Covering University of Colorado sports, mostly basketball, since 2010

Friday, November 25, 2011

Friday Beer Post: Utah Edition

Each week throughout the football season I'm going to suggest a good beer for the ubiquitous pre-game tailgate. Let's be honest, with tailgates it's not always top quality that you're looking for. To steal a phrase from the heinous beer terrorists at Budweiser, you want "drinkability." (or what a real beer connoisseur calls "a session beer") So, be warned, these may not be "the best" beers around. But, in the words of Dave Chappelle as Samuel L. Jackson "IT'LL GET YOU DRUNK!"

Happy Gameday!  I'm coming to you LIVE from Salt Lake City, deep in the heart of enemy territory.  Through the magic of scheduled posting, I bring to you my final tailgate beer selection of the season.

If you hadn't heard, there's this cool club they have out here called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; you may know it colloquially as the "Mormon Church."  Frowned upon by people who didn't believe that Joseph Smith could read magic tablets out of a hat, the newly founded religion was driven westward in middle 19th Century.  For whatever reason, they decided to settle in a remote desert oasis near the banks of the Great Salt Lake; having no imagination, they named this settlement Salt Lake City.  There they could happily practice their outsider faith, which, at the time, famously included the practice of polygamy.  Mormons are funny like that.

In honor of that history, and the Mormon faith that so dominates politics and culture throughout the State of Utah, I am naming Wasatch Brewery's Polygamy Porter as my tailgate beer-o-the-week.
Indeed, why have just one?
This is, assuredly, what the X-communicated Mormon Drinking Team would consume on a gameday such as this.

Confession time: the only time I tried Polygamy Porter was at the GABF a few years back, mostly due to the absurdity of the name.  I was quite drunk at the time, and through the haze of time and booze I can't really remember what it tastes like.  But these posts aren't really about the quality of the beer, they're about celebration of beer culture, and its application to enhancing your pregame experience.

I'm admittedly picking this based on name alone, and can't comment on taste.  It's an American Porter, so expect roasted malt, but light on the alcohol since Utah is stuck in puritanical brewing-law hell.  So, if you get a chance, give this a try. 

Happy Friday!  Go Buffs, show these polyamorous assholes what for; 40s style!

No comments: