I'm bored of cheap and cheerful

The Wall Street Journal reports that the reccession is causing consumers to shift away from premium beers. And – btw – by "premium" they're referring to beers like fraking Budweiser so its even worse from a beer snobs perspective. Ironically, I'm going the other way [That's not what ironic means! Was Alanis Morisette your english teacher --ed]. I have decided to move away from cheap beer.

Oh we had some good times, cheap beer and I. I fondly remember drinking, say, warm Lakeport Honey at parties. Heck, I was drinking Lakeport before it cool: back when it was a lucky find at The Beer Store. I thought the romance would never end. But lately, I've felt a sense of estrangment from buck-a-bottles. I've been feeling this way for a while but I think what clinched it was last week when I was having some beers with my friends at our old drinking hole. We were drinking their sourbrew house ($8 a pitcher!) but after a couple of pints I felt sick. If I'm going to feel sick from drinking I expect to be drunker!

So goodbye, cheap beer. Its not like I'm going to turn into one of the aforementioned beer snobs (not that there's anything wrong with that). Probably, I'll just be drinking Steamwhistle or Sleemans or even Keiths. How will I afford it? Drink more at home/parties and less at bars. Or brew my own beer. Or brew my own mead! I can put a beehive round back.

Note to my foreign readers (yes, I do have readers in other countries or, more accurately, people who have visited TFV from other countries): Steamwhistle, Sleemans, Keiths and Lakeport are all Canadian beer companies. I guess that should be "Canadian" as Sleemans is owned by the Japanese and Keiths and Lakeport are owned by the Belgians. The Beer Store is a business that has a monopoly on selling beer in Ontario for the protection of the public. Naturally, it is also not owned by Canadian companies (although, technicially speaking no one can "own" a corporation as they are legally people). The monopoly is limited as you can buy beer from, inter alia, the LCBO: a government-controlled corporation.