Mecca

Ladies & Gentlemen:

This is "Mecca."

a.k.a. The Plzen Brewery in Plzen, Czech Republic.

The adoration was started in the early 1970s, when my dad enjoyed it and pronounced it "the best beer" he'd ever had. I next heard of it at my brother Armour's high school graduation, when Dad sprang for a keg of Pilsner Urquell beer...the star product of the brewery.

Here's the gate...where all the magic happens...
The copper heating pots and the bottling apparatus...

Holly and Armour headed down into the cellars...

Watching unpasteurized, unfiltered Pilsner Urquell being poured into the tasting barrels...

John and Armour lining up...

Armour...at the moment of truth.

At last...

Dad, we were thinking of you.

A happy man...on his 31st birthday...23 December 2006.

Check out Armour on the bottom left...