The best yearly barrel-aged release series has hit its halfway point, so we’re using that as an excuse to drink through the five newest releases in Revolution’s Deep Wood series. It takes some real nitpicking to find flaws in any of these beers, so we mostly just talk about why they are all awesome in their own way. Plus, Craig schemes to be the next Everyday Hero, Ryan reveals he’s a real PlumBum, and we order out for some CrunchWraps. We also plan out our social media wall-of-fame and wonder what it would take to convert Craig to drinking actual coffee. There’s plenty of room on our tongue futon.

Beers Reviewed

Deth’s Tar (Barrel-aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout)

Deth By Plums (Barrel-aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout w/ plums)

Café Deth (Barrel-aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout w/ coffee)

Straight Jacket (Barrel-aged Barleywine)

V.S.O.R. (Rye ale aged in Rye barrels)

Special thanks to Revolution Brewing for providing the beers for this show!

When a beer festival with national interest comes through Chicago, beer consumers are met with a whole new array of options at their favorite bottle shops, even if only for a short time. For this episode, we take advantage of some FoBAB-influenced “hot drops” of out-of-distribution breweries ending up on local beer store shelves. Is it better for the local beer drinker than it is worse for the local beer producer? The five beers on this show certainly make our response to that complicated. Also, Ryan tries to start the new hot coffee mug phrase, Craig just wants to listen to “Fields of Gold” by Sting, and we struggle through maybe the drunkest rankings ever.

Beers Reviewed

Pure Project Brewing - Fingers of Gold (Murky IPA)

Listermann Brewing Company - Barrel-Aged Chickow! (Hazelnut Double Brown Ale aged in Heaven Hill barrels)

Beachwood Blendery - Funk Yeah (Gueuze-inspired Sour Ale)

Other Half Brewing Co. - Triple Nelson Daydream (Imperial Oat Cream IPA)

Jackie O’s Brewery - Bourbon Barrel Oil Of Aphrodite (Bourbon Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout w/ Black Walnuts and Belgian Candi Syrup)

We took last week to recover from FoBAB, so this week we dip into our short-storage vault for this episode we recorded back in May with five listener-donated beers. This beer lineup features both minor misses and absolute hits, but we’re feeling genuinely warmed by the listener love. Impending summer makes us looser than ever as we cover the positives and negatives of non-craft beer bars; we imagine Playdoh-aged beers; Ryan draws the line at Baudoinia or Bust; and Craig breaks the podcast through one simple simile. Cream those beans!

Beers Reviewed

Southern Grist Brewing Company - Lemon Meringue Pie Gose (Provided by Matt Milam)

Ale Asylum - Bock’d & Loaded (Maibock aged in Tequila and Chardonnay barrels, provided by Gary Nidetz)

Lo Rez Brewing - Apricot Knockout (Farmhouse Ale w/ apricots, provided by Sarah Rehmer)

Perennial Artisan Ales - Sump Coffee Stout 2018 w/ Ethiopian Roba (Provided by Don Kasak)

Ozark Beer Company - BDCS (Imperial milk stout aged in bourbon barrels, provided by Chris Butler)

With winter approaching, one might feel it necessary to lament the passing of lager season. But dear listener, never fret! Brewers from all over the world have got your back! On this show, we salute our schwarz as we drink seven different dark lagers, with four coming from our own backyard of Chicago. We learn a bit about the schwarzbier by soaking up the words of the experts, and we’re pleasantly surprised to find variation all throughout this lineup. Also, Ryan’s age is showing, we mourn the brief life of windbreaker season, we try not to throw away any ghosts, and we take a hard stance on beer made with human ingredients. Touch of molasses!

Beers Reviewed 

Metropolitan Brewing - Magnetron (Schwarzbier)

Köstritzer Schwarzbierbrauerei - Köstritzer Schwarzbier

Argus Brewery - Cygnus X-1 (Dark lager)

Budějovický Budvar - Czechvar/Budweiser Budvar B:Dark (Euro dark lager)

Spiteful Brewing - Dark Lager

Krombacher Gruppe - Krombacher Dark (Schwarzbier)

Maplewood Brewing Company - The Shade (Schwarzbier)

We’re celebrating our big 300 by treating ourselves to the exquisite (and expensive) beers from one of Belgium’s longest-running gueuze producers, Brouwerij 3 Fonteinen. Despite the occasion, we just do it like we have for the last 300 by reviewing carefully crafted beers as sloppily as possible, only diverting to mini-tangents about Craig’s assassin dog, horse accoutrements, Goozzwords, vacation mouth, forced floors, nighttime TinglersⓇ, and Mosher’s leveled-up skill set. Thanks for listening at any point during our 300 episodes - we hope it’s been entertaining (and just a little informative). 

Beers Reviewed

Oude Geuze 

Oude Geuze Cuvée Armand & Gaston

Oude Kriek

Framboos (2014)

Hommage

The most terrible tradition returns with our third annual gauntlet of gore as we try and outdo each other with the absolute worst-tasting beers we can find. Throw in some Zombie Skittles, and you have a profane exhibition of freakishly-bad flavors. We also try to avoid adding ounces to our Cuveé of Doom by guessing details on our brutal blind pours. We share some Halloween party conversation starters, recreate the general mood of The Deer Hunter, dine at UmamiBloodMeat, and fight against our Pavlovian smelling instincts.

Malignant Beers Reacted To

Mikkeller - Spontanbeetroot (Lambic-style ale w/ beets)

3 Floyds Brewing - Barrel-aged Chevalier 2013 (Barrel-aged Biere de Garde w/ brett)

Stone Brewing - 17th Anniversary Götterdämmerung (Double IPA from 2013)

Rinkuškiai - Crazy Brewski (Imperial Pilsner)

Brewery Vivant - Tart Side of the Moon (Dark Farmhouse Ale)

Goose Island Clybourn - Silver Jubilee (Double Pale Ale from 2013)

In our yearly tribute to Chicago’s biggest and best beer fest, we continue our tradition of giving our recommendations for the Festival of Wood and Barrel-aged Beers while drinking from a distinguished lineup of attendees - but that’s not all. We introduce the FoBAB Fantasy Draft into the world, give you instructions on how to run your own league, and hold a mock draft between ourselves (before our real league draft). But we don’t forget to hurl some major superlatives at the barrel-aged beers on the show, and talk about sad dinosaur stories. (Keep your eyes peeled on our website for the next week to get more info on running your own FoBAB Fantasy Draft. And buy tickets to FoBAB, if you haven’t already.)

Beers Reviewed

Revolution Brewing - Strawberry Jacket (BA Barleywine w/ strawberries)

Revolution Brewing - Honey Jacket (BA Barleywine w/ honey)

Around the Bend Beer Co. - Proximal (BA Barleywine)

Begyle Brewing - Barrel Aged Imperial Pajamas (BA Imperial Oatmeal Stout)

WeldWerks Brewing Co. - Medianoche Premier Vol. 1 (BA Imperial Stout blend)

It’s a joyous time in the ABV bunker as we celebrate Craig’s engagement by letting him pick a lineup of seemingly incongruous beers that are as significant as they are interesting. With a mix of cellar dives and recent finds, Craig imbues this episode with a certain personal resonance while also napalming Ryan’s esophagus. Craig shares his creative and beer-related proposal story, but we also expound upon our fat voices, weird produce, Craigaoke, misheard Beyonce lyrics, Zach Afrin, and the worst beer collaboration ever imagined. Congratulations to Craig and Liz!

Beers Reviewed

Hill Farmstead Brewery - Civil Disobedience #6 (Blended wine barrel-aged saison)

de Garde Brewing - Imperial Apricot Bu (Berliner Weisse aged in oak w/ apricots)

Triptych Brewing - And I Think My Spaceship Knows Which Way To Go (Hazy Double IPA w/ Galaxy & Ella hops)

Funk Factory Geuzeria - Framquartet (Méthode Traditionnelle blend aged w/ red, purple, black, and golden raspberries)

The Bruery - Black Tuesday Reserve (Double barrel-aged imperial stout)

For three whole days, we are the masters of our domain - which is the expansive festival hall in Denver, Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival. We’re double dipping on this episode as we combine interviews from the festival floor with beer reviews and a weekend recap from the comforts of our hotel room. We stop short of two hours on this one, but it’s filled with takes on our favorite beers from the fest, a recap of Illinois medal winners, and highlights from drinking around Denver all weekend. Also, hear about a few surprise breweries coming to FoBAB, a beer that was literally aged on grunge, how the guy who wrote the book on IPAs feels about the haze craze, the actual best chili in Cincinnati, what it means to win it all at Hunaphu’s Day, and which brewery makes the most Seinfeld references. It’s gold, listener! Gold! Here’s to feeling good all the time.

Beers Reviewed

Bierstadt Lagerhaus - Slow Pour Pils

Baere Brewing Co./Mr. B’s Wine & Spirits - The Baeres And the B’s (Sour ale w/ Gewurztraminer grapes and Nelson Sauvin hops)

Great Divide Brewing Company - S’mores Yeti (Imperial Stout brewed with Chocolate, Marshmallow and Spices)

Interviews from GABF

Matt Johnson and Jason Green of IMBĪB Custom Brews (Reno, NV) - [00:14:26 - 00:18:26]

Nick Walker and Max Arndt of Ology Brewing Co. (Tallahassee, FL) - [00:21:23 - 00:25:04]

Kelly Montgomery and John McGarry of Brink Brewing Co. (Cincinnati, OH) - [00:30:34 - 00:35:43]

Mike Czech and Kurt of Pure Project Brewing (San Diego, CA) - [00:44:46 - 00:53:03]

Mitch Steele of New Realm Brewing Company (Atlanta, GA & VIrginia Beach, VA) - [01:00:47 - 01:11:00]

Andy Maben of New Sarum Brewing (Salisbury, NC) - [01:20:37 - 01:29:44]

Steve Pominski of Barrage Brewing Company (Farmingdale, NY) - [01:36:18 - 01:43:51]

Already an established force in IPAs, Revolution was curiously slow to embrace the hazier varieties. Not rushing in has afforded them the ability to learn from others and perfect their approach, starting over the last year through wildly popular test batches at the brewpub. But since this summer, Revolution has jumped in head first by releasing two murky Hero varieties and collaborating with a few of the hottest local haze producers. We sample five beers that represent this new side of Rev, hoping for a new hero to come along. We also recorded this after being at a beer fest all day, so you’ll get a few diversions on odd t-shirts, a pocket full of George, 311 inspiration in the produce aisle, a new solo podcast venture, and what it’ll take to unleash Milkshake Hero. Time for a game wavy.

Beers Reviewed

Northeast Hero (NE IPA)

Base (West Coast-style Pale Ale) - Collaboration with Hop Butcher for the World 

Superstructure (Imperial Hazy IPA)  - Collaboration with Hop Butcher for the World 

Reverrant (DDH NE IPA)  - Collaboration with Saint Errant Brewing

Hazy Hero (NE IPA)