Friday, November 14, 2025 |
|
|
A couple months ago, during an Esquire staff meeting, I brought up a topic that I didn't think would get so heated: IPAs. The hoppy style of beer is my go-to drink on a Friday night or during an Eagles game (go Birds!). To my surprise, our editor-in-chief, Michael Sebastian, had the strongest opinion of the group, which I'm paraphrasing: They're too heavy! They taste like battery acid! I'd rather have ten light beers than one IPA! It wasn't the first time I'd heard such complaints, but it did jumpstart my reporting for the story below, "The Hater's Guide to IPAs." I got on the phone with experts, dove into the data, and, in time, called in some samples I felt could convince anyone to give the style a try. The hazy IPAs arrived via cold shipment, and the PR rep who sent them told me that if the cans inside weren't immediately refrigerated, we shouldn't bother drinking them. Why? You'll have to read the piece to find out. Later that week, Michael and I cracked opened up a couple of those cans with the Esquire staff. His takeaway? It's the best IPA I've ever had. Baby steps. – Chris Hatler, deputy editor Plus: |
|
|
IPA is the most popular style of craft beer, yet you might despise it anyway. Here's why you're wrong—and how you can learn to love it.
|
Every other Friday, my wife and I grab dinner and beer at Pasqually's Pizza in West Philadelphia. The no-frills eatery has, in my opinion, the best selection of craft beer in the city, which enhances its perfectly serviceable Italian American fare. So we dish about our workweeks over stromboli and a can or two. As is tradition, I pull open the stuffed coolers and reach for a high-ABV double IPA, usually from Grimm or the Alchemist. As is also tradition, my wife comments on how gross IPAs are before picking out a syrupy sour or Mexican lager instead.
I've heard similar comments hundreds of times from dozens of folks: IPAs taste like battery acid! They're disgusting! And so pretentious! Despite the style's overwhelming domination of the American craft-beer scene—I dare you to find a local brewery that doesn't make one—IPAs are subject to intense dislike. But the attitude is decidedly uncool, like snobbishly refusing to listen to Taylor Swift or watch Yellowstone. Why despise something so beloved by many?
"There's no such thing as a person who doesn't like IPA," says Nate Lanier, founder, CEO, and head brewer of Tree House Brewing Company, based in Charlton, Massachusetts. "There [are] just people that haven't had the right one yet." |
|
|
Black is, arguably, the soul of fashion—the ultimate neutral. Ubiquitous and functional, the black suit is as much a no-brainer in men's fashion as the little black dress is in women's fashion. But as I got into the industry, rubbing shoulders with designers, stylists, brand leaders, and other fashion writers, a persistent voice in the back of my mind told me that flat black was too obvious—a lowest common denominator and too easy a palette to live by. Gradually, and entirely unconsciously, I phased black out of my wardrobe.
Unless you spend far more time than is sensible thinking about things like this, the evolution of a man's wardrobe is pretty much like Darwin's theory of natural selection. Unwitting choices are made, one by one, until you only ever wear jeans, or suits, or sneakers, or whatever. In my case, there was no black left in my closet. No black tees, no black jeans, no black leather. What there was however—and lots of it—was navy. |
|
|
"No smell but the decaying reek of this brave year 2025…" By the time you hit that evocative scene-setting line on page 5 of Stephen King's novel The Running Man, you've already tripped over several other staggering references that make you wonder if the author had access to time travel or a crystal ball while writing this book more than 50 years ago.
The grim science fiction tale, about a desperate man in the far-off future who goes on a kill-or-be-killed TV show to save his family from poverty, overflows with asides, observations, and background details that seem astoundingly familiar. Some are actually important, like the book's notion that U.S. currency ("oldbucks") will be increasingly replaced by the "New Credit Dollar," which sounds a lot like crypto. (It's especially haunting if you note that the sitting president's son, Eric Trump, recently went on Fox Business to declare: "There is no doubt in my mind, cryptocurrency is going to replace traditional finance.") |
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment