An Evening of P's

Ah how I love Friday nights. It's the end of a work week and the beginning of the weekend. Our Friday night plan was to head up to a brand new brewery in Lake Bluff, IL. It's about a 40 minute Metra Train ride from our place in Evanston. I was excited! Our plan was thwarted by a faulty Metra train. We waited for the train for quite some time, but the rumblings in our belly told us that we needed to get food and we were going to stay local. We decided to hit up this really cool gourmet pizza/beer place called "Union". Bill and I hardly go to this restaurant, because it usually caters to the "Martini" Crowd. We were both pleasantly surprised to see some decent beers.

They had Pepe Nero by Goose Island on tap. This is a new beer for GI, so I was excited to try it. It is a Belgian Style Farmhouse Ale that is brewed with peppercorns.



It has this beautiful dark color with a very nice roasty sweetness. It doesn't have a lot of body to it. I could definitely see myself eating a juicy steak with this beer. It was good, but not amazing. If you see on draft, I would give it a try.

The second beverage I had was Bavik Petrus Aged Pale. I am a big fan of sour beers and this one was a slam dunk.



As you can see by it's color, this beer is light and almost champagne-like. It is aged in wood for 24 - 30 months, so it has a delicious hint of oak. It has a delicate mouth feel and a slightly sour ending. If you are not used to sour beers, you need to take a few drinks of these types of beers just to get your taste buds accustomed to the sour taste. There are also hints of fruit as well. This was a really great beer and is definitely one of my favorite sour beers.

The last "P" of the evening, was some awesome pizza. We got a pesto, goat cheese and sun dried tomato pizza. It didn't compliment our beers, too much, but everything was delicious.

If you see Pepe Nero or Petrus at your local establishment, give 'em a try. You will not be disappointed.

Lake Bluff Brewery is this weekend, let's hope the Metra trains cooperate.