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...
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Episode 596 - is/was brewing (with Mike Schallau)
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
Although he might use the term “silly little beers,” Mike Schallau’s is/was brewing is making some of the most thoughtful and impressive saisons anywhere in the country right here in Chicago. We travelled up to his Ravenswood brewery and taproom to talk about those beers and how he transitioned his nearly six year-old brewing project from using other people’s spaces to his own in the last year and how that’s allowed him to dive deeper into the wide range of interesting ingredients and experiments he’s become known for. We get into the idiosyncrasies of saison from the outside...
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Episode 595 - West Coast Pilsners
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
Newly adopted as its own category for this year’s GABF competition, the West Coast Pilsner has the hoppy influence of its namesake locale while also retaining much of what makes German Pilsners so repeatedly drinkable. We gather five locally-made examples from some of Illinois’ top names in hops, and they help us build a case for the style’s existence. Also, Craig has a new BFF through his new obsession; Ryan doesn’t want to let go of his beloved goo pillow; and we outline exactly when it’s okay to put cheese on a hot dog. Beers Reviewed Hop Butcher for the World - Francheezie...
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Episode 594 - Goldfinger Brewing (with Tom Beckmann)
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
In just 5 years, Goldfinger Brewing Company has made Downers Grove, Illinois a true destination for lager-lovers and much of that is to the credit of founder, co-owner, and head brewer Tom Beckmann’s tireless quest to make the most interesting lagers you’ll ever drink. Tom sits with us for a while to sample through some new and upcoming beers while discussing why telling the stories of his lagers is a key part to reshaping the perception of the category. We also talk about his recent Polish medal for a Polish-style beer, how his first brewing jobs set him up to start his own business, what...
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Episode 593 - Hop Roundup: Heating Up
ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast
In our second of our quarterly “random hoppy things” episodes wherein we gather notable hop-driven drinks from local breweries, we have a murderers’ row lineup to lead us into the warmer months - and we even include one non-beer. The high quality of the beverages leads to steadily sloppier discussions of Craig’s first Magic: The Gathering tournament, Ryan’s transition into erotic craft beer fiction novelist, our desire for unique taproom experiences, and the assembly of a Hop Conclave to give these experimental varieties an identity. It’s girthy - yet grippable, so grab an earful...
info_outlineIn 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 here.
Beers Reviewed Blindly
The Brew Kettle - White Rajah
Upland Brewing Company - Dragonfly IPA
Great Lakes Brewing Co. - Commodore Perry
Rhinegeist Brewery - Truth
Fat Head’s Brewery - Head Hunter
* = trademark pending