Category Archives: Sour Ale

Pubcast 220 – 3 Girls from Missouri

Barrel Aged, Craft Beer, Imperial Stout, Sour Ale, Wild Ale

This episode welcomes the original Cellarmaster and the ‘Yankee’ in Brit and Yankee, Lingo, back to the pub, and he’s lucky to be here when we have some special brews to taste and compare.  2nd Shift is a brewery out of St. Louis, MO., who our good friend Kevin from The Wine & Cheese Place in Ballwin, MO. introduced us to. We pop the tops of these 3 girls, and get Lingo acquainted with a new style.

Steve Crider is the brewmaster there, and produced a wonderful barrel-aged saison with brett, called Katy which is delicate brew that tastes like a wine.  He has also used the same recipe but with 2 bretts, and christened the result Grace.  Our final menage a trois of BA saisons is Annabelle, using a ‘funky’ brett and aging 8 months.

We compare these three ladies of Missouri and arbitrarily rate them to our preference.  No matter, they are all outstanding examples of this style, and we long for them to wend their way over the border into Illinois.  As you see from the pictures below, the cork in Grace was tough to remove!

So that Lingo ends up with a heavier style as he likes, we’ve managed to obtain a bottle of the original Abraxas from Perennial Artisan Ales, which none of us has actually had the pleasure of trying.  We break open the bottle and find out that all they say is true about this great Imperial Stout that regularly makes the top Stout lists that frequent the internet.

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Pubcast 204 – Rocky Mountain High!

American Pale Ale, Belgian Golden Ale, Craft Beer, Imperial Red Ale, Imperial Saison, Lambic, Sour Ale, Stout

To coincide with the 2016 GABF, we are tasting some Colorado brews that were provided to the pubcast earlier this year, and need to be tasted! Joining Phil this week is John Bitterman, Chuck and Mimi Fort, and John Karwoski. Mark is roughing it at GABF this week, so we should have a ‘on-the-floor’ report from him next time!

The brews we have selected are ones that we think appeal to the novice who visits Colorado through to the seasoned craft beer drinker.  Our panel is a cross-section of palates, so we hope they represent for the average craft beer drinker!

Brews reviewed are:
Wynkoop Brewing Co – Mile High Pale Ale, 5.5%
– Colorojo, Imperial Red Ale, 8.2%
Funkwerks, Tropic King, Imperial Saison, 8.0%
​Odell Brewing, Friek, Lambic/Sour, 6.9%
​Crooked Stave, Serenata Notturna, mixed fermentation Belgian Golden Ale, 12%
​Breckenridge Brewing, 72 Imperial Barrel-aged, Chocolate Cream Stout, 7.2%

We also get a bonus beer, a test brew from Chuck Fort, an English bitter!

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Pubcast 196 – Bittermann and Fat Tire Friends

Brewery, Craft Beer, Pale Ale, Sour Ale

This show was recorded in a mammoth tasting session with Illinois beer historian John Bittermann, who stopped by the Brit and Yankee Pub to join Mark and Phil for a little variety.  This follows on from last weeks Beer Camp collaborations and this week visits New Belgium Brewing for their ‘Collabeeration’ pack called Fat Tire and Friends.
This time it celebrates the 25th anniversary of New Belgium, and they use only one brewery to produce a variation on their flagship Fat Tire Amber Ale recipe.

The brews we try are:

Allagash Fat Funk Ale
Avery Fat Wild Ale
Hopworks Fat Sour Apple Ale
Firestone Walker Fat Hoppy Ale
Rhinegeist Fat Pale Ale

Do we prefer this variety pack to last week, and which are the lads favorites?
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Pubcast 189 – Beer and a Curry 2: Leather Chair Beers

Barrel Aged, Craft Beer, Sour Ale

Phil revisits with Sean Curry from Sketchbook Brewing, and this time Sean brings out some special brews from his extensive cellar.  All of these brews can be considered ‘Leather Chair’ beers, in other words those that require you to sit down, relax, and sip them at the end of a great evening.  Together with Tom Ryan, the three forego the leather chairs and relax on wooden chairs up at Sketchbook’s new tap room in Evanston.

First up is Asheville, NC’s Wicked Weed Chocolate Covered Black Angel, the light-weight in the collection. It’s a sour dark ale with cherries and chocolate and comes in at 7.2%.
Second LC&C brew is a 2013 Imperial Oatmeal Stout called Dark Star Bourbon Barrel Aged, from Fremont Brewing Co., Seattle, WA.
And the last comes from The Bruery, and is an Imperial Stout Aged in Bourbon Barrels with Hazelnut called Grey Monday.  This beer gets solid 100 ratings in Beer Advocate and Rate Beer, and comes in at a whopping 18.6%.

This edition also features a couple of Instant Brew Reviews, featuring Tinley Park’s Hailstorm Brewing Prairie Madness IPA, and 4 Hands Alter Ego, Black IPA.

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