Was gibt hier?

I don't often read Playboy. But when I do read Playboy, it's only for the pictures.

Similarly, I don't often go to Costco, but when I do, it's usually for the "Senior Buffet" which starts around 11 AM. At this event, you can make quite a nice lunch by visiting the various free sample tables, hence the name Senior Buffet. if you know senior citizens, you know what I'm talking about.

The missus, on the other hand, is a regular customer at Costco--bless her penny-pinching heart. She called from there the other day to tell me she found a new beer sampler from--of all brewers--Michelob. That's Michelob as in Anheuser-Busch. The only thing I ever liked about Michelob was the bottle, as it made for a great candle-holder in my frat house back in the day. Candles added a certain ambience to my room, an ambience that usually impressed the opposite sex despite my rather plebeian choice of bobeche.

But Michelob has obviously been working to improve what's IN the bottle since then. The missus picked up two cases of a new (to me) product called The Michelob Wheat Beer Sampler Pack. That's the box on the lower right of the website. You may have to give your age to actually enter further, so be prepared. It contains four different wheat beers: Shock Top (reviewed in this space a while ago), Dunkelweisse, Honey Wheat and Hop Hound. And the case comes with built-in information cards that provide the vital stats of each brew.

I've yet to sample the Hop Hound, but if it's as good as the first three, I may have to completely revise my opinion of AB completely. The Shock Top is a Belgian-style wheat, the Dunkelweisse is a darned good German-style wheat and the Honey Wheat (sweet, indeed, but tasty) is an American-style wheat. The Hop Hound purports to be an American-style amber wheat. The truth is that AB has the finest brewers in the world, and it's not their fault they spend most of their time working with rice beer. Check that--SPENT most of their time. because they are obviously discovering there's a market for more flavorful beers.

Bottom line here is that in addition to being very good for the palate, they are also easy on the pocketbook for those of us with no link to AIG bonuses, drug cartel money or government jobs. Just $20 for 24 bottles, six of each style.

That might be enough to coerce me into joining the missus on her next stock-up trip to Costco. Free food and two dozen bottles of darned good beer can be most enticing. But I'll go during the week and not the weekend so as to avoid the crowds of seniors looking for freebies.

More for me that way.

Cheers till next time!

The PubScout