[music] Episode 63 of The Bierist's podcast, recorded on June 9th, 2013, Summer Beers. [music] Man, it's gotten hot in the last few days. Yeah, this room, it's starting to feel like it used to. I know. During the summer, this fucking room becomes a hot box, where Ryan took his shirt off a lot, because even the skinniest guy couldn't stand the heat, and we're getting to that place. But mostly because it was hot. Yeah, balls hot, ah, so hot. And we all really like looking at each other, unclothed. Yeah, I'm that kind of a perk, I'm doing Bierist. Like is a very strong word. Lust, it might be a little bit more accurate. A forced to experience. But the last three weeks, there's been a deficit of boobs in the room. I know, but they're back now. No, well, this is a different set of boobs. Oh, it's your wife, right? It's the same set that's been here numerous times. We're all thinking we need to take off our shirts though, right? We can expose our beautiful pectoral muscles. Speaking of pectoral's, I'm John Rubio. And since when, shut up. Joining me today is Grant Davis. How you doing, Grant? I'm doing very well. You look fucking dapper as fuck, if you're doing all right. OK, so Grant is wearing a bright yellow and RNG day glow. I would say these are Samini, cadmium, maybe? Yeah, we're talking about his pants at this point. His shirt is bright yellow, and he's got bright orange sunglasses. You're amazing. Yeah, very warm color-themed today. You look like the fucking summer sun. Ultimate win against the wife. And that voice was-- Mike Lambert. How's it going, Mike? I'm good. I'm really glad you brought your wife back. Yeah, I know. It was the lack of the breasts. Well, it was starting to affect all of us. Right, no, I finished eating Ryan's Asian girlfriend. And I'm hungry again, all rest immediately, so I appreciate it. No problem. Hey, Lisa, show him your pecs. And in the fourth period of the day, we've got-- Hello, Jake Maddox here. Back for round two. Dude, I'm so glad you're back. I've been wanting to have you back on. Happy to be here. I didn't dress not nearly as nice as Grant did today. I'm more in the earth tones, but-- Yeah, yeah. It's OK. I guess we'll allow it. Happy to be here, though. Yeah, you guys next to each other look like yin and yang. It's going to say this side of the room's a little bit brighter, just the way that the light is reflecting off of the yellow. I know it's making everybody look jaundice. I dressed for summertime, all right? Yeah, and speaking of which, we have a summertime seasonal beer show today. Awesome. Little summer beers. Yeah, and all of these are very accessible. I mean, you could probably get the majority of these beers at your local store. We didn't want to do anything that was just too out of people's grasp. There are a couple of these that do have more limited distribution, like New Belgium, a little bit, than, I guess, southern tier as well. But I guess a Ruby Redbird, too. I don't know how far out of Texas that would get. Yeah, a Shiner distributes pretty well out there. But yeah, that's another one that-- Shiner's just got to New York City recently. I know. Heard about that. And I bet those beers are like six bucks. And it's still not very good. But we're going to have the Ruby Redbird today, you know, whatever. Before we do that, I want to get to emails real quick. And we got one that I want to read out. And it says, hey, guys, first I have to say, I'm still loving the podcast. And I donated that $20.13 for getting to the GABF 2013. I'm still hoping for a straight up beer food pairing episode. And we're going to work on that. I want to do that right. I don't want to just fuck around. Since when? Let's fuck around with that one. Right. So I had a suggestion and a short question. I suggest a quadruple show, because it was the style that got me in a craft beer. It also led me and my dad to go into the craft beer store here in Columbus, Ohio, called "Saver Market" and buying $100 worth of beer at 9 AM in the morning. Attaboy. Yeah, sounds really familiar. We bought Latrap Quadruple. Dogfish had positive contact, which is a witt beer. Dogfish had raison d'etra, Belgian strong dark ale. Dogfish had Palo Santo Moreau in American Brown Ale. Jolly Pumpkin La Roja, American Wild Ale. And La Roos triple. I don't know how that's actually pronounced, but that's how I'm going to do it. My question, I have a small concern about opening a 750 milliliter bottle and being unable to finish it the same day. So what is a good way to keep an open bottle fresh for a few days? I understand that once a bottle's open, the beer has a finite lifespan. Thank you for your time, Michael M. Here's my take. Fucking don't. Just drink it. If you're going to crack one of those bottles open, go ahead and drink it. I would say-- I understand where he's coming from. Some of those beers, really, really big beers. And it's not really feasible for one person to drink it all by themselves. Get a couple of your friends, round them up, make them drink it. That's true. That's basically where it's at for me. Yeah, beer is not meant to be held overnight. What I do, if I have to do that, I've got these xylus bottle stoppers that I got off of Amazon. You can get six for like 1350. Those are really helpful if you want to save a beer that you didn't finish for a night. Because after you open the beer, you've let a bunch of CO2 out, so it's going to be flatter than it was when you first opened it. You let a bunch of oxygen in. Yeah, and it's going to start oxidizing almost immediately. So that's usually only good for keeping a beer overnight or maybe a day after that. But yeah, it's going to degrade rather quickly. You do just want to grab a few friends and drink it with them. I mean, that's the best option. I don't like keeping growlers more than a day personally. Once you've opened it. Yeah, once I've opened it. Yeah, you could get a growler filled really well and keep it for a week, week and a half, two weeks, and that'll be fine. But once you open it, you let a lot of CO2 out, you let oxygen in. Another good option, pour it into an ice cube tray. Freeze those little bits of beer, put them into the next beer. No, you have to go down. I like that. Kind of mix of flavors. That's pretty interesting. I've never thought of that. It's kind of fun to do like a whipped beer ice cube. That'd be kind of interesting. Yeah, we should do a show about that. Oh, I want to try that. You know, I'm speaking of freezing beer, iron horn. Oh, yeah. So that's kind of cool. Just thought that's happening. That's happening concept. Yeah, there's a brilliant advice made by Austin Beer Works called iron horn that they were experimenting with putting into one of those tumble freezers like a margarita machine. And they're going to be serving that at the Austin Beer Guide Release Party. Yes, I will be there for that. Oh, that sounds so fucking good. I really want to try that. I'm going to be first in line with that. Can I ask on this email real quick? I donated that $20.13. Is that the only donation you had? From him, I did. Let's try a notable 13 cent one. Yeah, we got a couple more donations. And yeah, we got one from this guy, Mike M. We also got one from Michael Adams, who's a guy that we've met before. He and girlfriend or wife. Gillian and came over. I forget what the relationship is like. But yeah, Gillian and Mike came up down and he gave us another donation, which is awesome. They do each other as I understand it, something like that. And Courtney Green also sent us a donation. Way to go, Courtney. Awesome, guys. Thank you so much. Yeah, super, super cool. And if you guys want to help us out with that, we're trying to get to the Great American Beer Festival. Get on thebearest.com. There's a PayPal donate link on the left hand side of the page. Click on it, kick some money. It'll help us out a lot. Money is helpful. I wonder, do we have some of these people coming to the JBF? I've had some emails from several people that say they want to meet us while we're out there. We should do a little, get together when we're there then. We will, absolutely. One more thing I'd like to do before we get to our beers is give a few iTunes shout outs, you know? People like to leave us reviews on the iTunes music store. You know, they leave us five stars and actually write a review. I can see their names and then I can give them a thanks on the show. And the first guy to do that was Kev Okey and he says he loves the show and that we should keep up the great work. And as a fellow Okey, I appreciate the love from Oklahoma. Oh, I had no idea from Oklahoma. I am Bartlesville. Sweet, sweet. Shepherd Hendricks left a long and thoughtful review about being someone that doesn't even really drink that much but enjoys our show enough to be a faithful listener. And I've been getting a lot of messages from people like that and that's fucking cool to hear. Yeah. Yeah. Dingle Ferry. Much love Dingle Ferry. Dingle Ferry loves our chemistry and knowledge and we help him sound snooty to his friends with all of the beer facts he's learned from us. Nice. Everybody stop and take Dingle Ferry seriously for a second. Yeah, is that like the tooth fairy where you just leave your dingle berries under your pillow and get money? It's hard for someone to be both named Dingle Ferry and also sound snooty, I think. That's very important. I just found this year's Halloween costume. Dingle Ferry. It's my new god. Yeah. That's what I'm gonna be praying to for. If I had the last name fairy, I would definitely name my kid Dingle. Oh, that just makes sense. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. I might change my name just to be able to do that. Oh my gosh, it's actually a real name. I feel kind of bad, but not real. Maybe it's actually-- His parents would feel bad. Maybe we're pronouncing it wrong. Maybe it's, maybe we're missing like an accent somewhere like Dingle Ferry. Right. Dingle Ferry. Dingle Ferry. Dingle Ferry. It's some very classic French name. Yeah. That's beautiful. Thank you guys so much. Oh, and yeah, if you guys want to send us emails, do it at info@thebearersst.com. That's it. And write us on iTunes. Yeah, yeah. Or old-fashioned mail. I mean, does one write letters anymore? You know, I don't want to give my address out willy-dilly. Not very well. I just get a PO box. Austin, Texas. Just mail it to Austin. Yeah, it'll be fun. To Austin, the beerists. They'll know what to do with it. Just leave them below with the draft house. (laughing) Pick it up. Oh, that would be fucking weird. Like spy shit. (laughing) Let's just get into the show. Let's do it. We're doing an accessible summer beer show. Like I said, and the first beer is-- What? Summerfest. The first beer is Summerfest. And that's a Czech Pilsner from Sierra Nevada in Chico, California. It's 5% ABV, 28 IVUs. And it's a summer seasonal available in bottles and on draft. It's mostly transparent. Yeah. Maybe straw color. That's a really pretty light gold. Very yellow, very brilliant color. Just a touch ahead on the top. Wasn't very summer bright. Yeah, there wasn't too much I had to begin with, but what little there is sticking around pretty well. I really like the spear. You know, Czech style Pilsners are my favorites. Over the which fans style. Czech style Pilsners are great. Really crisp beer. We had this on tap at the butcher shop, where I work and goes great with cured meats. And by the way, yeah, but I forgot to mention that Jake works at Salt and Time, Salumari. And he brought a bunch of other great dried meats for us today. We do good meat there. Yeah, we're not gonna eat them on the mic this time, but we'd pig the hell out before we got here. 'Cause I can't stop smacking my lips. I don't see them. No, no, you can't. But yeah, this beer smells really good. It smells like some nice, nobleish hops and some Pilsner malt. Very clean smelling. Very, very clean. Say it does clean beers. They're fucking great brewery. They don't get a lot of love, it seems. I don't know why that is. No, I mean, because they're very traditional in their brewing. And, you know, a lot of people only get dazzled by the shiny new thing, but they're a fucking solid brewery. They are solid. Smells really great. Nice and crackery and earthy and a lot of grassiness to. It reminds me of outside cutting grass. Yeah, they should put this in cans. They really shouldn't. It reminds me of looking at other people cutting grass for me. You know what they should do? This year round. Absolutely. And that's delicious. It's very, very nice beer. Yeah, really crackery, bready. Almost like a nice French loaf with the really thick outer crust. Yeah. And it's got, you know, a pretty decent amount of hops too. Again, very noble hop variety. Maybe some grassiness, some white pepper floral. Yeah, there's a peppery quality to it too. But it goes down really easy. I mean, there's a nice level of carbonation. The mouth feels great. There's not a damn thing wrong with this beer. Another solid beer from the good folks at Sierra Nevada. Seems like an ever so subtle citrus. Tinge to it. That's our lemony. Yeah, I was thinking about that. I'm trying to figure out where that might be coming from. Maybe they put a little bit of cascade in there or something, I don't know. But if they do, it's just a touch. Just to add a little bit of citrus. I don't know. I look forward to this beer every year. And this is actually the first one that I've had this year. I need to go and buy a case of this. Yeah, I think I'm gonna do this too. I haven't had this in a few years, actually. So this is a really nice change of pace. Because, yeah, it wasn't until about a year and a half ago that I started getting into pillows and ears again. And before that, I really wasn't that into it. Like I liked pillows and ears when I first started drinking beer. Didn't really like them for a very long stretch. And then now I can't get enough of it. That's the progression of beer drinkers. When you start with something light, they'll go into IPAs and then on sour beers and barrel aged sour beers. And then there's nowhere else to go. And so you go back to the beginning. And you begin to appreciate the simplicity of having nothing to hide behind. This is where true art is made. Oh yeah, and it wasn't necessarily that I overlooked pills and ears for that amount of time or wrote them off. It's that I actually disliked the flavor. Which is a weird way that my palate sort of went. So it wasn't, I'm just bored of pills and I'm not gonna try them. It was, I'm trying them and I'm really not enjoying what I'm tasting, but now I fucking love it. Have you guys gone back to Bud Light lately? It's great. No, yeah, once it was terrible. I had some Budweiser for the first time in several years. The other day, Elisa had a work outing where that was the only beer that was free. The standard Budweiser and I picked it up and had some and fresh out of a keg, it wasn't terrible. It wasn't fantastic either, but it was one of those things where it was like- It's potable. You can put it into your belly. Yeah, it won't kill you. Yeah, it'll just make your soul die a little bit. Yeah, that's all. I mean, really, for a similar amount of body and freshness, I'd rather have something like this. Oh, of course. Because it's got so many more, yeah, so much more flavor and there's no corn in it. You know, it's not an ad junkie sort of super light, shitty beer. This is nice and rich, but it's still crisp and easy to drink and lovely. That's what it always comes down to for me is flavor. Does it taste good? This tastes infinitely better to me. Yeah, I can drink the hell out of this. Yeah, do we have any more? I only bought two bottles of it. Usually, when I go out and I buy beers and they're in 12 ounce bottles, I buy two of them for the show. The ones that I like, I'll usually go back to fall when we can get more. We try to split two bottles if they're 12 ounces. Sometimes even 16 ounce pounders will split two of those. But anything above that will have one. Like if we have a 22 ounce bomber, we open one up. 750 also. You cheap son of a bitch. I know, I know. With Pilsner's, or at least maybe this one, and I might be wrong on this or alone on this, it seems like maybe it's the noble hops that make it kind of stale tasting at the end. You dick. Okay, fine. I'm alone on it. It's a beer that I think with Pilsner's, especially when maybe I'm in that other phase where I haven't warmed back up to Pilsner's as much. It comes across as a stale tasting beer to me. Sometimes papery quality. Yeah, there's like, I think I know what you're saying, like a dry finish on the hop that is characteristic of some of the noble hop varietals. But, you know, it's something that I ended up learning to really enjoy about the beer, because you could expect it, and it makes sense to me. Always reliable, that's staleness. (laughing) No, I don't know. My brain doesn't take it as staleness, though. Yeah, I know. I get that, I'm alone on it. That's fine. I'm alone on it. Look at how you're dressed. (laughing) You look like Binky the fuck clown. (laughing) I'll be coming to hear a bedroom tonight, buddy. Yeah, guess who's posing for the picture this week? (laughing) I'm gonna juggle these bottles. (laughing) Binky the fuck clown. Okay, you guys wanna move out of the next one? Yes. Victory beer. Yeah, our next beer is Summer Love, by Victory Brewing Company at Doudington, Pennsylvania. This is a golden ale. It's 5.2% ABV. Just like all these beers, there's summer seasonals available in bottles and on draft. I made sure that our summer accessible show, were all seasonal summer releases, because when we did the spring show, we didn't do just spring seasonals. We did, hey, these are beers that we thought would be good during the spring to drink. And a few people complained. They're like, "Ah, these aren't all seasonals." It's like, "Yeah, that wasn't the point of the thing." But this time, these are all seasonal releases. You cowed to the complaining listeners. Yeah, you got to. 'Cause I've been asking them to send me money. Yes, I'm gonna cow to them. You gotta please a dingle fairy. Yeah, dude. Dingle fairy is a guy you want on your team, man. We don't need these listeners. I love that computer. Let's just record to ourselves. The dingle fairy needs to be on our team. We love you dingle fairy. Yeah, all right. You patron saint, you bastard. We love dingle fairy. I'm sorry. Yes, this summer love, by the way, is a corporation imported German two row malts and whole flower tetenang, tetenanger, actually from tetenang, Simco and Amarillo hops. I like the label on this bottle. It's different than all the other victory beers I've seen. It is a really cool, kind of fun looking bottle. I mean, it feels like the summer. And this is a beer that was commissioned by the Greater Philadelphia Marketing and Tourism Corporation in order to capture the essence of a city that is rich in history and in flavor. So, some are loving. This looks very similar to the previous one. Mostly transparent, a little yellow. I'm gonna try any of these beers today that don't look exactly alike. I know. Oh, smell that. Yes. I love that nose. That's beautiful. That's so bright and floral. Lots of hops in that nose. Mm-hmm, beautiful. And it's funny because, yeah, it's got that noble tetenang hop in there and it also has a couple of American hops, the Simco and the Amarillo. And I'm getting mostly the Simco up front, but then it finishes with that noble tetenang, which is cool. I'm also getting clearly a difference between the yeast strains that are being used between the two beers that we've just had. This one is a little bit more fruity in the nose. That's the trademark of an ale over a lager. Yeah, the first one was a pilsner, which is a lager beer. And this is an ale yeast fermented beer. Oh, this is the first time I've had this and this is really enjoyable. Yes, my first time too. I really like this. Very clean, extremely clean, really drinkable. So I haven't tasted it yet, but one of the things that's really cool to me that I'm smelling is just this, it's dank. You know, it's got this dankness to it, almost like moss or weed or something like that. But you do get a little bit of citrus there too, just a touch of citrus and a touch of some kind of juicy peach or something. It's a really nice smelling beer. Do you guys think it's necessary for beer connoisseurs to really have a good understanding of the odor of weed? Yeah. (laughing) Most of them are gonna do it anyway. I know. That's why they call it weed. I'm just curious, like we compare it frequently to weed. Well, I mean, hops are the very closest relative to the cannabis plant. It sure is. And that tastes delicious. Yeah, this is fantastic. And I'm really enjoying this. There is a kind of a weedy dankness to it also, a little bit marijuana, a cannabinoid. But that aliased is giving you this really nice little bit of fruit too. And I'm not sure if it's-- Yeah, what is that fruit? It's like an earthy peach or something like that. Sort of apricot, but not like so tart. Just maybe an impression of that. There's a muskiness to it that's kind of throwing me off and not letting me say apricot or peach directly. Yeah. But I don't know, something a little bit musky, maybe a little bit fungal. Yeah. I mean, it's the difference between fresh and dried apricot. I'm getting more of like a dried apricot kind of note, but it's a super distant. And again, this is something that's really in the background. Yeah. And there's a lot of grassiness to it too. It basically tastes like a lot of grass with a bitter hop bite at the end. And it's not like a harsh bite, but-- No, this is another one that's pretty clean and very refreshing. I think that this is really nice. The malter kind of crackery. And it almost drinks like a pretty tough pale ale. It's got some hops there. Is anybody else picking up like salt? OK, yeah, there's something almost savory to this in the tail end. Yeah. Yeah, something kind of minimally salty. That's good tasting note there. I was just thinking these beers, in contrast to a lot of the beers we have on here, are pretty simple. It's not like there's a lot of complexity to the flavors, I don't think. I think this one is a little bit more complex to me than the first one was. Sure. But I wouldn't come out and say, oh, this is like a treat for all the senses, super complex, whatever. It's just a really well-made, easy-to-drink, hoppy golden ale. Again, it's categorized as a golden ale, but it's drinking kind of like a pale to me. I would agree. It just tastes like crackery grass. If somebody sat this down in front of me and asked me what style it was, it'd come out mostly towards the paleo category. Yeah. I'm so glad that we've had two beers so far that I've really liked. Yeah. Because it's a crapshoot when you go with accessible summer beers. Those are usually going to be lighter refreshing, sure. But a little bit more catering to the radio-friendly unit shifters. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And so far, the tubers that we've had please me. Like, they're really nice. So you're pleased. Yes, I am pleased. There's another one that I'm like, it's OK. I don't know if I would necessarily order it at a bar over other things ever. But I think it's OK. I think these beers have their place. I want to drink this while I'm doing something outside. Yeah. That's really what I want to do. It's got to be outdoors, hanging out at Zilker, maybe over at Barton Springs, just out in the sun, heat. Sure. Something like this would be a lot cleaner, crisper. Yeah, buy a pool like this would be fucking fantastic. I could drink a mixture of this. I could drink a mixture of this or the summer fest while I'm mowing my yard. Again, put it in cans, victory. Hand your beer. People want to take beers like this on their tubing trip. You know, they want to go-- You don't have to explain what tubing is. OK, tubing. This is what bottles can't go. It doesn't know what a skunk is. Yeah, well, when you're floating in the river, when you're floating on a river on an inner tube, most of them don't allow you to take glass bottles there. I'd love to be able to take cans of this sort of thing. Yeah. I guess we're a little spoiled with canned beer around here. We've got a lot of breweries that can, but I know it's not a really a national trend yet, but some of yours should be in cans. I agree with that. Yeah. You could take them into pool areas on campsites. Can you get breweries that do bottling for you to just go ahead and put in like plastic bags for you? [LAUGHTER] Cut a hole on a bag and drink it. Or is that too trash? Keeping the carbonation would be a little bit rough. But one of the trends that I've seen happen across the country with canning beers is that these awesome people are putting a get at these mobile canning trucks, where they just supply a canning line built into a truck and go from brewery to brewery and let them use their canning line. Wow. Yeah. It's a separate business, but it's a mobile canning truck, essentially. And they just park outside when a brewery wants to can their beer. And the breweries got to order the cans, do all that stuff. And then they can figure out the canning line. There should be seven or eight of those in every state. There should be one in Texas. It's a great idea. There is one starting up here in Austin. And when I was at my last brewery I worked for, it was something like eight cents a can they wanted to charge, which would make a 60 barrel bright tank. Nearly $8,000 have canned off. A pretty effective two head canning line is going to run you about $35,000. And so you're basically four bright tanks worth. You could have bought yourself your own. And it's a very small footprint. I don't know if it's really an economically viable model for breweries. I want to work to nap at the wine network for mobile bottling lines or big business, because you bottle your wine one time a year. And they've parked up to the winery. BAM, knock out all your bottles. You're also not dealing with a carbonated product. Right. But again, that assumes that the brewery has room to expand in their facility. True. It might be just for experimental purposes for them to know if they want to go in that direction. Yeah, but if the alternative to using the mobile canner is holy shit, we have to build out another fucking extra few thousand square feet to fit it. It might make sense to use the mobile canner. Or if they're not zoned for extra expansion, or they just can't because of whatever the reason, that might be viable. Yeah, the idea shows real promise. Just we're coming to some of the details, I think. Absolutely. Guys, how do you think of what I'm thinking? Next beer. OK, that. What is it? We set up a mobile canning unit. We go up to three floids, and then we just drink a bunch of that over there. Actually, Jana. Yeah. Dump a bunch of money into a mobile canning unit and say, hey, well, can your beers, if you feed us free beer? Just zombie dust. Just zombie dust. Just zombie dust, right? Right in door goats. I hope you just run the numbers to that before you pull the trigger on it. I don't think it's worth it. There's nothing actually in the truck. That's the scam. The truck is just Mike sitting there with a funnel hanging into his mouth. It's a cardboard truck. That's a beautiful thing. Put it in my mouth. The next beer that we're drinking-- so that was Summer Love from Victory, which I thought was great. But this next one is Shiner Ruby Redbird. And this is a lager brewed with Texas ruby red grapefruit juice and ginger from Spetzel Brewery, Shiner Texas, 4.01% ABV. And it's a summer seasonal available in bottles, cans, non-drath. And like I said, this is brewed with ruby red grapefruit and ginger. I remember when this first came out here in Texas. I know. And everyone's like, have you had the ruby redbird? And it was just all of a sudden at every single party I ever went to. Yeah. Still, it's a staple that any time I throw a party, there's going to be two or three people that bring this there because people who aren't as into craft beer are still excited to have a beer that adds flavors like this into it. Yeah, well, yeah, tastes different from what they're used to. And Shiner being such a staple of the easy accessible lowbrow beer, I guess, that being in the same family, people don't feel like they're being pretentious by buying ruby redberries. Yeah. And I would say that there are a few Shiner beers that I really like. And most of them I don't. Like I like their colesch. I think they make a kick-ass fucking colesch. That colesch is really good. And the commemorator Dopplebok is an excellent bok. Yeah, not a great Dopplebok, but it's a solid bok. But it's a solid bok. Oh, for their Schwartz beers. Solid. Well, GABF full metal last year. Oh, yeah. That's a really good one too. But we've talked a lot about how their heffa-vison isn't really a heffa-vison. It's not on style as a heffa-vison. It's kind of a light, wheat beer. They're heffa-vison terrible. Yeah, their Shiner bok is more of a Vienna-style lager. You know, it's not a bok. I don't know. They do a lot of brewing down a few notches, a few rungs from style, and then just calling it that style anyway. But there's some where, yeah, they fucking nail it. It's a great fucking beer. The Schwartz beer is a good example. The colesch is fucking phenomenal. And this is one that's not any particular style, because, yeah, grapefruit and ginger and a lager. But I think it's pretty interesting. Checking this beer out, it's definitely the darkest one that we've had tonight. It's kind of a copper thing. Still completely transparent. Yeah. Nice little dusting ahead on the top. You don't seem to have the same. Ginger just tears into your nose holes. It smells like Canada Dry ginger ale. It really does. With just a touch of citrus to it. Doesn't have quite the same head retention that the other ones did. Canada Dry ginger ale, a little bit of pepper and some citrus. Like grapefruit juice, not hoppy grapefruits, but juice. Sir, we can get onto the tasting, because you nailed the nose. Thanks. It's been a while since I've had this. This is not my favorite, nor mine. Neither me. I actually made a ginger lemon grass beer that I think may have been, well, I mean, it doesn't have the grapefruit, but it was kind of similar in having such a ginger and a light-body beer. And mine was awesome. OK, so you mentioned lemon grass. The main flavor that I'm getting after I tasted it immediately was like watered down ginger ale, like way watered down, but still with the same carbonation as a fresh one. And I'm talking about Canada Dry ginger ale. With none of the sweetness, a little bit of grapefruit juice and some lemon grassy. I don't know. Here's my beef. It's 4% alcohol, so it's an entire percentage lower than either of the two beers that we've had previous to this. The body is twice as high. I really feel like it needs twice as much grapefruit and probably like a good 75% less ginger. Yeah. And this would be right up my alley. Well, because most of what you get is that ginger flavor. Right. It's a little bit too heavy to really drink a lot of this. Well, you know, in the body for me and in the texture. Like, I feel like I could just completely down the summer love and the summer fest. But to me, there's a big flavor of ginger, which is not really in proportion to the rest of the beer for me. And it's a little bit higher in body. So that's going to prevent me from being able to down this as much or as quickly. I agree and disagree with you in that I think the body is a bit bigger, but it's empty, right? Because I'm getting less flavor than I did those other beers. Like, it is a very lower on the flavor thing. Like, it's much less flavorful than those other beers. More body and it makes it feel kind of hollow in that way. The flavor is kind of aqueous and there is a lot of that ginger. Good verbiage there. Thanks. Aqueous. Yeah. It's watery, right? The ginger is at a pretty decent level if the grapefruit kind of met it there. Then it would make sense. I think that raisin body would make sense if they just amped up that grapefruit a little bit, even if they did it with hops, even if they just threw some cascade in there. And I'm really not on the same pages, you guys, because I actually like this more than I remember. I think the ginger is complimenting the grapefruit. The grapefruit is a little bit more subtle than the ginger, so I think it does a nice transition for me. I hit the ginger, then I hit the grapefruit on the back, and then I get this wash. And if there's anything I'm a little disappointed in, is that at the tail end, it really just peters out. And it becomes, at the end, it's a little boring where it has a nice burst at the front end. Otherwise, I think this is a really nice clean beer that is a little bit more dynamic to me than the summer fest or the summer love. - And that's cool. - Definitely is more dynamic, I would agree with that. - Yeah, I'm not gonna sit here and say that this is a bad beer. I'm just a little bit bored by the time I'm halfway through this class. I mean, we got six ounces of this. This is not something that I could pick up and drink more of unless I wanna rehydrate, because it's probably good for that, you know? But it's not good enough to keep me interested in what I'm tasting. - Again, I'm sort of in the camp where this is just barely a good beer. - That's fine. - Just barely. At least in terms of the flavor profile, this is not to my taste or something that I would really wanna be drinking a lot of while I'm outside in the heat. - Right. Yeah, a little too full bodied for, I think, a typical summer ale. I like the flavor combinations, I like the idea of it. - Yeah. - I just think the execution is a little bit of work. - There you go. - And that's kind of where I'm at too. I do like what I'm tasting, but the execution, yeah, it's got too much body for the amount of flavor it actually has. - It seems like the components I have, I would love for a more craftful brewer to take on and do their own take on it, and I'd be blown away, I'm sure. - I'm exactly with you. - Talking to you, Austin Beerworks. - Oh, if Austin Beerworks can come out with a Ruby Redbird answer. - Yeah. - Dude, that would be great. - Put that in this old slushy machine. - Yeah, do that, add a little bit of lacto or assidulated malt, and that would be amazing. Just a little bit of tartness to this. - Also, I think some more carbonation would help and paying it up to 2.8 volumes. - There you go. - Yeah, and you know, when we first ported the carbonation was pretty good, but it didn't retain that very well. - Yeah. - As I keep drinking it, the carbonation is just taking a nose dive and it's almost flat. - Maybe it's that you just stickulate while you're holding your glass. - Yeah, I can't stop pumping, dude. - You can't stop pumping. - When you run into somebody at a bar who's like, "Yeah, I've been in the Navy for 25 years." And there's like swaying side by side, you know, side to side because he's been on the ocean for that long. - I just had a kid and I'd go to parties now and I find that even if I'm not holding my baby, I'm swaying side to side like I'm rocking a baby just 'cause I've been doing it for two months straight and it's just what I do all the time whenever I'm holding the kid. It's not cool, I'm sorry, he can delete that. - No, that's fine. (laughing) - I'm not deleting that. Can you tell us what your wife texted you before we started recording? Because that's the most beautiful text I've ever heard. And I've only heard it once before and it was a completely different context. - So, yes, my wife texted me just as I got away from dealing with the baby to come here because oh my God, she pooped on my crotch and it ran down my legs. (laughing) - The joys of parent, the joys of a missing out on that. It was, I responded two different things. One, I'm glad you were able to fly out of the Death Star before it exploded. (laughing) And two, I've actually gotten a message like that from a friend in a completely different context. It was a really bad date that went wrong. (laughing) - Damn Craigslist, I tell you. - Yeah. (laughing) Dude, Craigslist, oof. I've never done that, but I've heard stories of people who have mostly gay dudes that I know who are like, yeah, you know, I posted a blown go on Craigslist, yeah. It was like, what's that? - I love that a lot. - No, I got a long go? - I got it in context. - Yeah. - No, I understand the whole thing now because these are good friends and they tell me great stories. And, you know, I kind of wish I was gay at some point because if I could just post an ad on Craigslist-- - It just seems so easy. - In two minutes, I've got a dude here on my D. (laughing) - We are gonna edit this, right? - You are really missing out, buddy. - I'm not editing that out. (laughing) - I'm on Dingle Fairy, John's lonely. - Dingle Fairy, no. We're gonna take a break. (laughing) You guys ready for a break? - Oh, now? (laughing) - He has to post to Craigslist, Brooklyn. - Yeah, I need to go post something on Craigslist. I'll be back in a bit. Hey, Grant, could you poo on my crotch? (laughing) - I only did that once, and you had to complain about it. (laughing) - I love you so much. (upbeat music) ♪ Wouldn't it be nice if we were older ♪ ♪ Then we wouldn't have to wait so long ♪ ♪ And wouldn't it be nice to live together ♪ ♪ In the kind of world where we belong ♪ ♪ You know it's gonna make it that much better ♪ ♪ We make you say good night and stay together ♪ ♪ Wouldn't it be nice if we were older ♪ - Oh man, that was a great musical break. - I know, the music is just getting better and better on this show. - I love it. - Craigslist really is fast. You got blown in that short amount of time. - You know, sometimes you wish in one hand and then pennies happen in the other instead of shit. (laughing) - I don't even know what that means. - You wish in one hand and some dude off Craigslist shits in your other hand. (laughing) - Blow and go. - I need to get on Craigslist more often. - It's for free, it's for free. So during the break, we opened up another summer seasonal, which I always look forward to. And this is Festina Peche from Dogfish Head. - Absolutely wonderful, wonderful beer. - Yeah, it's a Berliner vice brewed with peach concentrate and it's delicious. - That beer is so good. - We've had it before on the show a couple times. - We had it once on the show because the other time that we had it on the show, we lost the episode. - Wah, wah. - Yeah, but it was one of Anastasia's craft beers that got her into craft beer. - And what a great one. - Oh, such a good beer, I love that. And we're just gonna get right into our next beer, which is Southern Tier Hop Sun. And this is an American pale wheat from Southern Tier and Lakewood, New York. It's 5.1% ABV. Again, summer seasonal, like all of these beers, available in bottles and on draft. And this is made with Al yeast, one variety of hops and three types of malts. And aside from the wheat, the malted wheat, I don't know what else is in here because they don't really list it. - I love that nose, this is a beautiful smelling beer. - Yeah, and it's a pretty looking beer too. - It looks similar to the first two. - Very pale, yeah. - Pilled straw. - Straw. - Yeah, light gold straw. - Decent head retention. - Oh, that smells great. Very floral and weedy on the nose. - Yeah, I like it when we beers a feature, a nice hopnose to 'em, as opposed to the dankness of wheat. - Yeah, and this does, it's got a nice fresh, almost lemon-y quality to the hop. - Oh, very citrusy, yeah. - There's a candied note that's in there as well. There's something almost sugary. - Yeah, it's-- - Candied orange peeler, lemon peelers. - Right, right. - I find this a lot with Southern tier beers, where it's almost something almost stale in the hops. - Okay. - The way that that marries with the malts that they use, there's something about them that comes out a little candied or sugar-coated in a way. - That makes a lot of sense, but I just took a sip of it and I'm not really getting that much of that in the flavor. It's good. - It's only in the nose. 'Cause this is coming off as a really dry, somewhat hoppy wheat beer. - Huh, yeah, you're right. - And it smells very similar to unearthly, has that almost candied twinge to it. - But really, it's dry and pretty fucking easy to drink and refreshing and lots of good carbonation there. - Yeah, great nose, good flavor, finishes clean crisp. Not a lot of finish to it. - Yeah, this is probably the most refreshing, like appropriately refreshing beer for the Texas summer, I think. - Which, by the way, for those of you who don't know, is hot as balls. Actually, it's balls plus 20. - Yeah, balls plus 20. - One of my favorite hot sauces. - Good D&D balls. - Is called August in Austin. (laughing) - I thought you were gonna say it's called balls plus 20. - Nope. (laughing) That's gonna be the next spinoff, lots of awesome. - Yeah, nice beer, lots of wheat flavor. - The nose, it seems pretty citrusy, but also it's kinda got this sort of soapy. That sounds weird. - No, I understand what you're saying. - It's sort of a soapy smell to it. - Yeah, a little like palmoleve-y or something. - And again, a stupid bottle. Come on, people, can your beer? - Yes, fucking please do. There are a lot of breweries that are moving the cans though, which is a really nice trend. - I do like this beer. I think it's actually one of my favorites we've had so far. - Yeah, it's actually quite nice. I had it outside of this context once, and I was pretty underwhelmed by it. And I think that has to do with the lightness of the flavor and the lightness of the body, but in this context, now that it's hot, because yeah, we got this in town probably a couple of months ago, but now it's making more sense to me in this heat, next to all these other beers. - This is a very refreshing, light, crisp, wonderful beer. I've got nothing bad to say about it. - No, that makes sense to me. Southern tier in New York. - Yeah, right. - I'm gonna get the naming. I'm sure it has to have some meaning. Please let us know where it is. - As far as saying something bad about it, I'm not necessarily overwhelmed, I'm a little underwhelmed. I think this is another one where I come into conflict where I get excited 'cause I think the nose is promising one thing, and then the taste is a little bit off from what I expect from the nose. On top of that, to me, it's a little bit cardboardy as well. That's where the staleness comes in for me. - I don't wanna say that it's oxidized, but-- - I mean, it could be. Let me see. I didn't even look at the date when I bought this. March 25th. - So it's pretty reasonably fresh. I mean, it's not that old. - Packaged on March 25th. - Yeah, probably five. - Three months now. At least it's in a brown bottle, like any respected bottle would be. - Sure. This is one of those that I wouldn't necessarily go out and buy a bunch of, but if they had it at parties, that's what I'm gonna be drinking. - Sure. I think it's easy. I don't mean to actually full-on shit on the spirit. I think it's good. Once again, it's one of those where I have an expectation going into it with the nose and then I'm like, "Oh, okay, it's okay, it's easy." But I was super excited for what that nose had. - Sure, I get it. But I do think that Jake and I are liking this beer more than you two guys are. - Yeah, when it comes to American pale wheats, there's only a couple that really stick out in my mind as being exceptional. What are those? - Gumball head. - Gumball head. - Three Floyd's is fantastic. Shit, that's the only one. No, over on. - Oh, I really like over on from Bells. - I mean-- - That is a great beer. - Yeah, once you've had kind of these other beers that really deliver on the pineapple and the bubble gum bursts of flavor, then these ones are like, "Okay, I've had better." - There's no way this is gonna stand up to something like gumball head. There's no fucking way. - I definitely want more carbonation in these summer beers too. I think some of yours need more bubbles. - I agree, some really have to cut down on how hot things are outside. - It seems like most of these beers have lost their carbonation rather quickly also, which is kind of interesting because the first few sips are just perfect. And then once I start getting to the end of my glass, carbonation's almost completely gone. - One of the great things about new Bellgiments, we get eventually to the Rollie-Bully, will be the nucleation points, the custom new Bellgium glass they have. I love the idea of having nucleation points in a glass 'cause obviously nothing for the beer to grab onto on a clean glass. - Right, and what Jake's talking about is new Bellgium's globe glass has a laser etching at the very bottom of the glass. And there are a few other glasses that do that as well. - Duval. - Yeah, Duval's got one. - Those are so nice. How about these beer glasses to this? Have those? - Nope, sorry. - A cheap son's a bitches. - It's too expensive. God damn it, I looked into it and they wanted like so much more money. But yeah, that gives the carbonation the spot to latch onto to kick up more carbonation and to kick up more of the aroma to fill the glass with. And it really does enhance the flavor of the beer. I've done side by side before with a similar glass that didn't have the laser etchiness to, next to one that did, and that glass just smelled more rich and full and wonderful. - Yeah, we're not being pretentious as fuck when we say that. - No, it actually hashes out pretty well. - You know my shit. (laughing) - Yeah, I enjoyed this hop son. I really did. Is it my favorite wheat beer, hoppy wheat? No, but it's solid beer. Yeah, it's a solid beer. - I do think there's something nice about the inhale with the drinking. If you really sniff in as you take a sip and then wash it around your mouth and drink it that way, but it's not usually the way I drink it. - Sure. - So that's why I think I'm a little bit more often. - It'd be pretty fascinating to try and experiment where you pinch your nose shut and try a beer and see how that flavor will be affected. A aroma is such a big component of taste. - Yeah, and that was, like I said, hop son by southern tier. We're moving on to our next one. Sam Adams Summer Ale. It's a wheat ale brewed with lemon peel and grains of paradise. - Clever name, Sam Adams. - I know. I know they're just knocking it out in the marketing department. Sam Adams is out of Boston, Massachusetts. This is 5.3% ABV, seven IBUs. And it's a summer seasonal, again, available in bottles and on draft. And this is malted with their custom two-row pale blend and malted wheat. Hopped with halor-town middle from and they use top fermenting alies for this. And like I said, lemon peel and grains of paradise are added. - Samuel Adams, talk about a brewery that gets no respect. - Yeah, they make a lot more good beer than people give them credit for, I think. - Boston Lager is a completely and totally solid beer. - It is. - I tend to not give them a lot of respect 'cause they don't have one brewery. They have several that they space their beer out across. But as I'm sitting here reading the label, I see Brewed by Boston Beer Company, Boston Mass, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Brandingsville, Pennsylvania. Where was this one brewed? - Who knows? - I don't like that inconsistency. I wanna know where this beer came from. Same with Six Point. They brew their beer in Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania. Yet it says on their nowhere that it's brewed in Wilkesbury. - Right. - It's disingenuous at best and inauthentic at worst. - Back to this beer. - Totally fair enough. But yeah, this beer is similar color to the other beers. Light, golden, maybe strawish kind of-- - A little bit more haze. - Yeah, this is more hazy. And this is also retaining head a lot better than some of these other beers. - That it is. I don't really care for the nose. I think the nose has a stale, musty, musty quality to it. Could be an off-bottle, I don't know. - I am getting something like copy paper, but there's also a pretty good hop nose there. - I'm getting underarm. - I don't know. Really? I'm getting like orange and juicy fur. - Yeah, and that's what I was gonna say. It's a little orange. - Do we have two different bottles here? - Yeah. - It's a little orangey, a little weedy. - This actually does have some great head retention. This is probably the best we've seen so far. - Yeah. - You're right, there is a musty, musty quality to it as well. It smells like whatever fruit that they've used in this has been sitting out for a couple of weeks. It smells a little dirty. - It does smell a little dirty, not as clean as the other beers we've tried today. - I kind of expect that with grains of paradise too, just a little bit. There's an earthy quality to that lemon that grains of paradise has. - Has anybody tasted this yet? - Yeah. - It's no bueno. There's something musty about this. It tastes like a library that's been spritzed with lemon. - Yeah. - Lemon pledge. - Yeah, or something like that. - Okay. - Yeah, I'm not sure I'm gonna finish this one. - I don't think there's any dramatic off flavors here. It's just, I don't think it's a very well executed beer. - It's muddy. I am getting some of that citrus quality that I'd expect from the lemon peel and from the grains of paradise. A little bit of that earthiness, a touch of hops, but it's also muddled and fuzzy. I don't know, I don't know. - It does taste musty. I mean, I get a lot of pith, more like orange pith than grapefruit that just comes across is more of like an unappealing bitterness to me. - The, that pith is me off. (laughing) Ew. I agree with Grant. I think for me, the best part about this beer is the aftertaste. It doesn't have as much of the mustiness that carries on into the aftertaste. What I get in the aftertaste is mostly that pith that grains of paradise note, but everything leading up to that is a struggle. I'm just not enjoying it. And it's really hard to explain what I'm tasting because it's also undefined. It's just this kind of nondescript, muddy, citrusy, earthy, weird thing that happens. And it finally resolves toward the end. Like that aftertaste is nice. I do taste the lemon peel and I do taste the, - It reminds me of some of those Florida beers we were having. It's kind of like, there's, yeah, there's no refinement to it. And if I had to describe it as something, I'm like, it's mop water. I'm drinking dish water right here. And then all of a sudden, there's this little burst at the end and I'm like, you can't save it. (laughing) Try as you might buddy, sorry. It's not gonna win the day over in my mouth. - I agree with you to the extent that yes, it's unrefined like those beers were, but those beers were completely different. - No, no, yeah. I'll gladly drink this over that. - Those beers were like corny and gross and-- - At least I could smell this one and not go ooh. - Yeah, yeah. - You know about the chorus. - This is the sound of failure. - Yes. - Yeah. Sorry, Jim Coke. - Yes, sorry, Jim. We had to have four dumps of this beer. Oh, bless you. Not very good. Let's just move right on to our final beer of the evening, which is Rollie Bully. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that properly, but I don't know. - That's exactly right. - Yeah, Rollie Bully from New Belgium in Fort Collins, Colorado. This is an ale brewed with sour sop and monk fruit. Two things I've never actually experienced by themselves. This is 5.2% ABV, 30 IBUs. And it's a summer seasonal again, available in bottles and on draft. So the description says a delightful summer ale for easy sipping and a classic Belgian yard game for easy enjoyment. Rollie Bully is how we roll. There was more to that, but that was the only thing that wasn't flavor notes on their description. I'm assuming that this has Belgian yeast in it based on the description. I had this once in passing at a party and I was already too drunk to try to figure it out. So let's see if we can detect some of that Belgian yeast if they have that in there. It smells a little Belgian yeast-y. - I really like the nose. - Oh yeah. - It's very complex. I'd be really curious to try what sour sop and monk fruit are on their own. - Yeah. - Especially having two things a month from what you're with put together, no matter what's what. - Yeah. And this is a very light hay color, but really saturated yellow. Transparent, beautiful head. Really great head on this beard. Actual lacing. - Yeah, this is a-- - That's beautiful. - Gorgeous looking beard. - And it smells good. - Mm-hmm. Like I said, yeah, there's a somewhat Belgian equality to the nose. It smells almost like a light Belgian pale maybe. There's something that's also a musty about this, but in a much more pleasant way. - Agreed. - It's not musty in that old library kind of way. This is something more of a fresh fruit must. It's musty like a basement full of fresh fruit. - There you go. - Yeah. And the fruit that we're talking about is probably like dragon fruit or passion fruit. Something like that, maybe some star fruit. - I get a hint of maybe some monk fruit or this might be sounding crazy, but sour sauce. (laughing) - I hate you so much. (laughing) - Yeah, this is a very, very nice beer. Full disclosure, used to work at New Belgium, lived in Fort Collins. It's an amazing brewery with really wonderful people. And this is another solid hit for New Belgium. - That tastes great. - I could drink so much of this. - Yeah. And again though, come on, New Belgium, you have a canning line, can it? - Wow, absolutely. - This beer makes me wonder which one's gonna be ranked number one. I don't know. - And this is a very clean beer again, but it's not abruptly clean like some of the other beers that we had. This has a lingering finish and it's got a really nice flavor to it, which is, like I said, kind of passion fruity, but way lighter than that makes it sound. - Yeah. - More grassy than that makes it sound too. And fucking refreshing as hell. - Very refreshing, really, really nice beer, good carbonation, great lacing, good mouth feel, then it's just really nice. And that musty con, I think, was really spot on. - It's also kind of one note. You know, there's a little bit of complexity to it, but for all intents and purposes, it's a pretty simple beer. I think I covered all the flavors I'm getting from it just with that first description. - Yeah. - But it goes down so easy and it's more minimalist than it is simple. I think that this is a fantastic beer. I really do. - It's just so damn drinkable. - It really is. Really, what more do you want in a summer beer? - Yeah. - Then drinkability. - And there's a slight acidic hit to the beginning of it that just carries through the whole flavor and changes that minerality that I'm starting to pick up toward the middle of it. - It has the same progression as a Berliner vice. - Kind of, but not as much tartness. - Right, but it's that same arc. Just right in the beginning, you wanna get just a bit of that punch of flavor and then it just nice and gradually carries out through the finish. - Yeah, I think this is a really, really nice summer beer. - Do we have some more of this? - Oh, I'm gonna buy more. I need to buy more. I only bought two of them. Fuck me. - Go back to that cheap son-of-a-bitch comment I said earlier. (both laughing) That being said, I enjoy the free beer and I appreciate that. - I just ginned my heart. You know, that's fine. - Really, of all the beers that we've had, I think that this gets as close to what I want in a perfect summer beer. It's wonderful. And it's got more amplitude of flavor than a lot of the other beers that we had, but it does it in such a way that is soft and easy to take. And you could be in the 115 degree Texas heat and not feel overwhelmed by this. I mean, it's still refreshing for the amount of flavor that it's got. - Hell yeah. - Actually, you know, I think it's kinda sacrilege, but I'd like to actually try this very cold. - I understand that. - You know, I love the flavor dynamics of it and all, but when I think of summer, at least down here in Texas, hot as shit. And I really appreciate a very, very cold beer. - You would lose some of the flavors. - Definitely. - No, but I do think that, like I said, it's a pretty one or two note beer. But I think a lot of what makes those one or two notes could transfer pretty well to that temperature change. - You know, I think this beer has so many notes, but what the art of brewing is, is taking those notes and creating a harmony. And this has a harmony. And all those notes come together to form a sound that's just, I don't know, it's really impressive. Very, very good job. - As it warms up just a little bit, I'm getting a lemon quality to it as well. A lemon peel, it's more a lemon peel than the beer that actually had a lemon peel in it, I think. And that's doing something nice. I mean, it's kind of recalling lemonade, but it's more earthy than that. It's really cool. - So, "Rolly Bully" in their description writes, it's a delightful summer ale for easy sipping, whatever. And then they say, "Rolly Bully is how we roll." And that part makes me go, "Hmm, I wonder how that phrasing "will hold up over time." It's kind of like when people used to say, "Talk to the hand." But now if you read it, you go, it's not really that cool. - The how we roll part. - Yeah, that's how we roll. - It's a little dated. - Yeah. (laughs) Sorry. - Yeah, no, no, just don't show up to a party and say, "No, this is how I roll." - That's how I roll. - Yeah, 'cause you're gonna look as old as you actually are. - Okay, cool cats at New Belgium. - Hold, are you great? - I'm 30. - Oh, you can still say. - But that's how I roll. - You can still say, that's how you roll. I'm almost 40. - I'm pretty sure I'm not allowed to. - I talked to the hand, sure. - Yeah, I'm almost fucking 40. - What the fuck? - It's fucking 40, actual 40 or is it? - No, yeah, it is. - Being 40 is totally tubular. - Okay. - gnarly. - It's bodacious and kelabungadoo. - There, that's rad. - Yeah, I'm a rad, 30. - Coolest. - Coolest lasted. I actually still say rad. - Psych. (laughing) - No, but I actually do say rad in conversation. I say rad. - Not. (laughing) - Rad is totes dope, yo. - That's kind of actually current. - That's my favorite to breathe. - Yeah. (laughing) - Oh, that's fucking wicked smooth. So, let's get to my rankings. - I'm in. - Like with a quickness. - All right, I'm doing it. I don't have a sheet, so I'm going off a memory. - Okay. - My number one beer, for the same reason, I drink celebration in the winter time. I drink summer fest in the summer time. Nice, fucking phenomenal beer. Right up my alley in terms of the flavor profile, super clean, really, really well-rounded beer. My number two real split decision here, I'm gonna go with the roly bowlie, and it was a real close toss-up between that and the summer love for me. The roly bowlie, I think, is really so damn easy to drink, really hits it on all points. I love just that slight tartness. There's just a little slight sharpness right up front, and that totally makes it for me. Again, my number three, the summer love, I think that that's a fantastic beer. It's one that I had never had before and really caught me by surprise. I really love the nose on that one. The nose was really incredible. - No, it's very nice. - I think that the roly bowlie did a little bit more in the flavor department for me, and that's why I'd eat it out as the number two. My number four is the Southern tier hop sun. Pretty solid beer, but my top three, I would pick any day over that one, unless you were talking about gumball head being in the lineup, then I would gravitate towards that. But my last two, I'm gonna go with the Shiner Ruby Redbird as my number five. I felt like this only showed slightly better execution. The flavors were a little out of whack for me, but it was nothing compared to how much I didn't like that summer ale. Yeah, that summer ale. And it's sad, like, whenever I have Sam Adams, I think a lot of people shit on them. It's just not fair. I think a lot of the arguments that people take to it, Boston Lager, I think, is a fantastic beer. This is not one of their good ones. To me, this felt like, I think we had mentioned it earlier, like a radio friendly unit shifter. Yeah, it's meant to kind of get it out there and have a lot of people drink it. And I think most people wouldn't really get the sense that, oh, this is really not all that great, but it's not good for my flavor profile. - I totally get that. And I'm gonna go next because I just wanna get over this because I'm feeling surprisingly drunk right now. - Oh, yeah? - It's really weird. I haven't had anything to drink. - Are you totes drunk? - I'm totes drunk. And I don't remember a lot of the reasons I ranked these the way I did, but I was taking mental notes as to, yeah, I like this or like this. So the ranking is legit, but I don't really remember why I did it like this. I'd love to hear it. All right, number one was Rolly Bully. And I do remember this beer because we just had it and it's fucking awesome. Like I said, couple of notes, but those notes were fucking singing. And it's refreshing and interesting. And it's a beer that I could drink in the summer and it would not make me bored. My second favorite beer was summer love, which was surprising to me. And I'm not sure why because I'm drunk. Number three was summer fest, Sierra Nevada. I really dug that beer. It's such a wonderful Chet Pilsner that I'm surprised I waited so long to try again because that's a badass fucking beer. And I'm gonna go out and buy some more of that just to keep it in the fridge because man, I'm gonna crave that. Like it's a really great beer. Number four is Southern Tier Hopson. I thought it was really good. It drinks like a pale wheat. Yeah, it's not gonna be as good as gumball head. Not gonna be as good as Oberon. I would rather pick up something like a little something, something from Lagunidis. There you go. Instead of that. But a little something's kind of like seven something percent. And this is 5.1. And I enjoyed what I was tasting. Not perfect, but I'm not gonna be disappointed if I have to drink that at a party. Number five, Shiner Ruby Redbird. Yeah, it's a mixed bag. That's a weird fucking beer. I still find it interesting enough to drink it over another shitty beer at a party. I'm not gonna buy it for myself. But I do like it better than Shinerbok. And we both like it better than Summerail. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Which brings me up to my number six, Summerail. Hey, what the fuck happened? I like to defend Sam Adams. Because they do make better beer than a lot of people give them credit for like Sierra Nevada does. I think Sierra Nevada is better personally. But what Sam Adams does is really good, solid beers. And sometimes they knock it out of the fucking park. I think that their Alpine spring seasonal was awesome. This however, just muddy and undefined. And no, not a big fan. To that point, I think they kind of flood the market with a lot of different styles of beer that just aren't hitting on all cylinders. When it comes to Sierra Nevada, I know that they have a huge canon of beers. A lot of which don't make it outside of California. The ones that do that have wide distribution are all totally solid. Well, and two Sam Adams is credit. They've built a brand up that is such that a lot of people who aren't into craft beer will pick up a Sam Adams beer, even if it sounds crazy. So it's a great gateway brand for a lot of people. Can always find it at your local neighborhood airport bar. Yeah, and they also release all these mixed 12 packs and six packs where people who are just interested and curious can pick them up and get something out of it. And they're like, oh, I liked the Bach. And then they'll go out and find another Bach. And then maybe have their mind blown and then maybe become a craft beer fan. But I do like what Sam Adams is doing. And this beer is one of those that I just didn't enjoy at all. Oh, okay. Jake, you wanna go next? Okay, I'm gonna stick with some pretty tight verbiage here. Sweet. Number one, Samuel Adam Summerale. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. (laughing) When I say number one, I meant the worst fucking beer we had today. Sam Adams Summerale did not do it for me. It's your number six. It is my number six, definitely. Number five, Shina Ruby Redbird from our beloved home state of Texas. A bit of a muddled message. Do ginger, do grapefruit. One of the other. I don't think they'd-- Or at least balance them out well. Yeah, it wasn't my beer. Fourth up, Summer Love from Victory. I didn't dislike it. I shouldn't really like it. So I'm kind of on the fence about that one. Number three, Southern Tier Hopson. I thought that was a really very nice beer. My two and three are very much neck and neck. Number one is above and beyond. Number two, Summerfest from Sierra Nevada. Wonderful beer. Love how crisp it is. I really, really, really like this beer. It's a great one. But number one for me, Rollie Bully. I just really like the dynamicism of the flavors. I thought that was really a well put together beer and an awesome company with great people. Aww. Love you, Peter. Yeah, no bias here. Great. It's a fucking good bias. Yeah, it's about that. It's a great beer. And to their credit, new bells are makes a lot of great stuff. Yeah, and they're also one of the most environmentally conscious companies out there. Alternatively powered, it's an amazing place. It's a bunch of hippies. I get it. Yeah. All right. Did you get that job for the one Craigslist? It was one of the blow and go category. Great. All right, overall, I think that maybe I'm not that into the summertime beers. OK. But let's go ahead and get into the rankings. Number three. Wait, what? Two. Rollie Bully. OK. Because it was OK. It was probably the best of the beers. We had tonight. So it's number three. Yeah. And I don't know. I must say we number one and two are blank for him. It's just things weren't necessarily jelling there. But I thought it's OK. I would drink this overall, I guess, of my choices. OK. Number four goes to Ruby Redbird. Oh, wait. Our number one and two water. Number one and two are water. Number one and two are the beers we would have had this not been accessible as well. OK. OK. OK. Number four goes to the China Ruby Redbird. Maybe I'm a little bit more alone in this camp. But I do kind of like those flavors. I'll drink this at a party when it's there gladly. I love having the ginger. I think usually when I have this at parties, the ginger is always refreshing to have with whatever I'm eating at a party. And I know people who both swear by it and other people who fucking hate this beer. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, it's definitely-- It could be one of those side of the cilantro things, where some people love it and other people like that. It's like soap to me. You know, that by the way is one of the marks of success. People love you or hate you. Yeah. Elite people are talking about you. Yeah. Yeah. Number four. Wait, you-- Number five goes to summer love, summer fest, and southern tier hop sign. Because these beers are in the same. I mean, they're different. No way you think that summer fest is the same thing as summer love. I just put them all in the same category as eh. There are beers that I don't really necessarily want to have at any point in time. OK. Fair enough. I would say I could break down different flavors and be like, OK, if I had to rank them, I'd rank them differently. But I'm not going to, because I don't even remember at this point. They're not that memorable of beers. And that's a problem. You're a dick. I'm a dick. Number six goes to-- number seven, I'm just going to drop them one rank as well. Because if I was saying that in summer ale, they fed us dishwater. That was terrible. Mop water. The number one water-- is that like a Brita water or like Austin tap water? Oh, man. Boss. It's a boss. Boss. Yeah, it's the classiest of water. I think Jay-Z owns it. Oddly, it's HGB water. HGB water is just a little-- Yeah, but it's in a glass bottle. So everyone wants a piece of fancy. Yeah, thanks, guys. This is beautiful. I appreciate you guys invited me to come out and try this stuff. Dude, yeah, I want to bring you back for the IPA one. That's my jam. I want to do an IPA show soon. Because our first episode was an IPA show. And it was excellent. No. I actually took the first two episodes down. No one can even listen to them? Not anymore, because-- Was that third episode that good? Well, I did that a month ago. Yeah. And the thing is, is I think a lot of people who start listening to a podcast they heard of will start listening at the first episode. And episode three is good enough that you feel that's OK. I actually do. So I took those two down, and then that month, last month, we had a 10,000 download spike, which means it was so off-putting. Yeah, people were put off by the first two episodes that they're like, ah, I don't want to sit through this. So I have digital files that are collector's items. Nobody wants to collect that. They're really shitty episodes. I'm going to torrent that shit. Oh, you have that rare Josh Cole episode? That's awesome. The Josh Cole episode. Oh, fuck. That guy's never going to be back on. That's number one edition. No, he might be at some point. It doesn't matter. He doesn't listen. Oh, please. Let's have him again. Josh, we miss you. Well, yeah, like I said, thanks, guys, for being here. Grant, you've been awesome and really amazing to look at. Matt, get up. Thanks. You're welcome. You have noticeably less shit on your lap, which is quite nice. I know. I dodged a bullet by coming here, and I appreciate it. You have to me as always. Baby shit bullet. Mike, thank you so much again. Always dodging the baby shit bullet. Yeah, because you're always here. And there's nary a baby. And he's impotent. That helps. That's, I gotta say, at least plus one in the one call. Yeah, if Mike had popped boners, everybody would shit. Jake. What does that mean? I said he was impotent. I think I think it's a spirit talking. Jake, Jake Maddox, thank you again for being here. Yeah, and we don't apologize for the language. But we do, again, thank you for bringing stuff from Salt and Time. Oh, yeah, man. Dude, there's so much fucking great, man. Salt and Time, I love that place. I finally went over and I had a muffleda a couple of weeks ago. And it was the best I've ever had. Next time you're in East Austin, come on by, get some meat. What's the, the cross street? 1912 East 7th Street, 7th and Chacon. Chacon, right. Yeah. And I also had some of that fucking awesome cold brew coffee on Nitro while I was there. Yeah, Kube coffee, man. Cold brew coffee on draft, nitrogenated. They just released a bourbon barrel-aged version of it, too. Are you shitting me? Oh, my God. They're in a barrel-aged coffee. How about that? OK, I'm in. Is that on tap already? Yeah, I got it on tap. I'm going tomorrow for lunch. Or close tomorrow, so don't come by. Fuck. But come by Tuesday, I'll be there. OK, I'll be there. Actually, no, I'm off Tuesday, but yeah. I'll be there regardless, because you don't give me no discounts. Thank you, guys. Wait, wait, wait, wait. And real quick, quick little note. Shout out to the late great Walt Powell, who passed away this past week. Yeah, I was trying not to talk about this too much, because I don't know if I could hold it together. He's a friend, and we miss him very dearly. He was a fixture. A very good friend of ours died. Walt Powell was, like Mike said, a fixture in the beer community. Fucking prolific. On beer advocate, on rate beer, especially. Yeah. Everyone loved him. He introduced me to sour beers. He was instrumental in Mike becoming the beer nerd he is today. Yeah, definitely. And Walt was also-- he was the VP of operations over at Flix Brewhouse and Homefield Grill, right? That's what it's called. And that's in Round Rock, Texas. And Walt was the most generous, rabid beer geek that I knew. I learned it from watching him. Yeah. One of the best sellers of anybody in the business, he-- Oh, man. They've done articles on his seller. And he and I were such good, tight friends. And I saw him just a couple of days before he died. And it was sudden and unexpected. And he was 33 years old. And I love and will miss him dearly. Absolutely. And apparently, still have natural causes, right? Yeah, nobody knows how he died. So it's not like it was some crazy side thing. Well, we all hope it was sudden and merciful. And he's missed and painless. Absolutely missed. Love you, Walt. Yeah, man. Fucking a-- We'll drink a beer for you. Yeah. I know how you hate IPAs. We're going to drink an IPA, because it helps drown us out. I've had several revolves in his honor. Yeah, his favorite beer was our vault. And we actually opened one up right before the show. And yeah, Mike, as soon as I told him that Walt passed away, or that we found out that Walt passed away, he made this joke that I really hoped that nobody brews a brown ale. And he's on his honor. No. No. [LAUGHTER] If the tribute beer that they brew for him is a brown ale, I'm going to be very fucking upset. I was crying like crazy. And that actually made me laugh and go, fuck you, buddy. Just let me grieve, man. He was a ball buster supreme, beer nerd, aficionado, amateur chef, wonderful guy. And we all miss you, yes. Never to be replaced, ever. Yeah, and I think we might actually have a tribute show for him. And I know, like I said, we really don't like tribute beers, because they bum people out. But at least the tribute show will only bum people out for a day. Right. And the tribute show to him will be nothing but filthy. And yeah, he's going to fill him out. And nothing but fucking amazing beers, yes. Amazing beers and hilarity. Yeah, we'll miss you all. Cheers. We love you, buddy. And we also love you guys listening to the show. Like seriously, I can't tell you enough how awesome and supportive our listeners have been. You know, we keep getting donations to help us get to the great American beer festival. What are they giving money to us for? Because I'm good for what we do. They like what we do. Thank you, guys. That's really fucking cool. We have such great, great listeners. We do. Suck at Splendid Table. Yeah, Splendid Table, fuck you, right in the-- Suck your splendid ass. Suck our dicks. Can we say that? Yeah. Suck our dicks, Splendid Table. What are they going to do? We should make an ad that says-- Suck our dicks, Splendid Table. I do Lin Rosado Casper. Again, just for the people who don't know, back in December, we won a podcast award. And we were in the same category as Splendid Table. And we beat them. And rather, they'd be gracious about it. No, no, no. They can fucking die in the dick fire. Dick fire. Good night. How are we ending? Dick fire, drop the mic. Dick fire. She ended up having a song. No, we have to go and get back and practice this right away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're listening to this show. They're like, oh, OK. No, they don't even know we exist. There's one guy that loses two of her podcast from that show. Yeah, so that he's going to go to sleep. And the last thing he's going to hear in his headphones is Dick fire. She says, OK, I'm all right. Don't you have gone for life? You said that it won. Now everything should be all right. More information on the Bearest's podcast, including show notes and pictures, visit thebearest.com. Email us your feedback, comments, questions, and suggestions at info@thebearests.com. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thebearests and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/thebearests. I'm John Rubio. Thanks again for listening. 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