Adventures in Beerland

As we're nearing the solstice, I thought I'd pop in for my typical spasmodic update. Nothing earth shattering, but we can chat a bit, right? This will probably be my last post until July, where I'm going to be off the grid for about half the month. And when I say off the grid, I mean frantically tweeting and checking email on my phone until the battery dies, approx. 2 hours into every day. Hey, carrying around an iPhone charger only gets you so far....

In the middle of last month, my pal Jeff (of Fifty Two Brews) invited me out to one of the coolest events I'd heard of in a while, Beer from Where? It was a pretty swank event, held at the National Geographic Museum in DC. Probably the second or third time in my entire life that I've used the Farragut North metro station. New things all around!

My handwriting actually gets worse as I drink more. Good to know.

Below, you can see a video from the event, Jeff linked me this morning and I wanted to share with everyone. I gotta say, the event was quite fun. I'd never tried, much less heard of, any of the beer being offered. Goes to show how woefully inexperienced I am when it comes to worldly matters, eh? Anyway, the only criticism I'd maybe have is that there wasn't really any discussion time for talking about the beer we were drinking. Garrett sort of monologued through the whole thing, which was very interesting, but didn't exactly lend a collaborative feeling. When I'm tasting beer (ESPECIALLY new beer!), I really like to chat with others, to see what they get out of it, to run my mouth continuously, you know. Overall though, I enjoyed myself and I was very honored to have been asked. In retrospect, maybe it's good that Garrett was lecturing, gave me a chance to.. you know. Behave. Ahem.



Moving on! At the end of May, Best Friend and I went down to Wilmington for the weekend. We took the train, because he doesn't have a car and I don't always have the willpower not to do dumb things with my car. It was a Very. Fun. Trip. So fun, in fact, that we're going back at the beginning of next month. Basically, any weekend in which I get to hang out on a golf course and drink beer 20 hours a day and not have to worry about ever checking my email is practically perfect. Coastal NC was a dreamland, full of grocery stores carrying $8 six packs of SweetWater. Maybe I'll move there, someday...

Wayfarers, boat shoes, beer. Check, check, check.

The 90s called. They want me back.

 Of course, all good things must come to an end eventually. After a solid 3 days full of beer, sun, mosquito bites, and being social with new people, I was anxious to come home. I mean, there are only so many times where I can drunkenly worry out loud about having taken my birth control in front of my boyfriend's cousin, right?

Can we all start saying 'qual' again? Please?

So... let's see what's coming up, shall we. I'm basically going to be out of town for half of July (back to Wilmington, a short foray to Lancaster, Pennsyltucky, and then obviously BBC). I'll be arriving in Portland for BBC on July 24th, and my liver will probably never be the same again.

Hrm.. erm.. other stuff. I turn 25 on July 1st. I told my mom that for a present, I'd take a husband, a puppy, or a brewery. She got back to me with, "...are you really sure you could take care of a puppy right now?". Thanks for your vote of confidence, mom. Times like this show that we're obviously related.

At the end of August, I'm going to be having some kind of a bash at my apartment in DC. The theme will likely be "please come over and drink all the beer in my fridge and help me eat all the food in the freezer and also help yourself to a bunch of my clothes". Invites pending. It will be a good chance for me to show off how desperate to get rid of things generous I am!

And.. well.. that's it for now, I think. I'm going to leave you with a killer book recommendation and some tunes, per usual. The keyboards and synth combo really do this song a good one (especially starting around 1:15). I recommend, although it's a bit lighter than I usually go.


xoxo,
L

This isn't gonna be a huge post, but some cool stuff has happened recently, and I wanna get the word out.

I'm sensing this has been a trend for most of the U.S., but spring in DC so far hasn't exactly been very spring-like. Chilly, rainy, kinda gross. Admittedly, vastly superior to 95 degrees with 100% humidity, but if there's one thing I'm good at, it's complaining. So I haven't really been in the mood for a lot of springy seasonals. This sucks, and I look forward to the day when I can bask outside with some Aprihop and a dozen oysters on the half shell.

Opting for something a bit more substantial over spring beers...

Cracked open a 2011 Brooklyn Black Ops on Tuesday night, and it was just the thing for this shitty weather. I'd recommend ya'll get your big stouts in while you still have the chance, without getting the stinkeye at a bar. Not that I'd do that. But some people are just so opinionated! (and judgmental. Geez.)

So last night, I kicked up my heels (combat boots) and went out. Twice. In one night. This almost never happens, as I am both perpetually broke and antisocial, but as my mom would say, "honey, this is why god invented credit cards."

The very sweet Justina of Fado invited me to the inaugural (inaugural! I really am a D-list celeb now!) happy hour (crafty hour?!) at Fado in Chinatown. I normally don't go out in Chinatown much, because I have limited patience for tourists, which Chinatown seems to be full of (GTFO the left side of the escalators, you fucks), but it was a great time. Really good deals on Flying Dog. I had a couple of the UnderDog lagers and they were really, really yummy. Much better on tap. It's worth noting that the special deal was also extended to Flying Dog's Raging Bitch, but Le Boyfran buys that beer ALL. THE. FUCKING. TIME. and while it's great, I was gonna go for the road a little less consumed. I also didn't want to get hammered before 7pm, but you know, priorities. It was only Wednesday, after all. Cool your jets, kids.

Anyway, the happy hour at Fado was cool. The space is cool, too. It looks a little bit like a hobbit house from Lord of The Rings, only with much taller ceilings. (This is a good thing.) Go to Fado! Drink some cheap delicious beer! Meet some guys from Michigan and exaggerate your Southern accent! (don't actually do that last one. I did, but I'm not recommending it.)

After Fado, I hopped over to Bier Baron, in Dupont. The BB used to be the Brickskeller, which was probably kind of a landmark, but not a place I ever had great luck with. It was like playing beer roulette. You had to pick 5 or 6 things, and they'd usually be out of all of them. I don't think that was an uncommon complaint. ANYWAY, the Bier Baron was much, much better. Also a great atmosphere. I stayed away from the upstairs because of trivia (shudder) but crammed into a corner booth in the basement and really enjoyed myself. Elspeth met me around 7, and we knocked back a few pints.

Cheers, to the window, or whatever.

You may remember Elspeth as my extremely cool (and tolerant!) roommate from last year's BBC. If possible, she is even cooler now because she brought me a set of Spiegelau glasses. I am a lucky, lucky person. It wasn't even my birthday! Anyway, it was really good to see her, I think it was the first time in a couple of months we had gotten to hang out.

Umm... so I guess that's it. Fado and the Bier Baron are cool. The weather is not cool. Trying to find a roommate and/or deciding whether I'm going to move in July/August is also not cool. If anyone wants to live with a Super Cool Person Who Is Never Home And Has A Fridge Full Of Beer (me), gimme a shout.

As usual, here's your required listening of the day: (as a bonus, it's not from the 80s!)



cheers,
L

'Allo, 'allo

I was sitting at work, eating an incredibly unappealing salad (what the fuck was wrong with whoever made this so-called "cilantro lime vinaigrette" and why do they apparently hate cilantro??) and remembered that I have a blog. Oh, yeah. I guess I do, don't I?

Without quite realizing, another large chunk of time has gone by again, wherein all sorts of things happened. Not really anything major. Nothing really major ever happens, because even though I tend to be a very dramatic person, at the core I'm actually pretty unflappable. This is both good and bad. As Megan Draper's mother in Mad Men (I'm obsessed, remember?) would say, "this is what happens when you have the artistic temperament, but you are not an artist".

Exhibit A

So CBC week was mighty fun. I got real drunk in RFD, accidentally met a cool dude with Troegs brewing, up in Pennsylvania, knocked back a ton of Stone brews, and then made some pretty inflammatory

Let's go with definition 1, cause I was actually belligerent at this point

comments about how much I hate Doctor Who and how it's the worst show ever. Thankfully I didn't make these comments to the dude from Troegs. He had already left by that point, which was probably a safe decision on his part. Always better to get of my way when I'm on a rampage about something. Especially horrible British TV. It's not cute, it's not quirky, it's just dumb. I don't get it.

On Wednesday of CBC week, I coerced Kyle into going to ChurchKey with me. That was fun. I drank a lot of beer, scared the hell out of a waitress, and met some cool dudes from Half Acre. I was also reunited with my long lost love, Akari Shogun and finally got to try Foothills Brewing Sexual Chocolate.


You tweet one thing (one thing!) about a fuck hut, and soon enough, a whole group wants to take a photo with you! Shit. I felt like Miss America. Or a celebrity. Or a really drunk D-list celebrity without underwear who just flashed the paparazzi getting out of a cab. Kyle took my newfound fame well, encouraging me that "you should just go home, I don't think you ought to come with me to Scion for a nightcap." Bless this man, he wants me to stay out of the public eye! Anyway it was probably a good idea that I called it quits when I did, 'cause I almost fell asleep on the bus home. Public transportation (along with beer and Peruvian green salsa and Jeffrey Campbell shoes) is a great passion of mine.

Next month, my floppy-haired sports-obsessed best friend is taking me to Wilmington, NC for Memorial Day weekend. His cousin is a beer distributor, who always has a few good kegs "just laying around".

"Just laying around"

After that, it's July. Probably gonna blow my entire budget for the whole year. Weddings, BBC, New Order show, you name it. I'm going to Portland on July 24th and coming home from Boston on the 28th, probably early in the morning, cause the New Order show is that night (god, I hope I remember it). So if anyone else is going to Portland a day early, hit me up. We can explore together and work on upping the last of our alcohol tolerances for the next day's festivities.

Leaving you with my favorite New Order song, in fervent hope that they play it in July.

xoxo,
L

Does this really need a caption? Come on.

I was somewhat horizontal after these.

I made this! It was good!

Not everybody ate this, cause it was kinda hot after all (duh), but everyone who did said thumbs up. I changed the recipe a teeny tiny bit, basically by eliminating the sweet corn (no fresh corn to be found around this time of year) and adding an extra jalapeno. Other than that, I stuck to the book, and it was fantastic.

Soo.. what's in store for me soon...

A dear (best friend in the universe/soulmate-if-I-believed-in-that-sort-of-thing) friend is turning 40 (40!!!!) on Monday, and I believe we're going to do it up in style. He's my favorite running buddy, as well as the person who introduced me to the idea of eating enchiladas and watching Anthony Bourdain marathons while hungover, so he deserves some fun. I already got him some presents, but I might top it off with a growler of local goodness from DC Brau as a way of saying "you're old, but not as old as DC."

Anyway, aside from that, things have been chill. I hope the same for ya'll.

xoxo,

someone who actually hates hugging people but will do it anyway to conform to social mores

When it comes to wine, you may not be able to tell a superb year from a disaster but
you probably are aware that wine can be aged and that certain years are better, more
desirable, than others. However, did you know that the same holds true for beer? Yes,
beer can be matured and its taste (hopefully) improved upon.

For a long time, beer has been viewed as less than wine. Less classy. Less
“complicated”. Hopefully though, as aged beers with their complex, rich tastes gain
popularity this misconception will die off. Already, the industry of vintage beers has
given birth to true connoisseurs every bit as dedicated as those in the wine industry,
individuals who dedicate their time to the rewarding but painstaking process of aging
beer, and beer that costs as much if not more than a bottle of good wine.

Aged beer is simply that - beer that has been left to its own devices to mature. However, like the road to a lot of good things, the journey isn’t entirely black and white and it isn’t always easy. Ask someone who has experienced aged beer though and he or she will tell you that the work and the wait are both well worth it.

The taste of aged beer is somewhat difficult to describe; it is something that each
person must experience for themselves. Obviously, different beers will impart different
tastes, but the closest one can get to giving a general description of the taste is to say it is strong, yeasty, and rich.

Don’t be fooled, aged beer isn’t a brand new thing; a quick Internet search will show you articles dating back a few years and certainly people were doing it before that. However, the product has only recently become relatively mainstream. Unfortunately, this means that you may have some difficulty finding aged beer at restaurants or stores. This is especially true if you live in a less metropolitan area. The Internet is a good bet though for tracking some down. When you finally do locate aged beer, you may find yourself paying a pretty penny. These factors, availability and cost, may mean having to dig deep for some patience and age your own beer.

When it comes to aging beer, the first step is to make sure you have the appropriate
space. For proper aging, you’ll want a cool, dark place. Most experts recommend
somewhere with temperatures between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure the
location has temperatures that remain as stable and constant as possible. A basement
is typically a prime choice.

The next step is to secure the beer. Be careful when picking your beer as not all brews
are good candidates for aging. The average beer only has a shelf life of maybe six
weeks to three months before it’s quality begins to degrade. Look for beers that:

• Are high in alcohol content (generally 8% or higher)
• Have a strong malty taste
• Are fairly sweet (high in residual sugar)
• Are bottle conditioned meaning they have active yeast


Strong contenders include:

• Barleywines
• Imperial stouts
• Lambics


Again, depending on where you live, you may have to be a little resourceful to obtain the correct beer. You can order from or visit the brewery, hit the Internet, or try a specialty store. When you purchase the beer, be sure to get more than one bottle. You’ll want one to taste at the start of the aging process and others to taste at the intervals throughout.

Place all but one bottle of the beer in the cool dark place. There’s a lot of debate about
the proper way to store beer (upright or lying down) to produce the best results. The
best thing to do is to complete your own research on the issue and use your best
judgement.

Take the bottle of beer you left out and enjoy! This is your chance to see what the beer tastes like before any aging. Try taking notes so that you can relive the experience later and compare the taste to the taste of the finished product.

There is no hard rule on how long the aging process takes. Some beers will certainly
require more time than others to reach that sweet spot. Different resources recommend
different lengths of time for aging, and most of the ranges are fairly long (ex. one to
three years, three to five years). Aging will take some experimenting on your part. The
best thing to do is to space the beer you purchased out and taste it periodically. Try
every six months or every year. Take notes at every tasting. Be patient and keep trying.

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the process is the waiting. Knowing that great beer
is just waiting in your basement yelling “drink me” can be torture. Restrain yourself!
Remember, all good things come to those who wait.


Article contributed by Elena Roundtree on behalf of Washington MAST Class 12 Permit.

Elena is an avid beer drinker who is tired of beer being seen as less sophisticated than
wine. For other great articles by Elena, check out the Washington MAST G+ page.

Howdy.

I, for one, can't believe it's almost the end of January. Where the hell does all the time go? (I love this question, it almost always provokes some nicely awkward responses.)

In beer news, I'm really excited for spring seasonals. Mostly because I'm not wild about winter warmers or Christmas ales. I reeeeeeeallly liked the Anchor Our Special Ale 2010, but I wasn't particularly wild about 2011 or 2012. I know, I know, the recipe is verrrrry similar every year, but the 2010 had these really great cedar notes. It sorta tasted like licking the inside of someone's log cabin, and I mean that in the absolutely best way possible. Not that I've ever done that. Ahem.

Upcoming beer-vents! There's going to be a release of the 2013 Sierra Nevada Beer Camp beers at my favorite DC bar, ChurchKey on Friday, Feb 8th. Even though I try to avoid bars on Friday because I'm actually a gigantic awkward loser, I'm going to go and fight my way into the crowd. Greg, from OC Beer Blog attended BeerCamp this past year, and worked on one of the brews, so in a little way it'll be like getting to hang out with a pal again! Except maybe better, cause I won't have to talk. (that's a lie, Greg is the shit and I'd be happy to be in the same room as him again some time....)

That's going to be a very alcohol-fueled weekend, because I have (tentatively!!) planned a Stone Vertical Epic tasting of 2007-2012. I've got a few of each, and I'm hoping for great things. I know I'm not typically the biggest fan of Belgians.. but... whatever. So it goes.

Tonight I'm going to hang out with my cool ex boyfriend (funfact: if you use the tag #dinnerwithmyex on twitter, you'll get like, six divorce-related twitter accounts following you!) and drink some 3 Floyds cause I'm actually kind of a lucky person with great friends.

I didn't make any New Years resolutions, because I'm both cynical and lazy, but I'm a little unhappy with the quality of things I've been drinking lately. Since I moved, I got even lazier about driving and have thusly stopped going to some favorite haunts for 6 packs. Not that there's anything wrong with Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA (really, there's not, I love that beer), I don't want it every fucking night. Sigh. I guess now would be a great time to fight a hoard of people for some Bell's Hopslam at the bargain price of $30/6 pack...

I'm gonna leave you with this great song, cause really, there's never enough Roxy Music in this world. Brian Eno puts me in my happy place.

xoxo,
L


P.S. Fuck, I can't believe I forgot this. I've tried to avoid it, but unfortunately it's everywhere. Like the smell of a slaughtered team of alpacas, Valentines Day just refuses to lay down quietly. Repeat after me: red satin is tacky and candy hearts taste like Pepto Bismol. Anyway! I guess people are making a big deal out of beer/chocolate/edible panties pairings, and I'm not going to jump on that bandwagon. BUT! If you're into that sort of thing (gag), my former roommie from BBC last year, Elspeth, recently put out a great article on beer and chocolate pairing. Please check it out here.

Evening, my dears,

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday/Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/Amateur Night/whatever. My anxiety from all this holiday shit was really starting to boil over, so to be honest, I'm quite glad it's behind us now. Soon, things will go back to normal! (yeah, right.)

I want to write about my "holiday highlights" but I think that requires some kind of pink glittery font, and I'm not sure if my sense of irony would allow that, so let me be brief. In holiday travels, I stumbled upon a very cool homebrew supply and craft beer store in Keene, NH (pop. 23, 354). I cheated a bit, cause time was short, and went straight to BeerAdvocate, which directed me to BrewTopia. The dude running the store was super helpful, especially as I had limited time, and probably barked something rude like "I'm from the south, give me all the good regional beer you've got!" upon entering his humble shop. He gave me some real winners, including the Mayflower Porter. I actually bought 4 bottles of this intending to give them out as presents, but I'm really tempted to just keep the last two for myself. Nicely dark, roasty, not too sweet, perrrrfect medium body, yum. Knocked it back at the end of December with a dear darling friend who didn't even mind too much when I took more than my fair half. (If my good friends were that territorial about beer, I'm not 100% sure we'd still be friends....)

The awesome people over at Noble Works Cards sent me a pack of beer-related cards, which I test-drove out during the holidays. I gave this one to my parents (we have an odd relationship). They responded in kind with giving me 6 bombers of Rogue Brutal Bitter Ale, to which I said, "well played." Anyway, the cards are pretty swell; if you dig that sort of thing, you should definitely check them out. (A sidenote: there is apparently a section of the site called Fuck Cancer which I think merits its own mention, and if I had a friend with cancer, I'd definitely buy them one of those cards....)

Okay so now that we're past the holiday where everyone is generous, yadda yadda yadda, we get to Amateur Night. I'm not going to lie, I absolutely hate what this so-called holiday does to awesome bars. Namely, fills them up with people shooting tequila/white russians/live baby alpacas, and turns them into messes of glitter and (and probably syphilis). Yes, sure, I'd love to pay $200 to go drink with a bunch of jerks wearing asinine cardboard hats. SIGN ME UP.

So, yeah, I stayed in. Best Friend and I hung out in pajamas, drank Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (cause you can't go wrong with an old friend) and watched Depeche Mode 101, which was kick ass. If you've somehow lived this long without watching that, well, I don't really know what to do with you. You're on your own. Sorry.

SO we stayed up until 5am listening to glorious glorious new wave, then a couple more hours doing.. uh.. whatever, and then decided to sleep around 7. I took a Xanax (anxiety, remember?) and slept like a baby until 1pm. Happy new year, you kids.

In Future And Far Off News (!!!), I'm going to the Beer Bloggers Conference again. This July. Portland, ME and Boston, MA. Be there, or not, whatever. I'll probably head up to Portland a few days early and maybe stay in Boston a few days late. Come hang out with me, and we'll be best friends for 72 hours and maybe continue talking again after the conference is over, provided I don't embarrass myself beyond all belief.

In 2013, will people stop thinking that "ironic" mustache kitsch is cool?

xoxoxo
L

It's been a long time. I'm sorry about that, but sometimes life just gets in the way, huh? You all will be happy (or jealous) to know that I've been drinking well, and I hope the same for all of ya'll. In the past few months, I've been to quite a few beer events, and even ventured outside my comfort zone to try a cocktail tasting at the very fancy speakeasy, The Columbia Room. The cocktails were splendid, being outside of my little carbonated beer bubble was chilly, and unfamiliar! I swear, I've got something in me that likes being in control....

So. Now we play catch up. I'm going to play show and tell, and then promise to be more regular. At the end of December, I have a mead tasting hosted by the fantastic Elspeth Payne, local friend and lovely roommate from the Beer Bloggers Conference. I'm telling you, the West Coast may have us beat in some areas, but we do know how to have fun in DC. (hint: this so-called fun primarily involves alcohol. And screaming about politics. But hey, what can do you?)

Some highs and lows of the past few months:

The first thing that went into my new fridge. Local love!

The single worst pairing decision I ever made. DFH Punkin Ale with miso & jalapeno salmon. Ugh. I don't even know what I was thinking.

Starting the day off right! (I know you see the cheap shampoo. Don't judge.)

A very cool coworker brewed this cider, and I got to try some. The serving vessel was a bit unfortunate, though..

Clinging to the casks at the DuClaw Real Ale Fest

Widmer Bros. Pale Ale & empanadas at Explore Your Craft '12. Very cool event. Like a mini-SAVOR.

Necessary. Yep.

In true DC fashion. I voted, and then I drank.

Christmas comes early for imbibing atheists!

My stepdad is the coolest, and had this waiting for me when I came for Thanksgiving.

2012 Dark Lord. Sex in a bottle. Dark, sweet, currant-y. Dear lord.

I'm ashamed to say this wasn't even the end of the night.

A picture's worth a million words, right? So now I get off the hook without even writing anything?* How can life be so easy?!?

I am currently in the process of deciding my budget for next year, and location pending, I'd love to attend the Beer Bloggers Conference again. It was just too much fun. So much fun, some might say it should have been illegal. I'm also considering GABF, but probably won't do SAVOR again as I hear it's moving out of DC. I love traveling, and I love beer, so either way I know that 2013 will shape up to be a good year (and hopefully I won't drop my ibuprofen in the toilet again. You live, you learn.)

Cheers,
L












*I really am kinda embarrassed about my absence. The next couple of months will be better, promise. Sometimes life just hits you harder than a hangover, and I'm not always the best at dealing with that. This probably makes me a very fun drinking buddy, and a very terrible person to rely on.

Dear god. (I know, he's not here right now, try again later, etc...)

I'm still recovering from one hell of a bender. I guess when people think "Labor Day," they probably think of family barbecues and the like. Screaming kids running around, some fat dude burning terrible burgers on the grill, etc. Until recently, I probably would have agreed with you, but then I woke up and started drinking Shipyard Pumpkinhead at 9am. It wasn't the best decision, but hey, I was in a den of sin at the time so I decided to roll with it. The ONLY redeeming things that I can say about this beer:

1) I spilled some of it on my hands (I was still in bed, remember, and a bit fuzzy from the night before), which made my hands smell like a pumpkin pie. Festive! And kind of yummy, once I got over the initial stickiness.

2) It really, really made me motivated to find something better to drink.  (And I did indeed find something better. Quite a few somethings better).

It's not a good beer. I don't even like most pumpkin beers, and my poor uncultured palate still knew that. For once, I kind of agree with the pompous guys over at BA.

I guess it's worth mentioning that I had been up the night before, drinking Young's Double Chocolate Stout (an old favorite of mine.. I used to eat it with ice cream, back when I was a fat kid), and this morning drinking wasn't supposed to turn into another bender, but merely take the edge off my hangover, #beerbloggers style. Anyway, that pumpkin beer was so awful that I just had to take the taste out of my mouth. I'm great at making excuses, guys. I can't help it if they're all ridiculously transparent!

My companion and I were a little desperate by 10am, we both knew that (gasp!) liquor stores might be closed due to the holiday (hiss, gasp, spit). (Oh I'M sorry, you don't have any beer, and your parents are dead.) This was worse news to us than anything even remotely controversial I could think of comparing it with. I suddenly remembered that I'd brought over an extra bottle stashed away that somehow, we hadn't gotten into (like we're damn raccoons or something)--the Bromigo Smoked Maple Amber, from Three Heads Brewing. I pulled it out of a grocery bag, and was then told in an amazed voice that I'm "the best person ever." Yep. I actually dug this one quite a lot, I didn't really get any maple notes out of it, but I can drink a good smoked beer with the rest of them. The finish on this was almost meaty, and very rich, and it was nicely carbonated but not too bubbly. I'd probably pick it up again, if I saw it lurking. I didn't think the body was too thin, and I'm really a stickler about that. HOWEVER it's worth noting that I was halfway between hungover and drunk at this point (11am?!?), so maybe I wasn't in the best state of mind to make a judgment call.

I'm not showing you any pictures from Monday, cause they would just be an awful mess. I was sitting on the couch in my underwear, wearing a football blanket and the remains of the Shipyard Pumpkinhead. I was very much wanting for a shower. My eyes were a beautiful shade of bloodshot. Hey, the American dream, right?

ALERT ALERT DANGER ALERT TERRIBLE PERSON NEARBY ALERT

I am very excited to be a guest at the upcoming DuClaw Real Ale Fest 2012 on Saturday, Sept. 8th. If anyone in the DC/Baltimore area is going, holler at your girl (me, right?), cause I'd love to share a pint and a chat. My dear readers can expect a future post with lots of pictures and expected tales of debauchery. I've really missed being out in the beer community recently (lots of changes have been going on..) and this will be a great start to getting my sorry ass back out there.

xoxo,
someone who shares a birthday (but absolutely nothing else) with Olivia de Havilland

Hello, hello, hi hi hi.

So, where we last left off--I had fallen asleep drunk on the floor of the conference hotel, bragging to a friend back home. What a cute story, hmm? Somehow I managed to stumble back to my room, shower, and literally collapse into bed. I thought I was doing myself a favor by setting both a wake-up call AND the alarm on my iphone, but hey, you gotta cover your bases, am I right? (it's worth noting that I wasn't nearly as proud of myself the next morning.)

This is a bit of a non sequitur, but I'll just say now that I've always envied those who can sleep off hangovers. Truly I do. I always wake up wicked early after a few hours of "sleep," usually with a killer headache. Luckily, by Saturday morning, I'd already found some replacement ibuprofen.

Morning, assholes.

I stumbled into the first panel, managed to eke out a "good morning" to Randy, and made a new friend, Matt of Rhizome Productions. I found out he was from Nashville, and then just called him Nashville for the rest of the weekend. I know, I'm a nice person. There were glasses in front of each setting in the panel, and someone was thoughtfully passing around a bottle of Terrapin Phlux Capacitor. Good morning, here's your breakfast! It was yummy, with a big alcoholic bite and warming finish. Much better than toast and eggs.

Phlux Capacitor

The first panel was.. interesting. It was good to hear different viewpoints, even if the distribution rep who spoke was a little too lawful neutral for my immediate interest. It was reassuring that most of the other bloggers seemed to be of a similar opinion, although not knowing everyone well, I can't say for sure. I don't really give a fuck about the best interests of macro breweries, and hearing someone go on about how they aren't always the bad guys is going to make me a bit defensive. Yep. Just putting that out there. It was definitely thought provoking, although maybe not the best thing for early in the morning.

One of the many things that BBC really made me think about was the use of social media. For once, it wasn't rude to be glued to your phone or laptop at all times, in fact everyone was doing it. I actually had to run up to my room between the first and second panels because my iphone battery was almost dead. All of my non-beerblogging Twitter followers were probably sick to death of my tweets by this point, but it was really a fun experience. I really think of twitter as a microblogging platform now, whereas before it was a little easier to dismiss it. Either way, it added an entirely different dimension to the conference that I wasn't necessarily expecting. Good stuff, all around.

During a later panel on international beer presence in the US, a cart of Pilsner Urquell was brought around. I poured some and whoa, it was like being smacked in the face with myself from two years ago. I used to play D&D (nerd alert), and one of my companions really enjoyed Urquell, he'd always bring a 12pack to games. I'm not sure why, I don't much care for the beer; there isn't much there and what I can taste is usually skunky. Matt (my old pal) is a weird dude. Anyway, I think I finished it for two reasons: hangover killer, and nostalgia of nerdy years past.

Only when we played D&D, we never used glasses...

Not long after this, it was time to troop upstairs for lunch provided by the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co. Sorry to do this to you, again, you guys are edgy as heck, but look. Again, my review of BBC food over at BeerChow. It exists. It's there. And I talk about the lunch!

This is what happened when Nashville opened my beer for me. Super cool, hmm?

You guys get more though, cause you're cool cats. Here is a fact about me, I love spicy food. Love it. To. Death. Like, I can make myself dinner and it can be shitty and awful and as long as it's covered in Sriracha (Randy, am I saying it right?!?), I'll eat it, and probably dig it. I want my mouth to be on fire after eating something. Really, really spicy food is amazing. Sometimes I eat jalapeños raw as a snack. Yep. I'm weird, in case that wasn't glaringly obvious by now. My sad-sack self was a little disappointed by the food, especially the curried chicken. It just wasn't.. ah, spicy. Or curry-flavored. Anyway, I was sitting next to Nashville and Randy, and Nashville was super sweet and asked for hot sauce, probably cause he felt the same way as me. So we get it, we pass it all around the table, and then this happens.

You can't take me anywhere. Seriously.

Damnit, Lindsay. Get your shit together.

Also, the different beers were surprisingly good. I really enjoyed the Imperial IPA, it wasn't too thin or too sweet. The hefeweizen they handed us as we walked in the door was a favorite, and I'm not even super keen on that style. I could have stolen about 5 more glasses of that and been pleased.

Anyway, after lunch, there was a panel on video blogging. I'm not really photogenic (videogenic??) and despite some awesome compliments on my voice (cough), I hate seeing/hearing myself and my bountyless awkward on video. So you guys aren't getting a tour of my beer cellar (or any of my other cellars) any time soon.

The only thing to do was ditch, and buy some beer to share at the Night of Many Bottles. Greg and I hoofed it over to a local beer & wine store, and I bought some Three Floyds bombers and a 4 pack of Sun King Osiris Pale Ale. The reason why I didn't bring any bottles in the first place: that requires checking luggage. And I had a connection flight out to Chitown. And I've lost luggage before and it's a sensitive subject, k? Anyway, I didn't wanna be too much of a mooch. I had to supply.

A lovely array of Mikkeller single hop ales

So by now, it was around 4pm. I'd had a nice buzz/hangover/back-to-buzzed cycle going on for the past 24 hours or so. Next post: a microbrew festival, a super awkward dinner, and the eternal question: how many beer bloggers can you fit it one hotel room?

Cheers,
Dial L for Lush