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As I look back on this blog, I start to realize that a constant theme is how much I like beer. I know this post has been done many times in the past, but it is Positive Tuesday, after all, so it's very fitting.

Drinking was never a big deal in my family. If I wanted a beer from the time I was 15 or so, I could have one. Going outside the home and risking getting caught doing something illegal seemed a bit silly, not that I didn't do that. It was a lot more fun to drink with friends than it was to drink with my parents.

So my first beers were crap, the stuff my dad could get cheap because he liked a beer or two every day after work. Stuff like Old Milwaukee Lite and that generic beer that was brewed by Falstaff always filled dad's fridge. A treat was Coors which was brewed in Colorado but, at the time, didn't have nationwide distribution. They didn't sell it in South Dakota, but a short drive to Wyoming could secure a couple of cases of Coors. It amazes me that we considered that a treat. Don't get me wrong, to this day I like Coors better than any other mass produced pilsner, but it's still a mass produced pilsner. I can do better.

When I was in college, getting something different meant getting an import. I got into some German pilsners like St. Pauli Girl and Beck's, and there was always Guiness, but the choices were pretty limited.

It wasn't until I was in my twenties and thirties that fine American regional breweries started springing up and making fine beers. The first big one that I became aware of was Boston Brewing, the makers of Samuel Adams. I like Samuel Adams, a full bodied lager, hoppy, meaty, a real man's beer. Then I tried some of their other brews. They make a wonderful cream stout, a Golden Pilsner (and if you ever see it, buy it!), a whole variety of beers, some seasonal, some brewed year round.

Other regionals have done good business and made great beer as well. But the reason I'm writing this post is because of a brewery down the road in Ft. Collins, Colorado, New Belgium Brewing. New Belgium has a history with me similar to that of Coors. New Belgium didn't have distribution in South Dakota. When dropping of promotion for a Patient 957 show in Spearfish, TSA suggested driving to Beulah, Wyoming to buy some New Belgium beer at a little convenience store just across the border.

I'd had Fat Tire while living in California, a Belgian style ale that I liked. This store had the whole line of New Belgium beers and I picked up 12 of the Sunshine wheat and 12 of the 1554 Brussels Black Ale. I've never particular been into Belgian styles, preferring the English and German takes on brewing, but my experiences with these beers were excellent. They sort of opened my eyes to the Belgian styles.

BPM, mere feet below me as I type, is a Belgian brewing fan. He enjoys the beers of New Belgium as well as the styles produced by Avery Brewing in Boulder, Colorado. I've enjoyed a few Belgian style beers with him and have learned to appreciate the style.

A grabbed a 6 pack of New Belgium 1554 Brussels Black Ale on the way home from work last night. A few minutes later I was enjoying a beer, a good beer, in my apartment and watching the episode of The Simpsons where Marge becomes a Springfield Police Officer ("Marge, you being the Man makes me the woman... and I have no interest in that... aside from occasionally wearing the underwear which as we've discussed is strictly a comfort thing...").

I live less than an hour away from one of the great American breweries, a couple of hours away from some of the best brewing done in this country. Not drinking their beers would be wasting my proximity to them.

BOJ

Labels: Positive Tuesday