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Episode 125 - Temperance Beer Co. Turns 10
172 Plays2 years ago
This week we sit down with Temperance Beer Co. owner Josh Gilbert and head brewer Connor Scanlan to discuss the 10 year history of the brewery and what to expect in the near future.
https://temperance.beer/
Theme music provided by Myke Kelli (@mykekelli)
Outro and break music provided by @FluidMinds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:01
Speaker
if you're right there talk right now like we're having hey Connor what's going on man how are you doing well how are you doing today unless you guys are gonna talk yeah there you go unless you guys are gonna talk this quiet up into the microphone and
00:00:29
Speaker
This week we're joined by Josh and Connor to discuss 10 years of Temperance Beer Company. This is episode 125 of The Malting Hour.
00:00:39
Speaker
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, wait you're getting wasted The molten hour here, people, people taking places
00:01:06
Speaker
And we are joined by some special guests. Guests that we have been trying, and it's not their fault. Actually, the last time we had it locked up, locked down, I had to cancel because I had a personal thing happen.
00:01:21
Speaker
We appreciate it, but we are here in Evanston, Illinois at Temperance, and we are joined with... Josh Gilbert. And... Hey, I'm Connor. Very calm. Josh... Oh, you didn't say his last name? Yeah, no one knew him. Scanlan. Scanlan. Scallop. Shit, I did it! I blew it!
00:01:41
Speaker
And Josh, you are the owner, proprietor here. By the way, anybody who just heard that, I did not pass gas. That was the chair. Was that your chair? He said a lot of beer. I'm like one and a half in. And Connor, and you are the head brewer, correct? Yes. Fantastic. So I just wanted to get that out.
00:01:57
Speaker
Thank you guys so much for joining us for this episode. Like I said, we've been looking forward to it. And thanks to Katie, who's, there it was again. Thanks to, I'm gonna stop mentioning it. Thanks to Katie, who also helped facilitate this, who's also just been very great about making this happen. She's been very cool.
00:02:15
Speaker
Yeah, we appreciate her because sometimes it is hard. We understand like it's hard to either get owners or brewers together because number one, not only are you guys working all the time here, but you also have lives outside of here and most of the times that we can get together with these brewers and owners is
Temperance Beer Company Journey
00:02:36
Speaker
when we're done with our job, so we appreciate it very much. Life is really also impossible a lot of times. That's very deep right away. I'm going straight in. So let's get straight into it. You guys are celebrating your 10-year anniversary very soon. How does that feel, man?
00:02:59
Speaker
Oh, uh, depends on the day. Sometimes I'm like, let's go. And sometimes it's like, Oh my God, why am I still doing this? It's only been 10 years. I can't imagine. I mean, with, with everyone that we've, we've spoken with and know like really kind of getting behind the scenes of what goes into running a brewery, whether, you know, or just working at a brewery.
00:03:23
Speaker
It sounds so cool, but also like, Jesus Christ, what are you guys doing? Like it just sounds, I mean, there's, I mean, when, when you hear about craft beer or any of the beer in general, like craft like things, there is a lot of like, literally like blood, sweat and tears that goes into it. Like your, you guys are sacrificing a lot of your time and energy and money to put out something that you really believe in.
00:03:49
Speaker
And I think temperance is a really good example of putting that all out there and it really being.
00:03:55
Speaker
successful in portraying it because I've been a fan of, I mean, I used to work right over here. Hey, Clark, sorry, not on this episode. Not far away, and I remember when you guys opened up, and so I've been drinking your beer since you guys opened, and it's always been great. Escapist has been one of my favorite IPAs for the last 10 years. That's the original menu right behind you there. What? I literally just saw that. Take a picture, Brandon. We gotta get that. That looks vaguely familiar. Yeah. Oh, man, that's super, I really hate this chair right now.
00:04:24
Speaker
It's probably not even picking up Which would be far off But yeah, if you don't mind Josh 2015 sorry 2015 might meet right
Josh's Background and Brewery Motivation
00:04:44
Speaker
there. It's on the menu. Yeah
00:04:46
Speaker
So was it just for That Might Meets Right? Was it just, how many, was there, what was it? It says BA double rye. You're on a podcast, talkin' about your phone. That's right, wow, that was looking weird. Yeah, yeah. Everybody can still hear me, I'm loud as hell. Yeah, we started doing variance 2017, so. Wow.
00:05:02
Speaker
like escapist is there and i'm drinking grapefruit escapist right now that's great fruit escapist from 2015 and it doesn't taste like candy um josh can you get into uh how temperance came to be
00:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, I'll try to be succinct. We're not going to say anything, so you're on the spot. Oh, geez. Thanks. So I grew up in Evanston, left for college, then lived in Chicago for like 11, 12 years. Then it was like, OK, we got two kids.
00:05:45
Speaker
Both. It was funny. No, I was just like, I lived in Afghanistan and I left, lived in Chicago, made my big jump. That is a jump, though. If you grew up in Evanston and you don't live in Chicago, I'd be like, this guy's too wild. Because I was still processing. I'm like, oh, whatever, I went to college. And he's like, oh, then I moved to Chicago. I'm like, OK. I did not go to college in Chicago. I was all the way on the East Coast, a totally different time zone. There you go. Wow. One hour ahead.
00:06:18
Speaker
it's funny though there's like a psychological barrier you know when you're you know I think it goes both ways you're like I mean that is kind of all but absolutely no it's not it's mean but I was just in Andersonville yeah you know and moving up to Evans and I was like
00:06:34
Speaker
All right, I guess it's that time of life. Anybody listening, do not understand the locations between the two.
00:06:46
Speaker
Look up Evanston, and then look up Andersonville, putting Google Maps. It's not crazy far. It's like four miles. But it really is, like, it is kind of, well, not fully night and day, but it is, I mean, there's a difference. There is a difference. Yeah. So anyway, so got to Evanston. I was a
Founding Temperance and Overcoming Challenges
00:07:04
Speaker
practicing architect at the time. What's with architects getting to brewing? Sorry, the only thing on the plant. Because it's really, oh, and Jerry.
00:07:11
Speaker
Nelson. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Shit, that's right. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. It's not a great profession to be in if you want to make money and enjoy your life. It turns out neither is being a brewery owner. But at least you get beer. That's the other thing, like beer is readily available. That's a bit different. This got me nothing. I was at work. Yeah. So anyway, it was a
00:07:41
Speaker
Then, so we moved in like 2006, and then 2008, 2009 happened, and being an architect, especially a residential architect with only like one other partner, we had worked for like half of one of us, so. Oh wow. That was silent. You're alright. So. I'll try my best to remember to edit it out, don't worry. Yeah.
00:08:03
Speaker
What was that? Anyway, so I was kind of naive enough to, like I was home brewing, and it's not one of those stories where I was like, man, everybody loved my home brew so much that I just had to do it. It was more like, I made some beer that I enjoyed drinking, and I thought, Evanston, you know, it'd be really nice for me if Evanston had a brewery.
00:08:24
Speaker
So I guess I'll do that. I'm the guy. You're welcome, Evanston. I will take on this daunting task because Evanston was, I mean, dry until 1972. Yeah. And then it's been like progressively more damp. Yeah. Little by little. They had weird liquor laws too, didn't they?
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah, right in the beginning, like you had to order a full meal of food. With your like, you know, with your, it was probably like red. The pink, the original rosé was like some sort of white zen, right? Yeah, I'm looking at Connor because like his sister worked in wine. So anyway, and you know, now you can basically
00:09:17
Speaker
You know, there are no just full-on bars, but you can go into a place and pretend it's a bar, because you don't have to actually order food when you do. Sure. They have like a bar type situation. Yeah. But, you know, we don't technically have a tavern license yet. Here's a big jerky. Yeah. Jerky, chips, some popcorn, I think. And then what happened? Well, seriously, I was naive. I was blissfully ignorant enough.
Crafting Unique Brews
00:09:43
Speaker
And I guess lucky enough.
00:09:44
Speaker
to, well, obviously I didn't have to pay for the architecture fees, so that was good. And found this, like, Evanston's not known for its industrial base, but I was literally driving down Dempster and saw a big billboard that said, like, warehouse space, you know, 25,000 square feet. I was like, oh, that's more than we need, but I'll check it out. Let's give it a try. Yeah. And so we got this, like, incredible spot.
00:10:08
Speaker
for destination and we can talk about that a little bit later how it kind of changed from like breweries being destinations to be like I need to walk by it otherwise I'm not going in yeah absolutely so but anyway free parking um cool where
00:10:25
Speaker
cool, like, you know, exposed brick, concrete block vibe, blah, blah, blah. Like not something you don't find in Evanson. Sure. The kids to dodge in the parking lot. Yeah. The swim school. Oh my god.
00:10:52
Speaker
So, you know, it's just like, um, I took, I went to Siebel, but, um, I,
00:10:59
Speaker
I did the start your own brewery course, not the brewer course. I think everybody else we've talked to was the brewer course. I was going to say I'm not dumb enough to think that I can do both. Do you want me to edit that out? Yeah. I realized that I couldn't do both.
00:11:20
Speaker
I'm not a superhuman like some other brewers. Sure, sure. Well, it's true, though. I mean, that's a huge undertaking. Why not go with the one thing that, like, you know you can focus on to make it the best thing possible? Or at least, you know, focus all your energy on it to try and make it the best thing possible that you want to do. Plus, that was coming from, you know, what do those call them?
00:11:45
Speaker
Carboys yeah, so it's always the tanks. Yeah carboys and right to go to stainless from that. I was like well It's it's funny because like I think a lot of at least when I was a new home brewer I don't know how long it's been now. It's 12 years at this point
00:12:00
Speaker
Like I always thought that, oh yeah, once I made my own recipe, you just scale it up. Just scale it up. It's fine. That's all you gotta do. Just scale up everything. Boom. Especially if there's like peppers or cinnamon in it. Just one to one ratio. Follow the whole thing. It's all fine. Especially with popularization. A little bigger, 50 cinnamon stacks. All these taps are in way better condition than what I had sitting at my local store for five months. Great. Yeah.
00:12:22
Speaker
So yeah, I left it to professionals. Anyway, that was sort of the genesis of it. And Evanston, I don't know, you may or may not be surprised to hear, but they were very excited about it. I actually am surprised. I mean, the name Temperance obviously speaks for, you know, the lack of or not having any alcohol available, which I thought was
00:12:45
Speaker
So you guys are the first brewery in Evanston. Right. And it's only been 10 years. So Evanston has been around for, I don't know, like 150 years or something like that. 150 is forever for me. At 41. Please God, 350 be forever.
00:13:04
Speaker
Yeah, well, really, I do have to tip the hat to Paul Letko from FEW, because he really sort of paved the way for alcohol production of any type. Sure. And so they're like, oh, OK, we got that. It didn't blow up. People aren't like walking around with bottles on the street. There was one question. I mean, oh, my God, we were trying to just be allowed to sell bombers because there was a rule about like the size of the, like it had to be like two at once.
00:13:34
Speaker
Well, that was the law, yeah, because you couldn't sell anything under 41 ounces. What? Because they didn't want people walking around 40s. And then one of the... All right, I've got a 22 in my bag and 22 in my backpack. So in front of the Alderman, or one Alderman, not our Alderman.
00:13:57
Speaker
She was like, well, what's going to prevent people from just walking around drinking these on the street? And what I wanted to say was, the law? It's against the law to do so. It actually doesn't really happen a lot in Chicago. Or other suburbs. No one's just like, man. That's so crazy to me, because you would think that Evanston is the town in Footloose when it's actually not. You know what I mean?
00:14:27
Speaker
You could drink but you cannot dance. That's why I called it the shows that you guys do when roots come in town. It's like space. No, you're not dancing. So anyway, it's come a long way though. I mean the mayor of the time at one point she's like
00:14:41
Speaker
basically all my instincts are wrong
Connor's Path to Brewing
00:14:44
Speaker
because I mean she didn't say it like sure but she's kind of like I obviously don't know what makes things like attractive to outsiders and like you know like we were mentioned the New York Times few was mentioned the New York Times so it's like
00:14:57
Speaker
Okay, we're getting this really good press about like, go spend your money in Evanston. So let's just let, you know, let's ease up a little bit. Yeah. Anyway, that's, that's a long sort of story about like the impetus, I guess, of how it got started. Yeah. That's awesome. So you mentioned home brewing. How long were you home brewing?
00:15:18
Speaker
I don't know, it was only like a couple years, you know? But I was in a hurry to get to designing my own recipes. I did like two of the Northern Brewer Chinook IPAs, like with the... The whole kit and everything. Yeah, the syrup and like a tiny bag. Which is fun, which is fun to start with. Yeah, and I was like, this is fucking delicious.
00:15:38
Speaker
That's better where I started. I had a Mr. Beer kit. I was just about to drop a Mr. Beer kit. My brother-in-law and I, we were so ready to do our own thing that we got a Mr. Beer IPA kit. And then we found someone's clone recipe for a 90-minute IPA from Dogfish Head.
00:15:58
Speaker
We're going to throw a hop. We're going to try hop to share that. But the thing is that we're using whole cone hops, not thing like that. I have a picture of when we were like, this beer is not good. This is dumb. Yeah. And then there's all these hop leaves just sitting. You're putting them in every minute. Yeah. We didn't pound a minute. No, we didn't even do that much. It was just like, just try hop the hell out of it. It's going to be great. It was not great. It was not great. We did like two more kits like that. And then my brother-in-law who
00:16:27
Speaker
lives out here, and he's an electrician out here in Evanston's go-game. You ride away, he likes to start projects, and then sometimes doesn't finish it, but as an electrician, he likes to build things. He's very handy, and so we got into all-grain, I think, maybe after three batches, so we were ready to just design recipes. And we built up his entire electric group. Well, that's now, yeah. We did that at his mother's house. He's got solenoids. Oh, yeah.
00:16:54
Speaker
He's not too far. We can go over there if you guys want to check out his name. What's his name? Mike. Mike Fertucci. OK. We definitely always need to have a stable of electricity. We haven't used him, but do you? I will talk to you off Mike without plugging any company that you might be like, fuck those guys. And scratch Mike's name. Oh my god. So I totally understand. Designing your own recipe is
00:17:18
Speaker
so much more fun i mean like the kids are great to like to learn the process of it but getting into like i like cooking so it's the same deal yeah except i feel like brewing is more like baking because of the science like you can't just like do something like just throw some more salt or throw some more of this and it's fine like you could kind of do it post fermentation but
00:17:38
Speaker
You mess it up, it's a bad beer, it's a bad beer. Yeah, and I was like, I still love cooking, and I was a bartender, and then I got really into, while I was still, I'm like, ooh, it's fall, what spirits do we have? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's me now. And like, I always record, because maybe it's going to be awesome, and I want to be able to do it again, so I'll record all the ratios and all that stuff, but with coming up with the recipes, I was like, I don't know what I'm doing, so I would just literally go, literally again on Northern Brewer,
00:18:08
Speaker
and download the all grain recipe sheets to kind of see like, okay, what do these five IPAs have in common and what are they playing around with? And then I kind of use that to play around with recipes, you know, like my own recipe. Like, oh, sure. I think the best, best northern brewer kit that I ever got was that Wootstow.
00:18:28
Speaker
Oh yeah, the Woot clone. That was a lot of fun because they gave us the oak chips. We just had to soak them in some bourbon, but it was like a big, I mean. It was an all green batch. It was pretty neat. We did a good job. For people that are starting out that are wanting to brew, Northern Brew is a good resource.
00:18:45
Speaker
If you love AB in Bev. Oh, that's right. Never mind. Also, I don't care about AB in Bev. It doesn't matter if you like it or not. But light's delicious. Shout out to Nome Brew. I go to Nome Brew in Chicago. Yeah, Nome Brew was great. Dave over there is awesome and they use like 99.9% of the time out of everything that I need. So it's pretty awesome. Okay, I should really try to get sponsorship after that. Shout out.
00:19:15
Speaker
We know where money goes with businesses like that. So I'm going to pivot right now, because we had you on the hot seat. Now we're taking the heat off, because we're coming back to you. You better pour that beer, Connor, because now it's on you, buddy. How? And where does your journey start?
00:19:37
Speaker
Well, back in 1986. Cool, so we're not that far in age. I like to do that. No, I... Yeah, how did you get into brewing? Tell me about the food truck. Yeah, so I had helped a buddy... That was, by the way, a giant jump from 1986. How do you get to brewing? Start with the food truck.
00:19:59
Speaker
One years old Nobody give it like, you know 25 years I had helped the buddy start a food truck and and then it kind of
00:20:22
Speaker
now defunct but it was like it was the first one oh yeah it was like it was the first like cook on board food truck license in chicago yeah road coach the salsa truck was the name okay um and uh i'm trying to think if they ever came to fishmans
00:20:41
Speaker
Definitely came to Fishman's so I used to do the marketing for fish no shit Yeah, yeah, I know I know we went there like twice like for sure I think that was might have been Where we met Jason Monk
00:20:59
Speaker
Jason Monk like did some welding on the truck and yeah it was like a mind-blowing experience. Yeah it was really kooky like so like yeah and like I was home brewing. How long are you home brewing for? When did you learn about this? When did you start home brewing?
00:21:23
Speaker
We started the truck in like 2012 or 13 and We had all this extra space so we like we're trying to like
00:21:35
Speaker
start a commissary and it's like all right let's rent this space and it was like not built out but we had you know a lot of gas it's like all right well we can let's we were like food guys it's like all right we can
00:21:50
Speaker
Homebrew, um, what was the spot? Brew and Grow was right down the street on like, yeah. Yeah. No, no. Uh, the down like, so our spot was in the west. Downtown. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, uh, so we just kind of like nerd it out and
00:22:13
Speaker
Spent too much money. This is the greatest description of how you came to be a ruler. This is the best cow ruins night ever. So the restaurant closed, but now I have a job brewing.
00:22:28
Speaker
All right, we'll go to break, we'll write back. The good news is he's very, he's obviously learned his lessons because anytime there's any loss, he's like, that's just money down the drain. Smart, very good. So you got into brewing while you guys were doing the food show? Yeah, we had space back there and food goes with beer. Of course.
00:22:53
Speaker
And I'm just like a little bit of a psycho. It's like, no, we have got to do this over and over and over. So it just became like something I really hyper fixated on.
00:23:21
Speaker
Then like to the food truck like that was it didn't wasn't happening anymore
00:23:25
Speaker
It was still happening, but I broke my back and so I couldn't like stand on my feet all day. That makes sense. And I wish everybody could see like emotions. So it's kind of laid up, just kind of watching things like, man, like this kind of sucks.
00:23:48
Speaker
I like how laid-back that is. Broke my back, man. It kind of sucks. That's crazy.
00:24:02
Speaker
I never would have thought of that. Why did I think of that bad man? But the illuminated boys were right down the street and Jason had done some work on our truck. So I was like, hey, can I help you guys bottle?
00:24:21
Speaker
Helped them out there a little bit and um, so you started like was that your first brewery that you worked at? Yeah, like my first like volunteer it and then blue-mated beers are really good stuff, man Yeah, their their tap room is super fun too and that pizza place right down the street Was that that uh, detroit style pizza pizza boy? Oh, yeah Bring that pizza in there. Oh, it's a nice combo nice combo um
00:24:47
Speaker
Yeah, and then I was working at a home brew shop too. I was working at brew camp. Oh, yeah Yeah, yeah, right on Damon. Yeah Yeah, so I think that was when I had left the food truck so I was You know helping those guys bottled like nine at night
00:25:08
Speaker
working at a bar uh mad moxie or uh mad mouse and moxie i was helping um fill out over there sometimes so you so you were like inserted regardless of like somewhere in like beer yeah i was pretty determined i was like this is like what i want sure when you worked at brew camp did uh christian work there
00:25:32
Speaker
For a little bit, he had just left. Bird? Yep. Yeah. He had just left when I started there. Like, Fresh was there. And Mike, who just left here, he and I worked a lot together. That's crazy. And yeah, so I was working at the bar, working at brew camp, and transitioning out of.
00:25:58
Speaker
cooking and uh so you went so then you got into illuminate how long were you illuminated for uh just like a you know
00:26:05
Speaker
every here and there. Sure. It wasn't like a full on. Yeah. You know, I was still like running the restaurant. When did you like get into like your first like like actually like working in a brewery? 2015. So that sketchbook. Oh, right on. So I remember one day just firing off an email to the Evanston Homebrew Club. I was like, hey, does anyone have yeast nutrient?
00:26:30
Speaker
And Cesar responded, he's like, yeah, we've got like a ton of it. I stopped buying. Like I think at that point I just had quit like all of my jobs because it like working three jobs is really exhausting. It's like, man, I'm done. And, uh,
00:26:50
Speaker
And I was like, hey, if you guys need help, I've got unlimited time. That's a nice way of saying like, I have a job right now. And he was like, you know what? I think we do. And it's like, you know, volunteered a few days. And they were just like, hey, we. It was silent. It was, sorry. Yeah. And he was like, oh, we need
00:27:17
Speaker
help like you do you want a job yeah that's that's cool thank you so yeah that was 2015 and I worked there from 2015 until like two and a half years ago now oh wow did you go from sketchbook to here yep right on yeah nice transition I mean
00:27:38
Speaker
I will say this one thing that we've learned sketchbook is like I met Caesar how much times I've worked with him at like pouring beers at some festivals and he's such a great guy and I love both their locations of the small location and I was in I love the very big location and Skokie but one thing that we've learned when we talked with the guys from double clutch was how
00:28:00
Speaker
tighten it and everybody is so supportive in Evanston of the other breweries and like how you guys all like look out for each other. It's kind of like, it's exciting to have
Evanston Brewing Community Collaboration
00:28:10
Speaker
it. It's, it's one thing we've learned that I'm definitely repeating myself for probably the thousandth time on this podcast that
00:28:16
Speaker
the Chicagoland area of breweries, for the most part, I would say like 99% of the breweries are all like, thank you, looking out for each other. You know what I mean? It's not like competition as much as it is like a community, which is super cool. It's so cool. And so that's cool to hear that you went from sketchbook. You just moved over here to temperance, because you guys aren't that far apart. No. And I lived in Rogers Park at the time, too.
00:28:43
Speaker
It was like, all right, the exact same amount of miles from where I live. Try to silently open that up. Yeah, it makes it even easier. All right, well, that's awesome. That's super cool. I'm going to cut your story off right there, because we're going to take a quick break. And then we're going to get into the 10th anniversary. What the hell is going on? We'll be right back.
00:30:46
Speaker
And we're back. He was about to say something else that sounded like it needed to be an off mic thing. It's OK. I've been recording for the last, like, I know. I know where to add it. Bring it back in where you say, and we're back. Turn it up. I was just going to say that there are some things that are on your list. Oh, OK. OK, so why is that happening? Oh, hey. That's exciting. We're back.
00:31:15
Speaker
I take my hammer back now. We're sitting in the back of Temperance with Josh and Connor. I got him. Oh, wow. You really did. He caught a tiny little bug. So high five. Did he get transferred? Yeah, boys! Little food fry. This is nowhere near production, just so you guys know. I'm going to cut that part out. They won't understand, because there's no visuals. Exactly. It's hard to do that when I do a podcast.
00:31:45
Speaker
Is that worth explaining? I mean, I tried to. I can't wait till Sunday to edit this now. There's a lot of times when we do episodes, I'm like, it's Sunday night. It's like 9 o'clock. I'm like, down lower. I was like, oh my god, I forgot how much stuff I have to actually do with this. But it makes it that much more fun.
00:32:05
Speaker
So we're here at Temperance, still talking with Josh and Connor. And if you're joining after the break, that's weird as hell. Also, Connor just waved after we just talked about how this is just an audio meeting.
00:32:24
Speaker
We're having so much fun talking with you guys. I'm so glad we finally got to come to temperance and talk to you and the big we originally talked about maybe coming for the might meets right stuff which actually as we're recording this the episode that's out today is
00:32:37
Speaker
We did a recap of the Might Meets Right event for the first half. And then the second half was our Phobab recap. So we've already talked about Might Meets Right. And last night I drank the Basil Hayden Toasted from the Four Pack, which I actually enjoyed a little bit more at home. Obviously, I mean, you guys are, that event was awesome. The tasters were great. We tried all four of them. Did you chill it?
00:33:02
Speaker
No. Oh, I did chill it, but I took it out for like 45 minutes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you still get to experience it, but it is nice. I mean, I think most beer drinkers know. Yeah. Exactly. Brandon and I, and I'll be honest, Brandon and I, we ranked it, I think a little bit different or possibly the same.
00:33:24
Speaker
For me it was, and this is not taking away of like when I get to the fourth one, is not that I didn't like it. It was just out of the four, this is where I ranked it. Vanilla was my favorite. The Madagascar vanilla beans were just like,
00:33:37
Speaker
I love vanilla, especially where it was able to shine without overpowering that beer. And it was still just like, I like the body of the beer. It's like a medium. So well. Yeah, it was really good. And I didn't know at the time, Brandon called me on on it, that the, so the variants were being the Basil Hayden Toasted and the Russell Reserve Six here.
00:33:59
Speaker
that the chocolate and vanilla variants were blended which i didn't realize when we were having it so it made it even more exciting like as i'm dreaming and i was like he didn't know that he's like no and i was like you did i was like i just assumed i had no idea i feel like during my little talk i mentioned that you may have but i was i was trying to mess with shalanda because she was recording everything and i wanted to press stop because it would have been
00:34:26
Speaker
Hilarious if she didn't have everything that you talk about a supportive community But yeah, I would say that vanilla is my favorite Russell's Reserve next basil Hayden toast and then chocolate at the end and I'm really looking forward to having the chocolate one
00:34:47
Speaker
a closer room temperature to see how the, because I remember it being almost like a dark cocoa finish on that. And I feel like as it gets maybe a little bit warmer, I might be able to experience those cocoa nibs a little bit more. I remember like
00:35:05
Speaker
You seem serious, you're like talking very deep. Scrap, Gunners. I kept saying to Dave, I was like, dude, there's too much vanilla, there's too much vanilla, dude. Take it off, take it off. Can we take it out? No, man. We talked about it. We've had some barreleyed stouts that were like, or just beers that are like vanilla bombs where it's like, man, that's way too much.
00:35:32
Speaker
But this was I feel like right at like as I'm when I edit the podcast, there's a peaking level before it tells me like, hey, that's way too fucking loud. This is like right there where it's like, dude, if you go any higher than this, it might be off putting. But vanilla, I think it's such a great adjunct, especially with barely aged beers, because
00:35:52
Speaker
with bourbon and whiskeys even, you get vanilla characteristics. And I feel like that helps kind of bring out. But the Basil Hayden and Russell Reserve also, I felt, were very barrel forward and just very nice. Yeah. I like that there was such a difference, too, between the two of those. And I was with you. My talk to her, it was Russell's Reserve then vanilla. But same thing, basically. I liked that ride. Yeah. Yeah, it was very good. So when we were chasing straight for the barrel,
00:36:22
Speaker
We were like, Ooh. And it's crazy cause he got away like 10, 10, 11 months to try, you know, cause like, did we do it right? And March is not going to take us, you know, I hope it works out. Yeah. I mean, when we, when we tasted him, it was, we both like, we loved the basil Hayden.
00:36:44
Speaker
Yeah, we both actually like the basil and then we have the next one. I'm like, this is a different beer. This is like, yeah, this is better. I feel like the basil really took on, I feel like now repeating ourselves, but the basil really took on.
00:36:59
Speaker
the barrel like i felt like that was in a good way like it was like man like the aftertaste my mouth was like i just tasted basil hayden which is what we were talking about for we enjoyed the base of mite meats right because i feel like it really lends itself to
00:37:16
Speaker
either it's number one it's a solid base i like that it's not super thick and super sticky super sweet but it's it helps kind of become like a vessel for what you guys want to do with it whether it be adjuncts or the different barrels that you're doing so it was nice to have those two different barrels
00:37:34
Speaker
different experiences. I felt Basil Hazen was like, man, I'm really Basil Hazen. I mean, I fucked up yesterday. I hated Christiansen. It was like, let it go. He doesn't know what he's doing. I felt like that was really close to the barrel. And then the Russell's Reserve was, while it had a nice strong flavor, it wasn't as
00:38:01
Speaker
barrel forward. You know, does that make sense? Because it was like six years. But yeah, it was fantastic. But I got on that tangent because I wanted to talk about we, the reason why we wanted to do this episode was that originally and it didn't work out because they had to cancel.
10-Year Anniversary Celebrations
00:38:24
Speaker
It said it worked out better because now you guys are celebrating your 10th anniversary and you guys have a, as you mentioned, when we came for the Might Beats Right event. There's a lot going on for you guys. Yeah, and it's funny because I'm just so tired all the time.
00:38:45
Speaker
Do you want me to read what I have here? Smitty town's about to come back on tap. I do. Yeah, that's a great beer. I just
00:39:09
Speaker
When we first started celebrating anniversaries it was confusing because our first beers went out to Prairie Moon thanks in part to Phil Z and now it's September
00:39:23
Speaker
And then the tapper opened just before Christmas. So it's like, Oh, which do we do? So now we've, we've basically done for the last three, four, four years. Um, October Fest as like October of a slash anniversary anniversary, but it is always fun to do it in the winter too. When it's like, sure.
00:39:44
Speaker
What else are you gonna live for? I was like, dude, I broke my back. I didn't feel that way. I feel like, you know, especially in in Illinois in general, like, it's a good time to like,
00:40:07
Speaker
You're in between the holidays of Halloween and everything else that follows. Sorry, Halloween's my favorite. But it's a big beer time in Chicago and Illinois.
00:40:22
Speaker
Everybody's releasing a whole bunch of stuff. So what better time to do an anniversary? I think it's a good time to do it. So and yeah, so it was kind of like you wanted my input. No, I do. Thank you. Thank you so much. Also, it's like, it's like, you know, when you're like celebrating an anniversary, especially like a big one, like 10 years as a business, not as like a person, you're like celebrating the whole life for 10 years. I did it, mom. Like a landmark birthday. Yeah. Like I'm a celebrity. Don't freak.
00:40:48
Speaker
Um, but now it's like, oh man, we're waiting until the very end of the year to do this party. Maybe we should just like, you know, keep going into next year. Anyway, we don't have any other events planned, but, um, so, all right. So we have, we have, here's, here's the, what you really want. The meat of it. We've brewed it. It's still brewed. It's fermenting. We did tease this on the episode we just recorded. We didn't see what it was. Okay.
00:41:10
Speaker
So it's a 10% ABV version because, you know, I don't know why we picked 10 specifically. Weirdly chose 10 out of all the numbers you can choose. Of our, you know, most awards winning. It's their 10 year anniversary. It's like asterisks. You know, GABF silver, GABF gold.
00:41:34
Speaker
our first IPA, Gatecrasher, woo! Yeah, Gatecrasher is. So real quick, Clark, you know, works over at Inclusion Solutions when he first got into craft beer and I got him on to untapped, which every brewery loves on to tonight. Oh, yeah. Why is it Inclusion Solutions paying us? Because every time you mention Clark, you mention... It makes sense for this episode. It doesn't make sense for any other episode. It's like two blocks away. Yeah, I'm gonna request a check. Good luck.
00:42:03
Speaker
uh that was the first like five five star five rating beer that he ever gave out on tap was gatecrasher was five and it's becoming an oncoming like an oncoming ongoing joke with us that like gatecrasher is still five like five stars on there which is which really is like gatecrasher is fantastic it was a beer that like when he and i came here after you guys first opened we were both like
00:42:26
Speaker
This is amazing. It's an English IP. What's an English IP? Because, I mean, like 10 years ago, I was still almost kind of wet behind the ears when it came to craft beer and brewing. Maybe not that wet behind the ears. But still, it wasn't something. You were all but 30. So exactly. Do you know what an English IPA is now? Yeah. Yeah, it's made by an English guy. Yeah. He's actually faking an American accent. Sorry, bro.
00:43:00
Speaker
That was good. I'm super excited for that. You know, Revolution does their big anti-hero now. Well, now it's like, they don't necessarily do un-sessional, but it's basically an imperial anti-hero, which is like 9, 10%. I haven't turned to their un-sessional. It's insane. Unsessional. When I first came out, I was like, what are you guys doing?
00:43:21
Speaker
Give me more. Well, it's like when like I remember getting hopstupid from La Juanita in the bottom. Five dollars. You know, nine percent. What? I was going to wreck my life. Stupid. Stupid. That's the greatest, man. Yeah, it was it really was like that was so much fun. But that's not what we're talking about. Yeah, we're talking about. So, yeah, what did you choose Gatecrasher because I mean, that's a flagship beer, right? Yeah, it just it just made sense, even though it wasn't around when we first opened.
00:43:51
Speaker
it came soon after sure like soon after like once everything like oh you're saying it wasn't like available when you first opened in general like here like yeah like the tapper the first night because what else would you be talking about as far as open it's okay i wasn't gonna sorry man that's two times don't beat yourself up it's so embarrassed i can't believe we're doing this episode
00:44:11
Speaker
I think I'm excited about that. Like when we, I think Katie had told us earlier this year, before we, you know, we're trying to do this, that that was what was coming. We, lips were sealed. We told nobody. Oh, I told everybody. What the fuck are you doing? In episodes. Like since August, we've been like 10 episodes. My wife doesn't care. My wife doesn't care. My four-year-old, Cole Wallace friend. We told everybody. We told campers.
00:44:39
Speaker
But the 10% gatecrasher is, that's awesome. It's kind of ridiculous though. Yeah, no, it really is. A triple English IPA. That's fun though. I have to imagine that, I mean, there's, we were just here, you know, on a Monday, we're recording on a Monday night and we came in about five o'clock and there was at least
00:44:58
Speaker
I'm sure there was other regulars but but when we got here at five and when we met up with you guys a half hour later I think it was like three or four regulars that came in so I feel like even people like them are gonna be like oh man that's that's awesome to try like you know a 10% you know version of Gatecrasher and we're doing in Tallboys oh Jesus that's even cooler that's fun like I know I am I'm gonna come back for that I'm looking forward to it because Gatecrasher
00:45:24
Speaker
has a special place in my heart working here in Evanston at that time and that was when I was in home brewing and craft beer and like coming here and I'm like
00:45:32
Speaker
Hey, it's the first brewery. I think I talked about it in the last episode, and I told you, I got to stop in while you guys are building this place. So I was like, even more excited. I'm like, I work across the street from a brewery. Where was that that you worked? Inclusion solution! They have all your election needs. Let's keep talking about Clark. Who fired you? And your girlfriend. He did fire me. Damn you, Clark. Is it a layoff or? No.
00:46:02
Speaker
Was your position terminated? I mean, I think that's how it was told to me. But in the long run, it worked out better for me. I had a lot of good experience there. The position and you. I'm still very good friends with everybody. It's the only job I've ever been good friends with. Like, you're gone. I'm like, well, fuck you guys. And a couple of letters like,
00:46:22
Speaker
You know what I still like, you guys. The day you got fired, you're like, hey, we're going to a burning county. The next day, we went to a burning county. We're going to a county event at Sutherland. Clark and I did that. It was burning. All right, let's get off of it. What else is other than the 10-year anniversary? That was good. Other than the 10-year anniversary, you've got other things lined up as well. Well, yeah. So the gay crusher 10 comes out December 1st. Oh, yeah, I should have said that. And then two weeks later, it's OK. Sorry, man. You're beating yourself up too. I'm blowing this, dude.
00:46:52
Speaker
those grapefruit escapists. So two weeks later we're gonna actually have the anniversary party awesome and uh we got um we're gonna have the whole place open
00:47:08
Speaker
We got this incredible 80s cover band members only. Oh I've heard of that. They're gonna be in the back and we're gonna have some historical or actually I think it's it doesn't matter. It's gonna be a taproom playlist. Doesn't matter, just let it be here. That I'm rooting out on then like I'm gonna take this from the opening night and then like some new shit. I thought that was a cool like when I saw that that or you had mentioned like that's a fun idea. And I realized like this is where I can tell like uh I'm tired because like
00:47:35
Speaker
Now, it used to be much more controlled, the tap run playlist. Sure. But now we're from 12 to 10 and noon, it's like, eh, who cares? But some of the music definitely that is played now by the bartenders violates a lot of the rules from the before times.
00:47:52
Speaker
Rules change. They evolve. And I'm like, you know what? I'm just a chiller dude now. You can put your stress someplace else. I mean, you have child. Although, you know, they're fully cooked and my daughter's 20 and my son's 17, so I don't have to really worry. Fuck, that doesn't count, man. My daughter's 23 and that's not a stress-free. Man, it is a stress-free, but it's not a stress-free.
00:48:15
Speaker
Make good choices, I'm there if you need me. Eat a rifle, take a nuke.
00:48:25
Speaker
I really need me, I'll show up, but please, I'll just put it out in my car and you can take that over. And I'll talk to you about it in a moment. And so, all right, let me just take you through the rest of the year. So then, so last year was the first time we made an N.A., which is super exciting and super stressful for Mike and Connor, I'm sure. Yeah, but it was like, it turned out to be, I get beer that I would actually drink. It was so good, because then I started drinking a bunch of N.A.'s to be like, well, let me try all these others.
New Releases: NA Beer and Gatecrasher Special
00:48:52
Speaker
And ours was my favorite. We're excited about that because we did last year at JBF, we made it a point to try out all the non-alcoholic beers. Really? That's smart of JBF. There was a good representation. I'll tell you this, the best one that we had there, we haven't had yours yet, was Sam Adams' Nothing But The Haze, which was really good. Or Just The Haze? Or Just The Haze, something like that.
00:49:18
Speaker
Athletic Brewing didn't release this one, but I did get it in November, or sorry, February last year for Black History Month. It was Soul Power, or Soul Sour, and it was a sour NA beer. And that, to me, was like, whoa, that was like, I have one left that I'm waiting to drink with Brandon, and I have not brought it to him yet. I was super good. Me too. What did you come with? Yeah, that's cool. Anytime I wanna drink, man, come on, bye bye. But yeah, like,
00:49:46
Speaker
It's it's awesome. How far and a beer is have come it's it's it really is because When I don't go far back like no duels came out Yeah, we're gonna drink a little duels. I was like that's garbage But like still like our distributors like one of their top selling beers really been for I haven't tried the Guinness Zero, I've heard it's really fucking it's it's it's I really
00:50:11
Speaker
Maybe I'll edit this out later, but I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed it the first time. I really enjoyed it when I first tried it. I was like, oh my God, it tastes exactly like Guinness. It tastes just like Guinness. And then here's what happened. And I told a friend of mine, I was like, oh, have you tried the Guinness N.A.? He's like,
00:50:31
Speaker
Yeah, it tastes like soy sauce. Oh, fucking, it changed everything for the next time. Exactly. Then the next time I tried it, I was like, oh, no. I am going to end up because that's what happened with me at Dark Lord. I had Dark Lord before I heard it tastes like soy sauce. And then I had Dark Lord after hearing soy sauce. And I'm like, this is all I taste. It tastes like I'm drinking soy sauce. I've got so many Dark Lords. I drink them and never taste soy sauce. Get over, Tony.
00:50:57
Speaker
but okay thanks for editing that out anyway uh yeah so the n a beers uh that's awesome uh what kind of style is the beer well it's funny because we based the malt and hot bills on uh hazy ipa i should finish that i think when you say hazy i think a lot of people i know but this is important for this story because the yeast that we used that was like you know designed to be very lazy
00:51:21
Speaker
Lazy hazy. Oh, no, that would've been good though. But basically, and it had its own, I can't remember why, I can't remember why, but ended up teasing like a hazy Saison, which was good.
00:51:40
Speaker
But it was like our buddy Dan would like that. He's a good guy. It was really good. And then can we say the name? It was just unexpected. Oh, it's called Near Tears. Near Tears. Yeah, we have not said it yet. Yeah, we're getting there. So that's going to be released right before Christmas. Which is the bring everybody down. Which is the perfect time. Yeah. Which we always say for dry January. We have done it many times. And I support dry January if you want to take a break. That's great.
00:52:06
Speaker
The best part is, is that when you do dry January to still go to your local breweries and go buy a bunch of beers. Like if you were buying like a four pack each weekend or like a case on the weekend.
00:52:19
Speaker
Guess what, if you still do that, February 1st is gonna be awesome.
Supporting Local Breweries
00:52:24
Speaker
We're terrible. Yeah, we're terrible. But it's true though, it's like, and- Like Thomas is for shit. My liver is out of shape. Have a party. There's the Super Bowl and my birthday in February. I had one game crash. No reason to come hang out with me in February. But it is something that I try to do when it comes to dry January because I know how hard it is.
00:52:46
Speaker
For breweries like it's it's not a good time. It's not a good time because everybody went through the holidays Especially here in Chicago and the Chicago area like when you hit the end of October into December It really is like there's a lot to consume and there's a lot to take on and so January just kind of sounds like a nice break Which is fine, but also it doesn't mean like, you know, if you bought
00:53:08
Speaker
IPA January 2nd and you wait till February 1st to drink it, it'll still be good. You can still go and support the breweries like that, while also still buying- Dump it into my- Dump it into Brandon. Drop it off by buying it and then you give it to Brandon. But the NA beers are also a nice way to do this. Well, your address again. That's a good point, though. The more breweries that are doing this NA stuff, that's another source, especially in January.
00:53:33
Speaker
Also, if you want to do Dry January, you know, you can also have self-control and just like stop and have like a beer instead of five beers. Let's throw that out there as well. That's right. That's what I would always complain about. It's like it's so very American, even though I found out this actually was originally in the UK, like Dry January.
00:53:48
Speaker
I say it sounds fucking gatecrasher It sounds so very American like yeah, it really does It's 200 IBUs like what like everybody's like extreme this like I'm gonna take a break in January Look, I'm gonna go from drinking nothing but 12% or higher
00:54:04
Speaker
to nothing for a whole month. Actually, February is a shorter month. Yeah, like it should be like dry February. But it's like, you know, our little name is Temperance, like just a little moderation. Like how about maybe take off two days a month, the rest of the year, you've basically covered your January. Absolutely. Like you figure like around the holidays now, like we're full fledged November here. So like there's like holiday cocktails and drinks and different beers and barely aged beers and
00:54:33
Speaker
All this, you lead all the way up to New Year's, New Year's is a great time.
00:54:37
Speaker
It's okay to like, you don't have to drink during the week, or if you do want to go out and have a beer, like go out and have a beer and buy food from the place that you're at, or you know, just take it easy. The NA beer option is very cool. What we found last year, which was very surprising, because we only had it on draft and we only had like four kegs, like literally the first day it came out, at least one person said, are you feeling crawlers? And we said no, and he just left.
00:55:07
Speaker
Well, those, it was- I mean, I get it. So then I was like- Are you guys selling crawlers? Nope. Yeah. In the turn. So then I was like, okay, maybe we should start selling crawlers because it basically it seems like, and I don't know if this is somebody who's like avoiding alcohol all year or I kind of guessed that based on more people asking for crawlers, it was really kind of like,
00:55:32
Speaker
You know what, if I'm in a bar situation, I'll have one in a, and then I'll have every other beer. So it was probably like, I'll have this crawler, I'll take it home, and then I'll be good. So it was like, oh, all right, that was, you know, it was a little focus group. We learned consumer behavior during dry January. But yeah, I still think they should be like, I'll have this crawler, and then I'll take a case of that. Yeah, I mean, I'm really like, especially like, I don't know, like the way that packaging happens now,
00:56:02
Speaker
It's not like, it's not like when, you remember when Hazy IPAs first came out and they would last on the shelf for like a month?
00:56:09
Speaker
because of the conditions. We didn't know the science of it. And they were turning it purple. Even home brew stuff. Like, if you left it out, like, cool, I'll pour this. And you let it sit for 24 hours. And all of a sudden, it's like, oh, wow, that oxidation really hit it hard. Yeah, exactly. Like, it just changes. But it's like, it's so different. And I feel like, what a great time to go and support breweries. Because by the time February rolls around, sometimes, especially in Chicago, my birthday's on February 6.
00:56:38
Speaker
celebrated many a Super Bowl birthdays as well and there are some times where it's like oh wow we have a nice 50-degree day what a great time to like crack into those things that you have purchased throughout January it's kind of like something like I remember hop slam used to be a release around that time and now they do a little bit earlier I did two weeks ago but that's like that was a part of my dry January where I was like oh cool yeah
00:57:16
Speaker
No, I I bought it and I was like, I know it's a triple IPA and by the like the three weeks after I bought it I know it's still gonna do that though. Like in one dry January. There was a dry January I was like, I'm breaking it
00:57:30
Speaker
We have both been brewing on the same day, and you're like, I cracked. Yeah. I'm like, what? He's like, I cracked a hopslap. Well, because normally during dry January is when I do my sours, because once I get into February, it's nice to, like, effort. Oh, yeah. I don't know if we do, like, a cherry kettle sour beer that I have in February that's just, like, light and refreshing, getting me into spring.
00:57:52
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So nobody take my idea. That's Pat and Penny. Did you write that down? What are we doing? Do you guys have anything else that's coming up as well? Yeah, but could I do a little PSA? Please, please. Oh, wow. Yeah, it tags along with your... Put his finger up, by the way. He did. And if nobody's... Point of order, point of order. There's children.
00:58:18
Speaker
I know I love what you say about like supporting your breweries during January and actually like we still like I would say everyone I've talked to is still or even more hurting now as a brewery than we had been for a while like you know like we're not getting those government checks in no more so you know if there's a brewery in your hood that you're like
00:58:46
Speaker
Man, I'd be really sad if they went under, but I haven't visited them in two years. Please go visit your local brewery. You can just buy a gift card, whatever. But we all need your patronage and your financial support, not just your morals. Moral support's great, but it doesn't pay the light bill. It's great to like and love and retweet posts, but that only goes so far. And actually, if I would say anything, there really should be a campaign to be like,
00:59:16
Speaker
It doesn't have to be dry January this year. It could be dry May. It could be dry March. It doesn't have to be January. January is the worst month of not being dry. That is not a dry month for me. It's not gonna be dry April. It's April. It's Easter. No, I like dry March because nobody will be able to do it. I get blacked out on the Lord's rebirth. It's dry March. Honestly, like...
00:59:44
Speaker
Until the night. I've never heard of resurrection as the rebirth day. I like that. It's the birth day. It's fantastic. And I'm Jewish. Wait, what? It's like, I agree 100%. It almost makes me rethink like, do you need to take a full month? Like, just maybe pace yourself in January and don't forget about the breweries that you do. Don't we have a drink? I mean, they're, you know, I'm going to throw it out there. I mean, Metropolitan is one of the best
01:00:13
Speaker
breweries that we have in the city and they're facing like serious financial hardships and
01:00:19
Speaker
If you don't go and support them during January, that might not be a good step. You might not have a chance to have their beers again. The spot's awesome, their beers are great, and everybody is there. That is super cool. Somebody we haven't even had on the show yet. So fucking nice. Totally. That's crazy. Welcome to the sombra. We're getting real deep and real sad. What did I say? What did I say? Life is impossible. That's the beginning of the answer right there. That's how we forgot that. That was so long ago.
01:00:48
Speaker
We start off so funny. I just have like a little bitty beer home. Gotta go. Alright, that's it. That's it in the show. Okay, so we got things to look forward to. We'll run through it. What do we got to get out of here? Alright, so we're... Okay, so we tend to get dark fast. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say I had to go. I was just saying. No, no, no. I brought
Expanding Beverage Offerings
01:01:11
Speaker
it to you. You're good. Excuse me. Excuse me.
01:01:13
Speaker
Our brewer, Dave, is back. He started with us, like, he's not quite an OG, but he's pretty close. Yeah, you said that during the... Yeah, and then he went to illuminate it. I said he took a sabbatical, but he went to illuminate it. I like that connection of illuminated. Yeah. Right. He's getting smarter. And then he came back to us, and now he and Connor are being super goofy, and it's great. Fucking around, guys. Just get to work.
01:01:41
Speaker
We're doing chores, but we're having fun. OK, that's good. That's all that matters. Yeah. We're getting our chores done. I'm getting behind that. I'm getting cleaned up so much fun. I have so much fun. No, Josh does a lot of things. Like, do anything you want. No whisking around. No walking. No whisking. No whisking. Only barbershop quartet. Nevenston is weird. So I came back. I came in on Halloween, and I was like, hey, guys, I'm not going to bang on the table. You can, real quick, for dramatic effect.
01:02:10
Speaker
guys we're gonna uh how about this let's try let's do not try
01:02:16
Speaker
Dude. You sound like me going to try. No, we're going to do this. Um, let's do, let's finally make that dream of the fruit, the hard seltzer with real fruit in it. Let's make that happen. And then they're like, yeah, you know, a seltzer only takes a month, no a month, a week to do. I was like, what that's even better news. Um, so that's coming right before, right in time for, um, whatever they call it black, black out, whatever it is, Wednesday.
01:02:44
Speaker
for Thanksgiving. I'm moving around my chair. Sorry, what were you saying? No, that's great. And I am a fan of Seltzer's. I really do. I do like Seltzer's. I know it is, unfortunately, killing beer as well. Yeah, that's why we got to... Yeah. We're like, hey, wait. We can do that. We can do that. It only takes a week. Well, it is fun, though. It's going to be real fruit. It's going to be... Right. And I think Old Irving did the same thing with their Seltzer's. So it's nice, like...
01:03:12
Speaker
pop in for a meal where it's like if I went to come see you guys I'm like oh cool have some beers and like you know I want to have one more you know of the seltzer yeah cuz it's it's your daughter join you exactly yeah except she's more of a going to the dispensary type person
01:03:28
Speaker
That's stealing from us to me. I'm sorry. I'm not stealing and she likes another segment that has removed themselves from the beer I'm trying to what's what's the tequila that begins with like the style tequila that starts with an R? Reposado she also likes that she's super weird about
01:03:44
Speaker
I do too. I let her keep my 1800 bottle. I let her keep my 1800 bottle. She's like, she brought out for Halloween and I was like, you guys just keep it. Bring it back in the Uber, weirdo.
01:04:00
Speaker
And then, we had this idea before you mentioned yours. Wait, what's that? It's rooted sour. This is bullshit. But year round, the flavor change is quarterly. That's awesome. That's a great idea. We still need... Sorry. Excuse you.
01:04:19
Speaker
We still need names for both of those things. Hey, Shalanda did throw it out there. Oh, you know what? I looked that up. Microphone and Solonove had a... Seriously? Like it's a current collab that's like... It was really good. It was really good. I was so bummed. And they weren't the only ones. There was like a bunch, but they're obviously local. Like if there was somebody in like, in, you know, Hawaii, I'd be like, okay, I think we should say if we could use...
01:04:41
Speaker
Did he say that because with last like up three episodes ago we did Hawaii Bears? Maybe I'll talk Shillonda and we can come up with something and then we'll talk to you guys No, that's awesome, I think that's a great idea I Older like I feel like
01:05:07
Speaker
Basically, because the way my wife enjoys beers, she went from, when we first started dating, she loved Amstell Light, loved Stella, loved Red Stripe, we got married, it was champagne, and then like, okay, champagne. Ciders, sour beers is where she ended. Now she doesn't really drink that much, but sour beers is what I find to be, when you say sour beer to somebody, people think it sounds disgusting, because you think of beer, when you think of beer, you think of vloggers, like macrologgers, when you say sour, it's like, how does that sound good?
01:05:37
Speaker
until you try a sour beer. And I love that more breweries are doing, like, kettle sour beers and stuff. Is that the type of thing you guys do when you do a kettle sour? Yeah. Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid about saying this, man. Don't be laid back. You're going to boil it like so. It's not like the kettle does. It's not like payroll. I know what you're talking about. You're fermented as the kettle sour. Like over the weekend steak. Well, I mean, I've also used
01:06:08
Speaker
Different strains like yeah, okay, so there's nothing like set in stone of how you're gonna do it The only reason why I say like kettle sours cuz it's it's an easier way to like it is easier control because you're doing stainless steel Yeah souring of a beer You missed the
01:06:32
Speaker
break yeah yeah me too I'm right there we by the time he gets back we're gonna close that but I think that's a great idea I'm excited about that old Irving has their cushy series that's the one I can only think of right now because like sour beers being available all the time
01:06:52
Speaker
I never would have thought in a million years that like fruit and sour beers would have been something that like I look forward to until I did like you know brew it in January and by the time it's ready in February I'm like what a great time to have like a sour cherry like three and a half to four percent or four and a half percent beer that's just refreshing. It's like bringing you in spring you know like it's getting you excited for like
01:07:13
Speaker
Warmer weather's on the way. You're drinking something that's tart and refreshing. It's so close to be. What's gold? Yeah. Right. I mean, I'm a winter person. Me too. Is there anything else that you guys got going on? I mean, that's a lot. I mean, I say that as if you just have a handful of things.
Seasonal Releases and The Drop Beer
01:07:30
Speaker
Well, the drop is actually coming. Oh, yeah, the drop. Yeah, right before. It's this month, the Friday before the week of Thanksgiving. So that'd be next Friday. Which is? Yeah, because. You should drop that tomorrow.
01:07:43
Speaker
When this comes out, because as we're recording this, this is November 6th. So when this comes out, it's November 13th. So you guys will be doing it next week. Oh, that Friday? So the 17th? Yeah. Perfect. So this Friday, the job is awesome. The job's a good beer. Thank you. Is it a pain in the butt to do, or? I don't do it. Oh. Is it a pain in the butt to do it? No, yeah. So we do it pretty fast.
01:08:12
Speaker
Yeah, so it's like kind of like it It's a big you're very like it's a low-key and mellow when I find questions for you If there's no questions, you're like we're ready to talk. That's not I just love it. I Love it dude. It's so great. He's singing while he works and it's like at the top of his lungs. Oh, man, that's me too That's all right. Um, the drop is good though. Yeah, it's great fun. Like we do
01:08:40
Speaker
it's a big mash it's a it's a really big so it's like it's a lot of work it's a lot of fucking work but like it did it turns out to be like a really awesome beer absolutely and it's a good day all right fuck like we'll work really hard like if it means that's a good goddamn beer and it's like the same is like trying to get back in the bathroom is right is it even more than light meats right or about this because you have to dry have it yeah
01:09:05
Speaker
slightly less, but like very slightly less. How long is the boil on that one? Which one? Drop. It's just a regular 60, yeah. But it's still like, because our brew house is 24, but it's too tender. But it's too tender. Because there's so much malt. That's awesome. That's a lot of stuff, man. I'm so, like I said, I'm so happy that we finally get to
01:09:32
Speaker
Get up, you know, get together with you guys and talk about everything about temperance, like... That high five was... I was trying to be quiet for the mic. We'll do it again. And then bring in that high five. Fuck yeah, so many high fives. This was so much fun. This is actually way more fun. Not that I thought it was going to be bad. I never think any interview is going to be bad, but like... He didn't want to come. I did. I'm so mad it was a Monday. No, let's not do it.
01:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, sorry about me, Dave. You were like, oh, that was just great. Just leave it to him. Tell him I'm dead. Connor's like, fuck those guys. They canceled that. We'll show them. I already had plans too. No, this was great. Actually, Monday's good, because then I have no excuse to not edit the episode before Sunday night. You're welcome. I'm probably going to edit on Sunday. But it's so much fun. If you guys can't tell how much fun we've had, this is the atmosphere really at Temperance. And I hope everybody understands
01:10:32
Speaker
The beers are fantastic. We actually have been drinking more Temperance beers, one sketchbook beer, while we've been recording. And if you guys get a chance, if you ever visit Chicago and head out to Evanston, you got to come out here to Temperance. And two other places, too. But Temperance has a great beer selection. It's a great place. It's a great destination spot. And we're so happy that you guys are the first Evanston brewery. And we're so happy that you guys are celebrating 10 years of being this brewery.
01:11:03
Speaker
What a wrap. And thank you for taking the time to hang out with us. This was so much fun for a Monday night. Yeah. You can't go wrong, man. This is great. Thanks for coming. No, man. Thank you. Thanks for having us. And we'll bug you guys to come back for something else, you know, when something else comes around. Maybe 10 years? Yeah. 20. We'll come for the 20th anniversary. That's the next time we'll talk to you guys. If I see you at any other event, I won't even make eye contact.
01:11:37
Speaker
I can't that's 46. I hope I don't sound like that in 46 Thank you guys so much for joining us your pieces anything else you guys want to throw out there before we wrap it up More half-eyes one more
01:11:52
Speaker
Wow, that was so smooth. That was great. We choreographed it. It's like we knew what was happening. Brandon, I love you man. Love you too man. Thank you everyone for listening and come out to Temperance and don't ignore your breweries in January. Go out and support them. Bye. Cheers.
01:12:13
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.
01:12:41
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.