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Episode 129 - The Malteez 2023
142 Plays2 years ago
It's the time of year again AND what better way to kick off 2024 than with our annual Malteez.
Brandon, Tony, Dan and Clark (via home recording) list and rank their favorite beers of 2023
Thank you to everyone who has spent another year listening and supporting our show. If not for you, we definitely would not be doing this show.
Break music Cel Ray - "Piss Park
(go buy their music and see them live)
https://celray.bandcamp.com/
Outro music provided by Fluid Minds
Check out all of our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com or wherever you stream podcasts.
Happy New Year!
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Preview
00:00:29
Speaker
Welcome to the Molting Hour. I am one of your hosts, Tony Golde, joined always with... Brandon Winningjour. ...and making his third appearance this year. Is it really only three? I don't know, man. Danny. I was going to say in the house of his new show, Liquid Liner Notes. Danny. Hey, Dan. Hey. How's it going, everybody?
00:00:45
Speaker
Not us, you're just saying what's up to the audience right away. You are, everybody. I am. Thanks, man. That makes me feel pretty good and maybe a little self-involved, but you're not wrong. Thanks for joining us again, Dan. I know it's been a crazy year. We wanted to get Clark on. I'm pretty sure at some point on this episode, there will be a little drop-in of Clark's Maltese for the
Favorite Beers of the Year
00:01:06
Speaker
year. But it's the Maltese, everybody, my favorite time of year, to talk about our favorite beers of the year.
00:01:13
Speaker
Not necessarily, and we never really put any rules into this. Could I have had a 2020 beer? Yeah, because did we do it with the old stock? Yep. We can have any beer. It's funny because I was going through some of my check-ins and I was like, man, I did have some beers that I really liked.
00:01:32
Speaker
It just felt weird, so I mainly focused on new beers. Yeah, there were some older ones that I had, but that I know that I've had them before, so I discounted those. But if it was like my first time having that old beer, it would have made it. Yeah, I think I had at least one or two that were from last year that I just opened this year.
00:01:54
Speaker
I feel like it was harder this year. Like last year we went to GABF and I feel like that gave me more of like a recollection and more options this year. I haven't been doing Untapped or anything like that. So it was a lot harder for me. You had to actually dig deeper in number. I was just telling Brandon that I didn't, I have a list of beers from PhoBab, but I didn't check them in. And so I kind of forgot about, there was,
00:02:22
Speaker
I mean, there was one beer, and I think Brandon's on your list, that did stand out to me, but I forgot about it and did not put it on my list. So I'm very excited that Brandon is representing
Tasting Dragon Milk's Reserve Oatmeal Cookie
00:02:31
Speaker
that beer. But beer under glass, there was some beers that I had there, and one specific beer is on my list. But before we get to that, this is a beer drinking show. Brandon, what are we drinking? We are starting off with Dragon Milk's Reserve oatmeal cookie.
00:02:49
Speaker
I thought you were saying oat milk, but you said oat milk? Oat milk, oat milk, oat milk, cookie? Oat milk, oat milk cookie. It's oat milk cookie. Bourbon barrel aged stout with cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins, oats, and vanilla extract. Tony, what are you thinking? Aroma wise, it smells like a dragon's milk.
00:03:11
Speaker
I don't get a lot, maybe... I'm getting cinnamon. I'd say a little cinnamon and vanilla, but also dragon's milk, and that's not a bad thing. Taste-wise, cinnamon, vanilla, a little bit of that boozy bourbon barrel. I don't know if I get necessarily oatmeal cookie, but I like this. Yeah, I'm getting raisin, but the raisin I'm getting
00:03:33
Speaker
Is more attuned to like a barley wine kind of esque that I feel like I'm getting but all reasoning like that, but yeah, okay Interesting. What about you Dan? So I think I agree with you guys earlier Brandon I should say that I get cinnamon on the nose for sure and like a warming sense it is I'll say it's warming actually going down to yeah I feel like and I don't know if it's a cinnamon but some things like drying my tongue out after I take ya know I'm there to It's probably the cinnamon and and dragons milk itself isn't very
00:04:03
Speaker
isn't super sweet. When was the last time you guys had a regular dragon's milk? Oh, it's been maybe a year or so. I'll tell you this. Each year, I try a lot of their variants. Their triple mash is really good. We had a variant on the show last year, I think, sometime. Probably. I think at least once a year, we have a dragon's milk variant. But their variants are a lot of fun. They're really tasty. They do a good job. And I think they kind of get overlooked on their barrel age reviews. And this one is 11%. Ooh.
00:04:33
Speaker
Whoa gonna be a rough night boys. Yeah, it's good The Dan yeah, how many cookies no how many What's the name of the the throne from Game of Thrones? Is there a name for that throne?
00:04:54
Speaker
Iron Throne. How many Iron Thrones are you going to give this? Only because John Wick's out in the background and you also pointed out who is from Game of Thrones. Yeah, great joy. There's a lot of people on here. Allstate dudes on here and Defoe's on here. Oh, and so is the guy from Bill and Ted's. So is that guy from The Matrix? Oh, I know him from Bill and Ted's. The guy from Point Break.
00:05:15
Speaker
Have you ever seen Point Break, by the way? I don't think so. I can't remember. Patrick Swayze? No, I don't think I have. Nick Nolte? No. I don't even know who that is. You can do like a movie night with Dan. Oh, is that Zachary? We just duct tape him to a chair and make him watch old movies. Are we about to start another podcast where it's like watching Dan's... Well, so you guys suggest... You each suggest a movie and then I pick who's right. Well, that's good. There's a...
00:05:42
Speaker
podcast listen to comedy bang bang the host Scott Ackerman he does one called Scott hasn't seen and there's a bunch of movies that he hasn't seen but I like your approach to it which we'll see we'll suggest a movie and you pick which one is better I mean it was a teen line I like that all night oh yeah nice except we have to give you the right movie nice so I'm gonna go for our episode cuz we're catching up with Dan I'm gonna go with 375
00:06:12
Speaker
I like it. Don't love it. Sure. If you were offered it, you'd drink it again. Yeah, I'd drink it again. I think, so I think if I, if I, if I'm going to go for a barrel aged out and I want something that's on this spectrum, I think I typically would go for something a little more thicker in the body, which Dragon's looks always thinner.
Podcast Ideas and Old Movies Discussion
00:06:31
Speaker
Yeah. It's not always bad, but no, I mean, I don't, I mean the thickness isn't always bad or the thinness, I should say. Get up and get down with the thickness. Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:40
Speaker
That's what I like about Dragon Milk. I like that Dragon's Milk is a thinner, not so chemical in your face. Yeah. And I think regular Dragon's Milk is 9%. Brandon, how many iron thrones are you giving this one? I'm in the same ballpark, like three, nine to four possibly. I actually really like it. I do like the flavor profile. It's very easy drinking. Yeah, for 11%, that's pretty must-have.
00:07:09
Speaker
um not cool and i like the way the flavors uh present themselves so like it's yeah it's a good beer i'm i'm in between you guys i'm gonna go 3.84 i tend to like all the dragon milk variants i think they're delicious and this one is uh not an exception it's it's tasty what i like about it well i don't feel like it tastes
00:07:37
Speaker
like an oatmeal cookie. I like the vanilla and cinnamon, and I'm a sucker for vanilla, so that's why, yeah, I'm just gonna do a 3.84. This was just boiled in the beginning of September this year, so that's pretty fresh. And normally, I think in January and February is when they start bringing out more of their variants. Okay.
00:07:58
Speaker
Good to know. Mm-hmm. Sorry, I just took a big gulp of water. So this is the Maltese. We didn't make any awards for any of the breweries, like we said we were going to do. So what do you got something for? Oh, no, no, no. See, like you were going to do something? Oh, well, I thought we were going to go next beer. You can pop one open right now while we're talking. That's OK. I was just going to get into our. Yeah. So we all agreed now. I think from now on, it's a top five forever. That's the main thing. And so if we have more, we'll mention them. But we'll do that in the second half.
00:08:28
Speaker
I think maybe we did that the first year when we came back around from the break. We did the second half. We mentioned our honorable mentions.
00:08:37
Speaker
I'm going to go, I have ranked mine. I don't know if you guys actually ranked yours instead of just, or did you just write? But I have an order in mind. Okay. Okay. So I'm going to go. But I could win it. All right. We're going to start with our number five beer of the year. And so I know are we doing the like honorable mentions later? Yeah, we'll do that. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think I was just saying, uh, I know you were getting stuff out of your
00:09:02
Speaker
back there. When we come from the break, we will do our honorable mentions, but I'll start. Here we go. Actually, what I should do is what I probably should have done was pull the beer up so that I actually had something to talk about, which I'm stalling for time right now. I don't know if you guys noticed that. I'm just kind of rambling and talking because I'm punching it in.
00:09:23
Speaker
uh you know i hope everyone's uh new year's great i hope everyone's having a great 2024 yeah uh so far i mean you know it's the first day of it found it you know and i think brandon do you remember the version that we i got it here we go are my number five for this year is
00:09:49
Speaker
Damn, I don't know which version it is. But anyways, it's Brothership Brewing. They're barrel-aged space debris, which we had at Beer Under Glass this year. And it looks like for 2023, there was a banana chocolate and coconut. Does that sound right? Yep.
00:10:09
Speaker
The other one was pecan,
Afterthought Brewing's Hops and Fruit #1 Tasting
00:10:11
Speaker
vanilla, and coconut. I think it was banana. That was the one. To me, that was my favorite beer of the event. If I'm not mistaken, Brandon, I think I may have been talking with somebody
00:10:25
Speaker
And you grabbed me and you said, hey, we have to go to brother ship right now. Something along those lines. Yes. Yeah. Because somebody was like, you need to go there. You need to try this. The line is going to be long. Yeah. And we got the longest line. Yeah, it was great. But the line was moving fast, though. Yes. But that beer really stood out as, you know,
00:10:45
Speaker
We talk about barrel aged beers a lot and being in Chicago we're privy to many barrel aged beers throughout the year in general but this is barrel aged beer season right now coming to a close. That beer really stood out as a fantastic and phenomenal barrel aged beer and since then I have now put that on my radar as a
00:11:09
Speaker
barrel aged beer that I will seek out. And I actually have tried other brother ship brewing beers since then because I was like, oh wow, that was good. So if they can do barrel aged beers as good as that, their other beers have to be as good. So that's my number five for 2023. Brandon or Dan, who would like to go next? Does anybody, Dan looks like he's still scrambling. I got my list set. Now I just gotta like pull him up. Brandon, do you think you know you have your number five?
00:11:36
Speaker
Yep, so I have from Maplewood Brewing the cup of French vanilla. Oh, that's not what I expected you to say right there. But yeah, cup of French vanilla was very good. I did have that this year. Yeah. And we had that earlier in the year and it was just really well done. And it was kind of like a vanilla latte mixed with a barrel aged stout.
00:12:00
Speaker
And I just remembered really enjoying that. So yeah, that makes my number five. The whole cup of the series from Maplewood is pretty solid. I don't know if I've had a bad cuppa. I actually, yeah, I was actually just, so we had the cinnamon dusted s'mores like two Christmases ago. We had that one. That's what I'm saying. Oh, that's right. Oh, we all did. It was a Christmas show. I don't know why I pictured you and your wife just having that.
00:12:23
Speaker
Good night, kids. Mom and I are going to drink this cinnamon-bested s'mores. I still have one, and I was like, maybe I'll bring this. And then I realized, I was like, did we have this one before? But yeah, no, we've never had that before. It's so good. Yeah, it's hard to find a bad cuppa.
00:12:40
Speaker
I saw I checked in, it was like Cup of Origins, Colombian coffee this year. It wasn't a barely aged beer, it was just a coffee stout. There was Colombian coffee in there. It was really good. Was it real
Spruce Tip Beers Discussion
00:12:53
Speaker
Colombian coffee? Real Colombian coffee. No, when you say it, it reminds me of the SNL skit with Chris Farley. Yeah, that's right. What if I told you it was decaf? What? You son of a bitch.
00:13:07
Speaker
How did that make you feel? Angry. Chris Farley, RIP, never forget. So, Brandon's number five is Mabel Woods, barrel age, cup of French vanilla. Now Dan, moving on to you. All right, so my number five is from Is Was, which no shocker. You know, there have been a couple of Is Was that I almost grabbed, I haven't grabbed.
00:13:34
Speaker
But at Bear on the Wall, they have a lot in the Park Ridge one. They have a lot of, as was, constantly coming in and out. So every time I see them, I think of you. They're always in my thoughts every Thursday or Friday. The LaVane is the barrel-aged sour that they do. And it's the LaVane to sourdough.
00:13:59
Speaker
pitched into it, so I don't use pitched into it. Really? But he did, yeah, he did a Montmorency cherry edition in 2022. I just opened it a couple months ago, but I really, really dug it because sometimes cherry can go to like medicinal. But this one was really balanced with the tartness and then sort of like that Brett Funk along with the cherry was really came through with like a true fruit instead of like the medicinal. I've never heard of it. Sorry, I just had a rich cracker.
00:14:28
Speaker
I've never heard of a beer for mentioned with sourdough with yeast. That's awesome. Well he does, so they do like, I think he says they have like their house yeast and then he pitches some of this sourdough starter and then he also adds like dregs from, they say from some of their favorites. So I think that they honestly just like, they're drinking something that they like and when they get to the bottom of the bottle. Oh, say those dregs. Yeah, they just throw it in. That's a home brew.
00:14:52
Speaker
a hack to if you want to cultivate yeast from other breweries like sediment at the bottom, there's yeast, you can cultivate that. It's really easy to cultivate those yeasts to have your own and get a starter and then do your own yeast or whatever. You can crack it up. It's okay, don't worry about it. It's that kind of show, Dan. It's a beer show where we crack beers when we're talking. By the way, dipping that rich cracker into this spicy honey was so good.
00:15:20
Speaker
Shout out to James Chang out of Kansas City for his fantastic hot honey and chili oil. Brandon, I would not know about any of it if it wasn't for you. So I use all those chili oils. I wasn't using them as much in the beginning as much as I am using them now. I've used it in stir fries. This sounds like an ad. I used it in stir fries and now I'm going to
00:15:47
Speaker
You saw this for some wings. I think I'm gonna do wings strong. Do it, man. It's so exciting. I'm pouring this in here. Okay, so I'm pouring this very... You guys, oh, we all gotta get pouring that. You're good. There's a little bit more in there. Dan, what are we drinking, baby? All right, so we are drinking from Sway Brewing in
00:16:08
Speaker
I think it's Benton Harbor, Bailey's Harbor, sorry. Bailey's Harbor, Wisconsin, and Door County. It is County Spruce. Are we going to have to Door County this year? We're going to take another weekend. We should. You should. Beckett should come up, too. We should go up there. The whole family goes, I'm the fourth wheel. I'll be Benjamin's plus one, just like New Year's Eve. It'll be great. Sorry, continue. No, you're fine. So I've never had this before, but I just picked this up two weeks ago.
00:16:34
Speaker
Barrel fermented Saison with forage spruce tips, so he went out himself with some buddies or friends, I don't know, and foraged it, but it's a blend of beers brewed with barley wheat, Wisconsin hops, and locally foraged spruce tips fermented with our house mixed culture in oak barrels.
00:16:50
Speaker
Who's it? Sway brewing? Sway, yep. So the reason I told you to pick that one is because Tony has been at odds with Spruce-tipped beers. Which is, I said that to him. So I would like to jump on this one right away. It's a love-hate relationship with Spruce beers. I will always opt to try them because I hate them. I do not hate this beer at all. This is really good. Aroma-wise,
00:17:16
Speaker
It definitely, maybe there's a slight hint of spruce, but. Is that overpowering? No, it's more, I get more Saison like ready. Saison slightly tired. Yeah. Yeah. The yeast, the yeast profile is coming forward. Um, but the taste of it, I'm taking a sip here. That spruce comes through, man. Yeah, but it's not like, it's not. Unpleasant. It's not overpowering. It compliments everything so well.
00:17:43
Speaker
It's like it's it's there. I don't want to say it's subtle because it's not subtle, but it's also not off putting. Yeah.
00:17:52
Speaker
No, it is really tasty. I love it. This is really good. I'm going to adjust my list for 2024. There's 2023. There's been some the first spruce dip beer that I ever had. And then like I gave it to you too. Was that from block 15? They did like I was like IPA or something like that. It was like they did it for Christmas. And my buddy sent it to me and it was just like
00:18:19
Speaker
He sent me a couple of them, and I think I had one. I was like, holy shit, Tony needs to try this. And Tony was like, I don't like spruce beers. And I'm like, just shut up and try. And he was like, all right, this is really good. Do you guys want to know the first spruce beer who I had it from? Oh, yeah. That would be good.
00:18:35
Speaker
Uh, you say like a factor like shorts shorts. Well, there you go. Oh, no, damn it. Always fucking clark. No, no. No. Shorts used to be my like little. Yeah. But and then when we did that, I know, you know, you know, you know, we're going to do this here in 2024 shorts. We're going to try and do a we're going to contact shorts and see if we do a shorts redemption episode because
00:19:00
Speaker
Clark and I have held shorts in such high regard for so long, and I'm not sure if it was necessary. I don't know. I don't know anymore. I really don't. I really don't. But anyways. I was gonna say, I had my first spruce beer. I just had to look up what the name was again, but Pennsylvania Tuxedo by Dogfish Head. Oh, yeah. I never tried that one, but I am. No, me either. But yeah, wow.
00:19:21
Speaker
I was going to say I'm trying to pull it back up because I just lost it. This is by the way, this is one of the best scenes in the original John Wick. Is this the original one? This is County Spruce, but he does a whole series where he forages ingredients in Door County. He has Yarrow, which is a flower, Dandelion, the Spruce, and Goldenrod. I think he's got
00:19:42
Speaker
some others he's working on he was he was i was talking to him a little bit but um cool i think it's a cool concept he's a cool guy he used to be at hacienda which is connected to door county brewing we need to go up there yeah it's really good door county brewing and hacienda are in the same space and this is like two blocks away so we could have went last summer up there is it he just opened too much door county yeah just opened not too long ago yeah we couldn't have gone um was it door county that we
00:20:10
Speaker
put a sticker, put a sticker somewhere. Yeah, we are to put a sticker up in door. Yeah. And I think our friend Liz was up there and she's like, Hey, look what I found. I'm waiting for somebody to find the one in Kona brewing in Hawaii. I mean, another rich cracker. That being said, Tony, how many Clark Griswold forested chopped down trees would you be giving
00:20:38
Speaker
this beer that we are currently enjoying. So beyond what the actual type of beer it is and the expectation that I had, I'm actually really enjoying it. And then I think it's something that I could, I could easily drink more than one of these, which is crazy.
00:20:56
Speaker
for me to say for a spruce tip beer. I'm giving this a 4.3. Ooh. Yeah, I think it's really good. It's really refreshing, too. It's very tasty. If this is a regular beer that they would do around the holidays, I would definitely make the trip to go up there and grab something to bring back for the holidays to share around this time. Dan, how many Clark Griswold
00:21:26
Speaker
forestry chopped down Christmas trees, are you giving this? So, I'm a sucker for the style, so I'm giving it a four, seven, five. Ooh, I knew you were going high, I knew you were going high. Four, seven, five. I think that's fair. I'm not giving it a five, and I'll say, I wish, I actually wish the spruce came through a little bit more. But I love the Brett character and the used notes like you were talking about, Brandon. I do, yeah, so I'm gonna go,
00:21:55
Speaker
four to five roughly on this. And I'm kind of in agreement. And like the only thing and this is probably just way off base, but like it's it's supposed to be a thin beer. But I feel like just like when you've got so many good flavors, it just needs to be a little thicker. Like, I don't know, to me.
00:22:16
Speaker
But- Okay, and I also totally miss what you gave it. 425, because the drawback is, I mean, not a drawback, but like the difference, it's such a drinkable beer. And I felt like if it's just like a tad thicker or whatever, like it would just make it, you know, something to like sip on a little bit longer. But yeah, 425, I mean, this is no way of bad rating, so. One sip, everybody knows the rules. I did, this is good, man. I would- Never gonna fucking quote that again. Where is, where's Sway out of?
Holiday Beer Events and Tastings
00:22:46
Speaker
Bailey's Harbor, so if you guys were at Door County, it's like two blocks away, and they do a lot of...
00:22:52
Speaker
They're like Saizons and then a lot of Loggers. Oh, and Tony, when we were at Door County Brewing, Hacienda was... Right. Yeah, that was it. Yeah, that I knew, that I knew. I remember that. And Door County, they're the one that does the, is it the Pallet Jack? Yep. IPA, session IPA. That was good. We drink that at that bar where I got that card, the Bitters, I'm part of the Bitters Club. Alright, so that being said,
00:23:17
Speaker
Let's go to our number four beer. Number four. Here we go. Before we, because we're getting close to a break. I can feel it. I know this is always an older, or an older, longer episode. All right, number four. I'll kick it off since I kicked off last one. This one is a collaboration beer. It is from our friends at Old Irving. And phase three is their barrel-aged migration, which we had a chance to try at Goose Island's Steppfest.
00:23:43
Speaker
which I can't remember how many pounds of coconut this got. 400. There you go. It was insane. There's so much coconut. If you don't like coconut, you would not like this beer, but it was such a... Brandon, I think you still have a can of it. Probably. And I think you have a can of the regular migration. Probably. It's a fantastic beer. I really like this one. It was close to going up higher.
00:24:11
Speaker
But would it surprise you guys that out of the top five, that's the last Barely Aged Beer that I have. Now my honorable mentions there are some, but I tried to stay away from, I mean, let's face the facts guys. I love Barely Aged Beers, but I didn't want to just like, you know,
00:24:35
Speaker
Fill my whole, my list, but real quick. Heaven Hill, Elijah Craig, eight-year bourbon barrel, aged Imperial style with toasted coconut, vanilla, and Ecuadorian cacao nibs, clad with phase three brewing. That is the description for that beer. That is my number four for 2023. Who did I go to last time for their, oh, Brandon. Brandon, what's your number four? I'm going with,
00:25:03
Speaker
Something that we did over the summer we did a Christmas in July whatever Everything nice from brewery. Oh my gang. Oh, that's right. I forgot about that beer Wow that that made your top five, huh? Yeah, really good beer. It was it was fantastic I'm trying to look up to see I was trying to find a description earlier. Oh, here we go. Oh
00:25:29
Speaker
It was a strong blonde ale brewed with seasonal spice. Lightly dusted with spices of the season, everything nice is a warming, wintry Belgian style blonde ale. This supremely cozy confection pairs perfectly with traditional holiday treats. Note the flavors of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg cloves, and white pepper as you sip next to the fireplace.
00:25:54
Speaker
I didn't check it in. Is it weird if I check it in now so I don't forget it? No, go ahead. But yeah, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a fantastic beer. It was obviously probably brewed in 2023 or 2022. But when I went through Untapped, it was one of my top ones. And I have a lot of top ones that I didn't put in, but I just really enjoyed it. And I thought, hey,
00:26:21
Speaker
I'm going to add that to the list. That's a sleeper pick. By the way, Untap just told me you're nearby, so I was able to tag you. Yeah, Untap knows where you're at. I'm on right now, looking at my beer. It is weird. Yeah, good call. I just checked it in, and I set it for summer 2023. Yeah, good call. I forgot about that. That was really good. I feel like that was maybe one of the better
00:26:44
Speaker
Christmas and July beers that we had. Yeah, it was the, I don't know, at least it was the highest rated one that I had, so. Real quick, was that your last episode you were on? I remember being on it, but I don't remember if that was my last. Probably. Might have been. Yeah. Might have been. Well, way to bring up the past, Brandon. Good job.
00:27:04
Speaker
bringing it all full circle Dan what's your number four so mine number four is a barrel aged stout from perennial it was it's called I might be saying this incorrectly but my man 2020 my man so it is a blend of
00:27:24
Speaker
So 80% of it is a stout aged 22 months in heaven hill barrels and then the other 20% is a stout aged 27 months in weller barrels. And I got, I thought for some reason it was like rye in this because when I was tasting it I was getting that like rye spice but maybe I was just... You were getting some iced spice instead? Yeah maybe some iced spice.
00:27:47
Speaker
But no, that was a delicious beer. It's sort of like, one of my buddies brought it over and it was like something he was saving to share with people and it was, it lived up to the hype. Nice. That's exciting. It's exciting when you have a beer like that, especially a beer that.
00:28:03
Speaker
stay around for that long that all of a sudden is like, wow, really glad we saved this and it's delicious. Well, that being said, we've gotten through our first two beers and we've had two beers. I think we're going to take a break. And if I'm not mistaken,
Honorable Mention Beers and Reflections
00:28:19
Speaker
I think I got the okay to play another celery song for our break. Nice. You know, that's what happens when you buy music from your friends and family, they'll let you play it on your podcast. So we'll be right back.
00:29:03
Speaker
And when that feeling strikes you, deep, deep, deep down inside. No way to continue, no way to hide.
00:29:37
Speaker
Because everyone's out. Maybe you can hold it. Just open your mouth. Oh, then that baby strikes you deep, deep, deep down inside. Nowhere to continue.
00:30:20
Speaker
And we're back! Welcome back, everybody. That was another song by Selray. You heard them from last week. Kevin Goggin. Multi-hour fame. His band, Selray. C-E-L. Space R-A-Y. That was the title song from their recently released EP, Piss Park.
00:30:42
Speaker
I do love that EP, and I love those guys. That band's awesome. So check them out. Celray, C-E-L, space, R-A-Y. Good stuff. Also, at some point, I think, you know what we're gonna do right now? Before we get into our honorable mentions, here's a good time for us to hear from our buddy Clark and his top beers of 2024. Take it away, Clark. Gentlemen, gentlemen, so nice to speak with you through a recording
00:31:11
Speaker
I'm so glad I hit my record of not being on one podcast in the year 2023. But I did drink a few beers, and I will make this short and sweet my top five. Maltese of 2023, beginning with number five.
00:31:27
Speaker
Drank this in Belgium this year. Delirium. It was delirium red, a fruit beer. Delicious. And number four, what a surprise from Walmart. Let me start over. Watermark in Stevensville, Michigan. It was Bodega mango habanero. Their Bodega lager is their, I wouldn't say flagship, but they have it all the time this day.
00:31:50
Speaker
Back in May, they had a Mango Hub in Euro version. De-delicious. Another surprise. Revolution. Double barrel of VSOD. Yum yum. Hop butcher coming in at number two. This was early 2023, I believe, very beginning of January. High ABV. Hazy IPA. Blizzard of 67. And rounding up my top.
00:32:16
Speaker
One is from Tripping Animals Brewing. I actually drank this in Phoenix. Cuddle Buddies, drinking at Wandering Tortoise, a beautiful beer bar if you're ever in the area. And that, my friends, is my top five.
00:32:32
Speaker
Happy New Year. See you next year. Wow. What a crazy collection of beers. Can you believe his number one beer for a 23? Wow. Wow. That's insane. Did not see that one. I didn't see that one coming either. Typical Clark. Oh, man. Boy, I miss that guy. But with that list, it really just feels like he was here all year round. Anyways, so moving on. Do you guys want to run through your, what, you guys have three honorable mentions? I have five honorable mentions.
Top Beers of 2023 and Industry Trends
00:33:00
Speaker
uh from you know if you i don't really guys have it you don't have to rank it but i do have my so we were doing we started with doing five and four now we're just going into honorable mentions yeah i think we'll run through honorable mentions now or do we do our tough you know let's do our honorable mentions before we get our number one how's that okay yeah okay so what are we drinking right now before we get into our number three oh we are drinking afterthought brewing companies hops and fruit number one
00:33:25
Speaker
This mixed fermentation Saison brewed with Indiana Chinook hops and fermented with Michigan currents in gooseberries It was aged and bottled in January 4th 2020 This beer is coming up on four years
00:33:45
Speaker
And it's really fucking good. Yeah. What do you think, Dan? You're the Cezanne expert on this outfit we have. What do you think of this one? So, afterthoughts beers typically skew more acidic. And this is definitely the tartar than the last one we've had.
00:34:03
Speaker
I really like it. I, um, I mean, usually it says on junior, I can get the hops, like the hops are listed, but I don't know that I'm like getting the hops. It's kind of just acidic with a little like yeast character for me. Yeah. Then, um, maybe the currents are coming through for me. I feel like I'm getting.
00:34:23
Speaker
that a little bit um i i was actually kind of shocked so it's like very gold like it's like a gold beer karate i feel like we're like kind of dark color and i thought it's gonna skew the color they're closer to like raisins yeah i feel like if i'm getting anything that is quote unquote not pleasant in it if if there is something there that might be some old hops it was the first thing i thought of that's like
00:34:54
Speaker
There are the acidities and there are the fruities in there, but there's just like this little, I mean, again, this is a four year old beer. There is something just in the background, just a little bit that kind of reminds me of like an old, not like wet cardboard, but like an old hop that's just kind of lingering there. But then I did swirl my beer around in my glass and I don't have that anymore. That was just kind of up front, but it's a tart, fruity, let me get one more sip.
00:35:26
Speaker
Tart Fruity, it's not sweet, but it's also not super dry, if that makes sense, right? Like it's not like drying, I don't know. I think it's dry for me, but it's not leaving my tongue like that. Oh yeah, maybe, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I'm talking about. I guess I was afraid, that's...
00:35:45
Speaker
I feel like to me it's like in the middle of like a dry and a sweet because maybe it's like the fruitiness that is telling my tongue and my brain like, Hey, there's a sweetness cause of fruit. You know what I mean? Yeah. But overall, I think it's really tasty. It's really good. Brandon. No, I agree. Um, it's, it's got the right amount of sour and acidity that I would enjoy in a beer. Um, yeah, it's not burning my chest and I'm getting a little back note of like,
00:36:13
Speaker
I don't want to say current kind of raisin-y-esque, but it's in that field. I'm not getting... Dark fruit. And I'm not like that... Dark old fruit. I'm not that familiar with gooseberries, but I'm getting some beariness.
00:36:30
Speaker
I feel like this is a really, really well done beer. I mean, I don't know what it tastes like fresh or what it would have tasted like fresh, but I would assume that kind of be pretty similar. Yeah, it's super enjoyable. I'm really happy with this beer. Yeah. Yeah. I like it a lot. Dan, how many gooseberries are you giving this? I'm going to choose that because I've never had a gooseberry like Brandon said. I'm going to go.
00:36:56
Speaker
425. 425. Brandon, how many gooseberries are you giving it? I'm seeing wheelhouse. 425. I'm 425 as well. I think it's 425 across the board. This is really good. I can sit and relax and drink this entire bottle without feeling uncomfortable from the tartness that I normally get from some beers that have that acidity, high acidity to them.
Cultural References and Beer Anecdotes
00:37:19
Speaker
Not heartburn inducing acidity. Not at all. Not at all. It's very tasty. I like it a lot.
00:37:23
Speaker
So let's go into our number three beers. So my number three beer is a beer that we've had on an episode from, I guess on the episode, from a brewery on that episode. It was Sipes. I chose their Columbia Bach because that beer is just so sweet and delicious and I love Bach beers. I fell in love with that beer that went on that list that night, or on this list that night.
00:37:54
Speaker
I didn't know where I was going to put it, but after I was going through ranking everything, I realized that that was one of my favorite beers of last year. It's really tasty. It's a really, really nice bok.
00:38:08
Speaker
I'm a fan of Bach's. And I'll be Bach next year for Multis 2024. Good night, everybody. Thanks for listening. All right. Brandon, what's your number three? I'm going with a beer that we did have an episode. Oh, boy.
00:38:26
Speaker
It's from Marge Brewing Company. It's their cream puff Pachki beer. We had that and it kind of blew me away. It was really super tasty.
00:38:43
Speaker
I know Tony enjoyed it too, but yeah, super good. It kind of knocked all of the checklist of things you would want in a punch key beer. So much so that I think we posted it and somebody commented about it from Mars and it was fantastic. Still trying to connect with the guys from Mars, but one day we will. One day. Yeah, I'll tell you this, I'm excited for
00:39:10
Speaker
this coming year's um variants that they they do of that beer because there was a pistachio one as well yeah i've seen so did they do a strawberry one sometime i believe i i think they they've gone i think they do different fruits too yeah just like the sojes are the same way yeah good call brian dan what's your number three beer of 2023 my number three is from sundial brewing out of barrington illinois
00:39:35
Speaker
Orrocular Rhyme, which is a Cezanne aged in neutral oak barrels and re-fermented with Michigan Montmorency cherry. There's that cherry again and there's another fucking Cezanne from Dan. Yes. That beer sort of blew me away because they were, I mean they're a newer brewery. They've only been around for, I mean at this point they've probably been around for like two years, but they were brewing simultaneously with flesk brewing at the time and
00:40:03
Speaker
It just kind of blew my mind that they were like a young brewery doing saisons and everything, but it came through so well. Doing it so well for being such a young brewery. And I can remember having that first sip of that beer. And again, when I hear cherry, I'm kind of like worried it's going to be medicinal, and it wasn't. And I love the beer. Well, now you find your favorite type of cherry when it comes to those beers. Or have I? Foreshadowing. Oh, boy. We don't know.
00:40:30
Speaker
We're going to have to find out after we take this. Oh, we already did the break. Damn it. Are we cracking up another beer or we're still, we're still stepping on this. Do we want to go to our number two and then have another break? Yeah. I did just finish that beer though. It was delicious. I really liked it. So this will be fun because we already talked about this beer. My number two beer. We're going to go right to you. I hope you're ready. My number two beer.
00:40:57
Speaker
We had an episode back in February from Mars Brewing, cream puff, punchy stout. That's my number two beer of the year, baby. If I'm not mistaken, when I started this list on my little document here, that was the first beer that went on there. So I was pretty, I knew yours was gonna be up there as well because we both spoke on how much we love that beer, how delicious it is and it was.
00:41:25
Speaker
I really like seeing that beer again on this list reminded me of how much I'm now looking forward to February for their variants to come out. And hopefully, you know, I don't know how many they normally do, but I'll be on the lookout because if we need to do a whole Fat Tuesday episode with those beers, I am down for that and will definitely do that. So that's my number two.
00:41:46
Speaker
The same as Brandon's number three of the Mars cream puff. See, that's not the first beer I have on my list that I started for you for the Maltese of this year. Oh, shit. That's right. I forgot Brandon had the running list. Brandon, do you have that list in front of you? I do. Let's save that. I want you to go through that list. Maybe after number one, we'll see. Yeah, yeah. We'll go back and we'll see. Jesus, I forgot you kept that list. I didn't need to stop talking. I'm like, Brandon, what's your number two beer of 2023?
00:42:16
Speaker
He's freaking out. He's freaking out, man. I'm going to go with another one from Maplewood Brewing. They're barely a couple of stuff. You know, pardon me. Wait, wait, no. I already said a couple of stuff. Yeah, you did a couple of French vanilla. Oh, yeah. I clicked the wrong one. Yep. Yeah. So couple French vanilla. Yeah, a couple of stuff. Yeah, we had that at Phobad this year. We did.
00:42:47
Speaker
Sorry, I heard a dog barking in the background. That beer was very close to making this list and it did not because I felt like I had so many barrel aged beers. You'll find out in the honorable mentions that I did not put that one on there, but it was one of my favorite beers of 2023 and it was my favorite beer of PhoBab this year. It was the best barrel aged beer that I had at PhoBab this year. It was so good. It tastes like liquid Oreo cookies.
00:43:16
Speaker
in the best way possible. You know what, let's drink one right now. I'm joking, don't go grab it. Yeah, good call, Brandon. Yeah.
00:43:24
Speaker
I like that Maplewood made two of your slots this year, man. Yeah, I mean, I went to my list and I looked at the things and I was very diligent and I was like, okay. What stood out? Yeah. That's it. All right, Dan, what is your number two beer of 2023? My number two beer is from... Does it have cherries in it? No, it does not have cherries in it.
00:43:49
Speaker
Green bench. Green bench. Green bench. We've got our friends down in Tampa Bay. In St. Peter's area. St. Peter's area. Sorry, sorry, Florida, Florida, Florida, Florida. Wild shape. And this is a Belgian white that they ferment with a blend of Brettanumice's yeast. And then dry hop it with Citra and Galaxy. Whoa. So this is similar to our number one beer last year, I think. Mine, yeah. Was that both of ours? I think it was.
00:44:15
Speaker
And I can't remember what how does how does killed or guiding bolt guiding ball. Yeah And just like go get me some more of that Dan I have to see I mean I'm going down and they're like a week. So we'll see but they The way that they do the Saisons with the Brett and then dry hop it with like the traditional hazy IPA Smells fantastic
00:44:40
Speaker
It's like the perfect button between easy APA and Cesar. Yeah, it's really good. I really wish I could have tried that. Yeah, I'll see if they have any more. Yeah, when you were down there, please feel free to let me know and message me and I will be happy to give you some loot for that because that would be great to have some more viewers from them. I'll for sure be going. I mean, you're going for saying just... That means two green match.
00:45:03
Speaker
Oh. Again, I know that you're going. You've already stated that, Dan. I don't know where my... I had a card for Green Bunch. I went once. Yeah, you said that. I don't know where that card is. I don't know where that is. Hey, before you and our animal mentions, we should crack another beer. What we drinking?
00:45:26
Speaker
I'm worried about that one of that one being super acidic. And I'm also worried about the other one being too sweet. Brandon, do you have anything else? Do you want to roll the dice and grab something randomly? We're gonna let Brandon go and do that real quick.
00:45:42
Speaker
Sorry, I hate to put you on the spot like that. I'm just thinking about, cause I already had a beer for tacos as well. So I'm really working on the like acidic beers tonight. And I was, it's nice. It's nice to have, you know, beer. We've had more acidic beers than I anticipated. More acidic beers tonight than I think we've had all year. So I don't know if I necessarily need to like- Top it off with the- Let's have the most acidic beer that you have that you brought.
00:46:10
Speaker
And now, as I'm talking and I'm realizing what I've had, I'm feeling it a little bit. So Brandon looks like he's grabbed something. It's behind his back. Are we going to do a quick blind? Are we doing a blind mystery beer? Yep, pretty much. Mystery beer. Can it not be an acidic beer? Oh, it's not. OK, great. You know what? I'll do this. All right, hold on. Let me go ahead and get a solo cup. No, no. You need a solo cup for this. Can we see where the liquid's coming from? No, I think. I think. Red solo.
00:46:41
Speaker
Is that a country song? It's a Toby Keith song. Oh, your favorite. You love Toby Keith, right? He's my favorite. These colors don't run. They do not. And that's like, boot your ass. That's like, that's your motto. That's what you live by, right? They just gotta go around.
00:46:57
Speaker
Backslash S. What does that mean? Sorry, Kat's on. I don't know if that's real. I feel like you might be the kind of guy. No, I am a country fan. I am a country fan. Are you going to Country Thunder this year? I don't know what that is. So you're not a country fan. No. I know a country fan. I went to Wendy's through the Lakeshake. Nobody knows what that is. Nobody knows what that is. Brooks and Dunn were there. Brooks and Dunn. Oh, Brooks and Dunn, I know. Yeah. So Brooks and Dunn, Alan Jackson. I was just going to say, was Alan Jackson there? I have three Alan Jackson albums on. I'm vinyl? Two of them are Christmas.
00:47:27
Speaker
Does one of them have a, we'll wait down yonder on the cheddar hoochie, which is hotter than a hoochie coochie. I contend that that guitar intro on that song. Yeah, that's like the greatest intro of any song of all time. Which is also like the same guitar intro to Footloose. Oh, I don't even know. All right, let's get into this mystery beer before we get into our dimensions. Here we go. Oh, it's dark. It's dark. It smells bearish.
00:48:00
Speaker
I'm getting marshmallow. I was gonna say marshmallow or... Is this... It's marshmallow, it's not even like lactose, it's like marshmallow or vanilla. The reason why I think... Is this an off-color beer? No. No? No. Wow, that was my first thought, was that it was... Dinosmores. Too thick for an off-color. Dinosmores is a little thinner than this. True, true.
00:48:20
Speaker
Yeah, this is like marshmallow vanilla. I almost wonder if... I don't know. Is this barrel-aged? I almost want to guess. Yes. I almost want to guess that this is the, like, barrel-aged cup of French vanilla. Yeah, yeah. No. Because it's thick like a maple wood. No, no, no. This is not as thick as... This is definitely not as thick as... This is two C's. The maple wood was three. Yeah. Or four. There you go. Yes. Four. Okay, okay.
00:48:52
Speaker
It's not off-color. Oh, I'm loving this. I'm loving this. Is there vanilla in this? Yes. Yeah, it's vanilla heavy. Is there vanilla deith? Yeah, let's just say there's vanilla deith. No. But vanilla is the prominent. Is this brickstone? No. I was going to say, I feel like the deith, like vanilla deith, way more barrel. I feel like it was sweeter than this. Yeah, it would be way more barrel. So it's vanilla. I've had to.
00:49:22
Speaker
temper my expectations. Is this temperance fucking vanilla? Yeah. Oh yeah, baby. That's why that vanilla hits so good. It's good. Might meets right. Yeah. There's their might meets right. Yeah. You know what? I should have fucking known. I thought you would get it right off the bat.
00:49:37
Speaker
Well, I got the vanilla right, and that's the one thing I talked about how much I loved this beer. Man, thanks for bringing that one out, Brandon. That's good. That's very good. We went in depth in the Might Meets Right lineup for this year. It was fun to go to Temperance and do all that. Which, by the way, did you guys end up trying that 10-year gatecrasher? I have not yet. I did. It's fucking good.
00:49:55
Speaker
It's a 10% version of Gatecrasher, and it does not drink like a 10%. I thought it was a 10-year-old Gatecrasher. No, no, no, no. I was like, have they been around that long? It's a 16-ounce, 10 years, yes. They have been around
Family Holiday Stories and Beer Gifts
00:50:06
Speaker
10 years. That's why it's a 10-year. I thought we were very sweet. Yeah. It's really good. 16-ounce can. Definitely worth trying and checking out. It's very, very tasty. So we did a recap of the temperate spears, but I will read the description so everybody knows. Something that Mike makes right.
00:50:22
Speaker
But it's the troublemaker, the one who speak truth to power, who changes the word.
00:50:29
Speaker
Vanilla mite meets right is the stone in your slingshot. We blend our stout aged in Russell reserve, six year old rye barrels with stout aged in basil, Hayden toast, bourbon barrels, and then let it sit on vanilla beans to try to, to try to bring out vanilla notes from aging an oak whiskey barrels. This is one of our unique takes on a reversed style. Let's make some history together.
00:50:52
Speaker
My first item I'll mention beer is Energy City's Pumpkin Cobbler, which is part of our Halloween episode. Brandon and I pretty much lost our minds over it because it tasted like liquid pie. It was very good. I loved it very much. November 9, Revolution's dreaded breakfast. Their version of a breakfast out from their Deepwood series this year that was from their
00:51:12
Speaker
July release where they also did that straight jacket or a not I forgot with life jacket, which was a broadly wine with like Fruit mangoes apricots or some shit like that. I forgot what else was in there too, but it was a good release then dimensional brewing there from Dubuque, Iowa
00:51:33
Speaker
Their S'Mortal Kombat Stout that I had with Matthew from Old Irving when he was doing an event at the Beer on the Wall in Arlington Heights. It was very fun. Thank you to the guys who shared that with us. They didn't have to. They also shared another barrel-aged dimensional brewing beer with us that was very, very tasty. Oh, so that wasn't even open for tasting? They were just like, hey. These guys...
00:51:55
Speaker
knew the people that worked there so like I don't know if he had just beers there or brought beers for them to chill but like he would go behind or like go up to the server at the bar and be like hey grab those beers and like one of the servers then also had like samples with us this guy seemed like he was the real deal you know I mean like we're showing up with all these beers
00:52:17
Speaker
After that, my number six is the KCBC Kansas City Brewing Company. Welcome to the Underwood Hellas. I bought it because of the zombie design on the can. Looks super cool. It is on my fridge in the basement. The sticker is on there. And it's a very good beer. I love Hellas lagers, so that was good. Brandon, what are your honorable mentions? I'm gonna start with Voodoo Rangers.
00:52:46
Speaker
Fruit Force IPA. So close to being on my fucking honor roll mention list, man. I was blown away by how much I enjoyed that beer. So weird how good that beer is. So good. I've had it twice since then. Next up on my honor roll mention is a beer that is near and dear to my heart from Howard Brewing Company
00:53:07
Speaker
sarcasm starts at 10 a.m. I also was I should have put that on my goddamn list. And then because, you know, shit comes around back to old Irving brewing.
00:53:24
Speaker
It's the first one on my list. Uh, barely each trail buddies. Ah, yes. That was good. Barely each trail buddies is good. It was, it was, it was sweet. It was sweet to me though. That was, that one was a little tough for me to get through. Yeah, but that's, that's what's honorable. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's, that's a good beer to share with friends. Hence trail buddies. Yep. Very good. And now we just saw the way that John Wick ends. Now you know, he ends up with another dog. Dan.
00:53:51
Speaker
What happened to this first one? Oh, boy. It gets killed in the beginning. It's pretty much why this movie. Okay, never mind. Dan, what are your honorable mentions? Alright, so I don't have these in any particular order. That's okay. So, number 10.
00:54:10
Speaker
All right, so sway brewing which we just had one of the beers earlier Bailey's Harbor Door County the voice that speaks inside and this was a English mild Oh nice, and it was just I just had it two weeks ago and for some reason like that Brady character
00:54:27
Speaker
I haven't had that in a beer in a long time and it just really like popped for me this year. Midwest Coast Brown Ale I feel like is where they are, they're mild, is where I get that. Yeah. Very delicious. Number seven. Sundial Brewing. Who? Making their appearance again. Second appearance. Last Peach of the Night, which... That sounds like a sexual innuendo. The label is Last Donut of the Night from the J Dilla Donuts album. Oh really? So it is a...
00:54:57
Speaker
It's tugging on my heartstrings there. It's not a sexual window. No. Which I didn't say that. But that was just delicious. I mean, peach, saison, slightly acidic. Shout out to Jay Dilla. R.I.P. And then number six is Kantian Fafoon.
00:55:14
Speaker
oh and that i was dropping my wife kids and mother-in-law off at the airport and i saw that afterthought shout out to afterthought again uh got a kegan whoa and i was like all right i'm gonna drop them off at midway and i'm going to afterthought because i've never had this
00:55:35
Speaker
and it lived up to the hype. But it didn't make the top five. It did not make the top five. But it was still worth it. It could have. Yeah, it could have, but you just like some ones the other. Yeah, I mean. Some beers more than others. Some ones the other. It's one of those things where, I don't know, maybe I was like, just because of myself leaning more towards stuff that's stateside local. Oh, for sure. I feel like, I mean, I think our lists show that we definitely lean more towards our local favorites more than anything.
00:56:02
Speaker
But yeah, very delicious. Apricot came through. Delicious. That's fantastic. Now, Brandon, are we going to do the number one first or do you want to go through what I said we were going to be some of my top beers? How many do you have of my Maltese list? Oh, I'm my Maltese list. You're the list. I only got four. I actually only got four. Have I mentioned it?
00:56:31
Speaker
One, one, sorry. Okay, so I had mentioned one. Was it the Bach? Which one was it? Mars Brewings. Okay, so we both knew that one, so there's three. Punchkey. Alright, so let's do our number ones and then we'll hear the disappointment that is when I say things that might. So my number one beer, which I think might shock a lot of people, has become when I see it on the shelves, I grab it,
00:56:58
Speaker
To me, it reminds me, or makes me feel like this is what I want from an IPA all the time. Just a standard IPA. It is Newen Whistles Hot Prism Blue. It's not a new beer, but it's just a beer for me that I bought a bunch this year when I see it, like again, when I see it on the shelves.
00:57:16
Speaker
I grab a four-pack of it. It's just a really tasty IPA. Fruity, piney, nuts. I mean like the hoppiness of it's great, the sweetness of it is great. It is just fantastic. And New in Whistle, thank you for giving me something other than the gummy beers. I do like the gummy beers, but this Hot Prison Blue is just my number one beer that I tried this year. And like I said, I don't think it's necessarily a new beer for them.
00:57:42
Speaker
But for me, it was a new beer, and I love it. And that's my number one beer for 2023. Brandon, what is your number one beer for 2023? So I had one in mind, and then I was just kind of going through and thinking. You were looking at my list, and you were like, Tony was right. No, but things that I enjoyed this year. Was it seeing Corey Feldman at Rifas? No, totally. My number one beer is going to be Old Irving's.
00:58:11
Speaker
Doji Wow only I got kegs of that stuff like It's just such a well done beer
00:58:23
Speaker
It was fantastic, and I enjoyed it immensely. My mistake, and that's how my, that might have been, I don't remember what my top beer was last year, but I know it wasn't my top five last year. Yeah, so for this year though, it's like my top beer, because I, you know. That was my number two last year. I was blessed with the last keg of doji that they had. They literally just filled up what they had left, and they gave it to me.
00:58:53
Speaker
Um, and I was, I was, I was blessed by that. Um, and I'm not saying that because I have currently too old Irving beers on tap. I was fucking blessed. Yeah. But it was funny. I was telling, uh, so I went to pick up the keg of pros and I was, uh, Josh, who was the general manager there. He's, he's an awesome dude. And he was like, uh, he's like, Oh, he's like, you can put some pros in tab. He's like, Oh, it sounds like a cool party. I'm like, yeah.
2023 Beer List Reflection and Podcast Insights
00:59:18
Speaker
You know, my other beer on tap is he's like, what? I'm like,
00:59:20
Speaker
cushy berry and he's like really and I'm like yeah and I say I've literally been saving it for my sister-in-law for Christmas because she loves who's upstairs right now she loves sour beers and then they came here and I told her what I had on tap and she goes can I get samples of both and I was like yeah so I did like a two little you know shot flight
00:59:45
Speaker
And she drank it both and she goes, that's pretty rare. Can I get the cinnamon beer? I was like, I've literally been saving this one for you because I thought you would love it. But she was all about the cinnamon beer and so much so that they were like, how do we get like growlers to take home or whatever? And I was like, I'll get you guys growlers. Don't worry about it. So I'll be filling growlers probably later tonight because they're leaving in the morning. So that's awesome. I think it's a good, uh,
01:00:12
Speaker
and that muscle doing something. Well, and that was, so your choice. I'm sorry, I got distracted because we, towards the end of this year, we have switched what we, how we host our webpage, or how we host the RSS feed for the molting hour, and I was going through, I was like, oh, okay, cool, let me find out what our, because last time, or each year, we put like what our top episodes are,
01:00:42
Speaker
And it's off in a bad way if you use because it's like,
01:00:49
Speaker
Actually, I guess not. No, no, this is correct. Sorry, we'll still do that. It's just, I was perplexed to find out like this is what the top episodes were. So anyways, I'm sorry. I thought I did way more episodes than we did. But that's cool that you gave her the flight and you saved that facility for her. Did she like the cushy berry though? Oh, she did. But she was like, yeah, I like this one better. Okay. Yeah, I would, I do too. And Greg was like, oh, this is good. He said, can I get something to take home? He's got his beer buddies back in Kansas City where they do like cigar nights every month.
01:01:20
Speaker
Didn't you give him a beer to take with him, but he drank it here? Oh, yeah, so for his Christmas present, I gave him a Krampus in the Rye. And I was like, and he's like, oh, my buddies will enjoy this. I was like, okay, great. And then this, so this, we did our Christmas morning on the Wednesday after Christmas because they came in a Christmas day. Tuesday was a rest day. So Wednesday we did it.
01:01:46
Speaker
and he's like oh take this back to my buddies you know we're doing presents and everything and i'm walking around like cleaning up and making coffee doing stuff being a host and he comes waddling in and he was like he like showed like showing me his coffee mug and i was like yeah drinking coffee he's like that rye whiskey he's like it's good i'm like okay and then in my head i'm like
01:02:11
Speaker
We each got, I got a bottle of bourbon. I got two bottles of bourbon. My wife and I got two bottles of bourbon. One was a Kansas City's chief.
01:02:20
Speaker
like branded bottle of Jim Beam. And like Kansas City Championship. And then some other one. It's gonna be gone tomorrow. No, I mean, I don't know. We'll save it as long as we can. And so I was like, and he got some bottles too. And I was like, all right. So I'm like, are you pouring bourbon or whatever in your cup, in your coffee? That's cool. And then, you know, we're walking around doing our thing. Christmas morning on a Wednesday.
01:02:50
Speaker
And then he was like, he said to somebody, he was like, yeah, my crampus is kind of strong. And I was like, huh? He's like, yeah, the crampus. And I was like, oh. And it was 9 o'clock in the morning. Whoa. And it was like. That's why I started the day. And I was like, I think that's like 50%. He's like, yeah, I finished the day.
01:03:12
Speaker
the can and I read it right at the end and I realized that's 15% and I'm like, you're kind of lit for the kind of time of the morning. Merry Christmas. In the best way possible. But yeah, it was just so funny because he was drinking and just not realizing how big it was. But then I was going to say, because I love
01:03:32
Speaker
I love it when he brings stuff back to his guys to drink because they like give him. He gives me like reports back of like, dude, give him give him one more of the ones that we got. Give him like a game. One of them was right. But I'll look, I'll see. But like, yeah, he just got the fireside. No, no. But yeah, like they they were cooking. They usually just enjoy it. And then I gave him some cigars that we got at Prop Day.
01:04:01
Speaker
And he specifically said, I'm going to take these back to the guys for the cigar beer, whatever. And then he told me, he's like, we got a plan of time when you guys come back.
01:04:11
Speaker
around this thing, like, you know, his friend doing this thing is this, is this guy that he knows who's like Becca's age, bought this like farm in like St. Joseph, Missouri, and like just does these like barnyard smoke outs, like he'll throw meat on the smoker and like, he's a nurse. And like, just on his off days, he just smokes a bunch of meat and like brings all these people over and they play like beer games and sit in a barn and smoke cigars and like stuff.
01:04:41
Speaker
Oh, you've been invited Tony. Thank you. Thank you I just want to make sure we'll bring the Tascam. It'll be great Well, and we've been told like because that would be a great episode River So the big brewery down there now is River Bluff brewing who used to be just the St. Joseph is St. Joseph, Missouri brewery They opened up in Kansas City now. They have one like on the river down there, too
01:05:04
Speaker
By the way, Dan's totally invested in the prequel to John Wick, which is the peacock show, the Continental. So anyways, he's been saying like, you know, come on down. You know, like they told us like, hey, you guys can stay at our place, like going down, do some recording. So, you know, it's always on the table.
01:05:21
Speaker
Uh, we need to do that. Yeah. That sounds fun. Agreed. Dan, what is your number one beer for 2023? That was a long window. That was great. That was fantastic. It was a good, good story. The, so dip it back into the cherry well. Oh boy. I knew my cherry boy was coming back around. I was telling Tony during the, uh, break that I did not mean to have three cherry beers.
01:05:46
Speaker
on specific cherries though. It's not just cherry beers. What kind of cherries, Dan? So my number one beer was from Jester King Brewery and it is Montmorency versus Balaton. And so it has two kinds of cherries in it.
01:06:00
Speaker
Ballaton which I when I was doing the research for this beer. I realized that is a It's a type of cherry that was created by Michigan State University, which is kind of like wheezing me but anyways So this is a it's a sour with the two types of cherries in it and the cherries gave off like a sweet character that sort of balanced out the again sourness of it and miss medicinal that you ever afraid and
01:06:28
Speaker
It was a delicious beer. That's all I got to say. You know what? Honestly, that's a great... Trust me. That's a good description. It was just a great beer. I feel like that's why you make it your number one. Before we get into how far off I was from speaking on the mic, I will go through, according to SoundCloud, which next year we'll have to figure out how to get this information.
01:06:50
Speaker
What are top episodes and top listening locations were for the year? Do you guys have any guests? I'll tell you this. Here's the great thing. For the top three episodes, according to our SoundCloud streams, we have a regular episode, we have a malted mini, and we have an after the final pour. Okay. Which is pretty great. So we'll go with the after the final pour first.
01:07:17
Speaker
Which is, after the Final Four, Season 8, Episode 2. Brandon, you know which one that might be? You don't remember anywhere after the Final Four. That was, Do The Do! When we did the Mountain Dew episode. Yeah, the Mountain Dew episode. I'm so surprised that that was one of the ones that got picked. I had...
01:07:41
Speaker
I wonder if it just came up with like Mountain deuce search. Probably. And people are just like, oh, I'll listen. I'm going to see if I can pull this up real quick because it's not showing me. Oh, here it is. The other one was...
01:07:59
Speaker
The Molted Minis, that's number two, or second most listened to. Molted Minis, which you and I drank two different beers. I had, or you had Old Irving's Cushy Berry. I think it was the first time, yeah. In July. Yeah, in July you had it. And I did Waybird from Half Acre. So that was number two. And then our number one episode of the year, which I'm gonna pull it up right now,
01:08:31
Speaker
It's kind of funny because I didn't think it would be one that would have made it. Not emo. Geez, don't want to do that. We're not emo. It was episode 104, Empty the Fridge, which I think was an episode that was with only
01:08:50
Speaker
me, you, and Clark, possibly. So that was episode four, that was February 20th. And then we had Cruise Blanca's Barbosa, Sketchbook, H2OP, Sparkling Water, Lake Effect, Goza, Reposada, Hot Butcher, Meet the Simcos, Pipeworks, Ninja, Verse Unicorn, Lo-Fi, Blueberry, Wheat. So that was it. That was our number one episode of the year back in February.
01:09:20
Speaker
And I will go through right now our, man, SoundCloud really just wants us to resubscribe. Sorry, SoundCloud, we got a better deal. Our top cities, are you ready? Number three, or number three, you know, Freddie? Dubai. Dubai? Is it even legal to listen to it? I don't know, from January 1st to 20, for January 1st to December 29th, Dubai.
01:09:44
Speaker
Number two, San Diego. And number one, our number one listen to city, which I would have thought would have been us, was Anaheim. What? Yeah, it's wild. Insane. That's what SoundCloud's telling me. They're just like taking over Southern California. Everybody's using VPNs. Yeah, totally. That's also probably the part of it. So yeah, so thank you everybody for listening. We appreciate it.
Maltese 2023 Beer Highlights
01:10:13
Speaker
What's on the list? I need to know what's on the list. Your first beer that you mentioned that was going to be part of your Maltese was Space Junk Logboat. It was an IPA. That was really good. You gave me one of those. Really good, yeah. And then you did mention Mars Brewing's Panchki.
01:10:34
Speaker
And then zombie ice You know what I thought about that beer I did think about that beer zombie ice was really good, but looking back on this year And then the final one I have on the list was is was this and that that's right
01:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, that should have been on the list. I think we had the regular and the gym barrel. Yeah. I think that was the regular one. That should have been on the list. My bad. I blew that one. Everything else I still stand by because zombie ice was very good.
01:11:11
Speaker
that's that's but not Maltese yeah contender I think I was just blown away about how easy it was to drink well yeah very well done it was like it was a really well done beer really taste I want to say along the lines of like that continuation of like a
01:11:26
Speaker
well-known beer, the anti-hero, imperial anti-hero. Oh, it's very good. Oh, no, it's fantastic. But again, every time it comes out, I'll grab it. I'll grab one can of it from Beer on the Wall. It's really good because when I have it, once I'm done with it, I'm like,
01:11:45
Speaker
See you next year. It's a lot, but hey, go try that Gatecrasher 10-year anniversary. Well, there it is, everybody. That's it. That's the Maltese for 2023, and that ends our year, another year of doing the Malting Hour. A lot of things have changed. Thanks for joining us. A lot of things have changed by that. I mean, it's just me and Brandon mainly because Dan's too cool.
01:12:09
Speaker
Dan, why are you too cool for us now?
Introducing 'Liquid Liner Notes' Podcast
01:12:14
Speaker
Kids, I don't know. We've got kids, and also, why don't you tell everybody about your new podcast real quick? Alright, so, Liquid Liner Notes. And I wanted to get something to do, to continue the hip-hop's Instagram and just take it a step further. So it's all interview-based, music and craft beverage.
01:12:34
Speaker
I was fortunate enough to have Tony on, where we talked about the malting hour. This podcast. Yeah, this podcast. You should refer Luke, because I thought we were just talking about Run the Jewels. Oh, really? I had no idea as we were talking about me. My bad. So yeah, no, we talked about a home brewing malting hour. Talked about Run the Jewels for a good five minutes. And then we talked about his music production. Yeah.
01:12:58
Speaker
Yeah Tony's other podcast that he's been on and his music production mostly really and But yeah, and I'm just trying to interview people who were sort of like lesser known behind the scenes in the music in the beer industry. I
01:13:14
Speaker
It's a good show. It's a good show. And you figured out how to do your mics. Yes, I did. You sound less nervous. I'm working on that. It's good. It's good. It's been a while since I've recorded it. Where can liquid liner notes be found? Drugs. Everywhere. Everywhere. It is everywhere. I mean everywhere where I think people listen to stuff, Spotify, Amazon. It's kind of bump because Google podcast is about to go away.
01:13:35
Speaker
Oh, is it really? That's right. I think I have it on there. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Um, Spotify. And then, uh, yeah, I started a liquid liner notes, uh, pod liquid learners pod Instagram. Just, uh, just post the, uh, when the episodes are up. Yeah. So working. So it's liquid lighter notes pod. Yeah. That's the best place to find you. Yeah. That and hip hop's on Instagram. And maybe we'll see you next year. Pick one. Yeah. This guy.
01:14:04
Speaker
Uh, Brandon, you got any other side podcasts you're starting up next year?
Chicago-themed Podcast Idea and Farewell
01:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm still doing, I'm still working on my Chicago podcast called Fuck This Shit, Fuck That Shit. Uh, we'll be talking about the best Giardinaire, the best beefs, the best pizzas. All that shit. All that shit. Oh yeah. And then if it fucking snows, we'll be talking about dibs. So get ready for the Fuck This Shit, Fuck That Shit podcast. Cause it's, it's coming, coming soon. Right to the,
01:14:33
Speaker
Fucking sewer near you. It's gonna be great man. I can't wait for 2024. I'm so excited. I have to say one more thing No, no Clark's Clark's top beers. Yeah, blew my mind. I can't believe it. I mean, I'm really blown away by
01:14:50
Speaker
Number two. Number two? I thought number two was definitely going to be the one. You know what blew my mind? That fucking Clark is still fucking alive. That fucking guy, I thought he would have got a hockey stick up his ass so long ago that he'd be fucking shitting pucks like, I don't know what's going on with that guy. But I did get a Christmas card for him, so Merry fucking Christmas, Clark. I love you, buddy.
01:15:19
Speaker
Thanks everybody for listening. We love you guys. Have a safe and happy 2024. Happy new year. We love you.
01:15:31
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. Brandi 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.
01:15:59
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.