How Much Beer Is Enough?

A fellow blogger asked recently, "Seriously, just how much beer to you have in the house? And how much do you drink a day?" This is actually a post I've been thinking about writing for a while, so Andy's friendly question gave me a reason to go ahead and share my thoughts on, and reasons for drinking, good beer. Many people mistakenly assume that because I have a passion for good beer, I must surely drink a lot of it .

To expand upon my posted reply to the first part of the question, at this point in time, we do in fact have quite a bit of good beer on hand. The beer fridge is pretty full, and there's backup. The main reason for this is that many of my favorite beers are coming out this time of year. Also, we do more entertaining over the holidays. My guests expect, and deserve, a selection of good beer. How much beer is too much? (How much ammo is too much?)

There are times when the beer fridge gets pretty empty. I try to avoid such times as I like to have a choice when I want a beer.

To answer the second part of the question, I don't enjoy beer every day, in fact it's a relatively infrequent treat. Enjoying a good beer is no different than enjoying good food. I enjoy chocolate cake and prime rib, but I have neither very frequently. If you want me to pick a number, I'd say I average two or three beers in a week. Some weeks, maybe none. There are a number of factors that influence those numbers.

First and foremost, I'm busy. As I've said beer is a pleasure food; I want to take the time to enjoy it. That's why most of the times I enjoy beer it's done at home. But if I'm spending the day at my son's swim meet, or participating in a pistol match, or volunteering at church, there's no time for a beer. Even if I'm enjoying a rare weekend "off," I'm often looking forward to going out shooting. I certainly will not have a beer if I'm going to be shooting anytime later in a day. Of course, I do often enjoy a beer after a range trip.

Even when we eat out, typically I don't have a beer with the meal. This choice could be made for a number of reasons; often there's no interesting beer on the menu, or I may be facing a long drive home, or I may even have plans to hit the shooting range later.

In short, drinking a good beer is a pleasure, not a constant.

Was Andy trying to imply something about my drinking habits? Nah, I think he's just jealous. :-)

BTW, be sure to stop by Andy's blog at In Search of the Tempestuous Sea.