In response to another blog post http://happinessstanlives.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/around-the-world-in-80-beers/ I thought that I could do some “Beer analysis” too.
The grocery store where I normally shop sometimes has a “Make Your Own 6 Pack” option where they collect beer that has come from other 6 packs or 12 packs that for various reasons are not complete. There are times when you can find some really good stuff in that bin.
This is the selection that I was able to buy. Yes, there are only 5 beers being shown. I bought 2 of the “Grolsch” because the only other beers would have been Bud Light, Coors Light or Miller Lite. I didn’t consider those to be good for this purpose.
My personal beer history:
My first taste of beer was when I was 12. My best friend was having a birthday party sleepover for his 12th birthday. (innocent story so far!!) We were in the family basement which was completely finished with a bowling game, pool table and a full bar !!! (now the story goes bad!!) Probably about 11 pm, one of the more adventurous young friends had the bright idea of getting a beer to pass around. Being this to be about 1976, the popular beer at that time was “Old Style” and a bottle was taken out of the bar fridge. The beer was opened and the first person took a sip. There was a pregnant pause as the rest of use were waiting to see what would happen !! Someone said “How is it?” and he kind of made a sour face and then smiled and replied “It’s good.” I think we all knew he was lying. The bottle came around to me and I already did not like the smell of it. My parents were not smokers or drinkers, but every New Years Eve they hosted a card party and most of the other adults did smoke and drink. The following morning, the downstairs smelled of stale cigarette smoke and stale beer. Because of that, I was already thinking the worst. The bottle came up to my lips and as soon as it made contact, I knew that I didn’t like it. I faked taking a sip and passed it on. This went on for probably 15 minutes until almost all of the beer was gone. I think everyone else knew that I wasn’t drinking it.
My next beer wouldn’t be until I was 17 at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich.
First, I’m just going to list the beers and the complete analysis of each one:
Grolsch #1
I like it
Coors
I like it
Corona
Don’t like. I can see why people hide the taste with a lime.
Old Style
Meh, could go without ever drinking that again.
Modelo
Don’t like.
Grolsch #2
Tasted like Grolsch #1, could drink 50 more of those.
Yep, that’s my entire detailed analysis of those beers. As soon as I started with the first one, I knew that I would be unable to describe sufficiently the taste, quality attributes etc of the beers.
The taste of beer, like food is subjective and everyone has their own standards for it. (but there is good and bad !!)
On a side note, when I drank the Old Style, it occurred to me that I had not drank an Old Style since the Cubs/Cardinals season finale at Wrigley Field, 10/05/1986. Sometimes very strange as why we remember certain things but there is another story behind that.
I have always wanted to try making homemade beer. Alton Brown shows how “easy it is:
Bacon Time !!!!!! 
Matthew…dude…I love it! I don’t have time to read the entire post, but I will later tonight. I have a bunch of lumber to unload and sort. I bring that up because based on what I have read, you will appreciate my story. My fiancee and I stopped in to the Habitat 4 Humanity store, where they sell donated building supplies. I walked out with between $300-600 worth of high quality furniture grade wood for $30…
So once I can relax and drink a beer…I will read about you drinking beer!
Cheers
Andrew
Good for you guys !!
My wife hits the thrift store quite a bit and finds a lot of quality clothes for our daughter.
I have a number of pretty nice pieces of furniture that I found on the curb and refinished myself.
My grandpa used to make beer.. my dad loves it and I used to beg for a sip. (I turned out all right in the end.. no excessive alcohol consumption yet:) I think I loved the yeasty/bread smell that it has…
Abusing alcohol is something that is generally taught by the parents through bad example. If you are letting your kids see you getting wasted, they will think that’s the way alcohol is meant to be used. When my daughter gets to be 15-16, I don’t think that we will have a problem letting her have wine with dinners.
Still going to have to give some thought about making my own beer !!
Hey Bacon Man: Don’t forget who owns Old Style and the Green Death!! Making beer is not difficult but the equipment must be thoroughly clean. The homebrew can pick up stray yeast from the air while fermenting, which can give the beer a fruity/banana taste. I used to help the ex bottle the stuff – using old Grolsch bottles was easier than using a bottle capper. It was interesting to experiment with different recipes. However he drank too much and that’s why he’s an ex.