The $15 Bottle of Beer

The last time that Sandy and I played Scrabble, she beat the pants of me. However, I believe it was due to the malted beverage in my system. An hour before we played, I drove to the store to pickup a six pack of beer.

While it is rare that I buy beer, when I do I like to buy something nice. I don't recall ever drinking Budweiser, and I've only had Miller a few times. I like to drink foreign beers and micro-brews because I think they taste better. Back in 1991, my family traveled to Hamburg to visit some friends for New Years. When we went out to eat, as my brother Erik and I were not old enough to consume real alcohol, our host Dirk Loose suggested that we get Alsterwasser, a kind of toned down beer and lemonade drink for kids. It was kind of tasty, but it looked just like the Bud and Miller I had seen back in the US. I think that sub-consciously at that moment, I made the decision to never drink beer that was "for kids." So now when I drink beer I like to buy what I consider to be good beer. Some examples would be:

• Guinness
  
• St. Pauli Girl (named for the red-light district of Hamburg)
  
• Becks
  
• Anchor Steam (from San Francisco)
• Rolling Rock (featured in the movie The Deer Hunter)
• Sam Adams

That night when I was in the store to buy beer for our Scrabble evening, I bought a six pack of bottle of Sam Adams Summer Beer. It was a nice summer evening and I thought it would be enjoyable to drink a nice wheat beer I had never tried before. But next to the case of Summer Beer was a $15 bottle of beer - Sam Adams Chocolate Bock. I have heard of Chocolate beers before, but I thought this had to be a scam. No one in their right mind would pay $15 for an oversized bottle of bottle of Sam Adams with some chocolate mixed in. I bought my Summer Beer and walked out.

Then this morning I found myself at the Sam Adams website and found this:

Samuel Adams® partnered with Scharffen Berger Chocolate to develop their newest innovation, Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock. Tettnang Tettnanger and Spalt hops were hand-selected from the world's oldest growing area and combined with a complex selection of malts including two row Pale, Munich and caramel to create a rich and satisfying brew. This dark beer has a big, malty character that is combined with the subtle sweetness of chocolate. The chocolatiers at Scharffen Berger crafted an exclusive blend of chocolate for Samuel Adams® made with cocoa beans from Ghana called forastero. Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock was aged on a bed of this chocolate to create its unique layers of flavor. As the beer matured, the fruity, tart, earthy and chocolate aromas were infused into the liquid to give the brew a complex, full-bodied taste with a velvety finish. A hint of vanilla was added to meld the symphony of flavors together.

Due to legal restrictions, Samuel Adams® Chocolate Bock can not be sold in the states of Alabama, Louisiana, and Utah.

Ummm, yeah. Here is my $15. Can I please have my beer now?