It's odd, isn't it, when you hear that someone has died. There's a moment of disbelief, and in that same moment, an almost-impulse to run to that person, to get in the car or whatever it is and get to them, as if you were there, somehow they wouldn't be dead. As if there would be something you could do.

I don't usually combine my beer blogging with thoughts of passing to the great beyond. We got word tonight that one of our mutual, almost life-long friends, had passed. We knew she was ill and had been for some time. Shelley kept in touch with her, as much as anyone keeps in touch with anyone when you live a couple of hours away from one another and don't travel in the same circles any longer. It still was quite a shock. And this was someone who touched the lives of almost all of our friends and many of our family. So it was a lot of calls back and forth -- "Have you heard anything?" "How could we just be finding out now?" "Was she at home? At work? Who found her?" It's a natural human response to try to figure out and make sense of what we inherently can not understand. We question. We want to know how, and when, and who was there, and what happened.

What we do know is, is it happens all the time. Sometimes you sort of know, like with my mom, we sort of knew. She had been sick on and off for years, and she had been on a downward spiral for quite a while.  She had had a "widow maker" heart attack, survived that, was diagnosed a few years later with breast cancer, survived that, but the chemotherapy used to treat her cancer proved too cardiotoxic for her already failing heart and organs. To put it simply. So we knew it was coming. But it was the same. When she passed, there was that impulse that there should have been something we could do. But there wasn't.

And there isn't. Right? So what I think is worth exploring is, what are we doing here? What's the point of it all, not to be too precious or faux profound? We grow up (if we're lucky) and slog around for however long we get, we work, we have relationships, we live our lives. There are no points given for getting married or not, for having a great job or not, there's no prize or party or extra years given and, I think what is a tacit surprise for folks our age, there's no sense of completion. There's no, "okay, you've had a good family and a good job for 40 years, you've contributed to the joy of your fellow man, and now, you can be done". There's nothing except the knowledge that the years before you are more than likely fewer than the years behind you. So what's it all about, Alfie? ("Alfie" should always come after "What's it all about?". If you don't know why, ask your mom.)

For years, I've been reading books and listening to recordings from Abraham. Abraham is a non-physical entity channeled by a woman named Esther Hicks. Abraham, being non-physical (he says there is no death) has some thoughts on the subject that, for whatever reason, ring true for me.

"You never get it wrong, because you never get it done."  It's comforting, right? What this means to me is, there's no point in beating yourself up about all the things that didn't go the way you planned, because as long as you get up the next morning, you're not done.

And -- to me, this is a good one -- "The standard of success in life isn't the things. It isn't the money or the stuff -- it is absolutely the amount of joy you feel."

The. Amount. Of. Joy. That. You. Feel.   So -- here's to joy. I'm lucky. I found a family and a career path and a life that make it easy, most of the time, to find joy. But every time someone in my life makes the transition from this existence to the next, it's a reminder to me that there's no point in doing anything in life unless it's fun. Unless joy is the result in some way. Finding what's wrong in every situation may be easier than finding what's right, but what's right is always there. And, especially in times like these when it's so easy to find things to be unhappy about, I think our friend Trish would suggest: 

Look for the silver lining
Whenever a cloud appears in the blue
Remember, somewhere the sun is shining
And so the right thing to do is make it shine for you

A heart full of joy and gladness
Will always banish sadness and strife
So always look for the silver lining
And try to find the sunny side of life

A heart full of joy and gladness
Will always banish sadness and strife
So always look for the silver lining
And try to find the sunny side of life

Oh - and I drank a COLLECTIVE ARTS LIFE IN THE CLOUDS India Pale Ale with Mosaic and Simcoe hops while I wrote this. 

So, I haven't forgotten about how we are going to sample an American IPA and a traditional English IPA. I just haven't had time to get to the store to buy an English IPA.  Coming soon, though!

Do you reward yourself when you've had a good day, or accomplished something you've maybe been putting off? Last Saturday, I finished painting my new reading nook. I had been busy all day, and I felt I deserved a treat. Collective Arts Brewing Company Radio the Mothership was just the thing!

If you're not familiar with Collective Arts, they are out of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which sounds like it should be far away but actually I could drive there in about 12 hours. They make delicious beer, and each of their cans features work by a different artist. They solicit artists on their website, and if a piece of art is chosen for a can, they pay the artist for the work, they give credit to the artist on the can and anywhere else the art appears, and they DO NOT take ownership of the art - it remains the property of the artist.

From their mission statement:
Art + Brewing -- Collective Arts was founded on two beliefs. The first is that creativity fosters creativity. And the second, that creativity yields delicious pints.

I love a big IPA, so my favorites are Surround Sound Double Dry Hopped Double IPA and Radio the Mothership Imperial IPA, but their sours are excellent too, and they make an award-winning porter.
Look for them at your local beer store.

Collective Arts Beers are, in my opinion, very good.

Look! Look at this! This is beautiful fermenting beer, in a Yorkshire stone square fermenter at the Old Brewery in Tadcaster, where they brew Sam Smith beers. Everyone loves American Craft Beer, but it's so important, in my opinion, to keep alive the original, traditional styles born in Germany, the Czech Republic, the British Isles, and Belgium. The Old Brewery is OLD! They've been brewing beers since 1758, using whole cone hops, oak casks for all their naturally conditioned ales, and the same yeast strain since the 1800s. They must be doing something right. 
Next time, we'll open an old-world style Sam Smith India Ale and a new-world style American IPA, and talk about them. 

I better talk about some beer, right?

I'm really looking forward to this! I'll taste it with you when I can get my hands on some. 

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/03/dogfish-heads-latest-health-beer-is-made-with-quin.html?fbclid=IwAR3jqS-KiqnTiH6oz12FuZuCe1Zx6iv_2YYjAnqh1lnb0oSEpTCBnr5VySw

I stopped blogging in July 2012. 

I didn't think anyone was interested. I wasn't sure if what I was writing had any value. 

I had a bit of a rough few years. 

My mother died in 2010.

My partner's mother died in 2011. 

The beer business started to change. The heights I hit were crumbling. I had to figure something out. I suddenly was making dramatically less money. 

I changed jobs in 2014.

I got the teeniest little bit of cancer in 2015. 

I had surgery and radiation and I was put on an evil medication that makes me sad all the time. 

My new job changed dramatically, and my pay structure was changed. At least I was able to keep the job. 

I am still, I think, in some sort of mourning. I've been feeling for YEARS now that I just can't get it together. 

If the only constant is change, I'm a little tired of it.

I know. I know. I should exercise. I'd feel better. 

So why blog? Why now? To paraphrase every director's notes in every program of every community theater production. 

Why come back now and blog? 

Well, it's nice to have a place to discuss things. I am back selling beer again. As of the beginning of March, I am on the streets, trying to talk people into buying beer from me. Which feels GREAT. Absolutely great. I'm doing what I know how to do, what I'm good at. I'm not necessarily the best salesperson but I know about beer and I know what's good and I know how to show up. 

There are some fantastic beers out there, and I want to talk about them. There are also a lot of not-great beers out there. I won't talk about those. Those will eventually come to their own natural end. And, who am I to say what is good and what is bad? 

So we'll see where this goes. Mostly I'm going to be talking about beers, new and not-new, that, in my opinion, are good. 

Today

There's something due any day, I will know right away, soon as it shows . . . . .
I've got a feeling there's a miracle due, gonna come through, coming to meeeeeeeeeee . . . .
Could it be?  Yes, it could.  Something's coming, something good.  if I can wait . . .

Had my Michigan drinking shoes on last weekend!  It was a good thing, too, since several salesfolks from my company and I went on a whirlwind tour of four breweries in Michigan.  We left at about 10:00 am on Friday.  Several of my colleagues brought beverages for the busride.  In about three hours (we ran into some traffic), we arrived at our first stop, ARCADIA BREWING COMPANY.

Rick Suarez was nice enough to arrange a brewery tour and lunch for us.   Many of us were surprised that Arcadia was such a small brewery.  We also sampled some barrel-aged B-Craft Black.  Nice.

We bought some beer for the road, too, which was a good thing as it was about an hour's drive to Grand Rapids!  Got checked into the hotel and walked to Founders.
We felt pretty damn VIP-ish as we got a brewery tour from none other than Dave Engbers, one of the founders of Founders.  Pretty cool.  We then had a question-and-answer session with Dave in their super-sexy conference room.  The rest of the night is a bit of a blur, but it involved sandwiches at the Founders Tap Room and a visit to Hopcat, a great beer bar just a few blocks away.
I must confess, even though I am a professional, if I start drinking at 10:00 am, I really can't reasonably still be drinking at 7:00 pm.  I just don't have the stamina anymore.  But, got back to the hotel safe and sound and ready to begin again on Saturday!

Saturday morning began with lunch at BREWERY VIVANT!  I loved this little brewery.  We are hoping to bring them to Chicago.  Jason, the owner, gave us a tour of what we discovered was an old funeral home that they converted.  The bar is in what was the chapel, and the brewery itself is in the area where the hearses were kept.  The beers are adapted from Belgian styles, and all really awesome.  The food was great, too.  And they had a beer garden, where our team played bags most of the afternoon -- until it was time to head over to Founders fest.

Founders Fest was lovely!  Very chill, for a beer fest.  Lines were not crazy long.  Really enjoyed it.  I actually bailed out and returned to the hotel after the fantastic dinner that Glunz bought for us.  I figured I would quit while I was ahead.  And I had plenty of beer in me, no worries.
It was a wise choice!  On Sunday morning, everyone else was quite a mess, and I felt juuuuussst fine, thank you.  I was raring to go to New Holland.

I may have been the only member of our little group to still be enjoying beer on Sunday morning.
So you see, children, the moral of the story is, brewery weekends are a marathon, not a sprint.  Maybe I didn't party late into the night on Friday or Saturday, but I lived to drink beer another day.
We go to Great Lakes Burning River Fest in Cleveland next month!  I can't wait!