With Kimberly in Minneapolis for the AANA national convention, Chris, Sam, and Maxie traveled northward with all the brew equipment loaded in the Jeep. (Maxie of course filling her requirement of sitting on the highest peak possible.)
Lunch at Rustico in Alexandria fit the bill for some tasty grub and a great selection of craft beer. De Ranke XX Bitter and a Bluegrass Brewing Co. Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout were consumed heartily by your faithful blogger. The BBC was served a smidge too cold, so it took a bit for the bourbon flair to rear its head, and the Belgian IPA was a winner as usual. Sadly, the point of even going was to get a pizza, but the damn waitress offered up a softshell crab sandwich that she described as delicious, so Chris bit...and instantly had buyer's remorse. I mean, come on, the duck confit pizza there ROCKS. At least James ordered one. But next time...
Smoke from the meat smoker, and steam from the brew kettle. Ahhhhh....
The NC-VA collaboration brew was completed, with a mere 2 hours between transfer to the primary fermenter and a bubbling, airlock-ticking fermentation. TWO HOURS! So, so sweet. Indeed, quite the vigorous fermentation with all the accompanied "Jupiter clouds" swirling about in a tsunami of hops and yeast floaties. Sadly, in a raging fit of obvious stupidity or patent drunkenness, no actual photos of the rusty gold brew in the carboy were taken. Your humble blogger apologizes immensely.
A wide variety of meats were smoked during the brewday: boneless chicken thighs, ribs, and some sort of pork loin. Between the smoker and the brewing, the Brannon backyard smelled abso-frickin-lutely divine. It was a gorgeous Northern Virginia day, with no humidity to speak of. The Sweetwater growlers were dispatched with utmost haste, as were growlers of Chris's Carolinian Smoked Porter concoction. It worked out well to carbonate some Carolinian Smoked Porter in the empty Sweetwater growlers Chris had to return anyway, so why not return them with beer enclosed? Seems ideal.
For a trip into DC, a visit to the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery was the destination. Visiting exhibitions included "Ballyhoo! Posters as Portraiture", a nifty collection of movie posters, election posters, and general poster mania; and "Herblock's Presidents: Puncturing Pomposity", a collection of political cartoonist Herb Block's critical work from FDR to Clinton; and finally "Recognize!: Hip-Hop and Contemporary Portraiture", with photos and paintings of current and "old school" hip-hop artists. There was a required LL Cool J sighting, but sadly, not one visage of Q-Tip. Damn.
Then it was a viewing of all portraits historical, to appease the nerd in Chris. Presidential portraits, revolutionary war portraits, just general historical portraits. James sadly had to withstand a mini-rant from Chris where the portraits of Revolutionary War figures Henry Knox, Horatio Gates, and William Moultrie were displayed, yet no framed countenance of General Nathanael Greene. James was a good sport in dealing with the mini-rage, and consequently mentioned that Greene's portrait would in fact be displayed in the very next room...no matter what the topic or era. Grrrr....
Also in DC was a trip to the National Museum of Crime and Punishment, a homage to all things criminal and the justice that is served them. Bonnie and Clyde's bullet-riddled 1934 automobile was a treat. As was the goofy picture taken with the heat-seeking video camera in the forensics portion. It was a pretty good tour, but like the International Spy Museum, it is not free with an $18 entry fee. A good 3 hours was spent there observing crimes and punishments from medieval times to today.
In addition to Rustico, the gastronomic portion of the trip was covered by breakfast (again) at the Lincoln Waffle House, and then a return trip to the famous Ben's Chili Bowl, which on August 22 will be celebrating their FIFTIETH anniversary of serving the finest chili, chili-burgers, chili-dogs, and half-smokes in the land. Deeeeeee-licious. A chili-cheeseburger with potato salad was ordered by your faithful blogger and consumed in a rather messy fashion with wild abandon. It's like heroin. It's that good.
The trip concluded with some bocce next door to the Brannons with Chris, James, Paul, and Dave throwing throughout the sprinkles. Sadly, Dave and Chris won the first match but lost the final two to James and Paul. I think it was Dave's devotion to Coors Light rather than the growlers of Sweetwater beer that led to our downfall. Afterward, it was the 4 & 1/2 hour drive back home and back to reality. Another successful Alexandria and DC trip under the belt. 
And in 5 or 6 weeks, some bottles and maybe a growler or two of "Joe Jackson Tripel" will be available for consumption. (Shoeless Joe hit a lot of triples, and his outfield play earned him the nickname "Where triples go to die", and the name of the Belgian brew is "tripel", so you can follow along with the nomenclature.....)In closing, one of the niftiest displays at the National Portrait Gallery (and available on a t-shirt, another one of Chris's addictions...come on, Kimberly, we get 20% off in the gift shops for being Smithsonian contributing donors!) is the following. Click it to enlarge it and read the plates. Awesome:
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