You have already read about the beginning. Now it's time to move to the next major chapter where beer is something new and exciting. It has a great variety of styles and flavors that I was just starting to understand. This was a fun time in my life, not because of the beer per say, but because of time spent with my Dad and Brother and/or with friends as we shared a pint together.
Rams Head Happy Hour and the Beer Club
Guinness is the beer that started the metamorphosis. It was all I would order when I went out. This eventually led to a larger interest in the variety of available beers. Movie nights were a regular thing back then, so the gang and I would go to Arundel Mills where we could get some dinner and drinks at DuClaw's and then catch a movie at The Egyptian 24.
DuClaw was great for what it was, but they only carried their in house brews. My brother happened upon Rams Head Tavern in Savage Mill, and it changed everything. I should note at this point that my beer journey is located squarely in the shadow of my brother's. He found, he tried, he shared and I followed.
For a good 2 years, a small group of us would meet up at Rams Head for Happy Hour. (If you don't know about their happy hour deals, Hoco Hangover wrote a nice piece about it recently). The meet-ups were typically in the Spring/Summer as I recall. We would get there just before Happy Hour started so we could get good seats out on the balcony. We'd eat the free food and tip the on duty chef well.
As these get together's continued, we all joined the beer club. You start this club by obtaining a checklist of 100 different available beers. As you order them, they get checked off your list. Once all 100 beers are checked off, you get your name on a plaque, a goblet of some sort and of course, $2.50 drafts for life. I never finished, but my brother and one of our friends did. I probably tried about 40 of the beers on the list, and this is the time that I refer to as my great awakening.
I learned that I prefer hop flavors over malts. Ale's over Lagers. What makes a Stout or an Amber or a Bitters or a Saison. I tried a lot of things that I liked, a lot I didn't care for and a few that I loved.
More than anything though, I just remember having many wonderful evenings with my friends. I would laugh until I cried as we joked around, listen intently as I learned new things about their lives or jobs and share quieter moments as problems were laid out, dissected and discussed to (hopefully) resolution.
It was also during this time that I would regularly get together with my Dad and Brother and share similar experiences. The three of us have always been close, probably because my Dad is an amazing Father that led us courageously through some of that hardest times in our lives. Getting to share these moments of combined levity and profoundness together as adults is truly a blessing.
During these times the beer was good, the company was great and the memories are something I continue to cherish. Of course, life takes everybody in different directions. Some people move away, some people get married, some have kids, some have jobs that require them to work in the evenings and so on. As we move toward the last (read: current) chapter of my beer journey, there is not as much socializing as before, but when we do find time to get together it's always an amazing evening!
Stay tuned for the third and final chapter tomorrow...
To this, and the previous: Well remembered and well stated, sir! It was a fun ride down memory lane reading the last two posts
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