Finch’s Beer Company | Nuclear Winter

It was a non-descript building, gray with a red door, stickers on the glass. We had passed it before we knew it and the GPS barked. Parking was better on the other side anyway. We sat, we were early for our scheduled tour. “Is this it?” My buddy Andy and I were checking out the Chicago beer scene and had been led to believe that Finch’s was a must. We get Finch’s in Knoxville and they make solid beer but as we approached the red door it seemed like it was a well kept secret.

The inside was packed with coolers, fermenters, a small pilot system – this was a place where the magic happens. No tasting room, no fancy t-shirts on the wall for sale. The only vestiges of fun were the many empty dust covered bottles from across the country that sat on top of the big cooler. Yeah, these are our kind of people. You could tell that they had outgrown the space quickly and had packed as much as they could in a tiny space. Thus, the tasting room had to wait but they do offer tours that you can sign up for on their website.

The tour offered up as many samples of the Finch’s repertoire that we wanted and the tour itself, while very entertaining, was exactly what you’d expect it to be – the brew process, brew house and a fancy new canning line.  However, one thing caught my eye…a red can that said “Nuclear Winter” on it. As a matter of fact there were pallets of these red cans and we were told that they were in the process of shipping it out the door. “Binny’s should have it soon,” we were told. A Belgian style dark ale….in a can. Of course, all I could think of was the episode of the Simpson’s where Homer pronounces “nuclear.”

Fast forward a few weeks and while perusing the beer in Corks out in Turkey Creek, Homer’s voice pops back in my head – there’s the beer. As you can see it pours a dark amber, cloudy with just enough head. On the nose there’s a little fig, some sweetness – a brown sugar maybe which follows into the taste – some caramel, a little hop bittering at the back that lingers. This beer drinks very nicely.

Final Snobs: If you’re in Chicago, do the tour – it’s definitely worth it – but sign up online! We had fun and it was definitely memorable. They’ll even throw in a glass like the one in the pic.  I’m digging this beer and I think Homer would too.

Cheers!