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Birds and beer

It looked me right in the eye!

I enjoy watching and feeding birds and therefore, in our backyard, there is a hanging sunflower seed feeder, a suet basket swinging in the breeze and there is always bird seed spread on the ground. It’s a joy to watch the many different birds interact, feed and show off their colors. And one day I had a very close encounter with a nuthatch.

The sunflower seed feeder was almost empty and as I started to take it down to refill it, a nuthatch flew onto it and sat there looking at me. It was about 12 inches from my face and I’m not sure who was more surprised — the nuthatch or me! As I held the feeder steady, the little nuthatch sat on it and looked at me as if to say, “You realize you’re interfering with my breakfast, don’t you?” For about 10 seconds we looked at each other, then it grabbed one of the few remaining seeds in the feeder and flitted off onto a branch.

These types of encounters don’t happen very often, and when they do occur, they’re special and are a part of the reason for my fascination with birds. From the black crow to the white swan, from the soft speckled brown of a sparrow to the vivid color of a blue jay and from the little downy woodpecker to the large, majestic bald eagle, there’s a bird for everyone. But as different as they are,  they’re also very similar.

Their similarities come from the shape of their bodies with their light weight bone structure and body aerodynamics that each of them, regardless of the specie, have in common. No matter your bird of choice and regardless of their size, shape or color, they’re all alike. So to honor our feathered friends, maybe we should have a glass of beer to salute them. And since we are talking about things being similar, would you like a stout or a porter?

Wait a minute! If we’re talking about things being similar, why are we putting stouts and porters in the same sentence? They are…different, right?  Ah, no…

The next time you buy beer I challenge you to buy a six-pack of porter and a six-pack of stout and then pour a bottle of each into a glass. Have someone set the two glasses beside each other and without tasting them, tell me which is the porter and which is the stout. Next, blind taste each glass and then, tell me which is which. The answer to both challenges is that you can’t tell the difference between the two brews.

At one time, I would’ve and, with righteous indignation, told you I could tell the difference between the two beers and I’d have been wrong. In my certainty, the statements would’ve flowed about the beautiful brown color — oops, both are brown in color.  Well, let’s talk taste. The stout has such a nice luscious taste and the porter has such a nice…luscious taste.

OK, how about the aroma of each beer? Now, I’ve got you!  The stout has a wonderful coffee/somewhat chocolate aroma and the porter has such a wonderful…oh no, such a wonderful coffee/somewhat chocolate aroma, too. Are these two beers like our birds — different names but basically the same?

There is a long story behind each of these beers having to do with historical British laws and the type of malt used in each beer (malted or un-malted barley) but in the final analysis, a stout and a porter are the same brew. There is one slight difference and it’s one we should know — the stout has a higher alcohol content than the porter. The stout is stronger (more stout) than a porter.

What the heck!  Let’s not get caught up in differences and similarities. Let’s just enjoy our little bird friends – don’t forget to feed them this winter — and, at the same time, enjoy a stout or a porter. Isn’t it interesting that as we try to find differences in people and things, we seem to also find likenesses.

Next week, come on, you don’t really taste that, do you?

As always, eat and drink in moderation but laugh with reckless abandon!

Cheers!

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