Barley Prose – “Every empty bottle is filled with stories.”

Cider For Thanksgiving

Long time readers and/or followers of mine may remember that my go-to Thanksgiving beer is Figgy Pudding by The Alementary. Figgy Pudding is an English Barleywine aged in Rum barrels and conditioned on Figs, Prunes, Apricots, and Dates. It’s slightly different every year but every year it’s amazing. That’s for me though, what else are we drinking?

Cider. The answer is cider. For Thanksgiving I’m a big proponent of early drinks and late drinks. The beverages you might enjoy early on in the day are much different than the ones you might want when you’ve already packed in some heavy food. Drink whatever you want first, good time for that Figgy Pudding, or Gingerbread Cookie Porter or whatever, but once you’ve sampled from all eight cheeses I bought? Maybe switch to something a little crisper. Like Cider!

A nice dry cider feels like the perfect contrast to rich food, plus it’s apples, which is harvesty and topical! As luck would have it, and totally not the reason for this post, I was just a a cider mill in Vermont and came back with a six-pack of a hard cider I liked. This one’s from Cold Hollow Cider Mill, called Rural Recess. It’s not quite as dry and crisp as I would pick for Thanksgiving, but it’s pretty balanced and it’s also dry-hopped with Cascade Hops, which gives it that nice fresh flavor.

So Figgy Pudding early, and Rural Recess late, and maybe I’ll mix in a Alchemist Heady Topper in there, because this is a beer blog and I did just go to Vermont. What are YOU drinking for Thanksgiving? Tag us on Instagram or Twitter and let us know.

Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s making too many potato dishes for Thanksgiving You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.

Mets On Tap Episode 63 – Playoff Preview

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael and Jason talk McNeil, Alonso, the Padres, ticket prices, ESPN, and all the playoff goodness.

Some roster machination stuff, who’s in, who’s out. Rotation stuff.

Tin Barn Brewery

Do you have a beer you’d like us to try on the podcast? Do you have a cool beer and/or Mets related factoid you’d like to share? hit us up at beer@barleyprose.com.

BEERS
Michael: Tin Barn – District 96 Barn Snake TIPA
Jason: Full Boar Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter
Botty McBotface: MadTree Blood Ornge Psychopathy

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.

Please rate (5 David Wright ..or Davey Johnson..or Ed Charles.. Stars!) and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, your favorite nail salon, or just scribble the URL on a cocktail napkin at your local brewery.

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Mets On Tap Episode 62 – We Miss You Starling Marte!

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael and Jason talk Starling Marte and the struggling Mets offense, and if their numbers look better than they are due to a couple of blow-outs.

Some talk of dark beer season coming, and Joey Lucchesi and Hurricane Ian.

Do you have a beer you’d like us to try on the podcast? Do you have a cool beer and/or Mets related factoid you’d like to share? hit us up at beer@barleyprose.com.

BEERS
Michael: Treehouse Old Man
Jason: Sierra Nevada Sunny Little Thing
Botty McBotface: Budweiser with Frangelico

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.

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Mets On Tap Episode 61 Clinching The Playoffs

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael and Jason talk Mets postseason positioning, the schedule down the stretch, and some blackout/expansion talk.

Some Moosehead Lager and skunked beer talk, road trips to Syracuse, and pondering when Starling Marte is returning.

Do you have a beer you’d like us to try on the podcast? Do you have a cool beer and/or Mets related factoid you’d like to share? hit us up at beer@barleyprose.com.

BEERS
Michael: Treehouse Quaint
Jason: Buried Acorn Pumpkin Shoreski
Botty McBotface: Moosehead Lager

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.

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Mets On Tap Episode 60 Still In First Place

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael and Jason talk Mets injuries, big beers, playoff seeding, and holding off Atlanta.

We talk stumbling on new breweries, about the Mets approach at the plate, and Timmy Trumpet’s appearance at Citi Field. I think his stories are gone, but his Instagram of visiting Citi Field were great. Lots of cool behind the scenes stuff.

Let’s whittle down that magic number!

Do you have a beer you’d like us to try on the podcast? Do you have a cool beer and/or Mets related factoid you’d like to share? hit us up at beer@barleyprose.com.

BEERS
Michael: Somerset Brewing Millie
Jason: New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Juice Force
Botty McBotface: Miller Chill

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.

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Mets On Tap Episode 59 Timmy Trumpets Episode

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael and Jason talk Timmy Trumpets, holding off the Braves, Dendrites, and jerseys. What do you wear to Mets games?

Some talk on what may or may not be wrong with the Mets, playoff seeding, and vacation beers.

Let’s whittle down that magic number!

Do you have a beer you’d like us to try on the podcast? Do you have a cool beer and/or Mets related factoid you’d like to share? hit us up at beer@barleyprose.com.

BEERS
Michael: Treehouse Brewing Couch Tour
Jason: Middle Ages Recess Stout
Botty McBotface: T’weister Speshul

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.

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Don’t Put Bacon In Your Beer–An AI Exploration Of A Bad Idea

Bacon feels like it’s always apropos, and it’s one of those things that seems to go along with beer so well, bacon, burgers, beer. Classic summer fare right?

In my experience, they can be put together too well. I’m a big fan of smoky rauchbiers, it’s a great style, but a delicate one. In typical American fashion, sometimes it’s over done here. Take, for example, this bacon beer I had at a Bacon fest at a German biergarten on Long Island in 2015. They’re having the fest again this year. They mention specialty drinks, but do not mention beer.

Does that look appetizing? It wasn’t. I wrote “eh” on Untappd, and “poor execution” on Facebook when I posted about it originally. It just wasn’t particularly good, and adding all the oil directly into the beer did nothing. I don’t know if this was just a beer with a piece of bacon in it, or if it had any smoky qualities that were just masked by the actual meat, but this is not a win.

As many things do these days, this experience gave me the idea of using it as a prompt for some of the text-to-image AI models out there these days. Most of these were done with DALL-E.

AI generated photo of a plastic cup of beer with a piece of bacon floating on it — PROMPT: food photography, a plastic cup of German pilsner with a piece of bacon in it

This one uses the bacon as a condiment. Just sort of tosses it in there, which I guess is fine. It’s floating on the foam, adding little. In a plastic cup, because that’s what I asked for, and that could definitely be a Pilsner.

AI photo of a glass mug of beer with a piece of bacon floating in it — PROMPT: food photography, a German pilsner with a piece of bacon in it

Left out the plastic cup part of the prompt here, and now it’s in a nice glass, but the bacon is just free-floating in there like a fish. No oil coming off the bacon either, AI doesn’t really seem to understand the interaction here.

a pint glass 2/3rds full of an amber beer, with the words BACATER poorly printed on it. There is a piece of bacon sticking up out of the middle of the glass through the foam — Prompt: instagram post of my german lager in a beer glass made out of bacon

Switched over to instagram from food photography in the prompt, and get this gem. DALL-E can do letters, but it often fails to do whole words correctly. BACTER? BACTEN? I dunno, but it often has funny results. That’s now how bacon acts in a liquid either, just sticking up out there. Nice glass though. I dare you NOT to Instagram this if you were served it.

AI beer in a mug shaped mottled mug with a pilsner in it. There is an outline along the top of the glass design that looks a lot like the Lowenbrau Lion. There's a ribbon of bacon coming out of the foam of beer. — PROMPT: a german pilsner with a piece of bacon in it.

I think this is my favorite. Simple prompt, so it’s a black background. But it’s got an attempt at the Löwenbräu Lion along the rim there, and that bacon is..not how bacon looks? It’s like a ribbon or a sheet of think bacon. Some pieces off in the foam.

A Marge Simpson tall mug of beer on a blue and white plate on a picnic table. It's an amber beer with a big head of phone and then strips of bacon in a circle going up from there — Prompt: Food photography: A large Maß of German bier with a piece of bacon in it, served at a German Biergarten, full shot

One of the fun things about these text-image models is that you can go crazy making tiny modifications to terrific results, though it does eat into your generation quotas. I just ran this one now, for one final image. Marge Simpson ala Bacon Beer. With a garnish for some reason.

Prost!

Mets On Tap Episode 58, The Second Inning Exit

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael and Jason talk pitcher injuries, the lineup, and Brett Baty. We muse about how the Mets are handling injuries, who’s going to be available to pitch in October and perhaps some creative ways to deploy them.

We talk about beers, Citi Field, and the brewery at the Brooklyn Cyclones stadium, Maimonides Park. Coney Island Brewery is actually owned by Boston Beer Company now. They’ve been around a while though. Mermaid Pils because of the Mermaid Parade.

We will be skipping an episode next week, but hopefully we can get a beer-heavy discussion going about Non-Alcoholic beers that we can drop in later. Stay tuned.

BEERS
Michael: Von Trapp Oktoberfest
Jason: Athletic Brewing Closer By The Mile
Botty McBotface: Wine Gums and 40s.

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.

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Mets On Tap Episode 57 deGoat is deBack, Welcome Jacob!

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael, Chris and Jason talk Jacob deGrom, Trade Deadline, Beer Flights, and so much more while Jake motors across the lower latitudes.

How do you drink a beer flight? How do you grade the Mets trade deadline acquisitions? How would you use Chris Bassitt in the playoffs? All those secrets and more contained within.

BEERS
Michael: Goose Island 2020 BCBS Carmella
Jason: Goose Island 312 Grapefruit Lemonade Shandy
Chris: Three Heads Creamsicle
Botty McBotface: Four Winds Brewing’s Namaste Hefeweizen

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.

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Mets On Tap Episode 56 – The Edwin Díaz is Unhittable Episode

You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.

Michael and Chris talk Subway Series, and roster construction and where the Mets might try to improve, as well as how much we think first place means versus just making the playoffs.

Welcome Daniel Vogelbach, shoutout to Edwin Díaz, and what beers would YOU drink in a heat wave?

BEERS
Michael: Whetstone Brewing Midnight ‘Stoner
Chris: Rising Storm Show Goes On
Botty McBotface: Wine coolers

And check out Barley Prose on Instagram for more beer content.