Run- 5 mi
Time- 42 mins
Pace- 8:24 min/mi
I was planning on waking up early this morning to study. I woke up at 7am, make some coffee and whole wheat blueberry pancakes, and studied a bit. Around 9:30, I was feeling restless, and decided to take a break by going outside for a walk. I needed vegetables, so I walked to a nearby farmer's market and lugged back a bag of fruits and veggies. After my walk, I still didn't feel like studying, so I decided to go for a nice, easy run. My run ended up being 5 miles, and it was very enjoyable.
I got a deal/online coupon thing to the St. Louis Microfest Beer Festival, which was held Friday and today. I went today at noon with a couple friends. This was the first beer tasting event I've been to; there were so many beers to try, it was pretty overwhelming. We just dove right in and got a few pours. I was hungry by noon, and they were selling BBQ that I could smell while waiting in line to get in, so I got a pulled pork sandwich. It really hit the spot, and prepped me to drink more beers ;)
There were four of these huge tents, with two long rows of tables handing out a few different beers from each brewing company. There were about 100 breweries attending, so with an average of 4 brews each, that's around 400 different beers to try!
I got a cute 2oz. tasting glass. Some people poured on the more generous side. I couldn't finish all of the beers that I sampled, otherwise I would probably get trashed! There were buckets everywhere to discard, and pitchers of water to rinse the glasses out in between samples.
We went at a pretty steady pace. Between the three of us, we would each get a different beer from the same brewery so we could try more beers without having to get our own samples. This means that I tried many small sips of A LOT of different beers. I started to get "palate fatigue" and had trouble tasting the nuances of each beer. Good thing they were selling pretzel sticks. I got a couple to take a few bites of in between pours.
I really liked these Doc's Draft ciders. There were five different flavors: pumpkin, raspberry, hops, apple (original?), and pear. The pumpkin tasted like Thanksgiving, like a well-spiced apple pie. I think it was my favorite. The raspberry was very refreshing and fruity, like drinking a lightly carbonated juice. The hops cider was my second favorite. The bitter and floral hops with the cider made it taste almost like grapefruit juice. The pear was the worst. I don't know what's up with that one, but it tasted really off. Blergh.
O'Fallon brewery had a beer fountain. I'm glad things like this in the world exists.
Deschutes had this cool cask-mobile thing. There was a really long line for samples, so I didn't try any. I do like their Inversion IPA, though.
Some fun competitions. There was this obstacle race thing between different breweries. It was pretty fun to watch.
I had a really fun time and got to drink a lot of yummy beers. This was a great way to try a lot of different styles, and I learned more about what I like, and what I don't like (stouts, for instance). I also tried a sour for the first time. It was pretty interesting, probably something that I have to sip on slowly to get used to.
Although I probably should have studied for the rest of the afternoon/evening, there was a Cindo de Mayo festival at Cherokee St. today as well. After drinking all those beers, I was really craving something delicious and savory, and Mexican food sounded so good. So I went down to Cherokee St. and ate even more food. It was a very good decision. Today was a very happy, beer and food-filled day :)
Time- 42 mins
Pace- 8:24 min/mi
I was planning on waking up early this morning to study. I woke up at 7am, make some coffee and whole wheat blueberry pancakes, and studied a bit. Around 9:30, I was feeling restless, and decided to take a break by going outside for a walk. I needed vegetables, so I walked to a nearby farmer's market and lugged back a bag of fruits and veggies. After my walk, I still didn't feel like studying, so I decided to go for a nice, easy run. My run ended up being 5 miles, and it was very enjoyable.
I got a deal/online coupon thing to the St. Louis Microfest Beer Festival, which was held Friday and today. I went today at noon with a couple friends. This was the first beer tasting event I've been to; there were so many beers to try, it was pretty overwhelming. We just dove right in and got a few pours. I was hungry by noon, and they were selling BBQ that I could smell while waiting in line to get in, so I got a pulled pork sandwich. It really hit the spot, and prepped me to drink more beers ;)
There were four of these huge tents, with two long rows of tables handing out a few different beers from each brewing company. There were about 100 breweries attending, so with an average of 4 brews each, that's around 400 different beers to try!
I got a cute 2oz. tasting glass. Some people poured on the more generous side. I couldn't finish all of the beers that I sampled, otherwise I would probably get trashed! There were buckets everywhere to discard, and pitchers of water to rinse the glasses out in between samples.
We went at a pretty steady pace. Between the three of us, we would each get a different beer from the same brewery so we could try more beers without having to get our own samples. This means that I tried many small sips of A LOT of different beers. I started to get "palate fatigue" and had trouble tasting the nuances of each beer. Good thing they were selling pretzel sticks. I got a couple to take a few bites of in between pours.
I really liked these Doc's Draft ciders. There were five different flavors: pumpkin, raspberry, hops, apple (original?), and pear. The pumpkin tasted like Thanksgiving, like a well-spiced apple pie. I think it was my favorite. The raspberry was very refreshing and fruity, like drinking a lightly carbonated juice. The hops cider was my second favorite. The bitter and floral hops with the cider made it taste almost like grapefruit juice. The pear was the worst. I don't know what's up with that one, but it tasted really off. Blergh.
Deschutes had this cool cask-mobile thing. There was a really long line for samples, so I didn't try any. I do like their Inversion IPA, though.
Some fun competitions. There was this obstacle race thing between different breweries. It was pretty fun to watch.
I had a really fun time and got to drink a lot of yummy beers. This was a great way to try a lot of different styles, and I learned more about what I like, and what I don't like (stouts, for instance). I also tried a sour for the first time. It was pretty interesting, probably something that I have to sip on slowly to get used to.
Although I probably should have studied for the rest of the afternoon/evening, there was a Cindo de Mayo festival at Cherokee St. today as well. After drinking all those beers, I was really craving something delicious and savory, and Mexican food sounded so good. So I went down to Cherokee St. and ate even more food. It was a very good decision. Today was a very happy, beer and food-filled day :)
