“Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.”-Benjamin Franklin
So I have been asked to start writing this blog on beer. Even though I have a love for wine and opening a jammy blend from Rhone with friends, drinking the rosés of Provence and swimming in the Mediterranean Sea.
90% of the time when I’m ending a phone or text conversation with a friend the words, “Oh and grab a case on the way,” is the way our talk ends. The more I thought about it, you can say I’ve come to think of the relationship of wine and beer like this: Where wine is the expression of the grape, beer is an expression of the artist. Unencumbered by the traditions and rules that the wine industry has to deal with, a beer makers creation is limited only by his or hers imagination.
With beer if you taste chocolate, coffee, or even pumpkin spice, odds are you taste it because that is an ingredient itself, with the quantity of those ingredients specifically chosen to give the drinker a prefect mouthful of beer every time.
I’ve worked at Robust for almost three years and the one thing that makes me chuckle is that we have a beer list with almost thirty beers broken down in the similar to our wine, easy-to-use Robust Factors. There are some people that still don’t know we even sell beer. The beer categories are a little different than the wine: Fresh, Lively, Hearty, Robust, and Fruity. The beer list changes about twice a year, and since its spring, that means its time to switch it up. There are a couple of heavy hitters that have a good chance of making the cut due to their style and expression. From Goose Island Brewery in Chicago there is the India Pale Ale, and from Brazil the Xingu Black Beer.
The India Pale Ale when poured into a glass has a great burnt orange color and a nice head that hangs on the glass like lace with every drink (lace, actually being the technical name for it). Time to drink, it starts with just a tingle from the hops on the tongue followed by fruit and malt coating the tongue then finishing with a long hoppy finish which lasts at least 7 seconds.
Xingu black beer is a very unique beer when poured into a glass. Carbonated with nitrogen instead of CO2 the bubbles in the beer are light, the beer is smooth as it rolls over the tongue tasting chocolate, malt and just a hint of red fruit. This is a beer that is a great segway beer for a person looking to break into the world of dark beers, and a beer for dark beer lovers to drink sitting on a patio on a hot summer day.
So next time you go to Robust look your server in the eyes and ask them for a “twelve-ounce three-ounce,” and I promise you will get a laugh out of them and a great drink in your hand, ENJOY!
Chad Thompson
