Monthly Archives: June 2017

Pubcast 232 – Flesk Brewing 2.0

Barrel Aged, Brewery, Craft Beer, Double Brown Ale

Father’s Day weekend saw the official opening of Flesk Brewing in their new location in the Icebox Mall in Barrington, IL.  Last year, the O’Brien brothers, Will and James, took a hiatus from brewing in their original location in Lombard after 3 years, and decided to reinvent their brewery with an expanded space, and a taproom only approach.

Phil catches up with the lads and we chat about their challenges of the move, their history, and their current brews.  As a celebration of their new opening, I bring a bottle of their 2015 3rd Anniversary Grand Cru and we check how it has changed from the original bottling.

And just to make sure these guys know their beer, we also sample a bottle of barrel-aged beer from Louisville’s Against The Grain Brewery called Jackyale, ​ a double brown ale aged in bourbon barrels in honor of the greatest rock and roll band on this or any other time, Jackyl.  ABV 9.5%, 35 IBU.

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Pubcast 231 – Vacation Report: Mark’s Bottles

Double IPA, Imperial Porter, Porter, Quad, Sour Ale

This is another show-n-tell edition, and this time Mark brings to the pub some bottles (and one can), that he collected during his recent road-trip. We are headed to Florida and Utah in this show and trying some higher ABV brews. Joining Mark and Phil this week is Chuck Fort, assistant brewer at Church Street Brewing in Itasca, and tavern owner John Karwoski from John’s Tavern in Winfield.
This will be Mark’s last regular show as he is heading up to the northwest, and Boise Idaho, where he will passing on his brewing expertise to the growing craft beer industry there.

Our featured brewery is Barrel of Monks from Boca Raton, FL., who specialize in Belgian-style beers. They provide the following brews:
S’Tart Sour Ale, 6% ABV, Unblended, Lambic style ale
​Bon Bon Anniversary Ale, Belgian Chocolate Porter, ABV 7%
​QuandRum, rum barrel-aged quadruple, 10.5% ABV

We stay in Florida for our next beer, from NOBO Brewing, in N Boynton Beach.  We have a crowler of their ​Coconut Chocolate Coffee Imperial Stout, 12% ABV.
And our final brew is a more traditional double IPA from Squatter’s Brewing in Salt Lake City, UT. These folks have been around since 1989, so are the oldest of our trio of breweries. We sample their Hop Rising DIPA, 9% ABV.

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Pubcast 230.5 – Special Edition – Short Fuse Brewing

Craft Beer

In this edition, Phil heads out to Short Fuse Brewing for their soft-opening and manages to corner head brewer Mark Duchow.
Who are Short Fuse? What are they brewing? What’s in the future? And we all love their English slant with several brews using that style base.
Listen in and then head on down and judge for yourself!
Cheers!

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Pubcast 230 – Vacation Report: The Crowlers

Craft Beer

Phil and Mark are back from their summer travels and both have collected several samples of brewing excellence from across the country. We will be sampling these over the next couple of shows and passing on our opinions as to if these breweries are worth visiting if you happen to head out their way.  From Utah to North Carolina and then down to Florida, the lads have selected bottles and crowlers and we’re drinking them in the name of the podcast, just for you!

In this edition, we have to pop open the selection of crowlers before their best-by dates, so we stopped by tavern owner John Kaworski’s deck and dipped into the cooler.  It was a windy day and Phil didn’t have his windscreen on the recorder, so apologies for a few ‘windy’ noises that may be apparent.

Our first crowler comes from One World Brewing in Asheville NC, and is their Chocolate Truffle Stout, an American Stout at 6.8%.  We also were able to get an interview with Jerry Shutz, their Owner/Brewer.

Next, we head to  Black Mountain NC,  a little town 16 miles east of Asheville, and a brew from Lookout Brewing, Mother Pucker Imperial Strawberry Sour Stout, 7.1%.  These guys were very generous and provided a couple of bottles for us to try in another show.

Third, we head 2 hours east of Asheville to Cornelius, NC, and the delightfully named Ass Clown Brewing.  We try their Blueberry Cab Stout Sour at 7.2%, and it turns out to be one of our favorites.  These guys have been brewing for over 6 years and the taproom is a delight!

Finally, we head back towards Illinois, stopping at Lafayette Brewing Company in Lafayette, IN.  The first brewery to receive a small brewers license back in 1993. We try their Oatis Brown, a northern English brown ale at 5.8%, and as a bonus beer we sample Black Rock, a Cascadian Dark Ale at 5.9%.

We will be back next week with Mark’s vacation report and the bottles he obtained.  Cheers!

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