Food truck Friday, Great Taste, Barrel Aged Sour Tapping

Oh? High! I didn't even see you there. 

Have a seat. Take your shoes off.

Can I get you a water? Still or sparkling?

We really need to talk.

Tomorrow night, here in the Wine Styles parking lot, we're going to have (probably) our last Food Truck of the season. Chicago Lunchbox is going to be here from 5pm to 8pm. Chicago Lunchbox serves traditional Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Filipino cuisine with a twist! Offering your choice of banh mi, tacos, ricebowls, salads and more.

These food trucks are always a great way to spend your Friday evening. Eat it outside Wine Styles, eat it inside IBW. Eat it inside Wine Styles or eat it out back in the premier luxury back patio at IBW. Just eat it. Here. And drink. And do it all with your friends and neighbors and suspicious strangers.

If you need more info and if you want to pre-order (recommended!), go here. 

To help celebrate eating and Friday, we've got 2 very exciting tappings we'll be doing: THE PROPER GLASSWARE IS AN EMPTY HEAD is back in action. This is one of our favorite DDH DIPAs that we do here at IBW. The Waimea hops and Citra really make this bird sing. This will be tapped at 4pm when we open and will change your life for you, no action required on your part other than drinking an 8% beer on a Friday.

We're also tapping - and, damn, excuse while I weep a little (I'm very excited!) - THE WISDOM OF THE STAIRCASE #1... this is a sour brettanomyces farmhouse aged in Sauvignon Blanc barrels from City Winery and dosed with fresh Mango juice. This is super rare and the first in a very strong series that is going to be available only at IBW Lodge #1 (with one exception that we'll get to in a second). Seriously, come get this. This will also change your life. And, let's be honest, your life needs some changing. Ammiright? (I am!)

Now, while I'd love to say that I'll be here to sit in the back office and watch you all eat and drink on our closed circuit cameras, that's just not true. Not this Friday, anyway. Nope. Instead Jason, Rick, me and our new work release sponsorship, Jason Pritchett, will be heading to Madison, WI for the Great Taste of the Midwest. If you know, I don't need to tell you. But, if you don't know, you need to tighten it up a little bit and make sure you get out to Great Taste of the Midwest next year. It's my favorite beer event of the year and for good reason. It's run like a Swiss watch, it's outside on the beautiful lakes in Madison and all the breweries bring their A game. So many festivals you get phoned in beer offerings from breweries, but not the Great Taste of the Midwest. No, ma'am. 

Here's what we're bringing this year:

• Proper Glassware is an Empty Head (8% DDH DIPA)

• Prickly Pearadolia (6% Farmhouse w/ Prickly Pear)

• Extra Thick Slushy 7 (6% Seltzer w/ Pineapple, Sweet Cherry, Lemon, Pistachio, Coconut & Marshmallow)

• Orange Sunshine (5.4% Citrus Saison)

• The Wisdom of the Staircase #1 w/ Mango (Sour Brett Farmhouse BA in Sauv Blanc barrels)

• The Wisdom of the Staircase #2 w/ Passion Fruit (Sour Brett Farmhouse BA in Sauv Blanc barrels)

Please come by and see us, we're in the 200 tent, close enough to Une Aneé to really ruin Jerry's day if we try hard enough (we will!). We've got fresh printed stickers to give to people we like, even these hot new, state-of-the-art bumper stickers.
It's gonna be a great weekend!

Speaking of Slushy Things, we're packaging our newest Slushy Thing #8: The Garden of Dave's Delights on Tuesday. This will be available on Tuesday at the Lodge and out on the mean streets later next week. This one is a real dandy, let me tell you.

HOLY CRAP!!! Did you know that MURDER BINGO is every Wednesday night? If you haven't been yet, you are missing out on a bigly deal. Handsome Rob carries your dark spirit through the trashy maze of troubling films and, if you get 5 horror movie tropes in a row, you win a beer! This is every Wednesday starting at 9pm. MURDER BINGO is STRICTLY 21+.

Also, don't know if you saw, but there's new shirts for sale on our website. They are H4WT as no one says anymore:

Order these now from our ridiculously unmanaged website at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/cult-propoganda for inflation-ready jacked up prices!

You can see all of our event calendar for the month at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/events

You can see what's currently on tap at IBW LODGE #1 at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/whats-on-tap

That's all I've got. Why not go ride your bike today, it's BEAUTIFUL out there!!

IBW Wins! Forrest & Fischer are Back! Kolsch!

Oh, hi.

Big news from this past weekend. IBW won BOTH categories it entered for the Chicago Beer Society Hazy Days competition! How about that?

ASTRONAUT EYE SCREAM won 1st Place for Best Modern Hazy and DOUBLE DIPPED ORANGE SUNSHINE won 1st Place for Best Experimental Hazy. 

We're all pretty stoked about this as we were competing against pretty much every brewery in Chicago here worth its salts. We love our friends and colleagues in Chicago's wild and vibrant beer scene (or a fair majority of them, anyway) and we love beating them in competitions almost as much. I kid (a little), but it does feel good to be recognized now and again. So THANK YOU to everybody who came out and all the well-informed people of exceptional taste who did the voting. We couldn't have done it without you.

You can get ASTRONAUT EYESCREAM at IBW Lodge #1 (in 4-packs and draft) and all the decent bottle shops in Chicago and the burbs (Binny's, Beermiscuous, Beer Temple, Bitter Pops, Capones, Bottles & Cans, Beer Shoppe, Orange & Brew... you get the idea). And you can get DOUBLE DIPPED ORANGE SUNSHINE on tap at IBW Lodge #1 (we are sold out of package) and in 4-packs at some bottle shops (listed above, etc) that still have some. But, fear not! If you didn't get any DDOS this time around, we'll be making more DOUBLE DIPPED ORANGE SUNSHINE in the near future.

You asked (and drank and bought) and we listened for once! DER ZAUBERSTAUB, our take on the perennial Kolsch style ale that has been proven to whiten your teeth, strengthen your bones and educate your children, is back in package and on draft!

You can get Der Zauberstab at the Lodge in package (today) and (tomorrow) draft and it goes out to accounts starting next week. As always, most accounts are getting it, but, if you don't see it, talk to your beer buyer and tell them they will be splayed across flesh hooks for 1,000 lifetimes in a sulphuric-smelling locker room around rural Alabama if they don't pick it up. This is proven science.

TOMORROW NIGHT!! FORREST & FISHER'S OUTLAW BLUEGRASS HAPPY HOUR is back with a loving vengeance. They had to cancel their show on 7/14 due to the plague, but they're coming back this Thursday to bring you all that 6-string love you need. These guys do 2 sets of fan-fucking-tastic bluegrass music and it's completely, entirely, 100% free to you and yours! 

If you haven't been yet, you are truly missing out. The first set starts around 8pm. Don't be a deadbeat, get over here!

HOLY CRAP!!! Did you know that MURDER BINGO is tonight? If you haven't been yet, you are missing out on a bigly deal. Handsome Rob carries your dark spirit through the trashy maze of troubling films and, if you get 5 horror movie tropes in a row, you win a beer! This is every Wednesday starting at 9pm. MURDER BINGO is STRICTLY 21+.

Also, don't know if you saw, but there's new shirts for sale on our website. They are H4WT as no one says anymore:

Order these now from our ridiculously unmanaged website at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/cult-propoganda for inflation-ready jacked up prices!

You can see all of our event calendar for the month at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/events

You can see what's currently on tap at IBW LODGE #1 at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/whats-on-tap

That's all I've got. Why not go ride your bike today, it's BEAUTIFUL out there!!

FREE MUSIC TONIGHT & SATURDAY @ IBW LODGE #1

What's up, sailors?

We've got two great nights of FREE MUSIC at our little sweat shop this week. You shouldn't miss either of these because, well, life is happening and death is coming!

TONIGHT!! FORREST & FISHER'S OUTLAW BLUEGRASS HAPPY HOUR is back with a loving vengeance. These guys do 2 sets of fan-fucking-tastic bluegrass music and it's completely, entirely, 100% free to you and yours!

If you haven't been yet, you are truly missing out. The first set starts around 8pm. Don't be a deadbeat, get over here!

This Saturday, July 16th, to help celebrate America's favorite holiday, Bastille Day (a couple days late... as you do!), the inimitable TIJUANA HERCULES will be riding their fish-flanked Jalopy to our doorstep and knocking you out with their meat-sweaty rock n' roll.

We consulted an AI generated Ouija board about Tijuana Hercules and this is what it said (after minor spelling corrections):

Tijuana Hercules is a long running Chicago based hillbilly trance group. A cross between boundary-busting blues and tangled psychedelic roots music. THIS groove has been known to cure dozens of malaise and a few that have yet to be discovered by modern medicine.

To honor all the Americans who slept through the original Bastille Day, this rock n' roll show will be 100% and completely FREE! What? FREE, I SAID.

The evil will begin around 10:15pm on Saturday. So load up your baguettes and get your dumb selves out here for a fantastic little throw down.

Oh, hey. We packaged a new batch of our 8% Lactose DDH DIPA w/ Galaxy, ASTRONAUT EYE SCREAM, on Tuesday and it's on tap and available in 4-packs at the Lodge. It goes out to stores early next week.

New Beer, New Slushies & War on Xmas in July!

This Sunday - as everyone is revving up their red, white & blue pocked livers to celebrate our fair country's annual memory of independence in some half-baked orgy of meat, explosives and booze - your casual friends here at IBW LODGE #1 will be throwing a little fluffer party to get you started.

WAR ON XMAS IN JULY is this Sunday from 2pm - 10pm (yes yes yes, we've extended our hours just so you can drink a little more than you probably need to or should)! Handsome Rob is resurrecting our Xmas decorations (and I think some Halloween ones too, because... Halloween!), we'll be playing crummy Xmas music all day and we'll have $5 cans of WAR ON XMAS white egg nog stout for you to drink oh so responsibly. 

We've also got TO-GO War on Xmas 4-packs for $10 and TO-GO War on Xmas cases for $50. And, to help make sure you do the full July 4th celebration in finest patriotic style, we also have all of our TO-GO beer available at 10% OFF, Sunday Only.

So, if you're the kind of deranged, sick-o who likes to flog themselves with 11% beer in the middle of the summer, we've popped this little 2 man tent just for you.

We've also got a SANTA IN JULY COSTUME CONTEST that you'll want to not be square about and remember to participate in. You can interpret this foul prescription in whatever obtuse and categorically lenient way that you so desire, but do keep in mind there are sweet prizes on the line. Yes, we'll have the old faithful Gift Cards for some of the prizes. But we've also got some notable junk from the wonderful and busy beautiful people at AERIZ AEROPONICALLY GROWN PURE & CONSISTENT CANNABIS COMPANY. That's a bit of a mouthful, but, who doesn't like their mouth full? 

The COSTUME CONTEST winners will be picked and announced around 8pm on Sunday. You have to be here to win. And you have to be in costume - or real freaking charming - to win also. We've got a few other surprise prizes for you creeps as well including a skateboard deck and a few other things you will want and we will try not to give you.

Here's the Facebook event link , if you are one of those folks who spends time on Facebook. I hate to encourage it, that place is a cess pool, but I hear tell some humans still go there. So, this link is for you. Enjoy!

We dropped our newest SLUSHY THING this week. SLUSHY THING 7: THE WATERGATE SALAD AFFAIR is so damn good. Be like a sweaty Richard Nixon and drink it until you're blue in the face! This beady-eyed little seltzer-based criminal is loaded with 30% Pineapple, Lemon & Sweet Cherry as well as Coconut, Pistachios, Marshmallow & a whole bunch of incriminating lactose sugar. I promise, if you bring this to your Freedom Bender on Monday, you will be worshipped like a Space God who was just spit forth from the eye of the  Sun.

We've also got fresh batches of FRUIT CREEP and WATERMELON GUN that are tasting bonkers good. That WATERMELON GUN has 2.5 watermelons per barrel and you feel it, son. You feel it. That's right, we don't cop out with jolly rancher tasting extracts, we make our abused brew staff process those watermelons by hand the way a goddess intended.

You can grab these delightful intoxicants either at IBW LODGE #1 or at any decent, self-respecting bottle shop or liquor conglomerate around Chicago and the burbs, and in some lovely spots in Ohio, Florida, Colorado & Utah. So, why don't you do that then, eh?

Holy crap, you guys, HAPPY LOBSTER FOOD TRUCK is coming back. Friday, July 8th, Chicago's only food truck owned and operated by squirrels that serves amazing lobster rolls is back! There is a small chance that they will be able to honor some walk-up orders, but, if you want to make holy sure that you get a hot & buttered lobster roll NEXT FRIDAY July 8th then you should go to this link and submit to ordering now.

There's no end of dumb fun to be had at IBW LODGE #1 in this troubled month of July. The Lobster Truck is just the start. Here's a few more hits to make sure you take and take regularly:

• Every Tuesday @ 7:30pm TRIVIA W/ MR. KING!!! Win prizes, reveal the depth of your ignorance, fight to the death!

• Every Wednesday @ 9pm MURDER BINGO w/ HANDSOME ROB. Get 5 horror move tropes in a row and you win a pint of beer!

• THURSDAY JULY 14TH @ 8pm, It's the return of FISCHER & FORREST OUTLAW BLUEGRASS HAPPY HOUR(S). You know it, you love it, come get a slice!

• SATURDAY JULY 16TH @ 10pm, TIJUANA HERCULES is playing a FREE SHOW!

• THURSDAY JULY 21 @ 7:30pm, ROBOT KARAOKE. Nut up and sing like the future of cheese pizza depends on it!

You can see all of our event calendar for the month at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/events

You can see what's currently on tap at IBW LODGE #1 at https://www.ibw-chicago.com/whats-on-tap

Gay Agenda Release Party TONIGHT!

Top of the Morning!

We've got the long awaited return of GAY AGENDA being released tonight at IBW LODGE #1!

It's been 3 years since we made GAY AGENDA last (COVID lockdown blew it up in 2020, production issues with a contractor blew it up last year) and it's tasting better than ever. We couldn't be more excited to share it with you.

Made with about 2lbs/bbl of peach puree and dry hopped with Idaho 7 & Citra, this 7.5% Double Dry Hopped Double IPA is a fantastic way to quench your thirst, soften the edges of your mind, and get over your hang ups (however interesting you think they might be!).

Pride Month and Gay Pride and LGBTQ rights (and all of the contiguous and adjacent rights to those) contain in them so much: Human Dignity. Civil Rights. The Right to privacy. The Right to publicity. The right to be. The Right to be in public. The Right to not be in public and be in the privacy of wherever you are however you are. The ability to feel safe as one's self. The ability to feel and express one's self as one's self. The celebration of human sexuality. The celebration of human connection. The exploration of human connection through sexuality. The question of what it means to be a self. The question of what it means to be sexual or not sexual. The discovery of the strength it takes to actually be your self and to ask questions about your self. And ask questions about societies expectation of self. It's about the ability to look at how, historically, civilizations looked at self and identity and sexuality and question what they got right and wrong. The ability to question what we have gotten right and gotten wrong and how we can be better. And how we can continue to be even better than that.

It's amazing how much LGBTQ Rights have changed and evolved since I was born in 1974. It's bonkers how much they have evolved since we first released GAY AGENDA in 2017! And it's super important to understand that these rights didn't just bubble up out of the blue, but were made real, made manifest and were brought into the world by the tireless work and strength and sacrifice of so many smart, brave, brazen, beautiful people. And there's still so much more work to do.

So, tonight, let's Play and celebrate Life. And then, tomorrow, get back to the Work.

And, here to help us Play tonight, left fielder and America's Favorite American, Jeff Fox, along with Benny the laser shooting dog will help bring the GAY AGENDA label back to life once again. Also, it's my understanding Troy will be doing some music curation for your asses to get dancing. And, I'm gonna buy a cake somewhere.

If you've got something you think will add to the celebration, please bring it!

The GAY AGENDA Release Party will start, probably a bit limpingly, around 7 and will hit it's stride around 8p-8:30p after everybody has some drinks and loosens up a bit. We'll ride that wave just as far as we can from there. Possibly past midnight?

Who knows if this will be as epic and historic as our 2018 GAY AGENDA Release Party we had at Beer Temple? Could be. The only person that can make sure that it's even better than that is YOU. So do it!

We've got a Vinyl and Craft market at IBW Sunday June 12th if you want to buy some records and such for the Dad in your life. There's four different records stores, everybody's favorite Bunny Rafanello (who made those amazing Krampus planters for the holiday market (and the baby and dog at the tap room!)) and HibachiAcidTrip who will punch up your puzzles a bit for you. Should be fun!

If you're looking for something fun and delicious to do on Father's Day, why not come by Illuminated Brew Works for a pig roast?

We're teaming up with our friends at WineStyles to make sure this is the best Father's Day that Father in your life can have. In service of that, Chef Rodney Staton (Haywood Tavern, 50/50 Group) is going to be slow cooking a Slagel Farms hog for your Father's Day festivities.

$25 gets you plenty of pig, 2 sides and either 2 beers or 2 glasses of wine. $15 gets your kids set up with the food but not the booze. Instead they'll get some soda.

We'll be cooking the pig all day in the parking lot. The event is from 2pm - 6pm and we'll serve the pig around 3pm. It should be a blast. Here's the EventBrite link for the event. You can use this or you can call WineStyles to make a reservation at (847) 518-9463.