Best Beer Moment of 2015
Beer blog Stovt has challenged each of the blogs in Denmark to do a series of best of the year posts. None of us collaborated on these in advance so the choices are completely up to the blogger or bloggers themselves. Today's category is "Best Beer Moment" of 2015. Of all the categories this year, this one was probably the easiest to choose. Only two things really stand out to me. My fancy trip to brewdog and the debut of one of my beers commercially. Both of which were amazing in their own sense. The trip to Brewdog was a testimant to how far I had come as a blogger, that I could catch the attention of a brewery as big as Brewdog and warrant them flying me all the way to Scotland to see the brewery and participate in some amazingly unique events. I talked about it here in a video I did for my YouTube channel, and I also released an interview video with James and Martin the founder's of Brewdog. In the end though I have to mention that trip only as a setup to my actual pick of Beer Moment 2015. The release of a beer I brewed with my own two hands on tap at my favorite bar in the whole world, and for the biggest beer festival in my [now] home city.
Let me set the stage. It's no secret anymore that myself and Martin, the dark beer bard from stovt.dk, are the two behind the mysterious and until recently spoof Horrible People brewery. We had been developing a beer that played to our shared sensibilities, something dark, over the top hoppy, and most important of all having an irreverent name that poked fun at the whole collaboration brew craze. So was born the "Circle Jerk Black IPA". Due to our minor beer celebrity, and more substantial alcoholism, our favorite beer bar Christian Firtal agreed to set two kegs of our sinister love child on at their famous Odense Pale Ale Festival.
I awoke on the morning of the debut in Aberdeen Scotland at 06:00. I quickly packed my bag (mostly with beer from a shopping spree at brewdog shop) and myself and Fredrik from olhunden.se poured ourselves and our pounding hangovers into an airplane bound for Copenhagen. This day went from horribly painful, to nearly unbearable when I arrived in Denmark and found that due to track works my travel back home would take over 3 hours (normally an hour and 15 minutes). I spent an hour on a train and then another two packed onto a full bus next to a pensioner who did not seem to approve of my blood shot eyes and flop sweats that smelled like the brewery I had been visiting not 24 hours before.
Normally after a night of hard drinking I would take the next day off. Normally after a day of long travels I would take the next day easy. Combined together I felt like death warmed over, and when I got to my house in Odense all I wanted was to take a hot shower and pass out. Through the pain and weariness in my head though was the thought of seeing my work and passion written in chalk up on THE board at firtal. So after my shower I threw my broken head and body onto my bike and went downtown. The street was packed around Christian Firtal, the festival in full swing. Through the big wooden door into the loud small cozy space that is the bar itself, and there on the board, the name given to the blogging duo and connoisseurs of bad jokes, and the name of the beer we made as a laugh, then a project, then as a debut.
All the tiredness drained away as my glass filled up. The pain totally forgotten as I met with great friends who were already drinking my creation. Fellow horrible person Martin, beer bloggers and supporters Sveinn, Anders and Anders Ousen, and of course Bo of Far og Søn brewery, without who the beer wouldn't even exist. Everyone congratulated us on a well made beer, and said how great it was. It felt great to share my beer with friends and know they liked it. At the same time it was even more exciting to know people were enjoying the beer who had no idea who I was or that I had anything at all to do with it.
Having a beer I brewed, something I am very passionate about, and being able to enjoy it with good friends and strangers alike...sounds like the definition of the best beer moment of the year...or ever.
