ABV Chicago’s FoBAB Fantasy League 2020: Draft Results

(If you’re interested in running your own Fantasy FoBAB league, check out our setup and Power Rankings in this post.)

With the livestream of the Festival of Wood and Barrel-aged Beers happening this Saturday at 3PM CST on the FoBAB website, we will have our scoresheets at the ready to see who will win the 2nd Annual ABV Chicago Fantasy FoBAB league.

Scoring Reminder: The scoring works like this: a gold medal is worth 3 points, a silver is worth 2 points, and a bronze medal is worth 1 point. If the brewery wins Best of Show or Runner-Up, that will be an additional 3 points or 2 points respectively.

Multiple Location Breweries (MLBs): For simplicity’s sake, we combined breweries that were entering beer from multiple locations as one draftable entity, but each fantasy squad was only allowed to own one. Breweries are limited to entering two beers for competition, so these MLBs obviously have a slight advantage by doubling their chances. (All MLBs are marked with an asterisk in the draft results below.)

The 2nd Annual ABV Chicago FoBAB Fantasy League: Draft Results

Last year, we made a list of Chicago beer media members and personalities that we’d like to have in our league, and we were delighted when every single person we contacted was enthusiastically in. Even more exciting is that every team manager opted to return for Year Two. These team managers are colleagues and friends – people for whom we have tremendous respect. We admire the work they do for beer locally, and we suggest you give them all a follow.

We capped the league at 10 teams again this year, as we weren’t ready to make any major changes given the circumstances. Check out the squads from our talented team managers below, and let us know on social media who you think came out of the draft with the best lineup. The teams are listed in the randomly generated draft order, and the numbers next to each brewery represent their overall pick number.

Team: Slow Pour Haze

Team Manager: Mike Zoller

Twitter: @mikezoller

Mike Zoller is the Midwest Editor for PorchDrinking.com and has been covering beer in Chicago for 8 years. He also runs the Instagram account @chicagobeer.

1. Revolution Brewing (Chicago, IL)*
20. Hopewell Brewing (Chicago, IL)
21. Crystal Lake Brewing (Crystal Lake, IL)
40. Wellspent Brewing (St. Louis, MO)
41. 3 Floyds Brewing (Munster, IN)
60. Mikerphone Brewing (Elk Grove Village, IL)

Team: Third and Lager

Team Manager: Stephanie Byce

Twitter: @girlandherbeer

Stephanie is a digital marketer in Chicago masquerading as a writer and photographer. When not hiding behind a camera lens or cutting the sleeves off of brewery T-shirts to wear while playing sports, she often finds herself on her back porch drinking with her cat.

2. Bottle Logic Brewing (Anaheim, CA)
19. Cruz Blanca Brewery (Chicago, IL)
22. Hacienda Brewing Co. (Baileys Harbor, WI)
39. Whiner Beer (Chicago, IL)
42. Lake Effect Brewing (Chicago, IL)
59. Central Waters Brewing Company (Amherst, WI)

Team: PollyAlvaKROSBegyThreeCraft

Team Manager: Karl Klockars

Twitter: @karlklockars

Karl Klockars is a co-creator of GuysDrinkingBeer.com, the author of Beer Lovers Chicago, a regular freelance writer for a whole bunch of places and a recently transplanted resident of Traverse City, Michigan. He also really hopes KROS Strain’s two medals last year weren’t a Karetas-style fluke.

3. Pollyanna Brewing Co. (Lemont/Roselle, IL)*
18. Kros Strain Brewing (La Vista, NE)
23. Phase Three Brewing (Lake Zurich, IL)
38. Begyle Brewing (Chicago, IL)
43. Alvarado Street Brewery (Monterey, CA)
58. MobCraft Beer (Milwaukee, WI)

Team: Off Color Total Landscaping

Team Manager: Ryan I.

Twitter: @ABVChicago

Ryan has been the co-host and producer of the ABV Chicago craft beer podcast for almost seven years. He teaches middle school, lives in Forest Park with his wife and two kids, and sometimes comes up with silly high-concept beer games while washing the dishes.

4. Off Color Brewing (Chicago, IL)*
17. Wolf’s Ridge Brewing (Columbus, OH)
24. Cerebral Brewing (Denver, CO)
37. Spiteful Brewing (Chicago, IL)
44. Breakside Brewery (Portland, OR)
57. Church Street Brewing (Itasca, IL)

Team: The Rural Beer Writer Coalition

Team Manager: Joshua Riley

Twitter: @brewdude3k

Josh Riley is a craft beer columnist for the Weekend Life Section of the Daily Journal in Kankakee. He has been writing this column for nearly 6 years basing his writing on what is available and notable for the fine folks of Kankakee County. In addition to a monthly brewery crawl article, Untappd Badges, local beer events, the “Brew Dude” also runs an annual Christmas Gift List Giveaway. He lives with his wife, Sam, and daughter Penelope in rural Illinois.

5. The Lost Abbey (San Marcos, CA)
16. Listermann Brewing Company (Cincinnati, OH)
25. Allagash Brewing Company (Portland, ME)
36. Hailstorm Brewing (Tinley Park, IL)
45. Midwest Coast Brewing Company (Chicago, IL)
56. Alesong Brewing (Eugene, OR)

Team: Malt is the New Hops

Team Manager: Jack Muldowney

Twitter: @StudioMalt

Jack Muldowney runs a Chicago design studio called Malt, and once even ran a beer mag called The Hop Review. When he’s not managing businesses with beer-themed names, he can be spotted biking the city en route to one of Chicago’s famed parking lot Biergartens.

6. Half Acre Beer Co. (Chicago, IL)*
15. More Brewing Co. (Villa Park, IL)
26. Superstition Meadery (Prescott, AZ)
35. Lakefront Brewery (Milwaukee, WI)
46. Upstream Brewing (Bedford Park, IL)
55. Penrose Brewing Co. (Geneva, IL)

Team: Black Beer Queens Delegation

Team Manager: Chalonda White

Twitter: @afrobeerchick

Kick ass Wife, Mother, Beer & Bourbon Drinker. Who is living her life like it’s golden while rockin an amazing afro.

7. Forager Brewery (Rochester, MN)
14. Foreign Exchange Brewing Co. (Aurora, IL)
27. Maplewood Brewery & Distillery (Chicago, IL)
34. Pure Project (San Diego, CA)
47. Whiskey Hill Brewing Company (Westmont, IL)
54. Black Horizon Brewing Company (Willowbrook, IL)

Team: The Road Sodas

Team Manager: Nik White

Twitter: @nkosio

Nik is the co-founder of Chicago Beer Geeks and the co-host of the Chicago Beer Pass podcast. When not sipping Hypnotiq from a coffee mug or spending too much time deciphering the goddamn Julian Date Code on a Lagunitas 6pk at checkout, Nik loves spending time with his wife and their Golden Retriever, Raleigh.

8. Werk Force Brewing Co. (Plainfield, IL)
13. Haymarket Brewery (Chicago, IL/Bridgman, MI)*
28. Misbeehavin’ Meads. (Valparaiso, IN)
33. Open Outcry Brewing (Chicago, IL)
48. Rhinegeist Brewery (Cincinnati, OH)*
53. On Tour Brewing Co. (Chicago, IL)

Team: High Gravity Quarantine

Team Manager: Craig G.

Twitter: @ABVChicago

Co-host of ABV Chicago that misses beer fests but not beer lines. Loves online ordering and green screens. Tiring of being remote all the time.

9. Sun King Brewery (Indianapolis, IN)*
12. Firestone Walker Brewing Company (Paso Robles, CA)
29. Pipeworks Brewing (Chicago, IL)
32. DESTIHL Brewery (Normal, IL)
49. Imperial Oak Brewing (Willow Springs, IL)
52. Horus Aged Ales (Oceanside, CA)

Team: The Old Man Lagers

Team Manager: Ryan Tracy

Twitter: @wehavegreatbeer

Ryan is the owner and general manager of Beer on the Wall, a craft-beer focused liquor store and tap room, located in Park Ridge along with its adjoining cafe and wine bar, Off the Wall. He recently opened a second Beer on the Wall location in Arlington Heights He resides in nearby Niles, IL where he routinely drags his supportive wife, son, and daughter to breweries to play board games and lament about how hard video games used to be.