ABBEY IMMACULATE IPA

Oh, how my beer tastes have grown. It seems like only yesterday I was sneaking out to drink warm Bud Ice that I had been hiding in my closet for weeks. I was 14 and drinking with my best friend Craig. Those were great times. I didn’t care what the beer tasted like. I just wanted to get drunk. Now though, I can really appreciate a good quality beer and it's more about the enjoying the flavor and trying something new rather than getting blasted. I have tequila for that.

When I was 14, I had no idea what a pilsner or lager was. I didn’t know hops from jamón. Now, I generally don’t touch Bud, and my favorite beers are IPA's. IPA stands for India Pale Ale. It came about during the 1700's by British sailors having a hard time keeping beer from going sour on long ocean voyages to India. Before refrigeration, a brewer’s only weapons against spoilage were hops and alcohol. So basically they dumped a lot of hops in a pale ale recipe already popular in England and sure enough, it arrived in India fresh and delicious.

Reminiscent of old England is the Abbey, my favorite bar in Miami. The design is a dark wood décor set to match the abbeys of old England. It’s that type of local place that isn’t on Ocean Drive and doesn’t have a long line to get in. In fact, the sign above the door just says “Bar”. My favorite time to go is on Sunday evenings. It’s not too busy and there isn’t much smoke. The bartender/manager has been there for 17 years and is great to talk to. I asked him what he usually drinks and he said “diet Coke” and took a chug from his glass. I love it. My friend Anne Marie exposed me to this place and even surprised me for my birthday by bringing me here. She’s an incredible girl that loves beer. What more could you ask for in a friend?

Both Anne Marie and I are big cider fans. She ordered Strongbow cider, which I love, but I had my mind set on something else. Something wonderful, something so delicious it could only be described as…Immaculate. No cider for me tonight. No sir! Give me beer and make it hoppy! The Abbey Immaculate IPA. Wow. Just Wow. If you are a fan of the hops like me, you will have no problem agreeing with the name. I’m going to skip color, skip texture, skip all the normal categories for rating beer. It just tastes awesome. I’ll be honest. I didn’t even take notice of how the head formed in the glass or any of that. It was just too good. So I had one or two or three, and just enjoyed my time with my friend. We talked mostly about loud punk rock music and how rewarding it is to work with what you love. She plans parties for a living. How bad ass is that? She didn’t show me her nipples or anything like Cheech did last time. Why is it that dudes are so much more willing to show their nips? I guess that’s another article entirely.

So if you’ve been to the Abbey already you know how sacred the puking-in-a-Wal-Mart- parking-lot-your-first-time-getting- drunk-and-getting-stopped-by-the-cops-telling-them-it’s-not-Boones-Farm-it’s-just-juice is. (I swear it was) If not, get your butt there ASAP and have some Abbey Immaculate IPA, or just the “IPA” as the bartender told me to order it. For my next review, I have no idea what beer I’ll be talking about. That’s what’s great about us beer guys over the wine guys. We are way more spontaneous. We do what we love and live for the moment.