Beer. When I started drinking beer, I really didn't like the way it tasted. I'm not sure that I actually enjoyed drinking beer until I was about 25 or 26. Until then it was just this nasty carbonated beverage that I drank with my friends and never really enjoyed. I first recall enjoying beer on the normal friday night jaunt to Barclay's after climbing. Thinking back on it now, I'm not sure if I enjoyed the beer so much as the company and perhaps that's why I began to enjoy it, but now I enjoy drinking it for the taste. Never having enjoyed the taste of Bud, or Miller, or any of those other mass produced beers, I always tried to drink something different. I started with Guiness. Claiming to enjoy, I spent many nights at Sketch's apartment in Berkeley toasting the dark, mysterious drink. Over time I began to enjoy brown ales, perhaps most notably Newcastle Brown (on a side note, my favorite footballer plays here, Alan Shearer), but more recently I have been turned on to Belgian Ales. I first tried one upon returning from Nepal in 2004, primarily because of Stijn. I wanted to pay hommage to such a great friend by consuming the beverage that his country is most know for. Now this post is not just some ramble on my consumption of beer. It has a more serious point. I don't consider myself a consumer of alcohol. If fact, when asked, I have many friends who would say that I don't drink that often. However, I have recently thought about my consumption of beverages. Take this past week for example. Monday night I drank two glasses of '97 BV George D' Latour, Thursday I drank half a bottle of wine, Friday I had an Imperial pint of beer, Saturday I had half a 22oz bottle of Bison Brewing Belgian Ale, today I drank another whole bottle of this beer and finished the other half. Is this to much? I don't ever feel drunk, well, on Thursday night I did. I workout regularly so it doesn't take much to get me tipsy, but for someone who doesn't consider themselves to be a drinker, that's more than I thought I would be drinking in a week. Of course, it's all a matter of perspective. For many months I will only have a pint of beer a week after climbing on Fridays, then I guess I hit a spell like this. Somewhere it must balance out to me being labeled an *occasional* drinker.