Cocktail Thursday: Georgia Tech Edition

If your Aunt Sally burned the turkey, and Uncle Gill just told you the same Sri Lankan golfer joke he’s told you every Thanksgiving since 1996, you could probably use a drink. I can help with that.

This is the spot where I would normally run through some of the worrisome aspects of this weekend’s Georgia Bulldog football game. I would then postulate how the ‘Dawgs might overcome those difficulties, and offer you a cocktail themed around it.

But I have to be honest: the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are an awful football team. Dreadful. Truly terrible. Plainly pathetic. They’re 3-8 in a mediocre ACC, coming off a 55-0 loss to Notre Dame. They’re 80th in the nation in scoring offense. 106th in scoring defense (next to last in the ACC ahead of only flailing Duke).

There’s not a single thing about this Georgia Tech team that scares me. Georgia should win this one and win it handily in front of a home crowd playing at our second home. Everything after this week is dicey. Every game after this one should worry you. But I hope you enjoy this last regular season game. Because this is as close to an automatic win as you’re going to see. And what’s the drink of choice for an automatic win for the team from Athens?

An Automatic IPA from Athens’ own Creature Comforts brewery.

Automatic is an uncomplicated beer with a complex flavor, an IPA with a bright, citrusy front end that finishes cleaner than a lot of pale ales. I think the reason IPAs get a bad rap sometimes is because the people who make them try too hard to get cute, loading them up with 14 kinds of exotic hops and not being satisfied until the beer turns your mouth inside out or tastes like lemon pledge with a Budweiser back.

Not this one. Like most Creature Comforts products it’s a well-engineered refreshment engine, one that you can enjoy on your front porch on a summer day, at a candle lit dinner, or at a November tailgate.

Just don’t try to have one for every Bulldog touchdown tomorrow, and know that we won’t be responsible for what happens if you do. But offering one to Geoff Collins would be fine. He’s gonna need it more than you do. Until later...

Go ‘Dawgs!!!