We send off this season’s Deep Wood series by opening up some of their finest ‘wines. Big on barrel variation, this lineup of barleywines and ryewines features a few of the best things Revolution has ever done with these styles - and our rankings diverge quite a bit. We speculate on the next Deep Wood lineup, fail at recreating Honey Nut Cheerios, zoom in on physical pictures, praise the “Rock N’ Roll Racing” soundtrack, and discuss fonts for a solid ten minutes. (This episode was maximized for CDBass® Boost Power.)

Beers Reviewed

Straight Jacket (Bourbon barrel-aged barleywine)

Honey Jacket (Bourbon and rye barrel-aged barleywine w/ honey)

Mineshaft Gap (Cognac barrel-aged barleywine)

Ryeway to Heaven (Bourbon and rye barrel-aged ryewine)

Apple Brandy Barrel Ryeway (Apple brandy barrel-aged ryewine)

This year is our seventh as a podcast, and because we couldn’t throw a party like we usually do, we’re bringing the drunken fun inside your head holes. It’s certainly a nostalgia fest at times here as we relive our epic anniversary parties at Beermiscuous, but we made this one more interesting by dropping off some blind local beers to our remote recording spaces. We have six entries, with each host contributing three heavily wrapped beers, and we enjoy hearing each other squirm over style and brewery guesses. We also discuss classic movies whose plots fall apart with modern technology, relive Ryan’s favorite Christopher Cross memory, and reconsider Mosaic-based torture. Thanks for your support at any point over these seven years, and we can’t wait to party with you again soon.

Beers Reviewed Half-Blind (in order of appearance)

BuckleDown Brewing - Hooligan Soup (English-style Mild Ale)

Roaring Table Brewing - Whirlycaster (Sour IPA w/ blackberry, raspberry, Meyer lemon, milk sugar, vanilla, and rose hips)

Dutchbag Brew Co. - Somewhat Informal (Sour saison)

Pipeworks Brewing Company - Emerald Grouper (Double IPA w/ honey)

Hopewell Brewing Co. - Pub Culture (English-style porter)

Ørkenoy - Oscar Orchard (Gruit w/ sweet gale, yarrow, elderflower, and huacatay)

Though it may not be considered all that popular, the brown ale is resilient. Craft brewers have been making them for decades, and even now it’s more common to see a hyped-up brewery release a brown as a change-of-pace. To dig deeper into English and American Brown Ales, we drink a mix of five from near and far. Craig also turns this show into his own personal gameshow, putting Ryan to the test on five rounds of music trivia based on the history of the Billboard Hot 100. We discover that no one brown ale here tastes like the other, and that we can thank the California Raisins for N.W.A. Also, the hops get a spa day, the chocolate IPA comes closer to reality, and disaster nearly strikes when we put Mark McGrath and Mario Lopez in the same room. 

Beers Reviewed

Samuel Smith - Nut Brown Ale (English-style Brown Ale)

AleSmith Brewing Company - Nut Brown ale (English-style Brown Ale)

Bell’s Brewery - Best Brown Ale (American-style Brown Ale)

Midwest Coast Brewing Co. - West Town Brown Ale (American-style Brown Ale)

Hubbard’s Cave - Janet’s Brown Ale (Hoppy American Brown Ale)

Starting a sour-focused brewery comes with a unique set of challenges, especially when you enter the market in the midst of a pandemic. But Odious Cellars founder and head brewer Reeve Joseph forged ahead, lucking upon the facility at Pilot Project to help accelerate his beer-school dreams of producing exquisite sour and mixed culture beers. We talk with Reeve about his circuitous journey into making beer, why he intends to “keep it niche,” and how many of his beers are just fermented on GoGurt. (It’s zero, sadly.) We also drink through five of Odious’ first offerings while escaping the fate of mundane tasks, doing it old world style, pushing for incredibly specific 90s cover bands, and circumventing the sandwich ban. And Craig is going to teach you all how to do the Odious Twist. 

Beers Reviewed

Symbol of Avarice (Golden sour aged on peaches)

The Secret History of All Things (Brett-fermented petite saison)

Cryptomnesia (Violet sour w/ Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, orange zest, cinnamon, and mulling spices)

Physis Nomos (DDH Brett IPA)

Fact or Fiction (Golden sour w/ Ethiopian coffee beans, toasted cacao nibs, and vanilla)

In a city called Lafayette, somewhat between Denver and Boulder, Zach Nichols runs his farmhouse-focused brewery, Cellar West Artisan Ales. In under five years, the brewery has won two GABF medals, moved to a new location, and expanded their operation, including a side-label focused on trendier styles. Zach was kind enough to send us five of his beers for review, and he joined us on the Zoom to tell the story of Cellar West. And believe us - we’re ready for more saisons in 2021. There’s also a near-impossible video game choice, font letter rankings, long boil excitement, a desired Chuck Tingle collab, and Tom Petty slam poetry. Remember: #TableTheLabel in 2021. 

Beers Reviewed

Grateful Sled (Christmas IPA)

Nightingale (Oat saison dry-hopped w/ Nelson Sauvin & Citra)

Westfield (Saison aged in oak barrels)

Make Hay (Strong saison aged in oak with Brettanomyces)

S’more Stout (Imperial oatmeal stout w/ cacao nibs, vanilla beans, and graham flour)

We might as well send off 2020 on an upbeat note and just get wild with the ingredients, so we let it all hang out on this mixed five pack of barrel-aged variant stouts from local breweries. Each of these releases represents a fun little twist on its barrel-aged base, and we’re going to need a new word for “adjunct.” In addition to our reviews, we attempt to tune the GAS scale, share the history of the base beers, dream up new brandy flavors, make some fresh savory pastries, and watch as the Orange Knight rises. Get! Excited!

Beers Reviewed

Werk Force Brewing Company - Bourbon Barrel-Aged Sleepy Beer

Off Color Brewing - Double Barrel-Aged Dino S’mores

Half Acre Beer Co. - Cherry Brandy Benthic

Old Irving Brewing Co. - Barrel-Aged Champurrado Krampus

DESTIHL Brewery - Dosvidanya Orange Chocolate Rye

The imperial oatmeal stout at the heart of it all, Deth’s Tar may have seemed like a fun little pun back when it first came out of barrels in the early part of the decade, but now it’s clearly the centerpiece of the best barrel-aged series in the city. We enlist the help of Revolution’s own barrel wizard Marty Scott to join us via Zoom to talk all about this year’s lineup of Deths, as well as a wide array of reasons why Revolution is working harder than anyone to release the best barrel-aged beers in the city each year. The rest of the episode is us over-indulging in this incredible lineup while also providing OG services, creaming those beans, and testing each other on analogies. 

Revolution Deep Wood Beers Reviewed

Deth’s Tar (Bourbon barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stout)

Cafe Deth (Bourbon barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stout w/ Dark Matter coffee)

Maple Deth (Imperial oatmeal stout aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels w/ BBA maple syrup)

Deth by Cherries (Bourbon barrel-aged imperial oatmeal stout w/ cherries)

Double Barrel V.S.O.D. (Imperial oatmeal stout aged in Weller Special Reserve barrels then Weller 10 Year barrels)

Coffee was once the only adjunct a good stout needed, until recent years has brought the entire pastry case with it. So finding five barrel-aged stouts with just coffee added was a bit of a challenge - but it’s a welcome reminder that sometimes all you need is coffee. (And love? Probably love, too.) These five locally-made coffee stouts saw a small variety of different barrels, and the elevated ABV has us hacky-sacking beer cans around the room in no time. We also assemble our team of experts to compete with the Distillery Channel, survey the absolute not normal-ness of 4 Floyds, get a late start on Beanvember, and learn a lot about the man they call Ludacris. 

Beers Reviewed

Half Day Brewing - Barrel-Aged Warrior Paint Imperial Coffee Stout (coffee beans from Newport Coffee House)

Lake Effect Brewing - Perkolator: Madeira Barrel-Aged (coffee beans from Perkolator)

Transient Artisan Ales - Blanton's Barrel-Aged Neckbeard Nectar (coffee beans from Tugboat)

Lil Beaver Brewery - Adventures Ahead: Coffee (coffee beans from Sirius Roasters)

Revolution Brewing Company - Supermassive Cafe Deth (coffee beans from Dark Matter)

Barrel-aged December is now officially underway, and we’re delighted to crack open four medal-winning Illinois beers from this year’s Festival of Wood and Barrel Aged Beers. Appropriately enough, the barrels are the star of the show, as these four very different styles are presented without additional adjuncts - just wood-made magic. Also, we have our friend Aaron Keefner from More Brewing stop by the Zoom to talk about the beer entry fee he paid to be our first remote guest, but actually he talks mostly about what’s new with More, their barrel-aging program, and their recent move into distribution. We also share our pitches for 90s-themed jukebox musicals, have a pretty weird night in the barn, dare brewers to make a barrel-aged hefeweizen, and determine what’s a sipper and who’s a gulper. Brace yourself for six feet of tube candy.

Beers Reviewed

Imperial Oak Brewing - Savage Oak Gold (Belgian-style Sour Golden Ale) Silver Medal: Wild Beer Sours (Acidic)

Urban Brew Labs - Abba G.O.A.T. (Apple Brandy Barrel-aged Doppelbock) Bronze Medal: Dark Strong Beer

Horse Thief Hollow - Wrenly Rose (Belgian-style Tripel aged in Pinot Noir barrels) Gold Medal: Strong Pale Beer

More Brewing Company - Mehndi 2020 (Bourbon Barrel-aged Imperial Stout) Silver Medal: Strong Porter/Stout

If there’s ever been a month for careless indulgence, it would be December of 2020, so we’re going full-on dessert and pastry beer for this episode. These five entries have us nostalgic for vacation ice cream shoppes, cozy breakfast diners, and gourmet popcorn stores - despite some initial fears. Also, we are stocking our rage rooms, admiring the Sacred Leavings, sniffin’ stuff at Whole Foods (again), and jiggling like a flan. Diet starts tomorrow.

Beers Reviewed

Old Irving Brewing - Cinnamon Prost (White stout w/ Saigon cinnamon, Tahitian vanilla bean, and milk sugar)

Humble Forager Brewery - Coastal Sunrise V1 (Fruited breakfast pastry sour w/ blueberries, maple syrup, cinnamon, and vanilla bean)

Hubbard’s Cave - Rocky Road (Imperial stout w/ almond, walnut, chocolate, marshmallow, vanilla, and lactose)

Liquid Love Brewing - Y’all Come Back Now (Pastry golden ale w/ caramel and pecans)

Lake Effect Brewing - Fannie’s Bourbon Barrel-Aged (Imperial milk stout w/ chocolate cake, aged in bourbon barrels)