History of Beer with Greg Engert

From Joe Drinks Dinner and Stuff

Mandy and I went to a class at the Livingsocial space in DC. It ended up consisting of Greg Engert (from Churchkey fame) rambling about the history & origins of beer for two hours. Depending on your interest level in beer, this was either a good thing, or a terrible, terrible thing.

First off, the beer drinking portion consisted of seven 4 oz. pours of a wide range of beers. Here's what I can remember:

Jolly Pumpkin - Bam Noire
Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier Weizen
Stillwater - Cellar Door
Victory - Hop Devil
Duck Rabbit - Doppelbock
Flying Dog - Pearl Necklace
Tupper's Keller Pils

There was also a table with an assortment of meat, cheeses & olives which people went to town on.

Greg talked non-stop for two 45 minute periods about the history of beer. It was pretty interesting for me, not so much for Mandy. Most interesting point was that all beer probably started out as very smokey & sour due to how grains would be dried and the beer fermented. Mandy was not impressed with the smoked beer:

From Joe Drinks Dinner and Stuff

The dude that sat next to me was not impressed with any of his beers. In the back right corner of the picture below, you can see his first two beers still full even after they passed out the second set of beers. He barely touched anything that was put in front of him. I have no idea why he signed up for and attended this class.

From Joe Drinks Dinner and Stuff

Overall it was a little long and a little pricey. I'm not sure I'd recommend it, but it was certainly a change of pace on a Sunday night.