A few little trips and some other updates: May - July 2013

On a recent trip to New Orleans I was able to grab a few new-to-me brews including:

I started my visit to The Big Easy with a NOLA Brewing's Roasty IPA (not pictured above) and then the Perfect Tin Amber from Tin Roof Brewing over in Baton Rouge at Cajun Mike's Pub-n-Grub on the outskirts of The French Quarter.

The old Jax Beer Brewery building sitting on the Mississippi River near Jackson Square was the home to Jackson Brewing before it went bankrupt in the 70's.   The 1891structure has been turned into a shopping mall, but at least they have keep some memory of it including a small museum inside which I didn't get a chance to visit on this trip. 

I also revisited one of the first microbreweries I ever stepped foot into at the Crescent City Brewhouse down by Jackson Square in The French Quarter.  My wife, Ashlee, and I stopped in and grabbed a seat at their oyster bar to get out of the steamy temps for a while and have a couple cold ones. I had their Maibock and the Black Forest while we sat there and watched them shuck huge fresh oysters taken from the muddy waters nearby.


This was my lunch at The Stage Door Canteen at the new World War II National Museum in New Orleans.  The beer was the Hopitoulas IPA by NOLA Brewing and it was pretty good, but the bigger treat were the fried chicken gizzards (the original and naturally-made chicken nugget!!).  I haven't had these since I was a kid and never seen them available on a menu before (probably in high demand by the old vets who visit I guess).  They were as delicious as I remember and the dipping sauce to the left was primo! 

The open-container tolerance in New Orleans is another reason I love this dirty old city.  Over my weekend visit I walked the streets with a can of  Blackout Stout Ale from Indian Wells Brewing (California) and a bottle (poured into a plastic cup, of course) of Grimbergen 1128 Amber, a Belgian abbey ale.  Cheers, Big Easy!  See you again real soon I hope.

BACK AT HOME

My amazing wife went to Chicago on business recently and brought me back a ton of new-to-me beers.   Damn, she's awesome!  Here's a quick rundown:

Mad Hatter IPA - bottle from New Holland Brewing in Michigan
Columbia Common - bottle from Widmer Brothers in Portland, Oregon (seasonal spring ale)
Lucky U IPA - bottle from Breckenridge (CO) Brewing
Oktofest Ale - another great seasonal beer from Oregon's Widmer Brothers
Burning River Ale - Great Lakes Brewing, Cleveland, OH - extremely good and best of the bunch - I found out why... it's been a gold medal winner at the WBC
Midwestern Pale Ale - bottle from Bells Brewing in Michigan

We went and had a fancy 10-course dinner at The Catbird Seat in Nashville recently and I had a hoppy wheat concoction from Schlassberg (Germany) in conjunction with Brooklyn Brewing (according to the waiter) as one of the pairings.  I can't find a lot of info about such a beer on the Internet, but it was pretty good.

It's that time of year again!



No glass at Bonnaroo, so quality canned beer is the way to go out in the camping area.  This Bombshell Blonde pint can from Southern Star Brewing in Texas was deeee-lish!

Inside Bonnaroo at the Broo'ers Festival I had several draught samples of some great microbrews including:

Mountain Livin' Pale Ale - Crazy Mountain Brewing, Colorado
Space Dust IPA - Elysian Brewing, Seattle - more like space "bust" - where's the hops, dude??
Harpoon IPA - Happy 20th Anniversary!! - one of my original IPA loves
Henry Weinhard's Woodland Pass IPA - Blitz-Weinhard Brewing, Oregon
Sweetwater Blue - best malt liqouor on the planet!  The pride of Atlanta!
Narragansettt (Rhode Island) Lager
Hello My Name is Amber - just a sip from my wife's cup - Flat 12 Bierworks, Indianapolis, IN
Upside Down Blonde - also from Flat 12 Bierworks in Indy


I also returned to Vegas again recently and back to some good beer as well.

Great neon sign in the NYNY Casino where I was staying  Never heard of Bronx Cheer Beer and can't find any record of it online.  Would it be raspberry flavored since that's what a Bronx Cheer is???.

At  the Pour 24 Bar at NYNY I had a 4 beer draught sampler:

John Henry 3 Lick Spiker Ale - Minnesota
Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter - California (I visited this brewery a couple years back)
Red Hook Audible - New Hampshire - this summer ale was developed per a request from sportscaster, Dan Patrick. (I visited this brewery a few years back also)
Batch 19 Lager - Colorado - Coors (bleck!  they tricked with me this cleverly-named albeit mass-produced swill.)

Then over at my beloved Yard House I had:

Frog's Breath IPA - a half pint shorty draught - Coronado (CA) Brewing
Hop Notch IPA - a half pint shorty draught - Uinta Brewing, Salt Lake City, UT

My last Vegas beer stop was a new one.  Winchells Bar & Grill on the way to the airport where I had their  IPA and their Wheat - both were surprisingly excellent - barkeep said they were brewed by Lagunitas Brewing out of California which explains it.  Too bad the quad jacks I hit (photo above) were only a bet-one credit play, but the beer was free with play and the place was quiet and relaxing.  I see me coming here again on the way out of Sin City.

This has nothing to do with beer.  It's just a really cool sunset shot.



It's a shandy in a can!!  Yes ma'am!!  Made by the folks at Leinenkugel up in Wisconsin, the Summer Shandy is refreshing.   I enjoyed this one at an outdoor concert at Nashville's Tin Roof.  I recently discovered shandies (light beer and seven-up or fruit juice or ginger ale) on a trip to the Caribbean and I am happy to finally have a decent use for light beer!!  By the way, that's the band, John & Jacob, on stage and they are pretty darn good!

Last, but not least on the summer travel agenda was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:

A great day (albeit a bit warm) for a game at PNC Park in downtown Pittsburgh.  The Pirates lost to their across-state rivals, the Phillies, but my wife and I didn't care.  We just enjoyed the scenery and the event itself.

Eating and drinking beer are BIG in The Steel City.

Bucket List Brewery Achieved!!  Check another one off the list!  I have wanted to visit Church Brew Works for many years now ever since I learned about the microbrewery's existence inside a (deconsecrated) Catholic church building.

My wife and I each had the eight, yes eight-, beer sampler (photo above) that included their Coffee Pale Ale, Bell Tower Brown Ale, Thunderhop (IPA), Heavenly Heff, Celestial Gold (pilsner), Pipe Organ Pale Ale, Pious Monk Dunkel and Coconut Stout.  I also had a bottle of the Celestial Gold at the aforementioned Pirates game.

There's a great, free Iphone app  for beer drinkers that my friend, Nate, turned me on to called: UNTAPPD.  It records what beers you have had, where you had them and what you thought of them.  Thanks to it I can report the following beers:

While still in Pittsburgh and having dinner at the famous Primanti Bros. (where they cram your French fries into your sandwich) I had a Curious Traveler Shandy from The Traveler Beer Company in Vermont.  Who can really mess up a shandy?  I also had an Orange Blossom Cream Ale which was really, really good.  It's produced by Buffalo Bill's Brewery in Hayward, CA.

On 7/18/13  back in Tennessee I had a Finch's (Chicago) Cut-throat Pale Ale pint can at Whole Foods in Chattanooga with my dinner.

Finally, I got to take a quick trip up to Louisville, KY, for a business conference recently.  The conference was OK, but the real fun came in the evenings when I got to slip across the river into Indiana to one of my favorite microbreweries, New Albanian Brewing, and have two new-to-me half pints of theirs including the Pickman's Pale Ale and the Bat out of Helles (cask).  Thanks again to UNTAPPD for "remembering" their excellent beers for me.

While in Louisville I got to play in three tournaments in the DennyCrum Poker Open, placing 4th in one and winning enough to cover my entry into all three tournaments.  But the real thrill was getting to sit at the same table as the NCAA legend himself for several hours during the second tournament.   He couldn't have been nicer.

Racers, Pacers and Beer

May 25 - 27: 

I returned to the Indy 500 this year with my friend, Mike, who hadn't been before. 

We had a great time and found some good beer along the way. 



Our first stop Saturday, May 25, on the drive up to Indianapolis was for lunch (and beer) in New Albany, Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville, KY. One of my favorite regional microbreweries is located there, New Albanian Brewing, and their food is outstanding as well. I tried a half-pint of their new Naughty Girl Blonde IPA and it was great. I followed that with my favorite of theirs, a half-pint of the Hoptimus Imperial IPA. As you can see from the label above, NABC continues with their stunning artwork on their products as well. Get some T-shirts already, folks!!!

Once we got to Indy and settled in to our hotel in the northeast suburb of Carmel, we found a new, small microbrewery nearby called Union Brewing.  These guys have only been open since December 2012, but they know what they are doing.  They only serve cask-conditioned beer and I tried a half-pint of their Sassy Pants Porter which was infused with sassafras.  Interesting and tasty.  Next I got a half-pint of one of their guest taps, the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale from Lexington Brewing, which is one of my regional favorites.


  Sunday, May 26 - RACE DAY and GAME DAY!!



We opted for infield general admission tickets for the race, and they were fine.  We saw plenty of racing action from several different aspects.  The weather held out perfectly for us.



Yep, that's him! The one and only Mario Andretti who nearly ran over my foot in his golf cart, but was kind enough to let us take a few pictures as he waited for traffic to clear after the race.

What a great sporting day it was in Indy today!  First the Indy 500 won by Tony Kanann (under caution..boo!!) and then Game 3 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals as the Pacers took on the Heat.  It turned into a blow-out for the Heat, but our last-minute StubHub.com seats were nice and it was a great experience.



Hey, it's Stephen A. Smith!  It was cool that the security folks let us mingle around near the hardwood before the game.



I am not his biggest fan, but there is no denying he's one of the best to ever play the game and to see "King James" in person was a treat.



Great seats!  And not overly priced.

NBA on TNT filmed live after the game out in the lobby of Bankers Life Fieldhouse.  It was another treat to see legends like Shaq, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley up close and personal.

Monday, May 26:  The drive home on Memorial Day was easy and smooth and we made good enough time to stop in Nashville for a late lunch at Drifter's BBQ where I had a Fat Bottom IPA with my meal.  The beer is from a new East Nashville brewery just around the corner from this eatery.



More updates and a shocking discovery in terms of light beer...

Here's a few more updates including a trip down to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where an actual use for light beer was discovered by me and my wife, Ashlee. 

By the way, can you take me to the airport?


Never mind...I got a ride.

3/2/13: Before a Pink concert in downtown Nashville tonight, I had a draught of Turtle Anarchy (love the name) Stout from nearby Franklin, TN, with dinner at Puckett's Grocery.   I have been wanting to try it for some time and it's been sold out at two other places I asked for it.  It was pretty darn good. 
I would like to give them a visit someone soon at their taproom over in Williamson County.

3/5/13:  On another jaunt into downtown Nashville I had a bottle of Barrel Trolley Nut Brown Ale (World Brews out of California) with dinner at Music City Flats in Nashville.  Not too bad, but nothing to crow about.  This World Brews place sounds kind of like a mass-producer/faux micro-brewer.



3/16/13:  I started St. Patty's Day off right with this lovely pint of Malacai Irish Red Ale  (beautiful color!) from The Terminal Brewhouse in Chattanooga out on their patio with a bad case of spring fever.

3/16/13: Tradition was not forgotten on St. Patty's Day as I made sure to have a shot of Jameson Irish Whiskey and a Guinness before lunch at the fancy burger shop called Urban Stack in Chattanooga.

3/16/13:  We finished up St. Patrick's Day in Chattanooga with a show at The Tivoli to see our favorite comedian, Jim Gaffigan, who we also met backstage.  After the show we headed back to The Terminal and I had a Dead Sexy Scottish Ale.  While we were there, who should show up?  None other than Jim Gaffigan (per our suggestion by the way!)



3/17/13: It was hair-of-the-dog time the day after St. Patty's Day with a lovely draught of Highland Brewing's (Asheville, NC) Devil's Britches IPA draught at The Brewhaus in Chattanooga.

Some other newbies (to me) over the past couple months include:

-  New Albion Ale (special from Sam Adams) bottle, this was the last one from the Mt. Juliet Beer Company (MJBC) variety four-pack I mentioned in the previous blog entry.

- Blackheart IPA at Bosco's in Hillsboro Village in Nashville, their seasonal special draught.  Lovely.

- A couple Third-Shift Amber Lager bottles.  They were complimentary with our VIP tickets to the  Better Than Ezra show at The Cannery in Nashville.  It was pretty good beer, but the band was better!  After a little research I found out that this beer is a faux-micro produced by Coors.  Figures.

- Got a half a liter (half a growler) of Calfkiller Brewing's (Sparta, TN) Scorched Hooker (Black IPA) draught from MJBC to watch Duke play in the Sweet 16 on  3/29/13.  While I was at MJBC, I picked up another variety 4-pack to take to a new monthly poker game here in Lebanon that I started attending in April.  All of these were good.

Brooklyn Dry Irish Stout in a bottle
Southern Tier (Lakewood, NY) Eurotrash Pils(ner) in a bottle
Harpoon (Boston) Chocolate Stout
Rogue (Oregon) Dry-Hopped St. Rogue Red Ale

At the second poker game in May I had:

Good People (Huntsville, AL) IPA in a can
Good People Pale Ale in a can
Red Hook (Washington and NH) Audible Ale in a bottle
Kona (Hawaii) KoKo Brown in a bottle

Again, all were worth drinking.

4/20/13: I had a Jai Alai IPA draught from the local Cigar City Brewing during a layover in Tampa, Florida, on my birthday on the way to Puerto Rico.  Also had a Goose Island (Chicago) IPA draught.

OK, and now for the big news regarding LIGHT BEER.....I have actually found a decent use for it!!!

It can actually be used in a cocktail called "The Shandy" that I discovered while in Puerto Rico at our hotel restaurant...on the breakfast menu nonetheless.  Basically, it's a "redneck mimosa."  The simple recipe is light beer, citrus soda, ice and a lemon wedge.  Since the only Puerto Rican beer I could find was Medalla Light, a local pilsner, I ordered The Shandy with low expectations.  It was actually pleasantly refreshing.  For more on The Shandy see the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shandy



My wife and I made our own Shandies to take to the beach in Puerto Rico thanks to a Wal-Greens right around the corner that sold everything we needed including a 12-pack of Medalla Light in cans. The perfect beach drink.



Update Time!

It's been a while since I posted any beer-related happenings,
so here's a quick run-down of the past few months:

Saturday, December 1, 2012:  I had a draught of Chattanooga Brewing's Winter Warmer Iphoto above) at Good Dog in Chattanooga. I also had a Magnum PA (IPA) at Terminal Brewing in Chattanooga later that same evening.

I had a Monkeynaut IPA in a can at Taco Mac in Chattanooga.  It's made by Straight to Ale Brewing out of Huntsville, Alabama, and I was very impressed.  Along with the excellent Blue Pants Brewing,  Alabama has stepped up mightily in the craft beer race.  It's about time, Bama!

I had a Left Hand Brewing (Colorado) Fade to Black Ale draught and a Blue Pants Brewing (Madison, AL, just outside Huntsville) Coffee Stout draught at Brewhaus in Chattanooga.  This place has greatly improved since it opened a couple years ago.  They have much stronger beer list now including a great rotating set of taps, and excellent food.  Thank to my beer-loving friend, Nate, for re-introducing me to the place.

I have since returned to the Brewhaus and on my second visit I had Stone Brewing's (California, and my favorite U.S. brewery) Vertical Epic on draught as well as a Cold Mountain Winter Ale from Highland Brewing over in Asheville, NC.  Both were great.

I had a Sweetwater (Atlanta, and my favorite regional brewery) Slowryeder IPA draft at Urban Stack (great burgers) in Chattanooga.  Thumbs up!

I bought a four-pack of Green Flash (California) Friendship Brew in bottles that I got at Green Life Grocery in Chattanooga as a Christmas present to myself.  A great Belgian-style (not my favorite kind of beer brewing) farmhouse ale with tons of flavor.

I won a free growler of beer from the Mt. Juliet Beer Company as their Facebook friend of the week.  I chose the Black Betty Black IPA from another new local brewery set up in East Nashville's known as Fat Bottom Brewery.  It was delicious!

On a recent road trip south to see my beloved Duke Blue Devils take the hardwood against Florida State in Tallahassee, we stopped in the military-base town of Columbus, Georgia at the Cannon Brewpub located on the city's quaint square.  The beer was OK.  Nothing to get too excited about.  I had the seasonal Dinglewood Double Chocolate Banana Split Stout.  Despite the long and flavor-promising name, it wasn't really very special and a bit of a letdown honestly.  My wife and my friend, Mike, had their sampler paddle of beers.  none of which excited me, including a sip of the Special 'Ops IPA,  which, again, didn't do much for me.

Proof Brewing near the FSU campus in Tallahassee is a very cool beer bar with a strong, rotating draught and bottle beer list including a few of their own concoctions.  The bar is attached to a liquor store.  Talk about one stop shopping!  I had their "house" Guru IPA and it was excellent.

One other stop on the Duke road trip south worth mentioning was in Atlanta at The Vortex Grill,  We came for the food (which was awesome - great burgers), but I was also impressed with their beer list.  They are associated with Atlanta's Laughing Skull Brewing and I had one of their draught concoctions recommended on the menu called a Black Skull:  Half Left Hand (Colorado) Milk Stout and half Laughing Skull Amber Ale.  Yummy to the last drop!  I have got to come back to this place and try more of their nine different combos...and more of those burgers!!

When I picked up my free growler of beer at the Mt. Juliet Beer Company, I also bought a variety 4-pack of beers I had not had before.  I took three of  them to a local poker tournament and the winning continued as I chopped first place in it.  The three I had were:

Finch's Threadless IPA from Chicago - served in a pint can.  Loved it.
Lily Flagg Milk Stout - Straight to Ale Brewing - served in a 12 oz. can.  Another Alabama success!
Flying Dog Pearl Necklace Oyster Stout - served in a bottle and brewed with oysters.  Definitely different and not bad at all despite my lack of love for oysters.

2/12/13 - In my first attended game of the shortened NHL season this year, I saw a thrilling overtime win of 1-0 for my beloved Nashville Predators over the San Jose Sharks.  I had a Yazoo Dos Perros and a Yazoo Pale Ale at the game to keep it local and Nashville-loving.

Jamaica Time for some beer?

My wife and I took a quick trip down to Jamaica for New Year's and while the beer diversity is not great there, I did have some nice experiences with the local brews.

It was our first stay at an all-inclusive resort which meant our first wet bar in the room and a bunch of Red Stripe in the fridge restocked every other day!  Yea, mon!!

A salute to Jamaica looking out of our room and onto Bloody Bay.

Dead Jamaican soldiers' gravestones...

Red Stripe Light w/ Lime. OK, not the greatest beer in the world, but having it at Rick's Cafe on the high bluffs overlooking the beautiful blue water in Negril, Jamaica, made it taste a lot better.

The only other decent choice at Rick's was Guinness Foreign Extra Stout which is brewed right here in the Caribbean and is not as good at the original in my humble opinion, but again it's hard to beat the backdrop.



5 Seasons and the Start of Another

November 13 - 14, 2012

I  took a quick trip down to Atlanta to catch my favorite team, the Duke Blue Devils, in a huge match-up with the Kentucky Wildcats to kick off the 2012/13 college basketball season.  Thanks to my long-time friend and past contributor to this blog, Craig, for going along with me (even though he's an NC State fan) in place of my wife, Ashlee, who was staying with her mother due to illness.  Since Craig is a fan of good beer as well, we made sure to incorporate a bit of that into our trip as well.

We toasted the trip the night before at my house with a couple of pints of Bearwalker Maple Brown from Jackalope Brewing in Nashville.  I had gotten a growler of it at the Mt. Juliet Beer store after trying it at a new local establishment the day before called JB's Pour House over on the east end of Hermitage.  I also had a pint of Jackalope's Thunder Ann Pale Ale while at JB's.  While it's a nice place overall, and they boast at having 36 beers on tap, other than the Jackalope products, I can't say I was overly impressed with JB's overall selection.  That's too bad since I just heard our local WOW Wingery is closing in November 2012 which is very sad. That's the place where my friend Nate and I got our photos on the wall for drinking 50 different beers.  The owner and our friend, Brad, took great strides in bringing good craft beer to the area and we are going to miss it.  The place is becoming a "Piranhas Bar & Grill" and supposedly Brad will still be a partner and is going to try and keep the good beer vibe going, but we shall see since the Piranhas in downtown Nashville is terrible in terms of beer selection.

On to Atlanta....

I got a great rate at the downtown Hilton and it was just a quick cab ride over to the Taco Mac that is built into the Phillips Arena next door to the Georgia Dome where the game was being played for some pregame food...and beer...of course.  Taco Mac has an amazing selection of beer on draft and always something new and interesting. On this visit I had the Rogue Yellow Snow IPA (excellent!) and then Atlanta's own Red Brick Brewing offering, the Hoplanta IPA (also very good).  I had a sip of Craig's order, the Vanilla Gorilla Smoked Porter also from Red Brick and it was very tasty.



They closed off half the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to make a fairly intimate
early-season college basketball setting for the State Farm Champions Classic. 
Tickets were reasonable and we also got to see a great match-up of
Kansas vs. Michigan State in the first game for the same price with
MSU pulling the upset in a close game down to the wire.

It was cool to see ESPN's College Gameday broadcasting live before, during and
after the game.  In this shot analysts, Digger Phelps, (left) and Duke's own. Jay
Bilas, discuss one of the two games going on.  We even got on TV a bit as
Craig's family spotted us in the background a couple times during the pregame show.



Our seats were decent at about 50 rows from the court and on the aisle.  Except for the one annoying UK fan behind us, it was a nice set-up.

The win was sweet as a Duke fan especially given the fact that the place was overrun with UK fans and the especially-rude one behind us got a nice big serving of "Shut Up" delivered hot and fresh to him.




A little bonus we found on the way home in north Atlanta was the Big Wood Forest Preserve in the suburb of Sandy Springs.  We took a great morning hike through this lush and surprisingly large suburban oasis.



Our true reason for being in Sandy Springs was to have an early lunch (and a couple brews) at 5 Seasons Brewing before heading back north.  This is a nice brewpub with a large patio and deck that I am sure stay busy in the warmer months.  I had their seasonal Pumpkin Head Lager which was pretty good followed by a room-temperature serving (they were having cooler issues this morning) of the Kilt Lifter Scotch Ale which was actually very good.  Thanks to Groupon.com for the deal that brought us here as well that got us 4 beers and two appetizers for half price.

Dead Buffalo Soliders

October 20 - 22, 2012

Some friends and I recently took our 3rd Annual G.A.M.E. (Grown-Ass Man Extravaganza) trip to see the Tennessee Titans play on the road way up in Buffalo, New York.  We checked out Niagara Falls while we were in the area while staying just across the Canadian border.  There was also some pretty good beer found along the way as well.



Syndicate Brewing in Niagara Falls, Ontario, is a great little brewpub and was just a few minutes from our hotel.  Their Sinister Sam IPA was very good.  Their seasonal Pumpkin 3.14 (Pi - get it) was decent as well.  Their food was outstanding.  I know buffalo wings are famous just south of here, but the ones here are pretty darn good.



Go Titans and the MINIVAN BAR is now open!  Tailgating was a lot of fun in the suburban setting of Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, NY,  just outside Buffalo.  Notice the growler of Sinister Sam IPA"smuggled" back across the border from Canada among several other libations.

 

We took a ride on the famous Maid of the Mist to get an up-close and soggy look at Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side of Niagara.  Even our rain ponchos were in support of breast cancer awareness.

After the game we decided to find some of the edibles that make Buffalo famous.  They say there are none better than at Duff's and I have to agree.  They were excellent.



The view from our room at the Double Tree Fallsview was pretty spectacular.  We also got a chance to go up in the Skylon Tower, silhouetted in this shot, for a bird's eye view of Niagara Falls.



The game was a  thriller with the Titans pulling out a win at the end of the game by a score of 35-34.  Our lower-bowl end zone seats were pretty good and the Bills fans for the most part were pretty good folks to us. The weather couldn't have been much nicer.

On our way back to the airport in Buffalo for our trip home, we stopped at the Lake Effect Diner for brunch.  I heard of the place thru the great Food Network TV Show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and it totally met our expectations with great food, friendly service and even some good beer - I had a bottle of the Oktoberfest Lager from Great Lakes Brewing over in Cleveland, Ohio, which was decent.

A few more beer notes:

I had a bottle of Lakefront Brewing's (Milwaukee,, WI)  Fixed Gear Red Ale at the Midway Airport in Chicago on our connection going to Buffalo.  It was OK.

Thanks to my friends Wayne, Chris and John for coming along on the trip.  Can't wait to do it again next season!