We all have those moments when we wring as much as we can from that moment.

Maybe it’s the time when, for the first time in your life, you climb into a canoe, you’re given a paddle and you’re not sure what to do. Then you look across a very wide lake and realize you have to paddle that canoe across that long expanse of water to get to your campsite. And, you hope.

You hope you don’t tip over the canoe, you hope you don’t look too much like an idiot paddling the canoe and you hope, you simply hope you make it to the other side of the lake and…you do!

Of course, there are also those times when we don’t extend ourselves and wonder, in retrospect, why the heck didn’t I just do it? For example…

We were recently walking through Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and hurrying from our arrival gate to our departure gate. O’Hare is big, our departure gate was a long walk away and we were caught up in the flow of people when suddenly right in front of us were three men who were obviously not from Minnesota.

What first caught my attention was their clothing — all black and on the back of their black jackets was the word, Motörhead. Then I heard their British accent and from the deep recesses of my memory bank, I recalled a heavy/punk rock band with the name Motörhead. Do you suppose these guys are that band? I hesitated and the moment was gone.

That irresistible flow of people in the terminal hallway swept us past the fellows in black.

Were they Motörhead? I’m not sure since the band has changed over the years and with the loss of its main man, Lemmy, who knows? That brush by encounter led me to research the band and I discovered they are heavily (like their heavy metal music was…loud and heavy) into marketing their brands of beverages.

I discovered there is a website called BrandsForFans and on that site there were the items being marketed by Motörhead and the items intrigued me.

There is a Swedish single malt whiskey named (appropriately enough) Motörhead Whiskey which is distilled by the Swedish distillery Mackmyra. The whiskey is bourbon influenced (there’s some corn in the mash), is aged for five years in American oak to obtain a caramel and vanilla flavor and is said to taste as aggressively as the band’s music was aggressive. It’s not available in this country yet but I hope it comes soon.

In a collaborative effort with San Diego’s Amplified Ale Works, the band just released an IPA called Born To Lose. With an ABV of 6.5 percent, one dances gently with this beer but although it has a strong hop presence because of the use of Cascade, Simcoe and Citra hops, the addition of a premium British malt called Maris Otter smooths out the hops’ bitterness resulting in a beer that is well balanced. What catches my attention is the bottle’s label — hard to describe but let’s just say it’s noticeably heavy metal inspired and very cool!

Among the wines being marketed by Motörhead is a Shiraz. Again this product is not yet sold in the States but it’s described as having a deep red color with black current flavors and soft tannins ending in a spicy finish. I hope to taste it soon.

Were the fellows in O’Hare really some new incarnation of Motörhead? Who knows? I let the moment slip by without saying anything to them but I hope that type of moment occurs again. Because if I see those men again, I’ll wring as much out of the moment as I can.

There’s always hope.

Next week, the lady talks.

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

Cheers!