This content was originally published by The Hop Review, a digital magazine that joined the Hop Culture family in March 2020.
This piece was written by Tom White.
CCBW 2015 is finally here. If you’re like us and still nursing a headache from the first day of festivities, fear not! There are only ten days and hundreds of events remaining. One of those is The Hop Review’s very own CCBW event on Thursday, May 21st at 6:30. We’re partnering up with Lakeshore Beverage, local artist Nate Azark, and Brooklyn Brewery to present Arts & Crafts Vol. 1. We hope to see you at Galerie F next week!
To cap of the week, let’s take a look at some interesting news from around the industry. In this week’s Hoplinks, an Irish restaurant launches a beer, a brewery launches a radio station, a map shows what the city likes to drink, and Florida scraps a dumb law. Let us know what we missed and cheers to the rest of your CCBW!
NORTHCENTER, CHICAGO – Irish restaurant Mrs. Murphy & Sons will premier their in-house red ale Rua next week. The new beer was developed by Mrs. Murphy & Sons in collaboration with Ale Syndicate. You can try the beer for yourself at a free tasting at the restaurant next week. [Chicago Craft Beer Week schedule]
BRIDGEPORT, CHICAGO – Marz Community Brewing is starting a radio station? Believe it not, the brewery is spearheading the effort to “rebuild radio in Chicago” with their planned launch of Lumpen Radio (WLPN). They aim to fund the project through Kickstarter so, if you’re a radio listener (or would like to be), look into backing their project. [Kickstarter]
CHICAGO, IL – The Lakeshore Beverage blog celebrates the start of CCBW by featuring an interactive infographic of each neighbourhood’s best selling beer style (full screen version). There are few surprises in there (Lakeview likes fruit beers?) and a few we could have guessed (Euro lager in the Loop!). Definitely a fascinating look at the diversity in tastes, one of the many things that makes Chicago awesome. [Lakeshore Beverage blog]
FLORIDA – One of the more backward US beer laws has finally been righted as Florida’s Governer today make the sale of 64-ounce growlers legal in the state. The ridiculous law had previously limited to-go beer sales to less than 32 ounces or greater than 128 ounces. On the plus side, we did get to see the industry’s workaround, otherwise known as two 32 ounce growlers taped together. [Tallahassee Democrat]
USA – One of the weirder beer-centric products we’ve seen come through our inbox as of late is called the “Sonic Foamer.” Their promo video explains that it can enhance the flavour of beer by projecting sonic waves through your glass, resulting in the perfect head. In theory it sounds like an cool gift for the uber-beer geek in your life. But would you use it? Would you use it in front of your friends? [Sonic Foamer]
Image from the Lakeshore Beverage map infographic