The Session is a coordinated event among beer bloggers where a selected beer blog chooses a theme and we all write about it on the first Friday of the month. I’ve been meaning to do this for some time, but this is the first time I have finally gotten around to it. The theme for this month is “How did it all start for you?” The host for this months Session is Boak and Bailey. The Session was first conceived by Appellation Beer.
My story starts in Berkeley. I was a freshman, not even 18 and some of my older friends invited me to happy hour at a local beer garden. I wasn’t much of a beer drinker at the time, I thought it was disgusting actually, but I was in a new city looking to make new friends and if beer was the beverage of the day, then so be it.
Many pitchers were ordered for our table, among them was Boont Amber Ale. I had never had a beer like it. It was rich and malty. There was a bitterness that I hadn’t experienced before that caught me off guard at first, but encouraged me to drink more. That night was dedicated to Boont, and I drank plenty of it, but I was curious. If Boont was so good, what about the other 20 or so beers they had available at this location? They had to be good as well.
This started my education in microbrews. I kept going back, and insisted on trying something new everytime. My curiosity eventually spread to local grocery stores. Once my friends and I had tried everything on the shelves at Safeway, we moved to Andronico’s, and eventually JV, my first experience with a warehouse liquor store. Through college I tried countless beers, and many of them were great. But no matter how many beers I try, it all traces back to a pint of Boont on a sunny afternoon in Berkeley.
