Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Guess who's back? Tell a friend.

I took last week off from ye olde blog. I was in Denver for the Craft Brewers Conference (for those who don't know, I work for the Columbus Brewing Company, a microbrewery). I went with three coworkers, plus another friend who happens to be in the industry. We had three days of seminars, meetings, and trade show browsing, and four nights free for eating and drinking.

How many trade shows have beer stations at which you can sample beer all the live long day?

Restaurants/bars that I was able to enjoy included:

  • Yard House - huge beer list, yummy food; I had tacos which were fantastic and not just because I was super hungry
  • Lucky Pie Pizza and Taphouse, where I discovered a love of sour beer and sampled Bacon Peanut Brittle and beer battered cheese curds as well as pizza, of course
  • Falling Rock Taphouse (twice) 
  • The Cruise Room at the Oxford Hotel, where they use fresh-squeezed juice for their cocktails, resulting in the best Greyhound I've ever had
  • Illegal Pete's, which is like Chipotle in a dive bar setting. I like the flavors of Chipotle better, but Pete's takes that extra step of mixing up your burrito's ingredients before wrapping it.
  • Little India - I got takeout from here one night when I decided not to go out and party. While waiting for my food I drank a stellar Moscow Mule. The food was also excellent.
  • Euclid Hall, where the food was so good I can't even describe it. I had mussels for my entree, which were good but the side of fries with bacon aioli? Sweet Jesus, my mouth is watering just writing about it. We also shared appetizers including Shrimp and Grits Fritters, Carnitas Papas Fritas, and the Pickle Sampler. I could go on and on.

Note my fab flip flops, which I purchased at Walgreens for $6.99 due to blisters.

Friday night was the World Beer Cup gala. We didn't attend, but we had entered three beers. There were over 90 categories and over 2,000 total entries. We happened to be at Falling Rock, where they were showing the live stream of the awards on their TVs. Well, guess what? We won GOLD in the Imperial Red category!!



What a great way to end the trip!

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Technical difficulties prevented me from posting yesterday, but it was my grandma's 96th birthday. She's currently undergoing rehab/physical therapy after having what may have been a mini-stroke, and damn if she isn't stronger than ever. Last year I wrote a post about her; you can read that here.

Since today is Haikuesday, I give you this:

She's one tough cookie
Grandma Elmo's ninety-six
Those are some strong genes


8 comments:

  1. Happy belated Elmo! Excellent haiku.

    Love the pics, I'm glad you had fun. It's awesome that you guys won an award!

    Welcome back, I missed you.

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  2. I wish my work events were super cool like that :) Congrats to your company for winning. That's soooo awesome. i must add that to my list of beers to try someday. Welcome back!!

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  3. I told Steve about your work trip, and he is beyond jealous.That's awesome you guys won the gold! I'm glad you had such an enjoyable time away, you my dear, certainly deserved it!

    Happy Birthday to Grandma Elmo!

    PS- you had me at bacon aioli

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  4. I'm so jealous of your job. And that's awesome that you guys won an award- I've really enjoyed all the Columbus Brewing beers that I've had!

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  5. Glad to see you back! That has to be the best job ever. I LOVE Columbus Brewing Company - I'm a beer girl through and through. And it's awesome you guys won Gold!!

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  6. What a fun conference! It doesn't sound like much work to me! :)

    Happy birthday to your grandma. I'm sending good thoughts for a quick recovery!!!

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  7. And the whole world is currently jealous of your job! ;) We love yard house! We got one downtown a little over a year ago!

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  8. That's so cool that you got time to enjoy Denver instead of just having to work all day. That last restaurant sounds amazing!

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