This Is My Blood: JavaHead

Oof. Bad day for our country, in a sea of bad days for our incredibly troubled country. It almost seems irresponsible to be writing about a goddamn beer I drank today while black men are murdered by our alleged peacekeepers and our cities appear to be burning to the ground. Days like today (and tomorrow... I write these days later and backdate them, sorry) really make bullshit like Puke on Your Birthday seem petty and useless. I try to look at it like a distraction, like if someone wants to take a break from scrolling through horrific newsfeeds about tear gas and looting, maybe they could come read about Tröegs JavaHead Stout. That's my excuse, anyway, that I'm doing it for the readers, few though there are. It's quite possible that I'm making this excuse to feel better about myself, to pretend like I'm actually providing some type of menial service instead of feeding my own ego. Philadelphia is in chaos, and I'm sitting here jerking off about some fucking beer?! Shouldn't I be doing something more productive? I don't know. Self-doubt is just one of the negative feelings that are weighing on me right now. Helplessness is another one. Helpless because I don't know what to do, and helpless because even writing about any of this comes off as self-serving. Black communities are being slaughtered by policeman, but this middle class straight white male feels helpless, boo hoo, right? I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to keep blogging.

Here are some words about Tröegs JavaHead Stout, written for the sole purpose of not losing my fucking mind about America's slow and painful demise.

• JavaHead is an oatmeal stout. We just talked about this style of beer the other day. I wrote about how much I love this shit. JavaHead was no different.
• Tröegs claims on the label that "it's hard to tell where the coffee ends and the beer begins." As someone who loves the taste of beer and who hates the taste of coffee, it was pretty easy to taste that this was more beer than coffee, thankfully. Not that it didn't share similarities to coffee (absolutely with the aroma, and then a bit of an acidic coffee finish), but the flavors more reminded me of cocoa than coffee.
• Excellent pairing alert: JavaHead paired with chocolate chip pancakes. Tröegs would be more accurate if they said "it's hard to tell where the chocolate chips ends and the beer begins."
• I will also be more likely to love any beer that I drink in the morning. Pam had night shift tonight, and I'm tired of trying to drink a beer during the tiny window between when Martha falls asleep and when I can't help but falling asleep (a window that lasts about eight minutes and starts around 9:17). So I got my daily beer out of the way. Bonus: Pam, the household's coffee drinker, was able to partake.
• I really appreciate how Tröegs prints all kinds of beer details right there on their labels. Not only could I find out JavaHead's ABV% on there, but I also found IBU (60, moderately high), and the types of hops included (Cascade, Chinook, Cluster... those names are familiar but don't really mean anything to me just yet). To me, this is a sign that this brewery gives a shit.

Alright, that's it. I recommend this beer if stouts are your thing. I don't know how to tell policemen to stop their brutality, I don't know how to tell bad actors to stop looting, I don't know how to tell everyone to wear a goddamn face mask, but I know how to tell you what beer to drink, so I'll be here for the time being.

NOTES

BEER: JavaHead (no space in between the words, per Tröegs' website)

STYLE: Oatmeal Stout

ABV: 7.5%

BREWED BY: Tröegs Brewing Company

LOCATION: Hershey, PA (no wonder JavaHead tasted like cocoa)

PURCHASED AT: Foodery in NoLibs

PAIRED WITH: chocolate chip pancakes and turkey bacon

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 203.5