Books, Bicycling, and Beers 2023: Wooden Ship Brewing

I think the inability to keep up with books will slow me down a bit.  That's a good thing.  I'm tying some of my habits together in a productive way. The volume of reading is fairly spot on...I think I'll hit about 2000 pages again this month, so I'm generally queuing up something new in time for a new brewery visit.  I think there's one book on Afrofuturism I didn't even show with a beer.  

This trip on Wednesday [4/26] was to Wooden Ship brewing up off the west edge of Harriet.  About 17.9 miles one way.  I didn't do a full round trip because my kid wanted wings at Busters, so I pedaled over there for dinner and by the time I was done, it was raining.  I don't rust.  Much.  But raining and COLD...that's just asking for trouble and a ride home.  So 22.34 miles total and 581 feet of climb - light on the climb because I didn't have to go back through the river valley.  Usually this would be a shorter ride, but the river valley [Minnesota, although the Confluence is nearby] is flooded, so I have to swing around past Fort Snelling to get into the cities.

I broke my rule and had two beers because I had free wooden beer coins for Wooden Ship.  I've donated at the Memorial Blood Center bus a few times there but not used the free beer, so it seemed like a fine pass on my rule.

This is They Put Cauliflower in Anything. Much like cauliflower crust pizza, it's nice and clean tasting on the front, and sort of less so on the back after it's been sitting in your mouth for a while. Although honestly, I can say that about many beers, maybe the majority.  Goo, light beer and the cauliflower is a fun use of veggies, but I wouldn't do that one again.  Cauliflower just doesn't have enough character.

I guess that makes it much like that book in the photo. The Cleveland Heights LGBTQ Sci-fi and Fantasy Role Playing Club is sort of hum-ho.  There's a really good book in there, but it just didn't manage to come out.  Could be because it feels like the role playing is an aside, and there's better writing in those sections.  Could be because it feels like it hops around a bit without finding a groove. I'm enjoying it - but compared to books I've pulled into my list via the NPR Concierge, it's run of the mill.

Now THIS was a good beer.  155 Beets Per Minute, a sour and a collab with Venn Brewing.  YUM.  I enjoyed that immensely.  When the bartender was filling that glass, red beet was running all over the place.  It looked like a horror movie.  I did discover that I'm one of the 10-15% of people who can't fully process beets.  I had a nice moment of being startled when I peed pink later.  I also learned that beets are pretty high in oxylates which can encourage kidney stones.  As a two time stone sufferer including during a stop-all-traffic snowstorm, I won't be encouraging my kidneys to deal with extract of beet too often.

I love Wooden Ship.  Frequent beer for blood via the Memorial Blood Center Bus, non-gendered bathrooms [that are generally very clean because everyone knows there are standers and sitters sharing real estate], a charity of the day that's posted on the board and that often includes women's reproductive autonomy charities, and...

...period products in the bathrooms for anyone in quick need or who has enough period poverty they have to choose between a beer and a tampon.  The idea of every beer coming with a tampon charge for one charitable tampon is a good idea.  Use that beet beer and drop a string in it [not gross...periods are just periods...deal]. Anyway, kudos to Wooden Ship.  Great brewery.