Last night, Mal and I hung out with our friends Blain and Jaime. You might remember them from their wedding this summer or Blain as the guy who designed CNC #2 and #3. Blain and Jaime are a lot of fun; we had a ton of laughs last night. Man, I wish they lived closer.
Blain and Jaime arrived at our house around dinnertime, so we headed out to the Union Brewhouse for beer and food.
I wanted to make some progress on my 99 Beer Club card, so I picked breweries that I knew I liked and asked our server to just bring me whatever beer they had available from them. It was actually kind of fun because I didn’t know what type of beer I was getting until it showed up at our table.
My first beer of the night was a 21st Amendment IPA, which is aromatic, malty, and seriously hoppy with six different kinds of hops and 78 IBUs. IBUs? Ready for some beer nerd talk?
IBUs are “International Bitter Units,” and they’re used to measure the bitterness of a beer from hops. Generally speaking, beers with IBUs of less than 20 have little to no apparent hops presence. Beers with IBUs from 20 to 45 are the most common and have mild to pronounced hops presence. Beers with IBUs greater than 45 are heavily hopped and can be quite bitter. [source] I don’t usually like bitter beers, so my taste preference pretty much maxes out around 50-55 IBUs. The 21st Amendment IPA had 78, so I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It was too bitter for me.
IBUs are a helpful tool for selecting new beers to try. (You can find the IBUs on the beer label, package, and/or brewery website.) However, IBUs are just one measure of the taste of a beer. Of course, the bitterness of a beer is subjective to the taste of who is drinking it, and sometimes the matiness or other flavors can reduce the “hoppiness” of a beer. It’s not the only thing I consider when picking a new beer to try, and it’s not like I won’t try a beer with 70 IBUs or something like that. I’m always open to trying new brews. Plus, I’ll never know if I like a beer until I try it.
For dinner, I ordered a garden salad with chicken on top and honey mustard on the side. It was your typical bar salad.
During dinner, I enjoyed a Blue Point Hoptical Illusion, which was hoppy, but not as much as the 21st Amendment (60 vs 78 IBUs). It also had more of a citrus-y flavor to it.
After dinner, I had a Dead Guy Ale, which was my favorite beer of the night. I’ve tried this beer in the past, but I forgot how much I liked it. It’s rich and malty and not very hoppy at all (40 IBUs).
J & B!
T & M!
Breakfast
There were slim pickings in our kitchen for breakfast this morning, so I threw together an Oatmeal Pancake with peanut butter spread on top. It wasn’t very exciting, but it did the trick.
Off to open gym! Mal and I are doing Helen today. I’m excited!
very interesting about the IBUs – never knew any of that! looks like a great time with friends! 🙂
MAN that beer looks good ! especially love the bottle designs, my brother would love those, he has a beer bottle collection of around 300 bottles.
P.S. I have been a looong time reader of CNC, but this is my first comment woot !
It’s funny that you mention IBUs because I just discovered them this weekend! I finally figured out (or admitted) that I just don’t enjoy really bitter beers. I did just a bit of “beer research” and sort of figured out that looking at a beer’s IBUs will give me a head’s up on bitterness. Now I know for sure to try to pick beers with lower IBUs… so, thanks for the nerdy beer info!
And now I feel like a beer at 10 am on a Sunday.
I’ll always take beer nerd talk. (surprise surprise) 😉 Love Dead Guy Ale. I have a Dead Guy in my fridge right now… uh…. that sounded bad.
Good to know! I think I prefer my beer to have IBU’s between 15 & 40.I like my beer to have a much lighter note! I will check out the IBU count next time before I purchase!
I really need to take part in Sunday AM open gyms at my crossfit gym. Sundays are my “me” day though and I like to veg.
Although that salad is lacking in the veggie department, the chicken looks excellent!
I go through phases where I like good beer and then I switch and like good wine. I love local breweries though! That looks like a lot of fun 🙂
Sometimes non-exciting, did-the-trick breakfasts are just what you need!
Helen is one of my favorite crossfit benchmarks! Can’t wait to hear how it went!
I don’t know if it is just me, but I like small amounts of bitter beers. I enjoy about 1/2 a beer and then the flavor seems to change and I do not enjoy it as much.
We had such a good time with you guys last night!! We can’t wait to meet up again! 😀 Ollie Loved his new friend!
My knowledge of beer is so small. I always feel self-conscious ordering it at bars, so I just go with my usual–Blue Moon. Love that one!
Reading this post got me excited for the Oregon International Brew Fest this summer. Have you tried Double Dead Guy? My husband swears by it.
You know a lot about beer! That’s some good info though. Sadly I can’t have beer anymore because of a gluten intolerance. I’ve yet to try gluten free beer, but I haven’t heard to many good things.
Have fun at the gym!!
P.s. You and Mal look so cute together!! HOT
You and Mal look great! What a fun evening!
That’s interesting about the IBUs – I didn’t know about them at all! I’m not a beer lover at all, but maybe it’s just because the ones I’ve tried have high IBUs. I’ll have to try a low IBU one next time I’m out and see if I like it any better!
Thanks for the beer education! I love learning new things…especially beer related things!
I was hoping this title meant you had beer for breakfast 😉
For a minute there I though CNC was going to be re-named BNB… I’d totally read a blog called Beer n Breakfast!
love this tip about the ibus! can’t waitntomuse it at the next outing and look smart 🙂
oops, use it.
I went to dinner on Friday night and really wanted the Dead Guy Ale but they were all out. I had the Northwestern Ale by Rogue and it was pretty good. 🙂
For a second, I thought that glass of iced coffee was beer! Ooops 🙂
Thanks for the shout out- Rock n Rogue