“Being a beer lover in our current age is equal parts homage to Diogenes and Michael ‘Beer Hunter’ Jackson”

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Kindly allow this periodic reminder that each Monday, I contribute a beer column to Food & Dining Magazine called “Hip Hops.” It’s very seldom “hip” in the word’s implied trendiness, but that’s the whole point of being grounded in the classically hip. After all, I reserve milkshakes for soda fountains, where they belong — and the next time a can of Pilsner Urquell explodes will be the first.

  • The tally from 2021 follows. View them all here:

The end-of-year edition (Hip Hops: The search for the perfect “comfort” pint should last a lifetime) included this “it’s the hill I’ll die on” excerpt.

My personal course, both personally and professionally, will continue to be a little bit of tasting new beers, and a lot of finding the most comfortable ones, with the aim of getting to know them better.

I want Louisville metro to be the kind of place where 20+ breweries can operate their taprooms at something close to full roar again, and brew 40 beers each year if their business models permit. Sampling their wares invariably cheers me.

But I also want to know where the comforting and comfortable classics are being decanted, places like the Irish Rover, which has kept Fuller’s ESB on tap for a quarter-century. Probably most readers of F&D are getting plenty to eat; their achievements lie elsewhere, and drunkenness has long since ceased being a victorious pursuit, at least for me. Sipping beers that should be on a UNESCO world heritage list is my new norm.