Fair Tunes and Home Brews

As the 184th Erie County Fair comes to an end, the memories and a great night of 90's county music remain. Jason and Sabrina talk the concert as well as the food and drink of the fair featuring Hamburg Brewing Company and Blackbird Cider Works. Fast forward to The Dude Hates Cancer Homebrew Competition that saw over 30 unique offerings from as far away as Connecticut. What's coming up for the podcast and how can you interact with us in future episodes?

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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 Erie County Fair. I took the work. 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. Little different feel for the Erie County Fair this year because the 90s 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 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 a Sunday. Dear Erie County Fair. Right. Stuff the suggestion box. So as usual, we ate, drank, ate some more. Right. Drank some more. Yeah, because there was all the fun fair foods. And then first row. First row for Pam Tillis. Which 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. Oh, crap. Yeah. Married to his wife for 29 years, who was standing 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, how, 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. Yeah. What a slash. I mean, I wish he would have had longer time on stage, honestly. Yeah. A few more songs I would have liked to hear, but you know, I guess they're openers to Travis Trett. Yeah. Travis Trett. Who was also awesome. Oh yeah. Just, yeah. Still doing his 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. 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. Yeah. So we had a little 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 they did a version 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. Was it white chocolate? Yeah. Okay. I know, right? Yeah. That worked. I mean, I could, you know, I'm 51 and I like fruity pebbles. So yeah, that's fine. I know. And then what else do we have? Oh, I had this gigantic. So 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. And deep fried. Yeah. 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 like, 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. It was a chilly day and have been able to, you know, warm up, you know, snuggle the pickle. So it was really, really good though. And what else do we have? Oh, we had the award winning French fry, hot chicken combination, honey, butter chicken fries. Yeah. So that was really good. Yeah, that was good. And then we also had, um, what was the wings that you had? That was the General Tso's, um, General Tso's panko breaded wings. Yeah. Those were good too. Yeah. That was really good. Um, 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 the best, 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 dipped in panko and fried. Jay doesn't eat pickles. And you had like a reminisce just to a few weeks earlier from the Lancaster RenFest. 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, drinks. Well, I mean, we'll get into a second and hear what we're drinking, but, uh, speaking of the Erie County Fair, but we had the, the tilt of Eisen, a Hefeweizen. We also had their, uh, the peach 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, um, I feel like we had, um. Hayburner. Yeah. Hayburner. And what did I get? I drank three of those while I was watching. I got you the Southern Tier IPA. Oh, uh, Juice Jolt. 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 this, the, uh, Straits, um, Midway, uh, show. So that'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 did they say that? That they are not doing it anymore? I don't know. It was 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. Uh, James E. Straits shows provides the amusement rides, 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 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. No. 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 the fair. 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. Yeah. But it's on tap right now, still at Hamburg Brewing Company. So you head down there and be able to enjoy that. 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 a lot. You press so many buttons. I do. We've got to bring it up on 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. Yeah. Can we give it a minute? Right? The official 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 it. You know, some of these ones are such, such small productions, I guess you get them while they're hot. Well, that kind of sucks too, right? Because I'm still in summer mode 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, 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. I feel like we do. You know, and 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 early. You know, fall. You transition 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. Oh, are we just, we're out of the fairway? We jump right in. Here we go. Listen, it's our show. It's our schedule. We will see what we like. Um, yeah, we were at the dude homebrew competition at Resurgence yesterday. Uh, our friend, friend of the podcast, Mike Lane of Greenlight Brewing Company, uh, was there with a couple of great productions and tag teamed with a Chari Brewing. Uh, Chari won with that, uh, that, uh, Czech Pilsner, uh, won one of the judges prizes for that. Uh, 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 a hundred percent of the time. It just depends, you know, yeah. And that episode with that episode's coming, we've got everything that we're still hanging onto from last season because we just, time runs away from us sometimes, 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, a 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 because 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 we not rocking? This is so easy to like do something cool. Right. 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 were just wearing what they were wearing. Right. I feel like Hawaiian shirts are just very summer. It's still summer. So people are wearing them. I mean, it was appropriate for some of the selections that we saw there. I was surprised at how many of those were. So what was, what was really cool, cause we got the roster in front of us here, couldn't believe that there were 30, 37 beers, cause one guy couldn't make it, 37 beers of this thing. Right. She hands us this list and I said, I thought there'd be like maybe 15 or 20 and it was fine because my money's 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, that's. Well, and I don't even know if we would have gone unless we would have ran into your friend over at Beer Kind and I, then I got introduced to him and 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. Oh, that's, I mean, that's my Westie fans that sold that, uh, let's see that stole the sparkle from your eyes, dry hops strata and Simcoe with edible gold glitter. It was super fun. So, yeah, we'll have to put the little, the 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. Yeah. Um, and they also had, which we, which we liked also was the Shirley Slade that fruited. Oh yeah. I had that twice. I, and there was a lot of women who are liking that one. Yeah. Well, I mean, I see, it seems like blackberry and raspberry or 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, 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. Yeah. So I felt it was good to mix it 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 here. Didn't you just drink, didn't you just drink a blackberry kohl's or whatever you were drinking? Um. I can't remember. We were just somewhere. Probably. Yeah. I feel like it was something. There's a few of them floating around. Um, let's see. One of them is, uh, Dave, uh, Dave, uh, Torshia. He had the, uh, La Jolla, 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 yours. Yeah. 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 and lemon peel. 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, but it was good. It worked. Yeah. Interesting. And what a fun color. 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, but you expected it to be rich and it kind of was. Oh yeah. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. With the wildflower honey. I think that's what gave it its darkness. And I think, I think people are, we're just fine with it because it was, it was really unique. And we really liked it a lot. Yeah. The Caucasian IPA, that was the white IPA, the first one that you had. White IPAs, not very common at all because people don't really reach for them. So 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 use 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 dude's delight white IPA. Did you find it? Mm-hmm. The dude's delight. Nice. Yeah. What was it? 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 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. Uh, 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, sharks in your ears. Oh, there you go. So 2930. Yeah. 2029. 2029. Yeah. So the, uh, the hoppy pale ale, crystal malts, um, flaked rye. 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 a, 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, 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. So where was our, um. So it was right, it was right next to the s'mores, 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 favor. 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. So they did, um, they did a thin mint stout, but they also did a, did you want to try a vacation and a glass? And I was like, I do. That's right. Yeah. So she totally got it from West Seneca. She totally got it. She was like, yes, exactly. You feel like that when you go places. And then the other one home brewer 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 tonic was kettle sour brewed with lactose, mango, guava and coconut. And I feel like for me, I taste a lot of guava and coconut. Well, you got the guava right off the bat before you even looked at the description. Yeah. Oh, I'm a huge, I love guava. 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 yes. So that one was a play on for people, the real 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 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 added in kind of, you know, the fun coconutty vacationy, whatever. So it tastes a cleaner, it tasted lighter. It was good. Yeah. We had, like, 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? 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, no, it's like, oh my God, Jay, you have no idea what you're doing. You know, the alchemist playing, you know, Heady Topper and 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, 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, just like banana bread. Yeah, but I hate bananas. I detest bananas. I won't even drink a half a bison because it tastes like a banana. I wish we had a video component to this podcast because 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 through playing around with it, get some feedback on. Yeah. So that was made with jackfruit, jackfruit, which he said is like a vegan substitute for things. Yeah. And I think 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. Yeah. And I can't I like to think that you were like interesting, but I don't think you ever tried it. 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. 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 could be 60 feet underground and we'll still hear those things. They're so close to. For sure. For sure. What else? Is there anything else that stood out to you? Because 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. I mean, we'll talk about the ale gals to finish out because we had a really nice. I figured that would be a whole different. But I mean, furthest travel for sure was what was their name? Forrest. Yeah, I shouldn't ever just like I know I had my eyes on it here. Another Caucasian Gary Forrest King brewing from 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 it's a name of a beer in Buffalo. Oh, 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. Right. And they killed it. I mean, you might as well have 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. OK, 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. Yep. Yeah, exactly. 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 of the scramble going on, people got hurt. 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? So we went over there and Paul had the one he missed, too, which was their other one. OK. And then she had the champagne one. Yep. Yeah. So shout out to Kat and Paul. Kat and Paul. OK. Yep. OK. 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 speaking of seeing people in a crowd. Right. So we see these two girls that the gals brewing. Right. Is that what their thing is? Oh, the ale gals. And I said, I know that face. I totally know that girl. And I looked at Jane. I was like, 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. Yeah. You know, and 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. Yeah. It had to go back. And then we went back and I was like, 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. Yeah. So, yeah, she was always so awesome. So what we learned, what we learned is her and I believe I don't 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 I don't remember either. I don't remember the other girls because we didn't talk to her nearly as much. Right. But Jen was explaining everything that she went into depth on everything. And I was absorbing it like a sponge because they had what we talked about a little bit ago was the the look what you made me brew. That was the mixed beer was the 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. It was champagne problems. It was a maze. So a coach, a blaze of coach style ale. And then what they did is a lager conditioned 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. I oh, yes. Yes, I did. Because I because there was a lot more than there was. Yes. In that. So there's been a few beers that I've actually had in the past years with this whole and I and I hope it's on there. The exact thing that they were using was like, Jay, you'll know it better than me. This whole something young, like whatever thing. Anyways, it are you talking about when they take the skins of the grapes and use them to. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So champagne problems, dry, light body coach that was dry hopped with Nelson.