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Episode 106 - St. Patrick's Day Beers 2023
124 Plays2 years ago
This week we drink through our annual St. Patrick's Day beer lineup. It's also Dan's first St. Patrick's Day beer episode!
Beers on this episode:
Great Lakes Brewing Co. - Conway's Irish Ale
Breckenridge Brewery - Nitro Irish Stout
Sullivan's Brewing Company - Malting's Red Ale
Theme music provided by Myke Kelli (@mykekelli)
Break and outro music provided by @FluidMinds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com
Recommended
Transcript
Opening Banter & Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
and that meal was, you know, an extended meal where I'm like taking my time eating food. I could probably get through a couple of these, you know, if I was eating food along with it and, you know, just some other stuff. I feel like it'd be the opposite for me. I feel like the Great Lakes one, I could get through a couple of... I can get through a couple of those just sitting in the toilet. I feel like... There it is, everybody. That's the intro to the show. Welcome to the malting hour.
00:00:27
Speaker
This week we're celebrating St. Patrick's Day. This is episode 106 of The Malting Hour.
00:00:34
Speaker
What's the haps on the hops? Guy ease that speech This the molten hour where we talk about our drink And tell you what we think every other week And if we get drunk, well we might slur our speech Gotta get a cab, the friends who wish you had Join us for a drink, join us for a laugh Time is never wasted, way you're getting wasted The molten hour here, people, people taking places People, people taking places
00:01:52
Speaker
Welcome to the Malting
Meet the Hosts & Guest
00:01:53
Speaker
Hour. I am one of your hosts, Tony Gulick, joined always with Brandon Winninger and making his first St. Patrick's Day episode or St. Patrick's Day beer or St. Patrick's inspired beer episode debut. Dan, thanks for having me, gents. Hey, Dan, welcome back, man. I feel like it's been a while since you've been around. Yeah. Do you guys remember Clark?
00:02:18
Speaker
What's a clerk? Shout out to Clark. Like, who was Griswold? Yeah, that guy. Clark's a busy, busy, busy guy.
Technical Glitches and Humor
00:02:31
Speaker
I wish the listeners, by the way, could see how my screen froze with you, Brandon, because you did like this big laugh with the mug in your hand.
00:02:40
Speaker
And it was perfect. Oh, God, I wish I could do the picture of this episode. You know, my my biggest issue with this platform is like how shitty both of you guys look like not all the time, but like it just like shitty all the time. It goes in and out, in and out. But I went back and like I did the I used to post production on here and like the video is immaculate. It's really nice. It's good. I just wish it was like that when it was alive.
00:03:08
Speaker
So if you ever have to if we ever decide to go back to posting some random video stuff, you could do it. Yes. Yeah. Which I think I'll start doing with some of these.
Beer Collaboration Announcement
00:03:19
Speaker
The only the only hard part is is finding, you know, I'd have to go and listen. I don't have to listen to the entire episode, but like what you edit versus like what I would find here, although like it could be like a secret gem uncut thing that I pull out of here. Yeah. Have you guys seen that movie? I've never seen it.
00:03:38
Speaker
Heard it was okay. What movie? Uncut Gems. Uncut Gems. No. With... Satemandler. Satemandler. By the way, I'm not into promoting other podcasts, but have you guys ever listened to Fly on the Wall with Data Carvey and David Spade? I haven't. And I meant to because... It's a great podcast. They were on the Stern Show promoting it, I think, and I meant to add that to my list and I forgot to.
00:04:03
Speaker
It's great. I listened to it in between all the other podcasts. But anyways, welcome everybody.
Introducing Great Lakes Conway's Irish Ale
00:04:08
Speaker
It's the Molting Hour, and it's March, so you know what that means. We're doing a- March Madness. That, and we're releasing a beer with Howard Street.
00:04:18
Speaker
I don't know when this is coming out. We talked about it on another episode. Again, I don't know the placement of all the episodes, but the Howard Street pale ale is either out or coming out. I don't know either way. It's a beer that we did with Howard Street. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm excited about the name. I don't know if we've ever told Dan. Do you know the name of the beer? I think he texted to me, but I don't remember. I think it was I think it was in like a screenshot of the email with him.
00:04:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah, maybe the name of the beer sarcasm starts at 10 a.m. Yeah, it's a quote that when I came in late, I showed up late. Brandon, you were there like five minutes to or 10 minutes to Clark was there like at nine. I was there at like nine, 10. I walked in and Clark was like, nope, we're done. The beer is done or whatever. And and then Chuck had said sarcasm begins at 10 a.m.
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, we were trying to find a name for the beer. When Clark texted that to us, it was just perfect. I'm hoping at some point, depending on when this comes out, to grab a growler of it or a holler of it or whatever so we can drink it and talk about that beer. I don't know if he'd be up to it, but we should ask Kevin if he wants to design a logo for it. That's a good idea.
00:05:41
Speaker
It's a great idea. I'll text him tonight. But anyways, we'll talk about that another time. Dan, welcome to your first St. Patrick's Day episode. This is Clark's man. He was on a roll. He had two in a row. He's not here tonight. The first one that Brandon and I did, we had to record it twice with all the beers and Bushmills Irish whiskey. So that was a lot of fun. But yeah, here we go. Brandon, you curated this. Thank you for grabbing
00:06:09
Speaker
the beers for tonight. And we are again, doing this via you know, in our own in our own homes, because it just seems to be easier sometimes. So that's what we're doing. Yeah, Brandon.
00:06:19
Speaker
What's the first beer that we're drinking? So the first beer that we are cracking into is Great Lakes Brewing Company, Conway's Irish Ale. And I love right underneath it, it says product of the USA. Like, do not confuse us as a beer from actually Ireland. There's no other descriptors on the bottle. Oh, no, there is. I was going to say, if not, I have it pulled up here. There is a pint for PA Conway, our co-owner's grandfather. Hot Conway. Yeah, sorry. Hot Conway. OK.
00:06:48
Speaker
I'm playing for Pac Conway. Our co-owners grandfather and police offer who'd likely uphold that an Irish... Police man! What are you reading? Start over. Start over one more time. The label does say police officer. Oh, it does. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm on the website and it says grandfather and policeman. Grandfather and police officer who'd likely uphold that an Irish ale with full bodied caramel malt flavors is just the ticket.
00:07:14
Speaker
So the ABV is 6.3%, 25 IBUs, the hops they use are Northern Brewer Mount Hood and
00:07:20
Speaker
or Walamet or Willamet, however you pronounce it. Molts are two row for the base molt, and then Crystal 77. What the fuck is Crystal 77? Yeah, so this started being available in January. I've seen it in stores. I don't think I've ever had this. Have you guys ever had this before? I feel like I have. I've had it before, I think. I was about to go, before we started, I was gonna start looking these all up on Untapped, because I know,
00:07:48
Speaker
I found at least the descriptions from the actual web pages for the beers that we are having. By the way, according to Wikipedia, an Irish red ale, that's what we're having, right? Is it considered an Irish red ale? It's just an Irish ale. I feel like it falls under the Irish red ale, so that's what we're going to go with. I mean, if we're looking at the color.
00:08:10
Speaker
Well, I don't know. Well, here's the description of an Irish red ale according to Wikipedia. It's a style of beer that is characterized by its malt profile, which typically includes a caramel or toffee-like sweetness. It has a dry finish, a low moderate bitterness of 15 to 30 IBUs due to its sweet taste and relatively low alcohol content. Irish reds are very popular with American craft brewers. This is not a low alcohol beer. No. It hits all the other markers, I think, though.
00:08:36
Speaker
Yeah, so it's an Irish ale. I mean, really Irish ales. I feel like an Irish red ales. It's almost like a. It's an amber almost. Am I wrong? You guys agree with me on that? Yeah, maybe a little happier. Yeah. And I think the sweetness like an amber ale almost comes off tea like I could I could say that this is Irish red ale inspired.
00:09:04
Speaker
Which, you know, it is because it's not made in Ireland anyway, but it's got a toffee multi sweetness to it. Yeah.
What Defines an Irish Red Ale?
00:09:13
Speaker
Yeah. So where? Where? Sorry. I didn't cut you off where I went to go get these. I. Yeah, there was only there is there's one other beer that we have that is actually from Ireland and I've never seen it before. And I was like, I'm getting that beer. You got it. I went to bottles and cans in Edgbrooke.
00:09:33
Speaker
But yeah, I'd never seen it before. I'm like, well, that looks interesting. So I grabbed that. And they didn't have anything else from Ireland. I don't even think they had Guinness, if I remember correctly. Yeah, I don't think they carry a lot of major distributed beers. So have we ever? We've had Guinness on the first episode. We had to have, right? Yeah. We had to have had Guinness. I know we had the mint chocolate. And then we had the barrel H1. Yeah. Yeah. I'm assuming that your guys is
00:10:02
Speaker
are the same, but it says, uh, please enjoy by March 18th, 2023. Yeah. Wow. Which is pretty like the day after I do like, and I wonder if that's a joke, you think? Probably.
00:10:16
Speaker
It has to be. I don't know the brew date and I can't read the codes. Well, according to their website, it started being available in January, which I did see. That one makes sense. So maybe like a three month, they're giving it an optimal three month shelf window, but the idea of just having it the day after is like. Yeah, the fact that it's the day after St. Patrick's Day is kind of funny.
00:10:43
Speaker
Who knows? But I don't think they would take the joke that far to be like, best buy. You know what I mean? Yeah. I've had beers way past the dates, and they've tasted fine. Some IPAs, not so much. Dan, what are your takeaways on this beer so far? As far as aromas. I like the color taste.
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know if it's like the color like the camera, but Brandon's like so much darker than mine. Like I feel like mine looks like a red. It's probably the camera. I mean, how does mine last to like yours looks darker, too. But you're in the dark room. For me, it looks like I'm in the basement, baby. You guys, your glasses look the same to me. It's got like a like what, like a reddish.
00:11:27
Speaker
Caramel. Copper. Like a new penny, kind of. Copper. Good call. Oh, a new penny. Nice. Very specific. It's very good. I'm getting, like, it's, as Brandon would say, it's a bit nutty on the taste for me, like a Maltese.
00:11:43
Speaker
Um, I'm getting some, um, I know you said the hops, but I already forgot them. I know. I know you said the hops. I already forgot them, but I feel like it's Northern Brewer, Mount Hood and Willamette or Willamette, depending on the limit. Yeah. I mean, it's Willamette, but it's like definitely more slightly piney, but like more like, I feel like would be considered even like European hops, like earthy kind of.
00:12:12
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that's the idea with these type of beers, that you want to do like a very traditional European, German style types of hops. And, you know, as home brewers and as Clark would say, beer professionals, we should know more about these hops. But I don't, I don't, I've used Mountain Hood and Northern Brewer and Willamette before. But I don't know their descriptions or what they
00:12:40
Speaker
Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm with you on that. I, I don't know. I don't necessarily get a nuttiness from it as much as I get like a smooth, like caramel sweetness from it. And it's not rusty. It's not like super sweet. I don't get toffee again. I mean, that's, that's going off the Irish, uh, red ale descriptor, but, um, yeah, this is pretty solid. Brandon, what are you taking away from this burp?
00:13:07
Speaker
I feel I feel like I am getting a little bit of like the way you started that movie. I was half like trying to clear my throat and half try to talk. I do feel like I I'm getting some of that caramelness in it a little bit there. And there is a slight nuttiness that I'm getting on the like the back of my tongue. Like as I'm sitting here talking, it it tastes a little nutty. But this is
00:13:37
Speaker
And the fact that I have not checked into this, I feel like I've had this before, but maybe I'm just thinking back to like other like Irish red ales that I've had. This is like super like enjoyable. Like I am enjoying drinking this. I'm almost I'm not almost I'm like halfway through. But it's super easy drinking does not drink like it's what, six and a half percent roughly. Yeah, it's point three.
00:14:02
Speaker
super smooth, and the aroma is extremely pleasant, and I'm getting some of that, the same, you know, like, maltiness, nuttiness kind of coming in there. And the hops are very light, so I'm, to me, and I'm wondering, you know, you said we, you know, we should know the descriptors, but I don't, like, what are those hops? Like, I've never used them, so I'm like, are they aromatic? Are they bittering? Like, because if they're bittering, they're bittering shit, because this thing's the only person I've ever used.
00:14:33
Speaker
I feel like I'm going to look up Northern Brewer. I just looked up, you said Mount Hood, right? Yeah. So Mount Hood hails from German ancestry in the Hallertau region, but thrives in the Yakima Valley. Aroma hopped in apart spice and floral notes perfect for many German beer styles. The one spice aroma works well in a wide range of styles.
00:14:56
Speaker
And Northern Brewer hops are a dual purpose with the unique woody minty notes. This is a signature hop of California Commons, which I can see that here in this beer with a typical alpha acid of eight to 10% Northern Brewer hops are used in the brewing of ESP, bitter, English pale ale, porters, and California steam beers. All right. And then the, I mean, we got to get the glass hop here.
00:15:23
Speaker
I couldn't remember what it was. Willamette hops are historically one of the most prevalent hops grown in the United States that accounted for nearly 20% of the hop crop
00:15:40
Speaker
and its peak limit is a daughter of Fuggle. That makes sense. Fuggle. Yeah. And carries with the same pepper and spice. It's primarily used as aroma hop. There you go, Braden. Due to its low alpha acid content, which usually sits around 4% to 6%, works really well with brewing darker styles for the colder months. So there we go. Recommended styles are brown ale stouts and porters.
00:16:04
Speaker
Yeah, so there we go. The aroma is mild and pleasant, slightly spicy, according to Yakima Valley. Yeah, and here's the thing I'll say about like Irish red ales.
00:16:15
Speaker
They're seasonal here. They're not seasonal in Ireland. Is that true? Is that a thing? Yeah. I was joking. Sorry. I mean, from my understanding, I definitely feel like these are kind of year round beers. I feel like Killian's Irish Red is year round, right? Oh, yeah. Is Killian's isn't Killian's, though, like a mass produced beer that's like
00:16:40
Speaker
commercially now. Yeah. And like a dyed beer. I remember hearing that. Oh, I don't know. Like it's not like a big. We had that one on the first one, I think. Did we? Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense. I do want to say I. I think in a dead way. Mm hmm. I I had a so I went to Old Irving last week and with the fam. Thanks for the. And you're welcome. It's most incurs.
00:17:10
Speaker
Oh, there you go. Yeah, I went to Old River. That's older as your awesome course says. That's not true. They are not owned by most.
00:17:18
Speaker
I had, uh, unlucky Lenny. Oh yeah. Yeah. We had that on last year. Yeah, we had it on the live. No, two years ago we had it on the live episode. Uh, and this is my glass from old Irving. No, I swear we had it. I think we did it again last year too, because I don't think so. We ranked them and that ranked high and we had, we hung out with Matt like shortly after that. I think you're thinking about Oktoberfest. Oh yeah, probably.
00:17:47
Speaker
And Matt was there for the second Oktoberfest episode. Yeah. So I'll just fucking blends together these days. But what I was going to say is that one, I looked at 100 percent centennial, but it's like way happier than this one. Absolutely. And I think we did that on the live episode that we got cut off shortly because we accidentally accidentally. But we played some copyrighted music and Facebook was like, absolutely not. You will not be doing that. So that was kind of a bummer.
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah, St. Patrick's Day special. That was the live one where we did the Old Irving and the Guinness barrel-aged mint. Was that mint? I don't remember if it was mint. I don't care. I wonder if it had that video somewhere. That'd be a finally secret release. Did we ever release the video somewhere? I don't know. I don't think so. It was on Facebook at some point.
00:18:41
Speaker
Well, it may still be on there though. I'll just say, last year you guys had the Guinness chocolate mint, the Hubbard's cave Irish stout, the dicey rally from Wegile, and the Sagatuck Irish ale. What the fuck did we have? Was it just a barrel age? Oh, it was just a barrel age virtue. Oops, sorry. I started playing the episode. It was just a barrel age Guinness. That's what it was when we got the live one.
00:19:05
Speaker
Mint one. I got it around Christmas and held on to it for us. That's right. That's right. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I'm going to say fingers crossed that goose does Shamrock Shake again. Don't you still got the one last year? Yeah, we have to do a side by side. Yeah, we do. That's going to be awesome. Sorry, Dan, you had said the lucky lady was all centennial hopped. That's right. That's what according to untapped. So who knows what it is now. But it could be last Matthew.
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, it just seemed like way to enjoy it. Yeah, I liked it. Like once I like programmed my brain to it, but like when I first had it, I was expecting something more like this. And then like the hops were like so present that I wasn't I wasn't thinking this was going to be this way. So it kind of caught me off guard. But I liked it. Like once I kind of readjusted my brain to like thinking it was going to be happy. I'm pretty sure the beer. I liked it.
00:20:01
Speaker
I'm pretty sure we liked, uh, like, you know, we did it. I don't know if, uh, Matthew texts us when you hear this episode. Did you listen to that episode? You text us about the Mountain Dew. Uh, so Brandon, what's your overall, uh, before we get to ratings, what's your overall thought on this beer as I'm wrapping mine up?
00:20:21
Speaker
Like I said, super enjoyable. Uh, I, I will definitely seek this out again. Um, and I think this may be seasonal for Great Lakes. Um, well, yeah, it is. Yeah. So I, yeah, dude, next year, like totally, I would like to add this to my rotation of like celebration style beers.
00:20:39
Speaker
That's actually what I thought of when we started talking about this. How we I'm pretty sure the three of us have not had this. Not sure about Clark Clark have ever had this text. He didn't check it in. Oh, so probably not. Yeah, I think this is maybe one of the more approachable craft. Actually, I take that back. I don't know. It's an approachable beer regardless. It's very tasty. I'd bring this someplace someone having a St. Patrick's Day party.
00:21:06
Speaker
I don't do those that much anymore. But if I got invited to one, I'd bring this to share. Dan, how many? I'm not having a part. Oh, sorry. Oh, no, no, no, no. I mean, if you did, that'd be. How many Shamrocks? Yeah, Shamrocks. We're doing Shamrocks. I mean, that just seems like, right? We got to do Shamrocks for this one. Dan, how many Shamrocks?
Conway's Irish Ale Ratings
00:21:26
Speaker
How many Shamrock shakes are you giving this? Well, if we had the Shamrock, if we had, whatever. Dan, how many? McDonald's reference.
00:21:34
Speaker
How many shamrocks are you giving this one? I'm going to go with 4.3. Sounds good to me. Ooh, I like that. I like that. I like it. I like it a lot. I like it a lot. Brandon, how many shamrocks are you giving this? I actually was just kind of doing my check-in, and I went with 4.25. All right. If you didn't have to check it in untapped, would you have stayed at 4.25, or would you have gone a little higher, a little lower?
00:22:04
Speaker
Um, I probably right around there, maybe even a little lower, like four point one, possibly. I mean, I like it and and it's good because I don't know of there's not very many other craft beers that we've had that are like good like this. If there are more, I'd like to find them. I think if we go back to last year's episode, we could probably find one. Well, what's the dicey Riley? What was that?
00:22:33
Speaker
That's a great question. Dan, look that up while I give my review. I am probably in the camp of, the same as Dan. Excuse me. I'm gonna lean more towards the four, three, four, three, five, maybe even four, four on this. It's really, I'm a big fan of Ambers. I like red ales. This is a very tasty beer. It gives like,
00:23:02
Speaker
this beer in particular has a nice like maltiness to it. It's also six and a half percent, which is you have two of these and you're feeling pretty good. And the hot bitterness isn't overpowering, but it's also still there. So it's the balance of like bitterness, maltiness smells good to me. It also kind of smelled like
00:23:24
Speaker
Brandon, we talked about this, about one of the beers that we had on that episode, new to you, new to me. There's like a fresh like wort brewed beer aroma to this kind of bready, not so much as the phase three beer that you and I had. But there's like this breadiness to it that I really like. So yeah, I think I'm probably going to go 4-4 on this. 4.4 Shamrocks. So Dan, laid on this. Dicey Riley.
00:23:53
Speaker
is Irish red. There's no descriptor as far as like hops and stuff that I'm seeing here. But I do have your guy or at least Clark and Brandon's Tony. You didn't check it in. Clark again, gave it a 375 and Brandon also gave it a 375. I would like to think that maybe I was in the same camp, but maybe I'm not. You guys are going to have to go back to last year's episode and check it out. That's the big. That's the whole problem with like styles and things like.
00:24:22
Speaker
It's all subjective year to year, you know? Well, it's subjective. Also at the point that you're having it, like, well, that, yeah. What did you have for dinner tonight? That's going to change the way that it tastes. It's that. And then how are we? Stop from Guinness before. Yeah. But it's also that and how are we, um, by the way, Dan, like last beer.
00:24:42
Speaker
how strict are we or how loose are we being with our check-ins and are we trying to be more honest? I've tried to do that. I tried to do that last year. I tried to be more loose as well with my check-ins. How do I really like this? Is this a beer that I'd come back to? If it's super specific, what is it? The pastrami beer that we did from Pipeworks. Pastrami and rye.
00:25:08
Speaker
Yeah, like this year was very subtle compared to what I've had before. So having it now, you know, it was nice. I liked it. It was a nice kind of smoked beer. Let's go ahead. I think the best idea is to do the other Irish red ale or Irish ale.
00:25:28
Speaker
from Sullivan's. So the interesting thing about this, now that I just poured it, and maybe it's just the lighting in my room or whatever, but the head on it had like a tinge of red to it, which I thought was pretty interesting. I don't know if you guys are getting that. I can't in my basement. I'm gonna put a light on it right now.
00:25:47
Speaker
Um, but the, the beer itself, um, I'm stealing Dan's descriptor. It was dark AF. Um, cause it's compared to, uh, the Great Lakes beer. Like this is super, super dark and it has like a gradient.
Exploring Sullivan's Maltings Red Ale
00:26:06
Speaker
Like from the inside to the outside of the glass, like I see more red on the outsides. It's like so dark inside. It's almost to me, it almost comes off as a lighter brown ale as far as color is concerned. Yep. Aromo wise though, I'm kind of getting the same vibe a little bit. I'm getting. Yeah, maybe not. Now I'm going back in. I'm.
00:26:31
Speaker
I'm getting more sweetness less hops. Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing. I'm getting like a very sweet
00:26:37
Speaker
There is there is like I don't want to say skunkiness to it because I took a sip and I had a little bit of that. And I think that just maybe the hops that are in there because we came off the other beer. So I'm just throwing it out there now in the beginning. And that's not my final take on this beer. Also, by the way, Brandon, I did look at the head. I swirled it around. It might just be where you're at because I put a flashlight on it and it's like a like a white head on it. Is anybody else getting a tinge of smokiness out of this beer?
00:27:08
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yes, I am. Yeah. Like, it's almost like a roastiness almost. Mm hmm. Maybe not so much smokiness as its roastiness to it. Yeah, but it's like it's like a deep, deep roastiness for this beer.
00:27:24
Speaker
I'm going to read the quick description from Sullivan's Brewing Company, which by the way, they're in Kilkenny, Ireland. Located in Kilkenny in the heart of the city where Irish Craft Brewing has been a mainstay for over 800 years, Sullivan has fast become a premium Irish Craft Brewery of choice for beer enthusiasts across the world. And for the Maltings Red Ale, so this is an Irish Red Ale.
00:27:51
Speaker
a classic Ruby ale with deep malt combining rich biscuit and gentle caramel notes. And I will say, I didn't read that when I looked it up, I just looked it up and clicked on it. It definitely has like a bready biscuity, biscuity-ness to it before I get to the caramel sweet notes of it. And this one's only 5%, which is,
00:28:21
Speaker
This is sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say I feel body wise. This has just a slight more heft to it. Yeah. 100 percent. Which carries a lot of that, that maltiness, that biscuitiness like through.
00:28:39
Speaker
you know, through each sip that you take. Still in the same camp of like the hops they're using are not obviously, they're not overly bittering this beer, but it's shocking that it's only 5% just based on the body and everything else. Like it feels like it should be a little heftier.
00:29:03
Speaker
But you had said hefty. And that's the way that I kind of feel about this beer. It is a hefty beer. It's not heavy, but I feel like the Great Lakes one was lighter in body and maybe just one you can sit back and throw a couple down, even though it's six and a half percent. This one, on the other hand, being five percent, I feel like I want to sit here and drink it and talk with people for a while and then maybe have another one. Yeah.
00:29:31
Speaker
Like there's there's more to it. Like it's it's actually very nice. Yeah, that that skunkiness. I'm not sure why I got that right away, but I don't have that anymore. It's just a nice like. I don't know, it's hard to explain, man. What I what I was going to say is this this one feels it's going to sit a lot heavier in my stomach.
00:29:56
Speaker
Yeah, I really like the sweetness to it, actually. So do I. So this one is more of a sipper for me than than the last one. And 100 percent. Like if I'm, you know, drinking at the rate that we drink during a podcast, like I'm one and down on this one. Oh, yeah, I actually might say, I mean, we're also getting close to like the midway point that we still have another beer to drink, but I think I might.
00:30:20
Speaker
save this to finish after the broadcast. Dan, what's your take on this beer so far? I agree with everything you guys are saying. It's not like a nitro, but it has more of a mouthfeel like a nitro, like that kind of chewy mouthfeel.
00:30:37
Speaker
I'm definitely getting less hops than the Great Lakes. I am getting a titch of bitterness at the end, but I don't know if that's like the roast or if it's the hops. It doesn't it doesn't hang. It's just like a quick. Yeah, and I'm with you on that. I'm not sure if it's the roasting or the hops. I want to say it's probably more of the hops just because it's right there at the end. But this is like, you know, people say
00:31:05
Speaker
Guinness or people who like think that all stouts are heavy and they say Guinness is like, you know, it's drinking like a loaf of bread. This is like it's kind of a heavy beer. Am I wrong on that? No, it is. It has like on top of the like thick mouth feel that's going to give you that like perception. It also has like the sweetness and almost a slight syrupiness to me.
00:31:29
Speaker
Yeah, but it's it's not goes down to me. It's not off-putting. Is it off-putting to you? No, no, no, I mean, I mean, I will not say not right now in this context, but like I wouldn't like reach for this all the time year round or anything. Sure. But like like Brandon said, it's kind of like a one and done. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I if I bought this, I would I wonder if I don't know if it's a four pack or a six packs and 16 ounce can that we're drinking out of four pack.
00:31:57
Speaker
Uh, yeah, a four pack of this would be great because it would be a beer where it's like, Oh, okay. We're gonna hang out or, you know, maybe a beer to share, but it's like the one, like if you're having one beer.
00:32:10
Speaker
You just want to have one beer on St. Patrick's Day or whatever you're hanging out with people and you don't want to drink like one beer on St. Patrick's Day. I feel like having one of these is like, oh, you're right. It's a one and done because it's a filling beer. It's tasty. There is like a syrupyness to it, but it's not coingly sweet. It's not like off putting to me. I feel like the syrupyness comes from it being sweet and like a full body beer.
00:32:37
Speaker
So I will flip this though. The difference that I would say is if I, let's just say I happened to find myself in Ireland and I was having a meal. And that meal was an extended meal where I'm taking my time eating
Drinking Experiences Discussion
00:33:00
Speaker
food. I could probably get through a couple of these.
00:33:03
Speaker
You know, if I was eating food along with it and, you know, some other stuff. I feel like it'd be the opposite for me. I feel like the Great Lakes one, I could get through a couple of... I can get through a couple of religious sitting in the toilet. I feel like... There it is, everybody. That's the intro to the show. Welcome to the malting hour. I don't know. I just feel... I'm going back to like when I was in Ireland.
00:33:31
Speaker
The amount of Guinness I drank was obscene, but it was so fresh and pure and there was just something different about it. I feel like the same thing would happen with these. These are the imported versions, so they're a little heftier usually. It's like the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout and stuff like that. I feel like a little bit something else goes into this.
00:33:52
Speaker
so it can make that journey over the pond. It's love. Love is what happens. Yeah, possibly. But yeah, I don't know. I could definitely see myself skipping on these for a night. Yeah. Yeah, I would be good. Sometimes when I'm watching a movie or we're binge watching a show or something like that, I want something to just sip on. And usually, I'll reach for a stout or something like that. I'm with you on that. This would be a good replacement for that if you wanted something a little lighter.
00:34:22
Speaker
Not in terms of body, but in terms of alcohol and stuff. Usually it's a barely stout, I'll say. Yeah. I'm with you on that because I find myself doing that on the weekends where it's like, oh, I'm going to, if my wife is going to bed and I want to watch a movie and I'm like, well, I want to have a beer. So I'll have a barely stout with like a two hour movie and drink it all the way through this. I'd probably get halfway through the movie and then find something lighter. You know what I mean? Yeah. There's like a candiness to this. And again,
00:34:51
Speaker
sometimes like syrupy, candied, those type of sweetnesses, as far as the description for a beer is kind of off-putting, but I'm using those as positives. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like it's a very interesting beer and I really, really enjoy it. And like you said, Dan, it's maybe not be the first type of like Irish style beer that I would grab, but
00:35:23
Speaker
coming across it, I would definitely buy it and keep it in my fridge to like have and to share like this is it's kind of a fun beer. Yeah, I mean, I think you maybe get more. I don't know if I'm necessarily getting toffee, but like that that like area of taste. Yeah, I think that that is that like it is like a candy sugar.
00:35:42
Speaker
Like a burnt candy sugar. And I don't mean burnt as like a stout would be burnt again. Yeah, like a caramelized candy sugar. And I feel like the same thing like what I was saying about like, you know, there's a candy sweetness, it's syrupy. We're not using these as like. Not necessarily negative, but it's not. It's like the right way to describe a beer in the most positive light.
00:36:03
Speaker
I mean, the funny thing is, so it's like I'm getting the sweetness, but it doesn't. I don't know if I want to say it finishes dry, but it finishes leaving me wanting to take another sip. Absolutely. Sometimes when you have a candy sweetness, I'm like, ugh, I'm done. Yeah, I don't know if this isn't the description that Tony read, but literally the last line on the can says, good body with a dry finish.
00:36:24
Speaker
and then there is sorry as I was reading that I'm like it's kind of dry yeah it is kind of dry because there is like it's kind of not like yeah but it's not like super sweet in my mouth afterwards yeah like that little lingering bitterness that Dan had talked about um but it's not like super bitter
00:36:43
Speaker
It's just enough. Like, yep, it's a really nice beer. Like, it's it's really good. So let's wrap this one up. Brandon, how many shamrocks are you giving? Actually, Brandon, how many pots of gold? This is this is so like this is so shitty to like losing all the Irish lists. Yeah. We do have like at least one listener from Ireland. I'm sorry. We're we're many red headed. No, Jesus. What? No, we're not going to.
00:37:13
Speaker
Uh, let's do, let's do shamrocks again. Brandon, how many shamrocks are you giving this one? Uh, I'm going, I really liked this one. I'm going four and a half. I like it. Dan. I'm going to go four to five.
00:37:33
Speaker
I it just under the last one and that's just because I don't like personal preference that I would drink the other one more. But I like this one for what it is. OK, so take out that. And this is not me knocking your rating like you can totally stand by it. So take out the fact of like what you would drink more of. But like overall as a beer, would you still give the same rating?
00:37:56
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's what I'm saying. I'm reading it on an Irish red ale scale. OK. In my head. I'm going to go with Brandon and go a step higher to do like 4.65, maybe even 4.7. No, no, no. I do 4.6. I do 4.6 or 4.45. This is serious shit, you guys. 4.59 is where I'm going with this. Only because it does kind of
00:38:27
Speaker
like it feels like a big beer and it's five percent and there's like this nice sweetness to it and then there's that like little hot bitterness and there's this big body to it but it's not a big beer so it's kind of fun to have a beer like this and like you said Dan it'd be a nice beer
00:38:45
Speaker
from watching like a two hour movie and maybe like an hour, hour and a half into it and like, oh, I'm done with this beer. You're not gonna sit here and slam this beer. Like I could have finished this beer, but as you guys can see, I haven't and I haven't even dumped the rest of the can in here. So I still have a bit of this left and I'm looking forward to finishing it. So yeah, I'm gonna go with 4.59 on it.
00:39:10
Speaker
We got one more beer left. We're very much past the halfway point. Let's take a break. We'll be right back.
00:40:57
Speaker
And we're back. Welcome back, everybody. It's our St. Patrick's Day episode annual. And Dan, it's your first one. Thanks for joining us with this episode. So this next one, Brandon, by the way, thank you again for curating all these beers for us going to Bottles and Cans, Shocked Bottles and Cans. We'll talk to you guys soon.
00:41:21
Speaker
coming on. We've been doing it for two years now. This next one is Breckenridge Brewing's Nitro Irish Stout. Have you guys ever had this? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I've not because I kind of I don't really care for nitro beers except for Guinness to be honest. But you know, there's there's a time and a place for everything. So I'm gonna read the description here. It's a classic Old World style with a mesmerizing magic of nitro and a colorful Colorado spirit. Hey,
00:41:51
Speaker
Three of us. We love Colorado, am I right? Mm-hmm. Shredding some gnar. Fruit with roasted Irish barley for rich multi-flavor. Our nitro Irish doubt captures the welcoming spirit of adventure, adventure that our home state's all about.
00:42:12
Speaker
Sure, man. This is a fucking Guinness beer. You know what I mean? Like, that's the idea. I don't care what they say. This is like Guinness. That's the idea they're going for. You guys, have you gone in for a...
00:42:25
Speaker
sniff or a taste, a little bit of both. Hmm. It's very. I do want to say on tap. It says it's 100 percent Maris Otter. Also, if that means anything to you guys. Interesting. Maris Otter has been the base malt I've been using lately for my beers. It gives a nice little sweetness to the beers. Interesting. Brandon, what are you what are you getting off the aroma and taster? It's very
00:42:55
Speaker
like Nitro Guinness-esque. So if that's what they were going for, which I'm sure they were, definitely nailed it. And it's got that same mouthfeel, that same kind of creaminess. And I'm getting like roastiness in the aroma.
00:43:11
Speaker
And, you know, some, you know, the multi roastiness, there's a tinge of sweetness in there. It didn't pour like a nitro Guinness. I tried to look at the can to see like they said how to pour it. They tried to do that. I don't feel like it did just that. But it it's great. When I what I was looking for when I poured it, I was like, Oh, is it going to cascade like with the Guinness?
00:43:37
Speaker
I saw a little bit, but it wasn't like, yes, you see, I was really heavy, though. I poured it in between and I did not get the cascading. It's got the nice white head. Yeah. Again, this has. Rothy. Yeah, I will say this. It tastes very much like a Guinness. The aroma, though, on it.
00:44:01
Speaker
There's more of a roastiness to it than I get from a Guinness, almost like a coffee roastiness. I really like this.
00:44:12
Speaker
I want to say I want to ask you guys because like one thing I like by doing this episode is I don't normally reach for Irish styles. Sure. So I don't know if this is a nitro or like an Irish dry stop thing, but it has that smell that I've smelled before where it smells airy, which I know it sounds weird, but it's almost like you're like smelling the ingredients like further away or like through something to me.
Breckenridge Nitro Irish Stout Introduction
00:44:34
Speaker
Sure. No, I get that. It's not. I feel like it's.
00:44:38
Speaker
it's not super strong. It's almost a subtle, subtle aroma. And what I get from that is a roasty coffee. I kind of wish I had a Guinness with me agreed, try side by side. Because flavor wise, I feel like it's very much like a Guinness, which I feel like is a compliment. And it's very good. aroma wise, though, I kind of like it more than a Guinness.
00:45:02
Speaker
I can't pinpoint what I think again, it smells like they don't have it in front of me, but maybe this is what again, it smells like there's a nice, like subtle, roasty coffee to this. Yeah. Hold, hold, hold for your thoughts. I was to give a moment of silence for everybody to think about it. Be like, what did Tony just say? Let the listeners process that.
00:45:32
Speaker
I think they processed. Sometimes it's more about what you don't say than what you do say. My wife tells me that all the time.
00:45:49
Speaker
Um, and again, this might be a dry Irish, dry Irish style. I'm trying to see my words now. Um, which do we say with the ABV on it says it's probably not high, but I don't remember you saying it and I could, um, but it's very, it tastes like aqueous to me, which.
00:46:09
Speaker
Like going from the last one to this one. That's my favorite Dan descriptor. 4.8%. Yeah, 4.8% and 38 IBUs. Also, it's available year-round, much like Danis. Oh, wow. Yeah. It's like aqueous on the front of it, and then I get the nice roastiness.
00:46:31
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like I feel like Nitro does that. It gives you that aqueousness for a beer. I'm not I got to be honest. I'm not a huge fan of Nitro beers. I like carbonation in my beers. Guinness is the
00:46:48
Speaker
one beer that I like because of that. What is it? Left hand does their milk stout nitro. I prefer it not to be nitro. But I get why people like nitro. It does accentuate certain flavors that the carbonation might change. You know what I mean? Yeah. Mask or altar.
00:47:11
Speaker
But because this is a St. Patrick's Day episode, this is up there with Guinness, man. I mean, I feel like this is a solid beer. Yeah. It's kind of like a mind fuck going from the last beer we had that was so thick. And then you have this stout that looks so creamy in front of you, and then you drink it, and you're like, oh. Well, there's a- It's like drinking water. See, well, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say water, but I get the aqueousness.
Debunking Stout Misconceptions
00:47:37
Speaker
I feel like it's just like a light is aqueousness about a word.
00:47:42
Speaker
Sure. It is now. But it's a light body beer. And it kind of like, to me, you know, there's that thought that Guinness is like, you know, drinking a loaf of bread, because people feel like the stouts are just so heavy. And we've talked about this before. And everybody should know this by now that Guinness is one of like the lightest beers you can have.
00:48:05
Speaker
And having this, I feel like it's, it's probably in the same camp. I mean, what do we say? It's four, 4.8%. Yeah. And I think Guinness is what's, what's Guinness is, uh, ABV here. Hold on. Let me, let me, uh, we don't, we don't have, I think it's like four.
00:48:23
Speaker
Pulling it up right 4.2. So it's a little higher than Guinness This is closer to five and regular Guinness is closer for but I could see that But I think the nitro is what gives that like light body to it But also for me because I was introduced to Guinness go into a bar that offered $2 Guinness for a long time It was $2 Guinness $2 PBRs and that's where I fell in love with Guinness because I was broke and having $2 beers now was tipping two bucks for every beer because
00:48:53
Speaker
I was expecting to pay $4 or $5 for a beer. Still worked out for my night out. $3 now, I think. And that's still pretty good. It is, which is still pretty good in Chicago. And I'm sure any place else we want to get a Guinness. Guinness is fucking expensive.
00:49:08
Speaker
I mean, getting it for two or three dollars is fucking awesome. So that's why I was I would switch back and forth between PBR and Guinness, which is why I fell in love with Guinness and then finding out it's like a lighter beer like drinking it so much made me realize it's really not that heavy. It's not that filling. And I feel like this beer encompasses that it's a really nice homage, I will say, I would say to Guinness.
00:49:35
Speaker
I also want to shout out their label art. So it's like a coat of arms. So very like Irish, Englishy, but then going with the Colorado theme, they have the castle, which is, you know, Irish, whatever, but then they have the skis on the upper left and then like the mountain on the lower part. I just like that. It's kind of cool. I feel like this might be the closest you can get to Guinness without having a Guinness.
00:50:01
Speaker
Yeah, I'd be curious to know like, what other breweries do like nitro Irish stouts that are reminiscent of Guinness. And I've talked about this from time to time like wanting to brew a Guinness clone.
00:50:16
Speaker
I feel like we should like, we definitely need to try that one year. Um, but like, and that's a stout, but one thing we've never done is like an Irish red. So like, together, actually, yeah, together. Uh, many years ago when we, by the way, I just found out it's been 10 years. Uh, I'm at 10 years or 11 years of brewing now.
00:50:37
Speaker
Mike, my brother-in-law, who's been on the show at least once, he and I for a kegs and eggs type St. Patrick's Day party many years ago, we brewed, he did a Guinness clone, but he did his own, not a clone, but he did a Guinness style beer. And I did an Irish red ale and he called his genius because I was able to go on Photoshop and switch letters around and call it genius instead of Guinness.
00:51:10
Speaker
And I did an Irish red ale with the leprechaun from The Simpsons. Sorry, it's still so offensive. But both beers turned out great and like
00:51:21
Speaker
If you remember, Mike was on that episode, but we did a pumpkin beer episode where Mike did that style of beer with pumpkin spice. I'm pretty sure he was on that episode. Yep. Yeah. I think I remember that. Yeah. That stout is fantastic. It would be nice to do a big
00:51:45
Speaker
like brew day with that type of beer to have on tap, because honestly, it would be really tasty just to have on tap every now and then because it's it's a light, easy drinking beer. And I don't necessarily feel like I want to go back to it all the time, but like have one or two pints. And all right, that's good. That was a good, you know, good, good serving, good pour of that type of beer. Dan, like I say, I'm going to say one more thing is I feel like this is great for like seasonally.
00:52:15
Speaker
You're in Chicago. You're coming out of the spring. You're hitting March. You still have those like cold snap days where you're kind of like over it all, but it's not frigid cold. You want to stop, but you don't want to like a big heavy stone. Right, right, right. I feel that spring. Yeah, I feel like that is the best way to describe a dry Irish stout for craft beer drinkers where you have come, like you said, come out of the winter snap of having these big barrel aged beers or these big like
00:52:45
Speaker
sticky sweet beers. This is the time of year where I really like to have like light beers because we're getting close to spring and then all these other types of styles are popping up except for my bucks. Oh man, those are so good. But this is exactly what you're saying. It's a good type of stout. I feel like it's very close to Guinness. I would really love to do, because it's year round,
00:53:11
Speaker
It would be nice to get some Guinness and get this and do an after the final pour or a malted minis to do a side by side to record this, uh, this year. So if you guys can mark this down somewhere in your notes, that'd be fun. I can do it, but, uh, it'd be fun to do so. So Dan, how many shamrocks are you giving the spear?
00:53:34
Speaker
How about you go first? Look at the Irish. OK. You know what? Actually, I rarely go first. I'm still trying to place it in my head right now. No, that's fine. Because of the type of beer that it is, I really love Guinness. I really do. I don't buy it often. And actually, I haven't tried the non-alcohol version of Guinness, and I really should, because I feel like NA beers are getting so much better. They're getting really, really, really, really good.
00:53:59
Speaker
It's even better like the sour beer that I got from athletic brewing soul sour, which I think is like 100 calories. And it's like a nice tart, like juice beer is still less calories and less sugar than like juice. So I'd rather drink that than than juice. But this I'm going to give four point
00:54:26
Speaker
4.6, no, 4.7, 4.7 just being the style that it is a dry Irish stout based on that, not based on my
Final Ratings & Preferences
00:54:34
Speaker
drinking preference. Like I said, I don't buy Guinness all the time, but for a dry Irish stout, I mean, this is like 4.7, 4.75. Like this is really good. If you're going off of Guinness and this is the next thing, the next best thing, it's damn near perfection. Can I ask like what, what the three we've had tonight, what would you put them in?
00:54:54
Speaker
Sure. And then when you guys rate this, we'll do the same thing. I'm going to go with. Oh, shit, man. Just in terms of like what you'd want to drink. That's this is this might be the toughest one ever, because all three of them hit different things that I really enjoy, and they're all three really great beers, which, by the way, Brandon, good job and thank you very much.
00:55:22
Speaker
But if I'm at a St. Patrick's Day party, I'll tell you this. I'll put it in order of how I'm going to drink them. How's that? Do it. Does that work? Yep. I'm going to go with Great Lakes and number three. I'm going to go with Breckenridge, number two. Like you're having it last, Great Lakes? No, no. Yeah, no, I'm having that first. Sorry. Oh, OK. So sorry. Sorry. Let me start that. I'm doing three, two, one, but also
00:55:47
Speaker
the first beer that I made. So I'm doing reverse like a moron. So number three is Great Lakes. But that it's just it's a really good beer. That's the first beer I'm going to start with. The next would be. The Breckenridge dry Irish stout, because it's very much like Guinness. So it's like, OK, I'm piling it on. You know, I'm a very big believer. A lot of people, you know, I like the idea of going lighter to heavier. Even though that
00:56:16
Speaker
the dry Irish out from Breckenridge is technically lighter than the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes was easier to drink. So I'm going to Great Lakes Breckenridge and then the Sullivan's to finish the day off of like, you know, day drinking. Drink three beers. That's it. Do a fucking shot of Bushmills and call it a fucking day. And there's some corned beef. Far on the floor. Again, what about you? Yeah, Dan.
00:56:45
Speaker
I'm gonna give this I'll do four to five again, but It's like way different than the last one, but I can't decide like which of those two I like better Dry Irish. That's not my jam. Nitro is not my jam same here So but you gotta rank him now right right right? No, I mean great lakes is for sure number one I
00:57:11
Speaker
Number one is your favorite as opposed to as opposed to how I did it for number three, correct? Yeah, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not night capping with the Conway's Irish. Yeah, man. Oh, but I feel like I'm with it. I started with it. I'm going Great Lakes. I think I'm going to do the same as you just because that the one is so thick and like, certainly I just drank it again. I guess you're doing something like I had someone do the same as me as three to one. Yes. OK, I like that.
00:57:41
Speaker
The other one's so thick, I feel like it has to be at the end. Right? Like that, that's how I feel about like some of those big beers. And sometimes I do like to have a big beer first and then work my way down. I've said that before on this podcast.
00:57:52
Speaker
Mm hmm. Brandon, it comes down to you, buddy. What do you rate this beer? And then what's your order? So I said four, six is what I was going to do. I didn't say in my head I did before six is what I was going to do. And I've been going back and forth and like how I would like to enjoy these. And I honestly, I'm in the same camp, man. Like that order seems to be the best order to to enjoy these. All three of these beers
00:58:22
Speaker
are very good. They're very good beers. Even if you're not doing like a St. Patrick's Day thing, like all three of these beers are very tasty and they're worth a try. And I think that that's where I stand on these beers. I mean, I don't know if we've had a St. Patrick's Day episode where we didn't have good Irish beers. We've been pretty honest about beer styles. This is what episode.
00:58:51
Speaker
One million and five. Somewhere around that. I think it's like 104, 105. But this is our fourth St. Patrick's Day episode. And I was hesitant about doing it. And Brandon, I was glad you brought it up because there are a ton of this. This actual what you put together reminds me that there are styles of these types of beer from different breweries or these types of beers from different breweries that we haven't tried. And they're really good. I feel like all three of these
00:59:22
Speaker
everybody should give a try and you will find, definitely find one that you're like, oh, this is the one for me. This is the one that I would really enjoy. But I think that the Sullivan's, that's the one that I'm gonna sit on and wrap up the night with.
00:59:38
Speaker
Oh man, this is good. Except we have an after the final pour we gotta do. So with that being said, happy St. Patrick's Day everybody. Thank you again for listening. Remember to, you know, I hate saying this, like, subscribe, rate, do all that dumb shit that you're supposed to do. And thank you everybody for continuing to listen. And everybody in Ireland who we may have offended, we really do apologize. I mean,
01:00:06
Speaker
Look at America, you know, we're trying to be better. Oh, the three of these, you know, the guys in the podcast here, we're trying to do it. I can't say anything for anybody else, but let's not get into politics. Brandon, I love you, man. Love you too, bud. Dan.
01:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to your first St. Patrick's Day episode, man. Thanks. We love you. I was trying to think of something like Irish to say, but I got nothing. Don't do it. We've already apologized to the Irish. Don't throw us into that. I am Irish. It doesn't matter. If you don't have anything to say right off the bat.
01:00:43
Speaker
You spoke in Gaelic Yeah, but you blew it nothing you fucking better that one damn Dan, right Dan, right? All right, bye everybody see you next week bye
01:01:02
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us individually on social media. Brandon can be found on Instagram as bmdub81, on Twitter, bdub81, and on Untapped as bdubdrinksbeer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Ace of Hope Chicago. On Twitter, The Ace of Hope Chicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three.
01:01:30
Speaker
Dan can be found on Instagram as hip underscore underscore hops and hip hops on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe, like and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.