<--Yes, that's green beer.
Yes, this is weird art -->
...And the tests finally end! Well, they do for now anyway. I still have a big one after three weeks of hands on training in Germany, but I don't want to think about that now. We are on to the Business of Brewing class. It's kind of like Monopoly meets Dungeons & Dragons with beer, but with much harder math. They also wouldn't let me be the little iron or the racecar. The instructor just sort of look at me with disdain when I asked if I could. Some people have no sense of humor! Actually, it is pretty interesting. The instructor made the whole thing up himself. Why he wouldn't have cool game pieces is beyond me. We are using crappy plastic poker chips instead. I think I will reinvent the game for prison. Maybe I could use cigarettes as game pieces to trade for my toilet hooch. (Maybe not...)
So, before I recap my St. Patrick's Day for your entertainment, I need say something. Drivers in Chicago are terrible. I saw a guy almost get hit because someone decided to be the third car through the red light! That's very common. Light turns red, three cars speed through. How there aren't more accidents I will never know. No one stops for pedestrian, EVER! If I am at a crosswalk where there is no stoplight, drivers will continue to go until I am actually in the street. Then, they will pull up to you and wait very annoyed until you pass. Usually there is some tire screeching as they pull away. Occasionally, there is a honk. I have never been around more inconsiderate drivers in my life. New York, even Los Angeles, the drivers are more considerate. And this is starting to extend to the train! I had to shove a guy into a pole to get off the train because he refused to get out of my way as I tried to make my way around him to get off. A couple weeks back, I had to hockey check someone into the train door to get out because she was in too big of a hurry to wait for me to get off before she got on. I am glad that I went to all those punk shows in high school and college. Moshing taught me something after all. Things are really slow in Bend (too slow for me sometimes). However, I am really learning to appreciate that. Hopefully, Munich will be better.
I digress. So, St. Patty's! Somehow my housemates convinced me that it would be a good idea to go to an all you can eat & drink party starting at 8am. Let me tell you, it is never a good idea to start drinking that early. (One should wait until at least 10am, and that's only okay if you are camping!) We were a little late getting there, so I didn't actually start drinking until 8:30. Things were going well, mostly because they had bacon for breakfast. I made sure that I ate about 6 pounds of that washed down with some wonderful green Bud Light. Ya know, green Bud Light tastes just like regular Bud Light-like slightly dirty water. The downhill slide began when the shots came out. 9am Jameson shots! Again, too early!
The party ended with a fairly buzzed step outside into a blinding and warm day. I figured that we would go home, sober up, and head back out that evening. I was informed that: "that isn't how they roll in Chicago on St. Patrick's Day." Hmmm...silly me. And we went to another bar. Then we went to another bar. Finally, by about 2pm, we settled in at a restaurant for some much needed food. We sat outside for an hour easily soaking up the sun, cramming massive quantities of food into our faces, and sucking down water. It was a really nice break.
And a break it was. The decision was made to go to a karaoke bar. When I heard that, I thought about jumping into traffic so that an ambulance would pick me up and take me elsewhere. I loathe karaoke. I managed to convince one housemate that we needed to go home. Once we got there, we sat out on the back patio, split a Mission St. Anniversary Ale, and enjoyed the sunshine. It had apparently snowed last St. Patty's. It was 80 this year! Eventually, the other friends and housemates made it back.
After a brief rest, we headed out to have dinner and more drinks at The Bad Apple, a great craft beer bar down the road. They also sell a burger called Elvis's Last Supper. It has bacon and peanut butter. Everyone told me how great it was. For some reason, I decided not to get it. Don't get me wrong. I love peanut butter. I love bacon. But, some foods were not meant to touch. I think those were the two. One nice thing about the bar was that they had Racer 5 from Bear Republic on draft. I really miss great IPA's like we have in Oregon and NorCal. It was good to taste one of those again.
I had invited a friend from class to come out to dinner with us. As he was paying his bar tab, a couple people started chatting him up. Turns out they were from Seattle on vacation to see how Chicago party's. Being from the Pacific Northwest too, they invited us to hang out with them. The rest of my group headed home, so the classmate (lets call him Al) and I went with them. They proceeded to buy us drinks until about 2:00am. It was about that time that I lost Al (still don't know where he went, though I know he was in class today so no one murdered him). I was sitting by myself finishing my last beer wondering where everyone went (outside was the answer...) when a rather large hispanic fellow walked away from his friends to talk to me. He was not rude or threatening, but he did want me to know that I "creeped him out." It felt a little like the scene in the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars where the guy confronted Luke. My expectation was that he was going to tell me that he was wanted on three system and that I had better be careful. So, I was alone in a locals bar "creeping out" large hispanic people and did not have any Jedi back up. Departure Time!!
Still wonder what happened to Al...
One other really great thing that I got to do this week as part of class was a food and beer pairing class. Author and brewery owner Randy Mosher (brewing nerds know who he is), was the instructor. I actually got a lot out of it. We sampled several beers with different cheeses (some of them were scary!) and desserts (not scary!). They were not all great together, but I really have a better respect for the marriage of flavors between food and beer. Here, let me quickly dispell a rumor while I am at it. IPA and bitter beers don't pair well with spicy foods. That is, unless you really want the spicy foods to taste spicier! However, if you don't already, I highly recommend trying to pair food and beers together. They may not all work, but it's fun to figure that out!
Alright, if can remember all of them...Beers of the Week!
Bell's Two Hearted Ale: This was one of those beers that I had heard a lot about, so I needed to try it. They don't claim that it's an IPA, but it is rather bitter with some hop flavor. It did have a nice hoppy aroma as well. I am glad that I was finally able to try it, but it still does not compare to home.
Founder's Centennial IPA: An IPA made solely with Centennial hops. It was not bad, but I found it rather one dimensional. Imagine that! One hop, one dimension.
Old Style: Fizzy Yellow Beer from Milwaukie, WI. This was another one that I had to try. I don't think that we can get it back home. It tastes like you would expect...yellow and fizzy.
New Glarus Fat Squirrel: Fairly basic amber ale. It tastes pretty much like an average amber ale...not a style that I would choose to make or drink. Most of them are just kind of bland to me.
Life's Soundtrack of the week:
Brewing Network (it makes shoving people on trains easier)
Every Time I Die
Pearl Jam (No Code is a great album!!)
Parkway Drive (can you say speedwalk home?!)
Miles Davis (Best. Study. Music. Ever!)
Cheers ya'll! I will be home in less than 6 weeks! I am over halfway there...
No comments:
Post a Comment