Two Brothers Brewery

Has anyone in the Chicago region, or outside by any means, heard of "Two Brothers Brewery" ? I just sampled three of their year rounds (prairie path, DuPage, Cane & Ebel's), and I'm absolutely taken back. Especially by their Cane & Ebel's, a super hopped up red rye ale which they add 70lbs of Thai palm sugar to each batch. They use "Summit" (anyone ever heard of the strain?) hops with a whopping 18% aa. The beer's got a wonderful, pungent, citrus flavor to it.

I have had their beers, and I enjoy them, also. They are in suburban Warrenville, I believe, and have a brewpub that serves food attached, also. I have read there are Saturday brewery tours, but have not gone yet.

Also, their labels are different, a plasticized sort of thing, and are damn near impossible to get off, even with my standard oxyclean soak.

Ive heard of it. know where its at but never had there beer lol

I had a bottle of Cane and Ebel last week and really enjoyed it. I've been drinking a lot of hopped-up red ales recently and this one definitely stood out. Maybe it was the Thai palm sugar. I'd love to do a clone of this if anyone has a recipe idea...

I've had a few of their beers, but so far they've been average at best. Can't remember off the top of my head which ones, I might have to try the Cane and Ebel and see if it's any better.

Pappers said:

Also, their labels are different, a plasticized sort of thing, and are damn near impossible to get off, even with my standard oxyclean soak.

Click to expand...

Surprised the hell out of me when I first tried to take the labels off.

I have tried their Golden Ale (Prairie Path?) and I enjoyed it. Unfortunately I am now in Ohio and cannot try any of their other beers till I get back home.

I love their Cane and Ebel and their Bitter End, especially the Bitter End. Fantastic beers and I think these guys really do it right. High quality product and creative. I have recipes for both at home but I have yet to make them so I can't attest to how good they are. The Cane and Ebel recipe is from the brewery if I recall correctly.

Found Cane and Ebel, it is from the brewery, you can scale it to you batch size:

Pils
Munich 3%
Crystal 10 8%
Rye 12%
Crystal Rye 3%
Melinoidan (Aromatic will work) 3%
Black Malt less than 1% for color

First wort hop with Summit and Columbus 40 IBU
30 minutes left with Summit 12 IBU
25 minutes left with Columbus 8.5 IBU
20 minutes left with Simcoe 7 IBU
Dryhop with Simcoe about .3 oz/gallon

Thai Palm Sugar added before start of boil. (.15 lbs / gallon)

Mash mid 150's
Boil 75 minutes
target starting gravity 1.072

Very neat, I'm glad some of my other brew brothers in arms have checked it out. I'll be going there tomorrow for an afternoon tour. They go at 1 and 2:30 if anyone else is interested. Here's their website.

www.twobrothersbrew.com

In 2008, I believe, I got a sixer of the Domaine duPage and thought it was awesome until I got to the fifth bottle, which was apparently infected; it really didn't taste right. The sixth bottle is still haunting my beer collection, daring me to drink it.

I found the same thing about the labels - printed polypropylene with some kind of pressure-sensitive adhesive that you won't be able to get off without using goo-gone or something. I advocate bottle re-use, but recycle these.

Their "artisian" labels are pretty neat though. They've got some pretty cool artwork on them. They use a really impressive bottling machine, I believe it was made by, or called "Kronus". I'm not sure if that contributes to the impossible labels to get off or not.

If you like IPAs, their Hop Juice and Heavy Handed are pretty good, but they are both seasonal. Hop Juice is an IIPA and is only released once a year. It seems to go fast. They also have a Heavier Handed IIPA, but I have yet to try it. Some of their beers are just average, but most are pretty good. Never taken the tour.