The Last Cornhole of Summer

Admittedly, I have been busy. Too busy to write up a corn hole day blog? Well, yes - that busy!!

How does it all happen? One day you are drinking beast, ironically made by Miller Brewing. from a keg in some dinky apartment, struggling to get your BA/BS. The next thing you know, you are worrying that you do not have enough money in your 401(k) to live in Ireland when you retire.

With so many things changing, I have to ask myself, "What hasn't changed in my life?"

1. My ridiculous sense of competition. Yes, I love being outside and playing corn hole. No, I do not like losing or being terrible at a child's game. The fact that Hollow Leg and AneLyn are great at it - only more frustrating. I think they have experience on their side. Let's come back to this one after a couple years of practice.
   
2. I love to drink beer in the middle of the day. I know this sounds incredibly irresponsible of me. However, there is something about a sunny day that makes me want to grab a bag of Lay's Potato Chips and six pack of Miller Lite and head outside. Of course, you have to eat half of the bag (a common lays chip issue) and drink every single bottle. Good times!
3. I have a magic ability to organize an impromptu tournament. Yes, other people have this power, but I exercise it on a regular basis. Others might try, but I am so pushy, it works for me.
   
4. Work hard, play hard.
5. I realize that having good friends is the secret to staying sane in life. Everyone has crap they need to deal with, but it is better to realize that you are not the only one with a bad boss, a weird co-worker, a pain-in-the-backside parent. Misery loves company. That said, who is really that miserable when they are playing corn hole?

OK, so this has been a post more about life than about beer. Sometimes, Life is like corn hole. You throw four bags. No matter how much you play, sometimes you miss altogether, sometimes you overshoot, sometimes you land short, sometimes you land on the board and sometimes you drain it in the hole!

The Last Swigs of Summer

It is that time of year. The football teams are in action, the baseball teams are fighting their way into post season and Fall is at our doorstep.

What does that mean? Well, we are going to sneak in a game of corn hole at Anelyn's place. Of course, Hollow Leg has already started the trash talking. It is very exciting that some new members will be joining.

I am sure the standard Miller Lite will be the staple at the event. I am hoping to do a quick run to the Chop House to get some Irish Red. As I was looking for the address on the Internet, I noticed that the Oktoberfest beer is going to be unveiled.

Oktoberfest in September. Oh yes. I was once fooled by the term as well. It is a celebration that originates in Germany. They start in mid-September and have a 16-day celebration going until October 1. There are several festivals throughout Germany, but the most famous Oktoberfest is in Munich.

As fortune would have it, I was in Munich as this time last year and didn't have any business meetings. Lady luck is a friend some times. I got to go the Theresienwise - the fairgrounds where the festival is held. I had no idea what to expect. It was unbelievable.

There were over a dozen beer tents and each one was bigger and more grand than the last. I walked around a bit stunned. I was seeing names like Paulaner, Augustiner, Lowenbrau and Schottenhamel. There were rides, like at American Carnivals, and teams of draught horses.

The tradition of good German beer has its place in America. Most microbreweries, and some of the major ones, offer an Oktoberfest. The local Great Lakes Brewing Company has a very nice Oktoberfest.

I think I know what I am going to be doing after our Corn Hole Tournament this weekend!

Magic Hat and a Black T-Shirt

One of the great benefits of my new job is the very close proximity to a wide variety of drinking establishments. For instance, I went to a gallery opening on Friday across the bridge from where I work. Afterward, we went to McCarthy's Ale House for a few cheap beers.

As the group gathered we decided to play bar bowling at the Harbor Inn. We bowled a couple of rounds and I purchased everyone their own individual styled ale. I had the Celebrator Doppelbock (mostly because someone else wanted my beer).

So as the night rolled on, we ended back at the bar in the building where I work . . . the Nauti Mermaid. I had a lovely Magic Hat 9 draft. It is a lovely brew. I had a few drafts when it was on special at the Winking Lizard. I even got a pint glass with it.

I was even more encourage to drink it because I happened to meet the East Coast Representative earlier in the week when I went for a happy hour drink with a co-worker. It was pretty cool. He told me he bought me the drink. I told him I really liked the beer. After that, he offered me a t-shirt.

It is a cool Magic Hat Brewing Company t-shirt. Even better, it is an American Apparel t-shirt. Given the recent situation with Chinese imports, I was glad to be drinking an American beer, wearing an American t-shirt.

Bye Bye and a Boddingtons

As I had mentioned in my previous post, the original location of the Winking Lizard is closing. The team, which has grown significantly due to the increased number of fans, had a last meeting there.

It got me thinking about how this venture started with AneLyn and me. It was meant as a way to get through our daily work life and keep sane. OK, so we really like the beer, wings and burgers as well. Like all really good things, it just kept growing. It became a fun excuse to leave the office at 4:30. It gave us a chance to commiserate.

As I was sitting there, it was the usual cast of characters plus 1. Over the past few months, Loose Lips has been joining us for cocktails. You might be wondering why he never made it into any of the blog posts. I had been wondering about that as well. It seems the antics of Hollow Leg had dominated for awhile. I also realized I had started to shift the blog into a conversation about beer.

Loose Lips has been a very good addition in this regard. He loves a good beer. Yesterday, he was drinking Arrogant Bastard ale. That's right, it was referenced in a previous post about Hollow Leg's visit to Arrogant Bastard's brewing company - Stone Brewing.


At any rate, it seems like such a short span of time for this gathering to become such a great part of my life. It is always fun and never dull. Generally, we manage to drag it into the gutter part of the way through the evening - Loose Lips definitely is a strong contributor in this area as well. (I should mention that Loose Lips alternate name was going to be piglet.

It is hard to believe that I actually finished the World Tour , or hit the century mark as they say, back in May. At the time, Hollow Leg suggested that we should do a second round. I declined because I thought we wouldn't be able to do it . . in hind sight, football season is on the way.

Cooler heads did prevail. I finished my last Boddington's and had a shot with the Team. Sandbox bought the girls a "Last Call" t-shirt. The boys weren't nearly as organized!

So Bye Bye old Winking Lizard, hello new Winking Lizard! Can't wait to see what good time we have there.

One last Wink at The Original Lizard

So today is the day for me. It is my last trip the original Winking Lizard. Yes, it is true, the original joint is doing a last call celebration to send the fine lady out in style. They have been serving up the love since 1983.

Granted, they will be just moving next door. It is not like the current space is that spectacular. It just seems like all other things, everything is moving, changing, getting an upgrade. I work in the Internet industry. Working with my clients is like being on perpetual upgrade.

I just think back to all the good times. I think about getting my pirate from Sandbox, hanging out with the Cheerleader and her husband Bill.

I think about the birthday shot (a blow job) that I had to do the first time I went there with co-workers. Nice, eh? I drank it on the sly when no one was looking. How embarrassing!

Watching OSU play in the NCAA basketball tournament. Sitting with AneLyne and Hollow Leg and drinking so many beers I had to be driven home. Just because a girl sets off the fire alarm because she uses the back door 5 minutes after it is armed doesn't mean she is an idiot. How stupid is a place that lets you use a door until 5pm?

On second thought, maybe this new place will be better. At any rate, we are going to celebrate and remember.

I will leave you with the words of the Beatles

There are places I remember all my life,
Though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain.

Is 32 ounces better than a quality 12?

Ok, so the team has a meeting last Thursday. I managed to arrange a covert meeting so I was able to join them. Actually, I had business with Hollow Leg, but he was out buying school supplies, so it had to be postponed until this week.

At any rate, we were at the Winking Lizard, shocking I know, having a few beers and taking advantage of the burger night. I managed to order the baked potato instead of the fries, so that just tells you things were off to a strange start.

Normally, I really peruse the beer menu and think about what I am in the mood to drink. Somehow, magically, I noticed the beer specials section of the menu. It must have been a lie because a 32 oz. Labatt was only $4.

It true that I can be as much of a beer snob as the next person, but you can't disregard a value. I am a bigger sucker for a good deal. Apparently, Sandbox (code name) thought so as well because she ordered one, too.

Maybe it was just that we were both kind of having a hard day. Maybe it is that we would have had to ordered three Traquair House Scotch ales to get the same volume of alcohol. Well, Sandbox would have had Old Peculiar (which is a fav of mine as well.)

It got me thinking, was it really a better value? Labatt was the clear winner in the volume category. However, what about ABV (alcohol by volume). Let's take a look - each of the beers are given a ABV for a 12 oz serving. (all ABVs were obtained from RateBeer to assure parity of measurement.)


Labatt Blue Lager 5.0%
Old Peculiar 5.7%
Traquair House 7.2%

Ok - based on these figures. Labatt is holding Old Peculiar hostage in the value department. So it got a little more complex with Traquair. Here is the dinger. Traquair is a hefty $7/bottle. Even if I only needed to drink 2 of them to get the comparative ABV, you are still looking at $14.

The way I see it, drinking Labatt paid for my burger and the tip. You just have to love those Canadians.

Down East Brewing Adventure

Going to a bridal shower is not necessarily what you would call a fun weekend. Fortunately, the bride and other bridesmaids are a blast and love good beer. There were so many new brews to experience. When we went to dinner in Maine (a very short jaunt from Portsmouth, NH), I had one of the local beers, but failed to get the name of it. Shame on me.

When we returned to New Hampshire, I tried the Lobster Ale from Shipyard Brewery. It was good beer. It had a nice character. Mostly, I tried it because I liked the name.

As the night moved on, I started drinking the Red Hook Long Hammer IPA. You might ask, isn't Red Hook a Seattle-based company. Well, I asked the same question. It is, but apparently, Long Hammer is batched brewed in Kittery, ME. OK, so it wasn't local, but it was fresh. As you know, I really like the IPA style and enjoyed this beers great finish and smooth taste.

The next day, I moved onto the local brews from Smutty Nose Brewing. As you might have guess, I first tried the IPA. Then I moved onto the Portsmouth Lager. It was "awarded best Vienna/Marzen larger in the Northeast" and it was a well deserved title.

The Bridal party sat on the water's edge at an area the locals call the Decks. We were at a bar named Harpoon Willy's. We got the corner spot on the deck and proceeded to drink Smutty Nose until the sun went down.

New England is indeed a great place!