Saturday nights have proven to be an interesting dilemma for me every week since I've started the 365brews project. The week is finally over, and all I want to do pretty much every Saturday night is get loaded with my friends. Unfortunately, my appetite to party is a little more voracious than some of my friends, and sometimes I'm stuck with the decision of what to do with myself if alcohol is not a part of the equation. But like the old saying goes, where there's a will, there's a way. Tonight most of my friends are doing different things, and I can't really decide what I want to do but I know that I don't want to sit at home watching project runway reruns all night long. So I drove south to San Diego where a couple of my buddies were celebrating a sister's birthday or something, stood outside in a line for about half an hour in pouring rain, until I gave up and started to head home. On long, lonely walk back to my car, I popped in a local bar called Hennesy's to grab a quick pint, but mostly just to get out of the god forsaken rain. Hennesy's is a chain of half-assed Irish themed bars that are spread out sporadically throughout southern California. Not a great bar by any means, but it will usually take care of business when you're in a bind for a place to go drink. The wooden toucan in my post from yesterday was stolen for the Hennesy's in Dana Point earlier in the evening, which has turned into a kind of inside joke among my friends and I. So now it's Saturday night and I'm in the same bar that I was in last night, but in a different city. I sit alone at the bar and a sudden wave of pathetic desperation washes over me when the bartender asks me what I want. My God, has my Saturday night really turned into this? Drinking alone in an empty bar that I had just been to the night before? Granted it was the Hennesy's an hour north of here last night, but somehow it still seems a little too lame even for me and I leave the bar. As I'm sulking in my car, listening to Morrisey in the driving rain, my phone rings. Thank the lord, a friend of mine has called me up and asked if I want to go grab some drinks. With renewed hope, I make the drive north toward Laguna, wondering where the reborn night will take me. When I finally find a parking spot, my phone goes off again and my heart sinks for the third time this evening. "Meet us at Hennesy's in Laguna". I start to laugh to myself as I make my way the same bar for the third time in two nights in three different cities.
Seeing as I now feel like a bit of a regular at Hennesy's, I'm pretty well acquainted with the selection of beers on tap at this bar and it's not much to choose from. In my mind, I've made a sort of beer calendar and reserved certain beers for certain occasions. For instance, Pyramid Hefeweisen and Franziskaner are both reserved for friends who have, birthdays in Novermber. Standing at the bar my options don't look too promising so I'll have to break the invisible beer calendar in my brain and order a Bass. Bass is one of my absolute favorite beers in the entire world and I was hoping to save this one for a little later in the 365brews project, but for tonight I'll lay aside my principles for the good of the project.
Bass is a classic English beer with a distinguished history. The red triangle that appears on Bass' label was the first officially registered trademark in England. In the late 18th century, Bass became popular as an export, even being adopted by none other than the infamous Napolean Bonaparte as his beer of choice. Bass has grown to become one of the largest brewers in England, and if you've ever had a black and tan, you've had a Bass. I think what I love most about drinking a pint of Bass is that you get the full richness of an Ale, but you don't feel like you're drinking a bitter glass of charcoal. After the wild goose chase that this night has turned into, I'm enjoying this particular pint immensely, and it's easy for me to get lost in the music of the band playing in the corner of the room. As I finish my pint, the band begins performing a cover of "Every rose has its thorn" by Poison and I get a feeling deep in my gut that my entire night has been leading up to this one perfect moment of zen. Although I didn't get to save the Bass for a special occaision, it seems just right in this moment and I don't think I could have chosen a more perfect beer.
Cheers,
Ian
www.bass.com
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