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Episode 97 - FOBAB 2022 Recap
119 Plays2 years ago
This week Brandon and Tony recap their experience at the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers 2022.
Remember to support the Illinois Craft Beer Guild
https://www.illinoisbeer.org/
Theme music provided by Myke Kelli (@mykekelli)
Outro music provided by @FluidMinds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com
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Transcript
Serge's Surprise Appearance at FOBAB
00:00:00
Speaker
I hear it easy easy easy easy here at a fobab we're just we're in line for a bourbon county and I ran into an old friend you could go with this you could go with that I flew in from... Serge I I cannot believe you're here you didn't even tell us you're gonna be here man. Yes I flew in. When did you fly in? Yesterday 2 p.m.
00:00:23
Speaker
2 p.m. Did you come yesterday or is this your first day? I said yesterday. No, I'm saying you come here yesterday, man. No. That's cool. So what are you most excited about? 2017, how
Anticipation for 2017 Prop Beer from Guzai
00:00:36
Speaker
do you say it? Prook. Oh, 2017, prop. Prook. From Guzai. So we're in line right now and I think only... All they have is 2022. I'm sure this will be used in the show, yes?
00:00:48
Speaker
Yeah. I'm sure the recording capabilities are perfecto. It's pretty good. Well, you're not on the phone, so... Clark's here too. Clark, do you want to say hi to Serge? Yeah. Serge, good to see you in person. Been a long time. Really looking forward to hanging out later and having some sausages. So good sausages. Fantastic. Oh, yes. We're almost there at the line. Let me get in front because I have a friend someone.
00:01:15
Speaker
This
Recap of FOBAB 2022 and Episode 97 Introduction
00:01:17
Speaker
week we recap our experience at the festival of barrel aged beers 2022.
00:01:26
Speaker
This is episode 97 of The Molting Hour.
00:01:55
Speaker
Welcome to the Molting Hour. I am one of your hosts. Do you want to go join Always With? We're ending winning, too. That's it. How's it going, buddy? Good, man. How are you? Tired. I'm good, but I'm tired. I feel like the hits keep on coming, man, in a good way. You know, this is a busy time of year for us right now.
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah, it just feels like there is a lot going on and we're trying to cram as much in as possible before the year ends.
00:02:25
Speaker
I'm thankful both because we're cramming stuff in because we're getting invited to stuff and we're getting to do things. Um, but it's also at the same time, it's like, it's exhausting. Yeah. I don't know if you could tell my one eye, my one eye is severely bloodshot. So I have like allergies and always bothers me, but this eye is also, I, my eyes are like, I'm tired.
00:03:04
Speaker
Uh,
End-of-Year Exhaustion and Appreciation
00:03:05
Speaker
but we decided to do a little bit of a recap of the 2022 20th anniversary festival of barrel aged beers. This, uh, this episode, I was like to say this evening, but not everybody's listening to this at night. Not that you guys fucking care, but still I care when I, when I listened back to it the next day or the day after, and I hear this evening, I'm like,
00:03:08
Speaker
I am tired
00:03:26
Speaker
You're not listening to this at night, are you? You're not listening to this in the morning. Maybe. I like to assume that some people lull themselves to sleep with the sound of our voices. Wait, that's not weird. Don't fall asleep listening to us. This is why we do this show, so you can go to sleep. It's the snoozing hour. And they wake up like, I know a lot about beer.
00:03:50
Speaker
Or they wake up when you go, and we're back. I'm responsible for heart attacks. Like, oh my god, that guy's staring me in my sleep. People peeing themselves. Oh, yeah.
Media Experience and Directing to Episode 94
00:04:02
Speaker
But anyways, yeah, so we got the chance to be media for the Festival of Buriedge Beers. We don't need to go into what the Festival of Buriedge Beers that much, because if this is your first episode, again, weird episode to jump into the series,
00:04:19
Speaker
We did, uh, go back and listen to episode 94, which is when we were at, uh, hay market and talk to race out and, uh, beat Crowley. And we did the, you know, the whole history of the festival of barely aged beers. But as a, a Brandon, you want to tell everybody like a short version of what the festival of barely aged beers.
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, essentially it just started off as a way for people that make wood barreled or bourbon barrel aged beers.
History and Growth of the FOBAB
00:04:52
Speaker
And again, that's kind of a good point to make is like not everything's bourbon barrel aged. Some are just aged on wood and the wood imparts flavor into things and it doesn't always have to be stout. We go down to ciders and loggers and you know,
00:05:08
Speaker
needs, all that kind of good stuff. But anyways, so the short history is Pete Crowley and some other folks decided that they wanted to have a little bit of like a friendly competition. Started at Rock Bottom Brewery here in Chicago and Rock Bottom I think is
00:05:27
Speaker
national chain. That is correct. I don't know how many are still around or where they're all really located but downtown Chicago Pete was working there decided he wanted to do this festival and like kind of test out this whole barrel aging of beer things and they started the competition and it's kind of grown from there so from being at rock bottom and
00:05:50
Speaker
And I think it's to like the Plumbers Union and to the Bridgeport Arts
00:06:01
Speaker
center center and then onto like a couple of iterations in the UIC's buildings. And currently it's at the credit union one arena. It's
Venue Advantages and Early Access Benefits
00:06:13
Speaker
where it's been. And actually so as far as venues go, I loved that venue because there was like, so yeah, getting beer got crowded. Yeah. But there was, we were lucky enough, by the way, to get in an hour early.
00:06:30
Speaker
We got to walk around with some of the brewers and other media people as well, which was super nice. Yeah, and it was a hefty hour, I would say. Jesus. In 45 minutes, I was like, Clark and I both looked at each other, and I think at one point we were like, I think I'm good. Yeah. But we did stay all five hours. I think we left a half hour early, which was great because then we were able to get a lift and get home. I was able to eat Chinese food and fall asleep to watching Netflix. Nice.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah, so but what I loved about the space was that there's room like you have the whole seating area was kind of open to everybody So people can go and sit kind of take themselves out of the festival and like just kind of watch And we did that a couple of times Mainly during the beginning of the award ceremony. We kind of watched the beginning and then we ran off to go do some other stuff try some other things, but I
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, overall, that venue is a cool venue. And I think if the festival gets bigger, they may have to look at other venues, but as far as it goes. Which is something
Crowd Management and Awards Strategy
00:07:30
Speaker
that Ray had said that he felt at this point, this was as big as they wanted it to get. As far as how many people they were gonna have come in to the event. Just because it wasn't, there really wasn't, the most crowded,
00:07:49
Speaker
The two times that I saw that was the most crowded was when the awards were going on because everybody was down on the floor hoping to be in the area where a beer was announced as a winner for a medal so that you can go and try it if they didn't already try it.
00:08:06
Speaker
Clark in fact was trying to go try a beer from Temperance that I don't think won, but he was trying to go down there to try it because he wanted to try it during the awards and couldn't get there. And he got as close as to where one of the booths were biased, which was Sun King and Sun King won a title.
00:08:22
Speaker
a ton of awards. Yeah, they did. So he was able to try something from them. So that was kind of cool. And the other long line was when people, I think, finally realized that Goose Island was outside in the train car during the changing of the hours. And each hour, it seemed that Goose was putting on two to three different beers, or two beers on tap. At one point, there was a super long line. We had come inside.
00:08:49
Speaker
And I asked somebody in line, we were going to the bathroom, like the line was just stretching. I'm like, do you guys even know what you're in line for? And he just goes, Bourbon County, man. That was it. They didn't even know what they were waiting for. So I thought
Long Queues and Goose Island's Surprises
00:08:59
Speaker
that was kind of funny. He had fun. Yeah. And I get it, especially for people. And if you go to Phobab, there's got to be a set of people that go there hoping to try things like Bourbon County because they don't want to chase it and they don't want to have to buy it. But like, hey.
00:09:15
Speaker
go I tried it it is what you know and where they're in line hoping to try some old older vintage you know variant that you know it might pop up on tap they've been known to throw random stuff you know goose islands got a lot of tricks up their sleeves so I had no idea what to expect of what was being put on I knew some of the newer things from this year was gonna we're gonna be there I knew that from the night before
00:09:39
Speaker
I assume that Prop 21 and 20 were going to be on tap, which they ended up being the last two beers that they put on for the day. But I didn't know some of the other ones. So it was like it's kind of exciting to like be in that line waiting for it. Agreed. Now, the other thing about that was that.
00:09:56
Speaker
as long as that line got, it moved fast. They moved that line super fast. We saw it building up because they held people off because they were about to change over what beers they were going to pour. We went and sat down. I don't know if we were just hanging out or if that was when the awards were starting.
00:10:12
Speaker
It was like the pre-awards type thing. They were doing the Godfather thing, I think it was called. And that's when they came out and they were praising Pete and all that stuff, which was hilarious. And I think Pete ended up taking over as MC and then just announcing the rest of the awards. So that was cool. Yeah, that was very funny. And they played Mr. Crowley.
00:10:32
Speaker
That within like five minutes from when we saw that line being as long as it was, it was gone. That line was gone. I actually got up and went into that line. And I was back at the seat, I think, in five minutes. From the time that I got up till I got back, it was maybe five or 10 minutes. Yeah, it was pretty quick. I moved to a different section. Yeah. And they happened to have the old Forrester, the 150th anniversary. That's right. And Kentucky Fog on tap, which was fun, because I really like 150, if you guys remember from our
00:11:03
Speaker
Bourbon County, build your own media kit from this year. And it was funny because you said the 150 and Clark seemed so confused by that. Like, did you get the beer that we liked? That was pretty unanimous. The one that you said, Clark, that you were going to like, oh, I can't wait to sit there and try it and just sip it by myself so I can taste all those layers of pepper and leather. Pretty sure that's exactly how he said it to me. But I mean, it sounds so funny.
00:11:31
Speaker
So many variants that they have, so I'm not surprised. But yeah, it moved along nicely. So those are the only two times that I felt like, oh, wow, there's a long line. You know what I mean? Even though we got a chance to walk around early and try a lot of random beers very quickly,
00:11:53
Speaker
Um, it was, it didn't seem like many people had to wait for many things and that there weren't super long lines. I think the only other early line that I stood in was for half acres. I was, I was literally just going to say that that was, that was the long line right at the beginning. So.
00:12:09
Speaker
And that was like in and out. It wasn't even like waiting. Like the line looked kind of long but the shout out and hats off to the volunteers who were pouring very well and very quickly and got everybody in and out of those booths and the stations very fast. It was seamless. Like I didn't feel like I waited very long at all. No. I'm trying to think like what was the longest I waited and that was probably the
00:12:39
Speaker
The bad thing. No, it would be it would be a goose line, but we were saying you were sitting outside like chatting or whatever and it went fairly quickly. And that was when the line I felt was stopped too. Yeah, when they were holding. Yeah, I would say the longest line waiting for a beer was in the logger lounge.
00:12:54
Speaker
Yes, yep, you know, I will agree with that. And it wasn't that, again, it wasn't that long. It did not take long. It was just, there was a lot of people there waiting to grab full pours of lagers. And they had like two or three people pouring beer. So like, but that was fun. We like, we got to talk to a lot of people, especially the second time or the third time or the fourth time we were up in the lager lounge. We got a lot of a chance to talk to a lot of people, which was a lot of fun. And
00:13:20
Speaker
Made me wish that we had more things to give away because I kept asking you I have no buttons on me I gave away. I gave away my button four times Kept asking you for buttons. We gave away stickers. We got to talk to people Brandon was talking to people I was talking to people Clark was talking to the guy from watermark You know, it was just it was it was a lot of fun. The logger lounge was a bit was a very nice addition to phobab this year
00:13:47
Speaker
Yeah, and one thing and again this and like not rubbing it into people's faces, but we did know but we're gonna do it We did not realize until the end that we had access to like the the Brewers area or whatever
00:14:02
Speaker
solid food back there. And like, yeah, it's something that we've learned now from going to the first year we've been considered media for these festivals. We got a chance to like go and hang out in those areas like from beer under glass. We got the same thing that was super fun.
00:14:20
Speaker
and then here like we didn't even think to like just walk in and ask or talk like we just didn't really cross our minds but we got to go back there it was super fun because we ran into some people that we knew we got some good food we got some good beers and got a chance just kind of like
00:14:35
Speaker
hang out with a lot of people that we've known and met, not only through the show, but outside of the show as well. Totally. That was a cool way, because I think after that, we ended up going back up one more time to the Goose Island train. That's when they had the 2020 and 2021 prop variants. So out of, is there any beers that you had that stand out in your mind?
00:15:03
Speaker
That's a tough like so I was gonna keep track and then I started to Trailed off. Yeah, I think Clark was about to do it right away Which by the way Clark may or not be joining us at some point there might be an insertion somewhere during this episode Clark is busy with some work stuff That has prevented him from joining us. But you know
00:15:24
Speaker
work, family, kind of takes precedence over this. We might have something from him. If not, we'll have him talk about it some other time. But he was about he was going to check in this first beer and he says, forget, I'm not even going to try. And once he said that, I was like, you know what, I'm not going to try either. I'm just going to enjoy myself. I checked in zero beers for the entire festival. I didn't either. But the funny thing is the beers that stood we
00:15:54
Speaker
We talked about it when we were on the train. Chicago and Illinois is so lucky with barrel aged beers and hazy IPAs we've talked about before, but especially barrel aged beers. The barrel aged beer program that we're surrounded by is so good that I couldn't help but go to all the local places.
00:16:15
Speaker
Um, there's a lot of people who say, oh, there's, you know, tons of beers that you gotta go try from places that you'll, you know, breweries that aren't local, which I agree with if that's, if that's what you want to do, do it. But I also like really trying all the local stuff because I might be able to try it again, but there are some local stouts that like, I'm probably not going to try this year. I'm not going to buy, excuse me, I had a cough real quick.
00:16:38
Speaker
I muted myself for that. The one beer that if I had to choose like some of the top local beers that I had and top beers of the fest for me, number one is Old Irving's Krampus in the Buff. Bluff.
Old Irving's Krampus in the Buff Review
00:16:55
Speaker
Bluff, thank you.
00:16:56
Speaker
They say buff, you know naked that Boy that hit everything that I want and expect from a barrel aged beer. It was sweet not overly sweet it got a lot of barrel but not like overly woody it had a nice body without it being super thick and there was a slight bitterness to it it was a
00:17:21
Speaker
God, it's it's it's like it's everything you want in a barrel aged beer. Yeah, it's what I remember. And I'm not taking away from what Goose Islands, Bourbon County tastes like now because we always say, you know, we've done so many episodes in Bourbon County. We love Bourbon County, regular Bourbon County. But having that beer kind of reminded me of the first time that I had Bourbon County. Yeah. Having the Krampus in the in the bluff. That was just so fantastic. I think.
00:17:52
Speaker
All three of us had it more than once, am I correct? Agreed. And I think that's the only one that we all went back for. Correct. If I had to choose two more that stood out, just going to go with three. Benthic, was it two by four? Yep.
00:18:07
Speaker
That had so much coconut in it. It was like I love coconut so I'm not I don't know if everybody's gonna like it But it was like like sweetened shaved coconut that you use for baking Chocolate and coffee and stout and barrel. It was really really really good. I really liked that beer and
00:18:29
Speaker
Those are the two that are standing out right now. I know a third one will come to me. Brandon, what about you, man? What are a couple beers that stand out for you? Yeah, so I'm kind of, I'm in the same boat. Krampus was just phenomenal to me. And I did like Ben Thicke. I felt like because we had so many, and I say so many, at that time we had five or six beers, and then I had the cup of cinnamon.
00:18:55
Speaker
And the cinnamon was lost on me. I forgot about that. And I was sad that it was lost on me. I know it's there. We were 30, 40 minutes into the festival, not even. And literally the barrel was just overtaking my mouth.
00:19:15
Speaker
So but one that I did really enjoy was the red wine barrel aged triple G Which was the Belgian triple that was barrel aged and red wine barrels from sketchbook I really like that because I do I do enjoy good red wine and I really enjoyed How well that beer just kind of the Belgian, you know
00:19:40
Speaker
All of the notes that you get from a Belgian beer really complemented the red wine characteristics too, because I was getting notes of red wine
00:19:51
Speaker
and getting notes of Belgian beer, and it was tasty, man. So that was... Yeah, you and Clark both really liked that. I enjoyed it. I don't think I liked it as much as you guys. You guys really liked it, which I think is awesome. That's a nice... I think it's a good example of a barrel-aged beer that doesn't necessarily have to be bourbon. Yeah, and I know we're talking about beers that we like, but just kind of one I wanted to put out there that was just like...
00:20:20
Speaker
I don't want to say it was disappointing. It was just not what I was expecting was the double barreled Dino s'mores, Dino s'mores. Like it was. Yeah, I'm with you. The mouth feel and like the characteristics that came through it like it just did not like I wasn't getting a lot of barrel. I wasn't getting a lot of like even heat. It just almost tasted like regular Dino s'mores to me.
00:20:47
Speaker
Maybe like a buffed up version. Yeah, like a slightly heftier version, but not even that much heftier. There were some more characteristics that kind of came through, but I felt like the characteristics of Dino Smores were being amplified. I felt like I was getting a little more Graham. I was getting a little more chocolate, but the barrel and everything was kind of lost on me.
00:21:07
Speaker
I'm not knocking off color in any way. It could totally be by the fact of the other beers that we had kind of beforehand. We tried cleansing our pallets with water numerous times, but there's only so much you can do. I forget which one it was. The first beer that I had, it was from Great Lakes.
00:21:30
Speaker
I'm trying to it does trying to think the stout like they have like a stain I did yeah, I thought I took a pic I was looking at I thought I took a picture because that was the first like over one of the first apps we made over there as well, but
00:21:43
Speaker
Clark and I grabbed something else that was- Okay, so it was barrel aged blackout stout.
Starting with Great Lakes' Barrel Aged Stout
00:21:47
Speaker
So that's right. So Great Lakes does do blackout stout and they had a barrel aged version of it. And I thoroughly enjoyed that. I thought that was really good. It was a good like starter for me for the day, kind of set the precedence. But yeah, that was super good too. So that one totally gets an honorable mention for like being a fantastic beer. And- I have, oh, sorry, go ahead. No, go ahead.
00:22:11
Speaker
I was going to say, you had mentioned, I will mention, so there was one beer in particular that gets a shout out from me. If you guys go back to the great American beer fest, I think we talked about corporate ladder, brewing's, uh, chomparato that caught me off guard when I had it. Cause I had no idea what to expect. I didn't put it together. It was spice. Nobody told me.
00:22:35
Speaker
So I saw, they even sent a picture to Dan, they had a double barrel camperado there at FOBAB. And I was pretty excited about it. I was like, OK, good. I know what I'm expecting. So I'm going to go in and try for it. And as I went up to the volunteer,
00:22:52
Speaker
Now, mind you, this is a volunteer. I don't remember at the Great American Beer Festival with someone from the actual brewery or a volunteer report. The volunteer goes, just so you know, this is spicy. And I thanked him. I go, thank you so much for saying that. And I hope you're telling everybody else that. And he was. He told me to. Yeah, it was really fucking good.
00:23:13
Speaker
I knew exactly what I was getting into and the spice was like the heat was nice like it was a solid like spiciness to that beer it wasn't like overpowering but it was like man that hit barrel chocolate cinnamon spice everything perfectly that was like a redeeming beer for me like I said I probably would have liked it at the great american beer fest had I you know been told or put it together myself but I didn't
00:23:37
Speaker
But yeah, that was pretty tasty. I want to say one more thing. You mentioned off color about the double-barreled Dino s'mores. Did you try the tequila-barreled? I did. Beer for tacos. What did you think of that? I liked it.
00:23:53
Speaker
I did too. Somebody was saying, Dan Clark was saying, oh, it tastes just like regular beer for tacos. That was me in the beginning. And I went and had some water or something. I don't know if I got more of it. I don't remember.
00:24:10
Speaker
But I think I gave it some time to register in my brain, like, hey, you just had like, I think that I had, I think I had a modern, I have the picture of it. I had modern times, which I was gonna mention, Mega Devil's Teeth Hazelnut Cocoa Vanilla. And that was good, too. Right beforehand. That was awesome. I had that right before. So it wasn't fair of me to take that first sip and be like, just taste like beer for tacos. But after you think you had some, you were like, I don't know, man, I'm getting some of the barrel.
00:24:38
Speaker
And so I waited and I switched it around a little bit my glass and I took a sip and I'm like, OK, there it is. And the tequila barrel barrel was really nice. I was really excited about that beer because I love beer for tacos. I think it's a great, great beer. Yeah. And that was kind of my take on it, too, because so I rinsed my glass first, I drank a bunch of water, then I got a fill of it. And the first thing I got was like like some underlying tones of tequila. I got a little oakiness and then I got like the beer for tacos and I like
00:25:07
Speaker
In my mind, I was like, dude, I really wish I had a taco right now because this would go great together. Beer for tacos. Beer for tacos you can drink all the time. I do want to say the majority of the beer for whatevers are perfectly paired with whatever they're trying to pair it with. I don't know about beer for golf because I don't golf.
00:25:32
Speaker
Um, the beer for food stuff. Yeah. The beer for pizza has been really good. The beer for burgers and beer for tacos. Um, they made just solid, solid fucking beers. Um, and like I, again, given a choice, I would drink that one again over like the, the double barrel, like Dino s'mores, because I was getting more out of that, but also I would love to do double barrel Dino s'mores, not in this whole like.
00:26:00
Speaker
fobab setting, just have it separately. And because we were there right in the beginning, so a lot of these beers were chilled, like chilled, and I was like, you're giving us small pours, I don't have time to warm this up in my glass to see if anything's gonna come out, so I'm drinking this ounce that you're giving me. It's a fun way to try these beers, but you can't... It's not a fair way to assess them most of the time.
00:26:29
Speaker
especially with how many of them that we tried, you know, it's a fun way to like, try beers, it's a fun way to try like a whole bunch of different barely aged beers, we didn't even really get on to like
00:26:39
Speaker
sour beers or meads or parries or anything. We went hard on like... Stouts. Because that's literally what we walk into, like, stouts. And it's like, all right, this has set the precedence. Even when we went down the floor, it was like, yeah, look, there's more stouts. Let's go do this. Yeah, but you had said, too, like, I don't know if I can do the sours. Nobody's got tums. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:03
Speaker
I mean, I'm looking forward to already next year, because I would like to attack it a different way to be like, okay, maybe I start with some sours, start with some wild ales, maybe some meads, some ciders, some parries, just to dip that in there. So I thought that that would be fun to like cleanse my palate, but the Lager Lounge did that for me. So I mean, I like all those other styles, but I mean, I'm there for like barely just out some porters. Yeah. And I will say like the addition of the Lager Lounge was
00:27:32
Speaker
Like, that was clutch, man. Killer. Killer. Just taking a break from all of the heavy stuff that you're drinking, and it wasn't like you're going in and getting, oh, here's an ounce of a lager to cleanse your palate. No, they were filling up our glasses. They filled up our glass, yeah. And it was their noon whistle. Microphone.
00:27:54
Speaker
more more those at least the three that I remember I think there was a fourth was Pollyanna I don't think so yeah they could be it could be sorry to the fourth brewery if there was a fourth brewery that we forgot you but yeah very cool idea it was like neatly like kind of set up in the you know
00:28:11
Speaker
It felt like a cool little lounge. There was tables, there was a couple that let me have some of their popcorn. It was fun. It was a lot of fun to talk to those people. Knowing we first got there because of, I mean, Bourbon County hype, you know? I'm going straight into that. I wanted to know, because they had the train car outside, it was super cool.
00:28:35
Speaker
each hour they were rotating two beers. When we first got there, they had Midnight Orange and Moncherie. Now, those are two, I would say, polarizing variants that people either, I think, loved or hated. We did not go out for those. It was interesting that that's what they chose for the VIP hour. Absolutely.
00:28:58
Speaker
I kind of want it was empty that first hour. Yeah, there wasn't a lot of people out there. Midnight orange. I wouldn't have mine. I wouldn't have mind trying again. Clark and I just had had Monterey from the bottle a couple of weeks ago, which was tasting great.
00:29:14
Speaker
But because they weren't two variants that I was overly thrilled about, I was in no rush to go and have them. Right there in that. Agreed. But the first hour, once one o'clock hit, the sign changed. If you look on our Instagram, there's a picture of it.
00:29:36
Speaker
The sign on the train changed to 2022 Bourbon County original and the 2022 two year barley wine reserve. I was pretty fucking excited about that. Yeah, I think that's that's the one we went for. Yep. We in fact, we ended up going to that twice because we had regular Bourbon County and we had we started with the the barley wine, but we ended up having the regular Bourbon County as well because we went back out there. We stood out there for a while.
00:30:07
Speaker
Hanging out just just drinking it and the two-year I mean we have a bottle of the two-year barley wine that we're gonna review soon along with two other variants Right now before it's released because we're cool Thank you use but what's your it's hard to again? What's your first impression on that type of take of the two-year barley wine and regular Brevard County if you want? It's so
00:30:30
Speaker
I mean, I can't say anything about regular Browning when it's a regular Bourbon County because it's it's Bourbon County like it. It was tough to like sit there and compare it to anything else at that moment. Because like Bourbon County has been so consistent at least the last couple of years. Like, you know what you're going to get. And it is exactly what I was expecting. The barley wine, however,
00:30:53
Speaker
You know, I go back and forth on enjoying barley wines because some are done really well, some are just done, like, okay. And if it's okay, like, I don't really want it. But, and we talked about this too, like, we've done, we reviewed some older Goose Island barley wines, or we had them.
00:31:16
Speaker
And we weren't like huge super fans of like the older barley ones. But this one just like hit everything you want in a barley wine. Like I was
Goose Island's Two-Year Barley Wine Praise
00:31:23
Speaker
getting like I was getting barrel. I was getting a little heat. I was getting like toffee and like dark fruit and like just super, super well balanced. And I was impressed and I enjoyed every sip of that. I would have went back like multiple times for that one. But, you know, when I talk about going back multiple times for places like
00:31:45
Speaker
I'm sorry, Goose, I don't put you in the running. Sorry, it was Krampus. It was Krampus that went back. Yeah, well, Krampus was like the best. Yeah, that was like Krampus was still my top. But yeah, I was just really impressed like how well I enjoyed the barley wine and how well the barrel and everything kind of complimented each other. Yeah, like really, really, really good. Yeah, I had a
00:32:11
Speaker
I had a hard time judging it at that moment because when I think of a barley wine, at that moment, it tasted somewhat dry to me, which I thought was kind of nice. So I don't know if that's really, like I expect barley wines to be sweet.
00:32:25
Speaker
Not overly sweet but a sweetness to them and it might have a sweetness it might have a sweetness to it That wasn't picking up because we had already been drinking a few other sweet barrel aged beers Yeah, but I did Really enjoy it and I do understand now why people are hyping that one up so much as well as the 30th anniversary So that was that was exciting to try What were the other were the other?
00:32:50
Speaker
Oh, okay. I remember the other ones. The 2022 coffee was another one that we tried for Brandon County from Goose Island. What'd you think about that one? I liked it. I felt the coffee was subtle, but I feel like it kind of added to the chocolate and just the overall characteristics of a stout. And again, that could be serving temperature or whatever, but I thought it was good.
00:33:15
Speaker
I feel like this is probably, I think we talked about this before, I don't remember the last time, was Cafe Ole the last time they did a coffee one? I believe so. I like it better than that. Going off memory. It's funny that you say that the coffee was settled, because I got, again,
00:33:34
Speaker
pallets are destroyed at this point. Cause this was later in the day. I got a lot of coffee. I got like almost all coffee and not in a bad way. I really enjoyed it. And I feel like that's when I am going to seek out. But that's what you want in a coffee salad. Absolutely. And I'm seeking it out because I want to drink that fresh. I'm going to drink that like no matter what I end up getting from this year, from all the random places that are selling it this year, when I get a coffee one, if it's on black Friday and I happen to grab, you know, an allotment of some,
00:34:03
Speaker
I will probably not drink regular first. I'll probably drink the coffee first because I want to have it as fresh as possible because coffee is in there. I mean, again, it's fun to try some of the aged stuff, but a coffee one can be fickle. Who knows? In a year from now, it might not taste that great. Yeah. It might have faded. It might get that green pepper type of flavor. I don't know who or what I was reading, but somebody was saying that they were getting the green pepper like
00:34:27
Speaker
off drinking it at a full bath. I'm like, what? I also feel that's just different people's palates. Yes. Like, you're going to taste things. It's like people who, some people, when they taste, fuck, what is it? Cilantro. Yeah. It's like soap, or it just tastes like cilantro. Now, I get how people can taste a soapiness from cilantro. And the same, people say the same thing about mosaic hops. There's a soapiness to it.
00:34:54
Speaker
Sure, that's just how different people's tastes are. So that's a possibility. Some people might get green pepper from that type of bitterness from coffee in a stout, in a beer. Then you guys weren't out there for Kentucky Fog or the 150. I had a pour of the 150, still tasting awesome. I still got them up. It's right back there, Brandon. All those are empty except for the white bottle, the white. Nice. Those are just things I'm saving. Pretty sure I have one. I'm pretty sure you have two or three. Yeah.
00:35:25
Speaker
I'm dumb. It still tastes great. I'm looking forward to having that bottle. I'm probably happy with you. Having that sometime maybe this year just to maybe around the holidays or something. Maybe for 100th episode, we'll see. We'll see. Yeah, it was tasting good. And then the final ones they put on were Prop 2020 and 2021. Which prop did you get? Did you get 2020? I think we all got 2020. Yeah, yep.
00:35:54
Speaker
I think we all did. No offense, 2021, just weren't our favorite, even though you got better. But to be honest, man, at that point of the day, I didn't finish it. I can't tell you if I tasted, I don't know what the variance, I forget what's in 2020. I think that's the one where my glass blew off and broke. Yeah. I put it on top of the garbage can out of this way. Hey, you got that coffee mug though, am I right? Got that coffee mug.
00:36:21
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it was, I just, it was enough. I had enough, so no offense, Goose, but I was done. And again, it's not a marathon to drink all the stuff, but you know, I was a kid in a candy shop for the first 45 minutes, and we didn't get shitty, we didn't get belligerent, none of us got sick, none of us felt like crap, I think. I don't know, I haven't talked to Clark, really. But yeah, I mean, overall, I think it was a really good fest.
00:36:49
Speaker
It was a lot of fun. I had a great time. It was awesome going with you and Clark. It's awesome going with you every time, man. But it was cool to have Clark along instead of Dan, because Dan's not around. Loser. Just joking. He went for Dan. Hope you brought back beer from Florida. But yeah, it was awesome, man. It was great and it was cool to celebrate with people again and doing 20 years of Phobeb. What was your take on the whole thing, man?
00:37:18
Speaker
Yeah, agreed, very well put together, very well organized. You know, and then, you know, the interactions we got from, you know, past guests and people that we just, you know, run into, like, you know, Tim from Old Irving, and then we got to chat up with Ray and Tobias from Rabbitburg. And, you know, obviously we ran into Shalonda and Nick,
00:37:45
Speaker
That's obvious always a good ten reunited with Shalonda again 20 years later Since the pandemic right like yeah, I we've talked to her like I've messaged with her and and things like that we've we've chatted here and there but that's the first time we've Ran it we saw Nick earlier this year at Goose Island. Yeah Yeah, we've not seen a long time. So that was
00:38:11
Speaker
That was nice. You guys are going to hear from them soon. Yeah, that was fun. That was a lot of fun. It was cool hanging out with them. We saw Eric Flores from Whiskey Hill, ex-Goose Island. That was over in the Brewers Lounge, so that was cool.
00:38:26
Speaker
Um, but yeah, very well put together event. Um, super chill, super, like everyone there was like really cool. I enjoyed, I don't think we had any bad interactions. I think, um, the lines were okay. Like the lines weren't crazy. I did like, we were kind of sitting there when like awards were being announced, watching like lines form at like certain places. But I was like, I think Clark, that's when Clark was down there and you and I were both like, yeah, I'm not going down there.
00:38:52
Speaker
Um, but yeah, it was, it was a fun time and I'm, I'm super excited to, to see what next year brings. Um, not, not, not even just like the beers and people that bring beers, but also like how the event evolves. Like the logger lounge was clutch, like killer. I loved that they had that addition. I hope they bring that back next year. And I think that well, man, I think, I think that was such a smart idea and it was so fun to, to, to hang out. It was a nice, like.
00:39:20
Speaker
And everybody was everybody that we ran into. I did not run into a single jerk unless I was being a jerk. I don't think I was. But everybody that I ran into was super cool. Everybody was there for the same reason. Have a good time. The worst part was seeing one person forcing themselves throw up outside of it. Yeah, that was literally when we were leaving. That was disgusting. That was conduct yourself a little bit better, everybody, OK? Other than that, it was fantastic. Agreed.
00:39:50
Speaker
Yeah, so thank you, Illinois Craft Beer Guild and FOBAB and everybody that we've talked to the past couple of weeks that thanks for inviting us. We had a great time. We look forward to going back next year and look forward to all the other events and things that are going on, you know, coming up next year.
00:40:11
Speaker
Agreed. It was so much fun, man. And kind of a cool, not that the, you know, we're getting close to the end of the year here, but as far as festivals go, I feel like this was a nice lead-in to barrel age season for us, for, you know, especially in Chicago, and also a nice lead-in to like the end of the year, like we're getting to like the holiday stuff.
Festival as Holiday Prelude with Friends
00:40:32
Speaker
So it was a fun time to spend with you and Clark hanging out. Like we,
00:40:37
Speaker
It wasn't like the Great American Beer Fest where we were like so focused on recording and talking to people and like we got to actually I felt like this was more we got a chance to experience it as people just like friends hanging out and trying these beers and it was great. And, you know, as we get close to the holidays, we'll be doing more of that. So it kind of felt like a nice preemptive holiday hangout for us. Yeah. Yeah. It was like you said, it was it was a great close out to the year, but a great beginning to barrel each season.
00:41:07
Speaker
because this is when the heavy hitters start coming out and that's when the chasing starts for people. Absolutely. And we're lucky enough to not have to chase all that much. Yeah.
00:41:23
Speaker
We are, and we're looking forward to talking to everybody. I'm bringing you some more content of all this fun, barrel-aged beer stuff, and who knows what it's gonna be. This is the length of an episode, so you know what I'm calling this baby? This is episode 97 of the Molting Hour. We have a couple episodes left before the 100th episode. We got the Maltese coming up. We got some holiday beers. We've got Michigan beers. We got some Michigan beers we're gonna drink.
00:41:53
Speaker
We got some Bergen counties we're gonna drink. And then who knows what's gonna happen in January. We might be doing dry January. We might be cooking some stuff. We might be, I don't know what's gonna happen, but it's been a, I can't believe we're about to hit 100 episodes. It's been a hell of a year this year, man. And I could be more proud of the work that you and I have done for this show. And I appreciate everything that you do and keep on doing for this show. And I couldn't imagine doing it with anybody else, man. Just keep getting better, man.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yeah man, and thanks everybody who are listening and keep on listening. We appreciate that. Did not expect all you guys to keep on listening, so thank you. Yeah. That's cool. We got that going for us. Yeah, I will say that too. And maybe I'll get, you know, when we hit our 100th episode, I'll have some more words, but I do feel like this has grown
00:42:41
Speaker
like this year exponentially more than we could have imagined. Uh, and it just keeps getting better and super, super appreciative for all of the friends that we've made and that continue to support us and include us with all of the cool things that they're doing. Um, that, that helps us keep, you know, keep plugging along and makes the whole thing of like,
00:43:06
Speaker
Oh, we gotta do an episode. And it's like, no, people want to talk to us. And like, it's, it's, you know, it went from like, just being us hanging out and talking about stuff. And, you know, we were home brewing more at the time, which,
00:43:22
Speaker
I think early resolution for 2023 is going to be more. It's always my fucking resolution. Yeah. I got to do it this year. I think the last two years you said I'm not going to buy beer. I'm just going to brew beer. I got to stop buying beer. I got to start brewing it, man. Yeah. And I'm kind of in the same category. I want to brew more, man.
00:43:44
Speaker
You know, get a kegerator like I've got the the ways to do it or serve it. So we got friends who will drink it. Yeah. And now that like, you know, for. You know, most situations things are getting, you know, better. You know, we can start having more people over and like having people taste our home brews and doing like more episodes surrounding around home brew.
00:44:07
Speaker
and bring into the friends that we've made along the way at breweries to give us honest feedback, mainly on your beers, because they'll say they're good. If I could bring them my beer, they'll be like, hmm, whoever needs some help. You make good beers. Thanks, man. All right, man. Well,
Community Growth and Podcast Future
00:44:21
Speaker
that's going to do it for this week, everybody. We'll keep gushing over how much we love all of you and ourselves in a couple weeks. But until then, Brandon, love you, buddy. Love you, too, man. And we'll see you guys next week. Bye. Bye.
00:44:36
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 Help Chicago, on Twitter, The Ace of Help Chicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three.
00:45:04
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.