My dad’s been a dedicated Miller Lite drinker for more than three decades; before that, it was Busch, Busch Light, and PBR. Going back farther: In the early ’70s, he and his high-school buds would drive from southwest Missouri to the Kansas state line to buy Coors, “smuggling” it back in the trunk of his ’66 Mustang. They’d buy it for $6 a case, but they could sell it in Springfield for $6 a six-pack. “Problem was,” he says, “we drank a lot of it.”
Yet, his favorite beer in the world is Schneider Aventinus.
His love of weizenbock goes back 13 years, when we took a Bavarian brewery tour that culminated at Oktoberfest. One stop was G. Schneider & Sohn in Kelheim, where we sampled the range. Aventinus, though, was a whole moment. “I like the smooth, nutty flavor and the light sweetness,” Dad says, when I ask what he enjoys about it. He also enjoys its sneaky strength at 8.2 percent ABV—“dangerous” is the word we use.