not so fast, Paul!

This past weekend, I went on a somewhat ridiculous roadtrip. Ok, forget somewhat. I drove over 800 miles in under 72 hours. But, it involved catching up with good friends, which of course involved trying a couple of new beers.

First, I went to Richmond to see my friends Jeremy and Brendan, who were both in town from Mali and Montana, respectively. I figured, their flights were longer than my drive, so I could handle that. It turned into a pretty excellent adventure. Brendan had brought Ommegang's Hennepin, which I've had before but hadn't recorded. My association with this beer: the first weekend of our senior year of college, we ended up on the roof of Brendan's apartment building enjoying a bottle of this very fine beer. This is a Saison, which meant very little to me-- what's most important here is that it is very, very good and very, very refreshing. Just a light, wonderful taste that goes down easy, but is totally worth savoring. It was great to have this beer again, but more importantly, it was really awesome to see both Bren and Jeremy, among other excellent company!

From Richmond I drove to camp to work an awesome retreat (go Cheryl!). On Saturday evening, Cheryl and I sat down to have a drink together before catching some zzz's. I tried Magic Hat's Blind Faith IPA, which for being an IPA, which I typically hate, was pretty darn good. It wasn't as harsh a flavor as I find most India Pale Ales to be. Still stronger on the hops than I generally prefer, but not nearly as sharp going down. If I ever need to provide IPA for someone but want to get something that I'll actually have, this will probably be it.

There's a few weeks left till my summer contract starts and my current beer-tasting-quest comes to a pause. I'm moving to camp tomorrow morning bright and early. It's just far enough from home that I expect to run into a few brews that aren't typically available down here at the Jersey shore. Also, Long Valley Brewery is pretty close by, which I'm looking forward to checking out. I'm not planning on making this easy for you, Paul; you'll have more than two months to catch up!

Paul: 229
Colleen: 245