Category Archives: Beer

2011 – The year in Beer

Posted on January 2, 2012 | 2 Comments

So, another year is in the books, which means another hour spent on New Year’s Day employing my children to sort and count the bottle caps collected from the previous year. As always, these simply represent every bottle of beer opened in the Nelson household during the previous year, regardless of who consumed them (though the vast, vast majority was me).

Total caps: 490

Breweries Represented: 28

Breweries with more than 10 caps (and % of total):

Schlafly – 17.8%

Firestone Walker/Nectar Ales – 12.4%

Budvar – 9.4%

Stone – 8%

Homebrew – 7.3%

Founder’s – 5.9%

Bell’s (all Two-Hearted) – 4.9%

Weihenstephaner (all Festbier) – 4.9%

Goose Island – 4.9%

Moosehead – 4.5%

Odell – 4%

Capital – 3.2%

Sierra Nevada – 2.2%

As “interesting” as these raw numbers are, I must add a few points for context. First, thanks to the generosity of Portland-bound friends Zac and Kate Duncan, I returned to the privileged class of people with kegerators, when Zac and Kate donated theirs to my cause.  Since that point, I’ve enjoyed the following:

1/4 bbl of Odell St. Lupulin

2 – 1/4 bbls of Odell IPA (2d keg in progress)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Urban Chestnut Zwickel (which lasted all of 7 days during the worst of this hateful summer’s heat)

1 – 1/6 bbl of Founder’s Red’s Rye

1 – 1/6 bbl of homebrew (still in progress)

So, taking the kegs into account,  Odell was far and away the most consumed brewery this year, basically tripling Schlafly. I’m very much in love with Odell’s IPA, and their St. Lupulin and (incredibly boringly named) Red Ale, all of which meld a serious punch of hop aroma and flavor, with a velvety malt load that just works for my palate. Founder’s also would get a significant bump, and Urban Chestnut would jump into the ranking.

Also missing from the above numbers are canned craft beer. I know I went through a couple of 12 packs of Capital Supper Club (thanks, Annie!) , and several (4, 5, 6?) six packs of Ska Brewing‘s Modus Hoperandi. I just did a crap job (read – no attempt at all) to track those this year. Sorry to the fine folks at Capital (who’d be finer if they distributed to St. Louis!) and Ska. Love your beers, but caps are easier to keep than cans.

Finally, I feel a need to explain the Moosehead entry. I grew up in Michigan, and, during college, Canadian beer was cheap.  Really cheap. In fact, when I moved to St. Louis, a case of Moosehead bottles at the store where I worked would set you back all of $12, and it was the most expensive of the Big 3 Canadian brands. When we were too flush with cash for bottom tier stuff like Weidemann’s, Beast or Schaefer (all at about $5 a case), but not spendy enough for craft, we went Canadian.

So, the summer of 2012 went through a rather oppressive phase. This isn’t uncommon (especially for someone from Michigan), but I was desperate for a beer I could chill and swill. I had been reading some mysteries set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during this period, many of which featured Canadian beer prominently. This triggered a nostalgic craving for some basic Canadian suds. Moosehead being the freshest of those at the Schnuck’s, I went with it. And enjoyed it. I might even do it again.

Previous years are here:

2010

2009

2008

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The Year in Bottled Beer Drinking – 2010

Posted on January 3, 2011 | 1 Comment

As always, my children were put to work on New Year’s Day sorting and counting the bottlecaps I have collected over the previous year.  For those who are new to this game, I collect the caps from every bottle opened for drinking at my house and keep them in a big jar.  This includes bottles opened by guests, at parties, etc. and were not all consumed by me!

2010 was my first full year without a kegerator, which definitely boosted the number of caps (I also kept track of cans in a spreadsheet and these are included in the numbers below).  The total for the year was 756 beers consumed.  The brewery breakdown is as follows for all breweries that had ten or more beers consumed:

Homebrew – 16.1%

Schlafly – 15.3%

Bell’s – 8.2% (over 2/3 was Two-Hearted)

Ska – 7.1%

Budvar – 5.5%

Weihenstephaner – 4.6% (all Festbier)

Sierra Nevada – 4.1%

Founder’s – 3.7% (all Red’s Rye, except for a single Breakfast Stout)

Capital – 3.6%

Big Sky – 3.4%

Lagunitas – 2.5%

Southern Tier – 2.2%

Ayinger – 2.1% (all but two were Oktoberfest)

New Glarus – 2.1%

Odell – 2.1% (all St. Lupulin)

New Belgium – 1.4%

Tallgrass – 1.4%

Pedantic aside:  Jolly Pumpkin likely would have made the list, near the bottom, but their caps are plain.  This year, I’ll be sure to identify them myself.

2010 was definitely the Year of Beer for me.  For whatever reason, my wine consumption was much lower than normal, and whisky was negligible until the last couple of months of the year.  I was pleasantly surprised to see homebrew already taking the quantity crown since I only resumed brewing part way through the year.  I expect its lead to increase in 2011 as I’ve been brewing regularly, and, apparently, drinking my homebrew regularly as well (that hasn’t always been the case).  In 2011, I’ll be shooting for better balance between beer, wine and whisky, and overall lower consumption.

Oh, and hey Capital! You see that you clocked in at #9 overall when you’re not distributed within  250 miles of my house? Please get a distributor in St. Louis.  I’m far from the only one who would buy a lot, as we have a severe craft lager deficit!  My consumption of Budvar would disappear if I could get Capital Pilsner here.  Thanks.

Previous Years are here:

2009

2008

Pedantic aside: My kegerator was up and running during ’08 and ’09, so the bottled numbers are much lower than this year.

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Drinking Domestic for a year – a shameless, but sincere, stunt

Posted on September 2, 2010 | Leave a comment

I love lagers.  A good 30% of my beer consumption is probably in the form of lagers and, as they’re not something I’m capable of producing with my current homebrewing system, I continue to buy them.  Sadly, they’re not something many domestic craft brewers do well.

There are a couple of craft examples available locally that are good (Schlafly Pilsner and Helles, and New Belgium Blue Paddle), but they’re not really in the same league as Budvar, Pilsner Urquell,  and the seasonal Ayinger Oktoberfest and Weihenstephaner Festbier I’ve been enjoying.  That’s not as bad a diss on the domestics as it may seem – we’re talking about being compared to absolute world class beers here.  And, when said top notch lagery goodness is sitting in the cooler beside them and in good shape for at most a buck or two more a six pack, I admit that I choose the imports at a very high rate.

However, two of my favorite domestic lager brewers may be making their offerings available in St. Louis.  Capital Brewery from Madison, Wisconsin is already in the state, having secured a distributor in Kansas City, but hasn’t made it to St. Louis yet.  I’ve been a big fan of theirs for years and, with relatives in Chicago and Wisconsin, I regularly load up and schlep supplies back.  But it is painful knowing that they’re actually in the state, but just not available here.

Now word has come out that Victory Brewing from Downington, Pennsylvania, may put some of their newly-increased capacity to use by bringing their fine line of lagers (and ales . . .) to Missouri as well.  Their outstanding Prima Pils is one of my favorite beers – full stop.  How much do I love Prima?  Well, if you check my list of kegs from the glory days when my kegerator was functional, you’ll notice that I went through a half barrel (that’s 15.5 gallons for those not in the know) of this fine beer.  What doesn’t show from that list is how quickly it disappeared  and how little was consumed by people other than yours truly.  I love this beer.

So, here’s the deal.  WHEN (not going with any “ifs” here) both Capital and Victory show up on the shelves  in St. Louis, I will commit to drinking nothing but domestic craft beer for at least an entire year from that date.  No imported lagers, no Cantillon, Fantôme, or Mikkeller (my other import weaknesses).  Zero.  For at least a year.  Plus, I’ll blog and tweet and write about my experiment throughout the year, giving full credit to the fine folks at Capital and Victory for finally pushing me to full domestic consumption.

So, what say you Capital Brewery and Victory Brewing?  Will you take me up on it?  Any other St. Louis beer lover’s willing to join me?  I’d love to see these two breweries in town, and can’t wait to be drinking their terrific beers.

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I love homebrewing. Again.

Posted on August 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve been at this homebrewing business for a long time, starting in January of 1994.  Throughout that period there have been hiatuses, and then there has been my most recent hiatus.  Every couple of years it’s not been uncommon for me to go six months without a batch, but there’s been nothing like this last one.

The cause was my late, lamented kegerator.  While I initially planned to have 2 kegs of homebrew and one of commercial beer, it quickly became 2 of commercial and one of homebrew, and then not soon after, all commercial beer.  Keg beer was such a bargain that stopping brewing didn’t bother me that much.  As a result, I brewed all of about 6 batches during my kegerator’s existence, and two of those were teaching other people to brew, rather than for personal consumption.

But once the kegerator died last December I quickly tired of paying 6 pack prices for 100% of my beer consumption.  I love craft beer, and it’s worth the money without doubt, but, frankly, I don’t have enough money to pay retail for my desired level of beer consumption.  So, in May of this year I decided to resume brewing.

Atypical for myself, I was cautious, opting (for the first time ever) to brew two kits from Northern Brewer (albeit with minor upping of the hops and lowering of ETOH) to see if I could really stick with it – especially since I’d now be bottling (it had been at least a decade), rather than kegging or using Party Pigs.

When these went well and the results were good enough to order some bulk malt from Missouri Malt, I again managed to go conservative and work with only three grains (a sack of American 2 row, 5 lbs. of CaraPils and 15 lbs. of raw wheat) and four hops (Citra, Centennial, Columbus and Magnum), and focus on brewing what forms the bulk of my consumption – hoppy, session strength (4.5% ish) beers.  Historically, I’ve brewed these well, and if I could move the bulk of my beer drinking to homebrew, I’d have cash enough to buy the lagers and sours needed to satiate my other beer cravings.

This has worked better than expected.  Having a limited selection is generating some great creativity, and I’ve almost finished the first sack of base malt and the CaraPils, killed the Citra hops and am down to just a bit of the others.   It’s also very freeing not to have hundreds of pounds of grain lurking in the basement, hoping that I’ll get off my fat ass and put them to use before they go bad.

I now have a sack of floor-malted Maris Otter on the way  , as well as a hops reload (more Citra, and some East Kent Goldings and Styrian Goldings for turning that MO into some classic bitters), and couldn’t be more excited.  The best proof, however, is that the homebrew is disappearing as quickly as it’s ready:

Here is one of the last pints of my summer sipper just before going to fulfill its destiny as a tasty, refreshing, hoppy delight. And here’s to homebrewing at full speed once again. It’s nice to be back, and, more importantly, to be enjoying both the process and the produce.

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A surprisingly successful tasting

Posted on August 7, 2010 | Leave a comment

Last Saturday I hosted a brewday and beer tasting for my church.  The brewday was fine (a very hoppy APAish beer with my new love – a 2:1:1 hop combo of Citra/Centennial/Columbus as finishing and dry hops), but the tasting went really well.  Beer experience of the tasters varied so I eschewed discussion of style and instead created four flights as follows:

Malty:  Capital Brewery Supper Club; Tallgrass Buffalo Sweat (hate the name, but it’s quite good); Goose Island Night Stalker

Hoppy: Budvar; Odell St. Lupulin; Southern Tier 2XIPA

Homebrew (wouldn’t normally subject people to these, but they asked): IPA; Kölsch; Batch 3 (a very hoppy, session strength thing with 1/3 unmalted wheat)

Sour: Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere (about a year in the cellar); New Glarus Belgian Red (about 3 years in the cellar); 2006 New Belgium La Folie

The Aftermath

The idea of the first two flights was to explore differing intensities and expressions of the core flavor and aroma components of beer.  The hop flight, in particular, was designed to showcase the aroma and flavor of hops, rather than their bitterness.  The sour flight was designed simply to show the tasters that these beers existed, and to walk them through the intensity level (the ’06 La Folie is incredibly sour at this point – more than young Cantillon to my palate).  It was great to see people really get the idea of the tasting.  As a companion, I prepared a sheet of other beers similar to those tasted so if a taster liked, say Night Stalker, they’d have a handy of list of other options available in the local market to try.

Not surprisingly, Supper Club was a big hit with everyone.  It’s just such a terrific example of what classic “American beer” can be.  Many people couldn’t get past the name of Buffalo Sweat (heads-up Tallgrass!), despite it being a really lovely rich, malty session stout. The Night Stalker definitely impressed, but folks questioned the ability to finish a bottle, even when shared with someone else.

People had a bit more difficulty with the hoppy flight, where flavors stepped a bit more out of the norm.  Surprising to me, the most universally popular was the 2XIPA which, is a very nice Double IPA, but still packs a much more intense hop load than the others in the flight (it was bottled only a week prior to the tasting).  People appreciated its excellent malt/hop balance (relatively speaking), and guzzled it with gusto.  Lots dug the St. Lupulin too, a beer for which I have great admiration, having put my money where my mouth is and purchased over two cases of it this Summer.  I was not expecting the Budvar to be the most polarizing, but it was.  This was relatively fresh, and well cared for (The Wine & Cheese Place keeps it cold in a cooler with no lights on), and the combination of substantial spicy/grassy Saaz over a relatively light body was too much hop for some.  Others adored it, of course, but I was not expecting the negative reactions.

The biggest surprise was the sour flight.  I believe it was wise for me to preface this flight with the caveat that these should not be approached as “beer” but as their own thing.  Most got this, and the Bam Biere was a huge hit – perhaps the tasters’ favorite of the whole tasting.  This one had been cellared for about a year, though the batch is still available on local shelves too – so you can buy it “pre-cellared.”  Do open it over the sink as it’s a gusher at this point.  It is a spine-shiveringly complex beer at this stage.

The Belgian Red had its adherents too, but the most critical remarks were not over the sourness (which at three years, is gorgeously well-balanced), but rather the Ludens-like character of the cherry.  Knowing that New Glarus uses a ton of top-quality fresh cherries, I’m at a loss to explain the aroma though I must admit that it doesn’t bother me.  Though the fact that I frequently selected boxes of Luden’s Wild Cherry cough drops when given my choice of “candy” may explain that.

Finally, the La Folie was more a pleasure to smell than to taste.  Undoubtedly complex, the sour character is just too much for all but a couple of tasters, who are limited to just a single pour by the intensity.  I am in agreement with them that it is a world class combo of aroma and taste, but one that I can’t manage more than a glass of without reaching for the Tums.

We warned him!

Paul Tasting La Folie for the 1st time

Paul agrees that La Folie is sour!

Overall, it was a great day, and I expect that St. Louis has got a few more drinkers who are going to be reaching out into a wider circle of craft beer choices.  Mission accomplished.

Lots of people said my homebrews were excellent, but I personally think they were half-loaded on Night Stalker and 2XIPA.  Honestly, I love my #3 – got just what I wanted with that one – light, 4.5% and hoppy as hell, and the Kölsch that I brewed for a friend’s birthday was really tasty and to style (used some of the Kölsch malt from Northern Brewer and lagered it for six weeks).

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Homebrewing Update

Posted on June 8, 2010 | 3 Comments

If you check out the “What Am I Drinking” page, you’ll have noticed the appearance of more and more “homebrew” entries under the beer section.  Since I resumed brewing activities a couple of months ago, I’ve knocked out three batches.  The first two were kits from Northern Brewer – something I’ve never brewed before, having previously always created my own recipes (even my first batch ever back in 1994!).  But, I wasn’t inclined to drop coin for sacks of malts and pounds of hops before I was sure I could stick with it, particularly since I’d be bottling – a task I remembered as heinous when I dropped it back in 1996 or so.

First up was their Three-Hearted kit, an all-Centennial hopped American IPA inspired by Bell’s Two-Hearted Ale (probably my favorite beer ever).   I could not resist making a couple of tweaks – dropping the initial gravity to a more manageable 1.060, and using all of the hops in the kit by upping the dry hop amount.  I also did the ferment with some way past expiration Safale US-05 (like two years past . . .), which worked just fine, thank you very much.  I’m quite pleased with the result, and only have about a third of the batch left to drink.  I started drinking it too soon – the classic first batch of homebrew problem, and initial bottles were quite green, but it’s now drinking quite well.

Next was Northern Brewer’s Extra Pale Ale kit, inspired (I assume) by Summit‘s outstanding Extra Pale Ale.  I also tweaked the dry-hopping on this one, adding an ounce of Amarillo.  This one is still a touch green, so I’ve not fully formed an opinion on it yet.  Also fermented with a way out of date packet of US-05.  It’s alright so far, but I’m hoping it will continue to improve.

The most recent batch was the first wholly personal recipe of the great brewing restart of 2010.  I’m most excited by the fact that I’ve decided to utterly eschew styles in my recipe construction for a while (i.e. until it becomes boring).  This one is a mix of two row, raw wheat (about 30%) and a bit of carapils to 1.050, bittered with Columbus, with flameout additions of Citra, Centennial and Columbus, and fermented with a fresh satchel of US-05.  Everything apart from the yeast came from Kent at Missouri Malt Supply – a great local source for top quality brewing ingredients at virtually wholesale prices that evolved from homebrewers getting together to order full pallets from various malt suppliers.  I dry-hopped this beer last night with 30 grams of Citra, and 15 each of Columbus and Centennial.  I plan to leave it on the dry hops for 10 days and then package.  I’m very excited about the interplay of the citrus (duh) notes of the Citra with the raw wheat.

I’m also pleasantly surprised to find that I don’t mind bottling at all.  The key has been a repurposed tupperware tub that I previously used to hold sacks of grain.  It conveniently holds about 30 12 ounce bottles, meaning that sanitizing the bottles is a matter of about a half hour of work, rather than the hours I recall.  Add a spring-loaded bottle filler, and bottling is done in about an hour total.  Not too much longer than kegging used to take.

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New Excitement for Brewing

Posted on March 10, 2010 | 1 Comment

Two forces have converged to really motivate me to pick up the mash paddle again after a really slow pace over the past 15 months or so.  Having brewed since 1994, I know that enthusiasm ebbs and flows, but this has been one of my longer (though not the longest) periods of low activity.

The prime driver for my rekindled flame was an interview I did with a Wash U. grad student about homebrewing last week.  I met Antonio via introduction by Schlafly‘s Stephen Hale at the pick-up location for Fair Shares, our local CCSA, of which Antonio and I are both members.  Talking about why I got into brewing in the first place, and my philosophy on designing beers got the creative juices flowing.

The clincher was a sudden realization of how much money I was spending on beer since the demise of my kegerator.  I was recently very excited that Founder’s Red’s Rye was on sale for $7.49 a six pack, which is a fine retail price. But, that’s still $30 a case. I’ve never brewed to save money, but I know I can brew beer for half that or less, and my beer is pretty damn good.

The only mitigating element on this enthusiasm is the realization that I’ll be back to bottling my homebrew. I haven’t bottled since 1996 or so.  First there were Party Pigs (which I always had excellent luck with) and then corny kegs. Unfortunately, with no kegerator and no dedicated beer fridge, there’s room for neither in our regular gotta-hold-stuff-for-a-family-of-four fridge.  So, bottles it is, despite memories of what a pain in the ass it is.

This coming Sunday, weather permitting, should be my first non-teaching homebrewing session in about a year.  I’m excited that I’ll be drinking homebrew again in about a month!

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A very fond farewell to Bon Vivant Wines

Posted on February 18, 2010 | 2 Comments

Andrew Traughber has announced that he is closing Bon Vivant Wines as of this coming Saturday, February 20, 2010, with everything being marked down effective immediately.  Thankfully, Andrew has a new position all lined up, and I wish him nothing but the best.

The closing of Bon Vivant Wines is a great loss for the St. Louis area.  Andrew assembled the most interesting, eclectic selection in the area, taking full advantage of the unique and small production wines that come into Illinois (due to the Chicago market), but not Missouri, such as Lopez de Heredia, and the Louis/Dressner portfolio.  Whittling down potential purchases to my budgeted amount was always a painful process, mollified only by the knowledge that when I returned new treats would await.

Despite his great wine selection, I probably bought even more beer than wine from Andrew.  Andrew again exhibited a command for bringing in quality beers, and for taking advantage of the gems available in Illinois but not in Missouri.  As with wine, Andrew was meticulous about freshness and storage, something severely lacking among many other Southern Illinois beer retailers.

I profiled Andrew for the Riverfront Times here, and Bon Vivant won accolades as the “Best Wine Shop” 2009 from that same publication.  Andrew deserved all of the praise directed towards him as he truly did things the right way, and for all the right reasons.  I am saddened, deeply, to see that was not enough to allow Bon Vivant to be sustainable.

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Drinking to Forget

Posted on February 2, 2010 | 2 Comments

If I’m not careful, I find myself apt to skip over drinks I’ve tried and been “meh” about even though I am very strongly of the opinion that judging a beer, wine or whisky based on a single sample borders on the ridiculous.  I’ve written about this several times, and am not going to rehash it here.  I know that there are lots of drinks in the marketplace, and constantly retasting them would lead to an endless circle of revisiting disappointing beverages, and that’s not what I’m advocating.  There are some drinks that you just know are never, ever, even if you had to face a three day life insurance seminar sober otherwise, going to work for you.  But, sometimes when we “forget” about a drink due to a relatively small prior sample, we make a mistake.   I find that this is particularly true for bevvies that prompted a “so-so” reaction, and especially ones that should otherwise be in the wheelhouse of one’s taste.  It is these drinks that merit another chance.

Today’s lesson takes the form of Founder’s Red’s Rye.  I first had Red’s Rye four or five years ago (going with 4 for the rest of this post to make it less cumbersome), picking it up on a visit to my Mom who lives near Grand Rapids.  After drinking that six pack, I thought the beer was simply too sweet for my tastes, though I could certainly understand the appeal it seemed to hold for many other beer geeks.  Having had a whole 6 pack, over the course of several days and in several circumstances (by itself, with food, etc.) I held my belief relatively firmly, despite the relatively small sample.

I never bothered to return to Red’s Rye, even when it showed up on local shelves last year, based on my recollection of my one and only six pack four years ago.  That changed on my first visit to The Good Pie about a month ago.  The Good Pie had Red’s Rye on draft and I thought that touch of sweetness I remembered might make itself useful when it came to matching with pizzas Liz and I were ordering.  What I tasted that night was not what I remembered.  Instead, there was a much higher hop presence in the nose, and more than enough bitterness to balance the malt.

This pint led to a craving that built until last Friday when I picked up a six pack (bottled in November, 2009 – even fresher examples have come into the market since) from The Wine & Cheese Place.  I found this even more compelling than the pint at The Good Pie, and 5 of the 6 bottles didn’t survive the weekend, though they certainly contributed to its quality.

Now, I’m not remotely egocentric enough (really!) to believe that I have an accurate recollection of those bottles of Red’s Rye I had four years ago.  I have no idea whether, in order of decreasing likelihood: (1) my memory of Red’s Rye was inaccurate and/or morphed over time; (2) my palate has changed; (3) the Red’s I had four years was old and/or somehow abused; and/or (4) the Red’s recipe has been consciously tweaked, or came out a bit differently due to changing hop/malt crops.  And, I honestly don’t care.

It’s fine to ruminate about the cause, but what matters is that I now really enjoy the beer.  If I hadn’t bothered to revisit a beer I had not really liked after the first six pack, I’d be missing out on something it turns out I like quite a bit, and only runs $8.50 a six pack.  Instead, I’ve found something that’s going to make it into my regular rotation.  Well done, Founder’s, and my apologies for not giving it another shot sooner.  I know better than that.

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2009 – The year in bottled beer

Posted on January 7, 2010 | 6 Comments

Continuing the tradition, the kids awoke early on New Year’s Day looking forward to counting the past year’s bottle caps.  Seriously.

This was a transitional year as my kegerator died in early December.  Prior to that, I was well on track to meet my goal of less than 150 bottles opened.  Obviously, when draft was no longer available, bottles spiked, particularly since it was the holiday season and more drinking than usual was done by visitors and yours truly.

So, the overall total was 181 bottles opened in the house.  This year’s breakdown for breweries with more than 10 caps was as follows:

22 – Schlafly – 12.2%

17 – Capital Brewery – 9.4%

14 – Bell’s Brewing – 7.7%

13 – Short’s Brewing – 7%

13 – Southern Tier – 7%

11 – Pilsner Urquell – 6%

I also had caps from 15 other breweries (as well as 32 unidentifiable gold or black caps), which showed pretty good variety given the relative small sample size.  This next year will be interesting as bottled beer will be my exclusive source of malty goodness.

My goal is to not spend any more on beer than I did in 2009, which will be a bit of work given that draft beer represents a hefty savings over its bottled equivalent.  I’d also like to cut out any beer, like Pilsner Urquell, that’s brewed by bigass corporations, and increase the percentage of local beer.  We’ll see how that goes.  With Andrew doing a good job of keeping fresh Capital Pilsner in stock at Bon Vivant, I should be able to avoid the temptation of the sub-$15 12 packs of PU at Schnuck’s, even if it means drinking a bit less pilsner as a result.

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