Just the Kiss of Hops

Criteria number 5:  This one is courtesy of my dad.  I was thinking of having him do the write up, because as is evident by his sporadic yet hilarious use of Facebook, the internet is the perfect venue for my dad's jokes.  Also, this was a really good idea.  But don't tell him that.  He gives enough unsolicited advice/suggestion/ideas.  He doesn't need to know that some of them are actually good.  So he calls me and says, "I read your blog.  I have a suggest of what Obama should send.  Stroh's."  His reasoning: Whatever beer Obama picks (assuming its not a macro) will probably see an increase in sales.  The President of the United States says its the best beer.  Ok, well I have to try it.  So, if a bunch of people are going to spend their money on something, why not have that something be from a particularly economically depressed part of the country?  What fits that criteria better than Detroit?

I like this idea.  I mean, I don't think Stroh's is the choice here because 1) It's owned by Pabst now, and Pabst is most certainly not a Detroit company.  Some funds may find their way flowing through Detroit on account of a small uptick in Stroh's, but it can no longer be said that it's a solely Detroit based operation.  2) If it's about increasing sales, I just don't see it for Stroh's.  A lot of people have had it and stopped buying it.  Honestly, the only "new" market I think Stroh's has is hipsters, and if someone as mainstream as the president recommended it, well, count them out.  3) It's quite awful.  Although, I will say I did spend a fair amount of time drinking a Stroh's product, Schlitz, in grad school.  It was a dollar a can out at the bars.  You can't beat that.  Also, their wikipedia page is pretty funny.  Here's a line from it:

 "Stroh's strategy when seeking to enter the market for a new type of beer was to extend one or more of its existing brands. In the increasingly popular non-alcoholic beer segment, for example..." 


Come on.  That's rich.  But again, I like the sentiment.  There are a lot of great Michigan microbrews.  As I type this I'm drinking one (Arcadia).  Some of them are even nationally distributed.  Bells is great.  I'm not saying it should be Bells, or even a beer from Detroit/Michigan.  But the idea that it should be a beer that will pump some money into a region of the country that desperately needs it I think is a good one.  So there we go, another criteria for your consideration courtesy of my pops.  Still no answers or suggestions from me, but I like what you guys have been doing so far, so keep it up!



Total Beers: 473 (second verse, same as the first, that is the same two beers in the same circumstance as yesterday)
Where I Should Be: 454.794