Welcome to Gear and Beer. The podcast for gear has beer buffs and adventures with discerning tastes. I'm your host, Justin Houseman, editor, professional gear reviewer and certified cicerone.

I'm Colin True. I work for brands and makers in the outdoor industry for over 20 years and happy Thanksgiving, Justin. This is dropping on Thanksgiving.

On turkey day.

On turkey day.

Remember? Emma, did you ever watch Were you a Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan?

Love that show.

Yeah, they did like a turkey day was like a big deal. It used to be like repeat like.

Like on Comedy Central or like that.

Yeah, yeah, I missed that show.

Good show.

What do you do for what do you do for Thanksgiving, Colin?

This year we are cooking and just staying at home with the immediate family. No, no extended family. We have in the past been known to eat out on Thanksgiving, which I find to be very underrated. I love eating out on where do you go?

What's your where? What's the go to? I mean, a lot of places are open, believe it or not. A lot of places will do like Thanksgiving meals.

We find a place that is serving like a Thanksgiving dinner, like with turkey and stuffing and stuff like that. But it's just Greg's and he's like, watch football. Then you go out, eat outside. Especially in California. Sit outside and eat and then come back and like, oh, this is great. No dishes.

Southern California.

Yeah, sorry. Excuse me.

Southern California.

Southern California. Justin is sitting in the middle of.

Handed to us right now. I'm recording this from a kayak floating. It's cold and rainy in Norcal toward the Pacific Ocean. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, we used to. We used to always go to my in law's house. And then once we moved up here to beautiful Marin county and I started smoking the turkey in my smoker, I demanded everybody come to our house because God damn it, it's time. Well, let's get back to the. Let's get back to the show. What we're doing here. This is an outdoor gear love fest, Colin. It's also an advice show and it's a safe space for. For honest discussion of gear and whether we need it or not. And of course we chase all that gear talked down with beer because after all, we're just two out dorks. Is that. That's what we're going with, right? Out dorks?

I think so.

Who'd pretty much always rather be sitting around a campfire talking gear and drinking beer. Well, at least I would. Colin hates camping. Colin prefer to be sitting around a nice fire like a Like a palatial mansion.

I like to sit on the cast fire and have a conversation and then just, you know, go home then.

Yeah, go home to your nice bed. I get it, I get it.

If we, if this is a safe space, do we need to have a safe word?

Like if? What do you mean? Like if we start. If one of us starts like bashing on. On a piece of gear, the other one.

We're so uncomfortable. I don't like what you're saying right now.

Pineapple Puffin. I think it needs to be puffin.

Yeah, there you go.

Puffins. The safe are safe word. Well, Colin, I had an entirely different email picked out for this episode until yesterday. Oh, when, as we've discussed. As we've discussed, it's raining a lot. So an email that just so happened to just be right at my. My alley this week because we discussed Northern California is being punished by God, it seems, with a biblical flood, clearly meant to cleanse the earth from us and of our sins against the great redwood forests and the salmon that are. They're desperately trying to spawn.

There are some who thinks that you should be cleansed in Northern California.

You know, I don't disagree sometimes, to be honest with you. Sometimes when I'm seeing the folks at my local coffee shop, I'm kind think, you know, this place could use a good cleanse, could use a good cleansing. But it does kind of feel like that as the waters are rising around us as, as we speak. But so it's a pretty rural zone. We lose power a lot. And so basically what that means is I've just been amping on my headlamps. I have a lot of headlamps. As a gear reviewer, I've collected a lot of them over the years. Quite a few actually. And so I've just been kind of. I don't. Typical dad move, you know, Like, I get them all charged up. Like I get them all lined up. Everybody has a headlamp. I know where they all are. This one's for the little one. This one's for the mid, the, you know, the older kid. This one's for me. This one's from the W. And These are the 10 backups, just in case. But anyway, so, you know, just kind of standard. Standard stuff. But yeah. So the email though was. Yeah, it works out great. This is from lit in Columbia, Missouri. Dear Gear and beer are headlamps the coolest, not necessarily most useful, but the coolest outdoor invention in history. I say yes. They're not 100% necessary, but man, they make it easier being out at night. They're small, they charge with USBs, they're lightweight, they're awesome. Maybe the only indispensable bit of outdoor tech. It's a good. You know, this person probably works for Petzl, but we'll. We'll take it. We'll take it lit. And I just want to say, first of all, I love Columbia, Missouri. Have you been there?

I've never been to Columbia, Missouri.

I camped near, near there. First time I ever saw fireflies was.

Oh, you told me about that experience with the fireflies. That's where it was.

Yeah. Yep. Outside of Columbia, but, yeah, around there. We camped there on a cross country road trip. My buddy and I drove his Prius from the. From California to Brooklyn, New York. But we stopped. I don't. I don't remember. I. This is my phase when I was like, super into colleges and I wanted to go to, like, every university and I was like, very academic and, like, it meant a lot to me. And I was like, I want to go see. I want to go see the campus at the University of Missouri. And so we like, we cruise past it. It's just all like giant grass fields and we're like, let's get a football. It was like summertime. It was gorgeous day. So we go into like, whatever, like Walgreens or CVS or whatever, like, local drugstore. They had to get a football. And like, we take it to the. We get. We pick one, we take it to a counter. There's like some high school girl working the, working the register and like, just us bantering, like, you know, we weren't even like, really talking to her, just talking to each other. And she's like. Stops us like, where are y'all from? And. Or something, you know, wherever you sound in Missouri. And we're like, California, you know, and she's just like, she literally like this. It was almost as if inside that store, like the sunbeam came down and like there was like a swell of like string instruments in the background. And she just looks off in the distance as if it's like the, like not even a real place, just the most mythical thing. And she's just like, California just. It was amazing. We're part. I mean, if she. We were just like, do you want to come with us?

Yeah, you need to get out of here.

But like, she, she seemed happy. She seemed super cool, but you could just tell, like, she was just this place that she'd like, dreamt up for a really long time. I Loved her for that. But anyway, lit from Columbia, Missouri. Maybe that's. Maybe that's her. Maybe that's.

Maybe that's the girl from the Walgreens.

That would be so radical. Anyway, I love this email because I love headlamps too. I do, too. I'm super pumped to talk about my new favorite one, which is probably, I believe, is also Colin's new favorite. New favorite headlamp it is.

I will spoil it.

I'm not sure I had a previous favorite, but this is definitely my new favorite, so. Yeah. Anyway, thanks, Lit. This episode's because of you. But before we get into that, I got a couple of things for our gear and beer listeners. Colin, why don't you kick us off here?

Well, first of all, folks, if you're listening to this, you need to follow the show. You need to rate the show wherever you're listening. There's a lot of podcast apps out there. Apple and Spotify are the biggest ones. We know that. We're kind of big on Fountain if you're on Stitcher. Still don't know what that is anymore.

Thank you. Thank you for listening to us on Fountain.

There are way more podcast apps than you have any clue. Like, I can't even list more than five or six of them. There's probably like a dozen more. But whatever one, whichever one you've chosen, please click follow and or subscribe whatever the button says. So you get the show in your. In your feed every week. It really helps the show out. Also, leave us a rating. And also check out our other show. It's called the Rock Fight. It's here on Rock Fight Podcast Network. We talk about outdoor industry stuff and some community stuff. And you. You'll. You'll like that as well. If you like listening to this podcast and for either of those pods, if you would like to reach out, I think. Justin, where. Where should. Where should folks reach out to us?

You should do what lit did and send us an email to myrockfightmail.com you can also follow along on Instagram. Trying to do it by memory. Rock Fight co. Yes, sir. Well, before we get to the main event, we're going to need a nice, bright sh. Beer to go with our headlamps, though. I'm ready to crack one. You ready to crack one?

I am. Are you. Are you ready to see if you cannot be stumped? Cicerone?

Yeah, I don't think I'm going to get this one, but go ahead. I don't know.

Actually, I think there's a good chance because it's we'll see. But we're going to play Stump the Cicerone. Last week, if you listen to the show, we talked about trail running shoes. And then for my beer assignment, Justin said for this week's episode is we're going to talk about headlamps. We're going to. We want to talk about a bright beer. Something.

Any light, bright beer. I actually end up going with a completely different direction than I anticipated going.

Well, it's pretty subjective, right? It's like, you know, just whatever speaking to you is like light and bright. And so you gave me some things I kind of looked at. So I went searching around my, my, the, the. The 30,000 square foot tiny beer store that's in my Total Wine. Please sponsor us Hotel wine.

Yeah, Colin works there now. You left your name tag on. Colin. Take it off.

It actually works. Total Wine's great for Stump the Cicerone. Cause I can get a lot of different things from a lot of different places. So I will tell you, as I tease you, I'll give you some things. It's an import.

Uhhuh.

It's a European import.

Uhhuh.

Okay.

Can I ask a question? Yeah, already. Can you pronounce the. I'm not asking you to. Can you pronounce the name like, like easily? Could you easily just say the name of the brewery, not the beer itself? Of the brewery?

No, I think so. I've never said it out loud before, but looking at it, had you heard of it?

Had you heard of it?

But no, I don't think I've ever thought about it. There's a, There's a chance when I was in this country that I may have had this brewery before.

So you've been to this country?

I have been to this country. I don't know if this type of beer will really help because it's. Well, I'll tell you. It's fruity. It's a fruity beer. And maybe the only other thing I'll say is this is from the beer Motherland. I'll say that that's kind of. That gives you a really.

I don't know. I mean, I have an idea what you mean, but what's your idea?

What do you think? What's your first guess here?

Well, no, I mean like, of like where that would be. I mean, you could be referring to Germany. You could be referring to Belgium.

Well, okay, that's a good point. I mean, I would say of the two, the more largely viewed motherland of beers.

I still don't. I mean, that could still be either.

One for, like, someone like me.

Okay, so it's fruity. It's fruity. It's fruity. That's all I get. That's my only. That's. I mean, can you give me a color?

The color of the can is. It's kind of.

Not the can. The color of the beer.

I don't know.

You haven't opened it yet? Yeah. Shit. It's in a can.

It's in a can.

Okay.

Yep.

Okay.

It's a pounder. 16 ounce.

And you hadn't heard of it? Yeah.

Do you want to know what the ABV is?

Yes.

Two and a half percent.

Holy smokes.

No, I didn't know that. Just this moment.

It's definitely a goes. It's a goes, right?

It's not actually.

It's not a goes. Two per. Two what? Two eight.

Two five.

Two five. It's in a pint. How much was it?

Three bucks.

Is it from Germany? It is from Germany and it's not a goes. So Germany doesn't really fuck with sour beers or. That's kind of. I was looking for a sour beers like that. I mean, it's not a rattler. We've talked about rattlers.

Sure.

Is it a. Is it a rattler? Might be. I don't think I would know a German brewer.

It shocked the hell out of me. I think, like, there's like three kinds of German beer or whatever it is. I know there's more, but you know what I mean, like, usually it's not. There's not a lot of. There's not as many options.

You're right. I'm not gonna get this one. All right, what is it?

Just name a couple.

Maybe, I don't know any German mass produced. The only mass produced German. Radler. I can think of a Steagall, but I doubt it.

Let's name a couple other German breweries.

Hofbrau.

Have we truly stumped the Cicerone?

It's. Well, there's a. There's like a million German breweries. It's hard to. It's hard to just like randomly pick some out of the air.

You've already. You're definitely. We've definitely stumped you at this time.

Yeah. What is it? What is it?

Paul Lanner.

Oh, duh. Of course.

Is that how you pronounce it?

Yeah. Polyner. Yeah. Pollen.

Is it polymer?

Like pollen? I would say. I usually say pollen or grapefruit rattler. It's a grapefruit rattler. Okay. So I got. I mean, you got the rattler. I said it's not a rattler. Which kind of means. Is it a rattler? Interesting. Okay, that's a good choice. That's a really good choice. I didn't know Paul made a rattler. Palner is a huge brewery. It's amazing. That didn't just pop in my head. Germany has a lot of really big breweries, but if you're not like thinking, obviously, but if you're not like thinking about them right then it's kind of hard to just like polar bears.

You've had polymer beers.

Oh, of course. Yeah. Polyner's huge. Okay.

Okay. So you got Polinar Grapefruit Rattler for my, for my, for my headlamp. For the headlamp episode. What, what, what did you, what did you bring?

Super good joy. So I've. I have one that I've talked about before, but I haven't actually done like a full review of it before. And I was kind of waiting for you because you also have some of these. But it occurred to me it doesn't really matter if we do it at the same time. So I am officially on unsealing the review today. On the, on the Patagonia Kernza Lager. I've talked about their non alcoholic. We talked about. I've talked about it before, but we haven't reviewed it yet. At least I don't think so. This is a beer that's made with Deschutes. So I guess I just talked about Deschutes last time. But they're making this beer with lots of different breweries around the country. Each brewery gets to do their own sort of take on it. But I mean this, it has bright right in the fucking copy here.

I can really avoid it.

Bright, crisp and you know, I hate this term wildly drinkable. But I've now this is going to be the first time I've had it. I've had a few of these. This beer is fantastic. I mean it's. They're. They're not an alcoholic beer, which we'll talk about at some point. We're getting some more from Athletic pretty soon. We should do a standalone on that one because it's the best non alcoholic beer I've ever had. But you know, this Patagonia kind of cheated this time by not. They've never made beer themselves. They've had beers. It's always made by a different brewery. But I really like what they've done here, which is they basically just like partnered with a bunch of different. I think it's like 20 different breweries and just be like, here, make it. Make something with Kernza. And we don't really care, you know, but like, that's. You got to use organic ingredients and you got to use Kernza. Kernza is a perennial grain. We've talked about it. This on the show. That's like, way better than. Than barley for the AG system and topsoil, all that sort of stuff. So that's what. That's why this is called the Kernza Lager. But it's just a light, bright, a phenomenal drinking beer. I want to say it's right around 4.8%, so.

Okay. I thought you said it was NA. It's not. It is.

No, no, for. No. They make an. They make an NA golden brew or something like that with Kern. Kernza as well. But this is their. This is their. Like a regular lager. It's just a. It's one of the best American lagers I've ever had. It's a fantastic beer. So congratulations to Deschutes. But, you know, it fits really well with it. This is like a.

It says bright.

It says bright right there. Like, I would absolutely take this camping. So it fits really well. So let's crack them open.

I'm excited. All right, you ready?

Yep. 3, 2, 1. Einstein. Dry.

All right. Oh, that is. That smells like grapefruit. Holy shit. Cheers, buddy.

Cheers. That just smells like really good beer.

Oh, that just.

Wow. Is it just like. Is this just, like, carbonated?

That's like. Yeah, it's like. Oh, San Pellegrino.

Yeah. 2.8% is an. Is a strange amount of alcohol. 2, 5.

Isn't that weird? I didn't even look until we were just literally talking about it. Is that typical, though, for a beer like this?

No, no. I mean, a rattler normally is just a regular. It's just a regular, like, Pilsner with juice in it. I mean, or not juice, but, like carbonated, like.

Yeah, right. We talked about that when we did the Cali Cali Sweeze. Yeah. Which I know it's not a rattler, but we talked about rattlers then, I think.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, it doesn't. It just means. It just means a beer that has, like, carbonated fruit juice in it.

I mean, two and a half percent. It's almost like they were trying to make NA and they screwed it up. Like, ah, let's just do it anyway.

So can you taste it? Can you taste that? Like, kind of funky NA Taste?

No, it's like drinking a San Pellegrino it really interesting. Like, so, I mean, this is awesome. I love it.

I don't know if I. A two and a half percent beer. Yeah. Like, I feel like I'd rather just have a. Like a. Just like a Lacroix or whatever, you know, or like just. Or like a. Or one Spindrift or whatever. Like actual like sparkling grapefruit.

Right.

Juice.

Right.

But it's probably good.

Yeah. How's the. How's the Patagonia?

Yeah, dude, it's so good. It's just like, it's just exactly what you want in. In a logger. Just like, it's really light, it's really crisp.

If there's one thing that unites every member of the outdoor and active community, it's that no matter what your favorite outdoor activity is, we all burn calories and we all need fuel. And that's where FuelGoods comes in. FuelGoods is the ultimate curator of nutrition for active people everywhere. Because no one knows more about how you should fuel your adventures or how to get that fuel into your hands than they do. And right now is prime time for fueling. Over the next month, we have Turkey trots, Santa runs frosty 5Ks, along with the temptation to refuel using all of the desserts and holiday staples that will no doubt be in your home for the remainder of the year. Everyone stop the madness. Fuelgoods has done the hard work of assembling a delicious and effective assortment of products to help you fuel for your next event or adventure. And if you're overwhelmed, you can order up one of their pre assorted boxes, like the famous Ryder box or the one that started it all, the Ryderbox. And when you're done shopping for yourself, order a FuelGoods monthly subscription as the perfect holiday gift for that calorie deprived adventurer in your life. Look, I'm hungry. Aren't you hungry? Head to fuelgoods.com and start shopping.

Today, let's talk about headlamps. I remember my first headlamp.

That's impressive. I mean, I kind of remember mine. I remember I can see it, but I can't remember the brand. I remember it was cheap as shit, but I remember what it looked like. But I can't tell you anything about it, really.

I remember that it was a Petzl. And I just. I mean, that's a funny name. So, like, I'll never forget that it had like a purple, like, strap and it was. That was enormous, like a sweatband level, like, you know, strap. It took approximately 45 double A batteries to power it.

Did it have the pack on the back of your head thing?

No, no, right in the front. So like. Yeah, I think it weighed 25 pounds. It was looked like one of those, you know, like in those, like in an old footage of like, miners where they have like this, like a car's headlamp on their head. Was it ralph what it felt like? No, it was a little square, but it was just like so big.

I love when you see headlamps like that where it's literally like a round, like, can on your forehead. Yeah, yeah.

Like Minions style. I think Minions have those, right? Or something. But yeah. And like, I don't. I'm 99% sure it didn't have any. It was on or it was off. Like, it didn't have like, light or low or. It was definitely not doing anything.

Like flashing.

Yeah, no, no, it was on or it was off. Kind of appreciate that actually, in some ways. Yeah, I mean, that's. That's something I want to talk about with this one. Because, like, one of the things that has happened with headlamps is now that they can do a million things. You have to like, memorize. You have to like, no Morse code practically. You, like, push like, okay, three short taps and a long tap will make it turn red. And then like, I have a bunch of biolite headlamps and I never have any idea what I'm doing. I'm just like. It's like. I'm like playing Mortal Kombat. I'm just mashing buttons, hoping that what I want to happen happens. Like, it might turn their light red. It might turn it on, it might turn it off. It might be blinking. I don't know. I don't know how to make it work. I don't know how to turn it off. It's like, eventually I figure it out and like, it is kind of nice to have one that just has a. An on and off switch. But anyway, I've. Dude, I've had like a million. I've had a million headlamps lately. I've been using the biolite just because they're really comfortable. I don't, you know if you. I don't know if you've used them, Colin, but they. When. When they first came out, they had the same deal as this one. This. That we're gonna talk about today. The little. The little like, unit in the back where all the battery was stored and then a cable that ran to the front. Now they're like, they're higher end ones they don't have that. It's all like, the battery is tiny and it goes right in the front, and they're really, really thin and low, and you kind of forget you're wearing it. Okay. And they tilt and it's nice. But again, you know, you have to, like, know the sequence of buttons to push to make it do various things. So I've been wearing one of those for a while. But, like, they're just.

It's like everything else.

They're just headlamp. Like, they're fine. Like, do you need a headlamp? Do you have one? Great. Like, I've never really given a whole lot of thought. Right. Like, they're a little bit of a. They can be a bit annoying in terms of, like, trying to make it do what you want to do. But for the most part, I just grab a headlamp, you know, and like, I don't. Like, I have the old ones, I have the newer ones. I don't care. As long as it's charged, I'm good to go. It wouldn't occur to me to like this one I like better than this one. I would just grab a headlamp amp. As long as it's not battery powered, which. Which I do have a few of those.

What did that change? I mean, most of the ones I have probably are still battery powered, right? Just because. And they're not. They're. They're old.

They're old, right?

Yeah, but I mean, is that pretty much universally they're all rechargeable now, and they come as rechargeable with cables.

I mean, like, the. If you're getting one of those, battery power is probably super cheap, you know, it's probably something that you're getting at like a target and it's like a pretend.

But that's like, we're still less than 10 years, probably before. That's like universal.

Yeah. I mean, but I mean, like, isn't that. I feel like a lot of things are that way now. Like, I get like a little toy for my kids and it's. It's. It's got a us. It's got a micro USB thing.

Right.

There's no batteries, so.

God, that's great, isn't it? I don't know.

Yeah, it's great. I hate that. I mean, I hate batteries, so. I mean. Yeah, it can be annoying to have to, like, charge something. But I mean, like, rechargers, like, little pocket chargers are great.

Yeah.

Way better.

Way better.

But yeah, again, for the most part, I think all all headlamps are going to be rechargeable these days. Or they should be. If they're not. If they're not, you shouldn't be screwing with it. Yeah, but here's the deal, Colin. Got lots of headlamps. They all work pretty good. I only have one headlamp that I can talk to. Or at least I guess I could talk to all my headlamps. I only have one headlamp we're talking to. It actually does. Does something right. And that is the Coast RL35R, I guess. Colin, did you just make that up? I think that might be the name. That actually is the name. It's the Coast RL35R. So it's got two Rs in it. I tried to for a while. I was like, maybe if you, like, squint and look back, maybe it forms a real word. But it doesn't. What do you think about the name of this product, Colin?

We don't like to complain a lot here in Gear and Beer. If we have something we don't really like, we won't feature it on Gear and Beer. That's just kind of like what it's.

Like, why different names are different because this doesn't actually affect the product. Right.

And I. So I don't want to kick off with being negative, but it. It does. I'm with Justin. I love this headlamp. I've never loved a headlamp the same thing. I've had somewhere between 1 and 865,000 headlamps in my life, usually because it's like we're going on a camping trip.

Shit.

What happened to all the headlamps that were, like, in the camping bin? Ah, the kids took them out. They just. They're lost now. Let's go get more headlamps. It's like this weird thing with headlamps and they're all great and they all work. This thing is awesome. We're going to get into it, I'm sure. But it pains me that it's called.

The RL35R, especially for such a rad headlamp. Like, how come it doesn't have a name?

It should have a name. I mean, and everything should have a name. I'll never understand. If you listen to this, if you've listened to the rock fight, you definitely heard Justin or I or both of us complaining about the names of things. Because I don't understand why we can't name things I couldn't like, same as you. I couldn't tell you about any headlamp I've ever owned.

It's gotta be a trademark thing, right?

Guess. But like we saw this headlamp we talked about in the rock fight after the Gear junkie review this past spring, something like that. Where like we're like, oh, we made.

Fun of it a little bit.

We made fun of it. Then we saw it at. Or then we saw it again at outdoor Media Summit. And now we are here reviewing it on gear and beer. And I could. I'd have to look at the name RL35R to remember what it was. So I did go to just the chat GPT because I wanted to see like what are five options? Like just I asked for 20 and these are five options that they threw at me.

All of them are great.

Yeah. The Talk Torch, awesome.

Talk Torch, perfect.

Love it. Beambot. Sure. I got the Coast Beambot. It's great. The Glow Command. Yep. Headlight Hero and the Vibe Vision. And There's. I got 15 more that are actually pretty. Pretty good.

Pretty good. Talk Torch is awesome.

Wouldn't you be like if you're like, hey man, I got the. What kind of headlight do you have? Like, oh, I got the Coast Headlight Hero. Like things awesome. You can talk to at least.

Yeah, but at least Talk Torch or like talk, like have something in the name where it explains. I mean this is like I love Talk Torch. So we, we talk about this a lot in the outdoor space which for the most part everything works, right? Like everything works.

Everything works.

Like, like a lot of brands are like trying some super cheap stuff that might not work but for the most part like everything works really good. All you have is differentiation. That's it. Whether it's a color pattern, whether it's, whether it's, you know, the way the seams fit, whatever. Like everything works. It's just like you pick what differentiator you are into. Why you wouldn't lean into that with this is absolutely beyond me.

Agreed. Also, I think it's cool that like the Brits call headlamps torches. I think that's dope. Like so called Talk Torch. By the way, this last thing I'll say this that we can get back to is that I really don't want to shit on anything about coast is doing because I guess Headlamp is awesome. We're going to talk about it. They sent us another little light.

Yeah.

What's it called?

Also Super Rat. I don't remember what's. But it has a name.

Yeah, the Slayer. Great name. Yes.

It's like a pocket, basically. It's like a. It's like a pocket knife. It feels like a pocket knife, but it's a flashlight. Like, it has a great. It's thin, it's narrow, good in the hand feel. And I will say these are the only two products from Coast I've ever played with. Not thrilled with the build quality on the RL35R, but the Slayer, whatever. But the Slayer feels like you could drive.

It's like a little lightsaber.

Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's never gonna break. It's perfect. Yeah, it actually looks like one kind of. With the, like the lens flare in the camera. It's pretty. It's absolutely awesome. Love that little thing. Can't wait to. Cannot wait for that. To slip between the car seats of my truck and never see it and then discover it.

Five years from.

Or like, I'll sell the truck and someone will be like, what is this? Yeah, this is. This is really, really good.

But yeah, look, we're going to give you a lot of praise coast, but man. And it's also to the larger extension, the broader outdoor industry. Just name your stuff, man. Give stuff a name. It makes it so much more fun to talk about.

Well, coast makes a crap ton of headlamps. Everything from like kind of just your bargain basement style to the kind that have like the strap that goes over the top of your head. Yeah, they make pretty much everything. They make a little cheapies. They're like 35 bucks. This is the only one I think they have. We. I don't know if we've really hammered this home yet, but folks, it's voice controlled, right? Like. Yeah, sorry, I don't mention that. Yeah, we're so. It's like we sort of assume that maybe you've heard about it, but it's. It's freaking voice controlled and they don't have any. I'm just making sure this is the only one.

See, that's what I mean. Yeah.

How is the name not have voice control in it? I don't get it. Or the voice. I don't.

Yeah. And look, again, not. This isn't directed only at you. This is a outdoor industry problem. So let's get with it. Last week, the shoes I reviewed were the GSR ar. Like, just.

No, no.

Called the Roar.

You know, it's gotta be. It's gotta be. It's gotta be a trademark thing.

Yeah.

So. So when we first heard about this, I remember like talking about it and just like making fun of like, why would I need this product? Right. Like, it just seems absolutely absurd. Right. How hard is it to touch your head? You know? Like, it just didn't seem like. At no point did the. Did the, like, application make any sense to me. You put it on, you go outside within four seconds. The concept of having to touch your headlamp seems absolutely insane.

Like, how have I been able to. How have I been doing this for decades? You know?

Yeah. It's just, like, unbelievable. Unbelievable. So what I've been using it for a lot is riding my bike around at night, and, like, holy smokes. That's great, because it's like, you come to an intersection and you don't want to blind people. You just, like, coast off turns, off coast.

It's so good. So responsive.

Yeah. And you don't have to shout. Like, you can kind of just say it's amazing. So it does. It has, like, a million different. You know, like, you can change the. You can change the brightness. You can change the pattern from, like, an arc to, like, a focused beam. You can change the color. Red and blue. You can change. I think it has a strobe function. I haven't tried that yet. And it's really smart. Like, you have a little button that you turn on that does not draw very much power at all. Right. That basically puts it into listening mode. But you can also turn that off and have it be completely. Completely. You know, you don't have to do that, by the way. You don't have to use talk. You can. It has physical.

It has a little dial for dimming, too, which I thought was kind of a cool touch.

Yep. Yep. The only. And. And the ba. The battery pack, which is on the back. So you have, like, you know, pretty good size, like a. I don't know, like a. Like a double pack of gum, maybe, like on the back of your head. That is. You know, it's. It's there. It kind of sucks. But the way that it fits on the strap is, like, actually pretty comfortable. Like, it doesn't really bother me.

Yep.

But one of the things I love about it is it has a light back there, too. So like, that makes it really good for riding a bike. Um, I haven't, like, tried to strap it around a helmet or anything like that. Um, but. And I don't know if that's the point, but it's a.

It.

You can actually get by with just having this on a bike, and you have a light behind you and a light ahead of you, and it's absolutely amazing. But at this point now. And the other thing that's amazing is like, it's not like it's huge. I mean, the.

No, it's typical.

Like, I don't. Wherever the voice listening software part is, like, it doesn't take up any extra space. Yeah.

But let's talk about the voicing for a second because that was something that I. Out of the box. I opened it with my daughter and I mean, we were. We had. Yep. There's like a little thing that shows you all the commands that respond. Responds to. So we turn it on, by the way, comes charged. I don't know if it's fully charged. It comes charged, which is great. And flipped it on and she and I were like going back and forth and it was just responding quickly. Quick, quick.

And it hasn't missed one.

Right. Two different voices. I mean. Yep. Just. But. But then not like freaking out or flaking at any point either. Right. Really well done. Really well executed. I'm 100% with you on the. I no longer want to have any headlamps that doesn't respond to a voice command, which I.

Having another one.

Yeah. I thought for sure I would just be like, who cares? Like, why would I care about. Look at. See these buttons? They work great. And they do. But now. Yeah, just put on. Coast on, boom, on.

You have to fiddle. You have to fiddle with a button. So, like, you know, like, what do you. What do you do? Do you turn it on and then put on your head? That sucks because then you might get the light in your eye. I usually put my. My headlamp on first and then I gotta, like, reach up and find the button and then you go through the rigor. Morale.

Yeah.

Okay. How many buttons do I want to put? I mean, just if, like, I haven't done this yet. But, like, having this in camping would be amazing because you're just like walking around, you know, getting your stuff all dialed with it on and you cozy into your sleeping bag with a book and just coast red. And now you have that nice red light.

Yep.

And you didn't have to, like, it's such a small thing. And I'm not normally one for, like, smoothing out those sort of rough edges of things. Like.

Yeah, I don't usually care.

Like, I don't normally care. But weirdly, you're like, oh, like, I'm not kidding. As soon as you get used to the fact that you can talk to it, like, I just can't believe that all headlamps aren't like, it. It's Just an obvious. It's such an obvious benefit.

Yeah. I can't believe it's taken this long. I mean, you put. Think about, what do you do with your headlamp? A lot of times if you're in your tent, you put in a little thing, a little thing dangling at the top of your tent. So you have a little light in there.

You can turn it off when you're done.

Well, you wake up in the middle of the night and you go, oh, I gotta find my jacket. Cause now it's cold out and I wanna go outside and take a piss or whatever. Coast on. Boom. Now your tent's like illuminated.

Yep. And like. Or obviously you're wearing gloves. You know, like, that sucks. And so it's just like you could see them having these conversations around like a boardroom table and being like, yes, yes, let's figure it out. Because it's just, it just makes all the sense of the world now. It's entirely possible that other brands have done this and I just never seen it. Yeah, but I would. I honestly, I get pitched so many random things. I'm sure I would have heard about it had somebody been able to do it. But it's just, it's just one of those things that is like, I'm sure they'll all be like this now. Like, unless CO somehow has a patent on voice activated headlamps, I don't think you can. I'm sure that everybody's going to come out with them now because it just, it's just that. That much of a game changer. It's that obvious. And it really does go from a headlamp is something I never once thought about it to. Right, this is the headlamp I need to have. And if I don't know where it is, I'm going to get pissed.

No, headlamps are a weird category because like you said, we have a ton of them. I like them. They're one of my favorite pieces of gear. I really like headlamps, but I can't remember. I'm sure I've owned a BD one. I'm sure I've owned a Petzl one. I'm sure I've owned a bunch of different other brands and I couldn't tell you a single one of like, oh, but that one headlamp I have was.

Super cool or like, it did something that was neat or the light was better or whatever.

But they all worked. That's all that mattered. Typically, you know, they were, if anything, maybe they were annoying because like, it was my fault because I hadn't changed the batteries and it was like a year since I used them. Now they're going to die. Back when they weren't rechargeable. So the fact that I can take a. So it's an odd kind of category. But that immediately, as soon as I started using this, I'm like, this is awesome.

I love this thing. Yeah. So it's. And like, it's a powerful light. It's 1100 lumens. I mean, that's. That's. That's big. I mean, that's bigger than one of the bike lights I have. Have. So it gets plenty damn bright. Excuse me. I will say, too, that the battery life is pretty solid. I mean, I haven't charged mine since I've had it out of the box. I've used it every day since I've had it, and I still have. Let's see, three out of four green lights on the battery thing. So, I mean, that's pretty. That's pretty good.

I don't know.

I just. As someone who rides a bike a lot at night, like, it just feel. I feel very seen with this light. I feel comfortable enough with this that I wouldn't have to put bike lights on my bike.

Like, see if you can turn mine on.

Coast on. That would pretty. No, there's no way. No, it didn't. Arc. I will say, too. It's also like, the arc is badass.

Yeah.

ARC is so good.

Might actually put it here as like a light. I might, like, start using it for, like, as, like, since I don't have a ring light.

You could, you could actually. I mean, it's. It's. If you turn the volume or the volume down, turn the brightness down. You totally could. And you don't have to shout, you know, like, it's not like you kind of think, like, oh, this would be annoying. But it's not like you don't. It's not like if you were, you know, I don't feel weird rolling around town and going like, coast on, coast off. Like, people don't hear you. Like, it's fine. It's not strange. Yeah. The only. If I were to complain about any aspects.

Do we want to do complaints after the ad?

Because I. Oh, yeah. Good point.

I mean, what else do you have to talk about?

That's kind of it. No, you're right.

Yeah, you're right.

Got carried away.

No, no, I was. I was going to launch into something too. I'm like, hold on. What else do we have to say. Okay, so I'm going to complain about the battery pack on the back. Not that it's that big a deal, but that's kind of one big.

Okay. Do you want to read the feel goods? You want me to. Does it matter to me? I'll read it, I guess. Yeah, you do. All right, it's time for the second sip. Colin.

Oh, thank God. I've been. I've already had a few second sips, though, while you were talking.

Yeah, I'm on my, like, 16th sip, but the. Well, actually. No, no, no, that's not true. My official second sip.

Because it's so tasty, tastes so good.

Because the second sip is, of course, sponsored by Fuel Goods. Feel good Fuel goods.

We're gonna actually have the. The founders of fuel goods come over. Did you have the.

Did you have the Polar? I think it was called Polar. The Polar Instant coffee.

Like Polar, like the brand Polar?

No, no, just like the. Like the.

Like the fizzy drinks.

Yeah, it was in my box. No, no, that's just Polar. Like Polar, like the. Where the pole is.

Oh, no, I did not.

Was it good? Yeah, dude, it was. It was like instant cold. Instant cold brew. It had, like, a tiny bit of sweetness to it, but it wasn't like stevia. It was so good. It was so good. I think it had, like instant, instant creamer in it, too. It was really good. But that came in my fuel box.

That sounds like a good camp item.

Yeah, dude. Yeah. Do they make a camp specific box? They should feel good. Make yourself a camp fuel goods.

We need a camp box.

So I don't know. Surely we have gripes. What do you got?

Yeah, look, my experience. You definitely, I think, sounds like you've used it a little bit more. Good call taking it out on the bike at nighttime. I ran around outside with it just to kind of, like, see it in the nighttime and all that kind of stuff and kind of get the gist of it. I mean, at the end of the day, it's a headlamp. I was. I've never been a huge fan. I've had one headlamp in the past that has the battery pack on the back. That's the headlamp I used when I went up Rainier because I knew we were gonna do some alpine starts. I wanted to have the extra battery power again. That was a long time ago when there were no rechargeable batteries. So I was kind of itching to see if I could take the backpack, the battery pack on the back of the Head off. I don't know if that was only a light up, but that is the actual battery for the headlamp. So you can disconnect it, but then your front headlamp won't work. So if I had one complaint, it'd be nice if there was a. And I don't think you can open this up and slot two AAA's in there or anything like that. It'd be nice if there were some auxiliary power for the headlamp itself. So if you wanted to lose the weight off the back of your head, you could. The strap's okay.

This isn't. This isn't like a trail running headlamp, right? Like, this isn't one you're gonna run. You're not gonna wear it to do something like that. That's true.

I just think, like, even over time, if you were like hiking at night.

Probably, I'm sure eventually they'll get smaller. I mean, the first biolite one I had had the same setup with like a big. Like a corded cable running from one into the back to the front with a big battery pack on the back. And now it doesn't have that at all.

Doesn't have it at all.

I mean.

Yeah, Yeah. I mean, do you. Did you notice any issues with that when you're out riding your bike?

No, no, not at all. I don't see it. Forget it's there. And I was so happy that it had a light on the back because, like, I rarely remember to charge my little back lights on a bike, but I always remember to charge the front light. And so having that, it's just like, oh, good. I don't have to think about it.

I mean, other than that though, I mean, that's really. It's kind of just nitpicky shit. I mean, it's really like we can complain about the. What it's called, which I think is just a good branding idea to change that. And then, yeah, I'd like to have the option to remove the thing off the light off the back of your head. That's kind of all I got in terms of gripes. I mean, you said it's 100 bucks, right?

Yeah, it's 100 bucks.

It seems completely fair for what this.

Thing is for sure. You know, like, I wanted to look up, actually, I meant to do that.

If you told me it was a buck fifty, I'd believe you. And I'd probably like, that's a little high, but I see it. There's a hundred dollars. Sounds really good. Yeah. We looked up competitive pricing, so it's about okay.

So, like, the cheaper biolites, again, that's just been my go to. The cheaper ones, they don't have a ton of power. Are like 35 bucks. As you get up to, like, the ones that are a bit stronger. They actually do. I guess the higher end ones do still have the battery pack in the back, and those are about 75.

Okay.

I know you can easily spend more. Like, Black diamond makes some pretty pricey ones. So does Petzl. But these are for, like, climbing at night. I mean, those are different. Like, they're, you know, if you want to, like, if your life is depending on it, you know, the ruggedness and that kind of a thing of a. Of a headlamp, that's a different story. But for just like, your basic, like, camping use, maybe have it at home for your bike to go for walks at night or for like, hiking. Like, I can't think of a better one. The my only. I actually don't care about the battery pack in the back. I just. The plastic feels really light. Like the headlamp itself is made from. I mean, it's cool that it's light, but it feels really light. Like, it has kind of like a cheap plastic feel to it. But, you know, I mean, I've only had it for a week or two, so I can't really tell you what the durability will be like. But, like, I don't know. You don't really, like, drop these very much. So. And coast has been around for a long time. They make, like, sort of tactically stuff. Like, I would imagine they know what they're doing in terms of build quality, but that's true. Bucks.

Yeah, I'm looking at some of these ones I'm on REI's website or looking at, like, you know, the headlamps that are north of a hundred dollars. They all definitely look like they're a little bit more. Just the straps or the way it kind of gets mounted to your head, a little bit more thoughtful of that. This has a. This is, to your point, the quality of the plastic and sort of the headlamp itself has a little bit more of just sort of an everyday $40 to $50 headlamp kind of feel to it. And I'm assuming that then just the complication of the technology that's in it is where the price is coming from. That being said, I mean, you know, I don't have a problem spending $100 on this. I could just see, like, okay, maybe a Little bit more. Maybe my complaint about I can't take the battery pack off the back. If you kind of, like, thought about how this would. If there's a more comfortable way maybe to kind of create the strap on it so when you're wearing it a little more comfortable, maybe, then I'm not complaining about that. But, you know, again, I think these are largely nitpicks. I think, you know, there are $200 headlamps in the world for 100 bucks for this one that you can talk to. Yeah.

Pretty sweet.

Yeah, it's pretty good.

And, like, the strap is nice. It's stretchy, it's perforated. So, like, it's not going to, you know, it's not going to get hot, like in the summertime.

Right.

But yeah, I mean, I. At this point, I literally would be annoyed if I. If I find myself outside without it. And that's. That's the first time I can say that about any headlamp I've ever had. Had. And that seems to me like the most, like, the biggest sell. I mean, if someone el. You know, like, for someone who's had a shit ton of headlamps, like, here's the first one I'll ever actually remember, other than my first one. Like, that's a pretty good sign.

Yeah. This is the rare case where there is an actual technical innovation in 2024 that is legit and awesome. And this is the kind of stuff that was happening all the time back in, like, the 80s and 90s. Like, oh, my God, you see, they made that. And now. Now, like, we don't get this kind of stuff anymore. So I think that's one reason why we're so excited about it, so.

Well, good job, Coast.

Work, Coast. Nice work.

Well, it heard me. It's like, huh? What do you. Well, yeah, so that's. That's pretty much. That's pretty much all I got. How you going to finish that beer right now? Are you going to put in the fridge for.

I'm going to have some more of it and then go out and go for a little hike. So. But I've already had. I'm over halfway done already, so, yeah, usually press pretty good for me. Now next week. Next week we have on the schedule is Overrated. Underrated properly. It's December's edition of Overrated. Underrated. Properly rated.

Yeah. So this one. This one is very obvious to me. Like, obviously we'll get. You know, we'll record some of these closer to Christmas, too. But I want to do a Christmas beer for this next one.

A Christmas beer?

Yeah, if you can find one. Some kind of.

So a holiday themed.

Holiday themed beer. You shouldn't have any trouble. You should like, you'll probably be able to find like most. Most. Most breweries have some kind of like winter celebration. It doesn't have to have like Christmas in the name, but some kind of winter celebration beer. Can we can talk about whether seasonal beers are overrated or underrated.

All right, that's what we'll do. I think we did it.

That's what we'll do. We did another gear and beer, Colin. All right. F. So we'll wrap it up right there. Gear and Beer is a production of Rock Fight LLC for Colin True. I am Justin Houseman and I can see him coming from a mile away with that bright ass headlamp on. He's here to take us out. The voice of the Rock Fight podcast network Christa makes. He's going to perform the gear and beer theme song and we will see you next time.

See ya.

Just like you're with your pals out on the trail, we review outdoor adventure gear. Pair it with the perfect beer. Now let the games begin. So glad that you're here at the break the pudding the trail head. We're going to crack up in the cooler and in VI where we can celebrate our wins. Those losses we hold so close. The bottom line here is you'll get the berries that matter most. Kieran beer and beer.