What do a Sounders game, a beer potluck & Uber Tavern all have in common?

My weekend. That's what.

Sometimes I arrive at the end of my weekend with the thought: "What the hell was I thinking?" Now that thought can be based on many an incident but in this case it was centered around too much partying while fighting off a cold. Which. Will. Not. Die.

So here I find myself on a Monday at zee Berry thinking that I could use a nap/cuddle/stronger medication, and simultaneously wondering if I'm going to make it through the upcoming week/weekend of beer events. More on those later, here's what I've been up to over the last few days.

Hump Day

Started to get sore throat about halfway through my work day. Chose to ignore and proceed as normal, decided to skip Ice Cream Social at The Red Hot in favor of extra sleep. No delicious dairy confections paired with Schooner Exact's Seamstress Union. Sigh.

 Thursday

Woke up feeling additionally crappy, was advised by friend to drink tea and ignore existence of cold. Decided that if I wanted to go to the Sounders game that night, I'd have to make it through 5 hrs of work first. Survived 5 hours of paid slavery, picked up MGD, then stopped by the Schooner Exact tasting room for pints of Seamstress Union (!!!) that I missed out on at said Ice Cream Social. Rolled up into Sounders game and had a blast. High scoring, great energy & Big Al's Brougham Bitter on tap. WinWinWin all around.

Met up with Big Al, Micah and a multitude of other fwends for a post game drinkup at Sluggers, a sports bar across the street from Qwest Field. Them peoples is crazy. The good kind of crazy. Okay, MY kind of crazy. An after party is never complete without an after-after party so we all headed to DC's in Renton after Sluggers. I certainly know that I had fun because I remember taking part in some Kung-Fu at one point. Yeah... Plus, I can't read my beer notes very well. Something about "but I play one on T.V." (definitely don't know about that either, but HA!). Things get fuzzy after that.

 

Friday

My day off and thank the sweet flying spaghetti monster for it. MGD & myself spent all day in bed. And when I say all day, I mean ALL day. I think there was a random food run around 2p (in between Firefly episodes, best sci-fi series EVA!) amongst bouts of sleeping/coughing/whinging/sneezing but we really didn't get up & civilized (showered & wearing pants) until abouts 6p. And only then because we had a Beer Potluck to attend at Amocat Cafe in Tacoma. Here's a run down of the awesome beers and randomness that ensued (as per usual at a beer share) during the course of the evening.

Homebrews totally dominated the evening, check out who brought what below.

Matt LaCroix (one of our fave home brewers and not only because he brings me Pho-King tofu sandwiches & delicious cranberry ale, he's a rad guy to boot) delighted us with a beer made from grain of the barleywine he entered (& we judged) at the Parkway Pro-Am Homebrew competition and his Cranberry Winter Ale made with effing Craisins. I know, right?! Went home with a few extra bottles cause I super heart it and cause he's super generous.

Kenny Thoburn (of Wingman Brewers in Tacoma) provided some interesting bottled beers that he (Wingman) didn't make and I didn't try, but after a long conversation about how much I hate smoked beers he felt it necessary to run back to the brewery and grab us something called Ham Beer. Not an official Wingman beer but something Kenny dreamed up, brewed & bottled quite some time ago ago. It's been sitting there getting all aged 'n shit, just waiting for it's destiny to come to fruition. Fate would have it that Ham Beer's destiny would be too offend my mouth. Well done Kenny. :) At least he gave me some bourbon barrel aged Wingman Porter right out of the fermenter to chase it with. Mouth hole happy, once again.

Walked away with a M&M pint glass!

Charles W. Smith (of Monocle & Mustache Brewery) brought us some of his Sour Mash to try as well as his Robust Porter/CDA. The Robust Porter was a winner in Parkway Tavern's recent Pro-Am competition. Over the last 2 potlucks, I haven't had a beer of his that I didn't immensely enjoy and I am excited to try more in the future. This time he had the whole family in tow, which made for a group of eclectic & diverse tasters. And by family I mean his wife, sister, etc. Not his kids, so settle people.

Morgan Alexander (Amocat Cafe owner and the host with the most for Beer Potlucks) is starting to remind me of Bill Nye zee Science Guy. Or at the very least, I feel that we are turning into his beer guinea pigs at these little get togethers, what with all the random stuff he makes us taste and supply feedback on. We had 3 awesomely interesting porters:  Root Beer, Cola & Pomegranate. The first 2 were very complex and tasty but next time I'd appreciate some ice cream to throw in there buddy... A pomegranate porter was very nice as well. Morgan has ambitions to recreate his own version of Pliny the Elder so his experiments have been dubbed as the Pliny Killer Project. We tasted versions #3 & a modified #4 this evening.

Goes good with smeat too!

BrauHaus dudes brought a 4 yr old Cherry Barleywine (uh... holy mouth happy), Hessian Weizen, Goes Good with Meat (yes that IS the name and I was informed that it also goes well with Sea Meat, like fish 'n clams 'n stuff. Smeat, hahahaha!).

Bootlegger Beers leftover from MGD's trip
SKA Brewing - Modus Hoperandi IPA & Summer Blonde Ale (Colorado)
3 Floyds - Dreadnaught (Indiana)
Salmon Fly Honey Rye - Honey Rye (Montana)

Other beer-pearances were made by Trade Route's Hoppy Bitch IPA, Anderson Valley's Summer Solstice (extremely good & sessionable) as well as a Growler of Schooner Exact's Seamstress Union. Which I managed to 'splode all over my pants upon opening, shocking. There was a ton of other brew present as well but either we didn't get around to drinking it or I didn't write them down.

'Twas a lovely evening of revelry although there are some things I'd rather forget. At one point I overheard the term 'Chicken Nipple Sauce' being used. Don't wanna know, glad that convo was at the other end of the table. I also feel comforted knowing that the best meat Kenny T. has ever tasted has been that of the meat off a rabbit's face. Wow. That story I DO know and wish I could forget. Sick.

Ended the night in a cozy booth @ Puget Sound Pizza enjoying our fave pie & the Stranger 'I Saw You' ads before calling it a night and heading back to the ranch.

Saturday

Feel sicker upon waking, I'm sure it had nothing to do with the Potluck beers. Hate life in general and experience most boring day of work ever. Somehow manage to talk my way into having a Red Bull delivered before quitting time then headed to Lakewood to watch one of my good buddies perform in the musical: Sweeney Todd. Epically hilarious, so very much laughing managed to wash away any feelings of grossness for a bit.

Sunday

Feel even sicker all night, manage to fall asleep by 3a. Wake up at 4a after a nasty nightmare, refuse to go back to sleep due to sheer terror of having same dream. Body gives in around 4:45a and sleep until 8a. So yeah, feeling great! Time to go to Seattle to watch rugby. Lay/nap/feel like death in sun for 3 hours, achieve patchworky sunburn due to lackluster effort in sunscreen application. Eat lunch and attend Uber Tavern's 5 yr anniversary party so we could sample their special offerings which included: Cascade 2009 Sang Noir, De Proef K-O (Knock Out), Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast Stout & a Boneyard Notorious IPA3. Stayed long enough for MGD to take in all my pitifullness and declare it time to go back home to the 253.

Delicious Sang Noir with some bomb party mix.

During said trip he was promptly informed that my whinging and pathetic-ness would increase exponentially during the drive, thus landing us at Safeway for medicine & animal crackers. It has to be stated that my dude is very sweet and has the patience of a saint. You think I'm a handful when I'm 100%? Try me at roaming temperatures, lame coughing fits and constant nose blowing. Not to mention a side of medicine induced nonsensicalness to shake things up a bit. Good times all around. At the very least, I'm sure he finds me amusing.


Which takes us to Monday. Still feeling pretty nasty but it's survivable. It was a great weekend filled with interesting beers, fun people, new experiences and the usual good times we like to roll with. Freakin' Mazal tov.

Just another manic ThursdayFridaySaturdaySundayMONDAY

the pissed liBEERian

Sporting a Bustard Eagles scarf at DC's

Photography courtesy of MGD & my own bad ass skillery
Editing & 'what the eff are you talking about?' by MGD