Sharing a cold one!

Today the President met with a Boston Police Officer and a Harvard Professor to patch over what at best is a series of miscommunications, and at worst an insight into the sorry state of racial relations in the good old USA. To help us steer clear of these minefields, the choice of beer of each of the participants has now topped the list of popular discussions into just what everyone involved was thinking when they did what they did and said what they said to get themselves into this mess. The fact that there was a choice sours the whole thing in my opinion, an over-orchestrated press/photo op to show what regular guys they all are. Well, I'll throw my choice of beer for the day into the mix - with some trepidation about what it might "say" about me. What kind of beers do Masters of Wine drink anyway? Do they ever lower themselves and their exalted palates and fussy noses to such a common beverage? Absolutely! In fact so much so that our evening nightcap (or pre dinner warm up) had its own moniker, the PCA, short for palate cleansing ale. The PCA was a nightly ritual practiced almost religiously by my mates during the first and second year courses - a moment to get away from the maniacal focus we all had on wine and just enjoy something on its sheer merit. For the moment we were free from any responsibility to know everything there is to know about what we were drinking, and we able to simply drink'em up. No disecting hop contents, yeast strains, brewing techniques, and on and on ad nauseam. We just "had" them, cold, drank'em down like background music while we talked about how we thought we did that day.
So, like the policeman, the professor and The President, I too had a beer today, but mine I will assume, under much more enjoyable circumstances, or at least with a whole lot less pressure. And while I am a lover of many craft type beers, artisan, micro and the rest, today on a summer sail on the windward coast of Ohau it was a simple, refreshing Corona, served avec citron vert (field stripped with the bottle cap because we didn't have a knife) and squeezed into the bottle before inserting it to provide the crisp hint of refreshing and lively zip it needs. Served ice cold, at the "sand bar" in Kane'ohe bay with A BLTTA (bacon,lettuce, tomato, turkey and avocado) from the little market on Kailua Beach - I can tell you it doesn't get better than this!