The Greatest Boring Beer I've Ever Had

[intro music]

Welcome everybody to the Craft Beer Republic! Thanks for drinkin', thanks for joinin' I am Greg, of course I am being joined by the sexiest of all the Midwestiest, and that is Flex What's up, buddy? Oh, hello! That was like, almost Falvinus? Was it kinda like, was it sexy?

It was somethin' It happened I'll take somethin' Okay, it happened, and I'm not Beggars can't be choosers Right, and not soft, so we'll keep goin' And then, joining us for a second week, we convinced him to come back around, the head brewer of Pedals and Pints, and that is Boris What's happenin', fella? Hello What's goin' on, guys?

Thanks for comin' back around Yeah, of course Makin' the 11-minute drive back on We're almost in the same hood, so it's kinda like Yeah Well, that's convenient You're, um Yeah, like, what did I say? 11 minutes? Like, 11 minutes? Yeah So, you're mostly close to Naughty Pine, right?

Uh, less than, what am I, 07 miles away So, you can walk I walk the dog to Naughty Pine Yeah, that's amazing So That's the one thing, I love my location of my house, other than there's not a walkable brewery Yeah It's too bad But, uh, so jealous Anyways, follow us on the socials, @CraftBeerPro, @FlexMeBeer_ in between, and of course, @BorrieTheBlade on the 'Gram, there Lots to get to today, we've got some booze news to talk about, some over in

Flex's hood Ojai Oh, Ojai Uh, no, no, Ojai's over here in California Hey Hey Dad jokes Ludicrous libation law, I'm gonna ask everybody a beer question, and much more,

so let's get into it Let's, uh, start the hydration off with a review over there from Boris I love how they sound drunk in the song I love that, yeah I hope that was the point I don't know if it was just coincidence, or what All right Well, I'm having, um, a gift from Andrew from Victoria County Beer Oh, Not Murderer Andrew Not Murderer Andrew Nice Um, we just missed each other, uh, when he dropped these gifts off at the, at the brewery

Uh, but yeah, he left, uh, left us a four pack, a mixed four pack of, uh, of beer, and this one is a collab This is Ism Brewing in collaboration with Rip Beer Company

Oh, lovely submission Rip, yeah Rip is real solid I've had a couple beers from them up here This is called Dank Meter Nice A West Coast IPA, 67%, and I'm having trouble reading the can because they put green font on top of green background, uh, but I pulled up on Tapped, and it is a 43 Wow Out of 58 check-ins, though Holy smokes So this must be a newer collage Yep Uh, it says here, West Coast Isle IPA collaboration with Rip Beer Company, M osaic Dynaboost, Super

Delic Cryo, Rewaka Cryo, Nelson, Helios, that's a new hop to me, and Citra It may have taken us almost a year, but we could not be more stoked to finally team up with our homies and local West Coast heroes from Rip Brewing We dialed up the Dank Meter to max for this one, kicking off deep tropical notes of papaya, star fruit, and gristerminer grapes atop a fat dank layer of OG resin on the bottom end Okay, that's a lot Wow So, real fast, gonna drop a little, like, brew nerd lingo here

Mosaic Dynaboost, that's a new product that is a hop extract type of product

that increases yield for breweries that do West Coast, or I should say, hoppy beers in general So if you want, like, the mosaic flavor and aroma, but you don't want to lose yield when making said beer, you use this product called Dynaboost Super Delic Cryo is virtually the same, but I believe that's an actual hop matter It's just super highly concentrated So you don't need, let's say you normally put 22 pounds of something hop, you would

only need like five, so you get the same effect out of five pounds Is the Dynaboost like a liquid extract?

It's liquid Oh, okay And Dynaboost, I believe, is Whirlpool edition, so the hot side And when you do Whirlpool, like, you do drop in on a 10 to 15 barrel batch, five and a half to like 22 pounds of hops So it's a lot of hops, it's a lot of matter Well, if you can reduce all of that and achieve the same flavor and aroma by just dropping six ounces of an extract that is pure hop, then you get all the benefits of the hot flavor, but none of the drawbacks of losing a bunch of yield

So yeah, this is, I've never had this beer, 67% on the old schnauzer Oh, and the clarity is unreal for a West Coast I did just notice that It's really clear This is nice

There is a slight hop haze, which should be there because they still used hops in it Oh, I get nothing but the Nelson out of this I love Nelson, by the way No shade to Nelson or the Rewaka, but the New Zealand hops just are, they're jumping out of the glass to me What else was in there? Citra, Helios?

I've never heard of that hop I'm not sure if it's, I have no idea Never heard of it I didn't do my research on that But on the jobber, ooh, ooh, ooh So this is like a mid, this is like a halfway between a West Coast OG and a modern West Coast You still get the dankness, which is what they were wanting, but you get the modern approach Lighter body Lighter body Like this is probably all Pilsner malt, maybe 1% wheat just for head retention

So you go OG with the malt pill, but then you go new school with the hops and the new school like tech for hops and the way you make it But then you still dial up the, like the straight up dank, it is dank, like old school This is fantastic Holy cow I love that old school dank That bitter grapefruit in the back end So good Oh, this is all I'm getting And I love when they do with this lighter, but I don't miss the fucking malt bombs of

yesteryear where like stone IPA was like a, you know, liquid loaf of bread I don't miss that I love the hoppiness of it

So I like these lighter West Coast IPAs that are coming out now where it's like that blend of the dankness of yesteryear, but the light body of, of newer beers and stuff That's why I love a good hoppy Pilsner Yep Oh, give me a West Coast Pilsner any day Pilsner's basically a hundred percent Pilsner malt, but then it's hopped like an IPA and just delicately, delicately lagered Yeah This is, Oh, this is super tasty Andrew, thank you so much for bringing this

This is an unbelievable beer and RIP just does not disappoint Yeah I've not had ISM yet, but RIP ISM is a new one to me too Says here they're out of Long Beach, California All right Oh, that's not far That's not too bad That's not far in, in, in perspective to mileage, but it'll take us two hours to get there Yeah Minimum Yeah, exactly Yeah Minimum Are you going to Long Beach? Got a little quick homework here Oh, so it says the Helios hop is one of the most agronomically sustainable hop

varieties grown today Thanks to its unrivaled yield, powdery and well as downy mildew resistance, pleasant aroma and bitterness quality I don't know what any of that means It is a dual purpose hop that can be used in hop additions throughout brewing process described as low COH with pleasant bitterness, a muted aroma with clean, soft accents Loft Yeah Yep It's from the hop Steiner hop program So it's a European slash German hop Wow But that makes sense

If this has like, it can sustain just about any environment And I'm wondering if they would like, now that it's named, if they would sell off, like, or breed it with American stuff So then they can get the qualities of the Helios for the growth and not have to worry about the climate or it can grow in other parts of the world, but just not be known as Helios Like this could, this could be the, a parent in the breeding process for its qualities and branch off of that Oh yeah That's super high

Alpha 15 and a half to 18 and a half Holy shit Whoa That's super high That is, that's the dankiness there Yeah Ooh It did say alpha, yes I did read that part, but I didn't read it out loud Super alpha with clean bitterness is what hop Steiner got Wow That's okay Okay Now I have to do my research as, as, as now a hip brewer Helios may be one I may have to mess with

Somebody's got a boner This is just a hazy pale with Helios Bitter with Helios Finish it with some, something from New Zealand, something from New Zealand, or even we keep it in Germany with Mandarina Bavaria Okay Super orangey finish Oh yeah Oh yeah Mandarina Bavaria is one of my favorite hops too Love that hop Everyone's getting hard over here Still not a boner shot Give it time apparently Uh, all right Top listening city of last week

Shout out to, I think this is a new one Dallas Tejas Yeah I don't even think we ever stepped foot in Texas I know I, well, it's not true I had an emergency landing once in Texas, but that's it I hate to admit it I had a layover there once Yeah Oh Did you go by choice?

No I don't think we've ever talked shit about Texas Every time I stepped foot in Dallas, dude, I just shiver I'm like, Oh God, Cowboys, Cowboys fans everywhere Oh no Worst Worst I might get arrested Yeah But Hey, thanks for listening That won't last very long Love to hate to Dallas Yeah We appreciate it Yeah To all the not creepy people who are listening, thanks Anyways Hey, we forgot to mention this last week Speaking of all this beer nerd stuff and hop talk and whatnot, um, you also are

a seasoned

podcast veteran Oh me Yes The other one on the show The other one Uh, yeah, I did a beers with Borrie podcast Uh, if you would like to search, the episodes are still up I haven't recorded since last December the it's hashtag beers with, uh, beers with Borrie It's on Spotify, Apple, Apple music or Apple podcasts, pocket casts It's on the major products was on Google rip Google podcast Um, but yeah, it was, it spawned out of when I used to stream games, video games every

other Friday I did a beer talk and then it became beers with Borrie and it was about literally anything and everything I like took an excerpt out of the encyclopedia of beer The, it was written by Garrett Oliver It doesn't matter And I would just talk about, let's say I talk about the style like brown ale and then it would, I would just read excerpts and then I try to get a brown ale like from somewhere and drink it while I talked about it and then talk about the different

differential characteristics, why most breweries don't do it, why breweries haven't done it in forever, why the style is like fading in a way, like, or another episode would be about citra hops and the history of citra hops So that's kind of where the show went on And then when I started recording a podcast, it was the same vein, but most of them were reviews So it'd be like any beer I get my hand on or if I had aspirations of doing a vertical

recording myself doing a vertical, that would have been fun Get to number seven But then the last three Christmases I've bought the Costco admin calendar, the German beer admin calendar Every year I torture yourself

It all tastes like cam So I was like, yes, German beer, 24 of them Let's go And then the second year I was like, oh, the first 14 were the same from last year Like, oh man Then the third year I was like, all right, this is the last time And then I open it up I'm like, yup Almost identical The first like 12 were the same I was like, okay This is like, well, this is the last time I'm doing the Costco one I think it's the same cans from three years ago It wouldn't surprise me

I would check every episode This was a review I opened it every day and I recorded myself drinking said beer And I promise, I swear it was the same lock code on the cans I'm that person that checks like can dates, packages, whatever Right So I was like, what the, you gotta be kidding me So I was really disappointed There were some new ones, but yeah, that was kind of like the last time I recorded was a lash 2023 advent calendar

If you were to go back to the, to the podcast, that's the last recordings was 24 days of me reviewing every, every single one And you'll hear it's pretty, they're like five to seven minutes long They try to be, I try to be quick about it cause like I'm coming home from work , dropping off whatever is in my pocket If I got to walk the dog, I got to walk the dog And then like I set up the equipment, you know, turn on Norad and then I crack a beer

and I quickly review it so it's like, and then I got to go make dinner So that was kind of like the whole scenario every night So if it's still out there, if you want to listen to it, folks, sorry, that was a long winded Yes I have a podcast Thanks I tell you what I am on team I hate my voice It's weird It takes a lot of getting used to, to hear your voice It does And now like I've been like flex said last week, what am I doing for like 12 years now?

12 and a half years I've been doing it for so long Now when I hear my voice, I'm like, Oh, I don't sound right today Oh yeah Like, Oh, I sound tired or I sound sick or what? Like it just, I don't sound quite right I sound a little off now

I know my voice too well It's weird and mildly narcissistic You can definitely tell when I'm tired Yeah Tonight Flexy ain't sweepy No Flexy's How's your booger sugar treating you?

We good I wish people could see that reaction That was great Oh yeah Good time Yeah The, the fucking, uh, the Costco pack Oh, I did a highlight So when you're, I think this was, God, it was a 21 or 22 I don't remember Your mom bought it Your sister bought it My sister-in-law bought it for me That's what it was She thought she was being nice She knows you're an alcoholic She knows I'm an alcoholic and she's 24 German beers

She's like, Oh my God, yeah, the Costco, whatever pack and this, I'm like, and I, and that was the year where like all the grammars were doing it and they were talking about how garbage it was And I was like, Oh no Oh no 22 I think it was 22 Yeah It wasn't last Yeah It was definitely, definitely was not last year Oh yeah 22 was, I think is it 21, 22, definitely not 23 And so I did a highlight, like a real highlight on Instagram instead of an episode for each

one, just so everyone can see my face as I drank it for the first time

And most of it was like, all right, now I'm drinking, you know, Juergen Fleur gen from Dusseldorf and sip Oh, that was so bad That was hard to get It got to the point where I was like, do I need to finish this box?

Cause this is, Oh no So I don't know I poured them out I don't know if you guys poured them out or if you canned them I can't Greg I can't remember I can't remember I don't think I finished very many of them Oh, it just, it was a lot of aluminum flavor It tasted so tinny Yeah Yeah There were a lot of oxidized cans Yeah 100% Yeah Good Everything tasted the same The stouts didn't taste like stouts There were a lot of hell I remember a lot of helices in 22 Yes

There was one IPA in there and I was psyched I was like, Oh, a little change up He poured it out and drank it And I said, yeah, that tasted like the helice I had Yeah Yeah Okay That's weird I think it was just the same beer in different cans It might've been Yeah This stouts really light I don't know what's happening here Why is it yellow?

Yeah I felt so bad cause I was just ripping into these beers and I was like, dude, I love my time in Germany I spent five years over there It was the greatest, most boring beer I've ever had, but it was all outstanding Boring beer Right It was done right It was done right And it's just like, like outside of Enneagrin there's, you don't find it

anywhere You have to buy exports or imports So then when I saw this advent calendar, I was like, yes And then they show you the cans on the side You don't know the days And as some of them, I was like, Oh, I actually had this one in Germany, had this one I was like, cool I get to have it again, but clearly not the same Remember they were packaged so long ago and they just shoved them into this gi ve pack and up the price Cause they were like 80, $90 at Costco It's insane It's like for 24 beers

And I'm thinking about it and saying out loud, I'm like, wow, I'm such an idiot for buying three years in a row I would pay somebody $90 not to buy it Yeah That's why this year, this year was the first year I was like, I'm not, there's no way And I haven't We, we, we, as a, I have two kids, uh, as well flex and like, it's a Costco run every two weeks So I know they're about to get this advent calendar It's that time of year, late October, early November

So I have to like fight every urge in my body to not buy it But cause I can't be a hard fight I can't, I should have just done this episode Yeah, this could be like, this is my AA to not get an advent calendar So gross It's bad So you lived in Germany You said, yeah, we did I have a buddy who has gone there quite frequently He said the best beer he's ever had It's a brewery that the beer is brewed by monks There are churches in Germany that brew beer and the monks brew beer Yes It's gross to me

Yeah It's a, it's a thing over there Um, we, the U S had a American Trappist Monastery in Maine, uh, Spencer It was the first and thus far been the only one

Unfortunately, it closed their doors end of 22, early 23 Um, and I, as like a European beer nerd and Trappist nerd, I was like, yes, the Is on the map Hell yeah And then like, I think they lasted maybe seven years It's a really unfortunate, they made great beer They're like staple beer was so good The most mass mass, uh, distributed one It was so good I actually bought a gift pack from BevMo the year, the month I found out they were closing Uh, it's still, it's cellaring

I kept it because I will break it I will probably break it open this Christmas because I think it's a Christmas ale and I bought it a year or two years ago So it's been aging for almost two years I'm that kind of person that like age I have, I have, Oh, you're a former cellar man So nobody's surprised Yeah I aged when we lived in Germany I bought a lot of Belgian beer and I bought the Roquefort 10 I bought one every year, but I aged like I bought like a bunch of them and I aged a bunch

So like my pseudo four to five year vertical of just Roquefort 10, there were, I mean, there were like a dollar 80 like, what do you do?

Not a huge investment Yeah So, and I opened one every Christmas That was my Christmas beer every morning Nice The only time I drink beer at before 9am is Christmas morning and like with breakfast vacation No, I'm, we're trying to sleep in on vacation That's true Opposite over here We don't sleep in on vacation I'm excluding work here Like I'm excluding work It's sampling I have to QA crap at like 830 in the morning and it's just like a sip or two

I'm like, uh, Nope That's definitely not ready You're like, this one's ready Pour me a full pint Would you? Yeah Right off the fermenter Yeah Still bubbling It's still warm Trigging this at 92 degrees Oh dear All right Wow Well, if anybody, you know what, this is my call to all the listeners who are

dumb I mean, uh, new enough to buy the Costco advent calendar, please film it or record it or something and make sure we have access to it I would like to see this Maybe we could get like a Kickstarter going where we, yeah Somebody please buy the 2024 version so we know we were all right the last two or three years Yeah Let us know You know we are It's yeah I just want to hear how bad it is My favorite is, I won't call this person out, but I think Flex only who I'm talking about

Last year, 23, by this point, like everyone knows it's garbage I'm the schmuck that didn't grade You're the second one Because there was one person in an engagement group where it was like every post was the advent calendar and they must've gotten it for free or something because every post talked about how great the beers were and I was like, what are you drinking compared to what I had so Do you want to talk about Flex?

I think so We'll take it off air, but yeah, I was like, oh, and now I have to comment nice things about this Costco You could have had that first beer and just immediately been like, yeah, no, I 'm not going to post these Yeah It's going to be a no from me It wasn't that hard Right So bad Anyways, I'm not going to sit here and say I am that person that posted every day either, but I may have been that person posting every day, but no, it was mostly to put the episode like, Hey, new episodes out

This is what I drank And then like, go listen Yeah Go listen Yeah I didn't put it in the post I just made it like I made a post of the episode This person didn't have a podcast They just took pictures and posted how great it was Oh, I got a comment on the, it was because it wasn't that great It was not Yeah It's not great They don't post the advent calendars in Germany proper They don't send them out here The one we get is like, it's one of the bigger, like we'll call them beer distributors of

Germany They have one in Germany That's different than what we get here Hopefully And then they have two more One of them's like a tongue in cheek It's all like, like taboo named beers Like these are the ones that I wish we would get And then you have like a real proper one that breweries make to distribute

within Germany That one I did two years of, and then I, they couldn't, in my region, they didn 't send it out anymore Oh yeah That would suck Cause that was the one I was looking forward to every year Well hopefully somebody puts together like a halfway decent one I know That would be nice I had a business I had a business idea to, to collaborate with breweries every winter and make a custom advent calendar That would be awesome

Like, but clearly you have to plan it out cause it's got to sit around for a little bit So you don't want like a wet or a fresh hop IPA from October sitting until December Like nobody's going to, that's going to be an awful beer So you're going to need to put this together in like, you know, August-ish probably When I worked in a grocery store, they would put old beer on clearance, you know, and then put it on like a sales rack Oh sure And you were talking about celebration last episode

They had celebration on the clearance rack in December for the previous year Whoa And I just thought to myself, how bad would that taste?

I couldn't get my, I couldn't get myself to buy a six pack of it I just couldn't, but I could only imagine how not great Was this bottled or the canned version? Bottled Oh no Yikes Oh yeah That's rough That is rough Now I wish I would've got it Just to see For science dude Hey, you know what?

Still better than the Costco package It would still be better Oh God Up in the air Oh fuck Yeah We'll find out The jury's still out Yeah, we'll find out We'll find out Oh fuck All right Let's, let's move on a little bit A week or so ago, a couple of weeks, I guess a couple of weeks ago, went to a comedy night at a brewery Have you guys ever done one of these?

No I shy away from it Not yet I want to, but not yet Somebody was going like, Hey, we're going to, I won't mention the brewery because it was super fucking awkward I was like, Oh, okay So, but that's not the brewery's fault Right?

No, no, no, no That's not the brewery's fault They have hired or partnered with, or something, a person who puts on these events, a hundred percent, not the brewery's fault Still not going to mention the brewery Cause then you'd figure out potentially who the comedians were or something But it was put on by a person who was not very funny They had four comedians in total The last one was actually decently funny Like, Oh, I would actually go see this person as a comedian

Like they're, they're good at this They're funny They've clearly been doing this But like the first two people to come up kind of seems like it was their first night ever doing standup One lady, she was a little older I'm guessing she was in her like early sixties and had a real shaky voice and kept forgetting the setups to her punchlines so bad At what point she started to tell us this, you know, in quotes, the story to get to the

punchline, she cuts herself off and it's like, Oh, first I should tell you And she told us the first, she should tell us And then never got back to the story and just hit the punchline And we're all staring at her like, Ooh, what?

And that was about her entire set One guy got up there He wasn't bad at first You know, he brought the energy He seemed like he'd done this before, but as his set went on, he kept checking his phone Clearly he was working, workshopping some material Kept checking his phone Fine Not a, not a big deal Except you look at his phone and go, Oh yeah, this one And then he'd tell the joke and if it worked, you know, he'd move on

And if it didn't work, you're like, all right, well you guys don't like that one How about this one?

Oh, that's so repeating It was so late Cause like the first five minutes and they're all short sets for like 15 minutes That's the first five minutes he was on it It was like he had to memorize, he was going, it was not the best jokes in the world, but it was decent Energy was there And then it was like phone time and I was like, Ooh, this is rough This is so rough The host, when she opened the show, you know, like the host to tell a few jokes , bring out a comic, a few jokes, comic, whatever

She starts asking people in the crowd, like, Hey, what do you do?

And people were really shy And she goes, well, clearly you're a secret agent cause you won't tell me And I'm like, all right, funny Ha ha Then she latched onto the secret agent thing And that was the only joke she ran with the rest of the night Every time she'd come back out between comics, like, all right, tell my secret agents in the crowd, any CIA, you know, it was so bad Like it was, it was, you know, crickets bad Oh man, really?

It was, it was, it was to a point where I was laughing at how bad it was, which is not the laughs you want, but at least I was laughing, I guess The wife doesn't do awkward very well So she was just cringing the whole time while I was pregnant That's me I don't enjoy it Oh, like, yeah, like the wife did not love the office Like I loved the office too awkward for her So that's her, she doesn't do that style of comedy But anyways, there's no moral to this story other than like, it was bad

You guys should probably vet your comics a little bit If you got a good one, give them some more time than the shitty ones Look all the credit in the world to the old lady who went up there for, I really hope it was her first time Cause if it wasn't that she should just stop But um, cause obviously I don't do that, but uh, yeah, early mid sixties, what an age to get into comedy Yeah And her stories, like all her stories that were supposed to lead to punchlines fell apart like mid story

Like she was talking about working from home, but then also talked about being a masseuse I was like, wait, you do massages from home Is that a thing that you go to clients?

I feel like a great joke would have been something like how she was single and she was trying to get back out there and she went, went out and took a guy home Then before they slept together, she handed him a can of pledge because it had been a while That would have been better than any of the jokes she told, I feel like, you know, just got a lot of time on your hands You know, 63 lived a lot of life Yeah, no Like I said, we heard a lot about her husband, but like also learn nothing

about her husband at the same time Oh, it was very strange Very strange So anyway, you know, John, and now you have no idea who this John guy is All right Yeah So I told you about John earlier Right?

Yeah Anyways So my girlfriend and I were out of the bar and it was that kind of like, Oh man So anyway, I don't know There's no point to that But, um, but yeah, that was good times A couple of weeks ago I decided to, and we talked about this, I think when Erica was on the show, um, make chat GPT, come up with some beer questions for me

No Yeah Last, last time it was, uh, what's the name of a horrible beer or whatever, based on your last text message or something like that Or the name of it Yeah The boobs one Yeah No fake tits Yeah Yeah Which we got some comments about Some people were mad that you didn't like fake tits Uh, this one flex, we'll start with you If you could turn any non beer food or drink into a beer, what would it be?

I mean, non beer food or drink like, like turn nachos into a beer Yeah Like you could turn something that's not beer into beer What would it be? And why would it be an absolute disaster? A disaster home, man Uh, probably margar, like turn a margarita into beer because anything tequila barrel aged is terrible throwing up already Right?

So I feel like that would be the gross one Like the easy gross one You had me at tequila Nachos was my first thought, but I like nachos Yeah Who doesn't like nachos, but if you're going to ferment cheese, yeah, that's, that's a disaster, man Oh, what say you?

For both of you I hate peanut butter I hate pickles and I hate liver We've already had many, many peanut butter beers flex a couple of weeks ago You had one, the PB and J beer, uh, pickle beers making for some reason It's the thing again I don't know why I don't know why either I like pickles I've had a pickle goza, I've had a pickle says, or I think I had a pickle sa ison, cucumber saison So almost a pickle Same thing Basically

Uh, but like, so liver, like that flavor, cause there are people that like liver I don't know why Yeah If you're 80 So, Hey, maybe the 60 some odd year old comedian may enjoy liver I don't know So like, so I had this beer last week, like liver, liver, worse, worse lager I don't, I don't even know, man, like that's just one, uh, kimchi, kimchi, pale ale Like I feel like, I feel like you're picking things that are easily disasters

A nacho beer would probably be a disaster, but like if you're, are we talking like nachos with cheese cream, like cream cheese, you're saying liver's gross, right?

Which is, but nachos are not gross I'm not saying that is delicious So we're talking something that is edible and good and then turns into disaster Oh, okay I think that's, I think that's the fun of it So then they would be still kimchi, like a kimchi, because kimchi is delicious And, but like thinking of a fermented, fermented cabbage with Korean chili peppers for six months and then you put in a beer, no thanks, nope And I've had a sriracha pale ale, I've had a sriracha stout, I've had spiced

beers We, uh, institution over the hill, over the grade over here makes it a great Thai chili white walls And I'm not a pepper beer guy, I'm a pepper stout guy I'm I, it's the one style when someone asks me, what are you not like?

It's like, this is what I normally say I don't like any spice in my beers But for, I don't know how they do it, but institution just dials it just right I've had it from both ends of the spectrum, all pepper is literally a carbon ated vegetable juice or did you actually put peppers in it? Right?

But institution has found that balance and it's incredible So I would still say a kimchi pale ale, like that would be an awful beer, like an actually properly fermented kimchi And then you use that in a, in a beer No, that's going to, yeah, no I don't remember if this was an on-air conversation or an off-air conversation, but I'm going to go back to our talk about red lobster, the cheddar biscuit beer, like what's better than those cheddar biscuits

What would make a worse beer than those cheddar biscuits? I don't know the breadiness, it might not be terrible, like a nice cheddar

biscuit lager A little cheese on the back end Dry cheesed Yeah Bread-y up front Well, look, between the three of us, one of us can make that happen Just saying, and it's not flex and it's not Greg I'll tell you what, I've had Chicago style hot dog beer and I've had sushi beer And they're both are pretty solid, like the wasabi through the sushi beer and like you could taste like the sport pepper through the hot dog beer It was wonderful We'll move on quickly from that

We were talking off air, Boris, you were talking about some research you did recently Yeah Headed down to Santa Ana, north of Tustin, that orange

And I immediately perked up because I have to go down there for work all the time Yeah Bearded Tang, unreal spot, like unreal spot They make kind of almost everything, but they do it right So they have like an outstanding German pilsner And when I say outstanding, like we have endocrine in our county that just like kills it all the time So to be down there in like basically a strip mall with a food court for Vent ura County

listeners, like the annex at the collection and a, I don't know, I think it's a 10 barrel brew house dropped into the back of the annex Like that's what Bearded Tang is So they had a Czech pilsner that was like the light version of their main Czech pilsners, 42% had that just the clarity, the flavor was spot on 42% I mean like, how do you get so much flavor in 42?

Then the German pilsner Then they also made a crystal weizen, which is like rare Like even in Germany, it's just not a common style, but it is a common style It's been around forever So you get all the benefits of the aroma of a hefeweizen, but you don't get the heaviness of the yeast and the wheat and it's crystal It's unreal It's so good Is it still banana-y and stuff?

Still banana-y Like you get, it's kind of like an anomaly because you shouldn't get it because it's filtered out, but you still get it And it's crushable is like 5%, five and a half at most If I'm ever down there again, it's the only place I will go because now I have, not only do I have like basically a food court's worth of food, I have this brewery that 's just killing it and they happen to have like IPAs, pale ales, hazies, like the other stuff that every other California brewery is doing

So like when you can kill it with lagers and old world styles and then still have new world stuff, it's like, okay, you're on my radar and they're outstanding Well, I always say like if I walk into a new brewery, I'm judging them on their lagers That's how you know anything else is going to be good If you're making a lager, you have to know how to do a lager Right Exactly So I'm always putting a lager or two in there and obviously I'm drinking that before, you know, get to the IPAs or whatever

As soon as I hit that lager, I'm like, this is either going to be a good experience or a bad experience If you can do that right, you can do everything

Yeah That's, and for us too, like we only have one core lagers, our single spirit, our American light lager, but like that is, we cannot fuck that beer up Like it has to be spot on There's nothing hot, you can't hide it Like you can't hide anything in any lager, not even an IPL You can't hide anything So you have to take care of that style and if you are a brewery that can do it right, you will succeed It's true And if you fuck it up, yeah, just pop the shit out of it You'll never sell it

And then if you can make an IPA, then cool But like if you know how to make a lager, even just a generic lager, even a p ilsner, you'll succeed In my opinion, you'll succeed Yeah Well, I'm, I'm down there all the time for work, so I'm, you know, hit up a green cheek all the time Oh, that's on my list I need to go to green cheek So good Hit up everywhere when I can Have you been to everywhere yet?

Oh, you're missing out Yeah I'm not missing on that drive, but yes, I am missing out Radiant when I can There's some good beer down there in Orange County Love Radiant I've yet to go to beer I had like one or two of Solomon at a couple of festivals What I've had, I remember being really good, but I need to go check them out I'll be down there for work more than I'd like to admit for like the month of November So hopefully get some, some opportunities down there Noice Noice All right

Ludicrous libation law This one comes to us from Ms Misery Oh All under 21 who do simple things such as taking out the trash that may have an empty alcohol beverage container are at risk of being arrested The laws are so strict that technically police can arrest them for illegal possession of alcohol So if you have like an empty beer can and you're under 21, you can be arrested It's a pretty Missouri sounding thing Yeah Your, your child is doing their chore and they may not come back inside

Right They may be arrested Yeah But like, does the cop just guess, Hey, what's in that bag? It's like a fucking pinata party then like it was take turns bashing the bag until split's open and they might see a alcohol container, get their nightstick out and come here, kid Yeah Would you, would you, would you gotten that a black trash bag? Yeah Hey little Billy What you doing tonight?

Yeah Entrapment You know, it's like they just park in the alleys behind the bars and waiting for the bar back to take out the trash and Oh no Where are you going?

Young man, whenever they got some kid who's like 18 that they can't stand cause he's, you know, they always catch them smoking weed or some shit There's a guy, what's this in your back pocket and like plant an empty beer can on home and yeah Well, he can't fire him cause he hasn't done anything wrong, but he sucks Hey Billy, you know, a guy at the police department take out this trash, stake out, stake up for empty beer cans Hey there Yeah Yeah One person happened Yeah

Empty beer cans in that trash Why? G officer I don't think I do the pinata stick done You're done Yeah Fucking Missouri for you What a weird law Land of Budweiser Weird law Yeah You would think the land of Budweiser would be a little more beer friendly Yeah There's billions of cans being tossed or cans or bottles I mean, not everybody recycles Let's be real No, they don't Especially not in Missouri No, I think it's against the law They hide it in the Ozarks Right Exactly Toss it

Anyway, so, uh, all right, that's Missouri little news for a get up out of here Uh, flex new Harris is going to, uh, add a $55 million addition to their

operations I heard the, uh, they're getting into distilling Yeah The new addition will include space for brewing and distilling as well as retail and office space We received thousands of visitors, but our current pay visitor parking holds 53 stalls This has created congestion on our site and has forced us to be closed on the weekends What kind of breweries closed on the, I was just going to say, I didn't know you were going to have that in there I was going to say they're closed on the weekend

That's insane I had no idea You think such a big brewery, you know, they're old people, right? And old people like going, they should start comedy drives, you know? Yeah Oh, my mom would be terrible Oh, she'd fit right in But my parents are old, so they like going on drives And my mom said, Hey, we went out to New Glarus on Saturday I said, Oh, cool

I hear it's like a super small town, like 2000 people, like super small and spotted cow is about the only thing they have there And Tim, who I always meet up my Eagle Park friend, Tim, he grew up there and he basically says the same thing, it is super small town, not much going on, spotted cows, the only thing they have there And I said, yeah, my parents went there and they went to go to the brewery and they said it was closed on Saturday

And he just nodded his head and he's like, yeah, they closed on Saturday There's Monday through Friday That's what operations are And that's it And now they blame it on parking And that's hilarious Well, I know because I work for some governments that a lot of times they will judge your capacity based on your parking Interesting Mm hmm There's only 50 I'm still on the 53 at New Glarus, like, like Flex, I love New Glarus Oh, I love, oh, oh, I love New Glarus

I kind of pseudo created my own version of spotted cow

That's how much I love I love New Glarus Spotted cow is one of the spotted cow And then I had one of those strawberry fruited beers many, many years ago It's how you can spot somebody from out of Wisconsin Oh, a hundred percent We all love spotted cows So we went, so we got the local brew pub right down the road And before COVID, when they were really good, they had a farmhouse ale on tap And this is when my wife still drank alcohol, which she does not anymore But she would enjoy spotted cows

So we went up there and she's like, oh, what would I like on here?

Because not a lot of people know that spotted cow is a farmhouse ale They just think of it as spotted cow And I said, oh, they got this This is going to be just like it That's what I told her You know, that's what you tell people who aren't familiar with beer and sure Oh yeah This is this No bullshit It was identical Oh, absolutely identical to spotted cow, but cleaner And then they also had a cucumber version, which I don't think Porous would like, but it was a little bit refreshing

But I'll drink a cucumber ale I won't drink a pickled ale Yeah Well, I will for science and then probably probably don't the rest of it But yeah, my point is spotted cow around these parts

It's correct Yeah Right And I agree with you But however, like this is many moons ago and I never heard of new glares And then I read about spotted cow because if they like, it really blew them up Right And then a friend of mine gave me a six pack of it And I was like, oh, and I was like, holy fuck Like what?

It's good This is the shit Like, holy crap It's good Like, you know, travel back in time 12 years ago And I'm like Right And I'm like, you don't see that in the US And it's a core beer, too And it's a Right It is a flagship core Yeah Yeah So I set out to do my homebrewing nerd research and I was like, all right, I'm going to try to make this at home I think I did it maybe two times It was nowhere near because clearly I'm not going to be able to mimic it, but it was pretty damn close

And I was like, OK So I kept that as like my version of spotted cow Nice Yeah Yeah But no, I tell you what, their Oktoberfest or Merton is very, very good Like, it is very good I would say they should be more known for that than spotted cow Oh, yeah The Pilsner they came out with recently in this past year was very hoppy I'm in Was it a hoppy Pilsner?

It was just labeled as a Pilsner Oh, OK And it was very hoppy, which, again, you're going to make a hazy IPA that's not hazy and it's juicy Right Don't call it hazy Call it juicy If you're going to make a Pilsner that's extremely hoppy, label it a hoppy Pils ner You know, expecting some clean, crisp drink and it kind of punches you in the mouth right away and, you know, hit me the wrong way So that was OK But their pale ale is very good I think they do IPA that's very good

Their Hefeweiss is very good It's called the Bubbler It's very, very good What a great name Yeah Yeah Represent Let's go So, yeah, the spotted cow thing kills me because they do some better stuff Their strawberry rhubarb beer is great The raspberry tart sour is great I think that's the one I had They used to do they used to do a cherry tart I don't know if they still do And they used to be in like the 22-ounce bombers to when like 12 years ago and that like just awesome presentation

Now everything's can bottled But their sours are solid in that aspect So, yeah, every time, any time I hear spotted cow, it is what it is Yeah Yeah Well, speaking of Flex drinking things, let's see what things he's drinking 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 What am I drinking? I've recently have gotten a hard on for Evil Twin Brewing Not a bonus show Not a bonus show But I found this triple IPA, which is wheelhouse Flex Right in that wheelhouse Are you kidding me? Yeah So this is a 96, could be a little higher

Double dry hopped with Citra and Nelson, Nelson Boner My favorite thing about this beer, it's called what's the triple in the IPA Evil Twins always pretty creative with their beer names Look at the can here Do you want me to read all that? Because I will No, you're going to Do you have a Sharpie marker for your bookmark? Because that's- It's just really funny It says, is it triple the size? Is it triple the hops? Does it come in three glasses? Is it triple the ABV? Is it from three breweries?

Is it triple the fun? Is it triple the flavor? Does it smell three times as good? Is it triple the size? Is it triple the hops?

Okay So that repeats It's fun Yeah It's a fun can Evil Twins great This one does say Evil Twin Brewing New York City And remember when Mel was on the show and I said, I thought Evil Twin was in New York and my can is from Connecticut Right This is just, it's a little justification You finally got a New York Yeah Like it makes me feel good So like I said, this is 96 Not a lot of check-ins, 296 I don't know if they don't get out much, if people don't check them in, if it's new

Feels low for Evil Twin It does And, but it's got, it's a 409 collective Chalk it up to a fresh We respect that Real simple description again, DDH Citroen Nelson It is hazy I love very bright yellow color, some solid lacing You know how daddy likes his lacing Daddy like The Nelson really shines, which I love it too It's a lot of gooseberry, which I found out when I don't know what I smell It is in fact, gooseberry It's always gooseberry It is with the Nelson

It's like you smell it and you're like, ah, I don't know That's not any fruit I've ever had Oh, read it Oh, yep That's, that's the gooseberry So this is wonderful It's a little spicy once it warms up Spicy So, uh, we'll, without further ado, we're up the old tongue Jabber Okay So this is super de duper low carbonation, um, like none, which I do like a little zip in the triple It is sweet, which I like I'm a big fan of that

I do like sweetness in the trips, which I know a lot of people don't like, but for me, it just kind of helps it go down I don't know how you avoid sweetness in a triple, right?

Right It's sweet It's a little bit citrusy, not much on the notes It is dry Like the white grape skins, you know, like, uh, like a white wine That's nice I love that from the Nelson This isn't a mind blower, but it's a super solid beer at 96 you would, especially with the lack of carbonation, how smooth that it goes down the gullet, super solid And Greg, to top it off, 1799 four pack, four pack Where do you find this?

This is absurd 1799 I'm fact checking This is no way 96 Evilton back at this point, it'd be cheaper for us to order beers from Wisconsin and pay for shipping Yes Yeah Cause California is one of the few States you can ship alcohol to right, man, I 'd be saving so much money Hey, come on You just started a business Oh, did you ever, did you ever get the Duncan?

I sent you flex Speaking of sending beer and shipping beer, don't do it I'm kidding I did not send you I did not send you that Please Please don't do it Please Please don't Speaking of beers, nobody wants Oscar blues is rolling out

Dale's easy IPA, you know, it's so bad and designated Dale's in a pills I'd tell you a funny thing about Dale's pale ale Nobody wants it Yes They, when we were true and T-ish and it was still new, they would sell it at Walgreens and you could get a flat case of Dale's pale ale for like $9 Oh my God Was that before monster acquired them?

Yeah So we're talking like 2008 Oh yeah That was wild Yeah They're still independent Yes Cause I remember we had a huge attic party at our place and we were, I mean, we would buy cubes of Keystone light all the time That was like the beer of choice And one time I invited a buddy and out of nowhere he brings a flat of tails pale ale and everyone was like, Oh, okay Like whatever Like beers, beer And when you're 2021 and you haven't had a pale ale, man, that was the nastiest shit

I ever did have in my entire life

Let me tell you It's like flowers It was just the bitterness that cascaded on your tongue and it just wouldn't go away That was probably the cascade Yeah We stopped drinking that pretty quick That used to be a top five pale ale back then Right That's, I mean, I sure it was for people who had the palate for it, but I went to the brewery in Lyon and at the, it's probably not even there anymore There was a Dave's pale ale It's a draft tap room only

And it was far superior than Dale's, but it never hit distro

Never got canned One of these days, like recently I, you know, they were talking about the Instagram brewery questions like, well, would you like to see that? We used to make that You went back, blah, blah, blah I was like, why didn't you guys ever put Dave's pale ale in distro? Like that was so much better And the question, they replied back, like, what do you mean Dave's pale ale? Really?

I was like, all right It's like, nevermind Their marketing person's like 23 They didn't, yeah They didn't even know Oscar blues existed back in 2008 Right Finally, how about a trip to Florida? Where else would we go? Yeah A Florida man found drunk on vehicle's hood in the middle of Clearford road

This is out of Clear Okay So it's not a trip to Florida It's a trip to Pennsylvania where Florida man was getting hammered, uh, Clearf ord County, Pennsylvania, a 42 year old Florida man was arrested for driving under the influence after officers spotted him in the middle of Reed street and North third street in Clearfield borough with the doors to his vehicles open and music blasting Police said the male later identified as Thomas Wayne Colbert of Fort Myers, Florida was seen

jumping up and down on the hood of the vehicle and then jumped to the roof before noticing police were there So he was ghost riding the whip Oh, he absolutely was My man Officers noted that the man was three times over the legal limit He was placed in Clearford County jail with bail set at $10,000 E 40 would be very proud Yeah Ghost ride the whip Ghost ride the whip What a track

Let me tell you There's a couple of things I'll make fun of my wife for because she's from Northern California Like if she ever actually drops a hella, I give her massive amount of shit for that And every now and then you say you give her a hell of shit I gave her a hell of shit and I will drop a little ghost ride the whip every now and then to dance around your moving car like a fucking idiot Shake them dreads Nobody was a good times in Pennsylvania, not an E 40 show You know what?

It could be though That could be I bought that album Let me

Wow Really? Yes I'm being honest about that You're one of five I like the song I'm joking It's a good song I don't know any other songs he has, but no, I can't remember a single one That was a song It's the best Oh, there you go Back story When I was in high school, I used to drive a 1998 Chevy or 96 Chevy Astro van Oh yeah The Astro van Yes It was 98 That's correction here 1998 white Chevy Astro And it had the captain's chairs in the back It had the blinds on every window

So that, that was my car I got when I got into high school and I got my license So imagine like me with long red looking hair, cause apparently my hair grows long I look like a, who's that snowboarder?

Sean White Yep That's what it looked like And this is about like six other tiny white kids just bumping Tell me what the hell Bumping an E40 out of a '98 Astro van Bumping an E40 out of a '98 Astro van That is basically an RV Yeah I learned how to drive it in Astro van That's the suburbs in Wisconsin Oh man Yeah It's a real thing Did you at least put some subs in that bitch?

You didn't need it Let me tell you, you did Flex blew out every speaker in that van I didn't need subs Day one That stock was bumping License plate rattling Oh man Oh, that's fucking great It was good stuff That's something I need to get Chachi PT to animate for us That sounds fantastic A '98 Astro van in a white Chevy Astro van Bumping E40 Bumping E40 Yeah That'd be great Tell me when to go Please tell me you were bummed that a stoplight's like, tell me when to go Tell me when to go Absolutely

We would like purposely do it to just be like an attraction and like everybody bouncing up and down in their seats and you don't got dreads, but you shake them anyway Shaking your fucking Ronald hair Yeah I don't know if you've ever seen you I don't think you've seen a picture of me when I was young I don't think I have But now I, I'm hoping there's video of you guys bumping E40 That was pretty self on There might be a video of me in my van on YouTube Oh, all right

We're going to hit some music and I hope flex is looking up that video I got up Oh, please Oh no You please send that Oh no All right Let's wrap this up Thank you all for listening Thanks for joining

Boris Thanks for hanging with us two weeks in a row Yeah, of course Yeah Yeah Thank you Find us on the socials at craft beer Republic at flex me a beer underscores in between Of course, at Borrie the blade, go check out the podcast All that good stuff Eight Oh five, five, three, a beer, two, three, three, seven That is our number I hope everyone is staying very well hydrated And on that note, good night, everybody Wait, you didn't say hi to Vanessa Did we not?

Hi, Vanessa Oh, well, hi, Vanessa I thought we did