Speaker 1: This is Beer in Front, part of the Odd Pods
Media Network and the Beer Media Group. Sometimes the beer
in front of you is the best one yet. I'll
talk to 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 two hundred and twenty
three of Beer in Front. I'm your host, Dave z Alatorus,
and Beer in Front is a proud odd Pods Media
Network member and charter member of the Beer Media Group.
This week, like my permanent guests, we're a stout from
the Illinois Crap Brewers Guild came on. We talked about
j Beer. I mentioned it on the show a couple
of weeks ago. This is made by Alter Brewing and
Sketchbook Brewing. They did a special beer with Illinois Governor JB.
Pritzker for the Democratic National Convention that was in town
last week. We talked about those breweries some other great
stuff happening in the state of Illinois, So stay tuned
for that. The convention wrapped up. It was here in
Chicago over the week, and you know, I work at
the airport, so I talked to a lot of people
on Friday. I saw a lot of delegates and people
that were here for the week, and you know, spoke
to them when we were talking about the city, and
to a person, everyone said what a great time they
had in Chicago. They loved coming here. They enjoyed the food,
the beverage, everything. And I said, to a person, you know,
we were talking, it was a little crazy at the
airport Friday. People were missing flights and stuff, so I
didn't get a chance to talk at length, but I
had a couple minutes with each person, and they all
said what a great city this was, and they were
glad they had a chance to visit and experience this
for themselves and not just rely on what people say
in the news media about Chicago. But yeah, to a person,
everyone loved Chicago. So it's great when you have people
come here, get to experience the city and all it
offers and realize it's a great talent. Later on in
the show, I'm going to have a beer from each
of the breweries that made this j beer. So I'm
going to have one from Walter and one from Sketchbook.
I'm recording this after I recorded the segments. Both beers
were good, but still listen to the segment. Don't just
skip because you heard me tease this, just listen to
the whole show. It helps out. If you want to
help the show, you could head over to patreon dot
com slash beer in Front. You could help the show out.
You could help put beer in my carts if you will,
so check that out. But either way, I'm glad you're
listening and stay tuned for the rest of the episode
of Beer in Front. In Beer and Beverage News, I'm
looking through my emails Friday and I see an email
from Bennie's Beverage Depot, So I'm opening it up figured
I'm going to see, you know, the sales and everything else.
They announced that they have released a collaboration with Alsmith
out of California on their famous speedway stout. This is
barrel aged sixteen percent alcohol. They use Buffalo Trace bourbon
barrels and then hand selected coffee. So this came out Friday,
the twenty third. I happened to go there and pick
up a two pack for myself, so I will have
a review up on this in the next week or so.
I have to do this when I'm off the next
day because sixteen percent is gonna make me sleep well
at night. But if you're in the Chicago area, definitely
hit up Bennie's and check out their collaboration with Ale Smith.
Speaking of Ale Smith, they have announced on their Speedway Style,
which is a great stout. They have a great ana stout,
so if you're looking for a non alcoholic their non
alcoholic Speedway Stout is good. But Al Smith announced that
they're gonna have a coffee cake edition coming out this year.
I'm not sure if this is gonna be a national
distribution or just in the San Diego area, but that
sounds really good. That's gonna have coffee, vanilla and cinnamon
to try to get that nice coffee cake flavor, So
keep an eye out for that. Distill Brewing in the
University of Illinois is coming out with a couple of
beers that one is called Oski Light and the other
is called illl Ipa. That's really cool, So if you're
in the University of Illinois areas Central Illinois, keep a
lookout for that from Distill. I'm gonna need to get
to Baltimore one to see my friend Roja over at
the Great ro j Beer Ventures. But if you're in Baltimore,
the Aloft Hotels are offering working dogs a free dog
beer on International Beer Day in Moira. Rose doesn't really
work outside of being cute, but I think I can
finagle a free beer for her. So if you're in
the Baltimore area, check out Aloft Hotels. To Shoots Brewing
and Costco, they're collaborating on a Hellis style lagger. This
looks really good. I love the Shoots. I go to
Costco all the time. Now, according to the label that
was put out, I guess this beer. I don't know
if it was a Kirkland style at the time, but
this won a Great American Beer Festival Gold Award in
the Munich style Hellas. So if you're a Costco shopper,
check out the Hellas style lager. Here in Illinois, Revolution
is adding double dry hopped Jukebox Hero. This is a
black double IPA. I love the Jukebox Hero, big fan
of black IPA, so I'll definitely have to keep an
eye out for that. Sierra Nevada they're adding on their
Narwals series. They're going to have a barrel aged toasted
some more version. Now, this is going to be a
barrel aged beer. With cocoa and nat natural flavors. Keep
a lookout for that. That's going to be eleven point
nine percent beer in fifty five IBus. It's supposed to
have some marshmallow and Grand Cracker notes in the taste. So,
I mean everything from Sierra is good. So check out
the new toasted some more nar Wall. Pike Brewing out
of Seattle, they're updating their logos and their cans, and
I really love this logo on their space needle West
Coast IPA really great looking can. I love the font,
I love the new artwork. This is a really good
rebranding from Pike. Finally, Victory Brewing and Tasty Cake they're
coming out with the Peanut butter candy Cake Porter six percent.
I mean, what's not to like about bad I mean
Tasty and beer put it in the cart. At the
Democratic National Convention last week, Alter Brewing and Sketchbook Brewing
collaborated with Illinois Governor JB. Pritzker on j Beer. Alters
is a Mexican style lagger and Sketchbooks will be a
West Coast style IPA. Both were served at DNC hosted
events at the convention. Joining me again is my permanent
guest raised out the executive director of the Illinois Craft
Brewers Guild, Ray, thanks for coming on this morning.
Speaker 2: Hey, thanks, thanks for being here. I always love chilling.
Speaker 1: When I saw this, you know, reported a couple of
weeks ago, I'm like, man, this is such a cool
project between the governor and Illinois breweries. How did this
come about?
Speaker 2: So we've been working with the Governor's office for many
years on different the legislation and modernizing quiquer laws, and
so we've built a pretty good relationship with this office.
But you know, in politics, you have the campaign team
and then you have the you know, the sitting the
sitting governor. And so the campaign team actually reached it
out and said, hey, we're interested in doing a beer
and what does that look like. And you know, they
had no idea how hard the process is to get
beer to market in the state of Illinois and how
many steps you need to jump through. They figured that
we could just brew beer and pick it up from
the brewery and offer free beer to everybody. And so
we we had to walk them through that process a
little bit, and you know, it came to life and
it was great.
Speaker 1: That'll probably help things down the road and easing some
of this now that the people know what it actually
it takes.
Speaker 2: But that's exactly right. It was kind of like, what
do you mean, we just can't throw the beer back
and bring it to the salt shit.
Speaker 1: I loved that despite the convention and held you know,
at the United Center in the city, Alter and sketch
Book are both from the suburbs. Was this a conscious
decision to feature breweries from outside Chicago, to showcase breweries
from different parts of the state.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I think that's a good a good flag.
And you're exactly right. You know, both of them are
outside of the city but have a significant footprint in
Chicago and you know, around around the state. And so
you know, the idea behind this is to show that
this is an industry that you know, is expansive and
and and is continuing to grow and touch and touch
customers both in the city and outside the city.
Speaker 1: The styles that are brewed. Was that like something the
breweries decided? Was it a like a collaboration with you know,
the Democratic team. How did the styles get chosen?
Speaker 2: You know, that's a funny question. And so you know,
again their team was like, we want something good and
so the response is great, so what do you like? Right,
and that's the normal response you get to the bird,
He's like, what kind of beer do you gen? And
so you know, well, you know we ended up on.
Both of these beers are incredibly easy drinking. The West
Coast from Sketchbook is very, very smooth, not overly hoppy,
a little more on the vaulty side. The next to
lager from Altar is super clean and super crisp. And
they're just both, you know, extremely crushable beers. And you know,
they turned out so well and I'm so happy with
them both.
Speaker 1: Is Governor Prisker a beer guy. I see him on
TV last week and like the Sunday morning shows doing
shot some awards.
Speaker 2: You know, you got to play to your bass. I
suppose you know he he's not a huge drinker from
talking to him, but he you know, at that event,
I have this great picture of him, you know, basically
double fisting both of those beverages as he's sipping both.
He said, I love both of them. You know, being
in a job like that, I can't image. And there's
a lot of time to kick back and relax with
a couple of beers. But you know, it was definitely
fun to hang out with him and his wife and
his team, and you know, and and and take it
a little easy. It doesn't always have to be about
compatied politics. Sometimes it could be about sitting down and
enjoying a beer together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's something about Illinois politicians and beer.
I remember President Obama homebrewed a couple badges, and I
remember those recipes being available for anyone that wanted to
homebrew them. And now we have Governor Pritsker with j beer.
So that's good for our state.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you know, it was just so it's so
great of his campaign to realize that, you know, if
you're coming to a special place like you know, Chicago
or Illinois, craft beer is part of the culture of
the state, right And so for folks to come here
from across the country and sample two of our best
breweries making, you know, two really awesome beers, you know,
it's enlightening because craft beer continues to grow around around
around the country despite significant winds. And you know, it's
an industry that's nothing more local, right that it's made here,
that people the waterers from here, both some of the
ingredients of comer. Everybody works here and you know it's
just a beautiful collaboration and exploration and.
Speaker 1: Show of what we do really really great here in
the state. Now the beer was served last week, it
hosted events at the d n C. Now that it's over, well,
you'd be able to purchase this at either like Alter
Sketchbook or in their distribution areas. So they did pretty
limited runs. So the Printzer campaign bought every single last
drop of it, and so you know, uh, yeah, it's
been It was served at the United Center throughout the Concord.
Speaker 2: Versus as well as the sweets. It was served at,
you know, the release party in Chicago. It was served
at the Salt Shedspirited John Legend come performed. It's a
pret and so you know, so the beer has gotten
out there. There's a limited a mount rude, So I
expect all all those cans to be spoken for in
very near future.
Speaker 1: Who do I have to talk to to get a can?
Who's arm do I have to twist to get a
can of this? Do I need to? Yeah? Do I
need to call my state representative Williams or somebody? Like?
Speaker 3: Somebody grabbed me a can? Of this, I'll see what
I could do for you to. I think a couple
of people have tapped me on the shoulder and said, hey,
try these. I have a feeling that I'll come into
a couple of cases of it and I'll bless my friends.
Speaker 1: Got it. I appreciate it. Illinois has over three hundred
craft breweries throughout the state and we ranked the seventh
in the country and economic impact. Do you see room
for continued growth with Illinois breweries?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 2: I do you know? The number that I I think
it's even more important is the breweries per capitive individuals
over one hundred hundred thousand. I think we're somewhere they
word of seventeen, which means that there is additional room
to grow. We do still have breweries opening in the state,
you know. I'm sure your listeners know there was just
you know, breweries are closing, But what we're seeing is
breweries going into those places and opening second locations. Are
you know, new breweries still coming up? With the pipeline
three hundred seems to be out of the magic number
for the state of the industry right now. It's where
we continue to hover over the past two years. But
you know, just like anything. You know, brewers are continuing
to innovate and create new beverages. We see a lot
of these these breweries working walking into the THHC space
with THC beverages and so it's created a you know,
vible lifeline for this industry to continue to grow and
continue to thrive.
Speaker 1: Now you just mentioned beverages. I remember reading there was
some laws that were being discussed here. Can you elaborate
on that a little bit.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So last session at the Illinois Legislature, there was
a bill which would have essentially ban these products from
existing outside of the traditional you know, uh, marijuana dispensary space.
So you know, us and as well as the distributors
and many other trade groups talk back about that because
you know, what we're finding is that, you know, people
are turning to alternative beverages besides traditional alcohol. And there's
nothing there's no industry I would rather trust to make
a controlled substance beverage than the Illinois prean community because
we've been doing it for years and so you know,
we were able to fight back and take and take
those changes, potential changes off the table, and so not
right now, we're working with various stakeholders create an industry
framework to allow these beverages to continue to exist, you know,
because there is there there is some question about you know,
where you draw the lot like beverages or should be fine.
But you know, at virtually every gas station in the
city of Chicago, you'll see you know, bapes derived from
hemp that contain THCHC or edibles derived from help that
contained THCHC. And that's a completely unregulated and unmonitored market.
And so we need to create a framework here in
the state to make sure, you know, people are stayed
and there's rules, and there's labeling requirements and all the
things not not marketing kids like these are all the
things that we need to establish in law. But we
don't want these things to get banned until we established
this law. You know, the genie is out of the
bottle in this industry. You know, some of my brewers
are oriented to me. It's making about twenty percent of
their revenue at this point, and that's continuing to grow.
I did a recent survey of our membership and somewhere
the neighbor of sixty percent of the brewers in the
state of Illinois or either making planning to make or
will make these beverages once legislation, So that's a significant number.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, and there's no better industry to do
this than the brewing community because or even you know,
places that sell it, like bottle shops or whatever, because
you already have to be twenty one to get it,
so it's not like it's just going to be like
at a gas station like you said. The brewing community
is perfect for.
Speaker 2: This, absolutely, and you know, and we understand labeling requirements,
and you know that's the other piece, is that you
know what type of information it's going to even be
required to be out of label. You know, we're standing
up pretty much a brand new industry here in the
state of Illinois. You know, Minnesota is a couple steps
ahead of us, but we are right behind them, and
we are going to be the thxc beverage capital of
the United States pretty soon.
Speaker 1: It's awesome. Well, the next big event for the Guild
is Full Bab, which is going to be on November
twenty second, in twenty third our tickets available yet for
Full Bab.
Speaker 2: Tickets are coming next month and stay tuned. I think
the thirteenth is to go live date for Foebab. We
are poking out some really cool things this year, so
more information will be coming out soon. But it's the
best best of the line I've been to, so I
hope you do with your listeners. Definitely check it out.
Speaker 1: Yeah no, I mean, it was phenomenal last year, and
you know, I'm sure we'll talk again prior to November
about you know, what's going to happen with that, But
definitely like and I'll post links when the tickets are available.
All right, Well, Alter Brewing they have three locations in
the western suburbs Sketchbook ads two in the northern Suburbs.
Both are fantastic breweries that put out some great beer.
Later on in the episode, I'm going to have a
beer from both breweries and discuss them. But Ray, thank
you so much for coming on again, Sir, I appreciated.
Good luck with the first day of school, and congratulations
on j beer awes.
Speaker 2: Thanks to It's always such a pleasure to talk to you,
and you know, hopefully hopefully our New York Jets started
turn it around a little bit this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, Well, we'll talk later about the Jets,
all right, take care, Ray up this program to bring
you a news flash.
Speaker 2: Michael Jackson's ghost scene at a Yankees game, Cinnamon toast
crunch now with a shrimp in every bite. Lil Uzi
Vert's head Diamond has been sold on the dark Web.
Stories like this and more can be found at the
ever Trending Story, a podcast where we peruse the news
and write a fun fictional story for you. Find us
wherever you download podcasts and follow us on the socials.
Speaker 1: At ever Trending Pod.
Speaker 2: And we are proud members of the Odd Pods media network.
Speaker 1: You heard at the end of the interview with Ray
about our love of the New York Jets. Were probably
the only two clowns in the Chicago land area that
are Jets fan. So Ray is not only my brother
and Beer were brothers in New York Jets misery. We
could tell you about why we drafted Blair Thomas or
her people like Vernon Goldston, stuff like that. Kyle Brainy,
don't get me started. But I was a young kid
in the seventies and because you know, we only saw
what was on TV, so you bought the Bears games here.
And even though I was born right at the start
of like Joe Willie Namaths, you know, Super Bowl run
or whatever. But I was a Joe Namath fan, and
I remember to this day, might have been seventy four,
seventy five, So I'm not like skewing younger with each
any listenership here. But I remember back in the day
as a kid, you loved getting the Sears Christmas catalog
and they always had and you couldn't get NFL stuff anywhere,
but like the Sears catalog. So my mother bought me
a New York Jets jersey and I had number twelve
put on for Joe nama So I was the only kid.
I think we were living in displays at the time.
I had a New York Jets number twelve jersey. I
loved that jersey. Was the old fashioned, like it was
made out of dream, that fabric that was like a
shiny it was heavier than shit. I mean, this jersey
waited a ton, but I loved that jersey. I'm been
a New York Jets fan ever since then, following like
Richard Todd and Wesley Walker and Johnny Hector and then
you know the great New York Sack exchange. So and
I know Ray's probably the same thing. He's listening to this,
Chuckling great younger than I am, so he's thinking about
the younger guys. But man, it's not easy being a
Jets fan. Trust me, it is not easy. But we're
a New York Jets fan through and through. I'm a
Bears fan. You know, if the Bears were to ever
play the Jets of the Super Bowl, I'm going Bears.
But if the Jets were to win, I'd be happy
as well. But if you're a Jets fan in the
Chicago Land area, you know you have two fellow friends
in Misery in raced out and I were. I love
the Jets. I just don't love the current quarterback. But
you know whatever, So I'm hoping both the Bears and
the Jets have a good year this year, all right.
First up, in my beer that I'm having from the
breweries that participated in j Beer is from Altar. This
is called Rally Point. It's a West Coast India pale
ale checks in at seven point five percent. They use
two road malt, Victory and Munich Malt, along with Comet
Cascade and Cryo Simco hops. According to the website, this
is made to help support our first responders in military
as a beautiful red, white and blue can. Big fan
of the artwork on this can. So let's crack open
rally point from Altar. That is a good looking beer,
really nice dark amber color. A lot of foam here,
getting a good three fingers of foam digging the aroma,
big aroma up front. I'm liking this a lot. It
is a West Coast so it's definitely not hazy. Big
fan of that. That's good. A lot of malt that
hits me up front more than some of the other
West Coast styles. This big mault flavors upfront, good sweetness there,
and then the hops beautiful hot flavors in the middle
with a little bitterness at the end. Now, I think
this is a good version of a West Coast style.
I'm liking this so far. I'm gonna get a little
bit more of this. No, that's good. That's definitely something
I would keep in my fridge year round. I think
this is a really good West Coast IPA. I like it.
I hit something else from altern I don't remember what
it was, but I do remember enjoying that. I'll have
to go back in the beer in front our guys
to see what it was, but they have three locations,
one in Downers Grove, Oakbrook, and Saint Charles. So if
you're in the western suburbs, definitely hit up Alter. I
think their beer is really good. Put the rally point
in the cart, all right, I'm gonna close things off
with an orange door from Sketchbook. This is a West
Coast IPA double dry hop. I'm a big fan of this.
I love Sketch Book. It's one of the favorite breweries
that I've gone to with Ruby in the Chicago Land area.
We really love the vibe there. I'm a big fan
of Sketch Book. This has been out for about ten years.
I think the brewery opened ten years ago, and I
like everything that I've had from there. So this is
a double dry hopped West Coast IPA seven point two
percent alcohol seventy six IBus. From the name orange door,
they had an orange door when they opened. But you're
gonna get some big citrus flavors out of this. A
little pine. Let's crack open the orange door from Sketchbook.
Really nice color here, nice more on the lighter side
compared to the one I just hand from Altar, but
it's a really good color. Good foam. Yeah, you get
that big pine citrus aroma right up front. It smells phenomenal. Yeah,
that's good. Those hops hit you right up front. Seventy
six IBus. You get that big blast of bitterness at
the end, which you know, in today's hazy world you
almost don't expect that. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's this?
Where am I back in time? Is this twenty fifteen
or something? No, this is really good. Yeah, you do
get kind of like a Marmalady type nope fee to
this with the taste. You get that big citrus sweetness
taste kind of in the middle. I love this. I
think this is a great beer. Everything that I've had
from Sketchbook, between this Pinky Sweater the other ones that
they have, they're all good. So if you're in the
Northern Suburbs, I would definitely hit them up. I think
you're gonna enjoy like the tap rooms that they have.
It's a really cool place, good vibe that you get there.
I'm a big fan. So if you see Orange Door
from Sketchbook, you definitely have to put this one in
the cart as well. All Right, that's going to wrap
things up for this edition of Beer in Front. I
thank you very much for listening. Once again, I want
to thank raced Out from the Illinois craft Brewers Guild
for coming on and talking about J Beer. If you're
around and you see anything from Sketchbook or Alter, definitely
pick up some of their beers. They're both great. Have
a great week everyone, I'll talk to you next week,
and remember sometimes the beer in front of you is
the best one yet.