Hey there, kiddos and squiddos! We're back in action and we've been cookin' up a thing or two for your enjoy and we're here to shout about a buncha cool beers and [checks notes] ...vegetables?
That's right! Vegetables! We teamed up with one of our distributors to do some "CSA style" boxes of Mystery Produce and, um, wow, it turns out that y'all either really like veggies or y'all really don't like going to the grocery store.* Anyway, we're taking preorders for either pickup or delivery on Wednesday or Saturday and we're told that it's $30 for about $50 worth of stuff (as of this writing we have not seen the boxes yet, so we can neither confirm nor deny), but we've got limited space in our cold room(s) for storage, so act soon** if you wanna hop on the ol' veggie train! Choo choo!
Movin' right on along from "plants for sale" and into "beverages made from plants," we got more cans comin' atcha on Friday! And the first of the upcoming cans is a blast from the relatively-recent past that we've been itchin' to re-brew: Snail the Pale! This beautiful little beer is made entirely with locally grown hops from our friends at Four Star Farms and it's mostly*** made with local grains from our friends at Valley Malt and Stone Path Malt and it's nice 'n' fruity and a little toasty and just a smidge earthy and anyway it's tasty and you should come try it!
And also, at long last, we're finally putting Extra Naked into cans! Also on Friday! And to celebrate(?) this monumentous occasion, we're takin' the opportunity to do something that we've been "batting around" for a while now and we're givin' this beer a wee little "rebrand." Long story short, we never really felt that the style name "cream ale" suited this beer all that well, but that's the horse we stuck ourselves with, so it was the hill we expected to die under. Anyway, we did a lot of soul-searching and a little polling and came to the conclusion that "table beer" as a style name was at least not worse and also maybe better? Anyway, we'll walk y'all through it in handy-dandy Q 'n A style:
What's wrong with "Cream Ale?"
Well, for starters, it turns out that nobody knows what the hell a cream ale is. People tend to assume that it's a descriptive term (it isn't) or that the beer will have vanilla (it doesn't) or lactose (it doesn't) or that it will just somehow be "creamy" (ew). And the people who are familiar with the style tend to associate it with some less-than-desirable examples.
So... people are more familiar with "Table Beer?"
...no? Not as such, since it's not a "real style."****
I thought you said you thought this through.
We did! Long story short, we felt that "table beer" was pretty descriptive (people are generally pretty familiar with the concept of "table wine," and it's not that big of a logical jump to beer), and it at least sounds like it should be a real beer style, and also there was a notable local example that a number of people were familiar with, and... what the hell else can we call this beer? Truth be told, it's the recipe for a Classic American Pilsner (a style which has been defunct for decades), brewed with a Belgian yeast (which is... not to style for a Pilsner, to say the least). What would you call it?
Was there anything else you considered?
Oh god yes. It's close-ish to a saison, but that's a style with some... baggage, and really it's more like a session-strength saison, which around here usually gets labeled as "grisette," only even fewer people know what a grisette is and that's the whole problem we were trying to avoid in the first place, and "everyday ale" is too broad and "dry hopped light ale" is weirdly clinical sounding and why don't we just stick with "cream ale?" Oh, right, because everybody thinks it's got milk in it (or, arguably worse, they think it's like Genny), so how about we use a different vague, obscure (yet slightly more descriptive) style name? Anyway, we went in circles on that for, oh, about three years, and now here we are! Table beer! At least until we use all the labels that say so!
What's wrong with "Cream Ale?"
Well, for starters, it turns out that nobody knows what the hell a cream ale is. People tend to assume that it's a descriptive term (it isn't) or that the beer will have vanilla (it doesn't) or lactose (it doesn't) or that it will just somehow be "creamy" (ew). And the people who are familiar with the style tend to associate it with some less-than-desirable examples.
So... people are more familiar with "Table Beer?"
...no? Not as such, since it's not a "real style."****
I thought you said you thought this through.
We did! Long story short, we felt that "table beer" was pretty descriptive (people are generally pretty familiar with the concept of "table wine," and it's not that big of a logical jump to beer), and it at least sounds like it should be a real beer style, and also there was a notable local example that a number of people were familiar with, and... what the hell else can we call this beer? Truth be told, it's the recipe for a Classic American Pilsner (a style which has been defunct for decades), brewed with a Belgian yeast (which is... not to style for a Pilsner, to say the least). What would you call it?
Was there anything else you considered?
Oh god yes. It's close-ish to a saison, but that's a style with some... baggage, and really it's more like a session-strength saison, which around here usually gets labeled as "grisette," only even fewer people know what a grisette is and that's the whole problem we were trying to avoid in the first place, and "everyday ale" is too broad and "dry hopped light ale" is weirdly clinical sounding and why don't we just stick with "cream ale?" Oh, right, because everybody thinks it's got milk in it (or, arguably worse, they think it's like Genny), so how about we use a different vague, obscure (yet slightly more descriptive) style name? Anyway, we went in circles on that for, oh, about three years, and now here we are! Table beer! At least until we use all the labels that say so!
Anyway. That's probably a bit more "inside baseball" than y'all need or want, so let's end with something fun! Coloring! Y'all may not have noticed, since time no longer has any meaning, but the month of April is almost over, which means it's Last Call for coloring contest submissions! And may we remind you that we've got the page available right here and we are accepting digital submissions - whether you digitally color the page, or if you print it out and scribble on it in crayon and then take a picture of it on your phone and email it to us! So send them in, it brings us joy to see you color in our doodles!
* We can sympathize with that last one, which is why we've been doing most of our personal shopping at Restaurant Depot. Two-gallon bucket of pickles, anyone?
** As in, the first week has been sold out for a couple days and next week is starting to fill up already.
*** We, uh, kinda forgot to order the local version of a key (yet relatively minor in scale) ingredient.
**** We have strong opinions on the "that's not a real style" argument, but we're aware that said opinions are not interesting, so we'll leave it at that.
** As in, the first week has been sold out for a couple days and next week is starting to fill up already.
*** We, uh, kinda forgot to order the local version of a key (yet relatively minor in scale) ingredient.
**** We have strong opinions on the "that's not a real style" argument, but we're aware that said opinions are not interesting, so we'll leave it at that.
RSS Feed