Every month or so I head down to the local newsagent to pick up the latest copy of All About Beer magazine. And then proceed to torture myself.
You see, within its pages are lots and lots of beers I will never, ever get to try. I’m old now, have a wife and a kid so a trip to the US to drink lots of beer is so totally a pipe dream. If we did somehow manage to get over there Disneyland would likely be the first item on the agenda. “Dad drinking lots of beer every day” wouldn’t even get a look-in.
And so I see all these beers name-checked and feel so forlorn. For instance, take the “New on the Shelves” pages pictured above (the picture shows just the first two of four pages. Yeah, there are four pages of new beers). The first item on that list is the Samuel Adams Beers of Summer pack. As far as I can tell it includes eight different beers -three of which are new. Well, new to the US anyway. Of the “old” beers, I’ve only had the Boston Lager.
Being a man who has enjoyed what little of the Boston Beer Company output that I’ve tried, if this variety pack was at my local I’d race over right now and buy one. But, alas, it is not. There’s also a listing for a Schofferhofer Grapefruit wheat beer – i love the Schofferhofer beers I’ve had and I know this will never be one of them.
Elsewhere there are mentions of various Unibroue beers including a mention of my face, La Fin du Monde being on tap. On tap? Man, we can’t even buy that in bottles here and the Americans get it on tap? Life is so unfair.
There are quite literally pages and pages of beers I wish I could get my hands on. I wonder if American beer geeks truly realise how blessed they are.
Categories: Beer ad, Germany, hefeweizen, Limited release, United States, wheat beer
BEER IS YOUR FRIEND 
I’m pretty sure the American beer geeks are jealous of all the beers we have that they can’t try.
Think of all the amazing beer we have here & the journey’s available to go on locally to find great unknown local brews!
I’m sure they’d be jealous too….pretty much a case of wanting what you haven’t got.
I feel your pain- being a chronic self torturer myself. Most days just reading my newsblur gives me the shakes and sets me out to online beer shopping (at which point I get to the payment and shipping page before jaw dropping and muttering to myself how unjust the world is.)
At least where you are, you have SOME loving and creatively made beer. For IPA day, I traveled far to the one bottle shop within rage and was able to pick up 4 different beers (including one that wasn’t an IPA but an ‘extra hoppy ale’) in total. That was all that they had in the entire store. And when I told the little old shop lady that it was international IPA day, she responded something like, “maybe in your city, but I don’t think we do that here.”
*SIGH*
There aren’t even beer geeks or beer magazines in my range, for that matter.
I can’t get the Belgian beer that Americans get because they suck it all up!
Pity Party at Nitch’s tonight. Boo Hoo.
Send me a Stone & Wood Pacific Ale and I’ll send you some Duvel Triple Hop.
XOXO!