A beer blog about drinking for yourself
It’s a lovely Saturday afternoon at my local beer bar (Out Of The Barrel) as I burn some down time with light day-drinking.
A very nice Session IPA from Bare Bottle, along with AQ Bev.
I recommend picking one up if you’re in California.
This week Untappd announced they are shutting off the DM feature. Too many spammer DMs they had to wrangle, so they didn’t want to mess with it anymore.
Which, whatever, it’s fine. I will miss it, though, because plenty of listeners of the Perfect Pour would message me about the show or something related. But it’s not a big loss to me otherwise.
The thing that pisses me off about it is that the Untappd owners (some corporate entity now, I never care enough to look up who exactly anymore) haven’t given users a new feature in years. And they are taking another thing away?
Untappd users give and give content, and the owners only shove more ads in our feed – so yeah, like every social media app in existence then? Right. Anyone want to build a beer app with me? (mostly kidding)
It has hit the shelves. The 2025 version of Sierra Nevada Brewing’s famous Celebration Ale!
I know that Sierra Nevada wants us to call it a Fresh Hop IPA, and I get it. But we will always call it Celebration Ale, my friend.
So, I have had it. One so far. And every year I try to pull something different from the previous years, like everyone else. I can’t so far, from just the one beer. Cleaner, is the only note that comes to mind at the moment.
I will enjoy testing and documenting it more.
Here are some takes on Celebration ’25 from Untappd users:
“Still great, but the fresh hop character isn’t as prominent as in ’24.” – Lone P
“More subdudued and malty?” – MBBrews1
“This one is maltier and a bit less hoppy.” – Lone P
“Not enjoying the hop profile this year. Disapointing. I was really excited for this batch too.” – Chad O
“Excellent.” – Ralph C
Now I have to dive back in and see if I get that it’s maltier than the previous year.
If you ever wondered how they choose the Fresh Hops for Celebration, have a gander:
Cheers!
-Mikey
Few things pair better than great music and great beer. When diving into Pearl Jam’s catalog, whether you’re like every dude in the world and in a Ten kind of mood or feeling the depth of Vitalogy, you need the perfect beer in hand. I did have the perfect beer… it was called a beer.
I have never admitted to being a big Pearl Jam fan. I don’t know why that is. Maybe they are too… known. Too pedestrian. But they are not pedestrian. They are deep as shit.
Yeah and maybe that is it, they are too fucking deep.
Anyway. I am sitting home (mostly) alone on a Saturday night, having beers and listening to live Pearl Jam recordings, reliving being at a PJ show. These are the beers I had leading in and the beers I am having now while having a good time with a nice relaxing buzz:
BTW, have you listened to Pearl Jam’s new stuff, Dark Matter? It’s pretty fucking good for a band that most people would consider ‘past their prime’ and stuff.
Anyway, please make space to have some beers and listen to a band you love, live, it will make you feel better about things, I promise.
-Mikey