Boomtown’s Little Shady With A Side of CJ

What up party people! The calendar tells me we are at the very beginning of June. My heart and body tell me we are somewhere in 2025 because the last six months have had MORE SHIT packed into them than a good chunk of my 34 years on this earth. Seriously, I actually had to Google terrible events of 2020, like murder hornets and wildfires, to remember everything that has happened so far.

Remember the impeachment!? I actually forgot a major event that happened less than six months ago because of Coronavirus, and more importantly, the murders of George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. George was murdered only a week ago, from a cop kneeing him in the neck while being restrained. Breonna was murdered when police raided the wrong house, long after the original suspect had been apprehended.

But don’t forget, we live in Trump’s America. Where he douche tweets out “Liberate Michigan” for white trash rednecks who want a hair cut, but calls peaceful protestors “THUGS” and indicates “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” I’m paraphrasing because I don’t believe he used proper punctuation in his tweets.

A man who hid in a bunker while protestors gathered outside the White House over the weekend. A man who grabbed what might have been a Bible, and had those same protestors tear-gassed, so he could be photographed walking to a boarded-up church. A video clip from Tuesday shows Trumples and a sour-faced Melania. My lipreading skills indicate he is asking her to smile, and she continues to give that classic Eastern European iron stare. Go, girl.

Here in LA, we are on day four of a county-wide curfew due to the protests. Not surprisingly, many of these scheduled protests have turned violent. Doesn’t help that LAPD is firing rubber bullets at unarmed protestors and into houses. We’ve got police cars being lit on fire, and it’s starting to look like the LA scenes from the third season of Westworld.

Now the problem lies in the shit stirrers. The dark part of the interwebs tells me that interference from hate/white supremacist groups is contributing to the violence. What a bunch of shit, huh! You go to protest at a cause you don’t believe in, just to make the others look bad.

But persist, we must. Social change does not come without anger and violence. Civil rights and woman’s suffrage only exists today because brave individuals faced decades of unspeakable (but we should speak of it!) abuse and violence. LA is no stranger to protests, the 1992 beating of Rodney King led to weeks of rioting, looting, and police brutality. The difference between then and now is that we were not in the middle of the most significant pandemic since the Spanish Flu, and facing record national unemployment. A bunch of unemployed, desolate citizens with nothing to lose fighting in the street. Gee, you mean $1200 isn’t enough to survive on for months?!

Have we progressed at all? As a white woman, I will never know what it’s like to be discriminated against because of my race, but I stand with all of you brave souls. #blacklivesmatter.

Not that I need a reason to drink delicious craft beers, but now is as good a time as ever to self medicate with malt. So I present to you, yet another Boomtown offering: “Little Shady” black lager… I tasted this beer in a sampler during my first visit to BT, and I’ve been purchasing growlers ever since. Boomtown has been closed for the last few days because of the rioting and the 6pm curfew, so it’s fortunate I had some notes (if not beer.)

When I first visited the brewery, I knew I had to try Little Shady. I’ve never been disappointed with black ale/lager/IPA. Made with black malt (a highly roasted malted barley) adds a rich black hue to the beer and an astringent bitterness that complements that of hops. Black malt is entirely for flavor, there are no enzymes that turn into alcohol. It is often used in stouts and porters, providing that richness that people associate with thick beers. It adds no calories, but we perceive a thickness. The same way a dark Italian Roast coffee bean adds that little something to a great cappuccino.

Also, take note that this is a lager, not an ale. For all you beer neophytes out there, beers are all either a lager or an ale. Ales are top-fermenting and go to town around 65, lagers are bottom-fermenting and prefer it cooler, around 45.

Yep, that’s it, kids, all those styles you like fall into either a lager or an ale. As a homebrewer, lagers are harder to achieve successfully. They require longer fermenting times and benefit from a good “cellaring”, a fancy term for aging your beer undisturbed for a period of time. Professional breweries have the time and equipment to brew a lager, that us homie B’s just don’t have.

So let’s dive in, shall we? Look at that gorgeous mocha head. My guess is that there is also either chocolate malt or roasted barley in this beer. As those grains make for a foamy beige head. Those bubbles audibly popped and fizzed as they posed for their glamour shot, but dissipated quickly. Isn’t that just a beautiful looking beer? LS is opaque, rich blacking umber, almost cola-colored, like a chocolate soda.

And yes, I am aware of the irony of having my death candle featured in this week’s offering. But, this is “La Santisima Muerte,” and yes, that does translate to Our Lady of Holy Death. She represents healing and protection – things that are needed right now. The Catholic Church condemns this ancient Mexican belief, yet Catholics are the original idolaters…but I digress.

Unlike my other religious candles, Miss Death has no scent, but LS sure does! I detected both sweet malt and burnt caramel, molasses, rich coffee, and raisin. Definitely aromas you may associate with a stout, but with an underlying astringency.

Now unlike a stout, this is not a thick beer. The body was medium light, somewhere between a Bud Light and a pilsner. There was a decent amount of carbonation that fluffed up the viscosity a bit, but still very smooth. I’d say smooth like satin more silky than velvety. At the bottom of my notepad, I scribbled “rich without filling” all in grandiose block lettering lest I forget.

LS is almost a dessert beer without the cloying sweetness or viscidity that comes from a pastry stout. Creamy espresso and bitter dark chocolate notes paired with wait for it…roasted walnut! I don’t think I’ve ever detected a nut flavor in a beer that wasn’t meant to have said flavor. Perhaps my palate is growing up!

Seriously though, I’m that weirdo that likes nuts in brownies, and raisins in cookies. All you haterade drinkers out there go shoo. Oh yeah, grandma likes her bran muffin too!

The LS finishes with a trace of medium astringent bitterness, excellent with the nutty chocolate. This beer is a sneak too, 4.9% abv makes it way too easy to drink multiple crowlers and not notice until the room is spinny spinny.

4 out of 5 stimulus checks

So to everyone out there, please be safe, be strong, never stop fighting. And bottoms up.