I like beer… It makes me a jolly good fellow… I like beer… It helps me unwind and sometime it makes me feel mellow… ~ Tom T. Hall

As most of my friends and family know, I like beer. Not so much that I drink too much of it… I just enjoy having a cold one on a hot day or when I’m relaxing. I might have one or two every few days. Back in college I was a “Miller-Lite man”, but for some reason that beer now bloats my stomach something crazy. I can barely stand it. As I went through my 20s, I worked part time for an upscale liquor store and got into “boutique” and “craft” beers. I enjoyed them, but they are pricey and full of calories. I even attempted to brew my own beer for a while, but mainly just managed to produce vinegar. Later I switched to “less complicated” beers like Michelob Ultra Light and Bud Select, figuring I would save the calories, but it I wasn’t drinking enough to make it worth the difference. 

Lately I’ve enjoyed drinking Bud Light Lime (thanks to T-bone), which is great on a hot day after riding. But to be honest, I’m tired of paying $10-12 for a 12-pack of beer! Ironically I enjoy it less often because the cost adds up pretty fast! So with that in mind, I’ve decided to SIMPLIFY. I have chosen six “cheap” beers that cost under $15 for a 30-pack. Most of these have actually been brewed for quite a long time. The way I see it, people have enjoyed them for years, so why should my tastes be any more refined?

That said, I have completed ROUND 1 of the “Cheap Beer Playoffs“. Generally, I consider a beer to be the ‘winner’ if I either find myself NOT drinking it because I want to get the other one “out of the way” first, OR if I find myself drinking it because I enjoy it more than the other one. The winner is in blue. The ultimate goal is to choose ONE beer that I can keep “stocked” in my fridge and enjoy when I want. A secondary point was to switch to canned beer, because I can recycle the cans for money as opposed to getting nothing for bottles. I also don’t have to worry about knocking over cans in the garage and having one break.

The contenders and results are as follows:

Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) vs. Strohs
These were the only two beers that I tried that were not “light” beers. However, I actually (and even surprisingly) enjoyed the PBR. It has just the right amount of “malt” flavor I enjoy. It can be a tad bit bitter, but it didn’t bother me. I was disappointed by the Strohs, which is a beer I often drank in college (after I turned 21, of course!). Apparently my memories of the beer were better than the beer itself. I found it to be too sweet, and kind of flat tasting. Perhaps it was flat or skunked… not many places carry it, so who knows how old it was. But I didn’t care much for it, and probably won’t buy it again.

Keystone Light vs. Busch Light
Hands down the Keystone won this contest. I enjoyed it quite a bit. I actually used to drink Keystone “back in the day”, and it’s similar to Coors Light in taste. Like the PBR, it had a nice “malty” taste, though more “full bodied”. I found the Busch Light to be WAY too “sugary” and watery for my taste… it actually soured my stomach! I can drink it if it’s super-cold, but outside of that I didn’t really enjoy it.

Miller High Life Light vs. Old Milwaukee Light
The competition was originally going to be between the four beers listed above. However, these were last second “entries” and it turned out to be perhaps the closest contest of the bunch. The Old Mil Light actually wasn’t bad — better than I anticipated. But it has kind of a sharper, more “alcohol” taste than I usually enjoy, which makes it a bit inconsistent when drinking (it wavers between malty and sharp). I still found it drinkable, but not as enjoyable as the High Life Light. Honestly, I didn’t even know they MADE the HLL, but it turned out to have a nice malty flavor. The HLL is a tid-bit flat tasting, though, so this contest was close to being a draw. I found them both “drinkable”, but the HLL won out based on consistency. It is probably one of the more expensive of the six I sampled.

So that completes round one!! I’ll keep you posted as I begin Round 2! =)

It’s time for the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby! Tomorrow is the day, and I’ll be honest and admit I haven’t really payed much attention this year. I’ve just been way too busy to follow which horses are in and out, etc. In fact, about the ONLY way I’ve celebrated this year was to eat a bunch of fried stuff at the chow wagon. But I ate a lot of fried vegetables (which were awesome!), so that has to count for something, right?

Anyhow, I took a quick gander at the field this morning so I could at least make my annual pick. Not much time for any real data crunching, so I’m going to make this years picks from 5,000 feet. The field is large this year with 20 horses, so it wasn’t easy to choose one. That said, here’s what I came up with:

Win (1): Dunkirk
Place (2): I Want Revenge Papa Clem
Show (3): Musket Man

I usually heavily favor the winner of the Florida Derby to run well in the Kentucky Derby. This year, that horse was “Quality Road”, but that horse was unfortunately scratched from the Derby with foot problems. Dunkirk, a really pretty gray colt, finished 2nd in the Florida Derby, but did not race as a 2yr-old. That makes him a stretch pick, though he does have an experienced jockey. He’s a “come from behind” horse which usually plays well in the Derby, but I think the track conditions will have a big impact. I Want Revenge is likely to be one of the favorites at post time. He has a lot of speed and has run well on dirt (most of these horses are raced on synthetic track now), so he should be at least pushing the field at the end if not perhaps even leading it. Faviorites don’t always do that well, though. Musket Man is going off at long odds right now (20-1 as of this post), but has won a few races pretty solidly. His biggest knock is that his breeding isn’t known for distance runners, but that’s been overcome before. 

Unless it’s pouring rain, I expect this to be a pretty fast race with Regal Ransom and Papa Clem setting the pace. If it’s sloppy wet, then anything can happen!

Enjoy the race, and feel free to post your pick here in the comments section!

Update: As of this morning, ”I Want Revenge” has been scratched! I’ll move Papa Clem into the top three, as I don’t have any time to look back over the whole field.