Mike Pallen opened the doors on the tasting room for his new Elk Grove Village brewery back in March, and the rarest thing - besides some of his beers - is finding an open seat at the bar. We sat down with Mike at the new location to dive deep into what makes Mikerphone Brewing something like a phenomenon. And you’ll find out why opening a tasting room was the best thing Mikerphone has ever done. Over many bottles, we discuss the New England styles that have helped make a name for the brand, how...
Jul 05, 2017•1 hr 57 min
Whether it’s for a barbecue or a beach, choosing the right refreshing beer for your summer outing is more daunting than ever with so many choices. So, for your benefit, we drink eight Chicago-area beers that are built to pulled from ice and crushed. (For safety purposes, we must advise against you literally crushing beers, unless you own a CraigBot.) We also spend a lot of time with Summer Craig, get ball-punched by Peanut Tillman, conceptualize some mayo beers, bring down the PunGate, push for ...
Jun 28, 2017•1 hr 24 min
Thanks to listener Mike Bobal, we are able to drop another pin in our map as we tackle the Garden State. We review five beers from five different New Jersey breweries while trying not to offend every single person in that state. Also on the agenda, we try to refresh our tired review language, experience extreme visibility, meet Professor Nosebody, and talk about cat food with cheese in it. There’s a trivia game comparing one of Jersey’s favorite sons to a lunatic cult leader, but we also talk a ...
Jun 21, 2017•1 hr 17 min
Starting back in 2005, Jackie O’s has grown from a brewpub to include a production brewery, bakeshop, and farm. Recently, Craig went down to Athens, Ohio and recorded about 20 minutes with the head brewer of the production brewery, Seth Morton, before bringing back a stash of beer for us to review. We try six of their excellent beers, three of which are barrel-aged, and we get completely SlamJammed. There’s also some kettle sour crankery, Dope Ass Doilies, piney beers, and a barleywine intervent...
Jun 14, 2017•1 hr 32 min
Over the course of a decade, DESTIHL Brewery has been extending their reach from their home in Central Illinois to sending their cans and bottles to nineteen different states. On this show, we sample an array of what they do: common styles, canned sours, and award-winning stouts. Craig sets us on a path of maximum distraction from the start, but we still manage to spin out some beer reviews before getting just surprisingly snockered. There’s also talk of Summer Craig’s return, banana perfection,...
Jun 07, 2017•1 hr 11 min
We add another pin on our map with a Pennsylvania show that rings our damn Liberty bells so hard that rankings have rarely been drunker. We have five beers to review from Craig’s travels, and a brief interview with East End Brewing’s Brendan Benson. The vibes are good, as we goof on podcast names, Nic Cage, and the Friends timeline. Also, Craig does poorly in two PA-centric trivia games, and Ryan reveals his greatest invention idea. (For the dedicated listeners, play a game of “find all the cont...
May 31, 2017•1 hr 26 min
We’re not quite ready to let another Chicago Craft Beer Week go, so we grabbed five new-ish canned beers from Chicago breweries to review. This show also serves as our Beer Under Glass festival recap - at least, what we can remember about it. Five highly-drinkable beers and two slightly hungover hosts - what else can we say? Beers Reviewed Hopewell Brewing - First Lager Around the Bend Beer Co. - Vera (Pistachio cream ale) Hop Butcher for the World - Grid (APA) Finch Beer Co. - Plumage (IPA) Whi...
May 24, 2017•1 hr 15 min
Bring your raincoat and galoshes as there’s bound to be some moisture as we sip six DrippyIPAs© on this episode. We’re simply sodden with delicious hoppy ales, but one beer is the biggest shocker we’ve had in a long time. We also revisit our odd time at the Chicago Beer Classic on Soldier Field, long for a visit to St. Louis, relive Craig’s car accident, pray to Pope Meltivus IV, get horses to talk, and discuss all the 90s commercials that matter. (Sorry to Matt Pinfield on this one.) Beers Revi...
May 17, 2017•1 hr 21 min
Sweet creamy delights fill our mouths on this engagement as we savor five adjunct-heavy milk stouts, and most are true to their intentions. It’s a roguish gallery of dessert flavors featuring coconut, chocolate, peanut butter, strawberry, cacao nibs, vanilla, cinnamon, peppers, and orange zest. We announce our big buyout, Craig’s bad creamer decision, proper jelly application, ice cream strategies, and a disturbingly erotic beer label. Bite the Bubble Tape. (BT2) Beers Consumed The Brew Kettle -...
May 10, 2017•1 hr 11 min
For many, wheat beers are summer. So we get tired of waiting for the weather to turn and initiate summer on this episode with five wheat beers from five Midwestern states. Which summer wheat should be on your grocery list? Hear our arbitrary opinions! We find renewed love with some of these wheats, and at least one surprising disappointment along the way. HAKAS! Beers Reviewed Bell’s Brewery - Oberon New Glarus Brewing - Dancing Man Wheat Boulevard Brewing - 80 Acre Hoppy Wheat 3 Floyds Brewing ...
May 03, 2017•1 hr 15 min
Hot and ready at your ear doors, this episode is all about the Pizza Boy - Brewing, that is. Craig delivers another tasty lineup with five beers from his visit to this Enola, PA brewery. Of course this brewery awakens our appetites and we talk a bit about pizza and breakfast, with a serious diversion into ska. Also, find out Craig’s signature beer-transforming review trick before we get sneak-up drunk on this one. Put it on the pizza! Beer Slices Citra Pils Moonstomp (Berliner weisse) Sunny Side...
Apr 26, 2017•1 hr 19 min
Continuing our intermittent liquid tour of the nation, the Buckeye State is the focus of this one with five beers from five Ohio breweries. Craig regales us with tales of his recent travels through Ohio, and he nailed the lineup here with five damn tasty brews. We also share a chat Craig had with Black Cloister Brewing founder (and Lutheran pastor) Tom Schaeffer to learn more about the divine inspirations that led to the opening of his rising Toledo brewery. Also, there’s an odd dual game of tri...
Apr 19, 2017•1 hr 30 min
Hailing from Toronto, Canada, Left Field Brewery makes an array of beers you can suck down alongside nine innings of baseball. The beers lead off strong and hardly let up, as we’re all too happy to bat around some bad baseball metaphors as we sample. The talk is a bit White Sox-centric at times, with Craig’s review of the impressive new Craft Kave ( ugh ) at Guaranteed Rate Field ( UGH ). But there’s also talk of racist Spencer’s, Bud’s new ad slogan, Ryan’s glory days, and a shout out to the Di...
Apr 12, 2017•1 hr 10 min
Chicagoans have long been lucky jerks to be able to call Half Acre their own, and now with the mysterious new Heavy Gem project between Half Acre and Tired Hands, it just got even better. We sample some newer Half Acre offerings before trying to get to the bottom of the mystifying Heavy Gem and their obfuscating, trippy website. We also talk about the awfulness that is Hawk Harrelson, a literal Craig situation, and our upcoming Saisonathon event at Pub Royale on May 22nd. (Saisonathongs not incl...
Apr 05, 2017•1 hr 7 min
The show is on the road for this one as we dropped into four Chicago breweries that are all under a year old to chat with brewers and procure some beers to review. Our first stop is at Pilsen’s yet-to-open Lo Rez Brewing to talk with Dave and Kevin about how their tech background led them to opening a non-mainstream brewery focused on malt-forward and Belgian-style brews. Our second stop is at On Tour Brewing on the Near West side to take in their gorgeous taproom and chat with the two Marks abo...
Mar 31, 2017•1 hr 51 min
As a peace offering while we ready some hot new content for this week, here’s a compilation of our favorite Low ABV episodes that were previously only available to our Patreon Patrons. We review five beers in total over four segments, and only one is included because you like to hear us suffer. As is the case with all Low ABVs, we spend a significant time gleefully off topic whilst scrapping together passable beer reviews. Hear tales and tangents about my boy Peter Gabriel, Sunny D, bomber fatig...
Mar 29, 2017•1 hr 22 min
The general beer aging debate rages on, but barleywines have long been a staple for cellar keepers with the promise of better beer always further ahead. For this episode, we take on a murder of aged barleywines, chiefly American in style, often barrel-aged, and mostly just downright unpleasant. Perhaps we were influenced by our Bracket Fever, but this show brings a lot of lousy old hops and sickly sweet malts, one completely flat beer, and an overflowing Dumpy the Dump Bucket. We do sample some ...
Mar 22, 2017•1 hr 24 min
Get ready to journey through time with a nearly 200 year-old Belgian brewery on an episode that took us two weeks to record! Rodenbach makes some of the best sour beer in the world that is often overlooked in favor of those U.S. acid bombs that garner high trade value. We try to figure out why the hell that is, to little avail. But we sample five absolutely perfect beers here, and they give us all the mouthfeels. We also talk about when it’s right to start macerating, breaking down beer borders,...
Mar 15, 2017•1 hr 2 min
It’s all about those juicy hops on this episode, as we review five beers from larger breweries looking to capitalize on the current juice obsession in hoppy beers. It’s a perilous summit to the top, but we arbitrarily agree on which beer should be on your grocery list. We go over the many other large breweries making similar beers, talk a lot about mixed 12-packs and Costco, and show off our sick snowboard tricks. Also, Craig is a mothball-eating garbage boy who wants a musket. Just to summarize...
Mar 08, 2017•1 hr 12 min
Revolution has done something downright heroic for hoppy beer fans by assembling a mixed 12-pack of their Hero beers that will see variations as a year-round release. We crack into a fantastic foursome along with one rogue Hero and rank them all. We speculate on some hero backstories, imagine the Mt. Rushmore of Chicago beer, and spin the bottle with Randy Mosher. There’s also Craig’s comic book game, nostalgia for Buy the Weigh, and a hot take on Batman Returns. My piney sense is tingling. Hero...
Mar 01, 2017•1 hr 14 min
We pop five beers from New Hampshire’s Deciduous Brewing, and it gets a little Gushyⓒ. But the beers are impressive all around, and we finally learn what a “pLambic” is. The tangents are frequent and our talking points include wrestling and the SLAMbic, bizarre aroma descriptors, fruit soup, the Tannic Suggestion, a blood orange crime, Lap Gushy, and Craig’s take on the RenFair. Oh no, the growler boys are back in town. Thanks to David Leshinski for providing beers on this one! Beer Reviewed Aur...
Feb 22, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Made to cellar and improve with age, this episode was recorded back in 2014, and we release it now to coincide with Odell’s entrance into the Chicago market. The younger version of us tastes through seven (!) different beers from the Fort Collins brewery, and we are pleasantly surprised throughout. There’s also some “interviews”, history on the brewery, very old sours, Craig sniffing plastic, Four Loko, and some good old boat eating. Honestly it just feels good to live back in 2014 again for jus...
Feb 15, 2017•1 hr 6 min
Eight years of Bourbon County tells an interesting story about Goose Island as a brewery, so we have the guy who is literally writing the book on it join us for a vertical tasting. Josh Noel from the Chicago Tribune helps us nitpick our way through eight years of BCBS. There’s Goose info galore including the backlash over Josh’s sleuthing on the beer’s true origins, and how the brewery went from nearly out of business to being the juggernaut it is. You’ll also hear about the debate over aging be...
Feb 08, 2017•1 hr 22 min
Summer Craig is back and ready to fire up the boat and mix up some cocktails! Actually, it’s Ryan’s stupid idea to put a bunch of fruit in these five suburban-brewed beers that were all very good before we screwed with them. We review and rank these diverse offerings, and we also get to know Afterthought Brewing well before they are an actual working brewery: brewer/owner Mike Thorpe endures a brief interview with Craig to tell us what we can expect out of Lombard from Afterthought in the (hopef...
Feb 01, 2017•1 hr 15 min
Over the last half-dozen years, Amherst, Wisconsin’s Central Waters Brewing have released a special barrel-aged imperial stout for their anniversary at their annual party. Craig is a loyal attendee, so we have a five-year vertical to tackle with the help of Tom, Jack, and Nick from The Hop Review. Along with trying to discern the differences in each vintage, we talk to the Hop Review guys about some of their favorite interviews and what they’re excited about in Chicago for 2017. We also address ...
Jan 25, 2017•1 hr 30 min
Good news to all our future expats, Toronto’s Bellwoods Brewery is making outstanding light hoppy beers that are bulging with deliciousness. Thanks to listener Christopher Nyren, we sample four fresh brews that cross-check us with flavor. Craig gives a brief overview of Canada’s confusing beer laws and liquor sales, then quizzes Ryan in a round of “Dead or Canadian?” There’s also a Ghostbusters lullaby, proper beer presentation, schnapps talk, Craig’s French mishaps, some mall walking, and the w...
Jan 18, 2017•58 min
Bring your bendy straw, we’re dipping into some juicy, hazy New England-style IPAs made locally. Whether it’s an actual style or not, stores can hardly keep any brewery’s NEIPA in stock - so we evaluate seven of them in a blind tasting. We share everything we know about this trend, say “creamy” a few hundred times, and somewhat fail at recognizing Mosaic. There’s some shoe-eating, retired slogans, Sunny D, and our vow to become brother husbands. Disappear into a glass with us, and let your juice...
Jan 11, 2017•1 hr 12 min
A Craig divided against itself cannot stand - especially if he’s drinking a bunch of high ABV coffee stouts. We challenge Craig’s hatred of coffee and love of stouts by opening four flavorful beers on this one. It’ll take a serious horse-breaking for Ryan to teach Craig anything about coffee, so instead we talk about cereal and double barrels and David Duchovny. But we also have a beer that so completely nails its intentions that it is nearly flawless - and another surprising beer brimming with ...
Jan 04, 2017•57 min
Our new best friends at Cypress Grove make some of the finest goat’s milk cheeses in the country, and they sent us some to pair with local beers. Win your New Year’s party by learning from our pairing experiments, or find out which cheeses to make a staple of all your future bottle shares. We learn a bit about rennet, apply a few brewing ideas to cheesemaking, and once again fail to break the curse that eternally binds us together. Live deliciously! Beer and Cheese Pairings Two Brothers Twenty-P...
Dec 28, 2016•1 hr 16 min
We manage to throw a holiday party with no eggnog, ugly sweaters, or inappropriate mistletoe placement - just great friends and great beers. Actually, Craig does wear an insane gaudy suit, but it only enhances our talks with four guests over five beers. We are joined by our good friends MC Johnson ( Worth 1000 Beers ), Marie Cummins, Matt Johnsen (Horse Thief Hollow), and Doug Veliky (Revolution Brewing & @beeraficiando) to sample some tasty treats and review our favorite events and stories ...
Dec 21, 2016•1 hr 45 min
