by Marissa

Recently my travels brought me to Chicago, otherwise known as the windy city.  Chicago is home to the Goose Island Brewery.  Goose Island offers brewery tours on Sundays at 3 & 4:30 pm at their Clybourn location.  I recommend calling in advance to schedule one.  The tour costs $5 and includes several samples and a pint glass to take home.  The brewer gives a tour of the facility and explains in detail the process that goes into brewing.  The tasting takes place in the older portion of the building where the Siebel Institute used to reside.  The walls are lined with bookcases filled with book on brewing.  The tour and tasting last 90 minutes and is very informative.

Also on my trip I stopped at the Rock Bottom Brewery.  I was able to get a short tour into the fermentation room.  While not as impressive as the Goose Island tour, I did enjoy a glass of their Terminal Dry Stout.

Surprisingly a few of Chicago bars have their own beer on tap.  I stopped at the original Billy Goat's Tavern under Michigan Ave.  They had a Billy Goat Light & Dark on tap.  I enjoyed the Dark immensely.  I found out from the bartender that it is brewed by Berghoff out of Wisconsin.  Another bar that had it's own beer was Timothy O'Toole's.  The bartender allowed me to sample it and I wasn't impressed at all.  Chicago is also one of the test markets for the new Bud Select 55.  I would say it is smoother than Bud Light but it doesn't have much of a taste.

Chicago is a wonderful place to visit and there is so much to see and do.  I would highly recommend visiting the Goose Island Brewery if you get a chance.

 

 

 

We picked up Tommyknocker’s Oaked Butt Head Bock, partly because we had never seen a beer described as “oaked”. Tuned out an “oaked” beer is similar to its bourbon barrel cousin, which is not a bad thing at all.

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The Chicago area brewers have been good to us. So we pulled from there again to try the Two Brothers Brewing Company’s North Wind Imperial Stout.

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The Chicago area brewers have been good to us. So we pulled from there again to try the Two Brothers Brewing Company’s North Wind Imperial Stout.

Full show notes

Do you have a suggestion for a beer we should try or any other comments? Send them to info@brewcast.net or call 402-817-0351 and leave us a voicemail.

Thanks for listening

Up to this point our panel has only identified two American made hefeweizens that deserve the name. Both come from Nebraska and while we are sure there are more, they appear to be scarce. So our friend Brian M. brought with him Sierra Nevada‘s Hefewezien claiming it passed. We also enjoyed a Mocha Porter from Rogue Brewing Company out of Oregon.

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To reward our diligent test subjects we brought in Boulevard Brewing Co.'s Imperial Stout. Seemed appropriate to have a malty beer to finish the hops challenge. 

The six week hops challenge came to an end. Our results were split. Marissa went from disliking hops to finding good flavors in hoppy beers. Brian M remained the same throughout the test. He understands why people use hops, but it is not a flavor he enjoys.

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To keep pace with beers we have been drinking this Summer we brought out New Belgium's Abbey Ale. Goose Island has been good to us in the past, so we decided to bring out their IPA in honor of the hops challenge.

Week five of the hops Challenge. This week Marissa actually came to enjoy the hops. Enough that she graded that IPA in this show higher than Brian or I. Brian M. continued to stay stable. He is still not a fan of hops.

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Brian M was kind enough to bring a couple beers we hadn't tried, the Orange Blossom Cream Ale form Buffalo Bill's Brewing and the Blue Star Wheat for North Coast Brewing. Both beers of summer.

Week four of the hops challenge came in. We are starting to see a change in perception of hoppy beers. Marissa reported that the beer didn't taste like weeds this time and it went down smoother and the hops hit more in the aftertaste. However she is still not a lover of hops but can tolerate them better now.  Brian M. on the other hand reported little to no change in hops perception.

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Do you have a suggestion for a beer we should try or any other comments? Send them to info@brewcast.net or call 402-817-0351 and leave us a voicemail.

We tried a beer new to our market the Koenig Ludwig Hefe-Weizen from Kaltenberg. Imported from Germany it is a solid decent wheat beer, but does it have the three flavors of a hefeweizen?

Week three of the hops challenge concluded. Both test subjects said it was a little improves this week. Enjoyment still not a word they would use for the experiment.

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Finishing off the Schell sampler pack this week we grade the Pilsner and the Pale Ale.

Week two of the hops challange concluded. Again little change in perception. Hopefully in the next couple week we will get to the good stuff.

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Taking a break from the Schell's we were given a chance to try a couple new beers.  Brian M. brought Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy and Mad River Brewing's Steelhead Scotch Style Porter. Next week we will finish the beers we acquired from the August Schell Brewing Co.

Week one of the hops challenge concluded. As expected there was little change. 

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This week was the second of our Schell's Brewing podcasts. We looked at another beer from the August Shell's Brewery in New Ulm, Minnesota.

Always on the quest for good beer we sampled some beer from a local brewer. Three beers all of good quality with a some lively discussion.

We also started the four week Hops Challenge™. Devised by a wise beer sage in Kearney, NE, it is an experiment to see whether a love of hops can be acquired.

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This week featured the first of three episodes reviewing the beers of Schell's Brewing. We tried their dark, maifest, and stout with mixed results. For music this week, we featured Marc Gunn's tribute to a great BBC sci-fi comedy with his song The Mining Ship Red Dwarf. If you have never seen Red Dwarf, it is available on DVD and is one of the greatest TV shows ever made, in our humble opinion.

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We finished up the beers Ryan acquired on his trip to Chicago this week. We enjoyed a bready farmhouse ale and a very stout brown ale. Always nice when both beers are tasty. We are sure the good people of take pride in their local breweries. No time for music to drink to this week, but we'll see if we can't fit it in next week.

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Trying three beers at 11% and higher ABV is probably a questionable practice, but we did it anyway.  In order of ABV and tasting; Quadrium Ale from Urthel Samaranth (11%), Belzebuth from Brasserie Grain D'Orge (13%), and The Beast from Avery Brewing (16.31%). 

For music we pulled a band that we've enjoyed many times. The Dust Rhinos and their song Here's to You. Think Budweiser's real men of genius ads in catchy song form. Good stuff.

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This week we sampled three dark beer from Norway. All three good solid dark beers. In the group was a double extreme imperial wheat stout.

As promised a far more inspiration song from Jonathan Coulton this week. We featured his song A Talk With George. Good stuff, puts things into perspective.

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Do you have a suggestion for a beer we should try or any other comments? Send them to info@brewcast.net or call 402-817-0351 and leave us a voicemail.

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We thought it would be fun to go to extremes this week. Bringing in Lucky beer from Australia and Sierra Nevada's Torpedo Double IPA. The contrast of a light lager and a double IPA seemed like a good idea and fun to try.

for the music this week we enjoyed a little Jonathan Coulton. Always good stuff.

Complete show notes.

The Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas is celebrating its 100th year anniversary this year. To commemorate the event they released their aptly named 100 Commemorator brew and brought back the Kosmo's Reserve Lager. Having had the opportunity to enjoy some of their beer in the past we thought we should give this pair a go.

If there is one song that represents our panel it is The Jedi Drinking Test by the Dust Rhinos. Mix a little Celtic style with Star Wars references and beer drinking and we're good to go.

For the complete reviews from this week's episode click HERE.

To contact us with thoughts, suggestions or beer recommendations you can email us at info@brewcast.net or call 402-817-0351.

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We took a trip out to Thunderhead Brewing in Kearney, Nebraska. Always a fun to place to visit. We did some product testing on their award winning Golden Frau at different ages and stored in difficult conditions. A good time had by all.

For the full reviews of the beers click HERE.

Beers of the Week:

Beer: Dead Goat Porter
Brewery: Goose Island
Notes: Nice robust flavors of caramel, chocolate, and roasted malt. A sweet and enjoyable beer. It would go well with a steak seasoned with pepper and garlic or most deserts. If you happen to be in Chicago we definitely recommend it.

John:      A-	Brian:   A-	Ryan:    A-	Overall Grade:	A-
Marissa: A	Anne:   A-

Music to Drink to:
A favorite of the group and in honor of tax time we played Corporste Whore's Anthem. Great lyrics and a catchy tune. Thanks again to the Podsafe Music Network for the assist.

Do you have a suggestion for a beer we should try or any other comments? Send them to info@brewcast.net or call 402-817-0351 and leave us a voice mail.

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