Happy Halloween!

 So, as you may or may not be aware (and if you’re not get out from under that rock) it is Halloween weekend!  And that means among such traditions as dressing up like your favorite condiment or the skankiest thing you can think of, you need to think about being responsible… I know this is a subject we talked about in my last Holiday Weekend post, but I am going to have to revisit all that stuff again.

I am sure you have heard all of the statistics and you know that drinking and driving is a bad combination. Well in case you don’t know, or you forgot, here are some drinking tips on how to drink responsibly from Drinking.com.

Hints and tips

Spacers:
Soft drink ‘spacers’ between drinks can help  pace an evening.
Top-ups: 
Avoid top-ups so you can keep track of your alcohol intake.
Water, water!: 
Alternate your drinks with water to stay refreshed.

A bite to eat:

Eating before or while drinking slows alcohol absorption.

Be a responsible host: 
Provide food, non-alcoholic drinks or serve pre-made cocktails using standard drinks measures.
Stick to one type of alcohol:

If you are switching between beer, mixed drinks and shots, chances are you are going to have a lot of trouble keeping track of what you have had to drink. Stick to one thing and you will also have less of a hangover the next day if you do have too much to drink.

Drive time: 
Think about how you’re going to get home before you leave home.  Grab a cab or designate a driver.

As for the last part about a cab, I happened to take the initiative of finding the NATIONAL websites for cab companies. If you plan on getting drunk, arrange a cab ahead of time. Yellow Cab and Taxi are both national cab companies and you can navigate their websites to find a local company. You can also type cabs into Google and get the info that way. Any bar you are at should have the number for at least one cab company handy in case you need it.

There is also this nifty thing called a designated driver! Someone who isn't drinking and is still hanging out and having fun. If that is you, that means DON'T drink. If you don't have a designated driver, I have just the thing for you! It is called a rented designated driver. This is a group who has lists of people willing to give you a lift sometimes for free, when you have had too much to drink. What a brilliant thing!

Please keep all of that stuff in mind and have a safe and fun Halloween! Even if you are at a Toga party, it doesn't mean you have to drink like you’re in Animal House!

 If you feel so inclined, I would love to see some pictures of you having fun (and any beers you are trying) this weekend. If you want to share please email them to me at sarah@hoppybeergirl.com.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

And finally... some BEER

Whew! What a couple of weeks! I try to do my best to not let school work and day to day work stuff interfere with my true love... beer. I have just been super busy with "grown up" stuff lately. At long last though, I have a bunch of time (hahaha) to write a good long post for you.



Hoptoberfest



We had some fantastic beer at our Oktoberfest party (was it two weeks ago already?) We had Hoptoberfest from New Belgium, which I thought was really fantastic. It is very hoppy, but not bitter like some hop-erific beers can be. I would definitely bring this one to a party for people to try, but I am not sure I could handle more than one because of the hoppiness. Eric brought this one, and got a Hoppy Beer Girl Tshirt for it! YAAY!

My wonderful father brought DAB, which according to the website is “A real Dortmunder – a symbol of German brewing culture – Bright golden colour – fine bitter taste – with an elegant note of hops.” I think that sums it up perfectly! I am not terribly familiar with what a Dortmunder is, but if my German guest post taught me anything (and it did) it literally is “beer from Dortmund.” I thought that this was a good beer, Blake thought it was fantastic. It was a little bitter but crisp and clean and went fabulously well with soft pretzels.

Picture of Dortmund, Germany

This past weekend we had a surprising beer from Three Floyds, it was Munesterfest. Now normally Three Floyds makes some really strongly flavored beers, and that flavor is predominantly HOPS, which isn’t a bad thing. For that reason I left Munsterfest sitting in the fridge for a few weeks after we were given it by my ultra cool uncle, Fred. Boy was I surprised at the sweet malty deliciousness that welcomed my tastebuds to Munsterfest!! This beer was so far away from what I normally get from Three Floyds, but it was also so good, just like one would expect from Three Floyds. This is one that I will be looking for again next year!

I finally have a submission for my Beer Picture Contest!!! Great! There are three days left to send me pictures of you and your beer!! Well, here is the picture.



Jeni and Allison shotgunning Busch



Do you think you can beat that? Email me your pictures at sarah@hoppybeergirl.com and we will let the judges decide.

Halloween is less than a week away. Have you decided what beer you are drinking for Halloween this week? Any ghoulish suggestions for me? Is there a spooktacular beer I need to try? Let me know!!

What sort of Halloween person are you? Are you a decorator? Or is your house creepy because you don’t decorate and the kids think you are some weirdo because you aren’t into Halloween? Well I think that we can all learn something from this guy…

If you are looking for a way to annoy your neighbors may I suggest this light show set up? I thought it was cooler than the others, but I would probably kill my neighbor if they had it up.

See Blake! I CAN do a post without a Muppets Video!!

Interview with a beer man

So I wanted to have Blake write a post for the longest time, and he has been putting it off.... "saving" his "inspiration" for anything that would keep me from writing about beer in the future (I believe the word he said was baby number 2)... no worries, I am fully capable of drinking beer still, and writing about it... I am just swamped with school work, not that it's an excuse.

Of course there was a bit of discussion on what Blake was going to write about... he wasn't sure, didn't know where to start and didn't like my suggestion of using Muppet Youtube videos to fill in the blank spots. I offered to come up with a couple of questions for him to answer, so you can get to know the hubs a little bit.


Question: Is it true that before I started dating you, you only liked to drink Bud Light? Would you say that I freed your mouth from bland beer forever?
Blake's Answer: It’s not that I only liked to drink bud just that it was cheap. Also that it was what was on hand for parties as most of the firefighters drink bud. No I wouldn’t say that because I still get bland beer when I'm out and being cheep.



Question: What is your favorite type of beer? Can you explain why you prefer it over other kinds of beer?
Blake's Answer: No set favorite, it’s to hard to choose one. But I will never say no to a German or Belgian beer.


Question: What is your favorite part of your wonderful wife having this blog? Hers is getting free beer...
Blake's Answer: Defiantly getting to try new beers. Hard to say it’s getting it for free since I still pay for it.


Question: Would you please explain to the readers, why you don't approve of Muppet videos on the blog? I hear that some people like them a lot....
Blake's Answer:

Question: If you were to come back in your next life as a beer ingredient what would you be? (I would be yeast, beautiful, tasty Belgian yeast)
Blake's Answer: I haven't given it any thought really. There are so many ingredients. I’ll have to think about that one.


Well there you go. That is my husband's take on blogging. Do you have any more questions for Blake? How about for me? Have any pictures you want to send me? You can email me at sarah@hoppybeergirl.com or find me o Facebook or Twitter.

P.S. I haven't gotten any pictures for my "contest" so if anyone sends me a picture of them holding beer before the 29th of October, the chances of you getting a Hoppy Beer Girl t-shirt are pretty good...

So Busy!!

Things I wanted to do this week, but haven’t had time yet:

Write a good blog post, with good content

Vacuum

Catch up on my beer reading

Plan our beer-anniversary weekend

Watch Beer Documentaries

Prepare for 15^th-fest this weekend

 Play tea party with my daughter

As you can see, writing a good blog post was at the top of my list for this week. Unfortunately, I have mid-terms Monday and Wednesday next week. As you may have figured, I prefer writing about beer to writing about Cultural Geography… because Cultural Geography isn’t nearly as fun or exciting as it sounded when I registered for the class. I feel terrible that I haven’t had the time to devote to my beer, or blogging that I would have liked the last two weeks or so, but I suppose that is the price I have to pay for trying to do it all.

We tried to have our beer night this past weekend, and by try I mean, we tried to stay up to have more than one beer each on a Friday night. We succeeded in one beer, and boy what a beer it was!

From Unibroue (in Quebec) Ephemere- Black Currant. Do you see this color?? It was gorgeous! It had a nice clean mouth feel, nothing lingering longer than you wanted. It was fruity (gasp! I like a fruit beer!) and slightly acidic, but you still can taste the hops and a little note of the yeast. This was so amazing that I was honestly sad when we finished it. If anyone is looking to bribe me with a beer, I will be adding this to the list of beers I accept in lieu of actual money.

They also have Ephemere in Apple!! I really think that I might have to try it…

What beer have you been trying?? Don’t forget to send me pictures of you and your beer. PLEASE!! Sarah@hoppybeergirl.com

Sorry for the brief post today… but like I said, I have mid-terms and a party to get ready for…

I love October!!

Happy Birthday to my sister, my two Aunts (a little late and a little early) and my mother in law(way early). October is always full of fun stuff, family gatherings and outings, football and beer. This is probably why I like October so much. Since it is one of my favorite months, and I have been teasing you for almost two weeks with it, here is the low-down on the way to win a free HBG t-shirt (and other random goodies).

Here we go! Do you like to take pictures? (Of course you do!!) Do you like beer (duh!)? Well, not that I am trying to become a creepy stalker or anything, I want to see your pictures of beer, with you in them. I want you to send me your best, most creative, funniest, coolest pictures of you and your beer. Show me who reads, and how much you love beer. For example, this would be a bad picture to send me:

Because it is just beer on a bar, okay for writing about but bad for winning contests. This one is a little closer, because there is a person in it (and my awesome sticker)…

Now try to combine them in a fun way… Be creative! You can email me your pictures, or post them on my Facebook page, here http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Hoppy-Beer-Girl/216744681682462 or you can click the “Like” button on the side of the page. If you don’t have Facebook, email your pictures to me at sarah@hoppybeergirl.com and I will add them to the contest album on Facebook.

What do you get if you win?? Well the first place winner gets a free Hoppy Beer Girl t-shirt and some random other free stuff. Second place, mostly random beer stuff including but not limited to beer cozies and Frisbees. Third place, well you will get something, but I am not sure yet.

So, you have three weeks to send in your pictures, I will include them along the way on the blog, and you can throw in your vote on Facebook by liking the pictures you like. Submissions will end October 28th, and the winner should be announced on October 31st. I will be putting together a non-expert judging panel to pick the winners. You MUST be 21 or over to send in pictures.

Got any questions? Let me know, sarah@hoppybeergirl.com

In other news, Beer night this weekend is up in the air as I am having a second cortisone shot and am not sure I will be up for beer. If there is, I will do another post this weekend, if there isn’t please accept my apology in advance.

Have a great Friday and please enjoy this video

It's Tuesday again...

So, I had a cortisone shot in my foot last Thursday, which threw me off my game a little bit... I got behind on homework and housework, which lead me to fall behind on my blog... I know those 2 days were just killing you with anticipation. Have no fear, I am here now.

We had several very tasty beers this weekend, but sadly I cannot post the pictures for you today. That shouldn't detract from the deliciousness that I will talk about now.

The first beer we had was Weltenburger Urtyp Hell, which my sister so nicely bought for Blake for his birthday. I thought that this had a very clean taste, with a light yeast flavor followed quickly by a bit of hops. This was clearly meant to be a session beer since the taste was so light, and so was the color (insert picture here). Blake was rather congested so he said he couldn't taste anything... I don't imagine you will have the same issue if you are not congested. I liked it a lot.

The second beer we had was Ayinger's Oktoberfest-Marzen. This was a darker, roastier looking beer, like one would hope for in an Oktoberfest beer. I was shocked at how sweet it was. Most Oktoberfest beers are sweet, and flavorful, but still remain fairly balanced in taste so you can drink a lot of them, because let's face it, that is the point of Oktoberfest. This was one that I wouldn't have been able to drink a lot of. I would like to thank my mother in law for the gift of the beer, it was a good one to try, but not one I would go seeking.

Next up, Dogfish Head's Sahtea. I have been eyeing this beer for months! Blake bought it for me a few months ago, and it has been sitting there, waiting to be opened. I finally got up the nerve to crack it open. The first thing that hit me was the smell! It smelled so good! Delicious Juniper, woodsy, Chai smells that make you want to drink the beer right away. I thought that the taste was phenomenal, you can taste every bit of juniper, rye and chai put in the beer. However, it gets sweet and overwhelming after a while. I was barely able to finish my glass of it... I thought that the attempt at improving Sahti, the traditional Finnish beer was a good attempt, but it was a little too much. Normally I love what Dogfish Head does with their "Off-centered" beers, but this one was just too sweet and overwhelming to have a lot of. If I buy it again it will be because I have company and there will be small glasses passed out. Now if I can get some traditional Sahti, that would be something to try....

In other news, has anyone seen the winners from the Great American Beer Festival in Portland?? Well I have the list right here!It is giving me a long list of beers I want to try, and also validating my choice of some favorite beers that I already have tried (and some I am hoarding). Have you had any beers that won? I would love to hear about them.

My next post will outline the upcoming contest, in which I will give away a totally awesome and original Hoppy Beer Girl t-shirt, so keep an eye out for that! Did you miss what the t-shirts look like? Check out my super sexy model!