The perfect soundtrack to setting your 2017 calendars ablaze over your electric stove, this episode features five beers that are, like, sooooo 2017. We kiss off this s***ty year with a combination of hazy IPAs and sweet/pastry stouts before the World Premiere of our brand new parody song, “We Didn’t Start the Fire (2017 Beer Edition)”. Other topics include Trader Joe’s mysterious Island calligraphy, desecration of a sacred Ullgump, “Pimp My Vape Rig”, and how CBS is Independence Day.  Van Damme Milkshake!

Anchor Brewing/Trader Joe’s - Joe Joe’s Cookie Stout  (Milk Stout)

Trinity Brewing - Hype Forager (East Coast Super Juicy Turbid IPA)

Sierra Nevada Brewing - Hazy Little Thing IPA

Marz Community Brewing - Pastry Boy (Double Milk Stout w/ graham crackers, lactose, cinnamon, and vanilla)

Founders Brewing - Canadian Breakfast Stout (2017) (Imperial coffee stout with chocolate aged in maple syrup bourbon barrels)

A shining star led many wise men and women to our place of recording, with each bearing wondrous homages of beer as we give audio birth to this blessed baby podcast. Actually, it’s just our holiday party with a bunch of great guests and stellar beer. Between handfuls of snacks, we manage to record ourselves drinking five beers (with so, so many more off-mic) and persuade a few brewers and loyal listeners to join in the fun. It’s a grab bag of topics featuring waffles with Santana, international brewpubs, exquisite hop rubbings, the new Maplewood Lounge, Craig’s lubricant secret, dank Chicago food, Three Penis Wine, and the Rapsittie Street Kids. Happy holidays to everyone listening!

Segment #1: Jon Naghski (Goose Island Brewhouse) and listener Ross O’Neill drink Goose Island Clybourn’s Night Fights, a “ghost whale” version of their barrel-aged Impervious Stout, with raspberries added.

Segment #2: Jude La Rose (Hop Butcher for the World) and listener Neal taste two collaborations with Colorado’s WeldWerks Brewing: Mikerphone’s Juicy Hits, a double IPA with pink guava and blood orange, and Hop Butcher’s Render the Phat, a double IPA with passionfruit.

Segment #3: Listeners Beck (@a.girl.rates.beer) and Josh try this year’s Coffee Abraxas from Perennial (courtesy of Don Kasak) and Saint Errant Brewing’s newest IPA, Chapter 1: Citra.

Few things pair with falling temperatures, snow flurries, and holiday stress as well as big roasty and nutty stouts, so we get cracking on five beers that feature unique nut additions. We learn about the awfulness of black walnuts, give credit to the brewery that started pastry stouts, talk strategy for TMNT II: The Arcade Game, and discover some fascinating facts about nuts through the magic of listicles. There’s also a long bit at the beginning about miniature horses, and we end it with Craig trying to get Ryan to understand fecundity. Love this ugly baby.

Hop Butcher for the World/DryHop Brewers - Milkstachio (Milk Stout w/ cacao nibs and natural pistachio flavor)

Pollyanna Brewing - Fun Size (Milk Stout w/ peanut, cacao nib, vanilla beans and sea salt)

Jackie O’s Pub & Brewery - Oil of Aphrodite (Imperial Stout w/ black walnuts and dark Belgian candi sugar)

Prairie Artisan Ales - Pe-Kan (Imperial Stout w/ vanilla and pecans)

Odd Side Ales - Hazel’s Nuts (Imperial Stout aged in bourbon barrels w/ coffee and natural hazelnut flavor)

Recorded after our return from this year’s GABF in October, we add to our State Show Series by sampling five beers from five Denver-area breweries, completely neglecting the rest of this beer-rich state. We recap our visits to four of the breweries and take our riffing to new above sea-level heights by talking about cask ales, dubstep pedicabs, a bathroom clown, terrible houseguests, Weird Sal, and your grandma’s unsettling Twitter handle. There’s also a little game of “Weed Strain or Colorado Beer Name?” for which Craig is woefully unprepared. (And don’t forget to look out for Schwimmer Vintage Ales in 2019!)

Beers Reviewed

Little Machine Beer - Razz Against the Machine (Tart Raspberry Beer)

Hogshead Brewery - Lake Lightning (English Pale Ale)

Amalgam Brewing - Ascension (Golden Sour Ale)

4 Noses Brewing - ‘Bout Damn Time (American IPA)

Cerebral Brewing - Cheat Code (Double IPA)