Just a shade over two months since the last post…

This could be the third or fourth “I’m gonna be better about posting!” post, so I’ll spare you the excuses and just treat this as an update more than a revisionist road forward.

I looked at my previous post from when I was taking a more serious stab at this and realized that a lot has happened since I started this little diddy up in June. 

To recap for any new readers (that would be readers #4 and #5), I started this blog to help me articulate beer flavors in preparation for the Certified Cicerone (like a sommelier, but for beer). I had done all the local community college courses about brewing and brewery operations. Then the last course, tasting, really worked me over the coals and drove home the enormous amount of work I had remaining in critically tasting, processing, and describing beer.

I had set a soft target of April 2019 for the Cicerone exam, that got pushed to June, and now September. It was a little bit of life getting in the way, but mostly just drinking what sounded good rather than “studying”.

In the interim, I tried brewing a couple of batches and decided that wasn’t for me. The beer was passable (out of a kit with extract, don’t judge) but after my classes and seeing the difference in home brewing and commercial, it’s not something that I was keen on spending my Saturday’s doing.

We stumbled upon Oaklyn Springs in early August which I wrote about here. They were looking for bartenders and I signed up, thinking it would be a good opportunity to discuss beer with people as they had a solid rotating tap list as they got their larger system up and running. I’ve really enjoyed the experience and using a skill set I don’t get to in my day job. However, the two shifts a week has taken an even further toll on my Cicerone prep.

If you’ve read the past post you know the name of the blog comes from our recently passed dogs: Mr. Bojangles and Princess Nellophina who are survived by a third dog, MJ. With that downer out of the way, we introduced a new dog to our house in late August: Max (pictured). It was completely unexpected as we decided to participate in the “Clear the Shelter” day in late August and stumbled upon him at the local shelter. The puppy has also contributed to a lack of focus.

September to now has been a whirlwind of our usual busy fall travel schedule, bar shifts, puppy drama, and an unusually busy holiday as both sides of our family descended upon central NC at the same time.

Bo and I have one last outing next weekend and then we are going to partake in the fad of “No Drink January” (rather “No Drink January 7-February 7”). It’s not really for health reason, as comparatively my typical one beer a day pales in comparisons to others, but more for the snobbish reason of resetting my palate (I can’t think of a more first world problem than having to drop a part of your diet because you “taste too much”). I won’t be able to complete abstain as I’m sure stuff will come up at the brewery and I’ll have to have a sample here or there for quality or retail reasons, but willfully drinking full beers will be off the table until February. 

After that we have a one/two punch of a trip to Asheville and Walt Disney World back to back to wreck the palate anew.

I’m still targeting that September 2019 Cicerone date, but I’ve got a bit of work to do. We’ll see how it goes.

Happy 2019 and I’ll see you around the internet tubes.