The Monday Dumps

It is Monday again, and time to distract yourself from work and read up on the latest beer news. Here is what is happening in the Craft Beer news for the week of March 5, 2012.
  
Beer News in the Pacifc Northwest:

WASHINGTON Beer Events

Gluten Free Beer Tasting@ Full Throttle Bottles
Wed, March 7, 5pm – 7pm

Description: Georgetown, WA - Whether you're allergic or intolerant or simply trying a new diet, gluten free beer is a new breed of beer. We tried a few at the last GF tasting event, now let's try some different ones, including the latest from Dogfish Head, their Tweason Ale. It's a little hard to get a super hoppy gluten free beer, but it's doable (Hoppiest of the last bunch was the St Peter's)! Let's try these ones and see who the favorite is this time!

PORTLAND Beer News

New Widmer Oatmeal Porter expands Series 924  special beers. Special story, courtesy of Oregon Live "The Beer Here."

Except: Widmer Brothers Brewing expands its Series 924 with the introduction of Oatmeal Porter, the first of three limited-release Series 924 beers that will be unveiled in 2012. Joining the two year-round Series 924 offerings, Pitch Black IPA and Nelson Imperial IPA, this rich porter was brewed with custom-toasted oats made specifically for Widmer Brothers by Briess Malting of Chilton, Wis. The oats, contribute to the beer’s velvety mouth feel and distinct nutty flavors.  Hints of caramel and toffee give this brew a touch of sweetness, complemented by mocha aromas and a smooth finish.

HAWAII Beer Events

Want to go to Hawaii this weekend (yes, please!)?
Kona Brewers Festival
The 17th annual Kona Brewers Festival indulges craft beer aficionados on Hawaii's Big Island Saturday, March 10, 2012, tapping up 70 types of ales and lagers served alongside a cornucopia of island-style cuisine from 30 Hawaii chefs.

Beer News Elsewhere in the United States

MISSISSIPPI Beer News

Bill Allowing Stronger Beer Passes in House
Excerpt: A bill that passed the Mississippi House could lead to the sale of stronger beer. House Bill 1422 would raise the allowable alcohol by weight on beer sold in the state from 5 percent to 8 percent. Mississippi has the lowest alcohol cap for beer in the country. Advocates say the change say will benefit people who enjoy artisan beer and entrepreneurs who brew craft beer.

WALL STREET and Fast Company Beer News

Want to drink beer for free? How about eat everyday for free, too? Get a job on Wall Street and perhaps you can drink free beer! Fast Company publishes this story: "How Wall Sreet Bankers Use Seamless To Feast on Free Lobster, Steak, and Beer."


Site News!

It is March - and with it comes March Madness (and March Madness - BRACKETS). Make sure you check in later this month as we launch our special Craft Beer brackets to follow the NCAA Basketball tournament!

Also in March will be our review of upcoming Beer Events for 2012. If you want a sneak peak on surviving the Beer Festivals, check out this link HERE.

As always follow us on twitter and facebook, see what we are drinking on Untappd, and subscribe to the Jolly Good Fellows beercast on iTunes. If you like what you are hearing then rate us and comment. We are going to keep on writing and talking so you keep on reading, asking questions, and listening!

{ prost! }

These favored few...Sarah's 5 favorite beers

This man knows what he is
talking about. (Original here)

Skye and I had a debate as to how one person really chooses his or her FAVORITE beers. I agree with Fred Eckhardt (who I don’t believe is the original person to say this), saying that my favorite beer is the one in my hand right now. Unfortunately, Skye thought this was a cop out (and he sounded a little annoyed when I told him this answer), so here I go, thinking through my FAVORITE beers... it’s funny how I can commit to marriage and yet I feel as though I’m cheating on beer by listing my favorites.

Here are my top five beers, in NO particular order.

1. Cambridge Brewing Company’s Great Pumpkin Ale

When one thinks about pumpkin flavored beer, usually you immediately think about the spices that are in pumpkin pies. That is why this beer is so GREAT! It isn’t pumpkin pie spices, it’s actual pumpkin. As quoted on CBC’s website:

“CBC’s Great Pumpkin Ale is brewed with 150 pounds of fresh, locally grown, organic sugar pumpkins in each batch, and it has an appropriately distinct orange hue.”

The Brewer may HATE creating this beer, but the fans love it (and insist upon it). I love the high carbonation and slight spice of the beer. To note, I have a soft spot in my heart for this beer because the first time I had it was the night I met my wife for the first time...awwww!

2. New Glarus Spotted Cow

This was an easy choice for me. I simply asked myself: “self, what beer would you want on your death bed?” This was the answer, even if it is a bit macabre.

3. Smuttynose IPA

Many a summer night has been spent where I’ve kicked back and drank a few Smuttynose IPAs. The hoppy flavor is perfectly balanced by the bitterness, making it worthy of session drinking. If I still lived on the East Coast, I’m sure I’d have this always stocked in my fridge. To note - it was very hard picking one IPA, since this is my favorite style of beer.

4. St. Bernardus Abt 12

My wife, also an avid beer drinker, introduced me to the world of Belgian beers. While many of them can be a bit too sweet for my palette, the St. Bernardus Abt 12 is bready, earthy, and over all just a fantastic beer. One where you just can’t stopping drinking when it’s in front of you...then you realize it’s a 10.5% ABV and think: “oh shit...” well it was worth it!

5. Double Mountain IRA

Since I promised myself I wouldn’t choose two IPAs (the Hop Lava is a fantastic beer by Double Mountain), it was easy to pick the IRA by Double Mountain as a favorite beer. This decision was made simple when I asked myself - “self, what beer would you miss the most if you no longer lived on the West Coast?” This one was the answer! With its lovely complex flavors of malts and a kick of hops (okay, so it’s technically an IPA, you got me there!) its a mouthful of happiness at all hours of the day, including breakfast (have you been to the Horse Brass in Portland, Oregon, for soccer and a traditional English style breakfast? trust me, you will want this beer, especially on cask, for this occasion).

Honorable Mentions:

Bells Two Hearted Ale
Hops and malts balance perfectly in this hearty (nice pun!) ale. Every time I go home to Wisconsin I buy this as my second beer (right after my Spotted Cow).

Founder’s Red Rye
Dry hopped and packed with bitter, this beer is filled with great, complex taste, and fantastic pairing abilities. Another beer I would stock all the time if I lived where I can buy it.

{ prost! }

Sarah James
Editor and Writer for Beer Meets Cheese (www.beermeetscheese.com)

Thanks Sarah! Go check out her site. Next up is Brian!

These favored few…Skye's favorite beers of all time

“Beer, it’s personal.” 

My friend Kim told me that a few weeks ago while I was rambling about some beer topic like I'm prone to do. Like a lot of truths it was succinct and deep all in one go. We talk about the two tenets of this blog every so often, how beer should always be approachable and how there is a time and place for every beer. Now I think there is room for the “Beer, it’s personal” statement as a third tenet, because let’s face it, beer is personal. It can bring back memories, sights, smells, sounds and everything else. Beer gets tied to a time and place like only food can. With that in mind it is time to talk about our favorites.

So the challenge put for the members of the Jolly Good Fellows was this: name your five favorite beers of all time. Not the event, such as the first beer of vacation, or a style, but the actual beer and why you return to it when you can.

If there is a theme in mine it is beer that was formative to how I approach it now, going through my list, each one of these now serves a standard bearer for what I expect from beer

I only have one more bottle of this beer.
I enjoyed this one on New Years this year

New Glarus Stone Soup – This is my favorite beer hands down. It does so many things for me and it always takes me back home to Wisconsin. If you told me that I could only drink one more beer in my lifetime, I am going to choose this one because I know that I will enjoy it. I’ll be incredibly disappointed if New Glarus stops brewing this at some point.

Fraoch Heather Ale – This was the beer where I really felt I was starting to venture out into a much greater and impressive world of beer. It had history on its side, unique ingredients, and tasted so good and different than anything else up to that point. It gave me a confidence to continue to expand my beer horizons. A few years after I had encountered this beer in the states I had this on draught in Edinburgh and it was otherworldly delicious. I haven’t had a bottle in several months; I think it is time to remedy that.

New Glarus Spotted Cow – Reliable and refreshing, I have drunk many gallons of this. 

Spotted Cow is a hard working beer that doesn’t do anything spectacular but it has become iconic in the state of Wisconsin. If I only could have one session beer for the rest of my life this would be the beer chosen.

Lindemans Cassis - I have no one but my friend Rob to thank for this entry. I heard Rob tell stories about his brief time in France drinking Lindemans Kriek so often that when I did stumble across a bottle in JRs in Stevens Point it was immediately purchased and drank. It was a revelation; soon after I had tried the peche and framboise. It was the Cassis though that was really captivating and stays so to this day. For me the black currants make it a much more rewarding beer. Sweet lambics may get pushed around a bit by beer snobs now but I’ll never forget that these were my doorway into that awesome world. There is a bottle in my fridge right now.

Central Waters Satin Solstice Imperial Stout – Mackeson’s introduced me to the dark world of stouts, but this beer stole my heart. I know that there are better stouts out there, hell I’ve even had a few of them, but when it comes time to measure how good they are they are all compared to this one. Hence the reason it was the first review for stout month!

Honorable Mentions

New Glarus Solstice – This beer has been retired for years and in my opinion every wheat style beer New Glarus has brewed since doesn’t measure up to my memory of the Solstice.

Shiner Ruby Redbird –This turned out to be the summer beer I never knew I was actually looking for all along.  

Let's see yours in the comments and come back tomorrow to see Sarah's five favorites.

Cellaring Beers or the creation of “Skye’s Special Reserve Selection”…in three parts

This last weekend I was sorting through my latest holiday beer purchases deciding which ones would be drunk over the holidays, and which ones were to be shelved away until a future yet to be determined. It dawned on me that I should discuss my cellaring madness. Our wine friends have been doing this for years to great acclaim and success. Guess what, beer can do it to. I’d like to share how I came to this, why I do it now, and how I go about it and what the pros recommend.

Part One: How I arrived at this condition of storing awesome beer in my basement for sustained periods of time

Three things got me into aging beer; one is my never ending desire to try new things, particularly beers. As you may have picked up as a reader of this blog I love beer a lot, it makes me happy and I like to talk about it. At the same time I also have a weird little completionist quirk. I want to try, at least once, every beer I see. This is clearly impossible, but I’m ok with it. I walk into a store, see brews I have never tried and buy them. Sometimes I get multiple different brews. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The second factor frankly is that my spendable income increased over the last decade. More purchasing power lets me buy more beer. Combine that with my little desire to trying everything means that I usually overbuy. It’s incredibly difficult to go into a beer isle and walk out with only one thing. Sometimes the selection available is overwhelming to me. But let us get back on topic, simply put, my supply overruns my demand meaning I have to find homes for the excess.

The third is once again another confession on my part. It involves a bottle of 2001 Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Barleywine. A decade ago, while living in Stevens Point, I spied a sixer of it in JR’s, my local bottle shop at the time. I jumped right on it and bought it with my usual enthusiasm. It was everything a barleywine should be but I couldn’t stand it. Originally I argued the beer had skunked out, but the truth of the matter was at that time I was not smart enough or experienced enough to enjoy what I was drinking.

This started it (2010 model shown)
Picture by Sierra Nevada

Five of the bottles were drunk. One bottle though, passed notice living on a side shelf in Rob’s fridge for the next eight years. Every so often we would laugh and joke about it being still in there and I would trot out my little heresy on how the batch was skunky. Rob eventually gave the bottle to a good friend of his, Chris, who took it home, cracked it open, drank it, and promptly declared it phenomenal, one of the best things he had ever drank. (Another confession, (You’re getting the two for one special today) I enjoy barleywines now, but I have never went back to the Sierra Nevada Bigfoot, someday soon I will have to remedy that.)

When Rob informed me of Chris’ discovery I was a bit shocked, one that the bottle had survived that long in Rob’s fridge, (He was developing and refining his tastes for beer diversity over the years and has an unquenchable thirst) and two what an idiot I was for never taking another chance. Eight years from the time the Bigfoot was unintentionally laid down not only had the beer aged and improved but so had I. Now I was ready for the beer but the beer was gone. Disappointed but not dismayed that experience lent itself to the third factor. I give beer second chances. 

In which our intrepid adventurers enjoy more beer, watch their teams battle it out, and return home

Game Day

It was all delicious...except the propane. 

Sunday morning dawned cold and clear. After grabbing a quick breakfast down at Luna Cafe in De Pere, (a cozy eatery that made an excellent latte and had delicious scones) we stopped at the supermarket on the way back to the hotel to stock up on food and drink, well aware that everyone else was bringing drink and vittles. The basic items filled the cart fast, hot dogs, bratwursts, buns, chips etc. All was proceeding quickly until I walked into the “Beer Cave” There I spent the next 15 minutes trying to figure out what beer to take with me. (A quick side note on how I buy beer. If in a new area, or someplace I haven’t been in awhile I go out of my way to buy new styles or try new breweries.)

Your fearless author almost
throws out his back
(Photo by Summer Marthaler)

I ended up making two of my own six packs to go along with the remnants of the Capital Brewery Winter Skal and Amber left over from the previous evening.  Six new beers to try (I noahed my beer, grabbing two of each, Lithia Regner Red Ale, New Glarus ChocolateAbbey, Black Top Black IPA, Back 40 Bock, O’so Night Train Porter, and Milwaukee Brewing LouisDemise Ale)

By the time we had arrived back at the hotel and checked out, Justin had arrived. We tossed in his gear in the trunk, piled into the rental and headed over to Lambeau Field. Tailgating at Lambeau is a must for any NFL fan. For thirty bucks we had parking in a backyard mere yards from the stadium, and to top it off parking for most of the rest of the crew showing up. The last time I parked this close to the entrance was in November at the Chargers-Packers game. There I had to have a special parking permit and I was glad I was driving a brand new Cadillac. Here it was open to the masses. 

A motley crew with our token Raider fan

Shortly after we arrived the rest of the tailgating team turned up. First to arrive was Summer and Jake, having driven in from Goodrich, followed minutes later by Davey and Bones. Matt and Ann would arrive later in the afternoon. 

Jake, Summer, friends & Bones

The grill was fired up, the brats were soon on, and the beer started to flow. The first to go was the Rye Porter and IPA that Justin had brought with him from Red Eye Brewing in Wausau. The Rye Porter was fantastically delicious. Soon we were into the bottles of New Glarus and Capital Brewery. Jake and Summer worked on the Miller Lite they had brought, content to drink a beer that was comfortable for them. Between the food and beer, the bean bag boards were set up for some “fierce” competition and general trash talking.

I walked into Lambeau with a mild buzz, a full stomach and over the next few hours watched the Green and Gold dismantle the Silver and Black much to Brian’s chagrin. I kept my whistle wet with first a Miller Genuine Draft provided by Justin, and then discovered that New Glarus SpottedCow was being served at the stadium. A couple of those lasted until the last second ticked of the clock. 

As Brian would say, a pilgrim heading into an unholy land.
(Photo by Brian Smith)

We all gathered after the game, but the energy had drained out, washed away by the excitement and the cold. Brian and I drank the Lithias while waiting for the traffic to clear out, divvied up the remaining beer with Davey, and said our goodbyes as friends and family departed. It was evening when we left Green Bay heading southbound chasing red lights down Interstate 43 back to Milwaukee.

Late that night in the Best Western by Mitchell Field Airport Brian and I ate some wings and fried cheese curds. I washed mine down with a Coke, the alcohol of the last two days finally catching up, my taste buds demanding something different. Brian was resolute and polished off one more beer, this time a Point Amber.

The Seats (Photo by Brian Smith)

The early morning flight on Monday was packed with tourists and business men but still uneventful. The travel had wiped me out, but Brian had to rally and head into work for the afternoon. We brought back four bottles along with some cheese curds from “downtown” Gad, Louie’s Demise Ale by Milwaukee Brewing Company, O’so Night Train, and New Glarus Chocolate Abbey and Back 40 Bock. Two went with Brian, the Night Train and Bock, while I bagged the others. I drank one on the evening I returned. The Chocolate Abbey will be put in the reserve stocks to age for a year.

Brian showed more fight than his team. 

This was an experience where beer played a central role and to me it encapsulates what Jolly Good Fellows is all about. Enjoying beer, both new styles and brands, and those that are tried and true, rekindling friendships and creating new experiences and starting your own traditions. For me being a proud son of Wisconsin, drinking Spotted Cow and watching a Packers game from the stands of Lambeau Field with my friends goes down as one of my all time great beer memories. It was a little slice of heaven.

Thanks for stopping by. 

In which our intrepid adventurers journey to a land of beer and cheese

Brace yourselves folks. This one is going to be long and in two parts.

This is a story about the NFL and beer, two of my favorite things in life. But even before that it is a story about two friends going on an adventure 

Prologue

It started innocently enough several months ago when the current NFL schedule was released. My friend Brian, (and contributor to this site), noted the Oakland Raiders would be playing the Green Bay Packers this season. This is not an event that occurs frequently, every four years to be precise. This time the game would be hosted by Green Bay. Brian, a true black and silver Raiders fan from Oakland, and I initially decided we would have to find a bar or pub to watch the game. As we discussed this problem of logistics the genesis of an idea occurred and it hinged on one important fact. We are "respectable adults" with income.  Why go to the bar when we could actually go to the game instead. It was agreed upon as a worthy cause and we turned our hands to planning this jaunt to the Midwest. 

Saturday

Our final destination

December took forever and then just showed up. An uneventful flight brought us to Milwaukee. A quick conversation with the friendly woman at the car rental got us the wheels for our northward leg up the western coast of Lake Michigan. A stop north of Milwaukee netted us butter burgers at Culvers. We arrived at our destination as the sun was setting, the sky growing a deepening shade of pink.

Green Bay is a pleasant Midwestern town on the shores of Lake Michigan, cut through by the Fox River. Lambeau Field dominates the landscape, the decorations and paraphernalia hammers home the fact that the Green Bay Packers are not only the only show in town but beloved for it. For a lifelong Packer fan though, the trip to Lambeau Field is the hajj to Mecca. Curly and Vince are the saints of Packer fandom standing before the entrance of the one's namesake and where the other fashioned a team and lead them to halcyon days. All fans have their totems, but for Packer fans 1265 Lombardi Avenue is their crown jewel.  

Lambeau Field is a cathedral to Packers football and many Packers fans take pride that they have a stake in the team. The cynic in me lauds the fact that the Green and Gold propaganda machine is in full force to reinforce the believers and proselytize to the unwashed. Even Brian, the diehard Raiders fan, found  it impressive. We meet up with Justin (commenter JZee1) and his family and for ten dollars each we toured through the Packers Hall of Fame, a celebration of past and current glories and Packer greats. A view of the four Lombardi trophies in the sanctum of the Hall of Fame concluded our visit for this day. 

It was dark outside when we walked in.

Instead of retiring to Curly’s Pub, the bar /restaurant located at the stadium, the group headed across town down by the river to Titletown Brewing Company. A former railway depot right located by the still functioning railroad it has been repurposed as a brewery and restaurant. For the last month leading up to this weekend I had been looking forward to visiting this establishment. In particular one beer had captivated my imagination, the RooSession Ale, due to my fondness of English style bitters and I couldn't wait to try it.

When we arrived at the brewery the place was packed with Packer fans and locals, with a waiting time of two hours for eating. Fortunately the bar was open and we quickly sidled up to it and ordered our first round, me asking for the coveted RooSession ale, Brian an Expect the Wurst Amber, and Justin a Hopasaurus Rex IPA. Our barman, sporting a green Clay Matthews jersey, quickly filled several perfect pints with our selections. The RooSession Ale was off a nitro pour, it was creamy, drinkable, with a slightly bitter tea aftertaste. I wasn't disappointed, but it would turn out to not be one of the evenings beer highlights. 

We quickly fell into conversation about the pros and cons of our respective selections, the joy and insanity of hops, and our favorite beers. Eventually a table cleared and we were seated. I ordered an elk burger which would come to haunt me over the course of the next twelve hours, but it was excellent while eating it. The piece de resistance though was the giant baked pretzel. This thing was enormous but still incredibly tasty with a crispy outer crust and chewy inside. Perfect for soaking up the pints we had already put down. 

We didn't quite make it through the draught board, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. Among the three us beer drinkers we did sample most of the draught board. Standouts for the evening included the Hopasaurus Rex, Dark Helmet Schwartzbier and St. Norbert’s Abbey Ale. We departed the brewery with full stomachs and a thirst mostly quenched but Brian and I made one final stop at a small market to pick up to sixers of Capital Brewery’s Winter Skal and Wisconsin Amber to tide us through for the rest of the evening. Game day was tomorrow. 

The Desert Makes You Thirsty

Skye here, I'm posting this for my brother-in-law Rudy. Enjoy!

******************************************************************************

Rudy:

I can say without a doubt that beer has always been a fixture in my life. From the earliest memories to the current day beer has always been around. I grew up in a very male dominated social environment. When I was younger, my mother’s family always seemed to be at the park or someone's house for a party or birthday; any excuse for a gathering to eat and drink. Being Hispanic there was a pretty distinct hierarchy when I was growing up. The women cooked and talked in the kitchen with the younger kids close by; while the men sat outside on the porch next to the Coleman coolers that were loaded with beer.

The older kids were allowed to hang around outside to help watch the little ones that escaped the kitchen and ran amuck outside, staying just out of reach of the men and their beer swilling circle. If you got lucky you were allowed to sit and listen to the men talk telling stories about senseless jabber, all the while hoping they would allow you to get them a beer, so you could crack it open and taste the foam. Beer is a rite of manhood in the Hispanic culture.

There were not many events that beer was not a focal point. I grew up in the 70's, hearing and seeing adds for Schlitz Malt Liquor, Colt 45, Coors, Budweiser, Pabst and many more. I had my first beer when I was 10 at my Tia's (aunt) wedding and it didn't go so well. 

When I was 15 I started drinking Budweiser because I could always count on my Teo (uncle) to forget he had an extra six pack in the truck bed. By the time I was in my late teens I had drank most every type of beer I could think of. We weren’t picky and the beer revolution really hadn’t hit just yet. Often beer was stolen from someone's parents’ fridge brought to the bonfire or social gathering in the desert. Eventually single beers became less important and kegs took their place in my education of mass consumption. Domestic consisted of the usual: Bud, Coors, Miller, Schlitz, Mickey's Big Mouth, Lone Star, Blatz, Pabst and so on, Imports at the time where Lowenbrau, Heineken, St. Pauli and Grolsch to name the few available. The Mexican beer around still has never really changed too much even today; Tecate, Superior, Negra Modelo, Dos Equis XX's and of course the ever present Corona.

It was not until I reached my early twenties that beer took on a whole different meaning for me.  The craft brew revolution started and microbrewery's started to pop up everywhere. Chefs (my line of work) found creative and inventive ways to spruce up old dishes with these new found beers. It was suddenly ok to be snobbish in your beer selection, having a beer that no one had heard of was the new cool. My ventures in cooking and cruise ships only solidified my relationship with beer, going to a new pub in the Caribbean and ordering an unknown beer and then bringing that back for your chums to taste was god like.

TodayI love beer, in all its forms, from strong to weak, colorful to pale, unique to boring, nutty to fruity. There is always a beer for any occasion and any taste, beer has been and always will be a staple in my life. I drink not for the drunk anymore, but for the taste and the celebration that beer has brought to my life...and ok, the occasional drunk.....

But You Hate Beer...

"You used to hate beer - remember the time you told me that?"

My mother (bless her heart) likes to remind me of this statement, spoken when I was 16 years old.

What I like to remind her is that I still don't like beer...or at least what they called "beer" at that time. Honestly, what 16-year-old kid seriously enjoys the taste of Budweiser or Busch Light? Unless it's in the middle of a cornfield (I grew up in a rural small town in Southwest Wisconsin), and served from plastic cups for the sole purpose of getting you drunk (with an unbelievably bad hang over - not to mention the runs), why would I enjoy “beer?”

I sure didn't.

The first time I enjoyed beer was when I had a New Glarus Spotted Cow. The brewery opened in 1993, during the upswing of craft brewed microbreweries, and it was around 1998 when I had my first taste of this “real” beer. Its yeasty flavor with a mellow malt aftertaste made me realize beer is far more complex than the macro-brewed items made with corn and rice. I was spoiled by beer from this moment onward, and all the beers made in Wisconsin have only enhanced my curiosity in exploring the complexity and varieties of beer. If you want to know when I became more of a beer enthusiast, it was when I moved to Boston. Drinking the Cambridge Brewing Company’s Great Pumpkin Ale and their Heather Ale changed my beer life forever.

Now I study beer (my senior undergraduate thesis focused on how customer’s interact with beer), write about beer (www.beermeetscheese.com), and enjoy the beverage in all its aspects (especially when it’s a microbrewery beer I share with my mom). I can feel my German ancestors rejoice.

Prost! 

How Could I Not Avoid It and Didn’t Really Mind

Mine is a beer drinking family. Well, more accurately, half of my family is a beer drinking family. The Smith/Findley/O’Brien Clan, rooted in my father and his siblings have been known to put away plenty of fine golden liquid at any number of family functions. Well, lets back track a bit – not always “fine” golden liquid as golden liquid. Hamms was the main brew of the day – Grandpa liked it, so the family drank it. My rebel cousin who looks like Jesus and swears like a sailor was the rebel outcast who drank Coors. My uncle drank whatever was cheap and his son drank himself to an early grave. Generic beer was the worst, but beer always remained. It was a topic of conversation. It was always there. To this day, a reminder accompanies Smith Family functions that “there are cold ones in the fridge outside.”

I thought nothing of it. My schoolmates and teachers were a little different. For a class project in 1^st grade, we needed to collect pull tabs. My mother dutifully informed the family of the project. On our next trip to Grandpa and Grandma Smith’s house I was presented with a what would be a talisman, part of the right of passage – a brown paper sack filled with pull tabs from beer cans. The smell in the bag and the number of pull tabs brought a raised eyebrow from my slightly hippy, yet very cool, teacher, but I was proud to have brought in the most tabs for our chain.

My Dad was a bit of a “do it yourselfer” and that directly contributed to my first personal engagement with beer. Warm Sunday afternoons, ball game on the radio, Dad would be out working in the yard and would ask me to run inside and grab him a cold one from the fridge. Olympia was his beer of choice at that point. Bringing him a cold beer entitled me to a sip, a small sip, but my one swallow nevertheless. As I got older, I could open the can in the house, pour it into a glass and take my own sip before running it out to him. Dad eventually switched to Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve and the sips came to an end. Halcyon days.

When I got to be a teenager, my relationship to beer changed, but not in the way one might expect. My mother had the first of several cancer related surgeries. One resulted in a nearly continuous bout of pain. It was a miserable time for her and I was frequently the target of long bouts of listening. I had always been a pretty good kid and she was under terrible stress, as was my Dad in the construction recession of the early 1980s, so my response was to minimize my teenage rebellion and deciding that I wanted to see if I could wait until I was 21 before actually drinking. I was allowed a glass of wine at the dinner table and could still have a mouthful of beer, but never one of my own, and so it stayed until I turned the legal age. Two years in a Bud friendly fraternity put it to the test, but I did manage and enjoyed that first beer of my own.

Now some would argue that I didn’t hold to the pledge completely. The beer that I had in the back of the bus at Dave’s house was no more than the sip that I had from Dad’s glass. Being tanked at my cousin’s wedding when I was 9 is completely out of the question because that was champagne raided from my tee-totaling aunt and her daughter. God loves them and so do I, but a hungover 9 year old is not pretty.

I would say my tastes have evolved as I got more exposure courtesy of the micro-brew explosions on the West Coast. Sierra Nevada and Anchor Steam are the “home town” brews thought there are many that I am sure to have missed. Today Yuengling is the house beer in my home with Dogfish Head mixes providing a little variety. Oly holds a special place, maybe it was the tee-shirt entitled “Artesian Search and Rescue Team” or just the special treatment I had I got getting a good mouthful of cold beer on a hot day – being a big guy with my Dad.