June 2023 - The Brit and Yankee Craft Beer Pubcast

McHenry County in northern Illinois, is home to several great craft breweries, all of which you can check out on the McHenry Co. Craft Beverage Trail. This week we are visiting one of the two located in Woodstock IL, Kishwaukee Brewing who recently won a silver medal for their Bufflehead Brown Ale at the 2023 World Beer Cup.

Kishwaukee Brewing Co., is the pride of founders and owners, Dan and Cara Payson, and we visited with Dan and his head brewer, Mark Gres, to find out a little more about their success. Joining me for this interview was my co-host, Ken McMullen from Fox Republic Brewing, who may have assisted in starting the career of one of Kishwaukee’s future employees…more on that in the interview.

We talk with Dan and Mark about how their brewing careers started, and how they came to join forces at Kishwaukee to produce classic, award-winning beers. Dan’s approach has got them through building the brewery at the start of the pandemic, then opening after the first shutdown, only to be closed a week later with the second one. All that being in the past, they have emerged from those dark days, and are moving into a strong position as a producer of great beers in the Illinois craft beer scene. Their tap room is a wonderful space, as is the outdoor patio, and you won’t be disappointed when you make a visit!

We must offer our apologies to Mark, who apparently had a mic which had ‘technical difficulties’ and caused him to sound like he was at the other end of the brewery. We’ve done our best to improve his sound in post-production, so hopefully it won’t detract too much from the conversation!

Beers Sampled:

Bufflehead Brown Ale, American Brown Ale, 6.8% ABV
Sandhill Lager, India Pale Lager, 5.5% ABV
Tart Peach Saison, Wild Saison, 5.5% ABV
Pollinator, Doppelbock, 7.7% ABV

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We jump in the car and head south to Route 66 in Wilmington, IL., where located on an island between the Kankakee River and the Mill Race channel is Old School Brewing. Paul ‘Pauly’ Bidne is the head brewer there, and we chat with him about his brewery which can literally be described as an ‘old school’ tap room/brewery producing great beers and full of friendly people and lively chat!

Pauly was a home brewer (and ex-plumber) and now one of many who have turned to brewing professionally, and learned his craft at Flossmoor Station brewery. He talks to us about his beers, and some of other stories are the friendly rivalry with the lads at Metal Monkey Brewing, OSB’s relationship with Unpossible Mead, brewing NA beers and craft sodas, and some of the challenges of keeping up with beer production on a small system.

Pauly is one of the characters we love in the craft beer industry and we encourage you to take that trip down Rt 66 to visit OSB and try his beers, especially the California Common! Cheers!