Sipping Through the Snow: A Toast to Wintery IPAs

I’ll put a pair of pants on. If you'll shut up I will. If you'll take them off later, yes, I will put pants on. Either way you're taking them off. Welcome in everybody. It's the craft beer Republic. Thanks for drinking. Thanks for joining. I am Greg. I'm being joined by the jolliest fella in all the Midwest.

What's up flexi? Jolliest flexiest. Yes. That's all I got. I don't know. Okay. Well, very creative. You know, we're still a week away from Christmas. So. Yeah. I'm going to ask you about your fake holiday in a second. But joining us in the studio over here on the West coast is everyone's, I was going to say like favorite St. Nicole. Nicholas. Nicholas. Nicholas. It's me. I'm like working that out out loud.

Great pod. Great pod, everybody. Thanks for hanging. Thanks for having me. Everyone's favorite ass-col. Ass-col. What is my name on the screen? Colay, Olay. That's what it is. Yeah. Yeah. Colay, Olay, Olay. I was trying to read it from here. Yeah. Words are hard. Welcome in everybody. Once again, thanks for joining all that stuff. CraftbeerRepublic.com, @craftbeerepublic, @flexbeer_inbetween, and @icecole_ after each one.

I think that's the jam right there. We have a lot to get to tonight. Lots of news has been going on. It's towards the end of the year. We've got lists are being made and all kinds of stuff. We'll see if we have time for one. And some fun events that were going on over the weekends and all that good stuff. So, all right, before we get to anything, quick shout out to Pennington, New Jersey, the top listening city of last week, man. They keep coming back around.

I love it. Yeah. You guys bash NJ and they just- No, we don't bash New Jersey. You got to get this straight. Alabama. We bash the laws of New Jersey. We feel for the people. Yeah, Phil. Fuck you, Phil. That's governor. Governor? Governor? Governor? We're like the rocks of New Jersey. Okay. We are the people's champs. Yeah. Of New Jersey. That's what I would say. Right. Yeah. Raise the eyebrow. Everyone else is a jabroni.

I can hear my dog squeaking toward from downstairs. Squeaking his face. I was like, "What is that noise?" I was like, "Something's like, 'Ah-ha-ha-ha!'" And then I realized it's him squeaking his toy. I was like, "What the fuck?" Could have just been me laughing too. Oh, it could have been. Very high pitch. That was my cat after he ate my female dog's estrogen pill. For reals? Yeah. It happened when we were going to when we were Young Fest half an hour before. I took Ruby's pills, put it in a Ziploc bag, put it on the counter, washed my hair, blow dried my hair, came out, and the bag that was on the counter was shredded.

And he ate her multivitamins, which again, I don't care about, but I was like, "Where's this little tiny pill?" It literally looks like a birth control pill. And it's because she's older, she has urinary incontinence, and it helps with that. And I'm like, "Oh, God." And it's for spayed female dogs only. And I called my vet and I was like, "Look, here's what happened. I left the bag on the counter for an hour. I'm headed to Vegas in 30 minutes. What am I looking at here? Because if I have to bring him in to kiss him goodbye, I'm going to do it. I'm not spending thousands of dollars because he's an

asshole." And he jumped on the counter and shredded the Ziploc bag and ate a fucking female dog's estrogen pill. My boss was like, "Oh, did he get boobies? Did he grow boobies?" That's what I was thinking. I was almost going to ask that, but I didn't want to be an asshole. Of course, that's where I was going. And then I just said, "No, his meow is more high pitched though. He goes, 'Meow-how.'" But he really doesn't. And I had to take him for a blood test a week later to make sure because he could get bone marrow depletion. "Me-he-he." "Me-how." Yeah, I figured he was like Michael Jackson of cats.

"He-he." And with his boobies, but you have to spell it B-E-W-B-I-E-S. You are clearly saying boobies. Boobies. Yeah. That's funny. Anyway, I digress. But yeah, cats are assholes in this one. He's always been a bitch. Now, medically, he's a bitch too. Female dog pills. Yeah. Well, once it wears off. Yeah. We'll see. All right. Before we talk about what we're drinking about, before we talk about what we're drinking about, two things to get to. One, just a quick shout out.

I didn't need to do a whole news story, but Elevation Beer Co, which is in Salida, Colorado, which no one has ever heard of. Actually, I think they're technically in Pontchart Springs. They're opening up a new location at this old bar that shut down during COVID. I've been there. Super cool spot. They're going to revitalize it. So I was just like, "Oh, those guys make good beer." And they're funny. Last time we were out there, had them on the show after we came back, I mean, they had their beer, and talked about how bad the food was in Salida. No restaurant was good. And apparently they listened because they messaged us on the ground like, "Hey, thanks for the shout out.

Next time you're here, we'll take you to dinner." I was like, "That's pretty good." That's really cute. Anyways, good job, Elevation. Well, good for them. Yeah. That's exciting. Flex, at the end of last week's show, you fucking blew my mind with- I think you actually blew my mind. You made me feel so, what's so, secluded. That's the word. Okay. Well, at the end of 380, I believe that was batch 385, Flex basically said, "Have a great St. Nicholas Day." I said,

"I hope St. Nick brings you something nice." Something like that. Yeah. And I was like, "Dude, Christmas is three weeks away." You're like, "Yeah, I know. St. Nicholas Day." I was like, "Christmas is three weeks away. What are you talking about?" Anyways, go back and listen to him blowing my mind. We've had people reach out, one of which was, of course, Davis. Davis is my guy. What up, Davis? He is your guy. Originally from Wisconsin, of course, he reached out to completely defend you. He said, "Yes, St. Nicholas Day, it's real. I think it's big in Wisconsin because of the German and Polish culture.

In my stocking this morning, I found a beer bottle fleshlight." Oh my God. It may have actually come from St. Dick. I was like, "Yeah, that's pretty good." Pretty good, yeah. Pretty good, pretty good. So anyways, thanks to Davis. Vanessa had no idea what we were talking about. Hi, Vanessa. Hi, Vanessa. Lots of people reaching out. Most of them had no idea either. So I feel vindicated. I actually asked my mom because being a German-ish thing, she lived in Germany for a few years as a kid. I was like, "Is this a thing?" She goes, "Oh yeah, it's totally a thing. You didn't know?

I'm the idiot." I didn't know. I was like, "Thanks, mom. It doesn't change many things." I don't know. I guess Wisconsin is almost like a bubble because we both did some Googling. It turns out that it is a huge Wisconsin-celebrated holiday. Doesn't reach far outside of Wisconsin. Right. So funny. Yeah, it's so weird. Ever since I can remember life, it's been a thing. It's part of what you do. Is it always the 6th? Yeah,

you hang your stocking on the 5th and he comes the night of the 5th into the 6th. So he comes twice in December. Santa's my kind of guy. Getting dizzy. Yeah, where we always got our stockings Christmas morning. That's weird. That's so weird to me. Actually getting stockings on Christmas. Oh God, that's always how it's been. Blows my mind. I don't know. Yeah. When do you get your stocking? I get it during Hanukkah. Yeah. Your Hanukkah stockings? My Hanukkah stocking.

Yeah. Nice Hanukkah tree you have this year, the Hanukkah bush. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have velvet balls on it. Yes. One looks like a butt. One of them does. Yeah, I got some. It's better than the first batch I ordered. It looked like they did Ace Ventura full blown, like just doing cartwheels and smashing the package and kicking it to the doorstep. Every single ball was dented multiple times. Nothing was like anything symmetrical. I was like, these used to be circles. That may be one of the best opening scenes of any movie ever. That's what I imagine happened to my velvet Christmas balls.

But round two that I bought from Amazon, they're beautiful. Only one had a dent and I'm okay with that. Beautiful balls. Beautiful velvet balls. Beautiful smooth balls. Balls sounds soft. Should that be the name of this episode? Beautiful smooth balls. Velvet. Beautiful smooth velvet balls. Oh, we better move on because I just watched, I saw a clip from the cork soaking skit from Saturday Night Live. Cork soaking? Yes. The Italian,

the cork soakers. Got it. Oh, I got it. That's hilarious. Oh, very nice. All right, we will move on. We'll talk about what we're drinking over here. We are drinking Pure Project Brewing collab with Smog City Brewing beneath the canopy.

And I chose it because the can art is sort of fall slash wintry. Very festive. I was trying to stay on theme. It's got like redwoods on it. Right, exactly. We don't get snow around here. We just get trees. And fire. It's only been windy for like the last month. Right. We finally got a fire this week. 6.7%, 4.01 on UNTAPPED. Very nice. They say, "We've teamed up with our friends and fellow 1% "for the planet members", Smog City Brewing, "to release two beers that will benefit "our long-term partners,

The National Forest Foundation." Beneath the canopy, our contribution to this collaboration is a murky IPA featuring citra, cascade, and my favorite, cashmere hops. Its medium light body is filled with scents of lime, lemon vanilla sorbet, and cantaloupe peel, along with flavors of sweet orange pineapple and kiwi. Goddamn flex. Beneath the canopy is more than just a delectable brew. It's a commitment to conservation. A portion of every sale will go to supporting tree planting initiatives,

nurturing healthy forests for the present and future generations to come. Cheers to that, they say. - Cheers. - Miss, cheers to forests. - Yeah, forest. - And conserving them. - Ooh, there's some pillow. - Some pillowy softness. - It's a little pillowy. - You know what blew my mind on this? How often do you see cascade in a murky IPA? - It's true, yeah. Citra all the time and cashmere I love. - Cashmere is so delicious. - Yeah, there's no Idaho seven in this one. - That's all right.

- Or the UB40, 85. - HBC586. - HBC586, yeah, whatever it is. - Galaxy. The schnauz I get some tropical notes along with like maybe some peach. I feel like a peach ring type of smell. Like a sweet peach, just like flecks. - He's not from Georgia. - My butt is. - Oh, millions of peaches. - It's a light flavor. - It is, it's a little dank. I got a little bit of dankness,

but it is pillowy. Like kind of sits on the, I don't know. I get that, it's like that, yeah, that IPA mouthfeel. - What was the IPA on that? - 6.7. - Okay. - Right in the pocket there. Yeah, pillowy mouthfeel. I get more citrus up front on the tongue, a little bit of dank like you say. Pinch is kind of clean. If I had one complaint, very, very low carbonation. - Yeah. - Like surprisingly low, which led to no safety lacing. - Don't you like that in like a hazy? - Well,

it just feels-- - I have a little bit. - Yeah, it just feels under carbon, like there was no, very little head left on it. It dissipated quickly. It just feels like the carbonation went. - Okay. - I don't know. You don't want like a super carbon, you know, pilsnery type thing. - Okay. - You know, okay. - Yeah, okay. - Okay. So anyways, but good stuff as always. Piers always dropping the good stuff. - Yeah, Piers great. - Speaking of beer, a couple weeks or a few weeks ago, back on-- - Speaking of beer, our show. - Yeah, speaking of beer, show A.O. Tawny.

Go Dodgers. - Ooh. - It's not a sports show, everybody. - The Dodgers ruin baseball again. But you're right, this is not a sports show. - Right, and they're gonna be the champs. No, they won't, - But this is not a sports show. - Right. A few weeks back on batch 379, when Mel was on the show, I had a beer called Castle Made of Clouds from Gnarly Barley and I basically said it was not superb and it tasted like maybe even the can had gone bad or something, it was weird. It was a-- - I recall that now.

- Yeah, I believe it was a milkshake IPA. The beer bastard, Vanessa's husband, messaged me. He said he's a little behind. He goes, "Hey, I'm a little behind on the podcast, "but I wanted to tell you a story about Gnarly Barley." I know you got a beer from them and it was garbage. He goes on to say, "Vanessa and I went on a road trip "a few years ago and we drove to Louisiana, Kentucky, "San C. St. Louis, Memphis, and then to New Orleans. "On the way to NOLA, we went to Gnarly Barley "in the middle of a thunderstorm. "We ran into a brewery, found it wasn't opened "as Google said it was supposed to be. "The owners were there working and invited us in. "Despite being closed,

let's try all the beer. "Their beer is fantastic. "They didn't want to charge us for any of it, "but we said no way and paid for our pours "and even took a few cans to go. "I prefer certain beer types, "but all their beers were great. "You probably had a bad can as we both know, "tavor can be like total wine "and just stockpile beer made 20 years ago." Back. Yeah. He says, "I know it was a lot to read, "but the brewery's legit, the beer is amazing, "and so are the owners. "I just wanted you to know that they are the real deal "and I wanted to give my personal approval "for whatever that is worth.

"I know breweries can make a bad beer, "but this isn't the norm for Gnarly Barley." So look, I fully am not, wouldn't be surprised if tavor let it sit next to the heater or something. - I mean, remember that time they lost my beer? - Yeah, completely lost the entire package. - They're like, "We don't have any tracking on your package." And I was like, "Okay, well, are you gonna refund me?" They're like, "Well, not yet." And then they're like, "Okay, fine, we'll refund you." And then I let them know. I'm like, "Okay, I got the beer." 'Cause then I didn't,

And I was like, "I got the beer, but I don't want it "because if you don't know where the fuck it was." - Well, then it finally showed up like two weeks later. - Two weeks later. And I was like, "I don't wanna pay." 'Cause they're like, you got," or something, you know, and I got it and I reached out and they're like, "Okay, well, we'll charge you." And I was like, "No, you'll fucking not." Because I don't know if this was kept refrigerated. I'm not paying whatever it was. - And most likely it was not. - Absolutely not. - No. And they were like, "Okay, fine." - They lost it in the fridge. - "I'll put it back outside "and we'll have our courier pick it up." You know, I left it outside for fucking four days and no one picked it up ever.

- Come on. - And they didn't charge me, but they never picked it up. So I just kept the beer. But I left it out in the summer. I mean, I still drank it, but I mean, - I would have too, 'cause I don't-- - Well, I mean, I tried them to see if they were bad. Wait, if they were bad, I just tossed it. I didn't pay for it. - But yeah, I was so irritated with them after that. Like, I just kind of stopped buying from them. It left a real poor taste in my mouth with them. - Eh, poor taste. I give you that. - Nah, P-U-R, yeah. - Yeah, you know, not to speak too poorly of them, but like, they've also gone through some, what appears to be ownership changes in the last,

I don't know, year or two. So maybe that had something to do with it too. - Maybe, I just, yeah, haven't been that into them as of recent, but-- - Same. - Anyway. - If I can't get that 450 North, what's the point? - Ugh, oh my God. - (laughs) Joking. - I haven't heard anything about those guys in like-- - It's been so long. - Right? - So long. - Good for them. - Yeah, I feel like it's turned into like a bunch of dreckers, like more than ever before. Which, fine. - Right. - And then the occasional other half.

And then like a bunch of shit no one's ever heard of. - What was the one that was in, they're in New York. And they did the ET phone, home and the work from, ET work from home or something. Evil twin. - Was it Evil Twin? - Evil Twin. They had a lot of their stuff too, which can be heavily, like I did like a sour IPA or something, and it was just like a fruited sour. Like it, I don't know. - Pretty much. - Didn't love it, but you know. - We get some Evil Twin stouts here, like four-pack cans. Super high ABV, and they're like dumb price,

like dumb low price. - Really? - I'd be down to try their stouts. I've never tried any of their stouts. I've just tried like their sour stuff or, you know. I mean, it's not, I didn't hate it. It just wasn't what I expected, I guess. - But they do like that even more Jesus beer, and they do-- - Oh, I haven't even heard of that. - Something else, I think that's Evil Twin. Am I, maybe? - I think it's Evil. - Just sworn. - I don't remember who was telling me. It might even have been Flex. I don't think,

you know what? I think it was actually Vanessa was telling me this. It's either Evil Twin or Other Half, one of those two. They, whatever they send it to Vore is like their not as good stuff. And then whatever they like actually put out for real distro is like their premium stuff. - Good to know. - It's like the Costco version. - Hey, there's nothing wrong with Costco versions. - So not anymore. Back in the day, - Evil Twin does do the stout even more Jesus. It's an Imperial stout. - Ooh. - And it weighs in at 12%.

I'm pretty sure I just saw it at a grocery store for like 12.99 a four pack. - At 12%, that's pretty good. - That's like sign me up, slap my ass, call me Betty and let's have a damn good Friday night. - Yeah, let's do it, Betty. - And that's even something where it's like, even if it's been on the shelf a little while. - Well, at that ABV, - It's a stout. - Correct, stouts can do that. - It'll last for a minute. - Yeah. - Exactly. - Yeah, maybe I'll have to pick one of those up and we'll talk about it. - And we'll keep an eye out for Gnarly Barley. - Yeah, look, I'm open to trying again. I fully would accept that,

you know, table or fucked it up or it was a bad can or whatever, so. - And what a great name for a brewery. - Gnarly Barley? - I'm sure I said that before, but what a great name. - Feels like a brewery that should have a bunch of sour, and maybe they do and I just didn't have one, but it feels like a sour name, Gnarly Barley. I don't know why. - Reminds me of Gnarls Barkley. (laughing) - Gnarls. - That's what it does. - Sounds like they would have a bunch of cool beers, that's all. - Yeah, maybe they did. Well, according to the Beer Bastard, they do. I almost said his real name. Last time I said his real name on the show, he's like,

"You used my government name." - Oh my God, he's so funny. - I was like, "What, are they after you or what?" So anyways. All right, last thing here. Last week we did a birthday party for the wife, her annual wine food pairing competition slow dance, slow down? - Showdown. - Showdown. (imitating gun firing) And slow dance. And I just wanted to mention that we won. - Again. - With the best pairing? - Yeah, so the way it works for any listeners. - Sounds like it's fixed.

- It's absolutely fixed. - They won two years ago. - Two years ago, yeah. You bring a food, you bring a wine that you think pairs, and you don't have to spend a ton of money. One of our chef friends, the first year we did it, he brought Popeye's chicken and a rose, and he got second place with it. It was pretty good. And so anyways, you bring the food, you bring the wine. We give everybody who enters gets a scorecard, and there'll be a score for each food, each wine, and then overall as a pairing. Sometimes you get a food that's not great,

but the wine's good, and the pairing is really good, or whatever. Or what I will run into a lot of times is like, oh, this wine by itself is like, but you pair it with the food, and it's a good overall pairing. - It's less, eh, it's more, huh. - Huh, huh, not a drain pour anymore. - Look, Nick and I have won on two separate occasions. We won with his ribs, and I think a cab. - Yes, definitely, I don't remember the wine, but definitely the ribs, yeah. - And then I won last year with the curried butternut squash soup that Nick-- - And he was so pissed. - Oh man, he told me I'm never allowed to use curry in the house ever again.

He hates any-- - He hates curry and Indian food, and yeah. What did he say when he walked out, when you were making it? - I texted you guys, it came up in my time hop. Nick walks in the house and goes, ugh, smells like shit in here. And I'm like, okay, thanks for coming. (laughing) Have a nice day, thanks for stopping by. Go back outside and work on the patio cover, you jerk. - That's something my wife would do. - Ugh, smells like shit in here. So I just sent that to Shannon and Greg, and I was like, can you guys guess what I'm cooking?

And Shannon goes, curry! And I was like, you know what I'm bringing some form of to your party tonight. - It was so funny, and then when she won with it, he was so pissed. He's like, this is bullshit, I wanna recount. (laughing) - Oh, he was so mad. - He was big mad, he was big, mad mad. - Do you and Nick enter individually then? - No, we enter together, but he was like, this is all her. And I was like, I will be the one that drinks the winning bottle of wine all by myself too. - But you won, so who cares? - He thought it was absolutely disgusting and that everyone had poor taste.

- Yeah. (laughing) - Isn't he the worst? Nick is the worst human. - That's like, you could say that thing, you could say the same thing about a really good IPA too. - Right. - Yeah, right? - He's actually gotten a little bit better about hoppier beers. He's really into pale ales, which can be quite hoppy. - Especially hazies, 'cause they're not so dank and bitter on the end. - Yeah, and I'm just like, bitch, you've liked this stuff for a long time. I'm hoping next it's curry, to be honest. (laughing) - That's a bit of a jump. - It is a stretch.

- Bridge too far. - Yeah. - But yeah, he's going to Casa Agri all the time now, getting that hazy pale. - Oh, they're so good. - So good. So the winner gets a nice bottle of wine. We'll always have like a 50-ish dollar bottle of wine for the winner. - Okay. - So yeah, this year our pairing that won was a crostini with goat cheese, pulled pork, an apple chutney, pomegranate seeds. - Wow, that's a lot. - Yeah, and then basil. It was pretty good. - It was really good. I didn't know if it was pork.

It was darker and it didn't taste like chicken, but I was like, Nick, is it like canned? It was like the consistency of like canned chicken. - 'Cause it's so shredded. - But it didn't taste like canned chicken. And I was like, what is this? It was so good though. - We went with canned chicken. - Hey, I might have to look up something next year, but it was so good. - We paired it with a pinot. Yeah. (mimics music) Yeah, that was fun. - It was great times. I look forward to that every year. - Yeah. - Even though I didn't get to compete this year 'cause I came from a first birthday party an hour and a half away.

- That fucking one-year-old better remember it. - Hey, you know what? They had a petting zoo. All right, I got to pet pygmy goats. - I was just gonna ask if you got to pet anything. - Oh, I sure did. Nick goes, "Babe, the animals are here." 'Cause he knows I'm a freak and I absolutely love animals. And I was like, "Move out of the way, children. "It's time to pet the animals." - She was running and pushing the kids out of the way. - I was so excited. - One of my favorite parts about Shannon's birthday every year is how competitive Deb and Inter and Brian are. - Oh yeah. - They do inter separately. And for like the day leading up to it.

- Come on. - They fucking hate each other. And like one year-- - What is the matter with those two? - I thought Deb should have won this year. I obviously couldn't vote 'cause I couldn't-- - Hers was that pudding cup thing, right? - Oh my God. - With the bisque off. - Yeah. But I like Brian had chocolate covered bacon. That was really good too. - I also really love that. And our spouses did not. - You know what's funny? I normally don't like chocolate covered bacon and I loved his. Shannon is the opposite. Normally she loves it, didn't like his. - And Nick was just like, "Oh, I don't." He like ate it and was like, "Why is there chocolate on bacon and sea salt?" And I'm like, "Nick,

it's good." - I wonder what it is that the people who normally like it didn't like it as much. Brian's listening now and crying. Brian, I'm sorry. I loved it. - I loved it too. he could have entered with something like a peach parfait and he could have just titled it, "What That Pee-Pee Do." (laughing) - "What That Peach Pee-Pee Do." - That'd be so good. - Well, my favorite is a couple years-- - That's his line. - Yeah. My favorite is a couple years ago, he entered with like, I think it was like a scotch egg. - Yeah. - And I don't remember what-- - Or armadillo eggs. - Or armadillo eggs. I don't remember what Deb made that year,

but like the whole thing is we try not to tell people who made what food and the wine goes in a bag, so you can't see what the wine is. - Does it have like a number on it then? - It's all numbered. Even the dishes are numbered to match the wine. - Yeah, there's a number for the wine, number for the dish, that way they stay together. And Deb that year goes around just talking so much like, "Who the fuck makes an armadillo egg "for a wine pairing party?" (laughing) So fucking stupid. Like that thing is disgusting. I hope everyone gives it a one. (laughing) - She was brutal. - She's fucking brutal, it's so funny.

- So is it a one out of five scoring or what? - Yeah, so food gets one out of five, wine gets one out of five, and the pairing is more, it gets one to 10. So it's a little heavier weighted. But yeah, she's so funny. They hate each other for the day leading up to it. It's bad. That's so funny. - That's so great. - Yeah, good times. That's like one of my favorite parts of the party is just finding out how much they hated each other for the week leading up to it. (laughing) - Yeah, good times. You and Nick should enter separately now.

Since he talked so much shit about the curry last year. - You know, I thought about it. 'Cause I was gonna do chicken enchilada soup this year. Because I can make it in the crock pot. - Sure. - What would pair with that? - Honestly. - Probably something white. - I mean, you could do a red, you could do like a pinot probably. - Yeah, you could do something like a pinot. - Like a lighter red. - I mean, really like a dry rosé would probably do well. - I think so. - I don't even like rosés. - A sangria count? That would be good. - Sure, no one's ever done it. But last year Monica brought, Petals and Pints Monica brought beer. - Yeah, I was gonna ask if anybody brought beer this time. - 'Cause Nick was like,

"It's not just wine, Monica brought beer." I was like, that was an exception." It worked well with the bacon. - Yeah, she can't drink wine. She can't drink anything over like 10%. It gives her a headache and stuff. So she's like, "I'm bringing beer." I'm like, "All right." If anybody's gonna bring beer, you're allowed to. - Yeah, of course. - You fucking made it. - It was good. - Yeah, and then I love somebody was like, "Who brought the beer?" I was like, "Who's the one that works in the beer industry here? "It's either Monica or James." - Yeah. - So, but good times. All right, Flex. Hey, you wanna answer a question for us? - Maybe. - Okay. - In a world where craft beer is king,

a world where muscles are bigger than growlers, only one tongue can guide us. - Oh, he's with the quick one, I like it. - One tongue, one tongue jobber. In this world, we must find out what is Flex drinking? - All right, so I actually went out and got some festive stuff, Greg. - Oh. - Unlike just saying the can looks festive. - All right, dick. - Like a noob.

Since you are, you're a noob. - Yeah, I haven't done this very much. - No. Do you even podcast, bro? - Yeah. - Do you even podcast, bro? - Once or twice. - So I got Abomination Brewing, which I think I had them for Halloween with their pumpkin milkshake beer that they did. - Okay. - Can't remember what it was called. And I got Wandering Into the Snow, 'cause Wandering Into the Fog is one of their series, I guess, like an IPA series.

So they did a couple Christmas-themed ones. I didn't pick the one that had the spices, it was brewed with lactose and spices. So this one is double dry hopped, double IPA with lactose and marshmallows. - Oh. - So kind of like a classic-y milkshake-y. Untapped, it's a collective 405, so I beat your 401. No, you know. - Damn it. - Not saying anything. It's also a 9.1% ABV,

so it's right in daddy's wheelhouse. We like them bad boys. - Daddy. - And there's no description on Untapped, it's great. - Oh. - That's the best. - Might be the best beer ever. - Yeah. The one I read was stone level long. - Yeah, it just has the tasting notes highlighted. It's a marshmallow, sweet, smooth, lactose mouthfeel. - Beautiful. - When I poured this bad boy out, it had those large, soapy bubbles. It's kind of nice. It has this pale,

light yellow color to it. - Yeah. - Very beautiful. Not a lot of lacing. - No, very little. - But also not a lot of carbonation. - Okay. - Which I dig in it, right? - While you sip into that and warm up the tongue dropper, I'll say the last time you had abomination was the last time Coley was here. - How long ago was that? - September 6th. - Wow. - Been a couple months. - It has been. - That's all right, we might not get around a lot. So this is, the carbonation is low, right? So you don't get a lot of the bubbles. It's 9.1 ABV,

I don't know where. Right? It is very hoppy. - Straight to your hips. - It's not sweet as the, I shouldn't say it's not sweet. It's not overly sweet like the description. You know, it says sweet. You would think like something that's kind of like, wow, that's a lot. It actually, it's fantastic tasting. It's very hoppy. - Nice. - Shocking at how much of the hops you get in there being a milkshake. And then you really get that vanilla, marshmallowy flavor on the back end. It's fucking delicious.

- Nice, sounds good. - Did it fit the algorithm? - Oh yeah. How'd the price work? - Let me show you guys the label. It's very simple, right? It's like snowy with the trees. A little bit of the Christmas lights underneath the name. - Oh yes. - It's not the best can art because of like how detailed it is, but it's like, it's simple enough and to the point and it's festive. The 9.1 is huge. That's like 10 out of 10,

right? And it was-- - 9.1 out of 10. - 20.99 for the four pack, which Californians think is great. - Steel, two please. - Little bit out of my range, but with that ABV and now this flavor of it, it totally passes. - That's great. I only asked 'cause Nick and I went to Total Wine yesterday to get some beer for our little Friendsmas thing. - That's where I got it actually. - Oh really? Well, I saw this beer that had can art and it was like an angry face cat and it was like a vanilla coffee stout and it was called a cat Pacino.

- Oh yeah. - And like a cat Pacino. Yeah, it was really cute. And the art was cute. Like I said, it's like a real life cat and they like dress it up and it was all their other cans too, like had cats like doing like interesting things. Like there was like a pregnant lady's body and a cat head on it. Like it was very interesting. And it wasn't that expensive for a four pack and Nick's like, he didn't call it an algorithm though. He's like, does it meat flexes something or whatever? And I'm like, it's called an algorithm, Nick. And he's like, yeah, yeah, that. I'm like,

well, we'll find out. I mean, it was actually really good. I don't know if you tried it, but. - Which brewery? - It's called, hold on here. - I had the- - Party Beer Company. And this beer only has two total, I guess, check-ins. It doesn't even have, it has one rating. So there's no score on it. - Someone's garage. - Hold please. - Yeah, I had the outside normal brewery. - It's a craft brewery in West Adams, Los Angeles. I've never even heard of West Adams. - It's like a neighborhood. - I live here. Out of all of their ratings, there are 3.6. Like the brewery itself,

I don't know. I've never really looked at brewery ratings on Untappd. I've just looked at the beer, - People are harsh. - I think it's just an average of all their beer ratings. - I mean, it's almost a gray. It's almost a 3.75, so. - 3.76, thank you. - Oh, sorry, 3.76. - 3.81, I forget now. - There was a seven in there. It was a 3.68, so we're close, but. - Did they get a niner in there? - They're in LA. - They got a niner? - And their can art was so cute. It was so weird, but so cute. I could not get over how cute it was. - Funny, yeah,

I had the abnormal. - Yeah, that one was really good too. - That was good, it was like the coffee mocha something. It was really good. - They called it a sweet stout, and I was like, I'm not gonna like that. - It wasn't that sweet. - It wasn't sweet at all. It was great. - It was like 5.5%, I think, it was pretty good. All right, let's get the paddles ready. Dive into the newsflight. [bell rings] Some sad news out of San Diego, Wild Barrel Brewing had its last day in operation on Sunday,

September 10th. I like Wild Barrel. They got sort of popular with some fruited gozas and some sours. I'm sure we've all had it, even if you don't realize it, we've probably all had at least one of their beers at some point. Really? Yeah. They hit Tavor for a while, so I think we all at some point. I think we've had a couple on the show. That's a shame. RIP. Thanks to San Diego Beer News for that one. And then also, this is an interesting one. Second Chance. I just had Second Chance on the show either one or two weeks ago, closes all their San Diego tap rooms.

Second Chance Beer Company tap room in San Diego's North Park and Carmel Mountain neighborhoods have closed. The 8-year-old craft brewery, which supports dog rescues in California, Arizona, held an everything must go sale that included equipment, bar stools, TVs, coolers, decor, furniture, games, and more. However, the Second Chance beers live on in distribution available and they list all the Trader Joe's and whatever markets that they're in. So they must be contract brewing somewhere because Carmel Mountain was their brewery and now that's closed too.

Yeah. How can they say distro if they're closing? Yeah. They must be contracting or something. That was unfortunate. That's the one I said when I had it a couple of weeks ago or a week ago, whatever it was, that we just were in the area for the wife's work thing. I'm like, "Is there a brewery around here?" And like, "Hey, thank God there was." And we liked it. So sad to hear that as well. That's a bummer. And then Colorado Brewery, westbound and down, who fucking cleaned up- Are they loading up and trucking? Yeah. Sure are. They cleaned up at GABF this year, has just acquired both Aspen Brewing and Capitol Creek Brewery.

The deal, which closed on December 1st, includes Aspen 7,000 barrel capacity production facility and both breweries, brew pubs. Aspen operates a brew pub in downtown Aspen and Capitol Creek, has its hometown in Basalt, wherever the hell that is. So interesting, more of these, what do we call them? Strategic partnerships or whatever? Oh yeah. There's so much strategy. All the strategy. They're just a lot of smaller, and when I say smaller, I mean like not stone size or Sierra Nevada size craft breweries,

buying even smaller craft breweries. Interesting. Yeah. All right. That's it for the news. Before we move on to news, real quick, wanted to mention a new product around here. Magic Mind hit me up the other day. It was like, "Hey, you guys want to try our new product?" I was like, "All right." So they sent it to me. It's a little green shot of juice. You know what's funny? Some of the reviews were like, "Just drink it quick and cold." I was like, "Actually, it doesn't taste that bad." Oh good. That's good.

It reminds me of Red Bull a little bit. Some people either hate Red Bull or they love Red Bull. I was like, "I don't mind Red Bull flavor." I don't mind it. It was kind of like that. It's a good flavor. Yeah. I was like, "I don't mind it at all." So anyways, they tried it, and so now they're sort of a partner on the show here. What I loved about it is the coffee, it helps spread out the caffeine from the coffee. So you're not having like three cups a day. You just have like one cup maybe and one of these little shots. It's easy to incorporate into my morning routine. Like I said, it doesn't taste bad at all.

That's awesome. Yeah. So whatever people who didn't like it were like, "I guess..." It'd be fun to find out if those people hated Red Bull too. Yeah. They should do some like marketing surveys. Do some science surveys. Marketing surveys are the best. Yeah, because I thought it was good. So yeah, instead of reaching for more coffee, I'd reach for one of those, drank that, let the caffeine kind of do its thing and work throughout the day. So does it contain caffeine or does it just prolong the effect? It's all prolonging. It's all like natural ingredients,

a lot of herbs and other stuff. No sugar, which I was really liking. Nut-free, vegan, keto, all those things. But yeah, no added caffeine. Yeah. So I liked it. Anyways, if you guys want to try it, magicmind.com/beer. That'll be easy to remember. Always. And we have a code if you want to check it out. Beer20, 50% off your first subscription if you feel like doing their subscription thing or 20% off your one-time purchase. 50% off. You can't go wrong. Right. How do you turn that down? How do you turn that down? So even if you're already a subscriber,

you don't have to do a first time thing. If you've already tried it and you just want to use our code, Beer20 will still get you over 50% off your subscription. And if you haven't tried it and you don't like it, if you're one of those Red Bull people that doesn't like Red Bull, they will give you money back. No questions asked. You don't have to send it back. So they're really good. They say they refund in three to four hours. I like that. Wow. Yeah. Very timely. Sounds fair. Yeah. Better than that Tayvore. Yeah. When they lose packages and still try to charge you for it. Yeah.

Yeah. So, yeah, magicmind.com/beer discount code is Beer20, 56% off subscription or 20% off if you do a one-time purchase. It's also on Amazon too. So if you're unsure, you can go check out the reviews on Amazon and see what people are saying about it as well. So thanks to Magic Mind for jumping on the ship here. The booze cruise, if you will. The booze cruise. Prolong that caffeine, all natural. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't, how can you go wrong with this? Yeah.

It doesn't taste like butt. It doesn't taste like butt? That's a win in my book. 50% off your first subscription. Yeah. Come on. Refund you if you don't like it. Let's get it. It's a win-win for everybody. So go check it out. All right. Let's move on to a little news before we wrap things up. If anybody has been going to X-Golf in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I feel like they're probably pretty hydrated. They did a beer promo that went bad after the Hawkeyes lost to the Wolverines. Which we all knew was going to happen. Okay.

I really thought you said hot guys and not Hawkeyes for a second. Like my brain was processing it and I'm like, what? Yeah. Flex still can't stand up. Yeah. Then it dawned on me. Hawkeyes. Yeah. We all appreciate a little hotness. You know, all of the male form. Yes we do. Well, their latest idea, pour until Iowa scores turned into a lot of pouring. Thanks to a struggling Iowa.

They'd probably have to close down their facility. X-Golf's promo involved the company offering free draft beer until the Hawkeyes scored their first points of the game. I'll never hear that same every night. Right? I'm like hot guys. The game was scheduled for 8 p.m. Eastern last Saturday in Indianapolis. The promo was available for all customers who reserved a bay time before kickoff. The Hawkeyes lost 26 to zero to the Wolverines on Saturday, meaning the indoor golfers who qualified receive free beer for as long as they were playing for about three hours.

Beer flowed as the hot guys could not find the end zone against the Wolverine. In the end, general manager and training Des Briner is estimated between 100 and 200 free beers were served, which equated to way more than $500. Is it? Yeah. I, I was like, well, I wonder how many bays are in this place in three hours, eight bays. But I feel like even if you're not there, come on, but you have multiple people per bay. We have this. So we have a type of X-Golf or top golf or whatever.

Yeah. And it's called Lux Bay. Okay. I think there's probably 30 fucking. Wow. Bays. It's like five levels. Like it's insane. You should do it. Don't they do a promotion with. So they did a promotion like that. What did you say? 100 beers between 100 and 200. Yeah. That, that would have been far more. Yeah. Well, I feel like if I was there, it would have been far more. If, if someone said like, Hey, free beer while this game is still going, I was like,

well, how quick can I drink? He's going to keep drinking. Yeah. Yeah. Turned to Frank the tank all of a sudden. Frank the tank. It's like the high roller in Vegas when you get the bar cart and you can drink all you can drink for 45 minutes. So you go all the way around. It's like, all right, let's fucking go only 45. Huh? We got this six weeks later. That was like years and years ago is with someone else. And we had this apartment and technically it wasn't a part of,

it used to be apartments. They were selling them as like condos that happened in the Valley a lot. Yeah. This was in the Valley in San Fernando Valley. And we were, uh, my buddy and I who, he also were lived there. We were working together and our girlfriends at the time called us and they're like, Hey, they're doing this like circus thing in the parking lot to try and attract potential buyers to come over and uh, open bars. I was like, well, we're done working, aren't we? Yeah. That you don't attract people by a circus. You attract people by open bars. Right? Well, when we got there, they go, Oh yeah, we're,

we're done in like 15 minutes. And they had three bars there. And I was like, well, we got this. So we just started at one and pounded it on our way to the second and then pounded that on our way to the third and just kept doing this loop. We thought, you know, in 15 minutes we'll get enough beers together. Pretty good buzz going or drinks or whatever we're drinking. Um, ended up going for another 45 minutes. Like it wasn't, yeah, they thought it'd close at like eight, but it closed at eight 30 ground control to major Tom. Oh my goodness. There was a problem in the skies that night. Oh,

that's the same night. Oh, all right. The same night I fell off a balcony. Oh, that night. Okay. Yeah. Because once they were almost done, we realized, Oh, it's face palms. And I was like, Oh yeah, I know that story. We thought, let's uh, let's see if we can save some beers. So we started hitting up all these places and asking for a couple of beers cause they were closing soon and then we'd set them outside and we just kept it. We eventually had like 30 something beer sitting outside and somebody found that one of the units that we're using as like a public restroom for the outsiders.

So it wasn't locked. So we just went in there, we brought all these beers in and we started telling other people to bring beers and we fucking partied in this empty condo unit and that's, I was hanging out on the balcony and that's when I fell off the balcony. That's out. Oh my God. Yeah. What cross streets were these apartments? Uh, this is in Woodland Hills. It was on Canoga right at the one Oh one. Oh, called the Met. Okay. I think it's, I don't know if it's still called that, but my friends lived one lived on one off of Topanga right by Strathern.

Just pass like, yeah, pass Roscoe on your way to Strathern. Real streets by the way. Roscoe and Strathern, Topanga. Yeah. And they did the same thing though. They were like apartments and then they were kicking them out cause they were refurbing them and selling them as condos. I'm like, you can't, this is an apartment. It's not a condo. It's like as far from a condo. Yeah. Yeah, man. We partied. Good times. Good times. Yeah. And I didn't die miraculously, which we're all happy for. Yeah. Hallelujah. Uh, new, New Jersey governor vetoes liquor reform bill.

New Jersey governor Phil Murphy, but I love this has conditionally vetoed a proposed liquor license reform bill that included eased restrictions on local breweries in Taperoo. Governor Murphy said in a statement following his conditional veto that the bill does not sufficiently enhance our antiquated liquor license law laws. He instead called for a more modern approach to these prohibition era laws to reflect the current economy and to better support present and future business owners.

He doesn't want like incremental change. He wants it all to be done at once. It's like, it's the fucking government. Nothing happens at once. Yeah, exactly. Uh, would you guys line up for this one? The alchemist releases their 20th anniversary edition of Heddy topper. I probably would only cause I never had it. Have you had the regular any topper? No. Oh, that's good. Still, they just had some at total wine. It's like they got Heddy in there. I was like, I'll give you some Heddy in there. No, I didn't say that. Meet you in the fridge. Yeah. Meow. He's like, wait, I can't get it up.

It's too cold. Problem. Um, let's see. You never 20th anniversary. Heddy topper comes in a revamped can that it reveals more of the silhouette of the signature Heddy topper guy with hops exploding out his upper cranium is known as the Heddy topper guy. I guess. Yeah. It arrives at 10% pours a bright golden hue and bursts with fruity notes of Simcoe hops. You're supposed to drink out of the can too. Yes, you are actually all with the same balance.

I mean all their cans, they should be like a gold can, like same graphic, just like gold. Like Willy Wonka. I agree with that. Yeah, that would be hot. I love gold. Gold. Their head brewer John Kimmich says he plans to brew three more batches of the 20th anniversary brew throughout the course of the year. Each with little tweaks and improvements made along the way. That's neat. Yeah. I don't know how you can tweak perfection, but okay.

What's your further? The fascia. Love it. Yeah. Finally, I'm just going to mention this last story. I'm not going to go into the weeds on. In fact, if you guys want to read it, I will put a link in our show notes to anybody who wants to read it, but interesting article about suggesting beer to go at breweries and the impact that it has on the overall tab of the people drinking. What do you mean suggesting beer to go? So the beer tender, as you're like closing out saying, Hey,

you want to take a four pack to go or can I get you anything to go? You know, something like that. Basically supersizing your meal at McDonald's. Yeah. And I'm a consumer whore and how. Right. Exactly. And I used to work at McDonald's. So I'm always interested in like that space of consumer whores and hospitality and all that stuff. So I found the article really interesting. Like I said, I won't go deep into it, but when people suggested beer to go, guests were almost 50% more likely to buy beer. And in 2022,

suggesting for some reason seemed to stop. It took a huge dive. It went from something like 46 or 48% of people taking beer to go down to like the twenties. Obviously people should be suggesting beer to go. It's quick and easy and people, no one's going to get mad. Like, Hey, you want to take four packs? No, I'm good. It's not like, Hey, shut the fuck up. Why are you suggesting this? Gun to your head. What do you want? I'm much more angry at the fucking automatic tip calculator they put on there. I thought it was interesting. I'll let you guys read it. Link in show notes if you want to.

I don't know. With beer to go, I usually have already like in my mind, I'm like, I'm going to go to this said brewery and I'm like, this is what I'm going to get. Like I already have it in mind. Yeah. So if I go to a, uh, an establishment and I'm just like, I'm just going to like order a couple of beers. So yeah. Like you said, if they say, Hey, like anything to go, it's really easy for me to be like, give that Midwest, uh, you know, next time, not today.

It sounds like me at the dentist when they want to give me x-rays, I go, Oh, let's do it next time. I don't have time this time. I just laugh at my dentist. But it's been a year since we've had your last x-ray. I know. I'm like, Oh, mine's like, Hey, you want the laser gum treatment for $3,000? Like, no, why not? Cause it's $3,000 asshole. Yeah. That's me at the brewery. She was like, Hey, you want to be here to gun? I'm good. Are you sure? I said, I'm good. Thanks. You know, I usually know whether I'm going to be buying beer to go or not very rarely. I mean, if it's somewhere I've never been, I'm probably more likely to be influenced at a brewery that like,

isn't local to you. Yeah. I'm more likely to be influenced. You're a few, a few hours away. Maybe you have something really good off on tap and they just so happen to have it in cans. Yes, sir. Or ma'am, I will take a four pack of that to go. Or like if I stop in at, um, there does not exist. I will find out what's in cans first and then drink. Try it. That way I can try it before I buy the cans. Not that they ever have a bad one, but, uh, genius. Yeah. You just don't know if it's something you want to take with you. That's right. What if I'm not feeling it that day or not,

you know, feeling a Westy or a Pilsner, but you know, who knows? So anyways, nerd alert, feel a Pilsner or a Westy. Well, you know, what if I'm in a, you could use better examples. All right. What if I'm not feeling a fucking Saison? That's good. Cause I'm never feeling a Saison. No, not typically. Hey, it tastes like wet hay and socks. There's hints of manure. I was just going to stand you here up in the background. Good bye Mr. Ed. Yeah, no thanks. All right. Let's wrap things up over here.

Like a Christmas present. Yeah, exactly. Uh, or a Hanukkah present. Thank you all for joining, for hanging out. Make sure you follow us on the socials at Craft Beer Republic, at flex me a beer underscores in between. And of course at ice cold beer underscores after each one. 805 538 beer mail@craftbeerrepublic.com. We'll be back with our, uh, festive holiday episode next week. So festive. It's my, we're going to do what is my favorite thing. I've been thinking about it for about four weeks now.

Yes. And I'm not talking about flex. So, uh, stay tuned for that. Hope everyone is staying very well hydrated. And on that note, good night everybody.