Dank

Remember the old Miller Lite commercials with bitter beer face? It was a strike back at beers like Sam Adams that were emerging into the market with more hops forward beers. It worked the first time around, but then the craft beer revolution took off a decade and a half later, and for a long time craft beer was synonymous with hops forward beers.

Things shifted five or maybe even ten years ago with the rise of sours and many craft breweries exploring more traditional styles of beers like stouts, porters, and lagers. Aslin brewing company is one of those as their signature beer is a lager which is nearly unheard of in the craft beer world. It is parking lot beer. Great for tailgating or mowing the lawn or enjoying on a warm summer day, and it has that deep amber color that any good lager has.

Now my problem is when I am at a brewery I want to experience as much as I can and I, for some reason, stopped doing flights. I started off with a lager and then moved to a kolch, both were excellent, but then I saw a beer that was described as dank with orange forward hops and my curiosity got the better of me. It wasn’t bad and it didn’t tasty like a moldy cellar either. So I’m not sure it was all that dank, but it was a cloudy IPA and very different from the two German style beers I had previously.

If I had to do it again I would have stuck with the lager, but that is my problem. I am an explorer by nature. I like to try new things in search of the best thing. There is little I won’t experiment with. It is why I have an extremely inconsistent diet. Lots of people have the same breakfast and lunch day after day. I find something I like, get bored of it, and then fail to find anything else and end up starving for breakfast and lunch.

I still can’t get over the description as dank. It worked. I bought the beer, and I might by it again. It was good, but the lager is what calls to me now. I like a beer that tastes like a beer, just like I like coffee that tastes like coffee. There is some strange obsession people have with having a thing and that thing not being the thing they wanted.

Either way after watching Michigan State bust my bracket I probably could have used five or six more of those lagers.