Taco – Page 31

Denver Check-in #3 (Toys)

June 16, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver!

Denver is apparently part of “Colorful Colorado.” At least according to the sign I found at the History Colorado Center.

But more about that in a moment, the center, not the sign. You’ll also notice that there are more pictures than normal in this post. I’m feeling generous and decided to take advantage of an internet that is doing slightly better (ever since I hacked the HoA’s router – no I’m being serious – but don’t get me wrong it still sucks), but that still doesn’t change the fact that my laptop uploads all the images sideways for whatever reason. Anyways, enjoy the pictures, make them your background for at least 1 week each.

So things have been.. rainy here in The Centennial State. In fact, it’s been raining pretty much every single day in some capacity. It varies between the not-so-intrusive afternoon shower, to FREAKING MONSOONS (e.g. last Friday morning). The plus side is that the Rocky Mountain thunderstorms are some of the best I’ve ever seen. The downside, well, it’s wet. In fact, it’s been raining so much, that I’ve grown oddly suspicious of all the people who told me that it “hardly ever rains” in Denver.

Sure it’s a semi-arid climate, and there are like, you know, deserts and stuff decently nearby. Also, the historical data shows not a ton of rain (and Denver is one of the sunniest cities). However, we experience what we experience, and my Denver has been a rainy one. I was actually thinking. I move to Boston, worst winter in recorded history. Move to Denver, one of the rainiest Junes on record.

I mean, what the feck.

Of course since I’m going to be poor forever, maybe I could become a Rainman. Hmm, there might be something to that.

Anyways, so it’s been raining. Of course, working an office job, it doesn’t tend to matter that much. Sunshine = Office is freezing. Rain = Office is freezing. Sun explodes = Office still freezing. For an office whose sole purpose is to protect the environment, you’d think they’d lay off the air conditioners capable of turning the Atlantic Ocean into ice.

But work itself REALLY picked up, like, right towards closing time on Friday. Yes, the classic “email bomb.” I owe Meem for the term. But that is essentially what it was, a “DO THIS MUH SLAVE.” So, being the good slave raised by two self-employed parents I promptly ignored it. Dumping things onto Monday morning have NEVER EVER went wrong, naaaaaw. So yeah, work has been busy. Oh, and our 4th intern finally came. She is also a girl. So yep, estrogen seeps from the walls in that room. But she seems nice, and finally having her show up removes the unknown possibility of her being some massive tyrant or something. So it’s all good, even if I am the only male locked away in the former storage closet.

As for classes, they SUCK MY ASS. That is all.

However, between the Government, the business school, and the rain there are glorious periods of sunshine. I’ve come to appreciate these times and have even made a schedule to take advantage of them on the weekends (no seriously, every week of my life is pretty much planned out until early August).

This weekend was no exception, Tristen and headed for the B Cycles and did some more exploring.

In case you were wondering, yes people did stare, however a lot of them were probably high so dinosaurs on bicycles are probably an every day event in these parts. Oh, and speaking of people being high, some dude tried to sell me weed on the bus the other day, then he noticed my Department of Justice badge and literally fled the bus. What’s even funnier, that is the second time something like that has happened.

The first stop on our list was the home of “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

Fun fact, her name was never, ever, Molly. That was one of the many very interesting things I learned while touring her home. And while part of me will probably always envision her as Kathy Bates, I ultimately thought the woman behind the myth was even cooler than the myth itself. Sadly we couldn’t take pictures inside the home, but the tour was pretty cool, aside from the obligatory group of heathen children.

Next we headed over to the History Colorado Center. The History Colorado Center is like a sort of pseudo blend between a convention center and a museum dedicated to Colorado (case in point, there are Colorado exhibits, and there was getting ready to be a wedding reception there the same day). Tristen and I were drawn in by our mutual (ok my) love of history as well as their newest (as in opened the same day we were there) exhibit, simply entitled “Toys.”

However, before we got to “Toys” we explored the ongoing exhibits, which dealt a lot with Colorado mining and mining culture. There was a “Model T” simulator, which was pretty nifty. There was also a blasting game in the mock-mine they had. After watching some people get wasted, I ROCKED it (huehuehue).

Actually I ended up getting plastered in the end. It eventually gets so hard to memorize that I think you’d need to have a pictographic memory. But I did manage to make it to the “advanced” level.

Tristen, meanwhile, was off hunting.

After rounding the boy up, we made our way up to the “Toy” exhibit.

Now, I took a ridiculous amount of photos of the toy exhibit. It was really cool. Basically the exhibit was set up like a series of living rooms from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. The living room was designed to mimic a living room from that time period, and each living room had a period television set playing period toy commercials, including those creepy ass 1950s doll commercials (seen above). The reason I took a lot of photos, is because there was a lot of stuff I thought my Dad and FIL would enjoy. The collection was actually really impressive, but my internet sucks, so just trust me that they had cool toys and that I’ll be happy to share the photos in another medium at some point. Uploading them all would make me go insane.

Speaking of which.

But really, who needs psychiatry when you have beer. If you remember from my last post I made a trip down to an awesome liquor store. Well, because I went crazy and bought 16 beers I’m still working on them. But I’ve now had a chance to go through the New Belgium sampler and all of them were pretty awesome (in fact I’m drinking one right now).

Fat Tire Amber Ale
The original and still awesome.

Somersault
The best summer beer I’ve had this year, hands down.

Blue Paddle Pilsner
A nice pilsner, if a bit weak compared to the other brews.

Slow Ride Session IPA
An excellent IPA, but not Dogfish tier.

Snapshot Wheat
Holy cow one of best wheat beers I’ve had in awhile.

New Belgium Brewery is located up in Fort Collins, and I’ve love to do the tour, but I’m not sure if I’ll be that far north. Actually, I’ll be there for a work trip, but I have this odd feeling that asking to go tour a brewery wouldn’t go over to well on a trip where we are serving notice to an oil company. Coors brewery in Golden is a bit easier to get to, maybe I’ll have a chance to get out to that one.

Aside from drinking, Tristen and I have also been checking out a lot of parks. Since I had gotten ahead on my classes (for like.. 2 days) we also spent Sunday exploring, rather than just Saturday. We again hopped on the B Cycle and this time were off to a mall. Yeah, I know. Generally I don’t go out of my way to see malls, but this one was along the gorgeous Cherry Creek Trail (which is why they call it the Cherry Creek Shopping Center), so it was easier to palate. I did laugh how the bike path had to veer around the Good-ole-boy Country Club though, can’t have the plebs near the white man’s golf course. Once we got there I noticed it was a VERY upscale mall, with stores SB knows but I do not (aside from stuff I do recognize like Louis Vuitton). We did end up catching a movie while at the mall, since it was still matinee time. We saw Mad Max: Fury Road, and it was FREAKING AWESOME. Manries. But no really, it was awesome – best action movie I’ve seen in recent memory (yes even better than the Avengers). Tristen is now murmuring about the new Jurassic Park, so we might be visiting the movies again before much longer.

After that we had a snack, and were back on the B Cycle for a trip down to Washington Park.

It was a gorgeous day to explore the park. But humans weren’t the only ones out and about.

SO MANY GOSLINGS

After we checked out the park (which is quite large) we hopped on a bus (where a crazy religious guy told me all about how I was going to burn in hell, to which I responded that at least I had sunscreen in my backpack. He was not pleased, but I thought it was funny).

And that brings us pretty much up to this point, cutting out all the boring stuff like getting my lunchbox ready for tomorrow. 🙂

Until next time,
-Taco

Denver Check-in #2 (Chalk)

June 9, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver,

Today (the day I actually write this, not when it gets posted) marks two weeks of me being in Denver. My job is actually a 10 week appointment, but based on the way things fell I’ll be in Denver for just a little bit more than 10 weeks in total. Still, I’m just under 20% of the way through my time here. And while I realize I still have a long way to go, it is interesting to see how relatively quickly time has been passing. I am not complaining, don’t get me wrong. While I am enjoying my time here, and I do love exploring, I miss home. So a quick passage of time, filled with fun and challenging events is pretty much my preferred agenda.

So what has happening since Check-in #1?

Well, I put in my first 5 day work-week. Due to Memorial Day my first week was really only 4 days, so this was my first true Monday – Friday grind at this job. Monday through Wednesday were relatively slow, as I primarily focused on some broader issues. On Thursday things really picked up. I got back my first report, and the feedback was just “ok” – I made one relatively large error dealing with the Federal Rules of Evidence that brought the rest of it down, but it was really just that one mistake. I got chewed at a bit over it, but it’s a mistake I won’t be making again. As soon as that happening, I got hit with another project, and boy, its a doozy. I actually don’t fully understand the question, I’m hitting a brick wall with my research, and to make things even better the attorney that gave me assignment dropped it on my desk and then left for a week with no other instructions than “Have this on my desk when I get back.” So the start of this coming week stands to be fairly interesting, especially since I am waiting for feedback on a letter to opposing counsel I drafted – and if that goes poorly, then I’ll have to spend an entire day fixing that on top of everything else.

So yeah, the work week was definitely back-heavy, which I might actually prefer – though it did leave me very drained on Friday.

But, as mentioned before, work isn’t everything out here in ole’ Denver, I also have classes! They formally started on Wednesday, and boy they are eating up a bunch of time – which was the idea, but I didn’t anticipate just how much math would be involved. If you weren’t aware, me and math have a violent history and don’t get along so well. In fact, the only class I have ever failed in my life, and really one of the few things I’ve ever failed at in general, was Algebra I in high school (I failed the first semester and passed the second, go figure). Now, to be fair, my teacher, one Jeanie McBride, was pretty much the worst teacher you could ever imagine. But, to be even more fair, I can’t blame her entirely, I’m just bad at math. To the point that when I passed Algebra II with a D- it was a joyous day indeed. Oddly enough I seem to have gotten better at Math over time, I got a B- in my undergraduate math course, which is the best math grade I’ve gotten since an A in Junior High math.

Still, the math in these Harvard Business School courses is hard math, and it’s math that is being presented in ways that I am not used to. When this math is coupled with bad internet it makes for a pretty piss-poor experience overall. To the point that I’ve thought long and hard about just dropping the classes before I get charged. I technically have until the Wednesday of next week (not this coming week) to do so, so we will see how things pan out. I did finish my first tests in each class with 90%, 90%, and 80% – so it’s not like I’m currently failing or anything. I just don’t know if I have the patience to deal with it.

On the fun side of Denver, I stuck to my “Spend One Day Per Weekend Exploring” oath, and boy did I explore, in the end about 17 miles of walking and a lot of biking, busing, and even some training (like.. via train, not training for something) on top of that. I actually beat my all-time step record, even surpassing SB and I’s crazy day in Seattle last year. The day started off with a swim, which I’ve made a Saturday morning thing. Then it was off to explore the Denver Art Museum, because it was one of their free days (which I try to hone in on, for obvious reasons). On my way to the museum the sunny skies proceeded to promptly dissapear and it was pretty obvious that a storm was rolling in off the Rockies – just my luck.

Fortunately, 1L Roomie has let me borrow one of his B Cycle memberships and I was able to beat the ran thanks to the bicycle.

This is what a B Cycle station looks like, this is actually the one closest to the art museum. You just scan your card and are on your way! The downside is that you are limited to 30 minutes otherwise you start to get “overage” fees, but you can always just check a bike in and right back out again as a way of working the system. Also this picture took like 15 minutes to upload so revel in the bike-ness.

Once inside the museum its starting pouring. I mean like, crazy rain and wind. Then, somebody pulled the fire alarm, or opened a door, or the system malfunctioned, who knows. And so they started evacuating the building – right out into the rain. So I did the true Taco thing and hid in the galleries, because screw that noise. It turned out to be nothing, and I wasn’t soaked. After perusing the museum, which was a really cool building and layout (Joan Miró was the visiting exhibit) – even if the art itself tended to be a bit too contemporary for me, it was out into the new sunshine to explore the Denver People’s Fair, which had lots of music, food, stands, etc. I didn’t spend any money, because I’m cheap, but I did enjoy walking around. After that I walked up to the Larimer Square Chalk Art festival, which had some AMAZING artwork, even though many of the artists had to start over following the rain. Following that I realized I was very near the Auraria Campus Area, which is where University of Colorado – Denver, Denver Community College, and Metropolitan State University of Denver are (talk about close quarters!). It was a pretty cool area, if not initially underwhelming – but it got better the further south into campus you went. It was also freaking deserted, which was kind of creepy.

While down there I checked out a CU-owned apartment complex I was considering (and I’m glad I passed up on, though I bet the internet was better) as well as got a sort-of up close view of Mile High Stadium. After that I role my first Light Rail up to Union Station, then took the free Mail Ride Shuttle back to a B Cycle station and headed home.

After a brief recharge (for both me and my phone) it was off to Argonaut liquor store, a HUGE liquor place about .8 miles away. I purchased my first bit of beer..

..(amounting to 13 bottles, lol) and then bemoaned that fact as I carried it all the .8 miles back. Of course I can’t complain too much, it was beer and I did beat the rain. I was really worried I was going to rained on the one time I wasn’t carrying my umbrella, but I was fortunate to stay dry, even if my arms really hated me by the time I got back to my apartment. I tell you what though, actually having an elevator after walking 17 miles is a very nice thing, and I can’t say I miss that aspect of my building back in Boston.

For the beer itself I went with a New Belgium sampler (New Belgium is located in Fort Collins Colorado) as well as a single of a peach wheat ale, which I had never seen before – and I love peaches.

Peachtree Wheat Ale – Crabtree Brewing Company

It was an interesting beer, the peach was strong, but the beer was really, really frothy. I’m not sure why. It was also massively unfiltered, which was kind of odd. Overall it wasn’t quite was I was hoping, but it was peach, so it gets points for that.

Then today (Sunday) was pretty much just classwork day, though I did get everything wrapped up for the week, so all is well moving into week three and all the craziness I am sure it will bring.

Until next time,
-Taco

A chalk artist hard at work at the Larimer Square Chalk Art Festival.

Denver Check-in #1 (Dinosaurs)

June 5, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver,

So, with the Denver Check-in formally explained and introduced here, let’s get started with the inaugural check-in!

So how were things during week 1? Well, they weren’t too bad. 1L Roomie is pretty cool. I mean sure, he is another human being that I have to live and interact with, but he can’t help that. His girlfriend, who is originally from Mexico, is around the apartment a fair bit, but she is nice and doesn’t really bother me either. By and large he is nice, helpful, and leaves me the f* alone when my door is shut – all of which are nice qualities. He picked me up from the airport which was awesome (and saved me a chunk of change since I really didn’t want to deal with my suitcase on two different public buses I would have had to use a shuttle or car service). He’s also fed more good noms on more than one occasion including homemade guacamole, sweet potato ginger stew, and grass fed beef liver. He is on some sort of interesting “high-fat” diet and makes lots of very noms foods, and I don’t complain at all when he shares with me. He also shares pretty much al l the stuff in the kitchen, yet doesn’t seem to take the food I buy. Pretty much a perfect setup there. Most importantly he has a Keurig coffee maker, and gave me like 30 little coffee pods to get started. He also gave me 8 bottles of beer, all of which are gone.

Those (not already mentioned in this post) beers were:

Summer Helles – New Belgium Brewing Company

Avalanche Ale – Breckenridge Brewery

Vanilla Porter – Breckenridge Brewery

Buddha’s Hand – Breckenridge Brewery

Best fronds.

He is also a snowboarder and mountain-biker (which is like.. everyone in Colorado) and a native Coloradoan, so he has lots of suggestions about “outdoorsy” things to do.

I also have my own bathroom, which is worth its weight in gold. Probably not, a bathroom is heavy. But still, it is worth a lot to me.

The building itself is decent. It has lots of amenities (not including internet) such as a balcony for the apartment (sadly not facing West – toward the best mountain views – but I’m not complaining as it’s still a balcony, and you can still see mountains). There is also a semi-heated pool, I say semi-heated because some days it’s warm, other days it feels not warm. A hot tub, which is warm, even if I can’t figure out the buttons (I think some of them are broken). A little gym, which is actually quite nice when I sometimes have it all to myself at 6:30am. A common room with some comfy chairs, some not comfy chairs with tables, a pool table, and a kitchen. There is also an outdoor patio area. The building is also secure with controlled entryways, and there is a building manager on duty from 8-6 M-F, and 8-12 on the weekends.

It’s an older building, and all of the above things are just in average shape. I mean none of it is bad, but it’s not resort level or anything. It is clean though, even if the occasional hot-tub jet and exercise bike seat-raiser don’t work.

So yeah, where I live is pretty good aside from the Ethopia-tier internet.

Where I work has much better internet, but I obviously can’t use that to blog and play games. Well, maybe I could, and get fired. Having a Job > Blogging.

I’m still in the “acclimating” stage of my job, so I’ll comment on it more as I get deeper into the summer (as I write this I’m only 1/10^th of the way into my internship). However, most everyone seems pretty nice and chill, even if there is a current of stress underneath. There is of course that one guy who is an asshole, but I’ve never heard of job that didn’t have that one guy. Fortunately for me, I don’t directly work with him, so our interactions are passing.

So I guess I should explain the office setup.

I work within the Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the Department of Justice (DOJ). The division is further divided up into several different sections. I am a special one in that I work for two sections, Environmental Enforcement Section (EES) and Environmental Defense Section (EDS). Most interns only work for one section. EES and EDS in the Denver field office have two interns – me and one other person. The Natural Resources Section (NRS) also has one intern, as does the Indian Resources Section (IRS – lol I know it confused me too). So there are 4 interns in total at the office, whereas D.C. has like… billions. The four of us interns share an office, which literally used to be a storage closet, I am completely serious. But it’s really not bad, it’s like 1/3 the size of my apartment back in Cambridge and I have my own desk.

I have a “supervisor” in each section – EES/EDS. However, it’s primarily my EES supervisor who is my “boss-boss.” That said, as a HIGH-RANKING-SUCH-PRESTIGE intern, I basically get lent out to whoever needs me in either EES or EDS. So while I have a formal supervisor in both sections (with EES being my primary) I actually work for whatever attorney needs me and gets to me first. You might not imagine it, but we interns are actually pretty sought-after.

On the first day my supervisor took me and the other intern out to lunch, then took us to get cupcakes. Then on the first Friday we watched a documentary (on uranium mines), had pizza, and then later went to a Happy Hour – which they paid for my two drinks.

And in case you were wondering, those two drinks were:

Denver Pale Ale – Great Divide Brewing Company
Apricot Blonde – Dry Dock Brewing Co.

So that is all I’ll say about work for now. It will obviously be the focus of future check-ins.

As for exploring, Tristen and I have been busy boys. In addition to finding grocery stores, figuring out buses, etc. We’ve been going on bicycle rides (1L Roomie has an extra membership to Denver’s bicycle sharing system) and checking out the city and some parks. Just this weekend we checked out the Capital Building and the Civic Center Parj. We also went and checked out the big City Park (basically Denver’s equivalent of Central Park). We also spent pretty much an entire day walking around Downtown (where I work) and Lower Downtown (LoDo) including stops at the famous Giant Blue Bear Statute and Union Station (where we got some tasty Pigtrain Coffee and watched people playing in the fountain). But most importantly, as Tristen commands I write, we went to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. We were lucky enough to catch one of their free days, which saved me the 15$ cost of entry. The real reason we went, is because they have a TON of dinosaurs (and Dr. Scott from Dinosaur Train works there!). Manries. So yeah, Tristen loved every second of that (even with the free day crowds), and the other exhibits were pretty cool too especially the wildlife exhibit focusing on bears. Ray! They even had a temporary exhibit about Mythical Creatures (dragons, krakens, etc.) that hypothesized about the origins of such creatures in our cultural mythos. But really it was about the dinosaurs. Res.

I’ve already drawn up a list of things I want to do (based on recommendations and/or guide books), and even started crossing some of them off already! Look for more adventures and general information in the upcoming check-ins.

Until next time,
-Taco

Manries.

Denver Check-in: Introduction

June 2, 2015 by Taco

Hello from Denver,

This post means that my blog won’t be entirely dead for the duration of my time in Colorado, yay! In fact, I have a bit of a plan to make sure that at least something gets posted while I am out here.
I’m calling the idea the “Denver Check In” and as you can see, this is the Denver Check-in Introductory Post. Basically, I am very busy. I work 9 – 5, M – F (nothing exceptional, I know) but I am also taking three concurrent classes through the Harvard Business School. Additionally I am trying to get out and about to explore, because let’s face it, you can blog from anywhere with an internet connection, you can only explore where you are.

Which actually gets me to my next point. The internet in my apartment is horrible. No, I am not just saying that, it is objectively horrible. It is 1/63th the speed of my internet back home. Yes, 1/63th.
Here’s why. So my apartment is actually a condo, which is either owned or rented by 1L Roomie, I am not entirely sure. Either way, it’s a condominium high-rise. Twelve floors in total (I’m on eleven). As with any condominium community, there is a Homeowners Association (HOA). Anyways, one of the “perks” for this building is that the HOA pays for and provides internet for the building. I put “perks” in scare quotes because the internet freaking sucks.

What they did, was purchase a 150mbs line – which sounds good in theory. But then, what they decided to do rather than hardwire the condos is set the entire thing up as WiFi. Yes, WiFi for a 12 story, square building. To make matters worse, they didn’t even put broadcast points throughout the building. No, they put in a few central broadcast points and then, and this is great, they put in signal extenders. Signal extenders. So what this means, is that overall, the WiFi sucks because there are not enough access points and 150mbs is not enough for a 12 story building. More specifically, mine sucks ass because I am in the corner room, of a corner apartment, on a floor that only has a signal extender.

What this means, in sum, is that my internet doesn’t even work half the time, and the other times it’s only operating at about 4x the speed of dial-up. Dial-up.

This does not make for good blogging. Actually, it doesn’t make for good anything. I can’t Skype SB from my apartment, I can’t play vidya games with friends from my apartment, and I also can’t do my coursework from my apartment. Hell, I can’t even browse Google half the time. Subsequently, if I try to do a media-rich blog post (as this blog normally flaunts) it takes me as much as five minutes to upload one single freaking picture. Yeah, ain’t no one got time for that, especially yours truly.

If you are wondering how people in the building live with the crappy internet, most of them don’t. A lot just say “Screw It!” and get their own service. 1L Roomie is not one of them for some reason.

So, the idea behind the “Denver Check-in” post is exactly that, a check in that is limited to a max of roughly 1500 words. Don’t expect huge epic posts with lots of colors. My goal is to “check-in” once per week, but there are no guarantees. Within each “check in” I’ll highlight what has been going on that week (be it about beer, exploring, work, or beer), and try to include at least one photo from that week. I know we both like pictures, but I am not spending 600 hours uploading pictures, nope. [Remember I have to download it from my phone, then upload it to my blog – so it’s really like 10 minutes per photo]. Nor am I going down to the common room to write blog posts, not when I’ve already been forced to go there just to Skype, play games, or even do homework. The common room is prone to human kids and loud people. Two of my least favorite things in the world.

So there you have it. The “Denver Check-in” has been explained. Look for them to start appearing in the near future. They’ll be sequential, and lack cool titles – so it will just be: Denver Check-in #1, #2, etc. and then a word describing something substantive within the post.

I figure it’s better than nothing.

Until next time,
-Taco

A view of part of downtown from Civic Center Park.

The Beer List

May 29, 2015 by Taco

So, if you’re really, really observant. Then you’ll notice that I added a link called “The Beer List” over at the side of the blog (or you read this post, either or).

Anyways, more than likely, it’s new to you. This post is here to explain it.

One thing I’m sure you’ve noticed is that I talk about beer on this blog, a lot. Be it a dedicated “Beer Blurb” or a beer blurb that is inserted into a larger post. Either way, there is a lot of discussion of beer going on.

The weakness in covering beer one by one is that it leads to a bunch of isolated discussions. Sure, you can click on the “beer blurb” tag and see the posts, however, I felt like this method was lacking something. Namely, a centralized list of all the beer I had tried. And so the idea for The Beer List was born. It’s actually kind of funny, I’ve been meaning to write the introductory Beer List post since April 12. However, life being life, a lot of things got in the way. In fact, there were a lot of posts I wanted to get done before Denver that ended up not getting finished until I was leaving. This post is the final “planned” post of that group of posts I’ve been thinking about.

But enough about that, on to The Beer List itself.

So what is The Beer List? Well, it’s kind of self-explanatory. It’s a list about beer. More specifically, it’s a list of all the beer I’ve consumed. Yes, quite a task. In fact, I’m going to go on the record before the list has even been created and say that it will never be complete and it will never be fully retroactively accurate. I’ve simply had too many beers over the years to remember them all, and even those that I do remember might not get added to the list for no other reason than I forget to actually add them. Likewise, beers that I am currently drinking might not get added because I’m busy. All this is to say, that The Beer List is a work in progress. The goal isn’t really to complete, but rather to simple record.

So the way the list will work, is that I’ll start an alphabetical list of beer I’ve had. The beer will be listed with its name and brewery. If the beer has a link, it will be linked to a beer blurb post on this blog where I discuss the beer. I’m not going to just link to Beer Advocate (though I will continue to do so within specific posts) because that is less fun than me talking about it. However, if there is a beer I’ve had, yet haven’t discussed in a post on Dinosaur Bear, it will still be added to the list, there will just be no link until I do discuss it and/or post a picture of it. Pretty straightforward!

If there is a number in brackets after a beer (e.g. [2], [3], etc.) it means there is an additional review for that beer. This won’t happen too often, but it might in instances such as when I try a beer in a bottle and then a can, or in a bottle and then on tap, or straight from the brewery, etc. Generally beers are different enough in such formats to warrant a second look.

So, without further ado, let’s talk about a few beers which will be the inaugural brews on the list. The good news is that since I was very slow on getting this post done, there are even a couple of Denver beers!

1 – Samuel Adams Summer Ale – Boston Beer Company

I’ve been meaning to discuss this one for a bit now. As SB and I have been on a bit of a summer beer kick, this was a natural selection given our geographic location. Samuel Adams Summer Ale is a wheat beer and it comes out of the gate with a lemon zest typical of summer brews, but it also has an interesting grain flavor. There also seems to be a better of a “pepper-like” ingredient in the spices, which makes for a zingy, yet refreshing beer. While this is a good summer wheat, its fairly par for the course for a Samuel Adams offering and for summer beers in general, though the pepper spice is worth a mention. The 5.3% ABV balances nicely with the spicy tones as well.

2 – Summerfest Lager – Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Sierra Nevada is a good brewery, especially considering how “macro” it is at this point. So when I discovered that they had a summer beer, I was excited to try it. SB actually gets props on this one, she brought home the six-pack as a surprise for Tristen. This lager has a great color with a near pilsner-like foam. Definitely has all the citrus tones you would expect from a summer brew, but there is a nice blend of hops that show through as well, which is actually pleasantly surprising given that this is a lager. The low ABV (5%) coupled with a crisp carbonation make this a refreshing choice.

3 – Scrimshaw Pilsner – North Coast Brewing Company

This was the first of the three “random” beers I picked up at Broadway. Originally I was going to get a mix-a-six, but decided to go with a mix-a-three to save money (plus we still had some of the Sierra Nevada Summerfests in the refrigerator). I chose the Scrimshaw because I hadn’t had anything from the brewery before and because I liked the label (advertising pays off – see this post for a similar experience). This pilsner is little darker than one would expect, that when paired with the crisp body makes for an interesting and frothy pour. The flavors are also on point, in fact there is almost an earthy, cracker like undertone to the mouthfeel. The contrast between the darker tone, refreshing yet grainy flavor, and the light mouthfeel that goes with the 4.4% ABV make this a beer worth trying.

4 – Summer Love – Victory Brewing Company

Like Scrimshaw, I bought this one because I hadn’t had any of the breweries offerings before. While the label wasn’t as appealing, I thought the name of the brewery “Victory” was kind of cool, and reminded me of something from the WWI/II era. Summer Love, if it wasn’t obvious, is a summer ale. Its different approach apparently lie in the German malts that are added to the hops, which elevates the ABV ever so slightly up to 5.2% ABV. The flavor comes from North American flowers, which when combined with the German malts give this a rather unique flavor for a summer ale. The more subtle citrus flavors are surprising for a summer beer, so this is cool take on the normal summer recipe.

5 – Modus Hoperandi – Ska Brewing Co.

My first beer in Denver, Modus Hoperandi – coming from Durango, Colorado, was an IPA, go figure! It was also in a can, which might not have been what you were expecting, but it was free, and free beer is free beer. Aside from the cool name, this is actually a really good beer – and I don’t just mean good beer from a can, I mean this is a good beer in general. Clocking in at 6.8% ABV, this amber-colored IPA is strong in both flavor and body. At 65 IBUs its also got most of the hops you would expect from an IPA of that ABV. There is lot going on in this brew, from the musky pine start to the smooth hop finish. Its a well balanced, yet highly complex IPA. I’ll have to try more of them to pick up on all the flavors. Definitely a recommended IPA, don’t let the can stop you.

6 – Lucky U IPA – Breckenridge Brewery

My second Colorado beer – also an IPA, which I just now realized – comes from right here in Denver. Lucky U, which obviously plays to the horse theme Colorado has going (the horseshoe makes the “U” in case you are really slow 😛 ), is a 68 IBU brew with 6.2% ABV. There seem to be a lot of different hop strands in this beer, and the caramel and wheat malts don’t perfectly blend with each of the hop tones. The result is that the malt shines through more than the hops, which is odd for an IPA. It’s not a bad flavor by any means, it just doesn’t fit the typical IPA bill. It’s still a worthwhile beer though, if for no other reason than that it is a unique twist on a baseline IPA.

And there we go. 6 new beers reviewed, and 6 inaugural beers added to The Beer List.

So head on over to the list if you want to see what it looks like. For now, it’s list containing the same exact 6 beers you just read about. But like I said, its work in progress. 😛 It will continue to grow as I write more beer blurbs, retroactively add beers – either from this blog or before it – and as I have the time to work on it! In the end, it will be a nice reference point to keep track of all my beers.

~~By and large, I would not expect it to progress a whole lot while I am in Denver.~~ [Crossed out text in June, 2016 – Denver has sort of came and went 😛 ]

Also, if you know there is a beer I’ve had but it isn’t on the list, always feel free to tell me by commenting on this post, or any other beer related post!

Until next time,
-Taco

Denver Check-in #3 (Toys)

Denver Check-in #2 (Chalk)

Denver Check-in #1 (Dinosaurs)

Denver Check-in: Introduction

The Beer List

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