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Just as the season can’t decide if it’s going to get warm or stay cold, we choose to get nice and toasty with four barrel-aged stouts we’ve gathered over the past few months from local sources. The four beers on this show ascend in adjuncts, and Craig and Ryan don’t see eye-to-eye on the rankings at all. Also, we explore different foodstuff cafe po…
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St. Louis’ Heavy Riff Brewing has built a strong local following since 2013, and their mix of experimental styles, barrel-aged beers, and rock-n-roll sensibility has started to make its way up the state of Illinois. Craig talks with co-owner Rick Hagen about the past and future of the brewery before we try through a lineup of five standout beers. A…
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A decade-and-a-half ago, West Coast DIPAs were changing the craft beer curious into full-on obsessives, and breweries were in an IBU arms race to melt faces with hop bitterness. Recently, now that some of the haze has settled, breweries are returning to the aggressive style again - with some bringing newer juicy hop varietals to the mix, while othe…
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The city of Asheville may not even be in the top ten most-populated cities in North Carolina, but it might be the state’s capital for breweries. Thanks to the generosity of listeners Benji and Suzanne, we drink five beers from Asheville (and the surrounding area) that represent a wide amount of styles - and Craig is absolutely giddy about a secret …
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The Baltic Porter is making some more regular appearances in breweries’ seasonal lineups, so we find five local examples of the robust lager style to sample for this episode. We also ponder the benefits and drawbacks of barrel-aging this particular style, throw around the word “creamy” a lot, and admit we don’t always want the slow pour. Plus, Crai…
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It’s been over a decade since Craig and Ryan have been out to beautiful San Diego, and thanks to listener Dave Adams, the podcast gets a lovely flavor vacation with beers from five of the city’s breweries. The lineup is stylistically diverse, the rankings deviate in the middle, and at least one beer surprises at every step. Also, there’s a lukewarm…
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Sometimes you want a stout that’s not sweet, adjunct-free, and stripped down to just the base style interpretation, and we were so excited to find five readily-available local examples. (No barrels, coconuts, vanilla beans, or cacao nibs were harmed in the making of this episode.) In addition to our straight stout sippin’, we marvel at Dog Surfing …
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Donning our heavenly jackets for this one, we drink the final set of Revolution’s Deep Wood lineup for the 2023-2024 season. Three ‘wines and a stout make up this unsurprisingly spectacular four pack, and even through all of our nit-picking we can’t deny who is making the best barrel-aged beers in the city and state. Plus, we’re doing our part to s…
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Our 34th state show is just as sweet as it is sour, as we tackle five beers from South Carolina courtesy of listeners Benji & Suzanne. Even though it’s a bit heavy on the tart beers, we learn about five breweries that represent a pretty good cross section of the South Carolina brewing scene. Also, Craig needs to bail someone out of the hellscape th…
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Ever since January 22nd of 2014, the ABV Chicago podcast has released a new episode every single week - and nobody could be more stunned about this fact than us. To commemorate a decade of arbitrary beer reviews, brewer interviews, and tipsy shenanigans, we open ten beers from ten breweries that all also got their start in 2014. The twist is that C…
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It’s been almost three years since the announcement that Hop Butcher for the World would be taking over the original Half Acre brewery space, and it’s been a year since the rebranded taproom opened. So we take time to sit down with co-founder and co-owner Jude La Rose for a long chat about the present and future of his brewery that was recently nam…
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You don’t turn to us for advice on a balanced breakfast, but we’re happy to spoon up five cereal-inspired beers so good that even Mikey likes it. Through clever use of ingredients (or just throwing the cereal right in the beer), these beers really test the nostalgia influence of sitting a foot from the TV in our PJs while watching Captain N: The Ga…
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We fetch another round of barrel-aged beers for this episode, but with a twist: all four beers are aged in different kinds of brandy barrels. We explore the world of sweet brandy barrels and how they work on different styles, and we are totally surprised by our takeaways. Also, we talk mixed drinks, New Year sugar fears, John Entwistle, cooked malt…
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Recorded on Black Friday (and previously released a month ago for our Patreon subscribers), this episode is our return to the Bourbon County lineup - after managing to get ourselves uninvited from the Goose Island media tastings. Luckily, we have our own beer sherpa in Beer on the Wall owner Ryan Tracy as he joins us to sip through all six beers in…
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In what is likely our most decadent Barrel-Aged December™ episode yet, we sample four enormous stouts from WeldWerks’ Medianoche series that are as complex as they are thick (or thicc, as the kids say). Co-founder Neil Fisher gave us some mic time back during GABF that is shared here, and he helps us understand how his Greeley, Colorado brewery’s s…
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There’s no escaping Deth, so we gather up four of the barrel-aged Revolution stouts from this year’s Deep Wood lineup and drink with reckless abandon. It’s no shocker that Revolution is still running the best barrel program in the city, but even with the bar raised as high as it is, the beers on the show clear it with ease. Even one beer challenges…
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For over 15 years, Metropolitan blessed this great city with high quality lagers and traditional German styles. They ushered in a second wave of Chicago craft brewing back when there were next to no options available. It’s safe to say that without Metropolitan, the Chicago craft beer scene wouldn’t have grown the way it did. Now Chicago will have t…
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Earlier in November, the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild put on the 21st Festival of Wood and Barrel-Aged Beers to recognize some of the breweries making the finest wood-aged beers around. We got our hands on five (out of the eleven) Illinois medal winners - and our first-ever Best of Show beer - to help us audition to become FoBAB judges some year. W…
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Hop on the Brown Line straight to Browntown with us, as we discover a hopefully-growing local resurgence of the brown ale with five examples from Chicagoland breweries on this episode. Adjunct or not, these brown ales all have a unique angle on the style - and most would absolutely kill on cask. We also discuss the worst possible colors for mayonna…
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Carbonated water treated with hops is pretty simple in concept, but these five breweries prove that there’s a lot of variation and skill that goes into making these “zero/zero” drinks. And it shows that no matter how well non-alcoholic beers have progressed, some drinkers looking for a dry spell just can’t quit the hops - and now they don’t have to…
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Though it might be one of the smallest states, the brewing scene in Delaware is mighty, and we’re ushering in our 33rd State Show with a lineup of five flavorful beers from five different breweries. Thanks to Ryan Tracy (and family), we’re able to live vicariously through his travelogue while sipping these delectable beers, just missing out on the …
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Chicago’s biggest, baddest and most-barreled festival is back in its 21st year, so we’re eager to FoBABble about it for the first time in four years as a lead-up to the competition. We also open four barrel-aged beers from breweries that have been FoBAB staples (and previous medal winners) to lubricate our discussions of new and returning breweries…
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The seven barrel-aged beers that comprise this year’s Luchador lineup feature styles and ingredients we have rarely - or never - seen in the past, and no local “special release” lineup is getting as experimental as this one. Flavor master Jacob Sembrano is at it again, and we’re here to drunkenly rave over the barrel-aged results. There are many tr…
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We’re indulging in our capital vices for our yearly attempt to destroy each other over bad beers, and this one features some of the most unexpected pours we’ve ever seen. There’s at least one beer here that unexpectedly brings out an extra large dose of wrath for one podcaster, and it’s not even the mystery beer in the box. WHAT’S IN THE BOX?? Also…
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Chicagoland is pretty gifted in lager-centric breweries, but now that trends have shifted back towards the more drinkable, almost every brewery is featuring more and more lagers. This is an extremely good thing. For this show, we do a blind tasting wherein we match a local lager-focused brewery’s beer against a local “everything” brewery’s beer alo…
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Now somewhat relegated to an occasional fall seasonal from breweries, the Amber style is essential to the history of American craft beer as we know it. So we’re pumped to see five local breweries dabble in amber ales and lagers, and we fall in love all over again (with the beers, not each other). Also, Craig has an unexpected pet, we accidentally h…
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We were just back in Denver for the 41st Great American Beer Festival, and we’ve got an episode chock full of interviews and beer highlights that’s as good as gold (medals). Catch up on our beer-y travels as we hit the festival floor for about 14 total hours and stop into several great Denver taprooms and bars, sharing our experiences and regrettab…
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In the week that we’re heading out west for a certain fest, we gather up four barrel-aged beers from West Coast breweries that are pretty well-known for their wood-aged offerings. Expectations are flipped on their head and a ringer is challenged as we pop a few actual corks for this one. Also, Craig wants in on the limited-edition mattresses; we op…
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The Great American Beer Festival is right around the corner, and since we’re attending again this year, we’re providing an audio guide to what to drink at the fest while also sipping on some previous medal winners. These aren’t just any Illinois medal winners; our four choices here are a good drive from Chicago while also representing more traditio…
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For the second part of our big 500, we sit down with Revolution Brewing founder Josh Deth and talk about the last ten years of his brewery while sharing a rare beer from Craig’s cellar. It’s a fitting interview for this milestone, as no brewery has been featured on the podcast more - and it’s not even close. Also, we open another cellar gem while r…
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500 episodes is a long time to do arbitrary beer reviews, so we reach out for some help in reviewing a few beers from Craig’s cellar. We chose brewers that have been around longer than the podcast to reflect on the last ten years in craft beer, and they chose a beer from our list. For this part one of two episodes, we sit down with Spiteful Brewing…
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Once every four years, we gather up nine Märzens or Festbiers for a blind review revue as a not-so-subtle excuse to drink what might be our favorite seasonal style. And again, we have eight local takes (and one collab from a legacy American brand) on the German-style lager to help us determine our arbitrary preferences. Surprises abound and misconc…
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We’re bringing the dry heat with our 32nd State Show, drinking through five beers from five different Arizona breweries, courtesy of listener Ryan Lamb. There’s a lot to like from this set with some essential Arizona ingredients and a few beers with heavy medal pedigree. But also, Craig’s recent Disney trip has him looking at redoing some rides; Ry…
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Revolution is back at it this summer with a threesome of barrel-aged delights for an early kickoff to the Deep Wood series, and we take our time breaking down these complex blends to find our results to be pleasantly surprising. Also, Craig ruins going to the mall; Ryan’s having breakfast with Velveeta; and we let the barrels take it to the X-treme…
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We can give a lot of credit to Half Acre co-founder Gabriel Magliaro for helping awaken the craft beer scene in Chicago. And more than 16 years later, Half Acre is still a leader in craft in the city and all over the country, so we’re thrilled to sit down with Gabriel for a deep dive into the history of his legendary brewery. We talk about how he w…
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It’s another show about highly drinkable summer styles, and this minor trend of local breweries releasing hopped-up wheat beers caught our attention enough to put five beers in front of us for review. The styles differ despite their shared ingredient, and we’re as excited about the big hops as we are comforted by the soft wheat. Also, we blue-sky s…
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Brad Clark is the man behind the highly sought-after blended barrel-aged beers of Private Press, and Craig sat down with him over some decanted barleywine to talk about the history and future of his members-only brewery. Brad shares how his background at the renowned Jackie O’s in Ohio led to some of the more daring experiments at his current Santa…
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After six episodes and 25 beers, we’re finally putting our top 6 choices for best Chicagoland/Illinois hazy IPA to one last blind test. This showdown features four GABF gold medal-winners and two “underdogs” - and each beer impresses in its own way. Which brewery do we think is making the best cloudy juice utilizing Citra and/or Mosaic (and maybe l…
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We’ve been admirers of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales for a decade now, and Craig’s recent trip to California brings us back the gift of SARA saisons - and a wonderful conversation with owner and co-founder Adair Paterno. The four barrel-aged saisons on this show are about as good of a lineup of beer we’ll drink all year, so get ready for the lovefest …
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Summer Craig is starting off strong this year by bringing back five fantastic beers from California’s Bay Area (and beyond) for us to fawn over and attempt to recreate those vacation vibes. We learn the backstories of these breweries and their unique approaches and cover other beer-ish topics like the follies of berry beers, aggressive bread, trad …
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Ryan’s a University of Iowa graduate, and in the 15 years since his last visit, a few breweries have popped up and thrived in the area. After a weekend with the family in Iowa City, Ryan brought back five beers from the area to talk about what’s been happening with beer in the decade-and-a-half since. Also, Craig’s aghast to share Tom Emanski with …
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Another somewhat recent trend in the world of local lagers is the Italian Pilsner, a style with only about a 30-year history that adds a bit more noble dry-hop character to something close to the Czech-style pilsner. It’s all winners on this show, except for the hosts who have to do rankings without the assistance of a large sandwich. Also, we welc…
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In our penultimate round before the championship, we have one spot up for grabs with these fan favorite hazy IPAs from Chicagoland breweries. Bringing our grand total of hazy IPAs blind-tasted up to 25, this episode still manages to bring some surprising sights and smells - and the show’s winner isn’t exactly what we expected. Also, we workshop a b…
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As we open our arms to embrace the start of summer, our empty glasses are going to need something flavorful yet refreshing. Luckily, Chicagoland breweries have been cranking out the hoppy lagers and pilsners lately, so we assemble five for this episode that are so good that they almost completely break the show. Also, Ryan speculates on banana pudd…
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We’re just about halfway to FoBAB, so we are once again doing battle with the barrel featuring a roundup of beers we’ve been saving for this very episode. These four barrel-aged beers jostle around in our arbitrary rankings as we just luxuriate in their decadence for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Also, we explain why you (and Billy Corgan) jus…
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Our quest to find the best flagship hazy IPA from Chicagoland breweries enters its fourth round, as we blindly sample through a fresh set of five to pick a winner that best fits our own personal preferences. And though our ability to guess blind beers is as bad as ever, our taste buds are finely tuned and finally ready to deliver a surprising upset…
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In our 31st installment of our decade-long State Show Series, we are sampling a hop-heavy lineup from North Carolina courtesy of listener Rodney Knox. We learn about these five breweries from across the state while appreciating how difficult they make the rankings segment, in more ways than one. Also, Craig shares tales of drive-thru beer stores; R…
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Though they’re maybe not the first brewery that comes to mind when you think of Kalamazoo, Michigan, Wax Wings Brewing (est. 2018) flourished during the pandemic with their fresh hazies and complex barrel-aged beers gaining a ton of word-of-mouth momentum that saw many a beer fan traveling just for the opportunity to take home some of their lineup.…
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A new set of five hop warriors enter the extremely flimsy ring for another blind tasting to lead us to our favorite Chicagoland flagship hazy IPA. This one features many more hops than just Citra and Mosaic, so it leads to the widest range of flavors yet. Will we agree on who moves to the championship, and will any beer make it on the bubble? Liste…
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If it wasn’t obvious from the totally easy to understand episode title, this show is a return for us to a whole lineup of barrel-aged beers from different breweries we love. We add a little blind twist to this one as all four are adjunct-free affairs: just delicious big stouts in world-class barrels. Also, Craig’s totally serious about the tater to…
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