The Best Combo

Redstone Hazy IPA - Black Flag Brewing Co., Columbia, MD

Before quarantine, I had an awesome schedule. Wake up, workout, train my clients, go to my extracurriculars (physical therapy shadowing, regular therapy, various social events, etc.), come home, hang out with Lydia, eat, sleep, and repeat. I have been lucky enough to have a similar quarantine schedule because I still get to go to work, but replace extracurriculars with videogames. I grew up thinking that videogames were a waste of time, and they were only allowed to be played on special occasions. In all honesty, they aren’t productive in any traditional sense of the word, but I’m not looking for traditional because guess what, a quarantine based lifestyle isn’t traditional. I’ve recently come to realize that the word “productive” can present itself in a destructive way. We live in a world where social media promotes us to never stop working...you know, your cousin of yours that posts “the grind never stops! (100 emoji, fist emoji, other random and unnecessary emojis)” after posting a link to their new online CBD business. Not having a reset period will eventually lead to burning out and will create a sense of resentment towards the work you originally enjoyed. Having burned out a number of times before, I can tell you that it is no fun and entirely preventable. This is all to present my case for playing an average of 15 hours of video games per week for the past 4 months, which compared to some of my buddies is practically nothing. It’s not only a way to pass the time when we’re not allowed to partake in regular activities, but a way to socialize, create, and reset.  

This beer is a reference to a game called Minecraft, which is a tremendous amount of fun. Most of the time I like to play first person shooter games, like Halo, or Call of Duty, but Minecraft isn’t like that at all. The whole point of the game is to build, and it doesn’t matter what. You wanna build a house? Go for it. Want to build a little self-sustaining wheat farm next to that house? Can do! There is an actual end goal to the game in which you build a portal to a place called “The End” and fight a beast called the Ender Dragon that spews purple flames at you. I’ve seen others do it, but I personally have much more fun just digging into the ground to find gold and diamonds. Minecraft can be played as a solo adventure or played with friends - it can be especially fun to mess with your friends, like when I’m playing with my buddy Matt. He’ll mess with my chicken farm and in retaliation I’ll pour a bucket of water down the stairs to his mine, making it harder for him to move around. Tit for tat my dude. To his credit, he does come save me when I get lost in caves, and I get lost fairly often. Please keep coming to save me, Matt, I’m not great at this game. Like me, Lydia isn’t very good at the game either, so when we’re playing together it gets pretty hectic. Last time we played, she died in a cave, and I managed to die trying to get out of said cave. Long story short, we both ended up screaming at each other for help right before the “You have died!” screen popped up. Loads of fun. 

When I’m playing, my brain kinda turns off for a bit, and it’s an incredible feeling. It’s like a flow state, but there’s no pressure of performing. I do whatever I want and the worst consequence in the game is I die, drop my gubs (shout out to my Achievement Hunter fans), and spawn back in my bed at my house. All I gotta do is figure out where I was, go get my gubs, and get right back to building! If I can’t find them, no big deal because it’s just a game. As I said, I’m not that good at the game, but I still have fun with it. There are plenty of mechanics I haven’t tried out before, such as using Redstone to create circuits. I’ll eventually figure out what to do with the stacks of it that I have in my material chest in my house. Luckily enough it is bountiful in the game, so I know I’ll never run out. I mainly just like to tear up blocks and put them somewhere else. I’m pretty easy when it comes to being entertained. Other than gaming, I’m entertained by beer and that’s what this blog is about, so let’s get to it! 

First sip: it’s more subtle than most hazy’s, and I appreciate that. It’s not a slap in the face...it’s more like a secret handshake. It’s got just the right amount of sweet and tang. To be fair, I did just eat a whole bunch of spicy chicken, so my palate may be a bit influenced by that - whoops. Regardless, I love this, and I can’t wait to try it again after resetting my palate. There are definitely some fruity flavors outside the traditional citrus, like peach and mango, but I’m not getting a whole lot of the blueberry (note: second time through I definitely did) that’s mentioned in the description. That’s okay though because everything else blends quite well! Now I can’t help but think about what Minecraft Redstone would actually taste like. Probably not like mangos.

For any of you who are looking for a new quarantine activity, I suggest you give gaming a shot. There are plenty of opportunities to play games, whether it’s through a console or your PC. Steam is a gaming platform that’s free to download on your PC and has a tremendous number of games available to play on it, many of which are free! So if you’d rather not drop $300-$400 on an Xbox or PlayStation, Steam is a more realistic and less daunting option for you. If you’re not interested, I ask that you don’t judge those who have been playing hours upon hours of video games. It’s a stress release, a way for us to connect with our friends, and a way for us to be creative. It may not be traditionally productive, but we’re not going for traditional.   

Also, before I forget...the only two things cooler than beer and videogames are supporting social movements and voting. Please, for the love of God, vote this November.