February 2016 Full Moon BBQ and Red Clay Brewing

Stop #2 on our #brewsnque tour of 2016 was the great city of Opelika!  It was kind of a last minute decision so the adventure became date day for these soon to be empty nesters!

I can finally say that I ate lunch at Full Moon BBQ.  More than one friend has told me that they enjoy eating there and I can see why.  Lamar and I drove the 45 minutes north east to Opelika and it was worth it.  We had bbq and it was delish.  We also had some of their Half Moon cookies...omg y'all...those alone are worth the drive!  Annnndddd...we brought home some of the Full Moon BBQ Chow Chow  as well.  Fun atmosphere, having just a few Alabama and Auburn memorabilia items and the service was great! We will definitely visit again.

After our lunch at Full Moon BBQ we decided to do a little adventure seeking in the fair city of Opelika.  We stopped in to look around at The Museum of East Alabama.  Located on 9th Street in historic downtown Opelika this place is a fun little stroll through time. Did you know that Opelika was a location for a POW camp in World War II?  I had no clue! Side note, if you are looking for a history project for your 4th grader during their Alabama History year this would be a great place to visit!

It's been a while since I've taken photos just to take photos.  This adventure presented a good opportunity so we headed to the Salem-Shotwell Covered Bridge  The bridge was moved from it's original home in Salem to Opelika where it was reconstructed after suffering some storm damage.  It was a fun way to spend a pretty day.  Covered Bridges are so rustic and Americana and you can only imagine all of the stories those places have to tell.  Just a fun detour from the norm.

On to the piece de resistance!  Yeah, I'm still hanging on to some of the French phrases I was actually able to use last summer while in Montreal.  Anyhoo... The Red Clay Brewing Company was our #brews part of the tour day.  What a fun place!  I am seeing a warehouse trend in these "college buddies" brew businesses.  At Good People Brewing we felt we were on the older end of the average as far as age.  At Red Clay Brewing we were definitely feeling our grandparenting age, ha!  We played board games, talked with the father of one of the owners and enjoyed some really cool drinks.  

I had a cute and fruity hard cider cocktail...yum!  Lamar had the Swamp Stout..he does enjoy a dark beer!  The atmosphere is relaxed.  Ping pong games were being played, music and just fun conversation. Red Clay is worth a return trip!

All in all, it was a really fun day!  Looking forward to another weekend of #brewsnque!

January 2016 Ingrams, Saw's and Good People Brewing

Lamar likes craft brews.  I like bbq.  We both like to experience new places and new flavors.  That's how the idea for a #brewsnque tour began.

The tour looks a little something like this, Lamar and I will select a city based on local breweries and bbq places to visit each month.  We'll pick a bbq restaurant to eat lunch and then a local brewery to hang out and enjoy spending time together and with friends if possible.  There are no rules about picking places, just whatever strikes our fancy or whatever opportunity presents itself.

For our first stop on the #brewsnque tour, we decided to hit the road and head north to Birmingham, AL.  Lunch at SAW's and then a taproom tour at Good People Brewing.

SAW's BBQ is a Birmingham staple known for its good bbq, great sauces and juke joint atmosphere. There are three locations and we decided to go to SAW's in Homewood.  For our first venture out, we invited our friends Richard and Laura.  Rich and Laura live in Pelham but had never been to SAW's...so it would be a first time experience for all of us!

SAW's in Homewood is a dinky, hole in the wall joint and it.was.fabulous!  The hubs and I tend to enjoy the local diner type establishments so this place is gold. The bbq sandwiches were delicious and the sauces were the cherry on top!  Not only did we enjoy the meal but the very little elbow room seating was perfect for our crew.  A cozy four topper along the wall where we could see people coming and going was the perfect setting for four friends to catch up on all kinds of family news.  Our official bbq review is that the bbq lived up to its reputation.  #yumformytum

After lunch we window shopped (literally) at the antique store at the other end of the strip of stores and restaurants in Homewood.  The community where this is located is absolutely adorable and it was fun to spend a little time wandering around and walking off our very filling lunch!

We had scheduled tap room tour to begin at 2pm at the  Good People Brewing so after eating and browsing we left Homewood and drove to downtown Birmingham, AL. I had first heard of Good People Brewing through the Two by Two Animal Rescue. Good People has charity nights and charity brews and Two by Two has been one of their charities in the past.  We love our pups so this was a no brainer to be our first stop for brews on the #brewsnque tour of 2016.

Good People did not disappoint.  A warehouse across from the Birmingham Regions field complete with corn hole boards on what used to be a loading dock, a food truck in the front parking lot and huge textile spools for tables was everything I had hoped it would be!  Dogs hanging out with their humans was an added bonus!  Of course there was more than one mom with a baby asleep in a sling.  Laura and I both found ourselves quoting Reese Witherspoon from "Sweet Home Alabama" when her character makes the observation "you've got a baby...in a bar!"  Yeah, we really cracked ourselves up with that one.  =)

The tap room tour was fun!  Laura and I both commented on how we felt like we were on a field trip learning about how beer is made!  It is quite the process.  I can only imagine how many students in college went home one weekend and declared to their parents the goal of becoming a chemist so they could determine the proper balance of ingredients in beer...as a career.  Seriously, it is a real job. If only I had been more creative in my thinking while at college.  BTW, if you do the tour you get a glass, a sticker and a free beer.  We love free stuff!

We learned also about the "free the hops" movement in Alabama and allowing higher contents of alcohol to be brewed and sold.  Lamar had an El Gordo which has the highest content of alcohol allowed in the state at 13.9%.  Needless to say...I drove home.

Lamar, Rich, Laura and I all agreed that we should meet again for another #brewsnque weekend.  It was a fun Saturday...definitely worthy of a repeat!

Another try...

Confession time.

I've lost count of how many times I have started this blog only to leave it sitting unmanned and unchecked.

Shall we try once again?  Instead of taking up space in the blogosphere as a food journal for a diet or meal plan that I am not going to adopt as a lifestyle, I think I will begin to share the things I enjoy doing or the experiences of places I have visited with people I love.

"Don't be discouraged. It's often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock." ~Author Unknown