Family Friendliness in the Beer Community

Hey fellas, it’s been awhile. Finding the time to drink, let alone blog about drinking, while you have a goofball under the age of 5 clinging to you is hard. Now that my mini-me is nearly 8 months old, I feel comfortable enough sitting in the spare room listening to the crashing, crying and squealing without jumping up to take care of everything myself. I know Rowan’s dad can handle him, and in fact he works a 4 day work week just so they can hang out together on Fridays, but when I’m around, I’m a total buzzkill. “Maybe the baby shouldn’t use a fork to hit a glass.” I’m finally getting over myself and don’t think I’m the only person who can properly care for my child, but mother does know best, and I’ll probably go “heat up my coffee” at least 3 times before I finish writing this post.

Oh, Baby!

So, here I am another million months later, finally getting around to posting on this not forgotten, but very neglected beer blog. So the good news: Rowan Blaise made his debut on May 9th, weighing in at a hefty 8lbs 5 oz, four days ahead of schedule. I thank the long walks, spicy Thai food and whole watermelon I ate 2 hours before I went into labor for speeding things along. He’s pretty perfect, super advanced in pooping, vomiting and tummy time. 

Gurrrrl, Where You Been?

I’ve always wanted to go on sabbatical, but I thought it was only something women with frizzy red hair who drink whiskey straight and smoke long slender cigarettes did. And professors. They do it too. And while I have the frizzy red hair down and I’ve been known to sip some bourbon, I don’t smoke and I just took an unintentional hiatus. Nothing as cool as a full fledged sabbatical. 

Root Beer Roundup- The Dude Abides

So I’ve just been generally awful with updating my blog lately. That is really for two reasons. Reason #1: I’m a busy person. Well, not really, but I like to think I am. And I don’t know about you, but writing a blog post takes a lot out of a gal. I take a while to think about it, then think about it some more. Come up with witty little things that I don’t write down. Write the damn thing. Spend countless minutes trying to remember aforementioned witty little things. Then I read it. Tear it apart and edit. Then post. Then re-edit. I’m getting second thoughts about finishing this post just thinking about it. Reason #2 is a much tougher reason to deal with: SOBER SEPTEMBER. My husband and I decided that September was going to be a time to dry up, get our shit together and get back into some semblance of a shape. So I’ve been avoiding beer. But that spawned a great idea at the store the other night. ROOT BEER REVIEWS!

I like Root Beer a lot. When a brewery makes their own, I often will ask for it to be included in a sampler because I think there is a lot you can do with root beer. I’m also a big fan of anything that is made with sassafras, because I think we can all agree, sassafras just sounds like some badass you want to hang out with.

Creepiest Beer EVER!

I received a beer trade recently from a great blogger pal from DC, Lyrics, Libations and Life. Now, normally, I’m on top of my shit and get things out in the mail when I say I will. I’m not going to make excuses about how terribly important I am (but I am, trust me) but am going to take a moment to publicly apologize (for, like, the millionth time in my life) and say I’m an asshole. But my end of the bargain is currently on it’s way and filled with Oregon (and one Washington) goodness. I am also going to stop using parentheses…right…now.

My husband is away on National Guard business, or as I like to call it, much to his chagrin, Army Sleep Away Camp. It’s very rude and disrespectful of me, but I’m very proud of him and I find it funny. So, once again, asshole. Well, again, giving way to my asshole nature, I promised not to open any of the beer trade beers until he was back, but he ate the last ice cream cone, so I said “Screw you, I’m drinking this beer!”

VICTORIOUS

I ran by one of my fave bottle shops in town, 16 Tons to pick up some beers for some beer trades and because it’s been a rough couple weeks (not that I need an excuse to drink beer) and wanted something a little special for myself. I wanted something light and refreshing because its been ball sweat hot lately and something I’ve never had before. Enter Victory Brewing and Summer Love.

This what just what the doctor ordered. Lately summer has sprung in Eugene as it usually does every year right around July 4th. And, ok, so it’s only been in the high 80s but that’s hot for us PNWers and it’s humid here. Because this kind of weather is really only around 2 months of the year air conditioning is rare and my house is no exception to the rule. When you know you’re coming home to a 80 indoor temperature a nice crisp beer screams ones name.

Drink One for Dad

For those of you who have read my For the Love of Beer post (which is all of you, I’m sure) you know that my dad is a huge inspiration to me both beerically and in general life living. My dad believed in living simply and deliberately. My dad believed in doing things for yourself and doing it well. What is the point of doing something if you’re going to do a shitty job?
These are principles I try hard to cultivate in myself. In a time when it is increasingly easier to just pay someone to do something for you or to just buy commodities, I try to remember my dad and do it myself. And when I can’t do it myself, I try to support the local people who love what they’re doing and are good at it. This is why my dad loved craft beer and how he passed that love down to me. When you make something yourself, you can taste that love. In the craft beer world, I’ve always felt like the approach is to make the best product possible to share with friends. The fact that it is a booming business is just a perk. These folks would still be making excellent beers and providing excellent memories if the profit wasn’t there.
My dad died two years ago and I work hard to make the days that have passed since a living testament to the way he lived and the way he raised me. I grow a modest vegetable garden, not because I have to, but because I’m so damn proud of those veggies and herbs I put into the food I feed my family. I’ll loudly announce, “And this heirloom tomato was grown from a seed by in our backyard, and mixed with herbs from the garden to make the lovely sauce you’re eating now.” I’m very proud of all my veggie children and the bright future they have feeding and nourishing my family and friends. This is also why I brew beer. I love beer so much, that I felt like I should understand how it’s made, incorporate local ingredients, and support local businesses. Not every batch has been amazing, but I’m learning a lot about something I am passionate about, and I’m able to share it with people. They can taste what I care a great deal about, and they in return care a little more too. I recently shared a ginger wheat pale ale with my Grandpa, mom, sister and husband. It felt so great to sit with extended family drinking beer my husband and I made together. These are the most important moments in our lives.
What I’m really getting at on this beautiful, sunny Father’s Day is to pay a little tribute to those that shaped who you are today. Those you admire. Try to live deliberately and make something for yourself.

And We’ll Never Be Thirsty Again

Growlers are great. Living in a beercentric part of the world, it’s also (usually) a bargain to buy your beer in bulk. Most growlers are glass and although fairly burly, glass is prone to breaking when dropped. Growlers also have a tendency to go flat after about 24ish hours. This lead me on a journey to find an advanced growler for my husband’s birthday. My journey took me to the  Hydro Flask. The growler sized flask price may seem a bit steep, but keep the following in mind: your beer stays cold! For a long time! Some testimonials on Amazon claimed upwards of 2 days of ice staying solid, I’m not going to let a growler of beer sit around that long though, so I cant speak to that, but a few hours in the sun? You betcha. The beer stays nice and carbonated too. You’re not going to have flat beer after pouring a pint and closing the Hydro Flask back up. Finally, this bad boy is stainless steel and nearly indestructible. It’s going to last (hopefully) the rest of your life.

We received the growler a solid month before Brock’s birthday, but I couldn’t wait. We immediately took it down to a local brewery and filled ‘er up (then drank it up). Later that weekend, the hubz and I took a brief little 20 mile bike around town and filled up the growler at a local bistro. Just watch out some boogers aren’t very good at filling growlers. Because this guy isn’t transparent, make sure to hang out and let it settle. It could be the difference between an honest growler and a grumpy customer. We biked down to the river and enjoyed some fresh delicious pints on a nice sunny day.

So far, the Hydro Flask has proved to be a great buy. I’m really happy I didn’t cheap out and go with a similar, but cheaper and lower quality product. This fella is worth it.

I think he looks like a Ralph

Beercation

It’s that time of year again, folks. With anniversaries come beercations. This year, Brock and I head northeast to Hood River, OR. It’s a seriously beautiful town nestled between Mt Hood to the south and the Columbia River and Mt Adams to the North. It’s even more quaint than Bend and Bend is pretty effing quaint. Like Bend, Hood River is full of beautiful outdoorsy people who like to wind surf, kite surf and kayak on the Columbia and they also like to get down and drink some beer. I’m not much of a sportsman, but I do love beautiful people drinking beer. This weekend was really jam-packed and I could go on and on, so I’ll give some of the highlights.

More from Eugene Beer Week

Beer week and work do not go together. Events start while work is still in, events include a lot of beer, and events run into the evening. Brock and I had to pick what events we wanted to attend and still be good little worker bees during the day.

Tuesday:

Brock was starting to get a pretty nasty cold, so we sat Tuesday out.

The first bullet point was followed to the letter.