Monthly Archives: November 2018

Pubcast 293 – Real Ales and Engines

The week after FOBAB ended, and everyone was reeling from those high ABV barrel-aged beers, an event was held at Iron & Glass Tap Room and Bottle Shop in Romeoville, that provided beers at the other end of the spectrum. Travis Beard from Ugly Trucking teamed up with Ken McMullen and Kevin Herbst to invite 6 local breweries to provide a pin of their take on cask-conditioned real ale. Three hand pulls were put into service, two of which were donated to the cause by the Brit and Yankee podcast. The other three pins were simple gravity taps.

The breweries who participated were Hopvine, Oswego, Metal Monkey, Pollyanna, Miskatonic, and Werk Force. On hand to talk about their beers were Ken McMullen, Chris Heinen, Dan Camp and Jason Janes, Ed Malnar, TJ Hagen, and Brandon Wright from the above breweries respectively. And Brandon has a surprise about his scotch ale offering, where’s he’s thrown everyone a curve ball!

This podcast features interviews with them all, and we hear what they brought and why, and their thoughts on this new-to-the-US approach to craft beer. Also, some news on new beers to come at Roselare and Werk Force!

Brews On Tap:
Hopvine, Aurora IL, Strong Bitter – Extra Special, 6.0% ABV
Werk Force, Plainfield IL, Welcome to I-80 – Scottish Ale, 6.3% ABV
Metal Monkey, Romeoville IL, Fantasy Bowling League – Kolsch, 4.6% ABV
Oswego Brewing, Oswego IL, Frozen Fields – English Porter, 5.8% ABV
Pollyanna, Lemont IL, Cranberry Orange Allure – Berliner Weisse, 4.6% ABV
Miskatonic, Darien IL, Shield Maiden (Cask) – APA, 5.5% ABV

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


Pubcast 292 – Forge Brewhouse

Our Thanksgiving show takes The Brit out west of Chicago to the home of NIU, De Kalb. It’s there that the podcast sits down with John and Christen Sanderson who are the working crew behind Forge Brewhouse. Originally started in Sycamore, IL., just outside of town, they moved in to downtown Sycamore and opened a second location in downtown De Kalb.

John Karwoski joins The Brit on this trip and we find out what John is doing to make great beer, why the two locations, and hear about a Black Friday release that would make it worth heading out there for brew or two. We also sample some of their brews, and then head back via Sycamore for one of their wood-fired pizzas at the ‘restaurant’ brewhouse location.

Brews sampled:
Fallen Apple – Apple Ale w/ Jonamac Cider / 6.2% ABV
Teleporter – Chocolate Hazelnut Porter 6.2% ABV
Diamond Dust – Imperial Black IPA 7.9% ABV
Brutal Bubble- Brut IPA / 6.9% ABV

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


Pubcast 291 – Oh Porter, Where Art Thou?

We gather a panel of experts to review the other fall favorite, porters. Joining The Brit is Ken McMullen, head brewer at Hopvine, Chuck Fort brewer at Church Street, craft beer enthusiast Kevin Herbst, and national beer judge and font of beer knowledge, Mark Naski.

We find out about porters and their history, how to tell a porter from a stout, how the head helps determine the difference, and many other fun facts. Ken tells us how to add coffee to a brew, and why he likes to do it.  And we have an enormous amount of porters to get through, with one ringer that you might overlook on the shelf, and an extra from Chuck’s own brewery, which has a story behind it.  Then there’s the Wolfden Brewing beer that just didn’t get recorded…are they haunted?  It’s an extended show, but after this you’ll want to find a good porter for yourself!

Brews sampled:
Browar Zamkowy Cieszyn, Cieszyn, Poland, 1881, Baltic Porter, 9.5% ABV
Founders, Grand Rapids MI., Robust Porter, 6.5% ABV
Sockeye Brewing, Boise ID., Power House Porter, 6.0% ABV
Spiteful Brewing, Chicago IL., God Damn Pigeon Porter, 8.2% ABV
Crooked Fence Brewing, Boise ID., 3 Picket Porter, English Porter, 5.0% ABV
Miskatonic Brewing, Darien IL., Antsy Prole, Coffee Porter, 6.5% ABV
Barbarian Brewing, Boise ID., Persephone Porter, 5.5% ABV
Wolfden Brewing, Bloomingdale IL., Peanut Butter Nuzzle, baltic porter, 6.5% ABV
Church Street Brewing, Itasca IL., Cronenbier, BA imperial vanilla porter, 10.1% ABV

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


Pubcast 290 – The Stout Show

Now the weather has turned a little cooler, it’s time to take our annual look at Stouts, which somehow seem to be more prevalent during the fall and winter months. Joining us on our dark and malty tasting trip are Church Street head brewer TJ Bachorz, with Church Street brewer Chuck Fort, and friend of the show and beer nerd, Tom Ryan.

This weeks episode was recorded back in the Brit and Yankee pub a couple of weeks ago when BJCP judge and brewing font of knowledge, Mark Naski, was in town, and of course he brought plenty of samples collected on his way from Boise ID., where he now resides.

Although we are focusing on Stouts, Mark starts off our show with an award-winning Altbier from Wyoming, and then we go dark and heavy.  Chuck talks about first time impressions of GABF, the panel tries to define pastry stouts, and what is a virgin barrel called – is it just a barrel? We also devise a new beer measurement scale to describe smoothness, the Chuck Scale – watch out for beers with 5 Chucks of smoothness! And our final beer has the pressure built up, and could be a gusher…find out if it was!

Stay tuned for our bonus beer review of Pepita from Scratch Brewing, and hear TJ’s experience of visiting the brewery in Ava, IL.

Brews sampled:
Altbier, Altitude Chophouse and Brewing, Laramie WY, Altbier, 5.5% ABV
Avery Brewing, Boulder CO., Vanilla Bean Stout, barrel-aged stout, 10.8% ABV
Buffalo Creek Brewing, Long Grove IL., Xerxes, chocolate bacon stout, 5.8% ABV
Crooked Fence Brewing, Sins of Our Father, barrel-aged Imperial Stout, 9.5% ABV
New Oberpfalz, Russian Imperial Stout with Coconut and Vanilla, 9.2% ABV
Sketchbook Brewing, Baby, There’s Cold Brew Inside, Milk Stout with cold-brewed coffee

Bonus BeerScratch Brewing, Pepita, Ale brewed with pumpkin seeds, 4.6% ABV

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