The Beer Was Nothing Special

After two weeks in the desert, drinking warm water and sleeping in a tent, an ordinary cold Kronenbourg became one of the best beers of my life.

An ordinary beer becomes a very good beer after 100 kilometres.

To be honest, after 100 kilometres, every liquid is good. Water is good. Coffee is good. But beer is very, very good.

The same is true after a hard day. Maybe I have been working in hot temperatures. Maybe I have spent the evening cutting and moving wood. When I work with dangerous machines, I drink only water and coffee. First the work must be finished. Then I clean the tools, put everything away and go home.

After that, I like five minutes of nothing.

Then I drink one beer.

Maybe two, but normally one.

I do not drink beer every day. During the week, I drink a lot of coffee and water, and perhaps one or two beers in total. The Mayor called me a social drinker. Then he changed it to a thirsty drinker.

I think thirsty drinker is more accurate.

The First Sip Is Not the Beginning

The first sip is not the official moment when work is finished. The work must already be finished.

For me, the ritual begins before the bottle is opened. The machines are stopped. The tools are clean. Everything is in its place. I sit down and do nothing for a few minutes.

Then the beer can come.

It must be cold. That is the most important rule.

Music or no music does not matter. Silence is fine. Noise is fine. A bottle is fine. A glass is fine. At home, I normally drink from the bottle. In a restaurant, I take a glass.

The world can come to an end, but when the beer is cold, it is okay.

Even the time is flexible. Six o’clock in the morning is normally not the correct time for beer. But after a village festival, when the evening has continued through the night, perhaps with a barbecue after the festival, six in the morning can still belong to the evening.

Then it is acceptable.

The Best Beer of My Life

The best beer I remember was in Djibouti.

We had spent two weeks in the desert. We slept in tents and drank warm water. The work was difficult, but it was also interesting. We had done a good job.

When we returned to the city, I went with friends and colleagues and ordered a very cold Kronenbourg.

Kronenbourg is not a special beer. It is a normal beer. You can buy it in many places, and drinking the same beer somewhere else would not create the same experience.

But after two weeks in the desert, it tasted completely different.

That beer belonged to the heat, the tent, the warm water and the work we had completed. It belonged to the people sitting with me. Without everything that came before it, it would only have been a Kronenbourg.

At that moment, it was one of the best beers of my life.

This is the strange thing about beer. The taste is not only inside the bottle. The taste also comes from the day.

After a good day, the beer can feel like a reward. After a bad day, it can mark the end of something. I sit down, drink slowly and feel the bad things leaving my brain and my body.

The day is finished. Tomorrow can begin later.

Barbecue Is a Ceremony

I enjoy drinking beer with other people, especially around a fire.

A barbecue is not only about eating. A barbecue is a ceremony.

First, I prepare the wood and make the fire. Then I sit and watch it. I drink my beer while the flames grow and the wood burns. There is the smell of smoke, the sound of the fire and the quiet time before the food is ready.

The beer belongs before the barbecue, during the barbecue and after the barbecue.

Janita said it is the same for her and her husband. Sometimes they stand together beside the fire. Sometimes they sit. The important part is the atmosphere.

I understand that completely.

The Mayor and I even began planning a competition between our firebowls. We would see which one could produce the biggest flames. He has a church next door, so there may be certain safety considerations.

A Natural Health Drink

Beer is made from barley, hops, cereals and water. These are all natural things, so I can make a very strong argument that beer is a health drink.

Would a doctor survive my explanation?

Probably.

Would the doctor agree with me?

That is another question.

The real point is quantity. One beer is one thing. Drinking many beers every day is something else. I have known people who drank beer, wine and schnapps every day. I have also seen a very young man with cirrhosis of the liver.

That is no longer a joke.

We have a saying: the dose makes the poison. A little may not be a problem. A lot can become a very serious problem.

Everything is good in moderation.

Of course, as The Mayor asked, the difficult question is: who exactly is Moderation, and where can we find him?

The Moment Around the Beer

I have tasted beers in many countries. Some were strong, some were weak, and some were not to my taste at all. I once tried a beer from northern France with about fifteen percent alcohol. One was enough. Two would have been an entirely different conversation.

But the strongest beer is not automatically the best beer.

The best beer may be an ordinary one after hard work. It may be beside a fire with friends. It may come after walking a long distance, after a hot day or after finishing a job carefully.

The beer itself may be nothing special.

The moment around it is what makes it good.