Part 4: More Adventures in beer: the High School Years, continued.

While I had begun my sophomore year with an introduction to the beer bong, the rest of the year was relatively uneventful. I know that I may have been at the occasional party that involved drinking, but it was fairly rare. In my junior year, however, there were more and more opportunities to drink. This is when I became a true proficient.

However, after the Schafer incident, I resolved to avoid bad beer as much as possible. This was not easy. The problem with being underage and having very little money meant that we were at the mercy of opportunity. Most people opted for volume rather than quality. So, despite my best intentions, I occasionally had to suffer through the occasional Blatz.

The other factor was that there were so few beers available. The most tolerable were the Canadian and Mexican beers. So, for most of High School, I always requested something from Molson or Labatts, with the occasional Dos Equis. I tried Moosehead once. Once. I’d rather not discuss that particular beverage. Great name and logo, but the insides . . . .

I also relied on Weinhardz and accommodated myself to some of the beers from the Midwest. Strohs was tolerable, and Rolling Rock out of Pennsylvania was acceptable. One of the better drinking beers was Heilman’s Special Export. There was a place in town that sold it for less than $12 per case. So, essentially $3 per 6-pack – a money-smart buy that was still pretty tasty. And I rarely drank more than 4 beers at a party (sometimes more – it generally depended on whether I was staying over).

 

But, High School was for me the era of the drinking beer. Just to distinguish here, there are basically two types of beer experiences – sipping or drinking. Sipping beers are heavier, higher in alcohol, and more complex. So, something like an Imperial Stout, or a double IPA. They are best enjoyed gradually. Drinking beers are less challenging, lower in alcohol, and are meant to be enjoyed in volume. Prior to college, I really didn’t come across any sipping beers. They were more theoretical to me, and became mythological – something that I believed must exist based on the fleeting memory from my 10-year old brain’s recollection of what I’d tasted in Germany. But, during High School, such beers were about as common as unicorns. So, while I did my best to enjoy what I could get my hands on, I still longed for something more.