Buckle Down Brewing, 8700 W. 47th St, Lyons, IL 60534   phone: (708) 777-1842   website: BuckleDownBrewing.com
Taproom Hours: Wednesday 4pm-10pm | Thursday Noon-10pm | Friday Noon-11pm | Saturday Noon-11pm |Sunday Noon-5pm

Well it was time to Buckle Down and make one more stop before we headed back to Naperville. And away we went with google maps leading the way. We had to do a few u-turns and head scratches as we drove around a high tech industrial area with no Buckle Down Brewing in sight, until I turned to my left and boom, it was across the adjoining street and looking very cool I might add. As we pulled up and took the last parking space I figured it was time to put on one of my favorite hats. You might have noticed I'm a hat guy......right along with being a car guy and a craft beer guy. I had one of my favorite and most versatile hats in the back seat. It's called an ascot cap, dates back to the 1900's and believe it or not it's sometimes associated with livestock slaughtering. Don't know about the livestock but the craft beer slaughtering I can understand. Now I like it because if you wear it the correct way you look like a sophisticated old guy getting ready to read some poetry. But if you turn it around you enter a world of becoming a maverick......kind of a horse with no name kind of guy, "whatever that means, but I like it".

Got the front and center picture and we turned to walk into the Buckle Down. Now one thing I notice was all the condensation on the inside of the glass front door. To the point of dripping down and looking like we were walking into a sauna. The second we stepped in you could smell, and I mean smell the malts working and fermenting.....it was a beautiful thing!! The Master Brewer had been hard at work. Well this place was Hoppin, no pun intended. We had 10 folks filling the small bar and some more at a couple tables, so we took a small high top with a couple stools and sat for a minute just to take it all in.

We had dark wood paneling, a small raised stage in the corner for the possibility of an acoustical talented individual, and a very cool and large wood art piece of the American Flag which made you proud to be an American!! I got up and walked around taking some pictures and a man at the end of the bar who looked about my age said, are you documenting something, are you CIA? I shook his hand and introduced myself. Told him my buddy Brad over there and I tour breweries, we write about our experience, we have a website and we're having a ball. He said, "You're kidding! I'd love to do that and I've been a home Brewer for 30 years". Well I said you need to join us over there and tell us all about it. He came on over and OMG talk about a wealth of information about beer. His name was Pete and he proceded to tell us about how he was introduced to Belgian beer over 30 years ago. Pete said the Belgian's have cornered the market on fabulous beer and once you go Belgium you never make it back.

Now I was right about us being about the same age. Come to find out all three of us are within 6 months of each other. So the stories started to fly and I can see Brad had already made a trip to the bar and was enjoying a Clencher - Double IPA (8.1% ABV, 75 IBU). Simcoe & Centennial hops are the heroes here in this pine and citrus flavored IPA. I wanted to take flight and experience a small taste of what Buckle Down had to offer and to see why the place was so crowded. I boarded the 747 and settled in for the flight. They served up the Clencher, which Brad was drinking, and added to it a sampling of the Buckle Down Belt & Suspenders - American IPA (7.0%, 65 IBU). Crystal and Sterling hops lead the way here with huge citrus and pine with a clean, slightly biscuity malt backbone. Then was the Fiddlesticks- Belgian Style IPA (6.2%, 57 IBU). This hybrid offers the best of Belgium and American hopcentricity of spicy, hoppy, dry and very complex. And the flight was finished off with the Saint Miguel (9.5%) Belgian-styled that's complex and smooth with fruity aromatics and subtle spiciness.

As the three of us sat there and shared one story after another and you could tell we shared a common thread of the how's, the where's, and the why nots of great beer. Pete knew way more then either of us combined and at first Pete was a little taken back by the whole thing. How could you write about all this and not be an expert? We told Pete, "We don't claim to be an expert in the art of brewology" (like that word), but we are experts in people, places and some things. And we ask the question, what is behind this craft beer craze? Obviously the fabulous beer is the catalyst and around this you have people, places and things that once you add them up you have an equation for something very, very special. And it's this very, very special thing that Brad and I have grabbed on to and have made it an adventure!!!

Before we parted company, Pete told us he had quite the brewery in his basement. A fridge full of one-offs and family favorites with a six stool bar ready for action. Who knows, maybe a homemade brewery tour in a basement in Berwyn is calling our names.

Well until next time, and remember.......

Go get'cha one!!