A Sweeter Beer

They like a sweeter beer
      in that part of America.

I remember having rented a keg of our own Sierra Nevada Pale Ale several years before, when my son-in-law's family came out to California for the wedding. Well, they were certainly polite enough about it, until my daughter's new father-in-law finally approached me somewhat apologetically to say the beer was just a bit too sour for them, and could I get a few twelve-packs of Lucky Lager instead?

Before driving out into the country to meet the riders of the Courir, we stopped at a Winn-Dixie in Eunice to stock up on chips and fill the ice chest in the back of the van with the appropriate beverages: colas for the kids, and pop-top cans of beer for the grownups. "We don't have West Coast beer out here," my daughter said conspiratorially, "so let's get you and me some Sam Adams from up north."