Where The Heck Do I Start?

Let's see now, I delivered my load to Rochester, MN without major incident. I picked up a load in Minneapolis, MN that was drop and hook...I like that. And am happily on my way to two drops in the great state of sawtooth hicks and losers...West Virginia. Just kidding. Really.

I had a good friend in the Navy that was from Elkins, WV and I just have to say it...he was a hick. I think he liked the fact that he displayed hickness at every turn and I am sure as heck he is still the same way today. He was one true friend and it was a shame he went off to A-school and ended up who knows where. Perry Petro from Ohio was another great friend that I spent 4 years in Hawaii drinking beer and listening to great music with and he is still in my thoughts and I hope all is well with him. Would like to get in touch with him somehow. Clayton Blair from Tennessee is another great guy that falls in that list as well.

Anyway, I have entered the great tangent zone which carried me clear away from the earlier paragraph. I have another blog I just started called www.thebeerpage.blogspot.com that I started recently. You see, I have traveled to over 50 countries over many years of government service and currently have 1200 beers tasted in the United States however, some of those beers were tasted in the 1980's and 90's and my methods have changed along with some of the formulations of the beers since then. At any rate, my opinion of a lions share of the beers that you run into in some of those countries is that they are simply crap. They may not be crap when they export it here but I have a problem with some of the third world garbage that tastes like lawn clippings floating in grey water.

I have brewed beer since 1984 and am a certified beer judge which means really that I am simply a beer bum that will use any label I can get from any beer brewing/judging organization to get close enough to beer and taste it. Beer for free is the best but I am not cluttering any of the beer page with that stuff. It is all beer that is tasted at the time I enter it. Being a truck driver poses a bit of a challenge as I just can't pull up to the local brew pub and belly up. I also have had to take mental notes on locations of beer brands and remember them when I get a weekend off in that location. I spend a mint on hotel rooms and have sipped some of the finest beer made by American craft breweries from Super 8 plastic cups.

I must say one thing at this point, I am not a beer snob. I do not worship every word I read in beer brewing magazines and could care less about the subtle undertones experienced by the so called beer experts. There are a few great beers from Belgium and there is honestly quite a bit of crap. I could care less about some of the California breweries that simply load the heck out of their beers with an overly imbalanced amount of hops and call it craft. Balance, good ingredients and proven brewing methods with consistency in mind are some of the hallmarks of the successful brewing industry. If the beer you pay 9 bucks a sixer for is what floats your boat, cool. Just don't get mad when I choose not to give your beer 5 points because it tastes like one of my home brewing mistakes.

One other point I would like to make on the beer page...I will not discriminate against any brewer. If I have great things to say. It is because it is great. Which brings me to the word that I haven't wanted to say...the B word. Budweiser. Anheuser-Busch has taken quite a bit of abuse from people in the "beer media" for lack of another world. Seems that if you write about beer, it is almost obligatory to bash Anheuser-Busch. Right now, there are some breweries that are banking successfully their profits for their efforts thanks to the evil empire A-B. Some craft beer purists will bash a craft brewer as if they sold out in accepting distribution and infusions of cash from the much larger brewers. These kindnesses naturally are not out of the goodness in the hearts of the mega-brewers. Brewing, like anything else in the United States is a business and business is there to make money. Everyone needs to get their piece. Nothing wrong with that in my mind. If that same mega-brewer helps out a brewery with distribution and other help and suddenly the beer is compromised...well, that is another story.

Let's see, did I have a point tonight? I am not sure but the words flow pretty good from the keyboard anyway. Really this is about the life and things that are in the complicated thing I call my life. Some days are good and some days are typically bad and I try to express that. If you are reading this and have the sudden urge to go on Zoloft to balance you out in order to handle the pitches and rolls that is this page, sorry about that. They are only words. Relax. It is raining like heck here at Osseo at the Super 8. Glad I am not a flat bedder tonight. With that in mind, I hope you are all dry and safe. Dedication...