Do you guys talk all day every day?

It's usually just a series of nudes.

Sometimes we go to like a day without talking.

No words exchanged.

Welcome in everybody. It's the craft beer Republic. Thanks for drinking. Thanks for joining. I am Greg being joined by, uh, by now a professional meat beater and that's flex still learning, still learning, but you're getting not how to beat my own.

Y ou know what? Nevermind. It's you're beating other people's meat. I'm beating other people's meat. Got it.

Nailed it. All right. On to the next, as promised, back for another week. It's everyone's favorite New Yorker. That's beer girl Mel.

What's happening? I am everybody's favorite meat eater.

Can you believe we roped her back into this? I can't.

I can't believe she just gave us that glorious drop, by the way. You know, everyone's favorite meat eater.

Watch out, boy. All right. No, seriously, I'm so glad to be back. Let's see if we can make this podcast as good as last week's.

Well, fingers crossed, but no promises here. Find us all on the socials, at craftbeerrepublic, at flexmeabeer underscores in between, and at beergirl underscore mel. That's twice in a row I've gotten it right. Look at me go. I am proud of myself. Pats on the back. All of those things. All right. Lots to get to today. We're all drinking some tasty beer. Well, I just sampled mine. We're all drinking some beers. Saw your face, man. Oh my God. This is not what I was expecting. Jesus Christ. I think this is my first experience with this. I almost hesitate to even review it. We'll get to that in a second.

Do you have another fridge beer? Quick.

Yeah. Text the wife. Bring me anything. Ludicrous libation law. We've got some booze news and so much. You know what? I'm just going to get into this. Let's knock the negative stuff right out of the way. All right. Let's talk about this thing. I'm drinking.

Oh, gosh.

I don't love my beer.

I hate my beer.

I hate my beer. Oh, my God, I just looked up the reviews. Clearly, I'm I'm in the fucking minority here. Oh, so today I'm drinking. Apologies, brewery. Gnarly Barley Brewing's Castle Made of Clouds. What a cool brewery.

Gnarly Barley Brewing. Where are they based out of?

That one place. Don't you know, as I buy myself time to click on stuff, Louisiana and the Castle Hammond, Louisiana, a barley based beer. I don't know. We'll find out. They actually have a description. My beer last week did not. Eight and a half percent for one three on untapped out of over a thousand ratings. Wow. They say, this hazy, juicy double IPA was brewed with oats and lact... Oh, there we go. Lactose to provide the foundation for silky texture that is compounded by the tropical flavors that gush off the New Zealand Pacific sunrise hops used. Starts with citrus up front and cleans up with a punch of pineapple that rounds out with stone fruit and dare we say, a tiny hint of coconut. A paradise, a luxury, a castle made of clouds. Um, all right, I'm gonna snozz. I just keep getting stale beer smell. Maybe it's a bad can. I mean, it's got over four with over a thousand ratings. I'm looking for a date on the can. I can't find it. This did come from Tayvor. Maybe it sat somewhere in a warehouse too long. The schnauz, it's just kind of stale smelling.

The description reminded me of my childhood, like a Quaker oats packet of like strawberries and cream oatmeal, you know, like, and that is a positive thing. So I'm disappointed.

It doesn't taste that way. I get maybe some fermented fruit on the nose. I get that hot burn smell, if that makes any sense. Not in a good way.

You like hot burn, I was gonna say. Yeah, but it shouldn't for the description that you just read to us.

So I don't get any of the lactosey sweetness, which honestly is probably a good thing. I just, I'm having a hard time pinpointing the flavor. It tastes old and stale and not in a beer snobby. Not in a beer snobby way, are you? Beer snobby, like this can is at least three weeks old. It's stale. That is true. I don't mean it like that. I mean, this thing tastes like it came from 1987. I'm going to chalk it up to bad can, I hope. Because with that sort of rating on tapped where people are fucking brutal, it just doesn't taste good. And I know generally I'm not a huge fan of lactose in beer, but this is not that. This is just not good.

Oh, darn. I want to blame the can. Lactose kind of masks anything bad, too. Yeah, just add a little sweetness to it.

It takes over. Yeah. I'm scrolling down the reviews on untapped one person gave it a three and a half and said, man, it's fine. Oh, OK, which is more than I would give it. But yeah, all right. Well, I don't know if I'm going to finish this.

Is it is it a drainpour? That's what I was going to ask. I'm like, is this a drainpour?

I guess we'll find out if I finish it or not. Oh my god. We'll see if I end up texting my wife and asking for another beer. I feel like you should. We're just starting the podcast. Yeah.

Yeah. Just do it. Yeah. Gnarly Barley, if you're out there, send a good can of it so you can re-review it.

I really hate saying negative things about breweries, especially breweries I don't know that well. But man, this can't be what they intended. I'll say that. This can't be what they intended for it. So maybe, uh, you know, got really hot on that shipment over to table or something rough. Okay.

That's a lot to unpack in the beginning of the podcast.

Let's move on. So much to get to today. Uh, you know, something we've followed for the last few years is like the ebbs and flows of ballast point and how they went from, uh, you know, craft darling of San Diego to sell out to the world. I think the only sellout brewery to increase their prices after selling out. Boy, did nobody want to buy Sculpin after that. But yeah, anyways, so I'm sure you guys all know Kings and Convicts bought them a few years ago. It was weird as fuck when they did. And it was a super cheap, like pennies on the dollar price compared to what they were bought out at. And has anybody actually been to Kings and Convicts?

Okay. So here's a funny story about this. Okay. So, we had a little local beer crew over here, like the southeastern Wisconsin area, and my friend, his handle is Brewery Travels, a little underscore in between, and he sent this message out the other day. He said, do you guys remember that small brewery that bought Ballast Point? Well, I'm here and it's one of the strangest brewery tap rooms I've ever been to. So he proceeded to send us a few pictures of the brewery and it is like a completely empty warehouse. There is this strange It's got a golf simulator, believe it or not. It's empty with a golf simulator, lawn furniture. Like lawn chairs, and just like old wooden tables.

Like the plastic lawn chairs?

Like plastic lawn chairs, and they serve, they have no glassware, and they serve all their beer in red solo cups. Oh, it's the worst. Yeah, and they have like, like, city, they have like city trash bins as their garbage cans, like inside too.

Yeah.

It's just, it's super fucking bizarre. So weird.

It's gotta be a front for something, right? I mean, clearly. I mean, here's the thing. No one had ever heard of Kings and Convicts until they bought Ballast Point. And I think at this point, still no one's heard of Kings and Convicts. But yeah, they gotta be like laundering money through Ballast Point, right?

It's gotta be something. It has to be. Has to be. I mean, who just serves beer? If you're making craft beer, you're serving it to people in red Solo cups.

I hate plastic cups. Here's where I am a beer snob. I want it in a glass. I don't want plastic. It's just bizarre. Yeah. I don't know. Am I alone in the glass thing here? No, I mean, I like a good glass.

I do not like, yeah.

I'm not so crazy to be like the style of glass, like this glass is for this or whatever, but I do like a nice clean glass.

Even if it's just like your typical pint glass. Yeah, for sure.

Just please a glass. Unless I'm tailgating where I need to dispose of.

Different story. Then I just drink cans.

I'm not a total savage. It's probably not a good beer anyway.

Right. I'm just wondering if they're like just venturing in from like homebrewing to now they have acquired this.

But how do you get all that money to buy Bale's Point?

What do they call them? Nepo babies? Nepo, right? Like a Nepo baby, like the celebrities that have kids that are, they're born into money. So, and then they just do whatever they want. Like they come up with like a sock line. A sock line?

Oh, sock.

Okay. Sock, like Rob Kardashian, not dropping names, but you know, like things like that where it doesn't even make sense. Like, Or like a pillow company where their parents are like, you need to do something. Check out my pillow. And he's like, well, I'm really good at like flip cup and like partying in college. Like buy me this brewery. And here we are.

You know, maybe. It's fucking weird. So weird. It is bizarre. That is weird. Yeah, I you would think like whoever bought about even though the pennies on the dollar is still like 50 million dollars You'd think maybe your your home base would be a little upgraded. Oh, yeah That's super weird. I'm so glad who's your friend that sent that over was the gram?

brewery travels with the underscore in between

Go give him a follow. I'm glad he sent that over. I had no idea. That's so fucking bizarre. Yeah, it's uh... How bizarre?

It was cra- I had no idea it even looked like that. I don't think anybody does no one's actually ever been there before he's the first, but I guess it's funny I mean the golf simulator in there is like huge too. It looks like an industrial guard like a industrial big fucking like garbage bin dumpster Why not I guess?

So they're Italians then so you're right. They are funnily money never mind

Do the Italians love golf simulators? Is that what this is?

No, garbage. Oh, garbage. Yeah. That's the whole front. The sanitation business. Come on now.

Are you allowed to talk about this in public?

I'm not on that side of the... I'm not on that side. Oh. So yeah, I can.

You're okay.

It's legit. I mean, even if you watch like the Sopranos or any of them. Yes.

It's well known.

Yeah. Yeah. That's an Italian out there and they easily would just not care about pushing some money one way for one of their kids to take over.

I guess it kind of makes sense.

Yeah. Next podcast, Mel's disappeared wearing cement boots and campaign hound.

Our guest tonight is Mel. Hey Mel, how's it going? Sorry, Mel's a little tied up right now. Not even funny.

She's a rat.

Yeah, niches get stitches. Mel, do you speak Italian?

No, not at all.

Oh, damn.

No, that was part of the immigration in the 1950s, when everybody came over, was to become Americanized as fast as possible.

Oh.

We were really not looked well at, you know, like Italians and Irish. Right. Our immigration, if you ever read a history book.

Well, yeah, it's Irish and the Gold Rush. People didn't like us. Yeah.

People did not like the Italians, and they were like, Just very quick to try to become American. And also, that was the goal.

I feel like that was most immigrants, right?

I think so, yeah. Yeah, coming over for... But if you see old immigrants versus new immigrants, the new immigrants are definitely keeping a hold of their traditions, their language, their culture, which I love. But yeah, no, we're kind of lost. So, unfortunately, no.

Do you speak about it as much as Peter Griffin?

I know, like, the bad words.

Oh, that's important. Bibbidi-bobbidi. Yeah. Bibbidi-bobbidi-bobbidi. That's all I know. All right.

Now, sugo means sauce.

Oh. You even said sauce right. Sauce. Yeah.

I like saying it like that.

Alright, we'll stop offending immigrants now. We'll move on to more beer things. Before we find out what Mel's drinking over there, ludicrous libation law. This one comes from Connecticut. Apparently, druggists, which I didn't even know was a thing. It's a real word. Yeah. Why don't they just call them pharmacists? But druggists in the state must pay $400 each year for a special license. That is, if they want to use alcohol in compounding prescriptions. Okay.

Now I'm curious because Tim, my Monday buddy, he's a pharmacist. Now I need to know if this is a druggist thing is real, real word.

I'm guessing it's a pharmacist who also does compounds like mixes their own shit.

Pharmacists are allowed to do that all across the board.

So in Connecticut, if you want to use alcohol in your things that you're compounding, you have to have a special license.

I wonder why they would put alcohol into the compound.

I don't know, maybe it does something.

All right, now I have to do research for the next podcast.

See you next week. Yeah, you would be super interested in that.

Yeah, yeah, I would, because that's also like intravenous, so it could be dangerous, but... Oh, yeah. I mean, imagine you could just get your alcohol through an IV. That'd be a new cliche bar.

It'd be very convenient. They have like that in Vegas, right? The IV bars?

Yeah, but it's not alcohol. It's usually like vitamins. It's like so you- It's to recover from alcohol. Yeah, to not be hungover.

Yeah, I knew that.

I was just gonna assume that. I guess you could put anything in it really, but now I'm curious. Oh, I'm curious.

Flex, you ever butt funnel some beer? I know what that is. Notice how he didn't actually answer the question. So we'll move on to find out what Mel is drinking over there as we call to the pen.

He calls to the bullpen for beer.

So, of course, I am going to shamelessly plug Aspire Brewing again, but I am really excited to share this beer with you guys because it's one of my favorites. It's the Helles Lager. It's called dextrous. It is a light beer. It's a game day beer. So it was perfect to be called to the pen or from the pen because it's 5.3%. It is all malt, Pilsner and Cara Munich. Enjoy lightly sweet malt flavors in this crisp and very drinkable helles lager. Dextrous, adjective. Having mental adroitness, I'm saying that wrong, or skill, also clever. Fun fact, I am ambidextrous, which means that I do things with both of my hands.

Jerk off with both hands.

You never know. I write with my left, I do a lot of things with my right. This beer is phenomenal. You guys, I did send you a picture of it so you can see clarity. Nice and clear. It's got beautiful bubbles, very effervescent. My nose job is not really working so well.

I'm trying to sniff.

It's been fired, but you know what I can I can smell them all through that I can smell I couldn't identify it I couldn't tell you which one it is, but it's got that really bready smell and when I give it a little taste

This is the tongue job.

This is just a really clean. Yeah. Oh gosh. I love this beer so much. It's, it's almost like drinking a pretzel minus the salt. You know what I mean? It's got that really nice, enjoyable malt where it's like a little sweet, but definitely not caramel. Definitely not malt bomb, like bready. lights, like I want to drink this all the time. I could have probably like five or six of these and never be satisfied. I would want another one. It's just really well executed. It's one of my favorites, hands down. And, um, I've noticed like over like probably the last like year and a half, I've, I've been kind of migrating towards more of those like crispy boys, as you call them, you know, like Morehouse Lagers, a Kolsch, I love a good Kolsch, straight Pilsner, you know, just something a little bit lighter, a little bit cleaner that like could really pair well with anything that you're eating or doing, any game day activity, it's a lawnmower beer, oh gosh, it's just gorgeous.

I contend that Hellas and Kolsch are the two styles that you can judge a brewery on. If they can knock those out, there's nothing to hide behind a Hellas or a Kolsch. If they knock those out and they're great, then- This is phenomenal.

I'm going to have to send you guys some care packages of the beer so you can agree with me. The canner is fun. I did send it to them, but they can't see it. It's like this kind of I can't tell if it's a nature-y hand or if it's a zombie hand, but it's holding malt in it and it's facing upward. The palm is facing upward with the malt in between the thumb and the pointer finger. Yes, you're doing it, Flex. Just close that pointer finger and the thumb.

I thought it was a robot hand.

It does kind of look robotic, but as I look at it, the joint kind of looks, it's hard to tell. They kind of look like they could be mushrooms or swap thing. I don't know. I'm such a fan. I'm such a fan of this beer.

I love how passionate you are about a lager, by the way.

You know what?

True beer nerd. I'm huge on lagers and I think that's... Not huge knowing anything about them, just huge on really enjoying a game. Yeah, like I feel your passion so much.

This is like your everyday beer Like I would make this my Bud Light but like I'm classier than Bud Light, you know what I mean? Who is it? It's not even comparable to Bud Light like it's so much better But it's just it's one of those beers you want to have it in your fridge You have a couple people over you're watching the game like this is what I'm drinking.

It's a people pleaser beer like it's one of those party beers where you know you put it out and Anybody who's a beer drinker won't be mad about it

No, they'll have it and they'll want more of it.

It's like out here. It's like 805. If you're going to, if you need to have one beer at a party, it's 805. No one's going to hate it. It's just, it's on tap. There you go. Heck yeah. Nice and light.

Get it. Not offensive to anybody.

I hope I'm doing it justice because it really is that good though.

Yeah, it's perfect.

Perfect Sunday beer. I think you've plastered it all over the wall, actually.

Yeah.

You've painted a mural of it in town. That's what you did to this beer. That is absolutely what happened, yeah.

I think you did a great job. Well, good. Well done.

Thank you.

They owe you money now.

I would hope so. I do get to drink for free mostly, so. I guess that works out.

That automatically adds like two points to the beer, whatever. It's a seven. Oh, it's free? That's a nine. Yeah, this is delicious. Yeah. Nighter. Oh, free beer is delicious. All right, let's move on to a little bit of booze news before we find out what Flex is drinking over there. Conor McGregor, his forged Irish stout is now available in the U.S. and by U.S. they just mean Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and very specifically New York City. New York City. He says, it's time the world gets to experience a true Irish stout that is 100% Irish compared to the competition. Is that a shot at Guinness?

I was going to say, yeah.

My team and I have worked extremely hard to produce the world's creamiest stout here in my brewery in Dublin. And it's breaking all records in Ireland and the UK. So now it's time to take over the U.S. I guess so. I have no idea. Who knew? And now it's in Mel's hood. Getting it. Research. Yeah. I bet he's contract brewing. I mean, I guess I could have done some research. Well, no, nobody gets you for that. You're not wrong. Uh, the average price of a 12 ounce beer at us bars and restaurants increased 10.2% over the last year, uh, ending August 12th. So, uh, beer's just getting more and more expense. Well, you know, inflation. Yeah. Thanks.

Thanks, government.

Thanks, government. In a turn of, wow, did we not need this, Coop Aleworks has partnered with Welch's, you know, like Welch's grape juice? Grape juice and jelly, not jam, there's a difference. They are going to put out a 7.5% spirits-based beverage. Ew.

What are we doing here?

It sounds like diabetes.

I feel like it's going to be some weird peanut butter and jelly malt beverage, and it's just not going to be good.

I can't wait for, like, the Knott's Berry Farm Boysenberry 7.5% seltzer. That's a California joke, everybody. But yeah, at what point does this thing jump the shark and we're done turning everything into a fucking seltzer?

Um, it's not going to stop until we stop it. We have to stop the machine because everybody's just trying to make money. It's on us.

Yeah, it's definitely the consumer's fault.

We should have stopped it at Bud Light Flannels. What were we thinking?

Those cans were cool, though. The Yankee Candle Edition. You know, this is like absolute shit, buddy.

Those would have faded. The saving grace for the Bud Light ones was when Mel sent them to Flex. Yeah. And he posted them, and they got a huge spike in sales because Flex is so hot. Totally reverse the course, it's Mel's fault for making Flex drink them.

You dared me, you dared me. It's your fault.

Why would you actually send Bud Light seltzers through the mail? That's my question. Why would anybody do that?

Because Craig dared me to. I did. I did. Yeah. You were the one that said I could be on the show if I sent them and then we could review them. And I was like, that's my end. So I don't, by the way, I also like kind of put a lot of really good beer in with that.

You did.

I think there was like 15 cans in a medium. Yeah. Like a medium box.

Like $100 in shipping. Don't even mess with me. Yeah.

I don't care. Did you get the good beer besides the shitty seltzers? Yes, I did. Okay, so shut up. Drink the damn seltzer.

Now, here's the question. I drank them all. Did you send them one of each flavor or did you send them the whole box?

No, I sent one of each flavor because I felt it wasn't fair for him to do it alone. So I tried them all and they were awful.

What was it? It was the marshmallow, the pumpkin, the apple, and there was a pear.

The pear was probably the best one. The worst was the apple because it tasted like a Yankee candle. Like I bit into a Yankee candle.

Drinking wax. The apple was bad. The marshmallows smelled like it was going to be good, and then that was bad.

They all smelled like they were going to be exactly what was on the label. They're just so bad. But when you tasted them, something went awry.

It's so weird that something from Bud Light tasted bad. Who'd have seen that coming?

Do they still do these holiday packs?

I wonder if that's... Do they even still do Bud Light Seltzer?

Yeah, they have like that tie-dye edition. I saw that over the summer.

What is that? Tastes like weed or something?

I don't know. I didn't try them.

Nah, come on. We need you to do that Bud Light Seltzer research. Our official Bud Light Seltzer correspondent, Beer Girl Mel.

This just in, it tasted like shit.

If you really want to hear you gotta drag out that I like tasted like shit.

It's a bit nutty.

Oh God, Austin. All right. What else is happening? Oktoberfest. Oh, here we go. Before we find out what Flex is doing. Oktoberfest 2023 had a record number of visitors. I think I heard about this. Me too. But they did not sell as much beer as they sold in the past. I didn't hear that.

It was cannabis? Was it something about weed?

Oh, it was not cannabis. No? So they had seven point... Oh, cocaine! There it is. Spoiler alert. They had 7.2 million visitors, but beer sales were lower than 2019. And that's because of cocaine.

Yeah, I read this.

There were 368 instances of drug use being reported. So, you know, tons more happened. Right. At the 2023 festivals, most party goers were caught with nothing more than weed, but 40% of people reprimanded were in possession of cocaine, an 80% increase compared to the previous year.

40%? Yes. That's like half of the people, guys.

That's a lot. Did they just discover it over there or what?

Maybe they cracked down.

Did you guys break up some chalk? What is this? Oh, cocaine. Oh, let's try it.

I mean, you got to have when you're drinking all that beer, you got to have something to like wake you back up.

You know, sober. Yeah. Or they're like still like 20 years behind.

They're like Tony Montana, right?

They're like 30 years. Well, whatever. Yeah. Lots of years.

You know, like in Eurotrip, though, when they go to fucking Bratislava and the guy is like, where's the beef? I can't believe you remember anything from Eurotrip. Miami Vice, number one new show.

Were we not just talking about this recently?

Yeah, you sent me the Scotty doesn't know thing. Scotty doesn't know. Scotty doesn't know. Dude, Eurotrip is the best, by the way. It really is. I haven't seen that in so long.

I remember that entire movie. So here's a funny local story that's related to this. I'm not going to name names. I'm not going to name breweries. But somebody I know that works at a local brewery that had an Oktoberfest celebration said that it got a little out of hand and they actually found people in the, not even outside, in the brewery at a table doing cocaine. Like, in the open? In the open, not trying to hide it. And I jokingly said to this person, like, maybe that's how the Germans do it. And that was before I had found this story. Turns out that's how the Germans do it. They're into cocaine.

Germans love the cocaine.

Yeah, they're just trying to be authentic with their coke. That's crazy.

Yeah, very like their festivals and the music and all that. So it kind of makes sense to me, though.

I don't know. Accordions don't make me think cocaine.

No, no, no, I mean like electronic festivals. There's a lot of them out there.

I gotta fucking book off for a hundred straight hours.

Give me the cocaine.

Hands are getting tired.

Gotta roll out the barrel. Roll out the barrel with the cocaine.

That turned a little Cosby at the end. Did it? Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah. Put some Earl in the cocaine. Put in the pops.

Your Cosby is the equivalent of Peter Griffin's Italian. So bad.

So good.

So good.

So bad, it's good. Exactly. You nailed it. All right, let's answer some important, and when I say important, I mean long, important questions.

in a world where craft beer is king everybody take a nap in a world where muscles are bigger than growlers only one tongue can guide us In this world, we must find out... Come on! What is Flex drinking? Wake up!

Yeah, everybody's still there. No, he didn't leave. All right. Um, I'm still here. So I, I have been drinking, uh, some microphone brewing beers lately. And this one caught my eye a couple of weeks ago. And it's ironic because I had just told somebody the other day I was, uh, I've not been into sours recently. Like I've stopped buying them altogether probably for like the past year, I would say. Yeah, like I just don't do it anymore. This one caught my eye. It is the key lime cheesecake incident. It is a key lime cheesecake inspired Berliner style of ice Berliner ale Berliner. Fuck you, man. I got called out for the Modelo thing again today.

I only love it because I think the last time you said Berliner, Mel was on the show.

Probably. Maybe. I don't know. I always read it as Berliner. You're cute as fuck. Oh my gosh. Thank you. So it's what I just said it was. With lactose, key limes, graham cracker, and cheesecake flavoring.

By the way, this sounds like a dream beer for my wife.

It sounds delicious. Like I want it to be the Burger King slice of pie. Oh, you guys remember those? Burger King pies, you get like a slice and they had the key lime one and it was in a little box that was triangle shaped because it was a slice of pie. Yeah.

No, we only went to Burger King when they were, uh, Pokemon toys and the kids were there.

Oh, I got to go there a lot because I was a latchkey kid and I was given like $5 a day to eat.

Yeah, this is when we were kids, Flex. Well, Greg, you're like two years older than I am.

You're right. I think three. So, uh, no wonder you don't remember.

37, right? 37 it is. So this is 6% back to the beer.

Untapped literally says everything I already said.

And it's 1.2,000, 1.2,000 ratings, 1.2, 1,200 ratings. I don't know. Sounds weird. 1.2,000. I thought you were going to say 1.2 stars. I'm like, wow. It says 1.2 K reviews. It just sounds weird when you say 1.2 1,200 1,200. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Sure. We'll get there eventually. We're going to get there. Okay. Uh, 4.1 is the overall out of that. So, um, I think that's good. Super limey on the old schnauz. Um, like super limey, like think of limes. Well, key limes. I don't want to be a dick. There is a difference a very big there is yeah, you can definitely smell like the sweetness.

Yeah of the lime It's it's wonderful, and it does look like lime juice.

Oh, yeah, that's to like Lemonade almost looks like a margarita like a melted margarita. Yeah, absolutely oh Very, uh, it's a great, it's a inviting color, I think, to, to a sour style. Uh, and then, and then we get the old tongue jobber up in there.

I wouldn't trail.

I can't take him serious when he does that.

I can't stand up when he does that.

So this beer, it's like super effervescent. It is sour, but it's delicious because the lime and the graham cracker and the cheesecake, they all come together and nothing is overpowering. No flavor is overpowering in this beer and it is just really well executed. And I want more and more and more and even more of this. Ooh, I like that. It is very delightful. Big words. Yes.

Yeah, I like when you're wanting and needing more from something, you know?

Yes. More, please, sir. Or ma'am.

What sticks out the most? Is it the lime? Is it the graham cracker sweet?

It's certainly the lime. It's certainly the lime. And then you get the cheesecake flavoring. And it's not it's not a weird because it's not like a chunky, over-fruited type deal here. Yeah. So the cheesecake isn't what's the word?

Right. It's not like a chunk. Yeah.

You know what I mean? So it's just like you get that slight flavoring, but it pairs so well with the lime. It's not a smoochie. And then you get a little bit of that graham crackery crumble. Oh, I'm telling you, it's so good.

You're drinking dessert right now. For real.

You're welcome.

Greg, I wonder if we could appeal to Burger King to see if they could give us a pairing. Send us the slices of those.

I was thinking while he was talking about that, after we talked about Burger King, like Burger King should do some sort of collab beer where they call it like triangle in a box or something like that.

Like at least in California, like they should get on the Taco Bell train. Yeah. You know, like Taco Bell, you can get like alcohol, right? Out there by you guys. No.

No, it's vegan.

There are some Taco Bells where you can get alcohol.

Oh, the cantinas. The cantinas. Are there any in California? There probably are. They're based in California. I thought that's where they were.

New York is illegal, for sure.

I've never come across one of the cantinas before. Okay. But I think it's legal because it's not a fast food joint. It's like a sit down restaurant. Is that what it is? Yeah.

All right. Well, Burger King, if you're out there, I'm pitching you. Let's bring those slices back. I would eat fast food if they had those again.

Was it that good or something?

They had that Snickers one too. I love those little pies. I don't know why. I think it's nostalgia.

So beyond the pies, Burger King, worst fast food or?

Oh God. I haven't had fast food in like, I had like two bites of McDonald's last year in a very bad point of a day. My kids didn't want to eat it. And then I felt down. I was like, somebody better eat it. But I actually don't eat fast food and I haven't really eaten it in like 15

The main fast-food restaurants that are like nationwide for everybody it's like McDonald's KFC I don't consider in the box. No, we don't have a box either. Oh, really Mel do you have Carl's or Hardee's?

Neither.

I think we have Jersey. I think we have one Hardee's in Muscat. Two Hardee's. We have two Hardee's.

But no Carl's Jr.? No. No. I mean, it's the same fucking thing. Same thing. Yes.

Right. I know that. I do know that about them. But Jersey is where they have those. So it's really like your big box brand fast food. Taco Bell, Donald's, Wendy's, Burger King.

I would say Burger King is the worst.

Popeye's, KFC.

Popeyes is not that big out here. We only have a couple by me.

It's making its way, I think.

Raising canes is making its way. I've seen that a few times.

Is it good? Oh, Chick-fil-A.

Chick-fil-A is the best. A little hit and miss out here.

Chick-fil-A, people are trying to get them to be a part of us, but it's hard because they're like very religious, like Christians. The people that own these franchises are usually not white Christians, so they just don't let them have franchises.

The Chick-fil-A beliefs have slowed down their growth in California.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Same here.

I just love how they have a restaurant in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Oh, do they? Yeah, where they have football games on Sundays and the restaurant remains closed.

They do not open on Sunday, oh, that's hilarious Lou actually applied for like to become an owner like a franchise person.

Oh, really?

Yeah. Yeah, and he's not Catholic enough and he's not So they can see Lou being like you don't think I'm fucking Catholic Jane with the fucking gold chicken Yeah, he was like, what are these questions? He's like, they're asking me, do I save Nona or do I, you know, get this baby baptized? What does this have to do with chicken? And I'm like, I have no idea. I don't know, I'm gonna go with save the kid, save the kid.

That is a brilliant applicant question.

It is the weirdest thing ever. He heard it and he came out and he was like, he's looking at me and he was like, you have no idea. He's like, I'm traumatized over it.

That's insane. Fucking weird.

It made no sense. I'm like, I don't know. I'm like, how fast can you fry the chicken and then save both of them? Right. That's my answer. Who's hungry? So ridiculous.

It's so stupid. So stupid. Uh, so fast food, huh? All right.

Yeah.

You guys, neither of you have In-N-Outs out there, right? No.

No. I want to try one though.

We have Culver's, which if you haven't had Culver's, you really need some.

And we have Five Guys.

See, we have Five Guys too, but Five Guys is a rip off.

Oh, is it? Yeah. I'll go to In-N-Out over Five. So that was a big thing. When Five Guys first popped out over here, they're like, oh, Five Guys versus In-N-Out. I was like, In-N-Out in a heartbeat.

What about Bear Burger? Do you have Bear Burger? Like B-A-R-E?

No. No. Sounds plant-based. Yeah, it does.

It's legit, but it's like very Whole30. Oh. You know, no like additives, like it's 100% beef and all that. Yeah, it's good. I like those burgers.

Hey, so this is a beer show. We're just over here sounding like stoners, like, so I need a McDonald's.

Right, oh, I could use a burger right now, man. I'm so hungry.

Spicy chicken sandwich.

Oh, goddamn. So good. Popeyes has some good spicy chicken nugs. Aye. Oh, I haven't been to Popeyes in, like, 30 years, but goddamn. They're not popular, are you? Oh, Flex, this is so good. Wisconsin Bar is getting rid of porn. This is so good. So good. So bizarre. There's a bar in Madison that shows porn on Saturday and Sunday mornings. It's called Bennett's Meadowood Country Club. I love that their name is Country Club, by the way. It's not a country club. It's a shitty dive bar. Oh. I looked it up. And they show porn Saturday and Sunday mornings. And they call it porn in the morn. Porn in the morn, yep. And so I looked them up on Yelp and like all their regulars, they call it smut and eggs, which is great. Oh, God. They have three and a half stars on Yelp. And, you know, if you're looking for a couple of chuckles, check out the Yelp comments. There's some funny stuff, but apparently they're getting rid of porn. Have you ever been there, Flex?

No, I've never even heard of it, but I saw the posts and I had to send it to you. Mean we did we have a few bars out here that they play nothing, but like classic wrestling shit TV's all day and all night of that So that's a popular thing around like the Milwaukee area I've never never seen porn till now Third shifters probably like you know They get off at like 7 a.m. Errs. I I mean, that's that's when bars open here for them for like the third shift people.

Yeah. Third shift. Hmm. That's so weird. And also it'd be uncomfortable to like be in public watching that and like eating and drinking.

I don't know, I'm sure it was like, like classic porn, you know, like all the comments from the 80s. See, and that's like porn and borderline is you can almost consider it being like comedy movies.

Yeah. Like a real question. Would you feel weird ordering sausage? No.

Extra sausage, please.

Hey, sir. How's your sausage? Delicious and large.

Can we get some more porn out here?

I'm right at low on porn. I can still stand up. Oh my gosh. Yeah, that's, uh, that's middle of America at its finest. Yeah. Welcome to the Midwest. Yeah. Well, apparently they've been doing it for like 30 years. Why stop now? That's, that's my question. Why stop now?

Maybe they finally discovered Yelp. I don't know.

Like, Oh, people don't love the porn apparently. Like most of the reviews talked about how like, uh, you know, you better be ready for the porn. The food's not great. You're coming for the atmosphere and the comedy and that kind of thing. So,

You know. See, so I guarantee you the porn is just like a funny, it's more, it's got to be more of a funny thing than like a serious thing.

I'm sure. I totally, but you know, enjoy your sausage and your sausage.

It just feels like to me, like a night that never ended. And then you wanted to keep going, but you needed to eat something also. And then it just ended up. I think you nailed it.

Going very south. Very quickly. Oh, south. Definitely. There's a strip club in Milwaukee that does all you can eat breakfast that starts at 3 a.m.

Which I appreciate because a lot of the strip clubs out here that also serve food, it's always like, get some chicken wings and stuff. It's like, you know where I don't want to order chicken from? A fucking strip club. That sounds dangerous. Hard pass.

I mean, heated pan of scrambled eggs and bacon and... Ew, all of it. Some breakfast potatoes.

It's just grossing me out. No. But that's all stuff that one... It sounds like Mel just knocked over seven cans of beer. I did.

I just knocked over a can. I was like trying to... She's got like her seven cans.

Like her beer castle.

Two, but yes.

Seven, got it. Yeah, like breakfast foods, once they're cooked, they're cooked and they're not going to kill you. Chicken, on the other hand, that can be dicey. I don't need your strip club chicken wings.

Yeah, just any of it.

I can respect that.

There is a strip club near us that is known for their steaks. They have a really great steak. Shut the fuck up. No, I swear to you. I swear.

Maybe that's how they get the deep pockets in there.

It's called the mansion. It's called the mansion and they're known for their steaks, but it is a strip club. Like I don't know how it works if like they're full.

You got to call it like a high class gentlemen's club or something like that.

Yeah. Right. But in California you can't be fully nude and serve alcohol.

That's usually the same in New York, but I've never been to this place. I've just heard it from people.

You know what I mean?

I've totally been there. Yeah. No, never been there. Just heard it, but the steaks were- Hey, Flex.

Hi. Want to go to the mansion? I thought you'd never ask. Let's drag Mel and Lou out to the mansion. I love steaks. We're there. Yeah.

Done and done.

If we went out there, Mel would go. I would go without you.

You would go without us. Then why haven't you gone? We need you to do some homework and report back.

All right, I'm going to do it. I'm going to go.

She's like, I'm training for a marathon. I don't have time to go to these steakhouse strip clubs.

I am training for a marathon. We have to do this before January. I'm going back to school to be a nurse practitioner. There's a lot happening in life. I'm gonna sneak this trip into the mansion, and I'm gonna order a steak, and I will review both of them.

There's always time for steak and boobs.

See, that makes me wonder, is it like multiple cuts of steak? Or is it like, they only do this steak? Or is it like a full-on steakhouse menu?

I've just laughed every time people told me that they ordered a steak while they were going there. Do I get a choice of a potato?

It's both.

You must. Do you think steak is code for something? No, no, no.

It's a legit steak. Like a filet mignon.

Maybe a peppercorn sauce? I do like peppercorn sauce.

Oh, peppercorn sauce is good. Like peppercorn wine sauce. That's good stuff. When we were in Tahoe, we went on this god-awful cruise across the lake dinner thing. The wife really wanted to do it. And I was like, you know, the food's going to be bad. She's like, no, the reviews say the food's great. I'm like, mm, it's going to be horrible. Spoiler, food was awful. And we ordered our steaks. And I got mine medium rare, and she got hers medium. They looked exactly the same. Which I knew, I knew it happened, like it's worse than wedding food. Every time. Yeah. Yeah. And she's like, the food's not really good. I was like, of course it's not. It's a fucking boat. You're not paying for food, you're paying for the sunset views.

Experience, yeah. You're paying for their gas money. Yeah, it was the worst.

She's like, I can't believe it wasn't good. The reviews said it was good. I was like, the reviews are people from Nevada who come from Vegas. Anything's good. Sorry, Vegas. Not really. Yeah. Anyways. Stakes. Get a men's strip club. Yeah. Dick and titties, everybody.

And on that note, good night, everybody.

On that note, we're gonna hit some music. I was gonna say I feel awkward saying this but hi Vanessa.

Weird segue.

Very weird segue. Hello Vanessa. I said hello. Mel, thanks for putting up with us for two weeks in a row.

I think you guys put up with me mostly and you couldn't even see me each time.

You should get an award.

Give me an award.

Or you know what else you should get? You should also get a camera.

I know. I'm working on that for next week. We'll get there. We'll get there.

We're back again. Seven computers and not one of them has a camera.

Yeah, but a yellow camera.

Well, she does have seven cans of beer she just knocked over. Yeah, we'll get there. It's a low budget show. We'll get there eventually. Luckily, the listeners are like, you guys have cameras? We can't see you fucks. Follow us on the socials at Craft Beer Republic, at Flex Me A Beer, underscore is in between. And of course, at Beer Girl, underscore Mel. And she's dished up some sweet steaks over there. So go check her out in New York.

Yep.

I think that's everything. I hope everyone out there is staying very well hydrated as Flex yawns.

I was like Flex falling asleep standing up.

Alright, ready? Ready for it. Here we go.

And on that note, goodnight everybody!