Latest / The Skol Hop / Best & Worst Case Super Bowl Scenarios for Vikings Fans, Celebrating Joe Mauer and Ben Jacobson, Best Beers in Iowa | TSH Ep. 24

Transcript

Best & Worst Case Super Bowl Scenarios for Vikings Fans, Celebrating Joe Mauer and Ben Jacobson, Best Beers in Iowa | TSH Ep. 24 · The Skol Hop

0:30
All right, Hey, Vikings fans, welcome into another episode of the School
0:33
Hob. I'm Evan and I'm Austin. We're just a couple of dudes from
0:37
Iowa. We like drinking beer, we like talking about the Vikings. We
0:39
do cool there. It is all right. I had to reach for you
0:44
a little bit. You always reach. I kind of just sit back and
0:48
it's the whole ninety ten. I'm the ninety I guess. Yeah. So
0:54
we do have a tradition on this podcast. If you're a longtime listener,
0:59
or even if you just first started last week, you'll know that we have
1:02
a tradition of only drinking Iowa beers during our podcast. We feature a different
1:07
Iowa beer from an Ira brewery every week. And Evan, you brought the
1:11
beer tonight. I did, and kind of interesting. I didn't really know
1:15
when I bought the beer that we'd be talking about beer tonight, or at
1:19
least we plan to talk about beer tonight. But this is a beer and
1:25
a brewery that we have not yet featured on the podcast, So this is
1:29
brand new to us. Yeah, not only have we not featured it,
1:30
I don't think I've ever had their beer at all. I have not either.
1:34
So this is like brand spank and new. We are literally drinking the
1:38
first of probably many of these beers, not all at once, sure,
1:45
sure, but yeah, West Oh is the brewery. It's out of Okoboge
1:51
Iowa, west Okobogi to be specific, which is why it's dubbed west Oh.
1:56
And I thought, you know, we'd kind of gone away from our
2:00
wheelhouse beers there for a little bit. Yeah, I'm an IPA guy.
2:05
You're you're an amber guy. It would be like we kind of we kind
2:08
of ventured off, Yeah, the beaten path a little bit for a few
2:10
episodes there, but we're back on it. We're we're back on the path.
2:15
This is their smoked red Ale. Yeah, so West Oh from West
2:19
Okoboji Smoked red Ale and so far pretty good. Yeah, yeah, I
2:23
think we both like this one a lot. So far, Like you said,
2:27
we're probably i mean less than ten SIPs into these, but yeah,
2:30
I like it a lot. It definitely. I mean it looks as the
2:36
name describes it. It's a darker ambery red beer, not too heavy on
2:42
flavor, but in a good way. Yeah, it's it's got a lot
2:44
of flavors, but yeah, it's not overpowering. I like a lot.
2:47
Yeah, I'm enjoying it, and yeah, we'll have some thoughts on it
2:53
once we've had a few more SIPs. Yeah, at the end of the
2:54
episode, for sure. So yeah, today's episode as brought to you by
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in Mexico or Jamaica, here you go. Well, should we jump in
3:27
and just give our thoughts on the divisional round of the playoffs this last weekend?
3:34
Yeah, So, I think I'm finally starting to get over the fact
3:36
that the Vikings didn't luck their way into the playoffs this year. We've we've
3:42
talked about it for a whole year almost Kirk's injury team just didn't didn't do
3:47
what it was supposed to do. The Vikings didn't get in. Boo boo
3:51
Haha. The tears have dried up by now, so I can talk about
3:54
the podcast or the podcast. The playoffs. Now, let's just let's just
4:00
kind of go down. There are only a few games divisional round. They're
4:01
starting to you know, ramp up to the end. Yep. I would
4:06
say the best result of the weekend was the forty nine Ers beating the Packers.
4:11
Yep, yep. As as petty as we are, we are Vikings
4:15
fans, and honestly, a Viking or a Packers playoff loss, I mean
4:21
it's not as good as a Vikings playoff win, but it still feels good.
4:25
There's still some some good vibes, good feelings that come from watching the
4:29
Packers losing the playoffs to none other than the Niners. Yet again, Yeah,
4:34
the Niners have had their number for quite a while. Yeah, kind
4:38
of like the Vikings have had the Saints number in the playoffs a couple of
4:41
times other than you know, two thousand and nine. But yeah, the
4:46
Niners have seen to be the Packer killer in the playoffs. And I'm okay
4:49
with it. When the Packers fans that wanted Rogers out got their way and
4:56
they're so excited and they finally got the third straight Hall of Famer and Jordan
5:00
Love and he still can't beat the Niners in the playoffs. There's only so
5:06
much crap we can talk, especially this year because the Vikings didn't get in
5:12
and they did beat the Packers once, but they got pummeled by the Packers
5:15
the second time. But it's still it's still fun to see him lose.
5:21
Yeah, Yeah, we'll always take that. On the other side though,
5:25
of the NFC North, Yeah, the other NFC North representative in the playoffs,
5:30
we should say the Lions took care of business against the Buccaneers. Yeah,
5:33
we watched that one together. We did. We kind of had a
5:36
business meeting going on at the time, so I wasn't as one hundred percent
5:42
I was glued on the team. We weren't locked in, but it was
5:45
pretty clear like from the get go, the Lions just had it and the
5:48
Buccaneers made it a good game. Yeah they did. It wasn't a blowout
5:51
by any means. No, it was until thirty one twenty three Buccaneers,
5:55
so one score game. But yeah, in good for the Lions. We're
6:00
still going to root for the forty nine ers probably, I guess. Yeah.
6:03
I in the NFC champions gym game, but I've seen the memes that
6:08
show like the map of the United States and colored in the states and saying
6:13
who's rooting for who, and it's got like every state blue rooting for the
6:16
Lions, and you know, California and red rooting for the Niners. And
6:20
I don't think that's accurate at all. I think most Vikings fans are definitely
6:26
rooting against the Lions. So there's Minnesota. We're Iowa boys, And I'm
6:30
just gonna claim Iowa as Niners fans this game. Minnesota South, that's all.
6:35
We are Minnesota and we have South Minnesota. I mean, that's that's
6:41
a little derogatory for Iowa. We're an established state, all right, that's
6:45
fair. We might have been a state before Minnesota. I don't know history,
6:48
buffs. If you're going off like the I don't know. I just
6:55
pulled that out of my butt. So well, I can speak on something
7:00
that I do know more about. And I would just like to equate northern
7:04
Iowa. And it's the reason why I broke tradition today. So we went
7:10
to school at you and I. We've got a little bit of you and
7:13
I insignia behind us here. I'll see one two that you can't see we've
7:18
featured the prowl from Single Speed, which is supporting you and I athletes.
7:23
So anyways, the point I'm getting to Northern Iowa is where we went to
7:28
school. It's basically Minnesota, I would say, in a lot of ways.
7:31
But there was some history that happened this week. I do. Did
7:35
I tell you about this? Oh, Ben Jacobson. Yeah, coach Ben
7:40
Jacobson became the winningest coach in Missouri Valley Basketball Conference history, passing the late
7:46
great Henry Iba. So that was a big deal. And not only that,
7:50
but I saw so the Panthers played at home last night and beat Evansville
7:56
and they secured their two hundredth win in the McCloud Center. Interesting, and
8:01
I think that opened up in what six Yeah, if I remember right,
8:05
so shortly before we started as students there. It wasn't well yeah it was
8:11
it was probably five o six. But yeah, a lot of success for
8:16
that program under Ben Jacobson, some pretty big wins against Kansas, uh,
8:22
Texas. I mean, I've seen North Carolina, seen our Panthers beat the
8:26
Hawkeyes in there. North Carolina was the biggest I think I can remember because
8:31
Number one at the time that was more than a handful of years ago.
8:35
But that's one game I wish I could have been at. I was a
8:39
mile down the road, and I wish I could have been there. But
8:41
I just didn't didn't care about the team, and I did I was working.
8:46
Sure, I couldn't get away. You could take a bathroom. I
8:48
watched it. I watched it. Yeah, anyways, Uh, I just
8:56
thought i'd throw that out there nice. Well are we eating facts? Are
9:00
now? You and I Panthers podcast? We could be I'd get pretty bored
9:03
pretty quick. I could talk. I could talk you and I for quite
9:09
a while, probably so when I when we went there, I was a
9:11
student employee of the athletic facilities, and I saw quite a few games,
9:18
probably most of the football and basketball games while we were students. I attended
9:24
as an employee. So I don't know, I just got I associated them
9:30
with work, and it wasn't the most fun work. It wasn't bad,
9:33
but it was it was okay. Well, I think we could maybe even
9:37
equate the Panthers to the Vikings in a lot of ways, because they just
9:43
they build your hopes up and then they let you down. I me really
9:46
do Paul Jasperson chucks up a game winning shot against Texas in I think it
9:54
was the round of thirty two maybe, or could have been the first round
9:58
of the NCAA turn anyways, beat Texas, you know, yeah, the
10:03
day week David beats Goliath, and then the next week Texas A and M.
10:07
You and I has the lead and blows the lead. Historically, like
10:15
it was all over Sports Center the next day. That might have been like
10:18
the only two minutes of You and I basketball I watched all season, it
10:22
was. I watched it on TV and they lost epically so well. Le
10:26
Bron James said that he would quit basketball if he had been in that position.
10:30
Was it was. It was like twelve points and thirty two seconds or
10:33
something. It was crazy. I couldn't believe it. Yeah, anyways,
10:37
we just like to feel bad about our sports teams, don't we. It's
10:41
like people who like to push bruises, you know. Yeah, we just
10:45
like the pain of feeling bad about our sports teams. Yeah, You and
10:48
I football, they're always kind of in it, but then they're not.
10:52
I'll never forget I think my first U and I football game, I was
10:54
a senior in high school. My eventual college roommate and I we drove up.
11:01
We watched you and I in the game before the championship. I think,
11:07
yeah, you and I hosted and they were playing the University of Richmond
11:13
Spiders. And I'll never forget it because all twelve Richmond fans, every time
11:18
somebody did something good for that team, which ultimately ended up being a lot,
11:24
that whole corner of that one half a row of fans, there were
11:28
the loudest people in the stadium. They kept saying, you are, you
11:31
are, you are. It might be the second worst cheer in sports.
11:37
What's the first? I think, you know, Evan, go pack Gum.
11:39
Yes, I just couldn't bring myself to say that. I feel dirty
11:45
for you. Sorry, wash my mouth. That was so bad. See
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all that to say, the Niners are going to host the Lions in Santa
11:54
Clara for the NFC Championship Game, and it'll be weird to see an NFC
12:01
North team in the championship game and not have it be the Vikings or the
12:07
Packers. I'm glad it's not the Packers. I wish it were the Vikings.
12:11
I really hope the Lions lose, just because I can't live in a
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world where the Lions fans get to watch their team in a Super Bowl before
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I do. Can't do it. It'll be tough. It will be tough.
12:26
Let's move on to the AFC because we don't really have too much opinions
12:31
about that. No, yeah, I mean, roll with it. This
12:33
is what it is. The team that I think is going to win the
12:35
Super Bowl is in the AFC. But so yeah, I guess we'll talk
12:39
about that. The Ravens beat the Texans thirty four to ten. Beat down.
12:45
It was a beatdown. It didn't I don't know, maybe I'm wrong,
12:50
but the Texans never felt like completely out of it the whole time.
12:54
It felt like they always had a chance to come in, but obviously they
12:58
didn't. They just then don't know. It was a good first season for
13:03
their head coach, first season for their quarterback, a good first season for
13:07
their ce a linebacker, the number three overall pick. They had a good
13:11
start and they could be scary, yeah, for the next handful of years.
13:16
But ultimately I think the Ravens are the team that are going to win
13:20
the Super Bowl. They just they never faltered. Lamar Jackson, he just
13:24
it's crazy to watch him throw football. He'll run around, do the fran
13:28
Tarkentin run around and figure eights and then just kind of like flick his wrists
13:33
and it goes ninety yards. It's crazy. He's special. Yeah, he
13:37
might be the MVP this year, agreed. And then we have the Chiefs
13:43
and the Bills, and I think there was more to watch off the field,
13:48
specifically in one particular suite at the bill Stadium out which what do you?
13:54
Which one are you? I don't you know? The one with the
13:56
famous people in it. Travis Kelsey's mom, Mama Kelsey, also his brother.
14:05
Yeah, hey, you know what, he and his girlfriend. He
14:07
made me want to go to a football game and rip off my shirt and
14:11
shotgun a beer. Patrick Mahomes's wife was in there too with them. All.
14:16
Yeah. So, I mean that was kind of a star studded little
14:20
sweet And that's all the famous people that were there. That's the entire list
14:24
of famous people that were in the whole stadium that we can talk about.
14:30
But it was very entertaining just to say, to see Jason Kelsey take his
14:35
shirt off chug a beer. I don't even remember where I was. I
14:41
might have just been at home watching it. And of course they're going to
14:46
show shots of Taylor Swift in the suite like whatever, and they showed a
14:56
shot of her and there's just this shirtless dude. And I didn't even watch
15:00
the whole thing live when he came out of the suite and was you know,
15:03
going crazy with Bills fans and whatnot. I just I saw the shirtless,
15:11
hairy guy in the back, and I'm like, that has to be
15:13
Jason Kelsey. And then the next day I just see everything on social media
15:18
is Jason Kelsey, Just like yeah, good for him. He didn't hurt
15:22
anybody. He was just excited. I think he said he was rooting for
15:26
the Bills just to get at his little brother. But I mean, yeah,
15:28
good for him. He was. It's kind of weird to say that
15:33
that's good wholesome entertainment because he was, you know, partying. He was
15:37
like Will Ferrell and old school just but uh yeah, it's fun. I
15:43
like that makes me want to that's my next Halloween costume unless my wife tells
15:50
me not to, or I'm like, it was like fifteen degrees and snowing
15:56
on Halloween, They'll do it. It was they weren't Buffalo. It was
15:58
probably colder in Buffalo than it ever will be here. Oh I just jinxed
16:03
it didn't Yeah, you might have all right well freezing here. So I
16:10
just said earlier. If it gets above thirty or forty, I'm wearing shorts.
16:14
It's my rule. Anyways, the Bills can't get out from underneath the
16:18
Chiefs. I'm starting to like forever when people would say, like, oh,
16:22
the most cursed team in NFL history has got to be if they said
16:26
any team other than the Vikings, I would just be like, I'd roll
16:30
my eyes, like you don't even know, you don't even know. It's
16:32
just all the stuff the Vikings have been through just in my lifetime, Like
16:36
they have to be the most cursed. But I don't know. The last
16:40
few years, it's got to be tough to be a consistent Bills fan,
16:42
right, yeah, just to be right there be knocking on the door and
16:48
never get past pat freaking Mahomes. Like this year they're saying, ah,
16:52
he's never had to come to Buffalo, he's never had to play here,
16:56
And then he does. The dude has more playoff wins then the Arizona Cardinals
17:00
have as a franchise and they've been around. Does that include all the way
17:04
because I think the Cardinals they were their organization. Yeah, they're one of
17:10
the like eighteen twenties ish because they started in Chicago, then they moved to
17:15
Saint Louis. They started in Now I think you're right. I think they
17:19
started in Chicago. They did. They started in Chicago, moved to Saint
17:22
Louis, and then they ultimately moved to Arizona in the late seventies or eighties.
17:27
Yeah. I was thinking because there's a team that started in Decatur,
17:33
which is only a couple hours from here, not even a couple hours from
17:34
here, right, Yeah, that's not too far. But the team that
17:37
started in Decatur is was the Stays, and they moved to Chicago and they're
17:42
now called the Bears. Yes. I think their mascot is still named Staley
17:47
oh real, which is kind of cool. That's kind of cool. I
17:49
like history like that. Yeah. Well, so, given the results of
17:53
the divisional round, you've come up with some best cased worst case scenarios for
17:59
Vikings fans in the championship round. Yeah, leading up to the Super Bowl.
18:03
So tell us about that. So mind you I spent about thirty seconds
18:07
thinking about this, and I'm a salty Vikings fan. I just if I
18:11
can't be happy, I don't want anyone else to be happy. Okay,
18:15
yeah, well you know what, I'm going to go out of order.
18:17
We're going to start with the worst case. We're gonna go bottom all the
18:19
way up, go for it. I think the worst case, because I'm
18:22
super salty and really petty, the worst case Super Bowl outcome for Vikings fans
18:29
would be that the Lions win. And just like I said, I cannot.
18:33
I can't live in a world where the Lions win a Super Bowl before
18:37
my Vikings do. I don't want to. I don't want to. That's
18:41
just that's that sounds awful. Can I interject with a little bit of Devil's
18:48
advocacy? I'll hear it. What if what if we just let them have
18:53
it, as painful as that will be, and then they slump next year
18:59
and the Viking are the better team in the North. Yeah, but that's
19:02
kind of been the situation with like the Packers, where the Packers were more
19:07
often the better team. But like, yeah, they got one in twenty
19:10
ten in recent memory, you know, they got the one in the nineties.
19:15
Two, But they got one in twenty ten. And then those I
19:18
hate to bash people, those Packer fans have been just unbearable for more almost
19:26
two decades now, are of a decade. They don't really have the recent
19:30
championships to show for it, no, but they've been there. And then
19:33
you get Aaron Rodgers drinking the purple kool aid and just like wearing a smug
19:37
smile all the time, like and yeah, he hasn't been a Packer for
19:41
a while, but I just I feel like that's what it's already happening with
19:45
Lions fans right now. They're already becoming big headed, like hot shots,
19:49
like and that's so unfair of me. I'm sorry if you're a Lions fan,
19:53
because I'm sure more Lions fans than not are like actual cool people,
19:57
just like more Vikings fans than that are actual cool fans and stuff. But
20:00
it's still still dumb. I can I can respect your opinion. I'm just
20:06
saying the Super Bowl slump is a real thing. Teams put all their chips
20:11
on the table to try and win it all, and then the next year
20:15
they can't pay everybody to come back, and kind of what the Vikings are
20:18
looking like right now, and yeah, well yeah, and that could be
20:22
the Vikings next year. I don't know, and maybe it works out.
20:25
Maybe, you know, maybe we're sitting here a year from now and the
20:29
Vikings are the ones in an NFC championship game. You kind of hear,
20:33
folks, Evan just predicted the Vikings in the NFC Championship game next year.
20:37
We're just spitballing here. We're just spitballing. So yeah, that's my worst
20:44
case. Do you agree or no? I agree. I think it is
20:48
worst case because it just puts an enormous amount of pressure on the Vikings to
20:52
get it right this offseason. And even if Detroit doesn't slow, the Vikings
21:02
just have to get sharp. They have to figure it out, and they've
21:06
got to start with the quarterback situation. They've got to square that up now.
21:11
That has to be figured out asap, and then they got to move
21:12
on to those other big contracts. Danielle Hunter JJ, We've talked at length
21:19
about all of that already in the season's not even over technically, and then
21:26
they got to move forward in free agency and the drafts, get the right
21:30
guys on the team and try to put something together again. To go farther
21:37
than we went this year and see if we can win the division against the
21:40
Lions. So yeah, I do think the Lions win. It puts an
21:45
enormous amount of pressure on the rest of the division, not just the Vikings
21:48
but the Bears and the Packers as well, to pony up and be successful
21:55
next year. And you could argue at this moment, the Vikings are the
21:57
least equipped to be able to revamp their team and attack the Lions as the
22:06
team to be. I think they appear to be. Yeah, every team
22:08
looks different, you know, in August than they do in February. But
22:14
well, I think I guess what I'm trying to say is like they appear
22:17
to the public eye to be the least equipped, but I think deep down
22:22
the Vikings have a lot of pieces there. Oh yeah, And you make
22:26
a few key acquisitions and free agency, you draft the right guys, You
22:33
keep your coaching staff mostly intact. I mean, Brian Floor is still a
22:37
Vikings coach and I haven't even heard about him interviewing as a head coach anywhere,
22:41
which is crazy. Yeah, and that whole thing has kind of seemed
22:45
to die down, and I've seen some things that are saying, well,
22:52
he's kind of being blackballed by the NFL, or at least the teams in
22:56
the NFL for everything that happened with the Dolphins organization. And yeah, but
23:00
in my comeback to that is he had interviews last year. True, It's
23:06
just so I don't know if it's the market is also just really competitive.
23:10
Yeah, I think, and I mean, I mean, shoot at at
23:14
the moment we're recording this, Bill Belichick doesn't even have a job. Jim
23:18
Harbaugh, he just got hired. I saw that. That was the latest
23:22
breaking news today, Jim Harbaugh getting hired by the San Diego Charger thoughts and
23:26
not Diego sorry Los Angeles Chargers. To friend of the show, Forrest,
23:33
who you can Forrest? I love you, man. You can only be
23:37
so sad and you're not pouting as far as I can tell, But you
23:40
can only be so sad right now because you're you're still on a championship high.
23:45
Like he is as big of a Michigan fan as we are Vikings fans,
23:49
and he just won their super Bowl. You know, they just won
23:52
the championship. He is ecstatic and I'm happy for him. But yeah,
23:56
be a little sad for losing your coach, but they prove they can do
23:59
it without Jim Harbaugh in the few games he wasn't there. So the Chargers
24:03
are in a good spot I think, and Michigan will be just fine.
24:07
Agreed, agreed. Anyways, On the AFC side, yeah, worst case
24:15
scenario, So I think, yeah, I think this is the third worst
24:19
case or the second worst case, only because it's Ravens win the Super Bowl.
24:26
And it's only because this offseason Lamar Jackson there was a certain amount of
24:33
time where he he was signed to not an offer sheet. The Ravens had
24:38
dang it, what is it, I don't remember the term, but they
24:42
put a tender on him that anybody could approach him for a contract, and
24:48
he could sign any contract with any team, But then the Ravens got the
24:52
first right of her refusal. So if the Vikings or any other team had
24:56
come to him and signed him for a ten year, two hundred and fifty
24:59
plus million dollar contract something like he ultimately got with the Ravens, the Ravens
25:03
could have been the first ones to say, you know what, yeah,
25:07
well we'll do it for that exact contract, and they would have had him
25:10
or they could have said, ye know, nope, have fun being a
25:12
Viking, and then he'd have been a Viking and the Vikings would have had
25:15
to send I think two first round picks. So any team could have done
25:19
that. And when you're talking about who could be the eventual MVP of the
25:25
league this year, to have him be that close to available is kind it
25:30
kind of sucks. Even with I mean we're looking at hide and Sight.
25:34
Kirk didn't finish the year he was injured, so it would have been really
25:37
nice to have an MVP like quarterback for the whole year instead of for half
25:42
the year. Well, the other thing that really is salting the wound for
25:48
every other team except for the Ravens is that the Ravens picked him up at
25:55
thirty two. Oh yeah, they did what the Vikings did for Teddy Bridgewater.
26:00
They traded back to the thirty second. They traded back into the first
26:03
round for the thirty second pick and drafted him there. He was available.
26:07
The entire league has had multiple opportunities to sign him. The Vikings could have
26:11
signed him, yeah, and it would have cost a lot, and he
26:15
probably would have still even if he had signed an offer sheet with another team
26:18
he probably still would have gotten picked up by, like the Ravens would have
26:22
matched it. And then also or in that scenario they wouldn't have gotten draft
26:26
picks, but they probably still would have matched it. So it's all probably
26:30
a moot point. But yeah, that was a weird thing that happened over
26:33
the offseason. It was more than a few days that he was available,
26:37
like any team could have negotiated with him, and it was kind of it
26:41
seemed to me somewhat unprecedented that a team would do that with a really really
26:48
good player, Like I don't know, I just I don't remember that type
26:52
of thing happening where it wasn't your true unrestricted free agency. It was just
26:59
like, oh, yeah, good luck, and if you're still available and
27:03
we have some money, we might bring you back. But you know,
27:07
we'll see you later, you know, Yeah, I remember, it wasn't
27:11
like that. I remember thinking, like, the Ravens must be trying to
27:14
let other teams do their negotiating for them, almost like and I don't know
27:18
if any of this is true, I don't really have any reason to believe
27:22
it, but it's almost like the Ravens had offered him a few times and
27:26
he was thinking like, no, I'm worth more, or no, I
27:30
can probably get a better deal with somewhere else, and they were finally like
27:33
you know what, see what you can get. And then when the Ravens
27:37
ultimately were the best offer, it's like he was content like, Okay,
27:41
yeah, that's what I'm worth it, and here we go. I don't
27:45
know, that's all I guess, but that's just kind of feels like what
27:48
happened. Yeah, definitely interesting. And I don't know, even though it
27:55
might be in your eyes a worst case scenario for the Vikings, not the
27:59
oldtime at worst, but the second worst. Yeah, I would still be
28:03
okay seeing the Ravens win a Super Bowl, I mean yeah, and I
28:07
still think they're the team that's gonna do it. Yeah. Yeah. I
28:11
have a lot of respect for John Harbaugh too. I think he's a great
28:14
coach. He's already won it before and I mean could do it again.
28:19
Yeah. You never hear bad. I can't think of a time you've heard
28:23
bad things about John Harbaugh John Jim. I keep mixing their names up.
28:30
John is the Ravens coach. Jim is now these Chargers down to I always
28:34
remember hearing I don't remember if it was on a podcast or just like kfan,
28:41
but Matt Burke, former Viking who then went on to play for the
28:45
Ravens and win a Super Bowl with them. I remember him talking about it
28:48
and how he kind of like went to visit the Ravens because he wanted to
28:52
put the fire under the Vikings butt to give him a contract, and on
28:57
that visit he kind of left. They're thinking, like, dang, I
29:00
gotta I gotta play for this guy, Like I have to play for Harbaugh
29:03
now, Like he's just such a good dude. So that's and I don't
29:07
know how many years ago it was that Matt Burke was saying that, but
29:11
that's kind of what I base my opinion on Harbor is like, seems like
29:15
a good dude. So yeah, it'd be weird to see two Harbaugh championships
29:21
and just a matter of a few weeks. But well we've already had a
29:26
Harbor Super Bowl. Oh the Harborowl. Yeah, they faced each other and
29:30
the lights went out. That was kind of an odd game. Yeah,
29:33
that was I think didn't we watch that at the That was we watched that
29:37
in college at the church. Huge the couches of it. Yeah we probably
29:44
did. Yeah good times. Yeah, all right. Better case scenarios for
29:52
Super Bowl outcomes, I think probably the second best is a Chiefs win.
29:59
I'm not room for this just because I don't like it when teams like do
30:03
the Patriots, and they always go every year and they always win every year,
30:06
it seems boring. It's like my team hasn't been at all. I
30:08
can give us a chance, but hey, if you're good, then you're
30:11
gonna earn those opportunities. I feel like the Vikings early in the year played
30:17
okay against the Chiefs. Chiefs beat the Vikings still, but they played okay.
30:21
It was kind of the first time I thought like, hey, maybe
30:22
the Vikings aren't terrible this year, so it'd be a little bit of a
30:27
moral victory, Like, hey, my team played played right up there with
30:33
the eventual Super Bowl winner. And to be fair, the Chiefs kind of
30:40
they took their lumps this year. I mean, it wasn't a gravy year
30:45
for the Chiefs, like they struggled and there were times, I think a
30:48
lot of times where we saw Patrick Mahomes pouting and oh yeah, the whole
30:53
chewing out the yeah yeah, the yep, all of it. It was.
30:59
I mean, it was kind of an odd season for the Chiefs.
31:00
It was not cupcakes and rainbows for them. Like I said, they took
31:06
their lumps. They really had to fight their way in and they've proven that
31:12
they're a really good team. So and then there's also the like conspiracy,
31:17
which I don't believe in, but that the NFL would love to have the
31:22
team that the world's biggest pop star is associated with in the championship game and
31:29
win everything because apparently that would make a lot of money for everybody. I
31:33
don't believe in that conspiracy theory. I don't think there's anything to it.
31:37
If anything, it's like a yeah, it'd be kind of nice, but
31:40
I mean, I don't think it's gonna make anything happen. This isn't the
31:42
NBA, the rest don't completely control the game. Best case scenario overall though,
31:51
Yeah, I think of the four options for me, the best case
31:53
is the Niners Vikings did you know beat them? And this is not me
32:00
saying all the Vikings should have won the Super Bowl because they beat the Niners
32:05
like that's I'm not that delirious. But the Vikings did beat them. It
32:09
was at a time of the Vikings season when things really started to look up.
32:15
I mean, you're you're starting to think like, Okay, they're finally
32:17
waking up, they're finally doing something. The season's not lost. And they
32:24
did have a few games where it was good, and I think the Niners
32:28
was a catalyst in that run of games before you know, the eventual terrible
32:31
injury. But yeah, I mean, I don't know, I feel like
32:37
the Niners have been beat down a lot lately. Yeah, they've been successful,
32:40
but to me, for a lot of reasons, people root for the
32:45
Lions this year. That's kind of why I'm rooting for the Niners. But
32:50
the Niners definitely took their lumps towards the end of the season too, mm
32:52
hmm. I mean they were I mean, some of those big perennial powerhouse
33:00
teams that have been so good for the last couple of years entered the season
33:04
and struggled. The Chiefs, the Eagles, the Niners. I mean,
33:09
they just they didn't Nobody had sixteen and oh or a fifteen and one type
33:20
season. It wasn't just this magical, glorious yeah we ran over everybody that
33:23
we played. It was no, yeah, we won some. I mean
33:29
the Eagles were what nine and oh or ten and o to start the season,
33:31
and then I think they started it was either ten and one or ten
33:35
and two. And I said this last week or the week before, they're
33:37
the first team ever to start off with ten or more wins and not reach
33:44
twelve wins in a season. Yeah. Crazy, but yeah, there was
33:49
a lot of parody in this season, and the NFL is built that way,
33:53
and that's what keeps people coming back. I think it keeps us engaged,
33:59
it keeps us interesting, and it gives us a lot of stuff to
34:00
talk about, because if one team is dominating everything, it's just like,
34:05
well, shoot, can't beat them. I mean that was the way it
34:08
was with the Patriots for so long. I was like, yeah, okay,
34:13
gosh, I hope you don't have to play the Patriots this year.
34:15
Hope you don't see Tom Brady and Bill Belichick this year because you're probably gonna
34:20
lose. And to the point that if your team beat the Patriots that year,
34:23
it was like, oh wow, hey, Vinings might be good.
34:27
They actually, you know, beat the Patriots and Bill Belichick in Foxborough like
34:31
yeah, yeah, So yeah, those are my my personal thoughts on worst
34:37
and best case scenarios for Super Bowl outcomes. I agree with you. I
34:42
was lazy and didn't make a list, but I'm just gonna steal yours.
34:46
I like it, I agree with it, and I can I can back
34:50
that. So ultimately, we're just a couple of dudes. So yeah,
34:54
yeah, we're just what does what does it matter? What our opinion is,
34:58
drinking beer and talking sports. That's what we do to switch gears a
35:02
little bit. Yeah, we'd recently mentioned northern Iowa history being made, but
35:09
we're a Vikings podcast and so we focused mostly on Minnesota sports. So Minnesota
35:16
sports history happened. I'm gonna stop you right there, or is happening?
35:22
Yeah, so yes, Minnesota sports history. That's fine and dandy. I
35:29
would argue it's Quad City Baseball. Sports history is happening right now. It's
35:36
happened. It hasn't happened, or is it? The induction ceremony hasn't happened.
35:42
But like he's in Okay, all right, So we're talking about Joe
35:45
Mauer, famed career long Minnesota Twin. But he's started his basement. He
35:52
started his professional baseball career with the Quad Cities River Bandits right here. Yeah,
36:00
we're pretty much right in our locale. Actually, I think somewhere in
36:04
this bookshelf I have a Quad City or River band It's card of Joe Mauer
36:12
sign by Joe Mauer. I might have to dig that out. I don't
36:15
have to break that out. That's an instagram worthy pictures to list out there.
36:20
When we're done, remind me, yeah, and I'll see if we
36:22
can dig that out. I think because when I was a kid, I
36:24
think when I was probably like, we've just moved here to the Quad Cities
36:29
when I was ten, and that's when we met. Somewhere in those first
36:32
couple of years, I did like a kid's baseball camp, okay with the
36:37
River Bandits, and he was one of the players there. Interesting, that's
36:39
awesome. Yeah, early two thousands, and it might have been like he
36:44
was rehabbing here, like he might have been injured and just rehabbed. That
36:49
was back when the River Bandit's where a Twins affiliate. Yeah, they've bounced
36:52
around because what are they the single A or I don't even know they've Yeah,
36:57
they've they've been a Cardinals affiliate, they've been a Royal affiliate. They've
37:01
I think they've even been Cubs affiliate at times. Interesting, so yeah,
37:07
they've I know, right now it's is it the Royals? I think it's
37:12
the Royal because they were recently Astros, right possibly, but I think they're
37:16
the Royals currently. But yeah, they used to be a Twins affiliate for
37:21
a while. Yeah, so anyways, we've not directly stated it, maybe,
37:25
but Joe Mauer, catcher and first baseman for the Minnesota Twins, has
37:31
been nominated and will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Yeah he's
37:38
I mean, yeah, he's a Hall of Famer, which is crazy.
37:42
I mean it's not that crazy. People argue did he deserve it? Did
37:45
he not? I'm not a big enough baseball fan to even entertain that argument.
37:51
All I know is he's a Hall of Famer officially. So I watched
37:53
a fair amount of Twins baseball as a kid, especially going through like can't
38:00
like I just mentioned, and I would say I was a fairly big fan
38:04
of Joe Mauer, Like, yeah, he was the Twins franchise. I
38:07
mean yeah, it was Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau for several years. So
38:15
yeah, I think he's deserving unfortunately, and they never put it all together
38:20
in won World Series while he was there, but thankful that he was a
38:24
twin the whole time and the Yankees never tried to or never successfully you know
38:31
him away, Yeah, but uh yeah, it was kind of cool.
38:35
You don't see that a lot anymore, especially in baseball. The guys spending
38:39
their whole careers with a team usually at one point money doesn't work out if
38:45
they're good enough, money doesn't work out for a single team to pony up
38:47
everything or they yeah, for whatever reason, guys usually bounce around a little
38:52
bit. So it is really cool to see a really good guy and apparently
38:57
a really good dude, like a solid dude, just wholesome. Yeah,
39:01
yep, just I mean he is a guy you'd want your kids to look
39:07
up to. And yeah. So all that to say, congrats, Joe
39:10
Mauer, You're in the Hall of Fame. It'll be in Cooperstown forever.
39:15
We know your heart really lies with the Quad Cities. But all that to
39:19
say, let's look at the Vikings. So the Vikings currently have one guy
39:23
who is currently a finalist to be inducted in the next round of Hall of
39:29
Fame. Inductees. Jared Allen. Jared Allen, and I think the announcement
39:34
for the twenty twenty four class of NFL Hall of Famers comes out sometime during
39:39
the Super Bowl week, the week after the Pro Bowl and leading up to
39:44
the Super Bowl, so we'll find out then. I think this is his
39:47
fourth time being being a finalist. And I saw he did an interview with
39:55
the Vikings this week and he kind of mentioned, like, yeah, I
39:59
wish she could count these these multiple times of being a finalist, kind of
40:02
like he can count Pro Bowls, like, oh yeah, he's so good.
40:05
He was a four time finalist for the But then he also kind of
40:09
said that like it kind of gets sad after a certain point, like I
40:13
can't get in for whatever reason. But he had a good, good,
40:15
lighthearted thought process about it. But I think he's worthy, definitely in Jared
40:21
Allen. I think he's definitely worthy to be in. He should be in.
40:23
He never got a ring. I think that's it's kind of dumb,
40:27
but that's the only I think that's the hold up on him is that he
40:30
never got the ring. He played in the Super Bowl with the Panthers,
40:35
but that was the year they lost to the Broncos, But yeah, spent
40:39
more of his career with the Vikings than anyone else. I think he should
40:43
be in. We got to witness him gallop into us Bank Stadium on that
40:46
horse when he was inducted into the Vikings Ring of Honor, which is really
40:52
cool. Yeah, I think he's deserving for sure. Yeah, I think
40:59
you know, he did a lot in his career and he's he's also just
41:06
a good guy. Seems like, yeah, he had a rocky point,
41:08
especially at the end of his chief's career. Yeah, but it does seem
41:13
like he's a solid guy, like he seemed to turn it around and really
41:16
get his stuff together. So I don't know, I root for the guy.
41:22
Yeah, we got to watch him, I would say, during his
41:24
prime. Oh yeah, as a Viking, I mean he was just a
41:28
beast and yeah. So and then the cherry on top for us was watching
41:34
him being inducted into the Ring of Honor live in person, which is a
41:38
lot of fun. So I'll never forget. I think the year he I'm
41:44
always confused on this. He either tied or just fell short of the single
41:47
season sack record, but that year I'm pretty sure was zar the Vikings went
41:52
three and thirteen, and there was a certain point when you could tell like
41:58
the Vikings were not doing anything. They were terrible. Coach was gonna get
42:02
fired, like it was bad. They definitely weren't making the playoffs. It
42:07
was a last year. But there was a point where you could just every
42:10
defensive play you watched him because he had fire in his eyes. He was
42:16
gonna get that record no matter what, and that's all he cared about.
42:20
And I'm, you know, diminishing his his priorities, but it just seems
42:23
so obvious that, like every the only thing he wanted to do on every
42:28
single play was sacked the quarterback. And it was hilarious because there were some
42:31
plays where it's like he didn't even realize the quarterback threw it five seconds ago
42:36
and he's still trying to get to the quarterback. But yeah, he was
42:39
fun to watch. He was a lot of fun. I think it'd be
42:43
cool to have prime Jared Allen on this Vikings team. That'd be a lot
42:47
of fun on the other side of Daniel Hunter. That'd be crazy. Yeah,
42:52
that would be amazing. You've got a handful of other names on this
42:54
list potential future Hall of famers for sake of time, because I would like
43:04
to talk about beer here. Who are you? Who are your top two?
43:10
Yeah? And and maybe like current players excluded because you do have some
43:16
current players on the list that I think are are deserving eventually, but they're
43:22
still currently in the league. Top two. Who do you got? Who
43:25
who's after Jared Allen? Who's next? End of the hall? Yeah?
43:30
So man, current players excluded. There's some good names on this list.
43:37
But yeah, this is assuming Jared Allen makes it, even if he doesn't
43:42
get there this year. I think Jim Marshall, an original Purpole People leader.
43:46
I'm sorry, he definitely needs to be in I think. Yeah,
43:50
he didn't have all the sack numbers and he wasn't the highest performing Purple People
43:54
leader, but he definitely needs to be in there. And another one I
43:59
think I think, and this may be a little surprising, but I definitely
44:04
think Antoine Winfield. He's not surprising to me. When he came into the
44:07
Vikings. He came in when the Vikings were not that great, definitely in
44:13
kind of a rebuilding time, couldn't find a quarterback. That was a dark
44:16
year of dark years of Vikings quarterbacks. He was a big name free agent,
44:21
probably only came because of the money, but he just he'd played.
44:25
He played his heart out. It was fun to watch him little in comparison,
44:30
his little in size in comparison to other players on the field, but
44:35
sure tackler. He definitely was a bright spot for a lot of years on
44:38
the Vikings defense, and it just felt like his career with the Vikings just
44:43
kind of ended. But I think, and I don't even know his career
44:46
numbers, interception sacks, whatever, I think just it feels like he deserves
44:52
to be in the Hall of Fame. So those are mine too. Jim
44:54
Marshall, sorry I stole it. And Antoine, No, I think those
45:00
are good. So I'll take one from farther back to start. I would
45:06
take Chuck Foreman. Oh, yeah, you've got him on here, and
45:10
yeah, I think he's deserving. Great running back, but a little more
45:15
recently in the same position. Adrian Peterson. Oh, and he's to me,
45:21
I don't think he's eligible yet because he got to be out of the
45:24
league for five years. I think that's the only reason. Is he active
45:28
at all this year? No, it's I don't think he's played since twenty
45:31
one. Okay, so it's been a few years. Yeah, all be
45:35
twenty two on all of twenty three so far. I don't know if he's
45:38
officially come out and said like, yeah, I'm retired, but he's won
45:43
controversy aside. When he does officially retire, he'll sign a one day contract
45:47
with the Vikings. Yep, he'll He'll be in. I think numbers alone,
45:52
he'll be in because he's what the third or fourth highest running back or
45:58
rushing yards in league histories like that. I should know this, but yeah,
46:01
he's up there. Even the fact that his post Vikings career, which
46:06
he bounced around a lot, he played for the Saints, the Cardinals,
46:10
the he was with the Lionons, the with the Ganders. Well, the
46:16
Redskins, they weren't even the Commanders yet or even I think the football team
46:20
yet. I think they're still just the Red football team. I think he
46:23
played I don't know, definitely the Seahawks for a minute. He bounced around
46:29
quite a bit. He was around. Yeah, but he had a couple
46:30
of good seasons in Washington, like I think a thousand yard season there too,
46:34
So he still showed that he had something in the tank. Post Vikings
46:38
career, and yeah, I think I don't think it's hard to argue that
46:45
he should be in Yeah, so I mean, typical me fashion, I'm
46:50
gonna pick the offensive players over the defense. Yeah, they're more exciting to
46:52
watch. Yeah, yeah, that that should be a good We'll have a
46:59
we'll do a Vikings Players Hall of Fame episode. I think that could warrant
47:02
a whole episode. Oh yeah, maybe a shorter episode. But yeah,
47:06
yeah, I'd have to do a little research because there's some guys in the
47:08
Hall that I didn't watch play. Yeah, I'd have to read up on
47:13
them a little bit. But anyways, you had one more idea for a
47:19
segment tonight, and I liked this idea a lot. Like when I first
47:22
saw your text when I was at work this morning, I'm like, yes,
47:25
let's do that. So we haven't done this really at all, but
47:30
I think this is a great time to do it. Let's talk about all
47:35
the beer that we've featured on our podcast so far. Yeah, and not
47:38
even just all the beer that we featured, but as as the skull Hop,
47:45
we've never really been to a brewery as the skoll Hop. We've we've
47:51
kind of been to one for like a you know, business type meeting chat
47:57
just you and me, But we've never officially been The School Hop is visiting
48:00
blah blah blah brewery, right, And you could argue that our podcast kind
48:05
of started in some of these breweries. That's true. We'd I mean this
48:12
that, you know, if you're out there listening or watching to us,
48:16
you know, drinking Iowa beer and sitting around talking about the Vikings. This
48:20
started because we were going to local breweries drinking beer and talking about the Vikings.
48:25
In one day, we were just like, let's record this. Oh
48:29
hey, let's yeah, let's do an episode. You know, let's stick
48:32
some microphones in front of us and see what happens. And here we are,
48:37
you know, twenty four episodes in doing just that, twenty four of
48:42
many many many many more, having a lot of fun doing it. Okay,
48:45
So but yeah, I figured we could go down the list of breweries
48:51
we'd like to visit as the School Hop. Maybe it's just you and me
48:55
going there drinking some beers. Maybe we record an episode at the brewery,
49:00
talked to a brewer. We are Vikings focused but also Iowa beer focused,
49:06
and I think maybe the off season is a good time that we could like
49:07
feature some of these breweries, some of these beers, and maybe this is
49:13
where we can start focusing on the first few breweries we'd like to visit.
49:16
Absolutely, I agree. So we've had a lot of beer. I mean
49:24
to be twenty four episodes in, We've tried a lot, and we've never
49:30
doubled up. We've never for example, if we had toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue
49:37
on an episode, the best beer I think pretty good, one of my
49:40
favorites of all times. It's up there for sure, But we featured that
49:45
beer early on and we've not featured it again. We've had some pseudo Shu's
49:51
oh yeah personally off air, but we've never had another one on air,
49:55
meaning we've we've tried a lot of different I A Brood beer. So I
50:05
think the brewery just looking off of this list because you compiled this for us
50:08
and I appreciate this. Yeah, the brewery that we featured the most has
50:15
been Big Grove, Yeah, out of Iowa City. So I'd love to
50:19
go as the schoolhop to Big Grove and sit. They've got a their Iowa
50:24
City location, They've got a really cool inside space and a really really cool
50:29
outside space, like multiple intimate you know, like picnic table and or fireplace
50:36
sitting areas. There. They've got a solid outside space. I've been there,
50:42
I guess twice. I'd love to go again. And they're only about
50:45
an hourish drive from where we are right now, not too far. I
50:50
can honestly say, you know what, I can honestly say, I've only
50:52
ever had a couple of bad beers ever, and none of those quote unquote
50:58
bad beers have ever been big grow of beers for me. We featured the
51:02
West Eddy and episode one the Arms Race in sixteen Birch the Bear. Last
51:10
week in our episode twenty three, brown Bear, Birch Birch the Brown Bear
51:15
as the Skolhop is going to call it, but it's officially Birch the Bear.
51:19
It was a brown beer, so it should be a brown Bear.
51:21
Yeah. Locally, they're an easy beer to get a brewery to get a
51:23
hold of their beers. They're really good, Big Grove. Let's come record
51:30
a live episode there. I'd love it. Yeah, it would be a
51:34
lot of fun. I would do it. Yeah, another one. I've
51:37
been here once. I don't know if you've ever been to Confluence in Des
51:44
Moines. We've had one of their beers on the podcast episode five. It
51:51
was the Extinction Event. I'm realizing there's a few varieties of the extinction event,
51:57
and I wish I remembered which variety we had on the episode. Yeah,
52:01
I remember when I went there. It was really good. I was
52:04
there with friends of the friend of the show Forest. It's a great time.
52:08
Another one the school hop should visit. I'll admit I have not been
52:14
to a lot of breweries outside of my local and that's I'm challenging the school
52:21
hop. Let's get out to some. Yeah. Well, now that we've
52:23
got a little money in the bank, Yeah, we got a sponsorship.
52:27
We can expense that. I can write that off to some degree. That
52:31
sponsorship will only stretch so far at this point. At this point, but
52:36
yeah, I think I would have a blast if we did a whole summer
52:40
of just traveling Iowa, and if we even don't record, just visiting these
52:46
breweries. I think that would be my ideal summer. Well, I have
52:52
the summers off because I'm a teacher. Yeah, so we're gonna need you
52:57
to work on that, and I get that figured out with your employer.
53:00
I'm a government employee that earns a lot of leave, so we could probably
53:04
figure something out. All right, Well, we'll coordinate that. We've already
53:08
mentioned Toppling Goliath, Pseudo su we've had that. That was episode four based
53:14
out of Decora. I would love to go to Dacora. I've never even
53:17
been to Decora. I've been in the northeast part of the state. Actually,
53:22
I don't know if I've ever told you this, but our second anniversary,
53:29
my wife and I went to so not not your and my second,
53:34
not our second anniversary, my wife and I's second anniversary. She's upstairs somewhere.
53:40
She's probably sleeping. She's listening right now. Hi. We went to
53:47
De Sota, Wisconsin, which is right across the river. Dude, from
53:53
like, it's it's close to Decora. You went into enemy territory. We
53:58
did. They had a we Airbnb though, and it was in a train
54:01
car. It was in a caboose. Sure it was awesome. Sure was
54:06
it made of cheese? No? I'm sorry. Keep going. There's a
54:09
lot of things I like about Wisconsin, so I do. And beer,
54:14
cheese, fishing, there's a lot of good stuff in Wisconsin. But Anyways,
54:20
I would love to go back to that area and go to Decora specifically
54:24
and go to Toppling Glass. Would be like, if we're going to do
54:30
a brewery tour, like you've already proposed, and now that you've said it
54:32
and we're recording, we have to do it. You know what I'm gonna
54:36
We should tag every one of these breweries. Yes, and this is our
54:38
wish list, this whole list. And let me reiterate before we go any
54:42
further. This list is not a ranking. It's not a you know,
54:46
top ten. You don't like ranking. I just like, if you're in,
54:51
you're in so so far these this list seeds don't matter too Yeah.
54:55
This there you're in. And this is the first brewery we want to officially
55:00
visit as the school hob So I'll let me just finish my thought. If
55:05
we do a tour, and if we mention all these breweries, and if
55:08
you're out there and you are a manager or even just an employee, yeah,
55:14
I had a brewery. I would like to start at Topland Goliath.
55:17
I think that would be awesome. All right, Toplan Goliath, Decorah,
55:22
Iowa. We're coming for you first, and then we're gonna go everywhere else
55:27
after this sounds good. And if you want to cross over and get some
55:31
cards and I don't know what else they have. They've got some good beer
55:37
over there in Wisconsin. Yeah, but we don't need it. We need
55:39
the Iowa beers. So you can cross the border and get some cheese curds
55:43
all you want. I'll stay at Topland Goliath and then you can come pick
55:46
me up afterwards. Another one really close to home, Green Tree. Yeah,
55:53
green Tree, Uh, not really widely distributed, No, I don't
55:59
think just atributed at all. Unless you visit their brewery. You can buy
56:02
some crowlers, so to speak. And we featured some of that on episode
56:10
twenty, was it. Yeah, we had the River Bottom X Yes,
56:14
another red Yeah, so good stuff. I really like it. So you've
56:22
got this list of top breweries for best breweries in Iowa. So as we
56:30
flip over to number five on the list, even though you don't believe in
56:37
rankings, No, these are all good. You have Alluvial Brewing, which
56:42
fun fact, I've actually been to Alluvial. I don't think I've told you
56:45
really, Yeah, I had, honestly, and I'm sorry, Ilulu,
56:47
I've never heard of them until today. I've been there in the flesh.
56:52
I was in Aims for a training for work. I was in a hotel
56:58
for a week by myself and just took it upon myself, like I'm gonna
57:01
find good beer around here, and Alluvial came up and I made the trip.
57:07
It's a little outside of Ames, not far, kind of off the
57:13
beaten path, kind of out on the outskirts of Ames, and really good
57:19
beer and a really cool just kind of like farmhousey vibe out in the country,
57:25
so to speak. So if we could get our hands on some Alluvial
57:29
beer, I would definitely feature it on an episode, and we should definitely
57:32
try to make it there. Even if we haven't featured it on an episode.
57:37
It's good stuff. I mean, I'm serious. If it's on this
57:38
list, I want to visit it. But yeah, we have never featured
57:44
any of their beers on the podcast yet, but we definitely will. I
57:47
mean eventually we're gonna have to. We're gonna have to hit every brewery in
57:51
Iowa and get our hands on every Iowa brew beer, even if we have
57:54
to make it ourselves for us. I'm talking to you right now. Yeah,
58:00
So yeah, anything on this list. I'm down to go. Next
58:04
up Peace Tree. We had their red Rambler, another red Ale, of
58:10
course, out in Knoxville, Iowa. I don't even know where Knoxville is,
58:14
but I would go, Yeah, it's in our state. It can
58:16
only be so far away. I have driven to very far away parts of
58:22
the state. Shout out bell Plane, and some of those are hard to
58:25
get to. That hard they take that far away. Not bell Plane.
58:30
What am I thinking of? I mean, if you go to like Council
58:35
Bluffs. We're talking about the opposite end of the state from where we live
58:37
right now. No, I said the wrong city. I was thinking of
58:40
another one, and I said bell Plane. And I will never remember.
58:45
It's not even worth wasting the digital film of this North South podcast. Probably
58:50
somewhere west one of Miranda's friends, my friend lived there for a few years
58:55
after college. And Sioux City, Oh, it's not a name that I've
59:01
I had never heard of before or since they don't live there anymore. This
59:05
is terrible. We almost need to cut all this out for fear of these
59:08
people listening. You got some research to do. My Chelsea and Tad,
59:12
I'll say it. They lived in this city and I've never it may not
59:15
exist, like this may have been a full joke, and I had to
59:19
the GPS drove me around in circles for have you been lit hours? Yeah,
59:22
like twice, two or three times. How long did it take you
59:24
to get there? Oh? Man, I mean I think it would have
59:28
been a shorter trip to go to Omaha, to be honest, with the
59:30
way that it takes four hours to get to Omaha. No, it's like
59:35
five or six okay, five and a half. Yeah, So so they
59:38
had to have been either in the northwest or southwest Iowa. It was the
59:43
part of Iowa where farm fields start having to like they're a little hilly.
59:51
This is so worthless to this whole podcast until we almost need to, like,
59:54
once we're done recording, save this spot ah and google it and then
1:00:00
splice it in like, hey, this is Evan and we figured out that
1:00:04
it's found it and it's still even then wouldn't be worth it, Like the
1:00:08
listeners are bored right now. I'm about thirty three and I'm having an old
1:00:15
age brain fart. The next brewery on the list, fortunately for you,
1:00:19
is one that we both have a good amount of experience with that would be
1:00:22
Single Speed Brewing out of Waterloo. We featured two of their beers, actually
1:00:28
two weeks in a row. Episode seventeen, we had Prowl Panther Prowl,
1:00:32
which was a beer featuring the Panthers, our alma mater, and we also
1:00:38
had their worldwide Haze Hazipa the week after. And it actually didn't start in
1:00:45
Waterloo. It started in Cedar Falls Fall, which is where you and I
1:00:52
is located, and Waterloo's right next door. They've expanded, took over the
1:00:58
old Wonderbread Factory in downtown Waterloo, and they've they've really kind of made themselves
1:01:02
a little staple in the Waterloo Cedar Falls community there, and they've distributed.
1:01:09
You can get their beer down here in the Quad Cities now, and I
1:01:13
would expect in most major places in the state of Iowa and perhaps even outside
1:01:20
of the state. I don't know a beer of theirs that I was most
1:01:23
the most I've been pleasantly surprised by any beer ever has been there. Tip
1:01:29
the Cow, which is I think an espresso stout yep. And I love
1:01:35
coffee, but it's got to be for me. It's got to be black,
1:01:37
and it's got to be hot and usually like the the frappuccinos and the
1:01:42
everything cold coffee drinks. I'm not into I like coffee ice cream. But
1:01:46
anyways, this espresso Stout, it was in my Beer Advent calendar, and
1:01:51
uh, I grabbed it. I like Single Speed, but yeah, and
1:01:55
I wasn't sure if I was gonna like it. But first nip, I
1:01:59
was like, oh, this is good. It was a it was an
1:02:01
espresso and it's delicious. You realize that you've had that beer, Yeah you
1:02:07
said that, but I didn't remember, and that means I'm a bad friend.
1:02:09
We had that beer together at Single Speed in Cedar Falls, before they
1:02:15
had even expanded to Waterloo. We had Tip the Cow there coffee Stout.
1:02:22
Really before Single Speed kind of grew to be what it is today, and
1:02:28
really before we grew into more or less the beer enjoyers that we are,
1:02:35
we were still relatively new to the beer world. And I remember telling you
1:02:38
like, yeah, it's good because I'm I'm a big coffee guy. Why
1:02:44
I like coffee. I turned you into a Vikings fan and a coffee lover.
1:02:46
You're welcome. But I remember telling you like, yeah, it's good,
1:02:52
but I don't think I could do more than one because it was rich
1:02:55
at least back then. And I don't know if they've adapted their recip be
1:03:00
to kind of adapt to the masses or not. But I haven't had a
1:03:04
tip the cow in a long time. Maybe we should feature one. You
1:03:07
know what you said? You said, Tappling Goliath might be one of the
1:03:10
first breweries you want to go to as a skull hop. My first one
1:03:15
is definitely Single Speed. Have you been to the Wonderbread Factory in Waterloo?
1:03:19
I don't think so, dude, You need to go. That place is
1:03:22
cool. Yeah, it's the old Wonderbread Factory and they left a lot of
1:03:25
the old like factory vibe in place. It's a cool place. I went
1:03:30
there a bunch when I lived there. All right, Tappling Goliath and Single
1:03:35
Speed, you guys, you guys are at the top of our list of
1:03:38
skull hop visiting breweries. We want to come. We want to check out
1:03:44
your space and drink your fresh beers on tap number twenty twenty four. We're
1:03:49
doing it if we do nothing else. Those breweries were going for We're coming
1:03:52
for you, all right. A couple more beers, handful of more beers,
1:03:55
on the list here, well breweries, I just if breweries. Yeah,
1:04:00
Exile, Yeah, good one. We have their Octoberfest pretty early on.
1:04:04
I probably jumped the gun a little bit on the old october Fest.
1:04:08
Octoberfest is a season that is not limited to o C. October. This
1:04:14
is okay October okay, and it's always okay to have an october Fest.
1:04:17
Yeah, in my opinion, I don't know. If it's July fourth,
1:04:20
I'm gonna need some like water and maybe like a summer shandy or something.
1:04:25
But dang it, I can't say it. We need to cut that out
1:04:28
because I just shouted out Scannie beer no on this podcast. Although summer Shandy's
1:04:33
delicious, summer san I like summer Shindy. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
1:04:39
See Exile, I believe I've been there. Forrest, if you're listening,
1:04:43
when you get to this point, text me and remind me if this is
1:04:45
one of the ones that we went to on our Des Moines brewery tour,
1:04:50
because there was a certain point that I will need Forest to remind me if
1:04:55
we have been to those locations. Although to be fair, there's another certain
1:05:00
point where Forrest will need our wives to remind us of the locations that we
1:05:06
know to sell. I will pack some liquid ivy and uh some gate Raid
1:05:12
yeah for this trip. But if it's what I'm thinking of, Exile was
1:05:15
a lot of fun and uh yeah, all of these again, all of
1:05:19
these I want to go to. But we should definitely check that one out
1:05:21
too. I have not been to Exile the next one. I also have
1:05:26
not been to Millstream. Millstream a Mana, which is close to Iowa City,
1:05:30
so close ish to Big Grove, probably another twenty minutes half hour.
1:05:35
Yeah. I had the more leisure of attending october Fest yeah in the Amana
1:05:42
Colonies this year, and I've had a few Millstream beers and another one.
1:05:46
I've never been disappointed. If anything, I've been more pleasantly surprised with Millstream
1:05:51
beers. They're so good and their Octoberfest is top notch. It's amazing.
1:06:00
It's really, really, really good. And I had probably two full signs
1:06:04
of the Octoberfest during that day and Millstreams shilled brow Amber m HM. We
1:06:11
featured here had that here as well. And oldest oldest beer in Iowa,
1:06:15
oldest, longest, oldest established currently brewed sure Okay active yes nineteen eighty five
1:06:26
or somewhere around there, which seems kind of young as far as oldest.
1:06:30
But yeah, with the brewing laws in Iowa the way they were, and
1:06:35
you can go back to I think it was episode thirteen where I kind of
1:06:39
gave a mini history lesson on beer brewing in Iowa. Yeah, that's the
1:06:45
that's the one that is the o g craft beer in Iowa. So there
1:06:51
you go. And then we've got a few breweries that we could like break
1:06:56
up different sections of tours if we wanted to. They might have to like
1:07:01
geographical like. Yeah, so there's a couple of des Moin area ones,
1:07:05
a couple of Iowa City ish area ones. This last one that we have
1:07:10
listed firetruck or brewery in Anchany, so that des Moin area. Yep.
1:07:15
We had their Iowa IPA two episodes ago. Yeah, just a few weeks
1:07:19
ago. I botched my poor on the TikTok video and they they lightheartedly gave
1:07:27
me some grief about that. But then they said we should come check out
1:07:30
their brewery and have some ginger beers. I think they specifically pointed out,
1:07:33
and they told you that they would teach you how to pour a beer too.
1:07:36
I'll take any tips. Hey, I'm always trying to get better so
1:07:41
in any aspect of life, So teach me how to pour the best beer.
1:07:45
But I'd love to go to Fire Truck or Brewery. Their their logo
1:07:47
looks really cool. We've had a couple of their beers, only one on
1:07:50
the podcast, but yeah, let's make that a priority to Yeah, well,
1:07:56
sounds like maybe we need to go to Des Moines and a few other
1:07:59
places us the state. Check some boxes and yeah, yeah, I have
1:08:03
an honorable mention. Okay, five cities, Yeah, very local. Five
1:08:10
very local. I mean so local that we could probably throw a rock from
1:08:15
here, cousins could throw a football from here and hit that building. You're
1:08:18
probably right, maybe in the best conditions on a bounce, he'd get he'd
1:08:26
get very close. But yeah, we've had some five Cities good stuff.
1:08:30
And I was just there actually a few times. It is kind of the
1:08:36
place to meet for people in my agent stage of life. So yeah,
1:08:43
I've been there a few times. And they've actually expanded too. They've got
1:08:45
a spot over in LaClair close to Peace Tree or not Peace Tree or a
1:08:50
green Tree there. It is so yeah, good stuff, and we've had
1:08:58
some business meetings over it and we'll have me. Yeah. Five Cities may
1:09:02
be like the first unofficially official home of the school hop. Yeah, so
1:09:12
you definitely have. We have a booth over there. We both have kind
1:09:16
of some go to beers and a couple of go to food orders for the
1:09:20
place next door. Oh yeah, yeah, we like that place. Good
1:09:24
stuff, good stuff, And it's nice to know that you can just go
1:09:26
to a place and kind of hunkered down and you can be there for a
1:09:30
while. Yeah, and all is good. Everybody everybody knows your name.
1:09:36
There is a Cheers reference. I knew the reference. I don't think they
1:09:41
know my name, but they definitely know the beer that I want. Yeah,
1:09:43
not yet, I will say the High V that we get our beer
1:09:45
at. They're starting to know my name. Yeah, well they know me
1:09:49
too, and they know what I like. Yeah, and that's good.
1:09:54
That's more of a testament on how good High Ve is rather than how beer
1:09:59
crazy you and I are. Right, I'll go with that. Yeah.
1:10:03
So yeah, if you're keeping track, that was our That was our first
1:10:09
list of beer brewer breweries we want to hit up as the school hop Right,
1:10:15
sound like a good list? Yeah, yeah, I think maybe a
1:10:18
project that I can work on is a map. Yeah, and uh,
1:10:25
we'll kind of chart out a course for the summer and who knows, maybe
1:10:30
a few months from now. If you're tuning into the School Hop, you'll
1:10:34
you'll catch us on a little road trip across the state and we'll we'll document
1:10:41
our trip through various means, maybe some tiktoks, maybe some YouTube videos,
1:10:46
maybe a full podcast episode where we're just on the road and checking out these
1:10:51
different breweries. Yeah, I like that. Also an on air production meeting
1:10:58
listeners. Set some point this offseason, we will be brewing and enjoying the
1:11:06
Skull Hop beer. That is going to happen. That is a promise before
1:11:12
kickoff of week one of twenty twenty four. That's Austin promise again for if
1:11:18
you're listening, please let me know. And Forrest friend of the show,
1:11:23
he's got the experience. He will be the master brewer of the School Hop.
1:11:28
That's already a given, which is a little ironic because he's a Bears
1:11:31
fan, But that's okay. He is a Bears fan, but he is
1:11:34
a Skull Hop fan. Hopefully he doesn't poison the beer. Yeah, I
1:11:39
think he respects beer. Too much to do that, and then he likes
1:11:45
us, so he won'ts that's fair, that's fair, But we mostly he
1:11:47
respects beer too much to do that. He's also a big college guy.
1:11:51
So when we have like our draft episode, he may be featured on that
1:11:57
episode as well. Here's a couple of Michigan running back and could be pickups
1:12:02
and a guy who plays the most important position of football, maybe a high
1:12:06
ish pick into the NFL. Not necessarily the Vikings, but I'm at this
1:12:13
point more interested in their running backs than their quarterback. But that's just my
1:12:16
opinion. Yeah that's true. But you know my motto on quarter or on
1:12:19
running backs, don't pay him, don't pay them. So what do you
1:12:23
have to do to get a good one? Draft them, and then let
1:12:26
somebody else pay them. That's what I've been saying. Yep, draft one
1:12:29
of those Michigan kids. They lit up that national championship, Yeah they did.
1:12:34
JJ McCarthy didn't have to do anything. He just dropped back. I'd
1:12:40
say he didn't have to do He don't have to do much. Yes,
1:12:43
he didn't have to do much. Yeah, he still had to play good.
1:12:45
I mean he played okay. Yeah, but that's a topic for another
1:12:49
time. It is a topic for another time. We've got a to do
1:12:53
list here. Yep. We will put together a little tour and we'll play
1:12:57
that out. It'll be fun, I would say too. We also have
1:13:00
some plans to hopefully go to at least one, possibly more games next season.
1:13:06
Yes, yeah, I don't know. There's something I'm not sure if
1:13:10
I've I think I texted you about it. There's something maybe in the works
1:13:14
a little bit. I think I've texted you about it. Yeah, So
1:13:17
yeah, at least one if not too ish maybe I don't know, but
1:13:24
maybe even another. If we don't physically attend a game, we might attend
1:13:28
another event that has to do with watching a Vikings game. Yeah. Yeah,
1:13:30
we've talked about that as well. And Super super Current. We may
1:13:36
have a guest on next week's show. Not may, we will. We
1:13:42
will have a guest. I mean you always leave it open just in case
1:13:45
something crazy happens. Yeah, but well, at this point in time,
1:13:47
as the recording of this episode, the plan is we will have a guest.
1:13:53
I guess that's been on the show before, So you have two guesses.
1:14:01
We'll see if you're right. Yeah, and you'll you will never know
1:14:04
if you're right until you maybe even read the description of next week's size.
1:14:11
Well, what did you think of the west Oh Smoked Red Ale? I
1:14:16
like it? And I'm gonna say something I may have already said in the
1:14:19
past. IPAs are my number one by a mile. I'm an ipa guy.
1:14:26
I recognize not everybody is, and that's okay. You have made sure
1:14:30
you have turned me into Reds and Ambers being my number two. So happy
1:14:36
to help you in any way that I can. I appreciate it. Thank
1:14:40
you very much. I liked it a lot. West Oh. You did
1:14:42
a great job on the what's this one called smoked red? Smoked red?
1:14:47
Yeah, that's it. Like I said earlier, that's a good description of
1:14:51
this beer. It's really good. I like it a lot. What do
1:14:54
you think now that I've had more of it and have been able to kind
1:15:00
of savor the SIPs a little bit. I can taste the smokiness. I
1:15:04
can definitely taste that roasted malt and the smoked cherrywood malt that's in there.
1:15:14
So it's really good. It's complex, it's a little more interesting, I
1:15:18
would say than some of the other Reds and ambers that we've had not to
1:15:25
downplay any of those other ones, but this is good and I like this,
1:15:29
And there were a few other Westo's on the shelf that I'm like,
1:15:33
Yeah, we're gonna have to try those out too, and maybe they make
1:15:38
this list next year when we do something like this. Oh yeah, so
1:15:44
absolutely. And maybe it's the excuse me, maybe it's the name that's influencing
1:15:49
me a little bit, but I'm just picturing how good this would taste on
1:15:55
like an October or November evening next to a good bonfire, lakeside, lakeside.
1:16:02
Yeah this, Yeah, this is a solid, solid beer and I
1:16:09
enjoyed a lot. Thank you for bringing it to the episode. Yeah,
1:16:12
good stuff. All right. Well, if you're out there listening or watching,
1:16:17
give us a like, give us a follow, give us a rating.
1:16:20
If you're on Spotify or Apple podcasts, give us a rating, drop
1:16:26
a comment on the rating, let us know how we're doing. We always
1:16:30
appreciate the feedback. And if you know somebody out there that's a Vikings fan
1:16:36
or a beer lover, we would love it if you would share that with
1:16:41
them, share a link to either this episode or the podcast in general.
1:16:45
That would make us super excited. I'll even go a little bit farther.
1:16:50
If you are listening and you have some kind of a connection with any of
1:16:55
the breweries we talked about today, or really any Iowa brewery, we'd love
1:17:00
to visit. We'd love to go. And we're not even really looking like,
1:17:03
hey be our sponsor, give us a bunch of beer. We just
1:17:06
we like Iowa beer and we'd love to visit. There was one couple of
1:17:13
breweries that have interacted with us back and forth on social media a little bit,
1:17:15
and that's super awesome. We had one, you know a little bit
1:17:19
of an opportunity to kind of interact in person with a brewery, but scheduling
1:17:25
it didn't work out, but even that was super cool. We'd love that.
1:17:29
So if you have any kind of an in with anywhere, big or
1:17:31
small, or you know whatever, we'd we'd love to chat and maybe visit
1:17:36
and at least record a TikTok or something. Definitely try the beer for sure.
1:17:42
Oh yeah, yeah, we would. We would love that and be
1:17:44
a lot of fun, and we like we like good Iowa beer. Yeah,
1:17:48
and that's something we're excited about on this podcast, and we'll continue to
1:17:54
be excited about for sure. Absolutely, So all right, well let's wrap
1:17:59
this up here today because we've been going for a while now. Yeah,
1:18:03
I like this episode. Hopefully it's as good as it felt. This was
1:18:06
a good one, I agree, but we left some on the table and
1:18:11
we can we can come back to that next time too. She's always a
1:18:14
good feeling to have more to talk about, for sure. So we'll wrap
1:18:17
it up here, we'll finish these up and we'll get this episode out to
1:18:21
you, but as always till next s next time. School School Hey Vikings
1:18:43
fans Evan here from the School Hop, and we just wanted to say thank
1:18:45
you again so much for listening to the School Hop, and we also wanted
1:18:48
to take one more opportunity to let you know that this episode of the School
1:18:53
Hop has been brought to you by Big Top Ventures. If you're considering taking
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an all inclusive trip to either Mexico or to reach out to our friends at
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Bigtop Ventures at Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. Once again,
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that's Big Top Ventures LLC at gmail dot com. You can get the lowest
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rate possible on several all inclusive resorts throughout the region. Big Top Ventures step
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right up to your next big adventure. And thanks again for listening to the
1:19:19
skool Hot School