Parkway delivered!! And it's a...

...another amazing brewers night! Of the New Belgium varietal this time. What were you hoping for... a boy? A girl?

The following New Belgium options were on the lineup for our enjoyment, the ones I tasted are in bold:

• Dunkelweiss (cue the tutoring session on dunkels... can't remember how many minutes passed before I started tuning out but I think I learned something)
• Le Fleur Misseur (which got us all speaking with a froggy accent for a half minute after reading the title)
• Vrienden (a collaborative brew with Allagash, means 'friends' in Flemish. DELICIOUS!)
• Trippel
• Abbey
• Ranger IPA
• Trip VII Winter Here, Summer There
• Fat Tire Firkin 

Missing in action were the Fall Wild & Trip VI Fresh Hop. I only did a tiny pout for Parkway Sean since those were my 3rd & 4th choices of the night. Being the nice guy that he is, he gave me a new list with both options crossed off so I would stop asking for them repeatedly.

A tasty little spread!

My top picks for the night were the firkin'd Fat Tire and Vrienden Ale. The Vrienden Ale is very balanced with the perfect amount of dry, sour finish. Very sessionable, I could enjoy a few without having my mouth go into a perma-pucker. Brewed with endive and hibiscus, a lovely ruby color & floral bouquet. I really loved it. Plus I can officially add 'Tasting a Fat Tire on Firkin' to my Bucket List (& cross it right off) because I know my life (& soul) are more complete for having tried it. You have not had Fat Tire until you've had it from a firkin. It's ridiculous.

The Trip VII Winter Here, Summer There was delicious as well. One of my minions in training (also an avid home brewer and Black IPA lova) enjoyed it immensely and enjoyed a nice slap in the head from me when he got a hop leaf in his mouth and spit it out onto the floor. He has obviously not been schooled in the art of ghetto laminating dried hop leaves. I guess certain allowances must be made for those who haven't gone through their full training... sigh.

As usual, the schwag saga continues with a winning ticket for all three rounds. I won 2 Ranger IPA pint glasses, a super sweet New Belgium T-shirt (which I let TPG3 pick out for herself since she was awesome and arrived at Parkway early to get us the good spot I instructed her to), and the grand prize of a Patagonia embroidered New Belgium messenger bag. I didn't realize how nice the bag was until everyone back in my little corner of the tavern got super upset at my ignorance (& 3rd win) and excitement over winning it with my '253' ticket. Hahahaha, suck it bitches! Not to mention my unbridled, genuine, enthusiastic, sound-barrier-breaking yell of 'RIGHT HERE, WINNER!!!!!' every time my number was called. Like I can contain that? Guess I now know why Basil (Minion Edition 1.5) lovingly told me I really don't need a megaphone when I told her I wanted one.

Seat belt strap, cha!

As I left Parkway for the night, I had so much stuff to carry out that I 'accidentally' bumped into a few people. Since I'm a super polite gurl, I felt the need to throw out a 'sorry, pardon my winnings!' and 'oops, did my new bag bump you?' It was a grand evening with a ton of laughs, awesome ales, chats about Teen fiction and beer. Basically a Pissed LiBEERian night made in heaven. Also planned out my next road trip to a few 'must visit' breweries in Bend & PDX.

Stay tuned for more awesome stuff coming to Parkway! They have a host of brewers nights coming up in the next few months and Odin's Freya's Kolsch ale will be on tap soon. Plus... an amazing lineup of Russian River beers will be showing up at an undisclosed date/time. Think all kinds of lovely sours, the Elder & the Younger.

Hardly considered dry and a sour finish you couldn't dream of handling,

the pissed liBEERian