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After The Final Pour - S9E13 Benthic 2023 (feat. Matthew Moldenhauer)
23 Plays11 hours ago
This week we drink Half Acre's 2023 "Benthic" with our friend Matthew Moldenhauer.
Beer description:
Barrel Aged Imperial Stout with Toasted Coconut & Coffee
Thanks to Kevin and Deb Goggin for the theme song.
Outro music by Fluid Minds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com
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Transcript
Introduction and Local Brews
00:00:45
Speaker
Welcome to After the Final Pour, brought to you by The Malting Hour I am one of your hosts, Tony Gullick, joined always with Brandon Winnington And to his right Sponsored by, I mean, Matthew Moldenhauer This actually isn't sponsored by him, there's no old Irving beer on this, buddy shit But we are staying local again. you just Have you had this yet? I don't think so. I just smelt it. it's ah But I dealt it. Oh, Jesus. i smell The nose is fantastic. Dude, I went in and I was like, it smells like i got a bad hot chocolate or chocolate milk. Smells like some fudgy brownie. Yes, yeah. Oh, yeah.
Benthic Beer Experience
00:01:23
Speaker
Matthew, you curated this one.
00:01:26
Speaker
Yeah. Just like the last episode you were on. My friend Greg who works in the warehouse over at Half Acre gave me this one. It is their bourbon barrel aged imperial style with toasted coconut and coffee benthic. Yes. From 2023. We were talking a little while ago that Brad and you and I have, B.U. and Clark, all three of us have purchased this year's benthic selection.
00:01:47
Speaker
I ain't purchasing. I thought you said you did. No. You made you spend all the money. I still have to share these cans with you. Fuck. Fair enough. I'm not spitting. I thought you did. I thought you said, oh, I bought it. No, no, no. Oh, God, no. Clark and I bought it. Anyway, um yeah have you guys had any of the benthics before?
00:02:07
Speaker
yeah Yes. Do you still have any benthics? Probably. Probably. I remember getting some benthics in during the pandemic. It was the little break in the pandemic where the numbers dropped down a lot right before the holidays came in and the government was like, no, we're going to give you more COVID. We're the government.
00:02:32
Speaker
Oh, sorry. That's the Conspiracy Theory podcast I host. ah The Garfield's. Until tomorrow. The Garfield's over on Harlem. They had a bunch of benthic and I was like, fuck it. I'm buying some. And I think maybe I shared one with you or something. I'm i'm not sure. Maybe I gave you one. I think I gave you one. Maybe that's what you have in here. It's possible. It's possible. Anyways, I remember that was the first time I ever had benthic in 2020. I was very happy with it.
00:03:02
Speaker
I am feeling the same way about this one.
Flavor Comparisons and Brewing Techniques
00:03:05
Speaker
I'm so pleased. This is even better than I remember. Yeah. Like the coconut on this is just nailing it. Yeah. But what was crazy was the nose because I'm getting I was getting like chocolate and coconut and like all of like these mix of things. And that's why I said I'm like it tastes like or it smells like it would be like a really good like hot chocolate or like chocolate milk or whatever.
00:03:29
Speaker
The chocolate is not so much present when you taste it, but I'm getting... I get like a bitter chocolate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'm like, it's overwhelming, like, for me, sure like, I'm getting coconut and just, like, malt and everything. Dude, this is like... It's like if someone took an almond joint, dunked it in a cup of coffee, and then poured bourbon on it.
00:03:50
Speaker
Yeah. Well, the thing that I'm getting that you have to go listen to the last episode is I am getting kind of that honey graham cracker. Okay. Out of this. Like I'm getting not just normal graham cracker, it's the honey graham cracker. but the pieceses are The better ones. They are significantly better than regular graham cracker. Exactly. You got to have honey graham cracker. Okay. <unk>s wrong But now that you say that, yeah, I can kind of see that. I can i can see where you're pulling that from. So I don't disagree with you.
00:04:19
Speaker
I might be maybe hypersensitive to the chocolate in these beer steaks because I did have finally have a bowl of Count Chocula. I bought a box of family sized kind of chocolate for myself. I don't think there's chocolate in this one. No, I know. But I feel like the like a chocolate taste, you know what I mean? Like like with malts and whatnot. Don't fucking for this black beer. Yeah. There's there's roasted malts. Yeah, I know. This is crazy. And I don't get that. Here's some black gold. Matthew's losing his mind slowly on this episode. But I feel like I like, you know, there's always like a chocolate characteristic, not always, but
00:04:56
Speaker
There tends to be a ah chocolate or cocoa characteristic to dark beers. Oh, yeah. And I think that's... Especially in like a big barreley style. like that And I feel like that's what most, Matthew, maybe you can attest to this, is what most most breweries would go for if they're not putting like cocoa nibs or whatever into a beer, like using the the roasted malts to kind of subsidize that flavor. Subsidize.
00:05:19
Speaker
But, I mean, really well done. Like, everything plays together really well in this beer. And was this, you said 2023? Yeah. 2023. Yeah, you held up really well too, so. Yeah, oh I think the coffee's maybe a little bit less. Yeah, you well, now that you say that, I'm like, oh yeah, I forgot there's supposed to be coffee in here. Exactly. See, I get coffee. I do get a good do get coffee. It's subtle, but like... it i don't again like we said this before like having a fresh beer that has coffee in it what is the coffee like versus now um but it's not green exactly say it's like you're not getting that astringency that you get from like
00:05:59
Speaker
Green bell pepper. Yeah, yeah. For like old, old coffee beers. 2013 coffee bourbon county, like that. But there's, but again, like to that point, there's some coffee beers that we've had that have been old and like the coffee is still present.
00:06:15
Speaker
however subtle it may be, but it doesn't turn that corner. So I don't know if it's the quality of the bean that they use, or if it's the the way they infuse the coffee into the beer, like, I don't know. ah Either way, this is like... That's why like we use all, anytime we do coffee we work with Parker with Hexa and that's why we do especially like we crack the beans and we steep it in the bright tank cold because that way you don't get extra stringency but you get tons of extra flavor versus some breweries will do like concentrates and just do like coffee concentrate into the beer itself.
Coffee Sourcing for Brewing
00:06:55
Speaker
we so Where do you get your coffee from? Hexa.
00:06:59
Speaker
Have you ever been to HEXA? No, where's that? Ooh, they're next to the Costco on Elston. Jesus. But they're in that like... They're not their sponsor. Like if you've never been there though, they have a... No, no, I mean Costco. Talk about Costco being there. Well, go to HEXA. They have ah their own baker. there' scal They have a yeah skeleton, ah like little...
00:07:21
Speaker
mold, cake, and it's fantastic. I thought you were about to say scone, because they do, like, a good scone. I'm sure they do have scone. Scone. But, like, why would you get a scone when you can have a skeleton? True. Because a skeleton's scone. And they also do, uh, bear-laged coffees. Oh! And they have a full cocktail program there as well. What?! Yeah, it's a coffee place that has full co- It's where Maplewood does their trash bash, we've done their Oktoberfest, we've done grilling out there for them. Parker does fantastic stuff. Thanks for inviting us.
00:07:52
Speaker
Bird curlers in the suburbs now, I don't get invited either. We should just go, I guess. All three of us. To the suburbs? He has chickens now. Not the birds. I'm talking about the coffee place. Jesus Christ.
00:08:04
Speaker
ah What's the... Is that a squid that's on the can? Or is it a jellyfish? What are we looking at there? A sea monster? I would say a jellyfish, but like... A jellyfish sea monster? Looks so good, yeah.
00:08:19
Speaker
Brandon, how many jellyfish sea monsters are you giving benthic 2023? 2023. Yeah. The one we're drinking.
00:08:35
Speaker
Uh, Matthew, how many? jellyfish squid-like sea creature monsters. Are you giving this? 4.4 tentacles. 4.4 tentacles. Yeah. I really like this one. Yeah. I'm gonna go 4.3. I'm right there in the middle of you guys right there. I really like it as well.
00:08:57
Speaker
um Yeah, I feel like, and it's kind of bumming me out, that you guys had gotten the coconut right away, and I did not. And that's the second time now I've had a coconut beer. And
Coconut Tasting and Personal Brew Experiences
00:09:10
Speaker
I love coconut and beers, and I like feel like... Should we go and have COVID? I don't. I can taste everything else. You've got the long COVID.
00:09:16
Speaker
It just helps it just stops coconut for me yeah because like when we did the bourbon County tasting like I Had a hard time picking out the coconut and then everybody's reviews. I wrote was like strong coconut. I'm like, what What are you talking about? I tasted ginger Which is a part of the coming next week when we do pirate Krampus when we're toasting the coconut and if you can't smell the coconut when you walk into the brewery kind and you go Okay, when would and you let me know what they're doing that and I'll come in so I'm sure though the the scent will also linger. Cranberries, right? No? Yeah. Anyways, thanks for sharing this with us, Matthew, and thank you for the other beers on the last episode you were on, because I'm pretty sure this, after the final pour, is coming out maybe two weeks after your episode. Well, thank you for making the music you did. you
00:10:04
Speaker
done my playlist for the last couple weeks. It's been fun.
Music, Support, and Farewell
00:10:07
Speaker
Hey, thanks man. Like you said, in December, all my music will be available on Spotify. But you can support Tony via Bandcamp, which I did today. Hey, did you? I did. Oh, thanks man. Somebody does. Appreciate it. Hey man, that was the most purchase I ever got for an album. I had 10 purchases. Fuck yeah. yeah It's a great album. What's the name of the album again? Sarah lives on the other side of Beatdown Park. Yeah, like it's a perfect, I've been working to that album a lot. Really? Yeah. Damn man, thanks. Appreciate it. Podcasts taking a weird turn.
00:10:40
Speaker
It's now Tony's Music Podcast. Thanks, I appreciate that. Go buy my album, everybody. All right, Matthew, thanks again for joining us, and I'm sure we'll have you on again soon. We're expecting the Krampus preview. Or just bring some Krampus on, drink with us again. With Trevor. Yeah, those are always- Tim. Oh man, there's so many voices. It is so many voices. So many voices in my head. So many voices, and I hate going back and editing it, but also it's just so much fun.
00:11:09
Speaker
Maybe we just go to the brewery and do it, you know? That might be better. Yeah. Bust out the tam task cam. That's the tampon. Bust out the task cam. hey Sometimes you get a bust out of tampon, yeah. Sure, you never know what it's gonna be like. ah Brandon, I love you, buddy. Love you, too, man. We'll see you everybody next week. Bye.
00:11:27
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us individually on social media. 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. 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.