Correction: In my 05/29/2021 post, I wrote about Josh's sister Andi and Andi's daughter. Andi's daughter's name is Nya -- I had referred to her as Nyla. Her name is Nya.
1. After spending the morning and some of the afternoon relaxing, Josh, Andi, Debbie, and I piled into the Langford van and headed north to Haverstraw, NY, planning to enjoy some beers at the Industrial Arts Brewing Company.
It turned out we couldn't quite do that.
It was raining hard. Industrial Arts only had outside seating and they closed it.
Not all was lost, however. The brewery was selling cans of beer to take out and so we bought some four packs of barleywine, wheat stout, and different IPAs and made a new plan.
2. I hadn't seen this coming, but the new plan that emerged was a trip to the first taproom I ever visited in this area, The Growler and Gill in Nanuet, NY. It's also my favorite.
I loved being back in the Growler and Gill again. Debbie and I ordered a flight including a lager, a sampler of La Fin du Mode, and four other IPAs. As we finished the flight, Josh very pleasantly surprised me when he purchased me a pour of saison. I'm not sure of its name or the brewer, but I'd only drunk one saison since moving to Idaho and I not only loved its taste, the way it finished kind of like a sour, but I also loved the memories that flashed in my head as I remembered the great saisons and farmhouse ales I'd enjoyed in the past, especially in Eugene.
3. We arrived back at chez Langford and sat down to a tasty chicken dinner.
We then embarked on an epic session of beer sampling. It's been years since I've sampled so many different styles of beer in one session. Debbie and I sat at the dining table and Josh kept us supplied with short pours barleywine, wheat stout, and a variety of IPAs. All of the beers were from NY -- mostly from Industrial Arts, as I recall, but Josh had also bought cans of Great Notion (from Portland, OR) and, as I recall, my participation in this session ended with this great IPA from out west.
As I anticipated coming out east, I had fond thoughts about a lot of things. It wouldn't be fair to say my fondest thoughts were about returning to the great beers of New York and New England, but I was really looking forward to sampling these beers again. Our visit to Growler and Gill and our session this evening exceeded even my most romantic imaginings of how much I would enjoy drinking these beers. I can't drink beer like this very often, but this one day and evening of trying out so many beers was a blast.
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