I am not worthy! As I sit here starting my blog to catch me up on last night and tonight I'm still dumb founded by last nights Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week Event I had the honor of attending. I can't thank Greg, Brian and Jeff over at Copper Kettle enough for giving me this opportunity to learn more about the beer industry and experience such wonderful events. Its almost not fair! It really is a great opportunity. Last night's event was a night to not forget for me. I really had no expectations (or to be completely honest low expectations) on what was going to be happening. I really couldn't have imagined such a wonderfully execute and professionally laid back event as it was at Copper Kettle and Hough's Bar. They with the help of Samuel Adam's Brewery put on a Grade A Top Notch event. Thank you for offering out the invite.  I had the unique pleasure of sipping a few beers with a truly great professional and incredibly down to earth fun guy. He really seems to love what he does and seems truly blessed to be in the position he is today. And why not? Its a great job as he said, getting to make beer, drink beer, talk beer, and hang out with fun great people all over there world. Its been a great ride. In his words, he started Sam Adams on a 3 day temp position for some computer work; he finished the work in just a few hours and turned in his time card stating he wouldn't need to come back. They stopped him, handed him a six pack; told him to drink this tonight and come back tomorrow - they would find him more work. He's been going back to work every since. He talked the magic of water and minerals. He discussed the magic of hops and the difference between them. He explained the rub process and what specifically they are looking in from batch to batch from each farm they get their products. He talked about family life, he talked about hockey, and he talked beer. I even got a high five from him at the end of the Bruins / Caps Game where Bruins beat the Caps in OT. He was there to discuss 6 of Sam Adams multiple beers, but after that win decided he was in a good enough mood he did 3 more for everyone to enjoy. The beers are fantastic, the people in the event were in great spirits and from my view it seemed like everyone had a great time. My hats off to Sam Adams, Bob Cannon and everyone involved in putting that night together it was an experience that I will not quickly forget. It was/is an inspiration to me. And gave me an all new appreciation for their beers and the company!
As I sit here in a funk/fight with my own life and mortality. I'm "exactly" what I wanted to be when I grew up. But am I really grown up yet? And should I stop with where I'm at? Because, as they always say - be careful what you ask for you just may get it. I'm now where I wanted to be and not very happy with the decision. I am thankful for the job and the pay. And I'm thankful I work with a great group of people. But, I hear people say if you go to work day and are not happy and excited to be there. Find something else! Find what makes you happy. This life and career in beer seems to be what makes me happiest. I'm still working for that perfect fit that I'll find. And with Bob Cannon's inspiration I hope I work closer to that process.
So, as for the beers, I had about 4 different beers last night - and quite frankly it is hard for me to decide which beer to choose. I'm going with the beer that was in my glass at the time of the picture was taken above. That beer was Sam Adams New World Tripel. It was incredible. The fact that it was pouring from the tap made it all the better. A perfect pour of golden goodness; slightly cloudy through the glass. A malty master piece of sweetness in the glass with nice hints of Saaz hops through out. I definitely cheated don the Hops (and checked the website for that note). But you do get a nice gentle hop note throughout. It was complex and medium bodied with spicey fruity notes through out. It was a great beer to drink on a great night. I will be going back for more of these beers in the near future.
And to correct a comment I made a few days/weeks back; Sam Adams does make GREAT BEER. I think my comment had been before that there was nothing crazy, special and amazing about their beers. But in general they are all just very good and solid beers. I retract said statement of the past and will start talking more and more about their specialty beers that you can't get in their variety cases. I've only really sampled those beers. The variety beers not the specialties. I will definitely be on the look out for the specialties they bring more often. Thanks again for a great night Sam Adams and Bob Cannon.
So, life has been catching up with me - and this website not "saving nicely for me" is frustrating. So I had a couple things on here about things - but I'm just going to get right to the beers cause I lost all that on a non-save event. UGH. Anyway - so here goes:
 3/26/12 - Breckenridge Brewery - Pandoras Bock. I love this style of beer. I did a little poking and found this site Madison Dining that talks about Bocks being Lent beers. I wish I could get to the link to show you more - maybe you can. Looked like it was going to be a nice read. Anyway, this is a Jan-March Beer. I always love this season of beer. It is right up my alley - and always a refreshing change from all the dark stouts and porters that came from Christmas. This beers are crisp and a bit spicey. They are fully of thick malty goodness in the glass. There was light head retention in the glass. I really really enjoyed this beer. I love the brewery in general and the style of beer so there is no surprise I would love this beer. I hope to get a few more of these before the season is completely out (as it already may be gone). I didn't really notice anything to revealing about the smell but I'm never great with this anyway. In general - I love Bock Beers and I think if you've never tried one - GO OUT NOW AND TRY IT! Don't wait till next year... find one and drink one and fall in love like I have!
 3/25/12 - Samuel Adams - Irish Red. This beer poured a nice dark red pour in the glass. A nice aggressive pour left a pillowy dirty white 2 finger head on top of this beer. The malt stuck around and clung to the sides of the glass the whole way down the drink. In general this was a nice beer. It gave out nice caramel notes. It had a nice light spicy note to it that I believe came from the hops in the glass. It had a nice silky texture to the drink as comes with these styles of beers. This beer was the day after a large drink so I drank this a little later in the evening and enjoyed it slowly. It was probably just a bit warmer then it needed to be but all told was a nice beer. As I've found with Sam Adams in general - I have found it hard to say anything bad about their beers. They make a great beer for every style. They may not always make the best of the best nor do they often make the most exciting. But they do make a great quality beer to sit around and drink. Thank you for a consistent quality in your beer Sam.
 3/24/12 - Troegs Brewery - Troegenator DoupleBock Beer. At 8.2% alcohol this beer brings A LOT to the table. The definition as per German Beer Institute Site states a DoppelBock as: Definition: Doppelbock (literally "double bock") is a stronger and usually darker version of the Bavarian Bockbier. It is exceptionally malty, with very little bitterness. Standard Doppelbocks may have as much as 7% alcohol by volume. In the strongest versions (around 10 to 13%), you can actually taste the alcohol.So, it is no surprise this is right up my avenue. There is not a great head retention on this beer. But the flavor and the malts SHINE through. The bitterness levels are low and the beer is smooth. I do get some nice malty notes of smell from the glass (maybe even some hints of cherry). In general this is a great beer. I had to cheat and drink this beer once again tonight as the beer from the picture from Saturday is later in the evening after several others and well, lets just say I knew my notes would not be great. As I said, my best friend was in from out of town and we received a surprise visit from another one of my friends that lives close by. All 3 of us had some GREAT catch up time Saturday night. Good times.
 3/23/12 - Flying Dog Ales - Road Dog Porter. This was a great beer. This beer ways in at a nice 6.0% alcohol. I didn't save great notes from this Friday night - so going by memory. I remember I liked this beer. It was a nice roasty malt flavor. I don't remember to dark and burnt of a flavor but a nice medium roast. I remember the head retention stayed with the glass nicely and it drank smooth. I think the one thing I remember for a porter it was a very light beer in texture. This lightness really made this a drinkable beer. Made it nice and enjoyable. A friend of mine recommended this one and though it was good - it wasn't one of my favorites. Again, I'm not really a porter or dark stout type drinker so this shouldn't surprise. All told it was a nice drinkable beer. And the beer was enjoyed as the kickoff to a great weekend with my best man/best friend/buddy from high school. It was a good time, Friday night was even another Wine Cupcake making session for my wife and a friend of hers. So the lightness of this beer when really well with the winey goodness of her cupcakes. Text me if you want her recipes and/or more information on those cupcakes.
Wow, so this was a long post - I'm going to hold of posting today's beer (blogging this on 3/27/12) till at least tomorrow. But I had an enjoyable weekend and am glad I stayed with the challenge. I am excited about tomorrow as I am checking out the call from last Friday - again - if the news works out I'll talk more about this later. There is a lot to be considered and discussed. In the end if it works out and I move forward with it. This blog will be the FIRST (well second as my wife will probably be the first ;) ahah) to know! Thanks for listening and until the next blog!
 Well, one thing I haven't been doing this year is losing weight. In all fairness, I haven't even really been trying. Our house is back on the market and that adds a stress that just makes stress eating great for me. Sure, you can blame it on the beer that I'm drinking and I know that doesn't help but I'm here to say, that the beer is not the only factor in causing this none weight lose problem. Over the last two weeks I have started running again. I'm hopeful that with running, I'll start feeling a bit better and with feeling better I'll start eating better. Lets face it; that is such a vicious cycle, of we are tired/stressed/ect from the winter/work/life/ect so we try to grab a vice to make us feel better. Some people its food, some its alcohol, and the list goes on. Well, you start indulging in this and it brings your mood and body down more. You start feeling worse and its harder to get motivated. Well, I'm finally trying to end that cycle. I'm trying to start working out. I'm also working with my wife to eat healthier. So, why the picture of pizza? Cause I'm going to start this tomorrow... ;)Anyway, so the pizza in the picture was leftover (unfortunately not as good left over as it was fresh). But the beer on the other hand was a nice change up. I have to get through the last few "winter beers" that I have down there before it Spring... well springs! So, I thought I would drink this. It was nice and crisp. It is brewed with spices like orange peel and coriander and cinnamon. Though I tasted a nice spiciness to the beer I didn't readily notice any one of these ingredients shining through. They were all nice background noise to a well rounded solid brew. I think that is the thing with Sam Adams on a GENERAL NOTE. They make good solid beer. In my opinion, nothing earth shattering and mind blowing. And nothing that is complete crap. Yes, yes, I know they have some "specialty" big brews - Utopia being the biggest. Anyone want to invite me over for a sampling of this I'll be happy to give you company! I can say I had a SPECIALTY beer from Sam a few years back that was HORRIBLE. In Sam's defense, I think the bottle had just gone bad (or at least I HOPE that was what the problem was). But when wrote to the company to ask about the beer I never really did get a good answer. That did leave me with a bad taste in my mouth with Sam Adam''s literally and figuratively for a little while. But because they have a relatively honest and fair product it they brought me back. As for this Winter Lager, I can say that it reminded me of a slightly stronger more alcohol warmth spicy version of the regular Boston Lager. That they basically used their signature beer and built off a strong product. In my mind that is a solid equation for a good winter beer. All told, this was a good beer. The pizza regretful calories. So, here I begin my pledge: I promise to my body to eat better and take better care of myself again. I really need to lose some weight and not drinking beer is not part of this equation. I have to learn how to LOSE WEIGHT and be able to enjoy my favorite beverage - beer! Anyone out there with suggestions/tips/thoughts - feel free to comment. I'm going to start trying to run at least 4-6 miles a week. Working on getting that back up to the 7-10 I was doing early last year. Stress in life will always be here... provided my health keeps me around long enough to get through it all! Good night and until my next beer.
As I sit back and think about my last 60 hours, it can't help me to think of the quote in the recently article of BeerAdvocate Magazine from Matt Keasey Owner/President/Head Brewer of Spring House Brewing Company: "I hate my job!" I don't have the magazine in front of me this second so I may be para-phrasing. But as with many owner/operators of micro breweries he hated his "9-5". I do as well. When I was growing up, I wanted to be an pilot or an artist. Honestly, I looked into Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and also submitted a few of those "turtle/pirate" drawings from the back of some of those magazines back in the '80s. Are they still around anymore? You know the ones I'm talking about right? Draw our best picture of the following picture, mail it in with a few comments and they will talk to you about your desires. Ok, so maybe you don't remember. Anyway, so what happened to those dreams? Well, Embry-Riddle locations were a bit far away and a bit expensive. And the artist dream sort of made me start thinking about my future and the fact there is no money in art until you are dead, mostly. In general, you can't make a lot of money in art unless you are really good and/or hit it really big. So my thought was - choose this profession because you have a passion for it. So, instead I decided I liked and was experienced with computers. I liked tinkering with them and maybe that should "be what I be when I grow up". Time warp ahead 16 years, I've been at the same company (which in this field is a bit unheard of - maybe I'm doing that wrong) for that long. I've changed positions, and had a few promotions but nothing major. I'm still doing the basic same thing I was doing 16 years ago. And to think about it - so are the other 10'sh people in my group. I think in general there are some happy, some working and some extremely unhappy. I don't know, I'm a father of two girls and a mortgage payment. I do this job because it pays the bills. This thought ALWAYS makes me sad and disturbed. I used to like the job. I like most of the people that I work directly with. And I'm one of the fortunate ones that my customer base is not that terrible to often. But I still hate it. And for the last 60 hours or so, that is MOSTLY what I did. I did get some sleep Tuesday night (actually like 8-9 hours). But Monday to Tuesday I got about 1 hour of actual sleep IF I got that in about 36 to 39 hours. That is SORT OF CRAZY. Oh, and I don't get over time; I don't know - sometimes I wonder why I do it. Then one of the girls will walk in the room and I remember again, I want them to have a good/great life - at any expense. So I continue for now... till the right opportunity comes along for me! Lets hope it comes sooner rather then later.So, three days no beer posts; what did I drink - I'll review them to the best of my memory. I apologize the blog got off the beer subject the past few days but I'll try to make up for it... I promise. For now, lets see, so Sunday nights Super Bowl night I chose to drink the Sam Adams Alpine Spring. Their spring seasonal beer of choice. I chose this because the hostess was nice enough to save me one and was awaiting my thoughts on the beer. Without saying much, she passed me the beer and I poured it into the glass. Now, the party hadn't started yet so I was able to really check out the beer a bit better then if the party was in full swing. So it poured a very unfiltered yellow maybe a little brown. Initial smell was that of what I've found of lagers, I think this must be something to do with the yeast. The first few sips come across a little citrusy and bitter - almost a little offensive on the first bite. After the first sip is able to settle down the hatch the after taste seems to start mellowing through your mouth. After the second or third swig of this beer I started thinking it wasn't as bad as I initially thought. Lesson learned here is the adage - "Don't judge a beer by its first sip." Actually it wasn't near a beer as I initially thought. It was almost even a little refreshing. I think I'll call this a 2.75. Its above average and could be drank again but would definitely need the right time/event. Probably a little warmer outside and some flag football might be perfect with this beer.On Monday, I had started working and basically drank a beer because I said I would for this challenge. I went with the Heineken Light. I'm never a huge person to "analyze" light beers. There just isn't usually enough about them to discuss. Basically, I think it is one of 2-3 three levels: drinkable, barely drinkable, and god awful disgusting. I actually put this in the Drinkable. Honestly, this was a wee bit more enjoyable then the regular Heineken in my opinion. The Heineken I drank was sort of offensive, where this light was a bit more crisp. It was a bit sweet and a little hoppy for a light beer. And was light and sort of refreshing. That night we had a veggie burger dinner and light (maybe my wife is trying to tell me something) but the beer went well with a "burger"'sh meal - I could imagine a MEAT BURGER and this beer would pair well together. I would say try this beer. It was definitely drinkable and I actually enjoyed it. I have also been diagnosed with Sinusitis so maybe the sickness is/was having some role in my liking of this beer.On Tuesday when I drank my beer I would have been awake for about 34 hours from straight through hell'sh go live. This day I chose to reward my hard work with a better quality beer and went with a can of Oskar Blues Old Chubs Scotch Ale. This was a great beer. When I poured it from the can it pour very soda like; in this I mean it was very carbonated and dark in color. When I held the beer up to the light I picked up multiple colors, black/brown/red/maroon (remember I've been awake for a very long time). I was impressed and shocked by this color. The beer was malty and sweet smell to it. When I tasted it, it was an incredible roasty carmaly goodness to the beer. There was a small hint of hoppiness to it that balanced out the sweetness. I let the beer warm and slowly enjoyed this beer one sip at a time. I likened the beer to a nice scotch like drink. It was not extremely carbonated and extremely carbonated. I really enjoyed the light to medium body mouth feel. I gotta say, this was an incredible treat after such a long work "day". I think the nice thing to mention is, YES this is a CANNED BEER. It seems that in some of my reading "Canning" is back in the beer world and no longer a "CHEAP BEER" quality. Many microbreweries are starting to looking into this for the great qualities that come with it. It is cheaper to ship, easily recyclable, and actually contrary to popular belief tastes GREAT! I had a Dale's Pale Ale a few years back (maybe 6 or so) because it was "in a can" and the guy said, yea try it - its great... its not a "cheap beer". He was right Oskar Blues do great things to canned beers.So, tonight's beer of choice - Founder's Breakfast Stout. I had high hopes of saving this for a Saturday morning and chugging it down for breakfast and then having the post up on here by 10am. Well, that didn't happen. Once again, I felt like I needed to reward myself so I chose to drink this beer. This beer is beer. It pours a big DEEP Brown almost black. The head does not stick around long and as this beer warms in the glass the taste just gets more and more complex. The complexity of this beer is right on the label - it is labeled as a "Double Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout". If that isn't a mouth full the beer definitely is. There is SO MUCH going on in this beer it is hard to discuss. The huge chocolatey malt that comes from this is intense and not for the weak at heart. It is big and strong. You definitely get the creamy "oatmeal"'ness of the beer for sure. And well, the coffee - I get so much of it and it is 10:20pm on Wednesday night - this beer best not keep me awake (which would be damn near impossible how tired I am). This beer has a little bit of spiciness to it. I almost smell a pancake/syrupness in the glass (which I know sounds weird but that is what I'm picking up on right now). This beer is actually making me hungry for a hearty breakfast. I enjoyed this beer with the wonderful "valentines day sugar cookies" my wife is working on for her new foody blog she started at http://butterisbetter.weebly.com. Check it out in your spare time! Anyway, I really like this breakfast stout but I will tell you - I wouldn't be able to drink more then one or two in a sitting. It is big and complex. Enjoy at your own risk. OK, so this caught me up I think - Sorry for the book. And since it is a book and I am tired - I'm not actually going to proof read this. Please excuse any grammatical/spelling/errors in any way. I'm usually a bit more cautious about this but just do not have the energy. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll be back to the regularly scheduled program! And as always - THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!!
Founders - Breakfast Stout - Double Chocolate Coffee Oatmeal Stout
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