Today’s guest post is by Kristina from Twinkies & Gin. If you have kids (or not), and hate people who are holier-than-thou (who doesn’t?), then you should definitely be reading their blog; these ladies are irreverent and downright hysterical!

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I always hated beer snobs. Chatter about hops, fermentation and insidious grains filled me with a seething rage as Pete and I would order up gleaming cans of  Coors Light. I’d wonder to myself what made them so damned superior; why couldn’t they be satisfied with a good ol’ American can of beer? Our hatred grew when we’d be attacked. Being berated in public by some art-school jerk-off in an ironic wind-breaker over Coors’ business model isn’t cool. Our resolve stiffened. We bought a Coors Light cooler, a hoodie, case after case of cheap Rocky Mountain swill. I rode the love train, nightly. Then I had a bottle of homebrew.
 
I was lucky enough to be invited to a get-together when friends installed a kegerator of homebrew in their dining room [editor's note: Yes, that was me ].I’m no beer critic; I couldn’t tell you what hops tastes like if I was being Chinese water-tortured with Busch Light. I only know what tastes good. And the homebrew, it was good. We drank all night and were sent home with a gift of two brown bottles of beer, decorated with homemade labels and instructions to not open until the handwritten date. In the meantime, we still drank our beloved Coors Light, but like infants being weaned from the teat we started supplementing with the occasional six-pack of Strongbow, Amber Bock or Red Stripe. We slowly, slowly graduated to Sam Adams, Kona and Rogue. We tried new pubs. We drank Boddington’s, Hobgoblin. Time passed,  and one day we realized we couldn‘t remember our last case of Big Beer. Finally, the date on the homebrew label was upon us. We pried off the caps and sniffed cautiously at the mouth of the bottle. Smells ok. A small taste. Tastes fine. So, we drank. And we continue to drink.
 
I admit I don’t have the best grasp on the difference between ales and lagers, or stouts and porters, but I’m getting there. The tight-knit beer community has welcomed Pete and me with open arms as we muddle along in our quest to find The Perfect Beer For Us. I haven’t met anyone in a windbreaker who made me feel bad for my shameful past. Not ONE person at a pub or liquor store has made us feel inferior when we ask for opinions, recommendations or samples. Yes, craft beer people sometimes give out samples! Samples of sweet, sweet Delirium Tremens. Dogfish Head. Sierra Nevada. Flying Dog. Ship Yard. Thirsty yet?
 
Try a new beer this week, what do you have to lose? There’s a microbrew or craft beer for everybody, every game, every dinner, every hot Sunday night after yard work. Yes, even for people like you and me who still carry a Coors Light cooler.