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.
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.
Continue reading →While a more thorough re-telling of my homebrewing hiatus seems worthy of its own post someday, in the spirit of writing more and trying to keep that running log of my brewing adventures here (it’s been a while!), I’ve decided to summarize the brewing I’ve managed to do since returning to Vermont in 2021.
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…
I love you, Jess.
(This post retroactively posted to be roughly the time we said our vows.)
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.
Continue reading →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…
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.
Continue reading →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.)
Went and spectated a new-to-me thing that was incredibly fun. Ever hear of cyclocross? It’s a kind of bicycle racing that includes all sorts of variable terrain and obstacles and is just generally pretty intense. I’d never heard of it before a few months ago when a long-time friend (and avid cyclist) pitched a long weekend vacation to Fayetteville, Arkansas, which was hosting the 2022 UCI World Championships. And since these days I’m all about shaking things up and trying new things, I said: “Yeah sure — what the hell, count me in.”
