The Quest for Conway's.....


St. Patrick's Day has become a traditional day for drinking. I rarely drink to excess anymore, but there's nothing wrong with taking part in this Irish celebration. Most bars will even put green food coloring in some beer. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of that.

The most Irish of drinks are Guinness Stout and Jameson Irish Whiskey. But in my town, it has become trendy to patronize one of the local micro-breweries. My town now has more micro-breweries than Duncan Donut shops. The oldest and most common of those are the Great Lakes Brewing Company.  It makes many award-winning brews, including the famous Dortmunder Gold.

But Great Lakes makes a local beer that is very popular this time of year: Conway's Irish Ale. It;s a fine beer that even has a picture of an Irish cop on the label. Locally it has become the beer of choice for a fine St. Patrick's Day celebration.

I was told we would be going over my buddy Mike's house that evening. So I thought it would be polite to bring some Conways with us. That's easier said than done. So began my quest for the popular Conway's Irish Ale.

I had a hint this might be a problem on Friday night. I was out with some friends, ( at a local micro-brewery), and asked the server for a Conways. She didn't think they had it. That was odd I thought.

The next day I started my search in earnest. I went to my local Giant Eagle supermarket and walked to their beer department. Just last week they had a huge display of Conways. But as I looked, I didn't see it. There was Budweiser and Yuengling, buy no Conway's Irish Ale! Being frustrated, I broke a "man rule", and asked for help.

"Do you have any Conway's left?" I asked. Slowly, an elderly associate turned to me and replied, "You know, we had 150 cases of that last week. When I got to work today, there were only 2 left. I was going to put one aside for myself, but it was gone before I could!"  I started to think this could be a problem.

I decided to go to a local beverage store. It was next to a bar, so even parking was scarce. Tragically, they were also sold out of Conway's. So I decided to try one more beverage store a few more miles away.

This would be an even larger beverage store with a wide variety of beers. But as I looked around I found no Conway's. The associate on duty told me it was long gone. I dejectedly started to walk out. As I reached the door, the associate said I might try a convenience store down the road. "That might be the last Conway's in town", he said. I thanked him for that tip.

So I drove to this small convenience store as he suggested. There. tucked away in the corner of the cooler, were maybe the last two six-packs of Conway's Irish Ale in Cuyahoga County. I happily took my purchase to the counter.

Sometimes you're happy to purchase the proper gift for the right party. Sometimes you're just happy to find it! 

Cheers!

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