This Is My Blood: German Chocolate Cake

As I plod my way toward the end of the calendar year, I find myself drawn toward simplicity, perhaps in reproach of the year's harsh complexities. This mindset applies to beer, of course (it always does); I find that my hand moves toward the familiar and the uncomplicated. Give me another Miller Lite, I say. There is no need for more of these imperial stouts with weird coconut flavors that make it easy to imagine sniffing hand lotion, dark concoctions that evoke both coffee and alcohol burn. Enough, that's it.

Wicked Weed's German Chocolate Cake Stout was the exception in the six-pack I compiled at a local bottle shop recently. At my sojourn in Chase's Hop Shop, I added mostly light beers and American lagers to the pack, because I just didn't feel like doing this anymore. Even the craziest bullshit brews don't excite me anymore. German Chocolate Cake? Sounds interesting I guess...?

I don't think I'm unique in feeling this way, especially not out here in the Great Northeast, a.k.a. Bud Light and Adidas Flip Flop Country. No one is going into Chase's Hop Shop looking for rare imperial IPAs from California. They're instead shuffling in for a twelve-pack of Twisted Tea. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that—and indeed, the lack of demand for non-mass-produced-swill means that I paid less for these seven beers than I have for any other beer product this entire year—I'm just saying that it kinda defeats the purpose of having a craft beer store if no one is buying craft beer.

There was a brief time when Chase's Hop Shop was all the rage in the NEast. Not only did we buy beer there, but we hung out there. There were a few lazy weekend days when we grabbed some beers and some wings and played Mario Kart right there in the back of the store. I was in attendance at a bachelor party who cocktail hour took place at Chase's. Someone got stabbed at Chase's during that bachelor party. This place was the shit!

The only other time I was in Chase's this year was in January, when I was on my way to Jim's house, and picked up a couple PBR Extras (which I noted but didn't write about, because it was early on in This Is My Blood and I didn't have a firm grip on what I was doing yet). And man, let me tell ya... I did not really feel like this was a place I could call home anymore. That night, I walked through a half dozen burly construction workers spread out over the lounge area, drinking tall boys of Bud heavy, and walked back to the fridges where there was like three IPAs to choose from and rows and rows of the same shit I could get anywhere. So it was no surprise I got gun shy and grabbed a goddamn PBR.

This most recent trip was a different experience, but that's COVID for ya. No one is allowed to hang out in the store anymore, so it's not even a matter of having the option to feel comfortable or not. And without any other customers, the sole employee was able to point out some good deals for some good craft beers littered around the shelves. But you could tell his heart wasn't in it, and you could tell that I was the only person that day who even gave a shit about mixing a six pack at all.

My point is to document the fact that Chase's Hop Shop was once wired, and now just seems tired. I don't even think this is me projecting my own fatigue, I think its stature in the community has sincerely diminished. And man, I can't really blame them for just kind of giving in and accepting the humdrum reality of the situation. No one wants to explore, especially not now. Everyone just wants their comfort food. If Fox Chase/Burholme/Lawndale's premiere craft beer outlet is going to devolve into a Bud Light Lime peddler because that's what the people want, then that's how it goes.

I get it. I want a Bud Light Lime. I don't necessarily want a heavy stout that tastes like coconut and coffee. So what then will happen to Chase's Hop Shop now? I have no fucking clue.

NOTES

BEER: German Chocolate Cake

STYLE: American Imperial Stout

ABV: 8.8%

BREWED BY: Wicked Weed Brewing

LOCATION: Asheville, North Carolina

PURCHASED AT: Chase's

PAIRED WITH: chocolate chip cookies—not as good of a pairing as one would hope

GRADE: 2 pukes out of 5

 

BEER COUNT: 503