Dude, Where Is My Beer?

A point and click old-school adventure game about finding a Pilsner in a world of craft beer and hipsters? I may have to put my IPA down for a moment to play this on Steam (when the game is ready for play).

In case you haven’t heard of it, Steam is an online pc game platform where developers can create, play, and discuss pc games.

The site hosts thousands of games and one has caught the attention of the beer geek world (peripherally saw it on @WorstBeerBlog’s feed, to be honest). That game being “Dude, Where Is My Beer?”

I have never been on Steam before and this is the first game that might actually get me on there. The game is not actually live yet, but you can put it on your Steam wishlist so you’re ready when it is.

You can find out all ya need to know by checking out his website here.

Check Your Dates, HARD!

I was being lazy. Stupid. Not listening to my own advice.

When I say check your dates, I mean follow though and really check your dates!

A red flag was raised when I noticed the cans were kinda beat up. But I did not listen.

My lazy check of the first two dates 06/19/.. is what killed me. My brain auto-filled “2020”.

As soon as I took the first sip, I knew. It’s old. And I’m shit at beer tasting, giving notes. A master I never shall be. But this? This was obvious.

The damn beer was over a year old. Undrinkable. $12 of perfectly good beer money (literally) down the drain. I guess I won’t die though.

It’s Good To Have Beer Goals [Issue #8 of Drinking & Thinking]

Sadly, Modern Times Brewing had a couple of sucky announcements this week. One is they are having to furlough a large part of the workforce. Second is, two of their employees tested positive for COVID-19. They don’t work in any of the taprooms, but still.

This is the first I have heard of a major indie brewery having employees test positive. Actually, it’s the first time I have heard of ANY brewery have employees test positive. This makes me think breweries are just underreporting or I’m not paying attention. Both are probably true.

I was listening to a recent episode of Trader’s Joe’s podcast Inside Trader Joe’s and they revealed that they have a Cookie Butter dessert beer in the works. It is expected to be out around September. My only thought was “What the hell took so long?”

If you want to listen, it’s Episode 27.

There is an incredibly long article/blog post at Beer Crunchers sort of about DontDrinkBeer and the amazing amount of beer (and money from raffling off the beer), he has been able to collect for charity. The charity being money to the family of Breonna Taylor and the family of Elijah McClain. He was able to raise almost $68,000. There is also a Kate Bernot article about it.

I love what he did here with his following. He must have a pretty amazing reputation with the craft brewery world too because an insane amount of folks donated beer. Incredible good use of his influence. Big cheers to this.

So this is pretty rad. Victim Of Maths unearthed a map of Great Britan but with only pubs highlighted:

London and Liverpool look insane. One of my travel dreams is to go to Ireland or anywhere in the UK really, and have some beers at legit pubs. Goals.

I love sitting. Drinking. Thinking. Listening to music while doing this is also nice. So I have been meaning to create a Spotify playlist designed for just this. In the meantime, I found one @beer_pop did that you can check out too.

One highlight is “Oblivious” from The Strokes and… well, actually there are too many to highlight, it’s a pretty damn extensive playlist. It’s going to take a lot of drinking and thinking to get through it all. I’m here for that.

Okay cool, I’m Mikey Seay and I hope you enjoyed issue #8 of Drinking & Thinking! The goal is to have issues in your inbox every other Saturday, working to a goal of every Saturday.

If this is your first time reading, please considering subscribing.

Oh, and I have started a Ko-fi page if you want to check it out. I’m starting to figure out that having money to buy beer is pretty cool.

Cheers and be safe out there!

-Mikey

Is This Good Marketing?: “Extra Guac” from Magnify Brewing

The name is damn catchy. “Extra Guac” by New Jersey’s, Magnify Brewing.

First thought is “Ohahha geezz, what the hell?! They are out there making guacamole IPAs now? Sick, dude.” [Also, I kinda want to try it]

But, this beer name comes with a disclosure from Magnify “Made with no avocados.” So it’s not actually an Avocado IPA. It’s a juicy DDH DIPA, hopped with Idaho 7, Mosaic, Amarillo and Huell Melon.

Sometimes you have to treat yo self – go ahead and order that extra side of guac even though it’s an extra charge.

Magnify Brewing

It’s just a name with avocado infused can-art. But, as you might have guessed, the name and can-art brought much confusion on Magnify’s Instagram feed.

“What’s in this, lol?”
“Intrigued.” (this indicates they think there is guac in the beer)
“I want to try this. Also, I really want to try a guac beer now.”
“Why no avocado?”
“No!”

We mention it all the time on the Perfect Pour, never put the name of an ingredient in the beer name unless it really does taste like the thing you say is in there. It tends to annoy users and make the brewery’s social media manager work overtime.

So, I then ask “Is this good marketing?”

Yes. It is.

As much as it pains me to say it because I am one of the people that get annoyed as hell when a beer name does not match what is in the beer. But, Magnify has a good social manager that was prepared for the reactions and, if this beer would have been some random IPA name, I would not have noticed it.

So, yep, good marketing, even if it’s annoying.

For what it is worth, this batch of Extra Guac seems to be better than previous as it is getting a much higher rating than a batch that appeared to come out earlier in the year. Right now it’s averaging better than a 4 on Untappd.

I am looking out for it. And now want to try a Guacamole Porter.