Chicago Beer Lovers: Next Event Date

Had a real good lineup one time with some friends for a tasting. We opened Chocolate Rain first and I swear almost everything else was kinda ruined

 

I'll chime in...If this needs to be moved to new thread, please do, however I have no intention of deraling it or making excessive posts on the topic...I was trying to put this behind the community, as I know the internet can be hard to guage feelings and intentions. Some people may even get the wrong idea that I'm ""bragging""..Could not be farther from the truth, I would wish this situation on no-one, but I would love if it was anybody but me who had to deal with it right now.

Things others can learn::::

I am a small guy. Not in the sense that somebody can push me around, but I weigh not much and my overall body is small. Add to that, that my schedule(and attitude towards american food) allows me to eat very little on a daily basis, and at any one time I probably have about the minimal amount of food in my stomach needed to survive.
These things do not do well for drinking, I feel tipsy after 6oz of any 6%++ brew.
Having said that, many others can drink much more than me.

I have said repeatedly on this site and others that I drink the beer not for the alcohol but the taste.
I would love nothing more than for GI to release non-alcoholic BCBS and have it taste the same, I would do unspeakable things to whoever invented that

I am not one who drinks to get drunk..I have always been this way and have never once found myself, even after a 12 hour kitchen line shift, saying "lets go get drunk!!!!""

I am one for extremes. It's immature, I know. I would either choose to go to a share and attempt to try all the stuff I wanted to try or just sit home and not drink a single beer because I missed out on a few I wanted. ""Hey, I'm here at this bottle share, theres all these bottles I've never tried, lets do it!!!! ...."

^again, not try all of them to get drunk, try them because I love the taste of a good beer.

----

Tinypyramids - Sorry I mised you/don't remember meeting you. That was my FIRST REAL bottle share, I'll admit. I've done tastings with a few friends where we all bring a couple whalez, but never had 50+ bottles of world class beer in front of me for a tasting.
I got excited, was blown away by the offerings, and did not do enough to control myself.
And I will admit, may look like an idiot or an immature individual, but I absolutely was in that share the entire time thinking "you pour out a glass and the rest of the group will probably not want to offer you their next beer"...
I had no idea it was "acceptable" to pour out ANY amount of beer, unless it was spoiled or something. And I guess I'm a tiny bit of a germophobe and would not offer my beer to someone else, as I would not want to drink somebody elses backwash.
Granted, I am not one to ruin my night/life for the sake of pleasing others, I just found it easy enough to drink the beer instead of attempting to secretely pour them out.
And for ther record, I was NOT overpouring myself. I never had more than about a 2-3oz pour, so it's not like I would have been dumping out a substantial amount if I knew it was acceptable...But, as others mentioned, their were beers I drank that either I had already had before or I did not care for; in retrospect it would have been wise to dump them and then make my next choice more wisely so I did not choose another beer I would not like.

 

Chris nor the place it was held was ever in any sort of jeopardy, NOT THAT IT SHOULD EVER EVEN BE CLOSE, but it was not.
I'm not a jackass and I would take responsibility for my actions if such a case arose, as I would hope the rest of us would as well. "I was at my friends house down the street drinking, no bar."

NONE of you know what happened, please do not speculate.

I really wish I would have taken a break and got some food at Pork Shoppe, as the ONLY thing I had eaten that day was 3 chorizo tacos around 4:30..(THIS IS A BAD IDEA)

Finally (and I know I'm forgeting some things I wanted to mention)....The reason I do not remember, has NOTHING to do with the fact that I was drinking. I suffered (another) medical problem in the accident(concussion) and as a result had a loss of memory. Since I woke up at 7:30a.m. Friday morning I have had debilitating hearing loss and tinnitus. I've had a history of tinnitus but it is worse than ever and has seriously caused me some anxiety and loss of productivity.

 

Why I spilled a beer and started getting sloppy at the end? I have no real/good explanation. Other than, I typically am pretty cliumsy, adding alcohol does not make that better. The alcohol got to me a little.
I do not believe I was anywhere near "hammered or WASTED!"... Over the limit and probably consumed more than I should considering I planned to drive home? Absolutely. Was I at the point where I was falling over or picking fights with people or causing chaos? Absolutely not, and the person running the beer share confirmed this for me afterwards. I was not the "jackass" who should have been thrown out, I simply was an individual who overconsumed and then made a mistake on the road.

I think the reason I got into an accident was simply due to the fact that something happened in the road that caused me to swerve. Not like I passed out behind the wheel or was drunk to the point that I just turned the corner and crashed. I was a little tipsy, I did not react in the ideal way when confronted with an obstacle, hit my head and got a concussion and as a result do not remember much.

As I said I do not like getting drunk. BUT, I am human and drugs do effect me and my decision making as they do every other human. The alcohol got to me, I was in a new environment with lots of shiny, fancy tempting beers around and I did not resist the temptation to try more new beers. I can tell you, this would have never happened anywhere else(not to me). It was a perfect storm of tempting new beers, an empty stomach, a night off from work that got me excited, and an environment that I was unable to say "no more" in.

 

Appreciate the candor and this is all well and good as a 'lessons learned' type of event, but you seem to be self-aware of the issues that lead to some very poor decision making. That said, I am sure that you will be able to learn from this experience and have a better time at your next tasting and I encourage the rest of the BA community to look out for similar situations in the future with our fellow BAs (and non-BAs) to help guard against a potential catastrophe. The last thing I want to read on here is an RIP to one of our own or others as a direct result of an inability to make responsible decisions.

 

Justify it however you want, you got into an accident while driving drunk. You are lucky you didn't harm or kill somebody else or yourself. Don't try to rationalize why the accident happened. It happened because you were drunk. Consider yourself lucky you are not in jail and use this as a lesson to never drive drunk again.

 

PLENTY of useful info....Im not surprise at all, there is true Beer Advocates ...thanks for the tips/advice....im sure your words will prevent from someone land in jail, or worst...cause an accident, not only injurying themselves but others (which is usually the case).

 

To summarize,
Sbxx....key elements: water, food, small pours in alonger time frame
Burica...know when to call it the day (its about control)
Tinypyramids...dont take every single pour, preference your pours
Lansman....palate fatigue (didnt know this one, but it makes sense)
When fellow partners are offering their help,, this usually means you are tipsy or drunk....

What surprised me is that it happen to playa...he seems very knowledgeable when its comes to craft beer.....but poor when it comes to judgement.......
"Good judgement comes from experience, and a lot comes from bad judgement.".......
"Dont let beer turn good times go bad"

 

Drama.

 

Not when someone gets hurt, and we have to scan and radiate them

 

Don't hate the playa. Hate the game.

 

I put it simply: If I'm headed to a bottle share or beer fest of any kind, there's no way I'm going to be able to drive after. Period. Arrange transport or lodging. There's really no other way to think "Ohhh, I'll be fine" or "I'll just take it easy..." 0.08 happens reeel quick, and escalates to the point of a danger to others fast after that.

I gotta ask though Playa, how did you crash your car and not get a DUI? Fled the scene? Worked for Lance Briggs I guess, and explains the impound.

 

Alright, I'm sure everyone gets the idea by now...Be responsible and thoughtful while enjoying yourself. So when can we start talking about when another one of these might happen and how to get on the email list if we missed out on what was clearly a good time?

 

Agreed. Let's not fan the flames.

 

It's been almost a week and my liver and bowels are just getting back to normal.

 

That means you did it right.

 

I left town to quickly to say this earlier, but I wanted to add my thanks to Chris for hosting, and my appreciation for the generosity of fellow BAs. The venue was great, and I think the crowd size was just about right. Had some lovely things, many of which (VSB, BAA, etc.) have already been mentioned here, but I'd be remiss in not singling out the 2004 World Wide Stout that Fitz brought. Once in a lifetime chance to taste, and it was delicious.

 

YES! That WWS was fantastic. Time to go stock up on WWS, Expedition, and Founders Imperial and stick them in my basement...for a decade...