Ep 116 - Hops Don't Bite: Breaking Down Beer's Most Misunderstood Style

Grab a beer and pull up a chair . Welcome to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast . Hey , ladies and gentlemen , welcome back to the Northwoods Beer Guy Podcast . This is Mike , the Northwoods Beer Guy , and we are actually back in the studio at Jim's house . So Jim's here we finally .

Look at all the crowd back there .

I know .

It's crazy you draw such a crowd . I'm still trying to figure out how that popularity happened the last three weeks . My brother was gracious enough to fill in because you were trying to get your fields planted and such , and Mother Nature was not being the most kind all the time . So we finally got where you could be in the studio again . Yes , so , yeah .

We have everything in and it's actually knock on wood , starting to actually sprout .

Nice , so things are on the up and up , they're progressing well .

Yes , knock on wood , because you never know . Just when you say it's progressing the way you want to , then we'll get a big deluge of rain and underwater ? Yeah , we're not even going to talk about that . So , yes , everything's good . And I did actually have a helper this year , nice . And what did she charge you for that ?

So that's the third person of our team today . Well , at least I don't see any black eyes or any broken fingers or anything like that . I didn't get the double bird .

There may have been a little bit of cussing , but Well , that happens .

So as you can tell ladies and gentlemen we are joined by Julie this week , so hey , welcome back . Thanks for saying you would be participating . She agreed to do this before she knew what we were drinking , right ?

right , so I'll apologize right now .

Yeah .

I'll give it a whirl though .

Now , she did ask one question before when we asked .

She said this isn't barrel-aged , is it no ?

it is not barrel-aged .

We could have changed it up . We could have .

I had many of those in the cellar . Maybe that's what she was wanting and we just were too dense to figure that out .

No , no , I'll take my chances with this , oh okay , and all these are probably below ABV than what all the barrel-aged ones are Right , it's what I'm thinking .

So , yeah , it's going to be interesting . We had talked about this for a while .

Yeah , we did that .

we were going to do a podcast on kind of the levels of IPA-ness so to speak . So we're starting . We got one , two , three , four , five , six different IPAs , Yep .

Well , not all .

IPAs

Oh , and I did find some questions for you too .

Oh , okay , Make sure that you're still in your A game . Well , that's probably not the case . I've been out of practice for a while .

So these should be some easy questions for you , okay good Slow pitch softball game .

There we go . I like that . I know how that goes . That's a good thing . Yeah , you say they're slow pitch and then it's specifically what year , month , day , time , minute hour , second did this ? Yeah ?

Well , I thought you knew the answer . That's why I did .

If I didn't think you knew the answer , I wouldn't have asked you that question Okay , I know most of our listeners don't believe that they like to see you make me squirm . Oh , all right . Well , should we start ? We can start . Yeah , so the first one that we have is from Oliphant Brewing and this is their Snail Pale Pale Ale .

Should we have our guest read what I found on it ? Will you pour some ?

You can if she's willing to , Otherwise we can do it . So what's the EBV ?

in this one 5% 5% . Okay , that's not bad .

I feel like I'm in first grade again and the teacher's asking me to read the paragraph . Okay , it says in collaboration with those saltwater sweeties over at Sea Salt Eatery in Minneapolis , this pale ale drinks like it would have over a decade ago A little malty , a little bitter and hoppy , most of all delish Snail on chums .

Okay , wow , interesting . So this one . Like I said , the reason I bought this is because it is a pale ale . Okay , it's not an American , it's not an India pale ale , it's just a pale ale . Okay , so this theoretically should be , you know .

Well , you know what's weird too ? In all the research I did , none of them put their IBUs .

Really .

So I don't have any IBU info on it .

Let's look in the can . Maybe it'll be on there .

Well , it's just crazy , because how many times have we said you can't . It's not an exact science , right , you know ?

I like a lot of those Oliphant ones , because don't they have ones , a lot of them , that are like cookies and chocolate and things like that Yep exactly .

Cookies and chocolate and things like that Yep , exactly . So we have Snail Pale Ale from Oliphant . Now there's an aroma . You can smell the . There's some hop aroma but it doesn't smell real bitey .

I don't know if you wanted to call it that it doesn't smell over the top the aroma . It's very like golden in color .

And it's kind of hazy , you can't see through it that's not too bad taste wise .

I mean that's , it's not like a really strong grapefruit flavor what the smell ?

I was like oh boy , but it actually does not taste bad . No , I don't mind it what ?

what is the flavor ? Snails I . Is there a flavor that's supposed to be coming through ?

Well , I mean , I do get a little bit of like a hint of either a grapefruit or maybe a piney kind of a taste . You do get that , but it's not real oh , really faint . Yeah , it's faint . It's not like real strong , like what we're normally possibly going to run into on some of these other ones .

And this doesn't dry out my mouth either . No , possibly going to run into on some of these other ones , and this doesn't dry out my mouth either .

No , you know , like some of the really happy ones , yep , yeah , it's just interesting , not bad . I mean Kind of surprised a little bit .

What I'm afraid of is this might be our number one of the whole class .

Right now it could be . It's number one for sure . Right now it is number one .

yes , I , I hate it .

Yeah , see , there you go . I mean , it's one of those . Would I sit and drink like a six-pack of it ? No , now we should go back and say this is a pint can .

Right , we do have four pint cans and two 12-ounce cans , yes , so some of them are proud of their IPAs and such , and I guess the other part is this is a collaboration with Sea Salt Eatery . What did they bring to the table ?

The snails , the snails , duh Boy , I tell you what he's the research guy , and he sure didn't find out this whole snail connection .

Because I looked on the Sea Salt Eatery website and all they have is their menu .

Yeah , I wish they'd have said what it was .

Well , there's not a lot of info on the . Can you know it doesn't give you any of the flavors or anything it used .

It's got a snail on it though .

Yeah , there is a snail , so that's the only reason why I guess that's a good question .

What did they provide ?

I don't know , we don't get a flavor . I mean , I don't know what the flavor they were going for .

Yeah , I agree , I'm kind of drawing a blank there , for you too , bud . Well , score-wise , julie , I guess we can start with you . What would you give that out of 0 to 5 by a tenth of a point ? And what's your median ? Again , 2.5 is the average . What is your median ? My average , I think , is 2.97 or something . See , mine's like 2.43 or 2.2 .

I think yours is lower than that . I'm actually . I get mine like honest , truthful answers . I don't over-inflate mine .

That's not it at all . What it is is he waits to see what the good beers are , and then that's the only ones he tries . Oh , I think . Yeah , that's it .

So then , why is your score higher than oh ?

I've tried way more . Oh , all right , we'll let you believe that .

I'm going to go with a 2.7 . Okay , okay , yeah .

Mike , I was going to go . I'll go a 2.7 as well , honestly because I think it's better than average , right as far as I could drink one of those Right , me too . Like I said , I wouldn't drink a six pack of it or anything . It would still kind of get . The taste would get to me after a while , right , but it wasn't bad . I was surprised .

So I'm not going to paint myself into a corner , I'm actually going to go 2.8 . He liked it even better than we did Because I mean , I don't like many IPAs to begin with , but this one did not have a bad flavor , not a bad aftertaste . The smell wasn't overly bad . So I mean , but I mean , those are things , I guess it was just not not a bad beer .

Yep , not not I agree with you . Like I said , it was kind of surprising , right ? You know I was impressed , so yeah , oh .

So , since we finished that , I said , bring up our first question oh sure , why not ?

might as well get the first one wrong so since we're drinking IPAs . Well , pale ales and such Yep .

When is National IPA Day ?

So got to think about it for a second yeah , but see , now you know it because you know you got that day off as a holiday . You got all those weird holidays off that most normal working folk don't get .

Yeah , but you always get the day after this one off . So , yeah , easy one after this one .

So easy one , Easy one , I'm going to say July 3rd no .

Hang on , mike's going first . Oh , I'll just throw out there the day after Thanksgiving .

Day after Thanksgiving , which would be November , depending on the fourth Friday .

Yeah , depending on what day ? Okay , because you know Thanksgiving falls on different dates . Right , so was I correct .

Almost All right . And , julie , now , what is your answer now ?

Well , I said July 3rd . I was going to say August because I'm thinking for me , pale ales to me are best in the hot sun .

Julie , don't lie for them , okay .

I actually said July 3rd .

The people know what goes on in this studio here .

So what is your July 3rd no ? What is the answer that you're supposed to say ?

August 7th 2025 .

August 7th is okay , so it's always the first Thursday in August oh okay , you know we should print off a calendar so we know what we're supposed to drink , because there's National Stout Day , national .

Beer Day . Yeah , I thought you already had that on the website .

No , I should .

Then we could like do a little celebration .

A little thing on your .

Instagram .

Always yeah . Yeah , I agree , that sounds like so . Can you know a guy that could do that for us ? Uh , I don't know we'll find out . Okay , you know a guy , that knows a guy , I know a guy that knows a guy that might know somebody , but we'll see all right .

Well , no , that's all right . That was not hard , was it see I ?

was going off of the fact that , oh , you get that day off . Well , normally only the time after something is

Well , I'll save the other ones . Let's try them over here and see what we got . All right .

I was looking at it from a standpoint of the only time I would drink them is if it was like super hot .

Which August then makes sense . Yeah , but yeah , I had no idea what the actual date for that was . I usually find out when you jump on social media and all of a sudden there's a post oh , happy national ipa day . Oh okay , and then you never think what day it is . Right , all right .

Maybe julie give us the first couple , just paragraphs on that all right .

Um , it says half acre is the house of pale ale . We don't usher a new one into our everyday lineup . Very often it must stand clear of daisy cutter and speak to where we see things going . For those who seek easygoing , everyday happy beer , slowpy beer , slow Melt is tropically bright , exceedingly crisp and ultra clean .

That's 5.8% ABV .

Okay , and one of them was the same .

You know tropical flavors of mango and and this and that , and all I could taste was your normal ipa . Yeah , and I flattered ask because you know he's a brewer .

So it's a marketing thing . I was like , hey , if we could figure out a way to grow hops that add that flavor , we could make a killing .

There you go , so we're going to crack into this . This is a small 12-ounce can Small one . So this one it should oh , that's a lot clearer , like lighter color .

Well , it's definitely ultra clean . There you go , see , and bright .

Look at how bright the color is . I feel like the can is darker than the beer . Is it kind of is ?

And it's got a butterfly and like a candle . Some sort of it almost reminds me of some kind of a wizardy casting a spell type design on it .

you know , I feel like it looks very hippie .

That's the one thing with a lot of these places . Boy , they got some interesting artwork Right .

Some of them are amazing . What is that ?

That aroma is weird . It is a little . It's almost got a .

I don't know if you said that Half Acre Beer Company is out of Chicago .

No , and now , jim , you did find an interesting tidbit . Yeah , I put it on there for you On that . And you're right , julie , it is out of Chicago , but it was founded in 2007 . And they originally brewed beer in Black River Falls , wisconsin . Yeah , wow , where that I don't know ? I'm wondering I think it was part of .

Sand Creek , because they bottle a lot of different beers , correct ?

Yeah , they do a lot of the contract brewing and things like that , so I'm guessing that's what it was Right , because Sand Creek has been around for quite a while .

Right , that brewery has been there . They've changed hands .

Yeah , and changed names , but it's never been half acre .

Right , no , correct . Okay , let's get back to this aroma . So what is this aroma ?

That's a different aroma . It smells like armpit perspiration .

No , I feel like it does have a fruity Knock it off , doesn't ?

it . It has a different . At first I was going to say it is fruity . It almost has . Yes , it has like a .

Pineappley or something . There you go .

It smells like pineapple , like canned pineapple .

It's not perspiration .

Well , you know , one man's pineapple is another man's perspiration . It's not bad . Yeah , no it's . I think you nailed it with the pineapple aroma , this one . It's a little bit drier on the finish , just a touch . It's still not bad . Hop-wise it's not terrible . I don't think I could drink a can of that Again , not a whole bunch of them .

So what is the style of this ? Did you call it ? This is an American Pale Ale . This is an American Pale Ale .

Yes , okay , so typically they're not as hoppy . You know what I mean as far as what we'll start getting into Definitely not hoppy , not hot . No , you're going to wish that those were barrel-aged before it's over .

I mean , the flavor is just not . I'm not clicking on the flavor .

I don't mind it .

I don't mind it .

Like you said , I could drink one , but would I drink two ? Probably not .

Well , with most of these it all depends , but I don't know , it's a lot more . I'd drink one of them for sure . But yeah , like you said when you first mentioned the armpit smell , jim , it's kind of funny because I was like man , that smells weird but I can't put my finger on it .

Yeah .

I don't . If I had , if I , If I open up a can of pineapple rice like this , I'd be throwing it away in one of the garbage cans . See , you're just jumping to conclusions .

It's probably good it's not . I don't think it's horrible .

Yeah it's okay , jim , why don't you go first on this one Boy ?

it's I'm trying to come up with something good , I'm going to have to go with 2.2 . It's not that good to me .

I think he's going to keep his scores somewhat high because he's saving them for the later ones . To go way low is what I'm thinking .

I don't know . I just can't . I don't know . There's something that's off on this . I don't know .

Right . Personally , I'm going to go with 2.5 .

I think average it's . I don't mind it , and once when I think of it as pineapple aroma .

It's better than yeah , armpit , uh aroma , but um , like I said , it's a little bit drier on the finish , but I , I could drink it , I . And , like I said , it's not terrible . I've had better ones , but it's okay I'm gonna do uh 2.6 .

I don't mind it , because I feel like what's coming next is really going to . You're going to save your scores , too , is really going to just knock my scores down there , yeah .

I was just looking to see if there's anything interesting more on the half acre brewery . It looks like they're doing their brewing the right way . I think we've talked about in the past where some breweries they get in debt too big because they're buying too big of a building .

But it looks like here .

They started small and just slowly worked their way up to get bigger .

Oh , okay .

Not , you know because , I mean what's the number one that we always talk about is tall grass . Tall grass yeah , that may have gotten a little bit too big right away and got way too far in debt and couldn't , and then next thing , you know , you know they're out of business .

the next one . I want to save one .

I want to save a couple of these . Okay , I got some good ones that I know you're going to get right . Okay , perfect , okay . So , oh , did I give you a score on that first one ? I think Julie got a plus 100 .

Oh geez , and Mike got a minus 1,000 .

Oh Mike .

See , you get penalized a lot when he decides who's going to lose . So you can't penalize me because I'm oh that's right helper , his , yeah , his farm helper , and you do live in his house and your , he lives in your house .

I almost messed that up , jim , oh so you better get kicked in the knee , so it doesn't .

She could not answer . She's gonna win right perfect that'll work great . Okay , folks , we're gonna move out of the lower stuff and now we we're going to jump into the IPAs

All right , so what do we got there , Julie ?

Okay , it says the beer that built Surly aggressively , hopped in citrusy but with a chewy caramel backbone . Surly , is called Surly due to our inability to find a good beer in town . Furious is one of the first beers we brewed to rectify that situation . The rest is history .

Now , julie , if you remember , we were in the cities .

Yep , we did go to . Surly Jim was not able to be there , but we went to Surly . Yes , very awesome place .

It is a huge brewery . You have to go up there sometime . We've got to go up there and do a podcast from there or something , because they had so many beers , jim , on tap that I hadn't even heard of , haven't seen them in the can bottle , anything like that , and they had barrel-aged stuff . They had all sorts of stuff .

They have a beautiful outdoor area . It's just gorgeous .

They had fire pits and fire tables . I don't know what they were , some kind of heater thing that was blowing hot air when you're right up by the building Yep on the patio like a little pergola that blew heat out . Yep .

Because it was in the winter .

It was in the winter , yes , and we could still stand outside , yep . And inside it was full of giant , almost like picnic table looking .

Yeah , like tables and bench seats , like big farmhouse lawn tables , yeah , kind of like that , and it was .

I mean , you can get food there . They had an upstairs and a downstairs , kind of like Toppling Goliath .

Okay , maybe even bigger , oh wow .

And it was . I couldn't believe . They had on the wall all the beers they had on tap and it was just oh my gosh , I've never even heard of half of these you know Right . And then , of course , across the parking lot , you can see the .

Sacred .

Heart Distillery . Oh , so kind of interesting . But yeah , we have to make a trip up there sometime and check it out and , you know , do a podcast Because , like I said , it was just crazy .

Yep , it was cool , all right , all right . Well , the can is very ominous .

Oh yes , it's got flames coming off of the Looks like it's in hell . Well , you may be , you may not be .

We'll find out here shortly , hopefully it doesn't taste like that Going to have a little water to cleanse the palate there .

It did say it was a red amber . Yeah .

So it is definitely more of an amber color than what the first ones were . It's kind of interesting , isn't it , how the first three have all been a different . You know , that first one was really kind of cloudy and such , and then the next one was very clear and bright , and then this one is red , you know , kind of an amber .

There's all sorts of different things . I don't get much aroma .

Yeah , the aroma is actually not Even the head is a little bit yellow though , too A little bit .

Yeah , and you can smell a little bit of hop , but not much Did . We , the ABVs are 6.7 .

Flavor-wise , you're getting into a little bit more hop . You can taste it . It's not real dry , though on the finish , yeah .

I was going to say it's a different hoppy flavor than the one we had before . Yes , but , like you said , not as dry .

Actually I almost like that one better , Almost like which one better this the Furious .

Yes , even though I know it's . I know more hoppy .

I wonder if that caramel does something more to If it knocks down the hop maybe a little , I don't know .

Because , like it doesn't taste sweet but it's Kind of got a like a creamy type flavor to it .

Yeah , you know , it's not that bitter , really super bitter .

Yeah , because I'm not really . I don't get like a grapefruit flavor . You know you get the a grapefruit flavor . You know you get . The majority of the hop for me is on the finish , like after you swallow it . Then you get that little bit of a . You can tell you had hops .

Right , but it's not over the top . No , not at all . I mean , it's all very muted , all the flavors . That's why I'm wondering if that caramel does something you could be right .

Maybe you know they could do something to it . But yeah , this is . I like this .

Yeah , I was a little scared , but I'm pleasantly surprised that this is not actually Just because it had mean artwork , Well and IPA because I am normally not a fan .

Right . Well then , what do you think it makes sense ?

I do like it . Like I said , I've had it before . I don't remember what I scored it before , but honestly I'm going to go with a 3.0 on this one . Wow , I do like this because same thing , julie I think I can drink and I have drank multiple cans of it before , but again , it's not a lot of them , because I get tired of the hop after a while , right .

I feel , like I don't know . I feel like I would get a gut rot if I drank too much of the IPA stuff . But I'm going to go 2.9 . I don't mind this . Actually , I like this one better than the first two , which kind of is odd .

It's kind of surprising , because I figured the first two were going to be way smoother .

And we'd be like , oh yeah no problem .

But then , yeah , you know Oliphant and Halfay , they are smaller breweries than Surly is . You know , I don't we'd have to look to see you know for sure how long they've all been around . But Surly they are really known for darkness and their IPAs . You know they do a good job . So , jim , what do you think ?

Well , it's again . I mean , not a single flavor sticks out . So that's the hard part . I mean , even the citrusy part is not really citrusy , but so it's not bad . But I mean it is smoother . I might be breaking my plane here , but I'm going to have to say a 2.9 as well .

I don't know what's going on . Stop the presses .

I must be drunk , because I could have swore he said a 2.9 on an IPA .

He did . I was a witness .

I almost Good thing I'm sitting down .

And now he's eating a cracker and looking like it was the worst thing he ever had . Do you need a no ?

I do have a question , though , okay .

We're talking about IPAs . Yep , and which brewery ? It wasn't one of these produced the first IPA to be exported to India .

Oh geez , that's way back when .

Is it a brewery in the United States ?

I can answer that no .

Well then , how would we know ? Because it's such a famous one .

It's still around Heineken .

No that's a dark beer . That's from Germany , oh well that's a dark beer .

That's from Germany . Oh Well , it's not the United States , if you've listened to our podcast .

I've told a story about the lady that said Heineken was a dark beer .

Oh yes . Oh yeah , I'm trying to think of a which brewery , Stella ? I don't know , she's just shouting out names like crazy , I don't know .

And I know I've known it and I'm totally I know that's what you .

We talked about it before , so I thought you had it Dos Equis . She's hammered drunk already .

This one basically , is it out of Britain or I can't remember it's out of Britain , I don't remember that .

Mike , your head's going to crack open . It's going to . You're thinking so hard .

I don't remember . I'm not even going to throw out an answer . I don't know , dude , I can't remember .

So , after losing their Russian markets , brewers in Burton England quickly began brewing for export to India . One of the first IPAs to be brewed and exported to India was by George Hodgson's Bow Brewery .

Okay , the only reason I remember that is because I didn't even recognize the name then , and I still don't recognize the name .

but the brewery was two miles from the East India Docks , which made it convenient for traders .

Yep exactly I remember that part too , but I couldn't remember the name of it . I knew it was some because I'm sitting here going . Okay , it wasn't Samuel Smith , it wasn't you know , it was a guy's name . Got it almost right , so she gets 200 points and since I didn't say an answer , you got minus 2,000 .

Nice .

Well , I'm kind of was caught off , like the . I didn't realize that India would be a . Are they consumers of IPA ?

There's not a question coming up on that , yeah we'll say that , but there's a reason that they did it .

But we'll get into that , okay , because I'm like I just didn't find India as a big , so that was actually a British Commonwealth .

Right , that's way back when so they're going there all the time , gotcha .

You learn something new every day , Exactly All right .

so what do we got ?

All right coming up . Well , now this one has an interesting

Aerothron .

And this now we're going to a double dry hopped India pale ale . So this is a double pale ale 8.6 . 8.6 . So once again we bumped up the ABV and I am guessing we're bumping up the hop as well . I have never had this beer . I've never even heard of this brewery before .

So this will be interesting . So it says there's not much . We brewed the special scaled up Fugu variant .

Okay , Now you know what Fugu is . I've heard of something similar Fugu is what the name of the puffer fish in Japan is called fugu and that's where , if they don't prepare it right , you could die because it's poisonous .

Oh yeah , like on John Wick .

Remember when she ate the Well , John Wick , or I was thinking , like you know , I've seen it , I think on Andrew Zimmer , the guy that would eat like crazy stuff .

Oh yeah , you know that stuff .

But yeah , it's like a number of people each year get sick from it because it's not prepared correctly .

And that's the name of it . There is Fugu . If one of us drops over and dies tonight , it's because the Fugu wasn't prepared correctly .

Well , remember because I looked on . So all their beers are a Fugu variant name . Oh really , Okay , right . So this one is the Aerothron , and it was in celebration of our annual re-tox party , their detox party Re-tox .

Oh , so they all got re-drunk Apparently .

Nice 12% beer project . It's a double IPA , dry hopped with Citra , Rewaka , Mosaic and El Dorado hops .

Okay , now remember , dry hopping is more so , if I remember what my brother said it's more so for the aroma . Okay , then then . Uh , brian , correct me if I'm wrong , but I believe that is what it was if it's dry hopped and I got a little more after we take okay , talk about tax brewing .

It said it was well , I guess , brewed and packaged by 12% . North Haven , connecticut , for Tox Brewing . But I don't know where Tox Brewing is out of . I got that too .

Oh , you got that too .

Oh okay , this is kind of a little bit similar to that first one , in color the can says dangerously drinkable .

We shall see , let's see how dangerously drinkable it is .

That's not bad . I think that's pretty smooth . I was expecting a lot worse , yeah .

And that is honestly not bad .

What's that initial when it touches your tongue ? I get almost like fruity . Yeah , is that what that is , I get ?

almost like a . It's not grapefruit , but almost like an orange kind of flavor Maybe .

Yeah , but I mean , your tongue feels something before you get the taste .

Your tongue feels something before you get the taste , that's the fugu , it's the poison . Is that the poison ? See , they got the poison out . They got just enough in to numb your tongue .

See , I don't know if it's like a fruity , Like it's sweeter when you get the first taste of it . That's really weird . I am freaking out here because so far this is my best .

I don't mind this at all .

I don't either . So do we want to talk about the brewery or the name of the fish ?

Well , whichever you'd like to do , Okay . Because we'll do both of them . Okay , because this is , I can stand drinking this one , all right , so you can pour some more if you want .

So it says . Tox Brewing Company is located in New London , Connecticut , was founded by lifelong friends , dane Lasky and Michael Zaccaro in 2019 . So relatively new New . Yeah , the name Tox reflects Lansky's background in toxology and a fascination with poisons , antidotes and the healing power of plants .

So hopefully they do well . Yes , so he doesn't put something in there .

He might just do it in your can .

It could be . Yeah , this is wild . And I picked this one up at the beer shop . Oh , did you Really ? I picked actually the Sna pale and the slow melt , the slow melt . I picked those up as well at the beer shop Because I knew we were going to do this and I kept looking . I'm like , oh , they got .

The can is kind of like a little bit scary . The shark looks super angry and the puffer fish looks very scared . That's one of those that I got to try . Do you notice , though , like in the background , there's like I don't know if it's like if this is like the United States , but look at , like the buildings that are supposedly underwater in the background .

Is it Atlantis ? It's probably supposed to be Atlantis .

But yeah , it is kind of interesting .

I never they got a dude here that looks like a Roman .

Oh , maybe it is , it's probably .

Atlantis ? It's probably Atlantis . What's his name ? Morpheus , no .

That was from Hedda's Trident Aquaman .

No , his dad , Aquaman's dad , right yeah , I'm really good at that game where you just shout out .

You just shout stuff out yeah , something's gonna hit the wall and stick . Yeah , all right .

So here I got a little more so aerothon aerothron is a genus of the pufferfish family which we we already talked about , found in warm water parts of the Atlantic , indian and Pacific Ocean . These species are sometimes kept in aquaria , the largest species , which can reach 3.9 feet in length . Oof , wow , wow .

That's crazy .

Yeah , his eyes are sticking out a little bit more of the big shark behind him , that's because the shark's chasing him . But I wonder what would happen if the shark probably wouldn't touch him , because wouldn't it put poison in the shark ? You would think so , I'm sure they're not See that shark .

He's not very bright , he don't know what he's doing .

So what are you thinking on the score ? I like this one . Uh-oh , you like it . I thought you liked the last one .

I do , but I'm going to go a 3.2 on this one .

I really like this I mean it surprised me ?

Yes , for sure it did me too . So I mean , hop-wise , it's not bad at all and it does have a sweetness , like Julie said , and I don't know what it's from . They didn't really give us that detail , but that's good . I could drink a can and that's a pint can .

And it's a big can yeah .

I could drink that , Julie . What are you thinking ?

I'm going to go actually a 3.0 . So far , I'm shocked to say this is my favorite one so far .

I mean , what is weird ? I don't know if you guys are .

Hang on , I got some dirt in my eye . Are you going to cry , Mike ? I think so . It's just . It's always so nice to see like your young ones . The doubters , they start to the doubters , or okay ? I'll say it that way , the ones that were like ugh when they start going man this isn't too bad .

My box of beer tasting is expanding .

Yes , it is expanding . We're doing our job , Jim . We're doing our job .

You know , what is weird is , however , and whatever they used , that initial like when you pour it on your cup , into your mouth , that initial flavor , even after two or three sips , it's still there . It's still after that drink , you still get that flavor on your tongue , which ?

It's like bright and sunny . They might not have a guy that can prepare fugu to put in the brew kettles though .

That's true . I mean , is it an ancient Chinese secret ? It could be . Yeah , ancient Chinese secret , it could be . I don't know .

That is good . I mean , I'm surprised I'm going to go with 3.1 . I'm surprised O-M-G Jim's giving an IPA a 3.1 .

It's something with that on the tongue , the little flavor . I don't think I've ever had a beer that's done that with a flavor .

On an IPA no no any beer .

Honestly , jim I think this is probably the first beer I've ever had from this brewery . Oh , I think for sure it's Hox . I've never heard of them before , and you know , it scared me a little bit when I first picked it because you don't know , Right , but man , that's a good prize .

I mean kudos to the beer shop for getting something like that .

They'd like to see what other kinds of beers they make . Yep , we'll have to check them out online and see what else they have .

Hopefully the beer shop will get some of their other stuff in . Yeah , that was really good . I was impressed .

I mean , have you seen what's going on here ? Every one of the scores for each of these has gotten higher and better , and better , which is crazy .

So we'll see how it keeps going , yeah .

I'm a little worried about this next one I'm like .

well , the name itself is kind of a little frightening in itself .

Well , did you have a question before , or do you want to ?

save it for after the next one , or all right well , since you're so jumpy , let's get right into it .

Way to go , mike .

So I brought it on myself , I'm sorry , so we just talked about george hodgson's bo brewery right .

Yep , what was his original name of that beer , you know , because it wasn't . It wasn't called an ipa to start . What was the name of that beer ?

We're going to say a Hoppy Ale .

No , come on , remember , they're not doing it .

How about the stuff that we send to somebody else because we wouldn't drink it ?

They're close , kind of long for out of hand Back then they didn't really have label limitations and stuff .

Alright , Julie , what is your guess ?

October Ale oh , look at that she got it right Snap right out of the den here .

You know , what's going to be funny is , ladies and gentlemen , at some point , when they're standing at the pearly gates and St Peter comes out and he goes . I saw how you like totally you know robbed Mike on all those questions . How do you justify that ?

I asked for forgiveness .

I was more talking to .

Jim , he had no answer .

Julie got it right . That's plus 500 . Minus 5,000 , I'm sure . Wow , I thought these were some easy ones for you here Not so much .

So October Ale is what they call it . Yep Before he changed the name when they started sending it , he probably had to change it because Germany said uh-uh , that doesn't taste anything like our Oktoberfest type stuff , right ? So Okay , kiddos . Well , how many we got left ? We got two . We got two more IPAs .

Ohio , okay , yep , they had a couple breweries in Ohio , okay , so I'm not sure which one . This one may be , so this is their Conky Dong .

Yes , you heard me right , conky Dong . Four-up evolution , aquatic ape theory , triple IPA brewed with citra ,

And I found one sentence on their website First look at the artwork . Do you see what Donkey Kong is ?

writing . Is it the dolphin , a brown dolphin ?

Okay , I'm not sure where those are located .

Well , the Kong guy looks a little sketchy . No , that's not his name . We can't say that it's trademarked . That's not his name , oh .

Kong guy . Yeah , what's his real name ? Kunky Dong guy Kong guy , yeah what's his real name ?

Kunky Dong guy Dong guy . Mr .

Dong to you . I feel like awkward saying dong I know , it's like this is a PG show and we have to say this Mr Dong looks angry in a lot of those photos .

Kind of he almost looks like a bank robber in that one Kind of so it said , we took Kunky Dong , fattened him up a bit and doubled the dry hop for a whopping 8.5 pounds of hops per barrel . Wow , Yowza . Because did you explain that we did find what conky dong ? There is a conky dong they have , just yes .

And that was a normal . Was that a double IP or a single IP , Single , Single ? And then they have this one which is their triple .

Right , I didn't realize , because on the front of the can there's no words . No , there's none whatsoever . So when I typed it into Mr Google , only conky dong came up . Okay , not the conky dong . Four of evolution aquatic ape theory .

Yeah , I didn't know that there was so much , and I'm sure they had to go with conky dong because the other variation is trademarked . I'm sure , oh , is it ? Oh , I'm sure .

Well , it's very cloudy Boy , that's almost Hazy .

Like for these , I call them a little hazy . At first I was going to say it almost had a coconut aroma , but it's not really that it's .

It doesn't have any aroma at all , very minimal .

Well , here it goes there's not much flavor to that . There's something there's . And I like it because I feel like it's not so like and it's a triple .

This is a triple , and I am just .

The one Honest to God . The first one we had , I feel like , was more IPA than this one , and this is 9.5 .

ABV , 9.5 ABV . It does not taste like 9.5 .

No , this is crazy . I like this . I mean , it's not bad , it's not coconut .

Yeah , the first one I had was like coconut , but it's not , but I don't know what it is . Like you said , jim , it's a weird .

It's like pineapple . I can't pin it down . It's not grapefruit .

It's like not a grapefruit and it's not hoppy . I don't know . There's not a hoppy , very little . And even on the finish .

I mean there's a little dryness , but not bad at all really . I mean , this is really oh my gosh Just say it . It's pretty decent , it is no , I mean .

I'm trying to . It's not terrible , it's not terrible I . Whether it's citrus or whatever , it's not that Tox Brewing really did something with their flavor in the front end .

Yep , this one . See , I was expecting it . The ABV has been going up . I was expecting the amount of hop .

It was going to get stronger and stronger and stronger .

So these guys so far , like I said , are doing something .

I mean even for us . Maybe that's why they didn't put the IBU stuff on there , because the IBU thing for us , I mean , I don't think we haven't had it over 30 yet , have we In ?

our , the way we look at it , right . No , there's nothing . There's probably oh , this is way up there . No , it's not .

It's not , it could be .

I think you might be right , Jim .

I'm just taking a guess . I don't know when .

I talked to my brother on the podcast about it because I told him our struggles with it .

It's going to scare people away .

Our biggest thing is you're expecting it to be super hoppy and a lot of them aren't . The higher ones aren't that bad Right ? And he was like , yeah , you know . Basically he said , yeah , it's not . The thing that they don't take into account is the hop , the IBUs . They get that rating off of the hops themselves .

Oh , they don't .

And then you have to factor out for your mash bill , like your grains and all that , because that'll knock it down . You know what I mean . So Right , you may start with a hop , whatever that's high , but then it gets knocked out and I'm like , well , that's crazy , because they don't . You know , they always put that big number to , you know .

But I would be more apt to use your own personal taste . I mean because you can taste right away . I mean there's not hops in it . I mean there's hops in it , but I mean not the bitter or the grapefruit Not what I was expecting , because it says international bitterness units .

Well , maybe like whatever , an Eldorado and a Mosaic hop is .

They're different strains of hops .

Maybe those are , you know , not so strong flavor , I do know like Mosaic Eldorado .

What was the first one ? That was on there .

It must have been on the can . It was on the can .

Yeah , oh , citra , Because Citra is used a lot . Eldorado is a lot , Mosaic is a lot , whatever , that Neckturnal or whatever , that one I haven't heard much about .

But yeah it was better than I thought it was going to be . I agree .

So , Jim , what are you going to give it you ? Go first this one .

Well , I don't know , I'm struggling . Okay , so here's where I'm struggling . So the very first couple of sips was not bad , because I got more and more to it . It got more and more dry . My mouth got more and more dry .

Okay , julie , what do you think ?

I am going to go a 2.8 . I agree with Jim . Oh , this isn't bad , but like the last couple of drinks to me , got bitter .

Okay , so I was going to go a 2.9 . I do like it . I thought it was better than I was expecting . I'm just going to flat out , be honest with you . I thought it was going to be terrible .

Right To be honest with you Me too , because I thought okay with the name like that , it's probably going to be .

Ugh , it was better than I thought it was going to be . Yeah , it would for sure , but it's in a pint can . Would I drink multiple ? No , because I know I keep saying this , but I would . On all of these , especially the pint cans . After one , I'd be good .

And I've got two more questions . Awesome , all right . Well , all right . So we're talking IPAs and we're talking George Hodgson's Bowl Brewery , right ? Yep , and we got the original name and we got where it was located . So why was this drink specifically designed to be exported to India ?

but do you want to guess , julie ?

I have no idea .

Why don't you guess , and we'll see what . Oh , here we go .

Take a big wild guess .

They put more hops in it because when it's transported so it stayed good longer , or fresh , whatever you want to say .

It was too hot to brew it there in India . You a fresh one . Whatever you want to say , it was too hot to brew it there . Yeah , in India you didn't have the right answer .

What no , because that's why they made it hoppy On the transport on the ship . It lasted longer .

You're partially right , Mike . It says I want credit for that it was too hot to brew in the subcontinent and , because it matured in route , a journey of four to six months . See .

Oh , grasshopper . See , ladies and gentlemen , the fact that Julie didn't have a . She asked earlier and then , all of a sudden , she had this great big long explanation , for it Isn't that just ironic . She's so smart , as a certain singer would say . Isn't that ironic ?

Smartphones are your friend .

No husbands that do the research are your friends .

So Julie got that . That was a good long answer . That was actually three parts to it too . Hey , I get partial credit . Mike does get points . So Julie got a plus thousand and we're going to give Mike plus one .

You got a plus one I give you credit , thank you .

At least I got something as a plus one .

Right , see , good that's good .

I'm proud . We're done . I'm good , I don't have to do any more .

You're going to drop the mic .

No , I'm not going to drop the mic . Okay , All right . So what do we ?

got next . Well , so you know off , but all three of us have had a beer from this brewery ?

Yes , yep , because they do have other styles and things like that . But yeah , we have had , because the beer shop has got beers from here before . Oh , have they ? Yes , and actually that's where I got this one From the beer shop , from the beer shop .

What do we have there ? It says brewed with our buds from . Is it Lua Lua , lua , brewing down in Des ?

Moines and I've been there , susie and I have been there , and Julie's been there and Jim's been there . You've been there too . We're all there together , that's right . Yeah , money can buy us . I totally spaced off that you were there with us . That's why I was trying to lead it in at the beginning there .

Yeah , okay , go ahead , julie , I'm sorry . Our hand-selected strata in completely over the line quantities , words to live by . It's always better to be in the pocket than out of it act accordingly .

So now did they say what ? Because remember our , our knock on lua , or whatever yeah , was that their beers at at their brewery were more , uh , like they were brewed for the masses , like the college college kids .

Remember there wasn't a lot of flavor . Was that the Lua one , or was that one of the last ones you went to where they had ?

no , no , they were that very first one we went to in Des Moines .

That was the first one . Yeah , yeah .

It was across from whatever that office building was Okay , and then the other breweries across the parking lot , remember , right ? So , Remember and there it was . And again , they were a very nice brewery and the people were nice . The food was good yeah . But it just seemed like the flavors were kind of muted , right ?

So I wonder . So we didn't go to Blackstack though , did we ?

No , no , Because is Blackstack down there too ? They must be . I would think right , Let me check on my phone here .

Is it Blackstack ?

Brewing . One word I'm trying to see if it says oh , here , blackstack Brewing St Paul . Yep , st Paul , and I have not been to that either . You haven't been to that one either .

Nope , st Paul , alright well , let's see what we got .

So this is their out-of-pocket quadruple IPA . And once again this is in a pint can , bigger , can , bigger can .

And it just this says about this Black Stack Brewing family run craft tap room and events venue pouring stouts , lagers and IPAs and grub from food trucks . Well , there you go . Now the one thing I'm noticing , I think your .

Uncle Larry's going to like this too .

Why's that so , it says ? The history of the building that they're at , the American Can Building , dates back to 1889 . Beginning in 1902 , it was a canning factory that churned out billions of tin cans for Hormel Foods .

But my Uncle Larry doesn't work for Hormel .

Swift and Company Armour and Company for well-known brands like Spam .

Yeah , no , he didn't have anything to do with that .

I thought he used to work there . No , we talked about that . No , we had a beer . Or is he blowing my leg ?

No , he never worked there , he works at . No , he works in Albert Lee at a different place . Yeah , so he did get a beer that that was taste like hormel the chili . Well , it was like the chill the chili cheese dip god awful , it's tasted like liquid chili cheese , well yuck yeah you remember the ? were you with us when we were in ? No , you , yeah , yeah .

I feel like beer should not taste like food .

No , it was Not like chips or burgers or chili , that one was extremely bad .

With the aroma . I can't pick the aroma out of that one Grapefruity .

I will give them this . I don't think it tastes like 12% .

No , it doesn't I mean that part it's a little sweeter . There's a little bit of sweetness to it , I think it tastes like oranges actually .

More orangey Kind of . I wonder if they do that to knock the alcohol percentage down a little bit . I don't know .

No , I mean maybe the alcohol flavor , maybe it tastes a little bit too alcoholish .

You know like savory like it's a quadruple .

I agree with you . I agree with you 100% .

I'm not a huge fan of it . I mean , I don't know , would I drink a can ? I don't know .

It's a 16-ounce can . 12% , that's a lot of beer . Yeah , I mean honestly .

It's ounce can 12 . That's a lot of beer . Yeah , I mean , honestly , it's not bad though . No , I mean it's not bad , but it's like it's got a little touch of sweetness which , yeah , we , I don't think we've had of ipa . That's been sweet . No , have we . I mean it's not , not .

There's the one that was . No , I mean not just today .

Yeah , this one the not , not , not just today's oh yeah , overall right . I'm like there's some , like you mentioned before , they're doing something to the beer because it is at 12% , right ?

So I don't know why . I don't know . Maybe they're like going hey , you guys , we need to make this a little sweeter , because it's so dang dry that .

It could be , who knows ?

You know , God love people that love that stuff . I don't get it , but I'd love people that love that stuff .

I don't get it . But Listen , I don't have a dryness on the finish , though . No , even so , I don't know . Now , this is the only quadruple I've had , is it Okay , you know so I have not had many of them , I haven't seen many of them , you know Right , so it'd be interesting to try and find another one that is just like wow , you know .

So I don't know . All right , who's gonna go first on this one ? Um , I can go first , let's see , I'm gonna go . Can we not use the same score we've had ?

before , correct ? Oh , I'm gonna go with 2.8 . I do like it , but again , like I said , I don't if I'd drink a whole pint can of it myself , but it's okay For a quadruple . I was expecting a lot more hop . Right , I was expecting to where Jim was going to fall off of his chair , kind of thing .

Or make that funny face he makes . Forget all about the questions and all that kind of thing .

But I mean , so what was ?

weird is I took like a big swig of it and it really the bitterness really came through . It came through a lot more than just a sip Interesting .

Well , do you remember now I know this is going back a few podcasts , jim but remember the one beer when we tasted it , you sipped it . It had that one because it was , was it a barrel age ? It was a wine one , wasn't it ? Yes , because remember , it had that flavor of something . Then when you chugged it like drank a bunch of it .

Julie , what are you ?

thinking I will go a 2.5 .

Not a huge fan .

You're not a big fan of this one . You know it's not horrible , but compared to the other ones , I'm not .

I'm impressed , though , julie , because your lowest one is what ? 2.5 ? Yeah , yeah , and I was thinking , oh boy , yeah , I'm going to be the only one in the twos on any of these , and you both of you so far . We'll see what Jim does , but it's been very , very pleasant for me to see these scores .

Yeah , I'm going to go with 2.6 . I'm not sold on it . It's got a little . There's something I can't pick it out . It's just a little bit off .

Yep . So I don't know it does have kind of a weirdness to it .

Yes , like the aftertaste is funky .

The more I've been sitting here . It does have a weird Like the linger .

Yes , Do it a little bit . Yes , it stays in your throat for a little bit longer than what's normal .

So any breweries out there , if you have quadruples , we'd like to try them . Or until we can get the first quintuple .

That kind of frightens me . I'm pleasantly surprised , though I was expecting a lot worse than what we had today . I agree Because I'm not a huge IPA fan , but these were actually not bad .

So I'll ask the last question that I was thinking maybe we should wrap up our summary of these . And then we got some special beers at the end .

Yeah , we do have a couple of them that are totally not IPAs that we're going to try because they just sound good , right .

So my question is yeah , because we can .

We can do stuff like that .

Yeah , when Did the term IPA or India Pale Ale start ?

It's an easy question . It's easy when you got the answer in front of you .

Because , remember we talked about when Britain lost the Russian markets , right ? So what year did that happen ?

Oh , criminy .

Well , you're the history major , I know , I know what the answer is it's easy , well you got it on the paper right in front of you , Okay wait , here's the bonus part to the question . You see Now he's trying to backtrack a little bit , and the bonus part of the question is which country actually started using the word IPA ?

That makes it way easier .

Right so the year and the country .

Why did they lose the Russian ?

market , I'm going to say 1862 and India .

Okay , Well , let's see , I'm going to say 1904 , and I'm going to say that Germany used .

It All right so here we go . You guys are really both close . Yeah , we're both way off , we're way off . The name IPA was not coined in England , nor India , nice , so I'm not there . Coined in England , nor India , nice , so I'm not there .

That's weird Interesting In Australia , huh .

Yeah , so Julie got that one right .

Well , because I was in the 1800s , yeah , but she said India .

Yeah , we don't worry about that , it's no secret . So , plus the Wow and Mike , he didn't use England nor India .

so we're going to give you a point for that Nice .

So it looks like Julie may have won . She may have come out on top . She might have slightly come out in front of me .

Yes , good job , julie , all right , so now what that means is you have to finish all the IPA beers that are left .

So I happen to be at one of our local liquor stores . There we go , I'm . So I happen to be at one of our local liquor stores . I was trying to come up to the beer stores and I just always happen to walk through just to check and these two caught my eye because we had had beers from these breweries before and they were really good .

It's on the can . It should be in the can . It should be in the can .

And these are some of the very fruity ones that we've had before , which were really good . So I don't know if you want to talk about these two in general , but I mean , I thought they were really good , but I thought oh yeah , julie's thinking we should probably have new glasses for these .

Oh yeah , because I feel like wrap up the IPAs first yes , yes , there we go .

Yep , I'm sorry , Nope , not a problem . So overall , I mean , I was pleasantly surprised , Really , with all we didn't have an IPA . I thought that was terrible .

I agree , a pale ale . We'll say that that was like oh my god , I can't drink this . It was super hoppy , right , we did not have one of those .

Honestly , the ones that stood out out to me . Honestly , anybody could drink any of these , yeah , I think , because they're they're very good examples and I'd love to try another quadruple or some other stuff from tax brewing for sure , just to see , absolutely . But the ones that really that were pleasantly surprising to me .

It doesn't kind of correspond to me , but do the ABVs correspond to the way the flavors tasted for you ? I don't know , because you know the higher ABV ones were a little bit edgy for their flavor and the lower ABV ones were not . You know , the flavor was a lot easier . Yeah , so I don't know . What do you think on that ?

But really none of them to me tasted as high , especially the last ones . They didn't taste high ABV to me .

Right . So do you wonder how does that factor into what you're ?

That's a good question , jim . That's a very good question , because I don't know how do you answer that , because we do like higher ABVs , but still it was just I don't know they were all good examples .

I know the listeners are probably thinking that too . Well , it's 12% . So is that going to scare me off ? Because it's 12% , gotcha , gotcha yeah .

And that's one of the things my brother and I had talked about as well was you and I , my brother BK , we're all really used to drinking these high-octane beers . So when we taste a 12% , now used to drinking these high octane beers .

I felt like that did not taste like 12 . Just trying a few of like your bourbon barrels right , because sometimes they're like whoa or you know if it's like rum barrel or bourbon barrel or whatever you know you can really taste the alcohol in those where I felt like this you couldn't taste the alcohol .

So that ends to try to , you know , give the listeners a little bit of a different take on , because I mean , all these , I think flavor wise , to me they are all within a band within a band of each other , absolutely and the only thing that really stood out was ABV .

I agree with you . I mean , as we moved along , I was like , oh Lord , oh God , this is going to be so bad . But it wasn't . It was like all of them were . I mean , if I was at a party and all they had was this , I could drink it .

Well see , and this is another thing that we've talked about before because IPAs are very polarizing , Hops are very polarizing . You remember when we had the beer tasting at your house here on Oktoberfest that time , yep , there were people that they wouldn't taste the beer because they thought it was hot . They just dumped it and it was terrible , you know .

I think the smell turns people off .

Right .

You know and I was one of those people as well Like I'd smell it and I'd be like , oh , no , nope . But now I think , as a few of these showed , they taste a lot better than what they smell . You know , you might think like , oh , it's going to taste like grapefruit .

Well , no , it doesn't Right Exactly , and it's none of these . Like I said , I was expecting them to be .

The higher we went , the hoppier it was going to be Right and it wasn't really that way . You know .

So yes , the ABV went didn't affect the taste whatsoever between the 5% one and the 12% you could put blind taste at . I don't know if I could guess which one was higher right , you know honestly , yep I agree , yep I mean .

So I was just kind of , while you were talking , looking at tax brewing out there because I was like that would be a cool place . So I'm not sure if you're ready , connecticut , for some Wisconsin folks to come , but I feel like a trip would be in order . They have quite a few beers , would be in order . Um , they have quite a few beers .

So , of today's beers , of these six that we had today , what was your top one or two ?

and well , the tax one for sure , and I don't know if my score reflects that , but the furious ipa .

And then is this the , the tox yeah , those would be my two top ones and for somebody that doesn't like ipas . Why would you think those are your best ones ?

they were just smooth . They didn't have that bitter , that bitter grapefruit flavor , like you're chewing on a grapefruit rind . Some of them taste like that and I just it's like , oh , you know , um , I was surprised that I actually did not mind any of them .

You know there wasn't not one of them that I was like , oh , like I usually am , but they were actually really good so for the , the craft beer drinker that's never tried an ipa , that thinks they hear the word ipa and don't like them , what should you tell them ?

or what should we ? Don't let the smell fool you , because sometimes I feel like sometimes they all smell the same , like they have that hoppy grapefruity smell , but when you drink them it's different . So don't let the smell turn you off of it , and don't let the IBUs turn you off either .

Because that's part of the IBUs , is the aroma Right , either because because that's part of , you know , part of the ibus , is the aroma right . So sometimes it's more . If it's dry hop , it's more of an aroma thing than a flavor thing .

Yes , yep , so and I'll just quickly add by saying I think I'm kind of echoing what julie said the aerothon , I like that one . That was really good . That was my number one and my number two was the furious . I think we're , yeah , we're all pretty close to the same . Yeah , the other ones , the ones that got higher in ABV , were not overly bad .

So I mean pretty much we liked all the beers . If we'd have done this podcast a year ago , jim would have been like laying on the floor holding his stomach .

Oh , I might have been too . We're trying to expand our horizon .

Yes your palates are expanding , so I mean so that was so it was , I think , a very good testing .

I mean very good . Thanks , mike , for bringing those in . Not a problem , so this is just a little bit different . On the end , yep , this , I'll let you say what they are .

Because I mean , it was think , so you know now , the last , the quadruple was 12% , so we're looking at this one , stepping it down . I was going to say we were going to go higher , but I don't necessarily know if what is it ? 2.8% ?

Is that what they are ? What is that one , that one's ?

Well , this is by Schofferhofer . Schofferhofer Hefeweizen beer , it says Watermelon mint , perfectly crafted , unique in taste .

Now what does it say on here ? It might say I got . Let's see what this one says now .

I found it 2.5% ABV by volume .

Ooh , that one's , that one's like way higher than this one .

Well , then what's this Because ?

there's another . I think it says 4.2 , doesn't it ? It's not more than 3.2 .

Oh , by weight , I don't know . All I know is it's watermelon mint .

Watermelon mint .

Watermelon mint by Schofferhofer . What ?

does it say German quality , german quality there you go .

But who's ever had watermelon and mint together ? We've had them separate .

We've had them separate for sure , if you had like a watermelon mojito , you might have had it .

Oh , she did pull the watermelon mojito card . But I have not had it . Julie gets 100 points , jim gets a minus 10 million .

I think they had watermelon mojitos at the Cotterpin .

So this looks watermelon-ish .

Oh my gosh it . So this looks watermelon-ish .

Oh my gosh , it's red .

It looks pinkish , it's kind of red Looks like a little pink champagne kind of .

Oh , it's got a head .

Watermelon has always been that Most of the beers we've had . You can't really taste it because it's such a delicate flavor , right , they never get enough watermelon in it to taste it .

So they got something

horrible aroma , horrible beer that you had that was made out of , not pumpkin squash , oh squash , squish beer squash .

The one I had heather , yeah , I was just gonna say , or heather yeah , heather was a naughty girl or something so boy that is a strong mint aroma yeah , it is , and you can taste the watermelon and the mint in this Wow .

That's good .

Wow . I mean like you said , if they say it on the can you should be able to taste it you could drink this in the pontoon boat all day long .

That's not bad , is it ?

Can we order ?

this by the pallet it comes in a four-pack only ?

Oh , of course it does .

This is really good .

That's crazy .

That is crazy . That is very interesting , very good .

Yeah , and I mean , the hard part is Great summer drink Low . Abv . So how do you like score ? With a low score , but a good flavor .

Low ABV . I would mix it in a blender with some ice . That's what I'd do with it . Yeah , make almost like a blended drink .

Well , you can drink a four-pack of this all day long . Yeah , that's not bad .

I don't get you know , like a lot of those , you get like a heart-burning kind of .

I don't get that at all . I mean , how many beers have you ever had where you can actually taste a watermelon ? Yeah , that's what I'm saying .

It's surprising because most of them you can't even pick up the watermelon flavor .

This is really good . That is wild . Wow , I'm kind of glad we added it . I mean it kind of puts a big bow on it , it doesn't tie into the IPAs .

but this is crazy Because there's no way we'd have found four or five more of these .

No , and I just happened to be walking through the liquor store and happened to see this . I'm like . Well , the other beers that they brewed were really good .

Yeah , that's wild . I like that , that's good . Well , what do you want for a score , boy ?

What's the highest ? We can give Five . We can give a five . If you give a five , I'm going to run you out of here .

No , I'm not going to give a five . No , this is good . I mean the fact that you could drink several of them . You get the watermelon , you get the mint .

It doesn't leave a bad finish For a R .

I'm doing the 3.5 .

Honestly , I'm sure that's probably the highest .

I've ever done a Radler . This is good . I'm going to go 3.7 . Technically it says it's a Hefeweizen beer , but it doesn't taste like Hefeweizen at all .

It reminds me of a Radler On the can . It said Schaffer Hoffer Watermelon Mint is a refreshing blend of 50% sparkling unfiltered Hefeweizen beer and 50% watermelon drink with natural mint flavor .

Okay , so they mix it with the Hefeweizen . I don't get that Hefeweizen , the grain or the wheat flavor at all . No , all I taste is the amazing watermelon in the mint and like you said Jim , they don't compete at all .

I'm going to stick with you . Mike . I'm going to go with 3.5 .

That was really good beer . Yeah , that hot day sitting in the garage , pull a nice cold one of them out .

I'm going to just pull this aside for myself later .

Well , Jim , we're not getting anywhere with that one .

All right .

So what is the next one ? I found Well , the next one , and it's Bitburger Bitburger , and this is a Rattler .

All right , so we know that one's a Rattler . I don't know if this one was a Rattler because it didn't say if it had soda or anything mixed with it , Right ?

And now this brewery has been family-owned since what year ? Jim the 1700s ? Nope , that's minus 12,000 . Uh-oh .

You're in the mice , in the lead now 1817 .

1817? .

Yeah , before you were born . And the micro print ? Well , this is a malt beverage . It says . All right , but it's still it's malt beverage , because it's beer mixed with a juice or something like that . All right , now does it say , yep , it had to . I know you showed me a pointed to something .

Now is that going to be the same as this ? Now is that going to be the same as this ? Because this one says I think this is the one that says the ingredients may form a sediment on the bottom of the can .

So that's where you've got to kind of roll it around , yeah , okay , because whoever gets the last of it gets the chunks , yeah .

So everybody gets the chunks .

So it had a little bit of it .

Yeah , it had a little bit here . Okay , and it says malt beverage natural flavors . Let's see Mixed beer drink made of . What is that ? Why do you give me the ones ? Julie , you got better at glasses because you give me those micro print ones .

Mixed beer drink made of 60% naturally cloudy lemonade and 40% beer . And it said Bitburger premium pills Alcohol 1.9% by volume .

So we're really hitting the high notes on this .

And then it says Bitburger , something in German . Bitburger , germany , product of Germany .

So this one is a lemonade . A lemonade , yep , okay , all right . So let's crack this bad boy open . It's going to have to really shine to compete with that watermelon mint . I should have poured you a little less , because it's pretty high ABV , alright .

Well , there's a lot of head .

Considering it's 1 . What did you say ? 1.9 or 1.7 ? You could drink a 12 pack of this . Oh , that smells like lemonade .

It's not like the Shanty , though , is it ? No , no , not Shanty .

No Shanty to me smells like you sprayed lemon pledge in your mouth . Wow , this is like you could drink this all day long . Wow , that's pretty crazy .

Is that what I'm saying ? Easy , is that one , all right . The only bad part about these are you probably pay a little bit more right for less .

You know what I mean but the flavors really come through , oh yeah , but they're both like big cans yeah , they're pint cans , but this is something I feel like you could drink all day and still be fine .

You know what I mean yeah , this is not bad at all , is it ?

it . No , I would say , if you've never tried a Radler or I'm still , I know it's a Hefeweizen , but to me it's a Radler If you've never tried one , go out and find it , because you're going to be surprised . I mean honestly , they're very good and you can drink a boatload of them .

I mean this is really good flavor . I mean the flavor is really . I mean we always talk about the flavors coming through in your beer , why don't they all like these last two really come through .

I don't know . I agree with you , though , because that is crazy Boy between the two . Which one would you like ? I think I still am going to stick with the watermelon mint a little bit more than this one , but if you said I'm out of that one , would you take this ? I'd be . Oh yeah , I'll take this one . You know , I think for me this one's a 3.4 .

I like it so .

Julie , what are you ?

thinking I will go like a 3.6 . You like the watermelon better too . I do . I just think the flavors are , and normally I'm not a huge mint liker in drinks , but actually I do like it Very good . This lemonade one , though , that's good too . It is great .

Yeah , I was going to say I'm not poo-pooing it at all . No , it's still very good . But between the two I do like that watermelon-mint combination .

It's really worth it Lawn mowing beer . There you go .

I think I'm going to go 3.62 . This was my favorite of the day , actually . Wow , there you go . See , I put the bowl right on top .

It is good . Yeah , they're really good . I'm impressed , I'm really impressed . So , yeah , there we go , ladies and gentlemen . So , like I said , we started off trying a bunch of IPAs , kind of ranging in style Yep , you know , and proved to a non-IPA drinker that they're not that bad . Right , they are not that bad .

Yes .

The Radler and the other one crazy good . Flavor-wise unbelievable . You could drink a bunch of them .

Yes , it was awesome , that was a good way to top it off ?

Yes , so cool . Well , Julie , thank you so much for sitting in with us on this .

Thanks for having me .

Jim , I was totally expecting more of a kind of thing and it just didn't happen . I am proud , though , because you're just becoming a real craft beer guy . You come up with better questions than I . Yeah .

That's it Awesome .

Good to have you back . I'm glad that you got your planning done and all that kind of stuff and hopefully we'll be doing a bunch more of these in the weeks to come . Yep and ladies and gentlemen , thank you for listening . Go out , grab . If you've never had a quadruple , go find one .

See ya , bye , bye , goodbye , goodbye .

Thank you for listening to the Northwoods Beer Guy podcast . If you have a question , a comment or a beer you'd like us to review , please feel free to send us a message at northwoodsbeerguy at gmailcom . You can also find us on Facebook , twitter and Instagram . If you're on untapped , look up Northwoods Beer Guy and send a friend request .