Episode 41 - Chef Trey of R Bar

Craft beer has a long history of being categorized as a food, a liquid bread, if you will and preferred over water when it wasn't as pure like the present day. Tulsa is home to a restaurant and bar where craft beer and locally sourced cuisines walk hand in hand. Welcome to R Bar. A place where you can find the newest offering from local breweries like Marshall and Prairie and enjoy with culinary delicacies from Chef Trey Winkle. Trey has turned traditional bar food on its head and created signature dishes like poutine with locally sourced cheese curds to the WAG burger served with a fried egg are enjoyed by all craft beer connoisseurs. Along with beer brunches and craft beer flights using Beer is OK's custom flight paddles, Trey and R bar are the perfect craft beer destination.

Episode 23 - Red Earth Brewers Forum

To unofficially kick off Oklahoma City Craft Beer Week we were invited to record at the Inaugural Oklahoma Craft Brewers Forum hosted by the Red Earth Brewers home brew organization. This event brought out the members to a spectacular venue, Dunlap Codding, in the heart of downtown OKC.

Beer is OK was on hand selling our wares and meeting fellow beer geeks we typically interact with in the social media realm. This event showcased local home brews and raised some money for the REB.

The main event was a forum with Patrick from Anthem Brewing and Tony from Roughtail Brewing moderated by Nick Trougakos from the ThirstyBeagle blog. Many topics were touched on, the most exciting was to hear the tweaking of Hoptometrist from Roughtail and the new rare release programs both breweries are implementing in the near future.

So crack open an Arjuna or Roughtail 2nd Anniversary and enjoy!

Episode 9 - A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

Well, it's August and fall beer festivals are upon us with the cool weather and heavier offerings from your local craft favorites. We listen to Eric Marshall of Marshall Brewing and Tony Tielli of Roughtail Brewing Co. talk about their love for festivals while at Tapwerks Craft Beer fest in OKC, OK.

Next we sit down and swap beer fest stories with Tony Collins of McNellie's Tulsa and what to expect this September at McNellie's Harvest Beer Festival. Be ready to choose between day and night as this year is split into two sessions. Tickets on sale now!

Finally we get the scoop from David Kelso of KRXO in OKC, OK about Beer Fest 10 at the Grand Casino. Sounds like an exciting time and raising some money for the local food bank. As David says, "Good people drink good beer."

Sit back and listen with an Oklahoma Craft beer in hand like Dead Armadillo Amber or Prairie Cherry Funk (so fun to say) and listen to episode 9.

Fun at the Fur Shop

EPISODE 8

Welcome back to another exciting edition of Oklahoma Craft Beer. We're finally back in the saddle after vacationing to St. Louis and OKC for weddings and a week long trip to Beervana itself, Portland, OR. D'Wain brings news of his beercation in San Diego and the mouth-watering west coast IPAs he downed. This episode we recorded at The Fur Shop in downtown Tulsa, OK with owner/investor Chris Matthes and get the back story of this craft beer "dive" bar. I'd been visiting the Fur Shop a handful of times because of Chris' posts on Facebook and the delicious local craft beer that pours from their taps. For example they currently have 2 Coop, 3 Marshall, 4 Prairie, and Anthem on tap and a majority of craft bottles and cans. If you like to just have a chill evening, play giant Jenga with dirty suggestions written on them and listen to live music; this is your place.

Chris gives us a low down on how the Fur Shop came to be after finding an old Fur Shop sign in the Legends building across the street. I thought they just came up with the idea because of all the craft beer beard growing nuts out there. Boy how more wrong could I be. We also find out the ins and outs of running a bar and the lovely politics behind it in a law burdened state like Oklahoma. All of this is done while downing Roughtail's IPA and Prairie Wine Barrel Noir.

I'd like to announce as well we are looking for a local band that may be interested in creating some intro/exit music for us. Something around a minute that we can use for the podcast and would be a free promotion for your band. Please send music to brian@beerisok.com.

Thanks as always for listening and "Cultivate the Craft" for Oklahoma craft beer!

Challenge Your "buds"

For many years the traditional boys hang out was sitting around watching the game, sharing a few beers and discussing which movie had the best quotes. With the ever evolving craft beer market we have crept out of the primordial ooze of tradition and ventured on to test our palettes. This past Saturday my wife and I were invited to a blind IPA taste test. A sidebar here, I was never the biggest fan of IPA's and hops when first exploring craft beer but like all things my palette soon took to liking the slap to the face flavor these beers can pack.

With 8 attendees, 6 guys and 2 ladies, we were poured 27 different IPA's from around the country. Every participant brought at least 2 unique IPA's. A score sheet was created to rate Appearance of the beer, Aroma that the beer gave off, Flavor the beer presented and Taste of the beer and if you would purchase again. There were side bets as well to guess the actual beer you were drinking and how many IBU's (International Bitterness Units) each one had. We arrived a tad late and missed the first 5 but still had 22 beers of about 3 oz each to sample, not too shabby.

I can't tell you how much more fun I've had by simply enjoying a beer with friends and trying to guess exactly what I am drinking. Several good points came up throughout about not seeing a beer label and having a preconceived notion of what may be inside. Such a case was the surprise of the evening when everyone's overall scores were averaged and 2 Oklahoma craft beers beat out Pliny the Elder in the blind tasting. (Those beers were COOP F5 and Roughtail's IPA.) Again an example of heavily sought after beer that either did not live up to the hype or has found new and unexpected competition. A question of freshness was brought up but I do believe nothing was over a couple months old.

One of the disadvantages of the quantity consumed was that of our palette's constantly being tossed around. Near the end many participants felt they couldn't give an accurate grading no matter how many mozzarella sticks and pretzels they consumed. Our highly talented servers caught on to this and incorporated an interesting experiment. Our first and last beer was exactly the same, Schlafly's Tasmanian IPA. A world class IPA in my opinion and most scored it either the same or lower.

So next time you want to have some friends over, maybe get a little creative and challenge your taste buds. You may find your next go to beer or discover a whole new style of beer you never tried before.

Keep challenging your taste buds and Cultivate the Craft!