Hops, Sunburns, and People Watching

I’ll be honest with you – this week was not very exciting. I worked Monday night, made spaghetti and watched Double Jeopardy on Tuesday night, relaxed on Wednesday night, ate sushi and celebrated a friend’s birthday on Thursday night, and ended up eating half a frozen pizza, drinking wine, and watching Bachelorette without my pants on for my Friday night festivities. These were all enjoyable activities (especially the ones where I don’t have to wear pants) but the REAL fun started on Saturday afternoon. What was on Saturday you ask? Well – I shall tell the tale.

Saturday was the Iowa Craft Brew Festival. And I was a VIP entrant for the event. Super exciting. I couldn’t wait to drink as much brewery beer as I wanted and work on my tan while I was there. As a VIP person for the event, you got an awesome testing glass (not just a big shot glass like the REGULAR people) and an early entrance from the rest of the crowd. Because why wouldn’t you want to start drinking an hour earlier than everyone else? There were 45 different breweries featured with over 200 different beers available to try. Sadly – I did not make it through all 200+ beers. I think I would have needed to have someone carry me home after that business. But I did do quite well with trying at least one from each brewery. There were a couple that I cut short – because I’ve had a Sam Adams or two in my life, as well as Leinenkugel’s. There were 16 breweries I didn’t quite try – I just counted to see what I missed – and looking through those, I’ve had about 6 of them so really… I only missed 10 breweries. Pretty good for being out from 1-5 pm on a sweltering 95 degree day in June. Speaking of that – I got a nasty sunburn too. Was it worth it? Obviously. I should probably remember to wear sunscreen next time I’m out for more than 30 minutes on my lunch break.

My grading scale went like this:

·         Duh = of course it was delicious

·         Eh = I’d drink it… but it’s not my favorite

·         A Checkmark = yep I’ll do it

·         Completely Scratched Out = not a chance I will ever drink this again OR I dumped it over the bridge it was so bad

·         Write In Brews = there were a few of these not in the book that were write-in BIG WINNERS

·         A Question Mark = we weren’t sure what to think about it. Didn’t quite elicit a check mark, but also didn’t really deserve an “eh” either

(The grading was pretty cut and dry at the beginning, but as the day went on we begin to add in grading option. That’s what happens when you start tasting delicious brewery beer at 1 pm!) So. Some of the obvious “Duh” grades went to Angry Orchard (love me a sweet, cider beer), Confluence Brewing Company, Exile Brewing Company, Samuel Adams, and Leinenkugel’s. Confluence and Exile are the newer breweries in Des Moines and come HIGHLY recommended by me. Definitely worth a trip downtown to hit up these places.

Now for some of the “eh” grades. Overall, there weren’t BAD breweries. There were definitely bad beers (in my opinion – maybe not for everyone) but no real breweries that had been completely crossed out. Goose Island Brewing Company in Chicago got some checkmarks for their 312 (duh) and an “eh” for their 25^th Anniversary as well as their Summer beer. I’d drink them… but not forever. Madhouse Brewing Company in Newton got an “eh” grade for their Honey Pilsner and a HELL NO for their Coffee Stout. Now I’ve had some DELICIOUS coffee beers before, but this one was definitely not one of them. Which is a bummer because I’m all about the local brews. Millstream Brewing Company in Amana, Iowa is going to probably be a road trip sometime this year. They got a Check for the Double IPA (better than a single IPA apparently) as well as a write in for their Hefeweizen. DE-LISH. Pretty sure that’s worth a 2 hour drive for some yummy beers. Possibly to bring home in a growler… possibly. Let’s see… some others that are worth talking about. Looking through my notes, I can tell that I had started getting lazy with my judging. Not with judging people there – I got plenty of that done. Definitely a great place to people watch.  Third Base Brewing Company in Cedar Rapids got two checkmarks for their Beggar Jon’s and Black Cobra. Mostly I just liked the names they had for their brews – with Czech Your Head, Flying Aces, Jedi Braid, and Red Rocket. That’s how I was deciding which beer to try at most places. If it had a creative name, I’d try it. I don’t know if that’s exactly how you’re supposed to choose your brew… but that’s how I roll.

Toppling Goliath Brewing Company in Decorah got DQ’d in the process – they ran out of beer by the time we made it to their booth. Sorry guys – I was ready to try pseudoSue or Tsunami Pale while I was there. Better luck next year. Number 7 Brewing Company in Ankeny intrigued me with their lack of advertising, a “TBD” note in the book when listing the brews they brought, and their back story. Number 7 is basically the 7^th thing on the owners’ bucket list – open a brewpub. They’d been home brewing and BBQing for years, so they decided to cross “Number 7” off their bucket list, and here it is. Now I need to try their food and see what it’s really all about. Such a great thing for another locally owned business. We tried their Number 7 American Amber (got a checkmark) and the Drunken Sailor IPA (that got a ? ranking). They also offer CoCo Bessie Milk Stout (hopefully a boozy chocolate milk) and the KB Kolsch. Worth a trip up north to try it for sure.

Some honorable mentions for ICBF 2013 include Albia Brewing Company (a write-in “roadtrip?” note), the Arrogant Bastard from Boulevard Brewing, Moose Drool and Brushtail (a write-in) from Big Sky Brewing Company, Boone Valley Brewing Company with their Dunkelweizen (I’ve never met a Dunkel I haven’t liked), Roxie Red Ale and Stout, Chew-Baca from Confluence (comes out in a few months and I cannot WAIT), and Twisted Vine Brewery’s Swashbuckler Summer Ale.

So there we have it, folks. My two cents worth for Iowa Craft Brew Festival 2013. I hope some of you were out enjoying the sights and tastes and sunburns like I did. Worth it. If you have any questions or suggestions on brews I should try or steer clear from, let me know. I’m always up for a challenge, even if that includes crappy beer nights.

The quote I’ll go to close this out is something I’d love to tell people, without it sounding like I’m being rude. But with so many people complaining, whining, bitching and moaning I see on social media, I think this seems fairly appropriate. (And I apologize ahead of time… for the profanity.)

“Life is so damn short. For fuck sake, just do what makes you happy.”

The end. Off my soap box. Now go enjoy a beer, don’t bitch about your “terrible” life, and just freakin enjoy it. Drink beer,  make friends.

Love Love,

Sara

Nerd Status

I know you’ve been wondering “is she dead? We haven’t seen a post from her since MAY. I bet she died during D2D4.” Well – you are partially correct. I did, indeed DIE during D2D4… but I came back to life after a nap, some food, a shower, and some beers. My body sure took some convincing, but I made it out alive. But I need to go back in time… I’m so far behind I don’t even know what I did between now and my last posting. Maybe I should make it a rule that I post at least once a week – no matter what I’ve done. That way I don’t get nearly a MONTH out without any updates on my oh-so super exciting life. So. Here we go. A brief synopsis of some things, and too many details of others. You’re welcome.

May is a big birthday month for my family, so we had a get together at Smokey D’s with a bunch of us. I snuck my cupcakes into the restaurant – Cookie Dough Filled Cupcakes – and had zero to take home after dinner. They must have been a hit! But seriously – they were effing good. Not pretty by any means… but they were GOOD. The dinner I had made the night before – not as good as I’d planned. It was a Chicken and Asparagus pasta with a creamy lemon sauce. Meh. I’ll use less stuff next time, or just a bigger pan. I mean I ate it – so I didn’t HATE it, but it wasn’t my best. That weekend was Mother’s Day. I did a lot of working and made an impromptu brunch. Breakfast pizza (with too many eggs), hash browns, and a fruit salad. YUM. Breakfast is so fun to make. And you can have breakfast any time of day.

The next week was D2D4 week. I worked, had a nail appointment (I could have done it myself), and a night to prep before the run. Not a very exciting week – but it was okay since I’d be running my ass off Saturday morning. Saturday morning about 4:15 am my alarm went off. Time to get up and moving! We left my place around 5 to walk down to the bus pick up. Grabbed a coffee on the way at the sketch QT and made it out to Saylorville with nearly an hour to go before race time. Time to have a little snack, drink some water, lace up the runners, and use the potties. Basically you just hurry up and wait. Once the race started, I felt pretty good. The first couple miles went by quickly, and then all of a sudden, we were only on mile 4. We were 1/3 the way done and I was ready to be done already. We made it up the first big hill without any issues, and decided a little walk was in order. After that, we did much more walk/running. About mile 9 or 10, my foot started to hurt and I could feel a massive blister coming in. I wasn’t sure if I should run faster or if I should go slower to ease the pain of what I knew would be a TERRIBLE blister. But I kept going – wanting to cry, throw up, and die the whole way, and not necessarily in that order. Once we heard the Isiserettes I knew it was almost over. We wove in with the 5k runners and all crossed the line. All I wanted was a bathroom, water, and to get my freakin shoes off my feet. Again – not necessarily in that order. I spent the majority of the day on my couch – knowing I should refuel and rehydrate, but instead – I took a nap. So naturally, I woke up feeling spectacular…ly awful. Go figure. Some year I will learn that you don’t immediately take a nap after running that far. Your body will hate you. FOR-E-VER.

I had planned out my next week pretty lightly, that way I wouldn’t hate to move around after being sore from the weekend. I got a massage on Monday night – hurt so good. Again – I wanted to cry, throw up and die a little bit. (Do you see a pattern here?) That Friday night is what I was looking forward to though. It was Winefest 2013: Sips and the City. And by that point I was so ready to be “classy” and drink wine all night like a grown up. However, I didn’t remember until later that if you start drinking at 5 pm, you are home and asleep by 10:30 pm. Woops. But it was still fun – lots of good wines, lots of snacks, and some time downtown people watching (my favorite activity). Family pictures were that Sunday and I had come down with the flu Saturday night. Not cool. I ended up staying home last Monday so I could feel better as well as catch up on 30 Rock. The rest of that week – yuck. Well not all of it… but I was busy every night. Work on Tuesday, book club on Wednesday (get ready for the nerd stuff coming up), work on Thursday, and nerd night on Friday. What do I mean by nerd night? Well, if you must know – and you’re going to know because I will tell you – there was a lecture by one of my new favorite authors in Cedar Rapids. Gillian Flynn (pronounced Gill – like fish – ian, not Jillian) was doing a discussion and answering questions about her past, her writing, her future, etc. It was AWESOME. Plus we got her autograph at the end – so basically she and I are BFFs and someday she’s going to be my mentor when I write a book. It was interesting to listen to her talk about how she’s always had a love of “dark” things, and that’s what inspired her writing. She and I are far more alike in our weird-ness than I thought. And weird-ness makes me happy.

Nerd thing number 2 for the week. As I said, we had book club on Wednesday night and needed to figure out what to read next. A fellow blogger and book club member passed along  something to me via Facebook to have an author “attend” your book club. Naturally – I got excited. I looked into it and passed it along to the host. It’s going to be a done deal. We got in touch the author and learned what this was all about. Basically – we would Skype with her and have our own book club discussion with her book – The Year of the Gadfly. Totally one of my nerd fantasies. So – that’s happening. Our July book club meeting will actually be INCLUDING Jennifer Miller, the author of our chosen book. HOW COOL IS THAT?! All right – enough nerd for now. More to come I’m sure.

Things to look forward to in the next month or so: Iowa Craft Brew Festival this weekend, a brunette date down Ingersoll, a bridal shower, Zoo Brew, the 4^th of July, and hopefully a sunburn or two. Hooray for summer FINALLY being here, and coming in FULL FORCE.

 As for my quote, I’m keeping it simple. I don’t think it deserves a lot of explaining, I think it’s just true. Ponder it for a minute – and I hope it resonates with you the way it did with me.

“Whatever’s good for your soul… do that.”

Just think about it. Let it sink in. Listen to what your heart and soul are saying. They’re right most of the time. Just think about it.

Heart and soul,

S