Episode 606 - Earth-Friendly Beers
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
Just like most good things in life, the beers we so love can be quite taxing on the planet before even getting to our glasses. But some breweries are taking the lead on exploring more sustainable practices, whether it’s using regenerative grains, organic ingredients, or even solar-powered farms. The five beers on this show represent different ways breweries can make a difference for the sake of the planet - and we’re glad to report that none of that comes at the cost of delicious tasting beers. Also, we call in the experts to help get us out of a regatta, we have our reservations about The...
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Episode 605 - Festbier v. Märzen
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
There are many essential ingredients for a successful Oktoberfest celebration, but none is more important than the beer. But which style is going to fill your massive stein: the younger, bright Festbier or the old-school, bready Märzen? We found four breweries making both styles to have a side-by-side of each to help determine our personal preference - and the only thing missing is the lederhosen. Also, we explore the world of Christian pirate shanties, consider acceptable adjuncts for Oktoberfest styles, and try not to piss off MC Hammer. Beers Reviewed Paulaner Brauerei -...
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Episode 604 - Suburbaversary
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
The last few months have seen a steady number of big anniversary parties from suburban breweries - and some even released a beer to commemorate it. This show consists of 5 different beers brewed to mark an anniversary, all by brewers who work out of the suburbs of Chicago. We also face some style-based fears, greet the new Mayor of the Beach, develop new slow pour Pilsner techniques, and we meet Mr. No Coco. Beers Reviewed Flipside Brewing - Double Stop Double IPA Goldfinger Brewing - Fifth Anniversary Bock Brother Chimp Brewing - Cheers to Five Years (Imperial Coffee Porter)...
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Episode 603 - Pittsburgh vs. Chicago: Blind Hazy Throwdown (with Aaron Keefner)
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
When one of our oldest friends and beer industry vet, Aaron Keefner, came back into town from his adopted city of Pittsburgh, we knew we were going to have to throw down - with a blind hazy IPA tasting, of course! We each chose three of the top examples of hazy beers from our respective cities and enlisted the help of the excellent staff at Beer on the Wall in Elmhurst to arrange a blind tasting of all six to determine whose juice is the juiciest. Surprises abound! But also, we talk a lot about Aaron’s experience as a Chicago expat adjusting to life in Pittsburgh - mostly in the areas of...
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Episode 602 - Rev Heat Wave
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
For the last few years, Revolution Brewing has tried convincing us that barrel-aged stouts and barleywines can indeed be enjoyed on 90-plus degree days - and gosh darnit, they make a convincing case. On this episode, we dive into the first three 12-ounce Deep Wood beers for the release season and find some very pleasant surprises. We also let things get a bit wavier than usual as we have our first on-air THC beverage, which instantly switches on Craig’s snack detectors. Also, we try to make sense on an anachronistic pizza place; Craig’s chugging sixteen percenters at C2E2; and Ryan...
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Episode 601 - Miskatonic Brewing (with Cory Davidson and Mik Dempsey)
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
Miskatonic has been a western suburban outpost for great beer with an extremely loyal following for a decade now - and it’s due time they get the recognition they deserve. We sit down in Darien with head brewer Cory Davidson and production brewer Mik Dempsey to talk all things Miskatonic, including how they approach brewing such a wide variety of styles with laser-like focus, how branding updates help reflect the beers themselves, what obscure styles they’d like to brew one day, and how they find collaboration partners in both the brewing and music worlds. Also, we talk about contract...
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Episode 600 - Suncatcher Brewing (with Matt Gallagher)
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
Matt Gallagher has been instrumental to Chicago’s craft beer scene for almost two decades as a co-founder of Half Acre, but it’s his new brewery Suncatcher that has had us hooked from the very first visit. Suncatcher Brewing is a relatively unique concept in this time, as they are essentially a bar that serves their own streamlined and immaculate classic craft styles right from the tank with absolutely no designs on packaging or distribution - you have to be there to experience it. We talk with Matt about how this project came to him in a dream before being forced into a years-long...
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Episode 599 - IPA All-Stars Blind, Rd. 3
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
In our ongoing series that seeks to find the best IPA we can get our hands on, we keep this one a bit more regional with five long-beloved and well-decorated beers from Indiana and Ohio. We taste one Hoosier beer and four Buckeye brews blindly using our much more focused scoring method - and we may just have our very first perfect score on this episode. Also, Craig’s Ohio trip leads him to question weed deals; we add some new terms to our beer descriptor lexicon; and Ryan invents the million-dollar idea of a Walking Deep Dish Pizza.™* It’s getting pretty propulsive around...
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Episode 598 - Lime Lagers
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
During a particularly sweltering summer, no beer style has come through in the clutch as much as the lime lager. The sheer number of available options is a testament to the ultimate refreshing combo - and with these, there’s no need to shove a questionably dirty lime wedge down your longneck. We have five mostly-local lagers of varying styles that all contain lime - and it’s not long before we’re dreaming of food pairings. Also, Ryan gets stuck in nightmarish balloon duty; Craig is still angry about being promised only a “hint” of lime in his tortilla chips; and we consider becoming...
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Episode 597 - An Overdue Welcome
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
It seems like it’s been far too long since we’ve extended a hearty “hello” to some new breweries in Chicagoland, so we’re psyched to gather five that have opened locations or started releasing beer into the world relatively recently. We learn about some new-to-us breweries and a few that have been long in the works here, and there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the future of beer locally. But also, Craig is training for the new Speed Showering event at the Olympics; Ryan is reliving his teenage years in Homewood; and we rely on some surprising sources for our background...
info_outlineIn somewhat sporadic drops over the last few months, Half Acre has released some highly-desired cans of barrel-aged beer that push the ABV further than ever before. We sample four of these special beers while turning half of this into a tribute to the writer of Half Acre’s Instagram beer release posts. It’s not often we have chowder of this sort, so we get a bit shaky aboard the raft of final gravity while trying to avoid the Reinheitsgebot funnel cloud. Also, Ryan’s auditioning to be a pitchman for a new product, we throw back a handful of gravy beans, and Craig is taken aback by all the Suits love. It’s kind of a cosmic gumbo.
Beers Reviewed
Twin Chariot (Imperial stout aged in bourbon & peach brandy barrels w/ vanilla)
Wilderness of History (Double barrel barleywine)
On & On Pt. 4 [Collaboration with Revolution Brewing] (Double barrel-aged imperial stout)
Triple Barrel Catch Hell (Triple barrel-aged imperial stout w/ vanilla & cinnamon)