The name Corazón, Spanish for “heart”, represents the pride this crew has in its rich heritage and delicious beer. Come along on the adventure, as Corazón attempts to make their mark in the Chicago beer game.
We have had the awesome opportunity to participate in 2 of Chef Won Kim's home brew events. If you have been in attendance to any of them, you know this guy knows how to put on a party! With that said, I present to you Kim's next endeavor: Iron Brew, a home brew competition!
What started as 40 brewers has been cut down to 20, those 20 will duke it out for a chance to win the grand prize of being flown out to Escondido, CA to brew with Stone Brewing Co! Second and third place prizes aren't too shabby either, second place brews with Two Brothers Brewing Co, and I think 3rd prize gets a shit load of beer from both amazing breweries. I'll take any of the above please!
Come out and root us on as we will be pouring our homebrew "Porter Jumper". We will also bring a couple other batches by for you all to sample. We wont be the only ones pouring, the other 19 brewers will be also so come get your fill!
More details below:
YOU MUST EMAIL [email protected] TO PURCHASE TICKET AND GAIN ENTRY!!!
Hola Amigos! Just want to make you all aware of an event being put on by our good buddy Josh from Powell Brew House. This event will feature 4 bands, awesome food and beers from 8 amazing home brewers from Chicago.This event will take place at Tesa Cigar Co on July 28th from 2 to 7pm.
RSVP @ [email protected]
The Sound Of Smoke Music Series, Vol 1.
presented by TESA Cigar Co.
in part with 18th Street Brewery & Powell Brew House Presents:
This is a private event, so follow the link in the email to reserve your spot for $25 (space is limited).
...and here's what will be in store for you
- 4 Bands
- Cigar Specials/Pairings
- Food provided by Chef Andrew Dering
- Home Brew and BYOB friendly
- All the samples your gullet can handle
TESA Cigar Co. is located at:
1039 West Lake Street Chicago, IL 60622
Which is just steps from the Morgan green Line stop
Don't be late, music will start promptly at 2:15pm!
Band Schedule:
You Black Kettle @ 2:15
Poor Elvis @ 3:15
The Brothers Goforth @ 4:15
The Jordan Years @ 5:15
Photographic evidence of this event will be provided by Tommy Territt Photography.
Questions? @ [email protected]
Hello and salud to all our fellow beeraholics! The members of Corazon have been hard at work in the hop lab these passed couple of months and also very hard at work developing our own beer pallets.
We have been fortunate enough to partake and participate in a good amount of beer events through out the city; from roasting pigs at Arts N’ Drafts to tippin’ them back at Beer under Glass. On one particular occasion though, we decided to take an eventful stroll through the “LP” of the great beer state of Michigan to make our own private beer event. I dubbed it the “blurry mitten” tour, after that universal back-of-the-hand technique that any Michigan-raised individual uses to describe the location of every Michigan city.
The trip can also be considered a tribute to the historic journey that sparked the idea of Corazon almost exactly a year earlier. The voyage was mapped and timed out to perfection as to not let any chugging time go to waste. According to trusty ol’ Google, the trip ending up being 723 miles long, which is the same as driving from Chicago to Atlanta. Any beer geek should be red with envy. Some stops were lesser known breweries, and others were staples at any tap room in Chicago, each offering a unique atmosphere and their own manner of presenting their liquid gold.
Here is a big gulp of what we experienced throughout our trip in chronological order:
Greenbush Brewing Company (Sawyer, MI)
This being our first stop I was a bit
skeptical, personally, only because I had never tasted their beers. They definitely did not disappoint. Their beers were great and the staff was extremely welcoming and informative. We weren’t able to meet either co-owner Scott Sullivan or Justin Heckathorn, but we were able to meet Scott’s wife Kristen and brewer Joe who allowed us to go back into the brewery and check it out. Their showpiece is a hand-crafted solid copper 7 barrel brew kettle made by noted coppersmith from the San Fran area named Fred Zaft.
If I am not mistaken, this kettle has moved location since we were there and has made its way right down the street to their new production facility. As far as beers go, their Brother Benjamin was crucial! A 10.1%, 114 IBU, Imperial IPA, hopped with Columbus and Cascade, flavored with clover honey and beet sugar really impressed us all.
“The ‘Shun”
A short stop at this beautiful summer home along Lake Michigan was key. Had some excellent grub and some of the beer we snagged at Greenbush earlier of course!
The Livery (Benton Harbor, MI)
Having lived in southwest Michigan for a little while, I had never heard of this brewpub. The location itself was pretty big and it included a stage for live music (for a cover). Unknowing to me at the time, “livery” is a fancy word for a horse stable. Their equipment is located within an old horse stable. I think the general consensus of the group can be put in one word; “meh!” The bartender was cool, but their beer list was way short of what I expected. A towny was nice enough to inform us that they normally have more beers on tap, but that we came at a bad time. A Friday night seemed like occasion enough to have more selection on tap, especially when their website boasts a pretty large menu. We had a good time, but nothing memorable. If anything stood out, it was their Black Dynomyte which is their 6% black lager with a westcoast hop profile.
Saugatuck Brewing Company (Douglas, MI)
This place was very unique. First off, their beer was good.
We found the most impressive beverage included in their flight was their 6.4% Neapolitan Milk Stout, in which you could easily distinguish all 3 strawberry, chocolate and vanilla flavors, just like the like-named ice cream.
Second off, they offered a “brew your own beer” service right inside the brewpub, which filled the place with that great malty aroma.
You pay a reasonable fee to brew your beer of choice, whether it be one of their recipes or one of your own, then they provide you with all specific ingredients and the equipment to brew your own 5 gallon batch (under their supervision, of course). Third off, was their production facility, which head brewer Dexter was nice enough to give us a tour of. The sheer size was surprising, but then Dexter took us into the yeast cooler, and that was where our jaws dropped.
A big walk in cooler filled with used yeast from the customer’s batches hanging in plastic bags ready to be used for 3-4 generations. A thing of beauty.
New Holland Brewing Company (New Holland, MI)
I think our group would agree that New Holland had the best specialty beers on tap out of any place we visited on the trip. El Mole Ocho was their 8% Mexican Spiced Ale which captured the true flavor of the traditional chocolaty, yet spicy Mexican sauce. The Doug E. Fresh was a well balanced corn
lager. The standout winner although was their 8.7% oak aged Blue Sunday Sour. This may be because all of us are starting to like sours more and more, but so, that’s what it’s all about right!? Ha. Their production facility was down the street but we decided not to visit it, but they still had their smaller experimental equipment in the brew pub.
Great job New Holland!
Founders Brewing Company (Grand Rapids, MI)
Guess we were a bit let down by Founders. Everything they had available we could go to many local Chicago liquor stores and get right now if we wanted to. And the crowd just didn’t seem to welcoming to us outsiders. No…but really, the vibe was off, so I chugged a glass of the always enjoyable 9.4% Double Trouble IIPA, and staggered to the next location.
BREWERY VIVANT (GRAND RAPIDS,MI)
We had a few people recommend this place to us already in the previous 24 hours, even before they knew we were going there anyway. A few things made it standout: #1, the pub is actually located in an old morgue chapel with the bar located where the altar would normally be, while the brewery itself actually sat in the old morgue (bit creepy, anyone?). #2, the food was incredible!
They had these pulled duck confit nachos that we inhaled, then each ordered one of their house burgers covered in a ridiculous onion and bacon marmalade. We couldn’t walk comfortably after this meal. #3, but not least, was their beer.
They offered a range of barrel-aged and specialty beers which paired extremely well with their unique food menu. All beers being inspired by the old school farm brewers of Southern Belgium and Northern France.
Hopcat (Grand Rapids, MI)
This brewpubs beer list was pretty extensive, meaning, very awesome! Drafts and bottles from all over the globe, and 4 of their own brews on tap as well. If you like beer and the more “clubby” feel to it, then this is the ideal spot for you. Not like there are blacklights and glowsticks everywhere, but you can tell the crowd is enjoying some good beer before they go out dancing elsewhere. May I say, slightly douchey? But the beer selection blocked all that out. The bartenders were surprisingly cool, so we had a good time. I personally enjoyed the Hoppopotamus, which is their 6.4% IPA. Then I got up and did “the sprinkler” dance move and started a spontaneous dance party. Jokes.
Dark Horse Brewing Company (Marshall, MI)
This brewery turned out to be real surprising. When you walk into the pub itself, you don’t realize the extensive facility that is located in the building right next door. They were lucky enough to acquire the huge space after opening the pub section and it was ideal for their expansion…and expand they did. Every mug for their mug club, which ALL hang the ceiling, is hand crafted ceramic by the same artist, making each cup unique in its own right. While we were sitting enjoying some of their pretty complex barfood, we were approached by a “tour guide” asking us if we wanted a tour of the brewery. Uhhhh…duh! So we followed him across some offices, which were built to attach the two buildings, into their production facility.
Even after all these breweries, we were still walking around like awestruck tourists. The topper was they took you up to a little VIP room after the tour and continued to feed us their 6% Crooked Tree IPA and their 7.5% Reserve Special Black Ale out of the tap for a while longer. Props again to Dark Horse!
The Palace at Auburn Hills (Auburn Hills, MI)
OK…this isn’t a brewery, but nevertheless, had to be mentioned. Even though the Bulls had a disappointing post season, we did get to see this overtime win in a sea of Pistons fans. Yes…I know, we should have killed them anyway, but a good game was a lot more welcome than a blowout. They did have a craft beer bar though, which made us feel a lot better! Ha.
Well…after all that, we had to get our mind right and driver back to the fine city of Chicago. I can confidently say “mission accomplished!” We met a lot of cool people, enjoyed some stellar brews, saw the Bulls win, and most importantly, remember enough of it to tell you about it. Thanks beer geeks! Stay tuned for more adventures. From all of us at Corazon…SALUD!
Hola amigos! On Saturday May 5th our very own A-dro along side Ian from Rude Boy Brewing System will be roasting a 100 pound pig for this shin dig being put on by our buddy Josh from Powell Brew House.
More details and RSVP info provided below the awesome flier, don't miss out!
A combination of musical arts and craft home brews. 4 live bands. 7 home brews. ...and a big, fat, delicious PIG. [Email:[email protected] for reservations] CHECK THE INFO PAGE!
Mission
Any and all proceeds will go to benefit Auxiliary Art Centers music lesson programs as well as help pay for the bands and any contributions made to the event.
Special thanks to Pete & Vas Foremost for their support and contributions!
Description
Email: [email protected] with your name and number of +1s to receive a paypal order and RSVP. $20 advance donation with an RSVP to reserve your spot, which guarantees entry before 8pm. Space permitting, we will also accept donations at the door.
What does the 20 bucks get you? Everything. All you can drink, provided the brewers don't think you have had too much, and all the pork tacos you need to soak it all up... with vegetarian options, and a great time with 4 amazing local acts...
General Information
Music will be provided by:
Ev Darst @ 6:15
Poor Elvis @ 7:15
The Dirty Generals @ 8:15
You Black Kettle @ 9:15
I am writing this letter to inform you that I have moved on from our long and hazy relationship. I appreciate all the happy times that we shared over the passed 13 years or so, but I have to be honest with my "Corazon".
A little over a year ago I met someone very special that showed me the true meaning of hoppiness. Her name is IPA. Now don't hold it against her! Her enticing body and aroma were too much for me to deny. So I did it! I let her touch my lips for the first time, and it was over.
From then on I started to appreciate others. There was a Russian named Imperial Stout, an Irish named Red, an American name Pale Ale, etc, etc, etc. They all showed me a world of flavor and craftiness that your "triple-hopped" attitude could never allow you to show me. Even with all the fame and fortune that you offered, I never felt that you were giving me your all. You were too busy getting your logo everywhere-from knitting forums to jousting tournaments-that it left no time for me and my palette. I needed quality, not quantity!
I know you're successful and millions of people love you so I know you will get through this quickly and painlessly, but know this; you'll never find another beer belly like this! Adios! (until the next hot ass day when I need a glass of water)
We pulled into the "compact car only" parking space with the Envoy right in front of the brew house doors. I walked over to check out what kind of equipment they were working with, and sitting on the stairs leading to the mash and brew kettle, was what appeared to be a Moonshine employee. He noticed our interest and waived us in.
JD, the new brew master at Moonshine was easy to talk to from the get go. He told us about how he is running the show now and making an effort to establish Moonshine's rep as a destination for craft beer seekers in the Chi. JD completed the Master Brewer program at Siebel, worked as an assistant brewer at Moonshine for two years, then got the keys to the castle.
JD was most generous and gave Los and I samples of everything they had to offer at the time. All of the beers were pretty solid. Los downed a good amount of their "Able Danger" IPA, and I was really impressed with their "Brass Monkey", a strong Belgian ale brewed with a moderate amount of Agave nectar.
After shootin' the shit and talking to JD about Corazon, we exchanged info and let him know we would be down to assist on a brew session if he ever needs a couple o' lackeys to clean stuff. After some persistent nagging on my part we got the invite to get in on a brew session.
On brew day we set out to make a 10 barrel batch of Moonshine's White Belgian Ale called "White Lightning". JD had me set up the grains and dump them in the mill when it was time to begin the mash.
The grain mill is outside of the actual building in a cargo box. The grains get fed directly into the mash tun using some cool mechanics that I can't fully explain right now.
My job was to keep a constant flow of grains going into the mash. Yeah...pretty easy...but hey, after dumping nine 50 pound bags I got a decent work out in.
Once the grains had all been fed and there was a satisfactory amount of water in the mash, we let it sit for about 40 minutes and started running grants into the boil kettle. Never heard of a grant? Me neither until I saw it in action. Its basically a 10 gallon pot that is connected to the mash tun. It fills up in time intervals that the brewer controls by using a butterfly valve. When the grant is full it either re-circulates back into the mash or makes its way over to the brew kettle. This nifty little video below pretty much shows the sparging process.
When the sparge was done its time to start boiling.
Look at that nice frothy head! After an addition of Saaz hops the air filled with a great spicy hop aroma.
While the boil is doing its thing it was time for me to clean out the mash tun.
Los and Johnny got here right in time to help haul the grains out. We had a impressive assembly line of grain disposal going. JD must have really loved the fact that we were there at that point.
Yes! Time to hop in the tun and scrub her down. Well...that was fun. Now back to the brew.
We boiled for an hour and then it was time to transfer into a fermenter.
Fermenter number 3 was the lucky vessel we selected to fill that day. The Moonshine brewhouse consists of four 15 barrel fermenters.
Wort in a real brewery travels through thick ass hardcore hoses, I got some practice in on putting some together.
These guys are actually a lot tougher to assemble than it looks. It took me a while to get the hang of closing the C clamp on it, but I got it eventually. Thanks for the patience JD.
Every system has some level of ghetto rigging going on I imagine, this brick here helped out in making sure cold water was flowing properly into the wort chiller.
Once all the wort and yeast is in there its time to close it up and let the yeast do its thing. One major difference when transferring wort into the fermenter is that you have to make sure it is at the right temp when it goes in. In homebrewing, we can adjust the flow through our therminator until we get the right temp then pitch the yeast on top. In the big boy system, the yeast is already at the bottom of the fermenter, so the wort has to be at the right temp before it can make contact with the yeast.
JD in his domain.
After every thing was said and done we chilled with JD and drank some more beer. On top of learning a ton from brewing at Moonshine we also had a blast. We have actually gone back and brewed again with JD and hope to keep going to gain as much experience as we can from brewing on their system. When it comes down to it...its pretty much the same homebrew process, except on a way larger scale with fancier toys.
If you get a chance to stop in to Moonshine we recommend that you do. You wont be let down by what their pouring.
Being part of the homebrew circle here in Chicago has given us the opportunity to meet some awesome people that share the same love for beer that we have. Lately we got the opportunity to brew with a few of our fellow beer heads. Here is a brief rundown of what went down and the beers that have been created.
Our first collaboration was with Bucky and Kyle from "Big Dicks". A lot of the Big Dicks beers we have tasted we felt had a great hop presence, so we decided to brew an Imperial IPA with them.
Now this was a collaboration in its truest form. Kyle and Bucky brought over their mash tun, boil kettle and burner to our spot so we could brew a 20 gallon batch of this monster beer!
The beginning of the mash....sexy.
55 gallon mash tun filled to the brim with over 70 pounds of grain.
We used quite a bit of hops in this one, yea, it was a pretty expensive home brew!
Here is Bucky explaining how much of a bad ass he is to Los. Noted Buck!
This was our first experience brewing with other brewers, it was interesting to see how people do the little things in brewing differently, we definitely learned something from them and hope to brew with again in the future.
After a couple weeks in primary we took our ten gallons of this brew and added some papaya to secondary. We also dry hopped it with a modest amount of hops to help build up the aroma. The end result was a very big hoppy beer, the aroma on this beer is really appealing to the senses and the papaya adds a nice note of both sweetness and bitterness to the final product. We are extremely happy with this beer and look forward to sharing it with our friends and fellow beer geeks.
We decided to name this beer "Fat Sacks" the name came about after we pulled out the hop bag at the end of the boil, Kyle noticed the size of the inflated sacks and said "Man, those are some fat sacks" and well...the name just stuck after that, This was our biggest beer to date coming in at 9.5%...that is until we brewed with our next collaboration partners.
And that would be Jason and Brad from "G.F.Y" . Along with Big Dicks, we met G.F.Y at Won Kim's awesome Brew Hey/Ho/Springsteen events, which if you dont know about, you better ask somebody! Brad and Jason make some awesome well balanced all around beers. We met up a couple times for some beers and brainstorming sessions until we came up with an idea of what to brew. We ended up deciding on a Russian Imperial Stout, I definitely have a sweet spot for this style of beer, so needless to say I was super geeked to dive into this one. Neither one of us had brewed a R.I.S before so we did our homework and sampled some of our favorites and were able to come up with a recipe we were both happy with.
To pull of this batch, G.F.Y brought over their mash tun as well. We decided to do two 5 gallon batches in each others mash tuns and then combine the wort in our 20 gallon boil kettle.
The aromas created by this dark elixir were reminiscent of bacon and other very delicious things.
Los and I most def got some catching up to do in the beard department.
Speaking of bacon, isn't that the most awesome piece of pork belly you have ever seen? I marinated that swine in maple syrup and bourbon for three days then smoked it while we were brewing, it was an awesome after brew meal! Oh and it was accompanied by some 2010 Dark Lord. Yea...it was pretty tight!
After more than a couple weeks in primary we decided to throw 5 gallons of this bad boy in a whiskey barrel, also a first time thing for both parties involved. Here is the Corazon half of the barreling experience:
Yea, we still have some catching up to do in the beard department.
"Malevolence" (you know we have to go with a dark and evil name for a R.I.S) is still chilling in secondary and in the barrel, so I cant report on a final product yet. I do know from racking it that its at least 10.5% and extremely delicious. We added some specialty Belgian malts in the grain bill and a bunch of Mexican sugar to the boil to give it a little something extra flavor wise.
Much like brewing with Big Dicks, brewing with G.F.Y was a learning experience. We look forward to brewing with them and other brewers of like minds in the future. What I really like about our first two collaborations is that the two parties involved were not afraid to try new things, to push themselves to learn and it was all in the name of making awesome beer.
let's see if i can remember the list of insanely awesome beers i drank @ Local Option last night - beers are listed in order of consumption:
Against the Grain/Mikkeller - Bloody Show
Local Option - Anthony of Bourdainia
Hopfenstark - Baltic Porter De L'Ancrier
Hopfenstark - Belgian IPA
Three Floyds - Zimmerian Sabertooth Beserker
Hopfenstark - Belgian IPA (so good i got it again)
against-the-grain-mikkeller-bloody-show
local-option-anthony-of-bourdainia
hopfenstark-baltic-porter
hopfenstark-belgian-ipa
three-floyds-zimmerian-sabertooth-beserker
We will be sharing our delicious beer alongside a few other dedicated home brewers this Saturday January 21st between 2pm-7pm. RSVP here for the address and more information: [email protected]
The name Corazón, which is Spanish for heart, represents the pride that this crew has in its rich heritage and beer. Come along on the adventure, as Corazón attempts to make their mark in the Chicago beer game.
