This series of posts is dedicated to the many, many six packs, pony kegs and pints that have sauntered into my life at one point or another.

One of the bonus features of living in Wisconsin is that for roughly half the year, the outdoors can be treated as an extension of the refrigerator. Is it getting a little tight in that invaluable appliance? Just move a few of the less sensitive and well-sealed items onto the front porch or maybe out to the back deck.

Beverages are an especially handy item to relocate, but there’s a danger there, too. Sometimes the mercury dips enough outside to inadvertently make the liquid a little icy. That can be especially damaging to the some of the more enticing libations, but sometimes a different magic can happen. One fine winter, stocking up for holiday cooking necessitated shifting several bottles of the seasonal New Glarus Brewing Co. stout dubbed Road Slush. Because they subsequently weren’t brought inside quickly enough, the beers developed a consistently that resembled the substance that provided their name. Far from ruined, they were transformed into the most wondrous slushees I’ve ever drank.

Road Slush is dandy beer when cooled a more conventional amount. Sometimes, though, I really do long for — and try to orchestrate — a repeated of that happy mistake.

Previous entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Beers I Have Known” tag.