Beer Tasting, Round 1: Anchor Steam and Smithwicks

Yesterday I wrote about the project I started a few weeks ago to taste-test beers I can buy in stores. The idea is to reevaluate what my go-to brands are for buying for home consumption. Round 1 of my taste test began with an unlikely pairing of beers, Anchor Steam and Smithwicks.

These beers are almost nothing alike, and I didn't intend them to be. My reasons for picking them first were utterly prosaic. I had to start somewhere, and they were on sale. 🤣

Anchor Steam

Okay, Anchor Steam was more than just a random pick. It was one of my frequent picks in bars right after graduating college. It wasn't among my top-tier favorites, more my second-tier choices, but it was one that reached wide enough distribution by that time that a lot of bars would have it in stock. And despite my considering it "second tier" it was way, way better than the likes of Bud, Miller, Coors, etc. I picked it for Round One here because I was wondering, after all these years and newer beers later, how does this old bar standard of mine stand up?

The answer is.... Enh? But in a good way.

Understand that Anchor Steam is kind of a weird beer, a "neither fish nor fowl" of the brewing world. It combines lager yeast with ale-style brewing at warmer temperatures. The result is a beer that has flavor characteristics of both a lagers and an ale. It's kind of the malt flavor of a lager with the strength of an ale. It's hard to categorize what it tastes like. It's not bad... but it's also not "Ooh, that was good, let's have another." Alas, after all these years, its claim to fame for me remains that it is still way, way better thn Bud, Miller, Coors, etc.

Smithwicks

Smithwicks was a totally random choice.Well, okay not totally random. I mean, I like red ales. And this one was on sale. And I didn't recall seeing it very often, even in well stocked liquor stores. So I'd figured I'd give it a second chance.

Second chance?

Yes, I'd had Smithwicks once before. It was at a supposedly Irish bar in Chicago years ago. I say supposedly Irish because there really wasn't anything Irish about them, except maybe their false pride in calling themselves Irish.... And even that isn't Irish as much as... I dunno... Texan? I mean, they even lorded their fake presumed Irishness over the customers by reminding us all, repeatedly, that Smithwicks is pronounced "Smiddicks". So if Texans decided to open a fake Irish pub in Chicago, it would've been the one I walked into.

Oh, and that one time I tried Smithwicks sold by Texan-Irish-Chicagoans all those years ago? It sucked. It was bold-faced awful. But a few weeks ago I figured, "Hey, it's on sale...." 🤣

I'm glad I tried Smithwicks again because it doesn't suck. I mean, those presumption fake-Irish Texas in the Windy City— so named not because of weather but because of the tendency of its politicians (and maybe bar owners) to bloviate about how awesome they are— probably did something to screw it up. But at least in bottle form it's just a standard red ale. And I like red ale.

Alas, I'm not sure I really like Smithwicks. It's... fine. There's just nothing about it that made me say, "Yeah, I want more of these." And given, again, how much I like that category of red ales, that's saying something.

Oh, and fake-Irish pub or no, Smithwick's is genuinely Irish.

Third Day of Spring, First Day of Summer?

Today is the 3rd day of Spring, the first having been Sunday after the Spring Equinox occurred in the morning. Signs of the changing seasons are all around here already. Of course they have been for months already. Most of January and the first half of February were abnormally dry and warm. Today the temperature at home is forecast to hit 80°, and it isn't even the first time this year. It was 80° on Feb. 13!

While today is only the 3rd day of Spring I'm ready to call it the 1st day of Summer. It's not just the warm temperatures today; it's my unofficial standard that summer begins when a) I choose to wear shorts for the day instead of trousers— check— and b) we start running the air conditioner instead of the heat. We'll probably switch the A/C on within an hour I switched the A/C on at 11:15am as we're both working from home today.

Covid Case Rates Flattening Out; Still Almost 3x Last Summer

It's Tier Tuesday, as California's health department used to call it when it updated risk charts weekly on Tuesday. I like the cadence of checking stats once a week. It keeps me abreast of what's going on without it becoming an "Every day is Coronavirus news day" doomscrolling situation. Sharp-eyed readers will note I didn't post on Coronavirus last week. Rest assured that I did read and digest the news; I just didn't have time to write about it.

It's just as well I've gone 2 weeks now since writing about Coronavirus stats because the lead headline this week is that they're leveling off. This chart from The New York Times "Covid in the U.S." page shows case rates over the past 90 days:



At the peak of the Omicron surge 2 months cases averaged over 800,000 per day. The average has dropped markedly to just under 30,000 recently. But as you can see from the shape of the chart, the rate of improvement is leveling off. Today's average of 29,288 is only slightly better than March 15th's 32,133, which in turn is only slightly better than March 8th's 39,740. (Visit the NYT link above for an interactive chart where you can pinpoint these daily numbers.)

Flattening Out... 3x Higher

The fact that improvements are tapering off is not the only reason to temper celebrations of the declining Covid case rate. The fact is we're leveling off at a level that's still almost 3x last summer's low.



As I've noted before, the low last summer was just over 11,000 cases per day (average), on June 21. As great as it is that today we're 96% of the way down from the peak 2 months ago, today's rate is still over 3x last summer's low. That was before the Delta surge that preceded the Omicron surge.

3x the Cases, 4x the Deaths

So, the case rate is leveling off at 3x last summer's lull... is that the only dark cloud in the partly-sunny news? No. The death rate remains elevated, too.



The recent average of just over 1,000 deaths per day is still more than 4x the pre-Delta, pre-Omicron low of 228 last summer.

Discussing high and lows relative to strains is pertinent because each one brings new challenges. Delta was more contagious than Alpha and hit people harder. Omicron was much more contagious than even Delta but caused lighter symptoms. You can see that reflected in the charts, BTW.... The case rate surge for Omicron is way higher than Delta's, while the death rate surge is only somewhat higher. Still, it's higher. The "mild" Omicron strain killed more Americans than Delta.

A new surge may kick in soon. Many articles in the past week or two have talked about the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron. It's thought to be even more contagious than Omicron. And even if BA.2 fizzles it's only a matter of time until the next variant emerges. With 30% of the US population refusing to get vaccinated there are 100,000,000 human petri dishes for the next strain to develop in. And that strain may make Omicron look like the J.V. team.