The Session #63 - The Beer Moment

 

This month, The Session is being hosted by Pete Brown. The topic for discussion this month is "The Beer Moment" This is what came to mind when I read the announcement...

Last year, on the 23rd of December to be exact, I had a beer moment. It involved a beer I had drunk numerous times before, Young's Double Chocolate Stout.

I was on my way home from London to Southampton for the Christmas Weekend. I had packed a bottle and glass to enjoy on the train. One of my favourite things about winter is that there are times where it is so cold that a beer can be just left outside for a while to bring it to a good drinking temperature. This was one of those nights, and so by the time I got to open the bottle on the Woking to Weymouth train, it was the perfect temperature.

Now, as I said earlier, this is a beer that I've had many times before. It's amongst my favourites from my eight or so years of drinking beer. On this occasion though, there was something different. It tasted better.

This got me thinking, is there something more to the enjoyment of beer than just the beer itself? Was the enjoyment of this beer moment influenced by the fact that I was on my way home, to share and enjoy more beers and a few days off work. How much is enjoyment of anything influenced by the circumstances in which that thing was enjoyed, or not enjoyed.

I can't actually think of any other occurences that have come close to feeling like a "moment" as this one. It actually seems like the last time I drank a beer for pleasure, rather than a purpose, like my "Friday Pint" or "Black and Tan Experiment" drinking. As I think I may have read another blogger (or perhaps a few bloggers) write before, it's easy when trying to be analytical about beer to lose track of what got us started in the first place, those moments.

I find that "The Beer Moment" is most likely to come when I'm not thinking about it. Sometimes it's good to step away from being critical and to just enjoy something for what it is, not just in the world of beer, but in the world in general.