Beer Moment; Boating

Smitty, a fellow blogger, recently posted something about Beer Moments, and Setting and Circumstance.

I’ve coined the term “setting and circumstance” and used it here a few times in the past. I’ve included it in many of my reviews in an effort to impart a degree of honesty to what I’m writing. There are so many variables that can alter or impact a beers performance or taste from one sitting to the next. (Indeed, from one setting to the next as well.) As geeky as it sounds, the way a beer is poured can have a marked effect on the way it looks and tastes. Thus, the pour is a feature of setting and circumstance.

The next graph is the important one...

Location and atmosphere are part of what I call setting and circumstance, for sure.

How true Smitty.

Saturday, Kriddy and I went boating with Ed and (is it his GF?) out in Clinton. I packed up the cooler with some beers and we headed out. Of course, I also threw two glasses in the cooler for kriddy and I to drink out of... just because I'm on the water doesn't mean I can't serve my beer ALMOST appropriately.

Ed was the first one to have a beer. He pulled a bud light (he brought) from the cooler, and I thought, what the heck, so I pulled out a Three Floyds Alpha King. This one I've had for a while, so the hops had mellowed and made it a nice malty pale ale instead of the harsher American Pale Ale (not that it's bad new). Everyone else tried it and seemed to enjoy it.

After that, I rinsed out my glass (not in the lake, silly!) and opened a Southern Tier Uber Sun Imperial Summer Wheat Beer. This beer was a lot NEWER than the Alpha King, so I figured the imperial wheat would probably be similar to the aged American Pale. It was close, but not quite.

I really enjoyed the beer, the others liked the Alpha King better.

I had wanted to get more of the background and the "Setting and Circumstance" in the picture, but it's my phone, and it was really bright and I couldn't tell what the picture was, I assumed it was good enough. (Ed in picture) The beer was rather good, but it's sometimes difficult to drink from a glass on a boat. If the boat is moving, it's practically IMPOSSIBLE to drink. We had started at one place, and were moving to another, I managed to prevent spilling the beer, but drinking it was impossible. So I asked Ed to stop, and we all collectively drank the beer, before moving out again.

Something about drinking a beer named Uber Sun, on a lake, with a bright sun overhead, 80 degree water below, and the smell of suntan lotion, on the first day of summer, just made the whole Beer Moment great.

I didn't take any notes, so I couldn't tell you exactly how the mouthfeel was, how the smell was, how the taste was, I just know that it was a perfect beer for the occasion.