The Session #76: Compulsion

This month's Session was hosted by Glenn Humphries at Beer Is Your Friend

Here's the topic I want you to write me a blog post on the subject of compulsion as it relates to beer. The idea for this Session topic partially arose from the Beer Audit session Adam at Pints and Pubs hosted a few months ago. In my effort and those of a few other bloggers, idea of buying more beer than we need was touched on. Writing about buying heaps of beer got me thinking about just what it is that compels me to keep buying beer.

This topic has come at a great time for me. After blowing way too much of my monthly budget on beer during a trip to Chicago, I assured myself I'd stop buying beer for the rest of the month. I should have known there was no chance I'd pull that off; I was 5 days short when I saw 4 bottles of a beer that's released in March and usually gone by the end of April on the shelf, and felt that I had no choice but to grab a bottle.

On a positive note, I successfully managed to hold off on buying a bottle of New Glarus Anniversary Strong Ale, though that's partially because the display at a local grocery store has it tucked away in the back with a price tag for a bomber of Serendipity under the still fully stocked shelf of beer.

Anyway, compulsion plays a huge role in my beer buying habits. I constantly talk about adding beers I really enjoy to my "rotation", only to end up buying a new limited release every time I stop at the liquor store.

My experiences with compulsion are generally related to rarity. If I think I'll like a beer but I don't know how long it will be around, I'll jump at the opportunity to snatch up a couple bottles. I'm not one of the people who will grab an entire case of beer or stand in line for hours because of hype (though I'll admit I will probably eventually make it to Darkness or Dark Lord Days), but I generally have some idea what breweries I respect enough to try something a little off the wall.

As I write this post, I'm finishing off a bottle of Shorts Huma Lupa Licious that I bought the weekend of the Great Taste of the Midwest--in August of 2012--as a part of an effort to get rid of the absurd collection of bottles and cans around my mini-fridge. I had Needless to say, 9 months was a little bit too long to sit on this one, but it was my last bottle!

To this point, I haven't had much of an issue with hoarding my homebrew. I loved the idea of sharing something that I made with family and friends. Within a week of discovering that the liquid that had been sitting in the corner of the room for a month was actually drinkable, I had consumed or given away about half of my first batch. While I've been a little bit more careful since making that realization, it should be about spent by the time my second batch is ready to be popped open.