The admission pass to the Global Beer Expo was a dull blue card, but to me it felt like a golden ticket, and I was as wide-eyed as Charlie in the Chocolate Factory as I strolled aisles of Lincolnwood’s Louis Glunz Beer warehouse, where 219 varieties of specialty beers were being served by brewers from across the globe.
In the classic film, Charlie’s restraint is rewarded. Here at this 13th annual swilling symposium, the 2,000 attending liquor-store buyers and bar owners were prompted to sip, sample and swirl as many brews as they could, from Turbodog ale to Buffalo stout to Elephant malt.
There were black beers brewed with roasted hops in Brazil, creamy wheat beers from Belgium, and — as if there wasn’t enough free alcohol flowing — the boys from San Francisco’s Anchor Steam Brewery were serving their new small-batch gin. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think this was a party, complete with the band dressed in lederhosen.
Ostensibly this expo helps liquor stores purchase products for the busy summer months and enables bartenders to serve the latest products to their patrons. “Hey, I’m not going to sugarcoat it … we’re here for the free beer,” admitted Clint Unrue, manager of the O’Hare Hooters, with a pair of waitresses in tow.
No need to sugarcoat, Clint. This isn’t a chocolate factory.
Around each booth stood a crowd of (mostly male) samplers, downing beers while yapping with the brewers. The Lincolnwood police had a booth, though the few guys lingering near it seemed lost on their way to the line stretching out of the men’s room.
“When we started there were just 15 booths,” explained Glunz CFO Janet Bischoff, citing the explosion in popularity of domestic-micro and import beers. “Now there are more than 40.”