Goose Island, Chicago Pub Crawl, and Lafayette Brewing

When we chose Indianapolis as the location for the 2012 Beer Bloggers Conference, we realized Chicago was only three hours and 20 minutes away. It was the perfect opportunity to combine two great cities in one fun weekend.

For an extra $20, registered conference attendees can sign up for a Thursday night dinner at Goose Island in Chicago, an evening brewpub crawl, bus transport from Chicago to Indy on Friday morning, and lunch en route at Lafayette Brewing Company. Here are the details:

Goose Island Dinner
When we first considered Chicago, we immediately thought of Goose Island and, to their credit, they immediately confirmed they would love to host the bloggers for a beer dinner AND pony up the money for the bus back to Indianapolis. The dinner will start at 6:00 PM on Thursday, July 12th, at the Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub.

You will experience a beer dinner pairing Goose Island’s Vintage ales and fresh seasonal ingredients at the Goose Island Clybourn brewpub. Suzanne Wolcott, Goose Island’s Education Coordinator will be on hand to guide you through the pairings and answer questions about beer, brewing, and pairing beer with food. After the dinner, you can take a guided tour of the brewpub facility or grab a seat at the bar and sip on one of the many seasonal selections the brewpub has on offer.

Chicago Brewpub Crawl
Bloggers Jess Murphy from GirlsLikeBeerToo and Kristin Stroud from beer + running = happiness have volunteered to organize a brewpub crawl in Chicago for Thursday evening. The crawl will start at 8:00 PM at Goose Island’s pub in Clybourn and end around 11:00 PM at the Howard Johnson Downtown. The route is still being planned but will hopefully include Revolution Brewing and Haymarket Pub & Brewery, two famous Chicago craft breweries.

Friday Lunch at Lafayette Brewing Company
On Friday, we’ll stop en route from Chicago to Indianapolis at the Lafayette Brewing Company, where we’ll enjoy a lunch and tasting. The LBC will be setting us up in their 2nd floor catering room for their famous pulled pork Beer-B-Que lunch.  Greg Emig from Lafayette Brewing told us “We’re very excited about welcoming your group of beer bloggers to LBC, and the fact that they chose Indianapolis for the 2012 BBC.  As a group, the brewers of Indiana are looking forward to exposing all of the bloggers to our vibrant craft beer scene.”

Excursion Logistics

• You must be registered for the conference to participate in the excursion, which is limited to 50 people. The excursion costs $20 (mostly to make sure people show up!), can be paid when registering, and includes dinner, bus transport to Indy, and lunch on Friday. You are on your own as far as costs on the pub crawl.
• We recommend you stay in the Howard Johnson hotel at 720 North La Salle Street in downtown Chicago. This hotel gets pretty good ratings from travelers and is currently $84 for Thursday, July 12th on Orbitz.
• Meet at the Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub at 6:00 PM on Thursday. If you wish to travel over as a group from the Howard Johnson, meet at 5:20 PM in the lobby to take the El to the brewery.
• The brewpub tour will start at 8:00 PM from the Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub and will finish around 11:00 PM at the Howard Johnson.
• The bus will pick up all participants at 8:25 AM from the Howard Johnson in downtown Chicago. If you are staying elsewhere, you will need to get to the hotel on your own. Eat breakfast before you get on the bus. The bus will stop at the Lafayette Brewing Company around noon for lunch and beer.
• The bus will depart Lafayette at 1:30 PM, arrive in Indy around 2:45 PM, and leave you just enough time to check into the Marriott Hotel in time for the 3:00 PM Registration and Tradeshow kicking off the conference.
• If you are flying, you should fly into Chicago on Thursday and out of Indy on Saturday. If you live in Indy, we suggest you take a public bus (or flight) to Chicago and ride back with the group. If you live in Chicago, we suggest you ride with the group to Indy and take a public bus (or flight) back.

Any questions? Please leave them on this post.