Sweetwater 420 – Memphis Flyer

Back when the lockdown was really in lockdown, I saw a tweet announcing that Quarantine Drinking Rules = Airport Drinking Rules. Which makes sense. After this year’s alcohol intake, we all feel like we’ve crunched a few time zones.

These days, however, the airlines are struggling with everyone avoiding those “COVID cabins” in the sky. The travel I’d normally put in for the release of Haint Punch is causing me to Zoom more than fly. This isn’t a problem with the East Coast, but the people in Los Angeles take it as a matter of pride not to take unwieldy time zones into consideration. I always make it a point to have a beer in the shot just to let them all know I’m taking a damn meeting during cocktail hour. If you field a call from Egypt, remember that that time zone is so wide of the mark it’s more constructive to just get back on a plane.

Murff takes a meeting.

I almost miss sitting in the Amsterdam airport at 8:30 a.m., drinking a Carlsberg when your body thinks that it’s last night in New York. Airport drinking isn’t for the faint of heart, and it’s not something you want to do daily, unless you are entering a Hunter S. Thompson’s liver look-alike contest. This is drinking with a purpose: to maintain a certain state of mind while avoiding another. Sure, there are those awkward moments when you make eye-contact with some perfectly lovely Dutch lady over her coffee and you can hear her thinking, “Oh … he’s one of them.” She won’t say it of course, and you wouldn’t know if she did. Dutch sounds like a Swede trying to speak German.

In Europe, Carlsberg and Heineken are the universal airport beers. Stateside, Heineken is also pretty ubiquitous. It’s a well-made pale lager out of the Netherlands that is drinkable, refreshing, and has more presence than the mass-market American beers trying to imitate it. At 5 percent ABV, it’s also a little higher in alcohol. Granted, Heineken used to be known for the odd “skunky” beer, but they’ve fixed that problem. The issue wasn’t quality control or even the beer itself, but those green bottles which were less effective than the brown ones at keeping out harmful sunlight.

If you want to drink local, even on the road, American airports are great showcases of homegrown beer wherever (and whenever) you happen to land. If you ask, the barkeep will point you to a beer you’ve probably never heard of and try to sell you a 24-ounce glass of the stuff. This is because airlines seem to like their passengers sleepy and fairly floppy. If you don’t feel like a 24-ounce beer gamble over breakfast, there is always Sweetwater.

Maybe it’s the Atlanta connection, but Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale seems to be America’s go-to airport craft beer. And why not? It’s a West Coast style, dry-hopped ale — more interesting than the standard lager, but light enough to keep drinking without getting that bitter aftertaste. Depending on where you’re headed to (sales calls, class reunion, holiday with family crazies) or coming from (war zones, vacation, a night of designer drugs with L.A. sorts who can’t do time-zone math), this sort of thing is important. You have to maintain.

In the mid-’90s, Sweetwater jumped ahead of the craft beer boom by bringing the West Coast “micros,” as they were then called, to Atlanta. Is Sweetwater local? No. But it is regional and they are still privately owned. They have become one of the top brewers in the country without hitching up with one of the macro brands. And that matters.

As if air travel hadn’t gotten surreal enough this year, I understand that the airlines are now doing home takeout, so would-be travelers can experience reheated, rubbery food fresh out of the microwave in their own home. If you’re going to do that, at least pair it with a gigantic beer. For breakfast.

With May just around the corner, a Memphian’s heart, taste buds, nose, and waistline turn to barbecue. It really doesn’t matter if you like the stuff of not, the whole city is going to smell like it in May. So, how to wash that glorious pulled pork down?

If you take an amble through Tom Lee Park during the contest week, you will be surrounded by the best pork the world has to offer. Given what they are drinking down there all week, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Busch is the natural pairing for barbecue. It’s not, though it is an economical pairing and a sensible one at that. Being on a barbecue team means that all your family, friends, and anyone you’ve made extended eye contact with in traffic will be mooning about, cadging invites, and expecting to be fed all week. And they will want a beer. You will provide it because, well, you don’t want to be that guy. Feeding them Natty Light is fine.

On the other hand, if you are just feeding yourself and a select few, you can do better than that. While I think we all ought to be forward looking, I’d like to politely ask the good people at Memphis Made to make some more of its old Lucid Kolsch. They described it as “A lawnmower beer with flavor.” Another great ‘Cue beer is an ESB, Extra Special Bitter — it goes great with big flavors and, if you want to drink local, a time machine. Alas, both High Cotton and Southern Prohibition have retired their ESBs. That makes me blue.

We can’t live in the past, though. The truth is that, while they aren’t glamorous, those American-style lagers do in fact go pretty well with barbecue. The big macros aren’t trying to be particularly interesting — they are brewed to be drinkable — which works well, because barbecue is a big, bold taste, that usually has a little heat. To move up the scale a bit, you won’t go wrong with Wiseacre’s Memphis Sands. It’s a solid, drinkable lager that aspires to be a solid, drinkable lager. High Cotton makes a Mexican Lager that is slightly lighter but a solid, drinkable lager. Also, a good choice for die-hard Jimmy Buffet fans.

For something new and summery with a little twist, Meddlesome has a Water Malone, a light American-style wheat beer made with watermelon puree. It will give you just a little twist of sweetness to soften those big, spicy barbecue flavors.

The issue here is that barbecue competitors, seeking to win in May, very often tweak their recipe to play to the judges. In Memphis this invariably means making their sauces sweeter — sickeningly so in my opinion. A friend of mine, whose team places as often as it doesn’t, has a recipe he only serves to the judges, and never to someone who he’d have to look in the eye.

Given the danger in these parts of over-sweet sauce, an American-style pale ale is a near-perfect pairing. The big hoppy IPAs can get bitter and overwhelming in the heat, and are sometimes just too much paired with big food flavors. Pale ales just play well with barbecue, so it’s a little odd that Delta Sunshine is the only local brewery currently making one. Being the new kid on the block, it’s not exactly everywhere just yet, but keep an eye out for Room 414 Pale Ale.

With that in mind, Atlanta’s Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale is one of the best local(ish) craft choices to wash down that pulled pork, baked beans, and whatever else you are going to get up to next month. Yazoo Brewing has a good pale ale but, as we all know, Nashville doesn’t know the first damn thing about barbecue.