Category: Craft beverages

Paul Fehribach, chef-owner of Chicago's Big Jones restaurant

Localicious: One of the Year’s Most Delicious — and Virtuous — Tasting Events

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

by Roberta Laughlin, FamilyFarmed This is what happens when you invite top chefs who seek out local and sustainable food for their menus, match them up with farmers who produce the region’s best ingredients, and bring them all together in one place for one great night. You get Localicious, Chicago’s unique, one-of-a-kind party on March 20 that gives Read more about Localicious: One of the Year’s Most Delicious — and Virtuous — Tasting Events[…]

Koval Distillery Oat Whiskey and Ginger Liqueur

Koval Hot Toddy: A Crafty Winter Warmup

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Good Food on Every Table recently posted a story about Chicago’s Koval Distillery and its key role in establishing and growing the craft distilling industry in the city and region. But readers don’t live by words about craft spirits alone. You want recipes!

Robert Birnecker and Sonat Birnecker Hart of Chicago's Koval Distillery

How Chicago’s Koval Distillery Launched a Local Craft Spirits Boom — and Its Own Competition

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

It was just seven years ago when the married couple of Sonat Birnecker Hart and Robert Birnecker decided to give up high-level professional careers in the Washington, D.C., area, and start up their Koval Distillery in Chicago. As recent as that seems, they did not join the craft spirits movement within the city of Chicago. They launched it.

The Chicago Hum-dinger cocktail

Giving Your New Year’s (and Brunch) Bubbly Cocktails a Local Kick

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

New Year’s Eve approaches, and the mind turns to bubbly wine. And New Year’s resolutions. And I can tell you from experience that few things stimulate creative thinking about those resolutions than a sparkling wine cocktail spiked with potent distilled spirits.

The National Restaurant Association's Top 10 Food Trends for 2015

Good Food Movement Principles Star in 2015 Restaurant Trends

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The National Restaurant Association’s annual predictions of top culinary trends are out — and it looks like 2015 will be another great year for the fast-growing Good Food movement.

Henry Schwartz of MobCraft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin

Crowdsourcing Ferments Financing — and Recipes — for Wisconsin’s MobCraft Brewery

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

MobCraft, a start-up craft brewery in Madison, Wisconsin, has gotten some buzz lately because of their efforts at crowdfunding equity investment. But crowdsourcing has been integral to their operations — even their beer recipe development — since the get-go.

Chicago Independent Spirits Expo industry panel

Industry Experts Shared High-Proof Insights at Chicago’s Independent Spirits Expo

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Craft spirits tasting events are, by their very nature, fun. But the annual Independent Spirits Expo in Chicago, the latest rendition of which was held Tuesday (Sept. 30), also has a highly informative side. A panel of industry experts ended with a roundup of insights on the outlook for the spirits industry in the years ahead.

Bourbon historian Michael Veach

Michael Veach, Bourbon Historian: Q & A About Craft Whiskey’s Role

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

If you are a fan of whiskey in general and American whiskey in particular, then Michael Veach may have your dream job title: bourbon historian.

Enkir beer

First Person: New Brews and Ancient Grains Make Potent Combination

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

the direction of the robust brewing industry is shifting from the conventional ales of our uncles to the specialty beers produced by the microbreweries. Among the new wrinkles: Many grains that have not be typically used to craft beer in the United States are coming into vogue — a stylistic trend that has also been fueled in part by rising concerns among many consumers about gluten.

Craft beer is using more locally produced ingredients.

Sustainability on Tap at Chicago-area Beer Fest

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

For most people who attend craft beer festivals, it’s all about the beer. But craft beer fits comfortably within the big tent of the Good Food movement.

Apples await pressing at Virtue Cider's ciderhouse in Fennville, Michigan.

Raising the Bar on the Cider Trend

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

Hard cider can be described fairly as America’s native local drink, the most popular fermented beverage among the nation’s early drinkers. And while cider declined and today is a tiny sliver of the U.S. adult beverage market, sales and interest are surging all of a sudden.

Craft Producers Adjusting to Spirits’ Growth Spurt

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

The Independent Spirits Expo held in Chicago Sept. 25 was a celebration of the rapid growth in the craft spirits sector. But a panel of industry insiders held earlier in the day discussed some of the challenges distillers face in addressing the growing consumer demand.

Frontier Whiskey Makers: The Original ‘Microdistillers’

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

With the Independent Spirits Expo coming up Wednesday (Sept. 25) in Chicago, what better way to warm up for one of the year’s biggest craft sampling events than with a tip of the hat to the nation’s original “microdistillers:” the frontiersmen whose stills produced the early bourbons and ryes that became the indigenous American liquors?

Chicago Wurst Festival Photo Gallery

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

The first annual Chicago Wurst Festival, which features sustainably and locally produced foods, got under way Wednesday in downtown’s Daley Plaza with an appearance by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Click the headline to view a photo gallery from opening day, and cursor over the photos to learn more.

Tailwinds Craft Spirits Bring Tropics to Chicagoland

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

Discerning rum drinkers in the Chicago area may debate which locale produces the best variety. Some will say Puerto Rico, others Jamaica or Venezuela or Barbados or a variety of other nations in the Caribbean region. Now, at least a handful of Chicagoland’s craft spirits fans would include a new entry: Plainfield.

Michigan State’s Spin on School Spirit(s)

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

The Artisan Distilling Program at Michigan State University opened a tasting room in July. The launch of the bar near the East Lansing campus fulfilled a longtime goal of MSU professor Kris Berglund, whose program had operated in a low-profile manner since he founded it in 1996. “We’ve kind of been the black ops guys,” said Berglund. “Now we’re coming out into the light a little bit.”

Oak Park Micro Brew Review

A Beerfest With a ‘Waste Not’ Theme

Posted on by bob.benenson@gmail.com

The star of the Micro Brew and Food Review Aug. 17 in the Chicago suburb of Oak Park was beer, of course. But as the photo gallery on this post shows, sustainability was also a major theme.