I’m not usually one to speak in hyperbole, insisting that everything must be the ‘worst’ or ‘best’ thing I’ve ever witnessed.  There is such a thing as the middle ground, some in-between.  Today I will break that tradition and say that I think the mix-a-six section in a grocery or package store may be there greatest addition to the beer aisle in modern history.

An oasis of possibilities

If you’re not familiar with it, the concept is quite simple.  A grocery store or package store will have a wall of beers – not packaged, but hanging out individually – waiting for you to bundle them in a soon-to-not-be-empty six pack container with 5 other random beers.  Short of experimentation at your local watering hole, there is no better way to try a new flavor.  Have you ever thought, “I’d sure like to try that ‘Comrade Bill Bartrams Egalitarian Anti-Imperialist Soviet Stout’ but I’d prefer to not have to buy six of them.”  The mix-a-six concept was made for people like you.  And me.  Grab one.  And find five other random beers for a trip to your beer fridge.  

What’s the upside?  You get to try something new – even if you hate it, you’re only invested for those 12 ounces.  If you love it – congratulations!  You found a new favorite beer.  Now, go buy a keg.  I have recently had the great opportunity to try tons of new choices.  Through my 40 Days of Beer, I had some stuff delivered that I certainly had never heard of.  I can be quite adventurous, but there were even a few beers that showed up on my doorstep that I might normally never have purchased for myself.  And I would have been doing myself a disservice.  For example, you might recall that I’m not much of an IPA guy.  But someone brought me a great big bottle of Uinta Cahoots Double Rye IPA. (Thank you, WWK!)  If not for that delivery, I would have been missing out on an absolute winner.  More to come on that beer in a future BOTW post.

For now, go to the grocery store, grab that empty six-pack holder, and be creative.  Be wild, be daring, be adventurous!  It only costs you 12 ounces, but the potential to find greatness is completely worth it.

Comments?  Thoughts?  Topics you’d like to see covered here?  Let me know!

Today I’ll dig a little deeper into the 6-week saga known as “40 Days of Beer.”  Regulars will recall that my rock star wife had corralled 40 of my closest friends and encouraged them to either take me out for beer or bring me beer every day for the 40 days leading into my 40th birthday.  #Wow

To horribly misuse a famous quote, the journey of a thousand beers begins with a sip.  So much beer.  So.  Much. Beer.  One of my initial thoughts when contemplating this 6-week hop-induced coma was the great

No – these aren’t really my friends

realization that I would be experiencing a prolonged “Stock the Beer Fridge” party.  What I didn’t realize was how quickly I would have space difficulties.  I’m not complaining … at all.  It was overwhelming, in the most wonderful way possible.  Day 2 was a 6-pack delivery, day 4 was a half case, day 5 was three 6-packs, day 7 was another 6-pack.  You can do the math.  Three weeks in, the fridge was full and I was doing my best to whittle it down the best I could.  I was swimming upstream, almost literally.  Gradually, I was able to rearrange some things and avoid any storage issues, but another unforeseen problem arose … I was getting tired.

I have amazing friends and family.  So many of them are creative and competitive.  This almost became a toxic combination of personality traits.  There were invitations to festivals, brewery tours, nights on the town, out of town trips … the list goes on.  My brain and my liver were engaged in a titanic struggle.  It was “these fantastic people have gone to great lengths to plan something special just for you” versus “I just can’t take anymore!  I need water and sleep!”  I actually found myself having to schedule in some quiet days and ask for rain checks in order to be able to properly pace myself and fully enjoy the entire journey.

At the end of the day, someone asked me if there was such a thing as too much beer.  Of course not.  Proper planning and some self-realization make anything possible.  Fortunately for me, there is also no shortage of great friends and family that went to crazy lengths to ensure that I had an unforgettable 40th birthday.  Come back Friday for the third #BOTW installment.  We’ll feature a little something from California.  And next week will bring the next installment of the 40 Days of Beer story.

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Okay, maybe Philadelphia instead of Rome.  While here for a conference, a few of us went to an Italian restaurant our first night here.  Some orders around the table got me thinking about the choices we make when at a ‘foreign’ restaurant.

When eating Italian, do you have Peroni, Moretti or some other Italian beer?  When at a Mexican restaurant, why do we gravitate toward Tecate, Corona, Pacifico and Dos Equis?  Do you order an Asahi when at a hibachi grill?  I always do.  Either I’m a sucker or I just like the full experience of immersing myself in the culture of whatever cuisine I’m enjoying.  We’ll leave discussions about cuisine to our friends over at Plain Chicken.  But let’s dig deeper into this issue about why we make the beer decisions we make while out.

I remember years a go when a group of 8 of us went out for dinner at a Japanese steakhouse.  Watching the flair and the dinner ‘show’ while eating with chopsticks was just part of the experience for me.  I also felt like it would be a disservice to the evening to order a domestic beer.  So, of course, we all had Asahi, Sapporo and/or Kirin.  We all ate using chopsticks.  We had a fantastic evening.  The next table over was a group of 8 Japanese people out for what seemed like a similar night as ours … Friends out for fun and fellowship.  The main difference, however, was they were all drinking Budweiser and eating with forks!  It was a fully complete mixture of cultures.  Similarly, once while in Ireland, I encountered a local lad who said that he and his friends refused to drink Guinness, but would do anything to get their hands on Budweiser.  What is it about us that makes us want to always try the exotic, the different choice?

It could be a variety of reasons.  Maybe we have traveled overseas and want to relive that feeling and those memories.  Maybe it is a sense of belonging to that culture, if only for an evening.  Maybe it’s an opportunity to try something we wouldn’t normally want to buy for home consumption.  Whatever the reason, have fun with it!  That is one if the great things about the nearly overwhelming selection of beer we have these days.  So, the next time you’re in a French bistro, enjoy a Kronenbourg.  If you’re visiting your favorite Chinese spot, order a Tsingtao.  Or order that Budweiser – just have fun with it!  At the end of the day, the choice is yours and the choices are endless.

Prost. Skal. Slainte. Cheers.  Salud.  Stin ijiasas.

Welcome to my beer journey.  As we get started, I’d like for you to know a little about me and a lot about what I’ll cover and highlight on BGB.  I’m just a normal guy.  I like beer … a lot … and often (in moderation, of course.)  There are scores and scores of blogs and websites that are dedicated to beer in all its glory.  They are of a very high quality and include great volumes of information about International Bitterness Units, floral notes, brewing styles, etc.  It’s all well and good … except for so many of us who have no idea what any of that means!  This is an average Joe beer blog, written by an average Joe for average Joes.  I’ll tell you what I like and what I don’t like and why, but only in layman’s terms.  I’ll leave the fancy descriptions to the real experts.

So let’s start by discussing what is likely the greatest birthday present in the history of mankind.  I recently turned 40, although I don’t feel any older than 39, and my wife took the prize for “Greatest Wife Ever” with this: 40 days of beer for the 40 days leading up to my 40th birthday.  On day one, I didn’t yet fully understand how awesome this idea was. Only in the coming weeks could I appreciate what a tremendous six weeks I was experiencing.  What she had done was spent months getting 40 different friends of mine to schedule one of those 40 days as theirs: they were to bring me beer(s), take me out for beer(s) or do something else beer-related.  There was even a place for people to designate their beer of choice so that there was a limited amount of overlap.

And so it began on Day One at Taco Mac, the world’s finest dining establishment (that ranking has nothing to do with the fact that they have hundreds of beers on tap or in bottle.  Simply incredible.)  I began my 40th-beer-saga with a Blue Point Double Blonde and a Clown Shoes Brown Angel.  The Blue Point Double Blonde was quite nice.  It was not overpowering at all, but had a nice flavor to it – not heavy at all.  It is one I would order again.  The Brown Angel was a nice juxtaposition to the earlier beer.  This was much darker (nearly black) and had a heartier, more powerful flavor.  This is not the beer I would choose to break someone out of their Michelob Ultra tendencies.  I enjoyed it, but I don’t think I could have more than one at a time.

This is Day One of blogging for me.  Let me know what you think!  And certainly invite your friends to follow along.  I’ll try to get a post out once a week (or more once I get to a bazillion followers.)  Thanks for reading!