Monday, April 4, 2016

Three Beautiful Things 04/03/16: Recreating Heurich Lager, Bluegrass at Atlas, Crisp Clean Sheets

1.  Knowing that local brewery DC Brau had worked to recreate a pre-prohibition lager from the historic Christian Heurich Brewing Company (which closed in 1956), I head down to DC Brau today and had my first pint of Heurich Lager. No, it didn't have all the complex citrus or pine notes of a hoppy American IPA, but I was raised on lager beer and this was among, if not the very best lager I've ever tasted. Lagers are easy beers to drink, especially when cold, so John, as he poured my beer, made sure I knew that the ABV of this beer was at 7%, high for a lager (in my experience).  Knowing this, I stopped at one pint -- plus, I had another brewer visit ahead of me.

2.  I hope Atlas Brew Works on West Virginia NE, just minutes from DC Brau, continues to have bluegrass bands play from time to time. This afternoon, the band Rye and Dirty played for a couple of hours and I plopped down on a picnic table and slowly nursed a pint of Ponzi IPA and then a pint of 1500 Lager and enjoyed these young guys rip out some great tunes on guitar, dobro, mandolin, fiddle, and upright bass and also enjoyed their variety of vocal harmonies. The acoustics were not great, but I didn't think they would be in a brewery, and, of course, most people in attendance talked and talked all through the music -- only a handful of us seemed to be there to focus on the music -- but, I expected this, too, and rolled with it just fine.  It was a great three or more hours in these two breweries -- the vibe was great in both places and listening to live bluegrass music is among my very favorite things to do.

3.  I joined the Deke and the Diazes for some take out Peruvian chicken.  Our return to our apartment home had a reward.  Earlier today I had laundered our bedding and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when I crawled under those clean sheets and blanket and enjoyed their crisp comfort all night long.

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