Hey, you're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's Beverage Depot. In the room with me today. I'm Chris, I eat lovage on a regular basis. Luggage or lovage? Luggage, like steamer trunks. yes, yes. Full of lovage. I'm Jim, I do communications. I'm Roger, I do beer, and advocate for beers like this, beer flavored beer. It is beer flavored beer. Roger, how many new beers do we have today? We're going to taste through six different beers and a pair of ciders. Okay. This was particularly difficult for you. When it came to new wines, there's plenty and they're everywhere. Although Chris did find us like 10 obscure wines, each more obscure than the last. You're welcome. They're still sitting in there. Pat brought 24 bottles that we somehow managed to get through in roughly half the time that it took to record the wine episode. But beers is really hard because not only these things arrive at different times, they sell out quickly, and there's just a huge churn of new beers all the time. So this was like a pretty big challenge for you. Yeah. It's an absolute revolving door, which is, I always say it must be very bizarre to be a brewer these days and kind of frustrating, especially if you're a veteran, because people used to workshop beers, and you wouldn't necessarily release a beer until you knew. Maybe you did a trial run on it, you had people try it at the tap room first. Every beer is a test market beer. Yeah, every single one. Yeah. Now, we pretty much just skip that. It's like everybody wants something new, so they just demand. Your last beer was great, but what do you got that's new is like the cry of the people that really geek out on beer. We get this revolving door in the beer department where a little too much emphasis is maybe placed on beer names and labels. It's getting almost impossible to name a beer something that someone else hasn't thought of. There's some great beers out there, but they often are just one-offs now, which has to be crazy if you make a great beer and then your audience is gozled. Yeah, it was great, but I want something else now. I've tried to pick out some things today that are available hopefully for a little while or they might be a offering which would be brewed again in the future at some point. It wouldn't just be a one and done type scenario. Sweet. How about we start with High Speed Steel? High Speed Steel. So this is the Three Floyd's Municipal Waste Collab? yes. I saw a municipal waste play once at Three Floyd's. I think it was the Dark Lord Day. It was fine. Lager for shredders. For all you listeners, that's what Greg likes to say about everything, unless he's impressed is, it was fine. No, listen, listen. There are no dirty rotten imbeciles. If I'm remembering the right show, Pig destroyer played and that wasn't fine. Pig destroyer Live was not great. Then High on Fire played and they f***ing lit the world on fire. It was awesome. Anyway, that's not the band we're talking about. We're talking about municipal waste. yes, High Speed Steel. That is one of the tracks off of their latest album, Electric Brain or Electrified Brain. A label is a motorcycle with a skull, or with a head and an exposed brain, and like a zombie head, I think, on like the handlebars. What's the tagline? doesn't have a goofy tagline too. Logger for shredders, rawr. Not shredder, but shredders. Shredders. Yeah, logger for shredders. The better graphic, in my opinion, is the side of the six pack. So it's not on the bottle, it's the Grim Reaper riding a jet ski. That is good. Giving you the finger, no less, which is amazing. So anyway, much like Metallica's beer, this one also is an underwhelming logger. Just a caveat, folks, Greg is usually underwhelmed by loggers. In typical fashion, Three Floyd's is unduly paranoid about disclosing any information whatsoever about the ingredients in their beers, which sometimes makes it difficult to explain to the customer what kind of beer they're in store for. Look, Roger, you're lucky that they told you it was a logger, okay? And this has very classic logger profiles. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I mean, Three Floyd's loves classic German loggers. And they've done everything from a true-to-style interpretation of loggers, but they've also made more Americanized Type 1s featuring American hops. So, every time they do this, I kind of play, I prod and see if I can get them to divulge anything about the beer. What I got them to admit about this beer is that one of the hops featured is Elixir, which is a French grown hop. You don't hear about those too often. A few years ago, people were talking a little bit about Barber Rouge and to some degree Elixir as well as kind of these two new unique French hops grown in the Alsatian region of France, which is known for a somewhat obscure hop known as Strisselspalt. Yeah, it's a great name. sometimes you see it in things like Cezanne's. It's a really good hop. It's very floral. I usually put a Strisselspalt on my coffee cake before I bake it. It has a very fanciful name. In my opinion, this lager, yes, at its core is a traditional, you know, german-esque kind of tasting lager, but it's nuanced. But I think if you really take a minute with it, you can suss out some pretty interesting hop character from this. And I would imagine a lot of that is from Elixir. Now, the Arbor Rouge is a hop that has some red berry characteristics, right? But what are the classic notes of this hop? I don't know it that well. Savory. So, and maybe savory is not the best word because they're really unique. They're not even like green. The classic descriptors for Elixir are really bizarre, cognac, leather, and tobacco. Well, of course. They're not typically used in this kind of beer. They're often used in darker beers. So, I think it was pretty interesting play to use them here. I do get that cognac-y, again, the tobacco, not always the best descriptor nowadays because people see tobacco in a negative light or they think of cigarettes, but this does have a softer pipe tobacco element to it. I get that leather too and I agree it's like cured tobacco leaf. It's not like a wild, funky back edge. Yeah, there's a pronounced bitterness in my opinion that reminds me a little bit of old school American louders actually. Chris, there's also talk about obscure ingredient quarterly. One of the descriptors for this hop is love-age. An herb and a flower. Most famously referenced in Pym's Cups when we were talking about Pym's Cups. Most people use mint now, but love-age is the classic. That's when you have the giant salad in your glass. yes, giant salad. Yeah. You have to slap it around to express the oils. yes. But yeah, Floyd's, just to wrap up this high-speed steel, Floyd's has always done a really great job with lagers. It's something that clearly they've been passionate about, and they made a name for themselves with all their hop forward beers, and really big beers. But over the years, we've seen beers like Gorshfok and monsterfest, their new Pilsner, just really well-made lagers. It's not easy to make a lager, not as many places for flaws to hide, and Floyd's does it really well. I'm always excited to see lagers from Floyd's. I hope that they keep doing them, and I definitely recommend, if you're a fan of Floyd's, lagers, don't miss out on theirs. They're definitely- Yeah. I think contrary to what they hung their hat on originally, which would be beers tilted strongly toward hop balance in the beginning. Oh, yeah. The watchword here is absolutely balance. It's classic lager. There's just enough sweet grainy malt up front, and enough bitter hops on the finish, and nothing is dominating. But it's put together really well. Yeah, I agree. Check out Speed Castle. That was the name was escaping me. I have to roll decks through about 5,000 beer names when I think of a beer these days. Also, a funny backstory with that, if you ever visited Three Floyd's, there's a gas station White Castle really close to the brewery. And Speed Castle is a reference. That's where I buy all my Mephine cheeseburgers. Speed Castle is named after a gas station slider joint. That's good. Yeah, I like this a lot because it reminds me of, I don't even know if they make it anymore, but Jinx Proof, the Three Floyd's. I think they call it a Dortmunder. It's not Dortmunder, it creates Dortmunder gold. It seems a little lighter and Jinx Proof didn't, as does this. It's nice. Yeah. I think Dortmunder isn't far off. Yeah, because Dortmunder's are similar to a Hellas, but a little more oomph, not as sweet, more hop profile, a little more alcohol. You're definitely on point that there's more body in this than a Pilsner, but it's not as sweet as a Pilsner. So if I had to pick something, I would say this leans towards, if you want to classify it Dortmunder, but they would just say, hey man, this is with a metal band that sings about partying and crushing beers. So don't worry about what it is, just pound it and give people a middle finger as you fly by on a jet ski. It's the only way to go on a jet ski really. So, let's hit up another logger here, let's keep this logger train going. We recently did a podcast on Vienna-style loggers, Craft Beer's New hotness, as Jim... Yep... . wisely knew if we were to do it. In like two months, it'll be another new hotness, though. Oh, for sure, but... Two months is a long shelf life for beer-style music. While they're having a moment, and again, I do think these have some serious potential because people love oktoberfest beers so much. And the beer industry insists on sending beers three months before they should. We're already getting Christmas beers in before we're sold out of the oktoberfest, but we're almost sold out of oktoberfest, and it's still September when we're recording this. So anyway, the solution, if you enjoy oktoberfest beers, especially Mertzen's, is to drink Vienna style lagers. And we have one here from Off Color. My favorite lifestyle brand, Sleif Brewery. Jim bought the t-shirt. No, it's a hoodie. The pants, right? No, I have the pants for beer for lounging, but this is a hoodie that looks like a hockey sweater that has the cross stitch, like a hockey sweater. Very excited to acquire it. Yeah. Oh, nice. So a lot to unpack here. Some weird, subtle references. So this is the latest addition to their Beer For, Fill in the Blank series. Beer For the Top Shelf, which for those of you who aren't hockey fans, is a reference to, I mean, they did put a mouse goalie on it, so that helps, but it's a hockey reference to scoring in the top of the net. And I guess the tie that binds with this is that maple syrup is associated with Canada and Canada is associated with hockey. That's a stretch. This is all a stretch. Yeah. But the drawing sure is twee and cute. At least they didn't brew beer using melted ice from the United Center. Gross. Oh, man. Zamboni, Vienna's shavings. Yeah, but how do you expect a mouse goalie to defend the top shelf? I mean, come on. What's a little goal? Oh, tiny goal. Tiny goal. Tiny players, tiny sticks, tiny puck. Big fans. Big fans. In danger of being crushed by any octopods. Roger, go. Go. Off color, you know, I often rail against adjuncts, but if adjuncts are used judiciously and they're high quality, I'm all about it. And off color is one of those breweries that's always put a lot of thought and effort into when they add something to a beer and they really care about where they source ingredients from and whenever possible, they try to feature local proprietors. And when it comes to agricultural products like a lot of local farms, a lot of businesses in Michigan. So the maple syrup here comes from Maple Row Sugar House in jones, Michigan, which some of you might if you vacation in southwestern Michigan, jones is about 10 miles or 10 minutes south of Marcellus. Oh yeah, Marcellus. It's two in a row. I grew up going to a lake house in Duwajack, so it's not that far from Duwajack either. That's so funny. That's where Roger learned all of his card tricks also at the casino in Duwajack. They're not count cards. Yeah. Well, that doesn't sound that close to Canada to me. Right. So again, instead of getting Canadian syrup, he stuck with good old midwestern syrup. More importantly, this is now our chance to geek out on the maple syrup grading system which has recently changed. So this is made with Grade A very dark syrup, which is a late harvest syrup that has a much more robust taste. They used to call this Grade C, which doesn't really sound very appealing. Roger, if you had not said maple syrup, I would not have known at all. It's really well integrated in. Now that you say it, it seems like it presents itself as like a sweetness upfront before some of the weird interesting lager complexity kicks in at the end. Yeah. I well said. I think that that is congruent with that you use this Vienna malt in Vienna lagers that has kind of a caramely maple note. So they're putting something very complimentary here, and they're putting it in secondary fermentation. So they're letting it ferment out. So it's not adding a lot of sweetness. Like when I wrote about this, I was adamant that, you know, don't worry, this isn't a pastry lager or isn't pandering to people that want a sweet lager. So it's more about by adding this, this really dark maple syrup that has the strongest of the maple flavor. It adds to the aroma. So you pick it up on the nose. And then the late harvest syrup as a lot, has even more like a minerality. And you can tell more that it's a product from a tree coming through as well. Tree product. It's finished, so. I was going to say, Roger, that dark grade A is an oxymoron in the old grading system, but not anymore. Exactly. Well, grades now are always inflated, right? So everybody wants to get an A. So now they're literally all grade A now, just different descriptions after the letter A, which is- Well, it was a little deceiving. Very, very 2020. It's a little deceiving because you automatically in your brain put a qualitative judgment on ABC that wasn't necessarily implied. C wasn't even available really on shelves. It was something that people would process further or use like in commercial kitchens and arguably, it has the most pronounced strongest maple flavor. So you could find very dark B, but C wasn't even a thing. So now at least you can get C under this new reworking of everything. So the moral of the story is, if you've never tried syrup that comes from later harvesting, buy some. It's available and it's different. You know, light could be nice too, but the dark is very bold flavor and much more pronounced maple. And it was a great addition to this beer. Yeah, it really fits right in with those caramely malts. And I also noticed that the malt is a little bit husky, a little grainy, textural. It's interesting. I like it. So why is it for hockey? Why is it for hockey? Why is it anything for anything? They have a theme here. They have a line of beers. Maple leaf is the flag of Canada, and maple syrup is like the national product of Canada. So I think that was the connection. Like I said before, it's hard to keep thinking of new names. So yeah, beer for basketball is a cream ale with peaches because the original basketball hoops were peach baskets. Got it. Oh, it makes perfect sense. What's next? Put the biscuit in my basket. This is good, though. I like I was concerned that it was going to be too sweet, but I should have known better because off-color doesn't do that, really. Pretty much normal level of sweetness. I think if it warms up a little bit, you get more of syrup, the syrupy character also. It's a little bit hard to pull it out from the malt, though. But yeah, again, yeah, it's nice, subtle. And again, that's a sign that it's real maple syrup and not maple extract, which a lot of maple beers, especially stouts, they dose it with maple extract. So the next one is another logger, something you're not gonna come across too often. This was from Founders. It's a barrel-aged oktoberfest. Founders Ultimate oktoberfest. Yeah. Okay. Ultimate. This really should have been Uber oktoberfest, but I'm guessing someone has already brewed that. uberfest. Most oktoberfests are maybe even the seven, six and a half to seven some percent alcohol. After bourbon barrel aging, this clocks in at a nice 10 percent alcohol. So that's why it reminds me of those Kraft malt liquor. Because the founders made a Kraft malt liquor. Yeah. It was one of my favorites. Yeah. It was really good. Yeah. It's DK malt liquor. DK. Yeah. It also reminds me of that Kentucky bourbon barrel ale one, because it's like a lighter beer that gets the bourbon barrel treatment. Yeah. Yeah. I could see that. A lot of people love that beer. Don't get me wrong. That definitely has more of a toffee with a tinge of almost a buttery end of the spectrum. Whereas this is, you're right, very similar in a way, but little more structure and a little cleaner because it's a lager, as opposed to an ale. So not as estuary, different fermentation going on there, but. Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely true. I think the beer is capable of standing up to the barrel, but there's plenty of bourbon character on the finish. Did they figure out a way to make an oktoberfest cost $18.99 a six-pack? Four-pack? For a 10% barrel-aged beer, it's pretty affordable at $14.99. So in one breath, it seems expensive, but when you consider the time, the barrel aging, the alcohol, it's not a bad deal. I would point out it really carries the alcohol quite well. And there's no heat on this beer at all, I don't think. Yeah, you could get into some trouble with this beer. I agree. Greg sounds like he's already in trouble. Well, this one is one that, it's smooth. Usually when you get something in the 10%, it has the word Imperial on it, and it kind of hits you with some hops or some weight. And this is a real easy drinker. Yeah, soft and sweet, but not too sweet. And then you get all that vanilla and whatnot from the bourbon barrel. So famously, oktoberfests are often described as having that pronounced Caramel malt character, which I think will segue perfectly into our next beer here, which is going to be the new revolution collaboration with Chicago popcorn legends, Garrett Okay, true story, I came back from lunch today, and in the office was a plate of caramel popcorn and a separate plate of cheese popcorn. Wait, why don't we have some in here? Jim had taken the time to separate the cheese from the caramel. Yeah, it's not Chris' concert writer. I have to separate out the popcorn. So I had some. But shouldn't we taste it with this? Should we? Is it? Yeah, so we should definitely taste this with the corn. And I think much like eating a piece of cheese on a slice of apple pie, it was interesting that Jim went to the effort to kind of Adrian Monk separate the two. But I think- Well, I just wanted a photo for social of the- Just the caramel corn. Just the caramel corn. Since that's what it's made of. I hear you on that. But you definitely should also try it with just- Garrett's Mix is famous for being a combination of the cheese and the caramel crisp. And I think it tastes great with the two of them. But yeah, you will get the truest taste by just trying the Caramel Corn with the beer. And that's the important thing here is that Revolution ended up doing this collaboration. Part of the reason was that Garrett's has been renting a space by the Rev Brewery, which Revolution now owns. So essentially, Revolution is their landlord. So they've known Garrett's for a while, and this idea has been floating around for a bit of time. But again, like I mentioned before, if they were going to do this beer, like a caramel corn-inspired beer, they didn't want to just cheapen it and go the easy route and use caramel coloring or flavoring. So this was batched almost a dozen different times, exploring different ways to make it, using different ingredients, different amounts of popcorn, and they landed on this recipe that for the batch that they ended up brewing and releasing to market, they used 450 pounds of the Garrett caramel corn, brown sugar, a little bit of kosher salt. They wanted a beer that at the end of the day, you could drink it while eating the popcorn, because the danger was that if you made this, you know, quote I mean, there is some sweetness here, but it's not over the top. Yeah. And it's interesting. I can perceive the actual popcorn. Yeah, it really tastes like popcorn. Yeah. Roger, you're a popcorn aficionado. You get that popcorn kernel flavor. I do get a little bit of that. Yeah. Again, you need to kind of suss it out. It's not in your face, but I just was really happy because I've tasted so many beers that have taken these shortcuts and kind of went the extract route. Some people will undoubtedly try this and go, you know, this doesn't, quote unquote, taste like popcorn to me because this has not lost its beer identity. At its base, this is a brown ale that has some toasty nutty malt character. But I do pick up the Caramel and, as you say, the popcorn as well. I think adding a little bit of salt was a nice technique as well. Very smart here. Salt and Caramel, famous combo, kind of like offsets sweetness and accentuates flavor. Yeah, because I don't think the salt leaps out at you, but I think it really plays a great supporting role here. Feels like it's at the finish. It lifts it up at the finish. Speaking of alcohol, this is a sneaky 7% alcohol. I would never guess it was that high. Well, I mean, you're putting a bunch of fermentable sugar in it. Yeah. On top of the mash bill. Exactly. So that's what I was going to get at was that, it's quite famous brewing tradition, especially in England and Belgium, to brew a sugar. It's not to cheapen the brew by any means, it's to add what the Belgians actually refer to as a digestibility or drinkability, where you add some higher alcohol without body. So just as Chris mentioned, you add all that extra brown sugar here, you kick up the alcohol a little without adding the body you would get if you achieve that same ABV through malt. So it's pretty surprisingly easy to drink and relatively medium to light-bodied beer given its color and strength. One thing that I would point out too is, and I think it may be one of the elements that really rescues this beer from being your average Carmelite beer, is that there is some genuine hot bitterness on the finish that is just enough to balance this beer out. Because there is a little bit of Carmelite, I mean, it's certainly Carmelite. There's a little bit of sweetness up front, but there's actually some hot presence on the finish. This was an interesting project. I was again really happy to see how it turned out, because right now people are loving these collab beers with businesses, the Afi Tapal beer, Frango Mints, Plancher's Peanuts, Old Bay. Plancher's Peanuts, I forgot about that one. This was a well thought out project. Who had this? This is one of Manny's Deli beer. does it taste like corned beef? No, it tastes like rye. I think it's a rye ale. It doesn't taste like corned beef. It's not fat washed with corned beef. Fat washed with corned beef. That guy in the Mr. Peanut suit, I knew was creepy. Still thinking about that. It was like four years ago. I don't know who is in there. What do they have to hide? Why are they inside of an enormous foam suit? Mr. Peanut is actually like a foot tall, but he works it with men in black. Mr. Peanut is inside the Mr. Peanut costume. I'm just saying that there's a guy in there, and it's okay for him to touch you. It's not okay for people to touch each other's people. So, from one Chicago collaboration to another, the new Goose Island Sports beer. Sports? Fortunately, the White Sox beer is no more, which is very sad to see that go. But, as a consolation prize, the Blackhawks Project, which had been in the works, is now here. So, we have Blackhawks Pale Ale, very cool packaging with kind of a neon look. Jim, can you peel the label off of this and see if there's a White Sox logo underneath? Or a Honker's Ale label. Okay, so it's Blackhawks beer. So, I've tried to find out more about this beer. Again, they're pretty cagey. I think they just want you to... Shut up and drink your beer. Yeah, it's 5% alcohol and it's a pale ale. It does say brewed and packaged by Goose Island Beer Company at the corner of Fulton and Wood, Chicago, Illinois. So... I mean, you can't make a Blackhawks beer and not have it made here. If anybody suspects that it's made in New York City. New York City? Nope. This is not a salsa scenario. And Fulton and Wood is relatively close to the United Center. Yeah, it's got a very nice can. Speaking of beer-flavored beer, this is a beer-flavored beer. Beer that tastes like beer. It's got a cool, the Blackhawks, the classic head logo, like a kind of a line drawing of it. And then on the back, the Chicago flag. And it's a black can. Very handsome looking can. Very handsome. I don't know. This is an interesting decision. This almost tastes more like an English pale ale to me than an American one. Yeah, it's multi and it's not very hoppy. Yeah, the hop characteristics are definitely not new world. You know, what the hot new hops like, it's not tropical-y or it's not also not particularly piney or citrusy either. It's kind of citrusy, I guess. I think this is an ale for lager drinkers. It's more beer flavored beer. It's like barely a step up from something that's easy and crushable. If you're at a game or if you're watching a game in the backyard projected on the back of your garage, you know? Sure. Got your solo stove out there. As one does. I think this actually is funny. It's kind of English Pale Ale as to me. Like this is almost like a bitter. Yeah, I know. Well, maybe that's a maybe it's all a nod in a roundabout way without advertising it to Goose Island's Roots, which were, you know, English pub style beers. Exactly. A throwback to the Honker's Ale days, which is supposedly coming back in a limited run. So fans of that, you will get a chance at some point to try that again. I remember when I thought that was the hoppiest beer I'd ever had in my entire life. Oh my God, it's so hoppy. So bitter. Why would anyone do this? It's really amazing the way your palate can get acclimated to crazy hops in a relatively short amount of time. Yeah. I definitely have memories of that. When you couldn't get stone beers around here, and you know, someone would bring stone from Indiana or from a trip to California, and you try some of their beers, it was just, this is undrinkable. How does anyone drink these beers? Yeah, but those are genuinely intensely obby. They were definitely some of the strongest that have ever been made. Yeah. Absolutely. Still, I can manage to drink and actually enjoy some of them now, whereas 15 years ago, I just spit out the first arrogant bastard I ever tried. Like, this tastes like poison. Those were the days. We've all been chasing that dragon since. Speaking of old school IPAs, Laganitis Tongue and Cheek kind of made some comments about that their latest rendition of Stereo Hoppock is a west Coast style IPA. Oh, awesome, are we doing our annual Stereo Hoppock tasting? Indeed, yeah. I love this one. Great, it's true. Oh wow. Lately, people have been looking for west Coast IPAs, and they'll ask for them from local breweries, which is kind of bizarre. yes, we have plenty of west Coast IPAs from the west Coast, from venerated brewers like Stone, Laganitas. I mean, there's plenty of examples. Here's a Third Coast IPA for you. Yeah. The Stereo Hoppock series, as Greg pointed out, has been one that I've enjoyed featuring on the podcast. I like the idea, same IPA every time, it just features a different duo of hops. So that can be a little more interesting than your smash IPAs or single hop IPAs where a lot of hops can't really pull off being the only hop in the beer. sometimes it's better to have supporting roles. I mean, the hops are singing in this beer for sure. Lemony fresh. Yeah. And it's loaded with citrus fruit, orange, tangerine. It says tangerine. It says altus is dank. Tangerine and apricot spice. I get so much tangerine. Yeah. It's crazy. The nose is just tangerine heaven. There's also like an oniony undercurrent. And it's definitely dank. It's definitely dank. It's dank. Would you say chive instead of onion? It says spice. Spice, spice. Herb spice. Yeah. Definitely, yeah, chive. Do you guys know that Laganitas loves smoking pot? What? Did you guys know that? I heard a rumor that there's some real potheeds at Laganitas. Is that how that's pronounced? Oh, sorry. That's pot head. Oh, wait. That's a Simpsons joke. Potheeds. Didn't write that one. I thought they were real tomaco heads. Okay. So, the two hops in this, you mentioned the Altus, right, Jim? Did you mention the other one? No, I didn't mention the other one. So, Simcoe is the other one. So, Simcoe definitely 10 years ago was the hop. Famously pretty. sometimes people perceive it as caddy, dank. It's chivy. Yeah, so this beer and they kind of... They were honest slash felt the need to have a little vocab lesson here where they alluded to that this beer was going to be really chivy and oniony. I smell it and it's even more so on the palate. Chris, what is the scientific term for that flavor compound? Alum? Alum. Alum. Aloaceous? I mean, they're alums. Alums, garlic, onions, chives. Yeah, so anyway, I see that on the descriptor for this. I'm like, just to jog my memory, I'm like, oh man, is this going to be chivy? So I personally do not really care for that. I know some people dig it. It's those sulfury thiols rearing their heads again. Yeah. It's not something I really want in a beer, but I don't get it. I'm not getting a ton of onion. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting an all tangerine flavor. It smells like an onion bagel with a tangerine on it. I get it more on the nose than the palate, but yeah, it's there. That's the interesting thing about really anything, but especially with very heavily hot beers is everyone's going to perceive them differently. Everyone's going to bring different olfactory experiences to the table. Chris just said onion bagel, sometimes I'll try beers and they'll feature a flavor that reminds me of soap or hair care products, and that can spoil it for me. For a service floor. Aquanet hairspray. When I'm drinking Maros, sometimes it's forest preserve Bathroom. I still remember very vividly, the first time I ever tried a beer that was chivey was at Sprecker Brewery in Wisconsin. I had went on a brewery tour, I was super pumped because I had just turned 21, like maybe that year or the year prior, and I tried, it was a double IPA, and they're famous for the half-liter bottles, and this was, I think, one of their first beers in a 12-ounce bottle, and I was just so puzzled as to why the hell the beer tasted like onions, mainly like chives. So it's a thing, and it's not by any fault of the brewer, it's just how some hops taste. I guess maybe I perceive it as just kind of that really classic C-hop, 90s, IPA kind of flavor. Like that vegetal bitterness? Yeah, which I guess is maybe that's chiviness, and I just don't realize it. I think there's some classic C-hop pininess here, but I think the chive is definitely distinct, personally. I mean, I love chives. I love a good loaded baked potato. I know I'm gonna love the next beer. Which means, let's move on to the next beer. Yeah, that was the get the hell off the stage at the Oscars music. The next beers are Ciders, right? Wrap that up. No, we're all the way to the Ciders? No, one, two, three, stop. Yeah, that was it for beers, bucko. Oh, man. Wow. Well, Stereotypic takes it for me. What's the time? Cider time. So, if you're missing out on the fruity hop flavor, now we're just gonna give you true fruit by way of apples and mango. Mango supernova. I've never been a fan of mango. I hope this goes okay. Yeah, Greg has some mango issues. So does Roger. That's true. It's a mango supernova in the sky. We've talked about shilling Excelsior on the podcast before. Yeah, he suggested it as a sessionable summer beer. As a summer beer, I did not say it was sessionable, but. giraffes in space. Yeah. People decided that summer beers have to be sessionable, to which I said, have you met Greg? He doesn't need a session beer in the summer. Yeah, don't tell me. Excelsior exploded in popularity to the point of it's created a whole category almost. I don't know if some cider aficionados might say that they might argue about if it was truly the first, but clearly this exploded in popularity to the point that other cider houses took notice, especially right around Schilling. Two towns created a Cosmic Crisp Imperial Cider. Did you say Cosmic Crisp? That's my nickname. Yeah, that's who you're sitting next to. Wow, man. Cosmic Crisp. Freak out. Cosmic Crisp is a new apple variety. I believe it's a red-fleshed apple. So that is either one of the components or the- I'm red-fleshed. I got some at the apple picking. They had it at the- Cosmic Crisp? In Wisconsin when I was there. Oh, neat. Sorry, Reg. No, it's fine. I'm always ready to try new to talk about apples. Seattle Cider made Odyssey, which is again another Imperial. They're typically around 8% alcohol. Space-themed for some reason. Right, exactly. So that's why I really do feel like Excelsior was the inspiration here. I guess because they get you high, you know, they're strong and they're dangerously easy to drink, you know, this one, because they put some mango in there and they, I think they might even let it ferment out a little. But either way, it's even higher ABV than normal Excelsior. This is 9.1% alcohol. Yeah, it's easy to drink and it is loaded with flavor. Yeah, it's like drinking thin Tropicana. Yeah. It's a fruit fruit. Yeah. It definitely has the, when I eat a mango, I get that piney. Piney. Yeah, it's got that piney-ness. At first, I thought it was mint and I'm like, what's going on here? But then it was more I drank it. Totally agree with that, Jim. It's very weird. It almost tastes like a sour beer and not a apple and not a cider. I think it tastes like mango. I mean, it does taste like mango. It tastes like a mango sour. The things that I both like and dislike about mangoes are present in this beverage. Tell us. The pine, the rubbery pine quality that gets you right here. Right here, the back of the throat where you start to salivate. That's all. It's really not as bad as I expected. I'm going to hate the next cider, mango palooza. It's just mangoes, all the way down mangoes. Are you sensitive to poison ivy? Yeah, I don't know, because I've been away from it for so long. I don't have issues with latex. I don't know why you don't reunite. Yeah, right. I don't have problems with latex, and I can chew gum just fine. But can you walk and chew gum and put on latex gloves and separate caramel corn at the same time? Chilling does a great job with their packaging, kind of explaining what you're in store for. And I think it's one of the biggest hurdles that ciders had to face. It packages itself more like beer for the most part. You know, some cider houses do single bottle format, you know, like wine, but they try to. They're essentially making wine and then putting it in beer packaging. So it's struggled over the years with a lot of misconceptions and just the fact that cider can be made a lot of different ways. When it's at its best, it's made with fresh pressed juice. So chilling, you know, makes a point to emphasize that. Even more so than just fresh pressed, there are types of apples that are better for making cider. Those type of apples are often not good for eating. So a lot of them have disappeared from the landscape. The idiots during Prohibition went around chopping down a lot of those trees. So a lot of them disappeared that way. They were the devil's tree. Yeah, it was, you know, when you see all those Prohibitionists with hatchets, it wasn't just smashing bottles and barrels. It was, they cut down orchards worth of trees, some of which there were plants. There shall be no fermentable sugar left in this land. Literally, some of the ones. Wait till they find out what you can make with a toilet and a bunch of fruit. And some raisins. A lot of times, if cider makers want to make something with what's called bitter sharp apples, they have to get them from France or Britain, where cider traditions have persevered. But a lot of cider makers are starting to convince farmers to grow these old varieties. So Excelsior is made with some of those heirloom bitter sharp apples. It balances sweetness and acidity. So you get that mouthwatering effect that Greg was alluding to. The mango is here, but it's very natural. This uses real mango. It's not extract flavor or essence or anything. So I think at the end of the day, this is really a quality product that's a standout in the category. I would agree. I think you definitely get the pure essence of apple, and the mango is right on top of it. It tastes totally natural, and the acidity is good enough to keep it clean, because this is not a dry cider, by any stretch of the imagination. It goes down easy. It's fruity. Yeah. If you put this in a juice box and sent me to grade school with it, I would not blink an eye. It almost makes me want to eat this as a sorbet, freeze it. Reminds me of the really good mango sorbets, ice creams, gelato. This is great. It smells like mango sorbet. You can always put this over ice too. This would be great over pebble ice. That'll cut some of the sweetness. Put a little rum in it if you want to really go for it. It's crazy how much pebble ice comes up on this podcast. Really? I know. That famous Sonic ice. I think we're going to have to have a hams horn for pebble ice now. The guy Sonic is like, damn it, he's back. I think it's spot on. Can you imagine this on pebble ice? Have you ever tried to make, smash that, making shredded ice is a pain in the ass. And so it's- yes, I have a Lewis bag. I know how hard it is. Yeah, smashing it with a mallet is cool looking, but not fun. The refrigerator- You don't have a particular burr setting that you want to coffee grind it up at a- I can't, you can't coffee grind ice. It's going to get all melty. The Iceman grindeth. The Iceman grindeth. Our final beverage of the day, speaking of the season and Carmel, all this Carmel stuff lately, it's between the... Roger, Jim was like, I'm gonna go to the grocery store to get some Carmel to advertise the Beer Buzz beer. And I'm like, which one? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, we did this one in the Buzz the other week, and then this week has two different Carmel beers. So it is Carmel season, I guess, when you think of it, it's got some of the different autumnal flavors. Everybody's out reaping the Carmel. I'm totally okay with Carmel taking over for pumpkin spice. Same. Yeah, exactly. And this is the best of both worlds because this uses a judicious amount of spice. Yeah, a lot of spice in here. And a little bit of unique spice. There's some cardamom in here, which I think is the magical ingredient that makes this irresistible. This cider is unbelievably good. I still remember trying this for the first time and watching people try it, more importantly, and everybody just their eyes go wide open. They're like, oh my God. irresistibly, that sweetness and acidity coupled with those sweet spices that make you think of all your favorite apple desserts, be it pie, strudel, crumble. I mean, this is unbelievable. It's like being in a Swedish bakery. Yeah. I was going to yell out the words, holy shit, but Roger kept talking. This is a holy shit kind of cider. What's an apple dish that's brown betty? Is it cakey? Crumble? Yeah, kind of a crumble, but more flowery, kind of like cakiness. But something like that. Apple buckle? Maybe a buckle, yeah. My wife makes a dish in a crock pot. It's a bunch of sliced apples and then oats and then some flour and then some spices and sugar on top. Yeah. And she calls it- muesli. The recipe is called apple crisp, but it's not crispy. We call it apple mouche to be classy about it. And this is the apple mouche of cider. Yeah, you can do that with apple mouche-ly. Every single fruit, I think, I usually do it better. Well, if you make it in a crock pot, you need to put it under the broiler at the end. That's where it's not crispy enough. That would crisp it up, but it's fine being mouche-y. It's kind of like macaroni and cheese without the crushed cornflakes on top. It tastes like so many different apple and that cardamom. This is the fall dessert of my house. Say hi to your cardamom for me. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your time. Listen, Marty, I just realized we didn't even say the name of this. We've been going on and on without further ado. This is from Misbehavin Meadery. They also make cider. This is Misbehavin Mead's Caramel Apple Cider. They also make ciders in addition to mead. They also put this into bourbon barrels. When I first tried this cider, I said, can we give you some bourbon barrels to put this cider in? Owner Clint said yes, and he entered said cider into Fobab, the festival of barrel-aged beverages, I suppose, not just beer, and it took home gold, ham horn. At Fobab last year. We immediately gave him more barrels, so it's been aging, it should be coming out soon. Man, the barrel-aged version is next level, but even just the traditional one, this is crazy delicious. It is really freaking delicious. At first, I was really focused on the apple character and the spice, that sweet black cardamom and cinnamon and whatnot. I was thinking, I hadn't even noticed the caramel, but then I went back and I went, oh. The caramel is all over the place. Yeah, it's all over the place, but there's so much going on that I had tunnel vision about it, but it's clearly there. Yeah. It's crazy to me the way craft existed as alt culture. Lately, I've been trying to drive this home. Craft was alt culture and somehow it's derailed into pop culture. One of the tenets of the craft movement was to get away from flavorings, adjuncts, things that were cutting corners quality-wise. If you were going to use an ingredient, it would be whole foods, real things. This cider incorporates brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and cardamom and apples. There's not extracts. There's not flavorings. I think that is so crucial to why it's cut above some similar products. All of these today are, we have four beers with adjuncts, and none of them are over the top or cloying. The Excelsior is sweet, but it's, as you said, balanced out with acidity. It's sweet like fruit is sweet and not sweet like candy. Exactly. You nailed that. When cloying happens, I think it's because they're using fake ingredients, and it's that processed fake sweetness that is just completely overdone. Yeah, because I will admit readily that on the face of this, without a recommendation or something, I would not buy this. Caramel apple cider might be like, no. I read Roger's ad copy, and I still kind of chuckled about it, and I wouldn't have tried it if he didn't pour it for me right now. Delightful. Yeah. Bottom line. That's what's new in Beer and Cider right now. As much as it can be kind of frustrating that some of this stuff is one and done, Misbehaven is gonna keep making this. Schilling is on fire with their Excelsior, so that should be readily available. The Stereo Hoppix series is probably retired, but they're gonna segue it into something similar. Quadraphonic. Goose Island, you know, the Blackhawks, I don't think that's going anywhere, but I don't think the White Sox is going anywhere, so who knows? Rev has said they're gonna make the Garrett Popcorn a seasonal, so that's here to stay. Founders is, you know, famous for their barrel age program, so I could very much see that coming back. Their regular oktoberfest has become a seasonal now. Off Color, their Beer 4 series is, you know, on fire, and I think everyone I've had try this or talk to about it has loved it, so I could see that staying. So it's all on you, Floyd. So you're gonna make High Speed Steel again, maybe, but if they don't, they will make other excellent loggers that you can seek out. What will thrash metalheads drink? While jet skiing. And flipping the bony bird. Okay. Yeah, good stuff. Yeah, it's a good roundup, Roger. Yeah. This is- Thanks, guys. As always, if you're in a Binny's, talk to your beer consultant. They will tell you what's new. yes. What they like. Or the newly-minted cider consultants. And Mead consultants. And Mead consultants. And- And- Hard seltzer consultants. Bitter's consultants. Don't be afraid to ask them what they like in general, not just what's new. Yeah. Because there's tons of awesome stuff out there that's probably new to you, but not necessarily newly created. So don't be afraid to try some stuff that you've never heard of. Exactly. All right, if you enjoy our podcast as much as we enjoy some of this new stuff, leave us a review on the podcasting platform of your choice. Hit us up on social media, at Binny's Bev on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And we will be back in your feed next week with something great, Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Until next time, I'm Greg. I'm Chris. I'm Jim. And I'm Roger. Keep tasting.