Remembering beer
Beer was an alcoholic beverage we drank in order to celebrate, commiserate, party, relax, switch on, switch off and more.
Beer was an alcoholic beverage we drank in order to celebrate, commiserate, party, relax, switch on, switch off and more. Made using fermented hops and grains or something, it was often gold or amber in colour, and primarily available as a pint or half-pint (although some establishments offered two-thirds for people in their thirties). Like all alcoholic drinks, beer was objectively disgusting, but we convinced ourselves it tasted delicious and refreshing and that it wasn’t just the effects of the alcohol we enjoyed.
I drank my first beer at my mother’s fortieth birthday party in our local village pub. An unnamed villager handed me a bottle of Carlsberg Special Brew, and while I didn’t enjoy the first sip, by the time I had finished it I wanted another. I felt simultaneously more confident and relaxed, and mildly euphoric. So this is what being an adult feels like, I thought. The second time I drank beer (my first time with friends), I drank too many, the positive effects of the alcoh…
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