In honor of the infamous barrel aged beer KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) by Founder's Brewing in Grand Rapids, Michigan and its annual release this week (also known as KBS Week) we are reaching for one here in Northern Wisconsin too! (This one just happens to be from the 2014 batch we were able to get our hands on).
As you may or may not know KBS really is the gold standard when it comes to barrel aged beer in the craft beer industry. Each year there is a mad rush to acquire a bottle or two, if you are lucky. Sadly it's not cheap either, normally about $9 or more a pop and after getting on a waiting list with select liquor stores but let me tell you.... IT. IS. WORTH. IT!
After aging this imperial coffee chocolate stout in the second largest bourbon cave system in America in the hallows of central Michigan with oak bourbon barrels a smooth and delicious brew has been created! At a hefty 11.2% ABV this bad boy is a sipper or even a great bottle to share with someone you love. Though we aged ours for about a year I am sure this one would be a great candidate to do a vertical yearly tasting with if say you were able to get your hands one one bottle for 5 years strait.
Hope you are able to get your hands on a bottle of this liquid gold and enjoy it as much as we have!
Just a quick update!! Life has been super crazy these days... been traveling like nuts for a combination of work, vacation and our photography business. It's certainly not a bad thing because I LOVE to travel but after after almost 2 weeks, 2 airplane rides, 1 rental car, a couple of time hops, a time change & 4 hotels it feels good to finally be home!
There are so many awesome photos and stories from our adventures I can't wait to share in the coming weeks but in the mean time enjoy a shot of Auggie's little face... we missed this fur ball tons while we were gone and I think she missed us too!
We are pretty lucky to travel quite a bit for Fornear Photo and when we do we always try to pick up local beer to try. About a year and a half ago we made a trip to St.Louis with clients for a Cub vs Cardinal game (us Cub fans them Cardinals... for you Wisconsinites, our Cubbie love is a story for another day!) Anywho, while we were there like always we stopped at a few local stores and got some locally brewed beer. When we got home we squirreled away our beer in the basement and then poof.... a year and a half went by!
Now some beer isn't exactly meant for this kind of aging and I suspect this beer may have been one of them as we should have inspected the style and ABV a bit more closely but I am happy to say that when we popped the top the Contact High still was full of carbonation and foam... always a good sign! This bright and uniquely described American Pale Wheat Ale brewed with orange zest smells of fresh, green hops and has a mild wheat flavor with just a hint of the orange on the back end (I am afraid this is what we might have lost for aging it as long a we did sadly.) With an easy drinking 5% ABV I can't wait to try this beer again when it's fresh... preferably at the brewery! ;-)
Until we picked up this beer we had never head of 4 Hands Brewing out of St.Louis, MO but I am really glad we did! They not only have awesome packaging design but also great beer and I have read some amazing things about their other barrel aged beers so cheers to new beer!!
*** Side note, shout out to my husband husband Matt! Today is his birthday and he always does such an amazing job doing all of the photography for My Northwoods Life! We are headed to Las Vegas this weekend for the annual WPPI (international wedding photographers convention) so expect lots of fun posts on Instagram and some more formal ones on here when we get back!!
I have to say I am really excited about this post! First, we haven't shot a beer in awhile... that doesn't mean we haven't had any in the mean time, just no time to photograph them, ha! Secondly, I have been waiting to try a beer from Upper Hand Brewing for awhile so there is that too. I read about Upper Hand when it was in the development stages a few years back as it is an extension of one of our favorite breweries, Bells Brewing, that would be entirely based in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan brewing their own beer with their own unique identity.
Production began less than a year ago in 2014 out of Escanaba, MI. When I crossed over into the U.P. for work last week I was REALLY excited to find all three of the styles they are currently producing. We tried their Escanaba Black Beer last week and it was quite tasty, today we are featuring their UPA.
The UPA surprised me a bit. Like many breweries do from time to time I was assuming (my bad) that Upper Hand was doing a play on a pale ale name but I was wrong yet pleasantly surprised. This very mellow beer was a bit maltier than I expected (not in a bad way) finishing with a nice balanced hop character. Overall we really enjoyed this beer and at very drinkable 5.5% abv many more could be enjoyed! Sadly, I only picked up one of each style in my mix n' match but I am excited for the next time I am in the U.P to get more!
So if you follow me on Instagram the "cat is out of the bag".... (ok bad pun sorry guys but I just had to!) and I haven't blogged about it until now so..... I suppose I am making it "blogging" official that I am a kitty mama! If you would have told us a year ago or even six months ago we would would EVER have a cat I would have laughed in your face and said a very flat "hell no"! Most of this anti cat talk really derives from two places.... 1- we never had a cat growing up always dogs so I wouldn't even know the first thing about one and 2- my husband is deathly allergic (as is most of his family), as in he will sneeze his head off for about 24hrs within any contact. After hearing that I am sure you are still wondering how it came to be that we have a cat. Well, here is our story!
For some reason I remember the date very well, it was August 15th. We had went out for dinner and we arrived home in the dark to see a shadow of something sitting on our door step, which turned out to be a cat. The cat didn't get spooked, in fact wanted to come greet us. She was so friendly I just had a feeling she must be someone's pet so we brought her in our garage to see if we could locate her owners. After a few pets on the head Matt started sneezing like crazy and had to go in the house away from her. I started right away trying to reach out to people via Facebook, our neighbors, the local animal shelter and animal control person in our township but nothing.
She seriously is the sweetest cat ever and as an animal lover I had a really tough time putting her back out. So for the next week or so I would leave food and water outside and visit with her constantly. Slowly we started letting her in our garage at night so nothing would "get" her (we live in the Northwoods after all!) During this time she was growing on Matt and surprisingly his allergy symptoms were slowly going away too (and now have entirely subsided)!
Finally a little over a month had passed when I took a girls trip with my mom and sisters for the weekend leaving Matt home with the kitty (that we had since named Auggie, short for August when she "arrived" to us) and he, the allergic one brought her into the house so he would have company and so she wouldn't be cold.... and that folks is how we have come to have a cat!
Since our boxer Giada passed this spring our house felt really lonely and not the same to the point Matt and I would both remark to each other from time to time about it but now it feels whole again. It has certainly been a learning curve having a cat there is no doubt. One of the craziest things is that Auggie's personality is SO much like our pup Giada's was it's almost creep at times, like she has a bit of her spirit with her. Its funny too but several people have said to us about the finickiness of cats and that if they like you they "pick" their humans and I would more than have to agree in this case!
Credits | Author: Krista & Photography: Fornear Photo
I will never forget where I was when I first heard a Joy Division song.... it was in fact Atrocity Exhibition this very first song on Closer. I was in a record store hunting for albums and I just couldn't get over how it seemed both new and completely familiar to me all at the same time, something I knew I would have to have in our collection.
If you are a music lover you most likely have this in your collection, in fact it is listed in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Though none of the songs besides Isolation were really breakout hits from the album itself if you play this record from start to finish it is a masterpiece of work. Really, it isn't even a question. Not to advocate CD's but the 2007 remastered work does include a song by Joy Division that everyone is certain to know... Love Will Tear Us Apart.
The haunting sounds of this album is a tribute to the late Ian Curtis who sadly committed suicide two months prior to Closer's release. Like me, when you hear Joy Division and it sounds familiar, there is a reason for that. After Ian's passing the remaining members went onto form the wildly successful 80's band New Order. It's funny when I am in a mellow or melancholy type of mood this is EXACTLY what I want to listen to, so if you find yourself in that mood on occasion this album might be the thing for you too!
Credits | Author: Krista & Photography: Fornear Photo
I could be wrong but I don't know how you could have been a teenager in the 90's and not listen to Alice in Chains, especially the album Jar of Flies. I guess my age is really starting to show when I can remember this playing on MTV and now thinking how in the hell is this record over 20 years old! I mean where did the time go!?
Jar of Flies was the release by Alice in Chains in 1993. An interesting fact I recently read about this album was it actually was never intended to be released at all. That just simply blows my mind! Written and recorded in just one week this Grammy nominated and has since been certified triple platinum.
Part of what we all know now as the grunge scene Alice in Chains too were from Seattle and with songs from Jar of Flies like No Excuses, I Stay Away and Don't Follow cemented them forever as one of the best and most well known bands of this era. Sadly with the passing of Layne Staley the music that Alice in Chains could have went onto make was not meant to be but for a brief period of time we were graced with some pretty amazing music that will live on forever!
Credits | Author: Krista & Photography: Fornear Photo
