ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

To recognize the improbable 400th episode of this show, we take it all the way back to the beginning - with a little added age. We revisit the same five local breweries from "Episode 1 - Chicago Stouts" - but this time, there are barrels involved. We take stock of all that has changed along the way and share a few memories from listeners. But there's also our Top 3 arcade cabinets, shameless Trade...

In a record year at the Great American Beer Festival, Illinois breweries captured 16 medals across a wide variety of styles. We ran all over Chicagoland to assemble six of the medal winning beers to sample while sharing a pretty comprehensive history of Illinois beers at GABF in the 21st century. Also, we pitch some ideas for Extreme Bingo, play a game of Stumptappd about beers with depressing mov...

From the rolling green hills of Vermont, we have five beers that span the state for our 27th installment in our State Show series. All five breweries included are new to the show with a wide variety of styles, and at least one beer elicits the strangest divergent reactions we've had in quite some time. Also, Ryan is living through an unwritten Seinfeld episode, Craig is disappointed by the lack of...

This week, we're perusing the aisles of three of the most popular grocery store chains who contract brew their own IPAs so they can sell them at a steep discount, all to determine if it's okay to skip your trip to Beer on the Wall every now and then. (It's not.) We have some, uh, spirited reviews of the IPAs made by Costco, Aldi, and Trader Joe's, with one nearly-redeeming surprise. Also, we welco...

We've long been spoiled to have Allagash beers in the Chicagoland market, considering they still only distribute to about a third of the country, if that. But this show celebrates the brewery differently, with five brewery-only beers from Craig's recent travels to Portland, Maine. And yes, even when they're getting experimental, Allagash is as adept at balancing complexity with drinkability unlike...

In a state where there's a brewery for about every 8,000 people, Portland is the ultimate beer-lovers' destination in picturesque Maine. Craig's travels bring us five unique and winning beers from five different Portland, Maine breweries. The beers are as charming as the coastal town that bore them, which leads to a little strokin' of Craig's ego. Also, we keep those cans a-rolling; Craig feels ol...

Stowed away in Northern Vermont, The Alchemist has been a world-renowned brewery for almost two decades thanks to its tremendously popular and influential Heady Topper. Craig's recent travels to the area secured us that precious Heady along with four more beers of substantial quality that have us dreaming of green mountains. Also, Ryan resurrects the soundboard, Craig's missed opportunity lets us...

If you're going to toss the whole pastry shelf into your stout, we better see some proper punctuation. For this episode, we've gathered five stouts that are on a three-adjunct minimum, and we sacrifice our daily calorie count by bringing you our arbitrary reviews. We also consider T-shirts for songs, recommend three flavors for that White Sox waffle cone, conclude our eight year journey of finding...

On some episodes, we just wanna act stupid and have some fun, so for this one we're doing an all suburban, all haze, all blind show to prove that we don't give a sh*t about tomorrow. Will these five hazy Double IPAs help break Ryan free from his Low Haze Enthusiasm? Will either host hit a respectable average in guessing the blind lineup? How many friendships will be tested? Which White Castle is s...

Revolution Brewing's mission is to dominate your whole calendar. They release one of the most coveted barrel-aged beers in the last few years as a surprise for the summer along with two returning favorites, but they also let you wash it all down with exquisite lighter-drinking beers like the pair from this episode. So we chatted with Rev's communications manager John Carruthers about these hot sum...

The Belgian Quadrupel is a style one might associate with decades of Trappist-brewed tradition, when in actuality, it was first coined a style in 1991 in the Netherlands. History lesson aside, these strong dark Belgian-style ales have their American fanatics too, and we try to explore multiple facets of the style through this episode. Also, we talk about non-existent emojis, raw bread, a Sorting H...

Summer Craig's travels brought him to the Steel City of Pittsburgh to explore their vibrant beer scene and bring back five beers for the podcast. We have an unusual mix of styles from five different Pittsburgh breweries, but they impress in ways that make us want to wave our Terrible Towels. Also, Craig has a disorienting experience with the wrath of God at the amusement park, we honor the Warhol...

Keeping Together, the saison-focused project from Averie Swanson, has brought world-class mixed culture farmhouse-style beers to Chicago - if even for all too short of a time. We catch up with Averie about the future of Keeping Together as its time in Chicago comes to a close, but we also talk with the Master Cicerone and former co-owner/head brewer at Jester King about her evolution as a brewer a...

The good folks at Necromancer Brewing in Pittsburgh want to bring dead beer styles back to life, learning from the past while also using modern techniques and ingredients to reinvigorate these long-dormant styles for a new audience. On the first day that their taproom opened, Craig happened to be in town and was lucky to chat with head brewer Lauren Hughes before buying up almost every can they ha...

In our 26th installment of our State Show Series, we get surprised with a box from listener Andrew F. and try to turn this admittedly New Orleans-heavy show into a loving exploration of Louisiana beer. Appropriately, the five beers are about as oddly different as they can be, and we have at least one thing we've never had in a beer before. Also, we revisit the events that must've led to Pitbull's...

Though the only true kölsch can be found in Cologne, Germany, the broad appeal of the style is an obvious draw for brewers and drinkers alike. We find six local examples of kölsch-style beers and sample them in a blind tasting, while trying unsuccessfully not to embarrass ourselves. We also share strange yet optimistic signs in a return to "normalcy," consider spicy cereals, discover raw bread, an...

If only there was some relevant reason to do our first Hop Butcher show in a year...oh yeah! They released four single-hopped hazy beers! Well, there's that and the whole "purchasing the Half Acre Lincoln taproom to convert into their own space later this year" thing. We talk with our friend Jeremiah Zimmer from Hop Butcher for the World for a good while about the surprising taproom purchase, from...

Mikerphone has become notorious for being willing to toss anything edible (and usually sweet) into a beer, but they're not all style with no substance. For this episode, we tried to sample a more stripped-down version of Mikerphone, choosing five beers without much added (except for the occasional dry hop or barrel treatment). There are many delightful reminders that sometimes simple is better, bu...

Trends with IPAs come and go, but the West Coast-style IPA is foundational for what craft beer is today. So when a bunch of awesome local breweries set aside their hazy tendencies to deliver something more bitter and clear, we're ecstatic to drink through five of them. Also, we mount up for Michael McDonald, admire some Choice Cones©, and welcome the new steel drum player for the Smashing Pumpkins...

More than just a mash paddle photoshoot for Instagram, these brewery collaborations focus on how their own pre-existing strong recipes can complement those of another. Enter the collab lab with us, as we taste through five inspired collaborations from local breweries, featuring a few medal winners to boot. Also, we pimp our windbreakers, break our lactose streak, imagine the limits of beer NFTs, a...

Not to be confused with FoBAB (Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers) or MOBAB (Missouri's Board of Anime Bookstores), this episode simply promises more barrel-aged beers. Five dark beers with a few adjuncts and unique barrels thrown in, this lineup has more than one beer that'll be on our best of the year list. Also, we discuss a Zubaz incident, summon a Pacino moment, get frustrated again by Ki...

This show is a tribute to when the b-side is even better than the a-side, as we drink through five beers that for random reasons didn't make the cut for recent episodes of the podcast. The styles and breweries are all over the place, which inspires us to dip into a slew of random topics like movies that should've been old SNES games, the best part of reading about the Columbian Exposition, and a w...

Ticking off another Midwestern hotspot for beers, we try out five different beers from Madison, Wisconsin breweries this week. We drink as a badger does and uncover the surprisingly long and decorated histories of a few of these breweries, while we have a diverse lineup of tasty beers. Also, we jump on the video game-to-live action movie express, re-enact The Fabulous Baker Boys , contrast our evo...

In our minds, there's hardly a better combination than drinking beer and appreciating baseball - a pastime as wholesome as apple pie milkshake IPAs. So we step into the box, looking to square up five tasty beers from Midwestern breweries that certainly want you to think about baseball. We cram this one with baseball miscellany: Chicago food-themed uniforms, baseball and beer math, Hot Dog Summer,...

Looking to provide an "oasis for life and leisure," Madison, Wisconsin's Young Blood Beer Company had to bring the oasis to the people in their first year of operation. For this episode, Craig talks with co-founder Tom Dufek about rewriting business plans, adding a twist to every beer, and cultivating those dank and drippy vibes. We also drink through five cans of their beer while trying (and fail...