Mike Loves Beer

I just realized late last week that I was coming up on 4 years of doing this blog.  June 3rd is the official anniversary date as it dates the first actual post.  What a 4 years it has been.

The blog has evolved greatly over this time from mostly beer reviews to including bar reviews.  Then it changed even more with the change in beer scene in South Florida.  I began telling you all about local beer events coming up that I thought you should attend.  I even let my opinion be known very much in depth on a few occasions.

This whole thing has been an experience that I cherish in my life.  As a kid I really enjoyed writing and never in my wildest dreams would I think that I would write on a regular basis and have people read me.  I’ve compiled 793 posts (this being the 794th) in this time.  I’ve been published in a magazine.  I’ve been recognized by other publications.  Again, things I never thought would happen and honestly never really cared.  This was fun to me, as I think the beer community should be.  Those that take things way too seriously need to take a step back and look at exactly what we are doing.  We are drinking beer.

Yes there are those that work in the industry and you might say that you should take your job seriously.  I can agree to a certain point but when the topic is fun you need to be a little more relaxed in those views.  Look at sports figures.  That is their jobs and they play games.  Games that are supposed to be fun.  Once you lose sight of the fact that your job is fun I believe people need to take serious considerations if they are in the right field.

So with that some thanks are in store.  Thank you to my parents for not thinking I was a raging, alcoholic redneck when I started this thing.  I was bringing plenty of beers home, snapping pictures and taking notes on these things as if I were a scientist looking for a cure for cancer.

Thanks to my friend Chris with whom I was doing a good amount of reviews with at the start of this thing.  I still remember a number that we tried and thought were awful that I can now say that I have enjoyed on numerous occasions.

Thanks to Chung and Melinda from Coffee District in Delray Beach as they were the first beer bar that I discovered.  When I searched the internet for places that served these enchanting beverages CD was one of the first to pop up.  While it didn’t look like the typical dingy dive bar I like to patron I quickly grew to love it and still call it my favorite watering hole.

Thanks to Phil for helping me take my obsession with these vices even further into a podcast.  His beer blog helped me really tune into the fun in this community.

Thanks to all my friends and family whom I just can’t list here.  You drive me.  I can’t say whether you drive me towards insanity or towards inspiration sometimes but you all certainly drive me.

Thank you to all the breweries and brewpubs in South Florida for making beers that I can consume to make me forget that I am in South Florida.  Funky Buddha, Due South, Tequesta, Brewzzi, Big Bear, Native, Inlet, Holy Mackerel, Kelly’s — you all are incredible for what you do.

And lastly thank you to you, the readers.  Sometimes I try my best to not care but honestly it brings a smile to my face to know that someone actually reads this blog outside of those that I know personally and finds it helpful.

So here’s to all of you for helping making these 4 years special.  Here’s to a few more.  I know I’ve been taking a break lately but I promise to be back soon.  I’m even thinking about starting to pen something a little longer.  Oh, hints?  With that, thank you again and I leave you with a few of my favorite quotes that I always think of when it comes to beer.

It has been my experience that folks with no vices have few virtues.
- Abraham Lincoln

Cheap booze is a false economy.
- Christopher Hitchens

I feel sorry for those who don’t drink.  When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.
- Frank Sinatra

People say that drunkenness leads to bad ideas. I sometimes think my soberness hinders my great ideas.
- Me (had to throw that in there)

I was actually all set today to publish a piece that I wrote last night during intermissions of the Flyers great comeback win over that team from the wrong side of the state.  I hadn’t written an opinion piece on here in a while and I felt way over due.  Last week as I sat at the bar at the Funky Buddha talking to my friend Joe, whom I haven’t seen in quite a while, he asked how the blog was going.  I told him how I wanted to write more rants and opinion pieces but not force them.  I don’t want to write about every bit of news that comes out in the beer world.  I just feel that’s watering it down.  I want to give my readers the pieces that really matter to me.  The ones the pull emotions out of me.  Trust me my fine readers, you will never get bullshit from me.

But anyway this morning I woke up and started going through my RSS reader as normal to catch up on other blogs and sites I read when I came across an article on BeerPulse (formerly BeerNews.org).  It’s about a supposed up and coming beer company, I dare not say brewery and you will see in a bit, in South Florida.  As if the name Fumducker Beer isn’t bad enough their logo is also a near copy of the burger chain that has probably run in your mind.

Fumducker (I really can’t believe I’m typing this in a beer article) claims to already be selling beer according to the following from their first press release.

Fumducker Beer Company is looking for a national partner with manufacturing and distribution capabilities to enhance current beer sales.

Enhance current beer sales should indicate that they do indeed currently sell beer.  Yet how is it that a South Florida based company is not seen in South Florida?  The man behind the brand, Ronald Cika, is real estate broker based in the Pompano/Coral Springs area.  Wouldn’t this be Dumfucker’s home market?

I was intrigued to say the least.  So I contacted friend and Florida Beer Company’s own Tom Barris to inquire is maybe FBC was contract brewing this beer.  He stated the following.

No we aren’t brewing it, we aren’t taking any new contracts at all til[sic] summer

Okay so the largest contract brewer in the state isn’t making the beer.  I mean that really doesn’t mean it isn’t being made right?  I mean they could use an out of state contract brewer like Thomas Creek or Matt FX.  But I find this highly unlikely.

The story gets even funnier when Nutrucker announces a partnership with Pabst Brewing Company and then within a day retracts the previous release.  They now say there is no agreement with Pabst, no discussions and Pabst’s general counsel (law folks) and requested the retraction.

If this is a big elaborate, and late mind you, April Fool’s joke then I tip my hat to you Mr. Cika.  But if it is not all I can think of is this reaction.

Did you really think that announcing a partnership with a huge, national brewing company would make them rosy in the cheeks and think, “Aw gee, these folks really like us.  Let’s throw them a bone and work with them even though they have not contacted us or show us a business plan or numbers or anything.”

I’m really torn.  I want to think Ummsucker is really that dumb of brand but I can’t help but be skeptical and wonder if this real estate mogul is just trolling everyone.  I mean you would have to be really, really fucking dumb to rip off a chain restaurant’s name and logo.  Then make up a story about a partnership with another huge company and release it to the public.  But look at the name.  I know I’ve been mocking it since like paragraph three but really just reverse the F and the D.  Is this a jab at the craft beer community?  Was this made to get a rise out of people?  Let me know what you think in the comments.

I usually don’t get deep into my personal beliefs on this blog as I don’t want things to veer of course too much from the focus of this site.  But it would be a terrible mistake on my behalf if I didn’t write something about the passing of a writer that has influenced me dearly.

Last night the world lost one of the greatest free thinkers of our time.  No actually, of any time.  Christopher Hitchens didn’t sugar coat a single word he said and never felt bad about doing so.  No matter if he wrote or spoke about religion, government or his heroes in life like Thomas Jefferson and George Orwell he did it with a passion that very few can match.  It is that passion that I try to do everything in my life, be it this blog or my everyday encounters.

Hitch, as he came to be called, always enjoyed a good drink and smoke; with the later ultimately doing him in.  And it was always a dream of mine to be able to share a beer with the man.  But much like Mitch Hedberg that chance will not come.  However his legacy will live on in the over 25 books he wrote or helped write.  The hundreds of videos on YouTube of him debating with new anchors and public figures.

Goodbye Hitch.  Tonight and this whole weekend as I celebrate my birthday I will raise glasses of incredible brews to your life.