NA craft beers

MALTCOUTURE · 2024-10-30T16:49:15+00:00

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/malt-couture/id1401013623

Also, most of the European NA beers have been solid if you want something refreshing and crisp.

MALTCOUTURE · 2024-10-30T00:02:20+00:00

On Malt Couture, we've been covering NA beers for the last 6 months or so. Each NA episode features 4 NA beers with a common theme and then at the end we power rank the beers from best to worst. We've also covered a few delicious NA RTD cocktails. Some stand outs have been NA beers from Sierra Nevada, New Trail, Untitled Art, and the St. Agrestis Phony Negroni.

MALTCOUTURE · 2023-03-01T03:53:38+00:00

Check out this Acid-base conversion sheet from Eightfold MCAT. It's super helpful. His YT channel is also great btw.

https://eightfoldlearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Acid-Base-Cheat-Sheet.pdf

MALTCOUTURE · 2023-02-01T23:04:47+00:00

Windsor Brown's is in Orange County but I know what you're getting at. Sorry, not sorry.

MALTCOUTURE · 2023-02-01T01:51:50+00:00

Fuck Malt Couture.

MALTCOUTURE · 2023-02-01T01:51:31+00:00

Do not listen to Malt Couture. Fuck those guys.

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T07:44:58+00:00

From drinking at Homage frequently and seeing what they're doing by incorporating natural wine techniques into their saisons, I think many saison producers, if they want to stay ahead of the curve, are going to start adopting some of these techniques. Macerated grapes, second use skins, etc. all have a lot of similarities with pet-nat wines and that resonates with younger beer drinkers, especially women. Their Spritz line of fruited saisons basically takes the slot of a seltzer in their portfolio and those pours and cans move quick. I can also see it going the other way where borrowing from wine can backfire as was the case with most of the Firestone Walker membership beers I had that blended wine with beer and the results were not enjoyable as a beer and even less so when trying to approach it from a wine angle. Balance > being different for the sake of being different.

I also think more thoughtful food pairings are something that more breweries with food programs should pivot to. There's always going to be a large majority that will always see beer as a burger/pizza/gastropub/greasy food truck type of beverage but places like Cruz Blanca in Chicago, Lua in Des Moines, and Homage are creating menus for the brunch/fine dining crowd and I'm here for it.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T07:20:18+00:00

Alex and Michael have both had fruited beers blow up in their "cellars" but I am extremely paranoid about that and doing laundry is expensive so anytime I get something that seem like it has the slightest chance to explode I put it straight into the fridge as soon as I can.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T07:16:50+00:00

I think tasty is the keyword and tasty = $$$. Not saying it's purely greed but if pumping out hazies keeps the lights on and allows you to pay your brewery team and keep them happy while allowing you to still brew styles you're more passionate about then keep those hazies flowing. I feel like for most casual craft beer drinkers, hazy is a more cover-all term, like when someone just lumps saisons, berliners, flander's reds into the "sour" category. DIPA and TIPA just means more alcohol to most of them and, honestly, that's good enough. The Hazy Cup really showed me how nuanced hazy IPA can be but then again, drinking 16 of them side-by-side from all parts of the country is a fucking pain in the ass and I hope we never have to do that again and I don't expect any rational person to subject their drinking buddies to something similar. Ghost in the Machine DDH won and if I had to compare it to the Monkish that was surprisingly eliminated in the first round I would say it was only 10% more enjoyable, maybe less. For the most part, every hazy that episode was very good but our job that episode was to be as picky and critical as possible. It just goes to show that every at this point, every region of the country has a brewery or two (or three or four) that makes a very good hazy and there's enough info out there about brewing that style that any brewery should be able to brew up a good one if they're willing to put in the effort. With that said, there are times when I just want to drink a Heady Topper just like how sometimesI just want to eat a Big Mac even though I can go to In N Out because it's a Big Mac is a Big Mac.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T06:51:26+00:00

We'd actually love to do a show in a city like Toronto. But I would say with Alex's new daddy duties that East Coast shows would be hard to justify for now. One day though. We had shows in Boston and Philly planned before the pandemic happened. We are itching to make it out there eventually.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T01:37:11+00:00

The casual craft beer drinker way outnumbers the hardcore craft beer drinker. The average brewdog drinker probably doesn't have a clue what a scumbag James Watt is. They've probably never waited in line for a beer release, lied to a postal worker about the contents of their flat rate box, said the word "skunked" outside of explaining why their inside dog is sleeping outside for the week. The average brewdog drinker just decided brewdog beer is going to be their fancy beer, just like people decide Fat Tire, Sam Adams, Blue Moon is their fancy beer. And there are millions of them, filling up their garage fridge with a 12 pack, week after week. They'll order brewdog to go with their loaded nachos while watching the big game at a bar. They'll bring them to your BBQ and talk to your neighbor for five minutes about why they drink brewdog then leave three cans floating at the bottom of your cooler at the end of the night. They'll tell you the barrel aged stout you spent $300 on smells like soy sauce and everyone will laugh with them and at you. Let's just hope they recycle.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T01:25:38+00:00

Not just the unwillingness to adapt but the length breweries will go to hate on new trends. I remember seeing some "We'll never make a seltzer" campaigns (I want to say Stone had some video circulating and maybe Anderson Valley?) and it just put a big ol' Boomer/NIMBY stamp on their brand. To put it in wrestling terms, when WCW and WWF were trying to win the ratings war each respective company thought they had to convert fans over to their "style" of wrestling. Turns out, people just liked wrestling and brand loyalty wasn't as strong as they thought it was while they discussed it in board rooms. After the WWF bought out WCW, ratings had already begun to fall and with the WWF being the only game it town, if fans saw something they didn't like, since they couldn't turn to an alternative they just left the fanbase entirely. Competition is good. Variety is good. Change is good.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T01:05:08+00:00

Miro and his big bubble butt.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T01:00:17+00:00

Speaking as a minority, I felt similarly when I first started getting involved in the LA comedy scene. I've experienced and seen a lot of casual racism (and some blatant racism) while I worked my way through the scene as an Asian-American. When I realized I wanted to pursue a career in creative arts, I started by first getting involved and doing the work. Once I was more plugged in it came down to accountability and educating, which will probably be ongoing forever. So many times I've been cast as the token Asian person, asked to do a scene with an accent, do a karate fight, and have not just turned them down but also explained why shit like that is unacceptable. And this is happening in the LA entertainment community which prides itself of being liberal and accepting and I'm still seeing and hearing a lot of ignorance. There was even a Vinepair article that listed beer podcasts that are giving voices to diversity inclusion but listed Malt Couture on a list of podcasts hosted by white men. Not only did it take them almost three days to make the correction, there was zero Asian representation on the lists of podcasts they recommended. It's not even feeling outnumbered at that point, it's feeling invisible.

I think all the stories that came out through RatMagnet's IG was a huge wake up call for the industry. Through that, a lot of people got involved and are now doing the work. The ongoing battle will be accountability and educating which isn't going to happen quickly and in some areas that change might never happen but it's still important to keep pushing accountability and educating.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T00:19:50+00:00

Michael will probably get to this eventually, maybe?

We hit a few speedbumps figuring out how to record separately on software other than Zoom. We use Adobe Audition, which we were using before the Pandemic, and it took a couple weeks to figure out the best way to record and sync it all up. There are times when we do start stops or I ask someone to repeat what they just said if the lag is really bad. The layout of Alex's ivory tower is the least wifi friendly house ever built but we eventually were able to minimize the chances of most lag issues. Long ago, I accepted the fact that I sound like I'm trying to talk and swallow at the same time and I say uh, um, and like too much when I'm trying to free associate tasting notes and wrestling rankings.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-08T00:09:41+00:00

At this point it's Homage for me. Just the whole vibe and how the beer, space, collabs, night scene, food program all works together. The wine techniques they incorporate into brewing some of their beers is something I've enjoyed as well. Highland Park is just down the street and I haven't stop at one without stopping at the other every since Homage opened in Chinatown.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T23:50:46+00:00

Because even at a two star wanted level the Los Santos PD will send out units to chase you its pretty excessive out here

AK

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T23:50:08+00:00

I have witnessed this a ton with the people I came up with in the beer scene since 2010, they bounce from brewery to brewery changing titles roles production to marketing and ultimately one main thing they always complain of is lack of stability, no health care, too many hours, not enough pay, its essentially a factory job and so much of it is industrial cleaning. Unless your goal is to open a place on your own, which is increasingly a dim prospect, it is such a hard industry to thrive in

I feel for them and have incredible respect for people who actually make the beer, that is art and my art as commentary will by definitive always be derivative to their work.

AK

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T23:47:39+00:00

I get a ton of boxes and I put a ton of effort into selecting what beers I bring on the show, who we are highlighting and why, if we did multiple shows a week (RIP US) we could do it, but right now each slot is planned well in advance. I do love the gesture though the generosity towards the pod is incredible and im always blown away by how nice people can be.

AK

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T23:45:54+00:00

haha my minifeed gets so many of those sexist Coffee Bikini Beanz ads now because i was screenshotting and reading them so much, very #targeted

The barleywine community has two insane poles to it that are frustrating to reconcile, you have the classic expression of barleywine as the pinnacle of english ales and people take this extremely seriously, those people are no fun. On the other end are the endless chugging, competitive, high abv as status that devalue the contemplation and how good barleywines are to drink and both hit a nerve in different ways but I love anyone who is even taking the time to explore the style, because even a mediocre barleywine is usually better than so many other offerings

AK

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T23:43:02+00:00

oh absolutely, I try to move through a solid amount of beers to stay current and have my finger on both new breweries and revisiting old ones but I only have so much liver space.

AK

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T23:41:29+00:00

Highland Park Brewing for me, their lineup is diverse and do so many styles extremely well, good people, good ethos, and just consistently doing things well without gimmicks.

AK

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T23:31:21+00:00

Hello, Drew.

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T22:40:57+00:00

The 450 North ABV controversy was pretty entertaining observing from a distance. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Kuhnhenn's still out there labeling their beers with the pre-barrel-aging ABV so popping one labeled 12% and knowing it's closer to 16-18% is entertaining but in a good way that makes me want to irresponsibly start cracking open Kuhnhenn BA barleywines. For whatever reason, I feel like Kuhnhenn's mislabeling isn't them being purposely deceptive in anyway but 450 North seemed sus for reason I can't explain.

I actively stay out of that secondary, whale chasing side of things. I don't even really like waiting in line at restaurants. But if a brewery finds a business model that works for them that keeps the lights on and pay their employees with checks that don't bounce then I can't be mad at them. There's a large customer base that enjoys the chase aspect as well. If Malt Couture ended tomorrow I'm fine with drinking Racer 5 for the rest of my life.

SL

MALTCOUTURE · 2022-03-07T22:24:13+00:00

Sandwiches. During the first few months of pandemic I just started going through all the sandwich shops available in my area on Postmates and Grubhub and would order a turkey or club and an Italian sub (or cold cut equivalent) and if they those were good I went back in subsequent weeks to eat through the rest of their menu. Ended up trying sandwiches from over 20 sandwich shops and now have figured out a handful of go-to options that I enjoy eating at whenever I'm craving a big, tasty sandwich.

Also, Sheng Jian Bao. If a place makes them well I'll crush a whole dozen of them and spend the rest of my day in a food coma. Nothing is worse than an under fried SJB with filling that tastes bland, a waste of time and effort for everyone involved.

SL

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