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5 favorite beers from when I was brewing a lot

by Rob Friesel

As I continue to wax nostalgic for the days when I was brewing “a lot” (oh say… twice a month?) — the thought occurred to me to reflect on the beers that became my favorites. The ones I was most proud of, or else became in some way obsessed with. There were certainly quite a few that were “very good” (even “excellent”) but these were the ones I couldn’t get out of my head.

Me, wearing flip-flops and a Zero Gravity hoodie, while I brew my Uncle Rico cream ale.
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Reflection on the 2024 mead study group

by Rob Friesel

Earlier this year, my friend Kyle organized a mead study group which was not unlike the 2017-2018 BJCP study group. 1 And while this study group did discuss aspects of mead judging, it was more like a tasting group than one focused on earning the BJCP Mead Judge endorsement. I don’t mean this as a criticism — just an observation of how it played out.

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  1. Nor the 2022-2023 study group that I ran but didn’t write about.[]

Trying to write more in 2024

by Rob Friesel

To put it bluntly: I’ve let this blog languish for the last couple of years. While topics had narrowed down to be almost exclusively about #homebrewing since about 2015 or so, my time in Washington and COVID and a few other things derailed just about everything for me. Writing for this thing was definitely not a priority.

I’d like to change that this year. I’d like to be doing more writing, and this is about as good a venue as any. And I’d like to get back onto a cadence of at-least-once-per-month. Even if I’m cheating a bit — like with this quasi-meta-post about posting. (I suppose the redemption there is that I’m trying to be publicly accountable to that otherwise semi-private goal.)

‘Til next time…

Chaos or Community?

by Rob Friesel
Cover of Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the week or so leading up to this Martin Luther King Jr. Day of 2024, it occurred to me that I had never read any of his “full length” works — only essays, excerpts, and speech transcripts. I wanted to understand more about him and his legacy. I wanted to hear his message more fully, and to engage with it directly rather than having it mediated through a high school teacher or some media columnist.

I no longer recall how this book came to be the one on my “to read” list, but it also seemed fitting to read his last work — as a kind of sign post of his thinking before we lost his leadership.

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2023 recap

by Rob Friesel

Part year-in-review, part brag sheet, part best things and stuff, part tap-the-microphone “is this thing on?” life support post for this, my much-neglected blog. It’s been a few years since the last time I did one of these, and several of those were pretty hard years — but now seemed like the perfect time to get back to it. So without further preambles: a look back on my 2023, in no particular order…

Panoramic landscape of the Adirondacks
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book review: Just Ride

by Rob Friesel
Cover of the book Just Ride (Petersen, 2012)

At the age of 41, while living in Bellingham, WA, I decided to “spend too much money” on a mountain bike. It had been about 2 years since I’d owned a bike, and (if I’m being honest) probably about 10 years since I’d done any riding. I was going through a tough time (pandemic + some personal stuff) and figured that maybe I could buy myself some happiness in the form of a nice mountain bike — take up a new active hobby, take advantage of the apparently excellent local trails, and distract myself from the essential mundane horrors of my life.

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dream.20220504: Rice Krispie Treat pairings

by Rob Friesel

You’ve been sent on an assignment to ascertain the perfect cocktail pairing for a Rice Krispie Treat. You’ve been to too many of these places already but what’s one more? You repeat your now banal-seeming request: “I’ll have the house Rice Krispie Treat and whatever cocktail pairing you usually recommend.” This particular bartender opens with a couple of finer points about Rice Krispie Treat doneness, going so far as to demonstrate the differences between a too-brittle over-cooked example vs. a gooey and flaccid “rare” one vs. a supple but sturdy “medium-rare RKT”.

The cocktail pairing comes out in a Tom Collins glass. It’s ivory-colored and creamy. Garnished with an orange twist coiled around a cinnamon stick. It tastes like chai and vanilla and subtly of rum.

You swoon. It is the perfect pairing. Em Sauter overhears this and rushes over to confirm. (She agrees.)