Until I went to the University of Konstaz am Bodensee to finish my dissertation for Ohio State, I did not drink any alcoholic beverages. I had my first beer at my high school senior picnic and spit it out. When I went to the University of Georgia, I was 17 years old and had a beer starting my junior year at a private club in Athens – Clarke County was a “dry” county” in those days. When the first light beers came out it tasted awful. There was a joke that it was sent to a lab and the report came back that “you horse has diabetes”. I didn’t drink wine because I always thought that wine tasted like grapes gone bad. However, living in Germany I discovered the local beer, Ruppana with its deep rich color and flavor. The beer was delivered to your door, like the milk of my youth, and left on your door step. It was wonderful. When I came back to the US, I stopped drinking beer because no commercially brewed mass marketed beer was to my taste. Then came the micro brews. I discovered that I really hated the trendy IPAs. To me it was merely a contest to see who could brew the bitterest beer. But it was the stouts and porters that were more to my tastes. So now I drink at most one stout or porter a day when I have a beer. Here are my favorites – I do not care for Guiness::
- Split Shot stout – Elysian brewing company. Of course since this is my favorite, our local distributed stopped carrying it
- Left Hand Nitro stout
- Portly stout – Turtle Anarchy Brewing Company
- Thunderstruck Coffee porter – Highland brewing company
- Old Rasputin – North Coast Brewing Company
I also like some scotch ales namely old Chub from Oskar Blues and Yee Haw’s Eighty. By the way Yee Haw’s Velvet Charmer is to die for.
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