Rememberance of Beers Past

The best times to drink beer are stereotyped to the point of cliche - scorching hot days, after a hard day's labor, and any type of male bonding situation, made all the better if a sporting event is involved.  Sure, beer is good on a hot day, but it's no better than water or lemonade, and who doesn't like a beer after hard work, or watching a ballgame.   Hot days, working hard around the house, or flipping on ESPN don't make me want to grab a beer.  Beer drinking should not be so narrowly defined, as beer drinking transcends macro marketing.

Nothing evokes beer drinking more to me than a cool winter evening.  I took some trash out one night last week, and the cold, dry, late fall Southern California air, tinged with the hint of smoke from a neighbor's fireplace, triggered some recessed beer memories.  I wasn't stirred by any one particular memory, but an amalgamation of distant fall and winter nights spent drinking beers outside at parties, football games or just because.  The feel and smell of the crisp air, for a brief moment, carried me back in time and made me want to open a beer. 

I remember drinking cold beer on even colder nights and waking up the next morning with a sore throat, thinking I had caught a cold, only to realize my throat hurt because of the beer not a virus.  I shivered in Sacramento and told myself that winter nights in Southern California are colder than most people realize, while not having the sense to drink my beer inside.   The beer of choice back then was usually Bud, or Coors or Coors Light, and I can picture a bucket or ice chest full of beer, where the ice never melted, and not thinking twice about reaching in to grab a beer despite numb fingers.  I never gave a second thought to drinking beer on cold nights. 

Winter is my favorite time of the year to drink beer.  I love holiday beers, whether they are hoppy or malty, spicy or fruity.  To this day, I have no hesitation about drinking beer on cold days.  You can keep your hot totties and spiked egg nog.  Just give me a damned beer, the colder the better.