just me and my horsey and a quart of beer
I remember lying in a hammock with my uncle at age 7 in mid-summer while he drank a beer and read the newspaper. He was drinking Miller Lite out of the older 1980s cans with the printed crest. i think i was having a Surfer Cooler or a Yoohoo--Yoohoo was my jam.
I remember bothering him a lot while he was trying to read by moving around to get the hammock swinging. I got a little too rowdy and restless, causing my uncle to fumble his beer. When he spilled the beer, it spilled directly in my face. a good bit got all up in my mouth, and I have this very specific memory of yelling out, “EHHH. That’s beer?” Because it tasted like shit.
I’m 26, and I’ve had plenty of Miller Lite in my time. I still wholeheartedly think it tastes like garbage (That is just my opinion, and it could be the flavor you enjoy, and that’d be totally cool. Everyone has their own taste. and no one is wrong to like anything they do). But thank god for the night my friend Erin took me to a bar that let us drink while we were underage--we were 19/20, and they didn’t card--and bought me glasses of Torpedo and Hopfish and blew my mind. High school (and later in college) was all Keystone and Busch while the splurge was on things like Miller and Bud Heavy or some Rocks. Nothing like the craft beers she was pushing on me.
So i really didn’t know shit about shit at that point--I might have had some Blue Moon or possibly a Sierra Pale, but I never sought them out as an option. That night was a life changing experience. I loved drinking, and I loved drinking beer. In retrospect, I really don’t think I had any idea that there were thousands upon thousands of beers made by small capacity brewers in small quantities that tasted a gigillion times better than the shit I was slugging every weekend. It was one of the greatest introductions i’ve received ever, ever.
Since that year, that bar has added 10 more craft beer taps and 40+ more bottles--they had 3 and 5 respectively--and the entire market is wholly indicative of that change. Stores are carrying more beer than ever, and beer is in higher demand than ever all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
I appreciate beer for two reasons:
1) It’s yummy as hell. There are over 100 marked styles of beer. Some with subtly different characteristics, others that are wildly different. That diversity means one very awesome thing: There is a beer for everyone. Pretty killer.
2) It’s (mostly) an attainable item. You can get to some of the highest ends for 10-20 dollars, unlike wine where the higher ends can be upwards of 500-1000 dollars. Beer is affordable, which is no doubt contributing to its popularity.
It’s magical, and it’s been popular for 8,000+ years. Beer was arguably made on this earth before bread.
I love beer. So much. It’s probably my favorite thing in the world. I cancel plans for it. I drive hours out of my way for it. I wake up earlier than I do for work to stand in line for it. I will do anything to have something hoppy, funky, sour, malty, roasty, sessionable, quaffable, hot and huge, yeasty, and earthy.
Pat Marino lives in New Jersey. He appreciates a heart that's a yolk, peanut butter and the promise of publicly-practiced, communal hygiene.