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Episode 80 - Goose Island Innovation Invitation Recap
133 Plays3 years ago
This week Brandon and Tony recap their visit to the Goose Island Brewhouse where they were treated to trying a plethora of beers currently available and some special surprises of things to come.
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
Recap of Goose Island Trip
00:00:00
Speaker
This week, Brandon and I recap our special trip to Goose Island. This is episode 80 of The Malting Hour.
00:00:07
Speaker
What's the haps on the hops? Guy ease that's peace This the moat now 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 Gotten a gift of ab, 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 moat and I will hear people, people taking places People, people taking places People, people taking places
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome to the Molting Hour. I'm one of your hosts, Tony Golic, joined always with... Brandon Winningcher. How you doing, buddy? Good, how are you? Good, man. We're recording this on a Saturday night. We had a fun... You know what? I'm just gonna say this entire week has been pretty good for me in general. I just felt like it was a good week. We had... I mean, why we're doing this episode is that we had a really fun time at Goose Island. It was the first time
00:01:01
Speaker
that we had invited to a media event, so that's why we're doing this episode. But last night was pretty good. Friday night was nice. You know, it was raining.
Day Trip to Hubbard's Cave
00:01:11
Speaker
I went and grabbed a mixed four pack from Beer on the Wall, got some new beers. And then today in Chicago, it was 82 degrees, man. Ridiculous. Fantastic. A little taste of summer, you know, kind of nice for April. Yeah, I got to take my kid to it.
00:01:27
Speaker
It was funny because when I was looking at the temperature and we were buying tickets to take him to his first movie, I was like, it's going to be 80 degrees and we're going to say, we're going to the movie. We got it like it was a 1030 movie. We were out at noon and then we decided to take a little day trip over to Hubbard's cave.
00:01:49
Speaker
And go and have lunch there. And it was stellar. Service was awesome. Just the ease of ordering. And just the ambiance of the place. Just super chill. They got board games and everything. Very cool spot. Would love to go back there. I know we've talked about this before. Definitely a place that we need to have on an episode in the future.
00:02:14
Speaker
Just super good food, man. And I was so torn because I went in there thinking, I'm like, I'm getting brisket. I'm getting brisket. I'm getting brisket. Yeah, that's my thought any time I go to a barbecue spot, getting brisket. And then we walked in, and I was looking at the menu, and my wife's like, oh, I don't want chicken wings. I wanted the chicken sandwich. I was like, wait, they got chicken wings? So I looked at it. I was like, pickled brine wings? And I was like,
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah, I'll try it. And that sounds amazing. Like you could taste the smoke and you could taste the pickle. Like it was it was like that brine worked well. Very, very good combination. And then I got to have his buttered noodles. But when the server brought him out, he goes, man, the server brings out, he goes, who ordered the greasy noodles? And I'm like,
Nature Hike and Camping Reflections
00:02:59
Speaker
Some kids menu man, like who do you think it's eating a bowl of just buttered macaroni noodles like Yeah, let me get some of them greasy noodles man and then we took a walk in like Caldwell woods
00:03:15
Speaker
Oh, nice. Went over there, saw that the river was extremely engorged. In gorge, what a great. Like there was huge puddles like throughout the park, like the walking path was fine. Then we got to like the bridge to see the river and it was just it was moving rapidly and it was just like it was like literally like three or four times like the width that it normally is. Oh, wow. And of course, you know, we're.
00:03:42
Speaker
trying to hold an almost three-year-old back from looking at everything. Yeah. Becca's like, oh my god, he's going to go over the hedge. I'm like, I don't think so. But I'm being cautious. And I'm holding his hand every time. He'd be like, no, let go. And I'd go run. And I'd be like, no. Yeah, good times.
00:04:00
Speaker
You know what we need to do? Uncle Tony and Papa Brandon need to take your son on a nature hike like that one day as he gets a little older. Just walk around the woods like we did when we went camping, man. I mean, that was so much fun.
00:04:16
Speaker
Love that nature stuff. Or maybe we'll just all go camping together one day. Yeah, the three of us, the three dudes. He might need to... I mean, if I was such a wimp about sleeping in the tent the way I was, I mean, we might need to wait till he's a little older or just get a cabin. Well, when I was a kid, I didn't have a problem with it because sleeping on the ground didn't hurt my back.
00:04:46
Speaker
I don't know how my parents did it because they definitely didn't have like Not definitely, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have like a blow-up mattress like when Laura and I would go camping We got a lot mattress. She doesn't even do that anymore. Yeah. Well, I had a blow-up mattress and I
00:05:03
Speaker
Fuck, we never blew it up ahead of time and I tried to blow it up at two o'clock in the morning when you asked for my car keys. I was like, I got it halfway blown up. I had enough. I had it halfway blown up and I just folded it on top of itself and I just balanced myself the rest of the night. I had a good core workout. I know we're already doing the trip up to New Glarus, but we probably should do another camping episode this year. Oh, yeah.
00:05:30
Speaker
So here's what I would say, if we did do something that has cabins, let's just go the cabin route.
00:05:38
Speaker
Absolutely, I think we just get like This way Neither like we can just pass out whenever so and if someone's like hey, man, I'm going to bed You're just going to sleep in the bunk bed. Yeah, you get you can have dibs on top bunk if you want But then I can just you know sit out front with the bottle of buffalo trace and
00:05:59
Speaker
So, I don't know if you remember this, but when we were booking this trip, I had told you, hey, there's a cabin available. Did you want to get that? And you said, no, man, we're camping. We need the tent. I know.
Chicago Media Event at Goose Island
00:06:10
Speaker
I don't know why. I mean, I wanted to do it. And then I learned the hard way. I learned the hard way of I don't like sleeping on the ground.
00:06:18
Speaker
I thought the- Yeah, in my brain, I'm like, this is- Sleeping bag would've been enough. This'll be fun, but, you know. Yeah, no, no, totally. Noted. Yeah, it did not, whatever. This isn't the camping recap episode. Hey, man, so we're doing this episode because you and I got a chance to be a part of the Chicago media crew for a special invitation to Goose Island, something that you and I have
00:06:43
Speaker
wanted to throw in Clark and Dan in there as well. I know all of us have wanted to get in touch with Goose Island and talk to them about their beers. I mean, we featured Bourbon County and numerous. I mean, we're still in the middle of doing the media kit.
00:07:00
Speaker
Which by the way you and I need to talk about because Clark says he's ready to book the third episode He's busy he's busy being hockey dad he posted a picture of a beer I think Friday night And said hockey dad beer and I said dude you got to brew a beer
00:07:19
Speaker
The next beer that you brew should be called like hockey dad beer. Just a beer that is, you know, he's a hockey dad. He's a hockey dad. So he's got to be there for all the games. And if it's a hockey dad beer, it has to cost a lot of money. Yeah. And but be a little results. It's got to be a four and a half to five percent pilsner that cost him like two hundred dollars to brew. Yeah, exactly. Or a pale ale, something like that. But no, we get we get invited.
00:07:48
Speaker
And it was super cool because we got to experience what it's like to be basically a part of the Chicago craft beer media. You know, we've been doing this podcast now for almost, are we in year three now, right? Yeah. Well, we started in, yeah. Technically 2019. Yes. Officially started in 2019. Started doing test recording in 2018.
00:08:13
Speaker
Right. Oh, man. But I think that's the intro. The intro really fucked with my brain. The intro might be from 2018, I think, actually. Yes, the intro needs to be updated, which I said I was going to do. And eventually I will do that. But, you know, this is something we wanted to be a part of. And we got invited and it was super cool because we got to sit with a bunch of other Chicago craft beer media people, people that you guys
00:08:41
Speaker
would definitely know if you follow Chicago Craft Beer. And we get to sample through Goose Island's Beer Hug family, their IPA family, which is now a regular release. It's not a seasonal at all. That's a part of their lineup there.
00:08:58
Speaker
We also got to try three of the Shandy's. They started doing the Shandy last year, which is very good. They added two more to a mix pack this year. And then we were treated to three barrel aged beers.
00:09:12
Speaker
And then after that, we got a special little sneak peek of a collaboration with microphones. So before we get into all that, let's talk about how the night went, man. I mean, you and I, we had the idea to go there a little bit early because we like to be on time for things.
00:09:33
Speaker
We had two beers, which we've learned our lesson. You don't need to have two beers before a media event with Goose Island because they are going to provide plenty of beers for you to try out. Well, you know, so to kind of put it in perspective, when like we're not going there drinking full beers, it was samples the entire time. Right. Yeah, exactly.
00:10:02
Speaker
If we would have had one beer before, OK, maybe we had two. So we were like, and the only reason we had one or well, the first one was because they had Honkers Ale and which we both just were floored by. Yeah. And that was our first time being back at the brew pub in years and them having it on tap. You know, and from what I've heard, it's been kind of a rotating thing there kind of regularly. But now they're doing more of a Chicago wide release.
00:10:31
Speaker
which I think it was before, right? Wasn't it just like Chicago only? So yeah, it's a fucking phenomenal beer and they are pushing it out more and they are, I think they said 11 bars in Chicago are gonna be carrying Honkersdale for, I mean, I don't know about, I'm not gonna say like the foreseeable future, but they're definitely gonna be doing it for a while.
00:10:59
Speaker
And when we came in, we were met by a host and we told him that we were here for a beer event. We wanted to maybe sit down at the bar and have one. He goes, oh yeah, I have one or two. Then go to your event come back and have one or two more. And I was like, OK. Yeah, guy. He was awesome, man. He was super cool. I was like, OK, one or two before, that's fine. I was like, I don't know about after, and especially after what we were treated to. Yeah, I would never.
00:11:29
Speaker
No, and then the beer that we followed up, he did suggest after Honkers Ale was After Hours, which was their Bach, the single Bach, it says traditional, which if anyone's following me on social media, I have been on a dark lager Bach kick for
00:11:49
Speaker
A few weeks now, and I think this comes after I had said on an episode, look, I don't like loggers. And I really, I really am not a huge fan, but it's like the cosmos, the beer gods have looked down, arranged the cosmos to point me in the right direction of loggers that I would like because in the last three weeks I've had some boxed some loggers.
00:12:15
Speaker
that have just been really good. And after hours was no exception, man. It was really, really good. It was a great way to follow up honkers. Yeah, which is why last night I was looking for something to drink, and I found my older Vings Life's Blood.
00:12:34
Speaker
Like, oh, I've got that. Dude, I when I saw that you had that, I was so jealous because I drank that. I think the weekend. After we had done the episode, I think that that's when I started realizing, oh, when, you know, dark loggers or box come out, I might want to have them.
00:12:56
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and I've never expressed this, but I've always been a huge, like if it's a Bach, like I've, I've always been in the box, like Bach is like my, yeah.
00:13:09
Speaker
That's actually a that's an untapped badge. I'll be back. But we should. I do want to do that. I did tell Mike that that's the style I want to brew with him soon. Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, so like I've realized for a while that like box and like darker lagers or something that I injured because like even getting into the German styles of the darker lagers. I.
00:13:32
Speaker
As much as I enjoy like the clean ones, like that the darker stuff is just like it's got so much flavor. I feel like it's the multi sweetness that draws me in because it's the multi sweetness and then it's still clean and refreshing. Yeah. Yeah, because it and you don't get any hot bitterness, you don't get any like. There's no I mean, I've never had any like any weird astringency or like metallic taste like
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah, you don't get that. The weird stuff that you get in these higher ABV beers never shows up here. The one I had last night from Begyle was their Fodor or Fodder, I'm not sure how it's pronounced, Doppelbock. I'd like to get more of it because it's kind of a beer I want to keep in my fridge.
00:14:25
Speaker
Share with people is eight percent. There was like this almost like chocolatey Multi-sweetness to it and it's oak aged and it was eight percent and it was the one beer I had last night man. It was so good. It was so so good like I I'm there there are like Dovetail's Vienna style lager. I could probably drink all the time that doppelbock That's like almost like drinking a barrel aged beer for me. It's not it doesn't have the same
00:14:53
Speaker
I don't know. It's not like a real barrel aged beer, but like it was sweet and rich, but also. It's got that body. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. Like that would have been a fun beer for you and I to split in. Maybe I need to go back to beer on the wall this week and see if I can grab it. And that's kind of the thing with like anything that uses
00:15:12
Speaker
I think it's a fodder. But, you know, doing that, like giving that barrel characteristic, I mean, that's kind of what we enjoy. There's a little bit, you know, with the stouts, usually there's more some, there's some more thickness, but we've learned like, especially with the lake effect percolator collab, like
00:15:29
Speaker
Doesn't need to be that thick to be that high in ABV. By the way, I don't know if I don't know if it's my microphone or your microphone. Pretty sure it's my microphone. But since we've started recording, I don't know if it's going to come through the recording. There have been more like you can tell it's it's I think it's still like 78 degrees in Chicago right now. I've heard cars driving by very fast. And right now I hear sirens. I feel like this is a
00:15:58
Speaker
Like bad portrayal of New York in the 90s, which is weird because I'm not hearing it. It's it then it's it's my it's it's it's my recording. I hope people can hear it.
00:16:10
Speaker
Sorry, it's kind of a distraction for me, because now I hear sirens, I'm like, what the fuck is happening? I forgot what I was going to say. They're not close. Should I look up the Citizens app, see what's going on? No, see what's going on. But yeah, but sorry. Yeah, I didn't know you had that affinity for the dark loggers as well. Yeah, I mean, I mean, I like to like ones, but and again, and I go to the traditional styles.
00:16:35
Speaker
I will drink the light ones. I love the light ones. Like I loved Hofra House when it was nearby. And I mean, yeah, that's in German style loggers for me is another story. The house logger from Dovetail is in the whole thing with like the German style loggers like in Munich. And this is something like Beck and I both experience like, you know, I've drank. We've drank, you know, Hofra House beers here in the States.
00:17:04
Speaker
And I've gotten pretty messed up and felt pretty wasted, but out there we were drinking a lot and we were both like not super messed up, like felt good, but like not super messed up. Like not, and we didn't feel crappy the next morning. We both woke up like, you know, cause it's so super clean, man. Like, um, that's why one day we have to go to
00:17:29
Speaker
absolutely that is i want to say that that's our 2023 plan for the the malting hour and me and you just taking a trip and and and going over there let's say let's say we got to do it by 2024 for sure okay i'm down for sure we got to do it by 2024 i don't
00:17:49
Speaker
No, why 2024? But I feel like that's a good, we can realistically reach that. All right, let's talk about these beers we got to try at Goose
Current Drink Discussion
00:18:02
Speaker
Island, man. That was so much fun. Also real quick, Brandon, what are you drinking right now? Because we're not drinking the beers that we had that night. Although that was the original plan. I did buy the IPA one and I'm this close to buying, I think I'm gonna buy the Shandy mix pack tomorrow.
00:18:16
Speaker
I will give you at least one of each from all of those. But I am currently drinking the Brickstone 15. Age 18 months in their bourbon barrels. In the Latin barrels. And 13 percent ABV. Fantastic.
00:18:37
Speaker
Well I decided to go with, you and I were talking before we started recording. It actually might have been recording but we're not using it. This is more of an after the final pour for me because it's been a nice day. I did some work in the yard and cleaned my grill.
00:18:54
Speaker
grilled some food and I had a bunch of really fun beers and I decided to top off this evening with a 2021 Bourbon County brand stout. Just straight up OG stout and it's delicious and slowly but surely enjoying it while we're doing this. I figure it made sense to drink a goose island beer while we're talking about goose island.
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah, I was this close to cracking one of the Shamrock shakes that I had. I was like, no. You've got more than one Shamrock shake? I bought two. I told you. Yeah, that's right. We got to drink that one that you and I bought. Yeah, I mean, I was assuming we'd probably drink them both. Oh, shit. I mean, yeah, both, but not at the same time, right? Yeah.
00:19:44
Speaker
I kind of want to let one sit for a little bit. I kind of want one to sit a little bit longer. That's a good idea. Because it was about this time last year that we had one of the first times we got together. So yeah, soon we'll have that one. And then maybe in the summer we'll crack the other one. See how it's doing.
00:20:08
Speaker
I was going to say, let's drink one soon and then maybe save one for like around Christmas time. Okay. Yeah. Like a chocolate mint. That sounds fantastic. I can't imagine. Yeah. Well, let's see how the, we'll drink one soon and we'll see how that goes.
00:20:28
Speaker
It works out. Maybe we make it a Christmas beer to throw into the mix. Mint sounds good. Chocolate mint. All right. We got invited to Goose Island to talk about some beers.
Tasting the Beer Hug IPA Lineup
00:20:44
Speaker
We're going to run through some of these beers that we got to try.
00:20:46
Speaker
and Brandon you can I'm just gonna read a little bit of what they were when it was in the beginning we would they were actually when we sat down they gave us a pour of honkers ale which was nice because we just had honkers and the the box beforehand so we had another honkers during this but in the beginning
00:21:10
Speaker
They treated us to the beer hug family and the beer hug family is their IPA like their new IPA branding. And so the you may have seen beer hug neon beer hug and tropical beer hug for sure. Those have been the two.
00:21:27
Speaker
tropical beer hugs, the big one. That's like they, they, the 9.9% that I don't think we ever posted about it, but I did text you and Clark one day about like, this is creepily easy drinking for 9.9% and they sell them in the big cans too, like the 19.
00:21:45
Speaker
point to whatever ounce cans, might be a little, I actually don't know the measurement of how many ounces. It's the big cans, and they're like 2.6 bucks. 19.6, I believe. Yeah, you might be right. It's two for $6 at our local grocery store, Jewel, so that's kind of insane.
00:22:06
Speaker
But the four mix pack they just started releasing this year is Neon Beer Hug, which is, I think, 6.6%. And it's an IPA with nugget, citra, and mosaic. Tropical Beer Hug, we were just talking about, is the 9.9, the Imperial IPA that has Strata and Zaka hops. Then they did their Hazy Beer Hug that has Nelson, Solvongon, Amarillo Galaxy,
00:22:35
Speaker
That one to me was the first time I got to try it and for me That might have been maybe one of my favorites for the night I think maybe I don't remember when I put what we put on the post But that one was really good, especially me we discussed shelf stability for hazy IPAs and There have been other
00:23:01
Speaker
bigger craft beer companies who put out hazy ipas that it just doesn't doesn't taste like a hazy ipa we are very spoiled spoiled here in chicago with hazy ipas um it's it's just hard to
00:23:17
Speaker
It's hard to put that much effort and resources into a hazy or double dry hopped IPA for a mass market to make it worth like, you know, a 12 pack at 15 bucks. It's, you know, some of these four packs are $18 for these double dry hop, you know, hazy IPAs. There's just a lot that goes into it and shell stability for that. You can't putting that out there.
00:23:45
Speaker
That's a huge risk that you're probably not going to recoup the numbers on. And the last one was the mystery haze that had Saburo, Zappa, Citra, and Zaka hops. And the mystery one was really good. I think that's the one that smelled like pineapple when we sampled it, if I'm not mistaken. But that was the beer hug family. The beer hug family is, and I ended up picking up a mix pack of that the day afterward.
00:24:14
Speaker
We had talked about doing this episode, and we thought maybe we'd drink through some of these. But honestly, I'm just happy to have it. I put the mix pack in my garage beer fridge, because that's where I'm going to keep them. And when I'm doing something as the weather gets nice, that's where I'm going to dip in there and grab an IPA, which is what I did today. So those were a lot of fun, man. Those beers...
00:24:37
Speaker
were very tasty. It was awesome to be able to sit there and talk to the brewers about in the innovation team about process. Yeah. And how they chose these beers and why they chose these hops and just it was a lot of fun. That part was cool to be able to talk about the home brewing aspect. Yeah. And from both of us, we didn't know kind of what to expect going in.
00:25:07
Speaker
You know, we thought we could sit down and give us a couple of beers. Like I said, the Honkers Ale was a nice surprise.
00:25:17
Speaker
He had just like the vibe there was just so relaxed and super cool. And it was Todd, Mike and Quinn were the guys kind of lead in the discussion. The bonus for fanboys. I was going to say with special guest, John Hall. This is what. Yeah, sorry. I talked. I spoke over you. Who was there? John Hall. John Hall, the founder of Goose Island. Probably the.
00:25:46
Speaker
Say like the patriarch of like barrel aged beers, but probably absolutely. Nope. That's it. That you nail on the head right there, man. I mean, that's like for the most nerdiest beer thing that you and I could have experienced. Uh, that was it. That was it. You know, like goose Island has such a.
00:26:07
Speaker
It is an integral part of why craft beer is so big in Chicago. Especially, I mean, even for this, this podcast, I mean, we've had so many episodes. We started on Bourbon County, basically. On Bourbon County. I mean, like you and I have just, I mean, me, you and Clark, Dan, sorry, I'm not necessarily, but like the three of us have just had so much
00:26:33
Speaker
encounters, so many encounters with, with, with Goose Island and Bourbon County. Like this is a big deal for us. So it was awesome. It was really cool to finally get to see the man in flesh. Yeah. And I, and I, I told Tony, I had met him years prior at a three one two event, but just in passing, like, you know, I was in the, like the VIP area at the time and was kind of walking by and saw him and I was like, I need to take a picture with him.
00:27:03
Speaker
Somebody grabbed my phone, took a picture and we said our hellos and we were on our way. But it was just super cool to him. Like, you know, him talking about like the the Beer Hugs series about how it
00:27:17
Speaker
You know, how he wasn't supposed to be there. Also, by the way, he asked he he wandered into the brew pub, as they said, early in the morning and was just, you know, chatting up people as he does. And they had told him there was an event and he's like, well, I'd like I'd like to come. And they said, well, why would we say no to you? So he was there and it was awesome. And he he was talking about like the early days of goose. He's like, he's like, we didn't know anything. We were just brewing traditional German styles.
00:27:47
Speaker
And then he made the correlation of like how French food and Italian food all came from Italy. And then the chefs just kind of put their flair on it. What'd you say? You said how French food and Italian food came from Italy. And I said in France. Well, French food, you know, well, food comes from their countries and then the chefs
00:28:11
Speaker
And the chefs in America kind of put their spin on it. And he's like, yeah, that's kind of how they looked at beer, like to put their spin on it. And that's what they did. And, you know, I mean, that's how we ended up with Honkers. Like that was a good segue into the whole evening, you know, and it was it was really cool. So that that that first part for me and Brandon, like that, I hope I can speak on your behalf. Like that was just that itself would have been sufficient enough. Like that was so cool for us.
00:28:40
Speaker
to be there, to be able to talk, and there was a whole bunch of other people around us. Plus, they also did provide some pretty good food. So that was kind of a bonus. We got food at the beginning, and then I was just terrified of going back to get food because I didn't want to miss anything. John Hall was standing in front of us, and I was like, we're going to be here as good students and listening. We're here to learn. Yeah.
00:29:05
Speaker
so once we got like so during that we are right before the intermission i forgot who we were speaking to but like there was somebody else we started talking to was that john no john came over to talk to us about the chandy stuff
00:29:22
Speaker
Yeah, I know. Who else? Who were all the people that were there? Pat, Mike, and Quinn. Who was it? Who came to speak to us? I believe Mike. Was it Mike? I believe so. Possibly. Sorry. You know what, you guys? If we fucked up, who was who? We're bad with names. Yeah, and we started talking about different hop varieties and where other hops were coming from. And that was before we ended up talking, too. I forget which of the brewer was. And then we took a little break, and we came back.
00:29:51
Speaker
That's when we got into the Shandy's. As you guys know, Shandy is pretty much a wheat beer blended with lemonade. There's a ton of different Shandy's out there. There's some that are sweet, some that are bitter, some that are sour. Shandy's are really nice. I think it was Quinn. This is Mike.
00:30:12
Speaker
Yeah, it was with Quinn. Yeah. There we go. It was with Quinn. Yeah, it was Quinn. So we spoke to Quinn. We did talk to Mike, too, a little bit, but... No, we did. We talked to everybody. We did talk to everybody. Just terrible with names, and now we're doing this three days later after drinking some beer, so you got to bear with us. The Shandy line, so a wheat beer blended with lemonade. That's a Shandy.
00:30:38
Speaker
312 Shandy is 312 blended with natural flavorings, as we learned, which they did source out to, it's not just some shitty, whatever natural flavoring, cheapest thing that you can get. They did say that they sourced it, they tried very different ones. They looked for the best. Yeah, they dug into it. We're not sure who it is, but I will say that I'm pretty sure I posted it.
00:31:06
Speaker
on our Instagram last year when I tried the 312 Shandy for the first time and it was really good. I did like it. It's nice, it's refreshing. And then they added the strawberry and grapefruit to the mix pack. Now I do know for 312 day, they had a bunch of like crazy shit, man. They had like pomegranate and I think watermelon. A whole bunch of other, I'm sure it was like R&D shit that they just thrown out for 312 day.
00:31:36
Speaker
Strawberry, Shandy, and Grapefruit Shandy are the two that are now part of the Mix Pack that you can get right now. Brandon, what were your takes on the Strawberry and Grapefruit Shandy? I loved this. Well, actually just a regular 312, Shandy. Yeah, so they're all great. And it actually, and I said this there, I was like, this was a natural progression for me.
00:32:03
Speaker
going from the lemonade, the grapefruit, to the strawberry, because they got progressively better.
00:32:08
Speaker
And I felt like the strawberry was the best because there wasn't even a hint of beer for me. Like it was literally drinking like a strawberry Fanta or something like that, like strawberry soda. And it was just super good and super clean. The grapefruit was good too. What I did get with the grapefruit was I felt like there was a little bit of lemon in there. Like it kind of felt like it was a blend of like
00:32:36
Speaker
the lemon shandy and the grapefruit. I don't know. I think grapefruit's kind of hard to get. And I don't know if like flavoring companies kind of mask that. But I do feel like it was a natural progression for me. 3-1-2 was great. The 3-1-2 shandy, lemonade shandy was great.
00:32:55
Speaker
Grapefruit was really great, and then super great for the strawberry. And I'm not normally- That was a great, it's like you got lost in your own thought for a second there. That was great. And I'm not even like a super shandy guy, but like I- No, no, same here, man. I'm not a huge shandy guy either. But I can appreciate a good, like, because I love Radler. I love, I fucking love- No, no, Stiegel's fucking Radler. Is that what you're talking about? Oh yeah, dude.
00:33:22
Speaker
Yeah, that's where I got introduced to that. Fucking three percent grapefruit and beer. Like my wife loves that shit, too, man. I mean, I love you rather. It's it's so good. Well, I have to get in and having these Shandy's like I did like the Shandy last year.
00:33:37
Speaker
I'm with you. For me, actually, I would go Grapefruit in the beginning because I didn't really... I like Grapefruit IPAs. Grapefruit IPAs to me, like Ballast Point when they did their... Oh, fuck. What was their... Grapefruit Sculpin? Sculpin, yeah. Grapefruit Sculpin, which was fucking really good. And then they got fucking greedy and were charging $15 for a six pack.
00:34:02
Speaker
when they didn't need to. I was told by kings and convicts. Yeah, well, that was after at the sale, too, where it was before fucking kings and convicts because they... whatever. And my rant right there. I was not paying... I tried it once. I was like, this is fucking amazing. And it was $15 for a six pack. And I said, not that amazing. It's like $13. The Grapefruit Shandy, to me,
00:34:26
Speaker
was probably my least favorite. Not that it was bad, I just didn't like it as much as the regular Shandy. The strawberry Shandy, that's the one I was talking up to people the next day at work and my wife. It is, like you said, strawberry fondant. It's like strawberry soda in the best slash worst way possible because it is an alcoholic beverage. Agreed.
00:34:49
Speaker
If you like sweet and strawberry, not like overly sweet, but if you like sweet and tart and refreshing, I mean, I think we were, that's when John Hall was talking with us. I felt like he was talking to you more than he was talking to us, by the way, about the shandies and the flavorings and everything. Well, it's because of the question that I posed. Yeah, yeah, exactly. About the natural flavorings and stuff.
00:35:13
Speaker
And that's when we talked to him about how do we get, afterwards, how to get strawberry into a beer, which you and I had tried to do with the Frankenberry wheat beer with the Frankenberry cereal, and then we used frozen strawberries. Getting strawberry flavor in there with real strawberries is tough when it comes to the homebrew side. Natural flavoring, we've come such a long way, and that's what we were talking about with John, just with ingredients in general, we've come such a long way for homebrewers where you can get quality products
00:35:43
Speaker
and be able to make what you want to get in a home brew. Up to the level of like a commercial brewery. Absolutely. The strawberry one for me was my favorite. It was kind of surprising. That's my favorite too. I thought I was going to love, yeah, I thought I was going to love the grapefruit one the most because I like grapefruit in beverages. I don't like grapefruit itself. I won't eat grapefruit. What?
00:36:07
Speaker
grapefruit in beers and then alcoholic beverages. I love it. I think it's so good. I think it's so good. So yeah, the strawberry shandy was, oh man, so good. I wish, I am gonna grab that mixed pack tomorrow. Just because, I mean, that's the thing I told John. I was like, you know, between revolutions, you know, mixed freedom packs and with their lemonades, I think they're coming out with other lemonades this year from what I was kind of reading.
00:36:36
Speaker
Their sour pack might there might do a lemonade pack this year So I don't know what the freedom is gonna be but if that's included. I mean, it's just a refreshing summer in Chicago I mean these are these shandies and the sour beers are just what a nice way to enjoy a beer in hot weather when you're just Hanging out with friends and family agreed
00:36:58
Speaker
All right, hey, before we move on to the last five beers, let's take a quick break. Yep. Good. There's Simon in my background, baby. And I gotta go to the bathroom. Cool, me too.
00:38:53
Speaker
Oh hey man, what's up?
Exploring Barrel-aged Beers and Collaborations
00:38:55
Speaker
And we're back! We are back. Man, that was a long break.
00:39:06
Speaker
For us. For us, not for anybody else. It's a standard break. Actually, I was unprepared. I was texting somebody during the break. I was trying to bring up some of the pictures at least of what we were drinking following that.
00:39:27
Speaker
We went through the beer hugs family and then we did the shandies and then we got to move on to some barely aged fun stuff because when we were invited we were told that we were gonna do the beer hugs and the shandy and then maybe some other stuff so we were met with some fun surprises. The first one we got to try was the Tapache sunset.
00:39:53
Speaker
Excuse me, which is a tapache inspired ale. It's an ale aged in tequila barrels with pineapple juice, orange juice, and tamarind puree added. So a tapache
00:40:06
Speaker
From what we were told, and I did not look this up if we had, you know, one of these guys were supposed to look up information for us because we can't do it. They could have found this for us beforehand. I believe it's a fermented beverage that is with pineapple juice and orange juice and a tamarind. I think it's normally the right. So what it says is a fermented beverage made from the peel and the rind of pineapples and is sweetened either with
00:40:36
Speaker
piloncillo or brown sugar and seasoned with powdered cinnamon and served cold. Well, this was fucking delicious. Yeah. This might have been one of my favorite drinks of the night. Going off of, I mean, beer hugs being a nice mixed IPA pack to have whenever. But the Shandy beers are obviously, you know, springtime, warm, warm. Those are warm weather drinks, in my opinion, the Shandy's.
00:41:05
Speaker
This falls in that same category and though it says it is a tequila barrel aged beer
00:41:14
Speaker
I believe it's only like five percent, five and a half percent. It's not a high ABV beer, so it didn't spend a lot of time in those barrels. This was refreshing, man. This was like almost drinking like a pineapple orange juice, you know, like a pineapple orange juice blend. It was really, really good. The tequila barrels didn't
00:41:38
Speaker
really pop, which is fine. But there was that citrus, you know, there's a citrus flavor that you get from tequila, at least that's what I get. Many people don't like tequila. There's this citrus flavor that is from tequila. And I think that that worked really well. It was really tasty, man. It was it was very good. I really did enjoy that beer. How did you feel about it? That was one of my favorites of the night.
00:42:08
Speaker
And it was shocking because I wasn't expecting it. And I wasn't expecting to necessarily like when they said what it was. And I was like, this sounds weird. I don't know if I'm going to like it. But I had it and. That that's a good beer, and that is.
00:42:26
Speaker
We may have said it there like just kind of jokingly, but like this is a beer you can have Yeah, that was we got in the malting our Tagline right there is a beer that you can drink in a summer day and it really is I'm looking forward to that release I don't know when it's coming out. I think it's soon. I don't know if it's an answer or whatever
00:42:50
Speaker
Release they're gonna do with that. But when that comes out, I still haven't tried their cocktails I know Clark has tried some or at least one of their cocktails Something I definitely want to that that is also something that bottles and cans are not bottles and cans beer on the wall had was Actually, I think bottles and cans has as well. But as far as like building your own mixed pack Those mixed cocktails are available. That's something we do need to maybe get
00:43:19
Speaker
I mean, we really could just grab all three, one can each and just go through a split in between three of us, four of us, whoever, whoever's there to try it. But yeah, that was very good. I'm looking forward to having that this year and I think a lot of people will enjoy that. Don't sleep on that one, you guys. Get it if you can, if it's available to you. Super refreshing for a beer.
00:43:44
Speaker
Yeah, the next one was their small batch. I think it's just called small batch four, which is a part of their barrel aged beers that they released. They've been doing now since last year, if I'm not mistaken, they started doing small batch bourbon barrel aged beers. And this one was a
00:44:05
Speaker
two year aged bourbon barrel aged wheat wine. So they took a wheat wine and barely aged it for two years. Do you remember what, did they say what barrels they were in? I did not take notes of that. No, I don't know. They may have, but at this point we were feeling pretty good. We were a few beers in at this point. This one to me reminded me of having like
00:44:35
Speaker
toffee butterscotch candy Clark is not a fan of the bourbon barrel aged wheat wine. I didn't I don't think he liked the wheat wine I do think he would like this one because it was like Dude, that was like liquid candy, you know, it was it was very good Carbonation it was so good. You really got this rich barrel characteristics of like vanilla
00:44:59
Speaker
like it's a caramel like all the good stuff you want from the barrel came through yeah and it's just oh man nice body on it it was not too thick it wasn't too sweet i mean it's a sweet drink it is it is on the cusp of being almost too sweet but it just kind of cuts off it the amount that we had was perfect you have a bottle of this correct i do
00:45:23
Speaker
Yeah, that'll be a fun one to have again. And I say that because I'm assuming I will probably drink it with you. I don't think you're gonna just down that one to yourself. Although you could because it's so fucking good. I mean, I don't know if they have any more of these left. Fuck, I'm upset that I missed out on, not that I missed out, but I chose not to buy it. It was really good. It was really, really good. Agreed. That might've been my favorite beer of the night, to be honest.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, is going into the barrel like that was amazing. And I was shocked about how much I liked it. Not that how much I liked it, but just how much flavor came through, you know? It was so tasty. It was so, so tasty. Yeah. By the way, everybody, I finished my bourbon county and I worked my way on to drinking a cherry flavored bubbly carbonated water because I need to hydrate after all the delicious beers I've had on this Saturday night.
00:46:23
Speaker
It's okay. And then we moved- Sorry, just throwing it out there, man. Just throwing it out there. And then we moved on to the peaches and cream, right? Yeah, that was- Yes, which was a peach and vanilla adjunct
00:46:40
Speaker
wheat wine? I think so. I think it's kind of the same flavor profile. Yeah, but it wasn't aged for two years. It was a barely wheat wine that had peaches and cream. What did you think about that one? I liked it. I don't feel like I got
00:46:58
Speaker
peaches
00:47:13
Speaker
I do know that that bottle's still there. I would like to get it to have it again without having all the other beers that we had beforehand. Because maybe our pallets were wrecked at that point, man. I mean, we had hoppy, we had tart, and then we had rich decadent wheat wine.
00:47:33
Speaker
to follow that up with. Yeah. That's rough. But yeah, I mean, it was kind of cool the fact that what they brought out were, you know, the Topache Sunrise, which is basically not sessionable, but a beer-type, barrel-aged beer that was like juice, like that is juice forward. Pineapple and orange, it's...
00:48:02
Speaker
It's delicious, man. Yeah. And you can have one of a barely aged breakfast beer. That's it. You got that would be good in a mimosa. That's what I'm thinking. Like if you don't want a mimosa, that's the type of like you just drink that instead of a mimosa. That's kind of it. It's it's not as light and crisp as a mimosa, but you get real close to it for breakfast brunch beer right there. Yeah.
00:48:30
Speaker
I was going to say something and I totally forgot. Oh yeah. Like just that in itself was just so flavor forward. Um, and the carbonation was just right on it that like, yeah, that's kind of where I came up with, like, you could do that instead of a mimosa. Um, absolutely. Like that. When that comes out, we got to get it. And then we have a brunch and that's what we drink. I feel like they may have had it there. I don't.
00:49:01
Speaker
I don't know, but I feel like I saw somebody walking away with a six pack of that. I was like, what? Well, let's look into that and let's get some. Honestly, I mean, because that I mean, that's something I feel like it also sit in my fridge and I don't have to drink it right away, so to speak. I'm not going to age it, but that's something to like, you know.
00:49:22
Speaker
Hold on two and a half for a special occasion. So we got through those three barrel aged beers. Brandon, I know you're looking up to see if that's available, so I appreciate that. At that point, they had said, hey, we have one more surprise. And if people need to leave, we understand. We're going to take a quick five minute break.
00:49:45
Speaker
Uh, we were then treated to what Brandon and I of course stayed. I mean, it was our first time being invited to a Goose Island, Chicago media event. We're going to stick around if they said they have something else. Um, the next.
00:50:02
Speaker
beers beers we got to sample were a huge surprise because it was a collaboration that we didn't know was happening at least I didn't know what's happening Brandon did you know this collaboration was happening I did I did okay yeah cuz I did hear something about seeing someone at a brewery so I had no idea this is happening but we didn't know that this is what we're gonna be treated to it is the collaboration between Goose Island and microphone brewing microphone out there in Elk Grove
00:50:30
Speaker
this was it's called so if you don't know about microphone microphones beers are all music based whether it be songs artists albums every single beer that they released is music based and they do
00:50:45
Speaker
a lot of big beers, a lot of big beers, a lot of exciting beers. They definitely stray away from traditional styles, but they do nail the styles that they do. So I feel like the combination of having Goose Island and Microphone together kind of makes sense. So the collaboration that they did is called Double LP.
00:51:12
Speaker
Which right there that makes a lot of sense because microphone does all their music stuff. So double LP is the collaboration between microphone and Goose Island and what Goose Island did was Let me pull this up right now their beer is a Imperial stout aged in 10 year old buffalo trace bourbon barrels with maple syrup and natural flavors and
00:51:36
Speaker
added so the collaboration part is that they used do you know the maple place that microphone uses no but they said it was a chicago-based maple place yes we should have had that at the time damn it
00:51:50
Speaker
Oh well, that's not how we do the show. But they use the same maple syrup source that Microphone uses. And Microphone uses the maple, I believe, in Smells Like Bean Spirit Maple. That is the maple syrup that they use in that and maybe other beers. But that is the maple syrup source that Goose Island use for this imperial stout that was aged in 10-year-old buffalo-traced bourbon barrels.
00:52:16
Speaker
This beer was really, really good. And there are some maple bourbon barrel aged beers out there that I feel like are just too sweet.
00:52:24
Speaker
Uh, for me, me personally, um, and maple syrup is a tough thing to, to, to use in a big beer. Um, mainly because it's a sugar that can be fermented out, you know, so how do you get that maple syrup flavor in a beer? Yeah, exactly. Um, you stop fermentation or use a lot of things to get that maple syrup in there, which is why this says there are natural flavors added as well. So there is some form of maple syrup in there.
00:52:52
Speaker
I don't know if the maple sweetness comes from maple syrup or the natural flavors that Goose Island added in there, but this stout was really, really good. And I think Brandon and I were both super excited that Buffalo Trace was the barrel that they ages in because we are big fans of Buffalo Trace. Very, very good. Brandon, what did you think of this beer?
00:53:15
Speaker
It was great. I felt like the maple came through pretty straightforward But it added like it wasn't overly sweet it was it added that just hit a sweetness sweetness along with Sweetness along with the barrel care. Yeah, we're getting that time of the episode and that time everybody that the sweetness and the barrel character came through kind of like equally and it was just so good like it was
00:53:45
Speaker
The way they were presented was very good. I enjoyed it so much.
00:53:50
Speaker
Yeah, it was really good. And there are a bunch of little Easter eggs on there. Like the description is, like it looks like there's suds on the can. The goose island one is brown and white with the goose island logo on there. And on the back, it's like a smear in the foam of the state outline of Illinois. And it says, double LP. And this is side A and it is 13.4% alcohol.
00:54:17
Speaker
So the next can that we got to sample from, same deal. Also the Goose Island one, it looks like the suds of Illinois are like spraying towards the left with the liquid. And then on the microphone one,
00:54:32
Speaker
which is blue and white. It looks like the suds in the liquid are spraying towards the right. So they're going into each other. So the microphone, like the cans are brown and white and blue and white. The Guusan brown and white, the microphone blue and white. Did I say that right? Brown and white and blue, yes.
00:54:49
Speaker
So the microphone one, double LP is an English barley wine aged in 10 year old Buffalo trace bourbon barrels. And this is side B and it's 14.58% ABV. And what they got to do was use Goose Island's house yeast for this barley wine, which to me is, I don't know of any other collaboration between other breweries where one brewery gave another brewery their house yeast.
00:55:21
Speaker
I mean I'm sure it's happened and not talked about but I mean we were told about it. But I mean like most collaborations are like you're not trading the yeast it's just. You're brewing it at somebody's place. Right if brewery A and brewery B are brewing together at brewery B's place they're gonna use their house yeast. Yep. This was microphone brewed of barley wine and got to use the house yeast
00:55:46
Speaker
at maybe microphone from Goose Island. That's awesome. To me, that's a very unique way to collaborate. So basically Goose Island used a source of maple syrup that microphone used and microphone got to use Goose Island's house yeast for their English barley wine, which was aged again in tenure, old buffalo trace, bourbon barrels. So both beers are
00:56:11
Speaker
Age in Buffalo Trace barrels now what they told us in the beginning and I don't know if Brandon you and I caught it was that these beers are almost supposed to be blended together. Yep Correct. So while we were talking with the guys from Chicago beer pass and Mike Zoller from porch drinking and was it shit Quinn who we're talking to somebody
00:56:35
Speaker
actually all those guys were there at that point. So all of us were sitting there talking and then we realized, oh shit, we're supposed to blend this and we all poured it together. And if I'm not mistaken, I think we all
00:56:47
Speaker
agreed that that was the super, dude, a barley wine, a barely aged barley wine and a barely aged stout coming together in a single glass was really, really good. And this will be debuted at Beer Under the Glass for the VIP people who got tickets. I believe that that was the case.
00:57:11
Speaker
So I don't know when this will actually be released, but I will say that I am looking forward to buying these. Yeah, I'm on board with you. Both of those beers were fantastic. And I even said they're like, when I blended, I'm like, blending is the way to go. Like, that's absolutely you get a good drink. But separately, they were also like,
00:57:37
Speaker
Good beers to sip on. Yeah, it'd be nice to crack open the stout and drink through it or share it, and then crack open one of the bioines and drink through and share it. Or just crack open one can of each, pour half into one glass, half in the other, and blend it just like that and have it.
00:58:00
Speaker
You know as is I mean it's a lot that's a that's a big undertaking for one evening if you're gonna do all that do one or the other but Man that was that was that was a really fun surprise for the end of the evening. Yeah, and we were it was us a couple other folks in Chicago beer pass kind of hang back and Mike Zoller and
00:58:23
Speaker
But like the majority of the room was gone at that time and it was just nice to have that intimate setting and like talking to him, Todd, Mike, and Quinn. Uh, John had left by that time. We tried to get a picture with him. Yeah, we tried. Well, we didn't actually try it. We wanted to get a picture with him. Yeah. Then I saw him leaving and I was like, Oh no. Um, but we, we,
00:58:48
Speaker
We had a good time just talking about these, it was phenomenal. It kind of blew me away that they had, I was not expecting that. I knew that the bureau had been done and they were kind of coming to the end of it and I wasn't expecting it to be presented to us, but they did and holy shit, man.
00:59:10
Speaker
Super cool. And yeah, glad we got to try it. Like, yeah, totally, man. I mean, yeah, yeah, we got to try before the beer. There's things that happen on this podcast that we're proud of, but like we got an exclusive first look at two beers. Um, yeah, that was awesome. Yeah. It's really that the whole evening kind of,
00:59:38
Speaker
solidified for Brandon and I. We were big nerds walking out of Goose Island that night because we've done this, like I said, doing this podcast now for three years and this was an exciting experience for us. This is something that we've been striving for and working for, so this is it. We felt like we made it type deals.
01:00:05
Speaker
We made it baby and we're real. So yeah, it was really cool. And we're looking forward to hopefully more things and bringing Dan and Clark along if they let us, which I think they know. I think they went back and listened to episodes and heard what kind of person Clark is. And they were like, absolutely not.
01:00:28
Speaker
And maybe they liked Dan, but they just didn't want to tag him on there. You know what I mean? So the invite literally said Tony and Brandon. Sorry, guys. We love you. No, I think I do feel like that was, you know, it was a lot of fun and we're looking forward to doing more of these things, you know, with Goose Island, hopefully. We'll see.
01:00:56
Speaker
Who knows? Who knows what's going to happen? We love doing our little show regardless because we get to drink beer with our friends and hang out and drink beer.
01:01:09
Speaker
How many times can I say drink beer? Um, yeah, no, it was, it was a lot of fun. It was super cool. And, uh, you know, you guys, uh, might hear some more about some of these other beers in the future. Cause I have the tropical beer hug mix pack. I want to grab the Shandy mix pack. Brandon's got that two year. I will say that, that, that, that, that two year wheat wine will probably.
01:01:34
Speaker
make its way somewhere on here. It will. Whether it's a recording, or you just see a picture of it. But I think I need to grab that peaches and cream. I gotta grab that peaches and cream. I think we need to try it. Yeah, if they haven't, we should. Just to do it. Absolutely. Well, man, that was a fun experience. I'm done with my bourbon county, and I have moved on to carbonated water. And I think my Saturday night is going to come to an end here.
01:02:02
Speaker
No, it's like more jovial. What's the opposite of that? I mean, the time of the hour it is, it's probably appropriate. Sounds good. Hey, man. I love you, buddy. Love you too, bud. Thanks, guys, for listening and thank you, Goose Island, for having us out for this. Invite us back, please.
01:02:27
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. Brandy 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.
01:02:55
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.