Twice in a row makes it a tradition, right?

Hey, Kiddos.

So the last time I posted was a Friday as well, so maybe I'll try giving you a post every Friday as a kind of recap to the week. We'll see how quickly we get tired of it.

This was an incredibly beer-intensive week, even by my usual standards.

On Monday I went over to my good friend (and brewing partner) Bob Kunz's house and tried some tasty beers with him and his rockin' wife Tiff. We started with a fantastic farmhouse wheat that Bob brewed. Dry and a little spicy with a nice, mouth-filling wheat character, it really was a great beer. From there we went on to Rodenbach, a Flanders Red. It's a very characteristic beer with a distinctly sour tang and a somewhat vinegary acidity. It was nice, but I prefer the Rodenbach Grand Cru, which is the straight wood-aged version of the beer as opposed the the 75/25 blend of young beer and aged beer in the regular Rodenbach. The Grand Cru has a huge, immediate sour tang that you can't ignore, unlike the the more subtle sensation of the regular beer.

From there we went on the Hair of the Dog's Blue Dot Double IPA. It was a little rough around the edges, but for sure was a tasty west coast IPA, but nothing that would change my life. I actually thought it was similar to the IPA that I brewed recently (and preferred), and I tend to be a little overly critical about my beers.

Last was the Black Flag Imperial Stout. Inky and redolent of coffee, it seemed like another good entry in the increasingly crowded field of American Imperial Stouts. However, the first sip betrayed that this beer has a whole other agenda from other similar stouts. The beer had a really dry, sharp roasted malt/coffee quality, that lacked the astringency one might expect with that flavor, which contrasted sharply with the more rich and sweet coffee and chocolate flavors one gets out of these beers. As it warmed up a very appealing smokiness started creeping forth from the finish and onto the palate.

As much fun as I was having with Bob and Tiff at this point, I had to run off to my first prep class for the BJCP (Beer Judge Certification Program) exam!

Here we mostly focused on a broad overview of the exam, touching on the format and the breadth and scope of the questions. What became really apparent was just how much I was going to have to study to do well on this exam. One of the more daunting tasks will be filling out a scoresheet for an imaginary beer that is a "world class" example of any one of the 73 possible styles that the test will encompass.

Another cool thing about the class is that it will expose me to lots of beer styles that I'm not familiar with. That night we went over light (in color) lagers. We tried six beers, four of which I had not had before. It was cool (and frustrating) to have such similar beers back to back and try to separate out the aspects that makes them different. It was a great exercise and I look forward to doing it more often.

I bottled my latest batch of Corruption, my Belgian Strong Golden Ale, and am excited to drink it! I made several minor changes to the recipe and process in an attempt to get the beer a little closer to my vision and in my preliminary tastes I think they were right on the money. We'll find out for sure in a couple of weeks when it's all carbonated and ready to go!

Then there's the homebrew club meeting I went to last night. Tons of fun to have some beers with lots of other beer enthusiasts and brewers. This month's style was Belgian Strong Ales and we had some nice homebrewed and commercial examples to sample.

I did just write a lot about beer, and I hope it's enjoyable, but I kind of did it to prove a point:

This week focused a whole lot on beer and not a whole lot on God.

I did have a killer bible study on Wednesday, but that's one thing compared to four distinct beer events I enjoyed during the week.

This new pursuit is really vital and important to me, especially as I try to make a career out of it, but that can't come at the expense of my relationship with God. I'm trying to combat the train of thought that says I have a test in a few months that I really need to concentrate on and that if God falls by the way a little bit, that's okay because I have a lifetime to deal with that.

It's more than a little uncomfortable when I have several very important things I'm trying to juggle around and prioritize well and I see one of them very clearly take the lead in importance over my spiritual life.