Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 65 - Pumpkin Beers 2021 (feat. Rachel Morrison)
117 Plays3 years ago
On this episode we're joined by Rachel Morrison aka BeerGoggles to drink and discuss the beer style you either love or hate: Pumpkin.
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
Introduction to Pumpkin Beers
00:00:00
Speaker
this week we're joined by beer goggles aka rachel morrison to drink everybody's favorite beer style pumpkin beers this is episode 65 of the malting hour what's the hats on the house guy he says peace this the mall now where we talk about our drink and tell you what we think every other week and if we get drunk where we might slur our speech got the gift of cab the friends you wish you had join us for a drink join us for a laugh time is never
Meet Rachel Morrison: Influencer Marketing in Beer Community
00:00:46
Speaker
Welcome to The Malting Hour. I'm one of the hosts. Tony Golic joined always with. Brandon Winninger. And a man who needs no introduction. Today, we are doing our, whether you like him or not. Go ahead, Clark, you can introduce yourself. Clark Fetridge. All right, well, that's fine. We are revisiting one of the beers that some people love him. Some people hate him. We hated him last year, but then loved him. We swore we'd never do another episode. And here we are. It's pumpkin beer season. And we have a special guest. A special guest. Oh, son of a bitch.
00:01:16
Speaker
Please introduce yourself. Rachel Morrison. Oh, Rachel, thank you for joining us. And people would know you, obviously, from? Instagram. Just Instagram. You're an influencer. I hate that word, but yeah, sure. Would people consider you an influencer? What are you doing over there? Are you listening to something?
00:01:39
Speaker
Checking a text message from my wife. See, he's proving that he's got a wife. Yes, I'm checking my text. So would you be considered an influencer? Is that a thing? I don't know. So what's funny is I work in social media influencer marketing full time. So I would be considered nano. So it's so, so, so, so small. So I would say no. But I feel like the people I've met within beer from that page have been amazing. So that part's cool. All right.
00:02:07
Speaker
Now I feel like we've checked something off our bucket list. We have an influencer on the show. I thought that's why you guys brought me in last year. No. No? We needed someone to- Very influential. Well, we needed someone to look up whether or not we had information right about certain years and that's why you're off in the corner and no one's not really talking to you.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, so thanks for joining us Rachel appreciate it. We were in contact with you How did that come about? How did we how did we bring you on? How did we convince you to spend? Wednesday evening with us in Brandon's baby means in the studio is in the studio. We're in our own studio. We have a studio
00:02:46
Speaker
She asked. I did. I was like, I was hoping. I was like, I did ask. And my friend has already made fun of me intensely for that. But yeah, I asked, to be honest.
Pumpkin Beers Discussion and Tastings
00:02:55
Speaker
I'm glad so. I feel like that's a big deal. Somebody asked us to be there. It would be on a podcast. There's a million podcasts out there. You chose us. Well, hopefully this experience doesn't sour it for everybody else because, I mean, this is top tier recording. This is how it's done. Yes. Yes. I don't know if you're going to find a better experience ever with another podcast, if that happens.
00:03:16
Speaker
Probably not. Anyways, so we're... We're gonna be positive. We're great. I'm happy that we ended up here on Pumpkin Beers and I was a little concerned that once we told you we were gonna do Pumpkin Beers. In fact, when you message our account, when we go back and forth messaging, most of the time it's Brandon, sometimes it's me. Okay, okay. So how's that for me? Well, so we both have had... Clark has no access to our social media.
00:03:42
Speaker
We keep him off of it. It's better that way. Brandon left out the pumpkin stuff and I'm like, I'm going to tell her. By the way, yeah, we're going to do the pumpkin beer episode. I'm like rolling the dice. I'm glad that you said that you were interested in doing it. Do you generally like pumpkin beers? I do. I think there's some that I, I mean, it's a mixed bag, I feel like, with pumpkin beer. They're all the same name I've noticed, but they all are different. But then it's like you didn't mention that there's also seltzer here, so you can sneak in the pumpkin beer.
00:04:11
Speaker
Probably gonna sneak it in today. That exists too, but yeah. We'll see. Yeah, I feel like with the particular style of pumpkin beer, people either love it or hate it. Just pumpkin spice stuff in general, I personally, I love all the pumpkin spice stuff. I like when people get, Tony's rant, here we go. Why does everybody get bent out of shape when like,
00:04:35
Speaker
All of a sudden, everything pumpkin spice comes out. It doesn't mean when you see a box of pumpkin spice, or, not Oreos, but pumpkin, I'm pretty sure there's something, pumpkin spice, you know, Cheerios, doesn't mean regular Cheerios are gone. When pumpkin spice lattes come out, doesn't mean regular lattes are gone. Just like pumpkin beer. When those come out, doesn't mean all their beer goes away. In fact, it's really hard to find pumpkin beers right now in October because they release them all in August.
00:04:57
Speaker
Yep. That's it. Well, that was our issue last year when we tried to do it. Like it was grounding. We waited till the last minute and we were searching for pumpkin. Yeah, that was actually that was two years ago, I think. Oh, actually, we were a little bit better. Yeah, but not that good. You know, that's right. It was two years ago because.
00:05:15
Speaker
we were going to do, it was the spooky Halloween episode. It was not strictly pumpkin beer. That was your on that. That was when I was just a mere guest. Was that your first episode? It might have been actually. Probably the best episode. I mean he's the information guy and he doesn't even know that he was first. He checked the episode log.
00:05:34
Speaker
Yes, it was. All right, anyways, so yeah, it's hit or miss. I do love pumpkin beers. I like the different things that you can do with it. Last year I discovered, I used to have this...
00:05:47
Speaker
I thought a very clear vision on what pumpkin beers were to me. I was like, why the hell are you actually adding real pumpkin to a beer? Pumpkin doesn't really taste like anything. Until we brewed, Brandon and I did the same recipe. We brewed a beer where he had pumpkin and I did not. And that beer, the one that he did with real pumpkin, tasted phenomenally better. Like it was unbelievable. So I've come to appreciate actually real pumpkin in pumpkin beers now. Not just the pumpkin spice.
00:06:17
Speaker
Yeah. I love fall. I love fall. My hoodie back on. It's cooler outside. I'm not sweating so much, or as profusely as I normally would. So, I'm a big fan. What are we drinking, Brandon? So we are starting off. Thank you to Rachel for bringing this one. It is Doc Fish Head's Pumpkin Ale. Pumpkin.
00:06:41
Speaker
I always say pumpkin. I'm like, no, it's pumpkin. It's pumpkin. It's cute. It's cutesy. It's one of those fun ones. I think, wait, I don't know. Have we done this on the show before? But I know we've had, I know I've had this before at some point in my life. I don't think so. I don't think we've ever drank this on the show because we did not do it last year. 7%. Oh, boy.
00:07:00
Speaker
And the year before we had like two pumpkin beers and we did like ailment ailments salted brown caramel and Something else which is that is still a phenomenal beer. I really shout out to element for that is Clark Is there a real pumpkin in this beer?
00:07:14
Speaker
It says it's made with pumpkin meat, actually, so I assume they're real pumpkin. That's what you mean. Yeah, brown sugar and spices. They murdered some pumpkins. Like steak. So this is my second time having it this year. I had it a couple weeks ago, and when I had it, that was the night I sat in my yard with Ron and some other friends. Oh, okay. We were doing tasters, and before I knew it, I was actually hungover for the first time.
00:07:39
Speaker
in a long time. You know, when you're doing tasters till two in the morning? Three in the morning. Three in the morning. But we started at nine. That's two in a really long time. Twenty-four beers. Anyway, I remember really enjoying this beer. I went back and looked at Ron's check-ins because he's pretty good about checking stuff in and I was like...
00:07:58
Speaker
How are you alive the next day? Tasters, you know? And we were drinking, and I was drinking a bunch of water. Anyway, that's not what this is about. This is not about my drinking problem on Friday night. What is everybody's impression of this beer? Let's start with Rachel. She brought it. That's what he chose. Did I bring this one? No, actually I brought it. I can see how Raina can confuse us. No, yeah, for sure. I like it a lot, personally. I think this, and I think I've had this one before.
00:08:23
Speaker
But it's not, I think the thing right now is like, of the pumpkin beers I've tried so far, some are just like overly sweet or some are kind of trying to be too much of like a chai tea pumpkin. I don't know, some of those are getting a little too crazy for me. This feels just very straightforward, good about a pumpkin, all rounded. Yeah, I feel like this is probably one of the, I don't know, I'll have to go back and listen to the other episodes where I say, oh, I'm pretty sure this was the first one I ever had. But I do feel like pumpkin was maybe
00:08:49
Speaker
One of the first experiences I had with pumpkin beers, because I remember there was a time in my life of just wanting to drink dogfish head beers all the time. And so anytime something came out by dogfish head, I was like, yep, I'll get that. And I don't feel like much has changed. There is a nice sweetness to it without it being overly sweet. And I feel like even the spices in there are good.
00:09:10
Speaker
The reason why I asked if there was pumpkin in there was because I feel like there is that bit of what I'm remembering from last year was that there is like a little bit more body and there's just that like not earthy in a like dirty way. No, earthy is a great way to explain it. That's what I was trying to get to. I didn't know what I was going to say about it. Well, in that sense. Clark, tell us what you think about the beer. Oh, it's very earthy is what I came up with. No, it's light, refreshing. And there's just enough spice in there for a light pumpkin ale.
00:09:39
Speaker
I mean, and light at 7% as well. True. Well, okay. Yeah, that's right. I forgot about that. So for 7%, it's not taped. It doesn't really taste at all. I finished my sample way before you guys. I just went at it, drank it. I got a lot to get through, so.
00:09:54
Speaker
Yeah, Rachel, before you got here, there are a ton of pumpkin beers. I think we grabbed two each or more. It's actually about the most successful haul we've got from pumpkin beer. Just buying different things. Yeah. And none of us grabbed any
00:10:14
Speaker
ones that were the same. We tried to stay away. That's true. And thanks to Bottles and Cans for letting us do that. Yes. Thank you, Bottles and Cans. Weekly shout out. Weekly shout out. They're not a sponsor these days. But they may be coming on the show soon next to today's shopping trip. So actually,
Rachel's Writing and Beer Engagement
00:10:31
Speaker
I do want to start. I do want to cut you off. But before we segue, I'm always up next.
00:10:37
Speaker
I don't know what that means. I'm just pulling the beers out. Well, I mean, this is our first time having Rachel on a show, so I kind of want to talk about a little bit about you and your background. I know we talked about your on Instagram, your beer influencer, but you also write for porchdrinking.com. Yes. And pulled up your profile, got a little bit of information on you.
00:11:00
Speaker
It's on the website. I did my research that Clark didn't do. Clark drinking? So when did that come about? How did you kind of fall into that?
00:11:14
Speaker
Yeah, so I kind of everything, I don't know what was going on in 2018, but that's when everything started happening for me in relation to beer. So I guess either a good year or maybe like a bad year and everything else and I needed like an outlet, right? I started, I believe my Instagram that year, I was going to beer school at the College of DuPage, which is a very real thing.
00:11:35
Speaker
It was very fun. But I, at the same time, was doing, like, Beer Goggles blog. My Instagram comes from, like, actually having my own blog previously. I've since deleted it. One poor streaky asked me to write for that, and I was like, that sounds so much easier. Like, you guys put in the website. I can write in frequently. I can just do that. And so I think I deleted my own blog, like, same week, which was very impulsive. But I just was, like, ready for a different thing. So I was at a beer event at Park & Field, I believe, again in 2018.
00:12:03
Speaker
ran into Mike Zoller and he asked me to write for Portrait Gang because he had read my blog and seen my page and I was completely stoked because I had heard about them and whatnot. And it's been really nice because it's not something I do somewhat infrequently. I've been writing a lot more.
00:12:19
Speaker
more recently, but it has been really nice just like whether I'm here in Chicago or traveling, it's kind of a nice way to like walk into a brewery if I'm like with people or by myself and I mention it and it's like typically I feel like people give me like better recommendations or like a little more serious as weird as that sounds. Oh you're from Portuguese? Then try this beer. Yeah, like it's... They push away the beer you've already ordered. Like don't drink that swill. Yeah, they're like we were kidding before. She's here. I think it's the opposite for us.
00:12:48
Speaker
Here's a toasted marshmallow seltzer. Just great. So it's been going on for a while and then more recently I have been working with Guildrow which is a new
00:13:00
Speaker
kind of social, community-oriented club in Avondale. They're right near Metropolitan, like directly across the street, which is very convenient. And so I work with them to help curate their beer lists, kind of start their beer program, and working on some programming with them. Awesome. That sounds fun. So was your first article with porch drinking about the holiday-themed gift guide?
00:13:22
Speaker
Oh, that sounds like something I would do. That sounds so funny. And the only reason I know that is I went back to all of the things you wrote, and that was the oldest one that I found. That's hilarious. That totally sounds like me. I'm sure I was very excited. Take a right for us. Okay, here's my first idea. Gift guide. Never been done before. That's a good approach. That's a good way to be like, hey, look, I know my shit, and if you want to get someone to do it... Well, I'm wondering why.
00:13:49
Speaker
beer. Let's find out. Oh man. We can pull that up right now. I have the link. Before I read that, I'm going to crack open another beer so we can start on that. Oh cool. Fantastic. The segue. Note to self, this is where I edit out Brandon opening up the refrigerator. That actually won't be in the episode. Okay then. Nobody look. It's a secret. I'm not doing mystery beers. Or are we?
00:14:19
Speaker
Oh, here we go. Thanks, Clark. Which one is this? Oh, you're welcome. Remember to keep all the beers to the side. I put this one back in the fridge. I like how that was sitting on the lid. Oh, the maple. Oh, jeez. That sounds good. I really like that I'm having a hard time reading things up close now. Getting older is fun.
00:14:43
Speaker
No. Laura's got to deal with it. She's... She'll be 40, 70, 40. She's got to deal with it. She's going to be 40. Yeah. Like, Laura, I can't see that. Please move it off of my face. Can you read this? Nope. I turned 40 and my eyes got better. It's weird. Yeah, that's how it works, man. Is that really a thing? I don't know. I keep going to the doctor, and the doctor's like, you have 20-20 vision? I'm like, you're asking me? You tell me. He's like, yeah, you do. I'm like, huh?
00:15:32
Speaker
You left off on talking about before we get to the gift guide
00:15:35
Speaker
Yeah, so we did we cracked open another beer this one was brought by a Clark. Thank you Clark. You see a Clark One of the Clark's not be Clark but a Clark Clark brought maple bacon pumpkin spiced red ale who's if I this is all felons it is
00:15:56
Speaker
What is it? Okay, I don't know. Do you want to know all about it? Yeah, that's your job. It's got a rich malty backbone of toasted caramel candy sweetness. We used a blend of smoked malt from Wireman Malt in Germany and a touch of salt to achieve a soft, natural smoked bacon flavor that balances with the sweet caramel notes. They had real pumpkin in the mash and natural maple to finish this out.
00:16:23
Speaker
I don't know what I'm tasting. It's not actually smoked bacon. They use the malts to make it taste like. It's a smoked malt, right? They use a smoked malt? Correct. So I'm glad you read that because the first thing that I smelled on it was like smokiness and I was kind of taken aback by it.
00:16:41
Speaker
Interesting. That's the word I was going to use. I'm glad, like most beers, that I'm trying it. I don't know if I would go out of my way to maybe have it again. Unless I had some and somebody wanted to try it and be like, yeah, I'll do it. Or I'll have some of that again. We set Earthy for the last one.
00:17:01
Speaker
in a good way. This is earthy to me and not a good way. This has a weird, I don't know if it's a sourness to it that I'm getting. Maybe someone that actually knows about beer. What I feel like when breweries do bacon in beer, it's just so hard. Like you can't put bacon in beer. Like it like because this is what comes out. That harsh smokiness that just is not
00:17:27
Speaker
just eat bacon yeah yeah yeah have that like on the side with the whole beer make a beer at your hurry and then serve like a pound of bacon with it yeah yeah candied bacon no one's mad about that rachel what do you what do you think about this one i think kind of the same so for me it's like the smoke is very not the smoke but what is trying to be the smoky flavor
Review of Unique Pumpkin Beers
00:17:45
Speaker
is like overpowering all the things like the aroma the flavor i'm not getting the pumpkin yeah i agree i get zero pumpkin i get a little i mean subtly sweet but definitely just like kind of a funky i feel like they made this with the hope that the pumpkin would be prominent and then it wasn't so they decided to make their label be like maple bacon
00:18:07
Speaker
Pumpkin. Yeah, I'd rather just have a maple pumpkin beer. That would be interesting. There's too much. Yeah, the bacon, I thought when you sent us the picture of the beer that you got, when I saw a maple pumpkin beer, I'm like, oh, that's a cool thing. And then I saw the piece of bacon on there. Oh, it's a maple bacon because I don't read labels. I just look at it and I walk away. I take what I can with these old eyes.
00:18:31
Speaker
What does that say? Maple. Good enough? And there's a pumpkin on there. Gotta be good. Brandon, if you were walking down the street and someone came up to you and was like, hey man, what do you think about O'Fallon's maple bacon pumpkin beer? What would you tell him? What would you give him? Out of five stars, what would you give it? There he is. He's back. Two and a half.
00:18:52
Speaker
Two and a half. Two and a half, interesting. This is basically the culmination of our untapped ratings. But yeah, two and a half. I'm not a fan mostly because of what it claims to be, a maple bacon pumpkin spiced ale. And I'm not getting, if this was just maple bacon,
00:19:11
Speaker
I could rate it higher because that's what it is. But the pumpkin spice, it's not even perfect. It's not even present for me. Remnants of last year's episode. Yeah. Let's turn this around. At least it doesn't taste like a vanilla wafer cookie promising to be a cold brew cookie. That would be delicious, I think. That sounds really good. Well, it was, except it was like it said it was going to be a cold brew coffee pumpkin beer. And it was just a, it tasted like a vanilla wafer, which was fine. Yeah.
00:19:38
Speaker
But not when you're expecting coffee and pumpkin beer. Yeah. Sorry, southern tier. What is this? Because it's like the first time they've done this beer. I'm guessing maybe. Working on it. Right on top of that, Rose. I'm going to say. By the way, I did watch Don't Tell Mom the Baby Sitter's Dead this weekend for my anniversary trip. I miss having my sound drops. Yeah, I do. Works really well on Zoom.
00:20:00
Speaker
Oh, is that the problem? Yeah. Yeah. The home part. Oh, no. When we're using Zencaster. Yeah. I was going to say who it was, but yeah. Zencaster. Yeah. I don't believe this is the first time they've done it. Because to me, it feels like they brewed the beer, and they're like this. Just threw it. Yeah. It's like, this is what we're going to call it. Let's brew it. And then it's like, it came out, and then it's like, almost like, rename. Yeah. I feel like this wasn't the name.
00:20:25
Speaker
Spiced maple bacon. I feel like this wasn't it. Throw a bit of cinnamon in there, maybe, that you can't taste, but still call it. Whoa, it tastes like this? Well, now that I've finished the sample that I've had...
00:20:39
Speaker
Like the smokiness has kind of faded. And now it does feel like there's like a hint of a spice in there, but it's not, it's not cinnamon. It's, there's nothing like, Oh yeah, there it is. There's the pumpkin. It's just kind of, I just don't like how it feels like getting my, no, I'm kidding. I don't know what it is. No. And like, and kind of, I don't know if you were going to say it, but like literally there's a weird coating that I was getting. I'm drinking it like, and it feels like,
00:21:06
Speaker
Like, literally, if you put liquid smoke on something, and I know they probably didn't use it, they used smoked malt, but like, I'm getting like a liquid smoke. This is what liquid smoke in my face would taste like, you know? And I feel like it would. I don't drink a lot of liquid smoke, but when I do, this is what it tastes like.
00:21:23
Speaker
I was going to say, I wonder how this would taste if you aged it, but I don't even want to know. No thanks. Because I feel like it would just, the smoke would just, everything else would really fade and we'd probably just end up with like. You'd just like open up a bottle of smoke somehow. It's the black smoke from Lost. There we go. There's a good reference for the night. Brandon, I know we're not trying to rush everything here, but because that was so bad. Yeah, let's get into something else. We'll get some good.
00:21:50
Speaker
And usually we're not... It's usually the pumpkin episodes where we're like, well this sucks. Every other episode is like, well, this is nice. Yeah. Like even beers are like, hmm, that's a little weird, but I could drink this. Tony, would you drink this on a summer day? Absolutely not. This summer is going to be 80. Yeah, 83. Let me break out one of those smoky O'Fallon beers. It's not even like if I was camping. Yeah, I know. I don't have a time that I would drink that. I would... The only time...
00:22:18
Speaker
Sad like Thursday night. We're like we're out of beer No, that's not even true, even if I saw that I'd like Oh, yeah new glasses I already see what you're opening up you and I both brought this And I think before we recorded I said, you know warlock is there it is like we already give it away it's pumpkin warlock is the beer that
00:22:46
Speaker
When I never, I didn't brew a pumpkin beer beforehand, but when I had warlock, I was like a pumpkin stout. This is the like greatest idea ever. Like I never, never thought about it. Never heard of it. That was the first time I had ever seen it and I absolutely loved it. And I remember we were talking about, we can only get pumpkin and like, you know, bombers, like 22 ounce bombers.
00:23:05
Speaker
Clark you and I which I think we mentioned before have had the didn't we have a rum barrel age version of I don't think I was pumpkin that was somebody else that I can you look that up and I ran to have to wait something from Avery oh or no there's something from Avery I
00:23:26
Speaker
I'm almost positive we had something from Southern Tier that we found. You're talking about at the office one time? Yeah, but I thought there, I remember, okay, well, I guess I'm wrong. Do you remember what I'm talking about? We bought it in Michigan, like in the little liquor store or something. We were walking through and we found it really going off topic here.
00:23:44
Speaker
But we were walking through the store. We saw it. We were like, oh, shit. It's a rum, barrel-aged version of, or just a barrel-aged version of this that we were very excited about. This I could crack open and drink another one. So we're drinking. Yeah, it was the Avery. What was it? There's a picture of us in the conference room. I'm going to find it. OK. I'm going to find it. Boozy and delicious. You liked it. I did like it. Where did I get it? Where did I get it? Four and a half. Ooh, four and a half. Wow. Nice.
00:24:12
Speaker
What did I give Southern Tears a pumpkin? Ooh, great questions. My first check-in of it. Anyways, that's what we're drinking. Southern Tears Pumpkin, Imperial Pumpkin Ale. It's the first pumpkin beer everybody sees, I think, that comes out on the shelves. I see Oktoberfest beers very early, but when Oktoberfest beers come out, which I don't mind, I really love Oktoberfest beers,
00:24:34
Speaker
When those come out, and then I see pumpkin right next to it, it gets me excited for the fall. Uh-oh. Sorry. I remember looking at this last year, I think, or the year before. The check-in's great. It's from 2014. You did not like it at all. Oh, shit! You gave it a two and a half. And I'm pretty sure I remember reading this. Yeah, I think you did realize it. Good neck rate. Fall is sooner than yo think. You did read this whole yo thing. The old yo thing. Well, obviously my tastes have changed for the better.
00:25:02
Speaker
Southern-tiered pumpkins is awesome. It's an Imperial pumpkin. What's the evening in it? It's 8.6 at least. Oh wow. Which I always forget about. You've got a bottle in front of you. I mean we got a Clark over there. His eyes, his eyes. Thank you. What's funny is I've only checked this in once and if we did this before I didn't check it in then. I checked it in in 2015 and I was like held up well. I feel like it was an aged bottle that I had held on for
00:25:30
Speaker
Probably a year or two, probably. Well, the good news is that this is best by next June 28th, so we can drink it. The day that you want to drink it. You know what? I think maybe we saved that bottle. You come back for that episode and we revisit. The summer pumpkin episode. You know what? Whatever pumpkin beers we don't finish tonight, we save.
00:25:49
Speaker
and it's gonna be called we have to do we have to do an episode where we just line up beers for like right when they're about to crack I can't make that one he's like I thought it was a good idea
00:26:09
Speaker
You know how many beers we've drank past their Best Buy date? Some of the best ones are... King Henry. The Old Stock Ale from 2009 that we drank. I mean, that was your... Beginning of last year? That was your number one beer for the Maltese last year. We have our own award show at the end of the week as well. Wow. Is it just for beer? Yeah, just for the beer. That's just for beer and barbecue.
00:26:33
Speaker
Little by little, the things that we've gotten into. Might have to add a jerky category. Yeah. Maybe bacon or something. Bacon, yeah. Actually, Brandon, it's funny you bring up jerky because I did get a jerky in Michigan City that you would have really liked. It was a dill pickle jerky. Ooh. It tasted and smelled like dill pickle and then like beefy. Goodness. Anyway, I had stuff to make jerky. I was going to try to have some. A pumpkin jerky? No. Gross.
00:26:59
Speaker
Although maybe I should have, but I was going to do another ghost pepper jerky, but time slipped away. I didn't have it, but I will do that probably tomorrow. That's going to be the other show. It's going to be the jerky hour, which sounds wrong. Rachel, what's the word I'm looking for? Thoughts? Experience with pumpkin.
Exploring Southern Tier's Pumpkin Ales
00:27:21
Speaker
I am, first of all, hardly on untapped, which maybe I shouldn't admit to whatever. It's okay. I say that because I like hearing in the history of checking in, right? But no, this is one. Look her up. Beer goggles. Yeah, it'll be like a few when I did it for a month. The last thing you checked in was in, I think.
00:27:41
Speaker
Sometime in the fall of 2020, because I was looking it up for like, this is getting creepy. And that would have been a random one. I was doing my research for the show. Make sure she's legit. And it's funny, because I was like, I wonder if she's on tap, and I was like, if she is, it's probably beer goggles. And I was like, oh, came right up. Yep, yep. I had to choose a friend. I turned off notifications. Probably won't get accepted. But I don't even have notifications on for it, too. I find out like 100 people like my stuff like,
00:28:11
Speaker
Well, and after the recording, she's going to be like, definitely not going to. I'm not going to tell you that. It's probably better that way. I'm not even going to mention I was on the same show.
00:28:21
Speaker
Yeah, so your experience with this beer. I love this beer. So this is definitely one of my top like pumpkin beers get excited for it every year and I feel like it's different than the other ones too that I like the other ones but this one is I feel like it says like pumpkin pie in a glass which like I do kind of feel like it is like it's like rounded in the sense like you taste the pumpkin and you taste the spice and
00:28:43
Speaker
You almost even taste like a subtle dollop of whipped cream. I feel like I actually get the full experience of pumpkin pie. One more. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right. And what I think was such a big draw for this beer when...
00:29:01
Speaker
We've re-passed it a million times about when we all got into craft beer. And I feel like when pumpkin came out, at least here in Chicago, it was like when I found it, I was like, oh shit, pumpkin, I gotta grab it. And like when people tried it, I was like, oh, it's a good pumpkin beer. You know, it's something great. It reminded me of like when you would find like zombie dust being released. Like, oh shit, there's zombie dust. I gotta go get it. I'll spend 15 bucks on that six pack.
00:29:26
Speaker
which we still have. But yeah, I feel like the pumpkin kind of stands out as, I mean, no pun intended, the king of pumpkin beers, for me at least. So I kind of, except for Warlock. I guess Warlock might be my favorite. I don't know, what did I say about Warlock, Clark? Oh, okay, here, hold on. Friends, I don't know if friends have checked into this brewery. How's that possible, Tony?
00:29:54
Speaker
Now it's really getting awkward. The best thing is that both of you are looking at your devices right now while we're recording. Well, I'm supposed to. Yeah, you're supposed to. Come on. Are you still doing more research? You liked it after the episode last year. OK. On the episode, you didn't like it. There's a whole paragraph that I'm not going to get into. Let's not do that. Shit. I feel like an asshole. But it seems like it redeemed itself after our recording. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Brandon gave it a half.
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah, there was something that, yeah, we didn't, that's right. That was a bad night. I was gonna ask like how low you would rate something. We were just, I think we were all just in moves and just ready to be real mean about what we were doing. Yeah, but we really liked. I think we were overall upset with the pumpkin beers that we were dealing with at the time. It was such a like disappointment last year. And so far we'll say that we're hitting a stride here. Yeah. Things are good. We're rocking and rolling. Unless it's maple bacon. Yeah, I mean, that's one miss.
00:30:50
Speaker
What what else what else we got going on there Brandon let's find out I'm gonna leave that in in fact. I'm leaving all of this in even me saying I'm leaving this in
00:31:05
Speaker
This is when I do the song. Yeah, sorry, you're doing your little thing. Now Brandon digs in there and makes an obnoxious amount of noise where he's not really looking for a beer. Oh! So you had mentioned things going over the top with chai. Well, here you go. Pipeworks. Ooh, I didn't have the spice. Chai, spice, pumpkin, latte, right?
00:31:25
Speaker
And just so you guys know, if you find yourself at Starbucks and you do like pumpkin spice, I highly recommend the cold brew coffee with their pumpkin sweet, or pumpkin sweet cream. It tastes like liquid. I like cold pumpkin. Yeah, it does taste like pumpkin. It's incredible. Thank you for the recommendation. No problem. Starbucks, sponsor of The Malting Channel.
00:31:46
Speaker
When I was going to Denver for work a lot, they used to have whipped cream that you could add to your drinks. It was caffeinated whipped cream.
00:31:58
Speaker
And I was literally every time I order a drink I'd be like caffeinated whipped cream, throw that shit on there. And it was like, dude, it was like a shot in whatever they were putting in there. That is ridiculous. Is it the Jolt version of whipped cream then? Yes, probably. Is Jolt still a thing? Is Jolt still a thing? Oh, I was like, I don't know what that is. Wait, wait, wait. Rachel, off mic. Yeah, I was just saying, off mic, Rachel, I find out how old you are, but you don't know what Jolt called. You don't have to say how old you are on the show. It's rude to ask anybody that, especially a lady.
00:32:28
Speaker
But I think I haven't figured out that because you don't know what Joel Cole is. Do not. And I have a hard time seeing small letters. Note to self. This smells, does anybody take a whiff of this? This smells weird. Weird? So I'm getting, oh, Brandon, I think I broke something of yours. It smells like vegetables to me. Oh, you get vegetables? Yes. Don't break my homemade lamp. Oh, I know what I'm smelling. I kind of smell like coffee. Yes.
00:32:58
Speaker
Well, you want to know what's in there? That's pumpkin spice. Pumpkin spice latte beer with pumpkin, coffee, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, clove, and lactose. Lactose always gets me. You know, like a latte. But I don't hate it.
00:33:18
Speaker
This is reminding me of that one from last year a little bit. The wafer cookie? Yeah. Without the wafer cookie. Yeah. So I don't know. This tastes, well, I kind of like it. I like it. I do like it. I think we have a split room here. Yeah, I don't know what weird experience. You know what this is? It's just two guys wanting pipe works to be on the show. Oh, that's right. Now I'm getting it. Love it. It's just come on the show.
00:33:47
Speaker
Take your opinion course. So good. Rachel, have you had the pumpkin beer for cafes already? Yes, I have. OK. So you guys have not. Correct. This reminds me of that if you like went over the top. Because pumpkin beer for cafes is very subtle. It is subtle. Very smooth, very easy drinking. It's not like in your face. This is very much. Would it be good to try that next after we're done talking about this one?
00:34:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think we might need some water. I don't know. I mean, we might cleanse it. That's true. That's true. Cleanse your pal out because otherwise it's true. We will probably take a break. Yeah. But this one reminds me of, well, not in an overall sense from last year's show that we're like, where's the pumpkin and where's the other stuff? I want more from this, I think. Really? Yeah. Maybe we shouldn't drink the pumpkin beer for cafes next. Just joking. I want to give off color change. There are two different types of beers. Yeah, very different. So you said you got almost a veggie?
00:34:45
Speaker
I know like as weird as that sounds it was like I almost like a vegetal like aroma and then even in the flavor I'm like there's something that is like that doesn't fit to me. I don't know if that's pumpkin. Right. Just without almost like almost like if you have like a scoop of raw pumpkin puree where it's like it doesn't really taste like anything that's not sweet. It's kind of like some people's references. For the month of October that's all he eats for that. A scoop of raw pumpkin.
00:35:13
Speaker
I guess it makes sense like with there is actual pumpkin in this, correct? Is there coffee in this? There is coffee. So I wonder if that's what I mean, even though it's a latte beer, that's what I don't like about it. I do get ginger. Yeah. I'm wondering which is I didn't know until I saw this. I was like, what is that? That makes a little more sense. I'm getting I'm like, that's ginger. Yeah. So I wonder if there's like, you know how coffee can almost give off that like after it sits for a while, like vegetable, like green pepper type thing. I wonder if.
00:35:42
Speaker
I feel like I have experience. Yeah, I mean like the coffee in it in general. A little bit. I enjoy this. Would I drink more than one of this? No, I mean any pumpkin beer I would probably drink just one. I could. I like this. I would drink a whole can. Yeah, totally. But I am what you said. I'm kind of getting that green pepper coffee thing, which is odd because it normally comes with age.
00:36:06
Speaker
Like the longer it sits. But also when we did, remember when we did the Bourbon County episode where we did different years of the coffee that some of us picked up green pepper in one year and nobody, and other people didn't. And it was switched for the next, like the other beer, like their coffee beer. People were like, well, how are you not getting any green pepper in this one? I am.
00:36:26
Speaker
I'm not saying that maybe like, you know. That's what a lot of my coffee beers say here. Yeah, that was fun. Thanks a lot. But yeah, so we got a split room on this. That's good. That's good. This is a good mix for this episode so far. I like where we're going with it. It's a good time to take a break because we got to rinse our mouths from all the pumpkin we've had so far because we have so much more pumpkin to go.
00:38:35
Speaker
And we're back. And we are back. We're drinking more pumpkin beers. Rachel, thank you so for being here. That was the chair. Sorry, that makes me nervous. It was. It was Rachel. Rachel, thanks for sticking around still after the first half of the show and still wanting to be on a podcast, this one in particular.
Unique Pumpkin Beers: Off Color and Rogue
00:38:54
Speaker
You brought this beer, as we said. We were drinking the pipeworks beforehand, and I said maybe this would be like the softer version of it. What are we drinking?
00:39:03
Speaker
Yeah, so pumpkin beer for cafes, off color. It is a, I want to say it right, an ale brewed with pumpkin puree with tea and spices added. I love this beer. I think this is a great one. It's different from a lot of the other pumpkin ales. It is more kind of like your pumpkin chai tea-esque. You get a lot of the spice in it, but I think it's good. It is subtle.
00:39:27
Speaker
in comparison to the other, but I also, again, wasn't the biggest one or the other one, so... Well, I like this a whole lot better than... Yes, I agree. Pipeworks still come out of the show. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I think, comparatively, I could drink more of these in a sitting. Like, I could have... I could probably have two of these, you know, in a sitting, compared to how many... It's still a one-to-one. No, I think most pumpkin beers are usually like a one for me, like...
00:39:56
Speaker
um and this flavor it's it's good but it is kind of like overwhelming like i'm for you it's overwhelming and it's funny because before you mentioned the tea thing i was like man she was talking about chai tea earlier i'm like i'm getting this like tea flavor and you mentioned tea and there's yeah there it is the chai the chai is it does not it does not
00:40:15
Speaker
make me dislike the beer. I still enjoy it. It's a tasty beer, but I don't, again, it's like a one and done for me. It would be too much to keep drinking this beer. It'd be too much for me to keep drinking anything like chai tea related. Like even just chai tea.
00:40:36
Speaker
That's why. That's kind of overpowering. And this is I mean, this is subtle and it's good. And I could totally enjoy a glass of this and then move on to something else. But I do love the flavor of it. It's it's got it's got a perfect balance. The pumpkin, the spice, as they say.
00:40:58
Speaker
I don't know and I guess it's hard for me to describe like in beer flavors like the chai tea type thing but like I think chai tea works yeah but it's it's present and it's not over it's not overwhelming but it is definitely present but it's enough to make me be like one and done but again every pumpkin beer for me I'm more or less one and done like in a sitting in a sitting Clark if you were walking on the street and someone walked up you like hey man what do you think about that
00:41:30
Speaker
Pumpkin beer for cafes. You run. If you had to give it a one out of five, what would you give it? Wait, are you the same guy that approached me on the street a couple weeks ago? Yeah, man, that's me. Is it Zach? It's me, Zach. Hey, Zach, how you doing, man? Pretty good, man. You should try that beer for...
00:41:49
Speaker
You mean you tried that pumpkin beer for cafes from off-color? I did. Yeah, I did. I like it a whole lot better than that other one. I'm not gonna name them. Well, if people have been listening to the show, they know what you mean. No, they're listening on records, so cannot go back. Well, they can. Hey, man, I got things to do. What is it? 375. 375. Cool, man. See you later. Sorry, that took so long, man.
00:42:13
Speaker
Zach Prack is really having trouble remembering names of beers. I don't know if we can have that guy in the shed anymore.
00:42:21
Speaker
I think he might be back in this episode. Watch out, Rachel. I'm very scared of Zach. He's intense. Like camping. Have you had all their other, this is not punk related, but have you tried most of the Off Color's Beer 4 series? Yes. So I've tried Beer for Tacos, Beer for Burgers. I think that's where it ends for me. I haven't tried Beer for Peaceball. Beer for Pizza.
00:42:46
Speaker
I haven't tried that one either. Cherry beer for pizza is also good. Yeah. Okay. But that was the first one I had and I had a hard time getting through it. You realized it was cherry beer for pizza. Well yeah, until I realized what the idea behind the beer was and then I actually had it with pizza and I was like, this does take me back to pizza as a kid. Do you know what book it is?
00:43:08
Speaker
No. Okay, there we go. Just showing my age again, here we go. Look at this thing now. Is it? Yeah, it's back. Coming back. Get your own personal pen. All right, so brief history lesson. No, no, we don't need to do that. I wanted to because I just wasn't looking too much. Listeners. We'll tell her afterwards. Yeah, that's fine. Now we have two off mic things. Beer for Movies was probably the most interesting one because it was a...
00:43:34
Speaker
Yeah, there was I think really there's like popcorn and I guess I would like that a lot something smoked in there, too It was it was really good beer for burgers was I think beer for that was beer for movies was the most interesting beer for tacos I put in its own categories that can just be I mean it seems to be a year-round But beer for burgers with it being a bear like partially barrel aged was it like a double box
00:43:59
Speaker
Clark? Sorry, I was looking up Book It. Jesus, man. It is a thing again. I believe that's fine when I need you to look for beer for burgers, from off color. That was the one that they aged in with the burger. Yeah, and it was really good. Like, having that with a burger probably was like 9%, but like they were selling it for like 12 bucks for like a four pack or something, so. Yeah, the whole Beer Four series has been pretty awesome. Yeah, I haven't had one that I didn't like, so.
00:44:26
Speaker
Beer for tacos is what sold it for me and that's why I made it. Which did replace one of their like original flagship beers which um and I was like you know which one it is but it was like a similar in style flavor and I'm kind of I mean it's been so successful I'm not surprised but it's also like a it was a flavor of a flavor beer.
00:44:47
Speaker
You had a lot of flavors. Yeah, I was like, you sure? But similar in style, and they replaced it with beer for tacos, which was surprising for them. Beer for tacos inspired me to make my first Goza, which I did the same thing. I had salt and lime juice. Yeah. And it was delicious. I loved the scent. Yeah. You did a good job. Thank you. And I had that before I had beer for tacos, and I was thoroughly impressed. It came out really well. Thanks, man.
00:45:14
Speaker
And then I had, like I said, when I had beer for tacos, I was like, it's kind of similar. And I was impressed that you kind of nailed that profile. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Like the way you got back over that even during the pumpkin beer episode. Are you looking up anything that I asked you to do? No, I'm trying to find it. I did find it again. Did I mention that book it is a thing?
00:45:34
Speaker
You did, thank you. You just gotta read a bunch of books and you get a pizza. That's basically what it is. Join us for the Book It Hour coming next week. Actually, we couldn't do that. That would be a good show. Talk about all the beer for pizza. I mean, what else? Why I have a weight problem at 39. I would have read 400 books and got all these free pizzas. I feel like my mom just signed stuff off for me. She's like, we're going to pizza and you're going to free personal pan pizza. That's basically what Book It was.
00:46:00
Speaker
This sounds like something I would definitely read. No, you read books, and the more books you read, the more free pizza you get, and prizes at pizza time. Your parent had to sign off on it. Maybe I just didn't know what it was called, because I definitely did think like there was, when I was in school, we had to write books on like little strips of paper that looked like french fries, and we would like fill up a thing, and I would just read books that were like below my like grade, so I could like have more fries in my little thing, and it was like, I don't even know what it was for. Yeah, we're talking about actual pizzas that we ate.
00:46:26
Speaker
No, but I think it, like, went to something. I don't know. Anyway. We got fries. Maybe. Hopefully. Beer for fries. Work on it off-color. Honestly. Ooh, beer for fries sounds delicious. It does. It does. What would you do for that? They'd just release a vodka. It's a potato vodka!
00:46:44
Speaker
I think I just found the intro to the show. Salty potato vodka. Here you go, gents. They work with the gallons over here. Brandon, we have like 20 more beers left. We're not going to get 20 more beers. What do we have left? Can you bring out what we have left so we don't take a look at it? This does need to happen, this one here, and this is 13%. Ah, I see. Fair-aged. I like effect, though. Yeah.
00:47:09
Speaker
Very excited for that. Our friend Clint was nice enough to give that to us sooner than later. We have not had that yet. Because you guys both have a bottle. You brought a bottle that's not these guys. That's actually my favorite. Well then, let's do that. I think I said this. They're all coming here. Very good. This is my favorite. You know, and that's the one I wanted to try too because I wasn't sure. Oh geez. Why don't we have so many good beers that we... And like it has been. Oh, that's the other pumpkin. Okay, so we've had that. That's good. One weekend.
00:47:39
Speaker
I didn't skip that. Brandon is going through his beer refrigerator. What is that? That's a Westie 12.
00:47:44
Speaker
Is that a pumpkin beer? A Belgian pumpkin beer? Has anybody done that yet? Probably not. So we have different styles. We need a sour pumpkin beer. We need a Belgian pumpkin beer. And then I also kind of wanted to try because, you know what, I'm not going to lie. I've had issues with rogue beers in the past. And when the guy suggested it to me, I said, okay, I'll give that a try. Well, I'm not going to name names. You might be on the show. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So a couple of jib. All right.
00:48:11
Speaker
Technically, we've got five beers left. It's okay. You can get through some... Oh, perfect. Well, now we're gonna go. Hold on till I go. Three hours? This is a three-hour episode. It's a special episode. It's our pumpkin beer episode.
00:48:31
Speaker
I like that we're going to save possibly the 13% beer towards the end. That seems like what you have to do, though. You can't start with it. We should have shotgunned in the beginning. I physically can't do that. Here we go. Have you ever seen those videos of the guys slamming the bourbon counties? That's so scary. Can we wait? Brandon, what did you choose? No, right here. I got the microwave. Oh, good for editing. I chose...
00:49:03
Speaker
So that's funny, you had a hard time remembering that Dogfish had this pumpkin, and then when you see the actual word pumpkin in front of you, you still called it pumpkin. I like that. Yeah. So rogue beers are... Yeah, they are highly hit or miss for me.
00:49:24
Speaker
Dead Guy Ale, at one point during our Pale Ale episode we were talking about Dead Guy Ale because we did not remember that it was a...
00:49:34
Speaker
And to your credit brand, it was more so we were talking about first time beers like early on. Yeah, give me some of that pumpkin goodness. Ooh, it smells good. It smells very good. It tastes very good too. My stool sounds like there's a dog in the background.
00:49:54
Speaker
So did you know that they grow their own pumpkins? It's not moving. Rogue grows their own pumpkins. Look at this. The dedication to this being alone. Do you know where they grow their pumpkins? Is it the West Coast? Independence, Oregon, to be exact. So I was right. It was the West Coast. Yes. Washington. Unless it's on the east side of the state. Ooh, if it's on the east side of the state, then that's still considered the Midwest.
00:50:18
Speaker
Um, I will say, so this is made with real pumpkin, right? And it doesn't say anything about, does it say anything, on the can it doesn't say anything about pumpkin spice in there? Rachel, your eyes are better than mine, so go ahead and give it a give. It says, butternut squash soup.
00:50:39
Speaker
I thought we were going to replace Clark with you. I think Clark got his job locked down. Because pumpkin patch ale is made with whole pumpkins that we chop up and roast by hand. Wow. They roast them by hand? They roast them by hand. The hand roast allows us to caramelize the natural sugars exactly as we like, which when combined with a delicate balance of spices creates a signature flavor of our classic fall themed brew.
00:51:03
Speaker
We know you'll appreciate the effort when you taste the difference roasting real pumpkins makes. Wow, why is reading so hard? Yeah, spices are in there. After a bunch of pumpkins reading, it's hard. True. I will say that
00:51:19
Speaker
I'm surprised how much I like this beer. I love this beer. Yeah, I think it's awesome. I think it's really tasty. There's really not much going on and I mean that in a good way. I agree. Like it's just very simple. It's just a pumpkin ale. I could drink more than one of these. Yes, for sure. Yeah.
00:51:34
Speaker
I uh yeah you know what it's this i'm surprised about how much i liked it or how much i do like it there's a lot of pumpkin flavor and that's why i was wondering like how much would they sit for pumpkin spice like obviously there yeah yeah is some in there but man this is um
00:51:53
Speaker
It's really, really good. This is up there with the dogfish head. It's a little less sweet than the dogfish head pumpkin. Thank you, sir. Brandon, I know you're playing bartender right now. I need you to jump in here and take a swig. Thank you for giving me the big pour of this because it's really good. It's really good.
00:52:15
Speaker
And it's not as strong as some of the other ones, too. Yeah, what's the ABV? It's 6.1 ABV. That is on the lower end of these beers. I do like, I do enjoy the balance of this. And I'm getting the- It is again that word balance. Yeah. But yeah, I'm getting the pumpkin, I'm getting the spice. It's not- Everything nice. It's not boozy, it's not...
00:52:36
Speaker
You know, like some beers, like with this style, I think can border on like acidic based on what they put in there. That's not there. This is just like a pleasant drinking beer. If I had to say, I could maybe drink more than one of these based on like it's six and a half percent, you know, like I could probably do more than one of these. Two would probably be more limited.
00:53:00
Speaker
Um, it's just so pleasantly like drinkable, I guess. Yeah. That's kind of my thought. Yeah. I, I'm the only place I saw this was at bottles and cans today when I went there and I've not seen it anywhere else. Any other liquor stores or grocery stores or whatever, which I'm kind of surprised and bummed about. Cause I don't, I mean, I can go back to bottles and cans and get it, but I don't know. Well, I think I'm going to get pumpkined out after tonight. I might turn into a pumpkin.
00:53:29
Speaker
Oh boy. But I will seek this one out next year. Will you buy this beer again if it came down? Nobody's walking down the street. I thought you were going to say someone's walking down the street. We're not ready for that. 100%. Literally, I would buy this again. I would buy it. I would buy it again. Yeah, I'd buy it again. Nobody's going to ask us if we had to rate it, though. I'd buy it again tomorrow. Are you going to go and buy it tomorrow?
00:53:59
Speaker
Do you bring it on Saturday? No. We should get enough crap to bring on Saturday. Come on. What's Saturday? We're going to a party. We have a friend that's doing his Oktoberfest, but it's also like a bottle share, so we're just... Oh, nice. Bring some stuff. Bring some bread stuff.
00:54:25
Speaker
Seems like a flex. Seems like a sweet rev stuff. You know, it's like a hardcore flex right there. No, it would have been like, you know, I'd bring my King Henry, but we already drank it. We did drink it. You can bring the bottle. Well, I see it. I'm sorry. Yeah. That's what I think it is. Yeah. Yeah. We drank that at the beginning of the summer.
00:54:43
Speaker
Is there anything left in that utopia? Oh, I wasn't asking for that. Funny story, my grandpa sent me an article from the theater.
00:55:02
Speaker
He sent me an article and he had to like preface with like I will not be buying you But it was like he's like have you seen this and it's I mean it's a pricey beaver, right? And I was like thank you for clarifying Larry. Thank you. You caught Grandpa Larry? I was about to say, that was my question. I love talking about my grandparents like using their name because they're just cute.
00:55:30
Speaker
And we called Tony's dad, Raj. Well, talking about to other people, I'm like, yeah. But anyway, I noticed the battle. Your dad is not fun at all. You have a good eye. Oh, you were just talking about the name thing. Never mind. Your dad's great. I don't have a fancy light down there displaying that. It's very specific. I also have my Dan Aykroyd-signed bottle of Skullhead Vodka.
00:55:53
Speaker
Anyways, Larry, nobody cares about that. Rachel wants a bottle of YouTubers. Please reconsider. Please reconsider. We have another beer that's open in front of us. Is this going to be the last beer? Because we're on like three hours of the episode? Okay, perfect. This one...
00:56:13
Speaker
Man, that smells good. So this one comes from our friend Clint at Lake Effect Brewing, who is kind enough to give us a spirit of sample and talk about. The can is far away from me. I don't think there's much on there other than a
Diverse Pumpkin Beer Styles and Pairings
00:56:25
Speaker
pumpkin barrel aged stout. Bourbon barrel aged imperial stout with spices. And I can read things far away. It's 13% alcohol, 12 ounce can, and four of us are splitting it.
00:56:38
Speaker
It smells like a barrel aged out. That's what I'm smelling. Yeah, it does. Kind of reminds me of like what Bourbon County smells like. That is a compliment. It's tasty. And... Ooh. Wow. It's hot. So... Yeah. This was canned yesterday. Yeah. And Tony, you've got some notes about this. I do.
00:57:00
Speaker
I know. And so both of us, just you two. This goes to Rachel and Clark. What do you guys think of this beer? It's like a mystery beer. So and it's a barrel-y, so what is the name again? It's just called Pumpkin Barrel-y. So it's a pumpkin bourbon barrel-y stuff. Yeah, I already went over the name of the beer. There is something there. Well, in the description is bourbon barrel-y imperial stout with spices. Yeah, I already went through that too. Well, I know.
00:57:30
Speaker
I also said it was a 12 ounce can at 30% off though.
00:57:33
Speaker
What does he got? 30%. 30% ABV. This is a 12.8 point standard. I don't know if it's 30%. Yeah. This is your average logger. Is it? 30% alcohol, ABV. What's written on the side of the can? Is it just the history of lake effect there? Yeah, it says- We don't need the host. It says, government warning, according to the- Yeah, I can't get back up, man. What to do during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects. Clark and Rachel, what do you guys- That's how I was born. Clark and Rachel, what do you guys get?
00:58:13
Speaker
I think I get really burnt out very quickly from barrel aged, like bourbon barrel aged beers. And maybe it's cause I've done Pho-Bam two times. I think that's all I needed. And it's still residual of like, I'm like, I'm done. So I don't seek them out on my own. I don't know if I would have like grabbed this beer. However, it is very good. I do of course taste the heat of the alcohol. It's, I don't, I mean, I'm not getting like overpowering.
00:58:27
Speaker
I really like it, and I will say, which will, I don't know, offend no one that doesn't care.
00:58:38
Speaker
Pumpkin or like a ton really at all, but it's still just like well-rounded and it's not I Don't know. I mean it honestly tastes very similar to like a Brooklyn County to me. So yeah, actually before before that Rachel if you're walking down the street
00:58:57
Speaker
Hey Rachel, I see you got that leg effect bourbon barrel aged pumpkin stout. You ought to rate it. That's me. You know me Zach. What is it? It's pumpkin bourbon barrel aged stout. What would you give it? One out of five.
00:59:13
Speaker
Well, Zach, first of all, please, back up. Yeah, thank you. That's what I told him once. Please leave me alone. I would give it a... Stranger danger. Yeah, yeah. You're being kind of harsh.
00:59:29
Speaker
So sorry. Two beers deep. I'm being honest. I would give it a 4-2-5. Can I give it a quarter? Can I give it like a quarter or anything? You can do whatever you want. Thanks. This is just a conversation. I was walking down the street and wanting to know which thing. Is that legit? Yeah, a 4-2-5. I don't know. That feels honest. Okay, bye!
00:59:53
Speaker
Zach won't just walk off to any rando. He just wants to know what's going on. I think it was nice that you kind of put him in his place because he really has to. He's got to respect that six. Seriously. Yeah, Corbin's been hard for Zach. He wasn't wearing a mask. I don't know if he's an accident. He's not an accident. He's for sure he's not an accident. But can't I don't think he wears a mask. Ever. Ever. Halloween he's got like a scary mask on but that's the bigger thing you know. That's the only time he can close his neck bracket.
01:00:33
Speaker
I'm going to put a Michael Myers mask on with a mask over it and just be like, that's good. People would appreciate that. I'm sure they would. So notes on this beer that I got from Clint. So what he had discovered when he had drank the beer after they had gotten ready to can it, it was lacking pumpkin.
01:00:44
Speaker
Dude, I'm gonna do I should put a Michael Myers mask on
01:00:54
Speaker
They went easy on it. So he went easy on it because they were using pumpkin extract and the reason they were doing that is because they figured they pull it out of the barrel and they put it into the keg and like it gets jostled up and everything so they put pumpkin extract. He wanted to go on the lighter side versus the heavy side. Good choice because I think if they would have done a lot more, it would have been bad. But he was kind of disappointed that it wasn't as prominent.
01:01:23
Speaker
I tasted a little bit when it's been warmed up, and that's what he had said. He's like, maybe warm it up before you guys drink it. I said, I'm going to leave it out, like literally when we start the episode. That was about 45 minutes to an hour.
01:01:38
Speaker
And what was awesome, though, too, is I learned it was aged in a buffalo trace barrel. That's why. And buffalo trace is one of my favorite Burmese. I buy it all the time. I have a lot of buffalo trays. He buys it for me for Christmas. And I've got some Weller, and I've got... That's for another episode. Oh, that's for another episode. That's for another episode. Otherwise, I'm gone. I forgot. Yeah, I will say that aroma-wise... Yeah, so Clint told me the same thing in a message.
01:02:05
Speaker
about how they went very easy on it because they didn't want it to be overpowering like you said. But I will say that aroma wise now, like I was swirling it around a little bit, there is a hint. I smelled them. I smelled the pumpkins too. It's still very boozy and you know, barrel aged but I feel like there is a
01:02:25
Speaker
And we all, we chose different, you gave us different glasses, pumpkin beers have not been in this. There is a bit of pumpkin spice, so it is nice and subtle. To me, overall, it's a nice, you know, bralage beer, and it's hot. Yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, it's super hot. I would like this to, I think this is ready to drink maybe.
01:02:48
Speaker
January I Didn't I didn't when I was there and normally I would but I'll have to go back I was in kind of a hurry because I was working today, but I'll I'm gonna go back I'm gonna buy some more cans of it Mm-hmm. We might stop in and grab some and I'll take the label off but these are tasty man. These are like like
01:03:09
Speaker
It's really good. It's really good. And you know what? I don't mind the heat. But knowing how fresh it is, getting that heat. Yeah, that's fun. That's good. Because there's been beers that we've had that we've sat on for a while that have been like, they've got that heat. But it's like, where the hell does that come from? And I don't think it's from the barrel. But this has got to be from the barrel. It is delicious. It's very good. It's just my love for barrels coming.
01:03:36
Speaker
And I've had some oil for your knees, Tony. I can't agree with my knees. Getting ill there, knees creaky. Oh, is it when you turn? Yeah. I do wish that they were. I'll give it a little. Thanks, man.
01:03:53
Speaker
I do wish there were more barrel aged pumpkin beers out there. Yeah. Like, Rumpkin is good. We talked about that, which we haven't done in an episode, which I'm surprised we haven't. So we have to do a second pumpkin beer episode. Are you available tomorrow? Do you want to come back and do a whole episode, Rachel? Yeah. I'm not available.
01:04:10
Speaker
Yeah, I do think you can do it. We'll leave you the beers, and if you would just record it all. We said Thursday was the only day you weren't available. This shows today? I do like the idea. I like pumpkin. My sister teaches you. Stouts. Pumpkin stouts, I think, are a fun way to have a pumpkin beard. It's a nice change up. Amber ails, and what else do we have? There's been like brown ale. Yeah, brown ale.
01:04:39
Speaker
Amber and Brown seem to be like the most common. Oh, and then Little Red Smoke. Oh, now we're in a red. Mescal, I mean. I wish. Right? Yeah, all these have been very interesting. I feel like we've had a very successful pumpkin beer. Agreed. Yeah, I think so. Especially if anybody listened to last year's episode where we had to do two different episodes because we were so mad.
01:05:08
Speaker
I've been on the show so long, I already forgot we did two. Oh. Because we messed up the, we didn't mess up. We were just so angry at all the pumpkin beers. Yeah. So technically- Oh shit, sorry, Clark. I'll unmute you now. Go ahead, talk.
Upcoming 'Pints and Pies' Event Details
01:05:22
Speaker
I'm joking. Technically, Clark, you have been on one, two, three, four pumpkin beer episodes. It's a purple- It's a Halloween, Halloween episode. To be on those episodes.
01:05:32
Speaker
I mean, this is our favorite time of year. We love spooky stuff. We love pumpkin beers. And Brandon, we didn't mean a chance to talk about your Oktoberfest beer. And that's quite correct. We will get to it though, even though it'll be probably late October, early November.
01:05:48
Speaker
Rachel, thank you so much for joining us. Two things. How can people find you if you want them to find you? Is there anything that you want people to know about if you want to plug anything or what? Do you want to plug something? People can find me at Beer Goggles blog if they want. They're like, I guess.
01:06:09
Speaker
It's a weird request to be like, right? Yeah, I'm like find me don't do your thing. Um, plug wise with guild row I mentioned earlier we are doing it's my first beer event that I'm co-hosting. It's October 24th. It's called pints and pies.
01:06:26
Speaker
So we're doing a pie and beer pairing event. So Gildro's the venue and my friend is a baker in the city. He's fucking awesome. And so it's very just incredible pies. We're pairing with beers. We should be really in time.
01:06:43
Speaker
We're still working to finalize the menu. I probably shouldn't say that. But we're close. There's a menu coming. We have tickets. Tickets, I think, are going live this week. And it should be a really good time. Do you know how can we find out about how to get tickets for this? Yeah. I'm going to be spamming everyone on Instagram and sharing it across there. So you better follow her. Yeah. Or just gilderow. The event's going to be live on talk.
01:07:09
Speaker
which is like a reservation platform that also does events. We will also share. Yeah, yeah. We will see it. Yeah, I'll share it. It'll be a good time. We're excited. I don't have anything going on on the 24th. It's a Sunday. It's a Sunday afternoon. So it's kind of a chill. Two to five, is that correct? Two to five. Oh, shit. I like pie. I like pie and I like beer. The pie menu is actually already live. So I'll say that very quickly. Key lime basil.
01:07:38
Speaker
butternut squash tart with a cranberry glaze and then maple walnut and so we're pairing beers with those and then rumor has it we'll also have a welcome beer just because i think that's classy are there any specific breweries involved in this or are you guys just um
01:07:54
Speaker
So we're finalizing that now. Oh, that's where we're finalizing. That's where we're finalizing. The one I can say, because it's like the most confirmed, is Mars. Ooh, that's exciting. And then I'm just in conversations with a bunch of others, just trying to kind of get the list nailed out. I won't even pressure you to be like, can you give a hint, because I don't want any spoilers. Because I don't want to give the beer menu away before the event. Yeah, of course. I think that would just be too much, right? And then you know everything, right? Also, if you don't do it.
01:08:23
Speaker
If you guys want to know, just go to the event. Don't be late. A Sunday afternoon of pies and beer. What could be wrong with that? Clark. Yes. What do you want me to do? Anything for Tony. Thank you. That's the name of the show.
01:08:38
Speaker
We need, for you, do you have a timer going, Brandon, or do you need me to do it? I can do it. I got it. I got it. I already got it. It seems hard. It's your idea. It's all blending together.
Recap of Tasted Beers and Favorites
01:08:46
Speaker
This is great. In 60 seconds, Clark is going to, what we're trying to make a regular thing, run down the entire episode. Thank you.
01:08:54
Speaker
Oh, excuse me, nightbreak. Uh, Clark, are you ready? Run down the entire episode on all the beers we drink in 60 seconds, starting now. Alright, we got Dogfish Head, we got Punkinale, Brandon can't remember how to pronounce Punkin. Sometimes it's Punkin, sometimes it's Punkin, but when it's actually a Punkinale, he calls it Punkins backwards.
01:09:11
Speaker
We got a maple red ale from Old Town Fallon. Kind of disgusting. Not real. Not real smoke. Not real bacon. Moving on from that one. Pumpkin from Southern Tier is delicious, imperial, very high BV. One of our favorites of the night.
01:09:28
Speaker
And then, uh, Pipeworks, uh, Spice Latte, uh, Rachel and I are getting like a vegetable thing, kinda weird, don't like the coffee, moving on, let's try one that's kinda similar, off colors, uh, beer for cafes. Pumpkin beer for cafes, yeah. Pumpkin beer for cafes. Much, much better.
01:09:46
Speaker
Very nice. A lot of spices, very tasty. 15 seconds. Rogue was our favorite of the night, at least if you add up all the points that we scored invisibly. Definitely our favorite. Regular ole pumpkin ale, very solid. Four seconds. And then Lake Effect's pumpkin stout imperial barrelade. Very good, very hot. Oh, nice. You did it. You were able to do it in one minute. 0.41 seconds. I had two seconds from the last episode, so I'll count. I can use those to roll over. Do you want two more seconds to finish it? No, no, I'm done. So take off the extra.
01:10:15
Speaker
So they roll over for the night. I'm never winning. Chicken dinner. That's fantastic. Good job, Clark. Thanks for coming. That was the hardest one yet. That was awesome. Because it's all the same, kind of. I know. That was great, though. Is it normally very, very, very different beers? Or is it normally, like, style, brewery, experience? Sometimes style, sometimes breweries, sometimes... When we do, like, vacation stuff, like, we just pick random things on vacation, and we'll do that. Yeah.
01:10:42
Speaker
We've done a mystery beer episode where we would, we've all brought random beers and had no idea what we were drinking and we had to like guess the style. Clark and I are really good at it because Brandon gave us a, was it a golden ale? What was it? No, it was like the Dunkle or something. Yeah, it was the Dunkle. From Metropolitan. This is a saiyan. This is like a fucking saiyan.
01:11:05
Speaker
Word we suck and you know what hip-hop's Dan our friend Dan hip-hop's We need to have a celebrity mystery beer episode. I think I think we have Rachel and you and Dan Maybe we just said for them. He has his Instagram is hip-hop's where he pairs hip underscore He pairs vinyl with
Successful Bottle Share Event and Venue Insights
01:11:27
Speaker
beer. Yeah, he lives close by Okay
01:11:33
Speaker
We had a bottle share with him. It was fun. Love. You guys did miss my bottle share, which I actually was a success. Sorry about that. That was really good. We'll do it next time. Next time we'll do it. Yeah. Give us a little update next time. No, no. What happened was? What happened was? Do you want to keep recording on this? Oh, yeah. We're recording. Oh, are we? Do you want it?
01:11:52
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it's fine. So the whole thing with the bottle share that I reached out to people about was we were doing a preview night for Pines and Pies, right? So my friend... I don't think I know what it is. I'm fucking pissed we missed it. Exactly. So it's like we were tasting pies, but then we also were like the goal was to basically walk out of that night and have like not necessarily the exact beer to pair with each pie, but like ideas, right?
01:12:19
Speaker
And so, again, Gildrow being kind of, it's a member's club, which sounds douchey at the face value, but I enjoy it. It sounds good to me. It's great. Should be a club. It's great. I love it, but...
01:12:36
Speaker
subscribe now. Yeah. I'm like, you, you go to other places and you're like, what's that mean? So they, we had it open to all members and like no one signed up. Right. And so they reached out to me and they're like, Oh, like, you know, only one person signed up for this like preview night. Pines pies. And I was like, Oh, okay. I was like, I'll just invite people. I know within the beer industry, but we're like a weekend. And so like, whatever a point in time I reached out to you guys and other people was like,
01:13:04
Speaker
No, not at all. It was like all of it was like, oh shit, I don't want this to be a buzz. I want people to come. And so thankfully, I mean, I swear I reached out to people like Tuesday, Wednesday for a Friday night bottle share. There was like 25 people in total. Great bottle share. I mean, it was some great bottles. There was Pliny. There was a bottle that was like one of 49 in total. There was some good bottles, right?
01:13:29
Speaker
And the pies were, of course, amazing. So it was a good night. It was a good time. I think it was a good experimental preview. Can you guys do that again? I mean, yeah, for future events. Oh, for sure. No, I think it's a great venue for bottle shares. Because it's like stunning. They have a courtyard. It's a great venue for bottles. They have a ton of beers. And I'll just go and buy some beers. But they have a ton of beers they want to get rid of all the time.
01:13:56
Speaker
Where? Of these guys. Oh, OK. I was like, I was like. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry, I thought my hand motion of where we're standing. I thought you were saying that. I thought you were saying that. I was like, oh, no. They, I mean, but she can see. Sure. Rachel can see, as far as we know. No, but the people, so I invited like the owner of Primary Colors for me. I invited. Oh, that's such a fun idea.
01:14:20
Speaker
He's great. Primary colors are set up. I've not tried any of them, but that's cool. Oh, they're so fun. He just got a distributor. Oh, awesome. Very nice. I used to bartend at Village Tap. So I invited the owner of Village Tap. So it was a good mix of people. You invited us even before you came on the show. Yeah, I invited you guys. I made drunken uncultured stuff from drunken uncultured game, Emma from Portrait in King. I mean, it was actually a really good crowd of people that
01:14:47
Speaker
We will be around for the next one. Yeah. And again, I will get this for the next one now that I know kind of, you know, the situation, but yeah.
Closing Remarks and Social Media Connections
01:14:56
Speaker
Rachel, thanks again for joining us. You're welcome back anytime. Amazing. It doesn't have to be pumpkin beers. We can do something else. But yes, thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Brandon, love you, man. Love you too, bud. Clark, you did a decent job. If you had to rate my episode tonight, if a random guy walked up to you on the street, what would you rate it? What would the guy sound like? What would you rate Clark tonight?
01:15:24
Speaker
About a four. Thanks, man. He's much calmer than me. I don't like that guy. Bye! 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 on social media platforms individually. Branded can be found on Instagram as bmdub81. On Twitter, bdub81.
01:15:50
Speaker
On Untapped, B-Dub drinks beer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Asafelp Chicago. On Twitter, TheAsafelpChicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three. 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.