Joey Cardaccio, service manager at Slackwater Sandy, joins Utah Beer News for another episode of our 3 Beers with Joey video series.

Each month, Cardaccio will chat with us about three new or noteworthy beers worth checking out. Here are the three beers selected for September 2021:

• Black O’ Lantern Pumpkin Stout (Wasatch Brewery)
• Oktober Fest-Märzen (Ayinger Privatbrauerei)
• Pumpkin Kerfuffle mperial Sour with Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend and Toasted Marshmallow Flavor (Prairie Artisan Ales)

About the Utah Beer News Virtual Taproom

Utah Beer News conducts 15-minute video interviews with brewers, breweries, and everyday imbibers. These brief conversations are recorded virtually. They are uploaded the same day (or the next day) to the Utah Beer News YouTube channel.

Instead of the more in-depth interviews and brewery histories typical of the Utah Beer News Podcast episodes and Brewery Profile articles, these bite-sized conversations feature so-called “newsy” information. We talk about new beer releases, upcoming events, and general happenings in and around Utah’s craft breweries.

If you’re a brewer or brewery representative — or even an everyday imbiber with a story to share — and would like to participate in an upcoming episode, please fill out the contact form.

Slackwater Sandy Transcript (September 2021)

The following is a slightly edited transcript of our conversation. And here’s a previous article we wrote about Slackwater Sandy.

[Tim Haran]

Hey there everyone. Thank you for joining Utah Beer News for the latest in our one-on-one conversations with the local brewers, breweries, and everyday imbibers. I’m Tim Haran, the founder of Utah Beer News. And we are back for our regular check-in with Joey Cardaccio, the service manager at Slackwater Pub & Pizzeria in Sandy.

Welcome, Joey.

[Joey Cardaccio]

Hey, Tim. How are you doing?

[Tim Haran]

I’m doing great. Thanks for taking the time to talk with Utah Beer News.

[Joey Cardaccio]

Yeah, you got it.

[Tim Haran]

This time of year is exciting for me as a beer drinker and for you as well, I’m sure, because it is prime time for Oktoberfest-style beers, fresh-hopped beers. We’re on the cusp of pumpkin beer season, and then we slide right into the stouts the porters, things like that as the days start getting shorter and the nights get longer.

Before we get into this month’s three beers, if you had to rank the following, which order would you go?

So if you’ve got the Oktoberfest-style beers, you’ve got the fresh-hopped beers and then you’ve got the pumpkin beers. What’s kind of your go-to out of those three?

[Joey Cardaccio]

I think I’m going to go Oktoberfest, pumpkin, fresh-hopped.

I love a good Oktoberfest. This is my favorite time of year for beers, too. I’ve already started bringing some into Slackwater because everyone’s starting to release them. Once they’re out, we need to get them because it’s, you know, it’s getting a little chilly at night. It’s time to go. Let’s do it.

[Tim Haran]

Exactly, yeah, I mean football season, fall, leaves changing. It’s perfect for Oktoberfest-style. And then pumpkin, too. You know, I’m not a pumpkin hater. It’s not my all-time favorite but in fall I will drink my share of pumpkin beers.

[Joey Cardaccio]

I feel like if you find the right one, you’ll be pretty happy, you know. But I get what you’re saying. It’s not like, I want all these pumpkin beers. When you find the right one it’s good to go.

[Tim Haran]

Yeah, definitely.

Alright, let’s dive in because I think you’re going to kick us off with a classic pumpkin beer.

Let’s start with the first beer of this month’s 3 Beers with Joey segment.

[Joey Cardaccio]

First, we’re going to do our local friends from Wasatch here. They always do Black O’ Lantern. This is one of my favorites. It’s a pumpkin stout but really what this is is an imperial stout mixed with pumpkin ale. It’s really, really cool. It comes in at 6.66%. Spooky.

Yeah, it’s super good. A lot of pumpkin, a lot of chocolate. Velvety mouthfeel. Just like a super, super crushable pumpkin stout beer that tastes like a 4%. It’s so good. It goes down so smooth. You can drink these all night. They’ve been making this beer for a little while now and I always make a point to pick it up whenever it comes out. Really, really good stuff.

[Tim Haran]

Yeah, yeah, that’s a good one. Whenever I go up to Snowbird for Oktoberfest, I always make sure to grab one of those. Very cool.

Alright, how about number two?

[Joey Cardaccio]

Number two we’ve got straight out of Bavaria. We’ve got Ayinger’s Oktoberfest Marzen.

So this one, this is, I mean this is you know one of the classic German breweries out there. All Hefeweizens and things like that. This one is 5.8%. Subtle toastiness to this one. A little bit of malt, a little bit of caramel, but just that classic Oktoberfest Marzen taste that I just love. Just can’t wait for this time of year.

And this is actually one of my favorites. And this one just started popping up in the DABC about two weeks ago and I jumped all over it. I love this beer.

[Tim Haran]

Yeah, DABC carries an Ayinger from time to time but the Oktoberfest is a delicious beer. I’m glad you got that one there.

Very cool. Alright.

[Joey Cardaccio]

And then the last, yeah, from McCallister, Okla. If you’ve been down to Slackwater in the past year or more, you’ve noticed we’ve been carrying a lot of these sours from Prairie and stouts, too.

This one that we just got in a couple days ago. It’s called Pumpkin Kerfuffle. It’s an imperial sour beer with pumpkin pie spice blend and toasted marshmallow flavor. So this is nice.

This one is 8.2%. Sour, tastes a little bit — the sour makes it taste a little bit like orange. So I get a little bit of an orange cream from it. It’s a lot of pumpkin with a little bit of that orange from the sourness, I think.

Super, super good. A dangerous one at 8.2% but it’s really nice.

[Tim Haran]

Cool, that’s a great label for sure. I don’t think I’ve had a pumpkin sour before.

[Joey Cardaccio]

No, I haven’t either until I tried this one. But it’s delicious for sure.

[Tim Haran]

Awesome. Cool. Great. Well those are three good ones

What about the events you have going on at Slackwater in September?

[Joey Cardaccio]

So this week we’ve got one on Wednesday, this coming Wednesday the 15th. We’ve got Uinta coming in for a tap takeover. They’ll be here from 5 to 10. We’ll do four beers on draft.

And then on Wednesday, the 29th of September we have SaltFire coming in. We’re going to do a couple of their actual drafts. We’ll have two of their drafts and we’re going to feature four or five of their cans. So it will be a tap/can night. That will be really fun too.

[Tim Haran]

Yeah, they do a lot of good stuff with the high points too, so I’m glad you got some of their cans coming in. Cool.

September is such a great month for Oktoberfest-style events and just other events. In my e-newsletter that went out earlier this month, I listed a few events that we have coming up.

Bewilder has their Oktoberfest that starts on the 18th going through the 26th.

There’s 4th West Oktoberfest, which is always a good time down by Mountain West and Red Rock.

In Ogden, Talisman’s 5-year anniversary party will be Oktoberfest-themed. Talismania takes place on Sept. 25.

And T.F. Brewing, down in Salt Lake. The third-ish annual Templin Family Oktoberfest is Sept. 25 as well.

Plus, as I mentioned, Snowbird has got their Oktoberfest and Snowbasin is hosting an Oktoberfest through the middle of October.

There’s a lot of stuff going on in September.

[Joey Cardaccio]

I went up to Snowbasin yesterday for that. It was really fun.

[Tim Haran]

Oh, you did? Is that a good time? Cool. Yeah, I was sad that they canceled their brews and blues and barbecue or whatever it was. I think they’re kind of bringing it back a little bit with this.

Awesome. Cool. Well, thanks, Joey, for joining me at the Utah Beer News Virtual Taproom. Be sure to follow Slackwater on social media at Slackwater Sandy and check out its current beer list on its website and on Untappd.

Alright, Joey. Anything else before we wrap up with the 3 Beers with Joey for September?

[Joey Cardaccio]

That’s good. I appreciate you having me every month. Everybody just keep an eye out because I’ll keep bringing in more seasonal beers as they become available. We’ve got some cool specials in here that you can’t get anywhere else. Just keep your eyes open for that.

[Tim Haran]

Awesome, awesome. Any update on Slackwater Salt Lake?

[Joey Cardaccio]

Not yet. I mean, soon.

Soon.

There’s no exact date yet. Soon. Very soon. We’ll be going downtown for sure.

[Tim Haran]

Nice, nice. Alright, thanks Joey, as always. I appreciate it.

[Joey Cardaccio]

Yeah, thanks.