That First Beer...

  There is a moment every day that beer drinkers know and look forward to. That first sip of beer to make it to your lips is sweet ambrosia, be it a long day at work or a mid morning eye opener on your day off. Nothing quite compares that ripple in time when the world stops and you get to embrace yourself. Choosing the right style sets the mood for the ones that follow or perhaps it is your only one of the night and it has to be perfect. Do you choose an old favourite or let caution fly and grab something you've never had before. The pop of the top and a scent should grab you, enticing you further into the zone. The pour is perfect, tilted and then straight, for maximum effect. Swirl and sniff, it's getting good now, you can almost taste it. Raise up the glass, look at the colour, embrace what you hold in your hands and smile because it is time.
Close your eyes and experience with joy the reward of being alive to experience this moment. Texture, flavour, nuanced responses as you sip, smell and savour. Is it a heavy stout, slow sipping and mind bending? Crushable Helles lager, making you feel like you could stay here and crack another one? Simple saison with citrus, banana and clove reminding you of why you love this so much? It matters not what you do for a living, your bank account or love life, craft beer is there for you.
  Slowly taking the time to understand the flavours, complex or simple, as you take another sip is part of what makes this different. You are not mindlessly pounding macro after macro, chasing oblivion, you want more. You want flavours you never considered, new and exciting. You want funk, barrels and fruit. You want to be tested and tempted to push the boundaries of what you know. The art of enjoying your beer may be new or perhaps your palate is refined and educated, this matters not to the beer as it does what the brewer intended, nothing more or less. The communication from conception of recipe to brewing to your glass is done with care and if you let it, the beer will speak to you. Hopes and dreams fill the bottles and cans we buy, there are people behind these beers with stories that match our own. We are one in our pursuit of that perfect moment when expectation meets reality and we can finally let the world drift away.
  The final sip always seems to come too soon, there is never enough when you find the right beer for your day. You think about your life as you stare into the glass, its contents now down to one final test. Did it hold up? Do you? Pause before you finish, savour the happiness you have just experienced and give thanks to be here, right now. You let the glass rest a moment and then let the end come to you. You don't immediately head to the fridge for another one, you sit and wait, giving this time to be thankful we live in the time we do. Can you have another beer, another moment? Of course, but it will not be like this. The first beer is always special because it is the time you have given yourself to truly be who you are. The world may not always be fair, we may not always have sunshine in our hearts but your first beer is waiting and if you let it, it can bring you light in the darkest of days. Don't rush through life, stop and make sure you have time to just be, you deserve it.


Raise your glass and your standards,
One Beer at a time.


Cheers!


Polk