[lit-ideas] Re: Weather/Free Beer Offer
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 09:14:47 -0800
on 1/5/05 11:08 PM, Robert Paul at Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> If it snows here (in the valleys of usually mild-wintered western Oregon) more
> than an inch I'll buy Andreas all the Blue Heron pale ale he can drink (at one
> sitting) when next we meet.
>
Just to un-[six]-pack the layers of meaning here...Blue Heron was once a
pretty good beer, so-named because it was first brewed for a meeting of a
local bird-watching society. Along came a marketing genius, who thought
that Bridgeport needed something along the lines of an ESB (extra special
bitter), so that Bridgeport's beers would run: Some piddly thing I never
drink, IPA, Blue Heron, ESB, possibly a stout of some sort, Old Knucklehead
(a barley wine). Thus Blue Heron, once an excellent bitter, was made
lighter and thinner. The ESB never caught on but Blue Heron remained
lighter and thinner, the sort of beer you find in craft breweries in
Vancouver, CA.
So while, on the face of things, what Robert Paul is offering to Andreas is
the prospect of fresh, free local beer--an ethically sound proposition--what
locals know him to be offering is a slightly unsound beer, one which might
be fine on an extremely hot summer day but one which Andreas, stumbling up
here on a day in which the elements conspire to convince him that Oregon is
a rainy and bleak place, will possibly not savor. Robert Paul, one might
suggest, is offering Andreas the prospect of about a half a free beer.
Could there be some canny Scottish ancestry there?
There's more. The right way to drink such beer is fresh, from a handpump,
at the brewery (full disclosure: Bridgeport is located a couple of blocks
from where I work). Follow this procedure and even Blue Heron becomes a
fine experience. But...but...and here is where the ethics become really
murky...Bridgeport is currently closed for renovation, and will remain
closed for ten months. What are the chances that Andreas will remember the
offer more than ten months hence? Near zero.
In fairness, I should add that *any* beer made by Bridgeport is a thousand
times better than those made by major breweries here. In a beer-lover's
dream city, we are spoiled. Proof? Ready for anything the weather may
bring, I have in the fridge Pyramid Snowcap Ale and even a bottle or two of
Deschutes' Jubal Ale, both of which are nectar.
Now if someone could move those two breweries a bit closer...
David Ritchie
Portland, Oregon
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