We've moved our blog!

Back in October, we were excited to launch Andersonville's website redesign and rebranding!

We wanted to be a one stop shop for all things Andersonville - so we combined ALL of our partner websites (andersonvilledevcorp.org and eco-andersonville.org) into the NEW andersonville.org - this also includes an integrated blog, andersonville.org/blog. We hope that you'll find all of the information you need - from neighborhood news, to business resources, to environmental initiatives - in one easy place!

We'll be leaving All Things Andersonville as-is, so you can always refer back to our past content. Don't forget to update your bookmarks and feed readers to point to http://www.andersonville.org/blog/ for all the latest and greatest info.

See you at the new site!

Andersonville City Made Fest Beer Lineup!

Quite a few folks have been particularly excited about the 'local craft beer' aspect of our upcoming Andersonville City Made Fest (apparently it is popular!), so we wanted to give you a sneak peak of what we will be pouring this weekend.  It is a really great lineup for a diverse array of palettes.  Our quantities of some of these beers will be limited, so come and get them before we run out!

If you love beer so much that you would like to help us serve it, we are still looking for a few more beer booth volunteers for the weekend.  Click here to get more information and see the times that are still available.  

Okay, without further ado...the beers of the 1st annual Andersonville City Made Fest:  

4 PAWS BREWING - Edgewater (Sunday Only)

Brindle Amber Ale:  Brindle Amber Ale is a smooth drinking, well-balanced ale. Bring it to a BBQ or a dinner party; it goes well with pretty much everything.  5.5% ABV

Bitchin' Brown Ale:  Bitchin' Brown is 4 Paws' first collaboration beer! We brewed this beer with Hamburger Mary's to create an extremely local brew perfect for the City Made Fest! It is a malt forward brown ale with great fall roasty flavors.  5.5% ABV

ALE SYNDICATE - Logan Square

Sunday Session:  A mellow brew. Light, but deliciously hoppy, you can have a few and still remember the fun.  4.8% ABV

BEGYLE BREWING CO. - Ravenswood

Black Cherry Saison: Black Saison with Michigan Sour Cherries.  7.0%ABV

Calypso's Song:  Replicale Golden IPA with Single Malt.  6.4% ABV

FINCH’S BEER CO. - Mayfair

Threadless IPA : Our Threadless/Finch collaboration IPA is a balanced experience of both perceived hoppiness and true bitterness.  It pours a darker amber color and finishes with a citrus flavor.  The specialty grain bill includes Victory and Melanoidin malts which when combined this truly evolves in to a balanced IPA.  6.0% ABV

Secret Stache Stout: Secret Stache Stout is a robust stout.  The specialty ingredients, vanilla bean and lactose, lend to its complexity and full flavor.  While no actual chocolate was used to brew this beer, heaps of chocolate malt give the beer its color as well as its chocolate and coffee notes.  5.3% ABV

HAMBURGER MARY’S BREWPUB - Andersonville

Speakeasy Saison:  Belgian Farmhouse Ale with soft floral and caramel notes, and mild fruity finish. Brewed with Belgian candi sugar, oats, wheat and specialty malts from Belgium. 6.4% ABV

LAGUNITAS BREWINGCOMPANY - California, soon to be Douglas Park

We know, we know - Lagunitas is technically not 'City Made' yet.  But they are opening their brewery and tasting room this fall, and were so excited about the event and getting out and meeting beer-loving Chicagoans, we decided to let them in our festival.

IPA:  A sessionable all-day IPA.  A bit of Caramel Malt barley provides the richness that mellows out the acidity of the hops.  6.2% ABV

Fusion 16:  An ale brewed to be light, crisp, and easy to slam. A true hydraulic refresher on a hot day... or any day! 4.8% ABV

Little Sumpin' Sumpin':  A truly unique style featuring a strong hop finish on a silky body.  A filtered hoppy wheat beer that is great for both IPA and Hefeweizen fans. 7.5% ABV

Little Sumpin' Wild:   A Higher-Gravity seasonal version of the year-round Little Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale --it's made with Westmalle Trappist yeast that creates those curious phenolic off-flavors that are becoming all the rage. 8.8% ABV

LAKE EFFECT BREWING - Old Irving Park

Lake Effect Snow Wit Bier: Our twist on this classic Belgian style lies in the marriage of Midwest wheat with European hops. This ale is naturally cloudy and creamy yet surprisingly light bodied. A hint of citrus will welcome you to this brew while your finish will be crisp with a slightly spicy zing.  5.2% ABV

Cruisin for a Brewsin Belgian Style IPA:  Spicy Belgian phenolics blend harmoniously with citrusy American Centennial and Cascade hops to give this beer a smooth yet complex flavor. Enjoy the dark golden color and spicy hop aroma of this unfiltered ale. This ale finishes dry giving it a crisp and assertive hop finish. 7.5% ABV

METROPOLITAN BREWING - Andersonville

Flywheel Bright Lager:  Flywheel is our malt-heavy Pilsner. We like to call it a Chicago-style Lager. The kinetic beauty of aromatic hops grabs you by the nose and proclaims: this is German-inspired beer.  5.0% ABV

OFF COLOR BREWING - Logan Square

Troublesome:  A Blended Wheat Beer. A blend of two different beers; the first is a somewhat uninteresting wheat beer and the second is an overly acidic & funky beer fermented solely with lactobacillus. Blended with coriander and salt at the tail end of fermentation to create a mild, lemony tartness and a fuller sensation of mouthfeel.  4.5% ABV

Scurry:  A Dark Honey Ale. This surprisingly dry beer retains all the aroma and nuance of honey (from bees) and molasses (not from bees) creating a perception of sweetness through cool, controlled fermentation.  5.3% ABV

REVOLUTION BREWING - Logan Square

Anti-Hero IPA:  An American hop assault that features a four hop blend, which creates a crisp bitterness and imparts massive floral and citrus aromas.  6.5% ABV

Bottom Up Wit: Belgian-style witbier brewed with coriander and orange peel.  5% ABV

A Little Crazy: Belgian-style pale ale dry hopped with Cascade and Citra hops to drive home the aroma of fresh citrus rind.  6.8% ABV

Deth's Tar (6 oz):  A play on Chairman of the Party Josh Deth’s name, this Russian imperial stout is aged in four different types of bourbon barrels, then blended for the resulting thick and dark brew.  11.4% ABV

Can't wait to see everyone out and about this weekend - thank you so much for your energy and excitement!

Andersonville City Made Fest - Meet Our Vendors!

Chicago flag earrings by Something Beautiful

In addition to having a fabulous lineup of Chicago-based musicians and Chicago craft beer, our inaugural Andersonville City Made Fest will also feature a diverse marketplace of artists and small producers creating their work right in the city of Chicago!  We are really excited about this group; most have never done Midsommarfest so this will be their first taste of the awesome Andersonville street festival environment.

First, a HUGE thank you to our fantastic sponsors.  The SoFo Tap has been holding down the fort south of Foster for years now, and they are so excited about bringing this new event to their neck of the woods. Andersonville Wine & Spirits has been a mainstay on the corner of Foster & Clark, and they carry many of the local brewers being featured at City Made Fest.  I-Go Car Sharing is truly homegrown and has been helping Chicago residents go car-less for years and they will be at the festival with great deals for new members.  Crew Bar & Grill is getting ready to undergo a major face lift, and they invite you to become a Beer God and sample their huge selection of great brew.  And, of course, our two sponsors who will be serving their delicious product at City Made Fest - Revolution Brewing and Lagunitas Brewing Co.

And now for our other vendors, after the break.

Andersonville City Made Fest - Beer & Band Line Up!

Our first ever Andersonville City Made Fest will take place Saturday, September 21 and Sunday, September 22 on Clark Street between Argyle & Carmen.  Featuring an array of Chicago-based musicians, brewers and artisans, this new festival is a celebration of all of the great stuff being made right here in our city. There has been a lot of buzz around this new event, and we are working hard to build a strong foundation for another outstanding Andersonville event to continue on in the future.

I know many people are excited about our line-up of local beer and Chicago musicians, and frankly so are we!  Our stage line-up features a small sampling of a diverse array of genres that make up the (much, MUCH) larger Chicago music scene - folk, blues, indie rock, hip hop, world, latin - and will be a great chance to see established performers and discover new and up-and-coming talent.

Andersonville City Made Fest Stage Schedule (look ma, no cover bands!)

Saturday, September 21

12:00 pm Stephen Leonard

1:30 pm Canasta

3:30 pm Furious Frank

5:15 pm Psalm One and Sexy Decoy (coincidentally will be on Chicago Tonight on WTTW this evening - 8/29/13 - to discuss her work and a PBS documentary.  Read more here).

7:00 pm Funkadesi

Sunday, September 22

12:00 pm Emily Hurd

1:45 pm Mol-K

3:30 pm Cameron McGill

5:15 pm Lurrie Bell

7:30 pm Sidewalk Chalk

And now...the BEER!  In the past few years the Chicago craft beer scene has exploded with dozens of new breweries opening all over the city.  The beauty of City Made Fest is it will feature craft brews from the larger operations but also from some of the smaller producers who have opened recently (some right in Andersonville's backyard) and are busy gaining new fans. We are also happy to welcome a brewery that is making a very big splash by opening a huge new facility in Chicago this fall!  We are pleased to feature at City Made Fest:

Revolution Brewing
Lagunitas Brewing Co.
Metropolitan Brewery
Finch's Beer Co.
Off Color Brewing
Begyle Brewing
Hamburger Mary's Brew Pub
4Paws Brewing
Ale Syndicate
Lake Effect Brewing

We will have a lot more updates coming your way in the next few weeks as we prepare for this first time event.  Thank you for all of the excitement Andersonville - we know it is going to be amazing!

Andersonville City Made Fest is a fundraiser for the Andersonville Development Corporation (ADC), a 501(c)3 non-profit community organization.  To read more about ADC, visit their website. 

2013 Midsommarfest Photos - All In One Place!

This week I went through probably 1500 photographs from Midsommarfest weekend, and picked out some of my favorites to put in albums on Facebook.  Links to the five albums I created are below (you don't need to be on Facebook to view them), so please share with your friends and tag anyone you know!

2013 MIDSOMMARFEST PHOTOS

FRIDAY NIGHT

SATURDAY MORNING (Opening Ceremony & Maypole Dance)

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

DOGS! DOGS! DOGS!

A huge thanks to Starbelly Studios Photography for all of these great shots.  If you need a photographer for an event, seriously, check him out.  He is in the neighborhood, great to work with, and takes photography very, VERY seriously!