by Dan Raposo
I'm still very much interested in beer and will still occasionally find myself spending a good half hour debating a beer selection in a good liquor store, but bars have escaped my curiosity. Maybe it's the limited tap selections, maybe I've just become cocky. Maybe beer distributors are pulling on the reins of the growing craft industry, or maybe I'm just too lazy to ask for something new. Either way, I've found myself drinking Guinness and Jameson when I frequent the local bars. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. I'm a huge, huge fan of the creamy goodness of Guinness, and a nice shot of Jameson on ice, but it's almost become a reflex.
Sounds like it's time for a trip to a good beer bar, like the Gingerman or Brickskeller. Sounds like it's time for a friend to step in and say, "woah, hold on a second, you should try this". Or maybe it's time for me to take a trip back to RI to my favorite beer packy (B and C Liquors in Smithfield, RI) and talk to Bret to get some good recommendations. No matter, it's time for me to do something...
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3 comments:
A response by Matt Vekasy:
I too find myself with a similar problem and I think the problem stems from the beer selection at the bars I frequent and that the bars I frequent are largely based on what the group wants to do... which usually doesn't involve going to a good beer bar. I think the main thing is that the selection at most bars and restaurants is just discouraging, which then leads to settling for the usual brews. But on the other hand, when I'm at a place that has the typical poor selection of beers, I either need to go to another place or be happy that I can sit in this establishment and enjoy some refreshing beer.
In college, I never would have settled for a Budweiser or Bud Light - Natty Light was always good enough for me. Today, though, you can't find Natty Light in a bar, and if you could, it would be just as expensive as a Bud, so might as well go for the less-watered down lager. Speaking of lager, Yuengling is a great one, and this tends to be my go-to beer in times of indecision. Excuse me barkeep, I'll have a Lager.
"I'll have a lager," the otherwise non-geocentric term, could almost mean any beer in any country, as I've noticed "lagers" from Thailand, Latin American and even a Lithuanian lager. But the notion that you can walk into a bar anywhere in Central PA (or even South Jersey & Delaware I'd argue) and the colloquial "I'll have a lager" can only mean one beer and that one's from America's Oldest Brewery-- what a localism!
In fact, I've even heard Yuengling use the phrase in a radio commercial I once heard while driving through the Lehigh Valley.....
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