During the summer of 2015 I was at a cookout with some friends and somewhere between the Sriracha Stout and Lemon Chiffon Ale a neighbor asked me an interesting question: do you drink normal beer? I laughed and said that I’ve been known to drink beers that don’t have high alcohol content or bizarre ingredients but this is a question I’ve been coming back to more in the last few months.
Hang on, before we get too deep you might be wondering what sort of ‘authority’ do I have when it comes to writing about beer or brewing. Allow me to introduce myself: I’m John and I live in southern NH. From June 2008 until July 2014 I contributed beer reviews to a lifestyle blog based out of this area and during that time I sampled a lot of beer, a whole lot and some of it was great, some of it was nondescript and there were a few that I didn’t enjoy at all but I learned a lot about styles, brewing and even myself during that period of time. First, it took me a long time to grasp an IPA style of beer and when it happened a light bulb went off making it easier to understand other styles. Second, I know it takes more than water, barley and hops to make beer: you need drive, ingenuity, pixie dust and dedication to make it out there. Third, aside from drinking some great suds during that time I realized, now more than ever, I enjoyed writing about beer and sharing my experiences with people. I was never certain of the readership the website had but I’d like to think that I might’ve had some regular following.
When it comes to writing about beer I’m not going to sit here and tell you ‘Bud is bad’ or that other nonsense people with funny beards and glasses want me to spout off. I’ve never been about making people feel bad for their choices, I never liked it when I was growing up, so I take the approach of educating or informing people about beers that I drink. I know for a fact that I might not be able to sway a stalwart Bud/Coors/Miller drinker to try some crazy style of beer with a weird label, instead my goal is to break it down so that you might not be afraid to try something different and then go back to what you know. Let’s be honest about one thing: when it comes to the beer landscape it is very wide open and if you don’t know what’s out there then you’ll get confused, try something you hate and assume that all these beers are for “kids with no real taste for nothing”. This isn’t true and everyone gets a bad bottle from time to time so if you are serious about trying something you need to give it some real effort before you shut down over it, trust me, I had to drink a lot of Dogfish Head 90 Minute to understand IPA’s and the one that did it for me was Sierra Nevada’s Torpedo Extra IPA. A complex beer with plenty of flavor and rewards.
I’m 33 and when I was 21 at Keene State we would hit one of the local watering holes, Kilkenny’s, every Thursday for $.75 Pabst and that was fun. I didn’t drink Pabst because it was chic, hell no, we drank Pabst at $.75 a pint because when you have $5 that’s a lot of beer on a Thursday night. For the weekends, if someone had a party, then a few of us would pool money together so we could have some variety and in 2004 this was what we go for: Saranac Black and Tan, Magic Hat #9, Sam Adams Specialty beers or variety packs, Boddington’s, Tetley’s, and other imports. This was the beer landscape a little over a decade ago and I can remember when I was younger walking through grocery stores seeing nothing but ‘corn’ beers and worse imitators from around the globe. To say that the world has changed in the last couple of years is an understatement.
Why now? Why am I bothering to write about beer now when there are podcasts and plenty of other people that can do this, maybe/probably, much better than I can? No one is writing to educate they are just writing to attack. I could be wrong but there are plenty of industry sites I check, stores I visit and other outlets where people can be a little more inclusive instead of turning others away. I started out by drinking Pabst and over this past Memorial Day weekend I shared a bottle of Mango Habanero Wheat Wine with friends, fantastic I will add, and it took me a long time to get to that point. It didn’t happen overnight and if it weren’t for my writing about beer for so long I might not have gotten this far.
Several months ago I was at a beer store in Nashua picking up a few things and a guy walks in all in a huff looking for an Allagash beer that had been barrel-aged. I had drank a bottle of the beer so when he reached for it I made a comment in passing that it was alright but I didn’t think it was worth all the fuss. He grabbed a bottle then said to me: if it isn’t barrel-aged it isn’t worth anyone’s time, barrel-aged or nothing. I thought to myself, after he paid then exited the store, there goes a guy that never enjoyed a pint of Pabst in a smoky bar with friends at age 22. It is one thing to have a biased against the major brewers, there is an AB plant in my hometown, but if you’ve never drank them before, with an open mind, or understand their history besides the stupid attack ads they use on television then you are selling yourself short. Now, I’m not saying everyone needs to go out and have a B-Minus (Bud Light) but Sun Tzu said it best:
“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be put at risk even if you have a hundred battles.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”
You might think Bud is the enemy, which could be true, but if you know nothing about them then you are doing yourself harm. Context is key, I’m a Lit Major so beware that I do my research when my own knowledge won’t make the grade and I implore you to do the same.
Will I be writing to you every week? No, this is going to be an outlet when I have time or can reign in my thoughts long enough to write them down but I wouldn’t expect some kind of regular posting. I’d like to be able to have something up here a few times a month whether it is highlighting a few different beers or some thought pieces about beer in general but I’m trying to get back in the swing of things. I’ve missed this for the last two years and I think I’m about ready to get out here again.
Did I ever answer the question of “normal beer”? I didn’t and that brings up my question to you: what is normal beer in 2016? For me it means having a 12-pack of Jack’s Abby Hoponius Union on hand when I need something easy to drink and don’t want to break open something stronger. For you it could be having a cellar filled with beer aged in plastic tanks for years or barrels of sour ales or one of the majors sitting cold in your fridge. Beer is subjective Avid Reader and all of it is worth your time if you’re willing to give it a chance. That’s all I’ve ever tried to convey in my writing and I'm hoping that you might be inclined to give something a try that you'd otherwise pass up. Maybe you’ll see me out somewhere building a six pack, grabbing a pint or maybe you’ll stop by my house and have two, maybe tree beers before you go. Either way I'm glad you stopped here.
