Beer Choice

There are a wide variety of beers available for your personal or professional consumption. You are no doubt already aware of this. Or you have been sleeping.

Regardless . . .

If you are working in the yard on a hot summer afternoon you probably want something light that you can drink one after another. Any of the American lagers come to mind: Pabst, Budweiser, etc. If you want to sip something and consider its dark complexity, then you are better off with some sort of craft brew available in your large liquor supermarket.

I drank Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve from age [removed] to my early thirties before I realized it was just another American lager. Still like it, but I've moved on. After discovering New Belgium's Fat Tire it became the go-to beer at home and at many fine restaurants that served it. Depending what was on sale, though, could alter my choice a time or two. Sierra Nevada, Gordon Biersch, Lagunitas, or any of a multitude (although, truth be told, because this is a blog, and the truth must always be told unless a lie serves better, I rarely grab the Bud or Coors or any of their ilk).

Lately I have been frequenting [large liquor supermarket] and have enjoyed sampling many different brews. Six packs, twelve packs, 22 ounce bottles, I am not picky. I have also brought home Trader Vic's Macadamia Nut Liqueur and an Italian artichoke-based liqueur called Cynar and a really sickeningly sweet kiwi liqueur and some peanut butter-filled pretzels which don't really belong in a blog entry about booze. But they taste great and I can eat them by the handful.

Anyway . . .

I sit in the family room at this very moment and contemplate some beer that is in the fridge. It tempts me, but I leave it to sit and cool. I will bring it to Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow at my mom's house and serve it to anyone who wants to try it. I expect my wife to and probably my sister and brother. Sister's boyfriend might partake. My son will ask, and I will consider his age and turn him down. Four years to go by my count. The beer in question is a four-pack, a most unusual number, and more surprising because it cost over fourteen bucks. I bought it because it is called Palo Santo Marron.

My siblings and I grew up on Palo Santo Drive in Campbell, California. Dogfish Head Brewery (Delaware) makes Palo Santo Marron and I paid the price and we will drink it simply because of its name. Not the best reason to choose a beer, but there are a thousand reasons to choose a beer. Its name can't be the worst.

From the brewery website:

"An unfiltered, unfettered, unprecedented brown ale aged in handmade wooden brewing vessels. The caramel and vanilla complexity unique to this beer comes from the exotic Paraguayan Palo Santo wood from which these tanks were crafted. Palo Santo means "holy tree" and it's wood has been used in South American wine-making communities. This beer is a 12% abv, highly roasty, and malty brown ale aged on the Palo Santo wood."

I don't want to advertise for these folks necessarily, what with their current reality TV show on Discovery Channel, but there you go. I bought their beer. I'll drink it tomorrow. After that, the future will unfold in one way or another.

Drink up.