As you might have noticed, I haven’t really had the time or the motivation for sitting down and doing reviews. My last one was in March. I would love to do it, but they take up so much of my time and the return I get out of it is very small. I don’t get paid to do them, but that’s not the issue. The issue is more that I put in hours on each one, and there is just not much that comes out of it. I see so many other “reviewers” that write a 2-paragraph book report that ends with “I likes it, is good.” or people that record a rambling, incoherent video that ends with “it sukked, don’t watch it” and they get 1,000’s or 10,000’s of hits/reads/whatever. When I do a review I literally spend anywhere between 4-8 hours on a mobie review, and usually 2-6 hours (depending on the number of brews included) on a beer review. I have had many of the creators tell me how much they enjoy what I do, but if I am writing reviews for just them and myself, is there really any point?
So, long story short, unless something changes my opinion, I think I’m just going to blog at random on here. If I see a cool low-budget movie, or go drink some good beer, or just feel like waxing poetic, I’ll come around. That way, I won’t feel obligated to spend many hours (that I could be using to spend with my family or work on my degree or do something for myself) for no spiritual return. I can just come, type up some random ramblings, and get out.
Speaking of, I took a road trip with the fam to Marble Falls, Texas, and while the reson we went was for PIE, I was able to check out three breweries on the way. Double Horn in Marble Falls had six of their brews on tap, and while none were amazeballs (though the 1885 Pale Ale was pretty impressive), they were all solid. I planned to go from there to Save the World, but found out they did not open until 3pm and that was just too late to hang around.
On the way back home we stopped in Johnson City (famous for being the home of LBJ…) and Pecan Street Brewing. I tried 5 of their offerings, and much like Double Horn there was nothing that blew me away, but nothing that was horrible either. I enjoyed both the name and the flavor of their No, You’re Out Of Order! Porter, and their 1897 Jailbreak IPA was solid too. Plus, they had porter queso. Becuase I’m not fat enough.
From their we stopped at what is likely my favorite Texas brewery, Real Ale. I love the vast majority of their beers, and I love the fact that they expanded but yet comitted to be a TX only brewery (it’s on every can and every bottle). I got a small flight with a few oddities that were so-so, but was capped off by their Session IPA (which is exactly what a session IPA should be: not at all session like in flavor) and Kraken, their barrel aged version of Sisyphus (their barleywine). Capped it off with Commissar, their Russian Imperial Stout. Good times.
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