Welcome- Can I get you a beer?

Growing up in Milwaukee, Beer has always been a part of my life.

I practiced High School football on a field that later became part of the Miller Brewing Company. Among the chores of my youth was running down to the basement to fetch my father a few bottles of Rhinelander beer ($2.99 a case, 24/12 returnables) at 'Cellar' temperature.

Legal drinking age in Wisconsin was 18 back then and my dad used to joke that the age verification process at the time was seeing if you were tall enough to put your money on the bar!

The Germanic culture in town was such that if I cut the grass for an elderly customer on my paper route, when I was about 14 years old, she wouldn't think twice about offering me a beer. (You work, you deserve a beer!) Yah, Yah! Different times.

In the 1970's, Pabst Blue Ribbon was mother's milk in the Beer City, Schlitz was okay at about $1.25 a pitcher and Miller High Life was something you stole from some old man's garage. (Ironically, all of those beers are now produced at the Miller plant).

Enough on the nostalgia for now. Truth is the late 1970's in America was the absolute low point for good domestic beer choices.

I was fortunate to come of age when the good beer movement in the United States began to build up steam. In fact, I was so damn lucky that I began working at Miller Brewing Company at the age of 19!

Legally, that is when my epic journey into the wonders of beer began.

I intend to share some recollections on malted beverages here. More importantly, I want to talk about the great things happening with beer today.

Please feel free to drop me a note or offer me information on the dynamic new worldwide beer community.

Prosit!