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 116 - Hops Don't Bite: Breaking Down Beer's Most Misunderstood Style
Fear of IPAs is common among casual beer drinkers – that distinct hop aroma can trigger immediate skepticism before the first sip ever touches your lips. But what if everything you thought you knew about IPAs was based on misconceptions?
In this eye-opening episode, we take a methodical journey through the IPA spectrum, starting with a gentle pale ale and gradually working our way up to a massive 12% ABV quadruple IPA. Joining regular hosts Mike and Jim is Julie, a self-proclaimed IPA skeptic whose candid reactions offer the perfect perspective for anyone who's been hesitant to explore hop-forward beers.
What makes this tasting session particularly fascinating is how it challenges conventional wisdom. The panel discovers that higher ABV doesn't necessarily mean more intense bitterness, that IBU numbers often don't reflect perceived hop intensity, and that well-crafted IPAs can surprise even the most dubious palates. From Oliphant's Snail Pale to the intimidating Konkey Dong Triple IPA, each beer reveals something unexpected about this misunderstood style.
The most shocking revelation comes when the group unanimously agrees that Tox Brewing's Aerothron – a double dry-hopped IPA with a menacing shark on the label – is actually the most approachable and enjoyable beer of the lineup. Even at 8.6% ABV, its balanced flavor profile and subtle fruity notes win over everyone, proving that quality craftsmanship transcends style prejudices.
Whether you're an IPA enthusiast looking to expand your horizons or someone who's always avoided anything with "IPA" on the label, this episode offers valuable insights into appreciating craft beer without preconceptions. As the panel concludes: don't let labels, ABV percentages, or IBU ratings intimidate you – always be willing to try something new. Your next favorite beer might be hiding behind the very label you've been avoiding.
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Grab a beer and pull up a chair. Welcome to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. Hey, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast. This is Mike, the Northwoods Beer Guy, and we are actually back in the studio at Jim's house. So Jim's here we finally.
Speaker 2:Look at all the crowd back there.
Speaker 3:I know.
Speaker 1:It's crazy you draw such a crowd. I'm still trying to figure out how that popularity happened the last three weeks. My brother was gracious enough to fill in because you were trying to get your fields planted and such, and Mother Nature was not being the most kind all the time. So we finally got where you could be in the studio again. Yes, so, yeah. So how have things been going? Did you get everything in, or?
Speaker 2:We have everything in and it's actually knock on wood, starting to actually sprout.
Speaker 1:Nice, so things are on the up and up, they're progressing well.
Speaker 2:Yes, knock on wood, because you never know. Just when you say it's progressing the way you want to, then we'll get a big deluge of rain and underwater? Yeah, we're not even going to talk about that. So, yes, everything's good. And I did actually have a helper this year, nice. And what did she charge you for that? Well, I think we're still in negotiations, oh.
Speaker 1:So that's the third person of our team today. Well, at least I don't see any black eyes or any broken fingers or anything like that. I didn't get the double bird.
Speaker 3:There may have been a little bit of cussing, but Well, that happens.
Speaker 1:So as you can tell ladies and gentlemen we are joined by Julie this week, so hey, welcome back. Thanks for saying you would be participating. She agreed to do this before she knew what we were drinking, right?
Speaker 3:right, so I'll apologize right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'll give it a whirl though.
Speaker 1:Now, she did ask one question before when we asked.
Speaker 2:She said this isn't barrel-aged, is it no?
Speaker 1:it is not barrel-aged.
Speaker 2:We could have changed it up. We could have.
Speaker 1:I had many of those in the cellar. Maybe that's what she was wanting and we just were too dense to figure that out.
Speaker 2:No, no, I'll take my chances with this, oh okay, and all these are probably below ABV than what all the barrel-aged ones are Right, it's what I'm thinking.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. We had talked about this for a while.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did that.
Speaker 1:we were going to do a podcast on kind of the levels of IPA-ness so to speak. So we're starting. We got one, two, three, four, five, six different IPAs, Yep.
Speaker 3:Well, not all.
Speaker 1:IPAs, pale ale and so forth. So you've been snapping your paper there.
Speaker 2:Oh, and I did find some questions for you too.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, Make sure that you're still in your A game. Well, that's probably not the case. I've been out of practice for a while.
Speaker 2:So these should be some easy questions for you, okay good Slow pitch softball game.
Speaker 1:There we go. I like that. I know how that goes. That's a good thing. Yeah, you say they're slow pitch and then it's specifically what year, month, day, time, minute hour, second did this? Yeah?
Speaker 2:Well, I thought you knew the answer. That's why I did.
Speaker 1:If I didn't think you knew the answer, I wouldn't have asked you that question Okay, I know most of our listeners don't believe that they like to see you make me squirm. Oh, all right. Well, should we start? We can start. Yeah, so the first one that we have is from Oliphant Brewing and this is their Snail Pale Pale Ale.
Speaker 2:Should we have our guest read what I found on it? Will you pour some?
Speaker 1:You can if she's willing to, Otherwise we can do it. So what's the EBV?
Speaker 2:in this one 5% 5%. Okay, that's not bad.
Speaker 3:I feel like I'm in first grade again and the teacher's asking me to read the paragraph. Okay, it says in collaboration with those saltwater sweeties over at Sea Salt Eatery in Minneapolis, this pale ale drinks like it would have over a decade ago A little malty, a little bitter and hoppy, most of all delish Snail on chums.
Speaker 1:Okay, wow, interesting. So this one. Like I said, the reason I bought this is because it is a pale ale. Okay, it's not an American, it's not an India pale ale, it's just a pale ale. Okay, so this theoretically should be, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, you know what's weird too? In all the research I did, none of them put their IBUs.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:So I don't have any IBU info on it.
Speaker 3:Let's look in the can. Maybe it'll be on there.
Speaker 1:Well, it's just crazy, because how many times have we said you can't. It's not an exact science, right, you know? Because it makes no sense, because one will be 90 and you won't even taste them and another hop it off yeah, it says that it's like 20 and you're like what you know, so we'll see so I don't know, if we can, we'll come up with our own ibu scale yeah, yeah, we'll be way wrong, I'm guessing I'm probably not a good guess on that one.
Speaker 1:So oliphant they are also known for they do a lot of of uh, like our higher abv right stouts and things like that. We've done shows where, uh, you know we had a lot of like a higher ABV stouts and things like that. We've done shows where you know we had a bunch of theirs for that. So this will be interesting to see. They also do they have sours, I think as well.
Speaker 3:I like a lot of those Oliphant ones, because don't they have ones, a lot of them, that are like cookies and chocolate and things like that Yep exactly.
Speaker 1:Cookies and chocolate and things like that Yep, exactly. So we have Snail Pale Ale from Oliphant. Now there's an aroma. You can smell the. There's some hop aroma but it doesn't smell real bitey.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you wanted to call it that it doesn't smell over the top the aroma. It's very like golden in color.
Speaker 2:And it's kind of hazy, you can't see through it that's not too bad taste wise.
Speaker 1:I mean that's, it's not like a really strong grapefruit flavor what the smell?
Speaker 3:I was like oh boy, but it actually does not taste bad. No, I don't mind it what?
Speaker 2:what is the flavor? Snails I. Is there a flavor that's supposed to be coming through?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I do get a little bit of like a hint of either a grapefruit or maybe a piney kind of a taste. You do get that, but it's not real oh, really faint. Yeah, it's faint. It's not like real strong, like what we're normally possibly going to run into on some of these other ones.
Speaker 2:And this doesn't dry out my mouth either. No, possibly going to run into on some of these other ones, and this doesn't dry out my mouth either.
Speaker 1:No, you know, like some of the really happy ones, yep, yeah, it's just interesting, not bad. I mean Kind of surprised a little bit.
Speaker 2:What I'm afraid of is this might be our number one of the whole class.
Speaker 1:Right now it could be. It's number one for sure. Right now it is number one.
Speaker 3:yes, I, I hate it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, there you go. I mean, it's one of those. Would I sit and drink like a six-pack of it? No, now we should go back and say this is a pint can.
Speaker 2:Right, we do have four pint cans and two 12-ounce cans, yes, so some of them are proud of their IPAs and such, and I guess the other part is this is a collaboration with Sea Salt Eatery. What did they bring to the table?
Speaker 1:The snails, the snails, duh Boy, I tell you what he's the research guy, and he sure didn't find out this whole snail connection.
Speaker 2:Because I looked on the Sea Salt Eatery website and all they have is their menu.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I wish they'd have said what it was.
Speaker 3:Well, there's not a lot of info on the. Can you know it doesn't give you any of the flavors or anything it used.
Speaker 1:It's got a snail on it though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there is a snail, so that's the only reason why I guess that's a good question.
Speaker 1:What did they provide?
Speaker 2:I don't know, we don't get a flavor. I mean, I don't know what the flavor they were going for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I'm kind of drawing a blank there, for you too, bud. Well, score-wise, julie, I guess we can start with you. What would you give that out of 0 to 5 by a tenth of a point? And what's your median? Again, 2.5 is the average. What is your median? My average, I think, is 2.97 or something. See, mine's like 2.43 or 2.2. Mine's way lower. I'm pulling the BS card on that.
Speaker 2:I think yours is lower than that. I'm actually. I get mine like honest, truthful answers. I don't over-inflate mine.
Speaker 1:That's not it at all. What it is is he waits to see what the good beers are, and then that's the only ones he tries. Oh, I think. Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2:So then, why is your score higher than oh?
Speaker 1:I've tried way more. Oh, all right, we'll let you believe that.
Speaker 3:I'm going to go with a 2.7. Okay, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Mike, I was going to go. I'll go a 2.7 as well, honestly because I think it's better than average, right as far as I could drink one of those Right, me too. Like I said, I wouldn't drink a six pack of it or anything. It would still kind of get. The taste would get to me after a while, right, but it wasn't bad. I was surprised. I was kind of impressed by it.
Speaker 2:So I'm not going to paint myself into a corner, I'm actually going to go 2.8. He liked it even better than we did Because I mean, I don't like many IPAs to begin with, but this one did not have a bad flavor, not a bad aftertaste. The smell wasn't overly bad. So I mean, but I mean, those are things, I guess it was just not not a bad beer.
Speaker 1:Yep, not not I agree with you. Like I said, it was kind of surprising, right? You know I was impressed, so yeah, oh.
Speaker 2:So, since we finished that, I said, bring up our first question oh sure, why not?
Speaker 1:might as well get the first one wrong so since we're drinking IPAs. Well, pale ales and such Yep.
Speaker 2:When is National IPA Day?
Speaker 1:So got to think about it for a second yeah, but see, now you know it because you know you got that day off as a holiday. You got all those weird holidays off that most normal working folk don't get.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you always get the day after this one off. So, yeah, easy one after this one.
Speaker 3:So easy one, Easy one, I'm going to say July 3rd no.
Speaker 1:Hang on, mike's going first. Oh, I'll just throw out there the day after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:Day after Thanksgiving, which would be November, depending on the fourth Friday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, depending on what day? Okay, because you know Thanksgiving falls on different dates. Right, so was I correct.
Speaker 2:Almost All right. And, julie, now, what is your answer now?
Speaker 3:Well, I said July 3rd. I was going to say August because I'm thinking for me, pale ales to me are best in the hot sun.
Speaker 1:Julie, don't lie for them, okay.
Speaker 3:I actually said July 3rd.
Speaker 1:The people know what goes on in this studio here.
Speaker 2:So what is your July 3rd no? What is the answer that you're supposed to say?
Speaker 3:August 7th 2025.
Speaker 1:August 7th is okay, so it's always the first Thursday in August oh okay, you know we should print off a calendar so we know what we're supposed to drink, because there's National Stout Day, national.
Speaker 2:Beer Day. Yeah, I thought you already had that on the website.
Speaker 1:No, I should.
Speaker 2:Then we could like do a little celebration.
Speaker 1:A little thing on your.
Speaker 2:Instagram.
Speaker 1:Always yeah. Yeah, I agree, that sounds like so. Can you know a guy that could do that for us? Uh, I don't know we'll find out. Okay, you know a guy, that knows a guy, I know a guy that knows a guy that might know somebody, but we'll see all right.
Speaker 2:Well, no, that's all right. That was not hard, was it see I?
Speaker 1:was going off of the fact that, oh, you get that day off. Well, normally only the time after something is the day after thanksgiving, because it's not going to be christmas, because I'm just trying to justify my answer All right?
Speaker 2:Well, I'll save the other ones. Let's try them over here and see what we got. All right.
Speaker 3:I was looking at it from a standpoint of the only time I would drink them is if it was like super hot.
Speaker 1:Which August then makes sense. Yeah, but yeah, I had no idea what the actual date for that was. I usually find out when you jump on social media and all of a sudden there's a post oh, happy national ipa day. Oh okay, and then you never think what day it is. Right, all right. So the next one that we have is by half acre, and it is their slow melt, and this is an american pale ale all right, I found a little bit on this.
Speaker 2:Maybe julie give us the first couple, just paragraphs on that all right.
Speaker 3:Um, it says half acre is the house of pale ale. We don't usher a new one into our everyday lineup. Very often it must stand clear of daisy cutter and speak to where we see things going. For those who seek easygoing, everyday happy beer, slowpy beer, slow Melt is tropically bright, exceedingly crisp and ultra clean. It's packed with the things we love about modern hop forward brewing, but airy enough to keep you light on your toes.
Speaker 1:That's 5.8% ABV. When you were reading it, julie, I looked at Jim and gave him the oh, here we go face, because when they start talking about tropically bright and all the exceedingly crisp yeah, you know, because, uh, if you, if you remember, a couple weeks ago on the podcast with my, with my brother, he had brought some beers from a beer of the month club.
Speaker 3:Okay, and one of them was the same.
Speaker 1:You know tropical flavors of mango and and this and that, and all I could taste was your normal ipa. Yeah, and I flattered ask because you know he's a brewer. And I said okay, are there hops that are going to give you a watermelon, or not a water, but like a mango or I can't remember what other fruit, it was we're talking and he's like, if there is, I've never found it so like a citrus type.
Speaker 1:Right, okay, right, I go, because you either get like that kind of a grape fruity or pine, yeah or yeah or pine needles, and he's like yeah, that's basically it. Anyways, unless they add some kind of flavoring or something else to it, the hops aren't really going to do that and I'm like, okay, that's what I thought.
Speaker 3:So it's a marketing thing. I was like, hey, if we could figure out a way to grow hops that add that flavor, we could make a killing.
Speaker 1:There you go, so we're going to crack into this. This is a small 12-ounce can Small one. So this one it should oh, that's a lot clearer, like lighter color.
Speaker 2:Well, it's definitely ultra clean. There you go, see, and bright.
Speaker 3:Look at how bright the color is. I feel like the can is darker than the beer. Is it kind of is?
Speaker 1:And it's got a butterfly and like a candle. Some sort of it almost reminds me of some kind of a wizardy casting a spell type design on it.
Speaker 3:you know, I feel like it looks very hippie.
Speaker 1:That's the one thing with a lot of these places. Boy, they got some interesting artwork Right.
Speaker 3:Some of them are amazing. What is that?
Speaker 1:That aroma is weird. It is a little. It's almost got a.
Speaker 3:I don't know if you said that Half Acre Beer Company is out of Chicago.
Speaker 1:No, and now, jim, you did find an interesting tidbit. Yeah, I put it on there for you On that. And you're right, julie, it is out of Chicago, but it was founded in 2007. And they originally brewed beer in Black River Falls, wisconsin. Yeah, wow, where that I don't know? I'm wondering I think it was part of.
Speaker 2:Sand Creek, because they bottle a lot of different beers, correct?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they do a lot of the contract brewing and things like that, so I'm guessing that's what it was Right, because Sand Creek has been around for quite a while.
Speaker 2:Right, that brewery has been there. They've changed hands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and changed names, but it's never been half acre.
Speaker 2:Right, no, correct. Okay, let's get back to this aroma. So what is this aroma?
Speaker 1:That's a different aroma. It smells like armpit perspiration.
Speaker 3:No, I feel like it does have a fruity Knock it off, doesn't?
Speaker 1:it. It has a different. At first I was going to say it is fruity. It almost has. Yes, it has like a.
Speaker 3:Pineappley or something. There you go.
Speaker 1:It smells like pineapple, like canned pineapple.
Speaker 2:It's not perspiration.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, one man's pineapple is another man's perspiration. It's not bad. Yeah, no it's. I think you nailed it with the pineapple aroma, this one. It's a little bit drier on the finish, just a touch. It's still not bad. Hop-wise it's not terrible. I don't think I could drink a can of that Again, not a whole bunch of them.
Speaker 2:So what is the style of this? Did you call it? This is an American Pale Ale. This is an American Pale Ale.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, so typically they're not as hoppy. You know what I mean as far as what we'll start getting into Definitely not hoppy, not hot. No, you're going to wish that those were barrel-aged before it's over.
Speaker 2:I mean, the flavor is just not. I'm not clicking on the flavor.
Speaker 3:I don't mind it.
Speaker 1:I don't mind it.
Speaker 3:Like you said, I could drink one, but would I drink two? Probably not.
Speaker 1:Well, with most of these it all depends, but I don't know, it's a lot more. I'd drink one of them for sure. But yeah, like you said when you first mentioned the armpit smell, jim, it's kind of funny because I was like man, that smells weird but I can't put my finger on it. But as soon as, and then it's like oh, it's like you just opened up a can of the pineapple rings and that's what you're smelling.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't. If I had, if I, If I open up a can of pineapple rice like this, I'd be throwing it away in one of the garbage cans. See, you're just jumping to conclusions.
Speaker 3:It's probably good it's not. I don't think it's horrible.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's okay, jim, why don't you go first on this one Boy?
Speaker 2:it's I'm trying to come up with something good, I'm going to have to go with 2.2. It's not that good to me.
Speaker 1:I think he's going to keep his scores somewhat high because he's saving them for the later ones. To go way low is what I'm thinking.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I just can't. I don't know. There's something that's off on this. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Right. Personally, I'm going to go with 2.5.
Speaker 3:I think average it's. I don't mind it, and once when I think of it as pineapple aroma.
Speaker 1:It's better than yeah, armpit, uh aroma, but um, like I said, it's a little bit drier on the finish, but I, I could drink it, I. And, like I said, it's not terrible. I've had better ones, but it's okay I'm gonna do uh 2.6.
Speaker 3:I don't mind it, because I feel like what's coming next is really going to. You're going to save your scores, too, is really going to just knock my scores down there, yeah.
Speaker 2:I was just looking to see if there's anything interesting more on the half acre brewery. It looks like they're doing their brewing the right way. I think we've talked about in the past where some breweries they get in debt too big because they're buying too big of a building.
Speaker 1:But it looks like here.
Speaker 2:They started small and just slowly worked their way up to get bigger.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:Not, you know because, I mean what's the number one that we always talk about is tall grass. Tall grass yeah, that may have gotten a little bit too big right away and got way too far in debt and couldn't, and then next thing, you know, you know they're out of business. Yeah, so kudos to the half acre, I mean, and I did not look and see on the website how many different beers that they do have, but at least this one, I mean, is okay yeah, it's like I said, we've had worse, we've had better so now oh, did you have another question, or should we jump into the next one?
Speaker 1:the next one. I want to save one.
Speaker 2:I want to save a couple of these. Okay, I got some good ones that I know you're going to get right. Okay, perfect, okay. So, oh, did I give you a score on that first one? I think Julie got a plus 100.
Speaker 1:Oh geez, and Mike got a minus 1,000.
Speaker 2:Oh Mike.
Speaker 1:See, you get penalized a lot when he decides who's going to lose. So you can't penalize me because I'm oh that's right helper, his, yeah, his farm helper, and you do live in his house and your, he lives in your house.
Speaker 2:I almost messed that up, jim, oh so you better get kicked in the knee, so it doesn't.
Speaker 1:She could not answer. She's gonna win right perfect that'll work great.
Speaker 1:Okay, folks, we're gonna move out of the lower stuff and now we we're going to jump into the IPAs. Ipa, yep, so the first one that we have, and I've had this one before. Okay, full disclosure. Full disclosure. And this is by Surly Brewing Company. And then this is their Furious IPA. So this is an India pale ale, so we're stepping up the hoppiness and things like that. This is 6.7% ABV, so we went from 5 to 5.8 to 6.7. So, as you can see, it's been kind of a gradual increase as well in the ABV as well as the hoppiness.
Speaker 2:All right, so what do we got there, Julie?
Speaker 3:Okay, it says the beer that built Surly aggressively, hopped in citrusy but with a chewy caramel backbone. Surly, is called Surly due to our inability to find a good beer in town. Furious is one of the first beers we brewed to rectify that situation. The rest is history.
Speaker 1:Now, julie, if you remember, we were in the cities.
Speaker 3:Yep, we did go to. Surly Jim was not able to be there, but we went to Surly. Yes, very awesome place.
Speaker 1:It is a huge brewery. You have to go up there sometime. We've got to go up there and do a podcast from there or something, because they had so many beers, jim, on tap that I hadn't even heard of, haven't seen them in the can bottle, anything like that, and they had barrel-aged stuff. They had all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 3:They have a beautiful outdoor area. It's just gorgeous.
Speaker 1:They had fire pits and fire tables. I don't know what they were, some kind of heater thing that was blowing hot air when you're right up by the building Yep on the patio like a little pergola that blew heat out. Yep.
Speaker 3:Because it was in the winter.
Speaker 1:It was in the winter, yes, and we could still stand outside, yep. And inside it was full of giant, almost like picnic table looking.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like tables and bench seats, like big farmhouse lawn tables, yeah, kind of like that, and it was.
Speaker 1:I mean, you can get food there. They had an upstairs and a downstairs, kind of like Toppling Goliath.
Speaker 3:Okay, maybe even bigger, oh wow.
Speaker 1:And it was. I couldn't believe. They had on the wall all the beers they had on tap and it was just oh my gosh, I've never even heard of half of these you know Right. And then, of course, across the parking lot, you can see the.
Speaker 3:Sacred.
Speaker 1:Heart Distillery. Oh, so kind of interesting. But yeah, we have to make a trip up there sometime and check it out and, you know, do a podcast Because, like I said, it was just crazy. It is a beautiful place, yeah, and it was really nice and, like you said, we were in the winter and we were all standing around a campfire and had our glasses out there drinking.
Speaker 2:Yep, it was cool, all right, all right. Well, the can is very ominous.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, it's got flames coming off of the Looks like it's in hell. Well, you may be, you may not be.
Speaker 3:We'll find out here shortly, hopefully it doesn't taste like that Going to have a little water to cleanse the palate there.
Speaker 2:It did say it was a red amber. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it is definitely more of an amber color than what the first ones were. It's kind of interesting, isn't it, how the first three have all been a different. You know, that first one was really kind of cloudy and such, and then the next one was very clear and bright, and then this one is red, you know, kind of an amber. So I think that is another one of those kind of loosely. You can make it what you want, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:There's all sorts of different things. I don't get much aroma.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the aroma is actually not Even the head is a little bit yellow though, too A little bit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you can smell a little bit of hop, but not much Did. We, the ABVs are 6.7.
Speaker 1:Flavor-wise, you're getting into a little bit more hop. You can taste it. It's not real dry, though on the finish, yeah.
Speaker 3:I was going to say it's a different hoppy flavor than the one we had before. Yes, but, like you said, not as dry.
Speaker 1:Actually I almost like that one better, Almost like which one better this the Furious.
Speaker 3:Yes, even though I know it's. I know more hoppy.
Speaker 1:I wonder if that caramel does something more to If it knocks down the hop maybe a little, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Because, like it doesn't taste sweet but it's Kind of got a like a creamy type flavor to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, it's not that bitter, really super bitter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because I'm not really. I don't get like a grapefruit flavor. You know you get the a grapefruit flavor. You know you get. The majority of the hop for me is on the finish, like after you swallow it. Then you get that little bit of a. You can tell you had hops.
Speaker 2:Right, but it's not over the top. No, not at all. I mean, it's all very muted, all the flavors. That's why I'm wondering if that caramel does something you could be right.
Speaker 1:Maybe you know they could do something to it. But yeah, this is. I like this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was a little scared, but I'm pleasantly surprised that this is not actually Just because it had mean artwork, Well and IPA because I am normally not a fan.
Speaker 2:Right. Well then, what do you think it makes sense?
Speaker 1:I do like it. Like I said, I've had it before. I don't remember what I scored it before, but honestly I'm going to go with a 3.0 on this one. Wow, I do like this because same thing, julie I think I can drink and I have drank multiple cans of it before, but again, it's not a lot of them, because I get tired of the hop after a while, right.
Speaker 3:I feel, like I don't know. I feel like I would get a gut rot if I drank too much of the IPA stuff. But I'm going to go 2.9. I don't mind this. Actually, I like this one better than the first two, which kind of is odd.
Speaker 1:It's kind of surprising, because I figured the first two were going to be way smoother.
Speaker 3:And we'd be like, oh yeah no problem.
Speaker 1:But then, yeah, you know Oliphant and Halfay, they are smaller breweries than Surly is. You know, I don't we'd have to look to see you know for sure how long they've all been around. But Surly they are really known for darkness and their IPAs. You know they do a good job. So, jim, what do you think?
Speaker 2:Well, it's again. I mean, not a single flavor sticks out. So that's the hard part. I mean, even the citrusy part is not really citrusy, but so it's not bad. But I mean it is smoother. I might be breaking my plane here, but I'm going to have to say a 2.9 as well.
Speaker 3:I don't know what's going on. Stop the presses.
Speaker 1:I must be drunk, because I could have swore he said a 2.9 on an IPA.
Speaker 3:He did. I was a witness.
Speaker 1:I almost Good thing I'm sitting down.
Speaker 2:And now he's eating a cracker and looking like it was the worst thing he ever had. Do you need a no?
Speaker 1:I do have a question, though, okay.
Speaker 2:We're talking about IPAs. Yep, and which brewery? It wasn't one of these produced the first IPA to be exported to India.
Speaker 1:Oh geez, that's way back when.
Speaker 3:Is it a brewery in the United States?
Speaker 2:I can answer that no.
Speaker 3:Well then, how would we know? Because it's such a famous one.
Speaker 1:It's still around Heineken.
Speaker 2:No that's a dark beer. That's from Germany, oh well that's a dark beer.
Speaker 3:That's from Germany. Oh Well, it's not the United States, if you've listened to our podcast.
Speaker 1:I've told a story about the lady that said Heineken was a dark beer.
Speaker 3:Oh yes. Oh yeah, I'm trying to think of a which brewery, Stella? I don't know, she's just shouting out names like crazy, I don't know.
Speaker 1:And I know I've known it and I'm totally I know that's what you.
Speaker 2:We talked about it before, so I thought you had it Dos Equis. She's hammered drunk already.
Speaker 1:This one basically, is it out of Britain or I can't remember it's out of Britain, I don't remember that.
Speaker 3:Mike, your head's going to crack open. It's going to. You're thinking so hard.
Speaker 1:I don't remember. I'm not even going to throw out an answer. I don't know, dude, I can't remember.
Speaker 2:So, after losing their Russian markets, brewers in Burton England quickly began brewing for export to India. One of the first IPAs to be brewed and exported to India was by George Hodgson's Bow Brewery.
Speaker 1:Okay, the only reason I remember that is because I didn't even recognize the name then, and I still don't recognize the name.
Speaker 2:but the brewery was two miles from the East India Docks, which made it convenient for traders.
Speaker 1:Yep exactly I remember that part too, but I couldn't remember the name of it. I knew it was some because I'm sitting here going. Okay, it wasn't Samuel Smith, it wasn't you know, it was a guy's name. Got it almost right, so she gets 200 points and since I didn't say an answer, you got minus 2,000.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm kind of was caught off, like the. I didn't realize that India would be a. Are they consumers of IPA?
Speaker 1:There's not a question coming up on that, yeah we'll say that, but there's a reason that they did it.
Speaker 3:But we'll get into that, okay, because I'm like I just didn't find India as a big, so that was actually a British Commonwealth.
Speaker 1:Right, that's way back when so they're going there all the time, gotcha.
Speaker 3:You learn something new every day, Exactly All right.
Speaker 2:so what do we got?
Speaker 1:All right coming up. Well, now this one has an interesting label on it. It's got like a great white shark chasing a puffer fish is what it looks like, and this is by Tox Brewing. Yes, and I don't even know how to pronounce this Aerothron, aerothron.
Speaker 2:Aerothron.
Speaker 1:And this now we're going to a double dry hopped India pale ale. So this is a double pale ale 8.6. 8.6. So once again we bumped up the ABV and I am guessing we're bumping up the hop as well. I have never had this beer. I've never even heard of this brewery before.
Speaker 2:So this will be interesting. So it says there's not much. We brewed the special scaled up Fugu variant.
Speaker 1:Okay, Now you know what Fugu is. I've heard of something similar Fugu is what the name of the puffer fish in Japan is called fugu and that's where, if they don't prepare it right, you could die because it's poisonous.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, like on John Wick.
Speaker 1:Remember when she ate the Well, John Wick, or I was thinking, like you know, I've seen it, I think on Andrew Zimmer, the guy that would eat like crazy stuff.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, you know that stuff.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's like a number of people each year get sick from it because it's not prepared correctly.
Speaker 3:And that's the name of it. There is Fugu. If one of us drops over and dies tonight, it's because the Fugu wasn't prepared correctly.
Speaker 2:Well, remember because I looked on. So all their beers are a Fugu variant name. Oh really, Okay, right. So this one is the Aerothron, and it was in celebration of our annual re-tox party, their detox party Re-tox.
Speaker 1:Oh, so they all got re-drunk Apparently.
Speaker 2:Nice 12% beer project. It's a double IPA, dry hopped with Citra, Rewaka, Mosaic and El Dorado hops.
Speaker 1:Okay, now remember, dry hopping is more so, if I remember what my brother said it's more so for the aroma. Okay, then then. Uh, brian, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that is what it was if it's dry hopped and I got a little more after we take okay, talk about tax brewing.
Speaker 3:It said it was well, I guess, brewed and packaged by 12%. North Haven, connecticut, for Tox Brewing. But I don't know where Tox Brewing is out of. I got that too.
Speaker 2:Oh, you got that too.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, this is kind of a little bit similar to that first one, in color the can says dangerously drinkable.
Speaker 3:We shall see, let's see how dangerously drinkable it is.
Speaker 1:That's not bad. I think that's pretty smooth. I was expecting a lot worse, yeah.
Speaker 3:And that is honestly not bad.
Speaker 2:What's that initial when it touches your tongue? I get almost like fruity. Yeah, is that what that is, I get?
Speaker 1:almost like a. It's not grapefruit, but almost like an orange kind of flavor Maybe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean, your tongue feels something before you get the taste.
Speaker 1:Your tongue feels something before you get the taste, that's the fugu, it's the poison. Is that the poison? See, they got the poison out. They got just enough in to numb your tongue.
Speaker 3:See, I don't know if it's like a fruity, Like it's sweeter when you get the first taste of it. That's really weird. I am freaking out here because so far this is my best.
Speaker 1:I don't mind this at all.
Speaker 2:I don't either. So do we want to talk about the brewery or the name of the fish?
Speaker 1:Well, whichever you'd like to do, Okay. Because we'll do both of them. Okay, because this is, I can stand drinking this one, all right, so you can pour some more if you want.
Speaker 2:So it says. Tox Brewing Company is located in New London, Connecticut, was founded by lifelong friends, dane Lasky and Michael Zaccaro in 2019. So relatively new New. Yeah, the name Tox reflects Lansky's background in toxology and a fascination with poisons, antidotes and the healing power of plants. Okay, they see Tox brewing as a blend of craft science and nature, not just beer, wow.
Speaker 1:So hopefully they do well. Yes, so he doesn't put something in there.
Speaker 2:He might just do it in your can.
Speaker 1:It could be. Yeah, this is wild. And I picked this one up at the beer shop. Oh, did you Really? I picked actually the Sna pale and the slow melt, the slow melt. I picked those up as well at the beer shop Because I knew we were going to do this and I kept looking. I'm like, oh, they got. You know, I looked on Untappd and they got some you know, doubles and quad and all that and then triple. So I'm like I got to go get them. So we have them. I'm going to give you just it's pretty crazy.
Speaker 3:The can is kind of like a little bit scary. The shark looks super angry and the puffer fish looks very scared. That's one of those that I got to try. Do you notice, though, like in the background, there's like I don't know if it's like if this is like the United States, but look at, like the buildings that are supposedly underwater in the background.
Speaker 1:Is it Atlantis? It's probably supposed to be Atlantis.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it is kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:I never they got a dude here that looks like a Roman.
Speaker 3:Oh, maybe it is, it's probably.
Speaker 2:Atlantis? It's probably Atlantis. What's his name? Morpheus, no.
Speaker 1:That was from Hedda's Trident Aquaman.
Speaker 3:No, his dad, Aquaman's dad, right yeah, I'm really good at that game where you just shout out.
Speaker 1:You just shout stuff out yeah, something's gonna hit the wall and stick. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2:So here I got a little more so aerothon aerothron is a genus of the pufferfish family which we we already talked about, found in warm water parts of the Atlantic, indian and Pacific Ocean. These species are sometimes kept in aquaria, the largest species, which can reach 3.9 feet in length. Oof, wow, wow. And what is weird is I had a picture when I looked on Wikipedia, and the picture of the fish on, here looks the same as it is on the.
Speaker 1:That's crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, his eyes are sticking out a little bit more of the big shark behind him, that's because the shark's chasing him. But I wonder what would happen if the shark probably wouldn't touch him, because wouldn't it put poison in the shark? You would think so, I'm sure they're not See that shark.
Speaker 1:He's not very bright, he don't know what he's doing.
Speaker 2:So what are you thinking on the score? I like this one. Uh-oh, you like it. I thought you liked the last one.
Speaker 1:I do, but I'm going to go a 3.2 on this one.
Speaker 3:I really like this I mean it surprised me?
Speaker 1:Yes, for sure it did me too. So I mean, hop-wise, it's not bad at all and it does have a sweetness, like Julie said, and I don't know what it's from. They didn't really give us that detail, but that's good. I could drink a can and that's a pint can.
Speaker 3:And it's a big can yeah.
Speaker 1:I could drink that, Julie. What are you thinking?
Speaker 3:I'm going to go actually a 3.0. So far, I'm shocked to say this is my favorite one so far.
Speaker 2:I mean, what is weird? I don't know if you guys are.
Speaker 1:Hang on, I got some dirt in my eye. Are you going to cry, Mike? I think so. It's just. It's always so nice to see like your young ones. The doubters, they start to the doubters, or okay? I'll say it that way, the ones that were like ugh when they start going man this isn't too bad.
Speaker 3:My box of beer tasting is expanding.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is expanding. We're doing our job, Jim. We're doing our job.
Speaker 2:You know, what is weird is, however, and whatever they used, that initial like when you pour it on your cup, into your mouth, that initial flavor, even after two or three sips, it's still there. It's still after that drink, you still get that flavor on your tongue, which? Whatever they're doing, you would think a lot of other beer brewmasters would do the same thing, Because, I mean, that really does something to the beer.
Speaker 1:It's like bright and sunny. They might not have a guy that can prepare fugu to put in the brew kettles though.
Speaker 2:That's true. I mean, is it an ancient Chinese secret? It could be. Yeah, ancient Chinese secret, it could be. I don't know.
Speaker 3:That is good. I mean, I'm surprised I'm going to go with 3.1. I'm surprised O-M-G Jim's giving an IPA a 3.1.
Speaker 2:It's something with that on the tongue, the little flavor. I don't think I've ever had a beer that's done that with a flavor.
Speaker 3:On an IPA no no any beer.
Speaker 1:Honestly, jim I think this is probably the first beer I've ever had from this brewery. Oh, I think for sure it's Hox. I've never heard of them before, and you know, it scared me a little bit when I first picked it because you don't know, Right, but man, that's a good prize.
Speaker 2:I mean kudos to the beer shop for getting something like that.
Speaker 3:They'd like to see what other kinds of beers they make. Yep, we'll have to check them out online and see what else they have.
Speaker 1:Hopefully the beer shop will get some of their other stuff in. Yeah, that was really good. I was impressed.
Speaker 2:I mean, have you seen what's going on here? Every one of the scores for each of these has gotten higher and better, and better, which is crazy.
Speaker 1:So we'll see how it keeps going, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm a little worried about this next one I'm like.
Speaker 3:well, the name itself is kind of a little frightening in itself.
Speaker 1:Well, did you have a question before, or do you want to?
Speaker 2:save it for after the next one, or all right well, since you're so jumpy, let's get right into it.
Speaker 3:Way to go, mike.
Speaker 1:So I brought it on myself, I'm sorry, so we just talked about george hodgson's bo brewery right.
Speaker 2:Yep, what was his original name of that beer, you know, because it wasn't. It wasn't called an ipa to start. What was the name of that beer?
Speaker 1:We're going to say a Hoppy Ale.
Speaker 2:No, come on, remember, they're not doing it.
Speaker 1:How about the stuff that we send to somebody else because we wouldn't drink it?
Speaker 3:They're close, kind of long for out of hand Back then they didn't really have label limitations and stuff.
Speaker 2:Alright, Julie, what is your guess?
Speaker 3:October Ale oh, look at that she got it right Snap right out of the den here.
Speaker 1:You know, what's going to be funny is, ladies and gentlemen, at some point, when they're standing at the pearly gates and St Peter comes out and he goes. I saw how you like totally you know robbed Mike on all those questions. How do you justify that?
Speaker 3:I asked for forgiveness.
Speaker 2:I was more talking to.
Speaker 1:Jim, he had no answer.
Speaker 2:Julie got it right. That's plus 500. Minus 5,000, I'm sure. Wow, I thought these were some easy ones for you here Not so much.
Speaker 1:So October Ale is what they call it. Yep Before he changed the name when they started sending it, he probably had to change it because Germany said uh-uh, that doesn't taste anything like our Oktoberfest type stuff, right? So Okay, kiddos. Well, how many we got left? We got two. We got two more IPAs. So we went through a pale ale, an APA, an IPA, a double, so A double. So now the next one is a Triple, triple.
Speaker 1:IPA oh not triple Nope, triple Triple. And this one the name is kind of this is by Hoof Hearted Brewing From Ohio, from.
Speaker 2:Ohio, okay, yep, they had a couple breweries in Ohio, okay, so I'm not sure which one. This one may be, so this is their Conky Dong.
Speaker 1:Yes, you heard me right, conky Dong. Four-up evolution, aquatic ape theory, triple IPA brewed with citra, nectron, eldorado and mosaic hops, 9.5% ABV. Now here's one thing you will probably enjoy. They say this should be served at 46 degrees Fahrenheit. That's probably pretty close to that. This may be slightly warmer, but it's not much warmer than that. But this is the first can that has said what temperature you should serve this at.
Speaker 2:And I found one sentence on their website First look at the artwork. Do you see what Donkey Kong is?
Speaker 1:writing. Is it the dolphin, a brown dolphin?
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm not sure where those are located.
Speaker 3:Well, the Kong guy looks a little sketchy. No, that's not his name. We can't say that it's trademarked. That's not his name, oh.
Speaker 1:Kong guy. Yeah, what's his real name? Kunky Dong guy Kong guy, yeah what's his real name?
Speaker 2:Kunky Dong guy Dong guy. Mr.
Speaker 3:Dong to you. I feel like awkward saying dong I know, it's like this is a PG show and we have to say this Mr Dong looks angry in a lot of those photos.
Speaker 2:Kind of he almost looks like a bank robber in that one Kind of so it said, we took Kunky Dong, fattened him up a bit and doubled the dry hop for a whopping 8.5 pounds of hops per barrel. Wow, Yowza. Because did you explain that we did find what conky dong? There is a conky dong they have, just yes.
Speaker 1:And that was a normal. Was that a double IP or a single IP, Single, Single? And then they have this one which is their triple.
Speaker 2:Right, I didn't realize, because on the front of the can there's no words. No, there's none whatsoever. So when I typed it into Mr Google, only conky dong came up. Okay, not the conky dong. Four of evolution aquatic ape theory.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I didn't know that there was so much, and I'm sure they had to go with conky dong because the other variation is trademarked. I'm sure, oh, is it? Oh, I'm sure.
Speaker 3:Well, it's very cloudy Boy, that's almost Hazy.
Speaker 2:Like for these, I call them a little hazy. At first I was going to say it almost had a coconut aroma, but it's not really that it's.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have any aroma at all, very minimal.
Speaker 3:Well, here it goes there's not much flavor to that. There's something there's. And I like it because I feel like it's not so like and it's a triple.
Speaker 1:This is a triple, and I am just.
Speaker 3:The one Honest to God. The first one we had, I feel like, was more IPA than this one, and this is 9.5.
Speaker 1:ABV, 9.5 ABV. It does not taste like 9.5.
Speaker 2:No, this is crazy. I like this. I mean, it's not bad, it's not coconut.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the first one I had was like coconut, but it's not, but I don't know what it is. Like you said, jim, it's a weird.
Speaker 3:It's like pineapple. I can't pin it down. It's not grapefruit.
Speaker 2:It's like not a grapefruit and it's not hoppy. I don't know. There's not a hoppy, very little. And even on the finish.
Speaker 1:I mean there's a little dryness, but not bad at all really. I mean, this is really oh my gosh Just say it. It's pretty decent, it is no, I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to. It's not terrible, it's not terrible I. Whether it's citrus or whatever, it's not that Tox Brewing really did something with their flavor in the front end.
Speaker 1:Yep, this one. See, I was expecting it. The ABV has been going up. I was expecting the amount of hop.
Speaker 3:It was going to get stronger and stronger and stronger.
Speaker 1:So these guys so far, like I said, are doing something.
Speaker 2:I mean even for us. Maybe that's why they didn't put the IBU stuff on there, because the IBU thing for us, I mean, I don't think we haven't had it over 30 yet, have we In?
Speaker 1:our, the way we look at it, right. No, there's nothing. There's probably oh, this is way up there. No, it's not.
Speaker 2:It's not, it could be.
Speaker 1:I think you might be right, Jim.
Speaker 2:I'm just taking a guess. I don't know when.
Speaker 1:I talked to my brother on the podcast about it because I told him our struggles with it.
Speaker 3:It's going to scare people away.
Speaker 1:Our biggest thing is you're expecting it to be super hoppy and a lot of them aren't. The higher ones aren't that bad Right? And he was like, yeah, you know. Basically he said, yeah, it's not. The thing that they don't take into account is the hop, the IBUs. They get that rating off of the hops themselves.
Speaker 3:Oh, they don't.
Speaker 1:And then you have to factor out for your mash bill, like your grains and all that, because that'll knock it down. You know what I mean. So Right, you may start with a hop, whatever that's high, but then it gets knocked out and I'm like, well, that's crazy, because they don't. You know, they always put that big number to, you know.
Speaker 2:But I would be more apt to use your own personal taste. I mean because you can taste right away. I mean there's not hops in it. I mean there's hops in it, but I mean not the bitter or the grapefruit Not what I was expecting, because it says international bitterness units. So to me, that's what I'd be looking for in a flavor, and these aren't these first five haven't been bitter.
Speaker 3:Well, maybe like whatever, an Eldorado and a Mosaic hop is.
Speaker 1:They're different strains of hops.
Speaker 3:Maybe those are, you know, not so strong flavor, I do know like Mosaic Eldorado.
Speaker 1:What was the first one? That was on there.
Speaker 2:It must have been on the can. It was on the can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, citra, Because Citra is used a lot. Eldorado is a lot, Mosaic is a lot, whatever, that Neckturnal or whatever, that one I haven't heard much about.
Speaker 3:But yeah it was better than I thought it was going to be. I agree.
Speaker 1:So, Jim, what are you going to give it you? Go first this one.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know, I'm struggling. Okay, so here's where I'm struggling. So the very first couple of sips was not bad, because I got more and more to it. It got more and more dry. My mouth got more and more dry. Okay, some of the bitterness started to come through as I went down on my glass, which is not a bad thing and it wasn't like horrendously bad, but it was still. It did get more and more hoppy, so I'm going to put it at a 2.7. I'm going to put it a little bit below that. Very first. I like that first one. I'm going to put it a little bit below that one.
Speaker 1:Okay, julie, what do you think?
Speaker 3:I am going to go a 2.8. I agree with Jim. Oh, this isn't bad, but like the last couple of drinks to me, got bitter.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I was going to go a 2.9. I do like it. I thought it was better than I was expecting. I'm just going to flat out, be honest with you. I thought it was going to be terrible.
Speaker 3:Right To be honest with you Me too, because I thought okay with the name like that, it's probably going to be.
Speaker 1:Ugh, it was better than I thought it was going to be. Yeah, it would for sure, but it's in a pint can. Would I drink multiple? No, because I know I keep saying this, but I would. On all of these, especially the pint cans. After one, I'd be good. Right, you know, like the Furious, I could drink a couple 12-ounce cans of that, but then I'd be good For the day. For the day, yeah, it's probably going to go to something else, right? Yeah, all right. Well, we've got one more IPA left.
Speaker 2:And I've got two more questions. Awesome, all right. Well, all right. So we're talking IPAs and we're talking George Hodgson's Bowl Brewery, right? Yep, and we got the original name and we got where it was located. So why was this drink specifically designed to be exported to India? Because I think Julie had asked the same question before and I know the answer to that one.
Speaker 1:but do you want to guess, julie?
Speaker 2:I have no idea.
Speaker 1:Why don't you guess, and we'll see what. Oh, here we go.
Speaker 2:Take a big wild guess.
Speaker 1:They put more hops in it because when it's transported so it stayed good longer, or fresh, whatever you want to say.
Speaker 3:It was too hot to brew it there in India. You a fresh one. Whatever you want to say, it was too hot to brew it there. Yeah, in India you didn't have the right answer.
Speaker 1:What no, because that's why they made it hoppy On the transport on the ship. It lasted longer.
Speaker 3:You're partially right, Mike. It says I want credit for that it was too hot to brew in the subcontinent and, because it matured in route, a journey of four to six months. See.
Speaker 1:Oh, grasshopper. See, ladies and gentlemen, the fact that Julie didn't have a. She asked earlier and then, all of a sudden, she had this great big long explanation, for it Isn't that just ironic. She's so smart, as a certain singer would say. Isn't that ironic?
Speaker 3:Smartphones are your friend.
Speaker 1:No husbands that do the research are your friends.
Speaker 2:So Julie got that. That was a good long answer. That was actually three parts to it too. Hey, I get partial credit. Mike does get points. So Julie got a plus thousand and we're going to give Mike plus one.
Speaker 3:You got a plus one I give you credit, thank you.
Speaker 1:At least I got something as a plus one.
Speaker 2:Right, see, good that's good.
Speaker 1:I'm proud. We're done. I'm good, I don't have to do any more.
Speaker 2:You're going to drop the mic.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not going to drop the mic. Okay, All right. So what do we?
Speaker 2:got next. Well, so you know off, but all three of us have had a beer from this brewery?
Speaker 1:Yes, yep, because they do have other styles and things like that. But yeah, we have had, because the beer shop has got beers from here before. Oh, have they? Yes, and actually that's where I got this one From the beer shop, from the beer shop. Okay, yep go ahead and this is their out-of-pocket quadruple IPA from Blackstack Brewing yes, and it is a 12% ABV All right and Julie.
Speaker 3:What do we have there? It says brewed with our buds from. Is it Lua Lua, lua, brewing down in Des?
Speaker 1:Moines and I've been there, susie and I have been there, and Julie's been there and Jim's been there. You've been there too. We're all there together, that's right. Yeah, money can buy us. I totally spaced off that you were there with us. That's why I was trying to lead it in at the beginning there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, go ahead, julie, I'm sorry. Our hand-selected strata in completely over the line quantities, words to live by. It's always better to be in the pocket than out of it act accordingly.
Speaker 1:So now did they say what? Because remember our, our knock on lua, or whatever yeah, was that their beers at at their brewery were more, uh, like they were brewed for the masses, like the college college kids.
Speaker 2:Remember there wasn't a lot of flavor. Was that the Lua one, or was that one of the last ones you went to where they had?
Speaker 1:no, no, they were that very first one we went to in Des Moines.
Speaker 2:That was the first one. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It was across from whatever that office building was Okay, and then the other breweries across the parking lot, remember, right? So, Remember and there it was. And again, they were a very nice brewery and the people were nice. The food was good yeah. But it just seemed like the flavors were kind of muted, right? Remember that was our big knock you and I.
Speaker 2:So I wonder. So we didn't go to Blackstack though, did we?
Speaker 1:No, no, Because is Blackstack down there too? They must be. I would think right, Let me check on my phone here.
Speaker 3:Is it Blackstack?
Speaker 1:Brewing. One word I'm trying to see if it says oh, here, blackstack Brewing St Paul. Yep, st Paul, and I have not been to that either. You haven't been to that one either.
Speaker 2:Nope, st Paul, alright well, let's see what we got.
Speaker 1:So this is their out-of-pocket quadruple IPA. And once again this is in a pint can, bigger, can, bigger can.
Speaker 3:And it just this says about this Black Stack Brewing family run craft tap room and events venue pouring stouts, lagers and IPAs and grub from food trucks. Well, there you go. Now the one thing I'm noticing, I think your.
Speaker 1:Uncle Larry's going to like this too.
Speaker 2:Why's that so, it says? The history of the building that they're at, the American Can Building, dates back to 1889. Beginning in 1902, it was a canning factory that churned out billions of tin cans for Hormel Foods.
Speaker 1:But my Uncle Larry doesn't work for Hormel.
Speaker 2:Swift and Company Armour and Company for well-known brands like Spam.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, he didn't have anything to do with that.
Speaker 2:I thought he used to work there. No, we talked about that. No, we had a beer. Or is he blowing my leg?
Speaker 1:No, he never worked there, he works at. No, he works in Albert Lee at a different place. Yeah, so he did get a beer that that was taste like hormel the chili. Well, it was like the chill the chili cheese dip god awful, it's tasted like liquid chili cheese, well yuck yeah you remember the?
Speaker 1:were you with us when we were in? No, you, yeah, yeah. When we went to that the brewery in in, uh miss, when they had that, the guy was so impressed with his salsa beer. Remember, oh yeah, and it looked like this, like yellow beer and it tasted like salsa. Remember, our reaction was like everybody was like ugh. That was the same kind of reaction we had to the chili cheese beer. It was just like ugh.
Speaker 3:I feel like beer should not taste like food.
Speaker 1:No, it was Not like chips or burgers or chili, that one was extremely bad.
Speaker 2:With the aroma. I can't pick the aroma out of that one Grapefruity.
Speaker 1:I will give them this. I don't think it tastes like 12%.
Speaker 2:No, it doesn't I mean that part it's a little sweeter. There's a little bit of sweetness to it, I think it tastes like oranges actually.
Speaker 1:More orangey Kind of. I wonder if they do that to knock the alcohol percentage down a little bit. I don't know.
Speaker 2:No, I mean maybe the alcohol flavor, maybe it tastes a little bit too alcoholish.
Speaker 3:You know like savory like it's a quadruple.
Speaker 1:I agree with you. I agree with you 100%.
Speaker 2:I'm not a huge fan of it. I mean, I don't know, would I drink a can? I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's a 16-ounce can. 12%, that's a lot of beer. Yeah, I mean honestly.
Speaker 2:It's ounce can 12. That's a lot of beer. Yeah, I mean, honestly, it's not bad though. No, I mean it's not bad, but it's like it's got a little touch of sweetness which, yeah, we, I don't think we've had of ipa. That's been sweet. No, have we. I mean it's not, not.
Speaker 3:There's the one that was. No, I mean not just today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one the not, not, not just today's oh yeah, overall right. I'm like there's some, like you mentioned before, they're doing something to the beer because it is at 12%, right?
Speaker 3:So I don't know why. I don't know. Maybe they're like going hey, you guys, we need to make this a little sweeter, because it's so dang dry that.
Speaker 1:It could be, who knows?
Speaker 3:You know, God love people that love that stuff. I don't get it, but I'd love people that love that stuff.
Speaker 1:I don't get it. But Listen, I don't have a dryness on the finish, though. No, even so, I don't know. Now, this is the only quadruple I've had, is it Okay, you know so I have not had many of them, I haven't seen many of them, you know Right, so it'd be interesting to try and find another one that is just like wow, you know.
Speaker 3:So I don't know. All right, who's gonna go first on this one? Um, I can go first, let's see, I'm gonna go. Can we not use the same score we've had?
Speaker 1:before, correct? Oh, I'm gonna go with 2.8. I do like it, but again, like I said, I don't if I'd drink a whole pint can of it myself, but it's okay For a quadruple. I was expecting a lot more hop. Right, I was expecting to where Jim was going to fall off of his chair, kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Or make that funny face he makes. Forget all about the questions and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1:But I mean, so what was?
Speaker 2:weird is I took like a big swig of it and it really the bitterness really came through. It came through a lot more than just a sip Interesting.
Speaker 1:Well, do you remember now I know this is going back a few podcasts, jim but remember the one beer when we tasted it, you sipped it. It had that one because it was, was it a barrel age? It was a wine one, wasn't it? Yes, because remember, it had that flavor of something. Then when you chugged it like drank a bunch of it. Then you got the whole other barrel Right. It was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced. Yeah, I can see where you could get more bitterness on this one.
Speaker 2:Julie, what are you?
Speaker 3:thinking I will go a 2.5.
Speaker 2:Not a huge fan.
Speaker 3:You're not a big fan of this one. You know it's not horrible, but compared to the other ones, I'm not.
Speaker 1:I'm impressed, though, julie, because your lowest one is what? 2.5? Yeah, yeah, and I was thinking, oh boy, yeah, I'm going to be the only one in the twos on any of these, and you both of you so far. We'll see what Jim does, but it's been very, very pleasant for me to see these scores.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to go with 2.6. I'm not sold on it. It's got a little. There's something I can't pick it out. It's just a little bit off.
Speaker 1:Yep. So I don't know it does have kind of a weirdness to it.
Speaker 3:Yes, like the aftertaste is funky.
Speaker 1:The more I've been sitting here. It does have a weird Like the linger.
Speaker 2:Yes, Do it a little bit. Yes, it stays in your throat for a little bit longer than what's normal.
Speaker 1:So any breweries out there, if you have quadruples, we'd like to try them. Or until we can get the first quintuple.
Speaker 3:That kind of frightens me. I'm pleasantly surprised, though I was expecting a lot worse than what we had today. I agree Because I'm not a huge IPA fan, but these were actually not bad.
Speaker 2:So I'll ask the last question that I was thinking maybe we should wrap up our summary of these. And then we got some special beers at the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we do have a couple of them that are totally not IPAs that we're going to try because they just sound good, right.
Speaker 2:So my question is yeah, because we can.
Speaker 1:We can do stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when Did the term IPA or India Pale Ale start?
Speaker 1:It's an easy question. It's easy when you got the answer in front of you.
Speaker 2:Because, remember we talked about when Britain lost the Russian markets, right? So what year did that happen?
Speaker 3:Oh, criminy.
Speaker 2:Well, you're the history major, I know, I know what the answer is it's easy, well you got it on the paper right in front of you, Okay wait, here's the bonus part to the question. You see Now he's trying to backtrack a little bit, and the bonus part of the question is which country actually started using the word IPA?
Speaker 1:That makes it way easier.
Speaker 2:Right so the year and the country.
Speaker 1:Why did they lose the Russian?
Speaker 3:market, I'm going to say 1862 and India.
Speaker 1:Okay, Well, let's see, I'm going to say 1904, and I'm going to say that Germany used.
Speaker 2:It All right so here we go.
Speaker 2:You guys are really both close. Yeah, we're both way off, we're way off. The name IPA was not coined in England, nor India, nice, so I'm not there. Coined in England, nor India, nice, so I'm not there. The first record of the name actually comes to us from an 1829 newspaper ad in Australia, really Hawking the wares of a merchant, ab Stark. It included on one of the offers which I saw the piece of paper because I actually had a picture of it. It included an offer various liquors and textiles are tailors in East India Pale Ale. It was actually listed as one of the things that was for sale.
Speaker 1:That's weird Interesting In Australia, huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Julie got that one right.
Speaker 3:Well, because I was in the 1800s, yeah, but she said India.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't worry about that, it's no secret. So, plus the Wow and Mike, he didn't use England nor India.
Speaker 3:so we're going to give you a point for that Nice.
Speaker 2:So it looks like Julie may have won. She may have come out on top. She might have slightly come out in front of me.
Speaker 1:Yes, good job, julie, all right, so now what that means is you have to finish all the IPA beers that are left.
Speaker 2:So I happen to be at one of our local liquor stores. There we go, I'm. So I happen to be at one of our local liquor stores. I was trying to come up to the beer stores and I just always happen to walk through just to check and these two caught my eye because we had had beers from these breweries before and they were really good. Their flavor was really like we always say, if it says it on the can.
Speaker 1:It's on the can. It should be in the can. It should be in the can.
Speaker 2:And these are some of the very fruity ones that we've had before, which were really good. So I don't know if you want to talk about these two in general, but I mean, I thought they were really good, but I thought oh yeah, julie's thinking we should probably have new glasses for these.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, because I feel like wrap up the IPAs first yes, yes, there we go.
Speaker 1:Yep, I'm sorry, Nope, not a problem. So overall, I mean, I was pleasantly surprised, Really, with all we didn't have an IPA. I thought that was terrible.
Speaker 3:I agree, a pale ale. We'll say that that was like oh my god, I can't drink this. It was super hoppy, right, we did not have one of those.
Speaker 1:Honestly, the ones that stood out out to me. Honestly, anybody could drink any of these, yeah, I think, because they're they're very good examples and I'd love to try another quadruple or some other stuff from tax brewing for sure, just to see, absolutely. But the ones that really that were pleasantly surprising to me.
Speaker 1:One number one that was surprising to me was that tax brewing one right honestly you know that one really stood out and then fear, of course furious, but I've had that before and that they I know they do a good job. And another one that kind of surprised me was the conky dong. I hate to say it. It was kind of surprising. The aroma was a little weird, but it it was good, and so was the, the out of the pocket or such that one for a quadruple was good not to cut you out, let me ask this question what is weird, and I don't know if it it doesn.
Speaker 2:It doesn't kind of correspond to me, but do the ABVs correspond to the way the flavors tasted for you? I don't know, because you know the higher ABV ones were a little bit edgy for their flavor and the lower ABV ones were not. You know, the flavor was a lot easier. Yeah, so I don't know. What do you think on that?
Speaker 1:But really none of them to me tasted as high, especially the last ones. They didn't taste high ABV to me.
Speaker 2:Right. So do you wonder how does that factor into what you're?
Speaker 1:That's a good question, jim. That's a very good question, because I don't know how do you answer that, because we do like higher ABVs, but still it was just I don't know they were all good examples.
Speaker 2:I know the listeners are probably thinking that too. Well, it's 12%. So is that going to scare me off? Because it's 12%, gotcha, gotcha yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's one of the things my brother and I had talked about as well was you and I, my brother BK, we're all really used to drinking these high-octane beers. So when we taste a 12%, now used to drinking these high octane beers. So when we taste a 12 now julie, you'd be a good, a good person to answer this, because when jim and I taste a high act like this this was 12 to me it didn't taste alcohol-y right, really at all.
Speaker 3:I felt like that did not taste like 12. Just trying a few of like your bourbon barrels right, because sometimes they're like whoa or you know if it's like rum barrel or bourbon barrel or whatever you know you can really taste the alcohol in those where I felt like this you couldn't taste the alcohol.
Speaker 2:So that ends to try to, you know, give the listeners a little bit of a different take on, because I mean, all these, I think flavor wise, to me they are all within a band within a band of each other, absolutely and the only thing that really stood out was ABV. So we started low and worked our way high, but you really, in my opinion, didn't taste a difference in ABV as you went up. I mean, I don't know if I'm way off. No, I agree 100% with you.
Speaker 3:I agree with you. I mean, as we moved along, I was like, oh Lord, oh God, this is going to be so bad. But it wasn't. It was like all of them were. I mean, if I was at a party and all they had was this, I could drink it.
Speaker 1:Well see, and this is another thing that we've talked about before because IPAs are very polarizing, Hops are very polarizing. You remember when we had the beer tasting at your house here on Oktoberfest that time, yep, there were people that they wouldn't taste the beer because they thought it was hot. They just dumped it and it was terrible, you know.
Speaker 3:I think the smell turns people off.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:You know and I was one of those people as well Like I'd smell it and I'd be like, oh, no, nope. But now I think, as a few of these showed, they taste a lot better than what they smell. You know, you might think like, oh, it's going to taste like grapefruit.
Speaker 1:Well, no, it doesn't Right Exactly, and it's none of these. Like I said, I was expecting them to be.
Speaker 2:The higher we went, the hoppier it was going to be Right and it wasn't really that way. You know.
Speaker 1:So yes, the ABV went didn't affect the taste whatsoever between the 5% one and the 12% you could put blind taste at. I don't know if I could guess which one was higher right, you know honestly, yep I agree, yep I mean. But I mean I just wanted to make sure, in case the listeners had a question about yep, how they did Perfect, because that's a good thing, because we're always trying to figure out how to tell new people what they should try and, honestly, these, they could try any of them, I think.
Speaker 3:So I was just kind of, while you were talking, looking at tax brewing out there because I was like that would be a cool place. So I'm not sure if you're ready, connecticut, for some Wisconsin folks to come, but I feel like a trip would be in order. They have quite a few beers, would be in order. Um, they have quite a few beers. They do have quite a few um ipas, like an imperial ipa, an american ipa, fruited sours, bitter session. Okay, say sawn, say sawn um sour fruited berliner wise berliner wise box single um wheat beer.
Speaker 3:They have a porter imperial, a milk stout and something called table beer. So let me ask you this honey, cream ale love cream ales.
Speaker 2:So, of today's beers, of these six that we had today, what was your top one or two?
Speaker 3:and well, the tax one for sure, and I don't know if my score reflects that, but the furious ipa.
Speaker 2:And then is this the, the tox yeah, those would be my two top ones and for somebody that doesn't like ipas. Why would you think those are your best ones?
Speaker 3:they were just smooth. They didn't have that bitter, that bitter grapefruit flavor, like you're chewing on a grapefruit rind. Some of them taste like that and I just it's like, oh, you know, um, I was surprised that I actually did not mind any of them.
Speaker 2:You know there wasn't not one of them that I was like, oh, like I usually am, but they were actually really good so for the, the craft beer drinker that's never tried an ipa, that thinks they hear the word ipa and don't like them, what should you tell them?
Speaker 3:or what should we? Don't let the smell fool you, because sometimes I feel like sometimes they all smell the same, like they have that hoppy grapefruity smell, but when you drink them it's different. So don't let the smell turn you off of it, and don't let the IBUs turn you off either.
Speaker 1:Because that's part of the IBUs, is the aroma Right, either because because that's part of, you know, part of the ibus, is the aroma right. So sometimes it's more. If it's dry hop, it's more of an aroma thing than a flavor thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, yep, so and I'll just quickly add by saying I think I'm kind of echoing what julie said the aerothon, I like that one. That was really good. That was my number one and my number two was the furious. I think we're, yeah, we're all pretty close to the same. Yeah, the other ones, the ones that got higher in ABV, were not overly bad. I mean, you can look at our scores. Everybody was pretty much above a 2.5.
Speaker 1:So I mean pretty much we liked all the beers. If we'd have done this podcast a year ago, jim would have been like laying on the floor holding his stomach.
Speaker 3:Oh, I might have been too. We're trying to expand our horizon.
Speaker 1:Yes your palates are expanding, so I mean so that was so it was, I think, a very good testing.
Speaker 2:I mean very good. Thanks, mike, for bringing those in. Not a problem, so this is just a little bit different. On the end, yep, this, I'll let you say what they are.
Speaker 1:Because I mean, it was think, so you know now, the last, the quadruple was 12%, so we're looking at this one, stepping it down. I was going to say we were going to go higher, but I don't necessarily know if what is it? 2.8%?
Speaker 2:Is that what they are? What is that one, that one's?
Speaker 1:Well, this is by Schofferhofer. Schofferhofer Hefeweizen beer, it says Watermelon mint, perfectly crafted, unique in taste.
Speaker 2:Now what does it say on here? It might say I got. Let's see what this one says now.
Speaker 1:I found it 2.5% ABV by volume.
Speaker 2:Ooh, that one's, that one's like way higher than this one.
Speaker 1:Well, then what's this Because?
Speaker 2:there's another. I think it says 4.2, doesn't it? It's not more than 3.2.
Speaker 1:Oh, by weight, I don't know. All I know is it's watermelon mint.
Speaker 3:Watermelon mint.
Speaker 2:Watermelon mint by Schofferhofer. What?
Speaker 3:does it say German quality, german quality there you go.
Speaker 2:But who's ever had watermelon and mint together? We've had them separate.
Speaker 3:We've had them separate for sure, if you had like a watermelon mojito, you might have had it.
Speaker 1:Oh, she did pull the watermelon mojito card. But I have not had it. Julie gets 100 points, jim gets a minus 10 million.
Speaker 3:I think they had watermelon mojitos at the Cotterpin.
Speaker 2:So this looks watermelon-ish.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh it. So this looks watermelon-ish.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's red.
Speaker 2:It looks pinkish, it's kind of red Looks like a little pink champagne kind of.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's got a head.
Speaker 1:Watermelon has always been that Most of the beers we've had. You can't really taste it because it's such a delicate flavor, right, they never get enough watermelon in it to taste it.
Speaker 3:So they got something with it, not like oh, what was that? Is that mint? What was that?
Speaker 1:horrible aroma, horrible beer that you had that was made out of, not pumpkin squash, oh squash, squish beer squash.
Speaker 3:The one I had heather, yeah, I was just gonna say, or heather yeah, heather was a naughty girl or something so boy that is a strong mint aroma yeah, it is, and you can taste the watermelon and the mint in this Wow.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 3:Wow. I mean like you said, if they say it on the can you should be able to taste it you could drink this in the pontoon boat all day long.
Speaker 2:That's not bad, is it?
Speaker 1:Can we order?
Speaker 2:this by the pallet it comes in a four-pack only?
Speaker 1:Oh, of course it does.
Speaker 3:This is really good. I was like on a hot summer day when you're like you know it's 90 degrees and you just got done mowing the lawn or you're driving around your pontoon boat, that is is that good or what boy, I you get, like like julie said, you get the watermelon and then you get that sweet mint, but they're not, they're not competing, they're not on the top, they're like perfectly balanced.
Speaker 2:That's crazy.
Speaker 1:That is crazy. That is very interesting, very good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean, the hard part is Great summer drink Low. Abv. So how do you like score? With a low score, but a good flavor.
Speaker 3:Low ABV. I would mix it in a blender with some ice. That's what I'd do with it. Yeah, make almost like a blended drink.
Speaker 2:Well, you can drink a four-pack of this all day long. Yeah, that's not bad.
Speaker 1:I don't get you know, like a lot of those, you get like a heart-burning kind of.
Speaker 2:I don't get that at all. I mean, how many beers have you ever had where you can actually taste a watermelon? Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:It's surprising because most of them you can't even pick up the watermelon flavor.
Speaker 2:This is really good. That is wild. Wow, I'm kind of glad we added it. I mean it kind of puts a big bow on it, it doesn't tie into the IPAs.
Speaker 1:but this is crazy Because there's no way we'd have found four or five more of these.
Speaker 2:No, and I just happened to be walking through the liquor store and happened to see this. I'm like. Well, the other beers that they brewed were really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's wild. I like that, that's good. Well, what do you want for a score, boy?
Speaker 3:What's the highest? We can give Five. We can give a five. If you give a five, I'm going to run you out of here.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not going to give a five. No, this is good. I mean the fact that you could drink several of them. You get the watermelon, you get the mint.
Speaker 2:It doesn't leave a bad finish For a R.
Speaker 1:I'm doing the 3.5.
Speaker 3:Honestly, I'm sure that's probably the highest.
Speaker 1:I've ever done a Radler. This is good. I'm going to go 3.7. Technically it says it's a Hefeweizen beer, but it doesn't taste like Hefeweizen at all.
Speaker 3:It reminds me of a Radler On the can. It said Schaffer Hoffer Watermelon Mint is a refreshing blend of 50% sparkling unfiltered Hefeweizen beer and 50% watermelon drink with natural mint flavor.
Speaker 1:Okay, so they mix it with the Hefeweizen. I don't get that Hefeweizen, the grain or the wheat flavor at all. No, all I taste is the amazing watermelon in the mint and like you said Jim, they don't compete at all.
Speaker 2:I'm going to stick with you. Mike. I'm going to go with 3.5.
Speaker 1:That was really good beer. Yeah, that hot day sitting in the garage, pull a nice cold one of them out.
Speaker 3:I'm going to just pull this aside for myself later.
Speaker 1:Well, Jim, we're not getting anywhere with that one.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:So what is the next one? I found Well, the next one, and it's Bitburger Bitburger, and this is a Rattler.
Speaker 2:All right, so we know that one's a Rattler. I don't know if this one was a Rattler because it didn't say if it had soda or anything mixed with it, Right?
Speaker 1:And now this brewery has been family-owned since what year? Jim the 1700s? Nope, that's minus 12,000. Uh-oh.
Speaker 3:You're in the mice, in the lead now 1817.
Speaker 2:1817?.
Speaker 1:Yeah, before you were born. And the micro print? Well, this is a malt beverage. It says. All right, but it's still it's malt beverage, because it's beer mixed with a juice or something like that. All right, now does it say, yep, it had to. I know you showed me a pointed to something.
Speaker 3:Now is that going to be the same as this? Now is that going to be the same as this? Because this one says I think this is the one that says the ingredients may form a sediment on the bottom of the can.
Speaker 1:So that's where you've got to kind of roll it around, yeah, okay, because whoever gets the last of it gets the chunks, yeah.
Speaker 2:So everybody gets the chunks.
Speaker 3:So it had a little bit of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it had a little bit here. Okay, and it says malt beverage natural flavors. Let's see Mixed beer drink made of. What is that? Why do you give me the ones? Julie, you got better at glasses because you give me those micro print ones.
Speaker 3:Mixed beer drink made of 60% naturally cloudy lemonade and 40% beer. And it said Bitburger premium pills Alcohol 1.9% by volume.
Speaker 1:So we're really hitting the high notes on this.
Speaker 3:And then it says Bitburger, something in German. Bitburger, germany, product of Germany.
Speaker 1:So this one is a lemonade. A lemonade, yep, okay, all right. So let's crack this bad boy open. It's going to have to really shine to compete with that watermelon mint. I should have poured you a little less, because it's pretty high ABV, alright.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot of head.
Speaker 1:Considering it's 1. What did you say? 1.9 or 1.7? You could drink a 12 pack of this. Oh, that smells like lemonade.
Speaker 2:It's not like the Shanty, though, is it? No, no, not Shanty.
Speaker 3:No Shanty to me smells like you sprayed lemon pledge in your mouth. Wow, this is like you could drink this all day long. Wow, that's pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:Is that what I'm saying? Easy, is that one, all right. The only bad part about these are you probably pay a little bit more right for less.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean but the flavors really come through, oh yeah, but they're both like big cans yeah, they're pint cans, but this is something I feel like you could drink all day and still be fine.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean yeah, this is not bad at all, is it?
Speaker 1:it. No, I would say, if you've never tried a Radler or I'm still, I know it's a Hefeweizen, but to me it's a Radler If you've never tried one, go out and find it, because you're going to be surprised. I mean honestly, they're very good and you can drink a boatload of them.
Speaker 2:I mean this is really good flavor. I mean the flavor is really. I mean we always talk about the flavors coming through in your beer, why don't they all like these last two really come through.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I agree with you, though, because that is crazy Boy between the two. Which one would you like? I think I still am going to stick with the watermelon mint a little bit more than this one, but if you said I'm out of that one, would you take this? I'd be. Oh yeah, I'll take this one. You know, I think for me this one's a 3.4. It's just one step down, is all, and because I really like that mint flavor on that first one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that one really just the separation of the watermelon and the mint flavor really kind of blew me away. This is a very good one too, though as well.
Speaker 3:I like it so.
Speaker 2:Julie, what are you?
Speaker 3:thinking I will go like a 3.6. You like the watermelon better too. I do. I just think the flavors are, and normally I'm not a huge mint liker in drinks, but actually I do like it Very good. This lemonade one, though, that's good too. It is great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was going to say I'm not poo-pooing it at all. No, it's still very good. But between the two I do like that watermelon-mint combination.
Speaker 3:It's really worth it Lawn mowing beer. There you go.
Speaker 2:I think I'm going to go 3.62. This was my favorite of the day, actually. Wow, there you go. See, I put the bowl right on top.
Speaker 1:It is good. Yeah, they're really good. I'm impressed, I'm really impressed. So, yeah, there we go, ladies and gentlemen. So, like I said, we started off trying a bunch of IPAs, kind of ranging in style Yep, you know, and proved to a non-IPA drinker that they're not that bad. Right, they are not that bad. I will say there's other ones out there that aren't that good, mm-hmm, and, like I said, the only one I had ever had before was that Furious. So I didn't know, right, you know, and they were pleasantly surprising.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:The Radler and the other one crazy good. Flavor-wise unbelievable. You could drink a bunch of them.
Speaker 2:Yes, it was awesome, that was a good way to top it off?
Speaker 1:Yes, so cool. Well, Julie, thank you so much for sitting in with us on this.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Jim, I was totally expecting more of a kind of thing and it just didn't happen. I am proud, though, because you're just becoming a real craft beer guy. You come up with better questions than I. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's it Awesome.
Speaker 1:Good to have you back. I'm glad that you got your planning done and all that kind of stuff and hopefully we'll be doing a bunch more of these in the weeks to come. Yep and ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening. Go out, grab. If you've never had a quadruple, go find one.
Speaker 1:If you haven't had a triple whatever, just try it, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, always try it. If you have a local brewery that makes them try those, because then you know, if it's local the money stays local. Yes, and that's a big thing in this day and age, awesome. Well, hey, ladies and gentlemen, like we always say, we hope your campfire is always warm and your beers are always cold.
Speaker 2:See ya, bye, bye, goodbye, goodbye.
Speaker 1: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.
