We’ve gathered 5 beers that have a connection to Valentine’s Day, although we’ve taken artistic license and stretched that a tad! Joining The Brit, Phil Clark, in the Brit & Yankee Pub studio is co-host Chuck Fort from Church Street Brewing, craft-beer consumer and friend of the show, Tom Ryan, and out guest of honor is Ed Malnar, VP of Operations at Pollyanna Brewing in Lemont IL.

We hear about the possibly dark origins of Valentine’s Day and connect this to each of the selected beers. We hear from the panel about their perfect Valentine celebrations, and they also provide suggestions for pairing up a brew with a special V-Day dinner. All this and the usual pub banter on many topics!

As a bonus, we also hear from a couple of other brewers about their thoughts on Valentine’s day…Metal Monkey‘s Dan Camp phones in and tells that Tiramasu and Lady Middlefinger might figure in his dinner, and Oliver Bulley from Dry City has a special evening planned for his Valentine! Plus a guest appearance from The Yankee, Lingo, with his ideas for a brew for his wife!

The brews we selected and reviewed are:

• Pollyanna Brewing, Lemont IL, Lechery, Oatmeal Blonde Ale with Cherries and Cocoa Nibs, ABV 5.8%
• 18th Street Brewing, Gary, IN, Sex and Candy, American IPA, ABV 7.5%
•  Oddside Ales, Grand Haven MI, Touch of Red, mixed fermentation sour red ale, ABV 7%
• Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery, Barrie ON, Aurora Heart, Chocolate Raspberry Stout, 7.1% ABV
•  Half Acre, Big Hugs, Imperial Coffee Stout, 10% ABV, with the special peel back label-on-label

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It’s a momentous occasion in this episode where we have reached our 300th podcast, and we have a momentous panel and some momentous beers to review. To help us celebrate, Ken McMullen from Hopvine invited us up to the brewery, and the host of cool dudes joining us are Steve “robo-judge” Kamp from Evil Horse (knackered after a hard days brewing), Chuck Fort and TJ Bachorz from Church Street, Travis Beard from Ugly Trucking who is later joined by his wife Carol-Anne, and on the consumer side, Tom Ryan, John Karwoski, The Yankee, and of course me, The Brit Phil Clark.

Every year in the winter we get together a collection of barleywines, those higher alcohol winter warmers, and we fight off the cold weather with some samples. This year we have a six-pack of Illinois barleywines, but we start off the session with one from Ommegang, just as a teaser to the final series of Game of Thrones coming in April 2019.

Once we get through the first brew and we start to loosen up a little, the conversation flies and the fun ensues! It’s a ‘raw’ recording but it’s a great evening with brewers and friends…so, here’s to the next 300 shows. CHEERS!

Brews Reviewed:

• Ommegang Brewery, Royal Reserve Collection, Hand of the Queen, Barleywine Ale, 11% ABV
• The Forge, De Kalb, Long Haul Collection, Heavy Hitter, American Barleywine, 10.2% ABV
• Revolution Brewing, Straight Jacket, unknown year,  barrel-aged Barleywine, 13.1% ABV
• Brickstone Brewing, 2017 After World, barrel-aged British barleywine, 14.2% ABV
• Solemn Oath, Naperville, Old Order Cellar Club #9,
• Evil Horse Brewing, Crete, Grampa Z’ Big A$$ English Barleywine, 11% ABV

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Longmont CO. is known as the origins for 2 of the larger craft brewers with Oskar Blues and Left Hand, but fast becoming a brewery that produces classic lager styles and is beginning to rival them is Wibby Brewing. The Brit received 4 bottles of a special Russian Imperial Lager, called 9-toed Nihilist, and guest hosts Chuck Fort from Church Street, and Ken McMullen from Hopvine were invited down to the Pub studios to taste them. We all wanted to know more about Wibby and these specific beers, so we arranged to call Founder/Owner and Head Brewer, Ryan Wibby to chat with him about his brews and brewery.

This episode was recorded over a phone line that didn’t exactly have the clarity we needed, but overall it worked out and this is a great insight into a brewery that should be on your list to visit next time you hit Colorado. Thanks to Ryan for his time, and for brewing one of the Landlord’s 2019 list of memorable beers!

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This week, on a snowy night in Bloomingdale IL, The Brit finally sat down with Katie and Kris Wolf to chat about the journey they undertook to open one of the best new brewpubs in the Chicago suburbs. We say ‘finally’ as our first attempt had the couple head down to the Brit and Yankee pub studio back in October of last year, but alas ‘technical difficulties’ prevented the recording from ever being released! And here’s some pix from that session…

Since then, it has been a whirlwind of activity for both of them as they prepared for a late 2018 opening.

Now things have settled down, they said come on down and let’s chat. We set up the mics in the brewpub ‘snug’, and talked about the work that was needed to rehab a 150 year old house, and turn it into a great place to brew beer, and to serve that beer in a friendly, themed setting with plenty of ambiance.

We talked to Kris about his background and beers, and of course we sampled some of his current brews on tap. It’s a great insight into a great place to come and hang out, so if you haven’t been there yet, you need to stop by!

Brews Sampled:

• Crimson Fog, NEIPA with boysenberry, 7.2% ABV
• Muddy Paws, Black IPA, 6.1% ABV
• Mighty Fang with Raspberry, Scotch Ale, 7.1% ABV
• Howliday Ale, Northern English Brown Ale with vanilla, hazelnut and spices, 5.5% ABV
•  Dance With The Devil, Stout with ancho chiles and cocoa nibs, 6% ABV

Play the show from our player or the Podbean player below, iTunes, or your favorite podcast app…then leave us a 5-star review for a shout out on the next show!