Because, what else are we going to do? A while back, Ryan bought three French presses and was determined to make an absolute mess of some good beers for your entertainment. Craig picked out six beers from local breweries in a range of styles, and we drink and review those beers as normal before cramming a bunch of cookies into them and sampling the results. The flavor combinations are surprising and, in one case, life-affirming. Here’s some other quarantine talking points from this long player: mysterious yard food, the indomitable Alton Brand, Ewan Macgregor’s body painting, the problem with cookie trub, human-sized podcast bubbles, and the inevitable rise of Girl Scouts in the upcoming barter economy. Let us distract and disgust you. (Support your local bar, restaurant, and brewery!)

Beers reviewed + and the cookies we mash into them

Is/Was Brewing - Methode Dust (Citra-style ale) + Lemon-ups®

Church Street Brewing Company - Holy Cow (Milk stout) + S’mores®

Kinslahger Brewing Company - Dunkel (Dark lager) + Do-Si-Dos®

Half Acre Beer Company - Original Reaper (Stout) + Samoas®

Maplewood Brewing Company - Barley Butcher (English barleywine) + Toffee-tastic®

Alarmist Brewing - Juke Nukem (Double IPA) + Thin Mints®

It’s good to have friends back East, as listener Mike Bobal sent us a box of New Jersey delights to reacquaint us with beers of the Garden State. And yeah, we snuck a ringer on. But there are many great beers to celebrate on this show, as we ponder many important questions. What kind of uncle will Craig be? Is a notebook technically a tree? Why does Craig feel compelled to sing 90’s songs so much? Who doesn’t want our new beer cold roller invention? What’s in the New Jersey water? How did Ryan become the Paul Blart? Why is Craig’s Gambit cosplay the worst? 

Beers Reviewed

Carton Brewing Company - This Town (Helles Lager)

Czig Meister - Deep Sea Series: Oasis (New England IPA)

Jughandle Brewing Co. - Background Radiation (New England IPA)

Icarus Brewing - Rain Sleet or Snow (Imperial Oatmeal Stout)

The Referend Bier Blendery - Berliner Messe: Kyrie 2018.2 (100% spontaneous ale aged in oak, w/ cherries & raspberries)

Three great tastes that taste great together: peanut butter, chocolate, and stout combine in all six beers on this blind tasting - and a few prove that there is a wrong way to drink a Reese’s. Otherwise, we are lavishing in decadence throughout this show with six local-ish peanut butter cup stouts that help us regain our confidence in blind guesses. Ryan reports with the exclusive scoop on the 1st Annual Destination Toddler Rumble 2020 with interviews from a few participants, Craig has a photographic memory of forgotten video game characters, and we go hard for like 7 minutes on Supermarket Sweep. Just watch out for Cheese Jim. 

Beers Reviewed Blindly (in order of appearance):

Hop Butcher for the World - Fat Bear (Peanut butter imperial stout w/ chocolate)

Hubbard’s Cave - Peanut Butter Cup Imperial Stouts 2020-1

Energy City Brewing - Bâtisserie Peanut Butter Cup Stout

Transient Artisan Ales & The Open Bottle - Bowser & Koopa (Imperial stout with Violet Sky cocoa nibs and peanut butter)

4 Hands Brewing Co. - Absence of Light Peanut Butter Chocolate Milk Stout

Untitled Art/Hidden Springs Ale Works - Peanut Butter Cup Stout

With most blind shows, we aim to learn more about how our biases impact our perception of beer styles, and we are often surprised and enlightened by the results. But not this episode. Our attempts to try and determine hop varietals through a blind sampling of five single-hop beers ends disastrously, so listen and enjoy our slow descent into existential crisis. But the beers here are varied and delicious, making the pain go down a bit easier. We analyze Craig’s Van Halen dream, Ryan does well at Celebrity Alias Trivia, and we finally call out the guy who stole our email address. (And despite a few strong proclamations, we are not quitting the podcast.)

Beers Reviewed Blindly (in order of appearance)

Hubbard’s Cave - Fresh IIPA: One Hop Mosaic

Kane Brewing Company - Enigma (DIPA)

Toppling Goliath Brewing Co. - King Sue (Citra-hopped hazy DIPA)

Hop Butcher for the World - Funderbolt (Sabro-hopped hazy IPA)

Pipeworks Brewing Company - Place in Space (Ekuanot-hopped DIPA)