Hopful Thinking

Hopful Thinking

I Drink, Therefore I Am.

  • Beer Recipes
  • Beer Reviews
  • Brewery Spotlight
  • Home Brewing
  • Hopful Thoughts
  • Showcase
  • Travels
  • Book Reviews
  • Featured
  • About
  • Featured

How I met your Mother *

Posted in Hopful Thoughts by Dan
Jun 04 2011

I’ve been drinking beer for a long time.  Like most teenagers around these parts, in my formative years the usual “brew” (I use the term loosely) was DB Export Gold (Although in my 20’s my preferred drink was Vodka and tonic).

I started going to the NZ Beer Festival from the very first one back in 2006.  It was awesome, drinking in the sun with live music, nothing better!  I tried a lot of beers but I kind of got lost in it, I’d written off beer as being something to savour on the whole, and thought of it more as something to get drunk on.

* N.B. — this post may have NOTHING TO DO with how I met your Mother.  It’s really about how I met Craft Beer.  In fact, chances are I haven’t met your Mother at all.  Sorry if I have disappointed.  Now keep reading 🙂

However, that changed when I tried my first Epic Mayhem in 2009 (it cost more than the others, I figured there must be a good reason, and I wasn’t wrong…)  Now that’s not to say there hadn’t been good beers at the previous festivals, but for whatever reason, I’d missed them, or not really tasted them, or not been in the right mindset about beer.  I guess you could say “the stars aligned that day”.

There was so much complexity and flavour that just wasn’t in the stuff I had always thought was beer, I guess it started up some kind of cog in my brain that had been winding away ever since, crying out for beer with actual flavour.  There were a few others at that same NZBF that were good, but I found myself seeking out more hops; needless to say, as I have since learned, Luke is some kind of lunatic when it comes to hops, and nothing came close.  The fact that he has since released even hoppier beers says it all.

But because I’ve been busy raising a little one, working, and a dozen other excuses, I didn’t seem to cross paths with much Craft Beer again.  So, I kind of went back to my old, dull existence until pretty recently (although I had since being a teenager “moved up” to more expensive (but still boring) beer).

I have for some time liked my wine and picking out subtleties in the same varietal, and trying to understand how that’s come about, has always fascinated me. (also explains my love of coffee).

It still amazes me how something made in “basically” a prescribed way from the same core ingredients in all cases, can have so much variation in the end product.  And how no matter what the brewer (or vintner, or roaster) has tried to do to “improve” the beer (wine/coffee), there is just no substitute for doing it the RIGHT way… that is to say, quality ingredients, experience, a knack for the craft, and good old hard work – but most importantly a drive to do it better, put your mark on it, and not settle for an average product that’s just like everyone elses.

So, what was the first taste that got you into Craft Beer?  I’d love to hear more stories about people starting down the path to Hopful Enlightenment!

This post was Inspired by http://rosalindaymes.wordpress.com/2011/06/04/gateway-beers/ – when I realised my comment was the size of a blog post I figured, well, what the hey 🙂

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Tweet

Related Posts:

  • Inside The New Zealand Beer Festival 2013
  • BEER NATION: The Art and Heart of Kiwi Beer
  • The morning after… the night before
  • Hot Tips for a great NZ Beer Festival Experience
  • Mad River Brewing Company Steelhead Extra Stout
Tagged as: Coffee, Craft Beer, Epic Mayhem, NZ Beer Festival, Vodka, Wine

Get updates by Email

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

Twitter

  • Drinking a Stone Free by @8wiredbrewing @ GABS2018 — https://t.co/IiOBlZ3eS7 02:39:54 PM June 30, 2018
  • Drinking an Iron Dragon Waving Cat by @outliercartel @ GABS2018 — https://t.co/TbrsLJysgb 02:39:33 PM June 30, 2018
  • Drinking a Shake Your Mangos by @BrewingBones @ GABS2018 — https://t.co/LIdFaTMwj1 02:38:36 PM June 30, 2018
  • RT @justinbaragona: Rachel Maddow chokes up and cries on air as she struggles to deliver news that migrant babies and toddlers have been se… 07:53:13 PM June 20, 2018
  • RT @tarbard: I made a device that checks the council website and lights up to show you what colour bin to put out. I call it the Bindicator… 06:07:00 PM June 02, 2018
  • Drinking an Electron by @SunshineBrews - https://t.co/T95QYsHlqo #photo 06:16:47 PM February 09, 2018
  • Drinking an Avgas Pilsner by Pilot Brewery @ Giraffe by Simon Gault — https://t.co/Go7ZLtO8pk #photo 05:33:07 PM February 09, 2018
  • Cold beer, cool jazz, warm food. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.... (Hopitoulas) https://t.co/JYlP7jFIpe 05:29:34 AM October 27, 2017
  • Drinking a Ragin' Cajuns by @BayouTecheBiere at @willajeannola — https://t.co/7GXNEWypC0 #photo 06:05:24 AM October 26, 2017
@hopfultweeting

Archives

  • October 2014
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011

Recent Comments

  • hopfulthinking on New Zealand’s Answer to Munich
  • hopfulthinking on New Zealand’s Answer to Munich
  • Dave on New Zealand’s Answer to Munich
  • Jager Tron on New Zealand’s Answer to Munich
  • Dan Capper on New Zealand’s Answer to Munich

Other Guff