Pints & Pickles

Come hang with Courtney and Craig as they hop between breweries, search for the perfect PickleFest, and spill secrets on mastering the ideal beer flight order. For a bonus, Craig shares a brewside chat with James, the owner and head brewer of Craft Mountain Brewing in Bailey, CO.

EPISODE BEERS:
Courtney: Tonka Weiss, Hefeweizen (Boom Island Brewing)
Craig: Handle Barley Wine Series 7, Barleywine (Grossen Bart Brewery)

LINKS:

• Pantown Brewing - St. Cloud, MN
•  Bad Habit Brewing - St. Peter, MN
•  Lakefront Brewery - Milwaukee, WI
•  Craft Mountain Brewing - Bailey, CO
•  Forgotten Star Brewing - Fridley, MN
•  Insight Brewing - Minneapolis, MN
•  105 West Brewery - Castle Rock, CO
•  Goat Patch Brewing - Colorado Springs, CO
•  Wynkoop Brewing - Denver, CO
•  Mash Mechanix Brewing - Colorado Springs, CO
•  Courtney’s Untappd
•  Craig’s Untappd

Visit our website at https://thebreweryadventure.com or contact us by sending an email to courtney@thebreweryadventure.com.

Be sure to subscribe to our Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/thebreweryadventure!

Transcript

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Courtney 0:00

Wait, I don't know where I'm starting. Welcome to the Brewery Adventure. I'm Courtney.

Craig 0:15

All right, ready? Courtney, in three, two,

Courtney 0:18

one. Welcome to the Brewery Adventure. I'm Courtney.

Craig 0:21

And I'm Craig. Here to dive into the world of your local brewery.

Courtney 0:25

It's not just about the beer. It's about the vibe, the people, and the stories behind every taproom.

Craig 0:30

From small neighborhood spots to big bustling brew houses, we'll bring you along for the ride. So, Courtney, ready? So

Courtney 0:36

grab a pint. I thought we were doing this part together.

Craig 0:39

Okay, ready? One, two, three. Grab a pint

Courtney 0:42

and join us on the

Craig 0:43

Brewery Adventure. Cheers! I don't know how that's going to go together, but we'll soon see. Courtney, that's a brand new intro as well. Look at you. You're coming up now in the world with a new intro, the whole lot less,

Courtney 0:58

you know. I mean, you came up with a brand new intro, and it's lovely.

Craig 1:01

We both did, because we just thought, you know what, the last one's, it's a bit too long maybe, you know what I mean, long in the tooth, and we need something more personal, more vibrant, more what you're actually about, Courtney. This is about you more than anything else.

Courtney 1:14

Well, I don't I don't know about that. I'm going to work on our timing for this next time, and I promise I'll be better prepared when you're like, three, two, one, go.

Craig 1:22

Fair enough. Fair enough. Courtney, before we start, what are you drinking? What you drinking, girl? Oh,

Courtney 1:28

I have this lovely Crowler from Boom Island of Tonka Weiss. It is a Hefeweizen. It is one of my favorite beers. I love it.

Craig 1:37

You're going to crack it

Courtney 1:37

open? I do have my silly thing to open

Craig 1:40

it again. It's not silly. It's not silly. Oh, you're not going to use it?

Courtney 1:44

No, I didn't have great success with it last time. I can't do it.

Craig 1:49

Oh, you splattered it all over your chest. Anyway, lucky this is an audio-only podcast. That's what I'll say.

Courtney 1:56

I'm really good at opening beer,

Craig 2:01

everybody. Wow, wow, Courtney. No wonder. All I'll say is no wonder you try to get picked up every time you're at a bar when you spray it all over yourself like that, just saying. Anyway, how does it taste? How does it taste, Courtney? How does it taste?

Courtney 2:14

The part that splashed in my mouth already is pretty good.

Craig 2:17

Yeah, yeah, it's good.

Courtney 2:18

Yeah. Have

Craig 2:19

another sip. Have another sip. Tell me. Tell me. Tell me. How did you go? Oh,

Courtney 2:24

just as good as when I get it on tap.

Craig 2:25

Courtney, you're drinking out of the can. I

Courtney 2:28

know. I had to. I had

Craig 2:31

to. I made a mess. What about the rat poo, Courtney? What about the rat poo? Well,

Courtney 2:35

I probably just had a side of

Craig 2:37

rat poo. You know from last episode, Courtney, how we discussed the rat poo. Oh, listen to that.

Courtney 2:45

I'm spilling it on the floor also.

Craig 2:47

Of course you are. I'm

Courtney 2:48

a professional over here.

Craig 2:49

Yeah, I know, right? I know. No, we'd We discussed that last episode, Courtney, how you said like, you know, oh, you can't drink from a can because of the rats and stuff. And I'm like, well, hang on. You pour it out of the can and the pour goes over that same lip that you put your lips on. So anyway. I've

Courtney 3:05

thought about this many times since you pointed that out. I've kind of like in my head cursed your name like, oh, Craig, why do you have to tell me that?

Craig 3:13

Because I speak of the truth, Courtney. I speak of the truth. Meanwhile, I am drinking this one here from, it's a Handel Barley Wine Series. It's a vintage 2020. Yes, vintage 2020. It's a barrel. It's a barrel age, right?

Courtney 3:29

You got fancy beer.

Craig 3:31

I got fancy beer. It's in a bottle, though. It's in a bottle. So it's not a can. It's in a bottle. That's okay. I do have my bottle opener with me. It's from Gross and Bart Brew, which is exactly where I'm located right now as we speak. And if you can't hear by my voice, I've already had a flight. I'll just say that. The episode on Gross and Bart, we will talk about that next episode, not this one. because it's too late now to talk about it. So anyway, I'll open this one, shall I? This time it's going to be done by a bottle opener. See how it sounds really different for the bottle opener.

Courtney 4:00

This is the

Craig 4:02

first. Nice. Oh, hang on. Oh, there you go. Popped it up. There's no fizz. There's no splat. There's nothing else. But I'll have a sip. Oh, Courtney.

Courtney 4:15

Oh,

Craig 4:16

I

Courtney 4:17

wish I'd taken a picture

Craig 4:18

of that. Oh, Courtney. If I finish this, I'll let you know now. As I drink this throughout the episode, you'll hear my voice slowly start to slur more and more. Wow, that is really good. But really deep and thick with actual... The

Courtney 4:41

happy Craig noises. Wow.

Craig 4:43

English barley wine, malt forward featuring spelt and enriched by a three-hour boil to create notes of toffee, raisin, and bread crust. Strong ester character similar to bananas flambé. Oh. Yeah. All I got was like, this is heavy. This is a 9% or so.

Courtney 5:03

We're both having kind of like bananas. Like banana and clove and my half a bison, and there

Craig 5:09

we go.

Courtney 5:10

We're so coordinated.

Craig 5:11

B-A-N-A-N-A-S. But anyway, that's a good song. I told you this would start off really bad. Okay, Craig,

Courtney 5:19

we do need to catch up on something.

Craig 5:20

Yes, we do. What do we need to catch up on?

Courtney 5:23

On our last episode, we talked about the order in which we both end up drinking flights.

Craig 5:28

Yes.

Courtney 5:30

I had a little bit of a talking to by my friend Dan from A One Pint Stand. Hi, Dan. And Jesse from Boom Island. Hi, Jesse. Who both told me separately, you guys are doing this all wrong.

Craig 5:44

So reflect there, Courtney. First and foremost, if people haven't listened to the last episode, what did we talk about? What was the order you're talking about?

Courtney 5:51

We both talked about how we start with a sour. Yes. And we kind of get into whatever and end up with like a porter or a stout or something at the end. And we both like, I think that's how I've always done my flights. That's apparently how you do your flights.

Craig 6:08

Yeah.

Courtney 6:08

But Craig, we need to change our ways.

Craig 6:11

Tell me. Tell me what the beer experts actually, because I'm not a beer expert. I just like drinking.

Courtney 6:16

I'm not either. But

Craig 6:17

I

Courtney 6:17

have beer expert friends.

Craig 6:19

Fair enough. Fair enough. What do your beer expert friends

Courtney 6:22

say? All right. Just like a general, like without getting too detailed about it, general rule of thumb is you want to start with a beer that is... low in ABV and is not super bittery, doesn't have a lot of hoppiness to it, and doesn't have a lot of acidicness like a sour would. So you want to start with something that doesn't have a lot of flavor.

Craig 6:46

They want to start with an ale. Low ABV. They want to start with the lightest ale that the brewery has.

Courtney 6:52

Because if they can't make that, if they don't do that well, chances are the other beers aren't going to be done.

Craig 6:59

Fair enough. Fair enough. I understand that. I understand that get going? And then what after that?

Courtney 7:04

So you kind of work your way up. You work your way up by ABV is kind of, again, a general rule of thumb because it most of the time works. If you're going to throw a sour into the mix, you kind of want to be careful where that lands, just remembering that it is going to be a punch of flavor. And if you, they likened it, I think Dan likened it to a speaker system. If you have that sour too early on, it's like blowing out a speaker. Your taste buds are kind of like shot after that and things aren't going to taste the same.

Craig 7:34

But if

Courtney 7:37

you want to reset, I think somebody at one point had said smell coffee beans or do something like don't do that. That's also a very strong smell and it's not going to be a reset. If you want to reset, smell your skin. Smell your

Craig 7:51

own skin, like your arm.

Courtney 7:53

Smell your arm, smell your hand. Smell

Craig 7:56

you. If you're going to smell your own skin, Courtney, nine times out of ten, the beer The bartender is not going to come back at you with any like, you know, they can look at you and go, oh, he or she's weird. We're not going to get back to them again. I

Courtney 8:09

mean, right now my skin smells like beer because I spilled all over myself.

Craig 8:13

That's true. That's true. I don't know. That's a good reason. Hang on. I'll have a listen.

Courtney 8:17

Yeah.

Craig 8:20

Hang on. Now I have a sip of my beer.

Courtney 8:22

Yeah.

Craig 8:24

It's still as strong as it was the first time I drank it. Okay, so that's a good tip, though. This is good tips, yeah, yeah. But

Courtney 8:33

try it.

Craig 8:34

Try it next time. Have a sniff of your own skin in between the different types of brews, yeah? And then what after that? Just basically go up as per ABV.

Courtney 8:41

Yes. Not the style. Generally go up by ABV, but also keep in mind, again, a sour is going to be very acidic, and you don't want to have that super early, that kind of thing.

Craig 8:52

Wow. Wow. Interesting. Interesting. been drinking all wrong. I'm going to have to go back to every single brewery that I've been to and start again. Yep, redo. You get

Courtney 9:02

a mulligan.

Craig 9:03

A full redo. A full redo. I like it. I like it. Wow, there you go. I'll be honest with you, if you're a listener out there, trust that more than me or Courtney because I'll be honest with Courtney and like yourself as well, we aren't beer experts. We just know what we like. We know what we don't like, and we know what we like to drink. But at the same time, and as you said before, this podcast itself is more about the ambiance of the breweries, the going into the brewery and having an adventure, the brewery adventure. Yes. Not the, what's the best beer? It's not that podcast. It's the brewery adventure podcast. So that makes sense, Courtney. Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. I like that. You know what? I'm going to sniff my own skin every single time. I'm going to sniff my And let me see how many bar beer tenders come up to me after me and go, what the hell are you doing? I was told to do this from an expert. They said to smell your own skin. So I smelled my own skin before. And let's see if I get kicked out or if I get offered a glass of water instead.

Courtney 10:17

Or maybe they look at you and they're like, this guy's a professional.

Craig 10:21

Well, I doubt that.

Courtney 10:24

It could happen.

Craig 10:25

Oh, yeah, but no. But anyway, it sounds good. Sounds good, Courtney. So thank you. Who was that? Was it Dan from?

Courtney 10:32

That was Dan from a One Pint Stand. One Pint Stand. And Jesse from over at Boom Island, whose beer I'm drinking today.

Craig 10:39

Oh, nice, nice. And I do follow now, One Pint Stand Dan as well on Instagram too. So if you don't follow One Pint Stand Dan on Instagram, you should because, yeah, by the sounds of it, he has all the information, the real stuff.

Courtney 10:53

He's got the beer knob. Yeah,

Craig 10:55

the beer knowledge. to you up to the last couple of weeks.

Courtney 11:27

I have been going to a bunch of event things the last couple of weeks because it just seems like it's event season right now. Yeah.

Craig 11:34

Well, Minnesota it is.

Courtney 11:35

So the last two weekends specifically, I've gone to two different pickle fests.

Craig 11:41

What?

Courtney 11:46

Pickle fest.

Craig 11:47

Pickle fest, yeah.

Courtney 11:48

Yep. I love pickles. And there was a brewery up in St. Cloud doing a pickle fest one weekend. And then this last weekend, there was one here in the Twin Cities area. doing another Pickle Fest. So I unfortunately was a little bit disappointed by both of them for very different reasons. But I feel like you should never turn down going to a Pickle Fest.

Craig 12:11

This is true. And I'll be honest with you. Obviously, I'm from Australia. I'm not from America. And there's less pickle forward in Australia. It is really much a lot less pickle forward. I'm sorry. We don't have the whole Pickle Fest like you do in America. And so I have tried my own different, you know, I will not pass up a pickle beer, a pickle sour, that sort of thing too. Like I had one today and it was quite delicious. But in saying that, Courtney, I bought a four pack of this pickle sour that I still have three of in my van because I didn't like it. It's from Distilled Brewery and it's a dill pickle sour beer made with sucker punch pickle brine. Wait,

Courtney 12:52

I've had that.

Craig 12:53

You've had that one? Wow. It's a... I

Courtney 12:56

have some of that in my refrigerator, except the label's red.

Craig 12:58

Oh, yeah, no, no. But it's

Courtney 13:00

the same brewery.

Craig 13:01

Yeah, no, I was like, I didn't even finish one can, Courtney.

Courtney 13:05

Craig, when you come back to Minnesota, you can bring that with you, and I'll trade you for other beer.

Craig 13:11

I will. We'll do a beer swap. I'll give it to you. I'll give it to you, Courtney, free of charge on me, like the whole lot, just to get it out of my fridge. But anyway, I will say that, Courtney, I am not against a pickle beer. I do like pickles myself. I enjoy a good pickle. I enjoy a good And not just the dill pickle style either. I'm talking about pickles on bread and sandwiches and different things. I'm an all-over pickle sort of guy, but this one here was just too much for me.

Courtney 13:39

I will drink straight pickle juice. I've drank straight pickle juice. Don't get me wrong. I want pickles.

Craig 13:46

Don't get me wrong. I drink straight pickle juice as well. There's not a problem to do that. But as a beer, I don't know. I don't know. I'm still... The jury is out. So tell me, Courtney, in The pickle fest that you've been to, which one was it? Was it at St. Cloud? Is that the one?

Courtney 14:02

So the first one I went to was in St. Cloud. It was at Pantown Brewery. That was the first time I'd been there. I was super excited to go. I maybe got there a little bit late and caught like the very tail end of the pickle eating contest. But I was still, there were lots of people there. I was super excited. I go inside because I knew that they had like special pickle beers for the event. So I'm waiting patiently in line. And there was this guy who started on my left side, walked right behind me, stood on my right side. The people ordering in front of us got done. The lady looks and says, okay, who's next? And she looks at me and the guy next to me. I look over at him like, it's me. I'm clearly here before you. He doesn't even look at me. He just sidesteps right in front of me. He puts in his order. And then, Craig, then he very casually turns around and looks at me and wants to start asking me questions about who I'm taking videos for and recording for because I've got my phone on a little like handle thing.

Craig 15:06

Yeah.

Courtney 15:07

Like it was just nothing.

Craig 15:08

Wow. So is that the... So if people don't know, Courtney and I, we do actually have show notes. And so in the show notes as well, it says Picklefest at Pantown St. Cloud. And then, Courtney, I thought this was actually a type of beer that you actually consume. But no, this is an experience. And the experience is jerk in line. I like it. I like

Courtney 15:33

it. It was the jerk in line.

Craig 15:34

And let's be honest as well. It doesn't matter male or female. Forget about any sexism or whatever. Get in line, people. There is always a line. You should know where the line is. Be courteous and to everyone around you too. So, wow, Courtney. I don't like that.

Courtney 15:51

It kind of just set the tone and it still kind of annoys me. It's rude. It's so rude.

Craig 15:56

It is. It

Courtney 15:57

is. I did get my beers and they did a spicy dill pickle. They did a regular dill pickle. They did like a pickle lemonade seltzer thing that I wasn't a super big fan of. And then regularly on tap, they have like a, they call it the Caesar. It's a Bloody Mary beer. It was super, like the Caesar and the spicy dill pickle, super good.

Craig 16:24

See, I'm not a spice fan. I can't do spice. I am so good. So I am so like, you know, we call it in Australia like a wuss or a pussy or like, you know, I like flavor. I don't like, I can't do heat. I can't do, even to the point where I've been out with Joshua, the geocaching vlogger as well. Yeah. Him and I, Josh go out a few times and he loves a Bloody Mary. Well, we got this one Bloody Mary at this one time. I'm like this, this thing knocks your head off. I couldn't even finish it. It was so hot. But here's a tip for you as well. If you get a Bloody Mary, then you know, it's going to be quite spicy. then get a lager chaser.

Courtney 17:00

Yes,

Craig 17:01

always. A plain beer lager chaser. That was a tip from Josh. He gave me that tip as well. I'm like, you know, that kind of settles that heat from the Bloody Mary as well. And it's beer related too because you've got to get a lager. It's got to be a lager. It can't be too hoppy. It can't be any flavors. It's got to be plain, old, Coors Light, Miller Light, whatever it is you like to drink. I know, right? I'm swearing now on this podcast by the sounds of it, but anyway.

Courtney 17:29

It's fine. It's fine.

Craig 17:30

That's pretty cool. So that was Pickle Fest in St. Cloud, Courtney. That was Pickle

Courtney 17:34

Fest. I drank my beers. I went outside to kind of check out. They had some vendors and some other events that were going to be happening. But by the time I got outside, like two out of their four vendors were packing up and leaving. One of them was the pickle ice cream lady. So I didn't even get pickle ice cream. Oh,

Craig 17:51

no.

Courtney 17:52

What's

Craig 17:53

pickle ice cream? You got to get back and try

Courtney 17:54

that. Pickle flavored ice cream?

Craig 17:56

I mean. Wow. I mean, look, I'm not a small guy. Like I could lose a few pounds. I'll be honest with you. So ice cream in general for me sounds delicious. But I don't know. about this pickle flavor? I don't know. I don't know, Courtney.

Courtney 18:09

I was all ready to try it. I bet

Craig 18:12

you

Courtney 18:13

were. I just kind of felt like my time there was done. I had really good beer. I was kind of annoyed by the situation. It was fine. I was all the way in St. Cloud, which is like an hour away from here,

Craig 18:25

so

Courtney 18:25

I looked up other breweries in the area.

Craig 18:28

Oh, yes.

Courtney 18:29

Craig, I found a great one.

Craig 18:30

Oh, what was the great one? Tell us about the great one, Courtney.

Courtney 18:35

I went to I went to Bad Habit in St. Joseph, which was pretty close to where I was in St. Cloud. That one, not having an event that day, still packed full of people, but it was like such a good vibe as soon as you walked in the door. Like I walked in the door and all of my annoyance from earlier in the day, like it was just gone. I sat at the bar, got another flight. I ended up sitting next to this couple from South Dakota. They were in almost, I think she might be retired and he was almost ready to retire. They sit down next to me and he pulls out this beautiful leather bound journal. And he, he, yeah, it, it was really, it was really a nice looking journal. Like I, it was so cool. He asked, he, he orders his beer from the beer tender and then asks like, Hey, would you sign this book? So I'm watching all of this happen. And she like goes and she signs it and she slides it back over to him. And I'm like, what, what's that? What do you do? So I spent like... an hour and a half talking to this lovely lovely couple they take this this journal with them to all the breweries that they go to they've traveled all around the united states on each page they put a sticker from the brewery that they're at and they get people at that brewery to sign it to just kind of like mark their experience there so it's it's like looking at a yearbook people have written these lengthy entries in there um he's he's put notes in like little notes about maybe what beer he had or things that he talked to people about while he was there so we paged through this journal and he had memories and stuff that he pointed out from each place that was in there. It was, Craig, it was the coolest thing. It was such happiness. It was so neat.

Craig 20:26

So it was untapped but in physical version. Kind of, yeah. But it was. It was about the

Courtney 20:34

people.

Craig 20:35

The only way your friends could actually view your untapped book was in person.

Courtney 20:40

In person. Oh, wow.

Craig 20:42

That's really old

Courtney 20:43

school. It was like a brewery yearbook.

Craig 20:44

Yeah. That is really, really cool and very, very old school. But, you know, you know me, Courtney. I do love my untapped, and we'll get to that very soon. Yeah.

Courtney 20:53

But I got to sign his book. Oh, you did? I got to put in a brewery adventure sticker, and I got to sign it and write a little something in there. What

Craig 21:01

did you write? What did you write? Well,

Courtney 21:03

I have really bad penmanship, so I'm kind of concerned he's not going to be able to

Craig 21:06

read it later. So tell me, if you're anything like me, growing up, my parents always said that I should have been a doctor for my handwriting because my handwriting reflects like a fly with no back legs has crawled across the page. That's what it's like. It's just dragged its ass across the page and that's what you see is just literally a fly's butt along the page. So is that like yours as well, really?

Courtney 21:31

Yeah, it's chicken scratch. It's just scrawl. I type everything.

Craig 21:36

I don't ever write anymore. You're always online. You're a gamer girl. That's what you do.

Courtney 21:41

I can type faster than I can write why would I write

Craig 21:45

exactly that's fair enough but the idea of a pen I like that Courtney I like a very old school it was like a leather bound book as well

Courtney 21:52

it like the whole thing was leather bound it had like a little strap that went around it and like the paper inside was just really nice paper I love books like that anyway it was just like the perfect book to pop out and be like

Craig 22:08

where all my

Courtney 22:09

brewery stuff

Craig 22:09

is can you imagine that Courtney like later on in life when these guys have really just settled down and they're in their house and you know grandma grandpa for instance as well and their grandkids come over their grandkids are teenagers and their grandkids find this book yes and they're like oh nan and pop or grandma grandpa used to love to drink some beer and look at all the people they met while they're doing it that's really cool yeah the

Courtney 22:35

whole thing was just it was remarkable their experiences and the stuff that was written in that book

Craig 22:40

yeah see again so you you found that after the uh the whole Picklefest issues that you had. My whole day changed. And it was meant to be, Courtney. So if your Picklefest shenanigans had been a different story, then you wouldn't have looked out for a different brewery. This is

Courtney 22:58

absolutely

Craig 22:58

true. You wouldn't have gone to that. You wouldn't have had that story with that couple with an actual real, you know, leather bound book. And

Courtney 23:07

we agreed on something that I think you agree with. He phrased it very nicely and I won't remember the way he phrased it, but going to the brewery is not about the beer

Craig 23:15

no

Courtney 23:15

it's not it's about the people that you meet there

Craig 23:18

correct that's always the way and that's always for me as well Courtney and I'll be honest with you I just I just spoke about that like 10 minutes ago when I was before we started recording because I was currently sitting at a brewery in the parking lot right now as we speak so because this is a Harvest Host location but yeah absolutely it's about the people you meet it's not I mean the beer is nice but at the end of the day let's be honest the beer goes I think this is a good quote from our good friend tim minnesota boy when he said you only rent a beer like it goes in and out i mean

Courtney 23:49

he meant it in a kind of a different way

Craig 23:51

it did but like but the beer only goes in and out whereas the memories of the people will last forever so

Courtney 23:57

yeah

Craig 23:58

maybe

Courtney 23:58

like you you've been to a bunch of breweries in the last couple weeks i've been to a bunch of breweries in the last couple

Craig 24:02

weeks

Courtney 24:03

i remember the things that happened i don't necessarily remember the beers that i had unless i go look on untapped

Craig 24:10

again again I'll be honest, Courtney, you're doing show notes as well. I look at Untapped quite often to see what I've drank, how I drank it, and go from there. But let's just talk about me in regards to a couple of things. First and foremost, since we spoke, I went to Lakefront Brewery in Milwaukee. It's big. It's bustling. It's like a big food court. There was no real, you know, you get your beer and then you go back to the, there's no bar thing, you know what I

Courtney 24:39

mean?

Craig 24:40

There's no, it was too big for me. But the the beer was good. So, and the food court was good as well. Like the whole thing was quite good. Like they had

Courtney 24:48

multiple different like food menu options within

Craig 24:51

there? No, they only had the one. Like they had a restaurant sort of style, but it was all restaurant sort of style. Milwaukee, it is as well. Lakefront Brewery, it is on the lakefront. So you can actually take your beer outside and sit on the actual lakefront, which is really cool. Oh, that's

Courtney 25:06

lovely.

Craig 25:07

But if you do that, you can have a plastic glass only, like a plastic cup. So, you know, it's one of those, Courtney. But anyway, that's Lakefront Brewery. I'm going to move on straight away quickly now because I've got to spend more time on the next one. The next one that I went to, because I went from Milwaukee, I drove all the way across to Colorado. That's where I currently am right now. And I stayed, Harvest Host location at Craft Mountain Brewery in Bailey, Colorado. Now this place, Courtney, is small. It's unique. Real hometown vibe. Great looking brewery. Like it's a small, it's It's a really small brewery.

Courtney 25:44

I love this already.

Craig 25:45

Super nice locals. Courtney, I sat at the bar, right? Because obviously I'm a Harvest Host member, so I try and get there early in the afternoon. I'm 3, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I try and get there because I like to set the van up properly. I go in. I say I'm a Harvest Host member. They say, yep, no worries. Normally they go, you park wherever you want, the whole lot. It's all well and good. So I was there. Yep, I ordered my flight of beer. Everything was fine. I saw this guy behind me, and he was typing away at different things. There was no one else there except for me and him. I looked around. I said, are you the owner? He said, yes, I am. And I said, oh. You just

Courtney 26:18

like, are you the owner?

Craig 26:19

He's typing away like he's doing his spreadsheets, Courtney, with, you know, the comings and goings of the brewery. And yes, he was the owner. And I said to him, I introduced myself. I said, look, you know, myself and Courtney, we did a brewery adventure podcast, blah, blah, blah. And I said, I'd like to have a word with you on actual, like actually recorded. So do you want to flick to the Are we recording first right now? Yes, let's do it. Let's get to the recording. G'day, Craig, here live right now in the field. I'm with James, who is the owner and the head brewer here at Craft Mountain in Colorado. Just out, what is it, west of Colorado?

James 26:57

Yeah, I would say if you were to draw an equilateral triangle between Denver and the Springs and you go west, it's kind of just nestled in the, I guess, technically foothills of the mountains here. We're not quite on the other side of the continental divide.

Craig 27:09

I will say, though, this is another, Courtney, this is another Harvest Host location. Again, another reason why I'm here. and of course, you know, I'm checking my beers on the untapped. I've only had one so far out of the four, so that's okay. I can still record legally. Anyway, apart from that, I'm at an elevation of 7,700 feet. Yep. James, what does that actually do in regards to the making of

James 27:30

the beer with the elevation? Sure, that's a great question. So as you go up in elevation, your boil temperature actually goes down a little bit. So we, I think today we were boiling at, our temperature probe said 195, but 197-ish degrees is is about what we're boiling at versus sea level is 213, 215, something like that, degrees Fahrenheit. So dropping that temperature, you still get a good vigorous boil, especially the dry air in Colorado. And so you still boil off all the DMS and everything, all the off flavors that you don't want. But that's really the biggest impact is hot side. Your boil temperature is a little bit lower. As far as everything else goes, I mean, it's really not that much of a difference. I mean, maybe you're getting the water closer to the source Like, we're just upstream from Coors, so we get Coors water before they get it. So the minerality in our water is great for lagers. And you would class this as a microbrewery, nanobrewery, what would you class it? Yeah, micro, nano. It's so funny, the terminology gets thrown around all the time. I wish the Brewers Association, which I know they have definitions out there, if they would just, like, push the definitions. We have a three-and-a-half barrel system, and we're probably, this year, we'll probably be putting out... about, not quite three, about 150 barrels this year and hopefully we'll increase that again another 25% next year. Nice, nice.

Craig 28:54

Now I see as well with your taps themselves at the moment, you're quite, I'd say heavy on the IPA. There's what, there's three IPAs? Yeah, we've got three

James 29:00

IPAs up there right now. Yeah, out of the eight taps. We're hoping to get more taps in the future. It's just what came with the brewery. So I bought the brewery last April. I've only been here a year and a half.

Craig 29:13

Wow, wow. So it's kind of It's kind of quite new for yourself. It's new for me,

James 29:16

yeah. It's been a huge sprint the last year just to get into this place, but I mean, our revenue really shows that we're building something really

Craig 29:23

cool. Now, I was talking to you before, and you were saying that the locals here all know this area. They always come and drink itself as well. Now, I'm a big fan as well of things being themed to the brewery. Now, we are actually in the mountains. It is the Craft Mountain Brewery. You do heavy winters here as well, lots of snow, et cetera, so it's a very campfire feel, and hence the reason with the names as well. You are very local, friendly, and I just had the first beer, which is the Don's Rouge. Tell me about the Don.

James 29:51

Yeah, so the Don's Rouge is actually renamed one of our staple beers. We lost Don a couple months ago. He passed away, 78 years old, ex-Marine, and so we wanted to pay tribute. This was his favorite beer. He would just come in, and he would drink that beer, and if we didn't have that beer, he'd just do a black and tan so we could get close to it kind of thing. So it was our little head nod to him Normally, it's actually called Milan's Rouge, kind of a double entendre. And Milan is actually a firefighter here in the Bailey area. He fights wildfires all the time, him and his crew. And again, that's all he drinks is the dark Czech lager. He's from the Czech Republic. Oh, wow. So yeah, I've heard some stories from him.

Craig 30:35

Yeah, absolutely. And again, as I said, it's a local beer, but I do love names of beers as well. You've got a seltzer there too, a Cherry Springer. Yes,

James 30:44

yeah. That was It was a punny name. We're trying to dial in what fruits work in the seltzers. So we do seltzers a little bit differently. We ferment basically the sugar water down so it's just alcohol and water. And then we back sweeten with actual real fruit puree. So aseptic fruit puree from Oregon fruit. And so we're trying to figure out what flavor profiles people want after the seltzer

Craig 31:09

craze. Yep, yep. No, that's perfect. And of course, Courtney, as always, links are going to be in the description in regards to this exact location and brewery. But thanks very much, James. Before we go, though, shout out, where can people find you? Where are we exactly? Social media, that sort of thing. Where can people have a look at your menu as well?

James 31:25

Yes. So the website is craftmountain.beer. I thought that was kind of fun. I had the .beer. I was like, yes, that option. Craftmountain.beer, you can always follow that to all of our social media pages. It's Craft Mountain Brewing on Instagram, Facebook. We have a really good following on Facebook. So I'd like to keep that going. Instagram also. We're also on TikTok as well. Again, Craft Mountain Brewing. Trying to put out some funny videos.

Craig 31:52

Tell me, I was at a brewery last week and I saw one of the social media people there throwing beer at the head brewer. Has that happened to you yet? Have you had beer

James 32:03

thrown in your face? I've got dunked in a lot of beer. There's a recent video. I don't know if you've seen the social media trend where, you know, five bucks on pump five. I don't know if you've seen that one. You're going to have to look that one up. Maybe link a couple of videos. But yeah, social media for me and my social media manager, she likes to just dunk me in beer. So yeah, so my wife's just like, you smell like a brewery. It's like, well, yeah, I own a brewery. You had social media today. Yeah, I did.

Craig 32:27

Well, thanks for chatting with me today again. Cheers, mate. Enjoy. Thank you again. Thank you. I was sitting inside and, you know, come early afternoon, some guy turned up and he goes, oh, hi, how are you? I said, oh, good day, mate. He's like, oh, you're from here. And then as he sat down, another guy pulled up in a truck And you can see because they've got the roller door open. And you can see out the roller door. And they go, oh, Jerry's here. Oh, Luke's here. So as each one pulls up, they say their names of the actual people themselves, of the locals that come there every single day. And Courtney, they only have a pint normally. That's it. That's so cool. But that's all they

Courtney 33:03

need.

Craig 33:04

It's so, so cool to actually meet all the locals there too. So Craft Mountain Brewing in Bailey, Colorado. And even he talked to me later on as well, the owner, about the social media. Because I said to him, about the podcast and stuff too. And he said to me, oh, we've got a social media lady on board as well. So she does all their posting of social media on there too. Now, remember Courtney, last episode, I said about the social media manager who was throwing beer at the face of their brewers. I said to him, have you tried that? He goes, yes, I've tried that. Yes, I've laid under the taps and had them sort of pour beer into my mouth. And if you have a look at their Instagram page as well, Craft Mountain Brewing Instagram page, It is fun. It is really, really fun. So they're doing a good job on social media as well for such a small hometown. Literally, Courtney, I'm telling you now, it's like an hour drive from Denver to get there. That sounds

Courtney 34:02

totally worth going out to see. But

Craig 34:05

you know what I mean? It's not a busy brewery, but it's one where it should be. Yeah, absolutely. And I like that

Courtney 34:11

he's a good sport and humoring his social media manager

Craig 34:16

doing all the fun stuff. He does. Actually, one of the beers is named after the social media manager as well because she's had a car stolen for like three times in the last three weeks in Denver. Well, apparently parts of Denver aren't very good, you know, like always. So she called it like the sock puppet. Sock puppet IPA is what it was called. I can't remember exactly now, but it was named after her by having her car stolen like three times in three weeks. So poor thing, poor thing. All right, Courtney, where else have you been apart from your Picklefest experience? your bad habit in St. Joseph's?

Courtney 34:50

Well, this last weekend after my second Pickle Fest was at Forgotten Star, which we have done an episode on on this podcast before. Forgotten Star is in, I don't know if it's technically Fridley or Minneapolis. It's over there. It's a really great brewery, like really large space inside. Outside, they took their entire parking lot and made it kind of into a craft fair, some of which was pickle related. Some of it was not. They had a food truck out there, the amount of people that were at this Pickle Fest, Craig,

Craig 35:21

was

Courtney 35:23

crazy. It was hard. It was hard to find parking. When I started walking around, there is a line out the door of people waiting for beer. There's this enormous line waiting at the food truck to get food. There's just people everywhere. And it was super hot. And I knew as soon as I got there that my time was going to be limited.

Craig 35:43

You're so Social awareness is like, I can only deal with so much. This is not

Courtney 35:50

necessarily what I signed up for today. I don't know how fun this is going to be for me. And really, the line of people just waiting to get a beer, I did not wait in that line. That was not going to happen. I feel like they should have had a beer stand outside. They had their entire parking lot with all these craft things. There was plenty of extra room. There was extra space in there. They could have had a beer tent outside to be serving in two locations to make it a little bit easier, but... It was another failed pickle fest.

Craig 36:25

See, you and your pickle fest. Whereas here I am. I'll be honest as well. When you go to a local brewery, right, like me, if you're traveling around, you go to a local brewery. At first, if you go towards like, you know, a brewery that's just opening, for instance, or there's not that many people there, you go, oh, there's not many people there. I'm going to be really standout-ish. But in some cases, they're the best time because you get served really quick. You can start up conversations quite easily with other people. of the locals, whereas if there's too many people, then you're kind of just one of the numbers. You're one of the crowd. There's no individuality. I

Courtney 36:59

think they do. I think they have a really good turnout for events at Forgotten Star. I think they do big events like this quite often. This was the first one that I have been to for them. I'm hoping that it was an abnormality that they were not serving beer in multiple locations for that amount of people.

Craig 37:16

Right. Yep. Picklefest, if you're a Gotten Star if you're listening there you go there's a tip please give

Courtney 37:24

me a beer outside

Craig 37:25

get a beer outside because because you think about they could they'd probably sell more beer too yeah if they had two locations like not two locations but two spots where they'd sell the same beer they could sell more beer and even even if you say because I'll be honest as well you know me and like yourself you love a flight of beers right yes even if they say for those busy times no flights yeah because it does take up time it takes up time we all understand that so no flights just Pints only. That's understandable. I get that. You know, it's not a problem.

Courtney 37:54

But I went from there again. I left there and met Dan from a one pint stand again. Hey, Dan.

Craig 38:02

Met up

Courtney 38:03

with him at Insight Brewing because they were having Oktoberfest. Not Oktoberfest, but Oktoberfest.

Craig 38:10

Oktoberfest. A-U-G. Oktoberfest. A-U-G, baby. So rolled up over

Courtney 38:16

there and immediately outside they had a bunch of guys in lederhosen and singing and having a good time. They were pouring beer outside and inside and serving pretzels and brats, and it was joy. Yes,

Craig 38:32

yeah. I get all that, and I totally understand all that. Especially, I think with pretzels at a brewery, they're a stock standard to have pretzels at a brewery. Anything salty, because the saltiness would then disembark, so to speak, the actual beer itself. It would be really good, like gooey. pretzels.

Courtney 38:52

Yes. With a nice spicy, I don't, you don't like spicy, but there was a really good spicy mustard.

Craig 38:58

Spicy mustard. Or like a palimente cheese dipping part for the pretzels. The cheese was

Courtney 39:04

jalapeno cheese.

Craig 39:07

Oh, of course. It's America. Everything's spicy in America. That's not even that spicy. You're not nice.

Courtney 39:13

Craig, here we make fun of Midwesterners for not having a spice palette. Like Midwesterners think that ketchup is spicy. I feel like you were meant to be a Midwesterner.

Craig 39:24

Now, I'm an Australian and I'll always be an Australian. And we do have spice in Australia, don't get me wrong. But I think what it is as well, Courtney, is that Australia doesn't border Mexico. So with all the Mexican spice and jalapenos and chilies that come across the border, we don't have that in Australia. So our hot or spicy food in Australia is introduced. And more of our spice in Australia, and we're going off topic, but more of our spice in Australia is the Indian spice. Oh, yeah. Like that hot Indian spice rather than a Mexican spice because India has got a bigger influence on Australia than what Mexico does. I

Courtney 40:01

want all those

Craig 40:01

spices. Anyway, digress. We're digressing. I'm going to go quickly, Courtney, for the last few more of mine. Firstly, 105 West Brewery in Castle Rock, Colorado. Big brewery. Still trying to hold that small feel, though. Ready for this, Courtney? There was 30, 3-0 beers on tap. All brewed by West Brewery Castle Rock. So there you go. What are you going to drink? Well, flight after flight after flight. But again, Courtney, yourself, even Tim as well, he would love it because there was a big, beautiful, big, shiny vats. You know, you could sit next to the vats themselves and take a few photos of those, which is really cool. The great looking logo was a bear logo as well. And good merch, Courtney, as well. There's a couple of breweries that I've had. A couple of breweries I went to have had really, really good merch. We'll jump on that in a second. The next one for me was Goat Patch Brewing in Colorado Springs. A nice, small vibe, this one. But Courtney, this flight, it came as a taster box. Yes. A box? It was in a box. It was in a box. What? You know a wooden box that you normally carry around milk in? You know what I mean? Those old school milk boxes that you carry around. It was one of those it was called a taster box and so it was the flight was in a taster box and so goat patch brewing it was called in Colorado Springs and again The merch there was absolutely to die for and out of this world. So quick talk on merch though, Courtney, and that is if you're a brewery owner, then you've got to have merch. I'll be honest, especially stickers. Everyone loves a sticker. I was going to ask, what do you normally

Courtney 41:50

pick up for merch? Are you picking up a thing from each place?

Craig 41:53

Yeah, I normally do stickers because I'm a van lifer. So I can't really do a glass, for instance, because I do love the glassware that they do have too. And let's be honest, I just We spoke about this today actually to one of the breweries I went to and that is the glassware, if it looks really cool, then they lose a bit of glassware unfortunately because people pocket that glassware because it looks really cool. So I found that a couple of breweries that I've been to have had really plain glassware and then sell the actual glassware with their logos and stuff on it as well. That's smart. Yes and no. It's smart, and it also makes

Courtney 42:28

it difficult for me to take a picture of your beer because I want a logo on the glass.

Craig 42:32

Exactly. I want a logo. I want a logo on the glass for Instagram. That's exactly right. So that was Coach Patch Brewing. Now, after that, I went to Wincop Brewing in Denver, Colorado. Now, this is in Denver, Colorado. I'm talking downtown Denver, Colorado. Denver proper. Denver proper. It was a big scale type brewery. It was more bar looking than it was a brewery. It was in a city. So it's like I'm one of literally a thousand people in there at the same time. It was a great looking flight holder though, I will say. A good mix of beer styles as well. But the thing that outdid me and the thing that got me there in the first place was they have the Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. Oh no. Now, if people don't know what Rocky Mountain Oysters are, basically they're bull's balls. So they're bull's testicles. So Rocky Mountain Oysters, I thought I was going there and I was going to hop partake in a Rocky Mountain Oyster, but they'd run out. But he said to me, he goes, this stout is made with Rocky Mountain Oyster stout. So I said, I got to have one of those as well. So, and you know me, Courtney, we spoke about this last episode. I like to describe my different breweries on Untapps and my different brews and my different tastes and my different flavors. This one here, you know, I was, I was a flight in before I actually got to this, this Rocky Mountain Oyster stout. I was excited. Before you got to the ball, I was, yeah, I was balls deep with alcohol. So I had, so unbeknownst to me, Courtney, like, you know me, I do like my different descriptions. And so I wrote my description. 24 hours after I wrote my description, posted it and left, I get a comment from Wincop Brewing themselves on my actual login as well. So this is a tip for everyone out there. Just remember that the actual breweries themselves All the beer makers themselves can view and get tagged in these descriptions just for your information because unfortunately he or she spat out her coffee of the morning and couldn't stop laughing and then showed all the brewers my description in regards to this one here being the Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout. I don't have it with me, Courtney. Did you want to read it out in case people don't follow my, you know, you can read it out if you like. Feel free. It was something along the lines of, if I can remember, remember if if this was the liquid that's located in Bulls Balls then yes I'm starting a stud farm that's kind of what it was yes yep it was delicious that stout was was a good stout Courtney

Courtney 45:11

I remember seeing the name when you posted it the name of that beer and I'm like it's not it's not really it's not really but it is

Craig 45:19

yeah it is and I even posted I showed you as well that the description on the on the menu for it as well even said that it's actually made with Rocky Mountain oysters. So there you go, Courtney. Delicious.

Courtney 45:33

Craig, that's an adventure. Don't be scared. That, sir, is an adventure.

Craig 45:36

Don't be scared of trying different things in your life because at the end of the day, if you don't like it, guess what? You don't finish it. It's not that hard. But at least you've tried it. And you never know. When you try it, you might go, oh, man, I'm addicted to Bulls Balls now.

Courtney 45:51

But if I try it and don't drink the rest of it, I don't know what to do with it and I don't want to take it back up to the bottom. because I feel bad that I didn't finish it. And then they're going to look at me like, why didn't you finish your

Craig 46:02

beer? No, no. I've seen that a couple of times. I have actually seen that a couple of times where people don't finish their beers and their brews and they bring it back up. And that's, you know, they don't look like they're mine, to be honest with you. My last, but definitely not least for this week, Courtney, has been the Mash Mechanics Brewing Company in Colorado Springs again, in Colorado. This one here, Courtney, was very much on theme, as it sounds. Mash Mechanics. Yes, like mechanic theme. So car, what you see in a garage is what you see. There was, you know, there was even a clock there that was like a disc brake clock, you know, on the wall. Good list of brews themselves. Now, the flight board. We always know, Courtney, you and me, we're a sucker for these flight boards to be.

Courtney 46:47

Complete suckers.

Craig 46:48

Complete suckers. If there's a flight board, oh, man, I am definitely posting it on social media. This one here, Courtney, was two American license plates, one on top and one below. The one on below was a whole base, like a base plate where all the actual glasses sit. The other one was bolted above, and it's going to be a couple of inches above, and it's got the holes in the ones for the actual tasters themselves. So as you put the taster in the hole, it sits on the base plate too. So you've got two license plate, one on top of the other, and they're a few inches apart and the hole on top and none on the bottom. So they also, Courtney, these license plates, they matched each other. So the top and bottom matched. So it was like

Courtney 47:29

the front and the back, like they kept them together.

Craig 47:32

Front and back plates. Exactly right. So, so obviously there's not going to be places, plates for Florida or Those are things where they only require one plate. These are states where they do require two plates, and so that's what it was. So there you go. I'm looking at the picture for it

Courtney 47:47

right now, and it's

Craig 47:48

just the coolest place. Yeah, you see it as well. It looks really cool. Another Harvest Host location. It was almost in the downtown area of Colorado Springs too, which is really cool. And so this guy at Mash Mechanics as well, his beard, oh, man, it was on point. He had beard oil in it as well. It smelled really good too. Long, luscious beard down to his chest. Really well groomed along the sides of his cheeks as well. So he looks after his beard. You know what I mean? Not one of those ratty, sort of hippie style beards. This was a groomed, well groomed beard. So a big shout out to him. He knows, Courtney, why? Because he's listening to this podcast as we speak. Really? Absolutely. He's a new follower of the podcast along with my Instagram pages and stuff too. So there you go. A big shout out to him too. So yeah, he did a good job. He really did a good job.

Courtney 48:36

That's

Craig 48:37

awesome. I love it. Brewers. I mean, I'll be honest, Courtney, and we'll speak about this in the next episode of The Brewery Adventure, but my adventure today has brought me to a location where all I'll say as a teaser for the next episode is that everything here is on point with theme when we're talking about beards, including, Courtney, the Wi-Fi password is the bearded clam.

Courtney 49:01

I feel like to balance this out, my brewery experiences leading into the next episode need to be with female brewers

Craig 49:11

absolutely absolutely I got

Courtney 49:13

this

Craig 49:15

absolutely you go the female I'll go the male right any time of the week that's all good we both accept each side as we go Courtney are we going to end this episode now or are we going to wrap it up because it's been a good 45 minutes

Courtney 49:30

we do need to wrap this up I would like to give you a slight I feel like hopefully you've noticed that my ratings on untapped. I did drop them a little to give myself some wiggle room for things that I really super like versus just like everything's amazing.

Craig 49:49

Yes, exactly right. How are you going with your

Courtney 49:53

ratings? It's really difficult. Every time I pop open a thing to go rate it, I just slide my finger all the way up to five.

Craig 50:00

Oh, you can't. Stop your finger sliding, Courtney. It's muscle memory.

Courtney 50:05

It's a five. I like it.

Craig 50:07

Yeah.

Courtney 50:08

And then I have your voice in my head.

Craig 50:10

I will say, Courtney, there's people out there watching, including myself, but I'm not the only one, and we do appreciate your actual honesty, though, in regards to your ratings, too, because you think about it too, Courtney, as well, and there's other friends on tap out there that, like me, they've only given out five or six fives, but if I see, if I look at a brewery, not a brewery, but if I look at a beer and go, oh my goodness, Joe Blow, who's a friend of mine, gave this a five, I'm buying that opposed to any other beers because he or she gave that a five. You see? Are people really buying

Courtney 50:49

beers based on my rating? Absolutely they are. I don't know about that.

Craig 50:53

Absolutely they are, Courtney. Absolutely. And more and more so now because you're getting more and more followers on Untappd too. So there you go. But don't forget that everyone out there, if you want to follow Courtney on Untappd. Courtney, what's your Untappd name?

Courtney 51:05

I changed it to The Brewery Adventure.

Craig 51:06

The Brewery Adventure. So follow Courtney on The Brewery Adventure on Untappd I'm S-E-E-M-Y-S-H-E-L-L on Untappd, so follow me on Untappd. You can follow me on Instagram, the Craig Michelle Photography, Tuesday.the.van, or the Aussie Geocacher as well, Trest of Our Town podcast, Munzee podcast, the Geocaching podcast. I've got two new podcasts going on, Courtney. Where else can they follow you, Courtney, as well?

Courtney 51:34

The Brewery Adventure on Instagram, or you can email me, Courtney, at thebreweryadventure.com, or I'm probably sitting at your local brewery somewhere.

Craig 51:42

Courtney, are you still on the Kindle? Are you still doing the Kindle thing or are you actually looking around? I'm

Courtney 51:46

still doing the Kindle. However, this week people at work keep talking about the new season of Foundation.

Craig 51:52

And

Courtney 51:53

when that season was about to start, I went back and started watching from season one because it's such an awesome show and I wanted to make sure everything was still fresh in my memory. So every time they start talking about the new season, I go, la, la, la, la, la. I can't listen to you. Don't give me any spoilers. So now my new plan has to be I need to take my iPad and to the brewery instead of my Kindle and start

Craig 52:15

watching shows at the bar. Even more unsociable, let's be honest.

Courtney 52:20

Yep, because I'll have earbuds in and it's fine.

Craig 52:22

Unsociable Courtney in a sociable environment. That's all right. All right, Courtney, anything else before you want to say before we wrap this up? Episode number two for us in general, but episode number 16 in total for The Brewery Adventure.

Courtney 52:36

It's been a pleasure having you here, Craig.

Craig 52:38

Thank you, Courtney. And we'll see you in two next time, everyone. Cheers.

Courtney 52:42

Cheers.

Craig 52:43

Oh, I'm drinking this 9% really good.

Courtney 52:46

Chug it.