Awful Beer Selections…..

Non alcoholic beer is a dichotomy…..We used to have Near Beer!  Think we had our first Near Beer way back in 1952.  It was pretty good to an 11 year old that got to taste first sip from cans of Uncle Franks’ Pabst Blue Ribbon.  The rumor is that Vice President Joe Biden sipped on Buckler!  This is sort of the new Near Beer.  Heineken makes Buckler!  The good old Near Beer might have been a better choice.

Well, when you have to discuss ethnic bigotry……maybe Vice President Biden was the one that made the right choice.  The Great Gates-Crowley Summit meeting at the White House….is definitely “one for the books”!  Now the truth is that we do love President Obama.  He thinks out of the box and has no qualms about trying new things.  That part is all wonderful.  But it was the terrible choices of Beer that was the telling tale! 

First of all, NO Lite anything!  OK, so we spent three years in Europe and got used to fantastic quality German, Dutch, Austrian and Danish Beers.  But on pain of being considered “an elitist beer drinker”……we must say there are a whole array of wonderful beers out there:  Kirin Draft, Sapporo Draft, Hefeweizen’s or Model Negro, San Miquel……oh my the list goes on and on and on.

Anyway, how about a nasty Steel City Beer?  Come on guys….the next time you have a “Beer Summit” you better break out the Malt Liquors…..hey how about a ratzy Colt .45?  Just send someone to one of those high dollar grocery stores near D.C. and have them pick a huge selection.  You don’t need to bother with Mickey’s Big Mouth or any of that awful stuff…..but at least get a couple German dandy’s and a nice Danish Carlsberg or Tuborg!

The result of the this summit was less than exciting.  Everyone did “The big hug”- metaphorically of course…..and left the conversation not too much this way…and not too much that way.  The guy that got fired for talking about “Monkey Business”….was on Larry King and seemed pretty sad.  Hey, here was a guy that had served in Iraq, joined the Cambridge Cop Shop and had been there just three years!  Good grief, did he want to get invited for beer too?  All in all, very sad.

To Professor Gates:  Time to see how modern society is conducted.  Treat those Policemen nicely. “Thank you Officer for being so thorough…..it makes me feel safe!”  “How about a beer?”  For Sgt. Crowley:  “Sorry to bother you Professor…..but when a neighbor calls in the disturbance…..we just have to follow up!”  “Get some rest….seems you have been on a long trip!”  “Next time I see you….we can have a beer!”

Good judgment doesn’t grow on trees.  Especially when it comes to choosing the right beer.  There is no more Rhinegold Beer.  Their sign was on their building off the 101 Freeway Downtown LA for many years.  The beer was awful, but you could get a case for $5 bucks.  They also made Brew 102 which was really bad.  Same price per case!  Olympia beer was really  awful too…..and it was $7 dollars a case.  Coors was sometimes good mostly like water…$11.50 a case.  Then came Dos Eques dark, which was good….but Modelo Negro is better.  We never knew that however…because they only exported that dumb Corona and Dos Eques!  The most interesting man in the world.