Ricky and Cary join Brendan in the man cave to go through create the Drips & Draughts Top 10 Gift List for Coffee Lovers and the Top 10 Gift List for Craft Beverage Lovers. In the midst of it all, we select and announce a winner for the Cold Brew Avenue 5 Gallon Stainless Steel Cold Brew System.
Highlights & Takeaways
Rogue Ales and all of their great beers… check them out
Top 10 Gift Ideas for Coffee Lovers – 3 from Brendan, 3 from Cary and 3 from Ricky + 1 bonus
Top 10 Gift Ideas for Craft Beverage Lovers – 3 from Brendan, 3 from Cary and 3 from Ricky + 1 bonus
We selected a winner for the Cold Brew Avenue 5 Gallon Cold Brew System – Listen to the episode to see if it was you!
What we mentioned on during this show
Episode 87 Transcript
Ad: Today on Drips and Draughts, top 10 gift ideas for coffee lovers and crafts beverage lovers. Plus, we announce the winner of our giveaway for the cold brew avenue stainless steel cold brew system.
[music]
Ad: Welcome to the Drips and Draughts podcast, where we help you bring your craft to draught. [music] From soda to beer and from coffee to kombucha, we’ll discuss making your favorite craft beverage in small or large batches, and how to best serve it on draught. [music]
Brendan Hanson: [laughter] All right, we are back at you from the man cave here. Cary in studio, got Ricky in studio and we are talking gift ideas for coffee lovers and for just craft beverage lovers today. We each picked out three items in each of those categories and we are going to go through those so, you know, if we like them they are bound to be great. [laughs] We will all collectively decide on a bonus item so we can round it out at two top 10 lists.
Ricky: There you go.
Brendan: Then we are also announcing our winner for the five gallon stainless steel cold brew system. We ended up getting 35 reviews in November which, when we announce it I thinks there was a one in two or one in three chances of winning because we only had one or two reviews. We ended up getting a bunch of reviews so still a one out of 35 chance is not bad at all. We will announce that winner later in the show. [music] For now let us drop a little ad.
Ad: Thanks to our sponsor Cold Brew Avenue, the first stainless steel cold brew system that has reinvented how you cold brew. Easily brew up to 50 gallons using their 100% reusable, stainless steel filter system. Visit them at coldbrewavenue.com to learn more. [music]
Brendan: Only fitting that we start with a Cold Brew Avenue ad since they are pretty much giving away the cold brew system.
Ricky: That is right.
Brendan: It is not us, it is them. [laughter] Should we start with this beer?
Cary: Yes. Let us get that going.
Brendan: Our sister recently went up to Portland, Oregon and became a member of the Rogue Nation. She brought back a bunch of rogue ales. Today we have a got a double IPA, the hair of the dog.
Ricky: That’s one we haven’t even seen down here I do not think. We get a lot of their beers down here. They are pretty nationally distributed now, right?
Brendan: Yes, I believe so. They are a pretty huge company. This looks like an unfiltered double IPA.
Ricky: Yes, that is.
Cary: It is a double IPA, huh?
Brendan: Yes. You what is cool is these rogue beers, a lot of them are unfiltered and the yeast settles at the bottom. The yeast they use is called Pacman.
Ricky: Their proprietary yeast?
Brendan: Yes, and a lot of people actually harvest the yeast, they grow it and then they brew their own beers with it.
Cary: The dog looks like Me, Belvedere, the dog on the bottle.
All: [laughter] Cheers.
Brendan: It is a malty smell on IPA.
Ricky: Yes.
Brendan: Malty tasty.
Cary: Yes. Very,
Ricky: What is the ABV on this thing?
Brendan: 7% I think?
Ricky: It is not that high.
Cary: No. That is pretty low for a double, right?
Ricky: Yes it is.
Brendan: The Blue Dot double India Pale ale. Blue dot is named after our planet. We are only a pale blue dot in this universe.
Ricky: [laughs] Interesting.
Cary: Sounds sad. Our planet or their planet?
Brendan: Make every day earth day. Do something nice for your mother. Good beer. What is the other– the main IPA that they make?
Ricky: They do the yellow snow IPA [laughs]
Cary: I would say that one was out.
Brendan: Is that what they use to– is the water? Yellow snow?
Ricky: They probably put a bunch of santas on the label.
Cary: With his pants down peeing.[laughs]
Brendan: It’s the brutal IPA, the rogue brutal. That’s a good one too.
Ricky: That’s right. We used to sell that home-brew kit and we’ve brewed that a handful of times. I do not think they make those anymore though.
Cary: Yes, it was from brew craft.
Ricky: Yes, I would sell a bunch of the brutal IPA, the hazelnut brown was like– that is one of the beers that got us into like, home brew, craft beer. Yes, that was such a good beer.
Cary: That was a good beer.
Ricky: Then the dead guy ale of course. That is probably what most people know rogue as.
Brendan: That was one of the clones they sent you?
Ricky: Yes.
Cary: Yes that is definitely one of their most notorious beers I would say.
Ricky: Yes.
Brendan: Well cool. How do you guys want to do this? How do you want to get in to these lists? Should we start with the coffee things?
Ricky: Sure.
Brendan: Who is going first? How do we want to work this?
Ricky: Let us rotate. Do you guys want to rotate?
Brendan: Just three in a row? Or just one-one-one, one-one-one?
Cary: One, one, one, one one one.
Ricky: Yes, that sounds good. Do you want me to start?
Cary: Let’s go Dr. Bunrichstein.
Brendan: Guest of honor.
Ricky: I do not know if I should choose things that I want or things that I thought– well, these are things that I want.
Brendan: That is what I did and I figured that if I want them, if you want them, everybody is going to want them.
Ricky: I chose because I like to go backpacking and be outdoors a lot. I already have the jet boil. You know what the jet boil is? It is like a little all-in-one stove. You can boil your water in it. It is good if you go up in high altitudes. It is like a real, strong flame. So if you have wind on it or cold weather, whatever, it will not go out.
Brendan: Does not matter, huh?
Ricky: Yes and it boils water like I think it takes like 60 seconds to boil water.
Brendan: Wow.
Ricky: But they have the coffee kit for it. It is like a little press. All it is is just a little screen. Kind of like what’s in your cold brew systems and you just press it in there. You put grinds in there or– I believe you put, you drop this little screen in there and then you put the grinds in there. Then you pull it out and the grinds come out of it.
Brendan: Nice.
Cary: Kind of like a reverse French press almost.
Brendan: Yes.
Ricky: It weighs like, next to nothing so you can take it pretty much anywhere. I take this thing everywhere with me too so it would be nice to have the little press that comes with it. This thing that they sell comes with the green mountain coffee.
Brendan: Is that it right there? That is the whole thing?
Ricky: That is it. Yes. It all fits into this little cup here too.
Brendan: What powers it? Is it like a little propane tank?
Ricky: Yes. Isopropyl gas, I guess.
Brendan: Isopropyl? That is rubbing alcohol right?
Ricky: Yes. It might be– it is some kind of isobutane, not isopropyl.
Cary: It burns like a banshee.
Ricky: Yes. [laughs] Literally I have tried blowing mine out, you cannot blow it out.
Brendan: Nice. So you have one and you want another one?
Ricky: No I want the press that goes with it.
Brendan: Got it. Got it.
Ricky: I think the press is only like $12.99. So totally affordable. If you guys want to get the intern something [laughter]
Cary: Oreos are not enough? [laughter]
Ricky: I have a serious problem with these oreos. [laughter]
Brendan: We will get into that later. [laughter]
Cary: All right. So the first thing I thought of was just the coffee subscription of the month, getting signed up for, whether it be from one roastery or somewhere where they source from different roasters. I was thinking it was cool to try it. Like a lot of different coffee beans and stuff.
Brendan: Absolutely. So it is like beer of the month or you just try things you normally probably would not.
Cary: Yes, exactly. It gets you out of your routine of just going to the store and buying the same stuff all the time, or the same roaster.
Brendan: Is it like a subscription service where they send you different roasters?
Cary: Exactly, yes. A pound a month or I think you can sign up for different– like maybe half-pound a month or half pound every week, depending on how much you go through. But yes there are different subscription levels.
Brendan: And it is for different roasters?
Cary: Yes.
Brendan: So it is like blue apron almost for coffee.
Ricky: I know there is a company called bean box that does– they source different roasters and they will send out– they will do kits. I know that different roasters do this as well or they will do their own blends or mixed beans and send that out. So lots of options there.
Cary: Yes. That’s cool.
Brendan: All right dude, I am up. Mine says coffee cup. It looks like a camera lens. [laughs]
Ricky: Gets you at a high if you are drinking coffee?
Brendan: Well you know I might make a– especially in the winter I might make some sort of hot tottie and I would take my camera out and take pictures of the kids and just have the lens at the back pack that is loaded with some whiskey and coffee.
Cary: Wait does that have a cap for it?
Brendan: It does. It comes with two caps. It has got like a– just a sold cap and it has got like the drinking style. So we are cool. Looks like– it is a Canon EF 24 to 105 lens. It has got the actual Canon name on.
Cary: It does. One of my old coworkers had one of those on his desk–
Brendan: I see a lot of people use them for pen holders.
Cary: Yes. I saw somebody recently that had that as a penholder.
Brendan: It’s a cool idea.
Cary: That’s so funny.
Brendan: Throw it in the camera bag.
Cary: What’s that thing retail for?
Brendan: The lens are, I believe, that’s only $15. Where the lens is $1,500.
[laughter]
Brendan: I might just get one of those and sell it on eBay.
Cary: [laughs] Yes, I was going to say.
[laughter]
Brendan: I have some people.
Cary: Oh my god, [chuckles] terrible.
Brendan: [laughs] Back to Ricky.
Ricky: We’re still on the coffee thing?
Brendan: We’re still on the coffee thing.
Ricky: Okay, this thing. Sticking with the outdoor theme, this thing is great for car camping. It’s like [chuckles] it’s an all-in-one little breakfast nook. It fries eggs and sausage, you can make toast in it because it has a toaster oven, and then it’s got a coffee maker and it’s super compact. It’s really cool actually and it’s electric, I believe. It’s like a little toaster oven. On the top you can fry eggs and then brew drip coffee.
Brendan: Does that fold down or is that going to be just a bare [unintelligible 00:11:09].
[laughter]
Cary: Not for Rick.
Ricky: More for car camping. You can put this on the backyard.
Brendan: Like, if you want to park by the lake and then walk it a hundred yards maybe. You could do that, just cook by the lake.
Ricky: Or you could tailgate. You pull up at a campsite.
Brendan: Go to the Rams game.
Ricky: Yes.
Cary: You need a generator or something? It’s got to plug in, right?
Ricky: I think you can. Let’s see here.
Brendan: Isobutane.
[laughter]
Ricky: 1,500 watts you’ll need so it’s electric.
Cary: Did you know Brent had an all-in-one toaster oven thing when he was in college? [laughs]
Brendan: It was just a toaster. It’s called the Hot Diggity Dogger.
Cary: [laughs]
Ricky: What did you use that for?
Brendan: Somebody gave this. I think my grandpa is a gag gifter. It just made its way into his garage and somehow it ended up at our parents’ house. When I was going to college, my mom’s like, “Oh, you should take this.” I was like, “I’ll never use this but cool, I’ll take it.” Took it to college, threw it on the counter, and one of the roommates tries it out one night, it becomes the hottest thing.
Ricky: Really?
Brendan: It cooks two hotdogs and two buns.
Cary: [laughter] It’s a toaster and you just push it down. You slide two hotdogs-
Brendan: But only hotdogs and buns.
Cary: -and buns. So it’s–
Brendan: It’s got a hot thing in the center where it really scorches the dogs and then it toasts the buns. We started using this pretty much nightly.
[laughter]
Somebody would cook a bowl of chili and then we just started throwing in dogs and buns then we have chili dogs.
Ricky: Toast them.
Brendan: Yes, the Hot Diggity Dogger. So that’s similar.
Ricky: Not really.
Brendan: This thing’s way better.
Ricky: Yes.
Brendan: What’s the price point on that?
Ricky: This is, right now, $53, $54. List price $79.99.
Brendan: That’s not bad at all.
Ricky: Yes, but I want it. I need it.
Brendan: All right. We’ll put that on the intern’s list too.
[laughter]
Cary: Yes, this is intern’s Christmas shopping list here. Mine, I don’t think I’d like it but it was interesting. Have you seen those alarm clocks that gradually wake you up? The sound gets progressively louder and louder so it’s not just this abrupt noise. It’s an alarm clock that does that but it’s got these fuel pods you can put into it so it also gradually does different scents for you like if you want to wake up to a coffee scent or bacon scent. Oh my god.
[laughter]
Ricky: I know.
Cary: Are you listening? They got all these different scents and stuff.
Brendan: So, it just starts blowing coffee smell at you?
Cary: Yes.
Ricky: It’s like a Michael Scott thing.
Cary: Exactly. [laughter] But the more I thought about this I was like, “This would actually piss me off if I was starting to smell coffee in the morning and then I wake up and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah.'”
Brendan: And you know you still got to make it?
Cary: “Oh, I got to go make coffee?” [laughter] Yes, Michael Scott.
Ricky: He likes to have the George Foreman right next to his bed because he likes of morning bacon in the morning then he burns his foot on it.
Brendan: Oh my gosh. That’s good I’ve never seen that. Never heard of such a thing.
Cary: I don’t think I’d buy it. I forgot what it was called. I didn’t write the brand down.
Ricky: Wait, how does it put out scents?
Cary: They have these little pods you put in.
Ricky: Like Glade plugins?
Cary: Exactly.
Ricky: But they’re bacon scent.
Brendan: We talked about this on our trivia episode where Starbucks and some of the big coffee cans exploding coffee scent in their stores.
Cary: So they had this whole variety of them like peppermint, lavender, coffee. I don’t know if they had bacon.
Ricky: Somebody needs to make bacon.
Cary: I know [laughs]
Brendan: We need a bacon podcast.
[laughter]
Ricky: It’s a good idea.
Brendan: All right.
Ricky: We’ll get that thing in here and make bacon one day.
Brendan: Next up, I’ve got the Yama Kyoto Brewer.
Cary: I forgot about that.
Brendan: Never done this. It’s just it’s interesting. It looks cool. I don’t know where I would put this if I had one at home. I’ll probably bring it to the office than just leave it here. These drip style brewers are crazy. It looks like a piece of art. I think it’s a conversation piece.
Cary: Yes, it’s got a lot of glass components. I’d be afraid of breaking one or just the amount that it takes to wash it. That’s the only reason I think I haven’t bought one yet but they’re [unintelligible 00:15:28].
Ricky: What’s so cool about it? I mean it does. It looks cool. It’s a sexy coffee maker but does it make good coffee?
Cary: Yes.
Brendan: The Kyoto style drip coffee is apparently just insane, smooth, packed with flavor. The way it brews is different. It goes through pulling out different compounds through different–
Ricky: So, it’s like a three-tier system?
Brendan: Yes, it’s like one drip per second so it takes quite a while to brew the coffee but apparently makes a great cup. The price point on that is a little hefty. It’s $269.99. A little pricey. A little pricey.
Ricky: Well I’d like to brew this Bourbon barrel-aged coffee in that thing from Trader Joe’s.
Brendan: That’d be the way to do it.
Cary: Yes.
Ricky: That’s my third idea.
Cary: Have you had that before?
Ricky: I have it’s very good. I want a cold brew though. That’s what I want to do.
Cary: It’s really Bourbony?
Ricky: It has a very Bourbon nose on it but a coffee taste.
Brendan: So amazing to me. I just started learning about barrel-aged coffees. We’ve a couple guests on the show who have done barrel-aged coffees. It’s the green beans that get barrel-aged so it’s amazing to me that after being roasted, they still maintain all that scent and all that aroma.
Cary: You don’t burn off the whiskey or rum or whatever barrel they’re in.
Ricky: This one had very mixed reviews. Some people absolutely hated it but I think it’s because they don’t like Bourbon.
Brendan: Most likely, yes, because the rum one that tried and did that I brought back. You smell it, you expect to smell coffee but you just get hit with this nose of rum. It was like, “Wow” so I think you’ve got to be pretty open-minded when you’re trying any barrel-aged coffee I think.
Ricky: I’m curious to see what it tastes like cold brewed.
Brendan: We got to do that.
Cary: I know. I’ve been still meaning to do that. I thought it would be great to cold brew that stuff and using a rum cake or something where you can have a coffee rum cake and add that to it.
Brendan: That would be great.
Cary: Yes.
Brendan: What’s the price point on that? Is that bought per count?
Ricky: Someone’s selling it on eBay. I don’t think it’s this expensive at the store. At the store, it’s probably limited right now. Trader Joe’s runs out of things pretty quickly but I’d imagine it’s probably not over $20 for that. It’s a good size. It’s a regular size like a Folgers can size of a coffee. It’s arabica whole bean coffee, medium roast.
Cary: Nice.
Ricky: It’s very good.
Cary: My third coffee thing is this new coffee machine. I had a friend tell me about this recently. It’s called the Moccamaster. It’s just kind of like an at home.
Brendan: I almost bought that.
Cary: Dude, I’ve been like looking at it but it’s it’s really expensive. It’s $300. They’ve got a variety of styles where you can now get it with a hot plate or you can get it with a stainless steel decanter so it’s not sitting on a hot plate, doesn’t burn but it stays hot. Anyway I was watching videos on this thing, it was pretty interesting. From all the professionals they say it makes the best at-home cup of coffee because it gets your water to the correct temperature almost immediately and keeps it there throughout the consistency of the brew where a lot of them, they start getting water onto your grounds that’s not hot enough initially.
Brendan: Fluctuates.
Cary: Yes, fluctuates and you’re pulling out different and off flavors. It’s interesting but $300 price point, I just still don’t know if I can get there. We’ll see. I did have a friend get one and he introduced us to this. He’s like, “I’m super frugal. I don’t spend my money on stuff like that but I drink coffee every morning,” and he said that was the best investment he ever made. He goes, “It makes the best coffee.”
Brendan: I actually was looking at that pretty heavily because we just replaced our coffee maker. I don’t know what it was but our old coffee maker, the grounds would always flow over and end up in the carafe. It just sucked, so I ended up buying a Cuisinart instead but that was in the runnings and then same thing, I was just like, “$300?”
Cary: I think it’s called TechniVorm Maybe it’s the company? Let us know if you guys got any two-for-one deals going.
Brendan: Three for one.
Ricky: Three for on. [laughs] There you go.
Brendan: Brent, Cary and the intern. All right. My last one is I have been doing a lot of reading lately so I picked a book, the world atlas of coffee.
Ricky: Cool.
Cary: Who is that by?
Brendan: It is by James Hoffman. It is the World Atlas of Coffee From Beans to Brewing, Coffee is explored, explained and enjoyed. I figured it would be fun to read. I think it was like $15 on Amazon so nothing too crazy there.
Ricky: Cool.
Cary: Good variety of prices and gift ideas.
Brendan: So that about does it for our coffee. That’s nine items. I think it would be wrong not to mention a five-gallon stainless steel cold brew system. I think that should be in the top 10.
Cary: I was going to say that but I did not want to sound too sales-y.
Brendan: I think for any home-brewer, or anybody who has got a kegerator or draught equipment in their house, I think that would be a great gift.
Cary: The lady just ordered yesterday. She is trying to surprise her husband because he wants nitro coffee at home and he has got a two-tap beer kegerator right now but he wanted to convert one of his taps into nitro. So she ordered everything he needed and the five-gallon system is perfect. And he just got a two and a half gallon keg because they are not going to be going through a ton but that is perfect for at home. That little five- gallon system can brew up to four gallons. But if you are making two and a half gallon keg batches, that is perfect. Yes.
Brendan: Yes. I actually spoke to a woman last week who did the same thing. She ordered one of those for her husband because he is a home-brewer and he wanted to turn one of his taps into coffee.
Cary: Yes.
Brendan: Yes, I think that is great little piece for anybody who is a home-brewer. How about we play a little ad and then we will get in to our other list.
Ricky: Yes. [music]
Ad: Are you looking to get started with serving your favorite craft beverage on draught? Kegoutlet.com has you covered for all of your draught beverage needs. From complete kegerators to individual parts for upgrades and replacements, Keg Outlet will help you get pouring your craft beverage on draught. To learn more, visit kegoutlet.com. [music]
Brendan: All right, there we go. We are back with another beer. With the DogFish Head.
Ricky: Flesh in blood. [laughter]
Brendan: 90 minutes up here. It’s funnier the third time we do it. [laughter] There are more technical difficulties over here. Yes, we’ve had this on the show before if you want to hear about it, go back and find that episode in the catalog. We are coming up on a hundred episodes here.
Ricky: Wow.
Brendan: This is 87.
Ricky: You have got to celebrate for the 100th episode.
Brendan: Yes. Maybe we will just have like an open house. Invite everybody who has ever been on the show or wants to be.
Cary: That’d be cool. It will be fun.
Brendan: All right, so we did our top ten coffee gift list. Now we are doing top ten for any craft beverage lover. Mine all kind of fell into the beer category but hopefully we got some that might not be all beer. But if they are, that is fine.
Ricky: Yes.
Brendan: How are we going to do this? Are you going to lead us off again?
Ricky: Sure. All right. So could I lead off of this one? It is not in my notes here but this is one that I know that a lot of people are going to want. I actually saw it last I was over at Dude’s brewery. Can I bring it up? The GrowlerWerks?
Brendan: Yes.
Ricky: Is that okay? First of all, like we are talking about conversation piece, that thing is like a really cool-looking. It has got that side glass on it. It’s just cool and it’s useful.
Brendan: It is pressurizable.
Ricky: Yes. My father-in-law wants one, I want one. Dude, our brewery is in this town. We have institution now, midwest, the turic county beer, Integrand.
Cary: There is like three in west lake now, the five threads, there is a new one–
Ricky: West Lake brewing, and then there is 14 Canon.
Cary: I heard about that 14 Canon, they’re quite awesome.
Brendan: Yes, I want to go over there. I tried one of their beers last Saturday and yes, it was good beer, blonde ale.
Ricky: Some of these local brews are amazing so I am going to stop buying store-bought beer and–
Brendan: Just get a U-keg from GrowlerWerks and just fill that.
Cary: It is an insulated stainless steel growler comes in 64 or 128 ounces, and then you pressurize it with CO2. So you go fill it up at your local craft brewery and it stays fresh in your fridge for, you know, as long as you have it under pressure. You can just have draught beer at home.
Brendan: You just use one of those little, like airball CO2 cylinders right?
Cary: Yes like a BB gun almost.
Brendan: Yes so you just screw that in to the cap, and then you set the pressure.
Cary: Yes. All adjustable.
Brendan: Yes, and they say the beer will stay fresh for what– a couple weeks in there. I imagine it stays fresh longer but–
Cary: Yes, I think almost indefinitely if you keep it in the fridge and you know, under pressure but–
Brendan: Those insulated growlers though. I have thrown cold water in one, it has been cold two days later.
Ricky: Yes.
Brendan: They are pretty amazing.
Cary: That thing is like the apple iPhone of beer growlers. [ laughs] Just because it looks cool. It has a really cool sleek look to it.
Brendan: Yes, I like that site glass on there so you know like, we are going to have to buy some beer or go get the same refill.
Ricky: I remember Cary, we were playing golf a couple of weeks ago and Cary smuggled that thing onto the course.
Cary: It was so good.
Ricky: I was like, “That thing is so cool.”
Brendan: Yes because normally a bunch of cans into our bags and they are warm by the fifth hole.
Ricky: Yes even with ice packs and stuff, does not really help. But that thing just sat in the basket and–
Cary: We were drinking fresh beer on the 17th and 18th hole.
Ricky: Fresh home-brewed pumpkin ale. That was good.
Brendan: That is the way to do it.
Cary: It was still ice-cold. All right, I’ll go. Let us see. What should I start with? I would say for the craft brewer. If you are a craft beer lover and you do not home-brew, I would say a home-brew starter kit, is like such an awesome gift. Ricky and I have first brewed together, nine, ten years ago, and that is what kind of kicked of almost this whole business in a sense. We just got into-
Brendan: You guys got in to it.
Cary: -the love of beer and then we got-
Brendan: Got me into it?
Cary: -went to brewing and so I would say a home-brew kit. I mean, that is what really changes your love, I feel like of craft beer. If you do not brew, and then you go and you get to see all the ingredients that go into it and smell the fresh hops, you know, all that stuff, is just like really, really, takes your love and appreciation from here to the next level.
Ricky: Just starting something, from water and ingredients and the putting it all together, and letting it– you know being patient, letting it sit for a couple weeks and then watching it for a minute. It’s just the coolest thing.
Brendan: Yes.
Ricky: It’s like a satisfying feeling too.
Cary: Right. The beer tastes better when you made it yourself, sometimes, most of it is like cerveza.
Ricky: We never really talk about price points but I do not think that GrowlerWerks, I think they are like, just putting on size, about 130, 140 and they go about up to 220, depending on if you get the right, certain size, on the copper one. For a starter home-brew kit, they started like $69 about, plastic buckets. We have some that are fully stainless steel through SS BrewTech that are a bit more but once you get to that level, that equipment will last you forever too.
Cary: Yes.
Brendan: When you guys think about home brewing, is that something that you think you can just buy somebody and say, “Hey, you are a home brewer now?” Or do you think like somebody has to introduce you to it?
Ricky: I think you can– I mean, you got to have some sort of–
Cary: If someone has shown interest in it, I am sure if you love beer and you’ve said, “Oh, I would like to try to make my own beer on day,” then yes absolutely, I would buy them that.
Brendan: Right.
Ricky: You mean should you just get somebody–
Brendan: Yes, because I don’t think I would have gotten into it if it were not for you guys or if somebody else did not say, “Hey, come home brew with me.” It would have been a lot different if I were to just get a beer kit. It will probably just be sitting on my shelf.
Ricky: A Mr. Beer.
Brendan: Yes.
Cary: You know how often I see people that have those sitting in their storage Mr. Beers.
Brendan: Yes, the little one-gallon kit?
Cary: Yes, to get a real kit and then–
Brendan: When we were doing Brew PS pretty heavily, we would talk to people who say, “Yes, I got a Mr. Beer kid and done a couple good batches and I want to upgrade.” People do get into it that way but I do not know it there is like a stigma around it because– Who did that commercial where like– is it Buffalo Wings, “You want to try my home brew?” [laughter] There is this thing bubbling in the background, looks like it is full of dog poo. [laughter]
Cary: I saw that [laughter]
Brendan: I was just curios. I think it’s just a really social type thing. Though where if it us giving us an individual gift, it is like coin flip. But if somebody gets you into it, and you are like– much more likely to get into it. All right, so my first pick is a beer itself. I would like to get a bottle of the Sam Adam’s Utopias.
Cary: Yes, that is right.
Ricky: Wait that is the one I saw at Cosco right? The other day?
Brendan: Yes, how much was that? Because I could not find the price on it.
Ricky: I think it is like $200 for a bottle of beer.
Brendan: Yes, so they’ve done that. This year is the tenth year they have done it. It is barrel-aged in all sorts of barrels, then they mix it. It is almost like the Firestone anniversary ale but ten times different because it’s 28% ABV. I don’t know how they make appear that strong. It’s not sold in about 13 or 20 states probably because the alcohol level.
Cary: It’s considered a liquor actually because I think anything over 24%.
Brendan: How do they do that?
Cary: In California I know you have to have a liquor license to sell.
Brendan: It’s probably a lot of barley wine type stuff and then it’s aged in Bourbon barrels and all that so it’s pulling more I would imagine. It is there.
Cary: I got it.
Brendan: It comes in this giant chalice of a bottle.
Ricky: It’s a copper golden chalice, Cosco has it for 169.99
Brendan: Can I see what the bottle looks like?
Cary: It’s in a glass case so you can take it there.
Brendan: Looks like a museum.
Cary: It does.
Brendan: It was unearthed from the Titanic, it’s the holy grail. I think that be fun, I don’t know if I’d ever drink it if I got one.
Cary: You’d have to, let’s do a podcast.
Ricky: You know my father in law dean found a– he went into a home and he found a thousand dollar bottle of wine from 1984, this big bottle of wine had a price tag on it still. I was over, there was no special occasion he cracked that thing open.
Brendan: No way.
Cary: Was it still good or was it stored bad?
Ricky: It tasted like raisins.
Brendan: Off air I want to hear the story of how and why Dean went into a home.
Ricky: He should explain that, he’s like a home assessor when he buys homes.
Cary: We’ve got many of things from him from other people unfortunately.
Brendan: Ricky’s got some brand new leather couches. They smell like weed.
Brendan: All right, back to Rick.
Cary: Especially from Trader Joe’s
Ricky: Especially from Trader Joe’s because they don’t refrigerate them and I want so badly to have an ice cold beer but instead I get a lukewarm beer but with spin chill you just connect this baby to your can and spin it away.
Brendan: It connects to your drill?
Ricky: It’s an actual a little battery operated.
Brendan: It’s got a mortar?
Ricky: Yes, and it attaches to the top of a can and you put it in ice and water and just push the button and 60 seconds you’ve got an ice cold beer.
Brendan: You just have to wait 30 minutes for it not to explode on you when you open it?
Ricky: No dude, come one, it gently spins. It works actually I’ve seen it, there is a little bit of foam when you open it up but it doesn’t explode, it’s actually a pretty cool.
Brendan: If I can describe this thing it looks like a beauty product, it looks a blow dryer or something, it looks like a suction cup on the end and a beer can attached to it. I think we might have to get one of these things just to try out.
Cary: I think it’s cool, we should.
Ricky: I saw Lewis from home box therapy.
Brendan: Is that you found this?
Ricky: Yes. Have you seen that show?
Brendan: You’ve pointed it out to us a couple times.
Ricky: It’s the best gadget show on the Internet and he unboxes one of these things and I think it was a can in the dryer. What’s the beer from Canada?
Brendan: Molson ice.
Cary: Malted Molson?
Ricky: He put this on a Molson ice, cracked it up and it was ice cold, had condensation on the can.
Brendan: Is that what the guys in strange Brew? [unintelligible 00:33:57] Such a good such a good movie, Rick Moran, I forget who else was in there. That was a great movie, when they get stuck in the the big– They drink their way out. [laughter]
Cary: Yes, I found a malice in my beer, isn’t that the whole thing they’re trying to recase a beer. Let’s see, I got a couple Ricky took that one, sorry.
Brendan: Was it the spin chill?
Cary: Yes, the Growlerwerks. Just because we’ve been loving that I fill up my home brew and take it to friends’ houses or golf course. Sticking on the homebrew theme, after we got into homebrewing and doing it we used to bottle our beer all the time and then I think Brent was the first one to order a kegging kit. Just a simple basic kegging kit I think under $150 to start. You just put everything from the fermenter in a keg, carbonates it within days not weeks of bottling, save so much time and effort.
Ricky: No exploding bottles. No washing bottles?
Cary: We were like, “We’re never bottling again, ever.”
Brendan: It was actually my first batch of beer I got the Ene Grains gave me a corny keg and they said, “Go get a keg get online,” so I picked up the stuff. We threw the beer in there I just started rocking it when I carved it up, rocked it and was ready to drink the next night.
Cary: That’s how we went from brew PS selling home brew goods and we were like, “Okay, we need to start selling kegging goods because you see the benefit of this.”
Brendan: The benefit and then just it’s so useful and just so much nicer for us and having to keep ingredients fresh, so much nicer. Keg kits are awesome for anybody even if you like making sodas or just sparkling water on draught, it’s cool, anybody could use it. All right, my next one is, it’s this guy needs a beer wall mounted bottle opener. I think it’s a fun gift for anybody, Rick’s sister actually makes these and it’s got a mirror on it says, “This guy needs a beer,” you walk up to it and you see a picture of yourself and you just crack your beer right there right on it.
It’s simple, it’s a fun gift, it’s always a conversation piece if you’ve got one hanging up people see and it makes them want to open a beer.
Cary: Yes, I do.
Brendan: I do need a beer.
Ricky: Self affirming?
Cary: It is, that’s a good looking guy, you guys need a beer.
Brendan: All right, looping back around, this thing again going with the outdoor theme, the pale rail beer concentrate.
Ricky: You used to have to take hard liquor up into the woods if you’re going to go camping but now they have the pale rail which is a beer concentrate that you just mix with water.
Cary: Or sparkling water maybe?
Brendan: With water but this is my third item I’ll just go with the third item right now, is that all right?
Cary: That is three?
Brendan: No, that’s three and four.
Ricky: Well, this is a this is a combo item because without it you can’t have the pail rail without the pass backcountry carbonating bottle.
Brendan: It’s a little stream water in the pail rail?
Ricky: Yes, what you do it’s probably horrible here, you probably are just hungover like no other the next day.
Cary: It’s like, “I can’t hide comm.”
Ricky: You get a nice beer at the end of the day
Cary: That is cool.
Ricky: What you do is you pour the concentrate into this bottle, you put water, stream water, filtered stream water in there. You can get a sawyer squeeze or whatever, some MSR pump pumping in there and then this thing carbonates it and you have beer in the backcountry.
Brendan: Tell us about the beer concentrate, is that a high alcohol three ounce little? I’ll read the product description, “Our 9919 pale rail is elegantly crafted using the world’s most environmentally friendly brew stilling process. A delicate blend of aromatic malts, delivers a complex yet well balanced craft brew wherever your adventure takes you.”
Cary: We should hit them up and get someone on the show that would be fun to try. I wonder how they taste. If you could even for our sake here if we did that you could just pour sparkling water club soda over instead of carbonated in a bottle. We can just try straight to, there’s nothing better than being up in the Sierras and having an alcoholic beverage when the sun is going down. It really is a wonderful experience that you have. We usually take whiskey or something like that with us but a beer is always the best after a long day of hiking to me.
Brendan: It’s hard to truck a six pack.
Cary: It’s a lot out of your way. My last one, this is a good gift for the Outbacker, and have you guys seen these?
Brendan: Is that the beer belly? [laughter]
Cary: It’s a fanny pack, that looks like a hairy man’s belly thing, you can put a beer in there or your phone or something but it’s pretty funny.
Brendan: It’s great for the airport.
Cary: It’s a great gag. It goes over your shirt but it looks like you get this hairy big belly hanging out. It’s a fanny pack.
Brendan: Didn’t do anything to me get one of those like wear it to a ball game?
Cary: Well, there’s the there’s a few like they have the ones that go under a horse that comes.
Cary: Yes, it looks like your pin.
Brendan: The beer belly.
Cary: The beer belly bringing a fanny pack back any place.
Brendan: I wear a fanny pack to Disneyland last time I went.
Cary: In the 80s, right.
Brendan: No.
[laughter].
Cary: When you were married you got nothing to prove.
Ricky: I’ve given up. [laughter]
Brendan: He was featured on the deals of Disneyland. [laughter] All right. My last one is and this one you better have rich folks in your family if you asked for this. It’s the Belgian Beer Me. It’s a lonely Monk’s Trappist tour. It’s 10 days and nine nights. I think it was like $2700 about double that for two people. It looks sick, it goes to all the big breweries that we all know Chimay, Westvleteren, any of them that you can think of. Yes, a 10-day tour. It goes through I think it was three countries. It just sounds like an amazing time. Belgian I should say it would be amazing because there is the-
Ricky: Favorite style of beer.
Brendan: Yes.
Ricky: The Trappist beer zone?
Brendan: Yes, we’ve done a few different Belgian beer tastings and they’re always fun. Never remember which one was the best because they’re all good.
Ricky: Chimay, Bourgogne.
Cary: They’re all good. They’re also strong too like by the time we’re done sampling like a handful of them were like, oh my gosh they’re all like 10 12 13 percent.
Brendan: Have you had that on tap?
Cary: No.
Brendan: You should go to I think it’s moved chateaus down in Malibu.
Cary: Really.
Brendan: Always have it on tap.
Cary: There was a place in Westlake that had it on tap I thought. Oh it might have not been a blue, it was probably maybe the wider.
Brendan: I got it at, what’s that, silly restaurant in a thousand Ox.
Ricky: Lazy Dog?
Brendan: Lazy dog, yes. They didn’t have own tap in a bottle but I love that.
Ricky: That’s a good beer.
Cary: That would be an amazing trip though.
Brendan: I love that Chimay three pack. That’s always good gift. It comes with one another glasses. The original like etched bottom glass. Now they sell those IPA glasses that have etched bottoms. I should have been on the list.
Cary: Those are cool glass. I actually have a glass on mine. This was my fourth option and I use this all the time like using this insulated like 16 ounce-
Brendan: Tumblr?
Cary: -tumblr. I use it for my beer at home it’s stainless steel insulated growler keeps it cold for as long as you want but also sometimes if I’m not using it for beer I will pour my coffee in this thing and bring it so.
Brendan: Nice, let’s play one more ad here. Let’s listen. [music]
Ad: If you’re looking to learn more about cold brew or draught coffee make sure you check out Keg outlets Ultimate Guide to cold brew coffee and serving coffee on draughts. But hey, don’t just take my word for it. Here’s Daniel Browning from the Browning beverage company in Marfa Texas.
Daniel Browning: I got on the internet and started looking around and I found out Keg outlets Ultimate Guide to cold brew coffee and read it couple more times than I’ve read anything in my life that was pretty much all the research I needed.
Ad: If you’re looking to start your journey with a brew or draught coffee, check out the ultimate guide to cold brew coffee and serving coffee on draught, 334-page ebook offered at kegoutlet.com. You can get there through the Drips and Draughts website by going to dripsanddraughts.com/ultimateguide.
Brendan: Do you have a review of the podcasts you listen to and take the time to do that.
Ricky: No.
Brendan: It’s funny it’s like initially when we started we asked for reviews just to get on the map and we got we’ve got quite a few and then every episode I’ll throw something in there like, “Hey, if you haven’t left review go in for a review,” and every now and then we’ll get one or two a month, nothing major. I said this month I was like let’s give something away. November, December let’s give away a cold brew system.
I think it was the first or second episode in November. I threw a little thing like after the outro. Just, “Hey we’re giving away cold brew system, go in for a review, no reviews game.” So the next episode I moved it up in the show a little bit and get like probably like 10 reviews. Okay, this working on the next show moved it up a little further and mention it again bunch more pouring in so we ended up getting 35 reviews I think.
Ricky: That’s also good.
Brendan: That’s awesome. The thing we normally do. Go to Google random number between 1 and 35 and number 32 came up and basically set it up so the most recent review is 35 and then counted backwards. A five star review from Spencer Chavez, “This is a great podcast, thanks to this podcast I have officially addicted almost everyone at the brewery I work at to cold brew. Possibly be looking into cold brew or brewing cold brew commercially in the near future. Thanks for the good info keep it up.”
Spenzer Chavez if you’re listening to this, reach out to us because that’s all we have is your name and no way to contact you. Email podcasts to dripsanddraughts.com or find us on social and we’ve got a five gallon cold brew system for you.
Ricky: The crowd goes wow.
Brendan: Hopefully, if you guys are getting into commercial cold brew I hope you guys start the process of brewing and kegging.
Ricky: Yes, we need to start giving away more stuff I think. Keep these reviews flowing.
Brendan: I was shocked to see how many started coming in. It might not be a monthly thing but we might do it a little more frequently. If you didn’t win this one, you can always go back and resubmit your review or update it and enter again in the future so keep that in mind. Anything else guys? I think we’ve got 10 items on the beer list, right. Ricky’s got two there.
[crosstalk].
Ricky: Were we supposed to do a bonus item or something for beer?
Brendan: I think that bonus item would be that U-keg from Growlerwerks because I had that on my list as well. I think that was-
Cary: Two that went hand in hand.
Brendan: Anything else? We can list those separately if we need to. All right well that does it for another episode of Drips and Draughts podcast. Thanks to Cary and Ricky for being in the man cave. I’m Brendan Hanson, we’ll see you again next Friday for another episode of Drips and Draughts.
Ad: Are you looking to learn more about cold brew and draught coffee? Join us in the cold brew Avenue private community to connect with and learn from other cold brewing draught coffee professionals. Plus get access to exclusive content such as ebooks, how to videos, buyer’s guides and more. You can learn more and apply for membership at a forum.coldbrewaenue.com. Thanks to Keg Outlet for sponsoring this podcast. Thank you to everyone who has contributed questions and you for tuning in. Thank you for listening. That does it for this week but looking forward to seeing you again for the next episode of Drips and Draughts.
Mentioned in this Show
Rogue Ales | Hair of the Dog – Double India Pale Ale | Rogue Nation
Cold Brew Avenue Stainless Steel Cold Brew Systems
Top 10 Gift Ideas for Coffee Lovers
Top 10 Gift Ideas for Craft Beverage Lovers
