1 Beer 1 Song

Hi! On this episode of a podcast, we drink a beer that we've drinked before because we are completely out of ideas so we're going to record sequels to all the episodes we've already recorded just like Hollywood no that is not actually the case. We're drinking Hopslam because it is a beer that comes with an insane amount of hype and we happened to receive this year's batch in Georgia from Michigan 7 days after it was canned, WHICH IS NEAT. Russ picked the song this week, which I always appreciate, and it is a gospel song about either drinking yourself to death or not. ALSO NEAT.

It is the dead of Winter, so what better time to drink some tropical beers and listen to some tropical music? This is pretty self-explanatory. We drank Collaboration #5 from Boulevard Brewing Company and Cigar City Brewing, and we also drank Sierra Nevada's 2016 Beer Camp Spring Seasonal, which happens to be a Tropical IPA. It's been a while since we've picked the song on the fly, but we managed to pull it off without even stopping the recording because we've been doing this for a combined seven decades. If you read the title of the episode then you know what song we chose, so I'm going to stop typing and get to posting on social because my various reporting mechanisms tell me NONE of you read the website and ALL of you interact with our #brand on social.

Hi! This is an episode of a podcast. On this podcast episode, we drink and discuss a beer from Coastal Empire Beer Company called Dawn Patrol Mole Stout. I don't know what else to tell you. You know how this works. Coastal Empire is in Savannah, so OBVIOUSLY we listened to a song by a band from Savannah, because we are masters at thematic consistency. [You know you are in good hands.] Baroness is from Savannah and they are super great. Hardcore Beersongers will no doubt recall we first listened to Baroness on episode 10. They released a new album last fall. The only show note worth mentioning is that throughout this episode we talked about Mike Post and Harold Faltermeyer AND Steely Dan AND Yanni and then didn't listen to a song by any of them. Maybe foreshadowing. Maybe not.

Hi there! Let's get to it. It's January, which means the Georgia General Assembly is ... well, they're doing General Assembly things, though, there's a good argument to be made that we should stop laughing at their absurd absurdity. We spend some time talking about things we're expecting to see relative to craft beer this session. To read a very excellent recap of how we got to where we are now (over the past couple years) and what we might expect, go read this piece by Coleman Wood at his site cheers-yall.com. [Wood is really really good at clearly explaining complex, multi-threaded concepts, and his deep understanding of the inner workings of the Georgia political process makes for consistently great reading.] One of the more interesting tidbits to surface during the run up to this year's 40-day slap fight, was House Speaker David Ralston (who has received copious funding from 'big beverage') publicly questioning the current regulatory environment. When a journalist from 11Alive pressed Speaker Ralston by adding "“Wholesalers seem to have very impressive power in this building,” Ralston responded, "Let me tell you who has more power over me. Two guys in Blue Ridge that have two businesses. I have to look at them when I’m in town. And I know other members that come eye-to-eye and face-to-face with these small business people that run these craft breweries. That’s a pretty powerful influence." So, it would be neat if we could talk about a beer brewed by one of these "Two guys in Blue Ridge," right? YES IT WOULD. Behold, Hive Kicker from Fannin Brewing Company in newly influential Blue Ridge, GA. And while we're being timely and topical, we talked about a song from one of the several recently deceased 69-year old British gentlemen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR. This is a shorty morty to get things rolling here in 2k16. Following the palate destruction of the last episode, we swing the pendulum in the other a different direction with a bright, hoppy IPA from Alpine Beer Company. The Nelson Golden Rye IPA showcases ... wait for it ... Nelson Sauvin hops from New Zealand. Rather fortuitously, Sean, our holiday correspondent, was born in New Zealand and has been to the town of Nelson. Id like to say we planned that, but sometime you just get lucky. The song this week is from Eagles Of Death Metal. For those of you residing beneath rocks, EODM was on stage performing at the Bataclan Theater when the theater came under a devastating terrorist attack last November. They have since launched a campaign called Play It Forward where they've asked anyone interested to cover their song "I Love You All The Time" and they will donate 100% of the royalties to charity. We take a spin through the original version of the song.

Last episode of the year! We are joined once again by Sean, our holiday correspondent. You might remember Sean from such hits as Episode 103, and the follow-up, multi-platinum, genre-defining Episode 104. Also making a repeat appearance is the beer, sort of. Sierra Nevada's Barrel Aged Bigfoot Ale originally appeared on Episode 40, way back in February, 2013. This time around we compare a bottle of that vintage and a new bottle. We liked the 2013 at first, even referring to it as very drinkable. What happens next will astound you. As we did last year when Sean was on, we dug up a song from our youth to see how it held up. That song this time is "Nothing But A Good Time" off Poison's Open Up And Say Ahh! ... I'll just leave it at that. Show note: At some point I made a comment that indicated Ab InBev has a role dedicated to increasing "share of throat." In reality, that appears to be the goal of their entire innovation team and "share of throat" is a phrase they've been using for years. Page 1 Google results show references as far back as 2010. In any event, AB InBev views you as nothing more than an ATM with an esophagus and they don't care who knows it. Vote with your wallet.

We harken back to the brewery we reviewed on EPISODE NUMERO UNO (and, um, also episode 104) to commemorate the first beer to come out of 21st Amendment's new brewery in San Leandro, California. That beer is called Toaster Pastry. We recorded this episode a few weeks after the terrorist attacks in Paris, which Foo Fighters [coincidentally] followed up with the release of a free EP and a message to their fans to donate the money they would have spent on the record to help the terror victims in Paris. You know all about the Foo Fighters, so I'm not going to waste any more words on them. Nice hustle. See you next time.

**The URL for this episode's audio file has been fixed.** It's a hard root beer war!! No, actually, a few days after we recorded this episode, a tweet revealed one of the brewers we discuss in this episode is suing the other brew we discuss in this episode. [If you're into this kind of crap, Brendan Palfreyman is a really good handle to follow.] Anyway, we didn't know about the litigation until after recording, hence no mention. So let's talk about soda pop that gets you wasted. Like everyone else, we saw Smalltown Brewery's Not Your Father's Root Beer explode onto shelves this Summer. But it wasn't until a recent Brewbound article by Chris Furnari about the impending "hard soda wars" that we decided this is a category in need of the patented One Beer One Song half-formed opinions and misinformation. To compare to NYFRB, we chose Sprecher's Hard Root Beer, which they bill as Not Your Grandaddy's Root Beer. Sooooooo, unlike a lot of these seemingly overreaching craft beer lawsuits lately, this one seems pretty straightforward. I probably would have sued you too, Sprecher. Here are some of the links from the show that talk about some of the common "questions" about Smalltown Brewwery and NYFRB: Not Your Father’s Root Beer: My Strange Visit to Small Town Brewery by Michael Agnew The story behind Not Your Father’s Root Beer by Joe Sixpack (Don Russell) Jesus, we have to do a song too? Haha, just kidding, WE LOVE SONGS. This song came to me via the list of new releases on Spotify. Lettuce has been around for 20+ years and they have a new album out called Crush [warning: SoundCloud auto-play]. The only thing I'll say about the song is that, yes, I am throwing Russ a major bone here. Also, we rambled A LOT before actually getting to the song, so, whatever, you know you're going to listen anyway. Show notes: - Russ talks about soup. If you're into that sort of thing.

We kick things off with a robust conversation about those stalwarts of American brewing: Miller Lite and Coors Light. Thankfully, we move quickly to the beer this week, which is Biere Joi from Louisiana's own Bayou Teche. Quick! Name a brewery in Louisiana other than Abita. I know, right? Well we're here to help. That's all we really want, is to help. You. The song this time around is the second-to-last one on that Buzzfeed list we got the song from in Episode 132. [Might could see us revisiting this list a couple few more times in the future.] The song is "Weave" from the most recent Foxing album, which is called Dealer. The only thing I will say about the song is that I cannot believe this band is not from Scotland. Okay. Get in there.

There is a beer made by Stone Brewing Company. It is an IPA that receives a shot of brett at bottling. Stone intends for drinkers to cellar the beer for a year before drinking, a notion they communicate to drinkers by having named the beer Enjoy After [Insert Date]. In a stunning blow to the craft beer establishment, we have chosen to drink the 07.04.16 version of this beer a full 8 months early. Also I stored it in the refrigerator for like two weeks, which is counterproductive if you want yeast to be awake and doing its thing. And, as we suggested to ourselves during the show, I have secured another bottle and it is sitting not in the refrigerator for consumption some time in late Summer 2016. Click the image below for a high-res version of the label with all the relevant details. Stone continues to be the Apple Computer of craft beer. The song this week is by The Wonder Years, and it kind of landed in our laps. Neither of us has any previous exposure to this group's music. Many of you will love it. Many of you will hate it. Some show notes for your records: Russ says "Beonard Lernstein" at 16:07 The unison "Monday Night Brewing" at 23:25 was unintentional, but Monday Night is free to purchase advertising from us whenever they wish.

I'm not really sure what to say about the episode this week. There isn't anything particularly noteworthy about the beer, I don't think, which is Samuel Adams Double Bock brewed by The Boston Beer Company. It's certainly seasonally appropriate. It was gifted to me by a relative who was told by a retailer that it is extremely rare. I can neither confirm nor deny the rareness of this beer, because I've never really considered the availability of any flavor of Sam Adams outside of perhaps Utopias. And consideration given Utopias starts and stops with, "Oh, that is really expensive. I bet it's really sweet and boozy." SPEAKING OF SWEET ... Russ has many thoughts on this beer and this brewery and their place in the industry and their place on our podcast. If, like me, you never would have guessed Sam Adams is Russ's favorite brewery, well, you might actually be sort of good at guessing. The song this week contains a bit of a gimmick that I thought was chuckle-worthy when we recorded the episode, but, after going back and listening, said gimmick doesn't really register on the chucklograph. CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL! I'll just say this to tie it all together: The song at the end of the episode is Nighlight off of Silversun Pickups' latest album, Better Nature. The only other show note this week is that Russ says "swig of bresh air" because Russ.

This time around the track we are supping a beer brand new to the Georgia market. We are drinking Medora from Asheville's own Wicked Weed Brewing. I would link directly to the Medora page, but WW's website does not work that way. It's one of the things we talk about. Wicked Weed makes very good beer, which, by proxy, means this is a very good episode. [It's in the constitution, look it up.] Also brand new to Georgia are some songs one of my bands, Hot Wives, recorded recently. They haven't been released yet, so you are very very special for getting to hear one of them. As you listen, keep reminding yourself how special and wonderful you are.

Hi there and welcome to the latest installment of two bald gasbags in a basement. This time around, we get into the 2015 version of Odyssey from the venerable Allagash. One neat thing about the word Odyssey is that is on the definitive list of words that are impossible to spell on the first try. Russ thinks this beer would be best paired with "cofee-encrusted turkey jerky," so you'll definitely want to listen to figure out how he got there. Here is something we owe you after reading the beer's multiple descriptions: treacle (ˈtrē-kəl) n. - Treacle is any uncrystallised syrup made during the refining of sugar. The most common forms of treacle are golden syrup, a pale variety, and a darker variety known as black treacle. Black treacle, or molasses, has a distinctively strong, slightly bitter flavour, and a richer colour than golden syrup. Golden syrup treacle is a common sweetener and condiment in British cookery, found in such dishes as treacle tart and treacle sponge pudding. We went to the board of songs this week and Russ opted for Bad Religion. There a several directions you could head with this selection. I'd like to think I did a commendable job. Couple show notes: I happen to be posting this on October 21, 2015, which is the day 30 years in the future to which Marty and Doc travel at the beginning of Back To The Future II. In a weird coincidence, Russ mentions the flux capacitor at the 1:15 mark despite this episode having been recorded 3 weeks ago. Actually Russ says "flux capacitator," but he means well. There's a weird gap in the song at ~16:42 in the episode. I bought it from iTunes! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Just in time for pumpkin beers to become a distant figment of Summer ... we're coming at you with a pumpkin beer. This week, Russ is forced to drink Heavy Seas Great'er Pumpkin Ale, which is a big 10% ale aged in bourbon barrels. Also, several weeks after it was a relevant news slash pop culture item, we would like to share our feeling about Ryan Adams' cover of Taylor Swift's 1989 album. We are very very good at this.

Soooo, we recorded episode 126 per our standard protocol. When I opened the file to edit, Garageband threw up an error that said, "LOL, can't find two of your vocal tracks #sadtrombone. RIP, episode 126, you were adequate and mildly amusing and we hardly knew ye. As we mention in the show, this episode was intended for release at some point in the back half of September. However, with the unfortunate demise of episode 126, you [episode 127] are going to Top Gun [a week or so early]. OKTOBERFEST. It is a beer brewed in conjunction with a large festival in Germany. Sierra Nevada has made a version in conjunction with Brauhaus Riegele. We drank it. I got some in my nose. QUIET HOUNDS. They are a local band who recently released a new album. Russ sometimes plays music with them. We've talked about them previously on episode 8 and episode 88 (whoa). Couple show notes: Russ mentioned someone taking a stab at redesigning Amazon's website. I said I would post a link. LINK POSTED. If you're only here to hear us sing a beer description in 12/8 meter, skip to ~8:45 in the episode. SIGN UP FOR OUR EMAIL LIST. If you're reading this in iTunes, come to the website.