ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 282 - Untitled Art Jul 03, 2019

Show notes

Born from a union of Funk Factory’s Levi Funk and Octopi Brewing’s Isaac Showaki, Untitled Art was launched in late 2016 to bring exciting new styles to Wisconsin before everyone was doing them. Now that everyone is doing them, how has Untitled Art grown to establish itself? Well, it certainly helps to have really cool friends. On this show, we gallery walk through five flavorful collaborations and discover we have yet another reason to drive to Wisconsin. Also, we train for our sick scooter tricks, suss out who smuggled the African hops, suffer Untappd-related brain damage, bravely draw the line at congealed beers, and birth Fardar into existence.

Art Consumed

Pilsner w/ South African Hops (collaboration with TRVE Brewing Company)

Terpene IPA (collaboration with American Solera)

Spritzer Weisse (collaboration with J. Wakefield Brewing)

Hazy IIPA (Version 5) (collaboration with Narrow Gauge Brewing Company)

Espresso Marshmallow Stout (collaboration with Equilibrium Brewery)

Episode 281 - Diet Beers Jun 26, 2019

Show notes

Though we’d all like to pretend Hazy IPAs or pastry stouts represent the most significant trends in beer over the last decade or so, the real big money game-changer is the astronomical growth of Michelob Ultra. So how does craft (or “craft”) beer respond? We find out by drinking a lineup of low-calorie, low-carb beers that will help counter our lactose-enhanced waistlines. We pitch some fitness innovations for beer (and beyond), classify common dad problems as genres of music, master our asses, and put some pressure on our exotic fruit dealer. It’s an episode made for DOING!

Beers Reviewed

Anheuser-Busch - Michelob Ultra Pure Gold (American light lager)

Ballast Point Brewing - Lager (American light lager)

Lagunitas Brewing - DayTime IPA

Deschutes Brewery - Da Shootz! (Pilsner)

Boulevard Brewing - Easy Sport (Blonde ale w/ tangerine peel & sea salt)

Dogfish Head Craft Brewery - Slightly Mighty (Session IPA)

Marathon Brewing Company [Boston Beer Co.] - 26.2 Brew (Golden ale w/ sea salt & coriander)

Episode 280 - School of Brett Jun 19, 2019

Show notes

For decades, brewers have been harvesting the funk from brettanomyces yeast strains for a variety of purposes. Whether it’s to add some phenolic funk to a sour beer or some fruity depth to an IPA, brett has become a household name in brewing. Chicago’s Lake Effect Brewing and Omega Yeast Labs collaborated on a mixed 4-pack, titled School of Brett, by dosing a wine barrel-aged base saison with three different strains of brettanomyces to help educate about the differences between the strains. For this episode, we have Lake Effect’s founder and owner Clint Bautz along with Omega’s co-founder and co-owner Lance Shaner to talk about the collaboration and what makes these brett strains unique. We also talk a lot about what’s new with both businesses, Craig mines for some yeast puns, Ryan just had to dig up that Brett Trois story again, and we literally bathe in tropical light. Join us and learn more about brett - it’s the yeast you can do.

Beers Tasted

Lake Effect Brewing/Omega Yeast Labs - “School of Brett”

Base Saison

Claussenii

Bruxellensis

Lambicus

Episode 279 - Farm to Podcast Jun 12, 2019

Show notes

More sustainable and definitely more rustic than your city brewery, these five beer producers also operate in conjunction with a farm, using ingredients grown on their lands for a uniquely artisanal experience. We have a range of styles from Illinois, Tennessee, and Vermont that teach us a lot about ingredients and just basic vocabulary, to be honest. Ryan subjects Craig to a game of Two Truths and a Lie: Farm Animal Edition, Craig clears up confusion about his America’s Next Top Model history, and we get real psyched about gruits. It’s a premium farm to our mouths to your ears experience.

Beers Reviewed

Scratch Brewing Company (Ava, IL) - Turmeric Tonic (Gruit-style ale with turmeric and nettle)

Big Thorn Farm & Brewery (Georgetown, IL) - Wood Thyme Tart (Kettle-soured gruit w/ farm-grown thyme and aged on charred hickory logs)

Hill Farmstead Brewery (Greensboro, VT) - E. (2014; Dry-hopped barrel-aged saison)

Rolling Meadows Brewery (Cantrall, IL) - Coffee Break (Brown ale w/ coffee)

Blackberry Farm Brewery (Maryville, TN) - Abbey Quad

Episode 278 - The OK Show Jun 05, 2019

Show notes

For our 20th State Show, listener and friend Jim Plachy offered to round up five Oklahoma beers, and we said that’d be alright with us. And with a lineup this flavorful, we wish we would’ve done this state sooner. Fill your ears with some word jazz as we talk about movie tropes, melty faces, weird tongue stuff, Chris Elliott, and whipping jerseys at babies. Mmm, Zangy!

Beers Reviewed

Prairie Artisan Ales Brewpub (Tulsa) - Rockets and Dreams (Saison w/ chamomile and plums)

Stonecloud Brewing Company (Oklahoma City) - Chug Norris (Mosaic pale ale)

Heirloom Rustic Ales (Tulsa) - Chapel Visitor (Blended barrel-aged wild ale)

American Solera (Tulsa) - BK...OK (DIPA, collaboration with Other Half)

Cabin Boys Brewery (Tulsa) - The Bearded Theologian (Belgian Quad)

Episode 277 - Haze Buds May 29, 2019

Show notes

What’s better than hanging with your buds and sipping on some murky hop suds? We don’t know because everyone’s preferences are subjective! On this episode, we drink five hazy IPAs that happen to be collaborations between local breweries and their cool friends. We start this Sweeps Week out right with the three P’s; we try to make two half-Phase Threes into a whole; Ryan peels back the layers on the punion; Craig enters a meditative tasting state; and we fill everything up with a little zazz.

Beers Reviewed

Brickstone Brewery (w/ Phase Three Brewing) - Brick Phas’d (NEIPA w/ lactose)

Corridor Brewery & Provisions (w/ Phase Three Brewing) - Set Phazers to Stun! (NEIPA)

Pipeworks Brewing (w/ Hop Butcher for the World) - Seismic Positvity (Oat IPA)

Maplewood Brewing Company (w/ Saint Errant Brewing) - Steamless in Chicago (No-boil DDH DIPA)

WeldWerks Brewing (w/ Mikerphone Brewing) - Auto Tune (Hazy DIPA)

Episode 276 - Saisonathon 2019 Live May 22, 2019

Show notes

For the third straight year - and our first at Forbidden Root - we celebrated Illinois Craft Beer Week by bringing together some of the area’s best saisons and saison brewers. On this episode recorded (mostly) live at Forbidden Root, we sample a wide variety of the style with some of our best friends in beer. There’s a lot of great technical talk for saison nerds, but we also explore the Power of Oak, new shower curtain smells, an odd revelation about Minecraft, and ghost pigs. Also, Randy Mosher takes us to style school as he discusses the beauty of saison, finding synergy in unusual ingredients, and what the hell a kvass and a kuit beer are.

Segments

00:07:57-00:26:48 - Mike Thorpe (Afterthought Brewing) & Jacob Sembrano (Cruz Blanca Brewery) tasting Afterthought’s Batch 100 and Cruz Blanca’s Todo Uno

00:26:53-00:40:41 - Adam Cieslak and Adam Smith (Maplewood Brewing) tasting Maplewood’s Cool August Moon and Transient’s O’tay

00:40:50-00:59:03 - Randy Mosher (Forbidden Root) tasting Forbidden Root’s Urban Farmstead II and Middle Brow’s May 4th, 2019

00:59:08-01:11:52 - Kevin Lilly (Lo Rez Brewing) and Brian Taylor (Whiner Beer Co.) tasting Lo Rez’s Voxel and Whiner’s Bumbo

Episode 275 - Angry Chair Brewing May 15, 2019

Show notes

The folks from Angry Chair are not shy to admit that non-locals are likely most familiar with their heavily-hyped stouts. We try and do right by this Tampa brewery by sampling a few other styles from Craig’s recent visit - but of course we didn’t forget about the stouts. We propose a more weather-appropriate spinoff brewery, Craig recaps meeting a famous dog at the taproom, and we are a little awestruck by the oddity that is the dessert Florida Weisse. We also really cram in the verbal adjuncts through a shocking discovery about Tetris, the oddest 90s “it” couple, how to Lawnmower-Man yourself with a Game Shark and a Game Genie, and a whole trivia game about celebrities featured in old video games.

Beers Reviewed

Vodnik (Czech Pilsner)

Evan And Dolly (New England IPA)

On Second Thought [Omnipollo collaboration] (Berliner with pineapple, bananas, coconuts, & tahitian vanilla)

Fudge Bucket w/ Bolivian Cacao (Imperial sweet stout)

Popinski (Rye barrel-aged Russian imperial stout w/ vanilla)

Episode 274 - Tampa Bay Beers May 08, 2019

Show notes

When Craig vacations, we all win. This show is the result of Craig’s recent trip to Florida for a week of Harry Pottering and beer hopping on the Bay as we drink five different beers from five breweries local to the Tampa & St. Petersburg areas. There are many questions addressed on this show: Why do Floridians love such big, boozy beers? Can you use a coolship in Florida? Which taproom is a front for the Illuminati? Why is the grass so crunchy? Where’s my lactose? We also get another fantastic Dog Tale, feel like old narcs for not understanding CBD, hold a word measuring contest, and have high carb hopes.

Beers Reviewed

Green Bench Brewing - Sauvage Miel (Wild w/ orange blossom honey)

Hidden Springs Ale Works - Zero Fucks Given (Dry-hopped-only pale ale w/ Citra, Mosaic, and Motueka)

Late Start Brewing - Colorbars (Mint coffee chocolate imperial stout)

7venth Sun Brewery - Vultures From the Past (Whiskey barrel-aged barleywine)

Cycle Brewing Company - Roadtrip Series: Don’t Know What I’m Gonna Do (Barrel-aged stout w/ barrel-aged coffee, cocoa nibs, and cinnamon)

Best of Low ABV 4: Flavor Adventures May 01, 2019

Show notes

For more than three years, we’ve been releasing weekly one-shot episodes - Low ABVs - exclusively for our Patreon Patrons. In addition to interesting beers reviewed, these short shows are home to some of our goofiest asides, weirdest games, and hysterical disasters. This week we’ve compiled four of our very favorites from the last year with beers that span the country while representing the diverse range of styles from adjunct stout to hazy IPA to adjunct stout to hazy IPAs. They’re not all good. There’s also a very timely Game of Thrones-based trivia game, LARPing for Pizza, misquoted Eleanor Roosevelt, the answer to an important 311-based question, a little too much about Sonic the Hedgehog, our favorite goth sushi place, the unwanted return of the Bathroom Boys, and the most niche Calvin Peeing sticker ever made. And that’s just about half of it. For more content like this every single week, plus annual holiday gifts, bottle share invites, a special offer (as mentioned in the intro), and early access to each week’s episode - support what we do and sign up on our Patreon today!

Lows Compiled

Low ABV 142 - Dancing Gnome Dead Sleep (starts at 7:51)

Low ABV 130 - Abnormal Hazy Dreams (starts at 23:19)

Low ABV 135 - Dragon Banana (starts at 42:43)

Low ABV 122 - SciPAs (starts at 1:03:45)

Beers Reviewed

Dancing Gnome - Dead Sleep - Chocolate (stout w/ chocolate)

Abnormal Beer Co. - Hazy Dreams (IPA)New Holland Brewing - Dragon’s Milk Reserve: Banana Coconut (BBA stout w/ real banana and natural flavors)

Pipeworks Brewing Company - Unicorn Vs. Science (NE IPA)

Hop Butcher For The World - Traveling Scientist (NE Pale Ale)