Murray Krinkrin

 

Last night, I was visited by a confluence of media. A cold, rainy evening in Portland, I needed to pick up some beers for the weekend, as my local was closed for Christmas and wouldn't be open until 2 PM, well after the Bills game. The walk is short, but in order to get to the bar, you need to walk through a homeless encampment of about a dozen cars and RVs without license plates. I can't even imagine what the holiday season is like for those in that situation. Traffic was light as I crossed the I-5 pedestrian bridge to get to the beerhouse. When I got to my destination, I sat at the bar just thinking about Christmas; past and present. A friend came into the shop and started casting Scrooged on one of the televisions. I was also scrolling through Twitter and saw a tweet from Beer Advocate. Again, it got me thinking (which is something I love and hate). What are my beers of Christmas past, present, and future?

Without a doubt, my beer of Christmas past and winter, in general, is Aviator Red from Flying Bison Brewing. Just thinking about that beer, memories rush back of when I decided to go to the University at Buffalo around 2006. Previously, I lived in the area but in 2006, I went for it. The malty taste of Aviator Red would linger on my upper lip and be amplified by the freezing air. Nights where I'd walk to Gordon's on Delaware Avenue. I would have a couple of Aviators, mix it up with the other locals and get some of the best chicken fingers in Buffalo. That bar is no longer around, so it's not as contentious of a statement as you'd think! Other honorable mentions go to Southern Tier's 2XMAS Winter Ale. It was pretty ubiquitous in the Western New York region but always warmed you up while sitting in another one of my old haunts - the Thirsty Buffalo. Plenty of memories in that place, but that's for another time. Another honorable mention is Sierra Nevada's Celebration IPA. Obviously, I drink this when it's released, but my connection to this winter IPA is that I would drink Celebration well after Christmas. Matt, from Mes Que, bought a bunch of Celebration but for some reason, it didn't sell as well. Not sure why, it's a great beer. But Matt would sell them to me 2 for 1, which is always a good heads-up move when you're pinching pennies or just a fan of a bargain.

As with any move, you create new routines and traditions. Portland, Oregon will not leave you without beer options, which actually makes it hard to lock down a beer I can say is my go-to beer. Rarely there is a beer that will be in the refrigerator more than twice, other than Breakside IPA or Grains of Wrath Dystopia. When I have a Breakside, I'm reminded of summertime. It's a year-round brew. The same goes for Dystopia. Six years removed from Buffalo, I'm still trying to create holiday traditions. It's trial and error because variables vary. Work schedules, bars being open or closed, and just the plethora of beer options make it hard. After almost two years of uncertainty with COVID, I think it's very important to maintain my own traditions. I know for me when my grandparents died over a decade ago, I knew that what I knew as Christmas would be changed and it has. Hence, the importance of creating your own traditions. Hail Santa from Grains of Wrath might be the go-to. It's a strong beer, weighing in at a solid 7% ABV. It has everything you want in a winter warmer, the Christmas cookie taste. It also has a profile where you won't be putting down 6 of these in a sitting.

The beer of Christmas future again is a difficult call. I expect to still be living in Portland and as such, you don't know where the beer market is going to go. Remember a couple of years ago where every beer you drank was a hazy beer? Only a handful of breweries around here do red ales and/or winter warmers. Hell, I remember being able to see a Cascadian Dark Lager more often than not. The beer of Christmas future will need to be a little more thought out on my end as I create new traditions with my friends and family here in Oregon. Maybe that's trying to find a way to smuggle Flying Bison here or even having my own holiday classic contracted out. Hell, now that I have the room to do so, I can always create my own holiday concoction.   

Did You Know? Double Cheese Burger

 September 1st. It is a week out since Portland’s Burger Week. I’ve had enough time to digest the John Wayne amount of red meat in my colon. In its first iteration since 2019, thanks COVID, Portlanders returned to local restaurants to try their wares. Burger Week also gave me a chance to indulge and a chance to see something other than the inside of my house. 

Ever since arriving in Portland, Oregon in March 2015; I’ve tried to participate in as many of the Burger Week festivities as I humanly could. Each year, I try to outdo my previous year’s record. Previously, I would scribble down locations and offerings off of the Portland Mercury website into a Moleskine notebook.  I was living and working in Beaverton without access to a car, so I had to be strategic. The process included getting to public transportation, getting to a restaurant, waiting then scuttling off to the next location before it ran out of burgers or closed. HOW DID PEOPLE LIVE BACK THEN?! Each burger meant a notch on the burger belt. I evolved. I became a better connoisseur of burger meat. After establishing myself in my new city, I bought a car and was able to increase my hit rate, the On Burger Percentage. Switching jobs in 2017, I was able to walk to a location, two if I felt extra bold… spitting in the face of the “1-hour lunch” concept. Huffing and puffing, pouring burger sweat in the August sun in my quest to be the Burger King. Acquaintances and friends were both appalled and amazed about my dedication to the craft of American burger gluttony. 

The same can be said about beers. Early in my “career” I was consumed by having as many different brews as I could. Variety packs satiated this early on before the proliferation of breweries. I could get 4 kinds of Sam Adams within a 12 pack. When I would run out of new offerings in the local grocery store, there was always something new. Hell, when I travel, I plan out which breweries are accessible where I’m staying. Going to those breweries, getting a flight or two. Like Gretzky or Ovechkin, I was all about putting up points.

Since offices around the world closed up in March 2020, people’s routines are not what they used to be. People with families had to juggle their professional lives with their spouse’s or partner’s as well as making sure their kids weren’t goofing off while their teacher was trying to teach a class on Zoom. For me, I didn’t have that trouble. After a few months of my extended work-from-home program, I began to institute more routines. An early morning run, shower and sitting down at the computer to conduct business, jump on the Peloton and then head to the local townie watering hole and finish the nights with a few pops and dinner. Drifting away from my routines caused anxiety for me. If I didn’t start the day with some kind of physical activity, I would be drawn into my work without properly getting rid of the angst. Something is askew when I don’t put my laundry away after doing it. I am one of those people. My grandfather would shit a brick if laundry wasn’t done and put away on the same day, which was Sunday. Burger Week was controlled chaos. I had my work appointments and meetings, per routine. However, depending on the day, I could still get my morning workout and meetings done so that I could have a burger or two. I’d come home, finish my work for the day and then be able find my dinner burger. Not having a car again was a hindrance as it was totaled a few months ago while I was on vacation and someone ran into it. I was able to secure a car by taking my partner to work and hit 3 on the backend. 

Things like Burger Week and other festivals are important, now more than ever. When I was living in Buffalo, I had the best of both worlds. There were food events, like the Taste of Buffalo which happens in July, coupled with cultural festivals like the Italian festival, Polish Harvest festival and to some extent, Oktoberfest. East Coast cities are replete with these festivities, especially if that location is bigger. I’ve noticed that these can fizzle out as you cross the Mississippi River, moving west. In Portland, I could count on the Polish harvest festival, Serbianfest and the Greek festival. These were canceled in 2020 and except for the Serbianfest, are canceled in 2021. I was hoping they’d be back, because after a year and a half of half and full shutdowns, people needed to be in the sun and trying a Polish combo platter of globki, sausage and potato pancake. But the proper steps weren’t taken and it seems like we kind of took a step back. Maybe next year?

Now, here’s the beef!

Bar Bar's "The Encore Burger"

Boke Bowl's "Boke Vaxed Burger"

Bread & Ink's "Walla Walla Smash Burger"

Brunch Box's "Brunch Burger"

Haymaker's "Sgt. Poblano Pepper Lonely Artichoke Hearts Club"

Home, A Bar's "Jean Claude Van Wagyu" 

Loyal Legion's "Hello-peno"

Mad Greek Deli's "Papadopolous"

West Coast Grocery "Beer Cheese Pretzel Bun" burger

Yur's "Yur A Whizard!" 

Get Up in the Morning to Get Down

To you, the reader, this is just one entry in a blog post. To me, this is a tale of two weeks. Last week, I was lamenting about how my time-honored, post-work Friday beer that wasn't hitting the spot. This week, I'm looking forward to it if I can remember to drink it. What's changed? My perception of leisure and work.

What is my Friday routine? For almost 15 years, my work week has been Monday through Friday. I would always put in a solid workout right after work because I knew I was going to have a few beers. Sometimes, more than a few. Also, working out before doing anything is always nice because you get that pump - a little extra "feel good" juice. If I wanted to talk to a girl at a bar, confidence felt better from the workout rather than 3 IPAs. The mind just works better after a workout, in my opinion. Last weekend, I didn't start or end my day with a workout. I'm not sure what my rationale was, I just kind of laid in bed watching a YouTube video about people being shitty. Start your day with a bowl of Wheaties, not bowl of pessimism. I treaded water at work, feigning looking busy while still working at home. 

Recently, I began reading "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory" by David Graeber. Graeber was an anthropologist who discussed the existence of meaningless jobs and their harm to society and it kind of hit home. In his definition, "a bullshit job is a form of paid employment that is so completely pointless, unnecessary or pernicious that even the employee cannot justify its existence even though, as part of the conditions of employment, the employee feels obliged to pretend that this is not the case." I didn't get completely down on myself, cars break down and need mechanics. Software doesn't work and needs servicing as well. This still didn't allay my uneasiness. I felt adrift that week and haven't really done the things I enjoyed doing. 

My physical activity has vacillated recently, either going on runs or doing my Peloton program. Since someone totaled my car, I haven't been able to take my dog to the park on the weekends my partner is working. I started a Peloton program wherein I'm a member of a team and a certain amount of rides need to be done per week to earn points. I had a couple of runs this week and plan some for the weekend as well. I've been trying to keep my drinking at a moderate level and make sure that I'm eating better. I'm even considering John Joseph's discipline regime. If I'm thinking of going vegan, or at least a semblance of it should mean something!  My thinking is this: COVID brought light to the idea of personal health and mental wellness is important. If I can make healthier decisions, it's my hypothesis that my quality of life will improve. I'll let you know how that goes.

My job has become a little more easier now that some cases have been outsourced to a team in India. I have had more time to focus on certifications and training, which is good. It's just important for me to have a solid learning path instead of sitting through cold reads of sales material. If there's no plan, then I'm just letting my mind wander and wadding in the toxic waste dump that is social media. 

Bullshit Jobs made me focus on not just work, but active leisure. Here's a primer on the differences of active and passive leisure. Essentially, active leisure are activities that use mental or physical activity. Passive leisure is an activity like binging on Netflix. Both are fine, but I was really missing out on activity. This week, I purchased the Supporter version of Untappd. Untappd is an app I have used since 2013 to log all of the unique beers that I've had and where I drank them. With the Supporter profile, I was able to export that data to a spreadsheet and enter it into my SQL database. If you're like me, you can find out more about SQL here. Basically, I can query the database with criteria that I want to know. I can find out what beers I've had at a certain bar. This is fun for me. Also, updating this page after 6 months of activity. I enjoyed updating whomever cares to read this and I've always wanted to provide more content. More sights and sounds! 

Think about this as a service pack update and not a version release.