The Biggest Problem with Loving Beer

A couple weeks ago you guys helped me work through a problem I was having – picking a favorite beer. A friend of this site, Tom, wrote in the comments of the post that he hadn’t had one of his favorites in months because he’d rather experiment with new beers. After some thought I realized I hadn’t had many of my favorite beers in a long time as well. Why? I was too busy mixed up in the biggest problem with loving beer.

I’ll take one of everything, please.

I think we all have this deep, dark secret inside us that we want to try every beer ever made. We want to reach the end of Untappd and get some magical badge glorifying our great beer conquest. And we try, whether it’s a conscious decision or not. I do at least.

I’ll take one of everything.

Last week when I was in Chicago I found this place with 114 beers on tap. I had had about 50 of them before and the thought crossed my mind of attempting to try the remaining 64. I ended up sampling 14 over three different trips in 24 hours (don’t worry, they were all 4oz pours!). Back when I turned 21 my buddy and I tried to drink all 30 taps at a local establishment over three days. We did it. My liver didn’t appreciate it. This was pre-Untappd too and I’m sure the only badge I would have earned was a “You’re a Lush” badge. I probably hit Level III that weekend.

There are only so many beers you can consume in a day, week, month, lifetime. Let me tell you a cold, hard truth:

3 Reasons I Love Beer

I love beer. Obviously, that’s why I have an entire blog dedicated to it. I want to share a few of those reasons with you.

1. Beer creates and enhances friendships

What epic story of yours starts with, “Me and my friend were sitting around the water cooler?” None. They start with, “My buddy and I were a six-pack in and…” or “So I was at this jam-packed bar and I spotted the girl of my dreams.”

Beer is an enabler – an enabler for you to do stupid things yes, but sometimes those stupid things result in a badass scar. Or sometimes it enables you to gain that courage to talk to the girl of your dreams which you end up marrying.

I’ve met some pretty cool people over the past seven months since I’ve started this blog and it wouldn’t have been possible without beer. (hey, make sure to follow me on Twitter!)

2. Beer relaxes you

After that long day of work, 2+ hour commute, you come home to dinner and milk. What? No! You come home to a bottle of your favorite Ale, Porter or IPA. Why? Milk doesn’t take your mind off work, the stresses in your life or screaming kids. Beer does though. Side note – don’t take your mind off your screaming kids for too long in case one of them accidently staples the other one’s fingers together.