At the beginning of the year I made beer resolutions to write more on this blog and to begin studying for the Advanced Cicerone® Exam. Life events got in the way of both of those goals, but they remain goals and I haven’t abandoned either of them, at least in spirit, despite a lack of progress.
This year has brought some big changes to the LykeBeer Universe. My wife changed jobs and we finally took a leap we’d been contemplating for at least two years; we sold our house, replacing it with a condo on the edge of downtown. We’re reducing the amount we need to clean inside, eliminating outside maintenance, and adding a walkability factor to our lives. According to the website www.walkscore.com we left a home with a walk score of 11, for one with an 83 on a 100 point scale.
In terms of beer, we no longer have our beloved downstairs bar, The Trackside Tavern, which provided ample glassware and liquor storage along with housing our Dedicated Beer Fridge. The process of eliminating seldom-used stuff, including a lot of glassware, from our lives was a big one. If we could have taken the bar (and our library) to the new place, we would have; as it turns out, the bar was a big reason why the buyers picked our house over similar ones.
We had hoped to get the move completed during summer, but the timeline stretched into the fall. The dream of finding a place in a great location that was also move-in ready did not come true so we moved out of the house, put most of our belongings in storage, and headed with two VW-loads of stuff to the guest room of a very generous friend.
Selling a house is an all-consuming set of tasks: I think I spent two hours studying for the Advanced Cicerone® Exam during the summer and you probably know how infrequently I wrote a blog post. One task was to consume the contents of The Trackside Tavern. It was a lofty goal and we made progress, but in the end moved with about 20 cans, three crowlers, two bombers, and stainless steel growler full of beer plus two cases of liquor. I don’t drink nearly as much packaged beer at home as I once did. My fair city has a blossoming taproom and brewpub scene so I frequently stop somewhere for one on the way home instead of cracking a couple open during the evening cooking and eating ritual.
Once renovations are complete and we’ve actually moved into the new place, we’ll have a Dedicated Beer Corner of the kitchen refrigerator. The ongoing challenge will be to maintain “Efficient Variety” a nice variety of beer in that limited space. I think my days of buying cases of beer are over; I’m going to be Mr. Six-Pack now with the occasional variety 12-Pack. I can’t bring myself to buy mix-your-own-six-packs; too many of those shelves are a store’s way of moving beer that’s past its freshness peak.
For us, I’ll try to maintain small stocks of Helles Lager or Pils, Vienna Lager or Brown Ale, Porter or Stout, and something tart like Saison or Berliner Weiss. Undoubtedly, something seasonal will work its way in there as well. Those styles will cover our bases for the preferences of Mrs. LykeBeer and me. I can always go out to grab something for the hopheads, if I know they’re coming…
This year has brought some big changes to the LykeBeer Universe. My wife changed jobs and we finally took a leap we’d been contemplating for at least two years; we sold our house, replacing it with a condo on the edge of downtown. We’re reducing the amount we need to clean inside, eliminating outside maintenance, and adding a walkability factor to our lives. According to the website www.walkscore.com we left a home with a walk score of 11, for one with an 83 on a 100 point scale.
In terms of beer, we no longer have our beloved downstairs bar, The Trackside Tavern, which provided ample glassware and liquor storage along with housing our Dedicated Beer Fridge. The process of eliminating seldom-used stuff, including a lot of glassware, from our lives was a big one. If we could have taken the bar (and our library) to the new place, we would have; as it turns out, the bar was a big reason why the buyers picked our house over similar ones.
We had hoped to get the move completed during summer, but the timeline stretched into the fall. The dream of finding a place in a great location that was also move-in ready did not come true so we moved out of the house, put most of our belongings in storage, and headed with two VW-loads of stuff to the guest room of a very generous friend.
Selling a house is an all-consuming set of tasks: I think I spent two hours studying for the Advanced Cicerone® Exam during the summer and you probably know how infrequently I wrote a blog post. One task was to consume the contents of The Trackside Tavern. It was a lofty goal and we made progress, but in the end moved with about 20 cans, three crowlers, two bombers, and stainless steel growler full of beer plus two cases of liquor. I don’t drink nearly as much packaged beer at home as I once did. My fair city has a blossoming taproom and brewpub scene so I frequently stop somewhere for one on the way home instead of cracking a couple open during the evening cooking and eating ritual.
Once renovations are complete and we’ve actually moved into the new place, we’ll have a Dedicated Beer Corner of the kitchen refrigerator. The ongoing challenge will be to maintain “Efficient Variety” a nice variety of beer in that limited space. I think my days of buying cases of beer are over; I’m going to be Mr. Six-Pack now with the occasional variety 12-Pack. I can’t bring myself to buy mix-your-own-six-packs; too many of those shelves are a store’s way of moving beer that’s past its freshness peak.
For us, I’ll try to maintain small stocks of Helles Lager or Pils, Vienna Lager or Brown Ale, Porter or Stout, and something tart like Saison or Berliner Weiss. Undoubtedly, something seasonal will work its way in there as well. Those styles will cover our bases for the preferences of Mrs. LykeBeer and me. I can always go out to grab something for the hopheads, if I know they’re coming…
RSS Feed
