The Grill Next Door - The Last Visit

Visit Date:  September 23, 2017

Thanks to Facebook Memories, I know that four years ago tonight I went out to dinner with Jess right before I moved to Maryland. Picking a place to go was easy. For a last meal in the area, I wanted to go to The Grill Next Door in Haverhill. 

I had an ulterior motive, too.

I'd been there many times, and wrote about it here in the blog. Read a date night on this very date 10 years ago (honestly, September 23, what's up with that!) and a visit with Dave for our first trip to the bar captured here.

The Grill Next Door does a "round the block" kind of thing where you get your name on a plaque and get a T-shirt if you fill out card/s

I had one slot left on my dance card, and I at least was going to get the shirt. Let's go. 

Jess and I had a lovely dinner. We met a service dog (that wasn't really a service dog cause the owner let me pet it and cuddle with it). The place was packed and when we finished the card the waitress made a huge deal of it. There were cheers from the bar, from regulars, and from the family next to us. 

I picked  Wachusett Brewing Company's "Wally" as a nod to Massachusetts and a goodbye to the journey that had me living in the area since 1984. A hazy, juicy IPA, pretty as a picture. 

It was an honor to start this run with beers at a great restaurant with delicious food and a fantastic selection of beers. I don't know if my card is still in the case, but you can add a card and keep going. Pretty sure they take people's cards out if they are untouched for a while. They have a system.

I'm the weirdo who goes in and re-alphabetizes everyone because people can't follow the rules and put their cards right in front so they're easy to find. Jerks. 

I have to be honest with you though, dear reader. I do not know where the shirt is now. I know it made the move down. It was in the bureau at the last house, but I don't know if I accidentally donated it. And I feel like a dope. But I can't find it anywhere. I worked hard for that dumb shirt! 

And the beers along the way were worth it. 

Looking forward to heading back to Massachusetts one day, and totally having some of that buffalo chicken mac & cheese again. 

Buzzards Bay Brewing, or, Shenanigans with Dad

 Visited: June 2, 2021

While visiting my parents, it can be rather boring. 

They live in a nice little town but never really go more than a mile from their front door, unless my mom needs to go to the bank and then we hear about it for days. 

When we visit, we go to one restaurant where my mom is in everyone's business, and my dad just wants to play Keno and have a cold one.  

Dad isn't really "allowed" to drink beer due to some medical issues that have risen over the years. The bar has agreed to keep some non-alcoholic Becks on hand for him, and my mother monitors him like, as he puts it, Nurse Ratchet. 

He's made it to 81 yrs, for all the decades of self abuse, I gotta say, you've come a long way Bart.

He is allowed to have a Budweiser once in a while. Sometimes he'll buy beer for us when we come to visit. He's under the impression we like Heineken, which we don't really but it's a nice gesture when he picks some up when we come to hang out. 

My mom doesn't like to go anywhere, but my dad is forever a restless soul who likes to get out. 

Doug decided we'd take him for a ride and go down to the canal.  I thought we would take a nice long walk along the canal, it was breezy, not too cold. I thought it was perfect but my dad is perpetually cold. My cousin Bill called me so I sat on a bench to chat with him and catch up, and then the next thing I knew my dad was walking over to cross the parking lot and the street and go to Mahoney's on Main. 

"Stop him," said my cousin. "Jockey him a little to the right and go to Buzzards Bay Brewing. It's my favorite. You'll love it."  

Bill knows his shit, so, we repointed the ship to move a little bit to the east to the taproom. 

"Do they got Budweiser here?" he asked. Bart has escaped the lockdown. And we are the enablers.

"No dad," I said, "they make their own beer but I'll check on what they have that's similar." 

We've taken dad to some of our familiars up north where we used to live, like The Tap, and there is always some sort of ale or pilsner that will fit the bill for someone who doesn't usually drink fancy craft. 

Approaching the bar, I ordered him a Flounder, which I felt would fit closest with his sensibilities. Doug got a Pink Power Raspberry Sour, which made my dad laugh. He ... may have had a derogatory name for pink beer and those who may drink it, but Doug weathered it perfectly. I got the Buzzards Bay IPA. 

The staff at the taproom were really nice, I had a huge, long discussion with them about a lot of what's been going on with women in brewing, and the recent surge of #metoo, and the work Brienne at Notch up north of Boston was doing in sharing all the stories about sexism, abuse, and outright nonsense coming out of the brewing and service industry. 

I used to work at a restaurant back in college, it's been a long time, but I lived it, saw it, knew it. 

I asked her what her thoughts were, and how her experience at Buzzards Bay was. She said that the staff there and the owners were incredibly proactive in making sure the female staff were not just comfortable but safe. She told me how much she admired Brienne Allen, and she thanked me for asking about this very important topic. 

We toasted each other, and it's really the first time in my life I've sat and talked about this kind of reckoning in the industry with anyone. 

The taproom doesn't have a menu, but if we were hungry we would have gotten something from the Thai restaurant next door and enjoyed it. We were full from late lunch at my parents' familiar, and weren't looking for a meal or snacks. My dad said that's why he wanted to go to Mahoney's, because there's food. I told him that we didn't need food since we just ate, and it looked like maybe Mahoney's wasn't open for food anyway so we were at a good spot. 

Doug grabbed a pack of cards and dealt 21 to us. We had a great time chilling and chatting. 

I think I won.

I don't talk a lot about my dad and our relationship. There is a lot of discomfort, I was very angry and rejectful of him for a long time. I also didn't understand him, and was very selfish. The fact he's 81 and I'm 54 now, we're a lot different than me at 24 and him at 51. We've come a long way, I enjoy his presence, and time with him. And we had a great day hanging out at a really nice taproom. I'll be happy to go back and visit again. 

And he liked the beer.

Happy Anniversary, at Moby Dick's in New Bedford, MA

 Date of Visit: June 1, 2021 

We spent a week up in Massachusetts at the beginning of June for our anniversary. 

Most of the time was spent at my folks' down near Cape Cod visiting with them. We did take a day trip over to New Bedford and spent time at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. 

It had been a super long time since we'd been there. I think both kids were very young when we went the last time and we went through the place at kid breakneck speed. Not a lot of people were there, and we closed the place after taking our time going through all the exhibits. 

This is a really well put together museum, where I feel equal parts impressed and disgusted, if that's something you can be. Whaling kind of makes me sick, but this is a beer blog, not Christine is Grossed Out by Whaling blog. 

After we finished up, it was dinner time and the next block over featured Moby Dick Brewing Company. Friends know us well enough that for a wedding anniversary, we'll be happy to eat almost anywhere, as long as the beer is good and the food is gooder. 

We're not fancy but we do like good food and drink. Doug had done a little pre-trip googling for local restaurants and this looked to be a winner. 

We sat outside because we're still not fully comfortable with indoor dining experiences when the inside is a little too crowded.  It was hot and sunny, and rush hour so the traffic was pretty loud but this provided for some good people watching. 

All the beers here are named for people and scenes in "Moby Dick," and I had to start with this one. Because if nothing else, a great pun means the world to me. 

Ishm-ale, named for the opening line of the book "Call me Ishmael," had me howling right off the bat. Yes please. It is an irish style amber, and was cold and refreshing for sitting outside. Pictured above with the menu and other good names for beers thanks to Melville's master work.

Moved on to the Captain Bildad, but I actually think they may have brought me the wrong beer and I got the Stove Boat. 

According to Untappd, the beer I ordered would have had a 10% ABV.  Usually at something that high, you get a real alcohol smell/flavor when you bring it up to your face. 

I got none of that from this glass, so either they have done an amazing job brewing a higher ABV brew, or I got the wrong beer. Either way, it was incredibly easy drinking, which can be naughty for high ABVs. Neither beer is currently listed on their website as available on draft so I can't really go back and check on what I got and what Stove Boat's ABV would have been. 

For dinner, I had the Fish & Chips and ordered a Pulpit New England IPA to go with. I find if I'm having a nice fried fish, or seared scallops, a good IPA goes nice with. 

Unfiltered, as you can see, hoppy and juicy, it was the perfect partner to the meal. Literature fans will like to go read this excerpt from Moby Dick of Father Mapple climbing the ladder into the pulpit at church, and enjoy all the symbolism Melville puts into the importance of a pulpit, a leader in it, the bow of a ship.

"Yes, the world’s a ship on its passage out, and not a voyage complete; and the pulpit is its prow."

Reading the excerpt there from that chapter made me almost want to go back and read "Moby Dick" for a third time in my life, but no. I'll actually pass.

I got the Tumbling Caprice, which was a very fruity almost pie-like beer. 

Sometimes you get a berry beer and there is a great smell to it but no flavor, or vice versa. This was a delightful mix of both. Crisp and tart, it was a very lovely finish considering I wanted some cheesecake with berries or something, and they didn't have it on the menu. 

God's way of telling me to have another beer. 

We ended our day in New Bedford by going down to the Fort Taber/Fort Rodman park area, walking around and playing Pokemon while the sun got to setting. We petted dogs, watched a man fly a drone, and looked out into the distance into Buzzards Bay and beyond, thinking of the whalers, the crews, the whales themselves, and the world out there as fishing boat after fishing boat made their way out into the evening to get out into position for the next morning's work. 

Sea Mist and the Thimble Islands

 Date of Visit, June 5, 2021 

Doug and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary in June, and took some time to go up to visit my family in Massachusetts. Our family. We got to see Jess too. 

On our way back south, Doug thought it would be nice to go stand-by (since we were too late to make a reservation) on the Thimble Islands Cruise out of Stony Creek, CT. For all the years we'd lived in Massachusetts, and time we spent in Connecticut, the stretch of that state between New Haven and New London is one we never really spent time hanging out on. 

The cruise was delightful. An enjoyable two hour "toodle aboot," as I'd call it, around the beautiful islands that pepper Long Island Sound south of the CT shore. A vacation haven for the rich, famous, infamous, and presidential, most islands have a house on them, and it looks like the kind of place I wouldn't mind having a house on about 1/3 of the year. 

On the boat, they served beer, wine, and cocktails and lo and behold they had their own beer named for the boat, the Sea Mist, created by the Thimble Island Brewery.  I wasn't expecting libations on the boat so this was a fantastic touch to go along with this delightful time. The beer was cold and refreshing, a nice New England IPA with a hoppy aroma and flavor. 

We unfortunately had to beat feet and leave Stony Creek after the tour, otherwise I would have planned a stop in at the brewery because more beer from this team and a really great looking menu were calling out to me. 

If you're looking for something interesting to do, the boat trip is really affordable, I'd suggest calling ahead and making a reservation. I think the website has the rules on how to do that. If you don't make a reservation, you can show up dockside to see if you can get on. Space is limited, but worth it. They do a nice narration, letting you know who lived in what house, which houses burned down, and the whole thing is punny and delightful.  

Next time, Connecticut. We'll see you. I promise. 

Colorado, Red Rocks, Denver, Guster!

In July 2021, the concert of a lifetime (for me to attend) happened. My favorite band on Earth, Guster, played Red Rocks Amphitheater. We bought our tickets in April, got our hotel reservations, and waited.

My sister and I flew out to Denver, we traveled with some friends we've met over the years, met up with other friends we've met over the years, including my sister's best friend for Life, Ginger, who we introduced to Guster during some "Hard Times" to steal from one of their titles. She's a hardcore fan now. 

And we were all in on this one. Freaking Denver. And. Oh my gosh -- RED ROCKS. 

I had always wanted to attend a show there, my whole life. What better thing to do than go see your number one absolute favorite band on earth in this amazing space? And here we were!

This isn't a post about Guster or the trip, it's about the beer.  And there are stories about the beer. 

Denver has a big Beer Culture, and we didn't get to dip into it all the way. I mean, go look at that list!  

Fortunately. Denver is now on my list of places I have to return to. 

First night we were there, our friend Ginger had gotten to town in the morning. She procured beer, wine, and cocktail makings for the hotel room she and my sister were sharing, and their room turned into The Bar for all of us hanging out together. The beer she got was chosen on purpose. It shares the name with  one of our favorite Guster songs, "Hercules." It was very very late at night, and this DIPA (10% ABV!) from Great Divide Brewing Company may have knocked ya boi on her ass. A little. Thankfully, I was in my own hotel room, ready for bed, and happy I remembered to take this picture for Untappd and now for here! 

For your enjoyment, you should go watch the video from Guster with the same name as this incredible beer. 

It was strong, super hoppy, really headdy alcohol aroma, and strong taste to it, almost like a barrel aged bourbon beer. Normally I don't go for those, but this one had strength and power, like its namesake. 

I sat there singing to myself "It's a simple love affair... dangerous but true," while sipping this one down before bed. 

Friday night we hit up Stout Street Social for dinner, and the menu was fantastic. Great mac & cheese, hot and spicy buffalo tenders. 

We got there kind of on the later side of things, and Denver seems to close up early. Last call was at 11, so we hurriedly ate our meals and left. Only got to try one beer while there, from Boulder Beer Company. 

Hazed & Infused, it was a good accompaniment to the hot buffalo tenders that I had. Kind of a standard hazy. 

On the website they use the word "dank" which I am not fond of. I really think of "dank" as like a marijuana description, not beer. 

This beer felt thick and tasty, maybe that's what they mean by "dank?" 

The restaurant was really nice and I would have liked to have spent another hour there kicking back and enjoying more beers but hey. Denver rolls up the sidewalks early, it seems. And this wasn't the place for "late nite" fare. 

In fact, we never really found any late nite fare in the city. We ended up with DoorDash, having it canceled on us more than once. Not really cool when your late night game is hanging out back in the room with your buddies. Other friends experienced late nite Denver but it looked as if it was dress up, or kind of a niche style. Eater has an interesting round-up of places that we never made it to, but will keep in mind for the future!

Linda, Ginger, and I went and had a kind of shopping/girls' day out. We ended up at a Bar Louie, a chain restaurant that is everywhere, for cool refreshment after a hot day traipsing around looking for hiking sandals for Linz. 

At the higher altitude, seeing as I'm totally a sea level girl, we were sure to match each drink with a glass of water everywhere we went, to keep from getting dehydrated and headachey. This limited the amount of brews to enjoy.

Readers know it is my job to try the local beers. Bar Louie didn't have an extensive list of locals, which was slightly disappointing, but overall I'm unfamiliar with the chain.

They did have a couple beers from Breckenridge Brewing company. Pictured here is the Avalanche Amber Ale, which I recall being a refreshing and light Amber Ale, nice color and an almost chocolatey/caramel flavor. 

Linda ordered a pitcher of sangria, and we drank a lot more water, and I didn't have another beer at Bar Louie. That's okay. 

Saturday night there was a bingo night with Ryan Miller calling the numbers. The event was at Park Burger in the RINO section of Denver, and we stupidly dragged our feet in getting over that direction. We didn't end up on the deck with the actual Bingo game happening but we were able to get into the bar to order some drinks. I didn't keep track of the beers I ordered, sadly, and we did have an amazingly fun time with friends coming by and hanging out with us on the picnic table outside the patio. 

We even got to hang out with some guy named Brian. 

Pictured left to right: Ginger, Linda, Brian Rosenworcel (the Thundergod, Guster's drummer) and your humble narrator. You might not believe me when I say it but, this guy. This guy is better than beer. Super sad his eyes were not open in this shot!

Behind us is 10 Barrel Brewing, and we didn't get to duck in there but people looked like they were having a great time, there was a rooftop deck where Guster fans were yelling down to other Guster fans. I was amazed at the turnout.

Show day. It's here! Holy shit. I'm about to see Guster with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. What beers am I going to drink on Game Day? 

Well. Pre-show I had really wanted to set up a gathering of Guster friends. A lot of people were staying at the hotel near the venue, but the staff at the hotel bar was not really into setting up a gathering space for us without charging a venue rental fee that I thought was exorbitant.  I don't blame you for wanting to make some money but. No. I've set meet & greets up many places and it's never been a "room rental" kind of thing. I was not about to start by paying a fee to reserve the back part of the bar for a gathering. It is organic, I'm just trying to cultivate it.

Heavy sigh.

I looked at Google Maps, and saw right across from the hotel there were a few restaurants. And one was Over Yonder Brewing Company.  I emailed them to ask if they would host us and the taproom manager was more than happy to host us. "I want to make this happen," Corey wrote to me. 

And I felt this was a match made in heaven. So, we arranged, and we did gather. And it was outstanding.

About 50 something Guster fans came through the space pre-show. A very non-official, not super hyper structured event, and it was beautiful. So Beautiful. I cannot speak more highly for the staff there who accommodated us, and made us feel at home.

I always get a little anxious when I set up a meet and greet that it is not going to be awesome, or no one is going to show up. 

But this space was amazing. The staff was amazing.  I loved this. I swear to God as anyone plans anything before a Red Rocks event, y'all should go to Over Yonder. even if you don't arrange anything official. Please Please Please patronize this brewery. 

Pictured here on the left is Window Appointment, the first beer I tried and then repeated. It was a Pale Ale, lovely color, great taste. I managed to not get a picture for a check in on Untappd for Citranade, and then a really nice sour that I cannot remember the name of. I was trying to play party host, making sure folks were having fun. It wasn't hard to do. Everyone was having a great time chatting, the staff put the Guster Spotify stream on (without anyone asking) and it was just delightful. 

The Guster show was great, Red Rocks is super cool. I learned a lot about how to "do" a show there better, notes taken for possible future visits. That's a tale for another day!

We didn't get to do much more beer sampling during our stay, so another trip to Denver will happen someday, I'm sure. 

Flying Ace Farm - Distillery & Brewery, Lovettsville VA

Visit Date: September 4, 2021

A lazy Labor Day weekend Saturday, and we flopped around pondering what to do. Doug had been wanting some oysters lately, so he did some looking in the google machine, and found the perfect place to go. 

Flying Ace Farm in Lovettsville, VA. A brewery and a distillery. Plus, the food truck there had oysters. Beer and a food truck with oysters, and live music? A happy Doug and a good choice. Let's go.

Side note not related to beer: I'm always a little wary of oysters from a food truck, or oysters anywhere not like .... right next to the ocean. Inland Oysters to me sound like someone had to work hard to get them out there, and I'm not super cool with the concept, because it sounds like food poisoning. 

Doug didn't mind. And since I don't eat them anyway, I'd be okay if he got ill, somehow. Hey baby, it's your body. 

We grabbed the dog and the boy, and headed out. Flying Ace is in a beautiful section of Northern Virginia, way up near the confluence of the Potomac and the Shenandoah rivers. 

We'd been up this way a few other times, having gone to nearby Harpers Ferry Brewing (in the eponymously named town) and to Brunswick's Smoketown Brewing right on the other side of the river. An hour later on a very scenic drive through Maryland, we rolled up on the breathtaking property with a big beautiful red barn and buildings, and a gorgeous blue sky. 

This looked to be the place for us!  

Top photo is where the beer is at, bottom photo is the distillery. 

All around the area are cornfields, so my guess is that the silos (so classic) are for the harvested corn. It looked as if these are active use silos, and not remnants of the farm's former life. 

We headed to the beer building, and the girl out front explained that you had to keep beer over at the beer area, and distilled spirits over behind the distillery because of laws pertaining to liquor licensing and bottle sales. 

I wasn't super interested in the distillery, but Geoff and Doug both went over to visit. I probably should have gone over and learned more about the silos that I suspected were in use, and learned more about their distilling process. But I opted to take the dog, and go get our first round of beers. 

They have an outdoor tap, and I didn't even bother going inside to see what was happening because I had the dog. This was convenient, and there was no line. 

The overall set up is really nice with a large rambling area of picnic tables and pavilion/stage right in the center. I sort of pictured it as the kind of place little kids would get up on and do their own little kid theater performances (speaking from experience) when there wasn't a live band playing. 

But there was! Colin Thompson and Seth Bornstein took the stage shortly after Doug and Geoff came back from the distillery. They reported that folks were drinking banana daiquiris and mixed drinks, cocktails and mocktails, umbrellas and smiles all around.   

As this is a beer blog, let's talk about the beers. Pictured above are the (Not) Just Peachy Fruited Sour (left) and the Flying Session IPA (right). 

The Sour was indeed that, not heavily peachy but you could taste it in there. Nothing on the nose to start but such a nice tang. The IPA was cold and refreshing, great clean flavor, not too hoppy, light but not wimpy or anything.

Geoff got the Pilot's Pilsner (see down below for the 3 beer picture) which was also very nice. Kind of a surprising pilsner as I am used to those being a little on the watery side like a Budweiser or something, but this had great color and flavor. 

With Colin and Seth providing a Grateful Dead and other jam bands infused mix, we sat and enjoyed the light, the sky, the not 900% humidity with 8400 degree temps. I loathe living in this area I have to admit. I do not enjoy the heat and humidity, and sometimes if I have to leave the house for any reason, I'm a grumpy gus. Saturday though? Saturday made up for the last 9 weeks or so of blah heat weather, and made me feel joyful and alive again. 

And what a place to sit and feel that.

Here's the Punch Out IPA, slightly higher ABV than the other IPA that I started with, and backup musicians bringing on the soul with Van Morrison's "And It Stoned Me," which is always a favorite of mine. 

You could say this was shaping up to be a really gorgeous day! 

Here's an artsy fartsy shot of the Warbird Wit, kind of a smoky smell at the start, which worried me (for those of you who know I do not enjoy Rauchbier) but it didn't taste like burning, and it had almost a cherry tang to it. Really nice and worthy of an artsy fartsy shot. 

Final photo here is of the Flight Session, (Not) Just Peachy, and the Pilot's Pilsner. I noted that they all looked remarkably alike in color, but for sure they all tasted completely different and original. No mixing up of flavor!

As for the food truck, provided by the Polished Foxx, and my aforementioned personal fear of inland oysters: Doug said they were great and he didn't die from food poisoning in the night last night so a success can be declared. He was a very happy human.

Geoff got poutine which he did not share (rude!) and I got dumplings (which they both stole from, and the 2 I had were delicious even though they were described as Kung Pao and there was nothing pow about them), and the fried chicken pieces, which were a mix of good and kind of not. The chicken leg was perfect, the breast was dried out, and the wing and thigh disappeared because they were stolen out of my box. I am not a fan of sweet potato fries but Doug is, so he gladly ate those for me. The coleslaw with the dumplings was really nice, I would have liked a little more of that!

I should have gone with the non-shareable chicken sandwich. Note to self: your family is ruthless with food, get non-sharing food next time. 

Flying Ace is truly a family and dog friendly space. There is a GIANT playground and parents were sitting at their tables watching the kids play and interact with other kids. There was a robust Capture The Flag game going on, and I'm not sure all the kids playing knew each other. One kid yelled "Hey! Guy! Hey in the blue shirt! Head to base! She's coming up fast on you!" and Blue Shirt Guy outran his pursuer. 

Plenty of dogs to see and pet and talk to. Our dog is kind of a jerk to other dogs sometimes, so we kept him at a distance and let people know that if their dogs started to stretch over to say hi. The space is big enough that we felt comfortable having him there, and overall, he was very well behaved. He's a people dog so little girls came over to pet him and talk to him, and he enjoyed that attention.

My only complaint about the experience is a lack of shade. They had a couple of good tarp shades set up, but people had taken all these picnic tables. It kind of pissed me off to watch people dragging picnic tables all over the grass, ripping things up. Surely you could have found one of your friends to pick up the other end, dude. 

By the time we were getting ready to leave, the shades started to touch our table. But it would have been a brutal experience out there if it had been hot like all the other days this whole summer. Not saying that ALL of the tables need to be in the shade, just a few more of those set ups would sure be helpful.

The staff was incredibly attentive, tables were cleaned as quickly as people left them, trash wasn't left filling up and pouring out. It is a beautiful spot, and I'm sure we will be back.

The Farm Brewery at Broad Run - Haymarket VA

Visit Date: August 25, 2021

When we moved here, I had great intentions of spending time with friends I had not seen for 30 years or so. I'm old. It's true. I've got friends from High School and College who all live in and around the DC area. We chat on facebook, we make plans. The pandemic and life in general just set things back sometimes. It breaks my heart a little. 

One of my college roommates and her husband live out to the west of us off I-66, about an hour away. They share a birthday, they're selling their house and moving away, and they threw a shindig to have a hurrah and huzzah before departure. 

It was on a Wednesday night, and normally I never go anywhere (I hardly go anywhere anyway) on a "school night" as it were, but for a shared birthday and a goodbye? How could I pass that up. 

They held it at the Farm Brewery at Broad Run, which looks shiny, new, expensive, and where Life Is Brewtiful. Yeah, I bought the T-shirt. 

It's a farm, that's for sure, with six acres of all kinds of pastoral beauty with a giant freshly built beer barn, a gorgeous outdoor grill space with ample seating, tons of field picnic table seating, and the latest and greatest in entertainment while drinking beer - Axe Throwing. It looks like the kind of place where on a weekend like this, you're not going to find a parking space or a table, even though they are for sure ready to host people. I bet it is jam packed right this minute.

It was lovely to spend time with our friends, and meet their friends. It's bittersweet knowing they'll be moving along and away, but that's life. Hey, at least we squeezed in a lovely time at a great location before they go. No regrets here!  

We didn't drink a lot, we had two of their brews. First was the Rooster King, and I'm sorry this picture came out kind of out of focus. The lighting was a bit wonky with the late afternoon sun coming in from behind. 

This beer was delicious, a little lighter of a flavor than you'd expect by looking at the red caramel color. Our friend Mark kept buying pitchers of it, so we kept drinking it. 

Doug does his due diligence when we go to a brewery since neither of us should drink a whole ton of beer, so as to keep the A1C at bay. 

He likes to know what to expect from the taps, and he decided he wanted to try the Smolder, which is a Rauchbier, a smoked ale.

I didn't argue with him, I hadn't done any research and when I drank the beer I guess my face was one of disappointment. 

 The description on the website says it is a traditional ale, known as Polish Champagne.  He liked it very much, I did not. I don't like Rauchbiers, for the same reason I don't like a lot of coffee from places where it tastes like burning. It isn't a flavor I groove with. 

But it was pretty, and the light of the evening at the farm while we looked to the north shone through the pitcher. He got to drink most of it, and thankfully the ABV on this one is in the #% range because otherwise he would have been feeling it. 

We ended up hanging out until the place closed. There was a lot to catch up on, and 2 of our friends' friends were there to babysit our friends and get them home safe. There were a lot of emotions, and my college roommate had some tears. I know what it is like to move away from all your people, having recently done it, and by the looks of things they were surrounded by good friends. 

Well, dear friends, I didn't get a picture of all of us but we got this one of me and the old roomie. I forgive you for making fun of my teddy bear behind my back when I wasn't in the room, and for always coming in and turning on the overhead lights at 2 in the morning and turning on music when I was sleeping. Happy trails to you in your next endeavors and maybe let's not wait 30 years before we see each other again.

DC Brau Check In

Visit Date: August 29, 2021 

I can't believe that since we moved here in 2017 we hadn't been to DC Brau. 

It's kind of the best known of the breweries in the DC area, brewing beer since 2009. Their history is a pretty interesting one. I used to travel to DC for work before we relocated, end up at the small bar at DCA with an hour or two to kill, order some food and drink a couple of beers while still doing some tech support to fill  the time. 

DC Brau was always the local I'd get. In fact, it was the only local at the time. 

When we first moved here, we were both still taking it super easy with beer but we'd go to Waredaca just to go look at the horses, or the Brookville Beer Farm to take in some music and have a nice lunch. 

Both are pretty convenient to our location.

We just never found our way down to the neighborhood and area where DC Brau is located. 

Out running some errands, Doug realized where we were so we dropped in. 

There was supposed to be some sort of festival/music action going on at the location and I was worried about being around other people. I'm still cautious about being in crowds, even outdoors. There was a DJ laying it down, and 4 people out back, and no one inside. 

So we decided that the DJ tunes were not our style, and inside was nice with no humans. 

The staff here is incredibly friendly, they have two serving stations going and we visited both. 

They don't serve food, but to my joy we realized they were next door to Roaming Rooster. The Roaming Rooster food truck was always a must-visit when they were in our neighborhood by my office, back in the olden days when we went to the office. I was missing their delicious sandwiches, so we made it a point to order. 

I started with the Oktoberfest (pictured above) because "tis the season" as we say. It's time. It was a nice beer with great flavor, and a great starter for our visit. Lovely caramel color, very cold, refreshing! 

Moving on to Joint Resolution, one of the Flagship beers, and one I am pretty sure I'd had a few times before, back in the airport days. 

Joint Resolution is a hazy IPA with a light ABV (5.5).  It is easy to drink, a nice hazy unfiltered look, good lace, and reminded me a lot of Harpoon UFO back in Boston.  

Not pictured but worth mentioning, Doug had the Maple Brandy barrel aged Stone of Arbroath, it had the heavy duty barrel aged/scotch ale sensibility, and for me this isn't a "drinkin' beer." It's a sipper, and one that should take a good long time to enjoy. 

He then moved on to El Hefe Speaks, the blueberry Hefe. 

It wasn't as flavorful as we had hoped. But was nice. Probably for him the most unimpressive of the beers where I wasn't the big fan of the Stone of Arbroath. He enjoyed that one much more than I did. 

We enjoyed studying the artwork throughout the brewery, unique and colorful. Typical of what you may see around with kind of a "gnome" theme, which creeped me out a bit. I'm not a gnome fan. I didn't take nearly as many pictures of the wall art as i should have. Trust me, it's really cool. 

I closed things out when we ordered our lunch from Roaming Rooster, and I enjoyed the Turbo Boost Multiball with my hot and spicy delicious freaking sandwich. 

So good. 

Perfect combination, the right flavor to go with something spicy (you don't want fruity and spicy, or boozy and spicy, you want just the right thing to tamp down the heat). 

We brought a sampler box home with us, since Geoff was not with us to enjoy the trip. There were beers in the collection that I didn't have at the brewery, and I didn't even get to enjoy them because the boy and Doug both got to them before me. 

I highly recommend stopping in at DC Brau if you're cruising up Bladensburg Road. Location and looks wise, you may not know you're in the right place but you are. Drive down around back, go on in, and enjoy. And get some Roaming Rooster too!

Shenanigans with Dave update for 2021

 

Hey, Shenanifans if you're still out there. Cheers.

It's been almost 5 years since I've posted here. Talking with a good friend recently, I decided to revive the blog and update the world on our beer tasting journey. 

I had let posting to Untappd take over, the same way Facebook I let and Twitter took over from me posting in my actual blog. If you are on Untappd, find me there at clgeiger01834. Let's be friends.

About 6 or so years ago, we both (Doug and I) found out we had really high A1C readings and started to clean up our act. Beer and pasta were basically eliminated from our lives. Sadly. 

We got things under control and we've dabbled back into the carby goodness of beer and breweries while keeping bread/pasta products at a very long arm's distance. 

As a sign I saw in Connecticut said "I'm saving my carbs for beer.

We moved to Maryland in September 2017. My job offered me "transfer or maybe go find another job." We opted to take the transfer. Sometimes I think I should have fought back harder to be a remote employee (I mean, look at us now in the middle of the pandemic, like, fully remote and proving we're great at it) but Doug was ready for a change. Other factors worked into the move. Our eldest, Jess, had moved out and was living with friends. The youngest, Geoff, was still living with us, and while he was displeased with the concept of moving he realized he couldn't live solo back home. So he joined us, and  the three of us set off to the south for adventure. 

It's been pretty good here, I'm not in love with the weather (too damn hot) but I like my job, and wanted to keep it. 

While it was sad to leave Massachusetts, where we'd made our home since forever, moving to Maryland opened some new opportunities for both of us and for our son. So life is pretty good.

The beer scene in this area is pretty good, and I want to share these beers with you all. 

So since 2017 we've been to a lot of breweries. I thought about back-filling posts to go over places we've been several times but will keep things going forward. And just a little bit of looking backwards. 

The photo here, I took on the front porch of the house on March 13, 2020. How do I know that exact date? It was the last day I was in my office. They sent us home that afternoon and let us know not to come back in until further notice. So, I sat on the porch pondering what was going to come thanks to the Coronavirus, Covid-19, the plague. And I raised my glass in cheers to all. 

I didn't check in on Untappd for this one, so I have no idea what's in the glass. Suffice to say, it was probably pretty great. 

And here we are.

Another note, I have not really caught up with Dave (the original Shenanigans cohort) in quite a bit. I should do that too.

Alright then. Here we go with some updates, some beers, lots of pictures, and some fun. 

I hope all's well with anyone reading this.