LeBREWSKI!!!

Took my first cruise recently with a focus on craft beer.  Yeah, it was pretty great.  

Before we left for the cruise:  

2/13 - I had a Nashville new brewery crawl with my baby today with stops at Bearded Iris Brewing in Germantown where I had a Suspicion English-style ale and a sip of Ashlee's Lady Friend farmhouse ale.  Then at Smith and Lentz over in East Nashville I had the Munke, their dunkelweizen (dark wheat).

2/18:  I had a couple Homegrown Tap Room half-pints today including the  Lava Lake Wit from Crazy Mountain Brewing (CO),  and a Porter from honorable-mention favorite, Green Man Brewing in Asheville, NC

I finished with an Evolving Hare:CITRA IPA session ale from Red Hare Brewing who's rep was in building (thanks for the sticker!).   These guys hold a special place in my heart because they have a Watership Brown Ale named after my favorite book, Watership Down.  I have yet to try it, but hope to soon with a visit to the Atlanta area or around here since they are distributing in Nashville now.

I was on my way to a show in Nashville with my friend, Danny, to see a relatively new band with some real old-time rock-n-roll sound, Rival Sons out of Long Beach California.  They did not disappoint as the brief video below will attest:

2/20 - I went by Chattanooga Brewing with my baby again today for another new-to-her brewery stop.  I had a sip of her Winter Warmer and I had the spicy and delicious Habanero IPA (photo below) and then a half-pint of the Chestnut Street Brown (Nitro).    There beautiful new facility and their great beer  makes these guys probably my favorite brewery in this town right now.

2/21 - We were still in Chattanooga today and I had a 6 Hop IPA  from Rogue Brewing (OR) at Taco Mac with lunch.

Check out the cool ingredient for a burger dressing that we got recently from the always-delicious Blue Apron home delivery service.  The smell and taste of these were great!

the more you know...

When the chance to go on a cruise with some of our favorite bands on it, plus a theme of the classic film, The Big Lebowski, AND CRAFT BEER, at a great discount...how could not go!!  Welcome to The LeBREWski Cruise!!

2/27 - Before boarding the boat, we hung out in South Florida for a few days :

I had a Hop Gun IPA by Funky Buddha Brewing in nearby Oakland Park, Florida at a great beer bar near the airport called Tap 42,. I also had a White Wizard witbier from Barrel of Monks Brewing in Boca Raton, FL.  The food is outstanding here too, by the way.  The photo above is of a very cool and easy to understand beer chart they had in the restaurant.

Even though I had already tried it a few months ago, one of the limited edition bottles you could get at Tap 42 was the Tiramisu-hoo milk stout from Terrapin Brewing in Athens, Georgia.  We took it with us and enjoyed it at our hotel on North Miami Beach at sunset.  A great way to start a trip!

2/29 - I had a not so enjoyable Floridian Hefeweizen from Funky Buddha at dinner at Al Carbon Burger Bar and then a much better MegaMix (Freestyle Series) pale ale from M.I.A. Beer Company in Miami later that night at the very cool Lou's Beer Garden (photo below).

Time to get on the boat!!

My first craft beer on the cruise ship was an Invasion Pale Ale from Cigar City Brewing in Tampa. Next was a Sawtooth Ale from Left Hand Brewing (CO).  

I had a very expensive can (damn cruise-ship mark-ups!!) of Hoopla pale ale from Boulder (CO) Beer Company while listening to Kyle Hollingsworth and his band on the pool deck as we sailed out of the Port of Miami.  Kyle is usually with the band,  The String Cheese Incident, but was on this cruise solo and evidently is an avid home-brewer and even  had a hand in helping come up with this particular beer as the perfect "festival beer."  It was pretty good and I drank every drop since it was priced like liquid gold.

I had a Florida Cracker hefeweizen witbier from Cigar City Brewing (Tampa) during an O/A/R show.  These guys are one of my favorite live bands.  

I had a New Dogtown Pale Ale from Lagunitas Brewing (CA) during the Young Dubliners pool-deck set.  It was far from a Guinness, but the Irish approve of drinking pretty much anything!

They had tastings every night of the cruise and the pours were generous!  Here's a running list of the new-to-me beers I tried:

- Caribbean Queen Pineapple IPA - Boulder (CO) Beer Co.  This was one of my first and one of my favorites of the entire cruise
- Left Hand (CO) Ambidextrious Belgian quad
- Twisted Trunk (Texas) IPGA
- Shiner (TX) Birthday Beer, a hoppy pilsner

my favorite T-shirt of the cruise that I saw

- Pops Porter - Wynwood Brewing (Miami)
- Founders Dark Penance (MI) black IPA
- Fresh Cut Hoppy Pilsner - Peak Brewing, Maine
- Mischief Belgian Golden Ale from The Bruery, (CA)
- Nuance Saison from Barrel of Monks Brewing (FL)

My favorite craft beer sample drinker of the cruise.  Granny was there to try some beer, by gosh!!

- Old Guardian Barley Wine - Stone Brewing (CA) - one of my top 5 favorite breweries, but, damn!  I just can't get into barley wine (i.e. "barely beer" in my opinion)
- Shiner (TX) Ruby Redbird spiced beer
- Single Chair Gold Ale - Magic Hat Brewing (VT)
- Ready, Set, Gose - Uinta Brewing (UT)
- Dogfish Head Lobster Chocolate Porter (DE) - made with exactly the ingredients it says, but not as bad as it might sound!
- Avery White Rascal Belgian ale - (CO)
- Dogfish Head Immort Ale barrel-aged barley wine (DE) - yep, still awful

- Dogfish Head Beer to Drink Music To Beglian tripel - great name and quite appropriate for this type of cruise
- The Dude's D'Spare Barrel-Aged Imperial Stout  from Boulder Brewing (CO) - this baby was 10% ABV and quite appropriate as well with The Big Lebowski theme of the cruise also.
- Lagunitas Pils - Czech-style (CA)
- Stone Brewing's Stochasticity Project: HiFi + LoFi Mixtape Blended and Barrel Aged - (CA) - Top Five Fave Brewery Alert!!

At a port stop in Nassau I had a Lukka Kairi Draft Ale - an American red ale brewed particularly  by and for the restaurant of the same name.  It was darn good for Caribbean beer.

Hey, how did that get in here???  Well, when in Rome...or on the beach at Big Stirrup Cay, I guess

After the cruise we drove down to Key West for a few days and the good beer continued there as well:

3/5 - At a great beer bar just off busy Duval Street called The Porch I had a  Scotch Whisky Porter from Innis and Gunn (Scotland) and a taste of Ashlee's Colette Farmhouse Ale from Great Divide Brewing (CO)

Over at the new (and surprisingly good) Waterfront Brewery I had a five-beer sampler of their house-made product including the TruMan imperial double IPA, the Boat Day IPA, the Reddle Me This Irish red ale, the Key Lime WitNess (a witbier infused with key limes!  tasty!) and their White IPA (Belgian-style). I also had a taste of Ashlee's Crazy Lady Honey Blonde Ale.

While walking on Duval Street I had a Citradelic IPA from New Belgium Brewing (CO).

At our favorite restaurant, Blue Heaven, I had a  Key West Sunset Ale from the Florida Beer Company in Cape Canaveral with our late-evening dinner.

3/6 - Back at the Waterfront Brewery for lunch I ordered from their guest taps and had a Free Dive IPA from Coppertail Brewing (FL) and a Gringolandia Fabulosa Porter from 5 Rabbit Cerveceria in Chicago.

At a cool little locals bar just off Duval Street called 2 Cents I had an interesting Watermelon IPA from Sea Dog Brewing in Maine.

3/7 - We stopped at Tap 42 for lunch again before flying home out of Ft. Lauderdale and I had Vanilla Maduro English brown ale from Cigar City Brewing (Tampa).  My lunch was the vegetarian lettuce wraps with mushrooms serving as the "meat" and a side of fried rice.  Holy crap, was it good!  As was Ashlee's seasoned corn in background!

That a lot of miles traveled and a lot of beer consumed.  Good, good trip!!