Don't miss the Brews-a-Palooza at House of Blues, North Myrtle Beach, S.C.
It's a beer fest running 5-11:30 p.m. Saturday, July 21, with a free buffet from 5-6 p.m.
Admission is $5, which includes a sampling glass for any of the 50-plus beers that will be available. Individual samples will vary in price. Buy tickets at $1 each to purchase samples.
I was wrong about big domestic beers.
There, I said it.
They're not all bad.
In fact, Michelob Lager has more to offer than I expected.
Having been a bit of a brew snob lately, I have not tasted much in the way of big domestics, not for a while. I think the last time I drank a big can of Budweiser was more than a year ago, at the House of Blues, when the band Drive-By Truckers was on the stage, and I was afraid I would get my ass kicked if I bought Heineken.
So I had written off the big domestics in favor of microbrews and imports.
Until I dined at Chuck's Steakhouse on Restaurant Row here in Myrtle Beach -- twice, recently.
My wife and I like to eat there when we can; it's got an excellent, old-school steakhouse touch to it. I even like the fact that their salad bar isn't a mile long; it's something more typical of the era before salad bars mutated and took over the restaurant industry.
Anyway, Chuck's has only one draft beer, Michelob, plus a tap for the beer substitute Michelob Ultra.
The folks at Chuck's will sell you a big frosty goblet containing approximately 28 ounces of Michelob for $5.50.
I noted that the Michelob had interesting, hoppy characteristics, followed by a pleasant dryness.
This was not the blandness I had come to expect from big domestics. Michelob had something going on. It showed up. It had something to offer.
Perhaps all the time I have spent focusing on the imports and microbrews, and learning about their characteristics, helped me understand what there was to appreciate in that Michelob.
Because after I made my favorable assessment of Michelob, I looked up the company Web site, on which -- it is claimed -- that their lager is made with "European noble aroma hop varieties" and "a 100-percent-malt blend of the finest two-row and caramel malts."
Damn, it really makes a difference, especially when compared with Bud.
Hmm, I'm sounding a bit sappy here. But then again, I'm now determined to give Coors and Miller another go. Maybe there's something I've been missing -- whoa, did I say that?
Stay tuned.
-Colin Foote Burch
The view, about mid-afternoon, from the former Caddyshack restaurant, next door to Hooters at Colonial Mall in Myrtle Beach. The foreground is U.S. 17 southbound, and the background is the ramp from S.C. 22 down to northbound U.S. 17.
In this cropped view, you can see the Tanger Outlet in the background, and vehicles waiting either to exit onto Kings Road or onto U.S. 17 northbound. The ramps are the end of S.C. 22.
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