Monthly Archives: April 2017

Pubcast 226 – Arundel Brewery, West Sussex, UK

This edition is a report from the UK that Phil recorded on his recent trip to his homeland. Being a ‘southerner’, he visited a couple of breweries located in the counties of West and East Sussex, on the off-chance that the brewer may be able to chat.  Arundel Brewery came up trumps!

Arundel Brewery, is located in the village of Ford, adjacent to the town of Arundel.   This quaint, historical town is famous for having an archetypal English castle and is quite the tourist destination in the summer.  Ford was a WWII air-base at one time and is now an industrial park, which has become the home for Arundel Brewery.I was lucky enough to get some of heard brewer Branden Quinn’s time, while in the background his assistant brewer’s slaved over a brew cycle. Branden gives us a fascinating insight into the new UK craft beer scene, and talks about the history of Arundel Brewery and some of the styles they are producing now. He talks collabs, and we sample a smoked porter which is an exceptional brew having subtle smokiness to start, and finishing with a true porter flavor and mouth-feel.

We will be trying a few samples from the UK in future shows and comparing their flavors and characteristics, so watch out for those shows.

Play the show from our player below, or from SoundCloud…

Pubcast 225 – Archive Show – Flesk Brewing

While both the Landlord and Brewmaster are away for a few days, we wanted to play again our interview with Flesk Brewing’s Will O’Brien, recorded back in June of 2013.  As the O’Brien brothers get ready to open up a full brewery / taproom in Barrington, we can hear about their roots and see how their brewing journey began.  As we said 4 years ago, we like their beer and we want to follow their story.

This show is truly a Brit and Yankee show as this was pre-Mark, and Lingo joins me from the Flesk original location in Lombard, IL.

We’ll be back in May with all new shows, and hopefully an update from Flesk 2017!

Play the show from our player below, or from SoundCloud…

Pubcast 224 – Fruit Beer and More!

A friend of mine went out to Iowa and brought me back a couple of fuit-based brews and this prompted us to track down a couple more and give us the theme for this edition.  Recorded down at Hopvine Brewing in Aurora, besides Mark and Phil, we welcome Chuck Fort from Church Street Brewing, and Hopvine’s very own head brewer, Ken McMullen. Rounding out this week’s guest is Alex Zapata from Fox Valley Homebrew and Wine Supplies, who has opened up their store right next to Hopvine.

We also try three varieties of Ken’s Ukranium Krusher, and while we taste and cogitate on these fine samples of Russian Imperial Stout, we have a somewhat confrontational discussion on beer can labels.

Our final segment focused on the new range of beers from Gun Craft Beer, which produce cans that feature guns on some of the labels. We discuss is this is a good thing, or perhaps it touches on the same area as some of the ‘sexist’ labels that have caused controversy.  It could be that this is the end of the night, or perhaps its just good old pub chat, but thank goodness we live in a country where we can express our opinions freely – and drink damn good beer at the same time!

Review Beers:

Green Tree Brewery, LeClaire, IA – Mango Me Hoppy, Mango IPA, 6.3%
Sierra Nevada, Chico, CA – Peach IPA, Fruit and Hop Ale, 5.8%
Edge Brewing Co., Boise, ID – Pug In the Sun Clementine IPA, 6.8%
21st Amendment, Blood Orange Brew Free! or Die IPA, 7.0%
Green Tree Brewery, LeClaire, IA – C3 Chocolate Cherry Coffee Stout, 5.9%

Play the show from our player below, or from SoundCloud…

Pubcast 223 – Illinois vs Idaho

With March Madness behind us we thought it might be fun to match up a couple of breweries from two states beginning with the letter ‘I’ – Illinois and Idaho.  So with a complete arbitrary approach to balance and fairness we select Solemn Oath brewing to stand up against 2 Idaho breweries, Edge Brewing and Sockeye Brewing.  The Landlord stands by our Illinois brews, but will the all the taster’s agree? Chuck Fort, assistant brewer at Church Street, once again joins Mark and Phil for this episode, recorded at John’s Tavern in Winfield.

Phil has supplied the following from Solemn Oath:
Lü, Kölsch-style Ale, 4.7% ABV
Old Faithorn, American Pale Ale, 5.5% ABV
Funsponge, Belgo-American Blonde Ale, ABV: 4.8% IBU: 24


Mark has returned from his trip up to the North west and brought back the following:
Edge Brewing Co.
Odelay, Vienna Lager, 5.5% ABV, 23 IBU
Obligatory DIPA, 9.2% ABV, 88 IBU
Sockeye Brewing
Sour Puss, American Sour, 5.5% ABV, 6 IBU (why bother!)

Play the show from our player below, or from SoundCloud…