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Episode 131 - The End of Dry January 2024
107 Plays1 year ago
This week we wrap up dry January with some new NA beers to us and a NA beer we've heard is the best when it comes to NA beers.
Beers on this episode:
Sierra Nevada - Trail Pass Golden
Athletic Brewing - Extra Dark
Guinness 0.0
Theme music provided by Myke Kelli (@mykekelli)
Break music provided by Ellis D (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fycBfe24UXU)
Outro by Fluid Minds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to The Malting Hour Episode 131
00:00:00
Speaker
Um, I feel like two times now you said something and not that I didn't have anything to say, but you said something like, uh-huh, I want to move on to do something. I concur. Shut up, Brandon. This week, we try three NA beers to wrap up our dry January. This is episode one 31 of the malting hour.
00:00:18
Speaker
Or us the haps on the hops, guys ease their speeds This the molten hour where we talk about our drink And tell you what we think, every other week And if we get drunk, well we might slur our speech Gotta get a cab, the friends who wish you had Join us for a drink, join us for a laugh Time is never wasted, way you're getting wasted The molten hour here, people, people taking places People, people taking places People, people taking places
00:00:44
Speaker
Welcome to The Multigower.
Experiences with Dry January
00:00:46
Speaker
I am one of your hosts, Tony Doolittle. Joy's always with... Brandon winning journey. And special guest, down by Brandon's feet. Oh, she didn't meow. Aggies here. Give her time. She won. Yeah, sure enough. Brandon, this is it. This is our last episode of Dry January. It's your ending, Dry January, very soon. Correct.
00:01:06
Speaker
I am full-fledged, not in dry January anymore. I was dry as January. I drank yesterday at Revolution. I've had Prose, 7 Prose, here on tap. And when I leave here, I'm probably gonna have two more beers. Okay, okay. But you know what? It was a good break of not drinking all the time.
00:01:25
Speaker
Yeah, I like it. I have to remember just maybe that factor that into my life regularly. Yeah. Yeah, it's been kind of weird because I feel like just even not drinking though, like my sleep still been so kind of crazy. And like there's like at the beginning of the month, I was waking up at like four o'clock every morning. And it was just like wide awake.
00:01:46
Speaker
There was a couple nights where I was going to sleep early. I'm like, oh, 9 o'clock. I'm going to try and get to bed. And I'd wake up at midnight. And then I'd be awake till 3 in the morning. I'm like, oh, come on. Yeah, I had those. I did that recently, actually, where I thought I was. Like, you know what?
00:02:02
Speaker
It's 8 30. I'm feeling real tired. I'm going to go to bed. And I went to bed and I woke up at 11 and was wide awake and didn't go to bed until like two in the morning. Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. But other than that, it's been a pretty non eventful dry January, which is normally what dry January is. And we have a couple more options. I think three. Yeah, three that we've not tried.
Exploration of Non-Alcoholic Beers
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah. So pretty excited about that.
00:02:31
Speaker
You guys know for the last few that we've well the last one that we tried the go brewing one was was was pretty good I did enjoy that I don't know if you saw but it made me think of go brewing because go brewing I looked at their their tap list and they have Like they have a ton of NA beers on tap and we got an email from Which is kind of cool. I appreciate it. We get regular communications from like the Brewers Association and
00:03:00
Speaker
And they had sent, I don't know if they did a study or they were just kind of looking into the whole like the non-alcoholic thing and not specifically like it being in cans, but it being on draft.
00:03:12
Speaker
And the thing it kind of stated was that when regular beer is on draft, there's alcohol in there and alcohol has properties to kill like, you know, microorganisms and things like that. But when you have non-alcoholic beer and it's sitting in lines and for like an extended period of time, what does that do? Interesting.
00:03:36
Speaker
But so then I was like, oh, so that made me think of go brewing. But then I also thought about like, like Starbucks does cold brew coffee on all these places, do coffee on things like that. So I don't know if like the acidity of coffee would like be a deterrent. Could be. That's a good. Yeah, that's that's actually really interesting. But I started skimming and I didn't get a chance to kind of dive too deep into it. But I thought that was that was kind of interesting. Great. Now I want to read that because that does sound really interesting. Yeah. I mean, again, like I'm excited that they send us stuff like that.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's cool to have a little bit of an inside look. So this is, sorry, I saw you peeking over here. This is Sierra Nevada's non-alcoholic Trail Pass Golden. I'm looking at their website that they have the Trail Pass IPA as well. I think that those are the only two, damn it. It smells fantastic. That smells like a good beer. Yeah. That smells like a real good beer. Oh, they have their hop splash and hop splash citrus. Those are non-alcoholic drinks. I'm always
00:04:31
Speaker
I'm always real worried about trying alcoholic IPAs. I thought the go brewing one was real good because it was a quote unquote double IPA, which made it taste like a decent IPA. And I liked that. So when I saw this as the gold nail, I wanted to try that first. Yeah, I feel like the having the...
00:04:51
Speaker
the addition of hops if you're doing like a double IPA, try to make it non-alcoholic, that gives it a little more body and makes it, you know, more passable as like, like a decent IPA. Yeah. Yeah, I agree.
00:05:07
Speaker
I feel like two times now you've said something, and not that I didn't have anything to say, but you said something like, uh-huh, I want to move on to do something. I concur. Shut up, Brandon. All right, here he goes. This is Trail Pass Golden from Sierra Nevada. Grab a Trail Pass and start a nonstop adventure with miles of flavor. Explore the smooth, malt, and crisp finish in non-alcoholic Trail Pass Golden. A refreshing, easy drinker with a surge of hops for bright florals. A bright and floral citrus notes.
00:05:36
Speaker
If a craft drinker is looking for that non-alcoholic option, but still wants a complete beer experience, this is gonna be for them. Says James Connery, our innovation brew master. Now available nationwide, currently direct shipping to all lower 48 states except Georgia, Idaho, Michigan.
00:06:00
Speaker
I bet you can't buy non-alcoholic beers. I feel like even I know for a fact that like a lot of beer store like the like if it's just like the straight-up beer and wine places those are closed yeah they have non-alcoholic beer
00:06:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's still so very well to me and then like I would assume Like the grocery section like they some of the stores I know they're like have it like Separated and they'll like have a gate that like close it off. I'm like, I would assume that it's probably the NA stuff is behind that Yeah, firewall, you know, it's funny. I bought what did I buy recently? That was an a
00:06:42
Speaker
Oh, when I bought the Go Brewing from Mariano's, I didn't get carded for it. Really? Yeah, nothing came up to say like 21 or over. Which surprised me because I feel like all the other now alcoholic stuff you need to get carded for. Yeah. And I didn't, it rang up fine and I didn't have to, nobody here to come and check my D at itself. Check out, cause I'm trying to ruin the American job. I really want to see, like, let's get, I'm going to go in one day and have Benjamin just go up there and just throw it up there and be like, I'm thirsty.
00:07:12
Speaker
I want this. I want to be like dad. I got me a sixer. See what happens. See you later kid. Enjoy your non alcoholic beer. So this, this beer is now alcoholic beer. It looks, it looks like a beer. That's a golden, the clear golden ale. It's very pretty actually. Smells hoppy. It smells like
00:07:35
Speaker
Uh, fresh wort when you're brewing. So I like be like first I got beer and then I was like, no, it smells like I'm brewing. It smells like I'm brewing a beer. What are your takes on the taste of it? Um, I'm getting it's, um, it's from the, the non-alcoholic stuff we've tried so far. And the couple of ones that I've had, like I'm getting what tastes more multi to me than like I normally get. Sure. And I feel like in a lot of the, the NA beers, there's.
00:08:02
Speaker
you know they hop it a little bit either heavier or differently to kind of mask the fact that there's really no malt body which is crazy because it's brewed like a traditional beer typically and then there's the process to remove the alcohol but i feel like that kills some of the maltiness or whatever i mean just in my experience i guess you know what i what i get out of the the taste but i'm feeling like like there's if somebody told me this was like a three percent gold like i i would believe it
00:08:32
Speaker
I would like it, it drinks like a regular beer. It drinks like a golden ale. And I love, love the hops in it. I love like it's the mouthfeel is not, it's not super, super thin. Like some NA beers that's got a little bit of like, it's got a little heft to it. And I think heft as in not like like heavy beer, but like there's more body to it than yeah. I know. I know what you mean. I think this is like, this might be
00:09:00
Speaker
I mean, it's up there as one of the best ones I've had this year. Right on. And I've had a couple, so. I don't know. I'm going to take another sip real quick. Hold on. I'm glad you mentioned the maltiness, because there is that kind of malt sweetness in there. And also, as a forward to this, we popped in the freezer for a little bit, because I did just grab it. It's been sitting there for like 20 minutes wrapped in it. It's not ice cold, which I feel like is good.
00:09:31
Speaker
It actually reminds me of a hop water trying to be a beer. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. But because I really enjoy these different hop waters like La Guinitas has one. The Revolution Super Zero is probably my favorite hop water right now. It's just so much flavor. It's so good. It's so refreshing.
00:09:53
Speaker
that I actually, when I go to grab one, I'm like, do I wanna have one? It's like growing for a beer for me, because I'm like, do I wanna have one of these right now? It's like a treat, you know what I mean? It's just hot flavored water. Just drink it, Tony. This though, I guess means the fruitiness of the hops. Like when I take a sip, it reminds me kind of bit of the SuperZero sparkling hop water from Revolution. And again, I don't think that's a bad thing, but for me personally, it's not hitting
00:10:21
Speaker
It's not hitting beer so much. And again, I'm not going out of my, like, if you're out there drinking non-alcoholic beer as regular anyways, you'll probably have a better idea of what you want in a non-alcoholic beer. I think if I was looking for a non-alcoholic beer, I wouldn't go for this one in that sense of like, oh, I want to have a beer. That doesn't have, like, it has low alcohol or no alcohol at all. But with that being said, I wouldn't pass this up as a drink to have, other than the fact that
00:10:51
Speaker
It's still about 85 calories for flavored, like a flavored carbonated drink. But I mean, drink a Coke or a Pepsi. I mean, it's like how many grams of sugar? It's still not bad. 85 calories for, and you know us, you've seen pictures of us. We definitely care about our calorie intake. But it's good, overall it's good. I just, and I like it.
00:11:16
Speaker
Do I like it as an NA beer option? No, but I do like it as a non-alcoholic option. You know what I mean? Does that make sense?
The Taste and Body of NA Beers
00:11:28
Speaker
I'm not gonna pass this. I'm not gonna pass it up. It's tasty. It's a tasty drink. I like it.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there's something about it that I just really enjoy. And I, like, and I think it's that, you know, that slight maltiness, I feel like mostly because there's been a few that I've had this January that have been rather disappointing. Um, and I feel like this, and that's a bummer. This hits closer to that. Now, like when I put this up against the go brewing, no, I feel like the go brewing like brought more, but like for a golden ale, like.
00:11:59
Speaker
I feel like they like most of the flavor profile that they were trying to go for and like that I would expect.
00:12:05
Speaker
is there, so like kudos to them for making a decent NA option. I think I'd like it to be slightly, like just a tit, a tit. Just slightly. I'd like it to be a tit. I'd like it to be a tad bit more bitter. I think that's what I'm missing. If there was a bit more bitterness to this, I think they were leaning more on the multi-side of the beer, which
00:12:33
Speaker
That's not a bad idea. But if it was slightly more bitter, I think that I might appreciate or enjoy it a bit. When was it canned? Let's see. This was 11.7.23. That's within a fairly... They had some hot waters.
00:12:54
Speaker
And actually, now I kind of wish I got the athletic brew's golden ale too, because then we could have had two different, yeah, side by side golden ale, because I do like all the athletic beer stuff. Their stuff's good. We could do a full episode on that, which we are about to have an athletic beer, because the next two beers are dark beers, which I thought would be fun to go.
00:13:10
Speaker
Cause I've never had an NA Stout. So I'm pretty excited. Yeah. I'm pretty excited to do that. I'm almost positive. I've never had an NA Stout. I thought we've done one on the show. Have we? I thought so. I don't think so. Maybe. I know I've had some and they were... I think you've had. Yeah. I think you had some. Well, we've got, we've got one from Athletic Brewing and the one, the goat, the goat of beers, the one that was, that I've seen if it's the most like closely
00:13:36
Speaker
tied to the way the beer actually tastes other than Heineken Zero, which, again, if you don't like Heineken, don't drink it. I'm not a huge fan of Heineken, but that fucking tastes like Heineken. Heineken Zero is straight up that tastes like Heineken. And if you want beer that has no alcohol in it, that's the one to me. But Guinness is the one that we're going to do. Which one do you want to do next? I don't know. Which one do you think we should do? What are you feeling? Who can do athletic? I'm going to grab the athletic one. I'll be right back.
00:14:07
Speaker
So yeah, so kind of coming off what Tony said, one of the reasons I grabbed the Guinness N.A. was because we had heard
00:14:16
Speaker
And I specifically heard from a couple of different beer groups and people were saying that as far as non-alcoholic beers go, that one kind of runs pretty true. And like Tony said about the Heineken, I haven't had the Heineken any in a while. I had that a couple of years ago, I think. I don't know if we did it on the show. It's possible. But I know I had one once. I think I was out in San Francisco and I was drunk.
00:14:42
Speaker
And I didn't feel like drinking it. I wasn't going home. I don't want to drink any more booze, but I do want some more beer. But I didn't feel like drinking it. I was like, whatever. I was like, you know what? I'll have a drink. It was, like you said, it's pretty spot on to the original. Yeah, I would like, I would have, next year we should have, we should try and hit all major brands.
00:15:07
Speaker
NA. Yeah, because I mean there's Heineken, I know there's a Budweiser one. I don't know if there's a Miller one. I know there's a Stella, zero. So there's a bunch of like major brands that have NA. So this is Athletic Brewing's all-out non-alcoholic, extra dark. Contains less than 0.5%. There's, oh wait, here we go. I'm glad I'm doing all this shit with
00:15:33
Speaker
No glasses. Here we go. An especially bold and extra dark brew. All Out is an adventure. Here we go. All Out is an adventure all its own. It has a silky full body mouthfeel and a pleasantly toasty finish with delicate notes of coffee and bittersweet chocolate. On the days you've given your all,
00:16:02
Speaker
Uh, it's a go-to brew to grab, relax, reset, then reach for another. So there we go. Uh, 90 calories as well. So there we go. Below ABV, low alcohol. What do you think about the smell? Um, I'm getting that roastiness. Yeah, right off the bat. I got that. It's got a nice head on it too. Yeah. It looks like, I mean, this looks like a dark beer. I'm going in for my first sip. What do you think?
00:16:33
Speaker
To me, it tastes more like a like a like coffee porter. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it's very light. Yeah. I'm I feel I got to take another sip. This is the home brewer in me is about to come out. Well, see, that's that's the thing that like blows my mind is how I mean, these might be, you know, they're brewing them just to have these any beers, but like,
00:17:01
Speaker
You know how you make these stouts that are just so like, you know, have like a good mouthfeel and it's just like you can taste the heft of the beer.
00:17:09
Speaker
And if you brewed a beer like that and then did the process for removing the alcohol, do you lose the body? Is that what happens? I think probably you do, especially with the lower calories and stuff. So here's my take. It's a thin beer. And the color on it, by the way, it looks like a porter, because you can kind of see through it. It's like that cola type. I mean, not necessarily a porter. Their stouts are like that. But still, it definitely has that cola-like quality to it as far as the color and being able to see through it.
00:17:38
Speaker
It reminds me of the first time or other times where I'm getting grains to brew a beer. And I still like to taste the grains when I get them. I'll take a piece and chew on it. And this beer tastes like the liquid form of that. That's not an insult. No.
00:17:58
Speaker
It's very roasty. Yeah. But there's no bitterness to compliment that roastiness where you would think maybe like coffee or like a stout. Like I just get roasty and then light body. By the way, we need to go back real quick. And that's Sierra Nevada. How many? I was wondering if you were gonna go back. I am. How many trails you're walking down that? I'm gonna go three eight.
00:18:23
Speaker
Okay, I'm going three, four, three, four in there. Sorry, I was just thinking about that. This is missing the bitterness. I do like it though. I do like it. And I don't feel like, again, there's been plenty of times where we have beers where we're like, this is not good. I would have it again. For what it is, it's good. But again, it doesn't fall into a stout category for me.
00:18:47
Speaker
I'm not getting so much, I'm not, I don't think I'm getting any coffee really. I'm getting more of that, like you said, like just the roast. And I just took another big sip and I'm actually losing the roastiness. Oh, interesting. Are you getting anything else or is it just starting to taste like? Kind of tastes like that alcoholic beer. I have, I've kind of lost the roastiness. I mean, it's still, it's still there, but now it's like the first thing that popped in my head was like, oh yeah, there's that like,
00:19:16
Speaker
I don't wanna say tangy, but like that fruity type hoppiness that you get from any beers. I'm getting that and then there's, oh yeah, there's that roastiness. And the roastiness is like, if you've ever had like a chocolate covered espresso bean, take away the chocolate sweetness and just bite into the espresso bean. Again, not an insult, just kind of what I'm getting like that roastiness. But I want the bitterness, that's what I'm missing from this beer as well.
00:19:45
Speaker
as opposed to the Sierra Nevada Trail Pass, I wanted a hoppy bitterness. For this one, I want that roasty bitterness that you find in stouts. You know what I mean? Agreed. Again, not a bad beer? No. My favorite one from them was, God, what was it?
00:20:05
Speaker
Was it a sour? Yeah, it was a sour. They gave me one last year for free for my birthday. If you sign up, you get a free six pack, I think, is what it was. And they sent me an email to like, your birthday's around the corner. It's like, ooh, do I get something else? Like, just a reminder to buy some stuff. And I'm like, no, no. You guys aren't wrong. I do want to try some of their other things. I wish they had more things available in stores. So I didn't have to pay shipping and handling, but I might try some more of those.
00:20:32
Speaker
I'm very interested in their other sours and I wish more breweries who were doing NA beers would do sour options. Sour options to me might be the easiest way to approach NA beers and yes, it's a very, I don't think it's a very big crowd that's like, oh, I'm not drinking beer.
00:20:55
Speaker
So I'll drink a sour beer, like a sour NA beer instead. But it's way more refreshing. It's really enjoyable. I got like, you know, multi, but also then here's that like sour fruit or sour beer, whatever the sourness. And it was just way more enjoyable. It's still my favorite non-alcoholic beer. And I think it's called Soul Something.
00:21:19
Speaker
I feel like I saw, it may have been a Facebook ad, because I feel like after we did the Go Brewing, I started noticing more ads on Facebook for Go Brewing. Yeah, because we also looked up Go Brewing on our phones. I saw the same thing. But I feel like one of the things that I saw read about them was that they
00:21:40
Speaker
their go-to or their flagship is a sour. Oh, nice. Or they're known for their for some sour, any of yours that they do. So I'd be interested to seek that out. Yeah, I would like to try that as as well. I mean, because the double IPA was really well done. You know, it was good for what it was. And I'd be curious to see how well they did. I was right. By the way, back to the other one, the athletic group is called Soul Sour. It was for Black History Month, which my birthday falls. So that's the reason why I was able to get that one.
00:22:10
Speaker
And I don't know if they're doing it again this year. It would be really awesome if they did because it was just really tasty and very, very refreshing. I love that one. That one was great. There was another stout I was going to get. It was a nitro mocha stout. That sounds good. Yeah, but I figured it was very Guinness. I mean, we can grab that one again.
Athletic Brewing's Non-Alcoholic Varieties
00:22:29
Speaker
Beer on the Wall did have a nice gluten-free non-alcoholic area that I
00:22:35
Speaker
I'm gonna keep an eye on it to see if we can get the IPA one. We can throw that into an episode one time from Sierra Nevada and then whatever athletic beers they might randomly have that you can't just get in the store. Because for the most part I think it's the IPA Golden Ale and I know they have a
00:22:55
Speaker
I just had this side open. I know they have like a light lager, like one that, yeah, here it is. It is a golden ale. Okay, now it's changing. Thank you for not doing that. Runwild, which is their IPA. Upside Dawn is their golden ale. Then they have Athletic Light, which is like a light beer. Freewave is their hazy IPA. All Out is the one we're drinking right now.
00:23:22
Speaker
There we go, light copper. It's Cerveza Athletica.
00:23:26
Speaker
And then they have just straight up, uh, hopped waters. It looks like, um, sparkling water, pieces of hop with like different flavors, mangoes, that stuff I'd like to try too. Cause I love, I love hop water. I want to get back to making hop water so I can have that on tap or just, you know, available. Hop water is so easy to make when you're a home brewer. Water hops and some type of citrus to help the pH. Okay. So I just took another step after us talking. I get a little of that roastiness again, but again,
00:23:56
Speaker
It's okay. It's okay. Brandon, there's a moon on this. I do like the can.
00:24:04
Speaker
design on it too. Same with the Sierra Nevada one. The Sierra Nevada one just looks straight up like a Sierra Nevada beer. It's funny because if I blindly was just buying stuff, especially at a place like beer on the wall where they just have cans in there, I could have mistaken that. Even though, I mean, it says non-alcoholic there right above Trail Pass, but I would have been like, oh, Trail Pass Golden, got it, grab it. I didn't read everything else and I can. How many moons are you giving this?
00:24:29
Speaker
I'm gonna go about 375. 375, nice. 36 to 375 now. I'm gonna go 32 on this. It does mean I don't like it. It's just...
00:24:40
Speaker
I'm, I guess I was hoping just for a little bit more bitterness. Like I said, you know, it would have been, would have been nice. I think for me, um, having had some NA stouts before and drinking them and them presenting themselves as Portis, I kind of knew what I was getting into. I had a feeling this was going to go that route. So I'm not shocked. So my expectations are not shattered. So pretty much your heart wasn't broken like mine. It's pretty much what I was expecting. So.
00:25:07
Speaker
Yeah. Overall, I mean, good. I would definitely have it again. And I'm, you know, that's not, it's both of these beers. I'm not, you know, like, I'll never try an A beer from them again. Brandon, I know we're kind of flying through time here, but we really only have one more beer left. Yeah. Do you want me to go grab that one? Or do you want to grab it? Where are we at on time? Um, we're about almost 30 minutes. 30 minutes? You know what? Even though the second half's been a little shorter, we'll take a quick break. I'm going to drink this co-op hot sauce.
00:26:17
Speaker
To find a rhyme that lays inside, divine Design is mine, a sign of shining Climb to find it, but a cloud nine Decline it's fine to find your diamond, climb to reach the blind So where's my pride? I'ma walk into the doorstep This king shit in here, welcoming the fortress I keep it moving like I'm Forrest, a love of fears and fork I know you're fear and forts, so bump it back But that's the thing with raps, supporting something else's way
00:26:19
Speaker
down the sun above.
00:26:43
Speaker
And I ain't down with that, we so consumed with ten of open coons Hoping soon, and afternoon we'll clean up years and years of open wombs We groom from the womb to smell the flowers after bloom We meant to break over drugs, money, and some poon I'd rather go trying it, dines coming soon The sirens been firing, this ain't nothing new They ten steps ahead and we ain't got a fucking clue
00:27:11
Speaker
The sun above my wrist
00:27:34
Speaker
I'm rockin' till the wheels fall off They try to tell me this shit's off You make life hard, I'm better off I'm silky smooth while Terry Clough I soak it in, I'm takin' off I can feel us bubblin', stomachs loud with rumblin' Hungry or not, have we ever been? Tell me where the fuck you been?
00:27:49
Speaker
Got me like, well fuck you then, temple of the dog I'm almost a legend I asked you to pee, babe, but you keep on forgetting Can't keep it like a secret, the plan was built to spill A lie for a lie, I guess I would hurt a fly We move in our separate ways, but I still remember the days When we were playing, things were okay When I long, these feelings will stay You were my gem, my precious stone The sun above my region
00:28:34
Speaker
I jam my precious stone, the sun above my raging storm that I don't want to see you go. I'm tripping on the low, and as I try to come to terms with bells that have left me burned, it's hard to say if I can love the same again.
Tasting and Evaluating Guinness Zero
00:29:01
Speaker
And we're back. Welcome back to our final NA beer episode of 2024. This is how we start the year. And this is it, man. This is the one that we've been told that is the best NA beer. It is Guinness Zero. The alcoholic trash contains less than .4. Oh, it's even got the little... Got the nitros.
00:29:25
Speaker
Oh, I might need to do that. I like that. Oh, there it goes. I just activated it. I had to tip it. All right. I'm going to pour it like a regular Guinness. For those that think Guinness is like a loaf of bread, do you even drink beer? Do you even drink bread? Do you even drink bread? It's cascading like a regular Guinness a little quicker, but it's doing it. It looks like a Guinness. It's got that cola-like color. I'm going for the smell.
00:29:53
Speaker
Hmm, smells like, maybe it smells like it. Yeah. I think so. It's got the headlight in it. I'm excited. I'm going in for my first sip. Interesting. I'd like to know what you think, Brandon. Huh? I'd like to know what you think. 60 calories, the lowest of the alcohol of the NA beers we've done, too. It's got protein in it, too, just so you know.
00:30:24
Speaker
13 carves. Jesus Christ. It's pretty good. Not bad. Yeah. Is it Guinness? No, it's missing a little something, but I feel like as far as any versions of beers go.
00:30:43
Speaker
This is pretty solid. Yeah. And this, like, unmistakably is like a Guinness. Yeah. Because it's got the smell and everything. Yeah. It tastes like Guinness. But it's also, I gotta get another sip. I'm taking big Gulf's lips, too. So easy, too. It's like there's that Guinness taste. But then there's something else there. It's like sarsaparilla or something.
00:31:13
Speaker
I can't like pinpoint what it is, but you know what this does have the last two beers didn't have
00:31:20
Speaker
is the bitterness I'm looking for when it comes to an NA beer. So right away, Guinness is king of the three. Yeah, and as far as the bitterness goes, it is pretty spot on close to what a normal Guinness would have to sell. Absolutely. It looks like a Guinness. It smells like a Guinness. I mean, it's pretty damn close to a Guinness. Would I make a Guinness beef stew with this? Probably not. I don't know if I'd go that far. No. Yeah, I'd want that rich.
00:31:45
Speaker
bold flavor that Guinness is. I can't even tell anybody that, even if you don't drink, if you're gonna cook with a Guinness, like cook with a Guinness, there's no reason to cook with this. There's no reason to cook with any N.A. beer. No. I don't know. I can't think of a reason. You're gonna cook the booze out anyway, so might as well just have the flavor there. But Brandon, it's a part of my religion. I can't have alcohol. What am I supposed to do? It cooks out stupid.
00:32:14
Speaker
Amen, brother. Amen. I mean, yeah, maybe there's, I mean, there's definitely people that just can't have alcohol. For sure. Yeah, of course. So yeah, I'm completely on board with that. But I feel like, yeah, this isn't a substitute for something that you would cook with. But overall, this is good. Yeah. I like this. I like this a lot.
00:32:33
Speaker
Yeah, very well done. I do like the head is still. Oh, yeah. I mean, this is I mean, this is that's that nitro. I mean, this is straight up like this is as close as I think you can get.
00:32:45
Speaker
to having what a beer. Like I said, the macro bruise, like the Heineken tastes like Heineken. I'm pretty sure that the Stella is probably going to taste like Stella. Yeah. You know, I mean, they're both in green bottles, so you're going to get a skunky flavor anyway. And the Snozberg tastes like Snozberg. Absolutely. I'm curious. I wonder if the Guinness, the open gate here, has the Enne on tap.
00:33:06
Speaker
um our good friend pat was at the guinness brewery oh really he went uh last sunday um before i met him at illuminated he went there and he said he had like five i think he said he had like five drinks there
00:33:22
Speaker
And his wife originally was gonna come to illuminate it and he goes yeah, she did one brewery today. She doesn't need to do another one Yeah, he said the stuff they had there was was pretty good so is there a specific one they make here for Chicago there is what it is, I don't know there's because they
00:33:43
Speaker
From my understanding, what somebody had said was, I think they might be brewing Guinness there, but somebody also said that the actual Guinness is coming in from Ireland. It's a possibility. And then they're doing like one-off stuff there. Nice, because I know Baltimore, there's a Baltimore golden one that they do, like a golden ale.
00:34:02
Speaker
they have at the Baltimore facility. But yeah, I really want to go there. I can't believe I haven't been there yet. We need to make a mission this year to go there and check it out. I'm really surprised we haven't been there yet. There's a lot of places that I still want to go to. There's a ton of breweries I haven't been to. We're also having a beer podcast. It's amazing. Well, I haven't been back to Lagunitas yet. Lagunitas yet, and I was the one that was like,
00:34:27
Speaker
screaming for that place to reopen. We probably should make it maybe that's part of the plan. We're talking about some of the things coming up this year. Yeah, maybe go take a trip over there. So hit up both of them live and he is and get us in the same day. So yep, we could. So here is the the current tap list open gate.
Family and Brewery Outings
00:34:43
Speaker
They have the Kinsey Street parallel.
00:34:46
Speaker
I can get behind that. It's a galaxy and Citra hopped. Oh, I can really get behind that. The corn maze Cremail. Interesting, I like that. Likey, sweet, crisp, made with all Illinois-grown corn. In your face, Spotted Cow. Right up your alley, they have one called spruce stuff. Great. It's a Pacific Northwest red IPA steep with blue spruce tips. Okay, that sounds interesting. Yeah. That sounds...
00:35:14
Speaker
That sounds good. Galaxy APA, tropical notes of peach rings and mango. Ooh, yeah, OK. Fluctase, midnight fireworks brewed with lime, ginger, and marion berries. What? Marion berries, a part of that? Oh, the marion berries. Sorry. They have a winter warmer.
00:35:30
Speaker
I like that. I'm a big fan of which with Madagascar, vanilla bean, nutmeg and cinnamon. What the shit? Why are we not there? You're right. It's really cold here. A classic West Coast hops. 38% rice, citrus and pine. Interesting. Alter Ego. Another fruity hopped beer. Another one cheeky mild. But yeah, so I think so we've got like the the corn maze cream ale, which is made with Illinois corn.
00:36:00
Speaker
And then the Kinsey Street pale ale. That sounds really good. Yeah. I want to go. Maybe I need to go do that for my birthday. Oh, yeah. No offense, Revolution. You've been my go-to spot for the last, I don't know. Yeah.
00:36:15
Speaker
Plus you've got all those variants still untapped Yeah, Pat texts me Last night like shortly. I mean not shortly. I think like an hour or two after I saw your picture and on Facebook And he's like, are you here? Are you at the revolution thing? And I'm like, no There's nothing drink except for super super zero. I think he said he picked up on and on
00:36:40
Speaker
I don't know if he'll have any, like if he's gonna, he doesn't go through a beer that quickly. But I told him I think I have the original, like the first one. Yeah, part two, the package. Yeah, so I still have the first one. I said I could bring that up on the 17th. Nice. If he has the third one. You and I will probably drink a third one, probably for the after the final pour coming up.
00:37:02
Speaker
This next one. Not that we're drinking it tonight, but I'm assuming I was gonna bring that one and you and I can have that. We'll have it sometime this week when we record. Cause yeah, I got that. I did try the VSOR last night, which was very tasty. All their other... Revolution, they did the three components of what they blended the actual on and on part three with. And it was very good. There was a barley wine, a dry stout, and then basically a double barrel Death Star.
00:37:30
Speaker
I think I got an email from Vinny's that they're going to have the VSOR. It's worth picking up. I mean, I know the price point is a little... If you want to spend 50 bucks. It's a little expensive, but it's definitely a tasty, tasty beer. And I'm looking forward to trying On and On Part 3 because I did like all the On and Ons. And the last time we had On and On was when me, you and Clark went to Half Acre for your birthday. Oh, yeah. Your surprise birthday.
00:38:00
Speaker
Um, shout out to half acre. Somebody posted today's, uh, today shared, I guess they posted on, uh, X or Facebook or whatever. I forgot where I saw it, but they now have a kids menu. Hey, fantastic. Because there's been times where like, you know, it's.
00:38:20
Speaker
just me and benjamin and we need to go to dinner and i'm like where do you want to go and he's always like hold everything i'm like older and i always get over it i always go i mean i love i love him and i love taking him there and i was happy that that's where he chose this week for us to go yeah and i love i love that's where he likes to go but then i'm always like man i wish like half acre or some other places had like kids menu and then
00:38:41
Speaker
Now they do, so that'll be added to our rotation once the dry January is over, is wet. Then I go back. Once becomes wet February. Somebody was like, somebody said, hey, this wouldn't work for you. It's your birthday month. And the Super Bowl, but somebody was like,
00:38:57
Speaker
You gotta do dry February. It's the shortest month of the year. Even when it's a leap year. True. This year it's 29 days. 29 days is here. It is a leap year. I'd like to go back to Faker. It was a lot of fun going to Old Irving with you guys. I tried their Ursa Major Baltic port, which I did find out is in Cairns. I don't remember being in Cairns before. It may have been, but I'm excited about that because I want to grab it. That was really good beer. I think it was the next day on Friday morning I saw that they did the Cairns. I was like, oh.
00:39:25
Speaker
Those wings and that sauce was insane. My stomach was not very happy though with me Friday morning. Didn't hurt coming on the way out, but my stomach was like, why were you just... Brandon did the wings. I was surprisingly fine. I'm a wimp, I guess. I think he even wrote that. Get ready for that hot ones. I can't wait to do that. Brandon took down the six wings and smothered in the sauce that had like habanero, ancho chili,
00:39:52
Speaker
I forget everything that's in there. There was a lot. It was lovely. And I had it as a dipping sauce for my chicken tenders, which those chicken tenders were amazing. Those were fantastic. You can tell they're not frozen chicken tenders you get at the store.
00:40:08
Speaker
These were nice and meaty, they were good. But it was nice to have it on the side to just be able to dip it in there. I thought it was tasty. I mean, their wings, sauce, the chefs they have over there. Yeah, I don't think I've had a bad wing sauce.
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, even when I've tried to make wings, I don't think I've had a bad wings. Wings are just delicious. It's really hard to screw up. Yeah, I mean, they're wings. I'm gonna actually do some wings tomorrow. I was thinking of that too. So I think I'm just gonna post up at the house and watch football all day and maybe get some wings.
Culinary Adventures with Chicken and Wings
00:40:44
Speaker
yeah i was i was debating i want to try the uh the sous vide method what's the sous vide method um so basically you take take wings put them in a vacuum seal bag and you sous vide them for like four hours at like 160 degrees or 65 degrees take them out dry them and then you air fry them
00:41:06
Speaker
And then, so they're fully, they're already fully cooked, and then you're just doing it to just get that skin crisped. And it's supposed to be like a fantastic wing, so.
00:41:16
Speaker
I might have to do the same thing because I have my sous vide and I haven't used it in a while. I love that thing. I've only used it like a handful. I've used it three times. Yeah, I think me too, like two or three times. Somebody else told me too, it's a great way to defrost things quickly. Oh, that makes sense. Because the whole point of defrosting, how they say don't leave it out because it gets into the danger zone or whatever. But if you throw it in frozen and set it at
00:41:44
Speaker
the temperature you want, like you want it to be at. Interesting. I mean, you necessarily wouldn't want it like fully cooked, but you could do it to like, I forget what the temperature they said it was, but you basically do it to that. So it's like defrosted and ready to go. Whatever you want to do with it. Yeah. You don't leave it in there like at, you know, a hundred degrees or 90 degrees for four hours. You do it for however many minutes or like an hour, maybe, and then you can cook it. So have you ever suvita steak?
00:42:10
Speaker
No, the only thing I've sous vide is prime rib. Oh, nice. I did pork. I did sous vide some pork. Ooh, how was that? Pork was good. It was a pork loin. It was awesome. Turned out great. But yeah, I've heard that. Did you do anything to it afterwards? Yeah. Yeah, I kind of seared it off and everything. But yeah, that was perfect because it was the best way. I feel like that's doing it. I've never had
00:42:35
Speaker
I rarely have problems with drying out pork loins, so that was a great way to guarantee I wasn't going to do it. I heard that people like doing chicken breast, but the texture, because the way you cook it, it might be a little weird for some, but maybe that's just because people are just used to having fucking dried out chicken, so I don't know. But I've also gotten really good at cooking chicken where
00:42:56
Speaker
It's not dry and not, yeah. Although, I'll tell you this, I followed this recipe because I did these, I've been doing these wraps for lunch. It's been very good because I don't want to buy lunch and I just like to meal prep on Sunday. I did, the last ones I did were ranch, chicken and bacon wraps, like low calorie tortillas and everything, low calorie.
00:43:19
Speaker
Ranch, whatever. And it was good, but the recipe that I saw was like, you know, just cover your chicken breasts with some olive oil, season it, pop it in the air fryer for like 18 minutes at 390 degrees. Very cool. Did it. Took it out. They look awesome. I use that Kinders BBQ to talk about it.
00:43:37
Speaker
dry as fuck. Like, dried the fuck out of that chicken. I was like, I should have just cooked this like I know, but I was like, I was watching football, I was like, I don't even want to stand here and, you know, cook chicken, but I still want to get, so I mean, it wasn't terrible. Like, especially once I mixed it with the ranch and like the bacon that I made up and rolled it in the- It's just too long? Yeah, it didn't have to be under that long. Excuse me. It probably couldn't have gone like 15 minutes and I could have turned it off and let it sit in there.
00:44:06
Speaker
Like I do that. I've done that before. I did that with the, I just did these stuff, sweet potatoes that turned out pretty good. I kind of feel like I just could have just had a sweet potato and been fine. Um, but I roasted sweet potatoes and I did it for how long I was supposed to do it. Like 45 minutes. Yeah. I don't know how much took it out, poked on, like feels kind of soft. So I cut one open and I'm like, that is not finished in the middle.
00:44:28
Speaker
Yeah, so I let it go for another like 10-20 minutes and then I just turned it off and let it sit there and then like an hour later I went in there and I opened it up and they looked perfect like it was great like it was coming off of the skin so I mashed it up a little bit inside the skin then added my ground chicken that I had seasoned
00:44:48
Speaker
Well, like you shred cheese and put it on top and then pop it like in the oven again, or I did the air fryer, which again, it was good. Like it was fine. But I was like, I couldn't just say the sweet potato and I had like a meat side. I don't necessarily know. Like I feel like with a regular potato, like a, like a russet potato, I find if you're like ground beef and like,
Unusual Meal Combinations
00:45:06
Speaker
almost like a loaded baked potato but this is supposed to be like a here's a high protein you know did you send me the video or did it like i remember seeing a video recently somebody made a sweet potato and they put an avocado in it what i didn't send it and then eggs on top of it and like like oh it's like a meal like it's like
00:45:26
Speaker
I don't know if that stuff goes together, like... Avocado and a sweet potato. I mean, that's healthy as fuck. I mean, that's a very healthy, high protein, good fat type meal there, but sweet. But yeah, come on now. I don't know if I want to do all that. Yeah. I mean, I'm going to do some avocado toast and throw an egg on that. Indeed. And then have a sweet potato hash brown on the side. Sure. As one should. Brandon, how many harps are you giving this Guinness Zero? I'm going to go four.
00:45:55
Speaker
I'm with you. I'm going for, sorry, everybody just heard me vape. I'm gonna do the same thing. I'm going for, I feel like this is very solid. I put this up there with the Go Brewing that we've had. Those are my two favorites of this year, not so far.
00:46:09
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm impressed because this being 60 calories, a regular Guinness is almost 200, I think, close to that. No, it's super low. Oh, yeah. Actually, no. I am wrong. Yeah. That's the big misconception is that... Maybe that's the thing. Yeah. That's why when I saw it, I was like, oh, that makes sense because it's 125 calories. That makes sense. So it's half the calories of a regular Guinness.
00:46:35
Speaker
I feel like, yes, you could tell the difference if you're having these side by side, but as far as NA beers go, this is really, really tasty and I do enjoy good Guinness every now and then. Yeah, well done. And this was made in Ireland. Yeah. So overall, I would say if I was ranking them, I would go Guinness all out trail pass. Yeah, I can agree with that.
00:46:57
Speaker
I think that's where I'm at. And again, I think only the reason why I said it for Trail Pass is because I felt more it was like a hoppy water to me than a beer, but I did appreciate the multi-sweetness. Those two were just lacking some bitterness and Guinness hit the bitterness, tastes like Guinness, and had the right carbonation like Guinness does, and the nitro. You can't go wrong with that nitro in there. Never.
00:47:19
Speaker
That's it, man. We have accomplished our NA episodes. We did it, even though there was only two this year because of the way that we were able to work everything in. So that was easy for us. We had some time off from drinking. I'm going to go home and drink some beers now after this, so that's cool. There you go.
00:47:35
Speaker
Actually, after having that, it's funny, they say, you know, goodness doesn't have you, but like every time I have a Guinness though, I'm usually like, I'm kind of full. Just had three, like three NA beers. I'm like, I'm probably just going to have a beer. I still don't like, like when I used to go to the, you used to go there to Christine's. Christina's place? Yeah. And it was like- That's where I got engaged. Well, I know, but I'm like the, dude, I'd go there when it was like the $2, $2.50 Guinnesses and it like,
00:47:59
Speaker
I'm like, how did I just have like six gifts? Bro, they're now $3 Guinness, and there's a bar on Northwest Highway called Coaches that's owned by the same people that also have $3 Guinness. Really? Yeah, so there's Coaches is near Northwest Highway in Harlem. Okay. Yeah, so they have $3 Guinness there as well. Good to know. Might be there doing some karaoke for my birthday, so just a heads up on that in case anybody listens.
00:48:25
Speaker
And all of February, apparently, they do. So on Saturdays. They knew you were coming. They knew it was for me, baby. That's what I'm going to do. Sneak on in there. There you go. All right, man. Brandon, hello, everybody. Love you, too, man. And thank you, everybody, for listening. Hope your dry January went well and that we hopefully helped you either get through it at some point or you got some new ideas. We've tried these beers as well. And if you have, let us know what you think.
00:48:48
Speaker
Next week, we're back at it again. We're back to drinking booze. Oh boy, it's gonna get crazy. Back into the Thunderdome. Who's coming back to the podcast this year? We'll never know, but by the next episode, we'll have a new bumper, so we'll find out what happens. See you guys next week. Bye.
00:49:07
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us individually on social media. Brandon can be found on Instagram as bmdub81, on Twitter, bdub81, and on Untapped as bdubdrinksbeer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Ace of Hope Chicago. On Twitter, The Ace of Hope Chicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three.
00:49:35
Speaker
Dan can be found on Instagram as hip underscore underscore hops and hip hops on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe, like and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.