It’s Monday! And to hold to a two-week strong tradition, here is your Monday Morning BEERded Lady Beer Review. For this review I’m going right down the street to Piece Brewery. Or for those who like complete accuracy…a brewpub. I got laughed at for calling this place a brewery before…even though its called “Piece Brewery”. Sooo funny, I know. So what’s the difference? A brewery is an establishment that makes beer. A brewpub is a little more specific, defined as a brewery that serves food and sells its the majority of its beer on site. Piece falls into this category as all its beer is either consumed on site or via growlers purchased from the bar. Speaking of, the beer here is phenomenal. Unfortunately, I think it gets overshadowed by the fact that the community thinks of it as a ‘pizza place’ (rightfully so as their pizza is amazing). But the beers and the brewmaster here are award winning. Literally. They’ve placed in the Great American Beer Festival every year since they opened in 2001. My brother-in-law loves their Dark and Curvy Dunkleweizen. To celebrate his recent Chicago visit, we went to pick him up a growler….and they were out!! Heartbroken, we substituted the Top Heavy Hefeweizen. Together we tasted this beer…
Top Heavy Hefeweizen, Piece Brewery, Chicago down-the-street Illinois
Where It Came From: A growler purchased the day before from the brewery at 1927 W North Ave
In 3 words: Banana-y, Surprisingly Light and Creamy
Look: If you read “wheat. white. what?” you could already guess that this beer is unfiltered and cloudy. This color is hard to describe. Maybe like darkish gold, not quite coppery. Kinda like iced tea with a ton of ice in it.
Smell: Sweet. No alcohol smell. Smells like bananas. According to bro-in-law, the bananas are ripe, but not old…”let’s go with mature banana” he said. Oh yes he did.
Cool Fact (please help me think of a better name for this category): A modern day growler is a half gallon glass bottle that is filled with brewery (or brewpub : ) beer from the tap. The name is proposed to originate from the early 1900′s when beer would be transferred from bar to home by means of a covered metal pail. As the beer sloshed around in the pail and CO2 escaped, it is said to have made a “growling” sound. Kids were commonly sent to run and pick up the beer and the term “rushing the growler” was coined. I say that like its a common phrase. But apparently its in some old songs.
The Bottom Line: This is a refreshing warm weather beer that would taste best on a rooftop deck in August. No need to add a lemon-you don’t want to miss any of the flavors in this beer. It’s not overpowering like I find other hefe’s to be. I could easily sit down and have a couple of these in one session. Worth trying before the weather gets too cold.
1. ‘Truth of the day’ or ‘Beer truth’ or ‘Let the truth be brewed’…kinda funny (let the truth be told/brewed)…if you want to exchange ‘cool fact’, but cool fact doesn’t bother me.
Maybe on another post you can find us some beer referencing music.
2. I wanted to hear a song that said “rushing the growler”
3. I loved the reference to the prior post…what a way to get people reading!
4. I was eating a banana as I read this….I had to use little imagination to taste the hef as I read the description.
I would love to do a beer tasting with you. I suggest carbombs.
You had me at “unfiltered and cloudy”.
For your “fact”, what if you just started it with “Ferment on this…….” That promotes the magic that is beer making with the deep in thought ideas that come after drinking a lot of beer.
How about an “unfiltered” segment where you tell us what you really think.
I like the “ferment on this” suggestion…and don’t really have a creative one of my own. ((sigh)) It’s Monday, so I gotta check Jill’s blog. I LOVE it. And I love love love Piece. We’ll have to go there the next time I’m in town!