This week I'd like to give a shout out to Ninkasi Brewing Company. If you ever find yourself in Duckburg (Eugene), Oregon and you love beer, YOU MUST try their FREE tour with a complimentary 5+ beer tasting (Thursdays @ 1pm). Book online. Wear close toed shoes. We spent the first five minutes of the tour waiting for some wedge sandeled idiot to strut back to her car and change her shoes. While everyone else sat basking in the sunlight at a picnic table hearing the backstory of the brewery founders, I clung to a wall like a gecko for the only 6 inches of shade anywhere, trying not to let my skin sizzle like one of the Dark Seekers in I Am Legend. But other than that, it was a glorious experience.
Their facility is quite large. Biggest game in town. The tour guide was so friendly and informative (Ninkasi is the Sumerian goddess of beer). He turned me on to this Discovery Channel documentary, "How Beer Saved the World." If you have 43 minutes (no commercials!) and love beer, I think you'll enjoy this.
https://vimeo.com/23278902
Ninkasi's flagship is Total Domination IPA 6.7% ABV 65 IBU $10 per 6 pack
I remember the first time I tasted it this past summer. I was taking my English husband to his first county fair...
I hadn't been to one in a long while, but grew up going to them. As a kid my favorite part was looking at all the livestock, seeing who had won the blue ribbons. I loved petting the sheep after they'd been shorn, the cows, the pigs, the rabbits, the chickens. I loved eating corn dogs and whipping fudge, going on the rides Octopus and Zipper. My dance studio had us performing every night. It was awesome. Then.
Since then I've been exploring Buddhism. Suddenly I'm very aware of and sensitive to suffering. I feel the life force of EVERYTHING (I have a spider relocation program). This time at the fair, in all the livestock pens and cages, I saw how much all the animals were suffering. Except for the goats. They were happy. Probably because we don't eat them in our culture, we just keep them around for lawn mowing and cheese. But everything else was miserable. Being in those cages for DAYS. Auctioned off for food. The blue ribbon thing suddenly looked like the most sick and twisted beauty pageant ever.
As I was petting a baby dairy cow who looked exactly like Norman from City Slickers, a few big bulls came out of the judging ring. The blue ribboned bull was beautiful. Huge. Muscular. Intimidating. After he was chained up in his stall, he sat down and looked away from everyone. The crowd dispersed and I walked up next to him. He turned his head to me as much as he could (he had a large, painful looking ring through his nose chained to his stall). I looked into his eye and could not believe the suffering I saw. He was going to spend the rest of his days in a field fucking and making little baby cows, going off to live the American human male dream, but it wasn't worth this agony. He looked back at me and actually stood up. I wanted to cry.
"Look what they've done to you! This is barbaric. I am SO sorry." My chest started to hurt. "I promise, from this day forth, I will never harm another animal again." He said nothing back to me, but it was a conversation I will never forget. His pain was excruciating.
OK so the point of this whole story was after my life changing moment with Mr. Bull, we went outside. My husband was a little taken aback by what he had just seen. I was overwhelmed and desperately needed a chair in the shade and a beer in my hand. My baby faced 28 year old husband forgot his ID so I braved the sun and headed for the beer tent. I asked the nice tattooed dread locked white lady straight out of Portlandia if she had any IPAs. "This one." She pointed to Ninkasi. "It's local. It's their flagship."
Local? IPA? FLAGSHIP? (I love that word) I'll take it!! She poured me a recycled plastic cup full. I took several large gulps. It was SO REFRESHING. Absolutely delicious. Strong floral aroma and bold fruity taste...specifically nectarine. The much welcome buzz helped dull my very raw senses. I sat down next to my hubby. "I never really believed in your witchy powers until just now. You actually communicated with that bull." "I never realized how cruel our farming practices are. I promised him I would stop eating beef and that I would never harm another animal again."
I couldn't keep my promise right away...or completely. After I finished my beer I promptly went to the corn dog stand and devoured one (never again). Over the next month I had 2 beef burgers, 1 pork burrito bowl at Chipotle, some Costco rotisserie chickens, but then completely switched to a Mediterranean Pescaterian (Vegetarian with Fish) diet. I wish I could live on a vegan diet (tried 3 times), but that's not a good idea for bipolar bears. We need animal protein for our brains that can sometimes be like Audrey 2 in Little Shop of Horrors. The only creatures I eat now are wild caught seafood (I'm actually going to learn how to fly fish!). No farm raised anything. I fully accept that I will be reincarnated as an Alaskan salmon. I was a bear in a former life, so I deserve it. It must really suck to be a salmon.
So that's the story of how I discovered Ninkasi Total Domination IPA...and why I stopped eating creatures with feet forever. Flippers only.
Stay away from the whipping fudge.
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