Great Scott!
It’s recently been brought to my attention that Marty McFly’s future of the Back to the Future trilogy is now. Doc Brown and the crew time traveled to 2015. This troubles me manifold.
- This means I am quite old.
- This means I am quite old and still do not have a DeLorean.
- This means I am quite old and still do not have a DeLorean, NOR are there any hoodlums on futuristic hoverboards to run over in this beast.
And fourthly, I still think a DeLorean is futuristic. I’m pretty much behind the times in all forms of pop culture (those Hanson boys are cute, though). Unless you consider craft beer culture, “pop,” which many do. This is also troubling, because craft beer isn’t actually a fad; its development has, in fact, altered the course of drinking for forever.
As shocking as it is to discover you’re living in The Future, there is evidence to prove it. As the fastest growing segment of the beer industry, craft beer is inspiring innovation in the brewing practice itself as well as in the recipes and the way we drink the final product.
Beers in Space! The Hop Gun
Brewing: Many of you already know I’m something of a Hop Head, so it will come as no surprise that one of my favorite craft beer inventions made it possible to hop the bananas out of an IPA. A few years ago Sierra Nevada invented a contraption they call the Hop Torpedo. They fill this torpedo-shaped device with whole-cone hops and pump fermenting beer through it, adding some serious hop smack without the bitterness.
Tröegs Brewing has a similar device called the HopCyclone and yet another hopping device called the Hop Gun (do you think dudes named these things?). This contraption is filled with hop pellets and then beer is pumped through its double-helix-shaped interior. The pellets dissolve and the beer is infused with starshine and rainbows and magically spirited into bottles at a sparkly pink palace near you.
More flavor and aroma and opportunities to slosh on yourself (if you’re me)
Packaging: Hipsters may think their cans of beer are retro-hip, but they’re actually cutting edge. Lined and wide-mouthed, these are not your father’s cans. Many breweries are making the switch to save on packaging and shipping and to lighten their carbon footprint. And maybe also because trucker hat-wearing goofballs spend lots of money on consumables they think are trailer park chic.
Sooper-dooper cool is the 360 lid being tested by Sly Fox Brewing. The pop tab pulls the whole top off the can for an instant beer glass. Maybe the lunar landing is a hoax because, shouldn’t we have come up with this already?
Randall, Jr. (Dudes and their gadgets…)
Drinking: This couldn’t be an honest list of beer-related innovations without Dogfish Head appearing somewhere. Dogfish and the crazy Mr. Calagione created an organoleptic hop transducer module, which certainly sounds futuristic, and then named it Randall the Enamel Animal. Basically it’s a fancy filter system that allows one to run ready-to-drink beer through hops, spices, and whatever tickles your fancy to add those flavors to the beer.
The original was made back in 2002, but more recently they have released Randall Jr., a personal-sized filter to use on one pint of beer at a time. They’re only $20 and available on Dogfish’s website.
Accessories: Several breweries have created glasses for specific beer styles that supposedly enhance the drinking experience: laser-etched bottoms to create more aroma-releasing bubbles, wavy walls for increased aeration, and even thinner glass to maintain the ideal drinking temperature. They certainly look pretty futuristic and therefore better (I guess?), but I have to be honest, I can’t tell the difference. Or, to be more precise, I don’t care.
The Beer Drinker’s motto is “Always Prepared”
I often drink out of the bottle because that’s one less dish to wash. Perhaps my drinking experience is lesser because I’m lazy. In fact, I’m so lazy I frequently don’t eat at cookouts because it’s too hard to balance a beer and a soggy plate of macaroni salad at the same time. My local brewery, The Phoenix, solved this conundrum and had these made just in time for Santa to get my heavy hints: hoodies with a built in koozie…and bottle opener!
So, even if I do drive a car that was made before cupholders and that might struggle to reach a time-travelling 88 mph, at least my beer drinking accessories are up to speed.