I don’t know if it’s just me, but it seems like people are finding all sorts of reasons to add a dose of beer culture to their lives these days.
t’s not just about heading out to the pub and having a pint with your chums anymore. Getting your hair cut? Have a beer. Eating a sundae? Pour some beer on it. Need a bath? Have a scrub in a tub of beer (this is real).
It reminds me of when we were introduced to the iPhone – no matter what you’re doing, there’s a beer for that.
In the world of sports, beer can be a big part of the experience. It goes without saying that beer and the major spectator sports go together like bread and butter, hence the advent of the sports bar.
Beer is a social lubricant – it can cause full-grown men to hug because someone caught a ball, and it may be the only thing that makes watching a franchise lose over and over, each and every season, even somewhat palatable (that may or may not be a Leafs joke…)
Even more interesting to me is the marriage of beer and sport culture in athletic spheres where you wouldn’t necessarily expect it. Take biking for example. I’ve been in more than a few craft beer bars over the years and I’ve almost begun to wonder if cycling is the unofficial sport of the craft beer industry.
It’s definitely not rare to be sipping a pint in a brew pub and observe bikes hanging on the walls, cycling jerseys for sale beside the t-shirts.
I remember for my friend’s 40th birthday, I wanted to get him something related to his favourite beer. I went to the brewery’s online store and, lo and behold, found a bell for his bike with the beer’s label on it. To me, this seems about as logical as putting a picture of a 20-piece McNugget meal on a bike bell, but sometimes it’s best not to question too deeply and to simply enjoy things at face value.
And then of course there’s running and the unenviable pursuit of the Beer Mile, where the object is to run a mile while stopping every 400 metres to have a beer. The world record holder for fastest time is a Windsor, Ontario native named Corey Bellemore who once completed a Beer Mile in an eye-popping 4m 34s.
The beer he drank while doing it? Kingfisher – an Indian lager I’ve only known people in North America to drink while out for a bite of butter chicken and chana masala, and now apparently the unofficial beer of Beer Mile champions everywhere.
Ultimate Frisbee, a game that’s rather obscure to some, at times becomes even more curious when the game shifts to Beer Points.
Is the game becoming rather heated because of too little handshaking and respect for personal space? Perhaps two chaps are at odds because neither will accept that they were wronged, each insisting; “No, no. It was I that hit your hand! It is certainly your turn to carry the Frisbee and I shan’t hear another word on the matter!”
In situations like these, captains may deem it best to play the rest of the match in Beer Points to restore levity and avoid the invocation of a spirit violation. Traditionally, during a Beer Point, each person on the field must play with a beer in their hand. Regional variations of the Beer Point exist.
And finally, Beer Yoga (where you literally do yoga while drinking beer) seems to be becoming popular these days. From one source I read, the origins of Beer Yoga can be traced back to the Burning Man, an annual gathering of people in the Nevada desert who don’t seem to be concerned with social norms.
Beer Yoga has since been brought to the mainstream in Germany as a way to merge the spiritual benefits gleaned from both yoga and beer drinking and is now being practiced with total sincerity in circles around the world.
So, there you have it. Sometimes you can have your cake and eat it too!
Thanks for tuning in again, and until next week!
Jason McLellan is a self-professed beer geek. He wants the world to know he's damn proud of his Northern Ontario roots, even though he couldn't catch a fish if one jumped in the boat. His columns run Wednesdays at 12:00 p.m. Find him on Facebook: Jason McLellan with the Beer Up North banner.
