Beer
So, here it is, Tuesday again, when I offer Two Thoughts on Tuesday as part of BlogDumps Top Sites Tuesday. This week, the subject is Beer. When I was a kid … a little kid … I was at a parade with my parents when a passing horse decided to urinate in the street right in front of me. When I made an appropriate expression of disgust … perhaps ooohhh or yuck … and old man standing next to me said, That’s where beer comes from, you know. So here’s Thought Number One: You’d think with that introduction to the fine art of beer making, I’d be sticking to wine and the hard stuff. But I like beer. Sometimes love it. My Dad usually had a six-pack of Schaefer Beer in the fridge and on those occasions when he’d have one, he’d drink it right from the can. Aaaahhh, he’d sigh after is first sip. How could a
boy not associate the beverage with manhood? I remember, too, stopping outside the Hulls Brewery on Congress Avenue in New Haven as a kid. I remember the smell of beer in the air and a sign high on the building showing a man drinking a frosty Hull’s. I think I remember that the sign emitted a gentle spray, meant to be the foam from his glass, but I may have been hallucinating from the smell of the hops.
So, what brings on this burst of beer can nostalgia? In the latest issue of Smart Money … which was a gift from my daughter … was an article titled, Hey, Beer Man, an interview with Peter Swinburn, the current CEO of Molson Coors Brewers. I was interested to find that beer sales have flattened, while sales of wine and hard liquor are rising. And I was surprised to find that the two best selling beers in the U.S. are Bud Light and Coors Light, the first time number one and two weren’t Anheiser Busch brands. Why? Here’s a clue: according to the article, the reason that Coors Light moved into second place was in part because of its neat bottle (the white mountains on the bottle turn blue when the beer is very cold).
That’s right. Coors Light is the second most popular beer in the U.S. because of the bottle. Thought Number Two: Those stupid beer commercials I’m continually complaining about actually work. Gloom. I think I’ll go have a Sam Adams. Or an Anchor Steam. Or a Bierch Marzen. Or a Widmer Drifter Pale Ale. Really, with all the great beers available, why would anyone choose a tasteless light lager? That’s what I wonder. I also wonder if you’d like to push my button to make me number one on Top Sites Tuesday #143. Yes? Thank you! Have a cold one on me.
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Tags: beer, commercials, curmudgeonly rants, family, humor, memes, nostalgia, postaday, Top Sites Tuesday
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Older Eyes 
March 20, 2012 at 9:36 am
The bottle…not what’s in the bottle is helping propel the sales. That’s interesting. I know next to nothing about the difference in beers. I had a beer once when I was young and hated it. UCK but it wasn’t long after that that I discovered I have alcohol intolerance so that was a done deal any way. I occassionly have had opportunities to take tours of brewries and while I don’t care for the beverage, I think the brewries are so fascinating.
March 25, 2012 at 10:49 pm
I don’t ever remember not likiing beer, even when my dad would let me have a sip. Except for the really dark stuff, which is a bit to earthy for me.
March 20, 2012 at 11:43 am
I loved beer too. Sadly I am allergic to malt and barley so I can’t drink it any more. My favorite used to be Corona.
March 25, 2012 at 10:50 pm
Sorry you can’t enjoy. I like Corona on occasion but usually something darker.
March 20, 2012 at 6:46 pm
Oh how I need a beer!
–Trina
March 25, 2012 at 10:51 pm
have one on me.
March 20, 2012 at 6:47 pm
Hi Bud,
Right now I’m in the swamps of South Carolina. It’s hot and muggy and I sure cold go for an Ice Cold Black and Tan. Man that sounds goo!
Clicks!
Wolf
March 25, 2012 at 10:52 pm
There is nothing better than a beer when it’s hot and muggy … unless it’s two.
March 20, 2012 at 7:07 pm
My father used to drink Schaefer when I was a kid. Sometimes he drank Schlitz. Then it was Miller, and as he got older, he moved to the “light” stuff (so he could drink more of it). He has been a solid Coors Light man for years. But I don’t think it’s because of the frosty blue magic mountains! (And no matter the brand, he always drank straight from the container it came in.)
March 25, 2012 at 10:54 pm
Most people out here never heard of Shaeffer beer. I was always an out of the bottle or ca person, but since ive started drinking the ambers, I like to be able to see the color, so I’ve switched to a chilled mug or glass.
March 20, 2012 at 7:24 pm
I have fond childhood beer memories too. My parents drank Buckhorn beer (in a bottle.) My grandfather worked at the Hamm’s brewery, which then became the Stroh’s brewery, where my aunt worked. So did my sister, one summer and my dad during a period of time when he was laid off from another job.
You’d probably cringe to know that my favorite beer is Michelob Golden Light. Once in a while I like a Blue Moon or a Landshark Lager.
March 25, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Please, please tell me you don’t put an orange slice in your Blue Moon 🙂
March 21, 2012 at 6:08 pm
I don’t like beer, but I wish I did. When my husband pours himself a glass of icy cold beer when he’s grilling out in the summer, I think how refreshing it would be. I’ve just never developed a taste for it. My husband enjoys Newcastle Ale, but he likes a Sam Adams once in awhile, too.
March 25, 2012 at 10:56 pm
Oh, yeah, I forgot Newcastle. I started drinking that when I was on business in London. Excellent.
March 23, 2012 at 9:59 am
I much prefer beer over wine or hard liquor and on the rare occasions I might venture out of the house, up to the local Moose, odds are I’ll order either a Coors Light or Yingling! But I really do like Black and Tan, VERY much so! Back in the mid-90s when my son came home on a month’s leave from Germany, he had a party in our back yard and there was much beer. After he returned to Germany and I was cleaning up stuff out in the sunporch area, I came across a bag that looked to have a bunch of beer cans in it and I thought it was probably empties from around the back yard from his party. That is, until I picked the bag up and it was really heavy. Turns out Sonny Boy had inadvertently left behind 3 six packs of Black and Tan! I was in 7th Heaven!
March 25, 2012 at 10:58 pm
I g back and forth between beer and wine. Mostly wine in the winter and beer in the summer. Sometimes if I’m thirsty, I like beer with dinner because a tall one lasts longer than a glass of wine and usually costs less.