Overthinking
What’s the longest you’ve spent agonizing over a beer list, or staring blankly at shelves filled with bottles? Anyone with more than a passing interest in beer has probably done this, scrutinizing potential purchases for fear of not getting the absolute best beer for the moment.
It’s really a bit silly, constantly trying to shoehorn a beer into one’s current mood. I like a very broad range of beers; it’s not like, if I pick the wrong pint off the list, I’m going to have a miserable time. Plus, all the head scratching, hemming, and hawing bugs the crap out of the dude waiting to pull the tap handle.
My advice to beer lovers (and to self) for this week: keep it light. Take a page from the casual consumer’s playbook and go with a whim. In the constant drive toward beer sublimity (is that even a friggin’ word?), it’s nice to pull into the rest stops from time to time.
-Mark
The worst situation is when I visit a brewpub that I know I will never visit again and they have 10-12 beers on tap. I feel a lot of pressure to maximize my experience and hopefully find some gems. In those situations I tend to overthink.
@ above comment: Haha, in those situations I tend to overdrink. (That is, if someone else is driving.)
HERE HERE! Really, it’s not THAT hard to pick a beer. If you’ve just walked in to a bar with a lot of taps, grab a trusty standyby beer (like the house beer or something else you find immediately recognizable) while you examine the taps for your second (or third, fourth, etc.) choices.
Ask to be served in a smaller glass if you plan on trying a whole bunch of beers in one night.
And sampling is fine, kind of. Just not when the bar is four deep and there’s only one bartender on. If you must sample, pick a style and taste 2-3 versions of it and make your choice from those.
I had that experience last night. I went with a guy who’s kind of a newb, and I made the mistake of letting him dictate what to get. Worse, he doesn’t like hops, which basically eliminates a good half of the possible selections. My fault for not taking the bull by the horns on that one.