Feelin\’ it

Or, not feeling it, rather. I haven\’t had anything blog-worthy to talk about lately, hence all of the not blogging going on around here. I work, I go to the gym, I hang out on the weekends, I procrastinate. That\’s about it. And there hasn\’t really been an outpouring of concern over my lackluster output, unless, I suppose, you count my loving wife. \”I see you didn\’t update your website again today. I hate you.\” But, I also refuse to blog about not having anything to blog about. So, we\’re finished here.

Last night, Brian Shaft Head and I went to an Emory grad student mixer at the Atlanta Brewing Company brewery. I know … NERDS!! And we were right across the highway from Tech, too. Gerogia Tech makes me chuckle. You could tell just by looking that everyone at the mixer was either super smart, super rich, or both. And the \”talent,\” as it were, was all but non-existant. The hottest person there was a guy with a mohawk, and he worked for ABC. No, I was not really all that surprised. Heh.

I feel bad that last night was the first time I have ever been to ABC. Atlanta, a city of almost 5 million people, has but 6 breweries, and two of them are Gordon Biersch and Rock Bottom, which don\’t count. So you\’d think a mega-super-ultra beer freak like myself would have plenty of history with all of them. But even though I can walk to ABC from work, I had neer made the trip before, which is a shame because the brewrey is actually quite nice. And discovering the brewery\’s pleasant atmosphere now is bittersweet as I understand all the businesses on Williams Street are being evicted and demolished for highway contruction. Balls.

One of the reasons I hadn\’t visited ABC yet is that, traditionally, their beers haven\’t been among my favorites. The Red Brick Ale just kind of lays there like a blow-up doll, and the Peachtree Pale Ale has a weird roasted flavor that always leaves me looking at the bottle, asking it, \”Why do you do that?\” Since the 6% law passed in 2004, ABC has done some significant recipe re-tooling, and things are coming around nicely. They expanded the malt bill on Red Brick and allowed the ABV to stretch up to 6.5%. And the winter lager they were pouring at last November\’s Craft Beer Challenge was positively bitchin\’. I had a couple glasses of their hefeweizen last night and found it to be quite tasty. And at only 4.1% ABV, you can drink 300 of them and still win a unicycle race. (A note about hefeweizens: this slice of lemon / orange business needs to stop. Why would you completely smash the delicate malt and wheat flavors with all that citric acid? If you put salad in your beer around me and I don\’t say anything, understand at least that I\’m laughing at you on the inside.)

Tomorrow, Ben, Paul2K, and I are heading into the woods to get our camp on. I will try not to hit Paul2k\’s bare flesh with a red hot tin can again, but I\’m not promising anything.