After the Detox...The Hangover...and the Question: Why?

Hangovers and funny...when they are not yours. I haven't watched any of the Hangover movies, so no, this post will not be about that. I'll try not to even talk about my own, just so I am not thinking about it.

After Good Beer Week, my trip to Hobart, Stass's bucks and then his wedding last weekend, I have just come through 5 days without a beer, and was feeling much better. I may have kept it going (nah, probably not) but the Mountain Goaters were saying farewell to Jayne, so jumped a bit too hard into the deep end last night (probably didn't need to pull out my Russian Imperial Stout towards the end). My first beer getting back on the horse was Holgate Temptress at the Royston... At least waking up drunk this morning and feeling the hangover kick in now, I know it is only the alcohol that is affecting me, and not the other chemicals that can be present in beer...

While having a week off beer, I have been reflecting quite a bit on the impact beer has had on my life, and where I am now in terms of finding my career in beer. From the six year old having a taste of his dad's VB, and my further disliking to beer as a teenager, it wasn't a good start. I found it very difficult to just drink beer to get drunk, I maybe only had one or two Tooheys New after my Year 10 formal, and ended up just looking after my mates that were getting drunk. I had one or two the year after, after my rugby grand final (we lost) and I still didn't like Tooheys New. I probably only started liking beer when I was of the age where I was legally allowed to drink, but then it was many years later before I started to really appreciate beer, and that story is already on this blog.

I guess it is interesting for me to look back and see this in myself, to see how much things have changed. My mum doesn't drink, and my dad is likely to go for a light beer. While I know what I like, I don't have a very good palate, and it has taken me a long time just to get it to where it is. I'm still not sure how I got to where I am with all this, but it has been something that has grown naturally, as seems to be my way with anything in life. It is funny though, growing up I thought I would be one of those guys that would find a job, and I would just do that forever. Interestingly though, I think the course I did at uni to have that future set me up to do the very opposite, to question, and develop my own sense. That is what has led me from farming, academia/teaching, project management, labouring, and all the sorts of things I have dealt with through and between them. I guess even in another 10 years, I'll still be wondering what I am going to do with my life, but then that is the potential of life. As I have written before, even if finding a job in beer doesn't work out, I know beer was always be a part of my life.

I still have way too much beer sitting in my bedroom, but still wanting to go and get more. The Goaters have been good to let me in the brewery to do odd jobs, and let me get some sense of myself in that environment. I am also waiting eagerly to see how my entires in the beer writing comp went. I continue to keep meeting new people through beer, and have loved traveling Oz and the world with beer as a focus. Still, I enjoy just throwing $20 into a homebrew with my mates, and seeing how it will come out. The accessibility of beer I guess makes it a bit of an adventure, and the diversity that can come out of that means the potential of beer is as great as what we could do with our lives.

Anyway, sorry to bore anyone reading this. Like my notes on beer, sometimes I just feel the need to put this sort of stuff down, and seeing it has a beer slant to it, I thought here was a good enough place. Wow, it's been like one of those flashback episodes programs have. Maybe it just means I have had this blog for a while, maybe too long. Well, that is my story, or where I am at the moment, and has given me something to do while recovering from the night before.

Cheers,

Beefy