Category: News

Every fall, we see a stark division among beer drinkers. Like cilantro, blue cheese, and Maroon 5, pumpkin beer is either loved or despised. There are no shades of gray here. Even in a community where IPA fans and haters are equally vehement, no beer style is as divisive as pumpkin brews.

Jeremy Allen, bartender at MiniBar in Los Angeles, sums up his distaste for the style by referencing the classic slasher movie Scream.

“Don’t answer the phone,” he says. “Don’t open the door! Don’t try to escape. You see what happened to Drew Barrymore in Scream? We tried to warn you, but you still wouldn’t listen. Who’s laughing now?”

Nathan Matusiewicz, bartender at Pajarito in Minneapolis believes that, while pumpkin beer works in theory, it rarely translates to a great tasting product.

“Pumpkin and beer reminds me of any time I hear about truffle oil being added to a dish,” he says. “On paper, it sounds like a genius no brainer amalgamation until you taste it and say: ‘I didn’t imagine it could taste so bad!’”

But while the anti-pumpkin movement is out in full force yet again, that doesn’t mean there aren’t folks who look forward to this style every autumn. To find a few beers that even pumpkin haters might want to test, we asked a handful of bartenders to tell us their picks for pumpkins beers that actually aren’t trash.

Two Roads Roadsmary’s Baby

Nico Diaz, owner of CRFT Cocktail Catering Service in New Hope, Pennsylvania

The only pumpkin beer I’ve ever tried without immediately wanting to throw it away was Roadsmary’s Baby by Two Roads. It’s aged in rum barrels, giving it flavors of vanilla and caramel, on top of the pumpkin.

Marble Pumpkin Noir

Timmie Hoffman, bartender at Salt7 in Delray Beach, Florida

The one and only Marble Brewery’s pumpkin Nior. It is brewed with pumpkin and yams and the flavor is not lacking. It also has incredible spice flavors but it’s not too overwhelming.

This is a darker beer that is rich and creamy and tastes like they packed fresh (not fake) pumpkin, yams, spices, and caramelized sugar into all the cans. It’s seriously incredible.

Noda Gordgeous

Eli Privette, bartender at Dogwood: A Southern Table in Charlotte, North Carolina

Noda Brewing Gordeous — a sour pumpkin beer that to me is as good as they get. This Gold Medal winner at the Great American Beer Festival is full of real pumpkin, brown sugar, and a proprietary spice blend.

Schlafly Pumpkin Ale

Meredith Barry, executive beverage chef of Angad Arts Hotel in St. Louis

Schafly’s Pumpkin Ale still tastes like a beer and not like liquid pumpkin pie. That’s pretty much the best way to differentiate between good and bad pumpkin beers.

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale

Benjamin Burch, bartender at The Nolen in San Diego

Dogfish Head Punkin Ale. This is one of the classics in the style and they just get it right. It is super well-balanced. It incorporates the spices and pumpkin so well, but it still tastes like beer. And most importantly? I can drink a couple of them and still like them.

Punkin Ales aren’t too alcoholic, they aren’t too sweet, they don’t have too much spice. It’s just beer done right.

New Holland Ichabod

Rebecah Hunter, bartender at The Monarch Club in Detroit

New Holland Ichabod Pumpkin Ale from Holland, Michigan. The taste is not the overly malty potpourri that some would expect of a pumpkin-spice beer. That’s a good thing.

Shipyard Pumpkinhead

Eva Al-Gharaballi, bartender at Datz in St. Petersburg, Florida

I have been drinking Shipyard Pumpkinhead Ale for years. This pumpkin-wheat ale is crisp and refreshing while giving you all of the cinnamon and spice that you want out of a fall beverage. I prefer to drink it in a chilled glass with a caramel and cinnamon-sugar rim.

Elysian Night Owl

Mig Feliciano, head bartender and mixologist at the Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles

Night Owl by Elysian Brewery out of Seattle, Washington is a great pumpkin beer. It’s surprisingly not heavy and the pumpkin flavor doesn’t overpower it. It’s perfect for a Halloween party, thanksgiving, or if you just love pumpkin.

Dope name for a beer too.

Southern Tier Warlock

Damian Langarica, head bartender at a.bar in Philadelphia

For this one, I’m going to go with Southern Tier Brewery, which makes two types of pumpkin beers. Pumking, for those who really love that pumpkin pie flavor, and the Warlock, an imperial stout brewed with pumpkin and spices, for those who are looking for more richness and sweetness

Saint Arnold Pumpkinator

Emmanuelle Massicot, assistant GM and beverage director of Kata Robata in Houston

Saint Arnold’s Pumpkinator. I consider this the OG of pumpkin beers, especially as a Houstonian. And as an imperial stout, the combination with the pumpkin gives it a pleasant richness.

Samuel Adams Jack-O

Marta De La Cruz Marrero, food and beverage supervisor of Burlock Coast in Fort Lauderdale

Samuel Adams Jack-O because it’s very smooth and has a roast sweetness, light hop character. It’s just a great fall beer. Bonus points because the pumpkin flavor isn’t overwhelming.

Elysian The Great Pumpkin

Tommy Ergle, bar manager at Dr. BBQ in St. Petersburg, Florida

One of the only pumpkin beers I grab at the store is Elysian’s The Great Pumpkin. They actually use locally sourced pumpkins in their mash for this beer that really gives it such a fresh, unmatched fall-flavor profile.

The Arizona Cardinals made a big splash this offseason when they traded for Texans star receiver DeAndre Hopkins in a deal that somehow only cost them David Johnson and a second round pick.

The All-Pro receiver offered a bridge from the Cardinals Hall of Famer Larry Fitzgerald to the future for young quarterback Kyler Murray, and suddenly gave Kliff Kingsbury plenty of toys to expand his passing attack in Arizona. The Texans clearly weren’t interested in giving Hopkins big money to be the top target for Deshaun Watson, but the Cardinals were more than happy to fork over big cash to the star receiver.

On Tuesday, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported Hopkins had negotiated a contract extension with Arizona for two years and $54.5 million, bringing his average salary over the next five to $18.8 million, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

There’s a voidable second year on the extension, but he also gets no-trade and no-franchise tag clauses, per Rapoport, meaning he’ll have plenty of freedom in five to seek out even more money while still in his prime. The Cardinals lock down a superstar receiver for the foreseeable future to give Murray the ultimate safety net, and do so while paying Murray rookie QB money rather than big QB extension money. It’s a smart use of cap space and makes tons of football sense, and the Cardinals will hope the partnership with those two can be very fruitful.

Lana Del Rey is gearing up for the release of her studio album Chemtrails Over The Country Club. While the singer continues to be vague about the record’s release date, she recently chatted with her producer, Jack Antonoff, about the record for Interview Magazine. Throughout their conversation, Lana discussed some of the upcoming album’s themes, how she’s holding up in quarantine, and the time she went clubbing with Joan Baez.

Lana and Antonoff chatted on the phone while the singer was driving across the country, the perfect setting to discuss her Americana influences. At the start of the interview, Lana recalled the time she performed a duet with the iconic singer Joan Baez, saying they even went clubbing together afterwards:

“On the last tour, we went to Berkeley and I really wanted to do ‘Diamonds And Rust’ with Joan, and she was kind enough to accommodate me. Nobody necessarily wants to show up to do a giant show for 15,000 kids at Berkeley, but she told me that if I’d drive out 80 miles from Berkeley, then we could practice at her kitchen table, and if it was good, she would do it. So that’s what I did. She corrected me on all my harmonies, and by the end, it was great. Then we went out clubbing to this Afro-Caribbean two-step place and danced all night. She f*cking outlasted me.”

Speaking about her upcoming music, Lana said she had been “really stressed” about the album: “I’ve been really stressed about this album. From the top, we knew what Norman was. But with Chemtrails, it was like, ‘Is this new folk? Oh, god, are we going country?’ Now that it’s done I feel really good about it, and I think a defining moment for this album will be ‘White Dress/Waitress.’”

The singer continued to revealed a bit of the theme behind Chemtrails, saying she wrote the title track about striving to be normal: “I hear Chemtrails and I think “work,” but I also think of my stunning girlfriends, who so much of the album is about, and my beautiful siblings. ‘Chemtrails’ is the title track because it mentions them all and it mentions wanting so much to be normal and realizing that when you have an overactive, eccentric mind, a record like Chemtrails is just what you’re going to get.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Lana opened up about how the pandemic has been affecting her mental health:

“I’ll say, ‘Today was a bad day and it’s because of you, and I don’t even know you anymore.’ I don’t necessarily think there’s much value in doing that—it’s just what’s true. I don’t ever feel bad for saying to someone, ‘I’m having a panic attack because of what you’ve done.’ That’s black-belt life, like 3.0. What’s insane is that the pandemic has brought up all of these mental health crises and domestic crises that were always there, that I always sang about, that people had so much to say about in terms of, ‘She’s just feigning emotional fragility.’ And it’s like, ‘Well, not really. You’re feigning emotional togetherness despite the fact that you’re a wack-job Monday through Friday. […] But now that you can’t go shopping, you have to look at your partner and be like, ‘I’ve lived with you for 20 years, but do I even know you?’ You realize maybe you’ve only ever allowed yourself to scratch the surface of yourself because if you went any deeper, you might have a mild meltdown for no reason, just out of the blue, and no amount of talking could explain why. It’s just a part of your genetic makeup. You could just be prone to panic. I think a lot of people are that way. I got a lot of shit for not only talking about it, but talking about lots of other things for a super long time. I don’t feel justified in it, because I’m not the kind of artist who’s ever going to get justified.’”

Read the full interview with Antonoff here.

This week the best new pop music saw high-profile releases along with several up-and-coming artists making a big splash. SZA teamed up with Ty Dolla Sign for a single that hits different, BTS debuted another dance floor-ready track, and Finneas returned to show off his romantic side.

Each week, Uproxx rounds up the best new pop music. Listen up.

SZA — “Hit Different” feat. Ty Dolla Sign

With SZA releasing her first solo music since her debut full-length Ctrl, it’s sure to make Uproxx’s best new pop list. The singer tapped Ty Dolla Sign for the slow-burning number where SZA showcases her feathery vocals and details the highs of a healthy relationship.

BTS — “IONIQ: I’m On It”

BTS just achieved a No. 1 for their first all-English song “Dynamite,” and now they’re back — this time for a car commercial. Debuting the single to promote a new Hyundai car, the K-pop supergroup serves up groovy beats and feel-good tunes with the shimmering tune.

Finneas — “What They’ll Say About Us”

While he may be most well known for his production work on his sister Billie Eilish’s music, Finneas is full of romance in his new single “What They’ll Say About Us.” Over emotive piano chords, Finneas pens a heartwarming love story, transforming it into a moving ballad.

Gus Dapperton — “Medicine”

Gus Dapperton is gearing up for the release of his sophomore record Orca. So far, the singer has previewed the record with two lush singles and now, Dapperton returns with his “favorite” song on the album, “Medicine.” In a statement alongside the single’s release, Dapperton said: “This track defines the album most explicitly. I wrote it as a song that would narrate my life. ‘Medicine’ is about someone who is self destructive so that they can get high off of the process of healing. the hurting phase is of no concern to them.”

Ozuna — “Del Mar” Feat. Doja Cat, Sia

Puerto Rican reggaeton star tapped Sia and Doja Cat for the rhythmic single “Del Mar.” While the song marked the first time either Sia or Doja Cat has ever sung in Spanish, the two singers’ effortlessly deliver each lyric over a hip-swinging beat.

Jawsh 685 — “Sweet & Sour” Feat. Lauv, Tyga

After making a name for himself with the Jason Derulo collaboration “Savage Love,” 17-year-old New Zealand-born producer Jawsh 685 called on Lauv and Tyga for the sugarcoated single “Sweet & Sour.” The track combines a punchy beat with Lauv’s sincere vocal delivery and Tyga’s heartfelt musings.

Ava Max — “OMG What’s Happening”

Ava Max continues to prepare for her debut album Heaven & Hell, which arrives in full next week. Giving fans one last taste of the revved-up release, Ava Max shares the buoyant single “OMG What’s Happening” featuring a club-ready backbeat, expertly-layered production, and her far-reaching vocals.

VanJess — “Come Over”

Sister duo VanJess asserts their dominance with the swooning number “Come Over.” In a statement, VanJess said they were inspired by their roots for the laid-back single: “Early in quarantine we were really inspired looking at old photos of our parents in Nigeria and thought about what being at home living the lyrics of this record would look like in their world. We hope this song makes everyone feel good and dance, we believe energy and soul and tempo still has a place in R&B!”

Yuna — “Invisible”

Yuna shared her defiant studio album Rouge last summer, but that hasn’t stopped the singer from releasing even more music. Returning with “Invisible,” Yuna croons an indelible ballad. “The song is about falling in love with someone, but the other person doesn’t see you,” Yuna said about the song in a statement. “It’s about what that feels like to deal with those emotions. Regardless, you keep falling for them and loving them from afar.”

Michi — “Escondida”

Michi returns with the soaring song “Escondida,” her first song in Spanish. “The value of solitude, even outside these testing times of quarantine, are what pushed me to bring ‘Escondida’ out of hiding,” Michi said about the single. “I’ve always leaned on the company of others to fill a void or distract myself, but it wasn’t until these last two years and the start of my project that I felt connected to being alone, even if with my thoughts, regrets, memories both good and bad.”

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

If you’re familiar with Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director James Gunn‘s oeuvre, then you know that the man works with profanity like some artists work with watercolors. He’s also a prolific Twitter user, so recently, Gunn combined his two passions by crowdsourcing the correct spelling for, ahem, “asshat.”

According to Gunn’s tweet, the writer/director wanted to use the term in his latest script, but he ran into a good question. Is asshat hyphenated or unhyphenated? After turning to Google, Gunn learned that opinions are split, so he started a Twitter poll to settle the matter once for all.

As over 48,000 Twitter users shared their preferred spelling for “asshat,” Gunn fielded questions on the preferred spelling for some other profanities. While revealing what the term “scumbucket” really means, Gunn shared an anecdote about why he was forced to remove the word “dork” from a PG script. Turns out the childhood taunt isn’t just another name for a nerd.

Once the poll closed, the results were clear: “Asshat” is one word, no hyphen, and Gunn made sure to tag the Merriam-Webster Dictionary so they could properly note this very important distinction for future generations.

After his brief foray into exploring the proper grammar of everyday profanities, Gunn returned to discussing The Suicide Squad, which marks his first collaboration with DC Comics after delivering the smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy movies for Marvel. According to Gunn, he doesn’t make it a practice to write roles with a specific actor in mind, but he couldn’t resist when it came to Idris Elba who plays Bloodsport in the upcoming sequel slash quasi-reboot.

“You went beyond my expectations as an actor AND as a human being,” Gunn wrote in a tweet celebrating Elba’s birthday.

(Via James Gunn on Twitter)

After a leak on Monday, Xbox decided to go ahead and officially confirm plans for a small, digital-only version of their next generation console called the Xbox Series S, as well as the $299 price tag.

The Series S will have 512 GB of storage space with 120fps gaming on 1440p resolution, fitting in with the full Series X performance specs, just in a smaller package with less storage. PlayStation had already announced plans for a digital only version of the PS5, but Xbox finding a way to make a smaller, cheaper version of their next-gen console is a big step that could help them attract more casual gamers to upgrade their systems that wouldn’t want to pay a $499+ price tag — which is the rumored cost of the Series X. Here is the full specs video for the Series S.

The big question for the Series S is how big will next-gen games be to download, as 512 GB of storage is only really enough for 5-10 major current gen titles. Still, this is clearly targeted for casual gamers who might be hesitant to invest so heavily in a system who might only be interested in a select few games anyways. Hopefully this news will be followed soon by official pricing and release date details for the Series X and PS5, as we rapidly approach the holiday season.

Regina King already has an Oscar for her acting. She might win another for her directing.

On Monday, One Night in Miami, the directorial debut from the If Beale Street Could Talk actress premiered to unanimously positive reviews at the Venice Film Festival. The 1964-set film tells the “inspired by true events” story of boxer Cassius Clay, activist Malcolm X, football star Jim Brown, and singer Sam Cooke celebrating Clay winning the world heavyweight title over Sonny Liston in a Miami hotel room. The screenplay was written by Kemp Powers (it’s based upon his stage production of the same name).

One Night in Miami “hits so hard because it remains joyfully, often painfully grounded in what makes a person extraordinary, even when the world isn’t ready for them. Here’s hoping this world is ready for what King has to show it,” IndieWire‘s Kate Erbland wrote in her glowing review. The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney added, “Here’s hoping that King, one of our most consistently excellent screen actors, continues to spread her wings in this direction.” Variety even went so far as to call the film the “first solid Oscar contender to drop” during the 2020 film festival season.

Beyond the accolades, however, Miami also made long-overdue history, as it’s the first film directed by an African-American woman to be selected for the Venice Film Festival:

At the event on Monday, King recognized that the success or failure of One Night in Miami could have ramifications for other black female directors. “It’s interesting because how this film performs will open doors or maybe close doors for more black female directors… That’s how things seem to work,” she said.

One Night in Miami, which stars Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X, Eli Goree as Cassius Clay, Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown, and Leslie Odom Jr. as Sam Cooke, does not currently have a release date, but it will be distributed by Amazon Studios.

(Via the Guardian)

With so much turmoil in 2020, it’d be easy to forget that there’s an election coming up this year — and that it could be one of the most important elections on record. It’ll also be one marred by widespread voter suppression, the kind which will be detailed in the new Amazon original documentary All In: The Fight For Democracy which premieres in a limited theatrical run tomorrow, September 9 and will begin streaming on September 18. It’s produced by former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams with a theme song performed by Janelle Monae. Monae’s song, “Turntables,” debuted today on Apple Music Radio.

Monae detailed the concept behind the song for host Zane Lowe, saying, “We are changing things. The tables are turning. The rooster has come home to roost. So this song is capturing direction. And when you think about a record, when you think about a record spinning, when you think about the revolutions per minute, it’s all connected. And that is what this song means. This song doesn’t mean that I’m the leader, that I’m here to tell you what to do, how to fix things. I’m simply watching, examining and wanting to highlight all of the people who are on the front lines, fighting for our democracy, fighting against racial inequalities, fighting against white supremacy, fighting against systemic racism and systemic oppression. So this song is to keep us motivated. This song is to lift up and keep us galvanized when we’re fatigued. And this song is really for the people.”

Listen to Janelle Monae’s new song, “Turntables,” above.

All In: The Fight For Democracy will begin streaming 9/18 on Amazon Prime.

The Clippers were able to beat the Nuggets on Sunday night to take a 2-1 lead in their series as Denver was unable to score enough down the stretch to hold their lead and keep the Clippers at arm’s length.

Game 3 saw a sensational performances from Nikola Jokic (32 points, 12 rebounds, eight assists) and Paul George (32 points, four rebounds, four assists), with George getting more support from his teammates to get the win. Jokic was a dominant force on Sunday, not only scoring and facilitating, but in putting the Clippers into foul trouble with his physicality. Ivica Zubac fouled out of the game and every single L.A. big picked up two quick fouls on Jokic as he took them into the post and baited them into trying to be overly physical with him.

Even with those fouls, it was the Clippers that were the beneficiaries of the free throw differential in Game 3, marching to the line late in the fourth quarter after getting into the bonus midway through. It was the chief way their offense scored down the stretch, as they hunted contact to take advantage of being in the bonus in a way Denver never did when they had the same opportunity in the second quarter.

After the game, Patrick Beverley of the Clippers still wanted to talk about Jokic’s “flailing,” noting L.A. had to approach him the same way as Doncic with his embellishment.

Jokic was asked about those comments and pointed out how many more free throws L.A. took compared to Denver, while also noting that he’s simply “showing the ref that it’s a foul.”

The line will get plenty of laughs, but for the most part, this is what every player does when they embellish contact. There are certainly times when players flop with no foul committed, but the majority of the time, flopping is simply making sure a foul gets called on illegal contact. There’s so much contact in basketball that something often has to look out of the ordinary for referees to call something, and when players play through those hits and don’t get calls it leads to flailing and embellishing to make sure, as Jokic says, the referees are aware they were fouled.

It’s why players fall to the ground when someone runs into their chest for a charge rather than staying standing up, because it’s the only way to get that call. It’s why they throw their arms out when someone slaps down on the arm on a layup to make sure it’s known that wasn’t a clean strip. The problem is, aesthetically, this is a nightmare to watch and as such flopping and flailing, even though often warranted, are viewed so negatively. Now, having Beverley of all people complain about this is certainly an added comedic element in all of this, but both players have points here. Jokic certainly does put pressure on refs to call fouls with his flailing, but that’s because he’s getting fouled and wants to be sure it’s called. Hopefully that doesn’t become the story of this series, which has otherwise been extremely fun to watch over the last two games.

Sarah Paulson and Ryan Murphy can’t quit each other, even after so much time together on American Horror Story, but their followup, Netflix’s Ratched, is arguably even more unsettling. Paulson’s picking up an origin-story turn as nurse Mildred Ratched, the iconic villain portrayed by Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Next, and the show’s final trailer doubles down on the peach-related festering after the last one promised there would be hell to pay if you steal Ratched’s breakroom fruit. Also, dear god, those ice-pick visuals won’t help you sleep tonight.

Beyond that, the trailer glides through the many horrors that patients endure at Lucia State Hospital. That involves excruciating “steam baths” as well as experimental lobotomies, and the works… basically everything that will make you feel relieved for the relatively civilized state of modern medicine. All of it looks glossy as can be with a medicinal sheen and a fantastic cast that includes Cynthia Nixon in a meaty role and Judy Davis as a nurse who’s even more fearsome than Ratched, if you can believe it.

Paulson recently told Entertainment Tonight how she felt that “the stakes are exceedingly high” to step into a legendary character’s shoes, especially since this story might refashion the way you view Mildred Ratched. From the synopsis:

In 1947, Mildred arrives in Northern California to seek employment at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind. On a clandestine mission, Mildred presents herself as the perfect image of what a dedicated nurse should be, but the wheels are always turning and as she begins to infiltrate the mental health care system and those within it, Mildred’s stylish exterior belies a growing darkness that has long been smoldering within, revealing that true monsters are made, not born.

Ratched (which also stars Finn Whittrock, Carlie Carver, Jon Jon Briones, Alice Englert, Corey Stoll, and Vincent D’Onofrio) streams on September 18.