Making a Commitment To Seasonal Beers

“Quarktoberfest” Bavarian Festbier from Bottle Logic Brewing

I will admit that my standard IPA, Pales, Hazzies, lifestyle is getting a little boring.

A lot of beers are tasting the same. Only an occasional standout or crappy one disrupts the rhythm.

So I have decided to make a commitment to a different genre of beer, just to break it up. And I have chosen: Seasonals.

While it is true I might try one or two Seasonals (Sierra’s Celebration Ale or some random ass Pumpkin), I would quickly go back to my IPA routine.

But I am changing it up. This Oktoberfest season I have had four different Festbier Lagers (maybe a new record), and might have a couple more.

Then it will be on to Pumpkin beers, then Winter Ales, and so on.

Hopefully this will make things more interesting. At least give me some better knowledge of the Seasonals out there and help me enjoy my hoppy beers more when I sneak them in.

Let me know in the comments if you are trying something like this.

🍻✌️

Lager Life Can Move Pretty Fast

Yes, beer industry people love Lagers. Straight up beer drinkers love Lagers. And I think Lagers are good. Cool. Fine.

They are “easy to drink”, aren’t they? That is a good thing…except when it is not:

Lagers go away too fast!

I just drank the Bridalveil Lager above, from Tioga Sequoia Brewing, and it is gone REALLY damn quickly. Way faster than when I have an IPA. That kinda sucks, yeah?!

Maybe I just have a drinking problem.

I Had A “Cold IPA“ And…

Last week I made fun of Beer Cruncher seemingly being the only one out there trying to make “Cold IPAs” happen. Then I ran across my first one in the wild.

A colab between Central California’s Alvarado Street and Figueroa Mountain Brewing called “Acapulco Cold”.

It is actually pretty good. I enjoyed it.

If I am to use this one example of the style, I do think there is a slight difference between this beer and an India Pale Lager style beer. Small, but there. The Lager side is very hidden, but still present.

Good if I don’t want the Lager feel, bad if I do.

Is it enough of a difference to give it its own style name like Cold IPA? Well, if I didn’t care about the marketing side I would say this is a sub-genre of IPL – definitely in the IPL family but enough of a difference to acknowledge it.

You can’t blame them for trying to attach it to the Ale side instead of the Lager side, but they are cheating a bit.

Hey, this particular CIPA is a nice beer. If they want to keep trying to make this style work, go for it – I definitely recommend trying one out if you see one, especially if you’re into a hoppy Lager. Honestly, I would have rather had this beer with Ale yeast though. ??

Harrison Ford & Ridley Scott Drinking a Fosters

Harrison Ford on the floor with Ridley Scott drinking a couple Fosters – Getty Images

I can’t tell you how much I love this picture of Harrison Ford and Director Ridley Scott, drinking beer and working out stuff before filming Blade Runner.

As a big Harrison Ford nerd (I have a podcast about him) and a beer nerd, this picture checks all my boxes.

Seeing Harrison laying on the floor is so very… Harrison. It also does confirm that Harrison Ford does drink.

And it’s so very beer too. Having a couple beers and being creative and relaxed is what lo-fi beer drinking is all about and I love it.

I wonder what scene or character trait the two were working out. Maybe they were just talking about life. It’s magical what a couple of Foster’s oilcans can do.

And by the way, if you are interested in having a physical copy of Blade Runner, there are several versions out there to check out (including the new one, Blade Runner 2049).