The Saturday Evening Post About Beer: "Bootlegger's Rustic Rye IPA"

Rye IPA's are something of an enigma to me, I've never been able to put my finger on how I feel about it. On the one hand, there's a great complexity to them, on the other hand, they ride a little dry for my liking.

Bootlegger's take on the genre is consistent to it's claim. The finish is what one would expect from a Craft Brewed IPA, and the Rye bit adds an interesting complexity. The flavor seems to start forward and work it's way back, with the aftertaste holding steady on the back of the tongue.

Final assessment, the jury is still out on Rye IPAs. This one was one of the better ones, and if you like 'em, find this one.

**

On Learning and the Quest for Questions

I'm gonna start this out ambitiously: The biggest problem that we face as academics and people trying to live responsibly is that we ask the wrong questions. What is more, we answer the wrong questions, and exert considerable energy doing so.

How we define "learning" factors into this equation considerably. We define "learning" as the collection of information, the assimilation of facts. If we are good at it, we may even delve into depicting what that information or those facts mean. The problem with this is our point of departure.

Our point of departure most consistently is one of myopic personal comfort or pleasure. We ask our questions seeking justification for some action or inaction of ours. This is what I mean by saying we as the wrong questions.

So let me propose this: Education should be learning how to ask the right questions. Teaching should not be the eschewal of knowledge and facts (embodied or otherwise), but explaining why asking the right questions will reveal so much more than answering the wrong ones.

Saturday Evening Post About Beer "Avery Karma"

This Belgian Pale Ale, despite having a relatively low alcohol content for a Belgian (5.2%), has a wonderful front end sweetness. This is followed by a somewhat floral/citrus middle and the characteristic hoppy aftertaste, which lingers for just long enough. The traditional red-ish caramel color conceals what is a surprisingly bright and lively ale, perfect for a hot spring day, and the lowered alcohol content means you can have two and still stand-up :)

Belgian Pale Ales are my favorite, and this one does not disappoint. While perhaps not as complex as some of the more pricey varieties, the flavor is pleasant and the price is right.

Overall Rating: 3 and 1/2 stars ***1/2

Saturday Evening Post About Beer

Sorry for the delay on this one: I've been sick...

Enough with apologies, here's the belated Saturday Evening Post!

:Young's Double Chocolate Stout:

The first thing that stuck out about this beer was the Chocolate. If you were to drink cold Hot Chocolate and a Guinness at the same time, you'd be getting close to this stout. Yet the initial sweetness gave way almost immediately to a smooth, creamy savor that lasted just long enough to appreciate the dark chocolate flavor, but not long enough to make me resent it. Flavor location was on the outsides of the the tongue initially, and then on the back of the pallet in stage two. What aftertaste there was was pleasant and varied little from beginning to end. Overall an excellent choice when in the mood for a stout.

Overall: 4 Stars - ****

On the "How" Vs. the "What"

In theology, and in all of church practice, there is a continual and universal nemesis to the work of good in the world: Sin. If we were to draw a narrative structure onto our system of dogma and doctrine, Sin would be the bad guy, the sinister villain who is constantly engaged in disrupting the order of things, introducing chaos onto that order.

Our understanding of Sin dictates how we engage life. For many of us, we've grown up with an understanding of sin that is defined in terms of positive and negative actions: Do this, don't do this. 

The effect of this is heightened when we consider our desire for definition. We like things to be contained and identifiable, and our overarching desire for this is amplified when it is applied to something as important as that narratological enemy, sin.

As much as possible, we define what sin is. What is strangely disturbing about this is that this is not how the bible defines sin. While there are elements of "what" is sin in the bible (for instance Cain killing Abel), when we consider the story of the Fall in the garden alongside the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, we see that sin is primarily defined as "How", and that defining sin as only a "what" is a dangerously thin understanding of sin. 

In the garden, it is not the desire for knowledge that leads to sin, it is the desire to circumvent God's intentions for how that knowledge is acquired that leads to the fall. Likewise, Satan's temptation of Jesus follows the same theme: In each of the three temptations, Satan tempts Jesus by offering Him a shortcut to what was obviously God's intended end. "Turn these stones into bread" Obviously, God intended for Jesus to survive at this point: To die then would have been diametrically opposed to God's desire. But to bypass God's how to stay alive would have been sin. Likewise with the other two. Of course Jesus was the ruler of the world, but not like that. He wasn't going to demonstrate His divinity in that way, but in God's way.

This understanding of Sin as a "How" and not only a "What" has tremendous implications for us as Christians. Of course God wants peace, but how we go about achieving that peace can be just as sinful as ignoring God's demands for peace. How we say what we say says more that what we say.

The Meaning of Words

Words. Such a complex juxtaposition of positive and negative qualities. I often like to think that the words I choose are arbitrary, holding no inherent meaning but that which I apply to them by the context of my creation. In this, I hold to a form of modified Nominalism. I give meaning to the words I use.

Yet despite my high and lofty ideals, the words I use have an inherent meaning, even if that meaning is generated by the people who are receiving my words. If my goal in using words is communication, then I need to use words that mean what I am intending to the person who is hearing/reading them. Otherwise, the words I use could be selected for their aesthetic value alone, regardless of meaning.

But here's the tricky thing about words: sometimes the most powerful words are the ones that are unexpected, that don't quite fit. In them we see our paradigm of understanding broadened, and a whole new world of meaning opened up to us. This is the poetic ideal of wrongness, a careful crafting of syntax and structure that may not agree with the rules of English grammar, but by their disobedience say more than myriad correctness.

Yet the sword that cuts forward cuts backward as well. In my attempt to craft a texture of color by my words, I've quite often painted with the wrong hue, creating a tapestry of dissonance that reflects more truly my state than that which I meant to convey. And if you listen carefully, I will really say what I mean despite my best efforts.

This is what the bible means when it says "Out of the content of the heart the mouth speaks"(Mat. 15:18). What's really inside comes out. Sometimes this is visible in the words I use, but usually it is more visible in how I use them. It's funny to say, but how we say what we say says more that what we say. If I'm ever curious about what actually lies beneath my veneer, all I have to do is listen to how I use my words.

The Saturday Evening Post About Beer: "Summerfest"

Whether we like it or not, we are all driven by the need to be meaningful. We want our lives to mean something, and we are willing to look almost anywhere for that meaning. Some of us find our meaning in creating something beautiful, others find it in popularity. Or, more commonly, we find it in a combination of any number of things - from beauty, to money to power. But at the basest of levels we want life to mean something.

In the coming weeks and months I will be exploring this idea of meaning, from the paradox of an artist needing to convey meaning to be meaningful to the meaningfulness of a cold beer, this blog will be devoted to meaning. I hope to publish between two and three posts a week, with a Saturday evening post being devoted to beer. So with that in mind...

:Sierra Nevada Summerfest Lager:

This cold-brewed beer espouses some of the traditional characteristics I have come to expect from a cold-brewed barley-pop: Light color, middle pallet flavor and a dry roasted aftertaste. The major drawback for this beer is its largely unoriginal flavor. This could be one of any number of Craft brewed Lagers, and as such fails to distinguish itself from even some more mass produced varieties such as Harp. It still beats having no beer, but at $14 a 12 pack, it is over-priced by my estimation. As a pairing note, a mid-quality bourbon such as Makers Mark brought out a latent sweetness in the beer, and added to the overall experience. 

Final verdict: 2 out of 5 Stars - **

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