(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Friday Night Beer Blog: “We’re No. 2!” Edition [1] ['Sabrina Haake', 'Bill In Portland Maine', 'Kelli Anne Busey'] Date: 2026-07-10 For once, a somewhat thematically appropriate beer choice from 3CM the loser 😉 chingchongchinaman Greetings, beer lovers! ‘Tis Friday night (well, duh), and once again, ‘tis chingchongchinaman back as your guest FNBB blogger, with esquimaux taking a well-earned from FNBB duties. Before getting to the fun tonight, self the loser owes the FNBB community a big-time apology for all the eff-ups last Friday night that unintentionally (a) delayed publication at the standard time of 6:45 PM PDT, and (b) forgetting to post to the ‘Daily Kos for What Ales Ya’ group (which might happen again tonight, given self’s loser luck), which in turn led to the posting of a second FNBB that evening that actually got more traffic than mine. The frustrations at the time with the pic caption and the required meta data basically caused me to lose it last Friday night, on several levels. As much as that restores 3CM’s bona fide loser credentials, at least it’s not as bad as a delusional Maine-iac moron who (aided by everyone in ME who voted for him in the primary, of course) has done more single-handedly to wreck the chances of the Democrats re-taking the Senate in this November’s midterms than all Repuke scumbags put together. But enough of that, and on to fun with beer. Since 3CM the loser lacks for original ideas, he’s leaning on St. Louis Magazine beer guru Jordan Palmer for tonight’s theme, which comes from this article back on March 10 (typically super-late to the party, that loser 3CM), which mentions: “In the 2026 USA Today 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards, St. Louis finished No. 2 for “Best Beer City in the United States”….” Self the loser admits that he would never have guessed the No. 1 city in this Readers’ Choice Awards survey: ‘For the “Best Beer City” category, St. Louis finished second only behind Grand Rapids, Michigan, which has quietly built one of the densest beer scenes in the country. With more than 80 breweries in and around the region, Grand Rapids boasts one of the nation’s highest concentrations of craft breweries per square mile and is home to the popular Founders Brewing Co.’ So if anyone from Grand Rapids, MI is reading this DK diary, congratulations to you on your beer scene. Have never visited Grand Rapids (even though I lived in MI as a kid for a spell), but we’ll see if that ever changes. But getting back to #2, so to speak: JP has several recent features on particular groups of beers from STL regional craft breweries. This May 29 JP article focuses on wheat beers, where he notes: “For years, wheat beers quietly lived in the shadow of IPAs and barrel-aged monsters. But lately, they’re everywhere again. Fruited wheats, radlers, Belgian wits, hefeweizens, hoppy wheats, patio beers, brunch beers – you name it.” Since several FNBB regulars love their sours, this June 30 JP article is for you. Sours aficionados don’t need the education about sours, but for neophytes like me: “One of the biggest misconceptions about sour beer is that it’s one style. It isn’t. It’s a family of beers connected by one characteristic: acidity. Some are light, crisp, and gently tart. Others burst with peaches, passion fruit, raspberries, or citrus. Some are brewed with coriander and sea salt. Others spend years resting in oak, developing layers of cherry, vanilla, earthiness, and funk. The common thread is bright acidity.” JP then goes on to say that sours make “perfect” summer beers, with this justification: “Think about the flavors we crave when temperatures climb: lemonade, citrus, watermelon, fresh fruit. They’re all bright, refreshing, and driven by acidity. Sour beers work the same way. Their lively acidity refreshes your palate instead of weighing it down. Berliner Weisses and Goses, in particular, tend to be lower in alcohol and remarkably thirst-quenching, making them ideal for patios, concerts, baseball games, and afternoons by the pool.” While I’m still not big into sours, I certainly have to acknowledge the judgment of some with far greater expertise on beer than me. Both his lists of wheat beers and sour beers are quite impressive, for anyone local or visiting who wants to sample the STL craft beer scene. And on that general subject, JP has another article, from June 28, with a list of general new craft beer flavors in the STL region. Since 3CM nominally controls the FNBB “jukebox”, the obligatory FNBB music video for tonight has no beer theme at all, although for anyone who watches / listens to it, one class of beer in one of the articles mentioned may come to mind 🙂 . This is a video of the song cycle Messages de feu Demoiselle R. V. Troussova (Messages of the late Miss R. V. Troussova), with music by the Hungarian avant-garde composer György Kurtág (born 1926) to words by Rimma Dalos: Besides this year being Kurtág’s centenary (and yes, from what I understand, he is still around – the big birthday was back in February), the instrumental ensemble in the video is the Ukho Ensemble Kyiv. Enough said. To cap off 3CM’s loserness (as if last Friday night didn’t offer definitive proof), tonight’s featured is neither a wheat beer nor a sour, although it’s at least local. It’s a Schlafly Summer Lager, which is pretty much just what it sounds like, and a very nice lager it is too, with a slightly sharper flavor and character than one might expect from a generic lager. The weather outside now, however, with torrential rains, rather contradicts the sunny “Summer Lager” label. So it goes (especially for local folks hoping to do something nice outdoors on a summer night here). With that, time to turn it over to you folks. What are you sipping tonight? Anyone brewing their own? And feel free to post articles about your local craft beer scene to add to the collection here. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/7/10/800067613/community/friday-night-beer-blog-were-no-2-edition/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/