Situational Drinking 1: After a Hard Day's Work

I just had two different types of hard days work over the past two days, and the beers I had at the end of it were like bloody heaven.

On Friday I did a day at Mountain Goat doing the bottling run. The labeling machine wasn't working when we started, so we ended up double handling all the bottles once the labeling machine was fixed after we had bottled it all. Anyway, made for a fairly long day with much of it repetitive. While it isn't overly difficult, doing the same motions over and over for 8 hours does wear you out. I guess the other thing is once you get into a rhythm, you can really start going a bit quicker at it (just so it can be over as soon as possible). Just as we were getting to the end of it, Dave sat down a glass of Steam Ale next to me, which only made we want to finish the work even sooner. Anyway, we finished, the beer started going down a dream but then had to just sit down and relax for ten minutes, to let my mind and body wind down from the repetition and pace. In this case, I think the beer really helped to just calm down on, and was something to focus on while going through that re-stablisation phase after it.

Yesterday then, I was helping my cousin move house. While I have done a fair bit of this sort of work, having 4 flights of tight stairs is always a killer. Luckily nothing was that heavy, but just the awkwardness of access can really tire you out in the way you have to move stuff. By the end of it, both Pete and I were pretty giddy from the strenuous effort we had just put in, add beer to that mix, and we were both pissed after only a couple of Little Creature Pales. Still, there was that desire when the bottle was in our hand to suck down that beer fast, again only making our states worse. Knowing this, I had to start having a break between each beer just so I wouldn't pass out on the couch I'd just helped bring up.

I guess it is funny for me to see beer can be used differently depending on what sort of day's work I have had. And with days like these it doesn't really matter what beer you have at the end of it. I am a little shamed to say it, but even a VB can go down great after a big day, so I guess bad beers even have their place in this world, not just to show us what good beer is.

Actually, speaking of bad beer, this reminds me of something I wanted to ask everyone. For my birthday last year I pulled together some of the most interesting and enjoyable beers I have had over my beer drinking life, and spent a day going through the range from Faro to Imperial Stout(s). However, while I remember discovering my enjoyment of these beers, I also recall some of the worst beers I have had. Once I had my appreciation of beer, the worst beer experience I have probably ever had was in San Francisco, for Australia Day a few years ago.

Seeing my brother and I had been walking around all day tasting beers, we hadn't come across one single aussie beer to celebrate the day with. By 10:30pm we walked past a bottlo near our hostel, and could only find a 500ml can of Fosters. Needless to say we bought it, and seeing after one sip by brother couldn't stomach it at all, it was left to me to do the deed. With some salted nuts after each gulp, I managed to finish it, but it scarred me. The photo taken of me with that beer says enough, so here it is.

So while this blog is here to help promote good beer, I guess we can only fully appreciate that when we have bad beer to compare it to. So, please comment and leave your story of the worst beer(s) you ever had, so I know I am not alone with the disgust I have had in beer and so I am not just laughing at myself through my own story.

Ok, so maybe there are some beers in this world that even a hard day's work wouldn't even make taste good...

Cheers,

Beef

PS: as well as holding onto some of the bottles of beer I have enjoyed, I also have this can of Fosters in my collection. Just as a reminder.