When we were kids our lunch bags invariably included one of those little red boxes of Sunmaid raisins. I really didn’t like raisins to begin with, so as you might guess, by the 6th grade I hated raisins. Loathed them. Couldn’t stand them.

But being the clever individual I am, and hanging around with a fair number of other clever individuals, we always found things to do with our raisins. We crunched them into raisin wads and heaved them at each other like ugly snowballs. We stuffed them into drinking fountains like plumber’s putty. We stuck them in our nostrils and pretended to blow out boogers. We licked them and flicked them in the popular girls’ hair.

Oh, and we made kazoos out of the empty raisin boxes. (Try it, it works.)

Now jump forward about 30 years. I meet this brewer guy named Tomme Arthur, and guess what? He sticks raisins in all kinds of stuff — even his beer.

You know what? It’s pretty good.

Actually, it’s really good. Sample a little of his Lost & Found or his new one, Judgment Day and you’ll know what I mean.

And while you’re uncorking a bottle, read the story on how those raisins got in his beer instead of the hair of that cute girl that sat next him in social studies class.

» The Lost Abbey (aka: is that a raisin in your beer?)

These stories tend to get around the interweb pretty quickly, so you may have heard about this one. But in case you haven’t, here goes:

Last Saturday a bunch of my friends were tossing back a few pints their favorite pub here in San Diego. It was getting late, so everybody agreed it was time to go home.

As everybody left and said their goodnights in the parking lot, it was pretty obvious that one in the group was having a little harder time than the rest. After everyone else had driven off he was still wandering through the parking lot, weaving left and right until he finally stopped at a car he recognized as his.

He leaned unsteadily up against the car and dug in his pocket for his keys, finally pulling them out and stabbing at the car door a couple of times before he got the key in the lock and the door open.

Unfortunately for my friend, there was a police officer parked at the other end of the lot who was observing the whole episode. The cop sat in his car and watched my friend’s headlights, brake lights, and reverse lights all go on an off a number of times before the car slowly backed out of its space.

The moment my friend’s car turned on to the street, the cop flipped on his lights and siren and pulled my friend over.

The copped walked up to the car and said to my buddy, “Sir, how much have you had to drink tonight?”

My friend looked at the cop slowly and said, “uh, nothing really. Just a couple of Cokes.”

“Really?” The cop said. “You know I watched you leave that bar and you seemed to have quite a bit of trouble getting to your car.”

“Really, I’ve just had a couple of Cokes,” my friend said as earnestly as he could.

The cop looked a little irritated and said, “Sir, I’m going to give you one more chance to answer my question, or I’m going to arrest you right here. How many drinks have you had tonight?”

And my friend said, “Look officer, I’m telling you the truth. I’ve only had a couple of Cokes. Tonight was my night to be the designated decoy.”

(Sound of rimshot)

Cheers!

— I heard that one from Tomme Arthur

That’s Tomme Arthur, master brewer at Port Brewing / Lost Abbey. A great brewer and all around good guy, you can find Tomme at the brewery “masterbrewing” pretty much 7 days a week. On Friday and Saturdays the brewery is opening for tasting. Drop on by, meet Tomme and try a few of his beers.

» Directions to Port Brewing / Lost Abbey

Adam & Bonnie (though her friends call her “Bonnie ho” — I don’t know why) at Port Brewing / Lost Abbey enjoying a few with us.