more beer

Without  going into a lot  of detail, and hopefully without resurrecting the tired is there a god argument, I want to point out that Beagles is a deist, and the god of the bible is certainly not  a deist god.  And of course I never think that the subject of beer is run into the ground.

There is something that appears near the counter of the local Bed Bath and Beyond around Christmas time, maybe it is for the shopper who needs to get something for her friend's husband and rightly assumes that a strawberry-hued duvet is not the thing.  Well, my what is this Mr Beer, well don't all men love beer?  Which is pretty much true. And it probably has a little more cachet as a fun do-it -yourself project, than slapping some wrapping paper around a six or twelve pack and dropping it under the tree.  Although that is surely what the hubby of her friend would prefer.

Sounds easy enough from Beagles' explanation, though not as easy as drive down to Al's Liquors, but I'll wager less expensive.  I reckon it 's more complicated, but hops are probably the big factor in a beer that I like, generally the more the better, but there is a point where it becomes too much.  Dry is more a measure of sweetness, sometimes beer is a little sweet and I hate that.  The effect of hops is called bitterness.  There is something called an IBU (International Bitters Unit) that measures bitterness that you will find on a can of craft beer along with the alcoholic content.  I like the way craft beers list their alcoholic contents, but not always and I don't know why that is.

Then there is the matter of getting drunk.  When I was a wee child my parents would sometimes break out a beer or two on a Saturday night watching a movie on the tv.  I begged for it  and they would give me a half a juice glass, and it was so good.  So good.  I never had any intention of getting drunk,and had no idea what it would be like. I just loved the taste.

At the age of seventeen I still loved the taste, but what I was really into was getting drunk.  These were the days of forming some plan to achieve the 'stuff' as we called it over the phone so that our folks would not know what we were up to.  This generally entailed an older brother or maybe the kindness of strangers hanging around bars or liquor stores who might be pleased to make a buck, generally less, for buying a bagful of Drewrys for the leaders of tomorrow.

For a long time it was that way, getting drunk for the sake of getting drunk, well it went on for longer than I like to admit. Anymore what I like is a buzz.  Five pints over two or three hours seems to do it.  I'm not slurring or stumbling, but  I'm looser, things are more cheerful and funny, I feel that I am quite the clever raconteur, though probably not, unless whoever I am racounteuring has also had several, in which case maybe so.

Alcohol itself has no taste, but it is a flavor enhancer.  That's why those nonalcoholic beers, even though they have the hops and all, are tasteless, and why some of those extreme IPAs with a ten percent alcohol rating are sooo good.  But they would end Uncle Ken's Friday night awfully early.

I do notice young people clustered around me in some brew pub where the beers are chalked up on a blackboard, and they are not reading about the hops, they have eyes only for the alcoholic content. They remind me of my misspent youth.