Last Man Drinking

[intro music]

Welcome in everybody, it's the Craft Beer Republic. Thanks for drinking, thanks for joining. I am Greg, and I am being joined by the maltiest fella on the fresh coast, and that is Flexy. What's up big fella? You know, just drinking and joining, or something. Yeah, a lot of malty beers lately, though. Yeah, which is actually, so you know me pretty well, not my thing. I

know, very supportive. Not my thing. Right. But not my go-to. Sure, but usually it's a little hazier. It is one of my favorite times of the year, so. Yes. We'll get into that in a couple of few. A lot to get to today. I did a little extra curricular research, if you will. That was hard to say for some reason. Well, now I'm extra curious. We got a voicemail, we've got some booze news to get to, and yeah, so let's get right into it. Let's crack things off with asking a very important question.

In a world where craft beer is king, a world where muscles are bigger than grow

lers, 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, roll out the barrel. That's the song we sing at brewery games. Oh, okay. Seventh inning stretch. Oh, it's not taking me out to the ballgame. So they do to take me out to the ballgame and roll up the barrel. Roll out the barrel. Sing us a song of good cheer. Roll out the barrel. Nah, you're dumb.

Sorry. It's like a polka Polish thing. Yeah, it tracks. Yeah. Pretty South side of Wisconsin. Well, any weasels. We on that roll. We drink in that Oktoberfest. Can't stop, won't stop. I like the name. And today, so I'm doing the MKE Brewing Oktoberfest. I talked about it last week. I did not rank it in my rankings because I knew I was going to have it on this show.

So this on the front of the can, first of all, this can art, it's simple. It's great. It is very German Oktoberfest. Yep. Gets the job done. It is great. And this one does say it is a Minertzen style lager. Says our Oktoberfest is traditionally brewed with pale ale, caramel, and toasted Munich malts that attribute a sweet, earthy, multi-flavor, toasted aroma, and a bright orange hue. So this beer, it's got that coppery, brown, orange, classic.

Mm hmm. Mierten style color. The correct color. And the old sniffer, it's it's kind of light. Not a huge aroma here. Slightly malty, I would say. A little bit of sweetness behind that, which makes sense from the sugars. Mm hmm. So then we'll get the warm up the old Zungenjammer. Yeah. OK. OK. So comparing to last week's where I said not a lot of carbonation, this one's a little bit more carbonated. I don't know what does that because I don't know how to

brew beer. Sure. It is. Add more carbonation. It has a lot. I shouldn't say a lot. Last week's beer, the Eagle Park, did not have a lot of that roasty toasty. This one, as I dive in again, it is there. It is like it's like perfect. Like perfect. I don't even know how else to describe it other than like perfectly balanced roastiness to the caramel flavor, like the sweet. It's like this is really good. I think I can help you describe this.

Dieses Oktoberfest schmeckt mir köstlich auf der Zunge. Yeah. Mm hmm. What what she said, she said, this Oktoberfest is delicious on my tongue, Jabber. Oh, Zungenjabber. Yeah. I don't know. This is really well done. It doesn't have anything imported German, it says, but it's fucking delicious. It's all you need. Like, it's absolutely classic of the style. And to put it in my rankings. Oh, yes. I'd say it takes the third spot. Oh,

time marks. Yes, because I never really talked about this raised grain beer I had. And I'm just going to dive into it a little bit. Sure. So I drank out of a can and I usually pour all my stuff out. You get more of it. Yeah. We're nerds. It breathes a little bit. So I crushed two of these 16 ounces and it was like the breadiness at the end. Like, you know, when you drink like a like a Pilsner lager and you got the breadiness, that crackery, it was like full of that on the

end and I couldn't get enough of it. And I just thought it was such a great flavor to bring into the malts, the roasted malts and the caramel. And then you finish off with the breadiness and it just tasted so good together. And that's why it sits at number two of my list. Pretty good. Yeah. Remind everybody that Third Space was so far the worst. You don't get them out there. They're local to us, but it was just a lot. The worst with a U?

Well, then it's the versed. The versed, yeah. Oh, you the best too? Yeah? How about the versed too? Well, Verna, I too am drinking in Oktoberfest today. We'll get to that in a little bit, but 'tis the season. 'Tis been the season. Yeah. As we discussed with Erica a couple of weeks ago, as the season, which I'm still waiting for, happens to cool down a little, you're in that perfect combination of like, let's have some Oktoberfest beers, but also

some IPA, some pails, some stouts at night. Ah, it's fucking perfect. Perfect beer drinking time. That's where we're at now. See, not in California. Not yet. So it's like during the day today, it was like mid to high 70s. And let me just check the weather right now. It's a balmy 60 degrees. That sounds glorious. It is 843 here. As we record, the current temperature is 74 degrees. That's not bad. That's not the worst. It says it feels like 58 right now, though.

Oh, speaking of hot places, shout out to our top listing city of last week,

the new one for us, Decatur, Georgia. Oh yeah. What up, Decatur? Yeah. What's up, dogs? It's dog country. You sound like a Bron Breaker. Oh, gross. Not a fan. Oh, not a fan. No, Bron. No. Yeah. He's whatever. Yeah. Not a wrestling show, but why don't they just package him as a Steiner? Why'd they have to give him a whole new name? Because Rick Steiner was canceled. He was? Yeah, like two years ago. Oh, for what? I couldn't remember if it was racist or misogynistic. Oh, I didn't know that. Oh,

because they showed Rick and Scott at an event recently. Yeah. But yeah, Rick Steiner was canceled. Oh, who knew? Well, not a wrestling show. I was unaware. Oh yeah. So that's why he was not packaged as a Steiner. Got it. Makes a little more sense now. All right . Back to the beer stuff. So I did some traveling for work and was up in San Francisco. Spent

a few days up there. We had to go meet with one of our clients and usually I'm up there by myself. My boss was up there too, which, you know, it's fine because, you know, we hang out, not hang out, but we do our work things and we usually go our separate ways. One of the days we were coming back from our work thing, he goes, Hey, you know what? I'd like to offer you the invitation to go out to dinner with, which means, you know, like free dinner, obviously. How awkward is that? How he

phrases it? Not quite that, but you know, it's like, Hey, you know, we haven't really gotten to do anything. There's this great seafood place. Good, sir. My share of a concern place with to my who I pay be willing to. Well, the weird part is pressure. Well, that's what he said. It wasn't as awkward as I made it sound, but he did at one point, like no pressure. I know I 'm your boss. I'm like, it's still pressure. Like no Bosco fuckers. You know, like what am I supposed to do?

So I accepted. And then later on that day, he's like, I'm so tired. I'm just, I can't go out to, I'm so sorry. I have to rescind my invitation. I was like, Oh, shucks. Like thumbs up. Thanks. It's not that he's a bad guy. I just, you know, can I get your card though? Cause you kind of promised me, I mean, you know, business expenses are paid for because it's a business trip, right? You know, I'm not going to go to a fancy place

without his card. Like he was going to take me to. Right. So anyways, I mean, and he's not a bad guy to hang out with so much, just, which weird. It's my boss. And you know , I like to go, yeah, maybe have a couple of beers and not be looked at like an alcoholic. So have the night to myself, which is great. And I've talked about Blackhammer on the show before. Yep. Enjoyed them very much. Brought some back, all that good stuff. Great things about them.

Yeah. Well, I found about two and a half miles from my hotel or a screwdriver.

What is that? Oh, Blackhammer. You got me. No, it was called a Vilkeman, but the beer, it was , it was owned by Blackhammer. So the beer is all Blackhammer beer. Cool. And they have like German food, a bunch of sausages, you know, brats and worse and sauerkraut and all this Germany things. And so I, I walked two and a half miles to Vilkeman. So it's like a German beer hall kind of thing. Yeah. But they have all the, all the beers that Blackhammer has.

So, you know, you get an IPA or, you know, whatever you want, you don't just have German beers on town, but there are German beers on town and, uh, had this fucking delicious sausage plate. It was fucking amazing. And, uh, I sat down to eat and had a beer with me and guy walks over, Hey, you playing trivia? I was like, no, man, I'm by myself. I mean, we all know that. Like we go out with Deb and Brian and play trivia all the time, but second place. Yeah, exactly. Second place. We got first

place last week and it felt so good. Cause all the teams we hate were there and we beat fucking all of them. Not that we hate people, but I was like, no, I'm, I'm good. I'm just, I'm by myself having a couple of beers and some dinner. He's like, ah, just play. And you know, if you gotta go, you gotta go. I'm not going to hold you here. And I was like, yeah, all right, fine. I'll play. So I played by myself. Uh, my, my team in quotes name was, uh, last man

drinking, which apparently he loved. He's like, Oh, that's such a great name. I was like, you are not that funny of a person. He's not. No, he made it very, it made us all very aware that he's a standup comedian on the side. And I was like, ah, okay. His level of humor was not very great. In fact, I got him laughing so hard that he's like, well, clearly I'm in the wrong business. You should be the comedian.

I was like, wow, we were in San Francisco. The A's game is on the A's are still in Oakland for the rest of the season. And they're showing the game, not fucking anybody in that crowd. I mean, legit must've been like 300 people in the entire stadium. It was so empty. Did you hear recently about that Chicago White Sox double header where they had 98 total fans? Really ? Yeah. That's what this looked like. I mean, there's nobody even behind home plate. And so he said

something, Oh, the manager, the A's manager came out with Yano and the umpires. And he said something about like, Oh man, I guess he looks angry. And I was like, yeah, they just told him what the attendance count was. And he lost his shit laughing. He's like, that's, that's the one. He 's like, that's the best joke of the night. You should be the comedian. I was like, clearly if that's the best joke of the night, yeah. Maybe take up trivia as a full-time job. Overall. Nice guy. I had a good

time at trivia. I did not get last middle of the road, which was fine for being by myself. I'll take it. Uh, once again, beer was delicious. And of course the, uh, the sausage plate was chef's kiss. So good sausage, dude. It had, first of all, yeah, you do a couple of different types of sausage, a little mustard, had some cheese. It was like a protein plate kind of thing. Like had some cheese slices, had some pickled veggies. Uh, it was fucking good. So good. Hell yeah. Yeah.

So, uh, what else? Oh, we went out. Oh man. We went out with Deb and Brian over

the weekend, the wife and I. Okay. We, we, you know, we'd met up for trivia. Like, Hey, we should hang out Saturday and maybe go like Dave and busters. Do you guys have Dave and busters out there? Oh yeah. Yeah. It was like Chuck E. Cheese for adults. And, uh, so you know, we don't, that's not something we normally do. We went to Dave and busters and, uh, got absolutely shit. They usually have good

drink specials. Well, they have horrible beer options. Um, but they did, as we walked in, we, we of course hit the bar first and they had this sign that they were doing like Jell-O shots two for one. So our old asses did Jell-O and they weren't just shots. They were

like the syringe shooters, you know? Okay. So we did around a Jell-O shots, had some beers. The girls had some mixed drinks, played some games, had some more drinks, played some games, had some more drinks, got a little tired of doing all that. So we walked across the parking lot to E ureka brewing, each had a cup, more beers. And then they close it like 10. It was like, well, what do we do now? Mike, let's go back to Dave and busters. Cause they close it like two. Come on. Went back to

Dave and busters, had a few more drinks. Brian ran into a former boss while we were there. Uber haul, like Uber was hard to get that night. It was like, you know, 1230 and there were no Ubers out in our area. That's cause nobody was at the A's game. That was up North. There's no A's game down here. This is back down here. Uh, and so we ended up having to do the thing where like we added a stop to ours just so Brian and Deb could get home. Cause like their Uber kept going the

wrong way. I was like, just cancel your shit. We'll we'll add a stop and did all that. I didn't even know you could do that. Oh yeah. Once, once like they accept the ride, you can edit it and then add a stop that we, we do that sometimes. But, um, but yeah, so it was, it was good times. We got fucking chittered. Like it was one of those, you know, we didn't like pound drinks and the jello shots, but man, we just kept going. It sounds like I'd be dead.

Yeah. We just kept going. It was like all night, you know, we had some snacks at one point, but it was good times. You got, got drunk and played some video games. Well, that's a, I mean, so it's football season's coming up, right? Not a football show, not a football show. Uh, had my big

fantasy football draft though. And, uh, it takes place at a local bar. Okay. Cause we have a lot of those here. Yeah. Um, I drank a lot, like more than I drink in, I don't know, I would say the last easily before COVID. So let's say like five years, I woke up and I, I got home and I was expecting to feel like shit. I knew going to bed, I was expecting to wake up feeling like a bag of dicks and I had to work the next day and just totally like, I knew what I was getting myself into.

I don't know what happened, what my body did. I woke up like a fucking champ.

That's the best, not one ounce of headache, no stomach issues. I was a little bit tired and I thought if I maybe just had one hour extra sleep, I would have felt like 100%. God, that's the best. But it was like for, it was like six beers, six shots. Wow. That's a lot of hooch for me. Yes. Six shots. Six, six shots. That's the thing. Like six beers. No big deal. Yeah. But if you start adding that liquor into my diet, I'm horrible with liquor.

Same. That is when I get completely fucked up. Puking is the only option. Resistance is futile. Right. And I don't even know what happened. It was like my body would just like kicked into like, we're going to go ultra metabolism and break everything down and you're going to have an awesome day. And I did, it was fucking great. Did you want to buy your liver like a gift on those days? No, it just made me want to do it again. That

too. Like, oh, clearly I'm not in practice. Right. Like, oh, I guess I can do this now. Yeah. I wasn't like the worst after Dave and Buster's like the next day, but it wasn't the best either. Like Deb was fucking dead. She was like, I'm dying over here. I was like, I'm not dying. I'm not thriving either. I'm just, I got a decent headache. Needed some greasy food. Yeah. I had a Dr. Pepper, that kind of thing. Nothing too crazy. That was the day of my fantasy draft and I napped through

it. So I auto drafted you. Yeah. Hey, I got your boy, Aaron Rogers on my team. That's not my boy. Used to be. I don't know. You're talking about your former boy. Oh, see what he can blow out this year. Everybody keeps saying, if he stays healthy, the jets are supposed to be decent. I'm not for it. I'm thinking neither of those things will happen. They were USA today's pick for the Superbowl this year. Not a sport show, not a football show, but just a little fun tidbit

information. USA today. Apparently not a sports paper either. Not a sports paper. It's pretty, pretty convinced. They have no idea what's going on. Yeah, I'd say so. Well, speaking of my, uh, my romping around in San Francisco, we have a rombing ass son of a bitch, right? We do have a voicemail from psycho bear who lives up in NorCal. So let's, let's check in with him. No one is available to take your call. Please leave a message aft

er the tone. Hello, craft beer Republic. This is psycho bear. I want to hear my message. So now I find out not only is Greg for my next life at himself. Oh yeah. I guess Erica. I hear him. I'm hearing her on the latest episode. She just went to mindscape fermentation and that apparently is an hour North of me. My goodness. And to top it all off flex. Well, my niece and nephew go to Wisconsin, whatever the university, man, I was destined to listen

to your show. Anyways, uh, just an update. I made a little trip to Seattle and, uh, one of your favorite fans deep Fontana gym was there. Yes. Me and Fontana gym were in Seattle drinking it up nice for a few days. Great time. You guys should get up there. I don't know if you're sour fans, but we tapped upon this one fantastic furry Mirage. They usually have two to three people. Well, actually I was there with about 25 other people from around the country. It was pretty

stellar. Yeah. Good times. And, uh, Oh, I was actually down in Agoura two weeks before that for a little birthday celebration, made it to Rancho la Hill place, Greg. And it was good. Nothing ever great out there. I got to try this pedal in tight, but one day I will. Oh, when you're heading back up to the bay, Greg, uh, I don't know how to reach you other than this wonderful podcast platform. Anyways. Uh, yeah, that's it for me. Tycho bear signing out.

Goodbye. So abrupt. I don't know when I'm, I know I will be going back up, but I don't know when I'll be going back up to the bay. They spring this shit on me at work. Like, Hey, can you go up there in two days? Like, Oh, I guess. Are you trying to cause a divorce? Sure. She's probably happy to get rid of you for a couple of days. She claims she's not, but somewhere deep down inside, she's gotta be. I love having the bed to myself .

I don't really. Yeah. I don't know if we've had this conversation, my wife, then you know how everybody's like, you talk up a big game about like, Oh man, I can't wait to

have the bed to myself. And I lay in the middle of the bed and I like sprawl out. Yes. And then after about two minutes, I'm just like, wow, this isn't all it's cracked up to be. Oh, and I get to my regular side and I get my regular sleeping position. Like not me, man. All right. I guess, uh, I guess this is just how we sleep from now on. I'm doing bed angels in the middle, just sprawled out.

Oh, it's glorious. So I like waking up like that to just be able to get that good morning stretch in, like you wake up and each foot hits a corner of the bed, the hands get corner of the bed, you're X'd out. And that's nice. But yeah, sleeping, I just can't just look like a chalk line murder. I always end up like back in my spot, curled up in the corner, like usual by the end of the night. But when I start, like I go to sleep in the middle of the bed,

just sprawled out, nice and quiet. It's great, man. Isn't that bizarre? It is weird. But then I, yeah, like I said, I wake up like in the corner as if I'm being kicked or something, but Hey, never. Uh, what was psycho bear say? Oh, do we like sours? Fuck. Yeah. like sours. Who doesn't like sours? Yeah. Sours are, they're super solid. Do I buy a lot of them? No, it doesn't fit the algorithm. Sure. Yeah. Usually pretty pricey, pretty pricey, low ABV.

Yeah. If I go out to a brewery, I will try theirs, you know? Right. That's, that's why I do my most sour consumption is at the brewery. So, uh, I haven't been to Seattle in a minute, but, um, Seattle's always got a super, you know, like a real solid beer scene up there. So I've heard Seattle's really good. I've heard Portland's really good too. Um, but I've never heard of this Mirage. I have not heard of Mirage been to Portland, been in Seattle,

great beer, but yeah, it's been, it's been a minute. Mirage must be a little on the newer side. I hope they've been around for like 30 years now. I know they probably have. I'm just being a dick. I wonder if I can Google this real quick. Mirage brewing Seattle. There they are. They have 40, almost 4,500 followers on the grams. They're probably been around too long. Oh yeah. Maybe they're new, new adjacent. I mean, I haven't been up there in like eight years probably at least. So,

uh, any people don't forget. Yeah. 805-538-beer. That's the number to call if

you guys want to leave a voicemail. Yeah. Get on a voicemail. Yeah. Get on, get up on it. You don't even have to be drunk. It's true. We prefer if you were, but you don't have to be. Leave us a voicemail. Uh, all right. Ludicrous libation law. This one comes to us from everyone's

favorite place, West Virginia. Okay. I was going to say New Jersey, so. Oh no. West Virginia were, what was it last time? They probably don't even have fax machines to listen to the podcast on. I think they do have more breweries than North Dakota though. I think we figured out. Yeah. Something like that. North Dakota was like 20. Yeah. Like 19 or something like that. Yeah. It's a weird small number. Yeah. Well, it was like 28. Yeah. It wasn't a whole lot more

in West Virginia. Bars are technically illegal if they also don't serve food. Food for them is just people though. I was going to say street possum, but, uh, you know, cut them deep. Um, no, I saw a, there's squirrel eaters out there. Oh, this is a real thing. Yeah. I watched back in the day. And by back in the day, I mean like 10 years ago, bizarre foods with Andrew

Zimmer and used to be a big show on the food network. Yeah. And West Virginia is such a bizarre place. Like he usually goes to countries like Spain and wherever and Japan and exotic places. He did a fucking episode in West Virginia because it is that bizarre. And, uh, yeah. One of the places he went to eat, they had like squirrels strung up by their tails, like on a clothesline and, uh, clothesline from hell. Yeah. So, uh, JBL, uh, yeah. They just eat a lot of squirrels.

I don't think that would be very good. A bit nutty. Yeah. No, thanks. Yeah. By the way, Mirage beer up in Seattle, their first post on the gram was November of 2017. So, you know, newish. I feel like that was a great, great time for breweries. Oh, that was prime time . 2016, 2017, popping up around that time. You're probably doing pretty well. Yeah. That was like peak craft. I'd say, man, just the crew, the cream of the crops, the cream rising to

the top. Yeah, there it is. All right. Before we move on. Uh, yeah. Before we move on West Virginia, they're fucked. Enjoy those fucking squirrels. Yeah. And your bars. I feel like they have to have like a roadkill restaurant too. We're like, there's no way they don't. The restaurant just salvages roadkill and that's what's on the menu for the night. Closing early today. No traffic. So gross. So, uh, all right. If you don't mind. I don't mind. I'm going to make a call the pen.

He calls to the bullpen for still laughing about roadkill. Well, that's, it's a

real thing. I guarantee it. I absolutely believe it is. And you don't even need like a catchy name. It would just be like the roadkill diner. Yeah. The roadkill cafe or something like that. That's good. I like the alliteration. Yeah. Uh, I'm drinking nothing to do with roadkill cafe with a K but just to sound, please drink your beer, but just to sound fancier to look fancy to have the little like lying over the little teal day. Uh, I'm drinking along with flex and Oktoberfest.

This one is from Enneagrin brewing their Oktoberfest beer that they just

released a couple of weeks ago. Five and a half percent, 23 IBUs has a three, eight, two on untapped because people don't appreciate good German beer. Really don't. They say on the can here, Enneagrin Oktoberfest is a traditional Bavarian Maritzen style lager brewed with imported German Munich, Vienna, and Pilsner malts. These malts give our Oktoberfest a beautiful copper color and a full bodied malty sweet flavor with hints of honey, nuts, and caramel. Pr ost.

As you can see, I think it matches that description visually perfectly. Very, very gray color. Very caramelly. Very clear. Here's the sniffer. Very roasty on the nose. Ooh, okay. A lot of roasty toastiness. Do you like your Oktoberfest roasty? I don't dislike them roasting. Okay. It's an appropriate amount of ro asty. Right. Like chestnuts on an open fire. Right. Not burnt nuts on my ding-a-ling. Sorry. Tongue jabber time. Zungenjabber. Zungenjabber. I nailed it. You really did.

This is so good. Fuck you 382. Isn't that crazy? Yeah. People are crazy. I'd say the Schnaz has more roasty toasty than the actual beer does. The beer has just the right amount. Okay. Fair amount. Very clean. Yeah. Very clean. Finishes very dry, which makes you coming back for more. I don't find it, and I actually enjoy this. I don't find it to be overly sweet. Sometimes the Marathons get a little on the sweet side. This one is not, and I appreciate that.

I am not a huge Dunkel person because they're too sweet for me. So I don't like a lot of Dunkels. I will like maybe two Dunkels, but I like when they are buttery. Yeah. The Dunkels I like are not true to style because they're just a little

too sweet for me. Yeah. Not a big fan of that. I'm not going to lie here. Dunkels and Doppelbachs Mm-hmm (affirmative). Just those are probably two styles that are not for me. I'm with you, especially the Dunkels. Doppels, eh, they're hit and miss, but Dunkels 95% of the time I don't like them. They're just not for me. They're too sweet. I know that's the style, and I know it might be the perfectly created Doppel, or excuse me, Dunkel, not my jam. So like a black IPA over a Dunkel?

Oh, yes. I love black IPAs. Red IPA? Over a Dunkel? Yeah. Absolutely. Honestly, most styles over a Dunkel. I just don't like the sweetness. Well, I'm just trying to think red IPAs are very, very malty, sometimes overly malty. They can be, yeah. But in general, I would take the red IPA over a Dunkel. It's just too sweet for me. Too honey and caramel tasting. This is so clean finish. It's so dry. Leaves the tongue wanting more, which is, I mean, if you're making beer, that's

perfect thing. People needing to drink more and more. Drinking and drinking and drinking. As I'm doing. So, I mean, it's fucking anagram. We know they're going to knock it out of the park. It's a lager. It's a lager. Is it a lager? Yeah, it's a Märzen style lager. It's very good on the Zungenjaber. Zungenjaber. Every time I pull this up, it reloads. Zungenjaber. I just need to pull that out as a drop. Drop it. Drop it like it's hot.

All right, let's get some news in here before we get up out of here. Cambridge Brewing Company to close in December after 35 years.

That's sad. Yeah. This is an interesting story. So after 35 years, Massachusetts based brew pub, Cambridge Brewing Company has announced it will shut its doors at the end of 2024. The brewery wrote on social media over the weekend, "To our dear CBC friends and family, our time is coming to a close. Our last day of service will be December 20th, but what a time it has been."

Unlike common culprits behind craft brewery closures as of late, punishingly high rent costs, a distracted drinker base, a slowing industry, CBC is going out on its own terms. Founder and owner Phil Uff-Banateen told the Boston Globe, he goes on to say, "I want to retire. There comes a time in everyone's life when what becomes apparent, and I think a time for me is now." So he's just retiring. They're not getting shut down or... Even with saying that things have slowed down and...

Yeah. Huh. So he says. There's got to be something underlying. Just old. You know how that is. I feel ya. I'm ready to retire. Financially, I'm not, but my body sure is. Physically? Yeah. Stick a fork in me. I'm done. Well, West Virginians, please don't, because... They might literally. Yeah. Being figurative here. Don't get any ideas. Not roadkill yet. Right. Give it time. We talked about this, I mean, probably close to a year ago . Fireball, you know, the disgusting cinnamon whiskey. Terrible.

They're little like mini bottle shot things. So funny thing here. So when we did, we picked the order for my fantasy football draft. It's like a tradition to get like shots before the start. Sure. So the guy went out on his break at work and bought like a 10 pack of fireball shots. Not whiskey. Not whiskey. So I had to enlighten everybody by saying this is just a malt beverage and it is not actual whiskey. So funny thing is when you look...

You're going to tell him about the Beechwood aging process? No, I didn't want to bore him to sleep. But if you look at the little bottle now, they spell it whiskey, W-H-I-S-K-Y. Interesting. So it looks like whiskey, but it's whiskey. Right. That's like we were at dinner one night with Deb and Brian and this was not a fancy establishment. The drink on the menu was old fashioned . Well, that's weird. Yeah. I was like, does that make it like a knockoff old fashioned or why is it different here?

Maybe they think that's what it is. Maybe. It's like, is this a typo? Anyways, so back to fireball. It went to court. There's a whole class action thing because the little bottles

are fermented malt beverages. They're not whiskey. And fireball maker Sazerac attempts to block the class action certification. Sazerac isn't taking the heat for causing confusion between its whiskey-based fireball cinnamon and its malt-based product of the same name.

After Sazerac was hit with a class action lawsuit last year for allegedly creating consumer confusion between the two products, the company urged a California federal judge last week not to grant class certification to buyers who claimed the single serving fireball malt beverages misled consumers into thinking they were buying fireball's cinnamon whiskey product.

The spirits giant is arguing that the putative class's experts' proposed surveys don't show wide ranging deception, saying that neither of the two surveys are admissible because the methods do not properly target fireball buyers and ignore important factors like convenience and supply. I don't know why that matters, because if I want fireball, which I don't, I want actual fireball. The product in question, fireball cinnamon, is a flavored malt beverage that contains

natural whiskey and other flavors and caramel color. According to its label, the beverage is 16.5% ABV, half the strength of the spirits-based fireball at 33%. It's all terrible. Yeah, either way, I don't want to drink it. It really is. So this is interesting. I just googled, is it whiskey or whiskey? You know, EY or no EY. The tricky part is matching the right spelling with the right country of origin . If you're talking about a drink that's been made in Scotland, Canada, or Japan, they use

the spelling without the E. When referring to drinks distilled in the United States or Ireland, they use the E. Whiskey. I'm going to have to go to the liquor store tomorrow. Yeah. So without the E is not technically wrong. It's just weird to see in America. So it's not produced or made in America or Ireland then? Well, the other thing is if it says whiskey though, I mean, then it's a real... Yeah. It says it right on the bottle. Yeah. Then they're really deceiving the public.

Right. Then you think you are getting whiskey. Right. Yeah. That's messed up. Either way, they're deceiving the public into thinking they're drinking something that tastes halfway decent. They're not. It's so gross. I can't. I've never liked Fireball. I did that shot at the picking of the draft order and it was the worst. Yeah. I can't believe you woke up okay after fucking Fireball. Oh yeah. I woke up fine. I mean, it was just one. Oh, that's good. What was the rest of the liquor you had then?

Oh, at the draft draft? Oh, so that was at the draft order. That was a different day. I see. We just drank shots of Jack all night. Ooh. I mean, much better than Fireball. Right. I could do Jack and diet. To wake up fine after six shots of Jack. Pretty impressive. Yeah. We'll end on this one. Take a trip down to Florida, shall we? It's been a while. It has been a while. Get your gator and your grenade. We're going to Florida.

And oh, Alachua man. Alachua is apparently a place in Florida. Sure. Alachua man arrested for driving his tractor on Main Street while drunk. I feel like we've heard stories like this before.

That's very Florida. Rance Edward Shannon, 60. What was his first name? Rance. That's what I thought you said. Yeah. Like France without the F. Right. Yeah. Of Alachua was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and driving without a valid license after allegedly weaving across lanes in a tractor on High Springs Main Street. That's that's the slowest weaving I can imagine. Right. Is that really a weave? Like Austin, Austin Power is trying to do that U-turn and.

Right. Or the whole steamroller thing, you know, get out of the way. Five minutes later at about 441 p.m. on August 19th, a High Springs Police Department officer saw a green John Deere tractor traveling north on High Springs Main Street. He reported the tractor traveled across a double yellow line twice and entered the opposite lane of travel to pass a line of cars. How's the tractor passing cars? That's impressive. It must be stopped. Got a turbo. Turbo tractor does eight miles per hour.

The officer conducted a traffic stop and the driver reportedly gave him a Florida identification card instead of a driver's license. The officer noted that there were two beers on the floorboard of the tractor and he noticed a strong odor of urine and alcohol while speaking to Shannon. Shannon's speech was reportedly slurred, and the officer reported that he had difficulty standing up when he got out of the tractor.

Shannon was reportedly unable to perform field sobriety exercises due to his level of influence. They did a, they ran a report on him. Shannon has 16 felony convictions, five of which are violent, including two felony DUI convictions and 36 misdemeanor convictions, non- violent, including three misdemeanor DUI convictions. He has served seven state prison sentences with his most recent release in September of 23.

The judge set bail at $4,000 with the requirement for a transdermal alcohol detection device. He said, I've been out of this place for a year. I'm itching to get me a tractor. What do you think? A year ago, he's just about to get out like, "Hey, Rance," with a weird name. What are you going to do as soon as you get out of the joint? Like, "I'm going to get me a tractor." Well, I wish they would have reported how he got down from the tractor because those things are fucking tall.

Oh, yeah. Big, they're tall, they're high up. You have to climb up in it just to get there. Unless it's one of those knockoff yard tractors, you know what I'm talking about? Is it John Deere, though? Yeah, it's true. Big fucking tractor. Yeah, I hope it was because that would be hilarious to see, just rolling down Main Street in my tractor. Passing cars. I don't think they can go faster than 30 miles an hour. I wonder what the top...

Let's see if Google will tell us what the top speed of a tractor is. Because I live in a parkway, and we get stuck behind some tractors every now and then. And I think maybe they max out at 15 miles an hour. Google says most modern tractors go roughly 25 miles per hour at top speed. Okay. At best, he's zipping through a school zone. If he's passing cars, they are probably slowing down to get out of the way because they see his zigzagging. Or slowing down to watch the fucking idiot in a tractor.

That too. Oh, here comes Rance again, his fucking tractor. How many times is this now? 16, 17? Rance, go back to West Virginia already. Oh, I tell you, that kid will never learn. Oh, fucking Rance. What a guy. Classic. Classic Florida. Hey, speaking of Florida, hi, Vanessa. Hello, Vanessa. Oh, slightly creepy today. Gotta keep you on your toes. Right. Which I'm not into toes. Oh, hard pass. Hard pass on the feet. Definitely not a fan. No, not a fan of feet.

Certainly not paying to see feet pictures. Don't hate, but I don't love. Look, if you want to like feet, that's fine. But it's not a feet hater show. Also, not a feet lover show. Let's make that clear. Very clear. Yeah. So let's end things before we dig any deeper holes. Are we digging with our feet? Oh, God, no. Hands, hands only. Find us on the socials at craftbeerrepublican, of course, at flexmeabeer, underscores in between.

805-538-beer, craftbeerrepublic.com. Mail at craftbeerrepublic.com. I think that's everything. I hope everyone is staying very well hydrated out there. And on that note. Good night, everybody!