Beer, Glorious Beer

This may be a shocker for some, but I think that I like beer more than wine. I don't buy beer for drinking at home, because my husband can't stand it. We drink wine during Shabbat meals, and it has been decades since I've bought any juices. I consider juice to be just sugar-water, which we certainly do not need. I like my fruit fresh and crunchy.

When I eat out, especially with my kids, I usually have beer, and I've started asking for beer at the bars at weddings, rather than wine. I don't like dry wines, and the semi-dries are too sweet. But beer usually hits the spot.

Photo by Mike at the Beer Tasting

I've become more opinionated about beers ever since Doug has been including me in his beer tasting panels. In the latest one we gave our 2¢ two cents about amber beers. The beers we get to taste at Doug's tastings are all Israeli and all from the smaller, less well-known microbreweries.

I like many of them more than I like the regular commercial beers. Recently I, no doubt, amused some young bartenders at a wedding by choosing my beer by their relative colors. They were davka ambers, and since I liked the darker ones at the tasting more than the lighter colored ones then, I figured that it would be the same. Of course I was right.

With all the panelists and all the beers we took our time. The beers were divided into to "blind tasting" groups, and the panel was split into two sessions. I helped serve and organize the beers for the second tasting and was assisted by a professional bartender, who unlike yours truly, knows how to pour beer properly.


After tasting the beers and filling out the forms, we sat around discussing the merits of the different beers. Hmm... Maybe I should start buying beer for Shabbat, but not the mass produced ones.