EPISODE S.5, E.14

Heather (00:09):
Welcome back to another episode of The BrewDeck Podcast. I am your host, Heather Jerred, and I am joined by the amazing Cheyenne. Hi, Cheyenne.

Cheyenne (00:17):
Hello. How are you, Heather?

Heather (00:19):
I’m doing pretty good. How about you?

Cheyenne (00:21):
I’m doing great. I love these episodes. I’m sure the listeners know now by the title, but we get to chat about beer styles.

Heather (00:29):
They’re always our favorite, my favorite.

Cheyenne (00:32):
These are some of my favorite episodes. I love them so much. This style episode was my first foray into the podcast world. I was dragged onto an episode by you.

Heather (00:44):
That tracks, actually. That sounds like something I would do.

Cheyenne (00:47):
I think I had worked for… This was about two years ago, and I think I had worked for CMG for about two months, was still trying to figure everything out, and we did a podcast episode on our ultimate summer beers.

Heather (00:58):
Oh, yeah.

Cheyenne (01:00):
And that was so fun.

Heather (01:00):
It was super fun.

Cheyenne (01:01):
I love getting to chat with everyone, round table style. And I think on that one we had wanted it to be debate style, we wanted to get a little spicy, and I think everyone just ended up agreeing, “Oh, yeah, that is a great beer.”

Heather (01:15):
That is great. Yeah, I don’t think we got very argumentative at all, we probably shouldn’t call them… They’re just nice, lovely, round table beer nerd discussions.

Cheyenne (01:22):
They’re just chit-chats on our favorite beer styles.

Heather (01:22):
Chit-chats.

Cheyenne (01:24):
Do you remember what your ultimate summer beer pick was?

Heather (01:28):
I don’t. Did I even pick one?

Cheyenne (01:31):
I think you did.

Heather (01:33):
I might not have… I don’t remember.

Cheyenne (01:34):
Oh, maybe you were just hosting and you didn’t pick one. But I was a guest and I had to pick one and I remember picking the Gose for ultimate summer beer, and I still stand by that pick. That is a good-

Heather (01:44):
That was a good one. Yeah. I remember Adam Wilson was on it, and he picked a wit.

Cheyenne (01:48):
Oh, yeah.

Heather (01:49):
Yeah. And he had talked about the White Bark, which is a beer by Driftwood out here in BC. And I was just thinking about this last week, that it’s summertime, it’s finally turning into summer here and I wanted one.

Cheyenne (02:04):
Yeah. I have a beef with wits because I was a brewer in my previous life and they’re really hard styles to brew.

Heather (02:16):
What is it about them that it’s really difficult?

Cheyenne (02:20):
Well, they do have a lot of wheat in them, which if you’re not careful, you can get a stuck mash. And I think that this also comes down to I’m not, or I wasn’t a very organized person, but they have additions in the boil and whirlpool. They have coriander and bitter orange peel additions in the kettle and we hand ground our coriander, so we had a crank mill that was attached to the desktop in the brewery.

Heather (02:48):
Oh my goodness.

Cheyenne (02:49):
And it would always be about two minutes before the addition was due that I would realize I hadn’t hand cranked my coriander yet. So just frantically cranking coriander.

Heather (03:01):
I would pay to see that.

Cheyenne (03:03):
I just have some bad memories of having to hand crank coriander.

Heather (03:06):
Well, you know what? That’s fair. That’s totally fair. I could see that being a thing.

Cheyenne (03:10):
They are really good beer styles, though.

Heather (03:12):
They are. Yeah, I love them. Yeah, I’m excited about today. We also have dragged on a few other CMG reps for people to meet. like you said we dragged you on, you were here for about two months. Well, Matt Sprinkle has been here for maybe five months I think, so-

Cheyenne (03:31):
It’s just a tradition of CMG for us to just pick our newest employee and forced them onto the podcast.

Heather (03:36):
Yeah.

Cheyenne (03:38):
This is our version of hazing.

Heather (03:39):
It is, yeah. It’s a pretty mellow hazing, I would say.

Cheyenne (03:43):
Pretty gentle, yeah.

Heather (03:44):
We tend to have a lot of fun.

Cheyenne (03:46):
Yeah, these ones are pretty great. Well, before we get into all of that fun beer chat, we have a couple of housekeeping items. First up, we have our grain to glass posters. These ones are really cool, we got to talking about these last week. I’m really excited about these, I think I’m going to add some to my office. But if you’re looking for something to jazz up your taproom or your office, we have some free grain to glass media kit posters as a thank you for supporting our malt family. And we want to help you bring the grain to glass experience to your facilities for both your staff and customers to enjoy.

(04:21)
They’re really beautiful photos of literally from grain to glass, from the farms to the malting facilities, right to your taprooms. Beautiful photographs. You can go ahead and snag those and stick them up in your brewery, in your taproom, in your office. High resolution, they’re printable posters for Great Western Malting and Canada Malting Co. You can download them for free at countrymalt.com/posters. And if you want to learn more about our farmers, we just did an episode, last episode, two weeks ago.

Heather (04:56):
Such a good episode.

Cheyenne (04:58):
What did we call it? Here We Grow?

Heather (04:59):
Here We Grow.

Cheyenne (05:01):
You came up with that one. That one’s a good pun, I like that one.

Heather (05:05):
I really can’t take any credit for that. That was our CBC party name, you can cut that [inaudible 00:05:12]. Definitely what we used to call our CBC party.

Cheyenne (05:15):
I thought you were going to say that Adam Wilson had worn off on you a little bit. You were getting the dad puns.

Heather (05:23):
I got the dad puns, I was really feeling it for Father’s Day, I guess.

Cheyenne (05:25):
Oh, yeah. Perfect.

Heather (05:27):
Right around Father’s Day.

Cheyenne (05:28):
Well, if you want to go back and check that episode out, we talked to a couple of farmers, one in Idaho and one up in Canada, and that was one of the most informative episodes that we’ve recorded in a while. I learned a ton, I was blabbing on to my family about farmers and they’re like, “Okay, Cheyenne.”

Heather (05:47):
It’s crazy how much you can learn from them and how much I still do. I thought I am really, really lucky that I live and work in a really high barley growing territory, having Alberta, Canada be one of my sales territories. So I’ve been very lucky to spend a lot of time getting to know some of our producers and I learn something new every time I talk to them.

Cheyenne (06:11):
It’s just so cool to hear from them directly about what they do every single day and how technologically advanced these farms are. I think that if you’re not familiar with farming, I’m not super familiar with it, you have the idea that it might be a little bit old school, which it can be, but they have a lot of really cool technology that they’re sharing with us. Helicopters were involved on one of the farms, which is really cool.

Heather (06:37):
There were helicopters involved. Oh yeah, that was-

Cheyenne (06:37):
It’s like an action movie over here. Well, very cool. Yeah, so go back and listen to that episode if you haven’t already.

Heather (06:46):
And some little more housekeeping news. Pre-orders are now open for the seventh annual Veterans Hop Blend from Yakima Chief Hops. They are open until August 26. The blend includes Citra, Crystal, Ekuanot, El Dorado and Simcoe. And this-

Cheyenne (07:03):
That sounds like an amazing blend.

Heather (07:05):
Oh, it’s going to be nice. I can’t wait to smell it.

Cheyenne (07:07):
Yeah.

Heather (07:08):
So they’re supporting Stop Soldier Suicide, which is the only national non-profit organization dedicated solely to reducing the suicide rate among our nation’s veterans. So make sure to contact your sales rep to reserve your hops and support your local veteran community.

Cheyenne (07:26):
This one’s going to be a really good one. I’m glad that we are continuing to support the Veterans Hop Blend. Seventh annual, seven years in a row.

Heather (07:33):
[inaudible 00:07:33] yeah.

Cheyenne (07:33):
That’s amazing. We also have a couple of episodes, I guess I don’t have them handy, but we do an episode pretty much every year about the Hop Blend. So if you go back to previous seasons, you can check out all of the really cool organizations that we get to support and that you get to support with the Veterans Hop Blend. So go back and check those out.

Heather (07:52):
Every year it’s a different organization that they support, and we’ve got to talk to some of them, which has just been really, really cool.

Cheyenne (07:59):
Yeah, some really cool organizations. So go check those out, go listen to the farmers if you haven’t. And without further ado, we get to go chat now with all of our really fun coworkers and quote unquote debate, although it’s the mildest debate ever.

Heather (08:15):
The friendliest debates.

Cheyenne (08:19):
Yeah. The friendliest, most agreeable debate about beer styles. So we’re chatting about what are most underrated beer style picks are.

Heather (08:27):
Let’s jump in. On today’s episode, we’re going to be doing a round table debate with some of our friends and some of our listeners’ friends. You may know them and you probably love them. They’re your CMG reps. So the last time we did this was season three, episode 11, which was a little debate round table on the ultimate summer beer. So today we’re going to be talking about what we think are the most underrated beer styles. So let’s introduce us to our guest. Brittany, do you want to start us off and say hello?

Brittany (08:57):
Hey, hey, hey. My name is Brittany Drennan. I am the territory manager for the south central region, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and New Mexico. About me, I have been in the industry for a long time, probably about eight years in different capacities. I’ve worked in tech, I’ve worked behind the bar, and I’ve been with CMG for five and a half years now. My first jobby job in the industry was still brewing down in San Diego.

Heather (09:39):
Jobby job, I like that term. And this is actually Brittany’s second time joining us on the podcast. She did help me co-host a few years ago for one of the international women’s days at the co.

Cheyenne (09:50):
You did the whole women’s month, didn’t you, Brittany? It was a couple of episodes that she co-hosted, right?

Brittany (09:56):
I think I was just on one. I’m not going to lie.

Cheyenne (10:00):
Oh, well you just had such a profound effect on me, Brittany.

Heather (10:02):
Well, welcome Brittany. And now the man with the best name ever, Matt Sprinkle.

Matt (10:10):
Hey, that’s me. Yeah, I guess my name is Matt Sprinkle. I have been at Country Malt for all of, what, five months now? Which has been a lot of fun so far. I’ve been in the industry for about 15 years and got my start at Foothills Brewing Company in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Yeah, so I’m the territory manager for the Mid-Atlantic, so North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

Cheyenne (10:44):
Very cool. And you have a great name, so can’t not say that again.

Matt (10:50):
Bless you.

Cheyenne (10:53):
Last but not least, Sydney.

Sydney (10:56):
Hey guys, good to be back. So yeah, I’m Sydney Starkman. I have been with CMG for a little over two years now and I’m in the North Territory, so mostly Canada and the Northeast US. And I started my beer career like every other person from the New England area at Magic Hat in South Burlington and just skipped around everywhere until I got here.

Cheyenne (11:29):
That’s awesome. And you also are a returning guest, you were on a live episode at CBC this year, weren’t you, Sydney?

Sydney (11:36):
I was and it wasn’t as I thought it was going to be.

Heather (11:41):
She was giving [inaudible 00:11:42] tap room.

Sydney (11:41):
It was pretty fun.

Heather (11:46):
Well, as I mentioned, we are talking about our favorite most underrated beer styles and why don’t we kick it off with Mr. Sprinkle. Can you tell us what you think is the most underrated beer style?

Matt (12:03):
Oh, man. I think the most underrated beer style is the Saison, but more specifically the grisette. The grisette is like a lighter Saison, it’s typically four to 5% alcohol, so you can make it a crusher if you want, but I really like the style because very different from being set in stone based on its profile. It gives the brewers the ability to do whatever they want with the beer in terms of different adjuncts, seasonal ingredients, and showcasing what they like out of that beer.

Cheyenne (12:55):
I don’t think I’ve ever had a grisette.

Matt (12:57):
Yeah, I hadn’t either until I went down to visit Chris Johnson down at Green Bench in St. Pete, Florida, and he was always a great host, bringing out some cool fun beers for us to try. But yeah, he was the one that introduced me to the grisette, he had a beer called Les Grisettes and told me the story behind the beer. Basically, French miners’ wives used to make the beer, bring it to their husbands when they got out of the mine just as a way to, I’m going to say rehydrate, but unwind, relax after a long day of work. Yeah. But it’s all of the benefits of a Saison in my opinion, but at a lower alcohol. And I’m big on mixed culture stuff, so grisettes can be mixed culture, you can have Brett in there. There’s a lot you can do with that base style.

Brittany (14:16):
Hey Matt, don’t some people call it a table beer or table Saison?

Matt (14:22):
I think a table Saison would be another way to classify it, but doesn’t it sound cooler to say Les grisettes?

Heather (14:31):
Yeah, you sound cool. [inaudible 00:14:34]

Brittany (14:34):
Yeah, no, definitely. I was reminded about a beer brewed by Calusa, in the same area of Florida that you were just talking about, in Sarasota specifically, but they have a stellar table Saison that they brew there, too. I personally love that style. I was actually going to choose Saison as mine, so I’m glad I didn’t. Look at that.

Heather (14:56):
I also love a good Saison.

Matt (15:00):
Yeah, they’re not brewed that much. I live in Asheville and one of our somewhat local breweries, Fonta Flora, makes a really good one called Bloody Butcher, and they use an heirloom varietal of corn called Bloody Butcher. I think Green Bench uses spelt, buckwheat, rye, oats, a bunch of stuff goes into that beer.

Brittany (15:32):
Jester King here in Texas makes a blackberry grisette.

Heather (15:37):
I’ve actually had that one and it is absolutely delicious. And my favorite thing about Saisons, grisettes, just going to pull [inaudible 00:15:49] out, they’re perfect food pairing beers, they go with everything. And what a good little summer treat, I would say.

Matt (15:56):
Yeah, and whenever somebody asks me what my favorite beer is, that’s such a loaded question. So I always think of my desert island beers that I’ve tried as I travel around and one of those is absolutely the Les Grisette from Green Bench. Can’t get enough of it.

Heather (16:15):
Wow. I believe that was a very good argument for the grisette. Syd, what beer did you pick as your most underrated beer style?

Sydney (16:25):
I picked a milk stout, and I do expect to get some heat from this and I’m okay with that. Coming out hot.

Heather (16:36):
I like it. I like a good dark beer, so I’m on board for this.

Sydney (16:40):
So if you don’t know about milk stouts, essentially it’s a stout brewed with lactose or milk sugars. It’s typically lower ABV than a stout, but it can range because nowadays we try to push styles to the limit and add styles to each other. So you can get an Imperial milk stout, which can be pretty high in ABV. Personally, I’m on the lower end, I like 5.5 is a sweet spot for me. And I didn’t know this before this podcast recording, so I’m happy that I had to do it, but I learned that they were first brewed in England in the early 1900s and it was advertised as a healthy beer because drinking one of these beers, one milk stout has as much energizing carbohydrates from 10 ounces of milk. So you have to drink it. It’s healthy.

Cheyenne (17:34):
That’s how I’m just going to describe all the beers I drink from now on.

Sydney (17:37):
Exactly. They’re good for you.

Cheyenne (17:38):
Energizing carbohydrates.

Sydney (17:40):
Exactly, exactly. And a milk stout, you get carbohydrates and calcium. It’s a two for one.

Cheyenne (17:46):
It’s super healthy. No one can say otherwise.

Sydney (17:50):
Agriculture’s evolving [inaudible 00:17:52].

Matt (17:51):
I need to have an ad with the milk stout mustache.

Heather (17:54):
Oh, yeah. These are all professional opinions.

Sydney (18:03):
But yeah, I love milk stouts, big fan of them. And my fists are up and ready if anyone has anything to say about it.

Cheyenne (18:12):
I don’t think anyone here is going to debate you on it. I love these round table ones that we do because we always want them to be a little bit spicy and it ends up that everyone’s just like, “Oh yeah, that is a really good beer style.” I don’t think you’re going to get any pushback. What is your first memory of trying one? You tried it once and that was your favorite or what’s the history of it for you?

Sydney (18:31):
I don’t know if I have a memory specific to milk stout, and it was probably when I was too young to drink and from my parents, but I remember… I live in New England, so IPAs are very heavy here and very much promoted. So I just remember trying Gunner’s Daughter from Mast Landing, it’s like their flagship milk stout. It’s awesome, they’re out of Freeport, Maine and I was like, Oh my gosh, a really good beer that’s not a bunch of hops.” Which nothing wrong with IPAs, love a New England IPA, but it’s super refreshing to have something super smooth and creamy but not overly sweet like a pastry stout. And it’s just like the perfect beer to me.

Cheyenne (19:19):
I think that you and Heather could have very long conversations about all of this because she loves dark beers.

Heather (19:23):
I love me a dark beer.

Sydney (19:23):
I love dark beers.

Heather (19:24):
I think for me it was the Left Hand Milk Stout.

Sydney (19:30):
Yes, that’s a really good one too.

Cheyenne (19:32):
That’s the one that’s very famous because-

Brittany (19:34):
Yeah, that was my first. Yeah, that was my first one.

Heather (19:38):
Yeah, there is a brewery in Saskatchewan, yep, dropping that, Swift Current, Saskatchewan actually, called Black Bridge that does a milk stout that is absolutely amazing. So yeah, I’m definitely with you on this one, Syd.

Sydney (19:53):
Thank you. No debate [inaudible 00:19:55].

Cheyenne (19:59):
[inaudible 00:19:57]. Cool. Well, Brittany, you want to jump in and tell us your most underrated beer style?

Brittany (20:06):
Yeah, I’m with Matt on the desert island beer. I didn’t pick a desert island beer, but I did pick a style that I will always order if I stayed on the menu. No matter what. And mine is a black IPA.

Cheyenne (20:22):
I do like a good black IPA.

Brittany (20:26):
I love a good black IPA, and I never see them anywhere. I think it might just be off-putting as a name in general, a label, or just weird if a beer drinker walks up that isn’t super familiar or has never seen one. But yeah, that’s my style. I am a West Coast IPA girly all day, every day, that’s my go-to style. But when I moved out to the West Coast, I got hopped out super quick. And then when I started working at Stone, I don’t remember if it was the Sublimely Self-Righteous or the Enjoy By series, but they released their black IPA and I was like, “Oh my god, this is amazing.” And that was the first one I had ever tried. So yeah, it’s just I think the perfect combination of malty and hoppy, and that’s my style.

Cheyenne (21:31):
Heather, you might know the answer to this, and maybe I’m on the wrong path here, but what is the difference between a black IPA and a Cascadian Dark Ale? Are they the same thing?

Heather (21:40):
They’re the same thing.

Cheyenne (21:41):
Are they? Okay.

Heather (21:42):
Well, yeah, it’s an oxymoron to call something a Black Pale Ale. That doesn’t…

Cheyenne (21:47):
Yeah, yeah.

Heather (21:48):
The terms don’t really go together, so yeah, it is a Cascadian Dark Ale is I think the official style term of it.

Brittany (21:55):
Yeah. So for this podcast, I was looking up the history, shout out to [inaudible 00:22:01] at Pints and Panels, I’m on her site right now. And I guess it’s a popular topic of conversation on what it’s called in the history of it and who invented it.

Cheyenne (22:14):
Oh, is there some debate on whether it’s a style?

Brittany (22:16):
Yeah. Yeah, I think so.

Cheyenne (22:19):
Got the beer nerds debating.

Brittany (22:21):
There’s that. I think the Pacific Northwest wants some credit and a home brewer also looking for credit, so yeah, I’m not exactly sure who the winner is there.

Cheyenne (22:39):
It is a really good beer style though, because like you said, you get the best of both worlds. If you really like IPAs, you get the IPA and then you get the rich maltiness from the darker malts.

Brittany (22:49):
Yeah. She also mentioned, and it’s so funny because around about the time where Instagram started becoming popular and people started getting flights with different color beers in them to make their pictures look pretty, black IPAs all of a sudden came out of nowhere and everybody had one on their flight. So whatever that’s worth.

Cheyenne (23:07):
I’m definitely guilty of the Instagram beer flight photos.

Brittany (23:10):
Same, same. Same, same.

Heather (23:12):
Yeah, [inaudible 00:23:13].

Sydney (23:13):
[inaudible 00:23:13] influencing for the cool colors for the Instagram beer flight photos.

Heather (23:17):
You got to do it for the gram. For the Gram.

Cheyenne (23:22):
Well, do you have a favorite black IPA, Cascadian Dark Ale, whatever we want to call it?

Brittany (23:28):
Yeah, I would say that Stone one is really near and dear to my heart. Locally here in Texas, Meanwhile Brewing brewed one for the eclipse that we just had, because we were in the path of totality, and that one was stellar. It was called Icarus’s Revenge, and I believe that is from Greek mythology about the guy that flew too close to the sun and his wings burned off or something like that.

Cheyenne (23:56):
Oh, yeah, yeah. A black IPA is such a good beer style to brew for a total eclipse.

Brittany (24:01):
Right? Isn’t that genius? I was like, “Amazing.” So yeah, that one was really good. Equal Parts, I believe, brews one here in the Houston area, I know 512 out in Austin does as well. So yeah, all three really solid local choices for me.

Cheyenne (24:18):
I’m really thirsty all of a sudden and it’s like 10:30 AM.

Heather (24:21):
Yeah, we did this at a bad time, 10:30 on a Monday.

Cheyenne (24:28):
10:30 on a Monday.

Matt (24:29):
It’s 1:30 where I am, so I’m having a beer.

Cheyenne (24:30):
There you go.

Sydney (24:31):
I was going to say, I’m on the East Coast.

Brittany (24:31):
Nice.

Matt (24:34):
I will say there’s a really good black IPA, Cascadian Dark Ale, or whatever you want to call it, at one of my favorite breweries in North Carolina. It’s called Once You Go Black IPA, and it’s brewed by Lynnwood Brewing Concern in Raleigh, North Carolina, and they’ve won multiple silvers at World Beer Cup with it. It’s fantastic.

Cheyenne (24:58):
Oh.

Matt (24:59):
Yeah, not so much on the roasty astringent side, more black in color and then all the beautiful hops that you would want.

Cheyenne (25:06):
That sounds delicious.

Brittany (25:08):
I’ll be expecting that in some beer mail from you.

Heather (25:10):
Yeah, we’ll be sending our addresses over there.

Matt (25:14):
Yeah. You ship me out some Jester King and you can get whatever you want.

Brittany (25:17):
Fair. Tradesies.

Cheyenne (25:24):
Well, speaking of dark beers, Heather, you and I were talking a little bit before this about what our most underrated beer styles are and if we wanted to talk about our favorites. You had a hard time with this one because you’re a dark beer girly and Sydney and Brittany both took dark beers-

Heather (25:40):
They yoinked them.

Cheyenne (25:41):
You also though chose a dark beer, didn’t you?

Heather (25:45):
Yes. Well, and I don’t even know if it’s so underrated anymore because I’m seeing them pop up more and more on beer menus, but a dark lager. I love a good dark lager.

Cheyenne (25:56):
They’re so good.

Sydney (25:56):
A Schwarzbier.

Brittany (25:56):
Yes. Yes.

Heather (26:00):
Just all year round. They’ve got that nice roasty flavor that you want from the malt. I’m a malt salesperson apparently, and I like my malt in my beers. Really lean into it.

Brittany (26:10):
I was going to say, do you think it was a coincidence that all of us dark beer style girlies ended up at a malt-filled company?

Heather (26:20):
Part of the job description. Must have malt-forward beers.

Cheyenne (26:29):
Heather, you and I went out to dinner.

Heather (26:32):
In Vancouver, Washington.

Cheyenne (26:33):
In Vancouver, Washington for a work event, and you ordered a Schwarzbier off the menu. Please tell us what the name was. Do you remember?

Heather (26:41):
It still makes me giggle every time I think of it. It was called We Wear Short Schwartz from Fortside Brewing in Washington.

Brittany (26:50):
I’m obsessed. Amazing.

Heather (26:51):
And it still makes me laugh every single time, and it was absolutely delicious. I ordered it for the name, I stayed for the flavor. It was delicious.

Cheyenne (27:00):
I love when people come up with great puns for their beers.

Heather (27:04):
Big fan of a pun. Yeah, Cheyenne, what would you say is your most underrated?

Cheyenne (27:11):
I’m going to butcher the name here, but I’m a big fan of the Grodziskie, which is a Polish oak-smoked wheat beer, and you don’t really see them out all that much. I first stumbled onto this as a baby brewer, I was 22 at a beer festival and someone had one. I wish I could remember the brewery. I think I probably had a few too many and now I can’t remember what brewery it was.

Heather (27:38):
That happens at beer festivals.

Cheyenne (27:42):
It does happen at beer festivals. But it was just, I love a good smoked beer. These ones tend to be… They’re obviously made with wheat, so they’re just lighter in nature, but they’re also lighter in ABV. They typically are around three and a half percent and they’re really carbonated, which I love about it, and I think they’re great for beer festivals. They’re great all the time, but they’re great for beer festivals because I think when you’re at a beer festival, you want to experience all the really fun, weird, unique beers. You also are trying not to get too drunk, and I think this one is a great one for that because it’s so light in ABV, but it still has the really fun flavor that comes with it, and not a lot of people do them.

(28:21)
They’re really good, so I always look out for them and I don’t see them all that often. There is a brewery in Portland called Threshold Brewing and the owner is from Poland and he makes one and it’s fantastic. Actually just this year they made a festival celebrating the beer style at their brewery. But yeah, that one’s my favorite, the Grodziskie. And it’s really hard and fun to say.

Heather (28:45):
I like when [inaudible 00:28:47].

Sydney (28:46):
I can’t believe this, but I’ve actually had one before. Britt, you might’ve, too. From Switchback Brewing in Burlington, Vermont, they make one called Katie’s Love Poem, and I believe they won a few awards for it as well, but it’s really lovely. Such a good style to choose.

Cheyenne (29:03):
They’re good beers.

Brittany (29:03):
Doesn’t Steeplejack in Portland make a-

Sydney (29:03):
That’s right. Yeah, I think Steeplejack makes one because we interviewed them when we did an episode on smoked beers.

Cheyenne (29:16):
Oh, do they?

Brittany (29:16):
Yeah.

Sydney (29:17):
Steeplejack came on and talked about it.

Cheyenne (29:18):
Oh, amazing. I love Steeplejack.

Brittany (29:20):
I’ve been saying it wrong. I was saying Groszyski.

Cheyenne (29:24):
That’s how I said it up until this morning when I YouTubed it.

Brittany (29:31):
Tragic. It says also here that it’s called Polish Champagne and that’s cute.

Cheyenne (29:34):
Yes, yes. Yeah, because it’s so effervescent. They’re really good beers and I think, I don’t know too much on the history of them, but I think that they were… Obviously, they come from Poland and I think it was from the 1600s, so they’re a very old beer style. But I love smoked beers. You don’t get a whole lot of smoked beers around here. I’m in the Northwest and we also are inundated with hoppy beers.

Heather (29:56):
That’s such a brewer thing.

Brittany (29:59):
We have a brewery in Austin called Live Oak that makes a really, really famous one as well. So Cheyenne, if you ever come down here.

Cheyenne (30:07):
Well, yeah, you’re going to catch me in Texas now.

Brittany (30:10):
Hey, giddy up.

Cheyenne (30:11):
We’re just going to have to go on a beer tour of all of our states and try all of these beers.

Heather (30:16):
I’m certain work’s going to be totally fine with all of that. Well, amazing. I don’t know if I could pick a winner. Did anybody get swayed or are we all sticking to our guns in what our most underrated beer is?

Matt (30:35):
Let’s drink 12 of each of our favorite beers and see who’s standing.

Heather (30:37):
I like this idea.

Cheyenne (30:42):
That’s one way to see who wins.

Heather (30:43):
It’s for science, basically.

Matt (30:46):
For science.

Heather (30:46):
For science.

Cheyenne (30:47):
I will say, like I said, I don’t think I’ve ever had a grisette, but Matt, when you were describing it, I was like, “That actually sounds really refreshing.” I would like to try one.

Matt (30:56):
Oh, it’s great. It’s great on a hot summer day down in Florida, and it’s also great on a cool fall day in North Carolina.

Cheyenne (31:07):
That one also, I bet it’s a good festival beer as well because it is lower ABV, but you still get to try the fun unique beers. That’s what I love about festivals is just trying all the really weird stuff, but half of them are barrel aged and 13%.

Heather (31:21):
Oh, God.

Matt (31:23):
Well, that’s why the smoked beers do so well at the festival because you can taste the smoke after your palate has been wrecked by all the hops.

Cheyenne (31:30):
Yeah, a hundred percent. Save the smoked beer for last.

Matt (31:34):
Exactly.

Cheyenne (31:37):
Well, a Schwarzbier also is one of my very favorite styles just in general, Heather, so you didn’t convince me, but I do agree with you. A Schwarzbier is a great style.

Brittany (31:45):
I agree, too.

Heather (31:46):
Yes, because we never agree on anything, Cheyenne.

Matt (31:51):
I will also say right now I am ordering the dark lager wherever I go. The dark Vienna lager is what my palate is craving right now. There’s a brewery that does a really good one here in town called New Origin. They’ve got a dark Czech lager. Fantastic.

Heather (32:13):
Great big thank you to Matt, Brittany, and Sydney for coming on. We know we hijacked your Monday morning slash afternoon and pulled you off of work, so thank you so much. We’ll let you get back to your day being awesome salespeople. If anybody listening ever wants to debate about underrated beer styles, you know who to call. Any one of them.

Cheyenne (32:35):
We’re always open to talking about beer styles.

Heather (32:36):
We’re always open.

Cheyenne (32:37):
These are the really fun episodes.

Sydney (32:39):
It was.

Matt (32:43):
And don’t come at me for butchering the history of the Grisettes.

Cheyenne (32:45):
Don’t come at me for butchering the pronunciation of Grodziskie.

Heather (32:48):
Don’t come at us for anything.

Sydney (32:49):
Yeah, please don’t come at me.

Cheyenne (32:55):
Awesome. Well, we will be back in another two weeks for another fun episode, and until then, we’ll catch you later.

Heather (33:00):
Cheers.