. The result is a pretty heft, almost Imperial IPA profile for an only slightly elevated IPA. Pretty good for one of their standard canned beers.
