My Favorite Beer

Where do I begin? I grew up in Michigan. As a matter of fact, I've only lived in South Florida for 7 years. In the past 7 years, the beer selection in South Florida has improved significantly. I used this analogy before and I will use it again to show the difference between Michigan and South Florida. In Michigan, when you go to the local corner store, the entire back wall of coolers will be devoted to cold beer - if you are in the mood for Sam Adams, you'll have your choice of at least 7 of their 20 available flavors. 7 years ago in South Florida, you'd have had your choice of 2 flavors of Sam Adams beer - regular and light, maybe a seasonal if you were lucky. Now, at our local Publix Grocery, we are offered at least 4 varieties of Sams, sometimes even 5.

But I'm not going to dwell on Sam Adams today. Today I want to talk about Leinenkugels Brewery, a small brewery in Wisconsin. Though small, it was bought this year by Miller and they've since been shipping Leinenkugel Sunset Wheat throughout the entire nation. Sunset Wheat is an excellent beer and definitely in my top 5. But there was one beer that was available in Michigan that I've missed since we left - Leinenkugel Berry Weiss. In Michigan, we usually had a choice of at least 5 or 6 different Leinenkugel varieties.

I have just recently discovered, to my delight, that South Florida now carries 3 varieties of Leinenkugels beer - Sunset Wheat, Honey Weiss, and (drumroll) Berry Weiss. I am a happy fella. And I don't want to hear any crap from you manly men who think that it isn't right for a guy to enjoy a "berry flavored" beer. From my experience, most of the "manly men" out there get by on a steady diet of "yellow-colored water" - better known as American Light Lager (Bud, Miller, etc.)