VIEW FROM HERE.
by Edward D. H. Tash

Have you ever gone to a bar that has many kinds of beer and wanted to try all of them (and planned to live through it)? That's what I did at Anthony's By the Bridge. You see Anthony has this deal that if you drink all 69 of the beers on his list he'll give you a t-shirt (the beer will cost $192.25 plus tax and tip).

On one of my trips to Anthony's I decided to have a theme night. I would drink gold beers (only beers with the word 'Gold' it their name). If this sounds silly to you, please consider this; I drink beer for fun, not to cure cancer. The three beers I had that night were: Gold Horn Club (Yugoslavia), Manhattan Golden (New York), and Molsen Golden (Canada).

The first, and the one most like water, was Gold Horn Club. This is not a bad beer, just not a good one. I could see it used as a thirst quencher on a hot August afternoon. I wish I could say the real reason I disliked this beer, was because of misgiving about the U.N.'s embargo due to the war between the Serbs, Bosnians and Croats. But damn the political motives it's just not a good beer on a cold winter night.

The second beer, and the best of the three, was Manhattan Golden. The label on the bottle said lager. I though it a bit light for a lager but as beer goes it was nice. According to Bill Yenne in 'Beers of North America Revised & Expanded', this beer won a gold medal at the 1989 - Great American Beer Festival and its Brewery, Manhattan Brewing of New York City made regular deliveries to Manhattan Taverns in a horse-drawn beer wagon in the mid 1980's (now that's class).

The third beer was Molsen Golden. I'd had this beer before, but hell I had to stick with the theme of the night (and I was still thirsty). Molsen Golden is the flagship of the Molsen Brewing Company and is one of the largest Canadian exports. Although it is a mass produced beer it does have a two redeeming qualities. For one there is no bad beer and for the other it's a hell of a lot better that LITE.

As the beers go the night was not a memorable one, but the idea of themes has some possibilities. Maybe a Mexican night; Corona, Dos Equis, Simpatico, and Tecate (with a trip to Taco
Bell on the way home). Other themes could be; animals - Bass (England), Giraf (Denmark), Moosehead (Canada), Rattlesnake (New Orleans), and Snakebite (Wisconsin); religious names - Cardinal Amber Light (Switzerland), Christian Moerlein (Ohio), St. Pauli Girl (Germany), and San Miguel (St. Michael Philippines).

How about beers from states whose capital and state name start with the same letter (hint: there are four, ask our PFL) or Beers of the Ohio River, only beers brewed in cities that are along the Ohio River (Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Oldenburg, Louisville, and Evansville). If you come up with any ideas for a theme let the group know, it might be worth doing at a FOSSILS meeting.

"Beer is not a good Cocktail-party drink, especially in a home where you don't know where the bathroom is."
-Billy Carter (Newsweek, Nov. 14, 1977)

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View From Here 05 - Beer Drinkers of America