A Labor Day Weekend Quickie

On Friday afternoon, this happened:

Lunch at Pig Out In The Park, the annual food and music fest that happens in Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane. We never miss it, if only for the great excuse to eat such horrors as the plate of giant fries slathered in cheese, chicken, jalapenos, salsa and a liberal addition of sriracha. We did not visit the beer garden, however, because one of us (it was totally My Indian Companion) had to go back to work. No matter, though. They were only pouring macrobrews and a few selections of craft beer from a local brewery I don't care for too much. I'm not going to name them here, because it's been over three years since I've had any of their beers, and I'd like to give them another shot. I'll cover that in a future post.

So where's the beer then? Don't worry. I'm getting to it. Plus, had you read my introduction, you'd know that beer is just the vehicle for me to talk about me, and all my many adventures. Most of which involve beer.

But first, more food.

We went back to the Pig Out on Sunday for dinner and to meet a couple of friends, and this happened:

A cup of Jambalaya from the Gumbo Goddess booth. I don't believe they're a Spokane local, but it's hard to find good creole food this far north. Or west. So I'll take it when I can get it.

I also had a pretty amazing Spicy Cajun Sausage from a local vender, but the habanero mango salsa was so good I forgot to snap a photo. So just use your imaginations, and think of something long, plump and juicy. Between a firm bun. With a bunch of goo on the top. That I really enjoyed putting in my mouth.

Alright. Calm down. On to the beer.

After the park, we went up to the Lantern Tap House. Word was they had the Black Butte XXIV 24th Anniversary Reserve Imperial Portal from Deschutes on tap. On tap. You might remember this bad boy from my poker night post, but that was just a bottle. Don't take that wrong. Even from a bottle it's one of the best beers money can buy. But on tap? On tap? Beer doesn't get much better than that. And get this: they were pouring full pints. Pints. A full 16 ounces. Now remember, this bad ass porter weighs in at 11% ABV, so a little goes a long way. But even better than that, they were only charging $6.50 for the pint. An incredibly low price for such an incredibly big beer. But, even better still, it was happy hour all day on Sunday. So it was a dollar off. A dollar off! Do the math. We got 16 ounces of Black Butte XXIV for only $5.50. Unreal.

Odds are they've blown the keg already. They were pretty close to it on Sunday night, so my apologies for not letting you all know sooner. Perhaps you can rest assured that your trustworthy author milked that deal for all it was worth and had not one, not two, but two and a half pints of this rare bird before it flew south for the winter, and will only return in the form of cellared bottles. After a full two pints, my friend Brian and I decided just to split another one. It was getting late, and while we didn't want to pass up the opportunity to have more, there was no way we could have made it through a full pint apiece and maintain any degree of coherency.

I'm a sucker for limited edition stuff like this, and I'm really glad I didn't miss out on this one. Sorry for rubbing it in for all of you who did miss it. A rare bird indeed.

You know, it just occurred to me that there really wasn't any point in not mentioning that local brewery from before. If you were at Pig Out In The Park and went to the beer garden, you know who it was. If you're from that brewery, you know it was you. But eh. I'll leave it be, and hope to be pleasantly surprised next time I give them a shot.

After getting home from the Lantern, I popped open a bottle of the Yeti from Great Divide. Not the espresso Yeti, as I described in my last post, but the regular old Yeti. Still one of my favorites. Can't really touch the Black Butte XXIV in terms of flavor complexity, but the Yeti doesn't propport to be anything but a great imperial stout. It's deep and dark, and while a bit thick, it drinks extremely smooth. It's caramely, if that's even an adjective, and tastes almost like it's been roasted ever so slightly over some hot coals. Perhaps that's the roasted malts mentioned on this beer's profile on the Great Divide Brewing website. Perhaps indeed. At 75 IBU's, it's got a great hop presence, and to top all that off, a hefty 9.5% ABV.

What a great evening. Eating great food. Drinking great beers. Hanging with great friends. Does life get much more enjoyable than this? These beers, and this post in entirety, perfectly encapsulate this blog's mantra and mission statement, of which I freestyled in my introduction post:

Beer is good.

Let's drink some.

And enjoy life.

So, according to the rules of life I designated at the inception of this blog, the answer is no. Life doesn't get much more enjoyable than this.

I'll toast to that. And you know what that means. Yep, that's right. Tap that glass, ladies and gentlemen. And let that ring signal the start of an excellent evening.