Student Shows Superior Taste by Dunking in Microbrew

Ring dunking is a popular, albeit unofficial, tradition involving students dropping their newly-awarded Aggie Ring into a pitcher of beer and competing for who can can finish it off the fastest.

Over the years, various strategies have been developed to gain a competitive edge: light beers are the typical choice for ring dunks and are usually left out to become flat and room-temperature, assisting the dunker in the consumption of 60-ounces of beer.

Junior Greg Vaughn,however, chose to use his dunk to show his appreciation of finer beers. Instead of Coors or Keystone, Vaughn chose to dunk in King’s Pale, a microbrew from Boulder, Colorado. “It’s a double IPA, 9.6% ABV, that combines carapils, roasted caramel, citrus, and cascade hops,” Vaughn told several attendees, unprompted.

As soon as Vaughn’s former FLO asked if he wanted to dunk with them, he began to search for a beer to showcase both his knowledge and developed palate. “A dunk is the biggest beer drinking moment of your life,” Vaughn said. “I’ll never have 200 people looking at me and what I’m drinking again, so this beer had to be really special”. Vaughn eventually chose King’s Pale because of the name, color, and obscurity.

Dunk attendees were not impressed. Reports indicate that Vaughn finished last by three and a half minutes, late enough that most guests had already left to attend dunks starting the next hour. “All my other friends were drinking garbage; of course they finished faster,” Vaughn said. “Plus, I kept stopping to savor the hoppy aftertaste. It wasn’t as good flat and room temperature, but this beer cost me $8 a can. I had  to get as much out of it as possible.” Reports indicate that Vaughn did not attend other dunks, but instead walked home to workshop poems for the following night’s Mic Check.

 

—12th Man Card