Oh, sweepy, flexy, sweepy. Welcome in everybody to the Craft Beer Republic.

Thanks for drinking. Thanks for joining. I'm Greg and I still need a drink. I'm being joined by the buffest cheese head all around, and that is Flex.

I'm buff and I'm the stuff. That is correct. I do. Shortest WWE career ever. Ah, it wasn't that bad.

It was pretty rough. It was more active than Ken Norton's, but we're not going to get into it. Deep cut. Deep cut. And then bringing up the cheese heads on the west coast,

we're hanging out with Mikey from the Tap Room Podcast. What's up, bud? Back to back episodes? What's going on here? I figured we'd fucking rope you into one more. There we go. And he literally has a cheese head on, guys.

Literally has a cheese head on. I'm wearing it for Flex because I'm trying to impress him. Yeah, I've been trying for like two years now, and one of these days he'll come out here. Get better, Greg. Wear a cheese head. That's all it takes.

I'll buy two. I mean, one for each head. Anyways, thanks for listening. Find us on the socials at Craft Beer Republic. Of course, at FlexNewBeer, underscores in between.

And you can find Mikey at the Tap Room Podcast across the board. And then there's also where you can find links to listen to the Tap Room Podcast. If you didn't listen to last week's, go listen to last week's show.

We talk about his show. And for some reason we allowed him to ask us questions as well. It felt very awkward and kidnappy. You're welcome.

I mean, sometimes I like being tied up. But, you know, just saying. I don't hate it. Yeah, no one does. A lot to get to today. Some booze news, including a football owner buying beers for a ton of people.

Yeah, apparently one of the worst beers had the best year. Can't wait to get into that. And NA beer. And all kinds of stuff. But let's start off with fun stuff. First of all, top listing city of last week.

Never heard of it before. But shout out to Fishers, Indiana. Fishers? Indiana. Zach's neck of the woods, I guess. Yeah, is that near Gary at all? You know, if I was a semi-decent podcast host, I would have looked that up for you.

But as you can imagine, I did not. I'd say you're just alright. Yeah, I do okay. But as we talk slowly, I'm going to look it up on the old Google.

It is not that close. It's about two and a half hours away. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So anyway, shout out to Fishers. Alright.

I think we just start off with answering the most important question right off the bat. Because why not? Strap in, everybody. In a world where craft beer is king.

So stupid. In a world where muscles are bigger than growlers. Only one tongue can guide us. One man.

One tongue. One tongue jobber. In this world, we must find out.

What is flex drinking? Well, that's all we have time for.

Good night, everybody. Not done yet? Oh, man. Are they pretty much saying your tongues that pin me, pay me? Is that what they're pretty much saying? Yeah, it's a tongue jobber. Good job, Senate Tongues.

It definitely tongues. So, I don't know if you've been out to any of your liquor stores, beer stores lately. Oktoberfests are everywhere already.

Oh, is it hitting? I mean, I'll take that over a fucking pumpkin beer. Yeah, boy. So, this was the first one I saw on the shelf. So, I grabbed it because, you know, first come first serve or something.

So, it's MKE Brewing's Oktoberfest. And the can reads, Our Oktoberfest is traditionally brewed with pale ale, caramel, and toasted Munich malts

that attribute a sweet, earthy, malty flavor, toasted aroma, and a bright orange hue. There's no light behind this, but it's gorgeous. That looks like a fucking Merton right there, if I've ever seen one.

Merton! Yeah, definitely mega toasted malts on the nose there. How'd you fit a pumpkin in that glass? Oh, I have ways.

This is actually the lager glass that Eagle Park sent out. Not sent out, but put out. Sexy glass. Five dollars, you can't go wrong.

Yeah. But a little caramel on the nose as well behind the malts, and then we get the old tongue jabber going. Wow.

Sounded better in my head. Either way. Here we go. Let's turn the bass up for that section. Yep. So, just as I thought, that's delicious. Toasted malty, caramelly, just as advertised.

Medium carbonation. It's delightful beer. Can I ask you a really stupid question about it? You said MKE? Is that Milwaukee? Oh, yes.

So, MKE Brewing Company, which Eagle Park took all the rights over. Right. And is brewing their beer too, right? And is brewing all the beer in the capacity of their own brewery. But yeah, MKE is like the abbreviation, if you will.

Got it. Like our airport is MKE. Makes sense. At first I was like, the fuck did he say? Is that how you pronounce Milwaukee, though? Greg? Actually, it's pronounced Miliwaukee.

Quick on the draw. So, yeah. But yeah, no. Classic Oktoberfest here. Just really good. And like I said, ready for the season.

Ready to get into all the Mertens and, yes, the pumpkin shit. And maybe some of those shitty seltzers. Who knows? Oh. Somebody's always getting on me to drink a shitty seltzer.

Yeah. Hi, Mel. Yeah. Hi, Mel. Yeah. That too. Well, very nice. I'm glad it's not a shitty seltzer. Let's talk about some things. Please. Yeah.

Oh, did a little birthday party at the house. Wow. Over the weekend. So much birthday celebration. Yeah. I'm very narcissistic. So, I did some meats, put on a couple of tri-tips.

I sous vide them first. Ooh. Yeah, sous vide the tri-tip. I don't know what that means, but I'm going to get really into it. Really? You don't know what sous vide is? I don't know. Mike? No? It's a quote George W. Bush.

I don't understand it, so I'm going to take offense to it. So, sous vide is when you cook it. Basically, you cook it in water. So, you put it in a bowl. Yeah. I just heard of this the other week.

Yep. Okay. Yeah. Yep. And so, you have a probe that keeps the water at a constant temperature. In this case, I cooked it at 130 for about five hours. And then, got the grill super hot and just quickly seared off each side, get those grill

marks, because it looks kind of weird with that grill mark on it. Yep. I just had a conversation about this with somebody not three weeks ago. Yeah. I love it. I love my sous vide. You can cook it at a lower temperature, and it's safe, even at that lower temperature,

because it sits so long at that temp. And so, I'll cook them at 130. And then, I'll just really quick sear them. And so, they're still super pink and red inside, but it's not rare. You know what I mean?

So, anyway, it's delicious. There you go. I made it some sausages. But the challenge was, for anyone that came over, I was like, bring a beer you think I haven't had before. And I've got to say, everybody did a really fucking good job.

Nice. Yeah. My one buddy brought over six different beers, and of those, I had two of them. And then, everyone else just were like bringing over four packs and stuff. And I don't think I'd had any of the beers besides those two that people brought over.

I was impressed. Was it Made West Pale Ale? Yeah. Have you heard of it? I think I heard of it once. Yeah. I can never find it out here. It's weird. Yeah. Yeah.

Made West Pale Ale. Douche. That's me. Sausages. Sausages. Got fucking shit hurt. Yeah, you did. Oh my God. The wife always loves telling me the stories about how stupid I was the night before.

Do you really not remember? Oh, never. Never remember. Wow. Here's the good news. And I thank whoever you believe in every day, and that is, I'm a happy drunk. And so no matter how shittered I get, I'm still in a good mood.

I'm just stupid. And I guess at one point, I was talking about a couple of party goers who were drunk, and I was like, oh my God, they're so hammered. I can't believe how drunk they are. And she's like, hey, pot, you're pretty fucked up too.

And what else? Oh, we were kind of loud at one point. And she was like, hey, you need to close the windows. And our neighbor had been over earlier in the night, and she had to leave to put her kid to bed. But I was like, it's fine.

She knows what's up. She's cool. And I was trying to convince my wife to leave the doors and windows open for some reason. And she was telling me all those stories, and I didn't know any of them. And then the next day, went to brunch.

I had like 900 mimosas, I think. There you go. And it just kept the buzz going all weekend long. It was beautiful. That's how you do it. Yeah, man. So good. What about you guys?

Anybody do any good beer research lately? I cruised up to a place by my new, I got transferred for work. New, new, new. So the new spot I'm working at, there's a brewery about seven minutes away of Foxtown

Brewing. And I stopped in there, and I grabbed their new triple that they had. Classic triple. Flexi. Love me a triple. And it was a hazy.

Shocking. Yes. And it was very good, surprisingly. Not surprisingly. So yeah, that's about all I've done much recently. Oh, I did hit up Eagle Park.

Again, classic flex, because it's what I do. But they brewed a milkshake IPA with blue moon ice cream. Blue moon ice cream? Blue moon ice cream. Is it blue moon or blue rhythm?

Blue moon ice cream. Blue moon like the beer. No, like the blue moon flavor of ice cream. Do you not know what that is? Is that a Wisconsin thing? What the fuck is going on here?

What is that? Where the fuck are we? We're both in California. You're going to have to explain. You know, it's like the almond marshmallow flavor ice cream and fucking blue. Like it's blue ice cream. I'm looking this up now.

I don't know what the fuck you're talking about. I've never heard of it. Get the fuck, you guys. Come on. No, I honestly. Scouts. I'm not a Boy Scout, but Scouts honor. Yeah. This is the craziest shit I've ever heard. You know, it's a Midwest thing.

Here it is. Blue moon is an ice cream flavor with bright blue coloring available in the upper Midwest of the United States. Oh, come on. Okay. Well, I'm not. I'm not a you per either. So I got my sister and I was a Uber.

Be glad for that. But you're not. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. It's described as Smurf blue and marshmallow sweet. But blue moon ice cream is one of the flavors that make up Superman ice cream in certain

state. I was going to say Smurf something. Yeah. I don't know. Never heard of it. Wow. So you don't have blue moon ice cream. Nope. Never fucking heard of it before. Just okay. Well, well, then the story means nothing to you.

But I went and tried the beer and it was fantastic. So it tastes like this made up ice cream you're talking about. I mean, it smelled like almost like blue raspberry, like push pop on the nose.

Like it was real sweet, like summery treat. Not so sweet, not as sweet on like the on the palate. But it was like it was really interesting because I've never had anything like it before.

But it was really good. I've never had anything like that. Like that ice cream before. I can't believe that. It's a Midwest thing. That's one thing I did not know. Yeah. Fucking made up ice cream flavor. Maybe Fontana Jim knows what blue moon ice cream is.

No. Fontana Jim's from California. No. Who's the guy? Who's the fucking guy? Oh, Davis. Davis. Davis is from Wisconsin. Lives in Colorado. There you go. Davis. You gotta let us know. Have you had blue moon ice cream?

Come on. Davis has my back on all that shit. Supper clubs. Let's go. Cribbage. Come on. Cribbage. Remind me. I'll see him next month at GABF. Remind me. We're going to get to the bottom of this bullshit.

I haven't played Cribbage in years. Hey, but you know what it is, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. That is shocking. Well, I have a lot of family out in Maine. Okay. And they would play Cribbage.

Every time they'd come out, we'd play Cribbage together. Oh, I love that game. Never played. Yeah. It's so fun. It's like playing fucking shuffleboard. Not that. Not playing that. It's like shuffleboard. But that being like a Midwest or Eastern kind of thing.

Okay. All right. What about you, Mikey? Any good research lately? I actually just went and recorded with Daniela Lopez from Congregation.

She's their head brewer. Nice. And they have multiple locations. So they're in Pasadena, Azusa, Long Beach, Santa Ana. And it was cool hearing her story, like being able to have a few beers with her.

Yeah. And she made one called the Mango Nazo, and she was fire. Like, it was really good. I would have probably given it about an eight on the show. What was it? Like a sour? It was a mango IPA.

Oh. Okay. And it was... Man, I was like... First sip, I was like, oh, here we go. I was like, that'll get you there. And it was... I think we recorded around 8.45 in the morning. Nice.

Wow. Yeah. So, I mean... Rise and shine. I get it as soon as I get there. Yeah. Yeah. Those early morning interviews really set you up for the day. Oh, for sure. Yeah.

If you're not starting, you know, fame first, you're last. Exactly. I know a lot of times, like, if we go somewhere on vacation, I'll always try and see if I can hit up a couple breweries for interviews while we're out there.

Yeah. And a lot of times, it's like, flying in early, yeah, come on in before we open up. So, the tap room's still quiet. So, yeah, it's like 9, 10 o'clock. Mm-hmm. And for some reason, like, at that time of day, they want to show you everything they

have on tap. Yeah. First of all, not complaining. Yeah. I definitely have to have the wife with me to drive me the fuck out of there. Good times. That sounds awesome.

Oh, yeah. I always have to say thank you to my girlfriend, Beto, because she's always the one to, you know, towards the end of the day, if it's been a long one or days where we've recorded in multiple places, it's, yeah, I'm done.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I feel that. I remember one time we were in North Carolina. We went to Asheville. Oh, okay. And went to Upcountry Brewing and interviewed John Cochran, the owner, and that was cool because not only is he the owner of Upcountry, but he also co-founded Terrapin back in the

day. So it was kind of a, it was a really cool interview and afterwards, like, we had a bunch of his beers and afterwards, we just started talking about beers and like, he's like, you ever had a Ham's? And I was like, no, not really. He's like, I got one.

He goes, you never had a Ham's? He goes, what else? I had it before that day. Oh, wow. He gets a tall boy out of the fridge and we're drinking Ham's and then he's like, here, try this. And I mean, by noon, we were schlossed. It was like, it was a, it was a great day and then we had to go like meet the wife's

friends or something. I was like, hey everybody. Yeah. I'm Craig. Craig, you're Craig. Can't you keep my own goddamn name right?

I'm Craig. Craig, you're saying all that out loud. Goddammit. That wasn't to myself. Fuck. Neither was that. Fuck. So when was that? When was that first time you had that first Ham's?

That was 2019. Wow. Ham's is, at least for me, it's a sleeper. It's a, it's a sleeper when it comes to like a domestic kind of beer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It wasn't bad at all. Like I drink it.

It wasn't amazing, but it was just. Ham's was a Cinderella story for me. We did a tournament of all the domestic beers way back when when it was Taps and Tailgates. But yeah, that was Ham's was my sleeper.

I think it made it to the final round then lost. So your Ham's would be my Tecate light. There you go. She's going to be so happy to hear that.

Oh yeah. Two episodes in a row. Two episodes in a row. Let's go. Yeah. I used to love doing those like blind taste tests. Back in the day when we were all in person, we'd do a March Madness tournament with IPAs

and stuff. Find a bunch of IPAs and. Oh yeah. And it was always IPAs only because they were all like nationally available. We're trying to do with beers that everybody could get their hands on. So yeah, that was good times.

I want to get back to that sometime. I also want to do like a blind taste test of all like the world's shittiest beers. You know, like get your Coors Light, your Bud Light and. I'm down. Yeah. Natty Light, the Beast Light. Put them all in a bag, have like my wife pour them for us and just see how it goes.

Rank them all. That'd be pretty fun. Yeah. I saw one guy do it on YouTube and the one smart thing I thought that was really good was he had one good beer in the mix. And that way, you know, he would kind of keep everything and, you know, keep everything

honest. So he couldn't say like, oh, this is just, it's, you know, everything's garbage, whatever. So I was like, that's smart. One good beer in the mix. You don't know. Yeah. My brother did that once to me on a, on an episode, but it was with whiskey.

I was, I was trash at the end of it. Yes. That's a hard episode. Yeah. Yeah. Good Lord. It's a rough one. I bet. All right. Is your beer cold or should I review first?

Mine's cold still. I mean, I can finish it. So we're good. You tell me. This one is, I'm drinking is from New Belgium. Okay. So 1995 AP. It almost reminds me of like cyberpunk kind of ish.

If you guys can see the can and it looks like they've got the Cobra Kai logo on his jean jacket. And this is just a, yeah, just coming in at, so I can find a percentage here unless they

decided not to put it on. I think that's illegal. There's a brewery here that doesn't place any of their ABV on the can. That's gotta be against the law. And I don't, I don't buy it because, well, you know, my algorithm, I need to know the

ABV. You don't want that 2% bullshit? No. Yeah. And that's what, I didn't say it for a long time because they would, you know, get us beer. I know a lot of the time, but it was the, you know, they're from Indiana, they make

like the slushies. Oh yeah, 450. Yeah. There you go. Jinx. Yeah. The ABV gate. Everybody knows that. And I was like, it was crazy because yeah, they wouldn't put anything on, but this one's 6.7%.

Okay. It's a normal IPA. Let's jump on in. Water's fine. Water's always fine. Wow. That was a little sip. Wow. Impressed. Wow. That's solid though.

Cause you get like, it's, mom, can't take another sip of it. Yeah, I just chugged it. It's gone. But honestly, that's good.

I've had, I mean, I've had a, I've had a few in the fridge, so this past week, but honestly it's really solid. But like, I wouldn't, this, this would be one like, or I always kind of give it like,

are you going to put it to the back of the fridge kind of test? Yeah. And that's for me, like I would keep it in the front of the fridge to make sure I keep on drinking these. Okay. It's like old school IPA type of thing.

Yeah. So just a single coming in at 6.7. Honestly to me, I would give this like a seven, five, like 7.5 if I was doing that on the show. Wow. I think it's pretty solid ABV.

You do get a little bit of floral notes. I know sometimes with like either new Belgium or like as much as I love, like voodoo, like, like, uh, or like rogue or any of those kinds of breweries, like you can kind of get, you

know what you're kind of getting. And this is, I feel like, you know what you're getting with that for stuff like this. Um, so I'll give it a seven, five. Yeah, that's pretty fair. That was, that was my favorite note with classic pales was the floral note.

Yeah. Like, I don't know why I don't do edible flowers or any of that shit. I hate the smell of most of them, but getting a floral note out of a pale was like something

for me. It just hit. Oh yeah. But you can find that when you can honestly just finding those notes or like learning to, cause I wasn't like, you know, I'm no Cicerone or anything like that. Well, no, we're not either. We've tried really hard to just, uh.

We're totally Cicerones. How dare you? Yes. We make jokes about it, but you know, we just do our own thing, you know? Oh, for sure. But that's the best part. Like when you can find, like, eventually when you can kind of almost deconstruct the beer,

like in your head and you'd be like, Oh, this, I did taste that. Or I did get this on the back end or stuff like that. So I love that. Yeah. No, it's good. Um, all right, Mikey, you're, you're a sports fan. Who's your football team?

Well, the Packers, eh? Oh, that's right. Do I sound like that? Yeah. Eh? Oh no, I just do that cause of Strange Brew cause I love that movie.

So good. Any, uh, any commanders fans here? No. Not up in here, eh? Me neither. I might become one though. Uh, so the commander's new owner, Josh Harris has, he offered, basically he's doing like

a live call into a radio show. We've got the audio. He offered to buy a thousand beers for the fans that were in attendance. Here's a, here's Josh. This is very not how the Redskins used to be.

The new owner of the Washington Commanders is supposedly on the line, Josh, you are live on Grant and Danny. We were having a party at old ox brewery in Ashburn near the facility. There's a couple of hundred fans listening in a tens of thousands listening in DC.

How are you? Let's go. I'm just leaving the league meeting and I knew there were a couple of drunk already out there and I just wanted to say hello. How are you guys doing? We're pretty good, sir.

This is an all time day in this town. We heard your opening comments. People have been emotional. How do you feel? You're the owner of a team you loved as a kid. I'm super pumped.

It's a great day. It's a great day for Washington football and I'm ready to get to work. I'm heading your way. I want to get back to Washington, my hometown and celebrate with you guys.

And let's get started by me buying everyone in the brewery and in the bullpen a beer. Can I do that? Let's go. Are you kidding? I love that.

That's a good start. Yes, sir. You may. That's an anti-Tate Snyder move. Delivering right away. Now, I will tell you, I know you're doing pretty well. It's been a good couple of years for you business wise. There's a lot of people.

There's a lot of folks here, sir. There's a lot of people at the brewery right now. Your offer still stands. All right. I'm going to have to dip into my savings, but I want everyone to have a beer. Let's do it. How drunk does he sound?

He's all hammered. Just bought everybody in the house a beer and that goes for everybody at the bullpen listening as well. Anyways, we go on, but yeah, I want a football owner out here that buys people a beer.

I might give a shit about the Rams if they're buying beer and stuff. Yeah, I'm in. Yeah. I mean, I don't give a shit about the Rams. Well, no, but I'm saying like if anybody wants to buy me a beer, like let's, let's, please.

Yeah. I'll pretend to be a fan for that. Who doesn't want a fresh beer? Right. Exactly. So anyways, go come in. I know a listener, Mike of the show is a huge Commander's fan.

So get yourself a beer. Underrated color scheme. Let me say that. Yeah. Oh, I like the crimson and the gold. Oh, it's great. Yeah. It's sweet color scheme.

According to new data, most of the in quotes, American lager growth is coming from Mexican beers. Yeah, it is. Bunch of Tecate drinkers out there.

The son of a bitch did it. Yeah. I blame it on Chew. Well, I didn't know Shred or Buddy Shred has been pounding nothing but Modellos, right?

Did I say it right this time? That was much better. It's for you. But I like your Modellos. You've been pounding those all summer long. Are they like low in calories or something? I don't know. It's just like a good in-betweener beer.

Like, oh, yeah, I'm going to bring it back. Modellos. They're just. Tabor. They're fucking awesome, man. They are something. Like a Modello and a lime.

Have you had a Pacifico? Yeah, I've had a few of those. All right. Not your jam? No. No. Take that Tecate over the Pacifico. Yeah, for sure. I thought we were cool.

We're both Badger fans. We're both Packer fans. Oh, we're still cool. I'm just kidding. We're still cool. Yeah, everybody getting naked. As long as we can all agree that Corona tastes like shit. Oh. A hundred percent.

A thousand percent. And we're back. I remember being like 19 and people handing me Corona. I'm like, this is garbage. Yeah. Oh, put a lime in it. Oh, okay. Now it's garbage with a lime in it.

That's crazy. Do you guys remember? Because we talked last week. We talked about that on last week's episode about the WB thing. Do you remember Miller Lite commercials with Triple H and all that?

Oh, the MGD commercials. Yeah. Don't fruit your beer. Yeah. And they did a whole series where you couldn't cheers with the top touch. Like don't touch tips because that wasn't manly.

It was funny as fuck though. It was like, don't touch tips. That's not what men do. It's like, ugh. It was funny. You know what's weird though? I kind of live my life in- One quarter mile at a time?

Oh, exactly. A quarter mile at a time. But the, no, but the don't fruit your beer. If you have to put something in it to make it taste good, then it's not good. Absolutely. Do you ever have, they're not around anymore, but did you ever have benchmark brewing from

San Diego? Not that I, no, I don't believe so, no. Unfortunately, they closed up shop a few years ago. It was before the pandemic, but their whole thing was beer flavored beer and it was delicious.

And they got hit up by a Mexican restaurant and they were like, hey, can you brew us like a beer to have with tacos? And so he made a Mexican lager, but he brewed it with lime. And he's like, I don't want anybody putting lime in my fucking beer.

If there's going to be lime in here, I'm putting it in there. And he did it and it was great. And I was like, yeah, don't need to add fruit to your beer. Like just make good beer. Yeah. You don't need to, but sometimes you just like, it's like a, like a festive thing.

But you know what's crazy though? There's certain, like there's been a breweries that I've been to and I'm, and I'm sorry that I'm forgetting right now what brewery it was, but there was a brewery that I went to maybe a month and a half ago and they had a beer and it tasted like there was lime in it, but

it was just the citra hop the way it was brewed. And you get those, like those citrusy kind of notes from it. And when you can do that, you're like, motherfucker, like you got me, like, you know, I'm going

to come here and spend all my money. That's the jam right there. Yeah. The thialized yeast is doing that shit nice too. So good. So good. And good news, way cheaper for brewers to use that shit too.

Which we found out thanks to Monica. Thanks to Monica. Go back a couple of weeks. Monica got nerdy with us. She's the best. Nice. She's the best. Bad news, Flex. Globally.

Uh-oh. Want to guess at what beers had the best year since they started tracking their sales? Not Tecate Light. Definitely not Tecate Light. I think, you know what? I'll say this now.

I would drink a Tecate over this beer. Oh, Jesus Christmas. I don't know. Natty Light? I don't know. Mikey, any guesses? Think global. I'm just, I'm going to, uh.

What do I hate? I'm going to say Bush. What do I hate? Bush Light? Guinness. Oh, I hate Guinness. Exactly. Oh. Me too. I would absolutely drink a Tecate.

I'm a Murphy's guy. Okay. I grew up drinking Murphy's, like Guinness. I mean, don't get me wrong. I'll still enjoy a Guinness on like St. Paddy's Day. I will not. And if it's a $3 pour at a local pub, I'm down.

No. Yeah. Hard pass. I'm a Smittyx guy. I'm going Smittyx when we're in that neighborhood. Oh, okay. I'd rather own that. Yeah, but yeah. Just not a Guinness fan. First of all, I hate Nitro on any of these beers. I want to be able to taste the beer.

And to me, Nitro just makes all the flavors flat. And Guinness is... What's the mix? Like 25-75? Like Nitro to gas or something like that. I don't know. It's just not. Not my jam. I didn't like it before I was a snob.

I don't like it even more now. It just... Before you were a snob. Call it the Bud Light days. Yeah. I have the story. I have a friend who really likes Guinness. So he came down.

I bought some. And he left and there was one can left in the fridge. I was like, oh, I'm going to drink this. My buddy likes it a lot. Whatever. So I poured it out. And I even had somebody... I have a Guinness glass in my house because I got it from some white elephant Christmas

thing. So I'm going to drink the Guinness in the Guinness glass and it's going to be really good. And everybody's going to have a good time. It's going to be a great night. And I took a sip and I'm just like, what is this?

Where is the flavor? Why do people like this so much? Why is this so popular? I don't understand it. Should I understand it? And it was like a thousand questions running through my head.

Why I'm even drinking this beer. Right. Sounds like it's a therapy. Yeah. Yeah. It should have. Yeah. Honestly, I had some really cool Guinness glasses forever. And as far as glasses go, thumbs up.

They do some great glasses. Oh yeah. That's where it ends. 10 out of 10 for glasses. Yeah. Great glassware at Guinness. Very nice. Maybe you should just be a glass company. Yeah. Keep it up. Yeah. So anyways, it's the best year they've had since they started tracking their sales.

They're up 9% year over year. And blah, blah, blah. Well, when did they start tracking their sales? That's my question. Six months ago. I don't know. They started tracking them during the potato famine. Right. Top of the morning to you.

Yeah. We sort of talked about this last week, about the different Budweiser and Bud Light, not Budweiser and Bud Light, but the different AB brands. Some are, a lot are doing worse because of the whole Bud Light situation, but some are

doing not so worse because people are stupid and don't do their homework well. All of AB's top 15 are doing worse. recorded volume declined year-to-date, except for Michelob Ultra.

That was a good old Mickey Oult's, right? Yeah. Nothing like it. Nothing like a 95 calorie, two carb. 2%. It's four.

Yeah. Is that what it is? 4%? In your bra. Oh, come on. Liar, liar. Oh, classic.

Oh, yeah. Oh, you guys are losers. No, it was a good pool. That was good. That was good. Oh, you're right 4.2%. There it is. I actually thought it was less than that But I know that because my father-in-law drank those religiously for like the last 13 years

Was he hating a buzz? What's wrong? Yeah. Yeah every day. He comes home from work. He has two beers and a Like a snifter or brandy. Oh, you know like they might be low-carb, but you need so many to catch a buzz

You're gonna get all those carbs. Anyways. Yeah, he doesn't get drunk. No, you know. Yeah, he's better than us. Yeah What do you think you better than me? Think you're better than me. Are you a fucking cop?

Do you have a Boston accent? Do you think you're better than me? Do you think you're better than me, hoss? What are you, I'm Southie? Yeah. Gordon Duncan? This guy thinks he's better than me.

Cockamamie fuck. Sorry. Here's something that I would absolutely Order a 12-pack of fucking Tecate's over. Blue Moon is working on a non-alcoholic

Belgian white ale. Can I tell you something? Please. I've known a few people to go to Colorado And they actually went to like because Blue Moon is the brewery name Blue Moon is not like the shitty beer name of the shitty Belgian white that they do. Right.

But everybody just calls it a Blue Moon. Because we've never seen another beer from them. Correct. So I've heard from a reliable source that they actually do some pretty good beer at the brewery.

Who's your reliable source? Look in my eyes! Oh, the Duke! Yeah, the Duke, man. So he's been there and he said they do really

Pretty, really good beer. Okay. He thinks that they just get a really bad rap here Because the only thing they send out is The shitty Belgian white. Garbage ash.

Yeah. Which I think all Belgian whites are shitty, but Yeah. That's neither here nor there. Maybe, my point is Maybe they're good, but Maybe I'll find out. Probably won't.

That's like a few years back. I mean like four or five years ago The wife was in San Diego for some work event And her company Was this big like conference thing, whatever They did a brewery tour

They did two. They split us into two groups And we went to Alesmith And then we went to Ballast Point And so I was lucky enough To be on the Alesmith tour And so basically whatever tour you weren't on

You just sat in their conference room and drank beer So I got to do the Alesmith tour. Great. I've done it before, but it's a fun tour And you get to drink and walk around. What's wrong with that? So we went to Ballast Point And they came over with some beers

It was so funny This poor waitress who knows nothing about what she's Trying to hand to us This was like at the peak of Ballast Point It's like pineapple garbage And she tries to hand us a beer

And my wife goes, oh what is this? She goes, pineapple sculpin My wife's like, yeah, hard pass She goes, what? Oh yeah, I mean my wife Doesn't like West Coast IPAs anyways

And she also doesn't like them That, you know, they add like bullshit Into them especially And so she's like, yeah, hard pass She goes, oh, you don't want this? She goes, no, it's disgusting. I'll just not drink

She goes, oh well you know we have a lot of other beers at the bar If you want, like, just go up and order And like she handed us these tickets to like go order At the bar. Ballast Point Had some fucking kick-ass German beers

On tap that were Delicious and they were not Distributed. They had a great dunkle They had They have a Kolsch that they do distribute This is a different one. Really good. They had some

Really good. So along the blue Moon line, like it was surprising how good Some of the beers they had on tap were If you ever go to like the Long Beach one The Ballast Point over there Some of the beers that I've had, they're okay

Their food's okay Their food was kind of, but their beers are Some of their beers are good From my experience down there Alright, I've not been I don't love, in fact I just

Flat out don't like all the Fruity bullshit they came out with That's what I was alluding to I didn't want to You know, to pile on

Yeah, yeah, you don't pile on Here, let me do it for you. It's a bunch of fruity bullshit It is, yeah, it's not good Yeah, so We don't like that. Apologies Apologies Ballast Point

Yeah, no apologies here. Maybe for Mikey But not for me Yeah, I met The guy who developed the recipe For the original Pineapple Sculpin It was right after they sold out

And he was still working there And I talked to him about it. I won't say what brewery He worked at another brewery that we interviewed And I was like, what happened man? He goes, look, I was forced to make it And I think I made a really good beer

Like I would actually drink it and I don't like that shit He goes, but I turned it over to corporate And of course they had to make it more Cost efficient and all that stuff And he goes, and that's what you're tasting now on shelves

And I was like, yeah, makes sense Whatever Hard pass Screw that We all know that Stone got bought out by Sapporo

Stone Bistro Gardens has a Mystery beer on tap right now That is Sapporo Shut up That sounds fucking dumb

Sorry So what's going on is They're ramping up to start brewing Sapporo At Stone facilities So they're trying to get the scales right And so what they're doing

Is doing this mystery lager And then putting it on tap so they can still sell it And not have to dump it So they can't figure out how to make a proper batch Look, I know from talking to

What? Well I know from talking to Firestone So when Firestone had their huge Expansion after they partnered with Duvel, they had a really hard Time scaling up their recipes

And I was talking to A couple of the people that were working there then And basically they dumped Gallons and barrels and batches Of like DBA, that's what they were

Working on on their first Upscale And it's not like, oh, you can make three times the amount You just triple the recipe It's unfortunately not that easy Because, you know, IBUs don't just

Triple, they more than triple So I know there's a lot of calculations And dialing in, but yeah So they don't have to dump it, they just put it on tap As a mystery lager at Bistro Gardens That sounds terrible

I mean, they're a big enough company That they just can't find Somebody who's, I don't know Scientifically intelligent Enough to figure it out

I don't know, to me that just sounds kind of crazy Yeah You know, it almost sounds like They're amateurs? It sounds a little amateur-y And then especially putting it as a mystery tap

Like, hey, what is this guy? That is kind of funny Like, that's fucked up It's almost embarrassing Actually In the old Starburst packs, they would give one mystery flavor

Like, who the fuck wants that mystery flavor? It's fucking banana, probably Right Easy, easy I mean, I love banana bread Love banana bread Circus Peanuts, Greg

Banana Hold on, pardon me while I Throw everything inside of me up Circus Peanuts are the worst Just saying, but it's the banana flavor

Baseball Peanuts are good Oh, you mean like real peanuts? Yeah, real peanuts Yeah, yeah, love me some Peanuts You gotta hit that T or get the D

Either way But hey, Stone, put your life together You're embarrassing yourselves Stone or Sapporo, or both My brother used to work for Stone Before he went to Burbex

No shit? He was all distro But he tried to design some of their stuff And they didn't give him the time of day But now he's doing his thing at Burbex

Interesting We saw some of the designs He's kicking ass Yeah, he's doing a great job Maybe that's why they got bought out Because they weren't doing their job

Either that or somebody's taxes weren't in order I'm not gonna say Yeah, because they owed a lot of money But insert Kermit meme, none of my business Yeah We'll end it on this one

Florida woman eats hamburger during traffic stop for suspected DUI Good for her You gotta do what you gotta do Florida woman Valerie Wolford was arrested Tuesday

For a DUI Did you say Vanessa? Yeah Hi Vanessa, I hope that burger was worth it Hi Vanessa And you steal my sunshine

Oh, let's see So Vanessa, not Valerie, was arrested Tuesday For a DUI The arrest happened after Claremont police officers Saw her fail to stop properly at a red light

According to the affidavit The incident occurred around 2.20am No one's ever drunk at 2.20am Tuesday at the intersection of US 27 Steve's Road Somebody just got a road named Steve's Road

Yeah Where's fucking Flex's Road Lazy writing Copperhead Road by, what's his name, Steve Earle Copperhead Road, is that a thing? Yeah, no country fans?

Sorry Don't forget I don't watch movies Ever But we'll get you with a Mikey Road It'll be great Yeah

She Allegedly stopped past the white line on the street And slowly went through the intersection Even though the light was still red The officer pulled her over But she seemed unaware that she was being pulled over She continued driving southbound on US 27

For a short distance Until she eventually noticed the officers flashing lights behind her According to the affidavit Wilford immediately started apologizing to the officer Even before anything was said to her

Nothing says I'm guilty like Excuse me man, I'm so sorry I'm so sorry The officer informed her that she didn't stop correctly at the red light And Wilford apologized again The officer then requested her driver's license

But she handed over her insurance card instead When asked about where she was driving from She said that she had just come from McDonald's The officer noted the smell of alcohol On her

Coming from inside the car There was also a hamburger in the front seat Which she continued to eat throughout the traffic stop Before going to McDonald's She told the officer that she had been at a local bar Where she admitted to drinking two vodka sodas

Before heading to the fast food restaurant She's being held on $1,000 bond Her court appearance is scheduled for... Someday, that doesn't matter She's just trying to sober up before she headed home

Right! Maybe she should have hung out in the drive-thru How drunk was she on two vodka sodas? They must have been stiffer than Flexy's muscles They were just vodka vodkas at that point

Right, exactly Yowza Yeah, pretty much Good for her for eating the burger Yeah, she was trying Hey Flex You'll appreciate the shit out of this

Remember the one time I forgot to review your beer? Yeah I had forgotten to review my beer Oh my gosh How the tables have turned

Hey ladies and gentlemen Let's make a call to the pen Should we? Should we? I'm already offended at myself Better late than never

We're calling in the righty Alright, let's fucking slap it up real quick He calls

To the bullpen for Beer Normally I would have just shut up and not reviewed this But Brian, intern Brian, hooked this up

Hey, he's a good guy Yeah, he is I am drinking Firestone Walker, one of Mikey's favorites Firestone Walker No Vacancy This is their collab with Alvarado Street Brewing

This is from the Invitational This pale, oh sorry, 6.5% And $3.99 on tap This pale, west coast IPA fuses the old and new school A heavy, cascade-derived bitterness

Harks back to the good old days While a pale, malt, bill, and mosaic dry hop Deliver the new age pineapple dankness These tropical aromatics Have boosted even more Are boosted even more

Through juices Through judicious use of innovative Aroma-enhancing products Mosaic incognito Mosaic Cairo Cryo

Fuck Wow Drink more Mosaic Cryo And I've never heard of this one

Aromazime Never heard of it Aromazime Aromazime my mind Where's Monica when you need her So anyways, this is exactly what they say

It's like new school meets old school It's very light on the schnoz I get citrus It's very light on the tongue too In a nice, like, crushable way It drinks like a pale ale But it's, you know, 6.5%

It's definitely into that IPA range A lot of, I don't know, pineapple-y citrusness With just a really, like, old school Bitter back end So, uh, I'm digging it

I can dig that, especially on that a little bit lighter ABV Yeah, lighter ABV Lighter mouthfeel, all that good stuff So, uh, yeah, I dig it So thanks to Andrew and Brian for hooking this one up

Thanks Brian Gotta love a good mouthfeel Yeah, love when it feels nice in the mouth Flex, how dare you Right on That wasn't me

Oh, whoops Uh, alright, I think that's That's our cue to shut the fuck up over here I'm gonna hit some music Mikey, thanks for hanging out with us two weeks in a row Honestly, just truly appreciate you guys

Having me on, and this is Fun as shit, so If you guys are in the area, let's grab a beer Yeah, I mean, Flex is always in California But not so much One day I'll be there, one day

Yeah, watch the Packers game There you go Watch the Packers, eh Yeah, I'm out, but unless they're playing the Niners Uh, but yeah, if you're ever up in this hood Let me know, and of course, if I'm ever down in your hood

Which happens somewhat often Got a little work down there, so I'll let you know I'd love to catch a beer with you Thank you Find the podcast on the socials

At the Taproom Podcast Find us at Craft Beer Republic And of course, flexmeabeer underscores in between 805-538-beer I think that's everything