Son of a Beer

“Want a beer?”

“Sure.”

“I got Heineken, Bud, Bud Light, Coors...”

“Eh, I’ll pass, thanks, I’ll just have water.”

I don’t care if you think I’m a beer snob, but I totally am, and I turned my wife into one. Tasting beer and drinking beer isn’t the same. It’s not just about quenching your thirst on a hot day or god forbid, ‘grabbin a beer with the guys out in the driveway with my big truck while we talk about engine sizes and gear ratios.” (say this in a deep, tough voice). My apologies if you sit in your driveway and drink beer, and talk about your truck's camshaft and horsepower, and how freaking awesome it is, or you have a deep tough voice, BRO!!!! Watch me open this Bud with my teeth!!

Taste beer

First off, always drink beer from a glass. Why?

The pleasure and sensation of consuming food and drink are not just about our taste buds, but also the smell. This is half the delight of eating or drinking. Ninety percent of the smell of beer is lost when we drank straight from a can or bottle. (Okay, fine, I don’t know if it’s ninety percent, but it has to be up there somewhere).

The smell and taste coupled together give a fuller experience of beer tasting. Of course, another sense is involved, that of sight. Beer can be paired with different foods just like wine can. Beer has become classy rather than being viewed as a trashy thing. Even the season can determine what beer we drink. In summer, a light crisp beer or citrus beer is more desirable and enjoyable.

In the fall, some prefer a darker beer or even pumpkin or cinnamon-type beer. In the winter, my wife and I enjoy stouts and port. Our beer selection rotates throughout the year depending on our mood and the weather, which normally correlate.

Seeing beer

There are so many beers out there that we have a variety of different colors and shades. Some beers are cloudy, dark, light, heavy, and milky. Within the last few decades, microbreweries have become very popular. And out of these often small and limited breweries have become some of the best beers in the world.

Take your pick

Brewing beer has become an art. The selection of beer has grown from your basic lager or ale to Hefeweizen, porter, stout, lager, sour ale, IPA, and brown ale. These have always been around but are now popular than ever before.

In the last twenty years, breweries in the USA have risen from 1,500 to almost 10,000. Many have different themes or styles; Magic Hat brewery with its circus feel, Clown Shoe’s brewery with its amazing, slightly futuristic, animated cartoon cans, Stone Brewery with its stone IPA’s and its trademark gargoyle mascot, Brew Dog starting from their humble beginnings in Scotland and now slowly becoming a big player with their wide selection of beer.

Many breweries offer some incredible foods to try along with their beers. Even if you are a weirdo and don’t drink beer, (joking) going to a brewery for their food alone is awesome. If the beer is made by artists, the food is too.

All these beer styles vary with introducing honey, fruits, coffee, pumpkin, spices, nuts, seeds, and chocolate. Some beers have a strong hoppy taste, which I'm not a huge fan of, but again, there are plenty of others to choose from.

Some beers are not decanted, allowing their flavor to flourish since the filtration has been removed from the process. These are my favorite. Other beers are kept in aged rum or sherry barrels to give them a unique flavor and aroma.

Beer society

Wine, scotch, whiskey, and bourbon are no longer the only drink to have their own experts and sommeliers. Beer now has a deep collection, history, and geographic significance. And with that comes many experts and artists.

Many restaurants and pubs now offer beer flights. No, this is not another name for the drunken-mile-high club. A beer flight is a board or tray of beer samples, normally comprising four or five little glasses. This is a wonderful way to find your favorites. You will only know what you like if you try them.

Take the dive

Would you be happy to settle for only one flavor of chips or cookies? How about one type of meat? Or, one type of music? Life is full of choices, and we can take our pick. The beer world has so much to offer, whatever your taste. My wife never drank beer until she met me and was introduced to a whole new world of flavors.

Get out there and find your favorites!!

This was originally published on Medium by the Author.

https://medium.com/illumination/son-of-a-beer-ec814be79178?sk=d9a6eb3cd6399a56a7e21226a0feb31d

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Robbie Sheerin was born in Scotland and is a quality inspector who enjoys classic sci-fi. He is inspired by such writers as Asimov, Bradbury, Serling, and Dan Brown. Robbie is married with one daughter and lives in New England, USA. He writes in his spare time and has been published in numerous online journals and magazines. He writes on Medium. Robbie is also on NewsBreak as THE HUNGRY TRAVELER.