Fat Tire, Chicago Inaugural

For those of you who are fans of Fat Tire Ale, it is finally available in Chicago. petit pois brought this home from Whole Foods on Ashland:



Cool label.

Best,
Michael

The Foremost Liquors at Milwaukee and California has had signs on the door advertising the advent of Fat Tire Ale for several weeks. Hope that means they now have the product, too, as I'm anxious to taste it.

poag mahone's downtown has posters up inside advertising that they'll be carrying this beer also.

http://www.poagmahone.com/menushort.html

JimInLoganSquare wrote:Hope that means they now have the product, too, as I'm anxious to taste it.

It has been served "illegally" at Bricks on Lincoln for years. It has been the only reason to ever go to Bricks, in my opinion. Many people enjoy their pizza. I am not one of those people. I'll also give them a nod for their excellent jukebox.

Best,
Michael

Bricks
1909 N. Lincoln Ave.
312-255-0851

I'm afraid that this might be the most overrated beer going. I can't be the first smartass to have called it "flat tire," can I?

I just abandoned a case of it in a fridge in CO two weeks ago. However, I really enjoyed the wheat beer product (Sunshine?) from the same producer, which I picked up at Applejack's, as fine a Liquor store as you will find... So go figure.

JeffB wrote:I'm afraid that this might be the most overrated beer going. I can't be the first smartass to have called it "flat tire," can I?

Definitely not.

If you're not a fan, I would recommend that you avoid buying any.

Best,
Michael

I prefer the Sunshine variety, also. If my non-scientific survey from my week of skiing in Aspen and Snowmass, CO has any weight, the trust fund hippy kids like it too.

Michael,

Thanks for the heads up! We've certainly missed all of New Belgium's products since leaving Denver a few years ago. Btw, Applejack Liquors is one of those places people make pilgrimages to. They have an amazing stock and great prices.

Eat--

I know folks love it, so this must be one of those instances where I just don't get it. I am not among the chosen when it comes to Fat Tire. However, I would be interested to know if the other products will be available.

Thanks for the head's up.

As someone who lived through the Coors-is-only-available-west-of-the-Mississippi era, this is great marketing, but it's hard for me to imagine how, in this day of so many great regional microbrews, Fat Tire can be a revelation except to people who haven't tried much beyond St. Louis' finest in the first place. I'm sure it's perfectly fine beer, as are plenty of others which have long been available....

Mike G wrote:As someone who lived through the Coors-is-only-available-west-of-the-Mississippi era,

Mike,

Embarrassed to say I'm one of the people (read idiots) who stuffed his luggage with Coors when returning from the West coast. I only did it once, ok, maybe twice.

Enjoy,
Gary

Mike G wrote:but it's hard for me to imagine how, in this day of so many great regional microbrews, Fat Tire can be a revelation except to people who haven't tried much beyond St. Louis' finest in the first place. I'm sure it's perfectly fine beer, as are plenty of others which have long been available....

Mike (and Jeff),

You're right. Fat Tire is hyped, like many things are, due in large part to it's inavailability. Nevertheless, it remains, in my opinion, a very good beer in spite of its hype. The hype doesn't change the fact for me that I consider New Belgium Brewery to be among the best micro-breweries that our country has to offer.

But a "revalation"? Hardly.

This thread started about the fact that I'm just happy that I now have more options in my hometown. (Plus, I kinda liked the photo I took).

For someone who drinks beer as infrequently as I do, I love being able to buy my favorites from around the world, whether it's from Samuel Smith's, Bell's, New Glarus, or New Belgium, I'm just glad that they're all on the same shelf.

More microbreweries serving our market is a good thing, in spite of the hype.

Best,
Michael

Here is some extra info for you all about the Fat Tire launch.

Until Late April / Early May it will only be available in the area served by Chicago Beverage Systems. They cover the city of Chicago only and not even all of it. You won't see it in the suburbs until later (unless they by at retail and resell it).

Second it is only available in 22oz bottles. This will be until sometime in early summer, when you should see draft beer come along. Six packs and 12 packs should filter in sometime after that.

You wont see any of the other New Belguim beers until sometime in 2007. They have a great problem, where they literally can not package the beer fast enough.

I hope somebody wanted to know all that.

louisdog wrote:I hope somebody wanted to know all that.

I would assume that anyone following this thread wanted to know all that Thank you for the info.

Best,
Michael

eatchicago wrote:I would assume that anyone following this thread wanted to know all that Thank you for the info.

I work for a beer distributor so this is the first time I feel like an expert on any subject on LTH.

I'm happy to know that it's currently available in the area. I've used the info to tell my friend in Colorado she has to stop sending it to people back home. She was just telling me the other day how she's tired of smuggling her suitcases full of beer.

Thanks for the info!

*cough* Three Floyd's *cough*

So a friend of mine is incredibly into Fat Tire...to the point that he'll choose one bar over another based on the simple fact of whether or not Fat Tire is on tap.

Does anyone know of other bars in the far north part of the city (4500N+) that have Fat Tire drafts so that the rest of my bar existence isn't going to be spent at Fireside on Ravenswood or Bat 17 in Evanston? (Not to say I don't like these bars, but it'd be nice to have more options...)

Have you tried Prairie Moon?

Prairie Moon
1502 Sherman Ave., Evanston
(847) 864-8328

shoes wrote:Does anyone know of other bars in the far north part of the city (4500N+) that have Fat Tire drafts so that the rest of my bar existence isn't going to be spent at Fireside on Ravenswood or Bat 17 in Evanston?

Chicago Ale House (2200 W Lawrence) has Fat Tire and 59 other beers on tap. Not my favorite beer selection by a long shot but you should be able to find something you like.

shoes wrote:So a friend of mine is incredibly into Fat Tire...to the point that he'll choose one bar over another based on the simple fact of whether or not Fat Tire is on tap.

Does anyone know of other bars in the far north part of the city (4500N+) that have Fat Tire drafts so that the rest of my bar existence isn't going to be spent at Fireside on Ravenswood or Bat 17 in Evanston? (Not to say I don't like these bars, but it'd be nice to have more options...)

Slightly south of your parameters, but Gannon's has Fat Tire drafts. Haven't checked it out in a few months, but they were running a weekly special on Tuesdays - $3 burgers and $3 Fat Tire drafts.

Gannon's
4264 N Lincoln (at Cullom)
773-281-1007

It looks like a fair number of other New Belgium beers have (finally) followed in the footsteps of Fat Tire and are now available in Chicago. I was never a big fan of Fat Tire, but friends of mine from Colorado routinely told me New Belgium's other beers were excellent -- I'm looking forward to trying some of these new beers.

I think Fat Tire tastes like mushrooms; the kinda eaten in the parking lot of Deer Creek, not the kind sauteed in butter...

I can say that I enjoy the 1554 that is now available in Chicago quite a bit. I also remember their Trippel and Abbey being quite good, and hopefully my friend driving back from CA will be delivering some to refresh my memory this weekend.

Jamie