I hope my readers had a good weekend. Travalon and I had a
lot of fun with Craft Beer Week. On Friday we met OK Cap for a fish fry at the
Essen Haus, then we went about fifty feet to the Up North Bar to try a coffee
chocolate mint stout brewed in Ashland. That was Travalon’s favorite beer. We
walked to Bos Meadery to try a mead that was sort of like horchata, and on the
way back we passed an amazing courtyard full of people and heat lamps and tiny
bonfires. They were playing music that I really liked, and I could have stayed
there forever, but we didn’t know what it was – part of a bar? And we really
didn’t need more to drink.
Saturday morning Travalon and I relaxed, then we went to
Bierock for a breakfast bierock and bourbon barrel-aged beer in honor of the
Kentucky Derby. We went to Next Door Brewing for beer pie and Darth Cocoa (a
porter) on their patio, since it was such a gorgeous day. They were celebrating
Star Wars Day (May the Fourth… be with you!). We tried to go to Giant Jones,
but they didn’t open until four, so we walked on the bike path to Working Draft
Brewery, where they were having an Above Ground Pool Party – that’s the name of
one of their beers. On the walk we saw a sign advertising free comic books, so
we went to the comic book store and got some free comics, and we also did what
they hoped – we bought stuff. I got a graphic novel by a guy who did the Camino
de Santiago de Compostela. We took a beer break to visit Olbrich Gardens and
the Arboretum, then we went to a new brewery called Delta Beer Lab for some
wonderful blueberry porter as we watched the Kentucky Derby. (These were all
small tasting sizes, not whole steins of beer.) We went to Giant Jones, another
new brewery that is run by women, for barley wine and braggot, which seems to
be a porter/mead hybrid. Karben4 was also celebrating May the Fourth, so we
went there for peanut butter porter and sat out on their patio. Unfortunately
their kitchen had just closed, so we went to Bellitalia for a pizza. By then we
had heard that the winner of the Kentucky Derby was disqualified for
interference for the first time in history, but I will admit that I watched the
race quite closely and have no idea what they mean. I’d be a terrible ref –
during basketball games half the time I don’t see the fouls that are called,
and then I always think I see fouls that they don’t call. Unless I’m not the
one who’s a terrible ref…
Sunday Jilly Moose joined us after Mass, and when we went to
get coffee, we ran into my OTHER choir director, so we joined him for coffee
drinking. We went to Rockhound Brewery for brunch, then we went to Funk Factory
for their Cinco de Mayo party and celebrated with margarita meertz and a beer
that tasted like hot cocoa. (My OTHER choir director said he heard on the radio
that “Cinco de Mayo will be on May 5th this year,” and he wondered
what that meant, but I have no idea. Isn’t that like saying, “The Fourth of
July will be on July 4th this year”?) We went out to Waypoint and
sat on their beautiful patio overlooking the river (and the Beltline), and OK
Cap joined us as we drank rosehip cider and orange ginger beer and a beer
called The Diet Starts Tomorrow. (I just had the cider, but I tried the
others.) After that the four of us took a hike on the long boardwalk along the
Lake Waubesa. We knew a storm was blowing up just as we got back to our cars,
so we went to the Green Lantern for dinner and waited it out until the rain was
just a gentle drizzle. Anyway, I think we did Craft Beer Week justice. I have
about eighteen stamps in my passport, and each one represents a delicious beer.
The biggest brewery in the country may put out ads that mock us beer connoisseurs,
but I don’t care. I will always wonder how anyone drinks their watery stuff
when such good beer exists in the world.
Famous Hat
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