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NOTE: This episode originally ran with a slowed-down piece of audio at the beginning. The version currently uploaded should be good. Email beyondthepour@gmail.com if you have any problems with the audio.

Anyway, I’m trying to be better. So here’s the most recent podcast episode in which Ryan and I catch up on what’s been going on when we haven’t been podcasting. I didn’t put together show notes for this episode (sorry) but it’s a fun listen. If you’ve missed prior episodes, you can check out our iTunes page here.

Episode 14: Catching Up is Hard to Do

Enjoy!

PS I think our last episode got a little lost in the mix, so I’m going to post it here as well. We’re joined by Youtube’s own Tantrum777, our fellow Youtube beer reviewer Jamison, and talk about rare beer culture and our personal top five historically-important beers. It was a fun episode, and it’s a bit underseen, so I figured I’d point it out here as well.

Episode 13: Rare Beer Culture and a Top Five

This week we decided to do an episode about getting started in craft beer, strategies for navigating the often-confusing world of barley, hops, and yeast for the new enthusiast. The conversation gets a lot more wide-ranging, and we do ramble on a bit, but it’s all in good fun.

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Show Notes

0:00 to 1:05: Introductions and Salutations! This episode Ryan and I are joined by Winton, aka Beerichituba/Yuichituba on Youtube, the man who originally coined the term “beertuber.” He’s a buddy of ours so we’re all too happy to have him.

1:05 to 6:57: Winton’s in Utah at the moment, and is drinking a Uinta Anniversary Barleywine. For some reason it turns out there’s significantly less Pliny the Elder in Utah than in his hometown of San Francisco! Who would’ve thought? Ryan’s drinking the Firestone Walker Reserve Porter, because who can argue with that? It’s at least fifteen months old, and he’s still getting hops! Amazing. I’m drinking a Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, because at the time of this recording DFH had just come back to my market, and why not?

6:57 to 18:10: Our main topic: Getting started in craft beer. Winton just tried the Conflux #1 from Deschutes, and found it to be, well, a bit much. A blend of several different beers, aged in several different barrels, then blended. Is it worth it, especially at the price point? Can even a very sophisticated palate really get the complexity?

18:10 to 40:07: An extension of the above (it’s all based on trying to share great beer with new drinkers this time). Ryan’s been reading the last Zymurgy magazine which has a piece from Stan Hieronymus of appellationbeer.com on “Beer Rules.” It turns out this whole list is on his website, which you can find here: http://appellationbeer.com/ We spend a lot of time on this list, and could’ve probably spun every single item on that list into its own episode, so definitely check it out and send us comments at beyondthepour@gmail.com if you have thoughts.

40:07 to 41:30: Interlude. I have two musicians on this show, and yet I have no official theme song. What gives?

41:30 to 103:35: The official main topic! Finally! (Just kidding, guys.) Introducing new people to beer. You’ve had that first great beer, the one that convinced you that beer could be great, where do you go next? I get ideas from the guys to share with the world. (Hint: The BeerAdvocate Top 100 list is not the place for you right now.) Winton recommends finding food flavors that you like and match beers that way. Ryan says to try all the beers from a particular brewery you like. Both say try pretty much everything and go from there. Or maybe just pick a style you like and go from there.

103:35 to end: We took a little break and came back with more beer. I found another bottle of the Stone Ruination 10th Anniversary, so of course I’m drinking that. Winton’s still working on his Uinta Anniversary Barleywine, because apparently he can’t drink a beer properly (I kid!) and Ryan’s doing some homebrew. I decided to let this episode run a bit long because I had had a bottle share with a couple of friends of mine who are still getting into craft beer, and wanted to share with my audience. We get a little more unfocused during this section of the podcast, but there’s some fun stuff in here.

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Anyway, in this episode Chad from Chad’z Beer Reviews joins us for a conversation about homebrewing and other topic. Chad has recently gotten into homebrewing, so I figured it’d be interesting to ask him what he’d learned in the process.

I’m trying to get on a more regular schedule of posting this podcast, but my class and work schedule has been insane lately. Sorry.

0:00 to 0:40 A quick administrative note.

0:40 to 8:20 Introductions and what we’ve been drinking. Regular co-host Ryan and I are joined by fellow Youtube beer reviewer Chad9976 of Chad’z Beer Reviews, and he’s been drinking a ton of homebrew, having recently gotten into the hobby. He also recently tried Kona’s Coffee Porter. Ryan is drinking on a Coronado Double Dorado, a local Double IPA that has only recently come back into bottles from an approximately two year absence. Me? I’m checking out a Samuel Adams Noble Pils, a beer that I haven’t had in several years and have realized I’ve been completley wrong about. I also have been drinking quite a bit about the Stone Ruination 10th Anniversary IPA, which you should definitely try if it’s in your market and still fresh at the time you listen to this episode.

8:20 to 11:53 Grupo Modelo has been bought by AB Inbev. What does this mean, really?

11:53 to 14:18 Green Flash opening up an east coast brewery. Yet again microbreweries are expanding. A theme for the podcast so far.

14:18 to 20:52 Our feature topic: Homebrewing. Chad mailed us both a bottle of one of his buddy Shaun’s homebrews, which we reviewed with him for his Youtube channel, and I thought it’d be a great thing to be able to talk with Chad about his newfound homebrew hobby and what he’s learned about beer since starting a couple of months ago. Chad talks about the basics of sanitation and hop additions.

20:52 to 28:24 Chad is interested in learning to make wild beers. We go off on a significant tangent here about the theory and practice, despite the fact that none of us have ever made a sour beer. Whoops. I make reference to the Mad Fermentationist in this section. http://www.themadfermentationist.com/

28:24 to 31:58 The fermentation temperature discussion. Ryan calls this the most critical part of homebrewing. Ale brewing in the basement, and the possibility of lager brewing during the winter.

31:58 to 37:15 After a pee break, we come back into some other areas. Chad wanted to talk about a couple of his brewery pet peeves, and talks about lack of ABV listing on the bottle, and bottle dating.

37:15 to 54:35 The retailer’s responsibility for fresh beer? Versus the brewery’s responsibility to only sell beers across the country that can take some age?

54:35 to 1:03:14 Our favorite local breweries. Also our favorite local places to drink, and stuff that’s pretty much always in our fridge.

Check out Chad’z Youtube channel here. Also check out Ryan, Chad, and myself reviewing one of Chad’z friend’s homebrews here.

This month’s session is all about drinking alone, namely, going out to pubs for a pint by oneself. I’m a bit wishy washy on the subject, as I have been known to do it from time to time but for the most part I do all my drinking from bottles in my house.

Check out the carnival host here.

And a full list of all past Sessions is here.

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Show Notes:

0:00 to 7:50 Introductions and what we’re drinking. I’m doing a super-fresh Bell’s Pale Ale, and Ryan’s got an even fresher Stone Sublimely Self Righteous Ale. Was Sublimely Self Righteous the first black IPA?

7:50 to 30:37 Quality Control in Breweries. At a bottle share in San Diego, Ryan had a bottle of an Upland Brewery sour that gushed nearly a foot in the air and left him with only half a bottle left. This got him to thinking about breweries and their quality control, and what they might owe the consumers that get obviously flawed beer. Should a consumer get compensation for a bad bottle? I talk about issues I’ve had with Jolly Pumpkin beers, as well as Keweenaw brewing. Also mentioned: Deschutes, the Lost Abbey, Dark Horse, and more. Lots of breweries have occasional or continuing issues with quality control; what is the proper response to these issues? We’d love to hear your thoughts and if we get enough responses we’ll do a bunch of emails in a future episode, so please listen and respond at beyondthepour@gmail.com.

30:37 to 35:15 Taking a bit of a tangent off of that, as beer reviewers we tend to try to make sure we’re getting the freshest and best beer possible for review on the show, but that’s not always a fair representation for what’s on the shelf and available in the market. Do we bend over backwards a bit too much to make sure we’re “fair” to the products we review?

35:15 to 55:53 What we’ve been drinking lately and our wrap-up. Ryan had an out-of-town guest in his house last week, none other than fellow Beertuber Master of Hoppets, so we talk a bit about that. I also talk about being back in school and the way that that has effected my beer drinking. We talk a lot about how great the people in the craft beer community are, and end another episode imploring people to engage in bottle shares.

“Your mission — if you choose to accept it — it so seek out and taste two different pale ales. Tell us what makes them special, what makes them forgettable, what makes them the same or what makes them different. Then, share it with us.”

I had a bottle of Fuller’s London Pride and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. I also talk a bit about pale ales in general, why we as beer geeks tend not to take them too seriously, and why we perhaps should. Check out the video below.

(Any beer bloggers watching this video should definitely check out the Youtube beer community if you haven’t already. There are some great channels out there doing some pretty incredible beer reviews. Likewise, any beertubers out there who haven’t plugged in to the beer blog community are missing out, as well.)

Anyway, we’ve decided to switch up the format a little bit. Previously we’ve done what we’ve been drinking first, and sometimes it felt like we had to squeeze a bunch of topics in at the end of the episode. So we’ve decided to try putting the more informal chat into a separate podcast so that those people who want to hear that stuff can still hear it, but those looking for the news and commentary can get it without having to wade through the rest.

For this episode, it’ll be two separate files, but we may end up adjusting that as time goes on. You can always email us at beyondthepour@gmail.com with comments, questions, and suggestions.

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Show Notes:

0:00 to 1:42 Introductions and general comments. We’ve changed up our format a bit here so fans of the show should definitely listen to this bit.

1:42 to 8:45What we’re drinking right now. Ryan’s drinking the Firestone Walker Wookie Jack Black IPA, and I’m doing a Bell’s Consecrator Dopplebock. Ryan also makes passing mention of the Lost Abbey Track #5 release, and I talk about Bell’s lagers in general.

8:45 to 18:17 Revisiting prior topics covered on the podcast. First, responding to our friend Jamison’s (http://www.youtube.com/Tantrum777) criticism of the way we handled terroir.

18:17 to 29:00 Session Beer! Firestone Walker believes that session beer should be local beer, and we agree. I also take back some stuff I’ve said about session beer in the past and discuss some comments from other beer writers on the concept.

29:00 to 32:17 Michigan Brewing Company has had its brewery locked by their landlord — apparently they weren’t paying their rent on time. Is Celis White a cursed beer recipe?

32:17 to 36:43 Bell’s possibly being sold? What’s up with Larry Bell wanting to get rid of the brewery? I think it’s really just a restructuring, although Budweiser’s been wanting to buy the brewery for a number of years now.

36:43 to 40:20 Grand Rapids ties in the Beer City USA poll with Asheville, NC. Does this mean anything?

40:20 to Sam Tierny, brewer at Firestone Walker, wrote a piece about beer competitions. Do these kinds of beer competitions mean anything? How about homebrew competitions? What’s the value of awarding medals to beers?

Aftershow

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No time codes here, but we talk about Imperial Pilsners and Imperial Witbiers, how many hops really go into Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute IPA, twelve ounce versus twenty-two ounce bottles, and Ryan makes an impassioned plea for more people to do bottle shares. And more, of course — it’s a fun time.

So in that spirit, my choice of topic – with 62 topics already covered – is this: simply, the Beer Moment.

What is it?

Well, what is it to you? What does that phrase evoke for you?

That’s the most important thing here. Switch off and float downstream, what comes to mind? Don’t analyse it – what are the feelings, the emotions?

I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot recently, because I’ve been talking about it to various people who are working hard to try to improve the image of beer in the UK. Because whether we articulate it or not, whether we drink vile, sunstruck Corona or barrel aged imperial stout brewed with weasel shit, it’s about the moment far more than the liquid itself. The only people who disagree with me on this are people I wouldn’t want to share a beer with.

The moment – for me – is relaxation, reward, release, relief and refreshment. It’s a moment to savour, a moment of mateship, potential, fulfilment, anticipation, satisfaction, and sheer bliss.

It’s different from the moment you drink wine or spirits – it’s more egalitarian, more sociable. It’s not just about the flavour, nor the alcohol. It’s about the centuries of tradition and ritual, the counterpoint to an increasingly stressful life, and the commonality, the fact that it means the same thing to so many.

At least – I think it does. What does it mean to you?

I might have gone slightly off topic here, but the whole point of the Session is to get a kind of shaggy dog feel for the beer community at large, so I think it’s okay. And as a way of fostering connection between the beer blogging community and the Youtube beer community, I have done my answer on video:

I hope those of you who are visiting from the blog world will check out the wonderful beer community on Youtube. You can find my channel here, and there’s plenty more out there if you look. And those of you who are fans of mine on Youtube, I hope you check out Pete Brown’s blog linked above and read some of the other bloggers covering this month’s topic.

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Show Notes:

0:00 to 25:15 What We’ve Been Drinking. Ryan starts with a Karl Strauss 23rd Anniversary Old Ale, one that we’ve both enjoyed quite a bit. (He sent me a bottle in his last beer mail.) He’s also tried some of the recent Lost Abbey Track Series, and talks quite a bit about various bottle shares he’s been to over the last week. Since he lives in San Diego, there’s always a bottle share going on somewhere. We also share some love for Goose Island King Henry, which is a phenomenal barrel-aged barleywine. We’ll be talking more about Goose Island later in the podcast.

On my end, I’ve been drinking a lot of oak-aged sour beers lately, particularly several Livery beers, included 3 Weiss Men provided in growler form for me by brewer Sawyer. (I do a video review of 3 Weiss Men here.)

25:15 to 32:00 Goose Island is quadrupling their barrel program, and will be making their Bourbon County Brand Stout a year-round offering. Has the ABInbev buyout of Goose Island been good for Goose Island?

32:00 to 38:45 Three Floyds is opening up a brewing facility/brewpub in Chicago, and possibly eyeing a location to co-own a brewpub with Mikkeller somewhere in Europe. Chicago is becoming a world-class beer town, and more and more craft breweries are expanding via location.

38:45 to 56:35 Location, location, location! Ryan and I discuss the concept of terroir as it relates to beer, in response to a viewer of mine on Youtube who asked me the question during a Q&A segment I’m working on. Special thanks to Youtube user Donut8Danggs for the question! Will Sierra Nevada’s move to brewing some of their beer in North Carolina make those beers “different?” Are there any beers for which a change in location really does make a significant difference to the “soul” of the beer?

Thanks as always for listening, and remember that you can always send us feedback, comments, and questions to beyondthepour@gmail.com.