Transcript

Introducing Craft Beer Radio Episode 516

Jeff:
[0:03] Craft beer radio episode 516th on december 15th 2023, i'm shannon oh he was telling you to hold off and you're like i didn't see that, we're still figuring out this three-way intro i really didn't see a bunch of noobs over here uh yeah so you are santa you are her dirty little elf and i'm biazel pub welcome to the craft of your radio and this week we're doing um a bunch of cans um any of them local yeah yeah one in your hand yes greg brought over this polish style pilsner from old thunder i did did you get it at your local um bottle shop yes i did so this is from old thunder this is is Silesian Foothills.

Greg:
[1:18] It's a 5.2%. Pilsner with European barley malt, a blend of Lubelski and Marenka hops from Poland.
So just, you know, Continental hops is my guess.

Jeff:
[1:33] The big Lubelski hops, huh?

Shannon:
[1:35] And Old Thunder happens to be in this little tiny town across the river called Blonox.

Greg:
[1:46] Blonox.

Shannon:
[1:47] Blonox and that. For all you people who aren't familiar with Pittsburgh.

Jeff:
[1:52] If I'm hamming up my Pittsburgh accent, it's my favorite town to pronounce in my hammed up Pittsburgh accent.

Shannon:
[1:58] That's what you say?

Jeff:
[1:58] I should say if I'm chip chop hamming up my Pittsburgh accent.

Greg:
[2:02] Chip that ham, baby.

Jeff:
[2:04] Ann's gone down to Moondogs and Blonox.

Shannon:
[2:07] Mm-hmm.

Jeff:
[2:09] Moondogs is a music cafe there anyway um what's the name of this beer again salesian foothill so they're foothills but they're salesian ones that's my guess at least based on english and the way modifiers work i just presumed that they were a uh, geographic feature of europe be my guess but i guess the border didn't work and and Cooper is still like no I can't get back out mommy, I'll go I'll try to see if I can corral him alright well while Greg is doing that when this show is coming off, it's a real banger you know we gotta end the year with a bang yeah so this uh the beer, is a hazy yellow almost like a you know it's a the polish pills it seems like it has a yeast taste to it you know it's not like a hazy grain haze or anything like that um almost like a killer pills or something like that i guess from the view of it.

Ending the Year with a Bang: The Hazy Polish Pilsner

[3:20] Aroma leads out like very almost like um golden grams maybe less honey than golden grams but kind of that that kind of crackery cereal thing yeah very bready but not like not like cooked like super cooked bread but just.

Crisp and Clean: A Refreshing Malt Aroma

[3:40] The the hops are playing just a supporting role to kind of the malt aroma it has a kind of a crisp aroma but nothing like modern hoppy you know so, i like it it's pretty clean and crisp oh you already tasted it, yeah that works has a really great that light bread bit crackery note dries off really fast because of the christmas that is um that's a drinker right there it is, yeah this guy is um.

Greg:
[4:23] This was you know because i'm looking for stuff generally that's not uh ipas yeah and.

[4:33] Occasionally i'll get an ipa but most of the time i'm looking for something that's not an ipa and i'm looking for something that in general is also not like a milkshake style so that tends to limit my options yeah a lot of people are doing beers like italian pilsners like a moretti or peroni, or you don't see too many ones that are labeled uh polish pills but really the point the point of my story is i've never found myself like in a mood maybe i haven't opened myself up to enough craft italian style pilsners but it's like i don't really why would i ever want to drink something that reminds me of a peroni you know like well i i just look at it like i just want want something that is gonna be enjoyable and then i'm not going to be like just just another hazy that is you know yet another one that i can check off on on the list because i'm just i'm i feel like even the great hazies and there are some excellent hazies out there they have a sameness to them that nowadays i'm looking for lagers and stuff like that because i want something that's, you know i'm looking to for for stuff especially to go with like food and stuff like that to really.

[5:51] Either have a different character or to be a supporting character as opposed to the thing that's just going to blow all of my taste buds out with what it's giving right the more i'm The more I'm drinking this, the more I'm picking up kind of a melony note from the hops.

Shannon:
[6:06] I'm picking up a lot of tannins.

Jeff:
[6:08] Okay.

Shannon:
[6:10] Yeah.

Jeff:
[6:11] How are they coming across?

Shannon:
[6:13] Good. I like it. I really like this, actually, but it's got a lot of tannins in it.

Jeff:
[6:24] But i can't you can't identify identify what's interesting here is that there is a um there are tasting notes and i'm not sure like one of them is fresh bread definitely that's in there the other two are fruity stuff and um okay so they say citrus and bergamot i don't know i can kind of to see some of the bergamot like the oiliness of it you know it's adjacent to that melon that i'm dialing into right now so i'm thinking of you know some of the german beers that use the huel melon hop right sure um i'm kind of adjacent in the same or in the same neighborhood of like kind of hoppy melon flavor in this beer um there is something a little more um there's a light spice coming out of it which is kind of associated with like kind of the bergamot type um flavors of of um like an earl grey tea or something i think this would go great with fish, fish and chips oh yeah.

Delicate Lawnmower Beer and Food Pairings

[7:42] It's almost too delicate to be a good lawnmower beer in some sense because like Like, it's not going to, I don't know, feel as refreshing maybe as some other ones.

Greg:
[7:57] It's just, it's got, I feel it's got some delicacy to it.

Jeff:
[8:01] Yeah. Yeah, you mentioned fish. I'm thinking, well, two things came into my mind, and that's either like a waffle or funnel cake. Kind of like.

Greg:
[8:12] Interesting. I wasn't thinking sweet. But it would work.

Jeff:
[8:17] It kind of amplifies the breadiness. yeah yeah contrast where this goes herbal and melanie that would go you know yeah yeah it would work so and i was then i was trying to think that i just did i fish funnel cake out of the same fryer that your fish and chips came from i was wondering right like is that what turned me on to funnel cake i don't know i mean if you were at uh the park then absolutely because because they only got one fryer.
That was good. That was the Salesian Hills, Foothills from Old Thunderbrun Company.

Greg:
[8:54] So it was mentioned before we started, but we didn't talk about it, that not only is Christmas coming up, but it's also your boy day soon.
So I have some gifts, and I'm going to partial them out.

Jeff:
[9:07] Oh, okay.

Greg:
[9:09] My first gift is, Is this is a kitchen tool that I find to be really, really cool.

Jeff:
[9:23] They are a pair of thin tongs.

Greg:
[9:28] They're like a combination between tongs and chopsticks in a way.
They allow for you to, they're really, they're, you know, well-made sturdy and you can hold even big things or small things with them.
But you can also be very dexterous with them too.

Jeff:
[9:45] Well, I mean, it's interesting because, I mean, ask Shannon.
I often do cook with like the salad tongs, you know, the metal salad tongs. I like those, These seem a bit Dainty but I'll be happy To give them a try You'll be surprised at how well you can pick These up with those It'll be so easy to get like olives out of an olive jar Or, Pickles and stuff too Yeah I guess picking from jars totally That'd be useful I was thinking more of like working in the Walk or skillet or something Yeah like you can flip things over or something like that Oh yeah Bacon Yeah, these are cool. Thank you. And like I was trying to say, I already have a habit of preferring tongs over spoons and spatulas.
So this will just be, I just didn't know I needed skinny tongs in my life.

Shannon:
[10:35] Now you know.

Jeff:
[10:37] Well, I don't know yet, but I do have them in my life.
I'll never go back.

Shannon:
[10:43] Those are cool.

Greg:
[10:45] So obviously these are gifts for both of you.

Shannon:
[10:47] Oh yeah, I'm totally going to use these. When I make bacon, these are perfect for bacon.

Jeff:
[10:53] Your idea of fishing things out of jars?

Shannon:
[10:55] Yeah.

Jeff:
[10:55] I like that idea a lot, too.

Greg:
[10:57] Yeah, but you can use them right there like you are, like close up so you get a lot of dexterity, or you can fall back and still have a lot of control.

Shannon:
[11:08] They're also like.

Jeff:
[11:10] Yeah. Pluck my nose hairs. Yeah.

Shannon:
[11:12] Yeah. You can do that too. Awesome.

Jeff:
[11:15] All right. So our next beer, is it the next one in line? Yes.

Shannon:
[11:18] Oh, I'm not done yet. Hold on. Let me chug.

Greg:
[11:21] Chug, chug, chug.

Jeff:
[11:23] All right. So this one from Bald Birds Brewing Company is Karate Explosion.
And this was gifted to us, gifted to me by Dale at Hitchhiker.

Shannon:
[11:33] Oh, that's where it came from. That's right. Yeah.

Jeff:
[11:36] I went in to buy some beer. and this is his Christmas gift to us.

Greg:
[11:40] Oh, how nice.

Shannon:
[11:41] Forgot about that. Dale, if you ever listen, I'm sorry.

Jeff:
[11:46] Let's get all three glasses over here because I want to do like a staggered pour.

Greg:
[11:50] Karate explosion.

Shannon:
[11:53] Oh, staggered right on the table.

Jeff:
[11:55] This corner is not working for me very well.

Greg:
[11:58] And it's dry hopped with, sorry, 7.5% alcohol by volume, dry hopped with Citra, Cryo Mosaic, and Cryo Simcoe. I don't understand what that exactly means.

Shannon:
[12:09] Cryo?

Greg:
[12:10] It must mean maybe put, I think they put them through like liquid nitrogen and that maybe extracts some things from it.

Jeff:
[12:20] It's been a thing for a while now.
And to be honest, I haven't looked it up. I don't know what the cryo process is. But it is definitely a thing people like for doing these, you know, like bleeding edge hoppy kind of beers and stuff.

Greg:
[12:37] What are cryo hops?

Jeff:
[12:40] Greg. While Greg's doing the research, I will do the basics here. It is a hazy IPA.
It's not completely cloudy like a wit beer or Hefeweizen. and you can kind of like peek around the corner and see some clearness through there, but it all has roused the sediment.
The head looks like shaving cream.
And it is a light gold color, much like the last one. Rome on this one, the hops are out front.

Shannon:
[13:15] Oh yeah, they're definitely out front.

Jeff:
[13:19] Citra hops did you say uh sorry i was reading about the cryo hops so citra cryo mosaic and cryo simcoe all right so yeah the you know it lines up with what you'd expect from those it starts off with kind of this candied orange and then it gets a little more tropical in there too, and i'm not really getting the signature simcoe any kind of dankness on the nose but but it probably is backing up, bolstering the flavor with some more bitterness, be my guess.

Greg:
[13:51] It's a cryogenic hot processing technology used to separate whole cones into two components, concentrated lupulin and bract.

Jeff:
[14:00] Mm-hmm.

Shannon:
[14:02] Ooh, I like this.

Exploring the Lupulin Glands and Bracts

Jeff:
[14:08] Interesting i believe the bract is kind of like the the armature that holds the lupulin glands you know like kind of the stem part inside there you know i see yeah lupulin is the stuff that is the main aroma compound goo and uh looks like pollen yeah i think it's bract is just the rest of the plant matter oh i guess i you might be right i seem to recall that the kind of the the tree-like structure inside that the lupine glands are attached to is the bract but i could just be inventing that whole memory is a modified or specialized leaf especially when associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower yeah so it's kind of that that stiffer um stem stem that's inside that grows almost like well i guess almost flowers you have the the really long, pistils right you know kind of like those but more in a pine tree orientation i see okay, i'm not really picking anything up specific it's it definitely smells sweeter than the last one The taste.

Shannon:
[15:22] I'm not able to pull any specific thing out. It's like everything's melded together so much that.

Jeff:
[15:30] That's one thing I've noticed with the cryo hops that I've paid attention to is they seem more muddy to me.
I'm not trying to poop on them. I don't know.
But like, I've never been excited by, ooh boy, another cryo hopped one.
one um for the aroma it really punches right and then on the row on the flavor, there's just nothing there i was expecting clearer flavors and they're a bit muddled together you're getting some of that orange you're getting kind of a mushy mushy, guava or mushy mango or something yeah yeah i think you're right the the everything is more melded together which might work in the right circumstances if you wanted to really tame a hop but, like it might be good for Simcoe because Simcoe sometimes if you don't tame it.

Greg:
[16:33] Uh, but I don't know if you want to do it with mosaic cause mosaic doesn't really need to be tamed.

Shannon:
[16:38] No.

Jeff:
[16:41] Um, it's probably like better yields or something, you know, that kind of thing.

Greg:
[16:45] Or it, or it's just an experiment.

Jeff:
[16:47] It stores better. Uh, I've seen cryo around for a couple of years, but I just never took the, uh, initiative to research it.
I figured it had something to do with putting the hops through something really cold.

Greg:
[17:00] But yeah what i think it really is is that the flavor doesn't last yeah it's just kind of i don't know i was really looking forward to this one because on the nose i i got so much but then, tasting it i'm just not getting much of anything you get it up front and then it fades real fast fades real fast and you're sort of left with, kind of a a bitter readiness yeah i mean from my point of view kind of overall this is a fine hazy it's nothing excitable it's not bad i've had way worse yeah yeah this one's drinkable it's just lackluster i guess would be the right word yeah it doesn't it's not bold enough to really, be of, you know, any kind of remarkable stuff.

Unremarkable Hazy Beer and the Mystery of Jersey Shore

[17:51] So it is pretty unremarkable, which is.

Jeff:
[17:55] Oh, they're in Jersey Shore, PA.

Shannon:
[17:57] Mm-hmm.

Jeff:
[17:58] Funny. I just, we drove back from New York in October. We drove through Jersey Shore.
And, you know, curiosity really got to me. Like, why is it called Jersey Shore?

Greg:
[18:07] Mm-hmm.

Jeff:
[18:07] Do you know?

Greg:
[18:10] I imagine it's because it's in Jersey and it might be somewhere near the shore. No, no, I'm sorry.

Jeff:
[18:14] It's in north central Pennsylvania.

Greg:
[18:16] Oh.

Jeff:
[18:17] Like hundreds of miles from New Jersey.

Greg:
[18:19] Oh, why is that called Jersey Shore? No, I have no idea.

Jeff:
[18:24] All right. So I, my first thought was, so back in like the twenties and thirties, there was this whole. Okay.

Greg:
[18:31] I have a thought before you get it, but go ahead.
Yeah.

Jeff:
[18:34] So this, this is a, this is what got me thinking down the wrong path, but it's an amusing story in the twenties and thirties in Florida, when they were kind of filling in all the swamps and stuff, they were having this huge real estate rush, right?
People were buying parcels site unseen and whatnot.
And some of them were getting like just swampy messes and stuff like that.

Greg:
[18:54] And I was thinking that Jersey shore was something that happened in like the mid 1800s, late 1800s in New York, where people were just running these ads, like buy property at the the jersey shore right and then they ended up owning a deed to some property in that's not it but that's what my guess was okay here's here's a guess which requires a little bit of history, uh there's a town in new mexico called truth or consequences okay and the reason why it's called that is because there was a game show called truth or consequences and they offered to give some money to a town that would name itself okay after the show so now is it i don't know way back back in the 50s or something. Yeah, 1950.
So Jersey Shore, the MTV show, had a similar contest.

Jeff:
[19:40] Way back in the 1760s. No, what it was, was there was two towns, one on each side of the river, or two settlements, I guess, like families.
And the Jersey Shore is on the northwest shore of the West Branch of the Susquehanna.

Greg:
[19:56] Sure.

Jeff:
[19:57] And there was the other people on the southeast shore well those people on the southeast shore apparently didn't care for the people across the river and those people originally from jersey so they were called it oh that's the jersey shore and it was called like williamsburg or something for a long time and then the name had stuck and now it's jersey shore yeah own it right so yes so now everyone whether they've heard of it or not oh you live in jersey Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.

Shannon:
[20:24] Jersey Shore.

Greg:
[20:24] Yeah, and then he owned it. He's like, yeah, yeah, live in Jersey Shore. That's right.

Jeff:
[20:28] That's the Jersey Shore over there. So, yeah, Curious got the best man.
I had to look it up on Wikipedia.

Greg:
[20:35] Cool.
But yeah, so this is the angry karate kicker boy thing.

Shannon:
[20:41] Yeah, karate explosion.

Greg:
[20:43] Karate explosion. And the problem is that the explosion doesn't last.

Shannon:
[20:52] 7.4%? Yeah. I don't think it's worse.

Greg:
[20:57] If it's a karate explosion, it's a karate explosion from a six-year-old who's learning karate.
karate and it's like okay you show me you can do a kick and you know that that's more than the average six-year-old but i'm still not getting like pushed back by it, so yeah your karate explosion is just okay average it's not slightly white belt all right so i think we should switch beer the next beer and the second the last beer, just knowing how they taste I think it's a better progression which one are we going next?

Jeff:
[21:37] I think we should do Lawson's next okay, alright next beer is Lawson's Sip of Sunshine IPA which is I would say this was next on the list yeah I know I need to finish this or pour it out does anybody want it?
don't plug it right there sorry Dale if you ever listen you could just do it quietly and not draw attention to dumping it out too late lawson's gotta be chill and honest with our listeners.

Lawson's Sip of Sunshine: A Taste of New England

[22:12] All right uh so yeah lawson's sip of sunshine it's a vermont brewery we didn't get up to them on our great new england trip but they're available here in pittsburgh now and this is one of the beer first time i had this beer it was one of those oh my god new england ipas not hazy ipas but new england style ipas are amazing um oh my god you know and we got a four pack so i've had this and um let's just drink it and see how it comes out but it's kind of cool that these beers are available in pittsburgh what are you doing i'm trying to pour the beer i know okay just trying to figure out what time it was it's um by mount pillier somewhere it was south of where we were, Waitsfield, Vermont Waitsfield 8% alkyl by volume and, that's kind of it they don't really have a lot on there this one's not as light as.

[23:20] More orangey yeah it's it's got a little more of the a hint of orange or, copper i got a little bit of drags it's fine but you know no it's all right it was packaged october 9th um yeah it's weird we got back from our trip in new england where we got to go to an alchemist and to you know all these fiddlehead you know these like well-known breweries in new England and we come back and like they're all available here now smells like weed, I wasn't getting much aroma so uh because I kind of got we've got a little canned stratification so Jeff is now mixing so that, do you smell weed a little bit but not much I mean it's just a hint yeah definitely that's That's what I'm getting.

Shannon:
[24:18] I'm not really getting much of anything else.

Jeff:
[24:23] Yeah. So lots of these Vermont beers are available in Pittsburgh now, which is interesting.
Ones that were like cult beers not too long ago.
And now, like, I realized last Sunday that Heddy Topper is a shelf turd.
Like, it's sitting at at least two beer places within 10 miles of us right now.

Greg:
[24:44] They're really up to distribution on it.

Jeff:
[24:45] And at this point it's not that great anymore so way too late on that one yeah um so that's crazy sip of sunshine this beer we're having now was one first time i got to have, heady topper i also got to have this and this one just knocked my socks off so we'll see how this one is this one is almost three months old, orangey bitter yeah it's very bitter and it has a bite as follow through at least on the hops right these hops don't fade right away um so a big distinction from the last one yeah so the way the hops are lingering and how like apparently bitter they are that's like previous generation of how hops were used.
You know, this is kind of, what was our, our generation two or three?
I guess Generation 3, but right before Hazy's, when Simcoe and Mosaic were coming up.

Greg:
[25:44] Okay, this is interesting. How do you define these generations?

Jeff:
[25:46] All right, well, it was a shorthand we used to use back in the day.

Greg:
[25:49] Yeah, but we haven't done it in a while, so my scale's off.

Jeff:
[25:53] Generation 1 of craft beer, American hops, right?
Or the sea hops, the Citra, the Cascade, the Centennial, things like that.
So you get either citrusy grapefruit stuff.

[26:08] Orange grapefruit, or pine we should we should clarify that generation one of uh craft ipas like when ipas first became popular yeah yeah and then our generation two was like when simcoe is the hallmark of generation two yeah wouldn't generation two be like the arrogant bastards the the bitterness those are still the same hops though that's just the difference they were just going for a different that's just an intensity thing i still think you might want to call that a different generation although you may maybe that's more of like a west coast style as opposed to a generation generation i mean it was there was definitely a hops arms race in there yeah kind of overlaid of the the of the generation the hop flavoring kind so there's it is more sophisticated than just one scale is what you're saying yeah all right so simcoe um uh amarillo amarillo you know those hops right where they were aggressive as fuck right and you just would you know rake themselves themselves over your tongue and just leave you a puckered up yes and then generation three was when mosaic came out and then later or citra mosaic you know maybe in the galaxy where these hops had big hop flavor and they still had ibus but they weren't apparently bitter mm-hmm.

Exploring the Evolution of IPA Generations

[27:25] And that goes from clear, crisp, hoppy Generation 3 IPAs through the hazy thing, right?
And then I guess Generation 4 would be kind of cryo and stuff like that.

Greg:
[27:39] Well, you got your Motuekas, you got your, what's the one that's like a wine one?

Jeff:
[27:49] Nelson's Vaughn.

Greg:
[27:50] Nelson's Vaughn, thank you.

Jeff:
[27:51] Yeah, maybe those could be different. i kind of think those are kind of like the um if anything filling out of generation if anything 3.5.

Greg:
[28:01] Yeah yeah yeah i can give it that there's they're you know elder millennial kind of thing so yeah so we're waiting on the hops that taste like you know chocolate and uh and red beef and just the ones that are like designed to to give entirely different flavors than you might expect this one tastes like beetroot so the more i drink this one the more this one does take me back to, those initial tastes of new england style ipas yeah but this is not as scratchy as for example heady topper right heady topper like there's a it's three months old okay that's true and there There is a little bit of bite to it, a little bit of scratch.
But this is better than Heddy Topper. Yes.

Jeff:
[28:50] And I thought it did when I thought Heddy Topper was something to it.
I thought Focal Banger was better than Heddy Topper. So it's so funny.
The first time I had those three beers, this one and then the two from The Alchemist, was up at my dad's deer camp in the middle of Pennsylvania with a bunch of guys that don't drink good beer.
Because one of the guy's brothers is from Vermont and drinks good beer.
And he brought down this giant cooler filled with The Alchemist and Lawson's and one other one I can't think of right now.
So, yeah, I had some of the best beer at deer camp. And my dad's deer camp.

Greg:
[29:24] His one time at deer camp?

Shannon:
[29:26] At deer camp.

Jeff:
[29:26] My dad's deer camp. Because I like band camp. And also, my dad's deer camp isn't this like.

Greg:
[29:31] Don't ask them what they did when they got, you know, alone in their tents.

Jeff:
[29:36] A lot of deer camps are like a cabin. And, like, you make it really, like, hot in there. And you just. Like when I.

Greg:
[29:42] Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I know. You gotta make it hot in there.

Jeff:
[29:45] So, I'm thinking of, like, my buddy Dave's dad's deer camp, right?
It is like just a multi-day feast.
It's just like, and everything. And my dad's deer camp is a bunch of like parked RVs.
You hang out outside around the campfire and in the snow, there's a roof, but it's like, it's camping. Not like, not.
Yeah. Wow. You're.
that's disturbing thinking of the my dad's buddies um that's i can't continue, you guys have to finish this show speechless he's speechless you did it show without me, okay um, All right.
We're still drinking through the Lawsons. I don't like it. You don't like it?

Shannon:
[30:42] No.

Greg:
[30:42] I can see why you don't like it. But I think of this as like the first of generation three.
Like this was the start of getting into what hazies would eventually be.

Jeff:
[30:54] This was for something. I mean, so maybe nostalgia is ruling the day for me. I'm enjoying it.

Shannon:
[30:59] You're going to have it.

Greg:
[31:00] Yeah, I'm enjoying it, too, because this is a reminder of beer's past.

Shannon:
[31:07] Like Christmas past?

Greg:
[31:09] Yeah, sort of, yeah. But it's not as bracing as some of the other ones I've had.
Like, compare this to, as we talked about, compare this to the Heady Topper that we had, and especially compare this to how I remember, like, Arrogant Bastard.
Yeah. And this is a way better thing. But I could totally see how since you kind of, Shannon, came into the scene around the hazy time.
This is just like, oh, this is what you had.

Shannon:
[31:39] Yeah.

Greg:
[31:40] You're kind of like, yeah.

Craft Beer Sales Decline, Choice Paralysis

Jeff:
[31:44] Exactly so uh it's apparently been a bad year for craft beer, okay so not based on the shelves that i see well because the shelves are full yeah not being drank overall sales are down by two percent which sounds like a small number but that's because we have so many yes that's because i do think that they're how that doesn't really decrease overall sales in a way you can it's that choice paralysis thing so they're just gonna get put wiser instead well it's when you go to choice paralysis is when you there's so many choices that you eventually just decide not to get anything at all and you just get a bottle of wine okay or bourbon so i mean it's it's it's something that like you have to take into consider when when the product gets especially when you have like supermarkets take that into consideration it's a whole it's a whole yeah psychological i was talking with a brewer and uh yeah this year was rough on them you know we're drinking tastes are changing and also habits are changing like um draft beer is way down like drinking draft beer at beer bars and not breweries is way down interesting when i say way down i don't mean down 20 but i mean like for a craft brewer or it's noticeable that draft is not moving like it used to.

Greg:
[33:09] Well, lots of breweries now have their own tap rooms. So it's like, so they're kind of, that also has, I'm sure, made it so that it's just not, you're not as likely to distribute your beer in just bars.
You have to find a place that will do it and have a lot of.

Jeff:
[33:30] Traffic so yeah yep uh so numbers this year 420 breweries of craft breweries opened, but uh 385 closed speaking to your microphone to say that again 400 breweries opened and 385 closed so it's a net plus of 45 breweries this year that's around the country united states It's independent craft breweries.

Greg:
[33:56] Well, I mean, that sounds like a sort of typical churn.

Shannon:
[34:01] Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that, isn't it this year that these small businesses that took out loans during the pandemic were having to start paying back?

Greg:
[34:20] I haven't heard anything about that specific to breweries but more so drinking habits are changing there's more competition people are going to cocktails more people are going to seltzer you know that's taking away part of the market um speaking of speaking of speaking of uh-oh it is another surprise for you guys hotel shaker set 16 pieces yeah because you you didn't have like a real shaker you have like one thing but it doesn't have the full thing and i got you a uh julep strainer which i think is the better strainer once you get used to it yeah it's a little weird at first but i think it's the best strainer does it have umbrellas like I'm a pitcher?
No, it doesn't. It does have the thing you can put on your, it does have the spouts for.

Shannon:
[35:15] Oh.

Jeff:
[35:15] Yeah, so it has a Boston shape.

Shannon:
[35:16] Open it, I want to see.

Jeff:
[35:17] You want to see? Yeah.

Shannon:
[35:20] Open the box.

Jeff:
[35:21] Okay. Birthday boy. We have the spring strainer. Yeah. We have a fine mesh filter.

Shannon:
[35:29] Handy, Dan.

Jeff:
[35:30] We have a pour spout.

Shannon:
[35:31] Nice.

Jeff:
[35:32] We have a pour spout.

Shannon:
[35:34] Ooh.

Greg:
[35:36] Doubly nice. I think there are six of them.

Jeff:
[35:38] We have a pour spout.

Shannon:
[35:38] Oh, triple nice.

Jeff:
[35:40] We have.

Shannon:
[35:40] Don't make me count them.

Jeff:
[35:42] Some tongs.

Greg:
[35:43] Right.

Shannon:
[35:43] Ooh.

Greg:
[35:44] Yep.

Jeff:
[35:45] We have.

Shannon:
[35:45] Two sets of tongs.

Jeff:
[35:46] Three more pour spouts.

Shannon:
[35:47] Oh.

Jeff:
[35:49] We have a barky we have a jigger oh my Shannon thought that's what these were called and thought I was saying a racial slur or something no I thought that was a Pittsburgh thing it's the jigger and then here's the uh that was a long time shaker glasses, so there's ah right now we can and really make some cocktails.
And a spoon. A spoon, a spork.

Shannon:
[36:23] Oh, it's a spork. Oh, a spork.

Greg:
[36:25] A spoon on one side, a fork on the other.

Shannon:
[36:27] Nice.

Jeff:
[36:28] So now we can stab our maraschinos in a muddler.

Shannon:
[36:33] Nice.

Jeff:
[36:35] And some paper at the bottom.

Greg:
[36:37] The paper is the most important part.

Jeff:
[36:39] It tells you how to. It's the instructions and what you can and cannot wash in the dishwasher so there you go so you were mentioning cocktails and i was like well we're into cocktails now yes we are well that's broken now i dropped the jigger on the floor, it's like the meatball it rolls behind your chair oh okie dokie um thank you greg that's super cool that's really nice couple yeah there's There's definitely some pieces here we don't have that, you know.

Shannon:
[37:14] This is really cool.

Jeff:
[37:15] We've worked around. And now we don't have to work around them in the future.

Shannon:
[37:17] Now we have a.

Greg:
[37:18] You can do the shaking.

Shannon:
[37:19] Shaker. And we can make cocktails like.
What's his name on the show we watch on Sky?

Greg:
[37:30] Like a Pisco Sour or something. You got to shake with a little egg white in it, right, to get that?

Shannon:
[37:35] Yeah. Oh, that's what I wanted to do at the next show. But it's too late now.

Jeff:
[37:42] What?

Shannon:
[37:43] I wanted to make our own homemade eggnog.

Jeff:
[37:47] Oh.

Greg:
[37:47] Yeah.

Shannon:
[37:48] Yeah.

Greg:
[37:49] Well, I mean, you don't have to do it around. It's not too late.

Jeff:
[37:52] Well, we don't have whole milk, but.

Shannon:
[37:53] Yeah. We don't. No.

Greg:
[37:56] We don't have to do it like around christmas just have to it doesn't taste the same and jesus isn't coming like those elves on the shelves tori was showing me these elf on the shelf things and i've never i've never seen the elf on like i've heard of the elf on the shelf but i've never understood the i never truly understood the idea that the elf does something i thought it was just like a something that you just put there and just commented on but no apparently the elf is a trickster that gets a it's around doing things at night it's it's out of control the it just keeps growing and growing and growing it used to be more like as far as i know it used to be like you'd move the elf each day and the kids would have like a hide and seek every morning you know that kind of thing and then yeah they started doing things and being the trickster the tick generation you just gotta you don't know what you're signing up for you're signing up for 24 days of getting more and more creative and oh is it only 24 i thought it was 30 but i it came out after my kids were it's 24 now because the elves got into a union and they made Made sure that they got their days off.

Jeff:
[39:14] You start on December 1st.

Shannon:
[39:15] I didn't know when it started because I never did Alpha on the Shelf with my kids.

Jeff:
[39:20] Starting on November 26th would be weird.
Whatever.

Shannon:
[39:30] Jeez. Rough.

Greg:
[39:34] So this is from Brew Gentlemen. Last time we had a Doppelbach.
This is the gentleman's version of Adalberbach called Manangelator.
As we mentioned before, almost all Adalberbachs end with Ader.
That's sort of the German tradition.

Jeff:
[39:50] German tradition.

Greg:
[39:51] They say on their website, this is everything they love about Einger Celebrator, which is a traditional one as seen through our own lens.
So that's what they say on their website.

Jeff:
[40:07] What size can is this? Is it one of those energy... Eight ounce or no?

Shannon:
[40:10] Yeah, it reminds me of a...

Jeff:
[40:12] It's probably a 12 ounce.

Greg:
[40:13] Yeah, it's 12 ounce.

Jeff:
[40:13] But it's an energy drink can. Yeah.
I think they bottle all their stuff in cans like that, don't they?

Greg:
[40:22] This is the size they do it in. And they still sell it for the same price.

Shannon:
[40:27] I was just going to ask you if they are cheaper.

Greg:
[40:31] No, not any cheaper at all.

Shannon:
[40:33] Wow.

Jeff:
[40:33] Because they're a premium brand.

Greg:
[40:34] Yeah, they're a premium brand. They get away with it. I mean, if they make good beers, it can consistently be good beers.

Shannon:
[40:41] Well, it better be good.

Greg:
[40:42] It better be good is right.

Jeff:
[40:44] And they wear bow ties and fancy outfits behind the bar. Because they're gentlemen.
This is the Brew Gentlemen's.

Greg:
[40:52] Well, I mean, there are women behind a bar, but do they wear bro ties too?

Jeff:
[40:56] They dress dapper.

The Mustache Wax Requirement

Greg:
[40:59] Yes.

Shannon:
[40:59] Dapper. Dapper.

Jeff:
[41:02] If you have a mustache, you probably have mustache wax in it.

Greg:
[41:07] Now I'm making my decisions about Brew Gentlemen that I didn't have before.
Because mustache wax feels like it shouldn't be a requirement.

Jeff:
[41:16] It's probably not.

Greg:
[41:17] Okay.

Jeff:
[41:18] But it fits the vibe yeah okay you just you don't want to lean too far into the fedora wearing like, no this this total like they're they do the bartenders do have a dress code and it's like speakeasy yeah yeah dress code so think of what a speakeasy bartender may wear speakeasy school we still need to go visit the speakeasy in ohio so this is a as opposed to other ones this is a a darker color so this is you know kind of greenish isn't it do you see that hint of green weird a bit of like yeah like greenish yellow it's probably the color temperature on our led lamp above our head that is very likely yeah you might be right but no it's totally made with algae, but yeah very bready and or mutagen sweet on the on the nose.

[42:17] Was a little bit of roasted note right a little bit of uh moving on to the flavor oh it's very smooth it is big roast it leans more chocolate than i would have expected cocoa it's a bit more stouty than i would have expected but it's full yeah so just on the nose i wasn't impressed i I really wasn't pulling a whole lot, but that first sip.

Greg:
[42:48] There's a lot of flavor in there.

Shannon:
[42:49] There's a lot.

Greg:
[42:50] Yeah.

Shannon:
[42:50] It bursts. A lot of the cocoa notes.

A Doppelbach that straddles the line between stout and beer

Greg:
[43:00] Baker's chocolate yeah it's a weird it's it's straddling that line between bach and stout it's it's right there isn't it yeah i mean to me i i like that they it's their own lens on it you know they're giving it their their take they're not trying to do a clone of eyinger they're giving the doppelbach their their version and i i like it i think that it's there's more bitterness to it the hot bitterness is kind of coming through like it It does on an Imperial stout kind of.
I like the lens of looking at a Doppelbach through a stout lens. I think that that works.

Jeff:
[43:35] Yeah. I'm just trying to like paint the picture because it's, it's, I can't think of another beer that's this close to the line where depending on which part you're looking at, you would classify it as a big stout or Doppelbach.

Greg:
[43:51] As with most brew gentlemen, this is a very clean beer. Like there's no off flavors.

Jeff:
[43:57] Is very it is kind of exacting and what it's trying to to give you and it doesn't it it doesn't really like you compare it with the karate which is kind of like a mishmash and kind of stuff together this is seems very calculated uh and really very dialed in to what it's trying to do definitely the um sweetness is coming around a bit it's powering through kind of that roasty tannic bitterness that i was getting up front like the kind of the bitter chocolate kind of part of it like the sweetness is coming and through that now it's like a um it's almost almost like a barley tea type sweetness, not worty.
It doesn't have quite that kind of gristy kind of flavor to it, but more of like a refined, simple syrup kind of barley tea somewhere in there.

Greg:
[44:54] The example I would give is like after a really good meal, you don't want a sloppy sweet dessert.
You want a dessert that has a little bit of depth and is not over sweet, but has the right amount.
So like you don't want like a pumpkin pie. you want something that has sweetness but it's balanced to give you something so like a great like a really good dessert and like a good restaurant would have this kind of flavor profile i think or something similar that's not to say that a sloppy dessert isn't fantastic if it definitely is but no i think you're that's a good description i like that You said sloppy too many times.

Jeff:
[45:37] Now I want to have this with Adam Ragusea's Sloppy Joes.

Greg:
[45:41] Sloppy Joe, sloppy, sloppy Joe.

Shannon:
[45:45] This is really good.

Greg:
[45:49] Yeah this is so this is closer this is not you know exactly what you would expect fully from a double buck but this is much closer to what you'd expect to have a double buck than what we had last time oh yeah yeah this is way better than yeah the the one we had on the show last time it's good it's i mean gentlemen it's a sipper it's it's hard to knock them they They, like, everything they do is of high quality.

Brew Gentlemen consistently deliver high-quality beers

[46:21] It's not to say that everything they do is amazing. Right. But everything they do is of high quality.

Jeff:
[46:25] I'm with you. Yeah, I've had beers from them, which, you know, I've never had a bad beer from them.
I've had lackluster beers, but usually that's the exception.
Usually they're, like, you can appreciate them for what they're giving you.
yeah so here's the the point on the show where we would like way back when we would have done amazon thing what we're doing instead is discord join our discord guys join our discord and talk to us there's a there's a link in the show notes if you're listening to us on spotify if you're new spotify listener because i did all the oh yeah i signed all the the agreements and the eulas to get on spotify so if you're on spotify go over to the show notes and you'll find a link to our discord you can get our discord and then get back to the show notes on discord where there's comments and commentary and there's conversation and you can talk to a kiwi a literal kiwi a literal kiwi is an actual fruit an actual like the hairy fruit that if you cut it it's got green on the inside and the seeds but you can eat the seeds i've never looked inside greg but maybe Maybe he's green.

Greg:
[47:32] Well, you said he was a literal Kiwi, and that's what I think. Yeah.

Jeff:
[47:35] Well, literal changes definition.

Greg:
[47:37] I mean, but he's a Kiwi that's shaped like a human and lives as long as a human and talks like a human and is a really cool human.
So is that still a Kiwi?

Jeff:
[47:49] Okay kiwis have a lot of diversity he's literally a kiwi and uh who else oh we have we have someone who is just promoted to head brewer of his brewery which is wild um oh yeah that's right yeah and other cool people guy in wisconsin who can drink nuclearis all the time and doesn't doesn't gloat about it all the time so that's wild so what we're saying is we have a lot of cool people on our discord i mean we want you because you're a cool person too so join our discord yeah i mean you're already on like all kinds of weird joe rogan discords get on our discord ew, ew don't bring that joe rogan shit to our discord speaking of podcasts and discord i'm not done it's also a bad year for podcasting apparently advertisers are dumping like people who used to get podcast ads don't go to podcasts anymore because they like trackability so they like like facebook and instagram and youtube so like i heard a bunch of big podcasts like 99 invisible search engine uh this week in tech all complaining about this and actually this week in tech has had layoffs and they're canceling shows oh poor leo laporte is he still calling it netcasts i don't think he is okay he's he's finally gotten off that yeah that horse um um netflix finally decided that they're going to release their um.

Viewer statistic secrets and strikes' impact on viewership

[49:15] Viewer statistic oh really yes apparently that's been a big secret and their advertisers were very unhappy with it i wonder if that's anything to do with the strikes because those were big and like they wanted to get a lot of information from about viewership and and all these streaming places we're not giving any information so maybe that's part of what they agreed to with the strikes who knows so this next one that jeff is pouring it's from lola brewing company just here in pittsburgh lupula 6.4.

Greg:
[49:52] Percent alcohol by volume uh motueka moter Care, Riwaka, and Comet Hops.
Lots of interesting ones in this one.

Jeff:
[50:04] Yeah, so Lolev is quickly, ever since the first time we went there, was elevated to the top tier of local breweries that we like.
They don't have a ton of beers, but the beers they do have are solid.
They're a variety of styles. A lot of them are, now we're drinking a double IPA or an IPA tonight, night but most of their beers are beer flavored beers they have a cream ale that is like interesting they have an imperial stout they have a mild they have other things as well and they're open on mondays yeah that's cool so when you want to go out to a pub and all or a brewery and, everyone's closed on mondays we can go to lullab and it's close very close by.

Greg:
[50:52] So there's definitely a, um, Ooh, what is that? What is that on the aroma?

Jeff:
[50:58] There's a very oniony Citra.

Greg:
[51:02] It's weird, right?

Jeff:
[51:03] It's a very oniony Citra is what you got.

Greg:
[51:06] There's no Citra in this.

Jeff:
[51:08] There's not? No. It's oniony as fuck. And you sometimes Citra will give that to you.
Use it and under the light of a full moon.
so onions in general that's sulfury compounds that give it that kick and there are sulfury compounds in lupulin and this is called lupula yeah so you guys make the connections yeah so if i was picking out a beer to plan to introduce greg to low lev and you know put it on the show i probably would have got the cream ale but this was part of a four pack that we bought just the the drink.
We're making bottle openers and there's one left and it seemed a shame not to put it in.

Greg:
[51:52] It's very strange to make bottle openers these days because these are all cans.
Most of the beer you drink are cans.

Jeff:
[51:57] Yeah. I wonder how much that takes away from his clientele as no one uses bottles anymore.

Greg:
[52:04] Well, this actually brings me into the last gift I have.

Jeff:
[52:07] There we go. I was wondering if we could go a show without talking about Craig and I guess we can't.
And for you gentlemen, and ladies oh no way yes you steal balls oh this is fantastic you know these are know what i want to before i bounce this off of anvil so greg got us was a one and a half inch i think it's two inch is it two inch okay stainless steel ball which is well it's hefty and you probably got one for yourself and it's probably fun just to roll it out in your hand yeah and um, When you buy an anvil, the key thing about it is how much does it rebound?
Like when you hit your hammer on your workpiece on the anvil, does all the energy go through all of that and disappear in the anvil?
Or does the anvil bounce it back up into your workpiece? So you put more bend into the workpiece.
And one way to test that is you take a steel ball and you hold it 10 inches off the anvil and you drop it.
So if it's 10 inches, then every inch is 10%. So if it bounces six inches, you know that it has a 60% rebound.
And that's kind of the lowest that you want.

Greg:
[53:21] You want like 90 or above.

Jeff:
[53:23] Yeah. And the reason anvils could have different heat rebounds is metallurgy.
Because either it's a bad anvil or it was in a barn fire and the fire ruined the heat treatment and it lost its hardness.
So this is kind of the tool to check.

Introduction to blacksmithing and discussions on anvils

[53:43] So it is part of the class Greg took where, you know, there's this whole. The first hour.

Greg:
[53:50] This is a three hour course on blacksmithing course.
It's three hour like introduction to blacksmithing and probably the first 45 minutes at the very least are discussion of anvils and how you can get good deals on anvils.
anvils it's specific to sort of a western pennsylvania audience because the key is that just in in this area there are likely a lot of anvils and it's craig talking about how much money he's been able to make by reselling anvils and kind of going on of on a big long like like it's a little bit of a stand-up routine it's yeah it's a stand-up yeah i think it's, it's his way of like easing people into the subject uh so so that um they're not like jumping right away into the difficult stuff uh and so i get it but at the same time it was like, for someone like me who's like all right i get your point we can move on now it was pretty pretty ponderous at like, cause we're still going on with 30 minutes in and we're still talking about the anvils.

Shannon:
[55:03] When am I going to start eating the shit out of something? Yeah.

Greg:
[55:07] Well, what am I going to start like, you know, putting stuff in fires and shit like that.
Um, but yeah, but that was like, so with all, with all the discussion of Craig that's happened over the last three episodes, it's been like, it's, it's the Craig trilogy at this point.

Shannon:
[55:21] Yeah.

Greg:
[55:25] I was like, it'd be fun to get you guys that because...

Shannon:
[55:29] I love it.

Jeff:
[55:29] So before I bounce this off anvils, what I want to do with it, I want to put it in the freezer and see if it has more thermal mass than my stainless steel ice cube that is water-filled.

Greg:
[55:41] Interesting.

Jeff:
[55:42] And whether this works better for chilling cocktails.

Greg:
[55:46] I bet it won't.

Jeff:
[55:47] You think that water ice has more thermal mass than solid steel?

Greg:
[55:53] Thermal mass it's the it's the um the face it's the heat uh what's the term i'm thinking of but it it takes a lot of energy to change water from one phase to another uh and it it's considerably less energy if it's all stainless steel uh so because there's a trend because there is that that it's why it takes a while to boil water.
I can't, for some reason, the physics term is not coming to me because the, what's specific? Specific heat, thank you, yes.

[56:31] It takes a long time and a lot of energy to change that phase.
And so I think because of that, the water field is likely to be a better source of, uh a better sink of heat than a pure steel ball see my my intuition i understand everything you're saying and i know that you put extra energy into a phase transition my intuition still says that a steel solid steel ball has more i mean it weighs more it has more mass so it has more mass to sink the heat into but well i mean i think it's worthy of testing i would wash those very carefully because i mean they came right from wherever place i doubt they've been yeah i doubt they've been.

Considering safety and material of the chrome steel ball

[57:20] Washed or i don't even know how heat safe they like how how safe they are yeah i guess that's the one thing to to maybe it's more of an experiment and not a drink yeah yes um let's do that just do water and but yeah like if this is chrome instead of stainless steel it might not be food safe you know something like that so it probably is chromed i mean it was stainless the thing says stainless steel when i bought them but i don't know what again i didn't you know this is something you get on amazon and you're not like there's no providence oh no i'm sorry they're chrome this is chrome yeah this is four pieces a two inch chrome steel bearing balls.

Curiosity about unconventional ice cubes

[58:06] So, yeah. Yeah, I wouldn't drink with these, but as a temperature test.

Jeff:
[58:12] Thing is, my steel spherical ice cubes are bigger than these, so it'd be really hard to adjust.

Greg:
[58:19] Yeah.

Jeff:
[58:20] You know, I'll see if I can come up with a methodology, because I'm morbidly curious about it.

Greg:
[58:25] I mean, you could just go on Amazon and get like a larger chrome ball the same size and do that.
But you've got one of these to... the other thing that he mentioned because because it's part of his spiel and now i feel like i'm talking about craig well greg's talking about craig it happens it's a cult you know he talked about how you can put this in somebody's like in in if you find a way into their car you can put it like behind the seat and there'll be something that's shaking around they have no idea what it is like under under the floorboard or something like that uh and yeah that was when i was like like okay that's what this guy is like he said it in the parlance of hating the state inspections this system oh yeah and that's not how he said it in in the spiel he gave to to my class it was more like if you just want to get get revenge on somebody okay yeah this normal spiel is which Which isn't, it's a weird vibe too.

Jeff:
[59:31] It's like, if you don't like the state inspection system, you can put a couple of these in your pocket, door pocket or something like that.
And then when they're doing the test drive, they'll be trying to find this noise.

Greg:
[59:41] He did mention that too, yes.

Jeff:
[59:42] But the mechanics only get a flat rate per inspection, but you're going to waste their time.

Greg:
[59:46] And that feels like, why are you fucking with the mechanics?

Jeff:
[59:49] Why are you fucking with the mechanics?

Greg:
[59:51] Yeah.

Jeff:
[59:51] Yeah.

Shannon:
[59:52] Mechanics, my son's one.

Jeff:
[59:54] No, it's, it's a.

Shannon:
[59:55] They get hurt.

Jeff:
[59:56] I think it's more for the laughs, but. but definitely.

Shannon:
[59:59] Yeah.

Greg:
[1:00:00] It's a shtick. He has a shtick.

Jeff:
[1:00:05] All right.

Shannon:
[1:00:06] So what's the fruit that you're picking out of this?

Jeff:
[1:00:09] Papaya.

Greg:
[1:00:10] Uh, pie with, with, with green onion notes.

Jeff:
[1:00:15] Yeah. The onion, he went away. I got used to it at least the more I drank it.
And then I was getting more of that tropical papaya.

Greg:
[1:00:22] Not like yellow or white onion, but green onion.
Right. So it's like, Like it's a little bit vegetal, but it's also got sulfury notes.

Jeff:
[1:00:33] All right. We're five in. Got one more to go. Greg brought this over last week.
Last week, Greg came over and we hung out.
We were not, well, we wanted to work. We were working in the shed.

Greg:
[1:00:46] Yeah.

Shannon:
[1:00:47] I had, yeah.

Greg:
[1:00:48] He has so much work to do. And it was like, yeah, we can't spend time and do a show.

Jeff:
[1:00:53] Greg dropped off this Imperial gingerbread inspired milk stout. Gingerbread inspired?

Shannon:
[1:00:59] Yeah. I'm anxious.

Jeff:
[1:01:01] I guess that means the spicing of gingerbread. Yeah. There's no gingerbread men were harmed in the creation of this beer.

Greg:
[1:01:07] I can't vouch for that. This is...
Where is this? Okay. This is Cinderland, right? Yep.

Shannon:
[1:01:17] I'm not ready. Hey, I like that.

Jeff:
[1:01:20] Then hurry up.

Shannon:
[1:01:21] Well, you just need to just chill out, man.

Jeff:
[1:01:24] It's about pacing, woman.

Greg:
[1:01:26] A little oniony for my taste.

Jeff:
[1:01:28] Yeah.

Greg:
[1:01:29] But we had things to talk about it wasn't boring yeah well i mean i mean compared to we didn't really talk about the beer that much frankly we had other things i think we covered it well the all right so this eight percent this is a double milk stout brewed with ginger cinnamon madagascar vanilla bean and milk sugar so this is as opposed to sort of the uh composed sweetness with bitterness that that the gentleman was this is going to be i think more of a bomb of sweetness a bomb a sweetness bomb like this is this is this is the sugary pecan pie dessert versus the refined you know like chefy dessert.

[1:02:26] Thank you what's up so the led is not making this green no this is very very dark it's one of the darkest beers all that milk stout lactose in there just sucks up light the head is even a dark color the head is the color of chocolate milk it is, okay so this is what they say our gingerbread and cookie imperial milk stout starts by going going through the seven levels of the candy cane forest with layer upon layer of character malt, two degrees of caramel, rich chocolate, and a couple of our favorite roasted barleys.
Then past the sea of twirly swirly cum drums.

Shannon:
[1:03:07] I feel like I'm in the Candyland game.

Greg:
[1:03:09] Yeah. We add a small but crucial amount of cold pressed organic ginger in parentheses bread, juice from our friend's Pittsburgh juice, ginger juice.
So they add ginger juice.
finally through the lincoln tunnel which is a piss for reference we load in the rest of the cookie flavor with madagascar vanilla bean and cinnamon but lincoln tunnels uh new york new jersey really oh okay maybe maybe i'm thinking it's okay um but wait there's more we gather the team to sing carols to the tank throughout the fermentation and conditioning okay great i didn't i didn't realize that was that what we're talking about okay yeah that'd be awesome if they They actually did sing at the fermenter. They might.

Shannon:
[1:03:53] They might because, remember, we've been to their brewery.
You can sit at the table so you can watch everything.

Jeff:
[1:04:03] But not just once for a joke, but like four or two hours a day to condition the beer. That would be hilarious.

Shannon:
[1:04:12] So the first thing that I'm picking up on on the nose is a Moscow mule.
Which, I mean, ginger beer, ginger juice, ginger nut, but really strong Moscow meal.

Greg:
[1:04:31] I guess the Lincoln Tunnel refers to the Fort Pitt Tunnel, which is on the Penn Lincoln Parkway.

Jeff:
[1:04:39] Sure that's what okay that's what the google's tells me that that's what that's what ai would say it's called yes i didn't ai it well i know i'm just no they did, yeah ai written beer descriptions that would be good it's probably already being done yep Yep.
So, Moscow Mule, interesting, right? Because I was so ingrained of thinking gingerbread man, gingerbread cookies.
I didn't open my mind up to that perspective.
And I'm trying to.

Shannon:
[1:05:20] I even taste the lime.

A Surprisingly Intriguing Twist on a Milk Stout

Greg:
[1:05:26] I get roastiness. I get the ginger.

Jeff:
[1:05:31] Okay. Okay, so that flavor, what? It smells like it's just going to be in a sweet, shitty beer.
And you go into the flavor, and it's not. No.
It's weird, but it's intriguingly weird.

Shannon:
[1:05:47] I like it.

Greg:
[1:05:48] It's the ginger juice. It's the ginger that's changing this from a sweet bomb to something with a little bit more depth to it.

Shannon:
[1:05:59] Tangy. The ginger juice.

Jeff:
[1:06:01] It decimates the body.

Greg:
[1:06:03] Yeah.

Jeff:
[1:06:03] So it's surprisingly thin for milk stout. And it helps it tremendously.

Greg:
[1:06:09] Not to say that it isn't still full. It's still got fullness to it, but it's not like...

Jeff:
[1:06:14] You'd expect this cloying, sweet, awful mess. And the ginger slices through that.

Greg:
[1:06:19] Yeah.

Shannon:
[1:06:20] Yeah, it takes...

Jeff:
[1:06:21] It...
it tastes i mean it tastes like a cocktail right it tastes like a weird it doesn't it doesn't taste like gingerbread it's in i think this is where inspired comes in handy because this is not if you're expecting a gingerbread i think that there's a little bit of an aftertaste probably your burps might have a little bit of a gingerbread so think moscow mule with like, creme de cacao or kalua or something it's like start there right it's like i don't know like Like, I'm not saying that'd be a good drink.
I'm saying what we're tasting is a chocolate Moscow Mule, you know, and then like something off shooting from that.

Greg:
[1:06:59] Yeah. Yeah.

Shannon:
[1:07:02] Do you all taste the lime as much as I do?

Jeff:
[1:07:05] I, I don't not taste the lime.

Shannon:
[1:07:08] Okay.

Greg:
[1:07:09] I, I can't say I taste the lime at all.

Jeff:
[1:07:11] It's on the high side of the ginger juice.

Shannon:
[1:07:13] Yeah.

Jeff:
[1:07:15] It, it actually, I think like the cocoa or the cinnamon, the cinnamon is changing.
the ginger and it's almost like...

Greg:
[1:07:25] The cinnamon is capping it. The cinnamon is at the end.

Jeff:
[1:07:27] But it's almost like this lime zest. I'm totally with you. There's something in there that is...

Shannon:
[1:07:32] The flavors are just bouncing all over the place in my mouth right now.

Greg:
[1:07:36] Well, lime, like, at its best, it adds the right acidity to round out something.

Shannon:
[1:07:41] Yeah, it's a good...

Greg:
[1:07:43] I like it. And I think that in this case, I think you're right, Jeff, that I think the cinnamon is doing the rounding. And because we're used to...

Jeff:
[1:07:52] Lime and ginger together i think the cinnamon is doing the same job that's my guess here the more i drink it the more i'm aligned with shannon though is where it's coming across more and more, of like a lime and a cocktail this is such a weird beer like it this is one where if you were like handed it blind blindfolded and you're asked to drink it i don't i would have never guessed that That it was a milk stout. Would I even say beer?

This Beer Defies Expectations and Impresses

Greg:
[1:08:29] I'd like to guess I would just because of the viscosity.

Jeff:
[1:08:31] There's a maltiness to it. There's kind of a milk dud malted flavor in the front.

Greg:
[1:08:38] But it's balanced with a lot of extra stuff so that that doesn't overpower it.
Because this could get over sweet real quick, real easy.
And there's a lot cutting the sweetness here, which is smart. It's really smart.

Jeff:
[1:08:54] This beer is way better than it should be.

Greg:
[1:08:56] Yes. Yes. I agree. i agree because i wasn't because i i i was telling shannon before the show i had this when i wasn't, thinking about it and but i wasn't thinking about it it kind of felt sweet and cloying but now that i'm like zeroing in on it it doesn't feel that way at all so like that that's the opposite of what we usually yeah right yeah like when um which beer will we kind of ho-hum on tonight oh the karate explosion i bet you that beer tastes delicious if you're netflixing and chilling um but here at this table it just gets the magnus mag the magnifying glass put on it and loses yeah this one no this one is it's impressive i just yeah i'm in awe it's crazy that someone put it together yeah this one is is kind of an art thing right there's an alchemy here that's happening that's that's as you say impressive here there's something going on where they made something that shouldn't work and it does and that's impressive i just got graham cracker brown sugar combo in this last and that's not in here.

[1:10:22] It's so crazy yeah yeah this is this is way better than i than i remember what is the alcohol in this one um eight percent oh again not bad it's actually worth the sobriety yeah that one's worth sobriety like you you would think from the especially from the viscosity you think maybe 10 yeah no i was worried that it was like 11 and a half or something like that um.

[1:10:55] That's a heck of a beer i mean i'm kind of like i'm i'm shocked because that's not how i remembered it because i had the other three cans of this it's not how i remembered it this is not how i expected this to go i expect this to be oh a sweet bomb then the night would be like how much of it okay so you you know like getting guided through your flavor experience is a thing right and you you drank three of them thinking gingerbread and then this lunatic over here says musco mule like how much did that change your experience i just pointed to me as much as i love this lunatic over here it was more just focusing on the beer itself as opposed to just sort of picking you know just sort of throwing into a glass and drinking it as i was you know watching something or or playing something on the tv yeah so because there's been times where you know we're We're, you know, when we were doing the show, and we're kind of ping-ponging back and forth, and we're kind of confused about the beer.

Jeff:
[1:11:58] And then someone pulls on the right thread, and the whole thing comes into focus. Yeah, yeah.
You know, and I'm wondering how much, if that was kind of what, like, thinking of ginger ale.

Greg:
[1:12:09] You guys totally agree. I still don't agree with you, really, about the lime thing at all. I just think that the, I do agree with the round ale.

Jeff:
[1:12:17] Yeah.

Shannon:
[1:12:17] I can't even not taste the lime. It's so weird.

Greg:
[1:12:22] I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just saying that I don't, it's not what my, it's not what my flavor receptors and, you know.

Shannon:
[1:12:30] Yeah, no. Again, yeah. It not make sense. I mean, that's why we have three of us here, you know.
But it's so strange that I'm, every single sip.
I taste the lime.

Jeff:
[1:12:45] I'm with you.

Shannon:
[1:12:46] I'm a fan of it, though. I mean, and it's the good lime juice, too. It's not the crappy stuff.
It's like real.

Greg:
[1:12:55] Fresh lime.

Jeff:
[1:12:56] Fresh lime. It's not like unadulterated lime juice. It's lime juice in simple or in barley malt syrup or something like that.
So let's get on to the rankings.

Shannon:
[1:13:08] Rankings.

Greg:
[1:13:10] Rankings.

Jeff:
[1:13:11] All right well jeff you um you started the show so you get to rank first that's my two seconds.

[1:13:23] Oh again don't want your ball to fall off yeah that would leave your balls that would leave a dent on the floor yes they're heavy these uh these chrome balls are heavy i could put them under the truck um okay my last place beer is gonna be the bald birds brewing company karate explosion yeah um it was fine it was but it was lackluster there was muddy flavors the aroma promised uh a flavor experience that the flavor didn't deliver somewhat disappointing there i'll put the lupula from low lev in fifth place i think that's a good beer but it had that big onion flavor.
It's, um, sure. It's, it's one of those things that let's explore a complex beer that doesn't have delicious flavors like green onion, you know, but you know, and making the most out of that is a fun experience and it's overall enjoyable.
It's, there's a gap between that and the last place beer.
I'm going to put the Doppelbach from Brew Gentlemen, the Menang, So they're on the Monongahela River, so Monongalator is that.

Shannon:
[1:14:44] Wait, that was last?

Greg:
[1:14:47] What?

Jeff:
[1:14:48] No, that was third from last.

Shannon:
[1:14:49] I'm sorry.

Greg:
[1:14:50] Third from last.

Jeff:
[1:14:51] I've been talking for a long time now.

Shannon:
[1:14:53] I was ranking mine.

Jeff:
[1:14:54] Talking for a long time. time um so it was that doppelbach that was kind of straddling like the line between like big stout like double stout and double bach and it was interesting to be playing in that kind of androgynous zone i enjoyed the beer androgynous zone indeterminate which is like yeah like androgyny like you don't know if it's a man or a woman yeah but that is more that's like like specifically man or woman not like androgyny between double bach and double stone.

Greg:
[1:15:29] I think that androgyny is specific to men and women. I think you're thinking more like...

Jeff:
[1:15:33] Can I use it as a metaphor?

Greg:
[1:15:35] I guess.

Jeff:
[1:15:36] Okay. Thank you.

Greg:
[1:15:38] I'll allow it.

Jeff:
[1:15:39] Sorry.

Greg:
[1:15:40] Watch yourself, counselor.

Jeff:
[1:15:41] If it's offensive, I apologize. I did not mean it.
Please, I am open for... Join our Discord if you need to tell me how I was being uninclusive there.
No, I'm serious. If what I said was wrong, I really want to know about it.
I'm not saying that flippantly. uh joining our discord it's just a fun way of you doing it to telling me um yes correct jeff please always i'm wrong about things every day um in third place.

[1:16:14] Calling an audible here i'm gonna put the walsons in third place you think you're making the right decision there at the very least yeah i'm gonna put the walsons in third place sip of sunshine it was tons of nostalgia that kind of bright bitter new england ipa um way better than the alchemist um i remember liking it way back at deer camp play some sexy music greg and also today and um but you know it doesn't it has some age on it right you know it isn't keeping up with the times uh the old thunder salesian footnotes i'm gonna put in second place um small beer polish pilsner brought some really interesting bread and melon to the party i enjoyed it quite a bit um, Yeah, and I could see drinking like a ton of that just when I'm not thinking about beer or it's hot out. Like, it's a drinker.
And then I'm going to put the One More Sleep from Central Lens in the top spot just because the beer was cray.
The ginger, the...

Greg:
[1:17:37] Do you want to continue?

Jeff:
[1:17:39] Yes, I'm just...

Greg:
[1:17:40] You're being distracted, I know.

Jeff:
[1:17:41] I am. There's a person walking towards me. the ginger the kind of how it was more of a cocktail than a big sweet beer like surprised me and I just thought it was hugely interesting.

Greg:
[1:17:55] We should have Tori join us at some point because I think you'd enjoy the show Tori. You'd enjoy being on the show.

Shannon:
[1:18:03] But then we'd have to split these cans four ways. We can do it.

Jeff:
[1:18:09] You can try.

Shannon:
[1:18:12] We we've we've put them five ways before so i mean oh anyway central ends just this weird weird beer tastes more like a cocktail to me um surprising interesting nuanced um, different and it's worth a try because it just might like shake up what you think about you know what a big stout might be all right my turn did you take a photo i can't take a photo take a photo take that photo, all right so i'm going to arrange these in my order now please do yes go great, Now I'm just trying to figure out If you're placing them from first to last Or last to first, I'm pretty sure I know how you're placing them Yeah, I definitely know how you're placing them There we go Alrighty Here we are Alright Okay, are we ready? Go Go.

Karate Explosion falls short in last place

Greg:
[1:19:31] Now, I am going to put the Karate Explosion last place, and I'm going to prepare a picture while I do this.
Because, yeah, the Karate Explosion was the one of these that really was the least remarkable of all of them.
There really wasn't much to talk about, and what there was was not great.
That said, it wasn't undrinkable, although you did pour it out.
It wasn't necessarily worth your sobriety, but it wasn't terrible.
terrible i mean worst comes to worst that was the only thing in the party.

[1:20:05] I probably still would just decide yeah get a vodka tonic right oh oh absolutely absolutely uh, so yeah like just i don't know whether it's the cryo hops or or whatever but it it it didn't last it almost session ipa'd me in the way that didn't last okay uh and that's not necessarily what i want out of a beer so i'm going to put that there the the next two i'm kind of i'm not sure which way to put them the only reason why i put the lupula in in but under the the Lawsons is that the onion flavor wasn't there in the Lawsons but the Lawsons was just kind of a throwback and you had the nostalgia kick I was more interested in the the you know if I'm gonna drink a something like that of that nature give me the the better stuff the Lupula was, what you might expect from the better stuff but it had that oniony thing that just kind of brought Write it down.
So not surprising to me or not. So, and perhaps not surprising to listeners who've been keeping up.
Yeah. P is around a different scale than the other day.

Jeff:
[1:21:32] Yeah.

Greg:
[1:21:34] Uh, and so then we have, I think the beers that, that really were great and for different reasons, uh, the Pilsner is a hard luck loser here. I think it was really, really good.
and only is losing because of the kind of exceptional nature of the next two.
Because as a clean, crisp pilsner that does what you want it to do, that was great.
But yeah, I'm going to put the Cinderlands next. The Cinderlands is very surprising when you really look into it.
And we talked a whole bunch about it, so I won't go into too much detail.
But I do think the Monongulator was more perfected, more dialed in, more specific.
There was just something that was very, I don't know, there was just something so clean about it that made me think that it deserves the win.
in but the center lens was really excellent too uh so who knows that's me and you already got a picture right all right so the arrangement of the arrangement the arrangement, Okay.

Jeff:
[1:23:04] So while she's getting her order, the one that are getting your order set up, you know, we talked about how it's a bad year for craft beer.
It's also a bad year for podcasting. Good thing.
Good thing. Rebooted the podcast this year.

Greg:
[1:23:17] I mean, who like, like we give a shit. Like we don't, we're not like it's better for advertising on podcasting. Who gives a shit? Yeah.
All right. Now I'm going to play this and then I got to go to the bathroom.
So same way you scooted out when Jeff was doing his.

Shannon:
[1:23:36] I didn't scoot out.

Greg:
[1:23:36] I'm going to scoot out, but let me.

Jeff:
[1:23:40] There you go.

Shannon:
[1:23:41] All right. So in last place, again, I have to agree.
It's probably better if I'm drinking it on the show and not comparing, or drinking it just on its own. I'm sorry I'm not comparing it on the show. But, yeah.
Last place we have the karate explosion from...
Ah! I lost my notes.

Jeff:
[1:24:13] Bald Birds.

Shannon:
[1:24:14] The Bald Birds. It just...
It was flavorless to me. So...
Really couldn't enjoy it.

Disappointment with Lawson's Sip Sunshine and its bitterness.

[1:24:27] Next, in fifth, next to last place, I've got the Lawson's Sip Sunshine.
It was too bitter for me. I just didn't like all that bitterness.

[1:24:45] I think that was the biggest thing. And I was surprised.
I was disappointed because I thought I would really like that one more.
different era i guess yeah and by that i mean after i grew up whatever shut up.

[1:25:02] Arrogant bastard was that i cut my teeth on so you'll love arrogant bastard like it's going to be like the bomb for for your bitterness when you try it i'm looking forward to it um fourth place is the which actually surprises me because i when i i had this i really really liked it but when it's going up against the others it kind of lost points but um old thunders pilsner um Um, the Silesian foothills, sleazy foothills.
Um, anyway, yeah, it, I really liked it. It was soft. It was bready.
It had those, well, it was a light breadiness flavor and it had the tannins.
Um, it just had a lot of flavors, but it was very light and enjoyable.
enjoyable but again i don't know when you put it up against the other ones it just kind of lost some points so um third place i have to go with the low love lupula um.

[1:26:21] Yeah, I know, Greg, you didn't like that green onion kind of flavor.
I think it gained points because it had that uniqueness to it for me.
So I can't necessarily say like, oh my God, I love this beer, you know?
But it's more of that, oh my God.

Greg:
[1:26:44] Character.

Shannon:
[1:26:46] This beer is so, yeah, ballsy.
it's got something that i would never expect to taste in a beer so that's why it gained a little more points all right and in second place is going to be brew gentlemen's i know i think i'm going against the grain with both of you here no gregorank did tops oh okay um yeah the mongolator mononga later mononga later yeah i think they just said monongahela river absolutely yeah the, monongahela i really like this i love that coconus flavor the bitter sweetness to it um, if i had not had the other one this would definitely be in first place i, I'm going to want to go find some of this and buy it and drink it.
I really, really like it.
Kind of glad that it's only a 12 ounce because, well, not glad that it's the same price, but glad it's in a 12 ounce because I'm not one that drinks that type of a heavy, dark beer.
I don't like to drink a lot of it.

Jeff:
[1:28:10] She's not one to share her beers.

Shannon:
[1:28:15] Rude right jeff with the soundboard down that side just gonna inform all of

Cinderlands' Imperial Gingerbread Stout takes the top spot.

[1:28:20] our listeners so then all right moving on first place, that was greg that wasn't a soundboard that was just me that's right um colin with cinderlands um Um, yeah, that one more sleep, AKA, well, it's called Imperial gingerbread.
Oh, it's called Imperial. Well, one more sleep, but it's the Imperial gingerbread inspired stout, AKA Moscow mule. Yeah.

Surprising Beer: A Moscow Mule in Beer Form

[1:29:04] I have to put that in first place because it's just surprising that I can drink a beer that tastes like a cocktail.
tail and if you blindfolded me and gave me that i would be really really really confused because i would know that it's not a moscow mule because it's got some sweetness to it that a moscow mule doesn't like it's it's like a cocoa kind of flavor that a moscow mule definitely does not have But in every other sense of it, it's a Moscow Mule, which is really crazy.

Jeff:
[1:29:48] I've had Moscow Mule beers that taste less like a Moscow Mule than that.

Shannon:
[1:29:52] Yes.

Greg:
[1:29:53] Yes.

Shannon:
[1:29:54] So I have to say that just this week, we had another beer, Jeff.
remind me i will remind you i had to go back in my text messages i don't even know what your story you're telling right now what beer do we have where were we is what i'm not sure earlier this week but we had allagashes oh that was yeah, Beer de Champagne or something It was called Two Lights from Allagash It's kind of like a beer de garde, It's pretty good It was great I believe they called it a beer de champagne And it tasted just like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc I mean, more so So then this Sunderland's tastes like a Moscow Mule.

Greg:
[1:31:06] Okay.
Well, it's time for the second version of our judging, which is the Fuck, Marry, Kill.

Shannon:
[1:31:14] Oh, I forgot about that.

Greg:
[1:31:16] Did you take a picture?

Shannon:
[1:31:17] Shoot, no.

Jeff:
[1:31:18] Hurry up, take a picture.

Shannon:
[1:31:19] Okay, got it.

Jeff:
[1:31:20] Take a picture. Hurry up.

Shannon:
[1:31:23] Can't get them all in here.

Greg:
[1:31:28] Something magical just happened.

Jeff:
[1:31:30] Oh santa claus is coming all right who's the elf on the shelf should i go should i go first with my all right i am going to marry that polish pilsner all day every day that's a drinker she's a real drinker yeah i am going to fuck the the.

Greg:
[1:32:04] It shouldn't be a hard choice.

Jeff:
[1:32:06] Yeah.

Greg:
[1:32:06] He gonna plow.

Shannon:
[1:32:08] Yeah.

Jeff:
[1:32:10] It's gotta be the gingerbread bread man. Okay. Oh my. Um, just.

Shannon:
[1:32:15] I just got an image that I can't ever re-erase. And that's scary.

Jeff:
[1:32:23] Bad to the bone. And kill. I don't, I guess I'm going to kill the two birds.
I mean, can't think of a novel reason to kill any of the other beers.

Greg:
[1:32:32] The two birds?

Shannon:
[1:32:33] What?

Greg:
[1:32:33] Oh karate explosion brewing company explosion yeah well okay so for me uh the fuck is, um the monogalator because it's like the prettiest girl at the whorehouse right it's It's, it's prim and proper and it's, it's, it's gotta be an experience, but it's not something that, you know, you want to be with all the time, but Hey, that's going to be your perfect fuck.

Jeff:
[1:33:12] She's the one that makes you feel special.

Greg:
[1:33:14] Right.
Um, for, for Mary, I'm going to be the sloppy guy.
Give me the gingerbread. Right. I mean, look, this is taking me in different places. This is, you know, this is going to be fun to vacation with.
Right. I mean, look, the kids are going to be interesting.

Jeff:
[1:33:34] Oh, my.

Greg:
[1:33:35] Yeah. Oh, I have that somewhere. Somewhere.
Oh, my. There we go. Yeah. So that's your Mary. And then, yeah, the karate is the kill.

Shannon:
[1:33:51] All right. Well, yeah.
I swear this isn't because I'm married to the man, but we're identical on this one because I would definitely marry the Pilsner.

Greg:
[1:34:06] Slow and steady.

Shannon:
[1:34:08] Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's like.

Greg:
[1:34:11] Predictable, simple, but also not like one dimensional. No.

Shannon:
[1:34:20] And I like predictable. but i um it's got a really good variety so uh yeah anyways marry that one i'm going to definitely fuck the cinderlands you're like a sloppy fuck i yeah just you know occasionally, moscow mule man gotta love it gotta love that spritz of lime and i'm killing that karate Karate Kid whatever it is here. Karate Explosion.

Greg:
[1:34:55] That's three dead sentences for the Karate Kid. Not looking good.

Shannon:
[1:34:58] Not looking good.

Greg:
[1:35:01] Alright, well, I think that's it for this part of the show.

Jeff:
[1:35:09] Play us out.

Greg:
[1:35:13] And thank you, everybody, for listening. Merry Happies all along.

Jeff:
[1:35:19] And last Christmas I gave you my heart.
He's ruining the best song.

Greg:
[1:35:27] He wants to do karaoke. I don't know if that's...

Shannon:
[1:35:30] It's not happening.

Greg:
[1:35:31] Yeah, I didn't think so.

Jeff:
[1:35:31] I think we should karaoke.

Shannon:
[1:35:33] Oh, my God. 101 hour.

Greg:
[1:35:37] You won't know if we karaoke. It depends on whether we do a post show or not.
If there's no post show it's because we karaoke, We've post showed and then karaoke That's true But we could We could probably drag Tori out For karaoke That would be fun I think we could get her out for karaoke, I've always told you guys I'm never going to be opposed to karaoke So if we want to record karaoke No I don't want to record We're not.

Jeff:
[1:36:10] No. That's for us.

Shannon:
[1:36:13] No. Yeah. No. No. Oh my gosh.

Jeff:
[1:36:17] Well, it's karaoke.

Shannon:
[1:36:19] Oh, really?

Jeff:
[1:36:20] You always get bored in the post show anyway.

Shannon:
[1:36:23] Well, don't start talking about math and science.

Greg:
[1:36:28] I wanted to talk all about science. Let's talk about history.

Shannon:
[1:36:33] Or, I don't know.

Greg:
[1:36:34] Let's talk about present.

Shannon:
[1:36:38] Let's talk about politics Nope Apparently it's undecided We'll get back to you here in a minute Bye See ya, Hippopotamus for Christmas.