Everybody must get "Stoned"

My bridge partner, Len, and I have now won our direction in two successive weeks at the Newton-Wellesley bridge club, this time with a 68% game, good enough for 1st overall.  So I'm having a quiet celebration with a Stone's IPA.  Stone's is one of my favorite beers, even though it's brewed in Southern California where you wouldn't exactly expect to find good beer.  But San Diego is the home to the Stone brewery which also brews one of my other favorites: the aptly-named Arrogant Bastard.  You might find a visit to the web site amusing.

Had I been able to attend the recent NABC (bridge championship) in San Diego, you can be sure that I would have found time for a brewery tour.  Who knows, it might even have improved my bridge.

I mention all this because I've recently realized that beer has been woefully unrepresented in this blog heretofore.  So let me jump right in and give you my top ten beers (not necessarily in this order):

1. Smuttynose IPA (Smuttynose Brewing Co, Portsmouth, NH)
2. Stone IPA (Stone Brewing Co, San Diego, CA)
3. Wachusett IPA (Wachusett Brewing Co, Westiminster, MA)
4. Ipswich IPA (Mercury Brewing Co, Ipswich, MA)
5. Arrogant Bastard (Stone Brewing Co, San Diego, CA)
6. Harpoon IPA (Harpoon Brewery, Boston, MA)
7. Copper Ale (Otter Creek, VT)
8. Martinsbrau (Carlisle, MA) -- no this isn't actually a commercial brewery
9. Fuller's ESB (Fuller's Brewery, Chiswick, England)
10. Guinness Stout (Guiness, Dublin, Ireland, celebrating their 250th anniversary).

You might be surprised, knowing me, how few English beers are on this list.  That's because they don't travel well and of course most draft beers are better than most bottled beers (which are in turn better than most canned beers).  But the main reason is that the heyday of British beer is well and truly over.

When I was growing up, and either thinking about pubs or sneaking into them underage, probably 80% of pubs were "tied" houses.  They sold beer only from one brewery.  The beer came regularly, and it was always fresh!  Then came the era of "free" houses.  No, the beer wasn't free to buy.  But the licensee could buy beer from more than one brewery.  This coincided more or less with the era of carbonated alcohol (typified by such as Double Diamond).  CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) emerged and fortunately, the tide of such beer-drinkers anathema was stemmed.  But in recent years, all things American have visited the homeland.  In particular, the obsession with choice.  The result is that half of the beer the typical pub sells has gone off!  And the sad part is that they don't seem to notice!

When I first came to these shores 30 years ago, it was like stepping into a beer desert.  It was impossible to find good beer anywhere.  Now, good local beer abounds.  And, although I have to wash my mouth out with soap and water, it's actually better than the stuff they try to sell you in England!