<p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Suddenly it seems Belgian breweries loom large in the world of beer drinkers.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">And I assume this relates to Energy People Connect because like oil, beer is a highly, refined product produced by big, international companies. Alter the chemistry a bit and you&rsquo;ve got fuel. Drinking beer has been known to lubricate things for people trying to connect.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">In the realm of business, a Belgian brewer, InBev, is looking to buy Anheuser Busch, which has responded that $46 billion just isn&rsquo;t enough.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">I&rsquo;m fine with them doing whatever they want with Bud &ndash; I&rsquo;ve long tried to avoid drinking the stuff because I&rsquo;d like to encourage competition, but it works with a burger. </font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">And among beer lovers, or snobs depending on whether I agree with their tastes, Belgian-style beers have taken over.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">I&rsquo;m just not sure I&rsquo;m ready for Belgian style. Partly I&rsquo;m wary about the staying power of this frenzy. I&rsquo;m old enough to remember when Coors beer took on mythic status back when it wasn&rsquo;t sold in the Midwest. The buzz was enough to make it taste pretty good, but that was when I was favoring frothy quarts of Old Milwaukee. Now one bar I visit uses a Coors Light tap for cold water.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Since then I&rsquo;ve drunk quite a few beers &ndash; my method is if I see something new I try it. One rule developed over the years is, people who speak French just are not good at making beer. And there&rsquo;s a lot of French spoken in Belgium. But in a burst of open mindedness, and recognition that U.S. brewers are making a lot of Belgian-style, I spent a recent Sunday afternoon trying several of them with my brother. </font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">What hit me first was an economic fact rather than a taste question. Belgians have taken beer and brought in wine marketing methods. I&rsquo;m still in shock after a bartender told me a 750 ml bottle of La Chouffee would cost more than $25. Since I&rsquo;m too cheap to pay that much for wine unless I&rsquo;m out for dinner on say my anniversary with my wife, I&rsquo;m not about to pony up for a blue collar reward when I&rsquo;m out with my brother.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">The first draft I had at the bar, San Bernarndis, was strong enough to offer the buzz of a pint in a glass that looked to be 10 ounces. To my taste the common link here is a distinctive, zingy yeasty taste that reminds me of my brother&rsquo;s old home brew. While the more discerning drinkers wax poetic about stuff like the fruit flavors and the candy sugar I&rsquo;m not sure I noticed. After that I had a Belgian Weiss beer, which married that distinctive taste with a lot of lemon &ndash;malty lemonade is no sin on a scorching Texas days. And our bike trip was bracketed by tastes of a couple Belgian styles from Avery Brewing in Colorado, The Reverend and Celebration Ale, which cost $5 per 750 ml at the grocery store. That&rsquo;s not so far from twice the cost of some really good German options, but the alcohol content was an imposing 9 and 10 percent. And they went down well, though we agreed the Celebration was the best of the pair.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Still I&rsquo;m puzzled by how passionate people can get about Belgian style beers. The beers made for a good afternoon, but this isn&rsquo;t wine. I&rsquo;ll keep trying new beers but my brother&rsquo;s home brew was never my platonic ideal &ndash; not that it wasn&rsquo;t&rsquo; a good time. But if picking any beer in the world I&rsquo;m not sure why Belgians are my choice. And if I want high alcohol content I can go to any number of other forms of liquor.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">So I&rsquo;m still open to offers, but I think I&rsquo;ll go back to IPA or Ales or maybe even a Bud, to show I&rsquo;m not close minded.</font></p><p style="margin: auto 0in" class="times"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">But then I wonder if I&rsquo;m just not keeping up with the times. Am I just a cheap, old Belgian bigot? Does anyone want to educate me on all of this?</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">&nbsp;</font><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">&nbsp;</font>