Events Have Happened!

First off, sorry for the less than stellar cell phone pictures. But Dan and I went somewhere to which I figured I didn't need to drag my big camera. Yes, that's right, Dan and I had an event! And guess where we went?

Surprise! Somewhere beer-related! Specifically, the brewery of a local craft brewer, Rahr & Sons.

We went to their "VIP Pairing", which is basically a fancy excuse to drink beer and have some snacks. And even though I'm still not a big beer fan, I thought it was pretty cool! We had six different beer "samples" (in quotation marks because these samples were a generous eight-ish ounces) paired with six different mini-dishes made to accentuate a quality of the beer (or the beer to accentuate a quality in the food, for example the hops in one beer accentuating the heat in the jambalaya).

Check out the ABV of some of those beers. Yeah, Dan and I both were feeling fairly relaxed afterwards - and I only had half glasses of things!

  
  

Fortunately, there was a brewery tour after the tasting so I was able to work through the much smaller amount of beer I had had in order to safely drive us home. Dan, however, had not had small glasses (and had even had some of my beer) so he got to come home and put in an after-hours call to one of their work vendors while feeling... pleasantly relaxed.

The brewery tour was nifty, too. Rahr is a pretty small place so the tour (and the tasting before it) was actually run by their head brewer. So we got good information and got to poke around a tiny bit. It was surprising to see how small they were - easily the smallest brewery we've been to.

Beer folk always seem to be such an interesting bunch. Not necessarily home brewers like Dan (and a few of the other folks there) but the guys that make beer for a living. They seem to be a special breed - their style tends to be a bit homeless hipster with thick beards. And, naturally, they have their own brand of humor, too.

Yes, that says "Beer Recycling Facility (Restrooms)". Ah, beer folks.

Speaking of beer, why is it that I end up with so many beer-related things on my blog? I still don't really like beer. (Well, excluding a tiny number of wheat beers that I enjoy, but Dan tells me that I'm extremely particular.) But really, thanks to Dan's home-brewing I have an appreciation for the art of beer-making even if I don't typically like the (commercial) results. Even with my personal lack of beer-love, I totally give our first real event of the year a big ole thumbs up! I wouldn't be surprised if we end up doing more tastings there.

Hmm, I wonder if there's a place that runs regular tea tastings...