BIG BEER YEAR

What is it about lists? We all make them – mental, digital, cocktail napkin. Lists relieve stress and help focus the mind. Scientists who study such human behavior have concluded that we make lists to bring order out of chaos and to organize the overwhelming. Lists were first mentioned by William Shakespeare in Hamlet (though I’m sure they’d been around for much longer). There are many types of lists – Top 10, To-Do, Bucket, Shopping, Honey Do, Wish. I could go on and on but instead I’ll focus on one particular list, the life list.

We all know that bird watchers (birders) often keep a life list. A place to record all of the bird species they’ve seen. Some birders are competitive about their list while others are more casual. A life list is a source of personal satisfaction. I’ve kept a bird life list since the late 1970s. It’s fun to jot down each new species. Looking over my list brings back memories of adventures, places I’ve visited and the birds I’ve seen. My list is a memento and a way to collect my observations. Since there are 914 species in North America alone, the making of a life list lasts for many, many years.

Some birders take things a step further and go on a Big Year. It’s a focused effort to see how many species they can spot in one year. The first Big Year happened back in 1939 when traveling salesman Guy Emerson saw 497 different birds.

Why am I talking about birdwatching? I thought this was about beer?

Last November I was visiting St. Paul, Minnesota for the National Association of Interpretation’s annual workshop. It’s a bunch of park rangers, naturalists and outdoor educators and as you might have guessed, full of life listers. As part of the workshop, I was presenting an interpretive beer tasting. Something I’d done a few times before.

I wanted to give the tasting a Minnesota focus so I selected 8 beers brewed in Minnesota, one from Wisconsin and one from Texas. The Texas brew, Lone Star, was the only one I’d ever tasted. Some research was required but I only had 2½ days before the tasting. No pressure.

Enter Dave Hansen, my cousin, Minnesota native and all-around great guy. He volunteered to be my North Star State beer connection. Just like a skilled backwoods guide, Dave raced me around the Twin Cities looking for and tasting different local brews. We visited a brewery and even drove into Wisconsin for one particularly tasty sample.

By the end of the week I had tasted 30 beers. It seemed like a good time to start a new life list, a beer life list. Now I’ve tasted a few beers over the years and I could have tried to remember all of them. Instead I made Minnesota my starting point. Beer #1 was August Schell’s Pils brewed in New Ulm, Minnesota since1860.

A few more weeks went by and another idea began to ferment. My thoughts about bird watching, beer and list making started to flocculate. Why not go on a Big Beer Year? How many beers could I taste in a year? I already had 30 thanks to Cousin Dave, NAI and Minnesota. I was up for the challenge. In talking with my sweet wife and our neighbor Jenn at a Sunday evening Wine & Whine “book club” meeting, it all came together. I’d go on a quest to see how many beers I could try by December 5, 2012. It seemed fitting since it’s the day back in 1933 when Prohibition was repealed – a.k.a. Cinco de Drinko.

Jenn suggested that I make it a contest and award prizes. Get folks involved. We had a plan. People could predict what my magic number would be on Cinco de Drinko and the closest number would win some of my delicious homebrew. Instead of a fee to enter, all folks had to do was go on-line and make a donation to the Alameda County Community Food Bank.

After a slow start in December and January, my numbers picked up with a couple of HEAD Trips, a beer festival and our vacation at Spring Training. By mid-May, I’d reached #300 with a Bud Light at a San Jose Giants’ game. I was well on my way to Beer Life List glory.

On June 30^th, Liz & I presented a beer tasting at the Sulphur Creek Nature Center. The tasting was a fundraiser for their bat education program. “Bats & Brews” was a lot of fun and I picked up 5 for my list including #400 – Heretic Shallow Grave Porter.

At our July 4^th BBQ and fireworks extravaganza, many of you brought me exotic and obscure beers to taste. Some were good. Let me leave it at that. My total continued to climb. Throw in the A’s Beer Fest, Giants’ Brew Fest, a couple of NAI Region 9 Meet Ups, lunch at two brewpubs and I hit #500. It was at the Tied House Brewery in Mountain View on July 22.

As of today the total stands at #564. The HEAD Society’s Irish Coffee Night was a big boost. Bobby, Jenn, Joan, James, Jessica and Liz went above and beyond – 21 beers in one night. And no, I didn’t drink 21 glasses of beer. If I had, someone else would be posting my obituary. It was a team effort. We shared the beers and rated them using the HEAD Society’s official 5-Point Scale.

5/5 = Ahh!

4/5 = Yummers!
3/5 = OK
2/5 = Enh…
1/5 = Flah!

Many of you, well 19, have made a donation and submitted your number. The predictions range from 425 to 1,200. Others have looked on from the sidelines. Procrastination won’t win you a case of my tasty, tasty garage-brewed beer.

If you haven’t entered the contest, it’s not too late! Do it today! Go to www.accfb.org, make a donation and send me your number. It’s the right thing to do!

If you’ve already entered but I’m about to blow through your low ball guess you can get a second chance! Make another donation and pick a new number. It’s that easy!

Help the cause! Feel free to bring over some beers. I’ll share them with you and my list will grow. Got a favorite pub, ale house or brewpub? Let’s plan a trip. My Beer Life List is only as long as our dedication to the quest. Cinco de Drinko is just four months away.

IRISH COFFEE NIGHT II - ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE

Ok, Ira wants me to post a blog entry about our last HEAD Trip, Irish Coffee Night, and I want to - I really do - but some of the details are a little hazy. Actually, most of the details are hazy but he really wants me to write this so I guess I'll stick to the parts I remember...bear with me...

We got to the Buena Vista and the vista was indeed buena, especially as the sun sank behind the Golden Gate Bridge. Bobby was such a gentleman that he traded spots with me when he noticed I had my eyes screwed shut against the blazing sun. I really need to find my sunglasses.

We ordered a round of Irish Coffee and settled back to enjoy the company, the ambiance and the after-image of the bridge burned into my retinas by the setting sun. It was relaxing and very San Francisco circa 1965. The coffee came and it was delicious, so delicious that I and a few of (all) my table mates slurped them down like dogs going after anything that falls on the kitchen floor.

So we ordered another round or two and watched the bartender make them. It was cool in a kind of almost-an-assembly-line-but-better-'cause-its-not-a-robot kind of way. Watching him line up all those glasses, pour in boiling water, dump it out, put in sugar cubes, pour in coffee, then whiskey, then dump whipped cream on top was fascinating and grew ever more so as the Irish part of the coffee took hold.

Aside from guzzling spiked coffee, there was conversation going on, much of which involved Ira's beer quest. Jenn, who is determined that Ira will at least approach her whopping guess of 1,006, suggested that we go hunting for different types of beer. So we called for the check. We spent $114 on Irish coffee! It was good and all, but wow! The happiest person in the bar was our waitress because we are really good tippers and our desire to tip is directly proportional to the amount of Irish in our coffee...

Off we meandered to a few more bars where I discovered that I was a willing receptacle for most of the brew other people didn't like. Maybe I didn't like them either, I don't know. I do have to apologize to Bobby, though, as he had a pint that he liked a lot and I sucked most of it down when he was distracted. Sorry Bobby. He was distracted by a bunch of German tourists who are now our best friends and I think are spending next Christmas with Joan. I still want to know who the hell we sang happy birthday to. Maybe its on YouTube.

This is where it begins to get fuzzy. I know we decided that we were hungry and that only bar food would do. I remember buffalo, blue cheese mac and cheese and buffalo tater tots. There were fries, tacos, quesadillas, and, oh yeah, more beer. If any of my stroke doctors read this, I am so toast, but we had fun and the food was cholesterfyingly delish! Oh, I have to apologize to Jess for eating so many of her tots. Sorry Jess.

I remember walking, singing, some stairs (successfully navigated!) and getting home. I have no bruises, rashes or animal bites and, aside from a few friends, no cops have stopped by, so it was a good night. And I promise I won't do it again. Until next year...