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After The Final Pour S5E14 - Alter Brewing "HVAC"
146 Plays4 years ago
We bid farwell to 2021 with Daniel AKA Hip__Hops while drinking a beer Clark brought to share. Alter Brewing's "HVAC" barrel aged Hazlenut, Vanilla and Coffee Barleywine.
Thanks to Kevin and Deb Goggin for the theme song.
Outro music by Fluid Minds
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Transcript
Introduction of 'After the Final Pour'
00:00:30
Speaker
When life gives you an empty cup Just crack a smile and fill it up Fill it up Welcome to After the Final Pour. I'm one of your hosts, Tony Golic, joined always with Brandon Winniger and in the way back about 9 feet away from us Clark Fetridge and joining us for the first time on an After the Final Pour
00:01:01
Speaker
Danny Poli.
00:01:03
Speaker
Nice, lean into the mic. See, no, no, no, no. He needs you. Yeah, you're actually OK, because that's why we gave him the mic. Move it closer. It's OK, you can move it. Everybody likes hearing the sound of a dragging microphone across a bar when they're listening to a podcast. You speak low enough where it's not, you know, you've got the right mic for this. In fact, my voice is being picked up on that mic terribly right now. Because that's, you know. Anyways, that's not why we're here. We're not talking about the schematics and how this show is done. And nobody cares about that, right?
00:01:32
Speaker
Right. Thanks, Clark. Clark,
Review of HVAC Barley Wine
00:01:34
Speaker
what are we drinking? Because you brought it, baby. We did. As you said in one of the previous shows, during my hockey dad days, I get to go out to many, many far away suburbs. And the perk of doing that is getting to stuff at many, many breweries that I would never, ever drive to. And this time, I was in Darien, Illinois, right next to Downers Grove. And I went to Alter Brewing. Very nice little brewery. So from there, I brought HVAC, a bourbon barrel-aged barley wine with hazelnut.
00:02:01
Speaker
Vanilla and coffee. You don't have to talk so loud. No, I like it. Oh, because of the... It's been so long, I wanted to make sure everyone could hear me. Peaky McPeaker over here. Yeah, we can actually still hear you though, if you're okay. Clark is pretty far away from us as we're doing this, but you do seem very enthusiastic about, you know,
00:02:24
Speaker
being back, man. It's so great to be back. It's nice to have you back. Six months. Although, Brandon and I have gotten used to not having you around that he and I have become closer and we've bonded more than ever. I think people recognize that in the show. Dan, you're an avid listener. What do you think? The chemistry has definitely improved.
00:02:46
Speaker
uh this right off the bat it it smells like coffee like kind of like cold brew coffee that was the first thing i got did you say this is barrel age or is it just a bourbon barrel age bourbon barrel age interesting 12 percent yeah the coffee does come through 100 um and then i do get when we talk about barley wines i do get that barley wine ask like
00:03:10
Speaker
I don't know. I feel like barley wine has a chewiness. I don't know. Whatever. But it's got that caramel and the sugar. All that, you just feel in the back of your jaw. And it comes through pretty good with this. I enjoy this. Yeah, it's solid. It's not the thickest barley wine. But it's got a thinness to it, which is perfectly fine. Yeah, I don't get a ton of barrel. I was kind of surprised. That's why I asked if it was barrel age.
00:03:40
Speaker
kind of hot and boozy. But the sweetness of it's nice. I get more coffee, maybe a little bit of vanilla. I don't think I'm getting any hazelnut. Are you guys getting any hazelnut? Not yet. No. No, and I don't want to say that's a temperature thing because this is pretty like... It's not ice cold. It's not ice cold, no. Although when I burp it does taste like hazelnuts. I'm not joking.
00:04:06
Speaker
That's a real thing. We'll keep recording until we all burp. If you guys want, I can get some busy water.
Nostalgia for Goose Island's Nutella Beer
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah but that's like that's weird because like having hazelnut in the beer like you would think it would be a prominent flavor and my golden go-to that I have always wanted to try and I never got to at Phobab was Netulu that Goose Island had done which was their like Nutella hazelnut version of Bourbon County.
00:04:39
Speaker
And it was only released at FOBAB like a couple of times. And I think maybe once or twice the taproom when I was never available, obviously to get it. But man, that's like my dream year. It was probably better than our attempt at doing the French press with the very old Ferrer shares in a regular Bourbon County. We should have just used Nutella at that point. It's true. I remember when they did the Cthulhu, Nuthaloo, and then they also had like a candy cane Cthulhu. Yeah, yeah. Nobody told me about these.
00:05:08
Speaker
Yeah, it was Clive Warren before. They just done this weird series. I don't want to say weird. It was great. And I missed out on it. So when I have a beer and I see that there's hazelnut in there, my first thing is like, I'm going to look for it. And if I don't get it.
00:05:26
Speaker
But as I sit here and talk, even in the back of my tongue, I'm getting a little hazelnut-ness. Teeny, teeny bit. Which is great, but not what I want when I drink it. I want to taste it when I drink it. You want more of an upfront hazelnut. Of course. Well, I'm sure some of the coffee's kind of hiding the hazelnut a little bit too, because the coffee's pretty prominent. Almost kills, I don't want to say kills everything, but like,
00:05:53
Speaker
It just, it goes to the forefront and then it'll, it'll compliment other flavors like chocolate or cinnamon and things like that, but. Well, Dan just burped and I don't know if he tasted hazelnut. I did not, but I haven't tasted hazelnut on the aftertaste. I was going to say, I felt like I smelled, you know, like you get green pepper on coffee beers sometimes. Initially, sometimes poured. We've talked about this numerous times. In extents. Yeah. When it was first poured, I got green pepper, but I think that that's gone now. I was going to ask Clark if this was, like how old this was. Well, I, well, I bought it.
00:06:22
Speaker
Just under two months ago, but whoever has the bottle up there. Is there anything? That should be Too that shouldn't be old enough. Yeah, and I'm not finding any but I don't think the coffee's dropped off at all I think that no I was talking about how it's hiding everything else that sort of speaks to that is probably new I was just curious. It looks like possibly April or Early spring. Yeah, but even even if that I wouldn't find that hard to like I
00:06:47
Speaker
There's no date on here. Come on, let's throw some dates on bottles, please. So I know when I'm... I mean, I'm being honest, especially hoppy beers, pale oils or IPAs, I look at the date all the time. Absolutely. And if it's...
00:07:05
Speaker
Anywhere past three months. I'm like three months. I mean, I feel like a real snob because once I see three yeah, I'm like, yeah Sorry, that's too old for me. Sometimes when I'm in July just look at dates just for the fun of it I let out an audible we talked about like what is this still doing? Yeah, we have talked about some beauty. Yeah, especially with the rain guys stuff you found. Yeah at my local
00:07:28
Speaker
Jewel Oscar there's stuff there. That's uh, it's been there since I think like March. She's gonna cough out their location near Ganson Irving. Yeah Around that intersection around that intersection there might be a jewel and American in Panda kitchen very good Chinese food so I I like this beer
00:07:55
Speaker
I wouldn't say I love it. I do like the idea of it being a coffee barley wine. I haven't had many coffee barley wines. Since the goose one, I think. Oh, correct. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's probably the last time I've had a coffee barley wine. I'm not sure why more breweries don't try and do a coffee barley wine. I don't know. Any thoughts on why that
Challenges of Brewing Coffee Barley Wines
00:08:15
Speaker
might be? Because I feel like the combination is...
00:08:18
Speaker
you know, the coffee and the sweetness of a barley wine. Well, I do feel like it's a good combination, but I feel like coffee is just such an incredibly difficult variant when you're using anything outside of a stout.
00:08:31
Speaker
You know, sure. But I mean, it's been successful in like blondes and my thought, my thought process is, is like, if you like coffee into an IPA or coffee, like if it can blend well and mesh with the hops, then it kind of works out. I feel like it's a hop contrast that like with a barley wine that may, and again, it's also the coffee that's used, like,
00:08:57
Speaker
depending on what, you know, if it's a dark rose, light rose, whatever the roast is, if it's, if it doesn't match the flavor profile of the hops, it's gonna dominate. And I feel like it does in this a little bit.
00:09:14
Speaker
I was gonna say, speaking to barley wines in general, I feel like an American style barley wine, maybe with the hops being amped up a little bit, may not play as well. I feel like this does remind me more of an English style. It's not as bitter, it's more caramel-y smooth. Yeah. That's a good point. I didn't even think about that, about the different styles of barley wines, because I just love barley wines, and I just love them all together. So what is the name of this?
Rating and Final Thoughts on HVAC Beer
00:09:39
Speaker
UHVEC? I think it's just HVEC, isn't it?
00:09:43
Speaker
Oh, maybe a track, yeah. Just look at everything.
00:09:46
Speaker
Because my next question was gonna be like Daniel if you're gonna pair this with an elbow Can't do that with every something but with the being after the final pour and you guys know we can do anything I mean, I'd have to look something up. I'd probably go towards Something about cooler air conditioning something Something about the summer atmosphere. I wasn't saying able to cool Keith cookies cookies. It's good cool kids Yeah
00:10:16
Speaker
Look at that. Yeah, I'd be curious. Nope, nope. I was going to say it. I wonder why they named it HVAC, but it's literally it's based on the ingredients. So hazelnut, vanilla and coffee. Thank you. Oh, man. Now they're ding, ding, ding with the, uh, Clark, you should have been on that. You know what? I want to ask Dan, if you were walking down the street and someone came up to you and was like, Hey, man.
00:10:46
Speaker
You ever try that HVAC beer before? If you ever choose one out of five, five, right? One out of five? Yes. What would you give it?
00:10:56
Speaker
I think I would go, do you guys do quarters or whatever you guys do? Yes, do whatever you like. I'll do three, two, five. Three, two, five. See, on our scale, that's pretty low, but everyone has their own kind of, what do you call it, range. No, I like it though. I wouldn't drive there to get this, but if somebody had it, I'd be like, oh yeah, I'll take that.
00:11:17
Speaker
Yeah, and I think, I mean, that's like the big thing that we talk about a lot is like, we rate beers high a lot, but I think, I feel like, in the last couple of months we've been trying to get more honest and like, you know, whatever. And it's not about being honest, you know, it's about being like realistic, you know, like if you're comparing that against everything you've ever had, so.
00:11:46
Speaker
I feel like four in me is good. 3.75 means, yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, three and a half is like, this is decent. 3.25, like, all right, three is like, it's okay. All right, on that score, on that high win. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd probably do a 3.75 on that then, because I feel like, I just tasted it again. I like, the mouth feels great. I like how you still get a little bit of the carb.
00:12:10
Speaker
The coffee's coming through. Knock it a little bit, because the hazelnut's not as prominent. But it's definitely a good beer and gets you everything it says. But the guy in the street is not going to tell you all that stuff. That's true. Zach Brack. Zach Brack. I wonder what Zach Brack has never rated a beer himself, though. Oh, we're going to ask him sometime. We'll see. Maybe. On that note, do you guys have anything else you want to say about HVAC?
00:12:33
Speaker
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00:12:59
Speaker
Oh boy, this is a lot. While he's looking this up, I will tell you that the logo, every time I see the logo, it reminds me of one of those words that you like, it says something one way and then you flip it upside down and it says something else. Bach, from the, Fodor, how do you know, how is in a Back to the Future beer, you wouldn't remember that, Bach. Sorry. It was like a month and a half ago.
00:13:27
Speaker
All right well anyways we're gonna wrap this up because we're done oh Pat's here great great great all right well um you guys that's it for this after the final four Brandon I love you man love you too uh Dan thanks for joining us thank you Clark maybe we'll be back in another one we'll see a couple months from now Pat welcome to the show that's it
Wrap-up and Social Media Plugs
00:13:50
Speaker
This has been The Malting Hour. Be sure to follow us on all social media by searching The Malting Hour and at themaltinghour.com. You can also follow us on social media platforms individually. Granted can be found on Instagram as bmdub81. On Twitter, bdub81.
00:14:05
Speaker
On Untapped, B-Dub drinks beer. Tony can be found on Instagram and Untapped under Asafelp Chicago. On Twitter, TheAsafelpChicago. Clark can be found as Clarkhouseki on all three. Be sure to subscribe, like, and rate the show on your preferred podcast listening platform. Until next time, cheers from all of us at The Malting Hour.