Session #23: Beery things I’ll miss in 2009

This is my contribution to The Session #23. Visit Beer and Firkins for the roundup of what dozens of bloggers had to write.

The question: What will you miss about 2008 and what do you expect will excite you most in 2009?

Let’s start with the second part of the assignment. a) I don’t have a clue what beers will leave me babbling or where they will come from. b) I’d like to see 2009 be “The Year of The Session” but is that something you’re supposed to get excited about? c) I am looking forward to tasting what’s new in New Mexico when we get home.

Now back to 2008. Should we talk about moments or particular beers? You only get one “first time” with Isabelle Proximus. And when will we next hike to an overview of Alaska’s Mendenhall Glacier, then refresh ourselves with Alaskan Stout?

With that in mind I made a quick list of five things that we did or drank in 2008 and surely won’t in 2009, or perhaps ever again. Not meant to be inclusive and certainly not ordered.

– Opened a 1968 bottle of Thomas Hardy’s Ale. That’s the cork on the left, leaving the impression the beer was in a hurry to come out and meet us.

– Slept in the Bell’s Brewery parking lot. We were sober, sleeping in our beds away from home (the RV), and John Mallett offered us the place to park. Impossible to resist.

– Drank Zoigl beers on Reunification Day in Germany, the only day each year all the Neuhaus house breweries serve their beer.

– Discovered the keller beer Back Street Brewing in San Diego served during the Craft Brewers Conference in April.

– Opened the bottle of Cantillon’s Rosé de Gambrinus we hauled through 13 countries. When we bought the beer at the brewery in September they suggested we let it condition as long as possible, until the last night of our trip, making it the last beer we had in Europe. It got warm in the car and it got cold. No other bottle will taste exactly the same.