1 Beer 1 Song

Summer is *just* loosening its grip a bit, so here we have a crisp, refreshing episode before surely tumbling into six dark months of barrel-aged barley wines and sludge doom. Despite what is easily one of Russ's least good pouring jobs ever, we managed to drink Lemon & Grassy from The Hop Project, which is the latest imprint from the Port Brewing / Lost Abbey folks. I struggled a bit to clearly (and accurately) describe Lost Abbey, mentioning I thought it was a Belgian-inspired theme. Well, I was right, so nyah. A quick lap around the episode guide seems to indicate we've never reviewed a beer from either Port or Lost Abbey. WTF? In keeping with the crisp and refreshing theme, we listen to a track from Carly Rae Jepsen's new album, Emotion. Longtime listeners might remember we last listened to Ms. Jepsen on episode 11, almost exactly three years ago. One show note: We mentioned looking up the medical term for people who are disgusted by mouth noises and then promptly didn't do it. Misophonia - From Wikipedia: Misophonia, literally "hatred of sound", is a rarely diagnosed disorder, commonly thought to be of neurological origin, in which negative emotions (anger, flight, hatred, disgust) are triggered by specific sounds.

I've wanted to do this episode for a while now. Well, sort of. I came up with the idea to do a micro-vertical, specifically of canned SweetWater IPA, a couple months ago. But Tony, what is a micro-vertical? If you can't figure it out on your own, you're just going to have to listen, SORRY. The DuckTales theme, on the other hand, has been an earworm for me for almost 30 years. I watched the show every day after school when I was 11-12. Then, at some point over the last couple years, it came up randomly in conversation with someone, possibly even Russ, and the mutual appreciation was immediate and unanimous. I'm actually kind of annoyes it has taken us until episode 124 to do this one. Fair warning, we listened to the 2-minute 49-second extended version in the middle of the show. If you really want the true nostalgia of the 60-second opening credits from the show, be sure to listen to the end of the episode, I posted it there. Hi, Disney lawyers! Oh, and heads up, there is some major audio weirdness for about seven seconds from 24:55 to 25:02. You're not having a stroke, my laptop was having a brief stroke. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[There are a ton of links in here. If you're reading this in iTunes, make sure to visit the website for the full experience.] This episode is why we make this podcast. Our good buddy Kit (of Dawg Sports and Dawg Gone Podcast and One Beer One Song Episode 55.5 fame) joins us. We drink Citra Ass Down from Against The Grain Brewery in Louisville, KY. There are almost 4,000 breweries in the U.S. and Against The Grain is the #1 A+ best out of all of them at naming beers. SERIOUSLY GO LOOK (scroll down a smidge). And if Citra Ass Down is any indication, they are pretty dope at making beers as well. And on the heels of a fun beer, oh, there's a new Jason Isbell record out. We last visited Mr. Isbell on episode 51, shortly after he released Southeastern, which will probably go down as one of the greatest singer-songwriter/country/folk/alt-country/cry-in-your-car-alone/triumphant-return albums of our generation. His new album, Something More Than Free came out a couple weeks ago and Russ's expectations couldn't be higher. Related listening: Isbell sat down with NPR for a short interview this week. It's good. AND AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH, Kit is here A) because we like him, but B) to talk college football. I'm not going to waste your time with any predictions or teasers here, but I did want to share a link as proof that Minnesota has actually won seven national championships. Alright then.

We drink an IPA out of a can from Southbound Brewing Company, a relatively new brewery out of Savannah, GA. Russ picked The Vandals from the Board of Songs, so I hit him with their cover of Summer Lovin'. As I mention on the episode, the parody lyrics in this song are much creepier than I remember. Speaking of Grease, below is a picture of the funny tweet I mentioned on the show but couldn't find on the fly. Alright then.

The long, hot slog through another Georgia continues. It is so hot, we don't have the energy to record episodes that are long or good. We drink Maggie's Blackberry Cobbler Farmhouse Ale from our friends at Terrapin Beer Company. We also talk about recent beery events in Georgia. Also in honor of the dog days of Summer, we listen to a song from The Baseball Project. They sing songs about hockey.

We have visited a handful of local breweries. In fact, we've kind of made it a rule, if the brewery is in town, why would we sit in my basement and speculate when we can have a conversation with the horse's ... uh ... mouth, I don't think that's how that saying works. ANYWAY. Three Taverns Brewery is a relatively new brewery in Atlanta, specifically Decatur, Georgia. I would explain what we drank and why it's significant, but we talk about all that on the episode, so shut up and put on your headphones already. This is a special episode because it's always a special episode when Russ picks the song. We listen to a new track from Florence and the Machine. It's important to note, the version we listened to is the version in the video posted below (gotta be looking at the blog to see the video). Apparently, this is a video-specific version because the version on the album is ... much different. I say that to save you from liking this version and then racing to the album version only to be disappointed.

Business trips and family trips and summer camps OH MY. Here is a weird-ass beer paired with a weird-ass song to help you absolve the preceding month of no episodes.

Gia here, back by popular demand/hostile studio takeover, Ellen and I grab the mikes for Episode 118. We drink Peach Lambic and Rye Sangria as we listen to Blake Shelton's "Sangria."

The theme this time around the horn is things that may or may not be ill-conceived. We try to answer two questions. Does the world actually need an Imperial Black Rye Wit? Is it possible for Refused to maintain a single shred of credibility as they embark on reunion #2? And that's pretty much it. Oh, also we experimented with live-streaming video of the recording sessions and a hilariously large number people tuned in for at least a portion of it, so that's in now. Follow @1beer1song for updates.

On this episode of Two Dudes In A Basement, we drink Sin Frontera, a collaboration between Jester King, Crooked Stave, and Brasserie Trois Dammes (Switzerland). This beer was very generously carried by hand from out of state by a complete stranger for the purposes of being mis-categorized and/or under-appreciated by us. The stranger, whose name is Jeff and who lives in Chicago, is a friend of a friend named Kevin, who lives in Austin, where Jester King is located. Kevin set the whole thing up and HERE WE ARE. Thanks, dudes! Sin Frontera is interesting because the three brewers involved brewed identical versions at each of their breweries over the course of a couple years. From Jester King's Sin Frontera page: The concept behind Cerveza Sin Frontera was to brew an identical recipe, referment it in the same type of barrels (Spanish sherry) at three different locations on earth, and allow the microorganisms unique to each brewery to impart interesting and differentiating characteristics to the beer. In other words, Cerveza Sin Frontera seeks to explore the impact that mixed culture fermentation has upon an identical recipe for wort (unfermented beer). It highlights how fermentation that exists outside the world of pure culture brewers yeast has the ability to create unique beer with a sense of place. So, if we *really* wanted to do this the way the brewers intended, we would have gathered all three variants of the beer and compared them against each other all while pontificating wildly without any merit whatsoever about what environmental factors contributed to whatever it is we think we're smelling and tasting. Given that the beers were brewed over the course of a year and two of the breweries don't even distribute in Georgia, we decided to plow ahead with an MVP. You'll have to listen and gauge for yourself the wildness of our pontification. The song this week comes from The Mountain Goats, who released a new album called Beat The Champ on 4/28. TMG are no strangers to the show, this being the third time we've featured them (Ep. 25, Ep. 68). We listen to them because they are good. LISTEN.

It feels like it's been raining in Atlanta for 6 months, so we drink the super-citrusy Grapefruit Sculpin IPA from Ballast Point to remind us of the sunshine. Actually, that's not true. This episode was recorded a couple weeks ago, ostensibly when the sun was still shining. I am so bad at segues, I am actually great at them. Ballast Point's suggested food pairings for the Grapefruit Sculpin rustle Russell's cockles, presumably because he is an angry, angry man. SO ANGRY. As a side note, I would like to nominate Ballast Point for best brewery website ever. Seriously, their site is great. It's bright and clear and simple to navigate and thoroughly informative without being annoyingly pontificative. From any page on the site, whatever you're looking for is one or two clicks away. Excellent website, clap clap clap. For the sing this time, we listen to ... a stand-up comedy routine! If you've learned anything by now, you've learned Russ has a penchant for comedy and late-night television talk shows. Here we have a short routine from Jake Johannsen, from his 46th (!!!) appearance on the Dave Letterman show, which, of course, is coming to an end this year. Video below. Production note: Weird audio gap at 12:51, right at the start of the comedy. Buy me a new laptop.

Here at 1 Beer 1 Song HQ, one of the things we pride ourselves in is timely reporting, which is why we've decided to tackle a craft beer topic that was in the headlines almost three months ago. I mean, the topic will remain one of ongoing discussion for the foreseeable future, but this specific story took place in January, 2015. The short version: Lagunitas filed suit against Sierra Nevada over the design of their Hop Hunter IPA packaging, specifically the typography of the letters I-P-A, claiming the design was too similar to Lagunitas's own IPA packaging. To commemorate this bizarre day of scorching hot takes and general bizarreness, we drank both Lagunitas IPA and Sierra Nevada Hop Hunter IPA. Spoiler alert: Of all the things we find frustrating and confusing, the packaging of these beers is not one of them. This is a complex legal topic and one that forces the craft beer industry to look inward and decide how to balance the interests of its individual businesses with the ongoing interests of a growing industry that likes to think of itself as a happy family where everyone is looking out for everyone else. You could easily build an entire podcast series around this topic. Thankfully, you don't need to build an entire podcast series around this topic because we have it all wrapped up in one 42-minute maelstrom of sarcasm, armchair legal analysis, and hyperbolic accusations. Oh, and Russ picked Social Distortion from the board of songs. SOME SHOW NOTES: Just to calibrate your expectations, we don't even start smelling or tasting the beers until around the 15-minute mark. Sorry not sorry for the digital audio weirdness from 16:04-16:12. Buy me a new computer. 18:10 - The "pale stout" I'm referring to here is the Master Of Disguise Imperial Golden Stout from Stone's Stochasticity Project. 23:44 - Somehow the audio cut off a secind early while introducing the song. That explains the "abrupt" transition. 32:56 - Brendan Palfreyman can be followed here: @bpalfrey10. [It's crazy that there were nine other people with a bpalfrey handle who signed up before him.] Seriously, if you're at all interested about craft beer legal topics, follow him.

Ah, the first days of Spring. We depart the comfortable confines of my windowless basement and head into the sunlight and the warm, welcoming arms of Second Self Beer Company, one of Atlanta's newest breweries. Founder and beer architect, Jason Santamaria, was nice enough to let us in, give us beer, and answer our questions. Pretty darned generous, eh? It seems only natural then, while visiting a brewery called Second Self, one would enjoy the sweet sounds of a song called Second Self. Maybe it's not that natural. Either way, that's what we did. This version happens to be by Umphrey's Mcgee, a band whose name is weirdly difficult to type for some reason. Alright then, get in there.

This episode is equal parts disaster and triumph. We drink the Single Simcoe Hop version of Molotov Cocktail from Evil Twin Brewing. [Not sure why it's called Single Simcoe Hop and not Simcoe Single-Hop, but WHATEVER.] The last time we contemplated a beer from Evil Twin was way back on episode 25. We drank The Cowboy, a smoked pilsner, and, since you've no doubt listened to and internalized every single episode of this show, I shouldn't have to remind you that The Cowboy was not a beer most would consider a "good" beer. So, this episode was to be Evil Twin's redemption. Unfortunately ... well, you'll just have to listen. Yes, it is unfortunate you have to listen. THEN, we listened to what I hoped would be a scorcher from Pelican, and instead ... well, you'll just have to listen. Shutup, Russ. So, after both of those ... events, we ended up reviewing a food item that I made, because why the hell not. All that in just over 22 minutes!

Okay, here's the deal. There is A LOT going on right now with Georgia beer legislation, specifically SB63, or the GA Beer Jobs Bill as it has come to be known. Since this podcast isn't a live broadcast (it's recorded days in advance), and things are changing rapidly, it is impossible to capture the most recent developments. When we recorded this, the latest rumor was that GA Lt. Governor Casey Cagle was working behind the scenes to suppress a committee vote on SB63. Since then, a "compromise" version of the bill, with lower limits on amounts customers can consume on site at breweries and take home from breweries and brewpubs, has been unanimously approved by said committee. Sooooooooooooo, our ranting is going to sound a little misplaced and dated, but I didn't want to post the episode before the vote because we are both fairly critical of the process (and some specific individuals) and I didn't want to publish a n y t h i n g negative or needlessly harsh given what's at stake here. SB63 now heads to the full GA Senate and then the the House. In celebration of the episode that shall not be named, we dive deep into the distinctly different worlds of Gueuze and Gose. We drink a Gueuze from Belgium and a Gose from California, all the while, you guessed it, talking talking talking. Russ brung the song this week and it's Jason Isbell and his wife, Amanda Shires, covering a song by Warren Zevon called "Mutineer." There's a video below.