Three Sheets

On St. Patrick's Day, I found myself cleaning out my beer fridge and watching TV.  When I say cleaning out, I was literally cleaning it out.  I spilled a Chocolate Stout all over the place a few months back (some of you may have witnessed this) and I was just now getting around to wiping the whole thing down.  The Television programming was subpar that evening as I haven't found anything that interests me on Monday nights.  I came across a marathon for a show called Three Sheets on the Mojo Network.  Most of you may are probably familiar with this show already, but for people like me who are just a little behind the times, I thought I would share.  The subtitle is "The World's Biggest Pub Crawl."  In this show, the host goes to different parts of the world and drinks what the locals are drinking, i.e. Scotch in Scotland, beer in Germany, Bourbon in Kentucky, or Malt Liqour in Compton.  While the host is fairly annoying, I was very intrigued as I watched the Oktoberfest episode.  

Having attended the Great American Beer Festival with Weasel in October, it was very interesting to witness the biggest beer festival in the world second hand through this show.  At the Great American Beer Festival, you are given a 4 ounce tasting glass to take to each vendor for tastings.  At Oktoberfest, attendees drink from one litre mugs and sit at one table all day (if you get up, you lose your seat).  While watching this take place, I pulled out some old stock Spaten Octoberfest so I could take part in the festivities.  Participating in Oktoberfest would be a great time, don't get me wrong; Experiencing the world's biggest party in Germany with a gigantic soft pretzel hanging around your neck can't be a bad time.  The Great American Beer Festival, on the other hand, was less of a party, but a more of an educational good time.  I probably tried over 150 beers.  I tried beers that I didn't like, I tried beers that I loved, and I tried some sodas that I thought were incredible beers (your taste buds get a little shot through the evening and if you can find a key lime beer, let me know).  At the end of the show, I thought that the GABF came out as being the more sophisticated festival, which came as a surprise because Americans are usually the ones who are throwing alcohol at the back of their throats, while Europeans are the ones who are known for sipping alcoholic beverages.  Now keep in mind that Oktoberfest is an anniversary of a two week wedding reception and the GABF was designed as a beer competition.  The two are completely different animals and comparing them to each other is like comparing apples to oranges.  I want to be clear that I am not implying that Americans are in anyway better people or better beer drinkers than Europeans, but when it comes to a good beer festival, I think that it belongs to Denver.

With that being said, I might go buy the first season of Three Sheets.  It's not anything like actually being there, but it's a good time to grab whatever they are drinking on the show and experience something new from the television in your own little way.