beer

Kevin Harlan's call of a Bucks fan's beer spill is why he is one of the greats

If someone asked you to rattle off the top play-by-play guys in sports right now, chances are you'd start with the usual suspects. Jim Nantz, Joe Buck, Marv Albert, Gus Johnson, etc. It might take you a little while to mention Kevin Harlan, which is a shame, because he's arguably one of the top two or three active play-by-play guys in the business.

Moments like the one we are about to share only further this notion. On Thursday night in Milwuakee, during a particularly boring stretch of the Bucks vs. Celtics game, a Bucks fan sitting court side spilled his beer everywhere when Boston forward Marcus Morris crashed into him as he saved the ball. Harlan did what he does best, perfectly describing the situation in great detail like the play-by-play legend he is:

"Some Schlitz maybe, who knows! He's just SOAKED in beer. It's in the guy's hair... it's IN THE GUY'S HAIR! Beer is every place! The Miller High Life, SPILLED on the floor!"

For me, the Miller High Life shoutout puts this over the top. Few beverages bring me as much joy as the champagne of beers. Harlan really is the best, though this moment still doesn't usurp the time he called a streaker running on the field in San Francisco:

"Beer is every place!", "The guy is drunk!", and "WITH NO REGARD FOR HUMAN LIFE", should be enough to put Harlan on the Mount Rushmore of sports broadcasting.

RELATED: Tony Romo's play-by-play of a cat running on the field is already his best broadcasting moment

Celtics' Marcus Morris gets beer spilled on him against Bucks, and TNT broadcaster Kevin Harlan soaks up every moment

The Celtics and the Bucks had a rough third quarter on Thursday, but few players had it rougher than Marcus Morris. Boston's forward dove into the crowd for a loose ball and actually made a great hustle save, but his efforts got him a beer spilled on his head.

Morris was forced to play drenched in beer, and TNT commentator Kevin Harlan had a great time calling everything Morris did -- while reminding everyone that he was doing it with his head dripping.

Just listen to how excited he is. "Morris is dripping with beer!" "He is just soaked in beer!"

One thing we learned: Harlan does not know a lot of beers. It sounds like he knew half of Milwaukee's Best (he trailed off after Milwaukee) and Miller Life before saying "I can't think of any more beers."

No one does strange sports quite like Harlan. The other instance like this that comes to mind is when a streaker crashed the Rams' first regular game as the Los Angeles Rams against the 49ers on Monday Night Football, and Harlan just seemed happy he got to talk about anything but the horrible game that night.

It's a shame Harlan can't make the call for every bizarre occurrence in the world of sports.

Tasting 16 craft beer classics: Looking back on the brands that started a movement, but got left behind

Flagships are faltering.

Fortunately for them, there’s Flagship February.

The monthlong initiative, launched in a burst of social media inspiration by Canadian beer writer Stephen Beaumont, is meant to highlight “the flagship beers that got us here,” according to the Flagship February website.

“Here” is a nation rife with more than 7,000 breweries — and another 1,000 or so in Canada — which offer seemingly endless options for beer drinkers. Those options stand in blessed contrast to the landscape of a generation ago, when fewer than 100 breweries churned out a handful of brands that accounted for most of our beer drinking.

The early antidotes to that bland landscape were craft breweries, most of which were built on the identity of a single beer — a flagship. Anchor Steam. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Samuel Adams Boston Lager. Fat Tire Amber Ale. Lagunitas IPA.

But the recent proliferation of choice means a dizzying array of options, which leaves many of the old-school flagships as afterthoughts. The numbers bear that out.

Fat Tire sales were down 17.5 percent last year, according to Chicago-based market research firm IRI Worldwide.

Boston Lager was down 13.7 percent.

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, down 5.5 percent.

Lagunitas IPA, Stone IPA and Shiner Bock were all down between 1.6 and 3.5 percent. A handful of old-school flagships remain strong — the right styles of beer for still-growing breweries — but most have met headwinds.

Enter Flagship February.

To remind us of the quality that we now largely take for granted (and to nudge a certain demographic beyond lurching from shiny new thing to shiny new thing), Beaumont and a handful of writers are highlighting a different flagship each day this month. It got me thinking. It also got me tasting some classic flagships I haven’t tried in years.

While I’ve been as guilty as anyone of overlooking the old standbys while keeping up with the latest hazy IPA or pastry stout — or hoppy stout or helles lager or wild ale — it was a pleasure to circle back to these beers.

For this exercise, I focused on the classic flagships available in Chicago: those at least 20 years old and those that have been, and continue to be, a particular brewery’s dominant brand. I landed on 16 beers, all recognizable to veteran beer drinkers (and must-trys for newer beer drinkers).

I assumed some would seem like relics from another time and be best left behind. But the truth is none truly disappointed; each had its merits. Their collective longevity is no fluke.

But that doesn’t mean they’re equally worth drinking. For that reason, I’ve divided the beers into three groups: “Still essential” (speaks for itself), “Keep it in rotation” (buy a six-pack once or twice a year) and “Ballgame beer” (if you come across it at a sporting event, concert or backyard barbecue, have at it).

Most of these beers are best when fresh — no more than 4 to 6 months old, which can be a challenge for beers arriving from hundreds or thousands of miles away — so check those packaging dates. Here they are, by category, then in alphabetical order:

Still essential

Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune

A classic Belgian-style witbier years ahead of its time.

A classic Belgian-style witbier years ahead of its time. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune)

Allagash White

Brewery: Allagash Brewing, Portland, Maine

Released: 1995

Verdict: A classic Belgian-style witbier years ahead of its time. Fortunately American taste buds have caught up, and Allagash’s flagship — it’s about 80 percent of the brewery’s production — is dialed in as ever: bright, fruity, lemony, grassy and refreshing. I’d recommend this even to people who think they don’t like beer.

Dortmunder Gold

Brewery: Great Lakes Brewing, Cleveland

Released: 1988

Verdict: Exquisite balance throughout this dortmunder lager: hearty yet crisp, muscular yet bright, complex yet accessible, and plenty of weight without sitting heavily on the palate.

Fat Tire Amber Ale

Brewery: New Belgium Brewing, Fort Collins, Colo., and Asheville, N.C.

Released: 1991

Verdict: I’d largely written this beer off. My mistake. Having this classic amber ale fresh at the brewery last year reminded me of its evenhanded genius, and now that Fat Tire is bottle fermented, it stays fresher and brighter longer. Its malty middle and tidy, lightly fruity finish make it endlessly satisfying.

La Fin du Monde

Brewery: Unibroue, Chambly, Canada

Released: 1994

Verdict: It’s remarkable that any North American brewery has been able to make a tripel — another classic Belgian style — its flagship for so long. But leave it to those progressive Canadians. La Fin du Monde certainly holds up: fruity with a touch of spice, and it dries out just enough to be ideal with a meal. One of the few beers on this list that isn’t necessarily best fresh.

Lagunitas IPA

Brewery: Lagunitas Brewing, Petaluma, Calif., and Chicago

Released: 1995

Verdict: The IPA that taught us to love IPAs — and still a tip-top example of the style, with notes of citrus balanced against earthy resin-pine. In a world of too sweet, too cloying and out of balance IPAs, this remains an approachable classic.

Left Hand Milk Stout

Brewery: Left Hand Brewing, Longmont, Colo.

Released: 1999

Verdict: In the pastry stout era, this beer is right at home, discernibly sweet, yet unlike most pastry stouts, identifiable as beer with a long roasty middle that’s rife with notes of coffee and baking chocolate. Available carbonated or nitrogenated. The vote here is for the silky nitro version.

Two Hearted Ale

Brewery: Bell’s Brewery, Galesburg, Mich.

Released: 1989 (though the current iteration was born in 1997)

Verdict: This is the thriving exception mentioned above; Two Hearted sales grew more than 10 percent last year as Bell’s continued to grow its distribution footprint. Two Hearted has also enjoyed a bit of good fortune; it wasn’t always the flagship — in the early days, that was Bell’s Amber (also still a classic, by the way) — but modern tastes have evolved toward hops, and Bell’s happened to have this expert IPA in its portfolio. Little wonder that Two Hearted has been named the best beer in America two years running.

Keep it in rotation

Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune

Dale's breaks the 20-year rule, but it's worthy of veteran flagship status not just for mainstreaming cans in craft beer, but also for updating the notion of a flagship pale ale.

Dale's breaks the 20-year rule, but it's worthy of veteran flagship status not just for mainstreaming cans in craft beer, but also for updating the notion of a flagship pale ale. (Bill Hogan/Chicago Tribune)

Alaskan Amber

Brewery: Alaskan Brewing, Juneau, Alaska

Released: 1986

Verdict: Effortless easy drinking reminiscent of Fat Tire. A bit fruity and a bit nutty, with a bit of toffee character. An ideal pairing with food.

Dale’s Pale Ale

Brewery: Oskar Blues Brewery, Lyons, Colo., and Brevard, N.C.

Released: 2002

Verdict: I broke the 20-year rule for 17-year-old Dale’s, which is worthy of veteran flagship status not just for mainstreaming cans in craft beer, but also for updating the notion of a flagship pale ale: bigger, rounder and fruitier than the Sierra Nevada classic. Speaking of which ...

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing, Chico, Calif., and Mills River, N.C.

Released: 1980

Verdict: Light-years ahead of its time and arguably the most important American beer of the past 50 years. It holds up decades later as a fairly modest and restrained take on pale ale by contemporary standards, showing light fruitiness balanced by a lightly resinous, toasty malt and drying finish. No gripe here. Can be particularly tough to find fresh in Chicago, unfortunately, though The Beer Temple sometimes has it in optimal shape on draft.

Spotted Cow

Brewery: New Glarus Brewing, New Glarus, Wis.

Released: 1997

Verdict: Spotted Cow is not New Glarus’ flashiest beer, but there’s good reason that it’s the beer that built the brewery. From the bottle or can, Spotted Cow is easy-drinking simplicity. Poured into a glass, it shines, its fruity aromatics (think melon and citrus) leaping out. Available only in Wisconsin — not that that stops Illinois folk from getting it into their refrigerators.

Stone IPA

Brewery: Stone Brewing, Escondidio, Calif., and Richmond, Va.

Released: 1997

Verdict: Fruity! Bitter! Bracing! Bold! Stone IPA makes clear why low bitterness IPAs have become so popular: This isn’t easy to drink. But if you value bitter, old-school IPAs — I do — this well-made classic is worth revisiting.

Ballgame beer

Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune

Anchor Steam remains a crucially important beer in the rise of the craft industry.

Anchor Steam remains a crucially important beer in the rise of the craft industry. (Michael Tercha/Chicago Tribune)

Anchor Steam

Brewery: Anchor Brewing, San Francisco

Released: 1896

Verdict: Another crucially important beer in the rise of the craft industry (even if there was no craft beer industry when it first was released 123 years ago). I remembered this as more rounded and complete the last time I had it. This version, though fresh, dried out significantly and showed surprising bitterness. Still, I’d gladly drink one at a Giants game.

Sam Adams Boston Lager

Brewery: Boston Beer, Boston, Mass.

Released: 1985

Verdict: Admirable balance of crisp malt and light bitterness, which makes this stalwart the epitome of interesting, but accessible. I love that Boston Beer is the beer sponsor of the Red Sox, because Fenway Park seems like the ideal place to slug one down.

Shiner Bock

Brewery: Spoetzl Brewery, Shiner, Texas

Released: 1903

Verdict: Well-executed, one-dimensional malt forwardness. And, yes, abundant at Astros games (even if Anheuser-Busch is coming after Shiner with a bock of its own this season).

Brooklyn Lager

Brewery: Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn, New York

Released: 1988

Verdict: A fair amount of malt in this lager — skewing more toward caramel than toastiness — and pronounced piney-perfume bitterness make this beer heavier than many contemporary lagers and less interesting than most hop-forward beers. It sits heavy on the palate and gets fatiguing. But, yes, I’d gladly drink one at a Yankees game (while, of course, rooting against the Yankees).

jbnoel@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @hopnotes

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