Cozy Up to Some Beer Reading!

Since my friend JP introduced me to the idea of hygge a few years ago, I’ve enjoyed it in theory, but never really embraced it day to day. Oddly, in Chicago, it seemed to just come naturally. Possibly, if JP’s musings on baltic porters are correct, I had access to plenty of “liquid hygge” in a way I don’t have here in Portland. Perhaps it’s because no one’s figured out that while the winters are less snow-filled, they are much darker and therefore more in need of hygge? The world may never know.

So, Goose Island (the big one, not the brewpub I used to hang out with) is offering refunds on it’s Coffee Bourbon County Brand Stout. This, while interesting, wouldn’t really be worth noting on this list except that most of us beer folks are going to focus on bacteria or something else.… Continue reading →

Four San Diego Photos

Not necessarily the best, but since I just got back from San Diego, I thought I’d show you four fun photos I took.

I suspect this will be Bill’s favorite photo. It shows just how far I’ve come since the days we started dating and I didn’t like coffee. Now I’m taking the hand-grinder, aeropress, and whole beans when traveling alone. My friend Jen had a comment on that. (She’s not wrong to wonder.)

I have no idea how large the brewery who makes this beer, Warsteiner is, but I know they are German (though that page is USA), have been passed down to (through?) their ninth-generation of owner, and make a damn tasty pilsner. Not as hoppy as some would prefer, possibly from too big a brewery for some (there was some implication of that around), and with a faintly funky aroma.… Continue reading →

Visiting D.C. Jan 2014

Bill and I have been traveling again. 

Once a year, there’s a conference in Washington, D.C. that he always attends. We have friends in the area, particularly up in Baltimore, MD and so I usually accompany him. Typically, we land at BWI and he heads down to the con hotel and I head straight up to Baltimore for four days or so of putzing around with our friends up there before he joins me for about a week.

This year, it’s been different. A friend of mine has just moved to D.C. with her family. I have made numorous friends on Twitter, mostly (but not entirely) fellow beer bloggers. All of them wanted a chance to meet me, and I them. And staying in D.C., I had the chance to have a breakfast or dinner or two with Bill in those four days.… Continue reading →

Talk to Bill, Will You?

Man!

So, it’s been a bit since my awesome post about awesome lions. This is largely because I wasn’t sure what to say to you all for a bit, and then my lovely mother came for a visit.

Then, when she left, so did I. Bill had already left. My mom went home. Bill and I went to California. We spent some time in Los Angeles, California with Bill’s uncle (also Bill), before heading up to the Bay Area (San Jose and Santa Clara, mostly, but some San Franscisco, Oakland and Berkley in there).

And LA is what I want to talk to you guys about. Briefly! Very briefly.

And maybe “talk” isn’t the right answer. “Request”, really.

See, Bill left a day before my mother and I did.… Continue reading →

Resolutions: Coffee Beer and Coffee in the New Year

One of the best things about being a regular somewhere is getting to know the people at your local haunt. You learn that X bartender or barista is a bit of a nerd or Y server is an actor or Z cashier is also from your home state and would kill for some green chile1.

Yes, I’ve learned all of those things and more about various people who work at assorted places I am or have been a regular.

One of the other wonderful things about being a regular is that these same people get to know you a bit. They geek out with you over a Neil Gaiman book or swap recipes with you. Or, in the case of the junior brewers at Goose Island Clybourn (GIC), they slip you a sample of a then-soon-to-be-released coffee beer (Resolutions), and send you home with a bag of the coffee they made into that beer for your coffee-nerd husband.… Continue reading →