Category: News

Fall is here, and with it comes a solid month or two of wildly variable weather. Some phantom hot days; a few surprisingly cold nights. That means variable beer drinking, too. It’s time to finish off your summery IPAs on the hotter days of the season and crack open your barrel-aged stouts on the chilly eves.

Since we cover IPAs aplenty, we’re turning our attention today to barrel-aged stouts. While we always enjoy a malty, roasted stout, the act of barreling only makes them richer and more flavorful. For those unaware, a barrel-aged beer is a beer that’s been aged for a few months (sometimes more) in a wooden barrel. Usually, an ex-bourbon barrel — where the effects of the maturation impart a silky sweet essence and rich flavors of vanilla and butterscotch into the beer.

Over the past decade, breweries all over the country (and the world) have tried their hand at barrel-aging stouts. To find out the best of the best, we decided to once again go to the pros — asking a handful of well-known bartenders to tell us their favorite bourbon barrel-aged stouts for fall.

Finkel and Garf Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout

Jess Thorson, bartender at TORO Kitchen & Lounge at Viceroy Snowmass in Snowmass, Colorado

Finkel and Garf from Boulder, Colorado make a great Bourbon Barrel Aged Imperial Stout. It is a strong /heavy stout but super smooth. It’s roasty, malty, and full of rich chocolate flavor.

Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout

Zach Wilks, bartender at Anthony’s Chophouse in Carmel, Indiana

Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout is my personal favorite barrel-aged stout. It’s aged in bourbon barrels, that also got used to age Maple Syrup. It’s an absolutely fantastic mixture of maple sweetness and vanilla-filled bourbon.

Great Divide Barrel Aged Yeti

Hayden Miller, head bartender at Bodega Taqueria y Tequila in Miami

Great Divide barrel-aged their Yeti stout and it really caught my attention. The flavors of the Yeti Imperial Stout are only deepened and highlighted by the whiskey components introduced from the aging process.

Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout

Jeremy Allen, bartender at MiniBar in Los Angeles

Founders in Michigan is one of the best breweries in the country, and their KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) truly is a world-class product. I can’t actually remember using the term “world-class” on beer before, but here you go.

Cave aged in bourbon barrels for a year, this one emerges as a potent (12.8%) chocolaty, maple-filled beast.

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout

Daniel Gamiño, assistant food and beverage manager at Banyan Tree Cabo Marques in Acapulco, Mexico

Goose Island Bourbon County Brand Stout Barrel-aged Imperial Stout is the perfect pairing for a warm pumpkin pie with its notes of cinnamon, cocoa, and toasted nuts. It also feels like a warm hug, with every sip with its complete but balanced body. This particular stout has also voasts some sherry notes from the barrel — matching perfectly with a pumpkin pie.

2nd Shift Barrel Aged Black Noise

Andy Printy, beverage director at Chao Baan in St. Louis

2nd Shift Barrel Aged Black Noise is one I genuinely enjoy. An imperial stout aged in bourbon barrels for five months and drinks at a high-ish ABV.

Sweet but balanced out by the rich and roasty profile. It’s noisy, but not loud.

Shepherd Neame Double Stout

Efren López Fernandez, bartender at Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Play del Carmen, Mexico

Shepherd Neame Double Stout. This is because I love the hops notes that are not so aggressive, at the same time the aromas of chocolate and coffee are really subtle

Writer’s Picks:

Firestone Walker Parabola

This 14 percent imperial stout was aged for a full year in ex-bourbon barrels. The result is a rich, subtly sweet, dark beer with hints of dark chocolate, toasted caramel, and pleasing vanilla.

Bell’s Black Note

They should have called this Bell’s two notes because this indulgent beer was made by combining the brand’s Expedition Stout and its Double Cream Stout before aging the liquid in ex-bourbon barrels for a few months.

Three Floyd’s Dark Lord

This 15 percent Russian Imperial Stout was made with Mexican vanilla, real coffee, and Indian sugar. It’s barrel-aged and eagerly awaited by its fans when it’s released every year on “Dark Lord Day.”

Fans learned just hours ago that Shawn Mendes is up to something. This morning, he wrote on twitter, “WHAT IS #WONDER.” A few hours after that, he shared a teaser video, which features him performing 90 seconds of a song in a magical apartment. At that point, it wasn’t exactly clear what was going on, but he quickly confirmed that he has a new song called “Wonder” dropping this Friday, October 2, and an album called Wonder coming out on December 4.

The full tracklist isn’t currently available, but pre-order links indicate that the album has 14 tracks and begins with an “Intro” track before moving onto the title track. Furthermore, Mendes also shared a link to whatiswonder.com, which features a 3D room (the one from the teaser video) that users can navigate from a fixed perspective. The interactive site features a piece of paper on the floor titled “Set list,” and it goes on to list out what are presumably 14 song titles: “The Intro,” “Wonder,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You,” “Lost In Japan!,” “Nervous,” “Never Be Alone,” “Look Up At The Stars,” “Lost Ones,” “305-745-7485,” “Why,” “Always Been You,” “Monster (w special guest),” “Higher,” and “Picture Of The Moon.”

Check out the Wonder album art below, and watch the teaser video above.

Wonder is out 12/4 via Island. Pre-order it here.

The Eric Andre Show is like if the Gremlins programmed a television show. It’s stupid and loud and chaotic, and I love every second of it. I also love that after a four-year break (not including specials), The Eric Andre Show is back next month. Adult Swim just released a trailer for the new season showing Andre destroying the set, as per usual, but also choking a clown with balloons, ripping his own head off and kicking it into a soccer goal, and getting shot, followed by his corpse crumbling into dust and bone.

Like I said, chaos.

“I waxed my entire body, got over 200 pounds, and slept in a tanning bed,” Andre told Entertainment Weekly about the new season. “I also got a new, super ‘expensive’ set that looks like Liberace f*cked a Japanese game show. This is the season of ultimate decadence.” As for celebrity drop-ins, Judy Greer, Blake Griffin, Luis Guzman, Omarion, Adam Rippon, Dermot Mulroney, Tia Carrere, Robin Givens, and Jai Rodriguez will look on in confusion as Andre and co-host Hannibal Buress talk about ladders, or whatever. The previously-announced musical guests include Lil Yachty, Joey Bada$$, Anderson .Paak, Toro y Moi, Big Freedia, Machine Gun Kelly, Odd Future’s Taco, and Grimes. (The thought of Elon Musk watching this is too much for me to handle.)

The Eric Andre Show premieres Sunday, October 25, at 12 a.m. EST on Adult Swim.

On Tuesday night, after watching that thing — it’s pretty tough to call it a “debate” — there was Stephen Colbert afterward waiting, live, to comfort us like a hot plate of macaroni and cheese. And that’s not to say Colbert wasn’t short-circuiting Tuesday night like a lot of us were, but what made it comforting was, away from the post-debate news analysis, it’s human nature to want to ask someone, “Hey, that was messed up, right?” And Colbert was there live last night to tell us, “Yes. Yes, it was.” Or, specifically, after CNN’s Dana Bash called the debate a “shit show,” Colbert pointed out that after a 90-minute poop, we usually feel better. The thing is, over the last six months Colbert’s show has felt comforting in a way I wasn’t expecting. I honestly can’t get enough of him right now.

Now, this is surprising to me because I wasn’t a huge fan of his show pre-pandemic. Sure, I loved The Colbert Report, but ever since Colbert took over The Late Show in 2015 there’s been a weird disconnect. He’s never seemed truly comfortable. (Remember when things were going bad enough there were rumors he was going to be replaced by James Corden? Could you imagine that now?) It’s hard to pinpoint, but it’s as if Colbert couldn’t quite figure out who he was performing for between his live audience and the at-home viewer. We have to remember, Colbert isn’t a standup comedian (like his predecessor David Letterman). He came from the world of sketch comedy. He’s a performer. His previous gigs as a host on The Colbert Report and a correspondent on The Daily Show were performances. Then he was basically being asked to go out there and be something that kind of went against his natural tendencies. And it was, at times, pretty awkward. During interviews, he’d sometimes drift back into his Colbert “character” almost as a defense mechanism, and what was funny on his old show now became rude. And, strangely, he’d then find himself going for the cheapest laugh possible to rile up his audience, then have to later apologize.

Look, he certainly got better over the last five years, but something just always seemed off. Like Colbert still didn’t quite know what to do and, frankly, that he wasn’t all together enjoying the experience. And then the pandemic hit…

Colbert was the first late-night host to start broadcasting from home. At first, it was crude, little snippets filmed on his phone to introduce some older clips. But, back then, god, it was great just to see anyone at all. To know there were other people out there stuck at home just like us. And I also know this put pressure on the other late-night shows to start producing shows at home. Shows that thought, without a studio, they’d just be off indefinitely. It wasn’t long before Colbert was holding what felt like fireside chats from his house. Even the nook of his house he chose as his backdrop was comforting. Colbert, free from having to make an in-studio audience laugh, suddenly found his voice. His natural instinct of performing for a camera was well-suited for his (and our) current situation. Colbert’s warmth and empathy, somehow often missing from his regular show, now became the focal point of what he was doing every night. Colbert became less an entertainer, less a character, and presented himself as a Stephen Colbert, human being. This late night show I used to find awkward and forced, now became something I had to watch every night – a strange beacon of hope and humanity in a dark, anxiety-filled time.

On his show, Colbert says he misses the audience, but I’m not convinced that’s true. Oh, sure, I suspect he does miss the applause when something lands, but I’m not convinced he misses having to cater the show around that. What we see now is the pure essence of what he wants to do and the show is better for it. He honestly seems happier – and not about the way the world is going or our current predicaments – but, as a host, he seems looser and enjoying himself much more. It’s hard to fake that. A thing he’s done is he leaves in a lot of his mistakes, and the subsequent laughter that follows. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him express as much joy as he does now.

Also, his interviews have improved drastically. It’s almost as if, before, he was more worried about entertaining the audience than conducting an interesting interview, which often wound up at odds with each other. Now, he’s somehow more focused and more freewheeling, willing to go down strange tangents, not worrying if the audience right in front of him understands or not. But, regardless, Colbert is actually talking to people now. He’s listening to what they are saying as opposed to thinking of a witty comeback, or whatever, to get the audience going. Even his nightly chats with Jon Batiste have taken on more importance. It felt like in the past he was just “checking in with the band,” as opposed to now when he genuinely wants to get Batiste’s opinions on current events. Batiste isn’t even in the same state as Colbert, yet he feels like a much bigger part of the show. Honestly, he’s a completely different host now.

Look, I want the world to go back to normal. Living in New York City these past few months have been, let’s say, “trying.” And with winter coming, I suspect things will get worse again before they ever get better. But the one exception is Stephen Colbert. I like this format. I don’t want it to go back to the way it was. He’s much better like this. It’s like cozying up to hang out with a fun, empathetic buddy every night. Or, again, like last night, to be comforted by someone saying, “Hey, you’re right, that was pretty nuts.” To sit there and agonize on-screen about what that chaotic debate — fueled by a seemingly feral President of the United States — means for the country. He was live every night during both conventions, trying to make sense of it all. And every night I watched, just happy to hear a sensible human voice. He wasn’t going for laughs (though he still had those) as much as he was going for some semblance of sanity. Over the last six months, Colbert has finally found his way as host of The Late Show, and it was just in time.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

New Supreme, Palace, Off-White, reissues of some of the dopest Air Max 90 Colorways in the sneaker’s 30-year history, new Yeezys… this week is packed with so many dope drops that even brand-loyalists aren’t going to know where to throw their cash. We definitely don’t envy Nike fans this week, as the brand is launching a region-specific collection of Off-White Air Rubber Dunks and re-releasing a grip of classic Air Max 90 Colorways just days apart from one another. Hell, we could’ve built this week’s entire top five on just Nike drops if we wanted to.

So do you grab the new and go with Virgil or do you finally cop that classic Air Max 90 colorway you’ve always wanted? Tough call. Meanwhile, we’re too busy trying to figure out how we’re going to manage to scoop up Yeezys, new Supreme, Palace, and Teddy Fresh into our carts and still have money to throw down on some Off-White Dunks. It’s a hard time to be a sneaker fan during this time of year — and Halloween and the Holiday season are only going to bring more must-cop drops on the sneaker and apparel end.

Before we start worrying about what’s to come, let’s just dive into this week’s best sneaker and apparel drops.

Off-White Nike Air Rubber Dunk Green Strike

Do any of the other sneakers releasing this week even matter when Off-White drops three Air Rubber Dunks worldwide? You’d be surprised actually, but nevertheless, the release that’s going to be in the front of every sneakerhead’s mind is undoubtedly Virgil’s latest, a surprisingly busy — and non-deconstructed — iteration of the Air Rubber Dunk which is dropping in three-region exclusive colorways in the American, European/ Middle Eastern/African, and Chinese/Greater Asia Pacific markets. This take on the Rubber Dunk features lavish ornamentation through the upper, giving us something new and different from Virgil.

We here in the states get the Green Strike, while the European/ Middle Eastern/ African market will get the University Blue, and the Asian market will be able to cop the University Gold. Our favorite has to be the University Blue, with its cool blue and silver tones, so if you’re not feeling the Green Strike, feel free to shop on the aftermarket for the other colorways.

The Off-White Nike Air Rubber Dunk Green Strike is set to drop on October 1st through the Nike SNKRS app for a retail price of $180. To cop the University Blue or University Gold colorway hit up aftermarket sites like StockX after the drop.

Nike Air Max 3 Laser Blue

30 years after its debut, the Nike Air Max 90 in Laser Blue is back returning under the “Air Max 3” moniker, a callback to the sneaker’s early concept name. This release features original tooling, a tapered foam midsole, and an encapsulated airbag with updated rubber traction for a sneaker that improves upon the original in every way while staying visually true to its roots.

While the Red iteration of the debut Air Max 90 is more iconic, the Laser Blue has always been our personal favorite, so we’re more than hyped to cop a pair.

The Air Max 3 in Laser Blue is set to drop on October 2nd for a retail price of $140. Pick up a pair through the Nike SNKRS app.

Adidas Yeezy BOOST 350 V2 Carbon

This week brings an ultra-sleek iteration of the Yeezy BOOST 350 V2 in the renamed Yeezy Carbon. Featuring a lightweight mesh upper in deep black and gray tones atop a creamy semi-translucent midsole, the Carbon sees Ye moving the Yeezy brand further and further from the earth-toned aesthetic that has so far dominated the brand until this year.

The Adidas Yeezy BOOST 350 V2 Carbon is set to drop on October 2nd for a retail price of $220. Pick up a pair at the Adidas webstore or through Yeezy Supply.

Slam Jam Nike Dunk High Light Gray

Italian based sneaker shop Slam Jam has teamed up with Nike for an ultra-clean take on the Nike Dunk High, drawing inspiration from the original College Color High range. Draped in a cool light grey colorway with transparent gummy swooshes, a translucent sole, and flipped branding, the Slam Jam Dunk High is yet another dope release in a year full of amazing Nike Dunks.

The Slam Jam Nike Dunk High Light Gray will be releasing exclusively via raffle at the Slam Jam website.

Kids of Immigrants x Vans Work A Day In Our Shoes

Up and coming Black and Latinx-founded label Kids of Immigrants has linked up with Vans for a special sneaker drop that pays tribute to immigrants, the working class, people of color, and underdogs everywhere. Kids of Immigrants utilize Vans’ Lowland CC silhouette dressing the pair in an all-white colorway and releasing alongside a paintbrush and sandpaper so that each pair can be personalized and “worked” by the wearer. It’s a dope concept.

The collaboration is more than just a simple brand link up for Kids of Immigrants, as one of the brand’s founders cut his teeth selling Vans, so it’s a bit of a full-circle moment for the label.

Dubbed “Work a Day In Our Shoes” each pair of sneakers sold will see a portion of the funds go to the non-profit organization A New Way Of Life, which helps to support women who are rebuilding their lives after prison.

Teddy Fresh Jacquard Knit Tee/ Barbed Wire Set

Teddy Fresh’s latest collection launching on Thursday sees the brand continuing to step up the quality of their garments with the Jacquard Knit tee, which features multicolored Teddy Fresh branding, and the Barbed Wire Collection which features digital all-over prints in pistachio green and royal blue. The Bared Wire Collection features eye-catching embroidered accents which really help to make each piece feel hand-constructed, we dig on that.

The Teddy Fresh Jacquard Knit tee and Barbed Wire sweat set will drop this Thursday at 10 am PST. Shop the drops at the Teddy Fresh webstore.

Supreme Fall/Winter 2020

Supreme is launching their sixth Fall/Winter 2020 collection this week which sees the brand collaborating with The Smurfs, as well as dropping some GORE-TEX-equipped and weather-appropriate apparel for the upcoming cold months. The Smurf crewnecks, we’re not going to lie, are kind of fire, but our eyes are mostly drawn to the embroidered bomber jackets, box-logo hoodies, and breast-branded pocket-tees — all of which drop in a variety of fall-toned colors.

The Supreme Fall Winter 2020 collection is set to land on October 1st at the Supreme online store.

Palace Winter 2020 Collection

We’re at a point now where we can safely say that Palace is more consistent than the streetwear label they most resemble, Supreme (no offense to the Smurf Crewneck). Palace has just been killing it this year with drop after drop of truly dope essentials for every season. This week’s debut Winter drop is packed with menswear staples like puffer jackets, Gore-TEX parkas, bomber jackets, and of course, t-shirts sporting Palace’s Tri-Ferg logo.

The drop is absolutely massive but picking a favorite is easy for us — it’s the pink suede bomber, no contest.

The Palace Winter 2020 collection is set to drop October 2nd. Shop and view the full collection at the Palace webstore.

With the release of the new Playstation 5 console just around the corner, Sony is showing off it’s upgraded version of the hit Marvel’s Spider-Man game for the PS4, but fans are not exactly feeling one very big and noticeable change to the wall-crawler’s appearance.

Titled Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered and referred to by Sony as the “definitive version of the game,” the updated installment will be a technical showcase for the PS5’s graphical power that can pump out fancier shadows, lighting, and “individually rendered shades of hair.” (You can’t have a good video game without great hair, right?) However, the publishers behind Marvel’s Spider-Man took things one step further by completely replacing the original face actor for Peter Parker. Via the official Playstation blog:

This does bring us to one of the bigger changes. In order to bring the best performances to players with our next-generation Marvel’s Spider-Man games, we have recast the face of Peter Parker. We loved working with John Bubniak on the original game; however, to get a better match to Peter Parker/Spider-Man actor Yuri Lowenthal’s facial capture, we have cast Ben Jordan to be the face model for Peter Parker on the PS5 console. He looks incredible in-game, and Yuri’s moving performances take on a new life.

As you can easily see in the video above, the new Peter Parker looks an awful lot like Tom Holland, almost eerily so. And we’re not the only ones who noticed. Spider-Man fans were quick to react to the new face actor reveal, which caused Holland to trend on Twitter even though the poor guy didn’t do anything.

While most of the reactions centered around the awkward face change and how it feels like shoehorning the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the game world, one bold user suggested, “Ah, but what if it’s not Tom Holland?” and it’s a pretty convincing argument.

However, if the goal is to emulate the MCU, then we gotta agree with “Johnny” that there’s only way to go from here:

Make Zendaya a playable character, you cowards!

(Via Playstation)

Back in 2018, Japanese Breakfast vocalist Michelle Zauner published the poignant essay Crying In H Mart in the New Yorker. The story detailed her experience growing up as one of the only Asian kids in her Eugene, Oregon hometown, and how she honors her late mother’s memory through food. Zauner transformed the essay into a full memoir, and she has now shared its release date: April 20, 2021.

Described as an “exquisite story of family, food, grief, and endurance,” the book is set for an official release next April. Alongside her announcement, Zauner described the life events which eventually led to Crying In H Mart:

“My mother passed away almost six years ago and ever since, my life has felt folded in half, divided into a before and after her death, my identity and my family having been fractured in the wake of her loss. I’ve spent the past six years processing grief in the best way I knew how — through creative work. I wrote two albums worth of material in an attempt to encapsulate all of that heavy darkness, confusion and loneliness, and then I spent another three years writing pages and pages to try and capture my mother’s brilliant character and spirit, what it was like to be raised by a Korean immigrant in a small west coast town with very little diversity, the intense shame I felt towards my mixed race identity and how my embrace of Korean food and culture helped me come to terms with that upbringing, allowed me to reconnect with her memory.”

After sharing the news on social media, Zauner posted a heartfelt interaction between her and an Instagram user who used to serve her mother at her hometown’s Olive Garden.

Check out the Crying In H Mart cover art below.

Crying In H Mart is out 4/20/2021 via Knopf. Pre-order it here.

HBO’s new drama series We Are Who We Are debuted this month and as part of the promotional effort, the network has partnered with designer Caleb Flowers for a digital ‘zine playing off the show’s theme. The project will be available in a USB drive containing images, music, and video from the show’s stars and creators, as well as other artists who inspire them, such as Kid Cudi and Blood Orange’s Devonte Hynes, who scored the show and is releasing the score as an album. The content provided aims to answer the question of who “they are,” mirroring the show’s theme of self-discovery.

Cudi and Hynes are just two of the creators contributing to the project, including model Aaron Phillip, musician/producer Instupendo, poet/musician TWEAKS, creative director Quinn Wilson, writer Mimi Zhu, visual artist Riya Hamid, and musician Raveena Aurora. The show’s stars Chloë Sevigny, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Jordan Kristine Seamón also provide content for the zine, which will come in a limited quantity of USBs starting September 28. Don’t worry if you miss out though, the content will also be available in zip format to download at wearewhoweareHBO.com.

Meanwhile, Dev Hynes recently remixed Tame Impala’s “Borderline,” while Kid Cudi has been collaborating with Travis Scott on “a lot” of new songs.

Throughout his time in the NBA Bubble this summer, LeBron James has been working from afar with More Than A Vote, the voting rights organization he leads, to make it easier for Americans to vote in the upcoming election.

According to Astead Herndon of the New York Times, the organization has signed up more than 10,000 poll workers in Black electoral districts so far, and while they have their sights set on other specific cities in the coming weeks, many of those poll workers will be celebrated during Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

On the jumobtron of virtual fans along the baseline and sideline during Game 1, many newly assigned poll workers from across the country will sit in on the game as they are honored by James and More Than A Vote. This report comes from Herndon, who was provided data from More Than A Vote to back up these impressive numbers as well as how the campaign will honor these poll workers.

Going forward, James’ group is partnering with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund to target 11 cities that are populated by a high proportion of people of color, sit in swing counties for the upcoming election, or both, including Flint, Michigan, and San Antonio, Texas. When James tosses his trademark chalk into the air before Game 1, he’ll be looking into the faces of folks who have committed to participating in the electoral process even more deeply this year than ever before thanks to the work of More Than A Vote.

Sigur Rós leader Jónsi will soon release Shiver, his first solo album since 2010. He revealed the tracklist this summer, and while it was mostly free of features, the album will be graced by a guest spot from Robyn. Now, the mononymous European music icons have shared a video for their new collaboration, “Salt Licorice.”

The song shares some sonic similarities with Sigur Rós, but it would never be mistaken for a song by the band. Instead, it’s more of a glitchy, experimental electronic affair, grounded by Robyn’s vocals and moments of pop bliss.

Press materials note the song has Jónsi and Robyn “commiserate in the coldness of aging, nostalgia, and depression, sorrows that are made easier when shared with a kindred soul.” Robyn also says of the track, “‘Salt Licorice’ is such a cute and perfect pop song. It makes me want to dance violently and make out at the same time. It was a no-brainer to say yes to singing it with Jónsi. The pretty emails I get with a thousand emojis in them from him is a bonus that came with our collaboration as well!”

Watch the “Salt Licorice” video above.

Shiver is out 10/2 via Krunk. Pre-order it here.