This just in from the Columbia Chamber of Commerce:
So congratulations, Conquest Brewery! I mean, congratulations to all of the above — but I know my audience, and I knew some of you would be particularly interested in that one particular honoree…
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You know what? I thought the name was really Conquest Brewing Company — and not “Conquest Brewery” — and I was right.
So, consider this release, and this post, corrected…
Great news! I, for one, will certainly celebrate their accomplishment this evening. And probably tomorrow as well….
A hidden treasure in Columbia. Been there several times, including twice on the Brew Bus.
Bah, humbug, I guess. There are so many of these awards, every year, mostly as an excuse to get folks to pony up for a rubber chicken dinner. Even things that meant something once (Treasured Trees) have gotten cheapened by repetition. Now so many trees have been awarded, they’re scraping the barrel.
It’s like the Best of Columbia Awards that every publication and more feels compelled to have: so many are not the “Best of” in any rational sense, except best of [blank] at getting people to vote for you.
Not to say that Conquest Brewing doesn’t merit recognition.
And worse, the winning trees get so stuck up, there’s no living with them…
I never met a tree I didn’t like.
Conquest is ok, but I prefer the beer (esp. Hazelnut brown ale) at River Rat.
You know, I hate to admit this, but after a period of some years in which I tried to be a beer snob, I finally had to admit to myself (and myself did NOT want to believe it), that I don’t have the taste buds for it. I think my sojourn in England four years ago, being disappointed in pub after pub by the “best bitter” I had so looked forward to, crystallized the realization.
Basically, I like Budweiser more than any of those craft brews. Not Miller, and certainly not Bud Light (like drinking liquid cardboard). It’s not an affinity for pale American mass-produced brews in general. I just like Bud.
And Yuengling lager. And Newcastle Brown Ale. And Guinness.
That’s about it. I don’t think any of those microbrews come close in enjoyability to any of those mass-produced beers.
At least I know I’m not alone. There’s a reason they’re popular. I like them, anyway…
I also, it turns out, like grog.
Friday night, I was at an event with an open bar, and I got a Yuengling, and the coldness of it kept making me cough with each sip. I’m still fighting a cold I got over the holidays, and cold drinks and cold food always bring on coughing.
So I ditched the beer, and went to the bartender and asked for a cup of rum mixed with water with a wedge or two of lime (as an antiscorbutic), and NO ICE (something you have to say slowly, distinctly, and loudly to American servers), and started sipping on that.
Calmed my cough right down. Had I been an Englishman during the Age of Sail, the press gangs wouldn’t have had to come for me. I’d enlist. The grog allotment was VERY generous, you know. And don’t even get me started on the joys of prize money…