Sunday is a good day for a routine. The weekend is coming to a close, and Sunday is the gateway back to reality. Some students get out of bed before noon to attend church, others call mom or even do laundry and a (lucky?) few rush dining halls for a hangover-curing greasy omelet. The list of Sunday possibilities is not complete, however, without the addition of a tour and tasting at Goose Island’s Clybourn Brew Pub, 1800 N. Clybourn Ave.
Every Sunday at 3 p.m. a brewery tour is led by a Goose Island brewer, who explains the beer brewing process in 15 minutes to about 20 patrons at a time. The next hour is spent sampling different varieties of Goose Island beers.
“In college you drink all the same cheap beer – Miller, Bud, etc.,” says McCormick junior Sam Rossoff. “You don’t usually have a feel for all that’s out there.”
But you’ll get one at Goose Island. The tour allows offers plenty of opportunity for you to your beer knowledge and your palatte.
“This is brewing, not rocket science,” says Patrick O’Neil, a tour guide and Goose Island bartender. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions.”
O’Neil says the “clean, crisp and true-to style” beer made on-location uses modern science in conjunction with traditional brewing processes. He traced the history of beer to Egyptian slaves who drank the fermented liquid made from grains rotting in the hot sun. The thirsty slaves “got buzzed,” and the rest is history.
Despite modernization, the same four basic ingredients – water, malt, hop and yeast – are used to create each draft. The ingredients are passed through an assortment of stainless steel machinery, such as giant fermentation tanks where the yeast is added.
“I wanted to jump in them,” Rossoff says.
O’Neil describes their function and eloquently says, “The yeast pee and fart out carbon dioxide and alcohol.”
O’Neil comically chronicles the rest of the procedures, while managing to answer precise technical questions from the audience. Sometimes it seemed more like a chemical engineering class, but the tour is educational on many levels. Serious enthusiasts can appreciate insight from an experience brewmaster, while the technically challenged can understand the anecdotes and beer trivia.
O’Neil says beer was called “God’s work” in medieval times when towns were established around churches and breweries. People who drank river water often died, while those who drank beer lived – minus a few drunken casualties. Thus, beer and religion were closely tied. Survival, according to O’Neil, really had to do with yeast in the beer which killed harmful bacteria in the water.
After the brewing process was revealed, the real fun began.
The tour group was led to a room at the front of the restaurant for the tasting portion of the tour. The room is home to the Siebel Institute of Technology, a brewing school where big names like Joseph Coors and Adolphus Bush took classes. Inside, two large tables were set with place mats and each seat played host to a stack of Goose Island plastic cups. Glass pitchers filled with six varieties of beer were lined up on the front table.
The pitchers were passed around in the order listed on the place mats, while the guide added information about the brewing process and history of the particular beer.
“You get a real diverse set of flavors,” Rossoff says. “They are beers to enjoy drinking with people, not just at The Keg.”
As the only patron under 21 – and therefore unable to drink – I tried to be inconspicuous by taking notes a table over. Pretending I had a red, “I can drink” wristband under my long-sleeve shirt, I hoped people would assume I needed to be completely sober to take accurate notes.
But my plan failed. Ten minutes into the tasting, a waitress popped in with three bottles of brightly colored soda for me to sample. I lost my dignity, but I loved the Orange Cream soda.
For everyone else, first on the tasting menu was 312 Urban Wheat, a beer introduced about eight months ago. It’s also the product whose high demand single-handedly increased production at the microbrewery from five to seven days a week, says O’Neil.
He says the 312 has a clean, crisp balanced flavor – easy to drink and good for summertime. John Hall, Goose Island’s founder, says the beer is meant to make you want to take another sip as soon as you put the bottle down, according to O’Neil.
Guests also sampled Nut Brown Ale, Honker’s Ale, Rotweisen, 18 Year Old E.S.B. and India Pale Ale.
Rossoff says his favorite variety was the Rotweisen because it had an unexpected banana smell and tasted surprisingly smooth.
Tours cost $5 and include tasting and a glass to take home. The Clybourn Brew Pub is open 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Visit the Goose Island Web site at www.gooseisland.com for more information.
Medill sophomore Deena Bustillo is a PLAY assistant editor. She can be reached at d-bustillo@northwestern.edu
