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LGP 65 - AVO Syncro Nicaragua 10th Anniversary
25 Plays6 months ago
This week, we try out the 10th Anniversary edition of Davidoff's Avo Syncro Nicaragua!
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome back. ah This Let's Get Pairing. I'm Tripp. ah Today, we're going to be smoking a cigar. Finally. It's been three long weeks of agony for me that I've been i've been down with the sickness.
00:00:13
Speaker
Back from the dead, man. But I'm back, yes. That's right. I've smoked two cigars in the last three weeks, and both of them were this weekend. um This is number three right here. We're smoking the Avo Synchro Nicaragua 10th Anniversary.
00:00:28
Speaker
I'll get it to focus when we come back from the, the intro video. Um, but for now, grab yourself cigar, grab yourself drink. Let's get
00:00:52
Speaker
And we're back. I just missed having that on camera. Dennis. It was very funny. Um, i you know I try to be funny what when I can. Usually it's off camera. Usually. But, you know, I'm the same way.
00:01:04
Speaker
ah Welcome back, everybody. This is episode number 65 of Let's Get Pairing. I'm your host, Tripp, here in my own studio ah with cool posters, cool signs in the back. I got more stuff that I have to put up eventually.
00:01:15
Speaker
ah But, you know, that's a thing for another day. Here's my co-host, Dennis, as always. Dennis, how are you doing this evening? Good to be back. I'm... It is so good to be back.
00:01:26
Speaker
It has felt like some kind of a strange time loop where even you and I were just catching up and haven't had a chance to catch up on, you know, life and things and work and all this stuff. It's so it's we stepped through this weird time warp.
00:01:39
Speaker
So it's kind of good to be back, man. I'm excited. I'm excited for this cigar to me too. ah Yeah. And just to give people context for that, we talk like, don't know, we talk every other day, usually like just over chat, but usually we're sending each other memes and uh classic shit shit posting uh yeah just shit post stuff oops so not songs about poop but songs that are listened to while playing in bathroom that happen to be playing yeah while you're in bathroom but are like the time that we catch up is the 30 or so minutes before and after the show on sundays so like we feel like we aren't talking
00:02:18
Speaker
when when we have a ah period of downtime like that but i was sick well actually first you were sick and i was sick first and it just it was the whole thing you know uh but we're back welcome everybody thank you for uh hanging out and waiting for us uh we were smoking the avo synchro nicaragua 10th anniversary tonight.
Avo Cigar Company Origins
00:02:39
Speaker
So, uh, let me give you a little history on Ava for anybody who isn't aware.
00:02:43
Speaker
Um, so it was started by jazz pianist, Ava Uvezian. Um, in the eighties, he, there's a specific story that he always told, which is that in the eighties, he, I think it was 83.
00:02:56
Speaker
Um, he went to Switzerland for the christening of his granddaughter or daughter. I think granddaughter, um, And they were celebrating and he ordered a Cuban cigar at a restaurant or something and, uh, was sticker shocked by how much it costs. And since then he kind of started going around saying like, man, Cuban cigars are way too expensive. It's crazy.
00:03:18
Speaker
I want a cigar that I can smoke all the time. That doesn't cost what a Cuban cigar costs. Um, so he kind of had the idea of starting his own cigar company to do that rising costs. Um,
00:03:30
Speaker
A little bit later on, he spent about... he's but you know He spent a couple years just thinking about it. Then he spent about two years searching for a factory in the Dominican Republic after conversation he had with a friend. And his friend was like, dude, just make your own cigars.
00:03:43
Speaker
um But he spent about two years looking for a factory and couldn't find anybody who was making like exactly what he was looking for. um He happened to meet Hanky Kellner. They became friends.
00:03:54
Speaker
Hanky started making them test blends. And reportedly... He tasted the first test blends and was and went, Hanky, I'm going to pay you 25% over what you quoted me because this is that good and want to make sure the quality is perfect. um So he started making cigars in 1987 as Avo Cigar Company.
00:04:14
Speaker
um Initially, they were kind of just mostly for personal use for him. ah From what I read the first year, they sold about 5,000 of them in Davidoff stores, which is not a lot. That's a pretty small amount.
00:04:29
Speaker
of, uh, cigars to produce. Um, by the end of the eighties, they were making half a million cigars, um, and doing very well. I read somewhere that they were exclusively available at Davidoff for a very long time, like until the mid nineties, um, which is about when, uh, in 1995 Davidoff bought the distribution rights for a, uh, what people say was about $10 million. So good for Avvo.
00:04:56
Speaker
ah and AVO was still you know still his brand, his cigars. Davidoff was just doing the distribution for them. um Since then, it's kind of slowly worked its way into the Davidoff portfolio.
00:05:10
Speaker
um I think the kind of end of that was right around when this cigar came out, when they rebranded AVO cigars in 2014. Sorry, the original version of this cigar, I mean.
00:05:22
Speaker
Of course, in 2017, AVO pass um at, I can't remember his age, I think he was 95. He lived a a good long life of playing jazz mostly in the 50s before he went on to being a a cigar mogul.
00:05:38
Speaker
ah Davidoff since then has kind of continued to honor his legacy by creating new additions to the Avo brand, continuing some of those limited additions that he had always done. the um Man, I can't remember the name all of a sudden.
00:05:54
Speaker
improvisation series um they've continued that uh kind of on and off um they you know they just have been continuing in the the legacy of ava uvasian um so which brings us to the ava synchro nicaragua it was released 10 years ago in 2015 it was the first ava cigar uh to use nicaraguan tobacco um And the they say to kind of focus on Nicot Rogwin tobacco, but as far as they released it only, oh my God, what do you have there?
00:06:27
Speaker
It only really had Ometepe tobacco in it, one leaf of Nicaraguan tobacco. This one, I think, is a little bit
Avo Synchro Nicaragua Cigar
00:06:35
Speaker
different. So for Cigar Nicaragua's 10th anniversary, they released this new limited edition blend, um swapping out the Dominican binder on the original version for Nicaraguan, um getting rid of the Peruvian filler that used to be in there, um and from what I've read, using more Nicaraguan tobacco in the filler.
00:06:54
Speaker
So that brings us to what we got, which is wrapper is Ecuadorian, binder is Nicaraguan, filler is from Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. And it comes in this very cool size of a box pressed six and five eighths by 50 diadema.
00:07:11
Speaker
like the size a lot. I think it's it's really great for this blend, and off the light, it's so pleasantly toasty with baking spice and just easy to retrohale.
00:07:21
Speaker
It's almost like off the light, it's it's kind of ready to go. yeah Normally, I talk about how a lot of cigars, for me, I kind of don't really get into that full flavor. I don't really...
00:07:34
Speaker
Some cigars I don't even like in the first third, but and it takes time, right? I talk about that a lot. This one comes out, I think, right off the off the light really nicely with a lot of great flavor and also a really nice room note, which it helps. I think for those that don't smoke cigars and if you light a cigar, it kind of helps if you have a very pleasant smelling cigar.
00:07:56
Speaker
true um and i think it's got a really nice balance to it that's kind of always been avos thing is um imo cigars has never really gone for powerhouses they really go for that more i don't know what's what do people call it these days cuban-esque european palette kind of thing there's an elegance to it right yeah they want to elegant yeah um i didn't mention the price point on this is 22 which uh you know that's which is ah you know buts ah that's right. Getting into the super premium kind of territory, but yeah prices are going up, you know, five years ago, that would have been a 16 or $18 cigar.
00:08:32
Speaker
Um, that's just in the nature of, of money these days. Yeah. Fortunately, inflation of the universe. Um, All right. um Well, ah I forgot to mention, this is limited edition. They didn't announce how many boxes were made, so we don't know what the production size is.
00:08:51
Speaker
um It came out, as most Avo limited editions do, in April or May um to celebrate Avo's birthday, ah which is May 22nd, I think. um Hence the 22.
00:09:04
Speaker
You'll see a lot of 22s, and I think that's why. all right. Any other thoughts on the cigar before we start getting into pairing here? Really nice retrohale. Actually, I probably did mention that already. Have you tried to retrohale this yet?
00:09:17
Speaker
I have not, and mine just went out because i talk too much. All that pesky talking, huh? Yeah, stupid talking. Don't worry. Mine mine is going to at some point kill itself because I'm smoking it way too fast.
00:09:33
Speaker
As you do. as you As I tend to do.
00:09:37
Speaker
Alright, let me get some flavors off this and talk about what but I'm tasting.
00:09:43
Speaker
How about that nutmeg, huh? Yeah, there's a lot of like cinnamon, nutmeg, little bit of sweetness, little bit of, definitely a little bit of cedar, little bit of leather, little bit of earth.
00:09:57
Speaker
um It's kind of got a little bit of everything, even ah just a hint of like black pepper. It's barely there, but it's just a little bit of black pepper. So let's get into this.
00:10:09
Speaker
Go ahead. Before we get into pairing. I was going to say the black pepper, think, is just enough to help round out all the other flavors and combine them. Yeah. It tends to work really well. It's really just got a really nice balance going on. All right. So let's get into some pairing here. i I'm going to introduce my first pairing.
00:10:26
Speaker
and I'll take couple sips and find out how it works. I actually think it's going to work better than I expected it to. So but growing up in Norfolk, Virginia, Matt Tarney, not Matt Tarpey, rather,
00:10:37
Speaker
ah played in a number of metal bands which i respect um and he got tired of the touring grind he was in a bunch of small metal bands that would play as you know supporting acts and stuff like that for ah part of a leg of a tour he'd be driving all over the place in a van got tired of it started taking ah you know just odd jobs kind of stuff um one of the odd jobs he took was uh Or no, sorry, before that, um while he was taking odd jobs, he got into online bottle trading, which, you know, he he wasn't a super beer guy.
00:11:12
Speaker
um he just kind of saw the ah burgeoning market of online beer trading and decided to get into it. And then he was really enjoying it, started becoming a beer guy because of that.
00:11:25
Speaker
ah So he would buy bottles locally and trade them for stuff and discover cool beers. um And that led him to start volunteering at a local brewery in 2010. So he started volunteering at this brewery, which was, but i I would guess, stuff like carrying grain bags and washing glasses stuff like that. Any kind of odd work you can do.
00:11:48
Speaker
yeah ah But six months later, he was working there. um doing a little bit of brewing, kind of starting to learn the ropes. And that's when he started getting obsessed. So over the next five years, he spent time ah working at a bunch of different breweries. So every every brewery he could get in touch with, he would be like, hey, can I come work with you for a week, a month, a year, two years?
00:12:15
Speaker
He worked at Portsmouth Brewing in New Hampshire for one year. ah He worked at The Alchemist. in Vermont for, uh, I read about a year. It may have been a little longer. Uh, and he also scored a two week internship at Brasserie Cantillon, uh, which is a brewery in Brussels.
00:12:34
Speaker
Um, during his time in Brussels, he learned that, uh, Italian winemakers refer to the, the inner edge of the barrel where it, it kind of, um,
00:12:46
Speaker
it develops a skin from aging stuff in it. And they call that the veil. And that was, he was like, that's it. Very apropos. That was the inspiration for his name.
00:12:58
Speaker
um So in 2016, he founded the veil brewing in Richmond, Virginia, ah with the help of a couple investors. They've gone gangbusters since then. they They ended up buying the building.
00:13:11
Speaker
the The brewery ended up buying the building from the investors that owned it. um And they've now got, I think it's three tap rooms around the the Richmond area.
00:13:23
Speaker
um They've had a ah lot of success, particularly in their New England style IPAs. um I didn't mention as part of the story, but part of the inspiration for him starting a brewery specifically in Richmond was that, well, that's where his investors were.
00:13:38
Speaker
But also he thought like, man, there's none of this stuff that the alchemist is doing available in Richmond. Like sometimes you can get something cool on tap at a tap house, but nobody's making stuff like that here.
00:13:51
Speaker
So that's why he decided going to focus on Hazy's. um They make all sorts of stuff from Belgians to barrel age stuff to Sours.
00:14:04
Speaker
um But Hazy's is kind of where they're Their bread is buttered. That's what put them on the map. And that's what they do really, really well. Um, so I have strange, strange and eternal eternal from them.
00:14:18
Speaker
It's a bizarre name, but it makes sense. If you know that they have a hazy IPA called strange and eternal. I almost said it twice again.
00:14:29
Speaker
That's a really cool label. Yeah. They got, they got great packaging. I think, um, Look at that little stairway kind of walkway to the moon. Pretty cool.
Vodka and Gin Comparison
00:14:40
Speaker
um So this is a double dry hop version of one of their kind of ah core IPAs. um They typically do that a lot where they, they have one of their IPAs and they'll, you know, it does really well, but then they'll do a dry hop version. They'll do an Imperial version. They'll do some kind of other twist on it.
00:15:01
Speaker
Um, So this one is a double dry hop version. It is hopped with Citra, Matueka, Moteca? How do you say that? Matuka? Matuka? I mean, I say Matuka, but I think it's wrong also. I haven't... Every time I hear somebody talk about it they say it differently, so I think it's fine. It's like... People kind of get what you're trying to say at that point.
00:15:22
Speaker
All right. Citra, Matuka, Simcoe, and Mosaic. um Again, those are the same hops that are in the regular version of this, Strange and Eternal. ah But they just also double dry hopped. I think the original one is probably dry hopped.
00:15:35
Speaker
And this one is double dry hopped. So it's just little bit of extra hop bite to it. um As you can see, color is gorgeous there. Just like straight up orange juice with a little bit of lightness.
00:15:47
Speaker
There are some fiddly bits that came out of the can with my last little pour. Fiddly bits. I like that. I think we should keep that. Put that on a t-shirt. Fiddly bits. Fiddly bits. I like it.
00:15:58
Speaker
Uh... right, so I'm going to take couple sips of this. Oh, and I forgot to mention 6% ABV. So this is a very, very drinkable, like classic Northeast. That's fantastic. Yeah. um Going back to the classics, man.
00:16:10
Speaker
Before we get to you, Sam Fennell, good evening, brother. He is smoking a Monte Cristo Classic Series with a vodka martini with three olives. Very nice. I respect it. I'm a gin man myself. if i'm if i'm drinking but ah If I'm drinking a martini, always, always. Gin martini.
00:16:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think once in a while I'll i'll get in the right mood for vodka, but I usually just stick to gin as well. I don't want to offend Sam. Sam, we love you, brother.
00:16:39
Speaker
But what I've always said is vodka is gin with no personality.
00:16:45
Speaker
next it's You know what? i I believed that for a really, really long time until I got into ah it kind of more expressive vodkas. And I don't mean flavored vodkas, but I mean expressive in the sense that the the way that they were produced.
00:17:03
Speaker
And there you can get some pretty flavorful stuff, which is wild. i And again, I think also sometimes at the end of the day, ray vodka is It's a really good carrier fluid for whatever other flavor you want in there.
00:17:18
Speaker
that You know that's actually a point. It's a clean slate for other things. Like you have your olives, you have your olive juice, you have your vermouth, however you want to do it, whatever you want to do with your vodka. You're giving it, your palate, a clean slate and then layering flavor on top of that with something else to make that pop.
00:17:34
Speaker
I never thought about it that way. That could be turning up the volume on those olives a little bit, which I am into. I love olives. Man, every time I say the word olive, I am instantly brought back.
00:17:48
Speaker
Yeah, I love them too. To bizarre meat. love them as well. I want to fly to Vegas right now just to get those olives. The deconstructed and reconstructed olive?
00:18:00
Speaker
Well, that it was like, wasn't olives three ways or two ways? I think it was two ways. So it was it was just classic, like ultra classic olives that were expertly prepared, and then it was the deconstructed, reconstructed olive, which both were incredible.
00:18:16
Speaker
Oh, just fantastic. i Being able to break something down and then recreate the essence of that is very playful, and um you know...
00:18:28
Speaker
I can't think of a connection to cigars. Normally, I have a good like segue into cigars, but we'll say, yeah, it happens with beer. And actually, here's a segue for you. My first beer is a milkshake IPA, and there's a lot of history to that. So perfect, perfect segue.
00:18:45
Speaker
Let me show you what I'm working with. I think by the original definition, mine is also a milkshake IPA. The definition has changed over the years, but I'll let you talk about Well, I'm curious which one you have.
00:18:58
Speaker
No, the one that I'm drinking right now. this but no, no. But I'm saying definition-wise, are you talking about the lactose versus no lactose? No. yeah or I'm talking about no lactose. I'm talking about just the the way that the phrase came about with that critic saying that they're making milkshake IPAs because they're just so full of pectin and and ah texture that he just wants a classic beer. Um...
00:19:26
Speaker
um That was kind of where the word came from. Immediately, there was a completely different connotation with it, and it changed into a style of beer. But by the original definition, it was just a hazy, you know, unfiltered IPA.
00:19:42
Speaker
Popularized by this specific brewery that I'm having beer from. Oh, nice. Oh, it smells so good. It... i Oh man, I wish I could have you experience this with me. I think we'll, in the future, we should figure out a plan to do a side-by-side.
00:19:56
Speaker
We can experience the same thing, but blind in the sense that I pick your pairings, you pick my pairings, we send it to each other, that kind of a deal, and then we hammer it out do that way.
00:20:06
Speaker
So things that maybe I've had you've never had, and I'm going to guide you on this kind of flavor journey, if you will. so So my first pairing of the night, me see if I can get this can to actually show up on camera. Let me clean it off. It's all sweaty.
00:20:23
Speaker
All right. Maybe. yeah there. A little bit. Oh, that's a gross thing. Yeah, it's a very gross thing. I don't know what that's supposed to be, actually.
00:20:35
Speaker
um But this is a Limoncello Milkshake IPA from Tired Handsman. That sounds rad. It's a fun fun can. I... don't remember if they put there i hate when breweries do this is is like this is the weirdest pet peeve put the abv on your what on your sometimes they make it so hard to find and tired hands is i think one of the notorious ones that doesn't i mean it it it legally has to be there somewhere but it can be very difficult to i don't know it maybe there's a little qr there's janky qr code maybe it's if you scan it um
00:21:14
Speaker
This one, i it should be somewhere around 7. It's not on the can. It's on untapped somewhere, but it should be around 7. Yeah, man. So, Tired Hands. There's a lot there's a really a lot to say about Tired Hands because they came up... I guess now they're regarded as the pioneer, if you will, of perpetuating this milkshake IPA concept.
Tired Hands Brewery & Milkshake IPAs
00:21:37
Speaker
They're kind of, yeah, they're kind of one of the breweries that created the Northeast style. They like leaned into it really hard and it became ah namesake for them really in a lot of ways. So Tired Hands originally was founded in 2011 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, which is north, know if it's northeast or northwest of Philadelphia, but it's not far.
00:21:58
Speaker
So founders Jean Burleif IV and Julie Foster came together with this idea that they wanted to do farmhouse beers, experimental beers, beers that used different types of yeast together to form something kind of funky and kind of different and interesting.
00:22:15
Speaker
And, you know, back in the olden days, they they really were just a very small brewery. They were just a cafe style type of brewery. Eventually, they had, ah but you know, eventually they got a proper tap house, brew house, whatever you want to call it, tap room with more space.
00:22:30
Speaker
But when they first started, they were just just doing some janky, hey, let's experiment with this and see what happens. And we know we had that craze back then. it was the perfect timing. Like, I think it was the perfect storm of things that happened essentially leading to what now is considered them, in a sense, inventing you know the concept of a milkshake IPA or leaning into it in a way that was everywhere.
00:22:55
Speaker
It exploded. They did a couple of really great beers. Other people started to figure it out and say, oh, we can do this too. And this boom happened, this massive beer boom that people still talk about today.
00:23:06
Speaker
And it's funny, you and I talk about this as though it was... You know, like the Great War of 1812, remembering, you know, the days when we were on the front lines. It was like that, really.
00:23:18
Speaker
If you were a consumer of beer, of craft beer at that time, and you try to get that beer, whether it was at a tap room, whether it was at the brewery itself, whether it was at a distributor or a store, it was like kind of you're going out into the barren wasteland and you're going to be up against a lot of other people that want that same thing that is in very short supply.
00:23:39
Speaker
And this this is where see people camping in tents, people sitting out for 24 hours in front of a brewery just waiting. Just crazy. I've never done it, but i i all the respect to the people that have, I just couldn't do it. I couldn't justify doing it.
00:23:56
Speaker
same oh But the idea behind this stuff is really it's it's meant to inspire sort of these food-like flavors, right? it's It's beer, but it's supposed to remind you of food in some ways, maybe some cocktails.
00:24:09
Speaker
ah The cocktail thing was a separate craze that happened all in itself. Oh, yeah. But this one is really unique and interesting because it is this funky-like limoncello IPA.
00:24:22
Speaker
No lactose, I should clarify. We need ah one of those cross things, you know, the like i just Like a flag that I can put up on the on the screen every time we have a beer that has no lactose. A little banner warning.
00:24:36
Speaker
Lactose, no lactose. um and I think that's a good distinction ah that you mentioned. It has no lactose. Milkshake IPA doesn't mean lactose. Milkshake IPA, like it like I said before, it really just means a thick, chewy...
00:24:56
Speaker
kind of ah IPA typically has foodie flavors in A lot of them are just vanilla. um They end up being a lot of vanilla stuff. Without lactose. um But yeah the the vanilla thing actually came definitely came later because it's really, ah it's just vanilla flavors remind you of milkshake, which is why people put vanilla in milkshake IPAs.
00:25:21
Speaker
And, you know, to be fair, vanilla is a really great pairing with with the hop profiles. Almost any hop is going go well, save for a couple of really high alpha acid hops. It gives you that... um Like, vanilla has that orange sickle thing, where there doesn't need him any lactose whatsoever, but it gives the feel of cream, of, like, rich, creamy, um kind of milky flavors.
00:25:48
Speaker
um And this is... And just a little vanilla does that. Yeah, absolutely. And so this is kind of the... We talk about hazy IPAs. That leftover body matching with that vanilla, combined with that vanilla, should say, leaves this...
00:26:02
Speaker
Very interesting, creamy essence. It's a very different experience from your classic IPAs that we've been used to. Hazy's aside, because that's separate, I think, sub-genre or adjacent genre of a similar thing.
00:26:16
Speaker
i would I would call Milkshake is a is a subset of Hazy. Milkshake typically includes fruit or vanilla. One of the two.
00:26:28
Speaker
And we've seen all kinds of weird stuff, too. We've seen not just fruit, but we've seen milkshake IPAs with savory ingredients, too. Not many, but a couple been bold enough to try. i don't think they did well, but certainly worth a shot to try, right?
00:26:43
Speaker
um Tired Hands, I should mention also, if you're not familiar with Tired Hands, on the East Coast, specifically Tri-State area, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, they... Everyone loves Tired Hands.
00:26:54
Speaker
It is like the, it's the thing to get. It's one of the coveted breweries. They're not many. I think they're five or six. I was going to say there's probably five in, in like, not just the tri-state area, but all of New England that are, that are the guys for when it comes to New England IPA.
00:27:12
Speaker
Yeah. Tired Hands is probably at the top of that. Tired Hands, you have Treehouse. um Other Half is big for that as well. Going up north into New England, there are... ah there's one. I can't remember the name, but... Yeah.
00:27:29
Speaker
Essentially, there are a ton. So I kind of purposely wanted to hit a Milkshake IPA because I expected it to be... I've had this beer already, so I i kind of expected it to work well with the cigar, the nuance, that the... What we call delicate earlier. Mm-hmm.
00:27:44
Speaker
Delicate, maybe. What else we call It it was ah elegant. That's what it was. Elegant. So I thought in the first third, even if there are any off flavors, if there's any harshness, if there's any ramp up time that's required, the the beer would kind of pull that off a little bit. you know Anything off might kind of get lost and in translation in a good way, thanks to the hop profile and that milky milkshakeness of it.
00:28:10
Speaker
Again, no lactose, but yeah, man. How was your first pairing going for you? Great. um I think this is one of the better IPAs I've ever had with a cigar.
00:28:23
Speaker
um Just because it's got like that. I mean, there's four different hops. It's double dry hopped. It's got hop bite, but not that this is that that Northeast IPA, New England IPA, whatever you want to call it, um bite where it's it's more of a It's more of a sharpness to the hops.
00:28:47
Speaker
The bitterness is sharp, and then it's gone. It's very short finish on that bitterness. Not like a West Coast IPA, where it feels like you're licking a Nintendo Switch cartridge. That's so specific.
00:28:58
Speaker
And it's weird, because I actually understand what you're saying. If you've ever licked a Nintendo Switch cartridge, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Man, I had to... Again, I've been sick. I had to take some... ah I even remember what the pill was. so Some steroid to try to get rid of stuff.
00:29:16
Speaker
And it was the bitterest thing I've ever tasted. It just, I took the pill and then an hour later I could still taste it. Prednisone. That's the word. That's the one. um But like, I was shocked by how long the bitterness lasted.
00:29:30
Speaker
That's West Coast IPA stock. This is more that like, it's bitter for a second then it's gone. It's very, very soft on the palate, which, again, like really lends itself well to pairing with a cigar, because as we've talked about for 10 years now, the ah bitter IPAs, those West Coast style ones, very typically don't work as well with cigars because it is There's there is or there was ah West Coast IPA called Palette Wrecker.
00:30:02
Speaker
I remember. And that, yeah, man, that is what I think of when I pair a West coast IPA with a cigar, it destroys your palate. You're completely inundated with the flavor of the hops that resin, that loop. And, um, and you can't really taste the cigar.
00:30:18
Speaker
Something like this gives you a little taste of that, but you can still taste your cigar. There's like a creaminess to the beer, um, that ah just, just makes it work really well with the cigar.
00:30:29
Speaker
Are you almost done with that? Yeah, dude. I've been pounding this thing because it's so good and it works so well with this cigar. Shout out to Heartland Brewery. This glass from...
00:30:42
Speaker
Back in the day when you we would take glasses because, hey, there's so many more that are made and available. Let me just take this glass. even have this That's always been my rule. You leave an extra five bucks, you can take the glass, right? Yeah. Well, I figured it's fine because the glasses, they do circulate. they Sorry, they... What's the word? regular they they update replace them regularly to make sure... ah Even if they're not broken, they actually get rid of them in most places.
00:31:09
Speaker
Especially if it's like Guinness, let's say, right? Guinness... it starts fading, once it starts getting that white effect where like the the silk screen is rubbing off, they talk... And that's part of part of what the reps do. They come in and they make sure, how are the faucets looking? Do you need new tap handles? do you Are your faucets okay? Do you need coasters, fresh coasters or glasses?
00:31:29
Speaker
They always make sure that stuff is is top of mind. So... Yeah, this is from Heartland Brewery. i don't need I don't think this beer exists. i don't know if the brewery exists. It's probably done, but... Isn't it crazy how many breweries don't exist anymore?
00:31:44
Speaker
i was looking... not as crazy. I was thinking... Next year is going to be the year that I was digging through the liquor cabinet today trying to figure out what am I going pair.
00:31:55
Speaker
I didn't pair anything in that entire cabinet, by the way. Um... As one does. Yeah. It's, you know, it's like cigars where like you can look through your entire humidor and be like, not pick a single thing. There's nothing here that I want.
00:32:08
Speaker
I want that one that fell out last week and it's been laying on the floor. Yeah. um That's right. Where was I going with that? Oh, I have a bottle of 2016 Cascade Freak that ah i I saw it and I was like, man, I forgot I had that.
00:32:24
Speaker
But I'm going to one more year. I'm going to drink it next fall. When it's Creek season from a brewery that's been gone for three, two or two or three years at that point.
00:32:35
Speaker
um And once it's been in the bottle for 10 years, I think that's pretty cool. Anyway, we in Florida. We are going on a cascade adventure, ah hunt, if you will, to find the last remaining cans.
00:32:51
Speaker
They're still out there. i've I've seen a couple at total line of some of the stuff that i didn't enjoy as much. um I want the Flemish. That's mine. That Flemish is good. My happy place.
00:33:02
Speaker
Speaking of, I'm going to go off on a little tangent here. um So, I've talked ad nauseum. That's where I got this beer, Tavor.
00:33:14
Speaker
ah they Can they sponsor the show, please? I wish they would. That'd be great. um That would be great because we're featuring their beer all the time. But we're about to I'm about to feature their beer a lot more.
00:33:25
Speaker
i have talked before about how Freem, the brewery in Oregon, one of my favorite
Freem Brewery's Barrel-Aged Beers
00:33:31
Speaker
breweries in the world. They make a fantastic Pilsner. I love Freem. Their barrel aging program is second to none. um They have a quarterly program, $130.
00:33:39
Speaker
You get 12 bottles of barrel-aged stuff. bottles of barrelage stuff They change it out every every quarter, and they're they're giving you their there stuff that's coming out at the grocery stores and everything. They're giving you stuff that's only available to the people in the club.
00:33:55
Speaker
$120. Yeah, and i thought I always thought I wish I had done that. Today, they have partnered with Tavor, and I can now get it shipped to my house on the opposite side of the country.
00:34:07
Speaker
That's cool. So in a couple weeks, months, I don't know when the next shipment's going to be, but I'm going have a big old pile of barrel-aged frame stuff um 12 bottles barrel aged frame it seems like a steal to go for that that's a great deal 12 bottles what size they're probably 12 12 ounce most of them are 12 ounce yeah yeah or 500 mil like same thing okay not bad but again the barrel aged stuff is not one of those beers that generally you're sharing that stuff you're not just hammering through two bottles in a setting in a city oh definitely oh definitely it's a lot of like 12 15 stuff
00:34:46
Speaker
um yeah They also, just to give them ah another little shout out, they they also have they have the Cellar Club, which is the cellared stuff. And then they also have the Artisan Club, which is kind of their they more classic styles, um which is a mix of stuff from them.
00:35:02
Speaker
Man, I'm excited ah because I did not expect to... I was actually looking for this beer to figure out where I had got it and when I had got it and stuff.
00:35:16
Speaker
And I searched through my email and I saw that and I was like, oh my God, ah got to sign up. Because I never did it while I was in Oregon because I would have had to drive to the brewery to pick it up, which was an hour and a half.
00:35:27
Speaker
that all That's annoying, too. I really... um man. I get it. I understand. Distribution is really tough. Jersey has the same kind of a problem. Yeah. Where there are breweries in Jersey that just don't have the distribution, but they make great beer.
00:35:40
Speaker
And they you just have to go there. that's the only That's the only way to get it. You have to go there. have to stay in the line or on the line or... yeah What do you say? You're from the West Coast, right?
00:35:51
Speaker
Technically, former former East Coast, West Coast, back East Coast. I've always said inline. Inline? Online is, ah as far as I understand, it's specifically in New York. Is it? Okay. i don't like because If you're from the boroughs, it is... People look at me weird when I say online.
00:36:09
Speaker
Standing online. That's because you can tell they didn't come from the boroughs. There you go. Yeah. sad yeah i did I just wanted to give a shout out to that because I was so excited when I saw that email. I had to sign up so I can get some free barrel-aged stuff because I love it.
00:36:24
Speaker
right. Now, second pairing time. This is one that I've gone back to over and over again. And I closed the tab. Please hold. This man, i need ah I need a prompter for my notes because I'm such a jumbled mess.
00:36:42
Speaker
need one of those cool like see-through ones. You know what talking about? Yeah. one way The one-way prompters. Let me give you a little bit of Chinese-y advice. but ah You can buy one of those.
00:36:53
Speaker
ah You just stick like an iPad your phone in and it will telepromp. Like it's just a box with a mirror a certain angle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, um, um, um oh, oh, hold on.
00:37:07
Speaker
I'm having and not having a stroke, I promise. It's an effect. The classic mirror projection effect. yeah There's a name for it. It's very popular in magic. it's rap Something ghost.
00:37:19
Speaker
Isn't it? i don't remember Some lady's ghost name. But yeah, that angled the angled mirror and painted glass thing um is very popular. and that's how they did a lot of projections to the Haunted Mansion and couple other things.
00:37:35
Speaker
yeah Anyway. I got a pairing that I've been going back to for a while. And man, I just took a sip while you were talking and I think it's going to work. um yeah This is a blue note juke joint whiskey.
Blue Note Juke Joint Whiskey
00:37:47
Speaker
Oh yeah, man. Cool. This is made by BBR distilling company founded in 2014 in Memphis, Tennessee, ah which is, I always have to mention this because it's wild that it was, they're founded in 2014, making them the oldest licensed distillery in the state.
00:38:03
Speaker
Sorry, the oldest licensed distiller in the city of Memphis, rather. I got ahead of my notes. It is wild, though. It's crazy. um As far as I've been able to find, they are sourcing this stuff from somebody and not telling us who it is.
00:38:21
Speaker
um But they are actually doing their own distilling. It's in their more expensive stuff, which I haven't tried yet. I really need to. Oh, interesting. I didn't realize they had they were doing two separate operations.
00:38:33
Speaker
Yeah, so they're doing kind of their... I mean, this is like 30 bucks or something, which is like pretty affordable in the world of whiskey, right? Is that MGP? I would assume so.
00:38:44
Speaker
Well, I don't know if they're doing... so To what degree MGP is doing like finished blends or if it's like MGP, you buy product from MGP and then you do your own blending, barreling. Yeah, and it could be either.
00:38:56
Speaker
they They don't really say. um It does say crafted in Memphis on the bottle, which... is and but completely ambiguous. That could mean it's barrel-aged in Memphis. It could mean it's bottled in Memphis.
00:39:09
Speaker
could mean they put the stickers on. It's like designed in the USA. Yeah, exactly. Designed in California, made in China kind of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But they don't then't have to legally, they don't have to say made in China. They just say designed in the USA. Yeah.
00:39:22
Speaker
Depends where the tag is. So what we do know ah about this mystery juice in here is one objective subjectively, I think it's delicious. Um, but two, it's aged a minimum of three years.
00:39:35
Speaker
Um, the mash bill 70% corn, 21, 21% rye, and just a little sprinkle 9% malted barley. Um, this is bottled at 93 proof.
00:39:46
Speaker
So it's got that little bit of, I think that's part of what makes me really love this whiskey is that it's just got that little bit of extra flavor, like a $30, $40 whiskey. Um, um And, you know, ah decent color.
00:40:00
Speaker
it a... don't know what to say about this one. Do you know? Color added or no? They don't say specifically. Very curious. Which, again, that's one of those things that, like, if you don't say, you can assume that it's there.
00:40:18
Speaker
But maybe it's not. But who knows? Like, because you you don't legally have to say that there's color added as long as it's not bottled and bond. because bottled and bond can't have color added bottled and bond rules still almost a hundred years later baldon bottled and bond is the best actually I think it's over a hundred years now it's ah yeah it is over for a hundred years Was it the the ah teens or the 20s when Bottled and Bond started? Oh, I don't recall. think it was in 1918.
00:40:48
Speaker
Bottled and Bond Act. That sounds right. 17, 18. Somewhere around there. But yeah, big fan. Bottled and Bond. i The bottle that you just showed us is on my list.
00:40:59
Speaker
i I tend to keep up kind of a wish list of things that I'm curious about trying. And I keep it sort of in the back of my head when I go to a store, a shop or a store, and haven't seen it.
00:41:12
Speaker
In the last eight years, this is my favorite $40 bourbon that I've found. that's ah That's a bold statement coming from you. Yeah. That's, I think, a big...
00:41:24
Speaker
I think this is really, really good whiskey for what it is. um You know, it's not going to this isn't change your life whiskey. This isn't Pappy Van Winkle or Weller or what is it called? Black and Wes Henderson. Old Granddad.
00:41:40
Speaker
Or Old Granddad 114 or and Bond. But it's it's really good for what is these days considered a reasonable bottle, like a ah ah cheap sipping bottle.
00:41:52
Speaker
That's what I'd call $40. You're not expecting to mix it, but I guess you could. um You're expecting to have it neat or over ice, um but you don't want to break the bank on it.
00:42:04
Speaker
Anyway, this is Blue ju blue Note Juke Joint Whiskey. um Check it out if you can, and I'm going to take a couple sips and try it with this Avo Synchro Nicaragua 10. Let Dennis talk about his next parent.
00:42:16
Speaker
Trying to keep my cigar lit. alright i did I just talked way too much, and my cigar's out again. Again, it's my fault because I talk for seven minutes at a time and don't realize it.
00:42:29
Speaker
It happens. It happens, man. i am I may actually end up talking a lot about mine. Uh, here, let me get this up for you guys. Check it out. All right. Is this the one I got a little glimpse of?
00:42:44
Speaker
No, no, no, no. That's, that's, I'm saving that for last. Cause I best for last kind of deal. Um, this one is really fun though. This is for right. You know, when you get a zinger play, if you play golf, you hit the ball and just goes somewhere. You may not, you may not believe this. This may shock you.
00:43:02
Speaker
What? But no, I don't. I don't know what that's like. Well, neither do I, but I, but I, having done my research, I can speak to you now in the parlance, as they say, of ah the clubbed people, the people with the clubbed people.
00:43:16
Speaker
The clubbed people, yeah. um But it's, listen, you and I know golf. We don't know golf in the scale, in the perspective that people usually know golf. You and I know golf from the cocktail world.
00:43:28
Speaker
If you remember popular old cocktail called the transfusion, which is the de facto unofficial, forget about Arnold Palmer's, it's kindnna end it's a separate thing, but like the transfusion is the de facto unofficial cocktail of golf.
00:43:43
Speaker
This is like the hair of the dog for golf. And this particular beer, which is really fun with this label, is a transfusion-style sour from ah St. Boniface Beer Company.
00:43:55
Speaker
And St. Boniface is actually a pretty small operation, as they tend to be. They were, they are in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, which is, if you don't know Pennsylvania, that is around Lancaster County.
00:44:06
Speaker
So. Lancaster? lot of cows. like Well, yeah, sorry. I gotta, I gotta to do it right for my wife. Lancaster. There you go You have to. Lancaster County. We got all them Pennsylvania Dutch folk.
00:44:19
Speaker
All right. And this was founded in 2010 by John Weber and Mike Price with the idea that they're going to do this very small community focused brewery that is a mix of American craft styles and traditional German brewing process.
00:44:34
Speaker
So that that kind of the name, St. Boniface, is the, it's kind of like the apostles of the Germans, which is the nod to Pennsylvania and Dutch heritage for them. um So.
00:44:46
Speaker
When they started, when I say small, I mean literally you had to go there and the only thing you can do is get draft. That's it. They weren't canning anything. They weren't bottling anything. You wanted to bring a growler, you could bring a growler and fill it on site.
00:44:59
Speaker
And eventually they actually exploded to where now they're distributed around the entire state of Pennsylvania, which for those that haven't been to Pennsylvania is actually a pretty big state. It's huge. It is Yeah, if you try to get to Pittsburgh from from like Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, it's a it's a hike, man.
00:45:17
Speaker
That's like a five-hour drive, four-hour drive? I think it's it's over just over five. It's unpleasant. it's It's one of those where it's easier to just fly from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, which sounds nuts, but...
00:45:29
Speaker
Anyway, ah so I mentioned this is a fruited sour. It's a kettle-soured fruited, well, kettle-soured fruited sour ale ah that's designed to evoke these flavors of the classic transfusion cocktail, which essentially is ginger, lime, Concord grape.
00:45:48
Speaker
It's a pretty clean, it's a very kind of clean, easy easy to drink very quickly. was going to say Transfusion is one of those like classic hangover drinks, right?
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah. It's vodka, ginger ale, grape juice, and lime. Different proportions depending on where you're at, but But it was one of those, if you weren't feeling great on the course, you're having a bad day, you go, all right, I'm going to let me slam one of these down and play you between this hole and the next hole.
00:46:19
Speaker
It's not really clear where that cocktail itself came from. It just sort of, it became a thing suddenly. out of Out of nowhere. um But particularly on the East Coast, it was very, very popular. It is still, as far as I know, very popular.
00:46:33
Speaker
So they kind of wanted to play on that a little bit and produce this sour ale that evokes these these flavors of of this transfusion. The problem for me is that I can't taste a damn thing at all.
00:46:49
Speaker
It just tastes like bubbly stuff with the little sourness. Is that because of the cigar or your previous pairing or just because of this beer? Yes. All of the above. It's a little bit of all of the above. Yeah, I think...
00:47:04
Speaker
I think just because the nature of a kettle sour being typically not what you, not what we kind of experience when you have certain sours that are puckering to the point where your face is changing colors. Yeah. Kettle sour is typically just a hint of sour.
00:47:20
Speaker
Yeah. It's just a little bit of, it's, dare I say it's a kiss of sour. Um, But because it's so so ah light on the sourness, they tend to be a lot thinner, lighter beers. This is 4.5%. So generally, you're looking at beers that are in that 3.8 to maybe 6. You can push for the kettle sour, um at least what we've seen commercially available.
00:47:42
Speaker
So it makes sense. It's kind of a thin, thinner beer. I purposely put it in in the middle, but I wasn't sure if it would work or not work. um And unfortunately, I have not had this beer before.
00:47:56
Speaker
So I don't have a point of reference. I can't say, hey, it's the beer. Hey, it's the cigar. I think it's a mix of both.
00:48:05
Speaker
um But it certainly was very promising. Now, the color was not what I expected whatsoever. This is... It just looks... And it even actually looks darker on camera than and in reality. But...
00:48:17
Speaker
Yeah, that's really that's a very strange color for that kind of thing, because you would expect it to either yeah look like beer but taste like transfusion,
00:48:30
Speaker
or look like transfusion and taste like transfusion, like be bright red. i Yes. so the color is a little bit... But I guess adding artificial color to to beer is kind of generally a no-no.
00:48:44
Speaker
ah But, you know, squeeze a beat in there. like how yeah may you Give some color without without fracturing the flavor or making it unnatural.
00:48:56
Speaker
You're poking up be broken fun at me over my last pairing, huh? You saw that one? I did see that one. I don't remember being bright red, though. Oh, no. It's not bright red. It's definitely bright. It's bright something.
00:49:11
Speaker
But so, quick final note on this. Kettle sour. Kettle soured with lime peel and ginger, which also makes sense because the lime peel, you really only can get so much flavor out of this at that state. You're not like sitting on lime juice or ginger or anything else like that. So it's it's in the kettle.
00:49:31
Speaker
And then fermented on fresh pressed Concord grape puree. Ooh. Now, that sounds exciting. It's kind of cool. But again, what happens is during fermentation, a lot of those nuanced flavors don't transfer over during the fermentation process. That is the problem with fermentation. Like a lot of times fermentation turns flavor into alcohol, right? Like it just eats. Yeah, it eats through everything. It dulls a lot of the more nuanced, the volatile compounds in there.
00:49:57
Speaker
It dulls them out completely. So you'll end up seeing when it comes to purees, generally you're looking at a secondary fermentation process. where you're getting the majority of that initial yeast cake out, you're getting the beer off of that initial yeast cake.
00:50:10
Speaker
And whatever little bit of yeast is left is just enough to kind of keep it going to some degree, but you're really more focused not on the alcohol production, but on the flavor itself.
00:50:21
Speaker
So it's yeah it's a give and take. It's a kind of a funky, exact exactly unexact science in that sense. Of course. so But I like the can. I will shout out to them for the you know this like really cool, fun-looking can. And I like the idea. So kudos to them for trying something that, you know for me personally, didn't really quite hit. but Honestly, i can I appreciate ah when you throw something like that.
00:50:56
Speaker
And rather than saying, this sucks, we're dumping all of it, you just release it. Well, absolutely. And to be fair, it's all subjective because my brother-in-law really loved this beer when he tried it.
00:51:08
Speaker
Oh, wow. Okay. So, you know, your mileage may vary and that's okay. All right. So how's the blue note going for you? Oh, it's great. um It doesn't work well with this cigar, though. it oh I think it's just a little spicy for this cigar.
00:51:24
Speaker
um The blue note has like a distinct kind of black peppery kind of spice note to it. It's very intense, that 93 proof with that 21% rye blends um lens for pretty in-your-face whiskey.
00:51:41
Speaker
And this cigar is just too elegant for that. So I'm very worried about my final pairing of the night. You know, I... We will see how it does. I'm also a little worried about your final pairing, and I have no idea what it is.
00:51:54
Speaker
Mm-hmm.
00:51:57
Speaker
All right, any other closing notes with your second pairing there? No, I think it it closed itself quite well for... Quite well for what it is.
00:52:09
Speaker
Man, I love this whiskey, but it just isn't working with this cigar. It's too powerful. much Too much volume for this cigar. And but how with that, I'll move on to something with way more volume.
00:52:21
Speaker
Alright, so I wrote this script for like the this segment... um I want to see how long it takes before you stop me and tell me what beer I'm drinking. God.
00:52:37
Speaker
All right. All right. I'm getting ready. So they were founded. I'm not going to tell you the name yet. Usually I start off with the name, but, uh, founded in 2012 by brothers Jason Colin Healy and Krebs, Oklahoma.
00:52:49
Speaker
Um, and they were founded as a brewery inside of another brewery called chalk beer company, which was again, in turn, part of ah Krebs brewing. Um, so chalk had extra brewing capacity,
00:53:02
Speaker
um and chase had been wanting to brew beer so he basically bought the available capacity for the years um he was an experienced home brewer who had kind of you know in college he became obsessed with home brewing um and he was he ran the brewing side of things using chalk's equipment so which is really interesting like he basically had a brewery inside another brewery um while his brother char his brother colin not charlie um hand drew all of the art and branding for the company.
00:53:34
Speaker
um So all of their labels over the years have been drawn by Colin. um The first year they would release batches just kind of whenever there was a period of time that those brewers, those fermentation tanks were available.
00:53:48
Speaker
Um, they started off with a wide range of experimental styles and the plan was kind of, we won't have a core beer. We'll just make cool stuff whenever we can and release that.
00:54:00
Speaker
Um, but in 2013, they released this beer. um I have the name of it here, but I'm not going to read it. Uh, which became a cult hit and is now the beer there best known.
00:54:15
Speaker
this was This was mostly just to see if it would ring any bells. Don't stress too much. No, no, that's fine. This is good. Anything else? Wait, what was the state? Oklahoma.
00:54:29
Speaker
Prebs, Oklahoma. God damn, Oklahoma always drives me crazy. know it. In 2013, they helped to expand Chalk's brewing capacity. So basically, they had done well enough that they were like, all right, we want to expand brewing capacity.
00:54:45
Speaker
but we don't want to like go out on our own. We want to work with you guys. So they basically went in 50, 50 with the brewery. They were part of partnered with to expand the brewery further. Uh, by, I think it was another 50 barrels.
00:54:57
Speaker
Um, so they could both increase their output further in 2016. 50 barrels is a lot. Yeah. In 2016, Krebs Brewing bought this company. Um,
00:55:10
Speaker
Which, again, Prebs is another brewery that is inside of Chalk. Clown Shoes? No. God damn it. Clown Shoes is... I thought that we're over there.
00:55:22
Speaker
i thought Clown Shoes... Are they Texas? Shit. All right. Now... This is... man i gotta... I gotta do that. This very good. We should do this more often. This is a very nice segment. is a brewery that is out there with the dogs.
00:55:40
Speaker
Flying dog? No. Different kind of dog. Very different kind of dog. Very small dog.
00:55:48
Speaker
Pops its head up out of the ground.
00:55:53
Speaker
What kind of dog? Prairie dog? This is Prairie? Yes, Prairie. This is Prairie Brewing. They're in Oklahoma?
00:56:04
Speaker
Yeah, they always have been. I thought Prairie was in Portland. Oh, no. I feel dumb now because I i i thought all the beer the good beer I liked was all from like Seattle, Portland.
00:56:15
Speaker
No, Prairie's in Oklahoma, which is crazy to Jesus Christ. um And they started with Chalk Brewing. So Chalk basically is a company that um has a ton of history where basically...
00:56:30
Speaker
hey It was illegal to brew in Oklahoma to brew beer, um but they had a coffee. and it was like a diner kind of place, a cafe, they called it, I think.
00:56:41
Speaker
um where they were making beer on the side. Oh, no, sorry. It was an Italian restaurant. That's what it was. They were making beer on the side, so you could come and get your Italian meal, your succulent Italian meal, and a ah get a ah pint of of chalk beer. And it was like called a Choctaw, which was their... It was kind of like a local word for...
00:57:02
Speaker
um this illegal beer brewing operation um and four generations later these dudes started brewing in the same building where that italian restaurant used to be um and you know they they were just brewing this one beer called chalk uh and then they had enough capacity that they let krebs in and they let prairie in and um now they're all kind of the same company so in wild 2016 krebs acquired shop acquired prairie um Chase, the brother who does the brewing, is still involved with Prairie ah doing the brewing.
00:57:37
Speaker
um But he has also started a new brewery, apparently, which I didn't know about, called American Solera, which sounds right up my alley. Some barrel-aged shit. That sounds kind of cool. Could be fun. Yeah. Colin still does the artwork for Prairie.
00:57:51
Speaker
um The beer I'm drinking tonight is Prairie Bomb, which is going to be an awful pairing with a cigar, I think. OG Bomb. um Yeah, this is the classic Prairie Bomb. Not any of the many variants.
00:58:04
Speaker
ah This one was bottled 1229-2024. This should be right in prime drinking range right now. um So Prairie, so Bomb, rather.
Prairie Bomb Imperial Stout
00:58:17
Speaker
um Bomb is an Imperial Stout brewed with... Yeah, I forgot to take notes on this part. There's ah there's a ah a word here that I need to know.
00:58:28
Speaker
English Maris Otter Malt. um Yes. I meant to look that up a little bit. It's a two-row malt. But this is an em Imperial Stout brewed at 13% with Maris Otter Malt, rye, and three types of sugar, which I never knew about. They have Mexican sugar, Belgian candy, and turbinado. And then they age it on a mixture of Espresso beans, cacao, vanilla beans, and ancho chilies.
00:58:59
Speaker
um And based on, I read an interview with Chase, the brother who does all the brewing, and he basically talked about how the this beer was, they were doing cool experiments, and then they happened upon this one, and it went just gangbusters. This has become accidentally their core beer.
00:59:18
Speaker
Um, like I talked about before they planned on having no core beer. They just wanted to be doing weird stuff all the time. Um, and then they made this with was about a year after they started.
00:59:29
Speaker
Uh, and it was a cult hit where people went crazy for it. I'm crazy for it. Um, They've done ah billion variations where they're adding vanilla, they're barrel aging, they're... I've had the deconstructed version, which I haven't seen, as far as I know, hasn't been available in like 10 years.
00:59:48
Speaker
like ten years But the deconstructed version was the same beer, but instead of aging it on the espresso beans, cacao, vanilla beans, and ancho chilies, they age it on only one of those.
01:00:02
Speaker
And then they release that by itself. So you can mix it together and taste all the different flavors. Which it's a fun experiment. if If you want to check out that experiment, Jason and I, way back in the SigFed days,
01:00:15
Speaker
did an episode about that. I remember this. you can hunt down probably that episode of of sharing our pairings. Um, where we kind of tried use prowlers to recreate Prairie Bomb.
01:00:27
Speaker
Um, The ancho chili version was more intense than I expected it to be. It was nice. I bet. I liked it. um Anyway, this is Prairie Bomb Stout.
01:00:40
Speaker
Bomb all caps with an exclamation point. Just to hammer that point home. um And I don't remember seeing this the last time I had one of their beers. That's their cap. Oh, that's cute.
01:00:53
Speaker
A little catfish or something. That's, uh, at least it's probably Catfish. Alright, I'm gonna take a couple s sips of this. See how awfully it ruins my cigar. And let you talk me about your final pairing of the evening.
01:01:07
Speaker
This cigar and that beer, I can, looking at that beer and knowing I've had so much of that beer over the years, i i can taste it. I can taste it, and I... Yeah, you know what this is absolutely one of those, um...
01:01:27
Speaker
I don't know what to call it, reference beers. It's like a beer that yeah without tasting it, I can close my eyes and I can know exactly what it tastes like. Well, this is what it's like. We talk about companies like ah Pizza Hut, where if you've had Pizza Hut growing up,
01:01:43
Speaker
you immediately, every red building that's shaped a particular way, you kind of give it a second look. just go, is that a Pizza Hut? Was it it used to be a Pizza Hut at some point? and Or the pizza itself, you can taste. You can taste the crust, the dough, the the the cheese, the whatever. Same thing happens with a lot of beers.
01:01:59
Speaker
um And good for them, because I think they've locked in a part of the market that ah think the world kind of really needed it because when that got really popular, other breweries started focusing on their barrel programs and focusing on doing really heavy, very interesting variant stouts.
01:02:18
Speaker
Well, the crazy thing about this one is that it tastes like it, but Prairie Bomb, the classic version, is not barrel-aged. Like, it is aged in, a i assume, steel on those adjuncts.
01:02:33
Speaker
It may even be just fermented on them. um But it's, you know, it's a classic. It's an absolute... If you've never had Prairie Bomb and you like stouts, please try it.
01:02:45
Speaker
Assuming you can have cocoa nibs, because we have a friend who cannot. So unfortunately, he will never taste this beer. Poor guy.
01:02:54
Speaker
Anyway, what do what do you have up last tonight? Oh, I gotta pour... have to pour my glass. I opted for a Hawaiian glass because I thought...
01:03:05
Speaker
Well, why not? um And also because it's it's one of these beers that I think, Tripp, this is going to touch you in so many different ways and give you things to think about. I want to show it first, then I think, you know, I haven't scripted anything fun to help you figure out what this is. But maybe, ah if you want to take guess. didn't either. I just kind of read my script with ah you and left out the names.
01:03:31
Speaker
You are welcome to try to guess what the hell this is. it That looks like in, man, I wish I could remember a specific movie. It looks like in a movie what hair tonic is. They're like, put this in your on your head and you'll grow hair again.
01:03:50
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Hair, okay. Hair tonic. um Yeah. um And so the camera, what the camera doesn't show is that for everyone watching here, it's not focused on mine.
01:04:01
Speaker
um It looks kind of dull-ish, milky green, but it's really bright green. it is It looks pretty absinthe-y to me. It looks like absinthe post-water.
01:04:16
Speaker
Post-Lausch. Lausch, that's the word. um And I only know because I could not remember that term for years, and eventually i somehow I like squeezed it into some back cabinet of my brain.
01:04:29
Speaker
And now I can't unthink it. um Yeah, man, it is so, so, so green. You made a comment about colored beers. It's arguably pretty damn colored.
01:04:42
Speaker
Unless they're putting kale puree in there, that is unnatural as shit. Well, okay, to be fair, I shouldn't ah shin say, i don't think it's artificially colored. I think it's naturally colored.
01:04:56
Speaker
But still, it is heavily. There is natural food coloring, yes.
01:05:00
Speaker
Well, think it's from the ingredients, potentially. Oh, I don't know. I can't wait to hear about it. I don't know. It's very confusing in a lot of different ways. Anyway, now, this brewery, I think I turned you on to, probably against your will, but you decided try something from this brewery because you thought, well, that's crazy. I just got to get into this.
01:05:24
Speaker
Founded in 2018 in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. Ring any bells? Yes. By Josh Irvine and a bunch of local craft beer folks.
01:05:34
Speaker
ah And their focus is on extreme, super flavorful pastry stouts, fruited sours. anything Anything coming through?
01:05:48
Speaker
No, there's somebody in Hatfield, but i can't remember who it is.
01:05:52
Speaker
And they have a very famous fruited The way said that at first, that you turned me onto it, i was going to say carton off the bat. I don't even know they still exist. but i think I think, yeah, I think court Cardin is still open. that They're in um Atlantic Highlands in New Jersey.
01:06:08
Speaker
like It's like Central Jersey, which doesn't exist. like No, I get it. don't want spam hate mail saying the Central of Jersey doesn't exist. I know.
01:06:19
Speaker
um Yeah, man. So they're famous for a fruited sour smoothie ale, which is what this is.
Imprint Beer Company's Smoogee Series
01:06:25
Speaker
Oh, that's got to be Imprint. It is Imprint. yeah input Good job, man. Imprint Beer Company out of Hatfield, Pennsylvania with their Smoogee series. And you had a Smoogee not long ago, man.
01:06:39
Speaker
And it's such an interesting thing what they do. Let me show you this can. This particular one is called... global relapse records and i'll get into that in a second but this is their smoochy contagion contagion this is a green slime smoothie sour and it's a green smoothie sour which includes where's the i was hoping to read the flavor text to you um orange lemon lime and pineapple
01:07:13
Speaker
So this is like, think of your Ecto Cooler. I was going to say, that sounds a lot like an Ecto Cooler. It's basically Ecto Cooler. They collaborated with with Global Relapse Records.
01:07:27
Speaker
Or sorry, not not global. It's just Relapse Records. They called it Global. It's a global contagion. Relapse Records, Global Contagion, Smoogee. And Relapse Records is, as I found out earlier, a really old record label for a bunch of extreme metal bands.
01:07:44
Speaker
Which is kind of fun. I have no idea why they decided to get in touch with them, but I think metal bands love beer collabs, man. Like wild stuff, yeah. I think metal bands by nature lend themselves to like wild, crazy things.
01:07:59
Speaker
Fun adjuncts. Strange flavor combinations. And this one is quite strange in that it looks disconcerting. Right? It's got some funk.
01:08:11
Speaker
There is lactose. I don't know why it's not on the can per se, but... but My research shows that there's lactose in it, which, you know, whatever, it's fine. You like it, you don't like it.
01:08:22
Speaker
Lactose in sours is is even more ubiquitous than lactose in AZ-IPS. Like, yeah lactose in sours is super, super common um because you want to balance out ah that sourness with some sweetness.
01:08:40
Speaker
ah And now for them...
01:08:45
Speaker
This whole contagion thing, the idea behind the contagion thing is they wanted it to be evocative of what they did with this, which is made it as thick as all hell.
01:08:55
Speaker
Like the one that you had, if you recall, how thick was that? that that ah That coconut one, or sorry, that pineapple one that I had. It was like pouring whipped cream out of a beer can.
01:09:08
Speaker
yeah Yes, and so that's the thing. They're known for this. They're known for, it it almost comes out like a smoothie pulp There's fruit residue everywhere. It comes out of this smoothie pulp thing.
01:09:18
Speaker
Hold on. Let me see how much actually goes into this. So this particular one has hundreds of pounds of fruit puree per batch.
01:09:32
Speaker
Wow. Which is a lot of, number one, it's a lot of, it's expensive. Number two, that's a lot of crap to clean up at the end of the day, man.
01:09:43
Speaker
It is a ton. And apparently there is a, there's this whole like cult collector following where people will collect cans and they'll kind of, they'll put them in the freezer before they open them.
01:09:54
Speaker
So that when it pours out, it's as thick as possible. So it has this like really intense smoothie texture.
01:10:03
Speaker
So you can't really tell, is it a cocktail? Is it juice? Is it beer? Um... Some people joke about it and they say it's it's beer you can chew. And i I get it.
01:10:13
Speaker
I've had this well many variants of the Smoogee series. I think this one is my favorite. Wow. awesome. It's awesome. It's just because it's clean. I think it's it's a little bit sour. It's got that nice fruit combination, which classically you can't beat orange, lemon, lime, and pineapple.
01:10:32
Speaker
Yeah. So that actually made me made me do some Googling. Next time you're near Delaware, I know you're not too far from... Delaware?
01:10:43
Speaker
Delaware. Dallasburg. Delaware? Delaware. Delaware. Next time you're Delaware, Dallasburg has a voodoo brewing company franchise.
01:10:55
Speaker
Where is Salzburg? It's right in the middle of Delaware. Or right in the middle of the the peninsula of Delaware. Peninsula. but If you go over that bridge from Cape May, go that way. No, there's no bridge in Cape May.
01:11:11
Speaker
know. Oh, okay. It's the Rainbow Bridge. I get it. That's cute. There's a ferry. Next time you're that direction, yeah ah check out Voodoo Brewing Company. or Or if you're ever anywhere else that has a Voodoo Brewing Company. I don't know where else has them because there's They have a bunch of locations, but they have Lacto Cooler.
01:11:35
Speaker
Which is a Berliner Weiss that is Ecto Cooler. Oh, my. And it's incredible. um they They very recently, like a month ago, they closed their location.
01:11:47
Speaker
was, don't know, an hour from me, 45 minutes. um I'm hoping next time I go to Halloween Horror Nights, the the first two times I went, that was the official beer of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal.
01:12:00
Speaker
um So I'm hoping that I can taste it again that way at some point. Anyway, keep an eye out for it. Lacto cooler. Good stuff.
01:12:11
Speaker
Jeez, that sounds fun. All right. The voodoo as in the actual the voodoo that I know, right? like What? Voodoo Brewing. Yes.
01:12:22
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's a chain. They have like a bunch Yeah, yeah, yeah. A shit ton of restaurants. um that sell their beer. Yeah, it's like Iron Hill. It's the same. kind yeah Iron Hill is like 40 locations. in the Well, now they have 33 because they closed a bunch. of but Yeah, Voodoo's the same. They've closed a bunch in the last few years.
01:12:42
Speaker
ah But next time you see one, next time you see one, next time you drive by and you're like, Voodoo Brewing, what a dumb franchise or something like that. ah Stop it and just grab a ah lacto cooler because it's legit.
01:12:56
Speaker
It's really good. that Sounds good, man. I'll check it out. Thank you.
01:13:02
Speaker
So, what's the verdict? How's Prairie for you? Not as awful as I thought. Okay. um The Prairie works okay with the cigar. The cigar is a little...
01:13:15
Speaker
beat up by the flavors of the prairie just because, I mean, again, I talk about there's there's sugar, there's coffee, there's vanilla, there's chocolate, there's answer chilies.
01:13:28
Speaker
ah That's one note. The answer chilies are more intense than I remember. There's like what you're saying just a little bit of tongue and back of the throat spice going on.
01:13:41
Speaker
God, I love this beer. ah But it doesn't kill the cigar, but it doesn't work great with it. Okay. Well, it's not it's so not not terrible.
01:13:54
Speaker
Not a full throwaway, at least. Yeah, not a full throwaway, but it mutes the flavors of the cigar little bit. What about you? How's that wild and sour? Oh, it's fantastic. Really? It is fantastic. I think as crazy it is to think that we talked about the cigar and how nuanced and elegant it is and really requires i think a more gentle pairing for some strange reason this thing is really refreshing but doesn't take away from the cigar and the cigar doesn't take away from the beer so i can enjoy both and go back to one or the other and not feel like you know my palate's jacked up or my pal you know it's coated and i can't really or muted i should say i can't really experience it right
01:14:37
Speaker
um Yeah, man, I think it's it's working surprisingly well. but Nice. I thought it would be fine. I can see it working because whereas mine, like those, the flavors of this cigar and the flavors of this beer are kind of hitting your palate in the same spot, right? Like little bit of sweetness, little bit of spice, ah that kind of woodiness.
01:15:02
Speaker
That sourness.
Sour Drinks and Cigar Pairing
01:15:03
Speaker
A bit bitter. But like the sour, sweet, fruity thing is completely on the opposite side of the spectrum from this cigar. Yeah. um So I could see, I could actually see that working pretty well.
01:15:15
Speaker
I think the sourness lends, again, interestingly enough, going back to what we mentioned earlier about vodka, I think the sourness lends a kind of a, not a cleansing of the palate per se, but it it adds another layer to the palate for the flavors of the cigar to sit on top of.
01:15:35
Speaker
If that makes that makes any sense. but No, I get what you're saying. I think it does well. And again, it's the sourness that it's... When I say sour, it's not the extreme puckering sour, like warhead sour. It's not like that.
01:15:49
Speaker
It's a very subdued sour. It's a gentle sourness. It's almost like the sourness of a typical citrus, like in ah an orange. You get a little bit of sour, but it's mostly sweet and flavored. Yeah, like orange compared to lemon, right? like Yes. Lemon is like too sour to eat. Orange is like just got a little bit sourness there.
01:16:07
Speaker
just that Yeah, it's a twang. Okay, interesting. All right. Well, I guess that brings us to the end of the pairing segment for the most part. We still got to go back through our pairings, but I finished my first pairing, which is definitely my pairing the night.
01:16:22
Speaker
Well, I haven't even touched my first pairing. That's a pairing of the night. An IPA. It's crazy, isn't it? Was it a double? was it a double No, it's a it's double dry hop, but it is single Oh, double, yes. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:16:34
Speaker
And you see, it's funny how that gets very confusing. Double dry hop versus double IPA, single hop. Okay, cool. Double dry hop. You really dig it. And that's a kind of a, it's a tall order for, for cigars and IPAs. For any cigar, right? Like I wasn't expecting that. So that's in case you forgot, that's the strange, strange and eternal, eternal from the veil. there They're, they're an extra dry hopped version of strange and eternal.
01:17:08
Speaker
The veil in Richmond, Virginia. Back in my neck of the
Humorous Location Discussions
01:17:12
Speaker
woods.
01:17:15
Speaker
You have so many next, I think. Where are you going to move next? You going to Midwest? Honestly, I have no idea. Oklahoma? There's been discussion within a part of the family that I won't throw into the bus.
01:17:29
Speaker
ah of moving back to the Pacific and Northwest and I'm like, I already moved here. I'm not umm not going back. My wife's the same way. we it's like we're We're here. we're we're ah We're East Coasters again now. it's ah carry away You know what this means now. You're leaving. You're leaving us all. You're going to Nicaragua. You're building a compound in Nicaragua. I'll never see you again. You're
Favorite Drink Pairings
01:17:50
Speaker
going to live on some volcanic island.
01:17:52
Speaker
That would be the plan. On a lake. But I would still an internet connection. i would still do this shit. Don't worry about You can come meet me at factories. Meet you at Lake Tiricaca.
01:18:04
Speaker
Exactly. Which is not in Nicaragua, in case so you're all wondering. That is in is in Peru, I believe. Oh, really? It's a real lake. Yeah, Lake Tiricaca is in Peru.
01:18:16
Speaker
but What's your pairing of the night, did you say? I didn't say. i think... Hold on.
01:18:27
Speaker
Yep. All right. It's going to be this this crazy ecto-cooler green slime contagion smoochie. i think it it it wins out. And only it only wins out over the Limoncello um milkshake IPA because the IPA does still have that bitter back into it that lingers on the palate.
01:18:46
Speaker
So if I were to drink something, just one thing through the entirety of the cigar, it would definitely be this this green slime. Nice.
Comments on Platform Availability
01:18:53
Speaker
I like it. Oh, there are the chunks. Yep. Chunks finally came out. I just poured the last bit.
01:18:59
Speaker
I'm going to go back through some comments just because I know that, ah I mean, if you're watching on Spotify or listening on Spotify, you're not going to see those comments. And if you're watching on Facebook more than like 30 days after this post, Facebook is being a real bitch about that.
01:19:14
Speaker
Yeah, man. And getting rid of older lives. um So i i I want to make sure to highlight some of the ah comments. um So Sam Finnell, he said his first pairing was the vodka martini.
01:19:28
Speaker
His second pairing was Highland Park 12 Viking Horde, which is a great scotch. And his third pairing was Ivanhoe Ale Works Tap That Blonde.
01:19:41
Speaker
which is a great name for a beer. That is a cool name. His pairing of the night was ah Highland Park Viking Horde, which is no surprise. That is an incredible scotch um that just works really well with pretty much every cigar i've ever tried. a fun bottle. I like
Viking Influence in Scotland
01:19:56
Speaker
the bottle, too.
01:19:57
Speaker
The bottle definitely rules. um I don't know where the Viking... influence really comes in when it comes to Scotland um because they weren't exactly known for being best friends with Vikings back in the day.
01:20:09
Speaker
They got pillaged. not Not really pillaged. They were explored to some degree by the Vikings on the coast. um But the Vikings were sort of passing through. They never really stayed as far as we know.
01:20:20
Speaker
yeah As far as I know, I should say. All right. Well, I guess that brings us to the end of the thing. um Thanks, everybody, for hanging out. We're going to do our one for the road before we get out of here.
01:20:31
Speaker
Dennis, you want to go first or you want me to go first? Yeah, mine mine is going to be pretty quick, I think, because it's... Listen, man, things went a little little wacky. and New job and all, and a very long commute. And generally speaking, I'm kind of mostly out of it because it's such a long commute. I'm kind of in and out of of sleep.
01:20:50
Speaker
And once
Review of Sandman Series
01:20:51
Speaker
in a while, I do have a chance to poke at something that i I've actually been really... I've enjoyed the first season, and really was excited to to catch up on the second season, which I think is well done.
01:21:04
Speaker
I just don't know that I'm feeling the same magic of season two as I did season one. And that's the Sandman. You may have heard of it. I've read the your first book. Comic.
01:21:15
Speaker
Okay. Well, yeah, first comic, but I have not watched the whole series. I thought about it like it might have been yesterday or day before yesterday when I was like, oh, what do I watch?
01:21:26
Speaker
And I saw Sane Man and I was like, maybe I should finally watch that. Nah, not yet. Have you seen the first one? No, i haven't I haven't watched either season yet. Okay, so I think season one really, for me, especially if you're if you've gone through the comic, season one is going to be a little bit lighter of an introduction to the arcs within the comic. Season two is more, I think...
01:21:48
Speaker
more comic-centric in terms of content. But for watching something off the bat brand new, season one was very exciting, and very cool. And I had completely forgotten about this comic for you know for a long time, as many of us did.
01:22:03
Speaker
um Yeah, man, 12 episodes, including a bonus episode for season two. I think the bonus episode already came out, right? It's ah July 31st. Yeah, it came out. don't know.
01:22:14
Speaker
But it is, i love the concept, man. I love the concept of, of, you know, the, the, uh, of dream and the story of Morpheus and the endless and the rest and how each of the endless operate their own realms and how those realms fit into everything else. And in season two, you get a taste of all the other different realms. So you get to meet people like Odin and, all these other curious people that I'm not going to, I don't want to ruin it for anyone, but,
01:22:46
Speaker
Some fun stuff going on. ah Lucifer Morningstar is definitely a key player in season one and to degree in season two. ah But it's fun. And the actor, man, is wild. I've never seen him before. It's Tom Sturridge.
01:23:00
Speaker
I don't know if you know who that is. The name doesn't ring a bell. i He was in... ah what was What else was he in? he was in a bunch of stuff, I feel like. but But his delivery and his portrayal of of ah Morpheus or Dream is very intense. he The way he talks, it's very intense. And you're either going to love it or you're going absolutely hate it.
01:23:27
Speaker
I'd say give it one episode. Give it a chance. Maybe two episodes. But... Yeah, man. Um... Now, you've read the books, you said.
01:23:39
Speaker
a long time ago. God, very Is season one part one and season two is part two? Or is both seasons part one? Because I know there's three chapters, I guess to call parts, the Sandman far the comics go it's it's a mishmash and i think it was also keep in mind reworked for for kind of a modern audience so a lot of things were fancified for tv and kind of uh fall out of it's an interpretation of of the comics rather than a distinctly direct copy over okay if that makes sense i'm trying not not to that like ruin anything but okay
01:24:27
Speaker
I get, um, in my head, I get the stories mixed up of Sandman and American gods, but I know that they're completely separate.
Naked Gun 2025 Comedy Review
01:24:37
Speaker
They're both great, but, uh, they're, I, I get a mix up cause they are, they do have some similarities anyway.
01:24:45
Speaker
Yeah. He was in jumper. That sci-fi movie from like 2006 with Hayden Christensen. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Starring Anakin Skywalker.
01:24:57
Speaker
yeah Yeah, so he was in that. I think that was his first like big film or or like big thing that he did. ah
01:25:09
Speaker
It looks very different, though, in Sandman. All right, well, I'm going to have to watch it because I know it's on Netflix and it's sitting right in front of me all the time. um This might be the week that I watch it.
01:25:22
Speaker
but For me... What do you got? Man, I've watched a lot of stuff in the last few weeks because I've been sick. I've been laying in bed once in a while, a couple days a week, watching movies and stuff. I would kill to lay in bed right now. Yeah, just try getting a of ah fungal infection.
01:25:42
Speaker
and see how fun that is. See if it's worth it. I'll see if CVS has that in the morning. I can pick one up for cheap. i got chance Mine is, man, I hate doing this. I feel like I always do video on demand movies.
01:25:55
Speaker
Basically, my recommendation when I have one of these is watch this the moment it's available on whatever streaming service you have. Oh. Right? like I'm not saying go pay $25 $30 to watch this one time.
01:26:10
Speaker
um But next time, once it pops up on Prime or Paramount or Netflix or Peacock or whatever it is that you have, watch The Naked Gun 2025.
01:26:24
Speaker
What? so i was not expecting you to say that. Starring Liam Neeson. Seriously? Directed by... Wait, you don't know about this? that's been out for No, I know about it. But I've been avoiding because I was like, there's no way that The Naked Gun is going to be sensible.
01:26:39
Speaker
Starring Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson, right? like Two notoriously
01:26:48
Speaker
unfunny people. Liam Neeson's hilarious. I don't know about you. I think it was a fun movie. ah But it wasn't a ah comedy, right? It wasn't meant to be a comedy, no, no. like It's a fun movie, but it's not a comedy.
01:27:00
Speaker
but but that um But he has the comedic chops. I guarantee it. um This movie, this is the selling point for me, is that this movie is directed by Akiva Schaaf. You may not recognize the name, but if you've ever watched SNL,
01:27:17
Speaker
in the last 20 years, so years, you've probably seen Dick in a Box, Throw It on the Ground, I'm on a Boat, all those music videos by the Lonely Island. Akiva Schaefer is one of the three members of Lonely Island, and he has been director of every single one of their projects that they've ever done, including Popstar, Never Stop, Never Stopping,
01:27:42
Speaker
um He also did the the Rescue Rangers movie a couple years ago. Really? Holy shit. Which was awesome. Wow. All right. And so he directed this movie um starring, again, Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson.
01:28:03
Speaker
I mean, it, okay, so casting-wise, I think it makes sense for for Liam Neeson in the sense that in many ways, his characters, as an actor, he's very similar to Leslie Nielsen, where Leslie Nielsen came out and said, hey, I want to do drama, i want to do serious things.
01:28:21
Speaker
But people realize that he has this sort of dry comedy. He's the straight man, but he can be very funny. And he just does it not even to be funny. He does it because he just he's that dry.
01:28:34
Speaker
Yeah. um um It's OK. that makes sense. I think the main thing about this movie is that the people making it understood the assignment. They understand that the the funniness of the naked gun comes from.
01:28:50
Speaker
going three steps past what is normally funny. In a normal comedy, you stop at step one and you're like, ah-ha, funny joke. In The Naked Gun, you go two or three steps past that to the point where like it's it's silly.
01:29:07
Speaker
It's goofy. But I think that's what made The Naked Gun the Naked Gun, right? like And they they definitely understood that when making this movie. um It has so, so many funny parts.
01:29:21
Speaker
where it just is kind of unhinged and hilarious. That's amazing. Pamela Anderson is so campy and hammy. It's so funny.
01:29:32
Speaker
ah Liam Neeson is hilarious in this movie. I highly recommend it. As soon as it's available on a streaming service you already pay for, watch
Current State of Comedy Films
01:29:43
Speaker
if it. you know if if if it's If you're paying $25 to watch it by yourself, I don't know if I can recommend that.
01:29:51
Speaker
But if ah if, you know, it's on one of the streaming services you're already paying for, absolutely watch. It's so good. um And again, they really understand what makes The Naked Gun funny in movies like that.
01:30:06
Speaker
I hope the follow-up to this is something similar. Like, I hope Akiva Schaefer... Is there follow-up? I don't know if there's a sequel, but I hope Akiva Schaefer, like, goes for... Oh, the next thing. Something else that's in this vein.
01:30:18
Speaker
and doesn't try to do traditional comedy or something like that. Also, speaking in in defense of this movie, they know that comedies are on the outs right now. I don't know if anybody's noticed, but comedies like comedies barely exist right now in in the theaters.
01:30:35
Speaker
They exist on streaming only. Well, people... yeah It's a different era now. It's a different market right now. um But they know that.
01:30:46
Speaker
And so this movie is like, I don't know, 85 or 95 minutes long. like It's a it's ah in the current state of things, a very short movie. It's not your 2.15, 2.5 hour, 3 hour kind of movie.
01:31:01
Speaker
This movie knows exactly. It hits all the jokes and then gets the fuck out of there. Which is exactly what a comedy should do these days because, again, comedies are not doing well.
01:31:12
Speaker
But not rushed, right? It doesn't feel rushed like Happy Gilmore 2. No, it doesn't feel – haven't watched that yet. I need to watch Fucking Happy Gilmore 2 was – I enjoyed it, but i I think I enjoyed it so much that i I had hoped they would lean a little bit heavier into certain things or – Make it a little bit longer and get down into you know a couple of different... Anyway, you've got watch it. I can't. I'm going ruin it you. You've got to watch it.
01:31:37
Speaker
Lean is the word I was looking for. Naked Gun leans into the absurdity of what they're making. Yes. Well, that's when there was an airplane back then. that that Exactly. It's the same type of movie ah where where it's just... It's so over the top that it's kind of painful to watch because it's so...
01:31:57
Speaker
it's so
01:31:59
Speaker
It's like you're not watching a movie, right? It's like you're watching a comedy sketch that just lasts an hour and a half. everybody loves Everybody loves a train wreck at the end of the day.
Comedy Style Preferences
01:32:09
Speaker
But I thought think that's what makes it great. that's That's how I feel about Murder Mystery with Adam Sandler.
01:32:15
Speaker
Oh, that movie rocks. Mystery 2. I loved it so much. It was pretty awful, I think. All all things considered, pretty awful. It's a bad movie, but it's so much fun. Yeah, not as bad as Hubie Halloween. I think Hubie Halloween was. Hubie Halloween was pretty bad.
01:32:30
Speaker
Scott, we're such Adam Sandler in this. me So watch all this garbage that he's making and still appreciate it. Anyway, ah check out the Naked Gun 2025. It is worth your time to watch.
01:32:52
Speaker
I'll say that much. but And also check out the Avo Synchro Nicaragua anniversary. This is very um elegant, as we've said before, cigar. Very, ah not mild, but it's holding itself back a little bit.
01:33:11
Speaker
You know, it's not super in your face. This is the kind of cigar that when you smoke it, there's going to be a point where you're like, I'm looking at my phone. I'm watching a movie. I'm reading a book, whatever I'm doing.
01:33:24
Speaker
just got stop
Avo Synchro Nicaragua Cigar Review
01:33:25
Speaker
and think about this cigar for couple minutes. And yeah, some cigars require that. I think, you know, for me personally, the price point, I would say around $17, $50, $18 would be that sweet spot for me.
01:33:40
Speaker
agree It would be one of those, hey, if I saw it in the shop, absolutely, 17, 50, 18 bucks. like If I'm in the right mood and the mindset for something with more nuanced flavors, absolutely would would be happy to pick it up.
01:33:53
Speaker
And I'm not saying no at the current price point. I think it was what, 22? 22. twenty two Okay. So I'm not saying a no at the price point. I think it's it makes sense. I understand why, and that's reasonable.
01:34:04
Speaker
um I think it's worth a shot. Absolutely. For those of you that haven't
Listener Recommendations and Farewell
01:34:09
Speaker
had it yet, if you see it somewhere, Just give it a chance. Yeah, agreed. ah All right.
01:34:15
Speaker
Well, thanks, everybody, for watching and hanging out. Actually, before we go, Sam Finnell's One for the Road is ah Alone in the Wilderness. Let me Google that for a second. That sounds really familiar.
01:34:35
Speaker
Oh, this is that... I remember that. This is a documentary from... No, that can't be it, right? Maybe it is. It's a book. people but it's It's a documentary from the early 2000s.
01:34:51
Speaker
I gotta to see if this is what he's talking about.
01:35:00
Speaker
Rewatched it all alone in the wilderness. I gotta know if it's this this DVD. This off-grid guy? Yeah, like a super off-grid dude.
01:35:11
Speaker
Yeah, Dick Pranic. Yeah. yeah
01:35:17
Speaker
Oh, man. It's so... I vaguely remember this.
01:35:25
Speaker
What is this?
01:35:30
Speaker
We got to figure out sam as same as this Dick Fronica one, the one you're talking about. Because it sounds awesome. But I got to know if it's something else and we've got it wrong.
01:35:45
Speaker
It's like Jeremiah Johnson. Yeah, he says it is. It's the guy who goes and lives in Alaska all by himself. And it's a documentary about him. um I remember hearing about this, but I've never actually watched it.
01:35:57
Speaker
ah It sounds rad, though. Check it out. Dick Pranik Alone in the Wilderness. Sounds cool, man. Good recommendation. I think Sam's always got some really really cool ones for the roads.
01:36:10
Speaker
these Sam's always got something interesting to recommend. He recommended that ah that Japanese jazz fusion artist a year or so ago.
01:36:24
Speaker
My daughter. like I started listening to that in the car. She heard it on the way to school and she's like,
01:36:31
Speaker
This music is funky. It's kind of awesome. there was it's That kind of stuff, man, is so funky, and I love that.
01:36:39
Speaker
All right, guys. Thanks, everybody, for hanging out with us. um This has been fun to be back after a three or four-week layoff because I've been sick as hell.
01:36:52
Speaker
So it's good to be back. from out Good to be back to smoking. Good to be back to hanging out Dennis. Good to be back with Pairing. ah So thanks everybody for hanging out. Thanks for hanging with us and smoking with us, pairing with us.
01:37:05
Speaker
And we'll see you next week. Dennis should have a fresh new trove of stuff. So we should have some yeah shows lined up for the next few weeks because I just sent him a big old package. Not too big, but you know look at a handful cigars.
01:37:17
Speaker
Massive. And we'll have some stuff to pair. So Dennis, do him a catchphrase. And we will get out of here. Perfect timing as I gulped the rest of my beer and was trying to burp.
01:37:32
Speaker
That's all right. I burped as I was saying that. Thank you, everybody, for watching and listening. And remember, we want you to drink better, but we want you to drink less. Pitfalls of drinking beer.