Monday Rant: A Simple Equation

The general public keeps finding new ways to make life even more mind-numbing than it already is. I've always been for choosing to drink whatever beer you think tastes good. Still, there are those certain few out there that cause me to have that Lewis Black "remind myself to breathe moment.

My Beer is Skunked

I was at a bar just a few weeks ago with a cousin of mine and a friend. This guy next to me at the bar and kept ordering Coronas and also kept sending each of them back. He claimed that the third on was the third in a row that tasted skunked. Maybe I'm just a nosey prick, but this irked me. So, I leaned over to him and asked if I could give some advice on his current plight.

See, I've always been taught that when taking care of or storing beer you need to keep it out of the light as much as possible. This is why brewers have beer in dark brown or green bottles. This is in order to keep as much light as possible from getting in and possibly skunking your beer.

So, with that understood how can you possible be surprised that a beer brand whose entire marketing strategy is based on its clear glass bottle tasted skunked. Thus, I explained to this guy that the reason it tastes skunked is because of the bottle they put it in. His response was something dumbfounded. I remember it being something close to "Oh, I drink this all of the time man." It just didn't register with him. Suffice to say, I wanted the last 20 or so seconds of my life back.

My Beer is Too Warm

This past weekend I met some people out in Robinson at a place in which the beer selection was ultra disappointing for someone that's involved in the craft beer movement. I asked the waitress if anything fun was on draft. All I got back was Bud, Bud Light, Miller and Dos Equis. So exciting. I was forced to go with Dos Equis Amber. It was the least potent poison given what I had to choose from.

Someone in our group ordered the skunked special. You guessed it. The iconic Corona in the clear bottle. When it arrived the person claimed it was too warm. Now, getting a beer that's a little too warm isn't something that would bother me. Some beer's need to be at a higher temperature to accentuate the flavors in the beer. If a beer is too cold, you're covering up some of the flavors. You can't taste cold. You can only feel it! Now, think about this. If a beer can't even taste good when it's a bit warmer (when in theory a warmer beer should enable you to taste more of its flavors) then how can one claim it's good in any form? To me it's just a simple equation.