The Session #20, Beer and Memories.

The session this month his hosted by Bathtub Brewery.

Is there a beer that reminds you of a specific memory?

If you’re thinking, “Huh?” then you might want to craft your response along the lines of “Whenever I drink [insert brew here] it reminds me of that day …” Or perhaps it’s the reverse. Oooooh.

Well, if you've read here before, you probably know it's not that a beer reminds me of a day, but normally the day reminds me of a beer.

It all started when Kriddy got me one of those Calendars where you peel off each day, the one she got me was 365 Bottles of Beer for the Year. I was flipping through it, and was looking for certain beers, what did they pick for my birthday, what was this... what was that. Well, I looked up November 10, to see what they picked and it was Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale. What the hell does Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale have to do with November 10?

Absolutely nothing.

The beer that should be that day is Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald. On November 10, the Edmund Fitzgerald was lost in a storm on Lake Superior (yes the boat from the song by Gordon Lightfoot). Great Lakes Brewing Company named their porter after the ship. Since I discovered craft beer and Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald, I've been having one on November 10, in memory of those who lost their life that day.

So, I started doing my own calendar on June 6. Since then, I've tried to pair a beer with each day. Some days are easier than others (Like when Arthur Guinness was born) others are kind of a stretch, but each day, there's something. There's usually some kind of history lesson, and also a little about each beer. Sometimes it's a fun pairing, (like when I picked a beer for Elizabeth Berkley's birthday) other times it's more serious (the Danish cartoons). But there's enough beers out there with important names, and enough days out there with important beers, to make a calendar. It doesn't hurt that I like history and I like beer.

The Session #19 Deutsches Bier

Those wacky Germans.

You probably already know my feelings on the German Purity Law, Rob even linked to it. So I won't go back into it, EXCEPT...

My favorite style of German beer is Weizen, or wheat beer. I really like weizens, hefe- kristal- berliner- dunkel-... I dig them all, but just plain old everyday hefeweizens are my favorite Germanic Beer.

One of my favorites is Hacker Pschorr. My buddy Jim's newest favorite beer is Konig Ludwig. He discovered he liked weizens at Elevator Brewery in Columbus, Ohio. He never really noticed the light banana flavor before, and fell in love with their Heifer-wiezen. The last time we were in C-bus, we went to a bar named Bodega that had Konig Ludwig on draft, so he had one of those and fell in love. He hasn't been able to find that one near his home, so he's been traveling nearly a 100 mile round trip to Springfield, Il to purchase 6 packs of it. That's love. I remember back when Billy Barooz in C-U had Konig Ludwig on draft... then it got replaced by Blue Moon, I cried.

Since there's a lot of love going on, let me say I hate having these great beers fruited. The essence of the beer is in the nose, these beers have clove, banana, and other spices in the smell, that when a lemon or orange wedge is put down turns the beer into orange juice (it also kills the head). Most people around here, wouldn't know that there's banana or clove in them, as it's all been killed by the fruit. (But I digress into pet peeves; more on why I hate the reinheitsgebot!)

Wheat beer (my favorite style of German beer) doesn't really fit into the law. Barley, Hops, Water (yeast) no where is wheat allowed. Except... the reinheitsgebot's 4 ingredients only cover lagers; wheat beers are normally ales. So there you go.

The Session is a monthly event for the beer blogging community which was started by Stan Hieronymus at Appellation Beer. On the first Friday of each month, all participating bloggers write about a predetermined topic. Each month a different blog is chosen to host The Session, choose the topic, and post a roundup of all the responses received. For more info on The Session, check out the Brookston Beer Bulletin’s nice archive page.