Drunksgiving: The Beer Before the Bird

Welcome in, everybody, to the Craft Beer Republic! Thanks for drinkin', thanks for joinin'. I am Greg, and that is the buffest turkey you'll ever see.

That's Flex. What's up, big fella? Feelin' festive and thankful. Oh, that's perfect time of year for that kind of shit. And I'm thankful for you, Greg. Stop it. Oh, shucks. You're a sweetheart. I'm thankful for you. Gobble, gobble. You're blushing. I am a little bit, actually. No, I'm blushing. Oh, dear. Let's start over. Anyways, find us on the socials. @CraftBeerRepublic, @FlexMeABeer. Underscores in between. So much show to get to tonight. We've got some Thanksgiving-themed shit for ya.

And I'm drinkin' for the holidays, as I believe Flex is as well. So we'll get into that. And a lot of feedback from last week's show. We'll talk about that. And so much more. But let's get right into things. Before I talk about our first topic, if you will. Flex, do you mind kicking things off with your beer over there? Yeah, that's fine. I'm feelin' a little thirsty. Let's do it. This is going to lead into some things. In a world where craft beer is king.

A world where muscles are bigger than growlers.

Only one tongue can guide us. One man. One tongue. One Tongue Jobber. In this world, we must find out. What is Flex drinking? Well, I'm not used to this so early on in the show. Actually sober. Way to get lubed up. Right, I'll lube you up. Not a lube show, sorry. So, we've been talking about Trader Joe's lately. It's been a hot topic of conversation. Heard the rumor of the opening. Four packs, six packs. Buying single cans. Right. So I guess you could say I did a little bit of research.

Had to pick up a few things at Trader Joe's that are only sold there. And you know, just wait until we get to the beer wall. You know, I'm very patient. Let my wife look wherever she wants to look. We get what we need to get. And then it's my time to shine. I didn't have to open any. But each beer, six pack sign right underneath has each can price. Yep. Very splendid. This Trader Joe's. So the rumors is true. This Trader Joe's has a single can wall.

So everything that they have in packs, if you just turn around, there's like a whole four foot section of single cans. So it was real solid selection. Got a couple beers that I've never had. Got a couple beers that I have had. But today I am drinking, drum roll please, Joe Joe's Chocolate Vanilla Cream Stout by Hardywood Park Craft Brewery. And I believe they're out of Richmond, Virginia. And-- Is this the Oreo one? I don't know, it's chocolate vanilla. Oh, okay.

Oh yeah, it's got some Oreos on it. You're right. Yeah. And I don't know what everybody's thinking. Flex? Drinking a stout? That's fuck. Is this Flex's evil twin? Is this Flexy? Oh, is that like drunk Flex? When Flex gets too drunk, he becomes Flexy. Well, he becomes Sweepy Flexy. Oh, that's true. I thought I was gonna be sleepy tonight, but I'm not. Well, any weasels. This beer, real simple description on Untapped. It says Imperial Cream Stout with cacao nibs, vanilla beans, and milk sugar.

Only 1,000 check-ins. Kinda shocking if this is out at Trader Joe's. Maybe people just aren't checking it in. 373, weighs in at a 9.2 ABV. Oof. And let's get in there with the old schnaz.

We'll see what this smells like. I like your glassware. Your mini-boot. Oh yes, my mini-boot. It's like a Santa boot. Yeah. And I realized it's not Christmas, it's Thanksgiving. We're gonna do it anyway. Right. It's a thing. This has massive amounts of chocolate. Like I would say a good mix between milk and dark. It's not overly sweet like a milk chocolate, but it's also not super bitter smelling like a dark chocolate. Okay. So I'm intrigued. I have only taken like a few sips of this beer.

So now we're really gonna dive in. (slurping) That's a big gulp. It tastes like I'm drinking chocolate milk. Big gulp, huh? Tastes like absolutely like chocolate milk. So not like a Oreo. No, it is very chocolatey. The vanilla is hard to pick up. It might just round the beer out on the back end, kind of smooth it out. Yeah, a little sweetness. Yeah, it's not roasty at all, which I'm a big fan of. I had a big roasty stout last night and it was a roasty and bitter. Wasn't a huge fan.

Yeah. This one is not very roasty and it is not bitter at all. Carbonation is, I would say perfect. It is pretty light, which you want in a stout 'cause if you get a super carb stout, it's just kind of gross to me. Yeah, it's weird to have a super carb stout. Yeah, it's not what the palate wants with all the thickness and the. Right, you want that stickiness to kind of stick on your tongue and kind of like you're eating ice cream or something. Right, or drinking chocolate milk.

Or drinking chocolate milk. Which this is. So I would say good on Trader Joe's for carrying this. I don't know if I, did I even say the name? Joe Joe's Chocolate Vanilla Cream Stout, okay. Yeah, collab. So I guess if you're gonna have wood,

you better make it Hardy Wood Brewing Company. Yes, it's a good commercial for them. They might wanna pull that audio. And pay royalties. I've been thinking about that all day. He's even got notes. No, in mental notes. It'd be so great if you're like looking down your hand, like if you're gonna have wood. Wait, what was the rest of it? Oh shit, oh yeah. Make it Hardy. That came out a lot smoother than I was ever even thinking it would. You nailed it. All the rehearsals. That's all I wanted.

I wanted you to chuckle a little bit. That's my goal. I just imagine you in the mirror, like don't fuck this up, Flex. Don't fuck this up. If you're gonna be hard, no. If you want hard wood, no shit. Pull it together. That went well. You nailed it. I'm proud of you, buddy. Yeah, I don't often try to be funny. Like sometimes it's just natural. Right, humble brag. Playoff stuff. So when you have these planned jokes, it's like nerve wracking. Yeah, it's true.

'Cause one small misstep in the delivery and the whole thing's just stupid. Oh, and you sound stupid. Right, you're like, "Oh, why did I even say that?" And any humor that could have come from the perfectly placed joke has just vanished. Yeah. Just bury it in the ground. Yeah, get that dirt. Sempered that dick. Carpeted that dick. There we go. (silence) I got my Latin mixed up. There you go, yeah. Oui, oui. Oh no, that's French. Top listening city last week.

Shout out Chicago. I don't know if we've seen Chicago, at least not in a while. So what's up? Chicago. I don't think we've ever seen Chicago. Yeah. Home of revolution brewing. Maybe you guys want to hook some beer up? Look at you. Shameless. Shameless. Call me the Mick Foley of free beer over here. I can dig that. Yeah. Also, hey Zach. What's happening? All right, so you, this works out perfectly. You told me you were having a Trader Joe's beer. I didn't know which one, but I was like, perfect.

Last week we talked about the whole singles cans thing. We have gotten so much feedback on the 'Gram

about the whole Trader Joe's thing. First of all, I'm gonna address your singles wall that you were talking about. Okay. We have that too at ours. What the singles can wall at ours is where people have broken off a single and then there's like two or three laying around. Okay. They move them over to that wall. Right. I find that not all of the beers are represented on that singles wall though. I feel like there's more beers on the single wall than are on the rack. Interesting.

Not at mine, not that that means anything, but yeah, it seems like there's a fair amount, especially the newer stuff is not represented on the singles wall. I feel like I gotta crack it off the four pack there. Okay. And then the other three end up on the singles wall. You've done someone else a favor. Does your Trader Joe's have a huge beer section? I mean, define huge? No, it's like a full one side of the aisle kind of thing. Like four feet, eight feet? What are we talking?

Oh, much more than that. Oh, see, this one that we went to is only an eight foot beer wall. Oh, okay. Let's say that each shelving section is roughly four feet. They usually say roughly four feet. Okay, let's say it's four feet. I think there's like five or six of them. Oh, wow, that's a lot of beer. And one of them is like the single wall in quotes. I think this Trader Joe's that we went to, it's down on their game. Oh, okay. Now they also have like some seltzers in there too.

It's not 100% beer. No, this is still just like an eight foot section. Oh, okay. Yeah, it's like the beer categories. You got a couple of seltzies in there, but RTDs, wine, spirits, that's all somewhere else. Right. Yeah, pretty decent. I mean, I'm always able to find something I haven't had on the show before if I'm in a pinch or whatever. So yeah, so people have been reaching out out of the woodwork.

Even Mike from the Tap Room Podcast, where this all started, reached out and said like his brother heard about it. And his brother used to work for a brewery, had no idea. Come on. That you could do that. For reals. So that was funny. So anyways, we're doing the Lord's work around here. So everybody, you're welcome. I did have, I thought I'd throw this out here. So one of the beers I did grab in my six pack, I've never had garage beer before.

You know, the Kelsey's big thing, they bought into it or you know, whatever. Yeah. So I just, I didn't even look to see what it was. I just figured that they do like some loggers, like some light loggers, you know, crispy drinking. Right. I didn't read the can, it was green. Okay. And I took it home and I was like, you know what, I'm kind of feeling a beer. Nothing heavy. So I was like, I'll grab that garage beer. I'll try it out.

You know, I've heard some things and if the Kelsey's bought into it, it has to be decent, right? Mm-hmm. Oh, it was their lime lager. Oh, I didn't know they had a lime lager. It was not great. Sounds awful. I had to choke it down pretty hard, but don't say.

What about the beer though? Yeah, it was not good. Mm-mm. Which makes me wonder how all the other garage beer is. I guess it can't get worse. Right? Like maybe it's okay. I know Shred, our buddy Shred, over in the PA has been getting it for like his in-betweeners. Oh, okay. So it must be garbage. So you... Joking, Shred. That was low. So, I mean, their regular lager might be decent. I don't know, but now I'm afraid to try it. Well, if I see it, I'll take that bullet for you.

I was just like, maybe the Kelsey's can get them to start making better beer. Maybe, hopefully. I wonder if it was old or something. I mean, lime flavored beer just usually doesn't do it for me. Yeah, and if I would have known it was like a lime lager, I wouldn't have, you know. Yeah. It's not for me, it's not. Yeah. I find this interesting. I looked up who owns Garage Beer. 'Cause I read, so I saw this the other day.

You know who Richard Rawlings is from that Fast and Loud show, Garage Monkey? I don't. All right, back in the day on like Discovery, I think it was, there was Fast and Loud and they all worked at Garage Monkey where they souped up cars and they're always slamming them and blah, blah, blah. Oh, okay. Anyways, he's an investor of it. So I decided to look up like who actually owns Garage Beer. He's an investor. The Kelsey brothers own the majority.

Right. They make it at Braxton Brewing Andrew Sauer is also an investor, but he's some business person. But so is Frank Ragnow, Center for the Lions and A.J. Hawk, former linebacker for the Packers. Yeah, right on. Yeah, so quite the list of people owning that thing. Interesting. Yeah. That's a lot of names and people. Yeah, it's quite the investment going on. So I guess it's craft-ish. That's a weird one. I wonder what makes it so inviting to want to be part owner.

You know, like what's so great about this company. It was cheap. I guess. Well, think about it if you're the Kelsey. Yeah, I don't know if it was cheap or not, but let's assume that, you know, the investment wasn't insanely high. Both of them are super popular right now. Right. Didn't hurt that one of them's banging Taylor Swift. Right. And so you come in on the ground floor, become a majority partner, and then use your popularity to increase it's popularity. I mean, it's kind of a win-win.

And if you're contract brewing on the cheap, then. They just got a hundred million dollar podcast contract. Yeah. Right, prior to, so. What do you. Plug it on the show. What is the one thing you would do if you became a millionaire, Greg? Buy a brewery. Never podcast again. Oh. Yes, buy a brewery. I'm pretty certain you would buy a brewery, start a brewery, do something like that. I don't know. You know, it's interesting you bring that up

because one of the things I was going to talk about was I've been in Orange County a bunch for work the last couple of weeks. Been doing some research, went to Radiant, brought back some, in fact, Radiant was going to be my beer tonight until I was like, ooh, it's Thanksgiving week. I'm going to go with Thanksgiving theme. So I'll have that another time. Went to Green Cheek, love me some Green Cheek. Went to Hangar 24. And I think I've said it before. I'm not a huge fan of Hangar 24 beer.

It's okay. They do, on the other hand, though, have pretty good food at the spot in Orange County. So I like going there. You get a decent beer, some pretty good food. They do have a hazy on tap that is pretty drinkable and is only 5% so you can have a couple of them with dinner, no big deal. That's my jam right there. But when I was there the other night, I got one pint and then I went back for more and I guess I'd kicked the keg so I got screwed there. Oh, boy did I get tricked, by the way.

The guy goes, he went to go change the keg, comes back, he's like, "Sorry, man, we're totally out. "Anything else on the board sound good to you?" And what I wanted to say was like, "No, not really." So I looked up there, I was like, "All right, what have I not had on this board? "All right, well, I haven't had the cold IPA. "I haven't had the fruited ale," which is a fruited ale, not a sour ale, just fruited. And I haven't had the seltzer. - It's a good way to ruin an ale. - Right, yeah.

I was like, "All right, I'll try the cold IPA.

"Please call it an IPL." And he pours it, and by God, that must have been the worst cold IPA I've ever put in my fucking liver. - I'm always terrified to try cold IPAs, man,

just for that reason. - Yeah. - It became so popular, you know, like the trend, it's like everybody started doing it, but they weren't all great. - No, they were not. Here's the one thing that you could always count on, cold IPAs, is it's usually pretty light-bodied, pretty clean, and pretty drinkable, even if the flavor wasn't that great. - Right. - This drank like a fucking marzin. - That's fucking disgusting. - It was so disgusting. It was thick, it was malty.

There was some bitterness, but it wasn't like, there was no, you know, aroma hops or fruitiness to it. - Sounds like a bad beer that they were like, "What can we call this?" - Right, "Oh, we'll just lager it real quick "and call it a cold IPA." Yeah, it was so bad. I was like, "I wanna come back for the food, "but if they don't have the one hazy beer that I'll drink." - The one beer you like? - Yeah. All that ties in, yeah, it was gross.

But all that ties into what you're saying about like, if you want $100 million, would you buy a brewery? And I was having the thought this week, I was like, "If I were to open a brewery, "like, I wonder what's more important, "the food aspect or the beer aspect?" Because I, especially when I'm traveling for work, I will look for breweries that have food. That way I can get a little research in. Brewery people are my kind of-- - Let off a little steam with the beer.

- Have a couple decent beverages. Usually, the people at the breweries are my kind of people. No one's gonna start talking to you about, I don't know, religion or whatever. People kind of keep to their own selves. - Yeah, you gotta go to Applebee's for that. - Right, exactly. Would you like a little God with your fries?

That happens all the time, right? So-- - Without Jesus, you wouldn't have these bottomless, boneless wings. - You know what would be really funny? If they did like a bottomless wine carafe and they called it like the Jesus water. - This makes no sense with Applebee's, but I love it. - He turns water into wine, you know, whatever. - Yeah, maybe he turned water into buffalo wings. Who knows? - Ooh, yeah. Now that's living good in the neighborhood. - That's my kind of Jesus.

- Yeah. But anyway, I was thinking like, what's more important, food or beer? And I was like, fuck, is the food slightly more important? Because I went to Hanger 24 where I really don't like the beer because their food is good. - So I kind of hate this argument right here because-- - I feel like a sellout. - It's not an argument. I would have to say food.

As a family man that I am, and I am what I am, I would say food for me, you know, my wife who doesn't drink, and my two young kids who are 10 and eight,

don't drink yet. - Who also can't drink yet. - If we're going out to a brewery or something like that, we always have to go to one with food because if they don't partake, well, what else is there for them to do? - Right, daddy's gotta leave early. - Right, which I don't like to do. - Right, exactly. Yeah, so I mean, it kind of makes food more important than I realized it made food. For me, you know, I was always a purist. Like, it just gave me good beer.

- When I go alone, that's what I think of. Like, I could give a shit about the food when I go by myself, but it kind of, you know, expands your horizons a little bit, opens up your mind to, you know, think about something other than the beer, which is difficult. But that's why I praise, you know, I often go to Eagle Park, as I talk about a lot, but their food is real stellar. - Yeah, and when I'm traveling like that, like, if you don't have food, I'm probably not showing up.

- You're not going up. Yeah, you're not going there. - Yeah, I need dinner. I'm not just going for a beverage. Even if it's just a food truck. Food truck's fine. You know, like, I'll go to Everywhere when I'm down there sometimes if we're a beer co. And when they have a food truck that sounds good, I would, like, of all the beer down there, I'd prefer to drink Everywhere or Radiant or something, you know, even Green Cheek. Green Cheek's kitchen is good, not amazing.

Like, get a decent, like, their salad's really good. Their wings are okay, that kind of thing. Radiant just started doing food. I have only had a salad so far. It was fine, not amazing. Everywhere, when they have a good food truck, I'll pick that on top of most breweries in the area. So, yeah, it's surprising how important, I mean, it's 'cause I'm getting old, but it's surprising how important the food options have become. - I don't think it's a matter of age. Just a matter of convenience?

- Yeah, maybe. - You know, that's gotta be what it is. - Well, we'll go with that. - I'm not that old. - That'll make me feel better. No, but you got kids, which, like, adds 10 years to you. - Yeah, that's, 10's an understatement. Next segment. - Yeah. So, speaking of Thanksgiving, sweet transition. Anyways, let us, listeners, let us know what you think. Food or beer, you know, what's the algorithm there?

Where's the balance between, if you're going to a place and it doesn't matter if the food is good, if they have food, or, and I'm not talking, like, a Saturday afternoon, you know, binge-fest, but if you're going out for-- - Right, like, if you're just day drinking, you know. - Yeah, but not for the evening. - Not even day drinking, just all day drinking.

- Right, yeah, you're getting hammered or whatever. Doing a lot of research. So, let us know. You know where to find us. All right, it is Thanksgiving week. Do you ever go out to the bars on Thanksgiving Eve

and get, like, hammered with people from high school? - I used to.

So, before I had kids, you know, my friend group from high school, which was still, like, eight or nine guys, you know, all still close friends, and we would, no lie, get to the bar at, like, six o'clock, just so we can get spots at the bar, because by, like, eight or nine o'clock, it was shoulder-to-shoulder, packed full, like, at capacity, and, you know, we really didn't care to mingle with anybody else, you know, just, like, our close group.

So, if we saw somebody, we would, you know, be kind and do a little small talk and babble a little bit, but-- - Oh, I remember math class. - Right, right, but, you know, we purposely got there early so we could get the spot and stay in that spot for the next eight hours, and that was the fucking plan. - Until you fell out of that spot. - Well, no, 'cause when you sit in the same spot all night, you could keep drinking, like, you don't feel nothing.

- Touche. - Anything. You don't feel anything, I'm sorry. - 'Til you first stand up. - Spoke improper English. - Yeah. - But then the second you hit that fresh air when you walk outside, that's when it smacks me in the face. - Oh, for me, it's that first, I haven't gone to the bathroom in a few hours, I'm gonna stand up now, and that first standing up where you take, like, your first baby giraffe step, it's like, oh, I have been drinking. - Oh, that's not me.

I will do, with the first bathroom break, when you realize you're drunk, you know, I take out my business, and as I prepare, I do one of these. - You bring your briefcase to the bathroom? - That's what I do. It's just, like, a huge exhale, and you just. - That's 'cause it was so much work to whip it out. - Well, and then that's when you realize your lips are kinda numb, 'cause you're so drunk. - That's true. - And then it feels weird when you do that.

But no, like, the drunkenness doesn't hit me 'til I get outside. - Oh, and then you're in the bathroom for 15 minutes in the mirror, just going. (imitates snorting) - My lips are moving, but I don't feel 'em moving! (laughter) (imitates snorting) - The snozzberries taste like snozzberries! (laughter) - Well, anyways, this website Lightspeed put together the stats on what they're calling

Drunksgiving, which is Thanksgiving Eve. - It's the biggest drinking day of the year, or night of the year. - Exactly! - Right, that I knew. - Yeah, and I used to partake a little bit too. Friends would be like, "Hey, come to the bar." And it wasn't so much like a planned thing, 'cause I hate most people I went to high school with. It was more of a, like, you know, friends would be like, "Hey, come hang out." We'd go hang out, we'd walk in the bar, 'cause it's not a huge town.

There's fucking everybody I ever knew, great. That's exactly how it is where I live. - Yeah, I'm not gonna pretend to not hate you for five minutes, Jesus Christ. So anyways, Drunksgiving stats. Like you said, biggest drinking night of the year. Rivals St. Patrick's Day. Liquor orders grow by 156%. - I believe it. - Compared to the Wednesday before. What's the most popular drink? Well, beer. - Beer. Goes up by 85%. Cocktail orders go up by 69%.

And wine sees a small little 6% bump on those nights. The Eternal Crowd Pleaser? Shots. - Right, 'cause you haven't seen somebody in so long. - Right, that's a new shot. - So you see somebody you haven't seen in 10 years, you're like, "Hey, shot!" - Mm-hmm. Rum goes up by 192%. Vodka by 187%. Tequila by 179%. By the way, all gross. - Wait, so rum is the top one? - That's the top increase. - That's insane. - Goes up the most, yeah. - Who buys shots of rum? - Fucking insane people.

- Can we just stop and talk about this for a second? - Here's what they don't say, which might make, at least makes a difference to me, whether it's light or dark rum. It doesn't say, it just says rum. - So the only, let's call, shot or bomb, same thing, right? - Sure. Well, to be a bomb is when you drop it in a beer. - Right, well, not a beer, but or something. - Drop it into something. - Right. But would you count that the same as a shot? Can we call that? - No, it's more than a shot.

- Okay, then I've never heard of anybody just ordering shots of rum. - Yeah. - 'Cause have you ever had a Bazooka Joe? - I don't think so. - It is Bacardi, I believe it's Bacardi Limon dropped in Monster. - Oh God. - And it tastes just like bubblegum.

- 'Cause it sounds awful. - It's not bad at all. - Do you sip it or do you gotta chug it? - You chug it. - Okay. - But I mean, it's not like a-- - I mean, you can sip it if you're a bitch, but that's. - What I'm saying, it's not like Irish whiskey that, or I mean, Irish Carbon, it's not gonna curdle. - Yeah. - No, no, no, no, not at all. - Okay. - I'm just thinking that's like the only thing that I would order with rum to shoot or chug.

- Yeah. - But I've never heard of anybody being like, hey, let's get shots of Captain, is Captain Morgan even around anymore? It's disgusting, it shouldn't be. - Do people still drink that? - It's terrible, please, I hope nobody drinks that. And then other than that, there's Bacardi. - Right. - And you don't get that as a shot, you get it with the Diet Coke and a lime because you're kind of wishing you were classy.

- Right, I mean, the only time I'm drinking rum is if I'm at like a tiki bar and it's in a mixed drink. - Yeah, like a Mai Tai or some shit. - Yeah, something like that. So yeah, I'm with you, nope. - If you order a shot of rum, you're done. - You can turn off this show right now. - Yeah, stop listening. - Just kidding, but do reevaluate yourself. - I mean. - Okay, good while it lasted, rum drinker.

And then, so after tequila, tequila was at 179%, huge drop-off, whiskey only goes up 89%, gin 88%, and beer, like we said before, 85%. - Who's ordering shots of gin? - Yeah, shots of gin is weird. Like my wife enjoys gin, but she doesn't do shots of it. - Okay, I love gin, but ordering shots of gin is something you do to your friends on their 21st birthday 'cause nobody likes gin. - Yeah, somebody got me once at a wedding.

They're like, "Hey, you wanna do a shot?" And first of all, I think it's well-documented how much I hate doing shots of anything, no matter how much I like the liquid. - Shots are, they're terrible. Once you get to a certain age, like, I don't know. - 18? - I was gonna say like 23. - Oh, okay. - Shots are the worst, man. - Yeah, once you're legally able to order your own beverage, I think shots are out the door. I don't need to be 21 and drinking shots. That's never recipe for success, but.

- And the only time you really do shots is like your 21st birthday. - Right, or if you're so drunk that you're like, "All right, let's do shots." - I do, my best friend does love ordering rounds of shots for people. - I know, those people think they're being nice. - Well, he can hold his liquor. I don't think he ever actually, in his life, gets hungover, doesn't throw up.

He's just a fucking trooper. I, on the other hand, the second I get like three shots of liquor in me, whether it's tonight or tomorrow morning, I'm gonna puke. - I will often throw up just from the act of taking the shot like it could be the first drink I had that night, but I pound that shot and then I'm like, "Oh God, it's not sitting, oh God." - No kidding? - Oh yeah. - Wow. - Yeah, it's not fun. I immediately, I immediately have to chase it.

Otherwise, I think between the taste and the action. - What if you had like a lemon drop shot? Those are delicious. - Oh, something fruity, like a kamikaze or gummy bear or something. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, better, but still, I don't, I just, shots are not my friend. Drinking fast, you know. - I do miss lemon drops. Those are fucking delicious. - Man, I haven't had one of those in a minute. My ex loved those. - A little sugar on a lemon and. - Yeah. - Oh man.

- You know, for my sister's 21st birthday, you know she's married? - What? - Yeah, it's crazy, right? - Anything else going on there? - I don't know, probably not. We'll find out six years later. Maybe she's pregnant. For her 21st birthday, I took her to a bar, like the shittiest bar in town, and was like, "What do you want to drink?" We're like, "We're buying you drinks," you know? And she was humming and hawing. I was like, "Well, what flavors do you like?" Anyways, we settled on a lemon drop.

And I said, "What about a lemon drop?" The guy goes, "You've come to the right place. "Just so happens that I am like "a world-class lemon drop maker."

- Come on, why wouldn't he open with that? - Right, and we're at the shittiest bar in town. I'm like, "This guy's full of shit. "He's just, I could have said, you know, anything, "like a flaming Dr. Pepper. "Well, you're in the right place." You know, like, "Whatever it is." - That's a flavor. - This dude, to his shift at this fucked-up bar, would bring fresh lemons from, like, his backyard, a juicer, like the little lemon squeezer thing. - I don't even think that's legally allowed.

- I'm sure it's not, there's no way. But this is, you know, what, 13 years ago or something like that? The little lemon juicer thing, the little citrus juicer. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - He brings that. Yeah, so she orders it, and he's like, "Yeah, so, you know, gives us the whole thing." And then walks away, cuts the lemon, juices it, mixes up the drink. - Just so you know, it's gonna take me 17 minutes to prepare this shot. - He made it like in a martini glass kind of thing.

- Okay. - But still, still the same amount of liquid. - Well, yeah. - So anyways, then we spent the rest of the night ordering lemon drops, 'cause, like, if this guy's gonna fucking pull lemons out of his ass, like, let's do it, let's have, and I'll give him credit. Best lemon drop I ever had. - I guess the trick is ass lemons. - Amen. Yeah, I mean, that's phenomenal. - Yeah, so, it was weird. But lemon drops made me think of that. Where were we in all this?

Oh. - Whiskey only up 89% or something? - Yeah. - That's crazy. - It's weird. Anyways, the most popular, this is the weird part. The most popular shot by region. On the West, tequila. In the Midwest, tequila. Northeast, vodka. And in the South, vodka. - I don't believe that. Yeah, that's weird. And also-- - I mean, unless you're doing, like, you know, I guess ordering a lemon drop shot, vodka, like, makes sense. - I'm taking it straight.

If you're telling me it's a vodka shot, to me that's a vodka shot. - Right. - I don't know. - So, but I feel like any time I'm at, like, you know, when I used to attend the local watering hole, it's mostly shots of Jack or J-Mo or those, really. - Yeah. - Nothing else. - My best friend would always make me do, what's the Senate, fireball, ugh. - Oh, that's gross. - So gross. Just walks over with shots. Here, have a shot of my, oh. - I don't enjoy fireball, and I don't enjoy screwball.

I'm gonna put that out there. I know a lot of people, that became a big thing. I will do Jager. I like Jager, I like Jager bombs. - I used to do Jager shots, like, straight up.

I can't anymore. I can still do a Jager bomb, though. - I can do it. Actually, my mother-in-law keeps a bottle of Jager in the freezer at all times. - Nice. - And then, when we do dinner there, every now and then, it's used as, like, a dessert liqueur, you know? Like, a post-dinner little, fill up, like, a snifter of it. - My problem is I hate black licorice. If I need that, like, red bull to cut it. - So I do, too, but something about the Jager, it just makes it different.

- I used to think that, and now I'm old and grumpy. - Okay. - Yeah, I don't know. I think I should, you know, revisit it, maybe, 'cause I'm pretty old and grumpy. - Maybe. Find out, do some research. - I think I'm, like, the grumpiest. - The number one grump. Yeah, anyways. All right, so let us know what your drunksgiving drink is, and hopefully it's not a shot of fucking rum, you weirdos. - Or vodka or gin. - Or just about it. Just drink some goddamn beer, like an old person.

- I'll do a gin and water. I'll do a dirty gin martini. I'm a big fan of gins. Not a big fan of tonic, like gin and tonics, but like a gin and seltzer? - Yeah, that's what she likes. She likes it with a lime seltzer. - Yeah, just anything like that, but do not be taking shots of gin. - Yeah, mm-mm, hard pass. All right, while we're on the Thanksgiving subject, let me get to my beer, 'cause it's sort of Thanksgiving-related.

I'm gonna do some science tonight, but before I do, I'll just quick preface. Since we're doing, you know, Thanksgiving beers, I thought, well, what do you need more on Thanksgiving than a bunch of booze to handle your fucking annoying-ass family? So enter in this beer science that I have been sitting on for like at least six months.

Here we go. All right, so for my science, I have two things. First, I have Rolling Thunder 2024 Imperial Stout by Rogue.

It comes in at a whopping flex, probably approved 13.7%. - Yowza, wow. - Yeah, let me read the description on this real quick. Our 2024 Rolling Thunder Imperial Stout was aged for nine months in handmade Rolling Thunder Barrel Works barrels previously used to age our Dead Guy Whiskey. This one-of-a-kind Imperial Stout can be enjoyed right away or sell it for years. Either way, it's best shared among friends. - Yeah, I would share a 13 percenter.

- Yeah, I gave some to the wife before I came up here. And here's the science part. I have some of said Rogue Whiskey that was also aged in these barrels. Greg's getting shmammered. - I feel bad for the second show. - I feel bad for anybody listening to me read in a few minutes. Oh, by the way, 4.19 on untapped for the Stout. - Damn. - Pretty fucking good, yeah. Pretty good. All right, so here we go. On the schnoz-a-rooney-dooney with the Stout. We'll start with the Stout.

Little chocolate, a lot of roasty. I think I'm getting some of that like fig or date, like that sweet fruit like that. - Okay. - Yeah, I'm going fig with this one, like a fig jam. All right, tongue jobber time. - You look like a fig guy. - I'm not a huge fig fan, actually. This is nice. The flavor really follows through. Little like bitterness from the chocolate. Definitely that figgy sort of sweetness coming through. You really pick up the barrel. I do have one complaint.

It's something we actually talked about earlier tonight. Little too carbonated. - Ooh. - It could be a little flatter. It's like zingy. - You know, for 13.7, you don't expect it to just dance across your tongue and disappear. - Yeah, no, it should be just like a syrup at that motor rate. - Right, it's not. It's a little too carbon, and maybe 'cause it's in a can, so it holds its carbonation better, like they need to lower the carb level. - Well, it's actually from a barrel to a can.

- From a barrel. - From a barrel. - But still very drinkable. And let me tell you how dangerous this is. This is not a drink like 14%. - That's what I was curious about. What is the alcohol like? - Yeah, almost non-existent. - Wow, that's talent. - Yeah, it's really good. Like, I didn't think I was gonna like it that much because of the ABV. All right, on to the whiskey. - Is that your safe word? - Real, yeah, pineapple.

Real sweet and caramely, but not fig. It doesn't at all share any smelling characteristics with the beer. A lot of vanilla, a little sharpness from the alcohol. In fact, I'm a little sorry I didn't drop an ice cube in here. I always like a little melted water in my whiskey. - I'm a big fan with a cube or two in my whiskey. - Yeah, but I wanted it like the pure, you know, side-by-side and I'm probably gonna be sorry. I have had the whiskey before. - All it takes is like three drops of water.

That's what I've learned. - It's very nerdy and fun. All right, here we go. So this is interesting. First of all, I mean, it's an okay whiskey. I've had it before. It's certainly not my favorite go-to. Not bad, it's not great. Wouldn't feel bad about mixing it 'cause it's just not the best. You do get some of the chocolatey notes. Shares that with the beer. The vanilla on the tongue is very muted compared to the nose.

What I find extra cool though is, I had a sip of the whiskey while you were talking earlier and it really was like, you know, that alcohol spiciness on my tongue. - Yeah. - After drinking some of this beer and then going to the whiskey, a lot of that alcohol burn is non-existent on the tongue. - Wonder why that is. - Yeah, I don't know if the beer like, is a protective coating or who knows? But fun. - Beer science. - Beer science. Does everybody feel learned?

- I didn't learn anything, but we've opened minds. - Yeah, and here, don't drink gin. That's what you've all learned. - Just don't shoot gin. - Oh, that's what I mean. Don't shoot gin. I don't drink it, but anyway, so yeah. So there you go. A little Thanksgiving beer science and I'll be hammered in no time and ready to deal with my family. - Hell yeah.

- I just want to take a poll from the listeners 'cause you and I have already fought about this when we were texting the other day, but is anybody else tired of the Mariah Carey song already?

Not even Thanksgiving yet? Flex loves it. - I can't believe it's 30 years old. That's what blew my mind. - That was the best part of the conversation is I said something to the effect of like, no one even started listening to this thing until five years ago. - Yeah, you said it hasn't been popular until the last five years. - Right. - Which I argued. Then I looked it up and I did some research and it's true, 2019. - Yeah, I wasn't far off. - That was the big year. Well, that's five years ago.

- Yeah, that's when it's like finally hit number one, right? It's like 18 or 19. - Yeah, and it really didn't start topping the charts either until like 2012, I think it said. - Yeah, I mean, even that was like top 80. It wasn't even near the top. - That's crazy. - Yeah. - I just thought it's always been popular, I don't know. - Yeah, I was cracking. My favorite part of the entire exchange was like, I didn't know it was 30 years old. I was like, yeah, 'cause no one played it for the first 20.

People didn't like that song. Maybe, you know, they just didn't get it. All she wants for Christmas is you, you know? - Baby.

Yeah, that is a pretty hard concept to grasp. - Yeah, hey, you know, it took 30 years. - Mm-hmm, finally caught on. - I don't know, I like it. I like me some Christmas music. I love me some Christmas. House has been decorated for almost a month now. - Wow, well, we have zero decorations out and I'm okay with it. - It's 'cause you're Grinch. - Yeah, bah humbug. All right, let's blow through some news real quick. Molson Coors is reporting a $41 million loss

related to their craft divestment. - $41 million. - So this is earlier this year when they sold those brands to Tilray, which were Atwater, Hot Valley, Revolver, and Terrapin. They're now reporting a $41 million loss. It's like, eh, I don't know. - Is that a chump change to them? - Probably, probably a chump change. I get the feeling, 'cause Tilray paid about $23 million for all those combined. My guess is they purposely sold low so they could get a tax write-off from it kind of thing.

- Okay. - You can report the loss, it's probably worth more than the actual breweries. - Right. - Yeah, so anyways. Stone, Sapporo Stone is going to discontinue

exporting Stone beers to other countries. - Oh no. - I'm sure they're devastated. - Yes, 'cause if they have one more Stone IPA. - Oh yeah, people in Finland right now are crying. We're so sorry, Finland. We'll smuggle you some Stone beers if you're still in that. - I think they'll live. - Yeah, I think they'll be all right. Massachusetts, oh fuck. First of all, fuck you, Boston, as always.

Massachusetts, to remain happy hour free

for the rest of all time. A piece of legislation that would permit on-premise beverage alcohol price promotions in Massachusetts, aka happy hour, has been excluded from a $4 billion economic bill working its way through the state legislator. Happy hour has been banned in the Commonwealth since 1984 due to concerns about drunk driving, because boy has that stopped. There have been several legislative efforts to reinstate it but none have succeeded due to varying levels of support.

Massachusetts Restaurant Association President Steve Clark told The Globe, "We've been having the same conversation now "for probably 10 years. "It's generally not a high priority for most restaurants, "even though it gets a lot of attention "when it gets brought up." Well, you guys are dumb. That's why you're in Boston. - Tell you what, when I was a young drinker, the only thing I would do is go to places with happy hour. - Right.

- 'Cause why wouldn't you wanna save money while you're getting loaded? - Exactly. And you always get cheap snacks while you're getting loaded. - Right, it makes sense. You're just driving in business. Clearly Boston hates business. - Boston hates business. You heard it here first. This feels appropriate for Thanksgiving. Drunk Florida man tosses pasta and lands a felony.

Not the Thanksgiving dinner you were looking for. Please say that Markel, we'll go with Markel, Royal, 40, and his wife were arguing Sunday evening about Royal's abuse of alcohol when the domestic dispute turned violent. Royal, who cops report appeared to be intoxicated, became irate and threw his bowl of spaghetti at his spouse of nine years. The noodles struck the 44-year-old woman on the front of her body and on her stomach, according to an arrest report.

I love that that's in the arrest report. Upon arriving at the Paris Largo residence, officers found the victim covered in spaghetti sauce. Since Royal's lengthy criminal history includes a 2018 conviction for battering his wife with whom he has three children, he was charged with an enhanced felony battery count, as Bon said, at $15,000. His rap sheet spans 20 years, includes 10 cocaine possessions, excuse me, possession convictions, as well as other drug and firearm charges.

- So he's a smuggler. - Jesus. - Yeah, he's a smuggler. - He's got something. - Man, that, can you imagine getting a felony for throwing pasta at your wife? - Hey man, what, you're just talking to yourself, man. How'd you end up in the clink? - Don't fuck with that guy. - Right. - If you eat pasta, it might end up on your shirt. - Well, it all started at the macaroni grill. - Unreal. - Oh, good thing he wasn't at Olive Garden. Never Indian pasta, that'd be one hell of a fight.

- That'd be so much food on your shirt. - So much food. Oh, fuck. Oh, and speaking of Florida pasta, hi, Vanessa. - Hi, Vanessa. The Vanessa noodle? I don't know. - Vanessa noodle. Hey, give me the Vanessa noodle. All right, we'll end it with six facts

to be thankful for about beer. The first brewers in America were the Native Americans. Before 1600s, people appreciated beer more than water because it was more nutritious and sanitary. - Not wrong. - Yeah, the first beer brewed by immigrants in the USA was brewed in Roanoke, Virginia. - Okay, as long as it's not West Virginia. - Brewers were wanted in England to go to America to brew beer because shipments of the valuable drink were too slow to reach America.

The first brewery was opened in Manhattan by Dutch immigrants and the Mayflower ship is supposed to have shortened their trip and stopped in Plymouth due to their shortage of beer. - Huh. - There you have it. - What was that line from Goldmember? There's only two things I hate. People who are intolerable of other people's cultures and the Dutch. - I knew one of them was the Dutch. I can't remember the other one. - I think that's the first one. - Pretty good.

I was like, I don't know, I love gold. - Correct me if I'm wrong, man. - Yeah, somebody fact check us. All right, let's get on out of here. Yeah, well make sure you follow us on the socials @CraftBeerRepublic, @FlexMeABeer,

underscores in between. 805-538-Beer, call us, leave a message, all that good stuff. Mail@CraftBeerRepublic.com. I think that's everything. I hope everyone is staying very well hydrated. And we lost Flex. So on that note, good night everybody.