Soju, brewery swag, and ice ice... baby.

How much would you pay for brewery swag???

Brian and I checked out Atlanta’s new soju distillery this week and learned a lot—everything from smooth 17% pours to a fiery 40% bottle, plus makgeolli, the cloudy, tangy rice wine that surprised us in the best way. Back at Halfway Crooks, I nearly bought a tote bag until I saw the $20 price tag, which sparked a whole chat about brewery swag sticker shock.

We also dug into the sad news that 21st Amendment is closing after 25 years, shared our beers of the week (including Focal Banger, Cold-Hearted IPA, and a big port-and-bourbon-barrel stout), and laughed about Gen Z putting ice in beer. Add in some global stories—Africa’s beer boom, mosquitoes loving beer drinkers, and even trace MRI chemicals in European lagers—and it was a packed episode.

Next week’s our Oktoberfest tasting show, so no livestream, but plenty of Märzens on deck!

Cheers!

Tim

Thanks for listening to Beer Guys Radio! Your hosts are Tim Dennis and Brian Hewitt with producer Nate "Mo' Mic Nate" Ellingson and occasional appearances from Becky Smalls.

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Transcript

Welcome everybody. Thanks for joining us, hanging out, Beer Guys Radio, doing our thing, having beers, having conversations. It's always a good time. We're going to jump into it here in just a second. If you have a comment, we'd love to hear what you're thinking right now, what you're drinking. And yeah, just throw it in the comments. We'll be here seeing what's going on. But with that said, oh, hold on, hold on, Nate, Nate, hold on. Hold on. Let me get over here. I got to go over there. Okay. We're good. It's good, Nate. I got to figure it out. All right, y'all. Here we go. Welcome, everybody, to the Beer Guys Radio Show. Thanks so much for joining us this week. We always appreciate it. It's a good time having some beers, learning things about beer. I am Tim Dennis. Brian Hewitt. How you doing? I'm doing good. I think I'm very well caffeinated today. I'll have you know. Well caffeinated. I don't know why this happens, but every now and then I am very meticulous about measuring out the amount of beans I put in my coffee. For whatever reason, I got the supercharged beans today, and I've been flying for most of the day. So you didn't consume an excess of coffee. You just had some powerful coffee. No. Yeah. It's just apparently it's just this variety or whatever. I don't understand it. I honestly have no idea, but it hit really hard today. So who knows? Interesting. Interesting. Sometimes that happens, man. Has it been a good thing? Has it made for a productive day? I have been on fire and I just know it's been a really good thing. I kind of wish I had this level of productivity, but I actually kind of worry that parts of my body would start failing if I ran like this all the time. So I'm like, it's probably good. This doesn't happen very often, but I'm, I've been amped all day. It's crazy. Pumped up, pumped up. Good stuff. Nate, how you doing? I'm doing well. Uh, I, have not been on fire today, but you know, it was a, it was a decent day, you know, it's middle at the time of recording it's middle of the week. So, you know, we're just getting through it one day at a time. We're doing our thing. Sometimes that is all that you can do. That is for sure. How are you doing Tim? I'm fine. Yeah. You know, I'm doing fine over here, Nate, nothing exciting to report. I'm not hyped up. I'm not, you know, chilled out or whatever. I'm just fine. I'm just there. So it'll, it'll do. It'll do. Well, Brian, we had a little bit, I'm going to say an adventure this past weekend. We found out that Atlanta has a soju distiller. And so we went and checked that out. And I don't know soju. I still don't know soju. But we went and checked that out. They had some Korean food, too. So we grabbed a bite to eat and had some soju. And I think after our trip, you actually did a little bit of research on kind of what soju is and the other beverages they make there. Yeah, I decided I needed to look into it and find out a little bit. And this is all Korean, but it's a distilled spirit. It's clear. They say it's low in alcohol, but we had one that was at least forty percent alcohol. So I think that we had a craft version that wasn't quite the typical soju. But it tends to be neutral and it's slightly sweet in taste, which is accurate to what I noted. Yeah. And it's compared to vodka, and it's said to be smoother in terms of finish and less burn. I think that is true if you get the soju, right, the sixteen percent, I think. Was that the first one we had was like a sixteen percent, right? Yeah. And we had a forty percenter? Forty percenter, too. Right. So I think it was seventeen and forty, but close enough there. Close enough. Yeah, so that's very accurate to the typical type of soju that we had. It's traditionally made from rice, wheat, or barley. Modern soju can also incorporate sweet potatoes and tapioca and fruits. But I think the first two actual sojus we had, I think all of the sojus we had, I think were all rice-based. They're typically consumed straight, neat, and chilled in a small shot glass or a small vessel, often with food, as we did, basically. And they can be used in cocktails, which we also tried, to good results, basically. Yeah. Or something we didn't try can be mixed with beer in a drink called Somaic or Somec. And I would really want to try this because I've seen how it's done on YouTube. And there's a thing called a soju bomb, which... is very interesting. It's like they pour the beer, they pour the soju in it, they tap a chopstick in the bottom, it turns to foam, and they slam it. So it's kind of like a... it's kind of like an angry milk, poor milk. Oh, poor, you know, like you slamming him. All right. Yeah. Apparently that's how you do it. And I kind of want to try that. It does seem very gassy, but, uh, that, do you remember how to say the other thing we tried? The, the one that starts with him, uh, Maccagolly, I think, or Macchioli. That's, uh, I think that's as close as I can get. Those who know what I'm talking about will know what I'm talking about, but they didn't correct me when I said it that way. I don't, I don't know. So, I think as long as you're buying one, they're like whatever you want to call it, man. Whatever. And, you know, when he gave us the seventeen percent of the forty percent, he said, this is our so-and-so and this is our so-and-so. So you mentioned soju is like lower ABV, but I got the impression that there may be different styles of soju. And possibly, Nate, would you hit the GPT for us and ask it about the different styles of soju? So, yeah, I got the impression that maybe the one was supposed to be more punchy and uh yeah and then the macchioli or however it's pronounced Yeah, that Macchioli, I'll go with that. That's a traditional unfiltered Korean rice wine with a milky, somewhat thick, and often slightly sweet or tangy taste. It's a little bit like a lighter, creamy, fizzy milkshake type of thing. That's how they describe it online. It's made from fermented rice, water, and a special fermentation starter called Nurik. It's served chilled and can be found in its original form or like we had it with various fruit flavorings like strawberry or mango or blueberry. So it's actually really nice. And if you're lactose intolerant, yeah, it's like it's a good way to get that kind of feel of almost. The milky. Yeah, almost the milky. Creamy milky, yeah. Not quite there, but yeah, it was really nice. I thought that was nice. So I was surprised when I took a sip of that that it has a fermented beverage taste to it. Because I guess I thought it was like... I thought it was unfiltered soju. So I thought it was a distilled thing that they kind of diluted down with something else. But that, to my understanding, is not distilled. It's just a fermented beverage, correct? That's the indication I saw. Okay. And that would make sense from the flavor profile there. So if you had something like... like a kombucha kind of that taste, that fermented taste there, uh, that was also present in the Mac Machiavelli. So yes, the Machiavelli. Yes. It's always plotting against you. Yes, exactly. But no, it was nice. Like you said, uh, the one they had there was strawberry. So the mixed, uh, the, the beverage, I, I, I keep wanting to say the name, but I don't because I'm sure I'm going to mispronounce it every time I say it, but, uh, their strawberry beverage was nice. It was. I would order it again. Yeah, I like that. And again, we had the soju and cocktails, and it did a pretty good job with the cocktails as well. So yeah, fun time. If you have a place around you that's making, give it a shot. And I know it's easy to find if you go to a liquor store. I've found them before. I've got friends who drink it. I've tried it before, and I think that the one we had, especially the higher proof one, was probably the best one. The best tasting version of it I've ever had. So I like that one a lot. They also had a gin that was pretty nice. Yes, they did. Their gin was actually pretty good. So I don't know if that... See, I thought it was always made out of rice. I did not know that it could be made from different grains there. So I just assumed it was a rice beverage. Now I kind of wish I'd asked them, you know, what yours is made out of, just out of curiosity, because... I imagine what you distilled it from would give some different character to the flavor. So that would be interesting to find. My guess is probably rice. I think the majority of them are probably rice, but yeah, apparently more varieties than that. That's what I found. So like sake is all that's rice like that. That's not flexible, right? Yeah. Okay. Nate, you find any soju information for us? I did. So, I did confirm that it is a distilled product, but some, but it actually can be low or high proof. So the proofing range or the percentage range can be as low as twelve and a half percent and all the way up to fifty three percent ABV. So it so even those lower ones, you know, might taste just fermented when they're actually distilled. But there's three main flavor types when it comes to soju. So there's fruit flavors, which includes strawberry, green grape, peach, apple, plum, watermelon, et cetera. And then they will also have a lesser common flavor like tropical, passion fruit, grapefruit, pineapple, or even one brand does a mint chocolate. And then there's yogurt flavored soju. So there's a lot of different flavoring styles for soju. And then when it comes to the traditional or the premium sojus, there's the standard one, which is just a clear distilled spirit, neutral, slightly sweet taste, traditionally made from rice, wheat, or barley. And then the higher ABV, So that's the one that's getting up to that fifty three percent ABV. OK, interesting, but it was fun. It was something neat and different to check out. And that's then we went down to Halfway Crooks, one of our favorite breweries, and had a good time there. I went to buy. Brian, when we were at halfway crooks, they have one of their, one of their slogans is no bad memories. And they had some canvas tote bags that they were selling. And I'm like, I'm going to get a tote bag. And I, I, Hey, I'm like, Hey Brian, you want a tote bag? He's like, yeah, sure. Whatever. So I grab a couple and go to check out and she's like, okay, that's. And something. And I was like, I was like, well, For canvas bags? And she's like, yeah. I was like, no, no. I'm like, I'm not paying twenty dollars for a canvas bag. So, Brian, out of curiosity, I did look around at some other canvas bag prices and apparently I'm just off scale of what canvas logo canvas bags cost these days because... Yeah, Brian's nodding. He's like, you're the problem here, Tim. Fair enough. I can admit it. I saw that happen, and this is swag, too. We're talking about company swag. It's a different scale. I know you're comparing it to seriously, you can go to Trader Joe's and get a bag, like a vinyl bag. The point of that is they just don't want you using paper bags. This one is like marketing. This one's a little higher and I didn't say anything I'm like you know what I didn't need the bag I'm like I'll take one if you're getting one but then you didn't I'm like okay I used poor points of reference for that because I went back and I looked at uh I'm a fan of the polo brand ralph you know ralph lauren polo I've got all the colognes literally and I looked at polo canvas tote bags. Oh, how much were they? So here's something that I found interesting. If you find them on eBay, they were like thirty thirty five dollars. So there. But I think I saw one on the on the Ralph Lauren website. It was like eighty. So, you know, in scale there. But there's also a perfumery I like called Clandestine Laboratories and they have merch. So I went on there and they do have a canvas tote bag and theirs was twenty eight dollars. So So, yeah, them branded tote bags, man. I guess I still wouldn't mind having one. I just had shock there, Brian, because I'm expecting like five bucks. I thought you were just feeling like, you know what, I got a good bonus this week. I'm ready. Let's get some tote bags. I'm like, all right, let's get some tote bags. I honestly think if I hadn't had mental expectations of it being five dollars, I probably wouldn't have been as shocked as that. But again, I'm thinking this is literally a canvas bag that I pay two bucks for at Publix or Trader Joe's or wherever I go. But again, as you mentioned, that's kind of marketing for those guys. I mean, it's marketing for the breweries and stuff too, but essentially they want you to buy that and not go through three hundred of their paper or plastic bags or anything, you know. Absolutely. They want you to keep buying their groceries there. So, yes, I'll admit it, man. I had a poor point of reference for that. So, so the, the end of the story is I do not have a halfway crooks tote bag at this time. So. at some point I'll probably might even buy one of the lager hats but I mean yeah I don't even know what swag goes for these days I'm like I I've seen like forty fifty dollars for like t-shirts and in breweries now that's nuts man it really is I have a I have a problem and I maybe I shouldn't but I have a problem with with paying that kind of money to pay I'm basically paying to advertise your brand like I'm a fan and I do like wearing I do like wearing swag but At the same time, I don't feel like I need to pay fifty dollars to wear your swag around. So, yeah, it's just me. What's that? You know, take take heart that the lager hat on the website right now is only thirty dollars. So you don't have to pay fifty dollars to rep the brand. There you go with a bag for another twenty bucks. OK, yeah, I need a carrier. I need a bag to carry that hat around when I'm not wearing it. But, you know, that's the thing, man. Beer drinkers like to rep their brands and that. And, hey, we can't argue, man. We've got T-shirts and people have bought our T-shirts with our logo on them there. So, you know, it's something. I don't even remember what we charged for our tea. I think we did charge. It's not fifty bucks. It's not. You know what? I think we were like twenty. So seriously, I don't think it was that bad. And, you know, I know from getting T-shirts made, we did upgrade to the nicer T-shirts, you know, very soft, very, very nice T-shirts. So they're not inexpensive. I'll put it this way. We don't make money off T-shirt sales. for sure like because basically what we were selling the floor was slightly above what our cost yeah we just wanted to be able to we wanted you to have to wear our logo and be able to buy another t-shirt was basically our exactly yeah yeah well good stuff well guys moving right along beers of the week brian what are you getting into Yeah, so I pre-gamed with a Pipeworks Lizard King, which is a mosaic-hopped pale ale, and it was quite nice, very enjoyable. And I'm currently working on Bell's Cold-Hearted IPA, which is a cold IPA. This is one I've been looking around for for a while, and I finally found some the past week, so... It's a good beer. Solid. It's kind of what I would expect for that. And after the show with the Patreon folks in the bonus round there, I'm going to get into Boulevard's Proper Pour, which is an imperial stout that's aged in bourbon barrels and then aged again in ruby port barrels. So double-aged. spoiler I've had one of these before and I like it a great deal so yeah that's cool I heard about this coming out I think last year and I didn't see it around and then suddenly I wasn't even expecting it I found it on the shelf someplace I'm like oh my goodness and there so I bought it yeah it glowed like I heard angels singing and everything else it was great that sounds like a fancy beer man yeah it's very fancy yeah yeah nate how about you man what you getting into So starting off from my great American beer tour, I have from The Alchemist, Focal Banger. This is my first time ever having this beer, so it's kind of nice to have it on the show. And then following up from that, I've got from Burial, the Forever Tethered to My Own Undoing, which is a imperial pastry stout with toasted hazelnuts and Madagascar vanilla beans. That sounds tasty. That speaking of that, we tried, uh, so halfway crooks is really known mostly for like they're drinking beers, you know, a lot of lager styles and kind of lighter IPAs, but they had a barrel aged stout on, uh, this weekend. That was phenomenal. And we missed their Oktoberfest by a week that's coming out this weekend. So I have to try and make it back down there, you know, to grab some of that. But, uh, it was join me on Sunday when I go, you go on Sunday. Yeah. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Yeah. For those, I know everybody likes this show. We always enjoy doing it. We're recording our Oktoberfest tasting. That is this coming weekend, right? That's this coming Saturday. So next week's show... Actually, the day we release this episode, we'll be recording... The Oktoberfest. Yep. So we will, we're recording our Oktoberfest show. So just a little heads up there. No live show next week because we're going to be doing the Oktoberfest show this weekend, but that'll be next week's show. And always a fun time seeing what's in. And I know Nate and Brian have been on the hunt to get us a good variety of Oktoberfest beers there. So be a good time. So beer snob, Sean. chimed in on the swag stuff and he said stickers above a dollar or two are big issue with me and you know what I have to agree with that man stickers should almost be like there's a cost associated with those but that should be giveaway marketing especially if someone let's say you're at your brewery they bought a couple beers they've done this and that give them a sticker man give them a sticker because I have seen some where they're like these are three dollars these are five dollars I'm like I'm paying you. Didn't we quit charging for stickers two or three years ago? We did. If we have them, we just give them to people. We haven't charged for a sticker in ages. We had some buttons that had our logo on it, and we had some stickers. I think we had some keychains, maybe. It used to be that these swag makers would occasionally run deals where they're like, we'll do thirty of these for a dollar. So we may not have a lot of an item, But we're like, yeah, why, why not? Let's let our thirty for ten dollars, something like that. So we get some and just give them away at events and different things there. Yeah, I think the only thing we ever charged for, at least after the yeah, in the past three or four years, it's only been like hats and shirts and hats. And that's because there is such a cost involved with them. Yeah. And not even for those sometimes. I'm like, you know, a brewery buddy comes along and say, hey, man, I never got one of your shirts. I'm like, all right, man, we'll hook you up. We got you. We got you. We are terrible business people when it comes to that. We're so bad at making any kind of money off of that. Hats and shirts. Someone's like, oh, I like those shirts. I'm like, let me give you one. Let me give you one. So here you go. That's the wrong approach. Does your daughter need a nightgown? Your wife won't want you? Does your dog wear a t-shirt? So... That's when we're supposed to bid them up. I really like that. Oh, you do? Well, this one's thirty bucks. That's right. Thirty, forty. Start putting them on eBay. See what we can do there. Well, Brian, interesting news. Sean O'Sullivan from Twenty First Amendment announced, what, about a month ago now, I think, a few weeks ago, that he was leaving the brewery. He announced that he was kind of taking a pause from that. And then not far behind that, really surprising news to me, but Twenty First Amendment is shutting down and looking for a buyer. Yeah, yeah. I mean, seriously, within like a day or two of him saying, I think he and Nico both were talking about stepping away. And like a day or two later, the Twenty-First Amendment officially announced that they're winding down operations and ceasing production after twenty-five years. So both of the co-founders are seeking a buyer for the brand. Operations at the San Leandro production facility are expected to stop in early November. But the company plans to keep the tap rooms open as long as possible, though, because I think they have a lot of product that they can sell. The decision came after a potential financial lender backed out of a deal to invest in the brand. The lender cited mounting challenges in the craft beer industry. They got cold feet, basically. So I think when the announcement was made, they expected to have the money. And then they found out a day or two later, like, no, you're not going to have that investment money. So basically, the company has faced numerous obstacles, including declining sales, economic uncertainty, which everybody's faced, really. Significant challenges stemming from COVID-XIX. And the COVID thing was a really big one for them. The company hasn't been able to recover from it. They've been suffering double-digit volume declines every year since XIX, which is a lot of years for double-digit declines. But they also specifically said they had a disruptive distributor switch. They were put on an allocation by a can supplier, and they had a dissolution, I guess is the word for that, of a national sales partnership. All of those things happened together in a short period of time, and that put them in a very bad spot on top of everything else going on. Their large-scale production facility has become unsustainable as beer sales have slowed, and the business hasn't been profitable in several years, which is understandable considering they're losing a lot of sales. So despite the closure, the founders hope that a buyer will acquire the brand and keep the legacy alive. All I can say is I hope it's not Sapporo, and I hope they're able to find a buyer because I miss their beer. And I don't think they've been available in our area for a while, but I really like their Fireside Chat beer, and they had a couple of other beers. Lower to Boom, the little shorty cans of barley wine that they had. Hell or High Watermelon was a good summer crusher. A lot of people like that. I really like that was their Christmas, like their winter holiday beer. Yeah. Yeah. I really liked their coasters too, because they had the best, like the coasters I have on my side table. They're really worn out. So you can barely tell what they are, but the bitter American session aerial that had the monkey in the space suit. Love those coasters. I love the art on the cans. I liked a lot of the, I liked the beer too. I'm like, they did a lot of things right. And it's really sad to see them in this spot. Uh, I hope somebody steps up, helps them out. Sean was a good dude. We, so we, we had him on the show a while back. Then we actually met him. He came through town for a beer festival. Uh, the Decatur craft beer fest back when that was our big fast. And. I remember it was pouring rain, like we're all wearing trash bags out there to keep from drowning in the, uh, and, uh, you know, trying to do the beer fest thing. So we didn't get to hang out much because again, it was pouring rain. So we basically said, Hey, what's up and all this, but, uh, you know, enjoy their beers. And there are another one, man, there's just so many of these big breweries that, you know, the growth, the craft beer hurt these big guys that are the twenty five year old breweries that relied a lot on distribution, you know, because now people are drinking the beer that's made in their backyard, uh, a lot more than, than they are these nationwide brands. And I imagine having a massive brewery like they did. Yeah. Tough to hold on to. So that's bummer news, man. They, I like, I like twenty first amendment for sure. So another one, man, won't be the last, unfortunately, unfortunately. Yeah, well, Brian, we're very health conscious, as everybody that listens to this show knows. We always try and keep up with guidelines and what's going on. And we found out this week or recently a controversial study was dropped regarding dietary guidelines for alcohol consumption. Indeed. We're basically a health podcast, Tim. Pretty much. Essentially. Essentially. So like you said, the controversial study was dropped. It had been commissioned for the twenty twenty five dietary guidelines for Americans. And yes, shelved reportedly. I don't know if this is official, but reportedly shelved by U.S. government officials. The study in question was created by the Interagency Coordinating Institute. Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking, so ICPUD is the way I like to call them. You probably heard us talking about it before. The study basically says that the risk of dying from alcohol use begins at very low levels of consumption and that there are basically no safe levels of alcohol consumption, so a very strong line on alcohol. Beverage industry, alcohol industry groups, including the Brewers Association, have been fighting the study for over a year, claiming it's biased, it lacks transparency, and it was conducted by scientists with anti-alcohol affiliations. So reportedly the people doing the research were funded by groups interested in people just never drinking again. Yeah, basically. And that makes me suspicious. A little sus. Yeah, so if the study is legit and there really is this problem and they really found it, that's one thing. But if you're getting paid to find that, well, then I question it. But anyway, so the findings were considerably different in the other government commissioned study from the National Academies of Sciences, which painted a gentler picture of moderate drinking, which is... more in line with everything we've ever heard about moderate drinking. I think it's like moderate drinking is safe. The one thing they did say is like, even with moderate drinking, there's a slight increase of the risk of breast cancer for women. So with moderate drinking. So that was the one thing that they kind of lowered the raised awareness of basically with theirs. So. If you're interested in reading the study, the authors say they still plan to publish it in an academic journal. They don't say which one. So it will be available at some point. But I think you get the general gist of what it's going to say. The updated dietary guidelines for the twenty twenty five to twenty thirty period has not yet been released yet. And there's no timeline as to when this is actually going to happen. So earlier this year, we thought the guidelines were going to be released in July and March. Now we just don't know. At least we know they're working on them and we know what's going to be in them. So it's a little less interesting when they get released because unless they add a new study that says, once again, the alcohol will just outright murder you the minute you drink it. You look at it. Yeah. look at it and you're in trouble. I wonder how many scientific studies are truly a hundred percent unbiased. Cause I feel like anybody who goes into a study, they have something they're trying to find, or they have a result that they want to get. And especially when it comes to like our diets, what we should eat. And I can't remember this specific thing, but I've heard a few things that, um, about like the guidelines of what we eat and that, um, they're all biased, you know, like this was done by, uh, I think corn syrup is a good one. They're talking about, you know, you see these commercials out and it talks about, uh, there's like pro, pro, pro corn syrup commercials out these days. And, uh, apparently of course, if you see the little tagline at the bottom, it's like, you know, paid for by the corn producers of America or something along those lines, you know? And, uh, It's like, oh, I won't drink that. That's got corn syrup in it. And the other person kind of smugly says, corn syrup's totally fine when you're consumed in moderation. And I'll be honest, I don't know. I don't know if it is or not. I don't know if it's good. And I think I remember seeing a study that corn syrup, the type of sugar in corn syrup, Is different. And I forget a little bit from the brewing days, but, you know, there's like sucrose and maltose and fructose and all of those. And apparently the type of sugar in corn syrup is not the best for you the way that it impacts your body. But according to the people that make corn syrup, Brian, it's it's totally fine. It's totally good. Yeah. The people that grow in the corn are like, dude, no, it's fine. That's fine. Have as much of it as you want. You'll be good. That's right. Yeah. I feed it to my bowls of it to my kids for breakfast. Good stuff, man. Good stuff. But yeah, it would be nice to just have, because you know what? If I could trust all these studies, I'd do my best to, it's like, hey, this legit, legit, this is really bad for you. And I'm like, oh, OK, thanks. You know, but every study I hear, I wonder if it's legitimate. At a certain point in time, I believed anything like had scientists touched it and had gone through research and peer review. Oh, that's got to be legit. It's like, no, you can finesse data any way you want to come up with observations any way you want and choose to ignore some things that might be very obvious and play up some things that are less obvious. And. Yeah. The people who are funding your research, that tells you a lot about what the actual study is about. Right. I honestly don't know what to believe anymore about most things. Nobody does. Nobody does, man. I just believe I'll have another beer. Believe I'll have another beer. Moderation, Brian. Moderation. Good stuff. Only one beer at a time. That's my moderation. That's right. That's how moderate you are. And sometimes not even that, depending on how the day goes. Exactly. Well, Brian, before we move on, how about we give a shout out to our good friends at Truck and Tap? Sounds like a good idea. The prime patio weather continues this week in Georgia. You're never going to find a better time to drink in the great weather and some equally great fresh craft beer at Truck and Tap. This is the perfect time to do it. Whether you're looking for crisp lagers, tropical fruited sours, or the latest hazies, or even something stouter, Truck & Tap has you covered. And don't sleep on the overproof rum and tequila bar at Truck & Tap Alpharetta. I need to go there. I still haven't been there. It's really a good time for a Mai Tai, and they can hook you up there. But let's focus on the wide variety of craft beer available, so I have an excuse to give you my beer picks for the week. At Truck and Tap Woodstock, I'm going with Creature Comfort's Cherry Oud Brun. This fooder-aged, fruited sour showed up a few months ago at one of the locations and quickly disappeared, and I missed it. And I'll bet you did, too. And it's a limited thing, so now's your second chance. I love an Oud Brun, and this one is said to have amazing depth and character. Reportedly, it tastes a little bit like a cherry wine, which is intriguing. I'm not sure. I'd have to try that to see if I really, really enjoy it, but I have a feeling I would. At the Duluth location, I'm getting Halfway Crooks Radix on the side pull tap. There's nothing mysterious here. It's I Love a Good German Pilsner on a side pull tap, and this one features Hellertau Blanc hops from the Seitz Farm in Bavaria, so it'll be quite lovely to drink on the patio. At Truck and Tap Alpharetta, my pick is Wild Leap's Alpha Abstraction Volume XXIX. I have been drinking the Alpha Abstraction series of IPAs since the very beginning, since the very first one, and it's always fun to try the latest iteration. They do vary a great deal from one to the next. I couldn't even tell you at this point which is my favorite because there have been like thirty of them. But this one is Double Dry Hop with Brew One Hops. According to Yakima Valley Hops, you can expect intense pineapple, stone fruit, and fresh-cut grass notes in Volume XXIX. And I do believe I enjoy fresh-cut grass hoppy notes in my beer. So this could be a winner right here. And finally, at the Lawrenceville location, I'm going with Jester King's Le Petit Prince. It's just the ultimate session beer. They call it a farmhouse table beer, and it's fermented with wild ale yeast, and it definitely tastes like it. The ABV has varied over the years, but it's usually, you know, three percent or less. It has way more flavor than you would expect for such a light beer. It's really impressive. It's truly an excellent beer, and I could drink this one by the pitcher. And there you have my beer picks for the week. As always, if you'd like to see the full tap list, before stopping by, take a look at truckandtap.com. The taps change quickly, and you never know what new fresh beer is going to go on tap, and it may be better than anything I've talked about. And if you'd like to see what food trucks are serving and what events are happening, your trivia, your karaoke, your live music, you can also find that at truckandtap.com. Everything you need to know can be found at truckandtap.com, so check that out. And thank you to Truck and Tap for your support. Thanks, Truck and Tap. You're the best. Brian, Gen Z. We love talking trash about Gen Z. Millennials, Gen Z. Whatever generation is currently starting to drink beer, we are here. to talk smack about. We are, yes. And the latest one is Gen Z has got what they're calling an ice cold trend in drinking beer. Yes, the ice cold trend. I'm disappointed that millennials have gotten boring. They're not doing things that annoy me anymore. So we have to go to Gen Z. Yes. So the new drinking trend that is gaining popularity with Gen Z drinkers, they are adding ice to their beer, a practice they say is refreshing and ideal for warm weather. The trend is being shared widely on social media platforms like TikTok, because of course it is, where users are seen adding ice to everything from Mexican lagers to non-alcoholic Rattlers. And it doesn't look like this is something people are just doing for social media, not just for the likes. Bar managers, industry professionals report seeing this trend also firsthand. So people are really, really ordering these things. As you might expect, the practice has received mixed reaction online with some critics expressing disgust, rightfully so, and others who really don't even like beer defend it as a great way to enjoy beer on a hot day. Again, those people don't know what beer is probably. As with anything like this, people are claiming to have learned it from travels to places like Thailand or France. Those places were specifically mentioned. I believe that about as much as I believe the thing at the beginning of those horrible rage bait cooking videos that are all over social media where they say they learned how to dump an entire bag of pre-shredded cheddar cheese on top of dry pasta in a disposable aluminum pan from their travels in Italy. Yes, that's the same place. I hate those. Yes, I believe that. You got this from Italy. Sure you did. You got this from Thailand. Of course you did. No, you did not. But anyway, are you guys going to try putting ice in your beers now? Because it's still pretty warm out. So I have thoughts here, Brian, as you might. So I did think about this, Brian, I thought about my beloved Michelada when, uh, when we were talking on this and that is served with ice. So, you know, you put it in there, but you know, that's, that's more a cocktail though. It is. So I don't know that that counts. Um, so here's my thing is, especially with beer, really any kind of beverage like that, um, you're, you're diluting it. It's not going to taste right. That's it. I mean, okay. If you want a cold beer, that's great. But also, I mean, if they're doing it with stuff like a Mexican lager and this and that, those beers are meant to be cold, you know, pretty cold there. So, um, I just, I want to let people live their lives, Brian, but also I'm a crotchety old guy. So I'm torn between those two things. So I am, um, I'm against it. I'm against it. That's my official stance. I'm against it unless you're doing something like a michelada or you're cocktailing it up. But I will say that I could waffle on this. topic I think I agree with beer beer snob sean saying only if I were dying of thirst literally so yes if that were okay at the end of the oasis and there was like it's uh it's an ipa with ice in him like I would still groan I'm like oh why I would choose death well you know what I might I'm like I might smack it away I'm like no it is time for me to depart dies dies Alright, so I've got a few comments on this. One, isn't this the same generation that was blasting bars for overfilling their cocktail glass with ice and not understanding how ice displaces liquid and all that stuff? I have thoughts on that too. I don't know. Were they? I remember it being a trend at one point and people were shocked that a glass that looked full When you pulled the ice out, it was no longer full. And it's like, yeah, that's what liquid displacement does. That's displacement. Yeah, right. You know, I initially wanted to have a visual reaction. I agree with you, Tim. Personally, no. No way. But if it gets the young kids buying pints of beer. If they're drinking. If they're drinking, let them drink, man. They're drinking, let them drink. Yeah, they need to know. I want to see them split the G when the Guinness is full of ice. That's going to be a little that's like a you have to split it with the ice or just the liquid. I don't know. I'm thinking this one through. And I thought about, so here's something else I thought about. There's many layers to this. It's not as simple as just pouring a beer over ice, Brian, because the, I think it's Thai, the jelly beer that they call it. Yes. So, okay. For those that don't know, they call it jelly beer, but there's a special contraption that rotates bottles of beer in a bucket of ice water. And the way it does them, when they pop the caps and pour it into a glass, it instantly crystallizes. So you get ice beer. Now, the difference here being Brian is the ice is beer. So you're freezing the water in the beer a little bit, but I remember us going to a tie joint here and it was, it is tie. Isn't it Brian? It is tie. Yeah. I remember us going to a tie joint here in Atlanta that does the jelly beers. And it was, I think it was one hundred and thirty eight degrees, if I remember right, the day that we went and we're sitting on the patio and we're just dripping sweat. And I will say. Those jelly beers that were frozen were really, really nice out there. We definitely ordered a second round of them. We did. We did. So, you know, yeah, I got to give a little bit on that. But, Nate, to go back to your cocktail ice. That brings up a good point. When we were at that soju distillery, Brian got a cocktail that had a square rectangular ice cube in it. And you could literally see, you could read a menu through the bottom of his glass because the ice took up all that. Now here's my deal. I understand liquid displacement a little bit. It's a little bit voodoo to me, to be honest with you, Nate. I'm not sure exactly how it works. But if you pull that cube out, you've got seriously like a quarter glass of liquid, and it's thirteen to fifteen bucks. I think I'm getting to the age where I'm old enough that I remember stuff being cheap. Now everything's expensive. Everything's expensive. If you charge me thirteen dollars for a cocktail and it's a quarter of a cocktail's glass worth of cocktail and three quarters of that is mixers, I I don't love it, man. I don't love it. Would you be happier with a smaller volume glass, less ice, less mixer, but the exact same amount of alcohol? No, I want an eight ounce cocktail for thirteen bucks is what I'm looking for. I want to go back to the days of the shaker pint for twelve bucks where it was a... What was it? The AMF for the Long Island Ice Team. Almost all of it was... Almost the entire twelve ounces or whatever the heck the shaker was. But it was a shaker pint. It was nearly all alcohol. We'd get started off on the day and it was like, you might have been ten bucks, might have been twelve, but you know what? It felt like a good deal. And also... Felt like you didn't care about anything at all afterwards. Don't care. I mean, I really think my age is starting to get to me. Like, I'm getting old enough that I remember buying things. You know, I talk about gas for eighty nine cents a gallon. I remember my dad talking about going to the movies for a nickel and buying a gallon of gas for like like seventeen cents or something. And I remember my thought was, man, he's old. He's super, super old, which is exactly what. People younger than me think when I say, you know, I remember dollar movies. I remember going to the movies on the weekend for a dollar, and our theater had a deal where if you cut the coupon out of the newspaper, which newspapers were a thing then, and that's relevant now because Atlanta's newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has announced that they're quitting their print issue altogether. In a city of over six million people, we won't have a printed newspaper anymore. But back in my day, kids, back in my day, you could cut the coupon out of the newspaper and you got a movie, a small popcorn and a small drink for one dollar. I had a buck fifty theater in my college town. I went to that a lot. Right. You know, I did read an article recently, and I wasn't even planning on bringing it up, but it was about the whole ice thing. And the large cube, you're actually being done a favor. There is displacement, but your cocktail is typically three to four ounces, depending on what the ratios are. Putting the large cube in there keeps it from watering it down. So when they stretch it out over a large vessel with a large cube, they're actually doing you a favor, keeping it colder without diluting it. Don't get as much melt from multiple cubes, multiple surfaces there, huh? And I do agree that a larger volume, a single larger volume of ice is a better way to go. And yes, if you're taking long enough where that will matter, I do respect that. That's a you problem? All right. At no time was that cocktail ever warm. It was cold the entire time. And that cube... didn't melt that much the entire time I was drinking it, so I do have to say that there's something to that, and I'm not necessarily angry at it, but I make a lot of cocktails at home, so I know about what a cocktail is, and I know how I usually serve them, and Like the preparation, the long glass with the long like rectangular ice cube does make it look like there's effectively no actual liquor in there. But I get it. I do get that. So I think the thing is, is I see a glass and I'm like, OK, there's a full glass of beverage of frosty beverage that's going to quench my thirst. And then I take three sips out of it and it's gone. I was like, wait, what's this? And I still got a brick of ice in there. But I guess that's the cocktail world. That's bonus. That cube was very clear, which was nice. You could see through it, and you could do whatever you want with that cube when you're done, Tim. They didn't care. They didn't want that cube back. I guess on that respect, it was a quality cube of ice because, again, you could read through it, so it was a crystal clear block of ice there. I'm jealous of that. I know how to make those, but I do not have the ability right now to make them, so I like those. I have a big rock maker that does a really good job, but They get all the impurities and all the stuff in it. So when you look at it, I'm like, oh, it's nice, but it's not quite as nice as it could be. I'm sure a lot of big metro cities have this now, but we actually have a place that will deliver to the bars and restaurants the crystal cubes, basically. Someone out there making money on making crystal clear ice. Good stuff for your cocktails. For your cocktails. I'll get over it, man. I'll get over it. Well, Brian, I had pondered recently on the show about beer in Africa, and you actually ran across a story talking about this, that they're cranking down there, that Africa's beer production is actually surging. right now yeah the the news this week's delivered on your desire for african beer news in a spectacular way according to the ecofin agency the website africa's beer production reached a new record high of one hundred and sixty point five million hectoliters in twenty twenty four that is a six point seven percent year over year growth This surge made Africa the only continent to increase beer output in twenty twenty four as global production declined by point three percent. The growth was largely driven by Angola, which saw beer production soar by a record thirty five percent to sixteen point two million hectoliters. That is the fastest growth rate in the world. Angola's performance allowed it to surpass Ethiopia and become the third largest beer producer in Africa. behind South Africa and Nigeria. And I believe Nigeria is where we were talking about that has a Guinness brewery. The growth marks a strong recovery from the slowdown in production caused by the the twenty twenty pandemic. And I got to say, way to go, Africa. That's incredible numbers. And if you're interested in trying some beers in Africa, the following are reportedly available here in the US. You might have to go looking for them. It may be tough. Tusker and White Cap from Kenya. And I think White Cap is a reference to Kilimanjaro, I believe, from what I was seeing. Star Lager from Nigeria. Castle Lager, Windhook, and Carling Black Label from South Africa. I think Carling might be tied to a macro brewer, but I don't know. Whatever. I don't know how representative any of these beers are of what's being brewed and consumed in Africa, but these are what's available here. So if you'd like to get an idea of what they're making there... this is some of it. So yeah, uh, I'm going to, I'm going to keep a lookout. I've seen Tusker before. Uh, and there's a few of a few other ones I'm, I'm interested in trying out. So if I see these, I'm definitely getting some, I try African beer, see whether I think every country we found, um, I don't even remember what it was called now, but I went to a Korean joint, and they had the Korean. Every place has got their standard lager, your basic lager beer there. And then China, again, snow. You found some variation of snow, didn't you, Brian? Yeah. I found their export one. It's available, like, a limited amount of it, but I did find it here locally and drank it. It's not bad. I think it's pretty solid. Would it keep me coming back? It's not going to keep me from drinking Halfway Crooks instead, but it's good enough that I would drink it if I saw it, for sure. Well, that's like going out to an Indian place that has, what's it, Hayward's Five Thousand? Oh, yeah. What's the other one? They've got Kingfisher Hayward's, and they come in, like, I, if I go out, I'm probably going to have me a half liter of some Indian beer with my curry. You know, it's just a, do I ever want Kingfisher any other time? No, no, I don't. But I do enjoy having a bottle of it there when I'm eating my, uh, eat my Indian food. Yeah. Or Singha or beer Chang for Thai food, I think are the two that I typically see. So either one of those. Yeah. Just not Sapporo, right? Brian. It never Sapporo. No. So the anti Sapporo front. Nope. Good stuff, man. Good stuff. Yeah. I have to keep an eye out. See if we see, I wonder. If any of our African restaurants around here have some African beers. Oh, they probably would, because we do have some South African restaurants or something. We have South African. We have Ethiopian joints. Oh, Ethiopian, too. Yeah. So I bet we have a few that we might be able to find something there. We'll have to poke around and see. Because I could go for some Ethiopian food, too. I'm down for that. I think there's a small enclave of Ethiopian restaurants not far from where I live, like two or three of them together in one small area. Yeah. I haven't been to them in years. I went one time. It was good. It was really good. It was interesting. Completely different concept for food for me. Nate would probably love it. I know one of their popular dishes is chopped up raw beef with an egg yolk on it. Yeah, that sounds absolutely disgusting. I'm sure I would love that. Yeah, absolutely. They would be all over that. Kitfo, I think, is the one I was thinking of. Kitfo. And apparently they have another one called Gore-Ed Gore-Ed. But I believe we've had Kitfo at one of the joints here before, Brian. I think we tried. Probably. I do love the bread. We had a big spread of a lot of stuff. Yeah, they put it on that. I don't remember what all of it was. Yeah. Bread. They've got that spongy sourdough bread in Jira. that is kind of tart, and normally they'll put a piece of that down and load you up with stuff on top of it. It was good. I don't remember hardly any of it, but I would do it again. They know how to throw down good stuff. Well, Brian, interesting news here. Mosquitoes. You know what? I don't remember seeing a ton of mosquitoes this year. There have been years definitely where they were thick, but I don't remember that many this year. But there is a new study that say mosquitoes prefer beer drinkers. Yeah, well, it's because beer drinkers are naturally more attractive. But anyway, researchers from a Dutch university conducted a study at a music festival in the Netherlands to understand why some people are more prone to mosquito bites than others. The study involved five hundred festival attendees who put their arms in a box full of mosquitoes. The researchers recorded with a with a video camera the mosquitoes reaction to their arms. They kept track of how many mosquitoes landed on their arms and how long they lingered. But don't worry. This sounds horrible. This actually kind of sounds nightmarish. But the participants in the study wore a special protective covering to prevent the mosquitoes from actually biting them. But the material was porous enough to allow the scent of their skin to pass through so the mosquitoes could smell them, but not, you know, wide enough openings anywhere so the mosquitoes could actually bite them. Concertgoers also answered a questionnaire about their behavior at the festival and before the festival. Researchers found a significant correlation between mosquito attraction and beer consumption. They also found the people who had smoked marijuana or shared a bed with somebody else recently also got a lot of mosquito attention. According to researchers, mosquitoes simply have a taste for the hedonists among us. So mosquitoes know who's having a good time, and they want to have a good time too, so they're just going to suck your blood, basically. On the other hand, people who had recently showered or were wearing sunscreen were less attractive to mosquitoes. So on the plus side, we've learned that sunscreen is also good for repelling mosquitoes on top of keeping you from getting skin damage and possibly cancer. In another article we talked about back in the spring, I knew I remembered talking about mosquitoes recently, Smithsonian Magazine came to a similar conclusion. Their theory was that drinking led to increased CO₂ emission and body temperature, I speculated back then, and I thought that the smell of your sweat after you're drinking seems like a plausible explanation, too, because it's noticeable depending on how much you drink and what you're drinking. This new study seems to support that theory, so I'm actually going to take a little bit of a win for this, my little off-the-cuff remark there. But that article also noted other things being shown to attract mosquitoes, including having type O blood. a recent exercise, skin bacteria, sweat chemistry, genetics, and the color of your clothing. So all those play into it. Interesting. The aroma, that's a thing. That makes sense. Yeah, I get it. As a side note, mosquitoes also – I don't think that's flies. I don't know if mosquitoes – I was going to say they eat poo, but I don't know if that's mosquitoes. I know flies. Flies will do that. I don't think mosquitoes would do that because they don't need those little straw things for poo because poo is very... Slurping it out there. Yeah, I don't think it's a straw type of situation there. Fair, fair. Probably right there. Probably right. Well, Brian, this one, I don't know what to make of this. Interesting information, but traces of rare earth minerals have been found in beer. Yeah, that sounds like that could be a good thing or a bad thing. That's what I was thinking. I don't know. It's not a good thing. Okay, fair enough. Move over microplastics. There is a new water pollutant in town for us all to be terrified of. A study published in Food Chemistry found traces of gadolinium, GD on the periodic chart of elements, in both beer and energy drinks in Europe and parts of Asia. Gadolinium is a rare earth element that is used in medical MRI scans. The research suggests that gadolinium enters the water supply, specifically rivers and aquifers, after first being excreted by patients and passing through the wastewater treatment system. So, yeah, whatever's happening with MRIs, you're passing that into the water after the fact. Okay, yeah. Thirty beers from various countries were tested. All of them were found to have some level of gadolinium contamination. One beer, Sagres from Portugal, showed a significantly higher concentration of gadolinium, which researchers have linked to their water source, which is the Tagus River. I'm not sure why the Tagus River has so much, but it does. But aside from that beer, no other beverages demonstrated levels considered to be dangerous. And it's actually not clear if the levels found in that Sagres beer from Portugal are actually harmful, but they were significantly higher than the rest. The study concludes that the contamination levels are currently small, so we don't need to freak out just yet. but they should not be ignored, and they do require some future research to make sure we can track their evolution and see if it's going to be heading into problem territory. The one thing that seems clear to me after reading this is that the water the breweries are currently using to make their beer is going to become more and more important in the future, and it might be a good idea to get out ahead of this and start organizing working on that water game and, and even putting it on your cans that this, this water is like, we've gone through these processes in this beer. Yeah. Because that's going to become a problem. Just warning people. Now people are going to start freaking out about this. Eventually it's sooner or later, you know? Yeah, man. They're always finding something new there. It's crazy. I don't know. We're never going to be safe again. It's just all nuts. All of it. I don't know. I don't know, man. Well, y'all, that about wraps it up for this episode of the Beer Guys Radio Show. Thanks again for hanging out with us. Again, as a reminder, we will not have a live stream next week. We are recording our Oktoberfest tasting show, which will come out next weekend. If you enjoy what we're doing here, we would love for you to support us on Patreon. Go to patreon.com slash beer guys. If you'd rather just support us with no cost, that's cool. Tell a friend to listen. Subscribe to the podcast. Share, share, share with your friends. We would greatly appreciate it. But with all that said, we hope you have a really good week. And don't forget to drink local. Cheers. All right, all right, all right. I probably shouldn't have ended with the gadolinium story. The gadolinium story. Everybody's terrified now. No! No. We're not going to die yet. Put ice in your gadolinium here, there. We all have a good one. We're going to wrap up. We will see you in two weeks. You know what? If you've got some Oktoberfest recommendations for us, let us know. I think we're still finalizing our list. We're getting close, but we're finalizing that. So, yeah, let us know. You all have a good one. We'll see you soon. Cheers.