Normally, product shots don’t make for good b-Roll submissions. This space is for the moments around beer, not the beer itself. But what do I do when the moments around beer have lately been empty of the people I love, and when the only company I have is my pup, Benny? Where do I go for camaraderie when the lengthiest conversation I’ve had recently is the random “excuse me” or “sorry” that pops out whenever I accidentally venture too close to someone on a walk?
They say that great art is created in times of great struggle, and it’s obvious to me that the most recent evidence of genius under strain comes in the form of bag-in-box Dark Mild from Seattle’s Machine House Brewery. Like, how did I not think of this? Give me your soft carbonation, your mild bitterness, your huddled masses ... well, let’s not get carried away.
I’ve had beer bring me joy in the past—the first can of Allagash White I ever drank, a perfectly aged Orval, the crispiest Suarez Pilsners—but I’ve never had anything like this damn plastic-wrapped package delivered to my front door. It speaks to a never-say-die spirit, and as the bag empties, my temptation to slap it subsides and I’m filled with hope. Hope that if something so pure and simple as “cask-in-a-bag-in-a-box” can bring me back to center, then there must be a light at the end of this long, Dark-Mild-filled tunnel.
