dir/old_school/rant: D u f f    B e e r

A coworker asked me out for a few drinks last Friday night. I countered with the suggestion that we take up beers and a movie at my apartment. I'm not against going out for a drink, but my high tolerance and my desire (so far I am eighty five hundred dollars out of a the ten k whole) to pay off all my debt and become a conscientious spender, limits my capacity for going out and spending thirty bucks on a buzz, when I know I can spend three dollars and sixty nine cents for a six pack Milwaukee's Best Light and have a good old time, catching a buzz and watching a movie at home.

Of course most people think that a six pack of the "beast" is no way to spend your time drinking beer and it was there that I found myself sharing in six pitchers of Sam Adams, with four guys and talking Star Trek, Star Wars, women and bad eighties music trivia.

Nothing from this existing dialogue will follow the rest of this piece, I have to warn you of that dear reader, nothing except for Milwaukee's Best Light.

I don't know how a person starts out drinking the Beast, most folk will tell you that after years on the path to more expensive and better beers they one day found themselves in a Zen like trance, sliding down the beer hill of life, until they discovered the Beast.

Milwaukee's Best comes in a number of flavors, the scary original flavor, is very Budweiser like, it's "Light" counterpart is much more about water, flavor and alcohol. The ICE brand is equally simple and is one of the few ICE beers that does not suffer from the strange banana after taste that's most "ice" pumped beers have experienced.

I came by way of Milwaukee's Best when I began to drink Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. The great thing about beer taste is simple, you're either anal or you're looking for a buzz, PBR has always been regarded as the "cheap, but good beer" and I felt like this for a long time and dropped my preferred beer Amber Bach and my occasional treat, the fantastic Black and Mild.I drank other stuff, I come from a Heineken family, served time on the front line of the micro beer wars, I loved Corona as a kid and I must admit that I went through a brief time (two years) when I thought a good Friday night was two forties of Colt Malt Liquor and a bag of Cheesy puffs.

Pabst Blue Ribbon changed my life, it was cheap, it was the first cheap beer I grew to love and appreciate how a nice night of buzz and smoke could be had for fewer than six bucks. Milwaukee's Best Light though is pleasing. It's probably such a joy to drink because it has an inoffensive taste; it works well with fish and fowl, but does not overburden your evening if you were to choose to eat it with say a hearty steak or a carbohydrate laden meal.

Milwaukee's Best Light is also cheap, I usually buy it in six packs for about $3.50. Compared to most other beers I would buy, I'm saving $2.50. Of course while I began to appreciate the Beast cause of price, I cannot say enough about how well it happens to taste. From a contemporary drinkers standpoint, Milwaukees Best Light, tastes a whole lot like Coors light, without the taste of Coors to muddy the equation. A six pack of Coors Light will run you six bucks

As a fat, early twenty something kinda guy, I boasted that if I wanted spring water I'd drink it, light beer was for sissies and I was not concerned with my weight. I was also under the misconception, that light beer just did not have enough punch to be worth it. I did eventually become aware of the fact that maybe I should watch my weight and maybe the fact that after three or four regular beers, I spent the next three hours in route to the pisser and felt weighed down and still chasing a buzz.

Of course I'm not adverse to drinking other beers with more character. Though the truth is simple, when I'm turning to beer, I'm not turning to the desire of what amazing taste the brewed hops might provide me and that's when a beer that tastes a whole lot like spring water works just fine.