No matter how you say it “Beer” appears to be a universally understood word. It doesn’t matter what country you are in, including the one’s that prohibit alcohol they all claim to have the best beer in the world. Recently, I had the pleasure of sampling beers, 1 liter at a time, that can’t be found at home in the good old USA.
What I found is that different countries have different tastes. American beer tends to be thin, light in color, heavy on bubbles and served ice cold, like Budwiser. As far as I am concerned American beer is like sex on the beach….they are both close to water. English beer tends to be dark, thick heavy and generally served warm. German beer is golden, has a head, is served cool and has a very high alcohol content, some as high as 14%. Then there is Czech beer. Many Czech beers are pilsners. They are heavy, light on bubbles, have a large head and a high alcohol content, 12 to 14% and can be found from a golden color to outright black.
I, like most men, like beer. I also like single malt scotch, grappa, and dry red wine and beer. Over the years my tastes for drink have changed but one thing has always held true and that is that my wife, Eileen, hates the taste of beer. I have tried time and again over the past 29 years to get her to drink beer. I have failed at every attempt. I tried light beer, regular beer, flavored beer, specialty beer, micro brewed beer. I have tried just about every beer that can be had in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and failed at every attempt.
So now we find ourselves in Eastern Europe. In Europe beer costs less than soda and water Tis is why I believe the drinking age in most European countries is either 16 or none at all. It’s like I told Isabella, 12, and Jordan, 17, “Soda is $4.00 FOR 500 ml, water is $3.00 for 500 ml and beer is 50 cents for 500 ml, I guess you guys better get used to beer.” Anyhow when Eileen ordered red wine instead of beer the server would look at her funny. The look was a cross between disbelief and holding back vomit. Now these people don’t know my wife and at first I was somewhat offended by their behavior but after all we were in their country and when you are in another country part of the fun is eating what they eat and very definitely drinking what they drink. Jordan had no argument with this concept and when we sat down for our first Czech meal he promptly ordered a Pilsner. His mom looked at me and asked if I was going to allow this when Jordan cut me off and said, “Mom it’s OK here, they have different rules and we are not in Raleigh, North Carolina anymore.” How do you argue with logic like this so Jordan had 2 beers with dinner.
I, like most men, like beer. I also like single malt scotch, grappa, and dry red wine and beer. Over the years my tastes for drink have changed but one thing has always held true and that is that my wife, Eileen, hates the taste of beer. I have tried time and again over the past 29 years to get her to drink beer. I have failed at every attempt. I tried light beer, regular beer, flavored beer, specialty beer, micro brewed beer. I have tried just about every beer that can be had in the US, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean and failed at every attempt.
So now we find ourselves in Eastern Europe. In Europe beer costs less than soda and water Tis is why I believe the drinking age in most European countries is either 16 or none at all. It’s like I told Isabella, 12, and Jordan, 17, “Soda is $4.00 FOR 500 ml, water is $3.00 for 500 ml and beer is 50 cents for 500 ml, I guess you guys better get used to beer.” Anyhow when Eileen ordered red wine instead of beer the server would look at her funny. The look was a cross between disbelief and holding back vomit. Now these people don’t know my wife and at first I was somewhat offended by their behavior but after all we were in their country and when you are in another country part of the fun is eating what they eat and very definitely drinking what they drink. Jordan had no argument with this concept and when we sat down for our first Czech meal he promptly ordered a Pilsner. His mom looked at me and asked if I was going to allow this when Jordan cut me off and said, “Mom it’s OK here, they have different rules and we are not in Raleigh, North Carolina anymore.” How do you argue with logic like this so Jordan had 2 beers with dinner.
Over the next 2 weeks I was able to get Eileen to at least taste my beer. She even agreed that some of them tasted really good but they were so heavy she couldn’t see herself drinking a whole one and was content with tasting mine. Then we got to Germany. In Germany they have a thing called a Radler. Radler is a lemon beer. Jordan said at home it’s called a Porch Monkey. Not terribly nice and not terribly popular because, frankly, it doesn’t taste very
good. I had planned to discuss with him how he knew but I figured at the time the subject was better left alone. Well Eileen tried the Radler and like Green Eggs and Ham she really liked it. She liked it so much she had an entire liter. Yes, beer is good.
The cliché intro tasted like warm Busch Light. Other than that I look forward to every new story in your blog.
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