Batch 312: New England Mosh Pit*
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In 2026, the craft beer world has reached peak absurdity—where a $500 hot dog-themed bourbon from Costco outsells a $5,000 Weller Millennium, and a 17.7% ABV barley wine from Treehouse Brewing feels like cough syrup in a bottle. Yet, instead of rejecting the madness, hosts Alex Kidd and Steven Lowe embrace it head-on in Malt Couture’s chaotic, self-aware Batch 312, turning a New England mosh pit of conflicting palates into a celebration of beer’s glorious excess. The episode’s true revelation isn’t which beer wins—it’s that two vintages of the same homebrewed barley wine, aged in different barrels, taste like entirely different beers: one bitter with coffee, the other shockingly like bell pepper. This sensory disconnect turns the tasting into a surreal power ranking farce, where even a gold-medal-winning homebrew from Ward G. Walkup IV fails to align taste profiles, exposing the fragility of consensus in beer culture. Amid the chaos, Trillium’s collaboration with Side Project emerges as the rare consensus favorite—a refined, shareable masterpiece that balances decadence with drinkability. The episode culminates in a meta-theatrical sketch at a fictional Catholic summer camp, where the hosts improvise a treasure hunt led by Alex as the Pope, using Jell-O, sweaters, and third-person self-reference to mock institutional rigidity while celebrating creative reinvention. The final line—'Ho! Ho! Jello!
A $80 hot dog-themed bourbon from Costco sold out instantly and now resells for $500, proving novelty and branding trump traditional bourbon prestige.
Treehouse’s 17.7% ABV Tree of Reckoning tastes like cough syrup due to extreme thickness and heat, despite being well-crafted and technically impressive.
Two vintages of the same homebrew barley wine—aged in different barrels—produced wildly different flavors: one with coffee notes, the other intensely like bell pepper.
Trillium x Side Project Mylard (15.4% ABV) is unanimously praised as the best barley wine in the tasting—balanced, refined, and shareable.
Ward G. Walkup IV’s homebrew won gold at the International Homebrew Competition, proving elite craftsmanship can come from non-commercial, family-run batches.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
The 312 Paradox & New England Mosh Pit Launch
The episode opens with a meta-joke about the number 312 being a backwards Chicago area code, setting the tone for absurdity. The hosts introduce the theme: New England Mosh Pit, featuring three double barrel barley wines. They mock the trend as unnecessary decadence, comparing it to eating poutine in Miami.
Treehouse's Tree of Reckoning: A 17.7% ABV Beast
“This thing is so thick. Like this is the closest to like cough syrup. And I'm not saying like CVS, like generic store brand cough syrup. I'm talking about the good stuff. You know? With the sheeting.”
Trillium x Side Project Mylard: The Balanced Masterpiece
“For all of the hype and instant sellout and everything that Treehouse got, this is stone's throw away. And it's better. And it's ranked lower on its hat. It's better across the board, at least in my opinion.”
Costco’s Hot Dog Bourbon: A $500 Cultural Phenomenon
“It was an insane deal. It was awesome. And it was like a one-off that turned out to be very, very good based on the reviews. And so now that is selling for $500 and people are checking it in and reviewing it.”
Alchemist’s Skadoosh: A Vape-Like IPA Experience
“It does like a lot of weed notes for sure. Yeah, very terpene, very danky. But it's crazy. It's literally like if they're like, oh, how do we put this weed smoking sensation into a beer? And this is like exactly it.”
“It does like a lot of weed notes for sure. Yeah, very terpene, very danky. But it's crazy. It's literally like if they're like, oh, how do we put this weed smoking sensation into a beer? And this is like exactly it.”
“For all of the hype and instant sellout and everything that Treehouse got, this is stone's throw away. And it's better. And it's ranked lower on its hat. It's better across the board, at least in my opinion.”
“This is like very Mark McGuire home runs. I'm going to call this one a New England mosh pit asterisk.”
Hosts
Alex Kidd
person
Steven Lowe
person
Highland Park Brewing
brand
Camp Royal
other
Treehouse Brewing
brand
Ward G. Walkup IV
person
Bill Cosby
person
Shang Wang
person
Costco
brand
Trillium
brand
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