Beer Envy

Actually, it's more HD envy than it is beer envy. Last weekend we were visiting my in-laws at their place on Long Beach Island. After years of watching a slightly fuzzy TV that rested on a slightly askew stand, they upgraded... boy did they upgrade.

And so, on Saturday night, I found myself flipping through the HD channels with pure envy, stopping and watching almost anything interesting I could find on their new 37" flat screen HD set. For whatever reason I decided to dial up the MOJO channel – not included in our Every Channel Under the Sun package here at home – and much to my surprise found that my in-laws get it!

Luckily, I was just in time to catch an episode of Beer Nutz, a laid back program in which – as the website describes it – "two intrepid hosts... visit some of America’s beer capitals to learn the history, traditions, and customs of these cities and their breweries."

It's hard not to like a show where the hosts visit (and drink at) breweries and brew pubs around the country, but I also loved the fact that on their Vermont show they also met up with a local home brewer who gave them a crash course in the fine art of zymurgy.

Watching the show that night I started getting misty eyed. I used to home brew and did so for years and years, making some fine, well-received beers in the process. I'm not sure why I gave it up, though I know that once I moved from Pittsburgh to Doylestown, PA I stopped. I'm guessing the main reason was a lack of room but looking back that seems like a pretty lame reason.

I'd love to start home brewing again but I'm guessing that having a three-and-a-half-month baby closing in on crawling is probably not the best time to take the hobby up again. Who knows? Maybe in a couple years I'll give it another go. Hell, I still have all my recipes.

Speaking of home brew, here's a road trip I'm guessing even the Beer Nutz crew will pass on – it's a beer festival in the small Palestinian Christian Village of Taybeh.