The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast
We love craft beer! Each week we will taste a number of beers from around the country and give you our thoughts, not only will we talk about the flavor, but also the artwork and anything else that comes to mind.
We will also go on location and visit breweries and try a number of their offerings and give you our thoughts as well.
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The Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast
Ep 106 - In every sip, there's a story waiting to be discovered
Venture into the fascinating world of barrel-aged beers as Mike and BK embark on a tasting journey that reveals just how varied and complex these special brews can be. From the moment they crack open their first beer – a velvety chocolate mint stout that transforms dramatically as it warms – to the surprising discoveries in Mobcraft's barrel-aged collection, every sip tells a story of craftsmanship and experimentation.
The conversation takes an exciting turn when they encounter Pryes Brewing's Monkey Bar, an 11% ABV imperial pastry stout that combines peanut butter, banana, chocolate, and marshmallow into what BK declares "a show and tell beer." This unexpected standout earns a spot on their potential Beer of the Year list, hiding its substantial alcohol content behind layers of dessert-like flavors that develop beautifully at proper temperature.
Temperature emerges as the unsung hero of the episode, with both hosts noting how crucial proper serving temperature is for appreciating barrel-aged beers. Cold temperatures mask complexity, while allowing beers to warm reveals their true character – a revelation that transforms their ratings throughout the tasting.
Mobcraft's barrel-aged collection offers a fascinating study in how different barrels impact the same base beer. From traditional bourbon barrels to more unusual apple brandy casks, each imparts distinctive characteristics ranging from subtle booziness to surprising tartness. The variations prompt thoughtful discussion about barrel selection, aging time, and the unpredictable nature of barrel-aging itself.
Whether you're new to barrel-aged beers or a seasoned enthusiast, this episode offers valuable insights into appreciating these complex creations. Grab your favorite imperial stout, give it time to warm properly, and join Mike and BK on their flavorful exploration of what happens when brewers push the boundaries of barrel aging.
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Grab a beer and pull up a chair. Welcome to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome back to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. This is Mike, the Northwoods Beer Guy, and today we have a special visitor. Well, you've heard him before, but this is the first time, I think, that you and I have done barrel age together on the podcast. I'm pretty sure it is. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm excited about this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. So we are joined, as you could tell, by BK Good evening, morning, afternoon, wherever you're at. Yes, Like I said, we we've done a number of podcasts together. We've never really broke into the barrel age stuff.
Speaker 2:We've done a lot of weird ones where we were all over the place, um and I we've done, I think, the last one, the last one we really did, we were on location, right? Yes, we were in Florida.
Speaker 1:Yep, florida, we've done, of course, up in the North woods and we've done uh other in the cities. We've done some barrel aged and and today you are actually at my house, correct? Uh, we have, uh, some stuff we're doing this weekend, hopefully weather permitting. Uh, mother nature can't decide what she's doing always, always temperamental, yeah exactly. I kind of hope she didn't hear that yeah yeah, now we jinxed it now probably.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, crazy stuff. Well, hey, you know what? Let's, uh, let's start into one, and then we'll just kind of see where it takes.
Speaker 2:I should say so, I think we'll start with of these. Um well, just so everybody knows, mike and I sat on four of these.
Speaker 2:Uh, for quite a while we've had them not literally, but literally right um, but there's only four of them, so we brought a couple extras and, uh, the first one we're gonna have is one that I had very recently and I rated very high, and it was just uh, have is one that I had very recently and I rated very high and it was something that I had to bring some Mike a try.
Speaker 1:You know what is funny I just realized. When Susie and I were in Miami, when our daughter was playing that tournament down there a couple years ago, we went to this brewery. Oh really, yeah, and it was interesting. They had giant mushrooms all over the place. I'm not exactly sure what that stood for, but it was interesting.
Speaker 2:If it's anything like this beer, it's interesting. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1:Yep. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is by Tripping Animals Brewing and they're out of actually it's out of Doral, florida, which is like a suburb of Miami kind of deal. So the description on this one now this one is not barrel aged, correct. I don't believe it is Okay. So it says Moonlight Mint is actually the name of it, moonlight Mint Stout and it says Moonlight Mint is a velvety smooth conditioned with chocolate mint, offering a refreshing twist of minty goodness in every sip. At seven percent abv, this smooth brew is perfect for those cool nights when you're craving a rich chocolate mint experience. The balance of flavors delivers the ideal mix of indulgence and refreshment, making it a must for the stout lovers and mint enthusiasts alike so basically, put away the girl scout cookies, yeah, and crack a beer when you get up in the middle, yeah exactly or maybe not do that well, you know, they say, you know there was supposedly bad stuff in the girl scout.
Speaker 1:But there's bad stuff in anything that tastes good, anything anything you overindulge in is bad.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, let's be honest that is true.
Speaker 1:now on this can, this can. It's a 16-ounce can, so you are pot committed, so to speak, when you crack her open, but it does have like a bluebird on it, which is odd, right, yeah kind of it's a strange and you don't see bluebirds at night. No.
Speaker 2:So I'm not sure where. Maybe that's part of the mushroom portion. Oh, maybe when they the artist's inspiration.
Speaker 1:That's very possible when they're using the mushrooms they saw bluebirds, so let's crack this bad boy open. Now you got this in the cities, correct. I got this in the city.
Speaker 2:So our local liquor store finally has come to their senses and it's carrying some oddball stuff in four packs and singles. And this was just one that I grabbed. I think it was right around around. No, it's probably around february. Okay, um, just because it looked good and and something different, uh, not super strong, uh. So we're starting on the on the light end of seven percent, yes, yes, but this one I I really really enjoyed. I'll let you you talk more about it until I'm trying to. You really don't get the aroma.
Speaker 1:there's not a huge amount of aroma. No, because you know you're expecting like a minty kind of aroma, but you don't really get that and this one's still ice cold, but it really is a smooth drinking style. I still get the mint. Nothing in this beer is overpowering. I was going to say it is not overpowering in the least, which is kind of nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, mint can be polarizing and you just never know when you look at again. We talk about chili peppers in beer can be polarizing. We talk about coriander when we laugh about it being in beer Certain spices. If they put clove in it or some of those holiday beers, it can really ruin the taste of a beer. This particular one it doesn't. Everything is, as far as I'm concerned, as well adjusted, let's put it that way, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know. And this one is they are still cold, still very cool. We should have. Probably we were thirsty. Yeah, I was gonna say unfortunately, uh, we didn't let them warm up like we should have. But that's all right. Yeah, you can. Like I said that, it still impresses me that you can get that mint flavor.
Speaker 2:I remember of course I drank all 16 ounces of it. I remember as this one warmed up everything really came together better. So we'll have our sipper now and if you want to reserve or the right to adjust your score, we'll come back to it after a couple other tries and see. But I do remember it really getting velvety, like they talk about, very smooth and again everything's very subtle. But the other thing and I listened to you and Jim talk about the stouts the other day when the Irish stouts I enjoy that bitterness. I like that kind of in-your-face adjustment that they do with these and this one still has it. It's not covered in chocolate or coconut nibs or cinnamon or any of the other weird stuff they put in there, like marshmallows and bananas and all the other funny stuff. This is just a hint of mint. I told my wife it reminds me of the little Andy's Mints you used to get at restaurants.
Speaker 1:There you go. Yep, I agree with you there, with that smoothness. I was sitting here thinking, okay, what does it remind me of? And that's exactly kind of what it reminds me of. It's a little like I said, a little bit more on the mellow side of the mint, but I do think part of that is because it's colder than what it should be. Like I said, we'll come back we'll come back at the end and we can retry.
Speaker 1:We'll retry, you know a little one, see if it's uh. And then, like you said, I do agree, we can re readjust our scoring if we want, just because to give it a fair shot, exactly, you know, because right now I think they're all going to be a little bit right right probably, shouldn't you know, I shouldn't put them in the oven yeah, let's not the microwave.
Speaker 2:No microwave, no air fryers.
Speaker 1:We'll let mother nature, we'll let it slowly warm up a little bit so I remember giving this.
Speaker 2:I believe I think I gave it a 4-1, if I remember, um and again, at first it was just good and then, as it warmed up, it really grew on me, right, uh, and to being like I would take another one of these anytime. There was two of them in the fridge or in a cooler yeah, yeah that's.
Speaker 1:We're gonna definitely have to come back and revisit it to see because, like I said, right now I couldn't rate it like that, just because it's very mellow flavor. We're not getting a lot of the flavor yet, but we will definitely come back on it, but I still like it it's. It's very good flavor. Now, you know, I was sitting there kind of warming that glass in my hand a little bit and it does. A little bit more comes out it changes.
Speaker 2:This one impressed me just on how much the flavor profile changed. That really made a big difference in it, for sure. Yeah, I think I was. There were five or six or eight of us sitting around and so I wasn't in any hurry to power through it. I was probably cooking in the kitchen and just kept coming back to it. And yeah, it was, it really impressed me. And again, I don't think mine was this cold when.
Speaker 1:I first started it. So, you're going to stay at your full one, I'll stay where I'm at, I think my preliminary score right now. I'm going to give it like a 3.5 right now and then, like I said, we will revisit it just to see how it changes. How much difference? Yeah, because I can tell that that is going to be. There's going to be a big difference, there's more mint comes out, but it's not.
Speaker 2:I always say to and think to myself does this taste like fake mint, right, yes? Or does this taste like I actually a leaf of it's in there, like did I get this out of the mojito bottle or did I put mint in there and make a mojito?
Speaker 1:right, right. Yeah, that's one of those things because, like you said, they get that fake mint flavor and it's like why cherries?
Speaker 2:apples. They all have a fake flavor and it's like fake flavor you could use the natural ingredients, or you could use the artificial ingredients and the artificial ingredients.
Speaker 1:Typically nine times out of ten you can tell that it's the fake, you know, except for captain morgan.
Speaker 2:When they put the fake stuff in there, it was great for 50 years and then they started putting real stuff and everybody had to adjust yeah, you know, that's just weird too.
Speaker 1:If it ain't broke, why do you?
Speaker 2:why would? You feel that you have to fix it how many people in the world order a captain and coke and you change the formula. I thought this is coke, new coke, all over yeah, I can't believe people would do that it's like really don't make us angry.
Speaker 1:But you know, then after a while you get used to it, you forget, and then it's like, oh okay, no big deal or all your, all your bottles that you have left over that aren't open, become collectors and expensive.
Speaker 2:Correct. Yeah, that too.
Speaker 1:So all right, Well, yeah, that's good on that and, like I said, we're going to come back to it because I do feel bad that I'm not giving it a good honest rating yet.
Speaker 2:We'll see we're going to come back to it.
Speaker 1:Yep, all right. Well, hey, so now the second one is another one that you had brought with, and I remember that Susie and I had went to this brewery. You guys have been there. It's in the cities and I remember they had one of those indoor bocce ball courts.
Speaker 2:Oh, I gotcha Yep.
Speaker 1:You know, and nobody was playing. No, there were some people playing it when we got there and it was just. I had never seen that at a brewery before At a brewery, you know. I've seen other stuff, you know, but that's the first time I had saw one of those indoors, you know, and it was like makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why not?
Speaker 1:And they I know they had and I'm trying to remember the name of it because they had we had bought a bottle of it because I had it on tap and it was a barrel-aged beer and it was really good. So they know what they're doing and they've got some weird stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so they've really gotten into the sours Wes my son. He's had several of their fruited sours and really liked them. There's a raspberry one. I think I have one left in the fridge. There was a—I want to say you and I had a lemonade one of some sort that I want to say you and I had a lemonade one of some sort that wasn't too bad. It was a good summer getting hot out style beer, yep, and some really weird ones that I just, you know doesn't. I would not even buy on a normal day, or even for one of these. You just look at them and go there's no.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to do that.
Speaker 2:But this one caught my eye, and again, it was kind of in the same aisle of singles that I found the Moonlight Mint. This one is called not peanut butter, it is Monkey Bar. Now I looked up Monkey Bar and there are several recipes and it makes sense why they call it this. So this says this cheeky imperial pastry stout is an invention of our own creation, containing banana, peanut butter, chocolate and marshmallow. Grab a Monkey Bar.
Speaker 1:Now we should say this is by is it Piers Prize Prize? I think it's Prize Pries Brewing P-R-Y-E-S Prize, brewing Out of Minneapolis, out of Minneapolis, yep. Now this is going to be interesting to see, because we've had some where you can definitely taste marshmallow and then there's other ones where you really can't.
Speaker 2:And almost everyone that advertises banana, believe it or not, has been good yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't think we've had bad. We've had a number of really good bananas, foster as well, and it's like Hubbard Was that Hubbard, hubbard Cave, or whatever it is They've had a few. Then there was a. I think Evil Twin had one. Evil Twin had one. Then there was a. I think Evil Twin had one. Evil Twin had one. I think Goose Island had one just recently and it was like that's pretty good.
Speaker 2:It seems it's an odd ingredient to me, because bananas give me heartburn.
Speaker 1:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Why? I don't know. I can do hot sauce all day, but bananas give me heartburn, yeah. So most of the time I'm cramping, but that's okay, but in a beer it seems to smooth things out or meld flavors kind of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely like the mouthfeel seems like it's smoother, you know, than what your normal one is. Now we should mention too, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, this one we upped the abv just slightly to 11. Yeah, not quite double, but almost almost. And this, once again, is in a 16-ounce can.
Speaker 2:And I think we just looked at them. We're 11 all the way out now.
Speaker 1:Yes, Boy, this one. When I was pouring it I was going to say it looks like a lot lighter in color and we're using taster glasses, but it darkens up when you get it.
Speaker 2:It's almost like it settles in there. I definitely smell the peanut butter. Oh wow, and it's the good kind of peanut butter, yes.
Speaker 1:You know that was. I know Jim and I have talked about it, you and I have talked about it. Sometimes you get that where you can tell it was like that powdered peanut butter and the flavor it's almost a gritty flavor to it.
Speaker 2:I always like to think that it either tastes like peanuts or yeah Right, and this smells like peanut, like you opened a jar of peanut butter.
Speaker 1:Wow, I'm looking forward to this one. Oh, that's yummy. Yeah, I'll you can, I'll dump that, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, let's go ahead, we'll get rid of that Get rid of that Standby folks. We gotta get rid of it, yeah, we gotta get rid of it. This is a dude, that this is another one where I'm really excited to let it warm up. Yeah to temp, and I think actually on the back of that one it may actually give the temperatures to serve. Oh, let's see some of them do. Some of the recent ones I've had have had it on.
Speaker 1:It says keep cold. Contains lactose. Roll first, then open. I did, I kind of rolled it, kind of rolled it in my hands. I didn't roll it on the table. I'm trying to see if it says the. I'm not sure, but boy, that's a good one. And this would be one of those sneaky ones that would sneak up on you. Get like two cans into it and you're all of a sudden like whoa, yeah, I'm messed up, yeah, you know, there it was.
Speaker 2:I'm not operating machinery, the one thing that I do like about the prize. Again, if I'm saying it wrong, then somebody can.
Speaker 1:We apologize. Send an email, hate mail.
Speaker 2:That's fine, yeah, is that? They do this on the back of their can and we may have taken pictures and put on it. They do a taste profile, yep, so there's this weird circle in the back. Oh yeah, and I forget what the chart is. It's not a Gantt chart, it's not whatever, but it shows it stretches where they feel the taste is right, yep. So I think that's kind of a neat added thing. If you look at the back of a lot of theirs, they'll have all the quote, unquote ingredients that they call out and then they kind of level it out so you can see this one's more peanut butter, less chocolate, a little bit of marshmallow, more banana or whatever it is. I'm not looking at it that is like pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:I've never seen that on camera.
Speaker 2:If you look at, there's a lot of theirs hasn't, and I think it's just a.
Speaker 1:It's a neat concept boy, I tell you that the aroma in that it is not a dark crazy no for a pastry style, it's very light colored. It reminds me almost the color wise, like a brown ale or or even a, not a black lager, but a dark lager right yep like almost amber bach colored. There you go. Yep, amber bach. Yeah, that's almost the color, not that I would drink that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah or nor have I lately. Yeah, I don't know. That is a really good beer that is yeah, cold, even cold, like again.
Speaker 1:I'm excited to yeah, when that one warms up a little bit, that that could move up substantially too. But that's like I get all the taste too.
Speaker 2:I get nutty, I get chocolate, I get the pastry, the doughy taste. I get banana, just a touch, and I get a little bit of marshmallow and that is a well-blended beer.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I agree with you as far as score wise, initially again, what, uh, what do you think? Well, that's I.
Speaker 2:I almost have to start at four. I really think it's that's that good. It's not boozy. I like the. I like most of the peanut butter ones. I'm surprised that the banana didn't set me off a little bit. I'm three, nine, four, right there.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's where I'm at uh, just to let you know, I'm exactly the same. I'm going, man, I hope he doesn't come in at like a 3.3 or something, because then I'm going to be like why am I so off on that? But I'm right there, a 3.9 or a 4 to start with, because, again, I get no boozy flavor. No, I get the peanut butter. Like you said, the banana is not over the top, which is good. Um, I do kind of get that, that marshmallow, kind of a mouth feel. That's good, it's silky, that is really good and, like I said, you could chug one of those things and then all of a sudden, you're going to be in trouble.
Speaker 1:But it's like holy cow, that's that is. It's amazing to me and I know a whole can of that tastes like a nap. Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say, and I know we've talked about it on the podcast before, but that's the thing. That's kind of wild is I think a lot of breweries are getting so much better at barrel aging that it seems like they can get those higher abvs without being so strong on like a bourbon flavor or whatever the barrel was, which you know, because I think a lot of times for people that haven't, uh, drank a lot of barrel aged, that kind of turns some of them off If they're not big into the, into bourbon or rum or whatever you know. Uh, if it's too strong, then they are like, oh, that's tastes boozy, this one you would never know that is a barrel, you know?
Speaker 2:No, not at all. And, and I know, I know jim likes the, the bourbon, the stronger bourbon taste, right. Um, on certain beers, I do as well, with no doubt. There are some of the, some of the, the evil twin ones, like even more. Jesus is, uh, as a classic example, that's got a strong bourbon taste to it, but it's, but it's blended so well with the imperial stout portion of it that it's, it's really good. That is a wonderful blend of different flavors that go along with it.
Speaker 2:That is and unfortunately I'm reading the back of it. It's a limited release. We're gonna have to go pick some more, absolutely wouldn't you know it and I only brought one. You know it's. They have four packs.
Speaker 1:I'll have to go there. You go, there, you go. Yeah, that is amazing, like I said, that peanut butter tastes like peanut butter. That's one of the things that I'm really impressed by. It tastes like they took jars of peanut butter and put the actual peanut butter in there. You know, and and, like I said, sometimes you get the ones that you can tell use the right, the powdered peanut butter, and it has that grainy mouthfeel to it where this one is well done.
Speaker 2:This is a well done, well done beer. If anybody wanted to break into a barrel age but didn't want or doesn't like the taste of the barrel, so to speak, this is a great one. If you like peanut butter beers, this is a strong one, but drink with caution.
Speaker 1:But it doesn't taste strong, but it doesn't taste strong.
Speaker 2:That's the crazy part, that's the caution part.
Speaker 1:Now I may have misspoke, because I don't remember. Is it barrel-aged or not? I don't remember is it barrel aged or not. I don't think it said that it was barrel aged, but if it isn't, it's still 11%. Yeah, I don't see anything actually, so it probably isn't, but it's a high octane pastry stout, but boy that is good, usually, almost any more.
Speaker 2:If you see Imperial, it's almost always a barrel of some sort, right, right, but no, it doesn't say barrel age, so it wouldn't necessarily be there, right? So I I've got it pulled up on untapped right now and I'm like, well, maybe I'll come back to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before I have to go correct it. That's what I'm going to do too, I'm, that's what I'm gonna do too, I'm. I have my preliminary score, and then we'll go back and revisit. So so now, brian we're, we're into the the mob craft four pack. That's right.
Speaker 2:So we purchased uh, we think we were together when we got it.
Speaker 1:It was in the cities they had one and one of these.
Speaker 2:So we bought it and I made mike pinky promise to me that I would be involved with it. Um, because there's one oddball in here that, um, neither one of us have had very many of at all, and the other three look fantastic. We have another at some point we'll do. We had another four pack of random Imperials barrel aged that we haven't gotten to, from another Minnesota, a different Minnesota brewery, but these looked intriguing. And these are all 11%. They're all barrel aged.
Speaker 1:These are all barrel, but these looked intriguing. And these are all 11%. They're all barrel-aged. These are all barrel-aged. Yeah, all barrel-aged, and this is their 2023. Right, it looks like they do. Each year they have a different set of them, I guess, but this is the only ones I've ever seen.
Speaker 2:I've kept an eye out because I did know that those were 23s Yep and I've not seen.
Speaker 1:I think the one time I had got an advent calendar for 24 days I think it was 24 days of Christmas and I think on the 24th they may have had was that a barrel age? Maybe it wasn't. If it was, there was only one and it wasn't one of these. I've never heard of them doing much barrel aging so. I'm intrigued. I'm hoping, with my fingers crossed, that that they did a good job. You know well, uh, but they sound really interesting the barrels themselves.
Speaker 2:Um, well, we have had, we have had stouts from them. So we right, we do know that they, they do dabble in the dark side. Yep, um, but obviously barrel aging is a whole other component to that. But they did, as far as I can see, they started out with some decent barrels, right, right, there's three specific and one.
Speaker 1:Now I'm still wondering if we want to switch these two.
Speaker 2:Non-specific, and then yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we'll switch it.
Speaker 2:Let's do that. While you're switching those, I think we should rinse the peanut butter or work the taint.
Speaker 1:Oh, there you go yeah, because that could, uh, that could change our score on this and we'd be like well, wait a second. Maybe that isn't uh. All right, let's see. So I don't exactly know how you pronounce the name of this it's is it pad padisha p-a-d-i-s-h-a-H.
Speaker 1:Padisha, I think I would say and this is their 2023, and on here it says Extra and it's E-X-X-T-R-A. This is off of Untapped, it's 11% and their description is Imperial Stout aged for two years in bourbon barrels. There we go, that's it. That's it. Well, two years is a long barrel time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we go, that's it, that's it well, two years is a long two years real time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, it's not quite like central waters where they have. You know, they've had some for six years in barrels and five years uh, but this is going to be interesting. These are once again in cans, but these are 12 ounce cans and I remember the four pack was a little on the spendier side. Yep, uh, which, for you know, you and I were used to that, so it wasn't a big shock. But I know, uh, like I said, it's not natty light.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, that's this is a little bit dark. I would definitely say that this is uh not a whole lot of head on it. There you go, yeah that is.
Speaker 2:But what little bit there is, is really really dark and it's gone fairly quick.
Speaker 1:The the head, oh it smells.
Speaker 2:You can smell the barrel in that one.
Speaker 1:Definitely it's boozy, wow. But it's not as strong as I was expecting. I was expecting a little more based on the smell. The aroma was, I think, a lot more boozy smell it does. I'm not gonna lie. It does have a barrel flavor, like you know, you get the boozy flavor, but, boy, I don't think I would suggest chugging it, no, but this is not bad.
Speaker 2:I don't mind that it's smooth. Again. Way on the barrel side of flavor, Definitely boozy. It's got that sweet, almost sticky sweetness that the boozy or the barrel age comes with Yep.
Speaker 1:I agree with you that really almost um almost like a licorice taste kind of yeah, a little bit like an anise type, a little bit type flavor to it. But boy, I tell you it's from the aroma. I thought it was going to be a lot stronger of a bourbon flavor, but it's. It's not bad at all.
Speaker 2:I don't mind this so, according to the english pronunciation guide, it's potash. Okay, I don't know what. So according to the English pronunciation, guide it's. Padishah. Okay, I don't know what it means, right? But oh, it says it's a sovereign title of Persian origin.
Speaker 1:Okay, and all of these have that name on them, but then they're different barrels, so we went with this one first, because it just says bourbon barrel. It's the most generic. Yes, the rest of them actually have barrels that we know of.
Speaker 2:With a name brand or a very specific yes.
Speaker 1:Yep, it's right on the can. So, boy, that's a, that's a smooth one that's smooth.
Speaker 2:The only thing that I think it does lack is it doesn't get the bitterness for a stout, right? Yep, that's what a stout is Like you guys talked about with the Irish stuff. That bitterness and a Guinness and that kind of stuff can be overpowering. I don't get any of that in this. I got more of the stout flavor in the peanut butter in the prize than I did.
Speaker 1:When you take and you know smell it the aroma it almost has kind of a. I'm trying to, if you smell yours, I'm trying to figure out what that like. On the tail end of the aroma there's almost a kind of a something there, it's almost a coffee smell.
Speaker 2:It could be. It could be, yeah, I mean, there might be some coffee in it.
Speaker 1:but it's got a little bit of roasted malt. I was sitting there. What is that?
Speaker 2:I think it's coffee of some sort, almost like a cold press. We had one not too long ago. Well, that Pryus has a, uh cold press coffee stout, Okay yes, and that one's uh an espresso stout or whatever it was. That was a good, it was a good one. But yeah, I like coffee. Yeah, yeah, it kind of has a coffee aroma to me.
Speaker 1:Well, we're contemplating this one. I was going to tell the listeners that, uh, ghost pepper beer, uh, stout, a couple weeks ago. Again, it wasn't. It had. It did have a little heat to it but it wasn't bad at all. But it was kind of interesting what the number of people that were there. And when you said it was a ghost pepper, I saw the, the people that brought it, those two myself and I saw one, I think, one other guy take some, otherwise people are like oh no, no, you know, and I still say the hottest beer we've ever had was a jalapeno ale. It was a really hot one.
Speaker 2:Jack Pine makes one that I don't think you've had it. I don't think so. They have a jalapeno cream, ale my father-in-law, he thought he was going to be tough and he drank a whole one. He was not wanting to go fishing the next day.
Speaker 1:let's put it that way, pretty crazy boy. So this one, I'm hoping.
Speaker 2:Obviously these are all I'm assuming the same starter right. This is the base where we're building from, that's what I'm guessing this is a solid base, for sure I'm not. I don't think I can go a four on it, right? I think I'm right at that. Three, eight, three, seven, five, three, eight. It's a really good. It's a really good barrel aged beer, but I feel like knowing that there's different ones coming, but I I feel like they could have given it some more bitterness.
Speaker 1:It's too sweet to be a stout. Yep, it does have a sweetness to it.
Speaker 2:It's not avery sweet, no but it's it's definitely has a sweetness to it and I I think it'll be okay in the barrel right. The barrel ages, is they a lot of them?
Speaker 1:do get sweeter yep, and I do think this is another. You know these are going to be ones too that I think when we come back to them and we'll, you know, try it again a little bit, once it warms up uh, it might be after the podcast or whatever but when we try them it may change our final score. But I think we're going to be in the ballpark and I agree, brian, I think that I'm gonna. I'm sitting right now on this one at like a three, seven, three, eight, eleven percent. It doesn't taste like eleven percent.
Speaker 2:It's not quite as not eleven percent as the the monkey one, right, but for a barrel age it's still really good and it doesn't drink harsh no, you know it's, it's a, it's a sipping style style or, um, you know barrel age for sure, yep, um, yeah, I, I just wish there was a little more bitterness there, or more of that. That, uh, that roasted bitterness that's in the, in the, the irish stouts of the other stouts. Right, it's still like I said, I'm excited about the next three. Yeah, uh, because that's a great base to build on.
Speaker 1:It should be interesting. So you know it's funny. You brought up the last podcast we did where it was the Irish, or two weeks ago, I'm sorry, with the Irish beers. And you know it was kind of funny because you know I thought, okay, I intentionally stayed away from Guinness, right, Because I wanted to have us try some other stuff. But boy, even when we got done it was like it's hard to beat. I was hollering other names on the radio.
Speaker 2:Kilkenny. You know that I am horribly biased to Kilkenny. It is probably my overall favorite beer in the world. But I remember when I was trying to replace Guinness with something else, when we talked about Murphy's Irish Stout. There's a bunch of other ones that are in that category as you start to shop for them, but it's hard to beat just going back to a Guinness and having one. They're not super strong, they're nice and dark, they're on nitro all the time and they're just a staple, right? Yep, there are a few things better in life than a medium rare ribeye and a Guinness.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean Exactly. That's just kind of how I look at it, exactly. Well, all right. Well, hey, let's go to the second one, and this again is how did you pronounce that Pad it?
Speaker 2:Oh, now you're going to make me remember things.
Speaker 1:it's potash, potash. Okay, but this one was aged in jim beam barrels. Jim beam, jim, this one's for you, yeah. And it says again, here's their description uh, imperial stout aged in jim beam bourbon barrels, short sweet into the point, there you go.
Speaker 2:Does it give a time how long? This one is not on, not on untapped um looking on the can it doesn't say on that side back there, but I didn't know if it said on the front, no, so it does not say Does it say on here.
Speaker 1:And of course they write in this micro print. I don't remember it saying. I don't think it says on there what the length of time was. You'd think at least it'd be. You'd hope it'd be two years. The first one was two years.
Speaker 2:First one was two years. Just so everybody knows, these cans kind of have this neat looking.
Speaker 1:I'm going to call it a rug design.
Speaker 2:It kind of looks like you've got some big rug Persian rug, persian rug, I'm guessing. There's really neat designs on it, and every one's a little bit different.
Speaker 1:Yep, this one's got kind of a. Well, you'll have to look at it I can't even describe it.
Speaker 2:Do you think the weird detail on dollar bills? It's kind of the detail.
Speaker 1:This one smells totally different than the first one.
Speaker 2:Oh, I think I know who this guy is. It smells like Jim Beaton, yeah, but you know what I mean. A hundred percent it smells like Jim Beaton, it definitely smells different.
Speaker 1:You know, the aroma is different than that.
Speaker 2:Whatever that first one was, it wasn't If. I start to squirm in my seat. Mike's going to have to put a pause.
Speaker 1:If all of a sudden there's a pause and then I'm on here by myself.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%, that's Jim Beam Barrels. It's a way different taste.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is totally a different taste than the last one. I don't think it spent as much time in the barrel as the other. No, I think this is a lot younger. You know what I mean. Less it's got almost like a sourness to it, doesn't it it?
Speaker 2:does like a sour mash. Yeah, yeah, this is an odd taste. We've had stuff with Jim Beam barrels before, but this is kind of in that. Like I said, in that category, if you've ever had sour mash, right, right. Yeah, this is kind of in that old wild turkey style.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know again, it's not bad at all. No, it's just extremely different. Boy, I think I'd almost, if I had to choose right now off of just a couple sips, I would almost take that first one before this one.
Speaker 2:There's an odd. Maybe my taste buds are broken from this, but it's almost a citrusy. Yes, yes, note to it that obviously Jim Beam doesn't have, but it's like a citrus note, a sour citrus note.
Speaker 1:I wish they gave a little more description. Yeah, you know, because it's.
Speaker 2:Like somebody threw one lemon in it or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a sour citrus note to it Almost a grapefruity, like an orange peel. Yeah, like that tartness of that peel.
Speaker 2:Lemon zest, yeah, orange zest.
Speaker 1:What it really reminds me of.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lemon zest. Yeah, that's what it's what it really reminds me of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's interesting because, jim beam doesn't have any of those things. No, and I don't know I.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you ever had the um what is the? Jim beam, like their, their green label, like they're really young stuff that comes out of them. Um, that one's got a weird, a weird. The whiskey itself not the right right. Yeah, it's got an odd ball taste to it, but this one's this one's odd boy.
Speaker 1:I just I. I'm gonna come back to it afterwards and try it, but right now I'm not a big fan of this one. It's well I would not recommend it I can't say I don't like it.
Speaker 2:I will say that it's extremely weird, based on what I expected. Yes, put it that way. Yeah, because it is almost like it was a barrel-aged sour and we've had some barrel-aged sours and this is kind of in that same category. As far as if you didn't, if you listeners, if you didn't look at this glass and obviously you can't look at the glass but if you blindfolded somebody and let them taste this, they would not think that it was a barrel-aged stout. No, it would taste like a sour or an imperial sour. That's how sour this is. Hopefully it's not just a bad can and we're giving it a bad.
Speaker 1:Hopefully, in a way, hopefully it's a bad can, Because there's no way I would have guessed this was Jim Beam. No, it smells like.
Speaker 2:Jim Beam. When I smelled it I went oh, I know what this is, it's weird.
Speaker 1:Here again, the aroma is vastly different than the flavor.
Speaker 2:Well, the aroma is way different than the first one too. Right, there would be a market for this. There are people that like that sourness. Oh yeah, and it's sour, it's not tart, right, yeah. You and I have talked about that. It's not tart. I like tart in some. There's no way they would identify this beer.
Speaker 1:Like I said, this totally tastes like the lemon, zest or orange zest, we're going to have to go back to the peanut butter to wash our mouths off.
Speaker 2:I think you're right, I said no mother ever. I'm going to wash your mouth out with peanut butter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, Boy. Score-wise right now, I'm like a 3.3 on this one.
Speaker 2:I'm at a 3, maybe I one.
Speaker 1:I'm at a three, maybe I mean I give it credit because of the 11%. Yeah, but boy, that is just.
Speaker 2:Well, this sourness covers it up everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That I was going to like about it. I think yeah. Either they got a bad Jim Beam bottle or barrel, or this can could be old.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 2:At first I thought maybe you can have weird. There was a little bit of head on this one where the other one there wasn't, and sometimes the carbonation can make stuff taste weird. But I'm past that now. Yeah, the bubbles are gone and now I'm just. I've got this sour, dark, barrel-aged something.
Speaker 1:Boy that Ugh, and I hate to say that, but it was just, I think, a new person coming in. Don't do this, don't do this one, not because the barrel flavor or anything, but just that. Well there is no barrel flavor, no, just that sour kind of flavor I think could turn somebody off. Well, it's turning me off.
Speaker 2:Every sip I take right now.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you were going into it. You were a little bit expecting to be turned off because it sounds like you had a bad experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no jim and I fought a lot of battles and not on the same team. Yeah, I would rather not have another one of those and yeah, and honestly.
Speaker 2:I'm seeing some floaters in it too, so maybe there is a zest or something in there. It could be, I don't know. There's a market for this, but it's not. Maybe not. It's not labeled properly. Right, if you told somebody that you were going to come up with an Imperial Stout Sour, I would say somebody else needs to buy it. But that's what it is. It is a sour beer.
Speaker 1:Well, and, if you remember, this is a few podcasts ago. I can't remember how many for sure, but oh, it was right after the first of the year, I believe, when Jim and I were talking about kind of our roundup of the year before and I had actually had a barrel-aged sour and it really wasn't good. You and I had one in Florida.
Speaker 2:We had a barrel-aged sour in Florida. Yes, yes, and it really wasn't good.
Speaker 1:you and I had one in florida. We had a barrel aged sour in florida, yes, yes, not on a podcast, but we bought one, yep, and this one was just not very good.
Speaker 2:And we had a did we have a barrel aged fruited, sour too I think so, we did yeah and that thing was like drinking some sort of thing on the. It needed an umbrella in it. Yeah, it came out gloopy and yeah, that was kind of one of those you're like oh, that is a technical term for those that have never had a gloopy beer. It comes out glooping.
Speaker 1:That's like advanced yeah.
Speaker 2:That'll be in craft beer 201. 201, yes, okay, well, I'm going to step away and rinse these for that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that one was really odd we don't need to taint the next couple. No, so yeah, odd, we don't need to taint the next couple. No, so yeah, it's uh, I don't know that one was something so as brian is uh cleaning out our glasses. So the next one in this series that we have is their waterford still house. And this is 11, and this says imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels from waterfall, waterford, still house, dist. So it's again another bourbon barrel, but this is from Waterford. I don't know if I've ever had Waterford.
Speaker 2:I was trying to think the same thing when I read that earlier and I didn't get around to the Google machine to do it. But we'll do it now.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's one of those things, that it is really Waterford Stillhouse is in Waterford, wisconsin.
Speaker 2:Oh, in Racine County the micro distillery this one's got a little bit more head on it than the, so shout out to Wisconsin Distillery. I've never heard of it.
Speaker 1:No, that should be interesting.
Speaker 2:So we'll do a little more research on that.
Speaker 1:The can's got more of a kind of a teal, kind of a color blue-green kind of color to it. This one's got an odd smell to it too.
Speaker 2:Not quite as, yeah, it's not like the Jim Beam one, but this one actually has kind of a fruity smell to it.
Speaker 1:This almost has that tartness to it as well. It's a different dome.
Speaker 2:Not like the Jim Beam, but it's. I'm not thinking this is whiskey, or does it say it just?
Speaker 1:says, it just says bourbon barrels it says bourbon-fermented still house distillery.
Speaker 2:It almost tastes like gin. It's got a little lapini grapefruity part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really doesn't have to me. It doesn't taste like bourbon, no, but this one's less offensive.
Speaker 2:let's put it that way it still is tart. This one's not sour to me.
Speaker 1:This one's tart. It's not as sour as the Jim Beam one.
Speaker 2:By any means, neither one of the last two have tasted boozy, so I guess credit for that the first one. Well, it offended me past the booze yeah.
Speaker 1:The first one. The first one was more. You could taste a little bit of a booziness Not over-the-top booziness, but it was a little bit of a booziness but that one tasted like bourbon, but that one tasted like bourbon, yeah.
Speaker 2:These last two really haven't. Jim Beam didn't taste like Jim Beam, and this says bourbon barrels, but it's kind of a tart and it's got a floral smell to it.
Speaker 1:And I know we've discussed this before, and that's when we were first kicked around the idea of having a beer and then having the bourbon with it. To compare them I don't know what, like I said this, Waterford, you know, maybe this does taste like their bourbon. I To compare them, I don't know what, like I said this, Waterford, you know, maybe this does taste like their bourbon? I don't know, I don't know, I've never, I don't think I've even seen it before, I've never, I was thinking.
Speaker 2:When I first read Waterford Stillhouse, I was thinking Woodridge Right or Woodford Woodford, not Waterford Right. And then when I read it a little bit ago, I thought well, Waterford's Crystal, that's not a story. What is going on, Right?
Speaker 1:I give Mobcraft credit for doing these, because barrel aging, I don't think is what they were really known for.
Speaker 2:No, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So at least they're giving it a good shot and we still have one to go. I mean, we have definitely had a lot worse barrel aged beers. We've had a lot worse barrel aged beers.
Speaker 2:We've had a lot better too, so this says premium vodka, bourbon, light whiskey and gin.
Speaker 1:Well, that makes you wonder when you said Jim or Jim, yeah, gin Ladies and gentlemen, we have had a bunch of 11% beers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, that was my first thing. I got to get that piney taste in gin, but maybe they do put a little bit of pine nuts or something in their bourbon. It could be it's possible, because I get that pine tree whatever.
Speaker 1:That is kind of what it reminds me a little bit of. I don't know, it's different.
Speaker 2:It's different. The other one was not good, right, this one's different. Like I said, I was 2.8, 2.9 on the other one.
Speaker 1:On the Jim Beam one. On the Jim, honestly, I'm going to have to drop my score down on that one just because I want to give him credit for hiding the alcohol, but I also have to give no credit for the taste.
Speaker 2:Right, this one's got a little piney. I still get tartness this time versus sour, and if anybody ever wants to debate me on that, I think Mike and I talked for two hours one time not on a podcast about what's tart and what's sour.
Speaker 1:This one's not bad and we learned. You know, when you're discussing tartness and sour, you probably shouldn't be drinking high-octane beers, because by the end of it we really couldn't remember what we were drinking. We couldn't remember what we said so if we did solve that question we don't remember how- we— we even talked about going to the store to get Sour Patch Kids and Sweet Tarts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know. I could probably give this one a 2.9 or a 3.
Speaker 1:I was going to say I was at like the same thing, I'll go with 3.
Speaker 2:It's still in that tart and not a barrel-aged Imperial Stout, Right, I think it'd be better with more bitterness. But I also think that the base model that we had the first one of these four could have been more bitter.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah. So I don't know. It's not like you said. It's not, as I'm not going to say, off-putting, but not as strong of a flavor as the last one, as the Jim Beam one. No, I still don't know if I'd recommend it.
Speaker 2:No, this would be one again. If you're wanting to branch out, right. If you want to go branch out and try something you ever had before, I still wouldn't throw this one out there first if you like sours or if you like those types of oddities. This is a good one, the other one's too. The other one, the jim beam one, was too over the top. Yeah, with whatever the heck that was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, right, yep, I agree all right, right, well, hey, I better finish this. Yet I'm not going to finish yours there, because we got the last one is one I'm hoping.
Speaker 2:You and I have been looking forward to this. I'm going to rinse this one out too.
Speaker 1:I'm hoping that this one.
Speaker 2:Don't forget to roll this can. Maybe that's where we've been.
Speaker 1:No, I'm trying here. So this is the fourth and final one in this mob craft, uh four pack and, like I said, when we saw it at the store I was really intrigued, because how many times do you see a four pack not only of barrel aged beers, but they're four different barrels. You know what I mean? That was really kind of I give unique I give them credit because that's a cool thing.
Speaker 2:I thought that and that same day we found two, four packs yes, yeah, all barrel aged, all barrel different breweries, uh so yeah, I give them credit for that. It was a cool thing, I thought. And that same day we found two four-packs yes, all barrel-aged, all barrel-aged From two different breweries.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I give them credit for that and I think hopefully they keep doing like that. Now it's odd to me, because Mobcraft had shut down, Right, and I think they sold all their stuff, but somebody must have purchased the name and all that, because all of a sudden I'm seeing Mobcraft beer pop up again. I've been seeing it too, you know so somebody, which is good, yeah, because they've been around for a while.
Speaker 2:They had a lot of good beers, yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, so here we are on the last one. This is 11% as well, and this is an Imperial Stout aged in Great Lakes Distillery apple brandy barrels, there we go.
Speaker 2:That's more than on the can. So Great Lakes Distillery.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we'll see how it is. And I know I've had, I think, one or two oh, that's a good one, and it's well the last one kind of foamed up on me a little bit too. Well, it could be because they're getting warmer too, yeah. And this one almost has just like a slight tinge of a red, of a red. Yeah, that's what I was just going to say, and boy I am almost. It smells different again. It smells different again. I'm going to let the bubbles go. I'm trying to see if it's like an apple kind of a smell to it or not.
Speaker 2:I don't even, honestly, I don't know what they make apple brandy, out of what kind of apples? I didn't do it out of any of them.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I know, when my uncle made the moonshine, he used the Granny Smith. Okay, whether that's what you normally do, right, I'm not a moonshiner.
Speaker 1:So I don't know. This one is definitely a more mellow flavor. It's mellow.
Speaker 2:That one now I get. This is a tart apple. Yes, this is like a Granny Smith, or?
Speaker 1:a, but I do get an apple.
Speaker 2:I like it. This is kind of, if you think of I always I always kid around at the fakest apple in the world, the Jolly Rancher. Right, it's the worst tasting apple in the world and it's obviously a Granny Smith apple or that tartness. That's exactly what that is. Yeah, but not the Jolly Rancher kind, no, right, yeah, that's different. I the apple brandy one, I had you and I had one once before. It was many moons ago, long before there were apps to follow this stuff.
Speaker 1:Yes, and.
Speaker 2:I think I had one other one that was a porter, a barrel aged porter, I think it was. Uh, and I want to say I was in the East coast, something traveling for work, yep, that was really good, and this is. This is different, this is a good one.
Speaker 1:Well, a few years ago uh, you know when we do we go to between the bluffs and 608 Brewing always has like a release, a barrel age release. Well, a few years ago they released four beers and one, and I still have them downstairs. I haven't cracked into them yet, but they had them on tap. So we had them on tap and they had a brand Apple brandy barrel and, oh my gosh, that was amazing. That was the year before.
Speaker 2:Before you went yes First time, yep barrel. And oh my gosh, that was amazing. That was the year before before you that I used yes first time.
Speaker 1:Yep, uh, but yeah. So the number of apple brandy barrel beers we've had, it's not a huge number and I think, I don't think there's a lot of barrels right, that's what I was gonna say. Probably not that many there's probably more blackberry barrels than yeah, right yeah, exactly, so this one is not I. I definitely like this one better than the last two, for sure this is.
Speaker 2:It's boozy, which I I'm glad I taste. Now, right, uh, it's definitely a tart apple, which I like. The apple's not over the top, it's very subtle. Yeah, in fact, after the last two you go oh well, crap, this is. Wait a minute, that's an apple.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hold on a second. Yeah, exactly, there's no question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's pretty smooth. For the tartness it's pretty smooth. This is a different one. Oh yeah, it does say Old Apple Brandy Barrel. So maybe.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what I thought it said too. And here it says GLD for Great Lakes Distillery.
Speaker 2:I'm reading the can that says Old Apple Brandy. Okay, so maybe they're Great Lakes, old Apple Brandy, it could be. That's a lot of words to put on there. Yeah, that's a lot of words, especially that small.
Speaker 1:Yes, when you're micro-printing stuff, it's. They didn't want to interrupt the Persian rug design. No, no, they paid good money for that design. That lips of these cans. This one definitely has a red hen. Yes to it. Yep, I thought. When I was pouring it I was like it almost has a reddish, or?
Speaker 2:bronze or whatever. Yeah, it's, it's definitely. Actually it's the same color as the can, that kind of reddish color yeah, so what are you thinking?
Speaker 1:uh, as far as on a score, this is this one's good.
Speaker 2:This is out. Of all of them, this is the one that intrigued me the most, just from the label. Right, this is the one that surprised me the most taste-wise, the very first of the mob craft. Again, almost exactly what I expected, minus, I would love to see a little more bitter. Right, this one kind of achieves the bitter, but through the tart apple part, right, the dry. It's almost a dry. I want to say it's tart but it's almost dry, like a wine or a red wine, don't know. This is, this is pretty decent. I'd go. I'd probably have to go a three, four, three, five on this. Yeah, uh, it's not up in the four range by any stretch, but it's also not a three. This, right, I don't know, and it's. We're getting down to the temperature where it ought to be. I think cold, this would not be good. Yeah, yeah, I really think cold this would not be good at all especially with how, how the apple is pretty mellow.
Speaker 1:You would would lose the booziness, you'd lose that, you'd lose the. Yeah, I think it would just kind of turn into a lot of cold nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I feel like I get with this one. I feel like I get the. My wife always peels apples and I, no, don't do that to parts of skin and this is kind of that skin, the tartness that you get in the skin of a good Grammy Smith apple.
Speaker 1:Yep, oh, the tartness that you get in the skin of a good Grammy Smith apple. I'm in the 3.5, 3.6 range. I was going to say I'm going to go with 3.6. I do think I agree 100%. This is not a 4 range by any means, but it's pretty decent it's actually.
Speaker 2:It's getting a little warmer now in the glass and I'm getting more apple. The whole time I'm getting more apple. So we might have to revisit this.
Speaker 1:So yeah, once we get done here, we'll have to revisit these well, we got to revisit.
Speaker 2:We told the listeners we go back to the first two that is true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we do have to revisit the first two because they were definitely cold. So yeah I give mob craft credit because, like I said they, I don't, didn't even realize they did any barrel aging well and maybe this is.
Speaker 2:Maybe this was um after right, this might have been the new owners going hey we're going to do X, y and Z and we're going to collaborate. Stay tuned on that, because I do see mob craft stuff. You do too. Obviously Wisconsin. I'll for sure keep an eye out, because I think we bought this four-pack and the other four-pack when we get around to that one. We bought them in the cities. Both in the cities Yep, both in the cities. Yep, and one is a Minnesota brewery and one is a Wisconsin brewery. Wisconsin so.
Speaker 2:All right so, before we go any further, I'm going to rinse these and we're going to go back to the first two. Rinse them one last time.
Speaker 1:We're going to try the first two again because we want to give them a fair shake because, like I said, they were definitely cold when we tried them. And you know, I know we've talked about it over and over on the podcast but especially when you get into your Imperial stouts and any kind of stouts, the colder they are, you lose flavor.
Speaker 2:And I say it all the time too, and I've said it on this podcast there should be directions on every beer. If you're the brewer and you're out there, and if a brewer listens to this, you should put the directions, just like if you were going to send somebody a credenza to put together there's the directions that go with it.
Speaker 1:If a kia can have their directions, even though you can't read them, they can be crappy directions but you still get directions.
Speaker 2:So we're trying. Boy, this is the. This smells totally different. This is the mint, right?
Speaker 1:yes, this is the moonlight mint. Yep, this smells totally different than the first, when he first tried it. This where.
Speaker 2:I got to the four. It's a whole different beer. It's a whole different. I don't know if I'm at a four, though that natural mint to me was let's put it over the top, it was crisp.
Speaker 1:Maybe it's because those last ones tainted my taste buds.
Speaker 2:So my wife obviously Mike knows, but listeners don't necessarily know she's gluten-free. But there are beers that, uh, I think she should try. She likes coffee beers, she likes certain ones and I had her try this one. She goes oh that's good. The natural mint put me over the top. I was right at a 3839 and as I got in that natch it kept it crisp, it kept it in in my nose almost. Yeah, no, I really enjoy this beer and I'm not a big mint person per se, right? Um, I don't chew a lot of gum like I. You know, I don't frolic in fields of aromatics oh, come on now.
Speaker 1:Well, we know you do.
Speaker 2:Nobody takes pictures I do that privately. Um, this one really impressed me, and mostly because that mint does come out, mostly because you still get the bitter and the bitter and the mint together are, are. It's a weird contrast, yeah, when you think about, mostly because you still get the bitter and the bitter and the mint together are. It's a weird contrast when you think about it, because you think of the stout bitterness and the stout roasted malts that are there, and then there's this crisp like mint leaf at the top of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's really a neat flavor profile, you know, and it's not. It's not like spearmint, it's not. It's really there's not. It's really there's not. They're not twins, hawk and gum, no, you know. Or even like peppermint. It's not really a peppermint flavor. It is, you know, it's like a.
Speaker 2:It is a mint, mojito, mint leaf leaf kind of flavor I make uh, I make tequila spritzers for my wife and other other people at our house and it's got mint and sometimes I'll throw blueberries in it, whatever, but it's always fresh mint and I garnish it with the fresh mint and that's that taste. It's not fake, it's not processed right, it's a raw mint taste and it to me it changes the like. I said I went for one on it. I couldn't go higher than that if it were a little higher octane and got a little more boozy flavor, like I think. If they, if they crank that up to about a 10 on the 10, 10, nine and a half, ten percent with a little boozy flavor, I think it'd be really, really good. Oh yeah, but they might lose all that natural flavor, right, I was initially at a 3.5.
Speaker 1:I'm going to bump it up to a 3.7. I do like you're getting more mint. I do like that. It's a totally different beer. It is totally different. So I really can't go to a 4 for whatever reason. It still has a little bit of a different flavor for me.
Speaker 1:But it is better than it was and I think I can see it's a fair shake right yes and when we get done recording here, I'm going to try it again and it might bump it up again, I don't know, but right now I'm I'm saying a three, seven, this one this one too, for somebody that wanted to get off the beaten path.
Speaker 2:Right, oh yeah, this is not one that takes you too far off of it, but introduces new flavors. Yep, right, uh, the the next one we're going to try again. Uh, is off the beaten path and a gravel road and you jump off a cliff, so yes, so we're going to go back and revisit the monkey bar and of which I might be looking up a recipe for monkey bar. They may be as good as they taste yeah, yeah, who knows the other.
Speaker 2:The last thing on that, on that mint one too is it kind of has and I know that you're not in love with it as much as I am, but it's kind of that red ale aftertaste yeah, that brewed iced tea at, you know, bitter aftertaste. That's where that one goes to, which again is in my wheelhouse. When it comes to, beers?
Speaker 1:oh sure boy, this one still smells like peanut butter it smells more like a candy bar.
Speaker 2:Every time I smell it, yeah oh good, lord, that's good.
Speaker 1:I think I'm bumping that up to a four, oh easy that's an easy that is, and it's smooth. Yeah, there's no way.
Speaker 2:That's 11 I mean I know they have to put it on the can and whatnot but man, that's a, that's an easy four. If you, if you find a 4-pack up there, you got to have it. I do have a 4. They had them when I was here the other day.
Speaker 1:You're going to have to pick one up. For me they had a couple, because I'll take one too. That is amazing. That is a fantastic beer. That is a good beer.
Speaker 2:Boy, that's yeah, this is Um. This is a scary one, where you drink two of them and you're sitting around watching the final four and you go to get up because you just had 32 ounces of liquid and you go.
Speaker 1:Whoa, and all of a sudden the room starts to move. Wait a minute, your carpet has waves. Something's wrong here.
Speaker 2:That's an impressive beer.
Speaker 1:That's very impressive. I'm, I'm, I like that. That's probably, that's in, probably my top five beers I've had in at least six months.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah, easily that's when you want to, that's when you this.
Speaker 1:If anybody sees that out there, I would definitely once one to impress their friends or just say, hey, look at what I found, this is a show and tell beer this one here, I I'm going to make the executive decision that we're going to add it to our potential beer of the year list.
Speaker 1:This is a seek it out here, because this is extremely good and a lot of them we have on there are barely, you know, jim, and I like barely well, you do too. A lot of them are like that. We have a few other, but this one is definitely one. I would put on the potential at least to discuss it.
Speaker 2:This is like um, if you think of when you were a kid and there was always that one person on your block that went to the block party that made dessert bars, this tastes like some little old lady's dessert bar that has way too much sugar and she slips to the kids when their parents aren't looking. That's what this beer is. Yeah, this is a show and tell beer. I didn't hear somebody. I heard somebody tell me that the other day that there are barbecue recipes that are show and tell when your friends, come over, show and tell you make it.
Speaker 1:This is a show and tell beer. Oh yeah, I agree, because this I still say this one here anybody that has, if they've never had a high octane beer. And again now we're saying this and we're so used to high octane beers that but man, I can't taste the alcohol at all.
Speaker 2:The 7% or before that taste. Yeah, more than this. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and I think this one a new person getting into craft beer could drink this one and they would be and fall down, I mean yeah, and enjoy themselves. But after they woke up then they would be like wait a minute, I mean that is good, I like that. So from my perspective, that's number one. Oh, by far 100%. Head and shoulders. Head and shoulders.
Speaker 2:That blew me away and thankfully you know where I screwed up. I should have saved that, Because we have a beer tasting coming up on. Memorial Weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm usually pretty good at finding the oddball that wins a weird category, but unfortunately I I never bring anything that I've ever had right right, so now I'm gonna go find a new one. Uh, that's my number one. I'm a little biased on the. The first one we had the the moonlight, but the the mob crap. Basic two-year bourbon barrel was a good bourbon barrel. It was a little light on the, on the bitterness to be a stout, yep, but it was smooth, it was boozy. If that's what you're looking for, a basic boozy sipper, you know, while you sit by a campfire or what have you. We are getting close to fire season. Right, that's a good one, it really is.
Speaker 2:It's a solid one, yeah, and then a close fourth. Not even a close fourth, but fourth is the apple, and then the other two I don't know where. You know I I applaud their attempt to put a four pack together. I still question whether the jim beam was a a good can or not. I hope it was a bad.
Speaker 1:Can you know what I mean? Because if that's what they were shooting for was the flavor that we got, but maybe that's why I stopped drinking jim. It could be.
Speaker 2:It could be you know, there could be a reason. Maybe they changed the recipe. We did talk about Captain Morgan.
Speaker 1:Yep, no, that was weird, very strange Very strange, you know, and it's funny because my list, looking at my scores, exact same. Yeah, the monkey bar head and shoulders, above everything. Then the mint was slightly above, you know, it was second and just a tick up on just the bourbon barrel beer, the first one, the two-year barrel. The two-year bourbon barrel and then the apple brandy was fourth, and that for me, was a step, just a notch down from there.
Speaker 2:And just so everybody knows we're going to pinky wrestle for the rest of this Imperial Pastry Stout.
Speaker 1:Oh no, we won't have to do that, I'll just take it. Yeah, well, no, and and congratulations, brian, on bringing a potential beer of the year contender.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't even, I didn't intend to do that, but that is a fantastic that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is a good beer, so be sure to hashtag them that.
Speaker 2:Yes, hopefully they. They see that and they go. Oh, thankfully somebody liked it or somebody gave us feedback, because it is. It lacks a little bit in the drawing, although there's a hell of a lot of bananas on the front top.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, but boy what a great beer what a fantastic, what it lacks in drawings of bananas it makes up for in flavor artwork aside, it's a fantastic beer so awesome, well, cool. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for listening to this Barrel Aged with BK Brian, thanks for partaking in this Absolutely anytime.
Speaker 1:Yep, and like we always say, we hope your campfire's always warm and your beer's always cold. See ya, Thank you for listening to the Northwoods Beer Guy podcast. If Thank you for listening to the Northwoods Beer Guy podcast. If you have a question, a comment or a beer you'd like us to review, please feel free to send us a message at northwoodsbeerguy, at gmailcom. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you're on untapped, look up Northwoods Beer Guy and send a friend request. Until next week, I hope all your campfires are warm and all your beer is cold.
