Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 21 - North Carolina Beer
125 Plays5 years ago
"And we're back!"
Happy New Year everyone! We return after our holiday break and had the opportunity to try some craft beer from North Carolina, thanks for our friends Gillian and Mike Jonathas.
Break music: The English Softhearts - Girl of the North
https://themagicspotproductions.bandcamp.com/
Intro and outro music provided by: Fluid Minds
You can find them on iTunes, Spotify, BandCamp and anywhere music is streaming.
Recommended
Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Platforms
00:00:03
Speaker
listening to The Malting Hour with Brandon and Tony. You can find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud. You can find us on Instagram and Facebook by searching The Malting Hour. And coming soon, TheMaltingHour.com. Now, onto the show.
Holiday Break Stories
00:00:34
Speaker
Welcome back to The Malting Hour with me and Tony Golic. And I, Brandon Wininger. Here we are again. First episode of 2020. Yes, it is. And how was your, we took some time off. We did. How was your Christmas? Break was good, long. We traveled out to go see some family, but it was a good time. But it was nice to kind of get away and not have to work and not have to worry about
00:01:01
Speaker
Life. I got some of that in as well. Not quite as much as you got, which is nice. But the break was nice. My mom came in to visit, so that was super cool. It was a good surprise. We didn't post the video because I'm swearing my head off because I was so surprised. It just seemed inappropriate, but that was nice. I got to see my dad right after the new year, so yeah.
00:01:28
Speaker
Well, the brick was good. The kid's been home since the beginning of December. So we're actually sending her back tomorrow. She's back to school tomorrow. Go away. The messiness, yes. Other than that, it'd be nice to keep her out. Go four miles east. Yeah, which is still like a 35 minute drive. Great, yeah. So it's an hour round trip tomorrow to drop her off. Chicago traffic, got a little bit.
00:01:54
Speaker
Well, amongst the holidays, now we're in January, I think I said you were going to do the same for dry January.
Dry January and Beer Tasting Beginnings
00:02:03
Speaker
Yeah. First year I'm doing that. There's just so much beer between the podcast and hanging out and just people coming in and visiting. Yeah. Just so much beer and so much drinking, I decided.
00:02:13
Speaker
to wait to not do any drinking during January, except for the podcast. And it's acceptable. Today is the day. And I think we've got one more we're going to try and knock out this month. We have to, yeah. We've got to do one more. Yeah, one more. But some friends of ours came up from North Carolina, originally from Chicago. They came from North Carolina, and I actually text them to say, hey, can you guys bring up some beers from North Carolina? As you should. Yeah, but they were already in Chicago.
00:02:43
Speaker
Oh, that's right. With beer from North Carolina. So I thought it'd be cool for us to visit some of these beers. I fell into them. So they're not that old. So that's cool. Yeah, bonus. And there is another one that they brought that I didn't bring that it is a gingerbread
00:03:01
Speaker
stout like gingerbread coffee stout so I'm going to we'll save that for something something special it's already in the fridge though keeping it cold so but we do have four beers here um and let's just we can go through them one by one so
00:03:16
Speaker
Let's get into
Tasting Session: Jump the Shadow and Sycamore's Juiciness
00:03:17
Speaker
it. Actually, I'm already burping. So I haven't been drinking. And we attacked this beer first, which is Jump the Shadow from Hop Butcher. And I was just saying how these, it's double IPA. What is it, Hopwith? Sabro, Sultana, and Equinot hopped. And it's 7.5% alcohol. And I was saying before we started,
00:03:44
Speaker
I'd be able to knock these back like it's nobody's business. Yeah. I mean, that's a problem. And now it's just 11 days later of not drinking beer. That was quite the feat for us to split. Well, I mean, it's not that it's seven and a half percent. It's not that strong, but it's also like it's a hobby beer. Yeah, it's it's really good. I really, really like. Oh, cool. And it's got the label peel so you can peel it off and recycle the can. Nice. That's super cool. Or save the label.
00:04:11
Speaker
That's pretty cool. Got some options. Yeah, so we had that thanks Brandon. Was it your uncle? Yep. Thank you, Brandon's uncle. Thanks, Uncle Al. Thanks, Uncle Al. Actually, I saw that when I came to watch the cats and I was like, ooh, that looks good. When do we have to try that? Anyways, so the first beer that we're going to drink is a North Carolina beer.
00:04:34
Speaker
is Sycamores Juiciness IPA and 6.8% alcohol. What does it say? Let's see. Juicy and refreshing. This thirst quenching IPA is dripping with lively citrus notes, first sip to last. Now, I'm not sure where their family owns. Oh, brewed and canned in Charlotte, North Carolina. Best to enjoy fresh. And I don't see when this one is canned. It says choose juice.
00:05:03
Speaker
$7.29. I don't know if that's when it was canned. I really hope it's not when it's canned. But we'll find out. Whoa, hey. We got a foamer here. Starting with the 16 ounce can. Give you that. That's the way to do it. Everybody take a look at that. Good head on that. That's what she said. Oh, OK. I'll throw that in there. It was in there once. It's going in there again.
00:05:33
Speaker
Ooh, man, that smells like grapefruit blood oranges. That is straight up citrus-ness-ness. Ooh, the slurp sound. Ooh. It's a hazy one. It's a hazy one, that's for sure. Yeah, is this considered a pale ale? No,
Pisgah Pale Ale Tasting
00:05:54
Speaker
it's an IPA.
00:05:56
Speaker
Oh, no, sorry. I meant hazy. No, no, no. I meant to say double IPA. It is not. There's a regular IPA. And man, that is. Because it's hazy, dude. Yeah, it's hazy. And it's not, it doesn't have that, like, we're just talking about the hot butcher beer that we had, Jump to Shadow. Yeah. Like, that, to me, was a double IPA. And like, it was hazy. It was murky.
00:06:23
Speaker
that juiciness and that almost like that hot bite without it being overpowering, without it being overly bitter almost. Oh, yeah. It's bitter, but this is way more subdued and it's got that haziness. This is way more citrus fruit than it is hop. It almost feels like this is a fruit juice beer.
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, the hops in this are really subtle. In the best way possible. Yeah. Meaning that the bitterness is kind of dialed back. And yeah, you're right. The citrus is very forward on this. Yeah. I like it. I like this a lot. So I don't know if it was canned in July. It's still holding up. Yeah. I mean, seriously. Again, I don't know exactly when. I don't know if, yeah, what this story is about. Again, we don't know what the. What does it say again?
00:07:12
Speaker
Something with the juice. Oh, choose juice, $7.29.
Evolving Beer Culture and Palates
00:07:17
Speaker
You talking about O.J. Simpson? The juice is loose. That's me chewing a pretzel off camera and off mic. We do our best to maintain our sobriety, well.
00:07:30
Speaker
Well, and also, I don't want you guys to hear me chew. Juicy and refreshing. Yeah, I'd be curious to kind of find out. I mean, it's not the end of the world, but it's still holding up fairly well. But it was December they brought those in. Yeah. Like, I would be surprised if that was July. Yeah. With it being an IPA too, I think we'd see. I mean, unless they went to like,
00:07:58
Speaker
No offense to Mike and Jillian like but if they went to like a shitty like liquor store I just had stuff that this might be one though if I'm not missing the shelf Yeah, but if I'm not mistaken this might be one that they've had before and they've tried I think I know all of these that they've tried
00:08:15
Speaker
And the stout that they brought up, I had it last year. I really like it. Well, yeah. And Mike's into craft beer, too. So is Jillian. Yeah, they both are. So them drinking craft beer is not out of the norm. So I think they would probably be going to solid places. Yeah, Mike was an original member of the group of. He may know, though, what the 729 means. Yeah, I'll ask him. Or he could probably look up their website or Twitter. No, I'm going to ask them. And I'm not going to tell listeners.
00:08:42
Speaker
what uh what it means yep there's we're inserting nothing yeah figure it out guys you're on your own this might be one of the times where i actually insert something there was something there was pause
00:08:55
Speaker
They were something on the last episode where I said I was going to do it. And I listened to it. I was like, I'm not going to do it. I don't know. I remember what it was. Even better. Yeah. But this is solid. Actually, I got to be honest. The first two beers, I mean, how about your beer from Chicago and this one, Charlotte.
00:09:13
Speaker
Man, for not drinking, I know it doesn't sound like a lot, 11 days of not drinking beer, but being a home brewer and us doing this podcast and then going through the holidays and just beer kind of being a part of our everyday lives.
00:09:27
Speaker
It's nice to not drink for that long and then come and have these beers. True. And really get a chance to appreciate them and enjoy them. I feel like taking that break is almost not only health-wise. Yeah. But palette-wise. Yeah. Not like overdoing it. I still got, as I was telling you when we met up last week, I still got Run the Juice 3, a Christmas fucking miracle still on tap. And I'm looking forward to trying that with a fresh palette.
00:09:56
Speaker
when you go back home. When I go back home tonight and continue to drink. I already broke it for the day, might as well just keep going. Stay total washed. It's just a drinking ban. No. Also, the funny thing is that the first three beers that we're going to have, this being an IPA, the next one's a pale ale, the one after that is a blonde, all of these could easily just fall into a spring summertime episode, as we were discussing. And why I think that's funny is that today,
00:10:26
Speaker
that we're recording this on January 11th is that we are about to get hit with maybe three to six inches of snow and we're not drinking something like a big barley wine or a barrel aged stuff. Yeah, and again, if you're not from Chicago, it's three to six inches, could be three to six inches, could be 12 inches, could be zero inches. Could be just the rain. Yeah, it could. It's been raining all night, so.
00:10:48
Speaker
The wind was crazy this morning. Oh yeah, the gate fell down again. Oh, cool. I don't know. Like, so there's a section in my yard, like the vinyl fence.
00:10:58
Speaker
A couple, like a month and a half ago, we had a really, really bad windstorm. Listen up, kids. We had a
Exploration of Blonde and Cream Ales
00:11:02
Speaker
really bad windstorm. It was like 60 miles an hour. Dude, one of the center panels just blew off. Jesus. And it was like, oh, I can see in my neighbor's yard. So I pick it up. Oh, no. I pick it up, and I just kind of like snug it back in there, and then it just keeps falling. I'm like, god damn it. Oh, my god. I mean, eventually, I've got to get the time to go to Home Depot or Menards or something. And there's. Fix it.
00:11:23
Speaker
There's clips that you can go in the middle and then just like screw it in. It sounds just like the Instant Pot you're giving me. There's clips in there. Yeah, exactly. I'm giving Tony an Instapod. Yeah, I'm very excited. I hope people from Instapod don't listen to this. Oh, no. Well, they said they were sending you a new one, so. But yeah, the Instant Pot, I'm excited about that because as the message that I sent you, well, the one I sent you was about making cherry moonshine. Yes. Which I think we should do that. I think that'd be fun to
00:11:49
Speaker
make some of that and drink it in the summer. Yeah. And then when you sent me that thing and I watched the video, I'm like.
00:11:55
Speaker
The Instant Pot helps. It may cut down the time. But I'm like, they literally just put them in there. They're boiling them, essentially. For sure. For sure. But just seeing it, I was like, ooh. They're making concentrated cherry juice, almost. And then adding six whole cherries, I think. And Everclear. Everclear, yes. No, I think she said she ended up putting 18 cherries in each jar. Is it? Yeah. Something like that. See, that'd be a fun gift to give to people, or to bring someone's house during the summer. That's kind of why I want to do it. Oh, yeah. No.
00:12:25
Speaker
I mean, I get the reasoning. Yeah. Because I sent you like this was last year sometime.
00:12:33
Speaker
at the beginning of the year. I'm not editing that out. So last year, at the beginning of the year, I had sent you a recipe. Some dude made wine. In the Instant Pot. In the Instant Pot. Yeah. From buying Welch's grape juice. Ooh, sorry. What? Is there drugs in there? Yeah. Oh, that's cool. It looked like hop chunks. Oh, yeah, it is, dude. Look at the bottom of that. Is it green? Holy. Oh, geez, that. What is that? Hold on. You should show the camera. Anybody who's listening, I just went to go and I had to interrupt your story.
00:13:00
Speaker
No, it's just, okay, so there's no sediment on the bottom of the can. I'm checking out. Yeah, because it's all in the glass. Oh god, sorry about that man. No, that's all right. I thought I was doing you a salad. It looks like yeast. Is it? Yeah, maybe some hot particles. Looks like a turtle right now.
00:13:23
Speaker
Yeah, so some dude made wine in the Instant Pot. That was kind of neat. And just like Welch's grape juice, put it in there and kind of used it as a fermentation chamber for, I don't know how long. Again, I'd have to look at the article again, but I don't remember how long it was.
00:13:38
Speaker
You know, it's got its own vent in there, so yeah. The thing that I saw is from Basic Brewing Radio. And actually, I reached out to James Spencer to ask him what he suggested. Because he made a small batch sour beer. Oh, that's right. He sent that to you. A shot of the Good Belly mango. And he used the yogurt setting to keep, like it made a water bath basically for his one gallon jug.
00:14:05
Speaker
So that it ferment so keep it going and then put the good belly in there. Oh nice and He then I believe bottled that and carbonated it But he also said I could you could use that as a starter if you wanted to do like a five gallon batch so you already have that to pitch into your beer and
00:14:23
Speaker
Oh yeah, and then finish it off with whatever yeast you would use. So I'm thinking about doing that. So be able to do a one gallon batch, same deal that he did. And we'll see that. We'll try that. Actually, I do have a beer that I still haven't brewed it.
00:14:41
Speaker
I got a gift card for Brew and Grow, our local home brew shop. If you guys are in a VA, sponsor ever. Let us know. And I'm going to do a very weird attempt at a lager, which is going to be a 15-minute boil, extract, room temperature fermented lager. So that'll be a fun beer to try. I'm hoping I'll be ready in time for the Super Bowl, because that's my plan, to drink at Super Bowl time.
00:15:10
Speaker
where the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens will play against each other. We'll see. That's my pick. That's my pick. We'll see if I'm right. Oh, man. Oh, we're right. Actually, we're going to find out today if one of those teams gets eliminated. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So by the time this episode is released, we'll know if either one of those teams are even going to make it to the final. Yeah, I always forget like playoff time, like Saturday games always kind of throws me off. That's so much fun. I love this time of year, too. I just love life.
00:15:35
Speaker
That sound too cheesy? You should probably dump that, I think. All right, Brandon, while you go and dump that, I'm going to go ahead and bring out the second beer, which we're actually doing Step Backwards, which is nice. We normally ramp it up. So yes, that was Sycamore's Juiciness IPA. Thank you, Mike and Jillian, for that, for bringing that up. I always look forward to the beers that you guys
00:16:02
Speaker
bring it from North Carolina or when I go down there and drink a great ton of delicious beers as well. The next one is a pale ale. Our favorite style according to our pale ale episode where that's what we talked about.
Brewing Goals and Innovations
00:16:16
Speaker
This is from Pisgah, P-I-S-G-A-H. I had to look it up how to pronounce it. And this is brewed and canned by Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
00:16:28
Speaker
It says, adhering to the strict philosophy of the Pisgah Brewers, this pale ale is crafted just miles downstream from America's most precious watershed using the finest malts, whole hops packaged in a can for your portable, potable pleasure.
00:16:45
Speaker
Whether camping, canoeing, swimming, or disc golfing, enjoy the whole outdoors never leaving your favorite craft beer behind. So that's pretty cool. Ingredients, water, organic malt, whole hops, yeast, 69% organic ingredients. So that's pretty cool. That's cans, infinitely recyclable. Right on. It says, support sustainable brewing culture.
00:17:10
Speaker
So that's pretty cool. So I'm going to assume that they are all about sustainable brewing and from what they said on there. Yeah. With the emphasis on outdoors and where they're brewing it. So that's pretty cool. Let's get into this. Nice. You get the first pour, buddy. Thanks. And now we have downgraded to the 12-ounce bowl.
00:17:36
Speaker
Ooh. Three ounce marker. Six ounce marker. I don't know. Just kind of winged it. Maybe we should get glasses that are marked off like that. Six ounce pours. Yay! It'll work. There's a little shot left in there. Oh, sweet. More drinks. There you go. You get all the bottom of the cans. All right. All right. Well, let's get into this.
00:18:02
Speaker
Ooh. Smells good. That was hoppier than the last one. Yeah, totally. The last one smelled like citrus. Correct. It smelled like grapefruit and orange, like rind and pith. Ooh. That's tasty. I feel like we maybe have done this beer some injustice by drinking that last one first. Possibly. This one definitely feels
00:18:30
Speaker
This is a pioneer pail, a pioneer hop than the last one. We almost should have started with this. Yeah. Damn, I always mess it right. It's slightly carbonated, but I feel like I don't have that carbonation feel on the tongue, but definitely when you take a sip, I get that back. I feel the carbonation in the back of my throat. At first I thought, I was like, oh, is it just that bitter? It's not bitterness. It's like the carbonation coming in.
00:18:58
Speaker
Very weird. Yeah, the carbonation is very light on this, especially in comparison to the last two beers that we've had. You should eat a pretzel before taking a sip of that again. I'm not sure, actually I'm going to look it up while we're here and doing the episode to find out exactly what hops they used.
00:19:23
Speaker
because I'm getting more, I'm definitely getting more piney than I am. Oh, yep, Chinook and Nugget. There we go. First things that pop up. So those are not very citrusy hops to what I remember my brewing.
00:19:38
Speaker
But yeah, Chinook and, what did I say? Chinook and Nugget. So Nugget and Chinook were the hops that were used for this, and those are definitely not like super citrusy hops. Chinook's definitely got a- Ooh, that does change it a little bit. Yeah, and it's better. Yeah. It's like this is, it's piney and refreshing.
00:19:55
Speaker
Yes, totally. Especially for a, I mean, I guess, technically it's an east coast, not tugly, but it is an east coast beer in North Carolina. Correct. And it's got that, that fininess to it, but not that crazy bitterness that you'd get from like those old school west coast. Yeah. Oh, that's nice. That's refreshing. This one was actually canned in October. Hey, all right, so here we are. What was that, four months? Yeah. Definitely. Three months. A little over three months. That's hard.
00:20:25
Speaker
Maths and I are strong on shit. Welcome back to the math hour. No, just under three months is what it would be, yeah. Kids. We don't know stuff. Yeah, this is good. Yeah. I really like it. It's light enough where I could drink a few of those and be OK. Yeah, what is? Meaning like, I don't think I would be burnt out. No. And it's 5%, 5.1%.
00:20:51
Speaker
I like the paleos that fall, I know that's one percent, but I like the paleos that kind of sit around the four percent mark. Five percent is...
00:21:01
Speaker
But like you said, yeah, I don't think I say a whole bunch of these, but no, but I get very good. It's actually it's a little more maltier than I would expect for a pale ale. Yeah. And but your definition of like when you said at the beginning, like this being kind of a spring beer. Yeah, I can see that like that kind of falls into that category. Definitely. Because we talked about this, like what our spring beers and pale ales kind of fell into that category.
00:21:24
Speaker
Which we've already done. With hop slam. Yeah. Yeah, they all say hop slam. Apparently, it's out. Is it? Oh, cool. Well, we got to get some. We'll have hop slam on there. Because you know what? As the years have gone on, and in the way that my palate's changed, and everybody's palate's changed, there's
Winter Stout Tasting: Piece of Cookie
00:21:41
Speaker
been the discussion of, especially with these beers that
00:21:46
Speaker
people got so used to like, people used to wait in line for hop slam or wait in line for KBS and those beers. And as the years have gone on, people have said these beers have changed and they're not as good as they used to be. Taste is subjective. You know, like, have our pallets changed or have the beers changed? I want to say it's probably more of altogether, all beer culture itself has changed. There's all these different beers that come out now.
00:22:15
Speaker
that when you have something like Hop Slam, that that was a one of a kind type beer, that all of a sudden these other breweries who weren't doing these big special releases were like, here's a triple IPA. This is just our triple IPA, and we're releasing it now, or our double IPA, and we're just releasing it whenever. Exactly. And double IPAs are sitting on the shelf all the time now. Yeah. And you're right on that, too. And again, it's like same thing with KBS or any of those beers that people stand in line for.
00:22:44
Speaker
KBS is essentially just a coffee stout, not essentially. Yeah, a coffee chocolate barrel aged stout. But so many people do that now. It's so replicatable that while KBS at the time was the gold standard, I felt, for most people, all these other breweries took it on. And there's so many different options. You get coffee and chocolate, but depending on the
00:23:13
Speaker
the brewery like the intensity of the chocolate could be greater the intensity of the coffee could be greater and it's again it. It's playing to people's palates and if they like that more they'll be like kbs is so pedestrian yeah i mean in here in chicago alone there's so many breweries that.
00:23:29
Speaker
do those big beers, those pastry styles, those barrel-aged styles, that there's always some sort of release. Each month, I can say... Yeah, Hubbard's Cave. Hubbard's Cave. We've talked about you guys so many times. You guys have been mentioned probably as many times as Goose Island has been.
00:23:46
Speaker
That wasn't on our list of when we got together last week of what episodes we were going to do. Hubbard's Cave needs to be added to that. Yeah, and they were opening up their new plays, so hopefully... Well, and Maplewood's doing their five-year anniversary, which...
00:24:01
Speaker
I can't believe it's already been five years. That's insane. Right? That's crazy to me. And I think it's the end of this month. Actually, I think the weekend of when this episode is being released, they're doing their five-year anniversary, and they've got all these barrel-aged cup of beers. Cup of stouts. Cup of stouts, yeah. They got a cup of stouts. Cup of tea tree. So might grab some of those in front of an episode.
00:24:30
Speaker
But yeah, I think a lot of it has to do with the availability of these styles, that they're no longer just special releases. So some of these special releases that used to be a big deal, like Hop Slam, some people still do look forward to it every year. I would say a couple years ago, I fell victim to not recognizing that
00:24:54
Speaker
my palate had changed to thinking that hop slam wasn't that good anymore. And last year I had it, and I was like, oh yeah, this is really good. So I would like to definitely have some hop slam this year. I remember for Mike's bachelor party, and I got the little ones that didn't really drink it. I drank some of it. And then they were pounding on the door at four in the morning to get it.
00:25:13
Speaker
And they didn't say it. And the cooler of beer that we had in there. Sorry losers, should've gotten the beer from us earlier. Or at least when you were knocking on the door. Yes. Said hey can we get that beer instead of it's the police. Yeah. Which we knew it wasn't the police. You guys were wasted from the strip club. Yeah.
00:25:32
Speaker
I said, this still blows my mind. Hilarious. Literally, you said nothing about eating beer. Can we get the beer? I thought they would spend about half an hour banging on the door, and we laughed. The entire time. We were sleeping. Yeah. We were sleeping. But we did start laughing and saying, yeah, you know what? We're just not going to open the door. Actually, had they mentioned that they wanted the beer, we could have opened up the door. I probably would have gotten up. And had beer with them. Yeah.
00:25:54
Speaker
Lesson learned, I hope. We gotta go back to Milwaukee. I know man, Milwaukee's cool. I love Milwaukee. Not as cool as Chicago, but Milwaukee's cool. We had a good time. We did. It was a lot of fun.
00:26:03
Speaker
All right. When you go to a place like MKE and then just get hammered. Annihilated. Oh, man. I became friends with a guy, what's his name? Kurtzy, who did our tour. Kurtzy is the K. And we came friends with him on Facebook, or at least follow him on Facebook. Really? Yeah. And that guy gave one hell of a tour. Yeah. We should get back in touch with him and see if we can maybe drive it to Milwaukee and do an episode with him. That's not the guy. So because I've been there, I think, twice, two or three times. I don't remember how many times I've been there.
00:26:34
Speaker
I think three times. That's my one and only time. I think three times I've actually been there. Holy shit. But anyway, I don't know if it was that tour guide, but somebody had said, somebody had said they actually lived, one of the tour guides lived in Chicago and actually just made the trip up on the weekends to do the tour. And I'm like,
00:26:52
Speaker
He's like, why? He's like, I'm here to get free beer. I'm like, dude, people that go on the tour get shit faced. How are you giving the tour sober enough
Denver Trip and Beer Fest Memories
00:27:01
Speaker
to drive back to Chicago? Well, it wasn't Chicago. It was a suburb. But it was like Arlington Heights or Schomburg or something like that. Still a decent trip. I was like, all right, man, whatever. You know what? And I remember right now, when we were there for Mike's bachelor party, I don't remember what month that was.
00:27:19
Speaker
It was like a March. February? It was on my birthday. Yeah, February, yeah. And they had like their pumpkins. Yes, because I brought you a birthday present. Yeah, that's right. Did you buy me a glass or a shirt? No, I bought, I gave you the United States thing. They look like that. That is packed away still in my storage, filled with bottle caps, and it's driving me nuts. I told Laura this spring, we got to go throw this up.
00:27:37
Speaker
But I bought a shirt there, and Paul and I bought their pumpkin beer that they still had. Because I tried it, and I'm like, this is really good. Yes, I remember that. And it was like they were trying to get rid of it. I bought a case. Yeah. I bought a case. Yeah. I bought a case. Oh, man. I don't remember that. We got to go back. We definitely got to go back. That was fun. Well, we got way off course of this pale ale. But this pale ale is delicious. That's all I'm going to say about that. Well, the whole thing about going off course is I think
00:28:06
Speaker
It all started when we were talking about how beer inspires conversation. It does. And that's the whole show's about. Yeah. It's been a while since we've drank beer together. That's also true. Yeah, we met last week, and we didn't drink beer. That was weird. It was super weird. It was the first time I was talking. I'm like, dude.
00:28:21
Speaker
We're boring. No, go away. I was drinking carbonated water with lemon juice. Thanks. It was very tasty. Yeah, back to the pisca paleo. That was, one thing I was noticing is that, oh, we got off track because we were talking about hop slam and a very springtime beard. Hop slam coming out soon, or you said now.
00:28:44
Speaker
As far as the paleo goes, this is solid. As I was finishing it up, it's a little more maltier than I would have expected. Yeah, I feel the same way. But not in a bad mood? No, not at all.
00:29:01
Speaker
Like IPA multi or Amber Amber multi or anything but it was solid beer nice piney hops and We definitely gave it a little a lot more mouthfeel that a parallel would normally have yeah, in fact it had more body I feel like in a word for it
00:29:18
Speaker
Good on them. Yeah. All right. Well, two down. Two more to go. And I'm going to guess by looking at the time, it might be time for a break. Are we anywhere near that? Yep. Only been playing, playing. Only been talking for five minutes. And it feels like forever. I don't know what the music is. I don't know what the music is. We'll be right back.
00:29:49
Speaker
Girl of the night Girl of the night Girl of the night Girl of the night Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,
00:31:42
Speaker
And we're back. Yeah, we are back on it. We are.
Podcast Community and Crossovers
00:31:46
Speaker
We didn't really go anywhere. Well, we took a break. We took a break from talking about these delicious North Carolina beers.
00:31:53
Speaker
Thanks to our friends, Mike and Jillian. Thanks, guys. Thanks, guys. We do appreciate it. Actually, I still appreciate it. I still have two more beers. Not two more beers, but I have two beers from Denver that came from our friend Beau. Oh, good old Beau. Which, you know, we went to Great American Beer Fest two years ago. Oh, technically, no, two years ago. Not two full years, but in 2018 we went.
00:32:19
Speaker
That was awesome, man. That was a good trip. That was a lot of fun. It was short. It was the coolest 72 hours I've spent. Didn't you have an early flight? Oh, yeah. I was on the plane at 6 AM on Sunday. Got to Denver at 11 o'clock at night on Friday. Which I met you. And we went out and had beers. And then we got up early in the morning.
00:32:40
Speaker
I went with Bo to breakfast, then we met up with you back at our hotel. That was also the time that I told you that Becca was pregnant before anybody else knew. Yes, that's right. That night, that night, that Friday night, you told me I was so excited, man. We went out for one beer and ended up having three. At Tarantula.
00:32:58
Speaker
Then we met up with Brian, Brian Sanford, original Brew Club member. We did. After Great American Beer Fest. After the fest, we realized we had a ticket he could have used. Yeah. Because we're assholes. Whoops. But we had a great time with him. We went out to dinner, and then we went to a barcade, and we went to Oktoberfest. I think we met him originally at Euclid Hall. I think that's where he is. The restaurant, right? Yeah. That restaurant was really good. Yeah.
00:33:22
Speaker
Then we went to the arcade where they did have 40 ounces in plastic bottles. I did not do that, but we played a lot of video games, drank some beers there, and then did we go someplace else before going before finding the Oktoberfest?
00:33:38
Speaker
It's kind of a blur. We walked around for no pictures pictures. But I think that might have just been us walking and like I don't think we stopped anywhere. I think we just kind of found that place. Yeah. And the October fest was super cool. Like super cool in a sense that it was an October fest. Yeah. We happen to be there and we were drinking local I believe local and some beers maybe that I've never had before as far as German
00:34:01
Speaker
Yeah, October first beers. Yeah, sausage place. Yeah, and it's funny. So oh, yeah, we went to Jim's. So Jim's biker bar or Jim's, whatever. Oh, biker Jim's is what it's called. Biker Jim's. Go get those sausages. But that was so it's funny. So that was 2018, like 2017 and 16. I think I those all
00:34:22
Speaker
three of those years I had been in Denver at that same time roughly around my birthday and had been like, you know, either at the beginning or the tail end of that, um, October, October fast. I was like, I think it was the first time I actually went, which was kind of cool.
00:34:38
Speaker
Yeah, that was a good time. So this is the first, this Pat 2019 was the first year like I hadn't been in Denver in September. So it was like, well, I've got those two Denver beers from Jessup Farm. One's an IPA and one is a barrel aged beer. And maybe this year we
00:34:56
Speaker
You never know. You never, never know. Talk to those guys at Jessup Farm. That would be cool. We'll see. But that's a ways away right now. Right now, we're in January. And taking a break from our dry January to enjoy these North Carolina beers. Correct. The next beer is from Appalachian Mountain Brewery. I read the first two. You're going to read the second. How's that sound?
00:35:20
Speaker
Government warning, according to the Surgeon General, Boone Creek Blonde, hail brewed with honey and orange zest. An ode to the creek along which we built our brewery, Boone Creek Blonde is a refreshing beer for every season. Brewed with orange zest to compliment
00:35:41
Speaker
I think they spelled compliment wrong. The compliment is light hopperoma. I hope not. Boone Creek, I'll show you. Blonde has a crisp mouthfeel followed by a hint of sweetness with wildflower honey. Wildflower honey. This drinkable and delicious brew is a gold medal winner from Boone's beer pioneer. Ooh. Does it say one there too? No. No. That's a compliment. Come on, tell me that's not wrong.
00:36:07
Speaker
Compli, yeah, isn't there an eye in compliment? Yes! All right, Google it, Google it right now. Sorry, Boone Creek, but we might be calling you out on this one. Let's look it up on Google Trans. Watch you be like, oh, that's an acceptable variation of compliment. Compli, oh, no, we're wrong. Are we? Yeah, compliment, I think it completes or brings perfection. We're wrong. Why did I think there was an eye in there? It just looks wrong. Compli, I guess I don't compliment. Well, hold on.
00:36:36
Speaker
Compliment, a polite expression of praise or admiration. Ooh! Compliment, a thing that completes or brings perfection. That's what they're using. Ah-ha! There's a variation, so weird. This is not the grammar hour, it's the molting hour. Man, we're dumb.
00:36:53
Speaker
All right. The best kind of dome. So a little background on this one. I have tried these other two already prior to this episode. So I knew what I was doing. Oh, so Tony doesn't need it. No, but I've not tried this one. This is the one that I haven't tried. Oh, OK. The Boone Creek Blonde. So I'm really excited about this. They weren't able to give us a can of it. I think that night that they came by,
00:37:21
Speaker
I'm really going to like listening to that part. I think that somebody drank this. Man, that is crystal clear. Well, not crystal clear, but wow. It's a beautiful looking beer. That looks like beer. This is a beer that you give someone who's like, I don't know if I like craft beer, because anybody who doesn't like craft beer. Shut up and drink it. Shut up and drink it, grandma. Ooh, smells like biscuity, crackery.
00:37:49
Speaker
Oh, man. That's refreshing. That's a beer I can drink on a hot day. That's a beer I can drink all day, every day. Holy moly. That's delicious. What did you say that was in there? A crisp mouthfeel followed by a hint of sweetness from wildflower honey. Yeah, that honey-ness is the honey-ness. The honey is in there. Sorry, I'm trying to do this thing where we have to show the cans. Yeah, no, that's really good, man. That's tasty. Can everybody hear it in my chair?
00:38:21
Speaker
Hope not. Yeah, not too much. It sounds like I'm farting. I said fart on the podcast. Woo. Woo, 12. That's delicious. Yeah, 212. 212 is what used to be. That's really good. Blonde Ale is a style that when I got into brewing, I'm surprised I didn't brew right away. Actually, Clark and I did one. We mentioned it last time he was on our Mike Tyson's Punch Out series, which was a beer series we were going to do.
00:38:51
Speaker
And based on each boxer that you faced, we were going to do a beer style. The first one we did was Glass Joe, which we made a blonde ale. And Glass Joe is from France, so we use French hops. And I forget which hops we used for it. That's the only blonde ale I've ever made. And I forget that a blonde ale and a cream ale are two types of styles that, if someone is hesitant about trying craft beer, those two styles are really good to give them.
00:39:21
Speaker
because a blonde ale and a cream ale are very, to put it simply, beer tasting beers. They taste like beer without them being a big lager. What are you looking at, buddy? I have, I didn't notice this, I've got like these black floaters like in my glass that weren't in there before.
00:39:41
Speaker
You might not have them. I don't see anything in mine. Yeah, like these little flecks of black something. So now there's just one left, yeah. Is it from your pretzel? Black? Yeah, if you take a look, inspect the pretzels. There's like these little green specks. Oh, probably. Oh. Edit that out. What's the pretzels that we're eating? Where are they from? Dot's Pretzels. Dot's Pretzels. Thank you, Dot's Pretzels, for these delicious beer snack.
00:40:11
Speaker
Yeah, they actually compliment this pretty, I wonder if they're, I mean, they must be. I gotta think it's something that's in your glass, but yeah, those two styles, Blondales and Cremales, are very beer tasting beers for people. Yes.
00:40:23
Speaker
who I mean for everybody but for people who are afraid of trying craft beer or want to start trying craft beer those two styles are a good place to start. Yeah because I feel like most people that try craft beer like or haven't tried craft beer or like know about craft beer they're like oh it's just another one. Too hoppy too like you know it's gonna be too bitter like this you know but this is yeah it's kind of even keel yeah I think. I think they think this year I'd like to go
00:40:51
Speaker
As far as goals, and we talked about this on the Christmas episode of what we like to do as far as brewing, and I want to prevent myself from buying more beer and brew more beer. A couple styles I want to do, like I said, I'm going to do that 15 minute lager. Another one that I was talking to you about is I want to do a sour because Laura really likes my wife. Laura really likes sour beers and she really likes Mike's beer. And so I'm going to mess around with that this year.
00:41:12
Speaker
And I think doing like a Golden Ale, a Kolsch, some simple beers like that for when people come by just to have on tap. And then save like the IPAs and stuff like that for when I just want a goddamn beer. I want to drink on tap for myself. Yeah. I realized that like having parties that I try and do these beers, except for Halloween. Halloween, you and I, that's a new venture. Thank you. Yeah, a new thing that we do.
00:41:40
Speaker
What's the word I'm looking for? A new... Can't think of it. It's our annual thing. That we do for the party and those beers for the most part go over well because it's a Halloween party.
00:41:58
Speaker
We dress up beer as something that's not supposed to mean. Like candy. It's cereal. But I think, you know, doing beer like this, blonde, Colesch, Cremail, having those on tap, trying to go back to some simple styles. Yeah. We should do a beer with Smarties. Wow, I like how you jumped from... I was thinking about the Halloween thing and I was like, yeah, we should do a beer with Smarties. A Smarties beer. Ooh, what about a Smarties? Sour, yes. High five on that one. Boom.
00:42:25
Speaker
That would be awesome. Oh man, a smarty sour sounds fun. Yeah, I think that would work. I think it would. I mean, we're just using smarties. I feel like we could get away with it in the mash, crush it. Actually, I think we can get away with it if we put a whole bunch of smarties in a food processor, blend it up, and add it to the boil even. Yeah. I mean, really we're just at that point we're adding sugar.
00:42:50
Speaker
as we learned from the cereal beers, which I think we should do a one gallon experiment with just using straight cereal.
00:42:58
Speaker
Yeah. Now that we both have Instant Pots and we've got some gallon jugs lying around, that would be a fun experiment to do. Maybe we'll do it here for the podcast. Maybe we'll do it just for ourselves and not share the results with anybody. I think there was a brewery that did a Sour Patch Kids beer, or Sour Patch beer. That sounds familiar. I know that Old Irving did the Swedish Fish. Yes. We didn't have that. I had that with Clark.
00:43:28
Speaker
That was really good. Oh, good. Oh, good. Speaking of that jerk who was on our last episode, we might be doing another episode with him again. We'll see how Brandon feels about it. He's on the fence. God damn it, Clark. Clark, this isn't your show. It's not the clarking out.
00:43:54
Speaker
Might as well be. Yeah, so, man, a blonde ale is not a beer I seek out, but having something like this, if this was readily available to us here in Chicago, I think it would be a beer that I would have in my fridge. Yeah, so this, it makes me curious to see, like, what other breweries have something close to this? Like, I would definitely... That honey and that, or was it orange zest? Yeah, orange zest and honey. It's not, it's not huge. It's not like...
00:44:24
Speaker
It's not a giant pop of zest. It's not a giant pop of honey sweetness, but the honey and the orange zest really kind of balance themselves out there. Yeah, it works really well together. It's got a nice bitterness to it. It'd be nice to know what hops they use for this because it's very...
00:44:44
Speaker
It's just bitter enough, and there's no piney-ness, there's no citrus-ness, or maybe there is. It's so subtle I'm not picking it up, but that's a beer. I'd like to try beer tasting beer. Yeah, I think we've never done that, but I would be interested in trying, like adding orange zest to a beer.
00:45:04
Speaker
I've done lemon zest. Clark and I did a beer. Sorry. Clark and I did a beer called Patriotic Lemon Party. Continue. It's called Patriotic Lemon Party and it was a
00:45:24
Speaker
Is it a huff? No, a wit. A wit beer. And it was coriander and lemon zest. And I think maybe that was it. He'd have to remind me of it. But the first batch we did was, eh, it was okay. The second batch we did was better.
00:45:43
Speaker
and we haven't brewed it in a while and I'd like to revisit that beer. I like using zest in beers. I did it for another wit beer. I use zest of something, maybe orange zest. What I'd like to do is there's a beer recipe that I have that's supposed to kind of be like sea quench from Dogfish Hub.
00:46:10
Speaker
where this guy actually, like, sequench, if you guys have never had it before, it's a blend of three types of beer, which I think is, I could be wrong, so don't quote me on this.
00:46:21
Speaker
Berlinerweiss, Kolsch, and Goza. I believe those are the three types of beers that they blended together that also have black limes, regular lime zest, and sea salt. Regardless of what it is, it's a delicious beer. And the camera, it looks like you're looking for me to wrap it up. No, wait, why does this keep going on?
00:46:43
Speaker
He keeps checking his watch. But I did find this recipe where someone uses lime zest and shit, I forget the name of it. Yuzu. Yuzu juice. They use Yuzu during fermentation and they add Yuzu juice to, it's like a citrus, I believe it's Japanese? Sounds Japanese. That's Yakuza you're thinking of.
00:47:05
Speaker
It wasn't, but OK. Six ounces they had during the first part of fermentation, and then six ounces of the Yuzu juice after like three days of fermentation. But that used lime zest. So that's another beer I want to try. But yeah, zest is fun to use in beers. You don't want to use too much, because then you can get too bitter. But the right amount will give you the right flavor. I'm sure.
00:47:36
Speaker
I mean, why wouldn't it? I'm gonna rinse these real quick. Yeah, go right ahead. It's my favorite part of the show. My favorite part of the show where Brandon's had enough of Tony. Why wouldn't it? Oh, man. I'm gonna head this part out. Just wait.
00:48:11
Speaker
Maybe because I wanted to eat a whole bunch of pretzels. Oh my god, it's so good. I'm going to check the top real quick. Oh my god, you've got 25 minutes left to record. Oh no. Oh, we have audio, Wes. Yeah. How far are we into it? 45 minutes. Great. Now let's spend 15 more minutes talking about one more beer. Perfect. We spent about 15 minutes of beer. Huh? And five, four, three,
00:48:44
Speaker
All right, the next beer, Brandon, read it off, brother. Oh, God, I got a pretzel in my mouth. Oh, sorry. You want me to read it off? I can read it off, because I have a pretzel in my hand. So we got Piece of Cookie from Palmetto Brewing Company. Where are you, Palmetto?
00:49:04
Speaker
Morganton, North Carolina. Oh, and Charleston, South Carolina. Oh my God. Which one are you from? Oh no, they're in both. So a piece of cookie is a milk and cookie stout with natural vanilla and mint flavors. Chocolate chip, mint chocolate. Good old fashioned sugar cookie. All your favorites are right here in this can. All except O'Neill Raisin. You can keep those.
00:49:31
Speaker
That's awesome. A cookie makes everything better. So we decided to bake up a batch of the greatest cookie inspired stout you've ever had. We even included a dash of lactose as a nod to that all important glass of milk. Makes cookies, not war. Oh, make cookies, not war, y'all. That's pretty cool. That's piece of cookie. P-E-A-C-E. Piece of cookie. Right now? Yeah.
00:49:57
Speaker
That's it. I got politics right there. All right. So disclaimer, I've also had this beer before. But the last time I had it, Brandon just shotgun it. The last time I had it, it was ice cold. And I've never read the description.
00:50:18
Speaker
So this has now been, sorry for the burp, this has now been sitting out of the fridge for a good hour and a half.
00:50:30
Speaker
And so I'm hoping to be able to pick up, yeah, nice pour shot, man. I'm hoping to be able to pick up some of the things that they said are in here. Because I'll be honest, the last times I've had it, I did not get any mint. I did get lactose. Let me get that right away. Here, man. Well, then something too is like, with mint, you think you could smell it. And like, I don't get any mint when I. No, not at all. And a mint stout is something,
00:50:58
Speaker
KG, this one's pretty dark man. Yeah, like look at this. I can't even see I want to go up to the Camera light here. That's yeah, I can't see shit Shit, there is no shit floating in here and you can't see through it So for the last beer by the way, I'm gonna cheers you on that. Yeah, let's go to sipparoo Hmm
00:51:31
Speaker
interesting mint not mint mint yeah i'm not getting mint mint like but i gotta say sugar cookie chocolate chip maybe maybe some mint the only reason why i say that is i have had some mint stouts before i have yeah there's
00:52:01
Speaker
If you think about the aftertaste in your mouth. A little bit of mint. A little bit. Which I'm glad it's just a little bit. That's like very small. Are we recording again? Yeah, no. Let's not record again. As far as stouts go, I really like the bitterness. I really like the mouth feel.
00:52:25
Speaker
I really do like this beer and I was very happy because they brought this to me last year before we were doing the podcast or right around the time and everybody drank the hell out of these. Um, I was very happy to see these again from what Mike and Jillian brought up. So, uh, to have this again, to talk about on the podcast, just be able to try it again was, was pretty, yeah, it's pretty solid, man. Yeah. Uh, I've never had anything else from Palmetto unless they brought something last year. They don't remember, but, um,
00:52:55
Speaker
It's a solid beer and on a day like today where we've got snow and freezing rain and shit coming down in January, that's a perfect way to, if I wasn't doing anything else, which I, sorry Jane, I really wish I wasn't. Mike, I'm sure you can agree with me because while you're listening to this, you're like, yep, I remember that Saturday when we cleaned out all the brewery shit from the basement. It'd be nice to sip on this and just hang out and hang out with your friends and family.
00:53:24
Speaker
That cookie, man. That cookie brings me back to us doing the cinnamon bun stout that I'm looking forward to doing. It's like the third, I think maybe the third episode we've talked about. Yeah, we'll get there. We got a couple of things we got to work on. I'm curious to know what they did to get the flavor.
00:53:43
Speaker
Like, did they throw sugar cookies in here? Or chocolate chip cookies or mint cookies? No. It's a possibility. Yeah, it says, what did it say? Chocolate chip, mint chocolate, good old fashioned sugar cookie. All your favorites are right here in this cam.
00:53:58
Speaker
So it says milk and cookie stout with natural vanilla mint flavors. So I'm thinking maybe they test out a few batches and use natural flavors to emulate what they wanted of chocolate chip cookie, sugar cookie, and mint cookie. The more I'm drinking it, the more we're talking about it, that mint is super subdued to the point where
00:54:26
Speaker
Am I making it up in my head or am I actually tasting it? Yeah, exactly. I feel like I am tasting it but I like how much is in there. I've had mint beers before, like I said.
00:54:39
Speaker
Where it's been like, oof, that is like drinking peppermint. No, but I get it. And it's more on the back end. It's subtle. And if it was any more, I think it would kill the beer. Like it would not be as good. Yeah. If it overpowered at all. It would just be a mint style. Yeah. But mint is such a strong flavor. It's so hard to work with. You hit the nail on the head when you sat on the back end. Because right now, that last sip I just took, there's like a mintiness. Yeah.
00:55:06
Speaker
right in the center of my tongue, and I'm getting bitterness, I'm getting a little bit of lactose, like a little bit of sweetness in there. Good mouthfeel, I mean, it's a good beer. I like it a lot. Again. I agree. Yeah, I would totally drink this again. Not rating beers at all, but...
00:55:28
Speaker
Actually, I'm not gonna finish that sentence. I'm not reading beers. All four of these beers were solid, and if they were available here in Chicago, I for sure would buy all four of them. I'm really excited about the gingerbread coffee stout. Yeah, me too. Did you say you had it before, or had it? I've not had it before, so you and I will save that. I think that'll be after the final pour. Not in this episode, but after the final pour, some day, some time soon.
00:55:56
Speaker
We got a lot coming up for the show. Brandon and I just sat down and figured out what we have planned for the rest of the year. We got a lot of fun stuff. We're not going to talk about it in case anything gets fucked up. Of course. That's why we don't say what's coming on the next show in case things don't work out. But the ideas that we have are pretty good. Yep. We're looking forward to it. This is the start of a new year for us. So I'm super excited about that. And I'm
00:56:23
Speaker
Oh, speaking of new stuff, shout out to Shalanda. Oh, yeah. And from BeerChick. This chick talks beer, her new podcast. Yeah, check out her podcast. Yeah. Unfortunately, it looks like she had a technical difficulty with the second episode. And the only reason why I bring that up is that I sent her- Did she? Yeah. Apparently- Oh, because you sent a question? Yeah. Her operating system crashed on her for the episode she has to rerecord it.
00:56:47
Speaker
but I did send her a question, send her a specific question and actually it was a two-part question.
00:56:54
Speaker
I won't tell you what the first question was, because that is for her episode. But the second part is, when are we going to have a crossover episode of the malting hour and this chick drinks beer? The first episode was really good. It was this decade in beer, in craft beer. So it was a great episode. Congratulations to her. And we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens for the rest of year for us. We'll see what happens for the rest of year for everybody.
00:57:24
Speaker
We got some cool shows. Pen. Pencils. Pencils. They're penciled in right now. The coolest. The coolest. Penciled in right now. And I'm looking forward to it, man. Yeah, me too. It's going to be awesome. Unfortunately, after this last sip of beer, I won't be drinking beer until maybe another episode of The Record next week or until February.
00:57:47
Speaker
One point one point right around my birthday You got a birthday. Yeah, you're up dude. Come on fair. We're gonna be sick. Have you been born yet?
00:57:57
Speaker
Never! Born again, Brandon. Yeah. Where did this show just go? All right, man. Um, that's all I got. That's all I got. All right, well, cheers, brother. Aww. Yeah, I didn't drink the rest. I'm not giving you any of this. This is how I finished the mail. Drink too fast. And that's why we're perfect together. Yeah. We're not going to kiss. Until next time. Thanks, guys. Bye. Cheers. Bye. I kissed. Pretzels.
00:58:29
Speaker
I'm still recording my-