Category Archives: Russian Imperial Stout

Pubcast 356 – Zoomin’ To Idaho – Part 2 – Sean Pletcher of Clairvoyant Brewing

In Part 2 of our series featuring 5 Idaho craft breweries, we travel East across town to Boise’s West side and land up at Clairvoyant Brewing, where we meet with brewmaster Sean Pletcher. Beer aficionado Mark Naski is on hand again to help The Brit find out about the feature beer, a Vanilla Russian Imperial Stout that has all the impact but is light in body. Sean tells us about the brewery, what is being drunk on tap, and gives us a whirlwind tour of the location. It’s a dog-friendly, neighborhood brewery and taproom that is making an impression on the locals, and certainly on The Brit after he samples the brew. Cheers!

Here’s a link to the video on our YouTube channel –

Play the audio podcast on our player below…or your favorite smartphone podcast app…we have a direct link to iTunes for iPhone users, and Google Play for Android users:

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Pubcast 351 / Virtual Happy Hour – Jon Lambert of Hairy Cow Brewing

This edition takes us out to Byron, IL (virtually) and a brewery situated along the Rock River. Hairy Cow Brewing has been open for just over 2 years, and partner/head brewer out there is Jon Lambert. Jon joins The Brit, Phil Clark, and his co-host, Ken McMullen from Hopvine Brewing on a Zoom call to chat about Hairy Cow, and sample some of his brews.

We find out what exactly Hairy Cows are, Jon’s background, and how his beers are brewed to reflect  the tastes of the area. The styles are classic, but he is now starting to branch out into a new barrel program, and because one of the other partners likes them, sours are on the horizon! We finish up by sampling an unpronounceable Russian Imperial Stout, that drinks very smoothly despite it high ABV. Oh, and we should also mention that the deck overlooks the Rock River, and they serve fantastic artisan pizzas!

Brews Sampled:

  • Turtle Tree, Cream Ale, 4.9%
  • Bloody ‘elles, Helles-style Lager, 5.5%
  • Slainte Mhath, Russian Imperial Stout, 11%

Our YouTube video…(available as of 4pm 9/11/2020 CST)

Play the audio podcast on our player below…or your favorite smartphone podcast app…we have a direct link to iTunes for iPhone users, and GooglePlay for Android users:

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Pubcast 350 / Virtual Happy Hour – Rabid Brewing

It seems we have found a way to keep producing content through the Zoom conferencing application, while still maintaining our inside social distancing requirements. So, through the magic of technology we present this edition of our virtual happy hour series in which we head down to the southern suburb of Homewood, and visit with the splendidly named Rabid Brewing, and three awesome folks.

Raiye, Tobias and Max form the backbone of this brewery and we chat with them about their beers and the ‘mythical’ theme to their brewery. The Brit is joined by brewer Ken McMullen (live from his Hopvine brewhouse) and we taste a few of the Rabid offerings, including a lactose IPA with the polarizing name of Dripping Teats!

Brews Sampled:

  • Mystis, Fruited Sour with Meyer Lemons and Michigan Blueberries, 4.4%
  • Hexed, Blackberry Apricot Ale, Fruited Sour, 5.8%
  • Dripping Teats, Lactose IPA, 7/1%
  • Hemogoblin, Chocolate Blood Orange Wheat, 7%
  • Manticore, Kveik Russian Imperial Stout, 11%

Sorry about the video quality on this episode, but these days we take what we can, based on the imposed social restrictions! Cheers!

Our YouTube video…

Play the audio podcast on our player below…or your favorite smartphone podcast app…we have a direct link to iTunes for iPhone users, and GooglePlay for Android users:

Apple podcasts badge   

Raiye, Tobias and Max form the backbone of this brewery and we chat with them about their beers and the ‘mythical’ theme to their brewery. The Brit is joined by brewer Ken McMullen (live from his Hopvine brewhouse) and we taste a few of the Rabid offerings, including a lactose IPA with the polarizing name of Dripping Teats!

Brews Sampled:

  • Mystis, Fruited Sour with Meyer Lemons and Michigan Blueberries, 4.4%
  • Hexed, Blackberry Apricot Ale, Fruited Sour, 5.8%
  • Dripping Teats, Lactose IPA, 7/1%
  • Hemogoblin, Chocolate Blood Orange Wheat, 7%
  • Manticore, Kveik Russian Imperial Stout, 11%

Sorry about the video quality on this episode, but these days we take what we can, based on the imposed social restrictions! Cheers!

Our YouTube video…

Play the audio podcast on our player below…or your favorite smartphone podcast app…we have a direct link to iTunes for iPhone users, and GooglePlay for Android users:

Apple podcasts badge   

Pubcast 263 – Indiana Wants Me (to drink their beer!)

Friends of the show Deb and John took a trip to Indiana and ended up in Griffith where they discovered 2 of 3 great breweries in that town. Griffith is just over an hour from the Brit and Yankee pub here in the western suburbs, so very attainable as a day trip. Our friends visit Pokro Brewing and New Oberpfalz Brewing and return with 3 samples from each and report on the ambience to be found at each. Joining the pub crew and Deb and John, are listeners Big Dave and Big Nate for a final tasting panel of real consumers and craft beer fans.

Both of the breweries featured have a European flavor to their brews, Pokro specializing in Belgian, English and other European styles, and New Oberpfalz on German-influenced beers.  We also have included an American IPA from each just to entice those who prefer that style.

By way of introduction, and because our first love is Illinois brews, we take a local brew from Noon Whistle that is a European style and make it our ‘warm-up’ brew, their Face Smack Berliner Weiss.

There’s plenty of pub chat, and the panel all have their own tastes so we think we got a pretty good representation of these breweries and the overall opinion is they are well worth visiting!

Beers sampled:

Noon Whistle, Face Smack Berliner Weiss, 4.00% ABV

Pokro Brewing
Pokro’s Grodziskie, Gratzer/Grodziskie, 4.00% ABV
Sea of Cheese, New England IPA, 6.5% ABV. 51 IBU
Abbey-licious, Belgian Dubbel, 6.5%ABV, 25 IBU

New Oberpfalz Brewing
Helles Lager, 4.8%, 17 IBU
Hopwagen, American IPA, 6.0% ABV, 56 IBU
Russian Imperial Stout with Coconut and Vanilla, 9.2%, 50 IBU

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