Everybody thinks Mario says it's a me a Mario, but what he was always saying was at sue me which is the Japanese word for super oh So he's going around saying super cuz he's super Mario. It's at sue me Mario Mario And it just sounds like, it's a me, a Mario. I feel like my entire childhood was a lie. Yeah, everything's ruined.

Welcome in, everybody. It's the Craft Beer Republic. And that intro is slapping. I am Greg, being joined by the sexiest of all the Midwestiest, and that's Flex. Hey, that was good. I like that one.

You're good.

I think that's like the new tagline. The sexiest of the Midwestiest? Yeah, that's brilliant.

We should get that tattooed on your butt. I don't know. I got kind of a nice butt. I don't know if I really want to ruin it. Who said that would ruin it? Come on. I guess you're right. You're right. Yeah, I'm just jumping to conclusions.

You have your jump to conclusions board? It was a mat and it was a good idea. Thank you all for drinking and joining with us. Lots to get to today. It's a wintry out. I'm drinking a stout and, and that honor is where our Arctic blasted over here. Oh, we're not. I mean, it's cold, but by cold, I mean, currently 59 degrees today.

It's like tomorrow morning when I wake up. I'm sorry. As recording. Sure. It's going to be like 11 degrees out. And that's before the wind chill. Oh. Yeah. Oh. It's real life. It's real life.

It's thug life. Eh, it's a Midwest-y life. Yeah, we were out of town, I'll get to that, but we were out of town over the weekend and when we woke up in the morning, it was very cold. It was like 37 degrees and the grass was frosty. That's really fucking cold for us. That's gotta be freaky for you. It's a little weird. A little weird. Frosty grass and the windshield was a little frozen over.

But then it's still, what, by noon it's 72 degrees or something?

No, it was cold. It was only the mid-60s. Oh, jeez. I fucking wore pants. I'll get to all that. I feel bad for you. I do too. I ruined my trip.

Don't forget the wool socks. It's 62 degrees out. What a loser.

Don't forget the flannels had the heater cranking. Thank you all for drinking during, like I said, so much to get to today. Some booze news. I have a trip to talk about, which I've already hinted to. But before we get into any of that, I do want to crack open this winter beer and give it a go. Let's have some stouts. That's a good wavy. Oh, sprinkler. Yeah, you got a sprinkler on it. Good one. I'm drinking thanks to somebody and I've narrowed it down to two people and I can't remember which one it was. High water brewings, campfire stouts, six and a half percent, 38 IBUs.

I bet there's marshmallow in it.

What? has a solid 4 rating on Untappd out of over 62,000 ratings. A 4. That's pretty good. Campfire Stout evokes fond memories of wilderness and camping adventures. Notes of chocolate and graham cracker topped with a hint of... Marshmallow. Marshmallow. Classic. Well if you're wanting s'more. Like any campfire experience, this beer is best shared with a warm circle of family and friends. Our newest full production release available year-round, this beer is a blast to create and brew. We put over four pounds per barrel of graham crackers in the mash. We used chocolate malt and to top it off, added a natural toasted marshmallow flavor. Our number one selling beer. Wow.

Those are big words. Yeah. Oh my gosh. We did the thing. Jinx. We're best friends.

All right. The schnauz is very chocolatey and a little bit of like that toasty, marshmallow-y, like vanilla-y thing going on. Okay. Tongue jobber on the other hand. Approved? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny. I took a sip after I just poured a little bit of it and I didn't like it. And then I poured the rest and I just took a sip for the first time since pouring the rest. And clearly something must have settled at the bottom because now it tastes like what it's supposed to taste like. And I was like, fuck, I'm going to have to get on here and talk shit about this beer that's got a four rating over 62,000 ratings. Like clearly I'm an idiot. But no, something must have settled. I'm actually enjoying this beer. Got a lot of chocolate up front. I don't necessarily taste graham cracker, but I do get the vanilla slash marshmallow thing going on.

Okay, I think it's hard to pick up graham cracker in Stouts.

Yeah, it's probably true. At least I hope it's true.

I feel like it really gets washed away. Like it's not a prominent compared to the chocolates and the vanillas and whatnot.

Yeah, I'm just not really getting it. I wonder if beers, like in order to make the graham cracker like more prominent, they could just add a little cinnamon. I wonder if that would like give it that bump it needs or something. I don't know.

I do like cinnamon in Stouts. I think that would probably knock it out of the park. Yeah.

Hey, High Water. Let's, uh, let's collab on something. Put a little cinnamon in there. Get it. You heard it here first. All right. Very good. Top listing city of last week. Shout out to, and I think we just had them a couple of weeks ago. Council Bluffs, Iowa. What up council Bluffs? Somebody's there. At least one or two people. I'll take it. Yeah, thanks for listening. I'm glad we could make your Iowa life a little bit better.

I don't know what happens in Council Bluffs. I don't know. Iowa's got the world's largest truck stop, and I think that's about it. And that's the end, everybody. Welcome to Iowa. Thanks for coming.

You are now leaving. All right. Any good beer research going on from your end of the world?

End of the world, let me think here. I've been really lazy with my stuff. I've actually been trying to cut back on my drinking. Yeah, I feel ya. We talked about this a few weeks ago, Zach. Yeah, we did. Yeah, so I'm continuing the stretch. I'm just trying not to overdo it and really take the whole in moderation concept. And what's wrong with us? You know, bring it to life.

Yeah, my weekday beer consumption has dropped a little bit.

Well, good, good. I did have, um, there was a snooze stout, um, again from Eagle Park. Shame on me for always talking about that, but it's a annual release. It was their cocoa Clybur where it's this huge chocolate coconutty thick stout. I think they collab with Horace aged ales when they do it. And, uh, it's like this big 15% banger just, uh, but tremendous. Like you'd never, never guess the ABV.

Drinks like chocolate syrup nice little phenomenal that 15% will give you a different night.

Yeah, and I did so Shout out to mob craft by the way over here in Milwaukee. They gifted me with their beer advent calendar Oh God for the season. I hope it's better than the Costco one it is It is bars are pretty low. It has some of it has like new collabs in it that they've never released. It's got okay It's like four barrel aged beers in there And then some flagships and some fun stuff. So I'm actually looking forward to getting into that, even though I think it's technically December when this show airs. It is December 6th that drops. So I will be able to talk more about the beers on the next show.

Nice. Well, hopefully there's no shelfies from 40 years ago like the fucking Costco bar.

Dude, that one was so bad. So bad. My wife went to Costco, I think it was last week. She was like, do you need beer? And I was like, no. And she's like, winter beers. And the only thing that crossed my mind with winter beers was the Costco fucking advent calendar. I'm like, absolutely not. Please do not get me Winter Costco beers. Yeah, it's so bad.

I I remember I I don't want to call anybody I'm not gonna mention names, but you know we're on some or in some engagement groups as they call them and I believe it was last year someone in one of our groups did the Costco outfit calendar, but like Did it legitimately and said nice things about it? And as part of the engagement group, like you're supposed to engage with the post and, you know, like, oh, you know, looks great, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Boy, did I have a hard time.

It's like every single beer tasted exactly the same. Yeah. Whether it was like a Keller beer, a Schwartz beer. Didn't matter. There was like an IPA in there that tasted just like all the other ones. And then there was a stout that I think was just dyed brown because it tasted exactly like all the other beers. I'm just atrocious calendar.

So you guys get some food coloring for this Keller beer over here? Yeah, they all tasted like old lagers that had been mixed with like copper.

Yeah, like very aluminum tasting.

Yeah.

And just like they were almost frozen. You know, and then like thawed out. Like, all right, we still got these calendars. We might as well thaw them out and sell them to the people.

I'd never tasted so much can in my beer before.

So bad. Can I get a little more beer with this can? Geez.

Well, it's funny because the year before I had it on the show, we had talked about it with Allie. She had had hers. That's right. Talked about how horrible it was. I was like, well, I'll never buy one then. And it was an in-law that bought it for me thinking they were doing a nice thing. So I was like, oh, luckily the wife warned me first. She goes, just so you know, so-and-so bought this for you. So I need you to like fucking pretend that you're really excited because she knows I have no poker face. So she has to warn me with that.

Sounds like something your sister would do. Just to be a bitch. Hey Greg, I got this for you.

Now she's going to. Hopefully she doesn't hear this and she buys it for her fiance. Did you know she's getting married?

That's crazy. I fail.

Um, well, not a lot of beer research on my end, but I did a lot of booze research last weekend. Yeah. Did get a couple of beers in and they were all there does not exist. So that wasn't bad. Hey, they do good stuff. Oh, so good. But it was mostly non-beer research. It was the wife's birthday last weekend. And I think by law, I'm not allowed to tell you which birthday, but it was sort of a milestone. Well, happy birthday, Shannon. Thanks. I'll tell her that you are offering a lap dance for her birthday. To me.

I definitely would. You know that. I know. I can't wait. I think you would be okay with it. I would pay for it. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Then it's all set.

Yeah. So for her birthday, we went out of town. We went to Pass Robles. We go all the time, but usually we're out there wakeboarding and that kind of stuff. And so I decided to make a different weekend out of it because they have a lot of the activities that I know she likes to do all in one place. Like drink and eat. Exactly. Could've just gone to the kitchen. Are you married? So we went up there. It was a surprise. Didn't know where we were going, what we were doing. So we get up there. We did like a fancy Michelin star dinner. We did a tiki bar. And we always have like the dog with us when we're up there. We didn't have him this time. We went to the tiki bar, which is not dog friendly. Had a lot of fun there. Boy, were those drinks strong. Plastic tiki bar. Oh, man. Went to another cocktail bar, had a couple more cocktails. This is all the first night. Let me tell you, I need to not have so many cocktails when we're doing cocktails. It's one of those things where it's like, well, I could have eight beers in a night, no big deal. Bro, you can't have eight cocktails in a night. No, you cannot. Yeah. So especially all the sugar. Oh my God. So I was a little, um, hydrated by night's end, but before I got fucked, I mean, before I got hydrated, we were walking through the little downtown area, which is very cute. And they have a park, like a main park around the downtown. And, uh, we didn't know it, but they were doing their tree lighting ceremony. So I know I always shit on Christmas and the holidays and stuff, but, uh, it was actually very nice and very festive and kind of got you ready for holiday things.

Look at you.

I know, right? I was like, oh, let's stop and watch. This whole stupid production, like the Grinch and stuff. But I was really in for the sights of the trees all lit up. It was really cool.

Well, look at you. It's like a mature moment right here. Yeah, every now and then. Once in a while.

We all just need to take a moment and really just soak this in. It's by once a year. I do one. And even the place, the Airbnb we had was like this old Victorian house and they decorated it with a bunch of lights and, oh, funny story. The front, the mailbox, they had changed to say like letters for Santa and it was red and I was watching and this lady and her little kid drove up to like put in their letter for Santa and my wife comes over. She's like, oh my God, so cute. They're putting in letters for Santa. We're watching, they can't get the mailbox open and I can hear them go, oh, it's fake. Oh no. And then I felt bad. So we watched this happen and when we left like 20 minutes later and we walked out, I went and I checked the mailbox and they just didn't pull hard enough. The door had like a little latch on it. I was like, come on guys, come back. It's not fake. So it was funny. Anyways, so lots of cocktails the first night. The next day I did some horseback riding. She's into horses. I am still sore from the fucking horseback riding. Is she an equestrian? I mean, she grew up doing all that horse equestrian shit, so she loves it. Yeah. Did some wine tastings. Multiple. Got a massage. I set up a masseuse to come over to the Airbnb and rev us down. Masseuse? Massewer? I don't know. Massage. Ooh. That sounds hot. Classy. Uh, did some brunch the next day, more wine tasting. They have a speakeasy in Paso, which we went to years ago, pre COVID and haven't been back since. And, uh, so we finally got some reservations called 1122 and love it. They more cocktails, of course, like I hadn't learned my lesson for Friday night, but, uh, did more cocktails, but their cocktails are chef's kiss. They have a menu there or no, they do. And they'll also go off book. They don't care. Okay. Um, so like we sort of made friends with the bartenders and, You know, ordered a couple off the menu and then said, all right, so I'm liking this and I'm feeling bourbon and I'm liking this, you know, like, what do you recommend? She's like, oh, I got one for you. Do you trust me? I'm like, yeah. She goes, look, if you hate it, I won't make you pay for it. And I didn't hate it. So I, I should've said I did. So I didn't have to pay for it. But stupid me. A lot of cocktails, a little bit of wine and just a smidge of beer one night at dinner. So, uh, but good times.

Nice. Yeah. We, we have a cool place like that down here in Milwaukee. It's called, it's just called Bryant's. Okay. And, uh, they have zero menu. It's super dimly lit, like super old, like classic seventies. Yeah. And, uh, you just go to the bar and you're like, this is what I like. And they just fucking mix something up for you. That's fun too. And you're just like, wow, that's, I don't even know what it is, but it's awesome.

yeah that's a lot of fun this place super dimly lit they play like you know old-timey music yep you know old-timey uniforms decor all that stuff you walk up and you hit you have to hit the right button and then like a light flashes and then they open the little like peephole thing they're like how many You know, do whatever and they take your phones. You can have your phones with you interesting They put them in this little baggie like a cloth bag that they have a little contraption that unlocks So they don't unlock it until you leave or you can go to the bathroom and like check your phone But they do not allow your phone inside the building interesting. Yeah, it's kind of cool But at the same time I was like got some really pretty cocktails.

I wish we could take a picture We should take a picture that yeah

Yeah. So, but, uh, it was fun before you go into the bar and she's like, do you want any pictures? Like, you want a picture of the two of you? Cause we're taking your phone. We're like, you know, wife loves pictures. Like, all right, fine. Take pictures. Classic wives, classic wives. So, uh, but yeah, it was fun. We, their cocktails are so good. We love that place. We hadn't been there literally four years. So it was, it was nice that they're still killing it. Um, Yeah, I think that's pretty much it. I was pleasantly surprised by the Christmassy spirit I got into and loved our house being decorated so it was nice. I feel... Wow, what did you just say?

Holy shit.

Yeah, my black heart has... was it the Grinch? Black heart has like doubled in size or whatever. Well, his heart was never black. Let's... Oh.

Yeah, I forget what I said.

It was three sizes too small. That's what it was. Thanks for knowing every movie ever. God damn it. Yeah. That's why you're here. You're the fucking movie encyclopedia guy.

Movie encyclopedia guy.

Yeah. All right. Before we find out what movie encyclopedia guy is drinking, Ludicrous Libation Law. This comes from, well, I mean, it comes from a long time ago. The ancient Persians. If the ancient Persians decided something while they were drunk, they had a rule to reconsider it when sober. If they made a decision sober, they would reconsider it while drunk. I don't get it. So yeah, you had a great idea while you're drunk. They're like, hold on, let's talk about this tomorrow morning, right? Yeah. And then if you're just hanging out sober, you're like, Hey, I got this great idea. It's like, you know what? Let's get drunk and think about this. Basically you had to think about it in both inebriated and uninebriated states. Okay. That's well-rounded thinking.

Yeah. I have to work both ways, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

Who doesn't like working at both ways? Wow.

Awkward segue. Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp.

And with that, we'll turn it to Flex.

In a world where craft beer is king. A world where muscles are bigger than growlers. Only one tongue can guide us. One man. One tongue. One Tongue Jobber. In this world, we must find out, what is Flex drinking?

All right. Well, um, not a super highly rated beer, but one of my favorites for the holidays is a third space brewings cranberry gyoza. Oh, I love it. It's a, it's classic, you know, low ABV for a gyoza. Although I believe gyozas are traditionally like below. No, it's a Berliner or Berliner. Those are like below 3% or something like that.

They're low. They're not quite that low, but they're low.

Okay. Well, this one just goes, uh, weighs in at four and a half percent, which is right there. They say five IBUs. I, you know, that doesn't make sense. And it's real short and sweet. It is a kettle sour that uses Wisconsin's native fruit to create a nice tartness and a beautiful color balanced by a touch of salt. And what did I tell you about this beer before we went on air? I said, beautiful. Yeah. It is gorgeous. And it's right up in there. Untapped has it a three five nine. You know it's it's just not a well-respected beer I think the style to the not a lot of people are fond of traditional sours sure You know everybody looks for that smoothie the over fruited Yeah, I don't like real beer, so this is what I drink I So this on the other hand is a real beer. It has like a real pretty rosé pinkish hue to it. Just gorgeous.

Good looking beer. I was telling Fletcher it reminded me of the Malibu Brewing rosé lager. If anybody's had that. I have not.

But it is that real traditional kettle-soured aroma to it, which I fancy myself very much. It's just like, you know you're getting a real beer here. Then we warm up the old tongue-jobber.

Love me a good Keter sour.

So pretty high in carbonation. Very light bodied. The mildest hint of like the cranberry tartness. The souring is not overpowering. Doesn't finish extremely dry, which is nice. It's pretty refreshing beer. They call it a winter sour. I think it's a great idea. I think it's a it's a crusher beer. It's definitely something you can have in your fridge all winter long and even save some for springtime because you're going to enjoy it in the warmer weather too. Just a beer that needs to, like I said, get a little bit more well respected around here. Show some respect. Yeah. What the hell's the matter with people?

Yeah. I looked it up. Gozes are supposed to be 4.2 to 4.8%.

Oh, well, perfect. That's right there. Right in the wheelhouse. They do a great job. We should be heading to third space too. There's this beer crew around here and they're going to put us through like a beer school. I think like December 18th to Monday.

Third space is putting you through?

Yeah. Yeah. So they're going to give us, you know, some type of beer that they brewed and they're going to run us through like the history of it and how it's made and what the characteristics and whatnot. So that's fun. Yeah. It should be a pretty good time. I like learning stuff.

Yeah, are you gonna like line up a bunch of beers and try and guess what they are?

And get them wrong? And claim I'm an advanced Cicero? I might. Uh-huh.

I love when people on the socials do that. Yeah. Hey, I'm so smart. Oh, I got all these wrong. Let me tell everybody how dumb I am. Yeah. Oh, but I'm an advanced Cicero. We don't have opinions though. Yeah, we're judging bitches.

All right, don't be a dick. No. I mean, we're dicks, but like, to the other people. Sure.

Just to each other. Come on. Yeah. All right, a little news before we judge other people. Before we get on out of here. Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA is now the number one, in quotes, craft beer in convenience stores. It has taken over sales from Blue Moon. Good? Well, good, I guess.

Yeah, Blue Moon's garbage. I mean, that Imperial Hazy or whatever that That's like 9%, right? All theirs are pretty high octane.

Yeah, they're hefty. Yeah. I think none of them are under 7. They're all pretty beefy IPAs.

Yes. I mean, if I'm going into a gas station, I'm like, hey, I need to get some beer.

What am I going to grab? What's the best bang for my buck here? My drunk buck. I love banging for my buck. Yeah, who doesn't? Anheuser-Busch slash ABN Biv's U.S. chief marketing officer, Benoit Garbi, will resign. Benoit, yeah. Will resign at the end of the year. Shocking. The marketing guy for Budweiser's resigning? What a great year he's had at work. That's crazy. Yeah. Did one hell of a campaign back in March. Really got some people on his side. Uh, other half brewing to acquire young lions facility and tap room. Brooklyn based other half brewing company has a deal to purchase young lion brewing companies, brewery and tap room in Canada, New York. Both companies announced a C a N a N D a I G U a Canon dig.

I don't know, dude. I can't put letters together that fast. Yeah. My head hurts.

The Young Lion brand and intellectual property was not included in the transaction. From the announcement, Young Lion is exploring creative solutions for its exciting future. Young Lion will continue to operate in the space until the transaction closes in January of 24. The facility is described as a 10,000-barrel production brewery with a 1,000-square-foot taproom and 2,400-square-foot event space.

Deferred. Deferred. Deferred-er. Deferred-er.

That's a perjure. Perjure, perjure. Scientists have developed an easy test to determine how drunk you are. It's a new app for your phone. It's being developed to test how drunk you are. It uses tongue twisters to read the amount of slur in your speech. What if you got a speech impediment? They probably set a bar, like you have to do it when you're sober. It's my guess. I don't know. Oh, okay. You know, like when you're setting up your, your hay series thing, like the Persians. Yeah. Do it drunk, do it sober. So I imagine there's some sort of benchmark you have to give it before you start testing it when you're hammered. Um, they claim that it's 98% accurate.

I would have to try it to believe it. Could be a fun drinking game.

It does sound fun. Yeah, so let's hope it's a free app, because we'll have a whole segment on the show about it.

That would be fun to have, like, a four-beater episode. Yeah, and just start doing tongue twisters. And after every beer, you gotta read a tongue twister.

Sir, you are hammered. I don't know why it sounds like a robot from the 80s, but... I feel like that would be the best app voice, really.

Yeah, what else are you gonna do? Yeah, like the robot from Rocky? Come on.

A drunk Giants fan punches nurse after being taken to the hospital during the Giants game. Why would you do that? Well, you're already mad. You're a Giants fan. Yes. Todd Lent. Oh, his name's Todd. Well, that makes sense.

That's all we needed. They do know a really hot guy named Todd, though. Oh, do you?

Yeah. Oh, hey, hot Todd. What's up? You ever call him hot Toddy? All the time.

One of my buddy's fantasy football names is literally hot Todd and the boys. So perfect.

So Todd Lent clearly not thrilled at having to watch the two and eight New England Patriots faces three and eight giants at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford had to be taken to Hudson region regional hospital because he was so intoxicated. Lent didn't even make it to halftime before he had to leave the game. While a nurse was attempting to treat him in the emergency room, Todd punched her on the left side of her face with a closed fist. He was charged with aggravated assault and was issued a summons. Fuckin' Giants fans. That's ridiculous. Yeah, that's a lot.

Punched in somebody that's trying to help you. I'll never understand that.

Yeah, I hope she punched him back or shot him with a needle or did something medically horrible.

Did something to him, yeah. Yeah. Definitely deserves it, that asshole. That's right. Fuck you, Todd.

Fuck you. Not hot Todd. No, not hot Todd. No, just Todd Lent.

Yeah.

Fuck you, Todd Lent. Dick Todd. Dick Todd. Oh gosh. All right. Let's, let's end it on a list. Let's see if this one makes me angry.

Another list.

Yeah. This is from the same people that we read last year. Craft Beer and Brewing. Beerandbrewing.com. This is the best in beer 2023 readers choice. So hopefully the people are better at this than the stupid editors last week. It is your favorite beer cities. So the top 20 readers choice beer cities.

There's going to be a lot of like major American cities, right?

Kind of. Let me definitely blow through the 10 through 20 here. Minneapolis, number 20, New York, New York, number 18, Milwaukee. Hey, there we go. Number 17, Cincinnati, number 16, San Francisco, number 15, Philly, number 14, Fort Collins, number 13, St. Louis, number 12. You have quite a beer history. OK. Number 13, St.

Louis, Missouri. Number 12, Anaheim. I was surprised by Anaheim. I mean, they have Radiant. Radiant's a great brewery.

They got a couple good breweries, but I don't think of Anaheim as a destination for beer. Number 11, Seattle. Number 10, Austin.

That one blows my mind, too. Austin Tejas. Yeah. I mean, they got like, who's that? They do the bottled sours. Jester King. Oh yeah. Are they in Austin though? I know they're in Texas. I think they're in the Austin area. I'll take your word for it. And then they got that pizza, pizza, pint, pint house pizza.

Jester King Brewing is in, oh, it's in August. Wow. It's in Austin, Texas.

Words, dude. Yeah.

See, look at that. Look at you. I am dumb. You are smart. Wow. You said it. Yeah. That's a good drop I should pull for you. Could be a ringtone.

Who has ringtones? I don't know. My phone's always on silent.

Whenever I hear a ringtone, I'm like, what the fuck is that noise?

I know, right? Like, turn your fucking phone off. How old are you?

They're usually pretty old, though. Yeah. Though, if my phone was ever not on silent, this is what you would hear.

From a bottle, from a can, why don't people understand my inebriation?

Yeah. Guess what people didn't know they Yeah.

Beer science, everybody.

Best ringtone ever. Number nine, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Interesting. That blows my mind. Yeah. Number eight, Los Angeles, California. Number seven, Boston.

I'm surprised it's not higher. Who do they have besides Sam Adams? Well, I guess like everything is like around Boston. Yeah.

It's probably like the area, you know.

Correct.

Boston area, LA area. Because LA proper can suck it. Number six, Portland, Maine. Top five, any guesses? I feel like San Diego's up there.

Yeah, number two. Miami, question mark? Nope.

Asheville? Yes, number four.

Love me some Asheville beers. I'm going to say Chicago, but I don't know why.

Coming in at number one. Chicago. Get out of here. Yeah. Why is that? I don't know. I wish there was reasons because I was very much surprised to see Chicago at number one.

Because there's not much like in the city. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't know. It's all in like the surrounding suburbs.

So it must be like that area, like Chicago. Yeah, it's gotta be the area. San Diego area.

So what, so there's two more left?

Yeah, you need number five and number three. I have a number three. I was just at number five coming from the Mile High City, Denver, Denver, Colorado.

I guess I was thinking with the Fort Collins thing. Oh yeah. So Denver number five blew my mind or not blew my mind.

Left my mind. I'll blow your mind. Number three from the Pacific Northwest somewhere in Oregon. The other Portland, Portland, Oregon.

Yeah. Okay. Makes sense.

Yeah, it makes sense. So 5, 3, 1, Denver, Asheville, Portland, San Diego, Chicago. In the top 10 international cities, Copenhagen, number 10, Bruges, Bamberg, Germany, Amsterdam, Cologne, number 5, Dublin, London, Prague, number 2, Brussels, and number 1? European city. Nailed it. Munich, Germany.

You got it right. I couldn't think of any more German cities off the top of my head.

It's like a German city here. Like he said, Brussels. I know there's a bunch of Bamberg cologne. Yeah.

Hamburger.

According to the readers. So, uh, hey Chicago people, and I guess this includes Zach, he works for Chicago Brewing now. Tell us why Chicago's so fucking badass in the beer department. We had no idea.

I mean, like, Illinois does some super rad beer. Okay. But Chicago, it's all, I'm thinking Goose, like Goose Island, that they still consider, maybe makes it so sought after. No thanks. How about Rev Brewing instead? Revolution. It's, it's good stuff.

hoping that it hits California. It's funny. Right after we had Zach on and he was talking about it, we're like, Oh, I hope it hits California. He sent me a link. There's going to be a tap takeover of Rev brewing in Santa Rosa, California. No kidding. Which is all the way up north. You know, like had I decided to go to, that'd be like a seven hour drive kind of thing. Yeah. Like obviously I'm not driving for rev beer like that, but he's like, Hey look. And I was like, Oh, awesome. Sorry bud, nowhere near me! Tell him to come south! Still a sweetheart for doing that. He is a sweetheart. And has one hell of a hat collection. And a shoe collection. And a shirt collection.

And a van collection. And a flashlight collection. Collection of one.

If you don't know what we're talking about, listen to a couple weeks ago. It was something blended with this one. Did you know drunk grizzly grizzly bears? Big words are getting blasted by trains in Wyoming. Come on. Look, I'm not for grizzly bear harming or anything like that, but grizzly bears are getting drunk. off of grain that is spilling from trains, getting wet, and fermenting. They come over, eat this now fermented grain, pass out, and stumble around the tracks and are getting hit by trains. That's terrible. It's terrible. God, that's terrible. I feel horrible for the Grizzlies. I just couldn't believe that a bunch of drunk bears are stumbling around the train tracks. Like, the initial thought of it was kind of funny.

Can't they be like a sophisticated animal and just eat the fermented berries off the bushes?

Right, be smart about it. Don't do it near the train tracks. Like, the train companies are trying all different ways, like fencing and other things to try and get them to stop, but it's not working. Yeah, they're having a bit of an issue.

Yeah, bears are like, they're just freaky agile and strong, and I don't think a fence would do much.

No, they do what they want. Until they get drunk, then they probably can't get back over the fence.

Probably anything. You're probably right.

Probably making it worse.

I just saw a video the other day of a bear climbing a tree, and it looked easier for the bear to climb a tree than it does for me to walk. On the ground. Yeah. And it terrified the hell out of me. Yeah. That's one of my biggest fears, by the way, is like encountering a bear. Do you guys have a lot of bears out there? No, we don't have any. I didn't think so. But it's a huge, huge fear of mine. We do. We actually have bears out here. Well, a bear's on the California state flag. It's our state animal.

I was like, I hope we have fucking bears. The brown bear. We got a lot of coyotes. Around me is a lot of coyotes, not so much bears, like coyotes and mountain lions, but.

We're the badger state, but that was because of all the miners that would burrow their homes into the ground. Oh, it wasn't because of actual badgers? It wasn't because of actual badgers. That's why we're known as the badger state. Lame. And then they adopted like the badger mascot. It's bizarre.

That's so funny. Well, we at least have our real animal on our flag.

Yeah. I think we might have some here now. Three. Get your three badgers. I can guarantee there's at least four here. Oh, okay. Hey, where are all the badgers at? Zoo.

They're at the zoo. Yeah. I've seen them. A little zoo trip with the fam. It's all the badgers. All four of them. They're there. The more you know.

So whatever you do, Greg, if you go by a train track and you see any fermented grain on the side of the track? Eat it immediately. I was going to say don't eat it. Oh, don't eat it. Yeah.

I can't have you getting hit by a train. Noted. Appreciate your concern. And I will take that into consideration. And eat grain. And eat grain. Now sounds like a perfect time to awkwardly transition to the end of the show. It's not that awkward. Could be worse. Hi, Vanessa. It's definitely Benworth. Hi, Vanessa. Absolutely. Thank you all for listening. If you made it this far, don't forget to find us at CraftBeerRepublic.com on the socials. FlexMeABeer, underscores in between. And of course, Craft Beer Republic.

And hopefully St. Nick brought everybody something nice.

I mean, it's a little early, but yeah.

No, St. Nick is... Wait, you might have to cut this out.

What is today? I mean, this is releasing on December 6th. We know we're near Christmas, if that's what you're talking about. But you don't do St. Nick?

What is St... Hold on. He comes the night of the what? St. Nick? That's a thing? He comes the night of the 5th. Are you making this up to like cover up for you thinking it's Christmas? And then you wake up on December 6th and your stockings full with candy and a gift. Please tell me you're absolutely making this up. No, everybody knows what St. Nick is. This is a real thing? It's a- Shut the fuck up. Please look it up right now. St.

Nick, December 5th. St. Nicholas Day, also called the Feast of St. Nicholas, observed on 5th or 6th of December in Western Christian countries, and on 19th of December in Eastern Christian countries, using the old church calendar, is the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.

Yeah, so you hang your stocking out on the night of the 5th, and then you get goodies. I've never fucking heard of this. You've never done this? Never heard of it. A lot of people in Wisconsin do it.

Hey, uh, listener, please fucking slide into the DMs or email or voicemail or something. I have never fucking heard of this. I can't believe you've never heard of this.

Never heard of it. It's baffling to me. Not even once. You know, it's like when you would get like the oranges in your stockings or you know, like a couple lottery tickets or something like that. Maybe a band t-shirt. That's Christmas. No, it's like Christmas day. No, Christmas. Presence these are put in a stocking like you hang your stocking up.

Yeah, I can put your presents in a stocking We also got our stockings on Christmas Day like with our little gifts like you know That's wrong like lottery tickets, or you know candy and get that on Christmas. Yes I wonder if this is like a Midwest thing.

I don't know. I hope somebody chimes in. Davis, Davis should know.

I was going to say, I was going to say that it seems to be like a more religious holiday, but I mean, Christmas by default is a religious holiday. So it doesn't help at all. Yeah. Somebody help. I've legit never heard of this. We get our stockings Christmas day with all of our other gifts.

No, it's like a preemptive to Christmas. Like it's when all the elf on the shelves come out, you know,

I thought they'd just come out, like, after Thanksgiving. Nah, they can't come out right after. We never did Elf on a Shelf. That predated me.

The kids like it, but I think they already know now that it's, like, not really... Magic? Magic.

Yeah. Any kids listening? Hopefully not. Yeah, if they are, that's the least of your worries.

Googling Fleshlight. Daddy, what's a beer can flashlight flashlight collection?

Yeah, right, dude. You've legit blown my mind never fucking heard of it.

That's wild Yeah, I'm gonna do more good like my phone calendar. Oh shit like the holiday calendar Oh, no, it's just kids Christmas concert. That's all it says. No, that's not important.

Nope. Nothing on mine Yeah, never heard of it. That's why I've never heard of it because it's not on the the calendar there. Yeah

It's a real thing. I hope somebody else understands that.

Yeah, please, you guys, let us know. Email, DMs, whatever it is. Please let us know if you've heard this, because I have legitimately never heard this before Flex brought it up. This was not a pre-planned discussion. I was taken off my feet.

Now we can awkwardly transition to the end.

All right. Well, with that, I will hit the music. I think I've said all the things, but you know, like follow us and shit. So, yeah.

And we said hi Vanessa, but what's another hi to Vanessa?

Yeah. Hi again. Hey, all that good shit. Here we are in the show. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. St. Nicholas Day's pick. Um, I do believe that's everything. 805-538-BEER. Did I say that? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. Uh, hope everyone out there staying very well hydrated for St. Nicholas Day. Yeah. And on that note, goodnight everybody.