Noch Ein at the Stein: A poetic essay on beer, conversation, and hippycrits

by Tim Shaner

Here’s why I LOVE this book to I’m here at the Stein and I’m not a regular but I’ve somehow managed to snag myself a stool at the bar and there’s this middle-aged guy, this character, this quintessential loafer, this self-mocking “poet (brewer)” musing, pontificating, philosophizing, conversing with his shoulder buddies. And I’m just following the conversation as it meanders from the communist horizon to hippycrits to books and neoliberalism and art and zebrafish and death and taxes and what men want and women, too, and all that jazz (he loves jazz). And he’s playing with words, he’s definitely got his buzz on. He’s dropping names like loose change and there’s a wild cast of characters sometimes here in the bar—Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassidy, William Burroughs, Liz Taylor, George Harrison…—and he’s telling stories, making things up, making excuses, making things meta. Seriously, this book is wickedly funny… and damn, it’s serious. So I’m still here at the bar at the Stein and I can’t leave yet, I’m always wanting just another wee one, one more Shaner, Noch Ein at the Stein.

Karen McPherson, author of Skein of Light and co-editor of Women’s Lives in Contemporary French

and Francophone Literature



At the Stein almost every soul can become a shoulder-buddy. Brush shoulders then, be pertinent. Belong. Bring your best remembered books, dances, jams. Bring conundrums and pesky syllogisms. Bring loves renewed or dreamed or left at the subway platform. Make note. Bring your hope-with-disillusion. Whether wizened or supple, the Stein servers-and-preservers, all sharpen the wort of Shaner’s human moment like the bold hops for which Northwest ales are known. Our summers grow hotter. So have a gulp. Listen, and counter. Some drink to remember, Tim Shaner is one of that sum.

Tim Whitsel, author of We Say Ourselves and Wishmeal



In Noch Ein at the Stein, Tim Shaner captures the essential elements of why the Stein is my favorite bar in America. The beer community, the stories, the very human social contact & interaction, and, above all, the celebration of beer—I have experienced all these and more at "the Stein," even meeting a poet of note. Noch Ein is a must read for all those who love bar life and life itself. It is even more poignant during these Covid times when that sense of "Communitas" has been taken away.

Hal Hermanson, KLCC Brewfest Operations/Brewer's Lounge, Underwriting, & fellow “Steinian”

212 pages, Paperback

Published November 28, 2021

Reviews

[Shaun O’Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A meandering stream of consciousness tale of life in and around Eugene, Oregon’s Bier Stein, a local good beer bar. Historical figures protect the identities of the Stein’s characters. If you ever had beers at a place and could memorialize those inebriated conversations and exchanges with your fellow bar fly in print “Noche Ein at the Stein” would be that book.