Bottled Llama Brewing's contribution to The Session:

I hope this fits the spirit of this Session, focusing on beer and places.

Coors Extra Dry.  I drank this in New Mexico when I was young, though I find it difficult and humiliating to admit.  I stress that I was young, then, and I knew not what I was imbibing.  This is the libation that those around me preferred and consumed and their opinions were imprinted upon me.  Thus I was introduced to the social aspect of beer.  It is a drink meant to be drunk with friends.  Their influence can be good or bad.  Alas, my youthful experience was, in the hindsight of craft beer goggles, bad.  These people were all rural, cowboy hat wearing types.  I must go cleanse myself now.

Boiler Room Red Lager and various homebrews.  The Boiler Room is a local-ish brewpub.  I live in Kingman, AZ and the Boiler Room is in Laughlin, NV, a mere forty-five minutes away.  Circa 1997, the brewer there produced an award-winning and tasty beer called Red Lager.  It was the brewery's flagship beer and an integral part of the signature dish.  This dish was affectionately called the Sweet 16; it was a 16 ounce T-bone steak, fries and a pint of Red.  This dinner and that place produced many fond memories of good friends and live bands.  I had a young family at the time, was making my own beer, playing in a band.  I thought things were going well in my world.  With the help of a couple of friends many legendary homebrews were also produced in this era.  And, yes, beer snobbery began.  I thought I knew what "real" beer was and did not tire of telling it to others.  Again the socialism of beer comes into play.  Good beer was enjoyed with good friends.  This time it really was good beer.  And did I just admit to being a beer socialist?

AmberBock.  The dark years.  Children grew older, responsibilities grew heavier, time moved faster, homebrew diminished along with funds.  The band fell apart.  I began to realize that I was just another loser on this big train of life.  These were the Years of Pretending, wherein I drank AmberBock.  It was mass produced, sure, but it tasted like a craft beer.  It was some kind of sick hybrid that allowed me to feel good about myself.  It's like the nicotine patch or something.  That bridge between what was and what is. 

Mothership Wit.  Then came 2007.  The Great American Beer Festival.  One of the sessions was cheese tasting with a variety of beers.  The first beer was Mothership Wit.  Now, I'd had wit beers prior to this, I knew the style, I'd been drinking craft beers for several years.  But something about Mothership just made things click in my brain.  I finally understood what beer could be.  A social drink, to be sure, here I was amidst thousands of people I didn't know, united by love of beer.  It could be a refined, sophisticated thing, too, allowing a person to experience the joy of friends and food.  My Beer Enlightenment began.  Schlitz and Miller and other beers of that nature were also at the GABF and one of them even won an award!  There was room for all at the Big Bar!  Yes, snobbery needed to be ousted, co-existence embraced.  I knew my place, my beer and many others knew theirs, too.