Are you a BA?

Last call. Very appropriate for me right now, as I’m getting my right knee replaced, again, and will be on blood thinner to reduce nasty blood clots. So no beer for two months for me. “Just two months, you can handle two months,” friends say. “Two months! What are you going to do?” say better friends. Yes, I will miss the taste of beer very much, but having gone through this once before, in 2004, I know I’ll miss so much more than the taste of beer.

Beer enhances life. There, I’ve said it. Sometimes, we all get too hung up on hoppy or malty, micro or macro, import or local, fresh or tempered by age, even pale or India pale. I’m sure, gentle reader, you have your favorites that you fiercely defend, just as I have mine. But look around at all the happy people drinking beer, any beer.

They—the beer drinkers—are at bars and picnics, at baseball games and backyard barbecues, enjoying beer and enjoying each other. I know, I know, old story. But today, it’s even better: They’re dining at the nicest restaurants in town, at indie music festivals, even at festivals devoted to the elixir they love. As I write this, I look at the BA calendar of beer festivals, and just in the last week of July (American Beer Month), here is what I find: Oregon Brewers Fest, Michigan Brewers Summer Beer Fest, Denver Summer Brew Fest, St. Louis Belgian Beer and Mussel Mania, Cincy BeerFest, Evanston Brewfest, Music City Brewer’s Festival, Philly Zoo Summer Ale Fest, Mammoth Festival of Beer. Stunning.

Here’s my last two weeks, with beer being a pretty big part: A trip to NYC to promote Goose Island Beer, with promos at Brooklyn’s The Gate and the East Village Tavern, meeting lots of pretty girls and beery boys; planning the beer dinner for NY Craft Beer Week; having Brooklyn’s Bretted and barrel-aged version of Local 1 destroying any wine at Corton, a new restaurant in Tribeca; back to Chicago—eight hours in the beer garden at the wonderful Hopleaf, friends coming and going all day; beer and cheese tasting with Neal’s Yard at Clybourn; Green City Market barbecue with 60 of the best restaurants in Chicago, every chef drinking Matilda; afterparty at Goose Island Clybourn, chefs all drinking more Matilda, laughing, telling stories until well past midnight; Pitchfork Music Festival, with nearly 50,000 other fans. And what do they drink? Beer, of course, lots of sessionable 312, but nearly as much IPA. Over 400 kegs of IPA. Wow! Not a bad two weeks.

Here’s my next two months: week in hospital. Home. Rehab, rest, repeat. So it’s not just the beer I’m missing—it’s all the fun stuff, too. Great Taste of the Midwest, Stockholm Beer and Whiskey Fest, NY Craft Beer Week, even the Great American Beer Festival. Not to mention baseball games, barbecues, beer dinners, farm dinners and just sitting around the pub with friends, old and new.

The point here is that beer makes life better, makes the fun even more fun. It doesn’t matter so much which beer—just add beer, and time with friends improves. Again, we all have our favorites, but relax and give it a break for just a minute. Stop debating styles and brewers—just enjoy. As this wonderful magazine comes to a close this month, remember its name. BeerAdvocate. Are you a beer advocate? ■