This Newsletter Is Not as Wild AF as Charlie Sheen's NA Beer But Almost
Adventures in Colorado; "Platonic" gets craft beer now right; get snacks, breweries; and this month's drinks tarot.
Welcome to the October edition of Hugging the Bar. I do not hide the fact that I am a basic fall girl, so please trust I have been spending the last few weeks crunching through leaves, petting goats, eating pumpkin-based things, and drinking Oktoberfest beers. I very much wish the same for you. But for now, let’s jump back a bit to August.
Last issue, I mentioned having done a beer excursion to Colorado—where some of you may be right now for GABF, and I do hope it’s kicking off well! I’m still waiting on a story to land but I can for now talk a bit about my travels, so, especially considering GABF week, let’s talk Colorado a bit.
I didn’t expect to fall so hard for Grand Junction. With Adrenaline Driven Adventures I was able to get right out into the breathtaking desert on a UTV ride, see pronghorns, and generally take in otherworldly views. I also got to explore the Colorado National Monument with Adam Kinsey, who generously took time out of his busy schedule running the hopping beer bar Handlebar, located next to a mountain bike shop and a favorite hang of that adventurous crowd, and running through the final prep stages ahead of opening the brand new brewery WestCo. Tbh, I preferred the Monument to the Grand Canyon—same spellbinding effect, zero crowds.
All of this incredible nature exists within mere minutes’ drive of a real cute downtown area. I am a total sucker for a good lil Main Street, and Grand Junction’s might be one of my top five. Hat tip to Robin’s Nest antique mall—I visit antique malls pretty much everywhere I go and this one knocked my socks off; I had to repack very strategically to take home some treasures. Also: Main Street Bagels, whoa. Trail Life Brewing was another busy biking-geared taproom attached to a bike shop, super cool energy and a banger black IPA. I stayed at the Historic Melrose Hotel which was absolutely lovely, with just about the nicest staff ever and an excellent little bar Melrose Spirit Co.
But I would be remiss to not give an impression extra special shoutout to Ramblebine Brewing. A trip like this, traveling to different cities on tight timelines with work to do and where even your exploring counts as work and you’re on your own and there are many moving parts changing all the time—it’s not NOT stressful. I completely relaxed at Ramblebine, the vibes were immaculate. I don’t take it for granted when a taproom feels that welcoming as a solo woman out-of-tower. Thank you to co-owner Rob for taking the time to chat with me, and to Seamus and Gracie behind the bar, who not only made me feel at home but who were also two of the best beertenders I have ever witnessed in terms of guiding folks through the menu, helping them find beers they liked, and making them feel like part of the brewery family. More beertenders like them and I think the industry might be in somewhat better shape, effectively reaching out to more people who just don’t know they love beer yet. And importantly, the beer absolutely slapped. Think nice, tight but diverse variety with expressive IPAs, one of the only sours I have ever loved, hoppy lagers, and a Norwegian red ale(!).
I think more of you reading this might be familiar with the Denver beer scene—heard of it??—but I got to a whole bunch of breweries in Denver, Golden, and Aurora I want to quickly get in here, too, because they’re not the ones that tend to get all the beer geek hype but they’re positively must-visit destinations cultivating great atmospheres and making stellar beer. So, when you’re in town for GABF this year, I know you’re going to hit up Bierstadt and Cohesion, but also make time for Novel Strand, where you can experience pitch perfect lagers reimagined ever so slightly with gorgeous New World hops. And for Full Frame, the brewery that made me fall in love with pale ales again. And for The Alley Brews, a bright taproom and patio you want to spend all day in, where you can enjoy the best damn dry Irish stout.
Make time for Holidaily, a gluten-free trailblazer serving up gorgeous WCIPAs and blondes; for Cannonball Creek, another pale ale star who also makes a rosemary sourdough saison that I think might be one of my favorite beers…ever?; for Second Dawn, who is not only making exceptional iterations of the styles that have come to be essential in today’s taprooms but who is also making goddamn biére de garde! And Scotch ale!; and for Cheluna, which feels more like your favorite local Mexican restaurant where you want to eat every night than just another taproom, and where you can enjoy complex, unique, incredibly delicious beers like a guava blonde ale and a mango habanero hef; and for Danico, where you can have their famous-for-good-reason pistachio cream ale and their Fiestabier, a magical Mexican amber-festbier hybrid that leans more toward the former with lime, more toward the latter without.
Colorado breweries certainly aren’t resting on their laurels or their beer scene’s already sterling reputation. It was so invigorating to meet so many kind, talented brewers and owners who are still so incredibly passionate about what they do—and also to see some real trends forming, like the further growth of hoppy lagers, a real resurgence but also reinvention of pale ales, and a local taste for reds and ambers I just don’t see in the Northeast.
PS: Assuming you’ll be eating during GABF, MAKFam and Señor Bear, Chinese and Latin American, respectively, are cooking up dishes you’ll remember probs for the rest of your life.
Please Send Snacks
Excuse the rant but there’s a lesson here, promise. I was at a brewery recently, a big ‘ol hype machine of a brewery, and I found myself starving. But the one and only food option available at the brewery was pizza, which didn’t work because I was the only one who was hungry and we had dinner plans afterward. There were no food trucks, no nearby delivery options; reader, there was nary a stray pretzel to be found near checkout. Guess what. I had one less beer than I would have if there was even one non-dinner-sized option.
EXCEPT in states like New Jersey with arcane laws that bafflingly ban food in taprooms, I cannot—and will not!—understand the absence of snacks in taprooms. If you run a brewery where you can but do not serve snacks, please explain why. That’s not rhetorical, the comments are open, friends. You. Are. Leaving. Money. On. The. Table. And not just the direct sales of said snacks, but of those beers that people like me are not having because they are too hangry. Look, it’s not just about being hungry, either. Most of the beers at this brewery were above seven percent ABV. I was not looking to keep throwing them back on an empty stomach. Expecting people to do so is another wild choice I don’t understand on a brewery’s part.
While fun, unique, intentional snack choices would drive revenue in most situations, I know there are some settings in which sourcing them is a lift that outweighs the benefit. But I cannot fathom that throwing some packaged bits and bobs on the bar isn’t worthwhile, especially because—once again for the folks in the back—it keeps people drinking, aka spending money, in your taproom. I want to give a hat tip to Bright Ideas Brewing here: I was also at their Westfield, Massachusetts taproom recently, and boy-oh-boy do they have this snack thing on lock. In addition to a food truck, there was jerky at the bar, a selection of chips, pretzels, and crackers, and a cheese fridge. Fancy cheeses for grown-ups, string cheese for littles, all the things! I’ll have you ~guess what~ again: We got another round here when we hadn’t planned to, because we were having such a nice time with our makeshift cheese plate.
“Platonic” Season Two: Still Pretty Much ~Getting~ This Whole Craft Beer Thing
It’s been over two years since the first season of “Platonic” hit Apple TV, and I wrote about it in this issue of the newsletter because Seth Rogen’s character is a brewer. I would watch the show if it had nothing to do with beer, I should note; it’s pretty great, and also, Rose Byrne (and Guy Branum!). But what I do appreciate about it is that, especially compared to literally every other portrayal of brewers and craft beer on TV (okay, actually, “Colin from Accounts” is pretty good), “Platonic” gets it surprisingly right. My main gripe for season one was indeed less of a gripe and more of a “le sigh, if only,” which is that this show’s writers seemed to think craft brewing was a whole lot cooler than it actually is.
This season, though, creators Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller have gotten the memo. Seth Rogen’s Will is struggling due to the tumultuous nature of his chosen career path—okay, and an absolutely catastrophic romantic relationship tangled up in said career path—and it’s too real. [SPOILERS AHEAD!]
Will ends up going to work for the enemy, which in this case is the big, gross restaurant chain that wanted to corpora-tize his beer. He helps them roll out a brewpub chain (“with the heart of an ale house,” the commercial declares, to Will’s befuddlement; the chain is also called Jay 6…) and completely sells his soul only to get pushed out. We follow him trying desperately to open his own bar, but this pushes him into the territory of dealing with morally dubious potential investors and an all-around smorgasbord of shit-eating just to try the fool’s errand of following his dream, running a bar, and brewing beer independently in 2025. If you haven’t already and I haven’t ruined it for you, go catch up on the show. Mary Anne Porto recently wrote that drinks might finally be getting their “The Bear” moment—aka, prestige TV focus—with Netflix’s “Black Rabbit” and “House of Guinness”; I’d add “Platonic” to this list.
Speaking of ~Netflix and Beer~
Charlie Sheen dropped a non-alcoholic beer, Wild AF, in time for you to drink it while watching his Netflix doc. I want it, I need it, I’m unironically fascinated. I think it was a missed opportunity to not market it as Tiger’s Blood but this famous-for-being-not-sober-but-now-sober maniac contributing to the non-alc category is, at the end of the day, winning.
Best Drinks This Month:
I thought it could be fun to start rounding up some of my favorite drinks each month, to give some bars and brands some shout-outs. I’m cheating a bit with this first issue and including a few from August, but because they are from that Colorado trip included here.
Cannonball Creek Brewing Co.’s Rosemary Sourdough Saison: So fragrant, it was like sticking my head into a rosemary plant with each sip, and the herbaceousness was beautifully balanced with the bready yet acid-y sourdough funk and fullness, plus spiciness, plus clean, refreshing crispness. Perfect.
Ramblebine Brewing Company’s God Hammer Norwegian Red Ale: A toasty, rounded red ale balanced by a dry finish and satisfying hop bitterness.
St. George Terroir Gin Martini at Valerie: A walk through a piney, wildflower-strewn forest right after a light rainfall.
The Tomato Martini at Lone Wolf Cocktail Bar in Kingston, New York: Simply perfect, a lesson in balance—sweet, earthy tomato; savory, umami brine.
West Kill Brewing’s Dutchie Basil IPA: What do you mean there’s been a basil IPA around for years? And from one of my favorite breweries? I’m mad at everyone who knew about this beer and didn’t tell me. That brilliantly garden-fresh basil perfectly tempers the hazy IPA’s sweeter hop notes of citrus and strawberry.
The Darling Dirty at Darlings Roadhouse: I love this dirty martini. It helps that Darlings itself is a dream of a restaurant, a sort of cheeky, Borscht Belt-era Catskills-inspired spot in the Hudson Valley. The Darling Dirty has an extra savory, almost spicy caper-olive brine that punches the typical profile up.
Old Raj Gin Martini at Dog & Deer Tavern: Just perfect. Obviously perfect. And the Stockton Inn’s Dog & Deer Tavern is gorgeous with an excellent spirit and cocktail menu.
The Blackberry & Violet at The Golden Swan: Charbray hopped whiskey, Starlight blackberry whiskey, crème de violette, Benedictine, Cynar. It’s rare to see floral and brighter fruit notes paired with the darker, woodier, tobacco-ier qualities of whiskey, but bound together by the herb and spice notes of the hopped whiskey, Benedictine, and Cynar, this cocktail is a helluva complex stunner.
New Podcast!
With a newsletter issue comes a new podcast drop, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to announce episode four of Hugging the Bar is an interview with the inimitable David Nilsen. We discuss his beer and chocolate writing and event-leading, and really dive into the incredible zine he’s created with his wife Melinda Guerra, Final Gravity. The latest Final Gravity issue is available for preorder here, and you can listen to our chat about why a zine matters now, what kind of work goes into making it a reality, and the kinds of beautiful beer-centric stories in the zine issues’ pages here on Apple Podcasts (you can also find it on Spotify).
Drinks Tarot
This month, I pulled the Four of Swords.
Swords as a suit signals to us we’ll be talking about matters of the intellect and communication. The Four of Swords in particular deals with rest, recuperation, and contemplation. This card comes up when we need a breather. Maybe you’ve been working like mad and have reached a milestone—you’ve got more work to do, don’t we all, but you both deserve and need to take a beat or you won’t be able to continue on at your best. I think this is a card that seems trite and basic on the surface—we need balance and breaks, no shit. But in reality, taking a pause is easier said than done, right? We either feel we don’t in fact deserve it, or that we don’t have the capacity because we have to keep forging forward in order to accomplish our ultimate goal on some made-up timeline…or it’s not immediately obvious how we can take a moment for ourselves, with any number of work and family obligations we may be juggling.
That’s the point of the Four of Swords. It’s the whole “you have to put your oxygen mask on first” thing. However important or necessary whatever you’re working on or dealing with is, and even however passionate you may be about it, you’re not going to show up as your best self and get the best results if you burn out.
Burnout is so effing real. In the drinks industry specifically, for example, we have Infinite Ingredient’s reporting on burnout in the brewing industry. Infinite Ingredient founder Katie Muggli co-led a panel on preventing burnout at a Craft Brewers Conference, which you can see here in presentation form. And if you missed it when it first ran, you must read Ruvani de Silva’s “Apathy Has Rained On Me — On DEI Burnout in the Beer Industry” for Pellicle Magazine. And with the current state of the world, and challenges in the beverage alcohol and hospitality industries, this can all feel more dire than ever.
With the Four in Swords in mind, start out with even just five minutes of meditation. No matter how overwhelmed you are, you can swing that, I promise. Start finding spare moments to squeeze in time to just think, breathe, journal. Out of this, you might see some pathways to rest you hadn’t before—a coworker eager for extra shifts who can cover for you while you, idk, go walk into the woods for a few hours. A trustworthy neighbor who will babysit while you do absolutely nothing but read for the evening. Most of us aren’t blessed with the ability to take a mid-life gap year (lolz), but with some resourcefulness, we can probably carve out some gap afternoons for ourselves and benefit from the results.
I don’t love the marketing-friendly rhyme-y-ness of “sober October,” but it is October and we are talking about mindful breaks, so let me recommend one of my very favorite NA drinks: Joni. These are sparkling verjus RTDs and they’re so damned delicious. The Blanc is my favorite, with notes of celery, basil, and taragon—herbaceous, a tinge savory, zipping with effervescence and acidity. A lovely break indeed.