Abv Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

We have five beers new to bottles from Chicago-area breweries and find that you don’t need a lot of experience to impress us. Five unique styles are up for our review, and we unsurprisingly get hammered in the process. There’s a few GABF remnants, Ryan consults his Urban Dictionary, and Craig talks about Mega Man for a while. Trust us - you won’t even need to use a continue.   Ryan 1. Middle Brow Robyn 2. Cahoots Brewing Barrel-Aged AmEn 3. 51st Ward The Krispy Karl 4. Arcade Brewing Mega Milk Stout 5. Forbidden Root Sublime Ginger   Craig 1. Middle Brow Robyn 2. Arcade Brewing Mega Milk Stout 3. Forbidden Root Sublime Ginger 4. Cahoots Brewing Barrel-Aged AmEn 5. 51st Ward The Krispy Karl

After three straight days of drinking at the Great American Beer Festival, we open a few beers in the hotel and play back a bunch of interviews with brewers that all won gold medals (in our hearts.) You’ll hear interviews with brewers from Yazoo, Wicked Weed, Comrade, Almanac, Transient, River Dog, The Rare Barrel, and Melvin. There’s also a brief appearance by a well-lubricated Sam Calagione from Dogfish Head. We sift through our memory of the hundreds of beers we tried and deliver our top experiences, but we cover many other aspects of the fest as well. Craig recaps his What The Funk?!? experience, and Ryan makes fun of our terrible drunken interview questions. Wu! Tang! Wu! Tang!   Beers enjoyed on this episode:   Crooked Stave Mama Bear’s Sour Cherry Pie Casey Brewing and Blending Saison First Blend Avery Rufus Corvus

We try to have the most sincere show in hopes of a visit from The Great Pumpkin Beer, as we try 8 of them. Kim Leshinski of Hail to the Ale and Chicago Beer Gals is our guest. As a BJCP Judge and a homebrewer, she carves up some serious knowledge on the intricacies of the style and drops in a candle on what Chicago breweries have to offer. Kim also talks about her many beer-centric endeavors including her experience working on the branding for Alarmist Brewing and what it was like to collaborate on a shark-themed saison with Lake Effect. We also learn that Craig got kicked out of an all-female craft beer event. Good grief.     Craig   1. Stevens Point Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale   2. Ten Ninety De Ogen   3. Southern Tier Pumking   4. Schlafly Pumpkin Ale   5. Lakefront Imperial Pumpkin   6. Cigar City Good Gourd   7. Slapshot Gourd Damn   8. Dogfish Head Punkin     Kim   1. Stevens Point Whole Hog Pumpkin Ale   2. Ten Ninety De Ogen   3. Southern Tier Pumking   4. Lakefront Imperial Pumpkin   5. Dogfish Head

Episode 36 - Chicago After Dark   Turn the lights down low, because we’re drinking six dark Chicago beers of varying styles. We attempt to eloquently marvel at dark malts and their multiple applications, but then we play another filthy round of Beers Against Humanity. Aside from our usual reviews, topics include cat huffing, actresses named Emma, Robot Dong, proper cookie pairings, awkward sexy talk, and Randy Mosher. And we’ll be very pleasantly surprised by a few beers. (This episode is rated NC-17 for audio nipple.)   Ryan 1. Goose Island Night Stalker (2012) 2. Ale Syndicate Omega Midnight 3. Only Child Night Terrors 4. 5 Rabbit 5 Vulture 5. Metropolitan Arc Welder 6, Off Color Scurry   Craig 1. 5 Rabbit 5 Vulture 2. Goose Island Night Stalker (2012) 3. Ale Syndicate Omega Midnight 4. Only Child Night Terrors 5. Off Color Scurry 6. Metropolitan Arc Welder  

    Perennial Artisan Ales’ Abraxas is Craig’s favorite beer, so we drink it four times. Actually, we have a mini-vertical and experience two variants - one far superior to the other. Our third different guest named Chris joins us to drink our beer and chat about 80’s “extreme sports” movies and Santana. We also pair the amazing beers with some Bee’s Knees Mexican Hot Chocolate Almonds, Ryan’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch cookies, and some Spicy Man Jam. And yes, we get a little emotional over Barrel-Aged Abraxas. Sexual chocolate!     Ryan & Craig     1. Barrel-Aged Abraxas   2. Abraxas (2012)   3. Abraxas (2013)   4. Coffee Abraxas (2013)     Chris     1. Barrel-Aged Abraxas   2. Abraxas (2013)   3. Abraxas (2012)   4. Coffee Abraxas (2013)      

Episode 34 - The Hoppening   This week, we resist the bacteria-born urge to kill ourselves by downing six random hoppy beers!  We’ll regale you with stories of our trip to Decorah, Iowa, and then get off topic a lot as the beer tastes better and better. Then we spend half of the time insulting each other, and Ryan explains to Craig why M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening” is so bad that it deserves tribute. Prepare for the TWISTTTTTTT.   Ryan 1. Toppling Goliath - Sosus 2. New Glarus - Scream IIPA 3. Toppling Goliath - King Sue 4. Bells - Mars: The Bringer of War 5. Bells - The Oracle 6. Modern Times - Fortunate Islands   Craig 1. Topplng Goliath - King Sue 2. Bells - Mars: The Bringer of War 3. Toppling Goliath - Sosus 4. New Glarus - Scream IIPA 5. Modern Times - Fortunate Islands 6. Bells - The Oracle

Ich Bin Ein Berliner Weisse episode! We review five local takes on the style and try some with traditional raspberry and woodruff syrups. We start with a table-setting traditional Berliner Weisse and end with Ryan putting crushed-up Skittles in his beer. And there's the long-awaited meeting of Upton Sinclair and Nicki Minaj. For such a low-ABV show, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the amount of spilling, squirting, and sexual dampness. Wait, come back!   Craig 1. DryHop Brewers - The World Needs Fewer DJs 2. Transient Artisan Ales - Blueberry Peach Maigre 3. Three Floyds - Deesko! 4. Marz Community Brewing - Bubbly Creek 5. Off Color - Fierce   Ryan 1. DryHop Brewers - The World Needs Fewer DJs 2. Three Floyds - Deesko! 3. Transient Artisan Ales - Blueberry Peach Maigre 4. Off Color - Fierce 5. Marz Community Brewing - Bubbly Creek

Horse Thief Hollow is a South Side neighborhood brewpub that is churning out quality brews and delectable food, and we were invited to sample a whole lot of it. Head brewer Dave Williams and owner Neil Byers share a mic and their craft with us. Neil discusses some of the thoughtful choices made in distinguishing the business from the many nearby Irish pubs and how they manage to keep up with the considerable demand they’ve created. Dave educates us on yeast pitching, aging on oak spirals versus barrels, contracting hops and much more. They also stuff us full of delicious food and share the last bottle of their World Beer Cup Silver Medal-winning sweet potato beer. A post-episode nap is highly recommended. Craig 1. Cheval Deux (2013) 2. Annexation (w/ Galaxy hops) 3. 6410 4. 773 5. The Caretaker Ryan 1. Cheval Deux (2013) 2. Annexation (w/ Galaxy hops) 3. 6410 4. The Caretaker 5. 773

Brewer Chris Betts brings some of his Transient Artisan Ales for us to sample, and we couldn’t be happier. Humble and soft-spoken, Chris is one of the only brewers in Chicago focused on handcrafted barrel-aged sours, and the buzz that has followed is rightfully earned. We’ll learn about Chris’ history at Witch’s Hat and One Trick Pony, his “barrel library”, how he manages wild yeasts and bacteria in his beers, and why staying small can be a good thing. There’s also pertinent news on the Reserve Society and what we can expect to drink from Transient in the near future. And there’s a puppy. So freakin’ cute.   Craig 1. Oud Bruin (Wild Turkey barrel) 2. Obelus Galaxy (Red wine barrel) 3. Salarium 4. Obelus Galaxy   Ryan 1. Obelus Galaxy (Red wine barrel) 2. Oud Bruin (Wild Turkey barrel) 3. Salarium 4. Obelus Galaxy

Craig spent a long, drunken weekend at the Great Taste of the Midwest in Madison, Wisconsin, and he brought a microphone. So we’ve assembled a “Low ABV” show around a few clips from his experience, and we open two incredible New Glarus beers while wading through the alcohol-induced fog of Craig’s memory. Here’s what you’ll hear: - Dan Caray from New Glarus discusses the Wild Peach release and a few upcoming (including the slightly-delayed Gueuze). - Mike Saboe from Toppling Goliath shares barrel information on their 2014 Assassin and some exciting details regarding the upcoming batch of Kentucky Brunch. - Where did Captain Adam Vavrick steer his ship? He’ll tell you. - Michael Kiser from Good Beer Hunting talks long Polish last names and his personal drinking highlights, while Craig screams at him. - Craig and some drunk fans talk favorite beers and get weird.  ...and all at a sessionable 46 minutes! Beers reviewed: 1. New Glarus R&D Wild Peach 2. New Glarus Oud Bruin

CHAOS reigns as we open five “Rustic Ales” from Sante Adairius in Capitola, California. We enlist the help of Ken Getty, president of the CHAOS Brew Club, and he drops knowledge bombs all over us about brewing techniques and why CHAOS is doing truly unique things for homebrewers. But we also talk about the Beer Futurists movement, invent Cosmic Beer Pong™, drink Ken’s incredible Kiwi Strawberry Berliner homebrew, and endure a Dennis cameo. Did we just become best friends? Yup.

For this show, we’re at Beermiscuous in Lakeview, and we “drink around” with owner Paul Leamon to review some great tap offerings and learn about his unique beer café concept. Paul gives us a thorough background on the business, from finding inspiration internationally to overcoming licensing headaches and finding the perfect location. We’ll learn about why proper glassware matters, the ordering habits of customers, and the many weekly events happening at Beermiscuous. We are also visited by head “beerista” Austin Bainard, and he talks about how his background in the Chicago craft beer industry helped fill the tap lines with so many delicious, local brews. Which we drink a lot of on this episode. Never has our drunkenness been so public.

To celebrate St. Louis Craft Beer Week, we review six Missouri beers that aren’t distributed to Illinois. And they’re all mighty fine beers, we concur, but one totally blows us away. We try really hard to make Missouri our sister state, infusing this episode with tons of Missouri trivia and a MO-themed “Who said it?” game. There’s also Ryan’s Missouri Literary All-Stars batting lineup and lots of Michael McDonald. Yah Mo B there!

It’s Iowa or bust on this one, and we have the help of Marie Cummins to drink several Toppling Goliath brews. Once again, Marie brings the spot-on food pairings and superior research, we ruminate on how TG would fit in to the Chicago market if they ever expanded distribution, and Craig tortures us with some Biblical character/celebrity trivia. We also discuss the Templeton Rye, X-Men, Beyonce, and the depressing reality of a diabetic Cookie Monster. Yeah. Go Hawkeyes.

Brewmaster Brett Porter sits down with us at the Goose Island Brewery to drink beer and discuss a variety of subjects, focusing on the exciting things happening at his rapidly expanding brewery. He talks about this year’s Pitchfork beer, why Madame Rose is the best wine barrel beer they’ve done, and the secrets behind why BCBS is so good and why this year’s variants will be even better. We’ll also talk about Lagunitas, Bob Mould, the genealogy of mulberries, FOBAB, the pastoral beauty of Idaho, meeting Killer Mike and El-P, the maybe returns of Baudoinia and BCBS Rare, AB-InBev’s impressive stable of endless resources at his disposal, and Craig’s suggestion of finally doing that Pear BCBS. And that’s just barely scratching the surface. Expect to learn a lot from this one, folks.

We’ve picked five different fruited beers from local breweries for this one, and then we went and tossed a bunch of fresh fruit in the beers just because we can. It doesn’t always work out. Craig shares a little BCBS news he got from Brett Porter, Ryan gives a bonus review of Coors’ Summer Brew, and we recap our experiences getting a tour of Une Année’s brewery and checking out Beermiscuous before its opening weekend. Juicy!

Cory King wasn’t satisfied with just brewing amazing beers at one brewery, so he opened another one. We craft an audio love letter (with moderate profanity) to five of his barrel-aged saisons and wild ales. To no one’s surprise, it’s one of the best tasting episodes we’ve done. David Sullivan joins us and vies for title of “best guest ever.” We discuss the best musical side projects, make Cantillon comparisons, expose the secrets of Craig’s successful kissing booth empire, compare a beer to the TV show “Sports Night” and make some tough decisions about our favorite member of the St. Lunatics. Bridges are burned!

Like everyone else, we love hoppy beers, especially when fresh and local! We have five young pales from area breweries while playing our newest game, Hop Bingo. (Play along at home by downloading the card from our website!) Craig talks about his CHAOS Homebrew event experience, Ryan tries to make “Chic-hop-go” happen (It’s not going to happen!), and we both talk comic book/beer pairings. We are floating in the most peculiar way.

The current demand for “session” IPAs is high, and breweries are practically tripping over themselves to release their version of the hoppy longdrinker. We make our way through nine beers under the 5% ABV cap from nine different breweries, tasting each blindly - without the benefit of knowing the brewery of origin. There are many surprise reveals and revelations, our most interesting smell descriptors yet, and a rousing edition of Ryan’s new favorite game, “Jam Band or Flim Flam?” Also, Craig would like to remind you that we’re not cicerones. No kidding.

Some of Chicago’s best new breweries don’t bottle yet, so we went to five of them and brought back growlers! Marie Cummins joins us from the Down the Hatch beer blog and Chicago Craft Beer Enthusiasts. She comes through with much-needed food-pairing help, recaps her Kegs for Kidneys experience, talks about her favorite Chicago brewery, and explains why she’s so popular in the Ukraine. Craig and Ryan just try not to sound stupid. Someone’s gonna get punched in the stomach!