(upbeat music) - Episode 88 of the Beerist's podcast, recorded November 26th, 2013. Five hits, and a miss. (upbeat music) - So this is going out around Thanksgiving weekend, and I thought that I would do a Thanksgiving show? - It's all turkey beer. - Yeah, no, but I didn't do a fucking Thanksgiving show. We just grabbed whatever we had lying around because we had a bunch of shit laying around. - There was so much beer on your counter downstairs. - You should probably clean that up. - That's funny, that's all my parents make. Thanks for having dinner. (laughing) - Oh, it's a Thursday again. - Sometimes it is Thursday. (laughing) - I think it happens about once a week. - Well, thankfully, because if it didn't, then there wouldn't be a Friday to follow it. - I didn't know that you could do math. - Dude, she's Asian. - You have a little-- - I copied homework. - I wasted a station ever. How could you see the homework to copy it? (laughing) - I have my glasses on. - That's not what I'm talking about. I'm John Rubio, and with me today-- - Anastasia 4-I's Kelly. - The lovely and talented Anastasia 4-I's Kelly. - Whoa! - What? - It just sounds terrible. - Just half of that's a lie. - Okay. - You're only half lovely and half talented. (laughing) - How are you? - I quit. - Didn't you hear? - Half lovely and half talented, that's how she's doing. - Beautiful. (laughing) - Also with us. - Mike Swell and Yuvula Lambert. - Dude, what happened to Yuvula? - So it happens on occasion when I drink a whole bunch. - We get slammed in the fucking mouth. - You smoke a lot of polls. (laughing) - Well, my mouth did definitely get a workout this weekend, but yeah, it's-- - Wow, man. - It just kept going. It just kept going this weekend. Grant's party, who couldn't be here today, unfortunately. - Grant's party could not be here today. - No, that's true. - Did Grant's party party too hard? - Yes, it did. - Then on Sunday, one of the ladies from Bitch Beers, Sean, was moving to Seattle, and it was her send-off. So I spent all day drinking at the draft house and then at Point House Pizza. - Yeah, when you go out with a group of girls called Bitch Beers, you know you're for some fucking trouble. - Yes, true story. - Glad you lived through it. And in the fourth chair, Grant is not here today, as Mike kind of alluded to, and in his place we have, what do you want to go by, Bopong? - Grant Davis. (laughing) (laughing) - It's our buddy Bo-Paul. - Hello, good, nice to be here at last. - Sweet, and you want to plug some stuff? I mean, I know you do other projects on the internet. - I do loose canon comics, if you like to read comics, graphic novels, comic movies, superhero shit. That's what we talk about on loose canon comics. That's on loungegeeks.com, comes out every Tuesday. That's what I'll do after I finish up with this. I'll go home and drug and we'll put together that. And I am also on the original Gentleman, which is a kind of catch all pop culture and geek culture podcast on one of us.net. - Very cool, man. - Yeah. - Glad you could make it out tonight. - Happy to be here. I hope so. (laughing) - Yeah, I need to. (laughing) - I swear to God, you're so far south, I think I passed the Alamo on the way here. (laughing) And not the movie theater. (laughing) - I hope you don't kill me and take my house. (laughing) - Yeah, that's my plan. - Well, it is Thanksgiving. - Yeah, sure. (laughing) - Like I said, for Thanksgiving or so, I just grabbed random shit that we had available around the house. - I wandered around your house and I grabbed stuff. I said, this is mine. I found it. (laughing) - He does it every time. Actually, before we get to this, I want to read a couple of iTunes shout outs. And what these guys did was they got on the iTunes music store, did a search for the bearists with an S at the end, and left us a five-star rating and wrote a review for us. And a couple of people did that for us today. And it really helps us show out. It's a really good thing to support us. - Zao96049 says that he's a new beer enthusiast, and our show is his guide to discovering beers. It's really cool. - Nice. - Thank you. Zao Aubrey Douglas has been impressing her boyfriend with her newfound knowledge of craft beer since listening to our podcast, and has amassed a list of stuff she wants to try. She also thought her MALT liquor show was hilarious and would like to make Grant aware of the new Steel Reserve Blackberry malt drink in case you'd like to try it. - And you know what, Grant can have that opportunity. - Yeah, fuck that. - No, I've actually got a can of that stuff in my fridge, as we speak right now. - God, why? - Don't you make Grant shot gonna beer every episode? I mean, that's kind of the-- - Are you ready? - We're gonna make him, but this one was given to me by a friend who came over-- - That's a friend? - Right? - Sonny Snackner, he's a good guy. - Sonny Snackner? - Yeah, Snackner. - Oh, Snackner. - Yeah, you were close. - Okay. - But no, he came over and he was like, "Hey, you know, I got you something that I know that you don't have in your fridge, and I didn't want to compete with your massive beer collection, so I got you the Steel Reserve Blackberry." And it sits in my fridge now, four weeks later. - Tell him, next time, bring me a wife. (laughing) - Fuck you, Sonny Snackner. - Hey, hey, a wife might leave him, but that Steel Reserve can is always good to be in. (laughing) - It's a refrigerator. - Oh, God. - You love that beer. - It just lingers and lingers, man. - Oh, man, it's a beautiful thing. (laughing) - Of course, light in my fridge. - Oof, since when? - Summer. (laughing) - People who use me and my pool. - See, that's a better excuse. Yeah, I guess so. - Yeah. - Anyway, we also have an email address if you guys want to send questions and comments and whatever, info@thebearest.com. - Yes. - Nude pics. - Yeah, if you want to send a caustic for anastasia. (laughing) - It's mainly for Mike. - Sexy. - I'll take what I can get. - Yeah, info@thebearest.com, and we didn't get any emails this week, so we also didn't get any donations. - Oh. - I know. - We hope a bunch of people send us drunken Thanksgiving emails. - Yeah, drunken things giving donations. - You guys give beer and money? I can't even get somebody to send me a fucking comic book. (laughing) - Oh, that's a sad existence. - I know. - But if you want to send us a donation, it really helps us show out. That's how we survive is on your donations. Go to thebearest.com, and on the left-hand side of the page, there's a PayPal donate link, click it, and send us five, 10, 15 bucks, whatever you can afford. - A million dollars. - If it's a million dollars, yes, I will send you Mike Lambert. - Yes. (laughing) - For a million dollars, you can have me. Yeah, he'll go out and he'll live with you for a month. - Right. - And I'll get sent out there, UPS. - Yeah. - Yeah, we'll even flap today, UPS. - Yeah. (laughing) - I think I have a million dollars somewhere. - Yeah, no you don't. (laughing) - You've been holding out this whole time when you can have me for a million dollars, really? - I was just waiting for the right occasion. - Yeah, it was either that or just let it accrue. What do you call it? Interest? (laughing) - I don't understand money. Anyway, thank you guys. - I think the interest really helped. - No, I'm not even interested. (laughing) It's not that much interest. Think of America to never have that much interest. - Let's get some more fucking beers. The first beer that we're gonna be drinking is called "Loving Brown, the Nihilist." (laughing) - Well, "Loving Brown" is like the name of the project since "Paradox" has project names. - Oh yeah, yeah. This is a beer that hates its dad, I can tell already. - It is. This beer doesn't know, I don't care about anything. - Not at all. - No, that's right, it's Nihilist. - Yeah, whatever, Nihilist. Imperial Brown Ale, it's from "Paradox Beer Company," Woodland Park, Colorado. This is 9% ABV in its brood wants available in bottles. And the description says, "Our latest release in first in the "Loving Brown Brown Ale Project, the Nihilist." A double brown ale aged in red wine, Hungarian oak barrels. And this was sent to us by Joshua Blake a few months ago. Around the time that we did the "Paradox" show. - You've been holding out on us. - Yeah, we gotta time these out. - Some pretty decent head on this one. - Yeah. - Deep brown. - Mahogany. - Yeah, there's some highlights that come through when you hold up the light. - Yeah, you got a little cola. - Yeah, kinda cola, like. - I would definitely agree with that. - Smells like cherry cola. - Yeah, it smells a little sour. - It's gonna have the, like. - Yeah, it sort of does. - All the tang around there, but maybe I poisoned everybody's well. (laughing) I'd say cola'd be good with. - No, I mean, it really does have a cherry-like tartness. - Yeah, there's definitely some winter fruit. - Having had a lot of her wah over the weekend, there's a little bit of that same bright tartness that's going on here. - You know, I was gonna say that it's got a similar sort of tartness and barrel to a flander's red. You know, something like one buck, grand crew or something like that. - Oh, totally. Or like a lawfully or something like that. - Yeah, yeah. - But it's definitely a brown ale. I mean, you could smell some of those caramel-y malts in there too. - Yeah, and you're not gonna, even though it's from a wine barrel, you're not getting a lot of wine notes at all. - No, but you do get a little bit of oak, just a slight dustiness of an oak. - Mm-hmm. - Smells really good. - It's cold. - This could definitely stand to warm up a bit, but I really dig that first sip that I just took. - I do too. And that cherry's there in the taste too, for sure. Cherry, a little bit of grapeiness, but you still get those nice, rich, brown sugar notes to it. - Yeah, it's a pretty hefty brown ale base that's going on there. I mean, caramel-y sugars, brown sugar, like Mike was mentioning, but yeah, you get that cherry, slight bit of tartness, some woodiness is there also as well. - I'm definitely, you know, obviously, I'm not as experienced as you lot, but I'm not the biggest brown ale fan in the world, but this is a, you know, very complex from a brown ale. - Yeah, it's quite substantial too. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get a little bit of nuttiness, maybe like macadamia nut or something like that. - Okay. - I'm waiting for mine to warm up. - Yeah, it is a bit cold right now. We're all kind of warming this in our hands. - Well, there's not a lot on the back end, but there's a nice dryness. - Yeah. - It's crispy, which is not something I generally associate with brown ale. - Yeah, and it's got a bit of roast on it as well. It's not getting into like stout territory, but it's a pretty nice, roasty, nutty brown ale with some of those tart cherry notes. It's slightly tart. It's not really that acidic. It's not like a luffly or a sourd brown at all, but it's got a bit of a tartness there and a really nice woodiness. Hint of molasses as well. - It's like, you know, generally, I wouldn't sit around and drink sours all night, but yeah, I could definitely see myself sitting down and drinking this for six or seven pints. - I would too, man. - It's really, it's a nice tasty little workhorse. - Yeah, and it's nine percent, and I really don't taste a lot of that alcohol. - Yeah, this could creep up on you. - It really could. - I kind of like the balance that's going on here between the brown ale and the tart barrel character that it has going on. - Yeah. - Maybe not the best named beer. (laughing) - You know, you loathing frown the needless. You expect it's gonna go in and like mug your uvula or something. (laughing) - It already happened to my-- - Yeah, it did. - It's actually a very, very friendly little beer. - It is. - Duck. - Duck. What about duck? It goes well with duck? - Yes. - Totally, you can definitely see that. It's got a little fruit sauce. - Maybe not like the super dark part of the duck. I know most of it's dark, but you know, like a nice duck breast. - Yeah. I'd say for this, I don't like a really good sear on it, that they'd be really good. - Yeah, really nice sear, really good, like a roasted duck or something like that. - I think the duck fat would just make this fantastic. Just enough to cut it, just a little bit. - A little schmaltz for you. - Mm. - Yeah. - What? - You know, it's a-- - Schmaltz. - That's a Jew word. (laughing) - You know. - I don't know how you people work. (laughing) - You make you people. (laughing) - Yeah, you have all those Asian jokes. - They call the benign breath on your ass. - I don't even know what that is. (laughing) - Oh my God, you've never been more white. (laughing) - I've never been white. - I know. - I didn't think it was possible. (laughing) - I'm digging this. - I'm wondering who this is a tribute to. Maybe it's a big Lebowski beer. - It could be, I don't know. - All brown elves are fucking tribute beers. - Most of 'em are. - You've never seen somebody's toe to get this, or was it just given to you, or no, they sucked my cock for a thousand dollars. (laughing) - It's just a thousand, you're so much cheaper than him. - I know, it doesn't mean I gotta fly out to him. (laughing) - For UPS, it's two thousand. (laughing) - I'm really enjoying this. - I'm really enjoying this too. - I'm really enjoying it too. - Kinda chocolatey. - Yeah. - There's a little bit there. - Yeah. - Tootsie Roll. - Good call. - Yeah, Tootsie Roll, it's like fake chocolate. - And it's not a really dominant flavor, but there is a thread of that through there. - That tart fruitiness is definitely there. - It's like a tootsie pop. It's like a red tootsie pop. - Yeah, like a cherry wrapped in chocolate. Like a chocolate covered cherry without the gooey stuff in it. - I really like this beer. This is one of the better ones that I've had from paradox, actually. - I really like it. - It says the balance, like keep coming back to that. Really enjoy this. - Yeah, this is a crafty little beer. - That's a great little beer. You guys wanna move on to the next one? - Sure. - We're just fucking plowing through these, aren't we? - Yeah, we're gonna plow through these. (laughing) Well, I mean, the last episode that I put out was about like an hour and 35 an hour and 40 minutes. So hopefully this one goes a little bit more grisly. Our next beer, actually the one that we just finished was the loathing frown, the nihilist, or the nihilist as the actual proper people say. The next beer is F5 IPA. And this is from Koop Elworks from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This is 6.8% ABV, 100 plus IBUs. And it's available in cans and on draft. And we were pointed from a 16-ounce pounder. This is hopped with Columbus and Falkner's flight. And this was sent to us by Evan Gundy. - Of course. - Yeah. Thank you, Evan. This was in this giant box of beer that he sent. - Koop Elworks is right down the street from where my cousin lives, actually. Hi, Trish. - Hi, Trish. - What is F5? - Have you drank this? Does it take a screenshot? (laughing) - Wow. - Oh, fuck. - I'm reaching. - I think it's a tornado thing. - Yeah, it's totally a tornado thing. - Oh, checking this thing out. It's almost copper. It's a very-- - Mm-hmm, copper, orange-y. Yeah, rich, golden. - Golden copper. - Bit of haze. - Nice bit of head keeps sticking around. - Yeah. - Hello-y, soft looking. - Like the best head does. It's really perfuming. I like it. - Oh, man, it's a nice. - Oh, man. - I just got dabbed a little bit of this behind my ears. This is a really nice smelling beer. - It's really floral. - Smells kind of East Coast-y IPA. There's a lot of sugars there. Some rich multi-tones. - It's that falconer's flight. I think that's popping out, at least for me. - Yeah, falconer's flight is a blend of three different hops, and I forget which ones they are. It's a pellet blend. - A little minerality. - Mm-hmm. Just a little bit of citrus and pineapple. Just a bunch of tropical fruits also. - Mm-hmm, mango. - Yeah, it's funny 'cause both of these beers, you know, despite you having grabbed them at random, our excellent Thanksgiving beers. - Yeah, kind of, right? - I could just keep smelling this. - Yeah. - And this is supposed to be a hundred plus IBUs. - Yeah. - Oh, wow. - I get a little bit of pine, just a touch of pine. - There's a slight resonance to it. - Mm-hmm. - But it's really all these perfumey floral and tropical fruit notes. - Smells incredibly fresh. - Yeah, it does. - Man, somebody sent us an IPA that's fresh. We gotta mark down the date and time, guys. - Dude, Gundy always does it up, man. I mean, that guy is great. - That's incredibly smooth. - Yeah, it doesn't bite you going in, definitely. It's very smooth. It bites on the way down, though. It's starting to build with the bitterness. But man, that's great. I get orange skin for orange zest and tangerine zest. Yeah, it's much more citric in the mouth than it is in the nose. - Oh, hold on, there it is. - What happened? - The hops. (laughing) - Hopps are your friend. - My mouth just got hopped for Nathan. - Yeah, it's really silky mouth fill and then as soon as it goes down your throat, it just goes bang and here's saliva keeps coming up. - Yeah, there's a lot of-- - Hey, there's a lot of citrus peels. - There's a lot of citrus peels. - You could easily wipe out half of Oklahoma City. (laughing) - In a single screenshot. (laughing) - Yeah, I mean, like I said, a bunch of citrus peels. - And does it taste like a tea that was only made of citrus peel and pith? - Kind of, right? - Yeah, I don't know how to feel about that. There's a little bit of pineapple there, just a touch, you know, once you get to the core of the pineapple, that fiber is kind of less sweet part of it. - As it's lingering on the palate, and this is one of those beers that I just keep going in to get more sips. As I let it sit there, it's starting to take on a little bit of that BC powder aspurney kind of note for me, just in the tail end, but it's just driving me to keep drink more so I can not have that experience. - Right. - I'm gonna drink this really fast. (laughing) Me too, probably. - I really like how the bitterness is building, and it's started out at such a low level for me that it's building up into where I am still comfortable. I mean, it's-- - I really like the way that the hops travel across the palate, because I think that if it had that aspurney note up in front, it totally ruined it for me. But the initial flavor each time I take a sip is so enjoyable. It's aptly named, because it's just kind of breezy going in, and then all of a sudden you're like, "Oh God!" (laughing) "It's a fucking twister!" - Yeah, it almost drinks almost even a double IPA. I mean, it's got a pretty substantial mouth feel. You could taste some of the malts in there. It's still kind of dry, but you do taste some honey and caramel-like malts there. And there's a pretty decent amount of sugar, but they're balanced out really well by those hops. And that mouth feel is great. - I agree with you. This is definitely for an IPA, more on the medium to full-bodied territory. This is really tasty. It really is. - I know this unchecked aggression will not stand. It's not a matter. - Just the assault on my mouth. - It isn't like the pummeling. - Is it too much? - It's too much. - Really? - Yeah, I like a little warning before something turns sour down the back of my mouth. - If you're like, you know, I think all three of us are, you know, all the swinging dicks in the room are kind of quaffing this. - Yeah. - And yeah, if you're sitting there and sipping it, it's gonna beat you up. - So you're telling me that I should just drink a bunch really fast? - Yes, yes. - Okay. - There she goes. That's what I've been doing. I really love this beer. I mean, I, I dig the hell out. - Did you just gag? Are you okay? - Can't, no, yep. - But you were still sipping. I mean, you weren't doing the Viking quaff. - What's the Viking quaff? - Oh, there it was. He didn't vote. - Like that. - I can't, I can't open my throat like that. - Well, she can't. - She can't apparently haven't had enough practice then. - She has. (laughing) - What bathroom walls have you been reading? - It's the ones here. (laughing) - We're a good time. - That would be hilarious. - Oh my God. I gotta go pee guys, I'll be back. (laughing) - Sup, right? Your name on my wall. - So. - I like it until it hits the back of my throat. Like, I like this thing. - Yeah, that's what she said. That was also on the bathroom wall though. - I like the stitches. I like the caramel molds. I love that first bit of bitterness, but when Mike said that BC powder, it just tastes like swallowing BC powder without water. - Really? - It is kind of like, you know, it's the drunk guy in the bar that you're having a really good time having a conversation with, and all of a sudden he slugs you. (laughing) There's a little bit of that. - Yeah, I kind of understand that. I'm actually enjoying that. I enjoy that type of person's company too. (laughing) - That's why we're friends. - Yeah, exactly. But I do like the way it is really hoppy. It is balanced out by these molds, but after a while the molds kind of go away and you get this bitterness, it's building really slowly. And at this point, I didn't really know how quickly that bitterness was building because right now, it's kind of like-- - It's strong. - I have a mouthful of grapefruit peels, right? And then I've been chewing them for a while. I mean, it's got that sort of effect on my mouth, and it's also pretty astringent. I mean, it's dried out the inside of my mouth, pretty substantially, but I like this beer as a drinker. I mean, it's pretty nice for me. - So question for you, Anastasia, what would you end up pairing with something that's pretty aggressively hoppy? 'Cause I keep thinking about it myself. I'd love to have like some chips and queso with this or like a nice big queso. - I would pair a different beer. (laughing) - You need something, something kind of wet and juicy with something like this. - No, I wouldn't go with anything too spicy with something this bitter because it's just gonna amplify the bitterness, it's gonna amplify the spice. - It's true. - Maybe something kind of-- - I could see this with some-- - Creamy? - Yeah, beef burgundy on or beef stroganoff. - Oh, that's-- - Something with sour cream in it so that you're kind of washing it out a little. - Or maybe a white sauce pizza. - Okay. - What about some triple cream cheese? - I think this might just overpower it all over that thing, yeah. - I think, I don't know, something in this would just, I don't know, makes a triple cream cheese just not be delicious. - Yeah, if I'm gonna do something with this, I want something that's gonna stand up to it pretty reasonably-- - I can see it like an Asiago or one of those ones. - Yeah, something like that or really sharp, an aged cheddar or something. - You know, maybe a cassoulet with like a nice chunk of rye bread. - Oh, that would be good. - Yeah, some kind of soupy, stewy thing, you know, 'cause it's a lots of moisture. - It's like really party, yeah. - Yeah, which I mean, if you start talking about stews and stuff, your brain immediately will go to stouts and something darker, but I think this would work really well with a really rich stew. - Right on. - Do you guys wanna move on to the next one? - I'm just gonna co-off this one real quick. - Okay. - Viking co-off it though. - 'Cause I'm going to take my time and enjoy this next beer. It's one of my favorites of all time. - Me too. Yeah, Anastasia poured the rest of hers in my glass. - I wanna see you viking co-off it now too. - I just did. - Jesus, I don't think I could drink anything that fast. - It's a lot of practice. - Jesus, you guys have sucked more dicks than me, fuck. - I mean, if dick was liquid and you just drink it. (laughing) - No problem. - Right. - It's the thrusting, I have problems with it. (laughing) So that was F5 IPA. Thank you so much, Evan Gundy. The next beer that we're having is Lantewar, it's a dry hot brown ale, new Belgian brewing company, Fort Collins, Colorado. This just came out again. They bottled this a couple of years ago and it finally got bottled. - It's been too fucking long. - I know. - It's way too long. - It's 7.5% ABV and it's a rotating release available in bottles and on draft. And this is hopped with Target, which I'm not really sure is right because the description says something different. I mean, it might be Target and other things. - Yeah, I got this straight off a new Belgium's website. - Okay, and it's malted with pale, wheat, C80, carapills, and oats. Oh, they use a lager used. And I'm gonna read the description here. Lantewar, French meaning from the terrain, soil land ground earth. You may have heard it as a lion terms, speaking of the environmental conditions of the vineyard, the pH of the soil, even the slope of the land. But beer has it too, especially a new Belgium sour beer, which oozes terroir from the pores of the wooden fooders we aged in. They produce a base beer that's golden colored with a soft over-right peach aroma and just the right amount of tart. And after three years in the fooders, you can bet it's got some nice earthy tones. Round out that fruity base, even with more unique fruity hops like Amarillo and Citra and this beer may just have more terroir than your classiest wine. And with the hot burp, compliments of the dry hopping, Lantewar is definitely classy. - I wonder that was supposed to be hot burn. - Oh, is it burn? - I don't know, but it says burp here, which is funny 'cause the next line is keep it classy. - Yeah, I'm in the hot burp, it's good. So checking this beer out, it's straight up golden. It almost looks like one of those two-tone sunglasses that hunters wear, totally actually. - Like neon orange? - Yeah, it kind of gets lighter toward the top and at the bottom, it darks us up a bit. - The head started out about a finger in height and then it's quickly dissipated to just a smattering across the top. - It's a little clover honey, the particulates of-- - Clover honey was a really fantastic way to describe the look of this, that's right on point. - And this smells like magic. - Oh my God, it really is. - So they age it for three years in the fooders, so that no wonder it takes so long to release it each time, but man, every single time they do-- - As a neophyte, what's a fooder? - A fooder is just a giant barrel. - Okay. - A gigantic barrel, right? - Yeah, we're talking like two-store-un, two-store-un. - Two-store-un, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Big barrel. And what is the wood generally made out of? - Oke, oke. - Oke, okay, okay. - And smelling this thing, I mean-- - I'm not getting a lot of oke-ness here, definitely, but man, that over-right peach, before they were talking about them, definitely. - At the point where it comes to sour beers, a lot of times the barrel is generally just a place, it's got permeable walls, so all the bacteria and bees-- - Right. - Can accumulate. - Can accumulate in there and kind of live in there. - Kapaya. - Oh yeah, totally cool. - Just a lot of tropical melange. - A little bit of a passion fruit note. - Oh yeah. - Dehydrated apricot? - I was just gonna say apricot. - That's very specific and very accurate. - Yes. - Because I actually just had some of that a couple of days ago. - It even looks like the tone, it looks like a dry apricot. - Oh yeah, and I can't really put my finger on the herbal quality of it. There's an herbal thing going on. Is it-- - Basil? - Yes, totally, and mint. - I was, yeah, I was, in my head, I'm saying basil and mint, thinking it would go really well. And I'm like, no, it just smells like that. - Maybe even some green tea or something. I don't know, there's something there that's kind of reminding me of a tea. - Yeah, like a white tea. - Yeah, something, yeah, I mean, there's so much going on in here. Lavender and sage, tiny hints of it, very distant in the background. - I get the sage, I don't really get the lavender so much, but the sage is right on for me. - I get a lot of like very clean, newly turned sod. - Oh yeah, can we just keep smelling this for the next 30 minutes? - I know, it's-- - Celery green? - Yeah, it's almost like-- - Oh wow. Celery's a good call. I just took a sip. - It's really, really, it's really clean, like even though the earth notes are, it's like it's been washed somehow. - Oh yeah. - I'm really mad that this isn't year round. I mean, I understand just how taxing it is to make something like this and to keep it for as long as they do. But god damn it, this really makes me angry when like I think back to, oh man, remember when the last time lots her water was released? This is magic. - This is magic, so good. - Man, okay, so the tartness is pretty big. I mean, it's not the most sour thing I've ever had, but it's definitely sour, it's definitely tart and sour. - But that dry hopping just comes through so perfectly and the way that they're able to match that with the tartness, I think it's unparalleled, really, in terms of dry hopped sours that I can think of, the way that it melds together so perfectly. - So here's the thing, here, let's try to do this. - Imagine a lemon or lime sparkling water with some arangina mixed into it. - Yeah. - It's drier than that, but there's a base flavor that's something like that, but it's also richer, like a white wine. - Right, it's almost like somebody made a citrus squash with wine in it. - Yeah. - With caramel or like a brown sugar syrup or something like that. - But just light. - Just light. - It's, like you said, you know, first of all, it's a nuance is all fuck. - Oh, totally. - But if there's like that sweetness and the sour and the bitter just, I mean, they're all in epically perfect proportions. - Oh, yeah. - So, man. And the mouth feel is just, oh, it's just incredible. - And there's something also in here that reminds me of iced tea, but with no sweetness at all, and maybe put a ton of lime juice into it. Like there's something kind of like that there too. - There's that real, like if you've ever had, you know, straight up, just slightly sweetened lime or lemon juice. It's very, very much there. - This is a beer geeks wet dream. - Yeah. - It's so complex. I mean, we could all sit here with another two or three bottles and just keep dissecting it and coming up with different descriptors for this beer. They're so perfectly willing to do that. - Yes. - Yes. - You did buy a number of bottles. - Yeah, I did buy six of them when they came out. - Oh, you made a mistake just telling me that. (laughing) - See what I did there? Watch your back, bitch. - Here's some good news, new Belgium a few days ago announced that they're gonna be releasing some of their sours year round starting in 2015. Like Eric's sale is gonna be year round. - Oh, are you fucking kidding me? - Nope, not kidding you. - Oh, shit. - And there was another one that they said specifically, I forget what kind of... - Tart like cheese. - Oh, yeah, tart like cheese. - Really? - Year round, 2015. This might be another one that comes shortly after that. - Man, it's really weird. I think my first experience with new Belgium was probably fat tire, like most people. - Oh, yeah, mine too. - And I liked it, but it was kind of one of those mehbeers that I'd drink if there was nothing else around in lieu of like, you know, crap piss beer. - Right. - But every year they come out with something that just stokes me and they keep getting better and better. I mean, I remember mothership was one of my favorite wits for a while. - Oh yeah, mothership's great. - So good. And now I've been really enjoying weed IPAs lately and their accumulation is just loving. - The accumulation's really good. - So good. - It's really good. - Very, very good. - It has that balance of Christmas with the bitterness that is just, you know, and I love crisp beers. - Right. - You know, I love me some multi-chocolaty beers too, but I'm really enjoying that. And it's weird 'cause generally it would be something that I would drink mostly during the summer, but I'm enjoying it year round now. - Oh yeah, and you know, that accumulation, Anastasia and I had at new Belgium. - A couple of days before it came out, right off the line-- - Oh my God. - Oh God. - Dicks. - Yeah. - They just opened a valve and all this beer started pouring out and we just took turns holding glasses under the beer and tasting it right off the brewery. - I thought that kind of shit only happened in like Viking myths. - I mean, we are Vikings. - Yeah. - That's true. - Our people come from a long, long Viking cloth line. - So what would you pair with this? - Masturbation. (laughing) - You sold doing it now. - I'm so happy now. - This is one of those beers that could probably go with a little bit of everything. - This is also one of those beers that I would just want to drink on its own. - Yeah. - Like maybe while I'm waiting for food. - Well, the reason I say that this beer would go well with pretty much anything is because I usually add some kind of acid to most of the food that I eat. You know, it tends to pop out all the other flavors. And if you drink this beer with pretty much anything else, you'll have some of that in your mouth and it'll accentuate the flavors in most everything. You can eat it. - So I'm going to make my obligatory, home-built fog cry. Hey, Cypress Grove. You can send me that cheese wheel whenever you're ready. (laughing) - Yeah, we plug them way, way much. (laughing) - Way much. Salad. - Okay. Salad would be good. - Yeah. Sure. - I mean, definitely something more complex than just the word salad. - I make a. - Lots of microgreens. - Something like with a lemon vinaigrette. - Yeah. - I blame it on where I take the meat and I marinate it in red miso and ginger. - Oh, nice. - Yeah. - And I would love to have that with this. - That sounds awesome. - Yeah, I can't get enough of this beer. And when it first came out, like the first bottle release that they did a couple of years ago, I ended up buying more than a case over time. And I was so sad when they didn't announce it for the following year's rotation schedule. - For the year after that? - Yeah, yeah. - I guess it's been three years. - Yeah, it has. - And I got super excited when I saw it back on the docket 'cause goddamn, this beer is great. - It's been at least two years, I think, since the last time that they bottled it. I don't know if it's been three, but it's definitely been a few. - Tempora. - Ooh. - Oh, shoot. - Oh, shoot. - Yeah, totally. - God damn you. - God damn you. - Like a really fatty sushi. - Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Some kind of oily fish. - With some Escolar. - Oh, shit. - Yes. - I don't know what that is. - It's so, so the colloquial term or like, I guess the common term is butterfish is what they call it. So it's just a white fish. - Is that like just a really pretty fish on the ugly face? (laughing) - But it tastes so good. - It totally hits. - It is a butterfish, you know what I mean? - Any sort of white fish or fatty, fatty fish? - Anything with a good deal of oil in it. - Oh yeah. - Yeah, this could cut that oil. I don't want it to bring out the flavors. - Glazed carrots. - That would be great. - I don't know why just that part came out to me. - Like I said, you could say pretty much anything and I would agree with it because poop. I would drink it. - Yeah. - If I had to eat poop, I would hope that I had something like this to balance it up. (laughing) - Salute. - Oh, fuck. - Oh shit. - I hear it's delicious. So I would try Baloot. - Baloot? - For those of you who don't know what Baloot is, it's a Filipino. - If you're gonna try Baloot, I'm gonna try it with you. - It's a Filipino street food where it's pretty much an egg that has been boiled or steamed. It's a fertilized egg. - Yeah. - So it's got a little-- - So we've got foetus on it. - Baby chicken, a fully formed baby chick in it with all these weird veins and a little bit of feathers. - Well, it's the whole thing. - Yeah, it's the whole fucking thing. - Yeah, so you're supposed to crack it open, suck the juices out, then eat the whole thing. I mean, then-- - I would do it. - It's chicken and an egg. - Yeah, it's chicken and an egg. - It's chicken. You eat chicken all the time. - We should have a Baloot party. - Oh God, okay. - We should take a break. We can do that. - Yeah, I still have this loathing frown that I've just been sitting on for the last 30 minutes or so. - I drank the shit out of it. - Like I just smell it. - Really now? - Oh yeah. - Okay. - Oh, you're saving up the heat. - Oh man, that smells really good. - Yeah, I'm excited for that. Yeah, I'm gonna have that on the break. - The woodiness has come out more on that thing. - Definitely. - And the chocolate. - Mm-hmm. - Mm-hmm. - That smells delicious. - Oh yeah, God damn. - Yeah, there's a whole lot more of that. - Yeah, the chocolate notes are what? - I'm taking one sip before we cut. - Okay, yes sir. - Oh, it's better. - Okay, I gotta test it. - Anybody that has this out there, let it come to room temp before you drink it. - Ooh, you know what this reminds me a little love? Taking a sip of it. Okay, so it's got that turt cherry thing still there, but the base is really similar to southern star-buried hatchet. You know that Tootsie Rollie, slightly roasty light. It's more substantial than that, but. - You know what it is to me? It's a better version of the saboteur. - Yes. - From Odell. - Yes. - Like a much better version. - Much better. - Okay, we're gonna take a break off now. - All right, doing it. Break, break, break. - Holy shit. (upbeat music) ♪ This time tomorrow ♪ ♪ Where will we be ♪ ♪ All the spaceships somewhere ♪ ♪ Sailing across an empty sea ♪ ♪ This time tomorrow ♪ ♪ What will we know ♪ ♪ Will we still be here ♪ ♪ Watching it and flying when we show ♪ - That loathing frown really got better at room temperature. - It really did. - It was so much better drinking that, like, not cool. - I don't know what you're saying. I'm getting drunk already. (laughing) - It's just like a new thing where you're just gonna get like a waste of before the end? - No, well, the thing about today is that at work, we had Thanksgiving lunch. And it was from like 1 p.m. to like three, and there was a bunch of wine and beer there. And the beer was all shit, but the wine I was drinking in hell out of. And I came home with a bit of a buzz. It kind of even doused by the time you guys got here, but it seems like it's picked back up again. (laughing) - I wonder why. - Funny how that works. - I kind of pulled to you and like, didn't really eat anything all day. - Oh no. - So yeah, we'll see how I'm doing by the end of the show. - Oh no, but you're a champaholic. - Yes. (laughing) - Champaholic. - I'm starting to think I'm fucking superhuman. - Gushing, gushing, gushing, gushing. - Oh shit. - Oh, there's been so many occasions over the past several weeks where I've come out of it being like, man, I should be phased this morning. And I'm not. - Yeah, and just to be clear, when Anastasia was yelling gushing, gushing, gushing, it wasn't because Micah's a superhuman. - Right. - It is because the beer that he was holding. - Spontain Creek is wanting to get out of the bottle. - Yeah. The next beer is Spontain Creek. It's a cherry lambic from 2012. And it's from MiKiller, who's a gypsy brewer. I don't even know where this is brewed. - It might, oh God, it fucking smells like farts. - And it should say here, right? Brewed and bottled by MiKiller at Deproof. Okay, oh, so the proof and, okay, I'm gonna try to pronounce this. La Christi-Hijte Belgium. - Nailed it. - You missed some consonants there. - No, no, they missed consonants. Okay, the second word is H-I-J-F-T-E. Like, that's a word in Belgium. Otherwise, I don't really know very much about this other than it's cherry lambic. - There's a couple of floaties in mine. I hope I didn't hit anybody too hard with the sediment. - No, man, that's completely clean. - No, you hit me just the right amount, yeah. - It's garnet toned? - Yeah, if you took a cranberry juice and carbonated it, it kind of looks like that. - You got a kind of copper tone to it. It's not as clowny red as a lot of creeks are. - Yeah. - It does look like it would clear out some UTIs. (laughs) - The head is slightly pink. - Uh-huh, like rose. - Yeah. - It looks really pleasant. - Like a rose. - Mm-hmm. - This actually could look like a very carbonated rose. - Mm, man, that nose is all sour cherry. - Yeah. - I think you nailed it with the appearance just like a carbonated rose. - It's a little, there's a little mustiness. - A little bit of funk, yeah. - Hearts. - This is called what it is. - Part. - Okay. - Candy, smarties. - Sweet tarts, smarties, yeah. - I get a lot of cherry skins. There's a tannic note that's there. - Yeah, yeah. - A little like tart cherry pie. - A little bit, yeah. - A little, not a lot. - A little bit of lemon around the edge, yeah. - But it's really rustic, acidic. - Yeah. - Cherry. - And a little bit of sulfur. - There's a little bit of a cleaner kind of note to it. - Like a solvent-y. - Like a solvent at some time. - You know, another thing that I'm getting out of here is a little bit of blackberry and raspberry, and maybe some currant, I don't know. - There's something that's going on that is very like-- - It's definitely like, you know, obviously, you're getting cherry all over the place, but not a lot of sweetness, no, at all. - No, no sweetness at all. - I definitely agree with you on the blackberry. There's definitely a blackberry. - Yeah, there's a berry in it, like a fresh berry in it. - I get some bright raspberries. - Yeah. - I really like the way this smells. I'm gonna go in for a second. - There's kind of a, there's a little bit of a rot there. - Mm, mm. - No. - Ooh. - Ooh. - That, ooh. - It's sour in all the wrong ways. - I'm gonna come back to my classic meekler stance and say, no, fuck no, actually. - Okay, I just wanna say that Spontain from Waa. - That was really good, really good. - That was good. - I just wanna preface this with Spontain from Waa. - It's amazing. - It's amazing. - This hails in comparison. - Yeah, when it comes to lambics, cherry's generally tend to be the thing that I go in and not so much, you know, 'cause it's so easy to go too far to the sour side and this definitely has, and there's even like kind of a rusty medley. - Yeah, and that's the thing that's bothering me, is the rusty medley also asphalt, you know, like lactar asphalt thing going on. The phenols in here have gone really weird. So phenolics are a byproduct of fermentation, right? They usually, if done correctly, will give a spicy or funky note, but sometimes if kind of let go crazy, they'll be asphalt-y or rubbery or weird, and this is really kind of lactar asphalt. - Yeah, when it comes to meek-a-ler, it's one of those things for me, it's a love-it-or-hate-it thing. There's so very few that ride the middle. This is one of those ones that it's like you said. The Spontain from Waa, that was phenomenal. This is really off the march. - Yeah. - It tastes like Shirley Temple that you made with real cherries, but you let it sit for like a week, and then you drink it. - Yeah, kind of. - So for some reason I keep going back to the cherry pit, there's just too much rotted cherry pit almost. - Yeah, and I'm trying to filter the asphalt-y weirdness out of it to try to taste some of those fruits. Yeah, the fruit comes off a little bit rotted, you know, a little bit overdone. - I enjoy the initial flavor. The finish is terrible. Yeah, that's where everything goes to it. - Yeah, there's way too much acid up front for me. You know, I have a fairly developed sour palate, but yeah, there's just, once it hits the finish, just like I said, that metallic edge. - It finishes like a warhead candy. - Yeah. - Just that like overly aggressive, chemically sour citric acid kind of-- - But a warhead if you had a rusted nail in your mouth too. - Right, you know. - After I, yeah, and after I've tasted this and smelling it again, I'm definitely getting that industrial cleanser. - Yeah, I would pair this with like a mildew remover. (laughing) - I'd probably wash my shower with this. (laughing) - Yeah. - Yeah, it seems like if you put your shower head in it for a day, it'd like clear all that lime right off. (laughing) - I would stage a fight with somebody in public and just spray this bottle on them. (laughing) - That's a shame. I was really looking forward to this one because-- - And then cover them in ants. - That's the one too. And you know, it's been three for three. You know, my first time sitting in and I was like, "Oh, good, this is going to be the creek that changes my mind about the creek labics." - And see, like, there's so many other creeks that are so well done. This just doesn't match up to it. Yeah, it's the story of my life when it comes to a meekler. It's normally overpriced and-- - Well-- - For the most part, it's hit or miss and this is a miss. - They are pretty hit or miss from me. I mean, but they do have some fantastic beers. Like, I thought that this would be up there with the Spontain-Fambois. - Right. - Which is pretty much supposed to be the same beer but the raspberries had this one lived up to that. - It would have been way up there in my right. - Oh, absolutely. - Like, if we had the Spontain-Fambois, I'd have probably put that number one or number two 'cause so far with the beers that we've had based on my memory of it. This is so weird and ah, it's off. Like, it's not right. - I'm wondering whether or not age would do anything for this at all. - It's already aged. - Other than just lead to complete disappointment. - I don't know. But I don't-- - Like, maybe if they put it into like an old bourbon barrel or something like that and let it get some vanilla and some tannins and then I could see it. - I'm not suffering through any more of this either. - Yeah, it's so-- - Yeah, it's so-- - Oh, so sorry, Mikiller. I wish I had liked that Spontain-Creek better. - I wish you could brew beers like evil twin. - Oh, no. That's his brother, by the way. (laughing) - Who makes better beers for the offerings that I've had from evil twin? - Yeah. - I've been far less disappointed on every level. - I agree with that. - Anyway, that was Spontain-Creek from Mikiller. This next beer is Ferné, aged porter. I called it Fernet outside and Bo laughed at me. So I'm gonna say Ferné aged porter. - And Ferné's, it's like chartreuse. It's a type of bitters, it's a digisti-- - That makes sense to me. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a little bit like, you know, around the neighborhood of somewhere between Campari but not as better, but with the floral and herbal notes that you're gonna get out of chartreuse. - Cool. - And not popular enough to get its own color named after it. (laughing) - That's really popular amongst the surface industry in Austin. - Interesting. - What, Ferné? - Really? - Well, so are unit cycles, we talked about that. (laughing) - And handlebar mustaches. - Yes. - I've never had Ferné before, so this'll be interesting. - Chocolate has them on special online for industry night. - Cool. So Ferné aged porters by Odell at a Fort Collins, Colorado. This is 9.8% ABV and it's brood wants available in bottles. And the write-up says, over the past year, we collected empty Ferné barrels from our friends at Leopold Brothers' Distillery. Leopold Brothers make some really great liquors. Their distinct Ferné includes lavender, honey-suckled ginger root, bitter aloe, dandeland root, rose petals, chamomile and pepper. Inspired by the urban spice flavors of this dark minty liqueur, we promptly filled the barrels with a rich porter. The roasty chocolate malt character is infused with hints of mint and licorice from the herbs soaked oak, creating a decadent flavor and aroma. - I love the description of that. That sounds awesome. - Wow, amazing head on this. - Amazing head and it's dense as all fuck. I mean, you cannot see the whole light through this much. - And it's not going anywhere. - The head looks like a toffee marshmallow. - Yeah, it really does. - I wanna put my head on this head. - Me too. - Wow, it's really deep, black. There's hardly any highlights that shine through. I don't know if that's just because the head is so thick. - Yeah, there's no highlight coming through here. - Oh, it is a spinal tap black. - But it didn't pour like it was inky. It still poured like it was somewhat aqueous. - Yeah, it doesn't look like it's oily and it's not sticking to the glass very much, but-- - Just that head. - Yeah, the head sticks, but the liquid not at all. - Oh my God, smell that. - Oh, wow. - It really, that mint chocolate totally comes out. - Oh. - Mint chocolate ginger. - And it's generally when you get a beer this dark, you expect, you know, chocolate malt assault and this has got this really intense herbal-- - It's like I was holding a handful of Andy's chocolates like a few inches away from my face and just getting that aroma. - And lavender, like a lot of lavender there. - Yeah, there's definitely a floral note. There's that mintiness, but then there's those like deep chocolate aromas and a little bit of ropes. - There's a little honey suckle in there. - Yeah, totally. - Come to Mint. - You're in the Mint? - Yes. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Oh man, it smells-- - Thin mints. - Thin mints, this smells amazing. - I want to stick my penis in here. - I would watch that. - Yeah. - I want to dip my balls in it. - Man. - Yeah. - This smells like a good idea. - This smells like my wet dreams. - Oh, wow. - A little bit of, it's not really liquorish. It's more maybe star in these or the minty. There's a definite minty quality. I could pour this over ice cream. - Yeah, minty lavender chocolates. A little bit of something earthier. - Yeah, it's like, they went down to like the Gary Deli's factory and took all of the chocolates with additives and fermented it. - Or it's like if the Bed Bath and Beyond truck crashed into a Gary Deli's truck, wow. - Wow. - Holy shit, this is wow. That's amazing. - I was thinking based on the aroma that the chocolate notes and just all the things that make it an imperial porter would get overwhelmed by the fernet. - This is so balanced out. - This is as much imperial porter as it is the additives. - This is like you wanna find who put two and two together and was like, hey, I'll bet those barrels would be good for this and you're a genius. - No, shit. - It certainly doesn't, a lot of appetives can be cloying and they can be way too bitter and this not at all. I mean, it's just so aromatic and- - It's only dry. - Yeah, it is dry. It is, it's not a stringent but it's definitely real clean mouth after you get it down and wow, like you can swirl this around your tongue for an hour and you're not gonna taste everything in it. - I feel like I could have drank this whole bottle by myself just based off these couple of sips. - I'm gonna kill all of you. - Yeah, I know. We should have a death match too. - You guys have one of these, don't you? - I do. - You just each have one of these? - Fuck. - Such a brand. - I opened the one that I bought and I wanna drink those two with you guys too. - I was just biting my time until I opened yours. - Oh, fuck. - And I win. - I think I'm gonna cry. - You like that that much? - (laughing) - I have a mouth full of beer, I'm sorry. - It's got just enough body to be chewy, but it's not sticky chewy. It's like a really good quality dark chocolate. - Yeah, so let me describe this a little bit. I get a ton of chocolate lavender right out of the gate, right? And then there's something a little bit richer, like a rye bread or a star anise or something like that, right? There's a little bit of a licoricey quality to it. And then it just branches off in all of these different flavors. And you get a lot of what is written here and it almost feels shitty that I left this in the description, but I think I could have picked out a lot of this stuff that's in the description if I hadn't read it. You know, I do get that dandelion and I do get some of that mint. I mean, the mint isn't quite as present in the mouth as I smelled it, but I still get it there. - The honeysuckle, it still keeps through. And it's-- - And the rose too. - It's just enough honeysuckle to provide just a twinge of sweetness. - Yeah, you get more, you're not getting that sweetness that you get out of like, say milk chocolate or something like that. - Right. - It's definitely a floral sweetness. - Exactly. I think I've said it on the show before, but when I used to live in Maryland, there was a honeysuckle bush that grew over the fence in my backyard and whenever it was just in full bloom, I'd just go in the backyard and start picking petals off of it and just getting that one drop. - That one drop of nectar, yeah. - Just that one drop of nectar. - Yeah, honeysuckle bush is back in Laredo also. - And this captures that perfectly and it's not being overwhelmed by the other things. And that's what I really dig about this is that everything that they mentioned in the flavor notes is there in harmony. - Yeah. - And I really liked the amount of roast here too. - Yes. - Because that could have easily gone overboard and bold over everything else, but the roast is in perfect harmony with everything else. I mean, it's gorgeous. - Odell makes phenomenal beers. - Yeah. - I wish you guys would stop talking. - Wow. - Oh, are you finally deciding to talk now? - No, I just, I want to enjoy this beer and you guys keep opening your mouth. - I know, I've been looking at you this whole time and you have this like joyous look on your face. I've never seen you happier. - I want to joy murder all of you. (laughing) - How I've always learned to go. - And then drink the rest of the beer and then maybe commit ritual suicide on myself. I don't know. - That sounds like a great plan. - I think it does. - And you know what? I'm really enjoying the hell out of this too, but as I'm sitting here, it is a little cold. - It is. - And I think that this would do such a better number if it was just slightly warmed up. - I agree with that. But I mean, even cold, the amount of flavor and complexity that they're pulling out of this. - Yeah. - It's really a mark of a phenomenal beer. - This is probably the best beer from Odell that I've had in a while. - Yeah. - I think you're gonna get more of those really mint chocolatey notes when it's cold. And I think those florals are gonna come out more when it warms up. - Probably. - It's like a sweet, savory journey. - It is. - Mm-hmm. - And I like it. - And it's still 9.8%. And you do get a little bit of a sense of alcohol there, but it's not overwhelming. It's not barreling over any of the flavors. And it's perfect. This is a perfectly balanced beer with a bunch of other stuff in it that a lot of times will overwhelm the other stuff. - Yeah, no, especially when you're, like I said, if you're using something like Franet or Purnow or anything like that, you would expect that licorice note to be like right up front beating your ass. And it's so subtle. - Yeah, and here it's like playing the bass line. - Yeah, yeah. - You know, supporting the rest of the bass line. - Yeah, it's kinda carrying along, but the other flavors are definitely giving them the melody. - I thought I had my rankings set in stone just a bit ago, but god damn, this is outstanding. - Yup. - So I had, it was like an herb encrusted pork belly dish. - Okay. - I had a row the other day, and that would have gone perfectly with this. - There's so many dishes I'd love to pair with this. - Anything where you're dealing with a lot of herbs is gonna go really well with those. - Yeah, I'm thinking. - But I could even see it standing up to something sharp, like a lamb chop, a some mustard. - Well, dude, that's exactly what I was gonna say. I was gonna say like a heavily herb lamb chop with some mustard. - I wanna stick my booby in this beer. - Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna fill my mouth up with this beer. Hey, what a quink-a-dink. (laughing) I really wish I could get more of this. We got this while we were in Colorado for the Great American Beer Festival, and I got one bottle of it, because I hadn't heard a damn thing about this beer, and I really wish I could get more. If any of you guys are in Colorado or anywhere that Odell is, and you can still get this on the shelf, send me an email. I would trade you something for this. I'll trade you some stuff for this beer. (laughing) Seriously, yeah, I'll trade you Mike. I've been sitting here with this beer in my hands, warming it up, and I was totally right. It gets so much better when it's warmer. It does, I feel warming mine up too. I'm gonna actually keep this on the side while we get to the next one, because I wanna drink more of this as we go on. In a stage of open her mouth, like she was gonna say something, but I think it's like when somebody's like-- - I think she was just letting her tongue roll out the side of her mouth. - Yeah, well, she's an ecstasy right now. - It's like when someone presents you with a penis, you just-- - All right, let's go to the next beer. (laughing) - That's a penis. - That was for an aged porter from Odell. Holy shit, Odell, yes. - Well done. - And the next beer, if we stick to the theme of beers that I've never had before, or flavors that I've ever had before, is called Bear Tree. It's a barley wine-style wisebear from 2012. - I've never had a barley wine-style wheat beer. - Neither have I. And this is from two brothers, Warrenville, Illinois. This is 11% ABV, brewed once in bottles. And Bear Tree takes our original half of vice in recipe and brews it to a higher strength. Their traditional clove and banana notes give way to melon and fleshy fruit, deep caramel, and black pepper characters. Within every Bear Tree lives the promise of new life. And this was sent to us by Joe Money. Thank you, Money. - You've had this before. - No, when? - Free tale. - I don't remember having-- - Why no, I'm just correcting you. - This-- (laughing) - Thank God you were here. - Technically, you've had this. - Okay, so at free tale, usually I'm drunk by 9 a.m. - Right. - So, yeah, usually when I go to a free tale, this is for a bottle release and we'll get there at like seven in the morning, but this all sounds brand fucking new to me 'cause half a vice in barley wine. - This has got some viscosity to it. - Yeah. - This ain't your dad's half a vice. - This definitely looks every bit of the 11% that it is, at least in the glass. - Yeah, and it's solid golden and it's a bit hazy, but there's some particulate matter floating around in it. Sorry. - There's no, there's no head, but yeah, there's a, like I said, there was a high viscosity. - Yeah, it looks really viscous and thick. - Wow, wow. - Oh my God. It is some honey smelling motherfucker. - When I look at it in the bottle, there is definitely a lot of sediment at the bottom. - Okay. - Holy shit. There's a lot of alcohol there. - Whoa. - It does smell like honey. There's definitely that wheat beer characteristic. - It's almost meaty. - Yeah, right? Like, can you get me some pancakes to pour this? (laughing) - Yeah, I'm smelling quite a bit of honey. Mealy apples, like red apples. There's a banana thing, but no, the description's right. It's more melanin than there's banana, right? - I still get banana, a little bit of clothes. - Uh-huh, you get the pepper. - It's really lush. It's like mealy caramel covered apples. Yeah, I mean, you can tell you're, you're gonna be biting into this one. - Smells like sensory assault. Like our mouths are about to get laid down. - There's a lot, yeah. You can get a little buzz just smelling this with the alcohols that are coming off it. - But for all intents and purposes, for me, it's pretty pleasant. - No, absolutely, absolutely. - It's not very frequent than I come across this, but there's a few people out there that I've run into that will age wheat beers, and there's a certain aged aroma that comes off of this. - Okay. - And I'm looking at you with your o-face as you're sitting on this. - I'm sipping on this, and this tastes amazing to me. - All right, well, I'm in. - That's pretty fucking good. So it's not what I expected. I expected there to be more of a, like a deeper, thicker caramel tone. But there's really just a lot of those awesome wheat beer characters. - It tastes like apples that just had honey poured all over. - Yeah, right? Like honey apples, cantaloupe. - Yeah, there's a little caramel in there. - And where I thought it was gonna be overly sweet from the nose, it really isn't to me. - It tastes like how I would imagine if they made some type of ice beer out of lipochevivisins. - Yes. I gotta tell you, you know, like generally, barley ones can be a little overwhelming for me. You know, I use them very judiciously, but man, I get in trouble with this, motherfucker. - Yeah, this is more around wheat wine. I mean, it tastes more like a wheat wine. It is more of a wheat wine if you're talking about a barley one's style of vice beer. But it is definitely firmly planted in hefivison category, but with a fuck ton more alcohol and malt in Sweden. - This is what fucking Thor drinks. I'm sorry, but this is totally what fucking Thor drinks. - I will bring for his yes. - So when it comes to wheat wines, the thing that differentiates this is that normally with wheat wines, I get far more of a more pronounced cotton candy note. - Right. - And this doesn't quite have that. - This is more fruity. - Yeah, exactly. This is still firmly entrenched in that banana orange. - Banana baked apples. - There's a bit of a melon thing going on. I don't know, there's something else there that's kind of pear-like. - Yeah, a pear is for sure. Like baked pears. - Yeah, baked pears. And most of the fruits I'm talking about are baked, except for the melod, right? All the apples and the pears and all that stuff has got all those caramelized sugars. You know, those sugars that have gone through a baking or some kind of heat process that will bring. - Banana is foster. - Oh, yeah, yeah. - The only thing this thing is lacking is a crust. It's like such a great dessert beer. - Yeah, I mean, this with a fucking apple pie. - Oh, fuck yeah. - Holy shit, that would be amazing. If we could accumulate enough of this to make some type of reduction at this, oh my God, yeah. - I just shoot it directly into my veins. (laughing) - Lamb chops, roasted duck. - Lamb chops, that's a no brainer. Like I'm almost there. Lamb chops and pork chops for me would be a no brainer for this beer. - It's a nice sear on them, like a caramelized, no, no, no, no, no. - Schnitzel. - I was just gonna say the same thing. - Oh crap. - I'm just gonna say the same thing. - Schnitzel with fruit sauce, especially. - Oh, you son of a bitch. Yes, that is totally it. I was just gonna say the same thing. (gasping) - Man, I was kind of wary of it. Weep here is one of my favorite styles, half of Isons. Probably, I think the thing that really got me into crappiers to begin with. And I was like, man, a marrying out with a barley wine seems really weird, but oh my God, this is just exquisite. - It really is. - Rye bread or pumpernickel smoked cuda. - Yeah, I think anything smoky would go nicely with those. - Yeah, surprisingly, because, I mean, usually smoked cheeses are really heavy handed with a smoke, but this could probably cut through the most heavy handed smoked cheese. - Yeah, I've got some, I've got some good in my car. (laughing) - Like in your car? - If you run down right, yeah. - Your car's gonna smell like smoked in the car. - You just carry cheese in your car sometimes? - You're the fucking man, Bo. - Dude, it's winter. Your car is just like a big refrigerator. - Oh, no, that's true. But if you just have cheese in your car all the time, you're ready for fucking. I mean, you're just ready, DTF down every, oh God. - Everything. - Yeah, hi, I'm Bo Paul. - You never know. - Would you like to? Could I have some delicious cheese? - A little cuda? (laughing) - We've had some really great shoes. - Yeah, no, I picked the right night to sit in. - Oh, that's a really awful beer. - Kidding, yeah. Well, I mean, I've had one awful beer. I mean, it wasn't even awful, it just wasn't that good. But this is a surprise to me, this bear tree. - Yeah. - Very well done, super well done. And this has a year of age on it. - Really? - Yeah, so it's 2012. So I don't know how much of the good stuff that's coming out is because it's even doubt over time. But I can't imagine this thing being far too sweet a year ago. - This is definitely one of those beers that you wanna have when you have cheese for dessert. - Oh, yes. - Like when you get the cheese board with the preserves and the fruit and some bread, when that's your dessert, this is the beer you want. Creamy goat cheese and, you know, some fruit sauce and this. Oh, fuck yeah. - Gorgonzola or some type of blue cheese. - Oh, yeah. - Well, that's what I was gonna say. This will even go with a blue cheese because, I mean, blue cheese goes so well with honey and this has a bunch of honey-like stuff going on. - Yeah, and this is, it's really bold. - It really is. - Barly wines make total sense to me with blue cheese and then this. - Even more so. - Yeah, even more so. Oh, some rogue's creamery, the blue that they do. - Oh, yeah, roast blue. - They do a couple of different blue cheeses but yeah, that one especially. - It's spectacular. This is a great beer. I'm very, very, very excited by this. I had no idea that two brothers had a beer this good 'cause I haven't really had very many two brothers beers. I've had just a couple. - I wouldn't be able to name any of them if you were to press me on it. - Me and would I. - It makes me curious what their hette is like. - Me too, really, because, I mean, the base here is very nicely done. - It's very nicely done. - They're at all vices, all right. - I haven't tried to remember if I've had that. - I'm sure I have at some point in time. - I have a lot of it in Chicago. - I'm very, very excited by most of the beers that we've had tonight. - Yeah, I know. - I mean, I'd have to give a caveat when I start ranking and I'm just gonna go ahead and go right into it. You're gonna do it? - Okay, I'm gonna rank first. - All right. - And my caveat is that the first three beers on this are next level fucking awesome for me. Number four is still very, very good and number five is also still very, very good. Four and five are good in the same way. Number six, eh, but I'm gonna start with my number six. My number six is Spontane Creek and there was something wrong with that for me. I don't know, that asphalty thing. I wish that was Spontane-Femboi. I really was hoping for something that great because that fucking beer is fantastic. This one, not so much. For me, number five, loathing frown the nihilist. This is a paradox beer. The nihilist is a very good imperial brown and I really liked the cherry qualities that were coming out from the barrel aging, very, very good beer. Number four, F5 IPA. I really fucking dug that beer. I thought that the hops were doing some really great stuff. I like the way that it builded over time. Builded, I think that's the word, built. I'm drunk, whatever. It didn't ever get overwhelming to me. It didn't get asperny to me. I just thought it was a very, very solid East Coast style IPA. Number three for me was Bear Tree. I don't think I've ever had in a barley one style wire spear. Anastasia says that I had one at Freetail, but I don't remember it. So I'm gonna pretend like you didn't say that. I mean, but when you have 50 beers, that's in the span of two hours. Yes. I mean, that'll happen. This is phenomenal. It is absolutely, absolutely wonderful. I really dig the hell out of this beer. I like the Melanie thick sort of half a vice in qualities that it's got going on. Still has some of the spiciness, a lot of the same fruit. I would love the fuck out of this with some dessert or some cheese. Number two for me was Leto A. I'm very surprised that I'm not putting that as my number one because that is one of my favorite fucking beers of the last like five years. If by any chance you could still get it in any stores around you get one or two or six or 12 because you're gonna love it if you like sour beers. Pour it and it ages phenomenally well. It does. I just a couple of weeks ago opened up the last bottle that I had from like three years ago. Even for being pasteurized. It was great. It's great. I can't say enough good things about that beer. I want to marry that beer. Number one for me though was that for an aged porter. What a surprise that was. I had no idea that was gonna be that good. Every single little flavor that was in the barrel that this beer ended up going in, you could taste pretty clearly. Try it now. Okay, I'm gonna try it in a bed. But holy shit, that beer's great. And I'm serious if you guys are listening to this and you can get one off the shelf, I will trade you something for it. I want more of this fucking beer. Like I want several bottles of this. Email the info@theberests.com. I love this fucking beer. Thank you Odell. Yeah. And thank you me for giving me my right place. (laughing) Who wants to go next? - I'm next. - Okay, go ahead Mike. Very much like Rubio. My number six was the Spontane Creek. So Mickler just seems to disappoint me very frequently. But I will give it to them when they are stellar, they are incredibly top notch. However, that is very few and far between. And for the pricing, for me it's not worth the gamble. And I'll wait for somebody else to buy up the bottles for me to be able to taste. - Sure. - Without having to pay for it. This is another one of those examples. Thanks for obtaining this without me having to pay for it. - Si, Mickler, God damn it. My number five was the F5 IPA. I dug this. I still think it was a tasty beer. However, it really did, by the end of it, it became taxing. That initial flavor, fantastic. But once it got to that BC powder level, it just became harder and harder to enjoy. - It never got there for me. - It definitely did for me. - Probably because it never had BC powder. - I have. - Oh, okay. - The last four or five ounces, I did have to Viking Quaff and just end it. But that said, the initial, the initial sips were really, really good. My number four, loathing frown, the Neelist. I thought that this was one of the better sour twinged, barrel aged, brown aisles that I've come across. I really like the Saboteur from Odell's one that's got a couple of years' time behind it. - Oh, this kills that. - But that beer's ass just had so much more nuance and character, really, really fantastic. And especially once it started to warm up. My number three was the Bear Tree. That was awesome. I've never come across at least one that I can remember. And I think I was at the same free-tail release as you. - Yeah, weird, right? - Yeah. - Wow. - Who would have thought that some beer would have gotten lost in that lineup? - Go figure. - Yeah, no shit, right? - Way to be dickholes, guys, thanks a lot. - But when it comes to wheat beers that are above 9%, this still is very much a barley wine to me. And it didn't cross over into that wheat wine territory. It still kept all of the nuances of a wheat beer, but it had these great barley wine notes. Really interesting take on the style. I really, really enjoyed this. - My number two, this is a very hard toss-up for me. - Yeah, I'm curious. - It was the La Terwa. And this is classically one of my favorite sours. Just so much that's going on here. And it's just so amazing. There's so much to this beer. And like I said before, I could sit there with several bottles of it and just completely dissect this beer over hours, coming up with different descriptors and different flavors and aromas and different things to pick this one apart. And that's what I love about it. - Yeah, it seems like we have the same top three. And to me, those top three were next level awesome. - Yeah, exactly. - And they're so fucking close. - That's what it was. That's what it really came down to is that this was classically awesome. And I'd already had a love affair with this beer going into this taste. - Oh, me too. - But that Fernet age porter came out of left field for me and really wowed me. And as I'm sitting here now and I still have about three ounces left and it's room temperature. - I'm still drinking it. It's like amazing. - Oh, it's so awesome here. Try some now. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, go for it. - Oh, really, try it. - There was so much nuance and complexity to this one. And yeah, it would have been, like I said, the florals are coming out more, but it's spicier when it's warmer. - It is. - It would have been so easy to overwhelm this beer with the Barrow character. And they really dialed it back and they let the base beer shine and just let all of those nice Fernet characteristics just come in to highlight everything. - Yeah. - And that's what really did it for me. This was in, it's been a few episodes since I've said it, but it's a feat of brewing prowess. - You said it last episode. - Did I? Did I? - Before that, before that, it was a bunch. - You should probably listen to the episodes. - Yeah, brewing prowess, I agree. - Oh my God, but yeah, that was my number one. - It was well deserved to be able to meet or surpass La Turroix on the awesome scale. - Yeah. - Is a feat unto itself. - Well done. - Thank you. - Holy shit, balls. - Thank you so much, Mike. - I appreciate Anastasia, you ready? - Yes. - Okay, go. (laughing) - Muscle through. She did, didn't you just hear it now, man? - Okay, my number six, tie. - This is a tie. - For bottom? - Fuck yeah, for bottom. - Okay, what is it? - F5, go fuck yourself. And spom-taint a pfft. - Really? - Yeah, I couldn't decide. Usually-- - You couldn't decide which one was worse. - Yeah. (laughing) - Well usually, I think, okay, if someone handed this to me at a party for free, would I drink it? - Right. - 'Cause I don't really care about being polite and social norms and that kind of stuff. - We know. - The answer to both of these beers is, no. - Fair enough. - Number four, the bear tree, barley wise. It was good, I liked it. - I got a little coin for me as I finished it. Like the last couple slips were a little difficult for me. So I put that at number four. Number three, loathing frown, new list. It's good, it's good, I liked it. - That's a damn good beer. - Yeah, I like the fruit and the oak and the blah, blah, blah, blah. Number two, le te war. - Oh wow, I know how much you like le te war too. - No, that's you. - You do too. - Loveful lee is what I like. - Well, loveful lee is fantastic. - Loveful lee is fantastic. - But I've seen you around lee te war and go oomg oomg oomg. - Yeah, okay. - Yes, this is not anything. - I was taking it. (laughing) Story of my life. - How much else were you faking? (laughing) - All of this. - Guys, you know I'm really a man, let's just cut it out. - Wow. - My number one is the love of my life. Love for net age porter. - For nay, for net. - I'm sorry. - The fern at age part, right? Porter. (laughing) What happened? - It's so beautiful. (laughing) - That's it, that's tough. - Is it? - I'm done. - You don't wanna like sing the praises of the fern age porter. I mean, I just watched you in bliss, with bliss face, for-- - She'd be on words. - Look at how much she's roaring to herself over there in that glass. - I know, she's just-- - You can't take my love away from it. - She is kinda glowing. - She's glowing more than I think I've ever seen her actually. - Yeah, you've never seen her eat pancakes. - It's like somebody's giving her a blowjob. - Yeah, you've never seen her get a blowjob. (laughing) - You've never seen you pancakes. (laughing) - Hey, Bo, you ready with your rankings? - Yes I am. - Cool, give them to us. - All right, well, no contest for last place. I'm definitely there with the team, Sponding Creek. This was such a lucky night. Everything I've tasted tonight has been incredible, except this. I was really hoping this was gonna get me over my Creek hump, which is my least favorite flavor of lambics. Yeah, not so much. Way too metallic. Even at the point where I'm going, did something go wrong with this? Yeah, not feeling it at all. After that, number five, F5 IPA. IPAs was kinda my last palette to conquer as a crappier enthusiast, as is for a lot of people. Now I quite enjoy them, and every now and then now, because of that, I wanna get into a fight with them, and this would be a great beer to get into a fight with. (laughing) If I'm going out looking for a tussle, I saw this on draft, I'll grab it, 'cause it's got that delicious citrusy, pealy, feel up front, and then it just kicks your ass as it goes down. Yeah. Don't know if I could do it all night, but I could definitely go a couple of rounds with it. Sweet. Number four, loathing frown the needless. This is something I could drink all night. Absolutely adored the cherry note. I think it was really fucking awesome. It warms up really well, but I even liked it cold. Up against a lot of other things, it'd be a pure standout, but now that we're getting into the top three, man. Yeah, no shit, right? Jesus Christ, you know? It's like one of those years where there's like, you know, a couple of really good movies, and then there are three that you're just like, "Oh my God, I saw that movie, and it changed my life." Right. And that's what we're dealing with. It's a vice-sauce Shawshank redemption. Yeah, exactly. It's just like, "Oh my God, I saw 12 years of slave at a gilbing." (laughing) Really, really tough duking it out with all the stuff, but number three is barotry. Like I said, I want to dress up like a Viking and quaff this all day. I want to get an entire plate full of cheese and eat it with it. That vice is one of my favorite styles, and this is such an interesting dialogue. I was not expecting it at all. I think in a lot of ways, this is the boldest beer that we've had tonight, you know? 'Cause it's just a really, really interesting, flavorful piece of work. And kudos to the guys who are like, "Hey, let's do this." But the top two were just incredible. And I wrestled with both of these. And unlike the rest of you, I don't have a lot of experience with Littor R. This is my first time around. Littor R did end up being my number two. Wow. Yeah, boy, this is something, I want to have like five bottles of these and drink it solely over a course of the day because it's pallet is so incredible and rich. That would be a magical day. That would be a fucking magical day. Yeah, just like this is the perfect beer for summer day to just sit in a hammock and think about how great beer is. Oh, yeah. I absolutely loved it, but man, I said bold for bear tree, but sheer ingenuity and craft. It was a roller coaster of flavors. It was an A-H porter is just incredible. Wasn't it? It was incredible. And it actually really changes so much between cold and hot. And I like it both. Like I can drink this straight out of the ice box, you know, bone cold and enjoy it like a mint chocolate ice cream. And then you drink it warm and you get all these incredible spiciness in it. So I am right there with Mike. We went blow for blow. Yeah, man. I got a kindred spirit in the rankings for the first time in like at least several weeks. Yeah, a few weeks. Yeah, I could not agree more. I'm glad that we all came out with the, the Frene on top. Yeah, you know, our top two were unanimous. Yeah. That was the bottom six. And the buck, the bottom one, yeah, too. Whatever. Oh, Anastasia just handed me some of her Frene. That was very, very nice of her. That's a nice name of the person you do. Yeah. Happy fucking Thanksgiving. Thanks, Brad. Oh man, that'd be so good. What a fucking fantastic lineup of beers. Yeah, for this episode. Holy shit. Thank you so much. Yeah, I wanna thank Joe Money for sending this, that bear tree. Oh, thank you. And Evan Gundy. Evan Gundy for sending us the F5 and enough fucking beers to do like three episodes worth of shit. Thank you so much. I think it's four. Yeah, I mean, this guy has said this like three or four large boxes of beer. Dude, you're amazing. Joshua Blake, thank you so much. I'm so glad we finally got to that nihilist because damn, that's a great thing. That was a great beer. That was a great beer. And thank everybody for listening. You guys have been fantastic, super supportive. Keep sending those donations, keep sending those emails and keep reading this and subscribing on iTunes. And keep sending us beer. Thanks for having me, guys. Oh, yeah. Oh, good. Had an amazing time. Oh, I'm so glad I finally got you on. I've been wanting to have you on for a while. But apparently I waited until exactly right now. (laughing) And we're gonna have you on again at some point. Please do. You know, I hope it's, I mean, I can't really say. Yeah, you've set up a fucking bar, dude. Yeah, it might not be as good as this, but it'll still be fun. Hopefully. Yeah. You'll walk away, bust. (laughing) Hey, Anastasia, you're lovely as usual. Hey, guys. (laughing) Oh, thank you for joining us. Hey, guys. I just realized something. What happened? I'm bright. I just get it. (laughing) We're gonna hit a hundred episodes. Which one of us is it? Oh, yeah. She just said that we're gonna hit a hundred episodes soon. Oh, man. I mean, it's gonna be like two and a half months or whatever. But we're at 88 now. That's soon. That would come up real fast. But we're gonna drink a lot. What are we doing for that episode? I have no idea. And we haven't talked about it often. Like, so we have no idea. All right. I'm trying to hash it out right now. All right. I've got some ideas. We'll talk about it all day. We'll talk about it. Thanks for being here. Oh, I trigger Happy Mike. I love being here. All the time. I only have love being here. What half? Depends on the day. (laughing) You're the hot half. God damn it. This show is so good. I'm gonna marry you all. (laughing) Yeah, I don't want to just like, audibly suck your dick, but no, I agree. I agree. You know, audibly suck my dick. Yep. You mean verbally. Verbally, audibly. We're just here sucking loudly and it's orally. (laughing) Literally figuratively. I mean, everything. Again, thank everybody for listening. Honestly, just not making love sounds. I know it's really hard to not, for now, for now. (laughing) I do want to let y'all know that I finally leaked the pop filter. You did? Uh huh. We have pop filters in front of each of our microphones and then this stage will look good. At the same 88, I had a lot of self control and then I couldn't control it anymore. Why is this an achievement? I mean, is this a thing that-- Yeah, you guys need to see me do it. No, but you're surprised that you finally-- I don't think this is an achievement. I think it's a symptom. Right. It's not a window. You shouldn't look it. (laughing) I know who you're kind of. Great song. Yeah, a fix twin, with a looker. Yeah. I just saw you look it again. I didn't touch it. Stop licking it. It's because of that song I can taste colors. (laughing) I think it's because of the acid. The same is called "Hendold and Drug Genius." No, no, no, it's the acid and that song. Yeah, it was the dreadlocks you used to have, is what you can taste colors. (laughing) You smoke my hair. Is it color? Man, this color tastes really loud. Yeah, good story. (laughing) Good story in the night breed. (laughing) Aw, bottoms up, everybody. Bottoms down. Yes, bottoms up. (laughing) Everybody's just like, I'm done. (laughing) 'Cause we're tight. That was it. That was it. You know? Oh God. Do you have any other emails that you want to read? No, this episode, I'm like, every time. We get to a good go. I'm like, I'm not another thing. I'm not actually as wasted as I was then, but I'm still pretty drunk. Yeah, no, this was good for that, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, everybody. I love every one of you. Oh, you don't? That's right, actually. ♪ I told you so all I want ♪ ♪ Is you? ♪ For more information on the Beerists podcast, including show notes and pictures, visit thebeerists.com. Email us your feedback, comments, questions, and suggestions at info@thebeerists.com. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thebeerists and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/thebeerists. We'd like to give our thanks to our listener, Terry Kay, who provided the theme song for this episode. I'm John Rubio. Thanks again for listening. ♪♪♪♪ ♪♪♪♪ [BLANK_AUDIO]
