party to the 4th power

Friday I battled my way through campus graduation traffic and picked up Steph then headed to NoBo park for Jeff's graduation party. They were a bit late getting there and set up so we drove to a couple of other nearby parks just in case we had the wrong one. Alas we did not. Once we got under way, he had quite the food spread and of course grilling action. But perhaps, most important was the tapping of the 4Cs IPa keg we had brewed only ~3 weeks ago. Jeff had added some extra priming sugar and with the CO2 tank, she was ready to go. Quite tasty and well received as the 5 gallon keg was tapped by the end of the afternoon.



After Jeff's party, Steph & I grabbed some coffee at Trident to gear up for our next event - the National Homebrew celebration party at the Brewer's Association rooftop. Lots of unique and tasty beers on tap - india dark kolsch, peach ipa, porter, wee heavey - and those were just the kegs. Many folks had brought some of their specialty beers in bombers and there were plenty of exciting pours to be had. I met a whole bunch of folks who invited me to join their brew clubs which I'd never really explored before. I hope to take a few of them up on the offer!



Saturday, we went to a Kentucky derby party at Bridget's loft over by the pepsi can. We had a solid spread of apps and mint julips & mojitos were the signature drinks on the day. For the race, we all chose horses names out of a hat - mine are below. After the 2 minute race, Matt wanted busted out the grill and we had BBQ dinner.



And on Sunday, Jacq hosted a mother's day party for Meg & Jane with a spread from Panera's. Lauren also whipped up a salad recipe from ModMarket, and Steph brought over more of her mint julip cake which was a big hit at the Derby party as well.

Whew - busy weekend!