Die Oktoberfest 8: Tom Saldana

Today we kick off our pre-Oktoberfest feature, Die Oktoberfest 8. Simply put, we posed eight questions to HOPS! brewers whose creations will be available for sampling at his year's HOPS! Oktoberfest on Saturday, Sept. 25th (more info, including how to get tickets, here). We're excited to start with former HOPS! president Tom Saldana:

1. Where do you live and what do you do (when you're not brewing, of course)?

Bridgeport (non-political side). I am employed by the City of Chicago (Living in Bridgeport and a City Worker??) as the Chief Microbiologist. I make sure that the drinking water is safe to drink.

2. How long have you been in HOPS!?

I have been brewing for 17 years and have been a member of HOPS! for 14 years (1996).

3. What got you into homebrewing?

Old room mate bought me a basic homebrew kit and said we are going to brew. The first batch was an absolute disaster. That sparked my interest. I had to find out why it was a failure. The rest of my beers have been great. I brewed monster beers with big alcohols and hops galore. Currently, I have noticed that I have been becoming more stylistic (sticking to the Style Guidelines). On a side note: I am currently a BJCP Certified Beer Judge. I am a few judgings away from becoming a National Beer Judge.

4. What did you brew for Oktoberfest this year and why should people try it?

I brewed an English IPA and an English Extra Special Bitter (both with Thames Valley yeast). I also have an American Pale Ale ready to go. I brewed lighter style ales to hopefully attract the session beer drinkers. There will be a lot of beer to try at the Oktoberfest party. I want the people who really don't know the big beers to have a quaff-able beer that will not destroy their taste buds or get them inebriated too quickly.

5. What's the weirdest ingredient you've ever used in a beer?

The combination of cranberry and raspberry. The reason why it was weird is because it made my wheat beer taste just like Fruit Loop cereal.

6. What do you like to listen to while you brew?

Either WXRT or my I-pod. If there is a baseball game on, that's what over rules the music.

7. What's your favorite local beer?

Tough question! It is a harder question to answer than picking out your favorite finalist for a Miss Universe contest! I can say this though.... I have been blown away by some of the pump engine beers at the Rock Bottoms ( Downtown and Orland Park), Flossmoor Station and Goose Island! Metropolitan's I - Beam Alt was a favorite too! The Iron Fist Pale Ale at Revolution is mighty tasty!! Favorite local canned beer has to be Daisy Cutter from Half Acre. See what I mean? Too many great beers!

8. If I put you on a charter plane that would take you anywhere in the world to drink for 24 hours, where would you go and why?

That's easy! Vegas Baby! Vegas!! Las Vegas has a pretty good number of breweries : Big Dog's, Tenaya Creek , (the very shady) Ellis Island (behind Bally's), Triple 7's ( Main Street Station), Sin City Brewing, ect. All of them are pretty good. If I'm going to be up for 24 hours... there's no other place I'd like to be!

Sounds great, Tom... I'm getting thirsty already! If you want to try Tom's beers, purchase your Oktoberfest tickets here.

Oktoberfest is just over two weeks away!

Our annual HOPS! Oktoberfest party is just over two weeks away! If you've never been to one of our Oktoberfests, here's what you can expect:

1.) Well over FIFTY handcrafted beers from the award-winning brewers of HOPS!

2.) Additional award-winning beers from local breweries including Flossmoor Station, Goose Island, Gordon Biersch, Half Acre, Metropolitan and Rock Bottom!

3.) Food, food and more food! and...

4.) More Gemütlichkeit than you can shake an Alpenhorn at!

Here are the details... The event is from 2-7pm on Saturday, Sept. 25th at the Bridgeport VFW (conveniently located near the 8 Halsted bus and accessible via the Red and Orange lines). Tickets are $30 each (plus service charge; must be 21+ to enter) and available via Brown Paper Tickets. Keep up on the latest news via our Facebook page. And if you want to see what you missed last year, check out our recap.

To get everybody excited, we'll be doing brewer profiles between now and the event. But hurry up and get your tickets now. Last year's event sold out the day before so don't count on tickets being available at the door!

Beerfly Alleyfight is this Saturday!

What happens when you mix homebrew, food and art? BEERFLY ALLEYFIGHT!

This Saturday the Drinking & Writing Brewery will present its fourth annual Beerfly Alleyfight. In a nutshell, they get ten homebrewers and ask them to brew with some similar base ingredients. Then they're asked to prepare food to pair with the beer. They they're paired with an artist who interprets their pairing. Sound crazy? It is. Sound awesome? It is.

This year nearly half of the brewers are HOPS! members, so go check it out. It's from noon to 4pm on Saturday at the Rock Bottom on State and Grand just north of downtown Chicago. The price of admission includes samples of each pairing as well as performances from each artist. You can buy tickets and get more info here.

For a teaser, you can read about what my wife and I brewed over at my personal blog. If you're too lazy to click on that link, I'll offer you two words as a hint: Cocoa Puffs. You gotta be there!

May meeting May 18th (tomorrow)!

Sorry, I know we've been a little lax with the updates around here lately, but the good news is tomorrow (Tuesday) is our monthly meeting! It's at our usual haunt (the VFW Hall at 32nd and May in Bridgeport) but a new time (sort of)... If you want to sample some homebrew (or have yours sampled/critiqued) please arrive at 7:30 instead of 8pm.

At 8:00 we'll commence with our normal business and get to our monthly tasting. This month it's Doppelbocks and Eisbocks. I've got two traditional German Doppelbocks (Weihenstephaner Korbinian and Ayinger Celebrator), one American take on the Doppelbock (Bell's Consecrator) and two Eisbocks (Kulmbacher Reichelbräu Eisbock and Schneider Aventinus Eisbock--which is a top-fermented, iced Weizenbock and thus not technically an Eisbock according to the BJCP, but it's so good that I promise you won't mind). I've posted some tasting notes for the Celebrator on my personal blog here, and I hope to post tasting notes for the Bell's Consecrator tonight. Hope to see everybody tomorrow!

Meeting Time!

No posts for the March meeting, so let's get to April. This month we will be sampling American Wheat and Rye, BJCP category 6D. This style should have a noticeable wheat or rye aroma and flavor without the clove and banana of a German Hefe or Roggien. Hopping can be low to moderate. Bell's Oberon is a classic example of this style. Although the BJCP also lists Three Floyd's Gumballhead, it's aggressive hopping would most likely be dinged in a competition. But its still an awesome beer. Which examples will we try? Come to the meeting and find out.

Do you extract brew? Have any in a bottle? Bring some for the club only competition. The winning beer will be selected to represent HOPS in an upcoming BJCP contest. All entries will get completed score sheets with feedback from BJCP judges.

As always there will be plenty of homebrew! See you there.

February HOPS Meeting

The next HOPS meeting is Tuesday the 16th at the Bridgeport VFW hall on 32nd and May.

This month we will have the second club only competition of the year, so bring your American Ales. These include BJCP styles 10A American Pale Ale, 10B American Amber Ale and 10C American Brown Ale. These ales generally exhibit higher hopping rates and cleaner yeast character than their European counterparts. Don't fear the hops! This is a great opportunity to have your beer evaluated by certified BJCP judges without spending $7 to enter a competition. Judge volunteers are also welcome. The winning beer will represent HOPS in an upcoming AHA club only contest. Entry fee and shipping paid for by the club.

Style of the Month is Robust Porter. I'll try to get some great classic examples. Rich and roasty brew will be on hand for everyone to sample.

Last meeting was GREAT! Tom Saldana's Northern English Brown was picked as the club's best English Brown. Lots of Old Ale was sampled. Some better than others, depending on your horse blanket threshold. And the most exciting part was all of the homebrew. Some real standouts were brought by both veteran HOPS members and some new faces. We hope to see you there.

Where does Illinois rank in the craft beer world?

There are few things in the beer world that generate more controversy than RateBeer and BeerAdvocate. Some love 'em. Some hate 'em. Some (many?) love one and hate the other. Regardless of your personal feelings, there's no doubt that--much like Pitchfork does for music--these sites can really boost a beer or brewery with their ability to drum up hype.

Every year RateBeer comes out with their annual RateBeer Best list. The excellent site Michigan Beer Buzz recently profiled how Michigan breweries did in the Best competition, both with respect to top beers and top breweries. There's no doubt that Michigan has some awesome breweries, and the results bore that out. However, being the proud Chicagoan that I am, I figured I'd take a look at the results and see how the Land of Lincoln did.

And how did we do? Well... it could have been worse. We've certainly got bragging rights over North Dakota, but we've got a ways to go before we catch up to the likes of Michigan, California and Colorado. In the Best Breweries list, we only came away with three recipients: Goose Island (#26), Flossmoor Station (#75) and Piece Brewpub (#96). As for the Best Beers list, Goose Island's Bourbon County Stout came in at #11, and, well, that's it. The only other Illinois shout-out went to Chicago's own Half Acre, which took fourth-place honors in the American pale ale category of the Best Beers by Style list with its Daisy Cutter.

The good news is that the Chicago beer scene seems to be growing every day. Half Acre is turning out more seasonal/specialty releases. Metropolitan has started rolling out their seasonal offerings. Revolution Brewing just opened its doors (as picture to the right).

However, I think there's one interesting thing to note in reviewing RateBeer's lists. There are some clear style biases that may work against Chicago's beer scene. Seventeen of the twenty top beers in the world are imperial stouts. And while I'm too lazy to count all the rest, most of the top 100 that aren't imperial stouts are either hop bombs, sours, or other "extreme" beers.

Now, we certainly have some innovative brewing going on here in Chicago, but I also think that we have a Midwest vibe here (possibly tied to the German heritage of our old-school breweries?) that turns out incredible session beers. Goose Island's flagship Honker's Ale is incredibly drinkable, and their IPA--one of my favorites--is in the more modest English tradition. Half Acre's two main offerings are its Lager and the aforementioned pale ale. Metro is devoted to German-style lagers (and the occasional German-style ale). Revolution is starting out with its Workingman Mild at 3.5% ABV.

Now I wouldn't be surprised if the beer geek's pendulum of "in" beers swung back towards session beers in the next few years, but until then the Chicago area's breweries may continue to be overlooked. Fortunately, those of us who live here know what great beers we have at our disposal. And if you're looking for a little kick in the teeth, you can still grab a Half Acre Big Hugs or a Two Brothers Hop Juice. It's the best of all worlds here.