One of the smaller shames
that could come out of this Jason Aldean “Try That In A Small Town” hubbub would be for Hamburg Brewing Company’s excellent beer, Small Town, to have its name sullied.I first tried the 5.2% White Ale during a trip home earlier this year when my mom picked me up a six-pack. Given the wildly specific tastes in beer I’ve cultivated while warming seats at Green Bench, I tend to be ever grateful but never too excited when most people
choose a brew for me. This time, that was a mistake.Small Town bursts with notes of spice, apple, grass, lemon — flavors that you could easily overlook as its low ABV and high effervescence make a beer that’s just … refreshing. It has that oxymoronic quality that many great lighter beers have: approachable but complex. It’s just about everything I want in a drink.
And, though its given name is White Ale, I know its birth name is Saison. And not just because the original label and description call it as much. This style of beer, done properly, makes my mouth swoon and my heart sing. I fell in love with Small Town upon first whiff.
During my more recent trip, it was the first can I pulled from the cooler at my local Consumer’s Beverage. It did not last long.
A true-to-style saison, in an accessible format, in wide distribution (one of the reviews notes it’s on draft … at an Applebee’s!), at a cheap-by-craft price point, from a brewery near my hometown?
Jason Aldean could never.
Current obsession: Tate’s chocolate chip cookies, picked up from a rest stop in the middle of New York. The state’s new highway relief points might be a boondoggle, but I appreciate their commitment to selling made-in-New-York goods. (Though I now see that Tate’s, originally from Southampton, is part of a Chicago-based conglomerate and, oh, you can buy these things just about anywhere, including Amazon. So it goes, I guess.) My friends love to hate on me for my dislike of sweets, but I find the crunch and slight char on these cookies to be irresistible.
On deck: Last year, Keeley returned from a trip to a friend’s house with a bag full of homegrown tomatoes — the result of a pandemic-fueled hobby from the friend’s husband. That was the first time I tried an Everglades Tomato. They’re tiny, but they crackle with flavor, like nature’s Warhead candy. I just picked up a packet of seeds from an internet shop and hope to have my own growing this winter.
Why are baby snacks so weird? Keeley just bought Augie some Happy Baby Snackers in a creamy spinach and carrot flavor. They look like Funyuns, smell like a new car and form remarkable glue-like powers when exposed to spit (not my own; I haven’t been brave enough to taste them).
Did you ever latch on to new words when you were a kid? When I was 12, I learned the word “consume” and was briefly obsessed with it. I put the emphasis on the second syllable and substituted it for every instance of “eat” and “drink,” as in: I’d like to con-SUME another packet of Tate’s chocolate chip cookies but I am too ashamed to order confectionaries from a multinational company that pretends to be local to New York by way of an online company that aims to con-SUME us all.
Finally, here’s a good story about Kevin Kline, internet scams a great-looking sandwich.
The biggest one obviously being the harm caused by the racist dog whistles used in Aldean’s video. The song: Forgettable modern country machismo. The video: Abominable.
My pal Andrew Palumbo and a handful of stellar Green Bench bartenders being the exceptions.