Well the weekend is almost upon us and those chilly delights in beer fridges across America have begun to whisper their owners’ names. Jiiiiim…we are waaaaiiiitinnng for youuuuu.
This weekend was supposed to be extra special, because I was going to drag my family down to Washington D.C. to attend Savor, an orgy of craft beer and gourmet food pairings put on by the Brewers Association. You can read about it here, but I’m not clicking that link, because it’ll only break my poor little beer geek heart. You see, my wife hurt her back and can’t make the trip, and I don’t want to go without her and leave her at home to wrangle my offspring with a wonky spine. So no Savor for me! 😦
I’m sure I’ll find a way to make it up to myself. I have a set of Spiegelau beer glasses I’m interested in testing out, and some cider makers have sent me all sorts of apple juice (the kind that makes you dizzy) to see if there’s anything there worth writing about. We’ll see. Mostly, it pisses me off that cider is lumped in with craft beer instead of sparkling wine, but perhaps there’s a reason for that – I know nothing about cider.
I might also get after the beer fridge this weekend, which was overcome with mold during the winter (long story short – don’t let girls near your beer fridge!). It needs a spraying, bleaching, and perhaps a hand-grenading…we shall see.
Anyway, while I’m sad that I won’t be attending the event I’ve been looking forward to, I know I’ll be happier at home looking after things while my wife heals up. Besides, we have beer and food, so I’ll just make my own pairings. I’m thinking something fancy, like IPA’s and pizza.
Beer & Whiskey Brothers 
PBR on the golf course in the morning and Avery’s Maharaja IIPA in the afternoon!
Nice! I was reading about Heady Topper (my new obsession thanks to Jeff, one of our readers), and folks were using words like “mango” and “pineapple” and “tropical” to describe that beer’s hoppiness, and all I could think of is how much I wanted a Maharaja.
In short, you’re living the dream, Pat!
most likely a bunch of home made blueberry wine
That can either be a good thing or a bad thing, and if you’re drinking “a bunch” of it, it’ll probably start off good and end badly. Have fun! 🙂
Drinking this weekend? Why beer and whiskey of course. Last night I enjoyed a new release from Port City; Tartan Ale and then followed that up with a MaCallan 18. This weekend I plan to break out a new brew to my bunker, Bell’s Oberon.
You’re gonna like that beer.
I’ve been jonesing for some Stranahans lately, or some of that New Holland Beer Barrel Whatever stuff (they shoulda called it Double Dragon!), but one’s not available around here anymore and the other doesn’t officially exist yet!
Ran into my local beer store and brought home a couple of the NH Dragons Milk. Also grabbed a St. Sebastian Dark, DuClaw X-1 and a Firestone Walker Porter.
Macallan 18 is fantastic…enjoy.
Mr Jim – love your posts / blog – of my kids, one has blog ‘Hungry in DC” – he has been looking forward to DCbeermania for weeks – wish I could loose the womenfolk and go but … – me, will be brewing for first time an IPA in the kitchen with another son and maybe adding to his blog ‘simpsonbbq’ – middle son will be knocking heads on patrol in NYC – yeah, lot of kids but at least they are all old enough to buy their own beer and not drink my last
More than not drink your last, they’re helping you brew your own! Let me know how your kitchen smells when you’re done – there’s a reason I got a bayou burner when I tried homebrewing. It can get stinky!
Hmm…I kind of like the way the house smells when I’m brewing. Kind of like bread, with some hops tossed in. Only caveat: get after any spills stat, otherwise the kitchen floor will be sticky and stinky.
Will be drinking home brew coffee stout while helping brew a chocolate orange porter this weekend.
I love the smell as well, but it starts to affect my senses to the point where I taste malt and hops in EVERYTHING! Having that lingering in the house would be too much of a good thing.
I love my set of Spiegelau glasses! The “ale” glass can hold a lot of beer; be careful.
Heading to the mountains this weekend and I’m bringing along a Funkwerks White, Port Anniversary Ale, and a Snarling Badger Berliner Weisse from Grand Teton. May throw in a couple NB Shifts as well.
First, I love the name Snarling Badger. If Don weren’t already dubbed “Metro Bear” I’d try to make that one stick.
Second, those damn glasses are so thin, I’m afraid I’m gonna break them. Are they durable in your experience?
I know what you mean, but so far, so good. I’ve had my set since Christmas and they’ve held up well. I don’t have a dishwasher, so I can’t speak to their durability in that regard.
Hmmm…I ONLY have a dishwasher (if it needs to be handwashed, it’s up to the washer gods to see it through) so we’ll see if that has an effect. But they’re so…thin. It’s elegant, but scary. I was supposed to have a beer with their VP of this-and-that at Savor this weekend, and wanted to ask him about it.
Elysian’s The Immortal IPA is chilling in the fridge, but it’s wide open beyond that. I was hoping Boulevard’s Saison Brett would have hit stores here by now, but there’s no infected goodness for me this weekend.
Well, maybe you can catch herpes or something. then you could have LOTS of infected goodness. 😉
Ew. Really? Gross, Jim. Not cool. Not cool at all!
You don’t know how happy you’ve just made me, Zac.
Tasting at J Kings. I’m bringing Mad Elf. The other beer you hype besides dale’s and Dragon’s Milk 🙂
Two out of those three beers are currently in my fridge. The third is in yours.
Dale’s Pale Ale, I am going to my roof and drinking a couple of those as soon as I get home from work. I have been eyeing those in the back of my refrigerator all week and I have decided that its their time.
Good call. I thin if I had a Deviant Dale’s up on the roof, I might jump off. 😉
http://wp.me/pBL4g-2r4
Indiana Brewers Guild’s Craft Beer Fest in Bloomington Indiana. Tomorrow!
Enjoy it Jordan, and take lots of pictures. That way you’ll have answers to the question “what the hell happened yesterday?!” after all of those awesome beers!
I’m bottling a batch of rye saison homebrew tomorrow.
Nice, when you’re done you can come over and bottle the stout I’ve had sitting for OVER A YEAR in my shower! I’m sure it’s still good…
I take it you don’t do a lot of bathing.
That, or I have an immaculate carboy…
I’m going camping in NW Washington, so I’ll probably grab a growler fill from Boundary Bay and a bunch of something. Maybe Deschutes Chainbreaker or Twilight. Will decide once I get down to the US and the beer is nice and cheap.
Wait to fill up the car as well…we’re really big on cheap fluids down here.
Yard’s IPA, Victory’s Headwaters IPA, Intercourses’ Blueball Porter, Heavy Seas’ Dubbel Cannon & Appalachian’s Mountain Lager.
It’s gotta suck having a Dubbel Cannon an coupla Blueball’s! Zing! Try the veal folks!!
I think it’s time I retry Headwaters. I enjoyed it at the launch at Victory, but didn’t like the ones I had at home very much…
Very clever Jim, you really do have a feelthy mind though.
BTW: You’ll notice that they’re all Mid-Atlantic (i.e., local) brews.
Yeah, it’s good to drink local, but I tend to spend more than half of my beer budget on stuff from outside my region, mostly Colorado and Michigan, with PA up there as well.
Founders just started distributing here in Maine, so I’m trying their Centennial IPA, as well as Cerise. I also have a 6-pack of Bigfoot…so this should be a nice weekend indeed.
It’s a berry wheat beer around ABV 5.5%. My buddy Rob and I are new to beer making and still use kits from “MoreBeer” there easy and i can’t mess them up. Will venture out soon to different stuff any suggestions?
I’ll be drinking my Amber Rye homebrew and rye old fashioneds. Lots of rye.
Well kinda late, but yesterday a friend came over and we made beer brauts with Bell’s Porter (awesome beer to use). Then we sampled a ton of beer, Flying Dog Oyster Stout, Dogfishhead Palo Santo Marron, Flying Dog Farmhouse IPA, Left Hand Warrior DIPA, Green Flash Palate Wrecker, Great Divide Collete Saison, Sam Adams Latitude 48, Dogfish Head Aprihop, Victory, Dogfish Head and Stone Saison du Buff, Troegs and Stone Chocolate Cherry Stout and for dessert we ended the night with Southern Tier Crème Brûlée Stout. 🙂
Did you just wake up? That would put me in a coma. 🙂
For real…that is a ton of beer…sounds like my kinda party!
Haha oddly enough we got up at about 10 AM. I mean we did eat a lot of food and all that probably took us a good 12 hours to consume. Pretty tired the next day though. Well worth it 🙂