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Episode 20 - Christmas Beers (feat. Clark, Jeff and Roger)
122 Plays6 years ago
On this episode we drink and discuss some Christmas beers. Previous guests Clark Fetridge and Jeff Kordik join us, as well as Tony's own father, Roger Golec.
Special thanks to Ellis D for their track "Christmas Morning" featured during the break. You can find them on Soundcloud, Spotify, Facebook and Instagram.
Intro and outro music provided by Fluid Minds.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy is public domain... so that's cool!
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:03
Speaker
Listening to The Malting Hour with Brandon and Tony, you can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook by searching The Malting Hour. And coming soon, TheMaltingHour.com. Now, on to the show.
Holiday Greetings and Podcast Milestone
00:00:33
Speaker
Welcome to the Malting Hour! Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa in New Year. Am I missing anything else? There's a lot of stuff and that's why you say Happy Holidays because there's just too many to cover. Anyways, welcome to the next episode, the second episode of the Malting Hour which is actually
00:00:53
Speaker
the 20th episode of us doing the podcast since we've changed the name now to the Molting Hour from the 212 Roundtable. So far so good.
Social Media and Listener Appreciation
00:01:10
Speaker
Twitters and Facebook. It's all the molting hour. It's very simple, very easy to find and thanks for taking care of all the dot-com stuff. No problem. Eventually there will be an official website, but right now it's just sending you to the podcast, which is all you need. It's the important part. Awesome.
00:01:25
Speaker
Well, it's been a great year so far considering it's been one year. I know we talked about this before when we did the, I forget what episode, one year of actually recording when we did the test recording, but now is pretty much, this is the end of the year, one year. The next time we do an episode, it'll be about a one year anniversary.
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah. This is a full year. It's a full year of doing this podcast. It's been a lot of fun. Yes, it is. Appreciate everybody listening and commenting on stuff and following and subscribing and sharing and coming onto the show. And this show in particular, I wanted to see what we could do about getting as many guests back as possible. We were successful with two.
00:02:05
Speaker
One was already guaranteed because we told him he has to come back on every 10 episodes.
Special Guest: Host's Father
00:02:11
Speaker
And then my dad's here, too. My dad's never been on the show. Actually, when I picked him up, I asked him, I go, you know, I have a podcast, right? So you didn't tell him this was happening? No, I did tell it was happening. But he did remember that apparently I have told him. So that's good. They're silently watching the Bears Packers game behind us right now.
00:02:30
Speaker
doing their best to stay quiet, which is cool. Thanks guys for waiting. Hey, if you have to cheer, go ahead and cheer. Yeah. Yeah. If you cheer, it's fine. Yeah. You can't cheer, dad. My father's a Packers fan. Something happened to him when he was born. Dropped on the head.
00:02:45
Speaker
Anyway, let's get into this, huh? Let's get straight into it.
Christmas Beers with Clark Fetridge
00:02:49
Speaker
Our first guest, you know him as Mark Detridge. You remember such shows as the New England IPA episode and the Halloween spooky episode. Welcome back, Clark Fetridge.
00:03:03
Speaker
Inserts. I'm going to insert the clap track in here. Wonderful to be back. Hey man, thanks for making time for us. It's my pleasure. It's Christmas time and no better time to spread the holiday cheer. Exactly. With some holiday beer. Yeah, and so we have some Christmas beers. Yeah, I think I said that. We are doing Christmas beers today and kind of just Christmas themed beers, I guess.
00:03:28
Speaker
holiday bears, but Clark, you were nice enough to bring something that looks like a Christmas bear. It is technically not a Christmas-style beer, but it's been sitting in my fridge. I know you've wanted to try it. I don't know if you've had it yet. I have not, but...
00:03:41
Speaker
I brought the strawberry jacket from Revolution. Ah, right here in Chicago, Revolution. Yes indeed, a barley wine ale with strawberries. This is the first time we've had a Revolution beer on the show. That is not true. But yeah, thanks for bringing this and I can see what you mean by it being a Christmas beer because it's red and green.
00:04:02
Speaker
For those of you- Any excuse to drink it. Whatever category you want to, you know, or whatever criteria you want to build to making something a Christmas beer, you know, if all this other crap can be Christmas beers, color can be part of it. Well, and I think a barley wine is suited well for a Christmas, or you know, we talked about this. Definitely seasonal. Yeah, seasonal. Cold weather beers like this are sought after as a warming experience when you want to get boozed up. For sure.
00:04:31
Speaker
Now this came out though in the summer though, right? So they did release it over the summer with their honey jacket, I believe. Their barley wine with honey. And then they re-released this, the strawberry, during their release last month with... I don't know...
00:04:46
Speaker
I don't remember that release last month. That wasn't Straight Jack. That's when we went. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it. That's when you got it.
00:05:15
Speaker
had more strawberries. Nice. We forgot that one. Left that one in the barrel, better dump it. Into cans. Well hey, let's get into this, yeah? Yeah. Bartender? Oh, thank you. Barkeep? I am standing behind the bar this time. I was all over the place today.
00:05:33
Speaker
I forgot to bring the video cards over for the camera, and then when I came back after dropping off my father and Jeff, I realized I didn't bring another microphone. So I am strictly behind the bar today. As you should be. Always. Serving us. Welcome to... You bring the beer, I serve it to you. Exactly. Welcome to my show. You know, when I say my show, I mean our show, Brandon.
00:06:04
Speaker
I did the laugh for us, right? A little more. A little more. Let's get a little more. You're OK. You brought it. Drive later. It's fine. All right. Right away, when I opened it, I smelled strawberry. Right off the bat. Oh, yeah. Sorry. Thanks. Man, it smells a lot like strawberries. Definitely strawberries in there. Wow. It kind of reminds me of. How do I smell like strawberries? It reminds me of those.
00:06:33
Speaker
At least here. I don't know if this is regional. When I go trick-or-treating as a kid, up and down Milwaukee Avenue, you'd get those little strawberry candies wrapped in the cellophane that looks like strawberry. Oh, wait, wait. Who go? Did you really go?
00:06:47
Speaker
trigger treating up Milwaukee Avenue like it's all businesses back in the day man all those businesses had tons of candy in six corners it was when it was filled with stores there was everybody had candy it was like the coolest thing because you can go through neighborhoods then you'd hit all the stores up and all the stores would have candy
00:07:03
Speaker
times have changed. Yeah. Well, I guess that makes sense. Cause we used to go in Lincoln square and we'd go down, hit those businesses too. And yeah, sometimes you get those big candy bars or, but anyways, these were the, the small, do you remember those strong exactly? Yeah. And they're like, were they like jelly filled? Yes. They have something in the middle. Yeah. I had a crap ton of them, like not that long ago and I was sitting there just eating them. We could have saved it and handle it. Maybe that's what they used. Why don't you read the description?
00:07:30
Speaker
Yeah, it starts. Yes, strawberry jacket. A slightly drier blend of bourbon and rye whiskey barrel. English barley wine. Aged 18 months provides a base for the delicate nuances of fresh strawberry to shine while retaining the same balance we expect of our beloved straight jacket. Reminiscent of fresh, juicy strawberry atop a creme brulee.
00:07:52
Speaker
This sipper can accompany dessert or stand on its own. Enjoy now or store cold. It's a lot of rules, but it is. Do whatever I want with it. Thank you very much, Rev. This is 13.8? Holy cow. It doesn't drink like that. It does taste like fresh strawberries. It does. And I'm wondering if the strawberries kind of take away from some of the usual barley wine heftiness and
00:08:18
Speaker
Deep. Whatever it did, I feel like it's thinned it out. For sure. Yeah, it's not very thick or mouth-coating or whatever. Mouth feel. Yeah, it's really tasty. I would drink this any Christmas time. Yeah, honestly, to me, because this was about a month ago when I first got them, it already tastes a little bit different. I'm getting a little bit more strawberry, which is a little odd, a little bit less of the barrel and the heat that was in it a month ago. It's because the more the candy is melted into it. Exactly.
00:08:43
Speaker
Well, I was going to say that the one thing about this is that I don't really taste the barrel. I mean, it's cold, but I don't taste barrel. It does taste like a barley wine and it tastes like the strawberry candy, like fresh strawberries and strawberry candy kind of mix. Yeah. If you would have told me that this was a barrel aged, I would have not guessed. Even a month ago, it had more of the barrel there, which is like you said, it's funny because most of the time when you have those like fruited beers or those fruited big beers,
Aging and Flavor in Bourbon County Beers
00:09:10
Speaker
After a while those fruit flavors start subsiding. They kind of dissipate. I just had 2018 Bramble from Bourbon County. I had it on tap and it really had dissipated like almost to me wondering
00:09:27
Speaker
was this really a bramble or is this just right out of Bourbon County because the next day I just so happened to share a bottle with somebody else and it tasted like jam almost but it wasn't like it wasn't like when I first had it last year like over the top and like like I'm eating jelly in Bourbon yeah you're saying the first one was draft and then you had a bottle yeah the next day it's kind of like the prop that you didn't have when you walked into prop day and then correct the real prop correct
00:09:53
Speaker
Mm, this prop tastes okay. Next. I almost brought that prop today for us to share, but I was like, no, I like prop.
00:10:01
Speaker
I'm going to share that with just me and you. You are going to bring the double barrow out today. Yeah, that's out in the car. Okay. So before you leave- Solanda's coming by with hers. No, she's not. She emailed us this morning. She could not make it today. She was somebody else we were going to try and have back after a beer check back on the show, but she's a little under the weather, I believe. So we'll have her back soon sometime if she wants to come back on.
00:10:28
Speaker
Anyways, this is really good, man. Thanks for bringing this by. I wish I had a sticker of this. This looks like it would be a cool sticker to have somewhere. Put it up on your tree. Yeah, I would be interested in knowing how they used the strawberries in this just because of the flavor because... We should ask them! The scent of it is very much close to
00:10:52
Speaker
Like an actual strawberry? For sure. But then the taste is that, like you said, that, and I don't want to say artificial, but that candy, like strawberry flavor. Exactly. Yeah, candy's better. Yeah. Because artificial strawberry, I don't get, like, yeah, sorry. You're right. Can't eat an artificial when it comes to like strawberries or they have two different flavors. Yeah. You're right. I just wanted to keep talking. Jeff, can you come here real quick? Surely. Is it for you and the old man? You guys are going to try some. That's Roger.
00:11:20
Speaker
It's not just you as the old man. No, you guys go over there. No, you don't come on yet. You sit back down. Very demanding. The new show. Dan needs to know his place. We're not wanted.
00:11:35
Speaker
Not yet. Soon. Soon. This is really good. I really do like this. Thanks for sharing this with us. I appreciate it. Any big plans for Christmas? Sorry, were you about to ask somebody about the beer? No, nothing crazy tonight. Going to a Christmas party with the family. Santa's going to be there, so I got a couple questions for him. And then just hoping I get more beer for Christmas. That's what I'm going to tell him tonight. I'd like some more double barrel.
00:12:01
Speaker
That's just being greedy, I think. Yeah, I know. Any other beers that you're looking forward to trying right now for Christmas? Well, I think Christmas slash New Year's, I'm definitely going to, I think I might crack open one of the
Bourbon County Prop Day
00:12:12
Speaker
double barrels. I want to try one now and then I'll probably wait a year to try the second one I have. What days ahead? Oh, well, let me get back to you on that. I will be sure to text you. Well, I mean, you've got like nine of them. So one in the car we're going to share today.
00:12:26
Speaker
And then one around Christmas, New Year's Eve. Yes, yes, yes. And none of the other props. We can just drink them at the same time. Those props. If there are a dime a dozen, why do I want them anyway? They're still sitting on the shelf at some places, to be honest. That was a very good problem. I actually popped into a liquor store that I knew that normally carries it when I went and got my hair cut the other day. Looks good, by the way. It was like a foremost on Lincoln and Peterson. Oh, yeah. So I go to the Supercuts over there. And I popped in there, $80 a bottle. Whoa. And I was like, nope.
00:12:55
Speaker
They do that every year and then he had like utopias there and I was gonna ask him like, you're gonna be- It's probably like $400. Yeah, $400. Yeah. Well, like I said, the cardinal that's in his displays or scope, yeah, displays. There it is. Power up the heat. In displays, they are selling, or they had at least two weeks ago, bottles of prop for 40 bucks.
00:13:16
Speaker
Which was not bad. They had every single beer, obviously, except for the double barrel. Every single beer there was $20. All the variants were $20. They even had last year's variants, and those were $20. And Prop was $40, and the ride was $35.
00:13:35
Speaker
No, I didn't think it was bad at all, but I could not... laughing at my dad. I tried to pull the trigger on the $40 prop, but I was like... I spent too much on Bourbon County this year, I need to cool it down. What was the average price like in the what we got at prop day? Because it was $75 for the regular one, right? For the, you mean, oh yeah. So $75 for getting the two
00:14:05
Speaker
props and the one cafe de oil. And then it was $1.30, I think, for the double barrel. $55, $50 or $55 for that. So $75, it probably would have been $30, $30, and no, not $50. Hmm. Yeah, what's the math on that? Well, I guess so. I guess it could have been $30, $30, and $15. They were charging $15 for cafe de oil. Yeah, I think prop of the jewel I was at was $26.99, I would say. Yeah, that's the lowest price I've seen. It was around $25. Plus all three were $25.
00:14:33
Speaker
I could see more of the 25, 25, 15 range and they're not doing tax. Although that's still only $65. Still expensive, still a lot for a little bottle of beer. 30, 30 and 15. We're going to play Welcome to the Math Hour.
00:14:55
Speaker
with Clark, Brandon,
Old Fezziwig Beer Exploration
00:14:57
Speaker
and Tony. Just edit out this whole section of us. Geez. That's what happens when I'm here. You just got beer all over everything. It's short-circuited everything. Do you want to have a- Smoking! Do we want to have a Christmas beer together, or is we counting this as a Christmas beer, the three of us, and do we move on? That's up to the producers. It's up to you, man. What do you guys, do you guys want to try one? Another one? I would not say no. Brandon? Let's do one more. Let's do another one. All right, I'm gonna pull from my...
00:15:22
Speaker
yours when I grab and you've never had this whoa so we'll do Sam Adams old yeah so this is the other beer we're gonna look red and red right away see it fits right in yeah you did it
00:15:43
Speaker
Sip this up. We're doing Old Fessy Wig and Old Fessy Wig is from Sam Adams. The description is rich and sweet. Like the character that inspired it, the beer is festive and worth of celebration all its own. Bursting with spices of the season, its full body accompanies a deep malt character with notes of sweet toffee and rich dark caramel. Love, Santa Claus. Santa wrote that. I can't do math, but boy can I read.
00:16:12
Speaker
I talked about this in the last episode that I used to hate this beer when I got the same item as a mixed pack. And then as time went on, I ended up, it smells old and fezzy like.
00:16:31
Speaker
This time went on, it ended up becoming one of my favorite beers from the pack and I look forward to it and I save them. I had one right away this time and was going to save this one for another time, but I ended up saving it for today for you guys to share it. And it is like caramel color. Looks really nice. Something bad happening over there. Yeah. What's the update on the score? Yeah. What do we got? Seven nothing. Okay. I'll take that as a plus. Take that right now. That's tasty. See, I like old Fessy Wig.
00:17:01
Speaker
It's kind of, it kind of just tastes like what a lot of regular Christmas beers are based off of. Or like this is based off of bringing that back.
00:17:12
Speaker
Every other Christmas beer I've ever had, it feels like it's tasted, it's based off all the fizzy way. Jeez. It's got like the same, I said this before, when you drink like iced tea, that kind of like herbal bitterness. That's what I'm trying to say and you're doing a much better job. I keep saying the backbone. It's the same kind of backbone you're gonna get with really any festive Christmas beer.
00:17:35
Speaker
And it's got that nutmeg and cinnamon. It's not overpowering. It's not like that's the only thing you can taste in it. I think maybe that's why I didn't like it. I'd be curious to see what the green bill is on this, what they've thrown in. Because I'm definitely getting that, like you were saying, those Christmas spices. There's almost even, I wonder if there's any ginger in here.
00:17:57
Speaker
Not like a lot, but like a hit like a... But I get like a tiny hit of spice, like a ginger spice. Like like allspice, you know, that's got all just about everything in there. That's probably all it is. Yeah, just just throw some allspice in there. Hey, you got that big thing of McCormick's allspice? Dump that in there. Put it in, now it's beer. We're gonna call this Old Fessy Wig because it's old McCormick allspice. Do you think we could do something with the Lowry seasoning? That work in a beer?
00:18:22
Speaker
Maybe like a lot of prime rib stout. Yeah, we'll throw a little horseradish in there. Yeah, next year. Some onions. Okay. Oh, I think we got a beer on our hands. Yes. Perfect. I'll go to Costco. Perfect. Brandon, what are your plans for Christmas? It's better than the mayonnaise beer. What are you doing? So we have Christmas Eve at our house here. And then Christmas it's...
00:18:44
Speaker
We ended up going to my sister's house, sitting around, watching probably a Christmas story on repeat, ordering Chinese food. Oh, that's awesome. That's fun.
00:18:56
Speaker
And then the day after, we're gonna be going to visit some family for a little bit, so. Fun. Very good. That's awesome. Cool. Yeah, we're not doing, I'll ask myself, Tony, what are you doing for Christmas? Well, nothing. My family just didn't want to hang out with me. That's why we weren't gonna ask. Yeah. Yeah, because we don't care. Don't anything.
00:19:17
Speaker
That's going to wrap up the show. Thanks, everybody. Jeff, Dad, thanks for coming by. Clark, good to see you as always. Pleasure. Actually, why don't you guys bring your glasses back? You can have some Old Fessy Wig. Yeah, I wish they sold Old Fessy Wig in six packs. I could just buy individuals. I don't think they do. I know they used to do separate beers for what they did in the winter packs, but whatever's in the winter pack now, one of the two beers, and that's it, that come out as six packs. I mean, it's a decent enough beer to wear, I think.
00:19:46
Speaker
You know, I would buy a six pack of it. Yeah, I would buy it as just like any other Christmas sale, which one I didn't get, uh, fistmas from, um, revolution. I did not bring one of those. Unfortunately, I do, uh, this definitely has the same characteristic. So pretty.
00:20:01
Speaker
If I was able to get out to get beer today, that's what I was going to go try and find in this business. That was the first thing I was looking for, but the one I got was suggested to us by club member Dave Fox, which I was already hoping to plan on having. What do you think of it, Dad? Pretty good. You like it? Yeah. Jeffrey?
00:20:22
Speaker
Jeff does a great thing when I ask, like he takes one sip and I ask him about it and he waits because he's really processing and he goes in for another sip and then will tell me. Have I got a process? I assume what happens, like, when I share beers with him in the garage when we're brewing. I'm stumped. I'm ignorant. I don't know who old Fuzzy Wig is. I don't know either of him. So you're more focused on the character, not so much the beer. Well I know he's in the Christmas carol. I thought maybe if I resemble
00:20:50
Speaker
He does taste like a sweaty old guy. Isn't Fuzzy Wig in Christmas Carol? I only know that because Fuzzy plays him in the Muppet Christmas Carol. Thank you. I don't know if that's where the name comes from. Old Fuzzy Wig? Old Fuzzy Wig, exactly. So maybe next year when we do a Christmas video we'll call it Old Fuzzy Wig.
00:21:08
Speaker
just like our Mike Tyson series. Wow, that's so good. It's just like drinking old spice. Who knows? Glass Joe might make an appearance one day again. Someday. That was a great beer. Well, anyways, Clark, thanks a lot for sharing this beer with us. Thank you, gentlemen. That was awesome. Appreciate you having me on every now and then. Yeah, thanks for coming back. It's such a short notice. I mean, no problem at all. Jeez, it's, you know, I mean, so quick too. Last time we were here was Halloween and now... Here I am again. Christmas. So I don't think... You're like our holiday guest. Perfect.
00:21:36
Speaker
We'll see you Easter, I guess. I got some Easter beers ready for you. Yeah. Oh. Props kind of an Easter beer, honestly. Oh, definitely. Perfect. Prop. Bunnies go plop and they hop. Let's drink wine. Oh, we'll do a wine episode. We're never doing a wine episode.
00:21:52
Speaker
Never say never. We might do. My name is Clark. Merry Christmas. See you, sir. See you in hell. You betcha. Merry Christmas. See you next time. Tell Mark. Mark Detridge, we say hello. We'll tell Mark. If you tell Tick Bigwell, I say hello as well. He is a dick. He grabbed that bottle. Oh, yes, that's right. Coming back. All right, there we go. Now get the hell out. Get that one off our show.
00:22:15
Speaker
Check on that beer score. Beer score? I've only had two sips, two beers. Anyway. So yeah, thanks Clark for being here. I'm saying it like he's not actually here. He's just off in the background. Phenomenal beer. Too good, yeah. Too good beer so far. Really, I don't know why I had to pick it up and look at it like you just did. Oh, no! Gotta be quicker than that.
00:22:39
Speaker
I was doing the fishbowl thing. Anyway, so far so good. It's a good start, right? Two good beers. Two very different beers, but solid. And a good guest. Good guest to start off with, I think. This is good till April.
00:22:56
Speaker
Like I said, I wish they still sold old Fezziwig in six packs. I do remember seeing it, but maybe they just figured... Please. My other thought is that maybe because it's just available in the 12 pack, why make all those beers separately and also have the mix pack and have the individual six packs?
00:23:18
Speaker
Classic Jeff. You can't hear him on the microphone. I did expect something like that to happen. It's fine. Speaking of Jeff, Jeff, come on down. You're the next contestant on. And he's watching the Bears game still. They're in the red zone. Are they in the red zone? Are they in the red zone? Let me stop at the red zone if you'd like. We'll edit this part out. Merry holidays. Oh, now you're back. Take that.
00:23:45
Speaker
Jeff, welcome back. Thank you. Welcome, like to be back. Everybody, this is Jeff. Jeff, this is everybody. Everybody. Technically, this is your first time on the malting hour. Yes. You've been on the 212 round table. Yes. Twice technically, one episode we have not released yet. Which... Is that the x-rated one? Yeah. The joke at the end is what makes it just... I'm sorry. No, it's all right. We're going to release it.
Spice Variations in Christmas Beers
00:24:09
Speaker
I did the rest myself. If you're listening to this now, there's a really good chance that...
00:24:14
Speaker
You know this episode is out on December 23rd. There's a really good chance of the volume Monday early here at the episode that we're talking about. There's a bonus episode in the air. Back to back ones. Question. Yes sir. What constitutes a Christmas beer?
00:24:31
Speaker
Ooh, Jeff come with the questions. Do you want to feel that? What do you want me to? Well, I think that we might have touched on this a little bit less because we're talking about what a holiday beer is, you know, like stuff like that. And I think it all just falls into kind of the spices that they use. You know, if you go into more of the traditional like holiday flavors like the cinnamon and the clove and the nutmeg, you know, those are more prominent in Christmas beers. But you can take almost any style of beer. Any kind of combination that you choose to process. Yeah, really.
00:25:00
Speaker
taste good together and you can like you can spice an ale you can spice a porter a stout like add those combinations of flavors in there so it actually is drinkable and you can call it a christmas beer oh i think that's just that's just kind of the way i look at it because i've never like
00:25:17
Speaker
There's you know, it's not like these beers are coming off a line and Santa's blessing right? Are you sure? He could be you know what I you know, I didn't get what I wanted I remember it was that Jubilation they come out here. What's the brewery? No, no, no Jubilation's the Geez It's the Jewish brewery
00:25:43
Speaker
Hey, if anybody knows that, go ahead and let me know. Schmaltz? Schmaltz, yeah, Schmaltz. Mike has one that is almost 10 years old now and is when they did the seven-year anniversary. So it's seven malts, seven hops, seven something else, and it's, I don't know, 17% alcohol. We still have yet to open it. I don't know why, but Mike was here. Because you don't want your nobody. Yeah, but that was one. I mean, because we are doing, these are Christmas beers, but it's, eh, you don't have to celebrate Christmas to drink them, really.
Jeff's Preferences: Spirits Over Beers
00:26:14
Speaker
You have a favorite Christmas spirit that you drink? Absolutely not. Excellent. Thanks for coming on the show, Jeff. Easy on the tapping. The mic's picking it up, OK? All right, so I'm digging back. I'm just curious. No, it is a good question. And one thing I was thinking about when you were describing it, the first thing that came to my mind was, those are pretty much the exact same. By the way, Clark, I really like those shoes. Thank you.
00:26:42
Speaker
I just realized, very, I know. Well, they're Charlie Brown Christmas shoes. Everybody that comes up, wear the Charlie Brown Christmas shoes. The same spices that go into Christmas ales are also pretty much the same spices that go into pumpkin beers. We think about it, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, that all comes. Yeah. But those are normally Stouts or Ambers.
00:27:10
Speaker
Now, old Fezziwig, that was dark brownish, you know, and most Christmas ales are dark brownish, not an amber, so I think it's hard to... There's got, I'm sure there's different hops too, but I'm wondering if... You were suggesting... Next door. Next door. With one of the... Pull the handle up to flush. That you were using.
Tasting Great Lakes Christmas Ale
00:27:29
Speaker
Wait, sorry, start that over. You were suggesting the ale or a porter. Yeah. Right, that would be interesting though.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We thought we had a holiday. Well, we had a holiday port on the last episode and we thought it was going to be spiced, but it wasn't. Like a porter. Yeah, it was just a porter. It was good. It was in the same Sam's mix pack here. I'm going to reach for another one here. And.
00:27:54
Speaker
We'll switch it up. We're not going to go, because I've got another Sam Adams from the mix pack. But I'm going to go with the crooked label. I'm realizing that it's slightly lopsided. My favorite of the season, actually, is a lot of people's favorite, is the Great Lakes Christmas Ale. That one is so good.
00:28:16
Speaker
Do not open till Christmas. Whoever coined that phrase obviously hasn't tasted Christmas Ale's fresh. Oh, this is the description. Fresh honey. Haven't tasted Christmas Ale's fresh honey, cinnamon, and ginger flavor. So this one has ginger in it. Yeah. So Old Fezziwig might have it too. Tell us the truth Fezziwig. Sounds like that one's more pronounced. Apparently.
00:28:40
Speaker
Oh, it's funny, I heard that noise and I saw you looking towards the computer. I'm like, did something just happen to the computer? No, I think we just got a delivery because I think that was my Alexa going off. Oh, it's not? Clark coming to the front door? Burn. Clark, can you also get my father's glass there?
00:28:58
Speaker
And then smash it. Yeah, and then we're gonna it's over here. We're gonna actually just hide it from them to see if I remember So yeah Have you ever had this one before Jeff? No, I have not so you don't have a favorite Christmas very so I'm imagining Yes, probably haven't had a lot of Christmas beers. Uh, no a lot of wine bourbon scotch Works for me. Yeah, I
00:29:26
Speaker
I like bourbon all around, but as you know, I really do enjoy bourbon around this time of year too. Oh yeah, there's still some left. It's just sitting there. And your fireball. Which, funny enough, the other podcast I listened to
00:29:46
Speaker
What's the show that we're on? Basic Brewing. They just released an episode, or a little while ago, maybe a month or so ago, of doing a Spike Cider. And what he did was add a cinnamon cider to the keg, the same thing that we did. Oh, you mean cinnamon bourbon? Yeah, cinnamon cider. Yeah, cinnamon bourbon and cinnamon whiskey to it. So I was like, that's kind of funny. That's two times now with Basic Brewing Radio that we've done the, we did the cereal beers based on them. We didn't do this based on them.
00:30:15
Speaker
I doubt they did it based on us, but we both did the same thing. Although maybe we did mention it on an episode. We did. We talked about how good it was. This is Great Lakes Christmas Ale, and it is one of my favorites. Here we go. You like that one? You can say yeah.
00:30:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's a good one Yeah, yeah, this is this is one of my favorite Christmas beers not the favorite one the ginger is much more prominent in this Ginger honey cinnamon, right? Those are things that are in there or nutmeg my celly, but do I
00:30:59
Speaker
This one, you are silly. That's it. That's the honey. I was going to say I almost have a caramel taste. Yeah, I definitely think that comes from the honey. We're bad about showing the other beers, although you can probably see Brandon's glass better than mine and theirs. But this one is much lighter than most Christmas beers that
00:31:20
Speaker
I drink, or that I have, and I feel like they're not relying so much on those toasted malts or the roasted malts, but like you said, there's that caramel-y taste that's coming from the honey. And then also, that's probably, I don't know if I doubt it's fermented out. I don't know what the ABV on this is. I don't know.
00:31:45
Speaker
But yeah, this is, you like this one? Yes, I do. What's up? 7.5. 7.5 yowzers! Woo! Maybe that's why we like it so much better. Maybe. This one, I think this was the first Christmas bear I had this season. It was on tap at a bar. We were out for a friend's birthday and they had like $5 drafts of it. That's pretty much what I drank all night. And I saw it at the store the next day.
00:32:09
Speaker
And I bought it. And I know a lot of people that actually look for this beer. Like they wait for it to come out because it's a solid Christmas beer. Yeah. And I mean, dude, like 7.5. That's... And it's not even like a... It's not like an expensive six-pack either. It's pretty much standard craft beer six-pack at like $10.99. What's the other one that's big?
00:32:33
Speaker
Anchor Steam. Yeah. Like their Christmas egg. Oh, that's fried. I totally forgot about that. I didn't even get one of those. I haven't had one of those in a long time.
00:32:42
Speaker
Is that the one where you have like a case sitting there? No, Mike has a... Oh, who is it? I should have grabbed one of those. It's not... I can see it. Breckenridge. He's got Breckenridge Christmas ale. He's got a case of that sitting in his mom's basement. From like several years ago though, right? And it was already like two years old when he got it. So nice aged Christmas beer. I think we had a bottle of it. It was not good at all. That's not bad.
00:33:09
Speaker
You can maybe come back full circle. Ohio. Cleveland, Ohio.
Christmas Memory Test and Humor
00:33:14
Speaker
Now, when we were driving here, you had mentioned you had either a question or a story. No, nothing related to Christmas. I don't know what you're talking about. That is a lot. No, I was just saying the other day, can you do the 12 days of Christmas without singing them? Your memory and things like that.
00:33:37
Speaker
Just goes back years and years and years. I can't do it. I can't remember anything, but I remember something like from 45 years ago. It's just kind of a memory test. But it's the same principle of the 12 Days of Christmas, but you're not saying it. So it starts off with one hen and two ducks. It's simple. One hen, two ducks, and three squawking geese.
00:34:03
Speaker
No, but you're changing. Oh, okay. So it's one hen, two ducks, three squads. It's one calling bird, two turtle doves, three French hens. Correct. What's four? Four.
00:34:16
Speaker
Ah, four calling birds. Very good. Five golden rings. Mine is one hen, two ducks, three squatting geese, four limerick oysters. Anybody remember five? Five golden rings. Very good. So we have one hen, two ducks, three squatting geese, four limerick oysters, five corpial
00:34:41
Speaker
What's 6 then? 6, well 6 would be after 5. I'm going to leave. One head, two jugs, three squawking geese, four lumbar coasters, five corpulent porpoises, six pairs of Don Alversal's tweezers. I don't even know who that is.
00:35:01
Speaker
Look it up, not a reversal. He makes, produces, pleasers for years and years. All right. Okay, so number seven would be 7,000 Macedonians in full battle array. See, but that's 7,000. Okay, here we go. Okay, seven, seven. Eight breast monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of Egypt.
00:35:29
Speaker
There's a backstory to that, too. Just two more. Nine. No, you can't. Just 12 days. There's more than 10 days. I only have nine days. 10 days. Nine. Apathetic. Roger and I, you and I can relate to this one. Nine. Apathetic. Old Ben. On roller skates. With a marked propensity towards sloth.
00:36:00
Speaker
to relate to that. I said to relate, together. And 10 diabolical decidants of the deep who hold forth of the pole, of the quay, of the quivi, all at the same time. Jesus Christ. Now tell me the 12 days of frigging Christmas. On the first day of Christmas. I don't know where the hell all that was. But now I have it as a recording.
00:36:25
Speaker
and i will memorize it and i'll have a test on it next year excellent and listeners will do the same thing we'll see if they can get it. It's a bottle of christmas ale that is not true we cannot give out beer for free.
00:36:42
Speaker
Well, we can. You can try. We can try. Well, it's about time. We're going to take a break. Jeff. Take a break. Thank you, sir. Cheers. Merry Christmas. Cheers. Happy New Year. I'll still be seeing you. I live next door to you. But thanks again for coming on the show for the 20th episode. Glad to be here. We'll see you on the 30th episode. Which month? I don't know. I've got to figure that out. That's math, man. It's not the math hour.
00:37:08
Speaker
We already discussed that one. We know Matt's good. And actually, I have special music for the break here. The guys, LSD, or as I said, Elias D, remember? I asked them, I'm like, by any chance, do you guys have a Christmas song? And he goes, actually, we have two. Seriously? He's like, yeah, we've got two. And he's like, great. We have them in the show. He's like, we've got to record them.
00:37:29
Speaker
Okay, so I'm hoping at this moment right now, they said they were gonna record it after we had done this episode. If it's not LSD, it's just gonna be Brandon and I recording from Charlie Brown and Christmas at the end of the movie.
00:37:51
Speaker
That's what we'll do. Heart to Heart of the Angels sing, right? Yeah. But hopefully it's LSD with their Christmas song. We'll be right back. Thank you.
00:38:14
Speaker
Christmas don't end Life back when we were kids Well the weather it keeps on stowing What I want ain't gonna know which this does This life is a gift If we can just live it
Closing with a Holiday Song
00:38:31
Speaker
I woke up early Christmas morning, it's truly a blessing Can't contain my main frame, goes back to its adolescence The tree it stay lit, underneath it's filled with presents Shaking all of them, now it's got me guessing But that ain't what the season all about It's about feeling the loved ones in the house And fixing up a plate, and filling up a glass Talk about the future, present in the past Like rainbows in the past But we can still go back
00:38:59
Speaker
Cause it's feeling like Christmas morning Like back when we were kids Where the weather keeps on snowing And what I want ain't no wish this does This life is a gift If we can just live
00:39:20
Speaker
Now I'm waking up on Christmas morning I can hear my pops in the other room snoring Looking at the presents under the tree while I'm yawning I was just young and hoping that it was something that I could go make a school in rock They be a pair of jakes and a pack of socks and they were repping us And I ain't give a what cause we ain't get too much But it's just enough and we made it through
00:39:42
Speaker
Even when it's time for tough and no need to be embarrassed I just need to cherish It was being around the ones I loved that made me careless And I'll always fucking cherish Way back, you can take that love out of my life Cause it's feeling like Christmas morning Like back when we were kids But the weather didn't keep some snow in And what I want ain't no wish list Cause this life is a gift If we can just live
00:40:13
Speaker
And we can just live it What we gonna do right here is go back Way back Back into time
00:40:48
Speaker
Yeah, the little clicker. What do you call this? Clicker. That's what you change channels with. Yeah. No, it's your remote. The clicker. And we're back with the multi-hour. So this is our, I want to say second half, but we went more than a little longer than we normally do in our first half, which is completely fine because we had two guests out of three. So it's going to kind of even out in the end. So what'd you think of the first beers that we had?
00:41:18
Speaker
Except for the first one, I'm completely biased because I really liked the Great Lakes personnel. I'm familiar with that. The Old Fuzzy Wig, very familiar with that. But that strawberry straight jacket that Clark brought was awesome. I really liked that. What was your overall? The straight jacket by far was probably my favorite. And then I'll go with the Christmas Ale. I did like Old Fuzzy Wig. I have nothing against it, but I just loved how
00:41:46
Speaker
I guess I just never realized how much I liked the ginger pop in that, you know, in that Christmas sale. Yeah. And I didn't think I really realized that until we mentioned it in old Fezziwig. And I tried to read labels, but I don't always remember things from the labels that I read. Yeah. You know, that one, that was, that's a solid beer. Yeah. I mean, I'll go back to Christmas sale time and time again. Yeah. It's, I always look forward to it, especially when bars have it on special for $5 a pint. Well, I mean, wherever you go, it's usually not that expensive. No, not at all. I mean, for almost 8%.
00:42:15
Speaker
You have one or two of those. You're feeling pretty good. Yeah, I think depending on where you're at and who you're with. But out of the Christmas beers, yeah, the Great Lakes Christmas Ale is my favorite so far. Straight jacket, just the strawberry straight jacket is kind of in its own category. It's really not fair to put that with the Christmas beers. That's my favorite beer of the day for sure.
00:42:41
Speaker
All right, so one more guest. And it's a special guest. It's the man. I'm not gonna give him some crazy cool intro. It's my fucking dad.
00:42:54
Speaker
Roger Golic. I was going to say the man, the myth, the legend. But that's just in his head. It's just my dad. Hi, dad. Hi, Bo. Welcome to the show. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Thanks for coming by. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I surprised my friend. You didn't realize your watch. That thing is spectacular. Yeah. Show the camera. Show the camera your bling. Oh, yeah. Bling. Don't hate them, man.
00:43:15
Speaker
I don't hate the player, hate the game. Thank you for joining us. Oh man, that was good. Yeah, that is shiny. I hope the camera can pick it up. You might have just actually broke the lens from the...
00:43:33
Speaker
Um, so you have never been on this show. No. Welcome. And like I said, when we were driving here, I asked you if I've told you and I'm pretty sure I did, right? Yeah. Yeah. You knew I was doing this. All right. Well, now you're a guest. So you officially made it and eventually we'll have you on, uh, another episode, as I was just telling you outside, we took the break because, uh, as we did with Jeff before we did the old man, the old man beers, Jeff, the old man. Yes. The one over there. Hi, Jeff.
00:44:02
Speaker
The association guy. The old man beer. Yeah, we'll do that because there's plenty of those we still need to tackle. That would have been a fun one to film the first one. We're just talking about this outside. We did Hams. We did Schlitz. We did PBR. We did Old Style and High Life.
00:44:20
Speaker
So there's like regular M.G.D., you said, what, old Milwaukee? Old Milwaukee. We can do a whole, we can do a whole malt liquor. Well, what I was thinking in my head would be funny is to bring in like the, have you seen the PBR hard coffee now? Yeah, you know what, it's now, is available in Chicago yet? Yeah. Where? Like the- Keep checking Juul for it. The liquor store probably did- The liquor store off the street has it. Does it? Yeah. Because I know there were test marketing in other places and I didn't know it was available in Chicago yet. No, I'm pretty sure you can get it. Ooh, yeah, I want to try that. A coffee PBR.
00:44:51
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that's the same way I feel about it. But it's like one of those things it's like, well, I gotta try it. Last night at Fishman's, they just ran out of the Les Jus from Alarmus that had the coffee in it. And I went to order it. She was like, oh, the keg just blew. And I was so pissed because I went for the Great Lakes. No, not Great Lakes. Who does the Yeti?
00:45:14
Speaker
Great Divide. Great Divide. They're strong, you know, hibernation. Yep. That was, and Gus told me that it was a 2016, uh, Braille Age version of it. It's really good. I was, I was, I was like, maybe... Bears update. Uh, anyways, so...
00:45:31
Speaker
Do you have a favorite Christmas beer that you drink? A favorite Christmas beer? What's your favorite beer? How about this? What's your favorite beer to drink in general? I'm not saying like, hey, got me a dirty 30 because that's what I want to pay. I'm saying what's like, if you had a choice of any beer you can drink, what's your favorite beer to drink? Probably Old Style. Old Style? Yeah.
00:45:54
Speaker
It's a good choice. Or Miller. Any Miller, or just M.G.D.? No, just M.G.D., regular. It's a rough one. I don't really care for M.G.D., but I'm figuring it would be on the next Old Man Beer podcast. Yeah, probably. Right? It seems like that was the first beer I ever drank, do you know that? I mean, other than when I was like a baby and you gave me old style. Yeah, right. Which is a true story. And Johnny's bottle. Yeah. Here you go, son. Go to sleep. Old style. That's for another day. This won't ruin the rest of your life.
00:46:23
Speaker
No. Or will it? MGE was the first beer that I ever tried. Me, Kevin, and John Brady at Kevin Goggins' house when I was in grade school. It was the first beer I tried.
00:46:38
Speaker
We don't need your confessions. Mine was good enough. So I'm going to grab another beer. It's another Sam Adams beer. As I said in the last episode, I bought the mix pack and I love all those beers. But this one I'm choosing because I think maybe you might like it. Because you gave a weird face to it when I mentioned it.
00:46:58
Speaker
So this is, and I don't think you've had this one. I didn't mean it, or maybe you did. This is the Samuel Adams chocolate bok. Chocolate. Yeah, so there's chocolate in this. I'll read the, didn't relax, I'll read the description. It says, chocolate bok, rich and decadent. This rich, decadent bok has a big multi-character with the added sweetness of chocolate, extended aging on a bed of cocoa nibs in parts of smooth, complex flavor and a velvety finish.
00:47:26
Speaker
Sounds like a sexy Saturday night. Yeah, it does. So this is the point of the podcast where Tony takes his pants off. I'll start with you. Ooh. Looks good. You know, actually, I thought I gave you a nice pour. I thought it was going to be darker. So did I. It's like red. Well, it's a bok. I was thinking of it. I thought, yeah, you guys get the spit pour. I thought it was going to be more stout colored.
00:47:59
Speaker
Yeah, it is definitely, it's got that reddish hue. Ooh, doesn't it? It's more like a deep brown. Yeah, it almost looks like a nut brown, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry, Jeff. Oh, Jesus. It's not bad. A whole bunch of it. You got it over your finger. Lick it! Oh, I got this. Here we go. Um, you didn't, it doesn't really smell like chocolate. No? Oh, you get it there. No. We get it there. I mean, a little bit. It kind of smells like... It has a little taste of chocolate.
00:48:26
Speaker
Very little. Kinda smells like cocoa. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, cocoa. I get roasty in chocolate, like actual chocolate and cocoa nibs, like not like Hershey's syrup or chocolate bar, but like.
00:48:39
Speaker
Pint of chocolate. It's good. This I can drink. You like that one? Yeah, and you know me, I don't like Bach. No, you don't. That's 5.8% too. Bach, he makes good music, man. Nope, don't rip on Bach. Johann Sebastian Bach. I like how everyone sits here, they want to see it. That's great. Yeah, it's a good one. So that's also found in their winter mix pack.
00:49:03
Speaker
and I think it's been a while since I've had the chocolate box and I like trying all these beers again after really getting more into craft beers and revisiting beers that help form my taste really without even realizing it and this is one of them so it's tasty. Yeah this kind of reminds me of the beer when I first met my wife.
00:49:29
Speaker
Cindy. Just for the record, I thought you were going to say your wife and then it'd be my mom. No, no, no. Cindy is my stepmom. Thanks for going there. I mean, we were sitting at a bar and she was doing this on the bottom. I said, what are you doing? She says, I'm thinking about my boyfriend. I said, oh, don't you ever think about me? She goes, yeah.
00:49:54
Speaker
Oh, God. Oh, geez. That's a joke for Nate, by the way. Oh, my God. So my face is beet red right now. For those just listening and haven't watched the video or seen the video, you know what? I'm going to let you watch the video for that joke. I'm not even going to try and explain it. But I'm sure you can figure it out. That was pretty good, Dad. Thanks.
00:50:19
Speaker
I think it's Christmas. Why not? Why not a dick joke? Right, right. Why not? Yeah. It's not just sort of a little something there. And for you, it clearly is a little something. Oh, boom, boom, boom. But overall, what do you guys think of this one? I like this one. It's good? Yeah, I like it.
00:50:42
Speaker
It's not really heavy. I can drink this anytime, really. Yeah, I mean, again, this is one of those things that- You see, now I got more chocolate teeth. Yeah, it's definitely the more you get into it, the more prominent. And I guess this warms up.
00:50:58
Speaker
You know, it's probably really good. It would be, well, picking the chocolate. But what I was going to say is this is one of those beers, like it's a chocolate box or Chicago. Is it Christmas or not? Like, I don't necessarily know. Like if somebody gave this to me in like the spring, it'd be like, oh, yeah, chocolate. Yeah. Easter beer. Yeah. What? Chocolate beer for Easter. When's Easter this year? Because we can revisit the food. Let's ask our producer. Can you look at when Easter is coming up?
00:51:27
Speaker
I need a solid answer, Clark. No guesses, OK? I was going to guess the 16th. The answer is the 12th. Ah, excellent. So. Are you serious, Clark? What's the date on there? Goodbye. Well, it just says April. Oh, perfect. So, well, here's the good news. The other one I brought, I'm leaving it with you. It's yours. So, save it, drink it, whatever you want. Because I was, had I not drank the other old Fuzzy Wig, I was going to leave this one with you, but I had to drink it. It's so good.
00:51:55
Speaker
Yeah, I think overall this is having it included in the winter pack. I think it makes sense. Yeah. Chocolate holidays. Chocolate personalities. Sure. Christmas beer. Chocolate for Easter. Yeah. Jesus loves chocolate. Chocolate for Halloween. Chocolate for summer. Make it a s'mores beer. Ooh. Ooh. You know what? I had a really, I almost did something today when I had the regular bottle of bourbon county and when I was at
00:52:24
Speaker
The grocery store today, I saw Life Cereal, but it was Gingerbread Life Cereal, and I thought, what if we poured some bourbon county over there to head to Gingerbread Bourbon County? Have that for breakfast. Well, Dad, you have not been here for some of the beer concoctions that we've put together. A lot of breakfast cereal beers, trust me. What did you see? I think it was Fulton released it. They did a release of their brunch style,
00:52:52
Speaker
Like it was a test, it was a Bourbon County brunch stout that was like a test batch. Oh really? And like, and all these beer trading groups, people were trading these bottles that were like unmarked and it says like, you know, for employees only, like if they were given to employees for like, you know, testing this beer and it ended up being a brunch stout with like cinnamon and like maple and coffee.
00:53:18
Speaker
And I guess they, everyone liked the test batch, so they had, I think they had a keg of it that they released at Fulton. This is Goose Island. He's talking about, by the way, if you couldn't tell from the Bourbon County and Fulton reference. Yeah, that would be a great variant. I hope they do that next year. Yeah. I would buy that for sure. Yeah. It looks like the other one that they did that I never got to, it was like their Nutella.
00:53:41
Speaker
Oh, really? Ooh, hazelnut and chocolate? Yeah. Oh, that'd be great. Yeah. I think of that like a bourbon barrel aged stout. So you already got like the bourbon, the vanilla, the oakiness, stout, roastiness. And then you throw the Nutella and the, or the hazelnut and chocolate in there. How about apple butter? Apple butter.
00:54:00
Speaker
I'll go to the R&D apartment. Clark, I would like you to start formulating a apple butter beer. Honest. Thank you. Apple and beer, I love. As long as it's not that green apple. What had, like, there's like a... Who makes it? It was an apple brandy stout. Oh, that sounds good. Yeah. Yeah, something like that would be good. Peanut butter stouts are a thing, too. There's still so many things I need to... Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie, yeah. We were talking about that, like a pumpkin pie. There's plenty of pumpkin beers. In our Halloween episode, we actually struggled to get
00:54:31
Speaker
pumpkin beers. Normally there are pumpkin beers all around. I'm just saying the things that I made recently. That would be good in a beer. Apple butter I made. I made pumpkin pie jelly. Pumpkin pie jelly. I eat that. Jam. What else have you baked this year that you think would be good?
00:54:54
Speaker
Oh hell, kalachis, no, no. You do kalachis? Yeah. That's more just berries and pastry and berries. Berries. Berries. Berries, yeah. That's good. We talked about the cinnamon roll. That's still happening. Cinnamon roll. So yeah, we'll let you know when we do that one, because we're going to team up with our friend Stephanie, Stephanie of Fanny's. I love cinnamon. We're going to get actual cinnamon rolls and put it into the beer.
00:55:21
Speaker
so that it's all those sugars and cinnamon and vanilla and all that stuff goes right into it. Oh, you make it cinnamon rolls. Yeah, these are Fanny cinnamon rolls, dad. They're kind of a big deal. Probably not as good as mine. Ooh, sounds like a bake-off with Stephanie. You heard it here first, folks. My dad versus Stephanie from Fanny's cinnamon roll bake-off. Be here. The only one I do want to try is I want to do a Biscoff stout.
00:55:46
Speaker
Ooh, that would be really good. Every time I see Biskoff at Jewel, I always want to just grab something I never do. I regret it every time. That's why, like, when I fly, you know, when I fly for work or whatever.
00:55:56
Speaker
You know, it's American Airlines. They either give you the Biscoffs or the Pretzels. When I get the Pretzels, I'm like, son of a bitch. Just give me the Biscoffs. They're so good. All right, let's see. So we did that. We did this. We technically have one more beer left. And I don't know if we can all fit into the frame. But if you guys want to come to the side or something, we can get in. The beers are driving us.
00:56:27
Speaker
So, the very last beer that I have for us today... Oh yeah, you can pause the game. See? Oh, Jeff is smiling. I don't care. Welcome, I'm Jeff. Here he comes. Jeff just rolled under the... Oh, am I supposed to go under there? No. No, it's my dad dropping it. Holy nope. Welcome. You don't have pants on. I don't. There's no pants. Is Clark in this shot? Clark's in this shot, right? Microphone, I'm gonna just turn them... Oh, no, we can't. We're just gonna go like this. So the very last beer that...
00:56:57
Speaker
we're gonna drink today is Sierra Nevada's Celebration Fresh Hop IPA. It is as much of a standard of Christmas beers as the Great Lakes, as Anchors, as most Christmas beers that you can think of. This one comes out around November, and I waited this year not to buy it right away. Actually, when we sent our wheat beer to Basic Brewing Radio, I sent it in a bottle of this. That's all I had. It is
00:57:26
Speaker
We'll go ahead and read. Why don't you read? I'm going to open it up. All right. And two bottles. We first brewed celebration IPA in the winter of 1981. Each year we use only the first fresh hops of the growing season to create this complex and robust ale. Layered pine and citrus hop aromas balance delicately against rich malt sweetness to shape this bold wintertime classic. This one clocks in at 6.8%
00:57:53
Speaker
Oh, so this is not your standard Christmas beer. Mainly because, you're blowing up over there, mainly because it does not have, that's how you get a job, mainly because it does not have the spices that you, that we've tried in all these other Christmas beers.
00:58:11
Speaker
This is actually just a, as he explained, a wet hop fresh IPA. And it kind of marks the end of growing season, I would imagine, right? For some hops or picking hops before they go and be packaged for brewers all around the world.
00:58:29
Speaker
I could be wrong about that. I'm actually just making that up, I think, as it goes. It sounded good, though. It sounded like you already know what you're saying. That's pretty much what this whole show is about. I was pretending like we know what we're saying. Let's give a smell. Good. Smells like an IPA. There it is. Kind of piney. Ooh.
00:58:52
Speaker
Oh, man, that's so good. That's like that's a lot of fun I haven't had and it's piney without being really bitter then I can drink what do you think this one Jeff? Very nice. No, I think this is Yeah, yeah, I mean It is very fresh. I think that this
00:59:12
Speaker
Has that, as I was saying before with the, which beer was it? The tea, like herbal? Fessy Wig. Yeah, Fessy Wig, like that herbalness. That kind of holds true through here. And you get the pine resinous flavor without it being like super bitter. And it's, looks like an IPA. And it doesn't look like... It's not bitter at all. No.
00:59:33
Speaker
funny because i remember i thought i remember this being a bitter beer yeah it's funny because this is not like if i tasted this any other time of the year i wouldn't immediately associate it with like christmas but that kindiness is kind of what does it yeah it's like
00:59:48
Speaker
Not like an actual pine beer. Spruce tips. My arch nemesis, the spruce tip beer. There's only been one spruce tip beer that I liked and I don't remember what it is. There's one spruce tip beer in particular I didn't like. Thanks, Shorts. Wasn't the one that I got from Block 15?
01:00:12
Speaker
The Black 15 spruce to beer was delicious. By the way, I love short-spruing. That might be the one beer from shorts that you haven't liked. Yeah, everything else. Man, we haven't had a shorts beer on this. Who's fault is that?
01:00:26
Speaker
the producer. Take a big one. Take a big well. Okay. Well, that's pretty much it. That's a good one. I think that's a good beer to add. Oh, and thanks to Dave. Dave Fox. David Fox. This was his recommendation. I was thinking about it, but specifically because he said it. That's why I got it. So Dave Fox, here is your 15 seconds of fame on the malting hour. Like I promised on Facebook, David Fox suggested this beer.
01:00:56
Speaker
That's David Fox. Thanks, Dave. Thanks, Dave. This is it, right? Yeah. This is it for the year. Well, we'll move on to the report. You guys ain't going to do a New Year's one? No, man. This is the end of the year. Who else is going to be so far? Check the calendar. Check the calendar. We might have to do a New Year's one. Any beer resolutions? Beer resolutions. I would like to
01:01:23
Speaker
What I tried to do last year, which was not buy and just brew, I'd like to really follow through on that more this year and only maybe buy stuff for the show and that's it. What about you, Brandon? Any brew year resolutions? I mean, that would be a good one to try to start doing, well, at least start doing more brewing. Definitely get that.
01:01:44
Speaker
Cinnamon stout cinnamon roll stout done because I definitely want to do that. Yeah, I don't want to do it before like it gets too warm Yeah, I think that's a lot to wait till next year. I think it's a January January brew maybe and here in Chicago. It's it stays cold until June. Yeah. Yeah What about you dad any brew years revolutions resolutions
01:02:08
Speaker
Oh yeah, I'm going to drink more beer. Perfect call. That's a good one. That's my dad, everyone. Clark, brew your resolution. I was thinking about this the other day. It started when I bought strawberry jacket, and you didn't pick it up as much today because I think some of the barrels worn off already. But when I first drank it, I went, eh, I don't really like that. And I think it was because there was more barrel in there than I actually liked. And it isn't necessarily because I don't like barrels.
01:02:30
Speaker
it's because I don't understand why or what it's supposed to taste like. So I'm going to try to understand why, especially barrel-aged beers taste a certain way and try to enjoy them more because of that. Like Ryway to Heaven Revolution. I got one of those yesterday. I'm going, ah, that's not very good. But then I read the description. I'm going, oh, it's supposed to be like that. And I shouldn't just say, oh, I don't like it because it tastes like something I am not used to. I should try and understand the beer better.
01:02:58
Speaker
How about that? Geez, that's pretty bad. That sounds good. And I agree with that. I'll do the same thing. Yeah, I think so. I'm really tired of this. Yeah, yeah. Because I don't understand the barrel either. You know what I think we should do is maybe we'll go ahead and get together with you and drink some of those Braille Age beers with you. Oh. And we'll dissect it and learn with you. Like a double barrel? A double barrel. I have one of those. Oh, you do? Really? Why don't you run to the car right now and grab it? Oh, yeah, it's still not.
01:03:22
Speaker
It's not Chills. Oh, it's not here. The guy's bringing it. The guy's
New Year's Resolutions and Brewing Techniques
01:03:26
Speaker
bringing it? The guy's bringing your own man. Are you talking about your sons? It's a man. Are your sons driving the car? We have not enough of your idea. They're fine. Alright, uh, Jeffrey, what about you? Any Bruyere's resolutions?
01:03:37
Speaker
Yes, I think I'd like to pay just a little bit more attention to your technique. Not so much the materials that are going in as the purpose and the math that you're doing with it. As far as brewing. Yes. Oh, all right. Well, you're the
01:03:57
Speaker
one of the second-hand best brewers I have. I washed the crap off, so I'm really good at that. When it comes to when I was brewing with Mike all the time, that was me. Now, I've got my own. Brandon and I just do everything together, so that's a team there. I have a Jeff. Brewers, give yourself a Jeff.
01:04:23
Speaker
I keep thinking I'm knocking into glasses down here and I'm just, I'm kicking, I'm gonna go ahead. I know we're almost done, but. Ooh, you're doing fine. Anyway.
Show Appreciation and Goodbyes
01:04:34
Speaker
Thank you guys for being on the show. Yeah, thanks guys. This was a lot of fun. It's the first time we've crammed a whole bunch of people like this for the video and around two microphones. It's only our second time doing the videos. It was true. Hey, you guys might be seeing this in February. Who knows? We don't know when the video's coming out.
01:04:49
Speaker
Ah, but Brandon. Merry Christmas. Brandon, cheers buddy. Love you man. Everybody else, cheers. Cheers. Jeff, Clark. Cheers. Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy New Year. Happy anything else that we missed. And we'll see you in the new year. Cheers guys. Have a bless.
Credits and Music Highlights
01:05:13
Speaker
Music for this episode is provided by Fluid Minds. You can find them at fluidmindsmusic.com. You can also find their music streaming on Spotify, iTunes, and anywhere music is streaming. Big thanks to LSD for that Christmas song, exclusive release right here for the podcast. Thank you. LSD, by the way, is spelled E-L-L-I-S, Space D. You can find them on SoundCloud, Spotify, and I believe iTunes. Go ahead and check them out. They're also on Facebook and Instagram.
01:05:39
Speaker
Thanks everyone for an incredible year for the podcast. We look forward to next year. Happy holidays. Cheers.