Shift Beers

Episode 11: Stout Blowout

While we were fishing for ideas for this episode we were eluded by what the heck to focus on. The place that we all don't work at hosted their annual Stout Blowout this weekend so why not do a stout event of our own? The crew cracked open stouts from regular offerings to barrel aged to coffee milk stouts. We even did a four year vertical of Great Lakes Blackout Stout thanks to Beth!

Crack a stout, tune in, it's stout season!

Episode 10: Seltzer and Seltzer Accessories

We've been threatening to do a seltzer show for a while now and here we are! As much as we all want to admit that we don't drink them or like them we all drink them and like them....yep. It's true!

We do a deep dive into the current trend (or not trend) of hard seltzers in the craft market and we taste a pretty wide variety of offerings from the Bud Light Ugly Sweater Christmas Variety Pack, to an Ohio offering in the form of Kitty Paw and we bring in one of the most expensive seltzers we've ever seen from Untitled Art. Is the hype worth it? You'll have to listen to find out!

Episode 9: Untappd Golf

We’re always looking at fun and unique ways to try new beers and this one is one of our most favorite ideas we’ve ever had! In this episode we play what we are dubbing: Untappd Golf. Each of us visited a local bottle shop and grabbed a beer off the shelf without looking at its Untappd rating. The goal was to pick the lowest rated beer. The winner gets….bragging rights or something.

This show Chris was not with us but we did have our good friend The Gnarly Gnome! He’s a local Cincinnati beer blogger from where we are. He basically dedicates his free time promoting local breweries and telling the stories of the industry as a whole. If you want to find him here’s where you gotta go:

Website
YouTube
Instagram
Twitter

Sit back, relax and enjoy our round of Untappd Golf!

Episode 8: Asheville part two, we brought a corkscrew this time

Here we are! Episode 8! We follow back up with all the wonderful Wicked Weed beers that we couldn't open last episode since we forgot a damn corkscrew! We're back with the original crew this week so it wasn't as crazy with so many people.

Kick back as we try some pre and post acquisition beers from Wicked Weed! Thanks to Chris for bringing some back for us and thank you to Beth for dipping into her cellar for a few surprise bottles!

Here's what we tried:

• Wicked Weed Sandiaca, a gin barrel aged sour with watermelon and basil
• Wicked Weed Black Angel, a sour aged in bourbon barrels on over 1.5 pounds per gallon of tart Michigan Montmorency cherries
• Wicked Weed Pompoen, a rum barrel aged pumpkin sour ale with ginger
• Wicked Weed Oaxacan, a tequila barrel aged smoked sour ale with grapefruit and lime zest
• Wicked Weed Red Angel, a raspberry sour ale aged in red wine barrels with 1 ton of raspberries and 11 months of age

Episode 7: Off to Asheville without a corkscrew

Chris is back this week and he brought some goodies back from Asheville for us because we Venmo bombed him after he left. We tried a lot of tasty stuff all except for most of the Wicked Weed because they put corks under their caps and we were dumb and didn't have a corkscrew.

Kevin, who joins us again, tried to use some of his West Side Cincinnati know-how and open a bottle with a variety of tools such as a hammer, a pair of vice grips, a screw, and more! Also joining us this week for the very first time is Jeff, a co-owner and CFO of the place we don't all work at!

Buckle up this show gets a little crazy. Also, this is the first show that we've done with more than 4 people on our ghetto setup. We hope the audio comes out ok. We spent like $14.95 in order to be able to add 2 more people to the show and I feel like you get what you pay for when you buy audio equipment. Anyways! Cheers all! We hope you enjoy the show!

 

Beers we tried:

Deformation by Burial Beer Co.

Sour Brown Ale aged on cardamom and vanilla by Hi-Wire

Err On The Side of Awesome by New Belgium

Hazy Half Back by Hillman Beer

La Folie Grand Reserve: Honey Saffron by New Belgium

Apparitional Disintegration by Burial Beer Co.

U.K Spring Break by New Belgium

Dark Age by Wicked Weed

Episode 6: Who's That Beer?

We were scratching our heads on what to do this week and Beth mentioned a time when she did a blind bottle share where everyone tried each other’s beers without knowing what they were and it was really fun. Well, we did it and it was a blast! It’s really interesting trying beers that you may or may not have had without knowing what they are or where they came from. It really allows you to be unbiased in your tasting. There were a few surprises across the board of what everyone bought including a big macro beer that surprised everyone.

Chris was out of the game this week, but our friend and co-worker Anique joined us for the first time. I’d list the beers we tried, but I don’t want to ruin it! Follow along and see if you can guess what they are!

Episode 5: Pumpkin Dump

We made it to October which means we can actually talk about Pumpkin beers and other alcoholic beverages. Some of us are very hard headed when we think it's time to talk about seasonal beers, but that's neither here nor there. What is here, though, is a handful of pumpkin beers, ciders, a hard seltzer, a whiskey and a few not so pumpkin, but still fall themed drinks.

So sit back and enjoy your PSL and/or pumpkin beer and see what we think about all this crazy pumpkin stuff.

Here's what we tried:

• Taft's Brewing Frisch's Pumpkin Pie Ale
• New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Atomic Pumpkin
• Ace Pumpkin Cider
• Vive Pumpkin Spice Hard Seltzer
• Leinenkugel's Harvest Patch Shandy
• Revel Stoke Pumpkin Spice Flavored Whiskey
• Platform S'Mores Yammy

Bonus Drinks

• Boulevard/Rhinegeist Crust Fall Peach Berry Pie Sour
• Pabst Hard Coffee

Episode 4: Adventures of the gas station single cooler

Last week Bryan was telling us how he was shotgunning Twisted Teas over the weekend which got us thinking. Contrary to popular belief brewing industry folk don't always drink craft beer. We enjoy a good beer no matter where it comes from. If it's cheap even better!

So with this idea in mind we talked about doing a macro beer show which then evolved into a show where we all bring a 40 and hang out to bringing in the most ridiculous thing we could find in the gas station singles cooler. Yea, we're insane, but in a good way.

We all ventured out this week in search of the most ridiculous alcoholic beverages. The only rules were that they had to come from a gas station single cooler and the can/bottle had to be larger than 16oz. Strap in, we're in for a wild ride.

Here's what we tasted:

• Bud Light Chelada 4.2% abv
• Four Loko Hemp 12% abv
• Steel Reserve Spiked Punch 8% abv
• Swirl Whipped Cream 8% abv
• Joose Blackberry 14% abv
• Genesee Ice 5.5% abv
• Miller High Life 40oz 4.6% abv