The Skol Hop

The Vikings defense looked great as they knocked the Lions out of the playoffs in the 2nd to last game of the regular season. Though the Vikings won’t be in the playoffs either, we really liked what we saw out of this Brian Flores defense. We think the team should do everything they can to keep the guy around as long as possible. Evan had to spin the Wheel of Purple Punishments because he predicte...

After the Vikings beat the Giants in Week 16, the question remains: play to win the game or tank for better draft picks and schedule for next season? The Vikings find themselves in that very scenario and Evan and Austin disagree on the best approach. Pro Bowl rosters came out recently, too, and we learned that 0 Vikings made the initial list. That tells you a lot about how this season has gone for...

For the first time all season, the Vikings have won back to back games, and things are looking up (kind of). We tried a really good beer from NoCoast, their Gingerbread Festive Ale . We spent time breaking down the win against the Cowboys on SNF. We may have jumped the gun a bit and talked about the Vikings 2026 draft options (I mean, who isn’t talking about the Vikings draft options now that they...

Our tone took a complete 180 as the Vikings shutout the Commanders at home in Week 14. We had a lot of fun sharing our favorite moments from that game. We also took some time to look ahead to the Vikings remaining schedule. With a little more than a 1% chance for this team to make the playoffs, we’re just happy they’re keeping it fun for us down the stretch! Our conversation took a slight detour i...

We rarely have a beer that disappoints on the show, and this week was no exception. Big Grove’s Wade Wisely was the featured beer for this episode, one we’ve had before, and one we’ll have again. Luckily, the beer allowed us the time and space to properly vent our feelings about this year's Vikings team. After Week 13 in the NFL the Vikings are 4-8 with very little hope for this season and bey...

We’re pretty down on our Vikings after a miserable loss to the Packers in Week 12. The QB of the future isn’t panning out, we had to spin the Wheel of Purple Punishments AGAIN because we thought so highly of our team in the pre-season, and we did the UNTHINKABLE on our Vikings podcast. On a positive note, we tried a really good collab beer from ReUnion Brewery and Field Day Brewing that’s perfect...

We followed up on a commitment we made at the beginning of the season that if the Vikings lose to Bears, we would take a shot of something awful. So we did just that. We also took a few other “shots” because we had to spin the Wheel of Purple Punishments. It was a rough episode in that sense. But, we had friend-of-the-show Forrest on to dissect the Bears victory over the Vikings in Week 11. We als...

The Vikings loss to the Ravens was a bummer on many levels, so we decided to try Bummer City beer from Five Cities Brewing . The game wasn’t great, but the beer sure was! We cover everything from JJ McCarthy’s lackluster performance, Justin Jefferson’s oddly unproductive outing, and Kevin O’Connell’s coaching faux pas. Then, with some optimism, we turn our attention to the Vikings Week 11 matchup...

It was a great day as the Vikings beat the Lions in Detroit! Even better, we didn’t have to spin the Wheel of Purple Punishments because our pre-season selves predicted this to be a win for the Vikings. And of course we had a really good beer from Big Grove, their Sova , to celebrate!  We hope you’ll grab your favorite beverage and join us! Skol! Big Grove Brewery: https://biggrove.com/ Join us ea...

With some 7 Hills Brewing’s Bernie’s Red Ale in hand, we get into the Vikings ugly loss to the Chargers on Thursday Night Football. Also, because we both picked the Vikings to win that game in our preseason picks, we both had to spin the Wheel of Purple Punishments. Let’s just say, we lost some money. Austin also had the privilege of chatting with Dustin Baker for the first time in a while. We fin...

It seems like the Minnesota Vikings just can’t get out from under this QB curse that looms heavily over the franchise every year. Today we discuss the conundrum facing Kevin O’Connell and the Vikings coaching staff as they figure out how to move forward at QB. Carson Wentz has struggled, JJ McCarthy might not be ready, and Max Brosmer is an unknown quantity at this point. Of course we talked about...

With the Vikings on their bye week you wouldn’t expect nearly 2 hours worth of an episode, but here we are! We give our thoughts on the Vikings season so far at the Week 6 Bye marker. Some of it was good, some of it was bad. This team seems like it’s got a lot more for us as the season progresses. We also gave our thoughts on a really good beer from Tellurian Brewing called Chuck-toberfest , and i...

Well, the Vikings beat the Browns in week 5 in the second week of their trip abroad, but it sure didn’t feel like the greatest win. A win is a win, and we celebrated that by taking a week off from the Wheel of Purple Punishments. We also enjoyed a really good beer from Twin Span Brewing , their Erbe '48, a Marzen/Oktoberfest style beer, and it was super good! After recapping the win over the B...

In their first week of a two week road trip to the UK, the Vikings couldn’t get it done against the Steelers. We spent some time dissecting the loss and Austin had to spin the Wheel of Purple Punishments for thinking the Vikings would win this one. His punishment ended up being DOUBLED, so the punishment may reappear in a future episode. We also tried a good beer from Gezellig Brewing out of Newto...

Isaiah Rodgers had the game of his life in Week 3 against the Bengals, propelling the Vikings to a massive 48-10 win over a 2-0 team. Of course we gushed over that, but we also disagreed on the future of the quarterback position for our favorite team. Could Carson Wentz be the long-term starter for the Vikings? One of us thinks so. We talked about some of the current injuries plaguing the Vikings...

We ended up spinning the Wheel of Purple Punishments TWICE due to the fact that we live streamed the Vikings week 1 matchup against the Bears. We both picked the Vikings to lose to the Bears and to win against the Falcons in week 2. Neither of those outcomes was correct, so we spun the wheel two times. Let’s just say, we started off with a bang. We talked (quietly) about the Vikings miserable loss...

That’s right! We recorded an episode AND livestreamed a game at the same time! And we had a blast doing it! The Vikings WON 27-24 in JJ McCarthy’s NFL debut. It was a slow start for the purple team, but they got it done in the end. We also enjoyed a handful of Big Grove’s Neighborhood beer , which was delicious!  We hope you’ll grab your favorite beverage and join us! Skol! Shoutout to Big Top Ven...

With a week to go before the Vikings open the 2025 regular season on the road on MNF at Chicago, we give our final thoughts on the Vikings roster, the state of the NFC North, and our final predictions for Week 1. We certainly have a lot of things we’re curious and excited to see, but there’s a whole lot of optimism around this Vikings team. We’re ready for football! We also had Hold My Pretzel fro...

Last week, we tried a beer from Barn Town Brewing that didn’t really hit the spot for us. We decided to try another one of theirs this week, and boy did they redeem themselves! Barn Town’s Neon Hazy IPA definitely hit the spot! Also, #19 Adam Thielen is on his way back to Minnesota after a few years in Carolina. We both wore our #19 jerseys to honor the stud’s homecoming and we spent an obnoxious...

With the NFL regular season just around the corner, we share our thoughts on the first two Vikings preseason games. We talk about the wide receiver group, the QB room, and the surprising RB3 candidates. We also make some predictions on who will make the final 53-man roster next week and who will not. Most notably, perhaps, is the beer we tried: Barn Town’s Tickle Pickle Gluten Free Beer. We’ve tri...

To celebrate 100 episodes we took another Brew Hop trip across our great state to check out 10 different breweries that you can find in Iowa! Listeners of the show will know that we only drink Iowa beer on our episodes, so of course we have to go check out these breweries in person. We brought friend of the show Forrest along, and his beer expertise was a welcome addition. We spent some time in th...

Welcome to our 2025 Vikings Pick ‘Em episode, where we go through the Vikings regular season schedule game by game and predict whether they will win or lose. It’s become an annual tradition for us, and we also flip a coin (heads = win, tails = loss) for each game and share the picks our families made. We also chat briefly about some training camp rumblings. All of it makes us excited for football...

We FINALLY got to try the Ladder Cream Ale from Firetrucker Beer after we were somewhat unkind to the cans sitting in our fridge. We also dropped in a special preview of upcoming Episode 100 where we took a road trip to several different Iowa breweries! Then we got down to it and talked about training camp and the upcoming 2025 Minnesota Vikings season.  We hope you’ll grab your favorite beverage...

If you’ve been around The Skol Hop for any length of time, you should know that we love Iowa Beer. So much so that we only drink Iowa brewed beer on our episodes. This week is RAGBRAI week in Iowa, which only Iowans truly understand. We snagged River to River from SingleSpeed Brewing out of Waterloo as well as Reclaimed Rails Polka Band out of Bondurant. Both great Iowa Beers that we enjoyed! We a...

Friend of the show Forrest joins us this week as we discuss the second round of NFL Top 100 players to be revealed. Andrew VanGinkel had a career-best season in 2024 and landed himself at number 88. Forrest’s Bears are somewhat absent on the list currently, but we talk about some Vikings and Bears that could still make the list. We also chatted about Kirk’s recent comments on the Netflix QB series...