This article is part of our partnership series leading up to the 2026 last call of Atlantic City Beer Festival.

Listen, I’m really pumped to be here at the 20th and final Atlantic City Beer & Music Festival! Can’t believe it’s the last one 😦 but let’s make the best of it! Got one of the best spots at the fest, right near the stage where the music acts are performing, so it should be a good day! I’m just a little confused at the tasting notes I keep receiving from the attendees recently; specifically, why for the last hour everyone has been telling me that every beer I’m pouring tastes “like roses.”

My brewery, Hell Hound Beer & Brewing Collective, brought 3 beers to ACBF this time around: “Rubbish,” our house lager, “War Torn,” our Flagship IPA, and “If Anyone Told Us Scaling Would Be This Hard And Craft Beer Was A Bubble, We Would Have Stayed Homebrewing In Our Garage Instead Of Borrowing Against Our House And Going A Million Dollars Into Debt,” a saison with sea salt. Not one of those beers has any sort of flower or plant adjunct in it, yet everyone keeps saying “ooh, like roses.” Curious.

I can’t really hear the conversations they are having before or after the comment, likely because we are so close to whatever band is playing right now, but I can definitely make out the “like roses” when I read their lips. I’m wondering if the sound waves are affecting people’s taste buds? That’d be a fun science project if we could still afford to employ a QC person.

And to be fair, no one has said it’s a bad thing. Like I haven’t seen any faces signifying off flavors or people dumping their pours, it’s just odd that they are all saying the same thing recently. Maybe one of the food vendors is serving an item that would impart herbal flavoring? I mean I just tried all three and all taste on point… and my palate is pretty dialed in after last night’s Rare Beer Tasting. 

Something is definitely up at this year’s festival. At the earlier session, people kept asking me how I “make War?” What do you mean how do I make it… it’s a flagship IPA, how do you think I make it? Two-row and citra, wash/rinse/repeat. I’d certainly hope these aren’t other brewers trying to rip off my flagship recipe; considering it’s the only beer I actually break even on.

All I know is between that and these rogue floral notes, this better not affect the 3.25 Untapped rating I’ve worked so hard to achieve for HHB&BC. 

Hey this band is actually pretty good. I wonder what they’re called.