This is Beer in Front, part of the Odd Pods Media Network. Sometimes
the beer in front of you is the best one yet. I'll talk about
some old school beers that maybe you've forgotten about, some new beers that have
the potential to be a classic. I'll also talk to various people around the
beer world and get their stories all about beer. That's Beer in Front and
it's coming up now. Welcome to episode one hundred and seventy nine of Beer
in Front. I'm your host, Dave's alatoris and Beer in Front is a
proud Oddpods Media Network member. This week, I'm going way back for a
classic old school beer. I'm going to have three from Van Stefan, a
brewery that's been around since ten seventy the oldest brewery out there. This was
a suggestion, and if you think there's a beer I should try, email
me Dave at beer infront dot com. The local Chicago area beer I'm going
to have is from Wild Onion. It's their Hopslayer double ipa. Over on
YouTube. I've had some more October Fest beers, so head over to YouTube
and check those out. I'll be talking to dpt from Spacecastle on Wednesday.
He was at the Great American Beer Festival over the weekend, and I'll have
his recap on the show next week. I'll also talk with Julia Hers from
the American Homebrewers Association next weekend, and that show will come out in a
couple of weeks. I'm going to brew a small one gallon recipe from the
American Homebrewers Association. Videos of that production is going to be up on YouTube,
and once the beer is finished, hopefully i'll have Julia back on to
critique the beer periodically. I'm going to be brewing some one gallon small batches.
I'm gonna do some recreations of old school craft beers that are no longer
with us, and I think the first one is going to be Pete's Wicked
Ale. On a personal note, I'm recording this on Sunday, the twenty
fourth of September. Ruby flew home to California this morning to spend some time
with her mother while I'm home with this back issue, and I could stay
home and watch Moira Rose. She's been gone for a little over twelve hours.
The dog's mope. She's all sad. She won't eat, she won't
do anything. Now when I go to work. I'm going almost eleven hours.
How does Moira act like a normal dog? Doesn't even miss me?
She's a stone cold gangster at Moira. All right, this is gonna be
a good show coming up. So let's stop you happen and let's start drinking
some beer. In beer news this week, the Great American Beer Festival was
held over the weekend in Denver. I'm going to talk more about it next
week with DT from Space Castle, but I want to congratulate the Illinois breweries,
and as much as I talk about Chicago and the Chicago area breweries,
I have to give big props to Huntley. Huntley had two breweries, and
they're both great breweries and well deserved so hopped and more. They took home
some medals this weekend. So Huntley is now the beer capital of Illinois.
Now. The event was held in Denver, so it's not surprising that Colorado
was the state most represented at the Great American Beer Festival. They had beer
from ninety one different breweries. California had sixty seven, Texas or Gone and
Washington rounded out the top five. IPAs were once again the top category.
They had three hundred and fifty eight variations of the style that was poured,
so huge festival this year. They had ciders and selters that were there,
so that's cool. I'm looking forward to talking to DT this week getting firsthand
account of it. I've never been there. It's something that's on my bucket
list, so I'm glad DT went and I'll have his updates next week.
If you're from the Midwest, especially the Racine Kenosha area of Wisconsin, you've
had a Kringle, and Kringle's are phenomenal. I love me a good Danish
Kringle. It's a pastry. They're delicious. Well. Microphone Brewing out in
Elk Grove, Illinois is making a new beer called when You Say Wisconsin,
and this is going to be I don't know if they're throwing actual Kringles in
the vats, but it's going to be a Kringle inspired beer. It's a
sour that's gonna have cherries, cranberries, Bavarian cream and cheesecake flavoring in the
beer. So I'm gonna need to go to Microphone and grab when You Say
Wisconsin. Three Floyds they closed their brew pub back at the start of the
pandemic in twenty twenty, they're talking about reopening the restaurant in Brewpub. There's
no time is when this is going to happen, but from what I've read
over on eater, they've approached officials in Munster with the proposal to reopen the
brewpub with the patio. So that should be really good, so hopefully that'll
happen. Also in Chicago, Guinness opened up yesterday. I'm recording this Sunday,
so they reopened Saturday, the twenty third of September. Look really cool.
They had some drone stuff happening outside that looked like the Guinness Harp and
everything that looked awesome. I'm definitely heading to Guinness in the next couple of
weeks and I'll give you the lowdown on the new Guinness Brewpub here in Chicago.
I'm Richie aka Midnight Agent Raw. I'm Devin aka Special Delivery Dev.
We're the Supermedia Bros. Podcast and each week we give a comedically informative take
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sure to catch the latest from super Media Bros. Wherever you listen to podcasts.
All right, the beer in front is from the world's oldest brewery,
Vaan Stefana. I know I screwed that up, but Grandpa Beer sent me
an email saying that, you know I should talk about them. They are
the world's oldest brewery in He's right, and I don't know why I haven't
talked about this. I know I've had this before, I've had beers from
them before, but I don't know why this has slipped my mind. So
thank you to Grandpa Beer for this suggestion. The one I'm gonna have now
is the original premium, So let's open this bottle up and check it out.
Vayan Stefana is a beautiful looking beer, nice gold color, good foam
here, just smells like a classic European logger. Smells great. That's really
good. It's very very clean tasting. I get some sweetness upfront from the
malt. I think this is really really good. I would have this again.
I picked it up at Benny's and I don't know what kind of coating
they use, so I'm not I'm assuming it's fresh, but I don't know
what this coded. It's not a Julian date. It's not a date,
but I'm assuming it's fresh. But it tastes really good. I have another
one that I'm gonna talk about in a little bit as well. But I
need to thank Grandpa Beer for the suggestion and thank Vy hen stefan Her for
making this great beer since ten forty ten forty that's a long time. Yeah,
that's really really good. If you see it now. I picked this
up. It's in sixteen point nine ounce bottle. So if you're at Binny's
or at your wherever your big bottle shop is or liquor store, I would
definitely pick up a Weihenstefana. All right. Next up from wihen Stefana,
this is Corbinian. This is their doppelbox. This checks in at seven point
four percent alcohol. It has sixteen IBus on here. I'm looking forward to
this. I've heard on good authority that this is outstanding. So let's crack
open the Corbinian. That was a weak can't open sound just weak. Oh
that's a beautiful color. It kind of looks like a porter. Good foam
here, good carbonation, smells really nice. I get a lot of the
malt here smells fantastic. That's really good. I get a lot of almost
like stone fruit. Maybe I get like a little plumminess on there with some
the dark malt. It tastes really good. Yeah, that's outstanding. That's
like I could drink this all the time. I think this is excellent.
According to their website, this has sweet notes and it's offset by roasted malt
flavors. And it will go well with smoked meats and fish, also desserts
and chocolate, so this goes good with everything. No, I think this
is really good. If you're a fan of Dopplebox, I think Corbinian will
be right in your wheelhouse. This is an excellent beer, So grab this
one. Put it in a cart. I saw it at my Bennies in
the sixteen point nine ounce bottle, So if you don't want to commit to
a six pack, you could just buy a single bottle and try it out
for yourself. This is one awards at the World Beer Award, So this
is a good beer. Put it in the cart. Get yourself a Corbinian.
Okay. The last up of my vye Head and stefan Or I'm gonna
have their Fest beer. I'm looking forward to this. If you heard the
show is the last few weeks. I'm a big fest beer Marzin october Fest
fan, so why not have one from the world's oldest brewery. This is
five point eight percent alcohol twenty six I've used. I'm drinking this in just
a regular eleven point two ounce bottles, So let's crack it open. I
need to go back to the cans. Oh, the fest beer is a
beautiful golden color, good foam. The aroma smells nice. I get a
lot of I get a lot of the noble hoops here from the aroma.
The aroma does smell really good. Yeah, that tastes like an Octoberfest to
me. It's really good. It's not a bitter beer at all. It's
crisp, has a lot of flavor to it. I think this is good
for a fest beer. Now like the others. God only knows when this
was brewed how long it's been sitting on the shelf, because you can't tell
by the date on it. But I still think this is a solid beer.
I picked it up at my chain liquor store here. I think this
one's really good. According to the website, this is delicious with roasted chicken
and flavorful Alpine cheese. So if you have any of that laying around,
grab you a Vaihan Stefana fest beer. The local beer in front I'm going
to have this week is hops Layer. This is a double ipa from Wild
Onion. They're out in Lake Barrington, Illinois. This has been around a
way. I know the brewery has been around since ninety six, maybe ninety
seven, but I remember seeing hops Layer maybe ten twelve years ago, so
it's been around a while. This clock's in at eight point two percent and
has a whopping one hundred IBU. So let's crack open Hopslayer. Hopslayer is
a beautiful dark amber color. Good boam here, good two fingers of foam,
like a nice pair of kakis. It's a beautiful color here. The
smell is excellent. I get a lot of the malt in the aroma with
like citrus fruits like I don't know if I'm getting like a great prudy,
but no, it's I get a lot of citrus in the aroma with the
malt. It smells great. Oh yeah, that's really good, well balanced.
I get a lot of everything here. I get definitely that malt hits
me up there along with the notes of the hops. I think this is
excellent. It's not that bitter considering this has one hundred IBus now it doesn't
have a date on the canon. I pick this up at Benny's, so
this is a seasonal. I'm hoping this is fresh, but I'm not getting
a lot of the bitterness here. But I still think it's a great beer.
Yeah, that's really really good. If you're anywhere near Wild Onion,
I would definitely throw this one in the cart. They distributes only a couple
other states, so you'll have to maybe go to their website and see where
you could pick up hop Slay or Double Ipa or any of their other beers.
Everything that I've had from Wild Onion has been really good, So if
you see hop Slay or put it in the cart, all right. That's
gonna wrap things up for this edition of Beer in Front. I thank you
very much for listening. If you need to get a hold of me,
ease email need Dave at beer infront dot com, where you could find me
on all the social media channels at beer in Front. If you'd like to
support the show, you could head over to Petreon dot com slash Beer in
Front, and you could support the show for as little as one dollar a
month. Next week is going to be a good week. I'm talking a
DT from Spacecastle. We're gonna recap with the Great American Beer Festival, and
in two weeks I'm going to talk to Julia over at the American Homebrewers Association
and I'm going to brew a beer. So stay tuned for that. Good
things happening on Beer in Front, and whatever you do, remember sometimes the
beer in front of you is the best one yet. All Right, everyone,
have a good week. I will see you next week on Beer in Front.