from Hot and Bothered to “Hopped and Bothered” ~ his/her beer reviews

Hopped & Bothered:
~ a married couple share & review their beer

Sept 3, 2017 ~ Yes — we love our wine too.

On September 3, 2016 one beer lover and blogger (Dale ) married another beer lover and blogger (Jess ). Threaded throughout, our vows paid homage to our commitment and love of each other and our shared need for creativity, our love of food, and our love of beer:

To make our dinner table the hearth of our home, a place for family and friends and expression of all things we love.”

His side: To be clear, our vows didn’t say that “my beer is your beer,” but as he has since learned, it was “implied.” Once we got past that simple bit of clarification and agreed that she is right in all things she wants, we realized that there was an opportunity here as well. Because, while we agree on many things and agree we both love beer and most of the same beers, we have different tastes … and experience beer individually. So wouldn’t it be fun to write our experiences together and share them with the world as a His/Hers beer review. After all, when any of us choose to “follow” any critic, be it food, movie, or beer, we are saying, I respect his/her tastes as similar to my own. Well, now you get two pints for the price of one. It will be interesting to see how different our palates really are … and whether, over time, we become so indistinguishable as many loving married couples.

Her side: From hot and bothered to “hopped n bothered” … a match made in heaven.

Certainly, one of the topics about which Dale and I first bonded as friends was our love of beer….of delicious, quality craft beer…of beautiful IPAs and PAs (and other styles too, of course)….of the local budding craft scene in Ottawa. And now, several years later, it is one of the defining pillars and indulgences of our marriage.

I don’t doubt for a second that Dale found it really cool when he revealed that I really loved and was so interested in beer, like him…and as our romantic relationship budded and bloomed, his own exploration and blogging about beer became a joint passion we could explore together, as we taste and discuss our many pints. It has truly been a lot of fun – from attending craft beer festivals, to discovering new breweries and unique beer offerings around Ottawa, or just happening on exciting new finds at our local liquor stores.

I will never forget the first time I picked up Dale’s beer in the kitchen and took a sip without asking first….that was a dirty look to beat all others. I thought I had taken his first born! We had a mini-fight about it and, well, let’s just say he has learned the benefits of sharing his beer with me far outweigh the drawbacks – and that there is always “more where that came from”…..

I am new to formal reviews. I know what I like and what I don’t and I dare say I have a pretty good and sensitive nose and palate for beer, wine and food…but I’m still learning to discern the requisite elements of different beers and to describe what I taste and smell, so please bear with me as I acquire these skills – and learn from my wonderful and experienced husband and from readers and fellow beer enthusiasts. This joint blog will be a lot of fun and a way to bring together different parts of our life together, and to share them – so please share with us in return your thoughts and tastes, too.

Our format will be simple: you’ll get the beer’s vital statistics and, when possible, the brewer’s own notes/description (note: we look this up after doing our own tastings and writing our own reviews so as to avoid bias). We’ll then present her review with scoring, followed by his … and then an overall summary at the end and a s/he recommendation.

For those who care about such things, our scoring follows similar scales used by many sites, but we’ve nonetheless tweaked it, personalized it a bit by breaking “taste” into a couple of parts (first and end) and weighted a few things differently to produce a score that speaks to our values. We’ll publish this as a percentage/points for ease of use. In the end, you’ll get an overall score plus a thumbs up ( or or if both) … or down (read: absent if neither of us recommend it). So, with that, cheers to you all and see you in the beer review tent soon.

First Taste (10)   =
Appearance (5)   =
Aftertaste (15)     =
Aroma (10)          =
Mouthfeel (10)    =
Overall: (10):       =
              XX/60    = XYZ%