Fine Craft & Craft Breweries: How the two connect the physical expression of the visionary mind.

Last week I was listening to Preet Bharara's podcast, Stay Tuned with Preet. His guest was longtime New York Times columnist, Frank Bruni, who spoke about food, politics, language, and culture; I enjoyed Bruni's cleverly colorful but clean way of speaking and smiled throughout the listen. During the political segment, he referred to a description of democrats as beer and wine voters. Bernie Sanders and Tim Ryan appeal to beer drinkers, while Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg are the wine candidates. When he referred to Gretchen Whitmer, the current governor of Michigan, as the democrat's Pabst's Blue Ribbon with just the right measure of merlot candidate for 2024, it got me thinking of my 2023 Christmas trip to Florida.

Jax Breweries created an Ale Trail, complete with a passport you can collect a stamp as proof of your beer commitment.

What do you do in Jacksonville when the weather is so cold you must buy a hat? You brewery hop. Jacksonville is lovingly called Jax by the locals. The Jax Ale Trail refers to 20+ craft breweries with award-winning beers. I identify as a wine drinker but enjoyed all the beers I drank in Florida. We only went to some of the breweries. Still, the few we hit had great flavors (Dragon fruit, passion fruit, blueberries, tangerine, cranberries, coconut) that would appeal to a wide variety of tastes, including wine drinkers. Here are a few:

Jim, Gem, and I at one of the breweries. I’m terrible at taking selfies, my arms are too short.

• Wicked Barley Brewing Company - Blood Drive, a blood orange IPA, paired with an order of fries topped with fresh garlic, ginger, and green onions, it's a meal. You'll need breath mints afterward.

• Veterans United Craft Brewery - Bourbon Barrel Aged Snipe blends the flavors of dark Belgian chocolate, roasted coffee, and bourbon into a beautiful concoction. Homey and dog-friendly, the tap room emanates family, fellowship, pride, and service themes. 

• Ancient City Brewing - Castillo Coconut Porter is a smooth and velvety blend of dark chocolate and black malts. You can make it into a fabulous boozy cocktail called the Dirty Snowman. This is an after “all is done” drink.

Why is a potter talking about beer? These breweries are hitting such delicate and subtle balances of flavors that soon we'll be using the word fine to describe beer, the way we use it to reference fine art, fine wine, and fine craft. Beer is now an art form; these craft brewers are clever, too. Using the beers' names to create their businesses' themes and atmospheres. They're stepping back, creating distance from their creation, so they can see the big picture much like artists do from their sculptures, paintings, and pots.

Some PS’s:

If any of these flavors sound appealing, you can find them locally or something similar at Total Wine or visit one of Raleigh's many local breweries.

Here’s the link to Preet’s podcast. There was so much good stuff I could have written three blog posts from it. I hope you’ll take a listen.