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Episode 172 - Old Irving Brewing's Krampus Cookies 2025 (feat. Trevor, Tim and Matthew)
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It's our favorite time of year! Trevor Rose-Hamblin, Tim Broyles and Matthew Moldenhauer of Old Irving Brewing Co. join us once again for our annual tasting of Krampus Cookies and the variants. We taste our way through all the beers with backstories of how each came to be. Hopefully we didn't get to off track this year... ?
This year's lineup includes:
Krampus Cookies
Double Double Krampus
German Chocolate Cake Krampus
Champurrado Coffee Krampus
Krampus Mélange
Theme music provided by Myke Kelli (@mykekelli)
Outro music provided by @FluidMinds
Check out all our episodes at www.themaltinghour.com
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Transcript
Introduction to the Krampus Episode
00:00:01
Speaker
This week we drink through Old Irving's 2025 Krampus Cookies lineup with Trevor, Tim, and Matthew. This is episode 172 of the Malting Hour.
Meet the Hosts and Guests
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome to the Malting Hour. have one of your hosts, Tony Gullick, joined always with... Brandon Winninger. And this is our annual Old Irving Brewing Krampus episode.
00:00:46
Speaker
Spooky.
00:00:51
Speaker
that's good thanks i' vibe into that boys what you guys Why don't you guys introduce yourself. To my left is... Trevor Rose Hamblin. To his left is... Matthew Mulder. You guys know Matthew. He's on episodes. To Matthew's left... Timothy Broils. Welcome back, gentlemen.
00:01:06
Speaker
Thank you so much for us. Thank you so much for wanting to do this again. We always ah look
History of the Krampus Event
00:01:11
Speaker
forward to this. and I think we were discussing before we started recording... I believe this is the fourth year of us doing this. we think Could be. I think I first came on after you guys were talking about Krampus and i reached out to you guys because it was a Krampus episode that you did. Yeah, but I mean like, yeah, right. So then I think it was four after that. i think so.
00:01:32
Speaker
I don't know anymore. We don't know hurt our archives. Because that was I think that was pandemic. Yes. It was 2020. Yes. And we were recording. so Yeah, this this is because I think the following year. That would make us for then. 21, 22, 23, 24. We lost Trevor. Trevor is finding the bourbon.
00:01:55
Speaker
i'm over here now that didn't take long? Nope. i mean You gotta to start somewhere. Might as well start there. It's okay that you guys didn't offer me any when first walked in. Okay. I'll figure it out myself. I mean, you were 15 minutes late. Oh!
00:02:10
Speaker
We offered you a delicious showtow. You did. yeah Thank you. It's very nice. And we have White Castle. Yeah. because Tradition. Everybody loves White Castle and Krampus. Let's get into this. Let's talk about Krampus.
Krampus Dinner Experience
00:02:22
Speaker
This year's lineup, we you guys did something, and we can get into this later, but we got a chance to try before it was released because you guys did a Krampus dinner, which was awesome. The food was amazing, and we got a chance to try all these. Yeah.
00:02:37
Speaker
Trevor i'm gonna go with you you can choose the first beer and we'll we'll crack it open for it and talk about them perfect There's no better place to start than with the base It was pretty cool. Yeah this year. i had talked to our Our general manager Joshua and our chef about maybe like doing like a I've seen at at other breweries that they do kind of a pre-release kind of sampling of the beer and maybe like maybe something to go along with if you if you do have food.
00:03:09
Speaker
So I came with like a very simple idea that was exactly that. And um Chef and Josh both looked at me and goes... we're going to go ahead and do a tasting menu and i said well uh that went uh very high very fast i like we're gonna charge tickets like we've never done that and we're gonna do it the background i'm like cool it's currently occupied and We kind went from there. But it was it was very cool to see the team come together to be excited about this year's Krampus. And obviously excitement begets excitement, and they kind of put a very good energy throughout the building ah for this year's Krampus.
Challenges in Brewing Krampus
00:03:50
Speaker
To be honest and frank, this year's Krampus worried me more than any previous years because...
00:03:55
Speaker
That's a very good question. Thank you. Um, I was very worried this year because notice i asked why after you said, because I've been, I've been lucky enough to, to have like some of the giants of a barrel aged beer, uh, through OIB and, Marty specifically from revolution has been very, very good to me and, and, and kind of, uh, won't say handholding, but I'll say, uh, giving me some direction and stuff. And, um,
00:04:21
Speaker
And I went ahead and put all of our barrels in a completely different place and fucked everything up. No, yeah we we we were starting out at OIB. That was very temperature controlled. Obviously, we have air conditioning and heating and things like that. And then this year I said, you know what?
00:04:36
Speaker
We just don't have that space for how much the brand has grown. Let's go ahead and put it in our new distribution warehouse Which if it's good enough for goose island, by the way, it used to be goose islands barrel warehouse It should be good enough for us. So we put it there But I mean the extreme temperatures this year high highs and low lows and everything in between i was very worried about it. So we had tasted it a few times and promised to put ah inert gas in the barrels and that never did And so we absolutely do we did half of them, Tim. and And that's okay. Like, and that's okay. Like that's on me. I should have pushed more, but the resulting beer that came out of it was actually very impressive. And actually I, um,
00:05:21
Speaker
When we were at the Great American Beer Festival this year, Matthew introduced us to some friends he had met previously from which brewery? North Park. Yeah, North Park. And they were like, oh, that's our bread and butter. We store our whiskey barrels and our beer in a very crazy climate.
Flavor Profiles and Ingredients
00:05:40
Speaker
so just like kentucky bourbon exactly uh which is which is crazy because obviously that that has a little bit more give um the result this year and i think you'll find it in the final liquid is that you've kind of got these uh uh controlled oxidative reductive characteristics that shows up in nuttiness
00:05:59
Speaker
and dark fruit and things like that especially on the base um and that uh kind of coincides with the type of cocoa nibs we use this year um you know we had to make some our distributors out of my favorite cocoa nibs we kind of had to go with the number two cocoa nib which was we don't know and i still hand toasted them and everything else like that everything else is the same but It was a little scary using new cocoa nibs. And then the final result was actually very happy. We were like, oh, yeah, this is way more reductive, a lot more oak, a lot more like beautiful things going on. So we were happy with the final. result so i do want to jump in real quick sorry
00:06:35
Speaker
think you meant river north brewing They're in, yeah. Yeah, he's right. Riverdorth. Riverdorth. They're right now. It's a giant man thing. Yes, that's what their name We all started drinking at like, I don't No, i I also remember the Cocoa Nims this year was really fun because you ordered them, and then the day that we were going to toast and do things, we were like, we don't have them. What happened? No one told us. yeahp yeah And so we had a good 24 hours where Trevor...
00:07:07
Speaker
Just kind of the emergency had to find Coco Nibs. I feel like, yeah, I would be super stressed with all the new variables. So she zis to this is it a different type of Coco Nib or just from a different distributor? Yeah, exactly. yeah I think it's like...
00:07:22
Speaker
So a lot of our, it's funny, I used to like outsource Coco nibs and like try and find the absolute perfect Coco nib back in the day through different means, whether it was online or through whatever means I could, you know, it didn't have to be through like an actual distributor.
00:07:39
Speaker
But we've actually found that our favorite ones were at a product called Cho, which is TCHO. And they were through Brewer's Supply Group where we get all of our malts and everything else like that. And that's been ah tried and true and proven after the last couple of years. And then this year they were out. And I was like, farts. So what do we do from here? And then i um I did some research and found a company that actually was a bit cheaper, which is nice, you know, as we grow and, you know, get economies of scale is good. But I was like a little worried about the quality. But when they came in, chomped on a few and i was like, OK, these are great, actually. And we did our usual thing. So we have a ah a five rack. oven inside of the kitchen, a combination oven, and roast them five racks at a time.
00:08:27
Speaker
Just like we did with all the adjuncts that you'll see tonight. I'll kind of go through that as we get through the beer. And then, as usual, the vanilla here, Madagascar vanilla, like we've talked about previous years. The best. Well, I don't know if it's best, but is definitely... I love Madagascar vanilla. It's very good. And you know, and then you and I would say the best. It has the highest amount of vanillin.
00:08:46
Speaker
And as as you get to brew, you find out, especially for adjuncts and things like that, you're looking for the most tried and true version of that product, right? If I'm going for chocolate, I want chocolate. If I'm going for coffee, I want coffee. I don't want some derivative that's been fermented and like done all this cool shit to to make it taste more like Fruity Pebbles. No, I want coffee that tastes like coffee because the consumer, once they have the beer, wants that flavor so metagart cigar vanilla having the highest vanilla content i pulse i chop them up i puree them very small amounts outside of time or else the blender gets very hot and then chef yells at me um and and that's kind of how we do things we're still doing it hand by hand even uh what was our total amount of volume 75 barrels this year so like it was a good amount of liquid um and we're still hand curating and hand creating everything i have a question yes please
00:09:39
Speaker
Is it always the same blend as far as the barrels go?
Barrel Selection and Characteristics
00:09:42
Speaker
No. With this being Buffalo Trace and 13 years Will It Bourbon? No. So we actually change them every year. I think last year was um what was it? It was Will It and... It was Will It and i want to say it was... Whistlepig?
00:09:59
Speaker
that's all No, neither of those. It was, I can see it in my brain hole. It was something Because we had the bourbon that's right and then we drank. That's right. Did you guys have Heaven Hill?
00:10:14
Speaker
We've Heaven Hill, we've had Wild Thrikey. Because it was one year we opened up your Heaven Hill bottle. Yeah. And we had it side by side with more of it. It was cool. Oh, yeah. We did Elijah Craig one year. And then the other one was... going to forget the name of it now. Anyway.
00:10:31
Speaker
um But yeah, no. We try to change it every year. At least I try to change it every year. um Yeah, I don't know it's... Dickle and Russell's Reserve last Russell's Reserve. That was what i was looking for is our... Yeah, 15-year Dickle. Yeah, and so the Russell's Reserve was all single-barrel Russells, which was super cool. And then we blended it with ah Dickle, which was, like, aged a lot longer. And so the way we've figured out things in terms of, like, these, like, very thick beers is if you take an amount of it and ferment it until it goes...
00:11:08
Speaker
basically almost dry that the alcohol will actually pull out more of the oak tannin. And it's almost like a seasoning then. So kind of figured out percentages with bench trials on like how much was the right amount of this like extreme oaked and high ABV Krampus to blend into the whole. And then once you're happy with the whole, then you can go from there and you can start adding your adjuncts. And the adjuncts only work if they're going coincide with with the barrels. I love how nerdy that information is. Trevor needs a drink bar. That is too beautiful. but those awesome It makes sense so if you think about it. The higher alcohol, you're essentially making a tincture. Correctamundo. I was going to say, we were talking about the Madagascar vanilla. The only other vanilla that I've used has been... the Tahitian yeah and I made my own tincture I think with the white buffalo trace that you gave me let's soak in there and it was like it's been that was awesome yeah it was good guys and I used it for like baking and stuff like that and it it was I mean making your own vanilla tincture is awesome but I wasn't sure how it was gonna taste and it's like I wouldn't use it probably
00:12:14
Speaker
As far as like a stout goes, unless it was like a fruited stout. you know you But i mean then you have to yeah use a bunch of those for one specific Well, what's funny with vanilla is you actually want to get, for flavor, you want grade be not grade A. You would think grade A is what you want, but grade A is really made for like fine dining because they're pretty beans. Legitimately, they are prettier. They still have, they still taste great, obviously, they're still great, but the grade B are kind of like, ah, they don't look as good, but oftentimes they actually end up with more vanilla content like we were talking about earlier.
00:12:45
Speaker
So they end up being awesome. And you actually get more pods per pound. yeah So usually your grade A vanilla beans are going more plump and and moisture. So ah a more amount of them is going to be water. And so you'll get less pods per pound. okay When we order grade B, they'll be a little bit drier, little bit older, a little bit gnarlier. But who cares? I'm chopping them up and pureeing them in a fucking blender. yeah um and and that's and the and And that's what I've realized over all these years. Because obviously coming from the fine dining world, grade A or nothing was forever the thing. And when we first started campus, we were using grade A vanilla beans until I learned...
00:13:25
Speaker
Holy shit, I'm chopping up... you being i'm chopping I'm chopping up plate decoration. yeah Yeah, I'm chopping up sexy Instagram photos for the sake of flavor. PPP. Yeah.
00:13:39
Speaker
Lots per pound. there There you go, pee-pee. Vanilla has always been like my favorite flavor, as far as like especially when you find it in barrel-aged stouts, bourbon ones. Obviously, going to get vanilla from bourbon. When there is...
00:13:58
Speaker
Do you know why you get vanilla yeah from bourbon? I know. So there's a difference between American oak and French oak, and ah American oak is definitely known more for its like vanilla and baking spices and things like that. Your French oak is going to kind of be like more peppery. um What are some other flavor notes and in French oak? I feel like I was like, you get a lot of spice, you get a lot of. this place But not but not not like you get American American oak is definitely about the baking space and specifically vanilla And that's why we love American oak and that's why we love it in stouts is because it's already lending itself to that and a lot of times you'll get things like cinnamon and nutmeg and all these other things from that kind of I feel like in like French oak and things like that you're gonna get like things like coconut or some other kind of flavors around that so um Yeah, that's kind of a fun thing too. We can talk about another beer we're working on with a Revolution that is actually exploring the world of French oak, which is release really going to very cool. But that is the one crazy part. like American oak, you can get virgin barrels and they cost about $50 for like virgin, never used, never charred.
00:15:04
Speaker
we know We know what virgin means. But the Spanish and French ones can cost, like, virgin ones $500, $1,000. Just because what ends up happening is part of the reason why you have the tannins is the American white oak has tighter, the French and Spanish have tighter spirals.
00:15:24
Speaker
in it where the American oak has a bigger rings in the oak itself. That's where you get more of that open-end tannins. I guess we're not waiting on French oak. So um but we're talking about... so obviously but Marty does small portions.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yes. So with with Marty and Revolution, oh he's working with a company called Creative Oak. And Marty's kind of become my Jedi. I'm simply a Padawan. He's brilliant. We decided to do, I had Buffalo Trace Mash number one barrels that I had brought in. And we actually had too many for last year's Krampus. Reached tomorrow. I'm like hey. I've got these barrels.
00:16:10
Speaker
Let's do a collab. You said you would do it. You said you said and sorry I put my fist up like I was gonna fight Marty said you said like said you said like if we ever did a variant of Krampus for the melting hour exactly okay you make sure shit well let' see oh You didn't do this violence works. Oh, yeah, we haven't thrown the fist, but he he started working with this company I thought it was very interesting. They're doing like different types of toasts on these French oak and each Maybe one or two of the barrels is going to be infused with a French oak stave What people don't realize is that in France they actually literally grow forests like forest trance a in France to make wood for these barrels specifically and they grow the oak in a very certain way so it's easier to turn into barrels the whole nine yards there's also a bunch of like very creepy kind of cool lore around forest trance um so look it up kids look it up look it up t-r-o-n-c-a-i-s i'm sure there's an thank you for spelling that because weird um or something in there that i don't understand because i am not french but
00:17:18
Speaker
ah we wait wait You're not French? Oui, oui, I am not. Okay.
Collaborations and Innovations
00:17:22
Speaker
So wee we um what they did was they also took from outside of Troncay. You have to understand Troncay is like made to make your Grand Cru Bordeaux and Burgundies and things like that. That's the best of the best. And then once you get outside of that forest, ah there'll be different forests that'll make different types of oak. That's how dedicated they are to the craft of barrel making. um And Creative Oak and Marty decided like, hey, what if we could harness this and sell it to brewers to do very interesting things and do different toasts to pull out different flavors. And then instead of explaining toast, what we'll do is we'll call it Creme Brulee.
00:18:00
Speaker
toasted coconut Marshmallow and things like that. So then you're looking through their program and you're like, okay Well, I want to do I mean creme brulee and coconut if I must you know like So we did a bunch of different combinations So there's gonna be this very interesting point which is gonna make me and Matthew put our heads to the wall Where we have to combine these barrels, figure out how much liquid, figure out labels. It's also going to make Tim crazy. Oh, yes. And make sure that each one is like very different and that we sell it in a certain way. So that was a very long...
00:18:31
Speaker
This is why we drink. Man, that is... I have the base for the label already done, though. Super exciting to hear about. That sounds cool as shit. That's awesome. Well, you've got one of the best people at doing barrel-aged beers right in our backyard, and that is Marty at Revolution. He's outside? Without a doubt. He's right outside. He's been waiting. Well, this is the old Irving episode. You're not coming in. I don't know. You Scandinavian homie.
00:18:57
Speaker
Talking about barrels, I i felt like Milan. place to go next let's go wherever wherever you want to go bro
00:19:05
Speaker
Well, I mean, so... You're absolutely right. So, Melange, this year, this is the third year. Third year that we've done a non-adjuncted version of Krampus. Fourth? For as many years as we've done this show together. Yeah. And so this is... We started with Krampus in the Buff, Krampus in the Rye, Double Barrel, and then this year would be Melange. I think it was because it was our idea.
00:19:30
Speaker
Actually, and I think it actually might have been. i think not Actually, that might be correct. What? No, I'm dead serious. I think that might actually be correct. I think you might actually be correct. I remember you guys saying, like, what if you guys did Krampus without the coconut? I'm pretty sure. we probably because Brandon and I have talked many times about certain beers that we've had are either adjunct or barrel aged and it's wow this is really good i wonder what just the base yeah tastes like. Melange is funny when I was working at Modo We were learning fancy wine words a lot, and we would make fun of the fancy wine words because we were a bunch of degenerates. Oh, yeah. And we used to, like, we had, like, a wine dump bucket for people who didn't finish their their tastings. we would dump it into, like, a Lexan. And we'd be like, melange. You know, like, saying, i basically, it's a blend. as i mean So when we were trying to figure out a name for, like, a blended beer, melange came to part. But...
00:20:30
Speaker
More importantly, i was originally going to blend this with a quadruple, a Belgian quadruple. And then Matthew called me one day. He's like, are you blending a Belgian quadruple with a stout? And he i've I've taught him a lot about our yeast program and everything. And I was like, it oh, that's a terrible idea. What if that yeast decides to take off? He's like, yeah, i don't want to say, but I'm saying. And I was like, good call, Matthew. And then I was like, but we have a barley wine and a rye wine. And so that from there, it came to bench trial. And thank you, Matthew, for saving our asses on that. And it became this. We had a two-year age barley wine that we did with more way back in the day. It's obviously amended and things like that called Mecca font.
00:21:15
Speaker
So it was two years in the brew pub at 70 degrees. And then we had the Goose Island Rye Wine Asian Rye Whiskey Casks that we blended with it. And we were very happy. ah There it is, Cordial Rye. And we were really happy with how it turned out. I was actually...
00:21:31
Speaker
probably more a i think all of us were more excited than the general public about this especially when it warms up because it has layers and layers of like chocolate and raisin and oak tannin and baking spices and and that's kind of like what I love about food and beer and wine more than anything else is is subtlety so this became all of our favorites because I think we all kind of dwell in that same realm where we love the art of I don't know, less. Sure. Less is more. Yeah. and And so for us, you know if you look on Untapped, it's not going to be everyone's favorite. But for us, we've sat there next to these barrels every day. i mean, they're basically little brothers or sisters to us. And it's... it's
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a really cool beer. I feel like that that makes sense as like a personal... like You love all the beers, obviously. but You wouldn't have made them otherwise. But having one that's more like for you guys, like it's kind of like, this Russ. Pat yourself on the back. like This is our beer to drink. like maybe yeah It's funny that you said the tannins and the raisin because that's the first thing when I first had this and now that I that i get from this and then everything else kind of comes comes through. this I...
00:22:43
Speaker
I love that you guys do this that's not like a full like an adjunct version of it that is just focused on like barrels because I think the more and more that breweries take the time and like care to really focus
Artistry of Barrel-Aged Beers
00:22:57
Speaker
on just but I mean obviously I love adjunct shit it's it's great I love giant pastry stouts that are barrel aged some they're just like it's too much maybe it's too sweet maybe I shouldn't be drinking all this right now But the focus on... Shut up, Tim. The focus on... Fuck up, Tim. Yeah, dude, I'm talking here. The focus on like the barrels is, I think, so important, especially when it's you know when it's coming to like what really goes into a good barrel-aged beer.
00:23:27
Speaker
and it the thank you for saying all that um and and furthermore uh once you have one of marty's beers that are like barrel focused yeah like you can see how like and this is not like i'm not shitting on us or anything but i'm simply gonna state like once you see a master at his craft yeah yeah like do something like a barley line do that barley like the bar at fauba um Do you remember the name of it? I don't unfortunately it didn't win an award which is for French for Cherry with criminal all yeah, whatever and we had that and I texted Marty right away, and I was like That's the best barrel aged beer. I think I've ever had yeah, and I also sours Everything and it's very funny that our first entrance I'm very proud of this but there's you'll notice there's a stop like mid-pallet There's a stop you'll see like a little roundness it kind of does a little twist on the tongue before it goes back in it and it finishes the story
00:24:21
Speaker
uh marty's is like fucking poetry it's like it's like a goddamn song across your palate that never stops and you can walk away from that drink and you're you're upstairs now you're about to get a lager at the lager lounge at phobab and it's still dancing and it's just that's so cool and i love that this is our first entrance into blending and i'd be very interested in doing more blending just to get to the the level that someone like marty is at you know i feel like Gambling-hearted, the barrel-aged version was our first one, but part of the reason why I love especially this is because if you didn't tell someone that we didn't add adjuncts, it tells such a story that I think that I love what that we can play with coffee and coconut and spices and chocolate and everything else.
00:25:06
Speaker
But you drink this and you don't tell what's in it. It tells so many different stories while it's sitting on your palate. And then you're like, oh yeah, it's just the barrels in the beer. well it'll It's just the barrels in the beer. And that's where the artistry it would be in time. would be really interesting to do like a blind tasting of just like, oh, try this out. What do think is going on here? like Oh, it's clearly a barrel aged out and have someone... actually like try and pick it apart. It'd be interesting to see like someone who obviously very like knows barrel-aged beers very well or someone who's just kind of like, this is where i get out of it. it's I think that'd be fun. I can tell you right now, when we were tasting this Krampus specifically in barrels over the course of the last year, where we would you know we tasted it obviously every once in a while, and every time we tasted it, we were just gobsmacked that it didn't already have cocoa nibs in it.
00:25:55
Speaker
yeah so shocklety just that base was so chocolatey there was a moment where I thought about not adding cocoa nibs. Yeah. And honestly, if I could turn back time a little bit, share. I have that outfit on right now. he's pretty Fish nuts. Thank you. No, if I could, i would actually probably not do the cocoa nibs. Yeah. We would have saved money, and i honestly, I think the malt could have done all the chocolate talking. I don't disagree with you. Chocolate is very, like, up front in this. That just makes me... yeah I was going to say the same thing, but that makes me curious now to...
00:26:30
Speaker
what it was before yeah yeah well I think there's an amount of chocolate that we got from the malsa we added to it chocolate rye you know some roasted malts some of the carafas from wireman out in Germany um and then you add cocoa nibs there's a fruitiness that happens that definitely got intensified with the cocoa nibs but you definitely get in chocolate pure in chocolate ah you'll notice there's a little bit of fruitiness almost tastes like cherries or something Um, and we definitely get that in the beer and I would have loved to have seen it maybe without that, you know, um, we see that a little bit in the lounge, but then we blended it with things that taste like fucking cherries and nuts and things like that, you know? So you just, just brew another batch then? And then just, well, we brew a new batch every year actually. Uh, which is why I, you know, I think it release. Fucking walker, I know that one. Yeah.
00:27:24
Speaker
With that, everybody, thanks for joining us. We'll see next week. It's been great Unkept promises. That's right, unkept promises. that's it Maybe that's the non-barrel-aged Krampus, unkept promises. You said you were barrel-age this.
00:27:39
Speaker
so what's listen So, yeah, moving on. um You know, Chomperado is something that you guys have known forever. You guys were champions in the early days. Not me. Not me. Oh, you weren't. That's right. You were not a big fan. You son of a bitch. Well, he was against the heat. And that's okay. And I get it. And that's I think that's what was... It's all good. He still hates you. He stays out of the kitchen. cause you can't Hey, here at OIB, b we make a lot of different beers to make sure we suit all kinds of people who are maybe have terrible dead palates. Or have really good ones.
00:28:15
Speaker
But no, um as you know, Champurada has a near and dear place to my heart, specifically because it is inspired by the Mole at Moto restaurant from the Mole Canole dish. And I think we pulled it up last time to see it. That's a great name. It was a very cool dish. It was actually very fun because you would have a meat dish and you would think you were done with like your main courses. It could be 10 or 20 courses. All of a sudden, a canole would come out and you'd be like, oh shit, i'm about to have dessert. Surprise, motherfucker. Rude eyes, motherfucker.
00:28:47
Speaker
rude eyes motherfu French fries, sorry. We're not going to fucking love Dexter. So what it would it would come out as a cannoli. It would have the crema on either side with the... It looked like pistachios with the chocolate that I still remember how to do the design to make it look sweet and delicious. He is acting it out. And then you would you would eat it and it would be completely savory and the mole was actually...
00:29:13
Speaker
a recipe that our chef Chris who is amazing and still is ah got from an abuela down in Oaxaca and it was it was a black mole recipe and yeah it's a place in Mexico a boyla where abuelas aka grandmothers live and I got that job yeah and yeah and and there's chocolate involved so um I remember it would take us like two days to make it but I remember the chilies very specifically because they're all dried chilies had never seen dried chilies because i'm from fucking michigan and we don't have to fucking dry chilies i'm sorry i'm not going to kroger's or meyers and getting my fucking dried chilies good i'm going there to get processed ham and some cheese because i just made ham and cheese crap for a family dinner or whatever whatever this is back in the day boys and girls is back in the day so so uh ancho wahio and pasilla i've always been trying to find cascabel but you cannot find it as as very uh recently but it was me tim and uh cassandra actually it was me max and cassandra this year i did not last year it was me and you And we basically take apart the pods and they're already very low on the capsaicin level. I love ancho chilies, the way. Oh, good. They're so good. Yeah. And the the thing I love about these red chilies is you get a lot of raisinated kind of qualities from them. But we pull them apart. We empty out a little bit of the seeds and we just kind of separate them so they have more surface area for the heat to get in.
00:30:38
Speaker
And then once you're done with that, it takes a while because you've rip the tops off, open them up drain some of the seeds because we don't want too much heat for little girls like you. yeah And then we put them in the oven. almost smashed them. Yeah. It's not the sound wrong, Tim.
00:30:52
Speaker
And then... No, no. No, it's not that. Yeah. And then we put the peppers inside of the oven and 350 for about 10 minutes, which is kind of our go-to for all of our ingredients. They come out their hardest fuck. Throw them into a bag. Yeah.
00:31:07
Speaker
you i I sure did hopefully not backwards and I put and then you put it into the keg in the beer infuse it Obviously I'm most excited about those but then of course you have the Saigon cinnamon the vanilla the coconut the other pieces here and coffee this year yeah and so and then why there coffee this year so we won last year exhale seems so disappointing no i'm not disappointed but no he's absolutely right this should be discussed was gonna ask yeah so last year we won silver at the festival barrel age beer we had never won faux bap award um not that it was disappointed or obsessing over or anything but like i thought about every day up until that moment um
Awards and Recognition
00:31:52
Speaker
But, um... We didn't all when we didn't freak out all when we won. I actually even took off my jacket and told Tim, like, dunk it up. We're not winning anything. Yeah. We did, and I had to put my jacket on and, like, run up, and I tripped, like, three times on the way up because I was sober. But, um... I still have to paint on my jacket over there. But, yeah, uh... Still hold it. Yeah, it was...
00:32:15
Speaker
It was so cool winning, but at the end of the day, i don't ever want to just rest at success. Success is fine, but it's fleeting and it's only for a moment as well as anything else.
00:32:28
Speaker
So you can you can succeed one year, but if you just go ahead and play that record again, People have already heard that tune in my in and and for me my duty is not to the judges who judge phobet My duty is to my team the business and our guests So i want to change it up.
00:32:46
Speaker
I want to add some new things I want to keep people guessing and keep it interesting and make sure that we're kind of stretching beyond what we've done before If we're not going to do something new, then it better be a different expression of what we've done previously. Because if we can't get better or we can't get different, then why the fuck would you come back next year and buy the exact same thing? Oh, cool, there's some different barrels. No, let's do something different. And who better to usher that in than my friend Parker at Hex of Coffee, who I absolutely adore, and get to talk to him for a few minutes and being like...
00:33:17
Speaker
I like the dustiness and the raisinated qualities on these shields are so beautiful. Your coffee actually has a lot of these qualities. Which one do you prefer? And he suggested, roasted on the day of, got them to us, infused immediately by my team. And that's how it happened. And then we won bronze. You know what? Yep.
00:33:34
Speaker
If we can win silver and bronze two years, boys, I'm very happy about Also, fun story on this one is the beer was finished an hour before competition judging happened. Yeah. Yeah. of the canning line, ran it down UIC Pavilion and dropped it off.
00:33:56
Speaker
I did hear though that we were not the last people. We were not the last people. Were we the last ones who dropped it off that won? That I don't know. I did not hear that, but we were we were not the last. But my phone's saying, Matthew's goddamn mensch. And also, I'm so sorry how much I stressed you out. yeah it' what my favorite thing about that, and this is where it always goes back to Trevor and Flavor,
00:34:21
Speaker
Is you were supposed to package is that a beer name, Trevor and Flavor? we are supposed to package it a little bit earlier in the day maybe even the day before and max came in everyone tried it and the biggest thing that happened is we're like yep we get the peppers we get the cittinin we get everything we got choerrato and it was delicious And then the main thing that was discussed was we don't really get the coffee. And so Trevor is like, recircuit, give it a couple more hours. Let's get the coffee to kick it up. Yep. If we're going to call it coffee chop, we're out. You better have coffee. And that's the thing that I love with that. And so, yes, it was little bit more stressful, but he got the coffee through. And to me, that's what really shines through. We have not discussed the. full stress of Krampus yet. No. Do we want to discuss that yet? Who's in therapy? Does everyone have therapists yet? We need therapists. I'll say this. As I said, I've had... You poured more. This is my third pour. I love it, Joe. You don't like spice? It's not as spicy. No, he doesn't like to share. Fuck you guys. So this year... Stop looking at my legs, dude.
00:35:32
Speaker
I was wondering it was to getting loud because it's been so quiet. I'm like, wow, this has been a very nice, calm episode. Four glasses. Don't fuck it up. Each other each year, I buy like a couple of the Krampus variants.
00:35:45
Speaker
This year, I specifically bought double Krampus, which we'll get to later, and the Chomperado coffee. And Chomperado coffee So not the whole lineup? No. You didn't buy the whole lineup? No, I didn't, man. I went to the fucking dinner, and doing this with you guys. I come to the brew pub, and I buy these... I wasn't judging. I was just stating. think Tim's a fun tooth.
00:36:10
Speaker
The... No, I was saying thank you to somebody else. I know. I know your name. The Ciamparado coffee is my favorite of this year. It is also my favorite, actually. I think you and I talked about it. And never disliked... Well, I mean, they were never my favorite because like spice. do like spice. All the Spice Girls, too. Scary Spice. All the other Spice. Baby Spice. Ginger Spice. Sporty Spice. And...
00:36:34
Speaker
shut up spice ah But I just... there are I don't love spice in a a big stout. like I don't really want that. This beer, however, even if you took out the coffee, the spice on it is perfect. Because I think everybody gets the spice who drinks this, whether you're sensitive to spice or not. like You know it's there, but it's not. It is the perfect amount, and the coffee, I think, just kind of like takes it over the top in the best way possible. And that's why...
00:37:04
Speaker
That is my favorite variant this year. don't know if you guys still have some left, but I plan on coming by Old Urban in the next couple weeks. And if it's still there, I'm probably to grab another chance. It actually is selling pretty quickly. I went back there and looked at the cases today. I know. was getting kind of nervous about that. Yeah, it's happening pretty quick. I was going to say, I don't feel like...
00:37:23
Speaker
The spice is more intense than in any other year. No, no, no. And like, Tromperato has been one of my favorites. Like, I've used that when I've made chili. Great palate, great guy. Done all that kind of stuff. Okay, take it easy.
00:37:36
Speaker
But I feel like the coffee complements it really well. And I guess for, I mean, because I'm like, give me ghost peppers, give me this shit. You get it, man. i have'm I'm afraid of of really spicy things. we do a burn I want to burn my... so okay burn but like No, but like not I love stuff. So like I can... i can you know i can I can tell when there's spice in there. I can tell when there's chilies in there. And my my favorite thing about this is that like you get that hit of chili, and I feel like the coffee mellows it out, and then you get like that coffee essence, and it's just like, this is...
00:38:14
Speaker
This is probably like my favorite Ciomparato of all of them. um I don't know if it's my favorite of the year. We'll get to that later. But definitely my favorite Ciomparato. I will i'll say one more thing because I know we probably need to go to a break. Yeah. yes um What i love about this beer is that I can taste beer, barrel, cinnamon, spice, and coffee individually. Nothing's fighting. i think that's why I like it. like As I, you know years of drinking barrel-aged beers now, and the more that drink them, I realize that that's what I'm looking for. If you're saying all these things are in there...
00:38:53
Speaker
I'm not really disappointed if I can't find some of the things, but if I can really taste them, oh, wow, that's great. But when you hit something like this where it's like you can taste everything individually, to me that's like perfect. Can I say something?
Taste Comparisons
00:39:06
Speaker
You may. Yes.
00:39:08
Speaker
One more? Let me know if your podcast is right now. But and this this is not coming off as bad at all. That's okay. But the thing that I find most interesting about this beer is you take a sip, and i like what Tony just said, I get all of those flavors.
00:39:24
Speaker
The lingering essence I get in my mouth feels like I just took a bottle of Hershey syrup and squirted it in my mouth. Interesting. And, like, literally it's like almost like Hershey chocolate kind of lingering in the back. And I was like...
00:39:39
Speaker
I know a lot of people hate on Hershey's chocolate, but as a person who grew up on it, fucking love it. No, I'm talking about the syrup. Oh, I know. Chocolate syrup. literally had to take like... understand i literally had to take like yeah Dude, I used to do it. Oh, I did too. Back in the day. um That was cool. But like literally, i took I had to take a couple of sips in a row and I was like, is that really what I'm tasting? Because I thought I was fucking in my head. and I'm like, no, that's kind of what I'm getting. It's interesting you mentioned the finish because I was about to interject and say, you're 100% right. You fucked this beer up for me by case right now is Hershey's. I hate this beer. No, milk because you know obviously that that product as we remember it, the the squeezy bottle, pop top, it goes into the milk, you mix it up with a spoon, it becomes Chocobel. But you remember how like it increasingly decadent it it was if you drank it straight. yeah decade It tasted like fruity and like intensely sweet. It took over your whole palate. That's the first thing you get. It's like a flat thing. So I think Like if I were to advise any drinkers on this, I would say sit back after you've had a sip and like yeah really sit back and like let it go. Then you start pulling out cinnamon and all these other things. And I i don't think enough of us do that. I don't think enough of us take time. to in between drinks just kind of sit back and like not look at your phone. Don't look at the TV, even though I love this movie so much. Christmas Vacations. Christmas Vacation, National Lampoons, and and like let all the flavors kind of then go. And it's it's pretty cool to see it. The thing I preferred about last year's Krampus, and by the way, no one hates my beer more than me. True. So every year I will always beat the shit out of the beer. but By the way, the last one that was silver last year yeah the one that won silver last year at full bab the thing the thing the thing that absolutely adored about it actually was probably what you hate about it was uh the intersection of a little bit of spice like warming spice in the back that intersected with just enough cinnamon like we infused it long enough to also have cinnamon heat uh and then barrel heat and then alcohol heat it all came together in like one fluid motion and it was so pretty this year's is fun and it's a little bit more of a circus on the palette but last year's man that was mine like that was like a tuning fork i really uh uh sort of enjoyed it i'm pretty sure i enjoyed it but feel like if you were to look at exactly what you just said as a flavor thing with the spice on the on the right of a triangle, the cinnamon on the left of a triangle. right The bottom of the triangle this year was the coffee that kind of like impeded a little bit of the heat coming off of those, but it imparted a different flavor while covering up some of those harsher notes of the heat and cinnamon. Yeah, but I'm going to disagree a little bit because this is the whole balance out this is the longest time. You can fuck right off, Tony.
00:42:36
Speaker
I thought we were about to to the commercial break. were. was going come off. Until you are all wrong. oh um I haven't had this sipping for this long because we went back to it and the heat
00:42:51
Speaker
To me, that's the part that I'm actually enjoying way more. I like that. I do like that. I do like spice. You are correct in last year. I think the spice hit earlier. But part of the thing that I like sipping on this longer, and when we do 16-ounce cans and I'm drinking a whole can, then I want to be able to sip on it. And so to me, as this warms up and you're drinking the entire can, I like that the spice builds, but it's still not overwhelming. Matthew's like, you're wrong. Your beer is better than you think. Oh, if you might. Also, we saw the biggest bunch of douchebags pulling this thing apart. The beer is good. Put it in your face, fucks. And now we're going to do shots of Hershey's syrup. Out of a can, you bougie fucker with a plastic bottle. Yeah, that's what we do. You do it out of a can. Not us, loser. Anyways, us. I don't think cans have existed for like 30 years. Speaking of losers, let's take a break. We'll be right back.
00:43:41
Speaker
Cheers.
Naming and Branding
00:43:44
Speaker
And we're back. Welcome back, everybody. We're here with the the crew from Old Irving, Trevor, Matthew, you've been here a lot. And Tim.
00:43:56
Speaker
And we're drinking through the 2025 lineup Krampus. Did you just call Krampus or Krampus cookies? Because, I mean, the base is Krampus cookies. fucked up. I don't know. It's not fucked up. No, is fucked up. Because apparently what's happened over the years is that the base is Krampus cookies and all the other are not Krampus cookies. So when I called it Barrel-Aid Champorano Coffee Krampus Cookies, someone got a bug up and out about it. That was me. Yep. And I was like, I was like, wow, they misnamed our beer. Yeah. It was like, Trevor misnamed our beer.
00:44:28
Speaker
Bitch, first of all. Wow. It was Krampus Cookies to start with. And all these are variants on Krampus Cookies. So. that's why i gave it that name but apparently we've moved on and I've been voted off the island it is... and you you could have cra You could have approved different names. I i put the labels past you.
00:44:47
Speaker
Hey, speaking of moving on, let's try this next beer. a Fucking Segway King. o Professional. It's like you're on two wheels, you're such a Segway. Okay, here. Tim, you can be voted off now. That was a good joke. going to lie.
00:45:03
Speaker
I hate it, but I also love Thank you. That's what I Still make sweet love somewhere. All right, so here we go. So what are we drinking? Who voted this one? You had to take a deep whiff of it first. Pour a little bit more. This is going to be German chocolate cake.
00:45:20
Speaker
Krampus cookies. It doesn't say it on the can, though. It doesn't say it on the can. Before you get into this, please.
German Chocolate Cake Variant
00:45:28
Speaker
The dessert that included this at the dinner was fucking fantastic. Oh, yeah. Was that the shortbread? Oh, yeah. No, that's right. I'm sorry. I was confusing the brownie. The shortbread... It's up there. It's up there. Grab, grab, grab the menu. That Tim designed. Where was the, where was the German, okay. Oh God, everything's falling apart. See, I told you the second half is when everything starts falling apart in the best way possible. I would like to point out that I am not the one that's falling apart yet. So this was served, uh. It's the brownie, isn't it?
00:46:00
Speaker
Yeah, it was served with the brownie. I knew Okay. Because it was the, it was like the, on the bottom, it was like a caramel, right? Like a, that was so good. Yeah. I'm going to get whole thing. I will say, this is actually showing better than I remember it. I'm actually loving this even more than I did a few weeks ago.
00:46:19
Speaker
Yeah, so the the idea behind this one obviously was German chocolate cake. I don't remember. I think this was a Max idea of German chocolate cake. and I think this was Max Lieber now at the pub. He wanted to do with Gnosis last year. Yeah, he originally wanted to it with Gnosis, and then I was like kind of sitting on it for a while. i was like, you know what? Let's go ahead and go for it. My biggest hang-up with doing German chocolate cake is not obviously not the coconut or the chocolate or anything like that It was mostly the nuts So pecans obviously, you know would you say it was driving you nuts? It was kind driving you nuts.
00:46:54
Speaker
Oh damn it. Sorry. um I'll get toad up next
00:47:01
Speaker
So Pecans, specifically, are a pretty ah popular flavor anyway. I don't like using common allergens. Obviously, you guys know we took lactose out of crampus years ago to get rid of the common allergen, which is hilarious because I also make a beer which has made of common allergens but um we didn't want to use that uh we did what we usually do we get um these beautiful coconut chips we toast them maybe you guys saw the picture of like the whole bar lined up yeah around the corner is me and max in the morning uh five racks at a time sounds like a radio it does being max in the morning hey you max in the morning coconut trays yeah coconut trays uh yeah uh five trays at a time in and out uh about five minutes at a time so you get a little bit of toast a little bit of raw uh then it went right from there into meslin bags right into the right into the mix itself now um pulling the curtain back a little bit further um you do not always need to use uh real product and sometimes it actually isn't beneficial One of my favorite things to use a real product. you say yeah right Yeah, actually Sean from phase three one year at who silent he said it best. He's like, you know, if you're trying to make
00:48:15
Speaker
a Product like Neapolitan ice cream you're not gonna expect real strawberries real chocolate you know you're not gonna cause they do that with we countying when you're yeah they said close to Yeah Exactly you're gonna expect kind of extract so find the best extract that pairs with it We did that and it was like a butter pecan flavor and we actually did a bench trial is Usually me and Mac sitting down first and then kind trialing out make sure everyone agrees if they don't we hit them And then, um, because we're obviously right. And then we go from there and that's kind of what happened here.
00:48:46
Speaker
Um, and then obviously the base is still, uh, Copa Dibs and Vanilla. I was very happy about it. turned out It actually reminds me um, that little bit in between all of the chocolate cakes. id almost yeah I don't know what to call it, but it's a mixture of pecan ah coconut. donmp Don't. and It's almost like a frosting, but it's more clear sort of gel looking thing. but ah so
00:49:14
Speaker
I had a different name for it. What was the other name? We're not gonna say that. We're not gonna say that. We won't say it. We won't say it on Mike. won't say it on Mike, but I'll find out afterwards. You will find out that first. We'll tell you what it's called that first. Anyway, that little bit in between all the cake layers. you say jizz?
00:49:29
Speaker
No, I did not. but I've never lied in my life. The little bit in between. the the little bit in between each of the cheeks what did you have to do that crampy So, by the way, German chocolate cake, not from Germany, named after everybody's last name is German.
00:49:50
Speaker
And I think that ends this one, right? Wait, this is pretty good. Did you guys like it? Yeah, it's so cool. Is it German chocolate cake? American? Didn't somebody make it? Yes. Yes, it's made... I just said that. was your no No, you said it wasn't... not from Germany. It was named after a person whose last name is German you in America. You didn't say America. I'm pretty sure his name was Herman. That I don't know.
00:50:09
Speaker
I think it was Texas. I believe you. So, I will say this. ah Each year... This date was run Jeremy, apparently. That's where the juice comes from. don't have to keep going with it. Well, you did it already. I'm not going to let good jokes reside in my mind rent free. I honestly thought maybe I was wrong and that was going to be the joke, but I'm happy that I'm not wrong. How am to call it? Shut the fuck up, Tim. No one wants to hear from you.
00:50:36
Speaker
So ah each year, smoked wheat I love all of the the labels that you guys do. That's Tim. Yes. and Tim, this is my favorite this is my favorite label this year. Thank you. Thank you very much. I mean, like they're they're all great, but like I don't know. i think I really like Double Double. I think you put a lot of effort that one. Shut up, Matthew. Seriously. I did, actually. The one thing about this beer, specifically, this one to me is the most... I know we're getting to Double Double, and there's a lot coat not a lot going on there, but there's Double going on there. This, to me, is probably the more...
00:51:10
Speaker
pastry stout of the Krampus lineup this year. it It definitely comes across as here's a kind of like barrel-aged pastry stout because like smelling it you get the coconut, you get the pecan, and pecan. And it's probably the sweeter of the... of there There's a lot going on as I'm talking. I'm trying to i'm sorry. I'm sorry. You're a professional. I know. that I was trying to, and I couldn't it anymore. This, to me, is like the sweetest one that you guys have this year. That's not a bad thing.
00:51:42
Speaker
It definitely reminds me... like like German chocolate cake is sweet. It is. But yeah this is very tasty, and it's it's great. like i this this Like I said, this one reads... More of a pastry stout than any of the others. 100%. i think what happened that's fun I think what happened is with the coconut itself, because I yeah i saw that review coming up but yeah again. People were like, this is the sweetest one. I'm like, you fools. It was all the same face. And I was like, ha-ha. Speed racer cartoon? Ha-ha. But no, I realized that, yeah, obviously coconut has fucking sugar in it. yeah And I'm using coconut chips. And I think you get some residual sugar from simply the infusion. So it did. I guarantee i guarantee you if you you know put a hydrometer in this, it's going to be sweeter than all the other beers. yeah we could We could literally do a test on it if you want Brandon, go grab your hydrometer.
00:52:30
Speaker
I'll be right back. No, don't do that. I do think this one is like kind of a more like playful, fun one. Totally. Agreed. As far as like grief a pastry stout, yeah you know, bread-aged pastry stout. I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who consider this one probably their favorite because that's what they're they're looking for. And so every year we tend to have, and I think Trevor and I think about this similarly, is like if we always have the og we now have the non anjec one We love playing with Chopper on with a little bit of spice.
00:53:02
Speaker
and then you need the ones that are just fun. Last year it was like Fireside Krampus with a marshmallow. That was me and so good. Yeah, and so because even in these really big adjuncted stouts you want to have different bases of people who like barrel aged beer. And everyone has kind of different take on it. This year OG was my favorite.
00:53:24
Speaker
Like I love the wood characteristic that comes with it with just a little bit of adjunct. And some people really want that big sweet yeah like overthe-top coconut aspect which I love yeah there's definitely in times when I want something like that and then there's other times where I want just like grandpa's cookies I'm gonna bring up Goose Island like I normally do about Bremen County but like we talked about you should Brandon I invented the shit so this This year's Bourbon County lineup to me was one of the best. Yeah, agreed. And Brandon and I got a chance to do a media tasting and a dinner. And um the way they presented those beers to us was like, as we drank through them, it was like, no, this is better. This is better. This is better. This is better. This is better. this is better it is like They hit everything, just like you guys did here. with like There's something for everybody when it comes to barrel-aged beers, and that's why it's kind of fun to like pick and choose which if you want to get them all, or there's like just a certain type you want to have. It's nice to have that variety. Agreed. You guys covered all bases. you guys know the name of the woman who was in charge of this year's prop?
00:54:25
Speaker
I do not. I've never met her personally. I don't know her name. but the body shout out for that because i've heard amazing things about that prop and i finally tasted the other day in the tap room and i was like blown away it 100 well for those of you that don't know that the way that goose island does bourbon county is that they actually take solicitations from every employee like literally that's so fun from a so awesome from janitor to anyone can submit recipes and can submit ideas for what the prop's going to be. This one... And they take it from... And they do indeed take it from... Anybody. Anybody. This this year's prop... The 2017 prop was my favorite because it was kind of like a Bananas Foster. And that was like just...
00:55:10
Speaker
out of this world. Hell yeah. This year's though is is right there with it because it really tastes like you can get like honey and cinnamon and like it's just it's it's really good. It tastes like baklava. Yeah, Trevor's a little bit of bananas. now It's only funny because You don't like bananas. No, no. Clayton Quinn, who came up with that prop. you know he train i trained i tradeed with Quinn and and Bjorn and Bill Savage, actually is his real name. Three guys who and went from...
00:55:41
Speaker
um That I trained with, they actually ended up working at Goose Island. And I remember when they came up... Quinn knows I'm allergic to bananas. And he gave me a bottle of that. And I brought it to Thanksgiving because we have like a familial Thanksgiving every year at OIB where we close down Thanksgiving and we invite.
00:56:02
Speaker
Friendsgiving basically. It's a Friendsgiving. think I saw that picture. of Yeah. and everyone was pouring this one. I had a yellow label. And i was like, I remember. I think there was some bananas. And luckily I turned the label. Oh, that actual, not the prop one, but the actual banana sposter Yeah. And he almost, like he literally was about to put it to his mouth when he went.
00:56:17
Speaker
Wait, let me look at that. It almost killed me. yeah And then actually, ah there's another guy in the brewing industry, Abel, who's been around forever. what's with You might know him. Abel C-O-R will be his like Instagram handle. He also is allergic to bananas, so it's like my brother from another mother who's also allergic to it. They actually posted that one time that Goose Island and tried to kill me. I'm like, I remember that time.
00:56:39
Speaker
My girlfriend just hates it. What are we drinking now? Next up, actually, it was the beer was most worried about this year, only because you you already have a base of a lot of chocolate malt.
Fan Favorite: Double Krampus
00:56:52
Speaker
You already have cocoa nibs. You already have vanilla.
00:56:54
Speaker
How do you do more? And I made up this one before ever bench trying it, before trying anything, with like some reserves in my pocket.
00:57:06
Speaker
where I bought extra coconut, I bought extra vanilla, I had some other pieces where I could even push that flavor even farther. And I ended up needing all the reserves to make it work, but at the end of it, we were like,
00:57:17
Speaker
Fuck. Okay, cool. This works really well. And i actually ended up being my my personal favorite this year is this one because I love that unexpected one that we had to put a little extra energy into that was like, all right, we're going double-double and that's what we're doing. If it works, it works. If it fails, it fails. And how do you go more when you're already stuffing this thing with cocoa nibs and vanilla and everything else? And on the opposite end, when we added everything, we took it out the other end and actually it was much more rounded, much more Hershey's chocolate syrup. Much more like yeah, bourbon and Hershey's chocolate syrup mixed together and I was just very excited. Let's do that i would like to shout out cole though One of our co-workers Cole who points out that double double doesn't really make any sense well za just double craish But it's but you're doubling you doubling the coconut. It was actually just double Krampus
00:58:09
Speaker
Well no, it's double Koko names and double Vanilla. See I got that. didn't know that. That's why I named it double double Homo. You even alert there? Yep. Okay, well good job. Both you and Koko. just kidding you know you know or you a bad dog explaining it don't want to hear you talk two seconds all right just shut up for two seconds all right i'm done you know i like it no don't be done you know what i like about this is that it's uh it's krampus cookies i know it's double double but it doesn't lose what the original base has it's just it's more without it being like oh fuck it's it's a different beer yeah it doesn't over
00:58:52
Speaker
You told me shut up. Where did the name come from? And now you can speak, Trevor. Wasn't this something family-related cookies? Someone making double-double recipe or something? It was just double coconuts, double vanilla. That's what I took from it. How do you guys not get that? Double-double.
00:59:07
Speaker
And it was actually, it's kind of derived from like, um obviously we saw like the naming structure of half acre and the way they did to buy. No. And I was like, Oh, that's kind of cool. They just kind of did more coconut. You know, i was like, what if we just did more coconuts, more vanilla and made it even bigger chocolate or velvety. Um, the thing actually, I think it was right before we got going. I think it might've been max. Uh, it was max. He came up to me and he goes, you about to add all those extra coconuts to that. i was like, was thinking about it to get extra cocoa. Yeah. Extra cocoa. He's like,
00:59:38
Speaker
Coco can also make it more bitter, dude. And I was like, take it good idea well, shut the book up no, I didn't say that. i so I had the backup already ready. And I was like, no I'm not taking that risk.
00:59:49
Speaker
You're right. Let's go ahead and use this backup. And it was sincerely just vanilla extract and a chocolate extract. Would you ever do one ah to quote Ice Cube like a triple double? Fuck around got trip low feltter around. Got a triple double? Today was a good day. Yes, I would absolutely do it. Just so know, Trevor did put his arm around me during that. Yeah, yeah, I touched him.
01:00:15
Speaker
Yes, I would. That might be the intro. I say I'll do a lot of things in this basement, but there's... That's all off mic. I'm a man of my word. It's the Den of Secrecy. That's another beer name. I was like, what is the beer name again? Den of Secrecy. Sorry, I keep cutting you off. No, no, unkept promises. Unkept promises, yeah.
01:00:35
Speaker
Alright, yeah, that's kind of the lineup, guys. That's all I got. so double Double Double's your favorite. Matthew, do you have a favorite of this lineup that, like, for you is just, like...
Evolution of Krampus
01:00:45
Speaker
Mine's just the OG. Just the OG? Oh, yeah, that's right. you said To me, and I get where Double Double is, and it has all all of the vanilla, all of the Cocoa Names, I miss a little bit more of that barrel characteristic, a little bit of that tannin structure.
01:01:00
Speaker
is that what... Hold on, sorry. Trevor's doing what I do, which I keep in my car... same breed my friend same bre yeah te gotta handle go I don't drink as many IPAs anymore because of current as um it's funny because my girlfriend she's a baker and i wasn't surprised that I was surprised that she she liked the German chocolate one yeah a German chocolate cake but the double double I wasn't surprised at all because it's like that's that vanilla and chocolate it's almost like and I've always said this I think about
01:01:33
Speaker
Bourbon County, you guys, and I think Half Acre, you guys get like Baker's chocolate sometimes in there. Yes, we talked about the Hershey's. Kind of like bitter chocolate, yeah. And and that's that's my favorite one. I can get like a nice like little bitter like chocolate in there. it's It's the best. Tim, what is your favorite of this year?
01:01:50
Speaker
So I go between the... No, I need one. All right, Ciamparato. Okay. What was the other one? Double Double. Oh, that's right. I know i knew that. i just The audience didn't know that you and already talked about it. Yeah, yeah. those are Those are the two favorites. um So...
01:02:05
Speaker
Most of us... like The double-double is definitely high up there on the Eber side of being one of the favorites. Just because, again, like Trevor said, it's ah it's a little unique, almost, even though it weirdly isn't, because it's just more of what we've done.
01:02:20
Speaker
But just by the way we did it, it was a lot more, and it was really fun. And again, it'ss there is, like I said, you don't lose The original. Yeah, you don't lose it. you know It's just upped a little bit more. It's, again, another really nice, again, I'm saying this, balanced, yeah just like the Chomperado coffee where it's like you get everything without losing what's there. Brandon, as you sip upon that lager trying to wash down all this sweet goodness. What is your favorite? I don't know. What is your favorite? yeah Nobody gave Trevor one. That's cool. Or any of us on the side of the team, see if i have
01:02:53
Speaker
I do have a tie, but I'm... I think i'm leaning more towards the Double Double. I do really love the German chocolate cake oh because I feel like... I thought you'd be more in the Chomperado game.
01:03:05
Speaker
No, I said... Chomperado, it's my favorite Chomperado, but it's not my favorite of the year. or favorite of the year Because i German chocolate cake was so unique. yeah And i think it hits all of the essences of German chocolate cake. So that's why I was really excited about it, had it, enjoyed it. But Double Double is just so...
01:03:26
Speaker
Decadent. It's decadent and it's smooth. the The burn isn't really there, but you're just getting all of the the nuances and flavors of the beer.
01:03:36
Speaker
And yeah, I really enjoyed Double Double. There's a very fun saying that I like, which is, it tastes good in your mouth. Yeah. I mean. Wow. Fuck, that's poetry. It's very poetic, I know. He tells me that all the time. yeah it tastes good in your mouth i didn't mean it that way but Okay. So this is where we go, but things can always get better.
01:03:59
Speaker
And I think that's an important part of the conversation. it's more So let's, oh yeah so let's let's talk about the base and things that you guys feel like are like edges where we could do better next year.
01:04:10
Speaker
i think this is important because right now we're having kind of a a butt kiss session and i'd love we love kiss but it's really here is ed kiss i no i'm not like literally i'm not looking for like um hey you should use this type of barrel no just on the palette like what would you be looking for on a base barrel aged beer that you wish krampus had more of If I'm being honest, and yeah this is not a a butt kiss. You're supposed to be honest. yeah but when we We are. Trust me, there's been plenty of beers where we're like, i can't talk about this because I don't want to say anything bad, but I do not like it. um i
01:04:48
Speaker
i feel, we've said this numerous times on this podcast, I feel very lucky to live in Chicago, to be surrounded by so many great breweries. And breweries that do barrel-aged beers really well. And it's a rare thing that I don't enjoy barrel-aged beers from Old Irving, from Revolution, from Half Acre, from Goose Island. I mean, there's obviously my own tastes that I either like or or don't like. Sure, there might be a flavor profile that's not your jam. and and and and And there's a lot more breweries that do barrel-aged beers, but that I'm just throwing you guys and into the mix too.
01:05:26
Speaker
When it comes, I will never put Krampus cookies into the mix of my favorites just like we do with the original Bourbon County because that's it.
01:05:37
Speaker
It is what it is. i like it the way it is. I can't compare it to anything else because that would always be number one. Sure. Because I would always go back and go to that one. If if if if I had to like really choose... I would want the original of what was always made. So personally, thank you yeah well personally like i don't know like I feel like each year you guys have gotten more creative and and better. And like I said, the the fact that you guys got me to really like the Chomperado. I do think last year I did like Chomperado. You did. the yeah But this one, that is it's it's fucking awesome. and And it being my favorite of of what you guys did. That's wild.
01:06:16
Speaker
clip it from last year, how you talked about Sean Porter last year and put it back in, the editing skills would be amazing. Absolutely not. He doesn't edit it.
01:06:27
Speaker
What's funny is, and I don't know if this has ever been done. and like You mean a molting hour, Barry? I can't. Yeah. But I can't even fathom how this was working. You guys just need to remind me. Don't feel like you're bugging me. Just tell me. I'll send you a message. Yeah. Or just send a message through I've got your phone number now. Matthew matthew did say all we needed to do was pick a day and yeah talk to you about it. Yeah.
01:06:50
Speaker
What... I don't know if any breweries have ever done like pistach people done pistachio. They have done pistachio. but They've done pistachio, but not necessarily in barrel age.
01:07:02
Speaker
But not necessarily in barrel age. Milk stachio is definitely like a... ah Obviously a milk style with pistachio and then of course you had against ah was Around the Bend. I always mix them up with against the grain. They had pistachio. That's okay. you Was there pistachio in prop for the baklava? Oh, that's actually a good point. I think there was pistachio in the baklava.
01:07:26
Speaker
I mean, pistachio is one of my favorite things. Yes, pistachio. I love pistachio. cream. like You know what people forget when they're doing different types of like nuts is that like pistachios are really good, but they really taste like pistachios when you add salt.
01:07:41
Speaker
yeah and so yeah having like we always do in our stouts an amount of sodium. Yeah. In different ways. so I would be, because the fad has been like this Dubai chocolate.
01:07:52
Speaker
Oh, that's a good idea. Like a Dubai chocolate style. Shut up. That's such a good idea. That's a really good idea. I hope you guys talk to me like three months before it's released and remind me that Dubai chocolate's such a good idea. Yeah.
01:08:05
Speaker
And that's the malting hour barrier. It won't be a thing anymore. that That's a thing right now. that that that fad will be gone next year
01:08:14
Speaker
call it Dubai Drop. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were so fucking fashionable, Tim. But it doesn't even... But you're not wrong, by the way. Things are in fashion, come back in fashion. Correct. But also, you just don't call it Dubai chocolate. Yeah. We call it a Staphyo cream.
Creative Flavor Ideas and Traditions
01:08:26
Speaker
I still want Nutella. I do want Nutella or Biscoff.
01:08:29
Speaker
Oh, yeah. We haven't done a hazelnut one. That's a good point. That was the one that Bray and I, or no, not hazelnut, but Bray and I, as far as I think we went with Biscoff originally. Biscoff cookies. That's right. That's we talked about last year. Biscoff cookies. Hazelnut's a great idea. Maybe we should do a hazelnut one. John the Mailman.
01:08:45
Speaker
who we've talked about previously. Hazel's Nuts. He likes Hazel's Nuts, which is problematic. It is a really great beer, but is it problematic name? Yeah, it's a... Well, I mean, yeah, it's kind of... Rogue still around?
01:08:56
Speaker
What? is it That's a Rogue beer? No, that was out of Michigan. I can't recall who it was. Shorts? I can look it up. Was it Shorts, Brian? I think that was Shorts. That sounds like Shorts. The same people who did the pickle beer out of... There's so many pickle beers in the state. There's many pickle beers now. I know, but this was like one of the first. Anyway, John brought us that beer, and I and i liked it more than once on ah on side onite oh i outside oh man Phenomenal beer. Phenomenal beer. Brandon and I had, sorry not to cut that off, but Brandon had an odd side Benny's collaboration. The atmosphere and attitude. It was like nine like nine different fucking adjuncts and you could taste them all.
01:09:36
Speaker
that's pretty cool it was They're a very good verb. think I still have one. I didn't mean that in a very sarcastic way, by the way. You know what? I almost want to just use that as the intro. Sorry. That's really cool. and then Sometimes when I'm trying to multitask, I was taking the foreskin off of my Stellar Tois bottle. I was doing a little brisk here on it. That's really cool. Well, that's really great. Trevor the Moil. Yeah.
01:10:02
Speaker
boy Hey, cheers. Cheers. We did it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank
Podcast Traditions and Community
01:10:07
Speaker
you guys again. I'm glad this has become a tradition for the podcast. Yes, absolutely. It's very fun. And we're honored to have you guys on here. Brandon and I obviously live in the neighborhood and we're very lucky to have you guys so close. I can tell you right now, we look forward to this, like legitimately. like I think I actually reached out to. i Hit up him before you guys had reached It was like, hey, are we doing this?
01:10:30
Speaker
we multiing I think Matthew even presented as like, hey, just so you know, we're doing that malting hour thing if you guys want to. And I was like, of course we are. I think we saw you guys. we want to, bitch, we do this every year. Like, this is not a choice for us. so You guys brought it up to My wife is at home stressed with our child right now. Jets in a row, baby.
01:10:53
Speaker
I was, obviously, when you came out last night, was like, that's why this morning I texted you guys, and I was like, Trevor, you still coming tonight? No, we love it. We love you guys. We love Old Irving, and we appreciate you guys obviously, bringing all this cramp for us to try. Whether
Gratitude and Wrap-Up
01:11:08
Speaker
it's before it gets released or after, it's it's just so awesome. you for paying us three times normal value it. Dude, shut the fuck up. This is our yearly OIV plug. They're just keeping us going.
01:11:22
Speaker
But no, it's it's great. Thank you guys so much. Thank you but thank you for talking about this. Honestly, thank you so much. like we have nothing but fun with doing this. And obviously we love hanging out and talking beer. It's great to see you guys throughout the year, too, and it's not just this. ye Also, i would like to say you congratulations. I don't think there's a lot of crazy... What was that? don't think there's a lot of crazy audio that I have to worry about this year. This might be the one episode people may not have to like adjust the the volume until we all just scream. No, because when you edit it, you just turn everything up. Like your style, Brandon. Your microphone set up. No.
01:11:58
Speaker
Trevor... Tim, I'm saving you last for Matthew because you're on the show regularly. Thank you guys so much for for joining us. We appreciate it. we Love you guys. Thank you. Brandon, love you, buddy. Love you too, man. We'll see you guys next time. And we don't know when that is. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. What else happens? Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa.
01:12:17
Speaker
I'm sorry. I don't remember everything. Happy New Year.
01:12:23
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 Untappd as bdubdrinksbeer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untappd under Ace of Elps Chicago, on Twitter the Ace of Elps Chicago.
01:12:48
Speaker
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.
01:13:02
Speaker
Until next time, cheers from all of us at the Malting Hour.