The Tour de Fat, or Why I Love New Belgium

The Tour de Fat is one of the reasons why the New Belgium Brewing Company is on my top five list of great companies. Some of the other reasons may be found here.

Basically, the New Belgium Brewing Company was created after the founder was inspired (divinely perhaps?) while on a bike trek through Belgium visiting some of the best breweries in the world. Upon returning to the US, he made it his mission to recreate the best of the Belgian beers right here in America. He named his new brewery New Belgium, and named its first official beer after the mountain bike with "fat tires" he had used to ride across the country of his inspiration.

Now that the name of both the brewery and its flagship beer are known from coast to coast, conventional wisdom states that the company should have sold out its original intentions and realized its full potential as a money making enterprise. Not so. Fortunately for everyone involved, while the company is making more money than a 32 year old dude on a bike trek across Belgium ever could have imagined, it is still 100% true to its roots. And that means bikes.

For instance, some of the great perks of being a New Belgium employee (in addition to all the fat tire you can drink) include a free geeked out cruiser bike after you've worked there for one full year, and a parking lot with almost as many spots for bikes as there are for cars. But the coolest thing us non-employees get to enjoy (in addition to all the paid for yet delicious beer we can drink) is the Tour de Fat.

The Tour de Fat is essentially a traveling carnival dedicated to bikes. It begins with a community ride around an area, similar to Critical Mass except that it is actually licensed by the city, and then ends at a fairground complete with a corral filled with awesome art bikes for everyone to enjoy and a giant stage where bands play, contests are held, and a mock New Orleans style funeral is held for car culture.

Now, this is all free. The only thing that isn't is the beer. And when it comes to beer sales, in each major city the tour goes to, it partners with a local bike friendly non-profit (in my fine city that is the SFBC) and gives a portion of all profits to that organization.

The moral of this story? New Belgium is awesome, and everyone reading this should go to a Tour de Fat event if one is taking place near them. To all my SF brothers and sisters, that event is tomorrow, Saturday the 25th of September at Speedway Meadows in Golden Gate Park.

See ya there.

Images provided by New Belgium Brewing Co. and The Green Dude

Review of Wild Fermentation

I have been a fan of fermentation every since tasting my first beer at what was certainly an inappropriate age. What really got me going however, was the time I spent in Belgium after graduating high school. The beers I experienced there (yes, I said experienced) were like nothing I ever tasted before -- truly wholesome brews crafted over long periods of time and filled with healthful, beneficial microbes (in addition to plain old deliciousness). I knew then that I would forever be a fan of the fermented beverage. What I didn't know is just how far down the rabbit hole this newfound love of fermentation would take me.

Later on in that same trip, I experienced real German sauerkraut. Growing up, I had always been a fan of sauerkraut (Rubens are without question my favorite sandwich). What I was unaware of however was that the sauerkraut in these sandwiches was dead -- all the healthful organisms in it were killed by pasteurization before this corporate product was shipped all over the country. Not in Germany. I still remember sitting down at my first pub there and ordering a bratwurst with sauerkraut (sauerkraut which, unbeknownst to me, was actually fermented in the back of the pub). I couldn't believe my taste buds! This sauerkraut was to the sauerkraut I loved at home what a grilled ground sirloin burger is to a happy meal. Unbelievable!

That's it - I was hooked. I still didn't trust myself to mess around with my own ferments, but as soon as I got home I sought out micro brews and home fermented krauts and yogurts wherever I could. I even had a short love affair with a Mr Beer home brew kit while in college (the kind you buy from SkyMall magazine and where you never have to deal with truly raw ingredients). My roommate and I turned out a couple good beers to be sure, but we weren't quite craft ready. So when I graduated and moved to San Francisco, I decided it was finally time. I bought myself a copy of Wild Fermentation and got brewing:

When I first started reading this book, I was amazed at how many times I stopped and just stared off into the distance, imagining all the things I was going to ferment when I was done reading. There is almost not a page of this book that I haven't marked with a post-it or a dog ear. The author provides great insight based on both science and on his own experience, and his excitement is literally contagious. He loves fermented foods, and by the time you finish reading his book, I guarantee you will too.

Since buying this book, I have made my own saurkraut (several different variations), kimchi, and dill pickles. I am working on my first batch of Kombucha right now. The beer is on hold until I can find space in my apartment to set up a simple brew station, but I feel more comfortable going into it than I ever could have without this book.

Wild Fermentions is very informative, with great recipes and very easy to follow step by step instructions. If I had to point to any negatives in the book, it would be a little too much information about the author himself and his communal living situation (not that I mind the author's hippy dippy ways, it's just that the many exploits of his house mates with single, nature-based names are besides the point).

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in fermented foods, and even to people who aren't. There is some form of ferment in this book for just about anyone.

Proust!

Image provided by Wild Fermentation

Review of Zaca Organic Hangover Patches

Well, I didn't have a hangover...

I received two free Zaca organic hangover patches for review a few months ago and have been anxiously waiting for a good time to try them out. These patches are exactly what they sound like - they are similar to the nicotine patches smokers use to quit except instead of nicotine they leech "hangover stopping" herbs and supplements into the bloodstream.

This past weekend presented the perfect opportunity to test the patches out - Sunday was San Francisco's Bay to Breakers. For those who haven't heard of Bay to Breakers, it is a "marathon" stretching from the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. In reality, it is a seven mile walk filled with extravagant costumes, huge floats (many containing kegs) and enough alcohol consumption per capita to lay waste (wasted?) the entire route.

Since the race starts early in the morning, I put the patch on at around 8 AM. Almost immediately I felt a nice jolt - whatever herbs were in the patch really perked me up - I didn't even need my morning coffee. At around 9:00 I met some friends out in the street and started celebrating. As the day moved along, I continued to feel upbeat and energized (for the record, I did plan on recording my entire day for this review, but lost my camera sometime around 1 PM).

(Pouring one out for the homies)

The party started slowing down at around 1:30, but I stayed in the park with some friends until around 3:00. Still, I was disappointed; with this much time to recover before even going to bed, there was little reason for me to be hung over, patch or no patch. Determined to continue the experiment however, I left the patch on as we went out for food and then back to my apartment to watch a movie.

I was still feeling good at around 10PM that night and got into bed expecting no problems what-so-ever the following morning. "All in all," I thought to myself, "the hangover patches might actually be worth it." Then it happened. Out of nowhere: PANIC ATTACK.

I am not at all prone to panic attacks, so it took a few minutes before I even realized what was happening. All I know is that one second I was thoroughly enjoying my comfy bed, and the next I thought my heart was going to pop out of my chest and I couldn’t keep my thoughts straight. After trying some deep breathing and meditation to calm myself down (no success) I got up and washed the patch off. From that point on it took about an hour of pacing up and down my apartment and trying desperately to concentrate to bring myself back down. I ended up getting to bed at around midnight for about six hours of extremely fitful sleep.

Can I say for sure that these patches caused this random panic attack? No I cannot. However, the fact remains that I have never really had a panic attack before, and while this was my first time at Bay to Breakers, it was NOT my first time enjoying the San Francisco street party scene. Coincidence? It's possible. But let's just say I am in no hurry to put my second free patch to the test.

Images provided by Zacalife.com and The Green Dude himself