Category Archives: Stout

Pubcast 215 – Metal Monkey Plus One Year

Brewery, Brown Ale, Craft Beer, Doppelbock, Russian Imperial Stout, Saison, Stout

Metal Monkey Brewing opened their doors on Jan 30, 2016 down in south suburban Romeoville.  Nearly one year on, head brewer Dan Camp and the rest of the Monkeys are getting ready to hold their 1-year Anniversary party.
We were here last for a podcast at the opening and since then Dan and crew have settled in and started to produce some really solid brews.
We discuss where they’ve been and where they are going, and hit a couple more topics like Shower Beer and what’s the best container for selling draft beer.  Plus we sample some of the Monkey beers we haven’t tasted before and of course pass opinions that are only our simple, personal views.

Beers we sampled:
Burninator Doppelbock, 7.5% ABV, 22 IBU – Batch #100
Glazen Boterham Saison / Farmhouse Ale, 4.2% ABV, 24 IBU
Up And Atom American Brown Ale, 4.8% ABV, 22 IBU
Chocolate War Zone W/ Raspberries American Stout, 6.2% ABV, 60 IBU
Asmodeus Stout – Russian Imperial Stout, 12% ABV, 60 IBU

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Pubcast 211 – Stout Brews, Stout Fellas

Barrel Aged, Craft Beer, Imperial Stout, Milk Stout, Stout, Sweet Stout

As we missed a week for Thanksgiving, we are back with a bumper edition.

Heading into the dark winter days, we select 6 hearty stouts that we think are good selections for either go-to or treat beers from the dark side.  Joining Mark and Phil is Chuck Fort, assistant brewer from Church Street. As all the beers are great in their own right, we won’t be rating them, but instead we select our top 2, based solely on personal preference.  Chuck brings their Holy Cow! Milk Stout as our starter brew.

To break up the Stout session, we cleanse our palate with a short interview with Brandon Wright, head brewer at Plainfield’s Werk Force Brewing. He won a gold medal at FOBAB 2016 for his Beautifully Broken, in the Fruit Beer category, and we caught up with him to find out all about his win and the beer.

Here are the stouts we reviewed, plus the timings if you want to skip around:

2:41 Holy Cow! – Church Street Brewing, Itasca, IL – Milk Stout, 6%
13:51 Double Cream Stout – Bells Brewing, Kalamazoo, MI – Sweet Stout, 6.1%
21:40 Dark Truth – Boulevard Brewing, Kansas City, MO – Imperial Stout, 9.7%
32:34 Black Note – Bells Brewing, Kalamazoo, MI- Bourbon Barrel-aged Stout, 10.8%
51:41 Turbulence – Sketchbook Brewing – Imperial Stout, 9.7%
63:06 Ten Fidy – Oskar Blues, Longmont, CO – Imperial Stout, 10.5%
73:33 2016 Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Oatmeal Stout – Pollyanna Brewing, Lemont, CO – 10.5%

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Pubcast 204 – Rocky Mountain High!

American Pale Ale, Belgian Golden Ale, Craft Beer, Imperial Red Ale, Imperial Saison, Lambic, Sour Ale, Stout

To coincide with the 2016 GABF, we are tasting some Colorado brews that were provided to the pubcast earlier this year, and need to be tasted! Joining Phil this week is John Bitterman, Chuck and Mimi Fort, and John Karwoski. Mark is roughing it at GABF this week, so we should have a ‘on-the-floor’ report from him next time!

The brews we have selected are ones that we think appeal to the novice who visits Colorado through to the seasoned craft beer drinker.  Our panel is a cross-section of palates, so we hope they represent for the average craft beer drinker!

Brews reviewed are:
Wynkoop Brewing Co – Mile High Pale Ale, 5.5%
– Colorojo, Imperial Red Ale, 8.2%
Funkwerks, Tropic King, Imperial Saison, 8.0%
​Odell Brewing, Friek, Lambic/Sour, 6.9%
​Crooked Stave, Serenata Notturna, mixed fermentation Belgian Golden Ale, 12%
​Breckenridge Brewing, 72 Imperial Barrel-aged, Chocolate Cream Stout, 7.2%

We also get a bonus beer, a test brew from Chuck Fort, an English bitter!

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Pubcast 195 – Bittermann and Beer Camp

Brown Ale, Craft Beer, IPA, Pale Ale, Session Rye, Stout, Table Beer

This week we have a bumper edition, and we welcome John Bittermann to the Brit and Yankee studios to help us test the new Beer Camp variety pack from Sierra Nevada.  This 12-pack contains 2 each of 6 collaboration brews from 6 geographical areas of America, and features 31 breweries!
We try the beers in no particular order other than light to dark:

  1. South East Collaborators, Sweet Sunny South Table Beer
  2. NorCal Collaborators, West Latitude Session Rye with Hibiscus
  3. NE and MidAtlantic Collaborators, Pat-Rye-Ot Revolutionary Pale Ale
  4. PNW and Rockies Collaborators, Moxee-Moron Imperial Session IPA
  5. Midwest Collaborators, Family Value Imperial Brown Ale with Cocoa
  6. Southwest Collaborators, Stout of the Union Robust Stout

Listen in and see why we think these brews are good…if you are fond of hops, and see which 2 each of the lads puts as their favorites.

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