Charlie’s Choice is a new recurring series for Indiana On Tap where Writing & Reporting Community Member Charlie Sasse will key you in on his favorite beers for every occassion.
As the weather warms up I find myself going to events of many different types. I attend birthday parties for all ages, weddings, fantasy drafts, and holiday parties just to name a few. The majority of the events include the host providing one of the three standard domestically produced macro beers. As a craft beer fan, I like to bring my own cooler and I have different go to beers for different occasions. To some of my friends this seems excessive, but to craft beer fans like myself it is no different than someone who chooses not to eat meat and brings their own veggie burgers.
Spring and summer also escort in the wedding season, and being in my thirties, weddings are at their peak in quantity. An open bar used to be the norm of weddings but as the economy has changed people are looking for new ways to save money. Even the pay as you go bar has been disappearing from most weddings. My experiences lately have included half barrels of a domestic light/lite macro brew being provided for the guests. Yes, I am the guy that packs a cooler in the trunk of his car and invites other guests out to the parking lot to share in some good beer. I just look like another smoker going out to the parking lot of the church to enjoy some fresh air.
Dirt Wolf from Victory has crawled its way onto my list of go to beers for weddings. This beer can be dangerous because it is delicious, easy to find, and drinks way too easy for a beer with an abv over 8%. The benefit of drinking my own beer is that I have to go to my car to get it so I am drinking fewer than I would if I were sucking suds from the provided kegs. That also means that when Uncle Joe is nursing his horrible hangover and remembering he stripped out of his shirt during the chicken dance, I will be enjoying my coffee and eggs. I also will not be getting scolded about embarrassing my nephew or niece at their wedding by Aunt Joanne.
Well, not as often as I used to.
