ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

It’s a mother-loving good time on this episode as we drink six different beers from Springfield, Missouri’s own Mother’s Brewing Company (Thanks Jeb and Eden!). And just like our own mothers, these beers fill us with warm feelings and happiness and alcohol. So we also rattle on about resolutions, crappy candy, hard root beer, TV moms, and Craig’s eHarmony profile. One beer brings out the 15 year-o...

Who says a little danger can’t be a lot of fun? Well on this show, we drink five random beers we had around and give them the ol’ arbitrary review treatment. Ryan shares his complete pitch for Yet Another Stakeout , the prospective third film in the Stakeout Trilogy. And for some godforsaken reason, the whole show is soundtracked by the music of Steven Seagal. It’s like we’re challenging you not t...

It’s sweaters and stouts season again, and we bask in the warmth of five dark beers on this episode. We also look back on the year in beer by reminiscing on some of our favorites beers and events of 2015. There’s a lot of love for local favorites like Middle Brow, Temperance, Transient, Imperial Oak, Spiteful, Pipeworks, Pollyanna, and Une Annee; but some of the best beers of the year came from ou...

For the big 100, we threw a little holiday party and invited our friends - and to our delight, they came bearing gifts of beer! On the show, we drink with them and give our usual reviews while catching up with them and taking many topical detours. Joining us are Kim Leshinski (Hail to the Ale), Ken Getty (from CHAOS Homebrew Club), Nick Burica (of Middle Brow Beer Co.), Chris Betts (of Transient A...

On this episode, we sit in the sticky lap of luxury and sip on some premium barrel-aged offerings from Spiteful Brewing. We review four beers: two of which rightfully won gold medals at FOBAB, and one that leaves us speechless (and hallucinating). In addition to all the beer and brewery talk, we audit Craig’s purchases, preview Ryan’s “Goonies 2” script, and drink some semi-legal absinthe. It’s gr...

2015 might as well be deemed “The Year Pipeworks Came to Cans”, because as this show proves, it’s one of the best things to happen to Chicago beer in a while. We review the five currently available canned beers from Pipeworks because we were too impatient to wait for the sixth. Additionally, we unveil a new game (temporarily) titled “Beer Carnac,” and it goes off better than expected. We also give...

No tents were pitched in the making of this episode as we review the 2015 lineup of Goose Island’s signature special release stout. And we went extravagant on this one, pairing all six Bourbon County beers with special chocolates and the scandalous commentary of one Dennis Lee from The Pizzle. Find out if we think if these were worth waiting in line for on a cold Black Friday morning. In addition...

For our brief, annual sabbatical, we drink ten different craft sodas while recapping our experience at this year’s Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers. We attempt to review the sodas, with five produced locally, but spend a lot of time reliving our favorite FoBAB moments. Our highlights include beers from Perennial, Off Color, 2nd Shift, Goose Island Clybourn Brewpub, Spiteful, Brickstone, The...

On Craig’s day off, he went due south to central and southern Illinois to check out their burgeoning beer scene. He brought back five beers for us to review, and we’re all over them like Abe Lincoln on a steamin’ stack of corn cakes. Amidst the beer talk, we touch on such provincial topics as adhesive, hand growlering, the Kennedys, spray shields, penguin movies, Charleston Chews, service ducks, a...

Man, it’s a hot one. We try five West Coast beers that have started popping up on Chicagoland shelves to determine if they’re worth your all-important dollar with our arbitrary reviews. Learn about these new entries to the Chicago market while we pay tribute to a song that defined a generation. Plus, we rant about beer pricing, brewery buyouts, the Better Business Bureau, the Rule 34 of beer, doin...

Listener Keef Debonzo sent us a box of treats from Wicked Weed Brewing, and we sat down on Halloween night to taste ‘em. We’re downright giddy to find out that this Asheville brewery is doing just about everything right. To add to the wickedness of this show, we play our favorite game, Beers Against Humanity, and it elicits talk about Cialis, Nickelback, orgies, Def Leppard, and more. We also talk...

For this episode, we blend with the Johnsens - MC and Matt - for this special trip on the Gueuze Crueuze™. We taste-tour five Belgian gueuzes and attempt to rank them, which is mixed in with some lambic education, brewery history, Belgium travel stories, and more diversions than usual. Here’s a small sampling of non-beer topics: Nazi ghosts, Eddie Bauer, peanut butter tapeworms, wine bongs, home c...

18th Street Brewery from Gary, Indiana is just over halfway through their Hunter variant series, and we round up five beers to review for this one. Colin Joliat from Boozist joins us to knock back this vertical of Hunter beers and to help us not end up horizontal. Craig is the game master on this episode with several “hunter”-themed trivia segments. We also discuss the Neo and Ne-Yo conundrum, Rar...

Before the weather all goes to shit, we look to the north for a flavor vacation with beers from Door County Brewing Co. We try almost everything they make while helping you plan your next vay-cay on Wisconsin’s Prehensile TailⓇ (Segway Tours are highly recommended.) We talk about beers with an eco-conscience, the Doors, fish boils, bottle dating, Shebobs N’ Such, and, of course, Kevin Bacon. Thank...

We load up the wagon for a cross-country tour of saisons, and we go all ‘Murica on you anyways despite drinking delicate Belgian-style beers. On this episode, we review five saisons from five different states all over this great land. You’ll hear some talk of serving temperatures, food pairings, and off flavors as we lazily audition for a freebie Cicerone certification. There’s also some creepy ma...

Once again, we concluded our extended weekend of drinking and chafing in Denver at the Great American Beer Festival by recording an episode chock full of interviews and arbitrary beer reviews. You’ll hear interviews with Jonathan Wakefield (J. Wakefield Brewing, Miami, FL); Sean Lawson (Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Warren, VT); James Howat (Black Project Spontaneous and Wild Ales, Denver, CO); Paul Kr...

  Prost! This week, we put nine Oktoberfest/Märzen-style beers into an ultraviolent cage match of arbitrary opinions. Beers from Germany, the U.S., and Chicago all enter, and a lot of them are kind of the same, but it’s the small differences that are amplified. We give a real informal history of the style, ponder what Germany smells like, and talk about the common problem with reviewing beers from...

The brewers from Oregon’s de Garde Brewing use a coolship to ferment their beers year-round before aging them in oak, and we taste five of the resulting beers. Despite moments of oppressive heartburn, we find that the Oregonian Coast is blowing some sweet pixie farts into these wonderful beers. We try not to be too self-gratifying, but clutch tightly as this episode includes a touch of French spea...

In the annals of ABV Chicago, this one will certainly go down as Craig’s masterpiece. We have five maple syrup and coffee breakfast beers and pair them with five doughnut creations from local baking geniuses Glazed & Infused . Once again we are joined by Chicago Reader’s 2015  Best Food Writer Dennis Lee , and like the feeling of syrup in the corners of your mouth and the rot of sugar in your bell...

The spoils of Craig’s epic East Coast trip come to an end here, and boy are we spoiled! Trillium Brewing Company out of Boston is making a variety of beers better than pretty much everyone, we discover. Six beers of varying styles get our unequivocal praise here, which leaves plenty of time for Craig to talk about his visit to the brewery, their upcoming expansion plans, and why they should be on...

This episode goes out to our BFFs in Chicago beer as we open five brettanomyces-enhanced bottles. And despite our fully-disclosed amicable relationships with these brewers, we manage to be brutally honest in our reviews. You’re welcome, buds! Mostly though, you’ll hear us analyze our own friendship through some light reminiscing, reflect on being held, articulate Craig’s specific measurements for...

Craig's East Coast excursion continues to provide a bounty of spectacular beers for us to review, and we couldn't resist doing a third Hill Farmstead show. We drink five growlers and one bottle from RateBeer's top brewery in the country, and it’s all Vermontastic. And whenever the beer is this good, we get gleefully off topic to talk about cereal, movie trilogies, Crystal Pepsi, Peter Cetera, and...

Simply put, we had a bunch of fresh, hoppy beers and needed an excuse to drink them - but then we go all meta on you. We have six beers from all over and play a game of Hop Bingo © to hopefully invigorate our limp descriptors. Craig takes control of the music on this one, and we explain how Ryan almost sabotaged this show. Also, we explain why we have so many Pipeworks beers on the show, explore t...

Craig’s recent travels took him to the town of Monson, Massachusetts where a small, growing brewery is producing some of the best beer in the world. Not only do we drink and react to six stunning Tree House Brewing Company beers, but Craig shares a conversation he recorded with co-founder and co-owner Dean Rohan. With six growlers of the most drinkable yet complex beers we’ve had in a while, we su...

We can hardly believe the number of local breweries canning beers these days, and in this episode we barely scratch the aluminum surface. We review six diverse styles in our attempt to arbitrarily decide who can kick it. Sidebars and distractions ensue, and we end up doing the sour mash, testing Craig’s local can knowledge, and determining the appropriate number of scarves needed to enjoy absinthe...