Beer Cooler ... is anything but.

What's one of the worst things that could happen to a beer geek?

Sure, you might cite a reprise of prohibition, or maybe a complete ban on all imports from Belgium, and I'll grant you those. But short of that I'd say what happened to me yesterday evening around dinner time comes pretty close.

I go downstairs to snag a couple of beers for the wife and I to enjoy with dinner. As I approach the beer fridge, situated on the far side of our basement "bar" area, I'm thinking only of what beer sounds good to me with Mexican. I don't have any Mexican beers in my beer fridge, but even if I did they'd not likely sound good to me regardless of what we were having for dinner ...but I digress.

I open the door and much to my dismay, the first beer I grab (an O'Fallon Wheach for Erin) is warm! I wrap my hand around a few more random bottles and sure enough, they're all room temperature. I step back and listen ... yes, the beer fridge is turned on and running ...

What gives? The thing is less than a year old and it's been treated well, trust me. Other beer fridges only wish they had it so good ... most of them are probably stuffed with 24 packs of Old Milwaukee or Miller Lite (no offense, please, to my macro beer drinking friends). Not this one!

I pull out all my beers so I can jiggle and shake the thing a bit (a man's fix for a lot of broken appliances) - I pull out a few Rogue beers in 22oz bombers, a 750ml of Chimay Grand Reserve, a Westvleteren 8 I'd been saving for a "rainy day," and random bottles of beer from the likes of Schlafly, O'Fallon, Bell's, Stone, Victory, Ommegang, and others ... you get the picture.

Good beers! That fridge should be thankful!

Instead it just sits there, even now ... taunting me with it's silence (I've unplugged the thing for fear of a mechanical/electrical issue). I have no idea what's wrong and I've yet to find the documentation that came with it. Until I do, a few "staple" beers are going to make a migration upstairs to the big fridge (the one that still likes us), though Erin probably won't like the new additions to the already packed space.

I share this not because I'm asking for help, or soliciting the good favor of a beer fridge repair guy who might happen to read this post, no ... I share this simply because we need to share our sorrows in life. For some it's the loss of a loved one, a job, a breakup, or some similar calamity.

For a beer geek, however, the loss of a dedicated beer fridge can hurt pretty bad.

I don't ask for sympathy ... I only ask for refrigeration.