Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year. Nothing compares to it, and I won’t hear otherwise (Christmas does get a full slate of NBA games, I’ll give it that). I don’t even like parades or football, to be honest. To me, it’s all about the food and the preparation. See, I love to cook. I grew up going on Saturday and Sunday grocery runs with my dad, then sitting at the kitchen counter watching him prep whatever amazing meal we’d be eating that night.
Now, imagine being able to do that all day. Imagine being able to watch a master at work, slow-cooking a turkey not by direction but by feel. Imagine watching your mom cook her special green beans with onion and bacon for hours on end from memory. A whole day to hang out in the kitchen, not just taking in the skill and artistry of the cooking, but also growing in anticipation of the finished product: your plate of food.
When you sit down in front of that plate, you know exactly how everything on it got there because you saw it be made. AND you get to eat it! You get to eat until you can’t eat any more, and you won’t feel bad because everyone else is doing the exact same thing! And when you’re too full to put another bite in your mouth, that’s when the pie comes out. Oh boy the pie. I’m partial to pecan, but pumpkin, cherry, and apple will all suffice.
And then you sleep. You sleep like a baby, with a warm belly, exhausted by consumption. It makes me tear up thinking about it.
Oh yeah, and there’s family. They’re cool too.
So, you can imagine my bewilderment at the people who would forgo that to wait in line overnight at a liquor store to spend $10 for a bottle of beer. It sounds crazy to me – DON’T THEY KNOW THERE’S PIE?!?!?!
But then I went to Marsh the Monday after Black Friday. And lo, what did I see? Why, a perfectly black pyramid display of Bourbon County Stout bottles, neatly stacked in a pyramid, for $10.99 each that’s what! This was my kind of Black Friday shopping. I bought two, deciding to drink one fresh and cellar the second, and let me tell you, after popping open my first bottle last night, it’s going to be hard to resist.
I know it’s just the regular variant, but this is hands down one of the best beers I’ve ever had. My first sip was a surreal experience, with intense notes of vanilla, oak, and chocolate, with that warm burn of bourbon caressing my gums. The nose brings out roasty bourbon scents, and on my tongue it felt like I was drinking the highest grade chocolate milk out there. There was a ton of bourbon in the flavor, but it never felt like too much, as I drank my bottle over the next 90 minutes I came to appreciate each dessert-like sip more and more. I can’t wait to see what a year’s wait will do to this amazing beer.
Cheers.
Roger A. Baylor
Sorry, but I must issue this reminder: AB-InBev’s shareholders thank you, and Carlos Brito promises to use the proceeds from this beer to screw independently owned craft brewers out of shelf space.
Burns
And yet still a fantastic beer…
Sarah Burns
The imagery in this article is beyond spectacular 🙂
Dumby
I like turtles