Today on THE ROCK FIGHT (an outdoor podcast that aims for the head) it's Friday, which means it's time for... GEAR & BEER!
This week we're prepping for hiking and backpacking season as Justin gives us his review of the Scarpa SL Active and pairing this classic full grain leather hiking boot with Deschutes Black Butte Porter.
How do these boots compare to other hiking footwear options? Why is a Black Butte Porter the perfect pairing for the Scarpa SL Active's? All will be revealed in this edition of Gear & Beer!
Please follow and subscribe to THE ROCK FIGHT and give us a 5 star rating wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for a future mailbag episode? Send it to myrockfight@gmail.com or send a message on Instagram or Threads.
Choose Your Player
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Captivate
Episode Transcript
Chris DeMakes (00:07):
Here we go.
Colin (00:08):
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. I'm Colin True. And today we are back with another piece of gear and another beer. Yes, that's right. It's your weekly dose of gear and beer with me as always is Justin Hausman. What's up Justin?
Justin (00:29):
I want to make it clear we're not doing these back to back, so it's not like we're just opening another beer right now, but we're responsible here. We're almost a full week
Colin (00:37):
Removed from episode one of Gear and Beer. Yeah.
Justin (00:40):
So don't think we're just hammering beers and recording all these in one day then we'll do that eventually, but not yet.
Colin (00:45):
Like the beer and Gear Century Club.
Justin (00:47):
That would be fun to just see how different at the end with
Colin (00:51):
The waiter one. I'd probably make it to like six. I
Justin (00:54):
Fall asleep
Colin (00:54):
Century. Yeah, I fall
Justin (00:56):
Asleep now. I'm at the age now where I fall asleep before I get drunk, which is so great. God, that's useful. But
Colin (01:00):
Then you still wake up hungover though.
Justin (01:02):
Well, no. No you don't because that's the point. You're asleep before you're drunk. Oh, you said before you're drunk. I got you. I'm not talking about passing out. Literally just like, oh, I'm sleepy and I just fall asleep and it's like, that's wonderful. You can't drink too much.
Colin (01:14):
So today we'll be reviewing a piece of gear the way you would expect gear to be reviewed on the rock fight. In short, the same way you talk about gear when you're out with your outdoorsy pals, you don't talk about stack height, geometry, or width underfoot. You talk about the experience, what you like, what you don't like. And because we're the only gear review show that actually cares about the world, we'll rank each product on the stuff barometer a scale where the best score means humanity and society would be losing something if this thing went away. And the worst score means that this thing, regardless of performance and just like puff and drinkware, probably shouldn't exist in the first place
Justin (01:46):
Unless Puff and Drinkware wants to sponsor the podcast. That's true.
Colin (01:49):
Call me, call me Puffin after the gear will follow that up with the perfect post activity pairing because Justin is the official cerone, not just for the rock fight but of the entire outdoor community. Don't know what a cerone is. Go look it up. Bottom line is here. You'll get the pairings that matter most gear and beer. So Justin, are you ready? Yep. Let's get into today's gear.
Justin (02:18):
Okay, Colin, I have a question for you.
Colin (02:20):
Okay.
Justin (02:22):
It's getting warmer where I live, it's like 70. What's it light down there?
Colin (02:26):
Yeah. No, it's in the seventies. It's very nice.
Justin (02:27):
Okay, so it's nice. It's nice. It is probably kind of green or whatever the equivalent green is. It's so
Colin (02:31):
Green right now. San Diego. Yeah, it's so nice.
Justin (02:34):
So you're going to go on a trail, a hike, not a run. You're going to go on a hike. Okay. Whatcha going to wear on your feet? What's your footwear situation?
Colin (02:44):
Well, I mean I'm kind of a trail runner guy. I also like hiking in my bedrock sandals.
Justin (02:50):
Okay, so what's it going to be?
Colin (02:55):
I would've to say trail runners. That's my go to you. Me to say trail
Justin (03:00):
Runners wrong. Wrong answer, Colin. First of all, bedrocks would've been acceptable. I'd like to get that out right now. Bedrocks would've been a perfectly acceptable answer, but no, that would be the trail runners is the wrong answer. Okay. And I'm going to tell you why. And it's that boots are safer. Boots are I think more comfortable over the long term.
Colin (03:27):
Are you reviewing boots or a boot?
Justin (03:29):
Hold on. Boots are diary. Say more capable.
Colin (03:34):
No, you did not say no. That's
Justin (03:35):
Far more capable. Laughably more capable than a trail runner. Even the best trail runner would be you'll have it forever. You'll bond with it. You don't have to throw it in the garbage. You're just going to have a better overall hiking experience with a boot. Now trail runners have for some reason taken over the entire hiking community for some
Colin (03:54):
Reason.
Justin (03:56):
I kind of get it. I do. They're lightweight, they're soft, they're very comfortable. But a few years back, I've written about this before.
Colin (04:04):
You've talked about your fresh ever appearance of the rock fight. I talked about it. There we go.
Justin (04:07):
I switched over to hiking boots and I don't, not only do I not regret it, but as the temperature's climbing and we're getting into warmer weather hiking season, I am still going to be wearing hiking boots. I might wear some lighter ones, but I feel this way even stronger than I have before. And I've been wearing a lot of trail runners as I've been reviewing and stuff like that. And some of the ones I have are pretty burly with nice ebra lugs to 'em. I mean, you can make a nice hiker with 'em, but every freaking time I go downhill, I regret wearing trail runners every time as my toes get smashed in the front and the squishyness, I just don't feel stable. So yeah, I love hiking boots and the ones I want to talk about today are the ones I've worn easily the most over the past year. I love 'em so much. I just convinced my neighbor to spend $360 on a pair of his own. They are pricey shoes, but the Scarpa SL active. Now these are, I keep looking at 'em as if you're going to be able to see what I'm looking at, but that's not, correct me if I'm wrong, that's not how podcasts work. They don't see what I see.
Colin (05:05):
Not typically. No,
Justin (05:06):
Not typically. Yeah, maybe with the Apple Vision Pro they might, I don't know. Can't
Colin (05:10):
Wait to wear both potting in those. That'll be great. That'll be the next episode of Gear and Beer.
Justin (05:15):
Gosh, maybe we could get Apple. Would you send us some? Yeah,
Colin (05:18):
Apples hook us up.
Justin (05:22):
We're both recording on Apple products. We are. We're fans of the brand. Yeah. Anyway, so these are your prototypical full grain leather boots that most people would probably look at and go, Nope, one, they're expensive. Two, they're really big three, you have to break 'em in four. They're probably overkill for so much of what you actually want to do and need to do, but that's kind of why I love them. The overkill is kind of the point. And I don't know how else to explain it. I've written about it so much and I still haven't hit on a really good answer for why they feel so much better to me than trail runners do. But there's just something so homey and comforting about slipping your foot into a big full length boot. These ones are, they call 'em SL stands for super light, which is weird. They're pretty heavy. Let's see how much they actually weigh. I can't quite remember. Okay, one pound, 12 ounce per shoe. Which that bad? That's not that bad. They feel heavier than that, actually be honest. They feel heavier. That's probably
Colin (06:24):
A size nine. That's probably, it's
Justin (06:26):
A little shoot and I'm in a 12 Yeah's A 42. That's what's a 42? That's small. That's
Colin (06:33):
11, isn't it?
Justin (06:34):
Is it? Yeah, that's pretty close. I
Colin (06:36):
43 or 44 I believe I'm
Justin (06:37):
A 13. So they do feel heavier than that, which is probably not a selling point, although I like that. Again, I love that in a boot. So like I said, imagine full grand leather boot has a nice rubber rand the bottom. I don't know if they're resalable or not, I presume they are, but even if they're not, they're going to last for freaking ever. These have that 37.5 type fabric. I guess you know better than I do what that actually is. And I will say it's kind of, is that a membrane?
Colin (07:11):
It's a fabric. I think it's not temperature control, but it's moisture control. Right. It's the bamboo kind of base layer material.
Justin (07:20):
So I've had a few things that have that in it and I usually can't. I mean it's hard to tell if anything has any kind of fancy material in it, but I will say I can wear these boots on a hot day and my feet don't really sweat. So I think maybe come on as much as you would expect in a boot more than a meh trail runner. But I mean generally speaking, I could wear them, right. It's 74 degrees outside according to my thermometer. I could go for a pretty long hike and this, my feet would be pretty dry at the end. It does seem to do something in these boots because these don't have, I don't believe these have a membrane. They don't. So they're just the full grain leather is doing the waterproofing on these. But I wear 'em in the snow, I wear 'em in the rain, I wear 'em on hot days around here. I dunno. I just don't feel like I can hike to my fullest extent in trail runners anymore. I mean the thing about something like this that's great is you can scramble. I mean I know you can do all these things in trail owners too, but I mean it's just like no matter what you encounter, you're going to be fine. And I'll have them for 20 years. I mean that's amazing.
Colin (08:29):
I'm not going to start doing the trail runner versus boot thing. This is not what this episode's about. This episode's about the boots. So let's talk about, you've had other boots talk about, so let's talk about the boot itself. What is it about the boot that you like more than other boots? Why is this your go-to versus other boots? If you were going to go spend your own money, which is a criteria we talk about, right? Would you buy this yourself 360 bucks like you said, why is this the one versus another one?
Justin (08:54):
The full grain leather. Nice. And if you haven't had full grain leather in a while, and I hadn't, most of my boots are some combination of new buck and synthetics, but to actually have a full grain leather boot, there's a suppleness and appliability that I really like. Also, the abrasion resistance is off of the charts you feel. I think there's an added sense of protection. I also like that they require care. There's a character to it definitely. I also have a pair of zalin be toros that are really a lot as well. But again, they're all Uck and so if you go bush whacking or through a particularly nasty tus or something like that, you're going to scratch at the outside and you'll do that in these too. But it adds a really rad patina to it. And I enjoy cleaning these boots. I enjoy waxing these boots.
(09:49)I enjoy all the little things that you have to do to take care of these boots. So I think a lot of it to be truthful is the full grand leather. That's the way to go. Oh, sorry, go ahead. Well, I was just going to say, when you wear a full grand leather boot and you wear it outdoors and you hike in it all the time and you kind of understand why boots are made of leather for, so shoes have been made of leather for so long, it's it's a weird feeling. I have an issue with part of the reason I have an issue with something like a trail runner. I know you don't want me to compare them. Okay, it makes sense is that as you wear them, you're aware every hike, I swear to God, I'm aware, okay, I'm wearing this down, the Ls are getting smaller.
(10:25)That is true. I'm wearing through the fabric every hike you can tell. And with these you can tell if you scratch 'em up, but not only you're not affecting the life of the boot and you're adding character to it. I mean that's one of the things I truly love about something like this. And the leather, I mean new buck will last long, probably just as long, but the four grand leather add that kind of same reason you like leather seats in a car, it smells good. It feels good. And it might sound silly, but I mean everybody cares about the aesthetics. I mean people buy hocus because they're bright or whatever, right? Well, there's no difference in also loving the aesthetics of a crinkly old leather boot. But there's something about coming home from a hike, cleaning the boot off. If I need to address it, I can.
(11:06)I've got a full slate of Nick Wax products that I use all the time on and it's just so freaking satisfying. Same thing that we've talked before about natural fibers in gear and there's just something more comfortable, more human, more like a alive about it. I sound like an old curmudgeon Luddite I suppose in a way. But it adds a joy. I think whatever weights penalty you have is made up by the fact that I'm aware that I'm hiking in boots the whole time I'm feeling it. I'm enjoying the experience. I just prefer it. I just prefer it. But these particularly are very comfortable for the size. Again, I'm surprised the only way a pounded at what I ever said pounded 12 ounces because they do feel a bit heavier than that. But these have such a Cadillac feel to them. They almost feel like the momentum carries you forward.
(12:01)They're super stiff in where you want them to be. So you're especially going uphill. It almost feels like you're on platforms as you walk and then downhill. Your foot doesn't move and so you can just trudge downhill, no issues at all. And most hiking boats will be like that, but these are just a bit more secure but without a convert penalty to it. I mean it took a while to break in. I will say that. But again, I like that. I like that part of that experience. I mean it's a whole experience with a boot like this and yeah, it's a lot of money. But again, how many pairs of trail runners are you going to go through? How many pairs of synthetic hiking boots are you going to go through? Well,
Colin (12:36):
That's where I wanted to go, right? Because I think if you're considering this boot, then you're a boot person and you're kind of comparing it like we were saying against the other boots in the entire outdoor footwear category. And definitely I think there is, I really like the trail runner versus boot conversation because ultimately it's one of those things that just comes down truly to preference the things you don't like about a trail runner somebody else may have an issue with and vice versa. But this one, if I were going to go back to boots and then's say I'm going to go get boots to hike in, not trail runners, I would a hundred percent go with a boot the way you're describing it, because that is my experience when I did wear boots was a full grain leather boot. No membrane by the way. One reason your foot is relatively dry probably at the end of it.
Justin (13:19):
It doesn't have that membrane. It
Colin (13:20):
Doesn't have the membrane. You're wearing good socks, number one. That helps. But yeah, that membrane I never understood even in the nineties when I was working at EMS, why are we putting a Gore-Tex membrane inside of this boot? And not to say that the leather is super breathable, but it definitely is going to, we know it's still a naturally occurring element. There's going to be things that it's going to move moisture in a different way without that membrane in there. So that makes a ton of sense to me. I definitely feel like a boot if I was going look at not to take a shot, but like a marrow light hiker style and you can throw whatever brand you want to in there, like a Technica, a high tech, whatever, do you know what I'm talking about? Right Day high lightweight hiker.
Justin (13:59):
Everybody makes lightweight hikers. Scar makes lightweight hikers.
Colin (14:02):
If you're going there, just go down to the trail runner, then now you're already saving the way. It's going to be more comfortable overall. If you're wearing a boot, get a freaking full grain leather boot that you can wear and say everything you're talking about. Now, the thing that I go to with the boots, and I don't really do this as much anymore, is in the winter because especially if you're day hiking. So when I was living in New Hampshire and we did a lot of winter hikes up in the whites and say what you want about mountain ranges and wherever they are, it's cold as shit up there in the wintertime. And I never wore mountaineering boots. I wore hiking boots. The danger of that is if I had gotten hurt and I had to sit in the snow and wait for rescue
Justin (14:37):
Losing your feet, that wouldn't have worked out
Colin (14:40):
Well for me. However, and same thing, one reason why I'll go trail running in the snow and regular trail runners without a membrane is because if you're moving, you're going to stay warm. And I liked that feeling of the leather boot, the simplicity of it, the way it would mold to your foot in those sort of conditions. I love that. If I went back to doing winter hiking, that's probably what I would get if I was going to get a boot to go hiking in the wintertime.
Justin (15:04):
These are great for that too. They're super grippy and snow
Colin (15:06):
I would imagine.
Justin (15:08):
Even without being insulated too. The leather leather's nice and warm. I mean if they get wet it's kind of a problem. But
Colin (15:13):
Is there anything that's comparable that's out there that you've tried?
Justin (15:18):
I do want to get, haven't tried these boots. In fact, it's funny because my neighbor who hikes every day was kind of complaining about blowing through. He wears boots too, but blowing through synthetic boots, slightly cheaper. I mean what he calls cheaper boots, the $150 price point. He actually was wearing a pair of obos the other day.
Colin (15:36):
That is, I was thinking of Obos when I said Technica,
Justin (15:40):
I love Obos. Or at least I used to. They got bought by Catman do a few years ago and I haven't really seen their boots since. So I'm not sure if there's been a change or not. But anyway, he was wearing a pair of elbow and I thought they were like, they looked old as hell to me. They had either, some of the material was wearing through and there were holes and some of the fabric and I was like, man, those are old ones. So he was like, no, I've only had these for two years. That's why I was asking you about getting new boots. And I was like, oh, okay. And so he was looking at the Danner Mountain lights, their classic, classic full grain leather. And I was like, well, I haven't seen those in forever. I think kind of the idea is they didn't really change those Scarpa's are great because to me have always been a really technical boot. One of the first pair boots I ever bought was Scarpa, and maybe it's just Italian. It just feels like it's sexier and there's more, it's not just like a clotting boot. The mountain light to me looks like a giant sole with leather uppers. And there you go. There's a lot of thought into these. A lot of
Colin (16:37):
The danners look more of us like a hipster like casual boot now to me look
Justin (16:41):
Like a boot emoji. They're
Colin (16:43):
Cool. They think they'll look cool as shit, but it's like I wouldn't think if I'm going to go buy boots to go hiking in, I wouldn't go there. It wouldn't be my instinct to go there
Justin (16:54):
For all the sort of jokes I made about picture like a leather boot. That's what these look like. That's not entirely true. I mean they have a very modern, sophisticated athletic silhouette vs. Actually has a new pair of boots, doesn't come out for a couple of weeks. I've been wearing for a while, the St. Elias and they're full grain leather and they are incredible. So I'm going to be writing about those in a couple of weeks. I've been really impressed with those. The most impressive had in a long time. We'll
Colin (17:18):
Compare that to your, the
Justin (17:20):
Scarpa are the vast are a lot lighter and so they feel more like a lighter weight boot even though they are full grain leather. I like them a lot, but they don't quite have the same security I guess I enjoy about these boots. I mean what you were saying earlier makes a lot of sense where if you're going to wear a lightweight boot, just wear a freaking trailer owner going all in, you're just going, I want the experience of hiking in a large boot and all of that could possibly provide, and that's what you're getting here. But I mean is 360 bucks, that's a lot of money. Is that a lot to you?
Colin (17:54):
It but to your one thing you said in your open, when are you going to replace it? And to your point, I don't know specific, I would bet actual money that you could resell these things multiple. What's the midsole? Is it almost like an EPU or A TPU? I mean is it a It is.
Justin (18:10):
So it is. That's going to
Colin (18:12):
Last forever too.
Justin (18:13):
Yeah, I don't VM every once in a while they feel like they have a program where you can slap new souls on things. So it's possible that you could with these, I honestly don't know if there's any kind of wetting or whatever that you could easily resold them. But again, I don't think you're going to run.
Colin (18:30):
I don't
Justin (18:30):
Think you're going to need
Colin (18:31):
To. And we're getting get into our ranking here in a second for the stuff barometer and it's like this is way we have to get past the cheapest best mentality, especially when it comes to outdoor gear. And this is, yeah, maybe this is a privileged thing for me to say, but $360 versus, okay, so here, lemme put that in context. Before my second knee surgery when I was running all the time, my primary thing was trail running and I was going through and I am not running as much as real trail like ultra marathoners and I was still doing three to five pairs of shoes a year. Yeah, that seems right. And it was mostly because I was wearing out the outsole more than anything. So that was ultra loan peaks, which are like, I'm not getting it for less than 140, 150 bucks. Okay, and that's in a year. So 360 bucks for the boot you're describing, especially if it works for you, clearly it works for you. If I'm on the fence, I don't know, go buy a cheaper boot to maybe figure it out. But if you know dude, when are you going to replace those boots?
Justin (19:35):
Never. So the first backpacking boots I ever bought were, God, help me with the name a solo. Oh, Oslo. Oslo. Oslo. Yeah.
Colin (19:45):
Five 30 fives baby. That was my
Justin (19:47):
Boob. I always said a solo, but obviously it's not. I bought those, God, it would've been like 2004 or five 20 years ago. Just I just gave them away last year. That's what I'm saying. They were fine. I did have Vim put New souls on 'em when they were doing a program like that go. I didn't need to, but the souls were okay. But Vim had a program where they could put new vims on anything. And again, I'm not sure if they sold doing that, but I gave them away partially. The reason I still had them is obviously I'd gotten into other boots and I had other things. They're so useful for other stuff. That's the other thing. You're not going to wear your freaking hokas while you're mowing the lawn or building something in the backyard. But I wear these Scarpa for that. If I'm going to be doing some kind of heavy actual manual labor, I'm probably going to wear the Scarpa.
(20:36)You can wear 'em for other things. And also another thing I didn't mention that is super important is that I do a lot of off trail hiking. And so where I go in the summertime, I always go to the same general zones and I know it really well. And so there's plenty of areas I haven't accessed yet. And so I do a lot of off trail stuff. I know people do that in trail runners too, but to me that's a no brainer. It makes, if you're only on trails a lot more sense to be exclusively like a trail runner. But if you're doing anything off trail at all, of course that is the last thing you want is to break something because you have these flimsy, lightweight shoes on because you thought you were going to run the entire PCT or whatever. The use case for the boot is way more variable than the use cases for a trail
Colin (21:24):
Runner. It's a little, almost like we talked about with a steel bike. It's like you can be a trail runner, you could want to do the PCT in trail runners, but in your shoe quiver you probably should have a pair of boots. I have not tried a pair of boots in so long that I kind feel
Justin (21:40):
Like I think you would like it think I you would instantly get it. I mean honestly knowing you the way I do, I truly think, I mean it's God, it's like do you appreciate print? Do you appreciate vinyl? I mean it's a similar thing where you're like, okay, there might be a more efficient tool for this job. But I enjoy the experience more with this than I do with that more efficient tool. I'm
Colin (22:07):
Open to trying, especially now since I can't really run anymore anyway, I'm open to going out for a hike, especially being in the next month or so where there's still be some snow up, go on San Jacinto or something like that and getting Trump around the snow a little bit. Did I ever
Justin (22:17):
Tell you, I don't know if I ever mentioned this, but a few years back I profiled this guy named Obie Kaufman for Adventure Journal and he is a naturalist painter. I think
Colin (22:26):
You did tell me about this guy.
Justin (22:28):
So he has a book out, it's a big deal around here called the California Field Atlas. And it's all these beautiful watercolor paintings that he does and it's honestly, they're just these sort of visual essays about how great the nature is more or less. And so I met with him and went for a hike with him. He's also in the Bay area to profile him. And he shows up to the hike and I'm wearing trail runners and I'm wearing probably a synthetic shell and some shorts he's in. And it is a warm day. He's in leather boots, he's in denim jeans, he's in a cotton shirt and a denim vest and a full brim hat. And I was just like, what is up with this guy? And so after half of the day of hiking and talking about his life and talking about nature and what moves him, I asked him about his clothes and he was just like, I just don't like wearing synthetic fibers.
(23:15)I've been backpacking my whole life. And of course I did. But then at a certain point he's like, I go up in pain a lot so I'm carrying heavy things. And when I realized that it's like, well why bother having all this other lightweight stuff I'm already carrying heavy paints. That's true. And these kinds of things. And then he is like, I just feel more comfortable and more myself in these sorts of things. And that was probably where the switch started to flip, where I was like, you know what? I'm not setting trail records. I'm not the kind of person that needs to put in a 25 mile day. I'm out there to enjoy myself. And I mean it sounds like some sort of hipster mantra, but the aesthetics do kind of matter. And like I said, it's just a more enjoyable experience. It really
Colin (23:58):
Is. So, all right, the Scarpa sl active, you would say it performs as advertised clearly.
Justin (24:04):
Yeah. Oh is kidding me. Yeah. You
Colin (24:06):
Would buy it. We've established that.
Justin (24:08):
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Colin (24:09):
So
Justin (24:09):
Where does it, I always have my neighbors buy it.
Colin (24:13):
You're working on me right now. Do you work for Scarpa? It's conflict of interest here on gear and beer. Justin,
Justin (24:21):
If we never do that,
Colin (24:22):
Step ome 10 is the world is the worst place without it. One is puff and drink wear. Where does the old, are you right? You can't say eight again two weeks in a row. I'm
Justin (24:32):
Not, no. It's funny, I was thinking about it. I mean I sound like this kind of guy who's out there beating the drum for purity and longevity.
Colin (24:40):
That's not a bad drum
Justin (24:40):
Beat. I know. I don't want people to get the wrong impression on me. I value those things greatly, but it's not like my entire house is nothing but permanent objects. I'm as guilty of anybody else here of over consumption and that sort of thing. It just so happens the first two things that we've covered are things that are near and dear to my heart right now. And largely because they're so freaking durable. So 10, I mean this is how 10 honestly. Yeah, 10. The
Colin (25:01):
World's the worst place if this goes away.
Justin (25:03):
Yes. Well I guess to a certain degree. I'm saying that about all boots.
Colin (25:10):
If we stripped your kit and you could save one item, would this be the item you'd save? Yeah, no question. Yeah. Give it a 10.
Justin (25:15):
No question. These are the only hiking boots I keep in the house. They're in the garage just now, but they're the only ones I actually let stay in the house more often than not.
Colin (25:22):
Alright, well now let's turn our attention to after the activity at the break, the put in the trail head, we're going to crack open the cooler and imbibe a beverage so we can celebrate our wins and losses in the back country. Let's have a beer. All right, so what are we drinking after we go tromping to use a halman term tromping through the forest in our scarpa sl actives.
Justin (25:53):
Are we going to try this one with a bottle? See how it goes.
Colin (25:55):
Okay. Okay. Last week works the can. Let's see what we got. It worked
Justin (25:57):
Really good. I got to give a little shake. So you get to
Colin (25:58):
One of these days that's going to literally blow up
Justin (26:00):
Your face. You think This is the first beer I've opened to my life. Colin, we don't talk about this enough in the outdoor community, but if you like to drink beer and you like to backpack or really do anything outside, you have probably learned some tricks about how to have a jostled beer without it destroying
Colin (26:16):
You. That's a good point. We could do a whole special
Justin (26:18):
On that. I always bring a beer backpacking for the first night. Always have a beer. And so usually it's been jostling around with me for 10 or 12 miles and you learn some tricks, you learn some tips. Bottles is tougher cans. You can do it. See here. See if I hear it. Get real close. I didn't really do anything. I didn't hear it. You know what? You might've heard those little,
Colin (26:35):
Did you hear that?
Justin (26:38):
That's kind of what it sounds like. Let's see. Maybe a little tasty taste before I reveal what it is.
Colin (26:43):
Oh, it looks delicious. Oh, that's that roast. We need to start having the beer. I need to know ahead of time so I can drink the beer with you. We got to start. We right? Yeah. Alright, next
Justin (26:52):
Week. So this week we're doing the Deschutes Black Butte Porter now. Wow.
Colin (26:56):
Oh no. I was going to say Oregon twice in a row, but we did Michigan
Justin (26:59):
Last week. No, Michigan. Yeah. Do you know this beer Colin?
Colin (27:03):
The Black Butte
Justin (27:03):
Porter?
Colin (27:04):
Yeah, I am familiar. I have had the Black Butte porter.
Justin (27:06):
Yes. It's a pretty popular beer. It's delicious.
Colin (27:09):
Picked. Picked
Justin (27:10):
For a couple of reasons. Exactly. I picked it for a few reasons. One, I'm taking another sip. It's so good. I hiked Black Butte, which I presume this is named after the Black Butte that's outside Bend because Deschutes is in Bend I think, right? Were they probably, God, I assume. Anyway, there's a, I'll fact
Colin (27:29):
Check that while you're telling us about the hike.
Justin (27:31):
Okay. There's a peak kind of near Mount Bachelor called Black Butte. There's a lot of black buttes, but this is very much a Black Butte of volcanic peak. And I hiked it in leather boots because I knew that it was going to be sharp fricking rocks everywhere and that I'd probably want to dick around off trail, which I did. So that kind of just reminded me of this of it
Colin (27:51):
Is in Ben.
Justin (27:52):
It is in Ben, yeah. Okay. Thought so it Yeah, it seemed apropos because again, that hike is actually pretty chill, but once you get to the top there's some sharp, plenty sharp stuff. There's big obsidian fields to play around with in that zone too, and you don't really want soft trail runners. So that was a leather boot hike for me. But it's also, it's like the Black Butte matches these boots really well because it dark. If you don't know black bee porter, well porters are dark anyway, but it's a really dark chocolatey look to it, but has a nice rich, but it has a nice dry finish so it's not super heavy. You kind of are expecting it to be gnarly than it really is, but it's pretty capable. Pretty capable of beard. It's only five point a half percent too, so it's not like a big plotting heavy stout that's like eight or 9% alcohol. It's a nice, you can have a couple of these. It's a 30 IB U, so it's a little bitter but not too bad. You know what IBU are, Colin?
Colin (28:49):
I know. I mean I know of them. I didn't know that. Related to the bitterness,
Justin (28:53):
International bitterness unit is what that stands for. You'll see that on most beers now. But IPAs and stuff will be around, they could be like 60 to 70, really like mouth puckering bitter. But this one is a nice 30 and I would imagine that a lot of that's coming from the, when you roast the roast bar, that's what turns the brown and it gives off that same kind of burnt sort of bitterness of the coffee will or chocolate. It's the same thing. Yeah. 30 is a nice low round number for a beer like this.
Colin (29:23):
I imagine we're going that 5% range. Especially if consider thinking of this as a trailhead or put in or at the break. It's something you're going to drive afterwards conceivably. Right. So I think when the occasional, I'm sure high percentage will come along because it's so good and it's such a good pairing with whatever gear we're discussing, but I'm feeling that kind of four to 6% is going to get a lot of play.
Justin (29:45):
Think about that. I was thinking about that. I was thinking about, it's wrong time of year, but I have some big gnarly, heavy parkas that I got when I went to Iceland and some other really cool places and I was like, that's when you want a quad. Some just nasty danky Belgian beer. You just have two sips and you
Colin (30:02):
Barrel
Justin (30:02):
Sounds and shit smiling. Oh yeah. What up?
Colin (30:07):
Okay. I want to hear is,
Justin (30:08):
By the way, phenomenal brewery. If you don't drink to shoots beer, I'm sure you can get that nationwide. Really good. They've been around for a long time. They're, they're one of the big early craft beers. Just absolutely everything. That Mirror Pond is such a freaking good pale ale. That's one of my favorite beers from them. But I don't think I've ever seen de shoots in cans, which is a bummer. I actually don't really like bottled beer. I'm much more of a canned beer guy and they're usually bottles.
Colin (30:34):
Okay, so to summarize this episode of Gear and Beer, we have the Scarpa SL active, the first 10, only the second review. We're already out of 10 on the stuff. Ome. Everyone's got a big legacy to live up to here for the Scarpa. And after you get done hiking off trail, we suggest refreshing yourself with the Deschutes Black Porter,
Justin (30:52):
Black Butte Porter.
Colin (30:53):
Excuse me. Black Butte
Justin (30:55):
Porter. Thank you.
Colin (30:58):
Anything to add?
Justin (30:59):
No food in the area. Black Bute's. A real nice hike outside of Bend there. Nice views of Mount Bachelor. Yeah. Lovely. Check it out.
Colin (31:06):
Lovely. That's great. Alright, that's the show for today. What did you think of this episode of Gear and Beer? Do you have a suggestion for gear and beer? Do you simply like 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 LLC for Justin Hausman, I'm Colin Tru. Thanks for listening. And here to take us out as Krista Makes, he's here to sing the rock Fight Fight song. We'll see you next time. Rock fighters. Rock fight,
Chris DeMakes (31:30):
Rock fight. Rock fight. We go into the bike where we speak our truth, slay sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. We talk about human power, outdoor activities and pick picks about topics that we find interesting. Black, my caution. Music, the latest movie reviews for the head. This is where we speak truth. This is where we speak our truth. Rock back. Welcome to the.