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LGP 64 - Drew Estate Liga Privada A Savage Feast
19 Plays6 months ago
This week, we get savage with Drew Estates event excusive Liga Privada, A Savage Feast!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Let's Get Pairing. This is episode... Uh-oh. I forgot what episode it is. 64? 64. The Drew Estate Savage Feast. Actually, it's just called Drew Estate A Savage Feast, not The Savage Feast.
00:00:13
Speaker
ah Check out that beauty right there. ah We'll be right back. For now, grab yourself a cigar. Grab yourself a drink.
Previous Week's Delays and Backup Plans
00:00:20
Speaker
Let's get pairing.
00:00:53
Speaker
This beer. everybody. Welcome back. Yeah. If this beer is bad, I'm blaming indemnics. We'll talk about that in a couple of minutes. Um, for now, I got my cigar. I haven't lit it yet. Usually I like to light before the show, but we got on a little late and we're little chatty since we didn't get to chat last week. Cause Dennis was under the weather.
00:01:11
Speaker
This has some stuff going on. i early over me on though Yeah. the The weather gets over Dennis once in a while and we we deal with that as we can. Um, Usually, if if it looks like it's going to happen, like on Saturday, ah like call in a ah ah guest.
00:01:27
Speaker
um A pinch hitter. To use a term for a sport I don't know anything about. what A pinch hitter? Pinch hitter. Yeah, that's what they... What the hell is a hitter? How I know this? And you don't. A pinch hitter is... I don't watch sports.
00:01:41
Speaker
I think it's when you can't hit. like You can't swing the bat. You have like a shoulder injury or something. You can still play, but you can't swing the bat. So you have somebody hit the ball for you, and then you run. think that's what a pinch hitter Oh, cool. All right. Well, I, I, no doubt our good friend bear is going to have some thoughts on this because he is, he definitely knows.
00:02:02
Speaker
I could be extremely wrong, that's what I remember it being. Uh, yeah. All right. So we'll get started. We'll get to the details of the cigar in a moment for now. Welcome back. Let's get pairing. Episode 64.
00:02:13
Speaker
I'm your host trip here in my own studio.
Cigar Coop Coalition and Related Content
00:02:16
Speaker
Uh, we are of course, always brought to you by the cigar coop coalition. Um, which we're part of. I shouldn't said brought to you by. I thought about that earlier and it didn't sound right.
00:02:27
Speaker
um But we're part of the Cigar Coop Coalition. Check out the rest of the guys. Cigar Coop, El Oso, Fumar, Roundtable Reviews. Some good stuff on there. In association with... In association with.
00:02:41
Speaker
I like that. There's a... My associates, you know, we got people. We got people that we talk to. Yeah, exactly. All right. So as always, we're going to get into some pairing here. But as always, let's first talk about the cigar. I'm going to have to talk about it before I even get it lit ah since I keep talking and not lighting while I'm talking.
Exclusive Drew Estate Event Cigars
00:03:00
Speaker
um Yeah.
00:03:01
Speaker
So Drew Estate, I won't go into the history of Drew Estate or anything, because if you know anything about cigars and have you've ever watched this show before, you probably know that we're big fans. ah We know a lot of the guys over there and guys and gals over there.
00:03:12
Speaker
um And we love the stuff that they do. So this is a special cigar from them. um So it was first released in 2021 as Jonathan Drew's signature event exclusive.
00:03:23
Speaker
um So the whole deal was they had one for Willie, one for Jonathan and one for Pedro, um because those are, they're the main three that end up doing events for Drew Estate. So if you went to a, um,
00:03:36
Speaker
an event where only Jonathan Drew is there um and you get to meet him, he would hand you a box of these. um Depending on the store. Some of them he just hands them out. Some of them you have to buy a box cigars or something.
00:03:49
Speaker
um But this is a little two-pack. Comes in this real nice coffin that looks purple on camera. It is cool, yeah. I like the coffin a lot. It's very black in person, but it looks reddish on camera.
00:04:00
Speaker
um Got two of them. I smoked one last week since Dennis was not here. I just did some pre-pairing. All right. So this cigar, the blend is ah actually, let me first say there's other ways to get these these days.
00:04:16
Speaker
um Originally, it was only those events. um These days, they hand them out as part of your package at Barn Smoker sometimes, at Tour de Liga most of the time, um and pretty much any Drew Estate event.
00:04:28
Speaker
um They have one of these, one of the three two-packs available, if not all three. um another place that these cigars are available. If you are feeling like money bags McGee over there and you got, I can't remember the exact price around $6,000 burning a hole in your pocket. um You can just demolish, demoralize everyone you know.
00:04:58
Speaker
with shame because you're the only one that has the Liga Privada ST DuPont humidor lighter and cutter set. amen So those are shipping to retailers. Now I just saw posts as of today or yesterday um that, ah you know, the, the rich cigar smokers are starting to get them.
00:05:17
Speaker
um So they're getting them from their shops. Shops have the option when they buy one of those of also buying 10 pairs of these ah that come in the humidor. um So not all of them that are available will have it, but it is an option. So if ah if somebody has it, they likely chose to get the cigars, whether they're go to ah sell them separately or what.
00:05:36
Speaker
ah One of the cool things about products like that is that, you know, sometimes you see shops selling them outright, just selling them for the MSRP. You see shops doing raffles for them sometimes, which is nice, you know, ah with cigars.
00:05:50
Speaker
Something that's $6,000. That's probably a $30 or $40 raffle ticket at least. um But, you know, if you got a chance to win that humidor that we've seen in person. That's pretty snazzy.
00:06:02
Speaker
It is incredible. um It looks like the nicest box of Liga Pravada you've ever seen. um All right. Let's get into it here. I mean, do you like your cigar yet? Yeah. a little here No, i still have it. All right, let me do that. but I'm getting distracted here, man. And I will say, as you light, make sure not to light, ah not to smoke too fast off the first couple draws, like I did, because she got angry.
00:06:32
Speaker
She got really angry angry with me. Good tip. And done split a little bit. Oh, no. It's fine. It's fine. The Vitola on this, will look familiar if you like the League Bravada line.
00:06:44
Speaker
um
Cigar Smoking Tips
00:06:45
Speaker
It is the exact same Vitola as the Feral Flying Pig,
00:06:51
Speaker
ah which is a 5 3 8 by 60 Perfecto. um It's a great size. like the It doesn't feel too much like a 60, but it kind of smokes like a 60 after you get past a certain point. definitely smokes like a 60. It's one of those things that if you smoke indoors, it's a great way to test your your ah ventilation system. Mm-hmm.
00:07:11
Speaker
or your air scrubber, or whatever you have at home. It's wild. it It's basically like a firecracker. And I can see you just lit it, and the amount of smoke coming off that thing is nuts. It is going, baby.
00:07:23
Speaker
um So this is the same size as the Feral Flying Pig, but as the band indicates, ah the top band at least, this is the Liga Provada 10 Anniversario blend. So this is the 10th anniversary blend.
00:07:36
Speaker
um It came out around the 12th anniversary because, you know, COVID happened, and other but unrest in Nicaragua happened that messed things up a little bit right around that time in 2019. Yeah, and that had a massive impact on the cigar industry.
00:07:53
Speaker
So, wrapper is Connecticut grown for yo-yo hybrid. So that is a, if you haven't smoked the Liga Privada series very much, or you've only smoked a couple of them, but you love them, um their whole thing, the whole thing with the Liga Privada series, anything that says Liga Privada on it,
00:08:11
Speaker
on the label, um, means that that wrapper tobacco was grown in Connecticut and all of them are interesting. So the legal provider nine is kind of the original Connecticut leaf, Connecticut, broadly that's on everything these days.
00:08:25
Speaker
Um, but, Leo Bravada is kind of not what started it because it's been on cigars for a very long time, um but they made it cool again. It had become very out of fashion to use Connecticut broadly for a while. um And it wasn't really touted as a, a,
00:08:43
Speaker
a leaf that people really wanted. And Liga Pravada was one of the cigars that turned that around. um Then they came out with the h no, sorry, the P52, which is the ah Habano wrapper. So that is Connecticut grown Habano.
00:08:56
Speaker
Then they came out with the Connecticut grown Corojo in the, in the And this of course is the Connecticut grown Criollo hybrid um binder on this is Connecticut Mexican San André.
00:09:10
Speaker
Fillers are from Nicaragua and Pennsylvania. That Pennsylvania is the elusive, uh, Pennsylvania GRS one green river sucker. So if you don't know what that is, it is a very powerful leaf of tobacco.
00:09:25
Speaker
Um, this a little power to it. It, it absolutely does. And it has, again, be kind of being really excited to smoke this again. um Dude, I smoked a little bit too fast, and it punches you right in the throat with with that intensity.
00:09:44
Speaker
Yeah, there's a lot of intensity this. This is a very sort of take your time, sit down, do something for a while because it's going to need it. Yeah. or some um For me, it's got a lot of spice.
00:09:57
Speaker
Like spice is really the the main note here. um Black pepper along with some kind of cinnamon nutmeg-y kind of baking spice, but really more black pepper, red pepper kind of heat to it.
00:10:09
Speaker
um There's like a really nice leathery, earthy sweetness. Yeah. And I had another note. There's like a breadiness to it that I can't and quite figure out. it's um You know, what ah for me, the breadiness I'm getting is more of a... Oh, shit.
00:10:26
Speaker
What's the thing? It's like on a pretzel. You know, the outside of a press That's what I was about to say. It reminds me of a very toasted bread. Okay. Like that that almost burned taste. And pretzels are exactly what that tastes like.
00:10:39
Speaker
Burned bread. It's really good. I really, really love this cigar. Yeah, and of course we have some interesting pairings to go with this tonight. ah i
00:10:50
Speaker
up i don't have a theme like I do sometimes, but I have something crazy. And it's not the first one that I'm about to tell you about. So let's get into some pairing here. Sam Finnell says a pinch hitter is ah when you have a better batter than the player who's supposed to be batting in a close game and you sub them out.
00:11:09
Speaker
So I was. Oh, in a pinch. I get it. Not because you pinched your shoulder trip. You understand now. Thank you. Well, I knew it was in a pinch, but i there must be a different thing for there is a thing where like you have somebody bat and somebody else run.
00:11:24
Speaker
but I can't remember what that's called. ah But let's get into some pairing here. So my first pairing that I can blame Dennis for, if it's bad, is from Imprint Brewing.
00:11:35
Speaker
They were founded in Hatfield, Pennsylvania in 2018 by friends Ryan Deal and Richard Sidman. Did you get it? i got something. Oh, my. um Okay. They're a brewery.
00:11:47
Speaker
they They have a what sounds like a very cool brewery. I know you've been there, right? To imprint. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's cool. It includes a coffee company,
Imprint Brewing and Beer Pairings
00:11:56
Speaker
pizza shop, an arcade, and a distillery.
00:11:59
Speaker
And, of course, a tap house. ah but It is basically like... um It's almost like if Chuck E. Cheese is... chuck Well, now Chuck Cheese is for adults, I guess, but... old Chuck E. Cheese from the If you designed Chuck E. Cheese specifically. If you designed it specifically for adults and you put all of the things that our age adult would kind of want experience. The distillery, the brewery, the pizza, the arcade.
00:12:24
Speaker
Just the space is really cool. And ah listen, man, it draws in a particular kind of crowd that's also sort of fun. So you can just go and sit down and chat with people and and have a great time. That sounds cool. I like it lot.
00:12:38
Speaker
Oh, Sam says a pinch runner is what I was thinking of. You get a faster runner than the original batter. I don't know why, but pinch runner doesn't sound as cool as a pinch hitter. I know. I understand the value of running. It's very important.
00:12:51
Speaker
Second only to the batter, but I don't know. I don't know. I'll have to think about this one. All right. So I am drinking from imprint brewing mucho fruto smoochie.
00:13:05
Speaker
Oh my God. I know this isn't the same smoogee you had. um This is not the smoogee I had, but I did have a smoogee and it was, well, actually I still have it in the fridge for you. I think, I think you said you were saving me one.
00:13:17
Speaker
um But this one is, as you can see from those beautiful skelly hands holding it. um this This one is raspberry blue, sorry, blue raspberry ice cream with a lemon and coconut sprinkles.
00:13:32
Speaker
Oh, I don't know about that. That seems... Yeah, don't know. So this is blueberry, raspberry, vanilla ice cream, and a touch of lemon and coconut on their, um I think, lactose base.
00:13:47
Speaker
No, it just says sour ale with blue raspberry ice cream, lemon, and coconut. um Yeah, this should be interesting. Oh, and this is also, I forgot to mention, this is a ah collaboration beer with electric brewing.
00:14:02
Speaker
I didn't take much on. Oh, so ah electric brewing is over in... um Where's electric? and Now I have to... I would guess... Is it Pittsburgh?
00:14:17
Speaker
That's the electric city?
00:14:21
Speaker
Electric Brewing Company is a bar located in Moreno, which is in California. but Maybe that's the electric city. Who knows? Everybody's got an electric city at this point.
00:14:35
Speaker
Who knows, man?
00:14:38
Speaker
um Just to ah get to Sam's comment before I miss it, because we're getting into our first pairing, his first pairing is Papas Fridas with a mango margarita.
00:14:50
Speaker
Oh, hell yeah, man. Cool. I really miss the Pappas Fridas. This beer is better than I was expecting it to be. But I will let you tell us about your first pairing before I ah got get it into further details about it.
00:15:08
Speaker
Yes, sir. but let me You know what I really need to do is, as I talk about it, need take a sip
00:15:16
Speaker
and experience something that was made ah probably during the wintertime. So I'm drinking ah beer. Well, I should probably... Let me tell you about the brewery first.
00:15:27
Speaker
Because I'm very interested to tell you about the style. Because think it's style that you really dig as well. um Check out this nice. I can't get this camera on here.
00:15:39
Speaker
There's so many screens. I need fewer screens. I can actually make show people stuff. There we go. You know what I was just thinking? It's kind of metallic. we should explore the option of is getting a second camera for each of us and having a beer cam.
00:15:53
Speaker
So we can just have like a beauty cam that's a close-up of the beer. You know what? I think that's a really great idea. We should do that. I'm going to look into the possibility of doing that. That could be fun.
00:16:04
Speaker
That could be fun. Count me in, man. And I do have a perfect little table next to me that that I use for all the cans. So this one is called Oshore.
00:16:17
Speaker
Oshore. Kind of cute design there. There it is. Now you can kind of see it. It's a metallic can. That's an awesome label. It just reflects on the camera.
00:16:28
Speaker
But this is from Gusto or Gusto Brewing, depending on how you want to say it, down in Cape May, down in Cape May, New Jersey. And this has been on my list for a while.
00:16:40
Speaker
I had never, I've been in and around the area, but there's so many breweries in just the general area of Cape May in Jersey. There's so many breweries everywhere. Obviously Cape May Brewing Company, which is, I think, well-known. don't know if they distribute to Florida. I don't believe so.
00:16:56
Speaker
No? Okay. i They definitely get out of state. I just don't know how far. um So Augusta was one of those breweries that I haven't really had a chance to visit. It's been on my list for a really long time.
00:17:07
Speaker
Finally, a couple weeks back, made it over there, picked up some beer, tried some stuff, was really just impressed with what they were doing. They're doing milk
Gusto Brewing and Farmhouse Saison Characteristics
00:17:16
Speaker
tubes down there, which is nuts. man, I got to get up there.
00:17:19
Speaker
I'm dying for a milk tube, man. It's such a cool space. It's not massive, but they have a side pull tap. They're doing a lot of interesting beers. And, ah you know, as I go to breweries, I tend to think, well, what am I going to, what could I possibly pair with a cigar? right It's always on my mind. I'm always thinking about this.
00:17:36
Speaker
And i try to pick up stuff. Sometimes I know I have a good feeling it's going to work. Other times I think, ah, you know, it's probably not going to work. We'll see. Let's try it. So Gustav Brewing Company has been around not that long. They're fairly new. Started in 2018 by, again, this is the classic story. We talk about it almost every show when we have beer.
00:17:57
Speaker
Two friends that basically said, hey, we like making beer. Let's let's do this thing kind of full time. It's always like kind of two guys that are like, you know what we should do someday? We should start a brewery.
00:18:09
Speaker
And then ah seems like 2018 was the time to do this. ah They suddenly went, you know what? Let's quit our jobs and actually start a brewery. You know, it's funny you say that because 2018...
00:18:22
Speaker
And then 2019, to a large degree, those were the two years where all of these people started launching these new breweries and had dumped all their money into breweries, and then COVID hit.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yeah. And we saw so many breweries just completely disappear off the face of the earth because they couldn't they couldn't afford to stay open. Well, and COVID also kind of heralded the slowing of the beer business.
00:18:50
Speaker
um or the beer cocktails to go exploded. Yeah. Cocktails that exploded. um ah Teltzer exploded, um not drinking exploded.
00:19:01
Speaker
And so a lot of, a lot of breweries started slowing down a lot, right as right after COVID hit. So it was, which was really bad because they thought, you know, we can make it a couple months. And then people will start coming in again.
00:19:14
Speaker
And it never got back to the way it was in 2018, 2019, because that's when the beer market was insane.
00:19:25
Speaker
Speaking of, now, I didn't say what I'm drinking. I'm very curious because of the color. it's So the color, you see, is this really interesting straw. So I think probably you would think this is a sour or this is a some kind of pseudo-hazy. Yeah, maybe some kind of IPA.
00:19:41
Speaker
a dirty pilsner, if you will. um It's not, man. It's actually a Cezanne, which is not a typical color for a Cezanne. This one is really cool because this is a spelt-based Cezanne, which is a type of wheat.
00:19:54
Speaker
um And it's interesting because Cezanne is one of those styles that classically was made back in the olden days for farm workers. It would be brewed in the wintertime. They'd be ready for the summer, and farm workers would drink it kind of to refresh themselves. It's generally considered really effervescent,
00:20:10
Speaker
Pretty lightweight on the alcohol, pretty lightweight on the body, just crisp, refreshing, easy drinking kind of beer. You would all often find growlers of this stuff just sort of sitting out on a table.
00:20:22
Speaker
So sometimes you'll hear people say ah table beer. Sometimes table beer is a on which region you're in on occasion. Table beer a lot of the time is Saison or Saison adjacent.
00:20:35
Speaker
Yeah, they're they're really close. Generally, it's much like table wine. It's meant to be something that sort of works with almost anything and um is just accessible for most palates, which is really nice.
00:20:48
Speaker
Is that also kind of what a farmhouse ale is? Pretty close, right? They're very, very similar. So this is a farmhouse saison. A farmhouse ale is just basically a slight...
00:20:59
Speaker
It's less, typically it's a little bit less ah kind of spice forward. Spice not in the heat, obviously, but spice in the sort of the character. Spice in the character of an entire spice cabinet being put into the beer.
00:21:15
Speaker
That's kind of what a Saison makes me think of. It's like sticking your face in the spice cabinet and going...
00:21:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's got that funk to it. It's like if you you smell the cabinet, but you also smell the spices. It's that like mix of kind of funky wood, yeah like old wooden cabinet plus the spices. That's that's a great way to put actually.
00:21:36
Speaker
Earthy, herbal, generally lower alcohol. This one in particular 5.1. I had to double check the can. It's 5.1, but typically you'll see this ranging between 3.5 about seen too going over i haven't really seen too many going over But I wanted this for the first pairing specifically because of the the bubbles.
00:21:57
Speaker
I think there's that, you know, that first third we talk about it being sometimes a little bit. I certainly complain about it often, but the first third is kind of that like it's almost a throwaway for me.
00:22:09
Speaker
Some cigars, not all cigars. Yeah. It's the warm-up time. It's the... I'm not sure where this is going to go. I need it to give it time to warm up, but also I need my palate to not be completely jacked.
00:22:21
Speaker
Yeah, that's that's kind of to pivot back to my pairing, to segue deftly. How is that going?
00:22:29
Speaker
ah I like kind of a lighter, um more...
00:22:37
Speaker
I like a less complimentary pairing for my first pairing. Um, like something like this, that's got a little bit of sour, a little bit of brightness, a little bit of fruit, um, where it's really playing against what is going on with the cigar.
00:22:51
Speaker
Um, I find works really well with the first third, especially, um, it can also work well with the final third, but you can also have your palate kind of heavy at that point. Um, and hard to taste something that's kind of on the lighter side like this.
00:23:04
Speaker
So, um, This beer, forgot to show it on camera, I think, before, but it's very pink. Kind of a pale grapefruit color. Yeah, man. you know and it's It's one of those beers, that series that series specifically, is a tough series to pour into a glass because you see as you're getting all that like that funk.
00:23:24
Speaker
There's a lot of sediment. it's discon It would be disconcerting, I think, to most people that are not used to this kind of thing. I know you and I are because we drink a lot of sours. Typically, the sours have that residual funkiness to them.
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah, and this one, like, it doesn't quite show up on camera, but there's a lot of pectin in here. You can kind of see those bits staying in suspension. Oh, yeah. Like, they'll float right here, and you'll move the glass around. Oh, I actually put my finger right on one that you can see on camera little Yeah.
00:23:54
Speaker
But you move the glass around and it stays at the same level. They don't swash around and go up and down um like most floating bits in liquid would. And it's just kind of got that like sticky, almost jello-y kind of mouthfeel.
00:24:09
Speaker
I love It's really If you weren't kidding about Smoojie Man, this is legit. For the flavor... So interesting. The whole series is fascinating. For the flavor, i I know I've told you this before, Dennis. I don't know if I've talked about on the show. I hate blueberry.
00:24:25
Speaker
Blueberry is one of those flavors to me that's just like, ugh, I hate it. um This has just enough blueberry that it blues up that flavor without tasting like blueberry. um So you get that blue raspberry thing going on.
00:24:38
Speaker
Now, we've talked about this briefly over the years, but I think the thing that sticks to my head is usually the octopus, no pun intended, of the octopus that you don't like, um and eggs.
00:24:50
Speaker
Those are the big ones. Eggs and octopus. Yeah. And so blueberry at some point was crossed my mind, but is it the fake blueberry or is it the, or is it like an actual?
00:25:03
Speaker
Actual blueberry. I just don't like the flavor. Actual blueberry. Okay. So you like, do you like fake blueberry?
00:25:10
Speaker
Like blueberry flavored stuff? Not really. I usually gravitate away from that stuff. Like I'll deal with a wild berry pop tart or whatever. But I'm not a fan of it.
00:25:22
Speaker
All right, so you you push it pretty far. Yeah, because those are pretty blueberry. those are But I never just will eat just a straight blueberry. That will not happen. Or like a blueberry pie or anything like that.
00:25:35
Speaker
so An octopus stuffed with blueberries. Or an octopus stuffed with eggs with a blueberry jam on the side. I talked about this last year at PCA.
00:25:47
Speaker
Oh, we're doing octopus, right? Yeah, so the guys from ah Tobacco's Del Artesano No, sorry, Artesano Del Tobacco's um have assured me, he they're like, we're going to go get octopus next year.
00:26:02
Speaker
It's going to happen. You have to eat octopus and it has to be with us. Alright, I'll do it. I will say one thing. I'm not doing the old boy. I'm not stuffing a whole live octopus in my mouth, but I will eat some octopus, yes.
00:26:15
Speaker
No, no, I could never do the live thing. Definitely. it's It's off my list as well. But I will say this. The octopus cannot be sourced from anywhere within that state. If that's a swamp octopus, I don't want it, man.
00:26:29
Speaker
That's a good point. It it ain't happening, and dude. it's kind there The Gulf of Mexico is pretty pretty good. It has pretty good seafood. It needs to have a certificate of authenticity from somewhere far away. It needs to speak a different language.
00:26:43
Speaker
That's what I need. I need some reassurance that it's not like from some lady that has a pond in her backyard where she also raises frogs. Cultivating octopi.
00:26:54
Speaker
um Cephalopods? They're cephalopods, aren't they? Yes, they are. They are. Cephalopods are gross. Men in black, baby. That's how I learned all my big words from movies.
00:27:06
Speaker
And specifically, most of them came from men in black, right? that's true To update you guys on what's going on with Sam Finnell, his wife has stolen his margarita at this point, and he he has moved on to his second pairing.
00:27:18
Speaker
A thief in the night. G4 and yayo, which is a tequila. well Before we move on to our second pairing, Dennis, how is your first pairing going? but i'm that I think I hit it, man. I really hit it. And I'm not just saying it because I've been craving a Saison for so long.
00:27:33
Speaker
I haven't brewed one myself in a while. I think I'm going to add that to the list, man, for for next summer. Nice. But I love how refreshing it is. And it's so refreshing that I forgot about my cigar. and My cigar went out.
00:27:46
Speaker
I was just getting down into the beer, man. Yeah, mine almost went out, actually, because we we got to talking there. Which is fine. got distracted. It's okay. people get so People get really sensitive about, oh, man, the cigar keeps going out. It's a piece of shit. I'm going to throw it out. Well, you know consider that it's also how fast you're smoking it, where you're sitting.
00:28:05
Speaker
Yeah, many times it could be your fault. It's really, and I think I want to say, let's... Not necessarily, I wouldn't say fault, but right it's a theres there are other considerations that go into why a cigar could be yeah going out regularly.
00:28:20
Speaker
yeah i should Beyond construction. ah i'll I'll amend that statement. It's probably your fault. When my cigar goes out, strike it's almost definitely my fault. um there's I've only run into a handful of cigars that like are going out on their own.
00:28:36
Speaker
where it's not, oh, I got distracted watching a movie or talking to somebody or looking at my phone or whatever, where I'm, um my ADD is kicked in and it's, oh, it's been eight minutes that I, my cigar has been sitting and the at the ashtray.
00:28:50
Speaker
and And listen, certain tobaccos, as we've seen, we both experienced this. Some tobaccos, you cannot even, you can't even put it out with water. Yeah. It's wild.
00:29:01
Speaker
Some of these things burn like you wouldn't believe. Yeah. Yeah, man. So what do you think of the cigar? How far are you in so far? First third still? Yeah, definitely still first third. I forgot to note this imprint beer. The smoochy is six and a half percent ABV.
Peanut Butter Stout and IPA Brewing Challenges
00:29:16
Speaker
I forgot to mention that.
00:29:19
Speaker
um All right, let's move on to our next pairing. ah Mine is going to be what I consider a classic. It's been a little couple months since I've had this one on the show. ah Coming from Left Hand Brewing, they were founded 1993 in Longmont, kind Colorado.
00:29:34
Speaker
With a homebrew kit and a dream. It was just a dude with homebrew kit who thought, ah you know, the beer that I'm brewing at home tastes pretty good, so I bet I could sell it. And he started bottling his homebrewed beer until he had enough money to actually invest in real brewing equipment.
00:29:51
Speaker
um This is their left-hand milk stout with peanut butter flavor added. Natural peanut butter flavor. I think you and I go through these peanut butter waves every now and again where yeah we start exploring what's the newest peanut butter thing.
00:30:04
Speaker
I mean, this one is not new. This one's been around for like 15 years. Um, the peanut butter one. Yeah. It's been around for a long time. It's only recently, to my knowledge, become like regular production.
00:30:15
Speaker
Um, some of the liquor stores around here just have it, uh, in stock all the time. It's not like super old or anything. This was brewed. Packaged in February, which was about when I bought this February or March.
00:30:30
Speaker
Um, it So this is a peanut butter stout. It's black. It has a little thin kind light brown pan head, I'll call it.
00:30:44
Speaker
um But it doesn't pour with too much head.
00:30:47
Speaker
Man, I can't wait for my last pairing. I feel like I'm just cruising through the pairings trying to get to this last one because I can't wait to try it. I have not tasted yet. Is it a wild pairing? I think it might be.
00:30:59
Speaker
Is it the wildest one of the night, or have you already kind of... No, it's the wildest one of the night. Oh, it is? Oh, boy. I don't even know what to expect from it. I've never tasted anything like it.
00:31:11
Speaker
Wow. That's a... Considering the amount of things that that collectively between you and I, we have experienced. I don't think you've ever tasted anything like this, which is why I'm i'm really excited for it. But for now, I'm going to slow it down with some left-hand milk stout with peanut butter.
00:31:28
Speaker
um This is, for me, one of the best peanut butter beers. um But I haven't tasted in a while. So let's see let's see what I think this time and how it goes with the Liga Provada Savage Feast.
00:31:39
Speaker
almost called it just the Liga Provada 10. all right, what do you got up next? and Oh, man. Yep, I think I hit it again a little too hard, and it reminded me that that little tippy-tap in the back of the throat of, like, stop smoking it so fast.
00:31:57
Speaker
it's It's got some bite to it. Well, by I just shouldn't say bite. It's got some power to it. it is a It is meant to be respected, I should say.
00:32:08
Speaker
Yeah, this a very strong cigar. Not for the faint of heart. No, definitely or the week of will. ah Aren't they the same sometimes? ah Yeah, so let me show you what I got. I'm going back to Gusto because i i was so excited to be there and to try a couple of beers and to take some stuff home. And um again, I crossed it off my list, so that was great.
00:32:32
Speaker
But... This one I've had quite a few of already, and i've I've been kind of digging in on this. and It's it's a really interesting IPA called, if you can see, a troubled seas.
00:32:44
Speaker
Look that fun. Very, very cute little little art there. It's nice little art, right? So it's a ship in a bottle. There's a storm there.
00:32:56
Speaker
That's pretty much the whole thing, but.
00:32:59
Speaker
um What I didn't mention about Gusto but is that they are New Jersey's southernmost brewery. Oh, interesting. Which kind of fun. And they are probably like four, maybe five minutes at most away from the ferry.
00:33:13
Speaker
So it's the Cape May Luce Ferry, the ferry that goes from Cape May to... um
00:33:20
Speaker
What's the state that's across the street? across Delaware. from the Delaware. Where? Delaware, yes. So, um yeah, it's right there. It's by the ferry. So, of course, nautical-inspired things are always fun. This one is an IPA, hazy IPA in particular. I should have mentioned that.
00:33:37
Speaker
like That's pretty hazy. To me, it's always a selling point when I see an IPA that's to that color. It's a good selling point. Now, i this is a double. I should have mentioned that as well.
00:33:50
Speaker
This comes in a double, and I say that specifically because this is 8%. But when you look at it... it You kind of figure like, all right, maybe six. It's kind of like a single IPA, baby. It's a hazy pale, potentially. It comes in an 8%, man.
00:34:09
Speaker
And, dude, it's... When we talk about IPAs, and I know your proclivities for IPAs in particular, this is a beer. This is like a you beer. Hell yeah. It's all over.
00:34:20
Speaker
It's flaked wheat, malted wheat, flaked oats, malted oats. The amount of wheats and oats that are in here to really give it that natural that natural haze and that natural mouthfeel is awesome.
00:34:35
Speaker
And again, those things are really kind of a pain in the ass to brew with. When you get to a certain point where you're adding oats to that degree, you're getting you can get some gumminess. you get i it's just ah It's kind of a pain to work with.
00:34:49
Speaker
in large volumes but if you can figure out a process to do it it's completely worth it man because the mouthfeel is like it's like licking satin pillow it's so nice i know because you say you always talk about licking the rock right you talk about it's like it's like rock so what i thought you were gonna say is even funnier and that's why i laughed so hard What, licking the Quaker Oat Man? and No, in in my head, what you were about to say was it's like licking of velvet tracksuit.
00:35:21
Speaker
Oh. Oh, my. I kind of like that better, ah actually. Oh, my chair is breaking. Well, don't get too excited now. We're going to switch you off the beer. We're going to bring you back to the spirits.
00:35:37
Speaker
Um... Oh, and I also wanted to share some fun facts for you. Do it. Because I think everybody loves fun facts. So um I'd mentioned the the whole sea theme. It's inescapable, especially the closer you get to anybody, a water in the state of New Jersey. People, for whatever reason, have this urge to just tell you the obvious.
00:35:58
Speaker
you're You're down the shore. Okay. Okay. On the beach. I know I'm down the shore. I'm sitting on the beach. Thanks for telling me, buddy. ah And everywhere you go, it's so pervasive. And it's a lovely part of Jersey, like kind of Jersey shore culture that doesn't get enough enough weird love. um And yeah. And so this brewery, if you're ever in New Jersey, absolutely stop by. It's a small place. They do very small batches.
00:36:24
Speaker
Tiny, tiny, tiny batches. Like sometimes you'll see a beer come out and it's it's basically homebrew size batch. Five gallons. Wow. Yeah. And they just like to play with stuff. and And I think it's really cool when you scale things down.
00:36:39
Speaker
In a sense, it's a different kind of problem because now you but first, obviously, you have the opportunity to play with more things. But in a sense, now you can't really mess it up.
00:36:51
Speaker
You don't have that margin of error that normally you would have with a larger batch. Because it's so small, you have to make sure that you're you're ah every step of the process is just right. Otherwise, the time is gone. you know Regardless of the batch size, big batch, small batch, it's always going to be that same thing. If you screw it up, chances are going to lose time, probably going to lose you know whatever you put in.
00:37:14
Speaker
ah But I like that they're doing that approach kind of backwards in a sense. Very exciting. Great beer. I don't know if I can keep a can for you. i'm gonna right but That's all right. and I won't blame you. but um ah Also, IPAs generally don't last that long.
00:37:31
Speaker
it's It's hard. When they're fresh, it's really hard. And I don't actually... should have checked the can. If there's a canned date, there's not. Oh, so, so that's the thing about IPAs that I think a lot of people don't give enough credit to is the the, just how much time impacts an IPA.
00:37:48
Speaker
um Like if you buy four pack or six pack or whatever, and if you drink one every week for four or six weeks, you will notice a difference between the first one and the last one, especially like even, even just one week.
00:38:05
Speaker
Can make a difference. If it's already six months old, that experiment is going to do nothing. um But if you can get something that is pretty fresh, um that's only three, six weeks, maybe at the most old, um those that time really makes but
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah, I think gone are the days when we had those IPAs that could sit on a shelf for six months to a year and you could drink it and still what you would still experience some level hop. But it would be a different level of hop. It would be more of a like Stone Ruination, what I think was a good example back then.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah, Stone Ruination is a fantastic example of an IPA that is made to be as shelf stable as an IPA can be. These days, IPAs are not made that way. IPAs are made to be drank as fresh as humanly possible. um If you're able to drink it right out of the kettle, that's the best way to drink it.
00:39:01
Speaker
That's what they say. Your culture is so interesting. It really is. It's been getting weirder and weirder over the years. Certain trends, like anything else, it's cyclical in nature. comes back. Certain trends will come back.
00:39:14
Speaker
And it's at this point, I think a lot of us have seen these things happen and kind of giggle to ourselves going. I remember when that happened in 2006. It was so hot in 2006 and everyone forgot about it. Now it's coming back.
00:39:27
Speaker
Yep. It's great.
00:39:30
Speaker
So but how is that pairing going? It's dark, man. It's real dark. um yeah like you know a A milk stout, it's got that sweetness. it's got It says on the can, 25 IBUs. It's got a little bit of bitterness.
00:39:45
Speaker
um It's got a lot of like that roastiness. It's like a dark chocolate bar. It's not nitro. No, this is not the nitro version. I do think the nitro version would be better.
00:39:59
Speaker
um But the nitro version, I believe, is limited release and limited production or whatever. Maybe that's what I saw. I don't remember. I could have been. This version is is regular production.
00:40:10
Speaker
That is just the regular milk stout with peanut butter. um I think, the and at least for me, the nitro version is harder to get. ah haven't seen it around here very much.
00:40:22
Speaker
I got it once a couple years ago, but it's been a while since I've seen it. um But, man, there's a ton of peanut butter flavor in this, a ton of chocolate. as far as the, the flavorings go, I don't believe they're adding any kind of chocolate whatsoever.
00:40:35
Speaker
All that chocolate is just coming from, um, the fact that this is left-hand milk stout, that milk, um, mixed with those roasted grains really adds to like that, that chocolate factor.
00:40:48
Speaker
Um, and it works really well with the cigar. Um, it kind of brings a different depth to the earthiness and the spice for me. The sweetness is still pretty much the same, but the earth and the spice kind of get amped up a little bit by having those complimentary flavors.
00:41:07
Speaker
And what's the ah quick thing on the peanut butter? What's the, what do you think that peanut butter Is is it Because we have this kind of back and forth over the years, right, of with with different peanut butter beers.
00:41:18
Speaker
Sometimes it's, like, rested on actual peanut butter, and then they spend all this extra time trying to clean up all the oils, or they'll do a powder, or they'll do a... Crushed peanuts or something like that. Crushed peanuts. Or a, more commonly now, it's been um the extractives. I think this is flavor extractives.
00:41:39
Speaker
Yeah. Um, that's my guess is that this is something along the lines of like that, uh, the, the stuff at Starbucks becomes those big pumps there. They just pump three pumps of peanut butter flavor into your coffee or whatever.
00:41:53
Speaker
Um, I think that's kind of the stuff, the kind of stuff they're using here is just that natural flavoring. Um, but in this case, it really works. Like, um, as, as we know,
00:42:08
Speaker
Peanut butter is one of those ingredients that, like, it doesn't really make sense to use real peanuts or real peanut butter because of that fat situation you end up with where you either end up with a beer that is unusable. Like, you can't package a beer that's got...
00:42:26
Speaker
yeah fat floating on the top and stuff. It's the fat thing. It's the the head retention. It's going to significantly impact head retention. Yeah, it's going to destroy your head retention. um It will also go... Go ah go rancid, yeah.
00:42:38
Speaker
Yeah, it'll go rancid, too. So the beer itself will kind of be fine. Then you'll have this layer of just toxic sludge at the top. But I'm always fascinated. It's bad ingredient to use, in my opinion. and And you know how much I love peanut butter. like the So then powdered peanut butter and...
00:42:53
Speaker
ah peanut butter extract become the but de facto things to use. And, ah you know, but sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. In most of our experiences, like peanut butter, just peanut butter beers sound great on paper, but they're rarely good.
00:43:13
Speaker
This is a very good one. I've had some very bad ones. I've had a couple of great ones. I do claw. Yeah, Duclos is the other brewery that I've had. I think de facto standard is Duclos.
00:43:31
Speaker
What about your your second pairing there, that IPA? How's working with this cigar?
River North Brewery and Barrel-aged Beer
00:43:36
Speaker
It was working really great until I noticed that my glass is about to explode in my hand because there' a massive crack in it. Oh, no.
00:43:44
Speaker
One of my very many... glass one of my very many Frenet glasses. And it's a funny thing because whenever I restock my Frenet bottles, it so happens that the local store has a the a ton of the Christmas gift boxes.
00:43:59
Speaker
It's the same price as the regular bottle of Frenet, but comes a glass. And nobody drinks Frenet down here. Yeah, so they might you're the only person that's going to go through that stock.
00:44:10
Speaker
So i'm the guy. Those and the the gin, Jem Shembo, that has the glasses. And now they have different colored glasses. I got a bunch of blue ones. Now I need the orange ones.
00:44:21
Speaker
Nice.
00:44:24
Speaker
All right. Well, I guess that brings us to our last pairing. And I got a doozy for you. I'm going to do some history first and then I will reveal it. um So they're called River North Brewery.
00:44:36
Speaker
aerospace engineer named Matthew Hess. Uh, he got tired of the process of being an aerospace engineer. i read an interview with him and he said that he was kind of tired of this process where how creative he can be and how, how much interesting work he can do is entirely dependent on Congress and what their funding of, uh, airplanes, you know, um,
00:45:04
Speaker
aviation What their aviation funding looks like. what What is it with aerospace engineers? This is like the seventh time. There's a lot. It's ah it's of an engineer saying this. This is the first time I've heard the story of why, though. And it makes a lot of sense that there's, you know, they get into this field because they're crazy smart.
00:45:22
Speaker
And they want to design arab airplane stuff, spaceship stuff. A friend of mine used to work for Boeing. And he was like, I like the job. I like that I work at Boeing, but I can't do anything. I just have to sit around and wait.
00:45:37
Speaker
And so he he quit and is now a software developer for, think he's at Amazon now. Wow. And he's fantastic at it. So it's crazy how that works. Sorry.
00:45:49
Speaker
ah Yeah. So this segue Matt has, he, he got tired of that. he would be on a project that he was really passionate about. And then all of a sudden they say, well, we lost funding for that thing. So we're getting rid of it.
00:46:00
Speaker
ah You're back to designing airfoils for tires. I don't know. And he got really tired of that and wanted something he could control. Um, and he had been home brewing for a few years. So in 2011, he was like, you know what to going to start a brewery.
00:46:18
Speaker
And he did. Um, so he left his job and went into business in 2012. Uh, they actually opened in what was the former flying dog brewery. Um, with, um,
00:46:32
Speaker
with a 15 barrel brew system and two 30 barrel tanks or 15 barrel tank and two 30 barrel tanks. Um, so they could really yeah moving.
00:46:43
Speaker
Um, they were there for a few years, but eventually redevelopment plans for the building, uh, forced them to move out. So they got actually a larger location. That was like three times larger.
00:46:54
Speaker
um
00:46:56
Speaker
Sorry, I had the gas from that smoochy coming back to bite me. The boobles are coming up. The boobles. um So they moved into a larger building. um Since then, they've been doing well. Their plan has always been and always will be, they say, to brew exclusively Belgian-style beers.
00:47:15
Speaker
um they started doing a lot of barrel aging. And then once they moved into that larger building, they really expanded their barrel aging. And the, the founder and head brewer says, basically he wants to barrel age anything and everything possible.
00:47:30
Speaker
It's just a question of how much, how many people will buy it. Um, so he's making like, if he had his say, he would barrel age every single one of their beers. They would brew nothing but crazy barrel age beers, but you know, that's not always what sells, but does pretty well. So he's,
00:47:46
Speaker
They have an ever-expanding barrel aging program.
00:47:51
Speaker
I thought this was just a really interesting thing ah that when brewing, they frequently will split the bat the pilot batch. So they'll brew like, don't know, 20-gallon pilot look batch or something like that.
00:48:05
Speaker
ah They'll split it into four separate fermenters so that they can use four different yeasts. Because his favorite ingredient is yeast, And so he is huge on finding what yeast makes this beer as good as it can be.
00:48:19
Speaker
um And he said that he's done that three or four times where he'll make the same batch three or four times. And each time he's splitting it to try different yeast so that he can figure out what's the best. Almost everything they use is Belgian-style yeast, which is cool.
00:48:36
Speaker
um Yeah. And now on to the beer. Is it a quick question for Do you know, talking about the East, you know if they're doing in-house, if their lab is in-house? or they I believe believe they said it is, but I'm not certain.
00:48:48
Speaker
I wouldn't be surprised, I think, with with that level of coming from that career field, getting into beer, probably they do everything in-house. I would think so. um So on to the beer.
00:48:59
Speaker
This is called The Last Guardian. I don't know why that color makes me feel weird. Really? um so this is It tells me it's intense. Sorry, go ahead. It's very intense. So this is the double barrel-aged version of their Last Guardian. Last Guardian is their Abbey-style ale, which i't I couldn't figure out what an actual what what kind of generally an Abbey-style ale is other than a Belgian-style.
00:49:26
Speaker
ah It's a long story. and The long story short of the Abbey thing is that it was just a... Some people argue that it was a real thing. Other people argue that it was just a thing at a particular time period in Belgium where basically you had monasteries and small sects of brewers that it it was like a... Almost like a guild of brewers in a sense.
00:49:50
Speaker
And... These abbeys, if you will, but the norman can control nomenclature of the time came out to be like, these are the abbeys of the day. It died out for a long time. And then people, when, you know, modern times came around, they wanted to bring back this excitement for beer and make it special because they started selling beer out of outside of the country.
00:50:10
Speaker
They were like, oh, this is an abbe beer. Those people have no idea what the hell that means. We can make it sound really cool and really fancy. um So yes and no. There's some some parts to it where it's kind of its own style, but only because it's specific to a a particular guild, particular, could be ah even a monastery, or even a specific type of yeast that's available in a particular street.
00:50:34
Speaker
I looked it up. Yes. ah And you're you're pretty much right. um Specifically, what it means these days... is that it is a Trappist-style beer.
00:50:47
Speaker
They can't use the word Trappist if they're not monks. um So they call it Abbey style.
00:50:55
Speaker
Well, they were stealing the thunder, and they were selling it overseas, and they needed something. Basically, the monks got pissed off. Definitely. That's definitely what it is. Stop doing this. Stop doing the thing. It's like champagne. Champagne.
00:51:06
Speaker
You can't call it champagne unless it's from champagne. Yeah. And very and specifically produced. Using the word Trappist is the same way. There's very specific restrictions on who's not allowed to and not allowed to.
00:51:17
Speaker
But the let's get to the craziness of this. This is the fourth release of this beer, the 2025 vintage. um It is first aged in Colorado rye barrels.
00:51:29
Speaker
and then moved Colorado whiskey barrels. um I'm going to assume that's most likely Stranahan, um but who knows? It could be any distillery in Colorado.
00:51:44
Speaker
There are quite a bit a few big ones, too. This is the main... the star of the show, which I won't focus there. Is that a butt?
00:51:54
Speaker
It looks like a butt. No, it says to be shared. It has one glass and it says has a line through it and has two glasses. And then under that, it says 24.1. twenty four point one percent alcohol by volume mother of satan's underwear what in the hell is that that's a lot of alcohol that's a lot beer it's crazy for a beer so uh what you guys missed is uh we started at like 801 802 I had to go in and give my dad a glass for this. I'm not trying to drink 12 ounces of 24.1% ABV because I will not be able to work tomorrow.
00:52:33
Speaker
um So I haven't tasted this yet. I'm expecting it to be insane flavors. Oh, you've never had it? Okay. All right. um This is what it looks like. Oh, my God. It looks dark brown. Smells very barrel aged.
00:52:47
Speaker
I wonder if those barrels were half full when they barrel-aged this. Because that would so would help with this abv does it Did you say, was there an age statement to this?
00:52:59
Speaker
Yeah, this one is the 2025 vintage. i assume that means packed in 2025. Well, no, I'm sorry. I meant um not the vintage, but how long was it in the barrel? Oh, no, they don't say.
00:53:10
Speaker
um They just say this is the kind of imperial version of their Last Guardian Abbey-style golden ale that is aged in Colorado and rye whiskey barrels. That's so interesting. and i And I wonder, and they, I guess if they added spirit to it, they would have to disclose.
00:53:27
Speaker
I mean, that's another part of this that, like, look at that color. That's a golden ale. Or it was when it went into a barrel. I mean, this has to be aged for like a minimum of a year, right? like um but i say I would argue even more than that. the I almost said two, because that would make sense to me.
00:53:47
Speaker
Two years for this color coming from a golden ale, because it's like it's just got so much barrel influence in the color alone. um So I'm going to give it a sniff, take a couple take couple draws on my cigar and see how it pairs.
00:54:01
Speaker
I think we all have to watch you take this first sip. This is important. Let me get the camera on me. You be quiet so that it doesn't cut away.
00:54:14
Speaker
ah It's like candy. It's so sweet. It's like drinking maple syrup whiskey. Oh, really? it's not but I would expect it to be really boozy. Oh, no, it's crazy boozy, too.
00:54:28
Speaker
ah But it's like overpoweringly sugar forward.
00:54:37
Speaker
Interesting. I'm trying I'm thinking in my head, I'm thinking through the process. I'm and like, what? Like, how could you even get a beer to 24%? That's what's crazy about it. um And that's, again, part of my curiosity about the aging process.
00:54:53
Speaker
is in previous batches, this is the record-breaking batch for them at 24. They've been between 21 and 23 and a half in the past.
00:55:05
Speaker
That leads me to believe that we're talking about angels' share of beer, which leads me to believe like four or five years of aging. Yeah. and then force carbonating to get any kind of... I mean, there's still... There's not a lot of carbonation in this.
00:55:20
Speaker
No, I mean, you generally wouldn't want... The beers like that, the reason why oftentimes you don't see them carbonated heavily, is that's a choice. That's a distinct choice that's made. All of that nuance would get completely destroyed by the bubbles.
00:55:35
Speaker
Yeah, you would definitely. It's it's the um the aromatics are so fragile that if you put carbonation in it, as the bubbles escape, they'll start pulling out all of those volatile compounds, and you're just going to get like...
00:55:47
Speaker
piss water, essentially. Yeah. um Man, it's intense. that's really I'm going to take some more sips and try to wrap my head around this because it's crazy.
00:55:59
Speaker
it's I've never had a beer like this before. And that's why when I saw this, again, Tavor, I keep telling myself, like, Tavor is just sending the same beer to everybody in the country. Like, I want to get local stuff.
00:56:12
Speaker
And then they have beers like this on the app, and I'm like, but ah i I have to try that. I can't not try that one. I'm holding out. I've been holding out so long.
00:56:23
Speaker
i i I want to do it, but I know that I probably shouldn't. I'm holding out for now. And especially because I've been holding out on my final pairing of the night by joining their membership club.
00:56:35
Speaker
Oh, boy. i waited for a long, long, long time. And finally, when I was sitting and thinking, and want a beer. ah I don't want to drink alcohol.
00:56:46
Speaker
But I want a beer. One more note about don't want a near beer. Just one more note about this. I love it. This is a $26 beer. here The label is very pretty.
00:56:58
Speaker
It's at least $20 of those dollars went into the label. And the black wax. The little black wax.
Athletic Brewing's Non-Alcoholic Beer Success
00:57:03
Speaker
Oh, it was waxed. oh of course Of course it's waxed. All right, I'm going to take a couple steps, do some research, get back to you talking about what subscription did you sign up for? I signed up for Athletic Brewing Company, baby, because oh night it is um the hottest thing. I'm very curious, because I've been very tempted for a long time.
00:57:20
Speaker
Wait, you don't have one? No, I've just ordered some stuff from them.
00:57:25
Speaker
Oh. Okay. I thought you had... i was like Trip Scout when I need one, because Trip does the thing. We've got to do the thing. No, but maybe I'll sign up, because you did. Uh, you know what?
00:57:36
Speaker
I think it's great because number one, you have access to things that are generally not available. If you're not a member, the membership, made so curious it's not even expensive. I forgot what it was. It was like 10 bucks for the year or something like that. I,
00:57:51
Speaker
I don't know what it was, but it was incredibly cheap. You get a discount. You get things like free shipping if you order, ah i think, four or four packs or something like that. You can mix and match stuff, then you have access to things that are just for the members that signed up, limited edition things.
00:58:07
Speaker
I think the one that I'm drinking tonight is from that limited edition list. um But let's go back to what Athletic Brewing Company is. If you haven't heard about it by now, as Tripp likes to say, you've been living under a rock, and going to bring you out.
00:58:21
Speaker
I added the last part. um So Athletic Brewing Company was founded in 2017 by Bill Schuffelt, who previously was a hedge fund trader for a long time.
00:58:33
Speaker
And John Walker, who at the time was already an award-winning brewer. So a guy got sick of his job in a sense and said, I know a dude that can do this. I have a vision. I need a guy to make this happen.
00:58:44
Speaker
They teamed up, which is really cool. And, uh, Man, they just to think about this scale, when they started their production officially in 2018, so they kind of founded in 2017, got all their ducks in a row, so to speak, they started with 875 barrels.
00:59:02
Speaker
Wow. Which is a lot to start off with. But now, today, well, sorry, as of 2021, they're over 100,000 barrels of production per year.
00:59:13
Speaker
That's a crazy amount of beer. And I'm sure by 2025 now, I haven't seen the latest numbers, but it's got to be significantly more than that right at this point. I mean, how many did you say that was?
00:59:26
Speaker
What? How many barrels are they doing now? 100,000 as of 2021.
00:59:33
Speaker
So today, it's probably more than that. That's like 3 million gallons. It's a shitload of beer that's not beer, which is amazing. So, again, you know, I think they came in at a really great time because COVID hit. And to your point earlier, there was this boom of people not wanting to to really consume alcohol in the same way they did before.
00:59:53
Speaker
Social drinking changed, obviously, people sitting at home. So you had this shift where on one side people were... who are social drinkers previously stopped drinking. And then people that were not really heavy drinkers started drinking heavily alone.
01:00:07
Speaker
It was a very interesting time for everybody, but athletic, I think came in at the perfect time to to get hold of that market. um So it was something like market value wise, as of 2022, they hold just about 50% of the U S non-alcoholic craft beer market.
01:00:27
Speaker
So they represent about 50% of the entire market of non-alcoholic beers in the U.S., s which is crazy. Dude, O'Doul's must have a hit out on those guys. it's it's but Dude, it's O'Doul's.
01:00:38
Speaker
It's all of these. Corona's making stuff. Guinness is making stuff. Basically, Athletic came out and said, hey, we're doing this really cool, high-quality, sincerely, I would say very high-quality beer that's non-alcoholic.
01:00:50
Speaker
And everyone just kind of shat themselves in the moment and said, oh, we got to do this. We have to jump on this bandwagon. Yeah. We saw this with seltzers. i mean We saw this with sours. Think about how 15 years ago, O'Doul's was probably 80% the non-alcoholic beer market. 80% or more.
01:01:07
Speaker
um I think back then it was O'Doul's and it was... Was it St. Paul's Girl? Yeah. yeah I think O'Doul's and St. Paul's Girl. And then now Budweiser has one. um I think PBR has one as well now. But but anyway, the market's everybody has vastly different. Everybody's got one now.
01:01:25
Speaker
By 2024, this is crazy now, they are valued at just about $800 million. Wow. This brewery has a valuation of $800 million with about an annual revenue of $90 million, you know, plus, minus. Fine.
01:01:42
Speaker
Okay. But like this is the thing that that changed the world because people that were drinking beer and other people in the beer industry, they were making beer with alcohol, stopped and started to recognize them as an actual real brewer.
01:01:57
Speaker
So they won Brewer of the Year in 2021, which was wild. They won a bunch of different medals in international competitions and things. And so they got the respect of an industry that's been around for hundreds of years.
01:02:14
Speaker
Many well would argue how how old it's been around. But in our world, it's been around for as long as our... you At least most of us have been alive, right? um And yeah, so they changed the complete beer market. What I'm drinking tonight is kind of a beer. I'm reluctant to to necessarily call it a beer because it's a cocktail series that they released.
01:02:35
Speaker
So it's technically a beer, but it's it's really meant to be more of a adjunct sort of... ah beer adjacent. I mean, they're tackling stuff like this with that series, right? like Yeah, exactly. That series is fruity. It's a beer, but it's really it doesn't taste like a beer.
01:02:54
Speaker
It's meant to be something else. It's meant to be evocative of something a little bit different. it's it's I mean, in my case, I probably should have just told you what it was off the bat. I might have had this a couple weeks ago on the show. Ah, yes, you did. The Spritz.
01:03:09
Speaker
The Spritz. which is classic. The Aperol Spritz. If you enjoy a good Aperol Spritz, I think Trip and I do, i personally, I like Campari more. It's less sweet.
01:03:22
Speaker
But Aperol Spritz, wonderful thing to get into. Really nice orange flavor. They used... the prop They used the wrong color font. i won't tell you that.
01:03:34
Speaker
But I can't read a damn thing on this. I don't have my glasses now. Orange peel, natural flavor, bitter herbs, and it's colored with a little bit of beet juice.
01:03:46
Speaker
So it's not red. We talked about this last time. Now I remember. Look at that color. It's golden. So they use probably golden beets. but I mean, they had to, right? Maybe they, maybe they, uh, like in pink if these, maybe it was the thing where they, they put in like the ingredient list beats and whoever sourced the ingredients was like, all they got is golden beats.
01:04:07
Speaker
Um, so they got those. And so initially it had a different color and ended up this color. i don't know. Uh, it's a strange color for an Aperol Spritz. That's it's a strange color for an Aperol Spritz, but it's so spot on with the flavor, the bitterness.
01:04:21
Speaker
It's the pith. If you've never experienced the bitterness of a pith. Eat some marmalade. Some what? Marmalade.
01:04:32
Speaker
What you mean? It's made with the pith. Marmalade is made with the pith? Yeah. Haven't you had marmalade? I've had marmalade many times. like but It's like orange ah jelly that has orange peels in It's always been sickly sweet for me.
01:04:49
Speaker
No, it's very bitter. it's It's like shockingly bitter for a jelly. Like it's super sweet like ah like a normal jelly, but it has a distinct, intense bitterness because it includes those orange peels.
01:05:01
Speaker
Something must be really off with Soviet marmalade because it was sweet as hell. ah Rob Goodhart says it's orange rind, not the pith. I mean, the pith is there, though. Pith is part of the rind, right?
01:05:13
Speaker
Wait, what is he talking about? but In marmalade. Oh, marmalade is the rind. Like the orange skins are in there. Sure, sure, sure. that's Yeah, I guess. Slight technicality, but nonetheless. you get that bitterness.
01:05:26
Speaker
I love marmalade, dude. The bitterness is still there. I'm going to get some marmalade and please see if it's see if it's actually bitter. So I did mention, quick thing. He left Wall Street, man. He said, I'm not doing this anymore. I'm going to do this beer thing. So he actually was exploring his own sobriety and kind of had a vision for bringing beer to the people that are involved in sports and kind of want to have beer, but necessarily don't want to have the performance issues of, you know, you're drink sitting there, you're drinking beer, you got the alcohol in your system and you're training for something.
01:05:59
Speaker
um Hence the name athletic, which I think is kind of cool and fun. And dude, great marketing all around. i think the the the product, the packaging is really nice. The the the marketing and messages behind it, the support for all these things that they've been sponsoring across the U.S., all these major competitions, the Spartan Race, Ironman.
01:06:21
Speaker
I think they do professional football now. But just to feel good, i I don't remember the last time I felt good about a company. yeah It's a company. They have revenue. They make money. They have a profit, right, obviously.
01:06:35
Speaker
But it's a company that's doing something that has disrupted an entire industry with one idea, just like to a degree Liquid Death did with water. They took water and made it fun again.
01:06:49
Speaker
So anyway, the Spritz, you know the the story about the Spritz? I don't think so. That's back when the Austrian soldiers in northern Italy would dilute the local wine with soda water.
01:07:05
Speaker
And they called it the spritz because they were spritzing, basically, their soda water with local wine. Interesting. I never knew that.
01:07:16
Speaker
Huh. The spritz, spritz, spritz, spritz. My ass is a little off today, but you get the point.
01:07:27
Speaker
Yeah, I what you're saying. am I working on my German? ah How was your final pairing, dude? It's is it it's crazy. is it I mean, i have i have thoughts. I have have ideas because I've had beers very similar.
01:07:41
Speaker
Nowhere near as as high as that. But is the cigar sticking to the to the to the beer on your palate? Yes. um So it's it's interesting because like this beer is almost overpoweringly flavorful.
01:07:55
Speaker
Like this is the kind of beer that not only because of the ABV, this had zero ABV. You wouldn't want a whole bottle um because it's just so sweet, so intense.
01:08:06
Speaker
There's so, so much bourbon flavor to it. Like it's like concentrated bourbon. Like and imagine if you turned a gallon or ah a whole bottle of bourbon into like ah a couple ounces of syrup.
01:08:22
Speaker
All that flavor concentrated. um You're talking about the forbidden ooze of the barrel. That's what this tastes like, dude. People get pissed off when you lick your finger and stick it on that side of the barrel that's been leaking.
01:08:34
Speaker
That black ooze. Exactly. That's what this tastes like. um it's It's very, very intense. Very bourbon forward. um There is still like, you still get enough character of a Belgian beer to taste it and go, yeah, that tastes like a very Belgian beer.
01:08:53
Speaker
um Man. is must Is it musty? I have to know if it's musty. It's not? Not at all. Ah, damn. So the reason why I ask you, it sounds kind of crazy to say, like, that kind of profile. Why would you want it to be musty?
01:09:06
Speaker
I associate a lot of... um Trappist beers with this mustiness that's distinctly, like we talk about the wood barrel quality, but to us in our realm, our experiences from the the bourbon side of the house, usually these new oak things, that's a very bright wood flavor.
01:09:26
Speaker
Things that have been used for, i don't know, 100 plus years more, it's the same barrel that's been all used and used and used and has softened and almost like mustified It's not a term, I don't think. it's not officially a term. But it has become musty in a particular way that's dank like a seller, musty in that way. And it's very exciting because that's to me when I have a Belgian in that realm.
01:09:51
Speaker
That's what I think of. Yeah, it doesn't have any of that. I know exactly the flavor you're talking about. um But it doesn't have that. um it just like It just hit me how much bourbon there is on the finish.
01:10:04
Speaker
Like... It's the finishes only bourbon. but The long part of the finish. but it's probably been a minute since I took a sip.
01:10:16
Speaker
And it's like this intense sweetness right up front. Then a little bit of kind of, ah you know, beer, hoppiness, little bit of that ah ah kind of maltiness from the beer.
01:10:31
Speaker
And then as you, as your palate starts to dry out a little bit, it's just bourbon. Like, it's like you just gargled a glass of bourbon.
01:10:42
Speaker
Like, you swished it, you know that thing where you, like, swish it around in your mouth before you swallow it? and then Oh, yeah. And then you can, like, just taste it for a few minutes afterwards. that's That's the aftertaste of this. It's crazy.
01:10:56
Speaker
Finish, I should say. Finish is the classy way. after take long so Long finish. Extremely. I'm going to be tasting this tomorrow night. How is that working with this cigar? then I'm assuming it's good. It is a little intense for a cigar, even one as a intense as this.
01:11:17
Speaker
But it works really, really well. Now, final question for me. You mentioned maple, the sweetness of a maple.
01:11:27
Speaker
You mentioned the bourbon. What's the deal on the vanilla? Is there anything else from the barrel that's coming out? I mean, um yeah, like there's... Let me take another sip.
01:11:40
Speaker
It's been a few minutes.
01:11:44
Speaker
You definitely get like an intense vanilla, orangey kind of... have a theory....sweetness. I have a theory that the beer that they put in, potentially, so I'm thinking, by the time the beer gets in there, beer has already fermented. It has its... Whatever has needed to happen, it has happened, it's been pulled off of the yeast cake and they're filling these barrels, right? yeah I have a feeling that either by adding by adding an acid, making it more acidic, or by naturally...
01:12:22
Speaker
producing a more acidic ah beer and then putting a higher acidic content beer into a barrel for an extended period of time, then breaks down the barrel much faster.
01:12:35
Speaker
That could be. but And as result, it extracts all the flavors, like the lignin breakdown that we talked about a bunch of shows ago, right? That's that's why I asked about the vanilla. I'm wondering if that's what kind of is happening.
01:12:46
Speaker
now That would make sense. My thought was, like I was starting to say before, is that this has been aged like three or four years. First of all, because of the color.
01:12:58
Speaker
Second of all, because of the alcohol content. um I think what we're dealing with here is a don't know. Like, how high can you get the alcohol content of an Abbey Ale? With just yeast?
01:13:11
Speaker
Yeah, with just yeast. 13, maybe? 15? No, no. I mean, it depends on the kind of yeast that you use, and it depends on what you're doing. So the sweetness that you're getting could actually be from... So let's say the beer that's going in there is already at 18%.
01:13:27
Speaker
Not impossible. And now the the first release of this was 18.1%. It's gone up every year since then. Now, generally, what you could do a couple of things. You could pull the original yeast. So you do your your primary fermentation, pull it off that yeast cake, add something for the new yeast to chew on, and then use a secondary yeast to boost or use one single yeast strain um and then boost it halfway through the the the process to keep it going. the Generally, that would be like a wine yeast.
01:13:59
Speaker
So what I was thinking was an evaporation of Here goes my filter. An evaporation of water over over alcohol. So you're evaporating water faster than alcohol, and you're in thereby increasing the alcohol content from aging ah because of the ah evaporation. But I don't know if that's how it works. I think usually alcohol evaporates faster in a barrel, but don't know.
01:14:29
Speaker
I think the alcohol does. I think so, too, because alcohol evaporates at room temperature. Do they actually use barrels, or do they say it's barreled? yeah They say that it goes into... Oh, that's right. ah Colorado rye and then Colorado whiskey barrels.
01:14:46
Speaker
Okay, they use actual barrels. Damn, I'm so curious. I know.
Beer Aging and Cigar Pairing Insights
01:14:50
Speaker
it's It's interesting because getting alcohol to... Getting beer to have that high an alcohol content is like a How would that work?
01:15:01
Speaker
It's a a math problem, right? Or a physics problem. It's a physics problem. High humidity, low temperature. In a room that's high humidity, low temperature, potentially you'd be extracting more from the barrel.
01:15:14
Speaker
I don't know. Damn it. i I don't need this rabbit hole because going be able to sleep tonight. I need to sleep. Sorry, dude. And I'll go down this rabbit hole and I will come back with data next week. ah I'm wishing that I had bought two bottles this or three.
01:15:30
Speaker
Perfect segue pairing on the night. It's this one. Yeah. The last guardian double barrel age, double whiskey barrel, crazy 24.1% ABV beer.
01:15:45
Speaker
um that I am absolutely feeling, which is bizarre. I was telling my dad, like, I poured him a glass of this. I poured about half of it, maybe less than half of it for him because I don't want him to get completely hammered. But I'm okay being almost completely hammered.
01:16:02
Speaker
ah But I told him this bottle is the equivalent of five Bud Lights, which is just crazy to think about.
01:16:15
Speaker
did they fit all those Bud Lights into a tiny little bottle? but By putting them in a barrel and evaporating all the water off. That's right. Man, ah and they say that this is meant to be aged up to 10 years, which I would be very curious what a 10-year-old bottle of this would taste like.
01:16:32
Speaker
i I may have to try to get some more because it's it's very interesting. um And I would be curious how it would hold up to like seven or eight years of aging. and how it would be different.
01:16:44
Speaker
I think it would be just even more intense. Since the show has, in a sense, become a sort of source of record, um I'm going to say it now. have an idea. have an idea.
01:16:57
Speaker
can do four bottles. Four bottles, same beer. We get two each. We drink one together on the show, and we sit on the second bottle to do at a later time.
01:17:10
Speaker
For five years or so? I don't know, probably five years. We've been doing this long enough. I'm pretty sure going to keep doing this at some point. yeah um Especially because, hey, we got lots of fans in Romania and Romania ain't going nowhere, maybe.
01:17:25
Speaker
Exactly. Very true.
01:17:29
Speaker
So, yeah, a pairing of the night for me, if I were to say, I really wanted the Spritz to be the pairing of the night, but unfortunately with the cigar, because the cigar is so intense and the Spritz is so bitter, tastes like, this is going to sound weird,
01:17:45
Speaker
Bear with me. You know Goo Gone? Mm-hmm. The orange stuff? Okay. yeah no No, well, hold on. I've never tasted Goo Gone, so i don't know what it tastes like, but the smell of Goo Gone, right? You know the smell. It's very orangey.
01:17:59
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Okay. yeah Take that and then combine that with... If you have, like, a really old carpet and you haven't vacuumed it in a while and you hit the vacuum for the first time and it's got that, like... There's something there, man. It's like that that toasty, funky carpet thing going on, right?
01:18:15
Speaker
It's basically like funky carpet with oranges. And I don't think it's going wrong. you that's what that fritz tastes like? With a cigar? Absolutely. Okay. um So, my pairing of the night is not going to be that. My pairing the night is going to be the IPA.
01:18:28
Speaker
Double IPA, I should say. I'm surprised, but um it's so at the same time, I'm not. there is We've talked before about Kentucky fire cured tobacco and how well it pairs with an IPA.
01:18:41
Speaker
ah Surprisingly. shocking This cigar has like a a smoked meat kind of quality to it. yeah
01:18:51
Speaker
Man. Yeah. if you If you haven't had the chance yet, check this cigar out. Whether it's a Savage Feast, this nice event-exclusive Perfecto we're smoking, can't find that.
01:19:07
Speaker
Check out the Toro and... think they have a Toro and a Robusto, if I'm not mistaken, of the Liga Privada
Jousting Documentary and Horror Movie 'Weapons' Review
01:19:15
Speaker
10. If you see the Liga Privada 10, check it out. This is a fan fantastic plastic blend. I've smoked a lot of them.
01:19:21
Speaker
In the Toro, the Lancero, I've only had a couple of those, but man, that Lancero is fantastic. um Check out the, if you don't have a chance to check out a Savage Feast, check out the League Provada 10 in general.
01:19:36
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Great start, man. Before we get out of here, of course, we have to do our one for the road, which I had like a list of one for the roads, which I'll hit a couple of them just quickly.
01:19:51
Speaker
And then I saw a movie yesterday that made me go, nope, this is the one. I'm going to talk about this one. um I watched a documentary, shout out to Sam Finnell, called Nightlife.
01:20:04
Speaker
I had really hoped that this documentary is going to be about night on night combat that we've talked about in the past, the armored combat thing, um which is what it appeared to be about. But what it's really about is as interesting, which is a guy who's um You know, he went through life until his mid to late 30s, maybe even his 40s.
01:20:29
Speaker
um And then he discovered jousting. And so he joined a company of jousters and it's kind of a documentary that documents his, um, his journey to become a jouster and a couple of people who are becoming jousters who like, like they filmed their first matches that were in front of an audience.
01:20:52
Speaker
Um, and it was just fascinating to learn about these people and learn about what they do and the way that, uh, like this sport that they do, like you have to commit to joust. You have to be all in.
01:21:06
Speaker
And this dude, the main, the main focus of the documentary, this guy, I wish I could remember his name off top of my head. I took this out of my notes because I was going to talk about this other movie, but I thought it deserved shout out.
01:21:19
Speaker
Um, He is about to retire, which is kind of where the movie ah comes in, ah because it's tough on your body. Like getting knocked off a horse couple times a week ah is not easy.
01:21:36
Speaker
And he's at, I think he said five or eight years that he had been doing it and he was retiring. Like that is the lifespan of somebody in this sport. you're not You're not in the NFL where you're you know ah getting paid millions and millions of dollars to do your sport for 10 years and then retire.
01:21:57
Speaker
um These are people who are doing it for pennies just because they love it so much. um And, man, it's just such a cool story and cool to learn about these people.
01:22:09
Speaker
It's like $6 if you want to rent it from Amazon called Night Life. ah For obvious reasons spelled with a K. Yes. A nightlife. um You talked about it a couple weeks ago, but we also just finished watching the new season. Well, the first half of the new season of Wednesday.
01:22:27
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Cool. And it's awesome. the like I'm just loving every everything about it. like Everybody in it is great. I love seeing the, not cameos, but like the but people who I didn't expect to be in Wednesday, like Billy Piper, where like, oh, there's Billy Piper and Tandy Newton. Super cool that they're in this.
01:22:48
Speaker
um I just think it's the perfect kind of show for a definitely kids-oriented, but still horror-adjacent kind of thing.
01:22:59
Speaker
fun i like it uh but what i'm here to talk about is weapons directed by zach k crager who if you don't recognize the name you may recognize the whitest kids you know he was the the blonde guy with the short hair and sometimes with glasses from whitest kids you know he's the guy holding the gallon of pcp if you're if you're a fan um he ah He started directing horror movies a couple years ago, and his new movie, Weapons, came out two and a half weeks ago.
01:23:33
Speaker
Finally, after weeks of trying to, with some complications with my dad, and going to the hospital and a car accident in the family and a bunch of stuff going on, ah we finally got a chance to go see it yesterday. and It's good.
01:23:52
Speaker
It is yeah one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. And like in the top 10 movies I've ever watched. Wow.
01:24:03
Speaker
Top 10?
01:24:05
Speaker
I think... and That's kind of a big deal for you. Very. Very. I think it is a better movie than The Substance, which up to this point was like the best movie that I think was also a horror movie.
01:24:18
Speaker
I never watched the ending. I don't know what happened. Oh, the ending is where big every the wheels fall off and it gets insane.
01:24:29
Speaker
I stopped watching when certain things started falling off. Oh, that's where it gets good, dude. Oh, God. I was like, I can't do this. It's too much. It's painful to watch. Body horror is not for everybody. i I'm going to go watch a special film. The weapons.
01:24:43
Speaker
I won't do any spoilers. If you have the chance, absolutely go see it. The way that this story is presented is really interesting. Um... It's, they don't give you the context for this in the trailers or anything, but it's, it's like masterful storytelling where we're seeing things from the perspective of a bunch of different characters throughout the movie. I think there's six or seven chapters, each one, you know, a black screen with the person's name. And then we follow them through the last few weeks up until the events of the movie and through that a little bit.
01:25:20
Speaker
And what makes it really interesting is that we follow one character and we get kind of the the background of what is what is going on here. um Then we move on to the next character and it tells you mostly the same things sped up, of course, but then gives you a little bit more.
01:25:39
Speaker
And so you're like, oh, that's what happened after that that weird thing that happened at the end of that chapter. ah And then you get to the next chapter and rewinds again. And you you go through all of those events again.
01:25:52
Speaker
Sometimes you're seeing bits of the same conversation from different angles. um A lot of the times what's really interesting is that ah some of the characters remember things differently.
01:26:04
Speaker
um So there's a scene where... ah the kind of primary character of the story is sitting in a bar waiting for her friend to show up. He comes in and sits down next to her and she's like, what? I don't get a hug and stands up and gives him a hug.
01:26:19
Speaker
ah From his version, she like jumps out of her seat as soon as he opens the door and walks over and gives him a hug. I just thought stuff like that was really, really interesting. Didn't they do that with Lost a little bit?
01:26:31
Speaker
There was a little bit of that in Lost. um But this what this I think did it better. horrible. yeah I was so invested in Lost. yeah The ending of Lost was great, but disappointing at the same time. ah But so weapons. ah There's a lot of... Man, there's some really good scares in this movie, like jump scare kind of stuff.
01:26:56
Speaker
God, hate this so much. the The less you know, the better, because the final act and the big reveal of what has been actually happening is so satisfying and so well done.
01:27:09
Speaker
ah It is, man, just an incredible movie, like an incredible movie. um This is the kind of movie that... If it wins, like if it's nominated for Academy Awards and stuff, I wouldn't be super surprised.
01:27:27
Speaker
But if it wasn't a horror movie, I would be surprised if it wasn't. The fact that it's a horror movie, you know, kind of there's a mark against it in the eyes of most award-giving institutions.
01:27:39
Speaker
But ah I think it should win like every award. the Josh Brolin was incredible in it. but Josh Brolin's in it. forgot about that. Yeah, he's he's really cool really good in it.
01:27:51
Speaker
That could be fun. Man, it's just such a good movie. I really encourage anyone and everyone to go see it. um The only exception,
Reflection on D.H. Lawrence's 'The Ship of Death'
01:28:00
Speaker
I would say, is if you if scary movies freak you out um and to a degree that you don't enjoy, um probably skip this one because it has some scary parts, I think.
01:28:14
Speaker
i have I've talked before about how I don't have a great barometer for scariness because I'm completely desensitized to scary movies um as much as I love them. um But this one actually did get me once or twice where i was like, ooh.
01:28:29
Speaker
Damn. Actually got a little jump out of me. It was great. Definitely not watching it now. Thanks. It was great.
01:28:37
Speaker
Well, now that you've set the stage with such beautiful positivity... um but Let me take you on a journey down a different kind of rabbit hole.
01:28:48
Speaker
Adjacent. Hole adjacent, if you will. An adjacent hole. um I've been kind of rummaging through my books and things and and you know my various texts from from different authors and Man, and the thing that I keep coming back to, and this is a thing that I realized for for better or worse, it's it's just without even realizing, I kind of revisited at least probably about once a year, once every year and a half, something like that.
01:29:16
Speaker
It's a poem from D.H. Lawrence called The Ship of Death, which was written in back in 1929, right before he died. And I believe as he was writing it, he was dying from tuberculosis.
01:29:33
Speaker
So he was kind of writing this thing called the ship of death and basically facing his own mortality and trying to make sense of, well, what, what does it actually mean? Um, you should read that poem when you finished red dead redemption.
01:29:45
Speaker
Go ahead. What? You should read that poem when you finish red redemption too. Yeah. Dude. I can't even, I can't even, I can't even get the game to turn on.
01:29:57
Speaker
but We'll talk about that later. but but We'll talk about that later. Yeah. um Anyway, so it's again, it's one of those things. It's really interesting in that every time I read it, I get something different from it.
01:30:09
Speaker
And literally, again, it's about it's about. um kind of understanding mortality in a different way and perspective. And as we all age, our perspective changes, our palates change. We talk about this all the time.
01:30:23
Speaker
yeah Our palates change. and My perspective on the future is different today than it was a year ago. It'll be different a year from now. And the cool thing about revisiting it every year as my perspective changes is that I've noticed different things.
01:30:37
Speaker
I fixate on different things within the poem and it's really cool. i I think that for a first read, if if you've never read it, It's going to be a little dry and it's going to be a little confusing and it's going to be very much like almost like Pulp Fiction for the first time you're watching, what the hell is going on?
01:30:52
Speaker
I have no idea happening. Then you watch it the second time you realize, okay, I get it. This makes so much more sense. You start appreciating smaller, finer details. And in a sense, I mean, the the universality of our reality, all of us at some point are going to be dead.
01:31:12
Speaker
and It means different things to different people, and that's the beauty of it. um So in a sense, that he kind of wrote it, I guess, they say, supposedly, we can never know, but he kind of wrote it to help himself feel more comfortable as he was getting closer to his ultimate demise, he was well aware of.
01:31:31
Speaker
um So it's not as, by the way, it's also, i want to say, it's not as morbid as it sounds when you say ship of death. It's not like a ship where people are being slaughtered. it's It's more of a very somber um approach.
01:31:47
Speaker
It's a somber approach to accepting death and just being okay with... I guess, the to a sense, the idea is that when you become so comfortable with the reality of this ultimately happening, you tend to look into your that you the time you spend alive in a different way, in a better way.
01:32:07
Speaker
You get more fulfillment from living. By fully understanding in your own mind, whatever it means to you, the death thing. And, you know, from a poetry standpoint, it's pretty digestible for someone that's not into poetry. Okay. ah Which I think is good. I mean, if you really like if you really like Shakespeare or if you really like Dr. Seuss, you're not going to be disappointed by D.H. Lawrence, generally speaking. Okay.
01:32:34
Speaker
I'm going to to check it out. I've never read that poem, and it sounds interesting. i would Actually, you know what? I would say before even reading it, listen to it. Okay. Listen to it for the first read-through, if you will.
01:32:46
Speaker
Just hear it, and then read it, and then compare your experience from listening to reading how that changes, and it will change significantly because now you're processing it differently. You have to look at the words and combine the sentences and the grammar.
01:33:04
Speaker
Oh, I can't remember his name right now. What's that?
01:33:11
Speaker
Or Al Stein? No. ah I mean, not a poet, but a writer.
01:33:18
Speaker
um
01:33:21
Speaker
There is the poem that came to mind when you say that, that I have listened to it and I have read it, and it's completely different between reading it and listening to it, which is the...
01:33:33
Speaker
The one that goes boots, boots, stomping up and down again. You know that one? No. i
01:33:47
Speaker
um then I have to look up who who wrote it. ah Rudyard Kipling. I couldn't remember the name. It was written kind of ah about the the ah wars in Europe, I guess.
01:34:02
Speaker
um Very Pink Floyd. I like it. It's crazy creepy. um I've seen... Kipling is an interesting fellow. I've seen, i think, three horror movies that use this this poem as the soundtrack, which is where I first heard it like 10 years ago.
01:34:20
Speaker
um But there's a recording version of it that's used in those that is like... It's just uncomfortable to listen to. um But reading it is a different experience than...
01:34:33
Speaker
ah which I think is really interesting. And that reminded me of the poem that you're talking about. I mean, listen, and it also, it's it's cool because i think something as popular as this, you can find, you can find different,
01:34:45
Speaker
um ah different people that have recorded it. And you can listen to different types of inflection and different personalities. And certainly that comes out in a lot of interesting ways.
01:34:59
Speaker
And then you can read it and experience it in your own and internal voice. Nice. Yeah, I'm going to have to check it out. Looking forward to it.
01:35:10
Speaker
um I just sneezed half of my soul out of myself. jesus That happens sometimes. Alright, well, I guess that brings us to the end of the show. um but Thanks everybody for watching hanging out with us.
01:35:22
Speaker
We appreciate you guys. Shout out to ah Sam and Rob for spending the show with us. We appreciate you guys too. um Shout out also to anyone listening on Spotify.
01:35:36
Speaker
We appreciate you guys ah just as much um because we know that you're you're out there listening to us talk and sometimes watching us, um but not live, which is fine.
01:35:47
Speaker
Anyway, Dennis, hit him with the catchphrase. We'll get out of here and we will hopefully be back next week with a different cigar. Amen. Thank you everybody for watching and listening. And remember, we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink less.