It's Good to Be Small

Most of you know that Sketchbook is expanding to a street-front retail space at 821 Chicago in late summer/early fall! Stay tuned for more...

So, right on the brink of becoming a tad less nano, we thought we'd take a minute to sing the praises of being small...and new. 

1. You get to tweak recipes and share the results with your customers.

Our popular No Parking pale ale is typically dry-hopped with Mosaic  hops, but Sketchbook -- along with lots of breweries -- is having some trouble getting hold of enough Mosaic. So, we tried out two promising New Zealand strains (Dr. Rudi and Waimea) dry hopped and naturally carbonated in two pins.

What happened?  We opened the Waimea version last night (just to be sure that this worked) and were stunned at how good this was!  Wonderful tangerine and tangelo overtones combined with a hint of pine - truly fantastic!  So, Thursday night, July 9, we will have these two pins available for all to taste - 5:30-6:30 for the Wiamea, and then we will tap the Dr. Rudi at 6:30.  Come on by, try some, and tell us what you think.

2. You get to put your backyard into your beer. (Tasting this Friday, July 9)
Alice and Shawn picked about 3 pounds of berries from their Juneberry tree (otherwise known as Serviceberry) last month.

The next day, alongside another brew, Shawn tweaked a recipe for a Raspberry Porter to make this Juneberry Porter.  What did we put into it?

Time:

Water:

Grains, Juneberrys and Hops:

Some heat, then some cold and then some yeast, and finally some more time:  

3.  You feel like a kid in Sketchbook's first 4th of July parade! 

Cesar and the girls rode in a fabulous vintage truck donated by one of our CSB members, and Matt Kosloski rode his unicycle.