Paul Kreiner
Head brewer at Noon Whistle Brewing in Lombard and Naperville
NoonWhistleBrewing.com

1. The last really good beer you drank was… Bodem from Half Acre. I usually always have some of of that in my cooler all the time. It’s just such a good beer.

2. What fellow Illinois breweries and/or specific beers have impressed you lately?

Revolution’s barrel-aged Deep Woods series has really impressed me. They’ve just done a really good job with the entire thing over the years. I had their Straight Jacket barrel-aged barleywine recently. It really is phenomenal, as is their whole series. The original double barrel-aged VSOJ (Very Special Old Jacket) too. 

3. What are you most proud of at your brewery? 

Our hop water that just came out. It’s zero alcohol and something that we’ve been working on for a while. We use a certain kind of hop that we blend up and put it in with water. If you’re looking for something with hop-forward flavor, but don’t want the calories or alcohol, this is it.

Also, our Hop Prism series is really dialed in right now. It’s hoppy, more clear and less hazy — a trend that is coming around. We’re refining that and working a lot on it. Hop Prism Blue IPA is on the market, but all our other Hop Prism beers — Emerald Green and Turquoise — are in the brewery only.

We have a couple great wild sours called Funderin and Bokatto that we’ve released and have been working on for a couple years as well.  

Mana Skull is an imperial stout of ours worth keeping an eye out for if you can find it — think coconut and vanilla. It’s very good, I can promise you.

4. What do you have coming up that people should know about? 

Our eight-year anniversary was in December, and we celebrated with a free event at our brewery in Lombard at the end of January. We’re going to have a ton of new releases with something for everyone. Mana Skull is an imperial stout of ours worth keeping an eye out for if you can find it — think coconut and vanilla. It’s very good, I can promise you.