Peterson Wine Cellars



Our Beer

What you'll find in our Store	Our Beer and Our Cooler We have over 140 different beer varieties in our cooler. Everyone always comments about how we have the coldest beer in the Western Suburbs. In fact we would have to say it's bone chilling cold since when we're restocking it we need a parka. By the way, the temperature in our beer cooler is 38 degrees. As you can see, it's so big that we couldn't get it all in the picture. See the picture below. Starting in June and going for about four weeks straight we're doing beer tasting on Friday nights. Stay tuned for these announcements. We're hoping to have the Budweiser Girls, the Dos Equis Girls, the Miller Girls, and maybe the Heineken Girls. We're firming up the dates right now - if they aren't spoken for already we may get them all. Beer Trivia What is Beer? Beer is a fermented beverage made from grain. What is a fermented beverage? Well, let me try to explain without doing too much violence to a complex process. You take grain, which is high in carbohydrates. You let it start to germinate, that is, go to seed. When this happens, natural sugars develop. You then stop this process and add the grain to water. Now, how to turn this sugary slop into slop with alcohol in it and bubbles? Answer- add yeast. Yeast works on the natural sugars, spitting out both carbon dioxide and alcohol. Voila- you have a bubbly, alcoholic beverage. What is a Lager Beer? Lagers are the most commonly-consumed beer in the world. They are of Central European origin, taking their name from the German lagern ("to store"). Lager yeast is a bottom-fermenting yeast, and typically undergoes primary fermentation at 7-12°C (45-55°F) (the "fermentation phase"), and then is given a long secondary fermentation at 0-4°C (30-40°F) (the "lagering phase"). During the secondary stage, the lager clears and mellows. The cooler conditions also inhibit the natural production of esters and other byproducts, resulting in a "crisper" tasting beer. What is Bock Beer? Bock is a style of lager beer which originated in Germany. It was traditionally brewed in the fall, at the end of the growing season, when barley and hops were at their peak. It was "lagered" all winter and enjoyed in the spring at the beginning of the new brewing season. Bocks can be pale (helles) or dark (dunkles) and there are double (doppel) bocks which are extra strong. What is Porter Beer? The porter style of beer is becoming popular again. Just what is a porter? What does it taste like? Where does it come from? Porter beer was first created in the mid 1700s, and was really a blend of three types of popular beer: * mild ale * brown ale * stale ale This blend was very popular with the shippers in London, who were called "porters". It was very dark brown, heavy, with a high alcohol (around 7%). This help covered up any problems with improper blending or bad initial ale. The stronger the porter the better, and soon they were being rated with X, XX and XXX to indicate the strength. Porter faded from popularity when people began to prefer clear and light beers, but in the 1980s when home brewing took hold of the public imagination porter swept back into style. Beer Strength Depends on Local Customs Beer strength varies by local custom. British ale tends to average 4.4% abv. Belgian beers tend to average 8% abv. The strength of the typical global pale lager is 5% abv. The yeast used for brewing beer normally cannot get the strength much beyond 12% abv; however, in the 1980s the Swiss brewery Hurlimann developed a yeast strain which could get as high as 14% for their Samichlaus beer. Since then breweries have experimented with using champagne yeasts, continually pushing up the strength. Samuel Adams reached 20% abv with Millennium. The strongest beer sold in Britain was Dogfish Head's World Wide Stout, a 21% abv stout which was available from UK Safeways in 2003. In Japan in 2005, the Hakusekikan Beer Restaurant sold an eisbock, strengthened through freezing, believed to be 28% abv. The beer that is considered to be the strongest yet made is Hair of the Dog's Dave - a 29% abv barley wine made in 1994.
AMSTEL ANCHOR LIBERY BEER ANCHOR SMALL BEER ANCHOR STEAM BEER ANCHOR SUMMER BEER BACARDI SILVER ORANGE BACARDI SILVER BACARDI SILVER RAZ BASS ALE BECKS DARK BECKS LIGHT BECK'S N/A BECKS BELL'S AMBER ALE BELL'S OBERON ALE BELL'S PALE ALE BELL'S PORTER BELL'S STOUT BELL'S WINTER WHITE BERGHOFF AMBER ALE RED BERGHOFF DARK BERGHOFF LAGER BLACK SHEEP RIGGWELTER BLUE MOON BODDINGTONS ALE BUDWEISER BUD LIGHT BUSCH LIGHT CARLSBERG BEER CHIMAY CINQ CENTS CHIMAY ALE GRANDE RESERVE CHIMAY PREMIER ALE CLAUSTHALER N/A COORS COORS LIGHT COORS NON ALCOHOLIC CORONA EXTRA CORONA LIGHT CORONITA CZECHVAR BEER DOS EQUIS AMBER DOS EQUIS LAGER DUCHY ORIGINALS ENGLISH ALE DUVEL SPECIAL ALE FOSTERS LAGER FRANZISKANER GOOSE ISLAND 312 GOOSE ISLAND HONKERS ALE GOOSE ISLAND MATILDA GOOSE ISLAND PUB VARIETY PK GOOSE ISLAND XMAS ALE GROLSCH PREMIUM LAGER GUINNESS HACKER-PSCHOOR MUNICH HARP LAGER HEINEKEN LIGHT HEINEKEN HOEGAARDEN HOFBRAU HOFBRAU OCTOBERFEST J W DUNDEE'S HONEY BROWN KALIBER N/A KAPSREITER LANDBIER KILLIANS RED KINGFISHER KONIG LUDWIG WEISS LABATT LIGHT LAMBIC KRIEK CHERRY LAMBIC PECHE LEINENKUGEL CREAMY DARK LEINENKUGEL HONEY WEISS LEINENKUGEL'S AMBER LIGHT LEINENKUGELS APPLE SPICE LEINENKUGELS NORTHWOODS MC EWAN'S SCOTCH ALE MICHELOB AMBER BOCK MICHELOB ULTRA AMBER MIKE'S HARD BERRY MIKE'S HARD CRANBERRY LEMONADE MIKE'S HARD LEMONADE MILLER GENUINE DRAFT MILLER GENUINE DRAFT LIGHT MILLER HI LIFE MILLER LITE MODELO ESPECIAL MOLSON CANADA MOLSON GOLDEN MONTY PYTHON HOLY GRAIL NEGRA MODELO NEWCASTLE BROWN ALE O'DOUL'S N/A OLD STYLE PABST BLUE RIBBON PACIFICO PERONI RED STRIPE ROLLING ROCK ROLLING ROCK SAM ADAMS LAGER NR 6/12Z SAM ADAMS LIGHT SAM ADAMS SUMMER SAM ADAMS WHITE ALE SAM ADAMS WINTER LAGER SAMUEL ADAMS DOUBLE BOCK SAMUEL ADAMS WINTER CLASSICS SAMUEL SMITH OATMEAL STOUT SAMUEL SMITH PALE ALE SAMUEL SMITH PURE LAGER SAMUEL SMITH TADDY PORTER SAMUEL SMITH WINTER WELCOME SAMUEL SMITH'S NUT BROWN ALE SAPPORO DRAFT CANS SILVER SIERRA NEVADA PALE ALE SMIRNOFF ICE SMIRNOFF TRIPLE BLACK SMIRNOFF TWISTED BLACK CHERRY SMIRNOFF WILD GRAPE SMITHWICKS SOL SPATEN PREMIUM ST. PAULI GIRL ST. PETERS CREAM STOUT ST. PETERS ENGLISH ALE ST. PETERS OLD STYLE PORTER STELLA ARTOIS SUMMIT EXTRA PALE ALE TAJ MAHAL TETLEYS ENGLISH ALE TSINGTAO WARSTEINER GIFT PACK WARSTEINER WHYCHWOOD HOBGOBLIN ALE WOODCHUCK CIDER AMBER ZIMA XXX

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Peterson Wine Cellars		(630) 848-1445		Peterson Spirits & Fine Wines		(630) 904-1500

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