In advance of the “South of 80″ event organized by The Green Lady and GuysDrinkingBeer.com for Chicago Craft Beer Week, we are excited to announce the beers that will be available from the 4 participating downstate breweries – Big Muddy, Rolling Meadows, Bent River and Six Row.

Representatives from The Green Lady and GuysDrinkingBeer.com are proud to say that they’ve sampled nearly all of the following, and look forward to making many of them available to Chicago for the first time, including specialty beers and cask options. Look for brewery “snapshots” to follow on GuysDrinkingBeer.com with more info on the breweries and beers to be poured.

Tickets are not required for this event, and the following beers scheduled to appear will be available in flights or full pours.

From Big Muddy Brewing (Murphysboro, IL):

•  Saluki Dunkeldog – A Big Muddy flagship, subtle but very flavorful
•  Big Muddy Monster – Hearty, rich and hefty India Brown Ale

From Rolling Meadows Brewery (Springfield, IL):

•  Lincoln’s Lager – A dry, pleasantly hopped lager; a perfectly sessionable “lawnmower beer”
• Abe’s Ale – A nutty, maple-sweet amber with a surprisingly well-hidden 9.5% abv
• Springfield Wheat – Aggressive cloves, subtle banana with a nice creamy texture

From Bent River Brewery (Moline, IL):

•  Uncommon Stout – One of the Quad City’s most popular beers; grassy with a touch of mint and licorice
• Jalapeno Pepper Ale – Not for the weak of heart or palate; A pure-pepper blast of heat and spice
• Dry-Hopped Pale Ale – Piney, citrus-y, full bodied and quite hefty for a pale ale

From Six Row Brewing Company (St. Louis, MO): .

• Whale – Their flagship wheat pale ale, starts light and sweet and finishes with a hefty amount of wheat
• Double IPA: Not a palate-destroyer, this beer walks right up to the edge of “too much” but doesn’t cross it
• Dry Hopped DIPA ON CASK: Okay, this one might be a palate destroyer. We’ll find out on Tuesday.
• Vanilla Porter ON CASK: Six Row’s porter offers a nice peanut-butter flavor; the addition of vanilla blends pleasantly with the lighter-than-usual body for the style

GuysDrinkingBeer.com started as a beer blog in April of 2010, but soon evolved into coverage of Chicago-centric beer news, reviews of cellared beers, unique vertical tastings and hard-to-find regional offerings as well as their legislative outreach campaign called Save The Craft. This is the first beer event they’ve organized.

The Green Lady will be hosting other events during Chicago Craft Beer Week, but “South of 80” is guaranteed to be one of the most unique nights of the entire craft beer celebration.

Where: The Green Lady, 3328 N. Lincoln, just steps from the Paulina Brown Line stop

When: May 22, 2012, 7 pm – 10 pm

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There appears to be a hint of light at the end of the tunnel in the months long dispute over Anheuser-Busch InBev, its wholly owned subsidiary WEDCO and distributor City Beverage.

The squabble centers around whether WEDCO can legally retain a 30-percent stake in City Beverage in light of legislation signed in to law last year that clarifies who can and who cannot self-distribute beer in Illinois and if WEDCO holding a minority stake in the distributor is akin to self-distribution.

Friday, the Illinois Liquor Control Commission released of a series of findings – agreed upon by commissioners – after a hearing on the issue back in December. You can find the findings below, if you’d like to give them a once-over.

According to a spokesperson for the commission the findings “can” be used to determine the next steps. And those next steps could come sometime over the summer. This jives with the expectations of Associated Beer Distributors President Bill Olson, who says the commission will likely issue a directive based on these findings – which he thinks could come as early as June.

But, according to the commission spokesperson, there is no set timeline for the commission to reach a final decision.

And it would appear they have some time. City Beverage Arlington Heights, Chicago and Markham have September and October renewal dates for their distributor and importing distributor licenses. You would think the commission would want to act by then, but in March City Beverage Bloomington’s licenses were renewed even though a resolution had not been reached. Perhaps the renewal date is not the best barometer.

To find out what is we reached out to a few beverage industry legal-types to get their thoughts on the findings. We’re still waiting to hear back from them so, in the meantime, we’ll pass along a few observations of our own.

Generaly speaking, the findings seem pretty – general. The first few set a base timeline – until we get to finding (E) – which reads;

“Two attorneys, each functioning respectively as Chief Counsel to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission, within a period of 5 years, came to opposite conclusions as to whether the Liquor Control Act allowed manufacturer ownership of distributorships, while the statute had not changed during the intervening time.”

Those two attorney’s would be Rick Haymaker and William O’Donaghue.

We checked with the commission to ensure we had the names, titles and years employed correct. As the saying goes; you can’t tell a Chief Counsel of the Liquor Control Commission without a program. Well, sure enough, we were correct.

Mr. Haymaker is still in that capacity with the commission.

Mr. O’Donaghue, on the other hand, is now a partner at Kubasiak, Fylstra, Thorpe & Rotunno, P.C. in Chicago – where, according to a source, Anheuser-Busch InBev has him on retainer. And if you followed our Save The Craft coverage last year then you may recall that Mr. O’Donaghue also lobbied on behalf of AB InBev to defeat self-distribution rights for small brewers in Illinois and – in turn – retain AB InBev’s right to keep a stake in four Illinois distributors.

I think we’ve figured out which Chief Counsel came to the conclusion that it was okay for a manufacturer to own a distributor.

Finding (F) also caught our eye.

“It was the intent of the Illinois General Assembly in 2011 to deny AB the right to own a distributorship. We believe this even though the General Assembly did not amend Section 5/6-4(a) to include brewers as parties specifically prohibited from owning distributorships.”

This was worded a little oddly, or so we thought. Does the commission agree that the legislation signed in to law last year prohibits AB InBev from owning a distributor? Or are they agreeing with AB InBev in that, because Section 5/6-4(a) was not directly amended, a manufacturer can own a distributor?

According to ABDI President Bill Olson, after obtaining clarification from the commission, they are siding with the General Assembly. “In effect they are rejecting Anheuser-Busch’s argument and are agreeing with the intent of SB 754,” said Olson.

That’s not how AB InBev is reading in to this. In a statement from AB General Counsel Gary Rutledge, the brewing giant all but claimed victory.

“Anheuser-Busch maintains its 30 percent interest in City Beverage, a licensed Illinois distributor, in accordance with Illinois law. Our ownership has helped bring competition to the beer market in Chicago and has supported expanded choices in beer.

We received the May 10 findings by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and will continue holding our minority stake interest in CITY Beverage.”

The remaining findings, generally, outline what the commission has the ability to do under the circumstances.

So we sit, and we wait, till the commission meets again. Until “Directive Day” is upon us.

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image courtesy Soave Enterprises

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission, Wednesday, moved one step closer to deciding the fate of a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev and its right to hold a minority stake in an Illinois distributor.

Commissioners remained behind closed doors, in executive session, for much of their hours-long meeting. When they emerged they read aloud a series of 11 findings, all agreed upon by commissioners, regarding a resolution to the Wholesaler Equity Development Corporation/City Beverage debate.

The findings are considered, by one source, an outline of sorts toward reaching a final conclusion. There were no hard copies of the findings provided at the meeting, leaving those in attendance to furiously scribble notes, which is why we aren’t outlining the findings one-by-one.

The issue at hand; in light of a new state law enacted last year defining who can and cannot self-distribute beer in the state, can WEDCO retain its 30-percent stake in distributor City Beverage?

AB InBev says yes. Distributor groups in the state say no.

A source at the meeting tells us it appears, from the findings read aloud, that commissioners may be leaning towards following the current state law which would prohibit a manufacturer from owning a distributor, thus keeping AB InBev out of the self-distribution game in Illinois.

The newest commissioner, Cynthia Cahill, who was appointed five days ago abstained from voting on the findings.

We’re currently working on obtaining a hard copy of the findings. As soon as we get one, we’ll post it – verbatim – here at GuysDrinkingBeer.com.

With little fanfare, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn made an appointment to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission on Friday May 4th.

Cynthia Cahill is the appointee. She is a partner at an accounting firm in the suburbs, has been a long-time friend of the governor’s and her brother is a former state senator and current DuPage County board chairman.

Normally my former-political reporter self would be up in arms over the apparent nepotism at work here. But not today. No, today the red flag waving in front of my face is over the timing of this appointment.

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission is meeting tomorrow, a mere 5 days after Cynthia Cahill was appointed. And we’re hearing whispers that are rising to a roar over a possible decision regarding Anheuser-Busch, WEDCO and City Beverage.

The timing is curious.

So we went to the source on this one for an explanation, the governor’s office. We asked a spokesperson about the timing of this appointment. She responded by leaping to the defense of Ms. Cahill and her qualifications to hold the post which, by the way, pays $32,800 a year and comes with pension benefits and healthcare.

Lost in translation, seemingly, was our concern with the timing. You see, we don’t really care who was appointed. It’s when the appointment happened, five days before what could be a pivotal vote by the commission. We pressed further on the curious timing of the appointment and we received a one sentence response.

“Governor Quinn is very confident in her abilities and she’ll be an asset to the board during all decisions.”

This appointment comes after Governor Quinn re-appointed two other commission members, Don O’Connell and James Pandolfi.

The Stakes Are High

So what is potentially at stake tomorrow? The beer distribution game in Illinois, moving forward.

The commission has been deliberating for months over whether or not WEDCO, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch, can retain its 30% stake in distributor City Beverage in light of the change last year in the Illinois Liquor Control Act regarding self-distribution rights for small brewers.

The Associated Beer Distributors of Illinois contends that SB 754 – which was signed in to law last summer – takes A-B InBev out of the distribution game in Illinois, according to president Bill Olson. “We hope that the LCC will rule on ABI’s  ownership of City Beverage supporting the legislative intent of the Illinois General Assembly as stated in debate by the bill’s House sponsor Rep. Frank Mautino, ‘all brewers, in state and out-of-state, manufacturing beer above the craft brewer limits may not self-distribute or own a distributorship in Illinois.  The Bill is consistent with the clarification suggested by Federal District court in the case entitled Anheuser-Busch, et al v. Stephen B. Schnorf, et al,’” said Olson.

But Anheuser-Busch’s Regional VP of State Affairs, Mark Bordas, told us in December he didn’t think SB 754 was that far-reaching. “Senate Bill 754 allowed certain small brewers to self-distribute – but failed to address who may hold an interest in a distributor,” said Bordas.

The concern; is allowing AB InBev to control even a minority stake in a distributor akin to self-distribution? If so, then that is against current Illinois law. But if it isn’t, does that open the door for AB InBev to go after the remaining 70-percent of City Beverage and own it outright?

Connecting The Dots

Let’s lay our cards out on the table here, some that we have previously discussed and others we have not, and see what we’ve got.

AB InBev is still retaining an army of lobbyists in Springfield. And, as we understand, some have been doing more image management of the brewing giant than lobbying specific legislation. An estimated 13 high-profile, clout-heavy lobbyists from 10 firms are in AB’s stable.

And since this image reconstruction has been in the works two liquor control commission members were re-appointed and a new member was appointed to a months vacant seat less than a week before a meeting.

Curious indeed.

If something does happen tomorrow regarding WEDCO and City Beverage attention should be immediately turned to the commission’s vote on the issue, if that is made public, and how Ms. Cahill, Mr. O’Connell, Mr. Pandolfi and Chairman Steve Schnorf voted.

Their votes may very well clearly connect these dots.

Intermittently, over the last few months, we have been telling you about the least-sexy beer politics story in the history of beer politics stories; whether WEDCO, a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch, has been conducting business legally in Illinois.

It turns out, they are.

I spoke to Terry McConville, Assistant General Counsel for the Secretary of State’s Department of Business Services, who headed up the investigation. He said that while WEDCO does have a minority interest in a registered business in Illinois (City Beverage) WEDCO itself does not have to be registered with the state. “WEDCO has minimal ties, not enough to require them to register,” said McConville.

The issue was raised months ago at an Illinois Liquor Control Commission hearing but didn’t appear to go very far until we stepped in and brought it to the attention of the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.

McConville’s  investigation required multiple rounds of questioning and – by law – AB InBev had 30-days to respond to each set of questions, which explains the amount of time it took to close the book on this one.

The big news of the day is obviously the Half Acre taproom announcement, but this tweet from Alderman Ameya Pawar just minutes after it was announced sends a pretty nice signal to us.

Any time you’ve got your Alderman advocating for more craft beer in your neighborhood, you know you’re in good hands.

Your move, Three Floyds.

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