Zoom...

East Coast, baby! 3910 miles after I left Palo Alto, I arrived at my parents house in Warwick, RI. Good Ol' Rhody. It was kind of epic unloading all the beer from the car but I managed with some help from Mom. That evening my parents and I headed over to Track 84 the local (and awesome) beer bar. I love this bar, they don't have the best beer and it's not the greatest atmosphere, and I sure could use some buffalo wing while I am there, but they do have some really good beer on 18 taps and the selection changes on a weekly basis. And on top of that the beer is pretty cheap 4-5 dollars a glass. Mom enjoyed a Kasteel Rouge (a sweet black cherry flavored beer). Dad had one of his favorites the Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier, and I had the Stone Imperial Russian Stout and the Rouge Chocolate Stout. The Stone IRS was quite good, certainly not my favorite Russian Imperial but high quality for sure, and the Chocolate Stout was somewhat disappointing - a bit thin in the body and the chocolate was not very evident.

The next day (April 30th) was my mom's birthday. I went up to Lincoln Woods for some bouldering and had an enjoyable afternoon despite not sending anything new. Later that evening we had Mom's meal of choice which was pizza, and a nice big chocolate cake from Gregg's (a Rhode Island favorite).

The next day I drove up to Portland to visit my sister and the other folks in that area that know. I also had some beer to deliver to Chris up at Ebenezer's Pub. On the drive up I stopped in Portsmouth to visit the Portsmouth Brewery and have a drink of whatever they had on cask. It runs out that what they had was a brown ale that they had oaked in some port barrels. These were the same barrels that they had used to oak their Kate the Great Russian Imperial Stout which is up to #2 on the Beer Advocate top 100 list. That evening, I went out in the Old Port section of Portland with Sarah and Brett and her roommate Addy. We enjoyed a decent band at some bar and then picked up a tasty pizza on the way home.

The next day Brett and I headed up to Ebenezer's to deliver the beer I had brought from California for Chris.What followed was an awesome afternoon for beer drinking and hanging out with Chris who is aways a great story teller. I also discovered that Chris is a big sports fan which is great because I have lots to say about just about any sport and it appears that he does too. I am not sure how much I should say about the beer that was had, partly because Chris served up some stuff that is not for general consumption, and partly because we had enough that I am not sure I remember exactly what all we drank. The one thing I remember very well was the BBB a sour belgian barleywine. Somehow that beer hit my taste buds just right. A little sour, a little complex and malty with a nice full body.

Brett and I managed to sober up and drive home (although I had a bit of a hangover, I think. The oncoming headlights were very bright.) Once we got back we watched the end of the Celtics/Hawks game 6 which was a lot of fun b/c the Hawks once again managed to pull out a win at home in a very loud arena. (I am currently watching game 7.) Sarah was off at work, she works nights at the hospital, and sleeps during the day after a work night.

On Saturday, I lazed around the house until around 4 when I drove over to visit my college buddy Brett. We went out for some damn good wings at a local place and then headed over to a bar called the Great Lost Bear for some pretty good beer. I had the Allagash Four on cask, followed by a St Bernadus 12, a Gouden Carlous Classic and a Duchesse De Bourgogne. The Duchesse was much better on tap last night than when I had some out of a bottle with Josh and Jon before I left LA. This was sweeter and lightly tart, while the one out of the bottle was almost vinegary. I think the Duchesse is highly variable which is why there are so many up and down reviews on BA.com. (I have had it out of the bottle before and it was excellent.)

Brett (CB) and I headed back to his place and watched Hitman, a truly awful movie. Brett fell asleep and I was unable to wake him up to say goodbye.

I am not sure what is on tap for today but Sarah is not working tonight so we'll go do something fun I bet. Okay, I have basketball to watch and hopefully pancakes to eat courtesy of Addy.