Change IS good, but.....

I realize this may sound odd coming directly after my “fall is coming, change is good” post, but I’m sitting here right now with a bomber of Ballast Point Scuplin IPA and I’m about… to…. open it. There. For all you wondering what the big deal about this particular bottle of beer is and why I’m breaking my own “move on from IPAs rule”, let me fill you in. Sculpin is a phenomenal India Pale Ale, loved by hopheads (people who love bitter, hoppy beers) and regular folk alike. In addition, this brew scores an A, or outstanding, on BeerAdvocate.com, and is ranked #17 on their “Top Beers on Planet Earth” list. It is also typically sold only on the West Coast, or rather, not on the East Coast, so how I came to be in possession of this particular bottle still remains rather a mystery to me. Sculpin is a beer I’ve been yearning for for quite a while now, after trying it on tap at the Cambridge Common several months ago. So, when I came across it about a week ago, sitting alone on a shelf at Marty’s Liquors in Newton, I just had to pick it up. At $12.99 a 22oz bottle, it was kind of a splurge, but pay check be damned! - I just couldn’t resist. So, I picked it up, put it in my fridge, and now it’s here, in my glass. Let’s taste, shall we?

Sculpin pours a beautiful, cloudy orange-yellow with a white fluffy head that quickly dissipates into little islands that float on the surface of the beer. It smells delicious, good enough to eat, bursting with juicy, tropical hops. This beer is so fragrant, full of pineapple and grapefruit marmalade on bread toasted to perfection. And it tastes just as good as it smells: same juicy tropical fruitiness, same toasty malty backbone but with a nice tinge of bitterness that lingers just long enough.  This beer is highly drinkable and at 7% ABV, there’s no reason you can’t indulge in a second glass. So go on, find yourself a bottle, find yourself a friend who has a bottle, call up Cambridge Common and beg them to put it back on tap for you – whatever you have to do, do it, just make sure you enjoy this one last fantastic IPA before the summer totally passes by. 

Change is good!

So, it’s the beginning of September, summer’s coming to an end and the first hints of fall are both among and around us. Personally, I love fall. I love the change in the feeling of the air, the change in wardrobe, the change in the colors outside and, as a teacher, I do welcome the change in scheduling after a long, lazy summer. So, while fall means many things to many people, to me, it clearly means one thing: change. And change, in the beer world, is a very, very good thing.

Fall is a new season with new beers, new styles and new flavors to try. After the long, hot summer full of all those crisp wheat ales (my personal favorite: Three Floyds Gumballhead) and juicy, hoppy IPAs (Ithaca Flower Power IPA and Ballast Point Scuplin are insanely good while Founders Devil Dancer is just insane), it is now time to move on and try anew. In autumn, beers get roastier and toastier, fuller and rich; we’re talking Pumpkin Ales, Oktoberfests, Harvest ales and Nut Browns. And I love it. Some people disagree with the notion of drinking seasonally, but I am not one of these people. Perhaps it’s just the New England girl within me, but I, though typically phobic of any sort of change in life or routine, fully embrace the marvelous changes that come with each new season. Don’t get me wrong, I love IPAs as much as the next hophead, but come on – how many can I drink before my taste-buds literary erode away? Repeat after me: We need change. Change is good.

So, what am I drinking this fall? Glad you asked. Two beers I’m especially looking forward to having in my glass are The Bruery Autumn Maple and Elysian Dark O’ the Moon. Autumn Maple is a Belgian Strong Dark Ale brewed with yams, cinnamon, brown sugar and all sorts of fall goodness, while Dark O’ the Moon is a pumpkin stout. Both are brewed on the West Coast and therefore a little tricky to locate in my neck of the woods, so I’m getting them shipped to me by a friend in California. If you happen to be acquainted with a fellow beer lover on the left coast, I suggest that you do the same. Otherwise, wait around a couple weeks and I’ll fill you in on what you’re missing!

For the East Coast and mainstream beer drinking crowd out there, have no fear! - There are still so many delicious and different craft brews available for you to sample this fall. Autumn, in my opinion, may just be the best season to take your first dip into the craft beer pool, due mainly to the sweet, seasonally appropriate flavors being put forth. Pumpkin, in particular, is a very popular fall flavor that has found its way into the beer world, and should not be off-putting to many people at this time of year. Pumpkin, really, is the flavor of fall, after all. Poke your nose into any bakery, ice cream store or coffee shop and you’ll know what I’m talking about. Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin ice cream,    pumpkin muffins and cookies… it’s pumpkin mania around here right now and there’s no reason that beer shouldn’t be invited to the party as well. Pumpkin beer even works for non-beer drinkers, because it doesn’t really taste like beer: its flavors are mostly sweet and a little spicy with hints of nutmeg and cinnamon, heavy on toasted malts and lacking any strong or overpowering hop presence that might turn non-beer or non-craft beer drinkers off. In short, pumpkin beer, like it’s coffee and ice cream cousins, is a must-try this upcoming fall season. Though it most likely will not make its way into your usual go-to beer repertoire, I challenge you to find something more warming and delicious on a crisp autumn day.

           As for my suggestions, I suggest that you pick up Southern Tier Pumpking, Cape Ann Fisherman’s Pumpkin Stout and Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale to start. What would be fun, and what I’m planning on doing, is setting up a bit of a Pumpkin Beer tasting to experience and evaluate all the different pumpkin and spice nuances of each beer and compare them to each other. However, though fall is rapidly approaching, it’s still not quite here yet, and though some of the seasonal beers have already hit the shelves, I’m going to try to wait until the leaves change before I begin to indulge. After all, it’s only September: we’ve got a long and wonderful autumn ahead of us and there’s no need to rush it away. Check back in later for my pumpkin beer reviews.

It's a Big Bad Craft Beer World

Why am I writing this blog? That’s supposed to the purpose of this first post, to explain to everyone who I am, what I’m doing and why. It’s pretty simple, actually – I love beer. I love how it smells, I love how it feels, I especially love how it tastes. I love buying it, pouring it, drinking it… I even once tried brewing it and I liked that okay as well. I think that craft beer is a great hobby and that it’s accessible to everyone – even if you consider your beer of choice right now to be Bud Light. No matter; you can still get into craft beer. And you can still love it. It’s a big, bad craft beer world out there and you, yes, even you, can be part of it. After all, I am, and I’m just a girl who loves beer.

I want this site to be dedicated to the enjoyment of great beer, pure and simple. I have no desire to preach to you about the evils and inferiority of your macros (your Coors Lights and your Mic Ultras), and I have no desire to get up on a soap box or high horse and tell you that I, me of all people, know what you should drink better than yourselves. That’s not what this is about. I’m just here to provide a little information, some suggestions, and hopefully, get a little dialogue going, a little discussion about this awesome beverage we’re all drinking and why we like it so much. I don’t believe in beer snobbery and I don’t believe that I, or anyone else, have the right to dictate to you what you should be drinking or criticize you because your personal beer tastes don’t match up perfectly with mine. So maybe you don’t like stouts, or maybe you love them; maybe you can’t stand IPAs or, quite possibly, they’re your favorite. What does it matter? Life is complicated enough without pulling prejudices about alcoholic beverages into the mix. It’s only beer after all – as much as we love it, it’s still only beer. So let’s talk about it, let’s drink a few, and most of all, let’s enjoy this delicious nectar of the gods. It’s a big, bad craft beer world out there, after all: let’s make the most of it.