Booze Battle - "Budget Beer Bracket"

It's the season 1 finale! Matt challenged his friends to bring beers which fit a tight budget and demand a distinct lack of self-respect, to compete in this Booze Battle. They did not disappoint! Matt is joined by Big Z, Chris, and Rob as eight budget beers compete in the Budget Beer Bracket to see which will be crowned the best of the worst. Our tastebuds suffer for your entertainment!

As we sample some truly questionable brews, we share stories and anecdotes from college parties and poor decisions past. Grab a better drink than we imbibe during this one and find out which budget beer comes out on top! 

The voices of the Booze Battle Area, Chucky Roberts and Stephan Weasler return to provide some equally low budget commentary!

Transcript

Welcome and Introduction

Rob 1:30

This is the food's battle of Rena, the place's prolific inebriates, and their traits of choice based off in the pursuit of eternal glory. The universe is a mysterious, vast, and often violent place. So too are the battles fought in this hallowed space. Temporal tastes that transcend space and time will collide in a spectacle to determine which tip is the most stellar. Once again, we're pouring our way through the universe to answer a question that no one is asking. It's time!

Matt 2:26

Welcome to the oddly sticky floors of Hop Stadium on the historic and scenic grounds of Ethanol University. We're thrilled to be broadcasting again here on BPN5. I'm Stefan Weasler, and I'm Shocky Roberts! We're about to witness the greatest event in collegiate intermural inter-apartmental drinking, the budget beer bracket booze battle! The contestants bummed a ride to their favorite six-pack stores and brought back the best of the bottom shelf.

Rob 2:57

And these beers won't drain your wallet, but they'll certainly cost all of your self-respect. So, without further delay, let's hear the lineup.

Conversation About The Beer

Matt 3:08

Starting with Lion's Head at 5.0%, Old German, 4.7%, Blue Ribbon, 4.7%, Bush, 5%, Steel City Reserve, 8.1%, Milk Light, the Champagne Beers, 4.2%, Genesee Cream Ale, 5.0%, Natural Light, 5.9%.

Rob 3:35

There you have it, Stefan, and with that we go down with our host with the most. Some call him the Space Cowboys, some call him Maurice, but we know him as our friend Matt. Please take it away.

Matt 3:49

Welcome back, everyone, to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. Today we have the budget beer bracket booze battle. Woo! Whoa. We're gonna go around the table. We're gonna introduce ourselves. We're gonna tell you what budget beers we are bringing to the battle.

SPEAKER_04 4:04

Hey everyone, Chris back here. I brought two of my favorite beers that are terrible. Whoa. Favorite? That's a strong word. I got Lion's Head. Oh, that's a solid beer. Everybody's favorite. And then I brought the best, worst beer on the planet, PBR.

Rob 4:20

Listen, PBR's. I love PBR. Based upon what I already know, I'm saying that PBR is the early favorite in this battle.

SPEAKER_01 4:28

As a Nipah college guy, I I know my way around King's.

Matt 4:33

Did we say what universities we attended or colleges we attended as well? Do we want to shame our institutions of higher learning?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

King's College is right down the street from Lion's Head.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

Okay, okay. I am uh Big Z back again. I've got Busch.

Rob 4:47

Busch. Busch.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Pounders. Straight Bush, no lights, just Busch. And ye old German. Ye old German lager. Fantastic, man. Never heard of that. I've never had that. Oh my you're in for a treat. Never had it in my life. Am I in for a treat? Oh my! You got you might be surprised.

Rob 5:06

Ye old German. Hey, we might be. I'm not familiar with ye old German. Hey guys, it's Rob. I'm here with Miller High Life, the champagne of beers.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

You have to say champagne.

Rob 5:14

Champagne of beers, apparently. And Steel City Reserve. Strap in, boys. It's gonna be a long day.

Matt 5:21

I am most nervous about why would you bring that? The Steel Reserve.

Rob 5:25

It's 8.1, guys. It's 8.1. I'm not nervous about that beer. It's gonna be rough.

Matt 5:32

And I'm your host, Matt, and I brought one of my personal favorites that I actually really enjoyed in college when I couldn't afford anything better, and that was Genesee cream ale. And also natural ice, which I yeah, which I've drank a large quantity of at some fraternity parties. Indiana University.

Rob 5:50

Oh boy, natty ice is every Pennsylvania. It's a Penn State staple.

Matt 5:55

It is Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Snow beast. Natural ice showed up all the time. I hate to say this, but I think as much of it went into me as came back out of me later.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

Oh boy. Yikes. Probably accurate. Yeah. All right, Matt, why are we here with a ton of terrible beer?

Matt 6:13

Because I thought it was a good idea when we were planning out this podcast. I'm really starting to question it right now as I'm staring around the table. But what we have done is created a bracket, and we're going to do some beer tastings here, head to head, of these phenomenal drinks that everybody has brought today. And we're gonna see who survives the budget beer bracket. This is really for science.

Rob 6:35

Yeah. I mean, I this is a noble we're doing the Lord's work here, guys. Absolutely. Science. Science!

Matt 6:42

Yeah, I have to agree. That's the most questionable science of the entire podcast. I don't know that it is.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I think that people want to know these things.

Matt 6:49

I'm not sure anybody wants to know what's about to happen right now, but let's get into the bracket. The first pairing that we have head to head will be Lion's Head and Genesee Cream. Oh shit. Oh my god. Whoa. The second pairing will be Paps Blue Ribbon and Natural Ice. Oh God. I'm feeling good about that one. I feel yeah, that's a shoe in the thing. The third will be Old German, y'all, and Miller High Life. Oh and then last up. Steel Reserve and Bush. Bush.

Rob 7:24

I don't know. They both sound terrible. I mean, it all sounds terrible. Well, let's let's see how this plays out. We'll see. All right. So uh we're starting off with the lion's head and jenny cream.

Matt 7:35

Lion's head and jenny cream. I'm I'm feeling real confident about Jenny Cream. Chris, get it with that mic with a pop. Hold on a minute. Before we pop, probably important to note what we're gonna do is we're gonna taste, and each of us is going to say our score for this beer out of 25. What a random number. Why 25?

Rob 7:52

Because it can add up to 100. There's four of us. There's also that. And it's less likely that we'll tie scores because if we only do to 10, you know, if we all rate a seven.

Matt 8:03

Look, as we've talked about before, this is highly subjective, and we are not professional tasters. If you look at my untapped, I beg to differ. Big Z is putting his untapped resume on the table. We've talked about how much we love the Untapped app here before. Hell yeah. Not a sponsor. Should we look up these beers on Untapped as we go?

Lion's Head Pilsner and Genesee Cream Ale

SPEAKER_04 8:23

100%. I was planning on checking all of them in.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

After scoring, I suggest that we do that. Okay. You must score the beer first. Yeah, because I don't I don't want to.

Rob 8:34

I'm gonna have you be in charge of that. You know, I think that you should pull that up and just give us the scores.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Excuse me, uh whip this out. Yeah. Oh.

Rob 8:44

Whoa, here we go, here we go. It made it makes no sound. Oh, lion's head. It's very undercarbonated.

Matt 8:50

Okay, let's consider that as we start tasting the the twist top results in this. There is a game on the top of that.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

Yeah, forgot about the I have no idea what this is.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

Hang on, hang on. I again NEPA product.

SPEAKER_04 9:03

Do you have to come from NEPA to be able to do the apparently by NEPA?

Matt 9:08

I'm assuming Northeastern Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

I'm a scientist.

Rob 9:11

Yes, you're you're correct. Okay. I'm a scientist.

Matt 9:15

So we did actually just get some listens from the Democratic Republic of Congo. So I'm just I want to make sure that everybody knows what region we're talking about here.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I I uh I know people there.

Rob 9:25

Yeah? No.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

I don't either. But if you're listening from there, I'm thrilled to have it.

Rob 9:31

All right.

Matt 9:32

Okay. Weird emojis. Hey now. All right, weird emojis.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

So for you listeners out there, it's just a nice red label with a lion's head on it and the words lion's head pilsner.

Rob 9:44

Solid. Oh, yeah, it is a pilsner. Just in case, just in case this is gonna move on, guys. Remember, don't over pour here. We're gonna need more.

SPEAKER_04 9:52

Yeah. All right. We didn't.

Matt 9:54

I'm getting eat ye paddle love box out of this one. Eat ye paddle love box. That's all I got.

Rob 9:59

Listen, I'm a fan of the love box. It's a dead one. Get that Genesee cream out. Let's go. Oh, the pour.

Matt 10:05

What's the nose on that cream? Terrible. Is that my other one? That's your lion's head. That's my lion's head.

Rob 10:10

Alright, this is Genesee specialty cream ale. It's a green can with a white stripe on the bottom. You know, Eagles fans go wild for this shit just because they uh they think everything's about them. It doesn't have the filter. It doesn't have the fellow. Said the Cowboys fan. Hey man, you're a Tens fan. You should have enjoyed that joke. It's true. All right. Okay, I'm gonna smell them both. They both smell underwhelming and horrible. I smell beer.

SPEAKER_04 10:43

Alright, here we go. We're doing Lion's Head First. Lion's Head First, here we go. It is a solid beer flavor.

Rob 10:48

You know what? Yeah, that's what it is. It's a solid beer flavor. It is not nearly as horrible as I was expecting.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

So light, got a little malt backing on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:57

It's got more taste than I was expecting. It doesn't taste like a non-light beer. It's pretty light. Like super light in flavor. Alright, now I'm going for the Genesee.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

I think Jenny Cream Ale doesn't smell like anything at all. Jenny Cream Ale.

Rob 11:09

It's hardboard. Not a terrible tasting beer, but definitely tastes like a light beer to me. I don't think it tastes like light on my tongue. It's got a cream-ish flavor.

SPEAKER_01 11:17

Creamish insists upon itself. It does. That's a great thing. 100% does. It's like, oh, I'm here.

Matt 11:23

Hmm. It did totally erase the lion head.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Should we uh bounce it right out?

Rob 11:28

Should we go around starting with Chris for his scores? And Matt, would you like to tabulate the scores? Yeah, that'll end well. Sure. Well, you know what? Numbers are not your thing, but I'm gonna trust you on this. Words, numbers, I struggle with many things. Okay. I'm going back in. Lion's head.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

See, I'm not opposed to Lion's Head. Then I take the cream ale and it just tastes like beer pong backwash.

Rob 11:50

I'll tell you, man, I will say, at least for this first round, not nearly as bad as I was expecting. Coming in. Agreed. That's exactly what I'm saying. I was gonna say that.

SPEAKER_04 11:58

Right? Like because I was expecting to immediately drink one and want to vomit. Neither of these are anywhere near that.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

No, but this is why like Matt was like, who would want to know? People want to know this. This is a deep dive.

Rob 12:10

We are craft beer at this point in our lives. We are all craft beer people. Oh, snob. I'm a snob. Snob. Right? So it's fair. It's fair to say. It is fair to say that coming into this, we were all a little bit nervous that we would just be having absolutely horrific pea water.

Matt 12:28

Well as we're talking, I'm drinking the jenny creme ale. I'm drinking the jenny creme ale.

SPEAKER_01 12:32

My question to you is, and this is why I was gonna bring this up too, for nostalgic reasons. Are you drinking the jenny cream ale because it's what you want? Or out of the two, do you think it tastes better? Because I think that's the key. Like that I've drink it a ton of lion's head and and it's been so long.

Matt 12:47

I don't think I bought it since I was actually at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. In case I didn't mention that earlier, when I was like, I went to Indiana, and Rob was like, Penn State. I went to the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. I loved it. I had a wonderful four and a half years, did a half victory lap there. I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat if I could.

Rob 13:04

There is a superior university in this state, and it's okay.

Matt 13:08

You fools used to come out to drink with me, and everybody I ever drank with at IUP from Penn State would say the same thing. We drink Friday, Saturday nights. You fools start on Thursday and you stop Monday morning. In that university is so proud of me right now.

SPEAKER_04 13:23

Thank you. Let's go for scores. It's Chris. Alright, so I scored Lion's Head at 22. Oh. I'm a fan of that beer. It's okay. Okay. I left some room. Room. And same thing here with Genesee, I or Jenny Cream, I gave a 10. It's not the worst thing I've ever had in my life. So there's some room below it. Right?

SPEAKER_01 13:41

So I think for listeners, you have to understand these are the first two out the gate. Scores.

Rob 13:45

Yeah, it might be a little wacky.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

It might be a little bit wacky out the gate. But I I agree with you, Chris. I would have probably done like a 19 or 20 for a lion's head. Let's go 19 conservatively. And then Jenny, like a nine or a 10. I would drink lion's head again. Like if you said all we have is Jenny, I'd be like, well, water is good for me.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

Yeah. Which I've done at a party before. Yeah, yeah. Just a few years ago, it was the only thing left in a cooler, and I was like, Yeah, no. That's okay. Like I'm good with water.

SPEAKER_01 14:10

Yeah, yeah. I mean rehydrate.

Rob 14:12

All right. So I guess for me, I'd give the lion's head an 18. I'm going conservative here. I want to leave plenty of room over top. So I'm going to go 18 for the lion's head. I'm going a 10 on the jenny cream. It's a little bit too watered down for me. So I'm going 10.

Matt 14:28

I'm going to say for the lion's head, I don't dislike it. It's a good beer. If I was playing beer pong or something, that would be great in the cup. I'm going to say 15. Yes. So I'm thinking Lion's Head 15. The flavor's not there for me. I just didn't find a lot of it. Okay. The Jenny, on the other hand, I'm going to say is a 20. I enjoy the flavor. Wow. I like it. Playing favorites with this. It's a go-to.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Nostalgic for sure. Yeah. I think that's a key here, too, is that we all have these Yeah, for sure. Like something that comes out.

Rob 14:58

All right, Chris, if you have the tabulations, which is the winner? And then I think we all know.

Matt 15:03

And then I'll give you the untapped for each one of them if you'd like. Give me the totals, please. I'll enter those into the bracket.

SPEAKER_04 15:10

The uh clear winner here was Lion's Head at 74 to Genesees 49.

Matt 15:18

Okay, Lion's Head with a 74 to Genesee Creams. What was that? 49. Okay, Lion's Head moves on, and I now have a 12-pack of$8.49.

Rob 15:31

Ladies and G Rejoulator. Ladies and gentlemen, what we haven't told you is that the losing beers today are going to be poured out into our black hole cups. That's right. We have a cup for disposing of the losing beers, and that might come back to bite us later. We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

So interestingly enough, on on top, I don't know if you want to uh calculate this on your on your score sheet there, Chris. Um 3.03 is lion's head out of five caps, and Genesee comes in, the cream ale comes in at 3.01. Wow right next to each other.

SPEAKER_04 16:05

So we we are very interesting that they're that close. They are very similar in types of beer, but I will give it that, but the Genesee was just so much lacking flavor lighter. It was like lighter for for lack of a better word.

Matt 16:21

Yeah. So, in respect to the Genesee cream, being the first one into the black hole cup.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Black hole detected, be aware of the event horizon.

Rob 16:33

Well, there it goes.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Excellent start to this.

Matt 16:36

Uh agreed. Agreed. I'd say it's a start. I don't know if I'm ready to say excellent at this point. We're also going to have Pleasantly surprised at the beginning of this one. I'm going to be honest.

Rob 16:45

Yeah. Alright. What's round two again? Can you remind us, please, Matt?

PBR vs Natty Ice

Matt 16:49

Round two. We Papst Blue Ribbon and Natural Ice. Now, ironically, these are the two beers most featured at the fraternity I used to hang out with at IUP. Amazing. Shout out to Phi Budaruda, the drumline fraternity. Rat a tat tat.

Rob 17:05

I don't know what else to say there.

Matt 17:07

Rata tat tat? You played bass drum in a margin band with me. Rat a tat tat in the back.

SPEAKER_04 17:13

There's something magical about opening a 24-ounce beer. That's true. It just has such girth.

Rob 17:21

Why does the PBR have a scorpion on the back of it? It's badass. Never in my life.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Because the rock drank it in the Scorpion King.

Rob 17:30

100%.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Did we have additional solo cups?

Matt 17:33

What kind of pour is that, Matt?

SPEAKER_01 17:35

What the hell are you doing? He poured it upside down. Good lord. He's using the tab as an air filter.

unknown 17:43

Ice airy.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

It releases the bubbles on the way in, so it's releasing the flavor.

Matt 17:49

Dear listeners, I'm a one-man production team trying to manage a podcast. We don't want your excuses to be able to do that.

Rob 17:56

Hey bro, grab your second beer and let's get it poured into a cup. Natty ice smells like bad decisions and nothing all at the same time.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

So PBR can clearly displaying its wonderful blue ribbon. Very patriotic. Because it's won something. We don't know what it won. It may not win this bracket.

Rob 18:14

On the nose, the PBR has a stank to it. Yeah. The natty smells like nothing. The PBR has a stank. See that? I don't know what the stank is. Like what I was afraid of.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

The natty. First of all, the natty ice is brewed for a smooth taste.

Rob 18:29

Well, we're about to find out.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

It's a black can with some blue writing and uh an eagle with an A. I don't know what's behind it. Anheuser Bush, maybe? Is that what that is?

SPEAKER_04 18:41

Yeah, that's the Anheuser. Very good. Which did not know. I mean, they make everything. Science. So I should have known.

Rob 18:48

5.9% there. I'm going to try to try the PBR first. Yep, here it goes.

SPEAKER_04 18:52

It does have a sulfur. Tastes like home. Yeah, it does. Tastes like home. It's very comforting. Yeah. I'm going to say this a lot today, so I'm sorry, but it's a very beer-flavored beer. And if you don't know what that means, that means you don't drink cheap beer.

Rob 19:07

No, it means there's nothing specific to it, so it just tastes like hops and barley.

Matt 19:13

Tastes like 2006. That's what it tastes like. Tastes like 2006 for me.

Rob 19:18

Listen, I could I could drink PBR all day. It's a little heavy. It is a thicker beer.

SPEAKER_01 19:24

It has body to it.

Matt 19:25

I'm still getting that hint of sulfur though as I'm drinking it. I feel like there's some sulfur flavor to what's in my mouth.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

So I don't get that on the taste, but the nose. The nose has it.

Rob 19:35

I'm not getting it on the taste either. Alright, I'm going for the natty. Alright, let's go.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Smells okay.

Rob 19:45

This is bad.

SPEAKER_04 19:47

It slides down. It's like sour. It is. This is what I remember. So we drank natty light, not natty ice. But I mean they're the freaking same beer.

Matt 19:59

I had natty light, natty ice, natty daddy. I had all the natty dudes. What is natty daddy? You never had a natty daddy? No. Oh, it's awful. It is It sounds like a sexual move. Anheuser Busch is gonna call me after this, but it's just on par and as bad as the rest of the natty crew.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

I don't know if enough people are listening to get you in trouble with an entire beer company at this point.

Matt 20:19

I'm hopeful. Certainly not Anheuser. See, that's the threshold for Matt and Friends Strength the Universe, though. I want to say things and get big enough that I get yelled at by somebody.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

So that day may come with good research like this. That's right.

Rob 20:31

I I mean, uh really want to let me know when we're ready to score. Who's uh who we're gonna start with you, my friend. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 20:40

Yeah. Alright, this is a difficult decision. Okay. PBR not as good as I remembered it.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

No, I would a hundred percent agree with that.

SPEAKER_04 20:47

Yeah. So I am a person who But is it better than the lion's head to you? See, and I don't think so. Okay. I'm like, I'm gonna give it a nineteen. A nineteen. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

This is where my first scoring on things I might have screwed up. Sorry, Chris, I didn't. No, it's okay. Yeah, I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_04 21:05

Yeah. Well, Natty Ice is definitely getting a six for me. That's a terrible beer. Okay. It's almost in the basement. I didn't throw up because of drinking it. So yeah. It wasn't the instant throw up that I was fearing it to be. So six for me.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

I'm not gonna lie, Natty Ice is I don't want to say bad things about things, but$1.69 for 25 ounces. I think that's it. You're going for quantity over quality. Sure. So six is probably good for natural ice. That's low. And I think I gave a 19 a lion's head. I'm glad you wrote this down.

SPEAKER_04 21:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

I would agree that PBR, I remember it being so much better than it is right now.

Rob 21:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Uh so I would probably say somewhere like a 16, 17 to a 17.

Rob 21:47

Okay. I'm gonna give PBR a 17. Just underneath the lion's head at the moment. And uh the natty ice is getting a six for me.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

Solid sixes so far for natty ice.

Matt 22:03

It's just I gotta admit a little biased because I drank a lot of PBR back in the day to the point where I got sick of it, and I tasted that. And when I said it is the taste of 2006, I wasn't kidding. It is the taste for me of bad decisions passed. Surprisingly, gonna give PBR a 14. I thought flavor-wise, where we were so far, I thought that flavor was better than the previous round. Now, when we talk about natty, I'm giving natty a 10. I think it just kind of sits there in the pocket. It might be a little nostalgic for me. If you were to say to me it was natty ice or sobriety, I would still probably go with natty ice. Again, as I said earlier, my standards might be a little lower. I don't know. I I'll go for it, I'll go for it. If it's the only option on the table, natty ice or water, I'm I'm still gonna go with natty ice.

Rob 22:53

Fair. I mean, everybody's gonna do their opinions. Christopher, can you tabulate for us? Matt, what did you do, Natty Ice at 10?

SPEAKER_04 23:02

10. The bracket number two, we've got PBR at a 67 and Natty Ice at a 28. All right. Uh untapped untapped as.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

Uh Natty Ice is coming in at a 1.8 out of five.

Rob 23:20

Yikes.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

PBR is a 2.83.

Rob 23:24

Okay. So we're still in the end.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

So like we are right.

Rob 23:27

I'm still surprised that Jenny came out that high on the- really liked the PBR better than the Jenny personally. Agreed. So I'm surprised to hear that PBR is under a Jenny.

SPEAKER_04 23:40

There's a lot of people like Matt who really like that beer for nostalgia purposes. So I think that's totally understandable that it ranked pretty high on Untapped because people just like that beer. I know people who are beer snobs who will say, Oh, but Jenny Cream's just such a great beer. They're like, What? Yeah.

Old German vs. Miller High Life

Matt 24:00

So I guess so. Here's the funny part. Anytime I need to buy beer for the podcast, the first place I check is DNR Bev here in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Okay. They have a wonderful selection. Their four packs are amazing when you're looking for craft beer. They get such a wide selection. It's really awesome because I can go in there and get something that just fits the mood. I had a very surprising conversation. I went in and said, I am looking for Genesee cream ale. And the person that was helping me out says, Oh, yeah, we actually have some in stock. And I said, You have them in stock as in this isn't something you order, or you have something in stock as like this is something that sells. And she was like, We have a hard time keeping this in stock. People come in looking for this. Virginia cream? Yeah. Wow.

Rob 24:43

Well, understandable. I think that it's a PA thing, too. It is. It is. I mean, I guess it's what you grow up with, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:48

So I was just gonna say, sometimes it brings people back to a certain thought process or a certain memory. That's fair.

Matt 24:54

Um that means into the black hole cup goes the natural ice. That's right. At any point, listeners, if this cup starts to glow green or float on the table, we will let you know. Okay, Rob is signaling that he has enough left over that he refuses to put inside of himself.

Rob 25:11

No, I poured a lot into my original cup, so I got some left. Saving for the black hole cup. That's right. All right. All right, on to the third battle.

Matt 25:21

Old German and Miller High Life. Yeah, old German. Now I'm interested because I've never had old German before. I've never even heard of old German.

Rob 25:30

I've heard of it, I've never had it. Do you think an old German would sound something like I'm an old chamber? Y'all.

Matt 25:37

For the movie buffs out there. You have to warm up the sausage, you have to rub it. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 25:43

Okay, old German against. Miller High Life.

Rob 25:49

The champagne of beers.

Matt 25:53

So I've had this beer precisely three times in my life before today. All three of them. Precisely three. I'm gonna call him out on the podcast. A guy we all know that we grew up with, Mike Weber. This was like his beer.

Science Sound Effect 26:06

Micke Weber.

Matt 26:06

Mick Weber, this was his beer back in the day. And anytime I hung out with him, he's like, I got high life. Okay. Champagne beers.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

So the champagne of beers, you know, like when you start drinking Miller Light, just to like play beer pong and those things. Like, oh, those are the fun days.

Rob 26:20

Like when you don't care about life. Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:22

And then when one day you wake up and you're like, I'm gonna switch to high life. It's a transition point of your life. You have moved out of the just party phase.

SPEAKER_04 26:29

I jumped right over that phase apparently. Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

To the classic high life can, the woman on the moon. I imagine this is what the astronauts drank when they came back from the moon. Like, oh well, some highlifes.

Rob 26:43

We need some old German as well, my friend.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

All right, classic old German can, white with an old German man pointing at the old German. Mein Gott.

Matt 26:51

So in heaven, there is no beer. That's why we drink it here. And when we're gone from here, our friends will be drinking all our beer.

SPEAKER_04 26:58

The old German first beer with a very large head on it. Hey. Yeah, very frothy. We'll see how that plays out. Some people are into it.

Matt 27:06

A whole pint. I love that it says that at the top. A whole pint.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

One whole pint.

SPEAKER_04 27:10

Lager with an exclamation point at the end. A whole pint.

SPEAKER_01 27:13

It also says OG on the side. I'm just saying.

Rob 27:15

It would be pretty cool if you poured it and then pass it to the side.

Matt 27:18

So I'm just reading this can. Okay, they have a very haughty opinion of themselves. Premium lager. The world knows no finer down there on the bottom. Wow. Wow.

Rob 27:29

Bold claim. That's a mic drop moment. Listen, it's got OG right on the can.

SPEAKER_04 27:33

Original German. I hope I like this beer so that I can refer to, yeah, you want to go drink some OGs? Like that's pretty pretty legit.

Rob 27:42

Alright, I'm starting with the Which are we going first? They've got very similar noses to them. They do. That I noticed. To me, they smell exactly the same. Oh, damn near the same.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Oh, I no, I have to agree with you. Yeah, that's that's weird the same.

SPEAKER_04 27:55

The High Life has a little bit of that sour smell to be the same.

SPEAKER_01 27:59

Is the High Life a Pilsner or a Lager?

Rob 28:03

It's a champagne. It's an American lager. So they're both German. They're both lagers. 1903.

Matt 28:08

When I smell the High Life, I get a lot more barley. I get a lot more barley in that sniff.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

That's probably the sourness. Okay.

Matt 28:14

Yeah, and when I sniff, when I sniff the old German. I'm going in for a high life.

Rob 28:19

You're sniffing the old Germans now? Yeah, apparently. Real crowddy smell. High Life first.

Matt 28:24

The old German is making me miss the Rousch beer. Like I sincerely miss the Rousch beer.

Rob 28:30

Oh my. Okay, I'm into the High Life. Surprisingly lack of flavor. On the High Life. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It reminds me of the natty ice. Barley water. It's like so close to the natty ice in taste. A straight barley water.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

It's actually kind of sad for me.

Rob 28:48

Alright. I'm going for.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

I remember that being such a I'm going for that old German.

Rob 28:54

That was PBR for me.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

I'm pros it. Ooh, there's something going on there. Oh, there is. It's very smooth. That's surprising. Uh-oh. It's very smooth.

Rob 29:05

What's happening? What? It's so old.

SPEAKER_01 29:09

It's so German. Like I feel like you could drink a ton of them.

SPEAKER_04 29:13

Ooh, I don't know if I'd agree with that. Oh, I'm gonna go. I don't know if I'd agree with that.

Rob 29:17

It's heavy, but it's it's a whole pint, man. It's a whole pint.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

It's the OG, bro.

Rob 29:23

Scheiße. I I think this is the first surprise for me in the battles so far. I don't know. We'll see how the scores play out, but Chris.

SPEAKER_04 29:33

Okay, I have to give Oh, this is tough. I I'm giving the old German a 20. Wow. Coming in hard with that old German.

SPEAKER_01 29:42

It's pretty damn good. Yeah, it really is.

SPEAKER_04 29:44

Or again responsible for our German listeners. I would like to remind the listeners that I am keeping these beers in their own realm.

SPEAKER_01 29:52

Oh, of course, of course. It goes without saying.

SPEAKER_04 29:54

But 20. And also I'm really comparing because I'm really bad at like remembering what I thought of past beers. So 20 for that. The high life, I'm gonna give a 12.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

I think that's a fair answer for the high life. You know, I keep trying to think of how this compares to the Alliance head at the beginning.

SPEAKER_04 30:11

Yeah. I'm trying to keep that out and I'm just going head to head right now. No, yeah. Oh, that's fair.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

You know, that's that's actually a good way to very good way of looking at it.

Rob 30:19

We're gonna rescore these as they go up against each other in later brackets.

Matt 30:23

I'm happy to say this is high.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Very subjective scoring.

Rob 30:26

Where are you at?

SPEAKER_01 30:28

Well, you know, I gotta say, um, I I thought High Life was gonna be my winner of this, honestly, hands down. Because I just remember drinking high life. Sure. Like I said, it felt like a transition moment. It was like a growing up time for me. Yeah.

Rob 30:40

Like uh we're not L I T E men. We're coming of age beer. Coming of age beer.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

Yeah, look at me. I'm I'm drinking the High Life. And you know, 12 is I think accurate for that.

Rob 30:50

And the old German?

SPEAKER_01 30:51

20, 21? I think the old German is good. It's a good beer.

SPEAKER_04 30:54

It's good. Wow. Yeah, it's good. Again, I'm trying to think, how many would you drink? Two. How many lion's heads would you drink? Two. Yeah. I mean, we're pretty good. I know I got close, right?

Rob 31:06

So you're going 20 or 21?

SPEAKER_01 31:08

I'm going 20 on this. And I feel like lions heads.

Matt 31:13

How many would I drink? Am I paying for them or not?

SPEAKER_04 31:16

No, you're at you're at a party and they're in a cooler. Well, okay. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You paid to get into the party already.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

I'm going for the old German then. I'm going for the old German. They were$8.55 at six pack.

Rob 31:27

But but again, what do you got, Rob? I would go High Life 13. That's consistent. Old German 18. Um fair. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. That's where I'm at. In a shocking turn of events.

Matt 31:40

So as I said, I've had High Life three times before. What I didn't say earlier is every time I've had it, I have developed a disdain for it. I don't like it. It doesn't do it for me. I'm giving High Life a four. That's the best I can do. It's not not beer. That's my opinion on it. All right. What do we got old German at? For the old German, I'm giving the old German a 20. Wow. I would drink old German. I would buy a case. I would watch football. I would yell at my Steelers for not doing great in the 2022, 2023 season, and I would drink old German.

SPEAKER_04 32:14

I think we've caught a trend of Matt judging these beers based on history. Yes. Which is fine. Because I mean I was that way as well with PBR. I came into this being like, I'm going to give it a top scores no matter what, because it was my favorite beer, you know, in the college age, but no, I couldn't do it. I just here we are.

Matt 32:34

So to be fair, I haven't had PBR or High Life in legitimately 15 to 20 years.

Steel Reserve vs. Bush

SPEAKER_04 32:41

One of these that I've had recently would have been Genesee Cream.

Matt 32:44

I would also like to point out, and if anybody would like to call it for the old German, I will press the button, but we haven't hit the stellar sit button yet.

Rob 32:51

That's okay. Yeah, let's start at round two. Let's go around Germany. You gotta get to round two.

Matt 32:56

Okay, so we're all on the same page right now. All right, good.

SPEAKER_04 32:59

Scores for round three. We got old German at a 78, and we have high life at a 41. I'm not gonna lie. I think old German scored higher than I will point out so far the old German highest scorer.

SPEAKER_01 33:12

I'd like to get another crack at Lyons, which I think we will. So Untapped has High Life at a 2.7 out of five.

Rob 33:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

Old German at 2.78 out of five.

Rob 33:23

All right. So we did not find them to be that close in their taste.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

No, but we are on trend.

Rob 33:28

But we are still ahead of the curve.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

I have to tell you that the first time I had old German was kind of like a Was it right now?

Rob 33:36

Because for me it was.

SPEAKER_01 33:37

No, a guy I knew was like, hey, you gotta try this great cheap beer. You can buy like a case for like 20 bucks a pounders. I was like, yeah, I'll give that a shot. And uh I think it lives up to its kind of it's all right.

SPEAKER_04 33:49

We got our last battle of round one where we have so I'm not gonna lie.

Matt 33:53

This is the one that I've been the most afraid of in the bracket. We have a steel reserve with Bush.

SPEAKER_04 34:00

Oh my god, it's terrible. This is gonna be Oh, what separates the men from the boys? G.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Alright, so we're gonna start with the Bush classic blue can with the mountains, the rocky mountains in the back.

Matt 34:13

My brain was in the same place that yours did.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

What was that?

SPEAKER_04 34:23

I love the podcast.

SPEAKER_01 34:26

Season two will be filmed because you have to see some of this stuff. Whatever just happened right in the middle. Oh my god.

Rob 34:32

I broke Chris. Okay, get me some bush. The steel reserve, it's 8.1 gens. Uh be gentle.

SPEAKER_01 34:42

First of all, first of all, it says high gravity at the top. It sure does.

Rob 34:46

But it was$2 a can, so I it it qualifies. Two bucks a can? And I'll be honest with you, we're all craft beer drinkers here, right? So this is an 8.1. Is this gonna actually agree with our palettes more because we're so used to higher gravity beers?

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Well, I that is some heavy optimism.

Rob 35:04

Sometimes, though, don't know the better thing.

SPEAKER_01 35:07

The better craft beers are not the high alcohol beers. Does that make sense? I mean wrong Indian pale ale.

SPEAKER_04 35:13

Sometimes if they're too boozy, to me that all depends on the style as well, because like a good stout has to be Imperial Stout has to be heavy.

Rob 35:24

Oh guys, I I just smelled. Okay.

Matt 35:28

I did too.

Rob 35:29

It's not gonna lie, the Steel City Reserve smells like gasoline.

SPEAKER_04 35:34

Yikes. And uh had the bush it does have again. We we're having a trend of one of the beers having that really like sour smell.

Rob 35:44

What is it, like a barley note? Have we agreed on that? That's what we were saying earlier.

unknown 35:48

Okay.

Rob 35:49

What are you doing first? I'm starting with the I'm gonna start with a bush. Okay. I'm a bush man. Call me Moses. Here we go.

Matt 35:57

I mean, it's smooth.

Rob 35:59

Okay, I'll I'll give it that. I'm surprised.

SPEAKER_04 36:02

It's like it's not literally no flavor. Almost no flavor. Again, it's got the beer flavor, but it's so watered down. Who's ready for this deal?

Rob 36:16

I'm not, but I'm so concerned. Can't get over the smell. It's awful. I don't think it tastes that bad. It smells horrible. Yeah. But it tastes like real beer. You can taste the high gravity.

Matt 36:29

Real beer. You can taste that difference in alcohol content for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yeah. I don't know what you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_04 36:35

I think it's it's not gonna knock me on my butt or anything, but like it tastes certainly better than I was expecting.

Matt 36:42

The steel reserve though says if I have two of those or three of those, I'm gonna feel it.

SPEAKER_01 36:47

Yeah, done.

Matt 36:47

I'm gonna feel it.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

Yeah. A normal night for me, though.

Matt 36:50

Fair, because with the craft beer we're used to drinking, that's right about where it is, right? 8.1, 9% somewhere in that wheelhouse.

Rob 36:58

To me, this is the closest battle we've had thus far.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

The steel reserve's got an aftertaste that I I cannot get over.

Rob 37:06

Thank you. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

There's something going on in the back of my tongue that I I Aga, I don't think it's it's not terrible.

SPEAKER_04 37:12

Neither of these are terrible beers. This is like, I don't know. All right. Cesspool water?

Rob 37:18

Let's whoa, whoa.

unknown 37:20

All right.

Rob 37:21

All right. I know I'm going up against you here, but I don't know that it's that that much of a gap.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

I would say at Swig.

Matt 37:28

I'm pretty sure it's that much of a gap.

SPEAKER_01 37:30

Well, we're at a swig, I would say, but that aftertaste.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

Chris, where are you at? Okay, I'm gonna give Steel Reserve a 10. Okay. And I'm gonna give Bush a 12. It's not my lowest rated beer as Steel Reserve, but Bush is better by a hair. Okay. Big Z, where are you at?

SPEAKER_01 37:51

You know, I'm gonna be honest, I'm not overwhelmed with either one of these.

Rob 37:57

Yeah?

SPEAKER_01 37:57

No.

Rob 37:59

Don't say.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Well, I mean, there have been some surprises along the way, right? We've had some stuff. So I would say probably Bush at a nine and steel reserve at an eight.

Rob 38:16

Nine and an eight. I'm gonna go with the Bush at a ten and the steel reserve at an eleven. Really tight race.

Matt 38:29

I'm gonna say steel reserve at seven. Bush at thirteen.

SPEAKER_04 38:36

Wow. Got some gap there.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Alright, so steel reserve coming in on tapped at 2.14. And Bush is coming in at isn't that higher than the previous ones we looked at?

Matt 38:51

2.45.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

Wow. So Bush beating out so far. No, those are some of the lowest. Yes, they are. Those are some of the lowest. Natty Ice is still coming in at the lowest. I'll recap these scores here. So we've got now uh Steel Reserve as a 36, but the winner, Bush, at a 44 for our scores. But overall, we've got uh let me see if I can do this order correctly in one shot. So we have Natty Ice at a 1.8, we have Steel Reserve at a 2.14, we have Bush at a 2.45, we have High Life at a 2.7, PBR at a 2.83, Genesee at a 3.01, and Lions Head at a 3.03. That is almost on par with what we scored. I think there's a few discrepancies, but we were pretty close to the city.

Rob 39:44

Pretty much I think everything that moved forward, everything that moved forward was ahead and untapped in those brackets. Yes, yeah, yes. Yeah, yeah. So and and I mean ourselves right now.

SPEAKER_01 39:58

Yeah, we didn't look at the untapped at all until after we drank.

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Sure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

They did not influence our we didn't like look at it beforehand. I'm looking at them as we're going.

Matt 40:07

Untapped, not a sponsor. Give me a call, shoot me an email, mat and friendsd u.com, mat and friendsd u.com. All right. So worth pointing out that both my beloved Genesee cream and my unbeloved natty ice are out. So no matter what, I will be drinking what is ever in that cup at the end of this thing.

Round 2

Rob 40:30

Yeah, Matt, I don't think that we told the listeners that everything that gets poured down the black hole becomes the rocket fuel at the end. And all three people who have not had the winner selected, so all of the losers will drink the rocket fuel. And I am also completely out. So you and I have that lovely distinction of being the rocket fuel drinkers, and uh the the battle now turns to Big Z versus Chris for this beer bracket.

SPEAKER_01 40:58

So I'm proud to say that both the old German and the Bush have advanced, and as well as your Yeah, we have PBR and Lion's head.

SPEAKER_04 41:06

Now that we've reached the end of round one, that can mean only one thing.

Matt 41:09

It is time for Chucky Chuckles.

Rob 41:11

Right, you are Stefan, and Chuckle We Must, because there are no tears to be had with these terrible beers. Matt and Rob were left in tears as they are now making an early exit from this competition. It's really a sad state of affairs.

Matt 41:25

Alright, let's go back down to Matt again and get back to the action.

SPEAKER_04 41:34

Very unexpected on the old German. I think we all agree about upon that.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Oh, yeah. It's a dark horse.

SPEAKER_04 41:41

Never heard of it. Yeah. It's coming in real real strong. So we're gonna start off with my heads up between Lion's Head and PBR. I yes, that's where we're at right now. So have have we all poured? I have not.

Rob 41:53

Yes, I've got Lion's Head here in my Tumblr and PBR here in this here solo cup.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Of course, Lion's Head brewed locally, well, locally to us, and Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania, is a deluxe premium pilsner.

Matt 42:07

Is that what the bottle says? Deluxe premium pilsner.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Uh it just says deluxe pilsner. You're getting at the premium. Okay, you're being generous with the premium.

Rob 42:15

A lot more malty notes off the nose of the lion's head. Just me. Maybe it's not just me, but No, it's not.

Matt 42:22

You're correct. That is a malty taste.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Well, no, I remember from round one we talked about the malt coming out of um.

Rob 42:28

And then that that PBR has that sourish, sour barley scent.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

Have any of you brewed beer at home? Um, I I brewed with a friend.

Rob 42:37

It's a negative for me.

Matt 42:38

So I I made some malt-based beer, and when I taste the lion's head, it smells exactly like when you open a can of malt. Exactly what I would expect.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

So I think some of these run-in-the-mill beers, I should say run-of-the-mill beer, the PBRs.

Rob 42:52

Okay. Yeah. This is the budget.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

You have a lot, a lot of things going in.

Rob 42:56

Listen, guys, I'm already ready to score here when you all are. Hit me, Rob. What do you think? There's a clear winner for me here. The Lions Head out of 20 for me on this round. After we've gone through now and I've tasted everything, and then I'm tasting again. Lion's head 20 for me. PBR, 16. Interesting. You kept him pretty close. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Uh Lion's Head, I'd probably go 19. I would drink it. I mean, that's what it comes down to.

Rob 43:24

Like, I would drink it. I am so shocked because I don't remember it being good. I agree.

SPEAKER_04 43:29

I agree because Lion's Head was one of those beers that people would bring as I didn't want to spend a lot of money. Correct. I'm coming to your party, so I need to bring beer. So I brought you a case of Lion's Head. I think it happened at one of the Super Bowl parties. I can't remember which. Way back in the day. For for those of you listeners, my wife and I, Siobhan, who you've heard before on the podcast, we always do a huge Super Bowl party every year. Epic. Epic. And for years we were in a tiny house and it was jam-packed full of people. One of the things we always said is like, we'll supply the food, you supply the beer. And people would bring all kinds of random stuff. And Lion's Head was one of the cases that got left in my house, and there were 29 beers in that case for probably six months. Right. And then I had to dump it down the toilet because it was terrible to me.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Well, as a crap beer drinker, like the winner for right now.

Rob 44:23

So Big Z, what is your PBR score then if you're given Lion's Head?

SPEAKER_01 44:27

So I'm I'm trying to be consistent. I don't remember what I gave PBR before. Judging by this round, at 19 for the Lions Head, it's probably more like a 1213. Okay. I don't know where I'm at with the score.

SPEAKER_04 44:40

Interesting. PBR dropped for you, but that's cool. Uh I am gonna give Lions Head a solid 20. And I'm gonna give PBR a 14.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

What were our numbers before?

SPEAKER_04 44:52

Well, hold on.

Matt 44:53

Matthew so needs to score it. I do. So I recall the Lion's Head in your fridge, and you always had Premium beer, and there was part of me that was like, Why is this? We're really good friends. I don't want to drink all of your premium beer, so I'm just gonna reach for the lion's head. I'll take the low-hanging fruit because I'm I'm here to watch a football game. We're here to play some Mario Kart, whatever. I'll get rid of it for you. I was probably responsible for 10 out of that case of lion's head over time. Here's what I got the PBR, I'm gonna give a nine. When I put it next to the lion's head and I drank them, the PBR that again, I'm gonna say it's like a sulfur taste that I got out of it. So for the lion's head, I'm going with a 19 for the lion's head. I enjoyed it. I could drink that. Yeah, honestly, it's it's when I was younger, I felt the same way though. When I was pilfering it out of your fridge, it was like, it's not bad. It's really not bad. It's okay. This cements that for me.

SPEAKER_04 45:45

It's so weird the way that the history of a beer can influence us, but also can like absolutely it absolutely flipped on me. I think the other beer I was thinking of bringing, I don't know if you've ever remembered Duquesne beer.

Rob 46:00

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:01

I don't know that I've ever had that. It's it's like a local-ish beer. I've never had that. It's another, it's a cheap lion's head-ish beer, and we got a free case of it once for winning trivia at one of the local places. That was another beer where I think we all, you know, we got it. We were like, yeah, free beer, and we all came over to the house and we all had one, and we were like, hooray, terrible beer, and it sat in the kitchen. It was free. It sat in the kitchen, then it got dumped because it was so terrible. So I was thinking about like, can I do a redemption story on this beer? I kind of wish you had. But I I had to go with Lion's Head and PBR, and I'm glad I did. No, I mean I understand, but so how did we shake out there? Yeah. Easily the winner, Lion's Head again. Yeah, right. At a 78 over a 52 to PBR. Okay. I what was Lion's Head the first round? So Lion's Head first round 74, PBR 67.

SPEAKER_01 46:53

You know, I remember talking the first round being like, I wonder if Lion's Head's gonna jump up. Because it was the first beer we had.

Rob 46:59

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 46:59

We we were all trying to be a little bit more conservative with our with our points, but uh mine dropped for Lion's Head, but everybody else's, especially Welshers, jumped up for Lion's Head, and PBR dropped for most people. Uh but again, that was because we are comparing it to such a crappier beer, if I do say so myself. Yes. I chose some two good beers. So I probably did. Alright, I think we now need to go on to the big Z head-to-head. Let's see what we're going with here in the first time. To remind everybody, we've got German. Old German and Birch.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

And the old German.

SPEAKER_04 47:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:34

Premium lager. So the OG. The OG. Alright. I'll uh I'll bush it up. There is no old German left though. So honestly, we all drank the pint of old German.

SPEAKER_04 47:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

Think about that.

SPEAKER_04 47:48

Well, again, I brought megapints. I I have 24s as well.

SPEAKER_01 47:53

You brought one megapint. No, I brought two in a bottle.

SPEAKER_04 47:56

I brought two and we're halfway through the P the uh the second PBR megapint. Thanks to Johnny Demp for your megapint there. I I hate to say this. Wait, is that no?

Matt 48:06

Here's a question that I never thought I would ask in my life. Is there more Bush beer because this one is empty?

unknown 48:13

Ha ha!

SPEAKER_01 48:13

A whole nother pounder.

SPEAKER_04 48:17

I hope you heard that. Yeah. Okay, here we go.

Rob 48:23

Oh man. That was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 48:25

The beer graveyard, if you will.

Rob 48:26

Might I have some old German, please? Bitte. Ich wunsch alte Deutsche Bitte.

Matt 48:34

In that Freedom High School German proud there, Rob. Keep it going.

Rob 48:37

Frau Brawski, what up? Shout out to you. Easy killer. Alright, I got.

SPEAKER_04 48:46

I love this old German.

Rob 48:49

I got Busch in the metal. And I've got old German in the solo.

Matt 48:54

You say you got Busch in the middle?

Rob 48:55

Does anybody else metal? No, I'm good. Alright, we're sniffing. The Bush smells terrible. It really does. We all know which is gonna win here.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Yeah, no, I mean, honestly, I'm gonna be. This is number one versus number four. We think so. We think so. I'm gonna go Bush first.

SPEAKER_04 49:11

Yeah.

Rob 49:13

Versus Bush last. The smell of it. It's bad. It hurts your soul. I mean, it doesn't taste good. What did this beat? What did this beat? Steal a reserve. It's your own fault, my friend. That's fair. I don't understand in tasting this the second time. I don't understand how this was better than anything.

SPEAKER_01 49:36

Because someone took budget to a whole different level. That's how this won.

SPEAKER_04 49:39

Yeah, I told you this yesterday, Rob. You should have been a little more choosy. Okay, that's fair.

Matt 49:45

I mean, the standard for this was what do I buy when my self-respect is at all-time low and for the reaching at the bottom because my wallet is empty. That's where we are.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

No, he went for the yucks with the high gravity. He did. It didn't pay off.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

No, it really didn't. He went for high alcohol.

Rob 50:01

Okay. I've tasted both. Again. Again. And there is a clear winner. However, the old German is not as good as I remember it being. Agreed. I have to agree as well. I don't know what it is about going up against this one.

SPEAKER_04 50:15

That's like it's taking a shift because it went against high life.

Rob 50:20

Oh, that's true. Right? That's what it is. It's been a rough day for me. Sorry, sir. Like my picks were not skilled.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

I'm nervous for the old German, which I believe will advance this round. It could. I don't know about going up against Lionshead right now.

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Chris, do you have a score? I have to give the Bush like a 12 here. Okay. But then the old German, I'm gonna give a 16.

SPEAKER_01 50:46

Okay. Oh man. The old German. Such a strong early contender. And I feel like old German, probably like a 17? 16, 17? Okay. That's got to take a few. Well, you gotta pick one number there, fella.

SPEAKER_04 50:59

I'll give it the 17.

Rob 51:00

He always gives two numbers. He does. I usually have a higher of the two. No, no one really knows where he's going with it.

Matt 51:06

Five, eleven, twelve, fourteen, and then nine. You're calling it like the powerball over there.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

I'm going with the bush at a ten. Underwhelming.

Rob 51:18

You know, Chris, I've got to say I'm also not a fan of the bush. I mean, you take what you can get, but uh the bush is the nine for me on this round. You'd like it to be limited. You would.

SPEAKER_04 51:28

A limited amount.

Rob 51:29

You would. A tasteful. A tasteful amount. Yeah. I'll go with a nine on the bush. And um for the old German, I'm gonna go with a 16. I'm going 16 on old German.

SPEAKER_01 51:40

Is it two in the hand? It's better than one in the bush. Is that how it is?

Matt 51:43

Yeah, I mean all right, Matt, we need your final scores. Yeah, it's really a stark contrast when you put these two together, very much so more than the previous round. So, Busch, I'm gonna give an eight. An eight. I couldn't do it. There was the nose on the front end, and then the actual taste, and it was like watching a train derail as I was drinking. Couldn't do it. The old German premium lager again on the can, the world knows no finer. I'm gonna give that a 17. Still say I could drink that one on repeat and we'd be okay. I mean, I I could.

SPEAKER_01 52:18

It just doesn't but would you want to? No, I'm the second time around, not nearly as good.

SPEAKER_04 52:23

I I go back to the thought that I've been having is how many of these would you be willing to drink? Two. And I feel like lion's head might be Yeah. I might drink some more lion's head. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, but it does feel like we're we're kind of for this round.

Rob 52:39

What are our totals?

SPEAKER_04 52:41

We are old German killing it at a 66 versus Bush at a measly 39. That really dropped though, score wide. It did. That that I mean went from a 44 to a 39. So not a huge drop, but still it was up against Steel Reserve.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

No, I I meant the old German. That's a drop. That's got a that was in the 70s, wasn't it?

Round 3

SPEAKER_04 53:00

Huge drop. Huge drop for the huge drop from a 78 to a 66. So wow. Yeah. Yeah. A 12 point drop. Contrast is important here, and I I Yeah, no, absolutely. I said from the beginning, if we were to drink all eight of these back to back, boom, boom, boom, I think it would have been a different layout. But the bracket really m forces you to choose. Hyper focus. Alright, so we gotta fill our black holes.

Rob 53:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 53:28

Done.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

Black holes detected you where you think horizon.

Rob 53:33

And now at the end of our semifinal round, we'll throw it to Stefan for his Weasler's whip. The old German continues its whiskering through the bracket as it mows down the bush. It's not the 70s anymore, Stefan. It was time for a trim. And the Lion's Head has snatched the blue ribbon away from Pat. Nobody even knows what that ribbon means, but we're okay with that. And now on to the final round. We've got Lion's Head versus Old German in a very, very exciting battle between Big C and Chris.

Matt 54:04

Let's recap for the listeners because we've done a fairly bad job of this so far. What's actually in the black hole? Yeah, it's really in the lord. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 54:14

In the black hole, we currently have Genesee Cream. Yep. PBR. Yep. Natty Ice. Yep. High Life. Yep. Yeah. Steel Reserve. Oh, God. And Bush.

unknown 54:25

Whew.

SPEAKER_04 54:26

That is one hell of a cocktail.

SPEAKER_01 54:28

And it comes out to Lion's Head versus Ye old German as the winner. Listen. I mean, when we started out today, either of these beers, did you think they were going to be here?

Rob 54:41

No. No. I'll be honest, like, from a preconceived notion, PBR was always going to be in the final in my brain.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Yeah.

Rob 54:49

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

That would have been a fair thought. Yeah.

Rob 54:52

I guess weirdly enough, I thought High Life would be this. So I thought it would be PR versus High Life.

Matt 54:58

Yep. And neither are here, guys. I thought Lion's Head might make it to round two because as I said, that was the one that I would drink. I would never drink it and say, that's a bad beer. No, I would drink and say that's good point. All right. It's a good to me.

SPEAKER_04 55:11

It was like, who is it facing in in round one? And I think it will win. But I thought that it would get defeated no matter what, right? It doesn't matter what beer it's up against, because whatever made it to round two, it would lose to. But the fact that my beloved PBR was what it lost to, that's a rough, it's a rough go. I know. I know.

SPEAKER_01 55:33

Well, PBR in general was underwhelming. Let's get out. It really was. Let's get out of a can.

Rob 55:41

We got championship series. And let's get out of a bottle. OG versus Lion's Head. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

Bum bum bum bum. Matt, could you grab me another can of this out of the uh the old cooler over there?

Rob 55:53

Oh, the old the old German covering from the old cooler. The final round.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

Pittsburgh. Lion's head versus old German. Ironically, both Pennsylvania beers. Pittsburgh Brewing Company for OG, Old German, and Wilkesburg, Pennsylvania for the Lions Head Brewery. This is East versus West. This is East versus West. The entire Commonwealth is up, is up for grabs right now.

Rob 56:21

What? In the house. How did we end up doing that?

SPEAKER_01 56:24

I don't know.

Rob 56:25

No one knows.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

Honestly, I did not know that this was brewed in Pennsylvania until right now.

Rob 56:31

Weirdly, we are Pennsylvania boys, and we have left ourselves with a Pennsylvania v Pennsylvania battle.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

We may have to do this again with another state.

SPEAKER_04 56:42

I would love to have like a West Coaster individual join us with a bunch of budget beer West Coast.

SPEAKER_01 56:50

I don't know if I want that.

SPEAKER_04 56:52

You never know, though. Here comes some lion's head going around the table here.

SPEAKER_01 56:58

I can't believe I did not know German. I didn't know that.

Rob 57:03

I didn't know old German existed. Matter of fact, this can is empty, so we're gonna need to open a new one. Here we go. Another one to the dead graveyard. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 57:17

This is a magical journey we we've been on.

Rob 57:19

That is very true, Big Z. Very true.

Matt 57:21

Our definition of magical journey does not meet the Disney threshold, just saying.

SPEAKER_01 57:26

Again, I feel like we have gone and done something that most people would not have done.

Rob 57:31

And I've gone to frontiers that most people would not normally explore.

SPEAKER_01 57:37

No, and but more importantly, if you throw nostalgia aside and you just drink the beers for what they are, I'm shocked that we're here. I'm shocked that I am too.

Rob 57:46

I I the I never expected old German in the final round with lions versus lion's head. When I was younger, we get that for like$15 a case.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

You can get money back when you drop the empty bottles off at the brewery in Wilkes Bear. Well, I don't know if they still do it, but they did what they're called. They still do it. Yeah, you can get money back. You can take an empty case back and they're like, hey, we'll give you$10,$5 off, whatever it might be.

SPEAKER_04 58:11

I don't think it's that much, but yeah, it was like it was like two bucks a bottle. It's like it's like two bucks. Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_01 58:16

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You bring the empty bottles back, they clean them and reuse them.

SPEAKER_04 58:20

Shout out to all my Nipah friends. We love you for your amazing brewery right now. I'll be honest, Jenny.

SPEAKER_01 58:26

Um, we'll expare.

Rob 58:27

I'm kind of forgetting which beer is in which here. You will know upon upon smells. I okay, I I know now. The old German is in the solo cup.

SPEAKER_01 58:37

Red solo cup.

Rob 58:39

And in in my tin cup here. Here I have the lion's head. Here we go. Let's do it. Final to lion's head. I'm smelling again. Smelling the lion's head. I I think that uh smelling the old German.

SPEAKER_01 58:51

So the old German's underwhelming in the smell department, but it smells better than the other beers that we smelled.

Matt 58:59

Big Z, campaign. It's campaign and hard.

SPEAKER_01 59:01

No, no, no. I'm just saying that now that we put it nose to nose with the lion's head, which I think has its best smell. Yeah. The best smell comes out of lion's head.

Rob 59:10

Okay, guys. I know what's going on here for me. It's very clear once again, and I'm so shocked by this. But for me, the lion's head has so much flavor. It does. It's complex. It's insane. For a cheap beer, the lion's head is doing so much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:33

If a flavor flavor profile, whereas old German has one flavor. Yeah.

Rob 59:37

It's like, hey, this is beer. The old German's like, I'm be a. And then lion's head's like, I'm beer. I I got I got what you want.

SPEAKER_04 59:46

Yeah.

Science Sound Effect 59:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:47

There's more going on here. I'm gonna offend a lot of people here. But German beer style is one dimensional. It is. They do that dimension fantastically. It's true. And people, especially people who aren't actual Germans who then brew German style beers, it then drops so far down. Right. Right? If this was an actual German brewery versus Lion's Head, I think the old style German beer would kill it.

Rob 1:00:17

So this is the old German gets better as it gets warmer. Because oftentimes German style beer is best at closer to room temperature. I've never agreed with that statement. But I think to room temperature.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:33

I know with not super cold. I know that's like a common thing. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of European breweries will tell you you should be drinking your beer closer to room temperature. Us Americans are savages who chill our beers. Everything's cold. But for me, I believe you'll put that in the roof. It's right off. I can't do it. I can't do a room temperature beer. It just tastes far worse.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:55

So I I think the question comes down to we're talking about an a style of beer brewed in Germany. This is not the same style of beer. It's just not. It wants to be. No, I agreed. And you know what? It does. For what it is, it's still not bad.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:11

Are we ready for final score?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:13

Yeah, I think we are.

Rob 1:01:14

Christopher.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:15

I'm gonna drop Lion's head a little bit at an 18. Okay. But again, this is now we've we've broadened the scope. We've been all over the universe. Wide open. Yeah, as it were. But then I I have to put old German at a 10.

Rob 1:01:33

Wow. It failed me here. A significant drop. I mean again, a superior tasting beer, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:40

If we were being honest, I think I think that 10 for old German might be really generous at this point. Wow. Um as I brought this beer into the battle, I would probably say eight or nine. Go with your nine. All right. And Lion's head, I believe I've given it a 19 across the board. I would give it a 19 again. I think it's a good one. I think it's a out of what we've had to deal with.

Rob 1:02:08

So consistent.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:09

Like out of so consistent. But every time it's been good. It's not good. I agree with you.

Rob 1:02:15

Like it's I'll be honest with you. I don't exactly remember what I've given Lion's Head across the board, but this time around, I'm gonna try to be consistent and give it an 18 again. I think I've given it an 18 in the past. I mean it's staying in an 18 for me. It's very hard for me to get above those numbers for these types of beers.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:34

Again, it's for me. You also want like a baseline top to bottom, but you also want the separation. And that's why I went with my numbers of 18 and 10. Because I wanted almost like a 10-point gap. Sure. But I'm not gonna put it. I I feel I'm gonna I'm gonna keep Lion's head at 18.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:54

Within its ecosystem, it's the dominant predator. If you send it out to the ocean of beers, it's gonna get eaten up.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:01

Wow. Wow, wow. We're going biological. We are boom. What are you hitting with the old German?

Rob 1:03:09

Lion. Wow, Mike. I believe that might be the first time this season that someone else has dropped some science knowledge. It was deserved. It was. It was it was well earned. I guess for me, the old German at this point, in comparison to the lion's head, is an 11. It's significantly worse than the lion's head. No, it actually isn't. It 100% is like there's no, and I have to engage that in scoring. I'd be very curious once Matt's done here to see how much the scores have changed round by round for those two beers. Yeah, we'll recap everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

Old German's gonna have, well, depending on what Matt does, we'll see. Sure.

The Winner is...

Matt 1:03:48

Hit us, Matt. What do you think? So I admit in the previous round, some nostalgia came into my scoring. This was never meant to be completely objective scoring. It was gonna be subjective in many ways. These are two beers that hold zero nostalgia for me. So if you want to get an honest, objective opinion, these are gonna be the two beers. I'm gonna say that the old German in this case, head to head, and that's really what I focused on, head to head. That initial nose and smell, I couldn't. I couldn't, I'm saying 11 for the old German.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:25

That's fair.

Matt 1:04:27

The lion's head has that really, as we've talked about, complex flavor profile. It's not one-dimensional. There's different things going on in there.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:39

I mean, it's crazy.

Matt 1:04:41

Who knew?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:41

What you got? What number? Give me a number.

Matt 1:04:43

I'm giving you 22. I feel like it crushed the competition. It crushed there was just that much gap between these rounds.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:55

More than halfway, 11 or close to halfway. Wow. Alright, so we have the final scores in. I just got handed them from the judges. And the winner is.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:09

I saw them actually, the judges.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:10

Yeah. I share cuttings with them. It's cool. We have Lions Head 77. 77. Old German 41. I mean what a blowout.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:25

I mean, folks, if you're in the area, get yourself a case of Lion's Head. I mean, that's what we're saying.

Rob 1:05:30

Wow. I've got to ask, how did those scores change from round to round here? Interesting. Where was Lion's Head for the first two rounds?

Rocket Fuel Cup

SPEAKER_04 1:05:37

Lions Head, first round 74, second round 78, third round 77. She stayed consistently. Pretty consistent. Old German, however, 78, down to a 66, down to a 41. Yeah. It fell off. It's like the New York Giants. It's all comparison-based. Yeah, absolutely. Any given week, you compare one to another, and they can wildly change, which is amazing. Except that we all enjoyed the Lion's Head.

Rob 1:06:09

I mean, I I'm still enjoying the Lion's Head right now.

Matt 1:06:12

Season one, beer battle two, winner. Chris with Lion's Head.

Science Sound Effect 1:06:20

Stellar Sip.

Matt 1:06:22

A well-deserved Stellar Sip that I don't think any of us actually saw coming from round one. I wasn't expecting that.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:30

Again, I've drink a ton of Gibbons Lion's Head, all the same. I did not see this coming.

Rob 1:06:35

Based upon my previous experience, again, PBR or High Life were my two coming into this thinking that they would be I'm so pleasantly surprised by the Lions Head.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:46

I don't mean to cut you off, but there's an elephant in the room. Have you smelled what is in this rocket fuel cup? No.

Matt 1:06:54

I haven't poured the old German into it yet. Well, go ahead and add that.

Rob 1:07:00

So the old Germans going into the black hole. And if we haven't mentioned it before, I believe we did. Fairly certain we have. All of the black hole beers have become the rocket fuel.

Matt 1:07:11

I think you're gonna have to give it a stir or shake. Elon Musk, you can put this in the Falcon Heavy and it's gonna get something to Mars.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:17

I don't know if that's accurate.

Matt 1:07:19

No.

Rob 1:07:20

No, it's it's exploding on launch. It's it's got a scent. It's gotta scent, and it is not a good scent. It's it's it's a bit like preparing and um vomit.

Matt 1:07:33

Hold on, guys. I got a sound for this rocket launch. Are we ready? No.

Rob 1:07:47

Um yep. It's a it's a fail.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:50

So we don't have to drink it then?

Matt 1:07:52

No. No, no, no. No, you wish. No, it's gone down the half. Even no.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:56

Even in my victory, I will join.

Matt 1:07:58

Oh, well, I mean, you know what?

Rob 1:08:01

That is just a gentleman move right there. It is.

Matt 1:08:05

So the ones of us that needed to drink this, Big Z, Rob, and your host Matt crushed Chris Winner. Here we go with the rocket fuel.

Rob 1:08:18

Here we go. Go to gentlemen. Old German. It just tastes like bad beer.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:22

I mean, honestly, that's that's underwhelming.

Rob 1:08:25

Really? I thought it was gonna be worse. Again, so it's not bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:31

Wow. Hold on. Hold on. The bad beers together might be better than each bad beer by itself. Wait a minute.

Matt 1:08:38

Yes. Hold on. Hold on for a second. I can flavor profile this. I got Jenny Cream up front. That was the first thing that literally punched my taste buds, and it ended with steel reserve.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:49

Everything in the middle was heavy barley, and then I'm gonna be honest, I just will say it just tastes like even in its uh final Megatron form, lion's head's crushing this beer. I agree with you.

Rob 1:09:03

Yeah, this is not this is not made a Franken beer that beats the lion's head. But at the same time, super gross.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:12

At the onset, when we talked about doing this, we were like, oh, we're gonna combine the beers and it's gonna, you know, King's Cup style. I thought the worst. I did too. Because in college I was wholly against the King's Cup idea. But that's because everybody brought the most terrible cocktails to college parties. You know, you got your jungle juices and you got your Everclears and whatever else. Some beer in there. Like you don't mix jungle juice and beer. That's terrible.

Matt 1:09:42

Wait a minute. Do we have to do a jungle juice battle?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:44

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:45

No, no.

Matt 1:09:45

Do we have to? No.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:46

I mean, not this season. I do want to say that I'm not gonna lie, however. I would like the next beer battle to be let's go high quality beer. Oh, yeah. Or give those people what they want.

Matt 1:09:56

There's nowhere to go but up right now.

Rob 1:09:59

Listen, my friend, it's a booze battle, so it doesn't even have to be beer.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:04

Well, I'd like to do the beer.

Chucky and Stephan Outro

Rob 1:10:06

I would love to do bourbon. We could do bourbon, we could do, you know, uh beers by style, we can do an IPA battle, we can do a porter battle, you know. The universe is our oyster.

Matt 1:10:20

There will be no question. We're all later in life, we're all waiting for an MRI scan. The doctor goes through, he's reading the results, he looks at the liver and goes, that spot, and we all go, that's the rocket fuel. Okay, I know where that one came from.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

I don't think that that's a spot.

Rob 1:10:35

God you don't think it's a spot? It's not that bad. It's really not that bad. It really isn't. It really isn't. It really isn't that bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:42

Far less it was more frightening than that.

Rob 1:10:49

Was terrifying.

Thank You

Matt 1:10:50

The experience. That could speak volumes though to the quality of beer that are all just meshed together as the whole of beer. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:58

Yeah. Yeah. It is the epitome of bad beer.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:01

Okay, we could do that with the good beers too, and then what would what would we create now? What will happen after that? That might be terrible.

Rob 1:11:08

Or could be horrific.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:11

Excellent.

Rob 1:11:12

Alright, yikes. I mean, you never know. Well, slap me sideways and call me natty daddy. What an exciting conclusion. An exciting conclusion indeed, Stefan. Let me tell you it was a true David and Goliath's tale today. We had Chris and the Lions Head victorious over Big Z and the old German. But between that beer lineup and the black hole, did anyone really win today? That's a fine point, but the old German is definitely down in crowd. And with that, from Stefan and everyone here at BPN, I'm Chucky Roberts, reminding you to set the bar high and always buy a chair that can reach it.

Matt 1:11:51

Today's boozy quote comes from Hunter S. Thompson, who said, Good people drink good beer. During this, the first season of Matt and Friends Drink the Universe, I have had the pleasure and the honor of sharing many great drinks and some very questionable ones with my great friends. I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who joined me and helped make this season possible. Andy, Andy M, Big Z, Chris, Dan, Emma, Rob, Siobhan, the Fish, and last but certainly not least, my lovely wife Jen. Thank you all very much. Without you, this season would not have been possible. And don't worry, dear listeners, there is more Matt and Friends Drink the Universe on the way, season two, coming in August of 2023, available wherever you get your podcast from. Until then, I am your host Matt, and I wish each and every one of you nothing but Stellar Sips. Please push all the buttons for us on social media. It's Matt Friends DTU on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. That's Matt and Friends DTU. For more information, including all the places you can listen to the podcast and where to find our merch store, visit MattfriendsDTU.com.