This is Beer in Front, part of the Odd Pods Media Network. Sometimes
the beer in front of you is the best one yet. I'll talk about
some great beer, and I'll also talk to various people in and around the
beer industry to get their stories all about beer. That's Beer in Front and
it's coming up now. Welcome to episode two hundred and Moore, the April
ninth edition of Beer in Front. I'm your host, Dave z Alatorus,
and Beer in Front is a proud Odd Pods Media Network member. I have
a good show today. I say it every week, but it's a good
show. Today. I'm going to talk with a couple friends of mine from
Birmingham, Alabama. We're going to talk about the beer scene there. I
have a couple beers from Birmingham, so I had those. Those are really
good. So this episode is gonna be all about Birmingham. Sorry, the
episode is out to day late. My back has really been bugging me lately,
so sitting down to type up everything and record was not in my best
interest over the weekend when I normally do this, So my apologies for the
delay. Speaking of the back, oh get this, so now, after
having the needles in my ass cheek, which didn't help. Now next week
I'm gonna have some electro something or other done to my back and they need
to put me under for that as well. So something's got to give because
this ain't right. If you need to get hold of me, you could
reach me day that's beerinfront dot com or on all the social media channels at
beer in Front. If you'd like to support the show, head over to
Patreon dot com slash beer in front for more information. Didn't Beer in Beverage
News to Shoots is coming out with a bearl aged, fresh squeezed beer that
is supposed to resemble the old fashioned cocktail. This is going to be a
ten point seven percent beer, and while not available yet in my area,
it looks like this is going to be a national release. The Brewers Association
announced the twenty twenty four Industry Awards. Recipients this year are Tanya Cornett from
ten Barrel in the Innovation in Craft category. John Pinkerton from Moon River took
home the Recognition Award. Eric Orlando from the Zeta Group was awarded the Defense
of the Industry Free Award, and Laura Lodge from Customized Craft Beer Programs is
the Mentor of the Year. Congratulations to the winners. Coachella and Stagecoach will
both have a sober bar at their music festivals this year. It's called the
New Bar and it's going to feature non alcoholic beers, wines, and spirits.
As someone that's been to multiple riot fests and lallapaloozas and Ana Bar is
a good call. Goose Island will open up their location at the Salt Shed
on May the third. This will have indoor and outdoor seating, a brand
new food menu, and a diverse tap list. Kendall Jackson, the Winemaker,
will be the first wine partner of the NBA. I'm talking a lot
the last few weeks about beer and food pairings. Johnsonville, the sausage company,
in Line and Coogle they're joining forces to make a summer shandy flavored Brotwurst.
Now beer and brotz perfect together. I'm not sure how the lemon is
going to taste in one, but you know me, if I see it,
I'm gonna put it in the cart. I don't know if they make
it anymore, but I remember the Jewel the Bootstore here in Chicago and Revolution
used to have brots. They had the They hid one with Eugene the Porter
for a while, and then they also had the anti hero Brot. You
know, the last one I think I saw a Jewel with a beer company
was three one two had an infused brot, So you know, maybe Jeweled
lining up with AB and BEV. Now Playboy the magazine or I don't even
know if it's still around, but Playboy is coming out with the hard seltzer
called play Hot, and that's going to be the ready to drink sponsor of
the Chicago White Sox. Maybe the Socks should take the advice on the can
and play hard. All right, today's show is going to be all about
Birmingham and Alabama. First up is my good buddy Brandon. He sent me
over a couple of beers, like right around the holiday season, excellent stuff.
I'm gonna have one leader from Good People Brewing Company. This is I'm
gonna have their coffee oatmeal stout. But I'm excited to meet Brandon, not
in person, because we're doing this via zoom, but to meet you outside
of Twitter. Absolutely. Yeah, that's kind of funny how this happens.
I was telling my wife about it and I was like, oh, I
remember like, he's the guy that a couple of years ago sent me some
Chicago beers and the beer Santa Twitter thing, and then you know here recently,
the Metro you know brewing. We were just talking about off air in
terms of, you know, getting me a little care package before they're unfortunate
you know closure recently. I certainly appreciated that, but was happy to replicate
on the Birmingham beer side for sure. Now you do what sales work with
Avondale and Good People I do. Yeah, So kind of little back context.
Good People was the you know, first kind of legally founded brewery in
Birmingham. We opened in two thousand and eight. Avondale opened shortly after,
and they were two separate companies for a little while, and eventually Good People
wound up buying Avondale. This was all prior to me being here, been
to Birmingham for coming up on the year already somehow. But yeah, and
so there for a while when you know, acquisition first kind of happened,
it was just kind of a you know, operating kind of two bicycles.
Just do your thing, we do birthday and then now in the last couple
of years, it's kind of become a little bit more consolidated because the Avendel
Brewery we actually it's essentially a second tap room for us there. We don't
do any production there. All the production we do it Good People, which
is right down town, but at the Avondel side, we've actually really invested
into that space and turned it into a pretty popular and prominent event space at
in town, which is really cool. We get some pretty good, pretty
great, really bookings for just live music pretty much throughout the year. We
do have an indoor upstairs kind of private, smaller space that we can do
some really cool shows at, and then we have you know, more of
the outside like stage lights, camera, just full on. Oh cool.
Yeah, yeah, it's it's a it's a cool spot. And it's been
kind of funny for somebody who you know definitely is a transplant over here,
just seeing like, oh, like I you have loved this beer under this
umbrella. I love this one Avendel beer, I love this one Good People
beer. It's like, Okay, that's all the same, you know,
that's the same same place. But well, I know, like you know,
we did this exchange, like you know, last year, and it
was funny, like the care package you sent wound up go to like Portland,
Oregon before it made its way in Chicago. We're like talking to it
was like Christmas. So it's like all right, you know, shipping's gonna
be late or whatever. But I'm looking at it like the tracking number you
said them like Oregon. Wait, Alabama's here, Chicago's here, and Oregon
it's way over there. But it finally came. I did a couple of
segments on them earlier, which I'll put out later the show. But I
know, like some of the ones that I had, like that Avondale was
really good. I'm really excited to crack open this coffee oatmeal style. Now
what can you tell me about this one while I'm busting it open? Here?
Uh So, a little fun kind of personal anecdote for me on that
one. So I'm born and raised in Georgia, spent first thirty years over
there before again recently moving over here about a year ago. The good Oh
yeah, it's a it's a good looking, forward, good looking poor good
head there and smelled great. So good people used to distribute in Georgia and
recently pulled out a couple of years ago. But whenever they were distributing in
Georgia. That beer in particular, my wife said, and I we bought
I think I think I bought like six cases of it for our wedding and
then wound up not being able to use it because of you know, venue
and this and that, and so we wound up just having six cases of
good People at Mossout. So that's a beer that I was not overly mad
at at the time to have on hand. But it's also just kind of
funny just the kind of story of how I even wound up with good people.
I was, you know, a fan there for a long time before
ever even you know, kind of and in your head there's always the kind
of, oh, that'd be really cool to work there when they you know,
just especially as I kind of got you know, involved in the industry
and whatnot and never really thought it would actually happen, and then I did,
so kind of a little bit of a full circle moment. But yeah,
the circle of life there, yeah for sure. Yeah, But yeah,
CoFe dnial Stout used to be one that we offered as in terms of
just a year round offering. We had to had to brown ail a lot
of the kind of multi year beers, which I think partially Again, you
know, I've only been around for a year or so, so might not
all be totally the you know, full accuracy. But in my opinion,
I think it's just that Alabama is still such a new and kind of young
craft beer landscape really, so like you know, we're the oldest. We
started in two thousand and eight, and so that just shows you, you
know, I think right now there's forty five give or take all great out
in the state. Birmingham, you know, especially if you consider kind of
the metro area of Birmingham, I think account for almost twenty of them.
So I mean that's fifty percent of them are pretty much in Birmingham. Yeah,
Huntsville's popped up as a pretty good hub, but for the most part,
a lot of it emails right here. But back to Coffield Mill Stout.
Now, it's one of our fall seasonals that we do, and so
it kind of fell into our because you know, we're fortunate to be the
size we are and you know, a lot of our volume is done in
you know, package grocery ord, you know, gas station, just kind
of people seeing our beer byron or beer from you know, those places and
one of ours. You know, we kind of packaged one of our skews
into being for about the first six months of the year, we do our
West Coast I p a Hitchhiker, which is a crowd favorite. It's one
that you know, people love to see come out every year, and then
we roll it into Octoberfest for a few months, and then right after Octoberfest
we roll out Offield Mill Stout. Okay, this past year was really cool.
We did a couple adjunct versions of it, so we did one that
was like a peanut butter coffee oatmeal style. We did, you know,
little kind of fun things with it. But it's definitely one of the ones
that's kind of near and dear to me in our portfolio for sure. Yeah,
it's really good. Like you definitely notice, or at least I do.
I noticed the coffee's there, but it's not. It doesn't take away
from the beer like some coffee. Beers are almost just like drinking a can
of cold coffee, where this is like it's there, you know it's there,
but you still get like all the flavor of the beer and the stout.
It's really good. I was just looking at the chem while you were
talking. What's the ABV on this, it's like five okay, five six
something like that. It's it's pretty light. Let me just to make sure
I'm not lying to you. Yeah, I mean the artwork is really cool
too. I love the fond I mean, I love like the logo.
Everything about this is really good. Yeah, it's been five seven neiled it.
Ok Yeah, it's one that you know, it's people definitely love to
seeing kind of come back around. You know. It's it to me is
one of the kind of staples of the market here in terms of okay,
like it's fall, like we're coming up on the holidays, here's coffee up
Mill Stoule like you know, but yeah, it's it's one that I definitely
agree. I really enjoy it because it's not super in your face coffee,
Like you know, I don't want one of the ones where it's like,
oh, like am I drinking a coffee? Yeah? For sure? Like
is this going to keep me away? Good night? Yeah? Have you
ever like or have they ever barriaged this that I don't believe? So,
so every fall or not fall, really it's kind of every December there we
have a really big event it's called El Gordo day and it's a release of
our thirteen point nine percent our abb laws fourteen percent here, but it's our
thirteen point eight thirteen point nine percent Russian imperial stout and that one we always
do just the base barrier and there will do the base spear and then we'll
release the bear alongside it, and then on the elk Bordo. It's uh,
you know, we'll play around without one a lot, like this past
year we did a barrel age, we did a cookies and cream but coffee
had missed out. Typically is just you know, the we just kind of
let it ride all right, Like you mentioned before, like you know,
well before we were talking like you work with Fords drinking as well. Yeah,
So just kind of my long long story short when I kind of I
kind of got into craft at a really great time in Georgia just because as
I was turning kind of twenty one and of age, that's when the boom
really kind of happened in Georgia and so I just kind of got to see
it, you know, grow it was the there was a couple of year
period where it was you know, there's a new place twice a month,
three times a month, like every weekend and just always was you know,
near and dear to me. And whenever I thought I was gonna be a
teacher, there for a little bit my under as in history and when I
kind of stumbled my way through no pun intended. My bachelor's I actually came
across the museum field, and so I wound up going to grad school for
public history to depended the museum field, and part of my program, since
it was a history program, we had to do a thesis and I knew
going in. I was like, I'm gonna do something with beer. I'm
going to figure out what it is. I don't know yet, and you
know, no no different than any other thesis or anybody else's project. Like
it went through a couple iterations, but wound up doing a the like first
ever like scholar whatever, you know, master's thesis on Georgia beer history.
And my last semester I actually through Twitter met Tristan Chen who's the founder of
Port Shrinking, and got involved with him, and you know, it was
like, hey, man, like if you're you know, interested in this,
like it'd be cool to just get you on board do some writing for
us. And I was like, oh yeah, like let me finish the
thesis and then we can figure it out. And yeah, stuck all with
them in January twenty twenty and then have you know, was a contributing writer
for a few months and then kind of became the Georgia Content editor and then
recently kind of transitioned into me and one other gentleman, Jason Murphy. We're
the Southeast content editors now. But yeah, I really enjoyed my work with
portrang you know, obviously, so it was founded in Denver, but Chicago
is a huge hub of portraying. It always has been. It's kind of
Denver Chicago are are two kind of really big markets for it. We have
a ton of writers out there, we have a ton of support out there,
which is really cool. But yeah, it's been you know, it's
been a lot of fun. Definitely done some kind of fun articles, done
some you know, kind of deep dives which is always a fun thing and
whatnot. But yeah, so I've always done that that kind of on the
side. And twenty twenty was working at a museum. Most you know,
that's what you do. You get your degree, you knew your field,
and when COVID happened. Actually we wound up shutting down, But I always
say it was kind of a little bit of a blessing for me, just
because I wasn't, you know, loving what I was doing, even though
I had just gone to school for it and was trying to convince myself,
and so I actually my last semester of grad school started working at a bottle
shop in town west side bottle shop in Athens, Georgia, and wound up,
you know, just really finding myself enjoying my days there more than I
was, you know previously, And again long long story, short work,
made some really key friends and connections and whatnot, and was there for probably,
I guess, a little over two years. And there was a small
brewery opened up in twenty twenty one called Athentic Brewing, and I wound up,
you know, long soy shore getting on board with them, and guess
they'd have been in twenty twenty. I came on it's twenty twenty one,
and then was there for a little over two years in right until we moved
over to Birmingham and got on with good people. Yeah, you've only been
there a year, I know, Like my cousin who lives there, he
talks it up. What is like the Birmingham area, l like, like,
what's there to do? Like, the only thing I really know about
it outside of my cousin is Michael Jordan played. Michael played minor league baseball
here thirty years ago. Yeah. Yeah, so actually the Barons, the
Birmingham Barons Good People's tap Room was located right across the street from Reasons Field
where they still play, and so location wise, it's you know, perfect,
especially this time of the year. I mean, Roland have a couple
of beers, go over to the minor league game for you know, a
few bucks, and it's a it's a good Thursday night. Yeah. But
yeah, I mean, honestly, I think my biggest kind of complement of
the city is just the way it like it. It feels like a big
city, but it's not overly populated like in Atlanta or something, so you
know, you kind of get best best of both worlds. Like, yes,
traffic can be a little bad sometimes, but it's never you know,
super terrible, but aver La bad Yeah yeah, yeah, or even a
bad honestly, but it also just like it's it's very much like a it's
it's a very like kind of neighborhoodd feeling like there's just a lot of just
kind of little like cool pockets, like you definitely have kind of the more
like you know, city spots. You have the more you know. Sometimes
to me it doesn't make a ton of sense, but the kind of main
drag that runs out of downtown and you can see the kind of city scape
and whatnot, it really reminds me of Pittsburgh, which, okay, it's
been a great town. Yeah, yeah, I've spent exactly one night in
Pittsburgh and I loved it. But which you know, one of the monikers
of Birmingham is like this the Steel City, so there was a lot of
that industry here and whatnot, you know, historically, so it just kind
of has that feel and vibe. But yeah, we have a really great
museum see here both you know, arts museums, history museums. There's the
Civil Rights Institute here that is a really incredible museum. Obviously for you know,
there's no professional sports in Alabama other than what some people would say,
you know, the University of not personally but hey, but no, I
mean there's honestly just there's a ton and we also have a really kind of
I don't know the best word for it, active I guess kind of tourism
council or commerce or whatever. So you know, we have a few really
big event spaces here. There's a soccer club here. There's a couple of
the Spring NFL, you know USFL, the Birmingham Stallions they I saw that
one two, a lot of championships. I guess they're back to back champions
I and at the time of this recording a big spring football first, but
we'll see, you know, pretty big fall football person. But yeah,
I mean that's been The kind of cool thing is just you know, being
in a new like space. Obviously, we spend a lot of weekends just
kind of getting out and just kind of randomly just going around places. But
the beer industry here is really cool, just especially in Birmingham proper, just
because from you know, kind of point A at the furthest end of town
to point you know, be at the other end of town. They're just
I believe eight or so breweries within like a five mile stretch, Like so
many of them are downtown, Like I mean Monday Night, who is from
Atlanta, they have a spot here. High Wire from Asheville. They have
a tap from here, and then you know, there's been a few that
have either you know, like there's one spot downtown that's currently called Upbreut Brewing
and that the building there, and similar to what we were kind of talking
about it about Metro earlier, that they're like the third brewer to be in
that space, Like both of the others that started there outgrow on it,
you know, put a new spot somewhere else, and so that's that's a
really cool thing to see too. Is just the kind of support that you
know, for an industry that's a little bit younger here, just to still
have that amount of support to be able to you know, have a dozen
within a five mile kind of stretch. Yeah. Is it like a walkable
city like you know Chicago you could pretty much walk anywhere you wanted to or
is it pretty much like you need to get a car or an uber or
something like that. Yeah, there's, uh, there's like definitely some parts
that are walkable, but the most part it is just kind of you know,
close end proximity, but not really you know, overly walkable. Like
there's a lot of time you know, like public like sidewalks or like Okay,
have like a I think it's like the Greenway or green line or something
that it's kind of similar to like Atlanta's beltline, all right, but it
doesn't I don't think that it fully has been developed like to kind of encapsulate,
you know, the whole city yet. For the most part though,
I mean pretty much everything is you know, ten fifteen minutes from anywhere you
want to go, which is okay a plus, it's not like I mean,
certainly can walk it. Yeah, you know there's off those beers,
yeah, for sure, for sure. What else is there to do?
Is there like like outdoor stuff? Are you like close to like trails,
parks things of bad nature? For sure? Yeah, there's a few.
There's one like kind of right downtown. It's been a little bit of a
kind of recent I thinkation from what I've been told, at least called Railroad
Park. Okay, actually right outside of the a Dale neighborhood, which is
obviously where our you know, Tapron is. But there's also like Oak Mountain.
I don't know if it's a state or national park, to be honest
with you, one of the two, but it's kind of you know,
right over here, there's all kinds of walking trails on it. It's definitely
you know, like Burningham is definitely a pretty like outdoor city from I think
it actually picked up this month in March, but for like a six seven
month period, there's a kind of section of downtown it's probably i don't know,
five or six kind of blocks wide that every Saturday there's a huge farmers
market that people just I mean, it's it's kind of a like, I
don't know, it's you got to go. I don't know how you know.
I mean it's a huge just you know, all kinds of vendors from
like arts and crafts to just produced to you know, baked goods. I
mean, there's just everything there. That's a really cool space. But there's
definitely been a lot more from what again, you know, I've been told
they're just that it's come up in conversation. There's been a lot of kind
of renovation recently and a lot of kind of directed you know, kind of
infrastructure or in this particularly like in downtown and the kind of surrounding areas.
But yeah, I mean there's you know, always something going on. Yeah,
Like certainly I will say one thing that I didn't expect or you know,
maybe I just didn't know. But the culinary scene here is really great
as well. There's a ton of just great restaurants from you know, dive
bars, great for to the like you know James Beard nominee, James Beard
chefs, and I think there's even like a couple like you know, there's
a few spots in downtown that are certainly like you know, very very good,
highly regarded, but it's kind of spread out. But I just also
loved the just amount of kind of international food that's here or type place an
Indian place like literally half a mile from our house, and you know,
visit both frequently. There's obviously you know, burghers and Avery. I mean
there's everything here. That was one thing that I didn't expect, really,
I kind of just because so my wife's actually from Alabama, but she's from
small town in Alabama. It's like an hour east of Birmingham. And my
only real you know, Alabama experience was going you know, to my in
laws and just kind of seeing her town. And so whenever we first were
talking about moving from Athens, originally it was oh, let's go to Birmingham,
and it was a little bit of a tough sell for me for a
bit, and then we got out here and I was like, oh,
like this is actually a pretty sweet place. Okay, So that's certainly how
you know, it's not like I think the thing I like about it is
that it like it's not an overly like southern charming kind of a city,
but it's like definitely like super welcoming. And it's also just you know,
like you kind of get a lot of the kind of big city quote perks
without you know, having the population of you know, five six million,
like yeah in Chicago, any of the big big cities. Now with like
the breweries you represent, I mean in cans obviously, what's like the distribution
like are you all over like the southeast stores. It's just strictly closer to
like the Birmingham area. Yeah. So for distribution of the Good People,
especially the Good People brand, it's well, you know, bared with the
specifics are obviously having kind of two brands is awesome, but it definitely leads
to a little bit of you know, just figuring out details and logistics.
But Good People you know, beers available all throughout the state of Alabama,
top to bottom. We launched over in mississipt beat last year we kind of
focused on Startville and the Tupelo area, so where Mississippi State is. And
then last fall we'll be actually launched down into Jackson and Hattiesburg and then down
kind of the golf It was like just all of you know, basically the
kind of southern part of the state. And then we down in Florida,
we go over to Pensacola and then that's kind of where we draw it.
And then for Tennessee, we're in Chattanooga and primarily Nashville. Okay, yeah,
yeah, we have a pretty good presence up that way, and you
know, a lot of love and support up there, so we certainly certainly
appreciate that. Brandon, I appreciate you taking time out. It's nice to
do the beer exchange. I still have the Metro glass for you because I
bought too, but I didn't want it to break in the box with the
beer, so I have to do I'll have to send you that out because
it's still I'm looking at it right now. It's in the bag. So
I've got the one last class for Metropolitan. But thanks so much for talking
about the Burning Theme Area. If you're there, you got to check out
Avondale and good people. The beers that I've had have been outstanding, So
definitely if you're in their distribution foot print, you got to pick those up.
Brandon Man, thanks again, brother, I really appreciate it absolutely.
Man, it was a pleasure. You know, it's always a fun thing
to actually kind of sit down with somebody that you you know, interacted with
and yeah, fel like, you know, for so long. I think
our first interactional you probably were pissed at me because it was something about I
think I had a twenty eight to three comment about something and you were like,
dude, yeah, yeah, it was probably the Super Bowl comment.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We uh you know, at this point rightfully
earned every single bit of the grief that we get about that. Yeah,
I wholeheartedly. And this past year Super Bowl for as you know, it's
cool to see Kansas City doing their thing, but I I could not pull
for Colle Shanahan after what he did does in my life. But luckily the
Braves and Uga has biled us out since the way to you know, become
realmary' all, you know, getting excited up there about Caleb Williams you think
is uh yeah, I mean there's no doubt. I mean, especially after
they traded Justin and so yeah, we're definitely taking it. I was actually
kind of like I didn't really have that much of a problem with Justin.
You know, he kind of dealt a bad hand to begin with with Matt
Naggy here and then thrown to the Wolves, and you know, it's kind
of hard to pass on the number one pick and reset that quarterback clock.
So I mean he's going to have some talent. I mean, right now
their offense is stacked. So yeah, that was a big I just the
thing that the biggest I know, obviously this is a beer podcast, right,
but the biggest thing that has urged me this entire kind of draft all
season has been and you know, Chicago, this Chicago that it's like Chicago,
I mean, they were on a pretty good run for the end of
last year. Like this isn't really there, you know, like they didn't
earn the number one yeah, like it's Carolina's pick, and but the whole
off season it was well the situation in Chicago, this and that. But
you know, we'll see. But I mean I think, you know,
I think I think it worked out for everyone involved. As much as it
could, I guess at this point, just for how loud it constantly was.
And yeah, a couple more weeks and it I'll be over and then
we could have peace and quiet until training camp for sure. Yeah a right,
man. Well, thanks again Brandon for you know, sending the beers
out. I appreciate him. You got to pick up the coffee, oatmeal
stout and then listen on a little bit later. I'm gonna have a couple
of the other beers from avon Dale and a couple other breweries that he sent
out, so stay tuned for that. So Brandon, thank you again,
brother, I appreciate it. Yeah, man, thanks for the time.
Hey you there, We've got a question for you. Are you tired of
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and check them out. Always a great show. All right, welcome back.
Well I'm talking Birmingham. There was one person I had to reach out
to, Ashley Monroe. She's been on the show. She was on a
couple years ago when I did like everyone talking about breweries in their city.
You may know her on social media as Brewed Black Girl, but she's you're
a go to person when you want to know about beer and Birmingham. Ashley,
thank you so much, Thank you Dave for having me. I am
so happy to be back on here. Before we get started, I know
you're drinking a beer. I'm drinking a beer. Can you tell everyone like
about yourself. Well, I am born and raised in Birmingham, so I
know it thrinnen through, and like you said, I am on all social
media as groups. Girl, I am just trying to be a great representation
of black women in the craft beer industry and I've been doing it for a
little over six years and I'm very I'm just excited what this industry has been
doing. And yeah, I'm just I'm just excited to be a part of
it. Yeah for the most part. Yeah, Now you're also you're part
of the Pink Food Society. Didn't you post something like maybe a couple of
weeks ago. I saw you with like a big bag of hops in your
head. Yes, I am the co chapter leader of the Birmingham chapter.
We are less than a year old. Okay. We finally got a new
chapter or the only Alabama chapter last year last year, so I'm very excited
that we have that too. But yeah, we did the Pink Boots hot
Blend. Okay, Yeah, I mean that looked pretty cool from what you
were posting. What kind of beer is that? So the one that you
saw was a he pale ale So it was brewed with a tea from Piper
and leaf who is actually local and it's like a strawberry shinnedg tea, so
it's brewed with that and it's really good. You really get the tea on
the back end of it, but you'll get the hops that plays with it,
so it's called not So Dainty at bat. Is that out now or
is that still being fermented? Oh? Yeah, it is out now.
It is at back forty. And we're also having I know this will be
released afterwards, but we're also doing one with Monday Night Brewing, okay,
and that will be released tomorrow at our course another of it. Okay?
Cool? Well what beer are you having since we're talking Birmingham beer. I
am drinking a trim tab cherry slush. I like sours a lot, and
not like high gravity sours. So yeah, the cherry lime made slush is
just a really tart sour. No. I love cherry lime made like me
too. I mean, you could booze up the sonic cherry limaid, I'd
be in good shape. I mean you could get the cherry limade slush and
then just add vodka. I can't say that I have tried that for it,
but yeah, it's good. I'm trying to think. I saw something
like with cherry lymaid, like I know, uh, like simply lemonade.
They just come out with a limade version of like beer Seltzer and I am
just the plain one. But yeah, you were thinking a variety pick they
should do with cherry lime maide because that would be good, you think,
so, yeah, it actually will be be nice and tart. And yeah,
do all the selters that are out there like the simply lemonade one's been
my favorite. I'm like, this is actually pretty good. I would drink
this, like, I know, they have a peach and a strawberry lemonade,
and everyone I've had of those has been good. Yes, that's the
that. And actually I've liked the Truly ones. Okay, but those are
the only ones that I've like. Truly actually has a margarita kind of version,
all right, and so that's really good too. But yeah, I
simply lemonade is really good, especially with the spike ones. I just haven't
had any others that I match up to that at all. Yeah, you
know, and I would much prefer a beer, but you know, I
saw those on the shelf. I'm like, all right, well, I
do like like simply orange juice. So let me try it. And I'm
like, oh, it's just the same bad right, And it's good if
you just want from this not to carbonated. Yeah, and you know you're
trying to stay away from the bloats or something like that you're out in the
pool or something like that. I'm I'm, I'm I think about bloat.
It may not be on everyone's mind, but I do. I think about
that. Well I drink beer. Yeah, Well, I'm gonna crack open
from Birmingham District. This is their pill. This is an American style lagger
four point eight eight percent, So let me bust this one open. I
love Birmingham District. You know when I was talking to Brandon, you know
because he's with good people in Avondale. So you have Birmingham District. What
other breweries are out there that like you see or you would recommend people hit
up? Devine the Lake Ferris. Farris is out on the outer skirts of
Birmingham in Trustful but they make fantastic sours. They also make fantastic apias,
okay, and they also do like really traditional styles that maybe not every brewery
is doing. Like they may have like a smoke weed on or or a
gristad or something like that. So they make really delicious beers. Who else
Cahaba is fantastic as well. They have a blonde. They also make their
own liquor here al I don't know if your cousin told you, but here
in Alabama, if you're going to sell liquor as a brewery, you have
to make it all laws. Hmm. So they tosteal their own liquor.
So that that's a great place to go to if you have someone in your
group that is not a beer drinker. So they have a lot of good
like mixed strinks and stuff to but they also make fantastic beers. So uh,
Caaba is another one that's really good. All right? Cool? I
have to check that out and add that link in the show notes or people
are heading down to Birmingham, I'll include the link of all the breweries that
you know for people to hit up. Now, there you go a lot
a lot of places. Sorry to cut you off, Oh no, that's
all right. Like if you're going down there, would you suggest like maybe
people do like a three day weekend a full week, you know, what,
what's your idea about that? People coming just to visit. I think
a good weekend even, yeah, a three day weekend because we have a
a lot of great restaurants. We have a lot of great historical places to
go, and then we also have a lot of great breweries and bars.
So like you really can come and go hiking, or if you want to
go to the Civil's Rights Civil Rights Museum, if you want to go on
the brew Tour. There's just so many different things that you can do downtown
in general that well, you can fill it up in a week honestly.
But I mean if you're trying to just have a little getaway for a weekend,
it's a great spot. Okay. And like you know, when I
was talking to Brandon as well, would you need to rent a car or
is it like could you uber? Is there public transportation or is it just
pretty much just rent the car? Okay, So you definitely need a car.
We are not very public transportation friendly. We have busses, but it
doesn't go everywhere and doesn't pick up from everywhere. Okay. And if you're
going out at night, just get a car. Are you broke? Yeah?
We have Uber and Lyft, we have little scooters. You know this
downtown. You can you can scoot from different places to park somewhere. A
lot of places on the weekend doesn't don't charge for parking, especially like after
six pm, so you can park somewhere, grab a scooter and then go
wherever you need to go. Downtown. Yeah, it's fun. Like some
of the restaurants. What are some of the restaurants that, like you would
recommend and like what style of food do they have? So let's talk about
my favorites. Downtown in Lakeview is an area that has a lot of bars,
but they also have a lot of restaurants. My favorite Mexican spot is
there callos Amgos. Really cheap food, delicious food, great drinks too,
and they don't cost a lot, Okay, I like seafood. Somammy is
another great spot that has fresh sushi, They have fu they have Rahmen.
Such a delicious spot to go to or if you just want a burger.
We got Jack Brown's okay down there, and that's all walking distance. Like
those are all in a plaza that you can just walk around in when there's
different bars just scattered around to We have a lot of James Beard Award nominees
here and so if you're gonna come here, you're gonna expect to eat really
really good good good. Wait, I think I might hear Moira. Is
Moira back? Oh my goodness? Will I be gracy for presents? Yeah?
No, I think she may still be hot. I was gonna put
her up on camera if she's back, but she thinks I thought I heard
her her little tippy tones. Yeah. I've also like on your social media
feel I see you do stuff with like wine tastings and sake stuff like that,
like one other spirits and alcohol are you into so I I am in
a new position at a grocery store and I am kind of being thrust into
the wine part of alcohol. And so that's what you see. We have
different reps that come and see us and talk to us about wine, and
I am really getting into wine. I am, like you said, I
did try sake. I am not so into sake. Yeah. I've tried
it a few times, and I'm like, I mean it's not bad,
but it's just not my thing. It's not something that I would drink purpose.
I mean I would drink it if someone there like a saka shot,
because they do sack shots. But it's not something I'm going to order out
at a restaurant. Yeah, but I am ye delving into that and it's
been fun learning. It's it's a completely different world than beer. So I
do feel a little bit like a fish out of water a little bit,
but yeah, fun. How are like wine people different from beer people?
Oh, they're pretty there. They are a little bit more skeptical when I'm
suggesting things. I feel like they are a lot of They're very said in
their ways. They're a lot less open to trying new things. Then I
feel like deer people are. I feel like beer people see something and they
may see like a hop in the and like, oh, I know about
that hop, and so I want to try it. White people, well,
not so much. They don't sometimes like to stick with what they like,
and I get that. But sometimes you discover a new favorite when you
step outside the box and try something that you never thought you would. Yeah,
exactly. I mean, well, you may find your new favorite.
You never know exactly, and it may be something that you never thought that
you would pick up, but someone suggested it to you and you like it.
So it's it's a little different to get them to try something new.
But they are. They're not the ones I've encountered. They're not snobby,
they're not stuck up at all, like a lot of people say that they
can be. Yeah, they're very nice. They just know they like and
if it doesn't sound like it's something they like, they're not gonna get it.
Like do you feel like or do you notice? Like in the wide
world and even in the beer world too, where the perception and most of
the people out there unfortunately look like me. You're older white dudes with the
beard. Do like, well people trust your judgment or opinion or is it
still like, well, you know, let me find a guy to talk
to. In both worlds, I've had someone say, not say it,
but you can tell that they are kind of iffy on what I'm saying about
alcohol. So it takes a little convincing. It's more of a are you
sure kind of thing. You have to be like I'm sure, I'm sure,
Yeah, I'm sure, and then you know they'll take it. But
and then I have some people who are like, oh, yeah, I
know you know about it. You seem like you know about it, And
once you tell them specific words or specific tasting notes or something like that,
then they'll be like, oh, okay, maybe she does know what she's
talking about. So yeah, that's just that's just how it is. I
just have to just be persistent and say I know what I'm talking about.
I know that you could probably like this, and if you don't come back
and let me know it, I can't. I can't refund you. But
you know, when you find something there, She's like, yeah, well,
I think Moira is gracing their presence. Here, come here, Wyra,
somebody wants to say ay to you, Maira. She needs a treat,
so a whole on e then she'll come in. Of course, you
have to get rewarded from one on a walk. I like to reward myself
for going on the way. Yeah, look at it, there's Moira.
Oh my goodness. She's like no. Yeah, She's like, no,
I need to get out of here. Yeah right, yeah, I did
not want to be on camera. Yeah it's okay. Yeah, she's adorable.
How old is she? How she'll be? I think eight this year
because we adopted her like during the pandemic. So yeah, I did you
think she was four when we adopted her? Oh my gosh. Yeah,
but no, she's still she's still full of spunk. Yeah, she's a
young eight right, I have a because she is what what do you think
she is? She's like a Jack Russell mad. She's a rat terrier,
and I'm not sure what the other part is. I feel like I have
either Jack Russell or rat terry or mixed with chihuahua because they were sold to
my mom. Isamoa. But she's twelve and she is just running around like
crazy. Yeah Zoe, right is Zoe? Yeah? You know it was
I was talking to like, I'm talking to somebody. I think it was
Brian and Saint Louis, and we were talking about like, you know,
beer, Twitter and the beer social media community, and it's like, you
know a lot of people don't use their names, it's just their handle.
And they're like, I know people's dogs names more than I do their own
real name. Like, oh, yes, you have Zoe, and I
know Brian has Buddy and Shalanda has uh Raleigh. No, everybody's dog's name,
but you might not know what their real name is. Yeah, and
it's that like in person. Yeah, I'm trying to stop myself from doing
that. I'll introduce myself to the dog before I introduced myself to the person
and that's so bad, and I'm like, I'm so sorry, but I
just saw your dog, and you know, if they say it's okay,
I'm going to picture dog first. Ye that's how it is. But yeah,
I definitely know dogs names. I remember that a lot more than people.
And that's I say, that's the redeeming quality. I'm gonna take that.
A good bar dog or not. She is not. She does not
like strangers, yeah, and I hear that she does not like strangers.
What about Maura? No, you know, she's weird, Like in the
house, she's an absolute angel, but once you put that leash on her,
no, and it's something with like the leash like she Yeah, No,
it's no difference. You know, it's just like if she's free,
she's cool. But you know, you just were not going to keep her
without a leash, especially in public. So yeah, we can't really take
her out to like a bar and stuff, because there's places around here that
would be perfect for her, but she's too high strong, and you know,
I don't want one because she stirs up trouble. So I don't want
to go in the middle of this. So we'll just keep her at all.
Yeah, I get that. Yeah, that's yeah. And she would
be a lot less stress too, because if you're stress, when I'm stressed,
I know she's stressed. So yeah, it's just better to just stay
at home, you know. Yeah. I mean she's so like high strung,
like we got to put around prozac. Yeah, even like bets her,
Like, yeah, you got to give her, you got to medicate
her, you know, for like when she goes out, because she's just
super high strung. And she was a rescue so actually she comes from Alabama,
that's where we rescued her from. Yes, but you know, who
knows what she had in her previous life, so you know whatever, you
know, she's good. She's our good little girl. Yeah, Zoe is
on trisade. She has anxiety, so yeah, she does get chas doone
at certain times when I know it's going to be like a lot of people
either coming in the house or something or somebody that absolutely What do you think
about the pilsner? I like it. I look very good. I get
liked. There's like a little sweetness to it, but not a lot,
And I just think it's really good. It's balanced, it's you know what
is it, I say four point eight percent. Yeah, it's a four
point eight so I mean it's it's no. I think this is delicious.
Yeah, this is something I need to have like every day. Birmingham District
is really a fantastic brewery. They've won a couple of awards and recognitions and
national publications before and it's it's well deserved. They're really good at what they
do. Jimmy the Brewer there he his mind. I got to brew with
him last year and it's mine. I learned so much. He's just so
knowledgeable and he just taught me so much about the brewing process and why you
do what you do and all of the science and the math. Then yeah,
he's just awesome. Cool. Well, I thank you so much for
coming on once again. If you need to know anything about Birmingham, look
her up on social media for brood black Girl. Once again. Tell people
where they could find you any like hitting gems you might maybe you didn't think
of that you want people to find out about. Well, thank you for
having me, David. I'm very I was very happy when you asked me
to come back on. But like I said, I am on social media
under brew Black Girl I am on on social media, but I'm mostly active
on Facebook and Instagram. Twitter is more of my personal account, and no,
I mean, I can't think of anything else, but feel free to
just hop in my DMS. If anyone wants any kind of recommendations, if
you are coming to Birmingham, if you want to know about local things that's
happening, I would be happy to punt you in the right direction. All
right. The beer that's in front of me now is from Good People Brewing
Company. They're out of Birmingham. This is one of the beers the Brandon
sent over. This is their flagship brew Good People's. This is an IPA
with Columbus, Willamette, Cascade, Simco and Citra Hops seven point one percent
alcohol, seventy five point five IBU. What is this? So we're we
back in the early two thousands, seventy five IBus, let's crackh cop it
the Good People IPA beautiful color around here. Nice caramel maltz there that I'm
getting. So it's a really nice color. Good phone hear nice handboone good.
I'd say three fingers, smells really good. I get the Simco Citra
Hops up there. That's what hits me up front with the role. Might
think it smells really good. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that bitterness
if you're not used to it with all the hazies out there. The bitterness
kind of hitchy at the end, but it's good. I like it nice
and sweet up front. Mid range is good with that bitterness at the end.
I think this is a very good beer, well balanced IPA. Yeah,
that's good. It's unfiltered, so it's not crystal clear like your West
Coast, but it's definitely not a hazy. I think this is excellent if
you're a fan of old school IPAs like I am, and you're in Birmingham
area. Looking on their website, it looks like you could get this in
Nashville as well, so but if you're in their distro area, I would
definitely pick up the good people brewing companies IPA. All right, I'm heading
to Savoy, Illinois for my Drink Illinois Beer series. I'm gonna have stand.
This is a West Coast inspired dry hop lagger from trip Titch. I
try to get a little more information, but their website is down, so
the can doesn't list the ABV on this. It just says that this has
domestic pilsder malt plus a mix of European and North American hops. So let's
crack open stand from triptitch. Stan is a really nice color, good foam
here, big big hop notes on the aroma, like for a lagger.
I don't think I've ever had a lagger that had that big of a hop
profile in the aroma. It's huge and it's good. Getting like some mango
maybe in that, so I don't know, but let's let's have this.
That's real good. Yeah, definitely get like some mango, some maybe melon
fruits in there. I don't get a lot of the European hops, but
huge hop flavor to go along with the aroma. I think this tastes phenomenal.
It's really good, good carbonation, has a good mouthfeel to it.
I don't get a lot of bitterness here, so this is kind of like
a hazy logger, if you will. But I think this is really good.
I've heard of trip Titch, I've never had anything from them. I
happened to see this at Bottles and Cans, which is the bottle shops.
It's closest to me. When I was, you know, grabbing a couple
of things. I wanted to get some ones from milanois and not just the
same ones from Chicago, as much as I like them. I'm here to
drink Illinois beer and not just drink the Chicago heavy So I'm really glad I
picked this up from Tripp Titch. They got a great looking logo here.
The can is really good. It has like an old cassette tape on it
and it's like a mixtape, so it's got Stan written on there. I
like it. It's very good. I think the beer is excellent. I
need to have more from Trip Titch. So if you're in the Savoy area,
or if you're near me and you could pick it up at Bottles and
Cans, I definitely would put Stan in the cart. I think this is
out stan ding. See what I did there. That's going to wrap things
up for this edition of Beer in Front. I thank you very much for
listening. I want to thank Brandon in Ashley from Birmingham for talking about their
great area. We need to get there soon. Have a great week everyone.
I'll talk in six days and remember sometimes that you're in front of you
is the best one yet. M