(This is a re-airing of a Gear & Beer that first ran on THE ROCK FIGHT. Because Colin is gross and got covid)
Chances are that if you do any camping whatsoever you have a lantern. But do you have an OG fuel burning Coleman Lantern?
Justin does and today he is going to break down why you should too.
And what is the perfect pairing for the classic lantern? How about a classic craft beer like a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Because nothing is better than sitting outside on a pleasant evening enjoying the warm light of a timeless lantern while sipping an ice cold Sierra Nevada.
Summer is here and so is the perfect pairing of gear and beer!
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Gear & Beer is part of the Rock Fight podcast network. Be sure to check out THE ROCK FIGHT for the best outdoor industry commentary on Apple or Spotify.
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:00):
Hey there, gearheads and beer buffs. It's Colin. So guess what? I just got home from back to back industry trade shows and the dreaded Covid has hit me. So we did not get to record a new episode of Gear in Beer this week, but Fret Knot because before launching this feed we did quite a few episodes of Gear and Beer over on the Rock fight. So enjoyed this earing all updated to include our new gear and beer theme song. Follow the show and leave a rating. And don't forget Apple Podcast listeners. If you leave us a written review and then send it on over to my rock fight@gmail.com. We'll send you a rock fight and gear and beer sticker. Alright, let's start the show. Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast that aims for the head and today we are back with another piece of gear and another beer. Yeah, that's right, it's your weekly dose of gear and beer. I'm Colin. True. I spent over 20 years working for brands and makers in the outdoor industry
Justin (00:54):
And I am still Justin Hausman, a journalist, professional gear reviewer, senior editor at Adventure Journal.
Colin (01:03):
Today we'll be reviewing a piece of gear the way you would expect gear to be reviewed on the rock fight. We don't talk about stack height geometry or with underfoot. We talk about the experience, our likes and our dislikes.
Justin (01:14):
Colin, we've talked about stack height on shoes and geometry and bikes. Just know, did we also talked about how your feet are pretty wide.
Colin (01:26):
Well that's more of a ski thing than with thunder foot.
Justin (01:30):
I know. Okay, let's, let's move on.
Colin (01:34):
We didn't give numbers. Did we give numbers?
Justin (01:38):
Probably not. Alright, there you go. I'm just pointed it down. Just
Colin (01:41):
Keeping it honest around here.
Justin (01:42):
Sometimes we talk about stack eye geometry with underfoot.
Colin (01:45):
I have to change the open. Hey, and lastly, because Justin is the official cone, not just of the rock fight, but of the entire outdoor community. We'll then follow up the gear review with the perfect post activity beer pairing. Don't know what a cerone is, don't worry about it. Nobody does. But trust us it's a real thing.
Justin (02:01):
At least it was a few years ago. I assume it's
Colin (02:03):
Is it no longer a real thing?
Justin (02:04):
No, no. I'm sure.
Colin (02:06):
Is there a governing body of cerone? There
Justin (02:08):
Is, yeah. In Chicago,
Colin (02:11):
Does someone get paid to manage? Are you accountable to somebody? Is somebody going to hear this podcast and get angry at you as like, are you saying something wrong? God,
Justin (02:18):
I really hope so.
Colin (02:19):
The bottom line here is you'll get the pairings that matter. Most gear in beer. Alright, Justin, what are we reviewing today?
Justin (02:26):
Today, Colin and everybody else out there, we're going to go with a little old school review today of a product that you definitely know. Everybody out there knows it probably. Gosh, what do you think, if you had to guess, what percentage of relatively hardcore outdoor users do you think or recreationists have used this product? Colin, what do you think? Oh,
Colin (02:54):
I thought you were going to go more general public with that question. I mean pretty high. It got to
Justin (03:00):
Be, well wait a minute. Your specific product or the category specific one, but this category less Oh category
Colin (03:05):
Has got to be like over 80% I would say.
Justin (03:07):
Yeah, I would Here, let's see if I'm going to make a sound to see. Maybe this will, I just dumped crumbs all over my keyboard. Okay. Can you hear that Colin?
Colin (03:17):
No, but I have a feeling when I listen to it back,
Justin (03:20):
Yeah, you're going to hear it so loud. We're going with the old school gas lantern from Coleman. This particular model is the premium dual fuel. I'll get into that in a second. The reason that we're talking about this seemingly like ubiquitous, honestly, I was thinking about this. I think there's probably a camping emoji and it's probably like a tent, but I guarantee when they were thinking about it, they probably considered the lantern, right? Like the Coleman lantern is a camping emoji. They're just such a ubiquitous piece of gear. But I mean people don't, unless you're 75 years old, you don't often see people using these that much anymore. Everybody's gone to battery powered lanterns and I get it. I mean, so I haven't owned one of these, I've never owned one of these until now, but I was assigned to write a piece on the history of the Coleman Lantern for Adventure Journal, which will be coming up in our next issue.
(04:11):
And I just caught fascinated by them and I remembered how much I enjoyed using them in the past. I've definitely, I'm trying to remember. I've had periods where I was trying to think if maybe it was when I was an archeologist and maybe we were working in the evenings. I have specific memories of using one often enough to have to replace the mantles and stuff like that. But again, I've never owned one, so I don't really know. Maybe it's like a past life. They've been around long enough to where I maybe could have had one in a past life. And that's sort of creeping in, I dunno. Anyway, once I started writing the article, I was like, I got to get one. The other thing that was cool is in researching it, there are all these clubs all over the country that are just Coleman collectors because the company's been around for over a hundred years.
(04:54):
And so the biggest one has these things called light up where they'll just meet at various places in the country. People just bring their carloads of old Coleman lanterns and they'll just light 'em up and just stand around I guess in the light and just talk about it. But it's like a huge collectors thing and you can see why. I mean they look cool. They're all battered and most of 'em are either green or red. Coleman green. Mine is not. Mine's gray, but Coleman Green's been a thing for a long time. There's some red ones too, but it's a cool story. I encourage everybody to pick up Adventure Journal 33, which that's a summer issue, so it'll come out in a couple months. But that's where I dig into the history. And I just posted a review about this particular one to the website the other day and the AJ website, which you can read and I encourage you to do so. But in typical hausman fashion, I didn't go nuts on what it weighs and stuff like that. So if you want, there's not much to say. It's a lanter, right? You need talk about stack lights up. I need to talk about the geometry, the head tube angle. But anyway, weird.
Colin (05:55):
The category is fascinating. I was doing some digging around for the show notes here before we recorded and we will get to it. When we talk about the category at large, there's still a fair amount of lanterns, but you think about what's the bridge here? I mean, not to spoil, maybe you talk about this in the article that you wrote, but you go from the torch, right? Old school torch,
Justin (06:14):
Like actual fire on stick,
Colin (06:15):
Like a stick with shit wrapped around it to then you have, you think about, okay, there's the lantern and now I'm getting old prospector days in my head of down there cin gravy. And then now the category still exists. It's a lot of obviously electric stuff out there, but the lighting, but also this sort of, I don't know, there's a ubiquitousness I feel like to the lantern and it's kind of to your point, your question about how many outdoor people will know about a lantern or have seen or use a lantern and at some point does that faucet just get cut off? You know what I mean? I guess there's so many lighting solutions now when you go camping between just your headlamps or your phone,
Justin (06:47):
Why would you ever reach for a literally gas powered lantern? Why would you do that?
Colin (06:52):
You can get solar powered lamps and shit. You don't say it's
Justin (06:55):
Crazy. Of course. I mean I have all that stuff, but that's what we're going to talk about and I talk about that in the review. I don't really talk about that much in the written piece. The written piece is more about the history of it, but the review is basically why in the world would you use one of these? Because my gear shed has failed with every possible kind of battery powered light you could have. And they're fine, they're great. I've never had an issue with them. I've never even thought about, honestly, if I hadn't been assigned this article, I never would've even thought to buy one of these.
Colin (07:20):
So knowing you like I do, I can't imagine this must've been an automatic Yes. Here's it comes to the assignment, you're like, hell yeah, I'm going to get an old school lantern. You must've been stoked,
Justin (07:29):
Right? Obviously because clearly I have an affinity I didn't even realize I had until recently of this kind of old school camping gear. I don't know what it is. I guess again, it's not nostalgia. I didn't grow up camping, I didn't grow up with these, but there's something about it that's staring at it right now. It's kind of funky looking, but it's kind of sexy too. It's just way more, okay. Right now in front of me, I have a BioLite battery powered lantern. That's super cute. It looks like the size of a slightly thicker hockey puck maybe turns different colors. If you shake it, it'll go into candle mode. The battery life is fantastic. You can hang it from the bed of your truck. It's awesome. I love these things. What
Colin (08:07):
Would you take head to head? You're going lantern ter. Yeah,
Justin (08:10):
The lantern. The lantern all day long and part of it is the light it produces, but okay, so let's get into this one. So Coleman makes a few different kinds of fuel powered lanterns. I'm not a naked expert on the rest of them, so I can't tell. They make some that burn kerosene specifically. And I don't know why this one burns both gasoline and what's called Coleman fuel, which is essentially, that's white gas. And if you've ever heard the term white gas, that's basically the generic term for Coleman fuel, which is a slightly cleaner version of gasoline, I believe. It doesn't really smell like much. It doesn't smell anything like gasoline.
Colin (08:46):
Most backpacking stoves are white gas, those kinds of things. Well
Justin (08:49):
Like old school ones or now, sorry,
Colin (08:51):
A whisper light or something like that.
Justin (08:52):
Exactly right, right. If you're able to refill it, it's white. If you're able to refill your backpacking stove, it's white gas. If you're able to refill your cook stove, it's white gas, not screw on a propane bottle and not screw on an isobutane canister in for a backpack or stove. So anyway, this one, I haven't used it with gasoline. I've read only bad things about doing that. I mean one, it will be smelly too. It doesn't burn it quite as clean. I don't think. Three, you have to burn all of it before you put the Coleman fuel in it. So that'd be kind of a pain. But I could see in a pinch, I dunno. If you're an overlander and you have 15 gas cans on your Jeep, and
Colin (09:29):
I feel like the movie part of my brain wants there to be gas, smelly gas in there, it should be dust all over it. Totally. Your Indiana Jones in a cave or something like that.
Justin (09:39):
Okay, so if you get one of these, you will walk around holding it by the making the whatever that you have to. I was doing that last night. You in a
Colin (09:47):
Ghost story, are you in an adventure story? What are you in?
Justin (09:50):
You might be finding the arc of the covenant. It's possible that you might, if someone ever does find it, it'll be lit.
Colin (09:58):
Competition Coleman start running in the twenties. No one has done it yet. Buy a lantern. You'd find the arc of the
Justin (10:03):
Covenant. I bet you if the arc of the covenant was real, which is of course it's snot and you went in there with artificial light, you wouldn't even see it. It would with bin niter, it would light it
Colin (10:14):
Right out. You've chosen poorly if you have artificial light.
Justin (10:17):
So the way these bad boys work is kind of interesting. It's a pressurized system. So if you used one, you will remember pumping them. And the reason that you do that is to turn the fuel into a gas. And so it has a nice round base, it has a glass, what they call a globe, even though it's a cylinder. And then it has two little, let's be honest, it looks like a ball sack, these two. I was wondering how you were going to, I mean it really do. Yeah, it really does. I mean separated quite a bit. It would look extremely odd.
Colin (10:48):
Maybe a coon, maybe. Maybe.
Justin (10:50):
Oh, that's probably a much more mature way to say it. Yeah,
Colin (10:53):
But I was right there with you though. Don't be embarrassed by where your instincts led you
Justin (10:58):
These two little rayon mesh sacks. Neat thing about them is so that's what technically, well they don't actually burn. That's what burns. And I'm making air quotes to produce the light. So what happens is you pump, there's a little plunger, you pump that it pressurizes the gas or pressurizes the fuel, turns it into a gas mixture that goes into the cylinder and then you light it through a little hole in the bottom with a match or a lighter if you're feeling brave. And the mantles immediately catch and burn for a second and then the flame goes away and they just glow with this beautiful white light. Now what's interesting is until I wrote this article, I always assume the mantles themselves are burning, but they don't. The mantles are dipped in. Cuomo won't actually say it's a rare earth element. And this is
Colin (11:40):
My only question from your blog posts on AJ was like, okay, well what are the rare,
Justin (11:45):
I suspect it's changed with environmental things over the years. Apparently at one point it's been something called prom. Is
Colin (11:52):
It proprietary? Is that it is their,
Justin (11:53):
I don't think it's proprietary. I mean it's a rare earth element. It can't be proprietary. It's good point there in the world. The
Colin (11:59):
Word rare kind of freaks me out. How much of this,
Justin (12:02):
Well, that's an actual term. They're not describing it. I mean that's like a rare earth element.
Colin (12:06):
Oh, okay. So that's an actual Oh really?
Justin (12:08):
I don't think a scientific term. Yeah, science. It's been a few different things. I don't know what it is now, but anyways, what's interesting is the rayon is impregnated in that and that's what burns the rayon mantle doesn't actually burn. So it's the goop that is dipped into that. It burns. That is rare. So that is rare. And then you adjust the light with a cool knob on the front and that's how it works. That's it. So that's it. So what's awesome about it though is that, and what's interesting is last night my family was camping sort of in these very rustic cabins on the coast and I had this lantern and then I had a couple of these light lanterns, which they're LP and glow is the model. I love these BioLite things. They're awesome. We did a full video thing about it with aj. They're really sweet lanterns, but it's really cool to have them back to back or next to each other. You realize right away the artificial, I mean I'm using the term artificial light, and by that I mean battery powered somehow that makes sense to,
Colin (13:09):
Yeah, I got you. I mean that's a point, right? Versus
Justin (13:11):
Like light coming from fire more or less immediately it looks harsh to your eyes. I would never have thought about that normally. But when you have the Coleman next to it, there's a huge difference in terms of the softness and the comfort that the light produces a typical battery powered lantern. It just kind of brightens things. The Coleman lantern is a really warm, inviting light. It's pretty cool. It makes a nice hiss sound. You can hear that. You can hear the, which you'll instantly remember if you haven't had one for a long time and you fire it up.
Colin (13:43):
So the Coleman invent as SMR was that they were the original.
Justin (13:47):
Honestly, I've thought about that. It would be so nice to just fall asleep to this, but that would be probably a bad idea. It is fire, right? It can
Colin (13:54):
Burn you light it with a match.
Justin (13:57):
I dunno what happens if you knock it over. I presume there's all kinds of safety things that it doesn't spill
Colin (14:02):
Through. That should be part of your testing methods. Throw it at the side of your house and see what
Justin (14:05):
Happens. Honestly, I did think about doing that, but I don't want to break the globe the glass thing
Colin (14:10):
Or set your house on fire.
Justin (14:12):
Well again, I am 99% sure there's a lot of words on it, which I haven't read and probably never will unless I'm really bored or bring it into an outhouse with me that probably talk about what happens if you knock it over and why you shouldn't. But I'm not going to read that. I mean that is what started the great Chicago fire, I think. But that was probably a different kind of lanter. That's true. Anyway, so that's pretty much it. So they've made this particular, so Coleman's been around since 1914 or something. I'm not going to spoil the backstory. I want you to go buy AJ 33 when it comes out. And it's impossible to do your own research on this. I had all kinds of primary source materials that you'll never find on online. So don't even try. You have to read that.
Colin (14:47):
Whoa, throwing down. Don't you fucking copy me? Don't even try
Justin (14:51):
It. You have to read the, there's no other way to find this. You want
Colin (14:53):
To list the journalists you're speaking to directly right now?
Justin (14:56):
Do you want to No, that's primary sources, bro. No, journalists. I was back in the archives.
Colin (15:00):
No, the people you're threatening who are the
Justin (15:01):
Journalists you're worried about? No, no, no, no. That's what I'm talking about. I mean, you got to go buy it. You'll not going to learn this anywhere else. Love it. I'm trying to say anyway, so Coleman's been around for, since, like I said, since 1914. The basic principle behind this lantern has been in existence since 1928. So essentially a hundred years
Colin (15:22):
Heads, 94 years, I mean, sorry, 96 years ago.
Justin (15:25):
And if you look at pictures from the forties, they don't look any different. I'm sure is heavier. I'm sure there's only a couple pieces of plastic on here. I'm sure those were metal back then.
Colin (15:35):
The font was probably way better back then.
Justin (15:37):
Listen to you. Yeah, know that term. That's the base.
Colin (15:40):
The old school font back in the twenties, you know what was,
Justin (15:42):
Oh wait, you mean font like the way it's written? Oh
Colin (15:44):
Yeah. What did you think I meant?
Justin (15:45):
Well, so the base of it is called A found. That's what I thought you talked about.
Colin (15:50):
I mean that is what I meant. Yes. I spent the writing on it. It's like a fucking moron over here.
Justin (15:57):
So the other thing that's cool, actually not really honestly. Logo.
Colin (16:01):
Actually the logo pie is a relatively unchanged, right? It's
Justin (16:03):
Been pretty much the same. Yeah. So the cool thing about this, so Coleman has changed hands a bunch. It was in the family until I think 86. And then it's gone through a couple different acquisitions by big giant multinational corporations and they make a lot of other stuff. They make tents, they obviously make stoves. Stoves is big, but they make tents, they make RVs, or at least they have their brand on an rv. Amazing. They do all kinds of other stuff, a lot of different lighting. They make all kinds of battery powered lighting and stuff like that too. This, I don't know if this is the only one, although it might be, these are handmade, it's not entirely but made in Wichita. They're made in Wichita, Kansas at a factory. That's kind of where Coleman was when they started out. I don't think the same factory but in the same zone.
(16:46):
And I put a cool video of the process of making these things on the AJ website. So anyway, Ozzy, you could tell, I've been talking about this thing for a long time. I just think it's great. You're fired up. I don't know, I didn't even really occur to me how much we've been harping on kind of hipster old school retro type products on the podcast until, honestly I started talking about this one. So I don't know, maybe I'm just distracted to that kind of thing. But I put the story on LinkedIn and the guy that you had on the show a while back, Wesley Walls, is that his name or West Allen? West Allen.
Colin (17:19):
Oh, west Allen, yeah.
Justin (17:20):
Commented on it with a big long paragraph about how, and he's totally right about how something about how for any kind of campsite that you're not going to backpack to, there's not going to be a more inviting light than what you'll get from one of these. That's awesome. That is spot on accurate. Good job
Colin (17:34):
Wes.
Justin (17:35):
And that's the point, right? That's why you buy these. It's 110 bucks. You can get a more expensive one that puts out a bit more lumens. I forget, I had the number written down. I can't find it. It's like 800, a thousand,
Colin (17:45):
Whatever. I mean, come on. Are we talking getting back to our, well,
Justin (17:49):
Just for comparison's sake, I mean compared to something you might be familiar with. I mean they get really bright, but again it's not harsh. It's not like a piercing light and they get real nice and real low, which is nice, which is cool. And there's just something really pleasant about having to pump it, having to put fuel in it, having to deal with actual flame
Colin (18:08):
Worth. I mean, do we even want to talk about using gas and the potential? I dunno, we talk a lot about moving to the more sustainable future, all that kind of stuff. This is one of those I feel like just needs to be grandfathered in. I don't know. Should we, do we need to talk about that?
Justin (18:25):
Sorry.
Colin (18:26):
That it's gas powered and things like that.
Justin (18:27):
Oh, I mean, I dunno. I wrestle with that for a minute. I haven't had it. I mean I've been using it every night since I've had it. I have a backyard and the weather's been nice. I like to sit out there and read and I've kind of wanting to see how long it'll take for the fuel to go out. It burns for, it's not like it's super thirsty. I mean it takes a couple days of using it constantly before you start to notice that you're running low on fuel. So that's just something that I guess I'm as concerned about the climate and carbon emission as anybody else. But the thing is, for the most part, I'm only using this places where I had to drive to anyway, so what am I going to? Good point. Another thimble fuel of fuel is going to make a difference. So I don't know if that's a huge issue for you. Don't get one, but, well
Colin (19:17):
That's a good way to get into the category. So I just went digging around. I'm sure you did as well, right? So there's 63 products right now in REI under the category lantern. And it's like holy shit, that's a lot. But only three of them are fuel-based.
Justin (19:28):
Are they all made by Coleman?
Colin (19:29):
Yeah, no, they're all Coleman.
Justin (19:32):
There is at least one other brand and I can't remember what it's called right now that makes this, and like I said, you can get oil lanterns and I think get other brands that just make kerosene lanterns too. So they don't have a mono, well they kind of do have a monopoly, but I mean you can get other brands.
Colin (19:46):
So we're talking about 53 electric lanterns. Most of them. I'm sure they all serve a purpose and everything, but I mean that's so many and most of 'em do look terrible when you compare 'em to the classic nature of the Goldman, the Coleman Lantern.
Justin (19:57):
Well, so again, love these light ones. I have three of them. One of 'em doesn't work anymore. I don't know why it doesn't charge. And what do you do with that? And it's like, did I drop it? I don't know what happened. Honestly, it's probably something as simple as a little wire got pulled off of something and it won't charge. But could you get your
Colin (20:14):
Coleman repaired?
Justin (20:16):
Yes. So you can get your Coleman repaired. You could probably work on it yourself, but you can send it back to Coleman and they'll fix stuff. They'll buff
Colin (20:23):
It up.
Justin (20:24):
And like I said, you can easily find examples of this that are 70 years old that work fine. And one of the things that's nice about it, and it's not something I ever really intend on testing out, but it's like I think a lot of us who have a ton of camping gear kind of consider ourselves whether we realize it or not. Well I guess if we're considering ourselves, we're definitely realizing it, but almost a prepper in some ways. Certainly when you think about calamities and stuff, at least I anyway go at least I have an REI in my garage. You have stuff, we'd be okay for a while, I can filter water, I have stuff to cook with, all these sorts of things. And if you didn't have electricity for a while and you had a bunch of Coleman White fuel or even just gas, you're fine.
(21:09):
Likewise, one of the earliest I could find reference to these being used in camping was for like 1917 in that Outdoor Life magazine, which has been around forever. And they kind of bill it as a great thing to bring with you while car camping because you have gas so you could just siphon gas from your tank. Or maybe people drove around with extra gas back in those days. So yeah, so you'd always, theoretically you could always have light if you have some access to some sort of petroleum-based fuel. So I think that's cool. It's never going to break if it does a fix it. You could buy the glass cylinders at your local hardware store if you need to. You can buy Coleman fuel at any hardware store in the world. I love this thing.
Colin (21:51):
I think the thing too, when you're talking about car camping, you are getting into a little bit more extravagant version of you're not going minimal you, you're going to have some stuff that make your experience more comfortable. And to your exact point, I mean I get it. If you're really sensitive to, oh there's gas in that and I don't want to use carbon based fuels, whatever, this is a good one to make an exception on because okay, well now you have a battery problem if you're using other lanterns that are running off a battery or even if they're chart rechargeable, there's, there's still a problem that comes with all these things when you get to the end of life. And one of the first things you said here is this thing. There's this group of people who get together and celebrate their lanterns that are like a hundred years old or close to a hundred years old.
Justin (22:30):
How cool is that? No one's going to be doing that with a headlamp with
Colin (22:33):
Your lamp or whatever you have on your desk, right? I mean, so this is a really good, what do you rate it? What's the rating of the cole? Is this a 10 out of 10?
Justin (22:42):
Yeah, I mean honestly it couldn't do what it does any better. I don't see an improvement that you could make with this thing.
Colin (22:53):
Yeah, I like that there's a little bit of, I like that. I like the nature of it. I like the fact that you got to pump the thing to get the, turn it in the gas and it's just, I dunno that you do have to put gas back in it when it's burning down. I dunno. There's just something about it that's just really homey and wonderful.
Justin (23:06):
Not that I am by no means this much of an energy weenie or I'm thinking about this sort of thing. But one of the things I do like about something like this is like, okay, so say you have your normal battery powered lantern and you're charging it off of your power block that you have, that you charge from your house, whatever. There's nothing at stake when the battery runs out other than it gets dark, right? You're not really aware of anything. It's just on or not. You don't really appreciate it. There's something about physically having to refuel the lantern where you're kind of aware, okay, this is on, or I'm using energy, I'm going to have to deal with this. I'm going to have to pay to buy more fuel. I'm going to have to refill it. It's not just this thing that's just on and I don't care about it or think about where the energy's coming from. It's like
Colin (23:55):
Being in a hut in the wintertime. You got to the wood stove. If you've got a concept, oh, we got to make sure we're feeding the fire. That
Justin (24:00):
Kind of stuff. You got to kind mind it. And while that sounds like inefficient and probably something a whole lot of people are not remotely interested in, and believe me, I get you. I kind of like that right now at this point in my outdoor life. So obviously I'm not going to take this freaking thing backpacking, although Robert Peery or was it Peery?
Colin (24:21):
I
Justin (24:21):
Dunno. I don't think it was Peery somebody because Peery went to try to go to the North Pole, maybe went to the South Pole too. People took these to the South Pole. People take these on expeditions or they did. So you can do that if you want. But anyway, if you haven't used something like this in a long time, totally worth going out and pick one up. You can get 'em used. You can get 'em cheap on Craigslist as long as a collector hasn't swooped in and nabbed it. But
Colin (24:50):
Yeah, they are available. I mean it's on Amazon. If you want to give Bezos your money, you got, it's at REI. It's at coleman.com. I'm sure it's at other retailers. It's a great product.
Justin (25:01):
It's probably at your local hardware store. If you have a video deal
Colin (25:04):
Then. So just definitely
Justin (25:05):
If you live in Kansas, I'm sure you get it
Colin (25:07):
Anywhere. So we are sort of redefining the St. Oter this week. So to kind be a little bit more of a category commentary, right? Because a 10 out of 10 product for you and we don't want to discredit that because that ISS awesome. And frankly, you're talking about this. I read your blog and all I want to do or your newsletter update and all I want to do is go buy one of these things now just to go outside to your point, go sit in my backyard. I don't even really need to take a camping. I just kind of want to have one. It's just a cool item to have. But the category though, like 63 items on just RE i.com, that means there's probably more out there. Do we need that many lanterns? And I'm sure within that 63 or 53 that aren't gas powered, there's probably some small ones and some big ones and there's reasons for them. I get it. Rechargeable ones, whatever. But what do you think?
Justin (25:52):
I guess I'm going to say, I mean, because you could obviously do without then that's the thing you could do
Colin (25:59):
Without, you got a headlamp. Why do I need a lamp, a flashlight on my phone? It's pretty good, by the way. If you take your phone in a dark room and just set it upside down, line
Justin (26:06):
Up the room, it works great. So yeah, I mean do you need it? Do you need it? No, no, but I, I hate to say it, you don't need to go camping. I mean, unless you are literally homeless or whatever, you're doing this for fun for the most part. I mean, some people will have to sleep outside for work, but you're doing this for fun. So therefore none of this technically needs to exist. I'm going to give a seven and a half
Colin (26:37):
For the category. At what point does it fall below a five for you then? Like a hundred lanterns?
Justin (26:44):
Well, because it's the gas one. It's the one. If this was gone, there'd be really no other gas. No,
Colin (26:50):
No. We're talking about the category, the lantern category. 63 different, not just the gas one. Oh, I thought you gave it a 10. Oh wait, wait, wait. Are you talking about the product or
Justin (26:57):
The product is a 10, but the category, I mean gas lamp as a category. I think it's like a seven.
Colin (27:04):
It's 10 for that too, right? It's only three and they're all made by Coleman.
Justin (27:07):
But I would say we don't really need, okay, we've obviously confused ourselves with the new stuff. Ter
Colin (27:12):
No, my thing is like, okay, let's talk it through. So including the gas lanterns, there's 63 on REI. So the category of lanterns is 63 products, large minimum. There's probably ones that they don't carry. So do we need 63 lanterns?
Justin (27:27):
No, of course not.
Colin (27:28):
So wouldn't that be more like a four as if you're rating the category?
Justin (27:32):
Yeah. Okay. So I guess that's where I was confused. So you're saying as far as the lantern category period or this thing in the lantern category,
Colin (27:39):
The lantern category, you, it's still a thing you camp with and it throws light and there's 63 of them on REI that you can choose from. That's a lot. That sounds like a lot of lanterns to me.
Justin (27:49):
Yeah, but there's only one of these,
Colin (27:51):
Right? But that one you gave a 10. Should we be making fewer lanterns in general? Not just the gas ones.
Justin (27:57):
I don't. Gosh man. Now I don't even know what to do with this new stuff. Ome. It's like you have to have a lantern. So it's like what is that? Right?
Colin (28:06):
But if you go on and it's just like it's a thing after thing after thing. I mean, I don't know, it's like 15, the right number for total lanterns. Three of them are fuel.
Justin (28:12):
Fuel. Well sure.
Colin (28:15):
Is that too much? You think we should be judging this stuff? You don't think it's tough for us to weigh in on this? It's
Justin (28:18):
Too, well, yeah. I don't think we both are talking about this in the same way. To me, lantern is a category period. Yeah, okay. A lot of it doesn't mean it's unimportant. I mean there's a lot of them because they're really important. You have to have light. You can't dismiss the category and say, well there's too many of them, therefore they're all unimportant. And so this is also one of one effectively or one of three according to the REA website. So I think gas lanter gets its own category, is what I'm saying. I don't think, okay,
Colin (28:47):
Here
Justin (28:47):
We go. I don't think gas lantern can fit under the regular lantern category.
Colin (28:51):
Okay. Alright.
Justin (28:52):
So that's where I'm ranking it. I'm saying I might keep
Colin (28:54):
All this in. This is fantastic.
Justin (28:55):
Well, I think I'm ranking it within the category of lantern period. Where does a gas lantern rank in the category of lantern? And to me that's like a seven and a half. You don't really need to have it. But I would be really bummed if it was gone. But I would also be just fine if I had to use only battery powered light is what I'm saying.
Colin (29:17):
Okay. So now's take the 53 non or whatever, 56 non gass lantern styles that are on r ei.com. Doesn't that seem excessive that there's over 50 different electric lanterns?
Justin (29:29):
Sure. But I mean, is there a category that isn't excessive in the outdoor space? Well that's
Colin (29:32):
Exactly it. That's kind of what we want to bring some attention to in a gear podcast, I guess is a little bit of an acknowledgement of, we could probably do a few fewer of these.
Justin (29:40):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's true.
Colin (29:43):
Did we get there? Did we figure it out?
Justin (29:45):
I think so, yeah.
Colin (29:46):
Alright, now let's turn our attention to after the activity at the break, the put in the trailhead, we're going to crack open the cooler and IBI a beverage so we can celebrate our wins and losses in the back country. Let's have a beer. So we're all right. We're back. Back in our jorts and hipster bike caps because we have this old school lantern, we're not using it. No electric lanterns here. The hipster train continues here on gear and beer. What are we drinking today to go with our old school lantern?
Justin (30:10):
All right, so we've already done Budweiser, which would've been a really good choice with something like this, but the nature of the old school vibe. But I thought about this long and hard and what I came up with is Sierra Nevada. Now the reason being, they've been around since 79. They're one of the first beers you think about when you think about craft beer in this country. So they are kind of a granddady
Colin (30:34):
A way. Is it Dogfish Shed, Sierra and Sam Adams? Are those, is that the trifecta, those the Mount Rushmore? No,
Justin (30:40):
Definitely. No, no. Well, I don't know. It's hard. I mean I wouldn't put Dogfish head up there just, but they're still pretty niche. But that's also tough. Oh, you're coming from the East coast and I coming from the west coast. So to me, I would say Sierra Lagunitas and Stone would be the three that immediately jumped to mind for me for been around a really long time. Yeah,
Colin (31:04):
You want to throw
Justin (31:04):
Sam in there established. Okay. So I kind of would, I like Sam Adams beer a lot, but I think very few people would consider them to be, well, they're not technically craft.
Colin (31:16):
They're huge now, right? They're really big.
Justin (31:18):
I think most people would probably think of them as more of just a giant mainstream beer brand. They make phenomenal beer. They obviously start out as a craft beer. But
Colin (31:26):
Sierra's kind of the same now, right? Isn't that kind of the same? Yeah,
Justin (31:29):
I guess. Yeah. But the thing is with Yeah, totally. I mean, I guess why Sierra still kind of fits into the sort of craft beer category, at least to me is they still have that vibe about them. Sierra Nevada feels like a beer that you could discover in Chico, which is where they're from. Chico, California sort near Lassen National Monument or National Park. It feels like a beer that you would find in a mountain town that's still regional. There's the packaging, their vibe, everything about it is like that. So we're doing the Pale Ale, which if you've ever had, this is funny, Sierra Nevada is one of those things where they make a lot of different beers. Pale ale is what kind of put 'em on the map. But most people would just say, I'll have a Sierra Nevada. They mean this. Exactly. They don't mean something else though.
(32:12):
I highly recommend that you check out their other beers. They're all very good, but this is their pale ale. This is a beer that you might think you don't like. I mean, to be honest, for a long time I didn't like this beer. I thought I wasn't super into hoppy beers. But it's a robust flavored pale ale. It's probably closer to an IPA than a pale ale. Even the color is a bit darker than most traditional pale ales. I could get into the sort of difference why, and I guess maybe I will a little bit.
Colin (32:38):
Yeah, I have not had this in a long time and I don't recall really liking it much at all when I did have it. And I don't know if that was kind of similar to you. I wasn't in the happy beers at the time or what, but I guess walk me through what should I be expecting as I drink this?
Justin (32:54):
So basically, not to get too into the weeds here, but IPAs are kind of, what this is to me is more of an IPA than a paleo. So an IPA usually means it has a pretty robust malt character. So it's going to be a little bit golden to darker golden in color, pretty rich mouthfeel, usually higher in alcohol. This is 5.6%. So most true IPAs are going to be a bit higher, 7% not uncommon. And just loaded with hops. And the reason that they're called India pay ales, I'm sure most people know that is, but maybe not, is because when, hundreds of years ago when the British would make beers to transport around the world, basically they'd take ails with them on these boats. And the ones that were theoretically supposed to last all the way to India were just loaded with hops. And hops are a natural preservative.
(33:47):
And so these big long overseas trips, they would just dump all these hops into their ales so they would last longer. And then eventually people just got a taste for super hoppy beers. So anyway, this one is technically a pale ale, so it's a little bit lighter in color, but not really. And that's what you can expect. A big robust hop profile. Juicy kind of how we often describe a really hoppy beer, but still light enough. It's only 36 IBUs, which is not terribly bitter. So it's hoppy, but not being too bitter. So hops add important distinction. Hops can add bitterness, that's what they're for. But some hops have a naturally really tannic sort of just really deep bitterness to them. This doesn't quite have that. So you get the rush of floral hops and then it kind of backs off.
Colin (34:37):
Okay,
Justin (34:38):
There we go. Now I have a can and you have a bottle. Okay. Is it
Colin (34:41):
That twist off? Is it it a twist off? Okay.
Justin (34:43):
No, I don't think so. All. Are you
Colin (34:45):
Ready?
Justin (34:45):
I'm ready.
Colin (34:46):
3, 2, 1.
Justin (34:50):
I should say it's nice and hot where I'm too, so it's going to be especially nice.
Colin (34:52):
Yeah, it's really warm out today.
Justin (34:53):
Also another good camping beer. Classic camping beer.
Colin (34:55):
Smells great. Yeah. Cheers.
Justin (34:58):
Cheers. Blink. There it is. There's a Sierra Nevada
Colin (35:04):
For you. I definitely, that's better than I recall it. This is also why I'm excited we're doing this. I'm literally at a place where as little as I drink on a daily basis, I may never have had a Sierra Nevada again if we weren't doing this because I just like, oh no, I'm good. I don't need that.
Justin (35:19):
I don't think to buy it. I mean every once in a while I'll see it on draft somewhere. I'll be like, oh you I'll have a Sierra Nevada. But it's not common.
Colin (35:26):
Alright, so tell me why we're pairing the Sierra Nevada Pale album with the Coleman Lantern.
Justin (35:30):
Couple reasons. One, I mean, it's a camping, this is an outdoor show. It's called freaking Sierra Nevada. Right. It doesn't get a whole lot more outdoor than that. There's pictures of mountains right on it. Anyway. But yeah, I mean that's why so old school lantern old school craft beer. It seems like a good, you would definitely be wanting to drink a sit around drink a Sierra Nevada while you have your Coleman light. I mean, that'd be good.
Colin (35:59):
You coming, you're on the east coast and you get the word that there's been gold discovered in California. You grab your Coleman lantern, you hightail it across the country and now you've been digging for gold all day. We're panning for gold. And you want to crack open a beer? What do you open up? You're in Chico, California. There's the CR Mountains. You can see
Justin (36:18):
Maybe it might, am I painting
Colin (36:20):
This picture? Does this work?
Justin (36:21):
Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Chico's a cool town if you've never been there. I've been there a long time. Chico State University is there definitely a college town. Bidwell Park is a really big open space nearby. Good fishing around there. It's a cool little town.
Colin (36:35):
Oh, so what are we going to rate it? We got to rate the beer.
Justin (36:38):
What's the highest one we've done so far? I know I kind of went off with the athletic because the
Colin (36:42):
Athletic got an eight,
Justin (36:43):
Just a straight eight
Colin (36:45):
Straight straight eight. Otherwise it's been seven. You gave seven five for a Cali squeeze. I gave that a seven. One. You gave seven one. The Budweiser eight is the highest. But you also said as I just got done editing it last week that it was, you kind of gave it bonus points for the accomplishment.
Justin (37:04):
So I'm going to go with a 7.25725.
Colin (37:07):
I love it. I love the specificity
Justin (37:13):
Here and drinking, tasting it now with sort of my judging hat on it is pretty amazing how they all taste the same. They do a really good job of keeping the flavors basically the same. We
Colin (37:26):
Talked about that with Budweiser. How hard it is to make these things taste the same every time you brew it.
Justin (37:31):
Yeah, so they do a good job. They're classic for a reason. Just like the Coleman Lantern.
Colin (37:38):
We didn't start rating the beers until the third episode. And then, so this is our fourth one we've rated. What do you think you're leaning with how you're rating? I kind of always want to rate 'em against each other. Would I put this one above? The other ones I've rated, would I drink? So if I the Cali squeeze blood orange, I definitely would
Justin (37:55):
Drink that. That's a temptation. But I try to rank them each on their own merits. This. If 10 is a perfect beer, I don't even know what that would be, where is this? But I mean, yeah, that's how I approach all of them. Except for athletic, it doesn't have alcohol. It's a whole different thing
Colin (38:10):
Because if we're going to go that, then I probably should have given athletic a higher score.
Justin (38:14):
I mean that's kind of what it feels like to me. Tasting this right now feels about like a 7, 2, 5 out of 10.
Colin (38:20):
Okay. Alright, I got a rating here. Alright, well I'm going to go. So I gave the Cali Squeeze 7.1. Okay, so if I'm rating it against other pale ales, yeah, I'm going to go 6.8.
Justin (38:34):
Okay. Yeah, that seems right actually. That actually probably better.
Colin (38:37):
Okay. So to summarize this episode of gear and beer, we have the Coleman Premium dual fuel lantern, which Justin rated a 10. And as you bask in the glow of your lantern with the slight his of burning fuel, doing a fool, A SMR routine on your brain, the official cone of the rock fight suggests that you should enjoy yourself with a frosty cold Sierra Nevada pale ale, which Justin rated a 7.25 and I rated a 6.2. Did I say 6.2? I said 6.8.
Justin (39:05):
6.8.
Colin (39:05):
I said 6.8. Sorry, Sierra, on the gear and beer. Beer scale. I think we did it. Oh, and when did we decide on the stuff? Ter? Did we give it a rating?
Justin (39:15):
Yeah.
Colin (39:16):
What was the rating on the stuff Ter?
Justin (39:18):
I think I held fast at like 7.5. 7.5. All. Yeah.
Colin (39:22):
So we like the category.
Justin (39:23):
We like the category.
Colin (39:24):
All right, well that's it for the show, man. Anything else? We good? Another gear and beer in the books.
Justin (39:29):
Another gear beer in the books. I don't want to say go buy some gear. That's not kind of what we're about. Go hug your favorite gear. You know what? Go, go sit with your favorite piece of gear and open a beer.
Colin (39:40):
I would tell you to go buy this lantern. I'm going to
Justin (39:42):
Buy one. Well, yeah, you really should mean, you know what, there's nothing wrong. You know what? If you can't go camping? I mean there's nothing wrong with getting out some of your favorite camping stuff and just sitting in it, just kind of playing with it. Just being with it. Just maybe cracking a beer. It's kind of like going camping.
Colin (39:53):
I mean the lantern though could be like the high watermark because this is something you truly can hand down to your kids.
Justin (39:58):
I will.
Colin (40:00):
You're not going to give your hoku MAs to your kids.
Justin (40:03):
I mean, if my girls had size 12 feet, I'd be That's true. Pretty shocked they could actually. But yeah, even though last night I was yelling at them not to knock it over. But yes, one day it will be theirs.
Colin (40:12):
Alright, well that's the show for today. What did you think of this edition of Gear and Beer? Do you have a suggestion for a future edition of Gear and Beer? Or do you simply dislike gear and beer? Send an email to My rock fight@gmail.com. Let us know what you think. The rock fight is a production of rock Fight ll C for Justin Hausman. I'm Colin Truth. Thanks for listening and here to take us out when ambition turns to competition. He'll never be the better man. It's Krista Makes with the Rock Fight Fight song. We'll see you next time. Rock Fighters. Actually, Colin and Justin, you're wrong. Krista Makes is here, but he's going to sing the Gear in Beer theme song, not the Rock Fight Fight song. So there you go.
Chris DeMakes (40:54):
We have experienced lots of tales to tell, just like your pal out on the We Gear with the perfect beer. Now let the games begin. So glad that you're here at the break. The Trailhead, we're going to crack the by the beverage where we can celebrate those losses. We hold line, you get.