Two Guys & Beer
The Two Guys & Beer Podcast is a laid-back conversational show that combines the love of beer with a wide range of topics that pique the hosts' interest. These two guys, use beer as a launching pad for discussions on anything and everything that grabs our attention!
Two Guys & Beer
Spaten's Legacy and Hockey Surprises
Can you imagine savoring a beer that dates back to the 14th century? Join us as we celebrate Doppelbock Day and uncover the rich history of Munich's Spaten brewery, which has been crafting exceptional brews since 1397. Unfortunately, our friend Jake from Seattle couldn't join us due to an unexpected appendectomy, but we dedicate this episode to him. We promise you'll gain a newfound appreciation for Spaten's legacy and learn some fascinating tidbits about brewery culture along the way.
Tune in for a mouth-watering tasting and review of Spaten's Optima Doppelbock, a robust malt liqueur with a 7.6% ABV. With flavors reminiscent of a light Guinness, this beer's deep malty essence and nutty undertones make it perfect for a cozy autumn evening by the fire. We'll also delve into the historical significance of the malt shovels on the label and discuss the ideal occasions to enjoy this hearty brew.
Our journey doesn't stop there. We'll take you through the storied past of the Spaten-Franziskaner brewery, from its roots in 1867 to its pivotal moments like serving beer at Oktoberfest and its expansion to North America. Plus, you'll hear about a California company brewing beer with prehistoric yeast and get a taste of the unexpected as we explore viral internet sensations and the surprising success of the Florida Panthers in the NHL. Get ready for a dynamic blend of beer appreciation, cultural insights, and a dash of hockey talk!
and welcome in everybody back here in the two guys and beer podcast studio as we rejoin you once again. Uh, sean, you know what day is it?
Speaker 2:say right it is beer drinking day it is beer drinking day it is beer drinking day, monday.
Speaker 1:Monday July 1st. Here we go, here we go. So yeah, Doppelbach.
Speaker 2:Day Doppelbach.
Speaker 1:Day, there we go. It's a lot of good days is really what it is, but we're back on the train and back bringing what we can to the listeners out there and doing everything, doing our part really to entertain the masses or at least do something.
Speaker 2:I do my part by drinking beer.
Speaker 1:Exactly, consumption, that's my special talent. Consumption and just endless random knowledge that we come up with from usually just the internet, that we bring to you and hopefully you learn a little bit about some breweries and you know, I know, that we have for sure about you know some of the great culture that is the brewery culture.
Speaker 2:And that is a great culture. And see, we do all the hard work for you, whether it's the beer talk, the brewery stuff or the stupid knowledge that you never thought you would know. We're doing the heavy lifting so you can just sit back, relax and drink your beverage. The heavy lifting, yes.
Speaker 1:Chin ups. It's a lot of weights around here, 12 ounces Exactly. So today we're going international in celebration of it. Can't wait, I don't know, be in July or something, perfect. But yeah, we're going back to Germany. We're going to the Munich area of Germany. We've been kind of to roughly around that area-ish previously, but this one we're going right back to the heart of Munich, bavaria, germany. Perfect. A brewery that, yeah, it's not the oldest, but it could definitely lay some claim towards being one of the oldest, having started in 1397. That's crazy. That is super old. There's not a lot of people back in the workshop from there.
Speaker 2:No, I don't think they're around. I don't think they're around now.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, way back in 1397 is when this one really started to be mentioned a little bit, and that's going to be spotting is what it is. So that's the brewery that we have selected for today, had it recommended by a couple of different people, including Mike, who I'm on the fire department with, but also our good friend Jake From.
Speaker 2:Seattle. Yep, we appreciate that, jake. Thank you very much. Too bad you're not here like you're supposed to be.
Speaker 1:We had a whole thing all set up to go and the shenanigans were in full effect, and you know what they say if you shenan once, you're going to shenan again.
Speaker 2:He shenan it out this time for sure.
Speaker 1:So we had connected. There's a group of us who are friends from way back in the day. Melissa and Jake live out in Seattle and we've talked about them even on a previous episode, which is kind of funny because I knew about this information while we were talking about that. It was the shilling cider we were talking about, and even at that point.
Speaker 2:This is ridiculous, ridiculous. I didn't know anything about this. Just so you know. Apparently this was a surprise, but I was informed this morning at about 11 am that the surprise was going to happen. But it's not going to happen.
Speaker 1:So we had connected and Jake said he wanted to be a part of the podcast or be here for a recording or somehow be involved, and I'm like, well, let's do all of the things, let's get them on?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, let's do it. And so we had the shenanigans that were in full effect. Is that Sean didn't know any of this at all? I knew my wife knew his wife, knew my brother and sister-in-law here earlier a little bit. They knew pretty much everybody was aware of what was going on and there was, you know, little things here and there. You know I messaged Sean a little bit about. You know, like, oh, bring the extra mic because we might. You know, like we got to test it out if we're ever going to have a guest like today.
Speaker 2:Right it out if we're ever going to have a guest, like today. Right, and that seemed legit to me because we're working on our new table so we can actually have some people in here a little more room. And I was just thinking, oh OK, sounds great. But I left it at home once I found this whole thing Right, not here, but it seemed legit.
Speaker 1:So we had yeah, we had all of the all of the plans in place until last night. At some point in time, poor Jake ended up getting sick and he is getting an appendectomy, so he flew to Minnesota from Seattle to have surgery. This episode will be dedicated to you. Yeah, we'll drink them for you, buddy, that's what we'll do. So the plan was to have them on and it kind of we were going to would have been really cool because we were going to kind of surprise you, either right at the beginning or as part of the podcast, so we were going to kind of get you with that one. That would have been fun, would have been, would have been a really good time. So you know, we were thinking about him and relatively minor, so it should go fine. But you know, still, at the same time he probably he might be coming out about now, but he otherwise he was probably under the knife here just within the last few minutes, right, yeah, but yeah, so it's kind of the episode is kind of inspired by that. So he's unfortunately not able to be here, but you know we have the beer just the same, and so we're going to push forward with this Spaten.
Speaker 1:It's a Spaten. Frankenzahner Brau is a brewery in Munich, bavaria, germany. So that's the whole thing. That's what it is. So Spaten is what it is. The brewery that we have is either not 100% sure. So all of the German speaking audience, feel free to hit me with the feedback and put it towards me. It's either Optimator or Optimator. It is an A, but with the German language I'm not sure if it's Optimator with that. But Optimator sounds kind of fun like a transformer.
Speaker 2:That's what I kind of thought too, but I'm not even going to take a stab at it. I'll probably use both through the course of this episode because, well, you know, I don't speak German, just not good at it.
Speaker 1:Amanda was going through Babbel on her phone trying to learn German. It wasn't going well, it wasn't going well. No, to learn German, it wasn't going well, it wasn't going well. I don't think that she'll have it for when we go to Oktoberfest later this year which stay tuned to that upcoming We'll have some live video, maybe some shorts. I don't know when it'll all come out, but we're going to be doing some stuff live on location from the Oktoberfest in Munich, germany, later on this fall, so looking forward to that, that's going to be a good time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'll be exciting, and since this stuff is from Munich, I don't know what all our plans are going to entail while we're there, but maybe we swing by this place and check it out, since we'll be there.
Speaker 1:I got it on my list to talk about here, Perfect.
Speaker 1:So it's a. It'll definitely be involved. So we'll have to. We'll have to hearken back on a live bit that we do from Germany, so that'll be kind of fun. So looking forward to that process later on this year, but I'm looking forward to having the beer today. So what we have is the Optima. It's a Doppelbach. It does say malt liqueur or malt liquor, but I'm not sure how you have a Doppelbach and a malt liquor unless it's just the maltiness rather than like a Zima or that type of malt liquor. But nonetheless it is a Doppelbach. 7.6 alcohol by volume.
Speaker 2:Did you just say Zima? Yeah, my goodness, is it even made anymore? I think so. Who drinks Zima? I don't know.
Speaker 1:I mean I did in high school. I don't think I've ever even had it. Oh really, yeah, I don't think I ever did.
Speaker 2:You just put a Jolly Rancher in them. You can change the flavor. There you go. You can drop it in.
Speaker 1:Brilliant yeah.
Speaker 2:I wonder if they. I'm going to have to look to see if they make. I know they went away and then they brought it back. I think it's gone again. Okay, I guess I thought maybe it was stillirnoff Ice and Mike's Harden. Now they're all over the place. Yeah, yeah. Anyways, can we get to cracking?
Speaker 1:Let's go, let's get the All right. Let's blow the top off this episode.
Speaker 2:Here we go.
Speaker 1:All right, first couple sips here to kind of get the episode going. Definitely Doppelbach, for sure. Yeah, you get kind of that deep malty, kind of almost not burnt, but it's almost there's a brown flavor like a nuttiness to it. For sure, real kind of not heavy, but deep.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a great way to describe it deep because it is not heavy, but it tastes like a heavy beer or a super dark beer. Borderline the Guinness type of flavor, good and full-bodied. It's like a light Guinness maybe if that makes sense. But it's pretty good though. I like it Kind of see a light Guinness maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if that makes sense, but it's pretty good, though I like it Kind of see the labels there. On the front it's got the logo for the Optimator. So the logo we'll talk about that here first, before we get too deep into the history of it here. The logo itself it's two little shovels, is what that is. It's malt shovels is what those are, because spotten, literally translated in German, is spade. It's like a shovel, oh sure. And so that's kind of their thought is that it's a shovel for, it's a malt shovel for when they're making beer. That's genius. So that's kind of what they got there.
Speaker 2:Those Germans, they're all smart over there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So that's kind of what's going on there. As I mentioned, a 7.6 ABV, so cut a little bit to it a 12-ounce bottle. I like the green bottle though, like that's something that you know. It's a lesser, lesser known thing that even sunlight will affect, I mean over time, but it will kind of affect the taste of beer a little bit. And so you'll see, usually, like more craft or heavier beers will be in either darker or green bottles, whereas if you get you know, like the lighter beers, that it's not going to affect it quite as much because the taste is really light to begin with. Then those are going to be in clear bottles because it doesn't matter, it's not a huge deal, it doesn't affect it, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can definitely taste the malt in here, though, for sure. So it's definitely not the malt liquor type beer that we were thinking. We were kind of confused for a minute about it. Well, we weren't confused, but it was just interesting to see Daubebach and malt liquor on the same bottle. But it's definitely the malts of the, with the grain or the malt or whatever they put into it, for sure. You can taste that in the aftertaste, for sure.
Speaker 1:Very malty. For sure, though, a hundred percent, it's pretty good though it's pretty good. I don't know that on the lawn mowing scale that I always hearken back to, I think it'd probably be about a one from the standpoint of you know, hot day mowing the lawn. I don't know that I'm having very many of them, maybe one before to kind of get you know like, feel like I got ate a good breakfast or something beforehand, but you know it's not. It's good, but it's not. What I would say is like refreshing for like a hot day, but it, you know it, it is definitely good from that Doppelbach, that heavier, full-bodied malty type of flavor. So not any lawn mowing, but no, I agree 100%.
Speaker 2:I was thinking the same thing, probably about a one lawn mower on the scale. I wouldn't want to drink this on a hot, sweaty day. I would want to drink this sitting on my porch with my feet up smoking a cigar. Absolutely, I'd want to crack one of these and savor the taste and enjoy that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe after you put the lawnmower away for the final time in like late September October.
Speaker 2:That would be perfect. You're on a fire having one of these Yep the leaves are already coming down.
Speaker 1:You're not doing anything with them, you're just moving on. Maybe you do, I guess.
Speaker 2:I don't. I don't really have any leaves though that come down here. Most of it is pine, so I don't have much of that, but admiring the yard oh a hundred percent, yeah. Standing there with your hands on your hips pretending to be a man, absolutely yeah. Look of accomplishment.
Speaker 1:But yeah, like you know, sweatshirt, maybe a hoodie on with the fire, I'd probably that Now that's a different scale I'd probably have four, five. The number would change a little bit, you know, at that point in time, but it's more of that than the lawn mowing with that type of vibe.
Speaker 2:So we might have to add a second scale. We got the lawn mowing scale and then we have the fall fire hoodie scale, that's true, we have to come up with some sort of second scale, now that you brought that up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's true. Yeah, because when we had our run of three, four Oktoberfest-style episodes, those probably would fit more with that, because you're more of a fall October-ish type of beer. So, yeah, I like it, it's a second scale. We'll add it to the bottom or we won't. We'll just talk about it, It'll be fun.
Speaker 2:One way or the other, it'll be a good time Either a summer beer or a hardworking summer beer when you're hot and sweaty and gross, or it's a throw on a hoodie, roast a marshmallow, put a weenie on, drink a beer.
Speaker 1:Yep Need something kind of heavy with some body to it there you go.
Speaker 2:This is it.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So this one goes way back, not necessarily this particular one, but the brewery itself 1397, as I had mentioned before. So it goes in the way back machine back before even 1400, three years before 1400,. By my math it's Malacca math, so it's got to double check it sometimes. But it was first alluded to in Munich. It's Welser Prü is how I guess I would say it. I'm guessing it's a W-E-L-S-E-R, so in German it'd probably be Welser, welser Prü. I'm guessing again not speaking German.
Speaker 2:You have the app on your phone, so I'll let you. Yeah, we'll go with that, crack it, but I use Google Translate when we're over there, so that would be my way of trying to communicate.
Speaker 1:So 1397 is the first mention, but there's not a whole lot of information that they have.
Speaker 1:You know they have Wikipedia, they have information on Spotten as a whole with the Hand family that is now kind of the ownership group. They have some other information but they don't really have their own website really at all, which is a little bit I guess I shouldn't say surprising. But they've been around that long that you're either going to come and check it out or you're not, and it's going to be in all of the places. You know they probably aren't offsetting a bunch of advertising dollars for tax revenue like American companies. I don't know how that works for Germans, but I'm assuming there's something a little different there because they seem to care a lot less about that. People know what it is.
Speaker 1:It's not your surprise that Budweiser is going to be on the shelf. So that's kind of 1397, as I first mentioned. Not a lot of information, but ownership changed often until 1854. So a lot of ownership changes throughout the course of the years leading up to when it finally gets to the ownership group and we start moving forward a little bit. It's been a leading exporter of German beer for more than a century and a crucial role in establishing the president's superior worldwide reputation for German beer. So this is definitely well known and I had never heard of it until then. But then all of a sudden I get a bunch of people that mention it and so like it clearly is out there and doing a thing, but just isn't something that I had come across, at least as of yet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've never heard of it before either. I've never come across it. I can't say I've seen it in any liquor store around here that I frequent, so this is a new beer to me.
Speaker 1:One note, as we kind of talk about the timeline a little bit the 1397. Between 1397 and 1854, again, you're going to have to double-check my math here but somewhere between there is 1516. It happens Exactly, it happens 1516. And the 15. It happens Exactly, it happens 1516, that was we had mentioned this in again when we had done some episodes kind of referring to some German beers Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria issued the so-called purity law, decreeing that then on, beer was only allowed to be brewed from malt, hops and water. Since then, Spaten has only brewed its beers with the strict adherence to the purity law quality you can taste. So they kind of went through that. There was a lot of beers that kind of disappeared at that point in time, but this was one that, nope, we're going to lean into it, that's what it's going to be, and that's what we're going to say, and that's what we're going to stick with. And so they went right through the purity line, you know, were able to come out the other side exactly with what they had.
Speaker 2:Well, it's definitely quality, that's for sure. You can tell that by drinking it. It's just not some crap ass beer, that's for sure. It is a quality beer, especially if you.
Speaker 1:So as we kind of move through the years here 1854, that point it moved to another location as well within that Munich area, and it is actually still in that same location today. So that's quite the run 1854, 2024, count the carry the two, a whole bunch of years 170-some years yeah.
Speaker 1:In 1867, became the largest brewery in town in Munich. So starting to really kind of push things a little bit. 1872, the Franziskaner Leist Brewery served beer at the Oktoberfest celebration for the first time. So there we had talked about, you know, maybe trying to find that I think we can find it there.
Speaker 2:I probably can.
Speaker 1:It'll be pretty easy to find. They had the spot in Oktoberfest beer Ur-Marzen especially, brewed by Joseph Seldmeier in 1909, or at that point it was brewed there and then separately. In 1909 they first began delivering to North America. So it had not came to America at all until early 1900s.
Speaker 2:Wow, so they've already been brewing beer for hundreds of years, yeah, and then it finally shows up here.
Speaker 1:Exactly 1922, the Spaten Rory and the Franziskaner Leisbrau united to form a joint stock company. So they kind of merged and they were both owned by the Seldmeier family, Gabriel Seldmeier separately. Just as a side note, he was actually a former royal court brewer. So kind of a big deal.
Speaker 2:It sounds pretty special, big deal.
Speaker 1:Sounds special. Around 1924, they got a new advertising slogan that is still in use today Las dir raten, trinke spoten. And you can almost kind of guess what it means Literally translated let yourself be advised, drink spoten.
Speaker 2:I am advised. Yes, I have been advised.
Speaker 1:I like I do. I do like that, that slogan. I think that that works for me. It works well. I have been advised and here we go, we're drinking. So, yeah, it's kind of an interesting little advertising slogan. But yeah, 1924, and they still use that today, still use it. Yeah, they still use it. So been around for quite a while, they still use it. So been around for quite a while. Francis Garner beer was created in 1935, even though they were as part of the brewery, they kind of within the spot and overall house, they created that particular beer in 1935. And the Francis Garner Monk was designed by Ludwig Holwein at that point in time, so did bring in an artist to be able to make the label. I don't have a picture of said label no, actually I do on this Wikipedia page and it's literally. It is a monk that has a mug ready to take a poll. Good beer drinking monks are hard to find.
Speaker 2:They are hard to find, but we did learn about monks. Before they used to drink, made their own beer concoction to fast and lose weight.
Speaker 1:Yep, there we go. That's what I need to do. I think I said that then, but just one more time.
Speaker 2:You want to lose weight or you want to become a monk? Might have to do both.
Speaker 1:Do I get to drink twice as much then? Sure, just for you. 1964, the brewery produced its first wheat beer and then 10 years later it became Francis Garner brewed became all of the Francis Garner was wheat based, so they kind of made that into its own segment, own section of beer. So that was in 1964. Fast forward another 20 years, 1984, it started a national distribution of beers and by 1998, it ranked among the top 10 breweries of Germany. All right, that's a pretty good list to be on.
Speaker 1:I would think I'm guessing, Just saying Any top 10 seems good to me 1992, kind of around the time we were talking about the wheat-based and when they were going to the national distribution. They reached a production at that point in time of 1 million hectoliters. Don't worry, I did the conversion 850,000 US barrels in 1992. So that's where they were at about then. In 97, they also combined with the Lohenbrau AG to form the Spaten-Lohenbrau Group. It was sold in 2003 to Interbrew for 530 million euros. So they have definitely grown quite the business over the course of many years.
Speaker 2:Just a little bit. They didn't get too big. Now you know, it was just a little bit of growth.
Speaker 1:During the 2002-2003 brewing year, francis Conner beer alone reached one million hectoliters produced, wow. So they definitely kept going on that one. However, they did in 2006, they did have to. They closed essentially one of the brew houses in Munich just due to a lack of workload, but I think that was more of a regional situation. But they didn't get rid of the building. They now made it a museum for the company. Oh, that's cool. So now there's a museum in Munich we can be able to go check out.
Speaker 1:So maybe that's where we can go 2011, the brewery launched the Franz Garner Royal, a wheat beer, and in 2017, ab InBev launched the distribution of alcohol-free Francis Garner in the UK. So all sorts of different arms kind of spouting off all over the place with what Spaten Francis Garner has. 2021, they began considering selling the Francis Gunner and Spotton brands to move to offload some of the beer assets. So still some things to be able to work on. On that one they haven't figured anything out, but at least as of 2021, ab InBev was the kind of the parent company, I guess, if you will, for all of the brands there.
Speaker 2:That's kind of a bummer, you know, because AB InBev that's a pretty big company. You know, it's too bad it's not owned by a local company in Germany or passed down through family lines some way shape or form. You know it's just kind of a bummer when big corporations take over breweries or other companies or beer. You know it kind of takes away that special factor or the homegrown factor.
Speaker 1:Takes away a little heart, almost the little man factor.
Speaker 2:You know it's like oh, it's just another big company that owns it. They had nothing to do with the success of it, nothing to do with the recipes, the beer, the packaging, nothing. It's eh we just bought it. Now it's ours Exactly.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's. Yeah, we just bought it. Now it's ours exactly. So yeah, it's. Uh. Yeah, I don't know, we'll see what happens. If they end up serving you, maybe they sell portions of it. You know the francis gunner and spot and brands. Maybe they sell it to an individual person. They can start that, but it'd be pretty big pull for one person to uh that's just it.
Speaker 2:If they're selling for 500 and some odd euros, like you said, like, how is any one person going to even carry that on?
Speaker 1:Well, and even a millionaire billionaire that's going to maybe try to lop onto that and do that is probably going to make it under an LLC or something anyway. So it's going to be another corporate venture, right? But yeah, you're not getting the local brewer that's worked there for 20 years to like all right. Well, I'll take out the loan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would take a lot of investors to pool together to try to keep it private in some way, shape or form. But then you'd have 10, 15 owners essentially you know all investing in it.
Speaker 1:Would be cool though yeah, it would. Essentially, you know all investing in it Would be cool though yeah, it would. Just a quick update In 2010, the brewery employed about 500 people and had an annual production value, or volume rather, of about 2.4 million hectoliters, which again, doing the math, 2 million barrels and reminding people once again how much is in a barrel.
Speaker 2:Oh, 34 gallons or something like that. Yeah, so that's a united us gallons, 34 gallons per the average barrel. Of course there's other barrels that are different sizes. Right, that's the average size barrel.
Speaker 1:So, uh, that times two million is a lot. It's a lot of beer. It's quite a bit of beer, making it one of the largest brewers in the Breveria or Bavaria, not Breveria.
Speaker 2:Bavaria region. Can you imagine, like if you're brewing that much beer, how much malt you need, how? Much wheat you need like how much yeast? All that stuff, like it's crazy.
Speaker 1:And just to brew at that large of a tank you're dumping in. You know you're not making a mistake by like, oh, a teaspoon too much or something.
Speaker 2:You know like oh, did you put four or eight bags in this, bringing up, bringing the forklift up and dumping the whole pallet load of wheat in there.
Speaker 1:It's going to be those those big, the bags that are on pallets, that usually have concrete mix or something.
Speaker 1:We had talked before about Oktoberfest going there later on this year. If we haven't mentioned that, can't wait, can't wait, it's going to be a good time. Spaten Franz Skarner Brau is one of the six brewers in Munich to brew beer for Oktoberfest, so one of the specific ones for the celebration. Perfect, so definitely looking forward to that. Some of the beers that they have 1841, they introduced the Marzen beer. 1894. The Muncher Helles, a German pale lager, was produced by the company for the first time, 5.2 ABV. They had a Pills that they make 5.0 ABV, the Oktoberfest beer, which was likely going to be what we're going to have while we're there, I can't wait, I'm excited.
Speaker 1:My goal is and I've said this multiple different times or whatever my goal is to have between 7 and 10 massive beers and then a pretzel the size of my torso.
Speaker 2:We'll be carrying you right out of there. It's a good thing that I don't have a flight back to.
Speaker 1:America the next morning. Wait, wait, a minute. That's going to be. That'll be interesting.
Speaker 2:I do not have a flight back the next day. I go back two days later. I think I probably should have pushed it a couple of days.
Speaker 1:The third yeah, that's the way that it worked out for flight times for me.
Speaker 2:We're going to get laughed at over there. Oh, absolutely, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 1:I'm okay with that. I'm willing to accept any and all harsh criticism. I'm okay with that. But interesting note, as we know that it takes a little while to be able to brew beer, usually you can get it done in between a couple of weeks and a month, depending on how long you want to let it settle, to be able to let some of the malt settle to the bottom, or filtering. They brew the Oktoberfest beer, it says, here in springtime to be able to be ready for the fall Oktoberfest in autumn. So that's going to be about a 5.9 ABV. So looking forward to having a bunch of that. I can't wait. They also have a light beer, Diat Pills, which, interesting note, can be consumed by diabetics. So if you're running into that issue, that's something that you can have with that.
Speaker 2:Beer for everybody. I'm not interested in looking to consume light beer, though that's true. I want full, hearty, chunky, thick German beer. That's going to knock me on my ass, basically, exactly.
Speaker 1:The Francis Conner Weiss beer has a 5.0 ABV, and that is one of them that claims to be part of following the purity law with what you're required the malt, hops and water. Basically, that's it. I don't know how you make anything taste different at all.
Speaker 2:Right when you have the same three ingredients.
Speaker 1:You just make it work, I guess.
Speaker 2:Maybe you could get some different water from somewhere.
Speaker 1:That's true, because that is one of the big things is the taste of water. It's going to be a little different, that is, it definitely changes the taste of the beer. Generally I've purchased because I just make five, make like five gallon batches. Whenever I've made it I will just purchase like spring water and in bottles. But I have known different places. There's a place in Florida that I had gone to, anchor Lab, that they use reverse osmosis and just filter it right down to basically distilled water. There's nothing in it. And then the guy that owns the place actually he graduated as, like, a chemist, I believe, and so he at least was in college for a while as a chemist but he'll basically put different minerals and different things back into the water to create a specific taste based on a water table from a certain area.
Speaker 1:So there are places that want to do that. They want to recreate a beer from a random place in Japan. All right, well, as long as I have the water profile like, I can make it taste exactly like that. So kind of a fun thing. If you have a taste that you want to be able to go to, you can adjust the water itself. So now you see the ingredients. But you know, if you want to adjust the water, you can certainly do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's crazy Interesting how that stuff works when you're doing that kind of thing, brewing beer or whatever it is you're doing here that they generally only use raw materials of the highest qualities and a lot of it is locally sourced.
Speaker 1:A lot of their malt is obtained from barley grown primarily in Bavaria and it pays very close attention to the purity of the strain of the barley that they use. So they definitely go real close to home. The hops are taken from a Hallertau I believe is what it is Hallertau situated just north of Munich. So again, kind of locally sourced with everything. And the yeast supplies are brought in as well and they use their own specific purebred strain of yeast. So definitely something that they keep local. And then their water table they say their own deep wells and especially noted for purity right there in Munich.
Speaker 1:So yeah, lots of right from the source kind of things. They're not trucking stuff in from all over the place, which to a certain extent I mean, if you find something that's good, what difference does it make if you bring it in from North Dakota, like it's a good ingredient? I want to have it be a good ingredient. Obviously you want to try to stay local, be able to support the local economy and you know something that if you can do it, that's great. If you can't, as long as it tastes good. You know, I think that's kind of good, but you know it's something you can kind the storyline All locally sourced, homegrown.
Speaker 2:But yeah, you can get good ingredients from everywhere and you're talking about yeast that just kind of reminded me of I don't know if it's still in business anymore. I kind of saw it maybe six, seven months ago, but apparently in California there's a company that has taken prehistoric yeast and they've brought that back from the dinosaur age and they make beer with that Interesting I'd be willing to try it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know if they're still in business or not. I didn't do a ton of research on it, but it's literally prehistoric yeast that they brought back. It was frozen or fossilized or something. I don't remember the exact details.
Speaker 1:Is this like Jurassic Park? They drill into the mosquito.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope not, but it was kind of interesting because that was their whole gimmick. You know is prehistoric beer, yeast from back then and I guess it took them a while to get the yeast to actually work, produce properly or to ferment properly for the beer. We might have to do an episode on that if we can actually get a hold of some of that beer, if it exists still. But it was interesting.
Speaker 1:Absolutely We'll have to do some research, or if any of our listeners out there or, I guess, watchers, because we are also on YouTube, if you have any information about that or, I guess, any beer. If you have anything you want to recommend to us, definitely reach out on our social media platforms. Toss something at us, you know. Give us an idea. Give us, you know, give us an idea. Give us, you know, something. I really want to see this.
Speaker 1:Go ahead and talk about this brewery. You know we're happy to be able to do that and you know we love to be able to talk to people and you know we've talked to a couple of different breweries about, you know, being able is how the words actually work being able to do like on site type of things and might do some on site interviews and some episodes here in the upcoming future as well. So definitely looking forward to continuing with some of that. So a lot of good things happening here at the, the old podcast. But, yeah, if you've got ideas or things that you want to hear, have us talk about, certainly reach out. Give us some feedback on, on you know, the different social media platforms. Comment on YouTube. Comment on Facebook. Twitter X. Comment on YouTube. Comment on Facebook. Twitter X. Whatever it is Instagram. I don't think we have an OnlyFans yet, but we can get working on that.
Speaker 2:That is not a bad idea.
Speaker 1:If there's a segment out there that's looking for that, we'll drink beer and show our toes or something. I don't think it'll go well, but you never know, maybe that's our next sponsor. There we go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we appreciate the recommendations. This one was recommended. We have a couple of future episodes of recommended beer coming too. We've had a couple of past ones. So yeah, we really appreciate the comments and thanks a lot.
Speaker 1:Absolutely what else you got going on over there, Sean? I don't got a whole lot going on. I got some randomness kind of bopping around my head, but nothing particular.
Speaker 2:Boy, I don't have too much on this particular day. This day is kind of cloudy for reasons that Jake was supposed to be here. Now he's not, but I got to bring this up because Joe Rogan brought this up and viral stuff, viral sensations, and you're laughing, so I'm sure you know what I'm gonna ask him.
Speaker 1:I, I don't, but uh, I just when you start referencing joe rogan's podcast like that, always well and it was surprising he brought it up stuff, but you haven't heard the.
Speaker 2:The latest viral sensation the gal that was on the interview in the street.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, okay yeah yeah, yeah, yeah baseball the last two weekends everything the high school kids that we have on our team. That's all they keep saying all the time. And like at first, I'm like what are you talking about? Like what? So obviously you had to google it. And well, that was a terrible decision how does that even happen?
Speaker 2:things go so crazy, viral, like that. What's the science behind it? There, probably isn't a science behind it, but how does that happen?
Speaker 1:It's so random, but there are people that are paid tens of thousands of dollars, maybe even millions of dollars, to try to develop things like that Things that go viral.
Speaker 1:There are people that literally will work for different companies that develop like all right, this is going to be the dance that we're going to give to such and such, and then they're going to do it and it's going to be everybody's going to be doing this dance on Tik TOK for the next three months, or something like that. I don't. The weird thing is, I don't know how you monetize some of that. I understand that you kind of monetize, like, if you get somebody that's like Uber, famous, that's a influencer or whatever it is, if they do it, then other people will do it and they get money. But I don't know how that translates back to like. Are they like? Are they just? Well, I can't come up with my own, so I'm going to pay you to develop a dance for me that I'm going to then do then. Then the rest of the world will do right, like, who gets? So basically, I'm just the yeah, so I think it's you ultimately pay for the thing, but yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know. You'd hope you'd get enough views and clicks, I suppose, to pay yourself and pay them anything over you'd make money on Like this gal. I don't even remember her name, we'll just call her Hawk Gal. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I have no idea, she's already made a couple hundred grand off of merchandise. It's like signing autographs and whatnot, and actually before I was on my over here to record this, but this beer, apparently she was on barstool sports, on that podcast talking about those things and of course you read on the internet she got fired from her job or this or that. Well, none of that's true, apparently, like what I kept seeing on social media was she was a teacher apparently. Yeah, she's like. No, I'm not a teacher, I work at a spring factory. She's like nothing you've seen on there. It's not true at all.
Speaker 1:Which, to a certain extent, depending on like what it is like, why would you get fired? Because you said you answered a question on the street, just because it became viral, Like I don't know, it seems kind of weak reason to be able to fire somebody, but the nature of it, yeah it, I don't know that's.
Speaker 2:It seems kind of kind of weak, but still for that you'd have a pretty good case for, uh, it's kind of the gray area, but my gosh, you could really sue for wrongful termination for that. Absolutely yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The other viral, semi-viral, I guess sensation was the. Did you see or hear about the Edmonton Oilers fan?
Speaker 2:No, I did not.
Speaker 1:So all of the videos are heavily edited at this point in time, so don't even try to go looking, because I've done the research for you. Again, we do the heavy lifting for you. But I guess at one point in time, when Connor McDavid had scored during the the most recent Stanley cup playoffs the finals that somebody had shared a video, they were kind of like the crowd and went back to her and she's like, yeah, and then she's like hauls them out, ah, yes.
Speaker 1:You know, and you know, I guess it just kind of it went nuts and it became kind of a little you know mini viral thing and it went away really quick. But apparently she was offered all sorts of money for a bunch of different things and turned it all down. She said, no, I just want to support the team I just got. I had about nine beers and got a little while Like it's fine.
Speaker 2:I did see that. I didn't see the actual presentation that she displayed, but yeah, I did read about that gal and her drinking a lot of beer. For that for sure. Yeah, I didn't see that. It's funny how that goes. Well, you bring up hockey Now. I got to trail off a little bit. The Florida Panthers won the cup. I was rooting for the Oilers. Florida is now the state of hockey. We are no longer the state of hockey.
Speaker 1:They've won three of the last five stanley cups down there in florida. It's ridiculous, it's an insane to me, like I don't understand and I think there's a certain part of me that I feel like. And of course I mean, don't get me wrong they developed well, they've drafted well, they brought people in, they've done all of the things right to a certain extent. But I gotta feel like the league is trying to do everything they can to kind of bend the rules the right is the right terminology but like they want southern states to have hockey, because when you have hockey in the southern states you expand the nation and you can expand your brand. You're not just trying to move into additional places in Canada which don't, because of exchange rate and other things going on, isn't as financially viable. But I think after three times of having a team in Atlanta you can just give up on that, like that's just not going to happen. And side note, congratulations to the Panthers winning the cup.
Speaker 1:I have now been to a Stanley Cup champion hockey game. I didn't go to the Stanley Cup, obviously, but at one point in time, when I went on the cruise, one of the cruises this last week, last weekend, this last winter we had an extra day in Florida and where we were staying was about 20 minutes or less in an Uber to Paradise. Sunrise, sunrise, I believe. Florida where the Panthers play.
Speaker 2:And so I was like why not?
Speaker 1:We don't got anything going on. Do we want to just, you know, I mean it's kind of a wild idea, you know fly to Florida out of Minnesota in the winter and go on a cruise and then go to a hockey game? I know it's a little bit weird, and the wild weren't playing there. For those that don't know, we're from Minnesota, so I'm wild you don't go wild sometimes. They weren't playing, it was Panthers and Blues, but I was like, why not Nana's, like let's check it out? And so we didn't buy tickets ahead of time. We kind of came up with the plan last minute and took an Uber there and that was kind of a disaster because he missed the turn for the Uber that drops you off right up front. And then we ended up on the far side of the parking lot because you're like, I don't know where I'm supposed to go at this point in time. Get out, yeah. So we're just like well, whatever, I'm not dealing with you anymore. So we just walk at that point, which is fine.
Speaker 1:We get up to the uh, the ticket window, which was again outside, because it's Florida in December, but it's still Florida, so it's outside and go up to the window and I'm like, oh, I hope they still have some tickets left. And like you still got some tickets left, I'm assuming, you know like we get you know something, I don't care if they're you know way up top, whatever they're like oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we got some tickets available, or whatever. Once we get inside, there's obviously some tickets available. It was like the Metrodome back in the day, you know, it was like when we went take two tickets. He's like, ah, well, you know, these are gonna be, it'll be where florida shoots twice.
Speaker 1:I'm like I don't really care because I don't, you know, like if it's the wild, that's what I want to see, but otherwise, like I don't really care. You know what I mean. So it's uh, it's in in an end and it is on the second level, uh, but we'll get you these tickets and and I'm like, okay, totally fine. And he's like in my mind, I'm already, because I'm used to wild ticket prices, upper level or still like $97 a piece or something stupid. And so mentally I'm like, okay, so it's Florida, so it's going to be less, but it's still a Stanley Cup. They were in the Cup final last year and obviously they won it this year, so they were good all season long. These are going to be 50, 60 bucks. Mentally I've already decided that's totally okay and he's like. He's going to be like 25 bucks a piece.
Speaker 2:And I'm like can I buy three of them and put?
Speaker 1:a buffer on each side. I'm like this is not a problem, my man, Give me the tickets right now and I'm going to spend more of that on the beer. So we went in and we got there a little bit after the first period started. We kind of wandered around the stadium just kind of check it out Cool stadium there, and you know they had a lot of stuff going on, but it was very much so. Nobody was there for the hockey. They were there for the I'm out and about in Florida and taking pictures and being with friends, and there was a couple of people they were cheering when stuff would happen, but almost nobody was there for the hockey.
Speaker 1:It was a very weird, surreal experience. We actually sat in the seats and got beer and hot dogs and the whole bit during the second period and then about early to mid-third period we just kind of pulled the pin, went and got another beer, wandered around and just kind of toured the rest of the stadium and then we're like let's just head out, we can beat the whole crowd, we can get an Uber right away. It'll be right at the cause. They have this whole section of Ubers that are all set there and so there would just get the first one that's in line, no big deal so.
Speaker 1:So we get out there and the Uber was a disaster getting there, but the guy that brought us back was super cool, Just an awesome dude was very into the Panthers, very into hockey, so we talked hockey like the entire time. It was just a blast it was. It was really really cool to be able to experience that. But, yeah, so I got to see a Stanley Cup champion before they won it, but nonetheless got to watch Stanley Cup level hockey. They actually lost that game too. The Blues beat them.
Speaker 2:Oh no, the Blues weren't very good that year, but they didn't beat them. So do you think? I don't know, I don't think hockey should be in the South at all, like I just don't understand hockey in Florida. Like you said, there wasn't even anybody there. The Panthers were a perennial team.
Speaker 1:They were in the Cup the year before, they were in the Cup this year, but nobody's there. I feel like Tampa does okay with attendance.
Speaker 2:But yeah.
Speaker 1:Arizona.
Speaker 2:Arizona moves, yeah, utah, do they have a team?
Speaker 1:name. Yet I don't think they've decided the team name. They have a bunch of names out there, like the Blizzard or the Yeti or Igloo or something like that?
Speaker 2:Who's coming up with those?
Speaker 1:names. Those sound terrible. Well, I think they're just making up names at this point in time. They have no idea. Somebody already took the Kraken, so oh, stop, not a lot of Kraken in Utah, no, the Kraken's in Seattle.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, no, it's hard to really believe that. There's mail. Don't send me anything on that. There's definitely fans there, but to get a concentration enough to be able to support a professional franchise, 20,000 people at a crack kind of a tough pull and I've seen it myself because there's so much other stuff going on that it's an afterthought. You look at even baseball in Tampa Bay, you know what I mean. Like Grand Ole Miss Stadium is garbage but at the same time like nobody goes and they're a perennial contender For a long time they were good, you know.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah, it's, I don't know, it's just it's a tough place, just because, like I said, there's just so much stuff otherwise going on. You know what I mean. Even the Diamondbacks, other than when they're going to the World Series they're pretty well supported but they're not selling out all the time or anything like that. Not that the Twins are selling out or anything either, but attendance figures just aren't amazing down there. A little bit for basketball, a little bit for basketball, but that's more. And basketball especially is a lot more like you're there for the appearance of being there. You know what I mean. You get into the game a little bit, but that's a different thing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I don't know, I don't necessarily love hockey in southern states. I'd like to see it in a couple more. I think that there should be a team in Wisconsin. I think that there should be a team back in Connecticut, in the Hartford area. Whether you put a team in Maine or anything like that, there's a lot of hotbeds that don't have any hockey at all right now, especially like the Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:One kind of just boggles my mind. You know, I don't know that you necessarily want to put one in like North Dakota. Maybe that Grand Forks area wouldn't be bad, but I don't know that they have the population to be able to support it. But you know it's the people that are there love hockey. But you know it's the people that are there love hockey. Yeah, there's no, there's no question about that. It's not a matter of passion, it's just. But at the same time, what are you? You're going to get passionate people that that love it, that are going to support it there, or are you going to put it in a Southern state where you're going to get half the amount of people to show up and not really care?
Speaker 2:And they're just on their phone the whole time down there. Yeah, checking their Facebook.
Speaker 1:But I think it comes down to media markets more than anything.
Speaker 2:Because you put one in Grand.
Speaker 1:Forks. That's not a big media market. You're not going to get a lot of advertising revenue. No, you want to have it in LA and Chicago.
Speaker 2:Hartford's not a big one you know, on top of that, North Dakota you're competing with well, they're not the Sioux anymore, but the Fighting Sioux, fighting Hawks or something Whatever they are, because they had to change the name. But that's a perennial college team that gets a lot of followers all over the place. I think it'd be tough for an NHL team to compete with that. Yeah, yeah, you're right. Like I think more people would go after the North Dakota team or the college team versus the pro team. I agree For sure. Yeah, different brand of hockey college versus pro, you know.
Speaker 1:Definitely yeah, but they have such a I don't know if cult following is the right word but college has such a different bit because there's so much more passion with it, because you went to that college or you have a connection to it specifically and you know that the people that are going to be there are going to be there for three, four years. Well, that's kind of changing a little bit with football and basketball. But hockey, generally speaking, you don't see a lot of jumping in hockey quite as much. No money hasn't destroyed hockey quite as much as some of the other sports.
Speaker 2:Not yet anyway. We'll see how it trickles down here in the near future, right.
Speaker 1:But that's kind of the factor that you look at some of those things, why that's happening and I don't know. As far as expansion, I don't know where you'd put it, but I like the idea of having a team in Utah. I mean, there's not a ton there, but it's still. You know, Salt Lake City's a good area. There's definitely some places you could put hockey. But I just don't know why they keep trying to force their way, Because even with this team moving to Utah, there was talk of a different owner having an expansion franchise in Arizona.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I read that too and I'm like why.
Speaker 1:Why is this happening? It already failed there once. If you can't wrap your head around like either you did a terrible job vetting the owner before and you just voted yes because somebody was willing to buy the franchise and keep it there, or that person completely flip-flopped on all of their ideals when they went through that vetting process, you know like. I just don't understand how many times you go back to that well before you realize that it's just not going to work. You're going to have to wait until you develop your brand a little bit larger, a little bit higher, and you're going to have to figure out a different way to be able to do it, because it's just not working maybe people in the south just don't like hockey as much, or there's more things to do outside throughout the year that they don't want to go into a stadium and pay, even with a baseball.
Speaker 2:You know well baseball's all summer. If you're in Florida, you want to go inside in the summer.
Speaker 1:Well, not only inside, but into an ice room. I mean, right, and not that it's cold, but especially if you've been in Florida for however long it's going to be chilly, you're going to have to like you're going to wear a sweatshirt. I think I wore like a little thin in long sleeve or something like that, but I'm more used to. You know, lived in minnesota, but people don't want to do that when they go to florida or arizona because of the weather. I don't want to go. Yeah, like I'll go to a mall if I want to get some ac, but I don't want to go into an ice arena like that's, you know, no fun, but it'd be still be fun for me, like I'd still love it, but I still live here.
Speaker 2:So yeah, we sure, we sure do no.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, I don't know. I'm sure there's a market somewhere, I'm sure there's a way to figure it out, but nobody's figured it out, at least to this point, and so until they prove me wrong, I'm going to go ahead and be down. My dauber is down on that.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it'll be quite a while before anybody's proven wrong with that. It hasn't proven successful at all yet, yeah, so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, but yeah, I don't know. The beer was good, though the beer was good. Yeah, hockey may be okay, but the beer was good.
Speaker 2:I've got a little bit more of the beer left than you. I'm going to have to get to drinking and get this finished here.
Speaker 1:Get that finished off. Got anything else for the listeners for the episode? For today I do not. I have absolutely nothing. Tell your enemies, tell your spouse, tell your you know dentist, whoever it may be, you know about the uh, the podcast. Uh, if you, if you're really wanting to be, you know, really proactive or whatever, let us know. We'll send you stickers or you know little cards or something we can be able to. We'll get you something you know be able to do that. So otherwise, we do got hats, we got some stuff going on that we can be able to get out there. So reach out if you're looking for something like that and we'll be able to help you out with something like that. But until then, this will be Episode 26 for the Spot and Optimator Cheers, cheers, cheers, cheers.
