Ethan, Chris and Nick are back together, but the focus is on Ethan & Chris and their journeys to Cooperstown for the popular “Belgium Comes To Cooperstown” festival. The lads recall their weekend in the sun and taste some beers they brought back from all the way down South. There’s Harpoon’s Saison Various, Anchor’s Zymaster Series No. 4 Fort Ross Farmhouse Ale and Samuel Adams’ Tetravis.

We won’t give everything, but the beer was pretty decent. Nick was jealous until Chris & Ethan started talking about how great their showers felt afterward. Drinking beer is a dirty job for tough people.

Season 3 - Episode 17: Belgium Went To Cooperstown and all You Got Was This Lousy Podcast [ 50:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (11106)

There’s little I enjoy more than a trip to my uncle’s cottage in Red Bay, Ontario. Getting stuck into the woods and water for a while, beyond the reach of Wi-fi, is a golden time for me.

It’s also a chance to taste some beers that aren’t widely available South of the St. Lawrence River (amongst other bodies of water). It’s little surprise Canada knows its beer and I picked up three brews on my way up to the cottage, two new to me and one longtime pal. Here are some quick thoughts.

Grand River Russian Gun Imperial Stout (Cambridge, Ontatio) — This 8.5% ABV stout pours thick as oil and nearly as dark. It doesn’t quite bury you in booze but there’s no fighting the alcohol: it’s going to get you. The aspect I most noted was its long bitter finish. The Russian Gun keeps zapping you between sips. There’s a barbeque’s smokiness and plenty of malt action. Give it a go, for sure, but make sure you have the time to take it all in. This is a complex drink.

Muskoka Dark Ale (Bracebridge, Ontario)  – A revelation. It’s billed as a British style brown ale but it tastes deeper, darker and more delicious than anything in that vein. The chocolate is undeniable and the German malt character is bleak (if I wanted to be even fancier, I’d say Dickensian). I would session this 5 percenter and invite anyone looking to enter a darker fray to start here. Strong product.

Sleeman Honey Brown Lager (Guelph, Ontario) — An old stand-by for anyone whose made a journey into Ontario. This is a super easy drinking beer that needs little more in the neighborhood of description than it’s name. It’s sweet, brown and simple. Don’t get me wrong: this is a macro beer and how… but there are far worse dates for a long day at a warm beach or long evening next to a talkative bonfire.

     Over the last couple months we’ve seen some pretty exceptional pale ales coming from Flying Bison Brewing Co here in Buffalo. With one of these beers, the Session Ale, we decided to do an experiment…drink the same beer in 3 glassware styles and note the differences of each. The beer: A delightful blend of German Pils and UK Fawcett Pearl malts that carry a clean, earthy bitterness from Northern Brewer and tropical flavors/aromas from Citra hops. Perfectly sessionable at 4.3% ABV.  The glassware styles we chose are essentially an example of, forgive me here…high(er), middle and low class drinking vessels. We start with the classic La Chouffe Tulip, move to the Samuel Adams Perfect “Pint” and then finish with the standard Shaker Pint. In a future episode, we will do this again to include the new Spiegelau IPA glass…with both Sierra Nevada and Dogfish Head IPA examples.  I’ve included a few pictures from the night, as promised. Thanks for listening to our exercise in subtleness. Try this yourself and let us know what you think!

Cheers!

• This is what we talk in to.

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• This is Ethan's shirt

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• Magic Chouffe!

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• Glasses of yum!

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• This is what we sit in.

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• This is our La Chouffe tulip

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Season 3 - Episode 16: One beer - Three Glasses [ 58:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2855)

What to do…stop with the season 3 thing and just start numbering the episodes? This, friends, is episode 82. This week Ethan and I decided to take a look at a couple of our favorite warm weather beers whilst roasting in my attic. By the end of the show, we were a nice golden brown.  First in our glass is the always lovely Saison Dupont followed by the modern classic, Sanctification from Russian River. By no means are these the top of the top of all warm weather beer choices for us…that would take up hours, days even.  We dont have that much time.  Lets face it, unless you’ve been in an all air conditioned environment and haven’t set foot outside in the past week…its hot. We’re cooling off with what we like…you cool off with what ever YOU like! Cheers!

Season 3 - Episode 15: Warm weather favorites...#82 [ 47:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2625)

As a kid I remember reading every Popular Science magazine I could get my hands on. At the time, I cared little about anything else except the “What’s New” section. It gave a little window into the future, a glimpse at the edge…something to dream about. In general, I think craft beer drinkers are like that.

Uinta Brewing Company from Salt Lake City, UT is by no means a new brewery at 20 years, however when I found out they were soon going to be regularly available in WNY…I felt a bit nostalgic in a way. It used to be just a picture in a magazine, this time it was real. Ethan and I go through 4 Uinta beers this time around including SUM’R, WYLD, BABA and Detour DIPA. This picture is What’s New on my desk. It’s filled with beer stuff. It’s what I do, it’s who I am. Cheers and thanks for listening to us!

Season 3 - Episode 14: Uinta beer? We are. We did that. [ 1:00:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2133)

At this very moment [Monday, July 1, 2013] we’re a couple weeks into conditioning a Kolsch that we brewed over the course of recording this show. It’s a fairly simple beer that done right, is one of the most refreshing summer beers we can think of…besides all the others. Besides a bunch of other things, we talk about two commercially available Kolsch-style beers this episode including Goose Island Summertime along with Harpoon Summer Beer. Lastly, we bring out last year’s homebrew Kolsch that I brewed with my brother Kevin which we decided to hop with Citra…interesting… Have a safe 4th and pick up some Kolsch if you can! Here are a few of our suggestions: Reissdorf Kolsch, Gaffel Kolsch, Flying Bison 716, Uinta HooDoo, Captain Lawrence Kolsch & Ballast Point Pale Ale.

Cheers and thanks for listening!

Season 3 - Episode 13: We're brewing a Kolsch! (style) It's summer after all... [ 48:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2159)

I can only imagine that in the picture to the left, Colin Herzog from Flying Bison Brewing Company is giving a slide show presentation on the rare and endangered Roti Island snake-necked turtle. This is in fact not true…What is true is that Colin joins us this episode with a couple growlers of Flying Bison beers including their new(er) Bison Best Bitter and their Maibock. Colin has been in and around the brewing industry for quite some time and joins us to lend his story. This is the second installation in a series of 5 shows about FBBC. Hope you dig and thanks for listening. Cheers!

Season 3 - Episode 12: Hangin' with Colin Herzog from Flying Bison Brewing Company [ 1:10:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1904)

     Sometimes theres a bunch of things you want to do all at once…and who says you can’t? Ethan and I hit the road in this episode to take a tour of a few things that were happening all in the same night back in May. We make our first stop at Blue Monk to sit and talk with Rudy (Community Beer Works head brewer) about “The Snow” — an Imperial Stout he brewed that had just been tapped and was the last keg [we knew of]. Next, a short jaunt out to visit and talk with our good friend Matt Redpath (head brewer) at Gordon Biersch and try his new American Hop Bock — pushing the boundaries of Lager indeed. Lastly, we finish our night at Pizza Plant on Transit Rd in Williamsville to meet with the Buffalo Beer Goddesses — a group organized by Julia Burke (Beer writer and associate editor at Buffalo Spree; WNY Beer Governess, Great Lakes Brewing News) to illustrate the importance and many roles that women play in making our beer culture what it is today.

Enjoy!

Season 3 - Episode 11: Craft Beer Talk on the road. [ 43:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1774)

Yep, we did it. We went and had a great time.  This episode Ethan and I recap the weekend we spent at Hunter Mountain (NOT Hunter Mountain Resort) slinging beer with the best of the best in New York State at TAP NY 2013. Let me not fail to mention our 2 comrades Alex Placito and Eric Stellrecht who were also there in full support.

There’s too much to mention in this short blurb about the event so I’ll let the episode speak for itself. For beer, we go through a few NYS niceties including Sixpoint Brownstone, Brooklyn Silver Anniversary Lager and the most excellent Rabbit in the Rye from Good Nature Brewing Company.

Cheers!!

Season 3 - Episode 10: Lets recap TAP...NY [ 1:16:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1777)

Ladies, Gentlemen…the homebrew episode (the first of several). Our good friend and current president of the Niagara Association of Homebrewers, Mr. Alex Placito joins us this episode to talk about the local scene, friends, beers, techniques and much more. We start the show with the intention to try what we all brought to the attic…however trying to fit 9 different beers plus discussion into a little over an hour long show is darn near impossible.  Let the show play and let our dynamic show how good friends geek out. Beer(!) is the reason we’re here….Cheers!

Season 3 - Episode 9: The homebrew show w/ current NAH prez Alex Placito! [ 1:22:05 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2621)