It's like drinking liquid flowers...

My husband and I from the Sacramento area, and spent pretty much all of our 21 and over years at Sacramento Brewing Company's Sunrise at the Oasis in Citrus Heights. It was very close to where we worked, featured amazing happy hour specials, and well, everyone knew our name. SBC brews one of my all time favorite hefeweizens and I am proud to say, SBC was my first real introduction to beer. Before I met my husband, I HATED beer. Swore it off completely. My dad (never a big drinker) would have Coors in cans in the fridge, and as I entered high school, I would occasionally sneak one off to try. But the few times I did that, immediately upon opening, I realized what a mistake that was and how absolutely awful it tasted and I would dump the whole can out. After a few tries, I realized how much I did not like beer and gave up on it altogether. A few years later, after high school, I met my future husband. He, on the other hand, had grown up with a beer drinkin' mama and uncle, and they had even dappled in brewing their own. So he definitely appreciated good beer (we won't talk about the Natural Ice of his high school days), and tried desperately to persuade me of the finer qualities of a well brewed ale. I wasn't easily convinced, and thank goodness he's stubborn, because I eventually fell in love with SBC.
Now his favorite was known as Pharoh's Liquid Gold, and you used to be able to purchase it in a gallon plastic beer to go contraption. So before I was 21, he would pick one up and he and his best friend would again try to convince me that beer is indeed liquid gold. IPA as a push to a non beer drinker? Probably not the best move. But I was willing to keep trying as he LOVED it so much. (the things we do for love.)

Well, in trying to find a beer that I would like, we started trying to explore the different aspects and flavors in beer as a jumping off point. So we tried beers that were very malty, versus very hoppy, versus very yeasty. He always tried to convince me that hops make the beer taste and smell like a flower. HA, never bought that one. I don't know what kind of flowers he was sniffing, but I didn't find anything but bitterness. And then... the flower enveloped me in a beer called Red Horse. I took one sip from a freshly poured pint of Red Horse and suddenly the world of hops became clear to me. I'll be damned if that didn't taste like the best, most complex, most delicate flower I had ever tasted. How on Earth do you make something taste like that? I was hooked - my favorite beer became Red Horse and I spent as much time at SBC as possible (within reason), drinking all the liquid flowers I could. And that eventually leads to the death of my love...