It’s that time of year again, the Darkest Day, the Winter Solstice, the time to drink those pitch black beers. Of course, we drink a lot of dark beers throughout the winter. I had a really delicious can of Hardywood Christmas Pancakes Gingerbread Stout a few weeks ago and it was dark and syrupy and amazing.
This year I’m celebrating with an oatmeal stout that really paired amazingly with the cookies I was baking while I was drinking it. Spritz cookies and Millionaire’s Shortbread and chocolate snowball batter. It’s an Oatmeal Stout from Alementary called Low Earth Orbit. It’s a nice drinking stout, at 6.7% it’s not an oppressively heavy imperial or anything.
Jason: “I liked it smooth not overpowering”
It got some nice roast flavors, some chocolatey notes to pair with cookies, and then just that smooth oatmeal stout mouthfeel without feeling overwhelming or dominating. Just a nice happy beer to enjoy while doing my Christmas baking. And plenty dark.
Jason is drinking a Skinny Chicken 12.8% blackberry pastry stout from Buried Acorn
What are you drinking for our darkest day? Feel free to tweet at us and let us know.
Ceetar can be found onTwitter andUntappd where he’s still making cookies. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.
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 onTwitter andUntappd where he’s making too many potato dishes for Thanksgiving You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.
Michael and Jason start by mocking the All Star Game uniforms and star hat, and then meander into talking about how to get kids into, or back into, baseball as they become adults.
There’s some talk of Juan Soto and trading, though we recognize it’s mostly just a fun exercise.
We talk about the Home Run Derby some, about new statcast swing speeds, about broadcasts and letting the players stand out, and much more!
BEERS
Michael: Woodstock Inn Brewery Mountain Haze
Jason: Harpoon Rec League
Botty McBotface: Rheingold
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.
You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.
Michael and Chris vote for some All-Stars, ponder why we can’t vote for pitchers, discuss the balanced schedule and how the Mets might benefit from having more of their games against the Braves during the healthy deGrom and Scherzer parts of the season.
We discuss ticket costs, crappy Budweiser, and a visit to Plan Bee Brewery in upstate New York. Trevor Williams gets a tip of the cap, despite giving up a bunch of home runs while we recorded.
Also a shout out to Mark Canha and Taijuan Walker for some really cool Pride support this past weekend.
If you want us to mention what YOU are drinking during next Tuesday Night’s Mets games, give us a tweet around 8:30 or so @BarleyProse and we’ll include you.
BEERS
Michael: Plan Bee Ash
Chris: Rising Storm The Show Goes On
Botty McBotface: 99 cent disgusting Red Stripe
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.
You can email us questions, comments, and beer recs at podcast@barleyprose.com.
Michael and Jason discuss the SNY pregame show as well as sports talking heads in general, before musing on west coast road trips featuring cycles and splits with good teams.
We talk some apple tv+ stats, some 0-2 counts, and muse about some pitching depth.
If you want us to mention what YOU are drinking during next Tuesday Night’s Mets games, give us a tweet around 8:30 or so @BarleyProse and we’ll include you.
BEERS
Michael: Carton Cafe Revolver
Jason: Buried Acorn Hot Whip
Botty McBotface: Tall Glass Of Bourbon
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.
Praise be to the hop goddesses, I’ve finally got a local brewery. A _real_ local brewery. Previously the closest brewery to me was a good 15-20 minutes drive on a good day, something deeply troubling. Luckily, finally, there’s a brewery within 2 miles of my house, in a spot I’ve ridden my bike past, actually adjacent to my doctor’s office…called Gearblock Brewing Company.
I managed to find my way over there, something way easier when it’s 4 minutes of side streets, on opening weekend to try out what they had. It’s in a little strip mall type place, but with wide sidewalks that affords them a little outdoor seating, which is always nice, even in a parking lot, but I sat at the bar and ordered a flight.
It’s a nice space, bar, ample seating, bathrooms, and you can see through to the brewery in the back. Typical stuff. There was a Japanese baseball game on, which immediately raised my opinion of the place.
There’s something special about community watering holes, maybe something that’s no longer a dive bar thing. Breweries often fill that space. I didn’t see anyone I knew on this trip, but it’s inevitable that I will if and when I continue to visit.
How was the beer? The beer was fine to good. I wasn’t wow’d by anything, but I wasn’t disappointed by anything either. As I write this a few days later, the Busted Barnacle, a gose that I got in a crowler to go, might be the one that’s hitting the memories the best, but I thought their hazy was pretty good, and so was the Märzen. It’s a good start, and gives me hope going forward.
Most of all, I’m stoked that there’s a brewery so close. Something close enough that I can pop in for a beer when they’re open without having to make a special trip and plan. Gearblock has already added a beer or two since I was there, and I’ll definitely be back soon to check them out. Summer BBQ season is here, and you know I’m going to get a crowler or two to have on hand.
