At the end of October 2016, Chicago’s Emporium Arcade Bar debuted a Harry Potter-themed beer. It was an elderberry-tinged sour ale called Polyjuice Potion, the love child of Emporium and Indiana-based Central State Brewing. The release party for the beer was incredible. Everything from the Dark Mark-inspired beer label to Quidditch beer pong to the guests’ costumes was on point. Emporium even got the surf bar next door to come up with themed shots and to coordinate the looped screening of Order of the Phoenix all night long.
April 6 is New Beer’s Eve, and April 7 is National Beer Day. What is New Beer’s Eve? It’s the allowance for taverns to legally sell beer, of course! On April 7, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s enactment that public houses could once again serve beer after years of Prohibition came into effect. Obviously, to celebrate, patrons lined up outside pubs and taverns on April 6, 1933, waiting for midnight to hit. Thus, New Beer’s Eve and National Beer Day came into existence.
Happily, I was able to interview both the Creative and Beverage Director of Emporium, Jared Saul, and the co-founder and Head Brewer of Central State Brewing, Josh Hambright, for these auspicious holidays. Read on for the interview I conducted with Jared and stay tuned for Josh’s interview tomorrow!
MuggleNet: Hi Jared! Briefly introduce yourself and what you do at Emporium.
I’m Jared, originally from the Philadelphia area...
Jared Saul: I’m Jared, originally from the Philadelphia area, and have lived in Chicago for almost 11 years now. I’ve been working in some capacity for the Emporium Arcade Bar group since we first opened our doors in June of 2012. I currently am the Creative Director and Beverage (see also: beer) Director for the company.
MN: What is your background with beer?
What started as merely an interest in craft beer...
JS: What started as merely an interest in craft beer became my full-time job after working for Emporium as a bartender for the first year we were open. Since May of 2013, I have been the beer director for both Emporium locations as well as the beverage director for our newest limited run concept space in Logan Square, currently running as an Amaro-based cocktail lounge called Branca Bar.
MN: April 7 is National Beer Day. How do/would you celebrate this day? What is your favorite/go-to beer?
Every day is beer holiday if you want it to be!
JS: While I’m not exactly sure how official this National Beer Day is, every day is beer holiday if you want it to be! I’m guessing I’ll enjoy a beer or ten since this year it happens to fall on a Friday! As far as “favorite” or “go-to” beers, that’s really hard to say as I, like most folks in my field, enjoy a multitude of different styles. It really depends on the moment you’re in. Lately I’ve skewed towards the sour side of craft beer, especially as the temperatures warm up! Sometimes though, the best thing in the world is an ice cold High Life. Ask any brewer what they want when they’re really thirsty and I guarantee is some form of classic American adjunct lagers (PBR, High Life, Hamm’s, etc.).
MN: What beer are you drinking right now? What beer do you recommend drinking on April 7?
I think whatever is fresh and in front of you is what you should drink...
JS: Currently I’m not indulging as it’s 11am on a Wednesday and I’ve still got a day of work & a night of rolling bocce ball ahead of me at our limited run spot, Branca Bar. Luckily, I’ve got some wonderfully fresh samples from Upland, Like Minds, and 4 Hands chilling down in the fridge for tonight. As far as what I recommend people drink on National Beer Day? I think whatever is fresh and in front of you is what you should drink. Obviously I would love for everybody to support their local breweries and any other craft brands before reaching for something owned by “big beer,” but drink whatever makes you happy!
MN: What is your favorite thing about beer?
My favorite thing about beer would definitely be the camaraderie and friendships it cultivates...
JS: My favorite thing about beer would definitely be the camaraderie and friendships it cultivates, especially when you work in the field. Generally speaking, everybody I have the opportunity to work with, from the top down in the craft beer world, are great people with, essentially, the same goal in mind: to champion the growth of the craft beer culture.
MN: What’s your favorite bar in the city (excepting Emporium, obviously)?
It’s the bar where my beer knowledge blossomed...
JS: If we’re talking my favorite place to drink beer in Chicago, I have to go with Local Option in Lincoln Park. It’s the bar where my beer knowledge blossomed, first as a “regular” at the bar, then as a bartender one night a week in the early stages of my employment at Emporium. Tony and the gang are some of my absolute favorite people in Chicago…. and there’s lots of metal!
MN: Who/what introduced you to the world of Harry Potter?
It was on TV on one of my days off, and I ended up watching it...
JS: Fresh out of college I was working at as a social worker at a home for boys with behavioral disabilities and they would always watch the first movie, like, pretty much every day it seemed. I never really paid much attention to it during work for obvious reasons, but then it was on TV on one of my days off, and I ended up watching it and loved it. The next day I went out & bought the first four books and pretty much read them all in a week or two and was officially a Potterhead!
MN: Do you think there is a big Potter community in Chicago?
Based solely on my experience with the release of this beer… hell yeah there is!
JS: Based solely on my experience with the release of this beer… hell yeah there is! The Polyjuice Potion release was one of our busiest nights ever. We sold out of all the cans we had allocated for the event and then went through three additional kegs of the beer as well! So yeah, thanks Chicago Potterheads, you rule!
MN: Can you describe Polyjuice Potion (the beer)? Why did you decide to go with the sour beer?
Polyjuice Potion is a sour ale with elderberries, plums, and magical bits and bobbles...
JS: Polyjuice Potion is a sour ale with elderberries, plums, and magical bits and bobbles, naturally! When we first started on this project with Central State I knew I wanted it to be something sour and with some kind of crazy herbs or fruits in it since going in I was dead set on calling it Polyjuice Potion. In the books, anytime they drink Polyjuice Potion, they comment on how funky/weird it tastes. Doing a sour ale seemed to be the best way to get that across without actually making people sick (which happens in Harry Potter). Happily, my buddies down in Indy knew exactly where to take that wacky idea and made an incredible sour ale for us! I knew I wanted to use some form of the Dark Mark on the label and as much wizard-centric wording on the description of the beer as possible, without getting a cease and desist from the studio, of course.
MN: How did the collaboration happen between Emporium and CSB? Have you collaborated together before? If not, why Polyjuice Potion?
The idea to make a Harry Potter-inspired beer came to me on my couch watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows one random weeknight.
JS: Polyjuice Potion was our third beer collaboration. The first two had been based on classic 80’s films (
Back To The Future and
Ferris Bueller). The idea to make a
Harry Potter-inspired beer came to me on my couch watching
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows one random weeknight. I posted a Facebook status the next day asking if any of my beer friends would want to make one and Josh from Central State was the first to respond, and respond with genuine enthusiasm I may add! We joked about making
butterbeer, but decided that wasn’t what either one of us would really want to drink much of, on account of the sweetness factor. The only thing that really made sense after that was to make Polyjuice Potion.
MN: Do you have another collaboration in the works?
I do think we’ll be making Polyjuice Potion again at some point...
JS: At the moment we don’t have anything set in our sorcerer’s stone, but as a devotee of all things Harry Potter, I’m always interested in doing more. I do think we’ll be making Polyjuice Potion again at some point this year, which excites me very much as my personal stash is down to two lonely cans!
MN: Who came up with the design of the label?
I had this crazy idea of making it look like an actual recipe page...
JS: The concept of the label was my idea. I had this crazy idea of making it look like an actual recipe page then having the Dark Mark logo somewhere on it, but that was a little too involved and definitely would have gotten lost on the beer store shelf. Luckily for me, Josh and Jake from Central State sent my off the wall idea to the folks at Good Beer Hunting, who help them with their branding, and they were able to clean it up nicely and make it “feel” like a Central State beer with that magical Harry Potter flair.
MN: How did you plan for the release party? Why choose Order of the Phoenix as the only Potter movie to stream on a loop?
We wanted it to be as Potter-centric as possible without actually turning our bar into Hogsmeade or Hogwarts...
JS: Hahaha! Amazing that you noticed it was the only movie we streamed! I was so annoyed by that myself, but it was a last minute snafu that we didn’t expect. At the time of the event, neither Netflix nor Apple Movies had any of the HP films available to stream except for Order of the Phoenix. So we were left with no choice unfortunately. As for the plan of the party, we wanted it to be as Potter-centric as possible without actually turning our bar into Hogsmeade or Hogwarts. I pretty much took on the task of doing as much DIY decorating as possible with my limited Pinterest abilities, budget, and time! I’m not sure I’d take that on again, it was a lot of work! The turnout was worth it, though. It was really amazing. So many great people having fun and enjoying all the Harry Potter vibes we were putting out! We really couldn’t have asked for a better party!
MN: What is a drink or food you desperately wish existed in the Muggle/No-Maj world?
I guess I would have to say boozy butterbeer...
JS: Well, now that Polyjuice Potion exists in the No-Maj world, I guess I would have to say boozy butterbeer. The frozen stuff at Universal Studios is great on a hot day, but it would be pretty rad if somebody made a commercial version you could get in stores. I did hear that Yuengling made a butterbeer ice cream recently. I’ll have to get my hands on a pint of it and mix some dark rum or whiskey in with it and see how it goes.
MN: Is there anything else you’d like to say?
JS: Just because it’s happening inside your head doesn’t mean it’s not real!
