Do you remember your first time? Plus, the fish are flying in South Jersey!

I was wondering to myself a week or so ago, "What was the first beer I have ever had?" I was very surprised with my answer considering all of the "dark years" spent swilling mass produced, watered down, canned beer. I was 16 years old on the verge of turning 17, so this puts me back in the summer of 1979. My friends and I decided to start drinking beer. The legal drinking age was 18 and I was a big guy at that time, so I was the one elected to make the purchase at the liquor store. The three of us, after perusing the aisles, decided on one six pack of Moosehead Canadian Beer. My first beer was a real beer. Go figure. At that age, I would have thought that advertisements from Bud and Miller would have went right to our heads. I can even still sing the jingles to mass made Piels, Schmidts and Schaeffer. Those beers never even made the cut.

The funny thing is, I remember our next beers being from Molson, Heineken and Gennesee Cream Ale. Not bad for a teen age high school student. I won't get into the fact that a high school student shouldn't be drinking illegally and behind his parents back, but I will say, we drank way more responsibly in high school then we did when we were in college. A six pack between three guys? And if we happened to be in a car, believe it or not, one of our friends wouldn't drink a drop. A designated driver before they even came up with the term. That's the way it was for me back then, a couple beers every now and again, sometimes a little more. I don't know what happened when I was introduced to higher education. My taste in beer went down hill, as I guess my income did ( I had a lucrative job mowing lawns in High School). I remember a story that took place at college in Atlanta, where my friends and I found a local swill beer called Drewrys. It was about $8.00 a case, plus you returned the bottles for a $1.50 refund. When we were trying to hook up with girls we would tell them that we purchased an exotic French beer pronounced Drewray`. The sad truth is that I think the beer was brewed with water (unfiltered) from the Chattahoochie River. Oh, the headaches the next day.

Those college years were fun even though they were devoid of taste. I guess it would be a waste playing Quarter Bounce with Guinness Stout or Hoegarden. I figure a college kid's instinct is not too bad. It's tough to damage yourself when the only alcoholic beverage you have during the night, even in quantity, was Miller Lite. I used to say, "Boy this Miller Lite is great, about a 45 minutes after you stop drinking, you feel like you never even had one!"

The Fish are Flying in South Jersey...

Flying Fish Brewery from Cherry Hill, New Jersey has their seasonal Summer Farmhouse Ale on select taps and in bottles all around the North East. The Farmhouse Ale is a sharp, crisp beer with just enough hop flavor to make you go, "Ahhh, hoppy!" The beer is surprising light in color compared to the full taste. I enjoyed a few last night with a beautifully grilled steak, grilled eggplant (Aubergines, for you Europeans), yellow squash and grilled red potatoes. The meal was great due in no small part to the beer which was a major high-lite.

Also, try their Belgian Style Dubbel. Nice. And I have mentioned this before, I can't wait for September, because Flying Fish makes one of the best Octoberfest beers around there.