Barley Prose

Father’s Day is the best drinking holiday. At least for fathers of a certain age, meaning me.

 

New Years is a waste. It’s at the end of the holiday season and I know I’m often burnt out of overdoing it. Were you not drinking heavy stouts all month? Were you not gorging on Christmas cookies? Maybe you’re doing the end of the year wrong. Sure, I’ll have some champagne, enjoy a beer or two, but my heart’s not in it. 

 

St. Patrick’s Day is just culturally weird, and it’s also not a day off. It’s often in the middle of the week. I love Irish Soda Bread, and enjoy a good Guinness, but this is just not a good showcase for a drinking holiday.

 

The various summer holidays have a lot to say for them. You get together with friends and/or family, don’t really have a ton going on otherwise in terms of buying presents or decorating trees, and you’ve often got lawn games and pools and fireworks and a grill. Having a few beers while standing at a BBQ grill and haphazardly flipping burgers is a lot of fun, and I’m definitely looking to make up for all the missed ones from last year.  I even wrote about this recently, about how nice it can be having a summer weekend of drinking and friends and family.

July fourth isn’t much different than any other summer birthday or gathering though. There’s a lot of delicious summer beers out there nowadays, that’s super fun to have in the pool, under the trees, while playing cornhole, or whatever your favorite summer activity is, but it’s not quite a holiday really. It’s more of a summer mood, a summer aesthetic. You’re either driving somewhere, or you’ve got hosting duties that require a little more alertness and time.

I did the day before Thanksgiving thing when I was in my 20s, back when you were still kind of reunited with people from high school home for the holidays. Before Kids. That was fine, though truthfully it wasn’t much different than any other night out, except you’ve got all the amateurs and all those people from high school that maybe you don’t normally talk to for a reason.  Our go-to was Croxley’s Ale House on Long Island, home of (then) 10cent wing specials on Wednesdays that for some reason they didn’t waive on those Wednesdays. They also easily had the best craft beer menu on Long Island,I learned so much about what beers I like from Croxley’s.  We’d get there before the drunk rush, have some of the best wings you can get outside of Buffalo, and enjoy a few beers from the comfort of a seat before milling around in the bar area. Seated drinking is so underrated. 

 

So that brings us to Father’s Day. Generally, a stereotypical Father’s Day is about leisure and relaxing. Even if you’re a maniac like me who decided he wanted to make Baked Ziti, sfogliatelle, black russian sourdough bread, semolina italian bread, and tiramisu, a lot of the day is often just lounging around in an easy chair with a beer in your hand. 

 

As an aside, I ABSOLUTELY made that tiramisu with Alementary’s Arecibo, a coffee beer, instead of coffee and Kahlua. It was amazing.

I drank a lot of beer yesterday. My mother actually brought me a few 4-packs from Barrier Brewing on Long Island, an excellent brewery. I tried two of their Deadly Combination series, an IPA series with rotating hops. Motueka + Citra, and Idaho7 + Citra. Good beers, but not as good as Our Sour #12: Lupulin Lollies. 

 

Lupulin Lollies is a DDH Kettle Sour IPA with a hint of lactose. I loved this beer. It had a lot of sour fruit notes up front, that refreshing summer bite that’s so perfect in hot weather, but it faded to a normal IPA type bitterness and hoppiness. The lactose seemed to give it some balance. I need to try this one again alone, and really focus on it. I’m looking forward to doing that with the next three.

 

I drank a few other things too, with less and less focus on them. We had the little inflatable kids pool up, and I had my feet in that a lot, when I wasn’t just reclining in one of the outdoor chairs, munching on various snacks. I finished the day sipping on my own MAD Brewery Brown Ale, of which I have yet to name. Featured on a recent Mets On Tap episode, it’s just a fine, plain, brown ale. 

 

I didn’t have to go anywhere. I didn’t really HAVE to do anything. Except drink, and drink I did. It should be Father’s Day every day. 

 

 Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s probably sitting in his backyard with a beer, on his new patio, watching the birds.  You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.