Beginning of Beer

Sadly (or not), I remember my first taste of beer. I can't remember how old I was exactly, but I was about 2 or 3 years old. My uncles were at our house (and likely other family members as well) and my dad and them were outside talking, drinking a beer, when I walked up to my father and did what little kids do, I reached up and asked to try what he was drinking. For some reason he let me try it. To this day I remember that it was a Miller Genuine Draft... and it tasted horrible. I also distinctly remember my father and brothers laughing at me after I tasted it... (note to self: possibly cause of many deep rooted issues)

Between then and college, I can't say I remember drinking beer. What I do remember about beer from then is that my father and grandfather would drink Old Milwaukee on Sunday's at car shows during the summer. My brain still has an imprint of what it smells like, though I've never actually drank one.

I didn't start drinking until late in my freshman year of college. Once I did I remember drinking typical crappy beer (Miller/Coors/Bud products, Mickey's, Colt 45...) and hard alcohol (Fleischmann's, etc.). At some point towards the end of my freshman year I went to a house party with a couple of friends out on East Gorham. To this day I wish I knew what kind of beer they had at that party. All I really remember about it was that it was a dark beer and unlike the MGD, it was delicious. From that point on I realized that beer actually could taste good. (Unlike what MillerCoors would like you to believe, as most of you know, Miller Lite does not actually taste great.)

Still being underage and living in the dorms my sophomore year, the different brands and styles of beer that I tried did not expand very much. I was introduced to Leinenkugel's and for a time, Leinie's Original was my beer of choice (but I'd settle for a Honey Weiss if I couldn't get O). I don't remember much else from around this time that would be considered important to the process of me becoming me (beer related at least), though those events could just be lost in all of the memories of the past 8+ years.

The two events that I can say were most important to my appreciation (and now love) of beer were my roommate Brian turning 21 (legal access to alcohol, even if it wasn't legal for me...) and obviously my 21st birthday.

There are two events that I can say were the most important to my appreciation (and now love) of beer:

Brian turns 21

Brian was my roommate for three years in college (somehow we didn't kill each other during that time). Brian will be brought up a lot as long as this blog keeps going, as all of the homebrewing I do takes place at his house. His love of beer has only fueled mine. So when he was able to buy beer such as Newcastle, Boddington's, and Sam Adams, it introduced me to a whole new world.

I turn 21

This one is pretty obvious. Being able to walk into a liquor store and know you aren't going to get kicked out is a pretty good feeling when you're 21. Also, it finally allowed me to try the beer at The Great Dane...

Today's run: 7 miles - 50:47 (treadmill at the Princeton Club, it was 90 outside with a 40 mph wind, I'm not running outside in that)
Today's beer: 19 North Dry Bones Weiss - (Updating as I didn't talk about the beer) Dry Bones was the part of our fourth batch of beer that Brian, John, and I brewed. It is the half of the batch that didn't go through secondary fermentation over peaches. The two batches turned out a little darker than I thought they would (I have since found a tool to calculate the beer's color), but it is still good. The carbonation didn't get to the level I thought it would as well. Enough complaining about my own beer.

• Skippy's rating - 4 out of 6 beers