January 7, 2009: Pabst Blue Ribbon

My Dad is my hero. Everyday for thirty years, my Dad has woken up before dawn to just bust his ass all day at an incredibly physically demanding job, and then come home and cook dinner for my whole family. You might not know it by meeting him at first, but my Dad is one tough son of a bitch. I've never seen him cry, he's smashed his thumb into a bloody pulp with a hammer without so much as flinching, and to this day he can still whoop my ass even though I'm about four inches taller and fifty pounds heavier. My Dad is pretty much the ultimate man's man, and I could only hope to be like him one day.

My Dad stopped drinking almost twenty years ago, but something tells me that he was probably a Pabst Blue Ribbon kinda guy. I don't mean that my Dad's the kinda guy who likes to take the four wheel drive out to the country, pound a few dozen p.b.r.s and go duck hunting with his buddies, then come home and watch some NASCAR on T.V. What I mean is that my Dad is a blue collar guy and Pabst Blue Ribbon is definitely a blue collar beer. My Dad works hard, and he's not one to put up with a lot of bullshit. You don't get any bullshit with P.B.R., just a straight up American lager with no frills. I guess that's one thing that I've always liked about P.B.R.; they've never tried to be something that they're not. Budweiser, Coors and Miller all try to present themselves as premium, world class beers in their marketing campaigns. P.B.R. takes the opposite approach because they know who their market is, and they never stray from the formula.

If you're looking for an internationally acclaimed, award winning beer then Pabst Blue Ribbon is not for you. In my opinion, the taste is not half bad, but then again it's really not half good either. I've been known to indulge in the P.B.R. myself in the past, usually when I feel like getting good and drunk on the cheap. P.B.R. has in the past been dubbed the poor man's Budweiser, and in my opinion I think the comparison is pretty apt. Pabst Blue Ribbon is strikingly similar to Budweiser in both taste and lightness (by lightness, I mean the way the beer feels in your mouth, and how it makes your body feel afterward) but it usually comes at a much cheaper price than it's counterpart from St. Louis, Missouri.

If I've made my father come off as low class or white trash in this post, that was certainly not my intention. As I said, my father works hard and I truly appreciate everything he has sacrificed for my family over the years. I guess the best way to put it, is that P.B.R. is a man's beer, and I would expect nothing less for my father, the man, the hero.


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