A Time and a Place
Hello all!
History is for nerds, so this week, we’ll talk about something a bit more trendy: beer pairings. Normally this involves pairing beers with food, be that in the form of amuse bouches, chocolate lava cakes, or whole roasted hogs, but the setting in which you drink the beer is, to my way of thinking, far more important, so today I’ll be pairing MacLeod’s beers with scenarios and ~vibes~.
King's Taxes
The subtle dried fruit and, to my palate, chocolate egg cream notes in KT, paired with its slammability®, make it the perfect match for a funeral, whether or not you were fond of the deceased. It tastes good even when dosed with a few tears, it’s not too cold, easy to drink, and it’s not without character or grit. It would go well in a horn, viking-style. I think you get the point.
Van Ice
Johnny Law says we shan’t drink before we’re 21, so if you’re a high school senior who was held back three years, I’ve got the beer for you - Van Ice. Its unmatched subtlety and crispness, not to mention its approachability and the tempting floral bouquet provided by the noble hops employed, make it a great match for the alley behind the bar your mom works at, somewhere between 9pm and 3am. While we sell it in 6-packs, you should be thinking in units of cases.
Better Days
When the first date isn’t going so hot, and you want to taste the bitter, earthy leather of the metaphorical bit in your mouth while you mentally flagellate yourself for squandering an evening and $35 before tip, do yourself a favor and grab a pint of this light amber sorrow juice. Its bracing citrus-and-stonefruit bitterness will fight you a little on the way down, which is kind of the point.
Cutting Bracken
Good ol’ CB is the obvious choice when you’re in the mood for a malty beer in the age of hops. Its acerbic, roasty bite will almost make it seem like you're chatting with someone interesting, which is unlikely to be the case otherwise. Malt is the soul of beer, brevity is the soul of wit, Wit is how Belgians say wheat/white. Ever wondered why those two words are kinda similar and are interchangeable in beer? Yeah, it's no coincidence
The Best/The Luckypenny
If you've ever wondered what it feels like to sit in a well-worn seat at a british pub on the outskirts of London and sip at a lovingly brewed british ale, you should probably fly there and do that - these beers are what I drink when I want to imagine imagining doing that. They're tasty as heck and make me feel like I'm in little Britain, which is only in, like, Santa Monica I think. And you don’t have to sit around for a 14-day lockdown when you crack open a can or nurse an Imperial Pint of this bad boy.
Calvert Crush
If, like me, you’re a huge fan of Trader Joe’s Orange-Peach-Mango, but wish it had a touch of hoppiness, contained alcohol, and was made of different plants, well I’ve got great news for you: Hazy IPAs exist. Calvert Crush is our entry in the category, and it rocks - it’s juicy, hoppy, fruity, and indeed contains alcohol. Plus, it’s not as easy to make something permanently hazy, so it stands on the shoulders of defunct proto-Hazies, and that bloodshed really sweetens the pot for me, personally.
Saticoy Sour
Remember those tears from earlier? At the funeral? They're back. More relatives have passed, your credit score is dipping into the negatives, and you've just found out that Rachel Weisz has sworn under oath in an unrelated deposition that she'll never come back for a Mummy 4 (I'M not crying YOU'RE crying). So while alcohol may not be the solution, at least you can slug a few lush, tart, crushable Goses back without worrying about the taste of salty tears getting in the way. Bottoms up, fam.
Cheers,
Adrian “Big Dog” Febre