It was a good weekend. It was a good beer weekend. I drank a lot of beer.
The beer wasn’t why it was good, but it was certainly a happy companion. It started with a trip to Connecticut for my cousin’s, once removed, birthday party. There was some swimming, there were some snacks. There was a keg of beer.
Specifically, there was Norbrook Farm’s Mount Pisgah, a 6.8% American IPA. This was about as local as you get, clocking in at a mere 1.23 miles, as the crow flies, from where I drank it. Their website says they have a fire pit–with the right wind conditions I might even be able to smell that fire pit from where I was.
Was the beer good though? I was drinking with family and friends, many of whom I had not seen in quite a while. So, low bar, but the beer was good. I don’t know if it was a pint I’d have a second of sitting at a bar somewhere, but a nice solid IPA while wandering around chatting with friends and family? Perfection. The American IPA style fits it pretty well, it had plenty of that caramel malt backbone that felt like a throwback, but plenty of friendly and tasty hop flavor too. I’ll be back on July 3rd, and hopefully the keg is tapped and I get to try something else next time, or else I’ll just have to help tap this one.
The weekend continued the next day with some friends and their children. Everyone Is vaccinated and mostly safe, so we didn’t worry too much about the kids getting some much needed socialization, we even set up the bounce house. The LOL Surprise Doll themed bounce house.
As is my style, I had too much beer. We drank a rather nice Zwickel from Jack’s Abby, and finally tried Gumballhead from 3 Floyds, but you know those are great breweries and beers, the one I want to talk about is the Breadwinner by Upward Brewing Company.
Upward Brewing Company is a relatively new brewery in the Catskills, Livingston Manor, NY. They’ve got a large plot of land, something called Beer Mountain, and a hiking trail. And beer. A friend was up there this weekend and brought a growler of Breadwinner to the party, and we finished that growler.
Breadwinner is a 5.5% American IPA, which appears to be the style of the weekend. At 5.5% it doesn’t hit as hard as many IPAs, which gives it a very crushable feel. Standard Citra & Mosaic hops, but not overdone and just enough malt backbone to fit the style and ‘balance’ it. I found myself happily topping off my glass as I grilled up some burgers and talked nonsense and chased the kids around. Then it was empty. How’d that happen?
I’d put up a pop-up tent when we got a brief spattering of rain that didn’t really bother anyone. It was still rainy in the morning, so I took my coffee outside, sat under the tent in the comfortable morning, drank my coffee and watched the birds dodge a drizzle to eat at the birdfeeder, reflecting on what ended up being a nice refreshing weekend.
Ceetar can be found on Twitter and Untappd where he’s probably still sitting out in the rain drinking coffee. You can also email him at beer@ceetar.com.