Hey, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, in your feed with an episode. Roger, what's new? New in beer. So much to talk about. And I didn't even bring any Czech Dark Lagers. Thank God. Real oversight. I brought a Czech Light Lager. Woo. Damn it. I like those too. As per usual with the beer world, it's a real hodgepodge and mishmash of a lot of different things. I will say that a lot of local breweries are on this rinse and repeat with IPAs. And we're starting to see some pushback on that, some disinterest in, you know, the same old, hazy IPAs time after time after time, just changing the hops. So for the first time in a while, I'm starting to see some classic styles being brewed, which, as I've said before, that's the upside to the fact that there's so many new beer releases now, where there's a new hazy IPA, which is really just a new By classic, you mean things like Cascadian Dark Lager, right? Yeah, like very, you know, everything from like a Brown Ale, Brooklyn Brown is coming back in a couple months. Stop. It went away? Oh, for like a decade, yeah. Who hasn't got a craving for one of those in a while? Yeah, I mean, all the kids are banging down the doors for Brown Ales. By the way, by the way, I'm Greg, he's Roger. I'm Chris. Hey, I'm Pat. All right, so I am going to say that you are everything that's wrong with beer. This attitude that you always say. No one knows who you're pointing your finger at, but we all know. Now you listen to your agreed. I'm getting the finger whacking of a lifetime over here. Dikembe Mutombo next to me. Very displeased with my taste in beer. Brophy's favorite thing to say is like, that's what the kids are clamoring for. So yeah, let's stereotype everybody that's 21 as if they're all the exact same person and they like all the same things. And let's talk about Brown Ale for a minute. Everybody berates them as if it's some completely irrelevant old man beer style. Last time I checked, Brown Ale's tastes a lot like chocolate is the main descriptor. So the very same kids that you're saying could possibly like a stodgy old thing like a Brown Ale. I think they probably love chocolate. In fact, we've proven with all the pastry BS that's out there, that they very much love chocolate. Your defense of Brown Ale is that it tastes like chocolate. I disagree that it tastes like chocolate. I, you guys, Roger is knives out on this one once. It's just, okay, so we have a Czech light Pilsner. So we start with a Pilsner. I just made a joke because if you haven't listened to our Czech Dark Lager episode, you should. again, people are starting to be curious about Czech beer in general. Makes sense. The Czech Republic drinks more beer per capita than any country in the world. They love their beer. They love their beer service, the way they present it, their glassware, the foam. It's starting to captivate a lot of people. They're wondering what it's all about. So I brought a beer from a brewery that I'm a big fan of. Pat, you've been down there and visited this place. Several times, love this brewery. Chris, and I bet you probably have too. You're always down in St. Louis. I've been there a bunch. Yeah. I was there too. Wrong. I went there. Sorry. St. Louis' own. Yeah. Urban Chestnut we're talking about. Yeah. So Urban Chestnut, famous for their Zwickl beer, is their flagship, most well-recognized beer. Then there are Oktoberfest, which has a ludicrously long name, Okenstoffel. Oh, Katzelschwarf. It means squirrel in Austrian. They've tended to focus mainly on classic styles, a lot of German and Czech stuff. But they brew some IPAs and stuff as well. But it's really a perfect time to reintroduce themselves to the market. For a while there, they were sadly a little absent. The distribution was a little spotty, but they're coming back and this is they're kind of an odd thing to have as a winter seasonal. But again, it's interesting to kind of try to buck the trend. Well, they can't all be brown ales in the winter. What's funny is that they also brewed a dark, what do they call it? Like German Porter. Really? Yeah. If you're wondering, that's something that maybe your kids aren't as excited about. German Porter, huh? Is that a lager or a nail? I think it's a lager. I assume what they're going for is like Baltic, but instead of going that route, they were leaning into more German. German Malts and Hops or something. It was all right. Part of the reason I brought this, besides that I'm happy that Urban Chestnut is back in action and will be more readily available at a Binny's near you, is that I try every lager that I can get my hands on. I kind of jokingly said that the world does not need more Czech Pilsners made with Pilsner malt and Saas hops. So has I. Have I. Yeah. I know you like that. What sets this apart is, I think, several things. It's more of a standout Pilsner than some. So if you look at the color, it's a little darker than your average Pilsner, and that is because it also employs some Munich and Carmel malts. So many drank mine. I'm going to need some more. Yep. Passed it around. Yeah, it's pretty good. It also, instead of just Saz hops, it also features Aramis, which is a French hop. A cologne? What? Aramis. I used to wear it. Couldn't keep them off. Flies, that is. It's a French hop, which is a daughter of Striselspalt, the famous hop from the Alsatian region. I think that this is a really nice, like Sosa's hops are the Czech hop, the Pilsner hop. They're grassy, they're spicy. They can be, they're very, it's a super famous hop. But I think by adding some of this Aramis, you're getting a florality and a little bit of citrus that you don't necessarily get. So it's bringing an additional layer of depth here like the other malts are. It's definitely a little more fuller bodied for a Pilsner, and it's 5.3, so it's almost like hinging on Dortmunder level of ABV, which I'm always telling people, if you're going to especially have beer with a little more hop character, put a little It sure has a full body. I was going to say that the first thing I noticed, I'm not surprised by these German malts at all, is the kind of bready malty character. It really has a nice solid malt foundation. But it's really well balanced. There is a dry, grassy bitterness in the finish that really cleans it up. It's remarkably well balanced. I would say that it leans more malt than, say, the classic Pilsner or Kale, which is a pretty intense hop blast. It reminds me more of things like Czechvar. The other reason I brought it in would be from your pandemic, Czechvar, housing of Czechvar. Well, I mean, it has that softer, slightly richer malt character and dial back hop, but it's right where it needs to be. Did you know that they have tanks of Czechvar that they deliver to bars, where they install them, they look like propane tanks? Dang. They fill them with unfiltered Czechvar, and then they just pull them direct off tanks. I need one of those at my house. How is that different than a keg? That's a good question. It's not. So, it's, yeah, just the volume is different, and I think it's funny the way they just put them, like, in the bar seating area in the pictures I saw. Oh, that is funny. It's kind of really trying to showcase them. But yes, you bring up a good point. What's more important than our customers? Our inventory. That's a point. Also, it's really chilly in here. Yeah, they must have, they must be jacketed or something. I don't know where the magic happens. But unfiltered, that would be fun. Yeah. again, a Pilsner that brings a little more to the table than some of the more, I don't know, very true to style, like only Pilsner malt, only Saz hops. And Urban Chestnut pricing is phenomenal. This is $9.99 for a four pack. So nice value, great beer. Glad they got away from the four pack of 16 ounce glass. Yes. So that is sadly kind of was like their undoing. It was a death for them in Sprecher. Like people didn't understand it. They didn't get it. And of course, it makes perfect sense in Germany. They were trying to emulate the way people consume beer in Germany. Everybody's drinking half liters. The 11.2s are famously for the children and the elderly. I qualify as both for various reasons. They finally had their due that everybody decided they wanted 16 ounces of beer instead of, you know, 12 ounces. So, yeah, keep an eye on Urban Chestnut. If you're ever down in St. Louis, they're one of the breweries you need to visit. They make phenomenal beer. Their brewmaster is definitely worthy of the term brewmaster. He's worked on all sorts of different systems in different countries. And they definitely bring that when we talk about a lot of craft beer, it's leaning towards the art side of things. Urban Chestnut does a nice job of balancing the art and science, and they make really good beer. I'm glad it's back, man. Yeah. And hopefully they do more seasonal and limited releases like this. Did you at least bring like a Dragon Lady or something for Greg? Please. Not complain. There's some higher ABV stuff. Since you're not letting me open all these goozes I want to open. Maybe I'll let you open one of them, but still it's ridiculous. Where's that coming from? The 11.2 hate? I heard somebody once from some company was, I asked why we can't have six packs of stuff, and they basically were like, 11.2, that's for children and the sick. Children and the old. And I think they also threw in something misogynist like, and the ladies. Are you an old, a baby, or a lady? Next, we're going to follow this up with another logger. This is actually one of our collabs that I thought was a really fun project, and I wanted to go into a little more depth about putting this beer together. Your timing, that was an excellent can pop. Roger's always spot on with the can pop. Goldfinger. All right. So up next, we have- I'm the reincarnation of Shirley Bass. So again, there's all this interest in lagers that's awesome. What I also like to see, though, besides these flawless recreations of classic styles that are like spot on, let's try to make a definitive German pills or let's make a spot on Czech pills. I think in the spirit of American craft beer, there should also be some experimentation. And we should look to make lagers that haven't necessarily existed before and not something that fits directly into some cookie cutter category. So the inspiration behind this collab, it's with Binny's, Goldfinger and Pollyanna. We did two collabs with them previously. We did a Das ist Zwicklbier and Das ist Kellerbier to try to explain to people the concepts of Kellerbier and Zwicklbier. Those both were very well received. I thought they turned out great. And a lot of people enjoyed the Kellerbier. It had a little je ne sais quoi to it. There was something about it that people really liked. And I think one of the things that was the major standout to that was that it was made with a little bit of spelt. When we were talking about Kellerbier, we were talking about land beer as well, which is kind of like. I can't believe you tricked Greg and I into another lager episode. What is going on here? Yeah, I'm trying not to trash talk right now since this is a Binny's Collab. This is a really good beer. Oh, come on. The balance here is great. All right, so they're spelt in this or they were spelt in the previous collection? Both, yeah. So they're spelt in this. The spelt is sourced from Sugar Creek Malting. They're a very cool story. So Sugar Creek is based in Boone County, Indiana and they're a family farm. They grow some of this grain themselves and then they also source grain from farms within 200 miles of their farm. They're doing all the malting themselves and they're malting other grains besides barley. Is this spelt malted? Yes, well, malted spelt. Interesting. Check that one off on your bingo card. Yeah. grain wise, what's spelt closest to? Wheat. Wheat. Okay. It's an ancient precursor to wheat. Tom from Goldfinger and Brian from Pollyanna had gone out to Yakima and they were doing hop rubs and trying different experimental hops. One of the things that the farmers out there mentioned- Greg, you ever do a hop rub? At Yakima. One of the things that they mentioned out there when they were talking to hop farmers is that they grow triticale as a cover crop in between the hop rows. That's a wheat-rye hybrid, correct? Correct. You got it. On Star Trek, there was an episode where there was quadrotriticale. Does anyone remember that? The trouble with tribbles. Trouble with tribbles. nailed it. That's what they eat, the grain supply and they multiply the little fur balls. Yeah. Kind of like a gremlins precursor only with grain. Yes. Oh, we're going to be here all day. They were a furby precursor. Remember furbies? That's right. If you mix the mogwai with furbies, you got Star Trek, the original series. The grain bill for this beer is two row malted barley, Vienna barley, a little bit of chit malt, and then the spelt and the triticale. I got a chance to try all these grains as they were going into the brew kettle. I have to say, triticale was legit delicious. When you chew on malts, it can be husky and gross, and you're like, this is good. But that was legit delicious. It reminded me of super nutty, kind of like, grape nut cereal. It has that kind of brew house, super intense, malty flavor. I love a good bowl of grape nuts, by the way. When you're eating it, it's like a horse. It's a cereal that you really gotta, you gotta be prepared for a fight going into it, but I love a good bowl of grape nuts. You gotta let it sit longer. Nah, I don't have the patience for that. A cereal to make captain Crunch seem soggy. Yeah. It's just, you know, it's you or the food sometimes. You just gotta get after it. You're far too intact and not bloody enough for your race. Next time I come over, I'm gonna bring a box of grape nuts and we're gonna try grape nuts and instead of milk, we're gonna eat it with beer. Have you ever done this? Whoa. Of course I haven't done that. I mean, they're already very malty. Good. Yeah. I love grape nuts personally. I don't know about having grape nuts with beer, but I can imagine having my beer with some grape nuts in it. Like, this is all right. I think in the 70s, what was his name? Some famous wilderness guy did a grape nuts commercial, like, ever chew on a pine cone? Something like that. That was the sales pitch? Yeah. I mean, the best way to consume grape nuts is that pudding. When I lived out in Massachusetts, I didn't realize it was a thing, but you make custardy pudding with it, and then it gets perfectly soft and delicious. You got pudding into the episode again. Another episode, another Roger pudding talk. This is more like an actual American pudding. Jesus Christ. Look, this beer is like lemon whip. It's like bright and fresh. It has some definite softness. So because spelt is wheat and then triticale is a bit of wheat, this is almost like a weeded lager to some degree. So I really like the mouthfeel. It's the weller of lagers? Just choking on us as a weller of lagers. Tom and Brian really wanted to use these things which are called American Noble Hops. So you guys have, we've talked about cryo hops before where they cryogenically freeze the hop. The lupulin powder is easily extracted then little like orange granules. So then you're left with the more leafy, vegetal material which would soak up beer and waste more of your beer. So that cryo hops besides imparting a big burst of flavor are also more efficient. Yeah, it's an efficient. Brewers don't have to use as many. So they have this leftover leafy part of the hops. So they've started pelletizing those and they're marketing them as American Noble trying to imply that they're more herbal and softer and only have a nuanced expression of the traditional hops. Our industry is so good at monetizing industrial waste. Yeah. And now that we talk about green scaling and upcycling and everything has to be more conservation. Yeah, and now you have an obligation to use these hops. Yeah. Especially at the beginning when this beer was immediately canned, the hop profile was intense to the point of I felt it was almost like a Lupo Lager or like Italian Pilsner. Like you really could tell that it was Citra Hops and Simcoe. But it started to fade now a little bit and it's getting more to where I'm really enjoying. I was going to say, they don't really leap out, but there are plenty of like thio like fruity things going on. And I think the balance is really nice right now. Yeah. I don't pick up that much thio, but if I look for it, I think you're right. Listeners, check out thio on your Barrel to Bottle Bingo Card. Yeah. So part of what I'm always saying, if loggers are going to last, if it's going to be something we need to teach people about, get people interested, this is 6.5 percent alcohol, has a hop presence, has a good amount of body. I'm sorry, did you just say 6.5 percent alcohol? Yeah. It drinks like it's 3 percent. It glides over the palate. You get in some trouble quick. Oh, man. What's this beer called? Rustic Root. So driving in Wisconsin. wait, isn't that that jam band? No, that's Rusted Root. That's R-O-T, this is R-O-U-T-E, which is not supposed to be a clever play on that band. Well. From the Twister soundtrack. I love the strength of this beer. You can send me on my way. No, I was inspired by the signs driving in the country roads of Wisconsin. So, if I could, I wanted to try to work in a John Denver residence because I love singing country roads at the Hofbrauhaus. I hate, like, those are scenic roads, but doesn't it bother you that every road is just two individual letters and every county has a highway BB and a highway GH? That is puzzling, yes. Oh, yeah. It's terrible. I don't like the lettering. Get your sh** together, Wisconsin. But they have this other sign that has, like, a very bucolic, like, you know, it's the state and then it has, like, a bridge and it says rustic road. So, I wanted to really pay homage to that. We were highlighting locally produced all-American Maltz and hops and especially local-to-the-Midwest grains and then malted right here in the Midwest. Good, good game, Roger. This one passes the test. Thank you. Tats off to Brian. This is Brood at Pollyanna in St. Charles, or not St. Charles, I'm sorry. They have a location in St. Charles. It's Brood in Lamont. I'm at their original location. His team did an excellent job and it's always great to work with Tom and Brian. So, looking forward to more projects to come. Next up, on Nappy Time Beers. Hey, you, this beer is not new. It's just reined at Brandon. It's new to you, baby. Is this a lawsuit beer? Yeah. It's for you, Greg. This is very intensely resonance and hoppy. You know, I've been wanting to try this ever since you started talking about it. This is the Brian Brew Reimagined. They went with a very bizarre space mythical. I don't know what the hell it's supposed to be. It's pronounced Three Floyds Label. Yeah, right. They went with a Three Floyds Label. No, it looks like some kind of druidic monster. Yeah, but like water colored by- Yeah, but also like alien snake kind of. And moose, alien moose snake. That would have been a better name. Some kind of furry peanut. I think it's a spider. It's a spider face. It's definitely, definitely plasma. Definitely some kind of black metal throne. And a spider face with moose antlers. Yeah. And I don't know. Some of this guy's been doing pushups. So this is a question for you, Decepticon, I don't know. Spirits specialist. Where the hell is Baru Vodka? Does it even exist here anymore? I don't know. I'm sure it's still made. I was looking at it and it's not like available with us anymore. Proximo? I want to say Proximo. Yeah, maybe the local distributor stopped carrying it. We were only carrying the 175s for quite a long time. Well, anyway, so because of Brian Baru Vodka, because when you think of Ireland, you think of vodka. The Three Floyds. Potato Vodka at least? I don't know. Was it? Probably. Pretty sure it was. All right. Three Floyds Brian Baru is their red ale, but that's very Three Floydsified. They called it an Irish red, but basically an American red. Very much highlights of big, intense American hop profile. But anyway, they had to rename it. I can appreciate that they had to tap dance around this, but I wanted to make sure that everyone was aware. If you love Brian Baru, which people did, we sold hundreds and hundreds of cases of it last year. It was really interesting and enlightening to see. And I think telltale of the people are craving some of these maltier beers again. This again also being a very hoppy beer as well. So you get big malt and big hops. This beer is rad. Yeah, this is a Greg beer. This is fantastic. It's like if Nosferatu went on a break. Settle down a little bit Nosferatu. Yeah. Pull it back just a little bit. Yeah. It's resiny. It's grainy, but like in a molasses sort of way. It's bitter. It's definitely grainy. This is the third beer in a row where the malt bill is just stands out, despite the big hop character here. Boy, it finishes with a snap of bitterness. It does. Holy cow. So Floyds, of course, will never divulge any of their hop varieties because they're afraid that they will get all of them stolen from them and they'll have a shortage. But they're famously Amarillo fans and it's the key hop and gumball head. And no doubt part of the reason they called that beer that is that if you have a really fresh Amarillo, which since they love it so much, they get the best of the best. Like they do their lots of Amarillo and it's one of those hops that's more particular about when it gets picked and how it gets handled. Bad Amarillo is terrible. Tastes like cat and chives. So this is like, if I had to guess, there's that great Amarillo in it because this has like that bubble gum note, which is pretty interesting. Oh, we're so close to a jackfruit reference. I didn't do it. So close. You did, I mean. He held back. Bubble gum is different than juicy fruit. It's more bananas and beat up berries and farts. It's true. Farts. It's true. Farts is on the bingo card too. No, resinous strawberry. I get like a underripe strawberry, pine, spruce tip. But a classic, if you're interested in old school West Coast IPAs, West Coast IPAs kind of change meanings now. It's somewhat interesting to me. What? Now West Coast IPA means like clear, not hazy at all, and like light golden in color. Like some of them are made with like Pilsner malt. What the hell? And nothing else. So when I think West Coast and obviously everyone here, like we're used to these big beers with big malt backbones. Sierra Nevada torpedo. Yeah. That can support a ton of hops. That's a beer you can set your watch to. Sierra Nevada everything else. Set your watch to. I like that. Okay. So anyway, Three Floyds Return of the Ancients available now. Old school six pack glass, bottle opener required. Go out and grab some while it's still around. Fabulous. They don't disclose out. Do you know? Six five. Nice. I really like that. Strawberry note of yours, Roger. I totally get strawberry in the nose. Right? It's a good beer. And it really surprised me how much we sold of that beer last year. I was like, this is cool. This is people just really being about the liquid. The newest trend in beer is to take one of your brands that has the most equity and is most recognizable and then do spinoffs. So you branch off of things. So we're seeing Voodoo Ranger Series is on fire from New Belgium. This is Firestone Walker we're tasting. Yes, we're trying Firestone Walker Mind Haze IPA because there are two new Firestone Walker Mind Haze iterations. So for a while, they did double Mind Haze, which didn't really take off. It was a good beer. They've retired that. And we're going to try two other higher alcohol iterations of Mind Haze. Mind Haze was designed to be this is their answer after quite some time, much like Revolution. They were like very reticent to enter the hazy IPA game. If they were going to make one, they wanted it to be something that was so much self-stable. They wanted it to be soft, but not heavy and weighty, like some of the Nanos hazies. So this is Mind Haze and we have a couple more Mind Hazes coming? Correct. Baseline Mind Haze. Baseline Mind Haze. Pretty tropical, papaya. It has a really interesting hot bill. It's really bubblegummy on the finish. Way bubblegummy. Maybe I'm thinking of that because what you said before. This is 6.2% alcohol. It's 40 IBU, which is pretty interesting. That's pretty high for hazies in general. It's one of the things that's somewhat argued about. We've got breweries locally that are not putting any hops in the kettle at all. So there's almost zero bitterness. This is a really good beer. But this has got some nice balance to it with those 40 IBUs. The hoppil is a mix of new stuff and some old stuff. So we've got classic sea hops like Cascade and Chinook. But then there's also things like Mandarina, El Dorado, mosaic, Cashmere, Calista, and Idaho Seven. So they're really throwing everything at the wall here. I think the complexity comes out in that. You get a nice mixture of stone fruit, tropical fruit, it's almost like a Venice character to it as well. Yeah, that. I'm picking up on something like a little funky or a little bitter. At the bottom, at the finish. It's probably just a hop scraping the back end. They like a lot of papaya. Yeah, papaya for sure. Mango, pineapple. You know, I'm not the biggest hazy fan, but this is pretty good. This is really good. I think what all hazies need, in my opinion, is hot bitterness. Yeah. Generally speaking. Well, that was been the... That probably helps with the shelf life too. Yeah. That's been the trick with these, right? Because, I mean, when hazy's came out, I've tried through, I've done quite a bit of research on this over the years, and all roads essentially lead back to Alchemist. But that's a... Heady topper is a bitter beer though. Super bitter. Very bitter beer. So the old, you know, is funny. It's kind of funny to watch as people, you know, started to really gush over these styles. First, they were called like Vermont IPAs, then it was like New England IPAs for quite some time, and then it just sort of changed into hazies. Especially here in Chicago, I think we really leaned into, or Illinois, into this idea of hazies are juice-like. How can we make them even more like juice? And they just started stripping away all the bitterness. Then there was that very dark period where they started putting lactose into them. And they put juice in them. Yeah. And then you're exactly right. Then they were sometimes just putting fruit in them. All right. Let me try the other iterations of this thing. I'm the one dissenting voice on this one. I'm not in love with it. But what can I tell you? I think it's pretty good. It doesn't taste like juice to me. It has some solid hot backbone to it. I find it fatiguing. It's really, I mean, in what way? It's pretty soft and approachable despite having 40 IBUs. I want it to be more bitter. That's all. It's plenty bitter. You're plenty bitter. Hey, at least they brewed a really high strength one for you. Is that what's coming up? Give me the Dynamite Beer Hugs, please. brain Melter. Firestone Mind Haze brain Melter. Haze Imperial IPA. That's like an Atomic Warheads flavor. What are they doing? It should come with a guitar, a whaling guitar. It's a brain melting solo. 8.5. All right. Don't tell me what's going to melt my brain. I'll be the judge of that. So again, never in a million years would I think that the beer world would be turning to new Belgian brewing company for all their cues. But everyone is chasing the magic in a bottle or can, should I say, that is the Voodoo Rangers. This tastes like a hodgepodge of Jolly Ranchers were melted into it and like added at the flame out of the boil. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the bananas ones got a little crispy and caramelized in the melt. But the watermelon's in there, too. And the strawberry. I don't know, man. It's all from hops, though, man. That's the one thing that I'll salute with this, because in the in the world of even the voodoo rangers and many of the other imitators, they're starting to enter the funny business realm of literally flavor blasting them. Like they're putting extracts and for natural flavors, I should say. And they're starting to, when you talk about Jolly Rancher, like some of them literally tastes like melted slurpee is what it ends up tasting like. This isn't that. Okay. Do what they're do is that this isn't that. And they're using some very hypey, like talked about expensive hops in here. So they're using Strata, Jackfruit, Idaho Gem, Sabro, Ruaca. So, I mean, these are like lots of the expensive heavy hitters. There's mosaic Cryo, Fix Secrets. You're saying these hops took a lot of Bendy Foldies? Yes, exactly. Lot of Bendy Foldies. Yeah. And speaking of that, this is line priced with Mind Hay. So, they're like, get out there and get your juice, kids, because. Dang. And it carries its alcohol pretty well. Yeah. You can tell it's strong, but eight and a half, so. Super easy. Greg's not impressed. Where's the 15% alcohol version? Yeah, I don't know. It's like somebody took a, I don't know, like a mango and drop kicked it and left it outside. It's bruised up. It's bruised up. It's way overripe. It's very fruity. Maybe that's what the kids want. I don't know. I'm not them. I like the original better. By the way, is there another version of this beer? Yeah. Holy cow. He just got that look on his face like, just you wait. What I should mention too, besides we've been talking all about the hops, but the malt bill in these for Mindhaze and then this new Melt Your brain one, is two-row white wheat, torrified wheat, blonde road oat malt, which is a bright product, and malted oats. So the blonde road thing, I went, that's interesting. What the hell is that? How is it different than oat malt? This malt is highly unique specialty malted roasted oat with subtle flavors and a mouthfeel. It adds a distinctive like toasty character as well as enhancing the mouthfeel. So a lot of times you're adding oats and wheat to make, not only it look hazier, but the mouthfeel. This is also going to give it a little bit of that oat characteristic as well. Well, I have words for their copywriter because once again, highly and unique don't go together. Something is either unique or it's not. Well, whatever. They're very excited about their malt. For the final iteration here. Where could we go from the brain melter? Here we are, comatose because our brains have been melted. Heads on our shoulders. Double torrification. Mouths agape. They took away the torrified wheat. They still use some white wheat though, which is the rare of the two wheats. I think usually people use red. Could be wrong. And then they took away that blonde road oat malt. So it's two row white wheat and malted oats. brain refreezer. Cosmic crusher. Yeah, now we're into high C flavors. Cosmic crusher. So this is also different hot bill as well. It has billions and billions of cups. Look at this guy rinsing and dumping plastic cups with a pile of fresh ones in front of him. And something called cosmic crusher. I wasn't sure if I didn't know. Nine and a half percent. What? Hello. This is billed as a juicy imperial and it's made with galaxy. I haven't seen that in a while. That used to be the darling of the hop world. Yeah. Went through some rough times. How many galaxies in the cosmos? Strata. Holy ****. Do you smell the nectarine on this? I was going to say it's just tangerine juice. What is going on? Callista melon, which I assume means Huel melon, but it sure does taste like melon. It tastes like the watermelon, right? Maybe they just put melons in there. What is going on? And Simcoe. This definitely tastes like a flavor of the Kool-Aid twist offs and the little soft squeezy bottles. It's a Dole no pulp is what it is. Yeah. Wow. I mean, it tastes like cantaloupe. I mean, it's crazy how much melon. Cantaloupe, but banana and strawberries too, and nectarine. It's so perfumed in the mouth too. After you swallow, do you feel all of that fruity perfume in the mouth? This is legitimately wild beer. This is crazy. If you pour this into a glass, and I don't care if I can see it on. It tastes like it's five and a half percent alcohol. Yes. It's nine and a half. It's nine and a half percent alcohol. Roger, tell me it costs the same as the Mined Hayes. It does. What are they doing? What are we selling this for? They created- 11.99. 11.99, a six pack. Yeah. This comes in a six pack. It's like bum wine, the beer. It is. What in the world? Also, they have a variety pack with all three of these. Dude, smell this can. It smells like mangoes. That's 19.99. So you save even more if you buy it by the 12 pack. I'm sorry. What for the 12 pack? They have a 12 pack that's all three of them. Four of each. That's 19.99. So that drops it down to $10, a six pack. Greg's getting basement drunk on these. Wow. What is going on with this beer? It is pretty crazy. I might have crapped on the other ones a little bit too much, but this is wild. I don't want to drink Orange Julius the Beer. But, whoa. Yeah. This is like Jamba Juice Land. It really does taste like a mix of tropical fruits. It's pretty nuts there isn't fruit in here. Yeah. Yes. It's so true. I mean, there's no artificial flavorings, natural flavorings, anything like that. I don't think so. It doesn't say that on their website. I mean, Firestone Walker is legit, you know. It's like Carmen Miranda fell into the fermenter. We'll never speak of it again. You know, I'll find out. This is literally my first time trying the beer. This is brand, brand new. And like I said, other reputable breweries are using these flavorings. But I don't think Firestone went that route. I think this is all from hops and maybe fermentation. But yes, I just can't get over the retronasal perfume of this fruit. Yeah, it's so insane. It fills the mouth when the mouth is empty. Yeah. Yeah, we got to get some of this over to. And how is this almost 10 percent alcohol? Hey, Soderbergh. They were just like, like kidney kicking the fruit truck guy behind the brewery. And they're like, you didn't see nothing. What are we doing from after that, Roger? For the next one, we're going to do a beer that is... I also had you and mine, Greg. I think you'll dig this a lot. This is one of the most balanced beers I've drank in a long time. And again, it's a throwback to Big Malt, Big Hops. Pretty cool story, too. It's a collaboration, but with a independent comic book company. This is Barbaric Blood Red Ale from Buckle Down Brewing and Lions, a collab with Vault Comics. Barbaric is the name of one of their award-winning comic books that's kind of a very tongue-in-cheek, doesn't take itself too seriously homage to Conan the Barbarian type comics. The Axe is a character. The Axe is a character that is very much like his name was literally Axe and Burn Notice. The guy from the Sam raimi movies, Bruce Campbell. So it's kind of like the Axe gets drunk on blood and then it like says funny in the comic. It's really a fun time. It's a good read. It's worth checking out. When I was talking to Ike at Buckle Down and they were thinking of ideas, I'm like, well, you need to make a red ale, blood red ale. And the color on this is pretty beautiful. Yes. And I'm like, when you make this, make sure that it's well-fermented, not too sweet, not, I don't want like sticky, like some of those red IPA's and stuff, but. Oh, that face is the axe on the label. Yeah. Oh, interesting. The axe is a face. Man, this guy's got gauged out ears and stuff too. It's an interesting look. I thought it was a shark for the longest time because it kind of looks like a, like a happy, angry skull shark. I thought it was. Wow, look at the head on this. I thought it was Codename Brian and Andy Richter. Isn't that pretty? That's funny too, Chris. Here. So yeah, it's translucent. It's perfectly clear, but it's got a red, brownish red cast. So yeah, Barbaric is made with some rye. Oh, you can taste that. Holy cow. Yeah, it shows up. Spicey. Almond, almond is even. Yeah. Very earthy. So I think that that worked really nice with the minty herbal aspect of the rye, the kind of piney pop, but there's also a lot of citrusy notes to this. But how strong is this? This is 6.5 and I could drink many of these. It's like very dry. There's like a tart cherry quality, but then a cocoa powder on top of that. Definitely. It reminds me of a very subtle Tootsie Pop. Little bit of Tootsie Pop. Yeah. It's got that kind of Tootsie Roll chocolate. Yeah, but without the really sharp. Yeah. More soft. More the inside than like a cherry. The earthiness on the nose is even a little bit mushroomy, a little bit funky. Yeah. again, just a really well-made beer, very clean, and I love how attenuated it is. It's just super easy to drink. It's soft. Bitter, but not overly bitter. Buckle Down makes sneaky good beer. They've always been this very quiet little, their brewery is this tiny little garage. Yeah, it's a garage. Yeah. They've put out some really good beer from such a tiny little space in the middle of nowhere. Shame on LaGrange for not wanting a brewery in their town. Right. Now, they've got what's called milk money. Yeah. Now, they've got one all these years later when they could have had this awesome brewery in their town, but that desolate strip of lions is all the richer for it, I guess. Back down by the old Reynolds Aluminum plant. Bunny Browns, isn't that classic? Down the street. Bunny Browns. The way this finishes is dry and grainy, and this style of beer is in danger of being too sweet often. Yes. But this doesn't come close. No. Nice job. It's got a burnt grain character on the finish that I'm not loving. Yeah, I guess it's the rye. This beer is fine. You're nuts. This beer is awesome. This is fine. I mean, it's no cosmic crusher. Yeah, very few things are. So a cosmic crusher is still blowing my mind a little bit. Smell it from here. I know. It's weird. It's like the new Smooge. It's like if Smooge was an actual beer. The new Smooge. All right, so this is not new, per se, but I really wanted to just give a shout out because I like it for a lot of reasons. I know what he's going to pour. It's a plate of shrimp. I thought that it was, there you go. I thought it was apropos to drink this after another beer. Why not have another beer made with rye? Repo Man Stout is back from Revolution. One of my favorite Revolution beers. I was so happy that they introduced this into their seasonal line up and the testament again, at this attitude of nobody's going to want this, this super dry, no adjunct stout without any kind of bull in it. No vanilla, cocoa. It's got rye in it. So it's even more, you know, old school aggressive. It's just such a really interesting flavorful beer. And then, of course, it's celebrating one of my favorite movies. Smells dry. It smells like a rock. It's delicious. So well put together. It's so good. Oh, wow. There's a plushness on the palate that is kind of, you don't expect after the nose. It smells dry and rye forward on the nose. But then it's so expansive and broad across the tongue. So, yeah, absolutely. It's like a pudding plushness on the palate that is absolutely not predicted by the nose. The nose kind of smells like Guinness. It's got that like dry kind of chalky kind of thing. But it doesn't have the tanginess of a Guinness. Not on the palate. No, I mean, like the dry clen. Are you speaking of the essence? Yeah. Talking about how it tastes like bleach. It's not bleach. Bleach? What are you talking about? I got to show you guys this guy that was thankfully suggested to me on Instagram in the algorithm. But there's this British guy who's from Manchester, and he goes all over just reviewing pints of Guinness at like every pub. And he goes by the name Prime Mutton and refers to his followers as Muttonistas. Yes. Instagram knows you. Oh, yeah. Guess what Instagram shows me all day? Don't guess. So do you smell chicory here? Yeah. I mean, there's a very coffee-like note to it. Or like a roasted chicory. Yeah. It's like a mintiness that I love in this. That it's like an herbal character. I think from the rye, the Finnish has a licorice kind of thing, an orange together that's very so good. Huh. Yeah. There's a lot going on in this beer. There's a lot of everybody saying different things and it's all there. There's a lot to unpack. And again, quite dry, although creamy quality at the same time. That's well done. Yeah. It's really well done. 6.4 percent. You can drink it. What's it come in a four-pack? You can have a few of these. Six packs now. Nice. Really nice. You can have six of these. Well, yeah, but just because I could doesn't mean people should. So, yeah, no, it's actually drinkable. It's a really nice beer. It's one of Revolution's best. Fun fact, they decided years ago to start making beers to they named beers after songs from the Repelman soundtrack. So if you've never seen Repelman, you need to watch it. I've never seen Repelman. You need to listen to the soundtrack and you, I know are a fan of their beer straight jacket. That is the barrel aged version of their barley wine, which is called Institutionalized, which is suicidal tendencies. Suicidal tendencies song. They brewed beer called TV Party. They brewed Black Flag, Coup d'etat. Coup d'etat. I don't know if they've made it through any other ones. I think maybe those are the ones that sound like package. But Pat knows the song TV Party from Futurama. TV Party tonight. Yeah. I still think that they should do that. They should re-brew that beer because so many of the shows that they reference in that song are real people still around or they've been re-imagined. Like Magnum PI is back, Dallas is basically Yellowstone. Things have not changed all that much. We've got nothing better to do. I was going to say, plus people still have nothing better to do. Yeah. Sit around, have a couple of brews, watch TV. Yeah. They're just streaming now. Is that it? Is that it for What's New in Beer? That's What's New in Beer. You don't want to throw in any of Pat's bonus round? Bullsh**. Oh, we could try Lambic if you want. Do you want to try a very rare song after Lambic? Are you asking me? Yeah. Because, I mean, no? I mean, I know Pat does. But Pat does. I wouldn't want to keep that from him. Well, I'm going to maybe make an exception because I know Chris is a huge rhubarb guy. I am a rhubarb guy. This has got rhubarb in it, so I'll allow it. I mean, Greg is a big rhubarb guy too. That's true, yeah. In that his leaves are poisonous. That's true. I'm thinking of Chris with his pies, but I really sold you short on that one. Your wife makes that delicious syrup. She absolutely does. So, rhubarb time. Unwillingly, the plant was planted in my yard, but I do reap its benefits. Unwillingly, come on. I grew up with a rhubarb in my yard. Rhubarb pies, strawberry rhubarb pies. Have you seen my yard? It's tiny. The rhubarb is like 15% of my yard. I would say more than 15%. I mean, perfect, I would say. It killed the mint. It killed the mint. What kind of evil plant is able to kill mint? Yeah, that's crazy. It's like alien versus predator, you know? Cork pop. Oh, good one. So what is this? Is this actually Belgian? This is from Tilquin. Yes, this is one of the beloved lambic producers. Traditionalists. We have a lot of Tilquin available across the chain right now. Well, how did that happen? Lambics just- Falling off a cliff. Yeah. It's really not as popular as it was six, seven years ago. Oh. It's because people still continue to only care about Kantion, which is foolish because there are a bunch of other excellent lambics out there. Tilquin though did. It was in the Cool Club. Dreyfontein was too. Once that became readily available, then people stopped caring about them as much. Speaking of readily available, why not drink Frank Bump? Sadly, it's fallen so out of fashion that it's basically not readily available anymore because it's relative, like almost no one knows it. So lambic is very much on back to where it was in the 80s when everybody lambast Lindemans for their sweetened lambics. If they hadn't done that, it literally would have died as a category. Breweries would have gone out of business. So true. It kept it going. It had its moment, but now so few people are giving it a chance. I think there's several reasons for this. One of it being that when American brewers tried to make lambic-esque beers, it was a sh** show. Like there were so many- Absolutely. Awful. Overblown kettle sours. Just smelling this is giving my nose heartburn. And I don't think that it's the beer. I think that that's just my like feeling toward American kettle sours with fruit in them. Oh, this beer is great. It's good. It is very, very acidic. I mean, this is where some of the American ones, I think went awry is that they look at inspiration and there are, part of why Cantillon is more, it sought after is it's one of the most dry ones. Every sphincter in my body just puckered up. This is very acidic. Frank Bone would not be amused by this. No, no. I think this is pretty incredible actually. The rhubarb character just slips right into the sour character of the beer and it's great. This beer is awesome. Yeah. Oud Rhubarb Tilquin, pretty damn good. I think this is a $30 beer though. Is it salty? He thinks, you know, when I walked past and went, I want to try this but not pay for it. I was like, yeah, this is perfect for the podcast. I do think there is a salty, saline edge to it. And you can barely taste the feet. Barely taste the feet. This is pretty salty. That's good to know. It is. I don't know. I don't think I've ever had a lamb that's so salty. Yeah, it is got an interesting salinity to it, but it's not overbearing though. It's just there's a little tickle of it there. I find it to be delicious. Roger, you like this? Here's what I'm going to say about this. That's a great answer. All right, here we go. This is what makes the category such a challenge because this is what I would call like an extreme beer. Yeah. It's extremely acidic. I feel like the fruit is very nuanced, so it's hard in a way to tell where the rhubarb starts versus just the acidity lemony tart acidity of the beer itself. I would have liked a little more fruit character. It's making my eye twitch. This is, I think, a couple years old. It's 2021. Yeah, 2021, 2022. Could gain complexity. No, I meant maybe some of the fruit character fell off. I don't know. I get clear rhubarb notes, but you're right. It's hard to, it folds right into the character of the beer. I think that this is a beer that wine-loving acid heads, and I mean that as in like tartaric and citric. We know what you mean. Lactic acid. It should be all over. I mean, this beer is going to be incredible with food. Yeah, if you like a Chablis, like a hard-lined Chablis, this would be there for you. This would be great with some, on its own, it's maybe a bit much, but if you were eating mussels and frites, and with aioli, and you had some brie. Stinky cheeses, ripe and stinky, ripe cheeses. I think the fan of this is the kind of guy who unironically drinks a rocks glass with no ice of Alicernovo Salis. Yeah. I'm feeling pretty targeted here. Yeah. It's a very interesting beer. Chris was, I think, spot on that it's very wine-like. It's more acidic than probably most, but it has that spritzy champagne-like carbonation. So for the unfamiliar, if you've never had a traditional goose or lambic, there are some of the most highly carbonated beers in the world, especially the Gooses. This to me presents like a goose. It does. You know the Muscle Guy's shaking hands meme? It's natural wines and this. Yeah, there's no doubt. Natural wine aficionados should love this. That's not shaking hands. That's from Predator. Arnie and what's his name? And Carl Weathers. Carl Weathers, that's right. Is it him or Billy Dee? No, it's Arnold and Carl Weathers. You son of a bitch. Dillon. If you're a fan of lambic, you will enjoy this beer. If you've never had lambic, consider this as something again on its own, just boom, try this. It's a little intense. We probably should be drinking a little colder too. I think it might not present quite as crazy if it was a little more chilled. I think it's better warm. I like it at this temperature too. The more I taste it, I find that the rhubarb fruitiness is very broad across the mid palate. It actually is starting to stand out for me as opposed to the acidity of the beer. I think there's maybe a little acetic acid in here, slight vinegar note. It's not over the top in some of the, like you were saying, Greg, it's not super bready or anything like that. Although there are complexities here. You're like, don't do it, Greg. Did you just blend those two? Nice. Cosmic Crusher blended with the Silken Rhubarb. You guys got to try this. It really brings out the salt. Oh man. Well, that's a sweet tart. That's a squirt right there. You could use it to glaze your ham. I think this beer is wonderful. Listeners, if you haven't had a lambic in a while, we have Dre fontaine and Tilkwin broadly available now. They're at a lot of different Binny's, a lot of different fruit infusions. Tilkin does a whole bunch of different wine grape lambics now. There's Riesling and Merlot and all kinds of other stuff. There's some really good options in the Belgian beer aisle right now. Yeah. They're unfortunately getting overlooked a bit. Yeah. That's putting it lightly. I mean, like I said, I think we have unfortunately American breweries to blame from trying to make beers like this and doing them a huge disservice. If you are people that were burned out on the category, it's time to come back and at least drink some of the classics, drink some of this stuff from Belgium. Yeah. They're available in Belgium. Bing bang boom. That is what is new in beer. Thanks, Roger. Yeah. My pleasure. Yeah. I appreciate it. Even those, even that Pills room was okay. The Pills room was delicious. Yeah. It was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. There's lots of stuff out there and it's been the most exciting time in years for various styles. The Rusted Root was really good too. I was going to say, don't sleep on that one. It's gone, right? Want it done? Yeah. It was a collab. We still have a little bit available though, so get out there and get some. Grab it back if you can. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. All right. Maybe sometime this calendar year, we'll have a wine episode again, but until next week. Yeah. Back in your feed next week, something fun. Until then, I'm craig. I'm Chris. I'm Pat. And I'm Roger. Keep tasting.