A new Chicago brewery was born this week, and the proud parent is SlapShot Brewing Company.
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, headed up by Mike Pallen (also the new head brewer at SlapShot starting this month), begins production this week in SlapShot’s current space in South Lawndale.SlapShot (3223 S. Kolin Ave.) acquired the space adjacent to its current home and has plans to expand production and open a taproom and beer garden sometime this year, said Steve Miller, co-founder of SlapShot. Pallen moved into the current space with his own equipment, two 7-barrel fermenters and a 3.5-barrel direct fire brewhouse, and plans to produce two to four beers a month that will be packaged in 24-ounce cans and sold individually.
“The bomber bottle game is kind of getting a little crowded, so I think coming out with the 24-ounce cans [will stand out],” Pallen said, noting that, to his knowledge, there are only a handful of other breweries in the United States packaging in 24-ounce cans. “I think it’s fun and different, and we know how people love cans, especially in the spring in summer when you can go to the beach with them. … It’s 24 ounces, so you’re getting that big amount, but the price point will be super-accessible.”
He said the cans will be priced around $5–8 dollars each, and his first batch will be out in about four weeks. SlapShot will also begin to package its beer in 24-ounce cans. Pallen also has plans to produce barrel-aged and sour beers in large-format bottles down the road.
Though Mikerphone is technically contract brewing with SlapShot, which is usually when a brewing company creates a recipe and hires another brewery to produce it, Pallen has the advantage of heading up production at both breweries. While Mikerphone is a registered brand of Slap Shot by legal definition, it’s still a separate entity, Miller said.
“Mike is a lot more experimental, so he really enjoys playing around with very unique ingredients and some extremely hard-to-get hops, which for what he’s doing is bit easier to do because it’s hard to get them in large volume,” Miller said. “So he can get a hop in smaller volume and maybe only produce that beer one time, whereas what [SlapShot does], we kind of consistently produce the same beers, which when you’re using really rare ingredients, you’re not able to do that.”
Pallen, formerly of BreakRoom Brewery, said Mikerphone marries his two biggest passions in life, beer and music. Each beer name references a band, song, album or lyrics. His first beer is Misty Mountain Hop, a 7 percent ABV IPA with columbus, amarillo, simcoe and mosaic hops that’s “low on the bittering” but “big on the aroma and juiciness,” he said.
The second is a hoppy Belgian wit with coriander and orange peel, witbier yeast and citra hops called One Hit Wonderful. “It’s kind of like this super-floral, dank, juicy beer,” he said.
“A lot of the beers I brew are kind of based on the soundtrack of my life,” Pallen said. “I had a beer called Bat Out of Hell at Break Room. My dad would drive me around town listening to Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat Out Of Hell.’ Unfortunately, my dad passed away, but those are the things that remind me of him. So I’m trying to connect the beers that I’m brewing with a name that associates with something that means a lot to [me].”
Pallen grew up in Milwaukee, Wis., where his dad worked for Miller Brewing Company, and became more interested in the craft of brewing during college in Madison, Wis. In 2005, he moved to Chicago and hopped around in the music industry, promoting, producing and working for Aware Records, Verve Life and School of Rock. He started homebrewing as a hobby and took his beer to local breweries to get feedback.
In October 2013, he started at BreakRoom Brewery, where he worked for just over a year before taking the job at SlapShot. In the future, he hopes to collaborate with local bands on different brews. For now, he’s in talks with retailers around the city and said to check Mikerphone’s website for locations soon.
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