Beering Ain't Easy

Upon seeing the early signs of summer weather in Houston, Ryan and Drew decide to send off stout season in style via a Beering Ain’t Easy patented blind tasting!  This time we put three Oatmeal Stouts head-to-head, including the award winning Settler’s Stout from Vallensons Brewing Company.  Can “new” Houston beers overtake an English beer from the 1700’s, and are the host tastebuds as refined as GABF judges?  Plus we update you on our HTown Brewery Challenge by recapping Baa Baa Brewhouse, Twisted Acre, and Battlehops!

Featured Oatmeal Stouts:
 

Settlers’ Oatmeal Stout.  Vallensons Brewing Company, Pearland, TX.  5.9% ABV.

Aybara. Back Pew Brewing Company, Porter, TX. 8.7% ABV.

Oatmeal Stout. Samuel Smith, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire England. 5% ABV.

Other Shout-Outs:

Saloon Door Tasty AF

Great American Beer Festival

New Brewer Magazine

For the Culture Brewing (coming soon!)

Baa Lite (craft lager)

Deep Dive N 2 A Dive Bar (new CTS Podcast)

Hot Tub Beers (new CTS podcast)

Farm Drinkery and Caddy Shack Bar (Spring, TX)
 

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!
 

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/
 

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

Can Fruited Sours sweep you away on a tropical vacation from standard craft beers, or should they only be served at the kids table? Will we uncover health benefits unbeknownst to our hosts?  We bring on two guests from the neighborhood to participate in a debate as old as marshmallow creme while we sample six of the biggest name breweries in Slushy/Smoothie beers!

Featured Fruited Sours:

SLUSHY XL Unicorn Juice.  450 North Brewing Company, Columbus, IN.

Smarty Bruja Berry. Ingenious Brewing Company, Humble, TX.

Braaaaaaaains - Blueberry, Black Currant, & Plum Double Fruit Smoothie Sour.  Drekker Brewing Company, Fargo, ND.

Yesterday. Baa Baa Brewhouse, Brookshire, TX.

Triple Spilled - Rainbow Sour Belts, Pineapple, Banana, Orange, Vanilla.  Urban South HTX, Houston, TX.  Collaboration with Craft Beer Kings.

Hydra / Hawk. Mortalis Brewing Company, Avon, NY. Collaboration with Horus Aged Ales.
 

Other Shout-Outs:

Smoothie King

8 Row Flint / Rosewater (Houston Bourbon Bars)

Disney World
 

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

We continue on our quest to highlight great guests from the beer industry, and this week we're joined by Marin, owner of one of Houston's best beer bars -  Star Sailor.  We'll hear all about the entrepreneurial challenges of opening a business during Covid, the glorious highs of building an inclusive business environment, and even tips on how Ryan and Drew can be better communicators!  And beer.  Lots of amazing beer.

Featured Star Sailor Beers:

DDH Art Car.  Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Houston, TX.

3 Fonteinen Oude Geuze Cuvee Armand & Gaston

Pink Caddy.  Saint Arnold Brewing Company, Houston, TX.

Cali Green DDH.  Brash Brewing Company, Houston, TX.

The 610.  Great Heights Brewing Company, Houston, TX.

Stefan.  Equal Parts Brewing Company, Houston, TX.

Eldritch. Equal Parts Brewing Company, Houston, TX.
 

Wiley Roots Featured Beer

Zodiac: Pisces.  Wiley Roots Brewing Company, Greeley, CO.  6.4% ABV.
 

Other Shout-Outs:

@spacecitysnax

Hughie’s

Constellation Coffee

The Montrose Group

@htownbeerguys -  Beer can succulents

Space Montrose

Holler Dollar Pils Y’all

North Coast Grand Cru

Whip In (Austin, TX)

Eureka Heights / Walking Stick / Ingenious / Vallensons / New Magnolia / B-52 Brewing / Urban South HTX

Destihl Deadhead IPA Series: Tourbus

The Fallen:  Petrol Station / Hay Merchant / Falling Rock (CO)

Aristocats
 

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!
 

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

We bring on special guest Ryan Leer to hear about how his passions for homebrewing and videography mashed together into a career at Brewers Supply Group (BSG), a subsidiary of Rahr Malting.  We’ll hear about the craft beer boom from the eyes of the raw material supplier,  take a ride through the Yakima hop farms, and throw in some amateur wrestling stories while we’re at it!

Featured Beers:

Nitro Coconut Truffle.  Southern Tier Brewing Company, Lakewood, NY. Imperial Milk Stout. 10% ABV.

Candy Clouds.  Parish Brewing Company collaboration with Weldwerks Brewing Company.  IPA. 8% ABV.

Little Black Rain Cloud.  Lupulin Brewing Company, Big Lake, MN.  Scotch Ale/Wee Heavy. 11.1% ABV.

Dip Check.  Arbeiter Brewing Company, Minneapolis, MN. IPA. 6.7% ABV.

Davy Bockett. Alamo Beer Company, San Antonio, TX. Helles Bock.  4.2% ABV.

False Idol Brewing, Dallas, TX

BSG Social Tags:

FB:  @BSGCraftbrewing

IG:   @BSG
 

Other Shout-Outs:

Bushel Boy Farms

Northern Brewer

Tasty AF Nitro.  Saloon Door Brewing Company, Houston, TX

Dogfish Head Brewery

Standing Stone Brewing Company, Ashland, OR

Caldera Brewing Company, Ashland, OR

Crux Fermentation Project, Bend, OR

University of Minnesota Wrestling

Encanto

Ryan Leers’s earliest work  - Marty McFly Hoverboard Halloween Costume (link below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYl1REbXCOw
 

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/
 

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

Houston versus Dallas - A sibling rivalry of Texas-sized proportions.  The Beering Ain’t Easy podcast will settle the debate once and for all as we battle two Houston and two Dallas hazy IPA’s, blind tasting style.  Is this a winner takes all endeavor, or can we collectively find common ground to bring these cities together?  We’ll bring on special guest and Dallas correspondent Wes to answer this question and discuss the brewery hot spots in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

Featured Beers:

Heavy Hands.  SpindleTap Brewery, Houston, TX. 8% ABV.

Fruity Pellets.  Great Heights Brewing Company, Houston, TX. 6.2% ABV.

Assault is Next.  Turning Point Beer, Bedford, TX. 8.2% ABV.

Apollo 11. Celestial Beerworks, Dallas, TX. 8% ABV.
 

Other Houston Shout-Outs:

Richmond Arms

Saint Arnold Brewing Company

Petrol Station

Eureka Heights Brewing Company

Astral Brewing

Yellow Rose (Lone Pint )

Other Dallas Shout-Outs:

Vector Brewing

Deep Ellum Brewing Company

Manhattan Beer Company

Community Beer Company

On Rotation

False Idol Brewing

Oak Highlands Brewery

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!
 

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!
 

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

What are your thoughts on the hype beer market that is driving craft beer nerds across the globe to empty their pockets for a rare beer find?  Is this bad economics or the future of marketing?  Can you drive up huge interest for a beer in a tasteful way?  We’ll ponder these questions and more in this week’s episode, plus we circle back on the H-Town Brewery challenge by talking about Saint Arnold Brewing and Eureka Heights!

Featured Beer:

Holy Ghost.  Parish Brewing Company, Broussard, LA.  Triple IPA. 11% ABV.
 

Other Shout-Outs:

Ghost in the Machine.  Parish Brewing Company.

Instagram

Air Jordan’s

Baa Baa Brewhouse.  Houston, TX

Mostra Coffee

Other Half Brewing Company.  New York, NY

Belching Beaver Brewing Company.  San Diego, CA.

Toppling Goliath Brewing Company. Decorah, IA.

Ballast Point Brewing Company.  San Diego, CA.

Modern Times Brewing Company.  San Diego, CA.

Brash Brewing Company. Houston, TX.

Weathered Souls Brewing Company.  San Antonio, TX.

Flying Saucer Draught Emporium

Tavour

Half Time Beverage

Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail
 

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/
 

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

In this episode, we revisit the cult classic Beerfest 15 years later to see if the movie withstood the test of time. What has been its impact to drinking competitions and the beer industry in general? Is it still funny? And what the hell is a ZJ?

Featured Beer:

Aventinus. Schneider Weisse G. Schneider & Sohn, Kelheim, Bayern Germany.  Weizendopplebock. 8.2% ABV.

Featured Movie:

Beerfest (2006) - Now streaming on Hulu!
 

Other Shout-Outs:

Von Wolfhausen. Eureka Heights Brewing Company, Houston, TX.  Festbier.

Broken Lizard

Matt Forte

Donald Sutherland

Willie Nelson

Super Troopers

Heisler Beer (Hollywood fake beer)

Castle Wolfenstein

Northern Brewer
 

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!
 

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!
 

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/
 

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

We pick two breweries from Dallas to go head to head, Peticolas Brewing Company and Manhattan Project Beer, in an IPA vs. IPA and Winter Ale vs. Winter Ale battle.  Plus we cover the highly scandalous and hilarious serious of tweets from Pabst Blue Ribbon and balance out all the Dallas talk by recapping some great Houston breweries from our H-Town Brewery Challenge - City Acre, New Magnolia, Paradigm, and Equal Parts!

Featured Beers:

Wintervention.  Peticolas Brewing Company, Dallas, TX.  10% ABV.

Christmas Coalition.  Manhattan Project Beer, Dallas, TX. 10.5% ABV.

Double Half Life.  Manhattan Project Beer, Dallas, TX. Double Hazy IPA. 8% ABV.

Sit Down or I’ll Sit You Down. Peticolas Brewing Company, Dallas, TX.  Imperial IPA. 10% ABV.

PBR Tweets

https://uproxx.com/life/pbr-apologizes-for-ass-eating-tweet/
 

Other Shout-Outs:

Paradigm - Precision IPA

Parish Brewing - Holy Ghost

Dallas Marathon

Jameson shots

Equal Parts - Loggerbier

New Magnolia - Dry Hopped Kolsch and Coconut Affogado Stout

Equal Parts:  Burial in Space Stout

Bay to Breakers San Francisco
 

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/
 

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

There are a lot of winter and “Christmas” beers that come out around the holidays, but do they all really count as Christmas beers?  We take three completely different styles of “Christmas” beers and put them to the test to see if they are Christmas enough!  Plus Drew pulls out a relic beer from the back of his beer fridge named “Santa’s Butt” and we debate what are the best and worst Christmas songs of all time.  I don’t know if there’ll be snow, but have a couple beers!

Featured Beers:

Seasick Crocodile.  Praire Artisan Ales, Krebs, OK. Sour.  6.3% ABV.

Celebration Fresh Hop IPA. Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA. 6.8% ABV.

Happy Holidiculous.  Saloon Door Brewing, Webster, TX. Russian Imperial (Pastry) Stout.  11.8% ABV.

Santa’s Butt. Ridgeway Brewing, South Stoke, Oxfordshire England.  Winter Porter. 6% ABV.
 

Christmas Songs!

DMX sings Rudolph:  https://youtu.be/AXca4WcCzlo

Favorites:

All I want for Christmas by Mariah Carey (Ryan)

NONE WHATSOEVER (ADAM)

Holly Jolly Christmas by Burl Ives (Drew)

Least Favorites:

All the Chipmunks songs (Ryan)

All of them (Adam)

So this is Christmas by John Lennon (Drew)

Other Songs Received by our Beering Ain’t Easy Poll:

Feliz Navidad

What Christmas Means to Me by Stevie Wonder

Jingle Bell Rock

Green Christmas by the Barenaked Ladies

Dominick the Christmas Donkey

Last Christmas by Wham

Baby it’s cold (rapey) outside by Dean Martin

Run Rudolph Run

Christmas in Hollis

Back Door Santa by Bon Jovi

Millie Pulled a Pistol on Santa by De La Soul

Santa Baby

Where are you Christmas by Faith Hill

Christmas Tree Farm by Taylor Swift

Other Shout-Outs:

Eureka Heights Advent Calendar (and Nuke the Whales Imperial Milk Stout)

2021 Beer Meme Competition -  hosted by @hopculturemag and @halftimebev

Anchor Brewing:  Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Spindletap Brewery:  Candy Green

Maine Beer Company:  Dinner

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!
 

Direct Link to Christmas Shirt/Sweater Designed by Beering Ain’t Easy!

https://www.teepublic.com/long-sleeve-t-shirt/26095000-christmas-beer

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.

The Beering Ain’t Easy Podcast is back at it again with a patented beer experiment!  This time we make teas out of three different types of hops and see if we can identify them based on their expected flavor profile.  And somewhere in the middle of the episode we go completely off the rails and hold our own Judge Judy court to resolve a dispute from the neighborhood Facebook group.  You won’t want to miss it!

Featured Hops:

Simcoe  - Passionfruit, stone fruit, pine resin, apricot, citrus zest (or zent)

Ekuanot - Melon, Berry, lime, apple, papaya, green pepper, floral/grassy/herbal

Willamette - Pepper/spice, green/grassy, floral/earthy
 

Other Shout-Outs:

Healthline article about beer health:

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/case-for-health-benefits-of-beer

Dallas Marathon

Podcasts we listen to:  Nateland, ‎The Jeselnik & Rosenthal Vanity Project, My Dad Wrote a Porno, Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Cross the streams media podcast shout-outs:  3 Beers and a Mic, Bern Appetit, Movie Gap

Judge Judy

Art Car. Saint Arnold Brewing Company.

Abita Turbodog

HTOWN Brewery Challenge Tracker - See how we’re doing on our challenge to visit all breweries within 50 miles of Houston!

NEW WEBSITE and MERCH PAGE!  Check out all the great podcasts that are a part of Cross the Streams media!

https://www.crossthestreamsmedia.com/show/beering-aint-easy/

Follow @beeringainteasy on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube, email us at [email protected], or follow our beer quest on Untappd, usernames BeeringAintEasyAdam and BeeringAintEasyDrew.