ABV Chicago Craft Beer Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Episode 332 - Hop Butcher for the Quarantine Jun 17, 2020

Show notes

Even though people are chasing pre-orders instead of trucks these days, Hop Butcher is still as hot as ever thanks to their consistent schedule of mostly hoppy - and mostly hazy - releases. The variation amongst these six beers is surprisingly significant, despite all being some sort of play on IPA. This episode is a tribute to what this brewery has become, and we’re satiating the Hop Butcher nerds with two trivia games and some additional information about all elements of their process - plus a tasty little nugget about a possible taproom. We’re also talking about placebo buttons, Cold IPAs, Mai Tais, bad comics about beer, autocorrect malaprops, and Craig’s Sabro insensitivity. We’re bringing phenomenal back.

Beers Reviewed

Deep Rinse (Centennial, Simcoe, Amarillo & Zuper Saazer-hopped Cold India Pale Ale)

Dese, Dem & Dose (Simcoe, Motueka & Belma-hopped India Pale Ale)

Preserved In Three Dimensions (Sabro & Simcoe-hopped Double India Pale Ale)

Kielbasa King (Mosaic & Nelson Sauvin-hopped Double India Pale Ale)

Circumpolar Cherry Cyclone (Citra & Strata-hopped Milkshake Double India Pale Ale Brewed with Lactose, Vanilla and Cherry)

A Deeper Dish (Citra & Vic Secret-hopped Triple India Pale Ale)

Episode 331 - Milkshakes Not Handshakes Jun 10, 2020

Show notes

Soothing that early summer heat with big ol’ glasses of lactose and hops, we’re sharing shakes from afar this week with the hopes of better understanding our complicated relationship with this popular style. We have five very different milkshake IPAs from some local favorites and - GASP - there may be a grifter in our midst! Other childish talking points include Green River floats, new Fun Dip slogans, the merits of Neapolitan ice cream, toilet ghoulies, shower sharks, and just who is at the top of the Milkshake Kombat Mountain.

Beers Reviewed

Maplewood Brewing Company - Son of Shakey (Milkshake IPA w/ wheat, oats, lactose, and vanilla)

Riverlands Brewing - Strawberry Shaky Shaky (Milkshake IPA w/ strawberry, lactose, Mosaic hops, and vanilla)

Mikerphone Brewing - Crushcrushcrush (Milkshake IPA w/ Citra, vanilla, and orange peel)Phase Three Brewing - DDH Mosaic Sabro Double Crème (DDH DIPA w/ Mosaic, Sabro, oats, and milk sugar)

Hop Butcher for the World - Ocean Key (Citra & Motueka-hopped milkshake DIPA w/ pineapple, key lime, and vanilla)

Episode 330 - Café a la Maison Jun 03, 2020

Show notes

Since you won’t find either of us sitting on some coffeehouse patio anytime soon, we’re bringing the coffee home in the form of five stouts. While they all deliver the caffeine and the booze, each beer stands on its own unique merits - or is a victim of context. But we’re also here to get Craig prepped to audition for the new Supermarket Sweep, including how to navigate the new craft beer aisle. We also feel nostalgic for beer travels, stop at Ryan’s cooking corner, get VIP access to the fields of Charleston Chews, and observe a series of dissipating heads.

Beers Reviewed

More Brewing - Hush of Night: Chocolate City (Milk stout blended w/ Dark Matter Chocolate City coffee)

Trillium Brewing - PM Dawn (Imperial stout w/ Barrington Coffee Roasters cold brewed coffee)

2nd Shift Brewing - Coffee Liquid Spiritual Delight (Imperial stout w/ coffee)

Maplewood Brewing - Cuppaccino (Imperial stout w/ Metric coffee, vanilla, and chocolate)

Noon Whistle Brewing - Dodging Traffic (Imperial stout w/ Tugboat coffee)

Episode 329 - Fruit Salad May 27, 2020

Show notes

Here’s hoping that we can talk you out of attending that backyard barbecue by offering up this refreshing bowl of audio fruit salad to help your summer isolation feel a bit more festive. We have five different fruited beers that really span the range from “pleasant fruit accessory” to “chunky berry sludge” - and they honestly succeed in ways we didn’t expect. We plan some totally radical ways to break up illicit social gatherings, please the Tootsie Pop conspiracy theorists, mistake Craig for Instagram, get hostile at Jamba Juice, and eulogize a good blender. Good gorf.

Beers Reviewed

Haymarket Beer Company - Blood Orange Blonde (Blonde ale w/ blood oranges)

Cruz Blanca Brewery - La Floridita (Sparkling rosé ale w/ hibiscus and passion fruit)

Third Space Brewing - FROG Weiss (Kettle sour w/ fig, raspberry, orange, and ginger)

Trillium Brewing Company - Daily Serving: Raspberry (Berliner weisse w/ raspberry)

More Brewing Company - Frooted 3riberry (“Smoothie ale” w/ blackberry, strawberry, and raspberry)

Episode 328 - Stone Redemption May 20, 2020

Show notes

When you’ve been around as long as Stone, you’re bound to take some lumps. And lumps we have delivered in the past by subjecting Stone beers to undeserved spots on our Torture Test episodes. Thanks to Lizzie at Stone, we are finally able to give the brewery its first proper set of arbitrary reviews, and we only ignore one “enjoy by” date in this episode. The beers on the show are mostly pretty great, but all the talk of redemption arcs has us reflecting on past bad beers. We do a comprehensive reflection on six-and-a-half years of the (subjectively) worst beers we’ve ever had on the show, because, well, we’re quarantined and bored. Craig wants his MTV, Ryan just wants the commercials, and we’re both missing the in-person sexual tension. There’s also talk of slamming pogs, rough pours, ᴁon Flux nightmares, flavor descriptor shirts, and a long-held Eufórqestra grudge.

Stone Beers Reviewed

Buenaveza (Salt & lime lager)

Notorious P.O.G. (Berliner weisse w/ passion fruit, orange, and guava)

Fear.Movie.Lions (Unfiltered double IPA)

Soaring Dragon (Imperial IPA w/ white tea)

Xocoveza (Imperial milk stout w/ cocoa, coffee, pasilla peppers, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg)

Episode 327 - SIP Lagers May 13, 2020

Show notes

We were already becoming very good at staying home and drinking copious amounts of lager before this whole mess, so it’s only natural that we shelter-in-place with a rich lineup of bottom-fermenting beers. Featuring six different lager styles from six Midwestern breweries, this episode highlights impressive flavor and mouthfeel variations so we actually, like, have stuff to talk about. Ryan takes unforeseen risks to increase contact with the outside world, Craig ponders, “What is cornbread?”, and we show love for the legend himself Willi Becher. Other topical quarantine talking points include sourdough starter dread, Elon Musk is a douche, 3-word beer reviews, and schwarzbier horniness.

Beers Reviewed

Pollyanna Brewing Company - Lite Thinking (American Lager)

2nd Shift Brewing - Technical Ecstasy (Czech-style Pilsner)

Kinslahger Brewing Company - Prohibition Pilsner

Third Space Brewing - La Cocina (Dark Mexican Lager)

Pipeworks Brewing Company - Select Schwarzbier

Maplewood Brewing Company - Gold Noise (Dortmunder-style Lager)

Episode 326 - Curbside Haze May 06, 2020

Show notes

This week, we celebrate the resilience of local breweries and bottle shops that are still finding a way to keep getting hazy IPAs into the begloved fans of the juice. Though not necessarily the most hyped haze producers in the area, the five breweries on this show prove to be absolutely worth your contact-free dollar. We have a rare first-timer on the show, share our drunk online shopping stories, give out orange slices to the whole soccer team, argue best milkshake flavors, and admire Craig’s beach bod. Thicc pale daddies are welcome.

Beers Reviewed

Illuminated Brew Works - Junior Astronaut Juice (DDH IPA)

Foreign Exchange - Foreign Chemistry: Citra & Amarillo (DDH IIPA)

Around the Bend Beer Co. - Lost Words (Hazy IPA)

Marz Community Brewing Co. - Crazy Straws (NE-style IPA)

Riverlands Brewing Company - Gilded King (New England IPA)

Episode 325 - Third Space Brewing Apr 29, 2020

Show notes

Craig extends his curbside to wherever he may roam, and after a month of quarantine, he hit up Milwaukee, carbound and down to score some more Third Space. After our visit last July, we’ve been thirsting for more from this brewery that’s just a Christian Yelich homerun away from Brewers’ stadium. We have a nice variety of five beers, and we take inspiration from the brewery’s Seinfeld obsession to run a round of Stumptappd about nothing. We also share some of our new quarantine names, reimagine the movie theater experience, chase grandma with some fireworks, seek solace in the filthiest chips, and really botch a Zoom call-and-reponse. My wife!

Beers Reviewed

Summer Home (Hoppy Blonde Ale)

Unbridled Enthusiasm (Juicy Double IPA)

Haunted Barrel 2019 (Barrel-aged candy bar porter aged in bourbon and rum barrels w/ cacao and vanilla)

Happy Place (Midwest Pale Ale)

Mystic Knot (Barrel-aged Irish-style Coffee Stout)

Episode 324 - SIP Dark Apr 22, 2020

Show notes

As we continue our shelter-in-place recordings, this time we’ve got a somewhat random mix of dark beers to distract us from *gestures broadly* and get us nearly incoherent by rankings time. Whether teeming with adjuncts or not, these five Midwestern porters and stouts compete in the Pretty Head Competition while the show becomes robust with distraction. We imagine an augmented-reality taproom experience, conduct a lunchbox check, break down existentially over Christmas music, get mesmerized by blacklight posters, and let Malt-O-Meal be our quarantine saviors. Let it levitate on your palate.

Beers Reviewed

Shared - Base Weight (Robust porter)

Pipeworks Brewing Company - Easy Keepers (Oatmeal stout)

Old Irving Brewing Co./Illuminated Brew Works - Ancient Magick (Imperial stout w/ cocoa nibs, vanilla, cinnamon, peanut butter and marshmallow)

Transient Artisan Ales/More Brewing Co. - Breakfast Sauce (Imperial oatmeal stout w/ coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, black tea, and chai spices)

Lift Bridge Brewing Co. - Barrel-aged Silhouette (Barrel-aged imperial stout)

Episode 323 - SIP Hops Apr 15, 2020

Show notes

We’re sheltered-in-place and slamming way more of some killer hoppy beers than normal, because we don’t actually have to share. In our first remotely-recorded episode, we overcome a brief technical glitch before returning to what feels very normal: Craig and Ryan fumbling through flavor descriptors while distracting each other with random stories from our past. Craig has invented the perfect game for these times, Ryan’s trying to make a deal with Greg Avola, and we catch up on each other’s new quarantine hobbies. Other talking points include mint creamsicles, Mario Kart coaching, Idahos 1 through 6, Mr. Met, the shirt technique, statued asses, bad Altoids stunts, and the secret of the green river dye.

Recorded 4/7/20

Beers Reviewed

Hubbard’s Cave - Clean Pale (Midwest pale ale)

Half Acre Beer Company - Tome (Hazy pale ale)

Cruz Blanca Brewery/Hop Butcher for the World - Hard Right Angle (Hazy IPA)

Old Irving Brewing Co. - Beezer (Double dry-hopped IPA)

Hop Butcher for the World/Eagle Park Brewing Company - Swans of Lir (Milkshake DIPA w/ mint and vanilla)