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Rare pours belong in glasses, not on pedestals. We sat down with Jerry from Neat Or Stir to unpack how a Detroit-area bourbon club turns the chase into a craft: buying whole barrels, tasting blind, and building real relationships with stores to secure bottles worth opening. If you’ve ever felt burned by Michigan pricing or baffled by allocations, this conversation maps a smarter path from shelf envy to satisfying sips.

We start with the local reality—tight distribution and wild price swings across the Ohio line—then explore why club barrel picks deliver more value than camping for drops. Jerry walks us through the group’s process: 20-plus barrels a year, private blind flights, and a priority system that rewards participation without becoming elitist. Along the way we taste through an eight-year Old Louisville (Bardstown distillate) packed with brown sugar and spice, a Four Roses OBSV with high-rye bite and fruit-forward lift, and a standout Stagg single barrel that converted a skeptic. The crescendo is a generous pour of the 2025 George T. Stagg at 142.8 proof—dense cocoa, dried fruit, and an absurdly long finish with no nose-burn theatrics.

Expect practical wisdom you can use right away: how temperature and glass size change viscosity and aroma, why blind tasting beats label worship, what Four Roses recipes actually signal on the palate, and how to be the kind of customer stores want to call for special picks. More than anything, it’s a reminder that the best bottle is the one you share. When community meets curation, even hazmat-proof whiskey becomes welcoming.

If you love whiskey stories, crave better barrel picks, or want a clearer path through the allocation maze, you’ll feel right at home here. Hit follow, share this with a bourbon friend, and leave a review with your favorite single barrel of the year—we might feature it on a future tasting. Cheers.

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Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

August Gitschlag @rawgusto

Merch www.WearingFunny.com

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A quiet Monday at a local brewery turns electric when a homebrew guild pulls up chairs and starts pouring stories. We begin with two teachers who fell for British cask ales, came home to stovetops and driveway boils, and helped fuel a club where curiosity ferments into craft. The thread runs through every glass we raise: the right community turns “someday” into batches, medals, and the kind of know-how you can taste.

Live from Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. https://kbrewery.com/

We ride the arc from origin tales to technique. Water chemistry becomes a secret weapon, revealing why southeast Michigan’s tap water is a dream for brewing and how salts and profiles shape style. Then the pours arrive: a wild, 18-year-old cherry farmhouse ale that over-carbonated itself into legend; a meticulous Belgian golden strong dry enough to pair with food, yet sneaky at 9.5%; and a velvet American barleywine hopped with El Dorado, all malt depth and quiet power. The mead table steals a scene, too: a fire cider sizer crafted from cider reduced over 18 hours and dosed with fireweed honey, plus a macadamia blossom bochet kissed by Amburana wood that delivers natural baking spice without a single clove. Along the way we unpack staves vs chips, surface area, aging time, and the real economics of scaling niche styles.

What ties it all together is the guild itself. First-Monday meetings mix social flights with pro-caliber education, from hops and IPAs to yeast behavior and carbonation targets. Members bring clean American lagers that chase consistency, herb-lifted basil wits that perfume the room from a half ounce of leaves, and fresh-hopped pale ales picked one day and brewed the next. Some alumni go pro, others just brew better, but everyone learns faster through honest feedback and shared palates.

Pour a glass and come hang with us as we celebrate the science, bravery, and joy inside every fermenter. If you love craft beer, mead, cider, or just a great story that starts with a hand-pulled pint, this one’s for you. Hit follow, share with a friend who brews or wants to, and leave a review telling us the one style you’re craving next. Cheers.

Support the show

https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour

www.ManCaveHappyHour.com

Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

August Gitschlag @rawgusto

Merch www.WearingFunny.com

Send us a text

A brewery story that starts with nuts and bolts and ends with medals and cult beers is worth a pint and a half. We set up at Kuhnhenn Brewing and talk with brothers Eric and Bret about how a family hardware store in Warren became a fiercely independent microbrewery known for high-gravity ales that still drink refreshingly clean. The path wasn’t smooth—paperwork delays, a sparse early Detroit beer map, and a lot of trial batches—but the lesson from Belgium changed everything: strength means nothing without quaffability.

Live from Kuhnhenn Brewing Co. https://kbrewery.com/

Hear how DRIPA, their double rice IPA, flipped expectations by using rice not as a shortcut but as a precision tool to dry out the body and let hops sing. The result is a 9.5% IPA that sips like something far lighter, showcasing Mosaic, Simcoe, and classic hop notes without a sticky finish. We also dive into 4th Dementia, their award-winning old ale, where stressed yeast and careful fermentation build layers of fig, toffee, and spice that unfold as the beer warms. For barrel-aged variants, they blend across Heaven Hill and other cooperages, explaining why beer often thrives in barrels that aren’t overly old and how blending achieves consistent, nuanced character.

It’s not just malt and oak. The team shares how their cider program won top marks with clean, unsulfury ferments and balanced acidity, plus why they tinker with sake and eye icebock for future releases. Along the way we talk independence, scale, and the practical reality that DRIPA keeps the lights on while limited bottles build legend. If you love craft beer, bourbon barrels, and the art of making big flavors drinkable, this conversation pours out hard-won wisdom from two brewers who never stopped learning.

If this story made you thirsty, follow the show, share it with a friend who loves strong yet smooth beers, and drop a review so others can find us. Cheers.

Support the show

https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour

www.ManCaveHappyHour.com

Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

August Gitschlag @rawgusto

Merch www.WearingFunny.com