The Belgiumtown Brewer

Welcome to my weblog about beer, especially news and views regarding locally produced or (as is often the case) locally consumed beer! I was born and raised in St. Charles, and my wife and I recently bought a house in the Belgiumtown neighborhood. 

I've developed something of a passion for beer—in trying new beers, making my own beer, learning about the history and culture of brewing, studying the politics and customs of beer and sharing that knowledge with others. I hope that this blog is a useful, insightful and entertaining look into the life and times of a local beer enthusiast.

And what a time to be a local beer enthusiast!  Two big pieces of developing news came out yesterday. In the first, the Illinois Senate in Springfield passed its version of a bill that would allow small microbreweries to distribute their beer themselves. 

Normally, a brewery hires a middleman, called a distributor, to sell their product to retailers who then sell it to you. This scheme basically makes it very costly for smaller breweries to compete for shelf space with the larger brewers.  In Illinois, however, up until recently, all in-state breweries, large and small, could self-distribute; that was found to be unconstitutionally unfair to the out-of-state breweries in federal court and will soon be history. 

In his decision, however, the judge gave the Illinois legislature time to take another look at it, and to write a new law allowing tiny brewing operations some limited ability to continue the practice. They have until the end of the month to pass a new law before the judge's order barring self-distribution takes effect, so there will be more on this story very soon. 

The second piece of news is that Two Brothers Brewing Company of Warrenville purchased the beleaguered America's Brewpub in downtown Aurora (you may remember it as Walter Payton's Roundhouse). It sounds like they plan to continue operating both locations.  This is good news, because America's Brewpub recently fell on hard times, fell behind on their taxes and fell out of the good graces of the Aurora mayor, and it would have been a shame to lose another local brewery. Two Brothers is an well-run operation, and I wish them success in their new endeavor.

Last night I made up a batch of my famous "630" Suburban Witbier.  Five gallons of citrusy, spicy gloriousness is sitting in the fermenter right now.  I was happy that I hit my gravity mark and, start to finish,  it only took me a shade under four hours. I'll be looking forward to trying it sometime in early June.

I'll have more to say about each of these, and far more, in the coming days and weeks.  In the meantime: relax and drink a beer!