Sorry About Your Beer

Oh hi. I've been busy this week coaching Commonwealth Summer Skate Camp, breaking in my bottle of sunscreen, sweating my way through my ankle sock collection, and wearing myself out so well that I'm asleep almost before the light falls.

Now, it's deep summer, as you know, and I thought I'd tell you that I've had a kind of epiphany about beer recently after reading this article about insidious ingredients in stuff like Coors Light and Pabst. We're talking high-fructose corn syrup and genetically modified corn and—get this—fish bladder. Among other things. In the cold beer. That's in my fridge. Right now. Waiting for me. On this hot evening. After I've sweated all day........

I'm scandalized! I think we've all been pretending beer is something it isn't—something pristine and genuine and crisp; something full of good taste and good will. But I don't think we'd love it as deeply if we thought much about what goes into it (at least these big-name brands). We may realize that the aforementioned beers are just okay, maybe even worse than okay (fucking gross, even!) and that in fact we don't need them at all on a hot evening like this one. Just a thought. I dunno. Happy summer!

Coors/Molson statement on GMOs: "Our suppliers cannot guarantee that the corn (maize) products that we also use in brewing are GMO free. A wide variety of foods and beverages in North America contain these same corn (maize) ingredients."

The Huffington Post description of the fish bladder called isinglass that Guinness uses as a clarifying agent: "A form of collagen culled from a dried swim bladder, an internal fish organ that helps regulate buoyancy in water."

Nice!