[MUSIC] Episode 90 of the Beerists Podcast recorded on December 12, 2013. Christmas Beauty. Merry Christmas, I don't wanna buy tonight. Merry Christmas, I don't wanna buy tonight. Just nuts roasting on an open fire. Or is it open flames? I mean, it depends on what part of the country is. What? Some people are referred to it as a flame versus a fire. Let's just start a flame in our backyard. There's open fires. I don't know. You're getting too technical. I think he's talking about how does this song go? I don't know. All I know is that beer nuts roasting in my fat full gut. All I know is that back in Mexico we would just start a fire outside. In a trash can usually, right? Yeah, we wouldn't roast chestnuts. We'd roast like fire. But you guys throw like Molotov cocktails all the time. It's the song of his people. Yeah. That's maybe Russia I'm thinking of. Molotov cocktails are the song of my people. Wow. Oh man, I don't know if you've ever been to the border, but it's pretty fucked up. Feliz Navi Dad Rubio. Thank you, sir. And Feliz Navi Dad to everybody else. Hey, what about Feliz Navi Mom? Wow. Oh God. Could you see it wider? Feliz Navi Dad. There we go. He's got it. And as you can tell, well, first of all, I'm John Rubio, and with us today, I'm Grant Davis also. I am a station of the spirit of Grant Davis Kelly. What does that mean? I don't know. Like a Christmas story. It's scary. I'm your spirit. Okay, I'll take it. Whatever. I don't think this whole Christmas story works. I've never read it. In the fourth chair. Mike Lambert. Yes. Hi, you guys doing today. Especially well. Spooky. Do you see why I'm his spirit? Because Grant's on his deathbed. Yeah. Oh man. We're doing a Christmas beer show or a holiday beer show. I don't really fucking know. There's, I guess they're all Christmas beers. Yeah. Christmas. Christmas. Christmas. Christmas. I do see at least one of them that has a pun in the title, which means it's another pun episode. No, it's not another pun episode. That's not what that means? No, we'll see. That sounds kind of like a threat. Man, how good is a host when everybody else just goes rogue? I think it means he's the best. No, I'm not the best. No. I don't respect you enough to realize that you're full of shit. To realize that you're full of shit and we know better. We appreciate you on the show. We appreciate your presence. Right. I'm fucking you. We appreciate your studio. Oh God. The puns have already started. God damn it. Okay. We're gonna have no elf respect. Okay. We're gonna get to emails first. That was really bad. We're gonna have emails first and the first email that I have says, "Hey guys, DC fan here. I'm taking a bar attending course and I'm a complete Luddite at craft beer despite being a loyal listener for seven months now. In other words, we've made not a dentist as education. Though I am enjoying the part where I pretend to learn anything by trial and error, mostly error after my fourth round. I'm wondering though, what do you guys most appreciate in a bartender, just that he gets you wasted or do you like having conversations with them about different alcohols? Thanks and if you need anything from out of my area, hit me up. Everything but raging bitch IPA, signed BH Frasier. Thanks BH. You want to know what to expect in a bartender? What you want. See me. Okay. Well, what do you expect in a bartender? No, me. Like I'm a good bartender. Ah. That doesn't help any. I appreciate cleavage. I think usually. Okay. Yeah. BH Frasier could whip out the girls. If you could. Does B Samford Brendan? No. This is Brendan Frasier. Oh my God. I hope so. It's not Brendan Frasier. I don't know. Don't try to get your customers wasted because more than likely that's a huge liability for you in your bar and you can get sued if somebody goes out, leaves your bar, gets a DUI, kills somebody and they can chase your bar back to being the last place in that person to drink it. That's a good point. What I appreciate most of the bartender is somebody that's going to just hook me up knowing that I'm going to tip them really, really fat. So most of the places that I go around town, I tip all the bartender's fat. That's a life lesson from Mike Lambert. Tip all your bartenders extremely well, it comes back around. It's amazing. Right. And I also think that I like a bartender who knows a lot about what they're serving. Really knowledgeable. Yeah. I like somebody who's knowledgeable who knows the right glassware for the thing that they're serving. Ooh, that's always nice. Yeah. Ooh. And one that asks me whether or not I actually want a lemon whenever I order a half of icing. Oh, that's good. Instead of just throwing it on there because fuck that. Yeah. Fast, attentive and makes an effort to, you know, actually get to know you. I think when someone like, when they like start remembering your name, that feels good. And if they could at least make an effort to be nice. Get on a first name basis. I know that sometimes it sucks to serve drinks, a bunch of drunks, but when someone like smiles while giving you a drink, I'm like, I'm going to tip you because usually I don't tip people. Get on a first name basis with your bartender. Yeah. That's a good idea too. Yeah. These are fairly accurate. So Anastasia, you working in a bar, what do you appreciate most in a customer? That pays. Okay. And tips. Bar tenders are pretty much the strippers of the service industry is what it is. Yeah. I don't want to hear about your life. I thought I'd give shit. Really? Yeah. Really. If I get to know you, yeah, maybe you can tell me about your life, but no, I'm fucking busy as shit. I'm running this bar by myself and you want me to sit here and listen to your fucking problems for 10 minutes. Suck a dick. Not a bit. I usually don't like when bartenders really want to strike up a conversation and they, what they're fucking people. They're also really is that a lot of people that come into bars want to be left alone. That's a good point to know how to read your customer and know how to, I don't know, hook up a customer, know when to serve a customer, drink and leave them alone. It also helps if you get to know a customer well enough that when you get something special in, you let them know or you just hand it to them when they walk in. That's actually the best bit of advice that I've heard all night is that string of words that Anastasia gave us. Like get to know their name and get to know what they like. You don't have to listen to their problems. You don't have to do that. You just have to know what they like. What happens if you become a regular, you go into a bar and the bartender just hands you a drink, but you didn't actually want that one that time. Do you have to be nice and be like, "Oh, thanks, or can you be like, "Yeah, I didn't want this." Anytime a bartender hands me something out of the, just like, "Oh, Mike's walking in. He's going to drink this. I'm extremely appreciative no matter what they're handing me, and I'm going to drink the fuck out of it." Here's that course light that Mike Lambert always loves to have. Grant, you sound like a terrible customer. A lot of times the worst customer. I mean, a lot of times when a bartender is just handing me something when I walk in, I'm normally not paying for it. Normally, it's just like, "Oh, Mike's here gift." I think Grant's such a bad customer because the one time he came in at my bar, I gave him a drink of like six lemons in it. You did. I couldn't even drink that like glass. Oh, you're just an asshole, Anastasia. Yeah, but you know what? I get tipped really well. Yeah. Thank you for your email, B.H. Frazier. We really appreciate it. The next email says, "Hello, my fellow beerists, new to the site. I'm loving how useful and informative it is about the different types of beer." My question is, what is your favorite type of beer and also the food that goes with it you enjoy over at the Alamo draft house? Thanks and keep on chugging Javier Vasquez. P.S. to John Rubio, Viva la Raza. Thank you, Mexico. So at the Alamo draft house, I mean, the first thing that I do when I go there is I ask the waitress or waiter, "Hey, what are your special rotating taps for the evening?" They usually have a chalkboard though. It's right now. Hey, guys. Who wants the Alamo draft house? The Alamo draft house is an awesome chain of movie theaters that started in Austin that serve beer. Some of them serve liquor and wine and they also have a full menu for food. What do you do when you go there? You watch movies. Watch movies? Yeah. And they do like a lot of like really awesome sort of art house type shit. It's a lot of fun. Clearly, it's a bunch of movie buffs that run the place. I like the Nicholas Cage-a-thon. Yeah. Yeah. It's that. And yeah, they've spread nationally. So this, you know, can apply to a lot of different people. So like I said, I like to check out what their rotating taps are. Their special taps, because they'll usually have something special on tap. Usually my go-to is going to be a live oak, f-a though. Oh, it's just going to say- But you can always have that. Something local. Right. That's typically what I grab. You know it's fresh. I'd say a live oak half or whatever jester king offering they have. And as far as food to go along with it, I don't know if their menus are regional? That, I don't know. They change. I don't know. And they change it pretty frequently. They've actually scaled it back recently. Yeah. They have this chips and queso that if you eat that, that lines your gut, and you have the worst gas for like three months straight afterwards. So I've heard. Yeah. You know, they also have like fresh chocolate chip cookies at the one in Austin, at all of them. Oh, that's right. And I usually like to eat those with a stout, like just a really nice imperial stout. That's awesome. That's always something that I try to do with- Well, the serving with ice cream as well, you can get like fresh baked cookies with ice cream. Perfect. Fucking awesome. Yeah. I'm generally just disappointed with their food. I don't think they have that great of food. Yeah. They keep trying to rework it, but I don't think they're there yet. Their food's kind of declined a little bit, but you know, their burgers are okay. I mean, they're not great, but they're better than a lot. I always get that chips and queso and then manage to get half the queso like all over my chest and my pants like yeah, just like in the movie massages it into his tits. I do. That's amazing. Anyway, thank you, Javier. I hope we answered your question. Kinda. I don't know. I wish that was better. Would have another answer. Okay. If you're going for like a special movie or a special event, they'll often have that little seasonal menu holder that'll have the three dishes or whatever and some special beers or cocktails or pairings that go along with it. So listen to them because they know what they're doing. Yes. Awesome. Thank you, Javier. If you guys want to send an email, send it to info@thebearest.com. We really love reading your questions and comments and stuff. I've got an iTunes shout out to give. And what these people do is they go on to the iTunes music store and do a search for the beerists and they give us a five star rating and write a review for us. And when you write that review with actual words, we can see your name and thank you for it on the show. Like this guy, Joseph Sibley Bridges, I think that's how you pronounce it, and he says he's known about us forever and just now got around to listening. Thanks. Yeah. Thanks dude. He says we're a great time and he's working on catching up. Good. So, way to be behind. I think a lot of people are intimidated by the beerist label because they think that we won't necessarily be accessible if they don't drink beer. But I think we are. Yeah. We're a big show. We're a big show. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Totally. And also, I want to say that I screwed up last time when I said Dan's in his 20s. I read a shout out to that guy, but it's actually Dane in his 20s. Ah, sorry, Dane. I call him Dan's. It's just not cool. You know what else isn't cool? What? Danish people. I don't know. He's actually Danish. I don't know. Thank you guys so much. It really helps the show out. And we also got a donation from Charles Fanta. Oh, nice. Yeah. Air of the Fanta Kola Company. So he gave us a million dollars? No. No. Well, I don't want a Fanta. God damn it. I don't think he has anything to do with Fanta. Charles Fanta says, "Hey, beers, love this show. Just wondering, do you guys get an annoying amount of fancy color brochures from rehab resorts around the country? Just me. Just my... Look at which we would. I need a vacation. Keep up the good work, Charlie Fanta-Home Brewer. Thank you so much, Charlie. Thanks, dude. Yeah. And we really appreciate donations. It helps a lot with the show. These shows cost us a lot of money, usually. That last show we did cost you over a hundred bucks. Oh, yeah. Sure did. And we don't do any advertising. We don't have any sponsors. We don't get any money for this show. The only time we do get money is when some of you send it to us. And the way to do that is to go to TheBeerists.com. There's a PayPal link on the left hand side of the page. Click on it and send us some money. It's very, very helpful. Hey, you guys want to get to The Beers? Yeah. Awesome. So our first beer for the evening is called Wreck the Halls. It's a Hoppy Winter Warmer by Full Cell Brewing Hood River, Oregon. It's 6.5% ABV, 68 IBUs, and it's a winter seasonal available in bottles and on draft. This annual favorite is a sublime hybrid of an American style IPA and a winter warmer. The result is a bold brew that celebrates the holidays with an intriguing blend of centennial hops, dry hopped to amplify the aromas and flavor. So it's a completely transparent caramel colored. Yeah. It's caramel coppery. Head sticking around. That's nice. Yeah. A little bit of red and orange in there too. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Got a nice amount of head. It's a little bit off white, but it's a very smooth bubble head. Smells really good. Yeah. It's a listen of celebration from Sierra Nevada for me. Yeah. Just that caramel-y, burnt sugar, maybe like a little bit of mint. A little bit of pine. Pine. Yeah, it is very centennial for it. I mean, you got a lot of pine, a lot of grapefruit, but you're right about that caramel-y backbone. That's really nice. Maybe a little bit of earth there too. Yeah, definitely. You know that spice you can get at Indian restaurants, like when you are leaving the restaurant? Oh. Like that little dipping mouth stuff. No. It reminds me of that. It's like this pupoury of-- Sometimes a sugar-coated? Yeah. Yeah, weird. I think a lot of it's cardamom, although I'm not really getting cardamom necessarily. Sometimes it's kind of spindle seed stuff. Okay. Like, fennel seed-y, something like that. Okay. I can kind of get some of that there. It's an interesting. There's a bit of a spice there, a little bit of a floral quality and yeah, nice caramel-malty piney aroma. Mm-hmm. So, I'm taking a sip of this, and this is highly reminiscent to me of celebration from Sierra Nevada. Really? Really similar chord for me. It doesn't taste like that to me at all. It tastes like an extra special bitter or a winner, like a hoppy ESP or-- It's got the same malt profile for me. We see that label. Wait a second, guys. There's a label underneath this label. No, it doesn't. It says-- Shut the fuck up. The hop profile is different, and it's not fresh hops like it is in the celebration, but the malt character is very similar. Interesting. Okay, so I do think that the malt character is the same. Yeah. Or similar. Like the pinniness of this, it's not like completely overboard with the hops. There's just enough bitterness. Yeah, it doesn't bully you over. It's really balanced, I gotta say. Yeah. It's quite a bit of that centennial flavor, but not a lot of the bitterness. There is some at the end. It's a lot more of a caramel-coated grapefruit. Mm-hmm. And it's pretty aqueous, too. Like, there's not that fullness that I would expect from most winter warmers, but it's pretty nice. It's a pretty light-drinking winter warmer or hoppy ESP, almost, I don't know. I don't know why I keep going back to ESP, but it's definitely not that. But there's some things in there, like a floral quality and maybe a caramel apple thing going on there that's reminding me of that a little bit. I can get that. Yeah. Just the malt and the hops and earth floral. Just what you said, exactly. Okay. I can't get something a little bit sweat-flavory, then something a little honey-ish. Like a dank-arithiness sort of? Oh, yeah, that too. Okay. On the initial sip, I get a salt component to this as well. Yeah. I can see that. You know, there's also, like, some kind of floral quality, and it's not quite rose, but there's something like that in there toward the middle. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. I can't really put my finger on it. Maybe, like, rose leaves? Lilies. Yeah. Something like that. I really need to eat more flowers for this show. It's not a bad beer. I mean, there's not a lot from Full Sail that I can remember really liking. And this is a good beer. I think this is a good beer. It's not something that's going to blow my mind or anything, but I'm enjoying it. It doesn't make me go, "Ah, Christmas." Right. And there's nothing really wrecking in this that goes with the name wreck the halls, either. Maybe my expectations are being wrecked, I guess. Wow. Wow. I didn't realize you had expectations for this. It's blowing my expectations out of the water. He's just been just expecting all week. I have an advent calendar actually dedicated to this beer and then count the day so we can try. I'm so excited. Oh, my God. Why didn't we have a fucking beer advent calendar? We're rolling this out. That would be a huge advent calendar. Right. Yeah. It'd be great. A beer a day. Like, we don't all drink a beer a day. Maybe next year we'll do a beer advent calendar. That sounds good. Yeah, that would be good. If we make it to next year. No, man. And we don't end up in that rehab clinic that's been sending Mike those brochures. I don't know. I mean, this is all right. If I saw it at a holiday party, I'd drink it. Oh, yeah. I would totally drink this again very happily. I don't know that I would go and actively search this out ever again. Yeah. I mean, it's good, but it's not like, holy shit. There's a lot of other beers I think that I would pick over this one. I agree. That's Centennial builds on this. It is. And there is a growing bitterness at the end, I think, too. In my heart. Bitterness in my heart. That's just age. That just comes with age. I think that's plaque buildup. Wow. That's what it is. You and my dentists need to lay off. That's not the kind of flesh that's talking about. All right. Anyway, do you guys want to move on to the next one? Yeah, maybe this next one will wreck us. Is that your goal? No. I just want to get wrecked. I just stay at home and drink a bottle of whiskey. That's, yeah. This will not wreck us, but this is a tasty beer and one that I definitely look forward to every year. Oh, me too. And this beer that Mike is talking about, by the way, that first beer was called wreck the halls from full sale. This next beer is called our special ale. It's a Christmas ale from Anchor Brewing Company. This is the 2013 edition. Anchor Brewing is out of San Francisco, California. And this is their winter season available in bottles and on draft. Every year since 1975, the brewers of Anchor Steam beer have brewed a distinctive and unique Christmas ale. The ale's recipe is different every year, as is the tree on the label, but the intent with which we offer it remains the same, joy and celebration of the newness of life. Since ancient times, trees have symbolized the winter solstice when the earth with its seasons appears born anew. Our tree for 2013 is the California White Fur. It was hand drawn by local artist James Stitt, James Stitt, who has been creating Christmas ale labels for us since 1975. We had one of these last year for our Christmas. Yeah, we had a winter show last year. And yeah, we had one of these. It's a very lovely tree on the label. It is. It's really nice. They're always really well rendered. Looking at this one. Oh, yeah. It definitely looks like cola. Exactly. That looks darker than other years of season. I don't remember it being this dark last year. Yeah. I thought they had a lighter, more like an IPA last year, right? It was a bit lighter than, it was quite a bit lighter than it was I think. I always remember them being kind of dark. This one is a little bit darker than any of you have here. Great head. Ooh. Yeah. Great head. So I get just. Smells like Christmas. It's a ginger snap, dude. Ginger snap, sassafras, root beer elements. But yeah, there's a lot of that stuff like root beer. And I'm getting like this really deep, rich baked apple, aroma too. Yeah. Hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, Christmas spices, waffles, waffling spices basically. And lots of sugars too, but it's not really sweet smelling necessarily. It's just really rich and I don't know, molasses. So it reminds me of a sweet pastry with an egg wash. Oh, okay. Okay. I get exactly what you're saying. Man, this is just straight up ginger snap. So excited. There's a lot of that. Yeah. I love the root beer in it. Ooh. I like it. Oh, wow. That is. Ooh. It tastes just like it smells. That's delicious this year. Oh, and toward the end, there's a lot of ginger-y cinnamon-y stuff. Mm-hmm. And I don't know if we're actually adding that stuff into the beer or if that's just what the fermentation did. It's all top secret. Oh. And I'm getting licorice out of this as well. Yeah. Right. So I have gingerbread men and root beer floats. That's really good. Licorice. Mm-hmm. On the gingerbread house? Gingerbread. That's a very big component of this, absolutely gingerbread. And then you get some cinnamon and a little bit of bitterness from the hops, just a little bit. It's neat because the sassafras, really, it's not very apparent in the flavor. I mean, there's some, but it's not as big as it is in the aroma, in the aroma, it's just huge. Right. But it does come in toward the end. Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely. And I'm not really getting a lot of sweetness out of this. It's a pretty decently dry beer. Yeah, it's definitely dry. Mm-hmm. So they call it a gingerbread house, but it's usually made out of, like, graham cracker, right? What's up with that? I've seen gingerbread houses made of gingerbread. Yeah. So I don't think I've... What? I can't even recall ever seeing one made out of gingerbread. The graham cracker ones were like the ones that you made in, like, elementary school. Yeah. [laughter] Uh, did you make them afterwards? No. When you graduate to the big leagues, right? Well, no, I mean, going over to my grandmother's house, like, she made, like, a gingerbread house. Wow. Well, how would he even do that? Because gingerbread's a little soft. Not always. Do you, like, hollow it out? Like, it's a... I mean, a lot of times it was just for decoration. So you could cook that thing to a pretty crisp level and have it be not pliable at all. In my life, it was never for just for decoration. It's like, just... It used to be door stops. I know. I would just attack this gingerbread city. Just be some cardboard. Like, Cloverfield and eat everything. The Cloverfield eat houses. Do I need to watch Cloverfield? It looks like a third time it's come up. He ate gingerbread. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what I did. I was like Cloverfield. I don't think his name was Cloverfield, was it? No. No, you're right. Cloverfield. I'll keep going. Yeah, you're Cloverfield. Say hi to your mom for me. This is a delicious beer. This is great. I want root beer now. I love the root beer in this. And I want you guys to call me Sassafras. Okay. What's up, Sassafras? Not much. I'll do it. I'm gonna make a note on my page. Call her Sassafras. This is really good. I never, and I totally should, buy the magnums of this beer every year. They're like 18 bucks. It's nothing. It's central market. Where they have like one liter, three liter, and six liter or something. No, they just have the one size that I know of. I've just seen the magnums of it. Yeah. A liter and a half. Yeah. I thought I saw a three liter at Whole Foods. I could be wrong. I've seen liter and a half and I've seen three liters before. And I think I've actually seen six at one point in time, but normally that's a little bit more expensive. But the magnums of it is totally affordable. Yeah. The magnums usually age pretty well. Oh, yeah. I should have gotten one of those. They do. I've had some verticals of this and it's always neat to see how the years are completely different. A lot of times doing a vertical, the beer is not always different. Right. So it is nice to see how each one ages as time goes by. You think this one though, in particular, would age well? I think it would be an interesting experiment because we had one at Mike's place this weekend at your party. Yeah. We brought one from like, I don't know, what was it, like, '07 or something like that? Yeah. And it was delicious. It was really good. And yeah, you got a lot of the oxidation, the sherry-like oxidized parts, but the beer really held up well. And I got two pours of that. I was just, fuck yeah. I mean, it was really delicious. Delicious. I think the beer is great, but it doesn't seem like it's not really strong or has like a huge backbone that I think could age it. It's five and a half percent. Yeah. It's relatively low alcohol. It's one that you wouldn't think would age very well, but it's just one of those neat experiments. It's one of those things that goes counter to everything that you would think you should do with a beer to age. It holds up pretty well, I would say, and it's really neat to see where it goes. Interesting. And the better ones that I've had were two to three years old tops. Usually going beyond that, yeah, you're really running the risk of everything going away and just getting oxidation. Well, that's the thing too, is that because every single vintage is different, there are ones that just generally hold up better than others. So there might be one particular year that's going to hold up five or six years, another one that's only going to hold up like two or three and maybe one that's only going to hold up one year. I'm thinking that this one will do pretty well, actually. I'd love to see where it goes. Yeah. Great beer. Yeah, really delicious. This is delicious. You guys want to move on to the next one? Sure. Yeah, this is like the holiday. So just get it over with so we can go out and drink. I'm wondering how you pronounce this name. I'm not sure. Twice-mas, twice-mas? Okay. So the beer that we just finished was our special ale. It's an anchor Christmas ale. And this next one is two ex-mas or two Christmas or two by mass or two by mass, two ex-mas. I don't know. Double mass. Double mass. It's a double-spiced beer from Southern Tier in Lakewood, New York. It's 8% ABV. It's a winter seasonal available in bottles and on draft. And the description says this is kind of an epic description, isn't it? I mean, most of them are. Cue the music. Wait. Have a bomb. No, that's not the music. I don't even know if this requires music. But I'm just going to read this in a dramatic fashion. Swedish flags are a fairly common sight now part of the country. Why are we doing this? Holiday parties often have warm concoctions of spices and booze at the ready to knock the ice off of toes while raising spirits. It goes well with a world of warcraft music in the background. We were inspired by a glog party, deciding on the spot to brew a beer that pays tribute to this Nordic tradition. Two ex-mas ale combines traditional brewing ingredients with figs, orange peels, cardamom, cinnamon, clove and ginger root. It's a holiday edition to the 2x line and another reason to toast to the season. But unlike glog, we recommend serving this one chilled, particularly tasty when paired with sausages, corn, fish, pickled herring, rich cheeses, holiday cookies and cake. So glog. I had to look this up. Mold wine. Yeah, it's a mold wine. Okay. I guess I have mold wine parties. Mm-hmm. That's kind of lame. Right? Hey, come over to my glog party and then you show up and you're like, "Ew. It's just mold wine." This is the lamest party ever. I thought we were going to get down. I thought that was a euphemism for something else. I thought we were going to have sex with them. Come to my hot tub. We'll have a nice glog party tonight. I need to take a shower after you set up. Why did I bring all these condoms for mold wine parties? Glog parties are like a bucaca party. I didn't really dislike them. We already had those in Japan when I lived there. We did not look up glog party on Urban Dictionary. It lies. Glogparty.com. Okay, so... And it says, "Stop laughing." Okay, this is a... It goes good with English breakfast. Look that one up on me. No, don't do it. This is a really... Very rich, deep copper red. Yeah. It looks like glog. I don't know what that means. Okay. Rich copper red. There's a little bit of an orange highlight there. I can smell it inches away from my nose. Oh, fuck. Yeah, it's huge. Smells like glog. There's a lot of cardamom. I smell a ton of cardamom on this. It's thick. So you mentioned a lot of the things that go into it. But one of the things that's popping out for me is very much like a cotton candy kind of smell. Almost like a wheat wine. There's something similar that I'm getting. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I totally get that. Yeah, the ginger, the cardamom, the orange peels. I get why they compare this to glog. It's a huge amount of spices. I get orange blossom honey. Yeah, okay. I totally get that. I got the whole clothes stuck in the orange. Mm-hmm. And baked. There's something a little soapy about it too. Yeah. I think it's the cardamom. So back in the day, I remember being in elementary school and they had us bring in oranges and whole clothes and cinnamon. Right. To put them in your shoes? Well, to punch the, it was almost like a potpourri or something like that where you just like left this orange sit out that was covered in cinnamon and had cloves sort of poked into it and then dried out. Mm-hmm. It's highly reminiscent of that for me. Okay. You laughed at my, in the shoes comment, but in Germany, when I used to live there, you take your shoes out and put them in the hallway or see if they put it now and they put oranges in your shoes. Wow. This is my fifth. Okay. Yeah. It's a... I don't want to eat two oranges. St. Nicholas puts oranges in shoes. What a weirdo. Or... And then he guesses the juice. [laughter] The Germans don't do that anymore. Only the orange juice. Oh, wow. Oh, God. Too soon? That's all always too soon. [laughter] All right, I'm going in for soup. Done there. Done that. Yeah, I've already been sipping this. It's good. It's not bad. There's a ton of cardamom and a ton of ginger. Whoa. Like, that's the biggest amount of stuff that I get there. And it's huge with that. It's like drinking oil. What? [laughter] It's slick. You're on... Yeah, you're on to something there. It's like this full slick thing. Right. Yeah. You know when you add cinnamon to your coffee, so like you brew coffee, you have a mug of coffee and you just add cinnamon and then you take a sip and all you get is a big mouthful of cinnamon as opposed to if you would have put cinnamon in the coffee grounds before you brewed it. Right. This is the first. Just like a big mouthful of just fucking powdery... Mmm. And a fucked ton of cardamom. Yeah. I hate it. Fucked out of the cardamom. You know when you go to your grandmother's house and she's got all that potpourri sitting out in that basket, the dried-up stuff? Yeah. And you can't help yourself. You have to eat a little bit of it. And sure enough, it tastes a lot like this. Just to stop grandma from stinking. Yeah. Like grandma, you put that out there for a reason. You're not gonna eat the potpourri. I'll set one... The cinnamon potpourri. Yeah. It's just that one bowl of potpourri that's been there since you were like two or three years old. I think it was like an eight-year-old. I think it was like an eight-year-old. And then you look back and you're like, wow, I'm 30. Wow. She's... She's gonna die soon. Merry Christmas. Ah. Whatever, guys. Both my grandmothers are dead. Oh, shit. Did they die in knife fights with each other? That'd be amazing. Yeah, Eddie Van Halen was playing in the background and they strapped their wrists together. It was the saddest episode of a Peanuts cartoon ever. Isn't Peanuts just pretty sad on its own? Yes. So... She's a Peanuts baby. It's just sad on its own. So this beer tastes exactly like we described the aroma. Like tons of cardam, tons of ginger, tons of orange, you know, yeah, you're right about the potpourri sort of thing. The mouth feel is really weird. It's creamy and not prickly at all. But all those flavors, all those spices that they put into it are so overpowering. It's giving me a headache. It feels kind of gritty, actually. The mouth feel. It's like sandy. I don't know if I'm getting that. It is a very strange mouth feel and to me, like, it immediately reminded me of something oily, viscous, like far more viscous than it should be. Yeah, I get that too. Two of us have already... Yeah, I'm done. It's literally giving me a headache. Yeah, this is not... I liked it at first. I was like, "Ooh, that's a good first sip." And it just... Aw. This beer's great three sips in and then you're done. Maybe the third sip was where I just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe if we put some whiskey in it, oh God, it hurts so much. No, it's just too much. I mean, they just bash you over the head with all of these spices and I couldn't take it anymore. If you wanted to cut some mulled wine, I think that this would probably be something nice to add to it. I want to cut the guy who brewed this, you know, with a knife. Let's... I'm going to take a step back with this. So, I think I've mentioned it on the show before. There's a few beers that we've had where I've mentioned this would be really good if this was like hot or like if it's was like steeped on a stove. See, I don't even know about that. Tell the shows. Like, I love that beer warmed up and hot. This might open up. It might be in a better format. Maybe we should take someone put down the stove. Well, we're already done. Like we just dumped all of it out. Oh, that bottle has a half bottle left. There we go. I don't know if it would have felt a bottle drinking on the stove. This is one of those beers that if they would have dialed back the spices a lot, I probably would have really loved it. Absolutely. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to tell Bill Brink to buy this beer and then warm it up and then get back. Okay. We'll do that downstairs on the break. All right. We'll try that out and get back and tell everybody what it's like. Deal. Okay. Let's take a break. That was so disappointing. I have such a big headache. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I'm going to be a little bit more. I wonder how frequently someone actually gets to get the beers and drink them alongside us on this show. I don't know. I assume that some people have done that. Please let us know. That's interesting to hear. Yeah. I'd love to hear if you guys have done that. What you guys thought about our opinions and whether or not they lined up with yours? Anyway, we're going to get to our next one. I'm very excited about this. Oh, Mike grabbed the beers and ran upstairs. He's like, "What's Christmas motherfucker?" He ran up and it was terrifying. I've never seen a move with that about a speed ever. This is one of my favorite beers, period. Oh, it's so good. This beer that we're talking about is one of the beers that we did last year for our winter beer show. Did I just fuck up on this show and do a bunch of repeats? No, no, no, no. Christmas ale from Anker is different every year, so that's fine. Sure. This one is always amazing and it wouldn't be Christmas without it. It's all sucked up. No, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. This is St. Bernard's Christmas ale. It's a quadruple from St. Bernard's and Watu Belgium. It's 10% ABV. It's a winter seasonal, available in bottles and on draft. And St. Bernard's Christmas ale is a dark seasonal brewed in the classic quadruple style of Belgium's best adiales. Similar to all the beers from our brewery, it greets the drinker with the signature aroma of the St. Bernard's house yeast strain in use since 1946. And it's the perfect companion to enjoy a cold winter evening with or without the company of your friends. Hopefully with, because if it's without and it's just sad. Get some food. No, no, no, no. You can drink this beer solo. Just like I said, if you don't, it's sad. Anyway, checking this beer out. It's kind of a dusty brown, dark brown color. Yeah, mahogany highlights. Great head. Yeah, the head is gorgeous and it smells great. Oh, it smells so good. 1946? Yeah, that's the end of World War II. That's how long this yeast has been propagated for. Man. And smelling this, it's just so gorgeous. It's so amazing. So I get raisin and I get cherry and fig. And dusty chocolate. Dusty chocolate, caramel's brown sugar. Fruit cakes. Fruit cake. Oh, yeah. Yeah, there's a spice note that's here as well. Sugar plums and hint of turtle devs. No, there's no gentle devs. Partridge and a pear tree. Almost like a rye bread or something like that. Yeah. A little bit of six sailors swimming. I think that's a porno version. Six sailors swimming and what the fuck? Six seaman swimming, I think. Just six. Just six. Oh man, this smells so fucking good. I don't smell any alcohol on this. Which is amazing at 10%. Yeah. It's just this beautiful bread pudding figgy. More gingerbread, yeah. Yeah, just so many rich fruits and baked apples and baked pears and bread pudding. These are the best parts of Christmas. And it just tastes so good. You guys had mentioned last year that this is such a great beer to bring home to your family and share around the table. For anyone who likes beer a little bit to really is beer enthusiast, a beerist, if you will. Right. This is such a good beer. I think so is. I think St. Bernardus across the board with every single offering that they have is a really great beer to break people into beer with. It's mind-blowing how good this beer is. Yeah, and I just had a sip. Oh, yes. It's just this rich quad. I mean, it's a Belgian quad, definitely a Belgian quad. And it's got this like chocolate caramel fruity quality. Yes, it's a lot like a fruitcake or a breakfast bread or something like that. There's a bunch of bread pudding notes. There's, I don't know, some spices and, oh, just a hint of cinnamon, some all-spice. Mm-hmm. A little bit of clove. Yeah. And where I didn't smell any alcohol, I taste quite a bit. Yeah. But it's not out of place here. It works. What I love about this beer is its complexity without being muddled. Right. It's just so well executed. This is mistletoe and nutcrackers and stockings all rolled into a beer. So good. Without being kitschy. Right. Yeah. And there's a bit of like peppermint or mint or something. Yeah. There's like a hint of something minty there. A really nice addition here. It's all refinally balanced. Like you said, not kitschy, like they don't try and just bump up all these notes that are pure Christmas notes into the flavor. Not at all. It all is just that subtle thing that gives you this nostalgic wave of Christmases of your... And it's one of those things where a quad is already got a lot of those flavors. You know, a quad as a style reminds me of Christmas because it's got a lot of those notes of the other things that you enjoy during the holidays. This, it seems like they just bump up a couple of them that are probably just byproducts of the yeast and the fermentation process. And it amplifies a couple of those things. It's very, very similar to the Abbot 12. Oh, yeah. I've actually had them side by side. It's, you know, I can't remember having ever done that. I need to do that this year. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's some differences and I think the spice profiles just a little bit different. But for the most part, it's the same beer. And you know what else I've never done is I've never aged this beer. Oh, neither of I. Whenever I buy it, it doesn't last more than like two or three days. It doesn't last a drive home. Yeah. But, you know, there are a bunch of stores that you can go to here in Austin where they'll still, after months and months and months, you can still find it on the shelves. It's still out there. And it's one of those that I never regret picking up. Every time I see it, I grab one because it's wonderful. Typically, whenever I have this, I feel like it would go good with just about any winter holiday feast. It just seems to pair with all of those foods. But I don't know if you've had anything specific Anastasia with this that goes just amazingly well. Goose. Mmm. Yeah. Duck, duck, goose. Ducks and goose? Yeah. Like two ducks and one goose just kind of mixed together in like a goose ducking. Goose ducking. Turkey. Oh, yeah. I guess it would be called a goo duck goose. I've also found that fried turkey is the best turkey. Fried turkey is awesome. Because it maintains its juiciness when you slice it. So, I recommend frying your turkey. Some sort of fruity, cranberry. I'm thinking of Thanksgiving for some reason. Yeah. And by the way, if you're going to fry a turkey, be very careful. Use peanut oil and also just be really careful because those fucking things explode. Well, make sure it's not a frozen turkey. That's when things explode. Well, yeah. And all that water built up and in. Right, right. Ice. I'm also thinking of like a really rustic, herbaceous stuffing or dressing, whatever you call it, in your neck of the woods. So maybe homemade bread, maybe even like a rye bread stuffing. Oh, and that sounds great. You know, my mom. My fresh dried herbs and maybe some dates. Yeah. My mom for Thanksgiving made this stuffing and she had these big slices of fruit. Like these big chunks of apples and fresh cranberries and cherries. And all these like big, full, hearty pieces of fruit. And it was just amazing how much those giant pieces of fruit added to the stuffing. I mean, it was just, it was gorgeous. But I think that that something like that with base flavors that haven't been overly cooked or overly seasoned in a way would go really well with this. Man, I just want your family to cook from all the time. Oh, yeah. Brown gravy. You have no fucking idea, Grant. Oh, my God. Brown gravy. I have a little bit of an idea. His brother's coach for Mavenport. Yeah. My brother's amazing. He's a fucking wizard. I want something kind of savory and rich with this beer because it has that non-cloying sweetness. It has that really like fruity effervescent kind of sweetness. I want something a little, maybe something with chives to kind of balance it out. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I had this cheese called Humboldt Thog, I think I'm going over all of this. It's a word of the day. The word of always. Humboldt Thog. So now I realize why I'm thinking of Thanksgiving with this. The last time I had this beer was actually at Grant's house sitting around a fire pit for his Thanksgiving fiesta. Last year? Yeah. Holy shit. That's like the best memory I have of this beer. I remember bringing it and letting a bunch of people who weren't too into beer try it and they really liked it. You should have showed up this year because I think it made an appearance again this year. Oh, sure did. I brought some of this. I brought the Abbott 12. Yeah. I think that's exactly what we brought last year. Way to be original. Oh, yeah. No, it is. This was also before Grant tried to get on a ladder. I went up on the roof again this year too. Oh, shit. She wasn't wasted. There's this recipe that I've made the last couple of years of cranberry sauce where you get fresh cranberries and I would typically boil it with three philosophers and some cinnamon sticks and some orange slices, other spices. But I think that this would be a great substitute for the three philosophers. Absolutely. Pestrami sandwich. Oh, shit. Oh, you're so right. Just something salty and savory. Oh, they're back, baby. Yeah. Her boobs are dividing through again. They feel so good. Goddamn it. God, they're just like big lumps of fat. You don't go really great with this beer? My titties. I got let's all go around the table and try them out. Oh, God. It's just like home-world fog. Name a beer that would go bad with that. Even just really simple like meat and potatoes, anything basic, meat and potatoes. Okay. Yeah, no. Go. Well, the boobs and the beer. Okay. Irish meat pies and stews. Oh, I didn't even think about that. Yeah. Like a shepherd's pie. Oh, fuck yeah. That too. Ooh. Some pasties. Oh, you get the carrots, you get the peas kind of glazed them, bring out a little bit of sweetness in those vegetables. Anything you put in a crock pot would be amazing with this. Your penis. If it was in a crock pot. Yeah. You might be dead though. I might still be alive. Okay. I'll give it a crock pot real quick and I won't even plug it in. Just an investigative stamp, you know? That's all. Let's see what the temperature is of that. You know, suck the paint out. My penis is a great gauge. It's a great thermometer, really. Penis is a side. This beer is delicious. Never put penises to the sad man. This really is one of my favorite beers. I think that this is just absolutely phenomenal. And it, like I said, it is very close to the Abbot 12. It's very similar. The great part is that it's available in just about every single beer market. You get one of the best beers in your own backyard. If there's a market out there that doesn't get St. Bernartis, you should just kill yourself. You should just move. Whoa. Or move. I don't know. Drastic time is called for drastic measures and you need to make a statement. I like how Mike would rather kill himself than move. That's amazing. You listen to way too much death metal in the scream out. That's just pussy. Isn't it? I haven't heard it. Oh, God. So why? Anytime I'm on a road trip with Mike, we do death metal duels. We do. It's really uplifting. Yeah. It's a couple of bros listening to scream out. It's like fucking high school. Just cut yourself a little. Put your arm out the window and just a little. Anyway, so that was St. Bernartis Christmas sale. And the next beer and final beer for the evening is Delirium Noelle. Thank God. I never thought I was going to. Oh, God. It's a Belden strong ale by, ah, fuck. Brory. Hi. Ooh, yay. I think we should all go around the table and try to pronounce it. Okay. You say it. I just did. Brrr. Okay. I. Okay. I'm in the stage. Okay. I'm in the stage. Hij. Hij. Okay. Nailed it. Okay. Nailed it. So it's my grawry huge. That's what he calls his deck. Very huge. But yeah, it looks like huge. It's brewery, a spell B-R-O-U-W-E-R-I-J. And the other word is H-U-Y-G-H-E. I don't think we had enough consonants out there. I think we'll call it brewery huge. And it's from male Belgium. It's 10% ABV. This delirium noel. It's a winter seasonal available in bottles and on draft. I'm pretty sure I was right. It's hoy. Yeah. Hoy. Hoy. Okay. Let's ask you Asian. Hoy. Let me read this. A chestnut amber of fine white creamy and lacing foam, a complex entity of caramel malt fruit spices in the sweetness of the alcohol. Alcohol sweetness. A strong presence of alcohol, very spicy, slightly bitter. The aftertaste is sweet, spicy, and lightly. Who the fuck wrote this? Belgian people who don't speak of the English? Yeah, you need to read that in the Belgian accent. Oh, God. Lots of consonants. I don't know what to do. You don't have me do that Belgian accent. No, you're Belgian accent. No. Yeah, never again. Dog shit. Oh, chestnut amber. I got this guy. No, that's Swedish. It's weird. You don't have it down. They're so close. It is not. No. I'm going to fuck that. This beer is a, it's copper, red highlights. Is it a chestnut amber? Yeah. Yeah. Perfect chest. Wow. Beautiful. Wow. Thank you. The bubbles are like these medium sized soapy bubbles. It's kind of rocky. Ooh. Is it rocky dentist? You're rocky dentist is the mask. Eric stilts with a puffy face. I get a fruitiness that's there. I mean, that's a fucking broad stroke. It's kind of like orange and maybe a little bit of an orange marmalade. Yeah. Honestly, the first way. It's like a plum. Wet chestnuts. Okay. I'm getting some caramel. I don't know. It's not really bready unless you had a lot of fruit in that bread. There's a lot of fruit there. Catch up. Catch up. What? This is really, this is hard to nail down. This is really hard to nail down. Yeah, I can't tell if it's just not very complex in the nose or if it just smells like catch up. I guess. I don't know any catch up there. A little bit of vinegar, a little bit of sweet tomatoes. That's... I totally see where you're coming from on that Anastasia. Okay. I do too. The wrong direction. That's very cool. I get the sweet tomatoes. And you don't get a little balsamic vinegar like not necessarily the vinegar twinge but the savoriness. The savoriness and to me, it's very closely tied with the booze that I'm getting off of it. Okay. Fair enough. If that makes me soundless crazy, let's go with that. Okay. Okay. I get a chestnuts, I get something like a peanut skin or something like an almond skin or something like that. Mealy almond. Mealy. Yeah. Okay. I can get that. Bread crust. And again, I keep going back to like baked apples for some reason. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it is a quad-ish. A little bit of things. Cherries. A little bit of fig. You guys should just keep some on it for a while. I drank the whole thing. Okay. Hold on. Again, I don't get a lot of alcohol in the nose either. It's pleasant but coming off that St. Bernardis, this is a little bit thinner in the nose. Go ahead and take a sip. I mean, you definitely pick up those fruit notes and I definitely get the baked apples. There's something quite a bit sharper about this one. Oh, yeah. It's the effervescence on this one. It's kind of a battle between creaminess and then really harsh effervescence. Yeah. The effervescence is very prickly. Yeah. Very much so. The alcohol is far more prominent on this one than it is in the St. Bernardis Christmas. You know, there's something in here that reminds me of roasted strawberries in the flavor. So I'm getting a lot of this similar bread pudding flavors that I got in the quad in the St. Bernardis Christmas. But it's a lot more aqueous than that and there's like a strawberry roasted strawberry quality to it. I get that. Which is interesting because I never had roasted strawberries before I had them at this donut place in town called Gordos and they have this oh yes I know exactly what you're talking about. They have these roasted strawberries on a chocolate donut. It's a donut place and they dump a lot of shit onto it. But the roasted strawberries, now they put onto this chocolate donut for some reason. This is reminding me a little bit of that. There's definitely an orange marmalade and fig component to this as well underneath that roasted strawberry note. That carbonation just seems a little out of whack. It's very gassy. The mouth feel is just not where I'm really appreciating it at all. I think it tastes good but I think execution wise that could use a little bit of improvement. That's fair enough. You know that quince paste that I get sometimes from my tastings that Membrio, this reminds me there's something in here that's kind of like that too. What did you just say? Membrio, it's this quince paste. I don't know what any of those words are. So what's a paste? It's that. That stuff you eat. Oh God. Oh I do eat glue. So the quince paste has a little bit of like a brightness to it like something that kind of helps to cut it and I get that here. There's a brightness that cuts through everything and it's not a one to one sort of thing. It doesn't taste like that but there's something. There's elements of it. Definite similarities that I'm getting. This episode sucks. What? What? I mean these last two years are going to be good. Sam Benardis has been good. Yeah. Sam Benardis has been good. Sam Benardis has been good. Sam Benardis has been good. Sam Benardis has been good. Sam Benardis has been good. Yeah. Sam Benardis has been good. Sam Benardis has been good. Sam Benardis is kind of weird but I kind of remember the Noel being a little fuller, less gassy. I'm just drinking and getting really full. I think you're right. I think you're right because I've been doing the show for a while and we've all been doing the show for a while and it's really funny how close to the beginning of the show doing beers in context with other beers seem to influence those beers a lot more and I'm finding now after doing the show for a long time that's not really the case that much anymore. So my palate has grown such that I can have beer in context with other beers and it's very similar to when I had it by itself and I think that if I had delirium Noel by itself it would come off to me a lot like it's coming off here. It's different than it's been in the past and it's more watery, it's less full, the carbonation's more aggressive. I don't know what's going on here but this isn't the delirium Noel that I had two years ago. That's definitely true. It's not bad but it's nowhere near as good as it used to be. But also to be fair I feel like there's a lot of variation with their beers anyway. I mean I've had bottles of tremens that have been completely different than one another. That's a good point because sometimes tremens is one of the best beers in the world and sometimes it's a yeah exactly. So this is one of the off years for me this bottle which is unfortunate. Just like you said when delirium when anything delirium is on it is fucking on and this is not. Yeah and there's a weird alcohol present here that's a little bit acetone and I don't know it's like it feels like it's not right like maybe they cut a corner here or there. I don't know. It's interesting you were saying that we've done the show long enough that you can distinguish all the beers but I still have a problem with ranking on based on my state of fullness or inebriation as we go through. So sure it's a lot easier now to not have flavors muddled because I think we're doing a lot better job of describing everything and focusing on certain flavor elements. But at the same time alcohol affects my judgment of things a little bit more as we go through and at the same time Anastasia was mentioning like she feels full at this point drinking this beer and I completely get that. I think with these hearty beers it can make you feel a little bit more sluggish as we go through. The party is just I think my nail dough and he said it's so gassy I wouldn't want to pair any food with this because just taking three sips of this beer I feel almost bloated. Done. Yeah. Just done. You're right. Like even if I was starving I wouldn't want to eat right now. And again that shouldn't color what delirium noel usually is for me. Usually this beer. Yeah I mean yes I know but at the same time like we're doing this show and this is the only beer that we're having right now and we can talk to and elude to what we've had in the past but when it comes down to it this is the batch that we're having here and now. Oh yeah you're right. You're right. And I'm wondering how well this batch would even do with some time behind it like I don't know. Yeah. You know what I don't really want to say any more about this beer I'm just gonna get to rankings I'm gonna go first okay go for it because they have a couple of things to say. Oh do you. Can I add some grievances? Yeah. It's season. Yes my number five 2x miss that southern tier tragedy I thought that was so over the top with the spices. The amount of cardamom, ginger and ugh it was just so in your face and there was not a steady hand there I didn't like it at all. You know Mike had the completely reasonable idea of heating it up on the stove top and it just made it worse. A lot of times with a beer that spiced up it'll make it better but this time it just fucking like wrecked a plane into it it was horrible. My number four wrecked the halls. I thought that was all right. You know it was like a spicy, hoppy esb I thought it was yummy it's not something that I'd go out of my way to find but if it was at a party I would drink it happily. Number three delirium noel and that disappoints me because this beer for me is usually a lot better than this and go ahead and try it I mean this beer is worth a try because yeah delirium or everything from brewery here. They vary a little bit here and there and when they're really good they're really fucking good. So don't take my word for it go try it for yourself because I know I've been absolutely floored and wowed by this beer in the past. Oh yeah. Number two are special ale anchor Christmas god damn that was good. That was a very interesting delicious spicy beer and it's different every year and this year it's exceptionally good. I loved the amount of gingerbread that I was getting out of that. It was so fucking good and I think that it might age pretty well for a couple of years at least amazing beer and speaking of amazing beers number one St. Bernard is Christmas ale always amazing always perfect always delicious for me. I love that beer as much as I love their quad which is all the way the amount of booze next to that bread pudding delicious quad base is so perfect and it's one of those beers that any time I go to a holiday party Thanksgiving Christmas whatever I take several bottles of this and the quad and people just go gaga for that shit especially if it's cold outside and we're outside by a fire like we usually are at Grant's place excellent beer every time crowd pleaser do it. Who's next? Mike got alright my number five was the two Xmas the the twice miss it just fell completely flat for me you know the first couple of sips were actually pretty good and then by the time I got to my third or fourth one it just bold you over with these completely unbalanced flavors and man was I fucking way off on heating that one up that was abysmal that was just absolute garbage I thought it was gonna get sweet when you heated it up and it became this like very bark tea in the worst way no no thanks my number four was the wreck the halls and this I thought was a totally solid beer I would drink it again I don't know if I'd ever really go searching it out especially when you have things for me in a much similar vein to celebration I'd rather just drink that hoppy beer for Christmas right all the fucking time my number three was the delirium Noel I mentioned earlier that they have some QC issues I've always experienced that and the thing that keeps me going back is that when this beer is fucking on it is just so on oh yeah and this was an off year and I really don't know how well this particular vintage is going to do with any bit of time it might get good I might just be completely wrong like I was with the twice miss so who fucking knows my number two I gotta say when it comes to Christmas beers the Belgians have a certain tradition and then the Americans have a certain tradition and this is the quintessential American Christmas beer it's our special ale from anchor this beer is phenomenal and it's phenomenal every year and the best part is is that every single year it's always different they nailed it this year I loved what they did I love that sassafras and then in the nose just that rootberry kind of thing that they had going on my number one is one of my favorite beers of all time St. Bernardis it's funny that you mentioned that you did the abbot 12 and the Christmas ale side by side I don't think I've actually done that yet I've always had this beer completely separate and I hold them both in a very similar high regard this is one of the best beers on the planet if you can get it and you haven't tried it yet you are really truly missing out and you know what I'm having now the no well side by side with what I have left to that St. Bernardis Christmas I am to drinking the rest of my St. Bernardis Christmas and that no well is just prickly and light and thin and then I drink some more of that St. Bernardis Christmas and it's like a warm blanket like it's awesome anyway thank you so much for your rankings yeah thank you dude love you see I'm ranking as yours by the way if you didn't notice oh yeah we did yeah I can go next you read it that cool yeah go number five went to the 2x mass like everyone said blast like eating a bowl of pupery number four goes to wreck the halls it's okay and there's nothing really Christmassy about it and I think that was probably one of my biggest attractors I enjoyed the beer for what it was but yeah this is kind of boring number three goes to the delirium no well I think I actually liked this a bit more than everyone else no I actually quite liked it but it's not as good as I usually yeah but I guess I liked it because I can't remember the other time I might have had this okay and I was probably on that episode but I have a terrible memory I'm like a goldfish I thought it was good I agree with you guys with some of the problems you were saying but when you're talking about comparisons I was a little lost it was good but not as good as number two which I deviated from you guys I think a little bit here I gave that to the St. Bernardis I love that beer it's a great beer it's just this wave of nostalgia of everything Christmas everything you think of from like nuclear family traditional Christmas bright happy celebration but I thought that number one our special ale Christmas ale was a little bit better for me I it wasn't bold or aggressive at all but it just had such a nice delicate balance of gingerbread and root beer like you guys are saying it was just a beautiful delightful beer that's so good I really thoroughly enjoyed drinking yeah and that's one that I could drink regardless of the season yeah I could really enjoy that year round just like that St. Bernard's Christmas for me and just for shits and giggles I want you to try this side by side this glass has the noelle this glass has the St. Bernard's Christmas so just try them side by side first starting with the delirium noelle okay you just had that mm-hmm yeah I did sorry I should be talking around a podcast here try the St. Bernard's Christmas now and just see the differences there oh yeah and how much so much more is going on and yeah it's so much richer and fuller and just although I don't think they're trying for the same thing so it's hard to put them on the same pedestal no they're not really trying for the same thing but the end product either way the way the St. Bernard's Christmas ale just kind of wraps you in this blanket of delicious mm-hmm and then the delirium noelle is just kind of to me here's the thing it falls short to me here's the thing this acid trip I can think back to all the times that I've had delirium anything what comes to mind is inconsistency have you ever had a bad bottle of St. Bernard's anything not a single time ever you're right Grant thank you so much hey thank you for your rankings you're a beautiful human being Anastasia you good you ready yeah all right we'd be excited this episode's beers were like Christmas it's terrible it's not a nightmare but you have expectations of it being delicious every year you're disappointed is what it looks like yeah so so you have this expectation of delicious things with delicious people and only one of those things happen the delicious people and then the beers are just super subpar and then you leave and you're like I fucking hate Christmas I mean I get it I'm glad somebody does I think it's overrated just celebrate Hanukkah next year guys all our Hanukkah beers she's getting circumcised yeah yeah number five was the beer that gave me an instant headache twice must go to spice much spice much disappoint yeah number four the delirium noelle I couldn't I don't like a beer that makes me feel full after three sips I get so uncomfortable on all I want to do is go home and sleep fair enough number three surprisingly wreck the halls because if you gave that to me at a party I'd pound it delirium noelle I'd probably try to pound and then I fucking get super full like when that curse happens in Harry Potter and the aunt becomes big and floats away my number two is gonna go to the anchor Christmas ale or the one that has the most festive label that's really pretty because it says merry Christmas happy new year and I'm like merry Christmas to you anchor yeah for making a very unpredictable but in a good way kind of beer and I'm good and having the balls to put merry Christmas on the label instead of happy holidays man Bill O'Reilly had a huge fucking problem wait a minute what are you at Bill O'Reilly guy there's a war on Christmas hey can we focus on me I'm sorry go ahead and her war on Christmas I didn't realize they were like super right wing dudes with dreadlocks I mean you no longer have dreadlocks so maybe that means that they got to you but he cut off his liberalism yeah no it was good that's good I like the sassy frost mm-hmm that's your nickname by the way yeah I like the me in that beer yeah oh number one no surprise Saint Benartis because it's delicious it really is it warms you and it's not cloying but it still has his kind of sweet rich hearty beer like properties it's one of the perfect cold weather by the fire beers yes it really is yes there are very few beers to me that get to that point but if there's a fire outside and it's cold I want this beer absolutely every time thank you Anastasia for your cool thanks everybody bye there goes hand stage right now she didn't walk out this time like she did last time we got a chair through the window just because you guys were just going on and on about loli it was my oh wait no let's not break it up again because I gotta keep going on about it John and you know I caught you John that's how serious you know it wasn't me hey hey Mary fucking Christmas listeners Christmas little girls who were done with the happy Hanukkah listeners Mary Festivus listeners yeah whatever you guys do for the holidays listeners whatever bullshit religion you ascribed to whether even if it's the non-existent I don't believe in anything religion right right hey you want to get drunk on Christmas day yes yeah I have the day off so do I oh we should do that oh it's ten different bottles of bourbon whiskey oh god bourbon Christmas do I have more more whiskey than both of you no I mean yes you do than me but you probably don't have more than no no so my Christmas is coming up at my birthdays coming up I think you should get me some more whiskey so I can beat my okay you guys are all gonna drink on Christmas yeah I'm so we don't have family I'm gonna go out to visit my family and my end laws I'm gonna go to two church masses and wake up early to open Christmas presents and then have a nice feast yeah you should have worn a call very traditional you bunch of fucking communists I used to be very religious hey just think of it as I'm I'm Rubio and Michael's child yes and they're gonna give me president you know what I'm trying to think about this is really fucked up they're gonna give me and food and alcohol maybe I'll get a cuddly teddy bear it's not that fucked up cuz Mike had a C-section yeah yeah no I mean it's perfectly explainable he's totally fun I'll call them both daddy hey wait hey good night everybody I don't know about this you guys great thank you for being here yeah thanks for being here as well I'm really glad you showed up for this one Mike I love you and stage I think something bad's gonna happen to me on Christmas probably you're gonna get run over by a reindeer cuz you are grandma look at your glasses um my glasses are fucking hippo shit no they're they're way hipper no these are actually real people glasses they're practically replacement hipper these aren't vintage glasses that's good that's good that's good that means I'm not grandma you're almost relevant I love you I love you guys you guys are awesome and I love everybody listening thank you so much for doing that hey you know what you guys are our greatest present this yes I'm kidding give us donation money is our greatest present you know what be great a great present is if on January 1st or second okay January 1st or second we'll just do those two days I want to see how many of our listeners will give us a five dollar donation that's it five bucks if we can get as many listeners as possible just to kick us five bucks go to the beers calm left and so the page PayPal donate link click it send us five dollars just five bucks five bucks is nothing it's not in the math on that and if everyone keeps us five bucks I think we'd have like 30 bucks dude we might have 30 bucks yeah yeah that's great that's about as much as a trip to Starbucks for you and a friend costs five bucks if we've entertained you throughout the year so years yeah yeah if you guys on January 1st or second time permitting get away from the family kick us five bucks that'd be amazing guys that's like or use your parents credit cards it's like buying the show a pint it really is and you could buy the show a pint you really can and if you don't give us that you probably won't get any more episodes after this we're still gonna do the show it would be a Christmas fucking miracle to me if you guys on the first and or the second of January send us five bucks or more if you want to send us more great all I'm asking for is I want to see how many people care enough to send us five dollars plus we want the money well that helps a lot I accept birthday gifts in the form of beer oh and the stage it's your birthday coming soon when is it in lingerie it's in January really why people are mind to send you lingerie yeah why the fuck not okay so we might set up Amazon wish lists but no no no we're not gonna do that but porn stars do that shit I want to see how many five dollar donations we get on the first and second we're in a campaign for this and we're gonna record a show on the second of January are we yeah yeah so we record Thursdays every week so well no if you hear us really sad on that episode I want a long list of people's names to read I want to be able to read names for like ten fucking minutes we'll make a video we'll put Rubio in a full on Santa beard oh god yes if I get your nice list if I get 50 people who have donated five dollars a piece I will read the thing in the Santa beard so you mean we would be reading we record at like eight on the second so what if they still are sending us money I just want a really long list on the show that record on the show for my birthday mother fuckers no it's not your birthday donate money to the show because you like us if we get seventy five people that donate five dollars to the beers podcast that's money they'll be epic we will record a video of me eating an entire wedge of humbled fog just taking it to my face oh god I mean that you do that anyway but hey guys speaking of humbled fog Cypress go with shev wait sending us a lot of jeez oh my god they contacted us oh my god then there's something doesn't want to use what yeah go on yeah that's probably gonna be the next show that we release is a she's a beer party so hard they're they really are you should put the shirt on oh my god I know I can't fucking wait this is gonna be amazing your values hail the marketing director was super fucking side to me was like I'm gonna send you a bunch of cheese I'll send you everything I make is he not my banker of my company to choose you I got whoa is he has he heard how much we pin his stuff they've heard a lot of our shows good good they're aware of us do they know how real we are yes yes they real they're never gonna post this on their website but I don't blame them because we say shit we fuck and we talk about you know how Mike likes to eat his own shit yeah shit stack yeah this episode is recorded in living color guy this episode was sponsored by a fuck shit stack good night everybody oh god stop it Michael what are we doing my mommy and daddy find it Michael you're ruining the Christmas spirit I did not blush for 16 hours I said I wanted Xbox one mom Wow Oh my god he's on the North Star Shawnee Mueller never so he made a turn again from his toilet paper found on the room for the rest of the governor went back to the pub running body show the comments on more information on the berests podcast including show notes and pictures visit the berests.com email us your feedback comments questions and suggestions at info at the berests.com like us on Facebook at facebook.com/theberests and follow us on twitter at twitter.com/theberests. I'm John Rubio thanks again for listening [BLANK_AUDIO]
