Beer Review: Out of Order: Tatooine Tart (RAR Brewing)

Out of Order: Tatooine Tart (by RAR Brewing) – Part of their Star Wars Out of Order Series.

Out of Order – Star Wars Series

While, this might not be as popular as RAR Brewing’s Out of Order Blue Milk, this was still a very good beer. That has become one of the most popular beer reviews I’ve done here on the blog. They initially released it as a solo beer release, and then included it again in their Star Wars series of Out of Order beers. (Don’t worry, I’ll be doing all of the Star Wars series as reviews here.)

The others in the RAR Out of Order Star Wars drop include: Blue Milk, Tatooine Tart (both mentioned here), Green Milk, Droid Juice, Yub Yub, RarwgWawggr, and Dark Side. The drop was a big deal and event at RAR Brewing back over the summer when they did it. I made sure to get my hands on the full drop (had a proxy there to get me the beers). Glad to be now getting to drink through the series.

The Book of Boba Fett

I’ll cover this more later, but as I did with last week, I’ll be releasing a weekly Star Wars themed beer review every Wednesday to coincide with the release of a new episode of ‘The Book of Boba Fett’. Last week I traveled to New Jersey to go to Bolero Snort Brewery to pick up a crowler of BoBull Fett just to review for the premier. You can read the review here: Beer Review: BoBull Fett (Bolery Snort Brewery).

I’ve already watched episode two this morning (just finished it actually), and so will give my thoughts on it at the end of the beer review. In the meantime, you can check out this interesting YouTube video by the Templin Institute:

Make sure you come back to the blog (of course!) after watching it.

Now… onto the beer review!

Beer Review

Out of Order: Tatooine Tart by RAR Brewing

Beer: Out of Order: Tatooine Tart
Brewery: RAR Brewing
Style: Sour – Fruited
ABV: 6%
IBU: None
Untappd Description: Our lactose sour base conditioned on Passionfruit, Limes, Simple Syrup, and a splash of our House Pastry Cream.

RAR Brewing is a brewery out of Cambridge Maryland, which I got to visit late last year. (Check out my travelogues through Maryland to read all about it.) It is a very hipster vibing place, very cool, sleek, and I absolutely loved it. There’s a Fett on the wall that looks spray painted (made to look that way), and several other nerdy nods. The laboratory add on is really neat and a great taproom sitting area. According to Untappd they are a micro brewery, with 630 unique beers and 403 thousand ratings. They have a global average rating of exactly 4 bottle caps as of 1.5.22. Their Untappd description reads: Based in Cambridge, MD on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay.

Cracking this one has a wonderfully sweet aroma, a nectar like sweetness to it. It smells sweet, like a juicy syrupy sweetness, almost perfume like in a way. Sniffing close hand in the glass I get hints of the passionfruit and the limes like the description says, with kind of a soft vanilla to it.

Appearance is very mellow juicy overlook to it. It looks like a more darker, moodier version of pineapple juice. Like a darker, not quite cloudy, but heavier looking fruit juice – some kind of organic juice (maybe like a pineapple or passionfruit looking dark juice). It definitely gives off ‘sweet’ vibes from the look of it.

This is a very sweet, juicy beer. There’s a slight tartness to it, but its so remote that I feel like its barely perceptible and its probably more a case of a ‘mileage may vary’ type of thing. It is a syrupy juicy. Borderlining too sweet, but not out of the realm of being completely too sweet (and definitely not near ‘undrinkably too sweet’). I get strong notes of passionfruit, a citrusy lime or zest, a syrupy juice, and a creamy, vanilla, undercurrent to it. It has a bit of a bite at the end, with just a hint of tart at the beginning, and mostly a very juicy middle, with each sip. It kind of rolls with your tongue on a sweet and then hits you with a bit of a sucker punch of sour / tart / pucker. I can see this possibly being ‘too sweet’ from some, especially those who might be hoping for or expecting some sour or puckering tartness, which they might feel is underwhelmed with this, but I think that sample size will be smaller. I think the Out of Order series is a bit of a niche market, and not true or genuine of beer consumption or drinkers overall. Its a bit of following the hype machine to some extent, but not 100%. There is definitely some leaning on the market and branding and cache of the namesake and series (ie. going from a Sandlot Out of Order series to a Star Wars Out of Order series to a Halloween Villains Out of Order series to a Christmas Movie Out of Order series, etc). There is some good flavors to this, and in comparison to the Out of Order Blue Milk, this is far more of a normal beer, but still pretty far from ‘normal beer’ if that makes any sense. You get some distinct flavors here, but they also tend to blur and blend together and make for a melting pot of flavors as well. Out of the two Out of Order beers so far, I want to say I like the Blue Milk one more, maybe more for novelty’s sake, but also more for distinctiveness too. This blends a bit too much with other similar beers to be somewhat completely distinguishable other than being able to say ‘it was tasty’ and ‘a good beer of its style’. Which it is all of that. There is nothing wrong with this beer, nothing is made off flavored, and no bad aftertaste, and nothing is wrong in its production or craft either. So in those aspects its what you want out of it. I certainly enjoyed this and it made for a great sipper while watching the second episode of The Book of Boba Fett.

My Untappd Rating: ****
Global Average Untappd Rating: 4.16 (as of 1.5.22)

Posting This Article

So… I woke up today at 4AM to be able to watch the episode and do this article. I wanted to write up most of it the night before, but went to Tattered Flag, had a few, and got home super late, and a bit too tired to write. So I woke up early to tackle it. Got to watching the new episode as I started working on this, and couldn’t finish in time before heading to work. I clocked out of work at 6PM, and was hoping to go home and get to finish this before 8PM and upload it… but my mom asked me to meet her at Rubber Soul, since my dad had a meeting. So who was I to say no to my mom? So, I met my mom at Rubber Soul, had dinner, and a few drinks, and then walked home (won’t lie… it was a bit chilly for a walk home tonight), and only at 8:45PM when I got home, did I get to start to finish this. (Well, I got home at 8:45… but then I had to clean up after my dog, who decided she would “go” in the kitchen while I was gone…. *shakes his fist at Leela*…).

But anyway, here I am getting to finish this up. Been a long day, and nearing 10PM, but its getting done. Hopefully next week’s article will be done before I go to work so I can upload it early.

The Book of Boba Fett – Episode Two

So, if you don’t want to read any spoilers for Episode 2 (and Episode 1 if you haven’t watched that), skip down a few sections. Because here I am going to give my thoughts on Episode Two – and by extension my thoughts on the show so far. I had actually written this all up this morning after watching the episode, and which is primarily why I didn’t get this article done until now. So, without further adieu, here’s my thoughts.

The Book of Boba Fett – Episode Two – The Tribes of Tatooine

Is your typical “train the village” episode (in the flashbacks). The idea of “a little of the present” with a lot of the past (via dream/flashback) to show how he went from “Fett” to “New Fett” is an interesting storytelling model for Star Wars – albeit cliche in regular storytelling. I’m not so sure it works here with Star Wars/Fett/this story though. Mainly because their doing it with a character that people didn’t really want to see change. I might be speaking for too general a base here, but I feel like, most Star Wars fans wanted to see Fett be Fett. The old Legends Fett while not perfect, at least was still a Bounty Hunter, was what we saw on screen… didn’t take a complete 180 and went in a different direction of his character.

They even end it with a peyote / spiritual quest style ending.

I enjoyed the episode for what it was… and what they were going for. But… I dunno, I just don’t ‘want’ it. I guess is the best explanation for what I can give to this. We’ve seen a “train the villagers” episode in Mandalorian, we’ve seen it (a few times I think) in the Clone Wars show, we’ve seen it done on Rebels…. and… so this makes it roughly the 4th or so time its been done in Star Wars. The Ewoks/Rebels were kind of a shortened version of it too, to some degree. Its a trope, and a Star Wars/Western trope, thats becoming quite overused I think.

And I get that its integral to Boba Fett’s character, and his transformation from Bounty Hunter to Survived Man, to Respectful leader….

…but again, for lack of better explanation…. its just something I don’t want, and thats why I don’t like or care for it/about it.

When I think of Fett’s character, I don’t want to think of “Most Feared Bounty Hunter” “nearly dies stupidly” “resurrects himself as the Outsider coming in, and revamping the Natives and becoming Respectful Leader” type…..

Maybe that’s me? Maybe others will enjoy this ride. I hope they do, and I’m certainly going to finish out the show (there’s 5 more episodes). But so far, its not my cup of tea.

I also don’t feel like the writers/creators quite get logistics of things. Like how a planet with two suns and all desert, would be, ecologically, at night, at full day, etc. The things Fett survives through in Episode 1 is pretty…. uhh, lets just call them miraculous, and the way they depict people traversing the ground no problems, or walking through sandstorms, or just being outside in the desert at night (which would become absolutely freezing, especially on a twin sun planet that shows no moon and both suns are set)….. all of this just really makes me feel like they are going 100% for storytelling over logistics, rationality, etc.

Getting to the present day stuff…. I did ‘mark out’ / ‘geek out’, etc, over the Hutts appearing, and thought that was pretty cool. I wanted a lot more of the present day stuff in this episode (whereas last week, I thought the present day was a lot more weaker). Fett still comes off as comically naieve though in his interactions with EVERYONE. From the Hutts, to the Twi’lek bar owner, to the Mayor, to the Ninja himself, etc. The opening scene in Jabba’s Palace was also predictable and borderline ‘fan fiction’ level writing. “We want to show the Ninjas as being crazy, but … we still need him to give up the information…. so here we go”.

I am also seeing zero reason why Fett isn’t killed. Why isn’t the Mayor killing him? Or the Hutts? Or anybody else? Hes dispensable. Its not like he’s some kind of irreplaceable piece, or cog in a wheel. He has no real powerbase. All they show him to have is Fennec Shand, and two Gamorrean Guards, and 8D8 (the droid). So what retaliation happens from killing him? None it would seem. The Mayor could pinpoint kill the Ninja, why not have done that to Shand and the guards and attacked Fett? Why not have done all this in the street?

Which then begs the question, what was even the purpose of the street ambush last week? If it wasn’t just to further the plot along? We need Fett to come into contact with the Mayor in an adversarial way, here it is, and we need the Mayor to be the smaller fish to the bigger fish (ie. the Hutts). So lets do that. Fett gets ambushed, captures guy, guy gives intel, Fett goes to Mayor, Mayor gives intel on the bigger fish. Problem solved.

But none of that really makes sense. Especially given how easily Fett could be removed if they really wanted to. And they’ve shown us no reason why they SHOULDN’T do it.

Same as the past thing. The logistics of the train and everything makes no sense. So… they are bringing in Kessel Spice to Tatooine via the Syndicate. The Syndicate lands somewhere in Mos Eisley, Mos Espa, Anchorhead, wherever. And are train hovering it to somewhere else… most likely Jabba’s Palace for Bib Fortuna whose attempting to run Jabba’s old empire.

Why? Why do it in such a circuitousness way? And why provoke Natives just out there? For the * and giggles of it? Which also brings up the Biker Gang bit. So Fett attacks a Biker Gang that just happens to be in the area being all “Biker Gang from the 80s Cop Shows” and attacking local citizens, and Fett waltzes in, kills them/injures them, and steals their bikes, just to bring down this train.

If the train could be taken down this easily…. why was the Syndicate using it this way? There had to be a better way for them to do what they did.

I really did want to enjoy this episode, and what they are trying for this show, and I’ve loved Fett’s character in the past (…which might be the bigger problem here). But…. how they are doing it, and the logistics and rationality of what they are trying to do…. seems almost Sequel Trilogy level of poor planning, or skimming the surface level of storytelling.

As if they said to themselves:

We want to make a show about X (in this case – Criminal Underworld in Star Wars)
We want to use a main character people are riveted about
We want to use Boba Fett because we have been off/on planning on using him since we bought the property
We need to set it in a way that all people will be familiar with it (ie. set it on Tatooine, set it with Jabba’s Palace, use Boba Fett)
Lets combine all the above into one thing – so we’ll take the character (Fett) and making him a Godfather esque criminal lord (not quite a 1 for 1 apt analogy though), and do it based on his surviving the Sarlaac and doing it on Tatooine

Boom, thats what we got here. It feels surface level storytelling. Like their just not thinking everything out. Why wouldn’t character X do this? Why would Character Y do that? Why don’t they just do -this-? Why aren’t they just doing -that-? Etc.

I feel like I’m kicking it too hard here, because it looks like a lot of people love it, and enjoying it. And I do find it somewhat bare bones enjoyable. But I feel like there’s just no depth, and no real understanding to the material underneath it. As much as we want it to be. As much as we say “their doing so much Star Wars world building”… it feels like their not REALLY doing that. Their doing ‘member berries’ type world building for our own head enjoyments. “Remember Max Rebo… here he is…. again in a new cantina!” That one person’s long winded post on the TFN Jedi council forums about world building and stuff… all feels superficial here, even moreso. “Omg, they kept the same architectural structures of Tatooine buildings”…… well yea…. of course they would. Why wouldn’t they? Thats not so much as paying attention to detail, as just being smart. I don’t buy that as huge world building. Having Max Rebo there is not world building either — he was afterall on the giant barge that just FREAKING BLEW UP — but it all feels surface level storytelling stuff. Like what they did with the sequel trilogy. And I think thats where my annoyance level is here.

At the end of this, we might look back and go “this is similar to the ST” where it started off decently well, and they did some things like “remember that one guy…” but at the end of it, the pieces just don’t line up. That was part of my issue with Episode 1 of this… it felt not like a fluid, congruent thing, it felt like little veneer cracks, and things just didn’t align up, like pieces didn’t fully form together or fit. Like a puzzle where you purposefully manipulate the pieces to fit together rather than how their supposed to.

Ehh….. I’ll stop rambling here.

Whew…. that was long winded, and probably longer than the actual beer review, and completely altered and changed this entire article, hahaha. (I think I was under compliance for the grammar, SEO, and other algorithm things, until I posted that whole block in here).

Let me know what your thoughts are in the comments section, would love to hear what everyone else thinks of the show so far. Am I over analyzing it? Am I being too critical? Am I not being a fanboy enough? Let me know what you think!

Some Discussion Forums

For some more discussion on The Book of Boba Fett, you can read these discussion forums:

More Star Wars Fun

Well, just had a delivery van drop off my Lego.com order. On January 1st, they dropped several new Star Wars sets, (amongst lots of other new sets), and several were Hoth themed sets. So I picked up the Hoth AT-ST (Blizzard Scout 1) and the Hoth Battle Pack. Super excited to put these together in the near future!

For More Reading

If you are interested in our other nerdy, pop culture, and branded beer reviews, you can check out the following:

Star Wars:

Rick and Morty:

Beer Review: Peace Among Worlds (Cushwa Brewing Company)

Space Balls:

Beer Review: Moon of Vega (Equilibrium Brewery)

Game of Thrones:

Beer Review: Game of Thrones: My Watch Has Ended (Omnegang Brewery)

The Simpsons:

Back to the Future:

Beer Review: Back to Reality (Three 3s Brewing Co)

Scrooged:

Beer Review: Scrooge IPA (Iron Hill Brewing)

A Christmas Story:

Pro Wrestling:

Matrix:

Matrix Monday

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

Beer Review: Terpenes in Time (BAREBottle Brewing Co)

Seinfeld:

Other:

Thanks for Reading

As always, thank you everyone for reading! Leave your likes, comments, suggestions, questions, etc, in the comments section. Or use the Feedback – Contact Us – page, and we’ll get right back to you!

If you like Star Wars and like our Star Wars themed beers, be sure to check out every Wednesday while The Book of Boba Fett is airing, as I will do a new Star Wars themed beer each week!

Thanks for reading, and cheers everyone!

-B. Kline

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