Hark, 2012!

I’d hoped to never write one of those “Well, it’s been a while” posts, but...well, it’s been a while.  Life gets going, and you just have to go with it.  It’s been an eventful month since my last post.  DeAunn and I drove the long streatch from Utah to Wisconsin to visit my folks for Christmas.  We headed down to Chicago for New Year’s Eve and the first couple days of 2012, during which time we visited with old friends (eternal gratitude to our great friends Joe and Tami for putting us up) and some of our favourite eateries; Salt Lake City has a lot of great things to offer, but the cuisine has yet to measure up to the Windy City.  DeAunn headed back to Utah while I stayed in the Midwest an extra week for a committed but unsuccessful audition for the Lyric Opera of Chicago.  Since getting back to SLC (by train, which I recommend to anyone with the time to take it; it’s a great trip,

especially if you spring for even the smallest sleeping compartment) it’s been right back into the school grind.

There was, of course, an embarrassment of riches in the malted beverages department on this return to the heartland. In Wisconsin, I had the opportunity to try a number of Alaskan Brewing’s offerings (the IPA was interesting and the Winter Ale with spruce tips had a wonderful berry flavour; still haven’t had the fabled Smoked Porter, sadly) as well as to enjoy several of my dad’s homebrews; he and I brewed an extract hoppy brown ale while we were there, and is literally piecing together a very serious all-electric HERMS system (but that’s for another post).  Speaking of homebrew, Joe and I bottled his second-ever batch, one gallon (perfect size for space-strapped city dwellers) of dubbel aged on bourbon-soaked oak chips.  My favourite discovery of the trip, though, was Green Flash’s IIPA; never have I had a beer so thoroughly reek of hops.  An exquisite sipper.

There hasn’t been a lot of brew-related news here; I finally managed to bottle my citrus-infused saison the other day, and the blueberry stout looks about ready to leave

the carboy as well.  I should be able to get to writing up my session sour soon as well.  During our time away, though, my Chicago friends Joe, Ted, Michael and I started a group blog to cover our shared interests of beer, food, music, the creation of all of them, etc.  I’ll post beer reviews, some homebrew projects, and music-related things there, and look forward to posts from a group of guys who usually have a much better idea of what’s going on than I do.  Please check it out if you’re so inclined.  For now, I’m looking forward to getting out my new brew pot and having at some winter-appropriate heavy-beer brewdays sooner rather than later.  More news as events warrant.