The Art of Craft Beer with Mason Ale Works and Blackstack Brewery

Ready to elevate your appreciation for beer and learn how a passion for brewing can result in a meteoric rise in the craft beer industry? This salivating episode of Two Guys Beer has us sampling the Sunday Beer League triple IPA, a flavorful collaboration between Mason Ale Works and Blackstack Brewery. We'll unpack why despite cautioning about its potent alcohol content, we're left applauding its smooth and well-balanced hoppiness, followed by a candid discussion on the disappointing Von Hansen's pretzels found at breweries and our recommendations for robust food options that are worthy of your pint.

Strap in as we take you on a journey into the world of Mason Ale Works, a brewery that has brewed up a storm in the industry. Learn about the remarkable individuals behind its success, including Cesar Torres (the SoCal Hype Man for House of Mason), Tyler Lynch, and Grant Tondros, who have been instrumental in the brewery's reputation for award-winning IPAs and hazy IPAs. We'll divulge some intriguing details about their tap house in San Marcos, California, which masterfully combines a restaurant, brewery, and bowling alley into an unforgettable experience.

We won't just stop at beer though; we've got some football chatter lined up for you and a bit of reminiscing about the NBA's Michael Jordan. Through the lens of Nathaniel Hackett's tenure with the Broncos, we tackle the critical role of effective coaching and the challenges of balancing the thrill of fantasy football with the pure joy of watching a game. So pull up a chair, grab a cold one, and get ready for an episode that is as smooth and well-balanced as the beer we're critiquing.
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Transcript

Andy: 0:10

Alright, and welcome in here to another episode of Two Guys Beer, and glad you could join us here for the next episode, andy Bextrum, along with Sean Field. And again I'm glad you could join us yet again as we work our way through another adventure in the history of various breweries. Come along with us if you will. We're actually going to talk about a couple of different breweries today. It's going to be Mason Ale Works and Blackstack Brewery. The reason there's going to be two of them is the beer that we have is actually a collaboration made with both of them. I think it's actually produced by Mason Ale Works, but it is set up between the two breweries, so both of them kind of involved in that, and so it's kind of a chance to be able to talk about multiple breweries this time instead of just one.

Shawn: 1:06

Yeah, it'll be interesting. It'll be interesting New episode, something new for us. Never done a beer on the show of a collaboration between two different breweries, so it'll be kind of interesting to see how that goes and the different history between the two and maybe how it came about.

Andy: 1:23

Yeah, I think it'd be pretty good. So first and foremost, though I suppose the best part of the episode, there we are Now.

Shawn: 1:33

That's a love seeing that audio pop on the computer Opening of the beer and you can certainly smell it.

Andy: 1:41

Oh yeah, it's got to quite the smell, right off the bat it's got to be a very pungent smell. It is just as an FYI what we have. So it's the two different breweries that we're going to be talking about, but the beer that we have is actually kind of a. It's a fun name, if you will. Sunday Beer League is the name of the beer. So it's just kind of a fun name, which is kind of, I think, where it where kind of the idea for it came from. It's just, you know, more of a fun name more than anything else.

Andy: 2:08

But it is just, buyer beware, it is a triple IPA, a tripa, if you will, or a tripa, depending on who you are and how you say it, but a triple IPA, which means it's going to have triple the hops instead of just one round and just kind of you know whatever it's, very, very hop forward. It's going to be likely a lot of kind of that hoppy flavor. It's also 9.8% alcohol by volume, so it's you're not going to need much more than the four pack of tall boys.

Shawn: 2:40

Yeah, not too much of this. Yeah, that's. What we have here is a four pack of tall, tall boys or founders. I think one will probably be good for the night, but who knows, we'll see what happens. Yeah, exactly.

Andy: 2:52

It's a long night to work with, you know, so you know. But yeah, it's so it's 9.8. So it definitely has some punch to it. First sip, at least you know, it does definitely have that IPA type of flavor to. It's very not chewy, but it's. It's thick. It's thick in that, that IPA type taste.

Shawn: 3:12

Yeah, I would agree with that. It definitely is pretty thick. You can definitely definitely taste like an IPA. It's definitely pretty hoppy but it's not overpowering, like it's actually not too bad. I was thinking for a triple IPA here. I was like, oh my gosh, it's going to be pretty hoppy. I mean it is hoppy but it's not overpowering or strong Right, like last week's episode that was even almost tasted hoppier than this.

Andy: 3:37

Right, yeah, and that was. That was almost kind of weird, because as soon as we popped the top, like you could smell it and you're like, oh, you could still smell this one, but it's not. You know, like you said, it's not super overpowering with with the way the flavors are.

Shawn: 3:50

No, it's kind of smooth. Which is good when you drink this, which is different for an IPA like this.

Andy: 3:55

And dangerous too, I guess you know being a point if it's, if it's nice and smooth and going down easy especially if you haven't eaten you know, I'll catch up real quick.

Shawn: 4:05

Don't drink and drive people. Yeah, don't, don't do that We'll have some pizza.

Andy: 4:09

We'll watch the rest of Monday night football and be able to do that.

Andy: 4:12

So eat some pretzels Exactly, you pretzels, see you know so before we went on here and we were going to kind of go. This is going to be a little bit more tangent Tuesday, I think on a Monday. But before we went on we were talking a little bit about food at breweries and I, similar to Sean, think that it's fine not having food there, it's not a huge deal. But it is also kind of annoying. Sometimes it like so I just want to have like a burger or something like that. You know, and I get that they're like that's their food in a way and whatever. But you know it's sometimes it's like if they only have like the Von Hansen's pretzels, like the cup of cheap pretzels or whatever it's so terrible it always gets me because when I think Von Hansen's I think like the meat products and the meat locker and stuff like that.

Andy: 4:54

So I always conjure in my mind like it's going to be one of those big soft pretzels. But it never is so disappointing to me.

Shawn: 5:01

It is so disappointing. And they have the different flavors of those Von Hansen's pretzels too, and they're just terrible. Yeah, you know when you get about what a six ounce tub in front of you, there's like six pretzels in there. Not only do they taste bad, you don't get very many of them.

Andy: 5:15

Yeah, you know.

Shawn: 5:16

It'd sure be nice if breweries would have some other alternatives too, even besides frozen peas, it'd be nice to get some mini tacos. Yeah, everybody loves mini tacos.

Andy: 5:25

Or buffalo wings, yeah, something that you can get some fried food and, you know, be able to work with some of that Right, which is good when you do find that or whatever. You just don't find a ton of that or whatever, and I'm sure there's everybody's got their reasoning for it. You know, I'm sure it's an overhead thing, cost, cost, you got to put in a whole kitchen and then it's more staff and blah, blah, blah, blah down the road, but after you drink a couple beers, what do you want to do Exactly?

Andy: 5:48

You want to eat, you can have a very small menu and be able to do that, Right. But yeah, those von Hansen pretzels. Every time I see those I shake my fist at them. Oh they're new von Hansen.

Shawn: 5:58

But on the flip side, though, a lot of breweries do have food trucks. You know that's pretty common thing.

Andy: 6:03

That is becoming a little bit more prevalent, although that is one of the things I was watching. We're going to read an article the other day about you know things that, should you know, die quickly. And I love food trucks. I don't think that they should die anytime soon, but I think that the fact that, like you go to a food truck and I'm going to get like two little tacos all right, that'll be $27. They're super expensive and I understand you got to pay for the truck and you got to pay for the blah, blah, blah and pay for the things and stuff like that but at the same time it's like, no, the idea of food drugs is to be able to have like something else, something different, out of a restaurant and away from it. But now I'm, it's just a whole. I don't know. It's a whole different thing.

Shawn: 6:40

Yeah, and I agree, and a lot of the food trucks that I've eaten from you know they specialize in this or that. It is even that good Like I've never gotten food from a food truck and I'm like, holy hot, damn, this is good food.

Andy: 6:53

Completely.

Shawn: 6:54

Like I just spent $30 for this. I could have done this myself in my own kitchen, exactly. And I don't cook, yeah, and I'm like wow, okay, thanks.

Andy: 7:03

And that's always tough when you have something like that, because you know it's like, I'm really looking forward to being able to try X, whatever it is. You know like whether it be pizzas, because some of them have, some of them are pretty good. They got like the brick oven like pizza, so I've had some of those that are pretty good. But you know like, especially like taco trucks or something like that, you know it's like okay, you're going to try to go down that road, like there's a lot of competition and there's a lot of good Mexican food out there, and if it tastes like Taco Bell that's a problem, you know, although going to Taco Bell anymore is $18.

Shawn: 7:35

And the tacos are awful. Exactly Like the lettuce is in the paper, it's not in the taco. The service at Taco Bell has just been awful lately.

Andy: 7:44

Oh, pretty much anything. Fast food is starting to kind of fall apart that way.

Shawn: 7:48

Well, that's a bunch of punk kids that work there and they don't give two craps about what they're doing anymore.

Andy: 7:52

Exactly, yeah, they don't. They don't have a lot of care in the world at all. I went to Hardee's today and was like it was pretty good, but it was still like it was $21. Of course I got like so they apparently have these like candied bacon that you can get to which I was like, wait, what I don't know? Okay, so I got I had like one of them and but it was like $3.5 for this little fry cup of four bacon strips that are candied or something like that and they're probably about two millimeters thick.

Shawn: 8:20

Doing that Even like they've got yeah yeah, it was.

Andy: 8:23

It was pretty darn thin, but it was. I don't know, it was weird, it was fine, but it was definitely like oh, okay, Well, I guess that's what I'm having for lunch. You know, try not to go to Hardee's or too much fast food. But you know, oddly enough, the city that I work in does not exactly have a a plethora of fine dining. Yeah, it's, yeah.

Shawn: 8:44

There's no Fogo Del Chal up there, no, no no, it's pretty few and far between.

Andy: 8:50

It's kind of like if you want to go out to any of the sit-down restaurants, you can go to this place, this place, this place and then back to the other place by Friday. Perfect.

Shawn: 8:59

That's kind of which is fine.

Andy: 9:00

I mean it's small town and that's kind of. You know what the bit is. You know I totally get it and I understand. But you know, and I end up going to Subway twice a week or you know Hardee's or something like that, which was really funny, though it's like so the Hardee's. It's like from where I work, it's like two and a half blocks away, and so if I really feel fat and lazy, I drive there and I sit in the drive-through and I'm like I can still see my office from here.

Andy: 9:26

Oh my God, this is just. I should have walked, you know, and I do sometimes. I do walk that normally, but you know it's like right next to a quick trip. So I always go to the quick trip and stuff because way more better, way more good food and options and you know, more selection, exactly.

Shawn: 9:41

Well, pretty soon it's going to be cold out, so you'll be driving anyways.

Andy: 9:44

Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah, which then I'll be like starting the car for 10 minutes, right.

Shawn: 9:49

Before you go, drive the two blocks.

Andy: 9:51

Exactly so, anyway. So back to the. You know the tangent to about food there. Like you know, I'm kind of a foodie sometimes, which that's why I eat fast food. Right, that's so.

Andy: 10:02

Mason Ale Works is one of the two breweries here in the. Collaboration will kind of start with them a little bit. They started in 2015 in Oceanside, california, that a group of experienced beverage hospitality groups, I guess. So, like all of the, if you look on their website, all of the different people that are involved in it, you know whether it be the owner, grant Tondrell. He, at the time when he opened it up, he owned three different restaurants in the San Diego area, so he had a lot of food service or service industry type of experience or things like that. So you know he started the Mason Ale Works and the people that he has involved in it are very connected with different things. One of the guys that he has listed with a part of his staff. You know, if I bring up their specific website, I could probably get his name, but that's fine because we'll remember his name later.

Shawn: 10:54

But not after a couple of these 9.8%. Exactly Sunday beer league.

Andy: 10:59

But they describe this guy as he is the Kevin Bacon of Brewing, where he is only a few degrees away from knowing basically everybody in the industry.

Shawn: 11:09

Oh, okay.

Andy: 11:10

And so, like the people that they have around, them are very who is this now?

Shawn: 11:14

The guy that owns the restaurants you talking to him? Or the brewmaster, one of the?

Andy: 11:19

people that works for him. Oh, okay. So, Grant Tondrell is the guy that owns it primarily, but he's got a whole selection of people that work for him. Let's see here, get the actual information. I'll go ahead and I'll bring up the full information because, as long as I'm here, why not? Let's go ahead and do that. The guy that basically knows everybody that they kind of do that is Cesar Torres. He is the SoCal Hype man for the House of Mason is what they describe him as.

Shawn: 11:51

Oh wow, that's quite the title there, exactly. So yeah, socal Hype man. So yeah, they recommend to Well he apparently brewed beer.

Andy: 12:00

He apparently is just the Hype man. Oh, I don't know.

Shawn: 12:03

He probably he does have a sweet mustache so he looks like he probably drinks a lot of craft beers. Pretty much kind of I think we need a Hype man.

Andy: 12:09

He's listed as a key account consultant.

Shawn: 12:12

Wow, that sounds real important. You know why not?

Andy: 12:16

They got a guy who's a national distribution manager but he's also worked with some massive chains over the course of years. Chains account consultant production manager Tyler Lynch is their production manager, so he is part of that. He's usually in the IPAs the hazy IPAs thing winning different major cups and different awards over the course of years.

Shawn: 12:42

And this is all the Mason aleworks. You're talking right, Yep? This is all.

Andy: 12:46

Mason aleworks. So Grant Tondros, the head, mason as they call him, involved in the beverage alcohol industry since 1996, and then started as a part-time job and kind of worked into the brewing culture in the early 2000s. And then, after working for retail and a national distributor, then he set out with the group of friends to be able to get Mason aleworks off the ground. Hmm, you understand.

Shawn: 13:12

Where did you say the tap?

Andy: 13:12

houses were so originally it was in Oceanside, california. That was in 2015. And I couldn't find exactly when they moved. I believe that it was 2019 when they moved. At that time things really took off for them. They went from just four states that they were distributing up to 12. And I think actually this year they're up to 28. I actually have the whole list here if you want to hear the entire list, but Minnesota is on that list, so they do.

Andy: 13:39

Mason aleworks themselves do distribute here Not, I'm guessing now, super widely, but if you go to like a wine and more or something like that, you'll likely be able to find something there, sure.

Shawn: 13:49

Maybe we ought to get in the two guys and be your private jet and fly to one of these tap rooms If we got some time after we get done.

Andy: 13:56

we can't drink and drive, so we can fly, have somebody else fly us out there. So I mean.

Shawn: 14:02

I got the pilot on speed dial. We'll get the plane fired up there. We go Warm it up a little bit. It's getting a little chilly out, it's getting a little chilly out there.

Andy: 14:08

Get that thing on the tarmac and get some stuff working up. I have to make sure, though, before we take off. Though for the jet, we got to stop at the bowling alley in Bram because the Mason aleworks is in a restaurant and brewery, and bowling alley Nice, it is a Mason aleworks and urge common house brewery. So when is that at? This is in now. San Marcos is where they are, so kind of a.

Shawn: 14:35

I'm assuming it's still California. Yes, it's still California. So there's a bowling alley in the brewery Right in the San Diego.

Andy: 14:40

Yeah, it's kind of in the San Diego area.

Shawn: 14:42

After a couple of these, you won't be bowling too well. No, no, no.

Andy: 14:45

I mean, I don't know if I bowl too well anyway, but I like to call it aiming fluid. It helps be able to give me real good at dialed in.

Shawn: 14:55

I like that aiming fluid.

Andy: 14:58

Use that for volleyball. Sometimes even you know more so in the summer than you know in the winter, but summer is played usually at a bar somewhere, so you can use a lot of you know kind of get warmed up for the game or something, yeah. So yeah, we'll have to get the jet and get the bowling alley stuff that you know, the bowling balls and the shoes, and Mostly just the shoes, because I don't know where somebody else's shoes I mean it's probably fine.

Shawn: 15:22

Yeah, it's kind of gross, you know, I'm like if I have my own shoes.

Andy: 15:25

I'm just gonna bring my own shoes. It's gonna be. You know, it's not a big deal.

Shawn: 15:28

I think we should get a bowling ball made with our logo inside the bowling ball. You know, like one of those translucent boy.

Andy: 15:37

We could probably make something like that much that would cost. Somehow we make a 3d version of our logo.

Shawn: 15:42

That'd be that's for somebody to figure out.

Andy: 15:45

Yeah, sure, yeah somebody's you know like if you're. If you have ideas in your head of how to be able to do this, Reach out on our social media platforms on Twitter.

Andy: 15:52

Facebook. You know so many more Instagram. That would be kind of cool to be able to have something like that. That's really really a more swag to be able to when we have the video, we got to have the stuff on the wall with yes logoing, yeah, the neon should be pretty easy to make. It's probably not cheap. Bendy tubes exactly what could go wrong. So so back in 2015 when they started, they, you know, have since developed into a larger brand. They actually, at one point in time, they were distributing so much, so fast that they had to actually contract with four other different breweries to be able to keep up it with demand.

Andy: 16:28

Oh, wow they did, that's a nice problem to have.

Andy: 16:31

They did contract brewing just because they just it was so huge that it built so quickly. So it's kind of a you know crazy build as far as what they had. So now they're there. The article I'm reading is there they're kind of patching in with that taps brewery which is more of like a. They have a group but they're more of like distributors so it's more of a large-scale distribution ship. So that's gonna help me able to push that out there quite a bit more. So their original brew pub it started with about a 60 barrel capacity. They had 320 barrel tanks to raise their seller capacity to a thousand barrels. Their total seller capacity is now 1,825 barrels. As far as how much they have for a distributorship, I don't have that information. But as far as what they have for seller capacity, like that's still a pretty solid amount. It's quite often get close to 2,000 barrels worth of beer that you can just have ready.

Shawn: 17:26

What was the number again?

Andy: 17:28

They currently have 1,825 barrels worth of seller capacity.

Shawn: 17:35

So that's 56,575 gallons. After a little arithmetic there, that was pretty quick on that one for the average Barrel a beer of 31 US gallons. That's the average.

Andy: 17:48

That's pretty solid. That's a I like it.

Shawn: 17:51

Yeah, I've got good arithmetic skills from high school still Flashing it all over there. There you go, I like it.

Andy: 18:00

They're apparently looking at. As far as future expansion, they're looking at a Infrastructure area to be able to get some additional space Partially the additional space but also to like be able to, you know, up production in Fort Wayne, indiana, with like a 10,000 square foot facility. Oh okay would potentially up that even more. So, yeah, they're definitely making some stuff happen and making some stuff Be able to kind of not dominate the market, but we really be able to get out there get out there a lot of what they do so more exposure, more distribution, but they have a lot of like really fun cans like.

Andy: 18:35

If you go to their website you can see they have dank stein monster. It's an unfiltered IPA but it's got like a Frankenstein on it. There is a, even an immortal, which almost looks like a cross between he man and Skeletor. I think that's the one that you'd seen before. This one is just a million pennant flags all over the place with Minnesota and Blackstack and Mason Ale works in.

Shawn: 18:57

California and the pennants look like they're from like the 60s and 70s. So it's kind of like a throwback. Can there's a couple like baseball cards on the front? Let's say, mason Ale works with an old, an old guy, probably from the 60s or 70s style baseball card, and there's no one with a catcher throwing his mask, blackstack brewing. It's kind of a neat. Can it's kind of a throwback? Can I would say from the 60s or 70s style, with the colors and the design and so forth.

Andy: 19:26

Yeah, they have a lot of really cool labels and and whatnot. So that's it. Sometimes brews have just the one label and then it's just the name of it. You know, I remember their style is, but this one definitely leans into a whole wide variety of different things. So they have Harry and the sendersons. It's a hazy double IP, but it's got Harry and Henderson's got the Sasquatch on the front there. They have hop assault, but it's basically it looks like the old the Morton salt, you know what? The girl with the On that they have one. It's like a weapon X double dry hopped IPA. That's got Wolverine, like they, the cartoon version, like the older yellow and sure type of looks. So they got a lot of you know fun stuff. What was?

Shawn: 20:16

the assault one again hop assault, hop, assault. I wonder how much hops is in there.

Andy: 20:22

It is a first far as the West Coast IPA, with strata and Citra hops, notes of dark berry, lemon peel and slight pine oh, you got to like the slight pine. Yeah, they have a little bit of slight pine, yeah. So, yeah, that's it. At least that's their November 2023 lineup. So, man, you can find a lot of that on their website. Mason illworkscom is where you can find a lot of that information. So, but to kind of bring it more locally, they clabbed with Blackstack Brewing. Blackstack, as you may or may not know, is in St Paul. They have a 300-person tap room, very IP driven but kind of a local place.

Shawn: 21:04

And you've been down to Blackstack Brewing down in St Paul, right, I have been down there. What's the inside of that place look like. What's the? Is there like a theme there? Is it industrial? It's kind of what do they got going?

Andy: 21:13

on. It's pretty industrial, it's. You know, blackstack. They kind of lean into the industrial portion of it. They still have the old because I think it. I don't know if it used to be like a blacksmith building, but it still has the stacks.

Shawn: 21:26

Oh, okay, so it's up there so.

Andy: 21:27

Blackstack Brewing Exactly, so it's apparently it's right next to the same building as Can Can Wonderland is. I have not been to Can Can Wonderland so I didn't know that it was right next to that Can Can Wonderland.

Shawn: 21:38

Yeah.

Andy: 21:38

But I have not been to that one. But Blackstack I've been there A really kind of a cool place. A 20,000 square foot facility owned by a gentleman named Scott Johnson is what it is, so kind of an interesting place to be able to have, and I wonder if Scott Johnson wants to come on the podcast sometime.

Andy: 21:57

Well, if you know Scott Johnson, go ahead and reach out to him. I have a feeling there's a part of me that feels like one of my friends that might actually know him because she spends a lot of time there and she tends to know a lot of people because she talks to everybody. It talks a lot to everybody and so she tends to be very outgoing and Perfect, very talkative to wherever she can. So I'll have to ask her if she knows him or would be able to maybe set us up with the little interview Kind of a fun thing to be able to do, yeah.

Andy: 22:26

I would, but why not On location Two?

Shawn: 22:30

guys on location Love it, Love it. Blackstack Brewing St Paul, Minnesota.

Andy: 22:35

Love to get shirts with the QR code. People can just walk up behind us. So which? That's one of the things that like what was it? What was the way that it was described, things that had a resurgence because of the pandemic, and think that would be things like the QR code zoom.

Andy: 22:51

and yeah, the QR code was basically like on the way out, it's kind of like a useless kind of thing, but then nothing could be touched or whatever. And so QR codes kind of became a massive thing, and now you use it for dang near everything.

Shawn: 23:04

And QR codes. They've been around for like 15 or 20 years too. They only kind of started taking a foothold right before the pandemic, but they were kind of going out, like you said, right, and then they came back because of the pandemic. But really they've been out for like 20 years or something crazy. And I was thinking about that when I read that I hadn't seen a QR code 20 years ago. If I did, I just probably just brushed it off.

Andy: 23:28

Yeah, no, I never, I had no idea. No idea that they existed that long. I mean, I suppose it makes sense because stuff's usually around longer than you think it is. But yeah, I had no idea that it was back that long. So yeah, it's been around for quite some time. Kind of an interesting deal. So Blackstacks and St Paul, as I mentioned, johnson is the Scott Johnson, the owner, paired with a former brewer, a head brewer of Excelsior Brewing, and then got everybody from his family involved. The marketing is handled by his wife, the 26-year-old son has been in training as the assistant brewer, and Cooper, another 23-year-old son, works in sales and the 16-year-old daughter Quinn, is in charge of environmental efficiency and social media.

Shawn: 24:11

Well, because that's important.

Andy: 24:12

Well, when you have a 16-year-old, that's what it's going to be, but this article is from 2017, when they were first opening up.

Shawn: 24:19

Can I get it going?

Andy: 24:20

Yeah, so they've been open since then. So I think they've maybe expanded maybe a little bit of their capacity. They had a 5,000 barrel capacity initially, but I think that they were probably a little bit bigger. But I don't know that they're a whole lot bigger, because at least I haven't seen their location change.

Shawn: 24:35

Well, that's still 155,000 gallons of beer.

Andy: 24:38

Absolutely. That's a lot of beer. I mean, in 2017, they had a recipe catalog, 93 batches deep, so they had kind of everything that was out there.

Shawn: 24:49

That's quite the selection.

Andy: 24:50

Yeah, it's kind of a little bit all over everything.

Shawn: 24:54

I think we were born in the wrong families. I think so too. Why couldn't we be born in a family with beer? Yeah, why is my last?

Andy: 25:01

name, not Shell. Right, that's what I was thinking. That's the family I want to be and I think if we go talk to them, maybe they can adopt us. Maybe we're going to try to figure that out next year. Try to be able to get a non-location at Shells with the family.

Shawn: 25:14

That would be cool and we'll ask if we can get Jason on the program.

Andy: 25:18

We'll talk to him and we'll ask him flat out I'm not shy to no.

Shawn: 25:22

Hey, you need a son. Hey, if you need a son to carry on the tradition, I'm 41. I've got a good 35 years left in me. I can carry something on.

Andy: 25:31

Exactly, we'll make something work. So yeah, kind of interesting For that. But yeah, so that's kind of the rundown, a little bit of Blackstack Brewing and the other side of Mason Ale Works, crafted and Canned in. Well, it says San Diego, california, but it's kind of close.

Shawn: 25:54

That must be where it's brewed or distributed out of or something. It's not too bad for a triple IPA, or India Pale Ale also known, as I'm still trying to figure out how I can describe it to a listener like what it tastes like. It's kind of a tough one to describe this. It's definitely hoppy, but it's not crazy hoppy. The aftertaste is pretty smooth. It's not real bitter.

Andy: 26:21

I'm taking a look at a map here. San Marcos is kind of with Oceanside and Carl'sbad on the north side of San Diego. Oh okay, so still in the US, though, because it is just a few miles away from Tijuana.

Shawn: 26:36

Yeah, a lot of fun can be had in Tijuana too.

Andy: 26:38

Tijuana. We could even on the, we could go international.

Shawn: 26:42

We could Is what we could.

Andy: 26:43

I've been to Mexico, but not.

Shawn: 26:45

Tijuana. We might have to try that.

Andy: 26:48

You know I'm not opposed to that.

Shawn: 26:50

On location from Mexico.

Andy: 26:53

I wonder how many breweries are in Mexico. I know that there's a couple.

Shawn: 26:57

There's gotta be something.

Andy: 26:59

I like Modelo is one of my favorite Mexican beers.

Shawn: 27:02

I like Dos Equis, the green one, not the brown one.

Andy: 27:06

That's a solid option. Dos Equis yeah, the Modelo, I like Modelo Negro a little bit better than Modelo.

Shawn: 27:12

Yeah, that's not too bad. I do like that one.

Andy: 27:14

Some Mexican loggers for sure. Absolutely, I'm not a fan of Corona. Sorry.

Shawn: 27:19

Sorry for Corona fans, I'm just not a fan. I'm not a huge fan of lighter loggers. I guess that would be a Corona, would be a lighter type logger, not a big fan. I like beer that has substance or flavor, you know something that makes the taste bud scream a little bit, and I like Corona, but mostly it's kind of a time and place.

Andy: 27:39

You know, something like this I'm going to drink something with a little bit more like you're saying, a little bit more substance to it, but like if I'm playing volleyball, you know, I mean that's where you get like a Coors Light or a Mick Colden Light or Corona, you know, because Corona's got a little more flavor than those, but not by a lot.

Shawn: 27:54

Well, you got to be focused when you're out there.

Andy: 27:56

Exactly You've got to be dialed in. It's more so when they hit them back. That's when the problems started coming. So, yeah, you know, that's a triple, triple IPA 9.8%.

Shawn: 28:11

That's pretty good beer. I'd buy it. I'd buy it and drink some more of it for sure. So it does say Sunday beer league on it. So what else happens on Sunday?

Andy: 28:20

Well, I mean, I suppose there's football for some places Football.

Shawn: 28:23

So let's talk a little bit of football here. Let's talk about first. We'll start it out with the Kansas City Chiefs. I'm going to start with them because they're not playing good this year. Somehow they're managing to barely win games about Holmes. Yeah, patrick Mahomes does not look like Patrick.

Andy: 28:38

Mahomes, he is not look good. I have Kelsey on my fantasy football team and he's had very up and down weeks. Some weeks he has kind of taken over and it's been good, but I don't know. I have one of their receivers too, and he's done nothing.

Shawn: 28:53

They're receiving core is terrible, it's basically trash is what they're working with.

Andy: 28:58

So yeah, they got a little bit of a running game in Jason Kelsey. What's about, eddie? I draft Travis Kelsey. Jason's the one that plays for the.

Shawn: 29:06

Eagles. He's the other one. Same thing, whatever Kelsey is a Kelsey.

Andy: 29:11

Yeah, they're all football players.

Shawn: 29:13

Yeah, what's his what? Who did they draft is why Rashid Rice. What's his first name? His last name is Rice. What's his first name?

Andy: 29:20

I can't think of his name.

Shawn: 29:21

He's on my fantasy team too, but he's on my taxi squad Right, but they legit have no wide receivers. That could be why Mahomes is struggling, though too. Yeah, they in Denver. He apparently had the flu, but come on you're the. Mvp you lost to Denver.

Andy: 29:35

Michael Jordan had the flu once too. I remember how that went against the jazz.

Shawn: 29:40

We don't want to talk about that. I like the jazz. Not a huge fan of Michael Jordan, especially with the old Carol Malone and John Stockton. John Stockton, jeff Hornecek man, they were good.

Andy: 29:52

Brian Russell Hasry Griggles to tag.

Shawn: 29:56

Somewhere well, it's probably Facebook or some social media stat about John Stockton that if any NBA player today would have to average 12 assists a game for the next 12 years and they would still be like 2000 assists behind John Stockton. That's insane.

Andy: 30:15

That's sick. He's unreal, absolutely unreal, with what he could do.

Shawn: 30:19

Way too underrated.

Andy: 30:21

And he was just basically an unknown. I don't know if you've seen there's a video clip at one point or whatever what he was on the Dream Team and he actually met some people that were talking about in Barcelona. They were talking, he was just all with his family and then, you know, ran into some people and he's like I love basketball, john Stockton's one of my favorite people, or whatever Just having a regular conversation with this guy and then I realized it was John Stockton.

Andy: 30:45

They put together that it was him Because he's just so like I don't know. He's like Kirk Cousins kind of guy, he's kind of like a regular Joe kind of deal.

Shawn: 30:54

Interesting thing about him playing on the Dream Team in Barcelona. He played with a broken leg the whole time. How is that for toughness? He's playing with a. Broken. Well, I guess I wouldn't say it was broken in half, it was a fracture, right. That's still got to be painful, absolutely. And you're still playing basketball and not missing the beat. That's pretty impressive. That's toughness.

Andy: 31:14

No, he's probably going to have to do some resting. Have a rest day.

Shawn: 31:19

Right.

Andy: 31:20

Yeah, oh, don't even get me started on that side of the NBA. That's why I don't like the NBA. No, the NBA is awful. Many different reasons why I don't like the NBA. Anyway, yeah, so football cheese for bad Vikings were. I don't know what in the world happened there, but you're down, that is something. And I knew that. Like I watched the game and I sat on the edge of my seat and you may ask me, I literally sat up and got to the edge of my seat and she's like what are you doing? And I'm like I don't know, I'm trying to watch the football game. It was kind of exciting at that point in time or whatever. And they were disappointed and like the defense gave up that one drive at the end of the game, like if you want to win a game, like you have to make that stop. Oh, they were gassed. Oh, absolutely I completely.

Shawn: 32:00

The offense put them in such terrible positions through the first half like they were turning the ball over on the 20. Yeah, like okay, and they held them to four field goals.

Andy: 32:09

You know it could have been way worse, but the defense was a gas, that one drive, though they needed just anything, you know, to be able to come away with that one. But I mean credit Dobbs and really credit Kevin O'Connell the amount of things that I've read now, where he was basically like calling the play and allowing him to say the play, but while he's saying the play in his headset he's also like all right. So what this means is this guy's going this way, he's running an in cutting route 15 years downfield. This guy's going here and this is going to be your hot read, and so, because it cuts out after like 15 seconds or something like that, so he's trying to basically diagram the entire thing and teach him what the play means.

Andy: 32:51

Wow, he's talking about it.

Shawn: 32:53

So, yeah, that is insane. O'connell should be almost coach of the year just for that game alone.

Andy: 32:59

It amazed me. There is. Who is it with Ben Lieber? I think that tweeted or X'd. What is the new thing now? Because you didn't tweet it, did you exit, exit.

Shawn: 33:11

Well, elon Musk says Twitter aka X. Or he says X aka Twitter. That's what Musk says, so I don't know what you call it whatever.

Andy: 33:20

Well, I think I'm just going to call it tweeted. So he asked a thing earlier today that he was talking about the coaching staff and they are an elite level coaching staff and, don't get me wrong, like what Flores has done is on freaking real.

Andy: 33:33

He is amazing Basically nothing that you know he had over there, but the thing that I've seen that it was the most impressive, was that the Vikings came away with a victory, but no big deal. They were only down quarterback one, quarterback two, backup or backup running back, slash, quarterback three or quarterback four, whatever it was he was.

Andy: 33:54

He was the emergency quarterback wide receiver, arguably one or two right now. Just because of JJP and out your left tackle One, there's a out and a change up front, like one guy after another, and then at one point TJ even came out of the game for a little while with the rib rib going out, so no big deal.

Andy: 34:17

He's just missing. Like I mean, when are you ever going to be down the best wide receiver in the league, basically the number two receiver. So now you're down to like read through whatever you know when Brandon Powell is starting to star for your team. Clearly I mean it's it worked, but you know, clearly it's a much different type of deal.

Andy: 34:35

So, yeah, just the amount of people that they were down and then to be able to like that's fine, we're just going to rally and we're just going to do the thing you know, at no point in time did I feel like and this is probably the most impressive thing to me was, yes, you just try to get more people involved and you try to give people a chance, and Dobbs just be able to do anything was impressive to me. He didn't start real good, but he finished well, finished very well, yeah, but the passes that he missed, it definitely looked like it was mostly. I just don't have that rapport of where you're going to be or how quick you are or how deep you're going to cut that off or things like that.

Shawn: 35:08

You know, he didn't even throw many passes in practice. He said on a post game interview well, I think I threw him like two passes in pregame warmup. Oh, okay, Perfect.

Andy: 35:19

I don't know if you heard. There was a. They had an interview with Brian O'Neill after the game the right tackle and asking about you know just anything with that and he said that during the first quarter, at some point in time I don't know if it was after the first series or when it was he went to the sideline and said all right, offensive line, offensive team, everybody, come over here. This is how I sound when I do the cadence. And just did the cadence right there, talked with Garrett Bradbury about how to be able to like just basically all the things you would work on in practice. Just did it right then and there on the sideline and like, went through his progressions and like, all right, this is what I'm trying to do and this is what I'm looking for and this is how I'm gonna explain everything out. Just little things like that that like nobody really thinks of until you get in that type of situation and you just I don't know.

Andy: 36:11

I was very impressed with all that, the way that the coaching staff was able to make that work, especially with the way that O'Connell was able to still make some plays happen and explain it in a way that Dobbs could process it.

Shawn: 36:24

Communication While you're trying cause from him he's trying to like While the game is going on.

Andy: 36:29

Here's the play and I can say the play back, but I don't know what any of that means. Now you have to explain the whole thing Basically. We're drawing stuff in the dirt.

Shawn: 36:36

Like backyard football? Oh, absolutely. But Dobbs did say before the game even started the coaching staff will kind of ask them how comfortable he was, cause he was the backup and he did say I can run anything on the call sheet that you made for the game. So he was already prepared enough to run a two minute drill or hurry up or whatever they're calling it. It was on the call sheet. He said anything outside the call sheet, no clue.

Andy: 37:01

I'm just no idea what you're saying. You're speaking French to me. Originally, going out here, the thing that I think was most impressive what Dobbs does was unreal on the coaches to have and all those things, or whatever. I believe his name is David David Quisenberry, the left tackle that stepped in. Oh, is that what his name was? I couldn't remember his name?

Shawn: 37:20

I think his first name is.

Andy: 37:21

David, I'm not 100% sure. I will legit admit that I may be wrong on that one.

Shawn: 37:26

For some reason I thought his last name was, like Schottenheimer, schomer. Well, clearly I'm wrong. It was last name was Quisenberry, so Schottenheimer, for some reason. That's what I was thinking. Are you thinking Austin Schlotman?

Andy: 37:39

That's. He's usually back at the center. Yeah, yeah, David Quisenberry. He started in place of Christian Derisa and I didn't really hear his name called at all. And if you're an offensive lineman, especially at tackle, and your name isn't really called, that's a good thing. At least you played pretty solid. At least that's a solid day at the ballpark.

Shawn: 37:59

Especially when you're filling in for the number one tackle and football arguably, or at least the top three tackle and football and Derisa.

Andy: 38:06

Yeah, so I would. Yeah, I was. I was extremely impressed with the way that they played, but I don't know we're gonna have to do you wanna play this next weekend, because it sounds like everybody's hurt.

Shawn: 38:17

So pretty much.

Andy: 38:18

Well, we're on a bye next week, so I think Wednesday or Thursday when it comes out, it's just gonna be like a list of like 37 people.

Shawn: 38:25

No, I'm wrong, we played the Saints.

Andy: 38:26

I was gonna say I think we played the Saints this week, Then we played Denver. There we go.

Shawn: 38:30

So Denver's on Sunday night. I'm gonna say that's a night game if I remember.

Andy: 38:34

Yeah, denver's so bad, but I love watching that happen because I like Denver as a team. I liked them with John Elway, I liked them with Peyton Manning, I, you know, liked certain eras of them. But I just can't wrap my head around Sean Payton and Russell Wilson. I just don't like the guy.

Shawn: 38:54

Mr Unlimited, I just I just can't do it, I can't.

Andy: 39:00

I don't know the other opinions on that. Go ahead and reach out to us on the social media platforms.

Shawn: 39:04

Right. Leave some comments. Let us know your opinions on it. I can't stand Sean Payton, because he basically put down the four. Nathaniel Hackett you know the coach of the Broncos last year. He was completely unprofessional and absolutely ridiculous, yeah, and especially how you're performing this year.

Shawn: 39:25

You're ain't doing any better than he was doing. In fact you're. It looks like you're doing worse to me, yeah, from the eye test. Anyways, you know, without getting into numbers and stats and analytics and all that Absolutely Like, come on, man, show a little professionalism. You're supposed to be a leader of the league, a leader of a team, a leader of 50.

Andy: 39:42

Some guys Like come on, man, you can make whatever argument about like the whole bounty gate stuff and the things that you do with the Saints and pushing the lines of legal and whatnot. But you can make the same argument, like with Bill Belichick for something like that too. But yeah, like you said, once he like crossed that line where he's like no, this was just garbage. We had to basically reset all together because it's just an awful culture from what he did and you're basically calling that guy out flat out. It was amazing to watch the Jets then beat him.

Shawn: 40:10

Yeah, it was awesome yeah.

Andy: 40:13

I don't know football, I tell you, fantasy football is driving me up the wall too. But that's fantasy all the time.

Shawn: 40:20

Yeah, fantasy football sucks. I wish I never got back into it last year. It was the first year I played again after like four years off, maybe five years off, something like that. Yeah, I still wish I'm not playing. It kind of ruins football. You're too busy focused on the ticker at the bottom of the screen or what's happening. You're constantly on your phone rifling through like, oh my God, who's scoring, who's doing what? You can't even enjoy watching a football game anymore.

Andy: 40:47

And if you're not doing that you're going to be sub 500. So you got to kind of make that decision. I usually just I go ahead and just be a bad fantasy team, but I don't know, I've actually had a pretty fairly successful run here for the last handful of weeks or whatever, but it still is like, oh man, I just don't want to care that much about like the specifics of that. I was very happy that we scored a touchdown and Madison cut the touchdown, but I really would have wanted to go to Jordan Addison, right, why is that a problem you hate to cheer for like a different team?

Shawn: 41:20

Right and it's so hard when it's like your homer team, the team wherever you are, wherever you root for you don't want to root against your team if you've got fantasy guys playing against your team and you want to root for them, but it's got to be specific players. That's why I typically try to avoid all Minnesota Vikings at all costs on my team because I don't have to deal with that Right exactly yeah.

Andy: 41:43

Fortunately, some of those Minnesota Vikings are pretty damn good, so it'd be nice to have them on your team, right, yeah, well, that's a tough one, like Jefferson when he's not hurt current cousins when he's not hurt Exactly. Well, that's our. I don't know. I think that's our story, unless you get additional nuggets of pearls of wisdom that you would like to drop.

Shawn: 42:06

Oh well, the Sunday beer league. Beer is pretty good. I don't know if I have Nuggets of wisdom. That's quite interesting. I'm not sure how many nuggets of wisdom that I have, but I could probably come up with something here.

Andy: 42:23

Random fact of the day avocados are a fruit, not a vegetable, and the Eiffel Tower can be 15 centimeters taller during the summer due to thermal expansion. Oh wow, that's some nuggets of knowledge right there, you get smaller in the cold.

Shawn: 42:44

So here's a beer nugget of knowledge. In the 1600s, some monks in Germany only drank beer and water during their 40-day fast for lint.

Andy: 42:56

Lucky.

Shawn: 42:57

Yeah, they concocted an unusually strong brew full of carbohydrates and nutrients. In 2011,. A journalist attempted to recreate their fast. He lost 25 pounds in a week Wow. That's about all the nuggets of knowledge I probably have for today.

Andy: 43:17

Yeah, they think that's about all I mean. I can Google random quick facts.

Shawn: 43:21

Where are we at? For time, we'll have to edit this out, but what's the time at?

Andy: 43:25

So I started at about 10 minutes and we're at about 56. So we're at about 45 minutes.

Shawn: 43:30

All right. So one quick question for you before we get out here.

Andy: 43:34

This needs to be like a 60 second answer maybe a 20 second answer Rapid access memory here we go. All right, here we go.

Shawn: 43:45

Should athletes have to graduate college before they go pro?

Andy: 43:50

I would say no, I like them being in college more than one year, because if you're going to be one year, just do high school and just be done with it, like let's not mess around because you're just, you're not even there for that to whatever you're doing. But I like the idea that they will have that education still has to be a cornerstone of what you're doing. And I feel like we're kind of in that era now, especially with the G League and different leagues, where now it's there's so many avenues to just skip the whole process, which is fine, until you're not good enough to get there, which is most of college athletes, exactly.

Andy: 44:29

And so I don't think that they should be required to graduate, but I do think that they should probably stay in college a little longer than what they do.

Shawn: 44:38

What about if they don't graduate and they go pro? Should they have to pay the school for their education, because most athletes get a scholarship to go play? If you don't fulfill your four-year scholarship or what you're doing, should you have to repay it back?

Andy: 44:54

I would say no, I could see that argument a little bit more, and now in the nil, the name and just likeness, because now athletes are getting some financial benefit.

Andy: 45:03

To that, but prior to that especially, I would say no, because even if they're there for two years, the amount of money that they bring into the school well pays for that portion of education that they get. I guess it's kind of the way that I'd look at Now with the nil money. I feel like that kind of changes that conversation a little bit more, that okay, well, if you're not going to be here for four years you're not getting the education side of it. It is just that. But now you're getting paid as well.

Shawn: 45:30

Well, what about a school like the University of Minnesota?

Andy: 45:34

That's probably funded. We can fund that with our tax money, and that's where I see it. And that's the tough part. When you get into football or certain income-making sports because I think it's only football and men's basketball or maybe it's men's hockey I feel like there's only two but they make enough money for the rest of all of the other programs, the rest of the programs, and so they fund all the rest of the stuff. So that's where, and we fund that. But essentially what we're doing is we're paying the coaches. That's really what it is Millions of dollars.

Andy: 46:05

When you look at even whether it be Minnesota or nationwide, it's something like 70% of states. Their highest paid public official is a coach in college, a college coach of some, usually the college football coach. It's not the governor, it's not whatever. But I mean, are you going to pay your governor $8.5 million a year? All?

Shawn: 46:27

right, I don't want to pay our governor anything.

Andy: 46:29

It's not a recruiting kind of thing, it's a little bit different but it is kind of funny to think of. Like that's, their highest paid public official is a coach usually. So that's usually, I think, where that goes, but I don't know. That's a good thing to ponder.

Shawn: 46:43

Something to think about. Yeah, let us know in the comments what you think.

Andy: 46:47

Yeah, if you have some opinions.

Shawn: 46:48

Yeah, facebook, instagram, twitter, rumble, youtube, all the major social media platforms, all the major podcast platforms, xx.

Andy: 47:03

See that 9.8% is kicking in AKA Twitter yeah.

Shawn: 47:06

Yeah, the Sunday beer league beer here is starting to kick in.

Andy: 47:10

It's a pretty solid beer, though Very smooth. I highly recommend it. We found it at. If you're in the St Paul area, if you go West 7th, closer to the river I'm trying to remember exactly where it is, but it's a little bit further down there Go to the Dabbler Depot is what it's called, the Dabbler Depot. They have this there, so that's where we found it. So if you get a chance to go down there, otherwise just grab an. A Blacklist. Blackstack is what I meant. Blacklist is a dilute. That's a different one. That's a different episode for another.

Shawn: 47:39

And beer is kicking in for a different night. So Blackstack Brewing St Paul.

Andy: 47:45

Minnesota Mason Ale Works and Blackstack Brewing Collaboration. Triple India Paleo. Hope you enjoyed the episode today. And Sean, any words of. We already have the pearls of wisdom so.

Shawn: 48:00

I'm all out of pearls and I'm all out of wisdom. So thanks everybody for listening. Go grab yourself a Sunday beer like beer, if you can find it. I appreciate you all listening, leave some comments, let us know any ideas, thoughts, what you think, and God bless everybody. Thanks a lot.

Andy: 48:16

Like, share and subscribe. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your enemies, tell anybody you want to be able to have two guys beer Andy Baxter for Sean Field. Until next time. Have a great night everybody.