Grappa 101 For Whiskey Lovers

A bowling alley debrief turns into a full‑on flavor expedition as we line up four grappas—two store‑bought and two homemade, barrel‑aged bottles from an Italian cousin—and see what happens when whiskey palates meet pomace brandy. We set the scene with Detroit’s spring drinking season (Pączki Day, St. Patrick’s parades, and Opening Day) and then dive into what grappa really is, why it can smell volatile, and how a good barrel can turn rough edges into something honeyed, floral, and unexpectedly smooth.

We start with two clear bottles at 80 proof and get our first lesson fast: nose isn’t destiny. One shows a minty finish and light texture; the other wafts acetone but drinks like white grape juice with more charm than you’d guess. Then the homemade, barrel‑aged pair arrives, and everything changes. The aroma softens, the heat recedes, and we find notes that drift toward mead and stone fruit, though not everyone is convinced. That disagreement is the point. Palate is part memory and part map—shaped by bad scotch holidays, beloved bourbons, and the drinks your grandparents swore by.

Between sips, we chase Olympic obsessions (curling scuffles, Super‑G chaos, judged sports drama) and take stock of Detroit bar news, including a beloved tiki spot closing and what that says about glassware costs, flaming garnishes, and $23 cocktails in a post‑covidian world. If you’re Italy‑bound, we share practical moves: try grappa as an ammazzacaffè after espresso, consider caffè corretto if you like a spike, and don’t be shocked if a small family bottle outperforms the label you know.

By the final toast, we’ve built a compact guide to tasting grappa like a pro: understand the pomace origin, respect the heads‑and‑tails reality, taste past the first whiff, and appreciate how cask time can coax out rounder flavors. Not every sip will be your forever pour, but curiosity pays off when a glass carries a place, a family, and a story. If you’re a whiskey fan eyeing new terrain—or just grappa‑curious—this ride is for you.

Enjoyed the show? Subscribe, leave a quick review, and share this episode with a friend who needs a new after‑dinner ritual.

Chapters

• 0:00 Bowling, Banter, And Introductions
• 2:25 Detroit’s Spring Drinking Season
• 5:10 Olympics Fever And Curling Lore
• 9:30 What Exactly Is Grappa?
• 13:45 Store‑Bought Grappa Tasting Begins
• 18:40 Heads, Tails, And Surprising Flavors
• 22:30 Barrel‑Aged Homemade Grappa
• 28:20 Palates, Scotch Trauma, And Honesty
• 33:10 Detroit Bar News And Tiki Talk
• 38:00 Limoncello, Inside Jokes, And Closing Toasts

Transcript

Bowling, Banter, And Introductions

Jamie Flanagan 0:00

Yeah, crying, crying shame. Nope. Nope.

Matt Fox 0:04

There it is.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

I said hey.

unknown 0:08

Hey.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

Welcome to the Mackay Happy Hour. I said hey. Hey. Welcome to the Mac Cave Happy Hour. We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar.

Jamie Flanagan 0:29

It is time for happy hour. It is the man cave. Happy hour, whiskey, cigars, spirits, the stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan.

Matt Fox 0:37

That guy over there with the Duchesne smile is August Kitchen. Is August Gitchlag?

August Gitshlag 0:44

Matt Fox over there did not bowl with us today. But he did show up just because he wanted to up the sexy factor at the Madison Park Bowl. Well, thank you. Where we started.

Matt Fox 0:54

Do you know what Duchesne means?

Jamie Flanagan 0:56

I don't know. Somebody at their word of the day toilet things going, right? He's a hockey player. Is this a TikTok trend? I don't know about.

Matt Fox 1:01

No, it's a genuine smile. That's what it is. It's a genuine smile. When you smile, you can see, you know, the actual crow's feet on your hey, watch your goddamn fucking mouth.

August Gitshlag 1:11

I thought you were my fucking friend, damn it. I just had this conversation with my thanks for that. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

I love you, man. Come on. I know.

August Gitshlag 1:22

I know. We have some other familiar faces in the uh David Wright.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

I am the motor city hypnotist to just popping in early for a drink before my podcast. Yeah. I'll be here. Yes, I do quite often.

August Gitshlag 1:32

You get to hypnotize me out of eating potato chips. I've been asking to do this for like a few years.

Matt Fox 1:35

If that's what you want, we can do it.

August Gitshlag 1:37

Yeah, let's let's try that.

Matt Fox 1:38

You should guys do a competition one of these days. I make for great radio.

August Gitshlag 1:42

And we have a second time in a calendar year. No, you weren't here this calendar year, were you, Matt? Not in 206.

Matt Fox 1:47

You were here in 25.

August Gitshlag 1:50

Third time overall.

SPEAKER_05 1:51

So welcome back, Matt. Thank you. Thank you. I'm hoping to get hit. He's a veteran now. I am. I'm hoping to get hypnotized into like maybe drinking some scotch. Absolutely. I can't stand that stuff. And Matt, who'd you bring with you? Oh, I brought my uh longtime friend, Mr. Shane Force. That sounds made up. Oh, it's real. It's real. Sounds made up. Suburban connoisseur, extraordinaire, West Michigan resident. Overall, good beef. Excellent.

August Gitshlag 2:14

Fantastic.

SPEAKER_05 2:14

Well, welcome to the Man Cave Happy Hour, gentlemen.

August Gitshlag 2:17

Welcome back.

Detroit’s Spring Drinking Season

Jamie Flanagan 2:18

So it's been it is people listen whenever, however, wherever, but we are in the throes of February, and this is just like an insane five days of shenanigans.

August Gitshlag 2:29

The high holy holidays of drunken obligation are upon us, Jamie. Oh my god, we're 40 so I'm 41 days out from St.

Jamie Flanagan 2:36

Patrick's or something like that.

August Gitshlag 2:37

And that's like the not even the last one. It starts with the punchy run, which, by the way, I am now the official announcer. So uh they handed me the microphone and said, You can talk, Am Tramic. Here you go.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

And I'm like, Good morning, Am Tramic!

August Gitshlag 2:51

It's been berserk original, right? So for yeah, that is original. Yeah, no, I do it every year in the pirate in the canoe races. That's how I opened the canoe races the last 20 years. So I brought it to Punchkey Run. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 3:03

So people not in Metro Detroit or with Polish heritage, a Punchkey is uh basically a a donut that that's filled with uh with a lot of cus, usually custard or raspberry.

August Gitshlag 3:16

I guess the question was you took all the fat and lard and sugar you had left in your house and you cooked it all up for Tuesday before you uh before you go into Lent and sacrifice it. It's all Catholic math and cult stuff.

Jamie Flanagan 3:26

So the Saturday before they do a uh a run in honor of the punchkies. Yes, the running of the punchkeys. Yes, we'll call it uh the running of the punchkeys and they're not as they're not their horns aren't as sharp as bulls.

August Gitshlag 3:37

You just little words you get a little prune, juice, a little custard on you. Right, little custard on you squirts curt, you know.

Jamie Flanagan 3:44

And then Sunday, our friends over at Whiskey Taco Foxtrot had their uh whiskey uh we monthly whiskey tasting.

August Gitshlag 3:50

They had their whiskey tasting. Uh that wasn't part of the high holy holidays of drunken obligation, but it is it was fell in the midst of this weekend. Fell in the midst.

Matt Fox 3:57

All I hear is you've been busy.

August Gitshlag 3:58

Yeah, well, then the next one, of course, is tomorrow.

Jamie Flanagan 4:01

Well, and today is uh President's Day. We had it off, so you go bowling and have a couple of weeks.

August Gitshlag 4:05

So we had 13 people at the Madison Park bowling alley today. Had a little little uh squad goals at a little chat group, bowl off. Second annual. Yeah, second annual.

Jamie Flanagan 4:14

We like our Monday holidays in uh government workers and uh you get the holiday off, and then they go against bowling.

August Gitshlag 4:22

Then tomorrow is Punchki Day. Punchkey Day proper. Starts at a brunch at my house. No, you cannot have the address.

Jamie Flanagan 4:27

Uh which is it's like it it if you're gonna liken it to something, it's uh like St. Patrick's Day for Polish people at the end of the day. But only in Ham Tramic. It's St. Patrick's Day only in Ham Track. Only in Ham Tramic.

August Gitshlag 4:38

Every bar fills up, they open at seven, it's insane. Crowds are 10, 11, 12, and then by two, three o'clock in the afternoon, it's madness.

Matt Fox 4:44

Oh, it's because it's day drinking, and then by six o'clock, everyone's asleep.

August Gitshlag 4:48

Oh, not at small, not at smalls. They just get they just get warmed up over there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stand corrected. Smalls is for the people that actually go to work and then want to go have shenanigans. Oh. Or flananagans, as they call them.

SPEAKER_06 4:59

Flananigans is the plug pulled promptly at midnight.

Olympics Fever And Curling Lore

August Gitshlag 5:02

Like no, then it's just zombies. So walking dead. Walking dead show up around 10, to be honest with you. I didn't know if we could. It was like 12 midnight. The 18 years at Bartender and Ham Tramic, that that that closing shift for Punchkey Day was literally you were the dude with the baseball bat with barbed wire around and just smacking zombies out of the bar. Just get the out of here. So, so back to it. And then the next day would be St. Patrick's Parade Day. St. Patrick's Parade Day. St. Patrick's Parade. The next high holy holiday of drunken obligation. Then actual St. Patrick's Day, which is also a Tuesday. Yeah. Don't know what we're gonna do.

Matt Fox 5:41

Is it a Tuesday or Wednesday this year? It's a Tuesday. Is it okay?

August Gitshlag 5:44

Yeah, and then it all wraps up with opening day.

Matt Fox 5:47

Oh my gosh, yeah.

August Gitshlag 5:48

And so we are amongst that the spring drinking season, gentlemen. It is prepare thy livers.

Matt Fox 5:53

And we have to make sure that we do prepare because JV is back in the freaking rotation.

August Gitshlag 5:58

So for a year, anyway. Yeah. I don't think every white man over 40's dream has come true. Uh Justin Berlander is going to retire in the cloud screen. Yes, sir. I think you said Kate Upton wrong. I didn't say Kate Upton wrong. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 6:12

What about the uh Olympics closing ceremonies? I mean, that's a real, you know, that's a real part of the time. Is that a tear? I'm wearing an Olympic hat.

August Gitshlag 6:20

Shane's wearing Olympics hat. I'm I'm a junkie for this stuff. Right.

Jamie Flanagan 6:23

Curling, I've been I've been hooked on the curling. Oh, I'm hooked on the screen. Now it's like it's like full contact curling, man. They're going to be able to get it.

August Gitshlag 6:29

Oh, the Canadians are full contact curling. Oh, yeah. Illegal contact Canadians. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 6:34

Yeah, yeah. They are cussing, they're cussing and swearing and getting it. Oh, they're all ramboxes out on the curling.

August Gitshlag 6:41

And the Canadian women barely got by in their semifinal today.

Jamie Flanagan 6:44

Yeah.

August Gitshlag 6:45

I think the American women are gonna be.

Matt Fox 6:46

So you're paying attention, is what you're saying.

August Gitshlag 6:48

Oh, every day, every night all day long. It's all in the corner of my one screen. There's always something going on. All right. The alpine skiing has been fascinating. The whole existence of the Super G. You gotta go 100 miles an hour down a course. You don't get to see it until 90 minutes before. You get no practice runs. Right, right. Go. Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, they got your best sticking lines there on.

SPEAKER_08 7:07

Yeah, they got some more lines. Yeah, some P lines.

Matt Fox 7:11

The thrill of putting the thrill of putting two sticks on your feet. Go a Mach 5 with your hair on fire. It's exhilarating. I'm telling you. You gotta try it.

August Gitshlag 7:18

You were in Olympic Hopeful. You were just in like in Lake Placid. Right. Weren't you? In upstate New York skiing?

Matt Fox 7:24

No.

unknown 7:24

I thought you were.

Matt Fox 7:26

No. I would love to.

August Gitshlag 7:27

You're talking about your days as a skeleton racer.

Matt Fox 7:29

Yes. Okay.

August Gitshlag 7:31

Doubles.

Matt Fox 7:33

With my venom helmet. Yes.

August Gitshlag 7:35

Yeah, the one where they lay on the lay on top of each other face to face.

unknown 7:40

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

That sounds amazing. I think I saw that too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

I will say the American figure skaters are kind of choking. Well, let's see how my wife's the figure skating judge. So she's something is the these skaters are are they great for the things that I have a hard time in their heads.

August Gitshlag 8:02

I have a hard time with figure skating, diving, and anything else that has judges that can be corrupted.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Well, and I've I've said this for my whole life. If you want to play a sport where you know who wins and loses, don't have judges. Right. But also when you're the quad god, don't fall. Or umpires.

August Gitshlag 8:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:19

Or I I I mean when you're the best guy in the world, don't fall.

August Gitshlag 8:22

That's the other option. Right. Right. Yeah. So the women still have a chance the the to take all three. Right. Right. They can take all three spots on the podium. The women figure skate. I only know this because my best friend is a very big figure skating fan. He used to figure skate, Mr. Roland Leggett. Everyone knows Roland. And he's he's been talking about this for like the last six months.

Jamie Flanagan 8:42

Okay.

August Gitshlag 8:42

Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 8:42

So so yeah, it's the Olympics are fun. It's you can turn curling into a drinking game. I'm I'm totally not. You didn't have to. It's just fun. It's fun.

August Gitshlag 8:52

The Summer Olympics, I still go back and put on surfing every once in a while just to calm down. It's a great little therapy. Like they're VG, and it's just like the rolling waves, and there's no one yelling, hard, hard. They're just surfing, you know. No, no.

unknown 9:06

No.

What Exactly Is Grappa?

Jamie Flanagan 9:07

So I is that like a Detroit in the Midwest end? Because uh in the Metro Detroit area, we're all men of a certain age, and you know, we we didn't have cable, it was two, four, seven, nine, twenty, and fifteen, fifty six. Curling on nine. So on nine, yeah, we would have we'd get the Canadian TV over here and we'd get the curling. Uh that's when they had the brooms, they had the real broom brooms. Yeah, so we used to watch curling all the time. I don't know if it's more intriguing to us because culturally where we came up, because I don't know if I don't know if it's that intense around in other parts of the country. Well, Minnesota, right? So Minnesota. But again, they're they're another border, they're another border country, right? So it's huge.

August Gitshlag 9:48

There's a lot more clubs there. Yeah. Here's a clip that's been flying around Instagram because of you know, curling is the hottest thing. Like it's a 1972 USA versus Canada match, and they're literally curling with cigarettes in their mouth. I love it. It's in like black and white. I love that. And the Americans look like they win, so the one guy jumps up to celebrate, lands, slips on his ass, hits the ground, and then kicks one of the rocks, and it's a huge controversy because they don't know what to do. Oh man, but they don't have all the finish.

Jamie Flanagan 10:18

Oh my god. That's uh that's America. Back in my day.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

There's uh the uh Detroit has a curling club. Ferndale. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Ferndale. My my wife, my wife went with her work. My friends are boxing outing, or whatever they call it.

August Gitshlag 10:33

They're all in those leagues there. Yeah, it's a thing.

Jamie Flanagan 10:35

All right, we're gonna we're gonna we mentioned, I don't know if we mentioned it or not. No, we didn't actually get into some grappa. There's some grappa we're gonna try to watch your mouth.

SPEAKER_05 10:43

Well, in honor of the Olympics being in Italy, okay was apropos.

August Gitshlag 10:47

Hey, you're getting your Italian boost. You're getting your Italian boost. The the street crap. That woman who did the the uh the super super G or whatever, right? Giant slalom in the super G, she has no knee. Michaela Michaela Ship? No, no, no, no. The Italian woman. Oh, yeah, the Italian one, yeah, yeah. Ten months ago, she the scars all the way down her leg, so she couldn't even walk after she won. It's just Italy's getting their Olympic boost, and I'm here for it. Yeah, fair enough. They're they're they're they're stepping up.

Jamie Flanagan 11:12

So when we do that, just everybody should uh like and subscribe and leave a comment and and do all those internet things and all the internet places. Thank you. Yeah, it helps, it really does. Uh it the I was it was funny. I was talking to a young lady earlier today. Uh-huh. Really? Did she know? She's something of an internet uh old you actually are since how much did she charge?

August Gitshlag 11:32

Damn, you won't you pay the extra money to hide your age on Tinder?

Jamie Flanagan 11:36

Jesus, Mary and Joseph. You you opened the you opened the door. I know, I don't know, I don't know. I did uh I did an interview with uh this young lady named Allie the Piper. Yes, she plays a bagpipe, so she's a rock and roll bagpiper. It's she's insane, but she has like 20 million followers and her videos. It's it's crazy. And she's coming to town, she's gonna play the Motor City Irish Fest, and I interviewed her for the My Irish Radio. There it is.

August Gitshlag 12:04

Oh, where's my hat? Oh my Irish radio drop time. Oh, I can't leave it out, can't you?

SPEAKER_02 12:11

I brought the Blarney Stone with me.

Jamie Flanagan 12:14

So but we were talking about how it just even at her 20 million you know views, it it's it's it's the every thumbs up, every like is is helpful. And so we I thank everybody for for being there and then following and watching and giving a like or giving a comment. It's huge.

August Gitshlag 12:32

I'm curious though if we're gonna be thanking Matt after this.

unknown 12:35

Mr.

Matt Fox 12:36

Conti? Yeah, no, well grappa.

Jamie Flanagan 12:38

No, with that being said, Grappa.

SPEAKER_05 12:42

It's okay. I'll I'll get over it.

SPEAKER_02 12:43

Okay, so so let me just write off the bat, what in the hell is Grappa?

SPEAKER_05 12:47

That's what we're looking at. There it is. Grappa, as I understand, I mean no expert, but I believe it's sort of a brandy. I believe sort of a brandy made from the all the good stuff, I think, goes into wine, and then everything else goes into grappa. Stems, this is uh peaks and claws.

August Gitshlag 13:03

It's probably organic material left over after the winemaking process. So you'd have bologna, right? Well, it's it's like the peels, the stems, all the organic material, then becomes a distillant.

Jamie Flanagan 13:16

It's like a joint from distillant.

August Gitshlag 13:19

It's part of that's the mash bill, stems and seeds, whatever's left over.

Store‑Bought Grappa Tasting Begins

SPEAKER_05 13:22

Yep. And it turns into you know a drinkable 40% alcohol. Will be the joint. Well, we'll find out about that. But it turns into a spirit drinkable, bump the brakes on that drinkable, maybe or maybe not. But I have um a couple bottles there. The the darker ones were so those have actually come from Italy. My cousin in Italy makes these. Oh boy, okay, yes, and so he's my cousin, he's a little older, he's 75.

August Gitshlag 13:45

But so you're you're the same generation, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 13:47

We're the same generation, however. But his his daughter came to visit a couple summers ago, 2024, and brought these two bottles that he had made. One of them's been open, but one has not. And then just for comparison, there's a couple store store-bought versions. Yeah, and all right.

August Gitshlag 14:04

So, how what is there a recommended order of operations here?

SPEAKER_05 14:07

No recommended order. I'm gonna recommend we go light to dark and Shane has tried these. I'm gonna recommend we start with the store. Yes, I I was gonna say the same thing.

August Gitshlag 14:16

Let's see what the difference is. All right, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 14:19

Okay, all right. And is there so there's two store ones here? Yes, crappa italiano cafo. I'm good.

August Gitshlag 14:25

It's like I just anybody else need a water before we get into this. I I I brought one in two of the I I was planning ahead.

Jamie Flanagan 14:32

I'm like, I might need a little something, something to rinse my glass and rinse my palate. Well, we have four different things to try. I like rinsing the palate between. I have some nuts over here, some mixed nuts. If anyone wants a salty snack in between the tastes as well, you don't have a syringe over there, do you? No, I don't.

unknown 14:49

Okay.

Jamie Flanagan 14:49

All right. So, what what do we want to know uh about this? Matt, do you got your readers on?

SPEAKER_05 14:54

I do.

Jamie Flanagan 14:54

Do we want to start with that one or this one?

SPEAKER_05 14:56

So either one, I believe they're both, you know, they're both made in Italy. Okay, imported, as far as the the quality of them, couldn't tell you, but the one the one at Matt's holding there was a little more expensive, but not expensive.

Matt Fox 15:08

It's a distillata dot are we talking about$30 bottle here?

SPEAKER_05 15:11

Yeah, that one's probably$35, that one's maybe$25. Okay. And then these are priceless, of course.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

So so to be called. Again, maybe a dumb question. To be called grappa, does it have to be made in Italy?

SPEAKER_05 15:22

I believe it has to be made in Italy in a certain fashion. There can't be added grape juice, it's only the solids, I believe.

Jamie Flanagan 15:30

Like champagne has to come from champagne has to come from a certain region.

SPEAKER_05 15:33

And I think bourbon has to come from America. Like bourbon has to come from the U.S. We can even we can make grappa, but I don't know if we can call it the same thing. If you're trying to sell it, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Matt Fox 15:43

This is uh it's uh 80-proof.

August Gitshlag 15:45

80 proof? So let's let's go with the the AI because it always helps, right? Mine if I grapple is a fragrant Italian cracking them all. Well that Coman's brandy made from distilling the leftover grape skins, seeds, and stems from winemaking, making it a sustainable spirit that captures the essence of the grape. That's a little hand job to grappa, right there. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 16:03

That was a good point. I didn't realize Matt was moon lending as an A AI writer.

August Gitshlag 16:07

Yeah, it's typically clear with an alcoholic content of 35 to 60 percent, often served as uh after dinner digestif or added to a capertif almost or whatever. I don't do words well. Digest, yeah, something you eat after drink after you eat. And I that's interesting. Modern techniques have smoothed this once harsh reputation. Nice.

SPEAKER_05 16:26

And I wonder if the modern techniques, so the the homemade ones are barrel-aged, so those are a little darker.

August Gitshlag 16:33

I think now that I can see that that is a that is honestly if I was making grappa, I would have color it in a barrel.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Take one down, pass it around.

August Gitshlag 16:44

It's got a nose. I don't know which one you want.

SPEAKER_05 16:46

You want to have a lot of nose. The smaller the better, I think, for send that one down.

Jamie Flanagan 16:54

Zingy, zingy, zingy.

August Gitshlag 16:55

Oi, oi, oi.

Jamie Flanagan 16:58

Okay.

August Gitshlag 16:59

Shiny got one?

Jamie Flanagan 17:00

Thank you. There you go. After that initial nose.

August Gitshlag 17:07

It's more soft. Well, it is a product of Italy. It says right right in the bottle, so I trust that.

Matt Fox 17:12

It's in Italian.

August Gitshlag 17:15

This one's 80 proof.

Jamie Flanagan 17:17

No, that's just italics. It's not really.

SPEAKER_05 17:19

Has anyone tried it yet? Or uh we're all just talking about it. We're all sniffing and talking for shaving with a stagiana. Pronounce it properly. Ostagiana.

Matt Fox 17:30

That's exactly what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

I expected a lot worse. Yeah, so did I. That's better than Malore. Watch your fucking movie.

SPEAKER_06 17:49

No, no. I don't want to get it.

Matt Fox 17:53

No, you're a good go-between, Shane. You're you're alright. You're in a good spot.

August Gitshlag 17:56

Is it bitter? No, I did just one swig it because I just got your whole one where I was drinking uh Spiritus and what's the uh what's the Slovakian version of it? Rakia. Something like that. It was just tough. What's the Serbians on the plum brandy sleeve of it? Sleeve of it, that's what it was. Yes, and that was much harsher. That like that was enamel off the teet stuff. This was not what I expected.

Matt Fox 18:21

I'll be honest, it's like it's like a a light whiskey.

Jamie Flanagan 18:24

Yeah, is there a mint in it?

Matt Fox 18:26

I'm getting a little uh on the back end, on the back end on the palate, as a sitting, it's a little mint in there, yeah.

August Gitshlag 18:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But who knew? I mean, but just wait till your burp flavor comes up.

Matt Fox 18:37

Um that that happens at like 2 a.m. in the morning.

August Gitshlag 18:40

Really? Okay, it's heartburn.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

Oh no, okay, and that was what that was a cheap bottle. Yeah, this was actually this was no, this that was the other clear one. I was gonna say cheap. Okay, so it's 30 to 25. Yeah, this is probably 35 bucks.

August Gitshlag 18:54

Other ones. I'll tell you what, Maddie. No one's ever touched that bottle of PBR whiskey you brought. No way, it's just such a great bottle on the shelf. I was like, really? And I'm like, if you want to, they're like, maybe I don't. I'm like, maybe you don't. It's a talking point. It's a talking point. It's all right forever. PBR did what? Made by New Holland. How many seconds? Made by New Holland, drained through a hole in a barrel, so it had to be in the barrel for like X amount of seconds to call it whiskey. It's such a great novelty, and I all appreciate that gift. It's a gift that keeps on giving the whole year and many years since.

SPEAKER_05 19:27

And you'll have it forever.

August Gitshlag 19:28

I probably will no one will drink it. Probably will. Yeah, like that bottle of mezcal with the worm in 1982 that my parents had. That was my entire channel before I knew what mezcal was. That bottle is in my yeah, it had the worm in it. Is it that bottle's been in my parents' basement? It might still be to this day, really. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 19:46

All right, here comes uh grappa number two, another clear boy. The a little more affordable. Yeah, there's a discard cup. If anybody wants to cover the card, yeah, I got another discard cup also.

SPEAKER_06 19:59

I'll guess we can have a moment to slice the discard cup there, please.

Jamie Flanagan 20:02

Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_06 20:03

You you gotta show too much. No, that's fine. That's fine. We can share these. This is hard. All right, this is elementary. Got called out. I'll finish it. Yeah, I just watered mine down, and this is this is way better than I remember the last time I hit grapple.

Matt Fox 20:17

All right. What about this one?

SPEAKER_06 20:19

Well, we didn't we're getting there. We're getting there, my box.

August Gitshlag 20:21

Yeah, this is uh see.

Matt Fox 20:22

This has got a different nose on it, and this one makes me afraid because after this, after this, it's a bit stronger nose.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

We have a question for Shane.

Matt Fox 20:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 20:30

Uh-oh.

Matt Fox 20:31

We got a question.

unknown 20:32

All right.

SPEAKER_05 20:33

So we're gonna try this one.

Matt Fox 20:34

See you.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Yeah, the uh this is a different nose on the thing. It's a little less pleasant. Is it the other more acetone?

SPEAKER_06 20:43

It's very diplomatic.

August Gitshlag 20:45

Is acetone what you're smelling? It smells like when I've run it, I've run a still in a garage. Yeah, this is the first stuff that comes out is this smell. You if you ever watch those moonshiner shows that talk about the the heads and the tails, and that this smells like the acetone heads. Really? Raw. A little raw.

Matt Fox 21:01

Did you say acetones?

August Gitshlag 21:03

I said fingers.

SPEAKER_05 21:04

May actually uh call for a discard, but let's see.

August Gitshlag 21:06

No, it's not gonna call for a discard. You hit the hit the button. Yeah, yeah. Inappropriate, but I had to give it a oh, it just smells rough, guys.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Yeah, I don't know. It's it's it's it doesn't taste as bad as it smells.

SPEAKER_05 21:20

You can taste uh some grapes. You're absolutely right, yeah.

August Gitshlag 21:23

Yeah, like it is a terrifying nose with a holy there's the I like the taste of this one better than it's a lot of things. Like a white grape.

Jamie Flanagan 21:31

Like a white grape, grape juice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a white grape juice.

August Gitshlag 21:34

I don't disagree, but it it smells like it's gonna melt the enamel off your teeth.

SPEAKER_06 21:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I want August right copy for my next bottle of blend.

August Gitshlag 21:43

Yeah, I'm sure you do.

SPEAKER_06 21:45

Frightening.

Jamie Flanagan 21:46

But I still wouldn't label it as pleasurable. I love it. Yeah, I wouldn't seek it out.

SPEAKER_05 21:52

No. I wouldn't seek it out, but it was actually much better than the much better than the smell would indicate. You know, we've done we've had that happen. Before I don't know, we were drinking it in an espresso. I think I think that was the problem. Correcto.

Jamie Flanagan 22:04

Yeah. So what do people do with grappa? Matt, can you like search on your thing and say, what do people do with a coffee?

Barrel‑Aged Homemade Grappa

SPEAKER_05 22:11

A lot of times they'll put it in espresso. So there's a espresso, yeah. So there's a term espresso correcto, which is corrected coffee, corrected espresso espresso. They'll put grappa in it, or they'll put sambuka. Okay. And sambuka, which that's my uncle always used to do that, and kind of like that.

August Gitshlag 22:30

Sambuca, I've had sambuca with coffee beans. Yes. That's it's commonly happens here. The uh high-end even the whiskey in the jar would do it every once in a while. Throw a coffee bean if we had some.

Matt Fox 22:40

Yeah, that's like it's the uh cafe uh corretto.

SPEAKER_05 22:42

Cafe corretto, yeah.

Matt Fox 22:43

It's a corrected coffee, it's a little splash of grappa into an espresso.

SPEAKER_05 22:48

Yeah, the thing is, I so Shane actually came we uh about 10 years ago now. It's been and we went and uh Shane's observation was he goes, I don't want to put it in the coffee because it it then ruins the coffee.

Matt Fox 22:59

Well, that's when you do that's when you do what they call the Amaz Cafe. If you're a coffee aficionado, I get that. It says a coffee killer tradition where a small amount of grappa is consumed directly after coffee.

August Gitshlag 23:10

That might be the ticket right there, right?

Matt Fox 23:12

Yeah, so you do your coffee and then you do the uh afterwards.

August Gitshlag 23:14

Afterwards, yep. So, Shane, this is your first time on the podcast. We may have the dark dark grappa next. So we have a minute and we need to talk to you. Yeah, so uh Jamie, you have a question for Shane.

Jamie Flanagan 23:25

It's uh you know, that tell us about your childhood. There it is.

SPEAKER_05 23:29

That's the question, right?

Jamie Flanagan 23:31

That's the question.

August Gitshlag 23:32

We start with trauma and how many words are less. Uh you got you got uh eight minutes to go. Oh describe your childhood in three words. Awesome.

SPEAKER_06 23:42

You really want me to answer this? Yeah, absolutely. I grew up in uh rural Michigan, a little town called Brooklyn. You may have been there because there's a well-known racetrack there. Uh-huh. Yeah. I dropped my mom off at the house I grew up in this afternoon. She still lives there. Fantastic. A couple miles from the racetrack. So I just dropped her off there, and boy, the people that live there now are pissed.

August Gitshlag 24:04

Okay, Irish O'Leals neighborhood. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:06

Totally. Yep. Yep. That's where I grew up. Went to school at Oakland University. That's where I met now. Oh Grizzlies. Yes, we were pioneers back then. Thank you.

Matt Fox 24:13

You're welcome. You're welcome.

SPEAKER_06 24:15

Division two powerhouse. Yep.

Matt Fox 24:16

Still, still hanging in there.

SPEAKER_06 24:18

Yep. Uh, and that's where I met Matt. That's also where I met my bride. She's from the west side of the state.

Matt Fox 24:24

Uh Owasso, Saginaw.

SPEAKER_06 24:25

She's from near Belding and Greenville.

Matt Fox 24:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 24:28

Yep. Yep. Um, but we when she's a she's a physical therapist, that's why she went to Oakland. Okay. And so when she graduated, she took a job in Muskegon at the hospital there. Very nice. And that's how we ended up settling down in uh West Michigan. I just went to Muskegon for the first time this summer for a convention. Oh, right on. What a what what a redo.

August Gitshlag 24:44

I love the way that is.

SPEAKER_06 24:45

This guy was just there this weekend.

August Gitshlag 24:46

They are often on the cover of the MML magazine for what how the model of how to redo a downtown and use public money for the for the right reasons to redo a downtown. I wholly enjoyed it. Awesome. I don't live there, but I thank you. That's a great compliment. The whole area. I mean, open down on the the dunes is great. Yep.

unknown 25:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:03

Yeah.

August Gitshlag 25:03

All right.

SPEAKER_06 25:04

Well, I'm and thanks for coming in. Thanks for having me. Well, thank you for the invite. Yeah. I'm glad to be here.

Matt Fox 25:09

It's an open invite. You are always welcome. If I'm invited again, I will certainly bring you just knock and we'll like some Grand Rapids gifts. We've only banned it.

August Gitshlag 25:16

We'd like our one West Side fan to be here every once in a while, you know. Right?

Matt Fox 25:22

No, no, it's great. All right. So what do you what do you do today? What what is it that that that really gets you? What gets you out of bed?

SPEAKER_06 25:29

That will take me more than eight minutes. Landman.

Matt Fox 25:31

Well, you still have five left to go.

SPEAKER_06 25:33

All right. So the short version of the long story, um, and and Matt actually used to kind of do the same thing. I'm a technical trainer in the automobile industry. Love it. Basically, train dealers, car sales consultants primarily on new cars and technology. Love that. And for about the last 15 years, I've worked with Infinity, which is Nissan's luxury division.

Matt Fox 25:53

This is how a seatbelt goes in.

SPEAKER_06 25:55

Click. Yeah, we're on to things like Google built-in now. All right. Yeah.

Matt Fox 26:00

They still need to know about the how to put a seatbelt on.

SPEAKER_06 26:02

And I just the way things happen, about 12 years ago, I ended up training the dealers in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. I would call that my territory or my region. And it was only supposed to be for a few months. And like I said, 12 years later, I'm still spending a quarter every you haven't picked up the accent, right? Well done.

August Gitshlag 26:20

Y'all.

unknown 26:21

Yep.

August Gitshlag 26:22

Yeah, so that's that's it. That's very funny. I'm in my landman phase of life. I started watching that show finally. Yeah. It's like, I haven't is that Billy Bob? God damn it. Yeah. I've seen the first. I've seen the first one. It's incredibly funny and incredibly traumatic at the same time. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 26:36

Wait, what? I missed the show. I saw the first man. Landman.

August Gitshlag 26:38

Oh, on uh Billy Bob Thornton.

Jamie Flanagan 26:40

Yeah. Yeah. I saw the first episode and I'm like, I need to watch, and I just haven't watched the rest of it.

August Gitshlag 26:44

It is wholly watchable, yeah, and traumatic and funny at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

So I'm I don't know even what the show is. Is he just a host or is he playing a character?

August Gitshlag 26:53

He's the guy who handles Midland, Texas, and all the oil fields that the cartels are trying to go through.

Jamie Flanagan 26:59

Oh what was the uh what was the the the the lone star or whatever the the the long ranch or midland Texas is where the bushes are from got it yeah so it's uh yeah it's West Texas shit. Yeah, it's gritty, it's gritty. The word grit has been overused, but that it's a gritty show. All right, it's that is a good explanation.

Matt Fox 27:24

Is that a prime thing or it's a HBO thing?

August Gitshlag 27:27

Billy Bob's blonde hair, his frosted tips are a little weird. Other than that, he's a bit old for frost. Other than that, have any of you been to West Texas?

SPEAKER_06 27:34

Have you ever been to ever go to West Texas?

Matt Fox 27:36

I was in Houston a couple years. That's not West Texas, that's New Orleans, but no, it's New Orleans as a suburb of New Orleans.

August Gitshlag 27:43

I've been to Austin. I've been to Austin, I've been to Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

San Antonio, I've been to Austin. I haven't been to Dallas, but I've been to Dallas.

August Gitshlag 27:50

It was a boring, high-rise city.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

It was like I found some downtown bars, it was fine, but the only thing I would do in Dallas is just go see where Kennedy got shot. I mean, just to be there in person. That is my only the only attraction to me. Not so far.

August Gitshlag 28:04

You want to know how my my one Dallas, but the coolest thing I did in Dallas? I played beer pong with John Edwards, the guy who ran for president. Oh. So I played beer pong with him in a in a hotel room.

Palates, Scotch Trauma, And Honesty

Jamie Flanagan 28:15

I thought it was a crossing over guy. Did you win? Of course I won. Somebody that's why he lost. Yay. All right. So we got what's the difference between these two?

SPEAKER_05 28:27

Uh this was uh that's a great question. I should know the answer. Yeah, I'll ball off the airplane, but yeah, I I don't know what's going on, well, one is from 2022, one is from 23.

Jamie Flanagan 28:38

One has more words at the bottom of the yeah. Yeah, but I said in Italian, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 28:43

Yes, you don't speak Italian? I do, but I but you know what was that? Can you repeat that?

Matt Fox 28:49

Thank you.

Jamie Flanagan 28:50

Take one down, pass it around.

August Gitshlag 28:52

Yeah, let me see.

Jamie Flanagan 28:52

So we're drinking the that's the one we're drinking right now, and then this one has more words. It has those words plus more, and that needs to get cracked. Yeah, that one we haven't cracked yet.

August Gitshlag 29:02

This is a 2022. Yeah, it took the time to do the little the hot it sale that I do on my wine. So and so different years.

SPEAKER_05 29:11

The nose is completely because different so much softer than both of the clears, different grape crops. So it's the same product, just different years.

August Gitshlag 29:17

This is yeah, okay. As far as I know, this was barrel age, she said, right? Yes, yes. So you can tell from as soon as you hit the nose that that heart, the acetone smell that you've gotten both is gone. Yep, right. The I'll call it the uh the moonshine smell.

Matt Fox 29:30

I was you know, I was waiting for tannins to kind of kick in here at some point.

August Gitshlag 29:34

Yeah, I'm I don't know. And it is distilled, no. Let's see. Wow, that was like that was a joint silence there was perfect.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

Yeah, that was a uniform drinking.

August Gitshlag 29:50

I couldn't wait to finish drinking so I could break it first. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 29:53

Infinitely more drinkable to me.

August Gitshlag 29:54

Yeah, 100,000 percent. Yeah, this is something that I would I would say, hey, try this. It's it's she's almost like a dare I say like a mead.

Matt Fox 30:03

It's it's kind of reminiscent of a mead, but on the back end, it's a little bit of it's got a little bit of honey on the back end.

August Gitshlag 30:08

It's sweet, it's it's drinkable. And Flanagan says, Go fuck yourself. You're you're not you're completely wrong. Nothing for me, nothing for you.

Matt Fox 30:16

It's uh I got I got honey on the back end, I have sweetness for the much less moonshiness for this.

Jamie Flanagan 30:21

Yeah. I I still feel like vile for me.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Like it's it's it's still got this, it's still got a it's still got a bite, a bite to it. Like it's not like because you think wine, you think grapes, you think it this is this has got just it's it's got an edge to it.

SPEAKER_05 30:37

Can definitely still take it on ice cue.

Matt Fox 30:38

Like, can you throw me one? I I was just thinking maybe open it up. Would it open it up?

August Gitshlag 30:43

So it's a catch it in your mouth.

Matt Fox 30:45

Yeah, okay. Not with that throw.

August Gitshlag 30:47

I could see having this. Toss it up like a shrimp and Benny Holly, yeah. Certainly after dinner, yeah, after dinner drink. Your mouth your mouth can open bigger than that, Fox. I've seen it. You don't know, yeah, you do.

Matt Fox 31:00

Yeah, I was curious if the ice cube would open it up a little bit. Whatever, whatever's going on in there.

August Gitshlag 31:05

It's this is a this is a raw distillant. It's a it comes out of the the distill, like like basically like the stuff on the moonshine show. Jamie's not happy, Bob. Well, he's got one more. One more. Oh, it's all right.

Jamie Flanagan 31:19

It's all right.

August Gitshlag 31:19

It's like the Aperol is the uh so fucking white and Irish right now. It's like all right. It's impossible to deal with. It is impossible to deal with.

Jamie Flanagan 31:27

It's like you know, Kapari and Aparol.

August Gitshlag 31:29

It's just I just like I I hear you, man.

Jamie Flanagan 31:32

I get that. I just don't. People like, oh, it's great, you put it in here, put it in there. It's great.

August Gitshlag 31:35

Or you just ask you to like it, but it's asking you to compare the three or four.

Jamie Flanagan 31:39

Yeah. Matt, do you have any idea how long? I'm so off of it, I just can't.

Matt Fox 31:44

I can't even not even try the last one.

August Gitshlag 31:47

That second one that was a little white grapey was I'll tell you, they they are I don't know, all awfully moonshiny, yeah, to be honest with you. Well, they're not easy for that.

Matt Fox 31:57

These are not what we easy, these are not easy to drink. You need to be a little bit more than a big thing.

August Gitshlag 32:00

Yeah, but you drop a bottle of bourbon in front of an 80-year-old Italian guy in the mountains, he's gonna think it's gonna spit it out like it's garbage. Sure, that's not what he drinks. Everyone's palate is different. They're distill it. This is what they distill, this is the flavor they're looking for. They're trying to master the taste that you think is vile.

Matt Fox 32:17

Vile with a capital jerk with a capital jerk.

Jamie Flanagan 32:23

So much for unity and world love.

Matt Fox 32:26

No, but it may not be easy to Joe Irish bobsled theme. But we but the whole thing that everyone at this table, we all have the same thing in common at this table. We're men, no, is that we all have a chance to experiment something and try something, science experiment it and say if you don't like it, you don't. We all have that in common.

August Gitshlag 32:46

No, that's true, unless someone's giving us stuff for free. You can put it next to them.

Matt Fox 32:50

What's in the box?

August Gitshlag 32:53

What's in the box? Give us a box of that.

Matt Fox 32:55

Well, give us a box of that.

August Gitshlag 32:56

Give us a box of that. Okay, all right. Now I'm excited about the small bot, the small bottles. The small bottle, yeah. That's the kind of the last one of the nice little label on it. I don't want to say triumvirate.

Detroit Bar News And Tiki Talk

SPEAKER_05 33:06

What's the word for uh the the four person version of triumvirate? Quad quadumvirate the fourth horseman?

SPEAKER_06 33:13

Yeah, I'm the fourth horseman. Kazun tight. I'll just ask. I don't I wondered how long it was in the barrel, and I wonder if this is the same, but it was in a barrel a year longer. Is that possible?

SPEAKER_05 33:24

Those are fantastic questions, and you'll have to check the uh you'll have to check the website and the notes. No, it's it's from your family. I don't know. That's your cousin. She's up. I didn't uh she's up the Olympics are live for Ian. You know what? You know what's funny? I'm gonna go. They they may still be well. My cousin's husband may still be awake. Oh, they're watching the Olympics of a night out, and they might be watching the Olympics. They might be at the Olympics.

August Gitshlag 33:47

There's nothing live, there's nothing live now.

SPEAKER_05 33:49

That's true.

August Gitshlag 33:50

I watch all I watch all night long. It's nothing live until six in the morning, right?

Matt Fox 33:54

I was so upset, you know, because last week was it last weekend when Lindsay Vaughn did her her her uh ski.

August Gitshlag 34:00

You know what sucks is that the headline was Lindsay Vaughn crashes, but she skied at 5 30 in the morning our time, not Peacoo Street, uh Breezy Johnson wins, right? Right, and that was the the headline though had to be Lindsay Vaughn crashes, breezy Johnson wins.

Matt Fox 34:14

Yeah, but she skied at 5 30 our time in the morning, 5 30 a.m., but they aired it at 9 30 in the morning on get peacock, don't be poor. Well, I am poor, so what the hell?

August Gitshlag 34:26

Get peacocked.

Matt Fox 34:27

I was I was I was actually saying that, August. I was disappointed that people were on Facebook in this time zone posting peacock is the four hours early that someone happened.

August Gitshlag 34:37

I've ever had I love my my peacock.

Jamie Flanagan 34:39

It okay. Facebook is watching.

Matt Fox 34:41

What what what color what what color feather is it?

August Gitshlag 34:46

Peacock! Peacock! Oh god, we're gonna get flagged again. Yep, again, and we get flagged before. Really? Really, and then we got flagged. We're doing a fundraiser for a guy who builds houses for victims of human trafficking, and because we've said human trafficking like seven times, yeah, they flagged us.

Matt Fox 35:06

No way, yes way.

August Gitshlag 35:07

Yeah, wow. I it was all the charity event.

Jamie Flanagan 35:10

I think Facebook is just drunk, it's all AI.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

No, no, it's it all runs automated. I because I have like with my business, my clinic, and my hypnosis, I have three different business managers, they've all been suspended. Nothing questionable, right? We're talking about mental health issues. Smell this one. But as soon as you say suicide or self-harm, oh wow, well, how many shut down? How many flags can we get tonight? Yeah, thanks. That's a challenge. Well, I'm excited. Glad you're here.

Matt Fox 35:38

But all right, this has got a different let's this has got a different nose.

August Gitshlag 35:42

It smells more mature. Let's just say that right off the bat, right? Jamie, where are you at?

Jamie Flanagan 35:47

There's a creamy finish.

August Gitshlag 35:48

Um I haven't tried it yet. I'm just talking about the smell. The smell of the different nose. There's a different nose. There's less acetony. I it is moon shiny.

Matt Fox 35:57

I smell grapes.

August Gitshlag 35:59

This I I the smell alone.

SPEAKER_06 36:01

Let me try it. I'm I'm wagering this is the same distillant. It's been aged an extra year in the barrel.

August Gitshlag 36:09

Or if not more, because it is smoother.

Matt Fox 36:13

There is definitely a I can definitely get a great like a purple C or purple skin from it.

August Gitshlag 36:19

There's a reason this is in the small bottle. This is the good stuff.

Matt Fox 36:22

Okay, I'll take that.

August Gitshlag 36:24

Yeah. Now, what kind of barrel was it aged in? Like a red wine barrel? I believe it was a red wine, either way. If they barreled it, you know, they weren't vetting it.

SPEAKER_05 36:33

Not a port, but maybe white wine, to be honest. Okay. Again, I'll have to add a lot of color, but yeah. But a lot of the the so it's from their house. I know exactly the house. And Shane has been there as well. I know exactly the house and the area where these grapes were grown. Right. And he knows the sweat socks that were on the line that strained them through.

August Gitshlag 36:51

And so, what kind of grapes are we are we doing? Like these are a lot of questions that I Italian grapes. We invited you for a goddamn reason.

SPEAKER_05 37:00

You come with zero notes. All right, I'm gonna come with more notes. I'll be back. I mean we brought the booze. I brought the booze. I'm right. How much can I be expected to do? But no, I will find these answers out. But I yeah, that's a great question. All right. What kind of grapes? What differentiates these two? Yeah, how long was it in the barrels? What kind of barrels? It's a lot of questions.

Matt Fox 37:18

We try a lot of different spirits on this show, and not all of them are gonna be perfect, not all of us are gonna like them.

Jamie Flanagan 37:25

I I had I had such a I got such an epic from the first three. I don't know if that's tainting. I've rinsed my mouth a couple hours, you know, I but I don't know if it's but this is creamier, it's it's better. Uh but I don't know if I would go, oh yeah, pour me one of those. I don't I don't know if I would ever ever so I I think I would.

August Gitshlag 37:46

If I saw any anything of this color that I would see on the shelf, if these were all there together, that bottle, bat bottle, bat bottle, I'll go, give me the one in that bottle.

Limoncello, Inside Jokes, And Closing Toasts

Jamie Flanagan 37:54

Yeah, the smallest one. And they'd be like, Oh, I'm sorry, that's my sample for the test in the morning. Matt, is there any barrel?

August Gitshlag 38:04

Compare his family's grappa to your fucking piss. Yes, did you just do that, Flanagan?

Jamie Flanagan 38:09

Wow, I did. Jesus Christ. Talk about getting flagged. I didn't spell it out that loudly, but yeah, I did.

August Gitshlag 38:15

But we're never have our friends back again. Damn. Hey, different strokes for different folks. Yeah, this is why Irish whiskey fucking sucks.

SPEAKER_05 38:23

There's no rules with Irish whiskey, right?

August Gitshlag 38:26

No, there's no rules at all. You just literally piss in a barrel.

Matt Fox 38:30

Change Matt, next time bring a bottle of scotch and watch this ass.

August Gitshlag 38:34

We're going back at you. I'm getting hypnotized, so I'm gonna like it next time.

SPEAKER_02 38:39

Actually, depending on the scotch.

August Gitshlag 38:42

No, he don't do scotch. Oh no, I don't do no scotch.

SPEAKER_02 38:45

You know, like a bottle of like Glenn Morengi or specifically hardback.

August Gitshlag 38:49

To me, the same thing, but yeah, I I I agree. Yeah, it's a whole nother podcast. I just can't also. I had a certain Christmas where I you had a bad experience. Yeah, we just that was the year that we got my dad gladiator on DVD, and I was in the hallway throwing up like a yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:10

Are you not entertained?

August Gitshlag 39:11

Yeah. Who that lived so you had a bad experience? I just thought I was fancy drinking scotch, and I hated every sip of it. But I thought I was fancy.

SPEAKER_06 39:24

And it was because you drink whiskey, though, perhaps you just haven't found the scotch that's scotch.

August Gitshlag 39:30

Now, I have a buddy who had a class in scotch at NYU, and they taught you you had to like the tests were on like what region does this come from, how do they drink it? Lockside, or you know, they'll drink it with milk, sheep's milk, and all this kind of weird, all these different ways of drinking it, and it can all go fuck itself. Uh, I I haven't found a certain flavor of anything scotchy that I like. I'm even I'm even off Irish now. Like Telemore do in Jameson is almost repulsive to me. Wow, it's gotten bad. Wow, that whole I think it's it's we can fix it. You're a fault, Flanagan and Fox, for bringing me here and all the rise and bourbons and all the flavors that are in that because there's so much out there, you don't want to just dis you know disinherit everything else. We remember when we had full access to that stuff in the back of the wine garden. I don't know what you're I have no idea what you're talking about. Zero idea. Oh, this is now a decent whiskey. Well, yeah, even some Canadians to me taste like childhood dorm room vomit.

Matt Fox 40:30

Well, it's because your palate has matured, it's not the it's not the juice, it's you.

August Gitshlag 40:37

Okay, I've sure it sucks. Touche. I mean, I'm not I'm not writing reviews on Google, I'm just talking on a podcast. You could. No, I'm not going to because I understand that there's nuances and things that I just don't like. Yeah, right. Like I never ever review an IPA with my beer buddies because I can't stand IPAs. Right. They're you're not alone now. You're not alone. I agree on that. I don't bother with them. I'd like they're they're like, oh, this is the best one. Every once in a while I'll get like a drip-a or something that is a different flavor or some of the something with citra hops. I'm like, all right, I I can palette this, but oh no. I just it smells like your your dog cage in the back of your Subaru.

Matt Fox 41:21

There's there's a few. There, there's a few like that.

August Gitshlag 41:23

It tastes like that, you know. So that to me, so I don't uh rank them and I do beer tastings with my friends all the time. Yeah, bottle openings, they bring up stuff stuff that's rare. I'm I have a different I am old enough that if I don't like it, suck it.

Matt Fox 41:39

So I will be honest, I like I will be honest with you. When you join the podcast, August, yeah, we have experimented uh really a lot outside of the bourbon and whiskey, the mead, grappa. We've we've really expanded our palette, so I'm not surprised that your palette had the tour the way it has. You're you're welcome to your opinion. I don't like no matter how well. You're not you're not wrong. No one at this table is wrong. But the fact is except for Flanagan.

SPEAKER_00 42:10

Well, except for Flanagan, Flanagan, uh bloody flanagan. But I'll turn it as nothing against Grappa. I'll just say as you could as we continue to experiment new things. You're gonna call him a Dagle Wap next there.

Jamie Flanagan 42:32

There goes there you go, there goes your home improvement show.

SPEAKER_06 42:35

I thought about doing the line after that, but I let it go.

SPEAKER_05 42:39

Is that a motion picture that you're talking about? Yes, it is a motion. Okay, I've I wouldn't.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Well, his best material is interviews when he talks about a woman needs a good hit hit every once in a while. Look, uh, his best material is by people that aren't him on SNL, bro.

August Gitshlag 42:54

That's his best material. Celebrity Jeopardy, yes, of course.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

Yeah.

August Gitshlag 42:58

Spending my life trying to perfect it in a bum come up.

Jamie Flanagan 43:02

Oh god. Bless America.

Matt Fox 43:05

I uh to to reel it in. Your mother's a whore.

SPEAKER_00 43:10

Ah, suck it, shabbeck.

Jamie Flanagan 43:15

See what grapple does.

August Gitshlag 43:18

See what grappa does.

Matt Fox 43:20

This is what grappa does. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:23

Hey Jamie, slide the nuts over if you could.

Matt Fox 43:25

What'd you say? Would you call me? Oh. Hi, fellas.

August Gitshlag 43:30

We all right? All right, I'm gonna go. Everyone got really quiet all of a sudden. I'm gonna have one more sip of that uh the last barrel. Really? This one, yeah, yeah. Good one.

Jamie Flanagan 43:38

On purpose.

SPEAKER_06 43:40

I'm gonna have another uh this this is kind of a once in a lifetime opportunity.

August Gitshlag 43:44

This is once in a lifetime, guys. You're never gonna drink this stuff again off the off the plane. Off the plane.

SPEAKER_05 43:49

I can guarantee you that I guarantee you you could have as much of it as you want. It's just come over the middle.

Matt Fox 43:54

Just pass it over. I bet. You said once in a lifetime.

Jamie Flanagan 43:57

So I was I was yeah, I was with uh Neil Geraldo. Did you say that Pat Penatars? I don't know. Pat Penatars.

August Gitshlag 44:03

Geraldo. Sounds like an Italian last name. Were you mean to him too? I I was. Geraldo.

Matt Fox 44:08

Is it?

SPEAKER_00 44:15

Can we call you Neil? Can I call you Neil?

Jamie Flanagan 44:18

Can I just call you Neil? No.

SPEAKER_00 44:19

I wasn't Bob.

Jamie Flanagan 44:20

Damn it.

Matt Fox 44:23

Can you throw me a nice cube?

Jamie Flanagan 44:25

So but yeah, so we were doing, I was talking to him, I was interviewing him about his three-chord bourbon, and then we got done with that. And then the restaurant we're in, and we're in the basement, and the owner comes down and it's like, oh hey, and they're all is it just I was one pasty white Irish guy with all these Italian swarthy musicians. Swarthy, you mean some musicians?

August Gitshlag 44:43

If your Irish version of handsome, right? Right.

Jamie Flanagan 44:45

And the shirts unbuttoned and hairy chests, and they're like, they're we're drinking grappa, and it's like drop some.

Matt Fox 44:51

And I didn't really you didn't know what you were drinking, did you?

Jamie Flanagan 44:55

Yeah, no, and I was like, uh, okay.

August Gitshlag 44:58

Look, just cling to that Guinness, like it's nectar of the gods, and never go out of your lane. Ah, I'm not a one-trick pony. No, you're not. You're not.

Matt Fox 45:07

I have a proper I'm being I'm being free to get a big thing. I've seen you drink, I've seen him drink a cosmopolitan. I'm a trick. I'm a trick and a half.

August Gitshlag 45:13

I'm a trick and a half pony. Yeah. Or down with the umbrella up, too. Okay. Oh, but I like a good cosmo. By the way, I got some really sad bar news, Detroit Bar news, uh the mutiny. Oh, mutiny closing on Michigan Avenue. Yeah, March 1st is the last day of the mutiny. So if you're a weekly aficionado, I don't think there's another tiki bar left.

Matt Fox 45:34

Why wouldn't they go out on St. Patty's Day?

August Gitshlag 45:38

Nobody goes to Mexican town on St. Patrick's Day. But no one has it. There's no good sticky drink in a you know bathtub cup bar left. Damn it. Because Lost River is now Canon's. Right.

Matt Fox 45:51

Well, hang on to your cups. They're gonna be worth something someday.

August Gitshlag 45:54

Yeah, mutiny is I I I go there two, three times a year. It's that's how sticky drink bars are. You know, I'm a two, three times. There are well, the library, that belt right there. They have right there is a tiki bar in there somewhere, isn't there? Where the post is and all those places. I haven't been deluxe flux, that whole that whole little alley where there's all those bars. Yeah, the alley. I haven't been there for that. There is a tiki bar in the zone. I don't know what it's called. I always forget it. It's my bad. Uh, because I usually know that stuff. But but yeah, the mutiny is was they said we just can't afford to be open anymore. Really? It's not renters.

SPEAKER_05 46:29

Rent is going off, or if it's everything combination of things.

Matt Fox 46:34

We we we talked about it. It's the covidian timeline is still having an effect on restaurants and bars, on on it's still it's still out there.

August Gitshlag 46:43

It's still the people who own the sugar house on that. I do not know. I think I can't tell you that.

Jamie Flanagan 46:49

It's it's they're part of uh I think it's the people own the sugarhouse.

August Gitshlag 46:52

I mean, the the the overhead in those places is insane. Oh, yeah, yeah. You know, it it's like you gotta like burn sage and then put it in the drink and then you know put a curse on it and send it over. I mean, the closest thing we have to a tiki bar now. Well, those tiki bars have the porcelain cups, all the a cup per drink. And they're like they're they're the three dots and a dash Chicago type thing. The what was the original one called in LA? Trader Vicks, right?

SPEAKER_05 47:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

August Gitshlag 47:21

Didn't know that was that the original like tiki bar coming in in the LA? Anyway, the guys that came back from the Pacific and out of the city. Trader Joe's started not Trader Joe's.

Jamie Flanagan 47:30

That's weird.

August Gitshlag 47:32

I thought that was a cocktail.

Jamie Flanagan 47:34

Could be both. No, Trader Vicks.

August Gitshlag 47:36

Trader Vicks was a was a long, then it became a long time like a Hilton hotel bar for Trader Vicks.

SPEAKER_05 47:41

Yeah, I know I've I know I've heard the term, I just didn't know what we're drinking a pita cloud at Trader Vicks.

August Gitshlag 47:46

Got it. This hair was perfect.

Matt Fox 47:49

Wow, that was great. That was thank you. Yeah, you got the golf clap on that one.

Jamie Flanagan 47:56

Thank you. But yeah, so Mutiny Bar, if you're in the Metro Detroit area, go give it a last hoorah. Give it a last hour. March 1st, it'll be that's a bummer. I'll hit there on a weekday. I mean, you got you got the Eastern Palace, but it's not a tiki bar. Well, there that's got uh it's a beach tiki vibe.

August Gitshlag 48:11

It is the uh northernmost Key West bar.

Matt Fox 48:13

Yes, yeah, it's it's brilliant. It's it's it's a lot of fun in there. It was crazy.

August Gitshlag 48:19

Togo Roro is a great rum bar. Whoa, you can't beat it. You can't honestly, yes.

Jamie Flanagan 48:23

It's uh and they'll make it a drink, too.

August Gitshlag 48:25

It's not a tiki bar, but they're not it's an amazing stuff in custom glasses per drink, right? They're not doing that, they're not letting anything on fire, right? Right. They're not, which is like the cute tiki bar for me, is lighting some shit on fire. Right, right. There you go. Yep, and you have a custom glass per drink, right? Which has got to be an impossible overhead because everyone's stealing them or dropping them.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

Yeah, well, I can't imagine that bars have huge margins as far as profit goes.

Jamie Flanagan 48:50

Right, right.

August Gitshlag 48:50

Well, that's why the drinks are$23 cocktail. I mean, you're you're you're slim already.

Matt Fox 48:57

Everybody's wanting to go to a res you go to a resort in Ohio and you pay$27 for a signature drink. I've never heard of it. There's resorts in Ohio in Ohio.

August Gitshlag 49:07

I've never heard of a resort in Ohio. What the where kind of weird swinger shit are you into? A resort in Ohio water park. I I missed it. I was gonna say it's probably Cedar Point. Never mind. I had a water park.

Jamie Flanagan 49:20

He just called you out on Sandusky.

August Gitshlag 49:21

I was gonna use the E-word there, but anyway.

Jamie Flanagan 49:25

Oh my goodness. Well, but thank you for bringing the drop this.

Matt Fox 49:30

No, honestly. No, I like the experimentation uh trying different things.

SPEAKER_06 49:34

So a pro pro tip if you travel to Italy and you find yourself in a private residence, don't call it vile to the homeowner. They're gonna offer you this after after dinner, sure.

SPEAKER_02 49:44

And they're gonna say, Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_06 49:45

Well, they may also offer you as an alternative lemon cello. I'll see. Oh, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 49:50

Have a bottle of lemon cells.

SPEAKER_06 49:51

Hit the bell, hit the bell, hit the bell, hit the bell. Lemon cello.

Jamie Flanagan 49:54

I'm in. Yeah, lemon cell. So if they offer you both say finger bang.

SPEAKER_05 50:02

I was on my unless you're unless you're a male.

August Gitshlag 50:05

Then we've had lemon cello here, haven't we? Uh I don't think we have.

Jamie Flanagan 50:10

I don't think we have no. I don't think we have it.

August Gitshlag 50:13

I do believe we have had it.

Jamie Flanagan 50:15

We we uh we had the fresh victor stuff, which uh was no way before.

August Gitshlag 50:19

We're talking like a year like early my early days when uh when he first brought in when he first upgraded this podcast and brought me in. I didn't uh exact that I'm sorry. You were in on sabbatical.

Matt Fox 50:31

Yes, I was on sabbatical, yes.

SPEAKER_08 50:33

Yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 50:34

Well, Matt stole my mouse. All right. All right, what I steal the mouse.

Matt Fox 50:39

No, the mouse, yes.

Jamie Flanagan 50:40

I got the mouse. Because there was good, there's a man's scream. I was gonna hit the screen. Oh, okay. Anyway, but uh all right, so I've had plenty.

August Gitshlag 50:48

You've had plenty, I've had all I'm gonna finish this graph, but this is delightful. Hey, Matty, yeah, thank you so much for bringing this in. Thank you, Matt. It's always great to have you on the show. You're a wonderful company. Shane, welcome to the man cave. Uh, how about you show us something? I wasn't, I wasn't cheers, August.

Matt Fox 51:10

In in Italy, I learned this. I love you, buddy.

Jamie Flanagan 51:13

Chin chin. Chin chin. Chin chin. Chin chin. Chin chin. All right, that's Matt Fox.

August Gitshlag 51:17

That is August Kitchlag. Jamie Flanagan is a dulcet tones, a professional voice that leads us. He is our captain. Hey, with the Duchenne smile.

Jamie Flanagan 51:27

All right, we'll see y'all next uh see ya.