Coffee Talk
The thing about “maternity leave” when you’re self-employed is that it doesn’t really exist. It’s just uber-prioritizing so you get what you HAVE to have done, don’t lose your sanity, and still get baby snuggles. So yeah. That’s where I’ve been – baby snuggling {and doing the work I really have to do…which is not this}. This actually started as Coffee Talk // March, but here it is May and I’m just getting back to it… I’ll try not to make it ALL baby-related.
// But might as well get the baby stuff out of the way. He’s 3 months 5 months old and just as sweet as can be. You can read the baby details over on tiny sneakers, but the main reason there hasn’t been any new recipe-related content here is that I had to do an elimination diet to help pinpoint babe #2’s food allergies. Luckily this wasn’t my first rodeo and I handled it much better this time. Needless to say though, my food was not share-worthy for awhile there. {Although I have been refreshingly reminded that sometimes simple is just as good, if not better, than elaborate when it comes to food.}
// Ok I said I wouldn’t make it all baby but now I’m realizing I pretty much don’t have anything else going on in my life…
// I’ve made it to a couple Pure Barre classes and some Burn Bootcamp pop-ups, but since I can only go on the weekends when I have childcare it’s not making for a very consistent work out routine. I keep saying I’m going to start doing Barre 3 and/or 21 Day Fix Extreme at home but I keep not doing it. There goes the fitness and the food of this food and fitness blog…
// KB is playing baseball for the first time this spring. He loves it and I love watching it. I thought it was crazy talk when I heard it was coach-pitch baseball even at the four-year-old level but you’d be amazed how often they can whack the ball. I wish it wasn’t over so soon.
// We went SWIMMING last week. As in outside. In APRIL. Ok, KB went swimming, I watched precariously from the edge holding a baby hoping he’d remember how to swim. The pool opened the first weekend of April then we had at least 3 freezes so the water temperature was less than stellar…but the 80 degree days were just calling us to dip our toes in the pool. {aaaand now it’s 48 degrees as I type and I’m wearing a hoodie…}
// One of the benefits of being self-employed is getting to control your own time. Last week we used that time to go tour a local brewery with out of town friends, and yeah, we brought the kids. {In our defense the brewery was closed and our friend is the brewer.} The beer was insanely good and KB thought the big brewing tanks were awesome. If you’re local, get your butt down to Brown Truck Brewery, you won’t be disappointed!
// I hated Snapchat when I first joined but I did it because you know, keeping up with the times and all. I eventually deleted it from my phone but I added it back now that you can actually chat back to people and it’s kind of my new favorite. Does that make me old? {Psst. Snapchat –> sideofsneakers} Also, I’m doing this month’s fitness and nutrition bootcamp using Snapchat and it’s going to be epic. Yeah, I said it.
// Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m turning 27. *wink*
// Reading all that nothingness was totally worth your time this Saturday am, wasn’t it?
HLS
After a whirlwind of a weekend in Chicago, I’ve finally made it home in one piece- let the recaps begin!
A late flight out on Sunday meant time for some extra Chicago fun. Theodora, Kate, and I hit the “L” and headed to Goose Island Brewery to take a tour and taste some of their freshly brewed beer.
I proceeded to skillfully navigate us to the wrong Goose Island location- oops. Unfortunately we were not interested in touring the receiving plant.
Lost face.
So sad. (They were polite enough not to strangle me- phew!)
Luckily the iPhone came to the rescue with a cab app that brought us Ali, and soon we made it to the right spot- just in time for a tour.
The Goose Island Brew-Pub:
(It’s a “brew pub” because they brew it and serve it- clever, eh?)
Brewer Miguel gave a quick talk about how beer is made, then led us to the fun part—> the tasting room, where we sampled six of the pub’s many selections.
Beer making talk.
Beer is made with four ingredients: water, hops, malt, and yeast. (Read more about the beer making process.)
A look at the brewing equipment:
Time for tasting!
But for real, tasting time:
From left to right: Sai-Shon Tea, Liquid Dark, IPA, Honkers, Nut Brown Ale, and Willow Street White.
Tasting beer is as an elaborate of a process as tasting wine.
I have to say I was quite impressed. I’ve never tasted beer that had so much flavor- each one was distinct from the one before it. The Saison, Honkers, and Willow Street White knocked my socks off.
Apparently I “taste” beer fast- hey, I told you it was good!
Lunch
After the tour it was well past time for lunch. Veggie burgers & fries to the rescue! Along with a 312 Urban Wheat beer on Kate’s recommendation. (Plus a sample of Matilda on the waitress’ recommendation- it was fantastic!)
A veggie burger with pepper jack cheese & chipotle aioli.
Don’t worry, the evil tomatoes were exiled seconds after this picture was taken.
Every good healthy living conference should end with fries. 🙂
And thus concluded my trip to Chicago. 🙁
The rest of the weekend is coming up!! 🙂 [Yes, I’m backwards. Last event first, I know, I know.]
Travel
In an attempt to save our skin from the burning sun for a day, we decided to make the trek to Wilmington to play tourist for the day. Unfortunately, getting off the beach doesn’t help you escape the heat.
We planned to wander around town until it was time for dinner, but the 100 plus degree weather had other plans for us, shooing us back in the car by mid afternoon. Instead of a day on the town & a nice seafood dinner, it turned into a day of ducking into whatever AC we could find. (Which pretty much meant bars & a beer tour, as you’ll soon see…)
As we walked down Front Street, a popular row in Wilmington, we came across construction. Instead of letting it be an eyesore, they turned it into an art project! This part of the fence was covered in keys.
I’m not sure I’d want my key hanging on the street, but what a cool idea!
We found our first site of salvation not much further down the street:
The Front Street Brewery.
Being a beer-loving family, we couldn’t pass it up.
On recommendation, I tried out the German Kolsch.
It was light and refreshing, but nothing spectacular.
Next time around, I went for the raspberry wheat. Good, but a little too fruity.
We gave the underage-r the biggest beer of all.
I kid, I kid.
After our stop at the Brewery, we made another attempt at sightseeing, but that too landing us in another bar. (I promise we’re not alcoholics….)
I gave the Fat Tire a try, but was sorely, sorely disappointed. The bartended gave me a free Hoegaarden instead. Woohoo.
At this point we realized we’d never make it until dinner in this heat, so we gave in and headed back to our condo. Oh well.
Other
Since we had already done the wine tour thing, we decided to learn about how beer was made while we were in Charlottesville!
We headed out to what seemed to be the middle of nowhere to the Starr Hill Brewery. It looked like an old rundown factory, but I was brave and ventured inside to check it out. Eventually I tracked down David, who was very ready to give us a tour and let us taste some Starr Hill beers!
I was SO impressed with David’s knowledge of the beer making process. This particular brewery was started by a biologist- and he definitely used that knowledge to get his business going. Who knew?!
First we learned about the malted grain that goes into the beer. This is where the source of sugar comes from. Differently flavors are produced by different degrees of roasting, much like coffee beans. There’s a whole range of roasts, from light to dark. (By the way, “chocolate malt” refers to the amount the wheat was roasted- it has nothing to do with chocolate itself!)
Apparently malted grain can be pretty expensive. There was even a huge shortage 2 years ago. Most “big company” beers aren’t even made with just malted grain- that’s how beers like Bud & Busch can be sold so cheaply, and microbrews are more expensive. Budweiser is actually made mostly with corn, and Busch is made mostly with rice. Interesting.
Next the beer is flavored with hops. Hops add a bitterness to beer, to help balance the sweetness from the grain sugar.
Anybody know that Miller Lite “triple hops brewed” ad campaign? Interesting fact: ALL beer is triple hops brewed ;). (Well except like 2 breweries in Scotland.) The hops are added three different times in the brewing process because they are so delicate: the first time for flavor, the second for color, and third for aroma.
I’m skipping a bunch of steps here, but after all the processing, the beer goes into fermentation tanks. The type of beer being made determines the fermentation process. After the beer is properly fermented, it’s time for packaging into kegs or bottles.
Starr Hill uses a mechanical bottling line, but most of the work is actually manual. The workers load the glass bottles onto the line, they are cleaned & pumped with CO2, then filled with beer. Then they’re pumped with some more CO2 to make the beer foam and immediately capped. (That’s why there’s space at the top of the bottle.) The line workers then pull the bottles off the line and box them up for shipping!
What a lot of work!!
After the tour we got to taste a bunch of their beers: an amber ale, a hefeweizen, a stout, and a few seasonal brews.
I think my favorites were The Love & Northern Lights. (Although I had Northern Lights at Brixx last week and hated it!)
What’s your favorite beer?!
