This Is My Blood: Delirium Tremens

I've mentioned the fact that I used to regularly drink in the woods enough times on this blog that it should be familiar at this point, and perhaps even a little annoying. I'm going to briefly talk about it again here, so please feel free to bail if you grew up in a woodless area where the underage drinking occurred exclusively in basements and backyards. I did enough boozing in the woods that it became a little commonplace when I was a teenager, and I never really thought about why we were drinking in the woods. Sure, you could chalk it up to the fact that the woods are secluded, and you can more easily drink there and "get away with it," i.e. stay out of the way of any authority figure (parents, police) who'd rather that you not drink at all, thank you very much. But I'm opening up to the idea that it was more than that, that there was a higher purpose to finding ourselves in the woods at that time in our lives. I think of the woods now as a representation of the idea of an "escape" in the most pure sense of the word. Life outside of the woods is noisy and frantic and sometimes you feel like you're getting pulled in every direction. When you step into the woods, that all fades away. The curtain of trees blocks everything out. If drinking was a way to allow the M-F worries of our teenage years fade away, then doing it in the context of a dark wooded area was a necessary backdrop. It accentuated the ritual of blocking out all external pressures. This isn't a teenager-exclusive thing, and it honestly isn't even a drinking-exclusive thing. You can step into the woods at any time in your life and you can find the peace you are looking for. It's no accident that many people say they can find God in nature. I don't believe in God but I think that the woods let you get as close as possible to the idea of it anyway. It's to the point where I am questioning whether I ever found catharsis in a Lionshead bottle at all, or if I was misattributing what I was feeling from my presence in the Burholme woods. For better or worse, life has handed me another opportunity to find out what is true. I live next to the woods now (see picture above). This is Pennypack Park. When I have the time, I can walk down a very short hill and find myself at a tiny tributary creek. If I wanted to, I could bring a beer to this solitude. I could touch God. There's no time portal in there, and I won't find myself as sixteen around a fire pit with lukewarm lagers. But I can relive a portion of that experience in my own way. The woods are right here, calling me.

NOTES

BEER: Delirium Tremens

STYLE: Belgian Strong Pale Ale

ABV: 8.5%

BREWED BY: Brouwerij Huyghe

LOCATION: Melle, Belgium

PURCHASED AT: IGA

PAIRED WITH: fresh air on a warm winter day

GRADE: 3.5 pukes out of 5

 

BEER COUNT: 467.5