Announcing the first (and hopefully not the last) annual Prairie Schooners Road Trip. This year we will be traveling north to visit two brewpubs and one microbrewery in the western suburbs of Chicago.
Our first stop will be Two Brothers Brewing Company in Warrenville (
http://www.twobrosbrew.com/). For those who wish to do so, we will take a tour of the brewery. We will also have time to eat lunch here at the Two Brothers Tap House, if you’d like to. Next door is the Brewer’s Coop (
http://www.thebrewerscoop.com/), a homebrew store. If you’re not familiar with Two Brothers’ products (shame on you), the Brewhaus currently (as of this past Saturday) has a keg of Domaine DuPage (French Country Ale) on tap; Barrel Head has The Bitter End (American Pale Ale) on tap.
Our second stop will be the Rock Bottom Restaurant and Brewery in Warrenville (
http://www.rockbottom.com/warrenville). Part of a national chain, there are thirty-five locations in sixteen states (there are four in the Chicago area). If you didn’t eat lunch at Two Brothers, you can do so here (or an early dinner).
Our third (and last) stop will be at America’s Historic Roundhouse in Aurora (
http://www.rh34.com/content/5.html). If you still haven’t eaten lunch, you will again have an opportunity to do so here (although you’ll have to do so from the dinner menu). I hope to line up at least a brief tour/discussion with Mike Rybinski, the brewmaster here.
The cost to club members whose dues are paid up will be $25. The cost for everybody else will be $30. And before anybody asks, the answer is no, the cost does not include any food or drink (although I know you’ll get some free samples if you take the tour at Two Brothers). We will leave Springfield promptly at 9:00 AM; we will return when we’re finished (sorry I can’t be more specific).
We have four possible Saturdays (October 30, November 13, November 20, November 27) that we can do this, but we have to figure out which one as soon as possible so we can reserve the bus and contact our three destinations to warn them that we’re coming. Please let me know which Saturdays you can go. If you want to list the Saturdays in order of preference, that’s fine, too, but we’ll only consider that if we have two dates that have the same number of members interested. I know that we’ll need non-club members to pull this off, but at first the trip is only open to club members and family. Once we get a count on club members, we’ll open it up for you to invite friends, etc. We need to fill a fifty-seat bus (with a bathroom) to keep the costs at $25/$30.
If you have any questions or want to go ahead and let me know which dates you can go, you can contact me via Facebook, e-mail (wbt60@ameritech.net), or call/text me at 217.494.6637.
Let’s do this! I’m thirsty!
Bill
