This is a story of love and hate—a beer that I love and the pain of trying to come even near brewing it and a beer that I absolutely hated until it taught me to love my ingredients. Oddly, it helped me with the beer that I love. Confused? Good!
After being asked whether homebrewing is really legal, the next question in sheer volume that any homebrewer gets is, “What’s your favorite beer?” That’s a question to which I reply—with my best dad-joke jocularity—“The one in front of me!” Or, “Free and cold!”
But these are lies. We all have a beer we truly love. Maybe it’s situational, like an ice-cold Modelo on a Mexican beach, barefoot in the sand. Or maybe it’s an infatuation, like the ex you see five years later and wonder, once you sober up, what you ever saw in each other—think pastry stouts, lactose bombs, and fruit purees.