This weeks craft beer #WCW is with one of my ride or die bitches Grace aka @yaybabyseals . Grace is a lover of funny YouTube videos, rescue cats, geology and most importantly craft beer. This past weekend Grace and her hubs visited us for a long weekend of brewery hopping. Since she was here in real life I decided to audio record my 20 WCW Craft Beer Questions. While you listen feel free to play the new drinking game “Drink Every Time Laura says ‘Alright'” You’ll surely be hammered by the end of this 10 minute interview…So turn up the volume and try not to judge us too much.
You can listen to it here or read the transcript below.
Transcript recorded Saturday, May 26, 2018
Laura- All right today is Wednesday and I’m doing a recorded Women Crush Wednesday. I feel a little weird about it so don’t judge me. Right now I’m gonna open up Shebeen Black Hop IPA and so while we’re drinking this my Woman Crush Wednesday for today is one of my bestest friends Grace Clifford. Alright, so what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna go through all of the 20 questions we usually go through and post on my blog. I’m gonna transcribe this and post on my blog too. But yeah so I wanted to try something new. Here we go.
Alright Grace… where are you from?
Grace– I am originally from Brookfield Connecticut and I now live in Danbury, Connecticut one town over.
L– Cool, so what is your favorite local beer?
G– That’s hard. Um, I would have to say my favorite local beer…oh man… is probably anything from Shebeen. Shebeen is my my new fave.
L– And that’s were drinking right now!
G– That is what we are drinking, well, what you’re drinking. I’m like cheating. I’m drinking a Mimosa. Whatever…whatever… haters gonna hate. Yes, I’ll probably drink anything from Shebeen Brewing which is located in Watertown, Connecticut.
L– Alright, so how long have you been loving the craft brews? How do you go from drinking like Natty Ice to craft beer?
G– I really got into decent beer when I was probably about a junior or senior in college. By that point I had a little bit more money because I’ve been working in the summer so I could stop drinking crappy beer. And so I started getting into the good beer scene probably right around then. And then it’s it’s gotten progressively more hard-core over the years especially since I started dating my now husband whose family is very much into beer.
L– Alright, what is your favorite style of beer?
G– I am definitely more of an ale, porter, stout kind of person. I really am not into saisons, sessions, sours. You know I know all that stuff is trendy now but it’s really just not my jam. I’m very picky about IPAs but there are some that I really do like. But in general I tend to go more for the darker… the darker beers.
L– You’re breaking my heart.
G– Sorry.
L– This is a hard question to ask you off the top your head but what are your top three favorite beers?
G– Oh that’s rough…
L– Or just any three favorite You don’t have to say your top.
G– Ok I have to think about this. I am actually a really big fan of Samuel Smith’s Taddy Porter. That’s just a good every day drinking beer for me… well maybe not every day but that’s a good one …even though it doesn’t necessarily tend towards the craft movement. I really enjoy… oh boy… I really enjoy Shebeen’s Baby Seal Dance Party even though it’s kind of off style for me in terms of what I typically appreciate. That’s definitely one of my newer favorites. Yeah that’s a hard question
L– What about… what’s the one from… with the seal on it that you love?
G– Oh Smuttynose! I like a lot of Smuttynose beers. I know they… I know they recently sold their brewery so I’ll be interested to see how their beers change or stay the same.
L– They did?!
G– I think…
L– To like InBev or Constellation or some shit?
G– I’m not sure…some crap like that yeah. But you know judge me if you want but I do like me a good pumpkin beer and Smuttynose makes a good one.
L– Yeah we actually have a 2014 imperial pumpkin ale [2014 Southern Tier Warlock] we found in the back of the fridge.
G– Oh God it’s probably going to be not too bueno right now.
L– What beer are you dying to try that you haven’t tried yet?
G– Beer I am dying to try? Hm despite the fact that I’m really not super into sours I would love to actually go to Hill Farmstead and try something there.
L– Well they have other stuff besides sours.
G– Yeah they do but I know their sours are kinda their bread and butter. But yeah I would love to actually go there and try something that I’ve never tried before from from them
L– Holy shit…so going back I just looked up Smuttynose sold only for $8 million…$8 million. “The Provident Bank was the winning bidder at Friday’s auction…” this is back in March… “held at the company’s 13 acre campus in Hampton, New Hampshire. The sale includes the Smuttynose beer brand, it’s facility and restaurant.” [Read from Boston.com article found here] For 8 million?!
G– Well we could’ve bought it.
L– Shit we could’ve gotten a bunch of people together and bought that shit.
G– We could stop doing the nonsense that we’re doing now.
L– Yeah we could have hung out in New Hampshire and drank and made beer. That was a missed opportunity…
G– Bummer
L– Alright what place have you been to that had the best beer scene?
G– I am really into the upstate New York beer scene right now. They are all lot of really good craft breweries opening up up there. West Kill Brewing in West Kill, New York way up in the Catskills is awesome. Um Suarez Family Brewing they’re in… gosh… I want to say they’re in… I can’t member the town… but yeah the upstate New York craft beer scene is really exploding and there a lot of people up there are brewing really really good beers.
L– Suarez Family Brewing is in Hudson.
G– Hudson that’s it!
L– Alright, what is your favorite brewery that you’ve visited?
G– I am going to have to go with West Kill. West Kill is a really cool spot. It’s in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the mountains with beautiful views. The owners are super cool and really nice people. They have I guess a family farm that, you know, they have taken part of and turn into their brewery and they opened a little tasting room that’s really cool, nice, rustic decor with a fireplace and stuff. It’s just a really low-key fun place to hang out and their beers are fantastic.
L– Nice I gotta go there.
G– Ya we’ll bring you.
L– So I think this is an easy one. I think I know what you’re gonna pick but I’m a sucker for a cute can. What do you think has the best can art?
G– Oh God well it’s got to be Baby Seal Dance Party yeah it’s the cutest thing ever and baby seals are my favorite animals so.
Kissing the can Grace got for me! From my insta @hopsandheart
L– It really is. Uh, what brewery are you most excited about? Like a new brewery…probably the one in Bethel?
G– Yeah Broken Symmetry in Bethel, Connecticut is really great. They opened up in the old train station and the owner…a part owner…she is one of our favorite local business proprietors. She owns two of our favorite restaurants in town and so she… she and another guy opened Broken Symmetry and they are making some good beers. They have yummy burritos. It’s a cool spot so I definitely am very excited for them. I think they’re going to do really well.
L– How do you preferred to drink beer? From the keg a cask, a can or a bottle?
G– I have to say probably keg first and then bottle.
L– Um besides beer what’s another favorite beverage?
G– I love a good single malt whiskey and here I am drinking a Mimosa. Good ol’ Mimosas and coffee yeah.
L– Any recommendations to read or listen or watch for a craft beer lover? A good movie or book or a magazine or blog or a podcast?
G– Well obviously I recommend Laura’s blog [Hopsandheart.com!] of course
L– Has social media helped you find out about new craft beers or um helped you share your love of craft beers?
G– It definitely has because I have a few friends that are huge on the beer scene and do a lot of posting on social media so a lot of the time like Mike [@darwinsdad] for example. So a lot of the time they’ll post something that, you know, maybe I’ve never seen before about a release for example the Baby Seal Dance Party release I found out about that um totally by accident. I think it was on Facebook so you know I’m definitely a big fan of checking Facebook and Instagram for people’s recommendations and following my friends who are into the beer scene
L– Yeah and where can we follow you on Instagram what is your Instagram handle
G– My Instagram handle is @yaybabyseals and I’m also on Untappd. I think I’m yaybabyseals there too.
L– Yeah cool alright thanks Grace.
G– Thanks Laura.
L– Cheers. Yes so after this we’re heading to Freewill tap room and then we’re going to go to Naked Brewing and then there’s some brewery by Naked Brewing but I don’t know what it is [it was Moss Mill and I liked it a lot!] But we’re just doing a PA or “Pennsy” if you will brewery hop so
G– A brewery hop haha
L– bye-bye!
G– bye-bye!
All pictures from the @yaybabyseals Instagram
hopsandheart 