beer blurb – Page 5

Back to School – 2L Begins

September 8, 2015 by Taco

So my summer has finally come to an end.

While I know that I’ve done all sorts of crazy stuff this summer, from temporarily moving to Denver, and working for the Department of Justice, to taking business school classes, to hiking in the Rocky Mountains, taking a train up Pike’s Peak, visiting Lexington and Concord, and so on and so forth, it actually doesn’t feel like I’ve had a whole lot of summer. I suppose that is the downside to being so busy, time tends to fly.

In light of this and some other factors, I’ve been a bit down lately. I’ve also literally been down, but more on that in second. By “down,” I also mean unenthusiastic about law school. Things I was previously looking forward to I now dread, that sort of thing. I’ve really been questioning my law school path lately, so it has trickled into pretty much everything else going on in my life, even those things completely unrelated to law school itself. However, I’m being proactive about this and trying to see what can be done and then I will evaluate it from there.

As for literally being down, I ate bricks today (9/7). I was out for my run when my foot caught one of the many uneven bricks that dot the Boston landscape, and I just plowed straight into said brick sidewalk. To make matters worse, I was running downhill. So not only did I fall into uneven bricks, I slid on them. I quickly got back up on my feet and hobbled back home (fortunately I was only about 5 blocks away – which seems a lot longer when you are bleeding).

Luckily I had no major damage. I sliced my left hand pretty good, and I had cuts and scraps in 7 or 8 other places. I also had more than a couple bruises and some spots of road-rash. My left hand, right knee, and elbow took the blunt of the impact. Of everything, I’m most worried about my knee as it is still pretty painful and a little swollen. My right wrist is still just a little bit swollen, but it’s gone down over the course of the day. While I’m lucky I didn’t get hurt-hurt, it’s still the worst fall I’ve had while running since at least childhood. I can now say from experience that bricks do not do a very good job of breaking your fall, especially when those bricks are uneven.

But, not everything has been ho-hum leading up to the start of the semester (which is tomorrow, 9/8). SB and I have been having fun where possible, even if its something as small as getting Biscuit and Gravy flavored potato chips.

Yes they are a thing and yes they actually taste like biscuits and gravy.

We’ve also had more than a couple beers around the ole’ apartment, including a tasty and bold (if not quite strong – 7.1% ABV! – and it isn’t even a double) IPA from none other than Great Divide.

1. Titan IPA – Great Divide Brewing Company

I thought it was funny that I’d never had Great Divide before I went to Denver and then it “followed” me back to Boston. And as if one Colorado beer wasn’t enough, we also tried a single from the Left Hand Brewing Company (located in Longmont, CO).

2. Left Hand Oktoberfest – Left Hand Brewing Company

It had a mild, yet enjoyable, Oktoberfest flavor, which was surprising given the decent ABV of 6.6%. I was a fan.

However, we weren’t content to only have a Colorado Oktoberfest, so we of course had to get a hometown contender. While Samuel Adams might be the “King of the Hill” for Oktoberfest in Boston, we decided to wait a bit longer for Sam and give Harpoon’s Octoberfest a try.

3. Harpoon Octoberfest – Harpoon Brewery and Beer Hall

Being Harpoon it of course didn’t disappoint. However, I did think it was interesting that even though the Harpoon’s ABV was quite a bit lower than the Left Hand (5.3% vs 6.6%), it had a much more stout Oktoberfest flavor than did the Left Hand. Both were good and I’d recommend each of them, albeit for different reasons.

In addition to drinking beers at home, we also crossed some more things off our Boston Bucket List, such has having a picnic at Boston Common!

A fresh bluefish roll, apple cider doughnut, and unicorn blood (yes unicorn blood) – a perfect picnic on a nice summer day.

Plus, to make it even better, all those items came from local vendors, courtesy of the Boston Public Market!

After eating our yummy picnic, we headed over to Cheers, which we had been meaning to do for quite some time.

Of course we had to have some beers while at Cheers (yay rhymes!), and we went with a Samuel Adams Summer Ale and a Samuel Adams Brick Red, both of which are tried-and-true favorites of ours.

I’ll leave it up to you to guess which one is the Brick Red.

We were pretty fortunate to even get a high-top table, even at 2:30pm Cheers was PACKED, and I do mean PACKED, and we weren’t even eating. But I would guess that Cheers manages to stay pretty busy and based on their prices they need only sell one french-fry to make a profit on any given day. But it’s kind of against natural law to not get a beer at Cheers if you live in Boston.

On a rare completely-not-related-to-alcohol note, we also revisited Pleasure Bay and Castle Island. This time it was a bit less about history and a whole lot more about being lazy in the sun, and fortunately the weather was very cooperative (plus we didn’t even have an public transit issues!).

While relaxing on the beach we met Walter, a seagull, who in addition to making meth also enjoys bread.

In fact one could say he probably enjoys bread too much. Once we stopped feeding him he just sat there (until chased off by a small child) telling us his sorrowful stories of woe and misfortune. It was actually pretty funny, he was clearly communicating with us that he wanted more bread.

After a bit of sunbathing we walked the 1.84 mile loop around the bay.

Which brought us out to Castle Island and Sullivan’s, where we had a light lunch. On the way we also passed Fort Valentino, a gift of King Tristen.

Later that night, we were sitting in the living room relaxing when we started hearing loud bangs outside, after convincing Tristen that war had not started (much to his dismay), we realized that it was the Labor Day fireworks out over Boston Harbor. Sadly we couldn’t see them from where we are, but we could definitely hear them. However, a local TV station remedied the visual problem.

Watching fireworks live on TV while hearing them outside was an interesting and cool experience. There was about a 2-3 second delay between the explosions on TV and us hearing the sounds. Once you factor in the distance traveled by the sound wave, it’s crazily impressive that a camera can send a signal to a satellite, then a satellite to a station, and that station to a broadcast tower, and that tower to the cable lines, and the lines to our TV in a matter of seconds. It’s easy to forget how wild technology is.

Today (Labor Day) was set aside as a productivity day. I have a job interview tomorrow (it is actually supposed to end at the same time that this will get posted) that I had to prepare for (in addition to homework for my first classes, amounting to about 170 pages of reading) so it was sadly time to buckle down and work. Of course becoming one with the brick sidewalk put my productivity on hold for a bit, but all things considered, I ended up getting just about everything I needed to done. We even had time to go up to The Biscuit (Ritch) to have some coffee, sandwiches, and a plumb-ginger scone – that we shared with some of the little birdie buddies (the only downside was that it was just so hot out)!

It was really good, not too sweet – just right

So, that was really all I had to share. I just wanted to touch base now that my summer is officially in the rear view mirror (at least as of this getting posted). Unfortunately I can’t report that I’m very excited about that prospect, but we’ll see have things start to unfold once my schedule normalizes, since between my clinic and new classes and a new position at my journal, things are going to be very chaotic for a bit. My hope is that this down period is just a phase, but we’ll see what happens – the first thing on the list is getting through my interview tomorrow, and I’m less than thrilled about having to walk 1.5 miles in a suit when it’s supposed to be 92 degrees, but at least I have a job interview I suppose – I just wish it hadn’t fallen on the first day of classes and that I hadn’t battered myself up this morning (will make getting the suit on a fun time).

I’ll likely share more about 2L, my clinic, and my classes in an upcoming post.

Until next time,
-Taco

Beer Blurb – 8/29/15 (Tröegs)

August 29, 2015 by Taco

Hello all,

Just a short Beer Blurb for today. SB is actually back home visiting family, so it’s just me and the boys here at the homestead this weekend. Naturally this means that ample quantities of beer shall be flowing. Of course ample quantities of beer are always flowing in this household, but being alone for five days is just an added excuse to get more beer.

Deciding what beer to have for our “Bachelor Pad” weekend wasn’t much of a challenge, we’d been eyeing Tröegs for awhile now, and after SB brought home a six pack of the Sunshine Pils, we knew it was time to spring for the sampler pack.

The Tröegs Anthology Sampler Case

So a bit about the Tröegs brewery. It’s actually named after its founders, the Trogner brothers (John and Chris) and is currently located in Hershey, Pennsylvania (meaning that Hershey has both beer and chocolate and is therefore pretty much a mythical land of wonder and joy), though it actually started in Harrisburg, PA. So far I’ve really enjoyed what Tröegs has to offer. Sadly, they are a limited distribution brewery for freshness purposes so they don’t ship too far and wide, but they ship to me, so that is all that matters. 🙂

All beers are from the Tröegs Brewing Company.

Anyways, if you remember from my Restaurant Week 2015 post I actually one of the sampler beers already, the Sunshine Pils.

1. Sunshine Pils

After having it again, I’d have to say that my opinion is pretty much unchanged. Not that that is a bad thing, as I liked it the first time. It’s definitely a clean beer, and the noble hops came out even more the second time around now that I know to look for them. The lacing was still crisp, but not quite as pronounced, that might either be a batch thing or just me focusing more on the hops, which is easier to do with the 4.5% ABV. I still recommend this one.

2. Dream Weaver

Ok, so taste aside, this is probably the best name for a wheat beer I’ve seen in awhile (if not ever). It was pretty much impossible not to sing Dream Weaver, while drinking it, or maybe that was just because this was my second beer, either way, it was a happy moment. As for the beer itself, it was a pretty good 4.8% ABV Hefeweizen, nothing super exceptional, but definitely on the better side. It is a bit hazy, typical of a wheat, but it’s more thin than it’s color would suggest, and the carbonation is higher than you might imagine. The typical hefeweizen notes of banana, clove, and lemon (or citrus in general) are all present, but none are overpowering. So definitely a good beer, but I’ll remember it more for its name than for being a “stand-out” wheat beer.

3. Tröegs Pale Ale

This was an interesting pale ale. I felt like it was some sort of hybrid cross between a pale, an amber, and a red. It has a clear light amber pour that is darker than a normal pale ale, at least slightly. Lacing and body are normal for a pale, but the flavor is fairly complex with elements of pine and spice alongside the typical pale bitterness. Still, the more amber-like sweetness lingers alongside the hop elements of the pale. Honestly I don’t think is a strong example of a purist pale ale, but that said, it is a good hybrid beer and I’d recommend it if you aren’t a stickler for true-to-form recipes.

4. Hopback Amber Ale

So admittedly I don’t drink amber ales as much as I did about six or seven years ago. It’s rather weird, I was sort of indoctrinated in red and amber ales (alongside wheat ales), but I don’t drink them that often anymore. This isn’t because I don’t like them, but rather because there is a huge IPA fad right now. So, in light of that, Hopback plays to the strengths of both a traditional amber as well as the new “hop” craze that is sweeping microbreweries. There is a finely tuned balanced of hop and malts to this beer, in a way you’d not normally encounter with an amber ale. While this isn’t as much a hybrid at their pale ale is, it’s still not an entirely traditional amber, but again, they pull it off well. The malt-like sweetness didn’t sit as well with the other balanced tones, but still, it definitely would get my recommendation to anyone who likes amber ales.

So overall, I really think that the Sunshine Pils is probably my favorite beer of the bunch. Tröegs seems to like tweaking classic recipes, be it something as mild as extra carbonation (Dream Weaver) to a complete twist on the norm (Pale Ale). However, rather than failing at it, they seem to do quite a good job. I’ll need to drink more Tröegs to get a full opinion, but right now I find a hard reason not to recommend them, even if they are overly consistent in their flavor profiles.

And that wraps up this Beer Blurb. I’m now going to go back to procrastinating on all my assignments that are rolling in despite the start of the semester still being ten days away.

Until next time,
-Taco

P.S. – There is a wooden sculpture of what appears to be an eagle taking shape at the school near us, I noticed it during my run.

Restaurant Week 2015

August 21, 2015 by Taco

Hey all,

So after several months of blaming my laptop, it turns out that it was WordPress causing my images to upload sideways all along. Yes, I have no idea why, but at some point one of WordPress’ updates caused any photo taken on my mobile phone that was taken vertically to upload sideways. It had never done this in the past and it’s the only website/program/etc. that does it. As of yet, I have no been able to figure out how to fix this. I tried a couple of plugins for WordPress, which of course did nothing (aside from break things), but it’s very, very annoying regardless.

Anyways, not much has been going on around the homestead, while, nothing too interesting that is. Mainly I’ve been trying to wrap-up my business school classes (final exam is next Tuesday, the 25th), deal with some medical appointments, and get ready for the upcoming school year, which sadly is going to be here pretty much any day now. Of course there has also been some relaxation, inclusive of some extra Starbucks trips and pops (“rops”) though Tristen gets frustrated when he runs out of pop and SB still has some, to the point that he threatens to dump hers down the toilet.

So far he’s never done it. So far.

Of course where there is coffee and rops, beer is sure to follow.

1. Sunshine Pils – Tröegs Brewing Company

SB actually picked this one up. I’d been wanting to try Tröegs for awhile now. I’d seen them around Broadway quite a bit (they are a Pennsylvania-based brewery, so no surprise there), and Beer Advocate generally rates them well (speaking of Beer Advocate I recently got the 100th issue of their print magazine, it was pretty interesting). I’m also a big fan of summer beers and I’d never had a summer pils before.

Side note: A “Pils” is a pilsner, however, when you see “Pils” it is normally referring to a German Pilsner, which is a bit different than an American Pilsner, though both are lagers.

SB didn’t seem to be as enthused about Sunshine Pils as I was, as she seemed to be expecting more of the traditional summer wheat flavors, which obviously a pils isn’t going to offer. That said, I enjoyed it, it was a very clean beer with strong hints of noble hops and a crisp bit of lacing. At 4.5% ABV it’s also definitely a sessionable beer.

Also on the topic of beer, we decided to clean out our beer cap jar.

Those are an assortment of bottle caps from beers that have been drank since March 22nd of this year. It does include some Colorado beers as I carried my caps home for this reason. What it doesn’t include are any beers that I got out and any canned beers. Additionally, there are sure to have been a few that I simply forgot to save. So I think you could probably increase this by about another 1/3 and then you’d get an accurate representation of how many beers this household tends to drink (with a solid 90% of them probably going to yours truly).

We decided to remove the duplicates and take one of each and put it into the milk jar (seen above). We started the mason jar over again (not pictured). While this does mean that certain breweries like Harpoon, which don’t have different caps for different varieties, loose out in representation, it does make for a cleaner long-term cap collection. We recycled the bent duplicates, and gave the unbent duplicates away for art projects.

Now, moving away from beer (odd, I know).

About the post title.

Each year the greater Boston area has what is called “Restaurant Week.” In a nutshell, this is a program designed to get people out and eating, to support the local economy and stuff like that. To make it actually worthwhile, participating restaurants come up with special menus for Lunch and/or Dinner. These special menus are normally (but not always) cheaper than the regular menu. So in essence, the week provides a way to sample a restaurant for less money, or at the very least sample more food from a restaurant for less than normal. As you can see from the website, there are a wide variety of places.

While, for SB and I, it would better be called “Restaurant Day,” since even at the reduced prices most of these places are not the kind of place we can afford to frequent. We ended up deciding on lunch at Toscano, where they were offering a 20$ three-course lunch (or a 38$ dinner, so we did lunch, obviously). Now, if you remember from my last post, I’m not big on Italian restaurants these days as I feel like they exploit their genre for overpriced strands of flour. However, as I also said last time, it’s not the food I don’t like, it’s the price and general “pretentiousness” of many Italian places. So, while I’d probably never have gone to Toscano on an ordinary day (despite it being highly recommended), this was a chance to try it out, and they actually had a fair amount of stuff that wasn’t overpriced pasta.

This was their three-course “Restaurant Week” menu.

I got there first, as SB was off doing big people things in preparation of her new placement. I was pretty unimpressed by the host, but fortunately things improved from there. We decided to have one of us get the 20$ three-course menu, while the other would just get a cheaper regular menu item (this was actually at the suggestion of our server, we were expecting to have to pay 40$). I opted for the three-course menu, while SB went with a Tuscan Panini. We were also served a very good flat(ish) bread with our meal.

For the appetizer of my menu, which was obviously shared, I went with the “Speck e Melone” which in Murkan’ is prosciutto with ripe melon.

We both agreed, it was very tasty and the blend of sweet and salty was just right.

For my main course, which was shared to a lesser extent, I went with the “Spada Picatta” which in Murkan’ is sauteed swordfish with lemon, capers, and a white wine sauce.

Both entrees were quite good, SB’s panini was a bit more crunchy than we are used to, but it tasted amazing. It had been years and years since I’d had swordfish. While it probably hasn’t been quite that long, the last time I definitively remember having it was when Meem still worked at the Old Bank.

My three-course dinner also included dessert, of course (*ba dum tss*).

We went with the Tiramisu, because SB and I love tiramisu. However, this wasn’t your ordinary tiramisu.

It was hands down the most fanciest-panciest tiramisu I’ve ever had in my life. It was also very, very rich. Rather than a just a light cocoa dusting, this tiramisu also added in a ganache, as well as some sort of sweet cream that regular tiramisu doesn’t have (and it of course had all the regular stuff as well, such as the lovely espresso-soaked lady fingers). Overall we both liked it, but I think it was just a bit too rich for tiramisu, which I normally like precisely because it isn’t too rich. The presentation however, was awesome.

So it was a good lunch. We spent less than we were expecting (always a plus) and got to try something new.

After lunch SB went with a friend to the Museum of Science. Her friend had two “City Pass” tickets left that were expiring. I’ve been wanting to go to the Museum of Science for awhile now, but unfortunately, like everything else out here, it costs a small fortune to go (23$ for one adult), and they have no student discounts. So I passed, but I’m glad at least one of us was able to go.

This weekend should hopefully be fun, as we are going to visit Aunt Train and go on a short Lexington and Concord trip! The major unknown factor at this point is the weather, it’s supposed to rain and storm all weekend. Yeap. Me and rain, we just have lots of fun together (though to be fair I did enjoy running in the rain this morning while listening to Disturbed’s new album Immortalized, for the first time).

So hopefully that will work out, it’s kind of our “mini-vacation” for August.

Until next time,
-Taco

Back in the Boston Groove

August 17, 2015 by Taco

Hey all,

So as discussed, I’m back in Beantown.

The boys were pretty happy to be reunited all together in their own home.

As a way of celebrating our return, we went out to Boston Beer Works, which is part of the “Beer Works” chain (such as the Salem Beer Works we visited while in Salem). Like when we visited at Salem, we had to go for the Watermelon Ale, but this time we also tried out their Bunker Hill Blueberry Ale.

1. Watermelon Ale – Beer Works

2. Bunker Hill Blueberry – Beer Works

The Watermelon Ale was just as good as I remember, and the Blueberry Ale was pretty good as well (bonus points for actually putting watermelon and blueberries in the beer!). The food was also tasty.

However, the service was lackluster and the place was pricey, so overall we won’t be in any rush to return (we liked the Salem location more), but the beers were good. As usual, I’ve also been trying out some new beers at home:

3. Fresh Slice – Otter Creek Brewing

I’m really liking the IPAs from Otter Creek, such as Fresh Slice (a white IPA) and the Backseat Berner I also had recently.)

I also found a squirrel beer. Yes, seriously.

4. Light – Mighty Squirrel Brewing

Sadly, it wasn’t very good. The “Mighty Squirrel” brewery, found right here in Massachusetts, focuses on making low carb, high protein beers. It’s an interesting concept. Because I’ve been having heartburn pretty bad lately, I opted for their “Light” version, which was a mistake. It was pretty low quality. I’ll have to try the regular version before I give a final verdict, because I really would like to like a squirrel beer.

5. Live – Southern Tier Brewing Company

Live, a session pale ale, is yet another strong showing from Southern Tier, I’m enjoying exploring their selection lately.

In addition to the fruit beers from Beer Works, SB saved me some strawberry lager she got while I was gone (yay SB!).

6. Strawberry Harvest Lager – Abita Brewing Co.

I wasn’t as big of a fan of this brew as the Beer Works fruit beers, something about the strawberry flavor tasted “fake.” It was hard to put my finger on it, but I’m not sure I’d seek this beer out again, at least not in a six pack, I’d probably give a single another try.

Beyond beer we’ve also kept busy, such as venturing out to Watertown for the first time ever.

The cool thing about Watertown is that it’s entirely submerged in the Charles River.

While in Watertown we went shopping at Target, which was packed and basically a Wal-Mart. We also tried to eat at place called Friendly’s (think DQ) that has adorable commercials. But we didn’t, because they completely ignored us and were in no hurry to you know, actually serve customers. So Friendly’s sucks and is blacklisted, sorry cute baby on the commercials. Overall the trip to Watertown did not please me.

What did please me was my “Welcome Back!” cake I made for myself. Well, it was supposed to be cake, it ended up looking like someone mashed cupcakes onto a plate and then put mayonnaise on them.

But it tasted good, which is what matters. It was loaded up with fresh blueberries too, much to Valentino’s enjoyment.

And as if cake wasn’t enough, we celebrated National S’mores Day (August 10th) with a S’mores bar from none other than Hammond’s Candies!

While of course not as a good as a real S’more, it was a nice stand-in. So far I’ve been fairly impressed by Hammond’s chocolate bars (I’ve had the S’mores and Red Velvet varieties).

This past week saw us eating even more food, as on Thursday we went out with one of SB’s friends to the North End to an Italian place called Al Dente.

The North End has a cool “old city” feel to it.

Long story short, I was not impressed by Al Dente, it was stupidly expensive, it was way too loud, the service was crappy, I got heartburn from my salad, and yeah, that’s really all I’ll say about that. Truth be told, I’ve realized I’m not a huge Italian restaurant fan anymore. It’s not that I don’t like the food, it’s that somewhere along the line someone decided that it was ok to charge 25$ for a plate of fucking noodles. Yeah, no thinks, it’s called Ramen and it costs like 50 cents.

The next day, we had a much better dinning experience when we went out with Aunt Train to an Irish Pub in the Back Bay called MJ O’Connors. On the way there we saw a castle, oddly placed in the middle of Boston.

It took all of 3.5 seconds for Tristen to claim it.

Aunt Train had originally given us two options, MJ O’Connors and another Irish Pub (notice a theme?) however, I decided on MJ O’Connors without even looking at their food menu. Know why?

This is why:

That dear friend, is a genuine on draft Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA, my first Dogfish on draft, ever. It was glorious. It was all that was good and holy in the bottled version of the 60 Minute, which an extra touch of Baby Jesus magic. It was the best IPA I’ve had in a good bit and I’ve had a lot of IPAs lately. In addition to the Dogfish I had a Stella Artois, another Fresh Slice, and Wormtown Be Hoppy IPA, all of which were good, which isn’t hard when you’ve drank four beers. 🙂

Aunt Train was having them mix lemonade and Stella, for a makeshift shandy (or radler if you prefer the Deutch), which was actually pretty good!

The food was good too.

Mmm buffalo mac n’ cheese and a shepard’s pie.

Of course we don’t just eat out, sometimes we make things ourselves! (Ok almost all the time, but what fun is a cup of cereal to blog about).

That is a homemade, whole-wheat pizza with uncured pepperoni slices, goat cheese, and fresh squash. All of that is to say, it was yum!

We of course paired on pizza with beer, though the beer came later and wasn’t really paired with the pizza at all but pizza is an excuse to buy beer.

7. Take 5 Session IPA – Harpoon Brewery & Beer Hall

While I was quite sad to leave Odell behind, It was nice to get back into Harpoon territory. As usual, Harpoon didn’t fail to impress and this was a solid Session IPA that even SB enjoyed! We actually had some of it and some popcorn while starting a puzzle with the boys last night.

We finished it this afternoon, and it is actually the second time we’ve done this puzzle (those green grassy areas are a bitch).

And that pretty much closes out my first almost-two weeks back in Boston, it’s been a bit of fun, but a lot of work as well. I’m still in my Business School classes (final exam is on August 25th), I’m back in physical therapy, I have law school stuff piling up already (such as an ultimatum I was given to either “Accept a promotion [Increasing my work about three fold] or quit the journal.” I was not pleased), an I have a myriad of other appointments, tasks, and duties on top of that.. oh and I have to start applying to job for next summer, yes already. So I haven’t had as much video game time as I wanted, but c’est la vie. The cool thing is that we are taking a mini-vacation, partially with Aunt Train, out to Lexington and Concord next weekend, so that is pretty exciting!

Until next time,
-Taco

Denver Check-in #10 (SB Adventures & Farewell)

August 10, 2015 by Taco

Hello again from Denver! (well sort of)

So as I alluded to late time, this tenth post in the Denver Check-in series will also be the last. I’ll probably write up a brief “wrap up” post next, but this will be the final check-in post. I’m not going to even bother with the word limit.

The big highlight was that on the 29th SB finally came out to see me! At 10 weeks this was the longest we had ever been apart. We met up as she came into town (which was just shortly after I got off work) and being us, immediately head over to a brewery. We had decided on Wynkoop, which had previously visited for a tour, but hadn’t ate at. We of course had some beers.

1. Mile High IPA – Wynkoop Brewing Company

2. Orchard Wheat – Wynkoop Brewing Company

We also got some tasty vittles to go with the beer.

After dinner we headed back to the apartment (I had to work a half day the next day) and Tristen and Valentino were reunited! (“at rong rast”)

The next day after I got off work we headed up to northern Denver to check out Hammond’s Candy Factory.

We took public transportation which was a bit of a trip, but nothing too bad. We actually were able to slip in right as they were beginning a tour, thus saving us a 30 minute wait. The tour itself was short but sweet (*ba dum tss*). It was pretty cool getting to watch them make huge amounts of candy by hand though.

The tour of course drops you off in the gift shop. Among other things SB and I picked up a Pumpkin Pie Candy Cane. Yep. It was good.

After Hammond’s we exchanged the sweet tooth for a beer tooth and headed down to Great Divide Brewery.

Their facility tour was pretty interesting since it was a relatively new location (not Great Divide itself, just the building was new). But it wasn’t anything exceptional and there were no free samples of beer, which is odd. So SB and I made up for that and got a beer to share ourselves.

3. White Water Wheat Ale – Great Divide Brewing Company

Of course maybe that was the point of no samples. We also picked up some shirts because they were really cool. Sadly, mine shrunk beyond comprehension (despite the girl telling us it wouldn’t shrink) and so I can’t wear mine.

After the brewery we had diner reservations at Ophelia’s Electric Soapbox. This quirky restaurant is actually inside an old brothel. Interestingly, Ophelia’s is one of three “sister” restaurants. The other two are Root Down and Linger. Linger is housed in an old mortuary (not sure about Root Down). Since it was Happy Hour and it had been at least 20 minutes since our last beer, we got some more.

4. Red Banshee – The Fort Collins Brewery [Left]

5. Apricot Blonde – Dry Dock Brewing Co. [Right]

This is one of my all time favorite photos I’ve taken of beer.

We of course paired those Happy Hour drinks with some Happy Hour bites!

Tristen rather enjoyed the duck wings.

After Ophelia’s we headed off on a semi-long walk out to Little Man Ice Cream. This was my second time nomin’ it, but it was my first time experiencing it with SB.

Bet you can’t guess which of these was chosen by a female.

After Little Man we had a bit of trouble with the buses, but it was a forced excuse to walk off some of that ice cream.

The next day we went and picked up Sylvan, our friendly Subaru Impreza Zipcar, and headed off to the hills (literally). The first stop of the day was the famous Red Rocks Park & Amphitheater.

It was a gorgeous day and we set off on the “Trading Post Trail” which clocks in at around 1.4 miles, so nothing major, but it still offered up lots of amazing views.

We of course checked out the amphitheater itself, with all of its 9,450 seats nestled into the only known naturally acoustically perfect spot on the planet.

A lot of people use the stairs for exercise when a concert isn’t going on. SB and I took a pass on that one.

After Red Rocks Tristen and Valentino drove us over to Dinosaur Ridge.

Tristen had been flipping out to go to Dinosaur Ridge since our first day in Denver when he discovered a brochure for it.

Dinosaur Ridge was exactly that, a big ridge (which is actually part of the larger Dakota Ridge). The difference is that it was LOADED with dinosaur fossils and traces – at least until humans came along and stole most of them. That said, there are still fossils and traces to be seen even in the wake of the scientists. So, when you visit Dinosaur Ridge you can either walk the ridge for free (about 1.5 miles) or pay 6$ to take “Shuttlesaurus.”

SB and I opted to walk so that we could avoid the crowds and move at our own pace. While there were a lot of cool spots and bones, I think everyone’s favorite spot was the dinosaur tracks area. This whole ridge, despite now being a semi-arid, well, ridge, was once at the edge of a MASSIVE river that flowed through North America. So these Dino Feets’ were left behind in the mud.

The road was no longer in use, but you could still take the aforementioned shuttles, walk, or bike.

Once on the other side of the “hogback” at the top of the ridge, we were treated to a nice view of Red Rocks in the distance.

Being the troopers we are, we headed all the way down to the “end” of Dinosaur Ridge (you can technically start on either side – but we started on the side with the visitor center and dinosaurs for Tristen to meet).

We then touched the sign and headed all the way back to Sylvan and lunch. Afterwards we headed down to Morrison to see the Natural History Museum.

This was actually an impulse trip, as SB had seen a brochure for it while we were at the Dinosaur Ridge visitor center. So we decided to head down and check it out and maybe give the rain a chance to pass, since it had looked like it was about to rain for awhile now.

Turns out, it was a good choice, we both really enjoyed the museum. We just missed a school-bus load of kids (thank God) and so we were pretty much given a private tour of the museum. We even got a chance to help uncover dinosaur bones ourselves! And no, I don’t mean the gimmicky kind. I mean a real fossil, with real tools, in a real lab. That is the benefit of being the only two visitors in the entire museum. We both ended up learning quite a few things and definitely had fun.

However, our rain plan backfired. When we came out it started raining, after not having so much of a drop of rain while we were in the museum. The next stop was Lookout Mountain, so we headed off towards part of the Lariat Loop (which I had elected to take rather than the faster interstate) and the rain caught up to us on the way. Fortunately, it didn’t last too long and it had passed us by when we started driving up Lookout Mountain.

Once we made our way up to the top (7,379′) we were greeted with some amazing views.

We also had a bird’s eye view of Golden.

Notice how large Coors is.

And then there, far off in the distance was the Jewel of the West, Denver.

Lookout Mountain is also the final resting place of none other than Buffalo Bill himself.

Both Cody and his wife Louisa are interred at the peak of the mountain. Buffalo Bill is actually pretty interesting. I’d suggest you read the link above to get some information of the man behind the legend. For instance, did you know he was both a proponent of environmentalism, conservationism, women’s rights, and native American rights in addition to all the other stuff he was famous for like being a scout and a showman? Probably not.

Once we had partaken of some delicious Colorado-made root beer and a buffalo burger from the cafe at the top of Lookout Mountain (how perfect), we headed back down the other side of the Lariat Loop which was far more curvy, but Sylvan handled it just fine with his magical features and AWD (Sylvan only had about 6500 miles on him). Since it was still a bit early and Golden was just down the hill (literally), SB found us a random brewery called Golden City Brewery to go check out. It was more backyard and less brewery, no really.

However, it’s really all about the beer, and the beer did not disappoint.

4. German Pale Ale – Golden City Brewery [Left]

5. Evolution IPA – Golden City Brewery [Right]

This was further proof that there are so many breweries in Colorado that you have a decent chance of stumbling upon one in a random backyard.

After that we ate dinner in Golden at Woody’s Wood Fired Pizza (we went for the big salad bar), and were able to skip a pretty substantial wait by our willingness to sit outside. Then all of us (including Sylvan) headed back to Denver for the big day tomorrow.

The big day was a trip all the way down to Colorado Springs courtesy of Gray Line. Well, courtesy of us paying them to take us. The first stop of the (very early) day was the United States Air Force Academy. More specifically, our first stop was a Vietnam-era B-52, the thing was freaking HUGE.

With dozens of bombing missions and some confirmed fighter kills, Tristen was enamored.

Manries.

The next stop was an overlook of the main facility area of the academy itself, complete with a nice view of its famous chapel.

When you stop at the visitor’s center you actually have to go on a short hike to get to the chapel, we did, obviously.

It was pretty awesome, all the stained glass and tinted windows gave the appearance of artificial lighting, but it was all natural.

Next up on our trip towards Colorado Springs and Pike’s Peak was Garden of the Gods.

Garden of the Gods was PACKED. So our pompous tour bus didn’t really have a chance to stop, but by and large it seemed similar enough to Red Rocks that I don’t think either SB or I were too disappointed that we didn’t get a chance to spend a lot of time there.

We did get to make one stop at the “Balancing Rock” though, which was pretty awesome, and also packed.

After exiting Garden of the Gods we had lunch (part of our tour package) at a nearby trading post and then headed to Manitou Springs, home to the famous Pike’s Peak Cog Railroad (which is the highest railroad in North America). The railroad was actually originally funded in 1889 by Zalmon G. Simmons, of Simmons Mattress fame (but he was rich for many other reasons as well).

The Railroad is one of two ways us fats can get to the top of Pike’s Peak these days. One is to drive (yes, there is a dirt road to the top) the other is to take the train, which is actually more scenic. Sure, you can still hike to the top like the good ole’ boys did, but like I said “us fats.” I think the only option that previously existed for rich fats that no longer does is the horse-drawn buggy to the top, though you can still see the 100 year old path due to how slowly the tundra grass and fauna grow and heal.

Anyways, point of the story, we took the railway.

And boy what a cool trip it was! Actually, it was literally a cool trip, as it was only 49 degrees at the summit (whereas it was in the mid 80s in Manitou Springs).

Eventually (it’s a 1.5 hour trip one-way) we were making our way closer and closer to the tree line.

The train ride itself was pretty nifty, as the cog rails allow the train to traverse as much as 25% inclines, whereas normal trains are limited to 3-4% grades.

The treeline eventually gave way to open tundra, where we were greeted by some Pikas, Yellow Bellied Marmots, and Big Horn Sheep, as well as some increasingly vast views.

The train takes you all the way to the summit, and I do mean all the way to the summit. In fact, it pretty much takes you right to the edge of existence.

Once at the top Pike’s Peak offers up some incredible views that photos just don’t even begin to do justice for.

And although the photos don’t really cut it, you can begin to understand why Katharine Lee Bates wrote “America the Beautiful” based on what she saw while looking out from Pike’s Peak.

After a bit up on the chilly summit (14,115′) it was back down the mountain on the train, which was a very sleepy trip! Then it was back to Denver where we ate dinner at a funky sandwich shop named Snarf’s.

No relation to ThunderCats.

Then SB and I went to visit the Big Blue Bear and then headed home, a nice end to a long day.

The next day, Sunday, was more of a chill day. We started off with brunch at Syrup, which actually has a location in the building where I work. So while we were waiting (breakfast places are oddly popular in Denver) I was able to show SB my office and around the building. Before to long it was noms’ time, and nom we did.

I had blueberry buckwheat pancakes with blackberry syrup and a side of butterscotch syrup, while SB went with an eggs Benedict with corned beef! Both were quite yummy.

Afterwards we traversed around the 16th Street Mall for a bit, just so SB could take some of it in. I actually got to see a few new sights as well, such as rock climbing.

As well as paddle-boarding. Yep, paddle-boarding in the middle of a street.

After walking around the shopping district for a bit, we hopped on the light rail and headed a bit south to make our tour at Stranahan’s Distillery. I am not a big whiskey person (sadly) and so I hadn’t toured a distillery since Scotland. That said, I was still pretty excited to check out Stranahan’s.

I was actually surprised by how similar the two processes of brewing (between beer and whiskey) actually are. One neat thing about Stranahan’s is that they actually have volunteers assist in the bottling and labeling process and payment is levied via pizza and a free bottle of the batch you assisted with (unsurprisingly the wait-list to volunteer is around 20,000 people long).

The tasting went better than expected, as it actually didn’t burn quite as much as I was expecting (despite being 94 proof). SB didn’t finish hers, but Tristen says that is because she is a “russy.”

After departing Stranahan’s we started heading home. We made a brief stop at K-Mart and then were planning on eating dinner and having drinks at the Fainting Goat Pub, but that didn’t end up happening as we still had lots of drinks at home, so we just grabbed from food from Trader Joe’s and ate at the apartment. We did close out the day with some ice cream from Sweet Action though.

This was the first time I’d been there since going with Meem and James, and their flavors had already changed a lot (which is what they are known for). In case you were wondering, the flavors we got were: Stranahan’s Whiskey Brittle (how perfect right after visiting the distillery), Biscuits & Jam, Peanut Butter and Jelly, and Coffee Brownie. If the flavors sound weird to you, don’t let that put you off, they were all yummy! (Biscuits and Jam was actually my favorite).

It was nice to be able to take SB to both Little Man and Sweet Action so she could join in on judging them. While it’s definitely close, I think we both found ourselves leaning a bit towards Little Man over Sweet Action, namely because Little Man seemed a bit more creamy, even if Sweet Action has more interesting flavors.

The next day it was back to work for me, as it was actually my last day in the office. Of course I saw “work,” but really it was more of a fun day. The other EES/EDS intern and I went on a trip with an attorney back up to Red Rocks to do some hiking (more extensive this time, about 6 miles). While I had pretty much just been there, I didn’t mind at all because it was a new area of the park and the company was different.

The overcast skies actually made for really good hiking weather as it was still pretty toasty outside.

After the morning hike we had lunch at The Blue Cow, a Morrison tradition, and then headed back into Denver (but not before stopping at a Safe Way to get a vegetable tray for the afternoon).

While there was a bit of work in the afternoon, it was mostly fun as well, namely our mini-golf tournament, held at Denver’s Skyline Park.

The course is only 9 holes, but its free and features landmarks from Denver, so it was a lot of fun. We actually had a competition for best score and for worst shot. I actually ended up winning the best score (and my prize was “Golden Tee” – which was funny and cute), whereas the NRS intern won the worst shot award by actually hitting the attorney the award was named after with her ball (unintentionally). You can’t make this stuff up.

After our golf-picnic we headed back to the office building and had our final Happy Hour at Hodson’s (I had two Odell’s 90 Shilling if you were curious). There we were given a few more gifts, such as a Department of Justice beer cozy and a Department of Justice beer stein (I’m not lying about lawyers and drinking). It was actually a bit sad, especially since the last day had been mostly fun it was kind of hard to leave everyone.

My boss and I headed out from the Happy Hour a bit early so we could go back up to the office and I could clear out my desk, shut down my computer, get the “Don’t tell anyone what we do here or you will die” speech, and then hand in my badge. I think leaving the office with my boss was one of the saddest things I’ve done in awhile, there is just something about handing over your badge that just exudes melancholy. While I knew I was only going to be there for 10 weeks, I’d had a really good time at the office and it was kind of hard to say goodbye to my little supply-closet-with-four-interns-space and all the attorneys, especially those who had taken me under their wing.

But life goes on and the interwebs make it much easier to stay in touch than ever. I also left on very good terms (a recommendation is waiting whenever I need it). So all was well and it was time to continue my journey.

But I wasn’t quite done with Denver yet, I still had one more night to spend in the Mile High with SB. So we dressed up nice and fancy and went to Appaloosa where we had a delicious final feast, including some jalapeno bread and bison sausage.

After dinner we headed over, or rather, up, to Peak’s Lounge for some drinks and watch the sunset (it’s on the 27th floor of the Hyatt).

I went with a Colorado Native [Left], as I figured it might be my last time to try it for awhile, whereas SB was adventurous and went with a gluten free beer.

6. Tread Lightly Ale – New Planet Beer Company [Right]

After sitting an drinking for a bit we decided to order some dessert, only to be told they were out of it after at least 5+ minutes of waiting. In fact the service as a whole was pretty slow and lackluster (aside from the manager who helped us when our server just continuously failed to appear).

That said, the views of the sunset were pretty incredible.

So all in all, a pretty amazing last day in Denver.

The next morning we were up early and making good time, only to find out that our flight had been delayed by two hours. Our flight ended up getting delayed by 3 hours, but it took off and we made it back to Boston, just much later than we had hoped. So we were pretty tired and pretty much crashed that first night (after waiting on our air conditioners to at least partially cool down the hot box our apartment had turned into, much to Bonsai Buddy Jr’s joy and the cacti’s dismay).

The good news is that I had saved a beer for myself way back in May before I left.

7. Backseat Berner IPA – Otter Creek Brewing / Wolaver’s

And because SB is a good SB, she had even purchased a few more beers to have waiting for me.

8. Tangier – Southern Tier

And even though I didn’t have either of these the first night back due to how late it was, they did make for a nice welcome home, even a belated one.

So ladies and gentlemen, that brings us to the end of the Denver Check-in series. It’s been a pleasure (mostly) to keep up with my time in the Mile High via Dinosaur bear. And while I technically wrote this from Boston (which is why I started this post off with “sort of” after my introduction), it was certainly Denver-centric and wraps us up nicely.

I’ll have “Things I Learned” reflective post coming up in the near future that is a lot shorter and more broad than this final check-in, but it will hit on some of my post 1L Summer thoughts in way that these check-in posts weren’t really meant to.

Until 2L Summer,
-Taco, Baby Lawyer Extraordinaire

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Back to School – 2L Begins

Beer Blurb – 8/29/15 (Tröegs)

Restaurant Week 2015

Back in the Boston Groove

Denver Check-in #10 (SB Adventures & Farewell)

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