Abv Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

2015 might as well be deemed “The Year Pipeworks Came to Cans”, because as this show proves, it’s one of the best things to happen to Chicago beer in a while. We review the five currently available canned beers from Pipeworks because we were too impatient to wait for the sixth. Additionally, we unveil a new game (temporarily) titled “Beer Carnac,” and it goes off better than expected. We also give advice about Beer of the Month clubs, Ryan joins the “Smells Creamy” movement, and Craig is terrible at animals. And we tell a story about the Worst Trivia Prize ever. Caw-caw! Craig Lizard King Pale Ale Ninja vs. Unicorn Double IPA War Bird Session Ale Close Encounter Stout Blood of the Unicorn Red Ale Ryan Ninja vs. Unicorn Double IPA Lizard King Pale Ale War Bird Session Ale Blood of the Unicorn Red Ale Close Encounter Stout  

No tents were pitched in the making of this episode as we review the 2015 lineup of Goose Island’s signature special release stout. And we went extravagant on this one, pairing all six Bourbon County beers with special chocolates and the scandalous commentary of one Dennis Lee from The Pizzle. Find out if we think if these were worth waiting in line for on a cold Black Friday morning. In addition to our unique take on these most-desired beers, you’ll get to sup upon our sordid stew of nail polish remover, Charo, porns, Juggalos, David Lynch, Arby’s, salt sticks, and banjos. We also do some crappy improv, talk about Dennis’ tiny hands and Craig’s muppet voice, and spoil some movies. Thanks to Goose Island for providing a few of the beers to help make this vulgar trainwreck possible.   Rankings   Ryan Bourbon County Brand Stout Bourbon County Brand Barleywine Rare Bourbon County Brand Stout Bourbon County Brand Coffee Stout Bourbon County Brand Regal Rye Stout Proprietors’ Bourbon County Brand Stout  

For our brief, annual sabbatical, we drink ten different craft sodas while recapping our experience at this year’s Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers. We attempt to review the sodas, with five produced locally, but spend a lot of time reliving our favorite FoBAB moments. Our highlights include beers from Perennial, Off Color, 2nd Shift, Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub, Spiteful, Brickstone, The Lost Abbey, Metropolitan, Moody Tongue, August Schell, Half Acre, Temperance, Hardywood, and more. But there’s a lot of craft soda information packed in here too, and you’ll learn why we’re so grateful for Prohibition. We also work on Craig’s arts-and-crafts-based standup routine. Come for the FoBAB, stay for the sodas, leave with a gut full of sugar.   FoBAB Moments:   (00:11:30 - 00:18:18) Overall festival talk: organization, glassware gripes, expedited lines, strip club music, and more. (00:26:20 - 00:32:27) Ryan’s top five beers of FoBAB, plus a drunk volunteer story (00:34:44 - 00:38:22) Craig’s top five beers o

On Craig’s day off, he went due south to central and southern Illinois to check out their burgeoning beer scene. He brought back five beers for us to review, and we’re all over them like Abe Lincoln on a steamin’ stack of corn cakes. Amidst the beer talk, we touch on such provincial topics as adhesive, hand growlering, the Kennedys, spray shields, penguin movies, Charleston Chews, service ducks, and Paul Walker. And stay tuned to the end when we pay tribute to the late Jonathan Taylor Thomas. We’re never getting out of this one-stoplight town. Ryan Brickstone Brewery APA Rolling Meadows Brewery Lincoln Lager JT Walker’s Barrel Series #2 Triptych Brewing You Don’t Win Friends with Sours #004 Big Muddy Brewing Vanilla Stout Craig JT Walker’s Barrel Series #2 Brickstone Brewery APA Triptych Brewing You Don’t Win Friends with Sours #004 Rolling Meadows Brewery Lincoln Lager Big Muddy Brewing Vanilla Stout  

Man, it’s a hot one. We try five West Coast beers that have started popping up on Chicagoland shelves to determine if they’re worth your all-important dollar with our arbitrary reviews. Learn about these new entries to the Chicago market while we pay tribute to a song that defined a generation. Plus, we rant about beer pricing, brewery buyouts, the Better Business Bureau, the Rule 34 of beer, doing the Haka, and using “Mambo #5” for terrorism. We’ll be your Drunken Holiday Uncle. Or else forget about it. Craig Cascade Kriek (2013) Logsdon Seizoen Bretta Almanac Wakatu Sour AleSmith Anvil ESB Alpine Hoppy Birthday Session IPA Ryan Logsdon Seizoen Bretta Cascade Kriek (2013) Almanac Wakatu Sour AleSmith Anvil ESB Alpine Hoppy Birthday Session IPA

Listener Keef Debonzo sent us a box of treats from Wicked Weed Brewing, and we sat down on Halloween night to taste ‘em. We’re downright giddy to find out that this Asheville brewery is doing just about everything right. To add to the wickedness of this show, we play our favorite game, Beers Against Humanity, and it elicits talk about Cialis, Nickelback, orgies, Def Leppard, and more. We also talk craft beer Halloween costumes, shelf life on hoppy beers, herbaciousness, and naming your brewery. Check out Keef’s band The Debonzo Brothers on their website and iTunes! Ryan Black Angel Cherry Sour Freak of Nature Double IPA Pernicious IPA Oblivion Sour Red (w/blackberries and dates) Silencio Dark Sour (w/coffee and vanilla bean) Craig Black Angel Cherry Sour Pernicious IPA Oblivion Sour Red (w/blackberries and dates) Silencio Dark Sour (w/coffee and vanilla bean) Freak of Nature Double IPA  

For this episode, we blend with the Johnsens - MC and Matt - for this special trip on the Gueuze Crueuze™. We taste-tour five Belgian gueuzes and attempt to rank them, which is mixed in with some lambic education, brewery history, Belgium travel stories, and more diversions than usual. Here’s a small sampling of non-beer topics: Nazi ghosts, Eddie Bauer, peanut butter tapeworms, wine bongs, home coolshipping, DMX, pipe-aging, Magic Eye puzzles, Belgian motorcycle gangs, and dangerous roadside Limburger. We also add a few to the Great Band Names List, and Craig continues to smell weird. Check out MC’s excellent visual beer blog Worth A Thousand Beers and buy her kickass art! Matt & Ryan Cantillon Gueuze 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l'Ancienne Girardin Gueuze 1882 (Black Label) Boon Oude Geuze MC 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Cantillon Gueuze Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l'Ancienne Girardin Gueuze 1882 (Black Label) Boon Oude Geuze Craig 3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Oude Gueuze Tilquin à l'Ancienne C

18th Street Brewery from Gary, Indiana is just over halfway through their Hunter variant series, and we round up five beers to review for this one. Colin Joliat from Boozist joins us to knock back this vertical of Hunter beers and to help us not end up horizontal. Craig is the game master on this episode with several “hunter”-themed trivia segments. We also discuss the Neo and Ne-Yo conundrum, Rare Day, sun tan lotion, blue licorice, and androgynous vampires. This episode is brought to you by Lions Gate Entertainment's “The Last Witch Hunter” starring Vin Diesel, opening October 23rd.* Hunt forever. Live forever. Ryan Hunter Cherry Hunter Coffee Hunter Vanilla Hunter Double Milk Stout Hunter Coconut Colin Hunter Cherry Hunter Vanilla Hunter Double Milk Stout Hunter Coffee Hunter Coconut Craig Hunter Coffee Hunter Cherry Hunter Coconut Hunter Double Milk Stout Hunter Vanilla *We’re really not sponsored by this. Please don’t sue us, fine people at Lions Gate Entertainment. Without you, we’d have no Madea.

Before the weather all goes to shit, we look to the north for a flavor vacation with beers from Door County Brewing Co. We try almost everything they make while helping you plan your next vay-cay on Wisconsin’s Prehensile TailⓇ (Segway Tours are highly recommended.) We talk about beers with an eco-conscience, the Doors, fish boils, bottle dating, Shebobs N’ Such, and, of course, Kevin Bacon. Thanks to Sarah Rehmer and Danny McMahon for the beers for this episode!   Craig L’Automne Farmhouse Silurian Stout w/Vanilla Pastoral Saison Biere De Seigle Rye Farmhouse Little Sister Witbier Polka King Porter Big Sister Hibiscus Witbier   Ryan Biere De Seigle Rye Farmhouse Silurian Stout w/Vanilla L’Automne Farmhouse Pastoral Saison Polka King Porter Big Sister Hibiscus Witbier Little Sister Witbier

We load up the wagon for a cross-country tour of saisons, and we go all ‘Murica on you anyways despite drinking delicate Belgian-style beers. On this episode, we review five saisons from five different states all over this great land. You’ll hear some talk of serving temperatures, food pairings, and off flavors as we lazily audition for a freebie Cicerone certification. There’s also some creepy man-crush talk about Cory King and Troy Casey, a digression about the hyper-religious 90’s, some dangerous note-taking, and a few gushing saison problems. We also try hard not to turn it into one giant lemon party. God Bless America. Craig Hill Farmstead Anna Side Project Saison du Blé Casey Brewing and Blending Saison (Batch 3) Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Saison Bernice Jester King/Crooked Stave/Trois Dames Sin Frontera Ryan Side Project Saison du Blé Hill Farmstead Anna Sante Adairius Rustic Ales Saison Bernice Casey Brewing and Blending Saison (Batch 3) Jester King/Crooked Stave/Trois Dames Sin Frontera

Once again, we concluded our extended weekend of drinking and chafing in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival by recording an episode chock full of interviews and arbitrary beer reviews. You’ll hear interviews with Jonathan Wakefield (J. Wakefield Brewing, Miami, FL); Sean Lawson (Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Warren, VT); James Howat (Black Project Spontaneous and Wild Ales, Denver, CO); Paul Kreiner (Noon Whistle Brewing, Lombard, IL); Craig Mycoskie (Rahr & Sons Brewing, Fort Worth, TX); Jason zumBrunnen (Ratio Beerworks, Denver, CO); Jay Goodwin (The Rare Barrel, Berkley, CA); and the lunatics from Melvin Brewing (Jackson, WY). We cover many highlights and aspects of the fest, while still allowing time for our usual random digressions. Craig discusses his weekend spent stalking Troy Casey, and Ryan shares his numerical observations about babies, dreadlocks, and sandals. When you get this high, coming down is the hardest part.   Beers Reviewed/Mutual Rankings Casey Brewing and Blending Cherry Fruit S

  Prost! This week, we put nine Oktoberfest/Märzen-style beers into an ultraviolent cage match of arbitrary opinions. Beers from Germany, the U.S., and Chicago all enter, and a lot of them are kind of the same, but it’s the small differences that are amplified. We give a real informal history of the style, ponder what Germany smells like, and talk about the common problem with reviewing beers from Europe. But also, we smell creamy, maintain the cage, talk about goalie fights, and discover why we don’t let Craig do the walk-up. How high have we raised the discourse with this episode? So high.   Rankings   Ryan New Glarus Staghorn Metropolitan Afterburner Surly SurlyFest Revolution Oktoberfest Two Brothers Atom Smasher Great Lakes Oktoberfest Spaten Oktoberfest ur-Märzen Paulaner Oktoberfest-Märzen Hofbräru Oktoberfestbier   Craig Metropolitan Afterburner New Glarus Staghorn Revolution Oktoberfest Two Brothers Atom Smasher Spaten Oktoberfest ur-Märzen Surly SurlyFest Paulaner Oktoberfest-März

The brewers from Oregon’s de Garde Brewing use a coolship to ferment their beers year-round before aging them in oak, and we taste five of the resulting beers. Despite moments of oppressive heartburn, we find that the Oregonian Coast is blowing some sweet pixie farts into these wonderful beers. We try not to be too self-gratifying, but clutch tightly as this episode includes a touch of French speak, a rub of new band names, and a gentle caress of sensual GoGurt. Craig also loses control of his spittle. And Ryan pleases himself with a very satisfying musical theme. Bu.   Ryan 1. Imperial Cherry Marion Bu Berliner Weisse 2. Amarillo Hose Gose 3. Special Rouge American Wild Ale 4. Oude Rruin Flanders Oud Bruin 5. Peach Bu Berlinner Weisse   Craig 1. Imperial Cherry Marion Bu Berliner Weisse 2. Special Rouge American Wild Ale 3. Amarillo Hose Gose 4. Oude Rruin Flanders Oud Bruin 5. Peach Bu Berlinner Weisse

In the annals of ABV Chicago, this one will certainly go down as Craig’s masterpiece. We have five maple syrup and coffee breakfast beers and pair them with five doughnut creations from local baking geniuses Glazed & Infused. Once again we are joined by Chicago Reader’s 2015  Best Food WriterDennis Lee, and like the feeling of syrup in the corners of your mouth and the rot of sugar in your belly after a giant stack of pancakes, he will make you feel disgusting yet oddly satisfied. Dennis shares some Pizzle updates, a sad birthday story, his thoughts on a Freegan challenge, and some helpful explanations of “Red Velvet” and ganache. But mostly we hear about his garbage life and Tinder disappointments. Other topics include continental breakfasts, the film “Independence Day” (and the eternal Paxton or Pullman debate), new CK scents, and Craig’s awful diet. Please send insulin.   Featured Glazed & Infused Donuts   Terry’s Mocha Koffee Toffee Maple Bacon Long John Sweet Tooth (w/Butterfinger topping and v

The spoils of Craig’s epic East Coast trip come to an end here, and boy are we spoiled! Trillium Brewing Company out of Boston is making a variety of beers better than pretty much everyone, we discover. Six beers of varying styles get our unequivocal praise here, which leaves plenty of time for Craig to talk about his visit to the brewery, their upcoming expansion plans, and why they should be on everybody’s radar. Also, hear us explain how your stinky ass can help you appreciate beers, the difference between bags and cornhole; our vague memory of “Good Will Hunting” quotes, a story where Craig effortlessly connects drinking syrup and Zelda, some SRM insanity, and something about a fat robot. Trill recognize trill, homie.   Craig 1. Artaic Double IPA 2. Congress Street IPA 3. Bees American Wild Ale with Honey 4. Fort Point Pale Ale 5. Stonington Barrel-Aged Wild Saison 6. Day and Night Blonde Barleywine with Coffee   Ryan 1. Fort Point Pale Ale 2. Artaic Double IPA 3. Bees American Wild Ale with Honey 4. Cong

This episode goes out to our BFFs in Chicago beer as we open five brettanomyces-enhanced bottles. And despite our fully-disclosed amicable relationships with these brewers, we manage to be brutally honest in our reviews. You’re welcome, buds! Mostly though, you’ll hear us analyze our own friendship through some light reminiscing, reflect on being held, articulate Craig’s specific measurements for beer success, and make at least two fart jokes. Ryan also reads a brief essay about brettanomyces he cobbled together, and Craig is angry about cucumber water. And we become better brett friends than we thought possible. Forever? Forever-ever? Forever-ever?   Ryan 1. Goose Island Clybourn - Brettanomite Sour Wheat Ale 2. Lake Effect - Session Brett Extra Pale Ale 3. Une Année - Xellensis Belgian Blonde Ale 4. Transient - Peur Saison 5. Middle Brow - Cobrastyle Saison   Craig 1. Lake Effect - Session Brett Extra Pale Ale 2. Transient - Peur Saison 3. Goose Island Clybourn - Brettanomite Sour Wheat Ale 4. Une Année - X

Craig's East Coast excursion continues to provide a bounty of spectacular beers for us to review, and we couldn't resist doing a third Hill Farmstead show. We drink five growlers and one bottle from RateBeer's top brewery in the country, and it’s all Vermontastic. And whenever the beer is this good, we get gleefully off topic to talk about cereal, movie trilogies, Crystal Pepsi, Peter Cetera, and Hollywood hunks. Craig recaps his most recent trip to Hill Farmstead and what has changed since he last visited in 2013. And things gets creepy early and carry on to Craig unleashing his most lamentable creation: Ryan’s chub scale. Sorry. Sorry sorry sorry.   Rankings   Craig 1. Susan IPA 2. Society and Solitude #1 DIPA 3. Edward Pale Ale 4. Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale 5. Works of Love Blonde Ale 6. Arthur Saison (Dry-Hopped with Styrian Golding)   Ryan 1. Nelson Sauvin Pale Ale 2. Susan IPA 3. Society and Solitude #1 DIPA 4. Edward Pale Ale 5. Works of Love Blonde Ale 6. Arthur Saison (Dry-Hopped with Styrian Golding)

Simply put, we had a bunch of fresh, hoppy beers and needed an excuse to drink them - but then we go all meta on you. We have six beers from all over and play a game of Hop Bingo © to hopefully invigorate our limp descriptors. Craig takes control of the music on this one, and we explain how Ryan almost sabotaged this show. Also, we explain why we have so many Pipeworks beers on the show, explore the troubling distance growing between the two of us, and discuss how a little Donnie Brasco can go a long way. And, as was written, only shooting stars break the mold.   Play along with the Hop Bingo © Home Edition:   Craig 1. The Lone Pint Brewery - Yellow Rose IPA 2. Lawson’s Finest Liquids - Sip of Sunshine IPA 3. Pipeworks Brewing - Square Grouper DIPA 4. Lawson’s Finest Liquids - Super Session #2 IPA 5. Half Acre Beer Co. - Navaja DIPA 6. Fat Head’s Brewery - Head Hunter IPA   Ryan 1. Pipeworks Brewing - Square Grouper DIPA 2. The Lone Pint Brewery - Yellow Rose IPA 3. Half Acre Beer Co. - Navaja DIPA 4. Lawson

Craig’s recent travels took him to the town of Monson, Massachusetts where a small, growing brewery is producing some of the best beer in the world. Not only do we drink and react to six stunning Tree House Brewing Company beers, but Craig shares a conversation he recorded with co-founder and co-owner Dean Rohan. With six growlers of the most drinkable yet complex beers we’ve had in a while, we subject these world-class beers to our low-brow drunkenness. Listen for our aggressively horrible spoken seques, an ongoing debate about fruit plates versus fruit bowls, an appearance from Craig’s alter ego Greg, Ryan’s take on why barrel-aging is overrated — and if you stay until the end, you’ll hear a story about how a magician ruined Craig’s trip to the Basketball Hall of Fame. There’s also an ACTUAL limited time special offer for listeners, so get your decoder rings ready*. Ryan 1. Julius IPA 2. Alter Ego IPA 3. Curiosity 19 DIPA 4. Double Shot Stout (with Sumatra Mandheling coffee) 5. That’s What She Said Mil

We can hardly believe the number of local breweries canning beers these days, and in this episode we barely scratch the aluminum surface. We review six diverse styles in our attempt to arbitrarily decide who can kick it. Sidebars and distractions ensue, and we end up doing the sour mash, testing Craig’s local can knowledge, and determining the appropriate number of scarves needed to enjoy absinthe. And Craig sings - BEAUTIFULLY. Can you believe it?!?   Craig 1. DESTIHL Lynnbrook Raspberry Berliner Weisse 2. Spiteful God Damn Pigeon Porter 3. Half Acre Vallejo IPA 4. Atlas Farmhouse Wheat 5. Mikerphone Vinyl Frontier DIPA 6. Slapshot Tripel Deke   Ryan 1. Half Acre Vallejo IPA 2. Spiteful God Damn Pigeon Porter 3. DESTIHL Lynnbrook Raspberry Berliner Weisse 4. Atlas Farmhouse Wheat 5. Mikerphone Vinyl Frontier DIPA 6. Slapshot Tripel Deke