Bernie Dorman's Page

I once had a case of beer that I had in the trunk of my 65 Buick 4 Door. I would keep it in there so that when I would stop at a party, I would have something to bring in.

Alas, one fine weekend, I drove that car to Philadelphia for a concert, and of course I responsibly partook of a few of the beers in the parking lot before going into the concert. Well the trip to Phillie had been a rather sucky one, and I was surely ready to suck down a few warm St. Pauli Girl's as soon as we made it to the parking lot. The oil had been leaking out of every seal in that engine block, because I had changed the oil filter and the oil simultaneously, and that (I later found out) was something you did NOT do to 65 Buicks... The clean oil causes the dirt keeping the seals closed to come loose and is taken out by the filter, thereby causing a major oil loss.

After the concert, my friend drove me back home, and I was unable to come back to Phillie for 2 weeks to get my car. I was able to drive it home with a couple of gallons of oil, but I parked it at my friend's house and left it there for a few months.

When I retrieved the Buick from my friend's place, I emptied the trunk of the car and found my trusty case of St. Pauli Girls and was SO ready to have one right then, but it turned out that I had to drive some more, so I wisely waited until I got home.

I took that case up to the apartment, and quickly stuffed my fridge full (well fuller than it had been) with these beers, anticipating the reward I was about to get when I could finally pop the top off of one of these babies!

Unfortunately for me, I did not realize what heat does to beer. Sitting in that trunk, that beer was subject to upwards of 200 degrees for days at a time, and when I opened one and tasted it, I almost threw up! It was like a skunk had watered the bottles...

Needless to say, from that time forward, I have treated St. Pauli Girls with respect, along with all my other favorite brews. Now I get why they are kept in cellars!