The beers of my youth

My old man gave me an idea last Friday.

I called home and he asked what kind of beer I had bought that night. After work I visit BevMo! to restock my supply for the weekend. I always buy Pabst (if I need it) and something else. Last week I bought a six-pack of Moosehead, a smooth lager from Canada and one of my favorites.

“Do you remember all the different beers you’ve had over the years?” he said.

“Most of them,” I said. I had actually never though of it before and tried at that moment to recall them all. I couldn't. “I might not remember what they taste like but I remember their names.”

“You should make a list,” he said. “You should keep track of everything you’ve tried so you won’t forget.”

It’s not a bad idea. I take pride in my connoisseurship but have never thought to chronicle my weekly brew tasting. In college I saved a bottle of each beer I tried, but decided to recycle the collection two years ago when I was deep in a graduation induced identity crisis (“Beer bottles are not who I am!”).

This is what I propose: Each Friday night I will profile the beer I buy for the weekend. Not only will it be fun (I mean, I get to drink the stuff), but I will actually put my beer savvy to work. I may even convert a few readers (if this blog has any), freeing them from the bland, watered down clutches of Budmilloors.

Also, it will get me blogging again. I’ve been a lazy blogger this year.

So, first off I’m going to try listing all the beers I’ve ever tasted. It might not be a complete list this time around — I’m sure I’ll remember more once I’ve hit the “publish” button — but it will give me a chance to dig around in the field of my memory and give scale to my beer enthusiasm. Here we go (in the order I remember them):

Pabst Blue Ribbon
Pabst Blue Ribbon Light
Pabst Genuine Draft
Pabst Ice
Budweiser
Bud Light
Miller High Life
Miller Genuine Draft
Miller Lite
Icehouse
Rolling Rock (yuck — it used to be my favorite)
Foster’s Lager
Foster’s Special Bitter
Coors Original
Coors Light
Blue Moon (“It’s just a little taste of heaven”)
Labatt Blue
Busch
Busch Lite
Guinness Draught
Guinness Extra Stout
Kingfisher
Jumping Cow
Stockyard Stout
Black Hart
Mackeson XXX
Rogue Shakespeare Stout
Rogue Mocha Porter
Stone IPA
Goose Island Honkers Ale
Goose Island 312 Urban Wheat
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (which has to be the worst beer I have ever had; it tasted like drinking cigarette butts)
Fat Tire
Moosehead
Molson Canadian
Molson Golden
Molson Ice
Newcastle Brown Ale
Murphy’s Irish Stout
Murphy’s Irish Red
Beamish
Leinenkugel’s Original
Leinenkugel’s Honey Weiss
Leinenkugel’s Berry Weiss
Leinenkugel’s Sunset Wheat
Schlitz (which made Milwaukee famous)
LaCross Lager
LaCross Lite
Kul
Kul Lite
Sam Adams Boston Lager
Sam Adams Cream Stout
Sam Adams Black Lager
Sam Adams Cherry Wheat
Colt .45
Mickey’s
Old English 800
King Cobra
Steel Reserve
Old Style
Red Stripe
Corona
Pacifico
Negra Modelo
Modelo Especial
Tecate
Dos Equis
Bohemia (with the foil wrap)
Saint Pauli Girl
Lowenbrau
DAB
Warsteiner
Anchor Steam
Anchor Steam Winter Porter
Anchor Steam Liberty Ale
Summit Extra Pale Ale
Summit Hefe Weizen (in high school we called it “Heave-wheezen” because it made us heave and wheeze)
City Lager
Bass
Harp
Belhaven Scottish Ale
Birra Moretti
Carlsberg
Delirium Tremens
Grolsch
Heineken
Karlovacko
Longboard Lager
Pipeline Porter
Hollande 1620
Whitbread
Michelob Amber Bock
Orval Trappist Ale
Pilsner Urquell
Redhook E.S.B.
Sapporo
Sheaf Stout (Oh, Santa Cruz…)
Sprecher Black Bavarian
Boulevard Pale Ale
Boulevard Dry Stout
Breckenridge Trademark Pale Ale
Breckenridge Oatmeal Stout
Bavaria
Hobgoblin
Mill Stream Oatmeal Stout
Mill Stream Pale Ale
Okocim Palone
Shiner Bock
Sleeman
Sleeman Cream Ale
Old Rasputin Imperial Stout
Sint Bernardus Prior 8

I’m going to stop there. In total the list is 112 beers long (313 words or so, which used to be a good writing night for me). It’s not that I’m showing off. Well…I am. I bet I’ve tried more beers than you. I’m a humble guy, so I’m allowed to do it a few times a year.

The BevMo! and John’s Grocery websites helped jog my memory, yet I have a nagging suspicion that I’m leaving a few out. I keep picturing my old collection of bottles, thinking, “What was that one back there? And that green one? Did I include that one?” A few Christmas’s ago my cousin gave me two large bottles of specialty brew that came in tin canisters (one included a glass), and I can only remember Hobgoblin, so I know I’m missing one. And how about the beers my friend and I had at 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall, a bar in Santa Cruz that offers (I bet you can guess…) 99 beers? I can only remember two, but I know I tried a few more.

Regardless, I’ve sampled a lot of the fine crafted beverages that the brew masters of the world have to offer. I suggest you go out and do the same. Free yourself from the shackles of blandness and discover the beers of the world if you haven't already. After all, as my friend used to say all the time, “Variety is the spice of life.”

Cheers.

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