When a friend comes to town and brings beer, then it’s time to get a panel together and have a bottle share. Joining The Brit down in thee pub this week is ex-co-host and beer consultant, Mark Naski. Now living in Boise ID., it’s amazing how many great breweries are springing up there, many of which are medal winners from GABF and WBC. Bringing their offerings this show are current co-hosts, Ken McMullen from Hopvine Brewing and Chuck Fort from Church Street. And along for the ride, but also bringing brews are consumer ‘crafties’ and friends of the show, Tom Ryan and John Karwoski.

It’s quite a line-up of brews we are tasting, reviewing, and passing our arbitrary opinions upon, once again showing that everybody’s palate is different but that there is a world of great flavor and styles out there. As usual there is plenty of pub chat, including a discussion as  to what absinthe is all about.

As this is an extended edition, feel free to play the  show at fast speed and then you can listen to all our chipmunk voices. The timings of the tastings are listed below…

Brews Sampled:

00:00- 11:02     Calibration beer:   Emancipation Brewing, Fairbury IL., Farm Fresh Pale Ale, 6.5% ABV

• 11:02 – 22:03   Geaux Brewing, Auburn WA, Poydras, Robust Porter, 6.5% ABV
• 22:03 – 34:28   Elmhurst Brewing Co., Elmhurst IL, Professor Plum in the Brewhouse with the Mashpaddle, Belgian Style Ale aged in Rye Barrels with Plum Puree Added, 11% ABV
• 34:28 – 44:59   Transient Ales, Bridgman MI, 2017 Vacillate, Oak Fermented Saison Aged in Letherbee Absinthe Barrels, 6.5% ABV
• 44:59 – 54:38   Ike & Oak, Woodridge IL, Class V, Bourbon Barrel Aged Double Stout, 8% ABV
• 54:38 – 67:15   Three Floyds, Munster IN, Argues for Sport Grand Cru, wild ale brewed with Brettanomyces, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus

67:15 – end   De-calibration beer:    Church Street Brewing, Itasca IL,Sister Abigail, Belgian Dubbel, 6.7% ABV

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Continuing our theme of farm-to-beer breweries, we head about 90 minutes south on I55 and Rt 47 to Emancipation Brewing situated just north of Fairbury and Forrest, literally on a farm and in an old dairy shed. Hopvine’s brewer, Ken McMullen is The Brit’s co-host of this visit with a young brewer who seems to know how to brew great beers, and uses local ingredients, some grown onsite.

Lincoln Slagel is our guest this week, and early one morning we sat down with him to chat about why he started a brewery, why he sited it in rural Illinois, and how he is trying to make sure the brewery becomes an important part of the community as well as appealing to craft beer aficionado looking for a nice drive in the country.

We talk how he likes to showcase local hops, for example Illinois-grown Comet hops, and Ken talks about hazy IPAs after tasting what Lincoln loosely calls his nod to hazy. We then hear about his craft beer epiphany, and this led to home brewing. Another topic up for discussion is how the water profile differs in this area and how it affects the beer flavor. But overall, there is a sense of community in the ‘friendly confines’ of the taproom that Lincoln enjoys, and certainly his patrons do as well…very refreshing!

The Brit’s microphone gave out, but luckily Lincoln is who we wanted to hear, so please bear with us!

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Jay Rosicky has been around the craft beer industry in several capacities but is now joining the ranks of invested craft people with his involvement in Milk Money Brewing, which will open early next year in La Grange. Jay takes regular trips to Florida and states down that east coast, and brings back many brews for ‘personal consumption ‘. We are the benefactors of this, as Jay now provides a sample 6-pack of brews that he thinks we should try and comment upon.

Joining Jay, and another first-time to the pub studios, is Facebook group founder, and well-known Chicago beer nerd, Don Hardy. Don is the responsible for the FB group, Chicago-area Micro-breweries (CAMB), which is almost 7000 members strong. And rounding out the panel is friend of the show and beer nerd, Tom Ryan.

Join us for a session of beer tasting and general pub chat as we sample Jay’s beers and we hit a couple of bonus beers courtesy of Don Hardy and Whiskey Hill. This makes it a long podcast, so feel free to skip out for another brew whenever you need to! Cheers!

Jay’s 6-Pack:
Coppertail Brewing, Tampa FL., Oktoberfest, Marzen Lager, 5.8% ABV
Yuengling, Pottsville PA., Oktoberfest, 5.4% ABV
Motor Works Brewing, Bradenton FL., Oktoberfest 2019, 5.6% ABV
Gate City Brewing, Roswell GA., Gourd Vibrations, Chocolate Pumpkin Porter, 7.8% ABV
New Glarus, Staghorn Octoberfest, Bavarian Octoberfest, 6.3% ABV
Pinellas Ale Works, 1888, Russian Imperial Stout, 11.5% ABV

Bonus Beers:

Whiskey Hill Brewing, BLNDR (Pink Lemonade), smoothie style Berliner Weisse, 5.3% ABV
Ike & Oak, Skellington’s Gourd, Farmhouse Ale-Pumpkin Saison, 5.8% ABV
Hopvine Brewing, Aurora IL., Floyd Morningside, Sour Old Ale, 11% ABV

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On this episode, the podcast crew take a trip downstate to the Urbana side of the Champaign-Urbana area, and sit down with two guys who really know their brewing, as we visit Riggs Beer Company.
Joining The Brit, Phil Clark, are Yankee co-host Ken McMullen from Hopvine Brewing, and riding in the back seat, Illinois beer historian, glass collector, and beer nerd, John Bittermann.

It was Tuesday, and the taproom was closed today, so we had the place to ourselves, so the mics were setup, samples of brews were provided, and we talked with them about their life histories, their journeys into brewing, and the beer styles they are producing. This edition take the farm-to-brewery-to-glass story to another level as we learn about how these guys are growing the corn and wheat needed for a lot of their beers, while at the same time being 90% self-sufficient with their solar panels.

Matt and Darin’s passion showed through in every aspect of their professional and personal lives and careers. As we say in the UK, these guys are “the bees knees!”, or as the term is today, ‘Respect!”

Oh, and did we mention that their beers are some of the freshest, to-style, traditional brews that we’ve tasted in a while, and their glass style lends itself to enjoying the flavors and color of the beer! So, once again, they show that there are great breweries outside of the greater Chicago area that are definitely worth a drive! Cheers to Darin and Matt!

Brews Sampled:

• Dunkelweizen, 5.2%
• Oktoberfest, 6.0%
• American Lager, 5.0%
• Doppelbock, 8.0%
• English Barleywine, 8.9%

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