A (Long) Weekend in Beers

As you can see from my last post, my Labor Day weekend started off with a half day of work Friday and lunch over at the Blue Door. I've been even more of a fan of Founders since we visited them in Grand Rapids and their Red Rye was exactly what I was craving that afternoon so didn’t venture into some of the other great stuff they had on tap.

That night we headed over to the Blue Nile for Al’s Battle of the Belg, Part I. I freely admit that Belgians are not my beers of choice and had anyone, really anyone else been having this event I probably wouldn’t have gone. But Al always does such a great job with his special events for us beer geeks that I couldn’t not go.

Between Mag and I going the (3) 4-oz for $8 route we made it through nearly everything. This is where I am happy to report that I had a lot of great beers! This would be no news to anyone who enjoys Belgians but it was a revelation for me. I went into the evening with the same mindset that I do at beer festivals and that is, “well, I might as well try it now and if I don’t like it, no big deal but there are few chances to taste things I would avoid if I had to order a full pint of it.” My descriptions aren’t very good but my clear favorite of the night was Ommegang Rouge. Ommegang, you need to bottle this ambrosia!

Saturday I was mostly on my own as Mag was out at the Ren Fest doing judging for the homebrewers. I had intended to make it up to Town Hall for pint club but the day got away from me. In the end I did make it up there, but first made a return visit to the Blue Nile with Kat and Scott for, yep, you guessed it, more Rouge. While there wasn’t anything that really caught my eye at Town Hall I knew I couldn’t go wrong with more of their Traditional.

Sunday was the day we had picked to hit the Ren Fest this year and while you can’t expect super beers out there we were hoping for some Flat Earth. Turns out as they were pouring the first one we ordered the keg blew. After making the full rounds and determining none of the other stands had any either, I made do with Schell’s (Oktoberfest, Pale and Stout) as well as a couple glasses of mead. My long weekend was very much enjoyed, beerwise and otherwise…hope yours was, too!