Hi, I'm Abigail Hummel and I'm Berry Humble, and we're the co host
of the Pops on Hops podcast. If you need more beer related content,
you can check out our podcast. But right now you're listening to Beer in
Front. Take it away, Dave. This is Beer in Front, part
of the Oddpods media network. Every week i'll talk about a beer that maybe
we've forgotten along the way while we get those check ins and badges. Some
weeks, i'll have a new beer that has potential to be a classic.
Being the Chicago beer guy, I'll also talk about great craft beer and craft
beer news in the city of Chicago. Sometimes the beer in front of you
is the best one yet. That's Beer in Front, and it's coming up
now. Welcome to episode one hundred and fifty of Beer in Front. I'm
your host, Dave's allatorus, and whether you've listened to the past one hundred
and forty nine shows or if this is your first time, I thank you
for listening. Instead of having one beer this week, I'm opening beers sent
from friends all around the country. I'll have beer from California, Nevada,
Arizona, Pennsylvania, and a Chicago one. If you're untapped, you can
follow me there at Beer in Front to see what I scored these and every
beer I have for the show. There are a couple of laws on the
books here in the state of Illinois that, if they pass, should greatly
benefit breweries here in the state. I'll speak with Ray Stout, the executive
director of the Illinois Craft Brewers Guild, to discuss these. Just two episodes
ago was the third anniversary of the show, so I won't bore you with
the same details here on this the one hundred and fiftieth episode, but I
will once again thank you for listening to the podcast watching the videos over on
YouTube and TikTok. It means a lot. Thank you to Pops on Hops
for the intro this week, and you could check out their podcast on your
favorite player. Next week, the special pizza episode will come out, and
I think you're going to enjoy that one. Friends from the podcasting and beer
community help me talk about pizza from their region, and you'll want to jump
on a plane to taste all of the styles from around the country. We're
hitting the third anniversary of COVID this week, and Jesus, does that seem
like a lifetime and maybe thirty pounds orgo. How is your beer purchasing and
consuming changed in the last three years. Get a hold of me at Dave,
at beer infront dot com or on social media to let me know.
In Beer News this week, Friday night, I ran to the grocery store
after work and I was checking out the beer aisle. There were a few
groups of twenty ish mailes buying stuff. Usually that means someone's grabbing a case
of Macro or maybe a few six packs of craft beer. These guys went
right to the seltzers and we're grabbing high Noon and Seagram's refreshers. So the
demise of the hard seltzer category might not be as soon as people think.
The latest crossover hard Seltzer, comes from of all Things Sunny D. They're
going to have a new vodka Seltzer on the show later this year. I
don't know. In my opinion, that seems a little shady. Many of
the other crossovers were at least a product that was marketed to adults in their
original non alcoholic origins. Sunny D, what's next, You're going to have
a Capri sun booze and foil pouches New Holland their Dragon Milk line is going
to introduce Ready to Drink Old Fashioned and that's coming out next month. Stone
is expanding their Dead Guy series even further with a new variety pack, including
the new Dead Guy IPA. They're going to have a Pale ale in Pilsner
as well. Finally, Upland Brewing in Indiana University are teaming up with the
first official beer of the university. This is called Hoosier Game Day Log and
the cans feature the iconic red and white stripes from the basketball team's warm up
pants. 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 on movies, music, television, pro wrestling, and much more.
Check us out at Supermedia Bros podcast dot Com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or anywhere else that you can listen to podcasts. Shades on We're Off be
sure to catch the latest from Supermedia Bros. Wherever you listen to podcasts.
There are a couple new bills being introduced into the Illinois General Assembly that will
modernize our liquor laws help to promote growth of Illinois breweries while meeting a man
from consumers for craft beer shipping to talk about this. So I'm happy to
have back on the show. Ray Stout. Ray is the executive director of
the Illinois craft Brewers Guild and will help explain how these bills will benefit Illinois
brewers and consumers of great craft beer all over the country. Ray, thanks
for coming back on Welcome Back. Oh, it's a pleasure to be back.
I always love the show. Of the two bills, Senate Bill two
one ninety three, which will legalize direct to consumers shipping, is getting the
most attention. How is this going to benefit breweries and consumers? That's a
great question. So I think if you take a step back and look at
the liquor laws in the state of Illinois, the main liquor law is the
Liquor Control Act of nineteen thirty four. And you heard that right, nineteen
thirty four and a lot of the liquor laws are based off of that and
come out of that are are really result of ourized crime in Illinois and al
capone. And so what we did in the state of Illinois institute a three
tier system so that means there's producers like breweries, there are distributors that are
basically the logistics companies that bring the beer from point A to point B,
and then there's retailers. You know, one thing about nineteen thirty four is
that there was no inkling that there would ever be this thing called the internet,
right, and so in the state of Illinois, it is illegal to
ship alcohol or ship beer through the mail. Right now, you could send
wine to a consumer in Illinois. So since two thousand and seven you've been
able to do that. And so as the Illinois craft Brewers Guild and Illinois
craft Brewers realized throughout the pandemic is that, you know, we need to
meet customers where they are, and more and more they're at their house.
You know, one thing that we are getting a lot of tension on is
that, hey, this bill could possibly negatively impact retailers. And you know,
I hear the hesitancy in their voice to hop on board with this,
and I think the fear is valuable. But the facts of the matter are
in states that have already legalized direct to consumer beer shipping, there's actually a
higher percentage of retail and distributor jobs per capita. And actually, if you
look at the experience with Illinois wine, there are actually more Illinois wine retailers
now than there were in two thousand and seven when direct to consumer wine shipping
was legalized. But you know, in essence, this bill allows the consumer
to hop online and have a beer shipped from the brewery directly to their house
using a third party, third party service like ups, DHL and FedEx.
One thing that's important, this is not a delivery bill. This is not
you know, calling up the brewery and having somebody drop a four pack of
beer on your doorstep. This is something that you know, goes through through
the mail, just just like any package you would order. You know,
I was reading an article on brew Bound on I think Saturday, and there
was a Harris poll and it said that almost four and five consumers said they
would buy more craft beer if there was a bill like this past. And
also there was something like in states that have this bill there is like fifteen
percent more distributor jobs as well. So it sounds like it's a win win
for everybody. It is. It is a win win for everybody. And
that's exactly right. Is that that that that article and that Harris Pole really
shines a light on the desire for consumers to have access to these products.
And you know, right now, even if you got something delivered, it
has to go through the distribution and retail tiers. And you know, as
we know, most of our breweries in the state of Illinois are are self
distributed or have limited distribution regions because most of the breweries here are pretty tiny
by and large, and so for somebody to get you know, scratch brewing
beer up in Lake County is virtually impossible. You know, even though they
are up for a Michelin Star and make delicious beers, um, they're just
not one that that are are are found in most distributors catalogs. You know,
another thing I do want to highlight what's happening in the retail retail shelves
is what I call them the voodoo Ranger effect. And so right now we're
seeing a lot of macro breweries masquerading as craft that are filling the skews on
the shelves because they could sell beer for a significantly lower price point. And
so if you have, you know, a hazy Voodoo Ranger sitting next to
hazy Illinois craft beer they're going on the retail shelves, they're going to be
able to undercut price dramatically. And you know, the rank of the file
customer really really, you know, gravitates towards towards price. When it's an
apples to apples. We both know it's not apples to apples because Illinois craft
is far superior. But you know that in terms of buying decisions on the
retail shelves, there's there's fewer and fewer slots for Illinois craft beer. So
we are we are looking towards the future here. Now, if this bill
passes, is this going to be voluntary that a brewery is going to participate?
And if they do, is this just going to be for special releases
or if you know, hypothetically, say someone in Nebraska wanted to order a
four pack of Dovetails via analogue or would they be able to do that?
Yeah, so any of this is voluntary. So um, you know,
some breweries are going to be early adopters when when this legislation passes, Um,
some are going to be hesitant. It's going to create a whole new
marketplace here in the state of Illinois. Um. Um. These companies to
start shipping their products direct they to consumers, and you know, shipping infrastructure
takes a little bit to stand up. And you know, right now,
the cap that we're proposing in our legislation is twelve cases of beer per year
that could be shipped directly to your door. That mirrors the wine language.
And yes, if if Nebraska was a state that had legalized direct consumer beer
shipping, and there's fourteen states that do, then you could order a four
pack a Dovetail delivered to your door. You know, I think one thing
that we'll all call out is that shipping alcohol is cost prohibitive. It's expensive,
right, Alcohol has a lot you know, you generally want to keep
it under temper temperature controlled situations, especially with a lot of these fresh aisy
products, so they'll be dry ice involved. And you know there's ways to
do it because food's been doing it forever, right. So, but where
I see this working most and most effective is those products that are more akin
to wine, So those large format barrel age beers, those beers that generally
do not even make it to the distribution tier and even less likely to make
it to retailer shelves with some small exemptions of retailers that curate their craft beer
very very well. But even then most of those most of those skews are
filled by distributed products. Is there going to be a distance limit or is
this just for out of state customers like you were mentioning a brewery earlier.
If I wanted to order something from Lake County that I can't get here,
or say hand of Fate, which is down state, would I be able
to do that in Chicago? Absolutely? And so the bill we're proposing would
allow for the statewide shipping of alcohol as well as the bidirectional shipping of alcohol
too, and from states that have directed consumer beer shipping. So this opens
up new markets for our brewers in Illinois and opens up new opportunities for craft
your enthusiasts in the state of Illinois. Is there anything and if not,
maybe we could joint forces and come up with this app and retire. But
are there plans for like an Illinois based app like a tavor where consumers can
just buy beer from the state of Illinois. Yeah, I'm sure there's I'm
sure there's a market to build an app just like that. You know,
it's funny that you brought up to Voor and a couple of other companies have
really kind of figure it out a nuanced way to to ship beer already in
the state of Illinois. So this is already happening, right, this is
this is happening through Tavor. It's also happening because there, you know,
everybody knows there's a significant secondary or what we call the black market for craft
beer in the state of Illinois, especially those barrel aged products, and so
you know, this is this is something that that's already happening. But yes,
there's nothing stopping somebody from coming up with a Illinois craft beer app and
you know, becoming the local king of craft beer or queeness. All right,
well, I'm gonna edit this part out and we'll talk later. Yeah,
we'll come up with this. The second bill that's up is Send It
Bill two two one six, which is the Beer Omnibus Bill, and that's
going to formalize and clarify beer drinker engagement programs while making it easier for breweries
to grow and modernize. How is this going to help everyone? Yeah,
So there's about there's six provisions and what we're calling the Beer Omnibus Bill,
and that's the one that you referenced. You know. The first one is
that rewards programs and mug clubs have operated in a very gray area of Illinois
liquor law for for decades, and so there's nothing that says you can do
them, but there's nothing that says you can't do. And most most good
craft drinkers are members of their local mug clubs because virtually every brewery is offering
some level of rewards our points or mug clubs, also retailers, you know
those A lot of those points systems that are already in existence are not codified
law anywhere, and so we are looking to make sure those programs that are
widely popular with um you know, Illinois residents and craft beer enthusiasts alike,
are are legalized. You know. The second one that I don't think is
getting enough attention is that folks that are engaged in gift basket raffles or bottle
auctions specifically for raising funds for nonprofit organizations our in violation of Illinois liquor law.
And you know, I don't know about you, but you know,
everybody's doing it in my world, from the local boy Scout troop at their
spaghetti dinner to the pta, to the Democratic Party, right, and so
we want to make sure that craft brewers can donate products to nonprofit organizations for
fundraising purposes, which seems seems like a pretty cut and dry thing. You
know. Another thing that we're trying to figure out here in state is that
there are no laws that allow for craft breweries and assist thematic way to participate
in farmers markets are community events. There is a law that limits it to
a one classification at brewer. And I don't want to get too wonky with
your listeners because it's a little much to explain, but most of the brewers
in the state of Illinois are unable to participate in community events or farmers markets
and sell their products there. And what I like to say is that there's
nothing more local than than craft beer. And so you know, excluding them
from those types of events just seems silly because you know, they are they
are pillars of their community and you know, are made right right right in
the communities in which they're selling our products. Yeah, and like you know,
my wife and I we love farmers markets. And while you know,
maybe having beer at ten o'clock in the morning on a Saturday might not be
now we've done it, I mean, who hasn't done it? But I
think that would bring more people out to that farmer's market, which would in
turn help you know, farmers in the Midwest sell their products as well.
So that's another one teams like a win win for everyone. Yeah, and
then you pick up a four pack to go, right. Yeah, so
in addition to your tomatoes and your giant zucchini's, you know, you have
a four pack of locally made fresh craft beer and so to go with whatever
kind of carbonara you're making for dinner, with all your delicious ingredients that you
got from the farmer's market. You know. Another one I think is really
important is that, you know, in Illinois, I smoke before about the
three tier system, we do allow for a level of self distribution. And
this is important to note because what's happening in the second tier, the wholesale
tier, is there's been massive retraction and consolidation of these wholesalers, and so
these distributors are buying each other up and basically owned by a small handful of
multinational you know, billionaire trillionaire corporations. And so what that's doing is leaving
a lot of craft brewers on the outside looking in, because these folks in
the distribution tier essentially hold the power when they decide where the beer goes,
who's selling it where, and what where they're going to try to sell their
beer. And so, you know, the Illinois legislature a number of years
ago created exemptions for self distribution, and this means a craft brewery can sell
products directly to retailers, which is great because it levels the competition a little
bit, right, It opens up the market a little bit. And so
in twenty twenty one, we created what's called a Class three brewer. But
one of the things we allowed for this Class three brewer is to self distribute
a pretty measily two hundred barrels, and a Class three brewer just where everybody
knows, is like your local group of so they have the ability to also
sell spirit and wine at their brewery. And it's become a very popular model
because I hear time and time again from brewer saying, hey, a group
of nine people walked in two of their wives only during wine and then they
all walked out, right. So this allowed for folks to kind of really
have more robust offerings that there after tap rooms and it's become widely popular.
But you know, those folks are only allowed to self distribute two hundred barrels,
which is not a lot of beer. If folks know their barrel it's
calculations, it's thirty one gallons per barrel. And so we are looking to
raise that up to twenty five hundred barrels to allow these small brewers to gain
a foothold in the distribution tier, to eventually be calm big enough to be
picked up by a distributor and paid attention to. Yeah, and the last
one is a little wonky, but it's worth it's worth a talk because you
know, there are laws in the state of Illinois which regulate how much beer
you could actually move between two breweries that you own. Right, So it's
like imagine having a peach of factory and a pizza shop and you can only
move a certain amount of pizza between the two. And that's what we're that's
what we're effectively doing here in the state of Illinois. There are laws on
the books. Let's say you cannot move more than a thousand barrels of beer
between two wholly owned locations without partnering with a distributor for that thousand and first
barrel. So for that thousand and first barrel, you then need to contact
a distributor or find somebody to move your product for you and pay them thirty
percent margin just to ship that beer between two places that you that you own,
when you own both spots, when you own both spots, yes,
yeah, and so you know, and and and that's affecting the growth of
the industry because you know what we're seeing now and we saw a couple months
ago, and I think we'll continue unfortunately, continue to see you over the
course of the next couple of years. Crystal balling is is some of these
smaller local producers that may have been able to hold on through COVID because of
a lot of the government assistance programs that were available, you know, are
really facing or reckoning. And I think, you know, unfortunately, we
are going to see some smaller independent breweries close. But what we're probably going
to see is some of the larger players in the brewery space in Illinois opening
second or third locations. And we're already kind of starting to see that a
little bit um but so passing something like this is even more important because if
they're already operating at a large production facility, it's silly to brew small,
small batches at the local tap room just because of economies of scale. I'm
sure the status quo would love to see these bills fail. What can a
consumer do to you know, what should we all contact our local congress people,
our Illinois senators. What can we do as individuals to help help these
bills along? Yeah, and that's precisely right, is that you know,
these bills are now the product of politics, right, And so, um,
I love my job because I represent small independent businesses in Illinois, and
really the juxtaposition is small, local pen at businesses versus these multi billion dollars
distribution companies and that and that, and that's what we're dealing with here in
the state. And so it's really going to take a grassroots effort and all
the folks listening to this podcast sending a quick message to your house member and
your senator, your Illinois house member and Illinois senator saying, hey, we
want to see direct consumer beer shipping legalized, and hey, it's silly that
we're putting restrictions on breweries moving a beer between locations. Because when we lose
that brewery in our neighborhood, that place has gone forever. And that is
a community center, and that is a gathering point for towns and villages and
cities across the state of Illinois. And you know, we've seen whole villages
pop up around the existence of a craft brewery. And that's why this industry
is pretty cool. Yeah, exactly. Well, great, I appreciate you
coming on to talk about these two bills. If anyone wants to know more,
where can they find it? Yeah, so you could always find out
information on Illinois Beer dot org and then you could also follow us an Illinois
craft Beer on Facebook and Instagram. Now, we were talking before we hit
record about a couple other things. Is there anything else you'd like to bring
up? Yeah, you know, I was talking before about how much I
love the reviews that you do. And you know, one of the things
that I saw you do is is the hard Mountain dew and thank you for
doing it, because I had not to try it myself, even though I
see it all the time in the stores. And you know, one bill
that is actually sitting before the Illinois Legislature has to do with the merchandising of
of products like that, and I think it's incredibly important because the last thing
we want to do is promote underage drinking here in the state. And so
you know, right now it is legal to put your hard cat can't your
can of hard mountain dew right next to a regular mountain dew on the shelves
and stores, and you know, we think that sends the wrong message to
consumers, and they're definitely the wrong message to kids. So um, there's
a bill right now that that forces the separation of these alcoholic products masquerading as
pop from from soda and soft drink products, and so that that's something that's
pretty cool that I think folks should pay attention to. Yeah, exactly.
You know we were talking you know off air. Sunny d is coming out
with a vodka seltzer later this year. I know I haven't seen it really
in the grocery stores, but I know it like a Binnie's. I've seen
Sonic has a hard seltzer that you know, if you're not paying attention,
you would just think, oh, wow, Sonic makes a pop you know,
I could grab this. Uh yeah, it does seem like the line
seem to be blurred between non alcoholic and alcoholic as people are buying stuff based
on like childhood memories. That's that's right. And you know, I was
in the House Executive Committee listening to testimony when this came up, and you
know, one of one of the House members said, Hey, I I
thought I was grabbing a seltzer off off the shelf, and about half half
a seltzer later, I was thinking something was wrong with me. Port she
realized it was alcohol, and so yeah, I know, I'm laughing,
it's serious, but it was. It was. It was a good it
was a good story and a good way to UM, you know, to
to to to show the problematic nature of of of where the space is operating.
Because you know, one last thing is that that that's the main part
of place where the alcohol industry is growing across the United States is these pre
mixed drinks and these heart these you know, high noon type things, and
so you know that category of we're calling RTDs or ready to drink spirits UM
is growing at a rate of you know, thirty forty percent each year.
And you know it goes back to what we were talking about before, is
that there's even less room on retail shelves now for craft beer because that section
is growing exceptionally fast. And you know, you can't knock the hustle,
but you just you definitely need opportunities for consumers to be reached by craft brewers,
and that's why direct consumer beer shipping and self distributions is so important.
Well, right, you're in your car, so I'll let you continue to
focus on the road. I to appreciate you coming on, you know,
I'm sure I'll talk to you pretty soon for Illinois Craft Beer Week. Oh
can't wait. It's gonna be great this year. Excellent. All right,
Ray, take care of yourself. We'll talk to you soon. The first
beer in front is from longtime friend of the show, Sarah, and this
is Revolutions Freedom Lemonade. This is a Session sour ale with lemons and natural
lemon flavors. This checks in at four point five percent alcohol and is rated
three point nine bottle caps over on untapped. I like this one. I've
had it before. Revolution has a few different flavors with this Session Sour series,
but the lemonade is good. I haven't had it in a while,
so let's crack it open. Thanks to Sarah. It pours very nice,
has a nice color. It looks like a beer. But you notice right
away while pouring this big whiff of lemon scent smells very lemony. That's really
good. It's very tart. If you like tart things, I think you'll
like this. You oh yeah, even at the end you get that nice
little you know, pucker your cheeks. It's very tart. I like this
one. Yeah, this is very good. I could definitely see pounding these
down in the summertime. It's low in alcohol, so you could have a
few of them. Say, if you're out at a backyard party or barbecue,
I think you'll do good if you're drinking the Freedom of Lemonade from Revolution,
Thank you, Sarah. Next up or two cent over from friends in
Las Vegas. Ray Ray found a cider from Neutopia in San Diego. This
is called Pog. This has pineapple, blood, orange, and mango.
They use one hundred percent West Coast apples and this checks in at six point
five percent alcohol and has rated three point nine one bottle cap. So let's
crack open Pog. Wow, this really smells good. Like the first wave
that hits me with the aroma is the pineapple, and that's pretty much all
I get out of the aroma. But it looks good, looks like a
regular cider. It's not as carbonated as some others, but let's drink it.
Well, that's really tasty. Well, I don't get as much of
the blood orange. The pineapple and the mango hit me right up front.
Really good. I like this flavor a lot. Yeah, No, I
think that's delicious. Yeah. The mango starting a kind of overtake the pineapple,
and I think I'm getting the blood orange at the end. So there's
a lot going here besides the apples. But I like this and I would
try more stuff from Newtopia. So if you like ciders you're in the San
Diego area, pick up bog from Newtopia and thank you Ray Ray Grandpa Beer
and Sharon sent over a couple and the one I'm having today is dry Heat.
This is a hazy ipa from Kraft House Brewing located in Henderson, Nevada.
Dry Heat is a six point six percent alcohol beer has forty five IBus,
so that's going to be interesting to try from a hazy and it checks
in at three point eight eight bottle caps over on untapped that is they're not
lying when they say hazy. That is haz really good to roma here.
I like the aroma from this. There's good foam, good carbonation to this
one. No, that's rock solid. I like this one. A lot
good flavors to this. They use Citra Mosaic and El Dorado hops so you
get this huge citrusy tropical notes to the aroma and taste. No, this
one's really good. Yeah. I would definitely knock off a few of these,
a couple of things. I think it was sent over some stuff from
Kraft House before. So everything that I've had from them I enjoy. If
you're in the Las Vegas Henderson area, I would definitely check out Kraft House
Darren Henderson. Like I said, this one is called dry heat hazy IPA.
I think it's winner. Put it in the cart. Thank you to
Sharon and Bill Floyd and Pennsylvania sent over some great ones from Pizza Boy in
this one which I'm excited to have now. Tamave Pivo Special is an Imperial
Dark check lagger from poor Man's Brewing in Ephrata, Pennsylvania. This one checks
in at seven percent alcohol has an untapped rating of four point two six bottle
caps. I'm done cracking them open for the rest of the show. You've
had enough of the sound effects. So it pours really nice. It's a
very dark beer. The car urbonation in the foam is not as good as
other beers. This is almost more like a soda pop. It smells very
nice. I get a lot of the dark malts, the chocolate roasted malt
here in the aroma. The smell is fantastic with this. That's really good.
I get all of the malt flavor up front. There's a little sometimes
you get with darker malts stout, you get almost like a raisiny tang type
feel. I'm getting that. But it's a really delicious beer. There is
a ton of carbonation in here. You're just not seeing it in the foam
in the head. This is a really good tasting beer. No, that's
delicious. I could drink this all day long. I don't know if I
would at seven percent, but if I'm off the next day, I could
drink these all day long. This is a really good one. Everything that
Floyd has sent over from Pennsylvania has been top notch. This one, this
Tamave Pivo special if you're in Pennsylvania and you see this one, I would
definitely put this one in the cart from poor Man's Brewing. Thank you,
Floyd. The next beer I'm going to have his courtesy my friend PJ in
Phoenix. He sent over a couple great Arizona beers. He's going to be
on the podcast next week on the pizza episode. But this one I'm really
looking forward to. From Renhouse Brewing. This is a New England IPA called
Spellbinder. This one the gabfback in twenty twenty. It's one other Beer Awards,
so this should be really good. I know my friend over at Spacecastle
DT. All of my friends here for this segment are initials, but DT
said this was his favorite beer, favorite IPA in Arizona, so I'm looking
forward to it. It pours like a New England hazy style. Smells great,
absolutely phenomenal. They use cascade in here along with mosaic and citrus,
so you get a lot of citrusy tropical notes to the aroma. Oh yeah,
no, that's outstanding. This is really good. There's they use some
white wheaton here, so it's not your typical ipa, typical New England.
The wheaton here adds a nice touch to it. I think it's very smooth,
very like creamy almost. It has a really good flavor. No,
that's terrific. This checks in at seven percent ABV. Really good beer.
If you're in the Phoenix, Arizona area, or in an area where they
distribute, I would definitely check out ren House Brewing. Pick up their spellbinder
IPA Thank you PJ. Next up is a beer courtesy of J and K
over it Fuck My Work Life podcast. That's a great show. Check that
out every week. This is a beer from Oceanside, California. It's the
South o Brewing Company. This is Loma Alta. It's a Mexican lager four
point seven percent alcohol. Before I talk about it, what a beautiful can.
The artwork on this can is absolutely outstanding. If I were to see
this at a bottle shop or liquor store, I would buy it without even
knowing anything about it. The font is good, their logo is good.
Really nice packaging on this. I poured it. It's a Mexican lager.
It's very clean looking, very light, good carbonation here, good aroma I
get. There's a little sweetness in the aroma. I don't get a lot
of hops, but you generally don't get backed in your Mexican laggers. That's
really good, very crisp, very clean, a little more on the sweet
side then you would get if you're thinking of Mexican lagger, you're thinking of
a corona or a medello. This is definitely a notch above that. Really
good flavor here, good sweetness. They use Motuca hops, which gives it
a nice lime citrus flavor to it, which is kind of interesting. They're
using New Zealand hops in a Mexican lagger. But this works really well.
Yeah, that's outstanding. Twenty five IBU so it's not very bitter. According
to the brewery website, this is a gluten reduced beer. I wouldn't know
the difference. If I didn't read vaft off the website, I wouldn't know
the difference. I think this is really good. If you're in the Oceanside
area, I would definitely pick this up. This is outstanding. They sent
over in Ipa as well, and I'm going to talk to them actually this
weekend we're going to do a joint thing. They're going to come on my
show. I'm going to come on there. So they sent over a couple
different ones and ipa and then I sent them a few Chicago beers. So
that'll be coming out in a couple of weeks and you should definitely check that
out and check out their podcast. But if you're in the Oceanside area,
I would definitely hit up South O'brewing Company and pick up Loma Alta. Thank
you to J and K. The last beer in front I'm going to have
is a black IPA from Illinois. I couldn't have a show or I talked
to the executive director of the Illinois Kraft Brewers Guild and not have another beer
from our great state. This is from Big Guile and Dryhop. This is
Johnny Quest thinks we're sellouts. This might have been the first black IPA I
had. I remember having this over at Dryhop probably two thousand and fourteen,
I would say, and I thought, wow, this was really good.
I think that was the first time I was ever at Dry Hoop and the
first I've heard of Big Guile. So this started me on my Black I
PA journey and I found too great Illinois breweries that I still drink to this
day. So let's crack open. Johnny Quest thinks we're sellouts. This poor
is great. Really nice foam, I'd say a good two thing, nice
mocha colored foam here. The smell is really good. You get all of
the West Coast ipa hops that they use here. I think they use Cascade,
Simco, Citra and Galaxy in combination with the darker malts. The aroma
smells fantastic. No, that's really good. If you like black IPAs,
I think this will be right up your alley. It's really good. You
get everything right there, you get the dark malts in the flavor, you
get all of the hops. Really delicious. There's a good bitterness at the
back of your tongue. This checks all the boxes for really solid black ipa.
Yeah, that's a winner. It's not very high in alcohol, It's
only five point four percent, so and I'm not sure this is a year
round thing because I don't see it all the time, so you could find
it now. So if you're near Big Guile or Dry Hoop or your favorite
bottle shop, I would definitely pick up. Johnny Quest thinks we're sellouts.
That it's going to wrap things up for this. The one hundred and fiftieth
episode of Beer in Front. I thank you very much for listening. If
you need to get a hold of me, you could email me Dave at
beer infront dot com, or you could find me all over on social media
at beer in Front. Have a great week everyone. Remember next week is
the pizza episode and also sometimes the beer in front of you is the best
one yet. All right, everyone have an appetite for next Wednesday, the
pizza episode will be out.