That's full daddy proof right there. Oh, Daddy. All. All right. Game face, Greg. Here we go. Who would've thought? Well, you. Welcome it, everybody. It's the Craft Beer Republic. Thanks for drinking. Thanks for joining. I am Greg. I am being joined by the sexiest virtuoso in all the Midwest and that is Daddy Flexi. What's up, Daddy? You know, you are too kind to me. Well, you know, it's warranted. It's very warranted.
And then joining us in studio, I don't know that she plays any musical instrument instruments, but one hell of a skin. No, it's too dirty. Sorry. Joy. It's called the licorice stick, and it's the clarinet that I play. We're being joined. By my colleague over here of no longer the bouzouki, because last time she was here, we made it very clear that we poached her. That's right. And there's been no other shows put out to please ourselves. Yeah. So it was like.
Yeah, she's like, can you guys stop with the dirty jokes if I'm going to be around here? Oh, no. Make them dirtier. Oh, that's what gets me to stick around. Oh, you heard it here, folks. So it does your first. Does your. Your folks? Yeah. Does the Blues League now just become the lost league? Oh, she's gone. Is gone. Bye bye. Sad? Yeah. I'll repeat. Again. Oh. I'm joking. We kid. Sort of. Anyways, and we've given enough and then promoters. Assholes lets me.
Know free promotional booze like this is crappy republic. Find us on the socials at ice cold beer under scores in between or after each one. Flex me beer underscore is in between of course. Craft beer republic craft beer republic dot com. Lots to get to. Hot off the heels of our live show and be released you only thought about that that was a blast and so much more. So let's stop messing around and wasting time. Let's get into some hydration over here.
Well, yeah, you sing into the microphone, big boy. Yeah. Singing to your heart. Yeah, we are drinking. We're so sorry. Introduce it this way. Made this sixth anniversary double IPA. Oh, that's what this is. What a treat this is. 8% has a412 and on tapped after 561 radians which is pretty good since it's just dropped this week and hazy double IPA hop to Citra Crow BBQ 630 Crow Simcoe and tell us the combination of new and experimental hop varieties.
Linda Complex character of sweet fruit, berry and citrus with hints of pine berries. What I was picking up is something not used to us definitely picking up. So on the schnoz, this thing is tropical A.F.. I am living a Hawaiian vacation on my nose over here. It's really good. The tongue jabber follow suit. Lots of tropical goodness. I'm getting like maybe some peach in there and some mango. No, no burn from the booze. 8% is very well mask. That's gorgeous. Yeah, it's. It's dangerous.
Very soft mouthfeel. You'll be happy to know flex. Pillowy. Pillowy some. Very light. And you know, there's a little bit of lacing. Yes, a little bit of. I know flex looks. Oh yes. Sexy lacing on down there. Yeah. Yeah. This is a great beer. So this you just went and got this. Yeah. Yeah. Saturday was Midwest's anniversary, seventh anniversary. Yeah. We went out there, we had like 2 hours to spend. So we ran out of beta, went to Midwest, had the anniversary, which was great.
They had another hazy on tap, which the name is escaping me right now. But it was, I think, even better. There was both so good at a couple of raises because if you're going to do Midwest Haze, these are the best over there. Hung out for a little bit had some fat boys burgers really good burgers rule yeah hollow piano popper burger. Oh, easy for me. That sounds like cream cheese on there too. Cream cheese. House bacon. Dang it. Yeah, it was. What was the truck called? Fat boys. Super healthy.
We need to find out where they're headed next. I that's so. Yeah, I don't even crave burgers. I just. My heart is actually racing. After listening to this guy, I heard this after. Digesting, let me tell you. But it was delicious. I think they're out of Oxnard, California. That's what my credit card slips it. When I was checking after the fact, I was like, fat boys, Oxnard. Okay, it's delicious, though. If you're in the soccer and you see them, I highly recommend it. But I couldn't stay too long.
But did the research we needed to do, had had some fun, was hoping to see Spencer. He was not out there, but the beer was good. So then we we head back home to do important adult things out there. ABC 630 though, that's been like a really popular hop within the last, I would say 12 months. So I see that one getting like it's it's like it on its own name. Okay. I think so. I don't I don't know how that actually goes down because I'm not a scientist or a beer lawyer.
Yeah, I don't know, Nate. Yeah, you're not. Yeah. Beer or beer lawyers slash scientist. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if it's like it becomes popular enough and then if I'm like, all right, I'll keep it, you know? And, like, your real name. I know, because, like Idaho seven, I think became like Idaho Jam or something. Like, it was real creative like that. Like they just changed the number. I don't remember. I could be making that up. So anyways, but the anniversary was was fun.
The beer was great. Yeah. Congrats to Midwest for making it seven years. I remember. Yeah. Happy anniversary. Yeah. I mean they're a little old Midwest and nobody had heard of them. And now Stones distributing, they got two locations, including one on a beach, uh. And still have the best hazy pale around, right? Yeah. Well, the best. It's not the pales not hazy. I still. Oh it's, but it is. The beer is a pale ale. Yeah. It's the best pale ale around. That's what they made in there.
Hazy I think is the best regularly made hazy in the whole area as well. I'll cosign that. Yeah. Yeah I mean like other people can agree hazy but not, you know, not as a core beer. So so no good. What else? Oh, like I said, live show last week we had the live show at Pedals and pints with Monica for the beer release for the release of these guavas are making me thirsty and I don't know, you could corroborate my story, but god damn, that was good. It was incredible.
I was looking forward to it all week and I had shitty weeks that work and that just made everything go away. It was the most delicious beer. So good. I could just drink it and drink it and drink it. Yeah. It's like four or something. Percent, so it's nice and light. Mm hmm. Monica snuck some over a couple of days before the show. I was like, Hey, can we talk shows? She's like, Yeah, can I bring a crawler over? Or like, the pope shit in the woods, like, abso fucking lutely.
And so she came over and we did the some, some talking of the upcoming show and then a little research with that is, Oh so good. I was so happy. The way it came out is if I had anything to do with it. But she nailed it like just the right amount of salt, amount of guava we had that I don't know what. It wasn't a ghost, but like a tart last night that I brought over. Oh yeah.
And that one was good, but I don't think they got like the fruit amounts are so like, like you get how you taste the fruit. Like, Monica nailed that. She just got that, that guava, like, right there. I mean, not too much. It's not like a 450 north, but. No, no, no. It's like barely clear. Yeah. It just has. No hint of. Yeah, just a. Really good flavor to it. First of that guava but super tart and the salt and oh. Super nice. It was amazing. And the show was great. So entertaining, but.
Yeah, I had a blast. I haven't done one of those since. Nasty Pine Batch 300 back in, I think April of 22. And I wrote that long ago. For real? Yeah. It's been a hot day. Was it the summer? Was it April. March, April or May, whenever 300 was? If you guys ever heard that, go back and listen to. Dang do dang. Yeah it's it's always nerve racking for a guy who doesn't do well with like public speaking. And so Monica and I had a couple beverages before we went out.
In fact, she pre-loaded for she even showed up. She's like, I had a couple beers already. I was like. She had beverages before. She had beverages. Hey, exactly. Now it's late on the show and couple of pints. So, you. Know, we hung out after. Yeah, closed the place down. A lot of people showed up, though. You had a great turnout. You showed up with his wife and. Mama, too, right? Mama Chou was there, the porcelain queen, my god. And she is so cute.
So I went over to like introduce myself and thank her again for making everything from scratch, making it delicious and, like, seeing, like, meeting the woman behind the food. Right. And she told her daughter she wanted a picture with me. So we got a picture and I, like, almost cried. It was so cute. She's adorable. She's adorable. It was so much fun. And a lot of what she was saying was she was speaking Spanish and she was sort of translating for us.
And I said at one point, I said, Thank you so much. Everything was so amazing, you know, was thanking her also. And she said something, too. And I was like, what she's saying? He goes, Oh, she said, You can come over and eat whenever you want. I was like, Fuck, yeah, I'm not going to be so sorry. That's the ultimate. Van. Yes. And then I got to meet another listener. Pablo. Pablo? Yeah. Pablo showed up. Pablo sends me funny. You should all the time. We have more people who listen. That's great.
Yeah. Yeah, none of them are finished either. Or where Slovakia. That we're we're. Yeah that's right. This is the Slovakia and Tuvok. Yeah. 6% of my Doug. Yeah. Or if there's a Slovakia version of junior beer, it'd be like Tuvok in. Yeah. Tuvok. Yeah. So yeah. It's off the tongue. Quite nicely. It's a Star Wars character. Pablo is there. You know Jeri from Daughters in the car? She came with her friend. I believe her name was Debbie.
This very nice older couple was sitting, like, right in front of where the table was set up. They're like, the first thing I saw when I looked out and it was funny, they were there before we started setting up and they started setting up and they're hanging out and the wife is like, Man, I hope they leave.
So we can snag that table for the friends and everything and be like a little up close table and they weren't leaving the room and then it's getting to showtime like they don't look like they're going to be leaving at all. So they stuck it through the entire show and afterwards, so nice. The lady comes up and she goes, I didn't realize what this was. I thought you were another brewery.
I'm like, Oh, no, you know, we do this every week and, you know, explain like sometimes we do the live shows, slash interviews, and most time we're doing like what we're doing now. She does. That is so cool. I am going to follow you guys since. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah, I feel bad. I didn't catch your name. So shout out to the very nice lady who is sitting right in front of you the entire time we're doing this show. Who stuck it through and and enjoyed ourselves.
I'm glad you guys enjoyed it. And it was it was a blast for me. I hope everyone there had fun and thanks for coming out. Of course, thanks to Monika for a the collab and then B you know setting this all up and thanks to pedals and Brad and for Wiley for helping out and and everybody is it was a good time and hopefully it was good for pedals too. I mean, a lot of people showed up. I was pleasantly. Surprised. Definitely, yeah.
And then a lot of people stuck around that weren't there for the show. Like. All right, yeah, we got some afterwards. Beers and Wiley took some great photos. Yeah, he did. You guys, he. He's really talented. We've seen a couple. Of. Good shots. He did a great job. Yeah, it was a great night. So much fun. Glad we got to do it. I needed to get some more of that. That these guavas are making me thirsty because it's delicious. That's good. Football beer. You drink that shit all day long? Oh, yeah.
And then finally I'll end it with this story. Callie reminded me right before we went to air. I guess I won't mention the brewery because I know this wasn't a negative, but I don't want to, like, accidentally get her in trouble in case the owners find this as a negative. But. Well, I'm just wondering why I was the first person to cross Cody's mind. Oh, know this happened. So I. You will find out. We were on the edge of my seat over here. Yeah. We went to a brewery that has both food and beer.
Both are delicious. And we're meeting up in front of me now with James and Monica and your friend Jess and. And the wives and the husbands and everything. So we're there and we'd already gotten a round or two ordered, I think. I think this is like round two. I think this was the first was the. First round and. Oh that's. Right. The waitress was taking our orders. Yeah. She had gotten to like Monica and then Shannon and myself and then she went across the table to Nick and then she was right.
And she has a very thick jaw. I think she was German. I called her Hildegard. Yeah. I don't know what her name was. And she looks over at me, she goes, and for you, Daddy. I know. And she's the way she said it. Thought it was like and for, you know. Yeah, yeah. And it was very like, oh my God. And I, I looked at everyone like, did everyone else just hear? Like, I'm. No, please tell me I'm not crazy. She fucking called him Daddy.
Yeah. And I look over, I glanced over because across from me is like Shannon and I glance over like did I did I hear that is that we heard Dan. I mean, I just was like I made eye contact and then I looked down cause I was like, I'm going to start laughing. I have to stop because you. Have to laugh. That's ridiculous. And then when she brought the beer, she said something. And here's for you, daddy or whatever, with the beer.
And Nick said, Greg never taken a beer so quickly in his life like this. And then, of course, the rest the day Nick called me Daddy, especially when she was around us. Yeah, we tried. It was. We made it as awkward. Yeah, it was great. Yeah. Daddy would like another beer, please. Yeah. Can Daddy get another beer? So awkward. That couldn't have made me any happier. And I immediately thought of you and was like, we have to tell flex this. Like, Yeah. I mean, that makes a lot of sense.
Yeah, it makes total sense. Now as we're you're in for the show you like did you tell flex like tell flex. What about the x, y, z brewery story? I was like, I don't know. She goes, Daddy, I'm like, Oh. Yeah, that's my place. It was so fucking funny. I could I mean, I've never heard anyone go through. It's just usually like, you know. Yeah, or what would you have? But I know I wasn't crazy. And she said it and I was like, Guys, yeah. Outside of children flex. Or or sexual. Positions.
Whenever you heard someone call someone daddy. It's like apparently Hildegarde does it on the radio. Maybe you're just given the vibe, man. Maybe. Maybe she thought I was rolling solo or something. You know, the wife wasn't sitting next to me, and I. I don't even know where my ring is, so maybe I was giving off those daddy vibes. You never know. Daddy. It was so good. Oh, that was fun. That's brilliant. I'm jealous. Actually, I'm kind of jealous. I wish you could have been there, honestly.
Yeah. Well, that would be what? That would have been too perfect. True. Well, she should have called you Daddy. At that point. It almost would have been like it was a made up story and nobody would believe us. That's probably true. So as we record it, today's Monday, we record on Mondays generally. Do you do any Monday lunch and beer gathering? Oh, well. You know, I did because it's Monday. I did so flex's, you know, working on his self a little bit.
So trying to stay away from like the poor food choices. But I'm still drinking a lot of beer and believe believe it or not, it works. You know, I'm just going to let everybody know that, you know. BEARD It's not too horrible. You know, physiques just stay away from the fried stuff.
But anyway, yeah, I went out, my favorite bartender was up at Eagle Park today, cruised up with my buddy Duke a drink ability, had herself some awesome, awesome beers a couple of Hayes's because we're Hayes boys had their tropical slush beer which they've been doing ever since she had I don't know, six years ago. And they just knocked it out of the park. It's total pineapple, mango papaya vibes, just 8%. Super gnarly.
But also I mentioned, you know, my favorite beer tender being up there bartender just treat your bartenders just really kind like little dick. Yeah, don't be a dick. Right. So he was telling us the story, how this guy came in for a 64 packs of beer like 60 that. Yeah right and. Was Scott Milwaukee. I don't know. Scott barked twice. Barked twice. If you're in Milwaukee. So he put together this huge order for this dude.
So on top of the 64 packs for whatever he needed it for, he got four more cases for himself. And this dude, you know, got all the beers together, carried them to the gentleman's car. The dude was a member of the brewery as well. Okay. And totally stiffed him on any kind of. Oh, come on tip. Whatsoever.
So the super dick move don't be that guy we did start talking about how like the ongoing debate do you tip for to go beer you know and we've talked about it before right yeah it even you know Sam was saying, hey, I understand you come in here for four pack two, four packs. It takes me 2 seconds to turn around, take them out of the cooler, plop him on the counter. He's like, I don't expect anything from that.
He's like, But when it takes me 20 minutes to get your order together, man, and I carry it to your car, like, not even, like, like a $10, like, hey, man, thanks for all the work you put in, right? If his Apple Watch is asking him if he wants to start a workout, he deserves a tip. Really? Right. Yeah, that's fucked. Yeah. Look, if I wanted to bring a guy like one four pack, I'm not apt to start throwing down cash at the bartender who literally turned around, grabbed four pack.
But, Jesus Christ, if you're loading the trunk of your car like some fucking giambrone at treehouse. To brony. Then tip the guy. Please. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's, you know, doing, you know, going above and beyond really, you know, yeah. That guy comes in. He's just. Well, that's the thing, too. It's like you're a member at the brewery, so, like, this guy is not going to forget who you were, right? You know, which which makes it almost worse for the patron, unfortunately.
But that's the thing, too. It I feel like, you know, if you frequent a brewery and you kind of like we frequent some and we know some of the staff well, you know, even if they're a brewery, restaurant or whatever, I just feel like we frequent them enough. We know them. I mean, even if I get to go beers all of a buck, like just yeah. I mean, I've gotten to the point where I will do that as well.
And it's just like you said, them grabbing me a four pack or I'm just paying for it, you know, they're like going grab the four pack on the way out or whatever. All right, cool. I give them a buck, like, because I know them. And I mean. If I'm. Not only you know them, but when they recognize you like that's when it really hits like. Yeah. Wow. Like, this is like a like Greg's in a cheers here right now. Right? Sometimes you want to go or everybody knows your name, right?
You're that's that's what makes you comfortable. That's what makes you happy. It brings the vibes up. And I have found that maybe too many people know my name. They might have a problem. But yeah, but it is nice, you know, walking in knotty pine. Hey, Greg. Walking to 14 eg, you know, pedals. Pedals. So, yeah. Sometimes I walk in a person, I get the fuck out of here, but overall it's great. Yeah, but yeah, being a, you know, being a kind nice patron as we were, as we always are.
I got flipped to free four pack today. Nice. So I just want. To excellent. Big shout out to Sam best bartender this side of the Mississippi. Shout out to Sam. That reminds me super quick. I was I was at a yard house which if you don't have any near you it's the restaurant slash bar with I don't know they have like 100 men. Like that. Absolute garbage. 95% of them I was having are like, you guys have a hundred tabs? I mean, having a hard time finding a beer anyways, quick story.
I was there by myself because I was driving for work, got a beer, got some dinner and they were doing some group. Next to me was huge. They were doing like a group photo and the waiter was taking it and I happened to see that I was like right in aim of the lens. And so I just started making faces and like drinking my beer, funny and that kind of stuff and photobombing. And then like a minute later, one of the girls is doing selfies. And so I was like, Oh, I can see myself in her fucking camera.
What an idiot. So I start making faces and like the waiter kind of recognized when he's taking the picture, kind of like poked his head up and smiled and like half chuckled. And so a few minutes later, because by as like anything, I was like, yeah, you know, I'll go get another one of these. He's like, Oh, and you know, it's just a small like a 16 ounce whatever. And he comes back with their their yard, which is, you know, a three foot beer. Jesus. And I was like the big one.
And he's like, Yeah, a big one. I was like, okay, I'm thinking like, fuck, this can be expensive. And I got the bill. He totally didn't charge me for it as a I guess I was nice and I and I gave him a chuckle for the night or something. Daddy, Daddy. Yeah, yeah. It's all about making people's day too, you know? Like, you never know what people got going on or, you know, people don't know what you have going on, but, yeah, you know, to just be kind, right? Exactly.
And, and something you said reminded me so hardly connected. But back to the Pels live show real quick. Our homie Spencer who's been on the show who works over at Mid West. Yeah, he's super tight. Super cool guy. He stopped in to the brewery earlier that day because a work that night dropped off some beers for Monica and I and said like, Hey, can you put these in the fridge? Spencer Thank you so much. Monica and I got shattered. We totally forgot about the beers.
And then a couple days later, I texted Monica and I was like, Any chance Spencer Beers are still there? She's like, Hold on. 5 minutes later, she goes, No, they're gone. We did not get to it, but I appreciate you thinking of us. That was very nice. And hopefully it's one of the beers I had at the anniversary or something. So such a bummer. I know. Took them some magazine seeing their ass kicked. Yeah. Yeah, it was Monica. Just the one. Tell me. No, she would know. I'm joking.
She's the nicest person ever. Yes. All right. Before we get some news, I think we each time we answer very important question over here is walking up. He's got to be out, I think what is flex doing? Who's a show? All right. Yeah, I'm just getting super fuck insight for this shit. Yeah. So today, flex's drinking young blood beer company out of Madison, Wisconsin. Here, they're slowly becoming one of my favorites in the state. And I'm drinking codename Hurricane Lucas, an Imperial American IPA.
And it's funny you read the wrong description earlier of your beer. I definitely do. And we won't have to tell the audience about that if you take it out. Yeah, but if it. If it was right I didn't do it. No, but, but it said the most important part about it was it said it had the strata hoppin there. Oh uh huh. So strata hops or something I don't normally seek out. I always think they're kind of not overrated, but I just never had anything exciting for the strata hop right there.
Kind of a basic hop. Yeah. So that actually kind of struck me when I looked at this beer and it is exclusively dry. Hopped with strata. Hmm. All right. So it's a 9.3% ABV. Yeah. And the can Reed's stone ask. Oh yeah I know. And I got to get my old man eyes ready. Now this can hold a shout out to our favorite bartender in all Madison and all around great human Lucas Andres before he was a proper mix master 3000, Lucas was out bombing the hills in Boise, Idaho.
The code name given to him by his crew in Idaho was Hurricane Lucas. He may have mellowed out these days and left that nickname behind, but the custom T-shirts will live forever. This American style Imperial IPA is a fitting tribute. Big and thick Daddy with a red, with a rich body while getting dry, hopped solely with strata for all its juicy passionfruit and sticky grapefruit notes.
So here's why I love these guys so much not only their ridiculous descriptions, but they tell you the notes that you're going to taste on the can. Admire. My fucking goodness, I don't don't even pardon my French. They nail these notes every damn time, right? So on the old schnoz. Oh, look at that color. You get mega, mega, mega passion fruit like it all it is is fresh passionfruit.
This color is super coppery very west coast the hazy not that see through so it's not like like a classic west coast but cloudy. Yeah. And then you get the old tongue job already. So my favorite part. Yeah, the entire show. I mean, it really is. It's rich, it's thick, it's like 85% passionfruit, a little bit of malt and then that sticky, sticky grapefruit at the end. It's a fuckin banger, man. I'm actually going to go pick up more of this tomorrow. I like it so much.
And one thing I don't do is buy. I really don't do it cause I try and drink different beers by different beers every time I buy stuff and I rarely ever buy the same beer over again. And this one, I'm actively going to go out and buy again because it's that fucking good. That's, that's saying something. Yeah, that's amazing. And also for the algorithm. Greg. Yes. Oh, most importantly. 9.3%. Huh? 1399 for the whole back. Yes. Good God. Wow. How do they afford to stay in business?
That's the cheap way to get drunk. Yeah. So it's a win win. Yeah, that. Is. I mean, that's that's a panty dropper. And like, I would probably just need one and a half. You don't even have to make a label for the can with that, you know, like cannot not even in that doesn't even have to fit in the ratio. Now I do like their canned art scheme. Like everything looks like it's part of the same brewery. Yeah, it's very cool. They do a good. Job with it all.
All these, all these imperials and triples that they do, they all have like this teal label and yeah, it's just, it's super gnarly. These guys are great. Nice. Very nice. All right. Let's get a little news in before we head on out here. Brad, when a script is named Brad, Common, Common, a company from Green Sheet Brewing, which is pretty popular here out here, is leaving Green Chic to open up villains brewing along with Isaiah Hernandez of smoke fire restaurants.
They are taking over the old modern times leisure town spa that's that's the one with the pool in Anaheim that just closed. That's nice. Yes, that would be fun. What is this place called? Villains Brewing. Villains brewing. K, that's a super tight name, so. It's a super cool name. They're going to turn part of it into a steakhouse and per the lease on the building, they are keeping the pool. They have to keep the pool nice, get your trunks and have some steaks and beers.
Everybody that's like you imagine. Ordering like a like a 12 ounce full ed in your swim trunks. So, so. Good. Eating a nice, rare 12 ounce filet. Yeah. Do they supply the bib or do you have to bring your own? Oh, good question. We just jump in the pool. I think you probably just jump in the pool and rinse off. Yeah, easy peasy. It's more environmentally friendly. Sounds like some tasty water. Yeah. Chlorine. Salty, salty. That's looking to open in April of 23.
New Belgium is blowing up the Internets right now after debuting a revamped fat tire branding as well as new recipes for Fat Tire. I saw an article, but I. Okay. So that's why it's popping up. Apparently they're no longer calling it an amber ale because it is no longer amber. It looks more like a lager. It looks like a like a slightly darker lager. And it's just called fat tire ale. Oh, cool story. All right. What's next year?
Nevada going to reformat your Nevada Pale Ale to be hazy or something? It's like stick to your guns. They're just training. And that was always such a classic beer, man. It was always like flat tire. Yeah, it was one of the one of the first craft beers besides Sierra Nevada that was available. They how did it T.G.I. Friday's out here. Oh yeah. I mean that was like. That's where we'd get it when we were like 21, 22.
Yeah. It's like Sierra Nevada and Fat tire were fancy beers and then a little bit later like Stone IPA, join that crowd. Yes, but yeah, those were like on the top by themselves forever. I don't know that it was a problem with fat tire thing. It was a problem with selling out. I think that's probably why business has declined a little bit, but it's. Definitely a decline for me. So yeah. I haven't had anything in quite some time till we talked about this a few months ago.
Tilray acquired Amyris like this, a minor talk brewing and burger. Melissa will fix that for me. That's Montauk. Yeah. There you go. Montauk. And so anyways, they released the sale price and that was $35 million. Or. So. A lot. So no balance point billion. But they'll going for a lot of money these days. Weird story coming out of North Carolina, bruh. I hate saying this one, Ramani.
Yeah, that's a hard one. Yeah. Suddenly laid off 25 employees and shut down their Charlotte taproom only six months after opening that other location. And it was without notice and just like, all right, everybody, you're all out of a job. Nice. Yeah. Oh, nice. Very nice. And that makes you think somebody just came in and, like, bottom out? Maybe, but their original spot still open, and they claim they're working towards reopening.
It sounds like they're having some maybe some money issues or God, hopefully it's not like a health department thing or, you. Know, sounds like a McCloud deal. Okay. Oh, man. The McCloud saga. Out here I just saw and Melissa were there, so I don't. Yeah. I mean, they're open, and I think they're sometimes making pizza. And, um, I hear things are weirder than fucking ever over there, so. Yeah, good luck if they have any employees and you're working there.
Good news. Seattle Russian River is beginning to distribute back up to your hood. It's been over a decade since they did. And now that they're making a lot of beer there, they're coming back up north. So look out for some goods over there. Lucky the Brewers Association is going to increase membership dues for breweries. Any brewery owners or brewers there. Listen, listen up. It's going up $30 per month and there's various tiers.
But as long as you're making under 60,000 barrels a year, it's going to up $30 for making more than that. It's it's a fucking an algorithm. You're making a lot of beer. This was a fun one for me. Sazerac who owns Fireball Oak, and he Fireball enjoys that. Really, it's the one alcohol, the one I can never drink again. Oh, yeah, I can't. That smell that makes me. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can't. I can't do it. It's, uh, smells like regret.
They've been hit with a class action lawsuit over their mini airplane sized bottles of fireball. Apparently, fireball. The normal size is a whiskey based drink. The small ones are not. What are they? What are they? Are they malt liquor? They're malt based and they're called Fireball Cinnamon Product or something like that. So anyways, in order to skirt some tax laws and some TTB laws, they make it a malt beverage so that they can sell it in more locations.
And it's classified in the beer category where the full size one is a whiskey and the they're now being sued for misleading consumers into thinking it was whiskey and it's not at all. Well, that's stupid. That's news to me. I mean, I didn't know that. Yeah. So if you're if you're buying the little ones, it's not the same thing because. Cheeks has the little ones all the time. Yeah. So that'll be like the strongest. The strongest beer on the market.
No, I think I read that it's about 16%, those little ones. So I mean like 120 IPA is stronger than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, so no, it's not the strongest. It's just there to skirt some tax laws. So I imagine, you know, it's probably half the ABV of regular fireball and yeah, it's pretty shady practicing. So, uh, way to go Sazerac it douches. Yeah, well, your alcohol is disgusting and I can't drink it anymore anyways. Yeah. For you. The Sazerac more like Balzac, Iraq. Yeah, I agree.
COVID still well ended with this one. I think this is a fun story because they. Hey fuck dry January. Yeah, it's the worst. It's such a bad. My boss said Oh God bless new bar. You said he had a moist January. He's like, I started off dry and here I am. It was moist. It oh. Anybody out there? Love that word. Moist. I don't understand. Why people don't want it. I know some people are so weird about it.
I think my wife's one of them, but anyway, so here are the states most and least likely to participate in dry January. Retail open were up. Give me two three. Most likely top ten start to number ten Mississippi then Zach Hood, Indiana. Good for him. Yeah I think he's helped keeping them in the nine spot of the eighth spot. Number eight, Tennessee, number seven or Kansas, number six. Alabama, man number five, roll to. Oh, God, here we go. No rule. To add. That. To add roll to.
Number five, Oklahoma number four, Kentucky, number three. So these are the states least likely to participate? Most likely. So the drought. Most likely. The driest in January, number three, Georgia, number two, West Virginia. And number one, you to give. It to. Give me. One. Jeez, I thought this was the least likely. I'm sorry. No, no. Most likely to be dry. Really excited, I, I guess that. Yeah. Well, that's because Utah is the worst. The worst. Worst. The worst. Tipsy sucks.
Yeah, sorry, sorry. But. And then why are why are all the states, all southern states? So, uh, did did anybody, like, follow that? Like. Well, the Bible Belt, you know? Uh. Yeah, I'm sure most of those states have dry counties and no buying shit on Sunday laws. And yeah. So it's probably very easy to it's. Like real times. It's like real time. Smokey and the Bandit down there. Like, yeah, still like moonshine down. Yeah, load it up into it. So and here for flex is the least likely for.
Okay, this is what I thought it was. I feel like a fucking idiot. Yeah, I was surprised by number one. So starting at the bottom. Number five, Vermont. Number four, Wyoming. Number three, Wisconsin. Yeah, I'll take it. Number two, Alaska. Because what the fuck else you got? Yes, dark. I don't know. But it's. It's illegal to act drunk in public. That's true. But not at your house. Well, you're. Out. I guess you. Can feed moose. Yeah. You go haul again. Get drunk with miss.
Me. And then the number one state league. Wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait. Rhode Island. January. Not Rhode Island. It's a much larger state than that in size, not in population. Montana. Dang. I guess just like Alaska. What the fuck else are you going to do out there? Well, I thought about that when you said Wyoming and even Vermont. It's like but like, you know. There's a lot of what are you going to do? I know I feel like the Dakotas would be on there as well because it's just cold as hell.
And, you know. I guess not. I guess they must have slightly more to do over there. Or maybe like these states don't have heat. They drink to stay warm. Yeah, maybe that too. Bu. No, but I was a little disappointed. California did make that list. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Come on, California. I mean, that only top five, though. Maybe you guys are in the top ten. Maybe. Maybe. But we need to try harder either way. So yet better California two better. All right, that is everything.
Thank you guys so much for hanging and for drinking. I'm going to hit some music over here and say hi to Vanessa. Hi, Vanessa. Hi, Vanessa. And encourage you to check us all out on the grams flex me beer underscore is in between ice cold beer underscores after each one and of course, craft beer. Republic Craft beer republic tor.com 05538 beer 2337. I believe that's everything. So I hope everyone is staying very well hydrated. And on that note. Good night, buddy.