Farewell Tour Part One

Last night a group of my Scouter friends had a good-bye party for me at Waldo Pizza, one of the better local pizza joints in town. What was nice about it for me is that I was not there as a Scout Leader. Several of the kids in the Scout group for the last several years or so have been employees there and we have a tendency to have meetings there. The only problem is that they have a really good beer list, they even have a Cicerone on staff. So I go to this place fairly often, they have a killer beer list and I can't have any because I am working. Last night I was not so I had a few of the more interesting things on the list.

I must admit that I was not there to taste beer so these impressions are not as sharp as a beer review should be.

First up was the 1809 Berliner Weisse which is a German import beer. The alcohol was a bit high for the style at around 5%, and the beer was not as tart as I would expect. Adding any syrup to it would have turned it into a fruity cocktail, I had mine straight. It was nicely tart with some good cider-like qualities to it. I think this would be a great introduction to the world of sour beers for newbies.

The second beer I had was the Jolly Pumpkin Bam Bière, which Waldo listed as a Saison. This is a beer that I have heard a lot about and was looking forward to trying when I reviewed the beer list the day before (is that too beer geek?). I know that Jolly Pumpkin make farm house style ales. I guess so they can dispense with traditional styles. It had the nice crispness and fruity notes that I would expect, but there was a fair amount of funk as well. Now I like funk, I drink Rodenbach and have George Clinton on my iPod, but in this case I thought it was a bit out of style and swamped the more delicate flavors of the beer. I like this beer, I am just not sure it should be called a saison.

The group also bought me a cake and gave me a card that everyone signed. Some people I had not seen for years showed up as well. It is nice to know that some of these people came out to see me off. What was interesting was one of the guys I have known for a while seemed to be getting a bit emotional and gave me a couple of "man hugs". I was quite touched by the whole thing.

Next up: The Oklahoma Run