It was chef Won Kim's birthday. While most people know him as the Wholefoods chef and homebrewing enthusiast behind the BrewHaHa event, others know him for his sly smile and bracing sense of humor.

Surrounded by his family, friends, and a few of his favorite things, Kim and his collaborator, Ed Marsewski of Maria's Packaged Goods, bolted together an event called Under the Influence, a celebration of food, beer and art at the Co-Prosperity Sphere in Bridgeport on Chicago's South Side. 

It was the homebrewers that truly made this event, and alone were worth the price of admission. Like the BrewHaHa gatherings, Kim clearly knows how to reach out to some of Chicago's finest and most ambitious weekend warriors. Ryan Burk of Virtue Cider (which just broke ground and pressed its first apples in Fennville, Michigan in November) brought a series of bottles from his aging collection of farmhouses and obscure ales. Working with a variety of yeast strains collected from Belgian bottle dregs over many months, Ryan repropegates his yeast until he has enough to re-pitch into his own recipes. A well-known, but rarely mastered technique of advanced home brewers, repropegating takes patience, diligence and a little luck. 

Ryans's offerings included some rare styles, such as Grisette, a lightly tart French saison fermented with wild yeast from a brewery in Greensboro, Vermont,. He also poured a farmhouse with some brett, and the “Farmier Farm House with a little more funk in the trunk.”  Even more unique was the Harvest Scoth Ale, a smoky ale blended with fresh apples then fermented together. Yeast manipulation is at the heart of Ryan’s recipes, which he develops with years of experience, an incredible palate and nose, and a gut instinct for each strain's likes and dislikes.