A to Z: Beer

Beer is part of where I come from.  Or rather, bier is.  My family came from Germany, and Germans are famous for their beer.  Oktoberfest is a month long celebration of that very delicious beverage, I'm told, and I completely get that.  Beer has been around for centuries for a reason.

In my rambunctious college days, the beer I drank was not especially fine.  College drinking was more about being cheap or free and my friends and I drank as though we were dying of thirst. We chugged it, in other words, to get drunk as fast as we could.  Those were the times.  Cheap beer generally tasted a bit metallic because of the cans, however. I had to go through a no-beer phase after college, simply to get the taste out of my mouth. 

Once my palette righted itself, beer was back on the menu.  But I was older and wiser now.  And since I was gainfully employed, I could now afford to be more discerning. 

And I stopped chugging the beer. I learned to savor it, to swirl the flavors around in my mouth. Beer was no longer a means to an end, and I no longer had to get drunk to have a good time.  I discovered a brewery in a little town called Shiner, Texas, and have been working my way through their beers. 
These days, a beer is all about moderation. 

Taking the time to look around, relax, and just be.