Summer Days

So yeah, it's hot here. Every day. Really though, I've lived in this great state for quite a few decades now and this isn't far from the norm. Hot, humid as hell, no rain... welcome to Summer in the south. It hasn't kept me from my (sweaty) morning runs or going to the ballgames or the lake, all of which keep moving right along. We've been to the lake about every weekend for at least 1 day.


Indoors, I've got some good shows on the calendar coming up too. Tomorrow night is Sevendust with Adelitas Way and Seven Day Sonnet here in Little Rock. I'm not even sure what time this is for me seeing Sevendust, but I think around 6? Maybe 7. I love Sevendust. Looking foward to them once again. We've got tickets in hand for 2 upcoming Keith Urban shows as well, in Nashville and Jonesboro, both in August. In September we have tickets already to see Journey, Night Ranger and Foreigner over in Memphis. That's 3 of my very favorite "classic rock" bands, or whatever genre you put them in I guess. I have all of their new CDs and play them regularly so I'm not going to exactly say they're out of date for my tastes, although I spent many a night cruising dirt roads around my hometown while I was growing up listening to these 3.

Lots of good new music out lately. I've been spending a lot of time checking out the new CDs from Queensryche, Burn Halo, Theory of a Deadman, Pop Evil, Limp Bizkit, Bad Meets Evil and Egypt Central. So much good stuff out lately it's almost hard to keep up.

Upcoming road trips... I'll be in Jackson, MS in 2 weeks for Top of the Hops, yet another beer festival. Hey, I like beer, sue me. After that we'll have a long weekend in Nashville to start August and we'll end the month with a week in Galveston. Plenty of good beers to be found I'm sure. Here's what I look like when we find a good beer store on the travels where I can build my own six-pack (or 3):


Yeah, a kid in a candy store indeed. Replace the word "candy" with "beer" and replace the word "kid" with... well, you can just leave that word I guess. All of the great purchases pay off with beer tastings with my beer brethren coming over and also just smaller tastings like the other night when my lovely best beer buddy and I tried all 4 Tin Mill beers we'd picked up in Missouri with some cajun grilled shrimp and boudin sausage. Very nice evening. Our last big group tasting was this past Friday night. Check out this bad ass line-up:

* Unibroue La Fin Du Monde
* Dupont Bière de Miel (Biologique)
* Weston Brew Labs #1 IPA
* Weston Brew Labs Prototype Stout
* Southern Tier Iniquity Black Ale
* Dogfish Head Red & White
* Surly Bender
* Surly Coffee Bender
* Broederlijke Liefde
* Lakefront Bridge Burner
* Southern Tier Mokah

Yeah, that's a damn good tasting. Several new favorites there that I'll be seeking regularly, love the Surly Coffee Bender but especially that Southern Tier Mokah. Oh man, it's a big ole imperial stout that's chocolately sweet, creamy and smooth. One of my all-time favs I think. I'll let you know after I find about 5 or 6 more bottles.

And I have finally returned to the theaters after a long layoff! Yay me! I've been 2 weekends in a row actually to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. I'm going to try to keep the momentum up and catch Captain America: The First Avenger this coming weekend and Cowboys and Aliens after that. Maybe I'm back in the groove?

That's about it in my world I guess. Cheers.

The Hills Are Alive With The Taste Of Beer

OK I promised a post about some other brewery stops across Missouri last week so I guess this is what you get. Hooray! Try to contain your excitement.

I already told you about all the beer I stockpiled while in Springfield at The Brown Derby liquor store and the awesome visit to Piney River Brewing near Houston, Mo so after that we paid a quick visit to a little brewery called Little Yeoman Brewery just outside of Cabool, Mo. Yes, these aren't exactly huge cities I'm telling you about, but these are the types of places you find great beer made by beer lovers (and it's absolutely beautiful scenery). One could argue they have nothing else to do, but I would argue what else would you rather be doing? Don't be afraid to get off the beaten path my beer loving buddies. The road we travel is a thirsty one, but always enjoy the hunt.

I've probably blabbed too much already about this road trip (it was only a couple of days for the love of hops) so I'll just say we followed the signs and found Little Yeoman Brewery down a dusty road and the guys were super nice as we drank some of their Vienna style ale and also a Pale Ale. Both were fine brews (I loved the pale ale actually) and the hospitality and beer talk is well worth the trip to this very unpretentious little building with some tanks and such. They have a nice shaded area with picnic tables to swap beer tales at while you sample so you could probably take a sammich with you and be all set. We grabbed a shirt on the way out even. A sexy shirt at that, once I cut the sleeves off and tie it up in the front it will be I mean.






An hour later, give or take, we hit Springfield. Brian from Piney River Brewing had told us about a bar called Farmer's Gastropub in the downtown area where we might find plenty of Mother's Brewing Company products, and he was right on. They're another Springfield brewery who just got rolling a few months ago but are already turning out some damn fine beers from what I tasted. Their Towhead Blonde, Sandi Wheat, Lil' Helper IPA and Three Blind Mice Brown are all readily available there and the food was very nice as well. A highly recommended stop on your road to buzzville.


Then it was just a few blocks walk over to Springfield Brewing Company, who make Mueller Ales and Lagers. It's a very nice older 2-story bar with a lot of woodwork and a pleasant atmosphere. The bartender was pretty beer knowledgeable and I got a small sampler of each of 6 beers (Lager, Pale Ale, Black Sheep Dry Stout, German Hefe, American Wheat and Little Piney Copper Ale). I'll say that while none of them blew my pants off or anything (and who doesn't want their pants blown off) none of them were bad and all were fresh and clean. I thought the copper ale and the dry stout stood out the most among them and I would revisit those 2 with no worries, but I wouldn't smack a fool for giving me any of the other 4. They do bottle so you can find their product around town at grocery stores and such.







So now I'll shut-up and just say that combined with Piney River Brewing, this made for a helluva beer day. Lastly, a small shout out to S & S Package Liquor in Houston who had a really good selection of beer (including Missouri brews from Tin Mill Brewery) and let you build your own six-packs. Go there on your trip to Piney River, cause I know you're going there.

Upcoming brewery visits: Jackalope Brewing, Yazoo Brewing and Jubilee Brewing... all in Nashville. You see, that's because I'm going to Nashville. For reals. Takin' my little yeoman with me. Until then keep your whistles wet and your pants dry.

Show Me Your Hops!

So yesterday I posted a quick bit about our short Missouri road trip and promised some photos and tales so here ya go.

Our first destination was Piney River Brewing Co. somewhere near the big city of Bucyrus, Missouri. And by "big city" I really mean the middle of the Ozarks, which sort of feels like the middle of nowhere as we wound around gravel roads, through creeks and farmlands and I swear I heard banjos playing. Of course that feels a bit like home to me as I grew up in a small Arkansas town so I actually love that sort of area. It's a beautiful part of the country and a welcome escape from the city I live in.

Finally, just when I was feeling like my Garmin was screwing with me, we came we came upon this sign:



And I got excited like a kid pulling up to an amusement park. Those dusty roads can sure make a guy parched. Notice the sign says closed but the guy running the show and I had been in contact and he assured me he'd let us check it out if we were to swing by. True to his word, we met the owner, Brian Durham, in person finally and he showed us around a bit and let us sample some of the product.

Brian and his wife Joleen started making beer on their kitchen stove and last year decided to revive a 70-year old barn made from red and white oak trees harvested off the farm, and Piney River Brewing Company was born. Now it's called the "BARn" (see what they did there?) and it's being turned into one of the most unique breweries I believe I've seen. Check this out:



Seriously, this is one of the coolest things I've seen ever in the beer world. He took us on a tour and the upstairs is one huge 2,000 square foot room that's going to be made into a tasting room/bar/party room and I can't wait to drive back up and check it out when it's finished. It overlooks a big pasture and pond and is just a gorgeous view. You can actually see cows and such, and they're adding a big deck (Brian and his wife, not the cows) that faces the sunset. Here's the unfinished upstairs with my lovely girlfriend (and beer lover) posing with Brian:



Now technically I believe Piney River would be considered a nanobrewery with some taps to fill pint glasses and growlers but don't expect it to be that way for long. They've got a canning line coming and a couple of big tanks, a 15-barrel fermentation vessel and a 15-barrel bright tank, set-up inside and looking ready to rock. You can see them behind Brian and I in this picture:



Meeting and hanging out with the (co)brewery/owner/brains was great. He's about as nice of a guy as you can find I'd guess and he loves his beer and is extremely knowledgeable, not just about beer and brewing but about how to market it and keep fresh ideas flowing. What I really like is you can just tell he's excited about beer and loves to talk about it and share what he knows. It's infectious to just be chatting with him over a cold pint.

I loved the set-up, the names of the beers, the labels and all the great plans for the future they have. But now that I've told you a bit about that side of it, the biggest and most important thing about a brewery to me is the beer, and we got to try the Missouri Mule IPA and Ozark Firefly Wheat. All of this stuff above would be for naught if the beer sucked... but have no fear. Both of these were solid representations of the styles. I didn't have enough of the wheat to say too much (liked what I tried though and my girlfriend loved it... and she knows her wheats) but I had enough of the IPA to know that it was quite tasty and super easy-to-drink. I believe he told me it was 7.5% ABV also, but you wouldn't know it from a pint. It's smooth and very sessionable. I think he said he used Glacier and Centennial hops, both American varieties. The IBU on it is 70 if I remember correctly, and it packs a very nice punch. I wish I'd have taken a couple of growlers with me to fill with this very nice IPA. Delicious. I look forward to trying all these other brews (click on the photo to blow it up if you can't read the names):



Piney River Brewing Company may be a bit off the beaten path, or a bit out of the way, but it's definitely worth finding and visiting. They're open on Saturdays usually and if you follow their Facebook profile they'll let you know when I'm sure. We're going back on a Saturday this fall when the leaves start to turn colors we think and I'll be sure to take several of my growlers. Hopefully we'll get to meet Brian's better half this trip too. In the meantime, I'll just have to wear my sweet hat, shirt and use my pint glasses as often and remember the excellent visit we had.



I'll post a bit about Little Yeoman and Springfield Brewing Company visits soon.