Modus Hoperandi

A couple of weeks ago I was at Tipsy's, perhaps the best liquor store in JoCo, looking lost in front of the beer coolers. I was looking for something new, anything and that's when I found the Hop Czar. While I was standing there, one of Tipsy's helpful staff recommended a beer I'd never seen nor heard of, Modus Hoperandi from Ska Brewing. I'd never had anything from Ska mostly because it reminded me of a girl I dated in 1997 that was really into ska music. I prefer to not remember her. I didn't pick up the Modus Hoperandi that night but I got a sixer a couple of nights later.

Modus Hoperandi comes in cans unlike everything else from Ska (update: Ska also cans an ESB). When I first tried it I poured it in a glass, the way a beer should be enjoyed, and I really loved it. I almost wrote a review while I was drinking my first one which rarely, if ever, happens. I decided I wanted to drink one from the can and maybe do a review where I could recommend it for tailgating for those that would subject themselves to Royals baseball in the spring. By the time I got around to drinking it from the can (it's nearly as good from the can as poured in a glass) I had been to a couple of smaller liquor stores in JoCo with much smaller beer selections than Tipsy's and they both carried the Modus Hoperandi and neither carried Schlafly No. 15 (I use the presence of No. 15 as a judge to how good the beer buyer is for a liquor store).

Why would a beer which comes in cans be carried in such a wide array of liquor stores in Kansas? Not only that, but why is Modus Hoperandi the only beer from Ska carried in those liquor stores? It just didn't make sense so I did some checking around and it turns out that a salesman from one of KC's beer distributors really liked Modus Hoperandi and was pushing it hard on smaller liquor stores. So, if you're going to a small liquor store and you see something that sticks out like a piece of black, volcanic glass that has no earthly business in a Maine hayfield, it may be just as valuable as what Red found under that rock in Shawshank. Only in this case Tobias, the salesman, is the one who buried it and not Andy Dufresne.

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