Football, Friends, and Good Beer

This weekend, my wife Kris and I took an unforgettable road trip with our friends Brian and Doug who I've known since our Air Force ROTC days at Michigan State University. The destination was Lincoln, Nebraska to watch our MSU Spartans take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers in a pivotal late-season matchup. An essential part of the college football game day experience is tailgating near the stadium before the game. It's ideal to enjoy food, beverages and camaraderie with friends old and new while donning your school's colors on a beautiful fall Saturday. For this occasion, I selected the Dry Dock Brewing "Booty Box," a variety pack of cans that features something for everyone.

The four beers in the pack are Hefeweizen, Apricot Blonde Ale, Amber Ale and Hop Abomination IPA. There are several reasons why this pack is an excellent choice for bringing to a tailgate with a smaller group. For one, canned craft beer is lighter to carry and leaves you with less waste to throw away. The variety in styles and flavors ensures that everyone in the group should find something that suits their palate. The Hefeweizen is an excellent example of the style, with a lighter body but delicious wheat flavors and fruity esters from the German yeast. The Apricot Blonde is brewed with real apricot puree, providing a lot of flavor without making the beer overly sweet. The Amber is an English style that's big on toasty caramel malts, and Hop Abomination is a well-balanced IPA. All four beers go well with many different foods, and they're all fairly sessionable, with Hop Abomination the strongest at 6.5% ABV.

Needless to say, we had an enjoyable tailgate with great craft beers and bratwurst while getting to know fellow Spartans and a few Huskers as well. More importantly, we had an amazing experience at Memorial Stadium watching MSU beat Nebraska in football for the first time ever. If you ever get a chance to see a game in Lincoln, I highly recommend it. Fortunately, the Nebraska fans are just as hospitable to opposing fans after the game as they are before the game. Lincoln also has a great beer bar called YiaYia's where we had a couple pints later in the evening. The tap list features about 10 rotating taps of excellent regional craft beers, and well over 100 bottled beers from around the world. It was a nice place to end a very memorable day while enjoying great company and savoring a huge Spartan road win.