I am generally not a beer drinker. This is for two reasons:
I’m alergic (or used to be) to something in a majority of popular beers. Just one beer would make me violently ill almost exactly 12 hours later. As the joke goes, I was never sure if it was the 13th or 14th 😀 But seriously, just the 1st and only beer would make me sick and so I learned very quickly to avoid beer. Guinness is about the only beer I will drink on a regular basis.
The second reason is much easier to understand … I just don’t like them. They taste like crap, leave an awful feeling in your mouth, and you can taste the skanky aftertaste for hours. Bleh!
However.
I have been listening to a number of beer and beer-related podcasts recently (Namely Michael and Evo’s Wingin It! and Speaking of Beer) and they peaked my curiosity. I’ve become interested in beer and I want to try a beer that’s actually good.
So, it comes to tonight. Out with the family for dinner (Pancake Parlour, where we’ve never had a bad meal – just some ambivalent service) and it occurrs to me that maybe they have some decent beer. I ask in my most timid please don’t think I’m a freak, I’m as normal as the next guy voice for an organic beer. The result suprised me, and now I want more!
I ended up with a Mountain Goat India Pale Ale. Actually, it was their only organic beer and I had coincidentally been looking at the Mountain Goat site earlier in the day. Thanks to the beer-casts I knew that an IPA was never going to be my favourite beer as I’ve not enjoyed bitter beers in the past.
Well, that may be changing. I don’t have the vocabulary to properly describe the experience, but it was good! It was bitter, but not distastefully so and an aftertaste that lingered briefly and then was gone. When in the mouth, it was light and clean and fresh. I could really grow to like this beer.
My favourite class of beer would have to be stout and Mountain Goat do an award winning stout – and apparently it has just won again at the 2006 Australian International Beer Awards. Their Surefoot Stout won Best in Class, Champion Stout and the Premier’s Trophy for Best Victorian Beer. Surely this must be worth a try? 😉
To conclude? Beer me! Just make it a good one – at least as good as the Mountain Goat IPA.