The backyard BBQ. It has to be. Likely because of Pete's daydreaming about his English garden, I got the urge to have a smoky BBQ yesterday. Well, it was the day before really as I had to put the ribs into an overnight soak of Sierra Nevada pale ale, a bunch of ends of BBQ sauce bottles from Dinosaur and Beale Street, onions, lemons and grapefruit juice.

The blue box tells the tale. I picked up the Sierra Nevada when we were over in upstate NY Saturday - after sticking my nose in Maggies on the River, a newish Watertown NY beer bar with 32 taps.¹ The Sierra Nevada went for 18 bucks a 12 pack at the grocery.² Also picked up some Hennepin as well as a six of Goose Island 312. All well made, good value but approachable craft beers. Throw in some other odds and ends from the stash like travel beer from Ithaca and Quebec, samples of Granville Island's excellent Robson Street Hefeweizen and before you know it, people are sucking on ribs, chowing down on pulled pork coleslaw sandwiches, dipping everything in mop sauce and washing everything down with tasty ales. At the end when everyone is in a good frame of mind, break out some big bombs as sippers. Last night we had Southern Tier Oat, an 11% wall of dark malty goodness. All was very well.

Lesson? You want the people you know to like craft beer? Give it away with a plate of BBQ. They'll get the point every time.

¹ [Ed.: Pretty respectable beer list.]
²[Ed.: The same beer I once saw in a Canadian beer bar for $7.99 a bottle!]