It’s no secret that I like beer! In the words of Tom T Hall, “It makes me a jolly good fellow”. When anyone asks, I tell them that beer is my hobby, to which I usually get a pretty good chuckle.

I have always enjoyed going to unusual restaurants and trying the dish they are famous for. Better yet, there are a number of meals I really enjoy, Shrimp & Grits, Jambolia, and Tamales. I will order these dishes any chance I get from the restaurant we are visiting. Each chef has their own style and flavor for the same dish. If the Restaurant has a sampler plate of their favorites, that tends to be my choice.

I think of breweries in the same way. Each brewer has their interpretation of all the different styles of beer. Some add ingredients that change the nuance, some make them better, and some make them worse, but you never know till you try them. So just like a good Jambolia, each style I try is a new treat. And if I’m able to visit the brewery (and I’ve visited a few), hands down I always order what’s known as the flight; a sample size of four to six beers that sometimes they choose, and when I’m lucky, I get to choose.

About twenty years ago, I started to keep track of the beers I drank, the Brewery, the style, and how I liked them. Then about ten years ago, I joined the phone app Untapped, think of it as the FaceBook of Beer. Along with keeping track of the different beers you drink, you have friends, can earn badges (like a Boy Scout), rate each beer you drink, and then be able to look up all kinds of statistics (and I like statistics) about your past libations.

Speaking of statistics, I have the stats. Sometime this summer, I will reach my 2,000th different beer. Wow, when I put it on paper, that’s a lot! Within that total, there are over 140 different styles of beer I have tried and over 473 different breweries that I have sampled beer from. Sam Adams is the brewery that I have tried the most beers from at 64. Wheat Beer is the style that I have tried the most as it is probably my favorite, next to a good IPA and a Brown Ale but my stats don’t show that. Of all my beer rankings, Stouts make up about 1/3 of my top 20 ranked beers.

So what are my favorite beers? Here are a few of my top contenders:

• Hazelnut Brown Nectar / Rogue Ales
• Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier / Bayerische Staatsbrauerei Weihenstephan
• Samuel Adams Irish Red / Boston Beer Company
• Franziskaner Premium Weissbier Naturtrüb / Löwenbräu-Gruppe
• A Little Sumpin’ Sumpin’ Ale / Lagunitas Brewing Company

So if I ever get the pleasure of going out to dinner with you, don’t be surprised if I spend more time looking at the beer menu than I do the food menu. CHEERS!

Let us drink our fill of beer! And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better

Isaiah 56:12