Park City, Utah is a picturesque town tucked in the mountains and designed to look strikingly like a movie set. If you picture a quaint ski resort town, bustling with attractive people in puffy coats and designer boots, you won’t be wrong. In the shadowy basement bar of The Cabin, a music venue buried under the glamorous surface of Park City, I ask the bartender what local booze embodies Park City.
He looks flustered, confused, then asks what I want.
I ask him, “What is brewed or distilled locally here that you think is the trademark of the town?”
He scowls for a moment and says, “I don’t like it. I think it’s bitter and too strong because it’s 9%, but everyone says the Hop Rising put Park City on the map. Hell, it put Utah on the map. The last time I tried it I got a DUI, so I don’t like the stuff.”
I’m intrigued.
He’s right about the bitterness, but then I’m a fan of that. It’s surprisingly malty tasting for an American IPA, but very easy on the tongue. When a wind-burned man in a charcoal trench coat steps up to the bar next to me, he looks at the bottle and says, “Ah, you like the Squatters IPA, huh?” I nod. He points to it and says, “Man, that beer put Park City on the map. People think Utah, they think watered down lagers, but when that came out the rest of the country was like, ‘Woah, this came out of Utah?’”
I smile and have another taste. It holds up, still bitter and delightful.
Later, in a different part of the bar, chatting with a couple from Salt Lake City, they ask me what I’m drinking and if I want another. Very friendly people out here. I say it’s Squatters Hop Rising IPA and they tell me that beer really put Park City on the map. I’m not kidding.
So it seems clear there is some kind of Utah script they hand out to residents instructing them on the talking points around their beverages. If you want to sound like a local, make sure to point out that the tasty Hop Rising you’re enjoying really put the place on the map. Nobody will suspect you’re an outsider.
