Again. No student of history, or historian, looks at the present and anguishes, but merely compares. Go ahead, get it off your chest, these time are the worst ever, and perhaps attribute all this as signs of the impending apocalypse. Somewhere out there lurks the anti-Christ, destined to start whichever version of end times you use.
I prefer the one where the world just ends, and a new world is created. It fits within my belief system. If God gave me another 1000 years to clean my act up after the life I've led after 55 years, I'd just say, "Okay, starting in year 990 I will atone." This fits with how we achieve goals. "How much longer do I have?" So, I'm not inclined to read apocalyptic scripture the same way some do who come up with the 1000 year analysis (millennialism I believe).
As a student of history, I'm more inclined to think that we have managed to come back to a point much like the 1960s where there was chaos in our culture. Norms were being redefined, roles were being challenged. Toss in the early 1970s where the Arab states flexed their political muscle, and I think we have a similar point in our history. Yet absent in that era which we have now was one ingredient that gets us through such turmoil - the craft brew market.
We were just 40 years past the lifting of Prohibition and so there were only a few beer makers around with the accumulated wealth to start back up and produce and distribute beer. They dominated that era, and when you went to the store, your choices were Schlitz, Miller or Budweiser. We didn't even have the concept of lite beer yet and Coors was still a craft beer created in Colorado. Today, there is a myriad of beer choices to help you pull through the crises that we experience.
In the summer, we get some of the lighter varieties of beer that have a fruit added, namely the lemon, which creates a very good effect. Sam Adams Summer Ale, Leinenkugal's Summer Shandy, and Shock Top Lemon Shandy all hale an element of the lemon, or a derivative (lemonade). These are beers fit for summer with that taste, and these are ales that have not created a bitter aftertaste or a taste that can start to become bitter while enjoying perhaps a six-pack. They are my personal favorite of all seasonals with the lemon, but for beer drinkers looking for darkness or the bitterness of hops, these will not set well with you.
Just the other day, as I was listening to the news of the day, I went to the refrigerator and opened a Summer Shandy. Within minutes I completely forgot whatever the news was that upset me and found myself relaxing in the back yard with this in my hand. On Father's Day, I put some in the cooler along with my own concoctions (witbier with orange) and was able to put current events well out of mind and enjoy my family.
I highly recommend these as a change of pace and a way to enjoy a hot summer day. If you find the news bothering you, turn it off. Better, take a vacation from it, perhaps the entire summer. With that, a backyard smoker calls as I prepare the fatted calf for some friends for tomorrow, and yes, while out there, I will have some summer ales.
Enjoy and remember this simple truth, the more things change, the more they remain the same. Nothing is more noble than a fine ale and that IS the truth.
Friday, June 26, 2015
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Life Got Busy, But I Remain Faithful
The beer quest can be an expensive hobby, and with my funds limited as they are, I decided to seek employment in the world of groceries. My part-time job has paid well, but with it being summer, production at the Baldner Brewery has ground to a halt with work, travel, and hobbies.
Speaking of hobbies, the Mrs. and I went to Houston to pick up two genuine seats from the Astrodome (circa 1965 - 1999). The trip was quick, the Astros were not in town, and so we visited a few areas, ate, and sampled local beers at a pub in Kemah. Kemah sits along the bay and not along the Gulf, and yet it has developed a brand of its own which includes small art markets, seafood places, and pubs and such (marinas, boat sales, and such). I wrote the names of none of the beers I tried down for reasons I will explain later, but there is a growing industry of small craft beer makers along the coast in that area.
With the seats now in the house, we have dedicated ourselves to watching baseball in the cave (it's a catch-all cave, not just a man-cave), drinking refreshingly cold beer and pretending we are back in the Astrodome watching the Astros who, for the most part, are playing much more competitively than in the recent past. So, along with baseball, summer is about beer, and the beer changes dramatically in the summer.
It is said if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. The moron who created the quote was probably overcoming some issue and the self-help book he or she was in made a quip that created that image in his or her mind. Then they went around giving their self-help lectures and used their quick-witted quippy quote to cheer up the downtrodden they were speaking to. Non-sense. If life gives you lemons, make lemon flavored beer and shut up and quit your whining.
Lemon is the citrus of choice in the summer. My own beer for the summer was a "witbier," or white beer. One you commonly drink is Blue Moon which is the exception to the rule with orange as the mainstay of its taste. The witbier I made uses orange peels in its recipe, but that has been the exception. Almost every other beer on the market is a lemon or lemonade added beer. As a general rule, I usually think real men, or real beer drinkers, play a hand that shows they aren't when they put fruit in their beer (or drinks in general). In this case, I have created an exception to the rule called Summer Rules for Consuming an Ale.
So, the next two weeks, Average Guy will feature about four prominent summer ales - two summer pils and two lemon flavored beers. This is added to the previous review of the Sam Adams Summer Ale which features... lemons.
If someone walks up to you and says, "If life gives you lemons, drink lemonade," belt them, and as they fall to the ground, comfort them with a summer ale or pilsner and tell them you are bored with clichés used as psychobabble. Promptly apologize, tell them you are just an average guy and don't need such BS in your life, and quickly leave.
More later, but just writing this made me thirsty.
Speaking of hobbies, the Mrs. and I went to Houston to pick up two genuine seats from the Astrodome (circa 1965 - 1999). The trip was quick, the Astros were not in town, and so we visited a few areas, ate, and sampled local beers at a pub in Kemah. Kemah sits along the bay and not along the Gulf, and yet it has developed a brand of its own which includes small art markets, seafood places, and pubs and such (marinas, boat sales, and such). I wrote the names of none of the beers I tried down for reasons I will explain later, but there is a growing industry of small craft beer makers along the coast in that area.
With the seats now in the house, we have dedicated ourselves to watching baseball in the cave (it's a catch-all cave, not just a man-cave), drinking refreshingly cold beer and pretending we are back in the Astrodome watching the Astros who, for the most part, are playing much more competitively than in the recent past. So, along with baseball, summer is about beer, and the beer changes dramatically in the summer.
It is said if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. The moron who created the quote was probably overcoming some issue and the self-help book he or she was in made a quip that created that image in his or her mind. Then they went around giving their self-help lectures and used their quick-witted quippy quote to cheer up the downtrodden they were speaking to. Non-sense. If life gives you lemons, make lemon flavored beer and shut up and quit your whining.
Lemon is the citrus of choice in the summer. My own beer for the summer was a "witbier," or white beer. One you commonly drink is Blue Moon which is the exception to the rule with orange as the mainstay of its taste. The witbier I made uses orange peels in its recipe, but that has been the exception. Almost every other beer on the market is a lemon or lemonade added beer. As a general rule, I usually think real men, or real beer drinkers, play a hand that shows they aren't when they put fruit in their beer (or drinks in general). In this case, I have created an exception to the rule called Summer Rules for Consuming an Ale.
So, the next two weeks, Average Guy will feature about four prominent summer ales - two summer pils and two lemon flavored beers. This is added to the previous review of the Sam Adams Summer Ale which features... lemons.
If someone walks up to you and says, "If life gives you lemons, drink lemonade," belt them, and as they fall to the ground, comfort them with a summer ale or pilsner and tell them you are bored with clichés used as psychobabble. Promptly apologize, tell them you are just an average guy and don't need such BS in your life, and quickly leave.
More later, but just writing this made me thirsty.
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