The Session #17Better Late Than Never

"The Session," which has been deemed as "a monthly virtual beer tasting" is hosted by a different blogger each month, and each month has a different theme chosen by the host. And each month, really rad beer bloggers and brewers and authors join in. I don't really belong, but since this month's subject is about going against the grain and drinking anti-seasonally, I thought I'd give it a try.


Okay, so I'm going to try writing this session thing again. And its funny that this time the subject should be drinking anti-seasonally. Or should we just go with the broader picture and say non-conformity as it relates to beer. The reason why its funny is because I've only posted on one other Session out of the 16 previous Sessions, even though I've really wanted to join in and even though I very responsibly have "Blog the Session" repeating on my google calendar on the first Friday of every month. I'm having a moment of clarity and its apparent to me now that I hate authority, even my own.

As a matter of fact, now that I'm thinking about it, I probably started drinking craft beer to be a non-conformist. It wasn't conscious at the time, but now, looking back, I definitely wanted to differentiate myself from the cosmo drinking, "I'll just have something lite," girls I constantly found myself competing with. Big beers made me tougher, stronger, cooler - Belgians made me smarter, more sophisticated, more complicated than those stupid lollipop heads.

Hell, only five years ago, just being a beer drinking female living in this vast city of salad eaters, I was sadly considered, "unique" or even worse, "interesting." Now things have changed dramatically, which is awesome. And I'm not exactly sure what I'm trying to say with all of this other than anti-seasonal?..anti-conformity?..its been that way my whole beer drinking life. And to tell you the truth, the beer drinkers and brewers that I know are the biggest group of non-conformists I've ever met. Every one of them.

So, anti-seasonal beer drinking? I like drinking a Yulesmith in July at Lucky Baldwins as much as the next person; and I will down a Maibock anytime of year. But perhaps the more shocking fact is my guilty confession that my anti-conformity / anti-craft beer rules beer is one from my childhood (err..early adulthood,) from the town I was born in and raised near. When its cold out and the skies are gray...I keep one beer in the fridge for particularly depressive episodes: the beer that will wake me up from even my deepest winter doldrums - one single bottle of Budweiser. There, I said it...effing sue me.

One taste of it and I'm 16 (err... 21) again and I'm back sitting on my floating dock on our lake, with Richard Marx on the radio, and Coppertone, and my boyfriend Rob trying to get me to skinny dip. Ah, the days before I knew better about a lot of things - the days before I discovered complicated Belgians and Guns-n-Roses. It always reminds me not only of how innocent I was (aside from the underage drinking - and the skinny-dipping,) but how far I've come!

And.... Scene.