Alexi Front’s Scorched Tundra metal festival covers even more ground in its second Chicago year

by Noah Berlatsky on August 16, 2017 at 5:14PM

Listen to the gorgeous black metal on Austin Lunn's new Panopticon album—and drink his Viking beers

by Philip Montoro on October 15, 2015 at 12:00PM

Local brewery Around the Bend debuts with an aggressive Thai-spiced pale ale

by Philip Montoro on June 22, 2015 at 7:00AM

Pipeworks' big new brewery means Ninja vs. Unicorn in cans

by Philip Montoro on June 15, 2015 at 11:02AM

Transient Artisan Ales makes slow beer that sells out quick

by Philip Montoro on May 29, 2015 at 12:30PM

Thalia Hall's Crap Beer Day asks: Does it even matter which cheap lager you drink?

by Philip Montoro on May 21, 2015 at 10:00AM

"Moldy yeast?" said Ed. "And there's no flavor.

What's the only beer on tap at Beard nominee Parachute?

by Philip Montoro on May 5, 2015 at 10:30AM

"Pareidolia" is a word for the phenomenon of perceiving specious significance in visual or auditory stimuli. You may remember a local instance from 2005, when believers took a water stain in the Fullerton underpass of the Kennedy to be an image of the Virgin Mary.

Moody Tongue beers finally reach retail

by Philip Montoro on April 20, 2015 at 12:30PM

That's from the 1994 album In the Nightside Eclipse, one of the all-time classics of Norwegian black metal. The inexplicable pluralization in "I Am the Black Wizards" will never not be funny to me.

Mikerphone Brewing launches with music-inspired beers and monster cans

by Philip Montoro on April 17, 2015 at 1:30PM

Middle Brow Beer helps Jimmy Whispers celebrate Summer in Pain

by Philip Montoro on March 23, 2015 at 12:30PM

Take a whiff of Summer in Pain, and it hits you with a face full of fruit—not just tangerine and cantaloupe from the hops but also peach and apricot, presumably from the Belgian yeast. The smell is bright and invigorating but also woody and a bit sharp, with notes of pine, cedar resin, and underripe strawberry.