Hey folks, and welcome to Drinking Alone with Friends, a podcast where three friends drink
alone together.
My name's Chris.
What up?
It's Todd.
And I'm Obert.
Since I could record a podcast, it's been a while.
Todd, I heard you went skiing recently.
I did.
I did.
Well, I think skiing is a, it's a relative term for what happened, I think.
I was on skis.
And you were moving down a mountain.
I did move down a mountain.
It took an hour.
I went about 600 feet, maybe 800 feet, if we're being generous.
Yeah, I was on those skis for a majority of that time.
I fell down a lot.
Where were you for the rest of the time?
On the ground, on my belly, on my back, on my side.
And then, then I got taken off the mountain by ski patrol on the back of a snowmobile.
Now, I was not in the, I was not in the, I was not in the little sled, but I almost
fell off of the snowmobile getting on the snowmobile, by the way, mind you.
I just, I think I need to take lessons.
I almost killed a little kid in line before we even got on the lift.
I fell down waiting for the lift, dropped my glove while waiting for the lift.
I got on the lift just fine.
And I got off the lift like a fucking stud.
Done.
Off the lift, on the lift.
Like I had done it 10,000 times.
The rest of it?
No.
Pizza wedging?
No.
Doesn't work.
I don't know how to chalk, I don't know what to chalk that up to.
Maybe in my older age, last time I skied, I was 13.
So I'm much heavier now than I was when I was 13.
Your bones are a lot less rubbery too.
Well, yeah, but being heavier, I don't think the pizza wedge works as well when you're
trying to stop, you know, this big hunk of man meat going down the mountain versus when
I was 13, pizza wedge worked, but I also just fell and it didn't hurt.
Yeah.
Your center of gravity was a little lower back then.
Yeah.
Do you know what's the scariest part about skiing?
What's that?
Trying to stop, not stopping, twirling around and going down the mountain backwards.
That is a frightening experience.
See, that sounds like an advanced technique to me.
I think a lot of people, I think you're selling yourself short, I don't think a lot of people
can do that.
I think the skiing structure that passed me when I was going down backwards screaming,
oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, may have made his money that day just in laughing
because he was staring at me hysterically dying as he was passing me by because I'm
trying to figure out how to spin back around because I was moving, I was like, I want to
keep this momentum and get down this mountain so I can be done.
Right.
Oh, they want to do this one time.
No, nope.
I then I fell forward up the mountain, spread eagle, and then I had to figure out how to
flip myself back over because of course my skis didn't pop off like they're supposed
to.
I don't know what that is, but skis never pop off of my feet when I fall.
This is a consistent thing with me with skiing.
No, I've heard of that trick.
I think that's called the 180 Sailing Dutchman is the technical name for that trick.
I think I was pulling out all sorts of tricks.
At one point my ski started flying down the mountain without me.
Luckily I had a friend who was able to grab my ski and then I had to awkwardly like shuffle
my way over to him down a mountain.
So that was one ski.
With one ski.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They call that one the lost fry.
So it sounds like you pulled that one off too.
I just, what happened, I don't know, but maybe you can speak more to this because, you know,
you are a west coaster now or closer to a west coaster, close to Utah, which is where
I was skiing.
Yeah.
I live in the west.
Yeah.
What happened to the bunny hills?
See, you told me a little bit about this trip before and you told me where you were going
and you told me what the run that you did all of this on.
And I looked and there is, looks like on the trail map, there is a bunny hill that
maybe they just weren't open or something when you went.
I asked the ski patrol guy on, while he was driving me down the mountain on the snowmobile,
if there was a bunny hill and he said no.
Well, I think he assessed the condition you were in and decided that whatever is less
of a bunny hill is what you need.
Like I remember back in the day going to like Wachusett or Mountain Snow or any of those,
they had a nice little bunny hill.
I think the one at Wachusett has a little handle that you like, you hold on with the
rope and it like yanks you up the hill.
And that's, you know, that's not easy either.
But that's what I was looking for.
I was just looking for a nice little one that go down.
It does.
It's not super steep.
Like I can just get my bearings.
Not this one.
This one turned into a blue halfway down.
It was called the majestic.
And like I told you guys, there was nothing majestic about my trip.
So I think I'm missing some key plot points here.
Was it a medical rescue or a safety for other people rescue was happening?
Like what happened?
Were they like, you are, you are doing more damage to the mountain than it deserves?
No, I think what he called it when, cause he has like, they radio everything in.
It was either he was going to rescue me or I was going to walk down the mountain at that
point or sit on my skis and slide down like, you know, like it was a sled.
He said it was, they have it like under, I think it was called underskilled.
Oh, okay.
So he's like, we have an underskilled on the majestic.
Yeah.
So he, so over maybe, maybe, I don't know.
I think maybe you were just over skilled and they just couldn't handle it over to intimidating
of brain into the chat.
So yeah.
So majestic right there.
That's the one I was on.
Yeah.
See the little one called Explorer to the left of that.
That's what I was just looking at.
Yeah.
I should have found that one.
Yeah.
I think you were, you were not ready to graduate to majestic.
So over it, if you look at this, look at the very top of, look at the very top of majestic.
Yeah.
There's a blue there called, uh, Mary Mary back.
Yeah.
But it starts off green if you notice.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then it turns to blue.
Hmm.
Yeah.
What kind of bullshit is that?
One shouldn't get harder, just be the one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Am I as a, as a, as a new person supposed to do that?
Like say, like I say, I did fine on the Explorer and it was fine.
I could get down to just fine.
I could stop.
I could do everything.
What in their right mind says, Hey, you know what?
Now you should jump from green to blue mid run.
Mind you.
Um,
looks like there's a green, like off to the side.
I can't read it in my discord chat, but all the way to the right, is that just a straight
green all the way down to the most part?
I can't see it from here, but yeah, that's weird.
I mean, there's a reason I live in the south and I don't, I don't like snow anymore, but
I went, I went snowboarding once and it was much the same.
Like even if you go up like the snake Creek express, like that green line that's called
sunshine ends middle of the mountain.
How?
Well, I'm glad that you survived.
I am too.
I actually, there was a point where I was convinced that I was going to die.
Cause like what, what I didn't tell you is that there's on after the first little hill
of this mountain.
It's a turn.
Like you have to make a turn and it's a sharp turn.
It's not like a, just like a, Oh, you have to veer slightly to the left.
It's like, you have to turn or else there's trees.
And at one point going down, even face, this was face first or backwards, I was, I was
1000% convinced that if I got up to speed to terminal velocity speed for me on skis,
I was not stopping before I hit that tree.
Um, so there was a point where I was convinced I was dying.
And then I didn't know, like I didn't never, I've never had snow patrol have to rescue
me before.
I didn't know snow patrol actually rescued people who like were under or were underskilled
for the mountain you were on.
I honestly was like, I don't know how the fuck I'm getting down off this mountain.
My options were walk, which it was too steep to walk.
And I was in snow boots, which I was slipping in those anyways, or sit on my skis and slide
down.
That's just a fun, a fun sled ride there.
Well, that, except for the little, the little hoop you do is that stick into the snow to
stop your skis from like really flying away.
Those would have really protruded me from, uh, it got in the way of me, uh, ski or sliding
down the hill.
So I might've had to like murder a bear, um, and like use that carcass like slide.
I don't know what I was going to do.
I was, I was imagining you laying on your belly, holding like kind of your, your feet
behind you, holding onto your skis, kind of making a U shape with your, uh, and just sliding
down that way.
It, listen, I thought about it.
I was like, I could roll, like it was a, it's not a, it's, I mean, it's the, it's the short,
it's the second shortest, I guess, looking at this map, the second shortest run, but
it was not, uh, it was not insignificant.
Like it doesn't tell you the height, I guess, on here for how high the run was, but it was
a good seven or eight minute chairlift up to the top of this thing.
Yeah.
I feel like the entire mountain is about 3000.
So yeah, you're probably about a good 1200 feet up from the base there.
It was ridiculous.
Well, um, I know one area where I would never call you underskilled and that's drinking
beer.
Thanks.
That was a long set up for this.
What you want to, you want to share us some of your, your appropriately skilled talents
here and, um, and rate or review a beer.
Sure.
You earned it.
So I will say my final thought is I am glad to have my, uh, my feet back on non slippery
ground and I'm ready to drink this beer.
There we go.
It's beer 30 and I'm thirsty and I've been working like a dog all week long, so maybe
something cold won't hurt me because it's beer 30 and it's time to party.
So my beer this week is, you know, we're still kind of coming out of Christmas season.
So I figured still a timely beer.
Um, you know, I don't think we're quite at Valentine's day yet, so might as well use
up the last of my Christmas beer while I, while it's still somewhat fresh.
There you go.
I've got this beer from Evil Twin Brewing Company called Even More Xmas Miracle 2022.
So I bought this last Christmas during 12%.
They do like a, like a 12 days of like Christmas bottle sale and each day they release a different
bottle and you're allowed to buy like two of them.
So generally speaking, I am not the biggest Evil Twin fan.
I think some of their beers are overly boozy.
I think some of their beers are overly sweet, but I always feel like, like I'm like drawn
to like continually or continue to try them.
Don't know what it is about them.
You can't quit.
You can't turn away.
Yeah.
I like, cause I like, I think I expect them to be good and I'm always slightly disappointed,
but this one had a nice little wax seal on it.
Cut that off pretty easily on like my time, like many, many moons ago where I struggled
with that.
But this is called a very, their description, a very limited edition maple bourbon barrel
aged Imperial step.
See, I can see why you keep going back to it because it's like got the red and green
wrapping paper looking label.
It's got a very nice gold, almost creamy eggnoggy wax seal and, and I love, I love like a ribbon.
Yeah.
This baby weighs in at 12% ABV and it is in a 16.9 ounce bomber.
Pours beautifully.
Um, you know, I don't need to really test this with the, the T-Rex thing, but you know,
if you do, you're not seeing it.
You are completely hidden in here.
You're like wearing the invisibility cloak in Harry Potter.
Black is coal and you're stocking.
Correct.
Or as the glass says, black is beautiful.
From way back in 2020, I think these glasses were released.
That was a long time ago now.
On the nose.
It definitely smells like bourbon and maple.
That's what I get.
It smells like it's going to be evil twinny sickeningly sweet.
Like very, very sweet.
It's I, that's just my, my initial smell impression.
So let's try this baby out.
That's actually surprisingly not bad.
Um, it is not sickeningly sweet.
It is very malty, um, a lot more malty than I expected it to be.
I don't get any bourbon burn at all.
Um, it's a Christmas miracle.
That is, that is a Christmas miracle.
You know, it's, it's got like a nice subtle flavor of, of maple.
Like it's, it's not overly aggressive, which is shocking to me.
Um, this is, this is really good.
Like, like I'm, I'm shocked.
Like I need to, I'm going to applause evil twin because this is like the first beer in
like a long time for them that I've had that I was not like almost repulsed to drink.
What a glowing review.
I mean, it's, it's, if another brewery brewed this, I would not have been hesitant to try
it and this would be, this would be getting a fantastic review.
So I need to, I need to remove my preconceived notions about evil twin and kind of put on
it my, my non-judgmental beer drinking hat.
You might say check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Yes.
Much like me on the, uh, on the slopes, I need to check myself before I wreck myself
on a tree.
Um, no, very nice subtle maple flavor.
Um, once you get past the first initial sip, that kind of multiness kind of fades away.
Your mouth gets a little bit used to it.
It's, it's your, it's a straight up bourbon barrel beer that was aged with maple.
Um, it's not much deeper than that.
It is, it is as bone bare a bourbon maple beer as you're going to find in it.
And I'm here for it.
Cause that is, that's what I like.
It has like that sweetness from the maple.
It blends very well with kind of the spiciness from the bourbon.
I wish it told you what bourbon barrel it was aged in, but it doesn't overall though.
Good beer by a evil twin.
Kind of upset that I opened this one this soon then because it's good, but at least,
you know, at least I didn't age it for too long.
It only aged a year.
So some of those flavors may have, maybe, maybe, maybe if I would have tried it when
it was brand new, it would have been overly sweet and maybe over time that the sweetness
has kind of milled itself out, which makes us a fantastic beer.
Um, and I'm a connoisseur of bourbon barrel aged beers.
I'm going to say this is a say it's a four to five.
Ooh, okay.
All right.
That's a good one.
This is a surprise evil twin.
You have surprised me.
You know what this means?
The next time I see a bourbon barrel aged evil twin beer, I'm going to fucking buy it
and I'm going to fucking hate it.
Hey now, now you just, you just said this one was good.
Maybe they turned a corner.
You just spoke about like breaking up those preconceived notions and stuff like that.
You know?
I know, but it's like, it's like 2024 just when they think I'm out, they pull me back
in.
They just do it.
It's just, all right, I was going to say, I feel like evil twin overall.
I think I enjoy them, but I don't, number one, have not had as many evil twin as you
and number two, I only get like the big, big releases every once in a while.
So, but you know what I'm talking about?
Like some of their beers are just like too much.
Like it's just like, like they're even more sweet baby or even more Jesus.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You get that sometimes.
It's super sweet.
Yeah.
Like I can't drink this.
Like I need to share this with people.
I remember they, they do the Molotov series.
Yeah.
I do not like those.
I'm not a fan.
So I completely get you.
The one beer that sticks in my mind to evil twin, you guys would both remember this.
I was living at Ben's house and you guys are both over and I had bought a four pack of
even more Jesus.
So it was a brown can.
I'll never forget this.
You were, we were over.
I think we were playing, Chris was, Chris was being our GM for Pathfinder and I remember
buying it.
I was like, all right, cool.
I'm going to drink this while we're playing Pathfinder.
And I remember like forcing it upon you too, cause I just drank it and I was like, I don't
like this.
And I made us drink all four of them.
I think that was the day that we cracked open the 10 fitty that broke and spilled everywhere.
When Chris ruined my 10 fitty that I had been aging for like years.
Who ever did that?
Somebody did that.
I don't.
Yeah.
I'm not too sure.
Yeah.
We got so drunk.
I don't remember.
Some people, some people say it probably didn't even happen to be honest.
Yeah.
All right.
That was, that was upsetting.
That beer was, that beer was going to be, it was so good, but so much of it was on the
floor of, of the house and in my beer fridge and everywhere else, or my beer cooler, my
beer freezer at the time.
So you got to tell me which of these you would check this beer in under.
Okay.
I was actually, I was about to ask Obert for consultation because I don't know.
Well this is, I think this is whatever Todd would check it in.
I've got the bottle.
So there's even more X's Miracle 2022 with 115 check ins.
Okay.
There's also even more X's Miracle 2022 and in parentheses, Cream Wax with 53 check ins.
Neither has a picture.
I mean there are pictures in the check ins.
Yes.
Right.
But not, not from the brewery.
I guess if you look at the pictures of the check in for the one that doesn't say Cream
Wax, does it have the Cream Wax?
I saw Red Wax.
Yeah.
I'm sure some people are going to be checking it in, but yeah, it looks like I see Red Wax
instead.
So are you saying you would only, you check it in as the Cream Wax or just unlabeled?
I mean I would say that I would probably just pick the first one in the list and just go
with it.
That one does have more check ins, but it doesn't say Cream Wax.
Is there another distinguishment of Wax?
Like is it just like, is Cream Wax the only one?
Well there's 2023 Green Wax, right?
So yeah.
I mean I generally try to skew with the ones with the more check in.
Okay.
Which, but I'm going to let you, like I always.
No, no, no.
You tell me which one you would check it in as and then that's what we're going to rate
it on.
I generally would go with the one with more because I want to be part of the crowd and
I want to do that.
Okay.
So that's even more X's Miracle 2022 with 115 check ins.
Okay.
That's so weird.
Like I'm looking to see if there's like a difference, but it doesn't, it looks like
it's the same beer, just different color waxes.
I have no clue where we're going to be at with this one.
I guess the 425.
People like Evil Twin.
I'm going to take another sip.
The deciding sip.
This one was hard.
I'm in a funk recently.
Obert got a perfect score last week.
I did and it didn't even count.
I haven't won in weeks.
Well, none of us have really.
Yeah.
That's true.
We're going to get to that later.
It's a very long drought for anybody.
I am man of the people.
I am the people's champ, but you can't get, it's never, I'm going to guess 424.
Okay.
Final, final answer.
Well, you picked the right one to check in.
The other one was a 449.
This one 422.02 off.
Wait, so the one that, the one I checked in 422.
Yes.
But the one that was technically the cream wax one was a 449.
449.
Jesus Christ.
I can safely tell you this is not a 449.
Yeah.
Four and a half never went through my mind to rate it at that.
It never went through my mind to guess that.
No.
That one's wrong.
Well, I don't know.
It's the cream wax.
Everybody got thrown off.
Yeah.
Exactly.
They were going to rate it 425 until they went to check it in and saw there was a cream
wax one.
I was like, oh, this must be the fancy one.
And then.
Right.
So do I write it on the board or we write it in the notebook?
No.
That one, I don't remember.
No, you got to, you can write it on the board because we're going to, we're, we're announcing
everything today.
Yeah.
We're revealing everything today.
The Merkin trilogy ends tonight.
So I'm assuming that given that the Merkin trilogy ends tonight, I guess I'm handing
this off to Chris, right?
Because.
Yeah.
Obert's the, like the, the, much like the final.
Kind of the finale.
Yeah.
Chris is sitting in a dark room right now.
Your room always looks so much brighter.
I log into your stream and I don't say anything just to see like what you're, what you're
playing and hopes that you're not playing Pokemon.
Your room is always so much brighter.
And I'm always like, that's not like, it's not the room that I've seen 99% of the time.
No.
Listen, I don't have to put on a show for you people.
Yeah.
No.
I have to like plug in the light, plug in the, turn on those lights and turn this light
on.
I'm surprised you haven't hooked that shit up to the Echo and just been like, Hey, turn
on everything.
Yeah, I probably should, but my life is, listen, I don't.
Chris thinks he's podcast better when he's sleepy is really what's going on.
We know that that's the energy he needs to bring to the show.
Tired, tired boy energy.
Yeah.
If you, if you brought podcasting energy, like, or, or streaming energy, like we might
be like the world's greatest podcast.
No, no, I don't think so.
It might be, but Chris doesn't want to find out.
He's not willing to try.
Why pass with success at this point?
Why try new things?
The Chris story, 2024.
That's right.
2024.
Keep, keep, keep on keeping on.
All right.
So I have as, as a lot of you may or may not know, I was in Florida all last week for a
work function and all that fun stuff.
And I actually did something in Florida that I've never done before.
I don't think.
Fought a shark.
No, not fought a shark.
Surfed.
No, definitely not that.
No.
Ate a burrito.
Fought a gator.
I've done.
I've had.
No, actually.
So eating gator actually was one thing that.
Okay, we're getting closer.
That's not what I had in mind.
No, I was packing to leave.
No, I don't.
Gross.
Not sure, but I think that would be the knee.
Anyways, I, as I was packing up, threw away perfectly good beer, like full cans, full
cans of beer.
Oh, I've, I've never thrown them away, but I've left them behind in hotel rooms because
I couldn't pack them to come home with me.
That was my thing is like, I was, and I felt awkward.
I hope that the staff takes them if I don't throw them away.
Yeah, I guess that's true.
Maybe I should have just done that, but yep.
Threw away perfectly good beer.
It was actually a really funny like story.
I was, it was my last night there and you know.
Where were you in Florida, by the way?
You got to set the scene.
I was in Ocala, Florida, which is like north of Orlando.
Yeah, it's, it's where distribution centers are.
Nowhere.
Actually, it was, it was a little bustling.
It was a little bustling.
Anyways, so there was a, we were in an elevator and with like random, a bunch of people and
I overheard somebody say, oh man, I have all this beer.
I don't know what to do with.
I was like, I was like, I'll take it.
You know, he's like, yeah, if you ever need to get rid of beer, like I'm a good person
to take it.
Now, mind you, I've had a few beers up to this point.
Like, it's not like I wasn't sober saying this to people.
So I go, I go up to my room.
I didn't think anything of it.
And then like, I am walking out to go get dinner and dude comes up and hands me four
bud ices.
It's like, here you go.
And I was like, what, what is going on?
So I just got handed four, but I says, which, which, which, I hope you're, I don't know
if you're listening to the podcast right now.
I assume you are, but I didn't drink them.
Not even one.
No.
Well, cause I was going out to get more beer.
And then by the time I got back, I should not have had any more beer.
So it was a, it was a, it was a whole thing, but no.
Yep.
He was like, and then the next day at work, he was like, did I give you a bunch of beer
at the elevator?
I should have said, no, I should have said, no, it would have been so amazing.
But I was like, yeah, no, you did.
How many?
Like, no, I just saw there was a random plant in the hallway that somebody stuck four bud
ices into.
Curiously, how many homeless people did you pass?
I didn't see many.
Maybe I wasn't paying attention well enough.
Cause I've done that before in Miami.
Leaving to like, to just kind of get rid of beer.
I've walked outside and just gave it to a homeless guy.
I was like, Hey, I was like, you want beer?
And he was like, yeah.
And so I gave him the rest of my four pack and he was like, thank you.
I was like, no problem.
It was on the company dime, man.
Yeah, I know.
Right.
So that whole, that whole entertaining story to say that I'm bringing another outer light
beer.
That whole story to say I am bringing a bud ice on the podcast today.
Yeah, I thought for sure.
What did I miss?
You're gonna be like, I brought one home out of all of them.
No, I probably could have packed them, but I also was like afraid that it was going to
like break open and spill over.
I don't know.
I didn't have like the proper packing tools.
What gets, what gets wet though?
I mean, your clothes, big, big whoop.
I mean, I've, I've thought I've done the same.
Let's throw them in the bag.
Whatever.
They break open, your clothes get wet.
True.
But it's also like blood, blood, blood ice.
It's like, yeah.
All right.
Anyways.
Anyways.
This, I believe for me is a new Chris, this is disappointing.
Yeah.
Well, let's listen.
2024.
Keep on.
Keep it on.
Um, uh, this is, I believe a new one for me.
Uh, it's brewed in collaboration with the chamber, the, the greater mystic chamber of commerce.
Very interesting.
And it's a new England IPA called walk your horses.
So, um, you know, we talked about our light a little bit last episode.
Um, so here it is.
I know it's hard to tell in the dark room, but it's, it's a way to fix that problem.
If only we won't find out.
It's actually a really nice looking beer.
It's got a nice thick head on it.
A nice bubbly head.
It's a nice, beautiful orange color.
Um, I'm pretty sure it's going to light up like a, like a Christmas tree.
Oh yeah.
I mean, I think you might, listen, you might get got, you might get got from a T-Rex.
There might be a little bit of light.
Uh, it might blind him if you look at it, but, um, a very nice looking beer.
Heads dying down a little bit.
Still probably got to like, I don't know, half an inch on there.
So, um, very excited.
I mean, it's a New England IPA.
Um, I don't know if we talked about this.
I don't love Outer Lights IPAs.
Like they're not bad, but they're not my favorite, um, in comparison to their stouts.
I really like their stouts.
I can't think of one of their subduction.
Is that their IPA?
Yeah, subduction's theirs.
Yeah.
So let's see.
I don't see it.
Like it doesn't, it does not come around me.
Yeah.
I think, I think they also brought me up a nuclear subduction IPA, which I thought I
had had before, but I don't think I did.
It was fine.
It was fine.
Um, but that's like a, I don't even know if I would consider that a New England IPA.
So, um, but anyways, let's jump into this one.
Kind of cool can art.
It's got like the, um, what is it?
The Mystic River Bascule Bridge.
Is that what it's called?
The 100th anniversary.
Oh, okay.
Fancy.
That's kind of, kind of neat, fun can art right there.
So, so, um, let's see.
Uh, ladies and gentlemen, walk your horses.
It smells very citrusy.
Yeah, it's, um, it's fine.
It's not bad.
Definitely.
No, but ice.
No, but ice.
Yeah.
I mean, it's not, it's not, it's not the ice champagne of beers or anything.
Worth getting your clothes all wet for, you know?
Um, but no, it's, so I have a feeling.
And I don't know because it doesn't say.
I have a feeling it's very heavy on Citra hops just by the taste of it.
Um, whenever I get a beer that's like very Citra hop heavy, it's always like very sweet to me.
Like I don't get a ton of that like bitterness that I enjoy in my New England IPAs.
But, um, uh, this one is very sweet.
It has a tiny bit of, um, like bitterness on the very end.
So, um, but overall I get, um, a very citrusy forward taste and then it kind of sweetens up on you.
It stays pretty sweet.
It's a relatively easy drinker at 6.1%.
So not too, not too terrible heavy.
Yeah.
I'm just getting like a, it's like a bath of, uh, of, of citrus right now.
So, um, and a little bit, a little bit of, uh, sweetness, almost, almost like a sweetness.
That's like there's excess sugars in this beer that didn't get prevented, you know, um, but
I think I feel that way about a lot of Outer Lights.
I think that's like the, my main feedback about all of Outer Lights IPAs is that they're very sweet.
Yeah, I can see that.
I can see that.
And yeah, I don't know.
Like, cause I mean, I love their stouts.
We've talked about that.
Um, I think they do a really good job with stouts.
Whatever, whatever that coffee stout is that they make is delicious.
Yeah.
No libation propaganda.
I have one in the fridge.
I'm just like kind of saving them.
Um, but, uh, you know, this one is good.
I definitely, I don't know.
I feel like Outer Light has like this like cult following.
It's probably going to have like 122 check-ins and be rated like a 9.2 or something because everybody in Groton loves them.
Um, I think it's, I think it's fine.
I think it's a, I feel like, I feel like it should get harder in my grading, but I'm going to, I'm going to do it.
2024 get, get harder grading.
I'm saying it's a three and a half.
Like it's not bad.
Okay.
It's not bad.
It's not bad.
But I've had a lot of other three, seven, five beers that I like more than this.
So like, what am I going to say?
You know?
Yeah.
The rare three and a half from Chris.
I know.
Not in 2020, not in 2024 anymore, apparently.
Nope.
2024.
Everybody is getting docked points.
Out of according to UNTAP though, there's 234 check-ins.
Okay.
That's more than I thought.
See, I feel like people are going to like this more than I do.
Clearly.
Um, it does not deserve a four.
I will explicitly say that.
It does not deserve a four.
Um, I wouldn't be surprised if it hits a four only because people are people, um, and they're bad at beer.
But the first number that came into my mind was a 3.86 and that's what I'm going to go with.
I'm going to stick with a three eight six and, uh, Todd's going to tell me it was like a four nine four or something, something like that.
First ever minus point.
I know, right?
I mean, so you do lose a point.
It's a four nine four.
Ah, I knew it.
Should I guess that?
Um, no, actually, uh, in a rare turn of events, um, it is a three eight four.
So you're also point two off.
Ooh.
Damn.
Okay.
I thought thick ends.
Oh, wow.
Well, see, look, we were dialed in that time.
Yeah.
Maybe we'll be awarding more than three points tonight.
Oh, let's go.
I'm pretty, I'm happy about that.
That was, that was perfectly deduced.
Thank you.
It was pretty good.
Oh, man.
I thought you were going to guess really high and I was like, oh shit.
Like, no, no, like this is going to be easy.
I got this in the bag.
Okay.
I guess it's time for the thrilling conclusion.
You know, a better, a better sound guy would have had the final count.
Ready to go.
Maybe in preparation.
But at the same time, I also know that Europe is like very big at like suing people who
play their songs.
So, well, anyway, I'm here with the 2017 velvet Merkin, a seven year old beer.
It's older than my oldest son.
That's right.
This is, this is a good time for this.
Good old Pete Gong action.
All right.
So I cracked it open.
Let's see.
Again, similar to the last two kind of muted aroma.
It is funny doing a vertical flight over.
Like how long has it been?
Like five weeks, six weeks, all of the weeks.
But poured in the glass here.
See what we got.
Also.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
All of the weeks.
But poured in the glass here.
See what we got.
It also looks like it pours very similar consistency to the last two.
Right.
Not, not one of these maple bourbon barrel, yada, yada, yada's.
This is just an oatmeal stout.
It does.
It is bourbon barrel aged, but it's not like super, super thick with extra C's.
Again, eight and a half ABV.
So not, not burn your beard hairs off of your face.
High alcohol.
I am getting richer aromas in the glass, though.
More caramelly than I did before.
Yeah.
Just like a, how do I even describe it?
Yeah.
Like a molasses caramel, kind of that earthier sweetness that you would expect.
But OK, it's been seven years now.
This beer, your time has come.
Cheers.
Cheers.
I like beer.
It makes me a jolly good fellow.
I like beer.
It helps me unwind.
And sometimes it makes me feel mellow.
Makes me feel mellow.
I figure Daltry's scream would be really good for you.
Yeah, there we go.
I think Chris was the one who needed it, though, to kind of liven him up.
No, don't try to ruin my New Year's resolution already.
Sleepy podcasting.
We're all doing it.
So I have some thoughts on this beer.
This is, I think, the one I have the most favorable opinion for so far.
Again, that's expectation setting.
But it's also bad news for Firestone Walker because this being the oldest one,
that would mean that the recipe has gotten worse every year.
Right?
Like you would think that the further back in time you go, the less tasty they would be.
But that means at one point in time they were a good brewery.
That's true.
Yeah, this has matured, I think, into a deeper richness that the other two did not have.
Again, it's thinner mouthfeel, but it leaves you the back of your tongue a little bit more of the oatmeal-style
bourbon barrel goodness.
Still not great.
But, you know, I'm glad this is my last one.
I don't think I'll buy velvet merkin again.
But it was a fun experiment.
375.
You know, I think it's what I might have given the other two.
Maybe a four.
I don't know.
But I think I did give the other ones a four, which is why it's funny that me saying this is the one I like the best.
I'm giving a 375.
But I think I've just come to further cement how I feel about them and being like, yeah, OK,
this is the 375 beer.
So remind me again.
This is the velvet merkin 2017 8.5 percent ABV.
Correct?
Correct.
Bourbon barrel aged oatmeal stout.
Yeah, I'm liking it.
I don't know.
The more I'm drinking, the less I'm, you know, I'm over it already after five sips.
I'm like, yeah, whatever.
I hate to be anticlimactic with the vertical, but, you know.
So what do you think 13,140 people thought of it?
So I don't remember my guesses, but I should because I go back and edit these podcasts after we say this stuff.
So you think.
But I'm pretty sure I gave the first one a four, second one a 4.02.
You would be correct, by the way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So OK, now listeners are at least on the same page.
I am.
Is this better?
This is over a four.
This is definitely over a four.
If your evil twin almost got a 4.49 or whatever.
Sorry, I wasn't.
I was too busy.
I was too in my own head.
How many check ins?
Thirteen thousand one hundred and forty.
OK.
You could have said 1340 and I would have been like, yeah, OK.
Thirteen thousand.
Maybe it isn't above a four.
OK.
I guess a 4.0, 4.02.
I guess I got to say 4.01, you know, just to split the difference.
Yeah.
So how do you want to do this?
Yeah, I know.
I think we should go over the scores where we kind of stand for the last last couple
of weeks.
OK.
So before we reveal tonight's prize money prize.
Who's the truest precipitant of them all?
Week one, you gave the 2019, correct?
Velvet Merkin.
Yeah.
A 4.0.
Untapped.
I don't remember how many check ins.
I did not write that down.
Untapped gave that a 4.14.
Oh, wow.
Oh, shit.
Wow.
Snap.
Your 0.14 off.
Yeah, not great.
Not great.
Not great.
The following episode, try the 2018 version and you gave that a 4.02.
Untapped gave that a 4.1.
Getting closer.
There we go.
Untapped comes down.
I come up.
So then and I believe I have a drum roll.
0.02 away.
Drum roll.
This week, as we all know, you gave it a 4.01 and Untapped gave this one a 4.16.
Oh, my God.
So I am actually a little shocked because you said this was the best out of all three
and you gave it not the best rating out of all three.
Right.
Right.
It was the number of check ins.
I didn't remember the other ones having such a high number of check ins.
Yeah.
So the higher check ins made me bring it down a little bit.
Yeah.
13,000 is a lot.
So to summarize everything that we've just done here.
In week one of this process, Chris gained a point.
With how far off was it?
He had the crisp little thing and he was 0.06 off.
Hell, yeah.
13.
Good job, Chris.
Thank you.
Week two of this one, episode that aired on January 18th.
Obert, you won the point that week.
Oh, wow.
You were 0.08 off.
Damn it.
So we were Chris and I were terrible.
And then this week, Chris and I at this point have tied.
So Chris earns two check marks.
So everybody gets on the board.
Everybody's on the board.
We all win.
Chris might win more than the rest of us, but we all win.
I think this means Chris retakes second place.
It does.
Chris has firmly got that second place podium in hand.
This is a big event.
No participation ribbon, though.
No.
I have to say.
No.
And we'll get to the results of our poll in a minute.
But I just want to add, I feel very good, even though I did kind of tie a hand behind
my back with this whole method.
I feel like it would have been unfair with how close these three ratings are to be like,
well, the last one was a 4.12 and then a 4.14.
I don't know what this one, you know what I mean?
Well, so I will say that like, so this one, so two weeks ago or two bottles ago, that
one was a 4.14.
The one a week or the middle one, the 2018 was a 4.1 even.
Right.
And then this one would be the highest at a 4.16.
So relatively the same area, but still not.
Yeah.
But if I had that information going into tonight, I would have been like, I'm locked in.
You know what I mean?
So I think it was a fair way to do this.
But I'm going to update the whiteboard.
I did allude to our other poll, though.
Maybe we could share the results of our voting over on the Discord from our burial of broccoli
stock, triple IPA.
So speaking of the poll, the results are somewhat in.
Really, listeners, I'm disappointed in your lack of going over to Discord and voting.
Yes, shame them.
That'll make them want to participate.
Exactly.
But I will say that we did get some participation.
And interestingly enough, even people who regularly participate in the Discord, I'm
looking at you, Sal, did not vote in this process.
But the winner is Chop the Florets Off, which I believe is Chris.
No, that one was me.
That one was Ober.
Oh, that's Ober.
Mine was the good one.
Well, no, I believe mine was the good one.
The good one with the fewest votes, that good one you're talking about?
I believe mine was the best one.
But apparently my wife did not believe so because she even voted for Ober.
Oh, yeah.
Which, you know, I don't, in my wife's defense, she has not been to Burial, so she doesn't
understand the stupid naming convention that they have.
And I could tell the people who have never been to Burial did not vote for mine.
But hackless Sal did.
You know, I've been to Burial and I voted for mine.
Yeah, and I voted for mine because it was the best.
But no, that's it.
So I am a man of the beer naming people, I guess.
Double participant ripping for me.
Times two.
Times two factorial.
It's really disappointing that when your own wife costs you the win, that one hurts.
You know, she just wants to chop the florets off.
What can I say?
So, tis the season still.
Chris has a fresh book of Mad Libs.
Let's fill it in.
What do you say when it's like July and we're doing a Mad Lib?
Tis the July?
Is Mad Lib like a historically Christmasy?
Well, you did get it like as a Christmas gift.
I did.
I did.
That's very true.
So that was why I said it.
But yeah.
So for all of our friends listening at home, just a reminder, this is a craft beer Mad Libs
that was gifted to me by my boss specifically for the podcast.
So this could be a fun one.
So let me pick out two decent ones and I'll let you guys choose based on the name.
Based on the name.
All right.
Let's do this.
Okay.
So you can either choose from Beer Today Gone Tomorrow or You Know You've Had Too Much Beer
When.
You know you've had too much beer when for 200 Alex.
It's the only right choice, honestly.
That's a good one.
I would have been pretty upset if you guys didn't pick that one.
So you know you've had too much beer when.
It's funny because you said, is it a Christmas thing?
In my mind, I don't know about you guys, but Mad Libs is a road trip thing for me.
That was when I was a kid.
That was how we, when we had a long drive for like holidays, you know, to see family
on Thanksgiving, we would, you know, stop at the pharmacy, stop at the Jewish City Pharmacy
and pick up a Mad Libs for the road.
And you could kill, you could kill an hour that way with filling in the book.
I can safely say I don't think I ever owned a Mad Libs book.
I've owned a few.
I don't, I never really did a ton, but this one obviously speaks to us.
I think I always did them in like school.
Like it was always like a, like a last day of school like activity or something, or a
first day of school activity or something like that.
The first day you don't know what an adjective is yet.
You know what?
Speaking of which, I got to look up what an adjective is real quick.
That's the descriptor one.
Yeah, but like what is, hang on.
All right.
Are you guys ready to get started?
Absolutely.
All right.
Here we go.
Give me a noun.
Dinosaur cup.
Number.
14.
Heart of the body.
Phalange.
Just one.
I think I know how to spell this.
I guess you know you've had too much.
I guess so.
Yeah.
Phalange.
Listen, it's phonetical.
I got it.
I think it's a pH.
It's phonetical.
Verb ending in ing.
Stumbling.
Phalange.
Another number.
69.
Nice.
Type of food.
Fully loaded nachos.
I love how you guys are using like 19,000 word long things.
Oh, now that you say it, Chris, watch out.
This space is this big.
Plural noun.
The hardest place to spell.
Poughkeepsie, New York.
Plural.
Poughkeepsie.
Oh, I thought you said proper noun.
Sorry.
Plural noun.
Not proper.
Proper noun.
Proper noun?
Plural noun.
No, plural noun.
I'm sorry.
I screwed you up.
Stegosaurus.
Occupation.
Taxi driver.
So this is your time to use like neurological nuclear physicists.
Part of the body again.
Phlebotomist.
What was that?
Part of the body again.
Metatarsal.
That's a bone.
Part of a body.
I guess.
Adjective.
You know, I don't understand why this guy was so good at Family Feud.
Yeah, right?
Long.
Verb.
Way too short.
Verb.
It's an action.
Slipping.
Who was the guy who had winning?
Charlie Sheen.
I was thinking Katie Couric for some reason.
I don't know why that was the first in the pot to my mind.
A place.
Poughkeepsie.
New York, to be precise.
United States of America.
I have no idea how to spell that either.
Type of building.
Incinerator.
Country.
Where's Borat from?
Kazakhstan.
You guys aren't going to read this ever anyway, so.
I'm sitting here trying to spell Kazakhstan.
Episode 500, we're going to go back through our greatest.
The question is, can Chris read it back?
Our greatest Mad Libs of all time.
Chris could be like Poughkeepsie?
All right, here we go.
This is your official Mad Lib for, you know you've had too much beer when.
Beer is a whole lot of dinosaur cup when consumed in moderation.
But you know you've had one or 14 too many when.
You text your ex that you missed their beautiful phalange.
Your stumbling makes the neighbors complain.
You leave a $69 tip for the bartender.
I mean, that's just classy.
That's just classy right there.
Right.
You binge eat every fully loaded nacho in your kitchen.
Who doesn't?
That's what I do when I'm drunk.
You have trouble finding the Stegosaurus to open your front door.
Hate it when that happens.
They're always wandering off, you know.
You enroll in an online course to become a taxi driver.
You wake up the next morning with your metatarsal throbbing.
You start telling the long, long story.
Of how you learn to slipping.
You start doing the Charlie Sheen impression that your friends all hate.
That would make sense.
There was a few that made sense.
You're no longer welcome back in Poughkeepsie, New York or the incinerator or Kazakhstan.
And that's how you know when you've had too much beer.
Surprisingly made a lot of sense.
Yay.
That was a good one.
Yeah, that's pretty fun.
Okay.
So with that, it's time we whip out the Frosty Mug wisdom.
Blow some dust off of it.
It's been a little bit.
Whip out this Frosty Mug.
Fill it up with wisdom and wisdom.
Goodness.
It's got to go through this dishwasher.
Oh no.
Love.
Next week.
Yeah.
We'll be back in about two hours when it comes out.
Okay.
We're back.
Just wait.
Frosty Mug.
A dishwasher.
Jordan, take it away.
I'm so frosty.
Oh no.
Okay.
We've got to put it back in the freezer.
Test your candle.
Test your candle.
Test your candle.
Test your candle.
Mug of wisdom!
Drink.
Mug of wisdom!
All right.
Jordan, thank you.
As always, tonight's co-winners, Chris and Todd, neither of them are here.
Virtual high five.
But does that mean I have to go first?
I also have to say, whose freezer is dusty?
The one that holds the Frosty Mug.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you generally have a lot of dust flying around in your freezer?
I'm concerned about your freezer now.
Overton said it was his freezer.
Yeah.
I'm concerned about whatever freezer we put this mug in.
I go down to the basement, open the dust-filled freezer, and no, the problem is I only put
the mug in the freezer about two hours before you record, so I had all that time to get
dust on it.
I didn't dust it off.
Why do we ever take it out of the freezer, though?
To drink out of it.
Yeah, but then we put it back.
Again, we got the dishwasher cycle.
OK.
You know what?
For this error, you have to go first.
You weren't even paying attention.
So this week, I have a tabletop game.
I like to bring these.
They're always a good time.
This one, I think, is very approachable.
It's great for a weeknight.
You could play it in like 30 minutes.
Quick game.
It's called Dice Throne, and throne is spelled like a king or queen sits in.
The game mechanics are similar to Yahtzee.
You have five dice, and you roll them three times, choosing which dice you want to save
and reroll.
But it's almost like an RPG version of Yahtzee, where you pick out a character that you want
to play as, and these characters have different game boards and different dice.
They're all still six-sided dice, but different characters have different abilities.
Like, oh, if I'm going to roll a small straight, I can steal health from you.
Or my character, when I get a large straight, I get a dodge token that if I then roll a
one or a two on a defensive roll, your attack will miss.
So you start with 50 HP.
You and your opponent in your rolls of dice battle each other to outlast and kill your
opponent.
So it's kind of a cool, like, modern twist, like I said, an RPG twist on Yahtzee.
Super easy to teach anybody to play.
Like, would not be hard to learn.
There's also, you know, like, you draw a card and, you know, you have a hand of cards that
do certain things, like let you make certain dice wild and change your outcome of your
rolls or force your opponent to reroll dice that they were trying to save.
So I like it because it's not a super intensive strategy game.
Every time you get your dice, there's a chance that you roll your five sixes and do your
ultimate attack.
So, like, you're never out of the game.
You can always roll, like, get a crazy good roll.
You never know what you're going to roll.
Like, just that's the fun of these dice games, you know?
I like a strategy game every now and again, but I also really love just rolling dice, you
know?
I bought a couple of the sets.
I have another game for you that you can win money at when you roll dice.
Oh, yeah?
Yeah.
I can't wait to hear about it.
I bought a couple of the sets.
Barbarian versus Moon Elf was the first one.
And then Vampire Lord versus some other Aphrodite goddess something.
But it was like 20 bucks for a two-character pack.
You can buy, like, a whole season of characters for probably, like, 100 bucks.
But they're all interchangeable, right?
Like, you can just go and play with anybody else.
And I think you can play two, three, four, maybe, like, up to six people.
I don't know.
But I've only been doing it one-on-one, and it's a lot of fun.
So I'll put some kind of link to something, maybe just an Amazon link in the share notes.
So check it out.
I like it.
I'm always looking for new games.
I tend to buy a lot of games, board games.
But I like the idea of board games.
Like, board games intrigue me.
I just don't have anybody who wants to play board games with me.
Now, about a year ago, I did buy you a puzzle.
I will say that I've never built the puzzle.
I need to build the puzzle.
Listen, I'm not going to lie to you and told you I built it.
I do need to build the puzzle.
I had a feeling that you didn't just casually do the thousand-piece puzzle and it never come up between us.
Yeah.
So I need to do this puzzle.
Maybe the puzzle is a good idea.
Because when I try to play board games with my wife, she doesn't like to play board games because I'm very competitive and I like to win.
And you don't like to lose, more importantly.
I don't like to lose.
But she is not competitive.
So she just likes to play the board game.
And that's not fun for me.
The last time we played a board game was last year, around this time.
So maybe we'll build the puzzle after the Super Bowl because that's generally when we have time is on Sundays or Saturdays.
But we played Ticket to Ride and I wiped the floor.
Like destroyed.
Like quadrupled, quintupled her score.
So like she does not like to play board games with me.
But maybe a puzzle or maybe this dice game because it is just dice, right?
I mean, it's just right.
It's just there's no there's no skill involved, right?
Really?
I mean, you can't be better at rolling the dice.
It's the luck of the draw.
Well, I will say there is a lot of strategy to deciding which dice to save and re-roll, right?
Like in Yahtzee, you're like, OK, do I want to keep these three dice and play it safe maybe?
Or do I want to re-roll all five?
Or what do I want to do?
So like, depending on how you.
So this might be a good one then.
Because she might be a little bit more into this one.
Because she won't play like, she won't even play Mario Kart against me because like too good at Mario Kart.
She won't play Mario Party, too good at Mario Party.
So I will say now she's not on the call to defend herself.
So this is true.
She's not here to defend herself.
But I think she would tell you that she does not like playing games against me.
It's not at all because you're a sore loser.
No, I'm definitely not a sore loser.
You guys have beaten me in games before.
No, I'm just teasing.
I like the competitiveness of it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Speaking of being sore loser, I am the sore loser this week.
So I think that Todd should go next.
Yeah, I'll take the mug next.
So part of my New Year's resolution, which I'm still kind of holding up through February 2nd, which is when this podcast is airing, right?
February 1st.
So one of those two days.
Really?
We didn't make a single Groundhog's Day joke.
Is it the second then?
Or is it the first?
The first.
Yeah.
The first.
So watch out for that Groundhog tomorrow, people.
Before the Groundhog comes and sees its shadow and there's forever more of winter, I do want to say something that I bought that's kind of helped me through this process.
So one of my New Year's resolutions is to drink a little bit less beer.
Just trying to cut back on the carbs, trying to be a little healthier.
You know, not give up alcohol, but still be, you know, still be fit.
You know, hashtag Todd fit.
So I've been trying to make more old fashions.
So you're not cutting back on the booze, just the calories in the booze.
Correct, correct.
Yeah, that's a good, yeah.
There you go.
So one of the things that I always like when you go out and you order an old fashioned is sometimes like, and I have to order it every restaurant.
So you get like the smoked old fashioned or like it's going to come out and it's going to have something burning on top of it.
It's going to be smoke and it's going to taste all smoky good along with your bourbon old fashioned mix.
It's one of my favorite things about going out and getting an old fashioned when I get, when I do that.
So I said to myself, self, this year 2024, there's got to be a way to do this at home.
And you do have a smoker.
And I do have a smoker.
But that's not what I bought.
I bought a cocktail smoking kit.
Oh, okay.
This thing comes with six different flavors of wood chips.
And so what it is, it's a little like wooden contraption that goes on top of your glass and it has a little, has a metal wire mesh piece that goes into the middle of the wood.
And so you can light it with a torch and then put the cover on the wooden piece and the smoke will fill the glass as the wood chips inside the wire mesh burn, thus giving you a smoky flavor to your drink.
Pretty cool.
Pretty cool way of infusing some smokiness into your drink.
There's also directions within this package on how to do smoked ice cubes, which I have not done yet, or to smoke a bottle of wine, which sounds pretty cool.
So there's a lot of things you can smoke.
So far.
Can you smoke a beer?
I don't see why not.
You have to smoke a beer.
This is a good idea.
See, this is a great idea.
I have not done that yet.
I've only smoked old fashions.
That's all I've done so far.
So far so good.
The six flavors that this package comes with is oak, pear, apple, cherry, pecan, and beech.
And so far I've had the oak, the apple, and the cherry, and all have been fantastic.
Really cool way to kind of spice up a cocktail.
You know, sometimes I like a normal old fashion, so sometimes I won't smoke them.
But, you know, when you're feeling a little froggy and you're like, yeah, let's let's try something cool.
Why not just add a little smoke to your glass?
Makes you feel like a man.
You get to light a fire.
That's pretty cool, too.
And then you get to smoke your drink.
Fantastic.
I can't wait to try some smoky ice cubes.
I'm going to do that next.
And look out for smoked beer in the future on this podcast, because that's a good idea.
Yeah, I was going to say you got to bring this on the show.
I think just having it as a handle is not enough.
Well, I will do that.
We'll put a link to the item in the description of this podcast.
So go check that out.
And it wasn't badly priced either.
It was like 25 bucks for this smoker.
And you got six different flavors of wood.
Nice.
And if you want to spend 40 bucks, you can buy one that comes with the torch.
But I already had a torch, so I didn't need that.
So, Chris, I'll hand this mug off to you.
All right.
So I recently, like I always do, I was going through.
Hand it through a beer in a hotel.
Yep, that's it.
Do that sometimes.
Live your life.
Don't ruin your clothes, et cetera.
I feel like it's got to be a way to prank your colleague who gave you the four butt
ices somehow.
Right.
Just put him on his, like, does he work in the same building as you?
Can he walk in with four butt ices?
No, he does not.
Put him on his desk?
I don't even know.
I don't even remember what building he ended up going to, but it's okay.
You're like, he might have just been a random guy in the hotel.
That would have been even better.
That would have been awesome.
And then he showed up at work the next day.
That's not creepy.
But a little while ago, it must have been a Black Friday sale or something like that,
I made a purchase of a video game that I never played before.
And it was a good price.
And it sat in the case until this past weekend when I finally broke it open and tried it.
And that is a surprise.
Wait, I have no idea what this could be.
Right, no idea.
No clues.
What genre of game we're about to hear.
What universe of games this could even be a part of.
I know, I know.
It's going to be really...
Listen, everybody, are you sitting down?
Are you driving?
Because you should pull off the side of the road when you hear this.
But I started playing...
At least it'll be timely.
I'm sure this will be a relevant new game though, right?
Oh, 100%.
I mean, in fear of jumping the shark, it's not Pokemon.
So we hopefully...
Oh, oh, sweet Tud.
Sweet, sweet Tud.
I started playing Pokemon Mystery...
So you've played these all.
You've played them all.
No, I haven't played this one.
This one I've not played until now.
And I like it.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX.
It came out...
Now, mind you, this particular version came out three...
Almost four years ago.
So just like his TV shows, he's really up.
He's up to date.
Up to date.
2024.
Up to date.
So...
Don't change in 2024.
Don't change.
Don't change.
But it's a dungeon crawler style team building Pokemon game.
Not quite...
Not like your typical Pokemon experience.
But I've been really enjoying it.
It's a remake of, I believe, the original set of Pokemon Mystery Dungeons.
So it's like a remake of those.
Which is good because I haven't played a single one up until this one.
But I'm really enjoying it.
I'm having a lot of fun.
The kids enjoy it too.
They watch me play and they try to guess what's happening in the story and stuff like that.
It's really funny.
But I'm enjoying it.
It's something a little different.
The nice thing about these kind of things is...
Because it's like a set level dungeon crawl thing...
If you only have like 15, 20 minutes to play or something...
You could hop in and run through a dungeon real quick.
And then finish up your stuff.
And then you can make out.
You don't have to play for hours upon hours upon hours.
Even though I have been.
You can.
But if you don't have that kind of time, you don't have to.
So it's a few years old.
I think I picked it up for like 20 bucks around Black Friday.
So if you keep an eye out, you might be able to get it pretty cheap sometime.
But if you're a Pokemon fan, like I assume everybody is...
It's worth checking out, I think.
Who's also never heard of this game before.
I just can't believe that this was not the game I was expecting you to bring to the podcast.
I guess that's kind of on me for assuming.
Expecting something other than Pokemon.
That is on you, Ted, to be honest.
I even provided Chris with a Pokemon-like game to go try.
And he didn't even do that.
No, it's expensive.
This one I already had.
I already had this game.
It was already...
I mean, it is cheaper than a normal game.
The new Pokemon-like game.
Yeah, I know, I know.
I was watching some friends play it.
We will not speak of it because we don't want to ruin it.
It'll be a future handle.
In about six months, it'll either be my handle or Chris's handle.
Six months or four years.
One of the two.
Somewhere between.
Anywhere between six months and four years.
At the point that CJ has inherited the show when he turns 21, it might be handled then.
Yes, yes.
I cannot wait.
I cannot wait until he gets to take over.
CJ drinking with you guys every week.
That's my dream.
Just outsourcing the podcast.
Yeah, there we go.
What do we have to do?
We have to have a contingency plan or a continuance plan for all of us.
Mine is CJ.
Right.
Mine is...
That's funny.
Mine is also CJ.
Oh, crap.
I guess mine ought to be Lucas.
There you go.
That's smart.
So with that, I'd like to thank you all for listening.
I would like to thank the Brewers for providing today's beers.
I will thank Evil Twin, surprisingly, for their even more Xmas Miracle 2022.
I would like to thank Outer Light Brewing Company for the Walk Your Horses.
And I'm going to thank Firestone Walker for their 2017 Velvet Market.
Please make sure you head over to social media and follow us everywhere at DAWFpodcast.
Also, make sure you head over to the email and hashtag follow the email at DAWFpodcast.gmail.com.
Head over to Discord, join the conversation over there.
You can still vote in the poll, by the way.
I can still win this thing in like two weeks from now.
The poll doesn't close.
So go vote.
Go look at the options.
Vote for your best one.
I'm not worried.
I'm not afraid.
Me neither.
So go do that because I would love to win this.
I really want to win this.
Do that.
And then you can have a Patreon for as little as a dollar a month.
You can get extra episodes of Drink With Our Friends.
It's also a good way to support the podcast monetarily so we can do cool things.
And finally, if you don't want to do that, head over to your favorite podcast app.
Leave us a five-star rating and review or leave us a one-star rating and review if you really want to.
I mean, just leave us a rating and a review.
You insert the rating and the review and you hit enter.
If you don't want to do that, just tell your friends about us.
We're pretty cool people, I think, 90 percent of the time.
So do that.
And with that, my name's Ted.
My name's Chris.
And I'm Obert.
And remember, if you're drinking alone, do it with friends.
But you've seen some of the creatures.
There's a striking resemblance.