Zymurgy's 2014 Best Beers in America

Well, I mentioned just a few days ago that Zymurgy’s 2014 Best Beers in America came out. At the time, I had only seen it in the e-Magazine and had not found the web page on the AHA website. Now I have seen the AHA web page.

Here is the link:

Zymurgy’s 2014 Best Beers in America

I also mentioned that I had not really done much with the 2013 list (see How I ended up on my list). I started out with 11 beers on the list that I had never tried. I still have 6 left. I guess that is ok, but a little disappointing compared to 2012 where I ended up only with 2 on my not-tried list.

Personally, I think the list should be called "Most Popular Beers in America", because it really is a popularity contest. Zymurgy readers get to vote on the list. In fact, if you want to see what I voted for, see My Best Beers in America. Most of mine did not make the final list, but that is ok.

2014 Great Sand Dune Pictures

A couple of weeks ago, we went camping in the Great Sand Dunes National Park.

This place is awesome. If you've never been there, you really need to check it out. Pictures do not do it justice ...


But ...

Our group campsite

Sand and water and mountains

How I ended up on my list

Well, Zymurgy's 2014 Best Beers in America list came out yesterday.

I didn't really do much with the 2013 list. When I posted Zymurgy's 2013 Best Beers in America, there were 11 beers on the list that I had never tried.

Now, I still have 6 beers left. Most of them are on the 2014 list as well, and I'm not sure I'll have any better luck getting to them this year than I did last year.

Here are the 2013 beers that I still have not tried:

T9. Lagunitas Sucks (on 2014 list as well)  16. The Alchemist Heady Topper (on 2014 list) T27. Troegs Nugget Nectar. (on 2014 list)  31. Russian River Consecration (on 2014 list)  T32. Russian River Supplication (on 2014 list)          45. Firestone Walker Parabola  

Saint Patrick's Brewing

I have mentioned Saint Patrick's Brewing Company a couple times on this blog.

If you follow this blog at all, you know that I love the tiny little local breweries. St. Patrick's is so tiny, it makes most of the other tiny little breweries I have mentioned look huge. Their setup is way more of a homebrew-sized system than that of even your smallest "typical" production brewery. Their fermentors are 26 gallon conicals. They use homebrew-sized brew pots. They hand bottle every beer.

Best of all, they make awesome beer.

Another Waterton Bike Ride

Saturday, we loaded our mountain bikes on the back of our mini-van and took them to Waterton Canyon. You may remember Waterton Canyon from such posts as Biking with the Sheep. In fact, I've just realized that I blog about it enough that I might as well have a Sheppy's Blog: Waterton Canyon "label". You can follow that link to see all our adventures in this canyon (including this blog post).

As a reminder, Waterton Canyon is the beginning of the 480 mile Colorado Trail. The canyon is a good place to take the kids riding.  It is off-road, but nice and wide. It is also very scenic, with access to the South Platte river and rocks to climb. It only has a slight elevation gain, so it is pretty easy without being too simple.

The river is certainly up compared to most (probably all) of the pictures you've seen on this blog. We've had a good snowy winter in the mountains plus a pretty wet spring so far.

Still More @Untappd Badges 15

It has been a long time since I've done a report on my untappd badges. Not sure why. I've had enough to do a post. Time just got away from me. I'll give you the next few now and save some for the next one.

I can't imagine why you would want to, but you can look at all the posts (including this one) by going to the "untappd" label on this blog.

Since Still More @Untappd Badges 14, I've earned the following:

When InBev tries to brew a blueberry beer

So, last weekend my wife bought some beer. Someone had finished up the keg of T.RA.SH. Mexican Lager, there was not really any other beer to take it's place yet, and she figured she would want beer with Sunday dinner.

Usually, I will handle beer purchases, but she was going to be out buying groceries anyway, and we figured she could handle the responsibility.

When she returned, the beer she had picked for herself was an 8% abv Blueberry Lager, "Wild Blue". It was a beer I didn't recognize and I was intrigued. I was little surprised that she had picked out a beer that said 8%, but whatever. In case you didn't know, my wife likes most every blueberry beer she has ever tried.