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LGP 60 - Viso Horny 555
32 Plays1 month ago
This week, we are trying out the Viso Horny 555!
Blended by Tyler Jeffery and released earlier this year, this cigar uses an all viso(middle priming) blend from the Nica Sueno factory in Esteli, Nicaragua.
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Transcript
Episode Introduction and Studio Changes
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey everybody! Welcome back to Let's Get Pairing. This is episode number 60, which, ah you know, going wrong along with the theme of 60 and 6, we are smoking the V-So-Horny...
00:00:13
Speaker
five, five, five. It would have been better if it was the six, six, six or the six, 60 or something with the six in it. Um, but I didn't, I didn't think enough ahead. This might've been a good one for episode 55, but either way, this is the V so horny triple nickel.
00:00:28
Speaker
And we're going to tell you all about it for now. Grab yourself a cigar, grab yourself a drink. Let's get pairing.
00:00:51
Speaker
And welcome back, everybody. This is Let's Get Pairing, episode 60. We've been doing this for 60 whole episodes now. And this cigar, it feels like a tiny cigar, but maybe that's only because two weeks ago we smoked a 13-inch ridiculous cigar.
00:01:08
Speaker
And this is more normal-sized. So we're going smoking this thing. I'm going to light it up here as we get talking. um But first, I'm your host, Tripp. Here in... The Let's Get Pairing South studio.
00:01:22
Speaker
um No longer the Castamonte Cristo studio for the moment. we're we're We're looking into other options, you know? So I thought I'd bring back the cool old background, added some new posters up there. Let me know if you've ever seen this or this poster.
00:01:38
Speaker
um I've never seen them out in the wild. I got them like 15-ish years ago almost. No, it must have been 10 years ago. Couldn't have been 15, right? I don't know. I got them a long time ago and I've been waiting to put them somewhere. So I put them up.
00:01:52
Speaker
Um, and then of course my, my wonderful black label, uh, posters as well. Shout out to everybody on the wall here. If you're not already there, you'll probably be there someday. Uh, and of course, joining me as always is Dennis from, uh, LGP studio, Norte Dennis.
00:02:10
Speaker
How you doing, brother? How's your week, man? You may notice my background, which is particularly dark. Maybe a little dank in some ways, but mostly dark.
00:02:21
Speaker
I could not possibly get these walls any darker than they are. Believe me, i have tried. that there um i have to ask, is is that, in fact, Vantablack that you're using?
00:02:33
Speaker
It was expensive. I tried, you know, I actually tried to see what like the, the purest, darkest color of black that I could get. The wall behind me has got probably four coats of just solid, whatever color, I forget whatever it was called, but, um,
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, i've been I've been slowly inching across this room over the last couple of two years, two and a half years, just painting as much black in there as I can with a spooky green trim.
00:03:02
Speaker
Nice. Like a dark forest green, like ah ah a black green, almost. So we'll get there, trying to spookify the room, and eventually I'll get my green screen back up and all that good stuff.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah, there you go. Get some artwork up there. I'm all about the spookification.
Tyler D. Jeffrey's Cigar Journey
00:03:21
Speaker
all right. So today our cigar, as I mentioned before, is the V. So horny triple nickel.
00:03:27
Speaker
Let me let me tell you a little bit about V. So horny. So Tyler D. Jeffrey, he started his journey in the cigar industry, working at a cigar shop in Wisconsin, actually two different cigar shops in Wisconsin um as just kind of a side gig.
00:03:42
Speaker
um His first trade show was in twenty seventeen. which was the first time I met him. I saw on bear show. Um, he was the first person who ever walked up to bear and said, ah I love your show. It's great to meet you. He was also the first person that ever walked up to me and did that.
00:03:59
Speaker
Um, so in 2017 at both of our first trade shows, my first trade show and his first trade show, um, we met at the Roma craft party and he was like, dude, I love your show.
00:04:10
Speaker
such a big fan. And it was like, wow. Uh, uh, At this time, I've now met some people who know who I am. um Not many people who are like, wow, I'm a fan of the show.
00:04:21
Speaker
So that was that was wild to experience for the first time. um So shout out to Tyler. i've been following him ever since. Shortly after that, I learned that his Instagram handle was V-So-Horny, which I thought was hilarious.
00:04:35
Speaker
Just a great name. Obviously, it's Misa-Horny from either the Two Live Crew song or... What's that? What's that movie? Full Metal Jacket.
00:04:48
Speaker
um And it's it's just a great play on words. So Tyler shortly thereafter, within the next couple of years, started visiting Nicaragua.
00:04:59
Speaker
um I heard him talk about on Bear's show a couple of weeks ago how somebody told him, like, if you think you know a lot about cigars, you need to go to Nicaragua because you don't know anything. which we had both experienced at that point.
00:05:14
Speaker
And I can tell you it's pretty much true. like until you've actually seen it happen, there are so many little things that you don't even think about or that you don't understand. And it really is eye-opening to actually be in-country at a cigar factory, ah learning on the ground.
00:05:31
Speaker
So Tyler started learning that way. He was Tyler is I see a lot of myself in Tyler, like just a an appetite to learn. He has more ah driving money than I do to learn.
00:05:43
Speaker
um But I think about it the same way that, you know, I'd love to just learn about tobacco, like from people who are experts, learn about how how to do tobacco.
00:05:54
Speaker
uh, production differently, how to do curing differently. Every step of the process has all these little intricacies and I want to know all about it Um, but that's what Tyler did is he started going to Nicaragua about once a year and learn about, uh, everything he could about the manufacturing side of the business. he made a lot of friends, visited a lot of cigar factories, um, and really became, ah kind of a student of tobacco Uh, particularly he got to know Skip Martin at Nica Sueno very well.
00:06:25
Speaker
Um, a few years later he moved to Austin, um, for, you know, just kind of, well, I don't know why I'm not going to speak for him.
00:06:36
Speaker
Uh, but he, he ended up moving to Austin, which is where Roma craft is headquartered, um, and started spending time at the headquarters and kind of doing some, some work for them as well. um And that's kind of where the idea for a Veso horny cigar was born. He wanted a all Veso all the time cigar um and just thought it was it went along with his name. it was a cool concept.
00:07:01
Speaker
And he, he started kind of toying around with that i that idea. Over the next few years, he worked closely with Skip Martin to learn as much as he good about cigar manufacturing, eventually working with I'm just going to call him Alex.
00:07:15
Speaker
I'm not going to try to pronounce his last name because I will butcher it. um But he is a a tobacco consultant in Nicaragua. And Alex helped him come up with the blend for this cigar.
00:07:27
Speaker
um They, of course, had it made Nicasueño. In 2023, they did their first release for the Uncle Luke. which was only 2,500 cigars, very limited.
00:07:39
Speaker
It was only sold through Tyler's Instagram page, which I think was kind of a nod back to the early days of Roma Craft, where they did the same thing. um And this year at the trade show, he released the second Vitola in the blend, the Triple Nickel 555, using the same blend as the Uncle Luke, I suspect...
00:08:02
Speaker
There may be a wrapper change, but we'll talk about that in a couple minutes. If there is, it makes sense. um Using the same blend as the Uncle Luke, this version is being distributed by Pops each, which is known for Pastaña cigars, the guys from Cigar Hustler.
00:08:17
Speaker
um And they doubled the production to 5,000 cigars for this release. And my understanding is that there will be, um he's hoping to do more releases of this Vitola. So now that we've gotten that out of the way, Dennis, you want to introduce us to your thoughts on the cigar now that you've started to get into it a little bit?
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, man. I've had to take a sip of one of my pairings just re-wet the palate off the light, this really intense dryness, that cedar plus dryness, plus this really strong ah minerality on the back end.
00:08:52
Speaker
Minerality kind of like a You know, we joke about it. Certainly, I know it's one of your favorite things to talk about, too, is that like licking a rock. It's that limestone. It's kind of dry, but it's not dry. It's that it's hard to put your finger on. When you talk about minerality, especially in a cigar, it's hard to really describe it, but it's got a lot of that.
00:09:13
Speaker
Yeah. And, ah I mean, off the first light, I can tell you, as spicy as it is, excuse me, I know that it's going to... As the cigar starts to warm up a little bit, the flavors are definitely going to develop and get a lot rounder and fuller.
00:09:29
Speaker
So I'm looking forward to that. I would expect so. So I talked about all Viso. So let's talk about the tobaccos in this a little bit.
Cigar Composition and Flavor Profile
00:09:38
Speaker
um Viso, for anybody who is unfamiliar, is ah when you when you when you grow tobacco, it grows about five or six feet tall, sometimes as low as like three feet, depending on the varietal of tobacco.
00:09:52
Speaker
When you process the tobacco or rather when you harvest the tobacco, I mean, um you start from the bottom leaves and they're called priming. So you're you're pulling off those bottom those bottom layers of leaves the first foot or so worth, foot and a half, maybe depending on the size of the plant.
00:10:09
Speaker
um Then you're taking out those middle sections a few, well, it depends on the tobacco. Sometimes it's a few days. Sometimes it's a week. Sometimes it's hours. um But you're you're starting by taking off those lower leaves. That way the rest of the plant is getting more nutrients.
00:10:24
Speaker
Then you take off the middle leaves. And then the top leaves end up having the most nutrients. So those top leaves end up being the strongest, the most flavorful, the thickest, Um, the Lajero part of it. That's the Lajero.
00:10:38
Speaker
Um, then in the middle section is Viso, uh, which is the, you know, um, Viso they say is responsible for, if you're going by, ah Jose Blanco's rules, uh, Seiko or sorry, Viso, ah, man, Lajero is where the strength, the body comes from.
00:11:00
Speaker
Viso is where the aroma and the flavor come from. um And then the Seiko is where the combusting combustion comes from. Because, you know, famously, Lajero barely burns.
00:11:13
Speaker
um There are all Lajero cigars out there, but it's... kind of a feat to actually get them to work in production. A mixture of of the moisture content and the and the oil content yeah of the of the plant.
00:11:27
Speaker
And then, so those Seiko leaves at the bottom, Viso is that that middle stuff. um Typically, a cigar is made up of all three. um You get a little bit of Lajero for that that strength, that body, that flavor.
00:11:43
Speaker
You get a little bit of that Viso for the... Man, I'm messing myself up. i need to like I need to perform Jose Blanco's seminars a couple times so I can get all that through my head.
00:11:59
Speaker
we and We have to go back to Nicaragua is what you're saying. yeah That might be it. I might have to go back to Nicaragua soon. um but those, those Visos are where your, uh, your flavors and your aromas come from. And then the Seiko is there to make sure it burns. Well, um, this one is all Viso.
00:12:18
Speaker
Everything is from those middle primings. Um, that was kind of the, the goal with this cigar. Um, there are plenty of cigars out there that are all low priming. There's plenty of cigars i got out there that have a lot, sometimes all high priming.
00:12:32
Speaker
Um, I don't know if there's any others that have all ah center primings, all VSO. um All right. So the blend on this one, the original release was Connecticut Broadleaf.
00:12:44
Speaker
This one his bill is billed as USA Broadleaf.
00:12:49
Speaker
Do you know what I think, what you think I think that means, Dennis?
00:12:54
Speaker
Well, initially I thought Pennsylvania. That's where my brain goes. Mine too. And but at the same time, the way that tobacco production in the U.S. has changed in the last even in the last 10 years.
00:13:10
Speaker
These days, talk about USA Broadleaf. I mean, oh fuck if I know you can have Broadleaf from a number of other places as well. I know that are semi developing. They're trying to grow them now and have been for a couple of years.
00:13:23
Speaker
Yeah, successfully. My guess is Pennsylvania. um So we've seen this move a lot in the past year or two. um Connecticut Broadleaf is much harder to find, much more expensive than it used to be.
00:13:35
Speaker
So a lot of companies are switching to Pennsylvania Broadleaf, Nicaraguan Broadleaf, Honduran Broadleaf. Yeah. any other broadleaf they can get their hands on and just calling it broadleaf.
00:13:47
Speaker
um When you, for me, when I see USA broadleaf, I just kind of automatically assume that means Pennsylvania rather than Connecticut broadleaf. Cause otherwise you're probably going to call it Connecticut broadly. Now that being said, there's a possibility this Connecticut probably.
00:14:01
Speaker
But to me, it it looks smokes and feels like Pennsylvania broadleaf. It's got that, that very oily, very minerally taste. um very kind of, you can see how it's kind of modeled there.
00:14:16
Speaker
A lot of times Pennsylvania broadleaf is like almost black though. um All right. So wrapper USA broadleaf binder is Cameroon and the fillers are from Honduras and Nicaragua, including a specific visa from Somoto, Nicaragua, which is a rarely used region of Nicaragua that Tyler apparently wanted to get his hands on and actually played a he says he played ah hands-on role in procuring it.
00:14:47
Speaker
Um, so he actually like specifically fell in love with this tobacco and chose it and wanted it to be in a cigar. Um, according to the press release, that's why the first release was so limited. Um, and likely why this release is pretty limited too, though, not as limited.
00:15:01
Speaker
um and isn't that, that particular region very specifically focused on, um, coffee production?
00:15:10
Speaker
I believe so. I wonder if it is. And again, i'm not that if you have, if you're growing coffee and you tear that down, use that to feed your your soil for tobacco, there's some fun stuff that can happen.
00:15:24
Speaker
Very true. Um, as I mentioned before, the size on this is five and a half by 50 or five by 55. And it is a but nice, fairly sharp box press. I wouldn't call it a soft box box press, but I wouldn't call it a firm box press either.
00:15:41
Speaker
um Price on this is $15 each. um They come in bundles of $10. They are still out there if you want to get your hands on some, which which I recommend. i do I should mention that this was in my list of top five most anticipated cigars.
00:15:58
Speaker
ah going into the trade show this year. And personally, I know some people don't love this cigar, but um'm I've been a big fan since the first time I tried it.
00:16:10
Speaker
any other Any other thoughts on the flavors for now, Dennis? Yeah, I'm going through the the spice on my lips from from just even putting the the cigar to my mouth.
00:16:22
Speaker
is a very familiar experience from a lot of the cigars that I love to smoke. So i'm I'm kind of very hopeful that as it progresses, I'm enjoy it more and more. Yeah, I think the story of this cigar is kind of part of the interesting thing about it is it is all Viso, which...
00:16:40
Speaker
Technically speaking means it should be kind of a very medium bodied cigar, very, very medium profile, very medium strength right in the middle. Right. um But I think because of the varietals of tobacco they're using, we're getting some stronger V. So then most cigars use because there's a lot of flavor in this thing.
00:17:00
Speaker
um I mean, kind of like you mentioned, it's got that. ah That mineral minerality quality. um that reminds me a lot of Pennsylvania Broadleaf, as I talked about before. It's got a little bit of that kind of... I'm trying to find a word for it.
00:17:21
Speaker
It's not quite umami, but almost like a soy sauce-style saltiness to it. um That's a good way to put it actually. I think... Yeah, man, i would agree with you on that.
00:17:34
Speaker
A lot of earth... like you said, a fair amount of spice for something that's all V. So that doesn't have any Lajero in it. um Yeah, I'm enjoying it so far and it's a, it's time to find out how pairs.
00:17:48
Speaker
So I went for a little journey this week that ah I went for some of the same journey last year, last week, not last year.
00:17:59
Speaker
um And I took a trip to South Korea.
Exploration of Global Craft Beers
00:18:04
Speaker
I have all South Korean beers for you this week. Two of two of which I didn't know, but happen to be from the same ah brewery.
00:18:14
Speaker
They're not advertised that they are. The first one is, let me pull up, from Squeeze Brewery. It's called Pike Lager. That's a cool can, man. Isn't it? And it does say WHD. I've seen this called Pike Lager WHD.
00:18:30
Speaker
I cannot for the life of me find any reference to WHD anywhere that it actually means anything other than maybe they just toss some English characters on there. I'm not sure. It does say, it does appear to say soul, S-E-O-L here, but those could be other letters even.
00:18:48
Speaker
So Pike Lager is brewed by Squeeze Brewery, which is located in Chuncheon, In northern South Korea. So this isn't North Korea, but it is only 30 miles from the North Korean border. Wow.
00:19:02
Speaker
Way up there. Okay. um They first opened in 2018 as a brew pub and beer store. And ah basically, they have like this cool video on their website that's like one of the guys just talking about how the brewery happened.
00:19:16
Speaker
And he basically said that 2018, they started as a brew pub. A little while later, they kind of realized that a lot of people were starting to prefer bringing beer home rather than drinking it at the pub.
00:19:30
Speaker
Uh, so they wanted to do canning and they started looking into doing canning and ended up buying a, a brewery in the area that was nearby. um because they already, they had canning set up and then they could brew their own beer and can it.
00:19:46
Speaker
Um, later they ended up buying another brewery, which is in Chang, uh, I didn't look up where that is, so I'm not sure exactly where. But that is now the third largest craft brewery in South Korea. um They have a crazy variety of beers. As I mentioned, they bought this being a beer store kind of at a tap house.
00:20:08
Speaker
And so they have, I think I counted six or seven brands that they have that are... they're of advertised as different breweries, even though they're actually all coming from the same place.
00:20:19
Speaker
So there are some, I don't, I didn't see anything that's specifically says squeeze brewing on it or squeeze brewery, but they do have a couple of brands that squeeze brewery is the, the canner and creator of um one of which is Pike lager.
00:20:37
Speaker
So they have three different Pike lager variants available. The Amber, the dark and the, I think they call it a light lager. um I saw that one at the store and I kind of wish that I had grabbed it because now I'm curious about it.
00:20:52
Speaker
um But they also have like IPA, sours, fruited ales, some real funky stuff that I wish I could get my hands on. But this is their their Pike Lager Amber.
00:21:05
Speaker
Five and a half percent ABV. It looks... Like an amber lager, little bit unfiltered, which is not the norm for amber loggers.
00:21:16
Speaker
But I'm curious to get into this and try it out a little bit. And while I do, tell us about your first pairing tonight. That's not necessarily a bad sign, right? it's not It's not as filtered as it could be potentially.
00:21:29
Speaker
um As I pour, this is a nitro can, so I'm waiting to pour until it's... my chance to talk about it but let me oh shit whoopsie i got uh i got beer on my uh keyboard so i'm so excited to tell you all about it that i poured it all over my keyboard which is the i don't know if it's the angel's share but it's the demon's share in this case um so quick thing about ah
00:22:01
Speaker
the progression of the craft beer scene that I've noticed in the last six or seven years in places like Japan, China, Korea, absolutely. um Who else is pumping stuff out?
00:22:15
Speaker
Thailand is pumping stuff out too. And they're like really looking deeply into exploring craft beer, which is really exciting and really awesome that people actually care enough about it. But they've been drinking kind of the same local Pilsners or Lagers, whatever, whatever they have available. They've been drinking the same beers, the national beer of that place. Then it's really, you have one or two different varieties of that that's it.
00:22:37
Speaker
um And they've been doing... different things. And I think the new demographic of, of beer drinker, don't want to younger crowd, but i think just a different demographic of beer drinker now is expanding their, their horizons. They're trying new things.
00:22:51
Speaker
I mean, it's very exciting. and Like you were saying five or eight years ago is when beer kind of reached the tipping point where I think there's more people trying new things than there are just drinking what they've been drinking and what their dad drank and what the grandpa drank.
00:23:05
Speaker
Um, And it's it yeah it has been really interesting to watch that proliferate throughout the world where it really, um like, kind of, I think, undoubtedly started in the U.S. where people started making these crazy beers that were amalgamations of styles from all over the world, but they were turning them into something the complete opposite of traditional, where, you know, German beer is crazy traditional. Everything there is traditional.
00:23:33
Speaker
um Whether it's Goza... Can't fight Reinheitsgebob, man....or a Sour or ah anything else. A Goza. Oh, Goza. I love Goza, man. But, you know, all those styles are the same way they made them hundreds of years ago.
00:23:48
Speaker
And then in the last 20 years, American breweries have started taking a Sour and go... well, how sour can we make it? Or, you know, what can I add to this so that it's just barely able to be considered beer anymore? Yeah, and they're pushing those limits.
00:24:06
Speaker
um And it's really cool to kind of see other countries adopting that style, realizing why those styles of beers are popular and successful and embracing that.
00:24:17
Speaker
um And that's kind of what these breweries in South Korea and Japan are doing um is just trying to emulate that super creative style that American be beer brewing kind of pioneered.
00:24:29
Speaker
Sorry to go go on a tangent there. No, it's all good. I've been, would just get ready and take a sip of my fresh pour here.
00:24:40
Speaker
Lovely foam. as Yeah, look at that. Coats the mustache. Now, this is a beer trip. I don't know if you've had this beer before. you Well, you probably have. I see that can, and I've definitely had it. You're ah you're a beer fiend, as I am.
00:24:53
Speaker
There we go. Let me get in front the camera. Boddington's Pub Ale. Nitrogenated can with a widget, which is really cool. You don't see a whole lot of those. And if you do, they almost always are from Guinness. This is not from Guinness.
00:25:08
Speaker
even though the packaging is kind of cool and fun. No, this is a beer from Manchester, and this brewery was founded in 1778, which is kind of crazy. the love The amount of history in this thing, and it's also crazy, as I tell you a little bit more about kind of what happened to them and why it is that we get them while we have this beer in the U.S. About 10 years ago, when I spent a week in Manchester, had a lot of this.
00:25:35
Speaker
Oh, yeah. yeah And it's funny because this beer is more popular here in the U.S. than it is in Manchester. That makes sense. Or even other other parts of England. ah So, founded, originally this was established by Thomas Kaster and Thomas Fry.
00:25:51
Speaker
ah Back then, back in the olden days, 1778. And then they were acquired by the Witbreed. The Wit... I can't even say this. It's so hard to... ah Hold on.
00:26:02
Speaker
Salivating. Witbreed. by Whitbreed in 1989. So that's kind of like a bigger umbrella company, if you will. They were acquired back then.
00:26:14
Speaker
Eventually, this particular brand was sold to AB InBev in 2000. So this was one of the early acquisitions before AB InBev was really known for kind of running around and acquiring different breweries and certainly large names, large brands.
00:26:29
Speaker
um This was one of their early acquisitions of of like a massive... capacity, which is kind of cool. Now, the original brewery in Manchester, which was Strange Ways Brewery, they're closed.
00:26:41
Speaker
They've been closed for quite a while. It's now produced in a different facility, managed by AB and Bev. um Of course, they try to keep it as much as they can within yeah within their own facility. ah So...
00:26:55
Speaker
you look at it, it's got this lovely cream head on top. It's just a pretty easy drinking beer. That's a real nice looking English pour. Yeah, man. it's ah It's such a lovely style.
00:27:08
Speaker
So, a bit gassy, but um it's meant to be very light. it's It's like a classic English pale ale or an English bitter. So, generally speaking, I keep having to burp. It's killing me.
00:27:23
Speaker
Ugh. Okay, I'm good. What we call a pale ale and what the English call pale ale, they're very, very different. I have to make sure that everyone understands that. It is not the pale ale from Northern California that is just all danky dank all day.
00:27:41
Speaker
It's not like that. These are generally considered, and and again, the kind of the moniker that they had in ah in in Manchester was the Cream of Manchester.
00:27:52
Speaker
And that was like part of their marketing campaign back then because it was just easy drinking. It was super creamy. That brewery, as I mentioned, was demolished in 2006. Wow. wow So I guess InBev used it for a little bit. They demolished it.
00:28:07
Speaker
And this beer still lives on, but now it lives on in a bigger part in the U.S. It comes in at a very light. I don't want to give you the wrong number. Let me double check to confirm. I think it's 4.6. Uh...
00:28:26
Speaker
I hate when they do this. They don't put it in there.
00:28:32
Speaker
It has to be a 4.6. I say it has to be between 4 and 4.6 because there are slightly different styles when we talk about when we talk about like what's an English pale ale, what's an English bitter.
00:28:46
Speaker
Generally, they go from 3.5 to 5.5. But youre you have something that's known as an ordinary bidder, which is ah very light. That's like 3, 4, 3, 5. Easy to drink kind of beer. Special bidders are a little bit higher. They're going to be up to that 4, 5-ish mark.
00:29:03
Speaker
And then the ESBs, or the extra special bidders, are going to be 5 and maybe a little bit higher than 5. I noticed some breweries are doing like 5 and change, 5 and a half. It's kind of popular.
00:29:15
Speaker
So the idea is now on this can, it says pub ale. And this is really kind of a marketing thing for mostly for the U.S. That makes sense. evoke this feeling of like a beer that you would drink at a pub where you go in and you say, I want a beer. and You don't say what kind of beer. You say, I want a beer. Give me a beer.
00:29:31
Speaker
This is the beer they pour you, right? Every pub outside of the U.S. generally has those kinds of beers. You want a light beer or a dark beer? That's how a lot of pubs are. You get a light or dark. and And even when I was living in Prague, you would you would see a bar, a bar sign, and you would know it was a bar based on the the brand of beer.
00:29:50
Speaker
There would be a giant sign advertising the particular brand of beer that that bar sort of sells a lot of. like the main beer at that bar. So outside you'd see ah a sign, let's say like Pilsner or Quell or Gambrinus or something else, at least in the Czech Republic.
00:30:05
Speaker
um And you knew when you walked in, you ordered a beer, that's what you would get. And once in a while they'd have other beers. That's cool. ah But you always kind of had i had an idea of like, if you want to go to this place, this place specifically carries this.
00:30:18
Speaker
And those accounts are very specifically managed. So... you are getting every single time, whatever that beer is, if you get the beer that's advertised, it's always going be fresh.
00:30:28
Speaker
Yeah. Which is kind of cool. So that's the pub culture in the UK and certainly in the rest of Europe, most of Europe, I should say. And yeah, so they called it a pub Pub ale, it's meant to be sessionable. It's meant to be one of those things where you sit down with friends and you might have a meal. You might just hang around, drink. And it's that casual social beer. It's not meant to be wild and crazy or super hoppy.
00:30:52
Speaker
Just mild, kind of smooth. It's got some some flavor to it. and And that's about it. Now, classically, these beers would be poured on cask. Mm-hmm. So what you would get is not an ice-cold beer like, you know, we have in the U.S. and get me Coors Light or whatever, Coors Banquet.
00:31:09
Speaker
Ice-cold like the Rockies, it's not like that. These pub ales were in a cask, basically a big old barrel. Now, these days, the casks are steel and, you know, they're reusable and all these things. It's nice.
00:31:22
Speaker
but Most of the time they are. Most of the time. Sometimes you can, ah in certain pubs around the world, you can still find a true cascale that is aged in wood, or not aged, but held in wood.
00:31:36
Speaker
Held in wood, and the beauty of it is those are hand-pumped, man. Ain't a whole lot of carbonation in those babies. So when you order one of those, depending on where you're at, sometimes you'll get an excited look of, wow, I can't believe you know what this is. And sometimes you'll get that look of, goddammit,
00:31:54
Speaker
I don't want to sit there and crank this thing, and I'll crank it down, and it's generally a little bit cooler than room temperature. Yeah, there there used to be a bar in Portland. I mean, the bar is still there, but they don't, I believe, do this anymore.
00:32:06
Speaker
But they had a cask system for a single keg, and every time that keg ran out, they would just pump a new... ah random beer, like just whatever they felt like into the cask. So some days you would go and there'd be a stout on cask. Some days you would go there'd be like a fresh hop IPA on cask. That's crazy. It was awesome.
00:32:30
Speaker
So it was it was always really cool because, like, I always loved going there. And there was a time when you could smoke cigars in there, too, which was nice. that's nice. But going and getting a like, whatever the cascale is, getting cascale and then a normal pint of that same beer, which was just kind of a cool experiment to be like, wow.
00:32:52
Speaker
putting it in a barrel for a couple days really changes it. It does, man. It's very exciting. We had a a couple of beer bars in the, in New York that had, would have one or two casks on and always rotating casks. And one time they had a cast from Bell's point, which was the Sculpin.
00:33:09
Speaker
It was a Habanero Sculpin on cask. Oh, nice killer. Then another day they had to cause, um, sweet baby Jesus, banana, on cask.
00:33:21
Speaker
And it was, again, fantastic. So, very exciting. I love that this is in the U.S. The AB InBev thing, kind of unavoidable. i mean, it's mixed fear it's still good beer. But the beer is here, right? if it If it were not for them, likely that beer would either have died at some point in Manchester or maybe at least just stayed in Manchester.
00:33:43
Speaker
Thanks to them, you know, we in the U.S. can access this thing and it comes with little four-pack. Yep. And proper proper pint, I should say. Full can pour, not one of those 12-ounce things.
00:33:57
Speaker
Not one of those American pints. ah I mean, it's weird because 12 ounces, like, I don't even know if it's considered a pint anywhere. It's just a glass, right? like you It is if you go to a stadium for a ball game or something.
00:34:12
Speaker
That's true. ah Anyway, ah let me tell you about Pike Lager a little bit. Um, as you can see, I've been drinking this down as you were talking about that beer.
00:34:24
Speaker
It reminds me exactly of this beer. It's like smooth drinking a little nutty, a little, just a little bit of kind of that roasty, um, malty quality, barely any hops.
00:34:37
Speaker
Um, just super smooth goes down easy, um, and delicious. And it, it were, it's, As I suspect yours is, it's working wonderfully with the beginnings of this cigar.
00:34:49
Speaker
Oh, yeah. The cigar is a little intense, I think, for the style of beer, but it works really well in this first third. The cigar is really cutting through, at least for my beer. It's it's cutting through with this and really intense flavor.
00:35:03
Speaker
I'm trying to nail it down, and I almost feel like it's not... man, this is going to be one of those cigars where, you know how I get to the final third and go, all right, now it's... but this It is now where I want it to be.
00:35:16
Speaker
I think it's going to be one of those cigars. For me, it's um it's really got a lot of like black pepper right now. um that That salty, soy, saucy kind of earthiness is still there.
00:35:31
Speaker
And ah the the minerality is still kind of the core, which... I frequently talk about how I don't really like a cigar with a lot of minerality.
00:35:43
Speaker
And it's weird because to me, the there's a Dominican minerality that i that really rubs me the wrong way. But Nicaraguan minerality or American tobacco minerality, like as I've talked about Pennsylvania broadly, I'm like, I'm a big fan of.
00:36:01
Speaker
I think that tobacco stands up to a higher heat, and so the quality of that minerality retains more of its original flavor, if that makes sense. I feel like certain tobaccos, especially Dominican, I have a feeling I understand exactly. I've experienced this myself as well. I think that the the quality of the minerality doesn't get broken down as maybe as quickly. I don't know exactly what the particular science behind this. I'm just postulating here, but...
00:36:28
Speaker
I think the robustness of a lot of the tobaccos coming out Nicaragua, the particular soil quality and and the intensity of the tobacco itself inherently lends the minerality more of a protective force, if you will, when you're smoking.
00:36:44
Speaker
I don't know. we need a I don't know how to respond to that, but I think you're right. I'll say that. Man, retro-hailed and it made me sneeze. um It has some serious aromacraft energy on the retro-hale. It has a dustiness to it, too. It's that slight dustiness.
00:37:02
Speaker
Got me again. I didn't mean retro-hale that time. Maybe I'm getting sick. ah the There's one more flavor that I had. Oh, sweetness. um There's like a sugary sweetness like a
00:37:18
Speaker
I don't know, caramelized something or other. like an almost burnt sugar kind of quality to me. um Anyway, going to move on to my next pairing now, and we will we will talk about that. It's going a quick one, because unknowingly, this also comes from Squeeze Brewery, made also at the Chuncheon.
00:37:41
Speaker
That's a super fun city name to say. that The Chuncheon Brewery. This one is Descending Tiger. Bumpyo.
00:37:54
Speaker
Dark. What? All right. What the second part? right. Descending Tiger. Descending Tiger. It's got a cool tiger on there. Yeah. Bumpyo. B-U-M-P-Y-O.
00:38:06
Speaker
The weird part is. What does that mean? I have not been able to find a translation for Bumpyo. It must be something. I assume it has to be something, but I can't find it.
00:38:16
Speaker
It was driving me crazy. um So there's not a whole lot of information available on Descending Tiger. It seems like this brand was kind of intended to be their accessible, flashy, like see it in the see it in the corner store, the 7-Eleven, whatever 7-Elevens are called in South Korea, the bodega, and go, ooh, I want that, and buy it.
00:38:40
Speaker
um So bump y'all. is available in this is the dark, which is their dark beer. They also have their classic ale, um, their wheat flavor, and they have three fruited ales.
00:38:54
Speaker
Uh, and, uh, I think it's apple pear and grape. Um, Which, now that i've been now that I've thought about it more, I wish that I had bought one of those fruited ones. I think I'm going to get one next time.
00:39:07
Speaker
Because I'm very curious what they are. So did you just say you got it? but like got the scoop on this bump, yo. So it's not a... It's kind of a slangy Korean term for tiger. Mmm.
00:39:20
Speaker
Okay, that makes sense. Um... Yeah, so this is their their dark beer. As you can see there, 4.5% ABV, which is pretty low. I've read this is a bit portery.
00:39:34
Speaker
It looks but a bit portery, just plain old black. That's very portery. Yeah, i'm I'm very curious if this going to be like...
Non-Alcoholic Beer Brewing Techniques
00:39:42
Speaker
A Guinness or ah something a little more on the Porter side or something a little more on the Stout side. I really don't know what to expect.
00:39:51
Speaker
I haven't taken a sip yet. So I'm going to venture forth and try it out. Will you talk about your second pairing? I'm going to go into divisive territory because I think I am... Well, one of the things that I'm doing is also trying to...
00:40:08
Speaker
Well, be a little bit, don't want healthier, but a little bit mindful of my consumption of spirits, my consumption of beer. I'm kind of taking little breaks here and there and I'm trying something different. And i'm like I'm forcing myself to explore things that are non-alcoholic.
00:40:25
Speaker
And whether that's something like, you know, like a syrup, like a basic syrup with the seltzer water, which is very, very popular in a lot of European countries. I know as a kid, when I grew up, We had, like, you you could buy a different fruit syrups. They were essentially just concentrated juices, in a sense.
00:40:42
Speaker
And you would get, like, seltzer water, pour some of them there, mix it up, and you had, like, a homemade kind of soda thing. Very nice and refreshing. Well, so first, those syrups, those the kind of things that you see at Starbucks now. Like, yeah yeah if you're ordering a peach latte, they're putting some some of that peach syrup in.
00:40:59
Speaker
But also, that is referred to as an Italian soda. um Or at least that's what i'll think it was always referred to when I was a kid. Yes. Where you you get, man, I loved an Italian soda as a kid. Or a Soviet go away.
00:41:16
Speaker
what? A Soviet go away? Really? but Like an Eastern, like a little Soviet child would come up to their parents bothering them about something. Oh, I want a thing. I want a thing. You go, all right, hold on. me mix it up. All right, go away now.
00:41:28
Speaker
Alright. It's anecdotal maybe, but i if there are Soviets watching listening and listening, let us know if that's you had that experience. Because I had that experience too. was kind of like, here you go, kid. Beat it.
00:41:39
Speaker
Did your parents call it a Soviet go-away? ah No, but like in my childish mind, I thought it was like, I got it. That makes sense. yeah I'm going to go away now. I got what I wanted. I got you.
00:41:52
Speaker
Alright. What have you got up next? What we got here? Oh, so divisive. So, so divisive. Oh, me you the can. Check it out. I almost didn't buy this. Here, hold on. Let me see if I get the right camera w angle here. um Corona, non-alcoholic. I got it in the can because I didn't want to buy 12-pack of bottles.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah, of course. And I got the thing with clear bottles, so... I don't want to get into that and the preservatives and all the whatever that keep the beer from funking. But this is Corona's non-alcoholic offering. They only have one to date.
00:42:27
Speaker
Corona does have a bunch of different things like they have their Corona Familia, which I actually like. It's a darker, funkier version of Corona that comes in a dark bottle, which also is more to my proclivities of not drinking out of clear bottles.
00:42:46
Speaker
What was the...
00:42:52
Speaker
There was like a ah Corona Imperial or something like that. Yeah, so there is a Corona... So, yes. This can format, the slim can format. Yeah, I thought it came in the slim can like that. It's called Corona Premium.
00:43:04
Speaker
Oh, okay. And now the Corona Premium is interesting because this opening is a lot wider, specifically designed to put a ah wedge of lime. Oh. To fit a wedge of like that like this part of their marking, and they actually did this.
00:43:18
Speaker
And even on the on the top of the can, there are little marks where it kind of tells the the the person serving the beer when they're serving it to put that lime there. So it's a little bit bigger, and they can put the little lime on there.
00:43:30
Speaker
and That's a really interesting. And they have been killing it with their marketing, however you feel about them. I'm not a Corona drinker. However you feel, i see people drinking all the time. Very popular.
00:43:42
Speaker
Now, Corona has been around since 1925. All right. Let me get into it with this. This is a long story, but Grupo Modelo. can't wait. In Mexico City, now ah originally owned by Grupo Modelo, now this kind of falls under the AB InBev umbrella, yet another beer from AB InBev, I guess, or a brand under the umbrella of AB b InBev.
00:44:06
Speaker
The non-alcoholic version just came out 2023. So it's kind of interesting, kind of cool. They took a while to figure this out. I think they purposely wanted to spend some time. Maybe it's kind of weird. I'm giving them credit, but I want to give them credit.
00:44:19
Speaker
They, it seems like they took time to come out with something that maybe wasn't shitty. for a non-alcoholic beer where they really didn't need to. Nobody was asking for ah non-alcoholic Corona.
00:44:31
Speaker
I think my opinion, I mean, I wouldn't expect so either, but I think like, i think part of the non-alcoholic beer is a two faceted problem for me.
00:44:43
Speaker
Yes. In my mind, you want to make beer that tastes like beer, right? Like it has to, it has to taste like beer. Um, And that's kind of the most important thing. But the other most important thing for brands like this is it has to taste like your alcoholic counterpart.
00:45:00
Speaker
Yes. A brand like Athletic doesn't have to worry about that. They're making stuff that just tastes good like beer. I love Athletic. ah But Corona has to make it taste like a Corona, right?
00:45:10
Speaker
ah Sorry. get Go ahead and get into it. I'll stop interrupting for now. No, a couple couple quick more points here. um So now, traditionally, the fermentation is using corn and and barley malt.
00:45:23
Speaker
um sometimes you'll see rice and corn to get that light body, a little bit of that crispness. For this particular one, they are focusing mostly on corn, which is which is kind of a you bit of an interesting process for them.
00:45:40
Speaker
I'm going to get into later on in the show after our final pairings. going to talk to you a little bit about kind of how non-alcoholic beer is made because there's little bit of a longer story. There are different processes that go into it.
00:45:51
Speaker
You do one of multiple ways. They actually disclose how they do it. So they de-alcoholize using a vacuum distillation process. Now, they argue, some would argue they're actually not doing that. They're doing a halted fermentation.
00:46:07
Speaker
I have some opinions. I'll explain why I think it's it's actually vacuum distillation. ah And what else can I tell you, man? It looks like Corona, which I, for better or worse, I call piss-water. I'm going to it because I don't want AB InBev to come in Well, you know, send a helicopter over my house and have guys like it looks fast roping into my bedroom.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah, going to be very quiet about it. But it is one of the most top selling imported beers in the U.S. s We have to have to remind you this. The gimmick with the lime that is pure U.S. marketing. This is not a thing in Mexico.
00:46:43
Speaker
And chances are, if you walk into a side random alleyway bar in Mexico and you order a Corona, corona number one, if you order a Corona and number two, if you complain about not getting a lime, you're probably going to get robbed.
00:46:55
Speaker
I'm just saying. So keep that in mind. ah I feel like ordering a beer in Mexico is a lot like ordering a beer in the UK. Yeah, you just say beer. Yeah, you just say b you don't. do not have for a specific thing.
00:47:08
Speaker
ah they don't They don't give a shit what brand you want. They'll just give you whatever it's whatever. It's whatever they have. Now, big thing I have to say, dude, the flavor, I'm not a fan of original Corona's flavor. It's not a thing i I've had to drink it here and there over the years, begrudgingly perhaps, but it has a distinct flavor, right?
00:47:26
Speaker
Most beer drinkers, even if you only drink a couple of things like Budweiser or Coors, whatever else in that family, when you if you get a Corona, even if you don't know that it's a Corona, you know eventually it's a Corona.
00:47:39
Speaker
You can taste it. And to their credit, this non-alcoholic beer tastes like regular Corona. It's amazing. Now, less carbonation, I should mention.
00:47:50
Speaker
i was going to say, it doesn't look like it has a lot of carbonation. Well, i I poured it at the top of the show, to be fair. okay But yes, it has significantly less carbonation. It's got about the same flavor quality and body as typical regular Corona.
00:48:07
Speaker
Now they also have Corona Lite. I didn't mention that, but that's fine. I don't know. um wanted to try it. It's not bad. I think maybe if I want a non-alcoholic beer and it's a really hot day, maybe I'll kind of pop a can open and just drink it and deal with it.
00:48:21
Speaker
but But i'm if I want non-alcoholic, I'm generally going for athletic. Same. That's my brand, dude. But there's a... I just saw somebody today, one of my friends sent me a picture of... ah I don't know if you've ever had it.
00:48:38
Speaker
But having lived in Oregon for a long time, it's a staple there, which is Deschutes Black Butte Porter. No, I've never had it. It's a great porter from Deschutes Brewing Company in Portland.
00:48:53
Speaker
know Deschutes very well. They recently came out with a non-alcoholic version, which I think is pretty cool. Wow. All right. Well, that's going to be fun segue to final turn. Craft beer companies are getting on the the the non-alcoholic train.
00:49:08
Speaker
Good for them. I think they... Options, man. We like options. I think the culture today's world... Sometimes you want... Look at it this way. If somebody's going to order in between beers, they they might order water or seltzer water or you know club soda or whatever it is.
00:49:25
Speaker
Why not try to maximize the opportunity and make a sale by saying, well, no, why don't you just have this non-colic beer? True. True. Or, I mean, sometimes when I'm working, I'll be like, man, it's hot out.
00:49:38
Speaker
I just, I spent my whole lunch break doing, cleaning the pool or whatever. And I'm hot and sweaty and I'm like, man, I wish I could have a beer right now, but I'm working.
00:49:49
Speaker
You know what? I'm going to have a non-alcoholic beer. and I have usually, again, an athletic, not plugging athletic here, but they make pretty good non-alcoholic beer. We should, we need a sponsor.
00:50:00
Speaker
True, true, true, true. Anyway, this, bump y'all. Oh, let's talk about one. Yeah, sorry. ah If you went in to a rando pub and you said, what kind of beer do you have? And they said, light or dark.
00:50:20
Speaker
And you said, I'll have a dark. And they brought it to you and you tasted it and you went, um guess it's fine. That's that would be this beer.
00:50:30
Speaker
Oh, man. It's not great. ah It does have... It does at least have, like, that little elevated body and flavor that you expect from a dark beer. It's not like it tastes like a Budweiser with black food coloring.
00:50:44
Speaker
mean, that's what it looks like. But it's... little bit. It's nothing special. It's... ah This is a a perfectly serviceable dark beer.
00:50:54
Speaker
um And it's more of like a nervous a dark ale then ah than anything else. But it's just kind of bland and boring.
00:51:06
Speaker
That being said, it works well with the cigar at least. at least it's got that going for it. I'm going to... This is... man trip All right, you said serviceable. I'm going to call you out on it because when you said it, I immediately thought of some basement shitty bar on Skid Row where you walk in, cash only, it's a dollar a beer, they only accept change, coins, and you get this thing and you go, it's serviceable, man.
00:51:31
Speaker
Given the circumstances, it's serviceable. Yeah, that's this beer. You just described this beer. All right. ah this This is... As I think I suspected when i saw when I saw the can, and especially when I started to like look in and couldn't find any details, this is like ah if Four Loko had a brand of beer.
00:51:53
Speaker
Like of actual beer, you could only buy it at gas stations, but it's made by Four Loko, and it just tastes like normal-ass beer. that would best. That's Steel Reserve, I think. Well, that's malt liquor or not.
00:52:05
Speaker
Beer... but i don't know I know i know that this distinction. I agree. But yes, this is this is like this is gas station beer, man. like it's It's not awful, but it's not good. All right.
00:52:17
Speaker
So up, finally, my final pairing of tonight is a little throwback to last week from Jeju Beer Company. Oh, yeah. um And I looked up, ja ah did a little bit more research about Jeju. So Jeju...
00:52:32
Speaker
beer company was founded in 19, 19, 2015. nineteen I almost said 19, 15, 2015 in Jeju, South Korea, uh, which is the largest Island in South Korea makes up, I think it was 1.38% of the landmass of all of Korea is this Island, uh, which is about 50 miles off the Southern edge of the peninsula.
00:52:56
Speaker
Um, Jeju is its own province, which is like a, uh, call it a state, I guess.
Insights into Jeju Beer Company
00:53:03
Speaker
Um, the island itself is about 19 miles tall by, or north-south about 45 miles east-west.
00:53:12
Speaker
Um, so it's a fairly large island. Um, there, this was the first brewery on the island, though there are now more. Um, it seems like, like, just looking at pictures of it, like, I was like, I should look into going on vacation to this island. It seems sick.
00:53:31
Speaker
Uh, so maybe, that maybe that'll make it to the bucket list. Um, reference the squid game now. No, but that is going my one for the road. Uh, that was unplanned, but I was like, if I'm doing all South Korean beer, I might as well talk about squid game at the end.
00:53:47
Speaker
Um, so this is, ah go among Gio among Gio among, I don't know how to pronounce that word. Juju Gio among ale.
00:53:58
Speaker
Um, Geomong is Korean for black. um There was also, i didn't put it on my notes, there was some kind of ah sound-alike thing. It sounds a lot like something else.
00:54:11
Speaker
So it's one of those things where, like, even though it is a different word because it shares similar... uh, etymology, like means both things or something. I don't know. Uh, 4.3% ABV, which gives me pause when it comes to a black ale. Um, it's brewed with Jeju grown black barley, uh, and chocolate wheat, which I think is, is pretty cool. It's also of course got other ingredients, but they don't list them.
00:54:41
Speaker
um I should also note that Jeju has become one of the most popular microbreweries in South Korea. um They hold 28% of the microbrewery market, the craft beer market, which nuts for a craft brewery.
00:54:59
Speaker
ah Yeah. So I'll see. This is how a beer is supposed to look like 10 minutes out. pour If it's got a little bit of head that's sticking around, that's what you want, man.
00:55:11
Speaker
um So I'm going to take a couple sips of this darkness and hope it's better than the the descending tiger. Oh, man. What do you got one out on me?
00:55:22
Speaker
but My cigar is going on on me.
00:55:25
Speaker
It's all that Biso. Yep, I know. I can't believe I didn't say Biso earlier in the show. It took me this long to say Biso Horny. Yeah.
00:55:37
Speaker
Because if you've ever been to Nicaragua, most Nicaraguans say Biso. It's the business information security officer, obviously. Exactly. Biso. I know a lot of about Biso, so I've worked with them lot over the years. so I'm doing this fresh because I am so jazzed about this. I saw this at the store, and it was a no-brainer. Like, yes, I need this. I need this in my life.
00:56:00
Speaker
I'm pouring another non-alcoholic beer as I test... Taste my way, I should say, taste my way around the world of non-alcoholic offerings. Check this out, man.
00:56:12
Speaker
Sierra Nevada's Trail Pass IPA. I've seen this, and I've thought about buying it, but i I haven't seen it in person. I've just seen ads for it online, and I'm always like, maybe I should order a couple six-packs of that.
00:56:25
Speaker
Oh, wow. I didn't smell it. I didn't... Trip, it smells...
00:56:32
Speaker
I tell you what, it smells like marijuana. Oh, that's a hazy dive you got right there. It smells... Goddamn, it smells intensely like... And I am not a consumer. I get very ill, so I can't touch that stuff. But... Jesus, fuck, it smells like that one friend in high school that had a guitar stuffed full of weed baggies.
00:56:55
Speaker
um But we all have that friend, I think. Anyway... me tell you about Sierra Nevada. So i was really excited. They have two offerings, this the Hazy IPA and a Golden Ale. I didn't get the Golden Ale. get that next time. I'll try the Hazy first.
00:57:08
Speaker
ah So Sierra Nevada has been around for a really long time as well, 1980. And for a company that started talking about this craft beer scene, for a company that started at that time to still be around today and certainly to still be relevant, I think that's a huge nod to them and their ability to kind of get in with the times and survive the madness that happened in the 90s, late 90s, I should say, and then 2000 boom of beer with craft, like adjunct everything.
00:57:38
Speaker
Sierra has stayed, like I think, pretty true to pretty true form. And resting on the laurels of everything they want to do with fresh whole cone hops.
00:57:49
Speaker
There go. Is that still a thing for them? They still use all fresh hops? there go i didn't is that still a thing for them they still use all fresh hops Yes, and they still have their Torpedo, which, love their Torpedo. What a wonderful process.
00:58:05
Speaker
Very exciting. But they have been just like kind of as classic as you can possibly be. They are, first of all, they're one of the first, absolutely first U.S. craft breweries to use only whole cone hops exclusive.
00:58:18
Speaker
and That was a big deal for them. i can I literally cannot think of a single other brewery that does that. ah You know who else does it? ah No, i was going to say Great Notion, but no they don't exclusively do it. They they like it They use a lot whole tone, but not exclusively.
00:58:34
Speaker
and I don't know if there is another brewery. I think Green Flash did for a period of time before they got disappeared. That would probably make sense. And I think that was part of their like their marketing also. and this part of me ah um Anyway, say?
00:58:49
Speaker
i i was gonna like
00:58:52
Speaker
oh yeah So Ken Grossman built much of the original equipment himself, which is pretty cool.
Sustainable Brewing Practices
00:58:56
Speaker
He's really heavily invested. They're still considered one of the most environmentally environmentally sustainable in the world in terms of breweries, which is super cool.
00:59:07
Speaker
This beer smells crazy. it It is. I can't even... All right. I found ah that there there is a list of brewers that only use whole cone hops, which includes...
00:59:20
Speaker
ah Sierra Nevada, Deschutes, and Victory. Oh, wow. Victory. Okay. That makes sense. I didn't realize Victory or Deschutes did that, which does make sense. Deschutes especially makes sense because they have, like, a ton of fresh hop, wet hop beers.
00:59:38
Speaker
It's so expensive. It's so hard. And it's so hard to get consistency because when you're looking at the raw product, There are things you can measure. When you draw your hops out, you can measure certain things. You can get an idea of where it's at. When you're working with whole cone hops, it's very much like tobacco where crop seasons will differ sometimes significantly. to It's a very organic process. You have to change. Right, exactly. You have to change. You have to taste it when it comes in, and you have to see if you need to make any changes to the the final product, right? The blend of a cigar, the the blend of a beer, ah you know for lack of better term.
01:00:14
Speaker
But... ah This is wild. This is so... It's so wild. So this particular one is de-alcoholized using low-temp distillation, which is generally like a reverse osmosis process.
01:00:28
Speaker
ah They're basically boiling off the ah only the alcohol. They're heating it to a temperature where only the alcohol boils off. okay be Exactly. um And then they're dry-hopping it after the fact to bring it this insane hop quality that... Dude...
01:00:47
Speaker
It just smells like it's wild how strongly it smells of. You know, certain hops like Cascade especially has that resinous, that that like cannabis quality to it. I mean, some kind of similar plants in a sense, right?
01:01:02
Speaker
Oh, yeah. the the the The aromatic parts of the plant are very similar.
01:01:11
Speaker
It's crazy. I think, put this on your list to buy you're going to be blown away that this is a non-alcoholic beer because it doesn't taste like one. the I will. The body is incredible. It's unfiltered, as you can see.
01:01:22
Speaker
Decent head, but again, because they're not completing the brewing process, there is going to be some retention loss, especially with that low, that even though it's low temp, because they're breaking out the alcohol ah and they're heating it up longer than it normally would be, you're going to have some breaks in their head retention.
01:01:40
Speaker
But to this credit to their credit, it's fantastic, man. Nice. So, my Gilmong, that's how going to say it from now on, if I ever say it again.
01:01:52
Speaker
ah If you went in to that that skid row bar down a flight of stairs, ah you had to you had to pass a homeless guy. He made an attempt to stab you. He barely made contact. You're fine. It's little scratch.
01:02:07
Speaker
You'll be all right. But you know you're going to want to clean that wound out. um You sit down, you plop down your your ah nickels and dimes of a dollar, and you say, give me the dark.
01:02:24
Speaker
And they pour you a beer, and you go, you know what? That was worth it. It was worth the worth the almost stab wound, the very light stab wound.
01:02:37
Speaker
Uh, it was worth being in a sketchy place. It was worth having to give up all your change that you had left. Uh, this is what you want when you go into a bar that only has the light in the dark and you ask for the dark.
01:02:50
Speaker
Um, it's the exact opposite of the descending tiger where like, this is, it's got a little bit of smokiness, a little bit of like uh, marshmallow-y kind of sweetness to it, little roasty, little coffee, little... It's definitely got some hops to it, some bitterness.
01:03:09
Speaker
um yeah Man, it's great. Just great. And worked... It's actually working really well. The bitterness of this is working really well with that, like, very light, bitter touch that that this cigar has.
01:03:24
Speaker
And that ah oh that that caramelized sweetness is working really well. That comes from the cigar is working really well with this beer, too.
01:03:33
Speaker
Oh, my goodness, dude. I took another sip, and I think this non-alcoholic, hazy IPA from Sierra is beating the shit out of the cigar.
01:03:45
Speaker
Really? Is that hoppy? It's so intensely hoppy. Yeah.
01:03:54
Speaker
it's say And the cigar is bringing out the bitterness of of the beer, of course, of the hops. That sweetness is is just sticking only to the bitterness and bringing it out on the palate. And it's really well carbonated, too.
01:04:07
Speaker
Super citrusy.
01:04:10
Speaker
Oh, man. I'm like... You know, I've noticed that non-alcoholic beers tend to have like that... that... that that They have that level of carbonation that like starts bubbling up, you know, that, that you really gets you burping.
01:04:30
Speaker
I think, I think part of the reason is I, I will postulate they over carbonate slightly. I think so because when you make your first pour, there isn't enough in the beer itself to retain solution for the carbon dioxide.
01:04:45
Speaker
And so when you make your first pour, by the time you're done pouring, you lose the majority of that carbonation that's been in solution. Yeah. Yeah, that that's my expectation that the part of what makes beer hold its carbonation the way it does is like these.
01:05:00
Speaker
I mean, I'm no fucking scientist, but like the protein bonds, like you get that that added ah texture. That can hold on to those CO2 bubbles and keep them in solution.
01:05:14
Speaker
And then once you're missing a lot of that, it turns into just seltzer water that all of the bubbles just float right out. Amen. So, you know about, I think you've, you've experienced some different kinds of non-alcoholic beers.
01:05:30
Speaker
So you, I suspect, you know, about a couple of the different ways that you can, you can make a non-alcoholic beer. yes I know, I know a little bit about it, um but not, not much. So I'd i'd love to learn more.
01:05:43
Speaker
if you've If you've got some knowledge, drop. Yeah, man. So there there are a couple of things that have been really popular. The most popular and probably the relatively simplest one is in arrested fermentation. So what they'll do is they'll they'll get the f fermentation going. They'll brew the beer exactly the same way they normally would.
01:05:59
Speaker
They'll put the yeast in. And then shortly after the yeast starts doing its thing just a little bit, they'll cut it and get it off of the yeast. And sometimes they'll filter remember correctly, that's what Athletic does.
01:06:12
Speaker
Right. Athletic athletic does that. But athletic is also really fascinating because they have a separate lab where they create unique yeast strains. So they take like a very common strain that's used a particular style. Right. And then they will produce a in-house strain, which is purposely designed to be alcohol intolerant.
01:06:29
Speaker
So they die off once you get past like that half percent mark. Yeah. So they they make these hybrids that allow them to de-alcoholize a little bit more elegantly, if you will.
01:06:41
Speaker
um We talk about a vacuum vacuum distillation, which is just a low-pressure environment. They're able to get the alcohol out. and Well, that's again, that's similar to the what what we were talking about, like the low heat.
01:06:54
Speaker
um In a vacuum, the boiling point of things goes down. yeah so So theoretically, and ah in a heavy enough vacuum... you will reach the point at room temperature where alcohol boils off, um but water and other liquids don't.
01:07:09
Speaker
And so that's a different style than what we talked about with the reverse osmosis that that ah Sierra Nevada did with this particular beer. They heat it over a period of time, essentially concentrating, and water gets added back in after the fact. ah Yeah, that's what I've all i've theorized, like...
01:07:28
Speaker
I haven't known a lot about non-alcoholic beer, but I've thought of ways like how would you make non-alcoholic beer? One of the ways is, of course, bad yeast. Yeast that can't live long enough to turn it into beer. They start to and then they die.
01:07:40
Speaker
um And the other way is kind of boiling it off and then adding water back in to cut it so that it's got the correct flavors. In another process, which is a bit more... It certainly takes time. It's a cold contact fermentation. So essentially what they're doing is they are controlling the fermentation. They're taking a yeast that normally operates at a particular temperature range and bringing it to the very, very, holding it at the very lowest ah value of that range for a much longer period of time.
01:08:10
Speaker
Essentially, the yeast is interacting with the beer, but it's not able to, it's not getting strong enough to produce ethanol. And so that's how you end up with ah like a near beer, which is 0.5% or less ABV.
01:08:25
Speaker
Nonetheless, it's pretty hard. It takes effort, and you can experience the certain beers you pick up and you go, man, this tastes just like malty water with some hops. Well, I mean, that's part of the thing, right? By default, any of these processes make bad beer, or they turn good beer into bad beer.
01:08:43
Speaker
They ruin it. um So the trick is really finding a way to use one of any of these processes that you can or a combination of them and then make the beer still good.
01:08:57
Speaker
Which is amazing. And it's, again, at scale, it's so expensive to do.
01:09:03
Speaker
It's one of those things that even a large brewery going into non-alcoholic territory has the potential to completely lose everything in their business. With one failed one filled a batch or a release.
01:09:20
Speaker
It's wild, man. So I'm guessing your favorite pairing of the night is going to be your final pairing. I've actually gone back through and i would have thought that too.
01:09:34
Speaker
But going back to the pike logger, pike logger, um Like the the sweetness of this and the roundness of the flavors I find actually works better with this cigar than kind of the sharpness of that dark beer that was my final pairing.
01:09:54
Speaker
This cigar is deceptive in the way that you read it on paper and you're like, okay, medium, medium, medium. Everything's in the middle.
01:10:06
Speaker
And then you start smoking it and some of the dials start to go to the high end, the spice, the the body, the that just the flavor in general is like on the higher end.
01:10:18
Speaker
But then when you start to pair it, um even something that is pretty mild like this dark lager, just that little bit of hoppy intensity fights the cigar a little more than something like this amber lager.
01:10:34
Speaker
And the Amber Lager just for me is the right the right kind of pairing. but Just ah ah a very clean, smooth beer that ah is well-rounded. It's got a little bit of everything, a little bit of sweetness, a little bit of hops, a little bit of just kind of a hint of kind of roastiness.
01:10:55
Speaker
um And that, to me, is working the best with this beer. Wonderful cigar. I am truly enjoying this cigar. I, I'm a big fan. I know, i know I've kind of, uh, uh, gone on about Tyler a little bit, but I'm a big fan of the dude, but he also made a really good cigar.
01:11:20
Speaker
I'm going to have to agree on the needing that kind of the smoothness to carry the cigar through, and especially in the final third. I went back through my pairings. I think the Boddingtons for me is really going to be the the best pairing throughout the right of feeling full smoke.
01:11:37
Speaker
I had feeling. All right. And any any final thoughts on the cigar itself? The triple nickel? Don't smoke it fast. Like me. like me Then it gets wet, and then it goes out, and then you have to fight it, and then you're going to overheat it, and going to kill some of those really nice kind of subtle flavors.
01:11:55
Speaker
Yeah. um I'm really looking forward to Tyler, if you watch this, I'm really looking forward to what you do next. And whether it's a new Vitola of this or whether you work on a new blend at some point, I'm looking forward to it, man. I'm and i'm here for it.
01:12:10
Speaker
um Anyway, I guess that ah that brings us kind of to the end, right?
Cultural Experiences and Gaming Reminisces
01:12:16
Speaker
Um, so time for one for the road. Dennis spoiled mine.
01:12:20
Speaker
It's squid game. Uh, you knew it was, sorry. Uh, no, it's not a big deal. We haven't finished it yet. I got one episode left. We just started the the final episode of, uh, what is yeah being called the final season. We'll see if it's, that's the truth or not.
01:12:37
Speaker
Um, Man, my favorite thing about this, we did the Father's Day episode a couple weeks ago. My favorite thing about Squid Game is that my son got into it. And so now we've all of season two and all of season three so far. at Well, all of season three when we finish it, ah we have we will have watched with my 12-year-old son.
01:12:59
Speaker
he is getting into the spoopy world. which I love and a man um and squid game. Like he's, he's super into ah Southeast Asian culture, right? Like he, he knows a little bit of Korean. He knows a little bit of, ah well, quite a bit of Chinese.
01:13:18
Speaker
He's taken Chinese in school last year. And I think he is again this year. um So he's like, he's he's on his way to uh, By the end of high school, he'll be fluent in Mandarin, which is wild to me.
01:13:33
Speaker
That's nuts, man. Which, of course, is going to mean at some point we're going to have to go to China or Taiwan and and do some some exploring, ah which should be rad. But he knows a little bit of Japanese.
01:13:46
Speaker
my so My daughter is also in the process of learning Japanese. But anyway... ah being that he's super fascinated by the culture and the languages and the foods.
01:13:57
Speaker
Um, he's very into squid game and I am loving watching it with him. i love that. He, uh, he squirms when it gets scary and gets uncomfortable and, uh, just,
01:14:10
Speaker
he really enjoys it. And it's, it's so cool to, to make squid game a family experience because I, I love stuff like that, you know, and my wife, uh, is she hates horror, but squid game is enough where it's not quite horror. It's kind of a, uh, thriller sort of, yeah, more of like getting that an intense thriller, I guess it's, it's in the horror genre, but it's not quite horror.
01:14:37
Speaker
Um, Yeah. So... Oh, that that actually reminds me that Jeju, they actually have a Squid Game beer. Oh, cool.
01:14:51
Speaker
It's like a Netflix-branded beer. That's amazing. Which is super cool. I wish I could get my hands on that one, but I haven't seen it at all in the States as far as I know.
01:15:03
Speaker
Anyway, check out Squid Game. It's really good. Even if you're one of the people that's like... Yeah, I've never watched it, and I i don't want to. i would I would suggest you try it out.
01:15:15
Speaker
It's a super intense thriller. It's ah endlessly dark, which I love. um Like, when you think they can't get any darker, it gets a little bit darker.
01:15:29
Speaker
But still, it's the at least somewhat happy endings for some people. yeah It's I mean so when you're watching a show where there's 456 people and only one of them lives um You're there's gonna be some heartbreak, you know ah But it's it's a lot of fun.
01:15:50
Speaker
It's a lot of fun. Especially if you like the intense stuff like I do um I love something like that man. um I'm just enjoying the hell out of it And I'm curious to see what happens at the end of what they're calling the final season With stuff like this, you never know. right yeah Yeah. all and and and we I think we're on halfway through episode three, something like that. i don't know um How many episodes are there total? There's six. yeah six okay so Halfway through episode three, it's been fun. it's been it's been a this app This season has been very intense.
01:16:25
Speaker
yeah so If you follow the story, the season is going and bring some things to you. You're going to have some feelings about them. So I'm not going to leave... I'm going to say too I'm going to leave it at that.
01:16:36
Speaker
I'm going to go back to, ah you know, something that I haven't done a really long time, is playing games again. Every now and again, i think about... I feel like I think about going back to playing games more than I end up actually playing games because it's... either By the time I sit down, i'm just too tired and don't want to play.
01:16:53
Speaker
I have... i've You know, I've been digging on, like... sonic on on the uh what's that thing he called the switch see i sound old now i go like what's that thingy that what's that thing you call the nintendo yeah uh the nintendo switch i played that but what i want to get back to is a little known um handheld device called the psp do you remember this thing Yes, I had one in the day. PlayStation Portable.
01:17:19
Speaker
Absolutely loved it. It was the the hottest shit on the market at the time, at least in my my brain. I loved it. and And I recently discovered mine, burying company. It was buried in a bunch of boxes and stuff. I finally found it.
01:17:33
Speaker
And the one game. my my Let me interrupt you for one second. My son is also obsessed with old school video games. His dream is to own a PSP. He's like, it is the coolest device I've ever seen.
01:17:48
Speaker
And he wants one so bad. And I'm like, did you, you can't get them anymore. And if you could, the games last 10 minutes. If, if one of those games gets a little scratch on it it's over. Yes, so I heavily modded mine and I have a lot of games on the card and and that kind of deal. But the only game that I ever actually purchased, the actual disc, mini disc, whatever you want to call it, whatever the proper name for it. UMD.
01:18:14
Speaker
UMD, Universal Media Disc. That's what it was, yes. Universal Media Disc, UMDs, I got Vice City. Vice City Stories, I think it was, right? Was it Vice City Stories? I think it was Liberty City Stories, right?
01:18:27
Speaker
Oh, sorry, Liberty City Stories, but there was a Vice City for PSP. Yeah, the whole, all of Vice City is available. Liberty City Stories was like this weird GTA 4 game where you didn't have the whole city.
01:18:40
Speaker
You could only play little bits. So they basically crafted a new game all around that. Mm-hmm. So I found my my Vice City copy of which I had probably, I think I ordered five or six of them.
01:18:55
Speaker
I was hunting down a very specific release of that that game, particular okay serial number. for some modding and some other stuff. And i was all over eBay and I finally found this one.
01:19:08
Speaker
And I'm sure I could probably sell that now for a lot of money. It's probably worth something. But um I love that game. It came out in 2002 on PlayStation proper. Was that a PS2 back then?
01:19:20
Speaker
It was, right? PS2. PS2. Yeah. that was ah Vice City came out in 2002, right? Vice City came out. i love I love the aesthetic. It's this very Miami-esque. It's modeled after Miami.
01:19:35
Speaker
Ray Liotta was the voice of the main character. All this really cool 80s music. You had motorcycles and helicopters and things for the first time, which is really exciting.
01:19:45
Speaker
You had just endless, endless references to Scarface in that game. like The entire end of the game is basically Scarface. Yeah.
01:19:56
Speaker
I love that game. And I always, I almost never really played the actual story. I never really cared as much about the story. I do missions here and there, but my thing was if I was stressed and I had 30 minutes at the end of my day, I'd turn it on and I go, I'm just going to drive around, listen to the same songs, listen to the radio station, listen listen to like Rusty Brown's Ring Donuts, those commercials I loved, and just cruise around. it And it was just this disconnect of ah being in a different world.
01:20:23
Speaker
And, uh, you know, i grew up playing, uh, GTA three Liberty city. Of course. And I loved it. And so, yeah, man, went back to the games.
01:20:34
Speaker
If there's anything out there that you've played years ago and you haven't touched a long time, go pick it up, man. I, I play super Mario world at least once a year completely through hell. Yeah. Because it's just that it's the memories. It's the nostalgia of my childhood.
01:20:49
Speaker
Did you know what the game was so much might of my childhood that is so connected to Super Mario World is Yoshi's Island. Yoshi's Island. Yoshi's Island is probably the game that I, like, up until my early 20s when I started playing, like, MMORPGs and games that you play for a thousand hours before you're done.
01:21:06
Speaker
Yoshi's Island was absolutely the game I had spent the most time on. I've probably played through that game ah hundred times in my life. Because when I was a kid, I would just play through it over and over and over. Same.
01:21:18
Speaker
i the the The game dynamics, mechanics, everything else fantastic. I have that on my on my Switch also, and I and i like to play that too. yeah It's fun.
01:21:30
Speaker
That game rules. Another game you should try for PSP is Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker. That game goes so hard. pp It's a Metal Gear game that's its own... fresh game. It's new it's it's a fresh game it's a new game That is brand new.
01:21:49
Speaker
And it's got all these mechanics where you're building a base at home. And, ah like it has it this bizarre mechanic. You have these things. Uh, I can't remember what they call them, but it's like a balloon.
01:22:02
Speaker
So you run up to a guy and you clip a carabiner onto his belt. And then the balloon goes up and you have a drone that flies over and grabs it. And then they scoop that guy back to your home base.
01:22:13
Speaker
And so when you get back to your home base, you can be like, all right, this guy works in this division now. And so you're like building this big base. Man, it's it's so rad. I loved that game.
01:22:24
Speaker
This is like the Command & Conquer that I played on PS1. It's got a little bit of that kind of energy. Yeah. I never beat that game. i Like, it's still a Metal Gear game. You're still sneaking around and knocking people out and blowing stuff up and stealing the Death Star plans and shit like that.
01:22:43
Speaker
But it has, like, this whole side game where you're trying to build build out your base and get more powerful. and then you can, like, send your guys overseas and combat missions and stuff.
01:22:55
Speaker
That game rules. but so Is that similar? Where does that rank? I'm very curious to that canoe game. What new game? Oh, that one.
01:23:06
Speaker
The, uh, the, whatever. I forgot the name of the game, but you're in a canoe. I know what you're talking about. You're in like the, you're in like a kayak. You got a kayak and you're done. You got a kayak around and then pull out your gun and shoot the guy on the bridge yeah kind of thing.
01:23:21
Speaker
Um, it's, it's, it's right in that vein. Like you're sneaking around doing espionage shit. It rules. I like sneaky things. I like sneaky games. Sneaky, sneaky, sir. ah Yes, sir.
Podcast Conclusion and Listener Engagement
01:23:33
Speaker
All right, guys. i love that movie. Me too. And I was, I don't know if I've ever mentioned that. Do you know, ah you know how he he lives outside of New York at the beginning?
01:23:47
Speaker
Yeah. That was my hometown in Connecticut. So like the beginning and very end of that movie were filmed in my hometown. Bumble Falls, Connecticut.
01:23:57
Speaker
Is that what it was called? I don't remember. I'm just... ah But, like, so when I was... How old was I? 16-ish? Oh, you remember the pizza shop. The pizza shop's still there.
01:24:08
Speaker
Oh, pizza shop is... but That was a restaurant in my hometown. I mean, it wasn't a pizza shop, but it was a restaurant. My in-laws used to work there before I knew them.
01:24:20
Speaker
My wife used to work there before I knew her. Damn. that's But, like, when I was 16, they announced that Adam Sandler was coming to town to make a movie. And it became like a whole thing. i lived a eighth of a mile from downtown. So I would, when I was a kid, I would like walk to downtown all the time, go to the comic shop and hang out with my friends and all that stuff.
01:24:39
Speaker
So when I was 16 is when this movie came and it was like a big deal. So I got to, ah man, what was his name?
01:24:50
Speaker
The Peter,
01:24:54
Speaker
Peter something. He was the bad guy. Like the new dad or something. Or the other son. Yeah, with the mustache?
01:25:05
Speaker
Yeah. you
01:25:08
Speaker
He was in The Candidate. He was the dad from The Candidate movie. Yeah, that guy. I remember he was a dick to us. And the... Okay.
01:25:19
Speaker
Fuck, I don't remember anybody's name. The guy who was like the surfer guy. You know the guy, right? Like, has the... ah long adam sandler movie That's in every Adam Sandler movie? That guy was super cool.
01:25:30
Speaker
um I got to say hi to Adam Sandler one time, but I didn't want to like, you know, I'm not like, I'm not going to wait in line to meet Adam Sandler. It was like, were hang we hang out down there every day. So if we meet him, cool.
01:25:43
Speaker
Did he give you like the happy Gilmore? like the All right, buddy. Cool. All right. Nice. Yeah. And walk away. Yeah, exactly. Nice. I was a 16-year-old kid. I didn't have anything to say to Adam Sandler.
01:25:54
Speaker
ah But it was it was a very cool experience being around being on a movie set, basically. You could have said all Doyle rules. was cool. I should have. I would have said that.
01:26:07
Speaker
ah Anyway in your pants is By the way we're talking about Mr. Deeds For anybody who doesn't who isn't aware The movie is Mr. Deeds ah But look for look for my hometown At the beginning and end of that movie Anyway Everybody thanks for hanging out ah If you haven't already Or if you're not right now Check us out on Spotify Or any of your other favorite podcast catcher apps Like Apple We got video, we got audio We got whatever you need there um So check it out.
01:26:37
Speaker
So everybody have a great and safe week. We will talk to you next week when we are smoking something. I feel like we've run out of cigars. you know what going to smoke?
01:26:48
Speaker
We are going to smoke the Luciano slash Constellation, the Machinist. Oh, the Machinist. We're going to try out the Machinist. Let's do it. i but I think that'll be an interesting cigar. um So join us next week for the Machinist.
01:27:02
Speaker
And for now, have yourself a great and safe week. And Dennis, do the catchphrase thing. We'll get out of here. And we'll talk to you guys on the next one. Thanks, everybody, for watching and listening. And remember, we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink less.