
Back in October, I called local beer man Marty Jones of Oskar Blues fame (left) to talk about the Great American Beer Festival. When Jones asked me what kind of beer I preferred, I felt slightly ashamed to admit that, actually, I don’t like beer.
He was beside himself.
“We’re going to have to do something about that,” he told me. But then came the holidays and busy times for both of us, so it wasn’t until April 2 that we managed to get together (along with managing editor Jonathan Shikes) at Falling Rock Taphouse for an official Beer Summit, during which Jones and Shikes would re-introduce me to beer after almost a decade of drinking only red wine and, occasionally, a fruity, girly drink like a cosmopolitan, mojito or margarita.
We sat down at Falling Rock and Jones began his interrogation. “What don’t you like about beer?” he asked. It was a tough question to answer. I just never seem to be able to finish one without gagging a little bit. “I don’t like the bitterness,” I offered. That, and the fact that it just doesn’t seem to go down very smoothly. Jones noted that many mass-produced beers don’t have a lot of flavor, so the makers try to mask the lack of tastiness with an excess of carbonation. Made sense to me.

He went up to the bar and came back with three “gateway beers”: a Belgian white (Hoegaarden), a New Belgium Mothership Wit, and a specialty New Belgium brew, Johnny’s Voodoo Ale (spiced with yerba mate). I sipped the Hoegaarden first, and, to my surprise, didn’t gag. The Mothership Wit was also drinkable, and I actually liked the Voodoo Ale. “These are all very smooth,” I said. “I can actually finish them" (above).