It's Gear & Beer Friday and on this episode we're talking about two classics (3 if you include Cliff Clavin).
If you can only have one sleeping bag would you make it your super high end backpacking mummy style bag? You could, but when you go car camping wouldn't you be so much more comfortable in an old school flannel bag?
And when pairing the perfect beer with a classic staple like the cotton lined sleeping bag, do you really think you need a super hipster high end craft beer? Wouldn't you be more comfortable with a classic, a staple in it's own right?
Today on Gear & Beer we ask ourselves what would Cliff Clavin do as we talk about the Slumberjack Timber Pro 0° degree bag paired with an old standby...Budweiser.
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Episode Transcript
Colin (00:08):
Welcome to the Rock Fight where we speak our truth, slays sacred cows, and sometimes agree to disagree. This is an outdoor podcast at Aimes. For the head, I'm Colin Tru, and today we're back with another piece of gear and another beer. Yeah, that's right. It's your weekly dose of gear and beer. And with me as always is Justin Hausman. What's up
Justin (00:25):
Man? Hi Colin. Hi Colin.
Colin (00:29):
Yeah,
Justin (00:29):
Hey. Hey, hey Colin. How's it going?
Colin (00:34):
Can you hear me?
Justin (00:35):
Yeah, just being Oh good. Enthusiastic, saying hi to you.
Colin (00:38):
You sound very enthusiastic. Today we'll be reviewing a piece of gear where 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, the likes and dislikes. And because we're the only gear review show that actually cares about the world, we'll rank each product on the stuff speedometer, a scale where the best score means humanity and society would actually 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 (01:11):
I want to just, unless puff and drink wear wants to sponsor the podcast
Colin (01:15):
Every week, we got to say that, right? Yes. Unless you want to, we will take your money. We will not stop bitching about you, but we'll take your money.
Justin (01:23):
I'll stop bitching. Is that fair? You'll stop. I'll stop.
Colin (01:26):
Okay. Justin can be bought. Justin can be bought and because Justin is the official cone, not just of the rock flight, but of the entire outdoor community, we will then follow up the gear review with the perfect post activity beer pairing. If you don't know what a cone is, that's what Google is for. Bottom line is here. You'll be getting the pairings that matter. Most gear. End beer. Justin, are you ready?
Justin (01:50):
I was born. Ready, Colin? Yeah, born ready. Do you just
Colin (01:54):
Doze off when I'm doing those things a
Justin (01:55):
Little bit? Yeah. I doze off a lot these days. You know what? I think they're important. By the way, cone, I believe it means water carrier in Italian or one who carries water. I don't know. I don't know where the organization came up with that name, but I think that's what it means. So
Colin (02:09):
The culture that treats beer like water, that's where you need to be. I
Justin (02:13):
Guess that seems bad, but I'm pretty sure that's
Colin (02:16):
What it be. Got my salad. I got, I have my B, my beautiful breakfast. Oh, I have
Justin (02:19):
My beer. I don't dunno. Beer is a water of life, I dunno. Could be.
Colin (02:25):
Alright, well let's get into today's gear. You have the floor. What are we talking about Justin?
Justin (02:30):
Alright, so first day of spring was what? A couple days ago, right? It was, yeah. Or yesterday. What is the first day of spring?
Colin (02:39):
Why does it change?
Justin (02:40):
Does it change?
Colin (02:41):
Sometimes it's like the 19th and sometimes it's like the 22nd.
Justin (02:45):
Nobody knows. It's a mystery. No one knows. No one knows who invented the calendar or observed.
Colin (02:52):
That's what you find out when you die, is that they're like, this is why the date changes.
Justin (02:56):
Here's all the things that you wish you would've known throughout your life. We're going to tell you here now that you, but it's all,
Colin (03:00):
It's like Cliff Cleveland. Useless bullshit information. No real answers.
Justin (03:04):
That would be actually pretty great actually. Cliff Clavin in his post office uniform. Just tell just, oh man. For
Colin (03:12):
Anyone out there under the age of 40, cliff Claven was a character
Justin (03:15):
Honestly under the age of 45. Really? We were. I was probably kind of too young for that show. Good lord. Yeah,
Colin (03:20):
I was definitely at the tail end for
Justin (03:22):
Sure. You know what Cliff Klavin used when he went camping?
Colin (03:26):
Oh dude, I'm sorry. I'm just going to say it right now. That was a killer segue. What did Cliff Klavin use when he went camping?
Justin (03:32):
He sure as hell did not use a synthetic fancy pants sleeping bag
Colin (03:38):
Or mummy bag
Justin (03:39):
Or no way in hell would he. There was no
Colin (03:43):
Hood on Cliff Klavens
Justin (03:43):
Bag. I mean, I don't believe those existed in the early eighties. Did they?
Colin (03:48):
Might've. I feel like I might had one of those fairly early on.
Justin (03:51):
Mountaineers probably had them, but no, he would've used Cliff Claven. We know what he would've used. He would've used a red flannel lined cotton sleeping bag. And that's what we're going to talk about today because it's spring summer's coming, camp season's coming. I've been kind of looking through my gear closet thinking about what I want to use this year and getting kind of excited about camping again and I thought it'd be a good time to talk sleep stuff. And today we're going to talk about the joys of not giving a shit, about buying a fancy, I don't even know what we're making sleep bags out of these days. Still nylon, maybe down bags just to go car camping. If you going to go, this is not a backpacking episode. This is about just straight up car camping, dispersed camping, that kind of thing. But I thought it'd be nice to lo the virtues of the natural fiber sleeping bags.
Colin (04:47):
So we went from steel bikes to leather boots to flannel sleepy bags. Are we going to do mustache wax next week? Is that, I
Justin (04:54):
Probably should have thought that through.
Colin (04:57):
It just occurred to me. I think it's great. Why not? The Hipster Gear podcast?
Justin (05:01):
What? It's not about being hipster. It's about stuff that is usually, well, leather boots, but stuff that's usually either just a little bit more, either a little cheaper. Well today definitely a lot cheaper or just more durable and just more pleasant to have on your body. That's really what this is about. And I've been doing this for, I've had access to the world's best gear for a decade at this point and turns out, I mean that stuff is great if you are trying to set a FKT somewhere or a really dedicated ultralight backpacker and that's awesome, or your bike packing and need a 12 pound kit weight. But if you are like me and most of your trips are throwing all your stuff in the back of a truck and driving away out in the middle of nowhere, then day hiking from there. I mean there is just no reason to load up your rig with super expensive space age materials.
Colin (05:51):
This is the nuance that really honestly we want to bring to this conversation by having a gear segment on the rock fight. I go back to the episode I did when the very first ones about cotton doesn't always kill. Why are we constantly saying cotton kills? And it wasn't to say that I'm recommending you go on a winter backpacking trip high in the mountains wearing jeans and a T-shirt. No, I'm saying is that for 85% of my own outdoor adventures I can wear a cotton and it's not only, okay, it's preferable. It's preferable to do so it's
Justin (06:22):
The same thing. Own it. You're not going out and buying some kind of performance wicking material just to go camping, which, why would you need that? I mean it, it's wild to think that for so long I went car camping and I would bring my backpacking stuff, I'd bring a tiny little tent I'd bring, took the words out of my mouth like a seat of Summit Spark, like a sub one pound down bag that had barely enough room for me to get in. Tiny little backpacking chairs, a backpack or stove. I mean honestly, that's what I would use when I would go car camping for a long time. And now I'm rolling up dude, I mean for a while I'd use a down comforter from my house. We spilled crap on, so it became my camping one. I still bring my pillow from home. Classic two burner stove. I just got a Coleman gas lantern. I've been writing, I
Colin (07:16):
Can't wait to talk about
Justin (07:17):
That. I've been writing about 'em and I missed it. I was like, you know what? I loved those. I remember growing up with those, well sort of growing up, but my twenties using those randomly and I fired it up yesterday in the evening to go outside and read. I'm like, God, these things are awesome. And there's some, I dunno, maybe it's nostalgia and even if it is so what? It's fun. It's all just fun Anyway, we're not achieving anything out there.
Colin (07:41):
Yeah, I don't think it's only nostalgia because you're exactly right. I had a backpacking setup from almost all my camping years. That's what I got before we had kids. We didn't even backpack that much, but that's what we had. And I remember the first camping trip I did with our twins when they were, they probably couldn't walk yet. It was probably the summer after they were born and we had a bigger tent. I had gotten a bigger tent so we could all sleep in there, but we're on thermo rests and just five of us crammed in into on backpacking stuff just crammed in this giant tent. And I'm like, this is ridiculous. And especially then of surveying the kid scenario, I'm like, when's the next time I'm going to go backpacking? Let's get, and then we went and got cots and cool and better pads and all of a stuff and now all of a sudden I'm like, Hey, you know what? Camping not so bad anymore. This is so
Justin (08:27):
Much more comfortable. It a difference. It makes such a difference. I mean if I was this kind of person, I'd go up to people at family campgrounds and be like, guys, guys,
Colin (08:37):
You're doing it
Justin (08:38):
Wrong. Mean, I hate to say not you're doing it wrong, but you could be doing this more comfortably. There you go. That's nice. I mean, the tent that we use, we use an enormous six person tent. I mean it's huge. My wife and I are both well over six feet tall and we can just stand up and walk around. It's fantastic. And I see people, whole families cramming themselves into a four person backpacking tent. I'm like, I get it. I mean, not everybody has luxury buying more than one thing, but if you're going to mostly go car camping anyway, there's just no reason to waste your money on. I mean, you could go buy a fairly inexpensive synthetic bag from REI. I'm sure you could get one like 80 or 90 bucks. It'll be fine, but it's not as comfortable as natural material. So if you're
Colin (09:22):
Going to have one, honestly, I'd rather say I'd rather you have this and be comfortable doing most of the kind of camping that you're going to be doing, which is car camping for most people. Some people backpack more than car camp, I'm sure. And if you just said, oh, I'm going to go for a one night backpack, well fine, then roll it up and strap it to the outside of your pack. It's a little heavy. It's not going to be great. But if you're going to have one, I think this is the one I have over the performance sleeping bag.
Justin (09:46):
Well, we'll get into this particular bag in a minute, but also my first time I went backpacking, I had a cotton sleeping bag that was rolled up on the back of my backpack and
Colin (09:54):
You died.
Justin (09:55):
I died. I died. We're dead. You had on
Colin (09:59):
Cotton and you had a cotton sleeping bag
Justin (10:02):
And if you're listening to me right now, hate to be the one tell you this is the afterlife. I'm dead. We're all
Colin (10:09):
Dead. That's why we know when the sweat
Justin (10:10):
Happens, that's spring. That's how we know cotton kills and yeah, we do know when the spring because Cliff Claven told us. So the bag that I'm talking about today, honestly, good luck finding it. I had a hard time trying to find one online, but it doesn't really matter because there's a gillion. Other ones all probably made in the same factory. Really?
Colin (10:30):
You're tipping the hand on the stuff ome. I
Justin (10:32):
Know. We'll get to that part later. That's a bit of a bummer, but that's not my fault. And we'll talk about why. Anyway, so I've had the Slumberjack Big Timber Pro zero degree bag for a couple years I guess, and I had never heard of Slumberjack. Colin informs me. It's perhaps a Walmart brand I'm guessing. I dunno if he means literally or just kind of a budget brand. The 20 degree bag was one, which you can find 20 degree bags lying around. That one's about one 30. I want to say mine was one 40 for the zero degree.
(11:08)You can get the 20 degree one on sale for like a hundred bucks in a bunch of places. Well, if it's in stock, but they're around. But if you've never seen one, it's a classic rectangle bag. It's got that army green kind of canvassy outside. It has, but it has that super plush, very classic cliff claven approved red flannel inside and it's thick and it's nine pounds, maybe 10 depending on which size you get. That's awesome. When it rolls up, it takes up a bunch of space, but oh my God, there is nothing better than getting into this bad boy after a long day of, even if you haven't, I mean, if you've been crushing it and hiking and fishing a bunch and climbing a bunch of stuff and you're bone tired and exhausted, it feels great. If you've just been sitting in a chair reading a book all day, it feels great.
(11:54)I mean, the thing is really comfortable. I'm going to read you what it says about it. They actually, the copy on the website is pretty accurate. Big timber pro sleeping bag is cozy and comfy, but it is allowing you to sleep as if you've never left the comforts of home. We've updated the Big Timber Pro series by adding the big toe foot box. This larger foot box allows you to sleep on your back with your feet up in a natural and comfortable position and do not overlook that. Folks, if you're like me and Colin, we both have enormous feet. Often if you're sleeping in a mummy bag, I mean a lot of them now have that big toe foot box, but a lot don't. And if you have big feet off, sometimes you can't have your feet straight up and it sucks anyway, effectively makes usable space inside the bag even longer. Bag will take you back to a simpler time with memories of wood smoke and Starfield nights equipped with a soft flannel liner, durable canvas, outer shell and robust zippers. SJK Slumberjack, big Timber pro bags are rugged, warm and cozy. They really hit you with the cozy. But all of that is true. I mean it really does. I guess I grew up with these bags. I don't know. I mean it's just a time when getting into a slim bag was soft and not a slick getting into a garbage bag.
(13:04)It was a revelation the first time I used this just realizing, I mean, granted, I've been using blankets and stuff from home, but just when I went with this one and I just realized why was I wasting so much time with backpacking bags before this thing? It's great. It's just a solid cozy bag. If you have someone staying with you, you could throw it out and hey, or sleep on this thing on the couch or whatever, and they're going to love it, but you don't have to get this one. I mean, Cabela's makes them. There's a million other brands that make these sorts of things. What I do wish, and possibly this exists and I haven't seen it, I would love it if a brand like Filson or someone who really had access to really high quality textiles made a super, super nice bag like this that wasn't made in a factory overseas with probably not the world's best materials. I mean, I would pay a bunch of money. I mean, that would be fantastic. I'd rather pay a 400, 500 bucks for a bag like this than I would for a ultra lightweight down bag.
Colin (14:05):
It is an interesting one because Slumberjack, yeah, not known as a premium brand. You can get Slumberjack stuff at Walmart on Amazon. That kind of, it is a, I guess best case way, best way to describe it's entry level outdoor gear brand. Right. The thing about this product though that's interesting is that yeah, there are definitely I think some more premium brands that probably put a little more thought into the construction and the materials like a snow peak. Sure. I looked up. They have a really nice looking one. Oh, they do the LL Beans. If you go to a more performance based kind of a brand like a nemo, they don't, but then I was just looking at Marmot. They do, and some of them maybe aren't the flannel, it's more of just the rectangular shape a little bit more, but the ING thing about, but
Justin (14:51):
It's a fla of that matters. The rectangular shape is fine, but you can get plenty of synthetic rectangle bags.
Colin (14:56):
Right, totally. And I think the thing about this one that's interesting is that I initially go, well, there are a lot of these. There are much cheaper ones than these. By the way. You can get cotton sleeping bags that are like 60 bucks. The fact that it's rated to zero degrees. I found that to be
Justin (15:12):
Interesting. I would not do that. You wouldn't trust that rating? No. No. I don't think that has any bearing on any kind of reality. It it's getting down to
Colin (15:18):
45 and you're like, I'm not sure
Justin (15:19):
About this. No, I would not do that, but what's the coldest? I've been in this thing, I mean low forties for sure,
Colin (15:29):
Exposed in the bed of the truck kind of thing without a cap on
Justin (15:31):
And perfectly comfortable. So I mean I would do that, but yeah, I wouldn't guess unless you're in Minnesota, where are you going to be car camping with zero degrees anyway. Well,
Colin (15:41):
That's a good point. And then your car camp, so then get in your car and turn the heat on if
Justin (15:45):
It's really, yeah, go get really just
Colin (15:46):
Home. It's too cold.
(15:47)Just stop doing that. Yeah. Made a mistake. Yeah, go home. Yeah, you go home. But I think the thing that's interesting about this is that, and not to jump ahead to our stuff Oter ranking, but this is one that it might be a crowded category in terms of being a lot of these, and they're not premium stuff. There's a lot of material. You could probably nitpick the materials involved in these and all those kinds of things, but I don't know. This also kind of does. We're a little bit like the steel bike and the pair of boots. When are you going to replace it? How many of these are you going to need in your lifetime? I think the sheer amount of them might ding it when we kind end up ranking it in terms of there's so many of these, there's a lot of options, but if you like this one and clearly it's sold out and even the price tag, 150 bucks, like I said, there's plenty that are way cheaper. I don't know. I think this is a good buy and it is versatile and it's just going to live in either your garage in a gear bin or in the back of your truck or in your tent, and you're not going to do anything else with it. It should be fine.
Justin (16:45):
It doesn't feel cheap. I mean, I don't use things that feel crappy and I don't have to, and it doesn't feel cheap at all. The quality of it is complete. Totally fine. No issues at all. I have no reason to believe I won't still be using this thing in 15, 20 years.
Colin (17:01):
Yeah, I guess if you're going to get this or the bluey version at Walmart, get the Slumberjack.
Justin (17:07):
Is there a bluey version for adults?
Colin (17:08):
There's got to be, right? My daughter had a door, the explorer thing when she was a kid, so actually you would know.
Justin (17:14):
I mean, yeah, but I'm really looking at the adult. You're a bluey household. I do. We are bluey household, so I'm looking at the snow peak one right now. This thing looks great, so it's only two 80 as well. So the futon sleeping bag, it looks like it's a nylon outer, but the lining is cotton, which is great. That's really what you want. I mean, the outer is less important to me, although the mean, the Slumberjack one's nice because it's a poly canvas, so it's not total canvas and the insulation synthetic, which whatever. It's fine. I mean, I don't know. Of course it is. What else is it going to be? Freaking horse hair? I don't know. It's not going to be down and I wouldn't want that anyway. But yeah, I mean I haven't had any complaints in any way, shape or form. The zippers big and robust.
(18:03)The teeth are great. I don't feel like any of that's going to break. And if it did, you can replace the zippers. You could fix that stuff. The only thing that might break is it has these kind of chintzy straps. When you roll it all up, that cinch it down and those might break, but honestly, it's kind of a pain to do that. I just fold mine up and put what I do. I fold it up, I put it in a big plastic garbage bag and it goes in the garage. That's where it goes. There you go. And when I go, I pack to go somewhere, I usually unroll it and it's flat on top of everything. So I'm not really worried about how small it gets. Again, you know what else is nice? Not having to worry about how small something gets, not having to spend 30 minutes trying to get your damn sleeping bag in a stuff sack that's made for an Oreo cookie. It's insane how over-engineered some of these things are.
Colin (18:43):
This is where if anybody younger listening to this, it's like if you're thinking about it, if you want to get gear, if you're like, oh, here's a sleeping bag review. Just get something like this. Because I think it was a badge of honor for folks from our generation of to have the most technical thing. The fact, just saying 20 years ago that I had a bag like this Slumberjack bag, I would've felt so uncool or unauthentic. It would've been like, ugh. Even the fact that I had an EMS House brand bag because it was cheaper than getting a North Face bag. It was still, I'm still kind of slumming it down here with, even though it was just as good in terms of materials and everything like that. It's like the REI version. My sleep suffered because it was like putting fashion over function. So that's where this brand comes in or this bag comes in, right?
Justin (19:34):
Rectangle. Rectangle bags are great for lots of reasons. One of which is that if it is really warm and you don't really need to zip it up, you do that with the mummy bag and you either end up getting out of it somehow you'll roll over part of it and now a lot of you is exposed. It's kind a pain in the ass to sleep with a totally unzipped mummy bag
Colin (19:53):
In warm weather.
Justin (19:54):
But this thing or anything like it really any rectangular bag, but especially one that isn't so slippery isn't like that at all. You keep it unzipped and it doesn't move. So you can roll around. It's in your bed and spin around your Exactly. And that's really nice. That's something I love, and it's just so much nicer to, if you want to try to read a book in it, your arms aren't all crushed in. And I don't like, I mean, a mummy bag is fine, but I don't really have my head in it unless it's freezing cold and now you have this fricking nylon under your head. You wouldn't do that at home. And it's just been such a revelation over the years to realize that you can just bring whatever you want, car cab, you just bring your home stuff and it works just great. And this is just another one of those examples.
Colin (20:40):
All right, so obviously bag performed as advertised.
Justin (20:44):
Oh yeah. Well, no, not the zero degree part, but I That's good point mean no one's buying this for that. You're going to
Colin (20:51):
Give a pass. Yeah, I didn't see any other ones when I was researching this before we started recording that showed any kind of rating on these
Justin (20:57):
Kinds of bags. So I don't know. I mean, I have the zero degree. I can't find that anywhere, so I don't know if they make that anymore. The 20 degree bag I'm sure is fine. I'm sure it's plenty for all. I know it's the same thing. I don't know. I haven't seen it. But yeah, I mean in terms of the product copy I read, it does all that. They are dead on there.
Colin (21:17):
Obviously you'd buy it.
Justin (21:18):
You did. Absolutely.
Colin (21:20):
And then so when it comes to the stuff TER 10 being the world's a better, a worse place if we lose it, one being the worst thing ever. Where do you think the slot's in? I mean, it's the only dings, just I was five.
Justin (21:31):
It's got to be a five. I mean, but again, this is like everything else we've talked about. Where as a category 10, there needs to be more of this, but preferably, well, better made. I mean, I don't know how you can brands pay. Listen to this, make these make nice versions of
Colin (21:50):
These. He's speaking you from the app,
Justin (21:51):
Especially you Filson. People will buy these. I will buy, these people would buy these. I would write about these. I mean, there's no reason not to drop mean people dropping 400 bucks on down bags that they're going to use backpacking twice a year. Why wouldn't they do that for something like this? What they might use all the time. So I'm actually going to start my own brand, I think. I mean, the Snow One, I'm shocked, isn't more expensive. That's actually pretty cheap for snow. I mean, you get a lamp from Snowy for two 80, but yeah, I mean, I might just start my own brand. Clearly there's a hole in the marketplace.
Colin (22:24):
We're joking about the hipster nature of some of the products we've talked about early on, but what is it about those that kind of got adopted by sort of the hipster community, right? It's like enduring stuff that was
Justin (22:35):
Hipster wrong, looks timeless, hipsters were wrong. It might be kind of annoying if it becomes your entire personality, but a rejection of fast, what do we call that? Fast style? What is that called? Fast fashion, A rejection of fast fashion, a rejection of overly technical things. They're not wrong about that at all. So
Colin (22:54):
Right, you're wearing your salvage jeans with your danner boots and wearing a steel bike.
Justin (22:57):
That's cool. I mean,
Colin (22:59):
It kind of makes sense.
Justin (22:59):
It does. Yeah. And again, I wouldn't put this in that category, but
Colin (23:07):
Well, the Filson version of it, you would.
Justin (23:10):
I am. Maybe I would, but I again not wrong. So come
Colin (23:13):
Back next week on Hipster Outdoors. I don't
Justin (23:15):
Have any facial. I don't have a beard. I have a
Colin (23:17):
Very Oh, but you could, I've seen
Justin (23:19):
Pictures. I did. I've had that. Oddly enough, when I did, there was a period in my life where I had a big beard and the mustache part was waxed. That happened. But you know what I used? I went camping then all fancy down shit. I wasn't doing this. This has taken a long time to learn. You
Colin (23:37):
Were at odds with your inner
Justin (23:39):
Cone. That's right. And I was bringing fancy beer probably while camping, which I don't do anymore either. But yeah, it's taken a long time to come around to this where you just kind of gradually realize that there's just no reason for a lot of the fancy crap that we insist on selling to people.
Colin (23:57):
Let's now turn our attention to after the activity with our official cone again, if you want to know what that is, you should google it at the break. The PUD in the trailhead. We're going to crack open the cooler and ibe a beverage so we can celebrate our wins and losses in the backcountry. Let's have a beer. Justin, what are we drinking after we retire for the night and our Slumberjack,
Justin (24:20):
What's it called? Slumberjack. Big Timber Pro.
Colin (24:22):
There you go. Zero degree, which sold out. It's so popular. What are we drinking? Are we drinking in our timber pro? Are we pro timber people? What's going on? What are
Justin (24:32):
We doing? I'm not going to drink a beer in a sleeping bag. Colin, what are you talking about?
Colin (24:35):
Well, it's cotton too. That'd be disastrous.
Justin (24:36):
I mean, I guess if you're sitting, I mean, I'd probably, you know what, I've probably done that. I guess you drag it over to your camp chair that it's cold. It's cold out. But no, not doing that. You could probably kind of guess, right? I mean, we've been talking about Staples. Staples, basics, stuff you may ignore beneath you or something like that, that you feel like you've moved on past it or something like that. But no, today we're cracking the king of beers. Colin. Hell, which of course is Budweiser. I believe you have one too, right? Let's do it. Let's open. I do.
Colin (25:09):
Are we going to open 'em at the same
Justin (25:10):
Time? Yeah, I'm going to open mine. It's a twist off, right? Yeah, yeah.
Colin (25:12):
Are you going to go to the mic?
Justin (25:13):
Going to the mic three. See if you can hear two. That's a good sound before you take, how long has it been since you've had a bud in a bottle? Do you get these a lot?
Colin (25:25):
Don't. Usually we go to restaurants that are primarily craft brew places, right? So it's
Justin (25:30):
Been a while for me. It's been a while for me. Here we GOs.
Colin (25:32):
Cheers, buddy. Clink. Cheers. All that's fucking good.
Justin (25:36):
That's really good. It's so good. So this is, something's annoyed me ever since I got into when I first got into the professional beer space where that is a good beer and it is hard to do that. I've read somewhere, I don't know if it's true or not, that Budweiser has more PhDs in chemical science than any other brewery in the world. To make a beer that tastes the freaking same every single time at the scale that they do is really hard to do. I don't know why these beers get shit on. Before we started recording, I was a beer advocate, which if you don't know it, it's kind of like a forum, I suppose, for people to talk about beers and it's abysmal. I think the overall ranking is like 57, a hundred is good. It's
Colin (26:22):
Just like, are there any classics that do well? Is a Coors or a Miller or
Justin (26:26):
PDR or I didn't love the question. I guarantee you they're all going to be in the same sort of same sort of thing. But the thing that I think is funny about a beer like this, I mean, if this beer had a German label on it and you were in Germany and you were drinking it, you would be like, this is fantastic. I
Colin (26:39):
Have been in Germany drinking whatever, and I'm like, this is not as good as Budweiser. And not saying that out loud, I didn't want to die, but just be like, eh, it's all right.
Justin (26:49):
I mean, there's a flatness on the back end that a really good beer won't have. There's not a lot of hops here. I mean, it's not the most flavorful beer in the world.
Colin (26:59):
Not good when it gets warm, got to drink a
Justin (27:00):
Quick, yeah, you do want it cold. So I mean, it's clear that it's not trying to overwhelm you with flavor or anything like that.
Colin (27:08):
No, but I go back to what you said on the founders in the first gear and beer episode about the drinkability of it. Just kind of the basic how there's just something that hits right in certain situations about this. And I think it probably goes back the pushback on it. I would imagine you probably know better than I would because of your experience with this and your qualifications, but for however many decades, it was just Anheuser-Busch and Miller. And then so when the craft beer things happened, it's like, oh, fuck that. We're going to only have good stuff now. But I remember actually, I was with our mutual friend David Carstead now, and he and I were there on a work trip again, another Portsmouth where we're in Portsmouth for work. It was a steamy hot summer day, and we're sitting outside eating lobster rolls, and I'm like, I'm getting a Budweiser. And David goes, I am too. It just perfect. It was so hot and it was cold, and it went right with the seafood. It was just the best thing ever.
Justin (28:03):
Budweiser's so good with food. I mean, it really is. I'm more of a Coors guy if I'm going to be doing one of these two beers. And Coors to me has a little bit more maltiness to it after drinking this Budweiser right now and a little bit more sweetness to it. They both use rice, which is considered like an adjunct, which well, sort of an adjunct is something else that you add that isn't like the standard hops, barley, and water. And they don't use it for flavor. Rice is cheaper than barley, and so that's why they do it. So there's a little bit of a starchiness to it that you won't get in a craft pilsner, but it's fine. I mean, that's the thing. It's fine. And it is refreshing. It's so refreshing. Right now it's 70 degrees outside my house. Nice sunny day. It's perfect for that. What is it like nine bucks, a six pack? I mean, it's gotten more expensive, but it felt like the right call with,
Colin (29:00):
Yeah, come on, man. You're talking about a product from Slumberjack. What are you supposed to do? An ini something?
Justin (29:09):
There's times, there's times where you want to really geek out and really think about it. There's times where I'm going to go on a beer tasting, or I'm going to go to a crap beer place and I want to try three or four beers, and I want to try, why does this pilsner taste different than this one? And that sort of thing. And then there's times where you just, it's hot and you just want a beer. And that's, there's nothing wrong with that. And man, they do a good job. They do a really, really good job. 5% alcohol, it's just standard. You can have a couple of them and feel for the most part. All right. Thought else to say. Yeah.
Colin (29:42):
I think it also echoes what you said about the gear itself. It goes back to the whole, the cotton kills thing and the nuance of it. You don't have to be all super high end only doing the best gear of all time. And then I'll have your $10, six ounce pour to go with it, right? It's exhausting. Like no, man. Sometimes you can like that stuff and you can also sleeping in $120 sleeping bag with a
Justin (30:08):
Budweiser. It's kind of exhausting. It's exhausting. I mean, in some ways this goes against what we were saying with the sort of the hipster approach to craftsmanship or whatever, but it's kind of exhausting. If everything that you're doing is so thought out, I have to go find the really good beer. I have to have the really good piece of gear. I mean, at a certain point, I'm not out there. There are times where trying out new gear does kind motivate me to get outside. For the most part, on a real camp trip, I'm not out there to use my gear. I'm not out there to drink fancy beer. I'm out there to have a good time. I'm out there to relax. I'm out there to have a thrill or two and a sleeping bag. I don't have to think about or fuss over a beer that's dependable.
(30:55)That didn't cost me a fortune, that I know what I'm getting into. That's really nice. It's really nice. And I have to think about it. There's a reason that we find that comforting because I don't know if it's just because it's been around forever or not. And again, there's the reason to. You go to Germany and all the beers are like, we've been here since 1408. You know what, I like that. I like knowing that. But I'm looking at the bottom. I don't think it tells you when they started. Oh no, it is since 1876. You know what? That's fucking awesome. So just breaking news, I just got a text message from someone, a friend of mine down the street. We've been going back and forth about boots and hiking boots. Is this the one
Colin (31:37):
You told to
Justin (31:37):
Buy the Scarpa's? I did. And so the ones that he bought, the ones that we talked about, the SL active, the full leather, full grain leather ones were a little too big for him. He couldn't quite find the size that worked, so he went and bought the other ones I recommended to him also Scarpa, the Zodiacs, which I adore, a bit more athletic. They're what I use. If I'm going to do something where I might have to scramble or whatever, I just feel like being kind of like, I dunno, killing,
Colin (32:03):
Cheating on the SLX
Justin (32:03):
Killing. I'll wear the zodiacs Anyway, I just got text messages. These are the most comfortable boots I've ever had in my life. Just finished a hike. Thank you for the suggestion.
Colin (32:14):
But we haven't reviewed those. Why? It's
Justin (32:16):
Relevant, because I'm tooting my own horn telling you that you can trust us. That's an independent third party.
Colin (32:22):
Incredibly relevant.
Justin (32:23):
Yeah. Just add the blue. Thank you for your knowledgeable gear suggestion. My friend says,
Colin (32:29):
There you go. Tell him to write a review on Apple podcasts. These guys know what they're
Justin (32:33):
Talking about. That's why we have a podcast.
Colin (32:36):
Let's wrap it up. So we have the Slumberjack Timber Pro is, did I get it right? Big Timber? I can't get it right. Big Timber. Yeah, we gave that a five on the ter. After you're done hiking, we suggest you refresh yourself with a frosty cold classic Budweiser,
Justin (32:52):
Which we don't rank. We haven't been ranking the beers, but I'd like to start.
Colin (32:55):
Should we start? Yeah, I'd
Justin (32:56):
Like to start now.
Colin (32:57):
What's the parameters? I like ranking. The settings
Justin (33:00):
Big. I don't think it needs more than one numerical scale.
Colin (33:05):
Okay, so it's same thing, a one through 10 kind of. Yeah.
Justin (33:07):
What would you give it?
Colin (33:09):
A Budweiser? Yeah, it's a good point. I do like the flavor. It's refreshing. It's a little bit of a throwback. I drank a lot of this when I was younger, but we went out to dinner. My wife and I went to dinner the other night, and it was some local hazy IPA that was just so delicious. And then the other day, my wife had brought out a cider, which I hadn't had before, and that was delicious. So it's hard to say. I kind of guess we have to match it at a five because I wouldn't feel good giving a Budweiser anything less than a five.
Justin (33:38):
Oh, it's at least a five. I think I'll go higher. I'm get another taste here.
Colin (33:44):
Let's go. I might do a 6.2 only because of the versatility of it. How many beers? Of all the beers you're going to bring up, and we're going to review on this show, how many times if you, now you're sweaty, you're at the end of your hike, whatever, and there's the beer you're reviewing, and then there's going to be an ice cold. Budweiser. And how many times are you going to say, yeah, I'll just take the
Justin (34:04):
Bud. I would say, honestly, probably a hundred percent of the time if I'm really thirsty and hot, I don't know. Founders is great, but if you tried to chug half of one, you'd be like, that's a lot of hops. That's the thing about, I think probably the point, you know what I was saying earlier about how they have a million PhDs or whatever, or chemists. I think the point is they figured out the exact amount of bitterness where it's refreshing and you want to want more of it. It's not like, yeah, you
Colin (34:31):
Wouldn't describe this as bitter at
Justin (34:32):
All. No, I mean, honestly, bud and Coors are kind of sweet. And again, I think a lot of that has to do with the starch from the rice. But I don't have any idea what kind of hops they use. They don't tell you, unfortunately. That's the kind of the cool thing about crap beer. They're like, break it down. Oh my gosh, they had the recipe practically. We use cascade hops and whatever, crystal malts and all these sorts of different, you could go to the beer supply store and buy all the same stuff on there. Lord knows what's in Budweiser. That doesn't even tell you the a, BV on air. So you have to look that up yourself.
Colin (35:03):
So whatcha going to rate it?
Justin (35:04):
I'm going to give it a seven.
Colin (35:06):
Wow.
Justin (35:08):
Point one, I think.
Colin (35:11):
Okay. Okay. 7.1 0.2. That
Justin (35:13):
Is, is tip the cap to just doing a really good job at making the same beer every single time. Every time. Tip of the cap. I've never opened a Budweiser. I like, Ooh. And I've done that with craft beers. Something's a little up with this one.
Colin (35:26):
Alright, well that's the show for today. What did you think 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 bite@gmail.com. Let us know what you think. Anything you want to hear us review in the future, send it on over. We're taking suggestions. The Rock Fight is a production of Rock Fight LLC for Justin Hausman. I'm Colin. True. And a special shout out to Maisie Kate in Asheville and North Carolina. Liz's daughter. Oh, who's a big fan of the Rock. Thanks for listening, Bey. Yeah, we love that you listen to the show with your mom. And I guess we're sorry that we swear a lot. Oh, I'm not sorry. I'm not sorry. I think your mom's cool for letting you listen to this show. Yeah, me too. My daughter's, my daughter's here it all day, so you get to as well. All right. And he's here to take us out with his guitar and his beer. His name's Krista makes. And he is going to sing the Rock Fight Fight song. We'll see you next time. Rock fighters. Rock fight,
Chris DeMakes (36:20):
Rock fight, rock fight, rock fight. Rock fight, fight. We go into the rock fight where we speak our truth, stay sacred cows and sometimes agree to disagree. We talk about human power, outdoor activities and pick bites about topics that we find interesting. Black Five, culture, music, the latest movie reviews. That is aim for the head. This is where we speak our truth. This is where we speak our truth. Welcome.