Flying Monktoberfest
Oct. 6th, 2008 08:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellymellI realize I haven't posted an ALEP recap yet, but this is fresh in my mind, so here goes.
As just a quick side note, Friday evening we closed on our mortgage refinance. W00T! We locked in a rate over a percent lower than our former one before they went back up again. The main objective though was to reduce our loan life from 30 years to 15 (if we stay in this house that long, we could have it paid off before Jonah is even out of high school). We're actually taking on a slightly larger monthly payment but will be done in half the time AND pay a ton less interest over the life of the loan (and therefore wind up paying less for our house in the long run). So, we went to Blue Coast Burrito for dinner to celebrate (thinking Baja might be busy). Seems fitting to go have a super cheap $15 family dinner for such an occasion. When we got to Blue Coast, we noticed the salon next door was called Pink Mullet Salon. I kid you not. I've got a picture to prove it. Blue Coast, in my opinion is not quite as good as Baja (which is of the same chain), but close enough to cure a craving if necessary. I just felt like there were too many gringos in there. Chris wasn't feeling well halfway through dinner, so we finished up quickly and headed home instead of running our monthly Costco errand. We went to bed somewhat early knowing we were traveling the next day and since Chris wasn't feeling well.
We got up the next morning and leisurely got ready to go to Huntsville for the weekend. We were almost to Ardmore when I realized I forgot to post about the event and posted from my phone (which was kind of a hassle, especially since the connection was in and out through the hills of southern Tennessee). During the drive I had been in touch with Steff and trying to convince her and her family they should come out for it. Her sister was in town to watch the Auburn/Vandy game with the family. Since Auburn turned out to suck, they just wanted to get out of the house and wound up coming down.
We got to Flying Monkey at around 1pm and set up pretty quickly. Jonah had fun running his Hot Wheels down one of the ramps while we ran around getting stuff set up. From there we went over to Chris' parents to drop off Jonah. He was going to stay with them for the night. We expected it to take longer to set up, so we had a lot of time to kill before dinner and just sat and visited with them for a while. At about 5pm or so, we headed out to meet Matt and his wife Chris for dinner at a new German place in town called Schnitzel Ranch (which is just hilarious). We usually wind up eating German food in Huntsville because it's the one thing we can get there that we can't really get up here (Nashville only has like one German restaurant that I know of and I've heard it's not that great). It wasn't bad, but I definitely think Ol'Heidelburg is much better. Their red cabbage was a little bitter, I don't think it's possible to screw up spaetzle so that was fine and my rouladen was pretty good but Chris said his jaegerschnizel wasn't very good. It was worth a try, though.
With our bellies full of heavy German food, we made our way back to Flying Monkey to get ready for the tasting. We were nearly an hour early, but still had a couple of things to get ready before they opened the doors. We came up with the most immature names we could for the beers we had (Ass Cask #3 for the cask conditioned oatmeal stout, I.P. Freely IPA, Carl's Mom's Woody Funk for the Jack Daniel's barrel-aged English barleywine, Bocktoberfest for the oktoberfest that turned out more like a bock and Heil to the Chief Hefe for the Hefeweizen, which was also what I took to ALEP last weekend). When you're club's name is ASS, I think there's an unwritten rule somewhere that you've got to act like 13-year-olds. Unfortunately, we were the only ones there representing our club. One other club member was in town for an unrelated mountain biking event on Monte Sano and came down briefly to help us pour and have a few beers. But he had like 20 gallons of his own homebrew on the mountain, so only stayed at the event for about an hour.
Though Chris and I were stuck behind the taps much of the night, we had a lot of fun. I don't think I got to try more than about 2-3 beers that weren't ours, but what I had was very good. I felt kind of bad for the guys from Yazoo that were at the table next to us. We were pouring steady all night, even with a line sometimes. They had very few takers throughout the night. Same for the club from Phoenix City, AL that we shared a table with. But all they brought was an apricot pilsner a regular pilsner and a pale ale. I felt obligated to try something of theirs, but I just didn't feel like it. None of those styles excite me. I did have a sip of the apricot pilsner but it was way too sweet. Should have been much drier and a little more carbonated. Tasted like fake apricot, too. Smelled like a Strawberry Shortcake action figure or something (as my brother put it). And if you're wondering how my brother knows what a Strawberry Shortcake action figure smells like, it's because I happened to own the one that smelled like apricot growing up (forget what her name was now).
At first, as people were coming in, I felt like I didn't know anyone except the people behind the taps and the organizers (basically all the guys we used to be in Rocket City Brewers with). More and more old friends showed up as the night wore on though. It was funny though, as those people began to show up, they'd talk about how they didn't know anyone there. It was a huge turnout and I think I heard a figure like $7000 was raised. I'm pretty sure there was a homeless person or two there and one of them even dropped some change in our donation bucket at our taps. I thought that was pretty awesome. It was funny how many people thought we were a commercial brewery. I guess our professional looking banner made us seem professional, heh.
It was fantastic to see so many people I haven't seen in a very long time. Though I wish I could have talked with everyone a little more. Between having to get in a word or two between pours and trying to yell in someone's ear over the excessively loud and crappy bands (each one louder and crappier than the last), it was difficult to talk to people. I did catch a few people outside when I was lucky enough to duck out for a minute. They really need to see about getting someone acoustic or something for the next one. Maybe I'm just old. If I were going for the music, it would be one thing, but you generally want to talk to the brewers at these things and learn something about the beer you're drinking. That was virtually impossible.
We were staying with Matt and Chris in Decatur for the night and after packing up, we drove out following them to their house. We all stayed up a little bit talking about people we saw and talked to that we hadn't in years and drinking water and taking Ibuprofen before going to bed. That was one complaint I had about the event, that there wasn't nearly enough water. They should have had several coolers full of ice water. The bottles they had just ran out too quickly. We took a pitcher for water, but didn't really have a place to fill it up effectively. We were also the only table with a dump bucket. I'm really surprised with the Habenero beer that RCB had on tap at the golden urinal that they didn't have one as well. You can't drink more than a couple of sips of that beer before you want to pour the rest out.
After a not long enough night of sleep, Chris and I got up and took showers and then ducked out as Matt and Chris were waking to head to Chris' parents for lunch. We hunted down a Starbucks on the way and lamented the fact that Starbucks are not like they are in Nashville in Huntsville/Decatur. Granted, I really don't like Starbucks and tend to avoid them. But when you're desperate for coffee, I appreciate the convenience of one on every block in Nashville. We found one in Madison though and got a couple of iced coffees. I sucked that down but it didn't do a whole lot for the grogginess. Chris' mom made a pot of coffee when we got to their house, so that helped a little.
We sat around and visited again. Jonah was napping. They said he wasn't feeling good again Sunday morning. I'm not sure what it is but every single time they take care of him, he seems to get sick. It's always something different though, so I don't think it's something in their house or anything they're doing in particular. And he's even done it here before when they've come to our house to watch him. I think it's just an unfortunate coincidence. When he woke up, he was running about a 101 F fever. Martha ran to the store and got some fever reducer, since he didn't appear to have any other symptoms. You could literally see him come back to life as the medicine started to work. He ate a decent lunch (pretty much just sweet potato) and even played for a little bit.
We packed up all his things and the mountain of clothes that Martha bought at Kid's Market for him for the fall and winter then loaded up the car and headed to Steff's house to pick up a few things she had set aside for him. He played quite a bit there and was obviously feeling much better. We got a bag full of wooden puzzles and books and a couple of bags of goodies from their garden. She had a Radio Flyer little bike with training wheels for him but we had no more room in the car. From there we headed home and just sort of relaxed for the rest of the night. We got a pizza from Papa Murphy's since neither of us felt like cooking.
Jonah had a runny nose by the time he went to bed and I gave him some medicine, hoping it would help him sleep without congestion. I've kept him out of school today because of the 24 fever rule and because I would want the other parents to do the same in this situation. He might not be contagious but then again he might be. Doing my part to try to keep from spreading whatever it is he has, even though it means that with the fall break holiday this week he won't go back until the 17th. I need to go drop off a tuition check though. Sounds like he's waking up so I guess I better go get him.
As just a quick side note, Friday evening we closed on our mortgage refinance. W00T! We locked in a rate over a percent lower than our former one before they went back up again. The main objective though was to reduce our loan life from 30 years to 15 (if we stay in this house that long, we could have it paid off before Jonah is even out of high school). We're actually taking on a slightly larger monthly payment but will be done in half the time AND pay a ton less interest over the life of the loan (and therefore wind up paying less for our house in the long run). So, we went to Blue Coast Burrito for dinner to celebrate (thinking Baja might be busy). Seems fitting to go have a super cheap $15 family dinner for such an occasion. When we got to Blue Coast, we noticed the salon next door was called Pink Mullet Salon. I kid you not. I've got a picture to prove it. Blue Coast, in my opinion is not quite as good as Baja (which is of the same chain), but close enough to cure a craving if necessary. I just felt like there were too many gringos in there. Chris wasn't feeling well halfway through dinner, so we finished up quickly and headed home instead of running our monthly Costco errand. We went to bed somewhat early knowing we were traveling the next day and since Chris wasn't feeling well.
We got up the next morning and leisurely got ready to go to Huntsville for the weekend. We were almost to Ardmore when I realized I forgot to post about the event and posted from my phone (which was kind of a hassle, especially since the connection was in and out through the hills of southern Tennessee). During the drive I had been in touch with Steff and trying to convince her and her family they should come out for it. Her sister was in town to watch the Auburn/Vandy game with the family. Since Auburn turned out to suck, they just wanted to get out of the house and wound up coming down.
We got to Flying Monkey at around 1pm and set up pretty quickly. Jonah had fun running his Hot Wheels down one of the ramps while we ran around getting stuff set up. From there we went over to Chris' parents to drop off Jonah. He was going to stay with them for the night. We expected it to take longer to set up, so we had a lot of time to kill before dinner and just sat and visited with them for a while. At about 5pm or so, we headed out to meet Matt and his wife Chris for dinner at a new German place in town called Schnitzel Ranch (which is just hilarious). We usually wind up eating German food in Huntsville because it's the one thing we can get there that we can't really get up here (Nashville only has like one German restaurant that I know of and I've heard it's not that great). It wasn't bad, but I definitely think Ol'Heidelburg is much better. Their red cabbage was a little bitter, I don't think it's possible to screw up spaetzle so that was fine and my rouladen was pretty good but Chris said his jaegerschnizel wasn't very good. It was worth a try, though.
With our bellies full of heavy German food, we made our way back to Flying Monkey to get ready for the tasting. We were nearly an hour early, but still had a couple of things to get ready before they opened the doors. We came up with the most immature names we could for the beers we had (Ass Cask #3 for the cask conditioned oatmeal stout, I.P. Freely IPA, Carl's Mom's Woody Funk for the Jack Daniel's barrel-aged English barleywine, Bocktoberfest for the oktoberfest that turned out more like a bock and Heil to the Chief Hefe for the Hefeweizen, which was also what I took to ALEP last weekend). When you're club's name is ASS, I think there's an unwritten rule somewhere that you've got to act like 13-year-olds. Unfortunately, we were the only ones there representing our club. One other club member was in town for an unrelated mountain biking event on Monte Sano and came down briefly to help us pour and have a few beers. But he had like 20 gallons of his own homebrew on the mountain, so only stayed at the event for about an hour.
Though Chris and I were stuck behind the taps much of the night, we had a lot of fun. I don't think I got to try more than about 2-3 beers that weren't ours, but what I had was very good. I felt kind of bad for the guys from Yazoo that were at the table next to us. We were pouring steady all night, even with a line sometimes. They had very few takers throughout the night. Same for the club from Phoenix City, AL that we shared a table with. But all they brought was an apricot pilsner a regular pilsner and a pale ale. I felt obligated to try something of theirs, but I just didn't feel like it. None of those styles excite me. I did have a sip of the apricot pilsner but it was way too sweet. Should have been much drier and a little more carbonated. Tasted like fake apricot, too. Smelled like a Strawberry Shortcake action figure or something (as my brother put it). And if you're wondering how my brother knows what a Strawberry Shortcake action figure smells like, it's because I happened to own the one that smelled like apricot growing up (forget what her name was now).
At first, as people were coming in, I felt like I didn't know anyone except the people behind the taps and the organizers (basically all the guys we used to be in Rocket City Brewers with). More and more old friends showed up as the night wore on though. It was funny though, as those people began to show up, they'd talk about how they didn't know anyone there. It was a huge turnout and I think I heard a figure like $7000 was raised. I'm pretty sure there was a homeless person or two there and one of them even dropped some change in our donation bucket at our taps. I thought that was pretty awesome. It was funny how many people thought we were a commercial brewery. I guess our professional looking banner made us seem professional, heh.
It was fantastic to see so many people I haven't seen in a very long time. Though I wish I could have talked with everyone a little more. Between having to get in a word or two between pours and trying to yell in someone's ear over the excessively loud and crappy bands (each one louder and crappier than the last), it was difficult to talk to people. I did catch a few people outside when I was lucky enough to duck out for a minute. They really need to see about getting someone acoustic or something for the next one. Maybe I'm just old. If I were going for the music, it would be one thing, but you generally want to talk to the brewers at these things and learn something about the beer you're drinking. That was virtually impossible.
We were staying with Matt and Chris in Decatur for the night and after packing up, we drove out following them to their house. We all stayed up a little bit talking about people we saw and talked to that we hadn't in years and drinking water and taking Ibuprofen before going to bed. That was one complaint I had about the event, that there wasn't nearly enough water. They should have had several coolers full of ice water. The bottles they had just ran out too quickly. We took a pitcher for water, but didn't really have a place to fill it up effectively. We were also the only table with a dump bucket. I'm really surprised with the Habenero beer that RCB had on tap at the golden urinal that they didn't have one as well. You can't drink more than a couple of sips of that beer before you want to pour the rest out.
After a not long enough night of sleep, Chris and I got up and took showers and then ducked out as Matt and Chris were waking to head to Chris' parents for lunch. We hunted down a Starbucks on the way and lamented the fact that Starbucks are not like they are in Nashville in Huntsville/Decatur. Granted, I really don't like Starbucks and tend to avoid them. But when you're desperate for coffee, I appreciate the convenience of one on every block in Nashville. We found one in Madison though and got a couple of iced coffees. I sucked that down but it didn't do a whole lot for the grogginess. Chris' mom made a pot of coffee when we got to their house, so that helped a little.
We sat around and visited again. Jonah was napping. They said he wasn't feeling good again Sunday morning. I'm not sure what it is but every single time they take care of him, he seems to get sick. It's always something different though, so I don't think it's something in their house or anything they're doing in particular. And he's even done it here before when they've come to our house to watch him. I think it's just an unfortunate coincidence. When he woke up, he was running about a 101 F fever. Martha ran to the store and got some fever reducer, since he didn't appear to have any other symptoms. You could literally see him come back to life as the medicine started to work. He ate a decent lunch (pretty much just sweet potato) and even played for a little bit.
We packed up all his things and the mountain of clothes that Martha bought at Kid's Market for him for the fall and winter then loaded up the car and headed to Steff's house to pick up a few things she had set aside for him. He played quite a bit there and was obviously feeling much better. We got a bag full of wooden puzzles and books and a couple of bags of goodies from their garden. She had a Radio Flyer little bike with training wheels for him but we had no more room in the car. From there we headed home and just sort of relaxed for the rest of the night. We got a pizza from Papa Murphy's since neither of us felt like cooking.
Jonah had a runny nose by the time he went to bed and I gave him some medicine, hoping it would help him sleep without congestion. I've kept him out of school today because of the 24 fever rule and because I would want the other parents to do the same in this situation. He might not be contagious but then again he might be. Doing my part to try to keep from spreading whatever it is he has, even though it means that with the fall break holiday this week he won't go back until the 17th. I need to go drop off a tuition check though. Sounds like he's waking up so I guess I better go get him.
