My first beer was a Michelob Light. There, I’ll admit it.

I moved on to Michelob Ultralight. I was just that cool.

When I moved up north for grad school, I couldn’t find my favorites so I switched to Coors Light and the local, more “exotic” beer, Yuengling (which I used to pronounce “Yuh-eng-ling”, it’s just “Ying-ling”). I considered myself awfully adventurous for venturing out of my comfort zone. Of course, comfort zone is a bit relative… I wasn’t that big of a beer drinker. I just didn’t get the appeal.

Flash ahead a bit. It was summer and I was in Rome for a semester abroad. While there, I had a great plan to visit Greece; my friends, however, wanted to go to Germany. I made a bet with my friends that if I won, we would head to Greece. If I lost, we would head to Germany to visit another friend from law school. I lost, and Germany it was.

While in Germany, my friends and I met up with our friend, who was working in Munich for the summer. He showed us around the city and the castles. We had a wonderful time and were invited back the next weekend. Of course, we went. The next week, our friend came to Florence to visit us.

When summer wrapped up, my friends split up to head out to various places – Paris, Amsterdam and at least one, home early. We were to fly out of London together in a few days. I flew to London early to bum around with a friend. The thing was, she wasn’t really much of one to “bum around” with – her father had put her up in the InterContinental (an extremely nice hotel in London) whilst I stayed in a hostel a few neighborhoods over. It was not the best time I had ever had in London.

As we were wandering through the streets of London, I saw a Student Travel agency advertising really low prices. Hmm. My friend – the one from Munich – was studying in Prague for the rest of the summer. I had never been to Prague and I had really enjoyed my time with him in Munich. I impulsively ran in and bought a cheap ticket to Prague – leaving London that night.

Prague was amazing. I didn’t know Czech so I did what I normally did when I didn’t know a foreign language: I learned vocabulary of gross food items so that I could avoid them on a menu.

Through a series of crazy events, I met up with my friend. He took me to a bar where I ordered what was more or less, a “plate of meat.” But when it came to a drink, I was lost. I didn’t see anything that I recognized. My friend ordered for me. The beer came in a big, heavy glass. I was prepared to be grossed out but I was wrong. I spent the rest of the evening, sitting sat this bar/beer hall, munching on mystery Czech meat and enjoying really good beer.

As to that friend who ordered that beer for me? He happens to write this beer blog. And he happens to be married to me. See what a good beer can lead to?

Yep, I’m the new girl in town. I’ll be writing Brew Ha-Ha along with Chris. We thought it would be fun to write together and I thought the blog could use a little female perspective. Oh yeah, that’s right: chicks drink beer, too.

Post from: EveryJoe

Chicks Drink Beer, Too

Has anyone tried this?

Post from: EveryJoe

Lager hot sauce

As you may have guessed, I like beer. In fact, I like beer so much that our wedding reception was at the Stoudt’s brewery, and the guests threw hops as we left the church.

Now, UK beer aficionados have what sounds like an even better option. Shepherd Neame, one of the oldest breweries in the UK, now hosts weddings. I’m actually quite surprised that the oldest brewery in the UK only predates Yuengling by a mere 130 years, but the place looks quite nice from the pictures. My wife, the Anglophile in the family, tells me it’s in a nice area as well.

If I were in the market, I’d have to consider it.

Photo from the Shepherd Neame website

Post from: EveryJoe

The hoppiest day of my life