selva, Flickr

Tips for the beer tourist (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Hop farming without pesticides – a visual tour (Beervana)

A canned tribute to The Goonies Happy 25th Anniversary! (CraftCans.com)

Bars across America: Drinking and biking from coast to coast (Beeractivist.com)

iansand, Flickr

I’ve ventured out into other sports over my lifetime, but I will always be a swimmer first. I swam competitively from age 7 to 18, took a break for college (but continued to coach) and dove headfirst into open water swimming shortly after graduating.

Swimming is an amazing total body workout that not only burns tons of calories but sculpts muscles, too. I don’t get to the pool quite as often as I’d like these days, so when I do, I tend to go hard. Here’s one of my favorite workouts:

500 warm up

6×50 freestyle on 1:00 (warm up set)

Pyramid–50, 100, 150, 200, 150, 100, 50 on :15 rest, moderate but steady pace

4×100 IM drill on :15 rest

4X100 IM swim on :15 rest

4X100 IM swim with fins on :15 rest

200 kick with fins

200 cool down

Total: 3200 yards

Enjoy your workout!

slworking2, Flickr

Craft beer biz booms in Chicago (NBC Chicago)

Fried beer! Fried frozen margaritas! Big Tex has spoken (Dallas Morning News)

Bitches Brew: 40th anniversary collector’s edition (2010) (Entertainment Weekly)

angela7dreams, Flickr

Win tickets to RFD’s Firkin Spectacular (Washington City Paper)

Spotted in Austin: a beer-powered streetcar! (Dallas Morning News)

The father of craft brewing comes out of retirement (Washington Post)

Daquella manera, Flickr

A week of beer in DC (GirlsonBeer)

Take one cup of beer … (The Old Foodie)

Dollar General begins selling beer, wine (Examiner)

Philosophical question: Can a beer be perfect? (Beervarna)

nanovivid, Flickr

The second annual DC Beer Week kicked off Saturday night at the Rock and Roll Hotel, hosted by Washington City Paper & Nerd Nite DC. The week of celebrating tasty brews features more than 40 breweries and 30 restaurants, bars and pubs throughout the district.

Sunday, 8/22

• What: DC Beer Week Kick-Off Brunch

Where: Pizzeria Paradiso

When: 12pm

Details: 5 Courses and featuring Lagunitas Lil’ Sumpin, Hitachino Nipponia, BFM Douze, Three Floyds Stay in School and Founders Canadian Breakfast Stout. $60/person.

• What: Beer tasting w/Great Lakes Brewing

Where: Little Miss Whiskey’s Golden Dollar

When: 8pm

Details:  $20 per person. Spots are limited so you are encouraged to stop by Little Miss Whiskey’s to buy your ticket in advance.

• What: Craft Beer Cruise on the Cherry Blossom

Where: Meet at Old Town Waterfront

When: 6pm-9pm

Details: Features 30 different breweries, oysters, pork belly, charcutterie, and more. $70/person. To purchase tickets go to www.capitolloungedc.com/beercruise. Space is limited to 150 people.

Monday, 8/23

• What: Room 11 along with Victory Brewing present two beers rarely seen outside the Victory Brewpub, Mad King Weiss and Gassy Jack Bitter.

Where: Room 11

When: They open at 5pm

• What: Beer Dinner with Susan Greene. 10 Beers, 5 courses.

Where: Granville Moore’s

When: Call for time 202-399-2546

Details: $70/person. Call 202-399-2546 for reservations. Space is limited to 35 people.

• What: 3 Beers 3 Courses

Where: Dino’s

When: 6pm – 9:30pm

Details: $39/person. Chef Dean Gold carefully pairs 3 of his favorite beers with 3 mouth-watering courses.

• What: Beer and Bus

Where: Trusty’s Burgers

When: 5pm-2am

Details: Celebrate craft brewed cans (and bottles) with the freshest burgers in DC, home-made chili’s, and the new bus bar and roof deck upstairs, Jonathan from Hop and Wine will be your Brew School teacher for the evening.

Tuesday, 8/24

• What: Brooklyn Brawl Beer and Cheese Tasting

Where: Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe

When: 6pm-9pm

• What: Harpoon Pints for Putts

Where: H Street Country Club

When: Starting at 5pm

Details: The shot of your life. 1 Beer. 1 Putt. 120 feet. Sink it and walk away with a regulation totally sick $3000 Pool Table!

• What: Racing Dangerously, Beer and pie?

Where: Justin’s Cafe

When: Call for times: 202-652-1009

Details: Racer 5 IPA and 5 different flavors of pie from Dangerously Delicious Pies on H Street N.E. Racer 5 and a Slice of Pie for $10.

• What: Brisket & Brews with He’brew Ales

Where: Star and Shamrock

When: 5pm-2am

Details: Origin pomegranate ale and sour cherry marinated brisket with the full line of He’brew Ales on draft and bottles, kibitz(chat) with Jeremy Cowan, the genesis of Shmaltz Brewing Company, and founder of both He’brew Ales and Coney Island Lagers

• What: Beer & Pizza

Where: 18th Amendment

When:5pm- 2am

Details: Pizzas will be hot and beer will be cold along with reps from 21^st Amendment there to keep it all together.

• What: Chimay Trappist Ale Vintage Beer Tasting

Where: Belga Cafe

When: 6:30pm

Details: Enjoy the special Chimay menu $59 pp, while learning about beers from James Williams National Chain Manager for the brand, and keep the beer glasses and collector’s beer bottles.

Wednesday, 8/25

• What: Smuttynose New England Beer Dinner.

Where: Liberty Tree

When: Call for time 202-396-TREE (8733)

Details: 4 Courses, 4 Beers $40/person.

• What: Devin Arloski from Latis imports

Where: Brasserie Beck

When: 7pm-9pm

Details: They will be pouring 1/2 priced Rodenbach on draft with glassware giveaway.

• What: Troegs Takeover

Where: The Red and The Black

When: 5pm-10pm

Details: Free admission. Glassware giveaway, Mad Elf in the Summer, Troegs Band, guaranteed fun.

• What: Fermented: A Night of True Tales About Beer

Where: SpeakeasyDC

When: Doors open at 6:30pm, Show 8-10pm

Details: $15 per person.

• What: A Bitch and A Bastard

Where: The Big Hunt

When: 8pm

Details: A five round tasting of Flying Dog and Stone brewing, guided by local beer celebrities. 50 tickets available for $30 in advance and $35 at the door day of.

• What: Lagunitas Night

Where: Palace of Wonders

When: Call for time 202-591-3252

Details: Glassware give-a-ways, Lil Sumpin Sumpin, Dogtown Pale & Lucky 13 Imperial red.

• What: Heavy Seas Oak Cask & Firkin Bonanza!

Where: Churchkey

When: Call for time 202-567-2576

• What: Lagunitas Beer Dinner

Where: DC Bread and Brew

When: Call 202-466-2676 for time and reservations

Details: 6 beers and 6 plates featuring Hop Stupid, Little Sumpin, Censored Ale, IPA, Czech Pilsner and Dog Town Pale Ale. $50/person.

• What: Meet the Brewer

Where: District ChopHouse

When: Call for time 202-347-3434

Details: Meet Brewer, Barrett Lauer, and enjoy tours of the brewery along with half price beers at one of the Nation’s Capital’s finest Brew Pubs.

• What: Beer and Barbeque with Great Lakes Brewing Company

Where: Capitol Lounge

When: 6pm – 10pm

Details: $45/Person All Inclusive

• What: Thunder Burger Sierra Nevada Beer Dinner

Where: Thunder Burger

When: 6pm

Details: 4 course meal, each paired with a different Sierra Nevada beer. $40/person – tax & gratuity included. Only 35 tickets available.

• What: Leinenkugel at Nationals Park

Where: Washington Nationals Park

When: 7:05 pm

Details: $22, you’ll receive a Scoreboard Pavilion seat and a voucher for four complimentary Leinenkugel beer samples.

• What: An Evening with Troegs

Where: Commonwealth Gastropub

When: Call for time 202-265-1400

Details: Giveaways and rare beers.

Thursday, 8/26

• What: From NY to Boston

Where: District Pour House

When: Call for time 202-546-0779

Details: Jeremy from Shmaltz Brewing Company will be there talking and throwing beer around while the kitchen is batting up some lobster rolls.

• What: Reissdorf Kolsch Firkins Night

Where: Biergarten Haus

When: 7pm

• What: Beer vs. Beer

Where: Breadsoda

When: Call for time 202-333-7445

Details: What is better then a huge deli sandwich and cool craft beer? Letting the guys at Breadsoda pair them for you.

• What: Beer Dinner

Where: Meridian Pint

When: Call for time 202-555-1212

Details: Dan Kopman Co-Founder and Brew Master of St. Louis Brewing. Special rare tastings of Schlafly beers paired with unique offerings from the Meridian Pints wonderful kitchen.

• What: Rogue Ales Oyster Fest

Where: The Reef

When: 5pm-10pm

Details: 3,000 Oysters, 3 Shuckers, 3 Levels, 7 great beers from Rogue Ales.

Friday, 8/27

• What: Firkin Spectacular

Where: RFD

When: 7pm

Details: $40 (incl. tax and gratuity) gets you an all cask access pass to our backroom to sample whatever you like. Limited number of passes.

I miss the rock, I miss the adrenaline, but I don’t miss the snakes.

I haven’t climbed in over a month and it’s starting to get to me. I thought I had a pulled tendon on my right hand, so I laid off — hoping it would heal, but now all the joints in my hands are killing me, even keeping me up at night.

I hate going to the doctor and after 3 years of living in NOVA I still don’t have a doctor. Arthritis runs in my family, so I’m assuming that’s what they’re going to tell me, but I just want to climb again. Fall is almost here and  all I want to do this year climb.

In the meantime I’m trying these stretches to try to heal faster and prevent future injuries: Exercises – The Hands and Fingers.

walknboston, Flickr

D.C. Beer Week starts friday: What’s in store? (Young & Hungry)

Beer-drinking trends in emerging markets bode well for big brewers (NPR)

Beer: Best sipped cool, not cold (Luxist)

It’s almost fall and you know what that means: football, Octoberfest and chili.

We take chili very seriously at our house, to the point where we hold a mostly annual chili cook-off (it went on a brief hiatus for two years). We give prizes (usually silly ones) for best overall chili, hottest chili and most innovative chili, and this recipe won best overall the first year we held the cookoff.

Here’s the recipe (award-winning!) that’s just a little spicy, and just a little sweet:

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
2 cans diced tomatoes (I like ones that have been seasoned for chili already)
2 cans dark red kidney beans
1 or 2 cloves garlic
1 onion, chopped
3 to 6 tbs any style chili powder to taste
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 bottle of any good beer (we prefer Sam Adams)

For a slightly thicker chili, you can also add 1 small can of tomato paste.

**Note: As a general rule, do not cook with beer you wouldn’t drink. If it tastes bad when you drink it, it will taste bad when you cook with it.

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat, add onion and garlic. Add ground turkey when garlic just begins to brown. Heat turkey until it’s cooked through. Stir in 1/2 a bottle of beer. Guess what you do with the other half.  Let the turkey simmer in the beer for a few minutes, then stir in the chili powder, diced tomatoes and beans. Then add the honey and brown sugar. Let everything simmer for about 30 minutes.

Top it with anything you like: shredded cheese, sour cream, anything. I like adding a little fat-free Greek yogurt and avocado on top of mine.

21st Amendment Brew Free or Die IPA
Brewed in San Francisco
7.2% abv
www.21st-amendment.com

Imperial Pale Ale is a GirlsonBeer favorite, but I was skeptical as to what this IPA from a can.

I poured the majority of the beer in a pint glass and got a monstrous amount of foam. Maybe that is a can thing, I don’t know. From a glass this brew is quite tasty. It’s a light IPA and it’s not too malty. The hops are full-flavored but not over-powering. This is a well-balanced brew. I could drink a lot of these.

I was curious though, what it would taste like from the can, so I drank a swig of the last of the brew that didn’t quite fit in the glass. It was not pleasant. All I tasted was aluminum.

While I really did enjoy it and I will probably grab a few of these to take on our next camping trip I’m forced into, I still won’t drink it out of the can. That taste stayed with me a little, and it’s not good (Note to self: Pack 2 pint glasses with the camping stuff).