In 2014 the wife and I were chaperones for a group of about 30 high school kids from Texas on a 10 day choir trip in the UK. Flew into Edinburgh, had the required Guinness with lunch of fish & chips & mushy peas. Certainly nice. A few days later we travelled to Westminster, where the kids sang at THE minster. Certainly totally cool. Afterwards, free time kicking around town, popped into a pub that looked nice. Wondered what "that beer" was, so I ordered one. My first Fuller's London Pride. Just looked at the wife and said "this is it". It was the only thing I drank for the next 6 days (except coffee in the morning, buuut............probably woulda for breakfast, too). I have one retail source near me, and one dependable "British" pub with it always on tap. Still just makes me happy to take that first sip.
July of 2022, with my friends Ed and Tom who I have shared many a good beer with. We were at Monk's Cafe for a nitecap and grabbed a table in the back Belgian bar. I checked the menu and ordered a Cantillon Gueze. Our first ever Cantillon and I had the cicerone bring three glasses. It was as good as advertised and we talked about the complexity of that beer over food and more beer. Tom made sure I kept the bottlecap. Less then three months later my friend Tom unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack. The last time the three of us shared a beer together was that trip. I still have that bottlecap in my office, and it reminds me how special that moment and that beer was.
Bruges. First Sunday in November, 2009. Trained there from Brussels. But Halve Maan was closed. Bummer!! So I soaked my solace at a cafe, outdoors as it was in the sun. Had my first Kasteel Donker. All was made good again with the world. So, I had a second bottle. When I returned home to Chicago, I bought a case.
Pliny the Younger is the best beer I have enjoyed to date. I look forward to trying Heady Topper, Kentucky Brunch Brand Stout and some of the other great beers to compare and hope to return to PTY before too long!!
My favorite beers were when I was in my early 20s and I’d wait for my dad to get home from work around 11:00 at night, we’d have a couple beers, usually split a six pack and just rehash the day, joke around, bullshit, etc. such a simple time and we usually never drank anything special, usually high life, maybe a Molson golden or a Harp.
That`s the kind of beer stories I wanted to hear. It`s not really the brand or type of beer That`s not important. But those times in your life, when you`ll always remember having a beer. Sitting under a shade tree , having a beer with your Dad. For those few minutes, everything was right with world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y6E9okgY7k&list=PL5771E09F16266105&index=8 '
Lots of different beers shared with special people or at special times that it's nice to think back on. But the story, which I hadn't thought about for years, that came to my mind when reading through this thread was this; I was something like 21 or 22 and living a fairly degenerate lifestyle. In what was possibly the height of that chicanery I got myself arrested, shoeless, deep into a night of partying. As is the terrible practice of our local jail, around about 530/6 in the morning I was released into the streets with no shoes, no phone, no wallet, no jacket, just the shorts and t shirt I was wearing when they picked me up. A quick assessment of my situation and I realized it was time for a walk. My house was on the far side of town. I don't know exactly how far it was but it's easily a 3 or 4 mile walk. I remember being that special kind of stupor that comes with the bright morning light, still a little drunk, and having that alone time to really face the fact that you just fucked up big time. It was a strangely beautiful walk in my memory, I always loved walking around that town. When I got to the house, around 9 am, I was shocked to find that my roommates were all awake. And not only that, they had done some finagling and managed to get the early rounds of the world cup on our TV (one roommate was raised by a Dutch step father and spent part of his childhood in one of the Dutch Caribbean territories) and we're watching the Dutch national team play while drinking Eye of the Hawk! They cracked a cold one for me and we filled each other in on the missing details of the night before and I so enjoyed that beer while I avoided the mess I'd made for myself for one more day.
Well, I look at my BA listing and see the top item - Xocoveza from Stone. Ah yes, what a memory, Christmas Day 2016, outside grilling the turkey for dinner later in the day. I remember taking my first sip, right after getting the turkey going - I was blown away - it was and remains the best American Stout I have had to date. Shoot, I need to look for some this year now that I'm reminded...
A proper pint of ShakesBeer on cask at the Garrick Inn in Stratford-upon-Avon late April 2018. I will never forget that day at Warwick Castle, the couple of pints of a beer I didn't even want to try at the Garrick, and I couldn't possibly forget the play at the RSC that evening ("Duchess of Malfi" in the smaller theater, which is magnificent, but the play was semi-ridiculous from a special effects standpoint, and as one 60-something British woman declared when it ended, "Worst bloody play I've ever seen." ). Funnily enough I completely forget the meal I had that night, which was really good at a restaurant where an Irish fellow and his dog were holding court at the bar (I recall that but for the life of me can't recall what I ate), but most of the rest of that day I remember vividly, including those pints.
A Lambic Blanche at the Mort Subite café in Brussels. It was a hot day (June, 2013), I was recovering from a health crisis (why was I drinking beer??), and my wife and I, with my younger son, went for a walk. We stumbled on the café--I had heard of it, was curious. It's a beautiful old 19th century space, very elegant. I dunno--the combination of seeing my son again after a long separation (and his survival of the Sendai earthquake in Japan), my own survival, the pleasure of Brussels, the happiness of all of us being together, the refreshing beer (served nowhere else, btw), it all seemed just right.
After several moments of recollection, I realized I haven't had my "best beer ever" yet. Thousands of pricy crafts and thousands of cheap AAL's. Many great times, good laughs, and unforgettable experiences. But to separate one from the other and actually pinpoint the one that meant most to me is impossible. Maybe someday I'll have a truly remarkable tale or experience attached to this beloved beverage. As of now, every beer I've ever drank was the "best beer ever". Cheers.
Warsteiner - summer lake energy & blazing up heavy “with the boys” Heady - Phish & VT skiing Labatt - living and playing hockey in Québec simple man.
The best beer I ever had, and probably will always remain so, was Pilsner Urquell. I was stationed in Stuttgart, West Germany... yes, there was still an East and West back then... and three Army buds and I stopped at this little cafe/restaurant on the border. It was a nice, nothing fancy kind of place, serving goulash, pierogies, and other mainstay dishes of this particular region of Germany. They had two beers on tap: Bitburger and Pilsner Urquell, the latter served from wooden barrels. I still get shivers to this day whenever I think about that day, the fun time we had... and that Pilsner Urquell. Sadly, Pilsner Urquell isn't what it used to be, even when it's not served from a barrel. But I consider myself one lucky SOB to have experienced such a nectar of the Gods at a time and place where such a marvelous brew could be had!
You're right. My wife and I had draft Pilsner Urquell in the late 70s at a German restaurant during a violent Chicago summer thunderstorm. The beer was fantastic, with a deep malt body and brilliant hop character. I tasted a can of the current version a few years ago and thought that it had lost most (maybe all) of its distinctive flavor. It seems that communism won out on that one.
There are a few for me: A pint of Guinness at Whelan's in Dublin. It was our last stop on a bar crawl our local friend brought us on and it was magical. We were drunk, the bar had a peat moss fire going, and the Guinness was poured properly. Ended up drunkenly eating Chinese takeaway at a place across the street afterwards. (Side note: Hearing someone speaking English who natively speaks Chinese, but with an Irish accent is a TOTAL mindbender when you're blitzed.) My first pour of Lunch from Maine Beer Company. My wife and I went up to Maine for a day trip with a couple of friends and stopped at a place called Robert's in Kittery. I saw it on the menu, I'd never heard of it but I thought the name was funny. I still think it's a nearly perfect beer. My first Julius from Tree House. My wife's friend's husband gave me a can, and I ended up cracking it before I was going to go to a movie with some friends. I was blown away by how incredible it was. I had been off of the beer train for a couple of years (I wasn't drinking much at the time, and when I did it tended to be Irish whiskey,) but this brought me back. The only problem was I only had about 10 minutes to drink it before I had to leave for the movie. So that's how I essentially chugged my first Julius. A pour of Poetica at Hill Farmstead. My wife and I left the house at 6AM to get there for open, and it was beautiful. The best beer I'd ever had up to that point in my life. Then a more recent one, back in April my wife and I went to Montreal and decided to take the scenic route through Vermont on the way back. We stopped off at The Alchemist and I had a pour of Heady from a cask. The best beer I've ever had. Bar none.
