I don’t why I have spent so much of my life caring about my beer-averse palate, but it has been something of a challenge for me over the last, god, 2 decades at least. I guess it really started once pumpkin beers became the big craze. I wanted to like them, I wanted to be able to join in when my friends would give each other recs. Kind of dumb, because I genuinely don’t even care about drinking any type of alcohol in general.

I kind of gave up on this palate-training expedition, until Henry and I went to a bottle shop last year because it was autumn and lo, I was on that pumpkin hunt again. While there, I stumbled upon a PB&J beer from a local brewery called Hitchhiker. I also liked that the can was tall and cool-looking. Henry was like YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS but I think really he just did not want to get it because it was “expensive.”

Long story short, I loved it and declared it my favorite beer (I mean, short list there) of all time.

“YEAH THAT’S BECAUSE IT HAS MILK AND SUGAR IN IT. IT IS LITERALLY A DESSERT BEER,” Henry sighed because he is always on standby to suck the joy out of life. I mean, we all called him Hoover in the LiveJournal days for a reason, didn’t we guys??

This has started a trend where, every so often, Henry will go to Hitchhiker, or Giant Eagle, and buy a 4-pack of whatever sweet and fruity flavor is on rotation. And then after we split one, the rest will sit in the fridge for weeks upon weeks until I am ready to have another one. LOL. I go through phases.

ANYWAY. I have not really ventured into “other” Hitchhiker varieties (I am terrified of IPAs because they literally taste like asparagus piss to me and this seems to be their bread and butter) but they recently released a pumpkin beer and I made Henry pick it up for me. (I am not the biggest fan of actually going to breweries because I get very fidgety and prefer drinking at home if at all, though I will go with my sister!)

I don’t have a picture of it because I actually did drink all of them over the span of 2 weeks! I really liked it and was surprised because it was way less sweet and more “beer”y than the ones I tend to gravitate to. So this opened up my pumpkin beer challenge again.

I’ve had these ones recently and actually like them all!

1. Cinderlands Star Crumb
2. BG Brewing Pumpkin Slap
3. North Country Brewing Late Night Pumpkin (my fave out of this collection)
4. Ellicottville Pumpkinville Latte

I learned several years ago that I sort of like sour beers.

Thanks, Lisa lol.

We also have this babe leftover in the fridge from a recent Hitchhiker run, and a raspberry with coffee one too that was actually MAYBE my new fave Hitchhiker??

Then! At a haunted house on Friday, a local place called Helltown had a little beery hut set up and I was like, “LET’S JUST SPLIT ONE” because I get stupid real fast. Henry said I wouldn’t like any of the options they had but I was like LET ME BE THE JUDGE, I WILL HAVE A CAN OF YOUR FINEST OKTOBERFEST, MISS and the lady was like “Great.”

(This was after she asked me if I had heard of them and I said yes, which is the truth because last Sunday when we were driving some insane backway home from the haunted house in West Virginia, and before Stephanie Time, we drove past one of their locations in Washington County. Then the lady proceeded to still tell me all about the brewery while also trying to get me to add a KOOZIE to my purchase and look, I am not at KOOZIE-lcvels of beer imbibing yet. Or ever.)

I took one sip and screamed I LIKE THIS, I ACTUALLY LIKE THIS and Henry just smirked at me and was like, “It’s OK.” And then I proceeded to drink most of it and have one of the best times at a haunted house.

Which….now makes me sound like an alcoholic.

Anyway, I was inspired after this and Henry suggested going to Duffy’s to see what their pumpkin selection was like, but you guys, I felt ready to branch out now that my lie about liking Oktoberfest beers was actually fact-checked and proven to be TRUTH.

We did the build your own 6 pack thing and I was excited to try this one last night. It was just OK. I drank my half but never want to drink it again, probably.

Then later that night, Henry and I split this one and I genuinely liked it!

Um, but hold the phone. I have an announcement to make.

MOVE OVER HITCHHIKER, DELIRIUM IS MY NEW #1.

I barely let Henry share this with me. I was screaming, that’s how excited I was over this.

“DO I LIKE BELGIAN ALE NOW??” I yelled, shaking Henry by the shoulders and then putting on YouTube videos about the Delirium brewery. “OMG ARE WE GOING TO BELGIUM??”

I could tell Henry was about to ask if I genuinely thought liking one can of beer warranted a trip to another country but then he remembered who he married.

I was almost to the point last night where I wanted to buy stock in Delirium, or at the very least, put their neon sign in my house.

And then tonight I tried the other “accidental” Belgian beer that I got just because I liked the Bathory-esque portrait on the can.

Yeah, I’m Belgian now. (This was actually a bit too sweet for me though if you can even believe that I’m saying that!)

Anyway, now that I think about this, it does make sense because we used to go to this restaurant occasionally called SHARP EDGE (RIP, babe) and it was basically known for its huge selection of beers. I always went for the vibes and food, but since everyone I went with was inevitably ordering beer with their food, I would always default to the Lambics. I didn’t even realize it was actually beer because it was so sweet and fruity (I usually gravitated toward the framboise variety).

I created a new category on here so that I can post pictures along my beer journey to remember what I’ve tried and what I thought. For instance, last year we bought a 4-pack of some kind of pancake-flavored beer and it was fucking disgusting. We still have cans in the fridge. I need to remember to never fall into that syrupy trap again.

Henry sadly pointed out that so far, all of the beers I have truly liked have been expensive craft beers and/or imports. I can’t help it. I’m fancy.

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