Beers on hand: Washington and Oregon IPAs

Like many downtown Chicago workers, I’ve opted to take a couple vacation days today and Monday, largely to avoid NATO-related inconveniences. Conveniently for me, this also meant I could catch up on various things that needed doing. Finally bought a Weber grill this morning for some outdoor veggie cooking action later in the summer, got a new tube and tire at Dan’s Bike Shop for the back of my bike, which came up flat during yesterday’s commute, mowed the lawn, and tilled the garden (should finally be ready for transplanting tomorrow morning).

Nice advantage of being home and mowing the lawn, I was there when the UPS man showed up with a special delivery of the beer kind. Since I was in the back yard, I missed him when he was at the door, but managed to catch up with him just around the corner after spotting the truck.

Last Friday I put in an order—in response to a Facebook ad, I do believe(!)—with the previously unknown-to-me LetsPour beer and wine deal site (after a cursory check on the Beer Advocate site that they looked legit). I picked up a Northwest Artisan IPA Sampler of six 22-ounce bottles from six different Washington and Oregen craft brewers: Fish Tale Brewing’s Organic IPA, Laurelwood’s “Gearhead” IPA, Ninkasi Brewing’s “Total Domination” IPA, Elysian Brewing’s “The Immortal” IPA (the only one I’ve had before), Silver City Brewing’s “Saint Florian” IPA, and Hopworks Urban Brewery’s Organic IPA—all for $36 including the shipping and $10 off for a first order, a good deal for what should be some good beers I can’t buy locally—not that there’s any shortage of seriously excellent beer available locally, especially going into Chicago Craft Beer Week as we are. Anyway, I’ve now got the Elysian and Ninkasi in the fridge and ready for drinking later tonight. Looking forward.

Waiting patiently in my fridge:

The LetsPour deal’s still on through tomorrow, May 19th, if’n you’re interested. (Full disclosure: your following my referral link could score me a coupon, which I might find very useful in the future.)