THE SUMMER DRINKS MENU IS OUT …GO HERE TO WIN A HAPPY HOUR FOR YOUR GROUP!
Summertime memories of my childhood always include Dad, yard work and Coors Light. He loved to get his hands dirty. And in hindsight probably needed a place to go when a house full of 6 kids got as hectic as a house full of 6 kids sounds. He’d disappear in the back yard for 2-3 hours and emerge sweaty, revived and thirsty. His reward? An ice cold Coors Light, almost frozen. He always made that beer look so good too. My Dad, swigging that beer down, admiring his garden, should have been a commercial. That is, if Coors Light wanted to sell “can I please have a sip Dad?”. Because that is all I wanted. And I knew by gulp 3 (he finished in about 5) if Dad was feeling generous or not.
It wasn’t until college and my first trip to the UK during Christmas break where l discovered that a whole world of beer existed outside of American Lager. These ‘sophisticated’ European beers were dark, strong and poured from these things called casks. So cool. My worldview changed instantly! Suddenly light beer was NOT cool. What an eye opener. I now understood that, despite my father’s inclination, beer actually CAN be good if it is warmer than 33 degrees.
There was one problem though. My newly formed view of how to drink beer and look cool doing it was shaped around cold weather. Ah! If only I had traveled to Europe during the summer! No one told me about shandy, cider and fruity, wheat beer. Or low ABV and day drinking. More delicious learning needed to be done!
Still, naively, I carried on drinking all those really great beers – at all the wrong times.
And as all good parents must do, my Dad kept his wise silence and let me fall on my face (figuratively speaking of course!) so I could grow.
Now I get it. Certain beers simply taste better during the summer. Great taste! Less filling! Forget malt. Think apples and grapefruit! Forget meal-in-glass. Think low calorie. It took me entirely too long to figure out that a low abv beer means I can hang out MUCH longer in the blazing summer sun. The craft beer boom and its plethora of seasonal beer makes this all seem VERY obvious now. Such a waste …beer 101 was not offered at my university.
My radical college days are past me. Even Dad is drinking imports now (Corona Light). But I also see the wisdom in his Coors Light circa 1988. COLD = REFRESHING. And I see why it was his go-to thirst quencher back then …and why Budweiser is still making its case today.
It’s summer of 2015 and when the occasion calls for afternoon drinks on the patio…
I proudly grab my Schoefferhofer Grapefruit, Magners Pear Cider or Crabbie’s Ginger Beer from the cooler, dripping with bits of ice, slide it in a koozie or pour it over ice and, like a veteran, make an afternoon of it. With age comes wisdom. Thanks Dad.
THE SUMMER DRINKS MENU IS OUT and WE’RE BUYING …NO HASSELHOFF ABOUT IT!
GO HERE TO WIN A HAPPY HOUR FOR YOUR GROUP!
*Dad and baby with beer* image grabbed off the interwebs. Photo credit: Bopfish Blogspot