Showing posts with label Introduction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Introduction. Show all posts

Monday, March 22, 2010

A Red and Silver Evidence Bomb

That's how Hunter S Thompson describes a warm, open can of Budweiser clutched in Raoul Duke's hand as a cop car pulls him over in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. In Zappa's "Titties 'n' Beer" he sings "Just drink a little beer, I said, gimme summa that what yer suckin on..." And of course, there's the best of them all:

beer
rivers and seas of beer
the radio singing love songs
as the phone remains silent
and the walls stand
straight up and down
and beer is all there is.

The point, I suppose, is that there's a beauty about beer. Or at least in people's bittersweet relationship with it.

I've always been a fairly dedicated drinker. In Britain it is deemed sociable, but I move to Canada and it turns out it's a disease. I've worked in several supermarkets and liquor stores (UK: "Off-Licenses"). This has given me the chance to read a lot of labels and fall for the idea that beer is more than just a way to fill moments between conversations in a pub. Great, I thought, I can pass this dependence off as a hobby.

This year, working in a good beer shop in Victoria, BC, I had a chance to meet one or two brewers, drink some unusual and gorgeous beers, and ended up getting into "craft" beer. I found out what a great beer scene we have in the pacific northwest, and began trying some incredible American and European stuff.

Since then I've met people who write with such enthusiasm about this liquid that it stirred my writing pretensions from a lazy hibernation. I've been writing reviews and forum-blathering on BeerAdvocate for months now, but I decided a blog might suit me better.

Of course, all the best poetry about beer has already been written. And I might lose interest in two weeks, and this blog will fester on some server. Until then, these are just my thoughts. And it is just a drink, let's not forget. Not much. Small beer.