TwoGuys & Beer
The Two Guys & Beer Podcast is a laid-back conversational show that combines the love of beer with a wide range of topics that pique the hosts' interest. These two guys, use beer as a launching pad for discussions on anything and everything that grabs our attention!
TwoGuys & Beer
Shenanigans Irish Red Ale and St. Patrick's Day Cheers with Millstream Brewing
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Embark on a malty adventure as Andy, and I take you through the rich flavors of Millstream Brewing Company's Shenanigans Irish Red Ale. With a backdrop of Amana, Iowa's quaint charm, we weave tales of brewing beginnings sparked by beers like Killian's Irish Red, while dissecting what makes Shenanigans a stand-out in the red ale category. As our taste buds relish this malty brew, you'll find yourself swept into a world where beer isn't just a drink; it's a pivotal character in our life stories.
Pour yourself a hearty glass and prepare to chuckle as we mix suds with humor, taking cues from Bill Engvall's beer straw antics. Can you imagine pairing your favorite brew with savory smoked meats? We do just that, contemplating a smokehouse-brewery fusion and reminiscing about the evolution of American craft beer culture. Hear heartwarming stories of local breweries like Millstream that are pouring more than just beer into their communities and discover how the humble taproom has become a cornerstone of camaraderie and innovation.
Finally, we don the green and raise a toast to St. Patrick's Day, delving into its American parade origins and the curious case of corned beef's place in Irish festivities. We'll color your perceptions as brightly as the Chicago River on the big day while discussing everything from the phenomenon of Guinness to the shortest St. Patrick's parade you could possibly imagine. So, grab your favorite pint, settle in, and let's celebrate the spirit of St. Paddy's together with some good cheer and even better beer.
And welcome in everybody. Back to the two guys in beer podcast. Here in the the beautiful studio we got our beers ready to go. Andy and Sean set to review one another beer and another brewery. Today we're going to be talking about Millstream Brewing Company out of Amana, Iowa.
Speaker 2You know this is one we should probably we can probably go to this one too. It's close enough.
Speaker 1You know we we've made that, those comments a couple of times and so we're gonna have to. Maybe that'll be the summertime it'll be the two guys in beer summer tour.
Speaker 2Oh no, that's an idea. There we go. I like the way you're thinking. Well, we've been to some of these breweries before you know. I made it up to the one in Michigan, we could make it to the one in Iowa and we just got to do it.
Speaker 1There we go. We'll just make it happen.
Speaker 2That's what we do here two guys in beer, we just make shit happen.
Speaker 1Some like that at least. I would think that some people would say we make bullshit happen.
Speaker 2We do that too.
Speaker 1A lot of that happening, but you know that's, that's how you end up in this situation in the first place. So but yeah, we're talking about Millstream, we're talking about shenanigans, and shenanigans Irish ale, so kind of astute for the time of year is a timing wise like this should be coming out right around the time of us in Patrick's day, if you're checking in and listening. Well, after the fact, maybe you're just you haven't set your clock back and so it's going to be St Patrick's day or something, but I don't know, it'll be fun anyway, you know. And who doesn't like some shenanigans? We all like some shenanigans. So Millstream Brewing Company is out of Amana, iowa, which, if you look at it on the map, it's let's see here where is it's going to be? A little bit southwest of Cedar Rapids, situated right in between East Amana and Middle Amana, which is also just past West Amana and north of South Amana.
Speaker 2I like it.
Speaker 1It's looking at the map and there's a manna all over the place. I don't know if they just are like I, whatever, just call it East, west, south, amana.
Speaker 2Maybe that's why they named it shenanigans, because it's shenanigans to figure out where it is.
Speaker 1That probably could be true. I don't see a north Amana, though there is a Norway Iowa that appears to be a handful of miles north of that, but no north Amana. So maybe we'll go down there, we'll make our stamp on Iowa and we'll pick a random intersection that'll be north Amana. We'll be the founders.
Speaker 2Start our own little township.
Speaker 1Okay. So the Ox Yoke Inn, millstream Brew House or Brow House B-R-A-U-H-A-U-S is how they spell it but it's right on a little river, a little creek that kind of goes through town. It's the Mill Race River, but it's kind of by the Mill Stream is what they call it on their website. So it kind of a interesting location, you know, but they're kind of taking the name from nearby things is kind of where they're coming up with the name. So, sure, you got to kind of stay local when you can. So but yeah, shenanigans, is the beer today, irish Red Ale. It is a 7.0 alcohol by volume. What else we got on here?
Speaker 2It was brought to you by Amanda. We got a call out of Amanda. She's the one that suggested this one.
Speaker 1Yeah, she found it, she found it.
Speaker 2The ferocious listener to the two guys and beer podcast. So thank you, amanda.
Speaker 1And if you have any recommendations, definitely reach out, comment on the different social media platforms, wherever it may be YouTube, anything like that and there's something you want to hear, let us know. We'll try to be able to get your beer on there. And, better yet, if you want to send it to us, I mean we can let us know we can. We'll go give you an address you can send us a beer.
Speaker 1So, yeah, got to give her appreciation, for sure, for giving that recommendation. And, like I said before, who doesn't like some shenanigans? So they all do. So as long as we're at it, let's go ahead and get some shenanigans going.
Speaker 2Such a great sound.
Speaker 1It's the best part of the podcast. I think I say that every time, but it's totally true.
Speaker 2That's probably when people swipe off after they hear it.
Speaker 1Right, yeah, but that's right. That's why we don't do that till like a couple minutes. We had the algorithm going we're. You know it's totally fine. So it's pretty tasty.
Speaker 1It's definitely a Irish red ale. It's what? Am I getting almost more malty of a red ale than I've seen. This actually kind of, in a way, we're going to end up going deep on this one a little bit.
Speaker 1But the red ale almost kind of brings me back to like what initially got me into brewing, and we've talked about this a little bit before Killians, yep, killians, irish red part of the you know, the Tony Cole drinking tree.
Speaker 1He showed up. He showed up at a party that I had in Princeton and I was still kind of trying to figure out what I even liked at that time and you know some mixed drinks and you know, like Mike's hard lemonade and wasn't really into beer, but it was kind of like a well, I'll force some Mick golden down or something just to kind of have whatever, because it was cheaper than anything else. And you know he showed up with that and I had one of those and from that point forward it was every time I went into a liquor store was well, I've never heard of that. I'm getting some of those and I passed that along to my friend Joe and then that's been passed along and you know it's just it's we're passing it all forward. You know, of course this was 2000 early, it was a long time ago.
Speaker 1Probably a old one, ish, old two ish, you know, kind of forever ago, living in Princeton and having having good times over there You're dating us a little bit now. Well, you know that we've talked about that too. That that's why we're doing the podcast instead of playing sports.
Speaker 2It makes you wonder, like when you think back, like things that are 20 years ago, what you did with your life the past 20 years. Did you really do anything meaningful that you wanted to?
Speaker 1do. Well, it went by fast, that's for sure.
Speaker 2Yeah, it sure did. I mean, if you think about it, hell, if we have 30, 35 more years left to live, man, that's going to be a good run. If you want to think of it negatively, you're like dang man. I got that 40 years old, 41, 30 more years, 70, 35, 75.
Speaker 1That's going to be the name of the episode. Today is going to be shenanigans got dark.
Speaker 2Well that's what the red ale does to me. I guess I can't quite put a taste on my palate with this. I'm having a hard time with the taste of it, like I don't dislike it. Yeah, it is a little malty, I think, like you said, but it's not, I don't know. I have a hard time trying to come up with something to tell our listeners and, well now, some of our viewers, what this, like the palate that it has.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean it's good, it's smooth, but it's definitely kind of that red ale type of feel. How is it, eric, the red ale, I think was the name of it. That was actually the first beer that I brewed. It was a homebrew starter kit. Oh, that's what it was. So that was not when I drilled the hole. That was that was when I did the second one. The first one, I just stood there and I stirred and stirred and stirred and stirred and like steam burnt my hand the entire time. But the second one is when I drilled the hole in the oven.
Speaker 2You still have to find that photo so we can show everybody the photo of that If you dig out somewhere.
Speaker 1I do have to get that out there. I know it exists, I know it, I know it's there, but just got to find it and get it out there. Yeah, so kind of talking a little bit more about mill stream brewing. It's out of, as we mentioned before, a manna Iowa started in 1985 with a dream and a small batch of German Pilsner. As per their website, millstream brewingcom, under the about us tab, is where a lot of this information is going to come from. Today they have definitely expanded. Their tap room features 20 rotating beers on tap and some of the best live music in the Midwest. That does not look like the largest of towns. It's kind of like some of the towns that are right near us right now.
Speaker 1About that so not a massive town, but at the same time they got some good music and some good beers going on. I'm in, I'm on my way. They also have the meat shop and smokehouse, so what gets better than that freaking meat and beer? And about a block and a half way as hotel mill, right in a manna, and that's actually appears to be just on the other side of the block from mill stream brewery, so we don't even have to try to come back that night.
Craft Beer and Comedy
Speaker 2Oh, perfect, that's great. You ever watch the blue collar comedy tour A little bit. You're talking about meat and smoke houses and beer. Who is the here's your sign guy? I can't think of his name right now. He's a here's your sign, bill Engvall.
Speaker 1Bill Engvall I don't want to say Jeff Fox, but that was.
Speaker 2you might be a redneck, so I like Bill Engvall. He's a pretty funny guy. You're talking about meat, smoke houses and beer. One of his favorite snacks he did this on one of the bits on one of his programs was Slim Jim's.
Speaker 1His idea with the Slim Jim.
Speaker 2Yeah, his idea with the Slim Jim on one of his episodes or specials one hour specials he's like you know I called Slim Jim, you know, because they give you the number on the package. Like I gave him a call to give him an idea or the thing or two. His idea was why don't you guys drill a hole in the center of a Slim Jim?
Speaker 2You want like a straw, yeah, you put my Slim Jim in my beer, suck my beer up and snap off a piece of Slim Jim at the end of the beer and eat that down. I'm like that is a genius idea.
Speaker 1Here you go, you get. You probably be able to get some nice saltiness in there. I like it.
Speaker 2They should do that down here. If there's a smoke house right next to this, I'm sure they have beef sticks. Yeah, a freaking bore hole in the middle of like a real like Slim Jim's are kind of fake and gross like. I want a real Meat stick from from a meat place I like it smoke house. You see those meat sticks are bigger than the Slim Jim. You could easily run a hole through the center there, suck up your beer, snap off a piece of meat oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1It sounds. It sounds awfully delightful, I like.
Speaker 2It sounds like a great idea to me, yeah, and we haven't even had a full beer yet, and the good ideas are coming.
Speaker 1But oh, it's gonna be a brilliant night tonight. Folks, did you make sure you strap in and get ready to go?
Speaker 2Technically I was a billing ball idea, but I can steal it, right yeah?
Speaker 1Why we're supporting, we're moving it forward. Right, so that that's what it is, we're moving it forward.
Speaker 1Let's see here what else we got. So, like I mentioned the 20 rotating taps that they have and their best live music in the Midwest, it's quite the most. But I'm willing to go find out. Right on the banks of the Amanda Mill stream, which I had said before, is the Mill Race River. That comes kind of Again. It goes through the Lily pond. That's kind of right in that area. That's just off of the Iowa River, which kind of goes through most of the middle part of Iowa, iowija, iowa, iowa. Um, yeah, that's kind of where they're situated. That's what's going on there. Team Mill stream is proud to partner with us several charities that we've talked numerous times about that. How many brewers like to try to give it back as much as they possibly can? That's just awesome. It's stellar to be able to see stuff like that. And so they work with the children's cancer connection and Willis Dady, hops for housing, because you got to get hops in there somewhere.
Speaker 1Yep, and then the stead STA, std, steed, stead. Final answer stead stead family, children's hospital, just some of the Places they benefit for that. They also Because you got to do something with the spent grains. What are you gonna do with it? Cows, oh.
Speaker 2I know that's on the doesn't eat the steak.
Speaker 1It doesn't sound like you would do to have much availability for that, but in Iowa they do have some farms with cows.
Speaker 2I've never heard of such a thing.
Speaker 1I that's probably why they have some pretty happy cows, I'm guessing. So they're giving a lot back and I'm trying to be able to do that some kind of a cool thing. They've grown over the course of the years and I remember I've not had shenanigans but I've had milstream before, but I'm trying to remember it was like a farmhouse red ale, so I may have had a similar ale years ago. Actually, at the bar we did a tasting one and I had a couple of different milstream ones. It doesn't aren't aware. I had a bar for a couple years, went okay, then it didn't, and so I don't have that. But we did a tasting and I think that that was Looking back on it. It was probably before its time because the community probably wasn't real jazzed about a lot of like craft beer. And so I bring in this like buffet table with like 20 different craft beers and everything laid out there on ice and Like five people showed up, yeah.
Speaker 2I forget, when your bar was open, craft beer Wasn't really quite a thing yet. I mean, it was kind of in its infancy, you know, because the laws got relaxed in a lot of places in order to brew craft beer and smaller little breweries, but yeah, it really wasn't quite there when you had there's a couple I had not like it is today.
Speaker 1I had a tap system that it had 12 taps and I really wanted that. When I first met with vendors, I really wanted to make sure that I had 12 taps because I knew I was gonna be Required to have the Coors light, miller light, make golden light, things like that or whatever to be able to have on there. But I knew at that time that I really like craft beer and it's growing every year and that's kind of the trend and I wanted to make sure I'm not gonna be able to make a decision with whatever and they're like well, you're gonna have more inventory and I'm like I don't care, I want to have additional beers. So I had more taps than Almost any of the bars in a Santa County.
Speaker 2Oh for sure, I remember when you had 12. I was like what 12? I'm like hell.
Speaker 1Yeah, I want to say sweet. The other one that was in town I think had three, and the one north the town I think had maybe five, but they was like three on one spot and then like a little kegurator thing in the back.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1I want to say there's a place in Cambridge that had, like I think sidelines had maybe more, but it was like it wasn't craft beer, though, yeah, well, because it would have.
Speaker 1We have 20 taps, but they have 10 here and 10 there and they're the same. Right, you know what I mean. So yeah, you have 10 tap hand or 20 tap handles, but you have 10 beers. Really is what you have. So like there were some things like that or whatever. So like I think I had a better on tap variety, but again, before my time I was just, I was so far out.
Speaker 2They may tell you you're a visionary. I'm gonna have to tell them. Make sure Amanda's very aware of that next time I see her you should probably really that to her handy is such a visionary. You married such an amazing man. Yeah, you just don't know what you have.
Speaker 1Absolutely. I think that she's sought that many times, usually probably while rolling her eyes. I think she's kind of well, he's got a vision, all right.
Speaker 2It for drinking some beer some good craft beer.
Speaker 1It is kind of funny though, like anytime, like if I have an idea, because I you know I'd be when you're a visionary, you have ideas and they roll around and you got to throw them all there to somebody. Right, I have to, and usually it's so. I was thinking. You have to set them free and even, as soon as they get to that point, the responses oh geez, that's usually what happens, so here, we go again.
Speaker 1That's likely the type of response that I'll likely get and that's probably what I'll hear. You know, after the the visionary comments will get more eye-rolling and she'll Laugh and heckle me and whatever, but that's fine.
Speaker 2It's okay, amanda, andy is not too wild.
Speaker 1It's true I'm not super calm. He's pretty tame, yep, yep. So mill stream, back to back to what, back to the brewery we're talking about here. So mill stream, as I mentioned, 1985 started with a small batch of German Pilsner. They make a little bit more than that now. They Last year. It just is today I'm assuming that's probably last year's numbers 8,000 barrels.
Speaker 2Well, that's what they had for you.
Speaker 1So we've talked a little bit about barrels and quantity and everything with that before, and so how many gallons per barrel for the average barrel yeah and so they you know that, and that also counts beer and sodas.
Speaker 1They also make some of their own sodas as well. So they definitely turn out a lot of different, a lot of different options and a lot of different things out there. So kind of fun to be able to see a lot of that. I'm gonna see if I can't find the shenanigans on their website here to see if there's any Specific you know, I mean some details of some stuff on here, but now we wait. I Should have just clicked on it before and then not had to worry about it loading right, which is probably just my fault because it's my, my phone it's trying to do it, but that's fine, it's her, I'm fine, I can't Fact the same Patrick's Day, since this is kind of a same Patrick's Day episode.
St. Patrick and Leprechauns
Speaker 2There we are. So the real, same Patrick, of course, which St Patrick's Day is named after. You know, he was born in 385, 80. Oh, it was a long time. It was like the 16 17th century somewhere in there, don't? Worry because I don't know. I'm just throwing shit out there because I like it. We create bullshit. And he died in 461. Oh wow, and he also is not a native of Ireland or from Ireland or was born there. Anything Did you know? St Patrick was born in Britain.
Speaker 1Oh, I mean, I guess it's part of the Expanded United Kingdom. I guess, if you will, was part of that, but huh interesting.
Speaker 2Hey, he's born in Britain near the end of what the fourth century. At age 16 he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and sold as a slave to a Celtic priest.
Speaker 1So there's the Celtic side coming in Right. Yeah, Not in a positive way.
Speaker 2No, he was crazy to think that. Of course I never knew that prior. I had looked this stuff up on my notes and stuff. But yeah, he was sold as a slave to a Celtic priest in the area that's now known as Northern Ireland. So they forced him to be a shepherd for about six years and he escaped back to Britain. But he eventually actually returned to Ireland as a Christian missionary. Huh, yeah.
Speaker 1I mean, I get it, I understand, and I'm sure there's probably limited what you can do, because I'm sure room and board and just eat and all the basic necessities of life, life, life. We'll go with life, the bare necessities, as Baloo would probably sing if he were to be here too, but things like that. But it's kind of odd that they forced him to be a shepherd for six years, which is that was him being a slave, yeah Go out into this wide open field where nobody can see you for acres, and we'll see you later tonight.
Speaker 2Right, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that it was good and glorious or anything like that, but it just seems like kind of one of those like over here where nobody's looking this way. Okay yeah, I'll be back later, guys, there you go.
Speaker 2Yeah, but that's amazing. I thought that was interesting. He was swiped up by Irish raiders. I don't know the Irish raided people I think of like the Vikings and the Northmen and things like that raided and pillaged and things, not Irish people. Apparently the Irish had raiders and they raided St Patrick and stole and Oakland and now Vegas Right, but now the Irish Los Angeles Right exactly the Dublin raiders.
Speaker 1Yeah, how about that Cool. So I did find some tasting notes here.
Speaker 2Eventually, you know you stalled long enough for me to be able to actually get there. What's it loaded?
Speaker 1Let's see here 7% ABV. We talked about that before 25 IBU, so not tremendously bitter, which is not terribly bitter.
Speaker 2It's not bitter at all. It tastes well. Like I do enjoy this beer, I just can't. I still can't articulate the flavor on my tongue.
Speaker 1So what Millstream articulates? What do they articulate? They say that they're tasting notes. Don't let the hazy, amber appearance of this ale fool you. Charming multi notes in the smooth body Make it easy to get in some real shenanigans. So that's kind of what they do. Flavor profile a full, smooth, sweet, multi creamy mellow.
Speaker 2Well, you called them out the creamy, I can taste the creamy. What else we got in there? Full, smooth, sweet, multi mellow. It is smooth and mellow, huh, I suppose. So yeah, I suppose that's a good articulation.
Speaker 1Yeah, cause it's not like it's not. Bam in your face.
Speaker 2No, it's not. It's smooth the lawnmower rating. What's your lawnmower rating? One to five lawnmowers.
Speaker 1You know, I probably drink some on a lawnmower, but I don't think I'm having five with a one of lawnmowers. I would agree with that. Yeah, probably a couple of them, for sure.
Speaker 2Maybe one on the lawnmower and one off the lawnmower. Yep, yep, yeah.
Speaker 1But I'm not, I'm not having, I'm not just going after it all night long. They have, oh, they have a thing even on their website here. It is perfect for spring, summer, autumn, winter, camping, hiking, grilling, tailgating, sporting events, parties, pool days, game night and concerts Perfect.
Speaker 2Perfect. So if you're doing something, this is perfect for it, yeah.
Speaker 1It's just perfect for it. So yeah, that's the other kind of the breakdown of shenanigans there on a on their website, so Perfect.
Speaker 2All right, that's awesome. You know, leprechauns are likely based on Celtic fairies.
Speaker 1They are not part of the Raiders, are they?
Speaker 2They might raid.
Speaker 1They do have powers. I could. I suppose that could be the Air Force version of have you ever met a leprechaun? I have not. Have you ever? No, no, I nope, apparently yeah.
Speaker 2They, they think the leprechauns, the whole thing, with the hat and the clothes and the this and the that kind of all came from their belief in Celtic fairies. They kind of like took that and it kind of transformed over the years into leprechauns which you now see everywhere for St Patrick's Day.
Speaker 1Fair enough. Yeah, I have a, so the local brewery does trivia every other Sunday. Oh yeah, I think we've talked about that before or whatever, so it's coming up. They're having St Patty's Day trivia.
Speaker 2Oh, oh, I'm got you loaded now, hey, anybody ready to go?
Speaker 1I got you loaded right here, there we go. So we're going to be all over it. We're going to be. We're basically in training mode. Is what we're doing, is what's happening. We're studying, is what's going on. But so I have, like now, the big green hat with the beard, and even came with double-sided tape. Eyebrows very light brown, almost reddish.
Speaker 2So you're going to send me a photo of this so we can post it on our social media for all our viewers and listeners.
Speaker 1I'll just send you a picture of Amanda, because she's already taken the picture, so it's fine, that'd be cool. Our team name is generally here for the beer, but we're going to do here for the shenanigans. Perfect for that one.
Speaker 2So that's awesome shenanigans. Again, here we go. All right, well, we'll go over some more facts.
Speaker 1Yeah, what else you got here?
Speaker 2We got to get this trivia training to get you ready to go here. The shamrock was considered a sacred plant. Did you know that it was sacred?
Speaker 1I mean it sounds right because I know that even having clover fields out the movie, the actual fields growing out, growing up on a farm, like finding that four leaf clover was kind of a thing Right.
Speaker 2So the shamrock is a three leaf clover is what you really want, but of course the four leaf ones are the lucky ones, right? Yeah, so the three leaf clover. It's been associated with Ireland for centuries. It was called something I can't pronounce because I can't read this right now for some reason. We'll keep on moving, all right. It was considered a sacred plant that symbolized the arrival of spring. According to legend, st Patrick used the plant as a visual guide for explaining the holy trinity it's the St Patrick which St Patrick's Day is named after when those bloomed and stuff. That's when he knew it was time to talk about the holy trinity and used it as a visual guide for explaining that by the 17th century, the shamrock had become a symbol of emerging Irish nationalism. Interesting.
Speaker 1Facts, facts, facts.
Speaker 2Smarter, smarter, there we go.
Speaker 1Be more smarter.
Speaker 2Keep this in mind for next time, so the very first St Patrick's Day parade.
Speaker 1Very first.
Speaker 2Very first, very first.
Speaker 1I'm interested even like how it went from the guy just came back as a missionary to becoming the actual St Patrick.
Speaker 2I don't have all those details, but they call him a patron, I think. If I remember right, they, like the Catholic Church, makes you patrons, or something.
Speaker 1Yeah, patron saint of something.
Speaker 2He was never actually ordained as a patron because that didn't. That whole service or ceremony to make people a patron didn't even happen until a couple hundred years after he died. So he's like an official patron without being an official patron.
Speaker 1He's a posthumous patron. He's a posthumously patron.
Speaker 2Yeah, right, I like it. So that's about the best I can tell you from that anyways, and from when I was reading anybody could correct me if I'm wrong in the comments but there's only like three or four patrons of Ireland that went through the whole ceremony and there one female, like three or four males or something. That's just what I, briefly, was reading.
St. Patrick's Day History and Traditions
Speaker 2I was reading about St Patrick's Day. But the female one? I know she has her own holiday. I recall that, but if I'm wrong, please correct me Again. We just do a bunch of bullshit on the show, so that's what we do. So the first St Patrick's Day parade, believe it or not, was held here in America. Can you believe that? Isn't that goofy?
Speaker 1Well, I have heard that it is kind of an American thing.
Speaker 2but Kind of the parade anyways. So the people in Ireland had celebrated St Patrick's since the 1600s. The tradition of the St Patrick's Day parade, the parade, though, began in America, and it actually predates the founding of the United States. So they're already having parades on St Patrick's Day in America before we were in the US or the United States.
Speaker 1The Eastern territories or, I suppose, western, for that the Western territories of England.
Speaker 2Pretty much. Pretty much, and actually it's even before that, I suppose, because records show that a St Patrick's Day parade was held on the first one that they have documentation of. It was held on March 17th, 1601. Wow, and that was a Spanish colony. You know, I remember the Spanish pretty much dominated the southern part of the now United States, which now it's called St Augustine, of course, which is in Florida. So in 1601, the first documented St Patrick's Day parade happened in what's just present day St Augustine, florida. The parade in St Patrick's Day celebration a year earlier was organized by a Spanish colony and that's when it happened.
Speaker 2More than a century later, irish soldiers that were serving in the English military bringing up the English over here in the United States were homesick, so they decided to hold their own St Patrick's Day parade in 1737 in Boston. So that was the next one. There we are. I like Boston, I like American history a lot, I know a lot about that, but I didn't know anything about the St Patrick's Day parade. But then it also did in New York City on March 17th and of course it only grew from there and the parade just kept on, going and going. And of course the world right now there's over 600 St Patrick's Day parades in the United States throughout everything.
Speaker 2Yeah, so that's kind of neat. And of course you know a lot of people associate the Irish With St Patrick's Day and because that's where he was in St Patrick's Day and stuff. But of course you know the Irish were slaves in the United States at one point in time and they were scorned upon and Look down upon as these, these crazy people.
Speaker 2And why that happened was they weren't really celebrated by Americas or in America, because the reason they came here was in 1845. If you remember We've all heard about this in the history books and stuff at one point in time you know the the potato famine over in Ireland and Millions of people starved and died over. There were over three million Irish immigrated to the United States and the present people. Of course the United States didn't like that because they didn't have anything they were.
Speaker 2They were on clothes that were 30 and 40 years old. They looked graded, they looked at it.
Speaker 1Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2And, of course, the little welfare systems that existed back then. Whether your pro welfare or not, the Irish, regardless at that time probably recipients of it and of course back then, of course, people weren't as receptive to welfare benefits as they are today, so that they were Looked down upon, they're receiving those type of welfare benefits and everything back then. So that's kind of the whole Irish, the brief Irish thing For that. Another fact. You ready for your trivia?
Speaker 1I'm ready for trivia. I'm I should say I'm more prepared for the trivia. I won't say that I'm fully ready for it, because you're never fully ready. Always keep improving.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's what you do, Going back to say, from when the Irish actually came the United States. Over one quarter of the Irish population to put in perspective came to United States during that whole Quarter. So that's pretty crazy. I thought that was pretty crazy and of course you know they were on skilled labor compared to what we had going on here in the drain on the welfare system, which they were looked upon pretty poorly and of course, which is just seen about that. Of course you know you have this big movement today about Slavery and this and that and whatever you get into with that. Everybody always forgets about the Irish that were slaves to right.
Speaker 1You know there's Everybody was a segment to that population Should be talked about more.
Speaker 2So now you're ready to go for that trivia thing. You like corned beef, I like corned beef.
Speaker 1Corned beef is amazing food you know, to be perfectly honest, I'm not even 100% sure that I've ever had corned beef, mostly because I think the mind in my mind it sounds like it wouldn't be good and so I don't know that I've had it. Hmm, I know I throw throw the judgment and cast it aside.
Speaker 2to me, I love corned beef. It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 1I'm sure I probably have at one point, but now that I can remember, of course you know that's Associated with st Patrick's a corned beef and cabbage.
Speaker 1Cabbage I'm not a huge fan of. I've tried and I really I like the idea of it Like a you know like always want to get like an egg roll or you know things like that, I'm sure. And then I'm kind of like it's fine, but it's not something like. I don't get wild about cabbage at all, like sauerkraut is just I'm gonna walk, I just can't do that. But some people just love it. Can't get enough.
Speaker 2I like raw cabbage. You just crack a leaf off the head and put a little salt on and eat it like cooked is okay, Like I like it cooked with the corned beef. But sauerkraut and stuff I'm not a fan. Do you know? Corned beef is an English dish and not an Irish dish.
Speaker 1Hmm.
Speaker 2It's kind of funny how it turns up on right, st Patrick's day exactly in that Irish, but of course that it became a st Patrick's day staple across the country. Corned beef and cabbage it. Actually, even when you put the two together, it was an American innovation. So, again, we started the pre-ades, we started the corn. We're the Irish, do it? What do you guys? Where are you guys at? You're supposed to be starting this stuff, right. Why are we starting in here in America?
Speaker 1We were honoring them. That's maybe that's what it.
Speaker 2I don't think so. We suck at that stuff.
Speaker 2I know, yeah, we're not very good at any, but the original dish over in Ireland is it's ham, ham and cabbage Interest. That's the original dish and it changed to corned beef in America because corned beef is cheaper for the Irish immigrants they came over here than ham was at the time. Now it's the other way around. Corned beef costs more than ham, but it's back then corned beef was cheaper, so that's what they had here in America. That's the corned beef. Wow, I have it. Just is how it came about.
Speaker 1I like it.
Speaker 2Yeah, another fact done nailed it.
Speaker 1See, now I'm. You know, it's just I'm gonna be Whatever categories they have next week, it's just gonna be right to the top. You know it's probably at the top of the leaderboard, don't even question.
Speaker 2You're. I can't wait. I'm gonna have to come observe.
Speaker 1There you go. You can cheer me on.
Speaker 2I'll put little clips on Facebook.
Speaker 1You're gonna sit back there and you're just gonna judge me and be like we talked about this. You don't remember?
Speaker 2Andy and the two guys in here. St Patrick's Day has been observed by the Irish as a religious holiday for more than a thousand years. Wow, that's a long time. That's a religious holiday. It's a great time. I just like the food.
Speaker 1I should get that worked into my contract for work. For it to be a day off. Actually, I want the next day. I don't care about that day come home at 5 pm. Then worry about the next exactly, yeah, can I have it be an observed holiday?
Speaker 2So of course green is a synonymous with st Patrick's Day, but the original color of st Patrick's Day was not green, it was blue. Hmm, and of course the blue was featured both in the royal court and on ancient Irish flags, and 1798 the color green became officially associated with the day. I don't know why green is a sick.
Speaker 1Is the Irish flag, isn't it green, white and orange? I?
Speaker 2believe so. That's the Ireland flag, yeah three stripes. Yep, yeah. So I don't know why they change it from blue to green, but apparently Back in the 1700s and prior it was blue was the color for st Patrick's Day. Interesting, of course, st Patrick's days parades are held all across United States that we already talked about.
Speaker 1Over 600 over 600.
Speaker 2Almost 12% of all Americans claim Irish ancestry, which is funny because more people of Irish ancestry live in the United States that then actually live in Ireland.
Speaker 1Math checks on on that. I suppose it makes sense.
Speaker 2Ireland's huge right but it's just kind of interesting how more Irish people, or they, claim they're Irish. Right a lot of people claim they're I Irish on same back. Exactly yeah, when did they take that?
Speaker 1at March 17th. It's exactly like all of a sudden there's 80% Irish in in the the states. I claim no Irish background at all. I guess I've never. I've never done the cheek swab DNA test thing, not for crime stuff, for the History. I've never done anything like that at all. But yeah, I don't think that I have any. There's no Irish at all in my head, it's all just Swedish and Norwegian, and it's most. Swedish will tell you that Sweden own Norway at the time. So you're 100% Swedish is what they told me at one point. That's what all I got, I think, as far as my background.
Speaker 2But yeah, I don't have any Irish. I've never done the ancestry calm thing. But right my family is like Norwegian, swedish, dutch, german, pretty much most of the Scandinavian countries. In part of our state is most of them. You know, in 1762 we already talked about, you know, new York City parade started with people in the military that were Homesticks. They started their own st Patrick's Day parades here in the country. The first one took place in 1762 With over a hundred and fifty thousand people. Oh wow, in 1762.
Speaker 1I couldn't buy that that many people in that time frame.
Speaker 2Right in that setting doing those things. I can't imagine there's much for plumbing probably, in fact, the first toilet was put in Seattle. Actually, I learned that when I was in Seattle. Since you brought up plumbing and whatever.
Speaker 1So not in New York in now.
Speaker 2Okay, John Crapper there. Yeah, it was his name.
Speaker 1I think I remember that I did have heard that before. I didn't know the Seattle part, but I think I have heard that name.
Speaker 2It was in Seattle. Yeah, so the st Patrick's Day parade. It is the oldest, the world's oldest civilian parade, that original one in New York City, and it's the largest in the United States.
Speaker 1Wow, that is it. I mean it's not terribly surprising that they'd have the largest one, but you know it's a that is pretty interesting.
Speaker 2Currently, more than 3 million people line the parade route as of today to take part in the St Patrick's Day Parade, and the route to the parade is one and a half miles long and it takes more than five hours for the parade to come to an end.
Speaker 1Oh, wow.
St. Patrick's Day Trivia and Amana
Speaker 2So this one, this next one? We all know this happens. I was curious about this. The Chicago River, of course we all know that gets dyed green. It looks green as hell man.
Speaker 1It looks like fungus. I mean, it looks kind of green often, but that's not a positive way.
Speaker 2Yeah, so the whole system. They've been dyeing that river green on St Patrick's Day since 1962. When the first year they ever dyed the river, they used over 100 pounds of dye to dye the river. That kept the river green for almost a week. Today they don't use quite that much. They only use 40 pounds of green dye color to dye the river, but still enough.
Speaker 2Yeah, because look how green it looks when you see that on TV and when they post it all over social media and stuff. But they do that for environmental reasons, of course, but you think you'd use more dye and more things like that when you're dyeing that much of a river, that many gallons of water. They only use 40 pounds of dye and it lasts for about five hours. It's about how long it lasts. And, of course, guinness let's talk about Guinness.
Speaker 1This is two guys from Guinness. Oh yeah, of course we're going to talk about Guinness.
Speaker 2And of course, guinness is an Irish beer. It's a dark beer. Now I haven't had it for a long time. I'll have to try it again on my older palette. My younger palette didn't like Guinness so much. Right, You'll have to do a show on that baby.
Speaker 1It's kind of crazy how people will say there's certain things that are in a quiet taste. But isn't it kind of funny how you'll have not only the acquired taste but you'll have the? I've acquired this taste, but now this tastes different. The developed taste, I guess, is what I'd call it.
Speaker 2I like that. I do like that a lot.
Speaker 1More of that forward thinking.
Speaker 2It's a year on Visionary stuff. Amanda pay attention to this. Pay attention to this.
Speaker 1Yep, yep, this is high level stuff we're talking about.
Speaker 2So Guinness, of course. The St Patrick's Day alone they double their sales.
Speaker 1What that's not surprising at all.
Speaker 2Compared to regular days they sell according to their numbers. 5.5 million pints of Guinness is sold on St Patrick's Day. You count that right. No, where it's all sold, I don't know.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2The world or.
Speaker 1Ireland, that's still a lot.
Speaker 2That's still a lot. 5 million pints of Guinness, that's a lot of pints.
Speaker 1And you got to prepare for that too, because you got to start making that weeks ahead of time. Make sure it's bottled and ready and settled and ready for distribution. Shake it up a little bit, yeah, whatever you got to do, put the little ball bearing or whatever.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Get it going. I was just thinking of that?
Speaker 2actually it's like marble. I remember that shaking it up. I think the first time I ever had one was at your house in Cambridge when you were renting that house behind.
Speaker 1SAA, probably could be.
Speaker 2I think it was Tanner that busted it out. Actually, I was going to say I don't remember that I ever bought that.
Speaker 1He probably got that because he thought it was cool with the ball bearing or marble or whatever it was Right, that's what it was.
Speaker 2And then he was laughing at me because I was like I don't know about this, which did.
Speaker 1Back then. He does not exactly have the greatest beer pallets of all time. We were like 22 at the time, right, I? Don't think any of us had a pretty good beer pallet at the time.
Speaker 2No, no, not at all. I mean, I was drinking Miller High Life.
Speaker 1That was true, but that's a good choice, though it wasn't too. Especially you get like a nice warm summer day. It's good stuff. A lot of cream belt, a lot of cream belt premium A lot of liquor back then.
Speaker 2I drank a lot more liquor when I was younger. Now I'm not so keen on the liquor as much. But yeah, so we talked about the longest St Patrick's Day parade, let's talk about the shortest. Oh, here we go. This is going to put you over the top.
Speaker 1This is going to be. This is next level type of stuff. This is elite level. Arkansas, arkansas, yeah, our Kansas.
Speaker 2They have the shortest parade. How short is the shortest parade? 98 feet.
Speaker 1I feel like the lineup would be longer than the actual parade.
Speaker 2That's a disrespect to Irish people in the St.
Speaker 1Patrick 98 feet. That's like just slightly more than running from first base to second base in baseball.
Speaker 2Like by eight feet. Yeah, it's 90 feet.
Speaker 1It's, that's a how about that? That's 98 feet.
Speaker 2It reserve your spot.
Speaker 1Now I was going to say that you probably got. You still probably got the old ladies that are like setting out their lawn chair three days ahead of time, making sure they got their parade spot, you know secured. Put their chair down. Public works is coming out there kicking it off to the side. Get out of here, ethel. You got to know, you got to wait.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't know, that was pretty crazy. I'm like 98 feet. What are you doing?
Speaker 1at 98 feet, right, you're just trying to set a record. At that point in time, you're probably running it to at 98 feet long. I bet you that was probably a matter of there was like a float, that was that long.
Speaker 2It's surprising that's just I'm guessing but that's less than two semi trailers. Yeah, 53 foot semi trailer. Mm, hmm, ��주인재에, wow, yeah, that's possible, yeah.
Speaker 1Huh, that's 98 feet. That is something else Crazy. Huh, what else we got Churches More trivia.
Speaker 2How many churches do you?
Speaker 1know in our name, st Patrick, I'm guessing there's probably a handful.
Speaker 2There's about 450 of them, give or take. Give or take, yep. And you know, of course, st Patrick's Cathedral over in New York, the big popular one, yep, and I was in. About 5.5 million tourists every year. That's a lot, it sure is. Hmm, and I'm out of facts.
Speaker 1Yeah, out of facts, out of facts.
Speaker 2No cool stories. A lot of cool facts. Eddie's going to win some trivia.
Speaker 1It's a lot of yeah, I'm going to win trivia. You're going to have to make sure you keep tuned to the podcast to get the results moving forward, because you got to be able to know what they're doing here. So while you were kind of talking about that a little bit, I kind of a little bit went down. So I think I said before that I had kind of an idea of something I was going to talk about. We're going to go ahead and scrap that. I'm going to crumple that up, I'm going to toss it, because I kind of went down the old Amana rabbit hole.
Speaker 2Oh, he went down the Amana, amana, amana.
Speaker 1Amana, amana, amana. How do you pronounce that? Amana Amana?
Speaker 2It's probably Amana.
Speaker 1I'm hoping to say, that's what I'm going for E at the end.
Speaker 2Just the E at the end makes the A go A, otherwise it's A or something. You remember that? That's what I remember. I'm kind of guessing at this point, Don't mind me.
Speaker 1Again, we're going to have to go there on the summer tour to the Amana colonies. Is what it is, perfect, it is actually so. There is a manna that we talked about that where Millstream is, but it is a colony that is seven villages on 26,000 acres, which is about the size of a township for Minnesota. Just for comparison wise, if you're not familiar, google what your local jurisdiction is. I guess I don't really know. It's about the same size as, like some of the townships in our area. At least Roughly speaking, that's kind of what you're looking at In Iowa, east Central Iowa, with a handful of different locations.
Speaker 1What happened was is it was German state government. Villages were built and settled by German radical peatists, I believe, that were persecuted by their homeland German state government and Lutheran church and kicked them right out of there. So they settled at one point in that area. They survived basically self-sufficient with a local economy, just self-sufficient for 80 years, living kind of a communal life until about 1932. So they kind of moved into that area about 1856 and until about 1932, they kind of got hit hard with the Great Depression. They ended up creating a nonprofit organization that kind of helped with that a little bit, called the Imana Society, which included the Imana Corporation. I'm not sure if that's the Imana brand appliances. I don't think so, but that's what the Imana Corporation is. Yeah, that is the Imana Corporation, an American brand of household appliances, founded in 1934 by George Forstner, the electrical equipment company in Middle Imana, iowa, to manufacture commercial walk-in coolers. Wow, so this is that Imana, that is that Imana. We have now learned a little bit about that.
Speaker 1The seven villages are a tourist attraction for their restaurants and craft shops. They are also a national historic landmark as of 1965. The organizations in the area, or the cities, if you will, or villages, I guess you could call them, is what they list them on here Middle Imana, imana or Main Imana. Population 442, 442. Wow, but that's pretty good size brewery for that area, I'm kidding. South Imana, homestead, west Imana, high Imana and East Imana.
Speaker 2What kind of Imanas?
Speaker 1It's Imana Middle, imana South, imana West, imana High, imana East, Imana and Homestead.
Speaker 2Perfect. What's the total population of all that?
Speaker 1It's going to be probably about 1,500. Wow, imana is the biggest at 581. Imana at 442. South Imana is third at 159.
Speaker 2I know what they're doing on a Friday night they're going to the brewery. They're going to the brewery. They're having some of that meat sticks from the place. Next, door.
Speaker 1Absolutely, they're going to go have some shenanigans and they're going to listen to the best live music in the Midwest Perfect, that's what they're going to be doing. So if you're from the Imana area, reach out. We're going to come hang out with you. That sounds like a great time. Absolutely, we want to come check that out. So that should be part of the summer tour.
Speaker 2Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. Why would?
Speaker 1we, because shenanigans, shenanigans that's what we're really all about. That's kind of what I live my life with, but it's fine, don't worry about it. That's what I like to be, able to do. All right, I concur. What else you got today, sean? Any more trivia?
Speaker 2I have no trivia, except for facts. There. No theories, no facts. I've fact it out.
Speaker 1We kind of went down the rabbit hole of St Patrick and his details and the Imana brand colony.
Speaker 2There's a lot more into St Patrick, of course, if you look up in New Mart. It's quite interesting how he was kind of like stolen and comes back and he turns into a patron. But he's not technically a patron, but he's a patron and all that stuff. It's pretty interesting.
Speaker 1There's some good facts that you might know verified or not, maybe if they're not, and that might actually make it more fun. But if you put that, maybe, in the comments to the video, whether it be on YouTube, facebook, whatever it may be that you are consuming our podcast, well, we are consuming shenanigans. Go ahead, get back to us. Definitely, give us some feedback. But if you have some facts, some random facts, we'd like to be able to hear some stuff, so throw it out there. We'd like to be able to see what's going on and, to a certain extent, it's good to be able to have a true fact, but it's also kind of fun to let's see, like, what's the most off the wall thing that we can come up with. On that one Letter rep, I have faith in our listeners to be able to come up with something really good.
Speaker 2They're pretty smart.
Speaker 1They're smarter than we are. Well, I mean, obviously that's just a given thing. Yeah, that's kind of what we got today, Perfect.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't really have anything else. Thanks a lot for listening, watching all this stuff. Let us know we appreciate all the support. Again, this is just fun for us. We're having a great time doing it. It's growing, thanks to everybody watching, paying attention. We really appreciate it. Get yourself some shenanigans if it's available in your area. Thanks a lot. Everybody appreciate it.
Speaker 1And we'll wrap things up. I do have to pass along. I apologize for not wearing the pajama pants today, but trying something a little bit different. Today's episode, but maybe next time, who knows? We'll see what happens. But until then, cheers everybody.
