Beer in Theory

If you had told me this time, last year, that I would be able to get an unprecedented world class beer delivered to my doorstep, I probably would have been elated.  What's the catch?  You won't be drinking in any tap rooms, chatting with brewers and bartenders, enjoying the convivial atmosphere of breweries around the world.  You're going to get it at your house, and you're going to drink it there, mostly alone.  It's COVID, for those who don't remember. And while the world might be delivered to your doorstep, never before have your local breweries needed your support to continue existing in 2021.   So this year, I've decided to highlight three beers that capture the spirit of this experience.  

 1.  Bizarre Brewing - The Flood Come on down to the Flood.  You can buy some mud, mud, mud, mud. I love pilgrimages, and proper homages.  The Flood is a London Brown Ale, not to be confused with a British Brown Ale.  They are different.  I promise.  But first, a story. Learning about the near-history of beer will certainly take you three places: Belgium, Germany, and England.  Belgium brought the monastic dedication, Germany brought the Teutonic fervor, and England brought the motherfucking ruckus.  No one event might crystallize this better than the London Beer Flood of 1814: In 1810 the brewery, Meux and Company, had had a 22 foot high wooden fermentation tank installed on the premises. Held together with massive iron rings, this huge vat held the equivalent of over 3,500 barrels of brown porter ale, a beer not unlike stout.  This was St Giles Rookery, a densely populated London slum of cheap housing and tenements inhabited by the poo...