found drama

get oblique

the Revelations reveal

by Rob Friesel

I’ve been quiet on this site lately, I know. I tried to write more in 2024 but the habit has been a hard one to pick back up again. Trying to enumerate the factors seems silly, but I think it mostly boils down to: write something when you have something to say.

Well, today I have something to say. I just want to express some pride in my son Holden for so many of his recent achievements. This year he graduated from high school, turned 18, began studies at the Crane School of Music, had an international premier of an original composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, and — most recently — was interviewed by Vermont Public about his original composition Revelations which he composed for the Vermont Symphonic Winds.

Holden, if you’re reading this: it’s great to see your hard work and your strong collaboration with others bear fruits like this.

Revelations will be premiered this Saturday, September 26, 2026, at Elley-Long as part of VSW’s Mosaic program.

https://www.vermontpublic.org/vermont-events-calendar/event/mosaic-21-08-2026-22-34-36

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.
Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →
  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.

Continue reading →

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
Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →