Here's looking at you!
I discovered an excellent beer in Austin Texas a couple of weeks ago while visiting my daughter and her family. It's Fireman's 4, a blond ale with a very mild, tart, flavor; very pleasant to my taste buds. However, I was drinking straight from the bottle, which I already knew was a no-no.
Why is it a No-no? The one reason I already knew was that the beer always tastes much better when drinking from a glass. If you doubt me, just try it, I am sure you will agree.
You see, when you drink beer, wine - or actually anything - from a glass your nose comes in to play; your sense of smell takes in the aroma which adds to the flavor when you take a mouthful of delicious beer. Your taste buds react with your sense of smell when drinking or eating , hopefully creating a pleasant taste sensation.
I knew a fellow in the navy who had no sense of smell. The poor bastard nearly poisoned himself several times because, without realizing, he would occasionally eat rotten food or drink spoiled milk, etc.. If there was no visual problem; mold, greenish meat, veggies that actually looked bad - he would generally ingest it. Luckily, he was married and his wife alerted him to most nasty uneatable things. The one benefit to his lack of smelling ability was that he stayed slender. Can you imagine? Ice cream tasting like just something cold - pizza tasting like crusty paste, prime rib tasting like lean, unflavored, hamburger meat, etc. I would rather be a taste-loving fatty!
In Austin I discovered reason number 2 to drink out of a glass: As I mentioned, I had been drinking beer from the bottle and, at the same time, munching on beer nuts. Jesus, I love beer nuts! You get that salty, sweet, roasted peanut flavor combination that is almost a sexual thing to me. I know - that's weird....
Anyhow, I swallowed a mouthful of chewed-up beer nuts then took in a big mouthful of that delicious beer. I always savor the beer in my mouth for a few seconds before I swallow to get more beer flavor satisfaction. This time, however, there was something soft, yet somehow crunchy feeling, in my mouth with the cool beer. I first thought it was a lone beer nut that escaped my usually thorough chewing and swallowing, but, as I moved the thing around the inside of my mouth with my tongue, I soon realized it was something other than a beer nut.
As it played out, the item in my mouth was a thoroughly drowned bee. I was quite sure that the bee did not enter the beer while I had been drinking it because - since I don't spend much time drinking a single beer - if it would had entered the bottle while I was drinking it would surely have still been alive. No, this bee came with the beer, all bottled up and totally dead, when it entered my unsuspecting mouth. I felt sure that being totally dead was a good thing since, if it would have still been alive, my tongue would probably have become much larger than the inside of my mouth. I don't even want to think about it...
So, anyhow, when you drink beer - drink it from a glass - preferably a clear glass so you don't have to worry about swallowing something weird or even dangerous like a scorpion or black widow.
Will I drink Fireman's beer again? Yes, it is a wonderful tasting beer - but, next time, I will do it properly.
