The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast

Ep 165 - Memorial Day Ready Craft Beers Rated By Two Friends

Cloudy skies, a long weekend, and a fridge full of “not our usual styles” sets the stage for a Memorial Day ready craft beer tasting that goes from crisp to chaotic. We’re chasing lighter, easy-drinking summer beer that still tastes like something, not just cold fizz, and we put each can to the test with honest ratings and plenty of debate about what we’d actually stock for a day on the deck, the boat, or by the campfire. We start strong with Firestone Walker 805 Blonde Ale, the kind of smooth, clean blonde ale we’d hand to almost anyone, then compare it to Lift Bridge Farm Day Golden Ale and its sharper finish. Along the way we get curious about American Craft Beer Week, learn it began in 2006, and talk about why a simple craft beer tasting with friends is one of the best ways to celebrate independent breweries. Then the flavors swing hard: a nitro Meyer lemon blonde ale that tastes like lemon for days, a honey-forward kolsch that surprises us, and a cranberry orange wheat that somehow hides the wheat character while still delivering fruit. Not every experiment lands. One “sunny” light ale comes off strangely blended, and our bonus non-alcoholic kolsch literally explodes when opened, giving us a real-time lesson in why NA beer is its own category. We wrap with our top picks, what we’d buy again, and how we’re planning our own Memorial Day beer tasting competition. Subscribe for more craft beer reviews, share this with a friend who needs a better cooler lineup, and leave a rating or review so more beer lovers can find the show. What’s your perfect hot-weather beer style? Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2132215/fan_mail/new] Thank you for listening to The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. If you have a question, comment or would like us to review your beer, please feel free to contact us at northwoodsbeerguy@gmail.com.  You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram and Tik Tok. If you are on Untappd, look up NorthwoodsBeerGuy and send a friend request. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can click on our RSS feed as well.

Ep 164 - Carbliss Malt Cocktails Taste Test

One convenience store stop turned into a full-on summer drink showdown. I’m Mike, and Suzy is back at the mic with me as we crack open four brand-new Carbliss malt beverages in the big 19.2 oz cans and find out whether “zero sugar” can still taste bold, bright, and actually refreshing. We dig into what’s changed for Carbliss, a Wisconsin-based favorite known for zero carb, zero sugar, zero calorie vodka cocktails. These new RTDs are malt beverages instead, with a small bump in carbs and calories, and we talk honestly about what that means for flavor, sweetness, carbonation, and that dreaded “too fizzy, too sweet” burnout. You’ll hear our tasting notes and scores for Cherry Limeade, Kiwi Strawberry, Black Cherry, and Arctic Blue Raspberry, including why black cherry hits a nostalgic soda note and why blue raspberry smells like a snow cone. Then we take a Northwoods detour: updates from our camper community and Callahan Lake Resort, plans for our Memorial Day beer tasting competition, and how a blind tasting format might finally keep everyone honest. We also get into morel mushrooms, including how to clean them, what makes them valuable, and why you should be careful about false morels. One important heads-up for gluten-sensitive listeners: since these are malt beverages, gluten may be a factor compared to some vodka-based canned cocktails. If you like canned cocktails, low sugar summer drinks, and real talk about what’s worth buying for the lake, tailgate, or backyard barbecue, hit play. Subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find us. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2132215/fan_mail/new] Thank you for listening to The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. If you have a question, comment or would like us to review your beer, please feel free to contact us at northwoodsbeerguy@gmail.com.  You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram and Tik Tok. If you are on Untappd, look up NorthwoodsBeerGuy and send a friend request. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can click on our RSS feed as well.

Ep 163 - Do Stouts Need Barrels To Be Great

Six stouts. Zero barrels. One big question: can a stout still hit hard on flavor when you take bourbon, rum, and oak out of the equation? Mike and Jim line up a full flight of non barrel aged stouts, starting with a nitro Scottish stout that delivers the creamy cascade and classic mouthfeel, then moving through a run of oatmeal stouts that are silky and smooth but keep leaving us asking, “Where’s the chocolate and coffee you promised?”  Between sips, we go deep on stout history and beer trivia. We talk about how stouts began as porters, why porter got its name from London’s working porters, and why the word “stout” originally meant strong, not dark. We even get into the surprisingly modern story of nitrogen in beer and why nitro changes the experience so much, from foam texture to perceived sweetness and roast.  Then the flight takes a turn: an American stout brings hop character and a drier finish, and we share one of the strangest stout facts we’ve heard, the old practice of prescribing stout after donating blood due to its supposed iron content. Finally, we end with the standout of the day: Untitled Art’s Dubai Chocolate Bar stout, inspired by the viral dessert, packed with cacao and pistachio aroma and the kind of rich stout flavor we’ve been chasing all episode.  If you love craft beer reviews, stout tasting notes, and real talk about what makes a beer worth buying again, hit play, then subscribe, share the show with a beer friend, and leave us a review. What’s your favorite non barrel aged stout right now? Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2132215/fan_mail/new] Thank you for listening to The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. If you have a question, comment or would like us to review your beer, please feel free to contact us at northwoodsbeerguy@gmail.com.  You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram and Tik Tok. If you are on Untappd, look up NorthwoodsBeerGuy and send a friend request. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can click on our RSS feed as well.

Ep 162 - VIP Beer Tasting Notes From La Crosse's Beverages And Bites Fest

They took a festival that ran for decades under one name and hit reset. We head to La Crosse's newly branded Beverages and Bites Fest (formerly Between the Bluffs Beer, Wine and Cheese Fest) with our usual mission: get into VIP early, talk to the brewers, and hunt for the beers that actually deliver big flavor instead of big promises. The day starts with real-world festival problems you only understand once you’re there: a loud tent “hum” that kills on-site recording plans, bigger tasting glasses that can sneak up on you fast, and the constant pressure to choose between “something new” and “something safe.” We share what we noticed about the event’s setup, the crowd, and why VIP time matters if you care about tasting notes and brewery conversations more than just standing in lines. Then we get into the pours. From 608 Brewing’s barrel-aged barleywine to the curveball of Elysian Night Owl Pumpkin Ale, we talk aroma, finish, and what makes a beer actually drinkable. We also call out the misses, including a sour so tart it overwhelmed everything else and a “rum barrel” imperial stout that didn’t taste like rum at all. The highlights include Third Space Mystic Knot and a surprise win from Avery Maharaja, before we crown our Best Of Fest: Untitled Art’s Mexican style pot de creme double pastry stout made with a stacked ingredient list and serious dessert-stout payoff. Subscribe for more craft beer reviews, barrel-aged stout talk, and festival recaps, then share this with a friend and leave a review. What beer would you have chased first at this festival? Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2132215/fan_mail/new] Thank you for listening to The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. If you have a question, comment or would like us to review your beer, please feel free to contact us at northwoodsbeerguy@gmail.com.  You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram and Tik Tok. If you are on Untappd, look up NorthwoodsBeerGuy and send a friend request. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can click on our RSS feed as well.

Ep 161 - Blueberries Rum Barrels And One Bat Problem

Six Russian Imperial stouts. Double-digit ABV across the board. And one simple question: can a huge, dark beer still feel balanced instead of boozy, bitter, or flat? We put that to the test with a Minneapolis-heavy lineup, including multiple Surly Darkness variants and a final curveball stout that looked so much like a Surly box we accidentally grabbed it. We start with the Surly Darkness “base model” and use it to talk through what makes a Russian Imperial Stout taste like a Russian Imperial Stout: deep roast, hop bitterness, warming alcohol, and that lingering dryness that can either hook you or chase you off. Then the fun begins. Blueberry Crumble aged in rum barrels brings a real blueberry aroma that actually follows through on the sip. Raspberry Chocolate Torte in rye whiskey barrels sparks a balance debate around sweetness, cacao, and how fruit can overpower everything else. Lumberjack Breakfast stacks maple, coffee, cinnamon, and vanilla into a surprisingly drinkable pour that has us rethinking what “breakfast stout” should taste like. The top pour of the night is the Surly Darkness special edition matured in Elijah Craig 12-year bourbon barrels, and the named barrel makes a difference. We dig into bourbon character, why barrel details matter, and how three different palates can pull three different “first flavors” from the same glass. To close it out, we review Lost Moon from Pryes Brewing and talk about packaging, marketing, and why some barrel-aged stouts land loud while others feel muted. Subscribe, share the episode with your stout-loving friend, and leave a review, then tell us which Darkness variant you’d hunt down first. Send us Fan Mail [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2132215/fan_mail/new] Thank you for listening to The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. If you have a question, comment or would like us to review your beer, please feel free to contact us at northwoodsbeerguy@gmail.com.  You can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram and Tik Tok. If you are on Untappd, look up NorthwoodsBeerGuy and send a friend request. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube Music, or wherever you listen to podcasts, or you can click on our RSS feed as well.