Arsenic Culture

Prop Day 2025: Goose Island’s Full Bourbon County Lineup Reviewed | Ep. 153

• Arsenic Culture • Season 4 • Episode 153

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We hit Goose Island Prop Day 2025, the biggest Bourbon County release event of the year, and we’re breaking down everything: the lines, the bottles, the crowd, the variants, the mystery pours, the hits, the misses, and whether the whole thing is still worth the hype.

Join Matt, Jason, and Nick as we talk through every BCBS variant, the Chicago-only releases, what impressed us, what didn’t, and how this year stacks up against past Prop Days.

If you love Bourbon County, barleywine, Chicago beer culture, or just beer fest stories, you’re in the right place.


#GooseIsland #PropDay #BourbonCounty #BCS2025 #BCBS2025 #BeerReview #CraftBeer #ArsenicCulture

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Matt:

We will talk more about the King Henry. It will actually be released before this episode. Scroll back till our Wednesday release Yeah, we will just scroll at the same time with different earbuds, and then like Welcome back to Arsenic Culture. I am. Matt, the Asian flush Huber with me today. I got, uh, Jason Baklava, Hale.

Jason:

I prefer cream horn, but

Nick:

It's cream horn. Cream horn, cream horn.

Jason:

Hashtag blessed.

Matt:

And uh, we got a new friend with us. We got Nick, uh, POG, champion Pog. Vara. How are you man?

Nick:

man? I'm very good. Thank you guys.

Jason:

You're welcome.

Matt:

Thank you for welcoming us into your

Jason:

Yeah. For letting us stay here and crash.

Nick:

You guys are always welcome. Yeah. You know that. So it, it was a pleasure to have

Jason:

thanks to Nick Hmong not mom, Laura. Yeah.

Matt:

Yeah.

Jason:

Yeah. We can't even talk, but for, for driving us around this weekend,

Matt:

Yeah. Well,

Nick:

a good chauffeur. she's

Jason:

She's damn good. Chauffeur

Matt:

uh, in, um, in Baklavas defense, we, uh, we've been drinking pretty much all day today. We have gone to, uh, goose Island. We went to the, um, the Prop Day celebration. How many years have they done that now? Since,

Nick:

I think 26. 17. was, I think it was 2017, was

Jason:

gonna Yeah.

Matt:

We're gonna, You're the, you're the local native, so we're gonna go with whatever you

Nick:

Oh Yeah. Hey, all my

Jason:

Facts are facts optional and he sure doesn't know. So

Nick:

I, So they did, like, I think the first time they did anything like it was, was rare day in 2015. Was like the first time they did like a, a festival around it. Right. They didn't do prop day for 2013, which is the first time they released, it, or 2014.

Matt:

they started doing it. A couple years, two, three years afterwards, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.

Nick:

I want, I like I said, I

Matt:

you've been to all of them. Correct.

Nick:

I think I missed one. I missed the COVID year. Like there's a COVID year where you had go in your car and pick it up, and

Matt:

probably a lot of people have missed the COVID year.

Nick:

but yeah, but, so yeah, I've I've been to all of the prop days, but one in all the rare days. and I never bought a ticket.

Jason:

Okay. It says the first prop day, this is ai. The first prop day was in 2019, but I don't think that's right. That'd be six, six years ago.

Nick:

That might be right. I mean, 'cause again, like they did, they did Rare day in 2015. Who's got the rare day I took the rare day glass away. You

Matt:

I did. Oh, did You actually take it away. Yeah, it was,

Jason:

that's on

Nick:

I

Matt:

offered it and then I dec

Nick:

I you said, no, I don't want it. Yeah, that was like, that had the date on it. So that was like the, the first time they did like a, a party like that. Yeah. It was, and I re I, I remember I posted on Facebook, I'm like, Hey. I didn't get a rare day ticket, but I will, um, be someone's butler for a day. if I can go and someone's like, Hey, you can go, man.

Matt:

Yeah.

Nick:

You don't have,

Matt:

awesome. That's pretty awesome.

Nick:

to clean my apartment, but you can go. So

Jason:

So what is Prop? So what is prop? So prop is from Bour, from Goose Island, bourbon County Stout. So it's there for proprietors blend? Correct. So it's only for Chicago Doesn't get distro outta the state. I Does it get distro outta Chicago at all? Does it hit like Illinois? It,

Nick:

oh, it hits, I think it hits other, yeah, Southern Illinois, parts of Illinois. but it doesn't leave the state of

Jason:

Gotcha. So they, it's, it's that typical, like the, the blue, like the baby blue powder blue color mm-hmm. With the red and white. Correct. Right. So they've done a lot of different flavors. I think the favorites we would say have been some of the coconuts, I think 20 13, 20 14, somewhere around there.

Matt:

centric.

Jason:

Yeah. Well, not a lot. but they've, I've done it three times. They've

Nick:

but they no, they've started to deviate a lot from that recipe. Like they've put, like proprietors is like, it started off as like, um, thank you

Jason:

a thank you to Chicago,

Nick:

Yeah. Like, like, hey. like This, we're gonna do an homage. And so they, they started like incorporating different flavors.'cause like the Aviary, um, was, is a, is a bar in downtown Chicago. Okay. And one of the props was an homage to the aviary.

Matt:

which one was that?

Nick:

2023. 2023.

Matt:

Oh, so that was real recent.

Nick:

I think That was yeah.

Jason:

that was, yeah, that was the one, like a cocktail. That's That's one we did on our show. We did our show. Yeah. We

Matt:

did that. I don't know if we did a quick shot or

Jason:

We did. We did a epso. We

Matt:

a full episode. We did a full episode on

Nick:

Yeah.

Jason:

a cocktail with it too,

Matt:

And, and I remember Drew did the cocktail off camera. That one was a little, weird. yeah. I think unique's a good a good

Nick:

It's, it's, well, I mean, if you're trying to recreate a cocktail in a stout recipe.

Jason:

Mm.

Matt:

That's,

Nick:

it's it's, a, I, Hey, I, a for effort,

Matt:

but I feel like you're not playing up to your fan

Nick:

No. I mean, stick with what, Hey, like, I'm a coconut fan boy. so Stick with what works. And I, every, you know, fans have been clamoring for like those og like 20, 13, 20

Matt:

Which were basically just

Nick:

coconut. and then coconut and cinnamon was 2014.

Matt:

Ah, that was,

Nick:

That's kind of like a Bach lava,

Matt:

baklava. Okay.

Jason:

Well, wasn't one of 'em Coconut water and one of 'em Coconut Flakes. I'm pretty sure

Nick:

I think so. Yeah. You know, and, but uh, in the last few years they did a, an inspire, like 2014. it. wasn't a proprietors, but it was like uh,

Jason:

hit national

Nick:

goose island, um, varieties that they released. Okay. And that's like, what do they call that? I think they call it? like 2014

Jason:

I think they called it they called it,

Nick:

or I think they called

Jason:

14 stout or something like that. Yeah. It was not nearly as good, but it's also No.

Nick:

I, I Like that. I mean nothing's ever better than the original.

Matt:

Well, no, that's a valid point. You know, you, you kind of put this one thing on a pedestal and then you try to compare everything. else

Nick:

Everything is a, that's the standard.

Jason:

So it's the batch one theory. You're right. I mean, yeah, it's batch one's better. Exactly. Right.

Matt:

So, but the proprietor day,

Jason:

yeah. I mean, this is, we, we've been to it, I've been to it three times. So the first time we went up here was during CVID. You essentially just drove through and got your bottles. The next time it was so cold. I had layers and layers and layers. I couldn't feel my face or my hands with gloves on.

Matt:

And today it was like 68 degrees.

Jason:

in November, in the middle of November it's like 68.

Matt:

Yeah. Yeah. And it was all

Jason:

uh, great, great time up there. I mean, um, what was your favorites from today, guys? What do you think? We got to try a bunch of stuff. Uh,

Matt:

well, go ahead. I want to, I wanna hear what Nick has to say.

Nick:

So in, in terms of beer, uh, it, This year's proprietors, um, really took me by surprise. I, I, to be honest, like I didn't even like research, like the goose eye and the lineup, like what they were releasing. And you said like baklava, like, well, you said baklava. I mean,

Matt:

we were here hanging out last night and we asked, Jason looked it up, and we was like, yeah,

Nick:

to

Matt:

Bach. Hey look, it's basement baklava.

Nick:

bourbon was consumed last

Jason:

night. Oh, Maybe a little bit.

Nick:

um, I didn't, I I didn't know what to expect. Again, like in years past, like, like I appreciate like the brewers and what they're trying to do. some swings and hits and some misses. Right. But the, the baklava proprietors like blew me away.

Jason:

That was number one. That was number one today. Unanimous. Everybody with us?

Nick:

So

Matt:

Yeah. Let's discuss the full lineup real quick. Yeah. Because every single year they do the Bourbon County Stout release, and then this,

Jason:

the first we walked in there. You get a pour of that, right? Right off the bat

Matt:

solid Bourbon

Jason:

Don't have to use the token.

Nick:

a good, It's a good welcome to the

Jason:

Oh yeah.

Nick:

Hey, have, have our standard, you know, bourbon County. Yeah. Welcome. to the event.

Matt:

For anyone that doesn't know Bourbon County Brand Stout is kind of the original barrel aged beer. Stout Beer. That was ever made. 1992, so to speak. yeah, yeah. And it's just kind of become, um, uh, it's, it's like a festival to itself. You know? We just celebrate Bourbon County branch out. Release it, uh, on Black Friday. Every year for the masses. But proprietors is one of the variations of Bourbon County Brands Stout. That is an homage to Chicago, like Jason said. And it's just kind of part of the lineup. But the whole lineup is a series of, how many was it this year?

Jason:

this year. This year you had the original. Right. So one thing we looked at, we talked about the release, we didn't get bottles today, but they used to release it back in the nineties and some of the two thousands in 12 ounce bottles. Right. They moved to that like 16 ounce. This year they're going back to 10 ounce. So they're gonna change it even lower, which is actually pretty good for me. So four packs and 10

Nick:

10 ounce, Yeah. So 40 ounces rather than, This

Jason:

original barrel waste stout. Then you have the cherries Jubilee. Um, looking at 'em, they'd probably my least favorite, but today I thought it was done well. Okay. I don't think I should buy eight bottles of it, but it was done

Nick:

I get, I get it. I gotta Re I, still don't know Like I know Cher's Jubilee is a. dessert, But what is in Cher's Jubilee?

Matt:

I don't think I've ever actually had

Nick:

No, I just, I've always heard it, you know what I

Jason:

think we had it in New Orleans. Um, I think it's like, I wanna say it's like, um, almost like a creme brulee. Like, they kinda like torch the shit out of it.

Nick:

Okay. Oh, so, so like instead like a bananas foster like you're doing.

Jason:

and I could be, I could be wired on on that too, you know, so

Nick:

So I wouldn't doubt

Matt:

the shit we say here, we make up anyway. so it Doesn't matter.

Nick:

Don't fact check these guys.

Jason:

So it is a, it is. I was right. So it's a classic dessert featuring warm fla flambe cherries served over vanilla ice cream.

Nick:

Okay.

Matt:

Okay. But so that you, okay.

Jason:

so right on. So right on. What else do we have? We had the, um. Chocolate, the ping Chocolate, which was actually pretty good. A little sweet. Right. But that was pretty good today. Then we had the prop. Um, then we had two of the special ones. So we had the double barrel Heaven Hill bald and bond stout. Right? And then we had the Parker's heritage reserves. That Parker's heritage is rye barrels. We had the reserves stout of that

Matt:

so That was aged in The Parker's Heritage barrel barrels. the double barrel. Was aged in the eight year Heaven hill, seven barrel. Seven seven years. Twice. It the same barrel twice though,

Jason:

Um, I, no, I think it was two different, lots of barrels. So I'm sure they had

Nick:

think they did like, an

Matt:

the same type of

Nick:

Yeah. same type of barrel. but like they'll, they'll Do like a year dump and then a another year. in a, In a different barrel.

Matt:

Right.

Jason:

That's something they've done the past, what, four years? They've someone to do a double barrel about every

Nick:

doing that. Yeah. They, they Started incorporating that more into like the regular. rotation.

Jason:

And it's been solid. I mean, honestly, we're splitting hairs today, but that was probably number two. Yeah. Behind prop. I think we would all say that. Right? The double barrel.

Nick:

I thought that the Parkers,

Jason:

liked it better. I mean, I think they're close to

Nick:

I thought, I thought the reserve gave a little bit more depth. Okay.

Jason:

Okay.

Nick:

Um, the, the Heaven Hill. yes. Double barrel. Was very similar to the regular. I don't think it gave enough nuance or character. Not enough oakiness next to the regular. And I, and again, like it's interesting 'cause like the regular every year has some fluctuation, like you're gonna get some variants. And there are years where I think regular Bourbon County is phenomenal. In other years. It's like, it's fine. It's, it's fine. But, you know, you get a lot of variants and I thought like this year's Double Barrel was a little bit more closer to the, the regular Bourbon County. In the, the reserve. The, the Parker, um, had a different, like a little, an extra layer of complexity, a little bit depth, um, some more flavor that I could really, I really appreciate it. And of course like when you're drinking a whole bunch of stouts and like,

Matt:

they all start to commingle consecutively,

Nick:

you know, like your pal's gonna get fatigued. And I always find like sometimes it's like I prefer like a single sitting open a bottle and like really like get into it. and Can dive in

Matt:

Like, like mentally digest.

Jason:

Yeah. It's also go from cold to warm, right? Like have a little bit cold and then drink all the way

Nick:

Yeah.

Jason:

If you drink

Nick:

you can see that, that, that journey of, that, that,

Matt:

yeah.

Jason:

we almost forgot. One other variance though. Uh, it was called King Henry two.

Matt:

Yeah, but

Nick:

Henry the second.

Matt:

Yeah.

Jason:

the second, whatever's, whatever.

Matt:

apropos. Yeah.

Nick:

King Henry too.

Matt:

King Henry, the two.

Jason:

The two, the two. This one though, was only available for, what was our, what was our title called? Not VIP, Royal Access. We don't have a little, I took 'em out in the card, but, so for Royal Access, it was 40 bucks, more on the ticket, but you get a ball of King Henry, so I mean, it's definitely worth 40 bucks to

Nick:

Well, and an our earlier access that,

Jason:

stepping on, my stepping on my talking here, dude. I understand. Yeah. It's all, it's all good. It's your show. It's your

Matt:

We will. Okay. So we will talk more about the King Henry. Um, uh, so we're gonna do a tasting and it will actually be released before this episode. So Scroll back to our Wednesday release and you can actually see what we think of the king Henry. Um, and then come back to this one. Or wait till this is done, then go

Jason:

Whatever you wanna do.

Matt:

shit. Um, but yeah, we will just scroll. Hey, watch it, But at the same time with different earbuds and then like, Yeah, at the same time. Um, before I get into my opinions, uh, I want to give a shout out to our sponsor. and Never say Die Bourbon. Right here. This is our bottle. We actually forgot to bring the bottle with us over here, so just imagine it's in my hand, but, uh, never say die. Bourbon. Uh, they're aged, uh, partially at sea. And then, uh, transfer it over to England and then they

Jason:

correct back here.

Matt:

Uh, always a really good poor you

Jason:

Kentucky, not here in Chicago, but yeah.

Matt:

whatever They might be in Chicago. you

Jason:

have, they have bottles here. Don't age 'em here. Yeah.

Matt:

Yeah. yeah. Right. Yeah. But always a good pour. Never said di uh, bourbon. Check them out. We appreciate those guys. Um, My favorite was definitely the ba lava. Uh, prop as well. Um, my second favorite, I actually really liked that Praline. That Praline one. Uh, it was preens in what? Chocolate. Chocolate p preens, and

Jason:

Pra. I'd like to revisit it. It was a little sweet for me.

Matt:

And, and maybe like after we've been drinking, sat all day, maybe having that little bit of sweetness kind of cut through was, was welcome. But I guess the problem for me was like on a scale of like, you know, this was my least favorite and this was My most favorite. And buckle of it was up here like. the p preens was probably down here and then everything else, like, It was just so that prop was just heads and shoulders so much better than everything else.

Nick:

drastic separation.

Matt:

very drastic. Um, which

Nick:

was shocking, like very surprising to me. Did not expect,

Jason:

oh, I, I think prop was a surprise of the day. Right. There's the

Nick:

The, There's the disparity in those the all of the bottles Yeah. Like, in how far ahead prop was. It reminds me though, it, it again like going back to like the. The early days of proprietors, like 20 13, 20 14. Where prop was like something truly special for the people of Chicago. And I'm like, thank you for going back. And really

Matt:

making something, being ex worth being excited

Nick:

honing in on like, Hey, we're gonna hit you with like a flavor punch. of Like this is something that like you didn't see coming. And it was really like unique to me.

Jason:

I think it was the second biggest line of the day, towards the end of the day. But the biggest line throughout the

Matt:

a mystery

Jason:

was a mystery pour. So we gotta talk about that. So. You walked up there In our early access, there was hardly anybody in line. Maybe

Nick:

there was nobody in

Matt:

yeah, Yeah. But then they had the barrel of a glory hole,

Jason:

have a stack of barrels with, they have a stack of barrels with

Matt:

Yeah. It's like, Yeah. Be sure you are reaching with a right appendage.

Nick:

So

Jason:

have a stack of barrels with people behind there. That little cutouts in two of them. They're pouring, uh, beer and setting it through where you can't see what they're pouring. Even if you're looking through and trying to see, which I was, they're pouring from a pitcher. Right. So you can't tell. I think I went through three times and got. Six or five pores. I think four of those five are completely

Matt:

All different. It was Crazy how much random stuff they're going through

Jason:

Yeah. Um, there was a coconut one I enjoyed. There's also a scotch one with Pete that you all said was vanilla

Nick:

it was clearly

Jason:

It was not vanilla.

Matt:

was super vanilla

Jason:

at all. Yeah.

Nick:

to, to the fans who watched this show. and You're talking about scotch flavors and it was clearly a vanilla extract. Yeah. I mean, your powder is broke as shit.

Jason:

I like,

Matt:

I

Nick:

I, I, hope your,

Jason:

I like vanilla. I like vanilla. That's not

Matt:

I want somebody from Goose Island to ring in and be like, yeah, we've never made a fucking Pete

Jason:

they have

Matt:

no, no, no. Like, for prop, like release for prop day. I want somebody to ring in or to give us the truth. But if, if, if,

Jason:

I mean, I know the truth that it was Scot Scotch or Pete,

Matt:

if that, If that vanilla stout was a Scotch stout. I will I

Nick:

my hat.

Matt:

eat Jason's hat. I really will. So somebody ring in and tell us 'cause

Nick:

there's No way.

Matt:

There's absolutely no

Jason:

No way. It was very fun to do the mystery pours. Just trying to guess, talk about it. But I really wish maybe before you walked in there, when you walked in, give you a list and say, here's all the ones we're gonna be pouring. I gonna tell you when. Yeah. there there's probably 20 they probably poured there.

Matt:

Yeah. The thing that kind of like Kind of not turned me off, but made me feel weird is that it did feel like they were just getting rid of stuff that they needed to get rid of.

Jason:

Kind of a little bit. Little bit.

Matt:

You don't know what this is. We're not gonna tell you what it is. Nobody else knows what it is. just

Nick:

just drink it. and shut up.

Matt:

drink it. Yeah. And It's, it's free. And it didn't cost the tokens cost

Jason:

token.

Nick:

It like, it didn't, It didn't cost you a token.

Matt:

argue with free beer. But at the same time, they're just kinda like, here, here's our ex, our surplus. We gotta get rid of

Nick:

You know, like. So in prop days past. Like they would do, like, they would set up secret stations where they would be pouring things. And I was really hoping, I, I mean, I don't even know if it exists anymore, but like 2012, they, they did bodonia. Yeah. Which was a never bottled release of regular Bourbon County.

Matt:

Tell Yeah. Go ahead and tell us specifically this, 'cause you taught us this and I had never heard

Nick:

so like Bedia has always been like a special Goose Island product. Like in, like in special place in my heart, because it was

Matt:

Bourbon county,

Nick:

was a regular Bourbon county. So it was, I think it was one or two barrels. In one of their aging warehouses. And where it was, there was a fungus growing, growing on the outside of the barrel. And They thought like, well, we can't possibly sell this. Like we like, And, but, and they were gonna just dump it. They were gonna, they they would, I I wish I would've, like they had, they've never released like photos of what these barrels look like. It'd be awesome. One day you have

Matt:

green and orange. and Like

Nick:

see like what, the condition of that barrel was like like what was really grown on the outside of it. It must have been gnarly. Yeah. But Instead of, instead of dumping it. One very smart person said, well, maybe we

Matt:

try it.

Jason:

Let's,

Nick:

maybe we should

Matt:

it. I feel like that should be the defacto answer. Like at least let's try it. I would, you know, I always would.

Nick:

it, it was like, so it became this like kind of like secret, like this, like When if you're in the know, you're in the know. Yeah. And at Goose Island events over the years, like over the last like 12, 13 years. You would show up at an event and they would have like a, a, like a sixto of bodonia. And you knew you were in for a treat. and um, it was just like, it was like regular Bourbon County on crack. It was. something about like whatever that fungus did to that wood. Man it, it it. had an impact on that, on that beer in there,

Matt:

was Bodonia the name of the fungus Or the name of the guy That worked there. Gotcha.

Nick:

No, That's like the, like the, like the, the The fungus. that was

Jason:

But you, you, we, we see this all the time, right? You know what it is? What is it? If you drive by, if you drive by distillery, what do you see?

Matt:

Uh, bourbon.

Jason:

No. What's, what's the rick houses and all the signs by what are they covered in? Black. Black. So if you drive by, if you drive by Rick house or you go buy like signs on the distillery. Everything looks like it's like tar on it. That's what that is. It's an airborne, that's it.

Matt:

Sweet. As black mold.

Jason:

Yeah. Essentially.

Nick:

in, in a way. Yeah.

Matt:

Yeah. Not like literal the toxic

Jason:

it's really

Matt:

black

Nick:

A type of like, like a spore. Yeah. It's like a

Jason:

They look at it very, uh, like it's a great thing over in, in France, the cognac. Cognac recent. Yeah. Yeah. It's for that. So, yeah.

Matt:

That's pretty

Jason:

That's a cool one. Um, I, I, we gotta do a little bit about the games today. So we went to the prop games. Go ahead. Were you gonna say

Matt:

Well, this, I was actually gonna tie that in with the mystery pores They did, had the whole game section, which was fun. I don't know why they didn't extend that to the mystery pores. like, give you like a little sheet and like try to match, you know, the beer with like your, what you're drinking. with What beer that we have here. Like, we will have a list of like 10 or 20, however many they poured and try to figure it out. At least give us like. there's still a lot of untapped nerds out there. that want

Jason:

you re, if you rewind the tape, I said this like five minutes ago, but Good. Good idea, Matt.

Matt:

No, you did not. Did he actually say this? I don't remember.

Jason:

Yeah, except when you walked in, if they give you a list or when you walked in there of like 20 things pouring for the

Nick:

Pour of the mystery pours you. Well, yeah, you did

Matt:

Yeah. That's a dude, Nick, that's a good idea. I, I appreciate you saying

Jason:

I'm just, I can't believe

Matt:

man.

Jason:

I can't, I can't believe nobody. I can't believe nobody else saw that. I can't believe anybody else didn't think of

Matt:

talk about the games. No,

Jason:

hell no. So anyway, they go, so we went to the prop games. They had I think four games. Right? So you had the bozo toss, like the, like The ring

Matt:

The ring toss or

Jason:

No, the malls

Nick:

bo the buckets. out

Matt:

didn't

Jason:

Moel

Nick:

out, out, out of Like trash cans.

Matt:

Do you remember that? What was that old Chicago?

Nick:

It was

Jason:

the Bozo show.

Matt:

Bozo the clown show.

Nick:

It was both of the clown and WGNI

Matt:

to watch this shit outta that show

Nick:

dude. I'll tell you like there's a special like pra family home video of us, like me and my brothers as like 7-year-old kids playing bozel buckets. that this is

Jason:

on the show?

Matt:

Not on

Nick:

no, no. I went, no. In a, In a family

Matt:

I would've, I would've loved that.

Nick:

Yeah. And, uh, My brother has a meltdown because he, the ball bounce in and bounced out. Oh. And my mom's like will you lose, Oh, that's the, That's, that's,

Jason:

that's hardcore.

Nick:

That's a punk bar. Family treasure right there. She just Mentioned bozo buckets, in the, but it was, there was no way anyone was winning. that game. there was no way.

Jason:

No, we didn't see

Nick:

last, like, you can't even see the garbage

Matt:

you gotta make four of 'em. Yeah.

Nick:

And the hole was like. I mean, it was the like about an half an inch. bigger than the

Jason:

Yeah. I thought you just, I thought you just had to make like two, is it four you had to make?

Matt:

there was four.

Nick:

You had a, like there were six. No, there were six. six. There were six in total. Oh And, uh, he said that the the at, at that time when we went through. Uh, someone made four and that was it. And like, there's no way someone's making all six of these. I'm like, that is in,

Jason:

you're, you're

Nick:

with only one miss. You get one miss. Yeah. I'm like, you could gimme a hundred shots on that last bucket and I'm not making

Jason:

So we didn't see anybody win on that. I didn't hear anybody win. The next one over was the ducks. I think you just picked a duck and they turn it over. It's a big tub of

Nick:

like A it was like a pool, like a little pond. Yeah,

Matt:

little rubber ducks all floating. There was probably four, 400 ducks

Nick:

were a bunch of ducks in there.

Matt:

Yeah. And you literally just point to one with a stick and they pick it outta the water and they turn it over. And there should have been a sticker on the bottom that says you're a winner.

Jason:

But there was zero winners there. We asked the guy, he said, there's 10 winners in there. We're like, I, Nope, nobody won. Then with the next one I think was with the ball toss.

Matt:

No, that that was the rings

Jason:

ring. The ring. The ring toss. So you had

Nick:

Carney game.

Matt:

Yeah.

Jason:

So you had like probably a hundred bottles set up with maybe six or eight of them that were like colored. Yeah. And you're trying to get the ring on the color bottles and you

Matt:

three rings.

Jason:

And I got zero. Nobody. Nobody won that

Nick:

didn't, I I didn't even ring a normal

Jason:

I, didn't either. I didn't either. No, no, no. I

Matt:

like throw it and hit one and it would like bounce

Jason:

up into

Matt:

the ceiling. and I'd be like,

Nick:

like those are plastic rings, but I

Jason:

I hit one, it rang around, just flipped off. Oh my God. Whatever. And then, and then the last one was Wiffle balls. You were throwing at like big bottles. Right? And Matt drilled one. Go ahead and tell that

Matt:

I So they make you stand back like four feet from this window. That's about this tall. We were laughing at a guy 'cause he kept throwing it and he kept hitting the booth

Nick:

yeah. Like that. He

Matt:

even get it in there because it.

Nick:

of the booth? Yeah. It's

Matt:

mean you basically have to hit it through like a viewfinder. And so like, I kind of went in and I laid like this and I was one going overhand but sideways. But because I was doing it that way, I ended up throwing it this direction. And I drilled some guy's bottle and I knocked it over. And I was like, hell yeah. And then he is like, you gotta hit both of 'em. All right. So he goes over and like, he's like sharing his carrying since I hit that guy's bottle, he knocked over my bottle, you know, in place of that one. He couldn't knock it over. And I was like, Hmm, that's telling, that's all. Yeah. And he was like, just imagine that one's knocked over. I was like, all right. So then I did it again and I drilled my bottle right

Jason:

I saw

Matt:

Yeah. And it like goes and it like walked back like three inches and like didn't move at all. Yeah.

Jason:

Moral of that story is these river rigged, this Carney games? Not

Nick:

are circus

Jason:

Not one person. One not one person. I saw, we asked him what the bottle was and all he would tell us, is this something really like, really

Nick:

really, really

Matt:

good? I know.

Nick:

Yeah. I've heard that. I've heard that story

Jason:

the fog style or whatever the hell that one

Nick:

that was. Yeah. Kentucky fog. I thought you would appreciate

Jason:

that. No, I would not. No. So I mean, that was the highlights. I think we missed, uh, we didn't see, we don't know for sure if we had any King Henry pours. Maybe one of the mystery poor was who knows?

Nick:

You know what though? you know what? You know what the highlight was for me.

Jason:

that? Spending time with me

Nick:

just connecting with friends.

Matt:

Seriously.

Nick:

No joke. I, I,

Jason:

We had a great time. I'm telling you. Yeah.

Nick:

just Like, it's been a while since I've been to like A, a a beer event.

Jason:

Mm-hmm.

Nick:

Mm-hmm. I mean, what a blessing for a day, like 70 degrees in November. Like, I'm like, Unbelievable. Like you said. there were days like your, your teeth are chattering. You can't feel your fingers. Yeah. To be out there and to just have some beers. With people and just the social aspects. Yeah. Um, That was like the best aspect, Like I've missed, like things like that. That was a good time.

Jason:

Everybody was chill. Good time. I think everybody

Matt:

this was my first time I've ever been, I enjoyed it. immensely

Nick:

there. None of these are ever gonna live up to this. one.

Jason:

No, this is, this is,

Matt:

the first.

Nick:

You, you are so spoiled. Now Shit. No, there's

Matt:

I'm gonna go to the next one. Here is Like why is it 32 degrees out

Nick:

you're gonna have four layers of clothes on. You're gonna be miserable. Yeah.

Matt:

salad port's gonna be like, have like ice crystals on it and I was like, I can't taste. any of these. I don't, yeah. Are these all served icebox? I don't know.

Nick:

Yeah, exactly Like you're sitting around like a, a fire open fire pit trying to warm up

Matt:

I feel like a homeless guy. I'm gonna cut the fingers

Nick:

no joke. They've had Garbage cans

Jason:

have

Nick:

fire pit, like burning. Like, I'm like, it was, it's been brutal. This was, I mean this was awesome. Like What a day for a A beer event. I agree.

Jason:

So look at global warming. Yeah, for sure. So look at looking at, so looking at what we got today, so for the Royal Access $190, you got two props. You got one of the um, cherries, two props, cherries, Jubilee, and then what was the other one?

Matt:

Anyway, go ahead.

Jason:

so two prop one Cherry Jubilee, one of the um, think any regular, the other one, what's the other one we had there? The chocolate P

Matt:

P pre

Nick:

chocolate pre. You

Matt:

praline and

Jason:

You got that one and you got a glass and you got King Henry. So

Nick:

490

Jason:

5. Yeah.

Nick:

Yeah. Damn, you guys, may not

Jason:

I don't, I don't think that. Plus you got the PORs too. You got all that. You got the PORs for

Nick:

I got it All I, I, I got the experience for free.

Jason:

bag too. I mean, for the value, do you think it's worth, would you pie that again?

Matt:

I think so. 10 times

Nick:

outta 10.

Jason:

Yeah. Yeah. I agree. And,

Matt:

And, honestly, we're about to see how much value once we open this king Henry over here, but, um, yeah, I think so. I had, I had a good time.

Jason:

Good time. I'd do it again too.

Nick:

I mean, if you, if you, if you think about like, compared to like, other beer events like like other things that kind of compare, like Dark Lord Day. Um, like regional, I mean, obviously you guys went to like, what was that? Um, zoo?

Matt:

Yeah. the Kill Lights Festival. Yeah, that was really good.

Nick:

Um, for the, for the price. I think you get, like, you get a decent amount of beer to drink.

Jason:

I think you're honestly just paying for the beer at one 90 for all those

Nick:

all those, for all those bottles. Like, like that's a good value. It's a good value. And, uh, yeah, the, the Carney games are a little frustrating I

Jason:

it's still, it's still free rowing though, right? You

Nick:

Yeah. You're not, yeah, Yeah. You're not paying to play, which would've been really frustrating. But

Matt:

I did notice they said if you win, then you

Nick:

then you pay, then

Jason:

you you would buy the bottle. You would buy the

Nick:

get the right to buy.

Matt:

wanna know what that bottle was.

Nick:

I guarantee you there's probably like four winners the whole fricking day.

Jason:

I didn't see one person.

Matt:

I figured like somebody would've rung a bell or something. Like

Nick:

horn. Like uh, yeah, yeah, right.

Matt:

Seriously. Like I figure somebody would've

Jason:

I agree. I agree.

Nick:

Nothing. No. And uh, again, like, you know, goose on and puts on this event and I think there are always ways, like for like little tweaks. Okay. For them to

Jason:

Okay. What would you suggest?

Nick:

Hopefully they watch this. Yeah. And someone takes some serious notes. because I think that the mystery report thing for me too, it's like, I want, like gimme like a, like a

Jason:

a, it'd be, it'd be good if you walked in, they give you a list of like 10 or

Nick:

10. These are, these are things that, that we're serving. up and maybe yeah, You,

Matt:

I Do. Yeah. Well and Nick said it. too. I, I, appreciate it.

Jason:

it. Then you did too.

Matt:

off. Yeah.

Nick:

Yeah. Um. because like, if you're drinking something, it's like, it's fun when you don't know what you're getting, but like

Jason:

you're doing a double

Nick:

well, shit, how I, what, what if I want to try that again? Yeah,

Matt:

yeah. I, I, yeah. I at least want to have like the answer behind like a card, you know, it's like, gimme a blind. Okay. Let me see how, if I can figure it out. What it is, Is this. Petey Scotch? Or is this vanilla extract? I don't.

Nick:

It

Jason:

Scotch.

Matt:

I Want the curtain to be

Nick:

not Scotch

Matt:

I know I want the curtain to be lifted at some point, and then like I need validation. Otherwise, it's just like, why am I, why am I even trying to dissect it? You know,

Jason:

yeah, a double

Matt:

than getting free beer,

Nick:

I mean, it yeah, it's an exercise in futility, like you're, you're picking out tasting those, but you'll never know.

Jason:

a double blind in that scenario. Like double blinds are fine. Right? But a double blind with barrel waste, stouts. That may contain three of the same four adjuncts and one being different. There's no way in hell you can pick those blind like that. But again, I think it was worth it. So

Matt:

overall, uh. I think it was A very good event. Uh, I enjoy myself. I'd like to go next

Jason:

Let's do it.

Matt:

Let's do it. I think I would

Nick:

uh, We were spoiled by that early access. I mean, it was very nice to be in there early, no lines for anything. Yeah. So like we were able to go through and try a little bit of everything. right away. we got to check out like the merch, like what they had Um, and so I, I don't know if they've ever done an early access like this.

Matt:

Oh, Really? Did they not do early

Jason:

Not

Nick:

not that I recall. Okay. They should do that every time. I mean, that was great. I mean, For, for a little bit extra money. Yeah. Oh yeah. I'm paying for that. Yeah. Just because like once, like they opened the doors In the flood gates and everyone came in. It got crowded. Not, not, not, like, where it was like butts to nuts where you couldn't walk. Because like the setup on Fulton Street is like very spacious. They have a lot of land. They They close down. but like waiting in lines. I'm like,

Matt:

got a lot longer. I'm

Nick:

too old to wait in lines. And there were some, there were some, like the mystery line was very long. And so we had the benefit of being able to zip through it a few times over.

Matt:

almost died.

Nick:

that was

Jason:

True.

Matt:

We

Jason:

There is a,

Nick:

that was wild

Jason:

I am getting very thirsty that we're talking about, and I wanna see if this is worth it. So I'm ready to go

Nick:

Do the owners

Matt:

close, We'll close this out. One. Uh, thanks for watching. Um. share it If you like it for more arsenic culture, you can check us out on all the socials we are @arsenicculture

Jason:

like, and subscribe on YouTube

Matt:

and, uh, go back to the last one

Jason:

and watch this review.