Exploring Local Breweries

Matt 1:01

10 , 9 , 8 , 7 , 6 , 5 , 4 , 3 , 2 , 1 . We have liftoff .

Rob 1:17

Welcome to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 1:26

I'm Walter Brewright . Welcome to In Local Brews where we dive deep into the flavorful world of our community's unique beverages . Join us as we raise our glasses to the stories , traditions and craftsmanship that go into every sip . From the hidden gems tucked away in our neighborhoods to the latest trends brewing on the scene , we're discovering the hearts and soul of local libations . Today we are live from Alemen Shreya Brewing .

Matt 1:52

All right , everybody . Welcome back to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe special episode today . We are on location today , On location at Alemen Shreya Brewery in Hackensack , New Jersey , and I'm going to go around the table . Let everybody with me introduce themselves .

Big Z 2:10

Hey , it's Mike or Big Z , whatever you want .

Ryan 2:13

Hey guys , it's Rob . Hey , it's the fish Ryan from Alementary Brewery .

Matt 2:17

Rare outing of the fish actually live and on location .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 2:21

That's right .

Rob 2:22

Normally the fish joins us remotely and he's in the scales .

Matt 2:25

That's right , and welcome Ryan .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 2:27

Thank you .

Ryan 2:28

Very excited to be here . Thank you . We're shockingly close to Connecticut .

The Fish 2:31

Up here in this weird rando corner of New Jersey you are . You only took me about 45 minutes to get down here , so I was very happy .

Big Z 2:40

That was our first detour , when Matt missed his first exit .

The Fish 2:43

Oh how many weeks did we miss ? Go on .

Ryan 2:49

How does one screw this up in the age of GPS ? How does this ?

The Fish 2:52

happen .

Rob 2:54

Oh , is this where we're starting ? Can I crack my beer first ? Okay , silence for the ASMR fans . Here we go .

Matt 3:04

There's a lot of buildup to that .

The Fish 3:06

Hey , that was good , it was easy .

Matt 3:07

In my defense .

The Fish 3:08

Ryan , I'm partially colorblind , so that is a factor yeah reading exits has got to do with colorblindness .

Ryan 3:15

I heard . All I heard was excuses .

Matt 3:17

Yeah , well , is that , when these two were in the back seat , a lot of ?

Rob 3:21

yack and go on behind me this is a very solid logger .

Ryan 3:24

Thank you , yeah , this is actually . This is like kind of the beer the brewery was built around . It was originally called Hackensack logger . As we started to expand we switched it to original Hackensack logger because fun fact when you get outside of your home region , no one cares what town you're from and New Jersey that happens very quickly .

Ryan 3:42

But yeah , this is over 30% of the beer we produce is this beer , and we brew beer for five other brands as well . So we brew a ton of this beer specifically . You'll get your macro guys . We've got a lot of landscapers and blue collar guys on our street here and we've kind of all converted them over to this beer . And then it also plays really , really well for , like your country club golf crowd too . Like , if you're used to a Bex , you're going to be good with this .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 4:08

If you like a Heineken . You're going to be all right with it .

The Fish 4:10

You're going to be good with this , and then you're going to be good with this , and then you're going to be good with this , and then you're going to be good with this . If you like a Heineken , you're going to be all right with it ? Yes , and what was the last one ? German ? Yeah , I love that movie . I'm looking at the label here and I'm like , hmm , that would fit into a Simpsons episode .

Ryan 4:21

Well , it's a little bit of a Sim city kind of . Take on the town . Yeah , sim city , for sure , yeah , so that's . That's definitely what the label is supposed to be . And then the owner's dog is on every label .

Rob 4:32

Amazing , so you can see her there .

Ryan 4:37

And she bosses my 80 pound shepherd mix around Like you can't imagine .

Big Z 4:42

So it's light , it's crisp , it's not too multi . I agree , like I thought , golf course , right away , whole one .

Rob 4:50

This is definitely one that you don't need to stop after the first can on . You know I mean you know , sometimes you drink some of those higher ABV beers and you're like I can do like a can of this and that's about it , because it just insists upon itself . But this , this is really good . This is a nice mow in the lawn . You know , cup holder on my riding mower beer all the time kind of beer Right .

Matt 5:12

To me it's like the Friday night after work , open at the bar , like that's what it tastes like it's just , I want a beer in a glass . This one goes in the glass .

Big Z 5:19

Yeah , I can't lawn mower it because I still have a push mower . I'm not so GQ as you are .

Rob 5:24

Oh well , get on my level bro .

The Fish 5:28

Yeah , knock , knock .

Matt 5:31

Wonderful , absolutely wonderful . So , ryan , can you give us a little history about elementary , the name and yeah .

Ryan 5:40

So we're actually in a unique situation . In New Jersey , our owners are husbands . One of them is a PhD in molecular biology , the other one is a couple of degrees in chemical and mechanical engineering .

Rob 5:50

The label now makes sense .

Ryan 5:51

Yes , it does now .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 5:52

I'm a scientist , got you . We also have a fully functioning yeast lab too .

Ryan 6:00

So if you have a problem , if you're a brewery in New Jersey and you've got cans exploding on the warm shelf , you send them to us and we tell you what happened . Really .

The Fish 6:08

That is really cool .

Ryan 6:10

It's much more of a problem than you would think , especially in the world of the lactose milkshake IPAs . There's been a few breweries who have added syrups or things along those lines post fermentation and then warned people you can't let these get warm . And of course people let them get warm and they explode . But in my opinion that's their election of duty on the brewery's part . But that's a totally different conversation .

The Fish 6:31

What is beer right .

Ryan 6:34

Is it still beer if you put Coca-Cola syrup after it is fermented ? I mean technically , but not really .

Big Z 6:40

I thought you were talking about maple syrup . No , no , no , brewery put .

Ryan 6:44

Coca-Cola syrup in a beer after fermentation and then told their people that they can't let it get warm . Yeah , that's that .

Big Z 6:52

That's what work .

Ryan 6:55

You should lose your brewing license .

Matt 6:58

I think you've made an explosive device at that point .

Ryan 7:01

You have , and if you're smart , you'll know exactly who I'm talking about too , you can make a stick out of it . If you're slick , you'll know exactly who it is Back in the day .

Matt 7:11

I brewed some beer with my college roommate who shout out to John over at Poppins Travel , our sponsor for the season They'll get you where you want to go .

Rob 7:19

They will , and John will help you find some beer on the way . For sure , chim chim , chim , chim , chim churu , I might be using them .

Matt 7:27

Him and I brewed some up in our dorm room and I don't . There's still heated debate as to what we did wrong , but what we actually made was hand grenades . You'd open the , you'd pop the top and every bit of that micro brew would come out of the bottle . Yeah , you over carbonated that .

Ryan 7:41

Yeah you did , you got aggressive with the baking sugar and we got a little extra active . If you can avoid that by using the one liter like flip top , pop top bottles , so if you over carb those they'll actually just let the CO2 escape and it won't diffuse into your beer , your beer .

The Fish 7:58

In our defense .

Matt 7:58

We were drunk college kids making beer . So weren't we all ?

Ryan 8:02

at one point . Yes , we were just a lot longer ago for some of us .

Big Z 8:06

Well , I wasn't making beers , just drinking it .

Matt 8:09

I asked you to tell me about the brewery and then we totally went off the rails .

Rob 8:12

Sorry , sorry go back , go back to the owners .

Ryan 8:18

So we've been open eight years . In April I've been here six or seven .

Challenges in Craft Beer and Yeast

Ryan 8:23

When I started at the brewery , it was just this building . Here . We had a couple of other tanks . We had a mobile canning line , not like mobile canners that come in . We had a canning line here but it was movable and mobile and we could move it around and we were canning enough beer for , like , the tasting room and what we were doing here . And they brought me on as a salesperson and I was like we have a canning line and we're not selling beer to liquor stores . What are we ?

The Fish 8:47

doing .

Ryan 8:47

And this was at a time when , like , it wasn't cool to sell beer to liquor stores . This is when you know the other halves of the world are all wanting you to come and wait online . Oh , this guy was there a lot . Oh yeah , I'm sorry .

Big Z 8:58

You got hoodwinks . My man Absolutely .

Ryan 9:01

You bought the same beer like 50 times bro , 100% . I mean I've got the same thing with a different brand but it's really really aggressive getting out in the liquor stores . So I got us in all the Jersey liquor stores you'd want to be in and that helped grow awareness of the brand , kind of pitching this lager as the beer . The problem with New Jersey is our beer market and our beer knowledge as a whole is so far behind because breweries didn't open in New Jersey until like roughly about 10 years ago . Before that it was really limited . It was really really hard to get a brewing license and a lot of that was because AB Beb has a large brewery in Newark .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 9:38

So , all the blood light you drink on the East Coast comes out of that brewery .

Ryan 9:42

So that has helped restrictions in New Jersey for a long time . New Jersey's also got a really fucked up liquor licensing situation . That would be literally an entire another podcast , but the long and short of it is the consumer in New Jersey is woefully uneducated and behind the times . I spent my college years in Burlington , vermont . I grew up in the Adirondacks so I was around Good Beer all the time . I graduated high school in 2001 , just for a frame of reference . So way before craft beer was really a popular thing and a happening thing .

Big Z 10:09

That's all of us . That would be cool . Everybody at this table would quit Great .

Rob 10:14

So you never know .

Ryan 10:15

But beer was not a thing in New Jersey , so the consumer in New Jersey is still very caught up on the we call them the hype town beers . You're still seeing lactose IPAs and things along those lines here when , if you go down to Philadelphia , philadelphia is a logger town Because Philly's been a beer town for 100 years , exactly so that's a recent change .

Rob 10:36

Yeah , and one thing I've really kind of noticed that I played a lot of breweries and now a lot of these breweries are going from those milkshake style IPAs , those source , which were really , really popular for a while , and they're going back to the roots now . Now there's a couple of different loggers , there's a couple of different Pilsners . Everybody's trying to get back into where it started .

Ryan 10:58

So pay attention to this really , really hard when you're at breweries , because it's really easy from a brewing . In a technical standpoint , it's super easy to hide a screw up in an IPA . You can just put a little extra hops in it and you can hide the off flavor . It's very , very simple to do so . When I'm at a brewery , the first thing I will have is by far the simplest , cleanest thing on your menu . I was at a brewery in Saratoga . It's called Walt Whitman's like Brewpub .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 11:21

A kind of understated joint , not in there .

Ryan 11:23

Cool . It's a cool little spot right . But the first thing I had was their light logger , because if that's a hot mess , everything else is a hot mess . If that's good , everything else is gonna be good and reliable .

Matt 11:32

You're the second person on the podcast to say that . When I did one with Lost Tavern Brewing in Bethlehem , gino said the exact same thing almost verbatim , word for word , that you can hide almost anything . And I made the joke that it's like IPAs can be a little like speckle .

Big Z 11:49

We can kind of hide whatever is on the wall . Hey , this is a taste grid . Let's throw some guava in as we're fermenting it , like whatever might be the kind of high that tastes . This is simple . Yeah , it's not a lot going on , it's a simple beer . The recipe is very very simple , really good .

Ryan 12:02

It's excellent yeast control . We will reuse and propagate our yeast pitches so we won't . A lot of breweries will use a dry yeast , typically because it's cheaper . But because one of our owners has a PhD in molecular biology , we're able to do the proper yeast handling and all of that stuff . So we will get that's so cool Roughly about 15 or so generations on ale yeast and maybe a little bit more on a lager .

Rob 12:25

So do you guys recycle your yeast ?

Ryan 12:28

then I'm assuming oh yeah , that's what we're talking about . We pull it back out , you propagate your own .

Rob 12:33

That's so cool man .

Ryan 12:36

Yep , we'll get a basic lager pitch and then we'll grow it from there , right ? So we'll start it on something super simple and then , like if you wanted to brew an 8.5% pilsner , you can't just jump right into brewing an 8.5% pilsner . You need to brew something to get the yeast going and then you can split some of the batch off . The second you brew like a dark beer or a fruited beer with a yeast . The yeast will take on that flavor and then you can't use it anymore . So you always want to do stuff like that . Like at the end of the yeast slice span we do a really killer Baltic porter . But if we do that on like generation two or three on a yeast pitch , now it's done .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 13:10

Now it's done .

Ryan 13:11

Baltic porter technically a lager .

The Fish 13:14

But some Baltic porters are really really good and they taste like stouts .

Ryan 13:18

Yeah , yeah , it really depends who's making them . The thing I like about Baltic porters is the kind of the thinner , the thinner mouth , feel a little bit of a thinner body , but you still get the high roast on it . But that will kill your yeast pitch . You can't really do anything else with it unless you're doing something roasty . Then at that point it's done . Same with fruit too .

Big Z 13:35

So I don't want to cause any kind of in-state fight here .

Ryan 13:38

No , no , go for it , we're good .

Big Z 13:40

One of my favorite breweries in the air while in Jersey would be Kane , and I feel like Kane's one . Like Sneakbox is not an overly complex American paleo , it's very basic . Is that a brewery that you would put it ? Compare it to a little bit , or Us .

Ryan 13:54

No , no , kane's gonna focus more on IPAs and things along those lines . The thing Kane has is they were the first to market with a 6.5% IPA in New Jersey . Head High was the first 6.5% IPA in a world where Carton had a boat and 077X . There was nothing in between those and Augie's stubborn son of a bitch . I know him , it's okay , he's a stockbroker . So you got that type A like go fuck yourself , we're not doing it . And then Kane was able to sneak in with that 6.5% IPA and kind of fit the market niche for a long time . I will propose you think about something as you're drinking Head High in the state of New Jersey , start paying attention to the color and flavor of it , because you're not getting the same beer every time you drink it .

Big Z 14:39

Oh , I haven't had Head High in some time .

Ryan 14:41

I like .

Big Z 14:42

Sneak Box . Sneak Box is the one I like .

Ryan 14:44

Sneak Box is there too . You're playing the lottery . Sometimes you're gonna get what you expect , sometimes you are not .

Big Z 14:49

Well , I only get it now when I wind up with some Joe Canals just over the border from Yardly PA .

Ryan 14:55

Joe Canals would be the Phillipsburg .

Big Z 14:57

No , no , down south .

Ryan 14:58

Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah , okay okay , so you mentioned before I'm in a lot of liquor stores , my man .

Matt 15:03

So , ryan , you were talking about getting your beer in the liquor stores and it's funny , us Pennsylvanian boys over here took a minute because for us we still live back like it's the end of prohibition .

Ryan 15:14

Well , the distributors . I'm very aware of the distributors and how it works .

Matt 15:17

Yeah , it's a freaking nightmare and we go to the freaking grocery store and we can buy two six packs and then the measurements are off . So it's like two six packs and half a shot , I think , or something like that .

Ryan 15:28

Yeah , it makes sense . Do they do the volume in ounces and gallons instead ?

Rob 15:32

of barrels and everything .

Ryan 15:33

Milliliters , oh wow , even classier .

Beer, Can Art, and River Water

Rob 15:35

Ryan , I have a very important question . Yes , I'm really digging into this . Can art a little bit further ? I see that there's a little asterisk that says map not to scale . Tell me somebody freaking complained about that . You had that to the end . Tell me somebody was like hey , what the hell , man , this doesn't look like you know .

Ryan 15:55

No , it's yeah . We just we did that because we thought it was funny . Yeah , not just that , to us it's been funny Mission . I love it . You did what I told you .

Rob 16:03

Listen , I have one mild complaint about this . Yes , it's too small of a can , it's empty . So here's the thing what can ?

Ryan 16:11

I say that's wait . Here's another one . How's that ? That's good . Yes , it's funny . You mentioned that Everybody thinks that the value in beer is in the 16 ounce can and if you do the math , we're actually screwing you . You're getting less beer . You're getting less beer in the 16 ounce four pack than you are out of the 12 ounce six pack . Yeah , 100% yeah , and no one , no one realizes it . But like I'm happy to screw you , like I'm happy to take more money than I should , I wanted to be screwed there .

Big Z 16:36

Hey , well , does it depend on the person or you don't .

Matt 16:40

I'd prefer to be taking the dinner first . I felt like that was the classic family guy . You drank a beer . What do you win ? Another beer , yes , you do .

Ryan 16:47

That's kind of how it works here . Never feel obliged to drink everything we put in front of you either . We're super used to it . Our life is very much death by a thousand cuts . I spend a lot of my day actively trying to not drink with people believe it or not .

Big Z 16:58

So back to the can art , right ? Yes , sir , it's a hell of a problem to have . You could not put an airport on there because you couldn't get any planes to fly , because that was my problem some city .

Ryan 17:08

The airport's not in TNEC , it's a deep game man the airport's in . Tnec , sir , it's not in Hackensack , it's in TNEC , but you can see the .

Big Z 17:16

Fair enough , sir .

Ryan 17:17

I believe we have the Sears Robuck building . The Sears building is in downtown Hackensack . We have Feathers , the first gay club in New Jersey , established I believe in 1970 . Something White man of cheeseburgers If you've never had white man , it's basically like classy white castle .

Rob 17:34

Billy Joel mentions Hackensack in a song . Are you gonna brew a Billy Joel beer ?

Ryan 17:38

No , I don't like Billy Joel oh okay .

Big Z 17:42

Well , he's living here in Allentown , which is actually about Beth .

Ryan 17:45

But he's , but he's not .

Rob 17:49

Oh , wow .

Matt 17:49

To our guests . Yeah , I'm sorry . I like him , but I'm a huge Billy Joel fan and I just can't let that stand . I'm sorry , billy Joel stinks .

Big Z 17:58

He just hits you with a cosmic jug , which is like basically our version of a you know , finish your beer because you said something off color .

Ryan 18:07

It can get worse . It can get way worse . My man I invite that that's all right .

Matt 18:12

We live in Allentown and anytime you say that somebody's like , oh , like the Billy Joel song , like yeah , I don't live here .

Ryan 18:17

I live about a half hour east of here .

Matt 18:19

I live west of here . Oh , sorry west . I live about half hour west of here . I don't live in Allentown .

Big Z 18:23

Well , no , I mean close enough . I work in Allentown , but I live in Allentown .

The Fish 18:27

I used to live in Allentown .

Big Z 18:28

Okay .

The Fish 18:29

So if you're out of , Dory Park .

Ryan 18:30

Dory Park is in Allentown .

The Fish 18:32

It is , it was so right .

Ryan 18:34

See , don't you have gambling in Allentown now too ? Isn't there a casino ?

The Fish 18:38

Yes , well , it's in Bethlehem , in Bethlehem .

Rob 18:40

Yeah , it's in the old steel .

The Fish 18:42

Yeah , we have a hockey arena .

Rob 18:44

It's really pretty dope , is it cool ?

Matt 18:46

Yeah , what do you mean ? We live in .

Rob 18:47

Connecticut , like all the old steel stacks and stuff like that .

The Fish 18:50

So yeah , I've been to the conservenia over there before now in town .

Big Z 18:53

It's a really cool . Not a single one there . That's a cool spot .

Matt 18:57

Okay , we live near , okay to Ryan's earlier point . If you're out of state , if you're out of state , right , and somebody says what part of Pennsylvania are you from ? Where do you say ?

Rob 19:07

I don't know how our north of Philly 20 minutes west of Easton .

Ryan 19:20

I'm easy , minds , minds easy . Everybody knows me , but people like , where do you live ? I'm like I live 20 miles due west from New York City . That's 20 miles due west from .

Matt 19:29

New York City . That's what I'm going with , 90 minutes south of New York . There you go Would you .

Ryan 19:33

You guys are enjoying the beers . Oh the next the next beer I'm gonna get for you guys is is gonna be another low ABV beer and it's is . You mentioned you like sneak box . I really do . You're probably gonna love this beer . It's an almost all citra pale L , so I'm going to love yes , now hold on one second here . So the cool thing about this beer is does it have nice , nice labels ? It does Classy . We have classy labels on everything . Sir , you have to catch the eye of the consumer ?

The Fish 20:00

Well , I'm just wondering , because there's stuff in here I can swim in .

Ryan 20:04

I Mean , I don't know about the next label , but actually , to be honest with you , you do not want to swim in that river . Oh no you will grow like you'll grow a tail . No , nothing cool , it's all shit . That's really fucked up . Fish , you're actually a fish . Did you see the Simpsons when they put the fish ?

Big Z 20:22

in the lake .

Ryan 20:24

Yeah , not , it won't be that cool . Oh man , no , yeah , you do not want to swim in the Hackensack River , the Pisaic River , newark Bay not advised . Oh , so it's worse than the Hudson River . The Hudson not so bad anymore . Actually it's getting a lot better to East Rivers rough Hudson's improving In Newark Bay is tough . Yeah , the shore isn't too too bad because the water comes up , so comes up from the south .

Rob 20:50

Where's your water source ?

Ryan 20:51

for the beer . It's the Hackensack River , sir . That's everybody's joke in the area .

Rob 21:00

But you can drink lovely fermented water from it .

Ryan 21:03

To make the beer , it does have to get boiled , so like no , no , no I know . But no , in all seriousness , that's like the number one thing I get from , like people trying to be funny at bars , like if you walk into a bar three in the afternoon and there's a guy there on his third beer , it's like what are you , bro , with the Huckinsack River water ? And I just turned him and go . Absolutely I Don't even entertain it , I . And then they're just don't have no idea what to say .

Rob 21:25

They're like someone has to use that water . Boiling kills 99.9% of most things so you're telling me there's .

Matt 21:33

A legit chance that the fish can grow some scales later .

Rob 21:35

point one yes , of course .

Matt 21:37

They're always excellent perfect .

Ryan 21:42

Let me go grab you guys another beer . I'll be right back yourselves .

Craft Beer, Preferences, and Approachability

Ryan 21:45

This is coffee talk with Linda .

Rob 21:46

Richmond Chickpeas Norapy discuss Wow , that's a solid callback man . Durand durand is neither durand nor durand . Discuss . Yeah , this is a really solid beer .

Matt 22:07

Good beer , I will , I will Stellar premature on their first beer I I . Like it and it's my podcast .

Rob 22:17

I mean that's a fair argument . That is a fair argument .

Matt 22:22

I'm pretty sure that's the trump card .

Rob 22:24

The whole thing . Label is even cooler than the map label in my opinion here , here you may satisfy yourself .

Ryan 22:31

Crack the canyon of the microphone .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 22:32

I understand it's like bubble wrap .

Matt 22:34

I get it . I get it . It's been beer , wine , champagne , anything you get from elementary brewing company .

Big Z 22:47

You got , there you go .

Ryan 22:49

Yes , so this is a five and a half percent pale ale . Originally this beer was called random placement of things because two reasons . One we had a bar manager who just couldn't keep her life organized and shit would just be randomly stirring everywhere .

Ryan 23:04

And to there's actually nothing random about the construction of the beer . It's actually really targeted . So one of the things that we've tried to do is lower our cost to consumer while keeping the flavor exactly the same . So we've been slowly kind of Formulating our beers for not only a longer shelf life but additionally you know , Can we get it cheaper to you guys . So that is actually one of our focuses is how cheaply can we get the beer to you and still have it taste great .

Rob 23:31

Okay , I'll be honest , I did like the logger very drinkable . I would never drink it again if if I was drinking this every day . Awesome , just because , like I , I'm more of an like a paleo guy than I am a logger guy , mm-hmm , and so it's nothing against the logger . Yeah , this is like writing the wheelhouse of what I want .

Ryan 23:49

It's specifically why it's in the 12 ounce format too , because you it's , it's like the , it's a barbecue beer , right ? Oh , and you want , like I'm weird , I don't like 16 ounce cans unless I'm sharing with someone because I want my beer to stay cold . I absolutely , if it's like this or I'm guilty of my favorite crap beer is Utica Club .

Matt 24:08

I don't know if you guys are familiar with Utica Club .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 24:10

It is the greatest name , is that okay ? Oh , you know you got brewing right ?

Big Z 24:14

I know this question , matt , it's Saranak makes it .

Ryan 24:16

Oh , saranak , saranak makes it now . So a Utica Club is like Western and Central New York's ubiquitous shit logger . It'd be like the natural bohemian of Western New York essentially , if you know Natty Boems from Baltimore . Yeah , so I like a good local garbage logger . It's kind of my thing . So for a long time in yin in Pennsylvania it was yingling . I like yingling was only really in Pennsylvania when we were younger and then it started to come out here yingling .

Ryan 24:44

Yeah , especially when it comes into a market , like when it came into New Jersey , people lost their fucking minds . And it's don't get me wrong , it's , it's a fine beer . There is nothing wrong with yingling .

Big Z 24:54

But like it's not a high-trained bear , bring a case to Colorado for his father .

Ryan 24:58

That's yeah Colorado .

Rob 25:00

Wow , that's rough , you got some good business out there when things come into things people usually lose their minds .

Ryan 25:05

If I was in Colorado I would drink course or course original pretty regularly what .

Big Z 25:09

That's what they do . And then they find that the yingling right . But then , like I had a yingling the other night at my buddy's wedding and it was the worst experience of my life . Oh no , I don't know why I spent so long drinking .

Ryan 25:20

Was it draft ? No bottle okay , so I'm gonna . I'm gonna break something down for you guys . It happens all the time with things beers like yingling and Guinness . People think that because they don't change the beer on the line , that they don't have to clean the line . What ?

The Fish 25:34

yeah , so I run in , always need to clean the line .

Ryan 25:37

I run into this a bunch at multiple establishments , like like your local Irish Americans Club or like your local firehouse , where it's like , well , we've had Guinness on that line for ten years . I'm like when's the last time you cleaned it ? We're like what do you mean ? We don't clean it , we've only had Guinness on that line . It doesn't matter , I'm aware of that , but I'm simply letting you know that that's one of the beers that I've come across where , like , I've woken up the next day and felt Poisoned , not hung over , like Poison yeah yeah , it's not .

Ryan 26:06

You're not . You're accomplishing nothing right there .

Rob 26:08

They're not gonna wait and to happen , though you know like somebody get real sick I mean you , but you just .

Ryan 26:13

You just assume you're hung over , right ? You wake up in the morning , you should , your pants is throw up and you have a headache for a day .

Big Z 26:18

Yeah , the normal person's never gonna know that . Yeah never know it .

Ryan 26:22

Yeah and like , but where you notice it is if you're like man . I only had three beers and I feel like I had 15 .

Matt 26:27

That's when you notice that ? Yeah , that's when you notice it .

Ryan 26:30

Bad , I've had that morning , we've all had that morning .

The Fish 26:33

We have all had that morning , maybe years ago , but we had it oh .

Big Z 26:39

I .

Ryan 26:41

Got , I got violated by the pits in Italian Americans Club very recently and I yes , the pits in pits in PA .

The Fish 26:50

Just sounds really bad least used protection .

Big Z 26:53

Oh no , I wanted to back up to your this too was K , and who was why over here ?

Rob 27:01

That's called a call back from something that was off , mike .

Ryan 27:07

Hey man , whatever gets you excited .

Big Z 27:09

We agree , matt . Don't be ashamed .

Matt 27:11

Yeah , whatever blows your shorts up , we're very , very welcoming here .

Ryan 27:16

Funny I mean funny enough if you look around generally , you'll see an atypical brewery crowd here . You're not gonna see like a lot of flannel neck bearded bros . It's typically not what we end up with here . Our brand skews typically more female , a little bit older , and we have a neck be interesting and we don't well , we're not catering to that right like other .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 27:35

I'm not . Yeah , I don't I don't care .

Ryan 27:41

I think . I think one of the things that's going wrong with craft beer is we're all trying to take Take water from a stone , but we're all trying to take it from the same stone , right , if we're not growing through the people drinking craft beer , there's not enough of it to go around .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 27:54

So our philosophy is like we make .

Ryan 27:55

We make a we make a sour beer in the spring and summertime . That's intentionally just tart enough so that the sour beer fans go . I guess that's fine . But it's so approachable for the non sour beer fans that if you're not a sour beer person and I'm like it's like a beer and a margarita had a baby and you take a sip of it and you're like , wow , that's really good . So we're trying to make things intentionally more approachable . We're not trying to make it like this shut out glass wall that you just look through and you're like man , what are those guys doing ? Like we want to attract new people to craft beer .

Big Z 28:27

I Hate sour beer .

Rob 28:31

Whoa whoa okay . I agree with .

The Fish 28:33

Mike or big Z .

Rob 28:36

Big , big Mike Z . But but listen , mike has always said that he can't stand stowers , so I have taken hours . What is this tower ? It's kind of like a sour , but with the sour .

Ryan 28:48

It's a sour stout yeah .

The Fish 28:51

I actually had one of those recently . I started darkness grapes out from .

Big Z 29:00

Weren't sour .

Ryan 29:03

I know the beer you're talking about .

Rob 29:04

I try to hang my hat on any time I can get you to enjoy what's labeled as a sour . That's all I'm saying .

Ryan 29:10

Okay , I'm picky . So when I got in the beer business , I was at a craft beer restaurant for a couple years before I got here . The owner was a big beer guy . They were one of the first craft beer restaurants in New Jersey . And he goes are you guys like so , what do you like ? And at the time I was like yeah , I really like IPA's , blah , blah , blah , this stuff , the other thing . And he's like well , what do you hate ? Like I hate quads , I hate doubles .

Ryan 29:29

I hate quads , so so , but but one of the things he said to me goes , he goes cool , cool . Here's what I want you to do for a week . For a week , I want your drink , just quads and doubles . Just try it and I'm like what the fuck ? I'm kind of annoyed about it , right , but that exercise of kind of pushing me outside my comfort zone taught me that , like I didn't dislike quads and doubles , I disliked bad quads and doubles .

Big Z 29:51

Right . Does that make sense ? Yeah , sure .

Ryan 29:53

I would genuinely challenge you to kind of go out of your comfort zone on that At spots that are not like don't get your smoochy sour thing . Don't get that . Get something that's significant . Get like an alagash cool ship beer , something that's a little more deftly tarted .

Exploring Different Types of Sour Beers

Ryan 30:12

Sour is a weird word .

Big Z 30:13

It's really just low pH . But tart to me is different than sour . Sour is intentionally wants to make you a plucker and all those things . Tart to me is different .

Ryan 30:23

So there's two , yeah , so like I'll use them by name , if you get those equilibrium sours , you ever take a sip of one of those .

The Fish 30:29

Oh , yeah , yeah , yeah .

Ryan 30:30

And it feels like the enamel is going to come off your teeth . Yup , so yeah , that's a bad sour , and they sour them by adding extra lactic acid and that's why you put it in your mouth and your mouth goes . This is incorrect .

Big Z 30:44

And that's sort of where my point is , because that's a brewery that I would drink . I like a lot of their stuff , but then if I would try their sour , or if I tried their sours , I would nothing .

Matt 30:54

I'm not going for it .

Ryan 30:56

Yeah , I would strongly recommend you not do that . I mean so one of the things that is hard to do in beer is the kettle sour . But the kettle sour is going to be the most approachable kind of level of sour for you . The problem with that is , if you get it wrong , it has this weird kind of like blue , cheesy , awful aftertaste . So how you make a kettle sour is you sour it in the actual brew kettle itself and it's ready to go . When it's ready to go , there's no time right . So you have to check it constantly , constantly , constantly , constantly . And when it's at the right pH , that's when you run it off . You can't wait .

Ryan 31:29

So a lot of times what happens is like people will be doing a kettle sour . They'll check it and they'll be like , oh , it's definitely not going to be done until the morning . And they get in the morning and it's like way overdone , and now they have to go for it . So that's a super common thing that happens with the kettle sour . But if you can get a well-made one , it's really , really good . I'd steer you towards more of like a wild , inoculated beer , Anything brewed on a cool ship , anything oak aged that's going to kind of have a natural more of a , more of a . I call it like a bug tartness , more of like a Brett or sacro . One of those tarting yeasts is going to work a lot better than just lactic acid low pH .

Rob 32:03

You're not going to like that . Are those the ones that are typically labeled as like goza ?

Ryan 32:08

No goza is a very specific style that comes from Germany that's made with 50% un-malted wheat .

Rob 32:13

OK , ok . Yeah , I wasn't really sure what the distinction is , but usually , like those goza ones , some brews will call them sours .

Ryan 32:21

So the word sour isn't really as applicable as everybody thinks it is . You really ? Just , it's just low pH beer , right ? So it's high acidic beer is really the best way to talk about it . So when you're dealing with different levels of acidity , it's going to impart itself in different ways . So a goza is going to have a slightly lower acidity than a lot of your other sours , and then you're going to have it's going to have salt added to it as well . That's where you're going to get that almost like . That's why everybody likes to do a key lime goza . Everybody likes to do a key lime goza . When I started here , I've learned so much of this .

Big Z 32:55

I know I'm enjoying this very much .

Ryan 32:56

I know when I started here we did a key lime goza and then everybody started doing a key lime goza and we switched it to a fruit called calamansi . It's a Filipino lime . So in Bergen County New Jersey we have a huge Asian population , specifically lots of Filipinos and Koreans . One of our regulars like happened to his mom had a calamansi fruit tree or something like that . So we switched it and it kind of looks like a lime . You cut it open , it looks like an orange with a slightly smaller size of the pear .

Rob 33:21

Are they like the finger limes ? No , no .

Ryan 33:23

No , they'll call them it's calamansi or Filipino lime . It looks like a kumquat . It's smaller than a lime . Super , super , super , super intense fruit flavor . But we started doing it with that because nobody does calamansi fruit in anything , so that was kind of cool .

Big Z 33:39

Yeah , never heard of that .

Ryan 33:41

Yeah , neither had I until we started looking into it here . It's a pretty neat . Fruit Gives a good flavor . We don't have it on today . We do a sour beer series called Vast and Terrible Magic , which is the reason we call it . That is because it's two beers blended into one . So we brew a base beer with a yeast that sacrifices part of its alcohol production for natural lactic acid production and we leave that uncarbonated in kegs . And then we brew a fruited beer , fully fermented Everything's fully fermented and then what we'll do is we will blend the sour beer into the fruited beer to taste . The most recent one we did was Kiwi Strawberry when we used barron fruit . We will ferment all the sugar out of it .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 34:20

So there's no sugar in it at all .

Ryan 34:21

I'll put it on top before you guys leave . I've got a keg of it in the cold box right now . Yeah .

The Fish 34:25

I'll hook you up . We get a keg .

Rob 34:27

No , you don't get a keg . I'm going to put a keg on . That's not what he said . That's not what he said .

Ryan 34:31

He doesn't have ears , it's OK , he doesn't , the fish can't hear . It's a whole thing .

The Fish 34:34

He's sensing with vibration , his scales got in the way .

Ryan 34:36

Yeah , yeah , yeah , sensing with vibrations . So yeah , so we'll blend . We will blend the two beers together until it tastes the way we want it to , and then we'll carb it and serve it . And so we treat that acidic beer , we call it sour base , we treat it as an ingredient for that fruited beer and we'll brew it typically over here on the smaller system , and then we will blend it in , just like a whiskey blender would do it . We'll sit and we'll blend four kegs in , and then we'll taste it and be like all right , we'll put one more in and then we'll taste it again .

Rob 35:02

That's a cool thing . Yeah , it's really fun . I think that's awesome . I don't know that we said this , but we are actually live right now in the room with all the fermenters .

Ryan 35:11

Yeah , you're in a working room , I don't know that we said that You're in a working room . That's where we're at .

Big Z 35:15

We should probably get a picture of that for them . Oh , we will , we will , we will .

Ryan 35:19

OK , Chas , we don't have any active fermentation happening right now . No I know Because it doesn't smell like breadfarts in here . Fun fact , fermentation in a small room smells like breadfarts .

Rob 35:28

It's awful Well listen , I just ate a whole bunch of Taco Bells , so you don't want to be near me ,

Drunk Fast Food Stories

Rob 35:34

bro .

Ryan 35:34

I ate at the Taco Bell Cantina on Wednesday in New York City .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 35:37

I was very proud of myself .

Ryan 35:39

Very proud of myself .

The Fish 35:39

Shout out to Chibi for the five-layer video . I worked there . Do you really yes ?

Big Z 35:46

That's amazing . No pun intended there , ryan , no pun .

Ryan 35:49

That's fucking great . Yeah , I was at the one by Penn Station , yes , cool . Yeah , it was awesome .

Matt 35:55

Taco Bell Cantina in New York . Is that like your version of the Promised Land ? It could be , Bro . They serve booze .

Ryan 36:01

They do , they do . It's fucking great Taco .

Rob 36:03

Bells that serve booze are like oh yes , that is my mecca .

The Fish 36:06

Oh , I haven't . I haven't Pillgrimage gone . I worked there but I got to go .

Ryan 36:11

Where are my car keys . It's heaven on earth , boys . It's right next to .

Matt 36:14

Penn Station .

Big Z 36:15

You're never going to make it .

Rob 36:16

Yeah , that's my mecca .

Ryan 36:19

I will make a pilgrimage . But yeah , I got Tequila and my Baja Blast like a classy boy .

Rob 36:23

Jesus God . They put it in the Baja Blast .

Ryan 36:26

It's frozen Baja Blast too , dude what .

The Fish 36:29

It's like a frozen margarita at Taco Bell . That sounds awesome .

Ryan 36:33

Just tranking on the train on the way home .

The Fish 36:34

Rob's going to go on a .

Ryan 36:35

Baja Blast , Rob , you can take the train right from here right to Penn Station .

Matt 36:40

This message is for Rob's wife Dorothy , if he doesn't get back in the car on the way home . I've done all I can . Please forgive me .

Rob 36:47

She doesn't listen to this .

The Fish 36:50

She will when I send her that sound bite On purpose . It's a proactive statement .

Rob 36:54

Next live episode Taco Bell Cantina . Ryan , you're coming with us .

Ryan 36:58

I'll take you guys . I'll take you guys bar hopping in New York City and we can podcast from each bar .

Matt 37:03

Oh my God .

Ryan 37:05

You guys want to do that .

The Fish 37:07

You got to do that . I'm not paying for everything .

Ryan 37:11

I'm not paying for everything , but I'll take you to all the great spots .

Big Z 37:14

No one said that , ryan , what were they ? Yeah , we'll have a great time .

Ryan 37:19

We can podcast on the subway . It would by far be the most normal thing happening on the subway that day .

Matt 37:25

I totally , and Rob will know this story . I thought I was going to die one time on the subway because I was very drunk coming out of Yankee Stadium .

Ryan 37:34

That's a bad area to be hammered in .

Matt 37:35

Oh , and there was a dude just holding bike handlebars .

Rob 37:38

A dude , dude , racist . Oh , there was a dude . I was going to say man .

Matt 37:42

No , there was a dude holding bike handlebars . Oh dude , I just said out loud that dude's holding handlebars .

Ryan 37:47

And then everybody looked at me like I was going to die . Oh God , no , what's wrong with you ?

Matt 37:50

Yeah , you don't say that I was wrong with every drunk .

Rob 37:54

No , it was our friend's bachelor party . I remember arriving at Yankee Stadium . I remember nothing else from that night .

The Fish 38:00

Oh , wow , yeah that went down that way . That's why pictures are good . We didn't take pictures .

Rob 38:06

We went to an Italian place beforehand and had a couple bottles of wine , which was what really screwed us up , because I'm not a wine drinker .

Matt 38:14

OK , you don't remember shit because the game was in the middle of the day . The Italian restaurant was after the game no you know those two events were inverted .

Rob 38:23

All right since the drunk boy . Why is it inverted ? Wow , ok .

The Fish 38:27

Now , mind you , I wasn't there , so we went to an Italian restaurant .

Matt 38:30

And then went to a night game .

High School Connections and Craft Beer

The Fish 38:33

What , Brian ? I'm sure you're wondering what you got yourself into .

Ryan 38:36

No , I'm used to this . So I moon-lighted a comedy club . I hang out with professional comedians all the time . This is way normal . Oh , they got nothing at all .

Rob 38:42

This is super normal . Oh wait , that's a super high compliment . You think they were professional comedians .

Ryan 38:48

I didn't say that , I said the banter and everybody talking over themselves . Everybody wants to get this shit in .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 38:53

I understand , I get it Welcome to man and Friends , Strength of the Universe .

Ryan 38:59

It's like you're all indie wrestlers Like I got to get my moves in .

The Fish 39:01

I got to get my moves in .

Rob 39:03

If you'll smell .

Matt 39:07

Hey , he graduated from our high school . He did , did he really ?

Ryan 39:10

Yes , get the fuck out of here .

Rob 39:12

No , no way , no lie , no lie the three of us went to freedom high school in Bethlehem , Pennsylvania .

Ryan 39:16

Yes , we did .

Rob 39:17

The rock finished his high school in .

Ryan 39:20

That's amazing . I went to high school with Adam Banks from the Mighty Ducks .

Rob 39:24

No kidding .

Ryan 39:25

Worst hockey player you ever seen in your life Worst hockey player . Other kids used to quack at him on the ice yeah , he was a senior and I was a freshman , yeah , so other kids would quack at him , yeah , and then he would get in fights . It was great and we were bad too , so it was just hilarious .

Matt 39:39

So he legit went to play hockey in school , yeah , like after doing the movie .

Ryan 39:43

His mom was a casting agent in New York City .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 39:45

She worked on soap operas and daytime stuff , and this is like when Disney was just getting into things .

Ryan 39:49

So she was the casting agent for the Mighty Ducks , got him the part and then , yeah , so he was like I don't think he was a hockey player before the movie and then after the movie he started playing hockey because he learned to skate to do the movie Right . He all had like skating doubles and whatnot and he was I'm not exaggerating , he was the worst Fantastic right now . He was the worst hockey player I've ever seen at the high school level .

Big Z 40:15

So did we ever talk about this beer ? What beer I did .

The Fish 40:19

Briefly , you did yeah , we talked about it . The random one yes , we talked about it .

Rob 40:25

Well , never , mind that I like the fact that it's like an abstract label , but it also reminds me of a peacock .

The Fish 40:31

Yeah , most definitely . Yeah , yeah , very much so .

Rob 40:34

And I can't get over how much I really really enjoy like the emblem for the brewery itself .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 40:40

Thank you .

Ryan 40:40

Yeah , that is a cool , very recognizable symbol for us . It's on a lot of our merch , which actually , funny enough , we're launching a new online merch store so you can now get all of our merch is all available on a Shopify store through the website . So we're not going to keep any merch in house anymore . You can all order the color and the size that you want , because , fun fact , sizing for craft beer is impossible . It's impossible . What's what's the URL there ? Go to elementary comm . It'll bring you right to the shop .

Ryan 41:07

If I shop , there's cool winter stuff . We've got some cool winter stuff . Some like regular T-shirts and shit . The cool thing about doing it that way is , instead of having to have a wall full of merchandise , that's just sitting on the wall and maybe you're like I like this shirt but I hate this color Cool , you can get that in whatever color you want . Now you can get it in a different style , right ? Like you know , some of the people don't like to really thin , like comfort fit t-shirts . Some people like the thicker ones Cool , that's up to you .

Matt 41:32

I , ryan , I gotta ask . Yeah , I am looking at somebody on the other side of the glass wall here and I'm seeing low Earth orbit . What's going on over there ?

Ryan 41:43

So low Earth orbit is our Stout , it's just a super , super stock . Six and a half percent stout .

The Fish 41:50

They have a that was in the class .

Ryan 41:52

It's gonna yeah , that's what's in that glass there . So that's gonna fool you . It's you're gonna think that there's coffee and cocoa in that . There's not . It's just all from the mall . Yeah , we can definitely get one of those out if you guys want . We've got some 750 bottles as well . We've got our figgy pudding , which is a 10% English barley wine . Whoa , okay , hold on , hold on . We condition it on figs , fruits , dates and apricots , and then it spends about eight months in a rum barrel .

Rob 42:15

Oh well , bring us a biggie pudding .

The Fish 42:17

Now bring us a biggie pudding everybody's reaction .

Ryan 42:22

We have we have that one back there right now . As far as like a specialty pier goes , we do a beer for Carlitos tacos in Jersey City . It's called Chilitas . It's a Cinnamon and pineapple lager .

Ryan 42:33

Whoa that's super fun . What else do we have right now ? We have our , not a pumpkin ale . We call it gourdless okay , which is a technically by rights , it would be a session barley wine . It's just a half barley wine recipe , so it's a 6% barley wine , and then we add chai Roy boss tea to it . Now this one's on the hand pump with no tea added . So , typically , if we didn't have the , we've got a bunch of different Experimental IPA's on this weekend as well with a bit cast then yeah , that's a cast guys .

Ryan 43:02

So it's so . We have an English , we have an English , ale pump over there .

Big Z 43:05

So no , casper I love cask beer .

Ryan 43:08

I actually had the opportunity to have bottingtons on cask .

The Fish 43:11

Oh , did you . That sounds awesome . It was heaven on earth .

Ryan 43:14

I've had bottingtons on cask and old speckled hen both , oh Wow so . I'm a classic beer nerd . I get really , really excited for like old old world classic styles . Ipa's are fine , but like I don't really care about them . But if you came in here with a , with like , a 10 month like a 10 month aged Keller beer . I'd be very excited , like I gotta get much more excited over something like that . That is , yeah , more kindly crafted . Like you know , I'll take it . I'll take a rice dwarf colch over many , many warm weather beers .

Rob 43:44

I was very , very lucky to have Guinness directly from yeah Guinness in Dublin 17 , you know the difference . And now I don't really care for it . Like the American , like it , just it doesn't hold up the Guinness that comes to America's pasteurized .

Ryan 44:03

So but now Guinness is brewed in Baltimore . Guinness is the Guinness you drink in America's now doesn't come from Ireland anymore . It all comes from Baltimore and it tastes exactly like the Guinness they used to send you from Ireland that was pasteurized . You're saying like I had the Guinness in Ireland but if in America , if you just threw that beer out there to everybody , it blow my eighty eight . No , I disagree . I think most people would complain about it . It's not Guinness .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 44:25

Sorry .

Ryan 44:25

Yeah .

Big Z 44:26

I'm a bad way yeah .

Ryan 44:27

Yes yeah , so . So when things change , people lose their minds , like I have a lot of my family lives in Galway , ireland , and one of my cousins , cousins , named Kern Hughes and if you looked at him you'd be like you are an issue . He's one of those like completely shaved head , half a tooth , like he's a problem and and and he was on a mission for like five years Because quote Protestants bought harp and fucked it up .

The Fish 44:54

Wow that's a direct quote . Yes , nice , yes , I want to meet this guy .

Ryan 44:59

He's gonna be on our podcast , where we I don't- I don't , I don't think you'd you wouldn't understand him 30 minutes in His brogues , so rough .

Rob 45:10

You don't think I could know interpret .

Ryan 45:12

Nope , it's very strange . Like he gets , he gets hammered and he just starts like hey , just those things . And you just like , holy shit , like you came . He came to the states show one of my cousins cousins weddings and I was like Kern , you want to go to a , you want to go to a game or something like I think it was the Giants were playing . He's like If it's that Liverpool football , it's bullshit .

Big Z 45:31

I'm talking about the .

Ryan 45:31

Giants . That way . This , this kid , thinks about Liverpool soccer like I , like the Giants . Like he is not kidding . He takes the ferry from Dublin to Liverpool every game day and he does not have a ticket .

Rob 45:50

I mean this in all seriousness from my heart , matt , can we afford a ticket to get this bro oh over to the states and Let me tell him and see if we can call .

Ryan 46:06

Let me , what's that ? Pym real quick , we'll see , we can go .

The Fish 46:09

I was gonna suggest maybe , maybe we need to be on site , oh you think we need to go again .

Ryan 46:16

I just , I just I just texted him . So yeah , it's , it's . This is amazing . Oh yeah , I've got a good time . I have 28 cousins on one side and 18 on the other .

Rob 46:27

I think we have time for one more beer , I think so , oh yeah , for sure , yeah , we got we got one of you , so like let's just go around the table real quick .

Ryan 46:35

What is your favorite beer style ?

Matt 46:37

Matt . So my picking up on the fact that there was a stout , a table away , was not entirely unbiased design . I love stouts . Porter's dark beer awesome .

Big Z 46:47

I'm an IPA guy , okay through , but I Would like to try .

Ryan 46:51

I'm gonna tailor this to each of you , just so we're getting there like .

Big Z 46:54

I'm gonna get you Watch a lot of .

Ryan 46:55

IPA Gotcha .

Rob 46:57

Yeah , so I'm back and forth between IPA's and Sours .

Ryan 47:00

Okay , I'm a stout guy , stout guy . Oh yeah , two stouts to IPA , severe back .

Rob 47:05

Do you guys want to do I ?

Ryan 47:06

do you want two different IPA ? Yes , you try them both .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 47:09

Yes .

Matt 47:10

We took their short break , while Ryan ran to the back to get us some more beer .

Rob 47:13

Oh , my god , things are happening .

Matt 47:17

It's rain and beer . Oh , do you want the ?

Rob 47:22

a game ? Or do you want the Virgo the maiden ? I've always wanted a maiden you do what you want . I'll give you the a game that was the sound of a maiden being popped .

Ryan 47:39

Yes , all right . So you guys have a game . Is our house IPA six and a half percent ? We sell decent amount of that beer . And then this is Virgo . In my opinion , virgo is the best a double IPA that's come out of this brewing the last two years , and I'll tell you how old that can is after you take a step .

The Fish 48:00

I see this .

Ryan 48:00

It's gonna be way older than he thinks .

The Fish 48:04

One quick question .

Ryan 48:04

Yes , sir .

The Fish 48:05

How old is this ?

Ryan 48:06

Do you really want to know ? No , no , I do Well yeah , kind of it's over here .

The Fish 48:11

No , okay , all right .

Ryan 48:13

Brian , I thought you were gonna tell me like 12 years the Virgo right now .

Rob 48:17

Yeah , Maybe one of the most interesting mouth feels I've ever had on a beer . Is there a little floral going on in there too ?

Matt 48:26

I can smell it from across the table . It smells good . This is very interesting .

Beer Brewing and Tasting Discussion

Ryan 48:30

So we bitter almost all of our hoppy stuff with the heller towel , hercules . So that's kind of our bittering hop as well . This is kind of an exercise , for we have two brewers . One of them is a culinary Institute of America grad with a pastry chef degree .

Rob 48:43

So you're telling me you have scientists and chefs .

Ryan 48:46

Yes , and then our other brewer had graduated from the New England Brewing Institute in Middlebury , vermont . So so Nick , our Brewer from the Vermont school , is really really good at building a grain base and really really excellent with Combining hops in a way you wouldn't normally expect to combine them . And then our other brewer , mike , is really really good at basically how flavors play off of each other right . He's very much in charge of our , you know , fruited saizans , things along those lines we have . We've done some really cool stuff . One of our we've got a club called the order of the Adam and one of the beers we did was a chocolate pretzel porter .

The Fish 49:21

That sounds yeah and so .

Ryan 49:24

What we did with this beer was a chocolate pretzel porter with neither chocolate nor pretzels in it , so it was all built off the grain . So every flavor in the beer was built off the grain bill .

Matt 49:34

There's not a bottle of that laying under the bar somewhere .

Ryan 49:37

I don't think so . I will check , but I don't think that sounds like everything I've ever wanted in a beer .

Matt 49:43

I'm not gonna lie , it's pretty , it's pretty cool .

Ryan 49:45

And then we do . We do lots of things . We do the series of cocktail beers . One of them is called concrete jungle . It is a beer designed to taste like a Manhattan . It spends time in a whiskey barrel . I'll send you guys home with some of that said , they're very high ABV Like if we got into that if we got into that right now , this , this would legitimate . Yeah , yeah the rest , your day's fucked .

Matt 50:04

That's okay .

Ryan 50:07

I'm good Well it's funny , you guys .

Ryan 50:08

You guys are out here in a good day . I'm actually gonna leave here at about 3 , 30 or so . I've got an event at the clover leaf tavern in Caldwell , new Jersey . It's right off of rude 80 . Yeah , it is the number one craft beer bar in New Jersey . We do a special beer for them that they pour on a lucre side , pour tap . It's a Czech Pilsner . It's the only place in the state you can get it and they're doing their Christmas keg tree lighting tonight . So they're gonna have a bunch of giveaways , a tree , keg tree . So they build a Christmas tree out of kegs in the back and they like , lash them all together and Like chicky garland and Christmas lights and shit on it . It's pretty cool . Yeah , I'll be heading over there .

The Fish 50:41

My wife's actually the GM of that place . I cast you there . You're we , you I mean .

Ryan 50:45

I mean , I'm saying you guys should come . You guys should come hang out , have a good time . You're here , you might as well . Oh , we've got things going Okay yeah so what do you think of that ?

The Fish 50:55

What do ?

Ryan 50:56

you have going on .

Big Z 50:56

All right . So super subtle , super , it's very tasty .

Ryan 50:59

Are we talking ? We're talking about Virgo correct ?

Big Z 51:01

Yeah , having a hard time placing the hops , so I'm gonna ask what they are cashmere , I Don't know . Okay , okay .

Ryan 51:13

I don't know . I swear to God , I don't know either cashmere like Idaho , somewhere in that range . I don't use those . We've used cashmere in the past . Idaho 7 is not one that we use a lot . I will . I will get you guys an answer on that . We so what happens ? What happens is when you do beer sales , everybody has a preconceived notion of hop , flavor and things along those lines .

Big Z 51:34

No correct .

Ryan 51:34

So so what I , what I've started doing , is just not telling people .

Matt 51:38

So yeah , if you heard fish cracking up there , him and I were sipping on the low earth orbit . Yeah , and it is a really great oatmeal stout . Thank you , really great opium .

Ryan 51:47

That is there's . There's five ingredients in that beer . There's no adjuncts . All your flavor is malterived , all of it , every single ounce of flavor in that beer is malterived .

The Fish 51:55

So as a .

Matt 51:56

it is effin awesome Thank you as a stout guy , stellar .

Rob 52:06

I've just got to say really quick I do not traditionally drink stouts , that is actually pretty awesome man .

Ryan 52:14

Thank you , that's , that's something .

Ryan 52:16

I . That's something I love and I always encourage people when they come to visit here . When you're here , this is the time to try stuff like . Why would you spend $15 on a six pack or $20 on a four pack of something that you might not like ? You're here , get a sample of something , ask for a sip , try a thing you normally wouldn't try .

Ryan 52:35

Every flight I get at a restaurant or a brewery , one of those beers is something that's outside my comfort zone . Intentionally . I'll do two things with a flight . Every single time I'll get one beer that's outside my comfort zone and then one beer that can get extraordinarily warm . You so like . I always leave one beer in a flight . I'm serious . I'll get like a barley wine or a stout or something along those lines , so like and purposely leave it for last by the time I get there . I'm not disappointed . I'll take a . I'll take a sip of it when it's cold , just to get like the cold vibe of it too . But I'll almost always let a barley wine Like . You'll see me sitting there with a , with a like . If I'm drinking a barley wine at a restaurant , I will sit there with it like against my body and drink a light beer and then drink the barley wine to let it warm up .

The Fish 53:10

See the last time I had a flight was when I was down to see Matt and you almost died . Yeah , I almost did . Why it ?

Matt 53:18

was a rough day . You know , it was a rough day .

Ryan 53:20

We had five different microbers in one day , by the end of the day .

Matt 53:24

Yeah , I was done . The fish was floating belly up .

Rob 53:26

Yes , the the A game is the first one that I've had today . That is not like my fancy . Ok , like it's not that it's a bad beer , it's just whatever hop combination is that ?

Ryan 53:38

one's citrus centennial . Ok yeah , that's kind of designed to be a West meets East kind of a situation , ok love it .

Big Z 53:46

I imagine you would . Yes , seriously , I bit my tongue because I'm not one to put someone down , but I thought this was just this the random , good drinkable , but pretty middle of the road . For me , this feels like a beeped up version of that . Yeah , and I . I think this is there's more , more on the front , more on the back . I like the bit of the bite you get . I don't mind that , like I .

Ryan 54:10

I don't mind . I'm a believer in that in beer . I was one of the one of the things that drives me crazy is I call them the one note IPA , where you take a sip , it's sweet up front , and then it just sails off your tongue into nothing , so it just kind of goes away . There's nothing anchoring it there .

Big Z 54:28

To me , the beer has to kind of like put its claws into you , a little bit Like some great right in back , you know it just has to be a bit of pine on the back end with a centennial . I'm fine , I'm a West .

Ryan 54:38

Coast IPA guy . I want to , I want to . I want to smell a dank pine forest that smells like weed while I drink my beer .

Rob 54:44

That's exactly why I'm not a fan of this . I don't like that to be the last thing I taste . I got you I don't care if it's up front for me , but I like the citrus to be the finish .

Ryan 54:54

I got OK Interesting for me , ok , that makes , that makes total sense . Yeah , then a game wouldn't be your beer . All right , I'm turning .

Matt 54:59

I'm turning the boat here . You guys are all talking IPA . I want to talk about this doubt .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 55:02

Yes , yes Go ahead .

Big Z 55:04

Sorry , so reading have another sip of it .

Matt 55:07

Yeah , although I will tell you , the last time you had it you were gesticulating and hopping back and forth in my glass and I was watching it , like this dude's , three times my size . I'm going to fight him if he doesn't give him my glass back in a second and you'd lose . I would , but it would have been a worse one .

Matt 55:19

That is so true , the one complaint that I have about a lot of stouts out there , especially right now . Everybody thinks it's got to be like a really coffee heavy stout . And I will tell you , I like the flavor of coffee but I can't drink regular coffee . It makes me sick to my stomach the whole thing . This one , however , has a really nice being an oatmeal stout . You get that oatmeal flavor , you get the dark roast , you get the chocolate , you get just a hint of coffee on the back end and the flavors altogether are absolutely wonderful . It's a really great solid stout , dark in the glass . You can tell sometimes when you pour a stout and you come out a little like engine oil . That's always a good sign to me and that's exactly what happened on the poor . This one very dark , very tasty , very complex overall , because you can , at your tongue , kind of bounces back and forth between all those flavors , I know complex , but yet very subtle .

Matt 56:05

Yeah .

Big Z 56:05

Very subtle yes .

The Fish 56:06

And I have to agree with what Matt is saying . And this is just an awesome beer , awesome , you know , I I agree with all the different flavors that are coming out . I love that , the fact that there's a chocolate in there and not so much a coffee , because , like he said , a lot of places are just like , oh , we'll just throw coffee in there and call this stout . I'm like can't put , that destroys it .

Ryan 56:29

Yeah , yeah . And remember , all those flavors are all coming from the malt . There's no chocolate , there's no coffee in that , that's incredible .

Matt 56:35

The one thing I did want to say about this can , though , it does say , enjoy anywhere between sea level and low earth orbit , and this is Matt , and friends drink the universe , so presumably we're beyond that . Is there any reason I can't drink this in outer space ?

Ryan 56:47

Well , we had a we actually had a bigger version of that called Launchpad , okay , and and that beer turned into uh , we , when I first started here , we did a porter called Puerto Rico and it was a coconut and coffee porter .

Rob 57:00

Oh wow , okay , everything about that .

Ryan 57:03

So so that was a beer that we did and it was very popular . We did a beer called Launchpad . That was very popular and then that we needed to do like a more sessionable version of that's where we ended up with low earth orbit . Launchpad has now turned into a beer called Arecibo . Do you know what Arecibo is ? I have no idea Okay so you ever seen golden eye ? Yes , you know , and Bond is sliding down that big satellite in Puerto Rico that's built into the earth . That is the Arecibo satellite observatory .

The Fish 57:28

Oh really .

Ryan 57:29

Yes , so instead of making Puerto Rico again , we made it bigger with 9% coffee and coconut and that's Arecibo , so that is like it's the biggest radio telescope in the world , until they shut it down , like two years ago .

Matt 57:40

Yeah , remember that . Wow , mm , hmm , and it's funny because I remember the article , because it pretty much started out . Hey , remember that . Satellite and golden eyes , it's like .

Ryan 57:47

Oh yeah , I remember that one . That's been my sales pitch for five fucking years . Have you seen golden eyes , sir ?

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 57:53

Has it worked Very well .

Ryan 57:55

Very well , I also this the the logger . The first beer we had I pitched to people as beer flavored beer that tastes like beer , because if you're a beer if you're a beer buyer , it's very accurate .

Matt 58:05

It's very true , Well as we , as we kind of wind down here at Vienna , I wanted to take the opportunity to get in and

Favorite Beers and Football Talk

Matt 58:11

thank Ryan .

Ryan 58:12

It's just thank you guys . This is a lot of fun . Thank you , ryan . Thank you , no problem .

Rob 58:15

I feel like I learned elementary .

The Fish 58:17

This was awesome .

Matt 58:18

I love doing this so much because I get these situations where I feel like I know a lot about beer and then I meet someone like Ryan and I feel like I realized how dumb we are . I just sat through a college class for like an hour and I'm like phenomenal .

Ryan 58:30

I just learned more . I just had somebody tell me like hey , you really know a lot about this , you could make money . And I was like really , Obviously , I was an ASC auto tech for 10 years before I got into beer .

Big Z 58:43

Can we vote on our favorite beer ?

Ryan 58:47

Oh , I'm actually going to step in here and remind everybody that beer is like music . Exactly , it's subjective .

The Fish 58:54

Yeah , Bruce Springsteen .

Ryan 58:56

But Bruce Springsteen is very good at what he does , right .

The Fish 58:59

Yes , he is .

Ryan 58:59

It's the best example , like I hate .

Rob 59:01

Dave Matthews , my father-in-law's favorite person .

Ryan 59:03

Oh , dave , bruce Springsteen is an actual hack .

Matt 59:06

You clearly didn't enjoy Billy Joel earlier . Billy Joel sucks too , but I would take Billy .

The Fish 59:11

Joel .

Ryan 59:12

I would take Billy Joel over Bruce Springsteen .

Rob 59:13

Okay , I think .

Ryan 59:14

Billy's a better songwriter than Bruce , so let's let's start with Matt .

Rob 59:18

We'll go around the table . What is your favorite beer that we've had today ? Matt .

Matt 59:22

I got a two-way tie Actually .

Rob 59:24

I got a two-way tie Okay .

Matt 59:26

The original logger just hit a spot . Just it just hit a spot that I was like I could crush a case of this . It wouldn't end well . Football season , I could enjoy it , and the low earth orbit was just Hold on .

Ryan 59:40

Are you an Eagles fan ?

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 59:42

I'm a Steelers fan actually .

Ryan 59:44

My mom grew up a Steelers fan . You were cool , we're cool , you're a Giants fan , right ? You said ?

Big Z 59:48

Yes , sir .

Rob 59:50

No , how about them , cowboys we ?

Big Z 59:52

don't want to have to hurt him . We don't want to have to hurt him .

Rob 59:55

I Listen , it's been 25 years of hell for me .

Ryan 59:58

Look , we all Give it to me . You have a true childhood . It was awesome .

Big Z 1:00:01

Now we know where the bill is going . Hey Ryan , do you know what a paper tiger is ? The Dallas Cowboys yes , I'm going to say this right now For any Hazy IPA drinker , a-game is a solid beer . You also have to like the West Coast flavor on that side .

Ryan 1:00:16

Oh yeah , absolutely .

Big Z 1:00:17

And that was Virgo , virgo , virgo's very very good , I'm going to be honest with my favorite beer of the day , though it's going to be low earth orbit .

Rob 1:00:27

Whoa , this is Awesome . This is really throwing me for a loop .

Big Z 1:00:30

I'm going to tell you why . It's not complex , it's very straightforward , it's not overly boozy , it's drinkable .

Ryan 1:00:37

It's super drinkable , delicious . That happens to me too . When I get something that would not normally be outside my comfort zone , I'm like holy shit , that's amazing , I'll go for it every time . You know I've had a bunch of good this or that , but you know , fish , oh no , no , hold on , we skipped somebody , you skipped me .

Matt 1:00:53

Yeah , the Cowboys fan .

Rob 1:00:54

Well , you know your life is rough , there you go Okay the only thing I've had today that I wouldn't probably drink again is the A game , and that's just because of the fact that it finishes with that kind of like piney flavor . It's just not my jam . I will say my favorite beer of the day is probably the Virgo Cool . However , I've got to give props to this stout . I don't drink stouts . I would drink this stout . That's awesome . It's so good and it's because there's no frills . It's just like this is a freaking stout . This is what it's meant to be .

Ryan 1:01:26

We call it a stout drinker stout . It's so good .

Walter Brewright/Ryan (AI got confused!) 1:01:29

We call it literally a stout drinker stout .

Ryan 1:01:31

It really is good . I'm glad you guys enjoyed that beer because you know stouts are a tough sell . I mean , stouts are a tough sell man .

The Fish 1:01:38

If you can make a stout all year round , I will be here .

Big Z 1:01:41

But I would enjoy two of the low-earth orbit .

Ryan 1:01:43

That's awesome , that's awesome . And Fish , what was yours ? Was it the stout as well ?

The Fish 1:01:47

Yes , I think I've talked enough about the stout . I'd be here all year round if you make it that way . But yeah , this stout is my favorite , that's awesome . After that , I'd go with the original lager .

Matt 1:02:03

All right , so we're going to afford fish's meals here .

Ryan 1:02:05

Yeah , most definitely . Once we finish up here , we'll get you guys samples of the figgy pudding and the chelitis and I'll hook you guys up with a case to go .

Rob 1:02:14

Amazing . Oh , you are awesome , Ryan . Thanks for the fun , guys , Ryan cheers .

Matt 1:02:18

Cheers to you guys . Cheers , we might have to go drink it in New York . Cheers , guys . Thanks for coming out . Yeah , thank you everybody for listening . This episode's boozy quote comes from Frank Zappa , who said you can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline . It helps if you have some kind of football team or some nuclear weapons , but at the very least you need a beer . On social media , please like , follow and push all the buttons for us . That's Matt and friends DTU at Facebook , instagram threads and TikTok . For more information about the podcast , as well as links to our merch store , social media and all the places you can listen to us , visit our website mattandfriendsdtucom . That's mattandfriendsdtucom . Thank you again for listening to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe .