Matt and Friends Drink the Universe

Rocket Rankings "Stout Beer Tasting"

• Matt and Friends Drink The Universe • Episode 57

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Christa, Josh, and The Fish join Matt for a casual stout tasting that quickly transforms into a fascinating exploration of craft brewing's darkest frontier. Diving headfirst into ten distinct stouts ranging from modest 5% session-friendly options to formidable 14.2% bourbon barrel-aged behemoths, our panel discovers that ABV numbers and fancy descriptions don't always align with drinking pleasure.

The journey takes unexpected turns as pre-tasting predictions fall flat. A chocolate strawberry ice cream stout initially dismissed as potentially undrinkable surprises everyone with its restrained balance, while a high-priced, wax-sealed special release bourbon barrel stout polarizes the group. Throughout the tasting, the conversation weaves between technical brewing knowledge, flavor analysis, and entertaining tangents—including a passionate defense of raccoons and trash pandas found on one particularly memorable can.

As the group progresses through progressively stronger offerings, clear patterns emerge about what makes a truly exceptional stout. Is it balance? Drinkability? Flavor complexity? Or simply how well it lives up to its name? 

Whether you're a stout aficionado or simply curious about dark beers, this episode offers valuable insights into how seasoned tasters evaluate these complex brews and what separates the truly stellar from the merely adequate. Which stout would claim the top spot on your personal ranking? Listen, learn, and maybe discover your next favorite dark beer along the way.

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Cheers, and thanks for listening!

Matt:

That will never not be fun for me to listen to.

Christa:

I was like, wow, I forgot how long it was.

Josh:

This is my first rocket ranking, so I believe it's mine as well.

The Fish:

Yeah.

Christa:

So we are I think it's my second or third, maybe. That was a good couple. It was very close to the actual audio of that.

Matt:

So now that you can hear us talking, let's do brief introductions.

Christa:

Hi, I'm Christa.

Matt:

I'm Josh. Hey, it's The Fish. And live in the studio, The Fish. Live in the studio. Live in the studio. And I am your host, Matt. And today we are ranking stouts. We have many stouts. So here's your warning. We are trained professionals. Do not try this at home. They range in ABB from 5%.

Christa:

Wait, hold on. You got 14%.

Matt:

I think we train all day for this. That's true. That's true. That's true. That's true. Every day.

Christa:

It's all day, every day. All day, every day.

Matt:

It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Christa:

Exactly.

Matt:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So if you didn't hear, I'll say it again. We have stouts ranging from 5% to 14.2%. So this is going to get interesting in a hurry. We're going to open up with a blind ranking. So what's going to happen is Josh is going to read off a beer. He's going to pick one out, read what it is, and we're just going to put it on a list and see where we think it's going to land. And then we're going to do our tastings and actual rankings.

Josh:

Yeah, so they won't know what's coming next. Um, some of them know, obviously, which beers, because we each brought some of these beers that they have, maybe that aren't coming up. But we're going to start with Fish. I'm going to give him a beer and he's going to put it on the list somewhere between one and ten. And then we'll go to Matt next until we're done with those ten and we'll we'll see how they compare at the end to our actual rankings. So, Fish, let me grab a beer. Ah, beer is good. I'm randomly pulling these ten beers. Fish, your first beer, you're going to need to tell us where you want to rank this just by name and brewery. It comes from Mill House Brewing Company out of that would be Poughkeepsie, New York. Okay, out of Poughkeepsie, New York. This must be one of yours. So this beer is called the Velvet Panda. It is an American stout. It is a 5.2% ABV. Where do you want to put this on our rankings? Where do you think this is going to fall? One out of ten.

The Fish:

Yeah, you're right. It is one one of mine, but um I'd I'd say maybe top four.

Josh:

Ooh, he thinks it's gonna be in the top half.

The Fish:

All right.

Christa:

Top half, but still middle. Showing self-confidence. The can is super cute, by the way. I really like it. It's very cute.

Josh:

So Velvet Panda is slotted in the four spot. Matt, we're going to you next. We have a Samuel Smith organic chocolate stout with an ABV of this is coming out of the UK, by the way, and I think this might be our only non-American beer that we had today. This is a 5% ABV. Where do you think?

Matt:

I'm gonna say we have 10 total. I'm thinking that's gonna be eight.

Josh:

Okay, we're putting Sam Smith at eight.

Christa:

Also, I like that can. It is also very cute. It's like kind of matte looking, though. So which is kind of funny. What does that mean? What do you mean by that? What do you mean by that?

Josh:

Alright, Christa. We'll go with you next. Yippee! All right.

Christa:

Oh, that's a big bottle.

Josh:

We got a big bottle.

Christa:

Big bottle.

Josh:

Big beer here. All for you. So this is from Bald's Bur Bald Birds Brewing Company. This is the birds reserved bourbon barrel-aged Imperial Stout coming in at a whopping 14.2 ABV.

Christa:

Jesus Christ.

Josh:

Yeah, this comes from heavy Jersey Shore. Big bottle. Big ABV. Sorry, this comes from Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania.

Matt:

Yes.

Josh:

Whoop, whoop. Yep.

Matt:

I've told that story before.

Josh:

Jersey Shore. Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. Yes. So eight and four are already gone.

Christa:

Where do you want to put this on our rankings of I mean, it's a high ABV and the bottle looks really cool. And I, you know, PA native out here. I'm going to rank this one at three. I think it's going to be good.

Matt:

All right.

Josh:

So we're putting the bird's reserve. And for those of you asking or wondering about the bottle, it's got a copper-colored wax dip top. Yeah. Very, very cool looking bottle here. Yeah, and it's a big one too.

Christa:

It's a big boy.

Josh:

Yeah.

Christa:

Two hands for size. Two-hand or yeah, it's girthy. All right, fish.

Matt:

Cosmic chug people before we have anything to drink.

Christa:

Cosmic chug, my Red Bull out here.

Josh:

There you go. All right, so Fish. Coming out of the Captain Lawrence brewery, we have a dark chocolate cherry Imperial Stout coming in at 10% ABV. Ooh. Where do you think this is going to fall? This is out of Elmsford, New York.

Christa:

Also a very cute can.

The Fish:

I'm going to put this maybe my first thought was a seven. Seven? Seven.

Christa:

Bottom half. I'm curious to see who's going to rank number one and who's going to rank number ten. If so if one's going to be pulled and we go, that looks like number ten. Or like, that looks like the best beer of all time. Number one.

Josh:

Matt, coming up for you, we have an Alagash Gatherwell bourbon barrel aged stout. So our second bourbon barrel aged stout of the day. Uh brewed and bottled in Portland, Maine, 11% ABV.

Christa:

The second most famous Portland.

Josh:

I'm gonna go with five. Five for the Alagash.

The Fish:

Yeah, but this one has lots of good beers.

Josh:

That's true. That's true. We did drink an Alagash stout last night. Different one than a couple of us here.

The Fish:

Yes.

Christa:

Good brand. Good brewery. Yes. I um I wish that uh I went up to Maine a couple years ago, but I was not able to get to Portland. So kind of sad. But maybe one day I'll get back up there and I can go see Alagash.

The Fish:

I would love to go there.

Matt:

Portland is a beautiful town. I was lucky enough to be there a couple times last time on business, and I got stuck there for an extra night. And I went down to the docks, had there's a great coal fired pizza place on the docks.

Christa:

Good problems get stuck.

Matt:

Good coal fired pizza, hung out. I'm pretty sure I said that before on the podcast, but I love Portland, Maine. Shout out to you, Portland.

Christa:

Shout out, Portland. We love you.

Josh:

All right, so Christa, we got the top two spots available, the bottom two spots available, and one right in the middle at six. So I got one, two, six, nine, and ten. And your beer is coming out of Stable 12 Brewing Company. It is a French toast stout, stout brewed with vanilla, maple syrup, and cinnamon, and it's a 6.5% ABV.

Christa:

Um, so I have had Stable 12 before. I have been to this brewery before. Okay. Um, and I very much enjoy their stuff. So I'm gonna I'm gonna take it. I'm number one, baby. I'm ranking this on this bell. It sounds promising, and I love me some French toast. My dad's French toast is the best French toast, so and I'm feeling a little breakfasty today, you know? There you go.

Matt:

Okay, all right. So where is stable 12? In between 11 and 13.

Christa:

Yeah, I was gonna say, I think it I think it's like towards Phoenixville, if I'm not mistaken.

Josh:

All right. Yep. Handcrafted and brewed in Pennsylvania, and uh the city is written, oh what does it say? Phoenixville. Yeah, it's Phoenixville.

Christa:

I was gonna say, I'm pretty sure it's Phoenixville, but I'm not sure if it was just Phoenixville, but a little bit to the left or something like that. You know what I mean? But Phoenixville has a lot of really good distilleries and breweries, and that's like down kind of towards my apartment.

Josh:

So all right, fish, moving on. We have a Stoutober Imperial Milk Stout with cacao nibs by Bad Sons Beer Company in Connecticut. So I'm assuming you, as the native Connecticutten, how do you call yourselves?

The Fish:

Connecticut? Connecticut and oh dear, wow, that is really, really wrong.

Matt:

Wrong. That's not our part of the internet. Continue. But I'm assuming but I'm assuming you brought this beer.

The Fish:

I did, yes.

Josh:

So have you had it? Do you know of it? Where do you want to put it?

The Fish:

Uh give me a niner.

Josh:

A niner, okay. Not very uh humble for the beer he brought.

The Fish:

I'm basing it on the other options that are here that I've already seen.

Matt:

Fair enough. Better earlier self-confidence is now winning.

Josh:

All right, Matt, here we go. Yep. For you, I have a beer that's called Eric More Cowbell. It's a chocolate milk stout uh from single cut, and it is a 6.0% ABV.

Matt:

Put that in the highest slot we got left.

Josh:

Okay, we're gonna be able to do that.

Matt:

Hilarious, for yeah, for the reference to my favorite SNL skit of all time.

Christa:

That's your favorite one of all time. Oh my god. Excellent.

Josh:

Brewed with chocolate, vanilla, and milk sugar. So we have some real desserty ones up top. We've got a French toast and we've got uh chocolate milk uh stout up top.

Matt:

I would never try a Christopher Walken, but the line of I put my pants on just like you, one leg at a time. But when my pants are on, I make gold records.

Josh:

There is a cowbell on the uh the label here. Single cut's some good stuff. I don't know if you guys have ever had anything from single cut, but I very much like their stuff. Yep. Where is it at? Uh Astoria, New York City. Ooh. All right, Christa, for you, we have a new trail, chocolate strawberry, ice cream stout. And that is coming in at 8.6 ABV. Brood in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Christa:

Yep. Uh, this was actually one of mine that I brought. Hee hee. Shout out to my BFF Allison, who said, let me know how it is so I can try it in nine months. I was like, You got it all! Congratulations. Yes, congrats, Allison. Yes, she's uh having her first baby, so very cool for her. But cool.

Josh:

So you have six or ten left. Do you think it's gonna be middle of the pack or the worst beer we've got?

Christa:

Um, you know, I feel like this is one of gonna be one that's either really, really good or really, really horrible, but I'm gonna I think I'm gonna rank it at 10.

Josh:

All right, so we're gonna put the new trail at 10.

Matt:

So will Allison be disappointed or happy in nine months.

Christa:

Yeah, all right. Well, she'll be happy about the baby. She'll be disappointed maybe about the beer. We'll see.

Josh:

All right, and that leaves our last beer when nobody needs to rank this. I'm gonna tell you what it is. This is called Gimme the Gourbage Milk Stout. It is out of Little House Brewing Company. It is a 6.2% stout. And where does that come from? Brewed and packaged by 12% North Haven, Connecticut. What's 12%? Is that one of their um is that like the parent company of Little House Brewing? Okay, cool. Cool.

Matt:

Yeah, interesting. So we have the Samuel Smith's organic chocolate stout, then Velvet Panda from Mill House Brewing, Eric Moore Cowbell from Single Cut, French Toast from Stable 12, gimme the Gorbridge Milk Stout from Little House Brewing Company, not on the prairie, chocolate strawberry ice cream from Neutral, Stout Tober from Bad Sun's Beer Company, Dark Chocolate Cherry Imperial Stout from Captain Lawrence, Gatherwell Bourbon Barrel from Alagash, and Birds Reserve from Bald Birds Brewing. And we are going to taste these in order of ABV. This way our taste buds don't totally explode by the time we get to the grenade that I think Bald's Birds Reserve at 14.2% is going to be.

Christa:

Taste bud explosion at the end, everybody.

Josh:

So that was the order you just read it in. That's the order we're actually going to taste. Yes.

Matt:

Um set list order, if you will, for the musicians out there. That's perfectly fine.

Josh:

And then I have our blind ranking order. I'm not going to read through them now, but we will compare at the end as far as where we think our rankings land versus where we thought they might land before we ever taste these.

Matt:

Absolutely. So Sam Smith's organic stout. Let's do it. Who's pouring up? So that's number one. Josh is the beer mollier for today.

Josh:

Sorry. My wife just texted me. Please talk me out of buying 10 pounds of pork belly.

Christa:

That sounds like a problem not to be talked about.

Josh:

Exactly. I did not talk her out of it.

Christa:

You said you came to the wrong person, girl.

The Fish:

I'm sorry. I'm busy at the moment. Yeah, right.

Josh:

I believe she's at Costco. Oh, there you go.

The Fish:

Yeah, I would think so.

Josh:

We're going with Sam Smith to start here. We all have 10 cups in front of us. We're going to go in the mic.

Matt:

Get a good pop in the mic.

The Fish:

Oh. Oh, perfect pop.

Josh:

Music to my ears. So we're going to go light pours on each of these because almost all, no, all of these are at least 16-ounce beers. Um we're not going to drink much of each, but the five and six percenters are the low beers.

Matt:

Yep.

Josh:

We all numbered our cups here so that we can retaste as we go through. And Matt knows the numbers of each beer. I have them written down as well. I do. Sam Smith organic chocolate stout malt beverage with natural flavor added, brewed and canned in the UK. Sam Smith's is a small, fiercely independent, family-owned, and operated brewery since 1758. And that's exactly what it says on the can. I didn't make any of that up. And it's also USDA organic. Wow. Specifically noted on the bottle. Awesome.

The Fish:

It's a can, Josh.

Josh:

I'll tell you what, on the nose, this smells like chocolate milk.

Christa:

Yeah, it smells really good. I find it, I don't want to say disappointing, but I it's we're gonna fight.

Matt:

I love this. Yeah.

Christa:

And it's just it's just a little bit, it's just a little, I don't want to say bland, but there's nothing spectacular about it, I feel.

Josh:

I know what you mean. It's kind of like flat as far as like the finish. It doesn't matter. It's the middle of the road. I mean, if you're so we're starting here on purpose, right? It's the lowest ABV, it's probably got the the the lowest amount of body on it, then, and that's totally fine. You know, you could sit and drink a few of these where we're gonna get to beers that you could have one of them, and then you're probably gonna call it split. Right. Oh, yeah. So I mean, this is a nice, easy, yeah, as we would call it in the wine industry, patio pounder. You know, if you're sitting on the patio in the fall.

Matt:

I know, I know stout is a I know stout is a big fish fan. I know fish is a big stout fan.

The Fish:

Stout is a big stout fan.

Christa:

Stout is a big fish fan. Very good. Yes, we're gonna go with that.

Matt:

Yeah, and I'm on my first beer, ladies and gentlemen. So fish is a big stop. I am a big stout fan too. I know Christa was very excited for this.

Christa:

I love drinking stouts. Same here.

Matt:

I think stouts go great at 90 degrees on the beach, too. I'm very strange. I will drink. Oh, I will I try and doesn't matter what time of year.

The Fish:

Hoard a stout so that when it's not available in the stores, hmm, I put it out of my fridge.

Matt:

There you go. I'm starting this one at a four.

Josh:

Like a four out of ten? Or your fourth, number four.

Matt:

I'm ranking it number four to start with. Here I'm writing more early on.

Josh:

I'm writing down in my own little notepad over here like scores. So I'm gonna give this like a six and a half out of ten. I think there's a lot of room for improvement in the style work.

Matt:

We got a final Google form here. There's no halves.

Josh:

No, no, no. So that way at the end, I can rank them off of my own. Okay. Yeah, he's making it complicated. No, I'm not. I'm complicating it for myself only. Yes, exactly. I wasn't even gonna say it.

Matt:

Josh is adding layers of complexity that we're gonna see if he can cope with when we learn them.

Josh:

No, no, no. I just uh just at the end, I just have to look and see what numbers are highest.

Christa:

Yeah, I'm ranking this, I'm I'm ranking this as a five right now from ranking. It's dead middle for me right now.

Josh:

Yeah, but who knows? The other nine stouts could all be terrible. And it could be number one. That's that's so true.

Christa:

That's so true.

Matt:

Yep, we can move it around here as we go. That's the nice part about this Google form.

Josh:

I need someone to help me find the millhouse. Here it is. All right, so I will read straight off the can here. This is our second beer we're gonna taste. It is called Velvet Panda. It's by Millhouse Brewing. This is part of their rotational series out of Poughkeepsie, New York. Fun fact I went to culinary school in Hyde Park, New York, which is right up the street from Poughkeepsie. So, do you want the the tech stuff off of the can? Yeah, sure. I'll read you, I'll read you as I pour these, just the stuff that you can do. Yeah, it's not that long. So it's a Velvet Panda, American Stout, 5.2 ABV, 44 IBU, 39 SRM. I don't I'm not familiar with SRM, are you? I know what IBU is.

Matt:

Have a horsepower and torque on there too.

Josh:

Uh it says pandas may be solitary bears, but we drink our stout with friends. Hints of chocolate and layered roast characters with balanced bitterness and dry finish are sure to make you feel as noble as a panda. Hey, you deserve it. It's brewed with magnum hops, two row, dark wheat, roasted barley, carfoth, two, flaked barley and oats, black malt, and chocolate malts.

Christa:

Side note, um, just googled it. SRM is the standard reference method, um, which is a system used to measure the beer's color.

Josh:

Oh. Okay.

Christa:

What uh what was the number for SRM?

Josh:

39.

Christa:

39? Yeah, pretty dark.

Josh:

On the dark side, yeah. Pretty dark. Yep.

Christa:

One being the lightest.

Josh:

I didn't know we had a measure of darkness in beers, but yeah.

Christa:

Yeah, one is the lightest and 40 is the darkest. So 40 is the darkest. So this is one off the darkest. One off the darkest. So wow.

Matt:

If anybody is curious, the organic uh chocolate Sam Smith is a 4.04 on untapped and Velvet Panda.

Josh:

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

The Fish:

Don't give us the score yet. No, we before we taste it.

Matt:

You can do that at the end. Oh, we've done this before just to talk through the what they actually are. Um Velvet Panda is a 3.72. But I find sometimes that the untapped rankings don't necessarily reflect how how good the beer actually is, because you might get a bunch of IPA folks out drinking stouts going, I don't like this one, and then they rank it low. So yeah, for sure. Anyone who wants to can go on there.

The Fish:

Plus, this is all that's all based on personal preference.

Matt:

Subjectivity versus objectivity. Correct.

Unfiltered Studios Announcer:

It's a low-hanging science, but I'm taking it. Science!

Matt:

We talked a lot of science right there.

The Fish:

I thought you were gonna go with math.

Matt:

That's what we'll do at the end, hopefully.

Josh:

Oh. Why did you number your cups if you're gonna drink it all at one time? I'm not going back.

Matt:

I'm not going back. These are the point in numbering the cups. My favorite kind of beer. We're just doing it. All right, what do we smell?

Christa:

I don't smell much of anything. I don't know if that's just me.

Josh:

I I went to smell the beer, but I smell the microphone. There you go. It smells like microphone. Don't do that. It smells like it smells like 45, 46 episodes of beer. Yeah, I just get some malt in here. Not much of the I mean, this is not uh this is not a chocolate stout. This isn't a flavored stout at all. Exactly. Yeah, an American stout, yeah.

Matt:

Yeah. Yeah, it's a stout. Yeah. That's that's what I got.

The Fish:

Yes. Sure. It's it it's not bad. I wouldn't be mad about it.

Christa:

Yeah, I again, I think it's kind of middle of the road. Yeah, but a solid stout, I would drink this.

The Fish:

Yeah, most definitely. It's definitely solid. It's how if you're looking for a stout to drink, okay. This is a very good option. Yep. It is a stout. Most definitely. And like you just said, it's dark.

Christa:

Yes, yes, it is. It is quite, quite dark. Yeah, it it is it is very good.

Matt:

Even though my body type is actually turning into Panda Bear at this point, I'm gonna go with the seven.

Josh:

Putting it in seven spot.

Matt:

Yeah, I'm putting it in seven spot right now.

Josh:

I'm with you as far as I am ranking it lower than uh the Samsung.

Matt:

Yeah, I mean, these are all subject to change till we get to the end.

Christa:

Yeah, I think I'm gonna put it at eight right now, but um, yeah, it's subject to change depending on.

The Fish:

I was debating seven or eight myself.

Josh:

So this is one that I um we'll go with we'll go with eight. So next up, this is the one I was the most excited for. I did bring this one. I've had a few beers from Single Cut. I don't think I've ever had any of their stouts, but their beers are very good. So this one doesn't have much information on the can. This is the single cut Eric More Cowbell, chocolate milk stout. It says drink ASAP in clean, wide mouth glass, store cold and upright, unfiltered, decant carefully. So we might have a little bit of sediment here.

The Fish:

That means a new glass.

Josh:

Uh-huh. And their little um motto here is Mastery Knows No Shortcut. So brewed with chocolate, vanilla, and milk sugar.

Matt:

I'm expecting this beer to really explore the space.

Josh:

Yes. I mean, I would have Yeah, I hope it rocks my socks off, yo. I would have put this up towards the top. And we do have this Sam Smith, we had blind ranked at eight, and I think people have had that a little higher so far. At least Matt has. Yep. And Velvet Panda, we had ranked at fourth, and I think we all uh agree that that was gonna be below the the Sam Smith. So we'll see how this one goes. This one we have ranked at number two.

Matt:

Our Verionas is a good one. Very own. Bruce Dickinson over here.

Josh:

More cowbell. I get way less chocolate than I did on Sam Smith's on the nose, actually.

Christa:

Yeah, I agree. It it is um not as chocolatey on the nose than I said.

Josh:

More like uh more like uh like a dark chocolate on this one, and that other one is kind of like chocolate milk. Yeah, I wouldn't expect this to be.

Matt:

I agree with that. It's got a sweetness to it, though. Yeah, it definitely does have a sweetness to it.

Christa:

I I do like this. Oh, I like this.

Josh:

Yeah, that's nice.

Christa:

It's very nice. Smooth.

Josh:

It's got more of a bigger, like rounder mouthfeel, if you will. Yeah.

The Fish:

Yes, I agree with that.

Christa:

Excellent mouthfeel.

The Fish:

That is that is really good.

Matt:

It's got some subtle spice to it, too. Not too much spice, not like enough that I would even say spicy beer, but it's it's it's it's like nice. And when I say spice, I don't mean hot spice. I mean like holiday type of spice.

The Fish:

I've never had a Mexican hot chocolate beer. I will say, I don't know. Sounds good. Uh-huh. The one I had, uh-uh.

Josh:

I will say it says chocolate milk stout, but if you blind tasted me on this and didn't tell me chocolate milk stout, I don't know that I wouldn't have gone chocolate. I would not agree with that.

Christa:

I like the I like the finish on it. Like as you're swallowing it, it's really good. I don't know.

Josh:

Yeah, to me, it's more just like a good craft stout, and then and that's what it is, but it's not, it doesn't, it doesn't punch me with chocolate. No, I agree. Which I think is fine. I sometimes these things are like way over flavored, and you're like, wow, that's sweet. It tastes like, you know, I think we're gonna come down the road and we're gonna hit some of these chocolate strawberries and chocolate cherries and French toast and be like, all right, that's more than I really needed.

Christa:

Yeah, yeah, you know, I did um I yeah, I think the chocolate takes a backseat to the beer, which is which is nice.

Matt:

Yeah. I was at uh Iron Hill brewing recently. I'd never been there. I know it's like a chain place, and I ordered their chocolate milk stout. It's a lactose beer, and it has a lot of lactose in it, to the point where I got done drinking. Like, I'm not a huge lactose beer fan in general, but I got done drinking it, and I was sitting there and Jen was kind of looking at me funny because I was going, like, wow, that's really it started out like 100% milkshake, and on the back end, it was like this is why, because there's some weird flavoring going on in here.

Josh:

Yeah, so I just went back and tasted this next to the the Sam Smith's, which is also a chocolate stout. The Sam Smith's is like a lot sweeter, and this is just a lot bolder and richer, almost like you get some of the coffee notes and stuff like that.

The Fish:

Yeah, so you get a lot more coffee out of this. It with it saying that it's um milk chocolate stout, I agree with you.

Josh:

Yeah, I I would not yeah, but I still think it's overall a better beer than the Sam Smiths, personally. I agree. Um I just don't know that I would have called it a chocolate milk stout.

Matt:

But I slid Sam's down to five so I could put this in slot four and save one to six. So you're putting this right above the Sam's? I'm just above the Sam's, yeah. I don't mind that.

Christa:

Yeah, I have this one at three.

Matt:

This one just had a better finish than the Sam's to me. Like the Sam's rolled off and got a little ashy on the back end. This one did not. This rolled off sweet.

Josh:

If it makes sense, the Sam's is more like the Guinness version of this, right? It's a you can tell it's just a little lighter. I think this had like a five. Yeah, yeah.

The Fish:

Yeah, you know, kind of middle of the road, but at the same time, enjoyable. Sure.

Josh:

Alright, let's see next. French toast. All right. So we have high hopes as a group here for this one. This is the one we blind ranked at number one.

Christa:

I'm I'm very excited for this.

Josh:

This is the Stable 12 Brewing Company, French toast stout vanilla, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Comes in at 6.5% ABV. And other than the government warning and the copyright and please recycle, there's not anything else written on the can. So it doesn't matter.

Matt:

I will be very self-deprecating and say the one thing that we didn't take into account ranking this as one was the fact that I brought it. And that historically has been an issue.

Josh:

Yeah, we'll have to see which ones were furthest away from where we ranked once we uh once we finish this up. Alright, here we go.

Matt:

Oh.

Josh:

Oh, Matt likes it. Matt's also uh like a sweet cocktail guy. I don't smell any of the things it says. I don't smell the maple syrup. I don't smell the taste all the time.

Christa:

You can taste it, yeah. Yeah. For sure. It is very it is quite sweet.

Josh:

Oh, I dig it. You get cinnamon in there too? Oh yeah.

The Fish:

I got the cinnamon. Oh yeah.

Christa:

I feel like the cinnamon and maple are the key flavors right up top.

The Fish:

Yes.

Christa:

I'm into it.

Josh:

Better than I expected it to be. I don't love all the like super sweet stouts. Some of these I think get really sweet, but this is still nice and dry at the end.

The Fish:

Yeah. It it is. It does have like a spicy flavor touch to it.

Christa:

Yeah, I think it's the yeah, like the cinnamon on the back of it is like just enough to make it that uh and honestly, I was expecting more of a maple flavor.

Matt:

I'm getting a little, but not much. It rolls out quick, like it's halfway through the sip for me, and then the maple's out. Yes.

Christa:

Yeah. I've it yeah, cinnamon, I think, is the biggest.

Matt:

I can feel it as I'm breathing. I don't know if anybody else has it. Like as I breathe out, I can kind of like it.

Josh:

I mean, that's because we're going up in ABV. As you go the higher you go up in the ABV, when you breathe it out, you're gonna get that as well. But I don't know. This this isn't hitting for me. It's fine. It's it's okay. Um, you know, again, I I probably wouldn't send any of these back if I got them in a restaurant, but this isn't one that I would probably go back to.

Matt:

I'm going I'm going three on this one. I'm moving it way up there.

Christa:

I'm I'm also gonna rank this as three, and I'm gonna bump the uh Eric Moore Cowbell up to two, I think.

Matt:

Okay.

Christa:

Because I like this one a little bit less than the Eric Moore Cowbell, but I do like it more than the other two that we drank.

The Fish:

I do I see I'm I'm putting it at four. Yeah.

Matt:

Do we have any of the Eric Cowbell left? Like, can I taste them side by side? Side by side them.

unknown:

Yeah.

Christa:

That's why we were like, don't drink your whole cup at once, but go off, I guess.

Josh:

Uh I personally am only putting this above the velvet panda as far as what we've tasted so far. That's in my in my ranking system. Next up, we are going to the Gimme the Gorbit Milk Stout. This is made by Little House Brewing Company. It is 6.2 ABV. I like the can art.

Matt:

Second one on the 6.2 A. Can't deny the raccoon. Very stylish hobo raccoon. I enjoy him.

Josh:

There is a trash panda on the label here. Playing a banjo with a can that says tips, but that's crossed out, and it says trash. Uh, and then on the can it says raccoons and milk stouts don't get enough love, and we think that's a darn shame. That friendly, chonky critter you catch chicken picking his heart out back behind the cracker barrel dumpster at 2 a.m. Just give him the gorbage. Don't haul it away. You don't need it, but he does. And that perfectly simple, flavorful milk stout you brushed aside while looking for those bold and noisy pasty, nope, bold and noisy pastry stouts in the cooler. Cut that out. Think about what you're doing there, Bucko. Milk stouts are every bit as quote unquote hot damn delicious. And it's time we celebrate 'em. You give those trash pandas your garbage, and we'll keep on giving the world old-fashioned, timeless beer styles like this one. Deal.

Christa:

I didn't think I would be berated by a can today. Yeah.

Matt:

Little House Brewing. Whoever wrote that, give that person a raise. That was phenomenal.

Josh:

Hilarious. I'm into it. Tell me more stories. So I sell liquor and wine for a living, and the stories tell most of it. You know, it's it. I I can give you 40 different different whiskeys that you're gonna like, but where why do you pick which one you're gonna carry in your restaurant? And that you know, a lot of it comes down to the story, how it was made, how the company was founded, things like that.

Matt:

So that is the entire premise of this podcast, more or less. There's a story behind every drink. That was my original idea.

Christa:

I like the lore drop. That was cool. Yeah, that lore drop.

Matt:

Do you have a lore drop drop? I guess we've been around long enough to have our own lore. Look at that.

Christa:

Everything has lore. Like you making something is you creating the lore.

Matt:

Anyone else missing milk stout?

Josh:

No, not at all. It's very creamy on the finish.

Matt:

How about the front end?

Josh:

I mean, I don't know what I'm necessarily looking to taste for a milk stout on the front end, but it's creamy to me. And that's all the really good things. I like it. Better than the stable twelve we just tasted personally.

Christa:

I think this is um better than Velvet Panda, but I I think that I still like the stable twelve better than this one.

The Fish:

It it has a nice finish. You know.

Christa:

It is a good beer. It's a good beer.

The Fish:

Most definitely.

Matt:

I move this one down to seven just above the Velvet Panda.

The Fish:

Okay.

Christa:

I think I'm going to put this one. I think put it I think I'm going to put it at four. You know? I think that it is a little bit on the middle side, but I think upper middle. I do like it more than I like the Sam Smiths, and I like it more than the Velvet Panda for sure.

The Fish:

I agree with Chris. Um, but I'm gonna put it at four. I'm gonna change the uh the French toast one put it down at five.

Matt:

I move things around a little bit to get it. To get in there.

The Fish:

I gotta move the cowbell too. Uh oh.

Christa:

Yeah, my cowbell rests at two, and I'm keeping it there for now. So far, so far, that is the leader of my pack.

Josh:

I'm going against the grain here, but this is my second favorite of the five we've tasted so far.

Matt:

I was gonna say we are halfway through the pack at this point.

The Fish:

That's true. So I'm I'm getting like a chocolate aftertaste.

Matt:

A little bit, a little creamy chocolate. Yeah.

Josh:

Yeah, not like uh they added chocolate, but you know, some of those roasty notes that you get when you have stouts or make stouts. Yeah. Um I don't know. It has a good aftertaste. It's a long finish. Yes. And so to me, uh, this is this is coming through in my I'm not all that educated as far as beer goes, my uneducated beer tasting palette as a really good craft stout. And they weren't going for frills and fru fru whatever with it. It's just, I mean, maybe they talk me into it with the story by talking about it. But it's a good stout that's that tastes like stout. So that to me is the second best one we've tasted, personally. I and I I can still taste it as we're talking about it.

Matt:

It lingers. It lingers and it's good.

Josh:

And it's not a bad aftertaste. There are some beers you have and wines that you have and whatever that that you can taste it a minute later, and it's like, oh man, I wish this flavor wasn't still in my mouth. This is it's close.

Christa:

Did you have to let it linger?

The Fish:

Yeah, we've all been there. Yes.

Christa:

So I know I had to take a picture of that can to send it to my sibling cousin group chat because it's so funny.

The Fish:

Oh, well, the raccoon on there.

Christa:

Yeah, the little raccoon, and he's like playing a little banjo. It's very cute, yeah. I was like, I have to send that. That's so funny.

Josh:

We had this one blind ranked at six. So where where you guys have that kind of compared to where you said you're putting it somewhere in the middle?

Christa:

I put it at four. So I ranked it above so far.

The Fish:

I changed things around, so I put that this at four.

Matt:

I have it at seven, which I I reserve the right to move anything around later, but I'm I'm trying to hold some of the upper ranks just in case, and then we'll adjust.

Josh:

All right, now we have one that I am admittedly a little bit nervous about. I'm nervous about this one, I am too, I am too. I brought it, and I'm also so we rank this at 10. I'm not a I'm not a strawberry guy at all. And this is the new trail from Pennsylvania chocolate, strawberry, ice cream, stout, brewed with chocolate, strawberry, and lactose. Now, I generally do like beers that are brewed with lactose, so I'm cool with that. I'm just I'm not really a strawberry guy.

Christa:

See, I like strawberry. I'm not a cherry, I'm not a cherry girl, so I'm nervous for the cherry one.

The Fish:

That's fair. There's there's a difference between strawberries and cherries.

Matt:

You and I have brewed beer together. Correct. And you're still brewing. I'm taking a bit, I just don't have time, which sucks. But you made a strawberry stout when we brewed together last. Yes.

The Fish:

Yes. Okay. That was a while ago.

Josh:

So on the on the um can here, chocolate strawberry, stout, it's chocolate strawberry, ice cream stout, 8.6 ABV, one pint, 16 fluid ounces, brewed with chocolate, strawberry, and lactose, notes of smooth chocolate and bright berry, brewed in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Follow us at New Trail Brewing.

Matt:

So this is almost 9%. This is 8.6. So what I'm interested here, am I gonna get socked with alcohol flavor or am I gonna get overwhelming sweetness to cover the alcohol flavor?

Josh:

I mean, this is also a pretty big jump. We were at 6.2 and now we're at 8.6. So we're one and a half times the ABV that we were at, and we're not looking back from here. We can only go up. Yeah, this is the biggest jump until we go from our ninth beer to our tenth beer. So we're going up pretty significantly.

Matt:

Well, that's the thing about stouts too. I Guinness is probably one of the lowest ABV stouts that is out there. I believe it's like four percent, right?

Josh:

Yeah, they want to be the beer. They want to be a beer you can go in and have four of them or five of them and not be on your, you know, uh holy mackerel. Oh my goodness. I just poured it and it looked like I was pouring motor oil. That's a 48 on that.

Matt:

It is that is not used motor oil. That is a thousand to two thousand miles over used motor oil.

Josh:

Wow, we are shitting on this beer before we even try it. That doesn't mean it's bad. It's just the darkest beer we've seen by a long time. Oh my goodness, gracious.

The Fish:

I didn't even taste it yet, but we got that strawberry.

Christa:

Oh, strawberry big time on strawberry for sure.

Josh:

Yes. Like the strawberry filling in a strawberry pot tart, which I can't stand. But I'm not a strawberry guy. I'm not a strawberry guy, but it's like it's It's right there. That worries me because that's artificial strawberry flavoring. All right, this beer's better than I thought it was gonna be.

Christa:

Yeah, it actually is a lot better than I thought it would be as well.

Josh:

Yes. I'm definitely not putting it in last, even out of the six that we've tasted now. So our ranking of our blind ranking of 10 severely underrated this beer. Maybe not severely, but it it underrated the beer.

Christa:

I'm pleasantly surprised by it.

Josh:

I think I'm just looking at it in the cup, and it's color is crazy though. Yeah, yeah. For sure, get the strawberry in there, but the strawberry is subtle enough that it's palatable for me, and I don't like strawberry at all. So I'm I'm I'm okay with it.

Matt:

As Josh said, I like sweet cocktails, I like sweet drinks. It's just I can't help it. But I will say I expected this to actually be a little sweeter than it is overall. When you tell me ice cream, I expect sweetness, I expect sugar.

Josh:

Like that's why I don't mind it. You know, you want that, I don't want that. I don't want my beers to be sweet like a cocktail. If I want a sweet cocktail, I'll drink a sweet cocktail.

Matt:

Well, I'm just saying, not necessarily that I wanted it, but the name with the ice cream in it, I expected I am yeah, I was thinking, okay, this is gonna be a little sweeter than it is. I put it at a six, so I put it above the uh trash panda.

Christa:

I put this one at a three, and I knocked my uh trash panda down to four. Um and then I pushed my French toast to two and I pushed Cowbell to one.

Josh:

Okay. I think I'm putting this I'm not I'm not putting them in rankings. I'm I'm putting I'm ranking them compared to what I already drank. So this is gonna be third so far out of the six. Third so far out of the six that we have tried is where I'm putting it. I'm currently putting it behind single cut and uh give me the gorgeous.

The Fish:

See, I'm missing the ice cream.

Christa:

I mean, like the I feel like the the mouthfeel is like creamy like ice cream.

Josh:

I think this is good. Like, there are a lot of ways you can rank a beer. To me, I'm ranking it off of whether I like it more than the other beers or not. A lot of times people will take into account, well, does it taste like what it says on the can? And that's totally fine. Everyone has their own system of ranking, but I don't care if it does or doesn't taste like ice cream at the end of the day. I'm going strictly off of this one was the one I would want to drink the most again, and this one is the one I would want to drink the most never again, you know. Um, so that's for me, there's a thing to be said for well, it doesn't really taste like what it says on the can, and that's totally fine too. But I personally am just going, I like this one better than that one. So bang, it goes in.

Matt:

I get almost a smoky flavor out of it.

Josh:

I mean, that uh probably comes from if it's this dark, they're probably roasting their malts a little bit darker or their oats or whatever they're using in this. So I imagine that you're getting it out of that, which I'm fine with. Yeah.

Matt:

Yeah, no, it's good. I'm not saying it's bad, it's good.

Christa:

Yeah, the I mean I still can't get over the color of this beer. It's like drinking the void.

Matt:

It's good. So next up then would be the Stout Tober from Bad Sun's Beer.

Christa:

Is it Bad Sons like child son or like star son?

Josh:

All right, so stout tober. Thanks for answering my question, everything that one. I don't know the answer to that.

Christa:

I was that look at the can. Is how is sun spelled? That's my question.

Matt:

S-S-O-N-S. So implying misbehaving children.

Christa:

Okay, that was that was my thing. I was like, is it sun like S-U-N or S-O-N?

Josh:

Sorry, I was looking at the beer that dripped on my pants. And then every and then everyone ignored me. It's not that one. Uh so we went with the new trail last, which we had blind ranked at 10. This is what we have blind ranked at 9. This is, as Matt stated, the Stouttober Imperial Milk Stout with cacao nibs. So we're back into a milk stout. We're back into chocolate here. Um brewed and canned in Derby, Connecticut by Bad Sons Beer Company. One pint, nine percent alcohol by volume, and nothing else other than the government warnings and everything else on here. Cool label. Um very fall colors, a lot of pine cones on there, hoppy skulls, um, and uh yeah, a skull with like a pine cone or a head. So let's open it up and give it a try.

Matt:

We have now gone up to nine percent.

Josh:

Completely reasonable.

Matt:

Yes, and for anybody listening, we're doing like two to three ounce pours at the absolute most here. We are not downing a beer of each one of these in rapid succession. So yeah, man, that's like 11. There's your second safety warning for today. Yeah, it is not lunchtime yet.

Josh:

So this should be fun.

Matt:

I yeah, because I like stouts and I I'm tasting. Sure, sure. Tasting is good. No, we're tasting. You're drinking.

Christa:

Yeah. I'm just tasting more.

Josh:

It's a volume thing.

The Fish:

I'm tasting more than you are.

Matt:

I'm just tasting more. The fact that he goes, I did not inhale, and you start coughing was absolutely wonderful. No, that needs to be a drop. I'm just tasting more.

Josh:

Perfect. All right, so milk stout with cacao nibs. So this is closest in nose, in my opinion, to the Sam Smith chocolate milk stout that we had at the beginning, but it doesn't have the nose of like that really sweet, like Hershey's chocolate syrup or or um, what is it, Nesquick? So I would say like nose wise, it's between the what was the other dark chocolate one that we oh the single cut, right?

The Fish:

The this one, yeah.

Josh:

Yeah, so the Sam Smith was like had a nose of like you're going through the Hershey's chocolate factory. Correct. And then the single cut had like a little bit of dark chocolate on the nose. This one's like kind of right in between.

Christa:

Yeah, I agree. Um I don't I don't know if it's just me, but I'm really not tasting any chocolate in it though.

Matt:

Yeah, I'm not I'm not like overly impressed here. There's not a lot me neither.

Christa:

I'm I'm really or maybe a little bit at the end I can taste it, but it's not very prominent as a flavor.

The Fish:

I have to agree on that.

Josh:

Yeah, I get more of the creaminess and less of the chocolate, which is again depends on how you feel like ranking it.

The Fish:

Um but I just I agree with the creamy part, but the chocolate part, but I I don't even get it.

Christa:

Yeah, I'm thinking this this might end up being at seven or eight for me, I think.

Matt:

Well, I slid this all the way down to nine. This is under this is under so velvet panda for me is eight, and uh give me the gorbage is seven. And I I slid this into nine. I like those two better than I'm gonna do.

Christa:

I think I'm I think I'm putting this one at seven, and I'm sliding a velvet panda I'm gonna have at eight.

Josh:

I'm putting this one below the Sam Smith one, but I'm also putting this down at the bottom of what we've tasted so far, and we talked about aftertasts and finishes before. Yeah, but this is the the least pleasant finish I've had so far.

The Fish:

I agree.

Josh:

Bitter, which is fine. I don't mind bitter, but like almost a touch of sourness to it as well. That uh it's not like I don't want acidity really in my stouts. I don't want that to really be a lasting impression, so this is not my favorite. In fact, it's my least favorite so far. Yeah, that's it.

Christa:

Yeah, I think that I still have I still have Velvet Panda as my least favorite so far. Um, not to say it's a bad beer, but it it I think Velvet Panda is my least favorite so far.

unknown:

Yeah.

Josh:

All right, we're getting into double-digit ABV coming up here. We are also going back to some fruity chocolatey ones. This is the Captain Lawrence Dark Chocolate Cherry Imperial Stout. Bold, sweet, chocolatey.

Christa:

I fear this is going to be my least favorite one.

Josh:

That's fair. So it says dark chocolate cherry brewed with cherries and chocolate, 10% ABB by volume. Oh no, sorry. That is redundant. 10% alcohol by volume. Layers of dense cocoa flavor enshrine a sweet burst of dark cherries beautifully intertwined with a monumental stout to satisfy your sweet tooth.

Christa:

We'll see about that.

Josh:

We will see about that. Do you have a sweet tooth?

Christa:

I love sweet things. Um today I'm feeling a more savory mood, but you know savory. Interesting. Yeah, yeah. That's why I got a breakfast uh quesadilla instead of like doing like a pancake or anything like that. But I do like sweet things.

Josh:

Alright, so Captain Lawrence is out of, where did we say that was out of? Elmsford, New York, I mean. Elmsford, New York. Good memory. Where exactly is Elmsford, New York? I don't know. We are way dark again.

Christa:

Who uh who brought this beer?

Josh:

I brought this one.

Christa:

Oh, okay.

Josh:

Oh yeah. Just curious. I picked up three random stouts yesterday at the beer store three minutes up the street from where Matt and I live. Word. Uh, and I put them down to buy them. Little four packs. And the guy behind the counter goes, interesting beers you picked.

Christa:

Put the fries in the bag, bro.

Josh:

This guy's used to just some Joe Blows coming and getting back. Yeah, that's it. And garage beers.

Christa:

I was just gonna say garage beer.

Josh:

I have not had a garage beer yet. Has anybody had one? No, they have not. We drank them the whole day during the Super Bowl, and they're, you know, personally, I think if you're gonna go for a like a light beer style that you just want to drink a lot of throughout the day.

Matt:

Pretty good.

Josh:

It's better than Miller Light, it's better than Coors Light, it's better than Bud Light. I'm also an Eagles fan, so it's tough for me to take out the out of my brain the little bit of bias I have because it's owned by Jason Kelsey and his brother. Sure. Not sponsored guys. But it's it's a little more beer flavored than than some of those, which I would call water flavored beers. Um, but at the same kind of ABV. But it's a couple dollars more. But when I say a couple, I mean a couple. It was like three three dollars more for the pack.

Matt:

It has been two years. It might be time to do another budget beer battle.

Josh:

Oh, listen. Garage beer is out there. So they only make two. They make the the the regular beer, beer, and they make a lime flavor. And it's not like sweet lime, it's just like maybe you squeezed a uh a lime in your corona kind of lime. Interesting.

Christa:

Good stuff.

Josh:

Yeah, I liked it. All right. We shocked a lot of them on Super Bowl Sunday.

Christa:

I um the nose on this is okay. Uh I'm ranking this as last. I am not a fan of the the cherry in it personally.

Matt:

Oh no.

The Fish:

Wait, wait, wait, we got.

Matt:

Ooh, ooh, ooh. No, no, he said oh. Oh. Oh, yeah. I said I said uh I I haven't I haven't used this in a long time, and I apologize. Oh no. Black hole detected, you wear the event horizon.

The Fish:

Oh god. Yeah, I'm not I'm not. I haven't heard that in a long time.

Christa:

Not a huge fan of this one, guys.

The Fish:

That's how Yeah, I'm with Christa on this.

Christa:

Yeah, it's a miss for me.

The Fish:

Yeah. It's bitter, like bitter, bitter. Yeah.

Christa:

It's bitter. I don't love I don't have the cherry, I don't have the chocolate.

Matt:

Like it's even if there was a hint of coffee in there, it would have livened it up a little bit. But I'm just I'm getting bitter start to finish.

Christa:

And yeah.

Matt:

My apologies to you, Captain Lawrence, but I might have to downgrade you to private. Ouch.

Christa:

Yeah, it's a big downgrade.

Matt:

Or I guess, well, we're talking navy, so what would he be? Ensign?

Christa:

You don't even want to uh I'm gonna say dishonorable discharge dog and get a bad game. It's not that bad. No, no, it's it's really not that bad, but it it is last on the beers for today. Oh, yeah.

The Fish:

I'm putting it so far.

Matt:

It's a 10, but for me, it's a 10. So far.

Josh:

There's two 10% 10 spot on the ranking list. Uh we did have this in the seven spot in our blind ranking. So not super far off from where you guys are putting it. I don't know. I don't think it's I don't know. Maybe it's gonna be the worst that we've had today. I gotta think on this one.

Matt:

That that one was just banished.

Josh:

Do we need music?

Matt:

No.

Josh:

I mean, it's high ABV, so like I I feel like a lot of people are uh I don't know, maybe not into this style. It's dark, it's bitter, like a like some of these like imperial, like Russian Imperial stouts almost, but it's not listed as an Imperial stout.

Matt:

Um I'm just not getting flavor out of it. That's the whole thing.

Josh:

I definitely don't get the dark chocolate cherry as much as they they called it sweet. They specifically said you know, uh you're sweet tooth, but it's not there. Yeah.

Matt:

Okay, on to the Gatherwell bourbon barrel. Yeah. We are now going from 10 to 11 percent as we bring it around the uh bring it around the horn.

Christa:

Bring it around town, bring it around.

Josh:

So hold on. I gotta put down Captain Lawrence uh somewhere. It's a slow sipper. It's 10%. You're not gonna just sit in like crushes.

The Fish:

Yes, but there's a difference between a slow sipper and never sipping it again.

Josh:

Yeah. Ah, fair enough. But I think I'm putting it like on the bottom three of what I've tasted so far. So I'm putting it above Velvet Panda and I'm putting it above the stout Tober. Alright, so moving on to Alagash. Gather well.

Matt:

I've had their stuff before and I've found it generally impressive. So let's see where we are. I love Alagash.

The Fish:

Today, Alagash is actually pretty good. There's I've had quite a few of their beers, but I have not seen this one ever.

Josh:

This there it is. So, all right, here we go.

Christa:

Yay!

Josh:

Alagash, gather well, bourbon barrel, aged stout, brewed in bottled in Portland, Maine. 11% alcohol by volume. Bottled on 5824. So we're coming up almost on a year ago that this was bottled. Rich, dark, and balanced. This full-bodied and dare we say, decadent stout is aged in bourbon barrels for notes of cocoa, vanilla, and oak. Pairs well with any gathering.

Christa:

This is a gathering, guys. Indeed, it is.

The Fish:

We are gathered.

Josh:

And for those of you who care about things like this, this is a certified B Corp uh company, which is actually a really hard certification to get. You have to be good for the environment, you have to be good for your community, you have to be good for the people that work for you. There's all kinds of different um uh things that you have to qualify for to be a B Corp uh certified company.

Christa:

So shout out Allegas very cool of you guys.

Matt:

By that standard, I've worked for several Z Corps, but same.

Josh:

All right, our first bottle of the day. We've got two bottles uh to finish up with.

Christa:

So I like the smell on this.

The Fish:

Yeah. Oh, that's good. All right.

Christa:

That is quite delicious.

The Fish:

We got oh, that's good. And that's quite delicious.

Josh:

I am still writing notes, so I haven't tasted it yet. Give me one moment.

Christa:

Nerd.

Matt:

He's working on his writing notes.

Christa:

He's doing his homework over here, guys.

Matt:

It's a it's a BHD. Calculations. Josh has got an abacus, two computers.

Josh:

I'm coming into this. I'm trying to stay open-minded. I don't generally like my beers aged in bourbon barrels because if I want to drink bourbon, I'll just drink bourbon. I understand it can add some complexity, but a lot of times, a lot of times I find that the bourbon barrel age stouts or whatever beers they are, they taste the ABV they are, right? Like I like an 11% or that doesn't necessarily kick me in the back of the throat and say, Try that's high ABV. Try this. Right. So that's not to say that there aren't beers that can find that.

Christa:

Open your mind and open your heart, Josh.

Matt:

And your liver. Open your liver.

Christa:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Josh:

Nice. That's closed for business for like years at this point. This is good.

Christa:

I I like this a lot. I think this might, I think I might bump this to like number two. Yeah, this is flying to two.

Matt:

This is going to two. It's creamy. If you said what is the ABV on this, 11 would not be my guess. No. I'd be I'd be like, it's probably a heavy hitter, but probably like a nine. Oh, I wouldn't even go that high. I would think like a seven or an eight.

Josh:

No, for sure I'd be in the like almost 10% club. I can't really taste this. Like if I if I was tasting this. But it you know, closer to nine, definitely not seven.

Matt:

I can um warm, creamy flavor, like yeah, but it's not overwhelming bourbon barrel either.

Josh:

Like, no, I think bourbon barrel is not like crazy there.

The Fish:

Oh it's a nice subtle thing.

Matt:

No, I've had some that feel like they just chip out the char and throw it in the bottle. And yeah, they're like, this is aged in a bourbon barrel. I'm like, I know, I can taste it. This is not one of those beers. This is good. This is the good, positive, all the flavors you would want in bourbon.

Josh:

Vanilla. The reason I say I think I can tell it's on the higher ABV is because as we're talking, I still feel that like warmth in my esophagus in my chest, right? Which is what you get when you're drinking higher ABV stuff. That alcohol is kind of evaporating up and out a little bit, you know. Um, so I can I can for sure tell it's got the ABV, which I don't mind. I'll drink high ABB beers. Um, but it also has a nice long stouty finish. Yes.

Christa:

Yeah, I'm ranking I'm ranking this as number two, um, second only to the Gimme More Cowbell one.

Matt:

Okay.

Christa:

Yeah, I think I'm still gonna keep Cowbell at number one, but I think the Alagash is definitely number two for me right now.

The Fish:

See, I was gonna put this at number one.

Christa:

Hey, don't tell, don't let me tell you what to do, yo.

The Fish:

No problem, bro. Yeah, I'm gonna stellar set.

Christa:

I I think it's a solid beer. I definitely will be drinking this again. Um, and once again, shout out to Alagash for being a cool company.

Matt:

Oh, most definitely very cool.

Josh:

All right, that brings us to our uh oh, by the way, um Alagash, we had as a blind ranking in number five. I think we all underranked that. I think we all underestimated it a little bit. Underranked that one. Now we're gonna move on to our last beer of the day.

Matt:

14.2%. This did come in a little over a pint bottle here. What a difference a year makes after aging for one year in used bourbon barrels. This stout is full of woody vanilla-esque notes alongside aromas of toffee, espresso, and rich chocolate. The roasted barley malt used in this brew imparts a smooth velvety finish, you'll find surprisingly sippable.

Christa:

Um, did you bring this one, Matt?

Matt:

I did bring this one, Matt.

Christa:

Where did you get this? Did you like get it at the place or so?

Matt:

Shout out to Andy Miller, who's been on the podcast before. Uh, he is friends with Joey, who owns Baldbirds. And Joey and Abby are phenomenal people. We went, we visited Baldbirds for an episode last year, right around this time. And uh when I was down there, I had their reserve stout. And um Andy happened to bring this bottle up for me.

Josh:

This is the only one that says Imperial Stout on uh the label. I'm not sure. Is there a definition of Imperial Stout that we know of? It's gotta be a specific style, right?

The Fish:

It is a specific style, but it's um cool as to what that means.

Christa:

Um I'm not in love with this.

Matt:

No?

Christa:

No, I'm not a huge fan of it. It's uh again, quite bitter.

Josh:

Um so it says Imperial Stouts are stronger, more full-bodied, and more flavorful than regular stouts. They're known for their high alcohol content, rich multi-flavor, and complex favor flavor profile. That is an AI overview.

Christa:

Thank you, Google.

Josh:

Uh thank you to Google for that. So yeah, it just means it's a big beer in terms of flavor and alcohol. So there's no specific um like laws they have to follow on this. I think once we got to that 8.6 that we had with the chocolate strawberry, everything has been similarly dark, similarly almost black. Um and this has a really like a just as I'm swirling it around, like a thick looking viscosity.

Christa:

Yes. Agreed.

The Fish:

Viscosity is only in oil. Is that true? I have no clue.

Christa:

No, different different liquids can be viscous. That's uh that's like uh something that you have to rank uh like I work as a scientist, people probably know that. I've mentioned it on the pod before, but uh viscosity is a test that you do a lot just to see the viscosity of any liquid. So any liquid can be viscous.

Josh:

Yeah, I'm sorry. This is I'm I'm with you, Christa. This is not for me.

Christa:

No, miss. I'm ranking it as nine.

Josh:

This is the beer that I talk about. I talked about earlier that if you tell me it's a a bourbon barrel and it is bourbon barrel to make it taste high ABV and it tastes the 14.2% that it is. If I want 14.2 or more, I will drink stuff that's high, you know, like for me, beer is something I want to be able to sit and drink a full thing of. This in a restaurant, you're or when I say thing, I mean like a full glass amount of, you know, I don't even know how to explain it. But like this is in a one pint six ounce bottle.

unknown:

Yeah.

Josh:

Right? So that's 22 ounces. If you drink 22 ounces of this, let's compare that to a wine bottle. A wine, a bottle of wine is 25 ounces, 750 milliliters is close to 25 ounces, give or take. And wine goes anywhere between 9% and like 15%. So this is wine on the higher end ABV, and this is almost a full bottle of wine by volume. I don't want to sit and drink a full bottle of wine by myself.

The Fish:

Yes, but this is much thicker than a bottle of wine.

Josh:

But but if you open it, you if I open a bottle of red wine, I can re re-drink that tomorrow. I can drink more of that tomorrow. Correct. This you gotta open and drink, or you're gonna have flat beer tomorrow. Exactly. Right. So I like in a restaurant, this is served to you in one of those little like seven-ounce snifters, which I can't stand when I'm drinking beer. Again, this is my personal preference.

Christa:

I find it like you when you first sip it, like that first second is like, oh god, what the and then as you're swallowing it in the back half, it's better. But just you getting punched in the face with that bourbon barrel flavor from the get-go.

Josh:

It has a better finish than an actual drinking experience. The first, when you're actually drinking it, when it's going in your mouth, down your throat, uh it's bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh, it's just not my favorite. I I don't know. And and I know this is some people's style.

Matt:

It's just so I'm going to be the dissenting voice here, and I'm happy to do it. I'm I'm putting this in three. I think fish liked it too, right? It didn't, it didn't go all the way up. No. No, Matt's alone on this one. Yeah, it didn't go all the way up to the top for me, but I'm gonna go with three. I like the bourbon flavor. I think it's got a little sweetness to it, and it just sits. I don't know, my palate enjoys it. So it's I'm putting it right behind uh actually, you guys are gonna laugh when I do my finals, but it's right behind the French toast for me. So okay.

Christa:

I don't trust Matt.

Josh:

I'd so so so that kind of makes sense because Matt likes the sweeter stuff, and this being being aged in bourbon barrels gives it a big punch of sweetness. There's a vanilla, there's vanilla. There is noticeable vanilla in there. I like that flavor. Those are like the first two things I think you get. Yeah, sweetness, and then you get cold cocked with alcohol. Yeah, which is, you know, for me not the most pleasurable experience. But some people really like this. If you almost wanted to like put this in a snifter and give it to me and say, just drink it like it's a whiskey and just sip it, you know, spit sip four ounces of this for a while. That's different. That's probably the best way to drink it. Yeah, but if I'm if I'm comparing this to like, hey, I'm gonna sit down and have myself a beer, it's just not where I know.

Matt:

I know that when we went down to the bottom.

Josh:

I'm sorry to the bald bald uh what are they called? Bald bird company.

Matt:

Yeah, I know when we went down and we we were talking with Joey, he said also that he'll almost use this kind of like as a odd sidecar. We'll have like a lighter beer. Yeah. And then kind of sip this one on the side.

Josh:

Or desserts. Yeah, if I was doing like a beer dinner, right? You could give me four ounces of this with the really Rich dark chocolate dessert and I wouldn't be mad at it at that point, but it's just not my like I'm gonna sit down and drink a beer.

Christa:

Yeah, no, I agree. I would not crack this in the middle of the afternoon like a few.

Matt:

I wouldn't so I look at like um football games as the time I'm going to that it's 1254. Oh, sorry. For me, like watching football games, probably the longest I'm gonna sit down and drink something. And this would be the type of thing that I might crack at the beginning of a football game, knowing that I don't have to run back to the fridge. That's how I'm putting it in my head right now. But even that, like, I this is looking at it, I'm like, if I drank that whole thing, I would not see the fourth quarter. It's that's just where it is.

Christa:

I wouldn't be seeing much of anything. I'd be clocked out on the ground, bro.

Matt:

All right, let's take a look at the rankings here now that we've wrapped up. We're gonna open up with Sam Smith's organic. Josh, where do we have that on the blind? We have no idea what we're tasting, page.

Josh:

So on the blind sheet, we had that at eight.

Matt:

We had that as eight. Okay.

Josh:

Christa, where did you have that?

Christa:

Yeah, I okay. So for Sam Smith's, I had ranked it as number six.

Matt:

I had that ranked at five. I put it in as a five as well.

Josh:

And fish?

The Fish:

I put it in as a number two.

Josh:

You put that in as two, okay. Sam Smith was your number two.

Matt:

Wow.

Josh:

Okay. High praise.

Matt:

Yeah. I I thought it was good overall.

Josh:

I and yeah, I didn't think it was bad, but I just we average that out, we're at a 4.5 rank. Math.

Matt:

Alright. Math. Math. So next up was the Velvet Panda.

Josh:

Now the Velvet Panda as a group, we blind ranked in fourth.

Matt:

Interesting.

Christa:

Yeah, I ranked this one as number eight.

Josh:

I also had it at eight. Number seven. Six. Eight, eight, seven, and six. So we were pretty um standard there as a group. Um thinking it's kind of right in the middle.

Christa:

Pretty precise.

Matt:

I think this is where we're gonna start to deviate. So the Eric Moore Cowbell Melts Dout.

Christa:

That was my number one.

Josh:

So the Moore Cowbell was my number one. Wow. And Chris, so you said two?

Christa:

No, this was my number one.

Josh:

Oh one. Okay. So we got two number ones. Okay. I had that in four. I had number six.

Christa:

What would what did we originally rank this as?

Josh:

We originally had this ranked as number two.

Christa:

Okay. Some of us agreed and some of us did not.

Matt:

Then we had the French toast from Stable Twelve.

Josh:

So the Stable Twelve we predicted to be the number one beer on the list.

Christa:

Um I ranked this as number three. Also, I meant to say this earlier, but for my siblings, shout out French Toast.

Josh:

I had this as two. So we have a third, a second, and I had this ranked as my seventh favorite beer of the day. As your seventh favorite? Yeah. I had a number five. And then a five. And then we have give me the gorbage. So the gorbage we had as a blind rank of six.

Christa:

My rank was five.

Josh:

Seven? So we have a five, a seven. For me, it was my third favorite.

The Fish:

I agree with Josh. I'm going with three.

Matt:

Even a little higher. Interesting. Alright. And we had the strawberry ice cream from New Trail, the chocolate strawberry ice cream from New Trail. We had that blind ranked at 10.

Christa:

Yeah, and I I ranked this one as four. I I very much enjoyed it, pleasantly surprised.

Matt:

That is much higher than I have it ranked. I had it ranked as nine.

Josh:

So four, nine. I was also a four. Wow. And I didn't, I'm the non-strawberry guy.

Matt:

Yeah, no, I'm shocked. Stat, where'd you have or Jesus? I did it again.

Christa:

Stat, what did you rank it as, fish?

The Fish:

Well, the fish ranked it as number four.

Christa:

So everyone did four except except me.

Matt:

Okay. Well, I'm not on New Trails Christmas list, apparently.

Christa:

Don't worry. Don't worry. Allison, you're gonna love this beer once you have your baby in September. Oh no, no.

Matt:

And again, congratulations.

Christa:

Yes, very good for her. I love you, Alison. I miss you.

Matt:

Then we had the fishes been there for a while in his fridge beer. The stout Tober.

Christa:

You know what? For it being in the fridge for however long, it really wasn't bad. I ranked it as a seven, but um, but I it was not a bad beer.

Josh:

So we had it blind ranked at nine, and I actually had it as my least favorite. So we have a seven and we have a ten so far. I have it at an eight.

Matt:

Hmm. I got the niner.

Josh:

Nine or nine? All right, so that's pretty low on everyone's list.

Matt:

Yep. The Dark Chocolate Cherry Imperial Stout by Captain Lawrence, who we demoted to Ensign, and Christa threw him over the side of the boat totally.

Christa:

That's right, that's right. It it wasn't no, it was not the worst beer I've ever had in my entire life. That goes to this beer from Noshemony Creek, I think. That was it was like it was it tasted like liquid smoke. It was so bad. It was so bad. I can't remember the name of the beer, and I you know what? I don't even want to. I don't even want to dignify it.

Josh:

We had this, we had this as our seven on the uh blind ranking. So where are you?

Christa:

This this is my last one.

Josh:

This is a 10 for me.

Matt:

Ditto, 10 for me.

Josh:

10, 10. I got a eight, eight for you, and I had it at six.

Matt:

Wow. We all kind of shit on that one pretty hard when we drank it. I'm surprised it made it to six.

Josh:

I just I told you it was not no, I didn't think it was the worst. I think it was fine.

Christa:

That was one that like when we heard the name of it, I was like, I'm not gonna like this one. Well, yes, I called that personally.

The Fish:

I kind of had some hope for it. You know, the I mean sure, yeah.

Christa:

All right, it could it could have been great. It just could have been.

Matt:

Then we have what we always do on this podcast gather well, bourbon barrel, alagash.

Josh:

So we had this blind ranked at five.

Christa:

I ranked this one as two, second favorite.

Josh:

I also had this as number two.

Matt:

Number one, number one, two, two, one, one.

Josh:

Without having to do the math on our last beer, this is for sure our winner for the that was a really good beer.

Matt:

It was really good, and then we had the Bald Birds Birds Reserve decision, sort of, on this one. Yeah, this was this was interesting. This is very palette specific, apparently.

Josh:

We had a this was ranked uh blindly as number three on the list.

The Fish:

Yeah, that number's gonna change.

Christa:

This is a nine for me.

Josh:

Also nine for me.

Matt:

I put it at three.

The Fish:

Yeah, I get it. I enjoyed it.

Matt:

Oh, last place.

The Fish:

Yeah.

Matt:

Wow. Okay. Yeah, a ten. We're not invited back to you.

The Fish:

I'm sorry to say that, bald birds.

Christa:

Yeah, so I enjoyed it.

Josh:

I'll tell you what, it does not put it in last place as far as our team rankings go. So I'm gonna do some quick math here, and I'll be right back with you and give you our team average. Math.

Unfiltered Studios Announcer:

E equals MC Hammer.

Josh:

We're talking about numbers. So it looks like Josh has math results for us. I've math, I think. All right. So we have a tie for last place, right? And we have the Captain Lawrence, which was the dark chocolate cherry, and the stout Tober. Uh, both of them averaged 8.5 in our in our positional rankings here. Womp womp. Yep. So we'll skip ninth. We go to eighth place, and that is the bald birds with a 10, two nines, and a third place. Matt saved them from being last place with a with an average position of 7.75.

Matt:

I still dispute all of your palettes on that one, but continue.

Christa:

You're the minority here, dog.

Josh:

In sevens, I'm right, and you're all wrong. In seventh place, and this was pretty unanimous, we had two eights, a seven, and a six on the Velvet Panda. In sixth place, we had the Captain Lawrence strawberry stout with an average ranking of five point two five. Three fours on that. Oh, sorry, yeah, the chocolate strawberry, the new trail. So that was three fours there, got it, and then one nine had it at our average of five point two five.

Christa:

Again, minority, Matt, not it.

Josh:

Then we have a tie at fourth place. So we have the Sam Smiths at fourth place with uh an average score of four and a half, and we have the gimme the gorbage uh in fourth place with also an average score of four point five.

Christa:

Very cool.

Josh:

So now we're to our metal round here. Top three, we have in third place the stable 12. That was the French toast stout with an average score of 4.25, an average ranking of 4.25. Second place was the single cut with an average ranking of third place, and in first place, pretty convincingly, with two first places and two second places. Wait for it. The Alagash. There we go. So the Alagash Gatherwell, bourbon barrel age stout coming in uh with 11% ABV, coming out of Portland, Maine, B Corp certified. Great job. You guys made a great stout. We loved it. Alagash beer.

Matt:

Alagash, phenomenal beer. This one's for you. Our highest honor here at Matt and Friends Drink the Universe.

Josh:

Stellar.

Matt:

Stellar indeed. Very stellar, very spectacular. Would drink many of those on repeat. Put it on repeat. We're drinking it.

Christa:

Would black out too because the second highest beer?

Matt:

11%. Thank you to all of you for joining me today and enjoying all these amazing stouts. I think as we look through, we can all agree there's not a bad beer on the table. No.

Unfiltered Studios Announcer:

And thank you to all of you for listening.

The Fish:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Unfiltered Studios Announcer:

This podcast is a production of Unfiltered Studios. If you would like to know more about joining Unfiltered Studios, please visit our website at unfpod.com for more information.

Matt:

This episode's boozy quote comes from Canadian novelist Q Hood, who said, Nothing ever tasted better than a cold beer on a beautiful afternoon with nothing to look forward to than more of the same. Would you like to suggest something for us to drink, give us some feedback, or have your brand featured on Matt ⁇ Friends Drink the Universe? We would love to hear from all of our listeners. Please check our episode descriptions down below for links to send us to text, support the podcast, and visit our merch store. To keep up with our latest news or share your stellar tips with us, please like and follow Matt FriendsDTU on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Threads, Blue Sky, and Reddit. For more information about the podcast and links to all of our episodes, please visit www.mat and friendsdtu.com. That's mat and friendsdU.com. Cheers, friends!

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