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The Beer Summit
As Obama prepares to meet Skip Gates and Sgt. Crowley, presidential wit Mark Katz asks: What do their beers say about them? Plus, A GALLERY of pols and brews, and more in HUNGRY BEAST.
Usually, the beer drinking precedes the disorderly conduct charges, but the unfolding Skip Gates brouhaha is no ordinary chain of events. And so Thursday evening comes the strangest beat yet: President Obama is hosting a racial summit/ happy hour that brings to one table these three men—a policeman, a professor, and a president—and their preferred brands of beer.
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But there is a code that corresponds to these cold ones. Beer is American shorthand for guy-to-guy commonality. "Which candidate would you rather have a beer with?" is the polling construct that twice gave us President George W. Bush. No coincidence that the man his father thrashed, Mike Dukakis, once famously invited a hard-boiled Boston labor leader to his house for a beer and brought out one bottle and two glasses. It is one of those existential questions that some Facebook app probably already asks: "What beer are you?" And like most exercises in self-definition, the answer reveals more than it intends.
According to the White House, Sgt. Jim Crowley prefers Blue Moon, not the first choice you might expect from a cop who patrols the mean streets of Cambridge. As a brand, Blue Moon beer is not unlike Blue Dog Democrats, walking the tightrope of competing identities. Defining itself as "artfully crafted," it presents itself as the choice of a connoisseur who appreciates an authentically hearty Belgian-style beer in the same manner as a full-bodied Napa Valley cult Cab. Blue Moon comes with its own marketing gimmick: The suggested serving calls for a slice of orange, to pick up the beer's notes of citrus from the orange peel and coriander. With this choice, Sgt. Crowley escapes the stereotype of a shot-and-a-beer beat cop and instead conjures the image of a striving Yuppie sipping an artisanal sangria.
A closer look into his choice, however, only deepens the mystery of this man we’ve just met. Blue Moon only looks like a microbrew. A careful reading of the label's fine print reveals it as just another offering in the product line of a global giant. Coors, to be exact, owned by an eponymous, famously right-wing family with a reputation for supporting the NRA as adamantly as it opposes labor unions, sometimes with the same tactics. Now what are we to make of Sgt. Crowley? Is he a crunchy Cambridge social servant or a law-and-order Beantown cop? And more to the point, which one showed up at Professor Gates' home that fateful evening, and which one is showing up at the White House?
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House.
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A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House.
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A former political operative, recovering copywriter, and failed sitcom writer, Mark Katz is now the founder and principal of the Soundbite Institute, a creative think tank that specializes in on-message humor. His essays have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Time magazine, and he is the author of CLINTON & ME: A Real Life Political Comedy, an account of eight years as the in-house humor speechwriter of the Clinton White House.
My money was on Heineken as the beer of choice for President Obama. But Budweiser? Talk about punishment.
Sgt. Crowley's choice of Blue Moon was awesome, it threw all the reporters off.
Budweiser is not even American owned any more. They sold out to InBev a Belgian brewer for an astronomical amount of money. So technically it's a domestic import owned operation from a company that also owns microbrews... what's the difference. Screw it, I would have gone for the Pacifico. Does putting a lime in it make me classy?
Heineken!!!??? FUCK THAT SHIT!!! Pabst Blue Ribbon!!
I dunno,is "Bud" union-made?That'd make a difference.Personally I would have gone with the local Micro,Capitol Brewing for everybody,hell he's buying."Coors is anti-union,anti-environment,anti-women and it tastes awful" (circa 1970 sticker).
The text accompanying picture #5, the elder President Bush, refers to "the president of Japan". When did Japan become a republic?
Wow - so far these comments haven't descended into the finger-pointing, anti- everything, partisan-labeling rags they usually become. Me - I'd prefer a Stella.
Why not an imported beer, everything else in America is imported. Hope he asks Sgt. Crowley about that false police report, and who exactly told him about the 2 blackmen with backpacks as it is written in the report!!
You changed the text. Am I to be credited?
You make a statement with your brew of choice in the USA. WTF, I made a statement when I quit drinking. Long live American polarization. The USA isn't much for being united anymore. This polarization thing has become silly, petty, childishly absurd thing & an endemic condition in the USA.
Who needs it?
I'll have a "Why Can't We All Just Get Along" lite, thanks.
I lean toward Killian Red or a Sam Adams...
I would think Obama would go for New Belgium brewery home of Fat Tire Beer.
In 1999, New Belgium became the largest private consumer of wind-power electricity at that time and the first wind-powered brewery.
I personally prefer New Belgium Trippel ale
The President should have opted for Yuengling, the oldest beer in America and, IMHO, the only real lager to be found on the market anywhere. Budweiser may be quintessentially American but in a bad way: corporate giant, puts small breweries out of business or buys them outright, bad for environment, product is designed simply to be highly marketable and therefore profitable without regard to actual character or taste. That kind of stuff doesn't strike me as BO's M.O. so I think he should have avoided it.
When I heard the media blah blah blahing about beer choice, I immediately thought of Obama's pick: Yuengling Black and Tan. I'm surprised no one else suggested.
One reason he might not have chosen Yuengling is that he was sitting down to a beer with two Bostonians. As someone who used to live in DC and now lives in Boston, I miss Yuengling, because it's not available in the northeast, at all. No liquor stores can carry it, no bars can serve it. I asked a liquor store owner why, and he said he tried for months to get it and they wouldn't let him sell it up here. I don't know all the reasons behind this, but Obama might not choose it because he'd be getting a beer his guests generally aren't allowed to have.
Micros all the way. Help the small business brewer. I live in Beervana:
http://beervana.blogspot.com/2007/07/beervana-bests-best-portland-brewpu b.html
Lucky Lab - Super Dog (me) Ninkasi - Total Domination (kec) Budweiser (gut rot and headaches)
Go down Hawthorne for a block and a half and have a IPA at Root's. Way better then Lucky Lab!
Roots has decent beer. The place is dinky, though. I really fail to see the "way better" part of your statement. Lucky Lab's Super Dog has been around longer than Root's IPA (a more refined, and tastier recipe), has been distinguished by more local beer judges than Roots, and almost always sells out by late Friday or early Saturday at all locations. I will say this for Roots - they have outstanding hired help.
Actually, the only thing American and Czech Budweiser have in common is the name, regrettably licensed many years ago and the subject of a long legal battle. Putting rice in pivo will get you killed in the Czech Republic.
The future of American industry lies in innovation, creativity, guts and sourcing and producing locally. That means craft brewers, of which there are hundreds of excellent examples. Coors is smart enough to cloak their arch-right politics in the Blue Moon facade, but it's a shame the other two didn't choose to support a truly American product.
The shorthand:
Blue Moon:"I wanna look hip and progressive, but I'm not."
Red Stripe/Beck's: "I'm cool - isn't this what the kids are drinking?"
Bud: "I'm still running from the 'elitist' charicature." Or maybe it was a fig leaf to McCain; his wife owns one of the biggest Bud distributorships in the country. Bud: owned by a Belgian company, controlled by Brazilians.
The obvious choice for all three of them should be Avery Brewing's Collaboration Not Litigation Ale. It's a strong dark ale that's a blend from two beers from two breweries (Avery and Russian River, Sonoma CA) accidentally given the same name, so they got together, mixed the two, liked the result and sold the blended ale under this name above.
If things go well, for a second round they could have another Avery ale made in honor of Obama's election named Ale To The Chief.
I wish I would have thought of it sooner so I could suggest it to the president's website.
The shorthand:
Blue Moon:"I wanna look hip and progressive, but I'm not." LOL.
Red Stripe/Beck's: "Haile Selassie!"
Bud LIGHT: "I didn't want to look like I put too much thought into this."
They should all drink Duvel. 8.5%. Then they could all get crocked and talk about sex.
Excellent Choice...Chimay is not bad either.Really when you think about it, the Belgians make a damned good brew. Stella is no slouch either. For American, try a little brewery out of Louisiana- Abita
They should all drink Ninkasi Radiant. One of the finest beers the world has ever produced.
Yes, the President has to drink Bud, anything else would be a field day for the freepers.
Where you from, Silver? Ninkasi's new summer release is a great one.
KEC drinks Total Domination, I like Tricerahops. All around great brews.
Blue Moon is a chick beer. I would have had a Sapporo.
I like Sapporo
I thought THAT was a chick beer.
I'll take a
Freezing cold
Bitter hopsy Czech pilsner.
best thing that ever happened to me and beer was moving to texas and discovering all the little micro breweries that were available here. i'm still a novice, so i'm happy to try recommendations (more likely on $2.75 pint night), but my current favorite is st. arnold's fireman's 4; am happy also to partake in a pitcher of shiner with my friends. maybe it is a "guy thing", but since i'm not a guy, i'm very happy with just plain old camaraderie.
mark katz fancies himself a handwriting analyst in beer
i fancy he would have better data in name numerology or
better yet
astrology
no
wait...
the magic 8 ball!
I think Mark Katz's analysis is both interesting and humorous. I'm glad it has fomented replies of other's individual tastes as well (sarcasm implied). What a fantastic commercial opportunity!
Isn't Budweiser owned by a foreign company now? I second Stella, or maybe Peroni. But I rather they do some 9% Delirium tremens and _then_ hold a press conference!
You know a beer sounds all well and good , but if you want real conversation why go with the beer? Hit yourself up with some Kentucky Bourbon or some Jack Daniels from Lynchburg, TN. Let's throw some sour mash in'em and then we can get to the truth(Personally I recommend Booker's)....and then we can commence to to havin' a good ole brawl. Evrybody's agettin liquored up, words 'll be said, some blood gets spilled, teef knocked out, some funiture brokin'. Then in the morning after all of the foolishness, everybody shakes hands, gets some coffee and some greasy food, heads home ..and it's over with and they all say...."God what a jerk I am!!!!!!"
Will this cost the taxpayers very much?
it all makes me want to drink anything! just get it over with...good grief!
Having trouble choosing between a Red Stripe and a Beck's is like looking up from a menu and saying to the waiter, "I can't decide between the jerk chicken or the bratwurst."
This would be true if bratwurst and jerk chicken tasted exactly the same.
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