Session #49 reminder: Get ‘regular’

The SessionDon’t forget The Session #49 on Friday, when the theme is “regular beer.”

The Session is open to anybody, so if you don’t have one and want to write a post I’ll publish it here. If you are a blogger, email me with the URL Friday 4 or post a comment here, and by early the next week I’ll write a wrap up with links to all the posts.

As the announcement should have made clear this is a pretty open-ended topic, but just to help out . . . one excerpt from Travels With Barley and one thought from a brewer.

In Travels author Ken Well wraps up a chapter recounting a night drinking with Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione.

“Late that night at the Rusty Rudder, Calagione and I sat at on open-air table with a couple of his buddies we’d bumped into, sipping Shelter Pale and just getting acquainted. And I knew Sam was a real Beer Guy, not a Beer Geek, when toward the end of evening, with our cash rapidly depleting and an ATM nowhere in sight, we decided to extend the night by one more beer. So we pooled our pitiful reserve of pocket-crumpled dollar bills and loose change and ordered — what else? — two pints of the really cheap Miller Lite on tap.

“And drank them, I must report, with great pleasure.”

When I asked Port Brewing/Lost Abbey co-founder and brewing director Tomme Arthur to define regular beer he got right to the point.

“Regular beer is the stuff tickers* find boring. Enough said.”

*****

* Soon, maybe even this week, I will post a mini-review of “BEERTICKERS: Beyond the ale.” An even shorter version: it’s worth your time and the cost of a rental.

21 thoughts on “Session #49 reminder: Get ‘regular’”

  1. Am I the only one who sees very little connection between beer tickers and beer geeks? Tickers are almost exclusively British, tend to be middle-aged (or older) and are, generally, fans of Real Ale. Geeks are primarily American, young and fans of “extreme beer”.

    What they do have in common, I think, is a passion about beer.

    Reading what Ken Well wrote and what several people wrote in the previous post about Budweiser, I am starting to wonder if beer geeks see “regular beer” as the industrial stuff most non-geeks try to avoid at all costs.

  2. Mike, I do see a similarity, and I don’t think it has to do with age, nation of origin, or the types of beers you are interested in. The similarity is that both tickers, and certain elements in the American beer community seem preoccupied with keeping a scorecard of how many (rare) beers they have tasted, acquired, rated, etc.–Much like the kids 10 years ago who were collecting Pokemon cards.
    Nothing wrong this per se, but I think some beer drinkers find that it can sometimes take away from the actual drinking, enjoying and socializing involved in say sharing a round of ordinary pale ales, or even a pitcher of Old Style.
    BTW, I’m middle-aged (or older), and consider myself a beer geek, and I enjoy both extreme beers and regular beers.

  3. David, I agree with much of what you wrote. The exception is the first sentence, but that’s not important.

    I am Stan’s age (you’ll have to ask him if that’s middle aged). I have a strong dislike for extreme and industrial beers. Fortunately, where I live, there are few beers that fall into those categories, so I’m quite happy with the beer available to me.

    No one I know (happily) is a ticker/geek, so drinking beer is the social activity it is meant to be.

  4. I routinely state there is a time and place for all beer. I find no reason to criticize anyone on their choice of beverage and ask for the same courtesy in return. There is a local brewery here that just opened up a nice restaurant and bar last year. They have about 20 taps with a number devoted to the house brands and the remainder (minus 1) devoted to other local and well known craft beer. That 1 remainder tap.. that went to PBR. I personally get one every time I am there to support the owners decision to put a macro on and not one of the big 3 (not to mention it’s the cheapest pint in the bar). Yet I have heard plenty of negative reaction to this tap by some of his bartenders. And to that I have to really wonder why as it is still money coming in to the establishment as well as probably tip for the bartender. Not everyone is on board with the craft beer revolution. That tap has single handedly gotten my group of friends to go there on occasion as there are a couple who just aren’t in to the craft scene but that gives them an option they enjoy while we can order an IPA, stout, or one of their GABF Gold winning Brown ales.

    Anyway.. very interesting to read about Sam Calagione drinking a Miller Lite.

  5. “What they do have in common, I think, is a passion about beer.”

    What they have in common is OCD. If it wasn’t beer it would be something else: baseball stats, obscure Tamla Motown 45s, rare birds …

    (ducks down to avoid inevitable hail of abuse …)

  6. “I’ll post something at Cheese and Cheers on March 3 about a Chicago beer that is one of my all-time favorite regulars.”

    David chose the subject I was mulling around for this topic and wrote a much better essay than I probably could have put together in a couple days — see Cheese & Cheers for his Session entry.

  7. David — yes. If there was any one beer in my usual choices, it would be the Honkers — always available around me, always tasty, sort of taken for granted.

    The runner-up would have been the Goose IPA. Thanks to the Pub Pack, I get both!

  8. When I was attending first Thursday regularly, an imp. pint of Honkers was the anchor beer while I was tasting everything else. Love the IPA, too. Those Pub Packs are always at family parties now.

  9. David — I just finished reading about the Cabot as well, have to find some of that to sample with a nice Honkers pint.

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