Why did the hipster burn his mouth? Because he drank the coffee
before it was cool. Oh.
Welcome in everybody. It's the Craft Beer Republic.
Thanks for drinking. Thanks for joining.
I am Greg and I am being joined by the Buffest Trailmix eater in
the Midwest. That's Flex. What's up, big fella?
I don't love all trailmix. Let me just tell you.
It's not all created equally. It is. No it's not.
It is just this spicy trail mix from target. It's amazing.
I like the sweet and salty. Um. I don't I don't like the daddy.
All the spice. Yeah, I love spicy, but trail mix.
I want M&Ms in my trail mix. Daddy want the spice?
It's a waste of calories. All right, well, and over there,
not wasting calories is the sudsy sister Erica.
What's happening? Hey, guys. Yeah, I don't like chocolate, though,
so that's like a weird thing, I know. Like, not at all.
If there's nuts in it. Because I like me.
A good nut in my chocolate. Yeah, you do.
I setting us up for that one. Right. But no, I'm not a huge fan of
plain chocolate. I like my chocolate with caramel.
Right. Oh, that's good too. Other than a good M&M in my trail
mix, there's. No. Such thing. As a good. Yes there is.
I only like dark chocolate. Oh, how about peanut butter M&Ms?
Peanut M&Ms? Peanut butter M&Ms? I'd rather have a Reese's or a
Reese's Pieces. Okay. All right, well, you know,
let's not start talking about candy. Then he's gonna start talking
about those little toes that he likes to eat. What are they?
Circus peanuts. Toes. Oh, circus peanuts. Peanuts. Oh, me.
Yeah, circus. Not a candy show, so. Oh, it's. It's orange styrofoam.
Y'all are lucky it's not a candy show because y'all get schooled.
On circus peanuts, I think. Circus peanuts. Hell, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Banana runts. Yeah. You would be.
Like, who doesn't like banana runts? Everyone. Banana taffy? Yeah.
Banana runts is awful. You guys are fucking weird. Big dick.
Nick is a huge fan of banana runts. He has an entire candy machine in his
house with only banana runs in it. I bet he would love a circus.
Peanut. We should ask him. Oh, awful. All right.
Can we can we all agree on peach rings? And and and.
I'll put those on necklaces sometimes. Greg. Come on.
I'm not against a peach ring. This is okay.
No, I just wanted to agree on something.
So we can we can go into the show on a on a good level. Yeah.
And we can all we're all connecting on a level here. That's peach rings.
Feels good. Feels. Yeah. Let's. Yeah. Let's get it peach ring style.
Yeah. Let's get it on. Even that weird white side.
The weird texture. Like what? Yeah, yeah.
Nobody even know what that is. No, not needed, but still tasty.
Super weird, but super weird. We'll take. It.
Because, you know, peaches aren't really white,
so I don't know where that came from. Yeah, and they're not, like,
rough textured. And they. That was like the side of the gummy
that didn't like, chew very well. Mhm. Yeah. It was just bizarre.
They had a glue two gummies together. I feel like more effort than was
needed. Yeah. Except they used way more glue
than gummy. You know. You can get like a I don't know I
think it's a £10 bag or something of those things at WinCo.
Oh, Jim. Jim right there. It's gonna say it's on the bottom
shelf for like, ten bucks. Oh, yeah. Can you call in again, please?
Yeah. Jim. We miss you, buddy. Tell us how much he hates that
fucking store. Yeah, you can load up a styrofoam
cooler and. Yeah, ten bucks for £10. I mean,
that's a cheap way to diabetes. That's a lot of peach rings.
Whatever it is for. Probably too. Many. That's like level ten.
Wilford Brimley, diabetes. You got some birdies.
I guarantee you, that guy's dead by now.
I think we've looked this up on the show, actually.
And that he's definitely dead. Yeah, I mean, I would definitely
put money on a definite death here. I'll look this up.
In the meantime, I'll say follow us on the
socials at Craft Beer Republic. @Flex_me_a_beer and discord between,
of course, @Neck_nosh_llc LLC and of course @Neck_nosh_llc.
Com for all your pretzel goodness. Yes, he died in August of 2020.
Damn multitasking. I'm fucking. Multitasking.
I can't believe how long he lasted. I thought he was dead well before
that. Yeah. No, he, uh, made it. Made it into Covid. Yeah.
Maybe diabetes is good for you. Then maybe it is. Sugarfoot.
You guys want to take a guess at how old he was when he died?
I'm gonna guess, uh, like 76. I don't even know who that is.
Guys, you. Don't know who Wilford Brimley is?
He was the oatmeal guy and also did the commercials for diabetes.
Yeah. Hi, I'm Wilford Brimley. Yeah. And I have diabetes.
Curly white hair? No. He always wore a hat.
Like, think of the the, uh, Quaker Oats guy.
He looked like the Quaker Oats guy. He had a huge mustache. Yeah.
All right. That's not ringing a bell. That's okay though.
Can we just get on the age? I'm just gonna sit firm at 76.
All right. 85. Wow. Lasted longer than I thought.
That's crazy. Yeah. Huh? No way am I gonna make it to 85.
I hope I don't. And I don't think I'm going to
have diabetes either. Right? Still not gonna make it that long.
I'm telling you, it's got to be the key to life, right? Exactly.
Drinking them beers and eating them peach rings. Yeah.
£10 peach rings for dinner. I don't have a £10 bag. Not yet.
You don't. Let's go to WinCo, everybody.
That's right. Uh. All right. Let me be here. But send me.
Not a candy. I'm okay with. That. So, Uh, what do we got today?
Oh, lots to get to. First of all, shout out to Miami.
Top listing, city of last week. Hi. Hello.
Yeah, I'm Miami, or whatever they say. Uh, got some booze news.
I got an email from a listener. Can't wait to talk about that.
In the meantime, if you guys don't mind, I'm just
gonna crack a beer over here. Right on. I am. Out of my dare.
To tell them. I love my beer. I am drinking from Tired Hands
Brewing Company, double dry hopped Alien Church with Citra and Galaxy 7%
A437 on untapped out of over 9400 ratings. Flex is getting perky.
They say double dry hopped Alien Church is the intensely amplified
and totally fuzzed out iteration of our Reptoid alien with
Photosynthesizing Tongue Oat IPA, brewed with the same fluffy malted
oats as always, and hopped again as always super aggressively
with Cascade and Columbus, dry hopped first with the same huge
dose of the choicest Citra, mosaic, and Chinook we've come to love,
then blasted over the skull with heaviest hands of a, with a mountain
of even more Citra and additional tropical and punchy and hyper
fresh galaxy for the secondary dropping hopping. Excuse me.
We hope you enjoy this one as much as you've come to enjoy Alien
Church over the last several years. Can someone else write this fucking
description? Brought to you by Stone. Yeah. Also words, man.
There's missing commas and all kinds of shit.
I'm just shocked at all the hops in it. Yeah, look at all these hops.
Recently heard they've added more hops to it.
Uh, I mean, pretty good looking. Wilford Brimley. Close. Cascade.
Chinook. I think it said Columbus. Columbus. Yeah. Mosaic.
And that's a tree. That's wild. Yeah. Pretty good looking, hazy.
Great lacing, as you can see there. Wonderful.
Uh, I love I bought it because the cannot I pulled a Flex of
kids and I bought it because it's got some trippy looking can art.
So it's pretty cool, I like it. My eyes are so.
Bad I couldn't tell those are aliens. Oh, yeah. It's like alien lizards.
He's focusing on the. Yeah, the tail thing or whatever.
It's focusing on the Tongue-jobber. It's got a great Tongue-jobber on it.
That's what it is. Like it's a tail, I don't know.
On the schnoz. Uh oh. It's like a tropical fruit salad
over here. Pineapple. Mango. Peach. Like my Saturday night toss.
Tropical salad. That's called a fruit cup.
And your wife doesn't appreciate it. Flex. On the old Tongue-jobber.
That is great. Holy smokes. Oh, look at that, Lacey. The, uh.
The flavor follows suit. The tropical fruit cup in my mouth.
Um, a lot of pineapple, a lot of citrus, a lot of
pithiness from the citrus as well. I'm really picking up on some
some pithy bitterness. I do enjoy some pith. Yeah.
Uh, not at all detectable. 7%. Just real easy to drink. Real smooth.
It doesn't have necessarily the fluffy, oaty mouthfeel you might
expect out of that description, but it does drink real easily.
Kind of finishes pretty dry. Um, would definitely drink again.
Heck yeah. So we're talking. 437. Um, that might be generous,
but it's definitely that's crazy. Hi. Yeah, it's.
Definitely at least a four, though. You know, I'd give it a four, four,
two, five somewhere in that range. It's a great beer. That's high. 37.
Yeah, I know, I'm a stingy bastard. This is.
This is really, really tasty. So I'm enjoying it. Outstanding.
Fantastic. Yeah. Uh, you guys, first of all, I saw a
list. And I know Flex loves lists. Love lists?
Is it, uh, spicy trail mix list? Yeah. Top ten. Spicy trail mix.
Oh, that would get me so rocked up. Number one target. Oh.
No, it was the best na beers in the country.
Oh, man, that's fucking garbage. That's an anticlimactic. Damn it.
So I never even grabbed the link. I just put it there to make fun.
Of. Him. Oh, okay. We're not gonna talk about that.
But I did get a listener email. So angry for a second.
Hey, you do get angry at lists. A listener email. Yeah.
Got a listener email the other day. Flex.
Remember, I don't know, it was probably like 3 or 4
episodes ago. Erica. Maybe you listened to this one.
We were talking about bingo at breweries. Oh that's okay.
I think okay, that's where I this thought in my head came from.
What was the podcast? Okay. Keep talking and I'll tell you why.
So we were talking about bingo, and I was saying that out in my
close vicinity, breweries that have introduced bingo
seems like a desperation call. Doesn't seem like things are
going well. They're they're grasping at straws,
that kind of thing. Okay, well, Moorpark J sent in an
email and he said, I wonder if this is what you're talking about.
We're here on a Wednesday night and this place is popping.
We were just in the neighborhood. It seems popular but really
kills the socializing. And he sent me a picture along
with it. He's at 818 brewing out here in,
uh, in the valley we know and love. And they have. Fantastico.
Oh, yeah. I always think of, uh. Yeah. Chew 818. The homie Chew.
And so they're doing bingo. He did not go for the bingo.
Happened to be bingo. Uh, but he said it was.
It was slammed. So. Yeah. Hey, maybe I'm wrong, but that
was an interesting take, though. It kills the socializing. So, no.
No talking or, you know, because you're you're focusing on
the game, which I totally would. I feel like you're.
Um, that's how trivia is, too. If you ever I know I hate to bring
it up, Greg, because you're a trivia champion. Yeah. But 2025.
Best of the best winning procedural. If you've ever been out to a a
bar or a brewery when you're not participating in trivia and you
just so happen to be there on trivia night. It's loud.
All the music in between questions is super fucking loud.
Oh, yeah. Um, and it gets. And you feel like an outsider a
little bit, right? Yeah, I kind of feel.
And everybody there seems like regulars.
Like, usually when you go to a trivia night. Yeah. Or maybe a bingo night.
I don't know if they have. Bingo. Yeah.
Um, yeah, that you're almost just kind of like. Wow. This is.
I feel weird. Yeah, I can see that. I've been on multiple ends of
the trivia equation. Obviously, we are the 2025 winning
best of the best procedural. Oh, really? Yeah.
I don't know if you guys have heard this.
Yeah, you should have brought that up. I'm proud of you. You.
That's super cool, though. Boast about it all you want.
But in addition to that, I've been to breweries where,
like, I talked about this when I was at Black Hammer up in San
Francisco one time, I walked in. Happened to be trivia night.
It's not why I was there. I was by myself and the guy was
super, like, encouraging, like, hey, join trivia.
And I was like, I'm by myself. It's fine.
I'm a trivia champion back home. I don't want to embarrass myself,
you know? And I just joined how bad could
it be? And I was like, ah,
you're right, I'll join. And if I want to leave early,
I know I'm not gonna win because I'm by myself.
And Deb's the star of the team, so I will, uh, I'll play along.
So I did, and I did. Pretty. Not bad. Surprisingly. Or maybe.
Maybe that's what it's a That's a bad sign for everybody else in
that trivia game. So, you know, that was fun.
I've also been to breweries where, you know, you get there late or
they're just doing trivia. You don't feel like playing.
It doesn't bother me, really. It's not like, oh my God,
they're playing trivia. I wish they'd shut the fuck up.
No, and I will agree to you on that. Yeah.
In fact, my one complaint while doing trivia.
Sorry, Brit, because we all know I play at Knotty Pine.
Uh, she keeps the music playing during trivia, and I'm like, oh,
can you turn that down? I missed the question.
Oh, that would be distracting. Yeah. And then she'll stop the music
when he does the music round, obviously, because boy,
would that be a clusterfuck. But it's like, hey,
can we can we shut the fuck up? We shut the fuck up. Thank you.
Okay, so speaking of music, so I was invited to music bingo and in my
head, and that was about a week ago. I was like, who was talking
about brewery bingo being like, kind of the downfall,
like the desperate reach. And now that you brought it up,
now I remember it was on podcast, but a gal that I know said Super fun.
People just have the best time with. And I thought, you know,
that's pretty cool. So I looked at the breweries, um,
Instagram to kind of see and the videos they have of it, they did
a good job because it looks like everyone is having such a good ass
time because you hear the song play, you don't have to know it because,
you know, if other people know it, you're gonna cross it off on
your bingo card, right? They blast the song.
It's like, oh, okay, whatever, bye bye bye, NSYNC or whatever.
Um, but it's just keeps, I don't know, something random, but.
It's gonna be me as I think it's my favorite. It's gonna be. Me.
It's gonna be me. Um, yeah. So I thought that sounded really fun,
to be honest with you. I was like, I would rather do
that than just regular bingo or. Bingo over regular bingo.
Sounds super fun. Add some sort of theming to it
or something, right? Yeah, I think I would really
like that. Yeah. And I don't even mean to poo poo
on bingo by itself. Like the wife. Whenever we go to Vegas,
all she wants to do is go play bingo. That's so 80 years old of her.
I know. Yeah, she's got her AARP card
out and everything. Dang. But I just have noticed that the
breweries around us that do bingo tend to not, or at least seemingly
are not doing well, at least in the past. Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe it's catching on and now it's the new hot thing, and trivia is
gonna go away and bingo will be it. Or, you know, whatever.
It'll be the second coming of trivia. I don't fucking know.
No, just that was my music. Bingo. Sounds fun and sounds like it
would garner, like, some pretty large group sing alongs, depending
on the song, right? Exactly. That's what the videos are,
is everybody's just guys. Gals are just busting singing
and just dancing around. I thought, that looks like my type.
Of. Bingo, right? Yeah, Flex is quite the singer.
I'm not great, but give me. Like some two out of three ain't bad.
Or like, um. What else? What else has he busted out on here?
Some meatloaf. I've just done weird things I do.
I do weird things. It's got to be the right moment.
It would be called I do weird things. Okay.
I can get him to sing some, like, wrestling entrance music
every now and then. You need to be like Portland,
where we're from. Portland, Oregon's motto is Keep
Portland weird. If you go to Portland.
So, um, it's like, keep Flex weird. Would you say you heard never to
go there? Yeah, I heard it's rough in Portland.
Um, really? I've been to Portland. Yeah, yeah, it just depends.
Yeah, there's. There's lots of gang. Activity in Portland.
Oh, really? Yeah. Interesting. That's where I went to college.
I, I came out okay. And, um. I stayed downtown.
I didn't have any issues. And. Yeah, I had a friend that lived or a
friend that lived there for a while, and, like, she drove us around
and we went all over. It was just a show about gangs
on a on a channel on cable. I guess it depends on where you go,
like any big city. But Portland has some really cool,
like food and beer culture and do like food and beer culture and stuff.
Yeah. Yeah, but keep Portland weird. It's a weird ass place, and it
makes me think of keep Flex weird. That's why I was going.
There's bumper stickers everywhere. Keep pouring a good beer name.
Keep Flex weird. Yeah, I like it. Okay. Keep Flex buff. Wow.
Yeah, yeah, I'm trying to. Yeah. Working on it. It's hard.
Yeah, especially with all that trail mix. I love me some trail mix.
So to wrap it all up, I don't know, maybe I was wrong about bingo.
I don't know. We'll see. Hope. Hopefully.
For the brewery's sake, I don't know. Yeah, exactly.
Unless they saw it. Right? No, it was 818 brewing,
so I'm glad to see that they're doing well. So that's that's good.
Hopefully they're running out of Fantastico or something.
Two kegs left. Two kegs left. Everybody left. Get your. By now.
Could be one. Who knows? Hopefully. Yeah. Hail Mary. Come with me.
Anyways, um. What else? Erica. Anything going on over there?
Any good research? Any good drinking? So the last brewery I went to
that was kind of research. He was King Kong brewing with my
volleyball team. That's fucking cool sounding
King Kong. Yeah. Um, it's in Sacramento, which is,
you know, about 40 minutes from where I live now.
But, um, yeah, after our game, we went and, uh, had some beers.
So I have a girlfriend that we we both played volleyball in high
school, so maybe six months ago, we're like, hey, yeah,
we need to join a team sometime. And for my birthday,
she got me a volleyball. So we're like,
we're gonna make this happen. Well, someone invited her to join
a team, so then she invited me, and I haven't played in 20 years,
so. Yeah, I was a middle blocker. I was pretty good at volleyball,
but it's been 20 years, so I'm like, okay.
So she said, yeah, it's a beginner team. It's cool.
Okay, I can do a beginner team. And then she goes, it's co-ed,
okay, you know, co-ed. And then she said,
it's intermediate. Okay. Well this is getting a little harder,
you know, and then it's um, it's actually getting harder.
It's getting right. Let's Listen to this. Um. Coed.
So coed. You know, they they have the foot,
a foot higher nets than what I played volleyball on,
because they bring it down a foot for the guys and up for the gals.
And then, um, it's like an LGBT affirming league.
Like for the guys and up for the gals. What?
You said, they bring it down for the guys, but up for the girls. Yeah.
So we it's a foot higher than what we would play on as as women,
but it's lower a foot lower than what the guys would play on.
It's kind of in the middle. Okay. Oh, I got it. Sorry.
Got it, got it. So. So in high school, your net was
two feet lower than the guys net. It was exactly. Okay.
And now it's in the middle. Yeah. Now it's in the middle. Got it.
All right. I'm tracking. Sorry. Should be speaking the language.
I don't know anything about volleyball. Right, right. Okay.
So, um. Yeah, it's like this volleyball
out loud league. So it's for, you know,
LGBT+ and like friends. And I thought, you know, cool.
So there's guys but like maybe, maybe they won't be hitting it
that hard, right? Like it'll be okay. Like I forgot.
Like, gay fit is like a super thing, right?
So, dude, this is this is like, way out of my league.
So I show up and my team is all, like, in their 20s and early 30s.
Here we go. And, um, except for my friend
who's like, mid 30s, but still quite a bit younger than me.
We're called the Glitter Hitters, which is awesome.
We wear like the eye blocks that like under your eyes,
like football players, but they're glitter and intimidate.
People. Right? Yeah. Heck yeah. So one of the first games the team
we played against, there was a guy that was much older than everyone on
that team and like, aim for him. You gotta hit the ball to that dude.
You know, he's the weak link. Like, oh, okay.
Give the old man a black eye. Give him. Yeah, exactly.
I'm like, oh, that's kind of mean. But all right, I get it.
It's a strategy. And then I'm standing at the net
and I look back at my team and I look at me and I'm like,
I'm that person on my team. I'm the old man for us, right?
Like they are looking at aim for her. She's the middle aged girl.
Like, just I don't know. It's so embarrassing. But, um.
Yeah. Made it through. It was actually a pretty decent
season, but, um, we started strong, and then, you know, Pound Town really
got us. Pound town. Name of a team. Yeah. Pound town. Oh, okay. Yeah.
All dudes just wailing on the ball the whole game. So fun though.
Um, so we would go have beers after that. Um, every once in a while.
So season's over, and they have another season starting in three
weeks, so I'll be playing again. So. All right, so it wasn't so bad.
You're not signing back up. I'm a glutton for punishment.
So for Valentine's Day, Sterling got me these as a joke.
We celebrated a little later than usual.
A deck of, like, volleyball practice cards.
Because I still am struggling. So it's like, line up some toilet
paper rolls and run through them and like, just different things.
Sounds ridiculous. I'm actually doing it because, hey,
why not? I want to get better. You don't jump. Okay.
PSA to all the people out there, when you're in your 40s, you don't
jump. Like, why do you jump? What's your reason for jumping?
So I used to jump and hit the ball and now I'm like,
I forgot how to jump. So yeah, I play basketball every
now with my buddy. Like we've started recently
playing basketball again. Just, you know, one on one shit
and you don't realize how much you don't jump anymore. Oh, yeah.
And it gets to the point where, like, I can't jump when we first start,
we need to sit there and warm up for like, an hour, right?
You know, we're just shooting the shit, throwing up threes,
you know, that kind of thing. And then he'll go, are you ready to
play? And I'm like, yeah, I think so. I'll go do a fucking lap around the
court because my knees are still not warmed up yet from jumping.
Like it? Yeah. It really takes some time to get
the old knees warmed up. It is not, it is not. We got.
No practice. We get no practices, no warm up,
nothing. You just show up and you play.
I'd have to get there early and just do laps around the building
or something. Yeah, it's like doing the high knees.
Yeah, yeah. Just so I. Started stretching the last time
we played basketball. And he's like, you all right, man?
I was like, yeah, I don't know. It feels like a thing I should be
doing. Maybe they'll start working. I don't know. The right thing to do.
I just can't get over this. King Kong Brewing by the way. Okay.
Sorry. So, King Kong Brewing. I feel like they could really
hit it off if they just sold these little gorillas.
That would clip on to the top of a beer can glass. Cute.
Like a little garnish. Yeah. That's amazing. They don't.
They need to do that. Idiots. Jeez. They're definitely missing out
on a market there. But it is. It's a cool name.
And, um, they're pretty cool folks. I've been set up next to them at
Brew Fest before and stuff and met. Um, yeah,
some other people and I like them. But we went out to King Kong and
their beers are pretty, pretty solid. And, uh, they do have the big
gorilla on the can. And. Yeah, so it was kind of a fun
talking about the game. That is chilling. Yeah.
Are you drinking King Kong today? I'm not drinking King Kong. No.
All right, well, let's find out what you're drinking anyways.
Okay. Sweet transition. Greg. Yeah. Good job.
Greg, the king of transitions. That was so smooth.
Just like this beer. Um, this beer is from Brewery X,
which I think is Southern California. Anaheim. Anaheim. Okay.
Um, and it's called Slap and tickle. Oh, yeah. I've heard. This one.
It's got like kind of that S&M kind of thing going on there.
Little feather after the. So it's like a strip club neon sign.
Insane. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, like the Pink Pony.
Which, okay, it's kind of like a funny name, but the way that I
got it was kind of random. So I was returning a keg to
Bevmo and gonna swap it out. I'm talking to the guy at the
checkout who's probably, like, ten years older than me, and he's, like,
seemed like he was flirting with me. And I'm like, this is this is weird.
Um, and then he's like, what beers do you like?
I'm like, oh, this and that. And he's like, you know,
I've really been enjoying Slap and Tickle. And I was like, what?
It's just a weird name. To. Throw out there.
And he was dead serious. Like, I don't know, it was just
so out of all the beers to say, I've been really enjoying Slap
and Tickle and I'm like, okay. And he's like, yeah,
from Brewery X, it's on aisle nine. You should grab it.
I was like, so I looked it up and it had a decent review.
So I grabbed some slap and tickle and I don't know if it was a setup,
but I think he was too dorky to get like the way he said it, I was like,
you've been enjoying slap and tickle. Okay. Are you the slap or the tickle?
Neither. Neither. But slap and tickle.
Let me tell you a little bit about this thing.
It is an American IPA 6.7 Abvs 40 IBUs. It's got 8000 check ins.
Wow. And 3.7. Yeah, right. That's a lot. 3.79.
So it's pretty solid on untapped. And there's really no description.
What to you. Yeah exactly. It says hoppy smooth tropical,
grapefruity and herbal. That's slightly better than a
Scotch description. So it's beer. It's got hops.
It had nice little bubbles on top at one point.
And then as it dissipated, I don't know why some of them kind
of do that, like lumpy looking when they dissipate. Um, yikes.
But I know it was a little concerned about that, but it's,
uh, kind of herbal y. Yeah. Mm. Did it say herbal?
Yeah, that's what it is. It is now. Why are you digging in that?
I'll tell you. I had a buddy who used. Or.
I have a buddy who used to work for Brewery X and, uh, Otter and Nick and
Nicole saw him when he was still working there at a beer festival,
and he was pushing that beer, okay? And people would walk by and he'd
just go, hey, can I get you a slap and a tickle? Right? There you go.
What? It's a beer. That's a beer. This makes me think of beer fest.
Beer fest? Oh, the movie. In the movie. Something like that.
So I get melon from this, which is nothing in the description,
but to me, it's like a really ripe melon.
It's not like a really strong, strong hop character.
Like the aroma smells like it would, but not so much on the taste.
That beer sounds really crunchy. Yeah, that is not. That is not me.
That is Flex eating target trail mix. I'm not. Eating anything.
I'm glad you said something, because they're gonna be like.
She's so disgusting. Why is. She a liar. Anyways. It's. It's good.
It's solid. Yeah. Good. Yeah. I find Brewery X to overall just
be fine. Sometimes they're good,
sometimes they're not so good. Most often they're just fine.
Yeah. Yeah. I have to address something you
mentioned earlier when you're talking about your volleyball stuff.
Oh, yeah. You said you went to King King
Kong Brewing and it was about 40 minutes away.
And I got real triggered by this because when we were up there,
I think it was we saw you guys. It was like November of last year,
I think maybe October. I think it was November.
And we were up there seeing some of the wife's family and whatnot,
and all of them, the family, the friends of the family,
Sacramento area. They said, oh yeah, whatever it was
we mentioned was 20 minutes away. According to them,
absolutely full of shit. Yeah. Everything was 40 minutes away.
No matter where you were going. It was.
And you're like, yeah, this King Kong brewery is 40 minutes away.
I was like, finally, finally. Someone.
Fucking knows and is honest is 40 minutes away because nothing
in Sacramento was 20 minutes away from anything.
Everything was 40 minutes away. No matter where we went,
it was a mile. It was 100 miles. It was 40 minutes away.
I'm glad I kept it true for you. Thank you. I appreciate your.
Honesty. It is. How long you been holding that in?
Yeah. Well, since November. No, but people do that all the time.
The gal that I commute to volleyball with, she'll be like, oh, it's
20 minutes. I'm like, no, it's 40. Like, yeah, everything's 4040. Yeah.
We were at the friend of the family's house for for dinner one night,
like, oh, were you staying? We told him where our hotel was,
like, oh yeah, 20 minutes away. It's like, no, we just drove here.
It was fucking 40 minutes. Did you guys tell what a great
time Greg had in Sacramento? Oh. Honestly, if it wasn't for Erica
living up there, I don't think I'd ever need to go back.
I think the motto is it's not that bad.
Like you see it on hats and bags. Sacramento. It's not that bad.
But it's also just not that good. I mean yeah.
Sacramento proper, you know. Yeah. You gotta know the places.
But it certainly doesn't jump out at you.
It's not a place that is, you go to Old SAC and you do the old sac and.
You do it once and you've done it. Is it wrinkly? It's. It's sags.
A little hangs down to the left. Loose skin and. Yeah. It's an.
Old sac. Yeah. Gross. Like we were up there once for a
wedding. And because it was the weekend and
Sacramento is a government town, everything was closed.
There's nothing to do other than Old Town sac. Yeah.
I mean, I think that's probably changed a lot. It's got.
It's the farm to Fork capital. Anyway, I saw many a billboards.
I was like, what the fuck is this? We kill a cow,
we get it to your table. Like within minutes, probably 40,
40 minutes. It reminds me. Yeah, exactly. They gotta slaughter.
Let's give him 45. Uh, it reminds me of Portlandia,
where they went to the restaurant, and they're like, can you tell us
where this chicken is from? Yes. Do you have the papers on this
chicken? Days later,
they finally come back with it. Yeah. So yeah, I just Sacramento like,
you know, we went to some breweries and we had some, some great beer.
You know, we went to shred with you guys and uh, and then we went to
other breweries and it was fine. Like everywhere else you go,
the beer is this and that. Just the city,
Sacramento proper itself. It's just I don't I don't need it.
Yeah, yeah. Just nothing you would think, for the
capital city of California. Yeah. A little something. Something extra.
Yeah, that's all right. Yeah. We like our little,
little nook here, too. Yeah. Well, you guys got the the
homestead out there. That's. That's different story.
You're not in Sacramento? No, no. I told Vanessa when Vanessa came
out here last year to California, I was like, if it wasn't for Erica,
I'd tell you to avoid Sacramento altogether.
We got a beer release coming up here pretty soon.
I got a bunch of ladies probably coming out for us.
I mean, it's the best place to go. Don't not go. Let me tell you.
It'll all be on my end of town, though.
And there's some kind of cool you saw, like Loomis.
And I don't know, we'll find some kind of out of character,
some place, a little character. Take him to Old Sack Road.
Old sack road. We'll go a little Flex x gonna
take my beer to the old Flex road. Yeah, or old Sack Road.
Whatever it is. Not my road, old sack.
I'll ride til I can't no more. Exactly. Yeah. You will.
At least 40 minutes. No matter where it is.
No matter where. No matter where. Yeah. Oh.
Second Sacramento proper. Not area. I don't know what proper means. Yeah.
The city of Sacramento, like Erica, is 40 minutes outside of Sacramento.
And, you know, it's fine. She lives in the hills and she's
got great views and has, you know, fucking farm in her backyard and
goats and dogs and sheeps and snakes and all kinds. Jet and a jet, a jet.
That's Mcdreamy's jet. What are we? I thought that was a secret.
He doesn't share it. Sorry. Cut that part out.
He's got to gas it up so we can get to Finland. Um. But happy people.
Yeah, just like it. Sacramento is a weird choice for
a capital for California to like so much of our commerce.
Yeah, I know, but like, so much of our commerce is water driven.
So, like, how about LA or San Francisco or even San Diego,
right? Yeah. It's weird. Anywho, not a California show.
It's certainly not. Yeah, sometimes. I mean, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. Wisconsin. Sometimes it is a little,
little California. The Cisco Kid. And we're all right with it.
That's okay. It's acceptance. Yeah. Okay.
Uh, before we find out what Flex to drink,
let's knock out a story or two. Sierra Nevada is canceling their
beer camp and Oktoberfest events. Wow. Well that's fine.
That's fine. Daniel. Beer camp. Adult day camp and Oktoberfest
celebration that were slated for later this year in Chico.
Uh, the company pointed to rising production costs, declining ticket
sales and unpredictable weather as factors in the decision.
Per Sierra Nevada social profiles, they say,
we know this may be tough news. These festivals have been traditions
for many in our community. We want to give a huge thank you
for all the years of support. The future is bright.
We're brewing up new event ideas for Chico and can't wait to
share what's next. Hey, what's what is the first thing
you think of when you hear Chico Razor Ramon? Okay. Just checking.
Not a wrestling show, but. Okay. Thanks. Hey, yo. Hey, Chico.
Like what? Next story please. Is that where? Like.
That's all right. You guys all want to know about this?
It's a wrestling thing. Crickets. Yeah. Okay. Sorry.
I'll take your word for it. Yeah. Uh, new England craft beer is
bucking national trends. The total beer industry ended 2024 in
the red, but New England remains a positive beacon. Beacon. Not beacon.
New England recorded a 1.8% dollar sales increase in tracked channels
in 2024, while the total craft industry recorded a -1.6 decline.
The region recorded the largest increase year to date, and was one
of two regions to record growth in whatever the fuck Xaoc means,
along with east South central dollars up 0.5% across Alabama,
Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. When surveyed, the most important
experience factor based on the percentage of review factors
mentioned is beverage variety, mentioned in 64% of analyzed reviews.
So basically, uh, they like that the East Coast breweries have a
lot of variety of beverages. Okay, I'm down with that.
I hate when I go into one place and it's like, hey, here's 300 West
Coast IPAs. Yeah, I feel that. Yeah, it's like, hey, I want a little
of this, a little of that. Yeah. Plus with you're with a crowd,
you want the variety because everybody has a different palate.
So is the spice of life for sure. I get that.
I'm glad they're doing a good job. Uh, all right, before we move on,
let's, uh, let's ask some important questions over here.
In a world where craft beer is king, I'm getting sleepy. Oh. Uh oh.
Wake him up. Only one talking dinosaur.
One man, one tongue. One Tongue-jobber.
In this world, we must find out what is Flex drinking? Wow.
Right in time. Um. So, like last week,
I'm keeping it in Illinois, which I only like Illinois for their beer.
I hate them for most other things. And their ice cream thing.
Mainly sports teams. Uh, yeah. Ice cream museum.
So I talked about this beer a little bit. What it looked like.
Uh, this is from Hop Butcher for the world.
Um, it's called Simcoe Traveling Scientist. And, uh, it is a lighter.
It is a pale ale, a New England hazy pale ale.
Uh, it's got Simcoe and Quantum Simcoe.
I don't know what Quantum Simcoe is. I don't know, it sounds like it's
at light speed or something. Like, uh, Ant-Man. Shit.
Uh, relatively new beer. Uh, 406 check ins.
It's got a 407 rating, and it's a 5.75% a ABV and
untapped reads Simcoe and Quantum. Simcoe hopped American pale ale.
Got it. Don't get much better than that.
That is a great description. I love it so much.
Again, I love this can. They always have the tasting notes
for every single beer they do. Whether or not I taste them is one
thing, but they say sweet pine juice, orange and candied berries. Mhm.
So berries are always something difficult for me to pick up in beers.
I guarantee I'll get the pine the orange.
So let's have some fun with this one on the old schnoz. The pine.
Oh, this is weird. Oh. It's digging deep.
So in, like, a non disgusting way. Um.
It's a good way to start things off. It almost smells like cough medicine.
Oh, like, you know how you get like that
gross berry cough medicine. Yeah. But it has, like,
the menthol vapor to it. Sure. Yeah. So this sounds. Delicious. No.
So this is like, berry mixed with, like, the pine As opposed to like
how you usually get citrus or like grapefruit with the pine.
So this is interesting. Okay. Let's dive right in.
Warm up the old Tongue-jobber. Ooh, that's quite the warm up.
Oh, a little extra. Dang. Oh. Still going? All right, here we go.
Okay. Such a tease. So it's definitely light bodied.
Uh, that 5.75 ABV light on the tasting notes.
A little bit of that sweet pine orange is in there somewhere.
Let me look for it again. A little bit of that cough medicine
berry. Weird. It is weird. Um, what's weird is that it's.
It's not bad either. Mm. It's enjoyable.
You lost me at cough syrup. Well, I know I would.
Um, it was a weird description. I shouldn't have started out
like that. Uh, I just didn't know how else to
put it, but this is pretty solid. Is 12.99 probably wouldn't buy again.
29 for four pack or. Four pack. Okay. Um, but you know what?
I would drink it again if somebody handed it to me.
No problem. Uh, it's all right. It's fun. It's all right.
It's fun. But the cannot. Gets the job done. Sipping on.
Grandpa's. Old cough medicine. He's like a little scientist.
He's like a little fucking. Oh, is this the one your kids
were laughing at? Yeah. He doesn't have a hat.
It's like he's like a. It's super. Weird.
He's a scientist, but it's fun. It's fun.
Looks like your kids drew it. Yeah. Kind of does, actually.
Right. He's got a mustache. I really like the mustache.
I mean, his kids already designed the, uh.
Merry Christmas. Happy new year. That's right. Bottle art for, uh.
When they come back. Random note my son, who's only 11.
Dreams of having a mustache one day. Just. It is like such a goal.
So we always, like, walk around with our finger above or like.
Good for him. I've been trying to sport a
shitty one for the last month. You got one going. That's all right.
You gotta get it to curl up. And I can't do the curl.
My hair is too stubborn. But it's kind of funny because
they did like that sex ed talk recently at school. Hell, yeah.
And he's like, yeah, mom, I'm growing hair.
But, you know, kind of like not getting the mustache yet.
All right, buddy. It'll it'll come eventually.
Tell him to wait 20 years. It's like, I think I'm in stage
three or whatever. I'm just like, jeez, kid.
Okay, good for you. Like. All right. He's so honest.
But we're gonna go from a. No puberty. Tangent.
I was just it's just funny, I don't know. No. That's funny. I don't know.
It's the mustache thing. I love it. Mustaches. They're coming back.
They really are, I guess. Well, they came back.
Are they still back? I'm. I'm bringing it back. Yeah.
I mean, Flex is bringing it back, for sure. Well, he's bringing sexy back.
Every time I trim, uh, my face. I don't know how to act.
Which is everything but my mustache. My wife always tell me, uh, you
forgot to trim your mustache again. And I said, oh, wow. I did say.
Um, you know, it's a cute say. It's a cute game we play.
It's adorable. Um, but, uh, I plan on having it for
the foreseeable future. Um, okay. You know. One time when shaving, I.
I shaved everything but the mustache region, and I went up to the wife.
I was like, what do you think? She's like, I think you're not
finished. That answers that. That is. That's it. Shannon? Yeah. Um.
Well, after, before we got to all this puberty mustache talk.
I'm sorry. I'm so I really the whole beer price,
right? Oh, yeah. So you've heard of side project
Brewing? Isn't that out by you? Right? Is it?
I know, I've heard of it. It's somewhere.
I thought it was California. I might be wrong.
It's definitely somewhere. Uh, the side project I went to
was in UA in Abu Dhabi or something like that.
But there's more of them, I know that. I think there's.
Is it like the brewery has. Missouri. Project or. Oh, it's. Missouri.
Oh in Missouri. Okay. Shame. I thought it was far, far west.
Um, anyway, well, they started getting destroyed to Wisconsin.
Big stouts. That's like what they're known for.
Huge stouts. Would you like to take a guess
for a two pack? And how much it costs for a two pack?
Two pack? Is it what's a two pack look like?
I'm sorry. They, like, cut the four pack.
They literally cut the four pack. Yeah. And sell it. Yeah.
Do you want to hear it? 16 ounce. You said. 16 ounce beers.
Two pack. 22 bucks. 28. 25.99. Two beers. Two beers. $13 beers.
I said no, thank you. Were they at least, like,
30% ABV or something? I didn't even bother to look
because they're disgusted. I saw one of the bottles sitting
on the shelf and I was like, oh, maybe like if that was 25 bucks.
I don't know. It's like 39.99. Okay. Yeah. Jeez.
I said, no, thanks. Yeah. Those. I'd say those days are over for
craft beers. Yeah. I'm not. Uh. No. I'm not chasing bottles anymore.
Especially not at 39 bucks. Yeah, the hard to find the rarities.
It's just. No. I'm good. Freshie. Maybe it's the old man in me.
Maybe. I know what I like. I know what I like to drink.
And if it's not that anymore and it doesn't fit the price range,
it's just not worth it. That's true. Is it a phase?
Is it more of like where we're at in our phase. Of.
Our craft beer experience? Yeah. Or I'm just curious, are there people
out there still really doing that and they will progress through it?
Or please let us know. Yeah, I'm a little curious.
Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe it is a stage. Right? A stage.
Are people still clamoring for Firestone Beer Festival tickets
because they want to go out in the 110 degree heat and slam some
stouts all day? Maybe they are. Maybe. Let us know.
People who got Firestone tickets. I didn't even try this year. Nope.
Yeah, yeah, I haven't tried the past few years.
Yeah, we tried in a couple of years. We were just excited. Yeah.
What's that? So that's how old you're getting?
Yeah. Yeah. Here's the thing. My favorite part about that weekend
was, like hanging out with you guys. So anytime you want to go to Paso
Flex, you can come out to. Yeah. And rent a house and just get
drunk and barbecue. Let's do it. Yeah. I'll teach you the rules.
I learned a whole lot. I mean, it's amazing.
Hang out with Nick and Wiley. The person you stand next to is
not even on your team. Jesus. That's crazy.
You got educated that night, that's for sure. Yeah. Get.
Get Nick. Enough beers. He'll tell you the same story
8 or 9 times. Perfect. Yeah. It's $100 tickets for that?
No, exactly. Just get a place. Barbecue, beers. It's good times.
I do like food, I do. Same. Yeah. We'll bring some really good trail
mix. So good. We'll hit up target. Yeah. Get all the trail mix.
Super fresh here. Tex-Mex? Yeah, it's probably fresher.
We're Flex is because they're closer to Minneapolis.
Minnesota. Yeah. Oh. Tex mex. You think target's going to Texas
for their Mex? I don't know. Just trying. I'm trying. Texas.
Hey. Not a snack show. No snack. Oh, we'll end it on the.
On these two stories. First, Juneshine has partnered with
Willie Nelson for a new beverage. It's called Willie's Remedy.
The country music star and his wellness enterprise partner,
Long Play Inc., have partnered with Juneshine Brands
to launch Willie's Remedy Plus, an intoxicating hemp based social tonic.
Willie's Remedy Plus, available in 750ml bottles,
shipped direct to consumer in 35 states. Priced at $70. Whoa!
Why do you have to state that? It's an A.
Because most places you can't have alcohol and hemp products
in the same thing. Oh, so they have to actually say
that it's an A, but a hemp infused like. Yeah.
In California you go to the weed shop and you buy weed, beer?
But there's no alcohol in that weed beer.
Okay, so when it says hemp based is that THC. Or. Hemp can mean a lot.
You mean all kinds of things? Well, here, with five milligrams
of THC, two milligrams of CBD, two milligrams of CBG, uh,
200mg of l-theanine per serving, creating a fast acting and short
lasting adult beverage. So yes, we were just in Texas.
I looked all into the whole THC thing because marijuana is outlawed
in Texas, but hemp is not. And you can get THC out of hemp.
And now they've found a way, found ways to make more potent hemp,
you know, like higher THC levels in hemp and that kind of stuff.
Hemp hime. So anyways, there you have it.
Uh, we'll end it on this one. Property damage crash leads to drunk
driving arrest in Lincoln County, Tinhe the town of pine River,
Wisconsin. Whoa! If you are heard of pine River,
you've been there recently? No, I just know a lot of pine trees.
Oh, okay. 53 year old Merrill man has been
accused of his fifth or sixth OWI after a property damage
crash on State Highway 64, in pine River. Good old coz.
Uh, it started with an investigation into a crashed vehicle on Thursday.
Officers found the vehicle unoccupied,
but did find the vehicle's registration as they left to find the
owner at his last known address. The man, now identified as Brad Hurt,
returned to the scene with a tractor and pulled the vehicle
back onto the road. Officers found here today driving
the vehicle on Poplar Road and attempted to pull him over, but he
took off and parked in a private driveway before fleeing on foot.
When officers caught up to him, they noticed signs of impairment.
He failed a series of field sobriety tests and was arrested for OWI,
fleeing an officer and resisting or obstructing arrest.
Court records show he posted 1500 cash, $5,000 cash bond on Monday,
will return to court on April 9th. Blah blah blah.
So the guy crashed his car, went and got his tractor, pulled it out
and then tried to drive away. Nice. Okay, so here when they're doing,
quote field sobriety tests, is that because he has a tractor.
Are they like in the field and doing sobriety tests like climb
this corn stalk. Pick these crops. Like these. Yeah.
I'm just wondering if it's different. And when you're driving a tractor
and. It might be in. Wisconsin. Don't they do as much farming in
California that they do in Wisconsin? Yeah, they probably do more
farming out here. Yeah. Right. Probably like the farming capital
of the world. Yeah. That's true. Or Sacramento is the farm to fork
to farm to fork. Farm to fork. There you go. Yeah. Yeah.
Farm to fork. Yeah. That's there. There's a lot of billboards about it.
Okay? Yeah. Someone signed off on that slogan.
I'll tell you. It's Governor Newsom, I'm sure.
Just they, you know, get the chicken. Tell you what, if I farmed,
I would farm to fork you. Should they feather it and get it on
your plate within, like we said, 40 minutes, 40 minutes.
And our field sobriety test involve, um, I don't know, husking corn.
And, um, I don't know. What do we picking turnips?
I don't know, right. What do we grow in California?
A lot of strawberries. Picking strawberries. Uh, rice.
Lettuce. Um, a lot of lettuce. Strawberries. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
I don't think I'd pass a field sobriety test right now, so.
I don't know, ma'am. You only pick ten strawberries in
ten minutes. Oh, I. Uh, right here. Field sobriety test.
Um, remember how I said I know my ABCs backwards,
and I practiced? Oh, yeah. We talked about this a couple of
years ago. Yeah, I do too. So I brought that up to my wife
and my kids, and they thought that was the most ridiculous
thing that they've ever heard. Oh, that you can do it backwards.
That that I just constantly practice it as I'm driving.
Well, have you been called out on it? Um, my daughter was trying to do it
backwards, and before she got to R, I was already finished.
And, uh, she got really upset with me because she's, like, a perfectionist,
and she always needs to get things, you know, first and do things the
right daddy. Practices. Every day. Then she went to school, and.
And dad said. She was astounded at how quickly.
And I said, oh, yeah, I always practice it when I'm
driving in my car. Right. And she's telling her teachers
about it. My dad practices saying the
alphabet backwards. I hope she doesn't do that.
I swear, I hope she doesn't do that. It's Wisconsin. They're expecting it.
But yeah, all three of the women in my family thought that was
the most ridiculous thing that they've heard. That's fantastic.
Yeah. Proud moment for me. Yeah. Way to go, daddy.
Dad practices to not sound drunk. Uh, he's driving his car. Yeah.
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. That tracks.
This feels like a great note to end it on. You think so? Yeah.
Vanessa, let's say it right now. Hi, Vanessa. Hey, friend.
Hello, Vanessa. Oh, that's slightly creepy.
What is. It? Borderline? Yeah. Almost borderline. Almost there.
Yeah, just on the fringe. I could do it. Like. Yeah.
No, I'm not even gonna do it. Weird. Let's hear it. Hi, Vanessa.
That's not where I thought that was going.
Is that dark Mickey or regular Mickey Kaus? No, that. Was very dark.
It was like little House on the Prairie. Oh. Wow.
So it seems like a great time to hit some music. Yeah.
Tell you all, if you haven't been. We've been here too long. Yeah.
You haven't been thoroughly weirded out by us?
Then follow us on the socials at Craft Beer Republic @flex_me_a_beer
and scores in between @Neck_nosh_llc underscores as well.
@Neck_nosh_llc. Com. Uh, email us at Craft Beer Republic.
Com 85538 beer two weeks in a row. Erica. Thanks for hanging with us.
Hey, that was a good time. It was. A. Good time. Really?
From the bottom of my heart. It was a. Drunk time and.
Super good time. Yeah. We'll see you in about 40 minutes.
I hope everyone out there is staying very well hydrated. Oh, and on.
That note. Good night everybody. The fuck was it?