Beer Tasting Party With Friends!

So you think you know your beer?  You're a connoisseur, you say?  You'll only drink "your" brand?

Last night we got together with old friends and had a beer tasting party.  All of those invited were asked to bring a certain kind of beer and an appetizer and to come and watch the Boise State/Fresno football game on the big screen TV.  It turned out to be an embarrassing football game to watch if you were rooting for Fresno, but since none of us were, it was a good night.

My friend April has the perfect house for hosting parties.  In her lower level, she and her husband put in an "entertaining" kitchen, in the big room where they have a Big  Screen TV and a pool table.  But the important part is an whole OTHER kitchen in their house.  In the lower level, where my parents might have put a "bar" by their pool table (not might have, they did), April and Doug have a small kitchen.  It's perfect!!

Each of us arrived with our beer in a brown paper sack and it was whisked away to a secret room, then poured into a pitcher labeled with the name of a tree. (you will notice the tree suckamore in place of sycamore, because Doug hates those trees)  Then we were given voting sheets, to vote for the best tasting pitcher of beer, and at the end of the evening a winner was declared!

The Handyman and I laugh because one year we did this and our friend who was adamant about knowing his "Bud Light"   chose  O'Douhl's  (non-alcoholic beer) as the best tasting.

So, the question is, do you really know your beer?   For Domestic beers,  it turns out  the answer is, no.  Not usually.   Believe it or not, in blind taste tests, a beer is a beer, is a beer, 90%  of the time.     But for premium and micro-brews,  you can really tell a difference in beers.  Last night that's what we had,  the premium and micro-brews. We even had a home brew in the midst.   We did know our beers.
Well, okay, I didn't, but all of the beer drinkers did.  They could pretty much tell if it was a stout, a porter, an ale, a red, an ultra-fruity girly beer (that's the exact words of the Handyman...ultra-fruity, girly beer) a wheat beer, and so on.

I voted for the Ultra-fruity-girly beer.  It was good!   I did my taste test and then changed to iced-tea.  I am just not a beer drinker.    If one looks close at my pictures ( you can see them here), neither is Shelly.  You can see a wine glass in her hand.

It was a nice evening.   There is just something about being with old friends!

And then when we left at around 11pm......it was beginning to snow.

We went home and went to bed and when we awoke?