How To Drink Good Beer While Living in the Suburbs [part one]

Having Couch Beers is a great suburbs drinking pastime.

I don’t like to admit I live in the suburbs. While I am, in fact, in the middle of the city, it is still the suburbs. It’s much cooler to be in “the city” or whatever.

Main drawback: I don’t live downtown next to a cool brewery.

Hell, I don’t even live by an industrial park where new breweries seem to live.

There is a daycare on my block along with a State Farm Insurance office and a notary. Not exactly party central – except the days when I play a drinking game or bust out a beer garden style toy in the backyard.

Boring suburbs or not, that doesn’t mean you or I can’t have a good time with a nice beer in our neighborhoods. We just have to plan.

I have some initial thoughts that popped in my head to help you drink good beer while living in the suburbs:

  • Beer runs. Stop off at a brewery at some point in your week. Load up as much as your budget allows because who knows when you’ll make it back down here.
  • Ship it good. The Pandemic did at least one good thing and loosened up the beer shipping restrictions. Many states allow you to get beer shipped to your house directly from the brewery – as long as you’re still in the same state as the shipper.
  • A solid grocery store. If you are lucky enough, you have a grocery store with a decent Craft selection. This is the one thing I am lucky to have (although it is two blocks away [sighs in beer nerd]).

I will be honest with you, the main thing I do is get beer from a nearby grocery store. It is the most boring of ways for a beer geek to get their beer, and I do it often. My street cred fades day by day.

Today I went to my only nearby bottle shop/beer bar. That is something, anyway. At 3:30 in the afternoon, it was pretty packed with all sorts of people. grabbed my five overpriced cans and left without even so much as having a taster.

You see, if I have one, then I want more and I can’t do that again. People expect me to be at home most of the time, so I can’t trust myself to start up.

Tangent Warning! You have to be careful with your suburban drinking as a parent. Parents from your kid’s school are everywhere!

Yeah ‘cause, you think you’re safe at your neighborhood Mexican restaurant bar gettin’ stupid, but unknown to you little Tommy’s mom for the PTA was sittin’ in the corner the whole time watching you throw back Modelos (because it is the only drinkable beer this place has) and can’t wait to tell everyone at the next meeting how obnoxious you are and (worse) your taste in beer sticks!

[not that that has happened to me or anything]

There is a lot to unpack in this beer geek sub-genre. Definitely more to figure out on how to drink good beer while living in the suburbs. I’ll dig deeper in future post and on my newsletter for sure.

-Mikey

Can You Edit Your Check-in Location On Untappd?

Beer on the bar in the Floodcraft taproom inside Whole Foods Santa Clara
Forgive the blurry Half Acre beer, I want you to look at the Untappd board. I messed this check-in up, but I learned how to fix it

Can You Edit Your Location After Posting On Untappd?

Yes. You can totally edit your location after you check-in on Untappd and change it to the right one.

I recently used Untapped (tired as I am at taking pictures of my beer) to check-in a beer at Whole Foods.

I know, weird right? Yes, this particular Whole Foods is one of the ones that have a taproom too, so it was totally cool and legit that I was drinking beers inside a grocery store.

Anyway, I check my beer into Untappd, and they have a live board so I am waiting to see my stupid ass face pop up at the bottom of the screen. And then… nothing. The screen gave me nothing.

I made sure to use the venue both on location and purchase but I still was not coming up on the board.

Turns out that this place has multiple location options for checking in and chose the wrong one. There was:

  • Whole Foods Market – Santa Clara
  • Floodcraft (the actual name of the taproom)

After some research, I figured out the right one. For some reason it turned out to be “Whole Foods Market – Santa Clara” which I thought is weird. It should have been “Floodcraft” which is the one I checked in. Nope. I never came up on the board.

But it’s too late, right? I already checked in.

Nope. It’s NOT too late.

How To Edit A Check-in On Untappd

  • Pull up the post/check-in that needs correcting and click on it. You should have “Check-in Detail” at the top of the screen now.
  • Click the three dots at the top right.
  • You should have an option of “edit”, so click that.
  • Under “Location” find the proper location you want to change to and do the same for “purchased location”.
  • Save it. Now your check-in should show up as you wanted it to.

It may take a minute before you see your check-in displayed on the board. Also, MAKE SURE to check-in the place you purchased the beer in “location” AND “purchased location”, otherwise it might not get up on the board.

Because sweeping the board is sometimes the only interesting thing to do in a taproom.

How To Cleanse Your Palate For Beer Tasting

Premium crackers, Daisy Cutter Pale, Pure Project hazy, Moose Drool Brown Ale
Crackers & beer: it’s a thing

You’re having a flight of beers, or you are at a beer festival, or bottle share, maybe you do your drinking from the kitchen table, or are busy sweeping an Untappd board.

Whatever the hell it is, you’re going through a lot of beers.

But you want to taste the next beer as genuine as you can. The cleanest way. I am here to try and help.

These are MY real-world picks, not generic trash results I got off the Internet.

How to cleanse your palate between beers

  • Crackers. Unsalted crackers are the best but salted still work.
  • Chips. This works for when you are out in the field drinking. Most places don’t have crsckers but they have chips.
  • Nuts. Mostly a tip for when you are in a bar or at home. Not that practical anywhere else.
  • Water. Super boring option and not the best way to reset your palate, but usually there is some around and you should be drinking some anyway.
  • Your hand. What the hell!? Your hand!? Yes. Give your hand a good lick. Taste that hand – you know where it has been, it’s fine. Almost give it a hickey even. This is the best option when there is nothing around and by the way, I do it often.
  • A different style. If you are stringing a bunch of IPAs together it’s a good idea to break it up with a Stout or Brown or something. You would be surprised how improved a hoppy beer can be, drinking one after an opposite style.

Again, these are all ones I do myself. If there is science behind this, it’s unintentional.

Resetting your palate before a different beer is something I highly recommend though.

Non-beer geeks (and even some actual beer geeks) might scoff at you. Let them. Be sad for them. They just don’t know. But now you do.

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Is Beer Good For Plants?

Is beer good for plants
Here ya go, plant, have some beer (ya drunk)!

There is a tale out there that beer is good for plants. That the minerals and things in beer are good for growth. And that there are nutrients in beer that help with garden soil, and help with the growth of your plants.

Maybe even your houseplant would be totally into an IPA or Lager.

I always felt like simply pouring a beer into a plant would be bad for the plant. But, I also don’t know what the hell I am talking about most of the time.

So that prompted me to finally figure this out for you and for me…

Is Beer Actually Good For Plants?

No. Not really anyway. Good would be stretching it.

Your plants want clean and clear water. And maybe some occasional actual really good plant food.

It does want not some terrible Sour IPA that you tried and couldn’t finish. Or the day-old and flat Coors Light that was sitting out all night.

What people might assume is good for the plants (the carbs, the yeast, minerals, the water) is a small benefit, at best. Almost not a factor. And you need to dilute the beer before you dump it in.

In fact, some believe adding beer to your plant feeding routine, blocks the plant from getting proper nutrition.

Plants want complex carbs and beer is not a complex carb, it is a worthless card. Well, worthless to some, not to me. I rather enjoy worthless carbs.

Worthless carbs are what life is about.

Continue reading “Is Beer Good For Plants?”