A Gamer's Ode to Beer

My quiet time during the walk of our annoying pooch, Pokey, has been netting some doozies on the blogging front. Having recently returned from Cold War, I fondly remember the my first impression of the con nearly 15 years ago.

“They’re drinking beer at the tables. This is gamer nirvana!”

Sure there are rules in place to limit outside beverages from coming into the Lancaster Host, but coming from the Legion Hall/hotel RPG con environment, this crazy idea that gamers could be responsible people made my heart skip a beat.

From an early age, we latch onto the common tropes of gaming, the Cheetohs, the Mountain Dew, and for our group, plain M&Ms. As we become old enough to legally drink, some of us staunchly ban alcohol from the table, some embrace it to the point of foolishness, yet most try a happy medium somewhere in between.

For me, with both sides of the family populated by a number of alcoholics, a conscious effort was made at an early age to avoid the binging or common consistent dependency that plagues those with disease. That was made easier by the fact that all of those family members were cheap as hell, and only bought the foulest tasting swill imaginable.

The first taste of beer that I remember was sipping the foam off my Dad’s beer while men of the family played pool in my Grandfather’s basement. Pretty much every kid does that, and no matter what brand, gives a sour puss face afterwards. That was expedited by my Dad’s choice of beer: Schmidt’s , Schlitz, or later on, Old Milwaukee. Those brands could peel the paint off a battleship.

Outside of the occasional failed sip, an experimental raid on a friend’s parent’s liquor cabinet, and a lone beer at Ft.Gordon enlisted club during AIT when I was 18, I was as good a kid with alcohol as a parent could hope for.

On my 21st birthday I was working at New Frontiers in the Phillipsburg Mall. I got off at 8pm and my buddy George bought me my first level beverage. Only problem was , the Hollywood themed restaurant in the mall (Café Hollywood?) only had domestics in stock, so I swallowed my pride, and an MGD.

Booze never entered into the gaming equation in most of the 90’s, and if it did it was in a casual setting and no one got sloppy drunk.

I've had three enlightening moments regarding beer since the mid-90's.  First when Bob (Dr Bob in my Cthulhu game) bought me my first Guinness and told me to go back to college and get my life straightened out.  I at least got the first part done, dude.  Thanks to that conversation, I definitely expanded my regular gaming group.

Priorities, man!

Second, was when I ordered a Rogue Morimoto Ale during a weekend beer fest.  Apparently it was concocted by one of the Iron Chefs.   It was the best beer I ever paired with food.  The table had ordered nothing my Asian appetizers, and it was the first time I completely understood food pairing with any beverage.

Third, was my first case of Steigmaier Bock beer.  Steigmaier is a speciality brand produced by the Lion Brewery here in Wilkes-Barre.  Their normal load of ales, lagers, and beers are pretty close to the Coors Light quality, but their seasonal stuff is fantastic.   The springtime Bock was the final beer epiphany for me, and the one of the few times I ran back to the beer distributor for another case THE NEXT DAY, and I had only drank one. 

I've tried Leinenkugel and Yuengling's versions, and while very tasty and better than 99% of other beers, still doesn't touch Steigmaier.  The worst part is, either the yearly production run is so small that I can't find it or they just stopped making it the last two years.

Of course the ultimate moment of gamer cool was during my Hackmaster campaign in the early '00s.  My buddy Wooly had gotten married (in real life) early on in the campaign and had gotten a keg of Yuengling Lager and a half keg of Guinness for his reception at the local motorcycle club.  As his gift to me for being his best man, I got to take home the still very full remains of the Guinness, I just had to procure my own tap.  It sat next to me in the basement as I GM'ed the game, and needless to say, I never went thirsty.

This year at Cold Wars, I definitely went ghetto with the alcohol selections.   The beer of choice at the gnome tables is Bud Light, with a healthy mixture of some product of Nova Scotia that the Canadians smuggled across the border.  Don't tell anyone, but when I went out by myself to Applebees for dinner Friday,  I had cleanse my palette so to speak with a cider, and followed it up with a Guinness.

Guinness makes everything better.