On this episode of American Beer Review LIVE!, the Sun is gone and it's cold.
We start off with an extra long cold open talking about Brian heading down to last week's UW/Oregon State football game and talk about some recent PAC-2 developments. We make a smooth transition to our first beer - Black Raven Brewing's Seasonal IPA, the Q4 offering of their newly-minted seasonal series. (Chad complains about it being dark at 4pm at this point). Next up we talk the relationship alcohol and caffeine have on sleep quality, and look into the results of a study that says pairing the two could potentially help you sleep better? We finish strong with Black Raven's Second Sight Scotch Ale, mythology talk, and power outage best practices.
What's on Tap Today:
Black Raven Brewing
Seasonal IPA Q4
- 12oz Can, 6-Pack
- 5.7% ABV
- 55IBU
Second Sight Scotch Ale
- 12oz Can, 6-Pack
- 6.9% ABV
- 32 IBU
If you'd like to reach out to the American Beer Review LIVE! crew to give us a beer suggestion or to tell us we suck, you can reach us on any of our socials (in order of how often we check it).
You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/@americanbeerreview
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/abeerreview/
Twitter (Never gonna call it X, sorry) - https://twitter.com/abeerreview
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/americanbeerreview
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/american-beer-review-b257ab255/
On this episode of American Beer Review LIVE!, the Sun is gone and it's cold.
We start off with an extra long cold open talking about Brian heading down to last week's UW/Oregon State football game and talk about some recent PAC-2 developments. We make a smooth transition to our first beer - Black Raven Brewing's Seasonal IPA, the Q4 offering of their newly-minted seasonal series. (Chad complains about it being dark at 4pm at this point). Next up we talk the relationship alcohol and caffeine have on sleep quality, and look into the results of a study that says pairing the two could potentially help you sleep better? We finish strong with Black Raven's Second Sight Scotch Ale, mythology talk, and power outage best practices.
What's on Tap Today:
Black Raven Brewing
Seasonal IPA Q4
- 12oz Can, 6-Pack
- 5.7% ABV
- 55IBU
Second Sight Scotch Ale
- 12oz Can, 6-Pack
- 6.9% ABV
- 32 IBU
If you'd like to reach out to the American Beer Review LIVE! crew to give us a beer suggestion or to tell us we suck, you can reach us on any of our socials (in order of how often we check it).
You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/@americanbeerreview
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/abeerreview/
Twitter (Never gonna call it X, sorry) - https://twitter.com/abeerreview
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/americanbeerreview
Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/american-beer-review-b257ab255/
Way game. They try to go to one of Way game every year and I usually have been able to make it work. And finally we were like, yeah, I can do this one. Do you have a mute for this bad boy?
Chad:Maybe, yeah, we'll Um sorry, I occurred to Herb Street.
Brian:But yeah, I mean I was hoping like that Les would be able to join, but she's got family coming to spend the weekend with her, so there's a bunch of us that are just gonna nice roll out. So I think seven of us total from our like normal crew.
Chad:The tailgate crew. Yeah nice.
Brian:But I realized I'd never have been to an away game before. Never been to any away games Like for you, doug. No.
Alec:Really.
Brian:Yeah, I've never been to Pullman.
Alec:That's a hell of a stadium. Don't go in there wearing purple, but.
Brian:Yeah, well, it's the only reason I'm going to Pullman, oops. So yeah, I've never been to Pullman. They went to Oregon a couple of years ago, which I freaking hate Oregon, but I've heard it's a pretty good experience they have. We have everybody kind of knows people that went to Oregon so we could figure it out and make it tolerable. And then they went to UCLA last year, which would have been nice to do, but they also were like it was like $1,000 a night for, like a hotel in the area. So I think I think honestly, I think they flew in and flew out the same day, right, like for like you know, if it's a one o'clock kick, it's like all right, you just get up early, you can land by eight or nine in California, just roll through, and then by six or seven.
Alec:Find your way back to the airport. You're on the flight and back home. Have somebody pick you up, yeah.
Chad:Yeah, that's fine if you only do it every once in a while. Yeah, none, yeah, they're probably some degenerates who do that all the time. Yeah, for every day.
Brian:It's going to be a little trickier to do some away games when you're retired. No fricking when you're in a big 10.
Alec:Oh right, it's across the country.
Brian:Do you want to go to?
Alec:Rutgers or to you saw WSU and Oregon State one. They're lawsuit or whatever.
Chad:It's got a temporary stay yeah yeah, monday at noon is the official decision. That's when they go back to appeal. But it does not sound good. It does not sound good for the other guys and their explanation. I'm not sure which side I really like they had to fight it. But I think they knew going in like, oh shit, they actually read all the bylaws.
Alec:If you hadn't have just had what was it UCLA and USC left last year?
Chad:and they went and the board got rid of there.
Alec:As soon as you're out, you're out, you don't get a say, and then turn around this year and go in.
Brian:Wait a minute, it's the difference of it being like one or two teams leaving at a time compared to just like. We are all gone, Except for you two.
Chad:And what do you mean? You get all the money. Yeah, we're in charge now.
Alec:Yeah, they're fighting for their future.
Brian:Oh yeah, they need that money to basically sustain them and to kind of control the potential. I mean, at least they're not the University of Arizona.
Alec:Where do they end up?
Chad:Just nothing, I don't remember where they're going. They just lost. They managed to lose $240 million.
Brian:They don't know where it is Just a miscalculation of funding for stuff and are literally like oh like UW part of it going to the new conferences. We can make up for some of this. We put aside some payments on the new stadium during COVID and expected this TV money, so we're going to be a little short Paid. That coach we fired and so they're going to the Big 10 is going to get some of that back and kind of help stabilize you. So you knew it was going to be tight.
Chad:But they were banking on still getting that Pac-12 money to. Oh yeah, we're taking a hit these first two years, but we still got the Pac-12. Now, none of them have the.
Brian:Pac-12 money Not guaranteed, no. But Arizona is like, oh yeah, things are going to be kind of tough. And then all of a sudden it's like wait, somebody forgot to carry a decimal point. Exactly, and it's like oh no, we're short by $240 million.
Chad:So all the kids in all the students, college students excuse me, they probably all look like children to me now.
Brian:So that's an old man.
Alec:They are children.
Chad:If I'm at least twice their age, if I'm in the accounting Program there. Oh yeah, I'm slightly concerned, right.
Brian:Let's crack a beer.
Alec:Yeah, we got this, so this is another nice time for another review.
Brian:Welcome to another episode of the American beer review podcast good times for good friends requires good beer.
Chad:Lucky for us, we know. I think all three.
Alec:We're good friends who grew up in the Pacific Northwest, giving some jumpstart on our craft beer journey join us today.
Brian:Well, brian, that pride myself on not getting to know other people, so do not put that on me.
Alec:Alec. So the bananas up until like the 60s weren't entirely different species of banana and Chad Hit me like a bacon bar review some beer, talk about beer topics and whatever else comes up.
Brian:We invite you to pour yourself a drink.
Alec:This is a black raven go happy hours review session based on us forgetting that we didn't have anything in the can For next or for this week and, and and, then me realizing oh, I'll be gone yeah starting tomorrow morning we're starting that slog a year. When would you guys like to record? I have literally either drive over tonight, yeah, or tomorrow after work. Yeah, it's not gonna happen.
Brian:Yep All right?
Alec:So yeah, black raven batter.
Brian:I was like you know what, why don't you guys get to the record?
Chad:Just call me, I'm sure I'll be in a brewery Right somewhere before the game, like so, off the rip, we are gonna be trying the seasonal IPA from black raven and and that is the name of it seasonal IPA, so I looked into this Because I believe it's seven percent.
Brian:so spoiler, I know, I thought it was a little less than five point seven, yeah, I point, so it's a little bit lighter.
Brian:That's why so I bought this a few weeks ago for, like a, to have during a game, and so for me it was like oh, an IPA, that's five point seven, like I can have a few more of them. So I looked it up and what it is is they do it's like a seasonal series, and so I forget how I found it within Untapped, but I basically they. Each season has a different color. Oh, it's like a similar logo with, like a different color or different design.
Alec:This is get raven in front of the moon, and it does. This Seasonal IPA series spotlights new recipes that our brewers really get excited about. Enjoy a new experience with us each Season. This one is with cryo pop and Idaho seven hops, 5.7 percent and 55 IBU, which is a little on the lighter side fora IPA. It's middling.
Brian:Yeah. So when you look it up, if you type in an untapped seasonal IPA black raven there is Q2, q3 or Q4. That's like it, literally a seasonal IPA. So they started it this year.
Alec:I think they don't do a.
Brian:That's what I'm not sure, I think maybe they started it this year and it's coming back because I missed Q2.
Chad:And I'm pretty sure this is the Q3.
Alec:No, this is Q4. If it's fresh, this will be Q4.
Chad:Cuz I? I thought I saw I'm advertising it Because cute, in September Q3 is yellow, oh never mind yellow logo. They were getting out. They were advertising at the tail end of Q3 for Q4.
Brian:Yeah, so I had it. I had the Q3 in August, but I didn't. I messed to miss the Q2. So, yeah, maybe they just started it then this year. Yeah, yeah, and are working through.
Alec:Well, that's kind of cool, because then you take a seasonal, you get a recipe you're excited about. If it's something you like, you can make some tweaks to it and then rebrand it as a different one, a different.
Brian:Or bring it out, branch it out, like you could even do. Just keep do this every year, yeah, but doing something you can decide to go, maybe, maybe Q4 next year. It's like a darker.
Chad:IPA doing something different, same idea as their Festivus that they kind of tweak every year, right. They all seem to have been around 5-7, which is interesting.
Alec:Oh no, it's good. It's an interesting smell. Oh oh yeah, cryo pop and Idaho 7 are not hops that I've ever used and not super familiar with, so I think I'm.
Chad:I think I've had a few more with the cryo this year, so I'm starting to Key in on that, that flavor.
Brian:It's. It's like kind of a A little bit of like a danky smell to it. I'm wondering if that's the cryo like right because it does.
Alec:It's got a nice Get danky pine smell, but it'll soften a little bit.
Brian:Yeah, and it's not an overly bitter IPA, you're not getting like full. And then in the taste I yeah, that's right, sorry, yeah. In the flavor actually of it it's. I think you can put down a few in a set in a sitting and not.
Chad:Yeah, if I was slugging this out of a pint glass I'd get way more Pine resin. Yeah, but just do it kind of doing these taster sips. Maybe that's a better way.
Brian:Maybe it's like a resiny.
Chad:That's the smell that I'm kind of getting like yeah, yeah, I think I Shamelessly stole that from somebody else's review from another place. I can't remember my internet journeys. Yeah, finding other words.
Alec:No, that's tasty branching out and trying different things and at 5, 7, yeah, you could grab a Six pack of these for a party. Have a couple of them and exactly what I did, yeah.
Brian:I mean knowing that I was just gonna be sitting and I have friends who'll often bring you know, the fancy new Four pack of tall boys, of something, yeah. And knowing that you always have something that's Still IPA ish but is on the little bit lighter side on a 5.7 that it can be like Okay, I need a break on 7, 7, 2, yeah, something like that, yeah. Or if you're just cruising through, I mean sitting for a full football game, yeah, one it could be because I haven't eaten yet today at all.
Alec:No, this would be a great like dinner beer.
Chad:Oh yeah.
Alec:I could see this pairing with even just like a burger and fries or Nachos or something like. A little savory having this on the side of B.
Chad:It's got, it's got a clean. This second, yeah, it's kind of got a little, a very little bit of acid, so it would cut through a lot of that fat, especially if it was your first meal of the day.
Alec:Or I'm just yeah, it's not going to conflict with something. I think this would be very.
Chad:I'm getting a nice IPA warmness in my belly, especially since it's now. What time is it? Oh yeah, the sun's been gone for an hour by now. This is yeah. When the sun disappears at 4 pm, you're going to work it's dark. You come home from work it's dark. This is a great. I'll have this when I get home. Then I can move on to bigger stuff if I just want to hide in a cave because it's scary and dark outside.
Alec:Yes, it's awful. This is ridiculous. It surprises me every year when I'm driving home and I'm like it's so late. Oh, it's 2.30. The sun is going down.
Brian:That's the one that when you it more so on the weekend, when you've been sitting and hanging out around the house and you're like God, did we?
Alec:forget to have dinner.
Chad:We should probably.
Alec:Yeah, it's 4.
Chad:But also I went to Oktoberfest before the time change, the solstice, oh. So I went from it was like 13 hours of sunshine. I get back and we're already, oh no, it's 10 hours of sunshine. So I kind of missed that fall transition. We go okay. Yeah, now it's going to be darker more of the day, so it's really been hammering me. Why is it dark?
Brian:out. Now Turns out the thing that I found to solve, though. Going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark don't work like 10 hour days, like Okay it's sweet, it's worked out for me.
Alec:That's awesome. You get that choice.
Brian:Yeah, I don't, because that's the thing is. I remember back in the day working in a warehouse and I would be in the warehouse by like 5.30 or 6 in the morning and would not leave until like 5.30, even if you got in at like 6 or 6.30, it's still dark and it just, yeah, you're never seeing any daylight.
Chad:Meanwhile, everyone who works nights sitting here going. Oh look at this little whiny bitch playing his fiddle. Yeah, I thought it would be tough. I'm going. Oh, I'm so sad.
Brian:I have a buddy who he's going with us to Corral's that he does nights and I just can't imagine the constant like switching, because he goes to stuff during the day, like when he can like if he's not working. But it's like, man, what'd you do? You got off at 7 and you went home and you slept 4 hours to try and make it to a game at noon.
Alec:Like so when I was on nights briefly for like 2, 3 months helping cover and I was working 4-12s, so I was only working 4 days a week but I would sleep 6 times in a 7 day stretch. So I would get off on my Friday, which I think was like a Thursday whatever so I'd get off at 5 o'clock in the morning and then normally I'd go home I only had one kid at the time, but like everybody get up around like 7, 7.30 and then I'd go to sleep and I'd sleep until I had to go to work at 4.35 o'clock the later that day. But on my Friday I would get home at 6, 7.30 and then I just wouldn't go to sleep until like Until the whole family went to bed.
Alec:Until like 10 or 11 o'clock and I'd say I'd spend like a 36 hour day or whatever a week. No, I took years off my life. Right, absolutely no, yeah, no, thank you. What we do have that helps with some sleep is a little bit more beer, a little bit more black beer.
Brian:We didn't taste this one. Did you Wait? Have you guys heard about there was a new study? I should have put it in the fricking news thing. Yeah, you don't contribute at all.
Alec:No, because it's all me and Thor.
Chad:No, he's dropping it live.
Brian:Or did I used to, and then you guys just started finding stuff and now I don't need to. There was a study that was done recently and it was looking at the effects of alcohol on caffeine use and in relation to your sleep.
Alec:Alcohol and caffeine use yes.
Brian:So the idea is so caffeine obviously Upper Upper, alcohol Downer, yeah, but they both on their own give you bad sleep, like obviously caffeine is going to keep you awake, make it hard to go to sleep. Even though alcohol is a downer, it still messes with, like, your sleep.
Chad:Disrupt your sleep. So I could hear you. Oh yeah, my whoop says negative 15% if I have beer.
Brian:So they did some studies on it and the if you are I don't know if there's like a time schedule of when you would need to be having the caffeine, but then countering it with alcohol actually kind of neutralizes it, like so if you had caffeine during some alcohol and they thought it would be doubly like oh, now you're really screwed on sleep. Yeah, it middles it out, yeah, and it's like no, they kind of cancel each other out and they were like we are a little surprised by this.
Alec:We still recommend don't doing it.
Chad:But I think there are people in our society who would already know that pharmacology pretty well, probably.
Alec:Works well for Elvis.
Brian:I think he had some other things.
Alec:It was a little bit more extreme on his upers and his downers but yeah, but I mean the fried peanut, peanut butter, banana sandwiches.
Chad:I don't think that helps, you know.
Alec:Yeah, that's interesting Cause I've been no caffeine for. Why all now, Years now, and I don't feel the morning fog like I used to when I was drinking coffee.
Chad:So much of it's like a placebo habit thing.
Brian:Yeah, it's like oh I didn't have my coffee.
Chad:I guess I'm tired now.
Brian:Well, and there's times where I'll have coffee or an energy drink and literally like 45 minutes later and I'm like I could take a nap right now, like what was the point of all of that that I just I just threw a kettlebell in my office, so I do some squats there you go that helps. Yeah, it's not actually be weird in the middle of a like open office to do that one though.
Chad:I also. It's me and my brother in the office, so I don't care.
Brian:You're also the boss.
Chad:Technically we are the boss. It's kind of like a communal Collectively yes.
Alec:Collectively, we are the boss. Yes, comrade, all right, so second beer of the day, another Black Raven brewing. This is the second site, scotch Ale, which I think we referenced when we did our Black Raven review, but we didn't taste at that time. Who bought those? Obviously, you buying those, right, black Raven. I don't know.
Chad:We go back and forth 6.9% ABV and this is in the brand new can artwork and I don't remember what the All the old ones have kind of flushed through so everything was fresh.
Brian:I don't remember what the old artwork for this one was, but this new stuff is pretty sweet. It's so nice, it's all colored.
Chad:It's like what we were talking about seven seasons. It's all color coded now. Yes, so it's when I want. Like if I put my Scotch Ale up to the light, it's almost the color of the can. The color of the can, which is kind of cool.
Brian:But it's like definitely like a Edgar Allen Poe style Raven where it was like holding the skull got some stuff going yeah yeah, so it's a pretty sick looking can.
Chad:Very dark amber, almost like I don't know the Like a ruby orish.
Brian:Yeah, yeah, color. Do you know what second sight, what it's referencing? Yes, okay, he says, has it to not?
Alec:It's like a like the third eye.
Brian:Okay, I mean kind of the same thing. I figured Something I'm assuming like death-y related with, like Not so much death, but like seeing beyond Game of Thrones. This has been before Game of Thrones.
Alec:No, this is like mythology yeah yeah. This goes back thousands of years. The second side or the third eye, but it's that brand brawn, whatever. Yeah, Kind of seen the waist of a character. Yeah, seen into the future, seeing like Transcendental, whatever Astral projection type stuff, the Odin the North got cut, cut his eye out to gain.
Chad:was it to gain second sight? Yeah. But he can see through his ravens, like he sends his ravens out.
Brian:Junior. I just found out Alec has reviewed this beer before.
Alec:Probably on our website. Yeah, In a glass bottle. He checked it in on Untapped Back when I was using that.
Chad:Yeah, Nice in the glass bottle.
Brian:Yeah, glass and that was the thing back then. There weren't cans. There were not cans like in general, and you were. We were buying 22s of stuff. Tell me about it, Like all the time.
Alec:How did?
Chad:we live.
Alec:I mean, I was reviewing them at my house and it was usually in the evening, so I would have a 22.
Chad:And that was before they put the calories on the bottle. No right, god. Yeah, that'd be almost like. That's like 500 calories. That's a donut. You're just sitting down for a donut.
Brian:So one of the things with this style of beer.
Chad:I'm having another one of these tonight.
Brian:Yeah, yeah, this is good. There's a few, so there's Scotch Ales, scotch Style Ales, scotch.
Alec:Style Scottish Ales, scottish Ales yeah.
Brian:This one also puts itself in the we Heavy branding. Okay, oh okay. And that's what it's labeled as on Untapped, but I think that's more just the Scotch Ales, like we Heavy the way they do it. So there, but there's times where I have ordered, thinking I'm getting this, but I end up with like a Scotch Ales which is a lot lighter.
Chad:Yes, exactly A lot more watery. I'd say this is.
Alec:It's a lot thinner beer.
Chad:Yeah, there's a thickness to this.
Brian:This, though, is not as boozy as nice. The Scotch ale from Boundary Bay right there's his like. That's more of a like a seven or an eight.
Chad:That's a seven something, yeah.
Brian:Yeah, that's a. So this is a nice, slightly less boozy version. Oh, this is tasty, but still gets hits. The right flavor profile, the right notes for that.
Chad:Dark roasty if you have. It's kind of like this the deeper ESB. I'm getting a little bit of that character out of it and there's almost like a Brown sugar.
Alec:Yeah, maybe that's what it is. It's like a roasted flavor in there. It's almost like a coffee ish, a caramel coffee.
Brian:Some examples feature a light smoked peat flavor.
Alec:Okay, I can see that. Oh, I get that. I can get that Smokiness for sure.
Brian:When you click on the actual like style of scripture Whiskey backer with. This Could be a little too similar.
Alec:At some point we're gonna have a bottle of whiskey on the table here and have to call you on a couple of these. I'll get a couple of little airplane bottles.
Brian:The descriptor says the style could be considered the Scottish version of an English style barley wine, obviously significantly less boozy. Yeah, yeah, but I kind of get where it's going. It's almost like barley wine light.
Alec:I've only had the one barley wine and I felt like it was a little bit worse. A stringent yes.
Brian:Was it when we reviewed?
Alec:Here yeah.
Brian:Who's was that? That makes me think.
Alec:But it was almost like a more of an, a stringent flavor versus. This is not at all.
Brian:A lot of the other. Not all of them, but a few of the other Scotchells I've checked in are in the ninths. Yeah, like more than booziness Block 15 has one. That's only five, eight, Okay, so there's some variety in that, but I don't.
Chad:That might be a little too light for this because then in my head I'll go get a Amber or a ESB if I For the same flavor. Yeah, the kind this character in the Scotchells I admittedly I don't drink a ton of them, but this is. I've had Scotch style ales that have had the barley wine problem. They just put a little too much. There's not enough sweetness in there and they're, like you said, just too a stringent and they like just not heartburn, but like after you drink them you're just like you kind of just have like a burny feeling, right, not a good burny feeling, just like a. I shouldn't have ate that, like I just ate a chili dog or something. Oh yeah, but not this.
Brian:Part of the feeling like it's boozy Scotchell from Boundary Bay 6.4.
Alec:Oh, okay, so it's even less.
Brian:Yeah, so this is a profile that can be done boozy or not, yeah.
Alec:Not too really light, but lighter.
Brian:Yeah, like you're really. I mean it really is running and maybe people lean more when you get to the boozy side is more that we heavy. It's like the same flavoring, but you're just pushing the boozy side compared to being like labeling it a Scotchell.
Alec:You could sneak some alcohol into this before it catch. Just because of the flavor, this almost opposite to the other one. I don't know if I'm eating with this. This is like a dessert beer. Not in the flavor, Like it's not oh yeah, it's not chocolatey or desserty flavor.
Brian:This one would depend more on what you're eating.
Alec:I'm not eating this or I'm not drinking this with food. This is like.
Chad:This is end of the night.
Alec:End of the night or it's cold outside. We're gonna sit by a campfire or at a game or something yeah.
Chad:The power just went out. I need to get this out of the fridge before it gets too warm. Nice, a nice rainy afternoon. I could see myself sitting back with a poor listen to Snifter yeah. So, we tend to be fancy.
Alec:So power outage on the divergent track. We were on vacation last weekend, but my family does it all the time, so we were on vacation with wife's family. So there's like 16, 20 of us in a house. Power goes out. Seems like a lot of people. Yeah, it was A lot of people, a lot of people. Wood floors are real bad when there's eight children in the attic. Yeah, power goes out. At 4 am, nice, everybody freaks out and is now awake, panicking that the power is out and in my head how did they know that it was out?
Alec:Because all the fans went off the lights, all go off whatever, so it woke up.
Brian:The lights should be off. It's four in the morning.
Alec:Exactly my point. Okay, guys, go back to bed. What are we going to do? We're going to sleep. Yeah, the house is still warm.
Brian:It's actually the perfect time for the power to go out.
Alec:For the power to go out. Why is this now an issue? Yeah, oh, the power's out. When it's coming back on, what's the issue? And the kids are freaking out.
Brian:Do you know what I can deal with this, Guys, when I wake up in the morning?
Alec:roll over, go to bed. In two, three hours we'll all be awake and then we can figure out what's going on with the power. And the sun will be up.
Brian:The power might come back on by then. What are you doing with the power right now? You're sleeping. You don't need it. There's no, no, yeah, that's a.
Alec:But you're going to do the same thing at my house. The power's out and everybody's freaking out. Who cares?
Brian:Literally, who cares? The only time that it's a real pain is when you got to be somewhere and you hadn't taken a shower yet, and we have no windows in our bathroom.
Alec:Oh yeah, that'll do it. I was going to say you got to gas the water here. I literally have to find some kind of like.
Brian:Yeah, I can still get the heat. Yeah, there's enough.
Alec:You could throw a flashlight in there.
Brian:But that's what it is. It's literally just like yeah, but that to me is, you could do it. That's one of the worst.
Chad:Not like the good old days when you didn't have a cell phone, so it was like you couldn't even do anything when the power was out.
Alec:Oh like, oh no, I don't have an alarm now because the power's out and I'm going to sleep through and be late to work. Oh, my game.
Chad:I'm going like way back and I was like, oh, my Game Boy. I can't even use it because I don't have the light up, game Boy lights. Oh geez. Going way back, way back and now it's like oh no, I have to go to bed or I'll use all the juice on my cell phone because I can't charge it right now because the power's out, or you have to go sit in your car and hope that you can charge it enough.
Alec:Yeah, or I just use the battery backup or whatever.
Brian:Yeah, I still haven't bought one of those.
Chad:I've talked about it a lot. Yeah, I feel like I would be entirely lost without the last 20 years of technical and ecological progress in handheld devices and charging.
Brian:Oh, yeah, oh yeah.
Chad:We just be toast.
Alec:All right, so two black raven beers. This was supposed to be a shorter review and it's running into a longer one.
Brian:What I can't imagine why that's happened to us.
Chad:This is seasonal, should we?
Alec:Yeah, let's fridge these two.
Chad:Beer fridge.
Alec:For the seasonal.
Chad:Beer fridge yeah, I maybe want a little heavier if it's the winter.
Alec:If it's the winter release, it is a little light for that.
Chad:But, like you said, it's a great dinner or even like a lunch or brunch. If it's afternoon, you can do a light brunch with it.
Brian:There's a lot of beers that are really dedicated to winter. Sometimes you need a little bright. Pick me up, a little something different.
Chad:There we go, yeah, there you go.
Brian:That's where this can be your rotator, especially if you're rotating it with an actual dark, heavy beer, If you are in the cave dealing with it. I had what was it One of the last week? I had like a 10.5% stout. What do you need after that? Yeah, 5.7.
Chad:Low IPA A little bounce back.
Brian:A little bit of hops to balance out the sweet, yeah, and that sweetness always leaves.
Chad:I'm not calling it grease. Yes, but like a little, but like a little sweet syrupy consistency you get inside your mouth after crushing one of these.
Brian:Yeah, I think beer fridge is a great call, knowing that it's 5.7, honestly, it kind of becomes that like I know I can grab a six-pack for going to an event where it's going to be, especially if it's like a toss in the fridge or the thing that becomes a community Like I know there's always that one I can go to. That's a little bit lighter so but or I just have. It's always nice to have a little bit like that IPA flavor, but not the full Hit 6.8, 7.4%, yeah.
Alec:I'll see if I can track some down, because tomorrow will be Thanksgiving. Yeah, and this would be a perfect, because I said the bears will with food. This would be a great one for Thanksgiving table. This is.
Brian:That's also a solid thing. I said getting it for the football game. This is solid for like that day of like just sitting with the family all day, yep.
Alec:I'm going to eat too much.
Brian:Yeah, and if you'd not want to just do Light beer Light beer, honestly like a rotator. This and some light beer. Yeah, switching out every couple, it's not a bad call.
Alec:Yeah, no, I think this is a beer friger and 4.7% out, yeah, everywhere. Yeah, this is our first of the seasonal IPA, as it be interested to see how different it is, yeah, season to season. So when they have the Q1 Drop.
Brian:I'll look keep an eye out for that Q1, considering it's not listed anywhere but it's got to be announced here pretty quick.
Chad:We're almost to December.
Brian:Yeah, so Q3 Was Centennial, HBC 342 and triumph hops, so they're really all over the place.
Alec:Yeah, Q2. I wonder if they have the same base or if it's a totally different recipe.
Brian:Q2, they didn't even list. So yeah, it'd be interesting to know. Oh look, there's the actual Nectaron mosaic and Comet hops.
Alec:For Q2 that was yeah, q2. Yeah, so they're all over the place.
Alec:Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, once they get around, what Well that makes sense for Q2 because that's gonna be a lot more citrusy and floral than this. And then the second site I love me a Scotch ale. I know I would almost Fridge this one if I didn't already have a favorite Scotch ale. This one's a lot more accessible, probably. Yeah, easy to get your hands on. Then a boundary Bay, but, yeah, I love it. And again, it's not a, it's not a year round, probably not a year round, and it's not in every session, right, but it's kind of that like I'm gonna have, but do you?
Brian:always kind of want to have a scotch or two in the fridge.
Alec:In the fridge. Yeah, yeah, like just at hand.
Brian:Mm-hmm, I mean, and going back to what Thor said, honestly, I hadn't thought of it. But cracking one of these maybe after the Sun goes down in summer and you're sitting by a fireplace, right, not a bad idea. Yeah, like we think of this as being the like Terrible weather, cold, dark outside, but like maybe still a little dark outside, but it's still starting to get a little chilly yeah still that low 70s and you're sitting around a fireplace like, yeah, that's not a bad one either not a bad call.
Chad:I am actually about to get my cooler outside because it is now cold enough outside. That's my kind of back porch outside beverage fridge.
Brian:No, frickin cold this morning.
Chad:I know so I Will probably end up putting the remnants of our review beers out there in the temporary Q4 Outside beer fridge in the.
Brian:it is outside and now closer to me, beer fridge yeah.
Chad:Yeah, I can just pop out the back door.
Brian:Yank one out. Oh, did I let the dog out? Oh look there's there's a beer. Oh, did I let the dog back in? Oh look, there's a beer?
Chad:No, I think. And Also border. It's a borderline fridge for me. Yeah, I Don't know if I'd breach for one every week, but Definitely what you guys said is like sometimes that that scotch ill flavor. Just Hit spot. Yeah, you just yeah.
Brian:What honestly like. There's times where I think about like sitting down with a whiskey or doing something this could easily just go.
Alec:That's.
Brian:Bob, yeah, I'm a like entirely that that's the void without the alcohol or like like the, the 40%, yeah, yeah, that you could still kind of get that I think you talked about it earlier like I'm gonna put it in my fancy glass and, yeah, right down and enjoy it, sip on it so.
Alec:Don't you fridge? This yeah, I don't not yet.
Chad:He took it to the party.
Brian:No, that was the seasonal other season. Oh yeah, yeah, I Mean, I'm, probably I'm, I'm buying a Scotch ale Just to have. Yeah, like especially this season.
Alec:Mm-hmm.
Brian:Yeah, I think I'm the same as you. It's just it's more accessible than others. I'm always gonna try one if it's on tap somewhere, like if I'm doing a flight, yeah, scotch, ale yeah, yeah, it's going in there, yeah for sure it's freaking 85 degrees outside.
Brian:I'll put it in there. So, yeah, I think it'd be like a if anything. If I had, you know, a giant beer fridge and I just get to here's the different types of beers, this would be like my rotator of, like Different scotches, of always having a Scotch ale, I would rotate this in with always having One of them. Cool, that makes sense. Yeah, nice.
Alec:All right. Well, our glasses are empty. Hopefully yours are too, and we'll catch you next time.
Chad:If you are picking up what we were putting down, please like and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice and Reach out to us at a beer review on social media If you have a beer you would like us to review.