I chose to set my piece to a drink connected to a cultural phenomenon rather than a food. I probably could have written about a particular dish connected with a certain subculture, but I wanted to write something I knew, and this was the best I could come up with.
Red Beer
Pour a Pint Glass 2/3-3/4 full with an American-style lager beer
Fill remaining space with Tomato Juice, V8, or Clamato
Season to taste with pepper, Worcestershire Suace, Salt, Horseradish or whatever you prefer
Long before the Chelada craze struck America, long before Annheiser-Busch began offering Bud Light premixed with Clamato, men and women in the Northwest were drinking Red Beer. No one really knows where the tradition began, what influenced it or who brought it there. And nowhere is this cultural phenomenon more prevalent than the town of Missoula, Montana.
Montana is the heavy-drinking state. One can often hear it murmured that Montana contains more bars per-ca pita than any other state in the nation. Up until five years ago, there was no statewide open container law. It was perfectly legal to drink while driving, so long as said driver wasn't drunk. The state flaunted it's "Most of Us" campaign. This campaign proclaimed proudly the findings of a recent survey of Montanans which concluded: "Four out of Five of us don't drink and drive!" Sadly, the state chose to ignore the fact that twenty percent of its population admitted to drinking and driving on a regular basis.
Missoula is home to two of the finest craft-breweries in the nation. Big Sky Brewing, with its vaunted Moose Drool Ale, has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years. Their products are now not hard to find on shelves across the nation. The Bayern brewery produces, perhaps, the finest beer outside of it's namesake German state, Bavaria (Bayern in German). Where Big Sky embraces national growth, Bayern deliberately keeps their products exclusive to Montana, instead focusing on exacting quality that reflects the German heritage of many of Western Montana's residents.
With Montanans' love of beer, it is no surprise the favored breakfast drink in Big Sky Country would be the Red Beer. In fact, in many quarters of the state, it is no different than having a glass of straight vegetable juice. This mindset is best described in the words of Missoula's most celebrated author, Norman MacLean, "you will have to realize that in Montana drinking beer does not count as drinking" (MacLean, 88).
On Saturday mornings in the Fall, Red Beer consumption reaches it's annual high in Missoula. The turning of the leaves in Missoula's University district announces that it's football season, and the University of Montana Grizzlies are the only show in town. For the city of 69,000, Washington-Grizzly Stadium is their Coliseum and the Grizzlies are their hometown Gladiators.
Up until two years ago, Washington-Grizzly Stadium was an oddity among college football venues, for it had no lights. On three occasions in the 2000's mobile lighting was brought in for a few playoff games, but otherwise every game was played in the early afternoon of a Saturday. With very little in the way of tailgate spaces, and a downtown loaded with bars within walking distance, everyone converges on the century-old brick buildings of downtown to get ready.
Most arrive at the downtown taverns with a few beers under their belt. Missoula, being an alcoholic's paradise, is the only place on Earth where it's socially acceptable to drink beer in the shower––so long as it's Game Day! At a quarter-past eight, the bars are filled with a sea of maroon and silver. The whole city dons the colors, no matter their real affiliation. No other color will do. Woe unto ye who sports blue and gold! Simply wearing the colors of Montana State University here can likely lead the transgressor to picking up his teeth... with broken fingers.
Somewhere along the train of drunken logic ridden by Missoulians, adding vegetable juice to beer makes perfect sense. For many, it's the only essential nutrients they will consume all day. The rest of their caloric intake will be booze, chicken wings, and cheese fries. For others, it's a softer hair-of-the-dog remedy to brush off the previous night's hangover and get back into form. Others more find it a way of pacing themselves. It will be a long time until two in the morning when the bars finally close, why burn out at the beginning of the race?
When the patrons finally head to the game they leave behind a sea of tomato juice caked pint glasses. The bartenders, usually half-drunk themselves, then set about preparing during the calm the eye of the hurricane presents. Glasses are washed, shelves restocked. Televisions are tuned to the game at all times. Not that anyone is watching the game, everyone is at the game. No, this is the early warning system. Once the cannon fires at the end of the game, the bartenders know they only have moments to prepare. The people of Missoula are coming. Coming either to celebrate, or drink away their pain. Either way, they're coming to drink. From now until closing time it's going to be liquor cocktails or beers and shots. They can put away the tomato juice until next Saturday.
MacLean, Norman. A River Runs Through It. Web. 14 Feb. 2011.
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