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Beerporn: Editor’s Choice

November 12, 2013 Author: Scott
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Tuesday is Editor’s Choice award day on http://hashtagbeerporn.com. We are giving out an Editor’s Choice Award each week to the picture we think best represents beerporn during that week. As an ongoing feature on Indy Beers each week I’ll be posting the Editor’s Choice winner from #Beerporn. Remember, anyone can join and post pictures of beer to http://hashtagbeerporn.com.

This week’s winner is cleveland_joe. Good beer on a man-cation.

http://hashtagbeerporn.com/2013/11/04/new-hampshire-man-cation/
Halloween, Beer, and Candy

November 8, 2013 Author: Scott
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The candy

As with last year, and the year before that, Halloween this year was another great night of fun with kids and candy, and as always, the adults loved the beer. Candy, I give away a lot of it, I mean A LOT, but it’s for the kids and they love it!!!

Pizza

My family comes over and we have pizza before the evening of kids comes trick-or-treating to our door. I forgot to get a picture of the pizza before everyone started eating.

The setup

I had about 120 kids stop by and went through all of the candy as well as about two and a half cases of beers. It’s fun watching the adults decide which beer they’re going to try. This year’s Sam Adams sampler pack had Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Ruby Mild, Hazel Brown, Octoberfest (which I also had a case of), Latitude 48 IPA, and Boston Lager. The Harpoon sampler had Octoberfest, Rich and Dan’s Rye IPA, IPA, and UFO Pumpkin. I also had four packs and six packs of Shipyard Pumpkinhead, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Schlafly Pumpkin Ale, and a growler of Ellicott Mills Brewing Company Sleepy Hollow Pumpkin Ale.

Me getting a beer!!!

This year, for the first time ever (I have been doing this for about 10 years), someone brought me a beer. I had a woodchuck pumpkin. It tasted a lot like the inside of a pumpkin, not really my kinda beer, but I was happy to get one I haven’t tried!!

Charlie Brown was once again shown on my garage.

I bring up my projector and put It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on my garage door. A lot of the kids end up hanging around for 10-15 minutes watching while their parents have a beer.

Too many choices.

I give away lots of candy every year with a slight twist. There is a game I have all the kids play where they reach into a bag and pull out a poker chip. Most of the chips are white (and I change the odds as needed), but if they pull out the black chip they win an entire sleeve of candy. This year I had a bunch of halloween themed toys, too, and they were a big hit.

Showing the young ones how to grab a handful of candy.

What was your setup like this year? Does anyone else give out beer or do prizes?
Beerporn: Editor’s Choice

November 5, 2013 Author: Scott
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Tuesday is Editor’s Choice award day on http://hashtagbeerporn.com. We are giving out an Editor’s Choice Award each week to the picture we think best represents beerporn during that week. As an ongoing feature on Indy Beers each week I’ll be posting the Editor’s Choice winner from #Beerporn. Remember, anyone can join and post pictures of beer to http://hashtagbeerporn.com.

This week’s winner is Vampkel. Cool effect of the bar being lit.

http://hashtagbeerporn.com/2013/11/01/green-flash-west-coast-style/
Beerporn: Editor’s Choice

October 29, 2013 Author: Scott
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Tuesday is Editor’s Choice award day on http://hashtagbeerporn.com. We are giving out an Editor’s Choice Award each week to the picture we think best represents beerporn during that week. As an ongoing feature on Indy Beers each week I’ll be posting the Editor’s Choice winner from #Beerporn. Remember, anyone can join and post pictures of beer to http://hashtagbeerporn.com.

This week’s winner is Scott. Small breweries are a great place to find new beer.

http://hashtagbeerporn.com/2013/10/25/shorebilly-brewing-fist-pumpkin-shorebillybeer/
Beerporn: Editor’s Choice

October 22, 2013 Author: Scott
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Tuesday is Editor’s Choice award day on http://hashtagbeerporn.com. We are giving out an Editor’s Choice Award each week to the picture we think best represents beerporn during that week. As an ongoing feature on Indy Beers each week I’ll be posting the Editor’s Choice winner from #Beerporn. Remember, anyone can join and post pictures of beer to http://hashtagbeerporn.com.

This week’s winner is Husar. Game time while drinking is always fun.

http://hashtagbeerporn.com/2013/10/15/date-day-with-connect-four/
Beerporn: Editor’s Choice

October 15, 2013 Author: Scott
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Tuesday is Editor’s Choice award day on http://hashtagbeerporn.com. We are giving out an Editor’s Choice Award each week to the picture we think best represents beerporn during that week. As an ongoing feature on Indy Beers each week I’ll be posting the Editor’s Choice winner from #Beerporn. Remember, anyone can join and post pictures of beer to http://hashtagbeerporn.com.

This week’s winner is Scott. With Halloween around the corner, it’s good to see the Pumpkin Ales coming out.

http://hashtagbeerporn.com/2013/10/08/ellicott-mills-brewing-company-sleepy-hollow-ale/
Ellicott Mills Brewing Company Crab Soup Contest

October 9, 2013 Author: Scott
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The annual crab soup contest at Ellicott Mills Brewing Company was a great success in good fun and raising money for a local charity. There were 6 contestants, with 2 types of soup being tasted (traditional Maryland crab soup and cream of crab soup).

The soup contest had arrived.

The sheets the judges were to use for scoring.

The contestants began arriving.

Drinking was started.

The contestants pots were lined up and ready.

Timmy gave the judges the rules.

The bar was packed and ready for the contest to begin.

Contestant #1, you’re up.

This was my favorite of the day.

And in the end, the judges agreed.

There were also a few cream of crab soup entries.

Kel’s score card for the event.

The football games were on during the contest.

Everyone had a good time.

The contestants and judges pose for a shot.

Third place.

Second place.

First place.
Beerporn: Editor’s Choice

October 8, 2013 Author: Scott
Comments Off

Tuesday is Editor’s Choice award day on http://hashtagbeerporn.com. We are giving out an Editor’s Choice Award each week to the picture we think best represents beerporn during that week. As an ongoing feature on Indy Beers each week I’ll be posting the Editor’s Choice winner from #Beerporn. Remember, anyone can join and post pictures of beer to http://hashtagbeerporn.com.

This week’s winner is cleveland_joe. This the season for some pumpkin ales.

http://hashtagbeerporn.com/2013/10/06/schafly-pumpkin-ale/
Beerporn: Editor’s Choice

October 1, 2013 Author: Scott
1 Comment

Tuesday is Editor’s Choice award day on http://hashtagbeerporn.com. We are giving out an Editor’s Choice Award each week to the picture we think best represents beerporn during that week. As an ongoing feature on Indy Beers each week I’ll be posting the Editor’s Choice winner from #Beerporn. Remember, anyone can join and post pictures of beer to http://hashtagbeerporn.com.

This week’s winner is Husar. Black and white with a skull sounds like a winner to me.

http://hashtagbeerporn.com/2013/09/28/confluence-brewing-thomas-beck-black-ipa/
Lagunitas Brewing Company Skunk Train Trip

September 27, 2013 Author: Scott
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My wife Kel recently won a trip to go to CA to visit with Lagunitas Brewing Company and join them for a weekend of camping fun and a ride on the Skunk Train. The trip was a lot of fun, and here are the pictures, and the tale, from the trip.

Arriving at Dulles airport at just after 6am to catch our flight.

We prefer flying direct, and BWI had no direct flights.

So we hopped on the plane from IAD to SFO.

The SFO Airport.

We landed and had some time to kill before we were going to meet with the group, so we had a beer.

We met up with the group outside…

And we all headed over to the chartered bus.

And let the real fun begin!!

There was beer on the bus…

And we made sure to get ours.

Time to resupply.

Nothing like beer to make a long drive better.

We made new friends along the way.

Leaving San Francisco, and we went by Alcatraz…

And across the Golden Gate Bridge.

A few hours later we arrived in Petaluma…

The home of Lagunitas Brewing Company.

There was food for us in the Laguminiamphitheaterette (yes, that is the name).

It was a good spread…

And Kel and I enjoyed our plates.

Lagunitas runs a 24×7 operation, and that is very large.

Leaving the brewery it was time to head to the campground.

Of course, there was more beer to be enjoyed on the ride.

Kel took a little nap while I continued to drink.

Arriving at the Willits KOA campground and we got our wristband…

And had to sign a waiver.

Bernie was there to greet us…

And he took us to our tent for the weekend.

Lots of treats for us, including some homemade cookies!!!

Looks like we are in for a wild weekend.

Here is the schedule for the weekend.

Seeing it was dinner time, we headed to the red barn. There was beer to be had everywhere.

Live music could always be heard somewhere.

The eating area was really nice…

And it was a great night out for star gazing.

It had been a long day, so Kel and I had one last beer before calling it a night.

The next morning it was Skunk Train time.

The band was already playing as the train rolled into the campground.

There was only one roofless car, and it filled up fast.

It was a lot of fun riding in an open train.

The scenery was great.

We decided to enjoy the second half of the ride sitting inside.

Almost 2 hours later we arrived at our destination in Northspur (the train only traveled at about 13Mph/20Kph).

The stop was in the middle of a great redwood forest.

Again, there was plenty of food.

Northspur was a quaint little daytime destination.

We roamed around and had a look at the area.

It seemed the area could hold a lot more people than the size of our group.

Find Kel.

A different band, The Highway Poets, were playing when we arrived.

They were a really fun bluegrass band.

There was a very steep hill on the other side of the train tracks and Kel, Bernie, and I decided to climb up.

The view from the top.

Some of the trees were scorched from a fire, and Kel is showing her dirty hands.

Group shot before heading down. (also the last shot of my sunglasses before I lost them 15 minutes later)

This is where I think I lost my sunglasses. I was skipping stones with everyone, and I think they fell in the water.

The time had come to head back to the campground.

A little reading for you about the Skunk Train.

The band that played on the way out, played on the way back, too.

We stood outside for a little longer on the way back.

When we got back to the campground there were plenty of activities to enjoy.

Beer drinking (of course that activity was always happening).

Volleyball.

Disk Golf.

I walked to the camp store to see what they had for sale, and was not impressed with their beer selection (I’m guessing the Lagunitas was only in there for the event).

Kel wanted to take a nap…

So I went to get more beer, but I noticed the decal on the truck was wrong.

On this side the writing is correct…

On this side it’s backwards. I have no idea why.

Dinner was almost ready…

Corn in a keg.

Some beef.

Chili.

As I headed back to the main area, lots of other campers were heading in for dinner.

I saw this little camper on my way back.

It’s a very cozy little trailer.

With some storage in the back.

Most of us, however, were camping in the tents.

There were a few cabins, too. Not sure how it was decided who was in the cabins and who was in the tents.

The band was playing a little pickup session.

So I stayed for a little while to listen.

Sold in the camp store, these Mystical Fire packets were in high demand.

This is what they did to the fire (notice the colors on the right).

This night was more of a quiet evening of just sitting around the campfire.

Kel was happy to be next to the warmth of the fire.

Although this was a fire of a different sort.

At around 11pm we ducked into our tent for the night.

The next morning it was time to say goodbye to the KOA.

We arrived back at the brewery, and I used the WiFi and NFL Sunday Ticket to watch the Ravens game at the bar.

But we are asked to join an expedition to Point Reyes, so we decided to join the adventure.

It was a rag-tag group of us that enjoyed the rest of the day together.

We started walking around the downtown area of Point Reyes.

Small and touristy…

But a very enjoyable time.

This bar happened to have Lagunitas on tap…

So we all enjoyed a round together.

From there it was up the coast to Nick’s Cove for lunch.

They, too, had Lagunitas on tap.

The menu for lunch, if you’re interested.

The food was really good, and I would recommend going.

We checked out the pier behind the restaurant…

Before heading back to Lagunitas Brewery.

To Lagunitas Brewing Company.

The brewery was empty, as it was closing time…

But we got behind-the-scenes access to the store.

So many things I’d like to buy…

But not enough luggage to bring it all home.

We walked from our hotel…

We were then given access to the brewery.

There was grain milling going on at the time.

We were allowed the special treat of going into the loft you see upstairs in the background.

This is a very cool area above the brewery. You may have seen it in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NOBhmRHPUA

Of course, it was time for more beer.

Kel enjoyed relaxing while taking in the sights.

I took a few pictures of items of interest in the loft.

Lots of cool stickers on the fridge. I should have brought an IndependentBeers.com sticker.

An odd bar stool.

Me behind the bar with Bernie.

Lagunitas is very large, and it seems they can’t make enough beer.

From the brewery we headed across town…

To the casino…

For more drinks before calling it a night.

The next morning we got back on the bus and headed to SFO.

Our trip had come to an end, but we’re very thankful for Victoria Gastro Pub, and Lagunitas for hosting us. Fun times!!!!