BSBC Begins…

Before I begin, two quick housekeeping issues for my readers… first, I am postponing the 10 in 10 until next week. I have a good deal of things to throw in there, but haven’t had the chance to put them together. Second, there are only a few more beer posts likely on this site, as my beer commentary will be moving to my new site due to launch in March sometime. One more thing, unrelated to the site, but important to beer folks… Weyerbacher was forced to pull Zotten from the shelves due to copyright issues: read about it here. Thanks, now read on…

Saturday, February 13, 2010 marked the first full meeting of the Beer Snob Bible Club. The first scheduled meeting a few months back became just a small hang out of 3 of us with the beer and not much Bible. Last week, however, was different… a successful meeting of Christian men who want to drink a couple of pints and discuss their faith.

A day before Valentine’s Day, the intention was to drink Yards Love Stout and discuss Galatians 5:1-15. During the two weeks prior to the meeting, I searched and called and found that Love Stout is only being made available via kegs this year. A huge disappointment, the only other “love” themed beers I could find (with the help of Greg from Frank Smith’s) were Voodoo Love Child and Two-Hearted Ale. VLC didn’t really fit the theme and is quite an expensive beer. Two Hearted is a great beer, but since I am not an IPA guy, I decided that the remainder of a case would sit in my house altogether too long. Instead, I deviated from the theme when purchasing the replacement beer and used the opportunity to buy a case of a beer I’d wanted an excuse to buy a case of, Weyerbacher Fireside Ale.

The choice was a good one… and it seemed to go over quite well to all of the snobs and burgeoning snobs in attendance. Beer Advocate and ratebeer both consider the style of this ale a “smoked beer”. So we looked together at the BCJP style guidelines for 22B “Other Smoked Beer”, discussed how the beer was similar to the German Rauchbier style, despite being an ale. Then we tasted the beer. All of us enjoyed it, some noting hints of bready flavor and texture, others highlighting the smokiness, and still others discussing the alcohol warmth. After some discussion, we began to look at the context of Paul’s letter to the Galatians.

Through a nice, deep discussion, what we ended up keying on the second part of Galatians 5:6, “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Everything centers around love, whether it be how we worship, how we work, or how we treat people everyday. What Paul was aiming at was how the church in Galatia was overly concerned with everything else, forgetting the most important piece… LOVE.

And after we prayed, we finished our beers. After warming some, there weren’t many new flavors we found in the beer, but the smokiness seemed much stronger, as did the alcohol warmth. My father, a novice in the world of beer snobbery, even commented on how he could really taste these flavors after the beer warmed a bit.

Overall, it was a great first event. Good beer, great discussion, and even greater fellowship. If you live within a shot of Reading, PA, email me. You are all welcome to join us!

Next month, we’ll be drinking something from Stegmaier, saluting how March comes in like a lion (brewed at the Lion Brewery), and sharing about the Lamb (it is Easter time after all).

Thanks for keeping up with us! Before you leave, check out how Weyerbacher makes one of my favorite beers, Heresy:

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~ by thepaintedman on February 19, 2010.