Women’s Day with Beer Babes!
Last week was absolutely amazing and I am just now getting a minute to sit down and tell you about it. I happened to be in Orlando, Florida for a work conference. The conference was great, and I met so many wonderful people and learned so much! I also gave my own presentation, which won first place in its category. Needless to say, things could have ended there and I would have been perfectly happy. However, the icing on the cupcake of my week was Wednesday night, also International Women’s Day. I had one free night while I was in town and the stars aligned for me to meet up with Emily (of @emily_needs_sunglasses).
Broken Strings
I grabbed another Brew Flower buddy, Poppy (better don’t give me hoppy), who happened to be in town as well and we met up with Emily at the Broken Strings Brewery. Broken Strings had a great atmosphere. It was comfortable, like hanging out in your friend’s garage who also happens to have the best music and beers. I tried Emily’s favorite beer, Liquid Vinyl, which is a black IPA (7% ABV and 70 IBU). This was about the fourth black IPA I have ever tried, and it was delicious! Poppy tried their Guavamente (6% ABV and 20 IBU), which was a guava mojito sour! I had to try a sip of this one and the mint really made this brew pop! We also all “rolled the dice,” meaning we rolled a twelve-sided die to select which beer we would be doing a shot of. I feel like I got lucky rolling a 9, which was the Sunshine In A Bag DIPA (9% ABV and 60 IBU). This beer did taste like sunshine with a sweet fruity grape-punch, likely coming from the Phantasm Powder and Nelson Sauvin hops. I honestly would have loved to have spent more time at this brewery. I hope I make a trip back soon!
Ivanhoe!
Next up was Ivanhoe Park Brewing Co. This stop came with a super sweet surprise! We also were meeting up with Rebecca (@fl_girl_livins_easy) and Steph (@heythere.itssteph)! Emily was actually the first ever Beerstagram friend I’ve met in person, so I was absolutely floored to meet two more! We tried the Bold Red Lip (6.9% ABV) a Hoppy Red Ale that Rebecca helped brew and was released for International Women's Day! It was brewed in collaboration with the Pink Boots Society. This beer has a lot of great flavors working together. I tasted a slight woody note alongside grape and plum. You also get a nice bite of hops on the end. I definitely grabbed a four pack to bring home!
GB’s
Our last stop was GB’s Bottle Shop and Tasting Bar. I had the Le Seul X (6.5% ABV), a Passionfruit Wild Ale from the Une Année Brewery. It was sweet and funky and everything I like in a fruited sour. There we also grabbed dinner from Cholo Dogs. Poppy and I tried the El Borracho, which was a Nathan’s hot dog topped with Mexican street corn, cotija cheese, cilantro, and tajin. It was AMAZING! By far the best hot dog I have ever had!
It was such an amazing night. I do wish my energy was up, but I was unfortunately pretty zapped form the conference. Regardless it was amazing to meet Emily, Rebecca, and Steph. I love how beer may have been the conversation starter, but we really had so much in common and to talk about from work to movies, books, and video games.
I can’t think of a better way to toast Women’s day than with these great women!
