There is no N in Adroit. The brewery would like that on the record, and rather than continue issuing the correction one email at a time, it has printed it on a can.

It's Not Android Theory [Cinnabon Cinnamon Swirl] is a cream stout, and the name is a standing reply to everyone who has read an extra letter into Adroit Theory over the years. The brewery's phrasing in the release notes is generous about it: not hating, just clarifying.

The beer itself is aimed at a cinnamon roll, and Adroit Theory is specific about which one and when. The reference point it gives is the smell of a mall food court in 1994, and the flavors it lists are cinnamon, vanilla and confectionery sugar.

Targeting a smell rather than a taste is the sharper instinct. Most of what people experience as flavor arrives through the nose, and a warm cinnamon roll is one of the more efficiently recognizable aromas in North American retail history, in large part because the bakeries selling them built their entire storefront strategy around letting it drift.

As a brewing problem, cinnamon is a demanding ingredient. It is powerful enough to take over a beer completely, and it goes from present to overwhelming across a fairly narrow range. Pairing it with vanilla and a sweet, lactose-carrying cream stout base gives it something to round against, which is the usual way of keeping the spice as one voice among several rather than the only one at the table.

This is the third of Adroit Theory's new crowler releases this week, alongside a pina colada sour and a pumpkin spice eggnog cream stout.

It's Not Android Theory [Cinnabon Cinnamon Swirl] is available now at the Purcellville taproom, in pours and crowlers, with 19 crowlers on hand.

Editor’s Take

One letter. That is the entire distance between Adroit and Android, and it is apparently enough that the brewery has spent years being addressed as a robotics startup. Most businesses would handle this with a patient note in the FAQ. Adroit Theory has handled it by naming a beer It's Not Android Theory and adding, with what I can only describe as enormous restraint, not hating, just clarifying. The correction is now a product. You cannot order it without reading it aloud.

What it is attached to is smarter still. The brewery is not chasing the taste of a cinnamon roll so much as the smell of one, and specifically the smell of a mall food court in 1994. That is a properly chosen target, because aroma is doing most of the work in any flavor anyone has ever described, and because everyone who was in that food court knows exactly the smell being referred to. Nostalgia is a legitimate ingredient. It just does not usually appear on the label.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

It's Not Android Theory Turns a Misread Name Into a Beer

People keep reading an extra letter into Adroit Theory's name. Rather than keep correcting them, the brewery has printed the correction on a cream stout aimed squarely at a mall food court in 1994.

Source & Editorial