Beer of the Week

The beer: Bear (With A Hint of Coffee)

Brewed by: Tree House Brewing Company, Charlton, Massachusetts

Description (from Untappd): "We are excited to welcome Bear back, this time with a tasteful and restrained addition of custom roasted coffee! After careful deliberation and assessment, we chose a coffee that exhibits delicate flavors of milk chocolate, cinnamon, and molasses. The base beer features flavors and aromas of toffee, caramel, chocolate, brown bread, and black coffee - a lovely pairing for the delicate, lightly roasted coffee for which it shares the glass. Though this beer is rich with flavor and complexity, it drinks smoothly and easily… an ideal pairing for a hearty winter meal or a day spent on the ice. A winter treat, indeed!"

Would I buy it again?: I think Coffee (With A Hint of Bear) would be a more accurate name for this beer. There is much more than a hint of coffee. Admittedly, I don't drink coffee too often, but I know the taste of coffee well enough. Does that make it bad? No, absolutely not, this beer is very good. It's more drinkable than you might expect as well. I probably wouldn't buy it again, but that's more because Tree House is apparently a very big, very popular brewery (No. 2 in the country, according to BeerAdvocate) with many, many beers. I got this from the brewery itself – along with a couple others which I'll get to in the coming weeks – and if I ever go there again, I'd get something different. Were it readily available in Maryland, then yes, I'd buy it again.

Arizona Golf Courses Continue To Use Too Much Water

Here's a controversial statement: Golf really doesn't belong in the desert. Of course, people don't really either, but let's just stick with golf for the moment. Golf courses use a lot of water, and when the desert regions of the United States are going through a multiyear drought of epic proportions, it's really not a good look to hear that Arizona golf courses have consistently failed to bring down their water usage over the past 20 years. 

And sure, golf courses ultimately only uses about 2% of Arizona's total water, but that bumps up to 9% of municipality water. Considering how niche a hobby golf is, it's no wonder no golf course wanted to get interviewed for that article unless they've done a good job. Golf may not be the biggest drain of the West's valuable water resources, but it's very visible and an easy scapegoat. So please, Arizona golf courses, don't ruin the sport for the rest of us. Use your water responsibly.