(Hat tip to the Simpsons, and Otto, for the phrasing of the title of this blog post. )
I’m here to once again bring you a series of platitudes about beer drinking. And that, my friends, is this.
Higher ABV in a beer makes it better.
This comes from the “bang for your buck” school of thought.
I’ve been trying to curtail my intake of late – as a parent of both teen and pre-teen children, I know that eyes are on me to make sure my head is screwed on straight. Those post work beery meet ups and workout inspired hard seltzers, which lead to “cooking beers,” and so on, and, well, it’s a slippery slide.
Like a lot of folks, I’m what you call a “Black Diamond” drinker. What I mean by that is, like a skier tackling the toughest of slopes, I start my day with a long gradual descent, during which my mood improves, my confidence builds, and, yes, my ability to make sense and limit profanity pushes its outer boundaries. And then, as if being ejected forcefully from a lift, I go sailing down that downward side of the mountain, hurtling towards danger and potential destruction.
My answer to this has been the “one day, one beer” motto. During the week, I’m holding myself now to just a single beer, had with dinner, to wash down my meal and hopefully pair up nicely with what I am cooking. I try to keep a few Guinness or other darker beers in supply that go well with red meats, stews and other fall oven baked goodies.
But the go to beer has got to be a double IPA. I mean, if I’m only going to have one, it should give me a bit of a brain wollop.
Having added more IPAs to my routine, I can say that the double IPAs only bring double joy, and no real negatives. The extra hoppy flavor is not overwhelming but rather a comforting friend, like Bob Saget’s homosexual companion Joey from Full House.
The Southern Tier brewery is based out of Lockwood, NY, which is in the very southwest corner of New York State, closer to Erie PA than any metropolitan area of the Empire State. They have a wide range of beers and I’ve yet to have one that I didn’t enjoy. This particular 2X IPA, ITBMCBB*, is “an India Pale Ale kicked up a notch to form a true Double IPA: feverishly hoppy with a malty backbone and higher-than-standard alcohol content. Citrusy hops tease the senses with aromatics and lingering bitterness, while just the right balance of malts disguises 2XIPA’s extra gravity.”
I mean, sure, yep, I agree! I have no gift for flowery compliments. It tastes good, yo! It pairs well with chicken, or pizza, or, well, you know, anything you’d want to wash down.
I’m on the lookout for more locally available 2X IPA’s. Please feel free to share your faves.
Let’s dust off the Prose-inator to bring this home:
“This beer tastes like what it would taste like if a
made love to a
in the middle of a
while listening to the Greatest Hits Album of the world’s greatest band, ever, that being of course
and then together raised a baby with their shared feelings of
and, finally, that baby cried
tears of
into a frosty pint glass.”