Month: September 2017

We welcome back Tamara and Leigh of the Kentucky TasteBuds as our first repeat guests! On this Kentucky themed episode We talk tailgate must haves, tailgate dos and don’ts, football game day fashion, week five College Football pick’em and more! Stacey also joins us this week for some pumpkin cider and tennis, not necessarily in that order.

Make sure to follow the TasteBuds on twitter @KYtastebuds and check out their website Kentucky TasteBuds for all things trendy in Kentucky.

Listen to “Episode 79 Themes on Themes #KentuckyEdition” on Spreaker.

This week’s sharin’ beer is actually a cider and not just any cider a Pumpkin Cider from Ace.  Ace has a lot of great cider offerings and when Carrie saw this at Liquor Barn there was no way she was going to pass it up.  Leigh never gets to be a part of the pumpkin beer awfulness at this time of year so we were glad we finally found something that she could “enjoy”.  Tamara from the Tastebuds loves everything pumpkin so she was excited about trying it and of course Stacey was all in on the pumpkin.  However, no one hated it, even Carrie who is totally against pumpkin beer liked it.  Everyone agreed that the pumpkin spice made it taste like and apple pie or a mulled cider.  This would be a great beverage to have as the weather turns cooler and fire pits become more abundant.  It wasn’t too sweet and the spices didn’t over power the cider, which created a great balance.  Although at first glance it may look like something that would be awful, take our word for it, it’s actually good and worth trying.

Leigh doubled up on the cider this week with the sharin’ beverage and Country Boy Brewing’s Classic Hard Cider.  Since opening their Georgetown facility in Georgetown Kentucky they have started canning several different beers for wide distribution.  Luckily for Leigh their Classic Hard Cider was one of them.  This is a great cider that uses locally sourced apples.  It has a nice crisp taste and isn’t too sweet.  You could definitely drink more than one of these, forget regular apple cider this fall, if you are in the distribution area for Country Boy (which is expanding), pick this up and enjoy it next to your favorite fire pit.

Tamara and  TasteBud Leigh both went for the newest Country Boy flavor in a can, Key Lime Cougar Bait.  The classic Cougar Bait has been around since CB opened five years ago, but they decided to bring put the lime in it to put a spin on the classic.  The lime works really really well, it’s not chemically or artificial tasting at all and it really brightens up the beer.  Hopefully this one sticks around because it would be a great lawn mowing, pool side, patio sitting beer for the summer, but don’t hesitate to go ahead and pick it up anyway cause it’s that good.

Nacho Bait is another Country Boy beer that has been around since the brewery started and has always been a GBS favorite, so we were really excited when they decided to start canning it.  We were a little hesitant, however, because we have felt like CB turned down the heat on this beer in the last couple of years.  Stacey got to test this theory and she was very pleasantly surprised that the heat on the can had been turned up.  This was the beer that Stacey and the rest of us had come to love initially at CB.  If ya like the a beer with some heat in the can, Stacey definitely recommends that you pick this one up.

Lauren continued the Kentucky beer theme this week from a beer from Great Flood Brewing Co out of Louisville.  Now it’s no secret that we aren’t fans of the Birds With Teeth (biological fact they don’t have them) out of that city, but we will admit that Louisville does have a lot of good breweries.  Lauren had never had anything from Great Flood before and she was really happy with her Toasted Brown Ale choice.  The beer delivered everything it promised in terms of a great nutty, toasted flavor that you want in a brown ale.  At 5.2% it makes it an easy drinking beer for fall weather.  Put this one in your tailgate/fire pit party cooler.

Since Oktoberfest is almost over Carrie wanted to make sure to send this year’s out right and stay on the train.  She actually hit the exacta with this one, West Sixth is a Lexington  KY Brewery and Danke Chain is an Oktoberfest Beer.  This is a great Oktoberfest beer, a little carmely and malty and would go great with brats or pretzels.  West Sixth distributes to a wide part of the country so chances are good you can find this in your area.  Even though the traditional Oktoberfest celebration is coming to an end, it’s still worth picking up some Danke Chain for the actual month of October.  Plus you can annoy your friends by singing some Wayne Newton every time you drink it.

 

This week we welcome Kindsey Bernhard from Rock House Brewing to the show to talk all about Lexington’s newest brewery on the block. Lauren channels her inner Stacey and drinks a pumpkin beer of her own free will. We discuss if Carrie can get out of jury duty, fall down the GBS Oktoberfest fact hole and of course get our college football pick’em of the week on.

Listen to “Episode 78 Rock House Not Rolling Rock” on Spreaker.

Not only did Kindsey come on the show to talk about Rock House Brewing she brought a growler of their American Pale Ale, which we turned into our sharin’ beer for this week.  This beer delivered everything that she promised it would.  It was smooth and easy to drink with just enough bitterness to give it a little bite at the end.  This would be a great beer to pick up for a tailgate or just at home drinking, ya know after work or jury duty.  If you don’t like IPA’s because of the bitterness and don’t want anything too dark this would also fit the bill.  Definitely stop into the brewery and check out their American Pale Ale as well as their other selections.  If you want more information on the brewery you’re just gonna hafta listen to the episode.

Rock House does keep a cider on tap and Kindsey was kind enough to bring Leigh a sample of what they have on tap right now.  Ganrly Grove’s Ledgendberry hard cider.  That’s the actual can it comes in, but Kindsey brought Leigh’s in a repurposed water bottle, which was great, and reminded us all of our old college days of trying to sneak alcohol into various events like class.  The cider itself was ok, at 6% it’s on the high end and the sweetness was a little much, probably don’t want to have more than a couple of these.  Feel free, however, to forgo the can and use a water bottle, to make drinking this one more nostalgic or adventurous.

Kindsey also brought a New Belgium Fat Tire Belgian White special release for her personal drinking beer on the show.  This one isn’t around long, so if you want to try it you probably need to buy it now.  Made with seville orange peel and ground coriander this is what you would expect from New  Belgium and their Fat Tire beer, a great beer, easy drinking with a lot of flavor.  At only 5.2% you could definitely drink more than one of these and this is a great fall alternative if you’re looking for something other than Oktoberfest or pumpkin beers.

Lauren channeled her inner Stacey for this week’s pick and of her own free will went with Elysian Brewing’s Night Owl Pumpkin Ale.  There really isn’t much to say about this beer.  If you like pumpkin beers then you will love this beer, which Lauren described as pumpkin pie in a bottle.  If you hate pumpkin beers then you will hate this beer because yeah pumpkin pie in a bottle.  This beer did not get any better as the show went on, if you can believe that.  Seriously if you want to drink pumpkin beer do yourself a favor and go find New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin that we had on the show last week.

It’s still Oktoberfest season so Carrie continued her theme of Oktoberfest beers this week.  And this week’s pick is Shiner Oktoberfest, from the good people who bring you Shiner Bock and other great Shiner beers.  We’ve had regular Shiner Bock before and that’s a great straightforward beer.  If you like that then you’ll like Shiner Oktoberfest.  It’s really what you would come to expect from an Oktoberfest beer, dark in color with a slight malty/carmely flavor.  It was definitely different from the Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest that Carrie had a couple of shows ago, but not in a bad way.  Recommend picking this one up if you are shopping around for different Oktoberfests, pick up the Sierra Nevada too and compare!

Stacey’s back from the black lodge and we’re pretty sure she’s not evil. We talk everything from the Twin Peaks Finale, U.S. Open, College football and more! It’s also that time of year and yes we drink a pumpkin beer. Did we hate it or love it? You’ll just have to listen to find out.

Listen to “Episode 77 Weihenstephaner Y’all” on Spreaker.

Tis the season and yes, we went there this week with the sharin’ beer.  New Belgium’s Voodoo Ranger Special Release Atomic Pumpkin.  This pumpkin beer has the cinnamon that you would expect, but it also has some nice heat on it with the addition of habanero.  The contrast between the heat and the cinnamon made this pumpkin beer probably one of the least offensive ones we’ve ever had.  Neither Stacey, Lauren or surprisingly Carrie hated it, although the cinammon on the front end was a little much for Carrie.   Also, this beer wasn’t overly hoppy, regular Voodoo Ranger is a pretty hoppy IPA, but that didn’t come through at all with the cinammon and the heat. Pumpkin beers are still kind of the worst and there are just a lot of bad ones out there, however, if you want to have one because it’s that time of year, definitely try to find the Atomic version.

 

Leigh’s really grasping at straws this week to hang onto summer with her choice of Angry Orchard’s Summer Honey cider.  Unfortunately summer will probably come to its end with the name of this one.  It was just way to sweet for Leigh, the addition of the honey on top of the apples was just too much.  There are several other ciders that Leigh has had over the past couple of weeks that would let you close out summer in crisp, clean fashion, unfortunately this isn’t one of them.  You’ve still got a few more days until it’s “officially” fall and you might want to skip the cider all together and pick up some spiked seltzer to close out the season.

Stacey dug around in Lauren’s beer fridge this week and came out with Mikkeller’s Fruit Face, part of their Berliner Series, which is actually fitting since we are on the Oktoberfest train right now.  Mikkeller is the same brewery that brought us the awesomely named and pretty good tasting coffee stout Brunch Weasel.  This Berliner Style Weisse beer brewed with mango, coconut and habanero did not disappoint either.  The fruit and the heat were both present in this one, which is always great when a beer can deliver what it promises.  The only thing that Stacey didn’t like about the beer was that without her glasses, she couldn’t read the writing on the can.  She claims it was the lighting in the room we were in, but we know it’s cause she can’t see.

Lauren’s pick this week comes from Lagunitas Brewing.  Lagunitas is a solid brewery and it’s safe to say that we really haven’t had anything from them that we’ve completely disliked or wouldn’t recommend.  The Aunt Sally dry hopped, sweet tart, sour mash ale had a lot of complex stuff going on.  This wasn’t a bad thing, it was just on first sip this beer was very different.  Lauren got fruit, sour and hoppiness, many complex flavors going on.  She wasn’t sure how she was going to feel about this one, but as the show progressed and the beer opened up the flavor changed a bit.  Although she probably couldn’t drink more than one or maybe two Lauren really liked all the different things that this beer delivered.  If you’re looking for a beer that’s got a lot going on with a complex flavor profile that definitely has the potential to change then we highly recommend picking this one up.

Carrie is all in on the Oktoberfest/German beer train this month so it was fitting that her pick came straight from the German beer aisle at liquor barn.  Weihestephaner is the world’s oldest brewery (well according to their bottle anyway) and while they make a variety of different German style beers, Carrie chose to go with the Hefeweissbeir Dunkel this week.  As far as Dunkel’s go this is a pretty good one, although a bit lighter and less carmely than other Dunkel’s you may have had in the past.  Carrie didn’t have any issues with taste or drinkability, however, when poured the beer had a significant amount of foam and there was some sediment in the bottom of the bottle, which also poured into the glass.  The sediment didn’t affect the flavor of the beer, but it may be off-putting to some people.  Brewed under the beer purity law of 1516,  it just doesn’t get anymore Oktoberfest or German than Wehenstephaner’s Hefeweissbeir Dunkel.

 

This week we welcome friend of the show Matt to talk all about his adventures as an amateur race car driver in Formula First racing. We talk tons on college football including getting into week 2 or our CFB pick’em, plus find out how much money it would take for Carrie to do a garbage bag shot.

Listen to “Episode 76 666 The Number of the Beers” on Spreaker.

Since the calendar has finally turned over to September it is now time to drink all the German Beers, so this week’s sharin’ beer is a german style Maibock from Ft. Collins Brewery in Ft. Collins Colorado.  Technically this beer is supposed to be enjoyed in the spring, hence the name, but since it is now officially Oktoberfest season, we said it’s German and it counts.  This just also happened to be guest Matt’s favorite style of beer, which was a plus.  This was a great beer that delivered exactly what it promised.  It had a nice body to it, wasn’t too bitter and really did deliver on the toffee notes.  Again Liquor Barn had this available now, so tis the season.  If you see this pick it up as a complement to all of the Oktoberfest you’ll be drinking for the rest of the month.

We had a great craft beer from Mexico last week, and not to be left out of the great offerings from outside of the U.S., Leigh picked up a cider from New Zealand to try this week.  Peckham’s Traditional cider with elderflower.  Leigh has actually had several ciders the last couple of weeks with this particular ingredient and we learned thanks to @ChrisScoutTeam on the twitter elderflower makes you invisible, at least according to The Lord of the Rings.   The floral notes were definitely there in this cider, unlike other ciders that Leigh has had that have claimed to have elderflower but didn’t have any floral taste at all.  This cider wasn’t too sweet either, it’s price point was a little high at $11, but if you are interested in floral ciders or even ciders from outside the U.S. that aren’t English pick this one up.  Also let us know how it works for invisibility.

(Please note that the above picture is for the Sixfold Six Wild Sour with Tart Cherry, Matt’s was made with Plums).  Guest Matt went local this week with his choice of West 6th brewing’s Sixfold Six Wild Sour.  This is a sour with plenty of Brett and a cask finish.  Unlike a lot of cask finish beers this one comes in on the low end of the AVB spectrum at around 6%.  This made it very drinkable, not too boozy and not too sour.  You can only get this at the West 6th tap-room here in Lexington, but if you’re in the area it is defintely worth stopping by to pick up.

Lauren’s been on the IPA train for so long that we almost forgot who she was for a second.  She jumped off that train this week with Faro Lambic, a Belgian Faro Beer with brown sugar.  If you like fruit beers then the lambic is always a good choice.  Lauren was curious about what the brown sugar would do to this one and was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t make this beverage too sweet.  Technically this is a malt beverage, but if you’re looking for something different with a low alcohol percentage and some sweetness to it that’s not a cider, we highly recommend picking this up.

Now that it is no longer August, Carrie is all in on the Oktoberfest beers, the first one out of the gate came from a twitter recommendation @meisterbuerger and did not disappoint.  Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest 2017, brewed in collaboration with Brauhuas Miltenberger.  This is a great Oktoberfest style beer and you can absolutely have more than one of these.  It’s very smooth and actually lighter than many Oktoberfest style beers out there, some of which can get a little malty/heavy after two or three (and who wants to just have two or three oktoberfest beers).  This will definitely make its way into our tailgate cooler, highly recommend picking this up, even if you aren’t a fan of the style.