Food (or drink) For Thought

In a recent Brew Crew discussion Preston Weesner wrote a beautiful, impassioned "rant" about how lucky we Portlanders are in regards to beer. I liked it so much I got his permission to reprint it here. I cleaned up the punctuation a little, but the words are all his.

"If you were lucky enough to start your drinking years with the great beers we have now, then you don't know how truly lucky you are. I was a industrial beer drinker in my youth, and I was OK with that, because I was drinking for the effect and I didn't know there was a better alternative. Until one night when I had a pint of a cloudy beer put in from of me, I was going to send it back, because compared to what I usually drank this beer looked like it has some issues, and I didn't think a lemon was going to solve the problem. You guessed it, it was Widmer Hefe.....To say my life was changed would be an understatement! I stopped drinking industrial beer almost over night. I looked for and found great beers like Nor'Wester Raspberry Weisen, coincidentally my first home brew, and McMemamins Ruby, I even joined a small group of people who were blending beers so they could tolerate new styles; the Rubinator for one. I was eventually able to drink Terminator....and it was good.

As I look at the beers I drink now, seldom does it include the beers mentioned above. It's not that they are not good, because they are, it's just that I continued on my way through the great beer styles and brewery's that opened, and there are so many beers to choose from. I have to say, I would not have a great appreciation for all beers if I had not had the beers that introduced me to real beer, the beers that woke me from "the Matrix" so to speak.

The bottom line is, we here are spoiled rotten brats when it comes to beer, and all too often we look down our noses at this beer or that beer, when we should just remember that we are the extreme "haves" in an industry of "have nots."

This now concludes my rant. I encourage you all to go and have a beer you haven't had in a while and rethink the beers that started your journey to beervana."

~Preston "Having a Ruby " Weesner

Thanks Preston, I couldn't have said it better myself.