Five Secrets To Ordering Your First Craft Beer

 

With some timeless exceptions, the food and drink consumers of the world have tastes that adapt, change, and evolve very rapidly. Keeping up can seem like a nearly impossible task but some companies manage to do it, and where there are vacancies in the industry, other niche companies come in to sweep up the market share. The world of beer is no different. Locally crafted brews are taking the industry by storm but there is much to learn about the different styles, flavors, and varieties. Here are five secrets to ordering your first craft beer.

1. Select the style of beer.

There are different categories of beer. Before, they could be simplified overall into ales and lagers but now there are many more different styles. In general, ales and lagers make up a majority of the lighter to medium bodied beers you can find. They range from India Pale ales also known as IPAs to amber ales and bocks. It can quickly get confusing and some people prefer to list them from lights to darks.

2. Lighter beers or darker?

To simplify things, some drinkers prefer brews that are lighter and others tend to gravitate towards the darker and heartier ones. This is a good starting place to understand which style you may prefer. Lighter craft beer can be bright, light, and full of citrus- perfect for hotter temperatures and climates or days spent at the pool. Darker beers such as porters and stouts may go well during other seasons, with food, or all by themselves with a light snack or appetizer. These brews are full bodied with incredible flavor, higher alcohol content, and more complex.

3. Pairing with food

Depending on if you are drinking a beer solo or pairing with food, you may want to be more selective with your choice. Some beers are designed to pair well with certain dishes while others were created for pure beer drinking pleasure only. Regardless, they can all be mixed and matched and paired accordingly. Keep this in mind when ordering your drink.

4. Alcohol Content

Lighter beers will have less alcohol content and allow you to enjoy them more for refreshment. For example, a hot summer day at the pool may be better suited to a bright citrus beer or a wheat beer. Sitting around a fire on a winter day will likely be better suited to a dark stout or porter meant to be savored and not so much drank in quantity.

5. Ask a professional

Are there professional beer drinkers? Absolutely! There are also plenty of restaurant workers, servers, bartenders, friends, and forums to advise you and guide you to the beers that will quickly become your favorites.

Use this guide the next time you decide to try some local brews.

To learn more about craft beer, check out Flix Brewhouse-Frisco-Little-Elm.

Classic Films To Watch If You Really Love Romance

Romantic comedies, otherwise known as rom-coms, continue to be created and marketed to the masses to this day. Many make just enough at the box office to create small profits and every now and again a new epic romantic movie strikes a chord with the times and leads to a mega blockbuster, such as Titanic. These classic romantic flicks usually harken back to the romantic classics. Not familiar with a classic romantic movie? Here are some classic films to watch if you really love romance.

1. Breakfast at Tiffany’s

This classic romance goes down as one of the quintessential films to watch if you truly enjoy a story about love. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, starring Audrey Hepburn and based on the Truman Capote novel, is about Holly Golightly, a wealth obsessed high end escort who exchanges all of her time for payment. While trying to live her rich lifestyle and find lucrative opportunities to marry into wealth. Her life is changed when she meets a writer, Paul Varjak, who is living off a sugar momma in the same expensive apartment complex. The two quickly become friends and begin to explore what it takes to love and have security at the same time.

2. Casa Blanca

Taking place during World War II, this movie tells the story of Rick Blaine, an exiled American who runs the hippest night club in Casablanca, Morocco where refugees frequently seek a safe haven and opportunities to escape via transit letters. Things take a turn for the worst after two German soldiers turn up dead. With authorities hot on his trail and the love of his life mysteriously appears back in his life, things get more complicated than he could have ever foreseen.

3. Gone with the wind

This movie tells the tale of Scarlett O’Hara and her life during a particularly dangerous period of America’s history. As the love of her life marries someone else, Scarlett decides to marry herself prior to a great war beginning. Scarlett finds herself a widow later on and still seeks the love of her life- a relationship that seems doomed from the very beginning. Highlighting survivalist instincts and the counterintuitive means and ends that love and survival can entail, Gone with the wind truly makes you think about romance from a different perspective.

Choose any of these movies for a great romance film to watch with your significant other.

To learn more about films to watch in Round Rock, visit https://www.flixbrewhouse.com/round-rock/cinema-info

Five Films To Watch Before You Have Kids

 

Movies can have a way of changing your perspective for the better, especially if you are about to go through a major life event. Having children can be difficult, but after these movies, you may have a new perspective on things. Here are five films to watch before you have kids.

 

 

1. Home Alone

 

Kevin McCallister, played by Macaulay Culkin, is a young and bratty 8 year-old who accidently gets left behind when his incredibly large family leaves for a family trip to Paris, France. Having previously wished his annoying family to vanish, Kevin believes his dreams have come true until a couple of a burglars begin to terrorize his neighborhood and pick the wrong house and wrong boy to mess with.

 

2. Finding Nemo

 

Marlin is over protective of his son Nemo, and for good reason. When Nemo is caught by a diver, Marlin must embark on a journey to get him back. He teams up with Dory, played by Ellen DeGeneres, who suffers from memory loss and lapses. Things get interesting when the two team up to rescue Nemo.

 

3. The Lion King

 

Simba, the son of Mufasa, must grow up and take on all the responsibility of his inherited kingdom. However, Scar, Simba’s evil and back stabbing uncle, has other plans. Simba blames himself for the death of Mufasa and must battle himself and Scar to lead the lions back to prosperity. This movie is one of the top films to watch!

 

4. The Goonies

Things get interesting when two brothers find a mysterious treasure map and embark on a journey to find it. Hunted by a group of bad guys who also want the treasure, the story of a lifetime unfolds.

 

5. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

 

Charlie Bucket, a very poor paper boy, becomes enamored with the idea of winning one of the five coveted golden tickets being given away by Willy Wonka. Upon finding the last golden ticket, Charlie – accompanied by his bedridden uncle – enter the world of Wonka and get more than they bargained for.

 

These five cult favorites are the perfect movies to watch prior to having your own children.

 

To learn more about films to watch in Round Rock, visit https://www.flixbrewhouse.com/round-rock

 

Three Films To Watch Before You Turn 40

Movies can leave impressions on you for a lifetime. I remember going to see a movie as a young kid and coming out of the theater as though I had been bestowed with easily digestible wisdom. That movie was the first on the list of the three films to watch before you turn 40.

 

 

1. Forrest Gump

 

Beginning in Greenbow, Alabama, this movie takes you through the life of Forrest, an awkward boy with a crooked back and a bad speech impediment. He scores low on an IQ test and doesn’t seem to be worth anything according to the standards of modern society. However, Forrest shocks everyone with his many various talents and his open heart that seem to lead him on never ending adventures. Filled with laughs, sadness, and real life lessons- Forrest Gump is a must watch film.

 

2. The Godfather

 

The Godfather is sometimes regarded as one of the best films ever made. It focuses on the life and struggle of an influential and powerful Italian-American mafia family of Don Vito Corleone- played by Marlon Brando. Al Pacino stars as Don’s youngest son who initially is reluctant to go into the family business. His entanglements see him plunging into a world of violence, crime, murder, and betrayal. This movie does a great job of showing the personal struggles of those who find themselves involved in crime families. A must on your films to watch.

 

3. The Shawshank Redemption

 

Based on the novel by Stephen King, about Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, who is accused and sentenced for the murders of his wife and her lover. He must do hard time in a maximum security prison where, despite his innocence, he is punished relentlessly by fellow prisoners and crooked prison guards alike. He finds away to use his intellect to create allies and eventually seek his own form of justice.

 

See these movies before you turn 40 or else you will have to watch them while you’re even older than that. It would be a tragedy.

 

To learn more about films to watch, visit FlixBrewhouse-DesMoines.

Five Films To Watch With Your True Love

There are many romantic movies to watch with your special loved one. With these older cult films, you absolutely cannot go wrong. Here are five films to watch with your true love.

 

1. When Harry Met Sally

 

This movie tells the story of Harry Burns and Sally Albright, two college graduates who share a cab ride together in which they argue about male and female friendship and if it can every last before becoming “complicated.” A decade later, the two reunite and begin an up and down tumultuous friendship that puts the theory of their first conversation to the test.

 

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

 

When Clementine goes through a brutal break up with Joel, she seeks out a procedure to erase all of her memories regarding him and their relationship. Upon hearing this, Joel sets out to do the same but finds out during the process that his memories of her may be more precious than he had ever realized. One of the greats in films to watch for a romantic date.

 

3. The princess bride

 

In this adventure filled fairy tale story read by a grandpa to his grandson, a prince must rescue the love of his life all the while engaging in sword fights and befriending a motley crew of accomplices.

 

4. Donnie Darko

 

Taking place in the classic America suburbs, Donnie figures out the secrets of space, time, and how to bend it. He becomes fascinated in the irony and hypocrisy of everyday life and takes matters into his own hands when the powers of fear over power love in his peaceful suburban neighborhood. One of the best films to watch. 

 

5. Harold and Maude

 

This romantic black comedy lives up to the test of time. Maude, an eclectic and eccentric older woman develops a strong bond and friendship with Maude, a young adult with an extreme obsession with death and suicide. Their friendship soon blossoms into a romance to the dismay of his family but there is nothing anyone can do- until Maude’s final act.

 

These movies of love and romance make for the perfect evening with your true love.

 

To learn more about films to watch, visit Flix Brewhouse-Carmel.