Is it Beer O'Clock Yet?

If it is, you're probably paying too much for it!

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/why-every-cold-beer-costs-you-more.aspx

I am glad to see that Guinness was not mentioned in that article. Guinness good. Anheuser-Busch bad (except for some of their advertisements. I still fondly remember my Bud Man tee-shirt). This is not to say that only dark beers (or ales) are the only good beers. In the right setting I enjoy lighter (not LIGHT, mind you, just lighter) beers. With Asian food I can enjoy a Saporo, or a Zing Tao. With Mexican food a Modelo Especial is a fine accompaniment. I’ve had Red Stripe from Jamaica and enjoyed it, as well as German style lagers on occasion. There are fine beers being made of all kinds all over the world. But yet most of what Americans drink is, in my opinion, undrinkable. Of course I freely admit to being a terrible beer snob (there will never be another ’87 Anchor Steam). I love good beer. Mostly dark beer. Particularly Ales. Brown Ales. Porters. Stouts. I will drink a pale ale now and then, and amber ale. But American Style Lagers are right out. Bud, Bush, Miller, Coors and the like are what a guy pees out after drinking real beer. Real beer should have flavor and complexity. It should not under any circumstances have the word Light in it, unless you’re talking about beer made by Lighthouse Brewery. Small batches of beer are better batches of beer. These truths we hold to be self evident. Sam Adams used to be a smallish brewery, but now they are a macro-brewer (a brewer who makes giant batches of beer). You can’t control the taste of beer as well when you make large batches (batches? We don’t need no stinking batches!! Heh heh.). Of course there are those who say that Guinness is a macro-brewer too. This is true, but it is a special exception. Guinness has been making the same beer, with the same recipe, for 250 years! I think they’ve got the recipe down by now. And they still make a LOT less of it than Anheuser-Bush makes of Bud. And, Guinness is Good for You! It says so right on their advertisements! I freely admit that I started my beer drinking with cheap, pale, flavorless stuff like Bud. But thanks to peer pressure from my friends I learned to first love slightly darker and richer beers like Bass Ale, and soon graduated to Samuel Smith’s Pale Ale, and mild brown ales like Newcastle (still an all-time favorite). Eventually I had the courage (not John Courage, although that too is a good beer!) to try Guinness. It was my destiny it seems, as I am nearly 100% Irish and have dreamt of going to Ireland almost all my life (a dream that, as you recall from my haiku post was finally fulfilled). It took a little getting used to, but my conversion to a Guinness fanatic was soon complete, and culminated in my first pint in Ireland (at Dirty Nelly’s) and the trip to St. James Gate Brewery (aka Mecca). If only more people would learn to truly enjoy a good pint, instead of swilling down the pale and lifeless brew that passes for beer in this country. The world would be a better place. Guinness teaches you patience, as you wait for it to settle. It’s rich and dark colour is soothing. The head gives you a beer mustache, which can be good for a laugh. It is lower in Alcohol, which is good for your liver. And, of course, it gives you strength, being what I like to call liquid bread. They may call whiskey “the water of life” in Ireland, but Guinness Refreshes Your Spirit!