This Is My Blood: Allagash White

First, an apology from Pam.

I have no idea when this was, but years ago—possibly before children, possibly when she was pregnant with Willow, maybe even August 12, 2017?—me and her were chilling at the bar at Khyber Pass Pub and I ordered randomly from their craft beer menu, randomly because I had no fucking clue what I was doing. I asked for an Allagash White, and was accused of ordering something somebody from the suburbs would order. To be clear, this is what passed as the highest insult between us at that time (now all she wants to do is move as far away from Center City as possible), so I was deeply ashamed as I drank my Allagash White.

Okay, this is actually a non-apology from Pam. She claims that she does not remember this taking place. I actually believe her. This was a relatively minor incident from practically a different lifetime—we were sitting inside at a bar! no babysitter required!—and probably speaks more to my incredibly thin skin than anything else.

But it's incidents like this that made me want to get into craft beer in 2020. I don't want to be fucking clueless when it comes to beer, whether the specific insults lobbed at me are warranted or not, or are remembered or not. Being told that Allagash White was the "wrong" beer to order brought me back to what I now see as one of the defining moments of my alcoholic life: 21-years-old, drunkenly stumbling into Triumph Brewing Co. in Old City, ordering a Miller Lite, getting laughed at by literally the entire bar, like one of those moments in a movie when everyone is howling and snorting with glee in cinematic slow-motion, and the object of derision sits there stone-faced, unable to say anything, both worthy of the mockery and stung by it all the same.

If I come away from this year with the ability to discern which beer is what, and who tastes like what where, an overall knowledge of beer tasting, then I promise I will use that power for good. I promise I will not be a snob. I now solemnly place my hand on Tasting Beer and swear that I will appreciate any beer that you are drinking, because you are drinking beer, and that's what's important. Drink you Miller Lite, and fuck Triumph Brewing forever. Drink you $12 Pliny, that's cool too. Drink an Allagash White, wherever you are, whoever you are. Appreciate the spicy coriander, and how it overpowers the orange peel. Fall in love with this creamy beer as it slides down your throat. Doesn't matter if you are from the suburbs or city-born and -raised. I—no, we—we will drink what we want, where we want, when we want.

No apologies needed.

NOTES

BEER: Allagash White

STYLE: Witbier (White Ale)

ABV: 5.1%

BREWED BY: Allagash Brewing Company

LOCATION: Portland, Maine

PURCHASED AT: Gaul & Co. Malt House

PAIRED WITH: Wit or Witowski (this won't be the last time I have one in 2020, so I'll write an ode to my precious WoW before the year is over, promise (I was going to tack one on to this post before I got heated about the villain origin story))

GRADE: 4 pukes out of 5

BEER COUNT: 311.5