Through the Beers

If you know me, you know I am not really a beer drinker.

I tend not to enjoy it. Not the taste of it. Not the carbonation. Not really any of it.

But I do try, I dabble in fruity beers and have discovered that some wheat beers really are kind of delicious.

I blame my lack of beervoire-faire on the fact that for the early portions of my drinking life, I drank really really shitty beer.

Age 18 - I spent the entire summer working at the summer camp I attended as a younger gal with a bunch of my camp friends. On the few nights off we had that summer, I became well acquainted with Bud Light. I distinctly remember an ill-fated house party in New Rochelle, New York that cumulated with my friend Kristen and I being so psyched that"OMG we just drank ten beers". The repercussions of that night were far reaching meaning I made out with my friend Beth MUCH older brother's friend, my friend Holly snapped a picture of it (we were embroiled in an epic Prank War which I eventually lost!)) and then sent them out to all of our friends as Christmas Cards later that year with the caption Ho Ho Ho. Oh Bud Light, look what you did to me!

Age 19-20 - The Slamherst years when I honed my drinking skills at Umass Amherst on such gourmet brews as Milwaukee's Best, and Milwaukee's Best Light (known is social circles as Beast and Beast Light). Beer that goes down so easily can never lead to good things, and pretty much never did. Hence my scholarly endeavors at this university ended too soon as I transferred to UMASS Boston where at least I could intersperse my partying with the occasional class

Since then, I have not really been a beer drinker. Brief interludes with Sam Summer and Paper City's One Eared Monkey aside. My beer drinking is so rare that over the weekend while visiting our niece, Adam's brother began taking pictures of me enjoying a Sam Summer rather than Adam holding the baby, because LOOK SARAH IS DRINKING A BEER!!

Woah.

But this fall, a change, it is a brewin'.

While at Marty's on Saturday evening, my eyes fell upon their newly released selection of fall beers. Aside from being psyched that the best season ever will be so soon upon us, the understated packaging of the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale spoke to me and I found myself purchasing a four pack before the night was through. I figured if I don't like it, Adam probably will.

But MAN is it good. Wow. Spicy. Pumpkin-y. Fall-ish < -- total technical beer term. I enjoyed it with some dried apricots on Saturday night and was in total beer love. It wasn't just like "Ok, I am drinking a beer. Now Adam can't bitch that he drinks wine for me but I won't drink beer for him". I mean I really enjoyed it. A lot. It was a total beerpiphany. So then the next day I was at my parent's, exclaiming proudly to my brother that I think I am becoming a beer drinker again, he told me "you have to try this" and handed me a bottle of Grant's Mandarin Hefeweizen that he had just picked up a 6 pack off. I brought it home and stuck it in the fridge and when I popped it open later that night I was really surprised at how juicy and MANDARIN-y it was. Not really too beery at all, which for me - someone who is not the biggest beer fan- is not a drawback. It was definitely a beer to drink ice cold at a hot end of summer party.

So that is the update over here, my second or third attempt to enjoy beer is going well and I am always on the hunt for good recommendations ESPECIALLY for spicy fall beers! So lay it on me.