Kinslahger Brewing Company, 6806 Roosevelt Rd. in Oak Park, is known for brewing new, innovative beers, but this summer they are twisting the idea of fresh in a new direction. Each Sunday they will put out a table in the tasting room for local garden enthusiasts to bring their bounty to exchange with others.
Got too many cucumbers? Too many tomatoes? Here’s the answer.
“My wife is a gardener. I’m just the messenger,” first-time exchanger John Asta said. “She sent me here specifically to find out if she could get some lovage.” When asked if he was also taking the opportunity to get a beer too, Asta said, “I will take the hit.” Such a good husband.
Kinslahger owner Keith Huizinga got the idea from experiences in his own garden last fall.
“I have a rather large perennial garden with a lot of herbs, oregano, mint, sage, lovage, things like rhubarb. I have two pawpaw trees in my garden. All the fruit will ripen at about the same time in about two weeks in September,” Huizinga said. “I started bringing pawpaws in and just giving them away to people. That sort of prompted in my mind I should do that in the spring and summer with all the other things in my garden.”
The idea of an exchange started to ripen in his mind.
“I thought it would be kind of fun to just put a table out there on Sunday,” he said. “And try to get the word out to folks that there’s a space where you can come and bring some of that stuff and hopefully other folks in the community will know that they can come by and grab cucumbers or some rhubarb or sage or floral or oregano or whatever it might be.”
A purchase from the brewery is not required to take part in the exchange.
“Folks come in here to talk to their neighbors or friends and whatnot,” he said. “There’s no TVs. Nobody’s in here staring at the game. They’re here to talk to somebody else. This is sort of an extension of the community aspect of the industry.”
This intentionally community-building event is in line with other activities that the brewery fosters in its tasting room.
On the second Thursday of each month, they have a book exchange in association with The Pile Bookstore, 7117B W. Roosevelt Rd. in Berwyn. It’s a bring a book, take a book type of situation with some extras added by the bookstore. That exchange has developed into an informal book discussion group.
“They know that there’ll be other readers here,” Huizinga said. “And they say, ‘Oh, hey, I read this book,’ And so I’ve seen this sort of community and conversation developing around it.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be Kinslahger without a new beer to talk about as well. This summer they are debuting “Featherweight.”
“Stylistically, I’m calling it a white lager,” Huizinga said. “It is four and a half percent alcohol, very light and dry. I use some rice in there and then dry hop it with a variety called Laurel which has this sort of orange blossom aroma to it. It’s light, super refreshing – not bitter, with a smooth, dry finish.”
Here’s to summer in the garden! And a way to share the bounty, if it outgrows your appetite.