Another weekend, more bucket list items done!

So one of the things I originally put on my bucket list was to visit every local brewery within 150 miles.  Little did I realize just how ambitious this goal was.  I've always been a fan of craft beers, and one of the things I've loved in recent years is the explosion and acceptance of craft beers.  Well this has led to an increased number of micro and now "nano" breweries.  And while a lot of these breweries are actually turning out some great beer, finding them and sometimes even knowing they exist can be a challenge.  It seems every time I check out a new brewery I discover two more, so I'm not making a lot of progress toward accomplishing my goal.  So with that said, I think I will revise my bucket list to visiting every local brewery withing 50 miles.  This seems like something I can accomplish...let's hope!

With that being said, my girlfriend Jessi, who also loves craft beers, had told me about a small local brewery in Mundelein called Tighthead Brewing Company.  Having grown up in Mundelein and working in the town next to it, this seemed like a place I had to check out.  Like a lot of these microbreweries the tap room at Tighthead doesn't serve food, but encourages you to bring food in or have something delivered. I like places like that, not having a food menu lets the establishment concentrate on what it does best, making good beers.    Jessi and I tried the We Be Yammin' (a sweet potato ale,) the Scarlet Fire (red ale,) an oatmeal stout and a porter.  I think our favorites were the porter and the We Be Yammin'.  All in all Tighthead Brewing Company is a must visit for anyone in the area who likes craft beers.

The next day, I suggested a trip up to Milwaukee to visit Lakefront Brewery and go on their tour.  Having been on several brewery tours in the past, they all start to seem the same, because lets face it, the beer making process is fairly standard.  The Lakefront tour is nothing like I've ever been on before!  Part brewery tour, part comedy show, all fun.  For only $7 you get the tour, 4 six ounce samples and at the end you turn in your plastic sample glass for a souvenir pint glass.  How can you pass up a bargain like that?!  Our tour guide, and apparently all the tour guides make this tour anything but boring, and I laughed so much it hurt.  Now for those who don't know, Lakefront is not a large brewery but they are big enough to have their beers available in Chicagoland bars and liquor stores, so I had had some of their beers in the past.  I have to say the beers are pretty good, but not my favorites.  Now admittedly while Lakefront does make several beers, I've only tried a handful of them.  In fact this would be my one complaint about the tour, there were only 5 different beers available for us to try that day.  Typically Jessi and I will each try something different then taste each others, so in theory we could have tried eight different beers that day, but this was not to be.  All in all I would highly recommend this tour, but I think next time we'll do it with a group of friends on a Friday or Saturday night rather than a Sunday afternoon, because I think that on weekend nights it could get pretty rowdy!

So while I didn't get to actually check off anything on my list, I made a few baby steps toward one.