Monthly Archives: March 2016

Pubcast 183 – Mark’s Mystery Beers

This week’s show see’s Mark Naski bringing 2 brews to the show that remain a mystery as we taste them, plus we book-end that session with a beer from Florida, and one from a local Chicago brewery.

Joining Mark and Phil is Chuck Fort, brewer over at Church Street Brewing in Itasca, and as we are recording at John’s Tavern in Winfield, owner John Karwoski joins us.
The first brew comes from Florida brewing giant, Cigar City with their Cigar City Lager.
Ram Brewery in Schaumburg, and brewer Shaun Berns has given Mark some samples of test brews, and Mark promptly lost the labels.  We turn this into an opportunity to try our tasting expertise, and we guess at what the styles might be.  How close did we get? Judge for yourself.  The first brew is actually called Woodfield Wild and was inspired by a Belgian Pale Ale, but ended up being a hybrid-pale ale fermented 100% with Saccharomyces trux trois, in American oak and dry-hopped with Galaxy hops.   The second mystery beer is called Rabbit Punch, and is also a hybrid, cossing an American Red with an Irish Red, exclusively hopped with Citra.

Finally, and on draft as we record at John’s, is Cahoot’s Brewing BluELiner Berliner Weisse.  John also brings out an example of the proper glass to drink Berliner Weisse from, a bowl!  One of the best of it’s style that we have tasted, and just right for Spring!

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Pubcast 182 – No Green Here!

Recorded live at craft beer bastion John’s Tavern in Winfield, the day before St. Patrick’s day, and released the day after, we’ve not only avoided the day of green, but we also avoid any green beers as we focus on the Irish Stout and the Irish Red styles. Sláinte!

We kick-off our show with an Irish Stout from Metal Monkey Brewing (Romeoville) and B.I.N.G   Not named after Bing Crosby, but “Because It’s Not…. well you know, that OTHER Irish Stout brand”.
Then we go to our Style of the Week, Irish Red.  First up is our baseline beer, one of the commercial examples that BJCP cites, O’Hara’s Irish Red from the Carlow Brewing Company, based in Co. Carlow, Ireland.
We compare our baseline to another from Metal Monkey, their Irish Red called The Ellis Redding, named after the character in the movie The Shawshank Redemption.
Finally, Church Street Brewing from Itasca, has their Crimson Clover Red Irish Ale on tap at John’s so we get a draft pour of this brew.

But wait…there’s more!  Mark has returned from another trip to Florida and this time brings offerings from a couple of breweries.  Bonus beer #1 is from Coppertail Brewing Co., based in Tampa, FL. and is a double IPA called Notorious H.O.P.  So new, it’s not even on their website!
Bonus beer #2, is from Due South Brewing in Boynton Beach. We reviewed a brew from them in pubcast 177, and this time we have a can of their Dry Hopped Series Pale Ale.
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Pubcast 181 – Drink it Fresh!

This show was prompted by a comment from Pollyanna brewer, Brian Pawola, when we talked to him at the Naperville Winterfest.  We told him we had a bottle of PCL that we were cellaring, and he said “drink it fresh”.  So we did, together with some other tasty brews from Almanac Farm to Barrel and Elephant Heart de Brettaville, Noon Whistle’s Gose Smack Aged in Cabernet Barrels, and Ritterguts provides the Style of the Week, Gose.   Add interviews with brewers Brian Pawola, and exciting news from 51st Ward’s Tim Hoerman to round out our show this week.

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Pubcast 180 Pt 2 – Naperville Winterfest 2016

Part 2 of our festival report includes Miskatonic, Rockford Brewing, and Hopvine interviews. Plus John Bitterman and the homebrew tent. Cheers!
To help you listen to the interviews you want to hear, here is the handy timeline of the brewers and personalities we talked with. Enjoy!
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00:00 – 02:17 Introductions
02:17 – 11:22 Miskatonic Brewing, Josh Mowry
11:22 – 15:51 John Bitterman
15:51 – 22:11 Rockford Brewing Co, Steve Lennox
22:11 – 27:48 PALE Hombrew, John Lawlor
27:48 – 32:48 Hopvine Brewing, Ken McMullen
33:48 – End  Goose Island and Outro

WinterfestLogo Winterfest