EPISODE S.3, E.21

Toby (00:09):
Welcome back to another episode of the Brewdeck Podcast. I’m your host kind of today. I’m Toby Tucker. They let me out of time out. I haven’t done this in a while.

Heather (00:19):
You haven’t been here in a bit. No.

Toby (00:21):
Well I apologize for all those problems I caused, and thank you for jumping in. But for some reason they let me take the reins today, and trusting that I try to keep this train on the rails, which is surprising to me because I do a terrible job at it. But yeah, no, good to be back. So I’m excited about this. I’m excited about every episode, but this one we decided to sit back and relax a little bit and have a good time. Not that we don’t have a good time on every episode, but this one we had this genius idea because the holidays are right around the corner. And I say holidays loosely because we have a couple Canadians on a call here today. Some people don’t celebrate holidays the same as some other people. So we’re just calling it holidays because it’s the end of the year, it’s starting to get cold, and we just want to talk food and beer. That’s what we’re doing, right? We’re talking… What are we calling this Heather, the potluck episode?

Heather (01:25):
Yeah, a little Friendsgiving potluck episode.

Toby (01:28):
Nice. Well we’re honored to be joined by Bill Bonner. Hi, how you doing Bill?

Bill (01:34):
Doing well. How are you?

Toby (01:36):
And I’m calling you first because you’re the only outsider on the call today.

Bill (01:39):
Oh, okay.

Toby (01:39):
The rest of us are at Country Malt Group. So welcome.

Bill (01:43):
Well thanks. Thanks for having me on. I’m excited.

Toby (01:45):
Yeah, no worries. So it is, go around the corner before we jump into the banter here and introduce ourselves, and I’m looking at the computer screens. So for the listeners, just pretend like you’re going like clockwise here. Bill, Bill, introduce yourself.

Bill (01:59):
Same with me. My name is Bill Bonner, I’m a restaurateur restaurant owner in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. We’re a beer focused restaurant, a certified cicerone, and I wanted to open a place that was somewhere where I could do a lot of beer and food pairing. It’s kind of the main thing I’m working on.

Toby (02:16):
Nice. And you were the first certified cicerone in Alberta, is that right?

Bill (02:21):
Yeah, the first in the province. So back in 2013 I got it. There was the guy who sort of beat me but he didn’t, so I won.

Toby (02:30):
That is awesome. I know we talked about and Heather, you’re certified cicerone as well, right?

Heather (02:37):
I am, yes. I actually used to work at Rain Dog Bar at Bill’s restaurant as well.

Bill (02:44):
Yeah, I should have said the name of that.

Toby (02:45):
Yeah, right?

Heather (02:48):
The name of the restaurant is Rain Dog Bar.

Bill (02:49):
Yeah.

Toby (02:50):
Terrible job of plugging your own place.

Heather (02:52):
Good advertising.

Toby (02:54):
Yeah. Well thanks for loaning us Heather.

Bill (02:55):
Yeah of course.

Toby (02:58):
Appreciate it. Well thanks for joining us, Bill. Tim Burke, man. Tim and I go way back. How’s it going Tim?

Tim (03:04):
Going great, Toby. I’m glad they let you out of timeout.

Toby (03:07):
Hey, thanks.

Tim (03:08):
My God. Doing really well. My name’s Tim Burke, I am a territory sales manager based here in Chicago, Illinois. Been with CMG for eight plus years. There are quite a few food focused breweries in Chicago, so I’m very lucky to have that at my fingertips and welcome to join the conversation. Really excited about this discussion. Holiday seasons upon us, and always look forward to this.

Toby (03:38):
Yeah, thanks for jumping on and I’m interested to hear your food choice, because I was peppered a little bit or teased on it, and I’m interested to hear how that came about.

Tim (03:46):
Of course.

Toby (03:48):
Thanks for joining us buddy. And then Heather Jerred. Hey Heather.

Heather (03:51):
I’m doing good. I don’t really know if I need to introduce myself. Think everybody’s probably sick of hearing my voice by the end of this year. But I’m Heather. I am the territory manager for Western Canada for Country Malt Group. And as Toby said, I’m also a certified cicerone, and we’ve talked on this before, one of my loves is doing beer and food pairing, so I’m really excited for this one.

Toby (04:13):
I think we’ve talked favorite cheese before Heather, on one of the other episodes.

Heather (04:22):
Yeah, well we were talking rauchbier and cheeses.

Toby (04:24):
That’s right. Yeah. I don’t know why I thought about this, but I just got done eating some lunch and I had Swiss cheese. Strangely enough I like Swiss cheese. There’s not a lot going on with Swiss cheese, but I like it. Some-

Bill (04:36):
There’s absolutely a time and a place for Swiss cheese.

Heather (04:39):
Yes.

Toby (04:43):
Cool. Well next that it says Toby here, but I’m not going to introduce myself either. I work for Country Malt Group, and I help some of these folks out on the call. So that’s me. Cheyenne.

Cheyenne (04:55):
Hello. How’s it going?

Toby (04:56):
Good, how are you?

Cheyenne (04:57):
I am doing great. For those of you who I have not introduced myself to, my name is Cheyenne Weishaar. I am a sales rep based out of Washington State and I cover Washington, Oregon, and Minnesota. So excited to be here today.

Toby (05:13):
Thank you. CJ, how are you?

CJ (05:16):
Happy to be here.

Toby (05:16):
Good to have you.

CJ (05:17):
I could not pick a better episode to be on. I love talking food and beer, who doesn’t love food and beer. But for those who haven’t been introduced to me, I’m CJ Penzone, sales manager for pretty much North America and I’m a former brewer, so thanks for having me on.

Toby (05:35):
Thank you CJ. And a veteran of some of our prior podcasts, really the glue that holds a lot of what we do at CMG together. So happy to have Victoria put you back on. Hey.

Victoria (05:48):
Thank you Toby. Yes, Victoria Pritchett is my name. I’ve been with Country Malt Group for 12 plus years. I work under the title of director of sales and customer service. Like CJ, I’m super jazzed, with jazz hands included and to be part of this. I mean, food and drink, it doesn’t get any better than that. So super excited to be here.

Toby (06:16):
Yeah, and I think, well I know Tyler, the two of you are very much into-

Victoria (06:21):
Obsessed.

Toby (06:21):
… Food and beer. Oh yeah, yeah. I enjoy hanging out with y’all the limited time I get to, but it’s always a treat listening to the two of y’all. Enjoy all kinds of great beer and other liquid pleasures as well. So cool, thanks for jumping on with us. All right, Heather?

Heather (06:38):
Yeah.

Toby (06:38):
Friendsgiving.

Heather (06:38):
Friendsgiving.

Toby (06:43):
[inaudible 00:06:43] style. I like it.

Heather (06:45):
So basically what we kind of asked everyone to do is pick a dish, pick something that they normally eat for Thanksgiving and pick a beer, and tell us why they think that would pair well with that dish. I mean, I could start if everybody wants to, but maybe I’ll let our guests go first. Bill, if you want to kick it off for us. And just a little note, we already had our Thanksgiving, us Canadians, so we’ve had some practice over a little bit about a month ago. So we’re ahead of you all.

Toby (07:14):
Yeah, I am interested to hear a little bit more from Bill and you guys, specifically about what some of the differences are of Thanksgiving up in Canada versus the US and specifically around food. So Bill-

Bill (07:29):
I think… Oh sorry.

Toby (07:31):
No, I was going to say we’ll be beating you up here, so how about it?

Bill (07:34):
Yeah, I’ll take it. I’ll get at this. I think the food is pretty similar just from what I’ve seen. I mean we get a lot of American TV up here, so I think we’re pretty familiar with the holiday down there. So the food, you think of turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and gravy and maybe a yam dish or some vegetable casserole and stuff. That’s all the stuff I think of for Thanksgiving. I think it’s probably pretty similar from a food perspective.

Heather (08:03):
Yeah Bill and I were talking about this, when Toby had kind of brought it up in one of the meetings. I don’t really think it’s hugely different, food wise at least. I think it’s a little bit bigger of a holiday down in the US than it is up in Canada though.

Bill (08:19):
Yeah. Up here Christmas is a big one.

Heather (08:22):
Yeah.

Toby (08:22):
Okay, well good. Well at least down here in the south, and I’m in Texas is our Christmas food is very similar to our Thanksgiving food. I mean you go to some different households, and they like to have turkey on Thanksgiving but ham on Christmas. Then you go to some, it’s flip flopped, right? So it’s just interesting. Anyways, I just like to eat a lot so it doesn’t really matter what’s put in front of me, I enjoy it. So Bill, at your restaurant for Thanksgiving, what kind of items or dishes did you have on the menu?

Bill (08:59):
So our menu, we didn’t change it. We didn’t do anything specifically for Thanksgiving. We looked around and saw that a lot of people were doing their special Thanksgiving turkey dinner, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and we’re like, “We’re just going to do what we do specifically well up here and just stick to the plot.” So no specific Thanksgiving dishes, but the menu is pretty seasonal so it’s always changing up. We’ve always got different things that are a little more seasonal. Well right now we put on kind of a joke, a Salisbury steak.

Toby (09:30):
Oh nice.

Bill (09:30):
Yeah. When was the last time a restaurant put a Salisbury steak on the menu? Wasn’t legion.

Toby (09:35):
I had one in elementary school. Yeah, that’s the last time I had one, but it sounds good.

Bill (09:39):
But yeah, some squash salads and stuff. We were moving into more of the winter seasonal stuff. Especially in Alberta, up north we don’t get a lot of stuff like year round is the vegetables. We get it all now, but when you start thinking seasonal you start thinking of the things that’ll survive the winter. Yeah.

Toby (09:53):
Yeah, absolutely. Well going back to what Heather said, is it yam or is it sweet potato? Because we down south, we rarely say yam. It’s a sweet potato. Is it one and the same?

Bill (10:05):
I think they’re the one and the same as far as I… I could be wrong, but-

Heather (10:10):
I’m ready for people to write into this, but I also think yams and sweet potatoes are the same thing.

Toby (10:13):
Huh? Well we’ve got an email address if we want to just light up that inbox. If you have an opinion either way, that’s the brewdeck@countrymalt.com. Well you got some other people on. What about Tim? They’re like, is it yam or is it a sweet potato?

Tim (10:29):
I always call it sweet potato, but according to Google, they are not the same.

Toby (10:37):
You’re using Google on this?

Heather (10:38):
[inaudible 00:10:38] too. Brought Google into the chat.

Toby (10:43):
I bet. Tim, were you that guy that would go into class, and you have all your notes secret written on a piece of paper in your pocket and pull them out and for the test? Did you cheat?

Tim (10:55):
No, I just knew everything.

Toby (10:56):
Oh that’s right.

Heather (10:58):
Whoa.

Tim (11:01):
[inaudible 00:11:02] very small.

Toby (11:03):
Wow. Very good.

Bill (11:07):
So I just Googled it as well, and looking at these pictures when I said yam I was thinking of sweet potato anyway, but the orange color there.

Heather (11:16):
Is a yam not orange?

Bill (11:18):
No, it looks more yellow, yeah.

Toby (11:22):
But we just opened up a can of worms here. We wanted to have a separate episode for yam.

Heather (11:26):
The debate.

Bill (11:26):
Yam and the sweet potato pairings.

Heather (11:29):
Wow. Okay. I found a whole chart we can check out later, but we’ll dive into that at a later date. Bill, why don’t you give us your beer and your holiday beer, favorite beer, your food pairing.

Bill (11:41):
So I have my personal tradition and I’ve been doing this for years and years. I love the barrel aged wild sour beers, the little fruit with my Thanksgiving dinner. Just that something that does the same work. I don’t think of it as a pairing with anything specifically, even though it works pairing for a couple of things, more contrast. But it does the work of the cranberry sauce. If I got one specific, I don’t know how specific you want me to get, but to go specific, I like the Deschutes Dissident was one of the first ones that I ever had. I keep bringing that bottle with me over and over because it’s relatively easy to find, and I just love how the cherry notes, the sweet, the fruit kind of helps cut through all the richness and brings it back. I think it works way better than the… If you were thinking of wine, in my head you go to a light red wine, but there’s so much more going on with a sour.

Heather (12:37):
Mm-hmm I also like the acidity with that, just that acidity was such a rich, if you’re having a really rich dinner, having that really light, acidic, and highly effervescent beer would really kind of cut through the fattiness of the gravy and the butter and anything else.

Bill (12:53):
Exactly. Just like I said, doing the job of cranberry sauce on the table, it’s one and the same. I had another choice for a specific beer, but Thanksgiving, those holiday meals, you got these beers that end up in your cellar. I was like, I’m going straight to Cantillon too. Sitting on some bottles of Cantillon you start realizing why am I sitting on all this stuff? When is a good time? When do you want to break it out? And you only get one or two big holiday meals like that a year. So it’s a good time to start getting into the seller and breaking out those fancy ones.

Heather (13:24):
That’s true.

Toby (13:26):
Who here cellars beers?

Heather (13:28):
Me.

Victoria (13:28):
Me.

Toby (13:29):
I know Bill. Yeah. That’s Victoria. Yeah?

CJ (13:32):
I do.

Toby (13:33):
CJ. Tim, I know you do. You sent me some stuff. I know that you-

Tim (13:38):
Very limited room here, so yes but on a limited scale.

Victoria (13:44):
You just drink malt, you just drink it all, Tim, that’s-

Tim (13:46):
That’s part of it.

Heather (13:48):
Well, I kind of started doing this what Bill said, this has really happened when I moved, because I was moving provinces and it was quite a bit of a haul. I didn’t want to haul an entire cellar with me. And just realizing that these beers were sitting there for so long, I’m like, “Okay, you can probably just start drinking them,” and you don’t necessarily entirely need a special occasion. So you could have Cantillon any day, maybe even just on a Monday, just saying.

Toby (14:10):
No, that’s it.

Tim (14:10):
[inaudible 00:14:14] for Cantillon.

Toby (14:14):
Yeah. Yep. And I don’t know why we’re doing this so early in the day. We say this all the time, Heather when we talk food and beer.

Heather (14:23):
Oh, we just get hungry and thirsty.

Toby (14:25):
I just get pissed off. I’m so hungry and thirsty and start drinking early.

Heather (14:29):
Like 12:30 here.

Toby (14:31):
Oh right. Oh Cheyenne, what about you? You know what, I feel like the last portion of the morning we were going back and forth on teams that you were trying to avoid us on talking about the food and the food and beer thing.

Cheyenne (14:49):
No way am I trying to avoid you guys. I love being a part of this. I just feel like I have the most tame answer because unfortunately I’m vegan, which is not super exciting on Thanksgiving or any holidays usually. So I’m more of a sides girl. I load up on all of the stuffing and the mashed potatoes and casserole, and that’s kind of my go-to on holidays.

Toby (15:17):
There’s nothing unusual about being vegetarian, and you could still find great beverages to go with it.

Cheyenne (15:24):
That is true. That is true.

Heather (15:25):
Well I was going to say, that’s a good cue to get CJ in, because CJ you are a vegetarian. Am I correct?

CJ (15:32):
Was.

Heather (15:36):
Was. Depends on the day.

CJ (15:39):
Back on the dark side. I could not resist the turkey.

Heather (15:42):
That’s fair.

CJ (15:44):
I still eat a lot of vegetarian food and I understand her struggles, especially during the holidays, but sides are the best anyways.

Cheyenne (15:52):
Sides are the best.

CJ (15:54):
Feel no shame, Cheyenne.

Bill (15:57):
I mean I’m not a vegetarian by any stretch of the imagination, and Thanksgiving dinner without the sides would be abysmal.

Toby (16:04):
Yes, you’re right.

Bill (16:06):
It’s just depressing.

Heather (16:07):
Just bland turkey.

Bill (16:08):
Yeah. Yeah.

Toby (16:11):
Well Cheyenne, I think I mentioned to you, my brother and his entire family is plant based, so you can imagine. And we all love to cook. It’s myself and two brothers, my mom, we all get together and cook every meal. And [inaudible 00:16:25] say every meal but every holiday meal. And it’s interesting, there’s so much going on, and so many different flavors and cooking techniques going on, because we just all have different choices and selections of as far as what we eat. And he’s a big, big foodie, big beer guy as well. So yeah, I think there’s a lot of… Regardless of what you enjoy or what you do or do not eat there’s a lot of stuff that you can pair with anything. So that’s it. Some of your sides, Cheyenne, what is something that you enjoy over the holidays and is there a particular beverage you like with it?

Cheyenne (17:05):
I would say my favorite holiday side is going to be stuffing, because you don’t really ever eat at any other time. That is strictly a Thanksgiving holiday side. I don’t know if that’s just the same for my family or everyone else, but yeah, you only really get stuffing on Thanksgiving. So I would say that’s probably my favorite side dish. For beer, I got to go any sort of a smoked beer. Specifically usually a rauchbier. I feel like those are really good around this time of year.

Toby (17:37):
Oh yeah.

Heather (17:37):
Wow rauchbier with stuffing.

Cheyenne (17:39):
Yeah. I don’t know necessarily that they pair well, but I would say my favorite kind of holiday winter beer right now is got to be a rauchbier.

Toby (17:45):
Man.

Bill (17:48):
No I don’t hate the pairing idea at all. And the idea of bringing the campfire inside because you’re not outside makes a lot of sense to me.

Toby (17:55):
Yeah, and I’m thinking of an over under here and I think it might be accurate, but we’ll see. How many people here when they make stuffing use the box? And I know Bill doesn’t, that’s for sure.

Bill (18:10):
Nope.

Toby (18:10):
Right?

Heather (18:11):
I definitely don’t. If I’m doing a turkey dinner, I do not.

Toby (18:14):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean granted it has its uses, if you don’t have the time, but 100% support the homemade stuffing.

Heather (18:24):
I also support the stove top stuffing. I will give that to anybody too. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Toby (18:29):
Sure.

CJ (18:30):
We make both in our house.

Heather (18:32):
You make both.

CJ (18:33):
We make both. That way everyone’s happy. We also make cranberry sauce from scratch and the jar. Everyone’s happy.

Toby (18:41):
Yeah. The one thing I am against though, but I don’t know, I’m not really partially either way, and because I’ll tell you why, but the mashed potatoes in the box, I’m out.

Victoria (18:53):
Oh no.

Heather (18:55):
Absolutely not.

Victoria (18:56):
It’s a hard no.

Heather (18:57):
Foot down on that one.

Toby (18:58):
This set is solid. I’m out. I don’t know. We had one food that we didn’t have to eat growing up. I mean my family was the type where if it’s put in front of you, you got to eat it, and you’d sit there until you ate everything on your plate. Which I don’t know, there’s probably opinions either way. Probably people out there listening thinking I was abused. But seriously, if it was on our plate, we had to eat it. There was one food we didn’t have to eat. Mine was mashed potatoes. I don’t know what it was. I’ll eat anything in the world but mashed potatoes, it was something about the texture. And I think it was probably because my mom slipped in a couple of boxed mashed potatoes when I was younger and I… Oh man.

Victoria (19:34):
That’ll ruin it for you.

Toby (19:34):
I don’t get it.

Bill (19:36):
Don’t know that I’ve ever actually had boxed mashed potatoes. I don’t think I’ve ever had them in my life.

Toby (19:40):
Please don’t-

CJ (19:40):
That’s okay.

Toby (19:40):
Yeah.

Bill (19:41):
Yeah.

Heather (19:42):
Do not put those on that list at the restaurant please, thank you.

Toby (19:45):
Oh no.

Bill (19:47):
I’ve seen them in restaurants before but you’re like, “What are these doing here?” Oh, it’s a thickening agent. It’s a teeter for thickening. You want to add mashed potato or something it can be used as a thickening agent, but that’s about it.

Toby (19:56):
Oh man. Okay, so beer pairing with box mashed potatoes.

Tim (20:00):
Yeah, right.

Toby (20:02):
No.

Victoria (20:03):
Busch light and box mashed-

Toby (20:04):
Busch light.

Heather (20:05):
Yeah, I was going to say Bud Lite. That sounds like a good Bud Lite pair.

Toby (20:10):
Well CJ it sounds like you do a lot of interesting things at your household or your family’s household over the holidays for food. So what about beer?

CJ (20:21):
Well, the one thing about my family is it’s always been pretty large gatherings, and they’re all day affairs. Starting around noon when the football kicks off on Thanksgiving, there’s already full platters of meats, cheeses, and vegetables, you name it out. So I need a beer that pairs well with all different types of food and a beer I can drink all day. And that for me is typically an English mild, more specifically Yards Brawler out of Philly. That’s been a staple in my family’s holiday fridge every single season.

Toby (20:57):
Nice.

Bill (20:57):
That’s a good point. It’s the same thing in my family, and I’m always trying to stay out of trouble by making sure that any the high alcohol beers I have are saved for later in the night.

Toby (21:07):
Exactly.

Bill (21:07):
You got to start light and start easy, because it’s a marathon.

Toby (21:11):
Yeah. So CJ, big family affair, everybody big fans of beer in your family?

CJ (21:17):
A lot are, yes, but as with any large family, there’s a bunch of different drinks going on. Typically, on Thanksgiving there’ll be bottle of wine open, bunch of Yards Brawler all over the house. And then some people in my family to drink Brandy Alexanders all day leading up to the dinner. So take your pick or have all three, whatever floats your boat is kind of the way it runs in our household.

Toby (21:45):
Oh, I might be going to CJ’s house.

Victoria (21:47):
I would choose all three.

Toby (21:48):
Right.

CJ (21:49):
Same.

Toby (21:50):
Triple fisting.

Victoria (21:51):
That’s right.

Tim (21:52):
Equal opportunity.

Toby (21:53):
There you go. Oh that’s awesome. Victoria, I know you guys do it right, just the times I’ve spent with you, I know there’s certainly love of food and I bet y’all do it right. So what happens at y’all’s house?

Victoria (22:07):
Well I feel like our Thanksgiving is pretty traditional so I won’t talk about that Thanksgiving. We fry and smoke a turkey and do kind of your traditional sides. What is a little bit of a spin on what we do is actually on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, we invite a bunch of friends over and we call it Thai Day Friday.

(22:33)
That’s not like T-I-E, like tie you up or neck tie. That’s T-H-A-I, Thai Day Friday. We’ve been doing it since 2015. What it is everybody’s kind of tired of the heavy Thanksgiving food, and we want to kind of change and serve a bunch of Thai food. But one of the dishes that we do make is we take the leftover smoked turkey, and we’ll do it in the style of a Thai laab. Also, many pronounce it as larb if you see it on Thai menu, but it’s pronounced laab. But we do it in that style. So it’s super salty, spicy, I’d say extra spicy is how I prefer it. Sweet sour, it’s got all those elements. And then of course a bunch of other Thai dishes with some recycled Thanksgiving food. But mostly we just use the turkey.

(23:24)
But that spicy Thai day Friday food pairs really well with. I’m with Bill, barrel aged sour. Around the holidays I love it. If I have to talk about a specific beer, I love the frame, I might be saying this wrong, the Druif Blanc tastes almost like a champagne, it’s just so delicious. I also love a nice blonde or red Flanders, just pair so well with spicy foods and it’s always a treat around the holidays. So it’s kind of our Thanksgiving festivities in a nutshell.

Bill (23:58):
[inaudible 00:24:00].

Toby (24:00):
Sounds wonderful. Go ahead Bill.

Bill (24:02):
I love Thai food. I love that idea of the pairing. I don’t want to stomp on your feet, but I’m like, heck, the idea of a triple something a little sweet, a triple on the sweeter side. Just as soon as started thinking about Thai food, where would I go? I’m like, “Oh, a little triple, like to balance out that spice.”

Victoria (24:18):
Yeah. Yeah.

Bill (24:19):
That sounds delicious to me.

Victoria (24:20):
Definitely.

Bill (24:21):
I’m going to have to start doing Thai Day.

Victoria (24:22):
Thai Day Friday. It’s a great one.

Toby (24:24):
Yeah, just make sure you don’t tie people up.

Victoria (24:28):
That’s right.

Toby (24:28):
To a fence post or something.

Victoria (24:30):
Well I know.

Bill (24:30):
It could be two things.

Victoria (24:34):
My dad showed up wearing a neck tie thinking it was hilarious and I’m like-

Toby (24:41):
Oh nice.

Victoria (24:41):
[inaudible 00:24:41] Okay, sure.

Toby (24:41):
Victoria, that’s an awesome idea. I really like that. I mean a lot of people are just gnawing on their leftovers for two or three days, at least we do at our house and there’s nothing better. Just mix it up.

Victoria (24:51):
Transform them, yeah. We just started that and we’ve had so many actual industry veterans show up year over year. You guys know Terry Fahrendorf, John Graeber, they’ve been coming since 2015. So it’s been really good opportunity to do your family thing on actual Thanksgiving and then kind of open it up to a friends and family on that Friday. And everybody can talk about their Black Friday deals too, because that’s fun.

Toby (25:19):
And they’re big foodies as well.

Heather (25:21):
Very.

Toby (25:22):
Yeah, right. I think he’s a forger, right? He gets out and finds an array of different mushrooms and-

Victoria (25:28):
Oh yes, absolutely. He used to be a chef, so he has fantastic food pallet as well.

Toby (25:35):
Wow. Was great. Very good. All right, Tim, what about you?

Tim (25:40):
Well, I don’t have a Thai day Friday, but that sounds awesome. I will break away from Thanksgiving because I thought it was just a holiday pairing and move into the Christmas season. So every Christmas Eve, let me roll back a little bit. My grandparents they got married on Christmas Eve, so they would throw a party every Christmas Eve. So it was a combination anniversary party, Christmas party. They have an older classic 50 style ranch house, which is really kicking bar in the basement. Full cherry wood bar, brass foot rail, under bar sink, three quarter fridge built into the wall, full back bar cabinets, proper glassware that works. And so everybody from the neighborhood and around town would swing by for a drink or two. But one of the things they would always make would be some Swedish meatballs. My grandmother’s Swedish meatballs, although we’re German, Irish, and French [inaudible 00:26:49] so I’m not sure where the Swedish meatballs came from, but they are fantastic.

(26:54)
So they are a blend of beef and pork and sometimes veal but brown them up and then freeze them, and then when they freeze them when they thaw, gently thawed out and served in a warming chafing dish they are fantastic. On the smaller side so very easy to eat and just have been a huge hit. And my brother and I have kind of extended that after my grandparents passed away. So we’d try to keep that alive and have this party every Christmas Eve. So those particular meatballs just have such a huge memory for me. And then growing up in Ohio, getting a really good porter from Great Lakes Brewing, the Edmonds Fitzgerald Porter always paired really nicely with the saltiness, and then the fattened umami of the meatball, just went really well with that porter. And then a close second would be the Anchor Steam Porter. So I mean, this was years ago, so I’m dating myself a little bit, but in Ohio that’s kind of what we had to go to, and it was just a really nice pairing between the two. So that is my holiday dish and beer.

Heather (28:14):
I love that pairing. Sorry, Bill I love that. I like the meat with a dark beer. I love that pairing.

Tim (28:22):
I love that porter too. It is such a solid porter and very yummy. And I go back to Bill and say, if you haven’t tried, I would highly recommend the Belgian Red and the Serendipity from New Glarus if you ever get a chance. They’re two awesome beers that would pair pretty well with what you were describing.

Bill (28:45):
We don’t get New Glarus up here. I’ve had a couple other beers, but I definitely haven’t had either of those.

Tim (28:50):
They have a full line of cave aged sours that they do, and actually they really only sell within Wisconsin, but somehow it makes it out.

Bill (29:02):
Yeah.

Toby (29:06):
Someone gets a hotel towel and wraps it up in a hotel towel and just-

Tim (29:11):
Drives up for the day.

Toby (29:13):
I gotcha.

Heather (29:15):
Smuggling.

Toby (29:16):
Smuggling. Well it sounds like you got to make a trip out there.

Bill (29:19):
Yeah, absolutely.

Tim (29:20):
You really should.

Bill (29:21):
I got to really start taking notes. So yeah, oh one thing I wanted to say, it was crazy that on my mom’s side, so my maternal grandmother’s side, Swedish meatballs was always our Boxing Day tradition. But the day after Christmas we’d always do Swedish meatballs. So for Christmas dinner she’d make enough mashed potatoes for two nights, and it’d be the Swedish meatballs on mashed potatoes always. It’s crazy.

Toby (29:46):
Ace.

Heather (29:47):
Also, Boxing Day is not an American thing. That is a Canadian thing.

Victoria (29:50):
I was going to say something about that, because I didn’t learn about what Boxing Day was until I was in my 30s.

Heather (29:55):
Marrying a Canadian.

Victoria (29:58):
Marrying a Canadian. Yes. And I was like, “Why is it called Boxing Day?” I just assumed there was just a lot of boxing matches on TV and I was clearly wrong. So I still am trying to understand why it’s called Boxing Day.

Bill (30:11):
I honestly don’t know why it’s called Boxing Day. Have to Google that too. It just always is day after Christmas.

Heather (30:18):
The 26th and it’s a holiday here.

Tim (30:20):
All the extra boxes, right?

Heather (30:22):
All the extra boxing.

Victoria (30:24):
Oh I thought people got in fights over trying to get the deals and they-

Heather (30:27):
Could be.

Tim (30:31):
Black Eye Friday.

Victoria (30:34):
Well, yep, exactly. We’ll never know. It’ll remain a mystery.

Heather (30:38):
Don’t write that one in. We never want to know.

Toby (30:43):
Heather.

Heather (30:43):
Yeah, my turn.

Toby (30:45):
Your turn.

Heather (30:46):
Yeah. So I decided to go with something that would kind of work with everything. And traditionally a saison is something that you could pair with almost any meal, and it’s just always kind of said saison will go with everything. I don’t know if Bill will fight me on that one or not.

Bill (31:04):
No, that’s a safe bet.

Heather (31:07):
Yeah. But I wanted to kind of choose something different. And I really like the idea of doing an imperial pilsner or an Imperial blonde ale, something that’s really light but still has that high alcohol content that kind of, again, cuts through a lot of the fattiness, but is going to be light enough that it’s not going to overpower any of the food. So honestly, and this kind of came from when I was working at a beer store and it was right around Thanksgiving, and Trolley 5 in Calgary had done a 7% pilsner and I was filling so many growlers of it. I’m like, “This is going to be a great pairing for Thanksgiving.” So that would be kind of my go-to. And also, we talked about the Imperial Blonde from Matanuska last week and I just thought that would be a great one too. They have an 8.5 or 9% blonde ale, which is crazy. But I think that would be… I mean, I’m going the opposite of not drinking the light bears first and starting with the heavy beers, but that’s how I roll.

Toby (32:05):
Doesn’t surprise me.

Bill (32:06):
It doesn’t surprise me.

Heather (32:11):
Come on guys.

Victoria (32:13):
You start with a strong and then you maintain your buzz with some light beer right?

Heather (32:16):
There go.

Victoria (32:17):
That’s just efficiency.

Heather (32:19):
Thank you.

Toby (32:22):
Well I guess it’s my turn.

Heather (32:25):
Do it Toby.

Toby (32:29):
We’ve got this weird thing with our family, there’s a bunch of guys in our family and we have a roll eating contest, like a bread roll eating contest. I don’t know why. I mean, we’ve been-

Heather (32:43):
Oh boy.

Toby (32:44):
… since we were little. We just take these bread rolls and just eat as many as we can. It’s not good. I mean, we’re grown adults and we still do it. Anyways if I had any real estate left in my stomach and I was eating a bunch of bread, well I’d probably go with something like a Munich dunkel. But at the time that we start pounding bread rolls, I don’t have much left. So usually I’m switching it up to a Ranch Water. We’ve thrown this out before. It’s surprising how many people don’t know what a Ranch Water is but-

Bill (33:17):
I don’t know what a Ranch Water is.

Heather (33:18):
I have no idea what a Ranch Water is.

Tim (33:20):
Oh it’s lovely, lovely.

Toby (33:21):
Yeah.

CJ (33:22):
Fantastic.

Toby (33:24):
By the time I get 12 of those rolls in my stomach, I can’t put a beer anywhere, but if I had two of them for my meal I’d probably get a, like I said, a Munich dunkel, something that little bit low ABV, malty, kind of a rich Munich flavor, bready, toasty, not sugary sweet. You get some of that, the sweetness from the Munich malts, but I just think that would be awesome, especially if you have a honey butter or something you use for your roll. But yeah, no, so the Ranch Water is something that we’re pretty fond of down here. It’s basically, it’s a tequila blanco Topo Chico, like a sparkling mineral water. Pretty popular down here and some lime, pretty refreshing. It’s usually what we find ourselves drinking after a hard days of-

Heather (34:23):
Eating rolls.

Toby (34:23):
Stuffing our bellies. Right.

Victoria (34:24):
The rolls and-

Cheyenne (34:28):
I have to know, what’s the roll record in your family?

Heather (34:30):
Oh yeah.

Toby (34:32):
It’s one of my cousins, probably when I was 13, Collin, who he may listen, he probably ate 17 or 18. And the thing is, you got to eat them after you eat your full-

Heather (34:46):
Oh man.

Toby (34:46):
Thanksgiving meal. Yeah, it’s not good.

Bill (34:48):
That’s insane to me. Thanksgiving is already such a marathon. I’m like, I usually don’t have one roll. I love dinner rolls and I’m not going to have one at Thanksgiving, because I’m so full on everything else. The idea of trying to take down a contest afterwards, I’m like, “No way.”

Toby (35:03):
It’s just a small indication of the wildness of my family.

Heather (35:06):
Apparently.

Toby (35:06):
I know. Yeah.

Tim (35:08):
Well Toby, do you guys dunk them in water and beer?

Toby (35:12):
No, it’s not like a hot dog eating contest where you have you dunk it tea or anything? No. Oh, that’d be funny though.

Victoria (35:22):
That’d be good.

Toby (35:22):
Well, I want to throw out some popular meal items, at least down here in the south and we can talk about what other folks might want to bring up. But I want to get Bill’s opinion and Heather, for that matter, just opinion of the group here of what type of beer would go well. So we do a lot of deep fried turkey down here. If you haven’t had deep fried turkey, something you need to look into. It’s not the safest method of making turkey, but it is good.

Bill (35:53):
Yeah, I’ve seen it on YouTube, but that’s only the ones that go badly.

Heather (35:57):
I’ve actually had a deep fried turkey before.

Toby (35:59):
Oh yeah. What kind of beer do you think would pair well with that, Heather?

Heather (36:03):
Oh wow. Toby on the spot. Could I easily just go saison with a deep fry turkey? Because I think that would be good, light with a bit of kind of the peppery on the esters. That’s the word I was looking for that wasn’t coming out of my mouth. I think that would be really, really nice with a deep fried turkey. Honestly, the thing about it is, I didn’t find that the taste of it was hugely different. It still tasted like a turkey. Just a bit maybe fattier.

Toby (36:36):
Yeah, it’s a little bit more-

Heather (36:38):
Crispy.

Toby (36:38):
Yes. The thought is when you fry it, you pretty much engulf all of the juices inside of the turkey itself, as opposed to baking it in the oven or even smoking it sometimes dries it out.

Heather (36:53):
For sure.

Bill (36:55):
Yeah, it’s always baked for us. I haven’t had a full smoked turkey either. I’ve had smoked turkey for it, smokehouses are out here. But the idea of doing that for Thanksgiving, both deep frying or smoke seems indulgent fun.

Toby (37:10):
Yeah. Victoria, you said-

Bill (37:11):
One of the beers-

Toby (37:12):
I’m sorry, Bill, go ahead.

Bill (37:13):
One of the beers I’d like to I throw out just as if you’re just looking at the turkey in general, something like an American wheat, like a North Coast Blue Star. Something’s like a wheat beer without the fennel, it’s just a touch hop beer. Nothing you’d describe as a hoppy beer, but just something to help cut through a little bit on the hoppy side might be nice. We’re still looking relatively low alcohol, so you could do a lot of, you could do a six pack of them until dinner and get to the big stuff.

Toby (37:40):
Yeah. Victoria, you mentioned y’all do a smoke turkey, is that right?

Victoria (37:44):
Yeah, we brine it and-

Toby (37:46):
Oh I was going to say, yeah brining I think is important.

Victoria (37:48):
Exactly, it is a game changer. But yeah, we brine it and we do a light smoke on it and we do that in the Kamado Joe, AKA the Red Egg as people know it versus the-

Toby (38:01):
Yeah. Well, it’s always challenging finding something that is big enough to brine a whole turkey in, especially if you get a big one. Right? Some people just use a five gallon bucket. Yeah it does definitely takes some time. But it’s one of those that I think it’s absolutely imperative and worth it if you’re not already doing it.

Victoria (38:19):
It just adds to the juiciness. It is just so worth it. Try it, it’ll change your life.

Toby (38:24):
Yeah.

CJ (38:26):
We have an interesting method up here in Pennsylvania, Toby. My grandfather’s been cooking turkey in a garbage can for a long time, over a bed of charcoals and it’s delicious. Keeps a lot of the moisture in as it’s cooking it. Some of the best turkey I’ve ever had.

Bill (38:42):
I think-

Toby (38:43):
That doesn’t surprise me.

Bill (38:44):
… green egg, isn’t it?

Toby (38:48):
We have a barrel smoker. It’s a pit barrel, right? It’s a 50 gallon container, but it’s modified to be a smoker. Sounds like something similar to that, CJ.

CJ (39:02):
Yeah, ours is a lot cheaper. I’ll say that.

Toby (39:05):
It’s literally a trash can.

CJ (39:07):
Oh. It’s literally a stainless steel trash can with a hook inside that the bird hangs on and cooks over the coals all day long.

Victoria (39:15):
Oh wow that’s genius.

Toby (39:16):
Love it.

Victoria (39:17):
And I would eat that garbage any day.

Heather (39:19):
I would eat that garbage and turkey.

Victoria (39:19):
Garbage can turkey.

Toby (39:23):
I would need a high hat for that comment, Victoria, that was awesome. I know CJ does the dad jokes, but that was good.

Victoria (39:29):
I was trying to impress CJ.

Toby (39:34):
I want to-

Heather (39:34):
Oh, sorry.

Toby (39:36):
Go ahead.

Heather (39:36):
I [inaudible 00:39:36] touch with Bill, and something we had kind of been texting about and you said cabbage rolls.

Bill (39:41):
Yeah, well my mom’s side of the family is pretty Ukrainian, so we always had cabbage rolls on the table too. It’s one of the things I look forward to is homemade cabbage rolls. But they’re Ukrainian style, not German style. So they’re lighter, they’re smaller and no beef. It’s rice, bacon, and sour cabbage basically. And then that’s fried with butter and onions.

Toby (40:02):
I just had to look those up.

Bill (40:06):
Yeah.

Heather (40:06):
I think that was something that I thought when we were talking about it, that we had a lot of Ukrainian heritage, especially in the prairies in Canada. So there’s always been cabbage rolls kicking around.

Toby (40:19):
They do look good.

Bill (40:20):
And that brings back that when I was talking was about wild ferment sours, like your wild ferment sours, they bring some of those ferment flavors back to that sour cabbage, echoing some of those flavors across other things.

Victoria (40:35):
Bill, all your adjectives are just making me more hungry. Are you a food writer because you certainly sound like it and it’s just making me want go eat?

Heather (40:44):
He does write his own menus. Pretty entertaining.

Victoria (40:48):
There you go.

Bill (40:51):
A lifetime of working in restaurants, trying to make food sound delicious.

Victoria (40:53):
That’s great.

Toby (40:54):
No, sounds good. All right. What about green bean casserole? Is it just a southern thing but it’s-

Tim (41:03):
No it’s…

Toby (41:04):
No, Tim.

Tim (41:04):
It’s everywhere.

Toby (41:04):
Yeah?

Tim (41:04):
Yeah.

Toby (41:07):
Anybody else eat green bean casserole?

CJ (41:09):
Yeah, we have it with those frizzled onions on top.

Victoria (41:11):
Yep.

Toby (41:15):
The frizzled onions. What is the name of those thing? They’re the fried onions, right?

Victoria (41:17):
Yep. And I am guilty. I mean, I am such a foodie and I love elevated food, but I just like, it’s downright like basic bean casserole. The one you follow the instructions on the thing of onions, just-

Toby (41:30):
So it’s canned green beans, like cream of mushroom soup, little bit of milk.

Victoria (41:36):
Just don’t tell anybody. I shouldn’t have broadcasted that because that is kind of [inaudible 00:41:41].

Toby (41:40):
And the onion frizzes-

Victoria (41:40):
Yes.

Toby (41:42):
… as CJ called them.

Bill (41:47):
I Googled this one too, and I have not had that. I would though, I’d eat this in a heartbeat.

Heather (41:52):
I have never had a green bean casserole.

Toby (41:52):
You never had a green bean. Okay, well there’s something you got to put on the menu. Yeah, it’s nothing fancy.

Victoria (42:00):
Oh, it is not.

Toby (42:01):
Very good though.

Victoria (42:01):
Maybe you could do an elevated version of it.

Bill (42:04):
Honestly, I was like, as soon as you said maybe that’s something you should put on the menu, I’m like, “Maybe this, we could probably work something out with this.”

Heather (42:10):
I feel like you could do this. I’m coming back to Calgary for Christmas. So I expect this to be on the list when I get there.

Bill (42:17):
At Rain Dog, yeah it’s fun. It’s a fun idea to play, good flavor.

Tim (42:20):
Put some morel mushrooms in there and-

Toby (42:22):
Oh yeah.

Heather (42:23):
Truffles.

Tim (42:25):
Yeah.

Bill (42:25):
Just notes for chef. Here you go. We’re making this now. Make it good.

Heather (42:30):
Chefs love notes. Going to be fantastic.

Toby (42:34):
We also do potato salad, right? There’s several different versions of potato salad, brussels sprout casserole, French onion soup has been on the menu for holidays down here before. I love the French onion soup.

Bill (42:51):
Brussels sprouts are very traditional, I think up here really traditional as a winter food. And I think that’s something that’s like a brussels sprouts, something that’s pretty tricky to pair with… Well, for wine and for beer. Beer has an effervescence a little bit. But yeah, just pairing straight with, if you’re like just pair something with brussels sprouts is a tricky one with a… So it’s green, grassy notes to it.

Heather (43:13):
What would you go with? I feel like I would try to pick something on the English side.

Bill (43:18):
And say, I’m like, to me that’s where I, anytime I get into asparagus or brussels sprouts, I lean straight into pilsners. And so the grassy notes there, some of those a little bit acceptable green notes, and just cutting through and hoping to pick up some of those notes.

Heather (43:33):
But if those brussels spreads were really heavily roasted or even pan fried, I’d be like an English brown I feel like would be really nice.

Bill (43:42):
Yeah, I guess so. To get some of those rosy notes, you’re absolutely into the brown ales and trying to do the same thing as the toss in a little syrup.

Heather (43:50):
Yeah, with the bacon?

Bill (43:51):
I like that. Bacon and brussels sprouts, maple syrup.

Heather (43:55):
So good.

Bill (43:55):
Brown ale on the side.

Heather (43:56):
And a brown ale on the side.

Tim (43:58):
They’re no longer brussels sprints.

Heather (44:00):
Well, they’re not good for you anymore, but it’s still delicious.

Toby (44:04):
I can’t imagine Brussels sprouts without bacon, unfortunately. Just love them. Another thing I wrote down too for the holidays, and this is a good question for everybody too. We eat black eyed peas for New Year’s for good luck. Anyone else do that?

Bill (44:24):
Yes.

Victoria (44:25):
I will if it brings good luck.

Heather (44:28):
I don’t think I’ve ever eaten black eyed peas before.

Toby (44:30):
Bill?

Bill (44:31):
Me neither. No, I haven’t seen them here.

Toby (44:34):
[inaudible 00:44:34] there’s another menu.

CJ (44:36):
Toby, I’m curious what you cook. We cook a, it’ll be black eyed pea collar green curry almost.

Toby (44:43):
That sounds wonderful.

CJ (44:45):
And it just kind of simmers for a couple hours in the morning and it’s delicious. You can eat it vegetarian, vegan, or some people will also serve it with pork.

Toby (44:56):
That sounds good. We typically just go to old school, just the simmer. We’ll put a ham hock in there, onions and just let it roll for a long period of time. But yeah, I love me some collard greens too, especially on the holidays. It’s great. So for those that have had black eyed peas before, what kind of beer should I be looking for when I put those out on New Year’s Day?

Victoria (45:29):
For beer, I normally-

Toby (45:31):
I stumped y’all.

Victoria (45:32):
Yeah, I normally do it in the style of, have you had Texas caviar, Toby? It’s like a dip with black eyed peas. That’s fantastic, and I obviously would pair that with maybe a Mexican logger, but that’s a different style. But as far as that kind of slow cooked.

CJ (45:50):
I do West Coast IPA, Toby.

Victoria (45:52):
There you go.

Toby (45:54):
Actually, it sounds like a great idea, right?

CJ (45:56):
Bitterness is. Yeah.

Toby (45:59):
Texas.

Bill (45:59):
Some of that [inaudible 00:46:01].

Heather (46:01):
So say if you’re going to do the roaster with the ham hock too, I would throw a rauchbier in there.

Toby (46:08):
Yeah, that sounds good too.

Bill (46:11):
I like the idea of the little bitterness. I had to Google the black eyed peas recipes as well. And it looks to me like Casa Leo, it looks like there’s a lot of flavors going on in there. The beans and the ham and I think that, yeah a little bit of bitterness to rip through that, and kind of manage the intensity of all the different flavors going on. It sounds delicious to me. You got to figure out where to get black eyed peas around here.

Victoria (46:33):
Yeah.

Heather (46:36):
[inaudible 00:46:36] out of the loop on things Bill.

Bill (46:38):
I know. Oh my God, I don’t get that. I don’t have that.

Heather (46:40):
We’re like, there’s no difference, everything’s the same. They’re like, “We’ve never heard of this before.”

Toby (46:48):
Let’s talk about, just real quick, let’s talk about some desserts, kind of some pairings there. Here obviously because of the fall we make a lot of pumpkin pie. Bill, Heather-

Bill (47:01):
Yeah pumpkin pie is pretty good.

Toby (47:01):
What about pumpkin pie? What would you envision as a perfect beer for pumpkin pie?

Heather (47:10):
American Brown.

Bill (47:12):
Yeah, those brown ales are going to work absolutely. But I mean after dinner I’m done my turkey dinner and I’m done. We’re most of the way through the night, with my family it’s usually about a half hour or an hour before we get started on dessert. Because no one’s, that fast after the meal, no one’s really thinking about any more food. So I’ve moved into the imperial stouts. I’m just into the big stuff at this point. Okay. Night’s over. We’re good. Now I can be the drunk uncle.

Toby (47:44):
That’s good.

Heather (47:45):
I could see a good, nice imperial stout with that. Anyone in mind? Has anyone popped to the front of your mind of one that you would want?

Bill (47:54):
Nothing that’s really jumped into my head actually. It’s weird. I didn’t have-

Heather (47:55):
Pechank?

Bill (47:57):
I love Pech. and that coffee note in there looks familiar. Pech is one of my favorite beers of all time. Coffee note with a pumpkin pie in a heartbeat.

Heather (48:06):
I love that beer.

Toby (48:11):
Well, any other final thoughts? Anything interesting that your families do around the holidays? Any, I don’t know, any goals for this year? Try something new. I know I’m going to try the Thai Friday.

Bill (48:20):
I like this Thai Friday idea for sure.

Victoria (48:20):
Thai Day Friday.

Bill (48:20):
Thai day Friday.

Heather (48:24):
Thai day Friday.

Toby (48:26):
I’m sorry. Sorry, I messed it up.

Heather (48:27):
I am just going to try and get an invite to Victoria’s because I’m not that far of a drive, Victoria.

Victoria (48:33):
Perfect. You’re welcome. You’re absolutely welcome.

Bill (48:37):
I’ve been image searching, I’ve been searching on my phone constantly all these different dishes that I got to get into. There’s a whole bunch of stuff I got to get into all of a sudden from the different beers. We get some of the Great Lake stuff up here, but the Fitzgerald Porter doesn’t come up yet. I’m like, I got to figure out who’s bringing in the rest of the Great Lake stuff.

Heather (48:53):
Bill’s on the phone with all his importers-

Bill (48:55):
I’m like, “Hey, what’s going on here? I need to try this. I need to try this.” Yeah, I remembered where I got the New Glarus stuff that I had. I’m like, I don’t think I got a good enough line to get the barrel aged-

Tim (49:07):
[Inaudible 00:49:08].

Bill (49:07):
… Stuff yet.

Tim (49:08):
… for you, Bill. I’ll work on that, get something over to you.

Bill (49:10):
But yeah, I got a lot of homework.

Heather (49:13):
Anything currently on the list at Rain Dog Bar? Any good beer and food pairings that you would want to promo plug?

Toby (49:22):
Yeah. How about you got to plug your place for spending 45 minutes with us, so have at it.

Bill (49:26):
Yeah, I mean the whole thing is, what’s it called, beer and food pairing. We just added, well, about a month ago, two months ago. I don’t think it was here when you were here last Heather, Welsh rarebit to the menu.

Heather (49:39):
Oh no it was there. I ate it.

Bill (49:42):
It’s super cold here right now. So I’m like, not Welsh rarebit, we got it’s a cheese sauce on toast that we’ve done with a local stout [inaudible 00:49:50] Gentleman Stout. And it’s got a little bit of spiciness to it. Just pure richness paired to the stout. I’m looking outside at snow thinking I would eat that right now in a heartbeat. It’s on a sourdough toast. What else we got? Oh one That would work well probably as a side dish for Thanksgiving. It’s not vegan but vegetarian. We got the charred broccoli with valdeon cream. Valdeon is almost like a Gorgonzola, like a Spanish Gorgonzola, like charred broccoli, valdeon cream, horseradish, pickle chalet, organic honey.

Victoria (50:26):
That sounds fantastic.

Toby (50:28):
That does sound wonderful.

Victoria (50:29):
Might have to hit you up for that recipe.

Bill (50:33):
Yeah, yeah. So that one, like a little bit of hops going on there. A little bit like a lighter West Coast ale, maybe a West Coast session IPA kind of. So a little bit of hops with to balance out that horseradish. It’s beautiful.

Heather (50:47):
Like a Blindman session.

Bill (50:49):
Yeah, the Blindman session would be perfect with us.

Toby (50:52):
Well Bill, tell the listeners about, do you have a website we can send them to?

Bill (50:56):
Yeah, it’s just raindogbar.com. It’s super simple, yeah up here in Calgary, Alberta. So anyone, if you’re in the area or from the area. If you’re from the area ever, I hope you know about us, but the people who are not from the area swing by. I’m always here. If we’re open, I’m at work, so come by and give me help if you think my pairings are wrong, and think I should know more about Boxing Day.

Toby (51:22):
All good. Well, we thoroughly appreciate jumping on Bill, a wealth of knowledge and-

Bill (51:26):
Well thanks for having me.

Toby (51:28):
I’m up in Calgary, I’m certainly going to come see you. And for the listeners out there, I appreciate y’all jumping on. And for Heather, Cheyenne, CJ, Victoria, Tim, thank y’all for jumping on and-

Heather (51:39):
Thank you.

Toby (51:39):
… I look forward to catch up a little bit more in the future. It’s been an awesome day and hopefully everybody enjoyed it. Again, if you want to get in the conversation or beat us up about something, hit us up at the brewdeck@countrymalt.com.

Heather (51:53):
Mm-hmm.

Bill (51:54):
All right.

Toby (51:54):
Cool. Well, I appreciate everybody’s time. We’ll make it a fantastic day and we’ll catch up on the next one.

Bill (51:59):
Thanks. Bye.