1. When I was younger, if I were visiting somewhere out of town, I always thought I needed to take full advantage of being away and do as much stuff as possible.
That seems to have changed.
For much of the day today, when I wasn't writing in this blog, I pretty much lounged around, rested, read stuff about our new car, and tried with the application of ear wax softening drops, to get my ears unplugged. Since three of four days of using these drops and trying to flush out my ears with a syringe hasn't worked very well, I'm going to go to an Urgent Care clinic first thing Friday morning and get a pro to help me be able to fully hear again!
2. About a half an hour away in Bridgman, MI, there's a yarn/fiber store Debbie wanted to visit and three breweries in town.
It was getting toward late afternoon when Debbie and I piled into the Camry and headed east.
Upon arrival, Debbie dashed into the yarn store and I went two doors down and visited Transient Artisan Ales.
Transient brews a lot of different beers, has a good collection of bottles of their stuff, and a bunch of cans, too.
I'm always up to try any tasting room's lager, so I ordered 10 oz of Transient's Chesnut Cask Aged Lagger, a helles lager. The idea of it being aged in a chestnut cask intrigued me. I thought the beer had some interesting flavor, but I wanted it to finish a bit stronger and I like more mouthfeel than this beer has.
Debbie arrived and I went for a much bigger beer and ordered 5 oz of Koopa, a peanut butter barrel aged stout. If I remember correctly, it weighed in at about 11% ABV, so I was careful with it. This beer worked much better for me. The peanut butter wasn't too forward, the beer had a slightly salty quality, and I enjoyed its level of booziness. And, alas, it felt heavier in my mouth and I liked that a lot.
Before we left Transient, we bought three pint bottles to go: It's All Relative, an imperial porter (not sure I've ever had an imperial porter), a VERY imperial stout with vanilla, coffee, and maple syrup called Kentuckley (14.5% ABV), and Rye Lagger, another helles lager brewed with rye and aged in a chestnut cask. In the recent Great American Beer Festival, this beer won a bronze medal in the Wood and Barrel Aged Beer category. The very friendly and helpful woman who helped us navigate Transient's beers was really pumped about this prize -- and her enthusiasm persuaded me to buy it and give a try back at the lake house.
3. We went across the street to have a bite to eat and try another beer at Tapistry Brewing. I'm always in search of a porter I really like. Back on St. Patrick's Day and again in late June, I ordered the Knot Tree porter at MickDuff's in Sandpoint and I loved it and I've been eager to find another porter I love as Debbie and I make our way across the USA. At Tapistry, I ordered a five ounce pour of their Peck's porter. I found it serviceable, but wasn't moved to order another. I thought its finish petered out. I did, however, very much enjoy my smoked turkey sandwich, dressed with mango pepper jelly and truffle aioli, that also contained Muenster cheese, served on toasted sourdough bread. Debbie ordered very tasty wasabi pork tacos and she enjoyed an Imperial IPA called Enigma.
Back at the lake house, Debbie and I split our last bottle of Warlock, Southern Tier's exquisite imperial pumpkin stout and then we cracked open, and split, the very intense imperial porter from Transient, a beer packed with toasty flavors and a bit of licorice and featuring a fairly intense booziness. This beer's taste improved quite a bit for me as I let in warm, so I drank my short pours very slowly and came to enjoy it a lot.
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