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Half Acre Decades
Celebrating Half Acre’s Daisy Cutter on its 10th birthday. On tap on April 20:
Daisy Cutter
Double Daisy Cutter
Fully Saturated Galactic Double Daisy
Quad Cutter
Smoking DaisyPucker Up for Tax Day
In “honor” of tax day. For fans of libations on the sour side, especially the Belgian kind. On tap—more than 10 rare, unblended, and still, Lambic and Gueuze style beers. Puckery, sour delights. Here’s the lineup:
Del Ducato Chrysopolis
New Belgium La Folie Grand Reserve PX Nitro
Gueuze Boon Selection
Still Lambic Boon Ale
Verzet Oude Cherry
Lindeman’s Young Lambic
Two Towns La Mure
Oude Beersel Still Lambic
Oude Beersel Unblended Gueuze
Elgood’s Coolship
Prestige 2017
Lagunitas Brett Stout
Dovetail Barrel Select (our collaboration)
Plus some other local treats.COFFEE STOUT SUNDAY BRUNCH
We’ve accumulated a collection of coffee stouts in our coolers. All very sought after and rare. We’re going to tap them all at the same time, at noon on Sunday, March 31st, the day before April Fools Day. We’ll have 2 special brunch items on the lunch menu, quiche and waffles.
Mornin’ Latte from Toppling Goliath
Coffee Dino S’mores from Off Color
Most Important Beverage from Solemn Oath
Coffee Fun Size from Pollyanna
Coffee Nephilim from Central State
KBS from FoundersQuiche—Smoked brisket, chives, cheese(possibly gouda), & a petite saladWaffle—Brown sugar waffle, maple mascarpone, blueberry thyme compote, fresh mintOrval Day!
Orval Day: Saturday, March 23, 2019
Orval Day celebrates a global flavor touchstone, a beer brewed within the walls of a Belgian monastery with a thousand-year history: Orval Trappist Ale. After a trout returned a lost golden ring to a princess 1070 AD,
she gave the “Golden Valley” to the church in gratitude. The current monastery has ancient ruins outside the walls and a brewery within that brews this bold, spicy, deeply appealing ale. The extravagant head, compelling bouquet, rich body, and sharp hint of sourness in the fi nish of Orval make it a favorite of professional brewers everywhere.First imported to the US 35 years ago, Orval is widely available. Merchant du Vin and its partners—the thousands of stores, bars restaurants, and wholesalers that sell Orval—invite you to join them to celebrate this amazing beverage.
A purchase of Orval always supports Notre Dame d’Orval Monastery—and delights your taste buds— but for every bottle of Orval sold on Saturday, March 23, 2019, Merchant du Vin will donate 50 cents to Safe Water Network, a Charity Navigator Four Star non-pro fit organization providing clean, safe water to people in Ghana and India. Win win!
Timmermans Lambic
FRIDAY March 15, 6-9pm~~Brand Ambassador will be on hand. Timmermans has been brewing lambics since 1702!
KBS Release Day Tappings
Founders KBS 2019 is March 15. We’ll also have KBS 2018, CBS 2018 & 2017, and All Day on tap too starting at noon.
Pi Day (The Ides of Dark Lager)
Tapping of Spiteful Dark Lager and Dovetail Czech Dark Lager 6pm.
And Pi Day specials for dinner —Shepherd’s Pie (local boar & ribeye) w/ramp mashed potatoes. And Blueberry-Beer Pie w/sourcream-whipped cream. Both made w/ Spiteful Brewing Dark Lager.Our Collaboration Beer with Dovetail
Hopleaf’s Michael Roper and Joe Huminiak and Kaiser Tiger’s Pat Berger got together with Hagen Dost at Dovetail recently to sample some coolship beers that have been aging in wood casks at Dovetail. These beers are essentially American lambic beers that ferment with wild yeasts unique to the area surrounding the brewery. Seeing as the brewery sits very close to and between the Metra and the CTA Brown Line tracks, I have to think that the wild yeasts are stirred up a bit every time a train passes, adding a very uniquely Chicago character to the beers fermenting in the large open fermenting vessel, the coolship. From the coolship, the beer is transferred to oak casks to develop flavor and character and to mellow. Since each barrel has its own distinctive environment, the beer goes its own way as it ages. Our task was to create a blend from the barrels we sampled that accentuated certain aromatic and flavors we sought.
We are proud of the result! Until it is gone, Hopleaf and Kaiser Tiger will be pouring our Dovetail Special Collaboration Blend. We are tapping it at 6pm Friday Feb 15. It is funky, complex and mildly tart. Compares with many of the Belgian Gueuze beers we have carried for many years at Hopleaf.
2018 Bib Gourmand
Hopleaf has again made the 2018 list of Michelin’s Bib Gourmand
Since 1997, ‘good quality, good value restaurants’ have been pointed out using the Bib Gourmand award. The price limit for ‘Bib’ consideration varies from country to country, depending on the cost of living. It’s not just about the price though – the cooking has to be good quality too.
Flagship February
Canadian James Beard Award-winning beer writer Stephen Beaumont recently wrote about the decline of classic “flagship” beers. At one time, every brewery had one and that beer often defined the brewery. It also was the top-selling beer that subsidized a brewery’s seasonals, specialty brews, experimental beers and one offs. Because the flagship beer was made over and over, batch after batch, often for decades, it was very dependable and also with the years, it might even be slowly tweaked to be better and better.
Alas, today’s beer drinker, more often than not, is always seeking something new and many breweries don’t even have a flagship beer anymore. While that has given us a never ending wide spectrum of flavors, it has been a tough time for many of the dependably delicious beers that defined the early craft beer movement.
Stephen Beaumont’s writing has inspired many bars across the nation to feature some of the great flagship beers in the month of February and Hopleaf is happily joining in. In our early days many of these beers helped define Hopleaf and were instrumental in building our business. We have decided to pick some of the best flagship beers from breweries that we’ve had long relationships with.
All of these breweries are over 20 years old. Some of the flagship beers were their first brews. Some were intentional and some not. Sometimes the public made the decision as to what the flagship would be. See the list below of beers we’ll be featuring on the first “Flagship February”
Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA ( replaced Shelter Pale Ale which now is available on draft and in Delaware only )
Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold ( although in their home market Eliot Ness is their top seller and in some other Midwestern states Edmund Fitzgerald is )
Firestone Walker Union Jack
Three Floyds Alpha King ( although Gumball Head is their best seller now )
New Belgium Fat Tire
Bell’s Two Hearted is tied with Oberon. ( Amber Ale was their—and Hopleaf’s—first flagship beer )
Brooklyn Lager
Anchor Steam ( The flagship of all flagship beers! )
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
New Holland Dragon’s Milk ( An unusually strong flagship )
Founders Dirty Bastard was first for many years but All Day IPA has recently displaced it.
Lagunitas IPA
Victory Prima Pils ( although they have said that their volume leader was once Golden Monkey )
Allagash White
Left Hand Milk Stout
Stone IPA
North Coast Old Rasputin and Pranqster tied make up 20% of the sales now. The original flagship was Red Seal.
Unibroue Fin Du Monde
Deschutes Black Butte Porter
Ommegang Pale Sour ( recently came out of nowhere to be their flagship )We hope that you’ll discover or rediscover these beers during the month of February and maybe keep a six pack of one or more of these on hand at home because these are beers that always please a guest or are nice friends to have around after a long day.