So I’m up at my local soccer bar watching the 2008 European Championships. My plan was to order a Heineken while I watched the Dutch team steamroll Romania (which hasn’t happened yet…we’re about 12 minutes in). “But Mark,” some of you are saying, “Didn’t you slam Heineken as an overrated beer? You freakin’ hypocrite.” I did, and it is, but sometimes an overrated beer is the right beer for the moment.  A Netherlands-Romania game in a tournament played once every four years is one of those times.

In the same vein, a Budweiser, the scourge of craft beer lovers nationwide, might just hit the spot in the sun-baked bleachers of a baseball stadium. It would certainly be more appropriate than an Imperial stout or double IPA. To me, since beer is primarily a social beverage, the environment in which it’s enjoyed can skew the palate of the drinker.

That’s why I caution people who arejust starting their exploration of beer not to get hung up on just one style, and not to judge the quality of a beer solely on its bitterness or alcoholic strength. The vocabulary of beer is as broad as that of language, and to limit oneself to only the biggest words makes one a pompous speaker indeed (as does using ‘oneself’ when ‘yourself’ would probably do).

Unfortunately, the bar was only showing the concurrent Italy-France game, and with no Peroni or Kronenbourg in sight, I did what any red-blooded American beer lover would do. I ordered a Spaten Helles.

I really want Germany to win this tournament.

-Mark