I’m enjoying a nice flavored latte – mocha, if it matters – at my local coffee shop this morning, and it occurred to me that I haven’t posted in several months. Don’t worry, I’m not dead, I’ve just been busy being blocked creatively. Writing a blog post, even one as meandering as one can be, isn’t just a matter of sitting down with a keyboard. The words don’t just come, the ideas on what to write about can be too many or too few, and I’ve spent many hours at the taproom with my keyboard on the bar, waiting for my muse to return.
Owning a blog is a lot like having a gym membership. You get back what you put into it, you can ignore it for months on end, it costs you money no matter if you use it or not….you know, it’s just like that promise you made to yourself to lose 20 pounds or whatever. You just kind of have to wait until you’re motivated enough by something around you that it breaks your complacency. In this case, I’m just feeling the need to write without having the direct inspiration to write about something in particular.
It’s mid-July, and the world has just about gone fucking crazy. Politically I lean very liberal, so this current administration and the damage they’re doing to our institutions pains me greatly. I know people who’ve lost their legit government jobs, and it’s hard to reconcile ‘living healthier’ when all the actual science we’ve done over the last centuries has been thrown out the window (by someone with a fucking brain worm, no less). Anxiety acts as a giant block when you’re trying to brainstorm, and the feeling of impending doom that stems from the shit going on in our government gnaws at me sometimes when I’d rather be relaxing. It has definitely impacted my writing – I don’t even have any unfinished drafts from the last few months, it’s that bad. Usually I start stuff, intending to return edit and finish everything up, but I haven’t even done a draft since maybe December. I’ve been busy, though.
Here and there
I’ve made two trips to Iowa in the last 12 months to visit a friend, and sample some of the Iowa beers that whisper to me across the miles. The difference in distribution in Iowa compared to New Mexico is plain to see at the Grimes, Iowa Hy-Vee, which features a long, long wall of refrigerated local beers from all four corners of the state. It was nice to once again spend several minutes simply taking in the variety before even attempting to pick something from the shelves, something I’ve missed here in NM because they simply do not have wide scale distribution outside of the largest 4 breweries (and the selection from those larger operations is spotty at best). The craft beer section at my nearest grocery store in Albuquerque is 4 doors of the cooler section…and currently Modelo Especial takes up two other doors in the isle. It’s depressing when I consider all the excellent beer here.
I also made a weeklong trip to central Massachusetts to visit family, and was spoiled awfully when my brother took me to visit 2 different Treehouse locations – Treehouse being the go-to brewery for real ‘east coast’ hazy beer. They’ve made themselves into quite the destination, with the purchase of a sprawling office complex to host music events year round, on top of their existing locations spread across central Mass. I could write an entire post about their operations, but when I’ve reached out to them in the past I was ghosted after a single reply. It seems they may not be interested in free publicity, not that they need any. *Shrugs
All three of these trips were really just about visiting family, and the beer hounding took a backseat to other activities since the kids are older and you know, family stuff. I still dream about going from place to place, visiting local breweries to write about them and the local scene, but there’s no legitimate way to go about doing something like that without a generous donation from someone. My folks get to tour the country in a very nice motorhome, and my dad has visited dozens of small operations over the past 15 months, going around living my dream without once writing about any of it. *Sigh
I’ve got to fit my travels into their schedule, ironically, as I’ve got caretaker duties that preclude me from taking off for more than a few hours at a time. That also means I value my travels even more…if there’s anyone out there interested in hosting a beer nerd like myself in a new city, email me (jeff@). I’m always looking for new travel adventures, but my meager income means I’ve got to be thrifty about it. Someday I’d like to travel to Germany and do Oktoberfest properly, for instance, but financially I don’t know how to make that happen. Just throwing it out there, if anyone happens to have an open couch in September in a nearby town in Germany let me know.
Back Home
In local news, our weekly beer group has expanded. The Old Man Beer Hour Club (TM) (R) has been meeting once a week at local taprooms for more than a year now, initially a small group of family friends (mostly retired) that has grown to include more friends. Our current Thursday at 3:30 time slot means we get in before the dinner rush, and out just in time to hit evening traffic. We’ve had beer hour at most of the local taprooms that have some sort of food offering, preferably an actual food menu but settling for food trucks at a few locations…it’s been informative.
As I’m the foremost beer nerd in the group, I’ve taken us to several newer places in ABQ, from Brekkie Brekkie to Dripline, and several places in between, while the other guys usually settle for a place we’ve been before like Quarter Celtic. There are plenty of choices for the weekly spot, and we’re currently recruiting new members. Just kidding, if you’re in ABQ and would like to be a part of the Old Man Beer Hour, email me. We’ll get you set up. It’s just an informal group and anyone is free to join us, so c’mon down!
Scandalous
It’s just a small group of retired dudes drinking beer around town. Sometimes the ladies join us, but they’re mostly happy to leave us to the hard work of beering in peace for just a few hours a week. Hard to say what we might get up to in our average 2 hour session. I won’t tell here…
IPA CHALLENGE
I managed to get out to a local beer event last weekend – the IPA Challenge, held at Canteen Brewhouse for this particular round. I got myself in the door not long after noon for a 2 hour ‘session’ to sample 16 beers and drink a pint of the one you liked the most. It was a blind tasting without any kind of ranking effort, so winner takes all. All the beers were specially made for the challenge events, so I wasn’t familiar with any of them ahead of time.
2 hours is more than enough time to sample 1oz of 16 beers, but the problem is they get warm quickly, so my judging was slightly skewed by the time I rounded 16 and made my choice for favorite IPA – frankly, trying 16 different-but-really similar IPAs with only a few serious differences between them is kind of tedious, especially if you’re trying to keep track of those differences. One stood out above the rest, and I was ready to go by the time the next session was due to start and a line was forming by the New Mexico Brewer’s Guild tent.As usual, I probably would have hung out a while longer but I was solo at this event, and made my way home. I was gone for less than 3 hours.
This is more or less how my adventures go these days, just a few hours out of the house to try some beer at someplace new. I really wish there was a decent beer shop here in ABQ so I could at least try new stuff at home instead of driving all around town for a few pints at best. I look back at my time in Oregon fondly, and hope one day to return….
Until then, I’ll be back with more exciting and entirely too personal news soon. You don’t want to miss the kind of weird shit I might talk about next!