The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

Lucy and Taryn’s Beer Club: Beautiful beer flights

Lucy and Taryn ordered two flights of beers at their hometown favorite, the Groveland Tap. Instead of narrating, this week, they are letting their conversation speak for itself. (It’s literally transcribed from a recording. Thanks, Ethnographic Interviewing!)

L: This one is the British Invasion, which tastes slightly smoky, à la the jalapeño beer that we got two weeks ago, but this is not the forest fire one. So I don’t know.

T: It’s not the Forest Fire, but it’s not as smoky as that other one?

L: It’s not as smoky. Nothing could be as smoky as the other one.

L: What did you just taste?

T: I had the Furious, and I always like the Furious. I think if anything, I love it so much, that maybe it’s lost a little bit of its magic. But I don’t even really feel that way!

L: This is the Let it Ride.

T: Should I taste my Let it Ride while you taste your Let it Ride?

L: You should do that. Let it Ride. I just love the way it smells. That’s a really good beer!

T: It’s so good!

L: I just love this. Okay, this is perhaps my new favorite IPA.

T: I think it’s my new favorite BEER! The real question is going to be which one of these wins, and I think it’s gonna be really intense.

L: See, this one’s kind of fruity, and I like that! Which I don’t usually say! But with the hops—

T: Yeah, because, the balance. It’s about the balance.

L: Alright, this is the Forest Fire. Let’s see if it’s smokier than either the British Invasion or the pork beer.

T: Well, the British Invasion has all those guns on their boats. So it makes sense that it’s smoky…Where am I? I’m at the 500. This is the really really alcoholic one.

L: Oh yeah, that’s—

T: Wow.

L: That tastes like a forest fire.

T: What is this, what’s this?

L: I think that’s the rye beer, which doesn’t taste like rye at all, which makes me so happy. Because I hate rye. It is the most disgusting thing.

T: You did like the other rye beer.

L: (tasting Taryn’s 500) Yeah, what the f—

T: Yeah, it’s just—this one has that in it, but then it like goes away. That one actually tastes like bubblegum!

L: And this is the Rainmaker, the Red, from St. Louis Park. In honor of Grandpa Sherman and Grandma Audrey.

T: Aww. And this is the Hookiebobb!

L: Wait, so what was the one you just had?

T: This one is the Lift Bridge.

T: Oh, weird! Because I usually like Lift Bridge! And this is their special edition, the 500?

T: 500, yeah.

L: Alright. And it’s pure bubblegum. Okay, Rainmaker. This tastes like root beer.

T: You’re totally right about the root beer!

L: What is this?

T: That’s the Hookiebobb.

L: But what is it—what am I—

T: Yeah, I don’t know.

L: Ah, but I know!! Ah, it’s one of those things where you’re like, ah, what is it!! I won’t drink your entire beer to figure it out… this is fun. We should do this more often.

T: I agree.

L: Why get one beer when you can get eight?

T: This also smells really sweet.

L: So, in order of how I drank these beers, I don’t know why this one’s almost gone, because it tasted like a campfire. I keep ordering campfire beers but I don’t really like them all that much?

T: There’s so much gone because I took another sip with my nose plugged.

L: Oh, that might be it! But Let it Ride easily wins here.

T: Yeah.

L: Now you have to figure out your winner. I can say with certainty that the worst one —

T: (indicating her bubblegum beer) Is this one.

L: No, the British Invasion.

T: And then between the Red and the rye, what do you think?

L: The rye is smoky, but it’s deeper, so I like it, whereas this one is just like ggghh.

L: I do like IPAs! There’s a part of me that thinks that that’s the best beer!

T: All of me thinks that.

L: But part of me thinks that I’m young, and I’m still learning, and I will introduce myself to new things.

T: What do you think competes with the IPA, for you?

L: It’s pretty situational. I will take an IPA anytime, but given the right sort of dark heavy beer?

T: No, yeah, I feel that way too. I feel like there are some moments in which porters, or, I don’t know, stouts…

L: And a good Belgian is a good beer.

T: Yeah, right? Yeah, but then if you’re like, I wanna be satisfied, an IPA will always do. And a bad porter is like, meh.

L: A red, amber, or a brown, they’re fine, but that’s like the first of two beers. Or the second. You’ve gotta have two.

T: Yeah. but I also like all of those better than pales. Or pilsners.

L: Have you ever had sort of the more unusual either black IPAs, double IPAs, or black ales…dark beers that really aren’t actually supposed to be dark?

T: Yeah, I really really like double IPAs. I’ve never had a black IPA.

T: The Furious / Let it Ride competition is SO INTENSE.

L: You’re gonna have to pick.

T: Do I, though?

L: You just have to order one beer, because you can drink just one at a time.

T: Yeah. And I think the order is really the question here, because even if I order both of them, in a really intense night, I also really need to save the best one for last.

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