Craft Beer Republic

Pour a craft beer and pull up a chair. Erica name-drops her advanced cicerone friend and scores a brewery tour with free tastings. Flex opens a Bourbon County Stout after all the trash talk, and the joke’s on Flex. His favorite brewery swaps out its French fries, and the regulars revolt. And Greg quizzes Flex and Erica on GABF winners like Zombie Shark Fight, with mostly wrong answers.

Beers We’re Drinking:

• Erica is drinking West Ghost from Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., a 7.2% West Coast IPA she calls bright and true, in a can so cute Flex rates it ten out of ten without a sip.
• Flex is drinking Rectifier from Eagle Park Brewing, a 7.8% West Coast IPA he calls a banger (not rectum fire).
• Greg is drinking Sole Purpose from Obercreek Brewing Company, a 5% single-hop Nelson hazy pale ale and a craft beer gift from Non-Murderer John that Greg calls world class.

Episode Highlights

Greg and Erica are both fresh out of the tattoo chair, which reminds Flex of his script tattoo. Flex wrote “dying” on the paper, and the artist inked “DIEING” anyway. Erica’s craft beer friend Rachel turns out to be one of about 211 advanced cicerones in the world, and she still drinks Miller Lite. Greg’s GABF quiz, built with some help from Claude, also features Satan’s Pony and Feral Garden Gnome. As for Flex’s Bourbon County, it was a Costco bottle he let sit in his fridge for months. The Eagle Park fry swap lasted two to three weeks. Later, a drunk woman’s scooter crash gets Greg gushing about Lime scooters, until his boss offers to pay him to quit. Shout-out to Boise, Idaho, last week’s top listening city, and Greg has questions about their internet.

Booze News:

• GABF goes outdoors and Denver actually behaves.
• Admiral Maltings shuts down the kiln for good.
• Constellation Brands pays $75 million for a vodka sports drink.
• Drunk woman falls off her scooter, gets help up, and scoots away anyway.

Guest:

Erica, the Hot Mess Express and salty pretzel slinger behind Neck Nosh (@necknosh, necknosh.com), is back hanging with Greg and Flex.

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Got a craft beer handy? Good. Poop Beer Gate is back with a White Russian blonde ale full of brown floaters. Non-Murderer John hooks Greg up with another great beer, and Flex suspects a Hansel and Gretel setup. Greg once sent back a flat pilsner, and the server asked if he wanted the same beer. And a 76-year-old Florida man holds up a silver cup and tells a deputy, “This here is my rum.”

Beers We’re Drinking:

• Flex is drinking Spring Road from Phase Three Brewing, a 7.7% double dry hopped hazy double IPA he bought mostly for the trippy can, and calls it light, well rounded, and very tasty.
• Greg is drinking Impulse from Fidens Brewing, a 7.5% IPA with Galaxy, Citra, and Motueka that looks like a cup of juice and is as good as it looks.

Listener Mike writes in about his White Russian blonde ale, and when he asks if the floaters are normal, the bartender says, “Yeah, I think so.” That starts a round of craft beer horror stories, including Flex’s $15 movie theater Cream City Crusher that tasted like coconut from the first sip. Greg can count on one hand the beers he’s sent back, and the 14 Cannons pilsner is one of them. Non-Murderer John comes through with a Fidens IPA, and if John ever does turn murderer, Flex wants Greg’s username changed to “Greg is dead.” Shout-out to Sacramento, last week’s top listening city, and Greg owes Erica an apology.

Booze News:

• Shock Top and Spirit Halloween team up on a candy corn beer and wedge head costumes.
• North Coast Brewing gives Old Rasputin a 4.5% little brother.
• Sam Adams front-of-house staff vote to unionize.
• Sapporo lays off 272 workers at the former Stone Brewing in Escondido.
• Pop-Tarts pulls the plug on its BuzzBalls collab.
• A 76-year-old Florida man tells cops it’s rum, then brings up the cocaine.

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Cheers to you, craft beer drinkers. A hurricane floods Greg's Hawaii hotel, so he ends up in Portugal, where every park has a bar. Flex goes craft beer shopping for a hazy IPA, pours a clear West Coast, and nearly finishes it before the review. Alaskan Brewing's 40th birthday reminds Greg of a pumpkin beer that left him one of the sickest he's ever been. And a White Sox player skips the translator for his locker room interview, where his English is mostly "I'm drunk."

Beers We're Drinking:

• Flex is drinking Dese, Dem & Dose from Hop Butcher for the World, a 6.7% IPA that pours clear.
• Greg is drinking Super Bock, a 5.2% lager from Portugal that's extremely crushable on a hot day.

Listeners wrote in about the things they miss in craft beer: beer trades, black IPAs, and growlers. Greg calls growlers the worst vessel for your beer, yet Russian River growlers still sit on a shelf in his kitchen. He’s also just back from Portugal, the backup trip he planned in about a week after the hurricane took out Kauai. The little kiosks in Lisbon's parks look like information booths and turn out to be bars, so Flex names Portugal the Wisconsin of Europe. Later, news of Alaskan Brewing's 40th brings up the pumpkin beer that wrecked Greg. Shout-out to Vineland, New Jersey, our top listening city.

Booze News:

• Bottle Logic and The Bruery form The Bruery Group.
• Alaskan Brewing turns 40 with a 40-pack.
• A fitness company wins the Rogue Ales auction for $2.82 million.
• Lost Coast Brewery is officially for sale.
• White Sox player Munetaka Murakami gives a very honest locker room interview.

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Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

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Beer trading, bombers, bottle shares, black IPAs, growlers, beer festivals, Untappd, mug clubs, beer dinners, and a whole bunch of other stuff craft beer people used to care about a lot more. Greg rapid-fires old-school beer habits and trends at Flex to figure out what they actually miss, what they definitely don’t, and what deserves a comeback.

Highlights

• Beer trading, whales, and 22 oz bombers
• Standing in line for beer releases
• Growlers and the IBU wars
• Session IPAs and black IPAs
• Bottle shares and beer festivals
• Checking in every beer on Untappd
• Mug clubs and barrel-aged everything
• Collecting brewery glassware, stickers, and coasters
• Beer dinners and arguing over whether something is “to style”
• The one thing Greg and Flex miss the most

What Greg and Flex actually miss

• Black IPAs
• Bottle shares
• Beer dinners
• Traditional sour styles
• Gose

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Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

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Greg and Flex jump back to 2016 to look at the beers that ruled craft beer, the ones everyone was chasing, and which “whales” do not feel quite as impossible anymore. Along the way, Flex gets exactly what he loves most: lists.

Highlights

• The #1 beer from every year since 2016
• Bell’s Two Hearted and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale absolutely dominating the list
• Pliny, Electric Jellyfish, and whether hype matches reality
• The top 10 beers people were chasing in 2016
• Dark Lord, Heady Topper, Julius, Utopias, Pliny the Younger, and more
• Which beers actually felt like whales
• What once-impossible beers are much easier to get now
• The beers Greg and Flex wish they could always get

Mentioned in the episode

• Bell’s Two Hearted IPA
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
• Russian River Pliny the Elder
• Russian River Pliny the Younger
• Pinthouse Electric Jellyfish
• Tree House Julius
• The Alchemist Heady Topper
• 3 Floyds Dark Lord
• 3 Floyds Zombie Dust
• Samuel Adams Utopias
• Maine Beer Company Dinner
• Cigar City Hunahpu’s Imperial Stout

Follow your favorite beer podcast on the socials:

Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

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• Voicemail: (805) 538-2337

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Welcome in, craft beer besties. Poop Beer Gate lives on thanks to a beer that four grown men agree tastes like hot dog water. Greg thinks breweries need to loosen up, hand out a few splashes, and make craft beer fun again. PBR is working on a beer soap so you can smell like a Milwaukee lake day, which Flex wants absolutely nothing to do with. And Greg meets a guy who brags about drinking for free at a brewery he can't pronounce.

Beers We're Drinking:

• Greg is drinking Watt Strike What from Smog City Brewing, a 6.3% hazy IPA with plenty of citrus and tropical fruit that gets a rare Smog City thumbs-up from Greg.
• Flex is drinking Ford F***ing Ranger from Young Blood Beer Company, a 6.5% West Coast IPA that's juicy, dry, and tastes a lot better than its sewer-water appearance suggests.

Greg has been trying to find decent beer near his hotel, and ChatGPT has twice sent him on some bullshit, including one bottle shop where he questioned whether he and his car were safe. Maybe AI isn't ready to be your beer sherpa. On the brighter side, Deb and Brian's trip to Captain Fatty's gives Greg an idea for making craft beer fun again: talk to customers, hand out a splash, blend a couple beers together, and stop assuming everyone walking into a brewery already knows what they want. Then there's the Trader Joe's cashier who tells Greg he's part German and drinks for free at Enegren, despite being unable to pronounce Enegren. Poop Beer Gate also gets Matt's nomination for the Mount Rushmore of terrible beer: a wheat beer that tasted like hot dog water. Four guys tried it. No one finished it.

Booze News:

• PBR and Dr. Squatch made beer soap for anyone looking to smell like a Milwaukee lake day.
• Mice, roaches, and sanitation problems temporarily shut down Victory Brewing's Philly taproom.
• 1,602 cases of beer disappear in California, and PBR puts up a $20,000 reward.
• A Wyoming DUI suspect tells police he hasn't had “enough” to drink.

Follow your favorite beer podcast on the socials:

Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

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Welcome in, craft beer friends. Greg is ready to replace Halloween with a giant inflatable beer hall, Flex assigns him beer-and-champagne homework, and Madison Brian discovers a five-dollar German pilsner at Aldi that might actually be worth drinking. Malibu Brewing’s new location is already threatening Greg’s bank account, Flex can’t wait for Halloween, and an alcohol safety class reminds Greg that 21-year-old Greg mainly used responsible-drinking education to figure out how to get drunk faster.

Beers We’re Drinking:

• Flex is drinking Ghost Vision from Modist Brewing Company, a double dry-hopped hazy IPA with candied mango and a surprisingly light finish.
• Greg is drinking Oktoberfest from Enegren Brewing Company, a clean, light Bavarian-style lager built for Oktoberfest season.

Malibu Brewing finally opened its second location close enough to Greg that he’s already been twice in under two weeks, which feels not-so financially sustainable. The new brunch menu gets Greg thinking about replacing orange juice in a mimosa with a juicy hazy, so Flex assigns him and Intern Brian some beer-champagne science for next week. Madison Bryan calls in from Brookfield with a surprisingly respectable Aldi pilsner, launching another round of lime-beer trauma and memories of Bud Light Lime. Greg then discovers Sam Adams sold a $200 inflatable Oktoberfest beer hall and immediately decides pumpkins, ghosts, witches, and possibly marital harmony can all take a back seat to lederhosen and front-yard beer service. He closes things out by remembering the alcohol safety class that taught his younger self carbonation could speed up alcohol absorption, information he naturally used only for the highest standards of scientific research.

Booze News:

• Prohibition Brewery in Vista Closing After Nearly 15 Years
• Garage Beer Leads $500,000 Bid for Rogue Ales IP and Pac-Man Yeast
• Sam Adams Sells Out of Inflatable Oktoberfest Beer Halls
• Woman Allegedly Drives Drunk to Alcohol Safety Class

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Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

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Welcome in, craft beer friends. Greg finds out that a gummy, a couple beers, and a few hours staring at the water can apparently fix a bad week. Flex says he could do the same thing with deer. Listener Steve sends in an oyster stout story that finally finds Flex’s limit, because bull-testicle beer is fine but seafood is where we draw the line. And a Florida man gets pulled over with 34 open White Claws in the passenger seat, which sends us straight into old drinking stories and some truly terrible decisions.

Beers We're Drinking:

• Flex is drinking Citra on the Dock of the Bay from Eagle Park Brewing, an 8% all-Citra New England IPA that gets five daddies.
• Greg is drinking Thou$ands of Money from Pure Project, a 7.1% murky IPA packed with tropical fruit that lands just under the usual Pure Project greatness for him.

Greg spends a few hours sitting on a tiny dock with some beer and a gummy and decides staring at water is pretty great. Apparently Flex’s version of this is watching deer run around, so welcome to Hippie Corner. Listener Steve sends in an oyster stout that tasted like the water from a pet-store goldfish bag, and we finally find a gross beer Flex won’t drink. Elephant poop? Fine. Bull testicles? Sure. Oysters? Absolutely not. Greg threatens to send him one anyway. Then we get into old road soda techniques, including Greg hiding beer in a McDonald’s cup and keeping the straw because you have to sell the disguise. That rolls into Bud Platinum, flavored Smirnoff, raspberry vodka, and Flex learning the hard way that matching someone else’s three-second pull from a vodka bottle is a terrible way to figure out your tolerance.

Booze News:

• Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy Is Going NA
• Lawson’s Launches a Non-Alcoholic IPA
• Garage Beer Gets an Apple Version
• France Has a Marathon With 20 Wine Stops
• Florida Man Gets a DUI With 34 Open White Claws

Follow your favorite beer podcast on the socials:

Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

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• Voicemail: (805) 538-2337

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Welcome in, craft beer friends. Greg is back at his mid-grade hotel because apparently reliable Wi-Fi requires personal sacrifice, while 14 Cannons trades brewing equipment for pool tables and inspires a questionable business plan involving billiards and strippers. The final gross beer origin story brings vaginal bacteria into the brewery, which immediately gives "from the tap" a whole new meaning. Then Greg and Flex remember the pungent glory of BOD body spray before imagining Belgian cops going full Scrooge McDuck with $10 million in brewery gold.

Beers We're Drinking:

1. Flex is drinking Bitrate Fluctuation from Equilibrium Brewery and WeldWerks, an 8.5% double IPA that's six months old, dangerously drinkable, and good enough to earn a four-pack commitment.
2. Greg is drinking 7th Inning Stretch from Trademark Brewing, a 7% West Coast IPA that's light, dry, easy-drinking, and hiding peel-off baseball card stickers on the can.

Greg continues the world's worst camping trip, choosing the same mid-grade hotel every recording night strictly because the Wi-Fi doesn't suck. Then comes the apparent transformation of 14 Cannons, where brewing equipment made way for pool tables and Flex learns his instinct to keep beer at a brewery is apparently why he'll never be a businessman. Scott's gross origin story series reaches its grand finale with a Polish beer made using cultured vaginal bacteria, prompting immediate questions about sourcing, board meetings, and drinking it "from the tap." That jogs loose memories of BOD body spray. The $10 million brewery gold discovery also has Greg and Flex picturing cops swimming through the evidence like Scrooge McDuck, while a Delaware driver's revenge on a pub earns the simple strategy of, "You kick me out, I kick you in."

Booze News:

1. Stone's Escondido Era Is Coming to an End
2. Dead Guy Might Not Be Dead Yet
3. Sam Adams Boston Brewery Workers Move to Unionize
4. Summer Job Unearths $10 Million in Brewery Gold
5. Man Gets Kicked Out of Pub, Drives Back Through It

Follow your favorite beer podcast on the socials:

Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

1. Instagram: @CraftBeerRepublic
2. Facebook: CraftBeerRepublicPod
3. Threads: CraftBeerRepublic
4. Voicemail: (805) 538-2337

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You love craft beer? Welcome. This week, Greg gets blacklisted for not liking fruited IPAs, listener Dan has a skunky beer story that ends hot, and Flex reminisces about the days of Beechwood aging. Greg talks about his upcoming tattoo appointment, and Flex gives him an assignment and beer hunt. A guy has a mid-life crisis and fights with a bouncer at a strip club, his buddy steals his wallet, and Boston Beer is looking to saturate the market with apple spice.

Beers We’re Drinking:

1. Greg is drinking Cosmic Little Thing IPA from Sierra Nevada, an 8% hazy double IPA with citrus, cotton candy vibes, and suspiciously easy drinkability.
2. Flex is drinking Orange Cream Double Marbles from More Brewing Company, an orange-and-vanilla milkshake double IPA that lands squarely in dessert-beer territory.

Greg is living the worst camping trip of his life in a hotel, while Portland comes in hot with the download numbers. They also have quite the food scene. We see you, Portland! Greg talks about his trip to a brewery where he made the beertender mad by passing on the fruity IPA. Listener Dan writes in to tell us about his #poopbeer, a skunky, warm beer that was being stored outdoors in 95-degree heat. Flex confesses his love for Beechwood aging and wants a romantic trip with Greg to the land of Clydesdales. Greg talks about his upcoming tattoo appointment, and Flex gives him some homework he probably won’t complete.

Booze News:

1. JuneShine is closing its Santa Monica and Scripps Ranch tasting rooms.
2. Samuel Adams joins fall beer season with a new Apple Spice Ale.
3. Tilray is ending brewing operations at Terrapin’s Athens brewery.
4. A drunk Crazy Horse customer fights a bouncer, then his “friend” takes his wallet.

Follow your favorite beer podcast on the socials:

Flex: Instagram: @flex_me_a_beer

Craft Beer Republic: CraftBeerRepublic.com

1. Instagram: @CraftBeerRepublic
2. Facebook: CraftBeerRepublicPod
3. Threads: CraftBeerRepublic
4. Voicemail: (805) 538-2337

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