63. Beer Preference Shitposts Gotcha Down? Read This Newsletter Instead
Five great breweries vie for a big opportunity; a food-and-drink travel TV show to try; plus tarot that says f the haters and live your best life.
Howdy, friends. Some more random musings this week! Starting with the image above: “Ted Lasso” won a bunch of Emmys Monday. Congrats “Ted Lasso”! There were some other shows and folks I wish got some more love, but you know, awards shows are kinda bullshit, anyway, and also, I don’t care what habitual haters who build their personalities on taking down what brings others joy have to say on Twitter, I love “Ted Lasso.” There happens to be lots of good beer-drinking-in-a-lovely-pub action, and the scene in the photo above is one of the loveliest written of the whole series.
One of Five Breweries Might Be the Next Big Thing with a Little Help from Sam Adams
Last week, I got to attend the first annual “Crafting Dreams Beer Bash” for the Samuel Adams “Brewing the American Dream” program. It was a really cool experience—it reminded me of the season finales of “Beerland,” where the finalists from every city brought their winning homebrew to a big event and the public got to vote on their favorite, helping to decide who would have their beer brewed by Golden Road. This Beer Bash was the first time Sam Adams opened up to the public their selection process—after narrowing applicants down to five finalists, those five finalists presented their beer at a sort of mini festival, and attendees voted on their favorite.
While we’re still talking about Big Beer reaching out a hand to help a craft brewery, the stakes are arguably higher here than they ever were for the conceit of “Beerland.” Sam Adams has been doing Brewing the American Dream since 2008, which helps food and beverage entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses with access to capital, network contacts, and coaching. In 2012, they launched the Brewer Experienceship as part of the program; annual winners go to Sam Adams and work alongside the team and collaborate on a beer with the brewery, and get both brewing and business mentorship. It seems like a really exciting opportunity for small craft breweries to take their businesses to the next level, and a little extra attention to the business of brewing would presumably be a big help in the current very tricky, very competitive market.
These aren’t homebrewers, mind you. The five finalists are all existing brewing operations, whether they’re contract brewing and distributing or have a full brewhouse and taproom of their own. The winners of this year’s “experienceship” will be announced at GABF, which, tbh, is a painfully long wait if you went to this event and met every brewer and tried every beer and now feel invested in every single one! The event attendees’ votes certainly don’t count for 100% of the decision-making process, so honestly, I probably stressed myself too much on choosing my vote (I’ll never tell), but I couldn’t help it—every beer was fantastic, and every brewer had a unique journey and potential to make a big, lasting impression in the industry.
There’s Rhythm Brewing Co. out of New Haven, Connecticut. Founded and run by Alisa Bowens-Mercado, Rhythm has absolutely perfected a lager and a light lager as a very welcome change of pace for the NEIPA-heavy region. (Brews with Broads has an episode with Alisa!) From White Plains, New York, Wolf & Warrior Brewing Company was there with Patagonia, an Argentinian golden ale. Owner and Mike Chiltern revamped a classic golden ale based on Argentinian ingredients or at least inspired by them, blending different hops to achieve the character of Argentinian hops you can’t get here—the result is crisp and refreshing with a little spice and hint of earthiness.
From Baltimore, Checkerspot Brewing Co. had a really interesting and very tasty Juniperus IPA. Owner and brewer Judy Neff says she tinkered with this beaut for a while until it was perfect—which it is. The juniper doesn’t make the beer taste like gin; rather, it adds its own sort of hop-like botanical and herbal quality, creating an IPA with the juiciness of a New England and the bitter piney-ness of a West Coast.
From Cincinnati, Fibonacci Brewing Company was there with Mulberry Grove, a sour made with mulberries gathered in their own community. The best compliment I can give this one is that I really enjoyed it even though I’m not a sour drinker—it started sweet and finished tart for a nice little journey. Finally, Palo Alto’s Brewing With Brothas Brewing Co. deserves a special shout-out—the triple West Coast IPA they’d brought fell off the truck delivering it, and instead of lying down on the floor and crying as I would have done, they pulled out another total banger and a great attitude about it to boot. They had a black Belgian tripel-style ale that brought chocolatey notes to citrus and spice. I’m looking forward to seeing who wins this thing but I have no doubt we’ll be seeing big things from all of these breweries anyway.
Are You Watching “101 Places to Party Before You Die”?
We not too long ago discussed the void in beer- or even drinks-based television, and it’s a topic that regularly comes up on social media, because there are so many cool people doing cool things in the drinks world and us drink nerds want to watch stuff about them. So, I’m happy to now ramble at you about my love for the new show, “101 Places to Party Before You Die.” It’s not a beer show, but it is a food-and-drink travel show with a fantastic emphasis on breweries, bars, and beyond, so it’s absolutely at least a partial answer to our prayers. It’s shocking, frankly, that it comes to us from Tru TV—so now that network plays this great new show for one half-hour, and “Impractical Jokers” for the other 23-and-a-half hours of the day.
“101 Places to Party Before You Die” is a travel series hosted by comedians/actors/writers/podcasters Jon Gabrus and Adam Pally—I knew I was tuning into this show as soon as I saw the first commercial for it, based on how much I’ve loved them for years now. They’re irl bffs, and the format of the show is that for each episode, they’ve got one weekend to cram in a wild ride through a different city before they get back to their families at home. Before we even get to the actual spots they visit, I have to rave about the show’s tone. It straddles this line between sweet and raucous I don’t think I’ve ever seen on a show before? And I’m very into how thoughtful they are, how they don’t skim over the complicated histories of some places they visit, and how lovely their genuine friendship is.
Then there’s how they actually approach travel—they make sure to hit both “high-brow” and “low-brow” experiences without making a big to-do out of it or designating anything as such. Both of them are open about having each lost a parent, and discuss how that has kept life’s brevity and fragility in focus, making them want to experience as much as they can. You see them go a little wild—hangovers are regular features—but it’s framed as “this is what you would do if you wanted to have one crazy weekend with your friend every now and then.”
And what that all shapes up into is a half-hour crash course through different cities celebrating some of their best food and drink spots, in a way that will have you absolutely itching to visit, yourself. In Richmond, Virginia, Gabrus and Pally hit one of my favorite breweries, The Veil, plus very cool-looking cocktail spot The Jasper, and we see them drinking local craft beer at places like Cobra Burger and diy venue Lucy Lane. In Denver, acknowledging what a craft beer town it is and looking for a way to experience a lot of that at once, they head to Recess Beer Garden, and find more local craft beer at restaurant The Wolf’s Tailor. The Atlanta episode was another banger, though tbh I have to watch it again to be able to list specific spots. Anyway, let me know if you like it if you’ve watched it, and if you haven’t, check it out!
Beer Tarot!
This week, I pulled the Eight of Cups.
Cups is the sign of love, emotions, and relationships, and the Eight of Cups in particular is about disappointment, withdrawal, and looking to walk away from something that’s painful, didn’t work out, isn’t serving you, or is just plain negative energy. See, if you look there, the person in the red coat? That’s me, walking away from all the old pompous windbags on Twitter whingeing on about how anyone who likes pumpkin beers is a dummy who couldn’t possibly know anything about beer.
Anyhooboy, the Eight of Cups often means something in your life isn’t working. A job, a relationship, a living situation, a project—you’re not where you could or want to be, and when you think on it, you know it’s because of this thing, even if it’s a thing that did once fulfill you. It no longer does, and life’s too short and you’ve got to value yourself enough to put on your most fabulous red cloak and turn your back on it. I find this card so relatable that I feel a little burned by it, to be frank, but I appreciate it. As a freelancer, I have to constantly remind myself to value my time and not keep doing gigs that don’t fulfill me creatively or financially and that actually contribute to my stress. I’m bad at saying no to things with friends like that week-long birthday extravaganza someone has to have every single year that costs more than a month’s rent. The Eight of Cups is here to remind us that we have to prioritize what matters, we can’t do things just to keep others happy—the people that we actually want on our side are the people who will understand and support our decisions. If you have reached the end of the fulfillment road with something, you can do this, you can walk away. And you should, because you deserve to find the next thing that does work for you.
Now, this could be a little thing. Like, turn your back on the haters and drink a fucking pumpkin beer! Beertender extraordinaire and one of my favorite Instagram follows, Nikki aka @sours_and_sass, just posted this Great South Bay Brewery Baked: Pumpkin Pie that I am now officially #ISO. Or, it could be a big, incredibly important thing, like leaving a toxic workplace. This is a great reminder to, when you need help, turn to resources like the Bevolution Brave Voices Fund, set up to help women, femmes, and non-binary individuals leave and move forward from problematic job situations.
This Week’s Boozy Media Rec
“‘Men aren’t making room at the table,’ says Pip, ‘So I’m creating our own banquet hall.’” That’s The Coven Brewsters founder Pip Young in Ruvani de Silva’s profile of Pip and the initiative for Burum Collective—I love that quote and its energy. What The Coven is doing is inspiring and exciting, from the Wellness Officer program they’ve created for festivals and that all event organizers should be taking their cues from, to collaboration brews and festival tents featuring breweries with women owners and/or brewers. Get the full scoop on what The Coven is doing for safety, equity, and inclusion in beer, from the brilliant de Silva, now!
Ex-BEER-ience of the Week
The best beer I drank this week wasn’t about the beer itself but the experience—it was a Goose IPA at “Trixie and Katya Live” at Radio City. I’m pretty sure the last time I had an ~ex-beer-ience~ along these lines is when I drank a Goose IPA while catching Tig Notaro at the Beacon—this is the beer you get at these big shows, folks! And the sheer, child-like joy of seeing people you love so much, who always cheer you up and make you laugh from a TV screen or podcast app or record player, live? That makes any beer an incredible beer, and reminds you how much of what’s great about beer is the very life stuff it accompanies.
Until next week—or maybe the week after, depending on some traveling I’ll be doing—here is Darb at Tree House.
