One Year In The Hole

More Ice For My Beer Runs!

I have made it to a year of posting weekly Drinking & Thinkings! Imma gonna keep going if you’re cool with that. I’ll talk a little more about that in a bit. But first:

Indie Beer Run Day: Don’t Forget The Ice!

Don’t worry, you don’t have to actually run; Independent Beer Run Day happens every July 3rd. Time to load up on all your July 4th beer (just make sure to hide it from yourself so it makes it through to the next day) with beer from Indie places.

I plan to be making my run to Pine & Palm Brewing. I have not been for some time and they have a new IPA on and they are definitely Independent so it checks all the boxes.

This brings me to something I was ranting about yesterday on the Perfect Pour: Why don’t more taprooms carry bags of ice!?

When I make a run to a brewery I many times do it with an ice-chest. My ice-machine doesn’t crank out enough ice to make a relevant amount so I have to stop at a store of some kind and buy ice AND stop at the brewery for the beer.

One too many stops for me - I’m lazy.

Why don’t taprooms have bags of ice for sale? I suppose there must be some but I have not seen nor heard of this. Not even in bottle shops.

Matt on the show pointed out he would give you some ice from their machine at Tioga Sequoia Brewing if you asked but I don’t want to do that. I want to buy it right then and there with my beers.

Normalize bags of ice at breweries!

Unanswered Beer Twitter Questions

Mikey 🍻🎤✏️ @MikeyTopPour

The past month the three grocery stores I buy @SierraNevada Porter at have not had it. Wondering if this a local distro issue or if Sierra has pulled back production on it... #beertwitter

Not one damn person on the Beer Twitters responded to this. I guess maybe it’s a local distributor thing then and not a Sierra Nevada ramping down production of Porter.

I personally don’t drink Porters much but my wife does. Simple clean Browns and Porters is all she will drink as an everyday beer. Those kinds of beers have slowly faded away from stores.

All that’s left is Sierra Porter and Deschutes’s Black Butte. If Porter is not coming back, I’m left with one beer to choose from and it’s not always there.

Bring back Browns and Porters!

Beer Twitter Poll Of The Week

Wow that is a true split. Feels pretty accurate. It really depends on what day you ask me, I could go either way.

Beer Twitter Thread Of The Week

A case against beer can chicken:

Melissa Cole @MelissaCole

I see a famous chef is promoting beer can chicken again, I apologise for a 🧵but there really are a lot of reasons why you shouldn’t. Firstly, it’s an utter waste of beer, the heat required for the beer to consistently steam means you’ve over cooked your chicken by approx 25C.

Melissa Cole @MelissaCole

Secondly, it’s potentially quite dangerous, heating the can releases the BPA lining which will leach into the liquid at up to 55x the rate it does at room temperature, it’s believed to be a worrying endocrine disrupter, and why it’s not used in baby bottles any more.

Melissa Cole @MelissaCole

Thirdly, you’re putting yourself at risk of food poisoning. What you’ve done is stuck an obstruction into the cavity and stopped the heat circulating. Plus, I rarely see anyone remind people not to use a can straight from the fridge…

Melissa Cole @MelissaCole

Finally, let’s just look at the actual physics of this, how does a beer infuse the meat if it’s stuck two thirds of the way up something WITH A HOLE AT THE TOP??!! tl;dr: either use the beer in a brine or buy one of those upright chicken roaster things, they’re brilliant. FIN

Thankfully I’m lazy, otherwise I would have totally tried making beer can chicken. I wonder if @ChewYourBeer has?…

Beer Twitter Person I’m Most Jealous Of This Week

Helen. @HelenGradwell

Please don't speak to me and my 4 hazy sons ever again

Every thing in this photo is nice. How adorable is that beer garden?!

The Links Of Beer

• A Vine Pair article asks if beer reviews are still valuable? I fall into the camp of looking at what other people are saying about the new beer I am drinking, rather than relying on reviews to determine if I’ll try a beer.

• I may have a problem with the Citra Hop and also I don’t like that Costco is making session beer.

Thanks For The Drinking And Also The Thinking!

I appreciate the read and for you being around this past year. I say “you” because I have not gained a super ton of readers since the first couple months of this newsletter’s launch.

I got a good chunk of Perfect Pour listeners and people that follow me on various social medias to come try D&T. Thankfully.

But since then, it’s a slow drip.

Anyway, the main thing is I’m happy doing it still, I just have to watch myself and not let it take too much energy from my family/work/home/friends life.

There is a level or concept for this newsletter and my blog that I know is out there that I have yet to reach and bind together properly. It involves a lo-fi concept to drinking beer and living around that and building a community along side of it.

Look for that in the future.

Thank you again for the read! Be safe out there!

-Mikey

Peace ✌️ Beer 🍺 & Metal 🤘