Revisiting The Shower Beer

Last summer, I wrote a blog post about a beer topic that is, and always will be, very near and dear to my heart. I had wanted to write about this particular subject for some time, knowing that I had to ‘get it right’ – the words, the examples I used, the punctuation – in order to convey just my message with just the right amount of both fact and feel. On a day in early June, something inspired me to do just that, and I admit being pretty happy with the results. Never before had the words flowed so easily, as if they were travelling on a direct line from my soul. I had finally found a way to properly write about…the shower beer.

I was pleasantly surprised then to hear that one of Virginia’s own breweries was making not just any good shower beer – but the shower beer. First off, I keep asking myself why another brewery didn’t jump on this first. A quick look on BeerAdvocate shows no such other beer exists. But since I’m a pretty big fan of Charlottesville’s own Champion Brewing, I didn’t look much further. Whether you want to admit it or not, there are plenty of folks out there who enjoy shower beers, so give much credit to Champion for actually making one.

On Friday, June 12th, Champion released their Shower Beer Pilsner – in cans, no less. (It is being released at the brewery in Charlottesville first, but will be distributed throughout their normal footprint.) So I thought I’d re-post last summer’s write up, an ode to one of the best beers out there, or rather, one of the best situations in which to enjoy a beer, while celebrating the Shower Beer itself: a beer custom made for such a ‘situation’, as well as many others I’m sure. Cheers, and plenty of suds to ya.

“Just In Time For Summer: A Clean Look At The Shower Beer“, originally posted 6/23/14:

It’s funny how one of life’s most practical routines – taking a shower – can become immensely more enjoyable under the right conditions. Getting ready for work? Unremarkable. Just finished mowing the lawn in sweltering, eighty degree heat? Nearly celebratory. Preparing for bed? Just a step in the process. Coming back inside from a long day spent on the beach? A perfect way to end a glorious summer day in the sun. A shower with your better half? Well, that’s a different blog topic altogether, for a different kind of blog I would think.

However, there is one particular “condition”, or in this case, specific activity, that can be added to most any shower (and which I can write about here) that can instantly take bathing from the banal to the blissful – the shower beer. To this day, I can still remember my first experience. It was a sweet addition to one of those very times listed above – a long, relaxing day on the beach – and though I can’t tell you exactly what beer I had, I do remember how purely satisfying it was. Yes, I’m sure part of it was the fact that I was on summer vacation. And true, there is nothing quite like washing off the remnants from the salt air after a wonderfully relaxing day on the sand. So yes, it was a combination of all of the above. But I’ll also I assure you, that to this day, that beer was one of the best I’ve ever had. (Whatever it was.)

While I don’t recall from where, or from whom, I first heard of the “shower beer”, I do remember thinking some time later – incorrectly, I’ll add – that the idea seemed like one that might be restricted to a select few. As if the shower beer was some urban myth quietly come to life, a closely guarded secret passed along only by rumor, and I was somehow one of the lucky ones who had somehow heard of it. Little did I know just how many people do enjoy a shower beer from time to time until I ran across one particular Facebook post from Dogfish Head. It merely said something along the lines of “who enjoys a good shower beer?”. Figuring the thread would go on for maybe a couple dozen responses, it instead lasted a couple days. It seems I was not alone in my suds upon suds enjoyment.

Several shower beers later, I now consider myself a bit of an expert on the topic. Not that this is an area which requires much expertise. There are, or course, a couple pieces of common sense which are obvious right away – it is a shower, there is soap, it can be slippery anyhow, and those enjoying shower beers are most likely naked…so no glass should be present…and things such as that. (Yep, aren’t cans amazing?) But consider that shower beers can actually be educational as well. For example, I tend to pick beers for the shower that I usually allow to warm a bit anyway – pales, IPAs, for example – and the shower is a great way to expedite the process of warming up a beer. After all, the beer is in there with you, so it will warm, unless taking ice cold showers are your thing.

For any shower beer newbies out there, I guess I might say that partaking in one is a bit like that age old idea of having a glass of wine while taking a bath, but for real people. I mean, who does that? Plus, it requires a lot less preparation than the imagined wine and bath experience, yet with all the relaxing, non-imaginary benefits that one might expect. Simply put, there’s something that’s fun and wonderfully off key about the occasional beer in the shower. In the end, it’s just a beer that when combined with the showers you look forward to the most – post lawn mowing, perhaps after a bad day at work – often becomes, regardless of style or the name on the label, one of the best beers you’ve ever tasted.

Cheers.