Sunday, June 06, 2010

Philly Beer Week 2010: Day 2 Wrap-Up

No Day 2 Pictures, sorry...check back tomorrow for more.

Link back to Day 1 ----- Link forward to Day 3

Allow my lesson learned on Friday (or, Saturday morning) to be a lesson for all of you savages as you strive to make your through Philly Beer Week 2010.

In this warmer weather, there is no such thing as being too well hydrated.

Even given my 1/2 gallon of water consumed during the day at my office desk on Friday....given four glasses of water with my dinner and two beers....a small bit of water at Opening Tap, one at Varga, and one at Bridgewater's Pub at 30th Street Station. Even one 20-ounce glass before bed was not enough.

Over six hours, I did not drink to excess though half the beers I had were higher in alcohol than your typical session-y type of beer. But, an assessment of my personal condition during the night said I was doing pretty well. The train ride and subsequent short drive home all went fine....dogs let out, etc. All signs pointed to a great Saturday follow-up.

Then, Saturday happened. It wasn't a sickening type of hangover, it was a complete lack of energy type of hangover. Absolutely no energy to do anything but to stare at the TV and take a nap. And a headache of fluctuating and wandering knocks around my noggin.

So, that meant....

...no Wheat Beer Brunch or Laughing Like Lew at Grey Lodge Pub ...no stop-ins at any other city-based events during the afternoon ...no suburban join-in during the Phoenixville Pub Crawl

What I did when I finally shook out all of the cobwebs and loaded up on a few bits of energy was go to a backyard bachelor party where Belgians, not babes, were the focal point of the sendoff for the groom-to-be.

I spent a few hours with some great beer folk, one of whom has just returned from more than a couple of years working in Europe. You may recall me linking to his blog of words and pictures of his and his wife's beer excursions across Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Italy, England, Switzerland, and Germany.

So while I didn't do anything specifically on the PBW calendar, I closed out my Day 2 with a night of rare and special Belgian beers brought back from the source. Lambics, Saisons, and the like dominated and that turned out to be just fine given my condition.

Let this be a lesson to us all: As your PBW goes along this week, always make sure that you're matching each beer with a glass/bottle of water. You'll thank yourself later for it (plus, you'll look like a more experienced beer drinker to your bartender).

Cheers...

3 comments:

Dave said...

Stopped in Slyfox on Sat. for P-ville pub crawl, got a chance to tell Brian as Joe consumer I give the callaborated effort known as BS1 two thumbs up. Great ESB!He then showed me his niked up finger where Mr.Mayor's not so glorious hammer strike missed the mark a bit. Mission accomplished none the less.

Rebecca Stephens said...

maybe you didn't eat enough? I too was hungover Saturday morning! I find constant, smart snacking works well when dealing with many events in a row.

John Doherty said...

Bryan,

I hear you about drinking water and plenty of it.

Glad I caught up with you at City Tap House last night for that wonderful Abyss! WOW what a beer!