So, a little past the halfway point of summer. I’m happy to stay that I still have faith in society: the Bros Icing Bros trend died a few weeks ago. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, that’s ok. If you got iced and responded with anything other than a kidney punch, shame on you.
Anyway, onto the “serious” stuff. NYTimes had an interesting write up on America’s pale ales a few weeks ago. If you can’t tell, I’m an enormous geek and I’ll probably end up citing the Times and the WSJ more often than anything else.
The article intentionally chose beers that are sessionable, ie. session beers, which don’t have super high ABVs. Initially, I mistook session beers to mean binge beers, but there’s sort of a distinction. Session beers generally aren’t mass produced and have somewhat distinctive flavors.
The article was interesting because the #1 beer in terms of the tasters’ opinions was also the most efficient (of those we have information), debunking the idea that flavor and efficiency can’t work together. Also, I’d like to thank Flying Dog for being forthcoming with info. To summarize:
| Taste Rank | Brand | Calories | ABV | Efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flying Dog Doggie Style Classic | 150 | 5.50% | 71.1% |
| 7 | Sam Adams Pale Ale | 160 | 5.40% | 65.5% |
| 8 | Dogfish Head Shelter Pale Ale | 158 | 5.00% | 57.8% |
| out of top 10 | Sierra Nevada Pale Ale | 176 | 5.60% | 62.1% |
Tags: Flying Dog, pale ale
I never even heard of Bros Icing Bros until I read this post and then Googled it. I couldn’t believe it when I saw a live “icing” while tailgating in the Citi Field parking lot for the DMB concert the very next day. The guy dropped to one knee and all.
My friend replied: “Yeah, those are the icing types”. So perhaps this phenomenon is not dead after all.
Anyway, I’m very intrigued by Flying Dog – I’ve had the pale ale and enjoyed it, but it looks like they have a number of beers that are more efficient than a lot of standard light beers. Especially the Tire Bite Golden Ale – I want to try to find that one next time I head to the beer distributor.
Maybe the trend is not dead and I used this site as a bellwether. DMB seems like an appropriate venue for the icing types.
Glad to hear that Flying Dog’s other beers pass the taste test. The Golden Ale checked out really well and seems like quite the competitor to domestic lights.