Pretty food Court, food Court, food Court with Shurt Blaze, Argue in the food Court Court with Shurt Blase, like the Cross the food Court with Welcome to food Court, a production of I Heart Radio. This is food Court And I'm Richard Blaze. I am a chef, but then someone gave me a courtroom and now I'm a judge with props and it weighs on me. We've been talking about it's serious. I'm a serious, serious judge. So many of you are telling me that on social None of you are telling me that on social media. Joining us in the court today, we have one of the hosts of the podcast Stuff they Don't Want You to Know, and the producer of other incredible shows. Well come, it's Matt Frederick. Man, it's so awesome to be here, Richard, my two other co hosts, Ben and Nol got to do Bacon versus Sausage. And ever since that day that was season one, I have been just biding my time, waiting, emailing Crystal, emailing Crystal more, calling Christal. I don't think I ever called her, but I'm so excited to be here. Listen, We're it's an honor to have you there, and that was one of the most heated debates your colleagues were in. That was one of the ones that that probably started me down this path of this burden that I carry with breaking people's hearts, Like, how do you even make that decision because they well, they came to play. No no pressure here, guys, but they came to play. And speaking of coming to play, going up against Matt, it's the host of the ephemeral podcast here at my Hearts. It's Alex Williams. That Alex Crystal, Alex coming in very formal, good morning, your honor. We all know, Oh that flattery gets you everywhere. Here in the food court, Nolan, Ben, they argued about sausage and bacon. What side would you have picked? You know, I generally would have said bacon for many of the reasons my colleague Ben put forward. However, now that I am sided with my thing for this show, let's say for this episode, I believe sausage wins. What kind of answer is that the can the concoction is the dark beer in which you can boil a sausage and impart flavors. Listen, there's some strategicy happening right there. For sure, Alex listen, I'm gonna let you weigh in on the bacon sausage debate. I'll be honest, I don't even remember what side I went with sage. I went sausage, I went sausage, Crystal saying, but no one knows. Season three, this was pre pandemic folks. Well Nol brought his daughter and she was like bacon and and that pushed it over the edge. But no, we went idn't know he could children. It helps, it helps, it helps. Alex uh weigh in on the classic bacon verse sausage debate. So, I feel like bacon is kind of the same all the time. There's level, there's various qualities of it, but it's kind of the same thing most times. It's such just such a variety. It's like a whole food group. It's definitely okay, I like that. But it's a sausage is its own world, like it's it's it's a whole, it's a it's a Netflix series like with spinoffs, like it could be Breakfast Sausage you could have then the spinoff Theresa. You can have all of these amazing shows. I mean, oh my god, so good. Alex tell us a little bit about yourself. Are you as passionate as Matt about arguing food based topics? I might just be passionate about arguing um. It hasn't necessarily been the most useful thing in like the relationships in my life, but maybe it will prove of use today. We'll see you like sparring. I'm seeing you in like fencing garb right now. This is something like you have. Do you like the you like the thrill of the of the competition, the debate on guards. Yes, I'll tell you what. Matt Frederick is one of my favorite people to argue with. We've had many a good argument in our lives. That's that's just because I'm adverse to any kind of conflict. So I just go, ah, yep, you win. Okay, Not to put you on the spot. What is a potential office debate that you've had, or a working debate that you've had that you can a water cooler moments, something that happened in the break room, something unrelated to food, like I mean, is it music is a TV? Is it pop music? And we actually play we play in a band together, honorable judge. And although he is away now very far away from Atlanta, So we can't do that. We have all kinds of arguments about how complicated a driving beat should be. Okay, there we going. Now do you have do you have differences in opinion when it comes to your favorite bands or like the most historical work that's been done in the music? What? What What? What kind? What genre of music are we playing? By the way, guys, you know oh what together together? The band was called sex Faucet. Yeah, so you can figure that out. I don't know. I think that now we've had some good like long road trip car trips where we like, should I say this matter? We might get a smirche, but we like rocked out to cold Play together. I think we've done on that point that we that we both think cold Play is kind of besmirched and underrated. Oh I have to agree with that and like you and this probably makes you feel bad because I'm not cool. So if I'm like cold Play is cool, I'm probably actually arguing the argument itself. But I don't know. There's there's been a time in my place, at a time in my life where I've listened to Yellow like nineteen times in a row. I'm pretty sure, dude, Pretty sure, yes, it's a solid track. It's a solid track, alright, you can from us. It's the scientist for me. Same same oh and also dropping in the pop culture. It's the same for me. It's the blank for me. Matt Frederick always coming up. Okay, listen, here we go, Matt, some up the case you've brought to the food court today and around a sentence or so. Dark beer is one of the most delicious things you can place in your mouth. Okay, all right, the argument for dark beer. Somehow, it's been over two years and no one has brought a beer argument to the food courts. Alex, dark beer not your thing. I'm guessing then. I mean, I wouldn't say it's not my thing, but you've got a table full of beers. I'm probably gonna go for something on an average day, just a little bit lighter, like a like a good old fashioned American style pale lagger. Okay, I like that though, like like taking making it a little bit more serious, not just saying light beer. But there it is, the argument. It is dark beer versus light beer. Before we get into the arguments here in the food court, we like to have a quick trivia around, just like every court does. The winner of the trivia around gets to decide the order that you'll present your arguments. In order to do that, since you're both joining us from different cities, and virtually you'll need a buzzer. I'm in studio, so I get to have things like the bell from the Nintendo Classic Punch Out the Clown Car. But I'm not playing, gentlemen, you're playing, Matt. What buzzing sound or noise will you use to chime in today for the trivia? I will use this tongue drum and it will sound like this. I didn't know who needed to bring a tongue drum? Can you can you hear that? In fact, I can hear it. I can not. Yeah, I mean I kind of hear it. I feel like it's a new TikTok account for you. You You just do that like a couple of hundred times, quietly staring into the camera. Yeah all right, Alex, what sound effect are you gonna be using? Oh man, I didn't bring the coolest sound effect. I have a cup here. Yes, little, it's like it's like the baby tongue drum, A little thing that's gonna be tough for me to figure out. The two are pretty similar. But okay, I want once a little tinny, so I get that, Alex. You can just use your voice. You can just say something or because they do sound too, we're getting we're getting note there too. And I could post something out on my telephone. Probably I probably have something stilly on here. Nope, that doesn't work. You can growl, you can roar. You could you just hit a note? Yeah, you can sing, hit a note, make it more complete. Oh my god, Okay, I'll just um a clap clap works? Does that work? Crystal? Alright, Alex, your noise will be a a clap a clap in Okay, Trivia question one again, the winner of the trivia gets to decide who goes first in the debate. Here in Food Courts, question one, what beer was known as the Champagne of beers? Alex's first? There are choices, Alex, There are choices bud Light A B Miller High Life see paps blue ribbon. The Champagne of Beers was is? I think it still is? The number Ber highfe the number the Miller High Life. That is actually correct, Miller High Life, the Champagne of Beers. I think that's a great slogan, by the way. It really is like I can see the bubbles, the effervescence through the through the bottle right now. The slogan. You don't know this, but I feel like they've had it for a long time, and I feel like it just talked over you and you were gonna tell me, oh no, no, yeah, they had it for a look. I guess I feel like I have fond childhood memories of like my dad playing softball and kicking back a Miller High Life after hitting a monstrous home run. It was probably like a ground out to short, but I was a kid. He was my dad man. My dad's was Milwaukee's best. There it is there, it is. The slogan came from the beer having softer bubbles, giving in a more champagne like taste for sure. Alright, so Alex, you got number one year up one zero, question too for all of you into pop culture. Homer Simpson famously loves beer. What is his favorite brand of beer? There's no multiple choice going to the tape here. Oh, I hope Matt, Matt, Matt is in first? What is duff Duff beer? Is correct? Do you have to phrase it like a question, Jeffard, all this stuff you do not, you do not, but listen. We appreciate Matt's enthusiasm. We appreciate the enthusiasm Duff beer. And we're in a tight one. We're locked up one one with one trivia question left. The winner of this last question gets to decide who presents first in the oral arguments. Here we go, Oh, what is this? Bonus points? This is coming near to the script. Bonus points if you can name three more versions of Duff of Duff beer, of the brand Duff beer on the Simpsons they have. It's not just Duff. There is duff light. There is duff light. You get duff. The diet sounds like duff ice. There is a duff ice. Ah, you got one more? One more? Anyone you got there's a bunch, just like twelve of them. By the way, this is Crystal. Spend a lot of time watching Simpsons episodes for this, So we gotta play this one out a little longer. Nuclear. No, here's one you'll never get. Tartar controlled Duff. What a shout out to the writer's room. Right there is there an atomic Duff there? There there should be, but there is not. Where this one's over, okay, but there there is a Duff Light Dry Dark Draft Logger, Duff Stout, the beer that made Ireland famous, and of course Duff Extra Cold and Duff Microbrew Crystal. Thank you so much for all the hard work that you put in here. We got an amazing staff. No one gets the bonus point. We only named one. Question three. This is for the win. In the eighties, bud Light had a spokesdog party animal who first showed up in a Super Bowl ad in seven. What was this dog's name? That's Alex. It's not multi, I just say it's Spuds Mackenzie. It is Spuds Mackenzie. How did you know that? Which I've always wanted to do a potato dish called spuds Mackenzie, by the way, which I think I need to do potatoes cooked in beer. But thank you for the inspiration, guys, for the topic. I think that's gonna work. Budweiser retired him in nine, presumably to get back to being a full time party time cool guy dog. Retired him to a farm up state or also, I just want to know there's probably how many spuds make. I did one commercial in my career. It was a cat commercial that I consistently get hounded for um and it was with the Fancy Feast cat. And you know when you film with a famous animal, there's multiple animals, right, there's multiple animals. I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say this, Crystals, but so like, how many Spuds Mackenzie's were there? That's the question? Only one Crystal saying there was only one Spuds Mackenzie and beat out everything I said about the Fancy Feast cat because they're definitely coming for me. All right. Listen, that means that Alex, you have won the trivia. You get to make the big decision right here. Who presents their argument first. You're gonna be the home team. You're gonna bat first, Alex. Oh jeez, yeah, can go first. Alright, Matt, you're going to present first. You get to let us know why dark beer reigns supreme. You'll have three minutes and we'll get into the debate right after this break, and we are back here in the food court to recap today. We have the case of dark versus light beer and perhaps also existentially, I'm gonna try really hard is good verse not to object myself? Yes, Well, here goes. This is the way it works. You probably know, but each of you will have three minutes to state your case. During the three minutes, you need to lay out your case and not focus on your opponents. This isn't your time to go negative. That comes later in the rebuttal round. Guys, do we both understand the rules here? Yes? I understand. We have a verbal confirmation. I need you, just like on an airplane, to say it out loud. I understand. I don't know why I'm making you do the You're in the the the jump seat on the airplane. Here. Okay, after you both state your cases, you'll get two minutes of rebuttal, and then you can go as low as you'd like, or as light or as dark as you'd like. Look, I wrote that one in myself. Crystal, so proud of it. Right now, beautiful, all right, Crystal is gonna get the time up. It's three minutes on the clock, and Matt, you get to let us know why dark beer is the best. Your three minutes starts now, My esteemed colleague, Honorable Judge Blaze, I have a question for you, rhetorical in nature, Shall we all abide by the five hundred and six year old Bavarian purity law which states beer is and only can be water, barley, hops and yeast. That part was added later when it was discovered nay, I say nay, we shall add to our a and logger, pilsner's and porters any and all ingredients we dang well please, and furthermore, will manipulate those ingredients in increasingly innovative ways. We've been doing so since the seventeen hundreds. Why would we stop now? When brew masters in England discovered that raising the temperature just a smidge and slightly singing their grains added to their concoctions a hint of smokiness, excitement, something different, something new, And as time passed, we discovered that you could add other flavors, especially to darker beers, when you combine them with cereal grains. It created songs on our tongues, things like coffee, chocolate, cherry, coconut, even peanut butter. Peanut butter in a beer. It's true. Darker beers are hardy. They're filled with calories. Even if you don't need them. They're there for you just in case you're hungry or you're tired. They'll give you the calories. Think about a special occasion in your life. Maybe you crack open an expensive bottle of and that's been aging for years. Why not instead crack open a delicious porter that's had coffee brewed with it, as the one I'm holding up right now, Judge Blaze, as well as perhaps this imperial coconut stout coconuts delicious, or if you're maybe a scientist, maybe a little bit insane, you could add coffee and coconut and create this stout as these brew masters in Georgia did. Again, gentleman, the most important fact about dark beer. We've discovered a method that can make beer even more delicious and creamy with the addition of a single substance, A substance that's benefited all of mankind as it hangs in the air we breathe. It's played no small part in the genius and popularity of our most honorable Judge nitrogen. You can add this tasteless, colorless, odorless gas to the darkest of bruise and it becomes something again, new, exciting and unfathomably tasty. As a wise old, tiny green Jedi once said, once you start down the dark path, forever it will dominate your destiny. So come to the dark side. We have coffee wow, with thirty seconds to spare. But I felt like there's nothing I mean that that, there's nothing else to say right there. Yoda has not made an appearance in the food court. Spiritually, I don't believe the word nitrogen has been used to persuade me and it works. I'm sure, I'm sure it worked for a hot second right there. Wow, lots of flavor. You know, it's almost I mean dai almost getting into constitutional beverage law. The five oh six Bavarian let your is oh my gosh, so much information. That was hardly the strategy, judge, to overwhelm you with information. Well, listen, lots of great information, lots of great talk about flavors and is the dark is dark beer the special occasion beverage of choice or should it be Alex? You'll have three minutes to let us know why light beer's best, and your three minutes starts now. So I don't have nearly as special of a performance as Matthew, But I think that my point is maybe just a little bit more basic than that. I don't really have anything against a heavier style beer, but I feel like, especially in in this sort of in the in the craft beer era of late, that the logger has been really besmirched. And even when you do a little research about this, you just see lagger described as like flavorless. Can I say, shitty, bland, watery, basic, disappointing, And so I guess it's really three things for me. I think the experience that well, the flavor is very different, right, The flavor of a of a of a craft beer can be many different things. All beers are basically loggers or ales, right, It depends on the kind of used to put in them and else got top fermenting east the loggers got bottom from enting East. Ales range in a bunch of different ways. There's lighter ones like sours and pale ales, I p as it gets into heavier stuff like scotches and porters and stouts and stuff that gets really very intense, and loggers tend to be a lot easier drinking, you know, the basic American loggers like essentially like a Budweiser. There's also like Pilsner's, there's a great surfaces, and then there's darker styles like box and duncles. In October fests, and marsins that even though they are dark and color, are also pretty light drinking. They don't. They go back a lot shorter period in history too, about the mid eighteen hundreds, and they've got a special place in America where, you know, the mid eighteen hundreds, most beer in America is still being imported from Europe because barley is so important. Barley mash and barley doesn't grow very well in the United States, and so they start thinking about, well, what other things that we could use instead of barley, like corn, for instance, rice and wheat and things like that. At a time with an influx of German immigrants and the Industrial Revolution, and thus the American lagger as we know today is born post the seventies. It's very consolidated, right, Like you have Anheuser Busch, Miller, Cours and Paths that have bought up all these companies. But once upon a time and every city you had your own, there's still a few left, like Yngling in Pennsylvania, Genese in Rochester, New York, anchor Steam in San Francisco. So that's a little bit of the history. But I think it comes down to me the flavor. It's just easier drinking. The experience is very different, like going into a restaurant and looking at a list of four hundred kinds of beers and talking about all the tasting notes, or like going to the river with your friends and drinking a six pack of lager. And uh, I think locker is just more nostalgic for me too. I'm sorry. Whatever, time to night, Alice. Uh, this is the first time that we've ever needed a bell. If your your time time time is extended, the court will strike the last ten seconds of the argument um. But the argument is, there is light beer American. It's right there, is it. It's easy drinking, it's American, it's the king of beers. But also, and very wise, at the end, they're bringing it back to no, it's also it is special, it is local, the yen lings and the anchor steams, and that it's not just something maybe you get at a ballpark. And the debate continues after round one, very very tight. Not toasty. That would be dark beer, perhaps with it's coconut and it's cocoa and it's banana and it's circus peanut flavors. I just made that one up. I'm sure I'm sure a really good idea if someone hasn't done that yet. Actually, that's the brilliant branding. This is just Crispy Cream to it, the exactly Oh look at Matt dropping, the dropping, the throwback note to the old Crispy Cream liquid nitrogen milkshake. No one knows what's going on right now except for Matt, and I'm at you got three You got two minutes now for a rebuttal after a very very well well written three minutes. Here you get to let us know now why Alex is totally wrong, why light beer is horrible. Your two minute rebuttal starts now again, My colleague, honorable Judge Crystal, I know you're listening to Also you, whoever you are. My opponent has made my point for me. He called his own beer bland and disappointing, and I have to agree with him. If if I want a beverage that tastes of stale bread soaked in water, I'll reach for a Pilsner or a Lagger delicious. No, I say again, no, I don't want that. We drink beer not because it is easy. We drink beer because it is hard. If anyone remembers, because when we went to the moon. It's not the same, but it's close. When I snap open this delicious coffee stout and I smell, oh, the top notes of coconut, I know that my mouth is gonna have a pleasurable experience. And it's not just gonna be Oh. I'm coming in from a hard day's work and I just want to have a drink, and I'm gonna get it on the cheap and we get a six pack of whatever it is Natty Light. No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna spend a little extra money and I'm gonna get a craft beer, a local craft beer, which again is an argument my opponent made, it's an American thing, it's a local thing. Well, guess what. There are craft breweries on every street corner now, especially here in Atlanta. This beer is made in Lagrange, Georgia, just south of Atlanta where we are. This one brewed right here in our city. And they're both dark and they're both delicious. My god, dark beer there it is. Matt such a positive guy, kept it again, a little, very very positive on the dark beer. Really go after Alex or the light beer. They're too bad Because he's just a great guy. You just get you get that sense, don't you, Crystal, Not that you're not, Alex. We know you're a great guy too, Frederick whatever. Alright, listen, I'm points for the cracking of the stout, for the a s MR moment right there that we all appreciated. I think you were going for Kennedy, but it was a little bit more mayor Quinby, but that works for this episode, keeping with the Simpsons, sleeping with the Simpsons theme. Alright, Alexe, note note there everyone that beer right just took a sip of is ten percent alcohol, which is too much. Day's taste delicious, but alcohol. It's nine fifteen in the morning, and all right, Alex, you got two minutes of abuttle to let Matt know why dark beer? Why? Why you know? Listen, the force should be with you, and the force might be light beer. Alex, You're two minutes starts now. I think Matt has exemplified at least a piece of the immense snobbery that comes with craft beer, dark beer, the whole sort of culture around ales right now, which again have no problem with the more of the merrier. If you want to be this consumer that goes into the place and looks at the list of four thousand things and has a life story conversation with your waiter about the thing that you're gonna that you're gonna drink. Great, Maybe you want to get like a six packet Takats and go down to the train tracks, you know, hang out, throw rocks at the at the passing trains. Oh that's a weird example, but you know that sounds like a good time to me go to the river. I was thinking when you were talking about Miller High Life Failier my grandfather. There's this story that my grandfather was not a big drinker. Every night he would take a Miller High Life and he would drink half of it and put the cap back on and stick it back in the fridge, and then the next night he drink the other half of it flat. That man was not a discerning consumer, but that was a little ritual for him. And I never really can not finish the whole beer. But I don't know I feel some sort of lineage to that. I don't really. I was a bartender for ages right where I talked to people. You tell your whole life story talking someone through what kind of beer they want, to order. I don't necessarily need to embody that in my life anymore. I'm looking for the for the celebration, for the experience of of being with people and imbibing in a celebratory atmosphere. I don't need it to be a homework assignment. There's certainly a place for the craft every thing, but I just think this on the on the lockers all the time needs to end. It's being embraced a little bit more. There are some craft places that are making you know. They're fancy new versions of lager. I'm not sure they've really cracked like Miller High Life on the soft Bubbles yet, but that's it for me. Alex coming through at the end a strong rebuttal round for both of our competitors. Nostalgia. We're talking about family, We're talking about ritual. So many things to get into here. I am going to retire to my chambers and I will come back and deliver our verdict in light verse dark beer. Okay, we are back from the chambers where I have where I think I've made up my mind, where we're debating dark versus light beer. But before I deliver my verdict, I would like to give both of you, Matt and Alex, an opportunity to grab sixty seconds here and give me some final thoughts, perhaps to persuade me from the other side, whether that's the light or the dark side. Who knows yet, Matt. Anything you'd like me to know before I deliver this verdict. When I was a young man, the first beer I ever sipped was my father's Milwaukee's Best, and I absolutely detested the flavor. I was pretty small, probably thirteen fourteen. I just took a sip. I hated it, and I didn't touch alcohol again until I was twenty one. And when I try alcohol again, it was a light beer created here in Atlanta. It was called a Sweetwater Blue and it was like this blueberry flavored MALTI beverage thing that again I did not like. I did not enjoy the flavor of beer until I tried a Guinness draft and that's when I knew this beer is good. There it is, Alex. Anything you'd like to give me to think about here before I deliver this verdict. I'd like to give you a visual. There's a very popular meme on the Internet called the Evolution of a Beer Snob, and it's like five figures coming from ape up to erect human and and the five levels in order are loggers like starting with the you know, Budweiser loggers, I p a s Big stouts, That's where Matt got into it. Sours for once you're getting particularly snobbery, and then back to loggers at the end. I think the world is big enough for all kinds of beer. And when you walk into a place with your friend a little bit of a beer snob, they don't need to say something to you like, oh, I just want a bitty beer today, because they like the thing they're ordering, they want the decatte there. It is Alex dating his case very well. By the way, this case comes down to, is it it's the old verse the new? Is it elitism versus pragmatism? Is it snobbery verse nostalgia? Is it flavor versus mouth feel? Is it like a special occasion verse? Everyday craft? Verse commerce? So many things to weigh in here, And I have to say before I deliver this verdict that my personal beer of choice is, uh, lately Heineken zero. So I don't know what that says about me. Heineken zero point zero. So with that being said, this court will decide in favor of dark beer. Yes, welcome to the docks, dark Dear. I listen. I rarely do I do a recap on my own verdict, but listen, I get it. I am over the whole this beer. It's it's not a little coconut and toasted caramel and do you get a little bit of you get a little bit of a high tide coconuts certle lotion on it, circus peanut meats. I don't raisinet, you know, like I am over that too, Alex. But at the end of the day, the argument for dark beer and all of its flavor and complexity just so well crafted. Matt Frederick, congratulations, dark beer wins today. Am I not allowed to drink light beer anymore? Is that what this means? When is the sentencing hearing? Do you order US thirteen million? Now? You know, well, listen, here's how it works. There's no money involved. But we'll get right into the sentence saying, this court does declare, Alex, that you can drink whatever you would like, whenever you would like it. And I agree with those arguments that drink what you want. I don't care if it's a Kega ranch dressing. That's what food Court is all about. Well, don't trinck a check of ranch dressing. We're gonna get water this this this porter does. Don't you get a little bit of like aged ranch dressing on the back palette? All right, Thanks everyone for listening to food Court. I'm Richard Blaze. For more Matt, you can check out the podcast Stuff They Don't Want You to Know wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter at Conspiracy Stuff. And for more Alex please check out his podcast Ephemeral wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter at Ephemeral. Show Listen, audience, I know you think I got it wrong. Fifty one percent of you think that, then I get it right. Some of you might think that what kind of peanut butter do you prefer in your stout or porter? What did your granddad drink? Right? We're all having these questions. You can find out and debated across social media at Richard Blaze and find the podcast on Instagram at food Court Pod. To let us know, food Court is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm Richard Blaze, my producers Crystal at My food Court was created by Christopher has know. Just the rest of my food court clerks are Jonathan Dressler, David Wasserban, and Jasmine Blaze no relation, Actually she's really We're married and the theme song is by Jason E. Smith. For more podcasts from the I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows with Jo

Pretty food Court, food Court, food Court with Shurt Blaze, Argue in the food Court Court with Shurt Blase, like the Cross the food Court with Welcome to food Court, a production of I Heart Radio. This is food Court And I'm Richard Blaze. I am a chef, but then someone gave me a courtroom and now I'm a judge with props and it weighs on me. We've been talking about it's serious. I'm a serious, serious judge. So many of you are telling me that on social None of you are telling me that on social media. Joining us in the court today, we have one of the hosts of the podcast Stuff they Don't Want You to Know, and the producer of other incredible shows. Well come, it's Matt Frederick. Man, it's so awesome to be here, Richard, my two other co hosts, Ben and Nol got to do Bacon versus Sausage. And ever since that day that was season one, I have been just biding my time, waiting, emailing Crystal, emailing Crystal more, calling Christal. I don't think I ever called her, but I'm so excited to be here. Listen, We're it's an honor to have you there, and that was one of the most heated debates your colleagues were in. That was one of the ones that that probably started me down this path of this burden that I carry with breaking people's hearts, Like, how do you even make that decision because they well, they came to play. No no pressure here, guys, but they came to play. And speaking of coming to play, going up against Matt, it's the host of the ephemeral podcast here at my Hearts. It's Alex Williams. That Alex Crystal, Alex coming in very formal, good morning, your honor. We all know, Oh that flattery gets you everywhere. Here in the food court, Nolan, Ben, they argued about sausage and bacon. What side would you have picked? You know, I generally would have said bacon for many of the reasons my colleague Ben put forward. However, now that I am sided with my thing for this show, let's say for this episode, I believe sausage wins. What kind of answer is that the can the concoction is the dark beer in which you can boil a sausage and impart flavors. Listen, there's some strategicy happening right there. For sure, Alex listen, I'm gonna let you weigh in on the bacon sausage debate. I'll be honest, I don't even remember what side I went with sage. I went sausage, I went sausage, Crystal saying, but no one knows. Season three, this was pre pandemic folks. Well Nol brought his daughter and she was like bacon and and that pushed it over the edge. But no, we went idn't know he could children. It helps, it helps, it helps. Alex uh weigh in on the classic bacon verse sausage debate. So, I feel like bacon is kind of the same all the time. There's level, there's various qualities of it, but it's kind of the same thing most times. It's such just such a variety. It's like a whole food group. It's definitely okay, I like that. But it's a sausage is its own world, like it's it's it's a whole, it's a it's a Netflix series like with spinoffs, like it could be Breakfast Sausage you could have then the spinoff Theresa. You can have all of these amazing shows. I mean, oh my god, so good. Alex tell us a little bit about yourself. Are you as passionate as Matt about arguing food based topics? I might just be passionate about arguing um. It hasn't necessarily been the most useful thing in like the relationships in my life, but maybe it will prove of use today. We'll see you like sparring. I'm seeing you in like fencing garb right now. This is something like you have. Do you like the you like the thrill of the of the competition, the debate on guards. Yes, I'll tell you what. Matt Frederick is one of my favorite people to argue with. We've had many a good argument in our lives. That's that's just because I'm adverse to any kind of conflict. So I just go, ah, yep, you win. Okay, Not to put you on the spot. What is a potential office debate that you've had, or a working debate that you've had that you can a water cooler moments, something that happened in the break room, something unrelated to food, like I mean, is it music is a TV? Is it pop music? And we actually play we play in a band together, honorable judge. And although he is away now very far away from Atlanta, So we can't do that. We have all kinds of arguments about how complicated a driving beat should be. Okay, there we going. Now do you have do you have differences in opinion when it comes to your favorite bands or like the most historical work that's been done in the music? What? What What? What kind? What genre of music are we playing? By the way, guys, you know oh what together together? The band was called sex Faucet. Yeah, so you can figure that out. I don't know. I think that now we've had some good like long road trip car trips where we like, should I say this matter? We might get a smirche, but we like rocked out to cold Play together. I think we've done on that point that we that we both think cold Play is kind of besmirched and underrated. Oh I have to agree with that and like you and this probably makes you feel bad because I'm not cool. So if I'm like cold Play is cool, I'm probably actually arguing the argument itself. But I don't know. There's there's been a time in my place, at a time in my life where I've listened to Yellow like nineteen times in a row. I'm pretty sure, dude, Pretty sure, yes, it's a solid track. It's a solid track, alright, you can from us. It's the scientist for me. Same same oh and also dropping in the pop culture. It's the same for me. It's the blank for me. Matt Frederick always coming up. Okay, listen, here we go, Matt, some up the case you've brought to the food court today and around a sentence or so. Dark beer is one of the most delicious things you can place in your mouth. Okay, all right, the argument for dark beer. Somehow, it's been over two years and no one has brought a beer argument to the food courts. Alex, dark beer not your thing. I'm guessing then. I mean, I wouldn't say it's not my thing, but you've got a table full of beers. I'm probably gonna go for something on an average day, just a little bit lighter, like a like a good old fashioned American style pale lagger. Okay, I like that though, like like taking making it a little bit more serious, not just saying light beer. But there it is, the argument. It is dark beer versus light beer. Before we get into the arguments here in the food court, we like to have a quick trivia around, just like every court does. The winner of the trivia around gets to decide the order that you'll present your arguments. In order to do that, since you're both joining us from different cities, and virtually you'll need a buzzer. I'm in studio, so I get to have things like the bell from the Nintendo Classic Punch Out the Clown Car. But I'm not playing, gentlemen, you're playing, Matt. What buzzing sound or noise will you use to chime in today for the trivia? I will use this tongue drum and it will sound like this. I didn't know who needed to bring a tongue drum? Can you can you hear that? In fact, I can hear it. I can not. Yeah, I mean I kind of hear it. I feel like it's a new TikTok account for you. You You just do that like a couple of hundred times, quietly staring into the camera. Yeah all right, Alex, what sound effect are you gonna be using? Oh man, I didn't bring the coolest sound effect. I have a cup here. Yes, little, it's like it's like the baby tongue drum, A little thing that's gonna be tough for me to figure out. The two are pretty similar. But okay, I want once a little tinny, so I get that, Alex. You can just use your voice. You can just say something or because they do sound too, we're getting we're getting note there too. And I could post something out on my telephone. Probably I probably have something stilly on here. Nope, that doesn't work. You can growl, you can roar. You could you just hit a note? Yeah, you can sing, hit a note, make it more complete. Oh my god, Okay, I'll just um a clap clap works? Does that work? Crystal? Alright, Alex, your noise will be a a clap a clap in Okay, Trivia question one again, the winner of the trivia gets to decide who goes first in the debate. Here in Food Courts, question one, what beer was known as the Champagne of beers? Alex's first? There are choices, Alex, There are choices bud Light A B Miller High Life see paps blue ribbon. The Champagne of Beers was is? I think it still is? The number Ber highfe the number the Miller High Life. That is actually correct, Miller High Life, the Champagne of Beers. I think that's a great slogan, by the way. It really is like I can see the bubbles, the effervescence through the through the bottle right now. The slogan. You don't know this, but I feel like they've had it for a long time, and I feel like it just talked over you and you were gonna tell me, oh no, no, yeah, they had it for a look. I guess I feel like I have fond childhood memories of like my dad playing softball and kicking back a Miller High Life after hitting a monstrous home run. It was probably like a ground out to short, but I was a kid. He was my dad man. My dad's was Milwaukee's best. There it is there, it is. The slogan came from the beer having softer bubbles, giving in a more champagne like taste for sure. Alright, so Alex, you got number one year up one zero, question too for all of you into pop culture. Homer Simpson famously loves beer. What is his favorite brand of beer? There's no multiple choice going to the tape here. Oh, I hope Matt, Matt, Matt is in first? What is duff Duff beer? Is correct? Do you have to phrase it like a question, Jeffard, all this stuff you do not, you do not, but listen. We appreciate Matt's enthusiasm. We appreciate the enthusiasm Duff beer. And we're in a tight one. We're locked up one one with one trivia question left. The winner of this last question gets to decide who presents first in the oral arguments. Here we go, Oh, what is this? Bonus points? This is coming near to the script. Bonus points if you can name three more versions of Duff of Duff beer, of the brand Duff beer on the Simpsons they have. It's not just Duff. There is duff light. There is duff light. You get duff. The diet sounds like duff ice. There is a duff ice. Ah, you got one more? One more? Anyone you got there's a bunch, just like twelve of them. By the way, this is Crystal. Spend a lot of time watching Simpsons episodes for this, So we gotta play this one out a little longer. Nuclear. No, here's one you'll never get. Tartar controlled Duff. What a shout out to the writer's room. Right there is there an atomic Duff there? There there should be, but there is not. Where this one's over, okay, but there there is a Duff Light Dry Dark Draft Logger, Duff Stout, the beer that made Ireland famous, and of course Duff Extra Cold and Duff Microbrew Crystal. Thank you so much for all the hard work that you put in here. We got an amazing staff. No one gets the bonus point. We only named one. Question three. This is for the win. In the eighties, bud Light had a spokesdog party animal who first showed up in a Super Bowl ad in seven. What was this dog's name? That's Alex. It's not multi, I just say it's Spuds Mackenzie. It is Spuds Mackenzie. How did you know that? Which I've always wanted to do a potato dish called spuds Mackenzie, by the way, which I think I need to do potatoes cooked in beer. But thank you for the inspiration, guys, for the topic. I think that's gonna work. Budweiser retired him in nine, presumably to get back to being a full time party time cool guy dog. Retired him to a farm up state or also, I just want to know there's probably how many spuds make. I did one commercial in my career. It was a cat commercial that I consistently get hounded for um and it was with the Fancy Feast cat. And you know when you film with a famous animal, there's multiple animals, right, there's multiple animals. I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say this, Crystals, but so like, how many Spuds Mackenzie's were there? That's the question? Only one Crystal saying there was only one Spuds Mackenzie and beat out everything I said about the Fancy Feast cat because they're definitely coming for me. All right. Listen, that means that Alex, you have won the trivia. You get to make the big decision right here. Who presents their argument first. You're gonna be the home team. You're gonna bat first, Alex. Oh jeez, yeah, can go first. Alright, Matt, you're going to present first. You get to let us know why dark beer reigns supreme. You'll have three minutes and we'll get into the debate right after this break, and we are back here in the food court to recap today. We have the case of dark versus light beer and perhaps also existentially, I'm gonna try really hard is good verse not to object myself? Yes, Well, here goes. This is the way it works. You probably know, but each of you will have three minutes to state your case. During the three minutes, you need to lay out your case and not focus on your opponents. This isn't your time to go negative. That comes later in the rebuttal round. Guys, do we both understand the rules here? Yes? I understand. We have a verbal confirmation. I need you, just like on an airplane, to say it out loud. I understand. I don't know why I'm making you do the You're in the the the jump seat on the airplane. Here. Okay, after you both state your cases, you'll get two minutes of rebuttal, and then you can go as low as you'd like, or as light or as dark as you'd like. Look, I wrote that one in myself. Crystal, so proud of it. Right now, beautiful, all right, Crystal is gonna get the time up. It's three minutes on the clock, and Matt, you get to let us know why dark beer is the best. Your three minutes starts now, My esteemed colleague, Honorable Judge Blaze, I have a question for you, rhetorical in nature, Shall we all abide by the five hundred and six year old Bavarian purity law which states beer is and only can be water, barley, hops and yeast. That part was added later when it was discovered nay, I say nay, we shall add to our a and logger, pilsner's and porters any and all ingredients we dang well please, and furthermore, will manipulate those ingredients in increasingly innovative ways. We've been doing so since the seventeen hundreds. Why would we stop now? When brew masters in England discovered that raising the temperature just a smidge and slightly singing their grains added to their concoctions a hint of smokiness, excitement, something different, something new, And as time passed, we discovered that you could add other flavors, especially to darker beers, when you combine them with cereal grains. It created songs on our tongues, things like coffee, chocolate, cherry, coconut, even peanut butter. Peanut butter in a beer. It's true. Darker beers are hardy. They're filled with calories. Even if you don't need them. They're there for you just in case you're hungry or you're tired. They'll give you the calories. Think about a special occasion in your life. Maybe you crack open an expensive bottle of and that's been aging for years. Why not instead crack open a delicious porter that's had coffee brewed with it, as the one I'm holding up right now, Judge Blaze, as well as perhaps this imperial coconut stout coconuts delicious, or if you're maybe a scientist, maybe a little bit insane, you could add coffee and coconut and create this stout as these brew masters in Georgia did. Again, gentleman, the most important fact about dark beer. We've discovered a method that can make beer even more delicious and creamy with the addition of a single substance, A substance that's benefited all of mankind as it hangs in the air we breathe. It's played no small part in the genius and popularity of our most honorable Judge nitrogen. You can add this tasteless, colorless, odorless gas to the darkest of bruise and it becomes something again, new, exciting and unfathomably tasty. As a wise old, tiny green Jedi once said, once you start down the dark path, forever it will dominate your destiny. So come to the dark side. We have coffee wow, with thirty seconds to spare. But I felt like there's nothing I mean that that, there's nothing else to say right there. Yoda has not made an appearance in the food court. Spiritually, I don't believe the word nitrogen has been used to persuade me and it works. I'm sure, I'm sure it worked for a hot second right there. Wow, lots of flavor. You know, it's almost I mean dai almost getting into constitutional beverage law. The five oh six Bavarian let your is oh my gosh, so much information. That was hardly the strategy, judge, to overwhelm you with information. Well, listen, lots of great information, lots of great talk about flavors and is the dark is dark beer the special occasion beverage of choice or should it be Alex? You'll have three minutes to let us know why light beer's best, and your three minutes starts now. So I don't have nearly as special of a performance as Matthew, But I think that my point is maybe just a little bit more basic than that. I don't really have anything against a heavier style beer, but I feel like, especially in in this sort of in the in the craft beer era of late, that the logger has been really besmirched. And even when you do a little research about this, you just see lagger described as like flavorless. Can I say, shitty, bland, watery, basic, disappointing, And so I guess it's really three things for me. I think the experience that well, the flavor is very different, right, The flavor of a of a of a craft beer can be many different things. All beers are basically loggers or ales, right, It depends on the kind of used to put in them and else got top fermenting east the loggers got bottom from enting East. Ales range in a bunch of different ways. There's lighter ones like sours and pale ales, I p as it gets into heavier stuff like scotches and porters and stouts and stuff that gets really very intense, and loggers tend to be a lot easier drinking, you know, the basic American loggers like essentially like a Budweiser. There's also like Pilsner's, there's a great surfaces, and then there's darker styles like box and duncles. In October fests, and marsins that even though they are dark and color, are also pretty light drinking. They don't. They go back a lot shorter period in history too, about the mid eighteen hundreds, and they've got a special place in America where, you know, the mid eighteen hundreds, most beer in America is still being imported from Europe because barley is so important. Barley mash and barley doesn't grow very well in the United States, and so they start thinking about, well, what other things that we could use instead of barley, like corn, for instance, rice and wheat and things like that. At a time with an influx of German immigrants and the Industrial Revolution, and thus the American lagger as we know today is born post the seventies. It's very consolidated, right, Like you have Anheuser Busch, Miller, Cours and Paths that have bought up all these companies. But once upon a time and every city you had your own, there's still a few left, like Yngling in Pennsylvania, Genese in Rochester, New York, anchor Steam in San Francisco. So that's a little bit of the history. But I think it comes down to me the flavor. It's just easier drinking. The experience is very different, like going into a restaurant and looking at a list of four hundred kinds of beers and talking about all the tasting notes, or like going to the river with your friends and drinking a six pack of lager. And uh, I think locker is just more nostalgic for me too. I'm sorry. Whatever, time to night, Alice. Uh, this is the first time that we've ever needed a bell. If your your time time time is extended, the court will strike the last ten seconds of the argument um. But the argument is, there is light beer American. It's right there, is it. It's easy drinking, it's American, it's the king of beers. But also, and very wise, at the end, they're bringing it back to no, it's also it is special, it is local, the yen lings and the anchor steams, and that it's not just something maybe you get at a ballpark. And the debate continues after round one, very very tight. Not toasty. That would be dark beer, perhaps with it's coconut and it's cocoa and it's banana and it's circus peanut flavors. I just made that one up. I'm sure I'm sure a really good idea if someone hasn't done that yet. Actually, that's the brilliant branding. This is just Crispy Cream to it, the exactly Oh look at Matt dropping, the dropping, the throwback note to the old Crispy Cream liquid nitrogen milkshake. No one knows what's going on right now except for Matt, and I'm at you got three You got two minutes now for a rebuttal after a very very well well written three minutes. Here you get to let us know now why Alex is totally wrong, why light beer is horrible. Your two minute rebuttal starts now again, My colleague, honorable Judge Crystal, I know you're listening to Also you, whoever you are. My opponent has made my point for me. He called his own beer bland and disappointing, and I have to agree with him. If if I want a beverage that tastes of stale bread soaked in water, I'll reach for a Pilsner or a Lagger delicious. No, I say again, no, I don't want that. We drink beer not because it is easy. We drink beer because it is hard. If anyone remembers, because when we went to the moon. It's not the same, but it's close. When I snap open this delicious coffee stout and I smell, oh, the top notes of coconut, I know that my mouth is gonna have a pleasurable experience. And it's not just gonna be Oh. I'm coming in from a hard day's work and I just want to have a drink, and I'm gonna get it on the cheap and we get a six pack of whatever it is Natty Light. No, I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna spend a little extra money and I'm gonna get a craft beer, a local craft beer, which again is an argument my opponent made, it's an American thing, it's a local thing. Well, guess what. There are craft breweries on every street corner now, especially here in Atlanta. This beer is made in Lagrange, Georgia, just south of Atlanta where we are. This one brewed right here in our city. And they're both dark and they're both delicious. My god, dark beer there it is. Matt such a positive guy, kept it again, a little, very very positive on the dark beer. Really go after Alex or the light beer. They're too bad Because he's just a great guy. You just get you get that sense, don't you, Crystal, Not that you're not, Alex. We know you're a great guy too, Frederick whatever. Alright, listen, I'm points for the cracking of the stout, for the a s MR moment right there that we all appreciated. I think you were going for Kennedy, but it was a little bit more mayor Quinby, but that works for this episode, keeping with the Simpsons, sleeping with the Simpsons theme. Alright, Alexe, note note there everyone that beer right just took a sip of is ten percent alcohol, which is too much. Day's taste delicious, but alcohol. It's nine fifteen in the morning, and all right, Alex, you got two minutes of abuttle to let Matt know why dark beer? Why? Why you know? Listen, the force should be with you, and the force might be light beer. Alex, You're two minutes starts now. I think Matt has exemplified at least a piece of the immense snobbery that comes with craft beer, dark beer, the whole sort of culture around ales right now, which again have no problem with the more of the merrier. If you want to be this consumer that goes into the place and looks at the list of four thousand things and has a life story conversation with your waiter about the thing that you're gonna that you're gonna drink. Great, Maybe you want to get like a six packet Takats and go down to the train tracks, you know, hang out, throw rocks at the at the passing trains. Oh that's a weird example, but you know that sounds like a good time to me go to the river. I was thinking when you were talking about Miller High Life Failier my grandfather. There's this story that my grandfather was not a big drinker. Every night he would take a Miller High Life and he would drink half of it and put the cap back on and stick it back in the fridge, and then the next night he drink the other half of it flat. That man was not a discerning consumer, but that was a little ritual for him. And I never really can not finish the whole beer. But I don't know I feel some sort of lineage to that. I don't really. I was a bartender for ages right where I talked to people. You tell your whole life story talking someone through what kind of beer they want, to order. I don't necessarily need to embody that in my life anymore. I'm looking for the for the celebration, for the experience of of being with people and imbibing in a celebratory atmosphere. I don't need it to be a homework assignment. There's certainly a place for the craft every thing, but I just think this on the on the lockers all the time needs to end. It's being embraced a little bit more. There are some craft places that are making you know. They're fancy new versions of lager. I'm not sure they've really cracked like Miller High Life on the soft Bubbles yet, but that's it for me. Alex coming through at the end a strong rebuttal round for both of our competitors. Nostalgia. We're talking about family, We're talking about ritual. So many things to get into here. I am going to retire to my chambers and I will come back and deliver our verdict in light verse dark beer. Okay, we are back from the chambers where I have where I think I've made up my mind, where we're debating dark versus light beer. But before I deliver my verdict, I would like to give both of you, Matt and Alex, an opportunity to grab sixty seconds here and give me some final thoughts, perhaps to persuade me from the other side, whether that's the light or the dark side. Who knows yet, Matt. Anything you'd like me to know before I deliver this verdict. When I was a young man, the first beer I ever sipped was my father's Milwaukee's Best, and I absolutely detested the flavor. I was pretty small, probably thirteen fourteen. I just took a sip. I hated it, and I didn't touch alcohol again until I was twenty one. And when I try alcohol again, it was a light beer created here in Atlanta. It was called a Sweetwater Blue and it was like this blueberry flavored MALTI beverage thing that again I did not like. I did not enjoy the flavor of beer until I tried a Guinness draft and that's when I knew this beer is good. There it is, Alex. Anything you'd like to give me to think about here before I deliver this verdict. I'd like to give you a visual. There's a very popular meme on the Internet called the Evolution of a Beer Snob, and it's like five figures coming from ape up to erect human and and the five levels in order are loggers like starting with the you know, Budweiser loggers, I p a s Big stouts, That's where Matt got into it. Sours for once you're getting particularly snobbery, and then back to loggers at the end. I think the world is big enough for all kinds of beer. And when you walk into a place with your friend a little bit of a beer snob, they don't need to say something to you like, oh, I just want a bitty beer today, because they like the thing they're ordering, they want the decatte there. It is Alex dating his case very well. By the way, this case comes down to, is it it's the old verse the new? Is it elitism versus pragmatism? Is it snobbery verse nostalgia? Is it flavor versus mouth feel? Is it like a special occasion verse? Everyday craft? Verse commerce? So many things to weigh in here, And I have to say before I deliver this verdict that my personal beer of choice is, uh, lately Heineken zero. So I don't know what that says about me. Heineken zero point zero. So with that being said, this court will decide in favor of dark beer. Yes, welcome to the docks, dark Dear. I listen. I rarely do I do a recap on my own verdict, but listen, I get it. I am over the whole this beer. It's it's not a little coconut and toasted caramel and do you get a little bit of you get a little bit of a high tide coconuts certle lotion on it, circus peanut meats. I don't raisinet, you know, like I am over that too, Alex. But at the end of the day, the argument for dark beer and all of its flavor and complexity just so well crafted. Matt Frederick, congratulations, dark beer wins today. Am I not allowed to drink light beer anymore? Is that what this means? When is the sentencing hearing? Do you order US thirteen million? Now? You know, well, listen, here's how it works. There's no money involved. But we'll get right into the sentence saying, this court does declare, Alex, that you can drink whatever you would like, whenever you would like it. And I agree with those arguments that drink what you want. I don't care if it's a Kega ranch dressing. That's what food Court is all about. Well, don't trinck a check of ranch dressing. We're gonna get water this this this porter does. Don't you get a little bit of like aged ranch dressing on the back palette? All right, Thanks everyone for listening to food Court. I'm Richard Blaze. For more Matt, you can check out the podcast Stuff They Don't Want You to Know wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter at Conspiracy Stuff. And for more Alex please check out his podcast Ephemeral wherever you get your podcasts and on Twitter at Ephemeral. Show Listen, audience, I know you think I got it wrong. Fifty one percent of you think that, then I get it right. Some of you might think that what kind of peanut butter do you prefer in your stout or porter? What did your granddad drink? Right? We're all having these questions. You can find out and debated across social media at Richard Blaze and find the podcast on Instagram at food Court Pod. To let us know, food Court is a production of I Heart Radio. I'm Richard Blaze, my producers Crystal at My food Court was created by Christopher has know. Just the rest of my food court clerks are Jonathan Dressler, David Wasserban, and Jasmine Blaze no relation, Actually she's really We're married and the theme song is by Jason E. Smith. For more podcasts from the I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows with Jo