Drinkables - "Spooning Bavarians"

Drinkables!  Matt and his friends Andy, Chris, and Rob explore the unique flavor of Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, a classic German smoked beer. Matt has once again challenged his friends to choose 3 snacks from a dollar store to pair with the featured beverage. Laugh along as Matt and his friends try their snack trios, some of which are questionable at best. Matt begins with a brief review of the history of this uniquely flavored brew and then the fun begins!

Transcript

Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier

Rob 1:13

We have welcome to Matt and Universe.

Matt 1:27

Welcome back to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe. Today I have some of my great friends drinking the universe with me once again. I'm gonna go around the table, let everybody introduce themselves.

Rob 1:36

Guten Tag, man and Dominion Hand. And I'm Chris.

Andy 1:41

I'm Andy. It's great to be a Philadelphia sports fan. Oh yeah.

Matt 1:45

What do you say, Mike? No. No. It's awful to be a Pittsburgh sports fan right now. It's not working for me. Talk about fighting. Oh, not working at all. The theme for today is drinkables. So everybody has been tasked with going out to a dollar store of their choice, picking out three items that go with a centerpiece drink. Today's drink is Rausch beer.

Rob 2:07

Rauschbier.

Matt 2:08

Rausch beer.

Rob 2:09

Yeah. That's gonna be all of this episode. It's just bad German accents. Just prepare yourselves.

Matt 2:15

Yeah. Rauschbier is a German smoked beer. The version of it that we have is from the Schlenker brewery in German. It is the Ast Schlenkerla Rauchbier. It is made using very traditional methods. The brewery that this comes from dates back to 1405. It was originally called the Brewery of the Blue Line and then Brewery Heller. In the 19th century, Schlenkerla was added to the brewery's name. Schlenkerla is a Franconian expression meaning to walk not straight, limping and dangling your arms. Hilarious.

Rob 2:50

Oh, they they hit themselves on the nose. Well, there you go.

Matt 2:53

So the story goes that the current owner's, like great-great grandfather, had an accident in the brewery, and the townsfolk started calling him Schlenkerla. So let's go to Schlenkerla for a beer tonight. And it stuck and became a bit of a brand name for the beer. Hmm.

Rob 3:12

That's cool.

Andy 3:13

So the beer was the accident.

Matt 3:15

I I don't know. Maybe got hit in the head with a beer barrel. I have no idea. That's how I want to go out. Falling into a barrel doesn't sound half bad, but clearly limping afterwards, probably not good. So Schlankurla makes their own malt using their traditional process, which dates back 600 years. They source from local farmers. They use beechwood, which they dry first for three years, then they make an open fire under a large kiln and use hot air to directly smoke the malt. This gives the malt that very unique and very strong smoky flavor that we're all about to experience in a few moments here. The beer is also fermented in the same underground rock cellars that they've been using again for 600 years. They give the beer approximately two months of lagering time, which is way longer than any modern brewery lagers their beer at this point. And the temperature in those rooms is 10 degrees Celsius, which is the ideal temperature for fermenting beer, especially with bottom fermenting yeast, which is what is used for this particular beer.

Rob 4:12

Well, and and for all you American people out there, that's about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. So there you go. I feel like that was cheap. That was more like a medical conversion. But you know what? I'll I'll take it. Okay. I'll take it. As the resident scientist around the table, here we are.

Matt 4:31

That was the consolation prize for the one you didn't earn during trivia at the end of the episode when you push the button. That's fair. Yeah.

Andy 4:37

It's okay. I like the website, smokybeer.com.

Matt 4:41

So also if you go to their local brew pub for Schlinkerla, you can actually get this in traditional wooden barrels. They tap right out of the barrel and we'll serve you at the bar. Oh, nice. Right out of a wooden barrel. So should we go ahead and open this beast up and can we just appreciate how much uh research effort Welszer put into this?

Rob 5:02

Yeah, I mean, way to go, Matt. We really appreciate you.

Matt 5:05

Like to shout out Google and YouTube.

Andy 5:08

The best. I I enjoy the image of a wax seal on this. Yeah. Oh, that came through though. Yeah, mine didn't have much of a sound. Yeah, mine was like Welsh, get me another one.

Rob 5:22

The scent immediately. This is good of me. Liquid smoke. Good god.

Matt 5:27

So, yeah, if you want to know what this smells like, you can open a bag of beef jerky and take a whiff, and that's basically what it is.

Rob 5:35

I'm so afraid.

Matt 5:36

Well, you can go outside and smell a charcoal growth.

Rob 5:40

And it is it pours the color that you imagine it would pour. One thing I will say is we probably should not have served this chilled. Typically.

Andy 5:51

It's gonna be a long episode then. In uh in Germany. Wait for it to come up to room temperature.

Rob 5:56

I'm just saying, in in Germany, a lot of times they they keep these beers in in like their cellars. Yeah and you know, it's cool, but it's not cold. Lower than like room temperature, but much more than much more than than like a chilled refrigerator beer that we as Americans sully beer with. Yeah, so I imagine that as the episode moves on, this this thing's gonna morph a little bit as far as the taste is concerned. All right, so uh are we gonna let's let's uh clink them and drink them and see what's going on here. It's not as bad as I thought it was gonna be. No. It doesn't last that much. Well, well, it does, but like not not with that like it's like a porter. I was gonna say a little something that happens, and then all of a sudden it's just like I've been eating salami. Yes. You definitely I have salami mouth.

Andy 6:56

Yeah. The back end definitely salami. Do you know? TM salami mouth.

Matt 7:01

Yeah.

Andy 7:01

Hashtag.

Rob 7:02

All right. Are we gonna uh dive in?

Matt 7:05

I have this well, there's the all-important question that we need to ask first. What dollar store did you go to starting with?

Rob 7:11

That's a great question. I I am I'm a big Dollar Tree stan here. This is uh this is the second time here that I've done a drinkables episode and sticking with the tree. I I am redeeming from my wife. So Family Dereamer has gone back to Dollar Tree. Hey. The appropriate place.

Matt 7:29

There you go. There you go. For for wifey redemption.

Andy 7:40

Yeah, it's not offensive to me. Yeah, people hate it. Now I was expecting it. I generally do like darker beers. Um, so this is kind of right up our alley.

Rob 7:49

I was uh I was prepared to dislike this. Yeah. This is it is definitely extreme. But I don't, Andy, where where did you get your food for today?

Andy 7:56

So I had a choice because there's a brand new family dollar right next to an old dollar tree. So I was thinking, do I go new or do I go old? And I decided if it's clean, it doesn't count. So I went for the old one. Exactly. Went to the Dollar Tree.

Rob's Drinkable

Rob 8:13

I I said to Matt earlier today, because he asked me, Oh, you know, did you already go? And I was like, There is no going to a dollar tree unless you're in a rush. You want to be out of there as soon as possible. So that's what I I I made sure I came right before here, flew through a dollar tree as fast as I could and grabbed stuff. It's it's part of the experience. Yeah.

Matt 8:35

So this time I did go to Dollar General instead of Dollar Tree.

Rob 8:41

See if it pays off, Cotton.

Matt 8:42

I realized that it was going to be a questionable decision as I pulled into the parking lot and spotted a legit payphone to the right of the still working.

Andy 8:55

Um so uh payphone has not been spotted in the wild in at least 15 years.

Rob 9:01

They're coming back from extinction. I can guarantee you that thing wasn't working, but uh it's still impressive that it was there.

Matt 9:07

There was someone on it.

Rob 9:08

Were were they of sound mind? I have no idea. I have no idea. I have so many more questions, but instead of wasting all of our time with those, I think I'll just move on and tell you what I've brought. Yeah, if you don't mind. My food is getting cold. So uh today I have a lovely trio of no, you don't. Don't mock my trio. You don't don't knock it until you try it. I've got the Che Cree matured cheese crisps with real gouda.

Andy 9:42

That's right.

Rob 9:43

Real. I mean, that's what it says. Real in quote. Real mature cheese. Is it spelled with two E's?

Matt 9:49

What's the percentage on that gouda there? Is it like that? That's like one percent juicer.

Rob 9:55

Then I have some pitted and dried dates. And for most of us, we have beanie weenies, which is a combination of sausage and baked beans, but we also have some plain maple brown sugar molasses baked beans as well, for those of us who can't eat the sausage for today's episode.

Matt 10:17

So turns out they don't put all beef hot dog in the discount beanie and weenie can.

Rob 10:23

That's very true. That's very true. So the hospital was not a good idea. The intention, gentlemen, is to start with the crackers, move on to the beans, and then finish with the dates. Uh we can do one bite and then a sip at each and see if if they work together. Let's see. Crackers. Cracker, pretty good. Tastes fine. I hate the texture of this. Yep. Yep, very good. I feel like I'm eating a packing peanut. What is happening?

Matt 10:52

Not as bad as the banana. No. From mimosa's. But very yes, very cardboardy, very packing material. Yeah. I'll give it one more just for a fair shake.

Rob 11:06

Yeah, it's failing me on the texture. It it it works. It works. It's working. Yep. I'm plowing on to the beans because they're just calling my name.

Matt 11:15

Are you going beans or beanie and weenies?

Rob 11:18

Beanie and weenies first.

Andy 11:19

Yeah. Gotta get those weenies in your mouth. Let's go. No weenies on this side. That is not good. No, it's not. I am not a fan of beans. I mean, I'm gonna take another mouthful because apparently I'm a pig, but I'm not. It's mushy.

Rob 11:35

I'm not gonna lie. The weenie weenies are bringing out everything I hate about this beer. Yeah. Exactly. It's too similar of a flavor profile.

Matt 11:43

Oh my god.

Rob 11:44

Of accentuated beans. Well, they're worse. Oh, Rob, they're worse. Today, the part of Matt will be played by me.

Matt 11:59

What you're hearing is Bert's crown from the last episode roll off his head and fall down a hill. Oh, God.

Rob 12:05

Everybody.

Matt 12:06

This is so bad. I don't think the maple beans are that bad. Oh my god. Okay. So we're gonna end with the date.

Rob 12:16

Yeah, we're we're going to the date.

Matt 12:17

Alright.

Rob 12:18

I'm gonna take you all on a date.

Various 12:20

Let's go. Date's fine.

Matt 12:27

Kind of like a sweet and smoky thing going on here. Sweet and smoky.

Chris's Drinkable

Rob 12:31

They're not that flavorful. No, I'll be honest with you, they're not as sweet as I was expecting them to be. I mean, again, we're talking about a dollar store fruit here. Um to me, it's really bringing out a strong coffee flavor in the beer. Personally, um, after I eat the date, I'm getting a lot of those really deep, malty notes right in the front.

Matt 12:54

I'm gonna say the best thing on the plate was the cracker, but this is not a high bar to clear overall.

Rob 13:00

No.

Andy 13:00

I disagree, Matt. I'm I'm on the date. You're on the date? On the date train.

Rob 13:05

I would say the date was the best thing on the plate as well. They the the date brought more out of the beer than the cracker did. The cracker was just something that was there on a plate that you would eat and drink the beer together with. Those beans are hanging around though. They are. Guys, I'm sorry.

Andy 13:21

You gotta put the floor somewhere.

Rob 13:23

Yes.

Andy 13:25

Yeah.

Rob 13:25

I thought that this was a great offering. It turns out I was wrong.

Matt 13:30

Well, there's three more people to go. And if we continue to go as we did last time, it was good and then kind of got questionable. So if we continue that way.

Rob 13:40

Mine is the best. We're in trouble today, guys. That's all I have to say. Alright, so when I did my thinking about preparing for this, the immediate thing I thought of that pairs well with a smoked beer is going to be pretzels. So I had to go with pretzels. Now, what I wanted was the like super thick, hard sourdough. You know what I'm talking about? Like the real Uts pretzels.

Andy 14:06

The ones that make you question the integrity of your teeth as you try to do it. Exactly. Yeah.

Rob 14:09

Like if you don't break a tooth or two.

Matt 14:11

I wonder what my dentist number is, crunch.

Rob 14:13

Yeah. But unfortunately, Dollar Tree did not help me out very well. But I do have some just regular Snyder's mini pretzels. They came in cute little individual packages. I definitely know that uh this is going to taste delicious as a pretzel. I have no idea how it's gonna pair with the beer, but at least I know it's not gonna be a horrible experience in my mouth. Yeah. Because pretzels. Alright. It's a known factor. Yeah, the pretzels, you know. The Snyders are guys, I lied. This tastes like it's months expired. Yeah. Oh my god! Do we have a date on them?

Andy 14:53

No.

Rob 14:55

Um December 2022. They're they're fine. They're fine.

Matt 14:59

Okay, so the combination.

Rob 15:01

We definitely have that steel. If you've ever had ready, all of them might be like this. This is gonna be great.

Matt 15:07

Have you ever had a dark? I call them burnt pretzels. My mother-in-law loves them. Yeah, yeah. That's what it reminds me of. It reminds me of that darker kind of roasted pretzel flavor.

Andy 15:16

They work well together with the beer though. You know, you always hear the classic like pretzels are good palate cleanser when you're doing like a beer tasting or whatever. It legit like just takes the flavor right out of your mouth.

Rob 15:26

Yeah. Not in a bad way. So you're welcome. I mean, I at the very least, we're getting rid of the terrible beans from Rob. Yes. I appreciate that. And I must say, I I'm I'm so surprised, pleasantly, that this beer is offering more than a single note. Because I had it it's very complex. I expected it many years ago. And all I remembered was the weird liquid meat experience. Yeah. And I wasn't getting all those other notes and things of that nature. So um I I'm appreciative.

Matt 16:01

Is this the one that's to drink it again? Porter's this is, yes. This is where I got these from from Porter's Pub in Easton, Pennsylvania.

Rob 16:07

So the other question is, is this the one that's at what's the what's the college bar in Bethlehem? Why am I blanking? Tallyhoe. Tallyho. Is it the one that's the hoe at the hoe? I I do not know. Okay. I've only ordered this at Porter's. Was terrible. Like it literally tasted like you put like rancid meat in your mouth. It smells like something has jalapeno flavors. Yes. So our smell it immediately as soon as you crack that bag.

Andy 16:34

Again, so I think you got the bag fully open.

Rob 16:36

Pretzels was my original thought, and then I went, you know what would be great is if we just did all snack foods. But I also obviously didn't want to just grab like a random snack food. I thought what would go well with a smoked flavor? So I basically just took the word smoked or smoke and made sure it fit in the title of the chip. So these are potato skins and they are jalapeno cheddar. So if we think of like a smoked jalapeno cheddar, sounds pretty damn good. Come in.

Matt 17:03

P passing I feel like we're gonna need some strong flavor to get past this beer, and I feel like this might do it. I'm taking it. You also, being my friend for almost 30 years, know how I feel about spicy food. So thank you for this. Get ready, Matt.

Rob 17:17

We're we're we're ramping up. That's that's a smell.

Andy 17:24

All right.

Rob 17:25

Okay. Um, this is the first thing that hasn't been stale all night. So uh point points for that. Hooray!

Matt 17:32

Puts the fire out. The rouch beer puts the fire out.

Rob 17:36

They're not that spicy.

Andy 17:37

They're not as spicy. Like for how much they smell. Yeah, yeah. They're not as flavorful. I mean, they're not bad, but they're not as flavorful. Flavorful.

Matt 17:45

The rouch beer is really like a mute button for flavor. It really is a mute button for flavor at this point.

Rob 17:51

I was hoping for a little more from that jalapeno kick.

Matt 17:53

Yeah.

Rob 17:55

Yeah. I think if it were cheesier as well, then it would have kind of held on a little bit. It's either one, yeah, a little more of the spice or a little more like one of each, really quick, and they're little punches, and then they're just gone. And they can't stand up to the beer. The beer just takes it away. Now, supposed to bring three items. I brought four. Oh boy. But there's a reason for it because you can't handle spicy food, Matt Wellser. Yeah. Oh man, we had to go special to two.

Matt 18:24

Gauntlet Throne, what do you got?

Rob 18:27

Oh, no, no, no. Give him the full spice. All right. We've got one of my favorite chips of all time, the Uts Red Hots. Oh boy. All right. If you've never had these chips before, it's an experience of itself. Now, this isn't uh whatever the chip challenge bullshit is. You're you're I'm not gonna kill any of you. You're you're totally fine.

Matt 18:47

The ones that have the Carolina Reaper in them.

Rob 18:50

Yeah. But uh hold on to your beers because these are these are spicy. Okay. I'm I'm going in. They are in an unsettling color of red. Yep, yep. I I would just like to say they look like a flaming hot Cheetos.

Andy 19:02

That looks perfectly natural. That will open your sinuses.

Rob 19:05

I look forward to seeing this later and thinking that I've got a problem with my bowels.

Matt 19:10

One one sniff and the sinuses are open.

Andy 19:18

Oh, those are delicious.

Rob 19:19

These are so good. That is delightful. And here comes the heat at the end. Just a slow ramp. It creeps on you. She's ramping still. Yep. She doesn't stop. I mean, this beer is gonna stop it, but I'm talking about another one.

Matt 19:35

It does add a nice spicy flavor, though. It was almost like a miniature Christmas party there.

Rob 19:40

I've got to tell you, this is your best pairing with the beer.

Andy's Drinkable

Andy 19:43

This is this is pairing quite nicely.

Rob 19:45

In my opinion. Yeah.

Andy 19:47

Now, if you're not a spicy, you're not gonna like that combo right now.

Rob 19:50

No, no, no, no. No. But I mean the smoke just. Matt is not crying right now, so I feel like it's not that spicy. It really isn't that spicy.

Matt 19:58

It's definitely in the back of the throat. It stays there. Yeah. Oh, it does.

Rob 20:01

And it's not gonna go away. I'm strongly in like 15 minutes.

Matt 20:04

I'm really debating giving you a stellar sip right now. I'm strongly debating it. Whoa. Dude.

Rob 20:09

Yeah, do it. I'll second.

Sound Effect 20:13

Stellar sip.

Rob 20:18

Yeah. I didn't think like I've said it twice, at least, maybe 14 times, maybe 30. I really like this beer. I was really afraid it was gonna be like awful. I would not go out of my way to order it. Agreed. But I will drink the entire uh 16 ounce bottle that he put out in front of us. Yeah. So there's that.

Andy 20:45

Oh, so I guess we should have great mines.

Rob 20:49

Oh. Ooh, these look better than mine, though. They look far better.

Andy 20:53

This is the penny sticks brand mini pretzels. Wait a second. You got those from a dollar store? This is from the Dollar Tree, from the dirty one. Alright. They've got a little bit more of that burnt that you were talking about.

Rob 21:04

They have texture. Oh my god. Something we've had very little of this episode so far.

Matt 21:10

Yeah. There's a nice texture change.

Rob 21:13

Okay. I will concede these pretzels way better than the Snyders ones I I brought.

Andy 21:18

However, it goes all goes down to this super awkward picture. Yeah. You got the pretzelmen. The pretzel men in like this pseudo-prom picture happening here.

Matt 21:29

We will have this on social media so you can take a look and judge for yourself.

Rob 21:33

Like that's that's nice. Maybe that I'm just gonna test. Maybe that's the episode name, the pretzelman. The pretzelman. You can do that. The smoked pretzelman. We should figure out how to say pretzelman in German. In Deutsch. Das pretzel. Das whatever the word for pretzel.

Matt 21:53

It's gotta it's gotta sound angry. It just has to sound very angry.

Rob 21:57

Hang on.

Matt 21:58

Unless it's actually pretzel, in which case this is No, it's not Pretzel.

Rob 22:01

I should know this. I took like seven and a half to eight years of German. You did, and I used to be able to s speak it with great proficiency. And not so much anymore.

Matt 22:12

So Bert and I took middle school German together before he launched his sub-German career. And while he was excelling, our middle school German teacher, Frau Braski, said to my parents, I don't think German is going to be the language for your son. And it was very true. Yeah, it was very true.

Andy 22:28

Nor English.

Matt 22:29

No, turns out.

Andy 22:34

Alright, so now we're getting a little creative here. I found these waffle chocolates here.

Rob 22:41

These look delicious. Before we break into the waffle chocolates, I just need to tell you it's die Bretzelmena. Yeah. That's the pretzelmen. Die Bretzelmena. Alright. So these look like um the uh the sugar wafer cookies. Oh right. Look delicious.

Andy 23:00

Thin layers of chocolate.

Rob 23:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just gonna say this again because I don't think I can say this enough. Don't sleep on the dollar store for snacks. They've got some great.

Andy 23:11

The snack aisle is quite impressive.

Rob 23:13

Ooh, this smells very sweet. It was very picked over when I went this afternoon.

Matt 23:18

Not terribly so, but the sweet works really well with the beer. It works really well.

Rob 23:25

I'm very excited to get some more of the chocolate notes, potentially.

Andy 23:29

It's a little too sweet for me. They are pretty sweet. Yeah. But I will say I'm liking the mix of the sweet with the smoky of the beer.

Rob 23:38

I think you're two for two at the moment. Yeah. On your pairings.

Matt 23:44

It takes the smokey on the back end of the beer and gives it just a little sweetness with it, and it works really well.

Andy 23:50

I'd still rather have these with coffee though. Maybe a nice coffee style.

Rob 23:56

Or a more yeah, a more coffee flavored beer. All right. What else you got?

Andy 24:01

Rob filling that up might have just been a mistake because this is where where things are gonna get weird. Oh boy. Oh boy. So I was fully expecting this being right after Halloween, all kinds of discount Halloween candy. Me too. None whatsoever. However, it's Christmas time.

Sound Effect 24:20

So I saw these chocolate spoons.

Rob 24:24

Dear God.

Andy 24:24

Which the idea is that you would like make some hot cocoa and stir it with that. Stir that in there.

Rob 24:30

Gotcha.

Andy 24:30

Alright. So I was thinking. We're going right in the beer. Right in the beer. Stir that bad boy up. We're going right in the beer. And see if we enhance the flavor at all.

Rob 24:40

It's making it a little bit frothy. Yep. I I sipped after stirring. I'm not getting any enhanced flavor at the moment. No, I'm just gonna take a big bite of this chocolate spoon.

Matt 24:53

Not bad.

Rob 24:54

I can live with that.

Matt 24:55

I can live with that too.

Rob 24:59

Not gonna lie, it's pretty bad chocolate on the whole.

Andy 25:04

It's like dark chocolate. Being that this didn't like melt or dissolve in the least. Like I'm giving it a pretty good stir here, and it is there is zero dissolving happening.

Sound Effect 25:17

Okay.

Matt's Drinkable

Andy 25:19

Bert's got a face going. Something's gone wrong on that side of the table.

Rob 25:23

The flavors are non-meshing now. It was great. It was great for a moment. It almost made it. And now that moment is gone. What does that taste? From the chocolate.

Andy 25:38

Cheap chocolate. Cheap, yeah. Yeah. Oh. That's some artificial sweetener going there. That's that's not a winner.

Matt 25:45

Chocolate with asper tame. Chocolate with asper tame.

Rob 25:50

I mean, two out of three.

Matt 25:51

It was worth a try. Two out of three.

Rob 25:52

It was worth a try. Two out of three ain't bad.

Andy 25:55

We went super conservative with the pretzels.

Rob 25:57

Going into this last one, I think I think you're in the lead. Rookie mistake there. Yep. Touch your eyes.

Andy 26:03

Touch the spicy chip. Touch the eyes. Rookie mistake. Ah, we're getting it out. We're good. We're good.

Matt 26:08

All right. I don't know. I didn't hate the chocolate and the smoked beer. I thought it actually went rather well. Now, the fact that it didn't dissolve or change form when it hit liquid is a little suspect at best.

Rob 26:19

Listen. Strap in, guys. You have no idea how bad Matt's last situation was.

Matt 26:28

So yeah. So I will say that my theory going into this was that the smoked beer is a strong flavor. So I wanted to pick things that had a strong flavor with them to try and overcome what was going on in the smoked beer. And as I said before, inside of me is still a little kid trying to get out here. So when I go to the dollar store, I go for the snacks that everybody would recognize that are rather tasty. And we're going to start off with some teriyaki beef jerky. So you're going meat on meat. I'm going meat on meat.

Rob 26:59

Smoked meat on smoked meat. No. But with a dehydrated sweet meat. Smoky liquid.

Matt 27:06

If you're feeling brave, you can dip it. No, I don't want that brave.

Andy 27:10

I have a hard pass on that.

Matt 27:12

Next up. I wanted to get some vanilla in there with the smoky flavor. Thinking like oak barrel, eight French oak, aged wine, that sort of thing. So we went with some vanilla cookies. It's going to have a very strong vanilla flavor. Those you can try and dunk as well. And then I was I might try that. And then I was thinking, I wanted something with cheese and pretzel, something of that combination, and I happened to pass. Got something with neither. Combos.

Rob 27:39

Fake cheese.

Matt 27:40

Yeah, it's fake cheesy flavored cheese. But we have cheddar cheese combos, which I thoroughly enjoy. I will put this here in the middle of the table. I'm just going to grab one of each and we can play pass it around.

Rob 27:53

Alright.

Matt 27:53

Oh God.

Rob 27:54

I didn't mean to get the biggest slice of jerky. What brand was this jerky?

Matt 28:02

Um, it was clover something, clover farms.

Rob 28:05

And was it sweet teriyaki?

Matt 28:07

No. Regular teriyaki. It has no flavor.

Rob 28:12

This tastes like pot roast.

Matt 28:14

Yeah. It has no teriyaki flavor to it at all.

Rob 28:19

It really doesn't. This literally tastes like pot roast. It's meat-flavored meat. It it tastes like somebody's mom was like, I'm making a roast tonight. And then she dried it the shit out. And uh and this is what's left. Again, it wasn't it's not bad. It's also not good. I taste not good. I taste the shelf that this was on.

Matt 28:45

Yeah. Fair. Alright. I'm going, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna dip this vanilla cookie. Oh! In my beer.

Rob 28:53

Oh, oh! Did no one else try to take a drink with the the jerky in your mouth? I did. No, not with it in my mouth. Are you? Oh, it wasn't that bad. Oh, so bad. We're not gargling foods with beer. Oh, Rob, poor choice. Alright.

Andy 29:15

Well, sir, that's not bad. It's weird. It's real weird, but it's not bad. Oh, I gotta do it. Give it a shot.

Rob 29:24

Dip the cookie. Alright, uh, I've moved on to the cookie.

Matt 29:27

The vanilla does overcome the smoky.

Rob 29:30

Is it bad that the beer doesn't get absorbed by the cookie? It just kind of runs off the sides. Yes. There's probably some polymer coating the outside of these cookies. There's my shine for you. I use the word polymer. Slacken.

Matt 29:51

What is it, Christmas vacation where it's like it's the non-something cereal varnish that he made?

Rob 29:55

Yeah. This has got some cereal varnish on it for sure.

Matt 29:58

I don't think it's that bad. Rob's face begs to differ.

Rob 30:02

I still just have the beef jerky taste in my mouth. I thought that mine was horrible. I don't know how you do this, Matt, but but somehow, somehow, you find a way to be the worst. The vanilla cookie is not bad. Yeah. I'll give you the vanilla cookie for now. But that meat.

Matt 30:22

Keep in mind, if the combos work, that's one more thing that worked than was on your plate. So hey, the dates worked. The dates worked. Not the story of you in high school.

Rob 30:35

Oh, well, that's all right. Say what you will. All I can say is everybody prefers my meat to yours. Ooh, it was true. Yes. Actually, well, not in this instance. Well, you weren't here for the last francs were pretty terrible. Yeah, yeah.

Matt 30:55

Pretty soft, pretty mushy. My meat was rather rigid.

Rob 30:58

That's not a good thing. Good God, Matt.

Matt 31:01

Okay. So combos. So combos. I'm gonna throw a couple in the mouth and then spig the beer.

Rob 31:08

What what is with you guys gargling your food and beer? The whole point is to see how the beer pairs with the food. Sure. I can do that by eating the object and then drinking the object one after another. This is okay. I find it quite enjoyable. These combos are not as stale as I had anticipated based on the other snacks that we had today. So apparently, Dollar General moves their product more than Dollar Tree. I guess so. Or they just move combos, one of the two.

Matt 31:46

It was the last one of that kind of combo on the shelf, so you could be correct.

Rob 31:51

That's either a good sign or a really bad sign. This works. I have so many terrible flavors in my mouth right now. Like it's it's just this amalgamation of awfulness. Yeah, it all built together. Yeah.

Andy 32:08

I literally had a thought for a second there of where did the spicy come from in the combo? No, no, no. It's still the red hot chip. That's like six things ago.

Rob 32:16

Yeah. The red hot chip is just hanging on for the ride at the moment.

Matt 32:21

I think the combo works. It gives you that Bavarian cheese. I had a pretzel vibe. I'm getting it.

Rob 32:27

There is nothing Bavarian about a combo. I am fighting for a win here.

Matt 32:31

I am fighting for a win. I want to win, okay?

Rob 32:34

Well, I I apologize to you, but if if we're going to the judges, my vote goes for Andy's trio, personally. I I think he had a solid two out of three. No question that two of his three were good.

Matt 32:51

I would agree. Were they better than my vanilla and combo chips?

Rob 32:55

Yeah.

Matt 32:55

And I also don't I don't want to sleep on Chris's chips either, because they were both very good.

Rob 33:00

The chips were good. Don't get me wrong about the red hot chips, but his other two offerings I don't think came close to how good Andy's pairings worked. And and the pretzels to pretzels, you know, I mean, that's what I'm saying is like in my mind, I just compare the pretzels and and the ones Andy brought the pretzel men way better. Yeah, those are going on. The pretzel mana, yeah.

Matt 33:23

I do think the episode title, though, as I look, is going to be Spooning Bavarians. Gross. I think that's I think that's where we are. Bavarians need love too. I'm I'm going back for more combos. I'm particularly enjoying the wafers.

Rob 33:35

Yeah, the wafers were my official.

Andy 33:37

They're a little too sweet, but they're they're good.

Rob 33:40

Of everything we did, it was the red hot chips and the wafer cookies that I liked the most. I I think I can agree with that solidly. Yep. I will say that Matt's vanilla cookies a close third. Yep.

Matt 33:54

Okay. All right.

Rob 33:56

Yeah, I feel like the the vanilla cookies, if that was the very last thing you had, it would be a good finisher. Yeah, Matt, I I feel like you could have also picked a better order, like finishing with the sweet. That might have worked. Could have could have worked better. No matter what, that meat was not redeemable. No, it was not.

Matt 34:17

No.

Rob 34:18

Old pot roast. No teriyaki insight.

Matt 34:21

I passed on the jack roast.

Rob 34:23

Not made by your grandmother. It's pot roast made by like the old church lady?

Matt 34:29

No, she's not doing so well.

Rob 34:31

Church ladies know how to cook. Yeah, they're the ones that are cooking the best pot roast. Like my grandmother, she made the best pot roast on the planet, but like this was terrible pot roast. What's the opposite of an old grandmother? The baby? The dolly channel. Yeah.

Matt 34:54

I think it is time to declare Andy the winner of Roushbeer Drinkables.

Andy 35:00

Nice. Congratulations. I'd like to thank all the people that brought me here and the decision to not go to the new dollar store.

Matt 35:10

You're welcome. And for your victory.

Sound Effect 35:15

Stellar sip.

Andy 35:20

Unomas sip. All right. The spoon's not better later.

Rob 35:26

Dude, no, what are you doing? Ugh.

Matt 35:30

This episode's boozy quote comes from Arnold Schwarzenegger. Milk is for babies. When you grow up, you have to drink beer. Don't forget to subscribe to Matt and Friends Drink the Universe wherever you get your podcast from, like Apple, Amazon, Google, or iHeartRadio. Please follow, like, and press all the buttons for us on social media. It's Matt and Friends DTU on Facebook and Instagram. It's Matt and Friends DTU. For more information about the podcast, please visit Matt and FriendsDTU.com.