by Victoria Jeffrey

Created on: July 10, 2008   Last Updated: November 07, 2008

For the longest time I didn't much care for beer. I didn't like the taste. Now granted, I grew up around philistines that only liked Bud Light or Miller Lite (whatever they call it), both which taste like watered down urine. That might have had something to do with my attitude towards beer for so many years. I will say this: my dad, being Jamaican, loves Red Stripe whenever he can find it and when I was growing up, no one sold Red Stripe in Oregon. Red Stripe can easily be found here these days but not when I was a kid. So he drank mass produced crap instead. Thus, my attitude that beer was nasty. Honestly, I've always found Red Stripe to be on the really bitter side. But at least it tasted like real beer.

I've always been a cocktail girl. I like martinis, cosmopolitans, rum'n Cokes, margaritas, Bloody Marys, you name it, I love cocktails and especially with dinner. I enjoy wine occasionally as well. So what turned me on to beer? A couple of years ago I tried some quality beers. Guinness Extra stout being one and something called Hornsby's draft cider beer. I also had the pleasure of tasting some good micro brews at one of our beer festivals here in Portland. I found out quickly that there was a world of difference between ol' boy beer and the real stuff. By orders of magnitude! Now being a Christian, I believe in moderation. The Bible warns us of over consumption of alcohol and I don't drink very often. But when I do drink it's nice to have something good to go with a meal. Something good that won't suck up all of my money! Wine is nice but there have been too many occasions where I've had some expensive wine with a meal and it just didn't work! I've tasted a nitrogen brew at the Widmer's Brewery a few months ago that was both delicious and beautiful to look at - I forget if it was a porter or a stout but it was like watching a water fall in my glass. Milk stouts have become my favorite kind of beers. I'm lucky. The Pacific Northwest is one of the best places to find great beer!

A man named Garrett Oliver, a master brewer and an expert when it comes to pairing beer with food got me interested in trying different beers with food. I'd heard him give a presentation on beer and cheese at the Saviour festival which was recorded on the Craft Beer Radio podcast. It was an eye opener for sure! He is a powerful and highly articulate speaker; when he speaks about beer, this guy knows his stuff. One thing that stuck with me is that he made the comment, many times, that

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