Category Archives: Craft Beer

Pubcast 240 – Northwest to Alaska

Craft Beer

Sometimes you need some friends to bring you back beers you would never get to try otherwise. That’s what this episode is about as Mark Naski returns from the wilds of Idaho, and brings with him a six-pack of goodies from the Northwest and Alaska.

He brings 3 brews from Redmond, WA, and 3 from Alaskan breweries, and Chuck Fort, John Karwoski and the Brit get together to sample them all.  We find that we get one bad beer due to the travel logistics, 4 great beers, and one superb brew.

Here’s the rundown of beers we sampled:

Postdoc Brewing, Redmond WA, PreReq Pale Ale, 5.5%, 40 IBUs
Black Raven Brewing, Redmond WA, Second Sight Strong Scotch Ale, 6.9%, 34 IBUs
Mac & Jack, Redmond WA, Maxx Stout, 5.5% (apologies to M&J – this did not travel well, so we did not rate and marked it as so in our review!)
Arkose Brewery, Palmer AK, Bitter Earth ESB, 5%, 26 IBUs
Bearpaw River Brewing, Wasilla AK, Frontiersman IPA, 7.0%, 60 IBUs
Midnight Sun Brewing, Anchorage AK, Monk’s Mistress Special Dark Ale, 11.5%, 13 IBUs

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Pubcast 239 – Forecast is Hazy Today

Craft Beer, IPA

There’s a current trend to drinking hazy, fruity, IPAs which some call East Coast IPA and others New England IPAs. Far removed from the traditional British IPA, and even from an American IPA, these styles seem to be the darlings of the craft beer drinking demographic and are very popular during these summer months in particular. Chuck and Phil are joined by John Karwoski of John’s Tavern to sample just a couple of these and try to figure out why this style has boomed over the past couple of years.

We received a donation of two cans of Sketchbook IPA which prompted this show, and John provided draft samples from his tap selection of two more. One of the Sketchbook cans was voted 19th Best IPA by Draft magazine this year, so we were intrigued to find out why. Did we agree?  Listen in and find out!

The beers discussed are:
Maplewood Brewing and Distillery, Chicago IL, Grapefruit Son of Juice, 6.3%
WarPigs (collaboration of Three Floyds and Mikkeller), Denmark, Foggy Geezer, 6.8%
Sketchbook Brewing, Evanston IL, Orange Door, 7.2% – NOTE:  this is not a hazy IPA, but we used it as a contrast and compare to Insufficient Clearance.  Free beer MUST be drunk!
Insufficient Clearance, 5.0%

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Pubcast 238 – Buffalo Creek Brewing

Brewery, Craft Beer

There has been a plethora of breweries open in the suburbs over the last month or so, and one of these has joined the clutch up in the ‘far’ north, namely Buffalo Creek Brewing located in Long Grove, IL.

Owner / Brewer Mike Marr took the Brit out to his beer garden, plied him with brews, and we chatted about how he fired up this  brewery in a very short time-frame, and is now offering a selection of German / Belgium beers that are attracting craft beer from across the Chicagoland area.

It’s a great location, and had a nice bier garten feel, both inside and out. If you feel like heading North for an afternoon, this is a destination brewery, but the beer also seem very good, so you shouldn’t be disappointed.

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Pubcast 236 – More Brewing Company

Barrel Aged, Brewery, Craft Beer, Scottish-Style Ale

One of the most anticipated breweries to open in the suburbs is More Brewing Co. located in Villa Park, Il.  Head Brewer Shaun Berns won a GABF Gold Medal for his chocolate stout while at Ram Brewing, and now he brings his talents to an independent brewery that offers great beers and great food.
This week, the Brit sits down with Shaun after a hard day’s brewing, and we sip a couple of brews and chat about the journey to open the new location, brewing his first beers while construction was going on, and he has an exclusive announcement about their first bottle series.

Shaun chats on other topics such as beer takeovers, pricing product, and their new canning line which is being installed as we spoke. Head over to More and find out for yourself why this brewery holds much promise for the craft beer drinker!

We also get Shaun’s opinion for an Instant Brew Review, which turned out to be a little longer that the word ‘instant’ suggests, as Sonny, one of the owners joins us to get in on the tasting.  Our brew for this is Sierra Nevada’s Barrel-Aged series, Trip in the Woods, called Islay Fog, a salted caramel scotch-style ale.

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