end of year sparkle

I'm going to be sampling some brews from home soon enough, so I felt I should make the effort for one last local, or national, beer.  Arriaca has been good for ales.  Seems like a safe bet.  I picked up a session ale, also to be safe since mornings are hard recently.  Cans are becoming more and more popular, it seems, with some breweries using them exclusively.  Although, I think I have seen bottles of Arriaca in the past.

The beer is slightly ruddy, but mostly a clear straw color.  The ale citrus is there, but it's a very light note, flitting to the nose and brain.  I expect something sweet and fruity, but I'm surprised by the complexity of the flavor.  There's a moment of sweetness, but it's quickly overwhelmed by bitterness, and the swallow ends with a touch of sour.  I'm reminded of some citrus sodas, purporting to be all natural, that end up brisk and biting without added sugar.  Some sweetness does kind of build up towards the end, mellowing out the aftertaste.  The citrus doesn't punch very hard, leaving an impression of something more like a lager.  A nice light beer, as session ales should be, a good accompaniment to snacks or a meal.

Supplier: Espuma
Price: €2.07

full of beans

Another exotic pick from Be Hoppy, Lervig's 3 Bean Stout contains vanilla, cocoa, and tonka beans, whatever those are.  According to Wikipedia, they are a South American crop that has been used as a vanilla substitute and in perfume, before being banned by some countries.  Apparently, in high concentrations it can cause liver damage.  And here it is in an alcoholic drink, another culprit for failing livers.  Lervig is a Norwegian brewery, so this follows along in the pattern of Scandinavian stouts.  Hopefully, it's up to snuff with the excellent others.

Not very foamy, but there are plenty of bubbles clinging to the glass.  It's a good dark color, but not very aromatic.  Leaning in, there is a whiff of vanilla.  It's a spicy and sweet flavor, very much like liquid gingerbread.  If I try, I can pick apart some vanilla and some cocoa, but it's mostly a roasted mouthful of flavor.  It's on the strong side at 13%, and there's a little warning at the back of the throat from the beginning.  I feel some tingling and a spicy afterburn, like a strong cocktail.  It takes a while for some stout bitter to kick in, but it does eventually show up and try to balance out the sweetness.

Supplier: Be Hoppy
Price: €3.70

/s tag necessary

Ever notice that most conspiracy theorists belong to a particular group of people?  They tend to have a similar look, don't they?  Yep, white guys.  Of course ages vary, as well as economic status, but that's the group you find in this activity, by and large.  They might even be straight white guys for the most part, but that's none of my business anyway.

So, why is that worth commenting on?  Well, we've all been in conversation with one of those people, who just absolutely have to angle the flow of talk away from the original topic and into their preferred angle of attack.  It's easy to brush this off as some quirk of personality,  maybe even part of some social disability.  It could even be true in many cases.  However, there might be something else going on, something more sinister.  This is my theory: conspiracy theorists are working hard to distract us from solveable issues while their masters prepare to bring us back to Feudalism.

Consider the conspiracy theories that are bandied about: mysterious poisons in the air; mind control that may or may not be wirelessly produced; technological knowledge hidden from the public "for our own good".  Now, it is true that pollution and general wastefulness have created an unknown danger to us from our own environment.  It is also true that governments and militaries have technology that they do not share.  However, the conspiracy theorist never points to a specific target as the source of the problem, except for vague entities like the Illuminati or occasionally "the government".  They leave us nowhere to aim at if we need to attack.  Everything is a danger, and everyone should be in a state of constant vigilance - or panic.  When the source of danger is ill-defined or omni-present, fear is a great method of preventing action, as much as it can be a spur to action.  We cannot fight against people we see in offices and in the media, but we must fear members of secret societies whose names and faces are a closely guarded secret.  What can this be but demoralizing?  What better way to prepare us to accept a fate of subservience and slavery by telling us we have no chance in the first place?

Now, a good many conspiracy theorists claim to have the good of humanity in mind.  Their fight is against the "elites" who would tamp down the population with either fear or marvel.  But again, I say their targeted problems are not ones that are clear and fightable.  Moreover, they insist on drawing attention to those problems and away from others, which are defined and have people searching for workable solutions.  Interestingly enough, those problems that they distract from tend to affect people who are ... not in the same group as these conspiracy theorists.  Consider: when did conspiracy theories become a popular pursuit?  Perhaps in the mid-twentieth century?  I think another thing became popular around that time, and that was the demand for civil rights by groups of people who not white, men, or either.   Quite the coincidence!

It could be enough to leave it there, with conspiracy theories being a smokescreen for resisting social change.  However, I did mention feudalism towards the top, and as long as we're talking about conspiracy theories, let's go big.  Without trust in technology, health care will decline.  Without trust in expertise, education will decline.  In any case, many people will be denied access to those things.  Those people will then be simple labor, with no way to intellectually impose their will.  They will be cogs in the machine.  Ironically, the decline in technology will mean a greater need for human labor and less mechanization, so it is true that more work will be available.  The question is if it is good work. 

Imagine that people work for one employer who is able to provide them with services they need, such as housing and security.  This is not a new idea exactly, as company towns existed in the nineteenth century in the revving of the Industrial Revolution.  The government, for lack of funds or lack of interest, provides little to nothing.  Who will people be loyal to?  To an abstract government that provides to proof of its very existence, or the source of their daily bread?  People will focus their loyalty on local providers, and the very concept of the nation will vanish.  This is feudalism, the organization of laborers around a local power.  We will exist in a collection of small states that have little to nothing to do with each other, fostering a sense of suspicion and tribalism.  Not only that, but communication will be tamped down to the bare minimum.  For one thing, what does a person with no immediate connection to the outside world care what happens in it?  For another, how will most people be able to pay for access to that information?  We will also be in a world without access to health care, so we can assume there will be little to no birth control.  This works out splendidly for those who need labor, as unwanted and uneducated hands will have few opportunities to work for their own survival.  The human being will be practically interchangeable.  A cog in the machine.  And when we are at the state of laborers and masters, how will we manage to escape?  How will we recognize "talent" if everything is designated from birth and social class?  Naturally, those who were in a privileged position before the decline will have more opportunities to maintain a good position.  So, again, the white male conspiracy theorists only seem to be fighting to protect themselves and their privilege, not humanity as a whole.

Who'd a thunk it!!

and back again

Oops, there's been a break in the continuity!  For a number of personal reasons.  Anyway, back to the beer.  I was going down to the George Herriman exhibition and there happens to be a beer store right on the way, where I've been but once before.  I managed to get in before they locked up for siesta and picked up a session ale by Buxton Brewery, Myrcia.  It contains oats, harkening back to some of my winter stouts, and yeast in the bottle.  I'll have to watch how I pour.

The aley scent of citrus is prominent and the beer is straw colored and bubbly.  While light in color, it's also cloudy, not surprising since it's unfiltered.  It's bitter but without the heavier fruity notes of most ales, even session ales like All Day or Valverde.  It's a grapefruit like flavor, cleansing and light.  It feels even healthy.  A little bit of sweetness oozes up over time, but it's a very subtle shade on the overall taste.  It's kind of a light version of the NEIPAs I'm seeing around now, which are also very juicy and healthily bitter, but with a bigger flavor.  Myrcia is kind of like a tonic with a little orange juice.  It's bracing and refreshing, much better for summer than winter I'd say.

Supplier: Be Hoppy
Price: €3.70