It’s All About Your Setup: Modern Times “Orderville” IPA

The importance of having a clean palate before a beer is hella underrated. We don’t think or talk about the setup to a beer, enough.

Case in point. Yesterday I had a “Coast Malone” Hazy IPA from Humble Sea Brewing. Great beer, great label.

I then went to a Modern Times “Orderville” Hazy Mosaic IPA. I love this beer, a solid go-to and…it did not taste good.

Was it old? Nope, canned four weeks prior. What the hell then?

Maybe I got a bad batch. Oh well. Not the first time.

The next day, my first beer of the day is another Orderville from the same four-pack; it was excellent. Just like I know it to be. (Isn’t the Mosaic hop magic?)

So what’s going on? It has to be the Coast Malone setup from yesterday. By the way, I like to refer to what you eat/drank/breathed before a beer as the “setup”.

I know this clean palate thing is not a revaluation. Cleansing your palate is something we know we should do. But we don’t do it that often and forget how it affects our beer judgments.

On the Perfect Pour, we have a constant stream of Krispy Crackers going. But many taprooms don’t have this option. So what do you do when you’re out and about?

One thing you can do is completely switch beer styles on your next selection. Then go back to your preferred.

Water. Having a water is something. Not great, but definitely better than nothing (and you should be hydrating anyway).

Many times I do the ‘lick your hand’ trick. It looks weird but I do it. I probably should insert a video here of me licking the side of my hang by I think WordPress has some sorta standards for hand licking porn.

Let me know if you have any palate resetting tips for me in the comments.

Cheers to a clean setup!

Anatomy Of A Hangover

25 West IPA

The drinking started on an empty stomach. That was my first mistake.

I ate a packed lunch of salami, cheese, Cheese-Its, cookies and water (in that order) at 11:30 in the morning. Drank a diet soda around 3:00. Don’t be jealous of me.

Once off work, at 5:30, we went to a new beer bar by my house, Out Of The Barrel. Here was my playlist:

Beer One: 25 West from Moonraker Brewing.

  • Clear IPA
  • 6.6% ABV
  • I rated it a 4.
  • Full pour

Beer Two: Some Grass from Moonraker Brewing.

  • Hazy IPA
  • 7% ABV
  • I rated it a 4
  • Full pour

Beer Three: Unknown: It was either Yeastbound & Down from Moonraker, or Tiger Uppercut from Fieldwork (I guess I wasn’t paying close attention).

  • Hazy IPA
  • 8% or 8.5% ABV
  • Rated…4.2?
  • 12oz pour

The Out Of The Barrel drinking stops. There is some relaxing. I buy a four-pack of Humble Sea’s Coast Malone.

Continue reading “Anatomy Of A Hangover” →

‘Smooth’ Is As Good As Any Dopey Beer Descriptor

What does “smooth” mean when describing beer? Don’t say it doesn’t mean anything because you ALL know what it means!

So, people out there on Beer Twitter making fun of smooth because it was the top description on Untappd last year.

Don’t get flipped, bro! Neophytes? Go back to your spirts cave. That’s not what most people are saying.

It’s not bitter. Easy to drink. Drinkable. Hence: SMOOTH.

Yeah maybe it’s lazy but we ALL KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IT MEANS!

So back the hell off of SMOOTH! Back the hell off because smooth isn’t the only common term that means something and nothing all at once.

How about?:

  • Crisp
  • Bright
  • Flavorful
  • Light
  • Hoppy
  • Thin
  • Accessible
  • Complex
  • Balanced
  • Clean

See?! It’s all crap AND useful, at once. Unless you tear down all beer descriptors, leave smooth alone.

Deeper Take

As humans, all we really want is for things to go smoothly. We want our day to go smooth. Wedding. Trip. Latest hazy release.

Smooth is good. Smooth makes us happy.

So, as a brewer, don’t you want your beer to make people happy? If someone says your beer is “smooth”, they like your beer. Pretty nice if you think about it.

Smooth might be the most positive beer descriptor out there.

The Mess That Is Being An Indie Beer Geek: Grocery Store Isle

It is not easy being a craft beer geek. Especially when we are experiencing a down cycle of sorts. It’s extra hard when you only drink Indie Beer.

A trip the store gets more gut-wrenching every time.

At one time we thought craft beer was going to keep getting more and more shelf space as people become aware of what good tasting local and independent beer is all about.

Sadly, Big Beer fought back against this buy buying out a large portion of the formally craft breweries that were big enough to get into the grocery stores (the holy grail for a small brewery).

Nothing exposes the suck of being a beer geek more than going to the grocery store or being in a restaurant that doesn’t have great beer.

Do you buy a ‘situational beer’ (a beer you would not drink or buy normally but are in a tight spot and it needs to happen) or do you not buy anything at all.

I’d like to breakdown why it can be so difficult at the grocery store for us poor souls that stick to their independent beer guns.

Continue reading “The Mess That Is Being An Indie Beer Geek: Grocery Store Isle” →