So, beer things. First off, my grandmother emailed me about my post about her father-in-law working in the Ruppert Brewery (it’s the post that wouldn’t end!). She emailed to share information about my great-grandfather’s situation back then, and had this to say:
“I just read your journal and read about Ruppert Beer. I caught that error in your research that the Ruppert Co. had gone out of business during the depression. The reason I knew is that Otto always said his father always worked during the depression and that many of his relatives had not. Some of them even borrowed money from his father because he had a good job all through the depression. One of his relatives who had been a stock broker (his stepson’s wife’s father borrowed money from him). It was a very tough time and most people were unemployed. They did make “near beer” and although it didn’t have the alcohol in it really tasted quite like real beer. It really was pretty good. I think it is still made but I’m not sure about that. When Grandpop Krumbach was still working (Otto and I were married before he retired) he brought home all kinds of special beer. Once a year they made Bock Beer which was very good. I liked that although beer was not a favorite of mine.”
That’s pretty cool.
I’ve had a busy weekend. On Friday
After Ortino’s we headed over for a nice evening of BBQ, friends and a bonfire. Met some cool people, had a lot of laughs and fun. We need to do this sort of thing more often.
Saturday morning I made blueberry pancakes and sausage before
The tour at Victory was fun, as usual. We got to see more of the bottling line than previously, and since that’s one of my favorite parts of the tour that was fun!
Between the three of us, I got to try a bunch of Victory beers I hadn’t previously tried:
St. Boisterous Hellerbock – A bit malty for me, but a solid brew.
St. Victorious Doppelbock – Now this is what I’m talking about! A nice, dark lager that was quite spicy.
Festbier – Not bad, but it didn’t really knock my socks off.
Sunrise Weissbier – This one was too lager for me, a session beer.
Whirlwind Wit – This was a nice, spicy wheat.
Mad King’s Weisse – How did this one fly under my radar for so long? It’s amazing! Really reminded me of a saison.
I also enjoyed some of the Sapphire Bock and Golden Monkey, still as good as ever!
Unfortunately the food was lousy again. One of the new things on the menu was a Reuben. Great! Not really. It wasn’t really bad as food goes, but it’s probably the worst reuben I’ve ever had, I should have been clued in by them spelling it wrong in the menu. They put coleslaw on it instead of sauerkraut! And it wasn’t because they didn’t have sauerkraut,
We left Victory around 7:30 and got home before dark. Had a couple beers, watched some TV (Victory Brewing DVD and some Firefly), and then
Today we’re headed out to the Sly Fox Bockfest & Goat Race – woohoo! The LJ icon I’m using on this entry was taken at the fest last year, and I look forward to getting myself another giant glass to fill with bocks! I’ve been looking forward to this festival all year, and we managed to convince some friends to come along! Nita will be meeting us here at the house in about an hour, Bob will be meeting us at the festival, and in a wonderful turn of events (for me) MJ’s flight out to CA where he is moving to was delayed so he decided to drop by the beerfest! Woohoo, we get to see him again!
I should grab a nice hearty breakfast and get myself prepared for the day.