Abv Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

Recent years have seen a surprising emergence of Chicago as one of the top destinations for hop enthusiasts, bolstered by a few well-publicized national medals and hype-inducing haze makers. But there were those that helped reshape our palates in the early days: the local leaders of hops. For this show, we review five hoppy beers (Oops! All Hazy) from some of the original hop-crazy Chicago breweries.  Also, we take a seat on the Hot Bench, discuss seasonal drinkers vs. temperature drinkers, slam some Purplesaurus Rex with Dr. Applesauce, use nostalgia as a survival tool, and protect our precious cereals.  Beers Reviewed Half Acre Beer Company (f. 2006) - Sunset (Double) Vallejo Revolution Brewing (f. 2010) - DDH Mango Hero  Pipeworks Brewing Co. (f. 2012) - Chasing Extra Spiteful Brewing (f. 2012) - Diggable IPA Maplewood Brewery & Distillery (f. 2015) - Tropicamo

So, was anyone going to tell us that gose puns weren’t cool anymore? Well, at least the beers are better than they’ve ever been as we sample five enhanced goses from local breweries that only leave us feeling a little salty. Pineapples, coconuts, lavender, lactose - what won’t these crazy breweries put in a gose these days?!? Also, we address the hairless bear in the room, remember when we used to do research, kill some time with some salt talk, sell our urban foraging secrets, rename our erotic fiction protagonists, and sing a little Mellencamp. Then there’s a game about matching Muppets to types of beer drinkers, and we only manage to kill off one. So it goes. Beers Reviewed DESTIHL Brewery - Wild Sour Series: Piña Colada Gose Dutchbag Brew Co. - Summer Kings (Gose w/ fresh strawberry juice, gray sea salt, coriander, and hibiscus) Marz Community Brewing Co. - Lavender Lemon Gose (Gose w/ lavender, lemon, and butterfly pea flower) Pipeworks Brewing Company - A Nice Slice (Gose w/ lactose, key lime juice, cin

Once we accepted the cancellation of beer fests for the foreseeable future, we knew we had a hole to fill. A farmhouse hole. So, we do our best to recreate one of our favorite annual events - our annual Illinois Craft Beer Week event, Saisonathon - by drinking a wide array of saisons from the comfort of our own homes. There are eight wildly different saisons - six from local breweries - that require us to seek a little off-mic assist from our wives. But mainly, we sing our sweet praises of the style we adore so much, and one of us even takes a full-on saison shower. We also talk about the persistence of GIFs, implement the Malort color scale, wish for regrettable saison flavors, visit the coaster whisperer, and get started on that “life of a beer podcaster” screenplay. It’s Saisonathon 2020 - and you are invited.  Beers Reviewed Off Color Brewing - Marañón Predator (Saison with yeast isolated from a rare form of cacao) Vennture Brew Co. - Vennture To the Farm (Brett saison w/ rye) Keeping Together - Thoughts

If it seems that the string of 90-degree days will never end, well have we got a beer style for you. Berliner weisses experienced a considerable rejuvenation in the last five years, but they’ve also recently become synonymous with overfruited slurry beers that buck any sense of tradition. On this show, we seek five local Berliners that add fruit while keeping an eye on the original style. The results are pleasurable for your ears. Additionally, we embrace our new favorite sport (it’s foot golf), confuse our THPs from our THCs and TVPs, track the nefarious Rawber Hortcu, create Beer for Hot Dogs, recommend our favorite Metamucil-sponsored manga, and experience illegal amounts of mayo. And hey, BuzzBalls - if you’re out there, please let us know that you’re okay.  Beers reviewed Noon Whistle Brewing - Fuzzy Smack (Berliner weisse w/ peach) Lo Rez Brewing - Strawberry Shortcut (Strawberry Berliner weisse) Dutchbag Brew Co. - Maybe the Flamingo Ate Your Baby (Berliner weisse w/ pomegranate & fresh ginger) Off

If it’s been a while since you’ve last visited a craft bottle shop, you’ll likely encounter a whole new slew of labels from local breweries to explore. We pick up five beers from a few breweries we know and from a few we don’t to hopefully help you navigate those crowded shelves. Meanwhile, Ryan’s tenure as the mayor of Hazytown is short-lived; Craig is going to get cancelled by Carly Rae Jepsen fans; and we uncover the truth about all the fireworks. Plus, there’s beer-to-movie comparisons, doom yoga, mayo beers, mouth sweaters, and new growler innovations.  Beers Reviewed Soundgrowler Brewing Co. - Pan’s Bread (Bock-style Lager) Roaring Table Brewing - Struts & Frets (Hazy IPA) Rabid Brewing - Shadowstepper (Imperial milk stout w/ cacao nibs & lactose sugar) Liquid Love Brewing - Round the Edges (DDH IPA) Brewer’s Kitchen - Green Mountains Only (DDH DIPA)

After months of curbside-only beer shopping, craft bottle shops have opened their doors to customers looking to pluck some single cans off the shelves in hopes of discovering a few new favorites. We did just that at The Open Bottle in Tinley Park, finding five beers from out-of-state breweries to check out, leading us to one mystery after another. But in that exploration, we learn a lot about ourselves, including just how much older we are than Willy Wonka. (I know, right?!?) This bevvy of contract and altprop beers steers us to remember our lustful sambas, ruin Craig’s craft beer band name, and go on the most boring Mystery Date ever. (By the way, this show should’ve been called “80% Twelve Percent” but Craig wouldn’t let me.) Beers Reviewed Public Access Liquids - Constellate (Lager w/ yuzu) Humble Forager Brewery - Elevated Perspective: Samba, Nelson Sauvin, Mosaic Cryo, & Strata (Imperial oat cream IPA) ______ Brewing - The One That Just Kicked (Double IPA) Fat Orange Cat Brew Co. - Do the Escalator t

By the time you hit that third Zoom meeting of the day, you’re likely thinking about a beer to drink discretely that won’t get you in trouble. On this episode, we have five very different beers that all land under 6 percent, which should keep you out of trouble with HR. Craig seeks out some movie recommendations, Ryan wishes he had a Willi, and we discuss 3-time World Dabbing Champion Tom Emanski. We also discuss the merits of the margarita gose, get shocked to the core by a City Slickers revelation, try to fix Paw Patrol, and share the truth about horses.  Beers Reviewed Metropolitan Brewing - Jet Stream (Wheat beer) Revolution Brewing Company - Rosa (Hibiscus ale) Dovetail Brewery - Grodziskie  Off Color Brewing - Beer for Tacos (Gose w/ lime juice, coriander, and pink Himalyan salt) More Brewing Company - Lil’ Space Booties (DDH Session IPA)

Even though people are chasing pre-orders instead of trucks these days, Hop Butcher is still as hot as ever thanks to their consistent schedule of mostly hoppy - and mostly hazy - releases. The variation amongst these six beers is surprisingly significant, despite all being some sort of play on IPA. This episode is a tribute to what this brewery has become, and we’re satiating the Hop Butcher nerds with two trivia games and some additional information about all elements of their process - plus a tasty little nugget about a possible taproom. We’re also talking about placebo buttons, Cold IPAs, Mai Tais, bad comics about beer, autocorrect malaprops, and Craig’s Sabro insensitivity. We’re bringing phenomenal back.  Beers Reviewed Deep Rinse (Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo & Zuper Saazer-hopped Cold India Pale Ale) Dese, Dem & Dose (Simcoe, Motueka & Belma-hopped India Pale Ale) Preserved In Three Dimensions (Sabro & Simcoe-hopped Double India Pale Ale) Kielbasa King (Mosaic & Nelson Sauvin-hopp

Soothing that early summer heat with big ol’ glasses of lactose and hops, we’re sharing shakes from afar this week with the hopes of better understanding our complicated relationship with this popular style. We have five very different milkshake IPAs from some local favorites and - GASP - there may be a grifter in our midst! Other childish talking points include Green River floats, new Fun Dip slogans, the merits of Neapolitan ice cream, toilet ghoulies, shower sharks, and just who is at the top of the Milkshake Kombat Mountain.  Beers Reviewed Maplewood Brewing Company - Son of Shakey (Milkshake IPA w/ wheat, oats, lactose, and vanilla) Riverlands Brewing - Strawberry Shaky Shaky (Milkshake IPA w/ strawberry, lactose, Mosaic hops, and vanilla) Mikerphone Brewing - Crushcrushcrush (Milkshake IPA w/ Citra, vanilla, and orange peel)Phase Three Brewing - DDH Mosaic Sabro Double Crème (DDH DIPA w/ Mosaic, Sabro, oats, and milk sugar) Hop Butcher for the World - Ocean Key (Citra & Motueka-hopped milkshake DIPA

Since you won’t find either of us sitting on some coffeehouse patio anytime soon, we’re bringing the coffee home in the form of five stouts. While they all deliver the caffeine and the booze, each beer stands on its own unique merits - or is a victim of context. But we’re also here to get Craig prepped to audition for the new Supermarket Sweep, including how to navigate the new craft beer aisle. We also feel nostalgic for beer travels, stop at Ryan’s cooking corner, get VIP access to the fields of Charleston Chews, and observe a series of dissipating heads.  Beers Reviewed More Brewing - Hush of Night: Chocolate City (Milk stout blended w/ Dark Matter Chocolate City coffee) Trillium Brewing - PM Dawn (Imperial stout w/ Barrington Coffee Roasters cold brewed coffee) 2nd Shift Brewing - Coffee Liquid Spiritual Delight (Imperial stout w/ coffee) Maplewood Brewing - Cuppaccino (Imperial stout w/ Metric coffee, vanilla, and chocolate) Noon Whistle Brewing - Dodging Traffic (Imperial stout w/ Tugboat coffee)

Here’s hoping that we can talk you out of attending that backyard barbecue by offering up this refreshing bowl of audio fruit salad to help your summer isolation feel a bit more festive. We have five different fruited beers that really span the range from “pleasant fruit accessory” to “chunky berry sludge” - and they honestly succeed in ways we didn’t expect. We plan some totally radical ways to break up illicit social gatherings, please the Tootsie Pop conspiracy theorists, mistake Craig for Instagram, get hostile at Jamba Juice, and eulogize a good blender. Good gorf.  Beers Reviewed Haymarket Beer Company - Blood Orange Blonde (Blonde ale w/ blood oranges) Cruz Blanca Brewery - La Floridita (Sparkling rosé ale w/ hibiscus and passion fruit) Third Space Brewing - FROG Weiss (Kettle sour w/ fig, raspberry, orange, and ginger) Trillium Brewing Company - Daily Serving: Raspberry (Berliner weisse w/ raspberry) More Brewing Company - Frooted 3riberry (“Smoothie ale” w/ blackberry, strawberry, and raspberry)

When you’ve been around as long as Stone, you’re bound to take some lumps. And lumps we have delivered in the past by subjecting Stone beers to undeserved spots on our Torture Test episodes. Thanks to Lizzie at Stone, we are finally able to give the brewery its first proper set of arbitrary reviews, and we only ignore one “enjoy by” date in this episode. The beers on the show are mostly pretty great, but all the talk of redemption arcs has us reflecting on past bad beers. We do a comprehensive reflection on six-and-a-half years of the (subjectively) worst beers we’ve ever had on the show, because, well, we’re quarantined and bored. Craig wants his MTV, Ryan just wants the commercials, and we’re both missing the in-person sexual tension. There’s also talk of slamming pogs, rough pours, ᴁon Flux nightmares, flavor descriptor shirts, and a long-held Eufórqestra grudge.  Stone Beers Reviewed Buenaveza (Salt & lime lager) Notorious P.O.G. (Berliner weisse w/ passion fruit, orange, and guava) Fear.Movie.Lions (

We were already becoming very good at staying home and drinking copious amounts of lager before this whole mess, so it’s only natural that we shelter-in-place with a rich lineup of bottom-fermenting beers.  Featuring six different lager styles from six Midwestern breweries, this episode highlights impressive flavor and mouthfeel variations so we actually, like, have stuff to talk about. Ryan takes unforeseen risks to increase contact with the outside world, Craig ponders, “What is cornbread?”, and we show love for the legend himself Willi Becher. Other topical quarantine talking points include sourdough starter dread, Elon Musk is a douche, 3-word beer reviews, and schwarzbier horniness.  Beers Reviewed Pollyanna Brewing Company - Lite Thinking (American Lager) 2nd Shift Brewing - Technical Ecstasy (Czech-style Pilsner) Kinslahger Brewing Company - Prohibition Pilsner  Third Space Brewing - La Cocina (Dark Mexican Lager) Pipeworks Brewing Company - Select Schwarzbier Maplewood Brewing Company - Gold Noise (Do

This week, we celebrate the resilience of local breweries and bottle shops that are still finding a way to keep getting hazy IPAs into the begloved fans of the juice. Though not necessarily the most hyped haze producers in the area, the five breweries on this show prove to be absolutely worth your contact-free dollar. We have a rare first-timer on the show, share our drunk online shopping stories, give out orange slices to the whole soccer team, argue best milkshake flavors, and admire Craig’s beach bod. Thicc pale daddies are welcome. Beers Reviewed Illuminated Brew Works - Junior Astronaut Juice (DDH IPA) Foreign Exchange - Foreign Chemistry: Citra & Amarillo (DDH IIPA) Around the Bend Beer Co. - Lost Words (Hazy IPA) Marz Community Brewing Co. - Crazy Straws (NE-style IPA) Riverlands Brewing Company - Gilded King (New England IPA)

Craig extends his curbside to wherever he may roam, and after a month of quarantine, he hit up Milwaukee, carbound and down to score some more Third Space. After our visit last July, we’ve been thirsting for more from this brewery that’s just a Christian Yelich homerun away from Brewers’ stadium. We have a nice variety of five beers, and we take inspiration from the brewery’s Seinfeld obsession to run a round of Stumptappd about nothing. We also share some of our new quarantine names, reimagine the movie theater experience, chase grandma with some fireworks, seek solace in the filthiest chips, and really botch a Zoom call-and-reponse. My wife! Beers Reviewed Summer Home (Hoppy Blonde Ale) Unbridled Enthusiasm (Juicy Double IPA) Haunted Barrel 2019 (Barrel-aged candy bar porter aged in bourbon and rum barrels w/ cacao and vanilla) Happy Place (Midwest Pale Ale) Mystic Knot (Barrel-aged Irish-style Coffee Stout)

As we continue our shelter-in-place recordings, this time we’ve got a somewhat random mix of dark beers to distract us from *gestures broadly* and get us nearly incoherent by rankings time. Whether teeming with adjuncts or not, these five Midwestern porters and stouts compete in the Pretty Head Competition while the show becomes robust with distraction. We imagine an augmented-reality taproom experience, conduct a lunchbox check, break down existentially over Christmas music, get mesmerized by blacklight posters, and let Malt-O-Meal be our quarantine saviors. Let it levitate on your palate.  Beers Reviewed Shared - Base Weight (Robust porter) Pipeworks Brewing Company - Easy Keepers (Oatmeal stout) Old Irving Brewing Co./Illuminated Brew Works - Ancient Magick (Imperial stout w/ cocoa nibs, vanilla, cinnamon, peanut butter and marshmallow) Transient Artisan Ales/More Brewing Co. - Breakfast Sauce (Imperial oatmeal stout w/ coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, black tea, and chai spices) Lift Bridge Brewing Co. - Barrel

We’re sheltered-in-place and slamming way more of some killer hoppy beers than normal, because we don’t actually have to share. In our first remotely-recorded episode, we overcome a brief technical glitch before returning to what feels very normal: Craig and Ryan fumbling through flavor descriptors while distracting each other with random stories from our past. Craig has invented the perfect game for these times, Ryan’s trying to make a deal with Greg Avola, and we catch up on each other’s new quarantine hobbies. Other talking points include mint creamsicles, Mario Kart coaching, Idahos 1 through 6, Mr. Met, the shirt technique, statued asses, bad Altoids stunts, and the secret of the green river dye.  Recorded 4/7/20 Beers Reviewed Hubbard’s Cave - Clean Pale (Midwest pale ale) Half Acre Beer Company - Tome (Hazy pale ale) Cruz Blanca Brewery/Hop Butcher for the World - Hard Right Angle (Hazy IPA) Old Irving Brewing Co. - Beezer (Double dry-hopped IPA) Hop Butcher for the World/Eagle Park Brewing Company - S

In lieu of, you know, actual travelling, we’re taking our tastebuds down to Kentucky thanks to our good friend Sarah Rehmer. As our last in-person recording for a while, we couldn’t have expected that a show with five different Kentucky beers would have so many standouts - along with one just hateful beer. We’re building 90s quarantine playlist, claiming governance over each others’ bodies, planning our binge-watching material, breaking down the grain brackets, and squeezing into our husky Arizonas. Also, Ryan has a stupid soundboard and is going total jazz with it before packing it away for the foreseeable future. Thanks for listening - and keep coming back, as we’ll still have new episodes every week. Recorded 3/20/20 Beers Reviewed Against the Grain Brewery (Louisville, KY) - A Beer (American Light Lager) Mile Wide Beer Company (Louisville, KY) - Catalina Breeze (West Coast IPA) Falls City Beer (Louisville, KY) - Slam Dunkel Monnik Beer Co. (Louisville, KY) - Tropic of Capricorn (Double IPA) Country Boy Br

We can all use a heaping helping of beer-based nostalgia right now, so we spend an hour drinking and talking about one of the most significant craft breweries Chicagoland has ever known: 3 Floyds. For the first time ever, we have five different beers from the Munster, Indiana-based brewery represented, including three that really get us story-telling. Though this was recorded at the early stages of quarantine, Ryan’s lead-up indicates that it’s already gotten to his head a bit. We also talk about wide mouthfeels, classic DIPAs, hop extract vs. other extracts, and the indefinite (and not totally unfortunate) end of line bottle shares. We’ve got that curbside weird you ordered all ready for you. Recorded 3/18/20 Beers Reviewed Region X (Dortmunder-style Lager) Alpha King (Pale Ale) Zombie Dust (Pale Ale) Arctic Panzer Wolf (Double IPA) Wigsplitter (Imperial Oatmeal Stout w/ Espresso)

Because, what else are we going to do? A while back, Ryan bought three French presses and was determined to make an absolute mess of some good beers for your entertainment. Craig picked out six beers from local breweries in a range of styles, and we drink and review those beers as normal before cramming a bunch of cookies into them and sampling the results. The flavor combinations are surprising and, in one case, life-affirming. Here’s some other quarantine talking points from this long player: mysterious yard food, the indomitable Alton Brand, Ewan Macgregor’s body painting, the problem with cookie trub, human-sized podcast bubbles, and the inevitable rise of Girl Scouts in the upcoming barter economy. Let us distract and disgust you. (Support your local bar, restaurant, and brewery!) Beers reviewed + and the cookies we mash into them Is/Was Brewing - Methode Dust (Citra-style ale) + Lemon-ups® Church Street Brewing Company - Holy Cow (Milk stout) + S’mores® Kinslahger Brewing Company - Dunkel (Dark lager) +