Thoughts on the beer in my house
By now you know I like beer. You may know my preferences and dislikes of the beverage. Buying beer is a tough decision sometimes. Does one go for quality, or quality? Depends on the situation. Planning is involved. What is the purpose of this purchase of beer? Is it to sip and enjoy? To have more than one to relax? Or to get so buzzed the breathalyzer busts?
There is usually something to drink in my fridge. Before tonight's purchase there was one bottle of Celis White. I made a bad decision purchasing a six pack of this a few months ago. It was a warm day and I was feeling nostalgic over the old wine shop days, when Celis was craft brewed. Before Pierre sold the brewery to Miller and it all went to shit. Now, it's being brewed someplace under contract in Minnesota and the flavor just does not have the balance the old Texas made brew had. Chalk that one up to not believing in false nostalgia.
I finished up the Koch's Golden Anniversary a few nights ago. Koch's used to be brewed in Dunkirk, New York. And it was a choice in college. It was the local guy. He underwrote and advertised on the college radio station. Provided kegs for station bashes. You support that. The beer may not have been very good, but you know the guy. You do business with him.
In the mid eighties, seeing an unpleasant financial future ahead (if he could have held on another decade, when the microbrews caught on, alas!) he sold the brewery to Genesee, and the small brewery was shut down; taking away the only available at Christmas, Jubilee Porter, away from us forever.
So while wandering through Tops Market in Fredonia, there was a six pack of the Golden Annie, in cans, for $2.49. Can't pass that up. No sir!
We went into Tops searching for the not available in Ohio Yuengling, and we were not disappointed. I still have a bottle of the Amber Lager in the fridge. I had read about this beer for a long time and had never seen it until I went to my sister's college graduation in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in the early nineties. She took us to a bar she frequented, and on tap was the elusive beverage. I was taken aback by how cheap it was, and how tasty it is! Someday this beer will have a better distribution. Production is maxed out at the Pottsville brewery, said to be the oldest in the country and they have a new facility in Florida. Good beer, reasonably priced.
Holding a place of honor on the cold shelf are three bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale. The barley wine of the brewery, it clocks in at just under 10% alcohol. It's massive, delicious and drinking more than one of them would put me into a coma. I've turned into a lightweight in my old age. At least I recognize limits in consumption. Those are now being held back for special drinking occasions. One of them fills me up.
Tonight, I wanted beer, more than one beer. Maybe even three. There's not enough in there to quench my thirst and allow me to survive the next day. Stocking up needed to happen.
The Kroger down the block sucks, but I still went in there because it's close, and on the way home from work. I could have bought the Commodore Perry from Great Lakes, but that's a massively hopped drink and not a quantity choice. There's Pilsner Urquell, my favorite, but a bit pricey at $8.99. The old standbys of Labatt and Moosehead are there. Watching hockey while drinking Canadian beer is a time honored tradition in my home.
But what other choices are there? What about quantity. What's cheap, not made from backwash and urine, and a good price. I know the kids are drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon these days, what's that coming in at? Hmmm. $6.99 a twelve pack? This is a possibility.
I nearly bought an unknown called D.B. Hobbs, but found absolutely no information on the case, so I passed. There was no Schaefer, no Goebels, no Old Style. There was Blatz, but I've never been that hard up. I'll stop drinking if that is the only alternative.
But there.
There it was. The familiar dark blue label of Stroh's. A beer of my youth. A beer I sat and drank while unemployed in 1990 watching the World Cup in Spanish. Oh, and look. You get fifteen of them.
For $7.49.
So what if it's now made at the Miller Brewery. Look. You get fifteen for only fifty cents more than PBR. Less than seventeen cents a beer extra. A bargain! A bonus!
Had one beer with some Fritos. Opened up another with some baked chicken. And I'm still in the middle of beer number two and it's not even eight o'clock.
Now I'm going to read, finish this beer. Take a break. Have some ice cream. Read. Bother you people online. Do a load of laundry, then pop open a third.
Sliante!
There is usually something to drink in my fridge. Before tonight's purchase there was one bottle of Celis White. I made a bad decision purchasing a six pack of this a few months ago. It was a warm day and I was feeling nostalgic over the old wine shop days, when Celis was craft brewed. Before Pierre sold the brewery to Miller and it all went to shit. Now, it's being brewed someplace under contract in Minnesota and the flavor just does not have the balance the old Texas made brew had. Chalk that one up to not believing in false nostalgia.
I finished up the Koch's Golden Anniversary a few nights ago. Koch's used to be brewed in Dunkirk, New York. And it was a choice in college. It was the local guy. He underwrote and advertised on the college radio station. Provided kegs for station bashes. You support that. The beer may not have been very good, but you know the guy. You do business with him.
In the mid eighties, seeing an unpleasant financial future ahead (if he could have held on another decade, when the microbrews caught on, alas!) he sold the brewery to Genesee, and the small brewery was shut down; taking away the only available at Christmas, Jubilee Porter, away from us forever.
So while wandering through Tops Market in Fredonia, there was a six pack of the Golden Annie, in cans, for $2.49. Can't pass that up. No sir!
We went into Tops searching for the not available in Ohio Yuengling, and we were not disappointed. I still have a bottle of the Amber Lager in the fridge. I had read about this beer for a long time and had never seen it until I went to my sister's college graduation in Williamsport, Pennsylvania in the early nineties. She took us to a bar she frequented, and on tap was the elusive beverage. I was taken aback by how cheap it was, and how tasty it is! Someday this beer will have a better distribution. Production is maxed out at the Pottsville brewery, said to be the oldest in the country and they have a new facility in Florida. Good beer, reasonably priced.
Holding a place of honor on the cold shelf are three bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale. The barley wine of the brewery, it clocks in at just under 10% alcohol. It's massive, delicious and drinking more than one of them would put me into a coma. I've turned into a lightweight in my old age. At least I recognize limits in consumption. Those are now being held back for special drinking occasions. One of them fills me up.
Tonight, I wanted beer, more than one beer. Maybe even three. There's not enough in there to quench my thirst and allow me to survive the next day. Stocking up needed to happen.
The Kroger down the block sucks, but I still went in there because it's close, and on the way home from work. I could have bought the Commodore Perry from Great Lakes, but that's a massively hopped drink and not a quantity choice. There's Pilsner Urquell, my favorite, but a bit pricey at $8.99. The old standbys of Labatt and Moosehead are there. Watching hockey while drinking Canadian beer is a time honored tradition in my home.
But what other choices are there? What about quantity. What's cheap, not made from backwash and urine, and a good price. I know the kids are drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon these days, what's that coming in at? Hmmm. $6.99 a twelve pack? This is a possibility.
I nearly bought an unknown called D.B. Hobbs, but found absolutely no information on the case, so I passed. There was no Schaefer, no Goebels, no Old Style. There was Blatz, but I've never been that hard up. I'll stop drinking if that is the only alternative.
But there.
There it was. The familiar dark blue label of Stroh's. A beer of my youth. A beer I sat and drank while unemployed in 1990 watching the World Cup in Spanish. Oh, and look. You get fifteen of them.
For $7.49.
So what if it's now made at the Miller Brewery. Look. You get fifteen for only fifty cents more than PBR. Less than seventeen cents a beer extra. A bargain! A bonus!
Had one beer with some Fritos. Opened up another with some baked chicken. And I'm still in the middle of beer number two and it's not even eight o'clock.
Now I'm going to read, finish this beer. Take a break. Have some ice cream. Read. Bother you people online. Do a load of laundry, then pop open a third.
Sliante!