Lent: A Beer Snob’s Dilemma
February 5, 2008
“Mmmm…Sacrelicious!” Homer Simpson
Today is Fat Tuesday which means lent starts in just a few hours. I must admit that I am a lapsed Catholic and outside of never drink communion wine when you sit in back of church, lent is one of the traditions of the Catholic church that has stuck with me. I wish typing skills from my 10th grade typing class had stuck with me but Sister Dorothy just couldn’t reach me. Hey it was the early 80s, who knew that by 2008 almost all my interactions with people was going to be typed. They never showed this on the Jetsons. Where is the voice recognition software? I’m sorry went off on a tangent.
Lent to me is a time to correct bad habits I’ve picked up throughout the rest of the year and every year around lent someone asks me, “Are you giving up beer?” Lets face it some people consider drinking beer a bad habit. “No” is always the answer but this year I’ve been trying to figure out a way to give up beer without really giving up beer. I know that last sentence did not make sense but hear me out. My plan is to follow stricter rules for drinking beer. Here are some of my options.
1. Only drink beer you already own: This is a good plan except the MBG Winter Beer Fest is during lent and the other problem is I have about 15 gallons of beer either in my cellar or in carboys. It is not much of a sacrifice. Oh and lets not forget St. Patrick’s Day. All bets are off on that day too.
2. Only drink MI beer: That is a good idea but I drink MI beer about 70% of the time anyway so what kind of sacrifice is that? The benefit would be that I wouldn’t order a beer with dinner at a place that doesn’t serve Michigan beer. So I would be making a statement but annoying my server at the same time. Typically when I ask my server “What MI beers do you have?” They look a little perturbed.
3. Only drink Craft Beer: This is the equivalent of giving up nothing
4. Give it up altogether: Not an option, this would make it hard to write about beer.
5. Just give up what I give up every year and forget about giving up beer: This is in the lead so far.
Is any one giving up beer for lent? Or does anyone have an idea for a beer drinker that observes lent? Let me know.
Posted in Beer and Food, Uncategorized
February 5th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
As a recovering hophead I know the dangers of pigeonholing yourself into one style (it’s almost a sin). Why don’t you give up two of your favorite beer styles for lent?
February 5th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Mine is going to be something along the lines of going for a few mile run everyday to make up for all these homebrew beer calories I’ve been picking up.
You could consider starting a lent tradition, where you only drink one style of beer each Friday during lent. So, technically you’re giving up all other kinds of beer once a week. I vote for the first one to be a Barley Wine Friday!!
February 6th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Maybe I should drink only beers that use isinglass on Fridays. It would be the beer equivalent of eating fish on Friday.
I love the idea of one style of beer each Friday. Barley wine is a good for this Friday but I just found Dark Horse Fore Smoked Stout at Discount Drinks so I might drink that this Friday.
John, I like the idea but I really don’t have a favorite style. I just get in mood for a style and I drink it.
February 6th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Here’s a thought… Since monks brewed beer to sustain themselves while fasting, what if you gave up all beer EXCEPT those brewed (or at least traditionally brewed) by monks? I suppose that would get pretty expensive, so perhaps you could restrict it to Fridays. Personally I think I could survive on just Chimay Blue and Paulaner Salvator, though my liver may disagree.
February 6th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
How about giving up Lent for Lent.
February 7th, 2008 at 7:21 am
Russ that is a truly inspired suggestion. I have a bottle of Chimay in the cellar that is begging to be drank. If only I could get Trappist Westvleteren 12 that would be one heck of a lent.
Take off Hoser. I can’t give up lent for lent. I need topics.