May 1, 2016

74/1659) Home:  Maple Butter Tart Ale by Sweetgrass Brewing Co. of Ontario:  *1/2;  5%;  brewed and packaged by Sawdust City for Sweetgrass;  contains the usual four ingredients plus butter rum extract, vanilla extract, maple extract, caramel extract;  very sweet maple nose;   opens with maple syrup;  artificial vanilla finish;  an odd one to be sure;  with all the extracts in lieu of the real thing it would be hard to avoid the artificial feel of this one;  my wife said, "this is truly bad beer";

This was the winner as best Township Beer, representing Midland in the "Collaboration Nation North Beer Contest".

I'm not sure what motivated me to pick this one on this day instead of something I had been saving for an occasion but this is a good time to run a photo of a gift from my brother:

My brother took up running some time after me and immediately became infinitely better than me.  He qualifies for the Boston Marathon at will and this was from the 2016 race kit.  The Samuel Adams (or Boston) Brewery is a sponsor.  He does not drink and thus has no use for this so he kindly thought of me.  He ran Boston this past Monday.

For my part I earned this today:

 
For me the best part of the scene above is that cup of steaming hot coffee that was waiting for me when my ride home showed up.  Between arriving at the start line early, running the race, refueling at the finish, taking the shuttle bus back to the start line and waiting for my lift to arrive I had been outdoors in the wind and the rain on a day that didn't reach ten degrees for well in excess of six, probably seven, hours so, yes, I did win the lottery the day I got married.

My brother ran a half marathon in this race at a scorching pace less than a week after a full marathon in Boston.