The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast

Pumpkin beer has a reputation problem, but a good one can taste like dessert without drinking like syrup. We’re back in the studio to chase the real question: which fall seasonal beers actually deliver that pumpkin pie payoff, and which ones just wear an orange label? We start with a Fair State festbier and dig into what we want from a fest beer style lager and an Oktoberfest style pour: bready ma...

Oktoberfest beers all wear the same costume, but they don’t act the same once you crack the can. We line up seven American Oktoberfest releases and taste them in order, looking for the classic hallmarks people expect each fall: toasted malt, clean lager snap, and that cozy “one more sip” finish. What we find is a spectrum, from subtle and crisp to sweet leaning and even a couple pours with a finis...

Eight American Oktoberfest beers hit the table, and we do not let a single one skate by on fall vibes alone. We’re tasting for the stuff that actually matters: that copper to amber color, the malt backbone, any caramel or “biscuit” notes the label promises, hop bite, sweetness, and the finish that either stays clean or clings to your palate like it owns the place. If you’ve ever grabbed an Oktober...

A barrel-aged stout can taste like old wood, coffee roast, rye spice, and bourbon char all at once, and somehow still go down smooth. We’re back at Callahan Lake Resort with BK, catching up on what it’s like to trade corporate life for resort ownership, how a family-friendly lodge atmosphere changes the whole feel of a “bar,” and what they’ve got planned next, including a major remodel and an expa...

Most cocktail mixers promise convenience and deliver regret, so we brought the bottles to the bar at Callahan Lake Resort to find out what’s real and what’s hype. We taste Fresh Victor mixers the “suggested” way first, then start tweaking like a true mixology session: rum versus tequila, shaken versus topped with soda water, and small adds that can rescue a drink from being too sour, too sweet, or...

Alaska sounds like the perfect place for bold beer stories: glaciers, pioneers, and cans that look like they belong in a national park gift shop. So we went back to our Alaskan Brewing Company haul and tasted five more beers from the “40 beers for 40 years” pack, scoring everything and comparing our notes to what the brewery promises on the label and online. We start with Wilderness, a beer that l...

A random grocery store find turns into a full-on craft beer variety pack review: Alaskan Brewing’s “40 Beers For 40 Years” box. We expected forty different beers, but it’s ten styles with four cans each, so we start by cracking the first row and tasting five side by side. The goal is simple: figure out what’s actually in the can, how the flavors land, and whether these are worth buying if you want...

Imperial Snot. Buffalo Snot. And a Vienna Lager that actually earns a repeat pour. Rob joins me outdoors for a laid-back but detail-heavy craft beer tasting after he hauls home a mini beer stash from Mount Rushmore Brewing in Custer, South Dakota. We crack into the lineup from low ABV to big barrel-aged stout, calling out color, aroma, mouthfeel, and the kind of finish that makes you stop talking...

Lime in beer can be a clean summer lift or a full-on sour-and-salt curveball, and we put that to the test with seven very different cans. We kick things off with a weird little experiment using crystallized lime powder, then jump into four lime beers designed for hot-weather drinking, scoring each one for aroma, flavor, and how easy it is to actually finish a full can. We taste Surly This Beer Is...

Crisp cucumber and lime, a jalapeno kick that lingers, a margarita mix that doesn’t taste like it came off a gas station shelf, and a grapefruit Paloma base that divides the room in the best way. We’re back in the Northwoods at Callahan Lake Resort with BK, Suzy, and Noelle, putting Fresh Victor’s cold-pressed cocktail mixers to the test and seeing what happens when you stop following the “one spi...

Beer is our home base, but summer has a way of changing what sounds good after a long, hot day. When Fresh Victor reached out and asked if we’d try their cold-pressed craft cocktail mixers, we said yes, then turned it into a full-on taste test with honest notes, real-life ingredient swaps, and our usual flavor-first standards. If you’ve ever wanted a cocktail that tastes fresh without the muddling...

A bourbon barrel aged stout can be pure comfort or pure chaos depending on what ends up in the glass, so we decided to make it simple and taste our way through it. We’re outside, we’ve got a full Dragon’s Milk lineup, and Brian is back on the mic with Eric joining as our guest for a flight that starts smooth and ends at a very real 17.3% ABV. We dig into what makes Dragon’s Milk work as a flagship...

Two Sam Adams variety packs show up at the same time, and we cannot resist turning it into a full-on taste test. Mike and Jim are back in the studio with Julie, and we line up eight beers from the Boston Beer Company to answer a simple question that every craft beer fan cares about: which pack actually tastes like what it promises? We keep it grounded with the details that matter, including ABV, I...

Only one house beer on tap at a brewery we drove out to visit, so what do we do? We order it anyway, grab a full guest flight, and turn the whole afternoon into a real-world Wisconsin craft beer tasting with honest scores and zero pretending. This week we are on location at Alchemy Brewing in Cashton, Wisconsin, where the space is beautiful, the food hits the spot, and the small-town surprises jus...

The quickest way to learn what you actually like is to drink outside your comfort zone, and we prove it with a table full of 3 Sheeps Barrel Society barrel-aged beers. We pour a tight lineup of imperial stouts and an imperial milk stout, then hold every sip to our simplest standard: if the flavor is on the can, it should be in the can. Coffee, coconut, vanilla, cacao nibs, blueberry, cherry, molas...

Seven IPAs hit the table and we do not protect anyone’s feelings, especially our own. Mike brings the Northwoods Beer Guy scoring brain, Jim brings the skepticism, Matt brings the blunt honesty, and Kate joins us as a self-proclaimed IPA lover who actually did homework before showing up. The result is a fast-moving IPA tasting that’s equal parts flavor notes, friendly roasting, and real guidance f...

A salty lime lager that promises habanero heat. An orange ale that smells like fresh juice. A vanilla porter that stays smooth instead of burnt. Then we crank up the ABV with an imperial stout, a pastry stout that drinks like hot chocolate, and a barrel-aged Belgian quad that somehow tastes like figs without punching you in the face with booze. That’s the kind of spread we love, and it’s exactly w...

An IPA episode that starts with skepticism and ends with us genuinely impressed. We line up six different India pale ales and do a true side-by-side IPA tasting, the kind that exposes what labels and marketing blur: some IPAs are hop-forward and dry, some are mellow to the point of confusing, and some modern fruited hazy IPAs barely resemble the old-school “bitter grapefruit and pine” stereotype a...

You don’t need a 9% hazy IPA or a syrupy stout to have a great craft beer night. We grab a lineup of lighter, session-friendly beers and put them through the simplest test that matters: do they taste good, and would we actually drink more than one? With Jim and Julie in the studio on short notice, we pivot from a planned on-location recording and turn it into a fast, fun flight of approachable cra...

7.5% turns into 13.8% faster than you think when we line up Scotch ale and barleywine on the same table. We’re back in the studio with Jim and special backup drinker Toby, because this tasting is stacked with higher ABV bottles and cans, plus a few surprises we did not see coming. We start in Scotch ale territory with 3 Floyds Robert the Bruce, then take a sharp left with Samuel Smith Yorkshire St...

Seven drinks, two guests, and a quiet Northwoods backdrop that makes every pour feel like it’s happening around a campfire. We’re joined by my brother Brian (our resident “mad scientist” brewer) and Larry as we work through a mixed flight that’s intentionally all over the map, then rate each one on our 0 to 5 scale. We start with Surly Brewing Rocket Surgery Hazy Ale and get into what “hazy” even...

A blueberry beer that tastes like raspberry. A lager brewed with jalapeno, habanero, and Carolina Reaper that somehow stays drinkable. And a homemade trophy that literally has a breathalyzer attached to it. Mike flies solo to recap our Memorial Day beer tasting up in the Northwoods, where seven of us put our palates to the test with a stricter blind beer taste test designed to keep the voting fair...

Cloudy skies, a long weekend, and a fridge full of “not our usual styles” sets the stage for a Memorial Day ready craft beer tasting that goes from crisp to chaotic. We’re chasing lighter, easy-drinking summer beer that still tastes like something, not just cold fizz, and we put each can to the test with honest ratings and plenty of debate about what we’d actually stock for a day on the deck, the...

One convenience store stop turned into a full-on summer drink showdown. I’m Mike, and Suzy is back at the mic with me as we crack open four brand-new Carbliss malt beverages in the big 19.2 oz cans and find out whether “zero sugar” can still taste bold, bright, and actually refreshing. We dig into what’s changed for Carbliss, a Wisconsin-based favorite known for zero carb, zero sugar, zero calorie...

Six stouts. Zero barrels. One big question: can a stout still hit hard on flavor when you take bourbon, rum, and oak out of the equation? Mike and Jim line up a full flight of non barrel aged stouts, starting with a nitro Scottish stout that delivers the creamy cascade and classic mouthfeel, then moving through a run of oatmeal stouts that are silky and smooth but keep leaving us asking, “Where’s...