Ga ga ga. Okay, good, good, good, good. Bucket remix. I like barrel, but but the boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Good, well, good, good to me. I'm cool. Yeah. Okay, I've got to go back. Erica okay. It's like a inside joke thing at work. When people ask us dumb questions, we just respond back with pride. No, I'm. Good. Mel, let's do a reenactment. You be Flex and I'll be a customer. Hey, man, where is the. I guess, sir, because it's Flex. Where is the catch up? Okay, I did. I nailed it.
You got the part. Welcome in, everybody. It's the Craft Beer Republic, and I almost missed my cue. Thanks for listening. Thanks for drinking, thanks. For drink and thanks for joining me. Clearly I've been drinking. Melanie at the back goes sober. One flex cover did not always I am Greg. I am being joined by the latest guy in all of Wisconsin and that is flex. Yeah sorry for ruining everybody's night. For how many. Taking in fucking Austin Powers piss over there. Yeah.
All right. Yeah, I. I there's ghosts on Nell's. Camera. And joining Greg and flex. It's mostly beer, girl. I got and freezing. Her ass off all the way in the middle of New York. Oh, the. Random sounds in the background. Oh, she had introduced herself. Currently currently beating a child. If only you guys could see that. Just take care. Now, she's. Being to in New York, not Alabama. Right. Amy, listen, be fresh and do not interrupt my beer podcast. That's the two words.
The two rules I have in the house. That's it. Yeah. And do the damn dishes. Also that my two bugaboos are bear traps then having sex with old ladies for money. That's those are my two bugaboos. Oh, wow. He is turning up the heat. I'm hot. 18. Where do I sign up? Yeah. If I have to put on an old lady wig and wear and rock a cane, I. Will come over here is something. Do you get totally. Pull it off. Wait a minute. No, you're supposed to say. But since I can, I think I will.
Anyways, that's what the show is going to be like today. Everybody find us on the Socials Craft Beer Republic, of course beer girl underscore Melissa and bless me a beer underscore is in between each one. Join us on the socials. All that good stuff. All right. Lots to get to today. This is, of course, that we're recording the day after Christmas is dropping. A couple of days later. Flex has a bet that I'm excited to get an update on. Oh yeah some yeah. Some breaking news that I'm excited.
Yeah. You have to remind me everything about it. Some some big craft breweries are closing down. And we've got a couple lists for flexibility over there. I love lists. We know end of the year there's always good lists. That's at the end of the year. So if you don't mind, I think I'll kick things off with some hydration. I got a beer from a friend over here. Let's get into it now. Oh, interim Brian was so nice.
He picked up a four pack of focal banger and had a topper and saved one of beach for me. So I thought I the end of the year, I'll go out with a delicious big bang. I'm not talking about Flex, but I'm going out with Focal Banger, of course from the Alchemist. Thanks intern Brian 7% nine The Ivy Hughes and Big Long Description American IPA with Citra Mosaic Hops. Oh, it has a 4.41 on tap and a 100 on beer advocate because all the beer nerds can't get enough.
Well, you can't go wrong with any of those ratings. No, of course not. On the schnoz. Lots of citrus, lots of orange. Oh, so good that the taste follows right up. Citrusy orange. Kind of like a grapefruit pith at the end. You can get that at the end. Their finish is dry and piney. It is so good. Whenever this comes around I always sort of grab one. I think I like it better than any tapas. Don't tell anybody. I was going to say the same thing. I've heard that from a lot of people.
Yeah, I bucked the trends. I like this one better than heavy tapas and I like blind pig better than Pliny the Elder. So sue me. What are you going to do about it? People anyways? So we're. Probably sue you if. I know. If that's what you want. Yeah. Choose going to file a lawsuit. So anyways, thanks again intern Brian very much. Enjoying this. I tell you to go follow him on the ground. But he pulled a 1995 on us and doesn't have Graham anymore. Yeah, he had a run away from Flex.
Yeah. I will never run away from. You, so. Please don't. Yeah, don't you worry. All right. Like I said, lots to get to. But before we find out what these two are drinking, fill us in. Flex on the on the bet that was made off the air between you and intern Brian. Speaking of which, over the World Cup. Okay. So we were discussing the we're going into the semifinals of the World Cup, so it was good. You guys both had semis. It was Croatia versus Argentina, and then it was France versus Morocco.
And I was pulling for Messi and Argentina just about the entire way through the tournament. And apparently Brian was rooting for France to come back and repeat from four years ago taken back to back World Cup championships. We we so we bet if Argentina would win and then Brian would send me a six pack beer. Male Yeah, and the France would have won then, you know, I would have had to send him local.
And if neither of the teams made it to the finals, then we would have both had to like Chug Bud 55 or something like that. Now I think the loser would also have to still. Chuck but 55, is that not the case? No, that was not the case. Okay. Yes, the Claire because I what I wanted to ask him what would have happened if neither of the teams were, you know, if just so happened they both lost in the semifinals, you know, who knows? Anything can happen in the world of sports nowadays.
But that didn't happen. So it just came straight up into a beer bet. And so you won? Of course. I won. It was probably the greatest game in World Cup history. I know you're not a fan of soccer or anything, but. Yeah. Well, did you watch as much of it as I did? I watched more than you for sure, because I like to go to the bar during the day, and that's when most of the games were on. So yeah, I got to see a lot of them. Right fucking on. Yeah. You know, you bring up a good point.
I may want to become a quote unquote soccer fan just because then I have an excuse to go de drink. It's the best because you can still wake up early, get all of the important responsibilities done, and you're like free by like 1230, 1:00, big time. You have a couple. It really is. Yeah. That's that's the only part worth watching. But I think I'd rather just claim myself to be an alcoholic and just start drinking at 12 anyways. Sans soccer. That's a win win.
Yeah. I mean, Italy didn't even make it to the World Cup, so I mean, I'm out immediately, you know. That was like two out of the last three for them. That's not very good. But but yeah. Lo lo and behold, Argentina won. I want to be here. But I was very honorable in winning as well. And I told Brian that he didn't even have to send me anything because the game was really just that good.
So you're just a fan of, I would say, sports in general and watching that, like I didn't know Argentina ties at all, but, you know, watching all the close calls and everything like that, it was amazing how excited you can get for a country that you have nothing to do with, but how hyped up everybody from those countries are. It really is like the biggest deal in sports every four years. It's amazing. I'll take your word for it. Knowing Brian, he's an honorable guy. He will still send you beer.
That's just the way he is. And that's. Fine. Yeah. Why not? For you. I'm okay with that. But he, you know. Why would you not want the beer? I don't understand this as a coach, because you were just like. I'm. Just so nice. Like, even if I win, just don't say I. The beer, bitch. Send me the beer. I want it. Yeah. Yeah. Does a. Motherfucking. Bet. All right. A gentleman. I don't. I don't know. There's nothing more I can say. Just knowing Deb. Deb would have been like you made a bet, fucker.
You send him that beer. It's the Midwest and me. We're just such nice, kind people. Yeah. Stop being so nice and start getting what you want. He's nice when you ask him questions at all, you. Know about I'll. I'll take that into consideration. Yeah. He's also not nice when he's late and holds up the podcast and then gets cranky. Shots fired. Bang, bang, bang, bang. I. I, I admit I was wrong. I admit I was wrong. Okay, well. That's good. Yeah, exactly. So do you.
You could never do any wrong in my eyes. It's the truth. God damn it. It takes a big man to admit when he's wrong. And I'm looking at a big man more ways than one daddy. Anyways. All right, so we're recording this day after Christmas. How was everybody's Christmas meal? Was there a pasta course involved? Yes. Yes, there was. There was tons of big ziti. We had fresh baked bread. We call we actually if you're in New York, Italian or New Jersey Italian, then you know what lard bread is.
It's like this really fatty, delicious bread that has, like, pieces of ground, like. Like pepperoni, really, like, baked into it, but little, like, chunks of it. We call it lard bread. It's fucking I'm sure there's also a lot of lard in there when they bake it, but it's the best. So we had things. Yeah, we had the we had a seafood appetizer, obviously, crab legs, calamari and clams. The usual like we try to do the feast of the seven fishes in the appetizer and then we. Move up still have.
Seven cookies is that was. A common. Thing among like. New York Italian. Usually on New Year's Eve you do the feast of. The Feast of the Seven Fishes. That's what it's called, correct? Wow. Wow. George, the ocean called. They said they're running out of shrimp. Learn something new every podcast. Get on my lip. I know. Every time she's out. We learned so new last time we learned about the pasta cause now, remember. Last year, Dominic the donkey? Yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah.
So you didn't even know about it? Dominic the donkey? No. And that song came on. My kids were listening to a Christmas playlist. No fucking way. I think on Christmas Eve or some shit. And that song came on and I was like, Holy balls. Yeah, but. Mal, no offense to you. Every time that song comes on, my kids go Alexa next. Oh, yeah, that is their cue every time that song comes on. And I was like, Now don't do that. If it wasn't part of my culture, I would never listen to it.
I would never. It's just ridiculous. But it's funny. And he's so sorry, you eat some fat bread, had a lot of fish. And we drank like 15 bottles of wine. So that was great. Nice. Typical Italian Christian. Yeah. It's a lot of wine, huh? Yeah. Yeah. What about you, Fleksy? How was your guys? My Christmas was, I would say, low key, but I was so exhausted because it was the worst week.
But when I say worst week, I mean it was like the busiest week we've seen at like in the retail level since the pandemic. So I was like extremely exhausted from work. We had my folks over for Christmas Eve. I got two brewery gift cards. I got to liquor store certificates, so I really made out with that. But then I slept for 11 hours. Damn wife. Yeah, I slept for like 8:00 to 8 p.m. to 7 a.m., least into Christmas Day.
And then I was so exhausted from everything again that I fell asleep at 7 p.m., so I was only awake for maybe 12 hours of daylight before I fell asleep again. I love that for you. You need it? Oh yeah. I 100% needed it. And then I proceeded to sleep ten and a half hours and then I woke up today at 5:30 a.m. and then I was like, back to normal. Got down and a lot of sleep. Yeah, but. The thing about him is that he really doesn't sleep as much as he acts like he does.
He like, gets these, like, waves of I, my body gives out on me. But you're up at like 330 in the morning every day. Yeah. Between three and 330. Normal for anyone. Now let me tell you, I did that for a couple of years. I was working the morning shift at a news station. I was up at 330 every day. That's the fucking worst. Oh, it's a BS newsman No. There's no getting used to it. Like, I was like, Oh, give it a few months. I'll get used to it.
The longer I went on that schedule, the less used to it I got like the first few weeks. I'm like, I'm going to take melatonin and go to bed super early at 9:00 that I'm just going to bed like 11 or 12, especially as a single dude. And then as I went on later and later, I'm like, Yeah, I'm going to bed at midnight, you know, by like 334. And I tell you, when I first started doing this shift, it probably took me close to a year to get used to the hours like I was.
This was my, my wife works, you know, opposite shifts like around noon to eight stuff like that. And I would be falling asleep when my kids were like three and one like, and I would be like zonked out on the couch by 7:00 and she would come home from work. Like. What are you doing? Sleeping. The kids. Oh, my God. And that I would just be like, I'll be so, you know. Disappointed in myself. But at the same time, I'm like, you don't understand. What it's like. Nobody.
If you don't do it, you don't get it. Yeah, it's. It's amazing how just like in the snap of a finger, you just get so from, like, you know, not tired at all to it. Can't keep your eyes open. Oh yeah. I remember after that job ended, like the first week after that ended, I slept like ten, 12 hours a night for, like a week straight and then all sudden, like, after a week, I was like. Wow, I feel happier. Like, also. I got caught up on so much missing sleep over the last two and a half years.
Like, I just I felt better to the point where I was like, Man, I bet it was a real asshole. The last couple of years. Every nurse starts on nights in the hospital. So like my first couple of years working at the hospital, I'd work 7 to 7 day and Lou would have to wake me up at 5:30 p.m. to get ready for work. And I would just cry and I'd be. Like, Why am I. Not a normal person?
Like I'm like talking to my coworkers and saying, you know, people like real people that are week during the day, we're different than them. We're just like genetically different. We're not the same mentally, physically, anything. And once I got on days and I was like, Oh shit, yes, this is how it's supposed to be. Yeah, yeah. My, my job.
Before the morning job I was working 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. I think like I went from working the night shift then to the morning man and each time is like, fuck, what am I doing? And and even being like a night owl, I work until 3 a.m. and then it's different. Yeah, it's different when you're working. Yeah. It's like I can you can party all hours of the night. Right is on. You're having a good time. You with some buddies, whatever. Doing God knows what.
But when it comes to working overnight like that, it's the absolute pits. Man. Well, I was editing, I was working at this post office basically, and editing a bunch of stuff for TV shows, and it got to the point where we realized if we did party, we'd stay up easier. And so, yeah. One of the chicks I worked with kept booze in her desk, and she'd just be like, she'd call me on our little intercom. She hired, You need to dip into the desk drawer. But yes, I do be right over.
You know, we'd go over, have a couple of shots. That is that's pretty outstanding. It was it was good time. So, yeah, it turned into a good especially once we saw the writing was on the wall that things were going to last much longer. Like, Fuck. It's normal. We need to normalize casual drinking at day jobs. Yeah, I feel like productivity would just skyrocket. It did. Now don't check my spelling, but productivity was through the roof. So the big bosses all have a bar in their office.
I thought that was the thing. It's not a thing that. From like a. Yes. No, not from like Mad Men or whatever. I think it's real life even now. Harry Crumb. I don't know if that. Is what John Candy I hate your guts. You can edit all of that on the show. Everyone really got to do its final three words. Oh, Christmas. Yeah, a pretty tame Christmas on this. And the thing is, a lot of illness and some COVID and some flu.
And so I don't have to see nearly as many people as I normally have to see because one of my actually better. Christmas songs going to sing, that's probably. Like really good on here. And then yeah, I, I think I've said it many a time that I hate that, you know, we both, my wife and I come from divorced parents. So it's like you come to this house and you turn to this house and. You do this and they're. So we're starting to like lay down boundaries. This feels like a therapy session.
And like the night before we did Christmas, my dad and then DIA, we only had two houses planned and one of them got momentarily canceled and then re put on because of COVID things. And so but once it got re put on, it was at a much reduced capacity. And so it it was kind of nice actually. It's very relaxing. There's no like stress for most of the day, so. Oh, that's great. Good for you. Yeah. My wife wasn't the biggest fan, but I liked it.
I love it for you because I come from the same upbringing. So for me, that sounds like heaven. But yeah, unfortunately we had to see both families, mine and his. So yeah. Just lots of wine. I was just going to say. So you want. So much, so much wine. Every time I talk to you about holidays, I just. I feel like we experience the same anxieties. Yeah, we hate them, but I like the. I do like Thanksgiving for some reason. I do like that.
But I just I think it's the commercialism of Christmas that I don't really love. And yeah. Among other things, like not being able to just be comfortable in one spot for the whole day. Yeah, that's what I want. That's what's so good about Thanksgiving is usually you pick one spot and you get fat there and you don't get round to a bunch of places. Yeah.
The commercialism of Christmas are really. Hey, I don't know what you guys, I. My wife and I have actually stopped giving each other gifts, and instead we're doing like experiences and trips and that sort of thing. Okay. I love that. That's the best. Yeah, we have enough shit, we don't need more shit. And if we need it, we buy it before Christmas. Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah. I agree 100% with that. Yeah. We're so hard to buy for.
And so we just were like, you know, let's go on a trip or let's go on a really nice dinner spending 500 bucks on something and you're like, Whatever. Well, that's what we started doing our last couple years with my wife and her siblings is instead of like buying gifts for each person, we would just pick a night either basically anywhere between October and April and just be like, Hey, we get babysitters.
We're all going to go out, get some drinks, have a nice dinner, maybe do something fun afterwards. More than you normally spend. Yeah, yeah. But get like an experience out of it, like you said. Yeah. You guys go to steakhouses and such, right? Supper clubs, club sweet speaking at supper clubs. And we're like Wisconsin traditions. Greg, I got to ask you, have you ever heard of raw beef sandwiches? Raw beef? No. Yes. Steak tartare? Yes. It's like like a Wisconsin.
I think it's a Wisconsin holiday tradition, like not so much Thanksgiving, but Christmas and New Year's. And it's Robby on rye bread. And then you usually have some kind of onion to put on it. And then salt and pepper. Is at least cooked in acid. No, it's. Just straight up. Super high grade. Robby. I love. Please hit that with some lime juice. I'd love for you to just call it beef carpaccio like normal people do, and then it makes it okay. Well, the mechanisms involved in that.
The nickname for it is Cannibal Sandwiches. But with all the serial killers that come from Wisconsin, it's you know. It truly. Is that out. Yeah, exactly. I really don't like to put my name with that. So I'll. Have the Dahmer special. Please. Dahmer party of four. Don, are you for it? No, I do want to try steak tartare, though. I think I haven't had it. I will. I would like to try it, but they cook it in acid lime juice. There's. Oh, okay. Killing of germs that takes place. Well, yeah, yeah.
I've never gotten sick off of it, and I've never known anybody who's gotten sick off of it. So I just need to know how fresh the kill is. If it's fresh like a day I. Don't see my. My father in law owns a butcher shop like he owns and runs a butcher shop. So. So he knows. What he's to like. The beef. Yeah, it's. It's all pretty. All right, that's. A super legit. Right? Like. That's what you do. So, like, you don't just go to, like, your grocery store and be like, Hey, give me some of that ground.
Just you know, like, you go on sale, like, no, none of that. 9010 shit. I want that 7030 oh. Oh. To taste that fucking fat. You know, you usually. End up going to like a nice butcher shop where they really know what the hell they're doing. You get like the high, really high graded stuff so. That I would do like if I was out there and you're like, Hey, we're going to the in-law's butcher shop. We're going to do the your, you're fucking cannibal sandwiches. Like I would try it
same. Yeah, but who's. Who's that listener that we have who I can never remember his name, but he always talks about from living in Wisconsin. Oh, Davis. Yes, Davis. So hopefully he's listening to this episode and he can relate to this holiday tradition. Yeah. Please chime in on the Wisconsin cannibalism, if you would. It would make me very happy. Yes. All right. I got a couple of things to talk about. But first, Mel has been waiting very patiently.
That's why I know what she is drinking over there. The call to the pen. He calls to the. Bullpen for beer. Getting it back up. Here's what we're waiting for. Flex. Yeah. I polished. The entire 8.6% are off waiting for you to show us. It was really good. But today I also have a beer from a friend and that friend is here with me right now. Greg sent me. Shots. To your project and Alvarado Street Brewing. It is a very sorry cup of gold. Murky, double Indian.
I can't even talk to these guys. I'm gay. She's always. This is what happens when you invite me sober. Got to get me, like, a little bit buzzed. I do better. Please do. It's. First of all, a gorgeous color. Very nice. Those monkeys are legit. You know, for something that claims to be murky, I feel like we. Is there a difference between murky and hazy is hazy. Like one step beyond murky. Do we think. These are synonyms? That's what I thought. It would be. The Sea. Raymond's great.
But I feel like this is like a little more clear than I would expect. It's absolutely to the west, like a West Coast. Hazy in general is clearer than the East Coast. Okay, so maybe that's what it is. It's refreshing. Delicious. The mouthfeel is really light. The carb level isn't too high. It's just really, really, really rolls off the tongue. Nice finish is really nice and citrusy. I love it. I would drink that one a lot. Yeah, this is gorgeous.
And I had the pleasure of visiting Alvarado Street Brewery and it was a Monterey when I was there for the the marathon. And that's probably one of the, the favorite breweries that we visited while we were out there. It was really cool to go, well. See, I always see a lot of stuff about Sours, some of those guys, but I never really seen anything. I've had some of their sours as well.
The owners were actually there when we visited and I was with, I don't know if you guys follow El Para El Pedro Boratto, but he came and met up with us and we've really got to sit down and talk to them a lot about the brewing styles and what they do because it's like an outdoor space in Monterey. Have you been to that, Greg? I have none. No, it's really cool. It's more of a beer garden than anything. I don't believe that they brew there, but like the ambiance was really nice.
They have all of these outdoor heaters and fires everywhere because it's cold there all year round. It's like mid-sixties. Yeah. NorCal stays a little cooler than SoCal. The first time I went, I like I was like, we're going to have a beach day. It'll be great. This California, we got there, we're like, it's freezing here. What are we thinking? Yeah, man, you get, like, north of Santa Barbara. There's no I just still don't understand the geography of California.
I'm going to have to take a course in this. I think tourism. Should be like three different states on this. It's about 5 hours long. That's all I know about California. Yeah. Yeah. It's those magic. That's what she said. But this is really nice. Thanks for sending it to me. Yeah, I'm glad. I like that one a lot, so I'm glad you enjoyed it. Great breweries. You know, we're doing a little NorCal trip. I wonder. We're not going to Monterey, but we are going to Santa Cruz, which is near Mundaring.
Yeah, it is. Yeah. Hop, skip and a jump. How close is how close would you say it's to Monterey? Greg Uh, I don't know, probably a half hour. It's 62.7 miles. Oh, I was just. Looking for the, uh. With the time this distance. Yeah, we will. Be very, we'll be staying very close to humble sea, so we're doing a lot of research. Nice. We stop there. It was also very nice there. We did stop because we flew into San Francisco and we rented a car. That's right.
Yeah. Greg shot me a Hubble, see, I think was like their fifth anniversary or something like that. Fourth anniversary, one of their adversaries. But it was fucking awesome. Yeah. So good. Oh, they are 53 minutes apart. So that I mean, in California standard, that's like average. You got to go like seven miles. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. But yeah, mail just a pro insider California trip next time you fly out here if you're flying to NorCal, if at all possible flying to Oakland instead of San
Francisco San Francisco Airport. This shit. Show. You aren't wrong about that. I do know that I just. Across the bay and you can take Bart which is there there's subway you can take BART over to SFO if you need to get SFO. All right. Well, I'll just make you plan my trip for me next time. Sure. I'll fly into Burbank. I flew into Sacramento one year when I was by myself. Because my brother lives in. Sacramento is not bad. Yes. Airport wise. I was. Going to.
Yeah. Anyway, I hung out with him and then I flown into San Jose before and that was a pain in the ass. That's like a really tiny airport. But they had us taxied for 3 hours and my sister in law got like nauseous and was throwing up the whole time. We were taxied into, like, an airsick bag. Oh, God. GROSS. 2:00 in the morning, please get us off of this plane. Who has that much in their system to throw up for 3 hours through that? She's a puka I don't know where it comes from.
She just has it in her. GROSS Yeah. Well, they should lose the weight that way. So looky here. She just I'll lose it. How you can let me tell you, this holiday season staying warm for winter that we don't have big news to talk about. Last week I brewed a collaboration beer with our friend Monica over ice. That's. Oh, I'm so excited we did a guava gosa. So the guava will be added this week. It was so much fun. We got there.
We were there from, you know, mash in to the yeast pitch and everything in between. And it was kind of funny. She she does these tours once a month, which is actually a really good deal. I think it's like ten bucks and you get like a flight of beer and a pretzel and a tour of the brewhouse from the head brewer, etc.. So that's a super. Deal work you do? Yeah, it's like one Sunday a month. So anyways, happen to be the same Sundays. I was like, Hey, are we going to be okay?
She's like, Yeah, that's fine. You know, it's a pretty small tour. So the guys came back and from the tour and it's kind of good for them. They got to watch us to work the lab. They got like they're normal to normal tours, but you know, our stuff on top of it. So it was so much fun just hanging out and drinking some beer and brewing some beer. And so I'm excited for that. We are going to launch it on Friday, January 13th, and we're also going to do a live podcast from the brewery.
So if you're in the SO called region, come on out. Pedals and pints brew in Thousand Oaks, California, 8 p.m. on Friday, January 13th. We'll have the go to of course we'll have a few other we'll do like a podcast flight like we normally do at live shows. You just walk up to the podcast flight. We haven't determined what will be in it yet. We're going to get together. I always I'm such an alcoholic or asshole or fun guy. I don't know. Every time. All the. Above. Yeah, every time.
She's like, Hey, let's talk about will you want to brew or let's talk about the flight or whatever it is? I'm like, Yeah, meet me at the brewery. Let's talk, talk over some beers. Like, like when we were talking about what the Brewers like me, me over at Knotty Pine. Let's, uh, let's talk about we're going to make and so. You know, one of my favorite beers ever was a pink guava goes with pink Himalayan sea salt. Oh, I like that. It was. Yeah.
Like to this day I think I had it for the first time, geez, almost four years ago. And I still think about that beer constantly. You know, out here not enough goes is not enough sours in general, but really not enough cozies. And like when we were in Asheville, North Carolina, everyone had a goes. This is a couple of years ago, but everyone had a goes and I was like, Fuck, I love cozies and one brewery. We were there for a wedding happen to have a goes a fast one day. Oh no that's. Crazy.
It was the it was the day of the wedding. So we're just going to get here early. And some of the most refreshing the most refreshing beer fest I've ever. Heard of it was it. Was it was so good we were there up until like we had to run and get changed and run to the wedding. But I love a good goes and not enough people are here doing. A great. Very underrated and unacknowledged beer brewing style. Yeah and.
This is all really makes it is that a definite has to be in it goes a component any good that I've ever had has had sea salt in it. It there's no salt in it it's not it goes the other it's basically just a Berliner. Hmm. Learn something new every day. That's why you're a nerd. You're. I'm sure someone will tell me I'm wrong. But anyways, that was. That was a lot of fun. And I can't wait for the live show. I can't wait for the beer. I'm super stoked about it.
So January 13th, 8 p.m. petals and pints come out and be me. It'll be Monica will be trying some beers especially the goes well she's been on the show but we're going to get deep and talk about her her brewing past and her experience and all that good stuff. So another thing we'll talk about next week is I want to give it the proper amount of time and respect it deserves. But we did do Brazil a Palooza last week and this is a good time. So we'll talk more about Paul particularly well.
So I will is the next week. Words are hard. Can I interject really quick and just say I am always 100% certain that I was choose first follower too. If you could just call into the show and acknowledge that I immediately followed you. Please wait. What do you mean? First follower. He created an Instagram. Yeah, he's. He's. He's on. Instagram now. He wasn't on before. Yeah. No, didn't, didn't he. Just like rename his wife wasn't it his wife's? It was his like personal account and then renamed it.
Don't ruin this moment for me. No, no, I'll cut it out. So. Sounds cool. Yeah. Do not ruin this moment for me, little brother. It was his first follower when he was the OG to your beer. I was like, click follow immediately flagstick. All right, so this guy. Yeah, this guy over here. All right. I know a little bit of news logging needs this along with logging need is is going to close their Seattle taproom in January.
Bear Republic is closing their Rohnert Park taproom for the winter Sasquatch Brewery is ceasing production and just announced today as we're recording this on the 26th King Harbor has announced that the 31st of December will be their last day open as well. A lot of brewery closures. This leads me to the very important question of are we going to see a ton of craft breweries closing in 2023? I certainly hope. Not. I think it's I think it's going to happen.
Unfortunately, I think with the financial climate and the lack of resources, I think we're going to see a lot of that, which sucks because the best breweries that you love are probably not going to be able to stay open. Some of my favorite restaurants have already closed as a result of these hardships. Yeah, we talked about the whole McLeod situation and how fucking weird that is and then these guys closing.
I think there's going to be a little bit of a reckoning part of it's going to be just the financial hardships of of, you know, costing more to produce beer. Some of it's going to be there's only so much good beer you can have in one area. Like if you have a bunch of great breweries, then the good breweries are no longer good there. You're not going to go they're going to go to great breweries instead. So I feel like there is a little bit of an oversaturation.
And that's what I was going to bring up, too, is you think it's due to saturation? Yeah, because like I was talking to the wife about this earlier today and like in our area, all the local breweries immediate around us have done a really good job of not doing the same thing, having different focuses. So there's no like real cannibalism of customers at that point. So you could be like, Hey, I'm going to go here for lagers or here for my style. It's the green for lagers.
Or if you want something hoppy and bitter, you go to 14, you know, like whatever it is. And so I feel like they're okay. But when you get like, you know, you get to San Diego and you got a whole street full of IPA breweries, someone's got to go at some point, you know, it's just just the way it is, whether they're good or not. I think it's important for the breweries to kind of work together as well. If you are in that small area like you have to drive everywhere here where I live.
So there's one craft beer area, though, that's really exploding right now. And the great thing about it is that each one of them brings something different to the table. And I think that's because they've actually spoken to each other. They're like, How can we make this a beer destination where we all get the business? And it's like, you know, that is your route for the day.
You go to this one, you go to this one, you go to this one or this one, and it's just really all about communication and IPAs are easy to do. I'm going to say if they weren't easy to do, everybody wouldn't do them. And I would love expensive. But they're easy. But I would just love to see different styles, new styles, older styles coming back, which I think we're starting to see that resurgence of basic beer coming back. And I like it. I'm for it. It's interesting. Somebody with my pop up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Monica just put up an English miles over a pedals and pints. Right on. That's the way to go. I think you have to differentiate yourself, otherwise you'll fall into the sea of hazes and then eventually drown pretty much. All right, before we move on to more news, let's answer the very important question that we try to answer every night.
In a world where craft beer is kind of where muscles are bigger than ground, there's only one time in Guinness, one at one time, one tongue jabber in this world. We must find out what is flaxseed drinking. I was waiting for that. Yeah, I know you were always got to bring it out. Well, today, ladies love it. Flex is drinking thanks to our good buddy, the OG beer dude. Zach Miller, the coolest motherfucking man in Indiana. With the nicest. Hats and all the nicest hats in all the land. Oh, yeah.
Not to mention his shoes. Good God. So, thanks to Zach, I'm drinking King Julius from Treehouse Brewing Company. Yeah Yeah, this is like my first Julius type thing in Virginia Barber. So I'm super, super jacked for this. The rating on untapped is really fucking stupid. Like, have you ever actually looked this up? I don't think I have. So, out of 56 and a half thousand ratings, it has 4.64. Okay, come on, guys. That's nuts. Right? That's insane. 8.2% ABV 85 will use even those.
Those don't matter anymore. But it reads King Julius is an American double IPA brewed to be an exceptionally flavorful, juicy and hop saturated beer. While never tiring the palate, its vivid citrus aromas give way to flavors of orange creamsicle mango smoothie and a bounty of fresh tropical fruit. We find it to be supremely soft in the midst of an onslaught of flavor. A beer we are quite proud of. Yes, be very proud of this.
I can tell you that on the nose, it's a lot of that orange creamsicle, that orange vanilla combo. It's super obnoxious. There's a half smiley face in the head of my beer right now. Oh, actually, it's turning full smiley face. So placing there to super. Yeah, it's a little bit lazy out there. Oh no. That's the design on your glass. Never mind. Oh, yeah, yeah. We will get it. We're getting all warmed up. And the old tongue jobber. Oh, best part of the night. So I've been told.
So super low carbonation when I first poured this out, super heavy notes on the orange citrus like the orange pith. And now that it's warmed up a little bit, you get more of that mango, like they said. And the 85 abuse really start to come out as it warms up because I couldn't find a single note of bitterness on this at all when it was like freshly cold, freshly poured out.
So I really like how this beer kind of evolves as you drink it, I guess, especially seeing that it's a. All right, so double American IPA, right? When you think of American IPA, you think of a little more coppery, a little more, less cozy, little malt, a little malty bitter. So when I when I first put this on my palate, I'm thinking, how the hell do you put double American IPA on the label now? It warms up.
I totally fucking get it. And this beer for six for I'd probably say more around 5.5 but damn. Out of five. Out of. Five. I mean it's obnoxious especially at an 8.2%. I mean, this is top, top notch now. It almost doesn't get better than this. I've had a couple of those Julius's demands. They're fucking tasty. Well, I've had what I had another like a nectarine fruit salad or something like that. But yeah. And that one was really stupid too. I just don't understand how they do the things they do.
Listen, if I can get you a tree house stout. They're double shot. Best salad I've ever had in my life. Hands down, best bass, best. That's saying something, too. Because you like yourself. I love a good stout. And it really was just executed so well. I think they really pay a lot of attention to what they're doing, and especially with an IPA, you have to let it warm up. You can't really appreciate a beer called.
If you want a cold beer, then you better just get yourself a Bud Lighter Coors Light and just shut down the podcast right now and don't talk to us. Yes, you really need it. You need like a 15 minute window, I feel like. Okay, but let me ask you a question. Do you not like to experience, like, the difference? I'll take a sip. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like how I was cold. And, you know, as it warms, because that's something I really, really enjoy doing. Yes.
But it's like a nice. Step. Up, I think I just really enjoy what it involves, too. I don't always love what I taste first. I think you don't give it enough time to really like the aromatics need to come out. And I don't know. I know, I don't. I'm. I don't like things super cold anyway. No matter what it is, I drink room temperature, water. I am that weird girl I don't like. Okay, I am like that too. With the water, the soda and. Yeah, and I think it makes a big difference when you're.
You're just a little bit warmer. It's just much nicer. Yeah. I tell you what. So much better. When I was 21 years old, on my 21st birthday, I went to a distillery tour and at Great Lakes Distillery down here in Milwaukee, the guy running the tour said that if you want to get the absolute flavor of something, you drink it. Room temperature, you drink it, warm it. So I've always kept that in mind. After everything I've ever drank in my life, I'm like, okay, what's it like?
Cold. And then what's it like, warm? And then kind of like compare in your mind what like better, you know, what the notes were like and yada, yada, yada. So. Yeah, completely agree. Completely agree. I'm glad you're getting to drink that though. And I love a good orange creamsicle vibe. That is my favorite summertime dessert as a kid. Creamsicle, I. Yeah. I concur on that one. Very nice. I'm super jealous if anybody wants to send me some fucking Julius or. If I. Like it.
When I can get it, I will. I will just buy in abundance. All right? Just buy an abundance and send you one. Of those fucking like those haze boys that just, like, walk out with a. Laser, too, and they crack. The two. Dollies. Pillowcases. Oh, man. All right, couple of lists here. Two to end the show, because it's the last show of 2022. First of. All, we. As as the last show before New Year's to our English listeners, the England has a PSA to everyone out there.
They say, don't get so drunk that you need a hospital because they're on an ambulance strike right now. That doesn't sound safe. We know I was looking up stories today. I was like, oh, yeah, that sucks. So everybody out there drink semi responsibly. Well, if you're getting fucked up for the New. Year's, it's actually scary how. Concerned Mal looked when you said. That a medical professional is. Frightening to me. I would never I don't I could never be one of the nurses that straight.
I don't think I could. I think I would be inundated, nervous. I was like, Fuck everybody, I hate you, but I'm going to save your life and like save all these people lives. And like in, in Buffalo, they had a really crazy storm and they lost power. And we've heard a lot of terrible stories so far, like a lot of death, at least we're not going to response is it was too and it was too dangerous for them. And they teach you that like you cannot respond if it's not safe for you.
Right. And it's we don't want to create. A bigger rescue situation by multiple people. Yeah. It's just heartbreaking to think, you know, this extreme weather can cause that. And so they're. Striking. That's something that's something you never think about either. Yeah. It's weird to think about in this day and age, like, people die from being cold. It's like, what fucking years this. And not having power. Yeah. And having empowered having power. Stay warm.
If you're on the Upper East Coast and stayed sober ish. If you're in the UK. Could you not. Get it right? Yeah. You UK, you're done for guys. Yeah, pretty. Much. All right. These two are for Flex. First is in honor of New Year's Eve. Coming up here, the seven new champagne of beers to drink this New Year's Eve. And this comes from the manual com. We'll start at number 76. hazy brut IPA. I Thought Broots were dead. Apparently not. Yeah, it is like a champagne.
I mean, that part of it is very champagnie. So I get it. They're followed by Pliny the Younger, which look plenty of younger's delicious. But good luck finding it. So that feels like a weird the mission then Sapporo. What. Interesting. Because you're going to have sushi instead. Of. Yeah that's up here. Yeah. Yes I'll get down with that. That's the only rationale I have. Sure will go with it. The next one is Saison DuPont. Which bine Yeah, that sounds about right. I think it's yeah.
Champagnie next is tank seven from Boulevard Brewing Farmhouse. I've had it. It's I'm sure it's fine not my not my jam next is Devil's Backbone Brute IPA man. Brutes are really topping the charts in 2022. So easy to find. Yeah everyone's making them still. It definitely. Wasn't a fad that. Just went. Next. One up is st bernardus abbot 12. Oh. Okay, great. It's classic, you know. Get down with that. Sure. Monks. I don't know if I replace champagne with this one.
I mean, this is a thick motherfucker. This is like some ten w 30 something. But, you know, was. That was the one. It was I was. Waiting for the drop and nothing that. Was completely anticlimactic. Sorry, I thought that was number two. Number two for the new year. Yeah. How do you think? I probably would have expected more lambics on this list? Yeah. Let it go. Like two thumbs down to the list. You suck. And let me pick out your champagne of beer.
Yeah. Yeah. First of all, this manual makes me think of one thing and one thing only, and that's about as good as their list was over their jerking off. This one comes. This is the last one. This one comes to us from untapped, the top ten highest average rated beer styles of 2022. Okay, beer styles. Styles number ten. The just mentioned Lambic traditional 4.09. Number nine, a porter imperial slash double coffee. Okay. I do like. Water. Yeah, I do. I definitely do.
Yeah, especially in the wintertime. Number eight, stout imperial slash double oatmeal. Number seven, lambic. Brut. Lambic in its place. Hm. Number six, stout imperial or double milk? I do prefer a milk stout over an oatmeal. Stout. You like that? Lactose. Yeah. Number five, top five here. This one. I was a little surprised by barley, wine, English? No, not a no. No, not a fan. It's a blackout situation. Every time. That's one. Show, no one's going to have beer.
No, let's say I. Got a 13% are still sitting in my fridge and I don't know what I'm going. To do. It always tastes like will. You'll do it one way. It's going to be a crazy night in like no, no, don't do it because you don't know how you're going to eat. You'll hear stories the next day. You will never remember them. Oh, that that's like when we did the Black Tuesday verticals, the. I mean coli. And all that. I wish I was there for that. I sounded amazing. It was fun.
I wish I could remember it, but I'm told it was fun. You you pre-game so hard for no reason you should not have done that. No, not at all. A day of champagne. What a fucking idiot mistake. Huge. What am I, 22? Yeah, it's crazy. My liver's not, but I am. Oh, already. Number four, stout, imperial slash double pastry. Okay, that's. But think about how many people come out with those pastry. Stouts. Everybody. Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, there's a whole fucking festival, you know, for those stouts. Oh, yeah, I've been there. Blacked out central. Oh, yeah. Number three, stout slash imperial double or beer slash double. Scuse me. 4.14. Overall rating number two, stout imperial slash double coffee 0.16. Can anybody guess the number one style of 2020. Two as some kind of hazy. IPA single or double. Double dry hopped or. Shit. Over fruited sours? No, come on. I will. Have come out and think. About how highly rated those get.
That's true. I'm going to. I'm going to go. Yeah, I'm going to go to sours. Okay. Okay, let's go with sours. Now, what are you going with? I'm going to do like a hazy IPA. Any. Any. It's a gas single double doesn't matter. Age just hazy. New England IPA. Okay. Number one, with an average rating of 4.19 IPA, triple New England slash hazy. So a triple. Triple. Hey that's a lot of. Oh, a lot. We love me some triple. We like the triples, we like them. But they're very the lot.
Everybody makes everyone has them. I find triples to be a little more sweeter than I prefer. And I need more sugars in order to get that alcohol up there. Yeah. I pulled what was my backup beer which we didn't make too. It's AQ in H collab. Oh nice. Triple hazy and. You're fucking triple her best bro. That's where I live. You know, what can I do? This is my local beer. Yes. All right. Well, that's pretty much everything. I'm going to hit a little music over here. Mel, thanks for hanging with us.
Thanks for having me. I have some fun and happy. New Year, everybody. Happy New Year. Be safe. Have fun. You all get some pasta courses and lard bread and. And confessions of the food that you ate. Oh, my God. Hormone coupon. Yeah, we didn't talk. You have no know. You got to get you know, we had we have to hit with it. There's no way we can't talk about it. Okay, so last time after the recording was over that Mel was on. She hung out. I hung out. And then we invited the spouses up.
So she came up. Lou came up, and we were just shooting the shit, drinking beer, getting a little ham, scared And the way I remember happening was, we're all hanging out. We're talking about I don't know. What for. Literally no reason. For no reason. Also lose face pops up on Mel's camera and just goes, I have a confession to make. And we were all like. Oh, this is going to be terrible. I was going to be like, Oh, my gosh, she has another child. This is Canadian.
Who did it? Fuck, like what happened? And he. He started naming off like all the street food. Yeah. He was like, I ate it while you were sleeping when we were in the city for Thanksgiving. He's like, I had three gyros, six hot dogs. I had four slices with pizza. I went and had some Chinese food and I wanted shawarma. So I had trauma. I was just like, what. Is confession turn into like stoner knight or stoner dream come true? So we're ready for the. Calories for that. I can't breathe.
Trying to grow. Up on the streets to burn all the goddamn calories, you know, the fucking food. The kicker. Too. So I don't know what the. Kicker to this story is, that he does not know Gregor Shannon at all. He's never talked to Greg in his life. Is that just. Like once or twice. Maybe. Oh, you have. Like after show. Yeah, yeah. Well. I was really excited to meet Shannon in person. I'm like, I want to hang out with her. Like, have her come up.
Like, we're going to have a couple of drinks, we're going to hang out. Then this guy comes on and I'm like, So we have to go. And she said, You just let me go. And I'm like, No, I know. I said, I just don't want to. Like, I feel like you guys are really busy right now? Like we need to leave. And, like, what a weird first impression you made on these people. Like how I can't even ever look Greg in the face again. What are you think? You met them 5 minutes ago, and you'll. Be like, Guys.
I have a confession. Like, no one cares. What you fucking. Usher over here. There's confessions here. We were dead and then the best part of it is he tried to deny it. Deny that? He said that. He literally said, Hey, guys, I have a confession to make. And me and Greg joked about it, said, Usher me. And then he said, that never happened. I never said confession to make you 100% dead. It was. I'm just curious why that was weighing on him so much. It's like it was crazy. He felt bad about it.
A normal person would be like, good before you live. Your life, kid. Yeah. Enjoy eight gyros you had. But it was. It was stupid. I was telling Mel afterwards like back in the day the way our our podcast recording service used to work was, it would record everything if you were signed on just in case something went wrong with the main recording. So I thought, Oh, I'm going to go back and find him doing his confessions. And unfortunately it doesn't do that anymore.
Because we were going to blast the shit out of him. We were going to make rules about it. We were going to put his face. Like. On onto bodies of characters so he could dance around saying his confessions, eating gyros. And sadly, the audio was not there. But I would have preferred him to tell you the story about the time he saw like strippers or like hookers fighting in the streets and kicking each other into the garbage. So we got to get him on the show very early. Yeah, he's pretty funny.
This this is would brag. If he was on the show, you and I wouldn't talk at all. I just want to. Let you know that. No, I learned that. That never. Shut up. He takes over. Yeah. It'd be an hour and a half of confessions. Since this. This soundclip is what reminded me different topic, but reminded me most of Lou that now. Do you want to change your or do you want booker teeth? So while I was trying to make that decision, I drove over. I had a confession.
In order to have a PJ burger or a chicken fried steak sandwich, a chili cheese dog with estrogens, French fries, tater tots washed it down with one beer. Two beers, three beers A shot. Of whiskey. On Marguerite and a Bloody Mary And I. Said, stone cold. Why have one when you can have them both right there? That's perfect. That's how the night went though. Oh, dear God. I love it. We couldn't. We couldn't not talk about it. It was just too good. My cheeks hurt so bad right now. We were dying.
It was so stupid. It was the funniest. Melanie Bell was just in behind her. The look on her face like, what the. Fuck is going on here? It was. This man. Flex knows that face very. Well. Oh, yeah. All right. Mel's late for a party. Let's hit some music. Thank you, guys. For for hanging out for listen find us on the social is beer girl underscore Melissa flex me a beer underscore is in between of course at craft beer republic 80553 beer 2337 is the number to call and I'm that's here.
Oh, hi, Vanessa. Yes. Don't forget that was waiting. How you Vanessa Michelle. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. And hi to Vanessa. And don't forget, January 13th, petals and pints. I think that's everything. I hope everyone is staying very well hydrated. And on that note. Goodnight, everybody. And beer, girls out.