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Episode 147 - Great American Beer Festival 2024
79 Plays1 month ago
Brandon and Tony headed back out to Denver this past weekend to sample some of the best beers America has to offer at the Great American Beer Festival. We discussed some of the beers we tried, our time at the Boston Beer and Dogfish Head "Beers and Bruch", as well, we chatted with some participants and breweries at the fest.
The breweries we chat with are:
Old Irving Brewing - Chicago, IL
Our Mutual Friend - Denver, CO
Rhinegeist Brewing - Cincinnati, OH
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 and Overview of the Great American Beer Fest
00:00:00
Speaker
Just so you know, this is one of the best skits ever that's playing right now. We'll go back to it. This week, we do our 2024 recap of Great American Beer Fest. This is episode 147 of The
00:00:46
Speaker
Good, actually, surprisingly. Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good. Like, I'm going to be honest, I went a little harder than I thought I was going to go today. Yeah, is this was going to be a lighter day, but... It was the opposite.
Festival Experiences and Highlights
00:00:58
Speaker
Yeah, and and we didn' we didn't spend as much time at the fest today as we did yesterday. Yesterday, we did pretty much the entire fest. Yeah.
00:01:07
Speaker
because now it is Saturday afternoon. um We were at the fest for a little over an hour. And then by the fest, we are talking about the Great American Beer Festival here in Denver, Colorado. So we are sitting in our hotel room and doing our recap. Yeah. ah This has been so much fun. This is the first year we got to go to all three sessions. um We tried to have a game plan. we I think we we did pretty well. Yeah. I will say that out of all three days,
00:01:36
Speaker
I feel like we hit up the most random breweries that we could think of or not think of it just passed by. Yeah. Like and tried a bunch of beers and today was a lot lot more hits than misses. Yeah, I agree. and We went to an area that we had been to, but didn't sample as much stuff there. But then we just kind of like started running the gamut. It was like this it was the Prost area. Yeah. Yeah. Which, yeah, sorry, real quick. This year they separated things into Different areas. There's the fright. There's the chill. There's the game day. There's the prost there is these They chill I said chill blast off. Yeah blat off
00:02:17
Speaker
And then they still had their karaoke stage, they had bands playing, they had some German music in the post area, so like really well done. um it It is kind of funny because on the first day that we went, we just kind of ran through in the beginning because um I always like to try to catch the bagpipers in the beginning so we kind of cut through a lot of stuff following them and then realized we never really went back and then I think it was yesterday we're like wait I don't remember all this stuff and we're like oh yeah this is the entrance that we came by and did not go to uh really again because Friday I don't think we spent as much time there either no Thursday we didn't yeah Thursday we spent um
00:03:02
Speaker
An okay amount of time. Yeah. Yesterday, Friday was, we spent the longest amount of time there. We went there a little later, like, you know, I think... We were able to get in 15 minutes early. It starts at 5.30. We ended up leaving here a little after 5.30. So we got there like a little around 6 and I think we left about 8.30. Yeah. So we were there for like two and a half hours and and tried a bunch of bunch of beers. Yeah. It was a good time.
Media Events and Unique Beer Stories
00:03:27
Speaker
Yeah. And this whole trip has just been really fun. We got to hang out with a lot of the guys from Old Irving.
00:03:34
Speaker
which was expected, but I didn't expect us to hang out with them as much as we did. yeah and's It's been a lot of fun. it's spell It has felt more like a ah vacation more than here we are for GABF. But we also got in a lot of time and did a lot of things at GABF. Yeah, we made sure to get in earlier on Thursday. You gave us some time to kind of get ready for the fest.
00:03:58
Speaker
Um, and then, uh, Friday it started off. Uh, we got invited again, uh, as part of the media to the Boston beer company and dogfish heads, uh, beers and brunch. And that's, that's always, um, I don't want to say always, but this is our second time attending that. And it's just a super fun event. Yeah. Yeah, it's so much fun. Food was great. We got to sample some new beers from Sam Adams and Dogfish Head. One is there Sam Adams, which will crack into this one too. Sam Adams has a new American light, easy drinking lager.
00:04:37
Speaker
which ah to me is very tasty and we got to hear Jim talk about it and what's going on with Sam Adams. And then the other one from Dogfish Head is called Tovered in Nugs, which is a pale ale that is just a very nice, well-hopped pale ale that i I really love. Yeah, it's super good. And the part of this is, you know, we get to taste these beers and and get to hear from Sam and Jim and the food's great. And just like the last time it went, Brandon,
00:05:07
Speaker
We got to sample some utopias. We did indeed. What do we have in front of us right now? We we have some utopias. How did we come up about this utopias? Funny story. We'll take a sip of it while you're talking about it. While while the the event was wrapping up, they they kind of ended it with utopias and they're you know offering you know roughly one ounce of course to people and I was looking like they have a lot of bottles of it behind the bar and I just suddenly got the idea I was like ooh if I can get an empty bottle I would like to take that back and make a lamp out of it. Which Brandon has made a handful of lamps from other bottles and specialty beers. I actually have a Weller lamp from him which I really do enjoy a lot.
00:05:51
Speaker
So, I had the idea of, I was looking for Jim, couldn't find Jim, so...
00:06:01
Speaker
what's oh Sam from Dogfish had was standing around and I went up and I introduced myself to him and I said, hey, you know, you guys are pouring in a lot of utopias. Is it possible that I can get an empty bottle that I can make a lamp out of? And he's like, dude, come with me to the bar. And he was like, you're gonna make a lamp? I'm like, yeah, he's like, that's awesome. He's like, they also make really good candle holders. So I was like, okay.
00:06:23
Speaker
um So he went to the owner of the bar and said, hey, you know, those bottles back there can grab one for him. And the the the owner went back, grabbed a bottle and handed it to us. so And I got it and, you know, we just took it left. And then like, as ah as we were leaving, I was thinking, I'm like, this bottle feels a little heavier than like what an empty bottle should feel. And we got back to the hotel, opened it up and it is probably more than halfway full. Yeah, we were sloshing around. I tried looking with my flashlight on my phone, but there is, we're drinking utopias right now. So a very happy accident and thank you, Sam, for making that happen. Yeah, we tried to find, we were at the Dogfish Head Station Friday, was it Friday? Oh yes, yesterday.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah, so we tried to find him and everything's a blur. Yeah, he was he was standing around. He was poing he was in the mix. He was pouring beers and we didn't want to interrupt him because there was a lot of people in line that were chatting him up. So we're like, all right, we'll come back in a couple of minutes and see if he's done. And we came back and he was gone. But I did want to regale him with this story of how he accidentally gave me, you know, a bunch of utopias, at least two thirds of a bottle. Yeah.
00:07:41
Speaker
That's what we're sipping right now. And for those of you who don't know, I'm going to read a little description here of what utopias is. They make utopias to challenge the perception of what beer can be. This boundary bending barrel aged beer blurs the blind but between jesus blurs the line between beer and fine spirit. At 28% ABV, it's the badass of our brewery. Its reputation puts it on every beer drinkers bucket list. And this one in particular,
00:08:08
Speaker
It says there's an exciting ca cask finish to this release. um I'm going to butcher this name. Pinot de Shotay. We'll go with that. Adds hints of honey and vanilla that envelop the palate, along with our traditional bourbon, ruby port, and c-c-c-casts. I don't know what that word is. C-A-R-C-A-V-E-L-O-S. Casts which bring notes of peach, wine grapes, and a rich woodiness and vanilla. We also finish with scotch and peated whiskey casts.
00:08:40
Speaker
These casts impart an extremely subtle PD smokiness, which rounds out the complexity of the overall blend. This drinks like a cognac to me. Yeah, I would agree with that. We had we had a sample, we got, um that's really good. I just finished the small pour that you poured for me. So the the event is nice and like, they've got tables set up. You sit with, you know, random people or you sit by yourselves.
00:09:06
Speaker
And we got visited, I can't, I don't, do you remember the woman's name? um I think I still have that up. Yes, Cynthia Barnes. Yeah, so Cynthia Barnes is a freelance writer, does like travel, food and wine type stuff. And she was covering the event as well. Taking a lot of notes, but we got the pleasure of sitting with her. And then at the end of the event, when we were trying the utopia, she goes, oh, I need to try it.
00:09:33
Speaker
She took a sip of it, and she was like, whoa. I don't think she realized that it was like a 28% beer. She goes, this would be good in coffee. So she got herself a cup of coffee, just dumped the whole shot in there, and she was like, this is, I love this. And Tony tried it and said it was definitely good. So if you're a fan of putting a little, you know, kick in your coffee, you know. This might be the thing for you to do. If you can fight about all this, get it. it's It is pricey, but you will not drink this very fast. You will... This is something... I mean, I don't think you will, at least if you do, I mean...
00:10:09
Speaker
I'm impressed. But overall, it's something you kind of savor and and hold on to. Yeah. And we've talked about this before. The last bottle I had gotten was, I think, a 2010 bottle or 2011 bottle. And I got it, I think, probably in 2012 or 13. And I still might have a little bit left in there. I think there's some left. Yeah, there might be a small pour still left
Casa Bonita Visit and Entertainment
00:10:31
Speaker
in there. so The fun thing about that ah that day, me yesterday, who was that shortly after that, we met up with the guys from Old Irving and headed over to Casa Bonita, which that is a meal in a show. That was a lot of fun. ah Thank you, Tim, from Old Irving for including us in that reservation. Yeah, we lucked out. yeah That was amazing. I am not a huge South Park fan. I used to be, so I only knew a little bit about this from
00:11:01
Speaker
like reading stuff online. yeah This was quite quite the adventure. It was very cool. Very cool. Good good food. You know, overall, good good food. yeah The drinks were fantastic. yeah the The double Paloma that I had was good. Spicy Mark was good. Yeah. well Also, let's let's go back the night before real quick where I did a shot of spicy tequila and was gonna die.
00:11:25
Speaker
Where did we go to? What's the name of the place? We went to a legal Pete's. As Brandon had dubbed it, if Chipotle was good. And he was not wrong because that place was awesome yeah and great service. And they had a special GBF meal for like 15 bucks or 16 bucks where you got the the bowl and a house beer for that. So that was good. Yeah, that was fun.
00:11:46
Speaker
yeah but ah the The restaurant yesterday was just, that was so much fun. We had to sit by the divers, the cliff divers. We walked around the entire place. We got there at about 1230. We were back at the hotel by four. That was a long time. And like our meal only took us about maybe an hour to have. Like the food came fast. Not even that, like, cause they tell you, you have an hour to sit and then you've got to go. We were there, we were seated. We didn't get seated until closer to one o'clock. Sure.
00:12:17
Speaker
um And then we didn't get up from our seats till a little after two, I don't think, but you know, we spent about an hour and a half walking around the place and we we bought some merchandise. I got a cool new hoodie that I'm very excited to wear, getting back to Chicago. Yep, and I got some gifts to bring home to my family. And some gifts from people. i don yeah I don't do that really.
00:12:35
Speaker
and they' anything about me yeah But but it's it's crazy because they have like there's face painting there they they have magicians in there they have ah People doing balloon animals and it's it's an experience in itself. So you're you're you know the I do like the way that they, you know, you know some people might complain because the the food portions, you know, they're not grand, but they they will load you up on chips, they will load you up. Oh, the chips and salsa, the chips are homemade and the salsa is fucking fantastic. And I can't remember the name of those fried dough... Ugh, God, covered in honey and, ugh, they're so whatever. It's not soup rosetta. But anyways, those were fantastic and those are unlimited too. So you could literally, if you finish your meal real quick, you could literally sit there and just start you know chugging and slamming down the these fried doughs covered in deliciousness. So good.
Interviews and Attendees' Favorites
00:13:31
Speaker
um but yeah and then like tony said we we got we got the table that was literally right next to where the cliff divers are uh so we were kind of high up so you don't get to see them from the front but like they were coming across um i think we'll probably put together a montage of some of the stuff from casa bonita as well honestly we don't normally do it for episodes but i think we could probably edit the Instagram post where you just dump a whole bunch of photos. Yeah, that was awesome. It was so much fun. Walking around was fun. Some of the guys from Old Irvin got face painting done. Brad and I then came back to the hotel.
00:14:10
Speaker
that's back to the motel um we decided you know what would be responsible let's take a quick nap and we did and we just snuggled together and his bed now we have separate beds uh we took a nap and headed off to the fest for uh day two i felt refreshed i felt ready to go yeah i feel like we really paced ourselves so quite well this weekend. yeah yeah Going back into the fest and and and starting to walk around and we thought what better way to start you know getting into things than to start randomly talking to people. We talked about wanting to do this before
00:14:43
Speaker
We've never done it. um We decided to stop some random people at the fest and ask them what they like the most, what beers they like. or Breweries. Yeah, breweries. Now, you know granted, everybody's having some drinks at this point, so you know we're doing all this on the fly.
00:14:59
Speaker
ah so here are but we're gonna dude this is brand new for us yeah we're gonna drop in here's a here's a handful of we stopped was it three three groups of people correct to talk to them about what they thought about the fest and uh here's what some people had to say about uh jbf this year okay cool he's gonna ask you what you're like since you've been here like what what is your favorite beer bed Well, now it good I wanted to give them the heads up, man. I had to give them the heads up first. I can't just come at them. So, hi. We just want to know, since you've been here today, what has been your favorite beer that you've tried? it's For me, it's Cannonball Creek. That's my favorite. Cannonball Creek?
00:15:45
Speaker
remember that it's their West Coast IPA the cannonball three. Yeah, I can't remember the name of it. But that's been my favorite so far. All right. How about you? It was Avery and I can't remember the name but it was like, what was
00:16:07
Speaker
i had that that's got Favorite beer that had here so far, or most memorable? Most memorable. I always love having my Melvin beer, so I love my 2x4.
00:16:18
Speaker
Thank you, guys. Thank you very much. Also, I realized, putting you guys on the spot at a beer fest, like, what was your favorite beer? I know. The one that tasted good. You guys want it? I remember the name of it. Yes. I took pictures of everything. I can't see shit either. So it's like, I remember that. It's kind of all Greek's flagship. okay And we've trained, you know, we live in Denver, and we drink a lot of West Coast IPAs, like,
00:16:46
Speaker
I do like some of the California beers, like pizza port. Swami was awesome. Swami was awesome. But still right now, the, uh, that kind of ball was still the best. still Thanks. Cause now I'll go check that out. So I appreciate it. Thanks guys. Appreciate it. Thanks. there Thank you. yeah these are ah Sorry. What's your name? Amanda. Amanda. Thanks for taking time to talk with us. Just want to know, is there a beer or a brewery that stood out to you so far today?
00:17:15
Speaker
He said your very opinion. He walked away from the microphone. Today? Yeah. I was here yesterday too. All two days. So far, how about that? My favorite ones are ones I actually knew before today.
00:17:28
Speaker
but i mean i lot i'm ah I'm from this area and nice fire and insane fireers I love I love Firestar. I just got the Bravissimo.
00:17:40
Speaker
my own I got the same thing and then he got the noche.
00:17:49
Speaker
Firestone turned me into a beer stop. My first IPA. Still a massive fan.
00:18:03
Speaker
I love shilling. Okay. The cider. I loved three floyds. Oh, yeah. It's out of our football from Chicago.
00:18:16
Speaker
You have a list. I made notes. That's good. The Boneyard Coconut Rum was amazing. Okay. All right, good to know. Is that the second time we've heard Boneyard now? I think so. Strange Bird Earth-Born Stranger. Okay. Really good.
00:18:37
Speaker
So you have an extensive list. Do you go back and then check those in and untapped or something? I will, yeah. Actually my friend in high school was a co-founder of Untapped. here yeah I used to try and check in my beers while here and I stopped.
00:18:51
Speaker
It's too much. That's why I'm on a list. but There's also no cell service. so like I guess if I want a rating, I'll put it in here. That was me two years ago. I started taking pictures of the signs and stuff. Oh, yesterday. I did take a picture of a sign over there. There was a brewery from Iowa. They had a barrel-aged stout. It was also phenomenal.
00:19:18
Speaker
Like, better than the two they're raving about from Three Floyds. It's nice to find beers like that that are unexpected that, you know, you hear something. Like, it really surprised me. Yeah, try this and then you find one on your own.
00:19:32
Speaker
I took a picture of that one. Polk County Stout Confluence. Polk County Stout. All right, cool. That was really good. Really, really good. Thank you very much for taking the time out of this to talk to us. We really appreciate it. You sure you don't want to say anything? I'm good. You sure? All right. Well, now I got you saying I'm good on the audio. I'm so sorry. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thanks a lot. Thank you. And I will shake your hand as well. Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.
00:20:02
Speaker
What's been your your favorite beer that you can think of right now? So far. So far? yeah what do you I mean, I have a lot of favorites. The Lost Abbey.
00:20:15
Speaker
You know what I will say, and I don't know if this is mainstream or not, but what they're tapping right now at Firestone, the special one that they have. The Pistachio one. and It's like a stout, more of a 14% I took. It's delicious. I know it's more mainstream, but like it surprised me. Also, Sierra in that realm as well, too, the Tiki torches. That was very good. You had the Tiki torch earlier, yeah. Yep. I guess I'm on the stout beer train right now. What's up? I was just saying, like the heavier beer is currently for me. Oh, yeah. Doubts have been been really great tonight.
00:20:49
Speaker
so Even though it's Man, I can't believe all that stuff.
00:21:00
Speaker
yeah
00:21:04
Speaker
it Agreed Now just so you guys know we didn't stop recording we just inserted those interviews I don't fully remember those interviews, but I do remember them being very good and and thank you to all the people who did take the time out of Their time at the fest to come and talk to us. We appreciate it Hopefully you took down the name of the podcast and you're listening
Creative Beers and Brewery Insights
00:21:28
Speaker
to this now. oh We hit it out stickers It's true. We did not to their last people. I don't think had stickers.
00:21:35
Speaker
Sorry, I'd open up a beer. I know I'll talk about that. One of the beer, the beer that I'm opening up now before we probably almost getting close to probably gonna break with those interviews. I don't know. That's the hard part about this. I thought, I thought you rinsed your glass because we were going to share beers. Yeah, I thought about that. I said, fuck that. I'm going to drink this on my own. I am doing the dogfish head covered in nugs. American IPA, which is funny because I thought they presented it at as a pale ale. Yeah. Didn't they? Right. No, they said IPA.
00:22:05
Speaker
Okay, guess I'm the idiot. Let's see IPA. So I get a good description on the back of the can. I can't read that. read it Okay, please read it. Okay. Classically dank, piney and citrusy covered in nugs scratches every nook and cranny of that IPA itch experienced notes of bright citrus and heady evergreens.
00:22:27
Speaker
Okay, well for the 2024 art series of which includes covered in nugs, Daster Perils over at Methane Studios to flex their creative muscles and design their four seasonals. Basically at Georgia, Robert and Mark have been creating beautiful illustrations and print marking together since 1998. And what we've learned is that the picture on the can is also of the brewer who created or at least who created this recipe. Yeah, it would have been with the dogfish head forever. Yeah, it it was a mashup. but Well, he said it was a mashup between that and the old like Yeti photos. Yes, like your Sasquatch. Well, in the forest. But yeah, I mean, cool artwork. That was a fantastic beer. Yeah, it's really good. I was very happy with this beer reminds me of a
00:23:15
Speaker
Very old school West Coast IPA type of type of beer here. Brandon.
00:23:22
Speaker
As you go and reach for your phone, I think you're probably going to look something up so I can keep stalling if that happens. No, what I did want to bring up, because I feel like we're getting into that, is kind of just talking about some of the highlights of the fest. and Oh yeah, no, I was going to say that for the second half. Yeah, yeah, no. others I just want to make sure that I had it ready. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. But I am drinking the the Sam Adams American light beer.
00:23:46
Speaker
So this is their take on a light beer. Jim Cook did a lot of talking about how he's wanted to get into the market of light beer, but it's just such a, it's it's a hard place to crack because you know there's so many of the larger breweries that are doing light beers and people are kind of set on their ways. but you know, he knew that there was a growing passion for people who wanted light beer that was also craft. So they came up, I think he said they they took a while to kind of, you know, think about this recipe and they came up with American light and it does not disappoint. It is a ah clean easy drinking beer. I'm trying to think of like, what's the closest like, macro brewery that
00:24:34
Speaker
just resemble Yeah, I can't put my finger on that either, but I will say that as someone who has kind of switched over to maybe consistently drinking Coors Light, this is scratching that itch that I want from a light beer and a craft light beer at that.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, it definitely will satisfy that. And I feel like this is a good beer for, you know, your non craft beer drinking friends. Like, you know, that it's not overly hoppy. It's not like kind of, you know, there's nothing that punches you in the face. It's very, very easy to easy to drink. Light body, light mouth feel and just super well done. So, you know, I would not expect, you know, anything less from Sam Adams to put something out that just wasn't you know, if they didn't like it, they wouldn't do it. Yeah, obviously. Well, not obviously, but you'd hope. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, so yeah, this is out there now and we've got it and... You guys should go and try them. You guys have both these beers. Both of these beer ended up being very tasty. Like last year, the last time we went, they had like a bunch of different things. So it it was hard to like pin points up, but it was great because they let us take some cans with us. Yeah.
00:25:45
Speaker
Very cool swag bag, and we also got a cookbook the new st. Adam's cookbook we did which is called great i think it's called Our American story
00:25:59
Speaker
Our American Cookbook. It is called Our American Dream Cookbook. Yeah. And it's very cool. Favorite recipes and inspiring journeys of 80 culinary trailers trailblazers from Sam Adams Brewing, the American Dream. So this is, I think, also available now. I'm not sure. But they were very kind enough to give us all a copy. Yeah, everybody that was there. It was cool. We got to build our own ah media swag bag and this already looks like a very cool Jeez, this is a lot going on in this book already. i'm just we I haven't even got a chance to go through it. ah But a friend of mine asked me, he like does all of these recipes include beer? I'm like, I don't think so. But yeah, looks looks very cool, very excited to start cooking from this when I get home.
00:26:41
Speaker
Yeah. ah And then we've talked about this before. Tony and I both enjoy cooking and either coming up with the recipes or just doing recipes that look good. So both of us are excited to kind of me pick out some of our favorite recipes in there and start, you know, making some food. With that being said, I think now's a good time to take a little break and we'll come back and finish up the fest and all the stuff that we've done. All right. We'll be right back.
Festival Recap and Reflections
00:27:20
Speaker
And we're back! Welcome back, everybody. This is our Great American Beer Fest 2024 recap episode. Brandon, this has been a lot of fun, man. Yeah, I agree. Like you had said earlier, it feels like a vacation mixed in with a beer fest. Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. It's been cool to hang out with you. It's always cool to hang out with you, but I mean, like, we had a chance to kind of hang out and in Denver. We've got that still tonight after we do this, after we take a little nap, because it's been a long morning already.
00:27:47
Speaker
um But yeah, let's get into, only because it's fresh in our minds, kind of want to get into some of the stuff that we had today. yeah And we also have three interviews with some breweries, some old friends, ah new friends hopefully, so we'll play those. But I wanted to talk about some of the beers that we tried today. Now, my goal today, because we didn't spend time doing it on any other day, was that I wanted to try a beer that I've never tried before, which was?
00:28:18
Speaker
Pliny for President from Washington River. That was delicious. And then I tried Pliny the Elder afterward, I gotta say. Kinda like Pliny for President a little bit more. I would agree with you. I did not have ah the Elder today, but I did have the President, and that was fantastic. Very, very well done beer. um So, I mean, you had both. What did you like better about Pliny for President was not as multi-suite. It was like a little more approachable, but it still had that nice... Pliny for President had more, I'm sorry, less of the the sweet maltiness that is from Pliny the Elder. So it was a little more approachable and like
00:29:11
Speaker
maybe a little easier drinking, but still had that nice like hot punch that you'd expect from a Pliny. I really wanted to have Pliny the younger one year. Yeah, it blows my mind that they haven't at this point, so you know, because that's, well, and it may all just coincide with the fact that it's not done until you know It's earlier in the year, isn't it? Yeah, the release is always like first quarter sometime, I think February or March. And it's a big to do out there in California. People line up, you know, people line up to get plenty of the elder in the past. But yeah, the younger is the big, the one that everyone kind of goes for. Still not, I don't think I've had it. so I really want i want to jump back real quick. Yeah.
00:29:56
Speaker
On our first night, excuse me one of the beers that have had stood out to me this entire time was from Loveland Ale Works and it was their pickle of sour beer that literally tasted like delicious carbonated pickle juice. That was has been one of my favorite beers of the festival and I just wanted to make sure that I got that out because It's pretty much all i've've I've talked about. Another one that stood out over the weekend was the one that you had was Tiki torches at Twilight from Sierra Nevada. Yes. The ale aged in rum and bourbon barrels with pineapple and coconut. That was really good. And I had the trip in the woods up Kampai Barreleged out and that was a little bit higher than the ABV, but I actually preferred the one that you had.
00:30:45
Speaker
Yeah, and i I did like the pickle beer too, but that it kind of reminded me. Last time we were here, Loveland had a beer that I really enjoyed. It was their Blackberry Lemon Bar. Oh, I remember I had that. And that was like, that was one of the, one that was I think my second top one that I had that week.
00:31:02
Speaker
um So, it's nice to see that Loveland is back, you know. One of the other beers that we had yesterday was from Weldworks. I had the Coconut Pappy Van Winkle 23, how do you pronounce it? Media Noce? Yeah, Media Noce. That was an imperial age with coconuts, 41 months in 23-year-old Pappy Van Winkle family reserve bourbon barrels.
00:31:28
Speaker
I'm not going to talk shit about this beer. It just wasn't what I was expecting, yeah especially from Weldworks. There was just something about it that I didn't really care about. um Could be a little bit of plan my palette for the day. It didn't suck. I just was not fully into it. And I was really excited because mean it's got Pappy Van Winkle Reserve bareage barrel. so that was That was pretty good. But not not something that I was like, oh my god, that was amazing. Yeah, because I remember last time we were at the fest, like, media noche was like top for us. like Yeah. And we had different variants. Pretty much all the variants. And we were like, each each one of those were fantastic. So I was a little surprised that you were not as thrilled with that one. And you tried it and you thought it was OK. Yeah. I was like, all right.
00:32:19
Speaker
One of the other things that we had was weistails, alcohol-free cocktails, and they're made here in Colorado. I tried the margarita one, and they used some type of flavor extract that it actually tastes like there's tequila in this, and it's zero alcohol. That was crazy. Yeah, that was, I mean, I love the taste of margaritas without you know the booze in it, but to make a,
00:32:48
Speaker
and a cocktail that actually tastes like a cocktail that has booze in it is yeah pretty awesome. And it was delicious. like I could easily sit there and drink a bunch of this. Super well done. That was very good. I didn't, the I think Mojito was the other one they had. yeah That one I didn't care for as much.
00:33:06
Speaker
but I will say that if this ever makes its way or if this is the way NA mocktails are going, I'm pretty excited because I do like the way a cocktail tastes and I don't need to necessarily have the booze in there for it. Now, so there was a brewery that had a line, like a very long line, and they had a series, I would say, of I'll call them gimmicky beers. I'll tell you about 903. Yeah, 903. They had a peanut butter cup. They had a painkiller slushie that they were doing. Bacon cinnamon roll stout. A couple other ones. And then like a, what was it? It was a taco. Yeah. What I have is zesty taco. Yeah, zesty taco.
00:33:50
Speaker
um And they, so I had the peanut butter cup. and i felt like the flavor on it was just more artificial peanut butter than anything else. Like they used like a bad extract or whatever they were doing to impart that flavor. Like I, and I don't want to, you know, I never want to like crap on a brewery, but like it was just, it was just kind of funny because we got those and then we went and did some other stuff and then ended up coming back and saw that there was just this massive, like it was in grass I was like, okay.
00:34:28
Speaker
Maybe some of the other the other ones were good. Maybe we just got the two ones that were just kind of a miss. Well, I mean, some of the other ones that stood out was the bacon cinnamon roll cream ale, the pineapple magic slushie, what the fudge stout, and then the zesty ranch taco cream ale. Yeah. When you see those things, you want to try something exciting? Sure. I'd wait in line for that too. We did. Just the line wasn't that long. We did it.
00:34:50
Speaker
I did the Zesty Ranch Taco Cream Ale, which I was like, how are we gonna how is this a thing? yeah It was a cream ale that I took a sip of that just gave me instant heartburn. yeah Because there's something spicy in there, and it makes it look like a Doritos Loco Taco, yes which I think is what they were going with. I just kind of bummed about it, because it was like, if you're going to make it a Zesty Ranch Taco,
00:35:17
Speaker
beer, like you're gonna like commit to it. yeah Make it have some ranch flavor in there or something, you know what I mean? like Who knows? But it would just end up being like this... It was just spicy on the back end. I took a sip and I'm like, okay. And I was like, and then there's heartburn and I have not had heartburn all this fast. And he basically, well, yeah, I've been pretty good. Uh, even the, the jalapeno shot didn't give me heartburn. It just was a lot to be like, Oh God, here's all the spices tequila. After a long day of drinking, I may have made a bad choice. I was just disappointed. Yeah.
00:35:51
Speaker
I'm glad we didn't try the other ones, but so sorry 903 brewing. It just wasn't just wasn't wasn't my thing wasn't my thing for the day Which really like so the other random ones that I had tried that really tasty. Oh Well, no you oh, yeah, you had an Ava The avocado. Yeah. A paleo with avocado and cilantro. Yeah. Dude, that was smooth and creamy. Oh, yeah. like It was creamy and smooth like avocado. It was it was it was pretty great. like I was actually really impressed with that with that beer the way it turned out. It turned out so well. And I was surprised because you got a hint of cilantro. I don't know if I was getting as much avocado, but I feel like
00:36:42
Speaker
that led to the creaminess. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. like It just kind of felt creamy yeah in my mouth. In my mouth? Look, before we get into the beers, before what we had today, I want to jump over to one of the interviews. right You know what? let's Let's do all three of the interviews. of yeah well We'll go here.
Brewery Interviews and Beer Discussions
00:37:01
Speaker
We had a chance to talk to Matthew and Tim from Old Irving, and that would be from Friday night.
00:37:06
Speaker
which was a lot of fun to talk to those guys, kind of pull them aside. That's where we did most of the people walking around in interviews as well. And then today we then spoke to, what was it? Did you want to read your name from OMF? I think I should have checked before we did.
00:37:22
Speaker
Apologies, but you'll hear that um OMF here in Colorado and then we got to meet up with Chris from Rhyme Guys out in Cincinnati. Yeah, who if you remember if you're a longtime listener He has been on the show before it was nice to catch up with him and talk about what Rhyme Guys has been doing. They are also doing a light vlogger that Kind of sounds like and tastes like along the same lines of the Sam Adams light loggers very nice to Talk to all these guys and you know get ah get in a feel for what how they were experiencing the weekend and what they had going on. All right, so we're here at GABF with one of our old friends. What's funny about Great American Beer Festival? Nothing. Nothing's funny about it. You may recognize that voice. It's our old friend Matthew Molenhauer from Old Irving Brewing. Matthew, how are you? Doing fantastic. It's a beautiful day.
00:38:13
Speaker
It's actually nighttime, but it's okay. Is it? Dude, yeah, it's almost like seven o'clock. That's nighttime for me. How's the, how's the, how's the fest been going for you? Oh, this is amazing. We're in the Halloween section this year and we have a ton of people that love us and Tim got to build out our, uh,
00:38:32
Speaker
design set here, so we're having fun, we're all dressed up in kind of victoria creepy Victorian clothes and it's fun. Did you get to choose to be in the Halloween section or did they just put you here? No, we got to choose. Really? Yeah. and i was go I was wondering like if breweries got to choose are they just like this is where you're going. Yeah, you had to list a priority of which ones you wanted. Halloween was Trevor's number one, and then Trevor was supposed to be here, and then he's currently at the Dismember concert at Talia Hall tonight, so no Trevor. Music takes priority over beer.
00:39:03
Speaker
Most of the time. Hey, Tim's here. Tim. Tim, come here. Come here. Tim. I don't know you. Yeah, you do. Don't lie. Tim, thanks for joining us again. Back on the multicolored. How are you? It's been a while. I think last time was the Krampus episode. last gra I believe that's correct. How how are you enjoying GABF this year? It's really wonderful. I love the themed areas. It's a really fun, new kind of gimmick on it. no Hopefully it brings more people in. and It just makes it more fun. you know I've loved seeing a bunch of guests coming in in costume and it makes it a lot more exciting. Absolutely. You guys look very good. I mean, without the costume, you guys look very good. Let's be honest. Two good-looking men.
00:39:46
Speaker
Maybe saying too much. Have you guys, how's the volume of like, I mean, I know it's so it's Friday night when we're doing this interview, so this so one more day to go, but how's the volume been as far as like, and like feedback been on the beers that you guys... yeah Feedback's been amazing. People have been loving Oktoberfest. Obviously Beezer winning a World Beer Cup gold this year has been pulling in a lot of people, but especially our Oktoberfest.
00:40:10
Speaker
I think that extra logging process, having a true Meritan that's a little bit longer, we've had a lot of great feedback, even from local brewers. so but That always makes me happy, obviously. I will say, I don't know if it feels like there are less people here, or if it's just spaced out well.
00:40:29
Speaker
But it feels a little calmer, for lack of a better word. I agree. I was actually, been in your past in comparison to last night, today feels like there's way more people. Yes. But still not hard to like navigate and get through. Yeah. which i um I think that means they're getting better at managing how it works sure versus less people.
00:40:54
Speaker
After all these years, you'd think they would, you know, they finally got it down. 40 years later. Well, people change. You know, as we know, since COVID, the people in public thing has gotten ah shifted a little differently.
00:41:09
Speaker
I'm actually surprised. I don't see, I haven't seen anybody wearing a mask because like when I go grocery shopping, I see people wearing masks. That's true. I was like, this is the Halloween section. I've seen a lot of people wearing masks. Matthew, we're done talking to you for the rest of the night. It is surprising though, right? But you're right. Like since COVID, the aspect or the landscape of being in large crowds has definitely changed.
00:41:33
Speaker
But it's been a nice it's been a nice turnout, at least for today. I would say 100% of people I have met have been wonderfully nice, and it's been really fun in that respect.
00:41:45
Speaker
How do you guys like the different sections? This is the first year, so you have the blast-off zone, you have this area in the Halloween zone, you have the pros for the Oktoberfest. What do you guys think of it? The game day area, I will say from what I've gone through, so far my favorite has been the pros section, the Oktoberfest stuff.
00:42:04
Speaker
i mean I tried a lot of German beers over there yesterday and I'm looking forward to going back. But I do like that it's separated. The only thing is I wish there was a little more lights by the beer signs so I could see what beers are being poured. You guys seem to be in a little bit of a better area because you have lights directly over you, which is nice. But directly across, I can't really see what it is. But that's a small complaint that I think could be adjusted for another time. You're also blind, so that helps. That is true. I am losing my vision.
00:42:35
Speaker
Does it warm your heart, Brandon, that he now loves lagers? Oh, yeah. Very much so. I do. I do love lagers. In fact, I was just telling Brandon, like, I tried a bunch of random beers since we've been here, especially today. And we were just outside while I was vaping. I was like,
00:42:49
Speaker
someone kind of lackluster about things like maybe I'm grabbing the wrong mirror that went back and as I said that and like every beer that I like the most has been a lager that's pretty much it I did have a pickle beer I don't remember who from I think it's in this area is a pickle beer that is whatever sense he said she was a pickle longer
00:43:08
Speaker
um' ruin i think I think it was a sour. I think a lager would be interesting. Overall, yes, it has been lagers that I've enjoyed the most. You're a lager boy now. I am, I am. Brandon and I tried a coffee Vienna lager.
00:43:26
Speaker
sounds yeah that hearing it, hearing it doesn't sound like something I would enjoy but it's just the right amount of coffee in there where it doesn't take away from ah a Vienna lager. It's like just a little accent in the back. Plus I was a little tired when we came in because we did we did do that. Oh that is in that section.
00:43:46
Speaker
It wasn't all the utopia that you were drinking? I only had one utopia this morning, okay? We're gonna drink all the utopias when we get back to the room, though. We're gonna have a wild Friday night. I am very excited, though, for the award. I was just talking about it. I am actually probably most excited for the awards, because it's kind of fun to see all these breweries win, especially in local ones. Hope you guys get an award tomorrow, of course. Plus, I'm gonna grab a breakfast burrito.
00:44:10
Speaker
Speaking of which, what did you guys submit for the awards? Yeah, so this year, we did a lot of our mainstays. We did Beezer, Della, um Doji, Sentinel, Deep Thoughts. And then for the first time ever, we've actually got, we did a small batch of Sonas so that we could submit it for this. And then we actually got our Oktoberfest scheduled in time so that we still had the three months of logging, but we're able to get it in time for the competition. So seven beers. That's the one I'm most excited about, personally. i think I think our Oktoberfest I think consistently year after year we've gotten better at it with that beer specifically. We all love that beer and I think that's one of the beers that we all kind of are personally attached to. Obviously Oktoberfest is just one of the styles that i I think everyone loves, including us. And I think this year is one of our best representations we've done in my opinion.
00:45:04
Speaker
The Oktoberfest is delicious, but I will tell you this, me personally, I will be rooting for Doji because it is my favorite beer that you guys make. Trust me, Doji is literally a style that started with one of my beers. So I am an ah i'm an old school IPL guy, now called Cold IPAs, West Coast Pilsners, through many different names. yeah But that is a style that I personally am a giant fan of and fought to get that style on board.
00:45:34
Speaker
And so I'm consistently hoping for the best for that beer. I am glad you had that happen because that truly is like my favorite Old Irving beer. Hands down. I love that beer very much. It's a cool design. Super cool, yeah. Oh, dude, our artist, Jason, did such a good job with that. It's ridiculous how good he is. Have you now, before we end up wrapping stuff up with you guys, have there been any beers that you guys got a chance to walk around and try that maybe like stand out that you really liked? Yeah, I mean, I hate to just be local, but it's our Revolution's Cafe D is just
00:46:09
Speaker
freaking man, revolution with their barrel aged beers is just insane. I didn't get to try as many beers here yet. But at the rare beer fest yesterday, I got to try Lost Abby's Duck Duck Goza. Oh, that's a great beer. Why? Why don't you go down here once? Daniel, hip hop's move. I guess it's still part of the show. and burns family Their 22% anniversary stout was silly how good that was. It was really good. Rhino's anniversary stout from this past year. River North in Denver is awesome. And then Figaro Mountain, their Davey Brown. If you just want a solid brown ale, that's an ale. I do. I love how it's my favorite style.
00:46:50
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking forward to like actually checking out more of the festival tonight and seeing more of the beers here. Yesterday I only got like a brief hit so... It's a tiny hit. Yep. So you've been sampling a lot of highlights. Yes.
00:47:05
Speaker
Another one with that. All right, well, guys, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. I know you guys are super slammed right now. A lot of people coming through. Always have time for you. Oh, thanks. That's very nice. And we'll look forward to hanging out with you guys the rest of the time we're here. So cool. How are you guys? Thank you.
00:47:22
Speaker
Brandon and I have been walking around and we stopped at our mutual friend and brewing company's booth. I will say this is the first booth that I did multiple tastings at so that Brandon was like, dude, we should talk to them. So what is your name? My name is Jad Tchakowski. I'm head brewer and co-owner of our mutual friend brewing company. awesome yeah yeah I feel like we had the Jad Tchak just randomly. yeah Tell us a little about the brewery. Yeah, ah we turned 12 in December. We're a 10 barrel ah brewery, brew about 1100, 1200 barrels a year. We brew all styles of beer. We're kind of known for like mixed culture and stuff like that, but we make a lot of IPA. We make a lot of everything. We also focus on using as much local ingredients as possible. so we're
00:48:01
Speaker
Big supporters of Kraft Malt in Colorado, and even some Colorado hops too. That's awesome. I think that's a huge thing of what a lot of... We're from Chicago, so a lot of the Chicago guys try and use like Midwest malts as well. Yeah, awesome. I tried the Stingray Jesus number one yes awesome name. Thank you. And even more awesome artwork. Thank you. Tell me a little bit about that beer, because that was really tasty. Yeah, that beer...
00:48:25
Speaker
It's named after a meme from a couple of years ago. You can Google it. It'll come up. But it's silly. But the beer, yeah, classic West Coast IPA. It's just pills, bag of Dexter, and then hopped with Luminosa Centennial and Rawaka. Yeah. I know two of those hops. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny. We're home brewers as well, but we haven't brewed beer for a few years. So I feel like I fell out of knowing what new hops are. Totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:48:55
Speaker
trying What else do I got here? I hate being on the spot. but yeah Yeah, our tap rooms open every day of the week, 11 to 10 o'clock. So yeah anybody come by, you know we're always open kind of early so that people who are rolling through town or visiting can come by on their way in or way out. and yeah yeah yeah Since we are at Great American Beer Fest, what are your highlights so far of the weekend?
00:49:18
Speaker
Oh, just honestly, it's just so it's just such an amazing thing that people still come from all over the country to Denver and we get to see all our friends and drink all their great beer. We're so lucky here in Denver being a Denver brewery just to see everybody at and celebrate beer. It's an event that we pour this is our 10th year pouring and we always will pour and celebrate beer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. baseball love for taking the town Awesome. Thank you guys. Cheers.
00:49:48
Speaker
Chris, Shields, joining us again from Ryan, guys. It's been a long time since we've talked to you. It's good to see you again. Yeah, good to see you guys. Thanks for taking a moment to talk to us. Absolutely. How have things been, man? Things are good. Things are good. It's exciting. Exciting to be back out here in Denver at JBF.
00:50:02
Speaker
the we in vi Great, great. It's been fun. I've been here since Monday. so yeah um i'm It's been great. I'm excited to go home tomorrow. We've only been here since Thursday, but we're also looking forward to it. It's a marathon of of sprints, I think. is What's new with Ryan guys? Anything new? I mean, yeah, I mean, bit probably the biggest thing for us has been Cincy Light, our light logger. It's it's about a year old, been blowing up. It's really great to have NIL beer with the University of Cincinnati since he rains. So that's been really great and just really trying to get get creative and and bring people out to the taproom.
00:50:42
Speaker
That's great, man. yeah I don't make my way out there much, but when I do, I will for sure. like You guys are a destination for me. So I've been trying to like head out a little bit more on the road to like take road trips, and you guys are on that list to go. like I really want to stop by yeah just because you guys have been great. I still buy Truth. Truth is such a great IPA, man. It's still good. I bet you guys are still in Chicago. It's funny that you bring up the light lager because we were at the Boston Beer Dogfish Head like brunch on Thursday morning? Yesterday. third yesterday jesus it feels like today's sunday
00:51:13
Speaker
friday morning sam adams is there due to do their light logger yeah They were talking about like it's tough to do a light lager and craft beer. How did you guys approach that?
00:51:25
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we've been we've been making Cheetah our American lager for a good number of years now. So really, we just took what we learned from doing that. And, you know, also, we like drinking light lager.
00:51:40
Speaker
<unk>s kind of a It was an exciting challenge for us. i It's absolutely true. They're they're tough. there's not There's nowhere to hide. yeah and so you know just Shout out to our production team. just really you know we One thing we did is we didn't try to hit any specific you know exact calorie or carbs you know it's about 115 calories so you know so it's's it's still pretty light but it's you know i think if we were like oh we needed to be 80 or we need to be 100 that constrains you a little bit obviously so we're sitting right at 4.2 percent 115 calories and and and we just want to make something that
00:52:19
Speaker
you know, no matter what your maybe former light logger of choice was, something that's really gonna work for that. And there's a lot of people I think that want to support craft and support local. But just aren't into craft beer. And that's okay. Well, and also I feel like a lot of craft beer drinkers have kind of gotten to the point where it's like, you know, today, today's actually the exception. yeah I've drank a lot of double IPAs today walking around. I was like, I'll try the barrel age stuff. But I've been talking about with Brandon, like what's been in my house lately has been like, I'm drinking a lot of Coors Light because there isn't a lot of like, light craft beers. But
00:52:57
Speaker
having a craft beer like yours, a light beer, you have regular customers that come in. I'm sure some of them will appreciate to be like, oh good, there's a lighter option to what you guys already have. They might have something else, but they want to stick around maybe a little bit longer. yeah Switch it up to the light beer. No, and it's and and you know we have ah a very big taproom space. We do a lot of events, weddings and things, and having those options for people is also a big driver. But yeah, I mean, that's, like I said, that's that's how a lot of us drink as well. you know i might have you know I might have a truth or a saber tooth, but then I'm probably not gonna have five of those. right Certainly on not on a Tuesday, but I can grab a Cincy Lite and just kind of unwind that way. Or you know if I'm out tailgating or watching a game, you know screaming at the TV. scream i I scream less, I guess, with Cincy Lite. I don't know. That's good. I mean, also, sorry. yeah Yeah, no, it's all right. I like the Vegas. As a Bears fan, I still like the Vegas. I'm doing a little less screaming at the TV than maybe I think you guys are. And we've got it worse. You guys will get there. You're fine. Yeah, we we we're slow starters. We're slow starters. That'll be fine. Yeah, we've got a great team. Chris, thanks a lot. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us again, man. Good to see you guys. Appreciate it. Appreciate your time. Some other time. But ah yeah congratulations on everything. And I can't wait to come check out the space. Yeah, cheers. See you guys soon. Take care. Take care, man. Thanks a lot, man. Wait, can you believe all that stuff they said? Crazy.
00:54:19
Speaker
In all seriousness, Thank you to everybody who took the time to speak to us. It was great. It was a lot of fun to meet new friends and and talk to some old friends and hear what, you know, on the brewer side or the the industry side, how they might how they enjoy GABF. I did want to hit on a couple more beers before we wrap things up here. And this is, again, like I said, from today. One of my other favorite beers from today was from Goat Island Brewing.
00:54:50
Speaker
I had a blood orange blown away. So yeah, dude that was That might be one of my my favorite beers from the day other than from OMF the stingray Jesus West Coast IPA Which was up there as well. It was very good. Very tasty. I liked it a lot. I also got to try OMFs Their smoked Alice lager, which is also very very tasty What about some of the beers that you had today that you that you enjoyed? I enjoyed, ah now it's like slipping, on the Jesus beer. yeah That was definitely good. i had I stopped by Pilot Brewing and I had their Island longer IPL.
00:55:35
Speaker
i Enjoyed that I didn't think I was gonna like not like it but pilot project or sorry not pilot project pilot brewing is out of Charlotte, North Carolina they had a couple of offerings there I was thinking about going for the half of ice and originally but the Island lager sounded really good. So it was a hoppy lager very well done and super nice people over there too because we I think we were chatting with them for a minute or two and up and I think that's kind of where I got the idea of like, oh, maybe we should start pulling people to talk to them. Another good one was from Morgan territory. They won a gold, silver and a bronze. I think all of the everything that they were pouring was basically a medal winner this year. But I had the gold, a hot comic. I was just saying I have that when it will double IPA. And that was 95 IBUs. Yeah.
00:56:32
Speaker
Beat and a half percent. ah Again, beautifully non-beer. i you know As soon as I tried it, I was like, yeah, I can see why you won. ah But yeah, that was that was fantastic. I would say another one that stood out was Sierra Nevada's Cherry Oak Manhattan Resort, which is an aged, ailed, and bourbon and bitter barrels with cherry. It tasted like a Manhattan. Yeah. It was really, really good. What was the the dogfish that you had today that you hadn't had in a while? Oh, you know, I meant to write in San Paulo. Oh, shit. Hold on, let me look this up. Let me look it up. Because it was, it's one of my favorite beers for them and they haven't had it in so long. I mean, they used to have it. In bottles. Yeah. Let's see. I thought I had that real quick. Now I think I should have it. Nope.
00:57:23
Speaker
Give me one more, so I think it's San Paolo something. Anyways, it's it's a fantastic beer and I was really happy to see that they had it. Oh yeah, Paolo Santo Marone.
00:57:36
Speaker
And that is like 12% and it is an unfettered unfettered unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden bear barrel vessels brewing vessels Sorry, um and I'm sure if there's a lot of old-school Dogfish had drinkers out there. You know what beer that I'm i'm i'm talking about It's so good the caramel vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood which these tanks were crafted Palo Santo means holy tree and its wood has been used in South American winemaking communities 50 IV use it's Yeah 12% and on
00:58:21
Speaker
or this beer advocate, it is a 93. Ooh. Yeah.
Awards, Recognitions, and Future Plans
00:58:25
Speaker
Okay. It's a great beer. I was happy to see that because it's been so long. We also had their, which worldwide staff do we have from them? Wait, what did you say? Which worldwide stout did we have from dogfish? Uh, affogato. That was great. You got the bitterness in there. There was definitely a bitterness. yeah But yeah, it was just, it was great to be able to try some beers from the bigger craft breweries and then find some fun ones from the the smaller craft breweries that maybe we just aren't all familiar with.
00:58:53
Speaker
Yeah, and I think today was our was the good day because that's where we found a lot of the stuff that we kind of enjoyed. so I felt like Ice Cube because today was a good day. Yeah, I agree. But again, really well done, Fest. It didn't.
00:59:07
Speaker
Lines didn't feel terrible. no you know There was times that like we'd stand in lines, but it was nothing. You're not waiting more than like two minutes or something like that. Even for weld works. Yeah. the the The volunteers they have and the the brewers that were there present at almost all the booths, which was which was actually a great change because one of the things we said last time we were here, it was It was the Saturday session and we wanted to go around and try and get some brewer interviews and we noticed that like a lot of the breweries were missing their representatives and it was just a lot of the volunteers pouring. But we we got lucky with a lot of reps still, you know, you know the few that we talked to there was more that we would have liked to talk to. um
00:59:50
Speaker
But, you know, it was, you know, it's it's a long weekend and we... And some of these guys have been here, men and women have been here since Monday. Yeah. Yes, we found out with Chris from My Guys. Yeah. they had a long They had a long week. So we just wanted to get in, talk to some people and, you know, try some fantastic beers today, which we did. We, you know, we we made it the most efficient As we could also we left out that went to the award ceremony Once I can remember off top of my head shout out to double clutch more brewing green star and
01:00:33
Speaker
one that shall not be named. I'm thinking it was something else, I wasn't sure. I thought there was somebody else that got an award, but and everybody thatre from Illinois and Chicago that got awards, congratulations. Well done. Yeah, and there was some, you know, Wisconsin breweries, but it was, but it was, we'd noticed it was a very heavy West Coast presented fest. And it it was just, just by chance, like, you know, a lot of these West Coast breweries, you know, were just nailing it out of the park this year. And um I think,
01:01:02
Speaker
Who was like he was a 10 barrel was that? Yeah, I mean 10 barrel knocked it out of the park. They don't we might be wrong. Yeah, but I mean they won a ton of awards. So shout out to 10 barrel and then this was the first year that they did ciders. Yeah, that was cool. Yeah, and to town site are excited one a bunch. Yeah, and they won like cider maker of the year every Yeah. Also, shout out to Bentonville Brewing. I only say that because I was in Bentonville, Arkansas a year ago or two years ago. They got a chance to try their beers and talk to some people there.
01:01:38
Speaker
And they won an award, so that was very cool. so um yeah That's nice to you know see some of these breweries that you may have frequented or just visited one time to win an award, and that was awesome. Yeah, I mean, because some of these, like a lot of them were like very like small-town breweries. that you know You hear the name, and I've never heard of that before. But it just goes to show you, like don't sleep on, like when you're traveling through small towns, if you want them to stop for food or drink or whatever,
01:02:06
Speaker
you know check the You know, pull up a map, look for local breweries because there are breweries out there making fantastic beer that you you need to
Conclusion and Social Media Follow-Up
01:02:16
Speaker
try. That's the funny thing about Google Maps is if you're plotting out a road trip, look up just type in search along the way and type in brewery.
01:02:23
Speaker
And there are a ton of breweries that will pop up, and it's a good way to make it a part of your trip, whether it's, you know, on your way there, on your way back, or just while you're in your destination. Yeah. Or at your destination. Yep, agreed. Other than that, man, I gotta say, it's been a fantastic trip, as always, man. I love doing this with you. Cheers. Glad we we're we're very, cheers. We're very grateful and and and very lucky to be able to do this each year, basically, when we get invited. So, last year we didn't do it, but I think it's safe to say we're probably gonna come back next year. Yeah. And I look forward to all the other fest that we go to.
01:02:57
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. So we got more coming up this year. We've got, uh, we still got to finish out. Uh, we'll have, hopefully soon we'll have raced out on, uh, from digging in the checks bag. I'm sorry. I'm so hungry. The Illinois craft brewers guild. And, uh, we've got FOBAB coming up, which is always, always a fantastic event. Um, so keep a lookout for that. There's also some other winter, uh, beer fest that happened in Chicago that you and I don't go to. I'm going to try and go to them.
01:03:27
Speaker
Okay. If you can go with, cool. If not, I'll just give you a recap and we'll just drink some beers. Sounds good. All right. Brandon, I love you, man. Love you too, man. Colorado, we love you too. Bye.
01:03:42
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us individually on social media. Brandon can be found on Instagram as bmdub81, on Twitter, bdub81, and on Untapped as bdubdrinksbeer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Ace of Hope Chicago, on Twitter, The Ace of Hope Chicago. Clark can be found as Clarkowski on all three. Dan can be found on Instagram as hip underscore underscore hops and hip hops on YouTube. Be sure to subscribe, like, and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.