Goose Island Honkers kills time in Chicago O'Hare after a big Chicago parade

Final day in Chicago! It's been a hell of a weekend and we're wrapping up the weekend with a big event.  Gay Parade in Boystown is Andrea, Sarah and Whitney's favorite event of the year and they're promising, besides the appearance of Rham Emanuel and the first governor of Illinois to not be indictated, a 2 hours slew of wild and crazy people and floats. Sounds like a party and have the fater-aids and Goose Island 312 to prove it.

Yep

This one reminds me of David for some reason.

Afterward, the crush of people exiting the parade makes it impossible to find transportation home and we end up running drunk over most of Chicago hustling to find a taxi to a blue line. Only to discover upon reaching the airport, that my flight was delayed for 4 hours. Yup, very anti-climatic. So I made use of the airport Goose Island pub and treated myself to a 3 course meal with three different beers, including Goose Island's Honkers English Bitter.

It's crisp and dry with a citrus hop bite and the body has a toasted flavor that subdues any sweetness. The sip finishes with a bready, biscuit finish. It's an interesting pub beer but relatively unbalanced. ARMAGEDDON rating.


Even after a 2 hour meal and making friends with two couples around me, I'm still two hours away from my flight so I grab my bag and head to the boarding area. I ask a teenager to kick me when it's time to board and I pass out on my bag, full and content. A man to his word, he wakes me up two hours later and feeling like a champion. Thanks Chicago for a sweet time and see you soon!

Goose Island Green Line Pale Ale ends a lakeshore Chicago Saturday

It's perfect weather today and we head to a pool party at the top of a 44 story apartment building, which I can't believe they have here. LA has nothing that size and it has amazing panoramas. I kill a Green Flash Le Freak Belgian IPA and help Sarah get rid of some Honey Wild Turkey, which is dangerously delicious.

Drinking out of cups, being a bitch

After a couple hours we go down to the beachy lakeshore (the peninsula pictured below) and layout beside the famous Castaways bar to meet up with friends, including Andrea who is bringing Floridians who are arriving fresh off the train.

After a late lunch in Old Town relax for a little bit and then head to the Crocodile Bar, which was an entertaining experience. The five of us owned the back bar and danced away the night while soft core porn bizarrely played on a TV behind us. Andrea's Florida friends were so prim and proper at lunch today, looking like they just left a country club, but apparently any knowledge of charm school goes out the window after a couple vodka sodas because those ladies are dancing like maniacs. Very entertaining. It was just one of those nights. To accompany my bourbon and ginger ale, I found another Chicago based Goose Island to try, the Green Line Pale Ale.

Like Eddie Murphay sings, "party all the time, party all the tiiiime"

Apparently I'm learning all the train lines that run through Chicago from Goose Island, because the only train I know in Chicago is the Blue Line that runs from O'Hare. I wonder if they have a Blue Line style yet. The Pale Ale pours with heavy carbonation and has a malty golden body with a hint of hops that provide for a pleasant bite. The beer's body is a little on the light side, and reminds me of a really great Budweiser, if that's possible. It's a fun, easy going drinkable beer that I'm happy to down. ARMAGEDDON rating.

Goose Island 312 Wheat Ale in Chicago's Lincoln Park

Ever since I was introduced to this beer during my October Chicago trip, I've loved it. Sarah knows how to treat visitors and she greats me with a bottle as I arrive at 7am.

It's the perfect drinking beer, sweet and floral and crisp. THE perfect summertime brew and now I have the privileged to taste it during Chicago's best time of the year. It's not the greatest wheat ale, but it's my favorite one to drink. I could literally drink a sixer of this one morning never leaving my couch and consider what I'd just accomplished a great success. THE ROCK rating.

Geese! I dunno how close Goose Island is from here, but this geese are running rampant

We head out to meet Andrea and then relocate to Lincoln Park and play Bocce Ball while tossing down a couple of 312's. It's Friday afternoon and we're simply, 'drinking out of cups, being a bitch.' It's a favorite line from a very bizarre and hilarious video of a guy who's trapped in a closet on drugs (mushrooms?) talking to himself. They animated his ramblings and I've never become tired listening to his cracked out mind.

"Look at Mr. Balloon Hands....Who's chair is that? Not my chair, not my problem.....Why didn't I get invited to the Seahorse Seahell. What is this? Get real. I'm in love with sea horses. I'm in love with them, they're so beautiful and cute, I'm in love with seahorses." 

Oh the hilarity:

Afterward, we head to a friend's rooftop to BBQ and soak in the sights.

And Sarah leads everyone in several rounds of shotgunning beers, which I haven't done in forever and obviously lead to a great night. Cheers Chicago!

The girls are owning it

Goose Island IPA welcomes me to New York City, four hours late

This was one hell of a day. I wake up early and successfully fly standby for an earlier flight, hoping to arrive in NYC at 7pm rather than 12am in order to spend time with the broham, the brosef, the hambone himself, my brother Warren. However, as we're about to land the plane starts dropping and jumping around, causing the woman next to me to start yelling and grabbing my arm. This is what happened next -

True story. So our approach is canceled and we're diverted out to sea, and about an hour later diverted into Atlantic City. At this point we're 2 hours late. To compound my woes, my phone's screen is broken and I have no way to contact my friends in NYC except my brother, whose number is the only one I have memorized. Long story short, we land in NYC after being on that damn plane for 9 hours, and I f*cking needed a drink. Fortunately I have the best brother in the world and he had a double shot of Maker's Mark and a Goose Island IPA waiting for me when I arrive five minutes to midnight - just in the nick of time!

Goose Island IPA upholds the Chicago brewery's golden standard. It has a light caramel malt that's sweet but makes room for the robust hops, which don't overwhelm the palate. This is a very drinkable IPA, a hoppy midwest session beer, and it's deserving of THE ROCK rating.

Afterward Warren and his two coworkers, Mike and Scuba Steve (pictured) head over to Pop Burger for some 1am brews and burgers. Warren's excited for me to try his favorite Barleywine, the Anchor Steam Foghorn, which is excellent. I'm excited to try the Brooklyn Chocolate Stout (amazing) and our lovely manager/waitress Nichole pushes the Brooklyn Local 1 & 2 on us. I'm an easy sell them all. The #2 is Belgian Strong Dark Ale and isn't quite as delicious as the #1, but you still can't go wrong with it. Warren has to be up early to trade commodities so we call it a night at 2am.

A burger so big I actually had to unhinge my jaws like a snake to eat it. Charming Walker, such a class act

A long, shitty day of zero drink'n ends with a burst of delicious brews from all over the U.S. Thank you brother and NYC for delivering, can't wait to see what the weekend entails!

Goose Island Sofie Belgian Style Ale perscribes Chicago Love after one of those days...

Karl and David arrive baring In-N-Out, which I graciously consume after having a shoddy day. I'm moderately surprised they splurged on the delicious burgers, and they reveal that not only did David have a shitty day, but so did Karl as well as his wife Laura after she was stuck at the DMV all day. I coincidentally had my own problems with the DMV as well, but more on that later.

There's been a lovely lady wandering around our apartment and it's now time to taste her offering. I can't tell if that sounds like prostitution or human sacrifice, either way come! We're beer drinkers here in the marina, not Pirates or Mayans. Any brew from Goose Island gets our hearts fluttering and the Sofie is no exception.

It's listed on the bottle as a Belgian, but beeradvocate describes it stylistically as a saison and I agree with them. It's a Belgian style ale made with orange peel and aged in wine barrels. This process creates a golden ale with a very strong flavor profile including fruit, banana and citrus, making it more akin to a farmhouse saison than a golden belgian. Karl says it seems more alcoholic than its actual 6.5%. I wonder if that's a result of the wine barrel aging. If you like saisons or white ales, you would love this. Girls especially, who might be turned away because it says Belgian style, might dig it. THE ROCK rating.

My problem with the DMV began when I went to renew my license today. After making an appointment and going in, I was informed that I had a "Failure to Attend" (FTA) a trial and "Failure to Pay" from a traffic violation in 2006. I've only been pulled over once for having Texas plates while in California. I changed my plates and registration and paid my ticket...or so I thought. An FTA is a misdemeanor and stay on your record for 5 years AND they release a bench warrant when it's issued. If you're pulled over by the police for anything, they can haul you in before a judge and make you pay. So I'm freaking out a little after this. They irony is, I've been driving like a maniac the last 5 years and until I resolve this, I'm more nervous than a virgin on prom night

I'm writing this postscript - I went on Tuesday to the Beverly Hills Courthouse and they let me know that I wasn't going to pay $850, like the poor sob in front of me who was in a similar situation, or go before a judge. It was a clerical error, hooray! There was a mix-up between the courthouse and the DMV because I originally had a Texas license. Jesus, come on peoples! What a pain in the ass. Anyway, problem solved.

Sometimes you can do everything right and still get run around the block. Ah life, such a mysterious fig.

With Goose Island Pepe Nero and Blue Bell Vanilla Ice Cream, it's an oreo kind of night

I've been looking forward to watching this Office episode, where Dwight takes over as acting manager of the Scranton Branch. Chaos is sure to ensue. I'm also hot on trying the Pepe Nero, not only because it's from famed Chicago brewery Goose Island but because it has a great label and a name I don't understand. Apparently I'm a sucker for exotic, vague beer titles.

Also joining the party is a half-gallon of Blue Bell Ice Cream, a Texas made creation which my mom sent for my birthday in a Styrofoam box filled with dry ice. It's by far the best ice cream I've had in my life and I miss it dearly. It's the shit. Let's see if this beer is.

Oreo, get it?

This beer is real dark, like looking in Satan's Butthole dark. Pepe Nero is a Belgian-style ale and it has that sweet Belgian smell. The body is a mix of Belgian characteristics and dark porter roast. The roast is not chocolate or nut, but actual roast - like a mild coffee.

The surprise ingredient, written in letter so small on the bottle I didn't catch it, is peppercorn. You're reading this and you might be thinking, Walker, you write like someone who's brain been on drugs for the past 10 years, aka, you write like eggs over easy on one of those PSA commercials --> Why didn't you talk about peppercorn when you're talking about the other flavors above? Well, I might respond, because they don't taste like Peppercorns, you ignorant slut. The peppercorns add a very distinct but unsual taste, something along the lines of jerky or leather. It's hard to put my tongue on it (that's what she said).


This beer is well made, crisp, but it's not really tickling my belly. It's not very complex, even with the peppercorn. The bottle looks great though. ARMAGEDDON rating.

Delicious Goose Island Demolition accompanies my Home Brew's 2nd Fermentation

Goose Island has been good to me, so I picked the Demolition to keep my company as I siphoned my first home brew (code named King Moonracer's Revenge) into my 2nd fermentation tub.

Now the waiting begins...

That big glass tub is now sitting in my room with a towel wrapped around it and for the next two weeks my patio door will not be opened (to keep the temperature in the room steady) and the curtains drawn (young beer doesn't interact with sunlight well). Crossing my fingers for the best and I plan to bottle in about 9 days.

I bought this beer at Bristol Farms grocery store and it was quite good. It's a Belgian style ale with a doughy scent and a sweet full body that tastes of banana with a hint of spice. This would be an especially great beer to enjoy during a nippy December night. THE ROCK rating

Cubs win! Goose Island Summertime w/truffle fries

Cubs 5, Astros 4. Headed over to a Wrigleyville spot with Lindsey, for a beer. Ended up grabbing this good light tasting beer with a balance of medium hops and medium sweet, pale malt. Had a Bud Light in Wrigley so this was a good alternative. Lando got the Goose Island Matilda, a hef. It was also pretty good. We had to get some food in order to sit outside. Truffle oil fries, booyah.

The Summertime can be Harry Caray, for no other reason than to honor the guy for being really, really good - better than the beer. CUBS WIN!