Episode 51 of the Beerist's podcast recorded on March 17th, 2013. Bells, courtesy of Matthew Pfeiffer. You know what is really, really fucking awesome? What's that? Matthew Pfeiffer. Yes. Wait, hold on. Can we not call him a what? I mean, he's a person. Oh, a person is a noun and that's technically a thing. Well, it's very non-personal. Right, Matthew Pfeiffer is a person and he sent us another load of beer to do another show. Anthrax Beer. No, not an Anthrax Beer show. This is Bell's brewery show. Before we get into that, I just want to say thanks to Matthew. That's really, really fucking awesome of you to do that twice now. Twice. Thanks, Matthew. Yeah. And let's just introduce everybody here. I'm John Rubio and with me today, Anastasia, Wild Wild West Kelly. Why are you Wild West? I don't know. OK. It's feeling Western. We also have with us Mike Lambert, Mike, indeed. And in the fourth chair, we turning since our, I guess, seventh or eighth episode, I guess, it says on show. Yeah, John Harvey, John, how are you? I am great. It's going to be back. Thank you. Yeah, good to have you back, man. Hello, everybody out there. Yeah, everybody is really excited to hear you. Not really, but probably not. We haven't got any words. Yay or nay about your last fucking. That's good. At least it's a start. At least nobody's taken notice of me. Neutrality is good. Yeah, you don't breathe heavy. So that's kind of cool. Yes. Let's not go down that road. No, but yeah, we're doing a Bell's Brewery show. We got six different beers, two of each from good old Matthew Pfeiffer. And we'll get into that after just a few emails and some I can shout outs. But let's start with the emails first. Our first email says, hello, beerists. This is more of a thank you email. I've been listening since the beginning and started moving from Budweiser to craft beer after listening to you guys. My dad would see me drinking these different beers and would ask to try some. Him and I don't really have much in common, but trying out new beers have brought us a little closer. Oh, now we go to this bar and Santa Cruz, where they have a challenge to drink 99 different beers. All at once. And probably not only once, it's over time. I just want to thank you guys for helping me find something to do with my dad, Isaac. That was really touchy and sweet. I know, we're going to drown all these good feelings out with alcohol. I'm not happy to rip all that. We can't do it. I'm really glad that this has helped you guys get closer. That's fucking awesome. If there's one thing that I really like about beer, aside from beer, it's that it really does a good job of bringing people together. I mean, art, tasting groups. It really does. Everybody's completely different backgrounds, different political leanings. Some people are asshole Republicans. Are you talking about anyone in particular? It's just one guy. No, he's awesome. And no offense to you, non-asshole Republicans. We still like you anyway. Hey, I drink beer. I like everybody. Fuck yeah, dude. Beer is awesome. Our next email says, "Dear Beerists, update on the first batch of homebrew. It sucks." Oh, this is from the fake Canadian underage kid. Oh, no. Did he try to put Crown Royal in his beer? Probably. He says, "Update on my first batch of homebrew. It sucks." I go to make a brown ale? Well, that's your first problem. He says, "I don't think wrong with brown ale." I ended up making a shit-colored, weak IPA version of "Paps Blue Ribbon." I don't know how he messed up. I don't know. I don't even know how I manage that. I feel like drinking a bullet. He says, "In other news, my drinking wear collection has become significantly more badass. Crack and black spike rum is, in my opinion, better than Captain Vorgen." I like how he always talks to us about liquor. I know. It's like a wrong show. He says, "The name helps. Fireball whiskey, a cinnamon whiskey is bitchin." Oh, wow. I know. He's really scraping the bottle of the beer. He says, "Buy a bottle. Enjoy the liquid cinnamon firewater. Coming soon, a drunk email from Fick Canada. Love that one Fick Canadian maniac who listens to your awesome podcast. Well, thank you. Does he know what beer is? I have had that fireball whiskey. It's of the devil. It's bad news beer. The third email is actually from Matthew Pfeiffer who sent us all these beers. He says, "Bierists, I have a question that maybe, if you could address on the show, I would appreciate. A lot of times when I'm buying different beers, I'm trying to stalk my fridge in a way that I have something I like from a variety of different styles. For instance, right now I have a hefe, a wit, a porter, imperial stout, and a barley wine in my fridge. If you and the rest of the beers crew were to stalk your fridge in this manner, what four to five styles would you select as a favorite and what beer from each style would you like to buy?" I like to have different beers at a company, one another well, so if I do drink more than one in one evening, they all play well off one another. I just have not always found the right mix of styles, so I'd like your opinion. Matthew Pfeiffer. That's tough. At least lately for me, for the beers that I've been stalking in the fridge, mostly hoppy stuff, stuff that's really, really fresh. That's typically what it is for me. I don't really want to buy something that's been sitting around for very long. I drink too much beer for that. And I'll do the same thing, keep the pale ails, IPA, something like that in the fridge, because I always got stuff on the cellar, bottled beer that I can throw in the fridge whenever I want it. Yeah, I tend to keep some pale around or some IPAs around, but I also like to have something Cezanne in there, something wild in there, and maybe a port or something nice and dark and multi. It really depends on where I am from week to week. Sometimes I'll have all IPAs in my fridge and be like, "Oh God, I got to drink these all so fast." And it depends on the season too, and I find that at least as of late, I've had a lot of Chester King and my fridge just because there's been an abundance of sours as of late. Normally it's some Austin Beer Works peacemaker and the Pearl Snap and the Fire Eagle. Yeah, that's one thing is the mainstays in my fridge aside from all the beer that I have from trades and stuff are usually local beers, because those are the freshest generally. Ginger ale. Ginger ale for you? Yeah, for the whiskey. Okay. For the fireball? For the fireball? No, God no. I'm a southern proper. That doesn't make sense. I'm a proper southern. I'm not a proper southerner. I drink Kentucky mules. Nice. But I mean, I've seen your fridge and you usually have a good variety of that stuff. But I don't drink any of that stuff. I mean, you do it work though. I drink so much at work. No, I don't. I re-check that statement. I drink a variety of stuff at work. Yes. Yeah. I am saving myself for einhorn though. Oh, that beer is so good. I'm saving all of my money and I'm going to buy it. Yeah. Austin Beer Works local craft brewery and they don't distribute outside of Austin makes this really great Berliner vice that we've talked about a few times, which is called einhorn. Good. Don't let anybody else get it. Yeah. It's so amazing. I mean, if to be fair though, if we had more Berliner vices readily available here, that's what would be in my fridge. Nice. Yeah. I hope that helped Matthew. I mean, I know it's not exactly what you wanted, but I don't have the fortitude to do that right now. Let's just get rid of some, yeah, a little bit. Let's get through some iTunes shout out. It's thirsty. I know. I know. We'll get through this. Jason Almighty says that he owes us a lot for introducing him to new love for a craft beer. You like money? Yeah. And you can send beer anytime you want. Thanks. The debt is still unpaid. Jason, thank you. Doug Hickey says we're interesting and informative, incorrigible, incorrigible, incorrigible. Yeah. It's detailed and imaginative descriptions and pronunciations. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Right after blowing, incorrigible, he has yet to miss an episode. That's really cool, Doug. Thank you. The Goldsmith says he laughed till he cried when he heard our malt liquor episode and thanked us for keeping them thirsty. You're welcome. Yes. Now go drink. That's a fucking funny episode to listen to. I put it on every so often and it makes me laugh every time. Next Bright Star has been in a craft beer for about a year and a half and thinks our show is unique and an enjoyable listen. Jan Parr wonders where we were during his formative beer years. We're still here. I mean, you're still in your formative beer years. You'll be fine. So are we. All the years are beer years. Exactly. Because of us, he's immersed himself into the craft beer scene and has found new beer to adore. Deep Hope 02 throws a shout out to Grant for coming so far since the early episodes. Right on. Yeah. Sorry. Let's never mind. No, that's fine. But thank you guys for your iTunes shout outs. I didn't even want to give us some iTunes shout outs. Get on iTunes Store, do a search for the beerists, leave a little five star rating, and write a review. If you write a review, I can see your name and give you a thanks on the show and we really appreciate that it gets us higher up in the rankings on iTunes and gets us more visibility. Also dick pics. No. No dick pics. Damn it. Mike wants dick pics. So? That's a good point. Let's get to our beer. Hey, beer. Yeah. All these beers are from Bells Brewery and from Matthew Pfeiffer. Thank you so much. Our first beer for the evening is Smitten Golden Rye. It's a rye ale, 6% ABV, and it's a rotating release available in bottles and on draft. And I'm just going to read the little right up here. Drawn from one of our oldest recipes, Smitten Ale began as part of a series of rye beers at our eccentric cafe. The combination of sharp citrus and resinous flavors from the hops with the earthy rustic overtones of the rye malt contribution yield an interesting take on the American paleo. It's a hazy sort of yellow golden color. Yeah, it sure is. It's really pretty. Yeah, really nice golden. I was really influenced by the label though, the label with the, what is it, like the daffodil or something? It's a dandelion. It's a dandelion. No, it's a dandelion. It's a dandelion. It's a dandelion. It's a dandelion. It's a dandelion. That's missing all of the pedals except for one. So, he must love me. And it's like this really pretty blue and the yellow of the daisy. We'll talk about the, the love thing later. The label just kind of reflects what's in the bottle. Yeah. It's like a really pretty light headed. It's got really nice lacing and really good head on it. It sure does. I mean, I poured this what like 10 minutes ago and the head stuck around. Yeah, head stuck around. It smells like flowers and sunshine. I get sort of like dandelion greens. Yeah, something like that, right? Really earthy. It does have some earth in it. There's also like a citrusy quality to it as well. This makes me wish that this nice weather we've been having in Austin would stick around. Oh, yeah. Maybe a hint of peach or something. Yeah. Like the essence of it. Yeah. That smells fucking good. Yeah, it smells incredible. Thought I'd smell a little more rye, but I think maybe that's where some of the earthiness is coming from. That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. You get it in the flavor. Oh, yeah. Oh, I like that. Yeah, that's really drinkable. That's really clean. Yeah. Harvey's right. That rye does come out in the mouth. Mm. It kind of picks up in the middle. Carries through the finish. But yeah, I get that spicy rye. It just kind of sits on the surface of your tongue. It kind of spices up or just a regular paleo, something that would be just normal otherwise. The hops are really nice. They're kind of orange juicy, a little bit citrus, a little bit grassy. And that malt profile is exactly where it needs to be to get this kind of drinkability. It's so nice. It's bright, but it's a little heavy on the tongue. Like the brightness doesn't disappear right away. Sure. It kind of sticks around a little bit. Yeah. It kind of resonates. Yeah. Kind of going off of what Harvey was just saying. You'd get that bitterness. It's kind of like a, I guess, leafy green sort of bitterness that's there that you could tie to the resinous nature of it. A little bit grassy. Microgreens. I do like that somewhat vegetal quality of this, like this vegetal kind of grassy thing. And it's more that than fruity, I think, to me. But I still do get some of that orange zesty quality of it. A little bit of lemon grass. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Actually leaving my mouth kind of dry though at the end. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It makes me want to go back in for a lot more. Yeah. Just keep drinking it. Yeah, I know. This is one of those beers that you just, five hours later, you're still drinking and you're like, I'm still thirsty somehow, but man, everything's moving. I left a bit of drugs. I don't know if anybody actually wants any. I noticed as I was getting in through the pores, it was transparent at first, but there's a lot of sediment at the bottom. Yeah. Lots of yeast sediment at the bottom. I noticed that when I pulled that out of the fridge, it was just this half inch of sediment at the bottom. That's really interesting. Usually on a pale ale, the yeast sits right down on the bottom. Mm-hmm. That's really good. I mean, this is like milky thick. Oh, yeah. Damn. Yeah. It's crazy. Unbrave. Let's do it. Okay. Go for it out. While you're doing that, I'm going to just... Holy cow. Talk a little bit about bells. Bells out of Kalamazoo, Michigan. They started in 1985 and they were founded by a guy named Larry Bell and their capacity is over 500,000 barrels and they make a lot of really good beers that I enjoy quite a lot, a few of which we're going to have on the show today. So how's that those drags? There's definitely more of a pop initially in the front end of it. Whether or not it really adds anything, it's kind of here. I don't really notice it like I do other drags and there's a little bit more of a presence that it lends to it. This is more just a little bit more bitterness. Yeah. You're right. It is a little bit more bitter. Almost grapefruit pith. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't think it would really harm the beer or change it too much if it was poured in with it. No. Pretty good. I wish we could get this here. No shit. I've heard some rumors that bells might be coming to Texas soon, but they're still just rumors. I don't know anybody with any knowledge on that. It's just kind of the rumblings I'm hearing. How do I make that happen? I have no idea. That's a good question. Yeah. Probably bells would be my guess. Yeah. Larry. Hey Lars, why don't you bring your beers over here? Bells really does make some of the best beers in the country. I find that their lineup is just really, really stellar. Yeah, apparently, according to my notes here, they brew over 20 beers for distribution as well as a bunch of other small batch stuff that they're serving at their pub in Kalamazoo. I mean, I know they're known for all their crazy stouts, like all the really good stouts they make. Oh, yeah. They make a lot of great stouts. They also make, if I remember correctly, a tasty other Berliner vice or a Whitpear called Portsmouth? That's a Berliner vice. Yeah. I remember that big, real tasty. It really was. So, what are you opening right now, Mike? Bells Porter. Well, the first beer that we just got through with Spitt and Golden Rye, and this next beer is Bells Porter, 5.6% ABV, it's a year-round offering available in bottles and on draft. And the write-up says, "One of our many award-winning beers, Porter emphasizes the darker roasted aspects of malt. Hints of dark chocolate." I'm not going to read the flavor notes, whatever. It's dark brown, sort of mahogany hues, but it's transparent when you hold it up to the light. You can see through the beer to the head. Yeah. It looks kind of like a root beer with a denser head, and the head is really nice and dense and just a little bit off white tan. Kind of like a root beer float. Yeah. Sort of. Just like the last beer, really good head retention. The nose is nice. Oh, good. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's just caramel and malt-y. Yeah. Just a touch of light roast coffee. Yeah. A little bit of cocoa powder. Yeah. Definitely a caramel. Almost smells like a turtle. Oh, that's a turtle. Like a candy? Like a candy? Oh, look. I was thinking the animal. Like a con-like with caramel and chocolate. Yeah. Some kind of nuts and kind of caramel and chocolate. Just a little bit, though. No, I don't think it's that chocolate or that caramel-y, but you definitely get that note of nuts like you would out of like a nut brown ale of some type. Yeah. And there's like a Nutella thing going on there also. Oh, totally. But that's really light to me. Wow, this smells so good. Yeah. Really rich on the chocolate malt. It's nice. It's kind of almost just a brown ale with a bit more chocolate and a bit more rostiness. It's still kind of thin. Oh, but that's good. I just took a sip, too, and it is a little bit thin on the mouth, but man, that roast is awesome. It just carries the whole way. I don't even care that it's relatively light-bodied. Well, I mean, Porter, it's kind of supposed to be. It's not like a stout. Right. I mean, it's good for a Porter style. It's a little bit more aqueous than I think some of the Porter's that we had on the Porter's episode, but that said, I mean, it's still delicious. I'm still loving where this is at. How ability? Yeah. No shit. Yeah. Yeah. And this would be good drinking in Texas, really, I mean, because it doesn't weigh you down. It's still pretty light for all these roasted malts that you're getting. I was trying to think of what this Bell's Porter reminded me of, and it kind of reminds me of the 5-1-2 pecan porter. Kind of. Kind of, yeah, just like in the roasty kind of nuttiness. Think about this. Think about mixing that 5-1-2 pecan porter with Southern Starberry hatchet stout. Oh, okay. Something like that. And, you know, those are two Texas beers, I think Southern Star gets out of Texas a little bit in other states, but 5-1-2 is just Texas, so we're kind of inside baseballing it right now. Yeah. The pecan porter is definitely fuller and bodied. I'd say that that's a full-bodied porter. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. But yeah, that Southern Star isn't full-bodied. It's more aqueous. So I think those things combined would make something like this. Oh, yeah, I agree. This is nice man. The roast on the palate is really great. I love that chocolaty coffee. Coffee, yeah. Oh, it's like a bone-dry espresso with chocolate biscotti. Yeah. That's exactly what it's tasting like to me. Fucking nailed it right there. Fucking eloquent. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. This is all the flavors that I really like, and it's just so damn easy to drink. Yeah. I'm getting a little something grassy there, too. Maybe the hops were in for the little bit of hops. I was going to say maybe like an Avery New World porter, but I know that's on the hoppy side of the order. Yes. So it's not quite there. It's not hoppy, but there is some little bit of hops here. Yeah, I can see why this is reminding you of that. It's the same sort of grassiness in those two beers. It's a little bit of a mustiness, like a deep, earthy hop. Yeah. That's what I'm getting here. And it's sharp. This beer, I mean, I keep drinking it, and this sharpness is kind of growing in a good way. Like it's a very pleasurable beer to drink. Well, it's nice because the bitterness is kind of straddling the line between just hot bitterness and hot flavor. You do definitely get a bit of that hot flavoring out of just the tail end of this. So it's that bitterness that ties into the chocolate notes that I'm getting. Yeah. And it stays on your tongue. I'm not sure if that's the golden rye we were drinking or this one, but probably a little of both. I think that this one's layering on my tongue just a little bit more because I'm getting more of that coffee roast, a criddity quality on my tongue, a little bit more of that than I am getting like a hop burn or a hop version or whatever. Yeah. There's not that much hops, but there's something there. This is nice. This is, I really want to know how this would have done on our porter show. I was just thinking that, where would we have put this? Pretty damn high up, I think. Probably, man. This is fantastic. Yeah. I could drink a lot of this stuff. Yeah. And at 5.6%, I really could. Good. Ooh. I would probably use this to make a barbecue sauce. Oh, fuck yeah. Oh, shit. Do that. Yeah. Right now. Yeah. Let me just go pee all of it out. We're saying that our barbecue sauce comes from... Duh. Let me tell you how babies are made, Harv. No, we're giving the Anastasia shit and she fucking made corn beef, just crock-potted shit all day. Oh, yeah. It's St. Patrick's Day. Have you St. Patrick's Day, everybody? Yeah. Have you St. Patrick's Day? Yeah. We're not dying any of these beers green. I have had green beer before. Yes. So have I. I mean, not dyed green beer. I mean... The, uh, free-tailed spirulino. Yeah. It's green. Oh, that's right. Oh, that's a good beer. Yeah. It is. It's surprisingly good. Magic Ghost from Fantome is also a touch of green. It's right. That was crazy when we saw that. Why is this green? It's like this electric green. It's weird. Almost neon green yellow. Like it was really fucking weird. Neat. I'm so happy for this next beer. Oh, yeah. I really am. Yeah. This is one of my all-time favorites. Hands down. What are we talking about? Well, the beer that we're talking about, Anastasia, is two-hearted ale. Aw, thanks. No problem. It's an American IPA, 7% ABV, 55 IBUs. This was the only beer that I could find an IPU measurement for. And it's a year-round offering available in bottles and on draft. And I'm going to read the write-up for this. Bell's two-hearted ale is defined by its intense hop aroma and malt balance, hopped exclusively with the centennial hop varietal from the Pacific Northwest, massive additions in the cattle and again in the fermenter, lend their characteristic together, whatever. Bell's house east. Oh, yeah. Bell's house east. I assume that all these have Bell's house east, which I haven't had enough bells side by side over and over again to figure out what the character of that yeast is. Like Jolly Pumpkin. I mean, I know what that yeast tastes like because we have so much of it. Well, and that is a standout yeast. That's not like a pale ale yeast there. Not at all. Oh, it smells so good. What? Wait, let's talk about what it looks like. First of all, it's like this dead, clear, beautiful golden color, just a little bit more than copper. It's like copper. Yeah. It's somewhere between golden and copper. It's really close to the first beer we tried, the smitten. Some bronze. Like a little bronze. Just a little darker. Yeah. I think you're right. Bronze bronze. It smells like centennial hops. I mean, just so much of it. It's so good. It smells so good. I'm really surprised that it's only 55 IBUs. That's shocking to me. It's all in the flavor. Yeah. It's all flavor, late edition hops. It is grapefruity and piney, but in a different way than cascading. That's what makes it so drinkable. I mean, you get those hot notes, but then there's like honeysuckle. There's like something that's just very floral and wet grass. Yeah. Citrus. Citrus. Yeah. Little baby's breath. Maybe a little mango too. It just smells like something that was pulled straight from the earth just now. Yeah. Like you just grabbed a bunch of grass and wildflowers. They're like stuck off. Yeah. Just set them up to your nose. That's so good to me. I mean, hops are from the earth. They are. And this is a very slight spice to the nose of this. It's really, really slight, but there's something somewhat white peppery just at the end. You know, it's really funny because this is one of those beers I would hold in the same classification as Pliny, where some people just don't get it and they're like, "Wow, I don't get it." It's okay, but so what? And where this beer really gets you is in the subtleties. Yeah. I haven't had this beer in a while and just taking a sip of it. It's so good. It's so good. I know. The hops are so bright, but they're not really all that bitter. I kind of want to just not drink it and just sit here and smell it for the rest of the show. Or actually, maybe I'll just drink it. Yeah. Drinking is a good idea. Whenever I go to visit my parents, this is on draft everywhere. I'm always picking this up. I'll normally have like three or four if I can get it. Yeah. Tastes like hop candy. It really does. Citrus, a little bit of sweetness, bright hops. When the malt is just barely sweet, you know, it's not completely dry, but it's not a sweet beer at all. It's just got enough sweetness to kind of bolster those hops up. And the sweetness is interesting. It's sort of a middle ground between turbidano sugar and like caramel, kind of milky carrot and light. Yeah. Yeah. But very, very light. I mean, it's not cooling in any sort of way, but just the essence of those things. It's very similar. The hops, like we were saying, lots of grassiness there. It's a little bit of grapefruit pith and some pine, this floral quality that's really nice. I definitely get a little bit of earthiness. It's a little mineral to me. Yeah, it is. Like mineral and earth, but together, maybe what's that stone that's in the water? Oh, whatever stone you throw in the water. Fair enough. I really don't know. I don't know. Maybe limestone. It's like a stone that's been wet. No, I can kind of see limestone or sandstone or something like that. It's just so damn pretty too. I know. And just like the last few beers, super clean, super clean. And just to let you guys know, Bell's beers have a shelf life of six months. Most of them. Most of them. And this was bottled in December, December 27th. So close to January, you know, so it's got a couple of months on, a few months on it, but it's still drinking very bright and beautiful and it tastes pretty fresh. It's just all around. I think it hits on every single level. It's good at everything. It fucking hits. It's a fucking Asian kid in high school. Sorry, racist. You did really good in high school, didn't you? For a little bit, I did. And then you discovered, I don't know, video games or math? I don't know what did you people do. You people? The Filipinos. I mean, I don't know what they're good at. We're really good polysism. Yes. I had six kids. Fish ain't fishing. Co-opting Mexican glass mames. Hey, my last name is very white. Yes. And that's so good. I forgot. I think it's been almost a year since we've last had the two, well, since I've last had the two hearted. Same for me. I haven't had this in about a year. I thought it was one that you always. I thought the two hearted was one that you always like to have. When I went to Florida, it was everywhere. Anastasia mentioned that she thought it was to me like zombie does something I wanted to keep in my fridge all the time. I usually do like to keep it in the fridge. Now, for some reason, like this whole last year, I would probably call that reason this show. I've had a bunch of other stuff in my fridge. Fair enough. Taking up space. So there's a staple IPA for each region and this is my favorite for the Midwest. And Matthew, thanks again and you were asking earlier about what to keep in the fridge. This one. This. Yeah. Right. I don't think you make any mistakes keeping this and that porter in the fridge. Ooh, an Oberon, which we're not having on the show, which is fucking amazing. Oberon's almost out again. So I might have to start trading. I liked on the website. Today, there's like a countdown timer to win it releases. Yeah, it's like seven days now. Yeah, it's in the few days. From now. I remember a few years back, somebody brought a five liter mini keg of Oberon and somebody else had a five liter mini keg of this, of this two hearted and it was like, I don't know what to do with myself. That's insane. It was awesome. What was that for? The only had brought some back from like Michigan or something. I know how we can get some. I know someone who's up there. Are you talking about Sean? Yeah. Oh, Sean is up there. Our friend and patron saint of beer. Oh, he's back today. Is he back today? Yeah, he's back to that motherfucker. He brought 16 cases back. He said. That's why he didn't call me 16 because he was like, I'm going to go to a store. I'll call you what I get there to see what you want. He did 16 cases. He didn't care. No, no, no. I'm that motherfucker. I'm bad. That guy is crazy. Sean goes out of town like every other week and comes back with giant loads of beer. Well, that's how we had that Russian River show that was made possible by Sean. Yeah. That was really fucking cool. Sorry, Mike. Very generous too. Well, he made up for it, man. I went over to his house and he cracked up in just about all the Russian river beers that you guys had on the show. And then I got to sample like one of his hundred some odd bottles of tequila. Oh yeah. He's super generous. He really I brought back some tequila for him actually. So good. Should we take a break? We sure. Yeah. tequila now. We're not going to do tequila. It's like Cinco de Mayo. We're not. No tequila break. I know it's like Cinco de Mayo for white people. So whiskey then? No. So whiskey. Yeah. Saint Patrick's day. Okay. Good point. Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay. So we're not going to take a break quite yet because we're still drinking this too hard and then and I can't stop the verbal back off session talking about it. I mean, that pithy grapefruit hot note is so fucking good. It's the drinkability for me. Yeah, I was just saying. I don't like copy aggressive in your face. IPA is like, this is fuck, man. Yeah. How do we get Larry? Larry, bring us some bells. This seduces you in the best way. It's just slow stroking, you know, you know, I was like, Oh, let's take a break. And then we just didn't move from the table talking about the beer drinking. Man, it is so good. Like this beer is so fucking good. It's really one of the top IPAs. It should be mentioned in that same breath as some of the operational on IPAs. This is one of those IPAs I think that really kind of helps with the movement. Yeah, sure. This has been around for a long time. Subtlety, again, is the name of the game with this one. It's just a great IPA to get somebody into hops because it is so good. And the level of hops are just great. Yeah. And there's not a lot of bitterness. There's some bitterness there, but it doesn't blow you over with bitterness. It's not off-putting in any kind of way. No, not at all. The hop notes that are there are just so pleasant. I mean, it's an every time beer. I would drink this every time I was given the chance. Summertime, it would be great. Wintertime, it's got enough flavor to hold up. It's just great. Yeah, we're going to have to work out a trade with this Matthew Pfeiffer kid. No, we just need to like kidnap somebody that works at bells and then don't let them go. Yeah, hold for ransom. Yeah, good solution. I love to throw. Except you just gave away our plan. But maybe they won't expect it because they wouldn't think that we would do the plan that we said we were going to do. And Stacia's got cousins. Because I'm Mexican, I'd really like to put the two-hearted up against some of the other more recent highly ranked IPAs. That would be a good show. It's going to be just plenty of this. Heady topper. Oh, man. That would be awesome. Just to kind of see like how such a staple that's been around for such a long time holds up to all the fucking flashing you. All the new hip kids. Yeah. That would be fucking awesome. Okay. I think we're ready for a break. Are you ready for a break this time? You know, we're actually still going to just sit here and. I know. Fuck. Goddamn it. All right. Now I'm ready. Okay, good. You guys ready? No. You said no, but when you say no that implies that you don't want to drink any more bells. Right. So change your answer. Yes. Perfect. Good answer. I'm always ready to drink beer. Yeah. And goddamn it. Anastasia, you made some awesome food downstairs. Oh my God. St. Patty's Day. So good. Corn beef and cabbage. Yes. And potatoes and carrots. Oh God. It was so good. That was delicious. All it was missing was like, you know what's missing from the meal that should be happening in my mouth? What? Beer. Yeah. Let's get to some more beers. Beer is food. Food is beer. Yeah. We'll have no fury dot dot dot ale like to call out the ellipsees and go for it. It's a Belgian style strong dark 7.7% ABV. It's a fall seasonal available in bottles and on draft. And the writer says originally conceived along the lines of a Belgian double hell half no fury dot dot dot ale morph during development into something entirely different, blending a pair of Belgian Abby style yeasts into a recipe more akin to a roasty stout hell half no fury dot dot dot ale offers up warm roasted notes of coffee and dark chocolate together with the fruity and clove like aromas. I'm excited. Mm hmm. Me too. It looks very much like a porter that we drank earlier. I mean, color and head color. It's almost darker. Yeah, it's a little darker. In terms of when you're holding up to the light, you really don't see through it to the head. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You don't see through it. Garnet highlights. Yeah. And the head is also a shade or two darker. And Hershey's chocolate milk almost. Yeah. Not very much of it. No. This is the only one in the lineup today that I've never had before. So. Whoa. It smells like dark fruit. Good chocolate. Yeah. Very Belgian-y with the yeast character on the nose too. Also something very chalky, if that makes any sense. It's almost like I'm inhaling sort of like essence of limestone or something like that. It's kind of weird. Some greens. Maybe something like oatmeal cookie. Yes. It's kind of smell like an oatmeal stout. Yeah. It's sort of right. Mm-hmm. Lots of dark sugars and brown sugars and caramelized sugars. Yeah. There's a nuttiness to the tier as well. Yeah. Kind of walnut like I guess. Like an oatmeal cookie. I'm really not getting much roast coffee type roasted like in the porter. Roasted stone fruits. Yeah. It's like sweet, salty. Yeah. And you're right about the stone fruits. It's kind of plummy and a little bit pear-like too. But not like fresh. It really smells like cooked or baked. Yeah. Has anybody tasted this yet? No. Oh. I'm almost there. Ooh. I really did this. That's just good. Are you okay? The anesthesia is dying. It's so good. She's trying to inhale it. I'm laughing at my own joke. I'm sorry. You didn't even say anything. I did. What? I didn't say anything. It was in her head. Okay. This would happen. So Mike went heavy. Is anyone tasted it? Mm. And then you went, "I'm almost there." Damn it. Damn it. This is delicious. We were wondering earlier whether there was going to be Belgian candy sugar in there. Do you get any of that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. A lot. I was saying it would almost have to being Abby Styles. I get the roasty notes more in the flavor than I do the actual aroma. It's kind of distant behind the candy sugar note that's there. And there's also a lot of dark fruits. Oh, yeah. Figgy plum. Yeah. Real Belgian. All the Belgian esters. Then bring out those fruit notes. Okay. I'm going to go out on a limb. It tastes like a niece candy without the a niece. Okay. Does that make sense? No, I know kind of what you're talking about. There's maybe a touch. There's a touch that there's a small amount of a niece, but I know a niece candy is really, really heavily flavored, but this is kind of like sucking on one of those. You look at it on licorice, I guess. Yeah. This definitely has that flavor profile to me. Like, there's elements that I'm pulling out of this that I would pull out of stone imperial Russian stout or the abyss in terms of like that a niece note. So that's definitely there. I mean, it's very minor, but it's there. A little mint. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Some cola. And also, I don't know, something gingery, just a slight bit of that and maybe pecan shells. Mm-hmm. It's all over the place. I know. It's nice. But in a good way. Mm-hmm. It's kind of distantly Dr. Peppery. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what I was kind of leaning towards when I say cola. It was like, that makes total sense. And this feels fucking good. The chocolatey quality is turning more into coconut as I keep drinking it. Yeah. I won't mind to warm up. I think it'll be really good when it's a little bit warmer. I think so too. We just took these out of the fridge after our break and it's not that cold. No, it's not that cold. But I thought it was gonna be, I think it's a beer itself that's making it not feel or taste so cold. Yeah. When you get like really good beer, you can drink it warm and it's really good. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I think this one is one of those that is really good and so could be drank at a warmer temperature. This is really good body too. It sure does. I really like where that's up in terms of the mouth feel. And that mouth feel on this, it's so full but it doesn't weigh you down very much. I mean this, I can see where this is more like a quad or something but it's got qualities of a double. It really does. It's just like a down comforter in your mouth. It's gonna like warm you up and feel, but it's not gonna be really, really heavy on top of you. Sure. This isn't necessarily something that I would drink in the dead heat of summer, definitely not. For right now is the weather's still changing at least for us here in Texas. This is really, really nice. It's still just kind of roasty but the fullness of the body, I mean it's carbonated well but at the same time it kind of fades off at the end and it has this roundness that I really enjoy. Yeah. It's kind of kind of quad-like and yeah, it's kind of like a quad but with far less alcohol. You know this is 7.7% quads are about 10 something like that and I'm finding this just as yummy and as full flavored without all that alcohol which is really nice to me. Or all the sweetness. Good point. I mean unless you're talking about something like St. Bernardis Abbot 12 which is really not that sweet of a strong Belgian beer. So I'm thinking of some sort of cranberry pie to pair with this. That'd be nice. Because the tartness and the cranberries will kind of take the sweetness and the Belgian candied sugar down a notch. I want some acid to sort of cut this down. Not the tripping acid but I'm talking about like the flavor, I'm with you on that. It took me about 10 seconds to realize that. If your ringtone was I want some acid, nobody would notice. Is your phone ringing or do you want to drop some acid? Yeah, I'd say something more acidic than it is tart or sour. At first I was thinking maybe like a sour apple pie but I think a cranberry or like a sour berry would go a little bit better. Yeah I just get so much chocolate in this. Yeah I would really pair well with the fruit. Yeah that dark too. Cherry pie. I think it would be really good. Oh sour cherry pie. Yeah, rhubarb pie. There you go. Good call. That was all sound like it would go so well with this. It seems like we bring up rhubarb a lot on this podcast because Mike and I are both fans of rhubarb. I love it too. It's great. This beer tastes like rhubarb. Oh I love it. One of my grandmas used to make rhubarb pie every single time that I'd go and visit. It's pretty awesome. You should take over that first. Growing up we had rhubarb in our backyard so my mom would make it all the time. Yeah it kind of grew wild near my grandparents house so like they'd go on walks and occasionally come back with like fresh cut rhubarb which was always really awesome. Somebody make me rhubarb pie. We'll figure it out. Okay, I haven't had a rhubarb in a long time. Man the spice note is really picking up as it winds up. As very you know mulling spices but a little bit earthier than that a little bit more all spice less cinnamon maybe a little touch of clove. You know I don't know what everybody else thinks but it's kind of like the Kelka shows from Unibrew where it'd be really good heated up. Sure. And there's that one crazy guy that we know that heats up beer fairly frequently and shrinks it and breathes heavy on microphones. I'm actually... We can say Bill. Yeah. Who's gonna show up like Beetlejuice? Just don't say it anymore I'm superstitious. I said his name once earlier so yeah it's so far. It's done. I'm really surprised at the total lack of hydrate tension. Yeah it's none. And I don't know if that's because we have some fat you know on our lips from food or... Yeah I've got a little bit of lacing on the top of the liquid but it's not enough to even call it head. I don't get it because yeah this glass was completely fresh this is one that I haven't used all night. Well even yours is swirling it like getting no more head. But it doesn't feel like it's under carbonated either. It feels carbonated in my mouth it's got some nice body to it and it doesn't have a hell of a lot of alcohol but it's not retaining head at all. The carbonation's faded quite a bit man. Yeah the carbonation on mine is almost gone even when I drink it now I get none. Mine's getting more cola light and I'm getting all as it warms up it's getting a little bit of boozy. Yeah I got a little bit more booze as I was drinking it but it wasn't anything that I found off-putting. If anything it made it feel more like a quad to me. Yeah man that's a good beer. That was tasty. That was hell half no fury ale. This next beer that Mike's opening up is third coast old ale it's an American barley wine. 10.2% ABV it's a winter seasonal available in bottles and on draft. It's like a very very early spring. Well in Michigan that'll be perfect for the cold weather. Third coast ol ale focuses on malt offering notes of brick caramel and other earthy malt flavors designed with vintage aging in mind the malt aspect is matched to a heavy compliment of hops bla bla bla bla I'm not going to read the rest because it's flavor notes. Yeah they're really good at putting in flavor notes on all of their beers. Yeah which is good if you're going to purchase one but I don't want to be too influenced by that. Taking this beer on the light it's dark brown color with rich orange red highlights amber mahogany. Just mahogany. Yeah wood color. It's not completely clear in the middle of the bottom but you can see through it if you hold it up to the light. It's weird yeah like if you hold it up to the light if I'm looking from the bottom to the top I can barely see it's red amber barely see the head but if I look straight on through it I can perceive more light through it I guess through the sides as opposed going from the top to bottom. Yeah it's almost like a tiger's eye you know yeah the head retention on this one is uh fantastic. That's phenomenal. Especially for 10.2%. I wasn't expecting it to have this much head. It's just sitting there like latte foam for me. Yeah it's really tightly packed foamy head almost like a freshly poured Guinness. Yes. Smell those hops. Oh well I mean I can get a little bit of hops but I definitely get red and like caramel. It's almost like a very like yeah exactly but with like a very dark crust if you. Yeah smells like grains and caramel. I like to when I tip it to smell it and the foam gets up on the side of the glass it runs down like legs on like a good wine. I just remembered that I don't really like American barley wines. Damn it. Oh no. Yeah but this smells great I mean it doesn't smell I get a hot note but it definitely smells more malt centric to me. Yeah it also smells a little bit like you know one of those oranges that's been dried out and has got cloves stuck in it you know that really bitter citric clovey sort of. The real estate agent secret. Yes that one. Little touch of booze on the nose too. It's hot. It's like pumpernickel bread. I can get down to that. Yeah I just tasted it. More so on the flavor than in the nose for me. Absolutely. You get that bread crust you get like it's almost like a fruit cake. With lots of anise. Yeah. Wow that's really interesting. This is better than I remember it. Yeah and there's like a candied grapefruit quality to it. When you said clove encrusted orange I definitely got notes of that here. Yeah and it's less clovey and more of that citrus I think and more of that bitter peel. Does it make sense that it evokes the same emotion as I'm drinking it as it does remembering that smell? Yeah. It's about the same for me. Quite a bit of sweetness on this too. I mean it's not syrupy sweet but there is a lot of sweetness there. There's enough hops to cut through the sweetness. There's definitely a bitterness on the back end for me. No I don't know this isn't really doing it for me. I know I'm not picking up anything that's really standing out. You know I would probably agree with you but we just did an American barley wine show and there were several that I thought I was going to really like and I was more disappointed than not and this I think I'm enjoying a lot more than several of those beers I had on that show. Okay that's a good reference. Yeah like Anastasia said American barley wine is not one of my favorite styles. There are so very few that are really really that are really awesome. Yeah I like the English style barley wines better. I like American interpretation of English style barley wines. Oh yeah. That's what I mean yeah. I'm also kind of thinking that for me anyway this is almost closer to a kind of hoppy English barley wine. I don't know the hops are definitely American. No I know. I would expect more hoppiness from an American barley wine. I understand what you're talking about with the malt profile because this is somewhat grainy and kind of bready which is something and fruitcake like that's. Yeah very English. And that's something that I get a lot of English barley wines. Almost like a hoppy English barley wine. I know what you're saying but those American hops are so present here. I feel it's more of an American barley wine than it is an English one but that's again me I'm paying more attention. The malt build is an English build. Yeah. I'll say that. It's like an English American barley wine. And the hops are more bitter like they're up front they're not late addition hops. So the perception is that there's maybe not as hoppy. They're there definitely. Yeah I mean there's tons of citrus like tons of grapefruity American sea hops citrusy. Yeah it's just I think they're all bittering hops. There really isn't very much to this beer is there. I mean there's lots of little nuances like you're saying earlier everything you said I agree with. Yeah you're right there's just not too much there. I don't know how old this is but I find that with this particular beer this one's much better with two to three years on it. Yeah. When it's fresh this tastes to me like a much fresher bottle. It's got the November 2012. Is that what they're doing? Yeah that's yeah. That's still young. Yeah it's still for a barley wine. You really want to age a barley wine a lot longer. Yeah they even recommend aging this one. But you know having had a bunch of like I said barley wines on that barley wine show this isn't a really good starting place because some of the other ones that we had like that great divide. I don't want to talk about that. Yeah. Don't say those words. That old ruffian after a couple of years that beer gets pretty fucking good to me. But fresh is sucked. That one I don't like fresh either but yeah aged. And maybe that's where I'm coming off on this beer is I think the flavors just need to marry a little bit together. It just needs some time to sit and develop. Yeah I think that if I were to get this beer here in Texas I'd probably buy four or five of them and then put them away for a year and then check it back in. Yeah it'd probably be really good then. Yeah. I mean you're right it is. It's in a good starting place. Just imagine the deeper fruit flavors that come out maybe a touch of oxidization. Citrus from the hops kind of staying while the hop bite dies a little bit. Yeah that bitterness could be toned down a little bit. Oh my god I'm fantasizing about this beer in like two years. I know. It sounds like an amazing beer that we're going to have. Yeah it could stand to lose some bitterness and I'm a big fan of bitterness. Like I like really bitter beers but in this beer I think it's it really needs to come down a little bit. It had that edge rounded off. That was third coast old ale and we're going to move on to our next beer and final beer. Expedition Stout. It's a Russian Imperial Stout 10.5 ABV. It's a winter seasonal available in bottles and on draft and the write-up says one of the earliest examples of the Russian Imperial Stout in the United States. Expedition Stout offers immensely complex flavors crafted specifically with vintage aging in mind as its profile will continue to mature and develop over the years. A huge malt body is matched to a blah blah blah blah flavor notes. Watching Mike pour this it looks like oil. It sure does. Delicious oil. So to me it's one of those beers that's a really super solid Imperial Stout and it's not sold on just one day of the year which is very refreshing. I haven't had a fresh bottle of this in a number of years. I really feel like this starts to show its best colors about two years in. Okay. Normally fresh I remember just being a little sharp but we'll see here. And speaking of colors this is dead black. Oh. Darkest night. Yeah. Darkest night. Maybe a little brown right around the edges. Just don't think we're older yet. But you have to hold it right up to the light to even get that. It's solid. Dark tan foamy head. Yeah. The head on my glass is almost as dark as a tiny bit of half and half in the espresso. Cocoa powdery there's there's something kind of dusty like I was mentioning in that other year. I get to see it held ahead. I get a little bit too. I was going to say like boiled dark fruit but I think that's attached to the acetyl out of height for me. Yeah. It's got like apple notes. Just a little bit of green apple. I can pick through that though and get the roasty that you guys are talking about. It is nice but it's hard to get through that. Touchboozy. Yeah. There's a little cherry note there too in the nose and a little roast coffee and chocolate. But yeah. I think there's some acetyl. Maybe it smells like if you took some cherries, plums, maybe a fig, some pomegranate. I'm not really pretty sensitive to the acetyl out of the hide and I'm not really getting it in the flavor. Maybe we have different flavors. No and the flavor. Maybe we have different glasses. Smell that. Oh yeah. That's true. There was two bottles of this opened. Yeah. Smell that. Okay. So it's only in one bottle. There's definitely a difference there. So my candy may have his glass and my glass and there is a difference there but I'm not sure which one smells more like it to me. And that could be acetyl, the hide will sometimes go away after it's aged a little bit. Yeah. And for those of you who don't know what acetyl, the hide is acetyl, the hide is an off flavor. It's a chemical that sometimes happens during the brewing process that kind of smells and tastes like green apples. Yeah. And it comes from I think either stressed out yeast could be young too. If they, the yeast will sometimes clean it up on its own. And if they bottled it too soon or something like that, it just could be young. It still might clean itself up and in a couple weeks it might completely disappear. Yeah. Exactly. I'm getting less of it in the flavor than I am in the nose, but it's still there. I mean, yeah, when I drink it though, it tastes great. It's very mild. Yeah. Like I said, yeah, it comes off more in the nose than it does in the flavor. It's still a little bit there, but man, that flavor is really nice. It's just. Ah, lit. Yeah. Rich, fudgy, brownie batter almost. You're reading my mind tonight. Stop it. Maybe like a fudge brownie batter. Yeah. I pick it up more in Harvey's glass than I do in mine. Yeah. Harvey's drinking this out of a new Belgian globe glass with the laser etching at the bottom. Just as a side note, one of the best all-around glasses I've come across. I love like 16 of these things and they're perfect. They just get used for almost every beer. Yeah, they're great. And this beer is great. I mean, despite the acetyl. Yeah. I don't want to make that sound like that's what it's all about. This beer is really good and it's drinking nice. If anything that acetyl aldehyde is ruining the nose for me, but the flavor, as long as I don't take too many big inhales in my nose, is fantastic. Yeah, it's just sweet, coffee, real cocoa powdery. I mean, that's the part that's hanging out in my mouth is just that dusty, kind of. Dusty bitter, bitter, baking chocolate. Yeah, exactly. Baking chocolate, exactly. Touch of earthy, grassy, hot, but just a little bit. I think that cocoa, bitter chocolate helps with that or plays it up. When this sits around for a bit, more of that cherry note that you were mentioning earlier pops up a little bit more to complement the chocolate notes. The hot bitterness goes away. You're left with the chocolate bitterness, but that plays off the sweetness. It's really good. Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. The bitterness at the end is more like dark chocolate bitterness. Yeah. Right. And there's something else there that's coming off to me, something like coffee pudding or bread pudding, some kind of bready, sugary pudding. I remember like a really silky mouth feel, like really smooth. I remember getting really drunk on this one. That fruit stand company that I worked for, they sent me out on business to sell fruit other places. The plane got laid over and I had bought a bunch of beer to bring back home. Some of it was expedition and I remember waking up in the morning, the flight being cancelled and it was before noon and it was like, well, fuck it. I'm going to drink. I'm going to drink me a couple of these expeditions. Hell yeah. And it made for a great day. Thanks, bells. The more that I have from bells, the more that I just fall in love with them. Even if I don't like that particular beer, they do so many tasty, tasty things. So very well. Yes. So I think there are Java Stouts, one of my favorite coffee sounds. Oh, yeah. That is a great beer. That's a great beer. Java's awesome. When they stopped making it for a couple of years and I was just angry and they brought it back. No, but it's awesome. It's sad, sad, Mike. He's always sad, Mike. Oh, wow. Well, they're also just really conscious about what they do and what they make and do a lot of great things. The cherry scout. Yeah. The bell's cherry stuff is pretty good. Their consecrator, the Dopplebok? Oh, yeah. It's a great Dopplebok. Not really in the Dopplebok. That's great. That is great. We can do like three more bell shows. Yeah. Yeah. They make it more on a beer. Ooh, the hops lamb. Oh, fuck. Yeah. The thing I was like, they produce so many beers. Their portfolio is so large and all of the beers are very well crafted. Absolutely. And there's a flavor for everyone. I kind of feel like they're underrated when it comes to American brewery. I think so too. I think that a lot of their lineup just kind of gets lost in the specialty releases and all of this other stuff when they're just cranking out really great beer, solid beers all the time. Yeah. They're mainly limited and like even the limited ones are crazy good. Yeah, everybody nowadays is putting spices and fruits and oak and sour and this and that and the other and bells making just really good beer. I mean, they have a portfolio of stouts. They've got the double that we tried today that the hill has no fury, the golden. They're just solid beers. Too hard. And the hops lamb. I mean, those are some of the best hoppy beers around. Absolutely. And I'm really glad that they make such solid beer that are slightly left of style. But fuck, they nail it like their mainstays are so solid. Giving personality to the brewery. It tastes like a bell's beer. Yes. And that's what I enjoy about it. It's just off center enough that it's like, Oh, this is just this particular brewery's take on this beer. And it's awesome. You guys ready to rank these? Oh, shit. I got to rank these. Yeah. Well, if you're not ready, somebody else can go first. I'll go first. Go for it, man. Okay. Let's just go from least favorite to most favorite this time. My number six is third coastal lail. I did enjoy it. I did think it was a good beer. It's a great starting point for the beer that it's going to be two years from now. With a pretty decent amount of age on it is going to be so fucking fantastic. I wish I had more of this because I want to put some down for a while. I'm pretty sure it'll be great. My fifth favorite is expedition. I thought this beer was going to be number one or number two for me, but that acetaldehyde that it had going on in there was really kind of ruining the nose of the beer for me. And I'm such a smell whore and not being able to enjoy the nose that I'm used to on that beer was really detracting from it. But still, the flavor was great. Number four, hell half no fury ale. That was a big surprise. I think I've had this beer before. I'm not quite sure. It's kind of like a lower alcohol quad with a lot of rich, beautiful flavors. And I thought it was great. My third is smitten golden rye. I hadn't had that one. And I thought it was a great pale ale and that rye addition with that touch of spiciness put it over the edge for me. I really love that beer. My number two Bell's porter, fuck that was good. I think that would have ranked really high in our porter show and that's saying a lot. My favorite beer of the evening was too hard because, god damn, yeah, I'm just going to guess we're probably all going to say that. It's a possibility because holy shit that beer's so good. Oh man. And if we got that in Texas, that Matthew would be a mainstay in my fridge. Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm ready for ranking. Okay, go for it. My number six was a third coast old ale. I still enjoy this beer. I think that this is far too fresh to really enjoy this beer. I really feel like this needed about two more years before it really comes into its own. But it was still tasty. I still like the base beer. I'd like to see how it compares to other American barley wines like old horizontal from victory. Just some other things in that similar vein. That would be interesting. That stacks up. Number five was the hell hath no fury. I did enjoy this beer. I wish by the end of it, it maybe had something a little bit else going for it. It kind of fell off as it warmed up for me. Wasn't quite where I wanted it, but I still like the flavors that it was invoking there. My number four was the expedition. This is another one of those beers that one needs to not have a seat allowed to hide. And then in addition to that needs to have about two years on it before it's really truly awesome. If you have the willpower, hold on to that beer for two years. Yes. Holy shit. The return on investment for that is priceless. And if it did have a seat allowed to hide in two years, it's probably gone. Yeah. Yeah. My number three was that smitten golden rye. I really enjoyed that beer. Were you smitten? I was. I thought that that was really, really good. It was just enough of a departure from a pale ale. I liked where they were going with it. Number two, Bells Porter, because holy shit, that was so good. It had everything that I wanted when it comes to dark beer flavors, and it has the body and sort of that light, aqueous nature to it that I could just slam it and have a number of them. Number one, two-hearted, because two-hearted. That's all I'm going to say. Yeah, two-hearted. Awesome. Thanks, Mike. Who's next? Can I go next? Yeah. My ranking for the same as Mike's. Really? Wow. And last but not least, John Harvey. No. Get it. Get out of that. This is going to be really redundant. Number six was a third coast. Not my thing. Like, it was good, but I'm just not really into the hoppy, multi-American, barely-wise, going to go fuck themselves. Number five, I picked the hell-half-no-fury ellipsesail. It was good, but towards the end, when it lost, all that, had retention, actually pushed that further down for me. Whatever. I don't dwell. Number four, Expeditions Stout, Delicious. I like the acetyl adel hide, I guess. It tastes more like dark fruit to me than it does green apple, and I kind of like that with my stoats. Number three was a smitten on a label alone. Yeah. I know. That's not right. No, the label's badass. The label's really awesome. And it was really, really good. I'd like to have that one again. Number two, shock and awe, a porter, the bell's porter, because, god damn. Yeah, and you're somebody who doesn't really, you don't really like porters. I don't, but that is really like a delicious, the biscotti on the espresso. That's the perfect dessert, just like that, but with alcohol. Yeah. And you can't beat that. Well said. You're welcome. Totally nailed it. Number one was the Too Harded. That shit is so coughable. Oh yeah. To me, it's a very balanced American IPA, and that's what I personally love in American IPAs is that balance. And it was delicious. I actually kind of struggled between the porter and the Too Harded, but the Too Harded is kind of, yeah, the Too Harded kind of won out in the end just because the porter would get a little, I don't know, sweet or dark or just, I was imagining myself drinking a whole six pack. And I thought, oh, I can probably drink a six pack of the Too Harded, but not the porter. No. And that really, again, speaks to the strength of those two beers because you really like rye beers and you're not really into porters and that was above the rye. And you've kind of been a little bit sick of hops lately and the Too Harded was your top. The Too Harded was also like reuniting with an old friend that I hadn't seen in a long time. Like in that first sip, I was just overwhelmed and it brought me back to like the very first time I had it. Like an ex from like eight years ago and they fuck way better now. You know, I've made it a point to not do things like that. So I wouldn't know. Yeah. I'm going to make sure your wife doesn't listen to the show. How about you, Harve? You ready? Yeah. So I put at the very bottom and I couldn't even put a different number to each of these. I put the stout and the third coast old ale. It's really just not fair. Those beers just need a little bit more time. And that's it. Expedition and the third coast? Yep. The expedition, you know, that aceta aldehyde really ruined it for me, but it still tasted great. The old ale was good, but both of those beers just need a little bit of time. Next I have the other four beers in the class because they were all good. I mean, everything we had tonight was great, but those ones were my favorites. I was really surprised by the hell hath no fury. That is my number four. Really good. I like Belgians and all the stone fruits and just really good stuff there. Number three for me was the smitten golden rye. So drinkable and so delicious. Love that on a hot day. Bell's Porter was a surprise. It was really good for porters, which I think are just okay beers. It was multi and delicious. Okay. And of course, too hearted is just awesome. Oh, yeah. So cool. Thank you. Too hearted. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you, Matthew. Thank you, Matthew. Matthew, thank you so much. Do you ever come to town, Michael, blow you? Yes. Yes. I've been balling obligated, but we will vouch for him. Sure. Yeah. And his facial hair makes it look like a pussy from the 70s, but that's still a pussy. You know, you love the stubble on the back of your neck. But, you know, Anastasia, I'm watching Anastasia write all the rankings down on this paper. I thought you were looking at my drawings. No. I actually, I switched to it the last minute. Were my rankings actually the same? Our top three are the same all across the board. Okay. All four of us had the same top three. Cause awesome. Yeah. The rankings were pretty similar all the way through for all of us. I'm waiting for the show where all the rankings are exactly the same. That would be crazy. Is that not happened yet? I don't think so. Oh, wow. I don't think so. We've come pretty damn close. I want to say on the number of things. This is pretty close. Pretty close. Yeah. This is close. I'd have to check my notes again though. In a show where there's all kinds of different styles, it comes out a lot more similar because, you know, like the bells too hard, it is so drinkable, but it's so different from the porter. Whereas in a show of all porters, you're going to have a lot more variation of rankings. You'd actually be surprised. I've been very surprised by some of the results of some of the shows where we thought that a lot of the beers were going to be similar. Like our half a vice in show was so different from beer to beer. Our Pilsner Show also. Yeah. I was just going to say the Pilsner Show was really interesting. Yeah. I was like, oh, all these beers are going to taste the same. And they were so incredibly different from beer to beer. It's something you can't really forecast. Like I've stopped saying stuff like that. Like, oh, yeah. I know it's going to rank number one. Yeah. You can never tell, especially with your own memory, because a lot of times a beer is going to be very different from what you remember it being. Because drunk. That. Yes. Because drunk. And also drinking them in context with other beers sometimes tends to sway you one way or the other. Something that you thought was your favorite beer ends up not being in a particular context. That's a really sad moment. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. It's very lonely. Yeah. Like it's a very like. Really? Oh, no. I was there really disappointed in myself when I have a beer that I thought was my favorite beer. And then I try it again and maybe some other context. I'm like, oh, wow, really? Self. Yeah. Awful. I'm so disappointed in me. I would like to mention real quick the barley wine as it's warming up is great right now. It's actually turning out to be really, really good. Oh, you guys are going to make me drink once. It sure smells a lot. It smells incredible. It's just. Yeah. I don't know what happened. It's like it's a different beer. I think you guys were talking about the old ruffian earlier. This is very reminiscent of that in the nose to me. That's a lot better to me. Not to me. It got worse. Really? It got a little more bitter and sharp. There's definitely more of a bitterness, but I really like the caramel notes out there. Yeah, I think more sweet came out more of the sweet undertones. Yeah, that's really helping the bitterness for me. Mm-hmm. Kind of amplifying it for me. Really? I'm so disappointed in you. I'm getting a lot to be disappointed in me because I don't care if I disappoint you. That's a very good point. We just really close this show out. I'm getting kind of buzzed. It's getting really buzzed. Well, this has been a really good show. Oh, this is awesome. I fucking loved this. Thank you, Matthew. Fyfer. Matthew, you were awesome. Thank you for supplying us with beer. This is great. Yeah. Thank you, Matthew. Yeah, just what everybody knows. Matthew has sent us more beer than anybody else who listens to this show. Other people should try to beat him. That's not my point. Yes. No, that's my point. That's my point. Okay, fine. That's Mike's point. Matthew, thank you so much. This has been awesome. From a great brewery. Oh, absolutely. That's the same. Thank you, bells. Yeah, bells. Thanks, bells, for making great beer. No shit. Start distributing in Texas. Just Austin, though. Just Austin. Or at least Austin first, because fuck every other city and all that other food. In Texas. Best beer markets here. Whoo. Yeah, Larry. Bells, we want you. Lorenzo. Okay, Grant. This is a really great place for you guys to start distributing. Just do it, like for real. Larry's still water. Larry's still water. Larry Bell. His name is actually Larry Bell. Is it? Yeah. That's great. Larry Bell. That's why I kept saying Larry. Larry Bell, thank you so much for making these beers. They're delicious. Thanks, everybody, for listening. I know sometimes it's difficult. But it's okay for you to be disappointed in yourself for listening. It is. Just drink more. You'll be fine. Do your emails. Send us your iTunes shout outs. Send us some money. I've got a donate link on that fucking beersus.com. And more beer. Send us more beer. We need you livers. So if you could send us money or livers. If you could just promise us a higher ranking on the Transplant list. They mean iTunes. You'd be a higher ranking on iTunes. The money is so that hopefully we can go to JVF, like that would be awesome. Ooh, a beer is so at JVF. Yes. I want to record some interviews out there. Do some couple shows. You have to get to be serious noise filtering. If we can get a few thousand dollars, we can make it work. Yeah. Is there like a fart filtering algorithm? Because man. But are you telling me I can fart freely at JVF? You certainly can. Everybody else is. Everybody else. God damn it. She's not even going to like be in JVF. She's going to be just letting them go. You know like that mouse in the American film. What the way? There's no way. That's America. I won't have to walk. I will just be constantly floating. God damn it, floating in. You'll be just so cat to the book. No, they are not cat-spy-boom. Yeah, you mean cat-spy-boom. You can't even move. There you go. Come. Come. Sup. Where? That's fun. Frading. Thank you. I just shut up. Right. We are a friend on Facebook. Just kidding. Yeah. I like this on Facebook. Don't be our friends because that's great because I don't know you personally. Facebook.com/theberests, Twitter.com/theberests, info@theberests.com. That's where you send us emails. Thank you guys for listening. And bottoms the football. Bottom 10. Free good. Hi. Thanks, Harv. You're welcome. I forgot to thank you guys, but fuck all you. More information on the Berests podcast, including show notes and pictures, visit TheBerests.com. Call us your feedback, comments, questions and suggestions at info@theberests.com. Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/theberests and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/theberests. Intro music was provided by Ian Butcher and his band, Deflated Balor. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/EAN_Butcher93. I'm John Rubio. Thanks again for listening. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
