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Episode-10: Fest of Ale - Part Deux · Brew Tox with Scott & Scott

0:10
Welcome to Brutons with Scott Scott.
0:13
Bruto X lake detox only taste you.
0:17
I'm Bill Scott. And I'm Scott Smithson.
0:20
And this is a podcast that celebrates alcohol free beer.
0:27
Well, Scott, here we are sitting on a Sunday afternoon looking
0:31
out at the sunshine. The birds are singing, people
0:34
are out doing their gardening. People are going for hikes.
0:38
People are going out in their kayaks and what are we doing?
0:43
We're sitting inside doing this podcast because that's what we
0:49
do for you loyal listeners we do this podcast for.
0:52
You, we are so dedicated, as much as we'd like to be out on
0:57
the water or even out gardening, you know what we're here
1:02
slogging away and doing this a brew tax podcast.
1:07
We're not slogging away. We quite enjoy this.
1:09
But anyway, we are we are talking this episode about our
1:16
trip to the Festivale in Penticton, yes.
1:19
Right. Indeed.
1:20
So what do you think happens when you know two guys go to an
1:23
event celebrating craft beer breweries and they start
1:28
offering alcohol free beer to the participants?
1:32
Well that's what we did on April 17th and 18th that the annual
1:37
Penticton Festivale and your host Scott and Scott convinced 2
1:42
breweries to give us some alcohol free beers.
1:48
Though to be honest, it didn't take too much convincing.
1:51
No it didn't. They were quite happy to help us
1:53
out actually, and they provided us with 24 beers of their
1:59
product that we were able to give people samples of while
2:03
they were attending the festival.
2:05
And to say that people were a little shocked that we were
2:09
giving free samples because everything else they were having
2:13
to pay for is an understatement. And then they found out that
2:17
they were getting samples of alcohol free beer, which was
2:21
interesting as well. Yeah, yeah.
2:23
Not all of them realized at first that we were.
2:26
What we were handing out was alcohol free here and of course
2:29
all the participants go there. They're there to drink beer like
2:32
they're not there to drink alcohol free beer.
2:35
The vast majority of them I wouldn't think.
2:37
No, right. No, they are not.
2:39
And we spent a Friday afternoon and into the evening and then
2:45
Saturday in the afternoon with all of these folks and got some
2:51
really interesting insights into the alcohol free beer that we
2:55
were doing. Yeah, we did.
2:57
And it was like you say, though it was, it was very well
3:00
received. Like I, you know, I was first of
3:02
all the, the organizers, you know, thanks to them for
3:06
allowing us to do it. Like that was fantastic that
3:08
they, they didn't have to let us do what we did.
3:11
And we, we just pushed, we were pushing around a, a cart with a
3:14
cooler on it with a couple signs saying who we were and wearing
3:19
our, wearing our matching hats and, and surprise, surprise
3:22
matching shirts that we, that we didn't plan to, but it was quite
3:26
funny. And we're, and we, you know,
3:28
we're handing out as Bill said, handing out free samples,
3:32
calling people up, say, Hey, do you want to try a do you want to
3:34
try an alcohol free beer? So the two alcohol free beers
3:37
that we had were Field houses, salted Black Porter, and we'll
3:41
talk more about that later on in the show because it's one of the
3:45
beers we're going to taste test today.
3:47
Perfect. And then the other, it was the
3:49
Nanny IPA, and we've talked about Nani on this show in the
3:52
past, and Nani stepped right up and they said they would be more
3:57
than willing to provide us with some samples, as did Field
4:00
House. So we took these beer into the
4:04
festival. We have our Botox rating scale,
4:07
as everybody knows, and all we did was ask people to give us
4:12
their impressions. We got a couple of great stories
4:15
that we're going to share with you and also give us a rating on
4:18
the Buttox scale. And so we're going to share some
4:21
of that with you today. And while we were while we were
4:24
there giving out people, people the free samples, we had
4:28
intended to kind of interview people on the spot, sort of man
4:32
on the street type of thing, remember?
4:34
And and then we ended up not doing that, just circumstances,
4:38
but it actually worked out well, I think because we got some real
4:41
honest responses, some real honest conversations with
4:44
people, you know, surprising by some of it.
4:48
And there was a lot of knowledgeable people there that
4:50
were giving us some great information and talking about
4:53
the beers. We just had some real genuine
4:56
conversations about non alcoholic beer with the
4:59
participants. Absolutely.
5:00
And I remember a couple of Brewers actually stopped later,
5:03
talked to us for quite extensive periods of time.
5:06
And I think that it broadened my knowledge of the topic as well,
5:11
sitting and listening to those folks, particularly the ones
5:14
that who have experience in brewing.
5:16
Yeah, for sure. Well, we got a lot of useful
5:19
data at the at the festival, Like do you want to share some
5:22
of that? Because it's pretty interesting.
5:24
Yeah, we had 60 people try the salted black Porter from
5:28
Fieldhouse. And interestingly enough, it was
5:32
broken right down the middle, like there were 31 women and 29
5:37
men that took the tasting of the of the black Porter.
5:42
And interestingly, from my standpoint anyway, because I
5:45
came into this with a bias, I thought women would probably be
5:49
less likely to like the porters and the stouts and the darker
5:54
beers, right? Yeah, that makes sense.
5:56
Yeah. And.
5:57
To some degree, that was borne out by the data because women
6:01
were more likely to rate the beer lowly or lower, right?
6:06
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
6:07
They were also, though, the only ones to give it our Hall of Fame
6:12
rating. OK, so three of the women who
6:14
tasted the black Porter gave it the Hall of Fame rating.
6:18
None of the men gave it that high rating.
6:21
On the men's side of it, there was only one person out of 29
6:26
who said that either they would dump it in the planter, except
6:30
they were worried about killing the plants, or it was old, old
6:33
duels. So basically everybody said they
6:36
would finish the beer. And as you were telling me
6:38
earlier, that's interesting because that was a free poor and
6:43
if you were going to dump anything, you would dump a
6:45
Freeport if you didn't like. It exactly because if you paid
6:47
for it, whether it's with a token at a festival, you've
6:50
still paid for it. So you're like, I better finish
6:52
this. I that's just cost me 3 bucks or
6:55
whatever it is. Yep.
6:56
So yeah, but yeah, you're right there.
6:58
I had, I think I had maybe 2, maybe 3 people over the course
7:02
of the two days not and want to dump it out in the little bucket
7:07
we had. So, so that's, you know, that's
7:09
saying a lot actually about the two offerings that we gave.
7:12
The yeah, the most common number that people gave us was four,
7:17
and the average overall was 3.54, which when you're talking
7:23
about a blind kind of taste test where people don't have any
7:27
information where they came to have alcohol, beer, I think that
7:33
really is a pretty good number. Yeah, I think so for sure.
7:36
Right. And I know the point.
7:38
At first we were like, we're hesitant to have them do a
7:42
between a three and a four, but there was a lot of people that
7:45
did 3.5 because they were. So that's showing them that.
7:48
OK, yeah, I might not run out and buy this necessarily, but
7:53
it's more than just I'll drink it because it's there.
7:56
Like they're feeling like this is pretty, this is pretty
7:58
decent. Yeah, right.
7:59
But they might not run out and buy it because they aren't in
8:03
that mindset of alcohol free beer being at the best of hell.
8:06
Exactly. I mean, I think that that's
8:08
probably a critical piece to all of this for sure.
8:12
I'm wondering if we should have assaulted Black Porter while
8:17
we're sitting here. Yeah, you know, that probably
8:20
would be a really good idea because not only do we have the
8:23
typical Bruto box frosty mugs, but that beer has been sitting
8:27
in my freezer. So it's even ultra cold.
8:31
Exactly. And as we know, the colder the
8:34
better. The colder the better.
8:35
Temperature plays a huge part in how good the beer is.
8:40
Absolutely. So let me get them for.
8:42
You alright And while you're doing that?
8:45
Yes. I'll tell you a dad.
8:47
Joke. So here it is.
8:51
It's kind of a joke, I told my dad.
8:54
I'm drinking alcohol free beer now, he said.
8:58
Well, that's a step in the bright direction.
9:02
Huh. You don't get bright like I'm
9:05
not dulled by. Alcohol OHS right?
9:08
Yeah, now I get. It I know that was that was
9:11
pretty bad. Yeah, definitely qualifies as a
9:14
dad. Joke.
9:15
Yeah. My apologies, Dad, if you're
9:17
listening to include you in that joke somewhat.
9:21
OK, Alright, so here we go. Salted Black Porter.
9:24
I haven't. I don't think I've had one since
9:26
we were at the festival. Done when I was away on vacation
9:30
recently. OK.
9:31
You did OK. I enjoyed it again, so here we
9:34
go. Ohhhhh nice.
9:37
Alright, so this is a tall can, the tall 16 ounce can.
9:43
It's very dark. Looks like a you know, looks
9:47
like a Guinness. Really.
9:49
I mean it's dark like that. It's got a bit of a head on it.
9:53
Not a whole bunch doesn't have the doesn't have the foaming
9:56
Ness of the of a Guinness being the Guinness has the Nitro thing
10:01
and and that's the whole idea of it, but so not much of A head on
10:04
it. A very nice frosty, not even a
10:07
mug. This is like fanciness.
10:09
Oh yeah. Today, Bill, I feel like I'm
10:11
having an afternoon cocktail in this.
10:15
OK, well this is a perfect glass for it.
10:18
There are 6 ounce pores these ones.
10:20
OK. Perfect, SO.
10:21
Cheers. Cheers again.
10:22
Alright, here we go and we'll try this.
10:27
OHS see that? That's good.
10:30
No wonder people rated this highly.
10:32
Or most people. Did OHP?
10:34
Absolutely. You know, I mean that that is a
10:37
very fine beer to me. I, yeah, love dark beers, as you
10:41
know, and this one is a particularly good one.
10:46
It really is. It just has, it's not strong.
10:49
You know, sometimes you'll get a dart, a stout that's just kind
10:51
of like a little much. I think the fact that not having
10:56
the alcohol in this brings down that sort of punch at that, you
11:02
know, the the harshness, maybe I don't really know how to
11:06
describe it. Yeah, but that at the end of you
11:09
get with a stout or a Porter that bitterness, the ultra
11:12
bitter bitterness as an after taste almost.
11:15
You don't have that with this. With this particular beer is
11:21
that the more I have it, the more it grows on me.
11:24
The first one I had, I remember going pretty decent.
11:27
I really like it and there are a few others that I would pour
11:32
before it. And now I'll tell you, it's
11:34
really grown in terms of my personal popularity list from,
11:40
you know, perhaps somewhere in the middle to one of the top
11:44
alcohol free beers that I've had.
11:47
It is. You know what, It's fantastic.
11:49
And it is really cold because I've got a little bit of ice
11:53
sitting there on the top because it obviously was in the freezer
11:56
a little bit, right? But yeah, but that's perfectly
11:58
fine. The fact that people were rating
12:00
it, what was the average 3.54 or something over 3 1/2, right?
12:05
I think it would have been rated higher had they not been
12:08
surprised that it was an alcohol free like they were all, I, I
12:11
bet people were a little bit reluctant to score it a bit
12:15
higher because it's alcohol free.
12:17
They're like, well, I can't score this beer very high
12:19
because come on, I, I'm a beer drinker.
12:22
I need the alcohol so right but. If and to what point?
12:26
I think I'd like to share the story of the one guy who tried
12:29
to steal, quote UN quote one of our alcohol free beers because
12:33
it really is apropos to what you just said.
12:37
This guy came up and he'd obviously been at the festival
12:41
for a bit and he playfully tried to sneak an alcohol free beer,
12:48
one of the black porters under his coat and and pretended to
12:52
walk away. And then he came back and he
12:54
said, you know, I'm going to steal one of your beers.
12:56
And we said no, no, it's free. You can have a port and if you
12:58
like it, we'll pour you some more, right?
13:00
And he said. Oh, really?
13:02
Yeah, and we had told him, I don't know that he heard it the
13:06
first time that he was trying the Fieldhouse Salted Black
13:10
Porter alcohol free beer, right? We made it really clear what was
13:15
in the camp. I don't think he heard that
13:18
because he drank it. And he went, wow, this is a
13:21
really good beer. I really like this one.
13:25
And his buddy standing behind him said, you know you're
13:29
drinking an alcohol free beer, don't you?
13:32
And then he was kind of like, oh.
13:33
Yeah. And he took another drink.
13:37
Yeah. You know, And So what it says to
13:39
me is what you were just talking about is that if you get out of
13:43
that mindset of I'm having an alcohol free beer and just think
13:48
of it in terms of a beer and whether you like it or not,
13:51
Yeah, I think you have a far more open mind to what the
13:55
possibilities are with alcohol free.
13:56
Beer for sure we've talked a lot about this that it doesn't have
14:00
to taste like the same that they all call version of it.
14:04
I don't know I'm about to look that up.
14:06
I don't know if field house has an alcohol version of Porter.
14:09
OK, they probably and I we're not doing this side by side.
14:13
I don't know if I've had that one, but regardless, we, we've
14:17
said this many times, we don't have to compare.
14:19
It can be a good drink by itself and it is, this is fantastic.
14:23
It really is like if we rate it now, what do you think?
14:27
For me, it's getting close to the Hall of Fame 5.
14:31
You know, talk to me in six months and I might be there.
14:34
Right now it's a four and a half.
14:36
Yeah, you know what, Bell? I'd agree.
14:38
It's like you. I've had this a few Times Now.
14:40
This is the best I've had it. It's, you know, the frosty, the
14:46
very cold, fancy cocktail glasses might play a part.
14:49
The fact that you got it really, really chilled again, plays a
14:53
part. And it's just, it's excellent.
14:56
It really is so Fieldhouse. Kudos to Fieldhouse for
15:00
producing a great pair. So absolutely.
15:02
And our thanks again to them for allowing us to share it with
15:07
people at the festival. Well, all this talk about
15:10
Fieldhouse got me to thinking about something that I'd like to
15:14
bring up on our segment Zero Group full Truth. 0 proof full
15:21
truth. Well, did you know that
15:25
Fieldhouse is actually partnered with another alcohol free beer
15:29
company, Dry Goods? And Dry Goods was founded by a
15:35
guy from Powell St. Brewing in Vancouver.
15:38
And what's happened is that they've become part of a
15:42
collective that Fieldhouse has put together that not only
15:46
features alcohol free beer, but it's also cocktails.
15:51
They're looking at wine and other non alcoholic options.
15:54
And the whole point of this is that they want to create a
15:58
brand, if you will, that is around, in their words, good
16:02
people, good products and grounded in craft.
16:05
And it's the grounded in craft part that really stands out for
16:08
me because you and I've been big fans of of craft breweries and
16:13
the types of things that they can do.
16:15
And I think that this is just another example of how the
16:20
non-alcoholic sphere is improving and increasing in its
16:24
influence for sure. And so kudos to Fieldhouse and
16:29
Dry Goods for being able to come together.
16:32
We looked on their website and Fieldhouse actively markets 3
16:37
alcohol free beers, another one of which will try in a bit,
16:41
while Dry Goods has 6. So that's a pretty good.
16:46
That is, I'm. Offering a alcohol free beer.
16:48
Exactly, There would be no other place where you would look on,
16:52
you know, on a menu for a non alcoholic beers available.
16:55
And they would have as Fieldhouse does in their in
16:57
their Abbey Tap room. You know, they've got 9 non
17:01
alcoholic bears now not on tap. I think they're all canned.
17:04
Yeah. Which is, you know, fine.
17:06
And we talked about that was kind of brought up a little bit
17:08
in our interview with Taylor. He kind of explained that why
17:13
you probably wouldn't have it on tap.
17:15
That kind of brings me back to thinking about the number of
17:18
craft breweries that were at the festival.
17:20
They were down this year that from before when we went up in
17:25
twenty, 19/29/2019, there was I think there was 70.
17:30
Well, maybe that year there was 60 plus.
17:33
I think it was closer to 75. Yeah, yeah.
17:36
And there was going to be, they were anticipating that it would
17:39
continue to grow. Well, it it hasn't, it's
17:42
actually come down. They were down.
17:44
They were down to only 45 breweries represented this year
17:48
that I think we had counted, which was significant in the
17:51
fact that, you know, is the craft brew industry decreasing
17:56
or is it just that the stronger ones are remaining and they're
18:01
amalgamating with smaller ones? And that does seem to be
18:05
happening. So if you ask the experts,
18:07
there's no clear answer on that one.
18:09
Yeah, OK. So that's a that's a whole other
18:11
side. But part of the industry that is
18:14
growing it seems to be is the alcohol free portion of it,
18:18
right? And it's interesting because the
18:20
year that we would have gone back in 2020, which of course
18:24
was COVID, would have been the 25th anniversary of the
18:29
festival. And they told us that they were
18:32
anticipating taking over the ice arena in addition to the
18:36
convention centre in Penticton because that many breweries were
18:41
were interested in being around for the 25th anniversary event,
18:44
which of course didn't happen. But it does tell you that things
18:48
have changed rather dramatically over the last six or seven years
18:52
and there has been a fair amount of amalgamation.
18:55
And I'm sure that you're going to see some of that happening in
18:59
the non elk space as well. For sure and I I would guess
19:03
that as the non elk portion grows that the festive ale and
19:08
other beer festivals will start offering more of that.
19:12
At the festival, they there was only three of the 45 breweries
19:17
that were represented there. Only three of those 45 actually
19:20
made their own alcohol free beer.
19:22
Yeah, that were represented there.
19:23
And none of them had them as one of their offerings.
19:28
Right. They did have a table out front
19:30
in the lobby and it was just sort of looked kind of almost
19:33
like a thrown together. Here's a few alcohol free beers
19:35
so you can try. Most people walked by that
19:39
right, right. Field House did have one of
19:41
theirs there. Strange Fellows had their their,
19:43
their two, their pilsner and their IPA.
19:45
There, there was a few others that Bernie had Fernie, Fernie
19:48
had theirs, their tin whistle had theirs.
19:51
And then we had we were offering ours.
19:53
So but it wasn't something that was happening and you and I had
19:56
an idea that maybe in the future at the festival or festivals in
20:01
general, you know, they usually have three that they get to
20:05
bring. Maybe a fourth one is a non
20:07
alcoholic one. Yeah, we talked about that so.
20:10
Really is an opportunity for us to talk to the festival
20:13
organizers around that at some point in the future for.
20:15
Sure. Yeah, for sure.
20:16
I would be willing to bet that we serve more people alcohol
20:21
free beer than the table out front did.
20:25
For sure. It was a far more passive thing.
20:28
If you kind of, if you read the sign and you wanted to try it,
20:31
come ahead and and have a free sample of alcohol free beer.
20:36
Whereas we were actually in the room going up to people and
20:40
asking them if they wanted to try it.
20:42
Yeah. And so I think a number of
20:44
people did have the opportunity to try the alcohol free beers.
20:48
In fact, it was interesting. I thought that because it was
20:51
free, people would try both of them.
20:53
But it seems like for the most part people were more interested
20:57
in trying one or the other because we had two starkly
21:01
different beers in an IPA and a salted black quarter.
21:04
So there were a few people who tried both, but not very many.
21:08
Didn't really notice that make that observation, but you did.
21:11
Obviously, yeah. I think most of the folks were
21:13
more interested in one or the other.
21:16
Equal in terms of the numbers. Yeah, wasn't for sure.
21:19
Yeah, like it were about 60 for both of them that were.
21:21
Trapped in that neighborhood for sure.
21:23
Yeah. So the logical thing to do now
21:25
would be to now try the non EIPA that we handed out.
21:29
Right, it would be. But I think we're going to say
21:32
that why don't we save that because we would like to maybe
21:35
do something more with Nani, maybe an on location or an
21:38
interview with them because we have reached out to them and it
21:41
been in contact. So I think let's leave it for
21:43
that because we've already featured a nanny beer on
21:46
buttocks before. So when we carry on with our
21:49
field house thing. Right.
21:50
And on top of that, we wouldn't want people to think we're
21:53
logical. Exactly.
21:55
We wouldn't want. That alright, let me grab a.
21:58
Beer. OK, so I I know Bill has already
22:01
told me that. So he's grabbing the one of the
22:04
other Field house once Phil Fieldhouse makes 3 non alcoholic
22:07
ones. They've got their Salted Black
22:10
Porter, which we just had. They also have their Hazy Juicy
22:14
IPA, which was the non-alcoholic offering on the front lobby
22:18
table at the festival. And then there's this one.
22:23
Mexican lager. OK, now you and I both had this.
22:26
Yes. Before it is very good.
22:29
In fact I just had this night before last at the place where
22:34
we often will go for a drink after a ball hockey with our
22:38
friends and they now have salted lime Mexican lager on the menu
22:44
at the place where we go. So I had, so I had it and it was
22:46
and it was very good. Excellent.
22:48
SO and my wife and I tried this one while we were in a Soyuz on
22:53
vacation. And it is very good here.
22:55
We'll pour it here. Looks like a Mexican Mexican
22:59
lager. You've got some again, the nice
23:02
fancy cocktail glasses. We have a few of these and it is
23:07
a real nice amber colour. You know, this is not a really
23:10
pale lager. I mean, this is a really nice
23:13
golden one. Yeah, it's not a, it's not a
23:16
corona. It does not look like a corona.
23:18
It it doesn't taste like a corona because I've already had
23:21
this. I know that for sure.
23:26
That's good. Hey.
23:27
Again, I love the the line. Yeah, it's quite a strong line.
23:32
It is, it is. You've definitely pick it.
23:33
Up, you know it. It reminds me of we had our
23:37
friend Darrell and I when we were in when I did that one
23:40
segment and we had tried a dose Equis salted lime lager, very,
23:47
very similar to this. OK, quite similar.
23:50
And if I had them side by side, I'd be able to compare them a
23:53
bit more. But yeah, this is very good,
23:55
isn't it? This is a 16 ounce can again,
23:58
and it comes in at 70 calories, OK, which, you know, when you
24:02
consider a 12 ounce can, it would normally be maybe 50
24:07
calories at that point. Yeah.
24:09
And interestingly enough, it's very proportional in terms of
24:13
how you look at the the heavier beers like the the Porter.
24:17
I don't think we mentioned earlier that the salted Porter
24:20
has calories of 90. OK, so little bit more.
24:23
So a little bit more and that's what you would expect because
24:26
the porters are normally a heavier beer.
24:28
Yeah, you would expect that. Exactly.
24:30
So very, very nice. That's that's refreshing.
24:34
Yeah. And I know a lot of people say
24:36
and and this happened at the festival.
24:38
I remember people saying that about the nanny beer and IPA.
24:43
And people will say this about IPA, especially non alcoholic
24:46
ones. Oh, that's a good summer beer.
24:48
But this is truly this truly would be a good on the patio
24:52
summer beer. We believe that this one would
24:56
be a great beard to be sitting out there with a burger or, you
25:01
know, a steak or whatever and just enjoying the sunshine and a
25:06
beer that's not going to. Get you looped.
25:08
Exactly. In fact, you know what, we're
25:10
coming close to the end of this episode, so we might still have
25:13
a little bit of this left and we could go out there onto your
25:17
deck and enjoy the last little bit of sun.
25:22
Remember at the beginning we said that all those other people
25:25
were out there enjoying the sun. Here's an opportunity for us to
25:28
do that as well. Yeah, so I guess this brings us
25:32
to the end here, Bill. It was, you know, fun to talk
25:35
and reminisce about our time at the Festivale.
25:38
Oh, we have one more microbrew next week to finish off our
25:43
series at the Festivale. So cheers.
25:47
Cheers. And listeners, we hope you've
25:50
enjoyed listening as much as we've enjoyed bringing this
25:53
podcast to you. Come back next time because
25:56
we'll always have a beer to taste and a story to tell.
25:59
After all, this is brutal. Today's featured beers were
26:06
Assaulted Black Porter and the Salted Lime.
26:09
Mexican Blogger, both from Fieldhouse Brewing and
26:11
Abbotsford, BC. Buttocks.
26:13
Original theme music composed by Sackville.
26:16
Original graphics by Shelby Smith.
26:19
Botox is produced and edited by Scott and Scott.