A Beer Resume

I hated beer. I was one of those girls who knew that I was not a beer girl, and I would tell people that frequently. But my early experiences with beer were stealing cans of Coor's Light from the fridge and attempting to drink it in the backyard. I always spit it out and could not get through it. So I must not like beer, right? I would find out just how wrong I was when I met my future husband when I was 18. Unlike me, he had grown up with a mom who had a passion for local microbrews, and he and his Uncle dabbled in homebrew for a time. When we met, they were no longer homebrewing, but his passion for beer remained. He would tell me of Sacramento Brewing Company's Pharaoh's Liquid Gold (an IPA) with such adoration, how could I not love it? I was willing to try anything, since it obviously meant so much to him, and so he and his best friend brought home a one gallon cube of this elixir for our consumption. Ack! Talk about bitter. What on earth was he referring to when he described it as floral? And malty? All I got was bitter. But alas, start a non beer drinker on IPA and many may fare the same. But I wasn't ready to give up and over the next few months started to discover beers I really did like. And one day I tasted the flower. I had been building up my beer experiences and trying to figure out what flavors I did like when my husband offered me some Red Horse Ale (Also from SBC). And it tasted exactly as I picture a flower would, one with a stem of malted barley. And my love of hops was born. Yes, I came to love the Pharaoh's Liquid Gold. And I fell in love with husband. Once we were both of legal drinking age, we spent one weekend a month exploring the breweries of Northern California. (And of course, countless hours in SBC savoring our local brews.) And our beer travels inspired my husband to try homebrewing again, a love that has permeated our lives ever since.

Although I appreciate all styles, my favorites tend to be Pacific Northwest Red Ales (Ninkasi Imperial Red anyone?) and spicy Belgian's (not so much Lambics, although I am coming around). My favorite BBQ spring afternoon beer (sometimes known as a session brew) is hefeweizen. Currently, besides me husband's hefe of course, my favorite has been Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis. LOVE it. My husband and I have developed several of what will be our standard recipes, the first was an imperial stout named "The Mighty Kieran". THIS STOUT HAS NOW WON AN HONORABLE MENTION AT THE CALIFORNIA STATE FAIR HOMEBREW COMPETITION TWICE! For our wedding we brewed both the Stout and a Belgian Trippel (named enlightenment.) We are currently perfecting a red ale and a strong ale/ipa. My husband is finishing his PhD in chemistry and has an amazing ability to compile beer recipes in his head. His thoughts and tweeks are usually dead on.