The Session #15: Beer & Trembling - An Existential Journey into Beer Geekdom

Okay, it's Session time once again! For this 15th installment, our humble hosts Boak & Baily's have called on us to revisit the very origins of our respective beer odysseys. Rather than writing a brand new post on the subject, I thought it would be exceedingly appropriate to actually refer back to the inaugural post I published on my own blog - beerphilosopher.com - way back in May of '06 (hey, I have a two-year blogiversary coming up!)

Best of all, this post was all about how I discovered beer. I've learned a lot since that time, but my thoughts then were largely consistent with my thoughts now, so ... here it is ... My very first blog post, re-posted once again, and a glimpse into my "beer conversion" from the early days. As always, I covet your feedback on this or any subject. Email me directly by clicking right here.


[from May 2006] The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard said “most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it.” Those old philosophy dudes were smart. The same sentiment applies to beer. In order to really take pleasure in beer, as opposed to just slamming down an exorbitant amount of some random pale yellow carbonated substance, there’s something to be said for stopping to smell the roses, or hops as the case may be. Granted, if your sole purpose is to ‘get smashed,’ you’re probably not going be too concerned with what you consume to achieve that end. But, if you’ve stopped to consider that beer very well may be more than just a means to a drunken end, boy have I got a blog for you!

This being my inaugural beer blog, or any kind of blog for that matter, I thought it would be a good idea to describe how I became passionate about beer, and hopefully encourage others to drop that aluminum can and follow me out of the beer version of Plato’s cave into a whole new world of beer appreciation. We’ll also delve into subjects like the differences in beer styles, how to taste beer (yes, kind of like wine tasting), matching beer with food, home brewing, and why Guinness is served "warm." Yes, all the mysteries of beer will be examined.

I haven’t always been passionate about beer. In fact, I distinctly recall a traumatic event that happened to me when I was maybe 14 that could have taken me in an entirely different direction in my future beverage preferences. I could be writing about beet juice or the like, instead of beer right now. Frightening. Anyway, it all started when my best friend and I somehow acquired a can of generic beer. When I say generic, I mean this beer was in a non-descript white can with a black stripe and the word “Beer” printed across it in bold black letters, and little if anything else if memory serves aside from a bar code or something. We proceeded to open the can with all of the care you would reserve for a canteen of water in the desert, lest we spill a drop of this supposed treasure. We were 14 for crying out load; it was a big deal to be in possession of a can of beer.

Once opened, we debated briefly about who would get the first sip, and I lost. My friend had the honor, and lifted the can proudly in anticipation of this rite of passage into manhood. Over the next few seconds his facial expressions changed in a multitude of ways, from expectation to confusion to realization - finally arriving at a squinty, “what have I done” face that is permanently etched in my memory to this day. After finally swallowing, and trying his best to maintain some semblance of coolness while doing so, he managed to choke out a tentative, “it’s good.” Based on what I had just experienced, I had my doubts, but this wouldn’t prevent me from finding out for myself. I repeated the exact procedure that my friend had just undergone and I was quickly made aware of one thing – my friend was wrong. Very wrong. It wasn’t good. In fact, I wasn’t entirely convinced it was even meant for human consumption. So what did I do after going through the same contortions as my friend? I mumbled, “yep. It’s good.” Neither of us wanting to admit to the other that we couldn’t stand this vile substance, an unspoken pact was made that day that we would never try that again.

Thankfully, I didn’t make good on the vow I took that day, as sincere as I was at the time. For one reason or another … probably something called college … I did try beer again and slowly began to realize that there was more to beer than I originally thought. The watery, skunky stuff I had sipped in my budding youth (no pun intended) was a poor representation of what beer could be, and I had operated under that misapprehension long enough. I would make it my mission in the ensuing years to sample as many exotic, or what I thought were exotic, beers as I could. Hey, even a Heineken is exotic to someone who’s never had one. Eventually I began to understand that beer is every bit as complex and subtle as wine is, although it’s seldom thought of that way and it’s almost never given it’s ‘props’ among the wine snob elite.

I’d like to do my part to change that, or at least be a voice in the wilderness of bad beer, crying out “you don’t have to drink that!” Just as my friend and I wouldn’t admit our disdain for the generic beer we sampled at 14, for fear of somehow being thought of as less than cool, I betcha there are those out there of legal drinking age who are still imbibing in bad beer because they either know nothing else, or they don’t know how to take the first step into the ‘real’ world of beer. This is what my little blog here is all about. I might add, though, if you genuinely like the light, mass-produced beers I would probably label as “bad,” and you don’t care to try something new, more power to you. After all, a beer you like cannot be a bad beer, existentially-speaking! But for those who would like to expand their horizons and their beers, keep reading. I’ll try my best to keep it interesting, informative, and most of all … enlightening. Does that mean that I get to be one of those old philosophy dudes one day? Better start growing the ‘flavor saver’ now, huh?