Every once in a while, I get a taste of what life was like when I could schedule my friends and I to get together in advance. Add to that sleeping late as this demon needs plenty of slumber. Maybe by late October, I might be able to do so for the rest of the year and into 2010, if not, there’s some career choices to be made as I want to have a life ( Read more... )

Portland reminded me of Austin, lots of tattoos and piercings but with more strip joints and beer. I’ve got the photo albums on my myspace page.

The Liver is Evil and Must be Punished
The Fest wasn't that exciting for me, I just did four tastings and left after eating. I realized that at this point, I prefer specialty fests or events at a pub/brewery ( Read more... )

The last “party” day of the trip was anti-climatic with visits to beer bars that featured about 20-30 taps and expanded/eclectic bottle selections. Then a Sumerian demon paid me a visit.

Hamilton’s is a worn bar in a soon to be hipster neighborhood. Two cool things about this place:
1. Their veggie burger is called “Cattle Decapitation” after the ( Read more... )

BeerDiablo texts “First Beer of the Fest: DARK LORD” [DL]
Assurbanipaul texts “Notify next of kin”

Seeing DL on the list affirmed that things were going to go well and indeed they did. Many longtime fest attendees said the selection was more varied and expanded this year. With 102 beers from over 15 states, I couldn’t argue.

Pizza Port’s Strong ( Read more... )

Escon-dildo as the locals call it, though I found the small patches I visited agreeable due to all the beer available. It makes for a hell of a set of blinders.

Holiday Wine Cellar was the first stop and it’s always a treat when a majority of their inventory is either new to me or isn’t distributed in Texas. I missed Descute’s Abyss by about a week ( Read more... )