I quite enjoy a good beer. here in Canada, "normal" beer is 5% alcohol. Light beer is 4%. I quite enjoy a strong british ale once in a while, like a creamy Guiness.
What is your preference?
| Author | Comment | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Lovestar Weaver |
B is for beer |
Lead | |
|
So... what does everyone think about beer? Is it a good thing or a "bad" thing for you? If it's a "bad" thing for you does it make it
better when you actually have one? I'm having a cold one while I'm writing this, just popped into my mind.
I quite enjoy a good beer. here in Canada, "normal" beer is 5% alcohol. Light beer is 4%. I quite enjoy a strong british ale once in a while, like a creamy Guiness. What is your preference?
"Go to God, any which way, but go!!!
|
|||
White Feather |
Beer Babble | ||
|
Lovestar, do you realize that perhaps you have opened a can of worms? I am quite positive that everyone here has had some experience with beer. Thirty-six
BILLION gallons of beer are consumed on this planet every year. It's no wonder melting ice-caps don't seem to make much difference in sea level. We
are drinking and using more water than the ice caps can melt. The polar ice melt can barely keep up with the human demand for water.
The human demand for beer is not far behind that for water. Of course, beer is just "enhanced water," according to certain authors. Although I took a sip or two or three as a smaller child, beer really didn't interest me until after I fell headlong over the hump of puberty. When I turned 15 I discovered that I had a unique ability to buy alcoholic beverages despite my young age. It was the height of my acting career. I went into a convenience store or liquor store completely immersed in the part of playing someone old enough to buy liquor. I played the part so intensely that I was only carded once in over three hundred attempts. I think it may still be a Texas state record. Anyway, it provided income and was easy and fun. And it provided me an opportunity to thumb my nose at mass consciousness while inflating my ego. I actually drank very little of all that beer I illegally purchased. Most of it was for kids older than me. They would pay me for buying their beer for them. I would take a beer or two as commission and then direct the profits towards eventual purchase of either kind bud, mushrooms, or acid. Of course, it wasn't called "kind bud" back then. If you were to have called it "kind bud" back then, you would have received many blank stares through the smoky haze. Hey man, all bud is kind. There are no violent buds! Dude. No, I didn't take to beer until I was in my early thirties, working as an outdoor laborer. Beer suddenly became a wonderful thing. It was part of the unwind. It was everything it was meant to be. It was a ritual release of the artist. It was part of the transition to that other world. But when I quit working out of doors in the 107 degree heat (Fahrenheit) then beer suddenly no longer agreed with me. It merely bloated me and that was no fun. There was a defining moment in either 1997 or 1998--I don't remember exactly. I was hosting a booksigning at my bookstore for an old ornery local writer who wrote for the Denver Post. His book was a collection of his Denver Post columns. I had known this old fart for some time and wasn't surprised at all when he insisted that he be allowed to drink beer as he signed books. And I, as host of the booksigning, had to buy the beer. He insisted on a growler from the local brew pub of very, very dark and heavy beer. I wrestled with my decision but finally decided to allow him to sign books while he sipped beer. Anyway, that was the last day I could drink beer. I helped the old geezer drink his growler of beer, which, by the way, is something like a gallon Fahrenheit. And it was like 10.5 percent alcohol. I've never been able to drink beer ever since. In the last decade+ I tried a beer maybe once or twice or thrice a year. Every time I couldn't even finish it. And it doesn't matter what kind of beer. The first sip was always delightful. The second sip wasn't so bad, either. By the fourth or fifth sip, I was feeling bloated and yucky and the beer didn't taste so great anymore. People looked at me like I had some bizarre sort of disease. Sorry, I just didn't resonate to beer anymore. But I must say that our local brewpub came out three years ago with a bottled green chile ale and I bravely tried a bottle from their very first batch. To my sheer delight, it was fantastic! The flavor of the green chile really stood out and it touched my green chile heart. I was actually able to finish the entire bottle. And then, a few months later, I tried a bottle from their fourth batch. It was deplorable! There was no green chile flavor whatsoever! I ended up throwing half the bottle down the drain. I ran into the brewmaster just a week or two later and asked him what he did different. He said, nothing. I reminded him that he told me that he had gotten the green chile for the first batch from Hatch, New Mexico--green chile capital of the world. I asked him point blankly where he got the green chile for his fourth batch. Without hesitation, he replied, "Anaheim, California." The green chile in my heart died a little that day. More importantly, I haven't drunk any brewski since then. The beer fairy has surely given up on me. I'm totally turned off to beer and I'm not sure that's such a good thing. I should be able to enjoy a cold brewski from time to time but alas, I am totally bereft of any sudsy inclinations. I think I'm going to make it a point to have a beer sometime this week--just to see what happens. By the way, the very first beer I ever had as a kid was a Schlitz. What was your first beer? I remember the first time my dad ever took me to a bar with him. I think I was around 12 years old. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that we got out of the car in the parking lot of some strip mall. We entered a door and walked down a hallway until we entered what I learned was a bar. What really freaked me out was that as soon as my dad and I entered the bar everyone stopped what they were doing and looked over at us and greeted my dad by name. I was thinking, How do all these strangers know my dad's name? As we walked up to the bar everyone reached out to shake my dad's hand. I think my dad shook everyone's hand on the way to the bar. It was the weirdest, most freakish, thing I had ever seen. When the two of us were finally sitting at the bar together, my dad ordered a beer for himself and, for me, he ordered what I can only describe as a baby beer. His beer came in a tall glass and mine came in a very short glass. It was the same beer, though, for I watched the bartender draw the beer from the same tap. My glass didn't hold more than about 4 ounces, if that--and most of it was foam. But it was the same beer my dad was drinking. (It was in the late 1960s.) But I lost my father the whole time we were in that bar. Everyone in the bar demanded his attention. He was like a rockstar--which was so incredibly freaky to me at the time. I just sat there drinking my beer-ette, watching my dad play to the crowd, who obviously adored him. In later years I realized my dad was trying to show me a part of him that I never saw. I felt privileged to be let in on his secret life. Ever chug a beer? I was quite proficient at that around the age of 16 and 17. We had kids keeping time with time clocks, for crying out loud. Records were vaguely kept. It was always, Winner take all. I could never truly enjoy beer again until I worked outside in the 107 degree heat (Fahrenheit). And I haven't been able to enjoy it since. I must say, though, that last year I made a beef stew using Guinness Genuine Stout beer and it turned out really, really good! I mean really good! There are a lot of good things about beer and if you don't believe me, read Tom Robbins' book B Is For Beer. Mr. Robbins puts beer in a perspective like no one else can. He shows the beauty and the beer-belly flab simultaneously while keeping the reader in a state of constant laughter. And, as only he can, he shows us a side to history that you'll never see in school or at the museum. But enough about him! I have a question for everybody. Do you shoot better pool after you've had a beer or two or three or is your best game while you're stone cold sober? What about bowling or shuffleboard or darts? Or horseshoes? What is your experience? Personally, I have to admit that I'm a much better pool player after I've had a beer or two. In the past I would never play for money unless I was at least a sheet and a half to the wind. I knew that stone cold sober I was pathetic. Horseshoes is another "sport" where some brewskis come in handy. Darts can go either way. I've learned that the music one listens to while drinking beer has a significant contribution to make to the overall buzz. Some music should never be listened to while anywhere near beer. Other music is greatly enhanced. Through trial and error we can all discover our own inclinations. It is difficult to separate beer and music much as it is bees and honey. Preference? Geez. The most wonderful beer I've ever had was a Chinese beer that I had in a Thai restaurant after eating the hottest peppers I've ever eaten. I don't remember what it was called but I remembered that it saved my life. The Fire Department did not have to be called out. I don't care for all those dark and heavy and hoppy microbrews out there. I don't think a knife and fork should be necessary to drink a beer. I like those simple "American" beers from the 1960's like Schlitz. For a while, my dad drank Olympia beer. A couple of decades later I had a picnic on the park grounds of the Olympia Brewing Company in Olympia, Washington. You never know where beer might take you. Coloradoans, by the way, consider Colorado to be the world capital of beer-making. We have more brewpubs per capita here than in any other place in the world (including England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland). Beer is officially Colorado's official state liquid. (Water is a distant second.) Whatever! What beer do you have in your wallet? |
|||
Lovestar Weaver |
|||
|
White Feather I loved everything you had to say about beer. I'm sure glad I did open that can of worms.
I do enjoy a cold one at the end of the day. I miss having one with somebody else. The double pop of two beers being opened together to be enjoyed together is divine. I was never able to have more than, say 6 beers in one night. Even in my super duper party days. I enjoy it while it's cold, with chips or pizza. I love having beers with my friend in a tavern. Beer on tap is even better. Once in a while I'll enjoy a canned beer, and somehow canned Budweiser is just great! If I lived near an irish pub, I would become like a piece of furniture there and I would never, ever leave! You'd find me playing backgammon in the back. I think its the normand or britton in me that likes beer so much. Not to compete with the german in you White Feather! Funny you should mention, dear friend, how you shoot better pool with a few beers in you. What a coincidence! Not only do I shoot better pool, I sing better, I play a better dart game and I tell dirty jokes with much more aplomb. I remember, back in the day, when my dad would drive and I would pass him a beer everyonce in a while. Remember when people drove with a beer between their knees? T'was a lifetime ago. I do get a special thrill when I drive to my next door neighbor's like that. It's only a quarter mile away, folks. Funny how your dad chose to bond with you over beer, bringing you to his special place, White Feather. How did you feel about that? I started with Molson, because that is what my friends drank. Then I rebelled and experimented a little. Everyone seems to be into Coors light here in town and I dislike the stuff, I prefer Sleeman's, a canadian brand. Their cream ale is fine and so is their draught.
"Go to God, any which way, but go!!!
|
|||
White Feather |
The Beer Fairy Just Flew By | ||
|
Yup, those Germans know how to enjoy beer. I remember one time, when I was 15 years old, I was sitting at a table having lunch with my aunt and uncle in
Heidelberg. Actually, it was two tables pushed together to make one long table. Present at the lunch were myself, my older brother, my two younger sisters,
our mother, the aunt and uncle, the grandfather and grandmother, and a distant cousin. It was a big, loud lunch.
My grandfather had a huge loaf of rye bread in his hands and with a knife he was sawing off slices. Sliced bread had not yet make it to that part of the world. The slices got passed around the table until everyone had a couple slices on their plate. In the middle of the table were plates with all manner of lunch meat and cheeses as well as a big bowl of yummy Dusseldorforer mustard. There were also olives and pickles and small white pickled onions. Anyway, while I was fixing my sandwich the aunt went around the table serving drinks for everyone. The two younger sisters were served sparkling sodas but to my surprise my brother and I were served a glass of beer. I looked at my brother and he looked at me and then we both looked at our mother, who was pretending not to notice. I was a little stunned to be served beer at age 15 even though I knew it was common for underage kids to have a beer with lunch in Germany. I wasn't sure what to do. Finally, our mother looked at us and said, "Oh, just this once, okay?" So I drank a beer with my lunch and it was pretty darn tasty. By the way, I gained 15 pounds during the three months I spent in Europe that year. Well Claudie, we'll have to shoot a game of pool sometime--but not until after a beer or two. It's been so long since I've played pool that I might be able to re-qualify for beginner's luck. As for singing, well, I promise not to. Of course, that promise is only good through 5 beers. Beer and pizza....and the double pop of opening beers. Yes, I've experienced that. Another great combination is beer and magic chicken--with lots of super hot jalapenos. |
|||
Barb Mtn Wolf |
|||
|
hehehe Just laughing because I'm enjoying you two cavorting in the BEER thread! hehehe
Last beer I drank was last summer, I remember sharing about it in here, how very disappointed I was! I thought I was craving beer and would supremely enjoy it, and it was only good for the first couple of sips, then I had to force myself to drink the rest of it! It was a Michelob Light, which I used to drink back in my drinking days! First beer I ever had was probably a Miller or a Budweiser. I had two drinks last Thursday night at the fire dept. banquet, which was held at our favorite restaurant, and boy did I get a huge buzz off my toasted almond and mudslide! And a BIG headache Friday morning! It doesn't take much to make me tipsy nowadays, but I used to be able to drink 5 Long Island Iced Teas, I wouldn't dare try that now! I suck at pool, darts, horseshoes, bowling and any other "sport"...drinking or otherwise! LOL White Feather, I think Vermont might be competing with Colorado for the most microbreweries! hehe I've chugged a beer, we called it "shotgun", they pour it down your throat with a funnel above your head, right? hehe I was so proud of myself for accomplishing that feat! All of 19 years old, that was my major accomplishment in life. LOL Claudie, I enjoyed your post and I'm seeing a new side of you! hehe That was funny about you'd be a fixture if you had an Irish pub in town! LOL My mother in law used to go to the Irish Pubs in Burlington back in the 1990s, and I heard she danced on the table one time. Would've loved to have seen that! She's a fun loving one, we always laugh when she gets going. I talk a lot when I drink, I get much more sociable as a drinker! And I tend to embarrass myself quite a bit, with the things that come blurting out of my mouth.... |
|||
Lovestar Weaver |
|||
|
I just discovered we have a locally brewed green chile beer here in town... and it's fantastic. I had two, one for me, and one for you White Feather! The
green chile taste is present even more so in the last sip.
I encourage every one to sample what their local microbreweries had to offer, interesting discoveries abound!
"Go to God, any which way, but go!!!
|
|||
White Feather |
It's a Date! | ||
|
I've always been a promoter of shopping locally. Claudie, it is delightfully synchronistic that you should suddenly encourage people to sample what their
local microbreweries have to offer. Why? Because I just talked to my wonderful pregnant daughter the other day and found out that she will be coming to visit
next weekend. It's been 11 months since I've seen her, which is the longest I've ever gone in my life without seeing her (except for the 29 years
before she was born). It goes without saying that I'm very excited.
Next weekend is Father's Day but that is not why my daughter and her hubby scheduled their visit. They timed their visit to coincide with my town's annual river festival--the town's biggest event of the year. The event is called FIBark, which stands for "First In Boating On the Arkansas." The Arkansas River, which runs through my little town and which everyone here in the forums have seen many pictures of thanks to me, is the most rafted river in North America. (The Colorado River, which runs through the Grand Canyon, is the second most rafted, the Rogue River in southern Oregon is the third most rafted river, and some river in West Virginia is like the fifth or sixth most rafted.) Anyway, the FIBark Festival is the biggest and oldest river festival in the country, holding the biggest and oldest rafting and kayaking races. FIBark is like the Super Bowl of kayaking and rafting. People come from all over. For three days the population of our town swells from a little over 5,000 to a little over 35,000. It's a totally insane and horrendous weekend. It's the one weekend of the year that I would love to be out of town. The Festival is in its 61st year and it has grown considerably in the last 25 years. It started out primarily as a sporting event but has grown to include a carnival, a festival, a hill climb race, a food festival, a chili cook-off, virtually non-stop rock concerts, an arts and crafts show, and a mammoth 3-hour long parade. In addition to all of that, microbreweries from all over Colorado come to set up stands to sell their beer. It is now also a beer festival. The amount of beer consumed over the long weekend is astronomical. Actually, it's beyond astronomical. So anyway, my daughter and her hubby planned their short two-and-a-half day visit to coincide with the annual FIBark Festival. Attending the Festival they would surely see many friends they hadn't seen in the 11 months since they skipped town. The hubby also happens to have a plethora of relatives to visit over the weekend. My daughter only has three relatives to see; me, Shawnee, and Taco. Sadly, because of the gargantuan population explosion next weekend, I'll be working extra hours at one of my jobs--hours that I had already committed to. It's a heinous weekend but a chance to make a few extra bucks. So we ran over our schedules over the phone and realized that Saturday at noon would be our only chance to hook up. So I told my daughter that I would take her and hubby out to lunch where ever they wanted to go. My daughter loved this idea and proceeded to reveal that another reason why they wanted to come visit here is that they missed some of the restaurants here. Apparently, the restaurants where they now live, for the most part, suck. Being such a disgusting snob and a lifelong restaurant critic wannabe, I am always amazed when people talk about wanting to come to my little backwoods town because of the restaurants. I've lived here for 17 years and I'm just not very impressed and excited about the restaurants here. Hmm, maybe it's because I've lived here for that long. Anyway, here's where the synchronicity comes in. Claudie was encouraging everyone to visit their local microbrewery. Our local microbrewery is called Amica's. Actually, it's a combination microbrewery-dash-wood oven fired pizzaria. People from California, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Oregon, and Illinois drive untold hundreds of miles just to go to this pizzaria-dash-microbrewery. I live just two blocks from this restaurant and I haven't eaten there in over 4 years! Sure, their pizza is good--but not that good! People foam at the mouth when they start talking about the pizza there. Sorry, but I just can't get anywhere near that excited. It is no where near the top of my restaurant food experiences. It's artsy-fartsy pizza! It's small (mostly bread), with only a few ingredients thrown on in a supposedly artful pattern. (When I eat pizza I want to taste ALL the toppings in every bite.) The pizza sauce is good but not great. The cheese is good but scarce. It's way overpriced and the service in the restaurant is sub-par in my opinion. It takes forever! That's one of the main reasons I haven't eaten there in over four years. It doesn't matter what time of year or whether it's lunch or dinner, there is ALWAYS a line out the door! If there is anything I abhor and detest it's waiting in line. If I have to wait half an hour in line just to get a table and then another half-hour to 45 minutes to get my food, well then that food better be the best damn food ever cooked in the history of humankind! But those pizzas are not. Not even close. So when I asked my daughter where she wanted to have lunch she said with much enthusiasm, "Oh, I've just been DYING to have some Amica's pizza! I miss it SO much!" Well! You know, there is very little that I am willing to stand in line for. Very little. The only reason I stand in line at the checkout in the grocery store is because if I didn't I would starve. If I see a line I say, "Screw it," and go elsewhere. But there is one thing I am willing to stand in line for and that is my daughter! But then I got to thinking..... The big horrendous FIBark parade is on Saturday morning from 9 am to noon. When the parade is over at noon all 35,000+ people who were watching the parade then disperse and converge on downtown and all the shops and restaurants are suddenly full to overflowing. So I suggested to my daughter that we have an early lunch at around 11:00 am. At that time everyone would be at the parade (just a block away) and the brewpub would be empty. We wouldn't have to stand in line and we could have the whole brewpub/pizzaria to ourselves. My daughter, who also disdains standing in line, though not as much as me apparently, hastily agreed to an 11 o'clock lunch date next Saturday. So, thanks to my beloved daughter I will be visiting my local microbrewery/pizzaria next weekend for the first time in over four years. After telephonically setting up that event I then come in to my favorite forum on the web only to find out that our beloved angel of the North just suggested that we visit our local microbrewery. How's that for synchronistic? |
|||
Lovestar Weaver |
|||
|
White Feather I forgot to mention, there is a beer-marinated green chile in every bottle of "El Lapino" beer... oh how divine.
I am tickled you will have a visit with your daughter although it will be a short one... and that she agrees with you about fleeing the crowds! Sounds like a fun fest though, in the streets of a Colorado town. I'd love participate to such a cool event. We are just creatively dead here and I wish we had something like that to jolt ourselves up. ANother thing: I loved being called "beloved angel of the North". Makes me smile... thank you.
"Go to God, any which way, but go!!!
|
|||
Lovestar Weaver |
|||
|
Well I hope you enjoyed that visit with your mother-to-be daughter, White Feather, and that every minute of it was filled with joy.
"Go to God, any which way, but go!!!
|
|||
White Feather |
Green Chile, Chicken, and Goat Cheese Pizza | ||
|
Believe me, I enjoyed the heck out of my daughter's brief visit. It was so very good to be in her presence. She was definitely glowing like every
pregnant woman should be. But not only was she glowing but so was her hubby. They were both glowing like crazy. Hugging them was like hugging a live
electrical wire and being zapped big time. It was awesome. Dang, I need more pregnant people in my life.
Even though we got to the restaurant just as they were opening we still had to stand in line for about 15 minutes. We had so much to talk about, though, that it didn't matter one iota and the time in line went very quickly. My pizza, by the way, was surprisingly fantastic. She showed me pictures from the very latest sonogram and the baby is still hiding its genitals. Apparently it wants its gender to be a surprise. As my daughter spoke about the baby she constantly referred to it as a "he." My first inclination was to think, "Oh, don't be so sure!" But she surely knows better than me. No one knows better than the mother, right? Curiously, my daughter's hubby didn't commit to "he" and referred to the baby as "it." I guess we'll see. The mystery intensifies. After our wonderful lunch we came back to my place and visited for a few hours. Shawnee and Taco were so happy to see their sister. They practically raised her. While we were still at the restaurant my daughter revealed a secret to me that I had never known. She told me that she has always had a secret fantasy of being a food critic; of going to restaurants and writing reviews of the food and service. I gasped as she told me that and I told her that was one of my secret fantasies, too. She gasped as I told her this. Apparently, she didn't know about my secret fantasy just as I didn't know about hers. You know someone for almost 22 years and you think you know all their secret fantasies. Well, apparently not! |
|||
