ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

CHAOS reigns as we open five “Rustic Ales” from Sante Adairius in Capitola, California. We enlist the help of Ken Getty, president of the CHAOS Brew Club, and he drops knowledge bombs all over us about brewing techniques and why CHAOS is doing truly unique things for homebrewers. But we also talk about the Beer Futurists movement, invent Cosmic Beer Pong™, drink Ken’s incredible Kiwi Strawberry Be...

For this show, we’re at Beermiscuous in Lakeview, and we “drink around” with owner Paul Leamon to review some great tap offerings and learn about his unique beer café concept. Paul gives us a thorough background on the business, from finding inspiration internationally to overcoming licensing headaches and finding the perfect location. We’ll learn about why proper glassware matters, the ordering h...

To celebrate St. Louis Craft Beer Week, we review six Missouri beers that aren’t distributed to Illinois. And they’re all mighty fine beers, we concur, but one totally blows us away. We try really hard to make Missouri our sister state, infusing this episode with tons of Missouri trivia and a MO-themed “Who said it?” game. There’s also Ryan’s Missouri Literary All-Stars batting lineup and lots of...

It’s Iowa or bust on this one, and we have the help of Marie Cummins to drink several Toppling Goliath brews. Once again, Marie brings the spot-on food pairings and superior research, we ruminate on how TG would fit in to the Chicago market if they ever expanded distribution, and Craig tortures us with some Biblical character/celebrity trivia. We also discuss the Templeton Rye, X-Men, Beyonce, and...

Brewmaster Brett Porter sits down with us at the Goose Island Brewery to drink beer and discuss a variety of subjects, focusing on the exciting things happening at his rapidly expanding brewery. He talks about this year’s Pitchfork beer, why Madame Rose is the best wine barrel beer they’ve done, and the secrets behind why BCBS is so good and why this year’s variants will be even better. We’ll also...

We’ve picked five different fruited beers from local breweries for this one, and then we went and tossed a bunch of fresh fruit in the beers just because we can. It doesn’t always work out. Craig shares a little BCBS news he got from Brett Porter, Ryan gives a bonus review of Coors’ Summer Brew, and we recap our experiences getting a tour of Une Année’s brewery and checking out Beermiscuous before...

Cory King wasn’t satisfied with just brewing amazing beers at one brewery, so he opened another one. We craft an audio love letter (with moderate profanity) to five of his barrel-aged saisons and wild ales. To no one’s surprise, it’s one of the best tasting episodes we’ve done. David Sullivan joins us and vies for title of “best guest ever.” We discuss the best musical side projects, make Cantillo...

Like everyone else, we love hoppy beers, especially when fresh and local! We have five young pales from area breweries while playing our newest game, Hop Bingo. (Play along at home by downloading the card from our website!) Craig talks about his CHAOS Homebrew event experience, Ryan tries to make “Chic-hop-go” happen (It’s not going to happen!), and we both talk comic book/beer pairings. We are fl...

The current demand for “session” IPAs is high, and breweries are practically tripping over themselves to release their version of the hoppy longdrinker. We make our way through nine beers under the 5% ABV cap from nine different breweries, tasting each blindly - without the benefit of knowing the brewery of origin. There are many surprise reveals and revelations, our most interesting smell descrip...

Some of Chicago’s best new breweries don’t bottle yet, so we went to five of them and brought back growlers! Marie Cummins joins us from the Down the Hatch beer blog and Chicago Craft Beer Enthusiasts. She comes through with much-needed food-pairing help, recaps her Kegs for Kidneys experience, talks about her favorite Chicago brewery, and explains why she’s so popular in the Ukraine. Craig and Ry...

It’s a frenzy of 4 Hands beers as we tackle eight unique offerings from the St. Louis-based brewery. We have our first threeway (of beer) and we try not to make eye contact. We talk a little Pipeworks (of course), Craig rants about the Esquire network, and Ryan speaks ill about the sacred cow that is The Barenaked Ladies. We also drink lots of delicious beers. Let’s get handsy.

Pipeworks does a lot of things well, and weird beers are near the top of that list. We try five of their unique brews with unusual ingredients or unexpected style crossovers and discover that they’re all pretty awesome. Relive our cautious whiffs and relieved sips! Craig gives us the highlights of his busy Chicago Craft Beer Week. We also bring back the game that has changed the world of podcast b...

Everyone loves a sequel! We drink 6 more double imperial pale ales in this episode, reaching new levels of palate destruction and inebriation. We jump in our own Mystery Machine and try to solve the hop secrets in some of these brews, Ryan unleashes a little Three Floyds rage, and Craig reveals to us all that he is, indeed, a God. (Because we’re busy celebrating Chicago Craft Beer Week, this episo...

We kick off Chicago Craft Beer Week with Chris Ferguson from Bee’s Knees, a food company specializing in craft beer snacks. Along with five nut varieties, we open five local beers based on pairing suggestions provided by Bee’s Knees. Chris answers a lot of our questions about his business and helps us understand why his nuts are so damn good with beer. Intelligent dialogue ensues, until we all get...

We’re staying up late with four Tired Hands Brewing Company growlers, near-fresh from PA! After a day of drinking at the Mash Tun New Wave Brewer’s Bash - which we reminisce on throughout - we pull it together long enough to review and rank beers from RateBeer’s #2 top new brewery in 2013. We’ll talk Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen Tobolowsky, and our intentions to copyright “Hopularity.” I’m a horse.

We give wheat a chance with six different Chicago-area breweries that feature warmer-weather friendly wheat! There are a variety of styles, an enlightening history of wheat, and even some lemon bars made with Off Color’s Troublesome. We also ruminate on the novelty-shirt-friendly question, “What Would Jesus Drink?” (It’s probably Three Floyds.) This episode features music from Chicago’s own Oblivi...

Episode 14 - Lawson’s Finest Liquids   There are pancakes on the table to compliment the five beers we drink from Lawson’s Finest Liquids, and we use some of their maple syrup beers in the cooking process. Dennis joins us to help choke down the flattest flapjacks ever made, and yes, there will be some harmonizing. Listen for a surprisingly apt comparison to Brendan Fraser, Dennis shilling for Whit...

Spring has sprung and saisons are the beer of the season! We drink 6 different saisons from Chicago-area breweries and talk baseball and flowers and bunnies and shit. We also share some listener feedback and hold a little saison history lesson. And be prepared to be moved by Craig's delicate and beautiful singing voice. Taste the refreshment!   Ryan 1. Middle Brow The Life Pursuit 2. Une Ann é e/B...

Four hoppy delights from Alpine Beer Company star in this episode, as Craig and Ryan try to rank them from best to less-than-best. Also, Craig shares some tips for beer trading and other ways of acquiring hard-to-get releases. Ryan finds a way to get really drunk on four relatively lower alcohol beers. Join us as we do some Alpine skiing – and it ain’t snowin’!   Ryan 1. Duet 2. Nelson 3. Alpine A...

C'est une célébration de Une Année ! We drink 5 beers from one of Chicago’s best new breweries. Ryan tells his car accident story, and Craig drops some Remedial French 101 on us. There’s also a Bee’s Knees Food Company appearance as we snack on some of their Curry Curry Peanuts. Écouter avec joie!   Ryan 1. Sanguinaire 2. Austere 3. Sanguinaire Premi è re 4. Maya 5. Life Beyond Death Craig 1. Maya...

Things get funky with Crooked Stave in our 10 th episode. We try six of their barrel-aged offerings - many with that funky Brettanomyces leading the flavor train. Hear why Denver-based Crooked Stave is one of the best artisan breweries going, and let the funk take you over. Big thanks to our friend Marek for the reserve society beers!   Ryan 1.       1.Raspberry Dark Origins 2.       2. Origins 3....

Half Acre Beer Company is a Chicago craft beer luminary, and we invite Dennis to try 6 of their beers with us. Dennis brings his experience as a food writer to the show and makes us eat a Subway Flatizza and drink Boone’s Farm Fuzzy Navel. It was horrible. But the show is great, and so are the beers. It gets so weird.

In January, we sat down with Central Waters' Brewers Reserve beers to commemorate their 16th anniversary. No infections here! We fawn over 6 bourbon barrel aged beers, Craig shares his account of the 16th anniversary party, and we invent more band names. Hear our thoughts on 2014 Peruvian Morning and what should have been. Rankings Ryan 1. Peruvian Morning 2. 16 3. Bourbon Barrel Cherry Stout (201...

We drink six German-style beers from Chicago-area breweries. Listen as we talk about local breweries, traditional German styles, lederhosen comfort, German drinking games, and our favorite albums by Robot Dong. Prost!

Craig just came back from San Francisco, and he brought some beer back with him!  Craig also spins yarns about his trip and we try to diversify our advertising porfolio with Nabisco and Tums.  Let our mouths take your ears to the wild, wild west. Rankings Ryan 1. Rare Barrel SKUs Me 2. Sante Adairius Maiden Fields 3. Hopocalypse Black Label TIPA 4. Russian River Blind Pig IPA 5. Hopocalypse White...