The year was 1999 – I was turning 18 years old, and becoming legally old enough to drink. That is not to say i’d not partaken of alcohol before then, but being a teenager more interested in Playstation at the time – beer held no lustre for me.
It was a bit of a rite of passage, my father and I went out on the night of my birthday, it was midweek, to have my first legal pint and a game of pool and darts. The pint, was Budweiser (I shudder now) but even then i thought it was horrible, not for the informed reasons I do today. Our local pub had a Jeckyl and Hyde Landlord, some days he’d be your best mate, others an animal. My dad ordered and he duly ID’d me. I was delighted handing over my passport. I sipped it. Even now it was horrible.
But the real eye opener was that weekend, my parents had got one of those rent a keg deals coming down for the weekend, the saturday night, we also hired a PA, and Decks and pretty much, me and all my classmates tore it up. The keg was budweiser, 80 pints between 20 odd people. But it was one of those nights that was wild. Did i mention the house was rented (i doubt the folks would do it with their house) and we’d some guard’s living next door. They were sound blokes.
The party was in full swing and we noticed one of the lads was missing and there was an unmistakable whiff of weed coming from the back garden, not my kind of thing, but a couple of lads were at it, so what, but one of the lads couldn’t handle it and chugged up there and then, and 20 minutes later we found another lad in the fetal position under my dads desk in the office. Many shots of sambuca and other stuff later the party wound down and we sprayed down the puke with the hose and the few that were staying at the house went to bed. Never before had I had so much to drink, but that hangover will stay with me for ever!
In the intervening years my palate has developed as i’ve gotten older. I shudder at the thoughts of the stuff i drank as a teenager. Like a fine wine my taste is maturing nicely.
Irish Beer Snob 