50 Beers!

I've hit the first milestone in bringing you the many beers that I've enjoyed--as well as the many I haven't--in my 12 or 13 years as a beer drinker. So far, I've had a blast reminiscing about some of these beers, as well as some of the stories that go along with them. Others have escaped my mind completely.
Interestingly, all of the beers I've presented thus far are ones that I've tried only in the last 10 months. Any bottles in my collection that are older than that are currently being stored in my buddy Dave's attic. It is my aim that that changes this weekend. There are some great beers and some great stories that go along with some of the oldest bottles in my array, and I can't wait to share them with you.
To that effect, the picture I've decided to upload with this post is one of the original masons of the Beer Wall: myself in the middle, the architect, who broke ground on the wall's construction as an homage to my father; Sean, at right, a principal financeer, who paid for a lot of the brews back when he was the only one making any real money; and Dave, at left, who was integral in the wall's construction by helping with the drinking, even at a time when the stronger stuff left him with a nasty beer face. Thankfully, his years of experience under my tutilage have remedied that condition.
As many readers may recognize, this picture was taken at my wedding in October 2008, nine-plus years after we three became roommates and Beer Wall bricklayers. As this blog continues to grow, I think with pride of the way my collection has grown over the years, and of all the beers I have yet to share with you. Much in the same way, I think of all the memories that Dave, Sean and I have made in the two different decades that we've been friends, and the way our friendships have burgeoned and matured. Though Dave and I now live some 2600 miles away from Sean, our ties keep us much closer than that, and while I now have a wife and family, and may not get out as often as I used to for that all-important guy time, my bond with Dave is still one that allows us to remain close without necessarily being in each other's immediate proximity.
I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the picture's photographer, my great friend Frank, who has also shared many a new beer with me over the four-plus years that we've known each other, and has become one of my closest companions. And, if you look just over Sean's left shoulder, you'll see the tiny face of my beautiful wife, Holly, in the distance. Never in my life did I think I would find a woman who would share such gusto with me in my continuing beer adventures, and equally, if not more so, I never thought I would find a woman who would make me so happy sharing the rest of my life with.
Now, before this starts to sound like some kind of acceptance speech, let me close by saying that, while it may sound funny to you that I equate my closeness to these people with the amount of beer I've drank with them, I look back on each one of those beers as a building block of our relationships. Every sip was a moment we shared together, every new label was a new experience that we embarked on together, and every empty bottle was a memory we made together. All that beer was time spent in each other's company. All the conversation about the beer was time we spent talking to each other. Every purchase was a reason to invite someone over for some quality time. Over time, all that beer between myself and these four wonderful people has added up to some of the best times of my life, and all the beers that I've shared with everyone else are no less significant. After all, what is a beer if it's not shared between friends?

Na Zdrowie,

Bill