That's right. Although the celebrating is a little more low key this year, it doesn't mean the month of celebration has been sidelined. It started on Saturday with a visit to the Old Dominion Brewery and Pub. My Aunt Barbara treated myself and my parents to lunch at the pub, which included some fantastic beers. The food...ehh. But the beers couldn't be any fresher. I had the Tupper's Hop Pocket Ale, Oak Barrell Stout and a Victory Amber during lunch.
After lunch we took a brewery tour guided by the owner of Old Dominion. It was supposedly his last tour before he hands over the reigns to the new owners (Anheuser-Busch and Fordham). He seemed to have a bittersweet taste regarding the sale, but apparently his original investors said it was time. A-B bought a 49% stake for distribution rights and Fordham (Coastal Brewing?) received a 51% stake. The unfortunate speculation is that only a couple of the more popular beers will remain, while the others are dropped. I assume to increase capacity for Fordham's brews. Actually, if I remember correctly, ODB was never at full capacity to begin with. Again, purely speculative. I hope they keep Hop Pocket and Oak Barrell.
As for the tour, it was interesting to see the 25 barrell brew system and the dozens of 100 barrell fermentation vessels. With disregard to the scale and automation of the brewery's system, the beer is made the same exact way that our humble Family Chesnik homebrew is made. You can tell it is made with the same passion for beer as well.
Saturday evening I hit Market Street with an old high school buddy and some of his friends. Good times were had as we bar hopped to a couple of the old standards. The next day they were off to see UNC play Maryland. I think they are on their way home now and presumably crying, as UM beat UNC.
Sunday was low-key. Had a family dinner and officially celebrated my birth. Scored a backpack for adventure racing. It is super-light and adjustable. I'm pretty stoked to get back on the AR trail!!! I also received a nice gift from my Aunt Dixie, which I'll use for good running shoes. I've been using my trail running shoes on pavement, which is killing my feet.
Got home Sunday evening and slept...good weekend fo' sho'. Hopefully the next blogs will detail more athletic prowess. I believe my next scheduled event will be the Baltimore Shamrock 5k...a light-hearted run that starts and ends with car bombs (March 11th).
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