¶ International Beer Tasting in Belgium
all right , and welcome in here everybody to the two guys in beer podcast . I'm a guy , he's a guy , we have beer , so two guys and beer what gets any ?
what's better than that ?
it's all coming together it's right here it's's perfect . It's perfect here in the podcast studio as we work our way through another episode . We're going international , sean . We've gone a little international before with Spotten the optimator and we've dabbled in a little bit of that . Today we're going to go to Belgium .
I've never been to Belgium . I like Belgium already . Are you feeling a little Dutch , maybe a little German ? Actually , I'm a little Dutch actually . Well there , you go . Believe it or not , it's where my grandparents , my grandpa's side , came from . The Dutch In the Belgium area Interesting .
I know that my sister-in-law Worked through her work . They had offices posted in Belgium or in the Netherlands , and so Amanda actually went and spent like I don't know almost two weeks there just hanging out checking everything out . In the Netherlands , cool Went to a . They had a whole cheese market festival thing , I don't know .
They went there in the middle of the road and they were like rolling cheese wheels up and down the street and stuff and there was cheese everywhere . It was fantastic .
That sounds like Wisconsin , absolutely .
Right , a lot easier to pronounce . So what we're doing today is we're going to go to Belgium . Here we have these lovely tall bottles . Here it's a full pint , which is , I mean a pint , I mean it's a big glass , but these are some pretty sturdy bottles .
They're pretty hefty . Yeah , they're not just your typical glass bottle man . They look quality .
You're going to have to put them back out on your front step for the beer man after this to get the recycling going on that one . It's a fourth-generation brewery called . See , I can pronounce this right , it's H-U-Y , excuse me , h-u-y-g-h-e , and I did do some research on it so I did look it up . Hoi Ha is what they have gone with , that is .
I shouldn't say that's what they , that's what it is . It's not what they've just decided to go with that now , at this point in time , but that's what I'm going to go with and hopefully that works for everybody else . So Hoi Ha is going to be it and hopefully that works for everybody else . So Hoi Ha is going to be it . Delirium is the name of the beer .
From my eyes I spy with my little eyes a little 8.5% alcohol .
Yep , it sure is . It's going to have some buzz to it . You suppose you'll be delirious after you drink the delirium I might already be delirious .
I don't know if it's possible , I guess we'll have to find out . I guess I don't know if it's possible , I guess we'll have to find out . So , yeah , so join us for the trip down the Hoi Ha lane and get delirious with us . So this one , I will admit . You're unlikely to find this in your local grocery store or your local liquor store .
If you go to a Wine More , maybe an outside chance , but I have my doubts . You may have to uh , not illegally import this yourself or just travel to belgium right .
So , which both sounds great , and I don't know exactly where this came from either . Actually , one of our listeners got us this beer and they said here , have this beer on the episode . So , uh , here it is . We're finally getting to this one .
We've had quite a few from listeners and viewers giving us to for us to try on the podcast and give our opinions on it and talk about the history of it , so this is another one from one of our viewers slash listeners on the show , so this is a brewed and bottled by Hoi Ha Brewery in Melgant , Belgium .
Family brewery since 1654 is actually what it is , but it's imported by BBL Inc in Frederick Maryland .
Oh , okay .
So you can get it domestically . So I take it back . It's not such a . There is some controversy about the label , though that we'll get to that in a little bit , which I don't get it . But whatever we'll see , we'll talk about it and we'll get our our own kind of viewpoint of that .
So I'm a little concerned , Andy , about opening this bottle .
I was just going to say do we want to try to like ? I have a pretty good idea of how to attack this one . It's almost kind of like a little like like champagne or a wine bottle .
You got a little twisty do here to be able to uh , release the cap , we'll put okay , and I've never uh opened a wine bottle or champagne bottle in my entire life , so this is . This is the part where it gets a little bit dicey , that you know like .
I don't think it's going to be quite like champagne , where it's going to splash all over , but it's possible that it might might depending on how much we shook it at all .
What are we supposed to do ? Oh , that's not too bad .
Yeah , you just kind of , yeah , there you go .
Oh , I got it there , you got it there we are that sounded good ? Oh , I should have waited for the boop . Good pop , I guess I screwed up . Intro of the can bottle opening . This time it was a beer bottle . Cork top opening .
I didn't even have to use my Brewery Running Series pop top bottle top Right . Remind me to talk to you about that . We got some discussion . They're wrapping up their season here in the next couple weeks , so you guys should come and hang out with that . If you haven't heard , it's not a sponsorship at all whatsoever , but I like it and I appreciate what
¶ Brewery Running Series and Belgian Beer
they do . The Brewery Running Series it's in Minnesota , it's in like 12 different states now . It's been around for , I want to say , 11 years now . Amanda was at the very first one , just happened to go down there and it was National Running Day . It was like June 5th .
Whoa , whoa , whoa , we're foaming , You're foaming , we're foaming , you're foaming , we're foaming at the top , you're foaming . You're getting excited over here . All right , I'm still . Don't tell my wife , I'm not delirious yet , but yeah , they do a lot of events .
They do , like I don't know , 45 , 50 events throughout the course of good times , with that Usually a 5K-ish . It's not really timed . They have an arch so you'd still run through the thing , but it's a fun time and it's at a brewery every single time and that's the best part .
Doesn't get any better than that .
If you're interested in doing anything like that , definitely look it up . Brewery Running Series again in many different states . Minnesota is the one that we typically go to , but uh , you know , like it's , it's a great organization . They give a lot of their money back to different organizations .
We've talked about that many times , about so many different breweries giving back , but uh , nonetheless , that is . That is one of the few things that I have kind of wedged in , I guess myself . You know like they're , they're not a sponsor where they don't give us any money .
I just appreciate what they do and everything that Morgan and Nate are the co-founders that originally created it and still going strong in all these years later and see Morgan almost most weekends during the summer . So , yeah , they do a great job and it's a lot of fun they're running . Not so much fun , for me at least . Do they like to drink beer ?
Yes , the beer is the key and it's just a big party afterwards .
Morgan and Nate . Do they like to drink ?
beer , oh yeah , yeah , they're big craft beer people .
Maybe one of them would like to sit in this spot right here .
There we go . We'll have to reach out to one of the two of them . I think that they'd probably be open to be able to do something like that , be able to get them on here . We did talk about having Pine City , the 320 brewery trying to get them on the list .
They were going to a couple of years ago but they were changing ownership and so things got a little bit wonky . But nonetheless I digress , I didn't need it but nonetheless , brewery running series , check it out . Moving forward though Belgium , that's where we're headed here . It's the Hoi Ha H-U-Y-G-H-E Ho brewery . It's from Mel slash , ghent , belgium .
So a couple of different areas of Belgium is where it's at . Now that we got the top popped , you're still foaming at the bottom .
I'm still foaming out of the tip .
It doesn't really give me any description . It just says that it's a family brewery and it's 8.6% . So let's give her a shot here . Shall we take a sip ? What is it ? Didn't even really say anything on the front , it's just delirium tremens . Here we go . Delirium Should have almost brought a glass . It definitely has kind of that . It has a taste .
It's a very German-ish kind of pilsner type of taste to it . I'm trying to , I'm failing with .
It's a bit of a loss of words because it's like it's a very german marzen style beer .
That's very interesting , that's for sure it's , it's very uh .
I can tell that it's from belgium and from that that region , for sure you think that has a Pilsner taste to it .
To me it does , Maybe a little . I've never tasted anything like it it is . I'm having a hard time trying to describe to all the listeners and viewers out there what it .
In my opinion , it's not bad , though I don't think that it's bad , it's definitely a different flavor .
It's weird . It's odd because we're not used to drinking that here . Right , I don't think it's bad at this point . You know , maybe six , seven drinks in it might change , because that always changes the more you drink of it .
I think that , personally , the way this tastes , if this were to be warm or not freezing cold , because I just got out of the fridge , so it's good and cold and this bottle is good and thick and so it'll stay good and cold for a while . But if it was not that , I think I probably would absolutely hate it .
It would be terrible , I would agree . It's not bubbly , it's not bitter , it's not hoppy Like barley-wise . I'm not tasting a lot of barley in there . I mean there's probably some in there , but it drinks kind of flat , you know , it almost feels like you're drinking flat pop , right , because there's no carbonation or any of that .
It doesn't seem like there is any of that in there .
I mean there's got to be some of some sort . But yeah , it's definitely a very interesting flavor , but it's not bad . I kind of like it . I don't know that I'm going out of my way to go get it , but no , it sounds like I'd have to go way out of my way to get it .
So , yeah , you have to go pretty far . I definitely won't drink it after I'm mowing the yard , and I don't think I wanted it at a campfire .
No , I mean I might have if that's what I have like after I'm mowing the yard , and I don't think I wanted it at a campfire . No , I mean I might have if that's what I have like after I'm done mowing . That might be what I have , but that's because of what's there .
If somebody gave it to you it would be fine , but I wouldn't seek it out . Yeah , no , no .
If I open my beer fridge currently with the options that I have in there , that's not the first one that I'm grabbing . That's more of a . That's what's left and that's what I'm gonna grab , but it's still like good to drink it's just not .
Yeah , it's not bad . The bottle's pretty cool . I like the thick bottle . Oh , absolutely the gray bottle with the speckles on it . This is it's heavy duty too .
It's like I don't know if you can tell on the camera , but it is thick with two Cs .
Yeah , this isn't a little thin 12-ounce bottle of Michelob here . This is like an 18th century clay pot type bottle . That's the way it appears . I mean they corked it , so it's quite the bottle .
There's not a lot of beers that you see that get corked Usually just kick the cap .
That's what's interesting about this one Delirium here . Thanks for the listener . His name is jeff , by the way thank you , jeff um , for turning it on to this , giving this to us , so we could present this to everybody , all the listeners and viewers out there as we continue to struggle to describe this particular beer . But yeah , no thanks , je .
And to go along with this , he didn't give you a gift . Oh , this gift is specifically for Andy , that he has to open up . But I'm going to take another drink and let the suspense build
¶ Beer Tradition and Delirium Brewery
this .
Yeah , this is as we hear from our sponsors . Okay , so we didn't , so we don't have one , but if you're looking to sponsor us , definitely retail . We're happy to be able to talk about your product . You know , we got a couple of things not really sponsorships but we'd like to be rerunning series or again coming up on a future episode .
Pete's Out Barbecue yes , definitely one of the things that we like to be able to promote as much as we can .
It could be a past episode Pete's Out Barbecue we don't really know . That's true . It might be a past on this one .
Yeah , it could be . We'll have to find out .
Depends on how the editing goes and when we release stuff . That's all we do .
This is true , we don't know , Regardless of , there is another episode . I'll word it that way there is another episode where we will be literally eating the barbecue with Mr Pete's .
And maybe you've already seen it and maybe you've already seen it and maybe it's still yet to come and if you haven't seen it , order it and eat with us and drink whatever beer it is that we pick , or , if you've seen it , comment on how delicious the ribs looked this is true , yeah , and did I mention to like , share and subscribe To you know , spread it to
all your friends and everything else Without further ado , oh geez .
Hey , jeff , this is your present to Andy , to go along with delirium .
Delirium .
We'll make Andy get a little delirious . He'll probably feel I know what this is already , so he'll be delirious after you open it , so , or ?
he'll get delirious , if that's even the right word .
Well , I'm sure that that's probably what we have . There you go .
Andy , it's quite the fine wrapping that we have here . I love it . Let's see what you got there Do . I got to open it close to the mic so you can hear the dripping and tearing . Tell from just the actual ripping and tearing , kind of like bowl-like , almost like a vase of some sort . Oh , but it's Jeff .
That's Jeff's personality right there for you Shenanigans . I tell you he got me good on this one here . If you haven't listened before , von Hansen said so . Put it right there in the middle . Make sure the labels you know , right , von Hansen .
That's Jeff for you everybody . He likes to have a good time .
He's a jokester , so if you haven't heard the story , I do like von hansen's . They're fine , you know they . They are good . You know seasoned pretzels .
But I don't know if you're like me , but every time I go to like a brewery and I see von hansen's gourmet pretzels , my mind conjures up the soft pretzels that come with , either like some honey mustard or like a cheese dip or something like that , or like the big pretzels you know what I mean , the big , thick , soft ones .
And then I order it and then I come up with these just flavored , regular pretzels and it's always like , oh , they got me again , and I don't know why . It tricks me every time that I don't realize that they're right here in front of me .
But now , it's a .
Thing now it's a thing . So you know Von Hansen you can Parmesan flavored . So thank you , jeff , for the gift . It is cheers to that cheers yeah definitely got me on that one . That's a good one .
I appreciate that did you tell what it was in the in the package ? I thought , man , he's gonna know what it is , for sure in that size .
But no , I no , I , I didn't I . I , when I started opening , I'm like , well , this is , it's like a bowl of some sort or like you know , like I guess , yeah , like kind of like a vase or right usually the brewery ones are the smaller , the thinner ones . I think that that's probably what threw me off was the tall boy .
It's , you know , it's the pounder . It's , is it ? Do we call that a silo ? Is it the same kind of concept ? Sure , that one ? All right , Perfect , yeah , so no , I , I no , I did not know . I I seen it when you grabbed the package and I started tearing in , but I couldn't quite tell .
But I think I opened it up and as it was tearing , I could see like an edge of a label and the pretzels . I'm like oh , Darn Von Hans is coming back at me again now .
Good times Von Hansen's coming back at me again now Good day Now Von Hansen .
Again , no disrespect for Von Hansen . If you would like to sponsor the podcast , I talk about it more often than not , so it's not the first time that I've brought up Von Hansen's on the podcast , no , so yeah , that'll be good to be able to help wash down my delirium . I am a little delirious now at this point .
We eat a few of those Von Hansen Parmesan pretzels and maybe it'll be a little less delirious . There we go , soak up the delirium , exactly .
Yeah , I'm starting to look at the clock here . I'm pretty sure that dinner is no longer . I might have pizza , peggy's Pizza , out on the thing . We should maybe get them on the bit , wouldn't that be cool ? So back to delirium . Here We'll talk a little bit about these guys , just a little bit . It's a centuries old tradition of brewing beer .
I don't know if you knew that or not , but brewing beer just generally goes way back . I guess . See that one guy , it bit you right in the hoya . So at the it sure did so . At the site of Apple Hook in Mel is kind of where this starts , where this hoia starts , the local art of beer brewing dating back as far as the 17th century in 1902 .
So this is one of the things . It goes way back , but I think it's just , you know , like fourth generation brewer but doesn't necessarily mean that the brewery is on their fourth generation . So it goes back . I think even on the label it says as much as 1654 . So again back into the 17th century . But Hoi Ha itself didn't really come around until the 1900s .
So 1902 , one , leon Hoyha , starts working at a local brewery and in the years that follow he ushers in the old mammoth into the modern age and a proud 1989 pink little elephant .
Oh , seen on the front of the label of the delirium , exactly so in 1925 , leon Hoyha is joined at the brewery by his son , albert , and son-in-law Louis , and the brewery is officially renamed Brewery El Hoiha .
Today , alain de Lait , a fourth-generation Hoiha , stirs the brew kettles , and the little elephant of the olden days has grown into a sturdy Belgian mastodon .
All right Mastodon , all right Mastodon . So that's kind of Like the band or what I think .
So All right , perfect , perfect . I always think that they're going to be way better than . It's not what I anticipate , but it's a little heavier rock than I think I'm . It is a little heavier . Yeah , I think that's what usually kind of thrills me , because I picture rock and then it's that when did they even come out ?
The 80s maybe it was . Yeah , it's been around for a while .
I don't know I mean they're solid .
I haven't listened to them too much .
I've definitely heard some of their stuff , though . So scale up is not the same as proliferation . Over the years , a balanced range with a unique taste palette has been brewery hoyas' number one priority . The pursuit of top quality is coupled with the care and responsibility towards people and the environment .
We've talked about it numerous times breweries giving back , breweries being sustainable , trying to be able to do what they can to really interweave themselves into the community . I don't I think we've said it numerous times that I don't know that there's another industry that does more or a better job of that than brewing .
Neither they do more and they do a better job period All throughout the country , all throughout the world now .
Yeah , it's just phenomenal what they do . It's very , very , very , it's just amazing . So they also have corporate social responsibility which have sustainable investments in high-tech innovations . They have a capacity of their hyper-modern Cronus Hall where they make their beer capacity of 350,000 hectoliters . Okay , which ? I've had a couple of liters .
Well , I've had a few . At least I remember the pictures showed me having a lot of liters . There's maybe a short out there on one of our episodes of me having some liters , you had a few , just a couple . We had some liters . He had a few , just a couple . We had some beer , we had a few . The hectoliter is going to be bigger than a liter .
So we're probably getting kind of close to that barrel type of size . I would assume that we're probably in that ballpark . Five brew kettles cutting edge filtration , ultra low efficient or ultra efficient not low efficient , but ultra efficient bottling line . The haul has been the crowning achievement since it was commissioned in 2011 . And the future is looking well .
Some of their highlights they have five brew kettles , including a mash ton for raw grains , mash tun for malt and a buffer tank , a cooker and a whirlpool which is 202 hectoliters .
¶ Delirium Brewery and Belgian Beer
Should have Googled , maybe , what a hectoliter is yeah , that'd be a good idea .
I wonder if you could swim in there .
It's less than a kiloliter , but I don't know how much a kiloliter is . I know a liter is . I think there's probably maybe a couple of those into a gallon because they're pretty sizable . Three four of those into a gallon . I don't know why .
Why is the united states the only country that doesn't use metric stuff ? It's just silly . I think I knew , I actually knew that at one time , but I don't know it right now . It's ridiculous delirium is getting to me it clearly is .
They have their latest filtration technology in the brewing hall , uh , the Mura Junior 2001 . Oh cool , I don't know what that is , but we may have to do a little more research on that as well .
Sounds like the latest brewing technology right there , it certainly does .
They have an extremely efficient bottling line , the Cronus , which does if you were to guess how many bottles per hour , do you suppose this thing kicks out Just a rough ballpark .
Well , what type of bottles are we talking ? Are we talking these liter bottles ? Are we talking 12 ounce bottles ? I would assume probably mostly these .
Okay , it doesn't really specifically say , but I would assume that it's probably the bulk of what they're doing Bottles per hour .
Mm-hmm , I am going to say a lot . I am going to say 12,862 .
You know , you're close , but you're short by about 7,241 .
I'm glad I was close . Do I win the showcase ? You do , you know ?
your , your , your treat is going to be some more Hoya , oh perfect , some more delirium Will do . 20,000 bottles per hour . They have a tunnel pasteurized machine . They have industrial automation Just all sorts of amazing stuff that they've been able to put into what their new system is .
If you go over to get to the other page here , they purchased an existing brewery in Mel is what they did in 1906 . So that's kind of where it started that site . So when we say 1654 , that site had been a brewery since 1654 . So it's not necessarily that Hoi Ha has been a brewery since 1654 , but where they brew the beer has been .
It's just now bought by Leon Hoi Ha . Hoi Ha , hoi Ha .
That sounds like Asian to me , you know , like a samurai , like Hoi Ha , kind of .
It does sound a little bit more that rather than more of like a German , belgian . You know that type of region ? To me it does . But what do I know ? Less and less by the minute .
That's how it goes .
That's how it goes , so they adopted the present name in 1938 , as we talked before , they initially brewed a regular Pilsner and soon began to make all sorts of different types of beers known as Belgian beers . So Belgian beers is kind of the style , but it's got a different flavor still to it .
It really does , and it's super hard to describe and as you've been explaining to our listeners and viewers the historical part of this delirium beer , I have drawn a blank trying to figure out how to describe this beer . Usually , I think we do a pretty good job talking about hops and barley and the head on it and the malt flavors and what we're tasting .
But this one is super challenging . It's got a unique flavor to it , that's for sure .
So many beers created at Hoi Ha . They have a series of beers under the delirium tag , similar to what we have here . They have the pink elephants on the tag , best known as delirium tremens , a blonde Belgian ale . So that's what we have is a blonde Belgian ale . We have is a blonde Belgian ale .
So it's definitely a Belgian flavor , but it's kind of that German Marzen .
I don't know very malty , it's very sharp malty in a way I don't know .
Maybe I'm just making stuff up Hints of Cointreau and a little bit of fabric .
Yeah , I think you're making stuff up a little bit . I'm not getting a Marsden Pilsner at all . The only thing that comes to my mind is flat . I feel like I'm drinking a flat Dr Pepper or something Every time , like it doesn't taste like Dr Pepper , but like there's no bubbling . It just tastes like something I'm drinking . That's flat .
Yeah , a flat soda pop .
And I can't describe the flavor of it either , and it's not like a terrible flat taste at all , like the beer is good . I'm going to say it's a good beer , but I wouldn't seek it out , like we talked about already . It's just weird . Thanks , jeff , appreciate that . Yeah , jeff .
So it again features the pink elephant . Other beers known at Hoi Han include a Christmas beer and a beer called Deliria , which was selected to be brewed by the company from 65 entries made by female brewers . Oh , wow so .
Which we've talked about that numerous times on the podcast how women have really shaped brewing throughout history . Big time they really have . They're a huge part of brewing beer and recipes and the whole industry , so absolutely They've awesome . They kick ass , go women .
The , the absolute 100 percent . I support that Serious .
I'm not even joking , I'm fucking serious , absolutely . It's fucking cool .
Yeah , they also make a limited number of fruit beers with low ABV . They've acquired a number of smaller Belgian breweries , including Artevald Grand Cru in 1987 , beer Taurine in 1993 , and Brewery Dam in 1994 .
So they've expanded , kind of their I don't know if their empire is the right way to put that , but I think that they're continuing to expand and continuing to add to the thing .
You had mentioned a Christmas beer . Do they make a beer specifically for Christmas ? Does it say anything ?
It just says that it's a , a christmas beer , so I would assume that it is primarily around christmas . It's called , uh , deliria . Oh no , no , deliria is the other one .
There is a christmas beer , but it does not say what the name is , at least not on here , so might have to uh go to a different website or something to be able to uh get the info on that one . I will say , though , this is not without controversy .
Oh , here we go More controversial beer , Controversial oh yeah , controversial .
So the Delirium Tremens beer product , which is quite literally what we're drinking now , which is what did we decide that it was ? It's a blonde Belgian ale is what it is . It was banned in the United States for a period of time .
Well , I better take another drink of that . Anything that's banned . I like to . I like to partake , exactly . Cheers to foreign relations Breaking former law Foreign relations .
Yes , I did say on a previous episode , at one point in time , that I needed to be more cultured . Now I think I was talking about going to Hawaii , but you know what ? Look at this , now I'm international .
Again . We've done that numerous times Germany , denmark . Where are we going next Exactly ? Please you tell us , where are we going next .
Give us some of your feedback . We could go Canadian like a Labatt's or a Molson or something .
Well , we can't already have with the Moosehead ? That's true , that's true . What have they got ?
in Australia .
We could go to Mexico , hit the Modelo . Ooh , there we go . I do like some Modelo .
The second Mod .
What else is down there ? That's about it , right . I'm sure there's probably a bunch . I mean , I guess , Corona .
But I don't know , is that really ?
Yeah , that's like I like . The Dos Eques Modelo is pretty good though .
Yeah , modelo is pretty good . I do like a Modelo Negro is pretty good . Yes , you can get that a lot of times at even Mexican restaurants , things like that . Yeah , good stuff . So the controversy I don't want to get distracted by the not getting locked in on controversial we're just building up the suspense .
Exactly yeah .
And this is way more controversial than me not getting the right type of pretzel when I try to ask Ron Way different . Thanks , jeff , ron Hanson . So the particular beer that we're drinking now , the Delirium Tremens , was , as I mentioned . It was banned in the United States for a period of time when it was first exported here .
The reason , and if we want to zoom in on this or have our tech guy throw it up in the middle or put it in big bold , whatever on the screen , however , we want to do that to whatever . But either that or Google it . Look up the name , look up the logo , look up the uh , the label here .
But uh , it was banned because authorities I'm not sure who these authorities are , but I'm glad that they're not in charge anymore they thought that the imagery and the name of the beer was too provocative and encouraged excess drinking . Okay , it's a good thing that nobody from Anheuser-Busch has ever tried to encourage that .
Well , I'll say Andy , I don't— .
So apparently the pink elephant , the mastodon , maybe it's these fellers on the bottom , the dancing crocodile , the dancing gator ? Maybe that's who it is . That's what's getting me delirious and apparently having to excessively drink .
Well , while you're excessively drinking over there . I don't know how these images are controversial , but the name delirium sounds like a drug , don't you think ?
Yeah , I can see how that could be .
Yeah , the word delirium Controversial and maybe banned . I don't know why that would be banned in the United States .
I mean , this is also probably back when they were worried about people being delirious over Elvis Presley shaking his hips .
That's very possible . Exactly , he really laid the wood with them . Yeah , he definitely . I don't know .
I can't even Right in front of the house . Dog , exactly yeah , you learn all those moves from young Forrest Gump . That's about all I got .
With his braces . He was in Forrest Gump , yeah , yes , on the television , yeah .
So yeah , apparently it's a controversial beer 8.5% alcohol and made in Belgium . But it's good . It's a golden ale , but it doesn't taste very golden ale-ish . Golden blonde ale . Golden blonde ale , very blonde . It is very blonde . Different type of flavor , though . It's a flat blonde , flat blonde . Yep , yeah , it's a different type of flavor , though .
Yeah , I still can't describe it . Have you come up with anything at all to describe ?
this beer . I just keep saying stuff . You just have to try it . If I say the right word out loud , maybe you'll be like , yeah , that's it , and then I'll sound brilliant . Yeah .
But instead I don't think you'll ever sound brilliant .
Well , you know , that's why I have to talk so much , because if I keep talking , somebody will hear something that they think is brilliant . I may not be but that one moment in time , that one moment in time .
Yeah , you're just going to have to try it . Anybody out there listening or watching . If you can find it , try it . It's not bad at all . It's definitely super different , super flat , no way to describe it . It's delirium .
That's all I can tell you yeah , it's , it's something different , that's for sure . It's pretty good though , you know . And a full uh , full pint is , yeah , one pint , 9.4 fluid ounces , which is a little bit different , that like . So it's , it's one , but it's from Belgium . So why is it a pint ? Isn't a pint a standard unit of measure ?
I don't know Like pints , gallons .
It's not a liter , it's not a deciliter or whatever it would be .
I have no clue . What did we drink in Germany ?
Liters , liters , yeah , full liters .
Why was I thinking we were drinking pints ?
It was not pints .
Right , Each beer . I can't even talk have another one . Each beer was a liter and when we recorded our video we had over three liters . It's true At that point in time . Yes , yeah , the more that I watched that ?
How many pints ? The more that I watched that video back .
It is funny . I laugh every time we had some beer over there .
It was so much fun . That was so much fun , man .
Man , I hope I never get dementia . I never want to forget that video or that time in October . That was so much fun .
It was absolutely just a blast . I think we talked at one point in time about culture and going to Hawaii and the talk of potentially going to Hawaii maybe a vacation at some point in time and how expensive it is to go there . You know what's cheaper . Just going back to Oktoberfest it's way cheaper to go back to .
Oktoberfest .
Substantially , too , decisions may have to be made . I'm not opposed to doing this again . Decisions are made . I'm not opposed to going back to Munich and spending some time there with the culture and the folk of Germany .
I would agree . Germany is awesome , the people are awesome , the beer is awesome , the food is awesome , oktoberfest is fun . Oh my awesome , the beer's awesome .
The food's awesome . Oktoberfest is fun , mm-hmm , oh my God , it was just stellar . It was Absolutely amazing . I did not see this there , though .
No there was . I've had it now , though there was no delirium that we noticed at Oktoberfest , but apparently it's in Belgium the delirium , and it's still got a little carbonation to it .
There's something there I don't know . I mean yours was blown out the top . That's why because I still have my carbon I kept my carbonation . You wasted yours on foam .
I like to blow my eye out of the top right away . There's no waiting for me . Yep , got so excited A little pre-gaming off the top there .
You didn't even pop the top , you just twisted the thing and got Pre-gaming all over the place . Exactly so . Yeah , so that's our story of Hoi Ha , hoi Ha , their delirium , and a special guest appearance by Von Hansen's pretzels , which I appreciate . I do appreciate that , though that is awfully nice . That is hilarious , hilarious , absolutely hilarious .
And I was not prepared for that . You know , I'm like a gift . Why , why am I getting a gift ? I don't understand this isn't ? You know , I get it now . I get it . It's funny , yeah , so , yeah , that's a . That's our story of this particular brewery .
Good stuff , you know , like I think it might be a little challenging to find , but I recommend going out and trying to find it . You know , try to .
I don't know where , but I'm going to guess total wine and spirits . If you have one near you , they have . If you go into one of their facilities , they've got all their beers sorted by country , by IPA , lager , by style , like it's it's . It's pretty Epic if you ever go into one of those . Everything's super
¶ Minnesota Vikings Fantasy Football Discussion
organized . I'm assuming that's where this came from . I'd have to talk to Jeff and ask him , but that's my guess . That sounds right . I like that idea .
I like to be right . Yep , well , I mean , you're accurate . More often at least , especially the more beer that I've had .
In my head I'm accurate more often than not 100% .
Exactly yeah . So yeah , that's what I got . That's my story for that so far . So what else you got going on ?
Well , I have a lot going on , but I'd like to talk a little football right now . I like football .
My fantasy football team is not doing very good . I don't know when this episode is going to come . I'm probably going to be eliminated from the playoff by the time it happens .
It'll probably be playoff time . Yeah , a little after playoff .
That's fine , I'm going to have to .
Both of our teams will probably be eliminated by the time this comes out . I'm going to have to drink some more delirium before then . Have some delirium In fact I will too here in a few seconds , but what I want to bring up is we're going to talk a little homer right now .
A little home teams .
A little Minnesota Vikings here 10-2 right now . Currently , as we're recording this , they're 10-2 . Pretty crazy . Not anticipated ? No , not at all . I think Vegas had them at six wins .
Yeah , going into the season , if we were going to be like with the odd number of games , if they were going to be what , would it be ? Seven and no , not seven . How many did they get ? 17 games , so it would be 8 and 9 . If they were 8 and 9 , I would have been over the moon .
Yeah .
I was thinking if they were 500 .
Well , they can't beat 500 . Yeah , close enough to 500 . Vegas had them at six wins . Of course , here in Minnesota , kirk Cousins chose not to stay here and of course he asked a hell of a lot of money to stay here for his age . Understandable why we wouldn't want to pay him for that amount . We bring in Sam Darnold .
I'm like rolling around , screaming , yelling , running around my house with my shirt off , screaming at the stars like why are we bringing in Sam Darnold ? He's been trash his entire career . Oh my gosh , what are we going to do ? I get it Ten million dollars a year .
I understand he's a bridge quarterback , but if we're in a competitive rebuild , you don't bring in Sam Darnold , who sees ghosts on the football field .
And even at the time when they did that , jj McCarthy was still going to be our quarterback of the year just when he was ready . So Bridge wasn't for the full year , bridge was just for the first handful of games , half the season , whenever we thought that we were going to get to him Right .
So you're bringing him in to having a history of seeing ghosts and being terrible to teach your young quarterback how to be a professional .
That's kind of what I was thinking . I had some concerns as well . Wouldn't you want an average veteran to teach your new rookie quarterback ? Bring in Joe Flacco , Something like that . Yes .
He can sit in the pocket and throw darts for a couple of games and he's super mobile .
Joe Flacco , at his age Boy , he can run . But we did none of the above . We bring in Sam Darnold and , oh I don't know , Sam Darnold is probably the MVP of the league right now . My gosh , who would have ever expected or suspected that in the least ?
bit . Yeah , it was not in my orbit , definitely not me . I'm still a kurt cousins fan .
I think kurt cousins would have probably performed better still in the system , but when you look at the numbers it's super hard to even say that . Now , right , I mean he probably would have less interceptions . And sam , but sam donald's like what in the top five ? And almost every statistical nfl passing category that we have , like that's insane .
I want to be clear that I agree with everything that you're saying , but I'm not upset about Kirk leaving for many like for multiple reasons . Like the Vikings weren't going to be able to pay him what he was going to want to get and he was aging . At some point in time you have to make a decision and now we have an opportunity .
Where Kirk was hurt , we're going to get a high draft pick , then a decent quarterback . Otherwise you're drafting a quarterback at the back of the round the first round anyway . You're not going to be able to find really much there . So you're likely getting a quarterback , second , third rounder and hoping you can build him into something .
So you're going to be like a lifetime of Jaron Hall . So you have to strike when you can . Maybe Kirk doesn't like that . Maybe he wants extra money . Whatever it is , I don't blame him at all for going anywhere else and I don't blame the Vikings for moving on At some point . You do have to do that . You have to make that decision . In the end .
It's a business , Do ? I love Kirk Cousins Absolutely , but he's also got to do what's right for him and his family , and the Vikings got to do what's best for the team long term . Everything , the way that it played out , all made sense to me . I wasn't sure that Sam Darnold was going to be the right answer .
Like I said , you said a little concern going into the season with his history , like is he really the right guy to provide leadership and whatever to the young fella about how to be a professional . It makes it a little bit difficult to really take that seriously . And he has come in and done nothing short of been just absolutely tremendous .
He's learned the system , he works with it excuse me , it works within the system , sometimes makes some weird decisions he's a little turnover prone and he's got three or four decisions a game .
You're just like what on earth is that ?
sam donald , you know , and he did have a stretch of a couple , two , three games in the middle that they were still able to overcome and he they were still able to win . But he did run into some accuracy problems .
I mean , generally speaking , other than those couple of games , he's been nearly 70% accurate , which is insane to me , even on deep balls , which the NFL considers any pass over 20 yards or more , we lead the league in percentage completions attempts . It's insane .
And so it's . I don't know . I keep hearing also that , like , people are saying , oh , we got to figure out a way to be able to resign him . Now .
I get it , I get the argument , I get the thought , but I just know , don't get me wrong I love the guy and I think he's great and I hope that we win the super bowl , and that would obviously change the narrative at that point and I think you know , like , I hope he hope he gets MVP votes , like I think that all of this is phenomenal , all this is
great , and he's going to parlay this into a $36 million contract next year and that's fantastic , but it's going to be with Indianapolis .
That's exactly what's going to happen . He's going to command $30 to $40 million a year , starting next year , and the Vikings are not going to command $30 million to $40 million a year , starting next year .
And the Vikings are not going to pay that , or I don't think they will pay that , because we have JJ McCarthy in the background , if they were going to do that , they should have done it with Kirk .
Exactly , and that's where it's like no harm , no fault Going into the season . This was the plan , right ? I mean , he has outperformed every expectation . Crisp , high five , slap on the ass . I appreciate everything you did . Go get paid . You deserve that money . You've earned that money . We don't have it for you , but go get it by far .
You know , next year I think we're 65 million under the cap . Well , the vikings are going to use that money just to improve the offensive line , the defensive line , the defense . They're going to continue to make the team better .
I think the whole plan is to use the rookie contract with the rookie quarterback to quarterback the team before he wants a lot of money . So improve the whole entire team around it and use the small contract on the quarterback for that . That's why the Vikings won't spend the 30 to 40 million per year on Sam Darnold going forward after this year .
So he's kind of a one and done thing . But now we got Daniel Jones , so is he going to stick around next year and start for the Vikings ? We'll see .
And I wasn't terribly opposed to the idea of that .
I would have liked to have seen it be where he was signed for , like not just the rest of this year , but for next year as well , even if he's just going to be a backup guy , because you know what you're going to get with Nick Mullins he's going to go out there with his crazy look , but he's going to Brett Favre it with less success .
That's what he does .
He's a gunslinger and good for him . He's going to make some plays that are going to be like wow , that's incredible , he's amazing , he should get a . And before you start saying he should get a starting job somewhere , you're going to say he should , oh , he threw a pick . That's always how it goes .
It's going to be the same throw that he's trying to squeeze into a window of six defenders . It's just the way that . Then that's why he is where he is and that's totally fine . But I think that if we could get Jones to stay for another year , I think it provides some insurance for JJ .
I think that JJ still has to be the answer , because that's how you build a winner
¶ Impact of Quarterback Contracts on Teams
in the NFL . Yes , there are outliers like Kansas city . They have been able to somehow be able to pay pat mahomes 50 million dollars a year and still be able to build the rest of a squad . Of course you look at their receiving core this year it's not exactly like them and on fire .
I mean , rishi rice has been out , but it's a much different bit , you know , with that . But somehow they're still able to , year after year , be able to be a contender . But more often often than not , you just don't see it because financially you can't do it . The quarterback position commands that much money that it affects the trajectory of teams .
It just does . You look at Detroit , not that Goff is on a rookie contract , but he's not on a massive contract until next year where he's going to get paid . He's going to get that cash . Detroit's going to look much different in the next couple of years . I wish him all the best . I think Dan Campbell's done an absolutely incredible job , oh he sure has .
But you look at San Francisco . That's how you are able to build the rest of the team and get some extended success . Because you're paying right now . You're paying big contracts to Derrissa and to Jefferson and whoever else Hawkinson Hawkinson , I mean , you got guys that are Brian O'Neill was one of the highest paid right tackles Yep , you know what I mean .
Like you got to pay people to be able to do the thing and you make that decision . That's what the GM is for and whatever . But if you can , I don't want to say luck your way into it , whatever . But if you can , I don't want to say luck your way into it . But like that was one of the reasons that , like , who am I thinking of ? Was it indianapolis ?
No , there was some team and I'm , I'm , I'm gonna get there , but they had just tremendous quarterback play , got hurt , had one year that they were just absolutely god awful because main guy was hurt , were able to draft , high , drafted another quarterback and then just sustained success after that .
If you can maximize that rookie deal on a quarterback and I mean you got to hit big . You can't just hit middle . You got to be able to hit big with it , which doesn't happen all that often , and I don't know if JJ is really that guy . Yeah , we don't know yet . I've got to be able to hit big with it , which doesn't happen all that often .
I don't know if JJ is really that guy yeah , we don't know yet . I'd love to see that he is all the best , but unless you can hit that big , that's where the money's made from a GM standpoint . That's where the bread is baked . If you will , you can't build a team just by spending $45 million on a quarterback .
Like I said , if you're going to do that , they would have done that with Kirk . I love Sam Darnold . I wish him the best in wherever he heads next , but you can't . You just can't keep him . No , you can't . Like you said , you're going to have salary cap , but you have to put that somewhere .
And he isn't going to want just a one-year deal , and the Vikings aren't going to want to ruin their $65 million cap on a quarterback . They're going to want to improve every area of the rest of the team , you know , and set up JJ McCarthy for the best possible circumstance he can possibly have .
And part of that which time will tell but part of that which may ultimately be our downfall , is that I think that there's a certain amount of Kevin O'Connell that if I get a whole off season and holes , extra workouts and everything like this , I can make Josh Dobbs into a franchise quarterback . You know what I mean Like challenge accepted .
I can make whoever into the kind of franchise quarterback . You know what I mean Like challenge accepted . I can make whoever into the kind of the quarterback whisperer , if you will . Now Josh Dobbs , I think , brilliant as he may be , I hate it when they always talk about I was like , oh , he was a NASA guy , so he's brilliant .
It doesn't matter how smart you are . You have to make decisions quick and in real time . If you can't walk up to the line and diagnose a defense and then make split second decisions , that's where I'd rather have a quarterback that has an IQ of about 13 .
If they can make quick decisions correctly , quick is better than smart , I guess in a way in that position .
Which would be Kirk Cousins over . Sam Darnold . Kirk Cousins can make the decision super quick . Watching the Vikings games this year , sam Darnold Kirk cousins can make the decision super quick . You know , watching the Vikings games this year , sam Darnold is not a quick decision maker .
You can see him there , he's looking around .
If his first read's not there , then he's looking around . They likes to turn his head and talk and do a three 60 and run out to the sideline as the defense is chasing him . You know , that's what's one thing that sam donald definitely needs to improve on is quick decision making right away .
He just stands back there , just looks and looks and looks and looks and tries to spin out of stuff . You know , and thankfully he's mobile so he , he can kind of do that work , he does have that ability . Kirk isn't going to spin out of nothing , he's just gonna be like oh my god , here I'm gonna get just blasted , you know so you know where .
I have heard a hot rumor and mostly by a hot rumor who was just on the radio as a potential landing spot for old Sammy boy .
Well , where's that ?
Los Angeles with the Rams , really , because Stafford , I believe , has one more year at like $55 million against the cap or something crazy . So even if you pay him $30 million , you're saving that much money .
You go into the same system that you're already working in with a quarterback-friendly coach who is basically the same system that O'Connell came from , right , Well , he came from the Rams and so he gets back to where he likes to be LA , like that type of deal . So there's a lot that kind of works
¶ NFL Offseason Discussions and Delirium Brewery
for that .
Well , what would they do with Stafford , then Just cut him . Oh , you think they'd just cut him out , right ? Because I know there was rumors earlier of trading Darnold for Stafford .
I don't think it's a trade . I of trading Darnold for Stafford . I don't think it's a trade . I think it's just a money thing . Sure , you know what I mean Huge cap number . If you can cut them and be able to get somebody that's decent , you know you've got good receivers and good offense brewing they do .
They've got good running back . They've got good wide receivers yeah .
So I don't know . That was the rumor that I had and , like I said , God bless him and I wish you the best and wherever you're going to be , but I don't think that he's just going to be like . You know what Cleveland is offering me ? Fifty two million dollars a year .
Well , he might take it , why wouldn't ? I'm going to take the biggest contract .
I think I think he's going to be a lot more measured , trying to find a spot like potentially like LA , that like because they're paying a bunch of money to other people and they spent all of their draft capital to be able to get Stafford originally like things like that . That he'd be like . You know what I'm going to do ?
A three year bit making $25 million a year , but I'm going to have a chance at success and maybe winning the Superbowl . Sure Cause , I think that he's . I think he's been around now long enough in shitty situations .
Well , do you think , darnold , he's just a system quarterback then ? Oh yeah , yeah , so he's going to go somewhere where it fits his style and his system .
Yeah , he's not going to come in and dictate a lot of things . It's more going to be this is what you are . You can live within this box , but we could make that work because you throw a good deep ball . You're accurate If we limit to . You're not going to run five wide and have a five progression set . It's just not going to happen .
You're going to run maybe five wide . You have your top receiver and a backup receiver and you have to look at this linebacker . You're not looking at the whole difference . You look at this linebacker . You're not looking at the whole defense . You look at this linebacker . If he cheats up this way , you're going that way .
Very , I don't want to say simple decisions , but if you can craft it that direction , you can have a lot of success . Sure , make it easy . You can win games . What's the KISS method ?
Keep it simple yeah , yeah , I don't know . It'll be interesting to see what happens this offseason with sam donald , but man , he's playing playing his balls off here in minnesota . He should be in the mvp conversation . Statistically he should be .
Nobody thought the vikings are going to be 10 and do a koc should be probably in the conversation for coach of the year again . It's just crazy , and I still wish we had Kirk Cousins , but he had a pretty poor game this week with four picks . So I guess I'm shoving my foot in my mouth right now and Sam Darnold is playing out of his mind , you know .
But , that being said , I'd love to still be able to have Kirk Cousins , absolutely I , just financially . There was no way to be able to do it with what we were trying to do .
And our offensive line has improved and I still think Kirk would perform better in our system than Sam would . I mean , kirk is just as accurate , if not better , and he could throw a deep ball too .
I think he makes quicker decisions .
Oh , yeah , real fast .
Yeah , no , I completely agree . I think that that'd be great , but I think it'll be interesting to see kind of where it goes over the next year or so . But yeah , to your point . I mean he's been absolutely tremendous .
His numbers are about the same as Jared Goff , pretty close , and Vegas odds have Jared Goff at 10 to 1 for MVP and Sam Darnold at 100 to 1 for MVP . Now I think name recognition plays into that . If you were to blank the names out or whatever and just show the stats , his stats are better than Patrick Mahomes right now , but Mahomes being who he is .
He's going to be a top of the league .
Statistically , though , he's fricking terrible but he's still going to be right around that MVP conversation Cause they're a left in one . Well , they pay off the refs , maybe , Well you know when you throw a flag and then you pick it up and eat it because oh no , there is no , there is nothing there .
That begs the question if the NFL is rigged or not . You know , we could go into that whole argument and debate . We probably shouldn't done this episode , but right .
Of any sport NBA , nhl , nfl it just some things seem kind of fishy sometimes . You know my only pushback for anything that there's enough that , like you , can make that argument , but there's not enough close calls . I mean NFL is close enough that , like close calls , you can kind of influence things a little bit .
You can kind of influence things a little bit , but to be able to get 53 players on each side plus executives like you're talking about 200 people all being on the same page to all right , so you're going to be one in 12 this year .
Okay , Do you need you ?
know what I mean .
Like three players through there , or do you just need ?
Yeah , yeah , well and that's and that's and that players through that , or do you just need the quarterback ? And that's the opposite side of that argument .
Like I said , I had this conversation earlier , not necessarily about throwing games or anything like that , but just how close the NFL has been this year that the Vikings could easily I mean 10-2 , they could easily be well below 500 . Oh for sure you look at the Chicago Bears who just fired their head coach . Could or should they have beaten the Packers .
Well , the box was right at the end .
Could or should they have beaten the Vikings Right at the end . Could or should they have beaten Washington on the Hail Mary ?
Right at the end .
Could or should they have beaten Detroit Right at the end , Carter ? Should they have beaten Detroit ?
Right at the end .
yeah , it's such a slim margin with such like . There's no room for error with any of that that if you make one extra mistake or anything like that it costs people jobs . But it's that close to like . They're well below 500 .
Now they could be technically either in first or in second place , like the North , could be all sorts of over the place , all over the place . And so when you talk about affecting a game , you could really make the argument that you don't need to have 200 people , two officials , your lead official . Are you sure you've seen it that way ?
I'm not sure that I've seen it that way . I didn't see it . It looked like the ball came out this way . You're right , that was incomplete , because sometimes that one play changes the dynamic of the entire game and how the game finishes .
I'm not discounting that would be probably the way you would do it , because it's such a close game with so many little things that you know . Like I said , the Chicago Bears are they an awful , terrible team ? No , they're like about four plays away from being 10-1 .
Right , yeah , that is true .
So sounds like we're getting a little delirious here , mm-hmm , a little delirium going on .
Yep , a little delirious from the delirium as we continue to talk about Sam Darnold and Kirk Cousins and how the NFL may or may not be rigged . Yeah .
Absolutely . If you have any opinions on that , drop that in the comments there . Write in you know whether it be YouTube , facebook , twitter , x , whatever it is .
Instagram Everything . We're on everything , yeah .
Wherever it may be , share , subscribe , tell your friends , tell everybody . But yeah , if you got a beer , you want us to be able to try . You know , we , we like to try to leave it out there again . This one is a uh a guest suggested and , uh , a guest , uh , sent to us . Really , yes , as well , and you don't necessarily need to send it to us .
We always appreciate that , because then we don't have to worry about trying to source it ourselves , just because , oddly enough , the liquor store near me is not exactly the biggest liquor store ever . So I'm going to go to the cities every so often , which is fine .
But you know , if you want to send me something or send us something to be able to get on there , you know reach out . We are happy to take suggestions . You know , like we can keep bringing whatever it is that we you know happen to find , happen to talk to and you know happen to run into .
I just ran into one of the partial owners of a brewery in the cities that we're going to try to maybe be able to have on . Might be part of the Pete's Out Barbecue one . There's many different things that we're kind of looking at , but if you want to help . You know , guide the good ship beer .
Feel free to drop us a line and let us know , but you know we're always happy to be able to interact if there's anything you're looking for and we get sweet hats too .
I love that you have hats , yeah , yeah .
But we got . We got a lot of stuff , a lot of good stuff going on , but we got a couple episodes coming up . That was some pretty exciting beers that really looking forward to , you know , potentially some more international beer coming up , some more , uh , local beer , you know , in Minnesota coming up . Uh , of course , uh , you know , the pizza barbecue .
Don't forget to look out pizza , pizza barbecue . P E E T Z O U T Again , I'm not just stuttering because of the delirium P , as in Paul E , as in Edward E , as in Edward T , as in Tom Z , as in Zebra Out Pete's Out Barbecue . I don't think it's Pete'sOutBarbecuecom , though .
I don't think he's got his website . I think he's mostly just on social media . Yeah , Facebook mostly . Yeah .
And he's award winning .
Yeah , absolutely Phenomenal stuff . Multiple awards for his barbecue .
But if you haven't checked that out , definitely check out his stuff . If you haven't checked out the episode with that , definitely check out that , because gobble some barbecue on air while drinking some delicious brew as well . So definitely check all that out .
But we appreciate everybody for checking in and everybody for listening and watching and being a part of the broadcast . It's fun for us to just be here and do the thing as they say do the thing .
I like to do the thing by drinking the thing .
Exactly One hundred percent . So but yeah , if you have any suggestions or any thoughts , you know , feel free to drop that . If you have any just accolades , you just want to . You know , to toss praise upon us . Give us our flowers , as they say . The kids say the riz . Definitely drop that at us as well . We're happy to be able to have that .
But yeah , that's our story of Hoi Ha and the delirium and the little pink elephant . But otherwise , yeah , that's our story Until next time . Cheers .