Our 53rd Session takes us down a more spiritual path, the road to redemption … sort of. Our host, John Holl, of his eponymous Beer Briefing, has chosen the topic Beer Redemption, for which he offers the following confession:

One thing about drinking a lot of beer is that occasionally you’re going to have a bad one. Perhaps it was infected or spoiled by light. Perhaps the brewer or brewery was new and still working out the kinks on a particular style. Regardless, you couldn’t finish the beer in your glass and moved onto the next one.

John goes on to tell the tale of a beer that, in his youth, he found all but undrinkable and gave short shrift to ever after, only to discover — years later — that it wasn’t so bad after all. He continues.

In that moment I realized the foolishness of youth and how many earlier chances I passed up to properly taste this beer. These days it is not uncommon to find [his beer] of various styles in my refrigerator. I haven’t actually visited the brewery yet, but they are now high on my list.

So, what has been your beer redemption?

So drink three Bloody Marys (made with beer) and two Old Foghorns and seek forgiveness, my sons and daughters, just so long as you blog about it for the next Session on Friday, July 1. Your beer redemption is at hand. To start you down the righteous path, say the Beer Prayer aloud every night before retiring from the evening’s drinking:

“Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink,
Thy will be drunk,
(I will be drunk),
At home as I am in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us,
and lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers,
For thine is the beer,
The bitter and the lager,
Forever and ever,
Barmen.”