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. 

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.

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

You like me, you really like me

I began writing this blog (after a couple false starts) with lots of encouragement from my husband, a need to do something more creative with my time, and because as I age and drink more beer, it is becoming pretty damn personal. My inaugural post in December of 2011 was about my first attempt at home brewing with my trusty partner in crime and life, Brock. Granted that beer came out a little weird, but it was our weird little baby and we loved it anyway. We’ve continued to brew (much more successfully) and our love of beer and brewing continues to grow. 

Texas Doesn’t Mess Around

As promised, I’m finally getting to some of the good stuff. Over the last week, I’ve had a lot of reason to drink beer, celebrate, all that good stuff. Having a beer trade shipment, St. Patty’s and your birthday all roll into town the same week(ish) are a recipe for a lot of beer drinkin’ and not a lot of writing. So I’m going to jam together some notes on a lot of beer in a couple posts. Hold on to your hats.

Firstly, I received my lovely care package from the Lone Star State sometime last week. Monday, possibly Tuesday? Again, it’s been a long week. That night my husband and I decided to crack open the two bottles of Rahr & Sons Iron Thistle.

A delicious wee heavy from Rahr & Sons poured into my new Franconia glass that I got as a bonus from a beer trade!

Ink Heart- A Cascadian Dark Ale, or is that a Black IPA?

Laurelwood, a great microbrewery out of Portland, OR recently released a new Cascadian Dark Ale. If that throws you off, CDAs are also referred to as Black IPAs or IBA (India Black Ale). Here in the Pacific Northwest, CDA is becoming the most relevant, and argueably the better name for this type of beer. Here, in an article from craftbeer.com, Eugene’s own Matt Van Wyk, of Oakshire fame,  discusses the difference (or lack there of) in these beer types. I have to agree with Matt, I think CDA is a better definition for the beer type. It really doesn’t taste like an IPA, unless all you taste in an IPA is some hop bitterness. A CDA, in my mind, is some hoppy(har, har) balance between porter and IPA and is becoming an increasingly relevant style here in the Pacific NW (Cascadia), thus deserves it’s own name, rather than just being shoved in the corner as an off shoot of another beer style.

On to the good stuff- Ink Heart, the newest release from Laurelwood is a CDA that boasts a unique hop balance. A liberal use of aroma hops give off wafts of citrus and there are some sweet fruity notes as well. It poured a nice, robust dark brown with a little off white head. It drank smooth and the citrus hop notes were amplified by a nice level of carbonation. I thought this was a nice drinkable beer. It smelled great and tasted good too.

I really like Laurelwood's vibrant labels. Oh, and the beer is good too!

Uinta Hopnotch- A Brew Review

I recently had the pleasure of drinking a couple frosty glasses of Uinta (pronounced you-IN-tah) Hopnotch IPA. Now, this is my kind of beer. I was originally introduced to Uinta Brewery on a trip to 16 Tons (sixteentons.biz) for a growler fill. We decided to go with Uinta Brewery’s Dubhe (pronounced “doobie”, such fun/difficult to pronounce names!) which is an Imperial Black IPA named after Utah’s Centennial Star. It was a pretty tasty, complex IPA so when I saw the six pack of Hopnotch at Fred Meyer, I had to go for it.

Uinta Brewery got their start in salt Lake City in 1993. You can read all about it on their website. They have a brew pub and pretty impressive line of brews now. If I ever find myself in SLC, you can bet I’ll make a stop.

After a long day a puppy needs a strong beer

Now on to the good stuff: Hopnotch IPA has a really pleasant, fresh IPA hoppy aroma. It’s pretty alcoholic at 7.3% ABV, but is really smooth and balanced so that alcohol flavor doesn’t smack you in the face, but rather sneaks up like a warm, snuggly bear hug. The flavor is reminiscent of one of my all time favor beers, Ninkasi Maiden the Shade. It’s just a really nice, bold IPA with a crisp, slightly piney finish. This is a beer (and brewery) that I look forward to sampling again.