Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

'A Labor of Love': Lake Effect Brewing Celebrates Second Anniversary

By Heather Cherone | October 29, 2014 6:03am
 Clint Bautz' Lake Effect Brewing Co. is celebrating its second anniversary.
Clint Bautz' Lake Effect Brewing Co. is celebrating its second anniversary.
View Full Caption
DNAinfo/Heather Cherone

PORTAGE PARK — A year ago, Clint Bautz was thrilled that beers from his Lake Effect Brewing Co. were available in 40 bars, restaurants and liquor stores.

Now as the Portage Park microbrewery prepares to celebrate its second anniversary, its beers are available in 200 places — and the biggest challenge is filling all of the orders with one delivery van.

"Keeping up with demand is definitely the biggest problem," said Bautz, who quit his job as an architect to focus on turning his homebrewing operation into a business. "But it is a good problem to have."

Lynn Ford, who started Lake Effect with Bautz, has left the business, leaving Bautz to run it along with two full-time employees helped by what Bautz called "an army of volunteers" who love Bautz' one-of-a-kind brews made in a 1,500-square-foot space behind a costume store at 4727 W. Montrose Ave.

"We really want to keep the focus on local ingredients and making interesting beers," Bautz said. "It has been fun to create a demand for something."

In fact, so many people wanted to get their hands on Superbier — Lake Effect's collaboration with Superdawg — that Bautz had to brew up a second batch.

And when Bautz talks about local beer, he's not kidding. 

For the second year in a row, the Portage Park brewery used donated hops grown in the ward to brew a special batch of 45th Ward Fresh-Hopped Beer.

"It is a labor of love," Bautz said. "There may not be a lot of profit, but it is my passion. I want to focus on quality and I want the control."

Lake Effect will celebrate its second birthday with a party Nov. 6 at Fischman's Liquors, 4780 N. Milwaukee Ave. that will give beer lovers a preview of its new sour and barrel-aged beers. The party will also feature music, raffles and food trucks. 

"We're able to pull a lot of flavors out of both the barrels and what used to be in them," Bautz said.

But the barrels that once aged wine and bourbon and now contain Bautz' newest concoction are taking up space in a room Bautz envisions as a combination tasting room and retail shop just off the brewery.

"We keep adding barrels, though," Bautz said. "We just want to keep experimenting."

For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here: