Beer in the Garden, Beer in the Park...

Beer in the garden (or garten), beer in the park, but the best of all is beer in the dark--on the tv couch on a Friday night with nowhere to go!

The week started out cool and sunny and breezy. Monday was a perfect day to visit the new Japanese Gardens that just opened this spring and are such a welcome addition to the good things about living here in West Michigan.

One friend had free entrance passes and one friend also needed a pass and was new to the new garden (opened in June). There are many benches and viewing spots, including in the zen garden. We meandered and meditated--well, sat and talked. What a great space it is! Already the wisteria have grown up into their arbor over the summer. I noticed a lot of algae in the natural, murky pond. I felt much better about the pond I monitor at Uncle J's place.

Paired with a Michigan salad, this dark beer packed quite a punch for a noonday lunch (9.5%ABV) (in the Garden Cafe).

A whole hill of larches has been planted just beyond the arches, behind the new garden. As the larches grow they will be bent and shaped precisely to form a living sculpture!

I also ventured into the "old gardens" to catch a glimpse of the great horse--of course.

Years ago I took photos of the horse in every season, for a series--even making a couple of enlargements, although they never made it out of my files. I still like the one with snow on his back and a red Christmas wreath around his neck!

When there are very few people out and about, it is a good day to once again view and photograph this magnificent beast.

In the past, I have intentionally photographed the horse at an angle which hid his generous, anatomically correct endowments.

This time, just to be silly and perverse, I took a closeup of those endowments ... but I just cannot include that photo here! But animals are not ashamed--they show us who they are without watching to see who is looking--so really, why should we be embarrassed?

I checked out prices for travel to Milan, where his twin has been installed. I will have to save for a few years if I want to visit the other horse! Now I am getting ads for all the nice hotels in Milan...

This past week I also visited a friend's garden and picked a cold one from her garage fridge to sip--A Shock Top Honeycrisp apple wheat. It sounded so refreshing, but it may have been the worst beer I have ever consumed--except for that peaty cow manure brew from last winter!

Shock Top in the garden

Some days I am more than ready (as fun as it has been!) to move on to explore a different beverage or culinary delight. The array of new healthy juices in the stores and juice bars (and the wine, and the craft whiskies!) look interesting. Have you tried any of that Kombucha stuff? Next year I am not going to drink bad beer! I know pretty much what to avoid now...

It has been a year of experimentation, for better and for worse--and I have only one season left--and only 3 "local" breweries remaining to visit this year.

A fall excursion "up north" is still a possibility, however.

The craft beer movement certainly is a phenomenon, already cutting deeply into the profit margins of my old beer of choice--Miller Lite!

This week's brewery trip was among the worst, redeemed only by the experience of visiting a small store with supplies for the home brewer.

The Gravel Bottom Brewing and Supply in Ada had that store. It opened in 2013, but was a bit of a dump--although there are plans for a gorgeous new facility next year, even as the city of Ada is in a new construction phase. This was probably the place that we (me for sure) felt the most uncomfortable and out of place so far this year, but we ordered the usual flight--all five of the brews on the list, set on the ugliest flight board to date. I let J. drink the brown, but of course, there was a hoppy IPA in the mix and we were full from pizza at a charity trunk show and did not even finish one shared flight!

We hit bottom with this flight. It was the pits!

The beer was really not that bad ... I was just attempting to be cute about Gravel Bottom!!

The brewery website did not have the current on-tap beer listings updated and I had to go to Untappd to even remember what brews we had. I will try to add those to the beer blog post, but I took no notes.

We browsed the store, although it is not likely we will ever become home brewers ourselves. I have scant knowledge of home brewing.

Hops and yeast in the fridge:

Elderberries! Sambuca Nigra! I have a Sambuca in my backyard and I have had a beer brewed with them! So this is what you need! Anybody can do it?

Oh, and the malts.

Anyway, after a busy week with three nights in a row out, another sprinkling system crisis, and a hard Friday afternoon in the garden (the humidity almost killed me!)--and then getting rained on and muddy--I showered and snuggled up on the couch, sipping a bottle of Octoberfest beer from the Brooklyn Brewery and didn't move for quite awhile.

And then I made BLTs, along with fried (in the bacon grease) squash and steamed pole beans (the pole beans are the only ones that survived the ravage of the rabbits), using the last big slicing tomato and the freshly picked beans and squash from my garden plot at Uncle J.'s that day. Yummm. And then back to the couch. Ahhh.

A little bite from the garden and a BLT with my beer!