After a successful BrewBQ I want to share some information that has been in the works for a little bit and now have enough info to share with all. I'm proud to let everyone know that CHAOS will be hosting a Chicago Ideas Week Lab event this year! If you are not familiar with Chicago Ideas Week (CIW) check out chicagoideas.com, but basically it's an annual event that brings the best and brightest together to showcase Chicago as an inspirational and actionable city that drives communities to do great things.
CHAOS will be hosting a modified brewing 101 class on October 12th 8pm (date/time might be adjusted). The lab will run for about 4 hours and get participants (approx. 25) involved with all stages of brewing. We will have four stations at predetermined stages of brewing to help expedite this process (mash, boil, chill, bottle). At the end of the night, participants will be able to take home some beer and should have a killer knowledge about CHAOS, brewing, and general Chicago beer. ALEMAN, Ale Syndicate, & Evolution Wine & Spirits have agreed to contribute to this Lab as well. Currently CHAOS will be discussing homebrew process/running the lab. ALEMAN will be talking about sustainability in brewing and their collaboration(s) in Chicago. Ale Syndicate will talk about how homebrewers become breweries. Justin from Evolution Wine & Spirits might also talk about local beers and distribution (TBD).
We will need volunteers for the event to help out. I will post a spreadsheet when we know exactly what we need and when. I would expect that around September. This will involve helpers/cleaners/teachers/pourers, etc...
Now for very cool news.... the beer that the participants will be brewing will be the official Chicago Idea's Week beer!!! How does that work you say? Ale Syndicate & Aleman will be brewing a collaboration with us that will be in bars and marquee events for CIW on October 12th. The recipe is in its final refinement, but will be an Imperial IPA spiked with Green Tea from Rishi Teas. Proceeds from the sale of the beer will be donated largely to CIW and a little back to CHAOS. No profit will be made from the beer by the breweries involved.
Depending on the brewing location a limited number of CHAOS members will be able to be actively involved in the large scale brew of the beer. This means you get to spend a day at a professional brewery, helping brew a beer that will be on tap in your city! As soon we know more information about the brew/date/time I will have a form you can signup for to help with the big brew.
The goal is to have people that are passionate about beer and want to brew attend the Lab, then be able to talk about the beer/club/passion all week long to other CIW participants. I think this is a amazing opportunity to showcase CHAOS to people that might not be active in the beer community, but want to know more about what is happening in their city. I think it also speaks to our mission 1000%.
Questions/Comments, please leave below. I'll do my best to keep this thread updated with information as it happens, however it probably won't be for a while as the event is a few months away.
As always Cheers! And enjoy good beer :)
Congrats on this whole project, Conrad. I'll be happy to help out with the event, and getting the word out in advance.
This sounds great Conrad! Let me know how I can help out...
will CHAOS be hosting this at our next home or at one of the brewers' facility?
...igz...
At our new home since it will be ready before then. CIW is aware that we are moving.
It's now official:
https://www.chicagoideas.com/events/163
The labs have been released. I'll be asking for some minor updates to copy and that they feature our logo.
Can they list the location of the lab as "TBA" in the meantime? Listing the old address is going to generate a lot of confusion. Espeically if people start buying tickets with that address listed, it's guaranteed that a few people will try to go to 1329 for the event in October
I've asked them to place that as a TBA. Thanksfully tickets are not on sale yet, but will be shortly. Pending on the new location we might try to bump the #of spots available.
Updates!
Well the event is right around the corner and based on the last CHAOS meeting it looks like we have a few voluenteers. I need a total of about 5/6 people to help throughout the night. This will consist of helping brew, pour some beers for the CIW lab attendees and helping promote CHAOS. I know that I already have two or three, so PM me if you want to help. I have closed off brewing for the day as I will be there from morning to night cleaning and prepping anything that still needs to be done. Feel free to join if you want, might be a good rally for a cleanup day. There is also another event on the 15th I could use some minor help with (see below).
For the Lab Event on the 14th (8pm - Midnight)
In general, the first hour is about the Chicago Maker/Brewing scene. The rest is brewing beer, learning about the process, answering questions, showing off tools, and exploiting our knowledge. It will be loose discussion and really getting people excited about brewing and how passionate people are about the community.
On the 15th (5pm - 8pm)
We will be pouring beer alongside Ale Syndicate and MakeItFor.Us in the GE Garage on Michigan Ave. We are pouring 15 gallons of Homebrew to the community of Makers and people that are interested in Maker spaces. This is a great opportunity to educate people about CHAOS beyond our friends and people actively looking for a brew community. If you have a gallon that you can donate, I would love to have another 10 gallons to serve for that event. If you have spare beer to donate, please let me know so I can coordinate picking it up. 1 Gallon, 2, or more would be awesome. Also, please feel free to show up and help pour and talk about your beer, we always need a few voluenteers.
Thanks again for the all the support for this from everyone. It means a lot to have so many willing to help and encourage events like this!
Detailed Schedule for the 14th if you are interested....
8:00pm - get people situated & a possible beer in hand
8:15pm - Introductions & presentation start
(Current Layout)
9pm - Let's Brew!
Open discussion on grains
Grinding
Start Mashing
While waiting we will taste various beers and talk about BJCP
10pm-ish
Sparge & Boil
Discussion of Hops & additions to boil
Drink and taste more beer!
11pm-ish
CFC
Add yeast to batch
Closing remarks/statements
Come back in a week to do a secondary transfer
Come back in two weeks to bottle
Come back in three weeks to pickup your pack!
Changes in general, we will NOT have an official CIW beer on tap around the city. Unfortunatly the contract brewers are all backed up and we could not get it in place before then. The good news: We have plenty of time till next years CIW to have a competition and get things in place!