Bring on the Beer

Shewee it is cold this morning! I think it probably only feels more so since on weekends I get emerge from the duvet at a far more reasonable hour ;) Haha.

So anyway, it wasn't a super eventful weekend ... We didn't do anything on Friday night. And on Saturday morning we had breakfast at Tasha's (I KNOW!). Okay so The Trucker went a while back with @Toxic_Mouse and assured me there was a very tasty Huevos Rancheros type item on the menu (not on their regular menu/website ... but you seem to get two when you arrive). And he had to collect a cricket bat from nearby.

So, I caved and gave it a try. We went to the Nicholway branch. Yoh, that place is noisy. Like scream across the table noisy. I dunno if it's the low ceiling plus the coffee machines plus the full tables or what, but it wasn't my favourite dining experience. That said, the service was good and our food arrived swiftly. And it was yummy :) I dunno what chorizo they use but damn, it was tasty.

After all our admin, we headed to the Jozi Craft Beer Fest at Mark's Park. My second time at this one. I didn't find it as "User Friendly" this year. Or maybe I'm getting the two Beer Fest's confused ... SA on Tap reduced their "glass levels" from three to two this year, but Jozi Craft Beer didn't even indicate you could order half glasses. I mean I've been before so I was asking for half-glasses, but as I was getting my last one, a girl standing next to me actually asked if you could do that. It really wasn't clear. The other thing I didn't find clear was what the prices were ... I think they were pretty standard, but some seemed to have them on display and others didn't. And very few people seemed to show the half-glass prices as well.

The other thing that frustrated me was although there was a map of the breweries (which we didn't even get on arrival?), there was no easy way to see all the beers available. I usually find this super handy because I can see and prioritise what I want to taste ... since it is probably a little more specific than most people. Although The Trucker was trying mostly APAs and @Toxic_Mouse was on an IPA mission. So it would've helped to see who had what on offer. Otherwise you had to wade thru the people queuing and try to read what was on the taps at most places (a few had big chalkboards with it written on).

Also, it happened to be @Toxic_Mouse's birthday. So he was thinking of doing the whole gazebo / chairs thing. But apparently they weren't letting that in this year. Which didn't bother me terribly, but trying to snag a shady spot was tricky at best.

All of that aside, it is still a fabulous afternoon out! Best of all, I didn't queue a single time for the ladies loos. Bonus!

So anyway, what was I drinking? I started with a full glass of Everson's Cloudy Apple while The Trucker had a BrewDog Dead Pony Club (which he's had before and really likes). I did a taster of 5am Saint from their stall (they'd brought their own glasses for that), but I think they're generally too "beery" for me.

What was very entertaining was seeing William Everson, again. I reckon we've seen him once a week for the last 3 weeks (more about that when I get around to the holiday posts) ;) We ended the afternoon off with an absolutely awesome chat with him. What a great guy (can you believe he also used to be in trucks? There is hope for us yet ;) Haha). You all need to go try their Cloudy Apple! I think next time we're looking for a weekend away from Cape Town, we'll give their Cider Cottage a try.

Then I tried a half-glass of Copperlake's Citrus Cooler. Very pretty shade of candyfloss pink, but flavour-wise I found it very bland.

After the disappointment of that, I went for something I already knew I liked: Aces Brew Worx was serving half-glasses of Dragon Fiery Ginger Beer. Damn, that is good stuff :)



Next up was a half-glass of Cerveza Minerva's ITA that I'd tried a sip of at El Burro. Quite liked that one.

Then to end off, I tried Robson's Cherry Beer. Nope. It reminded me of Mogallywood's Raspberry Beer that I tried at SA on Tap. I joined The Trucker who was queueing at Standeaven for a Lager X and tipped out my glass in favour of a half-glass of their Cranberry Weiss (and I tasted their No 9. Hefeweizen which was also nice).



And that was the end of us. We didn't try any of the food stalls this time. It looked much the same and we were still running on breakfast ;) It's a great afternoon out!

We had a very lazy afternoon after that, after doing our grocery shopping on the way home. The Trucker made us some yummy chicken curry for dinner :)

On Sunday we slept later than we planned, and then headed off on the 2 hour drive to the Free State to visit his Mom & Gran for Mother's Day. We had lunch there and caught up and then headed home.

He worked yesterday evening and I just collapsed on the couch. Yawn.

It was a good one :) Annoying news is that I've got to head back to Old Khaki again this afternoon because I wanted to wear my new blue boots on Sunday but noticed one of the clips is broken o_0 Sheesh, when you're paying over 2k for boots they better damn well be in PERFECT condition. Here's hoping they have another pair to exchange them for ... when I bought them, both shops only had 1 pair in my size that wasn't actually the display pair o_0 (and I'd already gone to a second store on Thursday afternoon to get a pair that wasn't the display pair and didn't have a defect).