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
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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 2Look at all the crowd back there.
Speaker 3I know.
Speaker 1It'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 2We have everything in and it's actually knock on wood, starting to actually sprout.
Speaker 1Nice, so things are on the up and up, they're progressing well.
Speaker 2Yes, 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 1So 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 3There may have been a little bit of cussing, but Well, that happens.
Speaker 1So 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 3right, so I'll apologize right now.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 3I'll give it a whirl though.
Speaker 1Now, she did ask one question before when we asked.
Speaker 2She said this isn't barrel-aged, is it no?
Speaker 1it is not barrel-aged.
Speaker 2We could have changed it up. We could have.
Speaker 1I 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 2No, 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 1So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. We had talked about this for a while.
Speaker 2Yeah, we did that.
Speaker 1we 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 3Well, not all.
Starting with Snail Pale Ale
Speaker 1IPAs, pale ale and so forth. So you've been snapping your paper there.
Speaker 2Oh, and I did find some questions for you too.
Speaker 1Oh, 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 2So these should be some easy questions for you, okay good Slow pitch softball game.
Speaker 1There 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 2Well, I thought you knew the answer. That's why I did.
Speaker 1If 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 2Should we have our guest read what I found on it? Will you pour some?
Speaker 1You can if she's willing to, Otherwise we can do it. So what's the EBV?
Speaker 2in this one 5% 5%. Okay, that's not bad.
Speaker 3I 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 1Okay, 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 2Well, you know what's weird too? In all the research I did, none of them put their IBUs.
Speaker 1Really.
Speaker 2So I don't have any IBU info on it.
Speaker 3Let's look in the can. Maybe it'll be on there.
Speaker 1Well, 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 1So 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 3I 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 1Cookies 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 3I 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 2And it's kind of hazy, you can't see through it that's not too bad taste wise.
Speaker 1I mean that's, it's not like a really strong grapefruit flavor what the smell?
Speaker 3I was like oh boy, but it actually does not taste bad. No, I don't mind it what?
Speaker 2what is the flavor? Snails I. Is there a flavor that's supposed to be coming through?
Speaker 1Well, 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 2And 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 1No, 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 2What I'm afraid of is this might be our number one of the whole class.
Speaker 1Right now it could be. It's number one for sure. Right now it is number one.
Speaker 3yes, I, I hate it.
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 2Right, 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 1The 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 2Because I looked on the Sea Salt Eatery website and all they have is their menu.
Speaker 1Yeah, I wish they'd have said what it was.
Speaker 3Well, 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 1It's got a snail on it though.
Speaker 3Yeah, there is a snail, so that's the only reason why I guess that's a good question.
Speaker 1What did they provide?
Speaker 2I don't know, we don't get a flavor. I mean, I don't know what the flavor they were going for.
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 2I think yours is lower than that. I'm actually. I get mine like honest, truthful answers. I don't over-inflate mine.
Speaker 1That'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 2So then, why is your score higher than oh?
Speaker 1I've tried way more. Oh, all right, we'll let you believe that.
Speaker 3I'm going to go with a 2.7. Okay, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1Mike, 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 2So 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 1Yep, not not I agree with you. Like I said, it was kind of surprising, right? You know I was impressed, so yeah, oh.
Speaker 2So, since we finished that, I said, bring up our first question oh sure, why not?
Speaker 1might as well get the first one wrong so since we're drinking IPAs. Well, pale ales and such Yep.
Speaker 2When is National IPA Day?
Speaker 1So 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 2Yeah, but you always get the day after this one off. So, yeah, easy one after this one.
Speaker 3So easy one, Easy one, I'm going to say July 3rd no.
Speaker 1Hang on, mike's going first. Oh, I'll just throw out there the day after Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2Day after Thanksgiving, which would be November, depending on the fourth Friday.
Speaker 1Yeah, depending on what day? Okay, because you know Thanksgiving falls on different dates. Right, so was I correct.
Speaker 2Almost All right. And, julie, now, what is your answer now?
Speaker 3Well, 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 1Julie, don't lie for them, okay.
Speaker 3I actually said July 3rd.
Speaker 1The people know what goes on in this studio here.
Speaker 2So what is your July 3rd no? What is the answer that you're supposed to say?
Speaker 3August 7th 2025.
Speaker 1August 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 2Beer Day. Yeah, I thought you already had that on the website.
Speaker 1No, I should.
Speaker 2Then we could like do a little celebration.
Speaker 1A little thing on your.
Speaker 2Instagram.
Speaker 1Always 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 2Well, no, that's all right. That was not hard, was it see I?
Moving to Slow Melt American Pale Ale
Speaker 1was 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 2Well, I'll save the other ones. Let's try them over here and see what we got. All right.
Speaker 3I was looking at it from a standpoint of the only time I would drink them is if it was like super hot.
Speaker 1Which 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 2Maybe julie give us the first couple, just paragraphs on that all right.
Speaker 3Um, 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 1That'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 3Okay, and one of them was the same.
Speaker 1You 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 1Right, 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 3So 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 1There 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 2Well, it's definitely ultra clean. There you go, see, and bright.
Speaker 3Look at how bright the color is. I feel like the can is darker than the beer. Is it kind of is?
Speaker 1And 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 3you know, I feel like it looks very hippie.
Speaker 1That's the one thing with a lot of these places. Boy, they got some interesting artwork Right.
Speaker 3Some of them are amazing. What is that?
Speaker 1That aroma is weird. It is a little. It's almost got a.
Speaker 3I don't know if you said that Half Acre Beer Company is out of Chicago.
Speaker 1No, 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 2Sand Creek, because they bottle a lot of different beers, correct?
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 2Right, that brewery has been there. They've changed hands.
Speaker 1Yeah, and changed names, but it's never been half acre.
Speaker 2Right, no, correct. Okay, let's get back to this aroma. So what is this aroma?
Speaker 1That's a different aroma. It smells like armpit perspiration.
Speaker 3No, I feel like it does have a fruity Knock it off, doesn't?
Speaker 1it. It has a different. At first I was going to say it is fruity. It almost has. Yes, it has like a.
Speaker 3Pineappley or something. There you go.
Speaker 1It smells like pineapple, like canned pineapple.
Speaker 2It's not perspiration.
Speaker 1Well, 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 2So what is the style of this? Did you call it? This is an American Pale Ale. This is an American Pale Ale.
Speaker 1Yes, 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 2I mean, the flavor is just not. I'm not clicking on the flavor.
Speaker 3I don't mind it.
Speaker 1I don't mind it.
Speaker 3Like you said, I could drink one, but would I drink two? Probably not.
Speaker 1Well, 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 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I 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 3It's probably good it's not. I don't think it's horrible.
Speaker 1Yeah it's okay, jim, why don't you go first on this one Boy?
Speaker 2it'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 1I 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 2I don't know. I just can't. I don't know. There's something that's off on this. I don't know.
Speaker 1Right. Personally, I'm going to go with 2.5.
Speaker 3I think average it's. I don't mind it, and once when I think of it as pineapple aroma.
Speaker 1It'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 3I 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 2I 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 1But it looks like here.
Speaker 2They started small and just slowly worked their way up to get bigger.
Speaker 1Oh, okay.
Speaker 2Not, 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 1the next one. I want to save one.
Speaker 2I 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 1Oh geez, and Mike got a minus 1,000.
Speaker 2Oh Mike.
Speaker 1See, 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 2I almost messed that up, jim, oh so you better get kicked in the knee, so it doesn't.
Speaker 1She could not answer. She's gonna win right perfect that'll work great.
Stepping Up to Surly Furious IPA
Speaker 1Okay, 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 2All right, so what do we got there, Julie?
Speaker 3Okay, 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 1Now, julie, if you remember, we were in the cities.
Speaker 3Yep, we did go to. Surly Jim was not able to be there, but we went to Surly. Yes, very awesome place.
Speaker 1It 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 3They have a beautiful outdoor area. It's just gorgeous.
Speaker 1They 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 3Because it was in the winter.
Speaker 1It 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 3Yeah, like tables and bench seats, like big farmhouse lawn tables, yeah, kind of like that, and it was.
Speaker 1I mean, you can get food there. They had an upstairs and a downstairs, kind of like Toppling Goliath.
Speaker 3Okay, maybe even bigger, oh wow.
Speaker 1And 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 3Sacred.
Speaker 1Heart 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 2Yep, it was cool, all right, all right. Well, the can is very ominous.
Speaker 1Oh yes, it's got flames coming off of the Looks like it's in hell. Well, you may be, you may not be.
Speaker 3We'll find out here shortly, hopefully it doesn't taste like that Going to have a little water to cleanse the palate there.
Speaker 2It did say it was a red amber. Yeah.
Speaker 1So 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 2There's all sorts of different things. I don't get much aroma.
Speaker 1Yeah, the aroma is actually not Even the head is a little bit yellow though, too A little bit.
Speaker 3Yeah, and you can smell a little bit of hop, but not much Did. We, the ABVs are 6.7.
Speaker 1Flavor-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 3I 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 1Actually I almost like that one better, Almost like which one better this the Furious.
Speaker 3Yes, even though I know it's. I know more hoppy.
Speaker 1I wonder if that caramel does something more to If it knocks down the hop maybe a little, I don't know.
Speaker 2Because, like it doesn't taste sweet but it's Kind of got a like a creamy type flavor to it.
Speaker 3Yeah, you know, it's not that bitter, really super bitter.
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 2Right, 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 1Maybe you know they could do something to it. But yeah, this is. I like this.
Speaker 3Yeah, 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 2Right. Well then, what do you think it makes sense?
Speaker 1I 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 3I 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 1It's kind of surprising, because I figured the first two were going to be way smoother.
Speaker 3And we'd be like, oh yeah no problem.
Speaker 1But 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 2Well, 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 3I don't know what's going on. Stop the presses.
Speaker 1I must be drunk, because I could have swore he said a 2.9 on an IPA.
Speaker 3He did. I was a witness.
Speaker 1I almost Good thing I'm sitting down.
Speaker 2And now he's eating a cracker and looking like it was the worst thing he ever had. Do you need a no?
Speaker 1I do have a question, though, okay.
Speaker 2We're talking about IPAs. Yep, and which brewery? It wasn't one of these produced the first IPA to be exported to India.
Speaker 1Oh geez, that's way back when.
Speaker 3Is it a brewery in the United States?
Speaker 2I can answer that no.
Speaker 3Well then, how would we know? Because it's such a famous one.
Speaker 1It's still around Heineken.
Speaker 2No that's a dark beer. That's from Germany, oh well that's a dark beer.
Speaker 3That's from Germany. Oh Well, it's not the United States, if you've listened to our podcast.
Speaker 1I've told a story about the lady that said Heineken was a dark beer.
Speaker 3Oh 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 1And I know I've known it and I'm totally I know that's what you.
Speaker 2We talked about it before, so I thought you had it Dos Equis. She's hammered drunk already.
Speaker 1This one basically, is it out of Britain or I can't remember it's out of Britain, I don't remember that.
Speaker 3Mike, your head's going to crack open. It's going to. You're thinking so hard.
Speaker 1I don't remember. I'm not even going to throw out an answer. I don't know, dude, I can't remember.
Speaker 2So, 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 1Okay, 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 2but the brewery was two miles from the East India Docks, which made it convenient for traders.
Speaker 1Yep 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 2Nice.
Speaker 3Well, I'm kind of was caught off, like the. I didn't realize that India would be a. Are they consumers of IPA?
Speaker 1There's not a question coming up on that, yeah we'll say that, but there's a reason that they did it.
Speaker 3But 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 1Right, that's way back when so they're going there all the time, gotcha.
Speaker 3You learn something new every day, Exactly All right.
Speaker 2so what do we got?
Tax Brewing's Double Dry Hopped IPA
Speaker 1All 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 2Aerothron.
Speaker 1And 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 2So this will be interesting. So it says there's not much. We brewed the special scaled up Fugu variant.
Speaker 1Okay, 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 3Oh yeah, like on John Wick.
Speaker 1Remember 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 3Oh yeah, you know that stuff.
Speaker 1But yeah, it's like a number of people each year get sick from it because it's not prepared correctly.
Speaker 3And 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 2Well, 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 1Oh, so they all got re-drunk Apparently.
Speaker 2Nice 12% beer project. It's a double IPA, dry hopped with Citra, Rewaka, Mosaic and El Dorado hops.
Speaker 1Okay, 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 3It 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 2Oh, you got that too.
Speaker 1Oh okay, this is kind of a little bit similar to that first one, in color the can says dangerously drinkable.
Speaker 3We shall see, let's see how dangerously drinkable it is.
Speaker 1That's not bad. I think that's pretty smooth. I was expecting a lot worse, yeah.
Speaker 3And that is honestly not bad.
Speaker 2What's that initial when it touches your tongue? I get almost like fruity. Yeah, is that what that is, I get?
Speaker 1almost like a. It's not grapefruit, but almost like an orange kind of flavor Maybe.
Speaker 2Yeah, but I mean, your tongue feels something before you get the taste.
Speaker 1Your 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 3See, 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 1I don't mind this at all.
Speaker 2I don't either. So do we want to talk about the brewery or the name of the fish?
Speaker 1Well, 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 2So 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 1So hopefully they do well. Yes, so he doesn't put something in there.
Speaker 2He might just do it in your can.
Speaker 1It 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 3The 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 1Is it Atlantis? It's probably supposed to be Atlantis.
Speaker 3But yeah, it is kind of interesting.
Speaker 1I never they got a dude here that looks like a Roman.
Speaker 3Oh, maybe it is, it's probably.
Speaker 2Atlantis? It's probably Atlantis. What's his name? Morpheus, no.
Speaker 1That was from Hedda's Trident Aquaman.
Speaker 3No, his dad, Aquaman's dad, right yeah, I'm really good at that game where you just shout out.
Speaker 1You just shout stuff out yeah, something's gonna hit the wall and stick. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 2So 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 1That's crazy.
Speaker 2Yeah, 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 1He's not very bright, he don't know what he's doing.
Speaker 2So what are you thinking on the score? I like this one. Uh-oh, you like it. I thought you liked the last one.
Speaker 1I do, but I'm going to go a 3.2 on this one.
Speaker 3I really like this I mean it surprised me?
Speaker 1Yes, 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 3And it's a big can yeah.
Speaker 1I could drink that, Julie. What are you thinking?
Speaker 3I'm going to go actually a 3.0. So far, I'm shocked to say this is my favorite one so far.
Speaker 2I mean, what is weird? I don't know if you guys are.
Speaker 1Hang 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 3My box of beer tasting is expanding.
Speaker 1Yes, it is expanding. We're doing our job, Jim. We're doing our job.
Speaker 2You 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 1It's like bright and sunny. They might not have a guy that can prepare fugu to put in the brew kettles though.
Speaker 2That'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 3That 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 2It'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 3On an IPA no no any beer.
Speaker 1Honestly, 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 2I mean kudos to the beer shop for getting something like that.
Speaker 3They'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 1Hopefully the beer shop will get some of their other stuff in. Yeah, that was really good. I was impressed.
Speaker 2I 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 1So we'll see how it keeps going, yeah.
Speaker 2I'm a little worried about this next one I'm like.
Speaker 3well, the name itself is kind of a little frightening in itself.
Speaker 1Well, did you have a question before, or do you want to?
Speaker 2save it for after the next one, or all right well, since you're so jumpy, let's get right into it.
Speaker 3Way to go, mike.
Speaker 1So I brought it on myself, I'm sorry, so we just talked about george hodgson's bo brewery right.
Speaker 2Yep, 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 1We're going to say a Hoppy Ale.
Speaker 2No, come on, remember, they're not doing it.
Speaker 1How about the stuff that we send to somebody else because we wouldn't drink it?
Speaker 3They're close, kind of long for out of hand Back then they didn't really have label limitations and stuff.
Speaker 2Alright, Julie, what is your guess?
Speaker 3October Ale oh, look at that she got it right Snap right out of the den here.
Speaker 1You 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 3I asked for forgiveness.
Speaker 2I was more talking to.
Speaker 1Jim, he had no answer.
Speaker 2Julie 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 1So 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 1IPA oh not triple Nope, triple Triple. And this one the name is kind of this is by Hoof Hearted Brewing From Ohio, from.
Speaker 2Ohio, 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.
Exploring Conky Dong Triple IPA
Speaker 1Yes, 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 2And I found one sentence on their website First look at the artwork. Do you see what Donkey Kong is?
Speaker 1writing. Is it the dolphin, a brown dolphin?
Speaker 2Okay, I'm not sure where those are located.
Speaker 3Well, 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 1Kong guy. Yeah, what's his real name? Kunky Dong guy Kong guy, yeah what's his real name?
Speaker 2Kunky Dong guy Dong guy. Mr.
Speaker 3Dong 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 2Kind 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 1And 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 2Right, 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 1Yeah, 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 3Well, it's very cloudy Boy, that's almost Hazy.
Speaker 2Like 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 1It doesn't have any aroma at all, very minimal.
Speaker 3Well, 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 1This is a triple, and I am just.
Speaker 3The one Honest to God. The first one we had, I feel like, was more IPA than this one, and this is 9.5.
Speaker 1ABV, 9.5 ABV. It does not taste like 9.5.
Speaker 2No, this is crazy. I like this. I mean, it's not bad, it's not coconut.
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 3It's like pineapple. I can't pin it down. It's not grapefruit.
Speaker 2It'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 1I 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 2I'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 1Yep, this one. See, I was expecting it. The ABV has been going up. I was expecting the amount of hop.
Speaker 3It was going to get stronger and stronger and stronger.
Speaker 1So these guys so far, like I said, are doing something.
Speaker 2I 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 1our, 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 2It's not, it could be.
Speaker 1I think you might be right, Jim.
Speaker 2I'm just taking a guess. I don't know when.
Speaker 1I talked to my brother on the podcast about it because I told him our struggles with it.
Speaker 3It's going to scare people away.
Speaker 1Our 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 3Oh, they don't.
Speaker 1And 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 2But 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 3Well, maybe like whatever, an Eldorado and a Mosaic hop is.
Speaker 1They're different strains of hops.
Speaker 3Maybe those are, you know, not so strong flavor, I do know like Mosaic Eldorado.
Speaker 1What was the first one? That was on there.
Speaker 2It must have been on the can. It was on the can.
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 3But yeah it was better than I thought it was going to be. I agree.
Speaker 1So, Jim, what are you going to give it you? Go first this one.
Speaker 2Well, 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 1Okay, julie, what do you think?
Speaker 3I 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 1Okay, 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 3Right To be honest with you Me too, because I thought okay with the name like that, it's probably going to be.
Speaker 1Ugh, 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 2And 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 1but do you want to guess, julie?
Speaker 2I have no idea.
Speaker 1Why don't you guess, and we'll see what. Oh, here we go.
Speaker 2Take a big wild guess.
Speaker 1They put more hops in it because when it's transported so it stayed good longer, or fresh, whatever you want to say.
Speaker 3It 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 1What no, because that's why they made it hoppy On the transport on the ship. It lasted longer.
Speaker 3You'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 1Oh, 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 3Smartphones are your friend.
Speaker 1No husbands that do the research are your friends.
Speaker 2So 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 3You got a plus one I give you credit, thank you.
Speaker 1At least I got something as a plus one.
Speaker 2Right, see, good that's good.
Speaker 1I'm proud. We're done. I'm good, I don't have to do any more.
Speaker 2You're going to drop the mic.
Speaker 1No, I'm not going to drop the mic. Okay, All right. So what do we?
Speaker 2got next. Well, so you know off, but all three of us have had a beer from this brewery?
Speaker 1Yes, 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 3What do we have there? It says brewed with our buds from. Is it Lua Lua, lua, brewing down in Des?
Speaker 1Moines 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 3Yeah, 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 1So 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 2Remember 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 1no, no, they were that very first one we went to in Des Moines.
Speaker 2That was the first one. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1It 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 2So I wonder. So we didn't go to Blackstack though, did we?
Speaker 1No, no, Because is Blackstack down there too? They must be. I would think right, Let me check on my phone here.
Speaker 3Is it Blackstack?
Speaker 1Brewing. 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 2Nope, st Paul, alright well, let's see what we got.
Speaker 1So this is their out-of-pocket quadruple IPA. And once again this is in a pint can, bigger, can, bigger can.
Speaker 3And 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 1Uncle Larry's going to like this too.
Speaker 2Why'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 1But my Uncle Larry doesn't work for Hormel.
Speaker 2Swift and Company Armour and Company for well-known brands like Spam.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, he didn't have anything to do with that.
Speaker 2I thought he used to work there. No, we talked about that. No, we had a beer. Or is he blowing my leg?
Speaker 1No, 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?
Tasting Blackstack's Quadruple IPA
Speaker 1were 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 3I feel like beer should not taste like food.
Speaker 1No, it was Not like chips or burgers or chili, that one was extremely bad.
Speaker 2With the aroma. I can't pick the aroma out of that one Grapefruity.
Speaker 1I will give them this. I don't think it tastes like 12%.
Speaker 2No, 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 1More orangey Kind of. I wonder if they do that to knock the alcohol percentage down a little bit. I don't know.
Speaker 2No, I mean maybe the alcohol flavor, maybe it tastes a little bit too alcoholish.
Speaker 3You know like savory like it's a quadruple.
Speaker 1I agree with you. I agree with you 100%.
Speaker 2I'm not a huge fan of it. I mean, I don't know, would I drink a can? I don't know.
Speaker 1It's a 16-ounce can. 12%, that's a lot of beer. Yeah, I mean honestly.
Speaker 2It'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 3There's the one that was. No, I mean not just today.
Speaker 2Yeah, 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 3So 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 1It could be, who knows?
Speaker 3You know, God love people that love that stuff. I don't get it, but I'd love people that love that stuff.
Speaker 1I 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 3So 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 1before, 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 3Or make that funny face he makes. Forget all about the questions and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1But I mean, so what was?
Speaker 2weird 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 1Well, 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 2Julie, what are you?
Speaker 3thinking I will go a 2.5.
Speaker 2Not a huge fan.
Speaker 3You're not a big fan of this one. You know it's not horrible, but compared to the other ones, I'm not.
Speaker 1I'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 2Yeah, 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 1Yep. So I don't know it does have kind of a weirdness to it.
Speaker 3Yes, like the aftertaste is funky.
Speaker 1The more I've been sitting here. It does have a weird Like the linger.
Speaker 2Yes, Do it a little bit. Yes, it stays in your throat for a little bit longer than what's normal.
Speaker 1So any breweries out there, if you have quadruples, we'd like to try them. Or until we can get the first quintuple.
Speaker 3That 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 2So 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 1Yeah, 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 2So my question is yeah, because we can.
Speaker 1We can do stuff like that.
Speaker 2Yeah, when Did the term IPA or India Pale Ale start?
Speaker 1It's an easy question. It's easy when you got the answer in front of you.
Speaker 2Because, remember we talked about when Britain lost the Russian markets, right? So what year did that happen?
Speaker 3Oh, criminy.
Speaker 2Well, 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 1That makes it way easier.
Speaker 2Right so the year and the country.
Speaker 1Why did they lose the Russian?
Speaker 3market, I'm going to say 1862 and India.
Speaker 1Okay, Well, let's see, I'm going to say 1904, and I'm going to say that Germany used.
Speaker 2It All right so here we go.
Speaker 2You 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 1That's weird Interesting In Australia, huh.
Speaker 2Yeah, so Julie got that one right.
Speaker 3Well, because I was in the 1800s, yeah, but she said India.
Speaker 2Yeah, we don't worry about that, it's no secret. So, plus the Wow and Mike, he didn't use England nor India.
Speaker 3so we're going to give you a point for that Nice.
Speaker 2So 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 1Yes, good job, julie, all right, so now what that means is you have to finish all the IPA beers that are left.
Speaker 2So 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 1It's on the can. It should be in the can. It should be in the can.
Speaker 2And 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 3Oh yeah, because I feel like wrap up the IPAs first yes, yes, there we go.
Speaker 1Yep, 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 3I 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 1Honestly, 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 1One 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 2It 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 1But really none of them to me tasted as high, especially the last ones. They didn't taste high ABV to me.
Speaker 2Right. So do you wonder how does that factor into what you're?
Speaker 1That'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 2I 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 1And 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 3I 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 2So 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 3I 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 1Well 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 3I think the smell turns people off.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3You 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 1Well, no, it doesn't Right Exactly, and it's none of these. Like I said, I was expecting them to be.
Speaker 2The higher we went, the hoppier it was going to be Right and it wasn't really that way. You know.
Speaker 1So 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 3So 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 3They 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 2So, of today's beers, of these six that we had today, what was your top one or two?
Speaker 3and well, the tax one for sure, and I don't know if my score reflects that, but the furious ipa.
Speaker 2And 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 3they 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 2You 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 3or 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 1Because 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 2Yes, 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 1So 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 3Oh, I might have been too. We're trying to expand our horizon.
Speaker 1Yes your palates are expanding, so I mean so that was so it was, I think, a very good testing.
Speaker 2I 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 1Because 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 2Is that what they are? What is that one, that one's?
Speaker 1Well, this is by Schofferhofer. Schofferhofer Hefeweizen beer, it says Watermelon mint, perfectly crafted, unique in taste.
Speaker 2Now what does it say on here? It might say I got. Let's see what this one says now.
Speaker 1I found it 2.5% ABV by volume.
Speaker 2Ooh, that one's, that one's like way higher than this one.
Speaker 1Well, then what's this Because?
Speaker 2there's another. I think it says 4.2, doesn't it? It's not more than 3.2.
Speaker 1Oh, by weight, I don't know. All I know is it's watermelon mint.
Speaker 3Watermelon mint.
Speaker 2Watermelon mint by Schofferhofer. What?
Speaker 3does it say German quality, german quality there you go.
Speaker 2But who's ever had watermelon and mint together? We've had them separate.
Speaker 3We've had them separate for sure, if you had like a watermelon mojito, you might have had it.
Speaker 1Oh, she did pull the watermelon mojito card. But I have not had it. Julie gets 100 points, jim gets a minus 10 million.
Speaker 3I think they had watermelon mojitos at the Cotterpin.
Speaker 2So this looks watermelon-ish.
Speaker 3Oh my gosh it. So this looks watermelon-ish.
Speaker 1Oh my gosh, it's red.
Speaker 2It looks pinkish, it's kind of red Looks like a little pink champagne kind of.
Speaker 3Oh, it's got a head.
Speaker 1Watermelon 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.
Refreshing Finale: Fruity Beer Alternatives
Speaker 3So they got something with it, not like oh, what was that? Is that mint? What was that?
Speaker 1horrible aroma, horrible beer that you had that was made out of, not pumpkin squash, oh squash, squish beer squash.
Speaker 3The 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 1That's good.
Speaker 3Wow. 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 2That's not bad, is it?
Speaker 1Can we order?
Speaker 2this by the pallet it comes in a four-pack only?
Speaker 1Oh, of course it does.
Speaker 3This 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 2That's crazy.
Speaker 1That is crazy. That is very interesting, very good.
Speaker 2Yeah, 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 3Low 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 2Well, you can drink a four-pack of this all day long. Yeah, that's not bad.
Speaker 1I don't get you know, like a lot of those, you get like a heart-burning kind of.
Speaker 2I 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 1It's surprising because most of them you can't even pick up the watermelon flavor.
Speaker 2This 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 1but this is crazy Because there's no way we'd have found four or five more of these.
Speaker 2No, 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 1Yeah, that's wild. I like that, that's good. Well, what do you want for a score, boy?
Speaker 3What'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 1No, 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 2It doesn't leave a bad finish For a R.
Speaker 1I'm doing the 3.5.
Speaker 3Honestly, I'm sure that's probably the highest.
Speaker 1I'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 3It 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 1Okay, 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 2I'm going to stick with you. Mike. I'm going to go with 3.5.
Speaker 1That was really good beer. Yeah, that hot day sitting in the garage, pull a nice cold one of them out.
Speaker 3I'm going to just pull this aside for myself later.
Speaker 1Well, Jim, we're not getting anywhere with that one.
Speaker 2All right.
Speaker 1So what is the next one? I found Well, the next one, and it's Bitburger Bitburger, and this is a Rattler.
Speaker 2All 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 1And now this brewery has been family-owned since what year? Jim the 1700s? Nope, that's minus 12,000. Uh-oh.
Speaker 3You're in the mice, in the lead now 1817.
Speaker 21817?.
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 3Now 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 1So 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 2So everybody gets the chunks.
Speaker 3So it had a little bit of it.
Speaker 1Yeah, 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 3Mixed beer drink made of 60% naturally cloudy lemonade and 40% beer. And it said Bitburger premium pills Alcohol 1.9% by volume.
Speaker 1So we're really hitting the high notes on this.
Speaker 3And then it says Bitburger, something in German. Bitburger, germany, product of Germany.
Speaker 1So 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 2Well, there's a lot of head.
Speaker 1Considering 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 2It's not like the Shanty, though, is it? No, no, not Shanty.
Speaker 3No 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 1Is 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 3You 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 2You know what I mean yeah, this is not bad at all, is it?
Speaker 1it. 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 2I 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 1I 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 1Yeah, 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 3I like it so.
Speaker 2Julie, what are you?
Speaker 3thinking 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 1Yeah, 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 3It's really worth it Lawn mowing beer. There you go.
Speaker 2I 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 1It 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 2Yes.
Speaker 1The Radler and the other one crazy good. Flavor-wise unbelievable. You could drink a bunch of them.
Speaker 2Yes, it was awesome, that was a good way to top it off?
Speaker 1Yes, so cool. Well, Julie, thank you so much for sitting in with us on this.
Speaker 3Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1Jim, 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 2That's it Awesome.
Speaker 1Good 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 1If 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 2See ya, bye, bye, goodbye, goodbye.
Speaker 1Thank 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.
