ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

What’s better than hanging with your buds and sipping on some murky hop suds? We don’t know because everyone’s preferences are subjective! On this episode, we drink five hazy IPAs that happen to be collaborations between local breweries and their cool friends. We start this Sweeps Week out right with the three P’s; we try to make two half-Phase Threes into a whole; Ryan peels back the layers on the punion; Craig enters a meditative tasting state; and we fill everything up with a little zazz.

Beers Reviewed

Brickstone Brewery (w/ Phase Three Brewing) - Brick Phas’d (NEIPA w/ lactose)

Corridor Brewery & Provisions (w/ Phase Three Brewing) - Set Phazers to Stun! (NEIPA)

Pipeworks Brewing (w/ Hop Butcher for the World) - Seismic Positvity (Oat IPA)

Maplewood Brewing Company (w/ Saint Errant Brewing) - Steamless in Chicago (No-boil DDH DIPA)

WeldWerks Brewing (w/ Mikerphone Brewing) - Auto Tune (Hazy DIPA)

Direct download: ABV_Chicago_277_Haze_Buds.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 11:51am CDT

For the third straight year - and our first at Forbidden Root - we celebrated Illinois Craft Beer Week by bringing together some of the area’s best saisons and saison brewers. On this episode recorded (mostly) live at Forbidden Root, we sample a wide variety of the style with some of our best friends in beer. There’s a lot of great technical talk for saison nerds, but we also explore the Power of Oak, new shower curtain smells, an odd revelation about Minecraft, and ghost pigs. Also, Randy Mosher takes us to style school as he discusses the beauty of saison, finding synergy in unusual ingredients, and what the hell a kvass and a kuit beer are.

Segments

00:07:57-00:26:48 - Mike Thorpe (Afterthought Brewing) & Jacob Sembrano (Cruz Blanca Brewery) tasting Afterthought’s Batch 100 and Cruz Blanca’s Todo Uno

00:26:53-00:40:41 - Adam Cieslak and Adam Smith (Maplewood Brewing) tasting Maplewood’s Cool August Moon and Transient’s O’tay

00:40:50-00:59:03 - Randy Mosher (Forbidden Root) tasting Forbidden Root’s Urban Farmstead II and Middle Brow’s May 4th, 2019

00:59:08-01:11:52 - Kevin Lilly (Lo Rez Brewing) and Brian Taylor (Whiner Beer Co.) tasting Lo Rez’s Voxel and Whiner’s Bumbo

Direct download: ABV_Chicago_276_Saisonathon_Live.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:46am CDT

The folks from Angry Chair are not shy to admit that non-locals are likely most familiar with their heavily-hyped stouts. We try and do right by this Tampa brewery by sampling a few other styles from Craig’s recent visit - but of course we didn’t forget about the stouts. We propose a more weather-appropriate spinoff brewery, Craig recaps meeting a famous dog at the taproom, and we are a little awestruck by the oddity that is the dessert Florida Weisse. We also really cram in the verbal adjuncts through a shocking discovery about Tetris, the oddest 90s “it” couple, how to Lawnmower-Man yourself with a Game Shark and a Game Genie, and a whole trivia game about celebrities featured in old video games.

Beers Reviewed

Vodnik (Czech Pilsner)

Evan And Dolly (New England IPA)

On Second Thought [Omnipollo collaboration] (Berliner with pineapple, bananas, coconuts, & tahitian vanilla)

Fudge Bucket w/ Bolivian Cacao (Imperial sweet stout)

Popinski (Rye barrel-aged Russian imperial stout w/ vanilla)

Direct download: ABV_Chicago_275_Angry_Chair.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:30am CDT

When Craig vacations, we all win. This show is the result of Craig’s recent trip to Florida for a week of Harry Pottering and beer hopping on the Bay as we drink five different beers from five breweries local to the Tampa & St. Petersburg areas. There are many questions addressed on this show: Why do Floridians love such big, boozy beers? Can you use a coolship in Florida? Which taproom is a front for the Illuminati? Why is the grass so crunchy? Where’s my lactose? We also get another fantastic Dog Tale, feel like old narcs for not understanding CBD, hold a word measuring contest, and have high carb hopes.

Beers Reviewed

Green Bench Brewing - Sauvage Miel (Wild w/ orange blossom honey)

Hidden Springs Ale Works - Zero Fucks Given (Dry-hopped-only pale ale w/ Citra, Mosaic, and Motueka)

Late Start Brewing - Colorbars (Mint coffee chocolate imperial stout)

7venth Sun Brewery - Vultures From the Past (Whiskey barrel-aged barleywine)

Cycle Brewing Company - Roadtrip Series: Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do (Barrel-aged stout w/ barrel-aged coffee, cocoa nibs, and cinnamon)

Direct download: ABV_Chicago_274_Tampa_Bay_Beers.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 7:30am CDT

For more than three years, we’ve been releasing weekly one-shot episodes - Low ABVs - exclusively for our Patreon Patrons. In addition to interesting beers reviewed, these short shows are home to some of our goofiest asides, weirdest games, and hysterical disasters. This week we’ve compiled four of our very favorites from the last year with beers that span the country while representing the diverse range of styles from adjunct stout to hazy IPA to adjunct stout to hazy IPAs. They’re not all good. There’s also a very timely Game of Thrones-based trivia game, LARPing for Pizza, misquoted Eleanor Roosevelt, the answer to an important 311-based question, a little too much about Sonic the Hedgehog, our favorite goth sushi place, the unwanted return of the Bathroom Boys, and the most niche Calvin Peeing sticker ever made. And that’s just about half of it. For more content like this every single week, plus annual holiday gifts, bottle share invites, a special offer (as mentioned in the intro), and early access to each week’s episode - support what we do and sign up on our Patreon today!

Lows Compiled

Low ABV 142 - Dancing Gnome Dead Sleep (starts at 7:51)

Low ABV 130 - Abnormal Hazy Dreams (starts at 23:19)

Low ABV 135 - Dragon Banana (starts at 42:43)

Low ABV 122 - SciPAs (starts at 1:03:45)

Beers Reviewed

Dancing Gnome - Dead Sleep - Chocolate (stout w/ chocolate)

Abnormal Beer Co. - Hazy Dreams (IPA)
New Holland Brewing - Dragon’s Milk Reserve: Banana Coconut (BBA stout w/ real banana and natural flavors)

Pipeworks Brewing Company - Unicorn Vs. Science (NE IPA)

Hop Butcher For The World - Traveling Scientist (NE Pale Ale)

Direct download: Best_of_Low_ABV_4_Flavor_Adventures2.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:08pm CDT

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