We’re very happy to welcome a powerhouse person in craft beer, Katherine Valleau, who is the co-owner/manager of Exit Strategy Brewing in Forest Park, IL. Katherine’s husband Chris is the head brewer and is continuing to brew his great beers for to-go orders, and in preparation for better times ahead! We hear from Katherine how they are working through these ‘weird’ times, and she’s sipping down on one of their all-time great DIPAs, Judgemental Dick. Spend your next happy hour with the crew and then head over to ESB and pick-up some brews!

The coronavirus has caused problems for local breweries, and for some it has prevented milestone anniversary and grand opening celebrations to be delayed. One new brewery that had their opening postponed is Brother Chimp Brewing in N Aurora. In this episode, we chat with brewer/owner Steve Newman, who seems to be making the best of this with his pick-up orders, and collaborating with a nearby restaurant for delivery. The crew here are looking forward to that opening in the future, but for now, we are at least able to pick-up his beers for a tasting!

One of the Illinois craft beer scene personalities is beer historian and glassware collector, John Bittermann. He travels the state to all the new breweries and collects memorabilia from them, specifically glassware, which will become part of a valuable historical record for this beer boom we have experienced.  Of course now, he is limited and restricted to his home, mainly because he works at  local supermarket and therefore needs to be VERY careful in who he comes into contact with. If wonder how he is, and miss his fervent enthusiasm for the industry, the crew got him on a Zoom call and found out.

Romeoville, IL: we caught Dan Camp after he had headed home from a day at the brewery, and we invited him to our virtual Happy Hour to chat on what was happening over at Metal Monkey Brewing.