Drinking From the Source

We’ve been witness to a most disturbing trend with beer geeks, my friends. Thanks to the internet, our growing demand for instant gratification, people willing to meet this demand, an underlying attitude that we’re the best (at everything) and a general lazy eye that uncomfortably strays away from culture, we’re noticing fewer beer geeks traveling for beer outside of the US.

Of course, we know that there’re plenty of exceptions out there, and we can probably blame the economy too, for good measure. And of course, we don’t have any physical proof or fancy pie charts to back this up. It’s more of a gut feeling after taking the pulse of the beer geek scene for so many years, paired with dealing with way too many people who seem stuck behind keyboards—including ourselves.

There’s something to be said about it, so I guess we will. You simply can’t beat the experience of drinking beer from the source. For starters, the beer is fresh as hell. You don’t have to worry about buying an import that spent weeks or months in transit, followed by some stagnation in a warehouse, only to wind up on the shelves of some beer graveyard until woken by your purchase. On top of this, and if you let go a bit, you might even emerge yourself in some culture. You know, experiencing a social climate other than your own.

Be it frog legs and DeuS at the Bosteels, hoisting ein mass Paulaner Festbier with 10,000 people and then eating half a roasted chicken at Oktoberfest in Munich, a pint of McEwan’s 60 Shilling with locals in Edinburgh, an Opera Bar Blonde in Sydney, smoked beer at Dieu du ciel! in Montreal, or a stein of Fürst Carl Urhell with a duchess in a castle, these simple moments of travel have changed our perspectives on beer forever.

Again, not only were the beers fresh, but the people we met while consuming them gave us a glimpse into a much larger beer community that can only truly be experienced through travel. For us, this is what beer is all about.

Respect Beer. ■