Beer of the Day Podcast - The Gold Standard - July 12th, 2017 - Beer of the Day

This is the Beer of the Day Podcast. From Beer of the Day World headquarters in California it's episode seventy five of the Beer of the Day Podcast. Tonight's episode is the title of the gold standard and we have five different

golden. Beers to try Plus I tried the. Other I've ever had in my life and compared to some other. Of the biggest selling beers out on the market. I'm Dallas Heliker, joining me tonight Jeff Miller from Pasadena Hi Jeff Hey how's. It. Going well.

It's been a while since we've done one of these shows. Probably close to a month since we recorded one it's been a busy summer a lot of trips went to Canada fishing last weekend I was down in Pasadena visiting you so we've been up and around every which way and it's good to be back here on the show and now everybody's tired it's just us too I know but we're the troopers you know we'll hang in there and get the job done was probably not a show where we could do nine or ten beers but I think we got a good lineup tonight we do all gold themed and we'll get to those but as usual start out with the interesting beers and oh you had wanted to mention. I did and. So I. I you know you had this beer also but I had the Melrose double dry hopped I.P.A. from Beechwood it which is down here in Southern California in Long Beach and it really delicious I mean Melrose the regular want to one of my favorite L.A. area beers by far I mean it's just pure West Coast style which is great with so many hazy I.P.A. is out there right now. So I had the double dry hopped that just came out I think about a week ago super fresh when Dallas was down here we got a bottle and it was good and I went back and got another bottle a couple days ago really tasty it was

the first beer Jeff gave me when I walked in the door and this beer puir as clear. As the clarity on this beer is top notch like there's no clearer beer than this. Yeah and it's you know Melrose the regular one is just it's kind of a special beer it's

not readily available it's all it's not you know always on tap or anything like that and so when they came out with this is kind of a special treat it rhyme it reminded me a lot of pseudo Sue not in terms of the flavor but you know we had the pseudo sue which is a good beer from toppling Goliath and then we had the double dry hops you know Sue and that was just so amazing in comparison to the regular want to just I see a lot of similarities between the Melrose and the double drop in a row so it's still available at least in the L.A. area I would highly recommend this beer if you can find it definitely. All right well let's get into the first golden beer of the night this one is called Glitter and gold it's a meal this is the style of beer

which is basically a honey beer and it's from perennial Artesian ales from St Louis Missouri. I'm going to open up my own beer tonight. You know be busy there you got to do everything in here and yeah going to manage the recording and play all the sounds and music in for the beer drink the beer it's a busy night that's why I get paid the big bucks so this beer is very clear in color I don't really know what to expect this is our first beer this style that I'm sure we've ever had on the podcast you know it's super clear like a light golden color pretty thin white kind of frothy had Yeah quite clear small little stream of champagne like bubbles floating up on the aroma I get a little bit of a horn type of malt and then I get some of the

farmhouse East like a saison Yeah like the Belgian East and Belgian Yeah for sure and then trying to detect honey there's a little sweetness I wouldn't I wouldn't categorize it as honey there's a lot going on in this aroma I mean it's it's super aromatic I

think I get some fruit also and it just it smells cold if that makes sense like when you just smell it smells like crisp and called some fruit maybe like apple or pear very inviting Wow Now incredibly interesting flavor I don't think there's a beer like this anywhere it is the consistency or the texture of the beer is unusual like the way the carbonation hits the tongue or something it's it's not as a style that I'm used to. I get that bready honey sweetness and then as I was taking a sip you

were talking about the fruit flavors like the apple and I did get a fair amount of that as well yeah it's kind of I mean this is a different style for us it's kind of like a saison. But but different like like you're saying like the mouth feel or the texture it almost has like a creamy texture to it which is not what I was expecting for for something it's a pretty light beer there's a little bit of that funk like you would get in like. You know a farmhouse ale I think you mentioned that just a little bit not a lot but I really get. The fruit the parent the Apple with the bready graininess up front and there's kind of a after taste is not it lingers on quite a while but it's not an intense aftertaste it's a very mild airy kind of aftertaste that is present but not dominating and it doesn't overstates welcome but it certainly does stick around for a while and the honey is pretty sweet but light and I think you mentioned just being able to get very little of it and the aroma there's not a lot of honey here when it's advertised as a Belgian style ale brewed with honey I mean out of all the flavors we're sort of mentioning money is one of the more mellow ones it is but there are some there on the back end for sure you know when you take a sip of beer and you taste quality and I get that from this one a lot of times you'll take a sip of beer and there will be some aspect to it that is not appealing to your palate either the aftertaste is a little too bitter or. The beer is a little too sweet or some aspect of the beer the hops or the malts or something dominates and the other one isn't strong enough this one has the balance and it has. The quality of I cannot name anything that I would do better with this beer I agree it's it's really perfect it's it's not a happy beer you know we're we're big fans. But you know this is just quality there's nothing I would change with the spear it's really great this is a beer that I brought back from a trip to St Louis must have been earlier this year Dallas and I were in St Louis about a year ago and we went to a bunch of various But it was our first time there and you know we do some research ahead of time and we we went to places that we knew of that we thought would be good and like kind of you know the last day everybody's telling us oh you got to go to perennial and we just ran out of time we had to go leave town did not have a chance to go so I made a point next time I was there about a year later to specifically go back to this brewery so I went there. Had a tasting of a bunch of beers had some food they do have food at this prairie and brought back a couple of bottles and this is one of them so I'm very pleased because it's a big bottle which these are not the

easiest to bring back on a plane and I bring back you know two bottles of everything and I'm happy I brought this one back yeah two two points first is I am disappointed now that Britain and Joel are not here because I guarantee both of them would really appreciate this beer and this is a quality beer that. I don't think you come across that too often it reminds me of beers that we had when we were in Belgium. It's like the Belgium is you know one of those beer hubs of the world that is just unmatched anywhere else and we had so we were so spoiled we had so many quality beers there and this just kind of brings me right back where it's one of those beers you can taste the quality and you can't pick anything out that is offensive about the beer it's just so well done you know us no but I wish I had another bottle. Yeah me too. And now let's get into the beer news of the day with us. So we have a lot and of news to cover today as I said it's been a little while since the. Since last show but

it doesn't matter because all this news came out within the past week even today I have some sound clips I'll be playing that came out today as we're recording this on June thirtieth so the Brewers Association which is the organization. It's in Colorado and it basically represents it's like a guild that represents all the craft breweries in the country and it basically is around to support craft beer and it has recently taken a stand against the breweries that have been bought out by big beer and to do this it is basically taken it created a label and it's it's an upside down bottle it's dark and it says independent Craft Brewers Association certified around it and it's this logo can be applied by anybody it's free to use and any craft brewery can apply this label to their bottle to their society edge to their tap handles wherever they want to uses on their boxes growlers whatever they want they can use this thing and this logo and the logo lets people know that this is actually a craft brewery and not a craft brewery that's been bought out by and eyes are Bush and is posing as a craft brewery. So there's a lot of different opinions on this but basically. It the definition to in which you can use this is that you're annually producing less than six million barrels of beer and you have no more than twenty five percent ownership in outside hands. So that's the definition for Kraft that allows a brewery to use its logo. So this definition embraces more than fifty three hundred breweries around the country and within ninety minutes of the program's announcement more than two hundred breweries have downloaded the labels so I think we will start seeing this on bottles and and boxes and stuff and I think it's kind of just a way for craft beer to kind of show unity to those that haven't sold out. I think this is great like when I saw this news come out it made me think of you know why wasn't this out already it's seems obvious now that this probably should have been there

you know it's a little bit of a lobbying effort. But I think it's good because. I think it's very confusing to the consumer these days you know who owns what who makes certain beers. Were very well educated in the beer craft beer world and we have a hard time keeping up with who's bought out who and who owns whatever I mean the reality is craft beer world has been on a huge growth. You know spur for years and there's been a lot of mergers and buyouts you know how are you call it and you know that the big non craft brewers are intentionally. Not advertising the fact that they own some of these smaller places so I think this is good for the consumer because it will add a lot of clarity that I think adds value to those that are buying a spare. Right and it says you know a whole slew of midsize operations that rely on outside funding likely won't be able to make the cut like founders with funding from a private equity firm Cigar City also funded by private equity Ommegang Boulevard Firestone walker all partially owned by Duval Duvel. All partially owned by Duvel are not considered craft by the Brewers Association. Beer lovers are interested in transparency when it comes to brewery ownership says Bob Pease Brewers Association president C.E.O. This seal is a simple way to provide that clarity now they can know what's being brewed small and certified independent. Alley guest founder and be a board member Rob Todd agrees when beer lovers buy independent craft beer they are supporting American entrepreneurs and the risk takers who have long strive not just to be innovative and make truly great beer but to also build culture and community in the process so look out for the packaging materials with this logo now just today on June thirtieth and Heizer Bush has a group called the high end and the high end is basically a conglomerate of all the breweries that and hazard Bush has bought a lesion we could weed they bought recently ten barrel for peaks Devil's Backbone. They've bought a bunch of breweries and let the brewery continue their operation but then they expand the distribution they allow that to take up shelf space and they use these crap breweries that they have purchased a majority share in to compete with the

smaller independent craft breweries So today they released this video and I had the sound clips for it and play what they have to say this is their rebuttal to the Brewers associations new. Label that they came out with this is David Buehler of a lesion you know what I saw. The new logo at a few thoughts one was what I do you know it's about my prairie and my people and it's a team of graphic designers and packaging on that side of the business of what we do I thought how to use it what I used and what are the decisions that others across the country doing right now looking at this logo this is logo a mandate for brewers to put on their labels that are not part of the beer just logo designate something like quality doesn't differentiate anything about what the beer is or how the beer is perceived by the consumer right because it's all about the consumer the consumers is what drives our business right that's right my rebuttal to that is it's just it's not seen in the about the quality of the beer inside the packaging it's just letting you know that that beer was not brewed by in conjunction with big beer who has an active interest in stopping the spread of the smaller craft beer industry. And then they have all kinds of policies the

some of which they've got in trouble for and some of which they've taken heat for that is detrimental to the small guy I think what's tough for me is like I agree with this in principle and I very supportive of the small independent brewery I love going to different traveling going to different places and trying the local beers but there are some good breweries that we really like that don't qualify under this rule I mean you mentioned earlier Firestone founders to Gar city Ommegang Those are all

good breweries I mean we're not opposed to those breweries but they are partially owned by by outsiders and so they're they're sort of out of this and that's that's sort of the hard part for him for me but it is just a nice way to. Sort of know who truly is independent because it was I mean there's no way to know exactly. This is from Won't Dickinson of wicked we'd who was purchased just last month Yeah I mean you know today we're all making beer robbers whether you want calls craft or not craft or whatever I'm pretty sure this was a craft I.P.A. like two months ago that appreciates the fact that you know right so we're all doing the same thing we're here and we're fighting this bigger battle which is wine and spirits or losing margin every

year so we've got to look at this is just lacking thinking this is just why are you throwing this but right now you guys are literally in fights a civil war meanwhile this armada of boats coming across the Atlantic to crush us or shooting each other with you know muskets and slingshot so what's the point right we need to band together and grow this market as a whole and if we do that everybody's got a great space in part right because small and it's like us innovate they get a platform from a

strategic or something to take those great ideas and take it to a bigger market and create an consumers and grow space in the hall is that you opens up more spaces for innovation and good product wins so that's the point of this whole thing and you know I was hoping that we could just get back to talking about beer but I guess we're not there yet but we see. A little bit of bitterness there. Is wine and spirits this big Spanish armada that's coming to conquer beer. Philip is not exactly for both of them they're not exactly answering the question or or the issue it's just sort of their spin on it yeah I agree here is Garrett wails of ten barrel the other day the beer does the talking not the label on the package and the consumer makes up their own mind the problem is that the V.A. continues to refuse to let the consumer make up their own mind trying to make up a little bottle that someone told him you know told me that that's what I have to buy because there's a little bottle on a six pack doesn't shift more bitterness and now these guys the new. All been flown to the same location the background in all these videos is the same so it's like these are all like the head the former owners of these breweries and now the operator of the brewery or the head brewer or whatever they've been flown to some location by the corporate overlords and told requested them to make this spin the video but for them to go take the steps to do this it must have rattled their cage a little bit I would imagine here's Andy Ingram from four peaks. There are clear threats from wine and spirits out there that that whether we're being willful and not noticing that or we're just too busy about fighting about yourselves but there is a clear present danger there are strong thoughts on the horizon for for the very much some people think it's top heavy I don't I think we can sustain a lot more but we're not going to do that if we are divided so that's a key role going forward I think that needs to focus as well as getting back to quality when the major trade organization says that it doesn't matter what's in your glass as long as it's independent and they're telling consumers that it's a big issue you're saying go and drink crowd just like you know support the big that's not healthy it's not a good way to go for now that's just ridiculous. Just because it has a logo on it doesn't mean you're going to drink that beer you're also going to have the decision like you do now whether it has the logo or not you're still going to buy the beer that's good you might buy a beer and try it and it's good you'll never buy that one again same as it is now where nobody has a label Yeah the label doesn't say this is great beer there's plenty of small independent berries that make bad beer. And it's it's interesting the two of them are so focused on wine and spirits when everywhere I look around there's so much growth and in the beer world and it's mostly in craft beer of course but we just cease phenomenal growth and they're talking about losing market share to wine and spirits that. That's not what I expected to hear I mean my biggest issue with big beer is it's not labor quality or anything like that it's more like the shelf space and I believe in having choices and people are going to have different beers that they like and ever it has a different palate and I think there's a real issue is that these huge conglomerates the more they buy up that the more difficult it is for other breweries to compete because they just don't get the opportunity and so you know I am I going to buy every single beer that says independent craft beer on a probably not but I think it is a good way to just educate people and give them some choices. Here Steve Crandall from the Devil's Backbone we're going to continue being the same guys we've always been we're going to continue operating the best possible ears and occasions to our to our consumers that we've always done and we're always going to support the crappier industry and then David Buehler belief and finished it off well to be independent would be he don't put the love watches you're into so to be truly pop you don't use luck you do your own thing follow your own rules so I don't think the small independent breweries consider themselves punk you know maybe some of them do I know some of them do but in general they're just trying to get a foothold in the local market and grow and expand and make good beer and they're all trying to do that so I don't know and having the camaraderie of other breweries and standing together against the big conglomerate beer I mean what's wrong with that I know imbeds perspective is they don't want that they don't want them banding together in

teaming up and using the albeit small little marketing ploys against them so anyway it's pretty interesting comments just one example of some of the methods the. Maybe in bit of uses. And this came out a couple months ago I think in May but basically embed

has bought out the entire African hop market so that the hops that are produced in South Africa albeit not a lot but they do have some of the more cutting edge and experimental hops that are out there and those hops are no longer available to any American craft brewers those hops are reserved entirely for the high end breweries in a V. in Bev's catalog so that includes what could we we at least in ten bear all those ones we talked about and this created quite an uproar on Twitter modern times brewery which we like in San Diego said next time you consider buying beer for maybe in bed and there's zombie breweries We hope you'll take this extruding dictation this into consideration. Sell or make her think ab in bed purchases don't matter for the craft beer industry all SAF South African hops have been allocated to A.B.M. bit high end brands. Now A.B. In bit of released a response to this they seem to be on the defensive you know more and more lately where the. Independent Brewer has come out with something in reaction to what they've done in their response South Africa is not a traditional hop growing region our efforts have made it possible to grow hops in South Africa but it's still less than one percent of the world's top acreage in production this year they suffered yo low yields. Ninety percent of the South African Growth hops will be used in local brands like Castle log or in Castle Law I guess or South African beers. That means less than five percent can be allocated to

other and has your Bush in bit of prop breweries outside South Africa. Know in the high demand for South African hops and locally and abroad we are working to expand local hop. Acreage depending on the two thousand eight hundred crops we may once again be able to sell more hops to breweries outside of South Africa so. That's the response they're saying well there's not that many hops here and we're selling it mostly to our local South African brands but still I mean why should they go to just their high end breweries and how this is a little bit conceded to call themselves high end. I was going to ask is that their name I mean it must be their name that they've developed or have that's their name that's the name of their their suite of

breweries but that that's weird to me because and they're basically knowledge in the that the rest of their beer is not very good low him no and. That's really funny and then there's this other article that you sent me Jeff do you want to take us through that yeah I just I found an interesting article that sort of fits in with this this whole theme and it it's something I didn't really think too much about before but it got me thinking so so basically you know when to a large you know company like in bed of acquires a small Burberry. The issue comes up with the water quality because basically a lot of breweries say that their beer is better because of the local water that they use I mean everywhere we go they talk about how great the water is breweries of all sizes say this that it's the local water that makes the difference and so you know it kind of brings to light the question of when you start getting bigger and growing and if you even if it's through acquisition how do you keep that same quality when you are making beer in different locations and the example from this article was you know many years ago and I as a Bush bought Goose Island and Chicago and at the time it was you know Chicago water used to make there be. Here but now they make Goose Island in other places outside of Chicago other parts of the U.S. They're also planning to make it soon in Europe and so so the question comes up of how do they maintain that same quality or at least the image if they're saying it's better because of the local water that's used it was just kind of an interesting article when when you see this growth and you see you know take a beer like Miller Lite that's made at you know places all around the country and they they find a way to make it taste exactly the same I think that's harder to do with craft beer but this you know this article is just kind of interesting to talk about how do you maintain that quality especially in a world where you have mergers happening and buying out smaller craft breweries and making the same berries in the same recipe in a different location Yeah a lot of breweries ahead of the ones have been big enough to branch out like Cyrano bad moving to Mills River North Carolina and they had to get the water. PH in the different. What do you call it alkalinity Yeah minerals all the things that are in the water in Chico you know they had to come up with a way to simulate the water over there and use the filtration and different means to get a similar taste when they brew the beer with the same recipe and it took them a couple of years I think to get that right but then once they did they were able they're able to brew Pale Ale there and in Chico and they've had the expert taste testers in the world taste the beer and not be able to tell the difference reliably it's just interesting because you know beer the number one ingredient in beer is water and if all of these breweries are going to claim that the water is so key. It almost doesn't quite make sense when you can use all these advanced filter. Methods to make the same beer using the same recipe and different areas and get it to taste exactly the same something sort of a mess there yeah I think it can be solved through science and through money I think A.B. in bed has plenty of money that they can invest in getting the chemistry right and Syria that is a nearly a billion dollar operation they can spend the money to get that figured out as well but I think that you know a

smaller operation what might have a tough time in this exactly as can be are in two there are two different sides of the country. All right well that was a lot of talking with the news I think it's time for the next beer I agree OK Up next we have. Been top Golden I.P.A. sticking with the golden theme this is from Ben to paddle Brewing Company in Duluth Minnesota. One of those beers that smells good right as you open the can. Yeah soon as you open it just the room is filled with pop goodness but I'm smelling it more and there's plenty of Multan this too I mean it's it's pretty well balanced on the aroma so I'm looking at a slightly hazy I mean slightly cloudy copper like copper color but it's pretty clear that yours might be clearer than mine has a little bit of a cloud to it not hazy though cloudy head is kind of off white. Foamy looks like it's going to have pretty good return ssion and. Even as I swirl it so nicely seen on the glass Yeah very good lacing very even smell it in the glass I get kind of a light. Citrus hop Yeah I get citrus It smells a little earthy also Yeah I get that too and then you get kind of a sweet malting this as well. But when I open the can the aroma was very much prevalent in the smell and in the glass I

don't get as much taste as good this is what I would call a well balanced I.P.A. It has some sweet malt like a mentor from the aroma that definitely shows up in the taste I think a really nice amount of hops. Tops to me are a little earthy and piney

but also a little citrus it's just really smooth flavor it is it has a very interesting malt flavored this very powerful it's like sweet bread. Even like a peace treaty kind of like I get a lot of sweetness in the mall like a sugar donut or something and then the hops come through after that kind of in the after taste with just a very slight bitterness bitterness in the after days yeah I really like the spear I'm having a hard time describing at the the malts are different I think you're right they are sweet. They're a little bratty but it's like a like a pun duel say like a Mexican bread like a sweet bread. And a flavor in very unique. A little bit like cinnamon roll too like if I if I took scent of an role as an ingredient in beer I think it would maybe show up a little bit like this it's not really bitter at all this is six point two percent it's a golden I.P.A.. I don't really know what a golden I.P.A. means if that's referring to the color I assume. It's not really a style of I.P.A. What do you think about that Alice Yeah I'm thinking of ones I've had recently. Seen of that had their golden I.P.A. and it's kind of a a lighter less hockey version of say their torpedo or. It's like a. Maybe a sweeter little bit more accessible I.P.A.. I wouldn't call it weak though it never ventures into the wheat range it's more of a lighter colored more drink couple less pronounced hops would be my definition of the golden I.P.A. Yeah I think it's super drinkable smooth like medium carbonation I like the mouth feel on this a lot. It's not bitter at all like I mentioned earlier. I think it's just it's nothing overpowers flavors I think it's the unique malt flavor like we said a good amount of hops but there's no sort of waivers that completely dominate this beer no. Very drink Well I think I think you're not going to find a golden I.P.A. That's more than seven percent although we might have one of the show later Yeah this is a beer from a diluted Minnesota you know we're just talking about water quality I got to imagine the water quality of Minnesota is pretty good so you know from the Great Lakes area oh yeah don't you know I like this a lot this is probably my first beer from Duluth and it's tasty I'm very impressed quite good Ben top from Ben to paddle. All right we're halfway done with the show and we come back we have the shower. From champion brewing in Charlottesville Virginia and then I'm going to try the top four beers in this country and compare them against each other that and more when we come back this is the beer of the day pod cast. So we're seventy five episodes into this podcast and if you've not been shopping on Amazon through the beer the day website what the hell of you've been doing I mean it's been two years now. You could have been shopping at Amazon the whole time and we could have made tens of dollars off of your shopping habits and I'll tell you how it works just this week somebody went to the beer the day website they clicked on the

Amazon banner they went to Amazon and they purchased Jelly Belly jelly beans draft beer flavor and I can vouch for the taste of these jelly beans I don't know if they taste like draft beer somehow I doubt they're even that good but as a novelty I could see it. Being a pretty good purchase it cost them three dollars and ninety five cents for how big of a bag is it three point five ounces at the dollar thirteen an ounce pretty pricey. We got twenty cents off of that purchase so that's a small purchase somebody else purchased the Mastering the Art of French Cooking two volume set now that is a tough task Mastering the Art of French Cooking for fifty three seventy seven they purchased that book and we made two dollars and forty two cents all these purchases I look at a list here of twelve different purchases that people have made it all adds up so we'll be able to use that money to buy beer on a future show here and we appreciate you supporting us by shopping through the beer that a website

on Amazon. You can also help us by telling your friends about it obviously it's a craft beer group sociate with other craft beer drinkers that might like a deer caught gotta listen to just. Check out here the day after they. Play or come to the i Tunes You can subscribe right on their i Phone or Android phone so a lot of different ways to get and we appreciate you spreading the word about it to back to the show. Welcome back to the beer of the day podcast the next beer we have to try is one that was. A style that was very popular and I think a lot of different breweries came up with the same idea at the same time and they'll release the same kind of idea for a beer and this is the shower beer continuing with the golden theme. Challenge here is a check style pills from champion Brewing Company Charlottesville Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson we're going to add in some applause at that joke there. The Golden Shower joke. So four point five percent thirty five I.B.U. good looking golden

color cam the beer too is. It's a like color light yellow. Color periodic golden yellow How clear is beer when it's so cold that it's like you know making the glass fog or a fog up a little bit mine is not that cold and it is very clear I see maybe twenty little tiny bubbles at one time floating upward and then there's a lot of B. bath bubblehead on here yet Mine's not quite as clear as like the beach would Melrose we're talking about to begin but it's pretty clear there's a slight haze to at least in my glass. On the. Head though it's like Bubble bubble that bubbles it is a very foamy very frothy really like pure white color pretty thick the aroma it is kind of your standard check pilsner slightly European. Smell. Just that two row malt aroma not very complex maybe a slight corn lite barley a very just classic pilsner aroma you know this is a peer that. Is not going to be super happy it's going to have some check cops on it. But it's it's all malt in the in the aroma and grainy corn and we you know all that is is what you're going to get and most beers of the style the flavor is traditional Czech style pilsner it gives you that nice. Very light crisp flavor. Slight malt and then you get those kind of Bavarian hops. In the aftertaste a fair amount for the style of hops I'd say yeah and they have a bit of a earthy. There's a little bite to it like a peppery bite but I think must be from the hops. I doubt there's any rye in this but it has a what's that like bite you get from a riot beer. It's a tasty beer but it's it's light it's a specific style for this reason it's what you drink it's called a shower beer but this is something I associate with drinking on a hot summer day sitting outside by the pool but yes you can drink it in the shower right absolutely it's the same sort of concept when I hear shower beer when all these breweries can which are beers beers that you drink in the shower in the morning as you're getting ready to go out or whatever you know football Sunday or something like that I always think it might be like sweeter like more. And I'm surprised and. Glad that this beer is more dry and more traditional log or it's not. Trying to be orange juice with most you know type of morning drink you know

like you know morning drink is orange juice or maybe it's bloody mary but those are kind of the two options for morning and this is not this is saying no we're sticking with beer classic beer classic check Pilsner and that's what they're going with

and they even Maybe papa little more hops in there than you'd normally expect which was refreshing Yeah and I don't necessarily think of a shower beer or something that you drink in the morning I mean take a shower I mean you could but I think it's

like any time a day like you said you're out you know you're going out for the night you're taking a shower before you go out or something like that it's what you drink sort of get yourself warmed up this is a good warm up beer this is something I would drink before I get into beers that are pale ales I.P.H. that I traditionally go for. You know it's a pilsner it's a lager bills are probably my favorite type of lagers and it's good for the style it's not something I want to drink a ton of but this is a good warm up beer and I think that's really what a shower beer is good point you know we do this podcast and before the beer nine times a day nine times out of ten I'd say seventy four out of seventy five times we have a warm beer before we start recording sometimes we have five or six warm up beers this would be a really good warm up beer because it's nice like Chris. The taste doesn't linger it kind of. Has a finish to the flavor and so it's not going to wreck your palate for all the other beers you can try in the podcast so you could drink this before the show and not have the beers that you have before the show influencing your opinions and flavors of beers you're going to have subsequently. Yeah warms up your palate. Perfect. The motorcycle Dr. Jeff lives next door to the Sons of Anarchy. Not many of you knew that they had a Pasadena chapter show enough all right so this is that a new segment here a couple weeks ago on this show I read a list of the top fifty craft brewing companies and those top five wore. Number five Gambrinus which is China Bock and Texas beer which we've not had much of on the show number four was New Belgium in Fort Collins Colorado. Our opinions of that are well documented. Number three Sierra Nevada from Chico California one of our favorite breweries of all time number two Boston Beer Company they are the creators of Sam Adams perhaps you've heard of it and the number one craft brewery in the country is D.G. Yingling and Sons D.G. ing Lee and Sons is the oldest operating brewery in the United States established an eight hundred twenty nine based on volume sold in two thousand and sixteen was a top craft beer company in the U.S. Now this is a little bit of a surprise to me. Because. They don't serve it anywhere it's not shipped anywhere on the west coast or west of the Mississippi so it's not a beer we can get in California and I've traveled enough and been in locations where they've had it before but I've had this beer less than five times in my life so I'm going to try this beer now and so I haven't had it many times before. So it's a little bit of a mystery to me I've had this a few times I mean I'm not participating in this. Test but maybe I can add some comments but I have this a few times during travels to the east coast so. Looking forward to what you find out here the thing that's weird to me is that they only distribute east of the Mississippi yet somehow they sell the highest volume of beer in the country besides big beer and has your Busch Miller Coors perhaps Brewing Company so more than eating ling but those but those three distribute everywhere in the country you know they're in every liquor store in the country. And the next biggest Boston Beer Company Sam Adams and Syria data also distribute throughout the whole country and they sell less beer than the so it's pretty crazy to think how much beer they are selling and I'm sure. A lot of it has to be has to do with the fact that they've been around for so long I think it's cheap to like it it's craft beer if you want to call it craft beer that is priced WAY cheaper than a lot of craft beer these days I don't know what it goes for these days but I just remember going to the east coast and a six pack of evening Ling was about the same price as like a six pack of but wiser right and so from a price point it's very economical from here that in my mind has more flavor Yes So the thing is that in the back of my mind I start to have that sense of doubt is it really craft is it big beer in disguise and as far as I can tell it's as much craft as the Boston Beer Company or Sierra Nevada they've gotten huge over time but they still are considered craft beer so it's Huling is family owned and operated for five generations and has two breweries in Pottsville Pennsylvania. And opened a new one in Tampa Florida. And it's owned by Dick yngling Jr and when he's ready he's going to turn at least fifty one percent of the company over to one of his daughters and his four daughters but I guess two of them are in contention for it and he's already chosen his successor so it's going to stay in the family it's a it's a pretty interesting story. During Prohibition they were around they switched over to making near beer you know beer that was zero point five percent alcohol they also opened up a dairy and made milk and ice cream and that type of thing which actually reopened recently so my buddy Jorge brought me a gangling lager. He had ship it back from the East Coast and I have it here and I also have the flagship beers from the non craft. Beers that are ahead of being lean on the list A.B. In Bev I have their number one selling beer Bud Light. From Miller Coors I have their number one

selling beer Coors Light. Which is the number three selling beer in this country. Number two I mean and I have the number three brewery in the country Pabst and I have Pabst Blue Ribbon their flagship. So my goal here is to compare yngling number one craft brewery to the three. Big beers that are at produce more than it on the list that makes sense. England's number four and these three are ahead of it. Makes sense to me and I want to just kind of get a sense I'm not doing blind taste test or anything like that I'm just going to assess the flavors here and. Herman if young Lynn comes off as more craft then these nine craft beers so I'm going to start with I'll start with Bud Light work my way down. Bud Light is a man that has that sweetness in the aftertaste and initially get that cold. Rice malt is what it is really I call it barley but it's really rice and it has that sweet sugary finish which I think allows it to sell so much beer Corps light. Sometimes it's hard to you know you've had these beers so many times and you just become numb to it because you've drank so many of them over the years Corps light is just so watery there's nothing distinct about it and that Pabst. Perhaps a little more flavor than Coors Light still very light. The aftertaste gives you more of a alcoholic kick even though I think these are all four point five percent Army trying now this is also four point five percent it comes in a gold top can it's a theme. And it's called an amber beer on the can. Even is without a doubt. Has more body to it. It's more of a substantial beer and it is smoother so each one of these other beers but LET has this sugar sweetness in the after taste cores it has kind of a metallic emptiness to it and Paps I think is the best of the the first three. It has. It has more flavor but it's a little it's also metallic and has kind of. The flavors out of balance and the alcohol is a little more pronounced it kicks a little bit more. Playing is definitely smoother less a kick and. More body there's like more of a caramel malt I'm not saying that the caramel multi beer but I'm saying on the spectrum it's leaning a little bit that way and that must be why it's called Amber I bet if I poured it into a glass we'd see a little more color definition of this beer yeah I was just going to say from what I remember about it it's a very significantly different color from the rest of those it's much more like an amber ale drinks like a log or but I think it has a lot more similarities to an amber ale than any of the other beers you drink and it is smooth it's not even the same same boat it's not even the same league it's far superior to these other three so if you ask me I mean it's not the style that all the other craft breweries come out with crop Ruiz or pale ales and some are loggers not a whole lot of the popular ones are. But youngling has been making beer for so long they're making styles that they made for a long time. I think it was in the eighty seven or something when lager became their their number one seller and it's continued to be since then so they did come out with a I.P.L. yngling I.P.O. So they are making hop ear beers and I've not tried that I have no idea what it tastes like but you can

taste the quality with this one for sure and I can see why people hold loyalty to this brand and buy it they buy more evidence here in Nevada and they buy more of it than Sam Adams So they've got to be doing something right. I'm surprised they haven't come to California eventually I mean it's only I don't know their exact distribution but it's basically east of the Mississippi right. Yeah basically they keep adding more states so maybe they will make it out here eventually what's a little bit about. I was impressed by it I have to say I've. Always kind and considerate another macro beer big beer that we just can't get here but there is a considerable advantage in quality it has over the the big three that it trails in sales volume so I'm a fan I'm going to mention the beer that I was drinking while Dallas was doing his little taste in there that OK over so I don't want to be left out but I open a bottle of beer it's called ballasts are a. It's from Lady face ale company which is in adore Hills California pretty close to where I live it's just a little north of L.A. how this ball company. C O M P A N I E That's cute yes. It's a really cool Brewer if you are in the L.A. area I used to live very close to Lady face it's sort of in the Malibu direction right along the hills and it's a beautiful area I picked up this bottle at the brewery it is a Belgian style golden ale with Pretend of my A Cs and so I just opened it I was sort of sipping it while Dallas was drinking his course alight and Pabst but. Puts all those to shame I'll tell you that. It's a really interesting beer so. Again it's a Belgian style Golden Ale I wanted to stick with the golden theme color wise it is pretty clear you know much more clear than I thought. Sort of a like copper really an amber color. And the head on it is it's pretty thin it's. It's white but it's so thin it's even hard to tell how whitening the head is what is there is very fizzy. But the aroma on this beer I mean aging this for a little while it was bottled in two thousand and fifteen the aroma is so strong like just right when I open that it's it fills the room with the aroma. A little bit of like a burning sensation in the aroma which makes for an interesting beer it's it's a strong beer I mean it's almost six when at six point eight nine I think it's so what's cool is that it's handwritten on there at six point eight percent it is you definitely takes the Bret the ten of my C's it's not. It's probably barrel age two I'm guessing because I taste a little bit of barrel in here it may not be but this is like a sort of kick in the face beer it's strong you know I like the style the Belgian style golden ale it's got a little bit of honey sweetness to it it's there's very little hops I mean it's not a not a style that you're going for the hops tastes a lot like some of the high quality beers that we had in Belgium when we were there. Reminds me a little bit of the first beer that we had on the show the glittering gold but just a much stronger version this is one that you got to set and you know if I was by myself I could not probably drink this whole bottle just really easily it's when you've got to share with your friends but I like this this is a high quality beer

lady face makes some good beer so this is the first that I've actually opened their bottle and not had on tap at the brewery. Pretty good sounds good. Incoming transmission You've Got Mail. In a while since our last show so the comments have piled up just a little bit on our last podcast episode seventy four What's my name again Alan folate said around ten percent Imperial lager A do you suppose old English eight hundred could move upscale by relay be relabeled of itself as one. May I think they should give it a try but even Jeff Sherry I mean it's all a marketing game they could do it Alan for what he's in Hercules California East Bay. And he said encountered June fourteenth seventeen at Albany taproom Albany's just north of Berkeley south of El Sordo. He says. Opaque dark brown long lasting ahead nose and taste have elements of black coffee and caramel with a touch of spiciness smooth mouth feel alcohol is not as apparent on the tongue as would be expected from the A.B.V. figure he's talking about Mike Hess San Diego brewery there bricks Imperial Stout sounds like a good one like to try that. But thanks for posting the description Alan. From our trip to Chicago recently we had the Daisy Cutter on the site. As the beer of the

day Kent in Minneapolis Minnesota said this is a great beer had a few on a layover in O'Hare Airport. If you have a layover at O'Hare Airport and you're drinking daisy cutter that's not a bad layover it's nicely in my opinion that's the first thing I thought of when I saw that comment. Airport there it is perfect he also commented on steel toed. Have an I.P.A. which was the first beer I had in Minneapolis or can't is from. This is a great Twin Cities I.P.A. It was one of the top rated in a blind taste test of local I.P.A. a while back I can see why it was one of the best ideas I had while I was in Minneapolis and one of the best on that whole trip Midwest trip. Also from our Midwest trip from new glare is Brewing Company in New Glarus

Wisconsin we had the Spotted Cow as the beer of the day go pound sand. Commented on spot of cow craft beer for people who don't like craft beer. Shots fired. Interesting because we sort of thought same thing when we were there because they didn't when we were there they didn't have an I.P.A. It was sort of like. Craft in a way and they sell so much beer they only distribute it Wisconsin with their one of the biggest breweries in the US. But they didn't have an I.P.A. So it's sort of like the people who are so used to drinking you know big beer. Like that and you know they've actually spotted with some good beers. Based tasty interesting place I don't know how they sell so much beer I mean they must they only saw it in Wisconsin. We had to be saw a ton of it within this Pabst Blue Ribbon I'm drinking the Wisconsin beer and it's the number three brewery in the country so they've got to be selling a lot as well I just concluded that people who live in Wisconsin during a ton of beer Yes got it what it is so good a pound sand is from the core Iowa I don't know if he works for toppling Goliath or he is just a fan top of live or just lives in the same town as toppling alive but he signed up on the site shortly after our trip. There so he might

be I don't know who he is he also commented on the hot gun monkey Buddha brewery in Oakland Park Florida one of my favorites when I'm in south Florida now topping Goliath brews there can be years in Tampa Florida not solve Florida so but maybe he travels to Florida on business if he's a toppling live guy no idea. Hey go pound sand let us know who you are and we met you when we were there we don't know gray bar. He's in Anchorage Alaska and he commented on Fallen Angel a Belgian strong for a midnight sun Brewing Company in Anchorage. And Gray Bar said this great tasting I.P.A. S beer. Maybe I.P.A. here has truly significant color and flavor appealing to the palate and has a different taste that's hard to describe but definitely impeccable I've had a lot of good beers from midnight sun and we have a few in the beer the day of all that we're going to have on a future program. This show is called the gold standard and someone commented on golden boy blog Dale from triple C. Brewing Company in Charlotte North Carolina S.M. Ham said usually drink Miller Lite apparently he's upgrading. The taste of this beer was very delightful unique taste asked the server who sold it with there and purchased it and golden girl so he got golden boy and golden girl he's a big fan of it as I have is from Cornelius North Carolina home to the radio god and podcasting legend Mark Thompson and his wife Linda few people know that. South Side Irish red. From hail storm brewing company be Muslim perfect next best to Yang ling that I have tasted. Well now that I've had a young lady on the show I can kind of compared to what you're what you're talking to his room New Lenox Illinois. And C J sports beer Pod. Great offering by the outstanding brewery in San Diego nice crisp summer beer he's talking about modern times accumulated knowledge I.P.A. C.J. sports beer Pod is from Portland I don't know if that means he has a podcast kind of sounds like it C.J. So if you want to plug your POD you know hit us up and let us know who you are and what you're doing and we can cross promote you know you scratch our back we'll scratch yours. With a get everybody for all the comments this week if you have any comments go to bigger than a dot com and leave the comments anywhere on the site you can also e-mail us at feedback at beer the day dot com. OK time to get into the last beer of the night we mention toppling Goliath and this is a beer that we brought back from that brewery. This is the gold in this nugget I P.S.A.. Is also aromatic every beer tonight as I open it. And you are forced to open beers on your own. Bills here were the room with that hop aroma my fingernails are peel enough lots of comments lately I like to see that yeah definitely the comments. We love seeing comments leave those comments because it's fun to hear them and you know we don't like to be putting these bitter beers. The day out into a vacuum you know feedback that accumulated knowledge beer think received a comment

really interesting for modern times because it's only available at Trader Joe's. Which I don't know how widespread Trader Joe's has its fair share in California and some other states but that's a tasty I.P.A. I had that recently so that is one that I would say is one that you should pick up if you see it all right let's talk about this beer Golden Nugget. So it's golden color I'm looking at the beer and I see no carbonation floating up it's completely still now in our nation but a lot of head lot ahead I got three fingers of head it doesn't appear to be dissipating it's big bubbles. It's like sticky or bubbles though than that bath. Bubbles that we had with the shower beer. But I'm surprised at the lack of carbonation we've got just. Ever so slightly cloudy yellow color what we should we should say like just because we can't see bubbles doesn't mean there's lack of carbonation we what we're referring to is like visible carbonation like this stream of bubbles remodel slowly not correct right yeah there the beer could still have a lot of carbonation that just isn't visible in the glass correct with a shower beer the bubbles were visible I can see a stream of about twenty five bubbles in a time floating up aroma it's very tame I just get a very slight sweetness maybe a slight try tropical hop aroma not a ton of smells here. I get a fair amount I get some to citrus and tropical fruit I mean it it's hopping in the era maybe it is a little floral also on the aroma I mean I get a lot of hops and the aroma. When you open that can. You didn't like fill the room or was it just hair my can I think the aroma of the Pabst in the Corps light. Counteracting tastes pretty good I mean topical at this high quality we have high expectations for a beer like this. I like the taste it has a. Kind of a citrus hop quality like I. Like a little bit soapy like Dawn. This soap and I don't want that to be a bad thing it's just that's how poignant the citrus flavors are. Yeah I mean topping Goliath we were there we met the owner he said like the number one most important thing they care about his mouth feel in beer and I think this has this soapy mouth feel which again not a bad thing it's just like the texture how it coach it's the mouth coating it's how how it tastes and every beer they make has excellent I'll heal from my experience you know you compare this to sudo su. Which I happen to have a in this other glass over here I was drinking this earlier as my warm up beer pseudo suit is a little more multi It's a pale ill. Has a little bit more of a caramel malt backbone this Golden Nugget is concentrates on the hops flavors almost exclusively It's very hot forward and the upper register of hops you know you have like earthy hops and you have floral hops and then above that you have citrus hops in tropical hops and you get to those higher end spectrums and I think maybe citrus is the top of that list where you get the very Lemon centric. Grapefruit pith. In this has a lot of those types of flavors. Yeah this is a beer that it's made with Nugget hops which I feel like we don't see that much of these days I'm not. I drink a lot of I P A's and I don't see a lot of not yet hops but I think there's two hop flavors that really stand out for me I think this is a very citrusy beer and I think it's also very piney and it's a combination of the citrus and the pine and you know there's some malts there but the malts are really there just to provide like a supporting role but it's a citrus in the pine that really lend the flavor to the spear you know this beer also remains very drinkable there's not a prolonged after taste it's not overly alcoholic it's lighter mouthfeel lighter body and so this is a for sure a summer day

beer we don't know the alcohol percentage because I don't think they put the A.B.V. on any of their beers I don't think we've ever seen that I guess it's in the six six to seven percent range. I be used probably sixty seventy somewhere around there it's not bitter. Now I take that back there's a slight bitterness in the finish like a little bit a grapefruit maybe that's the citrus that we picked up early on but there's just a very light betterness but not a bitter I.P.A. this is tasty I'm I'm impressed with this when we were at Topinka Liath this is not a beer that we paid a lot of attention to we were very focused on the king Sue and Sosa's and pseudo Sue and this is one that we I don't want to say we over looked it but we sort of had it on

the back burner when it came to priority. And I'm glad we're drinking this now because it's it's better than I expected. Yeah definitely so we'll look at the competition online Beer Advocate has the alcohol is that six percent with fifty six Ib you. Rate beer as listed at seven point two percent maybe it's a bit of a range Yeah per cent one point two percent higher also fifty six percent I'd be so we can kind of go will go along with that. And untapped. Has a six point three percent. Somewhere in the middle. Fifty six I B U so they all agree on the I.B.U. and they differ on the whole person each one differs in the percentage so well will say it doesn't matter it's not a boozy beer whether it's six percent seven percent doesn't really matter

right does not I don't care. Definitely a light top forward hop forward I.P.A. but in the upper spectrum like the. You know in the music scale it's going to be like it's the soprano of hops but it's just like meat like. It's not light bodied it's

not heavy it's just pretty easy drinking medium body I.P.A. this is it's not a beginner's I.P.A. it's not for the super happy fan it's just somewhere in the middle. And I like that all right well I think that concludes the beers for the night Jeff you want to take us through what we have. I will do my best here I'd I'll try to remember the ones that you had but so we started out the night with the glitter and gold from her any Artesian or to Z. in her art isn't going to say artisan else in St.

Louis Missouri. Then we had a bent top Golden I.P.A. from bent paddle. After the break we had a shower beer check style hills from champion Brewing Company. Dallas still a little tasty and where he had Bud Light or is light and Pabst. All three compared against seeing wing blogger. Simultaneously I drink the Valis are a lady face ale company and then we both wrapped up with the Golden Nugget I.P.A. from toppling a lion in decor Iowa All right so I don't have anyone to spin the wheel tonight and it's only two of us so we only had one bottle beer tonight and that was glittering gold and I have a bottle cap from that so I'm going to flip the bottle cap on the table if the bottle cap lands with the flat on the table straight down Jeff will go first if it lands upside down with the ball cap. The inside of the ball cap facing up more than I will go first how's that. Works for me. The bottle cap is facing downward with the inside facing upward which means I go first I wasn't expecting that I assume the ball a camp with land the you know the conventional way. My beer the day. Is glittering gold beer a day meal is the style the honey beer perennial Artesian ale St Louis Missouri this beer. JUST SCREAMED quality to me it was so balanced. It had a malt flavor that was unique and unlike anything I had really had before there were some fruit flavors to it that complemented every. Doing well and it reminded me of some of the best beers I had in the world when I was in Belgium. I was very disappointed that there weren't more people here for this podcast because I want them to be able to try this beer not going to be able to and likely Jeff goes to St Louis once a year for work business so he'll be able to bring back some more of this at some point. So my beer of the day glitter and gold. I have to concur my picks going to be glittering gold as well. You know I like to show every beer was good I especially like the Ben top called an I.P.A. from Duluth I had you know perhaps the best I.P.A. I've had from in that region so that was very tasty but it's hard to compete with the glittering gold for the style you know like Dallas said the high quality everything about that beer was perfect. I brought back two bottles part of me regrets sending one up to Dallas. I kind of wanted to keep two here but we're all about sharing good beer and so I'm happy we're able to have that it's a phenomenal beer. Next time I go to St Louis I'm for sure going back there because that was an excellent pair so. I'd like to be different but I guess I go with the same beer the glittering gold from perennial on in St Louis. Good choice I like that. All right well because my dad is good friends with Paul McCartney I got permission to use this golden song on the show tonight. Once was the way. And we thank you for tuning into the show tonight Episode seventy five we're approaching number one hundred very quickly so it's going to be. Soon. I want to remind everybody to follow us on social media we just reached our one thousand followers on Instagram we are at beer the day site. We're also on Twitter at beer the day we're on Facebook at facebook dot com slash the beer of the day or even on youtube youtube dot com slash and Bieber they so follow us on social media and remember to leave your comments on the website. We'll be back next week. Or two weeks we'll see with another program we thank you for tuning in we'll see you next time for Jeff Miller I'm Dallas Heliker, this has been the beer of the day podcast.