The Beer I want to Share...

 

I have a lot of very good beer in my cellar, Lots of Barrel aged beauties and Farmhouse Ales, Belgian and other notable pints wait for a day to made special by their presence. I long ago gave up the notion that a beer need be saved for a special occasion, without children those come a lot less frequently than you could imagine; and outside of our annual tradition of drinking the cellar during our beer advent calendar at Christmas, we drink them when the fancy strikes us. So as I've opined before, letting a special beer make the day special has become our mantra and I'll tell you that it has been a great way to get ourselves through this year of turmoil and isolation. A Bourbon Barrel aged stout in the pool on a random Wednesday in August was purely sublime and that one on a not so good day in October helped to lift our spirits up when we needed it. Beer in and of itself cannot be the answer to sadness or happiness, but it can be used to ease the former and enhance the latter. 

But.

  I am saving a special bottle for an occasion I hope to see in 2021, on the hope that we can all get right with the vaccination and gather together in friendship and beer. 2 years ago, my pal Karol dropped into Hamilton on his yearly jaunt from Europe and we finally were able to meet in person and share a few beers at Collective Arts and Merit Brewing. As he was leaving to go home, he stopped by my work with some treats from his native Slovakia and one particular beauty from Belgium. A bottle of Belgium's Cantillon Gueuze 100% Lambic Bio, a rare treat for this Belgian beer loving guy. Profuse thanks were handed out and a speedy return to visit again was wished...then, well, 2020 happened and that was rendered impossible. But I know the future will bring more visits and I will do my level best to repay the kindness of my new European friends with some Ontario pints of renown. He is not the person for this beer though, I've got another one waiting for him.

  Now Polk, you may be wondering, where is this all going? Indeed, I understand it has been a circuitous journey and now we come to what to do with the singular experience this beer is sure to bring, for Kathryn is no fan of anything Lambic, so she has no interest in what's inside. The pandemic and isolation make sharing it out right now impossible, so it must wait and wait we will. But the person I wish to share it with has become a dear friend, even though most of our interactions are online and the occasional phone call, a friendship founded in beer and forged in a love of justice, truth and doing what is right. He has become a sounding board for my words, a voice in a lost fog of a year and a true-blue friend when I thought it not possible to find another as I approach 50 years on this planet. Our mutual love of so many of the same styles of beer, not just the big IPAs or Bourbon Barrel aged stouts, but the red ales and ESBs of the world also includes all things Belgian, from Wit to Quad and everywhere in-between. 

You know where this is going now, eh?

When we come out the other side of this pandemic, a little tired and beat up, missing so much of the life outside our own homes and ready to see a little more of the world again, I have a lot of folks I cannot wait to raise a pint or two with. Good friends and family whom I miss dearly and fondly wait to reunite with, but this bottle, this singular experience will be saved for some random day when he and I can finally break bread, raise a glass or 6 and enjoy this double friendship beer together with our families. We will let the beer make the day even more special because it will no doubt be a pretty amazing day on its own. A silly little wish in the midst of chaos and uncertainty, but one I hold onto with my heart.

Let the world heal, one pint at a time.

Cheers,

Polk

Just One Tonight

A good night.

It's late Monday night or maybe the clock has rolled over and it's very early on a Tuesday morning. Matters not as another day has come and gone and I am tired. Life is pretty good and last night's Grotto beer party with Kat was a nice break, albeit one that left me a little punched this morning. Not hungover but pretty spent in a good way, great beer rarely leaves me feeling anywhere near where the Old Mil or Pabst did. We enjoyed several amazing pints, big boozy bastards and light wheat beers included and it was an almost perfect night.

Grotto Beer par excellence

  The work day was supposed to be short with only a quick few hours but as nothing I ever plan about my life, it turned into another 10 hour shift. So when I got home tonight (yesterday?), I was of the mood that it would again be a multiple brew night, including a few big Imperial IPAs I had picked up on the way home. There is a constant threat of that kind of behaviour and despite my ability to keep it in check (most of the time), I do still slip into Old Polk mode when the stress of the day gets to me or I just feel like it.
  Tonight had that vibe as I rolled in and quickly shed the trappings of my work life. I am all about comfort at home and am most often found in sweats with a loose shirt allowing for maximum fat guy relaxation.  Pausing to say hello to Kat and Jinx, I headed to the garage for what was to be the first of many beers this humid September evening. A delightfully refreshing Beau's All Natural Cranberry Oat Ale was perfect and at 6.3% ABV, a nice slow sipping, slightly tart beauty that would allow for maximum ramping up as the night went on.

Tonight's only beer.

 As I tried to get a picture before the sun was gone for the night something clicked and I knew I was going to be one and done. I can't describe it, there's never a plan to drink 1, 2 or 6 beers, I just come home, have a bite, drink a beer and see where it takes me. The freedom of being childless comes to the front most often when I get 4 deep on a Monday night and don't have to worry about a little one needing Dad's attention. It can also lead to too much self indulgence but that's the price you pay for being a guy like me. Kidding, but sometimes I wonder if I would walk away from the whole craft beer thing if we had been able to conceive...
  We watched a few season premieres of some of our favourite TV shows and I felt no desire to open another beer. I thought about it, I always do, but it seemed to me that after 675 days of having at least one beer, I was good with that single on this particular night. That's the thing with how I live, it is completely without pretense or plan, I do what I have to for survival but the rest is all a huge crapshoot most days. Not to say that I hate my life or live without purpose, it's just that I let myself embrace whatever catches my fancy after my responsibilities are taken care of and that's how we get here. One night, One beer and a happy Polk letting you in on a day that wasn't about anything but a nice mellow evening of a boring married couple who know enough to know they know nothing.
  Plus I am off tomorrow (today?) so there is always Day Drinking as a possibility...

Raised to you from me!

Raise your Glass and your standards,
One beer at a Time.


Cheers!


Polk