Hoppy Friday!

This last weekend I was hanging out with my friend Pygmy (no, she's not a roller derby skater and yes that is her real nickname) and some of her old high school friends from Wisconsin Gayle and Jack.  We were talking about beer.  They had traveled up Highway 101 from California and had stopped at various wineries and breweries along the way.  They had a whole case of Rouge's Double Dead Guy IPA which the brewery folks had said you couldn't get in Seattle yet.  (Of course I'm pretty sure I've had it up here but probably just not this year's batch.)  That then lead into talking about hops and how he wanted to grow his own hops and brew his own beer.

Hops.  Washington state is the largest grower of hops in the country - more than 77% of US hops are produced there - 40% of the world's hops are grown in the Yakima Valley.  I learned that at Snoqualmie Brewery two winters ago (when a group of us went there instead of Leavenworth in the blizzard.)

Still Thirsty!

In early May,I was at my friend James' apartment in Washington DC enjoying a Dortmunder Gold when he started reading off GQ's list of "50 beers you must try before you die".  Of course, I had tried a bunch of them (IPAs and ales) and some of them would likely never cross my lips (porters and stouts).  In the middle of the tasty conversation, I started wondering why there wasn't a "50 beers you must try" listed in any woman's magazine. I decided then and there that we need a beer blog written by women who love beer - and I knew the perfect partner in crime.  A few text messages later, Bess and Torchy Drink Beer on Fridays was born...

Our love of IPAs is a binding factor in our relationship.  (It's a special moment when you find someone who loves bitter beer as much as you do.) We would drink beers and write reviews for everyone to read (because everyone will want our opinion) in our beer blog on Fridays.  We would both drink IPAs but Bess would also take care of the darker porters and stouts and I would enjoy the lighter wheats/whites and pales.  We would get guest tasters to drink those things we don't love (like ambers and sours) and it would be a delicious, tasty fun time on Fridays! 

However, in one of our finer moments at the Midwest Brewhaha where the Jet City Rollergirls were fresh off their win against Arch Rival and on our way to winning the after party (also very important), we (Molly, Bess, Maude, Indy and I) decided that we would give up beer until we had kicked Tucson's butt at the end of June. We raised our delicious glasses of Horny Goat and sealed our fate - delaying the start of this blog and truly - not drinking beer on Fridays.

Ooops. 

We're still thirsty!  And there will be some delicious beers waiting for us soon enough.

Mmmmmm.