Note: I’m on vacation during next week’s Session, so I’m posting this early.
It’s time for another round of The Session, a monthly event where beer bloggers from around the world get together to talk shop.
This month, Glen from Beer is Your Friend (how true) wants to know about compulsion:
Like most beer fans, I tend to buy way more beer than I can drink. I can have a fridge full, plus a few boxes of bottles, plus homebrew and still I’ll walk into a shop and buy some more. Or order some more online. Or do both in the space of a few days.
Essentially, he’s curious: what’s up with the hording? In the cellar, the fridge, the liverstomach…
Well, lots, I suppose. But I swear I don’t have a problem.
Conveniently, I can tie this month’s collaborative Session post to this week’s announcement of the Six-Pack Project. A dirty little secret behind the Six-Pack Project is this: when I travel, I want to sample as much local beer as I can find. I hope the Six-Pack Project helps like-minded people who are constantly in search of good beer find what they’re looking for.
But my compulsion isn’t necessarily about buying or hording beer, it’s about the need to experience beer. Especially from breweries I can’t find or have never heard of. Hell, arguably my favorite beer from last year’s Great American Beer Festival was one I never would have known – an “Imperial Sundae” porter from Mustang Brewing out of Oklahoma.
I try to keep a varied selection of brews at home, but I also try to stick to a budget. That’s helped by a stock of homebrews, which makes me think twice about going to my local beer store to find a newly released bottle. It means my stock of beers may be more than Average Joe Drinker, but it’s nowhere near some cellars.
Ultimately, compulsion for me and many other beer lovers may simply be driven by keeping up with everyone else. Sites like Beer Advocate or Rate Beer and apps like Untappd provide us with a constant stream of what everyone else is drinking (so does this blog) and when you see something good, you want it.
It’s hard to fight off compulsion to sample. It’s difficult to avoid wanting new experiences. It’s also a tough task to avoid the green eyes of envy.
+Bryan Roth
“Don’t drink to get drunk. Drink to enjoy life.” — Jack Kerouac
