Hello, and welcome back to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I am Pat, I'm the director of spirit Sales here at Binny's, but we're talking about beer today, so there's other people here to talk about beer with me. I'm Roger, I talk about beer and beer related. I'm Chris, I'm conjoined with Roger most of the time, and I talk about beer. Sometimes we share a glass, we're so close. So Roger, I know you're a resident ranch water expert, but we're gonna have to talk about beer today, okay? I'm really excited that on a weekly basis, I think I try more samples of beer adjacent products, so I'm really excited to talk about beer today. Well, what kind of beer are we gonna talk about today? Summer beers. Summer beers, that could be anything. That's a bullsh** subject, Roger. Summer beers make you feel fine. That's the thing, it really is something that's open for interpretation and I feel like it's definitely one of the most written about subjects. Every year, there's always articles online and the paper. People love listicles about what's the best summer beer. Nowadays, since we're talking about Seltzer nonstop, those are obviously good in the summer. It's a big part of their popularity. They're really refreshing. Well, I want to talk about some of the beers that we usually turn to during the summer because they're so refreshing. We're gonna walk through ones that we've had that we liked and then I've got some new stuff to try too. Good. You know I appreciate a good crispy boy, so I'm looking forward to these. Yeah. I was gonna say, we know your beer of choice is hams, Pat. How would you define your ideal summer beer, Roger? What attributes would it have? So I would say that with summer beer, you're looking for something that you're gonna be drinking outside in warmer weather, so you want it to be refreshing. When I think refreshing, I think balanced or leaning towards dry, so it really can be pretty different from a lot of the beers that people are talking about nowadays. Like you really wouldn't want something heavy or sweet when it's hot out. So typically, wheat beers are king during summer. We're gonna talk about a lot of wheat beers today, but the classic lagers, which the three of us have talked about on some podcast recently, things like Helles lagers, Pilsners, a really good lager can be great when it's hot out. And I think you can especially appreciate the fact that when you finish one, you can drink another one without getting a little too hammered too quick. And yeah, I think it's about refreshment, obviously, and balance. Couldn't agree more. Something that you can take a few back on a hot day, and it doesn't just zap you, and it doesn't drain you, and it doesn't make you feel more tired, or that you get that weird midday combination of heat stroke and hangover, or maybe it's only people The Brophy malaise. Oh, for sure. If it's 80 plus degrees out, I can have a couple and I can still feel light on my feet, refreshed, just an enjoyable, sessionable, refreshing, quenching drinking experience. So I suppose if you're gonna say quenching, I suppose there could be a low ABV sour or something too. I mean, it could be really anything. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. Over the years, when we kind of think back, we're grizzled veterans here of the industry. And one of the things that was real popular during the summer was to market a summer beer as something with fruit in it. Yeah. So I think that persists to some degree. And when you mentioned sour, I think that they really go hand in hand. I mean, there's not many people making plain sours these days as much as those can be really good. Usually they're putting some kind of fruit in there. So I think that tradition is very much alive and well with that. One of the things everybody thinks of with summer, right, is shandies. Yeah. And I was thinking about maybe we would talk about that today. And the new Goose Island shandy is definitely worth checking out. But for as many people that love shandies, a lot of people that don't. Line and Kugel really kind of made the category explode with summer shandy. I feel like that's kind of the OG summer seasonal beer, too. Like the summer seasonal beer used to be, I think, more of a thing. Like when I first started at Binny's, we had, you know, summer shandy. We had the Samuel Adams summer ale. Brooklyn summer ale was really popular. Sierra Nevada summer fest. But outside of that, I don't I don't really remember there being that many or that big of a thing. You know, when people think seasonal beers, you think fall and Oktoberfest and Christmas stuff and then some My Box. But summer was always just like, ah, you know, a brewery would just like, here's another IPA or here's a lager, and we'll call it the summer seasonal. Yeah, there's some truth to that. The exception being like, Witbiers, a lot of breweries would try to kind of push and make people think of summertime equals a Witbier of some kind, which Oberon, I think that that might have been the one that you left out that's kind of like king, at least in the Midwest. I mean, people go nuts about Oberon, which, again, it's a good beer, but. It's so boring though, boo. Again, I always thought Oberon was a little heavy and a little too kind of like under fermented for a summer beer. The first beer that we're going to drink, why don't we just pop one so we can drink some beer while we're talking here, is a Pilsner. Again, I think it's going to be lighter and crisper on its feet than something like an American wheat, like an Oberon or a 312 back in the day. I think it's lightened up over the years, but that again had a little bit of weight to it. Boulevard Wheat, another great American wheat, but there's still a little bit of body to those. If you want something a little leaner, going back to the original here, the OG refresher of a Pilsner. Which one are we opening first? Ommegang Idyll Days Pilsner. You're familiar with Idyll Days, aren't you? Oh, yeah. Well-attenuated, crisp, refreshing beers are the ticket here. Take a look at this Pilsner. This is referred to as a rustic or unfiltered Belgian style Pilsner. I don't quite know what they were going for, naming it specifically a Belgian style Pilsner. Obviously, Ommegang is famous for brewing Belgian styles, but their Belgian styles would be things that would maybe use a funky yeast or use like a fruity yeast. This is a pretty clean yeast, so I think they're trying to make a nod to one of the most famous Pilsners in the world, which would be Stella. I think they're trying to court Stella drinkers here. It's got a bit of haze to it, interestingly enough. It's unfiltered, baby. These breweries are finally listening, so they just as easily could have called this a zwickle. They probably didn't because no one knows what those are. Yeah, exactly. Who gives a s*** what a zwickle is? Wow, it's delightful. Isn't this a good beer? I mean, this is just such a simple beer. It is Czech floor-malted barley, Czech Saas hops. They are not reinventing the wheel here. There's no kind of bizarre new hop or different darker grain or anything. Like this is just an immaculately executed Pilsner. I totally agree. It's completely light on its feet. The color is beautifully pale and subtle, great head retention, and obviously, they're using lager yeast. So there's none of that phenolic, fruity, or spicy thing that a lot of people expect out of Belgian beers, because we're not using a nail yeast here, I assume. Right. Yeah. It's just clean, clean beer. The very pale straw color, like you alluded to with the head, it gives you just enough of the hop kick through that foam, but it doesn't, you know, it's still just a clean, very lightly crispy malty beer. Oh, it's excellent. And classic noble hops too. I mean, yeah. Honestly, and it tastes remarkably fresh. I'm totally digging this beer. I am loving the trend to put lagers and cans as opposed to bottles. I think that's what, to be honest, has hurt lagers so much over the year was that years was this stupid trend to put a lager in a green bottle. Yeah, moronic. The number of light struck lagers people have drank over the years is just in the billions. And when you get in a can like this, you're just drinking the beer like how it should actually taste. Yeah, a lot of lagers can be a revelation if you've had them in bottle before and are used to, you know. But once you have it out of a can or a good draft version, you're like, what? This is the same. Yeah. I was just so excited with how well this was done. There are a lot of local breweries that are putting out quality pilsners these days. I will say when I mentioned that this is very kind of simplistic and isn't, you know, a game changer, the one thing I will say is that it's very dry. So this definitely wouldn't be a Czech style pilsner. This would be like a German, you know, kind of like Northern German quality. Totally agree. It doesn't have the rich malt body you get out of Czech beers. It is dry, well attenuated, super crisp, and, you know, simple, I mean, perfect ingredients, brewed perfectly. I mean, I think this is great. I'm so happy you guys like this because I kept kind of just telling anyone that would listen that they need to go try this beer. The other thing about it is that this is just a new beer from Ommegang. In the world now, everything is about one-offs and like in and out, one and done. Like, this is going to be an everyday beer from them. So I personally get so much more excited when it's a beer that's just going to be around and that you can actually get. You don't have to wait in line. You don't have to worry about, you know, if it's going to be in stock or not. So go check out this beer, Ommegang Idyll Days Pilsner. All right, so the next beer that we're gonna try is a style that I would argue is one of the most, bro, if you were dead on with being like, what the hell's a summer beer? Like, that could be anything. If my feet were put to the fire, and it was like, what do you think of when you think of summer beer? And I specifically say this, having grown up in Chicago, I always think of Kölsch, or how most people say it incorrectly, Kolsch. I had somebody once tell me that it's pronounced like, got mad at me in the store and tell me it's pronounced Kölsch. And I was just like, well, listen, man, I don't really know, but here's what Kolschs we have. Yeah. I mean, I've always heard that you're supposed to say, Kölsch. Like, it almost sounds to me like Dutch or something and not German. There are umlauts over the O, right? Yeah. So the point is, this beer that's, you know, drinking in Germany is so geographical. It's all about what town you're in. This is the beer of Cologne, Germany, and it's actually a protected style. So in America, we don't tend to really care about that. We just say that we make something and tough. But technically, the American version should say Kölsch style. But at least here in the Midwest, brewers are sometimes concerned about putting, you know, that it's a Kölsch on their can or bottle because they don't think people will know what that is. But I would argue that in Chicago, we actually do. And the main reason for that is because of Goose Island summertime. I think that is one of the most beloved, you know, summer beers in the Midwest, especially in Chicago. And as witnessed by when Goose tried to change it to a different type of summer beer and people lost their minds. They were not amused. This style is very easy to love because it's lager-esque, but it's made with ale yeast. It's a little easier for breweries to make. Remember, ironically, you know, making a clean, crisp Pilsner lager is actually extremely challenging. Especially making it consistently. So a little easier to work with an ale yeast. You also don't have to store the beer or lager it as long. The last beer, by the way, the one thing I didn't mention is that it is lagered for a full month, which is nice that they divulge that. That is excellent. A lot of breweries nowadays that are trying their hand at lagers are really only doing it for a couple of weeks tops. Anyway, back to Kölsch. Kölsch is an ale, but it is lagered. It is stored at cold temperature prior to release. And there's a couple big names when it comes to the style of beer. If you're talking about Cologne, Germany, the big three who produce this beer are Reisdorf, Goffel and Früh. Früh has only been available here for a couple years and just recently in cans. So that's the one that we're going to try today. I was going to point that out. I was shocked to see a Früh Kölsch in a can. The only one I had seen before, I've had the five-liter can before, but other than that, it was just pretty expensive bottles. So this is pretty cool to see. Stark difference here, I have two glasses. I poured a little bit of the Früh out into a second glass. This baby is crystal clear. Yeah. It is a gorgeous, bright, sunny beer. One thing I would add about the Kölsch, I always just describe it to people, crisp and clean in body like a lager, but it has these high-tone fruit notes from Ayo yeast. Absolutely. But it's just got a little bit of that fruity character. This one is a little on the softer side too, which I think some people might be familiar with the style from Gothel and I was torn between which one we should drink, but that one to me drinks a little more like a Pilsner, and this is a little softer, Gothel has a little more pronounced top character, and it's definitely drier in the finish. This has a caressingly soft body, really easy drinking. This is kind of one of those things where it's typically served in this little glass that has a great name. Stange? Yeah, you can't really pronounce it correctly without doing it in a goofy German voice, I feel. Can I have a Stange? I've been saying Stange this whole time and sounding like an a**hole. Yeah, you and everybody else, man. I've said it that way too. I've had people at beer bars call it that, so I will never give people a hard time, because it is just hard to keep all these pronunciations straight. I've made many mistakes myself. Well, we are Americans. You kind of have to get in the spirit sometimes to use the accents properly. I mean, how many people say mozzarella correctly? No one's like, oh, mozzarella. This is typically served in these little glasses, and it's kind of like when you go to a Brazilian steakhouse, and it's like, if your glass is empty, they just bring another one. Yeah. It's green as go until you put your coaster on top of your glass. When you drink one of these, you're going to get why that is. I mean, you could just keep going with these. This is just crazy. I mean, this is the definition of easy to drink. Right. So-called crushable. How strong is this beer? I think it's 4.8. Really? 4.8. I see now. Yeah. It does not come off as that strong. No. No. Not at all. Like the Ommegang Pills was five and I would believe that it's five. It's obviously stronger than 3.2 and it's obviously not as strong as most IPAs. Well, in addition to the little glass, they have those interesting little carriers called the Kronz. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. The round trays that hold a bunch of the glasses. Yeah. Just delivered straight to the table, knock them back. I think Clark Street Ale House was serving Reistorf Kölsch with trays like that in their beer garden a couple summers ago. Yeah. So this is a style which I wanted us to drink a classic one in a way just because we've had all the local ones so many times, but I kind of was nice to go back to the roots. But I would definitely encourage listeners to, this is the perfect for like a fun summertime activity with your friends. Buy a bunch of different Kölschs and try them side by side. And you'll notice the subtle differences in a seemingly pretty simple beer style. You know, a lot of the American ones I feel are going to be a little more on the aromatic side. Some of them will be hoppier, some of them won't. It's really kind of all over the map. Some are very light in body. Others have a little more malt character. So again, a seemingly simple style, but there's definitely a lot of variance. So check out From Chicago, Metropolitan. That's kind of one of their mainstay flagship beers, Crank Shaft. That would be kind of on the very lighter side of the style, in my opinion. Goose Island Summertime has kind of changed a little over the years. It is still around, still a good value. Line and Kugel puts out a sneaky good Kölsch. Sneaky good, definitely. It was a seasonal that they were going to retire for a while, and won a gold medal, and it's a pretty darn good beer. Yeah, it is a good beer. They only brew lagers up there. So even when Line and Kugel has something that's labeled Porter, it's a bottom fermented, cold fermented beer. Dovetail, another Chicago brewery that's focusing on German classics. They do one. And then out in the Berbs, Salomoth, Lou, is one of our perennial favorites. Yeah, that's an excellent example. Fantastic beer. Yeah. Grab yourself a Kölsch. You're definitely going to see that if you do read lists of, you know, what summer beers to try, that's always one of the ones that makes the list, or there's lists of just those. So grab some, grab some Früh. It's an excellent one, now in four packs. Great price. Check it out. Just pronounce it Kölsch, so you don't sound like a d***bag like Roger. Stange. All right, what beer is next, Roger? All right, now we're going to go into the Wheats, because like I said, I think when you talk about summer beer, Wheat is kind of, at least here in the Midwest, Wheat is king. And this year, I wanted to try something new. There's so many familiar faces in the Wheat category, but Founders put out a beer this year, which I think is a really well, clearly well thought out and well constructed beer. It's an extension in their enormously popular all day, now all day series, if you will. So it's like a playoff of all day IPA. Since when was all day a series? It's one beer. What the heck? This is number two in the series, and we're calling it a series now? Yeah. I just have a feeling. I feel like you got to get to number four before you can be officially recognized as a series. I think there's been a long stretch before the introduction of this. I mean, didn't all day IPA come out 10 years ago or something, eight or nine? Yeah, but I jumped the gun a little. We can expect number three in 2031. All day vacay, 4.6% alcohol, 20 IBUs. Now, for what is a modern standard, that doesn't sound like much, but that's actually a respectably hopped wheat beer. I'm curious to taste this. I'm going to be brutally honest here. I often am pretty critical of session beers. I think they suffer sometimes from being totally out of balance. They end up tasting watery, especially session IPAs. So I went into this kind of like, eh, here we go. But boy, was I surprised. This tastes like it has fruit puree added to it. This is so fruity. It is. That's got to be the hops, right? I mean, it's all hops. I think some of it might be the yeast strain, too. But yeah, I'm sure a lot of it is the hops. I was trying to find out the, they're a little cagey about what the hops are. Interesting. I think there's some fruity esters here, but I do think that most of this fruity nature is coming from the hops. It doesn't have like the classic, like German Hefe Weiss fruitiness to it at all. But it has kind of a soft, apricotty, peachy thing going on. Yeah, I get huge like apricot off of this. I think there's just enough cut, like Pat, you point out the IBUs, like I'm so used to weightier Witbiers and- Yeah. If I tasted this blind, I wouldn't think it's a Wheatbeer because it's got really nice clarity. It's not even as hazy as that unfiltered Ommegang Pilsner, side by side, and it's got a darker gold color, but just tasting and smelling this, I wouldn't necessarily assume Wheatbeer. I don't know what I would assume, though, because it's not quite hoppy enough to be a Session IPA. It's not crisp enough to be a Kölsch or a Pilsner. If I tasted this blind, I don't know what I would think of it, actually. It's also important to mention when we talk about Witbiers that Chicagoans really fell in love with a pair of hoppy Witbiers in Gumball Head from Three Floyds and Lil Somethin Somethin from Lagunitas. So again, this doesn't have that level of hoppiness, but it really does fit nicely in between a more traditional American Wheat, like say Boulevard Wheat or something that Oberon that has a little more heft, and then something that has a little more This is like 312 on steroids. Yeah. It doesn't get as creamy and as full-bodied as the Boulevard, but it's got that crisp, clean 312 character, just with a little more hop and a little more complexity. I would call it like right in the middle of that American Wheat beer spectrum. It's almost perfectly balanced. I mean, the hops are there for the cut, but they're folded right into everything. I mean, it starts out a little fruity. It doesn't come off as bitter on the finish, but it has just enough to clean things up on the end. It's super drinkable again. Another just like remarkably drinkable beer that you could just pound, I think. Just enough hops to keep it quenchable. Yeah. This is a really good job, founders. This is a surprise to me. I mean, I've never had a bad founders beer, I would say, but I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I do. Yeah. The value here too is just that's what founders is famous for. Ludicrous. I mean, we're selling this for $18.15 pack, but it goes on sale a lot. So when it's on sale, you're looking at $15.99. It's only about a buck a beer. I mean, this is a really high quality beer for that. It's a deal. I think because it doesn't have like the overt bubblegummy or banana notes, the actual character of wheat shows through a little bit. There's a little biscuity, almost like weedy breakfast cereal like character to the malt. It's interesting. Even at twice the cost per can of the beloved, I would probably buy and drink this beer. High praise. Since you brought up the bubblegum character, let's talk for a second about the old school classics that are two other options that you can enjoy in the summer, and that being like German style wheat beers in the Hefe Weizens, or Belgian wheat beers being the Belgian wits. Again, I think this has that almost dangerous crushability, that the other two, because they're so fruity, or like a Belgian Witbier is going to be spiced with coriander and orange peel, so especially the American interpretations, that stuff can start to bog down your palate. I feel like after a while, you're like, I like this, but I don't want to keep drinking it. Or the Hefe Weizens can even the really well-made ones, like a wine chiffon or a pollen or a hocker, that bubblegum and banana clove character can start to, after a while, be like, all right, I'm tired of this. Yeah. I used to drink a lot of Hefe Weiss in the summer, but I agree with you. It's almost a little rich in body and all that fruitiness. You want a little more crisp cut in the summer, which is, I guess, why some people like lemon with it. I couldn't agree with you more about American Witbiers. The lack of a judicious hand with coriander is a disaster. It drives me insane. Yeah. I avoid that category entirely just because I'm not a big coriander fan. See, I like subtle coriander. It's over the top. Oftentimes, it comes off like when it's really loud, it's almost like celery seed or something. It's really, really, yeah, unpleasant. So when it's done right, it makes it a great pairing for things that you would eat with coriander in them or cilantro in them. So it's an awesome partner for tacos, other Mexican foods, Indian cuisine. I mean, Witbiers compare beautifully with food. For sure. But again, if the topic here is like it's 95 out in the shade, what do you want to drink? You might not want to keep drinking Witbiers, but you might want to throw a couple into the mix. What would you guys recommend if you wanted to pick? Let's throw out a couple of favorites in case people are curious as far as I would say for Witbiers, I really enjoy Unibrew. That was one of the ones I was thinking about pouring today. their Blanche de Chamblay, that was the first beer that they ever brewed. It was the first bottle-conditioned beer made in North America supposedly, which I found interesting. Then I really like St. Bernardus Wit, is a major sleeper. I was just going to say that is a sleeper. I rarely think of that, but it is excellent. It's probably the best Witbier I've ever had. I would arguably go as far as to agree with that, because it was made in collaboration with Pierre Sellis, who single-handedly brought that style back literally from the dead to Found Who Garden, which unfortunately, like so many other beer brands, has been bought and is now mass-produced by the big guys. It's still a decent beer, but perhaps not quite what it once was. If you want to try a good Witbier, I would say those two are two of your best options. Allagash White, of course, has always been the American standard beer. I like Allagash White too. It is really low-key on the coriander. They're a great brewery, kind of unimpeachable. Pat, if you were going to buy a Hefe, what are a couple of your favorites? Feinstefanner is the best. Ondex, I'm a big fan of Ondex, and they are some sneaky good beers. Ondex German monastic brewery, we only have them in 500 ml bottles, I think. But I would say that the Doppelbach they make is probably the best in the world. Perfect summer beer. I really love their Hells. their Hells Lager is incredible. Yeah, obviously the Doppelbach isn't a summer beer. But if I'm buying a Hefe, I'm buying Weichenschneffern or Ondex. Sierra Nevada doesn't make theirs anymore, do they? They made an excellent Hefe for a very long time. If you're in Wisconsin, you got to get the new Glarus one because it's traditionally open fermented. As German wheat beers are and they do a really great job. Well, that's no surprise. Yeah, they don't always do that one though, unfortunately. Yeah, which is crazy because they have that whole open fermentation room that you can go and look in the window at on their little self-guided tour, and they don't make it all the time. It's crazy. Chris, if you're reaching for a Hefe, what would be a couple of your favorites? So I agree with Pat's choice as wholeheartedly, but I also really like Ianger. I mean, I'm a sucker for almost anything they make. Oh, yeah. Jeez, Ianger. Ianger Brow Vise is... I can't believe I forgot about that one. Both the Brow Vise and the Err Vise, which is darker, are excellent. Totally love those. And Weinstefanner. Those are my top two probably. I agree with you guys. I think Ianger Yes is sneaky good. I will mention, I've always liked Polliners a lot. It always gets overshadowed by Hacker. And again, they are also available in cans now. Oh, nice. Can't give enough props to these German breweries who are famously just sticks in the mud, who won't innovate at all. They're finally listening to beer consumers who are like, we want cans. There's better for the beer. Possibly maybe one of our only omissions was Schneider. Oh, wait. See, I love that beer, but for summer, it's just too full bodied for me. Yeah, that beer is fricking phenomenal, but it's not a light, easy drinking one. All right. So that's kind of our tour day wheat. Again, I think check out some of these OG wheat beers because the craze right now, which is what we're about to drink next is hazy beers, hazy IPAs. And a big part of why those are hazy is that they're they're wheat beers. They almost always include wheat as well as oats. So if you enjoy those kind of flavors, you might be surprised that you'd like some of these classic German wheat beers and Belgian wheat beers. Yeah, if you're drinking hazy and you haven't had a Hefe Weizen, you got to get to the root. Amen. All right, so up next, we have a controversial beer. This is, we mentioned Sierra Nevada earlier. Sierra Nevada, their summer beer for years was a beer called Summerfest, which Pat mentioned, or one of you mentioned. Summerfest was a pretty traditional take on a Pilsener. It used classic German hops, well balanced. One of those beers that people, you know, were pretty passionate about, and we're excited to kind of see it come every year. It has unfortunately been replaced, or perhaps fortunately, we haven't even tried this yet. This is the first time I'm tasting this beer. Sierra Nevada Summer Break. I'm hoping I hate it because this episode is totally bereft of controversy so far, because the first three beers were killing it. Sierra Nevada Summer Break, Session Hazy IPA 4.6% ABV. I will say as soon as I cracked this can open, I was instantly transported to a hop freezer at a brewery. It just smelled like bags of raw hop pellets. But once I poured it into the glass, it settled down into more integrated fruity and piney aromas. It's not just like that raw hop anymore. But as soon as I cracked the can, it was crazy. It's really interesting because it has a combination of, as you say, like a resinous piney note, but that super tropical new wave hop character too, real guava. So what's going on here? I've never had this before, obviously. So I think the impetus for this is Sierra Nevada's wildly popular hazy beer called Hazy Little Thing, is a very, how do I put this, clean hazy? It is basically a professionally made shelf stable. What? Like awesome, awesome hazy beer that's not very weighty. Like it checks a lot of the boxes, but it might not glow neon orange and be completely opaque, like a lot of the local people do. But it sells like crazy. It's easy to understand why people love it. This is kind of, I think, trying to key into the category of session IPA, which in a lot of ways got kind of replaced by low Cal IPA. Yeah. I think they're just trying to kind of again hammer home this idea of that when in the summer, you're outside and you're hot and you tend to drink more. So you don't necessarily want things that are too high in alcohol because of that. So this is sort of, if you look at the recipes, there's some definite similarities as far as the base malts are very similar, hazy little thing is made with two-row Munich oats and wheat. This is made with two-row, there's no Munich oats and wheat. This hot bill is very interesting. It's kind of a cool blend of old school and new stuff. So it's Chinook, Simcoe, Comet, Mosaic, Amarillo, and Strisselspalt, which is a very old school hop from the Alsace region. Just throwing a noble hop in. Right. Why not? That just goes to the point that I was making when I was smelling it, is you actually get all those fruity modern hops, but you've got an old school Northwest hop in Chinook, and a really classic noble hop in the Strisselspalt. Really interesting. Actually, I like it. The first thing that struck me was the color. So many of these hazies look like orange juice. This is more like a hazy pineapple juice. It's much lighter. Dead on. Yeah. I think there's actually some pineapple-y, guavi aromas in it. It's very easy to drink too. The tropical character here is pretty amazing. The fact that there's not fruit in this is, to me, infinitely more interesting than if they had put some fruit juice in or fruit puree as well. Couldn't agree more. Which is totally the trend nowadays. If you can achieve this flavor from hops, how is that not a masterful brewing stroke that you want to feature and emphasize? I really salute Sierra for doing this. I know firestone has always been really committed to that with their Luponic Distortion Series. Like, why are we doing this where we use these beautiful hops and then dump fruit puree in so that you can't tell where the hops start and end and where the fruit begins? So true, Roger. I mean, this is the difference between masterful brewing technique and just dumping adjuncts in. I mean, anybody can dump adjuncts in. And sometimes you don't even have to brew a good beer for the end result to be fruity and drinkable for the masses. But this is well-balanced and man, it screams tropical fruit for sure. Yeah. This is an excellent beer. I don't know how many more ways we can say that. If you like hazy, if you like hoppy, and you want something that you can drink outside on a hot day, you should reach for this. I don't usually drink IPAs when I'm out in the sun. It just drains me and zaps me, like I said earlier. This though, I think I could. Yeah. The body here is totally drinkable. What's the alcohol in this? 4.6. Yeah. If you're a fan of their hazy little thing, which is 6.7, it doesn't really taste like 6.7, but this is a great sessionable alternative. If you like hazies in general, check this out. Again, I think people will shy away from IPAs and hot weather because of exactly what Pat said, like the old school ones are pretty bitter. The newer ones are kind of too heavy and too sweet. This really threads the needle. So check it out. I feel sorry for all of you that miss Summerfest, but you can rest assured that there are literally tons of other excellent Pilseners that you can buy. And this is a real standout IPA. Coming up next, let's hit something sour. We were talking about people dumping fruit into beers, so let's drink a beer where they dump fruit into the beer. We got over that hazy hump, which I thought might trip me up and be the first beer I didn't like, but it came through for me, so it's all up to Odell to make me angry today. I was struggling to try to decide which sour to pick. There's so many to choose from. There's a lot of local sours these days. They tend to be in and out real quick, things that are just one-off batches. I wanted to offer something that you're actually going to be able to buy all summer long, and it's kind of been tried and true. It's been around for a couple years now, and people really like it, and I think you guys, I'm curious to hear what you think, but I think you're going to see why. This is Odell Sippin Pretty. This is loaded with their unique blend of acai, guava, and elderberry, and balanced with a delicate addition of Himalayan pink sea salt. Fancy. Coming in at a very sessionable 4.5. I didn't want to hate this beer, and I don't hate this beer, but it's boring though. This is, I don't know. I think it lacks in finish. It's got some interesting fruit notes, but none of them really stand out, and then it just has that little bit of salt in the finish, though, does keep it quenching and drinkable. I will give it that. What's going to hold some people up here is that the trend right now is to make sours that are both sweet and sour. This is not that. This is not that at all. No. The sourness here isn't huge either. I think they were trying to start with a beer that really didn't have a ton of acidity, knowing that there's some acidity to the fruits they were putting in it. So this would be if there was like titratable acidity measured on this. It wouldn't be that acidic of a beer, I don't think. Again, I think that kind of is speaks to its drinkability. So even though people are turned to sours sometimes in hot weather, if they're too acidic, you can't keep drinking them. Like after a while, you're going to get instant heartburn. And so kind of going halfway a bit, you know, like this is tart and a little sour, but it's still drinkable enough that you could finish one and then pop another one right away. So that's not necessarily something you're going to find with a lot of the people right around the corner. Like a lot of sours these days are straight up dessert beers. I agree with you, Roger. This is really an attempt to thread the needle from what I can tell. There is some acidity, but it seems mostly from the fruit. And there's even a bit of almost tannic astringency, perhaps from elderberries or something. Elderberries, yeah, I think for sure. Yeah, which kind of helps clean it up a little on the end. And you definitely get the sense there's salt in here, but it's certainly not salty, but you can almost smell like a saline or minerally note in the nose, but that could be my imagination. I think the reason that I really salute this beer and like it is that unlike so many other fruited sours, the fruit flavor here is so natural. It tastes like fresh guava, and the elderberry is adding that kind of tannic quality, and the acai is maybe just giving it a bit of almost like a blueberry kind of dark fruit subtle. Guava is the star of the show here. For sure. So if you're a guava fan, this is guava first. Other two are very much background players. Again, I think this is built for speed, not for comfort. Like this is a sessionable sour you're going to drink a few of, as opposed to a lot of sours these days where you drink about six or seven ounces of it, and you're wondering if you can even finish the whole 16 ounce can. Yeah, if you're going into this expecting sweet fruitiness, you're not going to get it. It's very clean. And I think that acai note really pops up on the finish, kind of like an aromatic note that lingers afterward. But you're right, guava is in the driver's seat. Yeah, I need to try to source some just plain acai juice. I know that the fruit's pretty much not available, but I can't say I've ever just drank straight acai juice. I need to kind of up my game on exactly what that takes. You just need to travel to South America and climb a palm tree. You'll be fine. So, yeah, there is that added benefit. Remember, the government is very particular about how you can never write any kind of perceived benefit from a beer. But this beer was definitely designed to be a more like healthful beer in that antioxidant bomb. Yeah, it's got antioxidants, you know, three super fruits in it. The salt is going to arguably help replenish some of your electrolytes. So, hangover beer. Much like dogfish, sea quench would be kind of in the same family as that as well. Yeah, totally. All right, so rounding things out, I figured I would throw everyone for a loop, and we would drink something that I enjoy drinking quite a bit all year round, but especially in the summer, and try a nice hard cider. Did you mean to give me an 8.5% alcohol hard cider? Right, you bet I did. What the hell is this, Roger? Nobody wants to drink this in the summer. A lot of the times, you might be in the air conditioning in the summer, too, let's be honest. Chilling Cider, Excelsior. This cider is too good not to talk about. It is one of the strongest hard ciders in a can at 8.5% alcohol. So yeah, it's completely going in the opposite trend of sessionable. But sometimes, you just want something that's a little stronger. Maybe this is what you want to start your day with or finish your day with. The mixture of sweetness and acidity here and the apple flavor is really pretty darn cool. It has such a deep color for cider. Yeah, crazy for cider. It's got this big essay on the back of the can about getting crushed on the cider or something, and it ends with grab a six pack and get ready to blast off. Always put your giraffe space helmet on before you put your own on. I mean, this is beautiful cider. It's juicy. It's lightly sweet. It has no business being this easy drinking for eight and a half percent alcohol. Outrageously drinkable, but a hard pass on the eight and a half percent. Come on. I think it's really good. It's delicious. It is really good. But come on, a summer beer. Get out of here, Roger. Get out of here with us. Sometimes you got to cut the breaks, man. I totally get your point of you like the more lower stuff, but I could also see Brophy going, I'm sick of all this low alcohol stuff. So sick of all this low alcohol stuff. Get ready to blast off. Give me an eight and a half percent alcohol hard cider. Well, as you put, man, you would never guess that this is 8.5. Never guess. All right. So Schilling, they make a lot of other excellent ciders as well. If 8.5 isn't quite your speed, there's lower ABV options as well. But the mix of sweetness and acidity here is just out of this world. They are from Washington State, home of the best apples, big props. So Brophy, I'm going to do you one even worse and tell you that if 8.5 alcohols seem like a lot, you're really going to love making stone fence cocktails out of this. Oh yeah, actually. By fortifying it further with rye, bourbon or rum. I have on the desk here some of the Greg Versch Infinite Bottle, which has a lot of rye in it. We'll give it a little splash-a-roo, see how it tastes. You know what? I think this is going to be a potent drink, but this has the depth of character to stand up to that drink particularly well, I think. I've made some. It really does. They are awesome. Roger's made some stone fences with this, they're awesome, and he woke up on his lawn. They were made with rye, bourbon, and rum, so you can't decide. Let me correct that. He woke up in the gutter. No. I had a good night, and I was in the spirit of the American Revolution, and Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. But no, this is a great cider. Hard cider is an often overlooked category. It's Brophy and I have literally stood on this soapbox, literally year after year. That cider fest, it's such a misunderstood category. It is not only sweet stuff. People drink this hard cider that is sicklingly sweet, and there's so much beautiful hard cider being made out there. All ends of the spectrum, from bone dry to syrupy sweet. The best ones, in my opinion, are the ones that balance sweetness with acidity. The bone dry ones are not for everybody. There's people that would hate those just as much as the really cloyingly sweet ones. But when you can get something like this that perfectly balances that sweet and acidic note, it's just going to make your mouth water and going to make you want to drink another sip. Yeah, I agree, Roger. I like dry cider, but some of them can be incredibly neutral when they're really bone dry. Yep. But this just hits right in the center so perfectly with its sweet acid balance. And I cannot stress enough that the textural component of tannins here is so pleasant too. It's puckering and delicious. Well, that's your hot summer night's nightcap. All right, boys. Well, I think that brings us to a conclusion here. I'm almost disappointed by how much I liked everything. Hey, I curated this list very carefully. You did. I really tried to hit different bases here. And again, I think we at least discussed some of the classics. So we do love some of the things. It's great to have a nice cold little something, Oberon, Gumball Head. But here's some new stuff you might not have tried. And go out there and share some with your friends and family. Drink hams. Just get a 30 rack of hams. It's the best option for summer drinking. Just going to leave that there. Don't do that. We've got so many unbelievably good options here. Sure, have a hams every once in a while. These are great. If I'm going to reach for one of these, probably I can't go on record saying I would reach for a hazy. So sorry, Sierra Nevada, even though it was probably the best beer we tried. Actually, the Ommegang Pilsner, that Ommegang Unfiltered Pilsner is just fantastic. I'm with you. The Founders All Day Vacay, when we run that baby on sale for like 12 bucks or 15 bucks, I'm all over that. Yeah, I'm not a big hazy drinker. All day, as they would say. All day. We have a name. These are good. Hey, so that was Summer Beers. Pretty damn good beers this year. Brewery Ommegang's Idyll Days Pilsner has definitely earned a spot in My Fridge, and that All Day Vacay from Founders, hard to beat, especially at the value price. So, Rog, this was great, man. I appreciate tasting all these new beers. I don't get to do that as often these days. So this was a lot of fun. Keep your 8.5% alcohol cider. We'll revisit that in the fall. Okay. Sounds good. And if you enjoyed listening to this episode, do us a favor, leave us a review on iTunes. Send us a question. If you got a question about anything beverage alcohol related, just email us at comments at binnys.com or hit us up on social media, and we'll give you $20 in tricky Binny's Fun Bucks. So until next week, I am Pat. I'm Chris. I'm Roger. Keep tasting. I am Pat. I'm Chris. I'm Roger. I'm Roger. Keep tasting. Keep tasting. We always wait like we're cutting each other off. Yeah, let's separate audio lines, you b****s.