tubbylobster

scuttle scuttle

the month of june is almost gone, and apparently i haven’t updated since the beginning of may. i guess it’s no secret where the previous two weeks or so have gone, but before that i had quite a bit going on (relatively speaking). 

on memorial day weekend i made my first trip to the UP for a weekend of wedding-related festivities, and had a blast. while the wedding was a lot of fun, we made a long weekend out of it and managed to do some hiking and sight-seeing. it’s pretty country up there for sure, and marquette was as pleasant as i hoped it would be; plenty of food options and even a local coffee roastery and a brewery or two. also seemed like all the locals i came across were super fit, especially for the midwest, but i think you’d have to enjoy an active, outdoorsy lifestyle to reside in the UP because there isn’t a whole lot else going on (and apparently they get a lot of snow!)

we did some car-camping on the return trip and i finally got to break in the new tent that i bought last year. naturally it got a trial by fire as the campground was hit with a series of storms pretty much right as we had finished dinner and were settling around the campfire with beers in hand. didn’t have much choice but to retreat to the tents and ride it out. it rained all night, but as you can see i stayed perfectly dry, and got a little reading in. oh, and i saw a bear on the drive home, but sadly, wasn’t quick enough with the camera.

the following weekend was the annual dam-to-dam 20k back in iowa. i think this made the 4th year in a row i’ve run it, and while we’ve had perfect weather every year, this was the first time i’ve experienced rain. i love running in the rain, but it apparently wasn’t enough to push me past last year’s personal best, not that i’m disappointed. i finished just inside the top 170 overall (out of almost 7000), with a ~1:26:00, good for a 6:55 mile pace. not too shabby.

from that point forward it’s been a bit of a blur, involving a lot of world cup - watching and feeble attempts to write proposals and thesis chapters. and while it was a tad painful to watch the US crumble in that last game, i could take comfort in the fact that they made it out of group play, while italy’s lawn-diving team went home early. now i can watch the rest as an unencumbered fan of the game, who is, at least for now, on a more normal sleeping schedule than before =) 

beerweek

maybe it was just a coincidence that carlos miller was born this week, but i’ve been doing more than my casual beer-drinking this week. it began with a beer-tasting on tuesday (the first one i’ve ever been to, i think); i’ve also got an elusive surly brewery tour lined up for tomorrow, to be followed by a large graduation celebration (not mine, of course) on saturday. but i thought i should at least write down the beers i sampled on tuesday along with anything i can remember about them, lest i forget. without further ado:

brau brothers

• rainwater vsod (imp stout)
• elisha’s olde ale

boulevard

• imperial pils
• dark truth stout

great lakes brew co:

• ed fitzgerald porter (?) 
• eliot ness lager

pauwel

• kwak (strong pale ale)

urthel

• samaranth (quad)

goose island

• sofie (saison)

grand teton

• bitch creek (esb)

lagunitas

• WTF (strong ale)

southern tier

• 422 ale (pale wheat)
• phin and matts (apa)
• unearthly (imp ipa)

odell

• 90 shilling (amber)
• IPA

sam adams

• old ben ale (old ale)
• barleywine

tyranena

• chipotle smoked imp porter

victory

• yakima (strong ale)

there were also a couple others in there i know i’m forgetting. however, seeing it all laid out like this makes it readily apparent why the bike ride home was such a wobbly adventure =)

i thought that perhaps i would regret not writing down my thoughts as i consumed the beers, but then i realized that i lack the connoisseur vocabulary necessary to really differentiate between the various brews. it’s pretty obvious i gravitate towards certain types, so this becomes more important. instead, i’ve just tried to remember the ones that stood out (or didn’t).

in general i avoided brewers that i’d not been impressed by before, or on the opposite side of the spectrum, couldn’t offer anything i hadn’t enjoyed already (bells, lagunitas, and victory fell into this category). southern tier was probably the biggest clunker, though their imperial ipa is still one of my favorite beers, period. i think the biggest surprises were the brau brothers and great lakes offerings; i’d never had great lakes before and was pleasantly surprised. brau has some really tasty seasonals to complement their rather average normal brews, but these specialty beers were pretty top notch (and packed a punch). might have to grab a few of these before they’re gone.

i had also shunned the sam adams table (even though it’s one of my favorite cheap beers) until i noticed a couple bottles with hand-written labels. these happened to be the barleywine and the old ben, which were both excellent. naturally i had to sample the old ben (an old ale, of course) a couple times. very slowly. 

=)

congrats erin and samm! happy birth-day charles miller! <3 <3 <3

bears!

last week was barrel-aged week at town hall, and being the poor and/or lazy grad student that i am, took full advantage of that fact this weekend. on friday i ditched ‘work’ early to watch the us hockey game and try the port barrel-aged baltic porter (see above), which was as good as i remember it being, although i’m not sure how much the port flavor really added to it. i tried the barleywine next (which had been aged for a year in a jim beam barrel), and it blew my mind. it was a tad over-sweet maybe, even for a barleywine, but the complexity added by the aging process was incredible. i’ll really fail to do it justice by trying to describe it, but it was everything from butter and honey to the wood-and-bourbon flavors of the cask. easily one of the best beers i’ve ever tasted.

on saturday brian and i went back to sample the imperial stout, which had been aged for 8 months in a bourbon barrel. this was also an incredible beer, especially once it warmed up a bit. easily one of the tastiest stouts i’ve ever sampled. we also tried a wine-aged scotch ale (the only one they still had left from the week), but it was a bit underwhelming after the glorious stout, which was admittedly a tough act to follow. overall it was a good weekend for beer, albeit an expensive one — guess i need to get a real job to support my habits.