BEAR-ly Getting Started 6.2 - English Bitter

Founded in 1778 and becoming the largest brewery in Manchester, England in 1887, Boddingtons has produced its share of popular beverages. Let's give you an introduction to cask ale. We revisit the widget, and it's use in nitrogen-infused beer. Jason and Craig also talk the scale of english bitters that makes the meat of this episode. Featuring Pub Ale from Boddingtons Brewery. Cheers!

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Transcript

So I thought we were going to roll in with the music. That's what I'm waiting for. You're waiting for the music? Yeah. You mean this music here?  Yeah.  Is that the one? 

If that's the one you picked, yeah. That's the one I picked. I mean, who else would we be talking about? Yeah. It was the, uh, the Erie County Fair. 

I took the word, I took the weird words out of it and that way we don't get censored. Oh, I was like waiting for it and then it just didn't happen. You didn't do the lead into the verse.  That's right. Yeah, we got to, yeah. Um, little different feel for the Erie County Fair this year because the 90's country that we enjoy fell on a Friday this year.

Right. Not a fan. I would like it to go back to Sunday, please. Yes, that would be, that would be nice. Although you didn't have to get up the next morning afterwards, I still felt like I didn't have the whole day, you know, I don't know. It just seemed like the afternoon just flew and then it was boom, concert.

Yeah. Yeah.  Yeah. I mean, maybe if we can talk to them, we can get them to get back on us.  Dear Erie County Fair  stuff, the stuff, the suggestion box. So as usual, we, um, ate, drank,  ate some more, drank some more. Yeah, because there was all the fun fair foods. And then first row, first row for Pam Tillis, which, uh,  We, I did not even know 67 years old this woman is.

Yeah, still killing it. It was crazy. Like, she just walked out like a boss.  So I was really impressed. And then here comes Aaron Tippin afterwards. Yeah. Still a spaz 30 years later. Holy cow. He's just jumping around that stage like he's 25. And he was 60 something. Yeah, he's 60, 66.  Holy crap.  Married to his wife for 29 years who was standing, you know, behind every great man.

There is an even greater woman rolling her eyes at him. She was funny. She was funny. Rolling her eyes at him.  Yeah,  that was fun. Jumping around. Guy's still in great shape all these years later. It's crazy. Got his start literally, I don't know, 1992, I want to say. He came fresh off of the USO tour and hit it big.

I was like, who's this guy? And yeah, just making hit after hit after hit. I mean, I wish he would have had longer time on stage, honestly. Um, a few more songs I would have liked to hear, but, uh, you know,  I guess they're openers to Travis Trett. Yeah. Travis, Travis,  awesome. Oh yeah. Just, yeah. I'm just still doing this thing all these years later, you know?

Right. Yeah. So now we are three for three, like three awesome concerts, nine amazing acts. That we've seen so far. Yep.  So I'm super excited. I can't wait to see what next year is going to bring. Yeah, it'll be, yeah. We'll just have to wait and see in the spring what they come out with for 2025.  So quickly on what we ate, let's talk about that. 

We had a little, uh, waffle hot dog action. Yes. So it was like a corn dog, but made of waffle instead of Belgian waffle, instead of the corn.  Yeah, that was amazing. I just had a little squeeze of mustard on that and then the deserty version Yeah with fruity pebbles on it like Belgian waffle on a stick with fruity pebbles and white chocolate drizzle.

Yeah. Yeah, whatever Yeah, whatever icing that was. It was white chocolate wasn't white chocolate. Yeah. Okay. I know right now that works I mean I could you know, I'm 51 and I like fruity pebbles. So What else do we have oh I had this It's gigantic. So, um, what was it called? A dilly dog, hot dog on a stick  that was put into a carved out whole giant dill pickle.

Yep. That was then panko breaded and fried in deep fried. Yeah. They cooked it deep fried, everything at the fair. Oh my God. It was so good. It was so, so good. It was so funny because he handed it to me like six napkins underneath it. He said, this is very hot. Do not attempt to take a bite of it for at least five minutes.

That thing was  absorbing heat like a space shuttle tile. Right. So we took it to go have a beer and the time that I was walking with it in my hand, I was Oh my gosh, why would anybody think, feeling this in their hand, that they're going to try to put this in their mouth? It will burn your mouth, but it was incredible.

If it was a chilly day, you'd have been able to, you know, warm up, you know, snuggle the pickle.  So, it was really, really good though. Yeah. And, um, what else do we have? Oh, we had the award winning french fry, hot chicken combination. Yeah, the honey Butter chicken fries. Yeah, so that was really good. Yeah, that was good.

And then we also had  What was the wings that you had? That was the General Tso's General Tso's panko breaded wings. Yeah, those were good, too. Yeah, that was really good  Spicy if I had a favorite it was probably the it was probably the The dog with  the Belgian waffle dog. Duh. It was probably my favorite.

Me too. And the wings were probably my second favorite. Well, for me my second favorite was probably the hot dog in a pickle. Yeah, well yeah. Dipped in panko and fried. Yeah.  Jay doesn't eat pickles. No. And you had like a reminisce just to a few weeks earlier from the Lancaster Ren Fest. Yeah. So the same thing, like one of those gigantic full size dill pickles is what they used.

Oh, I love when everybody's getting into everything pickle. I know. Yeah. So, you know, food, um, drink, drink wise. Well, I mean, we'll get into a second here, what we're drinking, but, uh, speaking of the Erie County fair, but we had the tilt of Eisen, uh, half of Eisen. Uh, we also had their, uh, the peach, um, cider under the Blackbird label.

which was really good too. Uh, and then I think when, once we got together with Jess, we enjoyed like, she had land shark and we were, I had some, uh, Hamburg, um, Oktoberfest.  I feel like we had, um, Hey burner. Yeah. Hey burner. And what did I get? I drank three of those while I was watching the Southern tier IPA.

Oh, uh, juice Joel. Oh yeah. Oh, that's always a winner. Yeah. Uh, yeah. And then, um, That brings us up to what we're drinking here because it's the, for the 100th anniversary of the  Straits Midway  show. So it's the folks that bring in the rides every year. And it has been a tradition for many moons, minus the COVID year, that they would bring in the rides on the train.

And this is the last year that they're doing that. Why do they say that? I don't know. That they are not doing it anymore. I don't know. It's probably, I don't know, whatever. It's probably an expense thing. Who knows? Interesting. But it was always a tradition where people would line up along the tracks while the rides were being brought in by train Right.

I think that's so fun. It can't be that much So, you know, whatever the case, but uh, we're drinking hop express from hamburg brewing company. It's a Hazy ipa there's not a lot of information on it But brewed in celebration of the 100th anniversary the partnership between the erie county fair and the straits shows  James e straight shows provides the amusement rides the The games of skill, the tasty foods, merchandise, concessions of the fairs and festivals throughout the United States.

It's America's only railroad carnival. See? That's why they should keep doing it. Right. Pairs perfectly with sunny days on the Midway and, uh, beautiful nights in the Grandstands and enjoy the best 12 days of summer at the Erie County Fair, which just ended this past Sunday. Well, and I would like to say something that I was really bummed I couldn't find this at the fair.

What's that? This beer.  Yeah, yeah, they didn't have this, um, anywhere that we looked at, at the fair. We were at Grapes and Hops. We went to Broadway Brews.  And they didn't even have it like at the concert. I mean, they have like eight choices of canned beers at the concert and it wasn't even there either.

Yeah. And I thought it was interesting that, and maybe it was because there were other IPAs and Hazys that were there. Yeah. But I mean, this is one you made for It has the cool picture. I feel like you'd sell a ton of it. Like people would be like, Ooh, I'll try that. Yep. But it's on tap, uh, right now still at, um, Hamburg Brewing Company.

So you head down there and be able to enjoy that. Uh, I feel, I feel like we brought up the list here a moment ago, didn't I? Or did I bounce back out of it? I don't know what you do. I don't know. I love Jesus, but I drink so many buttons. I do. We've got to bring it up on a ye olde computer screen here and take a look at the other offerings that they have there.

I know, like I just said, the Oktoberfest,  we're already jumping into fall beers, which is pretty wild. Oh my gosh. That is so You know what? All of a sudden it was like this weekend, just pumpkin, everything. Everything's like fall, fall, fall. And you know,  listen, I'm not going to complain that it's too early, but can we just wait until after  Labor Day weekend?

Right.  Right, the official like kind of end of summer, the beginning Memorial weekend, the end, like the official unofficial kind of thing. So how about we wait? To bring out all of these fall beers and pumpkin and whatever until then. I don't know. I don't know. It's just my opinion. I mean, strike a, you know, some of these ones are such, such small productions.

I guess you get them while they're hot. Well, and that kind of sucks too, right? Because I'm still in summer mode. Yeah. And you're going to see something and do you grab it or do you not? You know what I mean? Right. And then just wait. and drink it in October. I mean, I think we do, we do something like every year.

Um, well, depending on when Halloween falls, but like around Halloween, I feel like we usually do like a pretty big selection of fall beer tastings. Yeah. I feel like we do, you know, and um, there was a couple of like maresons that you enjoyed last season. That's really when I like to do it. Yeah. October, closer to like, like mid October, I'm feeling really, you know, full.

Go from your summers, you go over to your, your, your, your maresons and your fest beers and your, uh, you know, your October fest. And then, uh, from there you transition to your winter warmers and your stouts,  even though like we were just, so we were just at the, the dude homebrew competition yesterday. We're out of the fairway.

We jump right here. This is a listen. It's our show. It's our schedule.  We will see what we like. Um, yeah, we were at the dude home brew competition at resurgence yesterday. Uh, our friend, friend of the podcast, Mike Lane of green light brewing company, uh, was there with a couple of great productions and, and.

Tag teamed with, uh, Chari Brewing. Uh, Chari won with that, uh, that, uh, Czech Pilsner, uh, won one of the judges prizes for that. So yeah, Mike and we're having a talk with him and we're talking, he's like, he likes stouts anytime of the year. Well, and I think if that's what you love to drink, our friend Deb, same thing, she'll drink stouts 100 percent of the time.

It just depends, you know. And that episode, that episode's coming. We've got everything that we're still hanging on to from last season because we just, time runs away from us sometimes. I know. You know, Deb was busy. She just got, just got done hiking to the summit of Mount Whitney, which is the tallest mountain in the lower 48.

Um, so she just came off of a, uh, I don't know,  weeks long hibernation to recover from that. It wasn't even, it was like two days and she was right back out.  She's crazy. She's crazy. The machine. That's why we call her the machine.  Yeah. So the dude. Yeah. Now, how did you like the dude? Um, well, we, we looked cute.

We had opposite colored, uh, bowling shirts. Cause it's done in the theme of the big Lebowski. Right. So I was a little disappointed. There weren't other people there. Like, I didn't see one other bowling shirt. Right. Like, why are you not rocking? This is so easy to like, do something cool. I don't know. I'm all about dressing up.

I'm all about a theme. I love it. I saw some Hawaiian shirts there, but you know, but even then it was like mostly people who were just wearing I wearing what they were wearing, I feel like. Right. I feel like Hawaiian shirts are just very summer. It's still summer, so people are wearing 'em. Sure. I mean, it was appropriate for some of the selections that we Yeah.

Saw there. Yeah. I was surprised at how many of those were, what was, what was really cool 'cause we're, we got the roster in front of us here. Couldn't believe that there were 30,  my gosh, 37 beers. 'cause one guy couldn't make it. Uh, 37 beers at this thing. Right. She hands us this list and I said, oh. I thought there would be like maybe 15 or 20 and it was fine because my money is going to a great cause.

So who cares? So yeah, I can tell you already that I'm full on in for this for next year. Yeah. Because with the amount of selections, the variety and the people and the networking and all the great tasting home concoctions. Well, and I don't even know if we would have gone unless we would have ran into your friend.

over at beer kind. Yeah. And I, then I got introduced to him and Chad. Chad from Chari Brewing. Yeah. Yeah. And, um, and he told me something that they were making and I was super excited. I said, don't tell Jay. I said, we're definitely going to go and I want it to be a surprise. Go ahead. Disclose it. I want to be a surprise.

So he explains to me that they were making a beer that's going to have edible glitter in it. And I said, Oh my gosh, it's like unicorn farts.  Right from Duke law. Like everyone wanted to try this beer just because when you poured it, there was edible glitter in it and it makes it so much fun. So it's called, it was called what the hell is even that?

Yeah. Yeah. And it was good. It was really good beer too. And, uh, I said, don't tell Jay. I want to actually know something about beer that he doesn't know. Yeah. West coast IPA because he says Westies is where it's at. I mean, that's my huge Westie fans. Yeah. Uh, the soul that, uh, let's see that stole the sparkle from your eyes, dry hops, Strada and Simcoe with edible gold glitter.

It was super fun. So yeah, we'll have to put the little, little five second video clip we put up when you spun the glass and we stepped into the sun with it and it was like, okay, this is, this is pretty awesome. It was really neat. Yeah. Um, and they also had, which we, which we liked also was the Shirley Slade, that fruited, uh, fruited yeah, I had that twice.

I, and there was a lot of women who were liking that one. Yeah. Well, I mean, I see, it seems like blackberry and raspberry are a thing. Um, didn't get so much of the marshmallow, but that's, he wasn't really drawing attention to that. I guess he had had some comments that it might've been too, and this is a word I'm just shooting from the hip on raspberry. 

Well, right. And okay. I'll tell you the reason why people think that is because it has that little bit of like pucker to it. Right. So when you would drink it and you kind of do that, like.  Like that,  you know, that pucker. And I think that everyone just goes for raspberry when you, when you feel that, but really, if you're really tasting it, it's like raspberry.

But what lingers in that richness is really the blackberry.  So I felt it was good to mix them both. Yeah, I, um, I really enjoyed them. I think, I think it was, and I like blackberry and just about anything. And I mean, we'll talk about, we're gonna talk about blackberry in another form here in a second.

Didn't you just drink, didn't you just drink a blackberry kohl's or whatever you were drinking? Um, can't remember. We were just somewhere. Probably. Yeah, I feel like it was something. There's a few of them floating around. Yeah. Um, let's see. It's a Dave, uh, Dave. Dave, uh, Torshia. He had the, uh, Lajala, which I liked of his.

And then the other one he put out was that Up to Pismo. Which was the hazy IPA, which you liked. That was the one where we tasted each other's and it's like, I like this one. You like that one. Oh yeah. And sometimes that happens with us. We'll get beers and we'll taste each other's beers and we'll be like, I like yours better than, Oh, I like yours better. 

It happens like that. Uh, and then we, the saison, the saison meal, uh, basilisk or basilic. That was the one with the wildflower honey. That was really interesting. So that to me,  that to me, as soon as I tasted it, it tasted like.  Beer mixed with mead for me. Yeah, and I think it was like the honey was super strong For me, and I felt like the was that basil that was in there basil.

Yeah So I feel like there was like that that herbaceousness with the honey. So it really for me Tasted like you were just mixing like some beer with mead. Mm hmm, but it was good. It worked. Yeah  Interesting and what a fun color You Like that's what I found when I was like, what is that that they're pouring over there?

Like the color was so cool Yeah, I didn't expect us. I've never seen a saison that dark Yeah, but you expected it to be rich and it kind of was and you know, oh, yeah for sure Yeah with the wildflower honey Um, I think that's what gave it its darkness and I think, I think people are, would, or just fine with it because it was, it was really unique and we really liked it a lot. 

Uh, the Caucasian IPA, that was the white IPA, the first one that, that you had  white IPAs, not very common at all because people don't really reach for them. So it's, it's, Cool to go to a place like a homebrew competition and be able to see something like a white IPA, which is surprising because they're good Yeah, that one was good.

That was the citrus and hops and they used the Belgian yeast in it So it set it off a little bit from those typical yeast that you would find in a in an IPA I feel like there was another white IPA. Oh, I think it was on the back the dudes delight white IPA Did you find it? Mm hmm the dudes delight nice Yeah, that was the one that I had that I feel like was, um, that was when you had the rye because I think they were right next door to each other.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was where I was getting that IPA when you were having the English stuff. And I was like, I'm going to scoot down here and get another IPA while you try your English stuff.  Yeah. We just, we just came off of the English bitter, uh, episode of barely getting started. So one of them had a, an English bitter, uh, which was really classic and super clean.

And I enjoyed it. It was very nice. It was very nicely done.  Yeah, I'm trying to find these guys that were in the corner here. Are you talking about the ones from Connecticut? Well, they were next to the guys from Connecticut. Oh. I shouldn't say guys. Well, the people in the corner did this one, the rye and the sharks in your ears.

Oh, okay. Sharks in your ears. Oh, there you go. So 29 and 30. Yeah. 28 and 29. Yeah. So the, uh, the, uh, hoppy pale ale, crystal malts, um, flake dry. Yeah. That one was really good. You know, citra hopped. Um, that was really, that was really nicely done. Yeah. And sharks in your ears. That was, uh, that was really good and unique as well.

I thought that that was a really clean flavor. I saw the Bergamot and I was like, I need to try this beer. Yeah. Who does that? Yeah. Right.  That was amazing. So, and then, um, let's see what else. Oh, we did our, We did our, let's drink all the tropicals together. Oh yeah, we had to go back and compare them. Yeah.

So, it was really fun that there were, there were a few of these, like, tropical whatever, they were giving out lays, which I thought was cute too. Yeah. Ha ha ha. Ha ha ha. So, Where was our, um So it was right next to the s'mores. Get Laid, fruit beer, pina colada inspired sour pineapple and coconut, added to a base sour beer.

So that was fun. I mean, listen, if it's pina colada, I'm on vacation. Right, and then what was right next door to, was that the And then the Tropic Tonic. That was from the Ale Gals, right? No. That was from the people who we talked to, who was that couple, and they did it as like an experimental beer. Ferrer?

It was the girl who was like, they did the thin mint on the one side, and she said, do you want to have the vacation beer on the other? Oh, that's right. Remember? Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they did um, They did a Thin Mint Stout, but they also did a Did You Want to Try a Vacation in a Glass, and I was like, I do!

That's right.  So she totally got it. That was West Seneca. She totally got it. She was like, yes, exactly. You feel like that when you go places. And then the other one Homebrewer in Paradise. Yes.  So that was super fun too. And so everything had, I feel like everything had coconut in it.  Yeah. I think all three of them did because the tropic to was kettle sour, brewed with lactose, mango, guava and coconut.

Mm-Hmm. . And I feel like for me, I tasted a lot of guava and coconut. Well, you got the guava right off the bat. Oh for sure. On that before you even looked at the description. Yeah. Yeah. Well I'm a huge, I love guava. Yeah. So, um. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the one that we liked the most out of the three was, uh, the home brewer in paradise.

That was from, um, that was from the guys from Amherst. So, so that one was a play on for people, the real beer beer enthusiasts that would listen to this, um, Pliny, the elder, which is like from the alchemist, I think brewing. And then you take, and it's like, it's that, that beer heads to the islands and it was, it was, Pretty damn accurate.

Well, and the reason why I chose that one over our like little whatever, who's the best one out of the three vacation beers, we'll call them, is because I love an IPA. So you took an IPA and you add it in. Kind of, you know, the fun coconutty, vacationy, whatever. So it tasted cleaner, it tasted lighter, it was good.

Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of fun with like putting, doing that tasting, going back toward the end and kind of comparing the three of those.  Yeah, I mean, and that's what it's all about, right? You, so we were just doing tiny, you know, sips. And honestly, when people were filling it too much, we were like, you know, we were splitting it because you don't want to, I want to know exactly like what's going on.

I never, I never, ever, ever want to be to the point where I didn't drink water in between, you know, eat a few pretzels, clean your palate, really like enjoy what everyone is offering. Pliny the Elder is Russian river brewing. So as people were probably yelling at their.  While they're listening to you. I like, Oh my God, Jay, you have no idea what you're doing.

You know, the Alchemist playing, you know, Heady Topper. And, uh, what else? Oh. And did you like the Bananas Foster? Because a lot of people were talking about that. Oh yeah, that was fun. You know, they, and they had two really cool, they had a secret selection there too. Well, he made me try this. The brewer and I said, I hate bananas and he was like, do it.

And so I did. And then he high fived me because I was so brave and I was like, It's just like banana bread. Yeah. But I hate bananas. I detest bananas. I won't even drink a half of ice and because it tastes like a banana. I wish we had a video component to this podcast. Cause the facial that you just made there, you're just like, I detest. 

So banana.  Banana.  Banana. Um, so he had also like a surprise beer that he brought that wasn't really on the list. It was just like something I think they were just trying to get some opinion. They were playing around with it. Yeah. Get some feedback on. Yeah. So that was made with. Jackfruit. Jackfruit. Yeah.

Which he said is like a vegan substitute for things. Yeah. And I think, um, I think there was one time that we went someplace where they were doing a vegan offering and they were doing a jackfruit taco or something like that. And I can't, I, I like to think that you were like interesting, but I don't think you ever tried it.

Well, and now I feel like I want to, because now I tasted that beer and it was pretty good. So I was like, huh. Yeah. I wonder. Oh, there goes the plane. Good lord. We're working on the runway here at the, Buffalo International Airport. We're like right over the flight line tonight. This is like crazy. It's hilarious.

It makes me laugh. We can be 60 feet underground and we'll still hear those things. They're so close to her. Sure. For sure.  Um, what else, is there anything else that stood out at you? Because, um, the only other thing that was like huge for me was the people who came in from Connecticut.  Well, yeah, we can talk about that in a minute.

We'll talk about the ale gals to finish out because, uh, We had a really nice talk with them. Oh, I figured that would be like a whole different thing. But, I mean, furthest travel for sure was, uh, what was their name? Forrest, um. Yeah, I shouldn't ever just like,  I know I had my eyes on it here. Um, another Caucasian Gary.

Yeah. Forrest King Brewing from Canton, Connecticut. It was a white Russian stout. And this is so funny because they really brought literally the theme. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. How fun. So, you know, there's, So that's what he drinks on the movie. White Russian. Correct. And you heard some of the murmurings that were going on.

It's like, there's only one Caucasian Gary, because that's a name of a beer in Buffalo anyway. Yeah, it already is, but it's like, but they don't know that. So they just rolled in from Connecticut as an invited guest from out of town and they killed it. I mean, you might as well called it chalky milk and put.

Oh my gosh, and that was, that's what I said when I was first drinking. I was like, it tastes like ice cream. Like when I was drinking it, yes. Okay. You can get like the white Russian out of it, but to me it tasted like I was drinking an ice cream beer, which is what it was with coffee added to it to make it taste like Kahlua. 

That's exactly it. It was crazy. It was good. Yeah. I liked it. We went back for a second shot of it. Yeah. It was really good. When they did last call. It was so funny because at the end. You got a scramble going on.  People got hurt. No, I'm just kidding. Well, at the end, when we were doing the voting, we met a couple and I was like, Oh, did you guys try?

And this is where we circled back over to the gals. I was like, did you try this peach cobbler? Because she was talking about how she likes all these fruity things. She was like, how did I miss that? that. So we went over there and Paul had the one he missed too, which was their other one. Okay. And then she had the champagne. 

Yep. Yeah. Um, so shout out to cat and Paul. Okay. You're better with names than I am. If I saw them in a crowd, I'd be like, Hey, you guys. So speaking of C, speaking of seeing people in a crowd, Right? So we see these two girls at the gals brewing, right? Is that what their thing is? Oh, the ale gals. The ale gals.

Yeah. And I said, I know that face. I totally know that girl. And I looked at Jay and I was like, I don't, I can't really place it right now, but I totally know her. So then we're like walking around, so we try the beer, whatever, you know, and, um, and then we're walking around doing some more. And then suddenly it came to me and I said, Oh my God, the BAC for women and her name is Jen. 

It had to go back. And then we went back and I was like, um, do I know you from the BAC? And your name is Jen. And she was like, it is. And I am.  So that's so funny. So I mean, years and years and years have passed, but it's so funny how you can just still pick out like, I know that face.  So Yeah, she was always so awesome.

What we learned is her, and I believe, I don't want to get the name on this wrong, but I believe Carrie was the other one with a K, I can't remember,  I'd have to look it up, but.  Yeah, I don't remember either. I don't remember the other girls because we didn't talk to her nearly as much. Right. Um, but Jen was explaining everything that was going on.

She went into depth on everything and I was absorbing it like a sponge because they had, uh, what we talked about a little bit ago was the, um, The Look What You Made Me Brew, that was the mixed beer, was the, uh, peach, cinnamon, and vanilla, that was like a peach cobbler, which was really nice, yeah, but what they had, which kind of just, just catapulted in our top three, oh my gosh, was Champagne Problems, it was amazing, so a Kohl's, which, yeah.

A, it was a cold style ale. And then what they did is a lager conditioned, um, after primary with filtered blackberry and high carbonation. So it gave it like a whiny champagne. And I feel like you took a picture of that to have more of a description. Uh, I, oh yeah, yes I did because I, because there was a lot more than there was in that.

So there's been a few beers that I've actually had in the past years with this whole, um, and I, and I hope it's on there. The exact thing that they were using, I was like, Jay, you'll know it better than me. This whole Sauvignon, like whatever thing, anyways, it, are you talking about when they take the skins of the grapes and use them to enhance beer?

Yeah.  Yeah. Yeah. Um, so champagne problems, dry, light body coach that was dry hopped with Nelson savant hops to bring a wine like aroma and then it's cold condition on blackberry puree and then carbonating the beer on a higher end to mimic a cold crisp glass of fruity bubbly. It's amazing. Uh, it was genius.

It was blew me away. It was genius. I had three of those. 

It's your story. Yeah. Yeah. So that was really good. And then what we found out was the ale gals were the, uh, reigning and defending champions of the dude homebrew. And they took, and they took talk about that and they took first and second place in the popular vote. And they didn't even talk about that.

They had nothing up. Like we're the coolest here. People here. Nothing  pays to be modest,  you know? Yeah, so that was real fun. Yeah. Yeah. Who did win by the way? Uh, well, I, I know, um, Chad won third place in, in the, uh, in the voting. Oh my gosh. I, and I can't remember cause there was a judge's voting and there was a popular vote.

I only heard the popular vote. I didn't hear the judges. So I didn't know if you did. I knew you walked up to try to hear it, but I think people were not quieted down. No people, you know, and of course I guarded F 16s when I was in the air force. So my hearing,  Shot, even though you can hear these 747s going overhead just fine.

But, um, you know, such as life, I guess. Yeah.  But yeah, we had a lot of, a lot of fun with that. Something I would totally do again next year. Oh yeah. I'm very close to what we experienced at that. It's super exciting because like I tell you, um, When we do any of these fun beer festivals that aren't over commercialized beer festivals, um, like tap and craft.

And like, um, when we do our, when we brew our beer. What is that? Collaboration. Things like that. You're going to have like these really neat things that you're never going to taste. You know, maybe somebody comes up with something similar or whatever, but you know, as you, as you all know, if you're a beer drinker, even though the beer could have the same Quote ingredients.

Somebody's gonna make it differently. Somebody's gonna do this with it. Somebody's gonna dry hop it at the end Somebody's gonna whatever and it's gonna change the profile and that's why you just that's why you keep drinking all the different beers Yeah, and it's uh, you know, it's a great opportunity for  most everybody who is a brewer somewhere in Buffalo Or, you know, anywhere really came from some, possibly came from some home brewing background.

Correct. And there's also the people who will probably just do that, right? Like we talk about that all the time when we retire someday, I would love to just have all the time in the world to just brew beer. Right. Don't worry guys, we ain't cooking meth in the garage.  We're making beer.  We're making beer. 

But you know, I mean, it's, it's, you can tell that these people who were there,  They're passionate we're gonna be breaking beer. Oh my god, you're so funny.  But they're passionate about it, and they're excited, and they want to talk about it, and they want you to drink it, and tell them what you think of it.

And you know, I just, I think that's real cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Um, what do we got? Oh, what else? We, we, uh, got to hop back over to Pocketeer and, and have a little, uh, have a little fun on the pinball machines. And, you know,  we gave it the college try. That's what we did.  Yeah, we just had some fun every time I was kicking ass.

He was beating me.  I had this amazing score on Jaws. What does Jay come up and do? Like, I don't even know, 178 million. I'm like great. Was it that high? Yeah, and I thought my, I thought my score was like super cool.  I'm like, thanks a lot, Jay, the professional pinball player over here. Pinball Wizard Jay.  You know, I do what I can.

You don't even have anything to say.  It's okay that I'm so cool. Yeah, then I go into the league like I did last Thursday.  You know, there's a couple of games I did really well at, but like, Twilight Zone, stunk it up. Creature from the Black Lagoon, stunk it up. Venom stunk it up. I think people just laugh that you're in a pinball league.

Hey, man Nerd people do nerd stuff. So Barry. Yeah, drink beer play pinball. That's right  Yeah, I had some had some beers over at Magic Bear. Mm hmm. So we got to stop over there have a snack Yeah, right. Yeah Friday was work in the fair Saturday Saturday was you are escaping the cool thing that happened on Saturday night.

We finally get played your new game. Oh, yeah yeah, we played heroes of  Arcadia which is a  Very fun literally a beer drinking game a nerdy beer drinking games Dungeons and Dragons meets, you know, like Beer pong or something to the effect. I don't even know. Yeah, so your damage is you have to drink Yeah,  but I feel what we did find out is you kind of have to have an auxiliary beer nearby Yes, so here's the deal if you're winning the game your beer is full And stays full.

For a long time. And when I'm on my. It gets warm. Right. Which, yes, but, so I feel like now you choose your beer accordingly knowing which beer you want to have that if it gets warm it'll still be fine. Right. Okay, so I feel like this game would be a great Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Stout beer, right? Because it would, that would be fine drinking room temperature.

Well, look what you did there. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, so it's, yeah, you set up a hex board with all these tiles. As you move to the tiles, you flip them over and there's monsters you have to fight. There's loot that you get. There's power up cards that you can collect. And you roll a 20 sided die. Mm hmm. And roll a 20 sided dive, which I am still absolutely no good at apparently. 

You need a four or better, and you get a two. Oh my gosh. Uh, guess what? We gotta fight the same monster again. Okay, again, you need a four or better. I got this this time. And another two. And, and then Jay was drinking his drink. He actually had to refill it. Yeah. And then, yeah, if you die, you go to quote, unquote, you respond, fill the glass back up and go back to start.

Right. Yeah. That's me. I'm like, Oh, I should really just open a beer to the left of me here. Because that's what I'm thinking.  You've got the game beer and then you've got your, your beer that you're actually going to drink. Yeah. If you keep winning, you're not drinking. It's not going to, yeah. You almost want to lose.

You want to roll the dice and you need like a 15 year, like, come on to no  natural 20. Yeah, and then we found out 10 hit points is actually two regular sized sips. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So, it was really fun. I loved it. I can't wait to play it again. I think it's gonna be a hit when we play with our friends. Yeah, that's gonna be fun.

Maybe fill it with like, tequila, vodka. Holy cow!  Well, like, I mean, you can make of something. You lose to four monsters, you're on the floor.  Yeah, but we're gonna have to double up with people. We, there's not enough, like, you're gonna have to do it somehow in team mode. Or we buy an expansion pack.  There's an expansion pack that has two more glasses.

Well, then I guess everybody can drink beer then.  But I mean, we've, we can handle up to six players as it is right now. Hilarious. That's funny. Well, anyways, well good. Well, I enjoy doing fun things. I mean, fair fun. You know, fun at the fair, uh, fun at the home brew competition. Fun playing. Yeah. You know, unboxing a, a game to test out.

Right. Uh, which, you know, we definitely like. And then back to work on Monday,  got pay bills and then, you know, now today was like 65. I was 61. 61. It didn't even get to 65. No. 61 degrees. It was crazy. What do we got coming up? I don't know. What's on our schedule coming up here? It better still be back to summer.

Cause we got, uh, we have the concert on Thursday. New kids on the block.  And Paula Abdul, who is forever my girl, you know, forever my girl, and DJ Jazzy Jeff. Yeah, so we're gonna enjoy that. That's at Darien Lake on Thursday. Yeah, yeah, we should probably look into premium parking on that one. I don't know. I don't know, we'll figure that out in a minute.

But, yeah, we got that coming up. We've got Cars and Canines on, uh, this weekend, so we're gonna, I just remembered what the pencil in was. What was the pencil in? The sunflower gardens. Oh yeah, up in Sanborn. Yeah. Yeah, I've never been to that. Me neither. So I wanted to be able to check that out. That was what we forgot we couldn't remember.

Okay, that's cool. Alright, we'll see there, now we know, now we're definitely gonna pencil it in as soon as we turn the mics off here. Right. Which is gonna be in a minute, because Time's up already. That's it. Alright. Guys, hey, uh, uh, we will, uh, coming up on the next episode here, we're gonna be back with Barely Getting Started, continuing with our UK in a Day series, I believe this episode is Ireland, I think it's an Irish Red, I think it's Killian's.

Oh. So, uh, yeah, you'll, you'll see. If you want to, that's a week from today and also what we've got going on because of course I'm totally prepared for this and I didn't write this down so I'm going to look this up on my phone, but there's a new way that you can interact with the Buffalo Brews podcast  and we have a phone number.

It's basically a text number that you can reach out to us now. And if you. Basically text us at area code nine zero four. You look that up I know it's like Jacksonville, Florida or something like that's weird sounds like Florida. So nine zero four eight six seven four four six six and if you start the message with the numbers two one six three six six four that's the basically the file number of our podcast through buzzsprout anything that you put after that comes as a text and uh, we're uh going to be open to you Having the ability to read comments and feedback and stuff through texts on the air, I think it's going to be a just a fun new way to interact because ever since we moved over from Spotify, we really, unless you're emailing us, which, you know, you're going to click here and go there and  it's a whole mess just to be able to send a message. 

And, you know, people send comments and comments are usually just compliments on what we're drinking or the episode itself, but this is a good opportunity for interaction. So, uh, so again, It's area code nine zero four eight six seven four four six six and then you would just start the text with the numbers Two one six three six six four anything after that comes to us in a in a fun little text  You know, let's have some fun with it guys.

And that's all we've got. Yeah, and congratulations all the homebrewers Y'all did a good job. Oh my gosh. So yeah, so much so much fun. Can't wait to do that again next. Yeah All right. Awesome, and I can't wait to do this in a couple of weeks. All right. All right Alright, up high. Fist bump. Yeah. Oh my god, now you're hand turkeyed.