Beer Origin Stories – Shafiqah Hudson

I’ve always been fascinated by what draws people to liking beer, I think in part because I really didn’t enjoy beer until I was well over the U.S. legal drinking age. There’s as many stories as there are beer enthusiasts, and part of me wants to document them all. Starting here. In this one, my friend Shafiqah Hudson reminds us that freshness matters. And that’s just in the first paragraph.

My entrance into the world of craft beer began, interestingly enough, with a REALLY good bottle of Heineken. Not my first Heinie, but the best, ever AND since. I mean, it was really, reeeeeeally fucking good, and maybe partly because I wasn’t expecting it to be.

Some extensive background: once upon a time ago, I didn’t drink beer.… Continue reading →

APRIL FOODS!

I couldn’t resist the play on words in the title when it came up. Sometimes, some silliness helps. Especially when you’ve FINALLY moved into April from #FuckingMarch.

Anyway, the sun is coming out in Portland and that is a huge relief. The grey and short days that make up winters are here really puts a lot of cramp in my style. It never feels like it’s going to end. But, finally, it’s starting to. Enough so that in the last two days, I’ve had two sodas. And brewed up some iced tea! I did both before I saw the following ad, which is relevant to the first link of APRIL FOODS!

The ad is from Montgomery County, Maryland, and it showcases some of the things the county has been doing for the last three years to try to curb soda usage without a sales tax increase specifically on “sugary drinks.”… Continue reading →