A great fall day here in Montana ... 22C in Yellowstone .... which is in Wyoming ... where I was ... 30C in the lower elevations on the way back ... but it's a dry heat .... right.
While in the park I met a couple from Windsor, Ontario .. I started exchanging views about the Yellowstone experience ... I summarized it by saying they had taken the wild out of wilderness and it was like a drive-through zoo ... and then having said that .... I think that was the way I was feeling yesterday without being to articulate it properly.
I am not running down Yellowstone ... I will return and hopefully spend a week in here in a future fall of the year ... I am just saying this is not a true wilderness experience .... it's one that has been sanitized and bleached ... like flour and sugar ... but you know .... it's like pizza ... when it's good, it's great .... when it's not ... it's still good!
I am not sure the true wilderness experience I am thinking about still exists ... maybe Alaska ... maybe Mongolia .... maybe the Outback in Australia ... maybe at The Black Horse Pub in Peterborough ... I mean take a look at those folks on the home page ....
Gradually though, wilderness areas are being lost .... grab it while you can ... enough said.
On the way back from the park, I stopped in to the Montana Ale Works and noticed they had 4 IPAs on tap ... folks ... this is one of the last real world wilderness experiences you can have ... so I dove in.
I am not sure why, but in the NW states, they make some of my favourite IPAs ... big, monstrous beverages having a high alcohol content, yet tasting like a sophisticated barley wine, but bursting with Cascade Hop flavour and bitterness ... the 'hoppier' the better ... so here we go...
First up was a Bent Nail IPA ... it had a great 'tea' colour and a bitterness that I like in an IPA ... it was light and had a definite fruit flavour in there with the hops ... I really liked it ... A LOT!!!!
Next in line was a Blackfoot River IPA .... it had a colour that I would normally associate with a wheat beer ... leaning towards orange ... it had the IPA bitterness but yet was balanced with a floral nose and a citrus flavour ... 3 or 4 litres of this on a hot day would be welcome ... DELICIOUS!!!
Third to the bar .... Hopjuice Imperial IPA ... I think this brew is maybe made by other folks right now ... not as advertised in the link .. it was a sweeter brew ... meaning higher alcohol ... it had that darker tea colour ... not as hoppy as I would like ... I did enjoy it but it didn't hold up against the first two ...
Last ... and definitely not least ... Bitterroot Imperial IPA .... again an IPA that has a wheat beer look ... very orange in colour .. citrusy, fruity .... very good! It has a great bitterness on the palette but the finish is all fruit/citrus ... Belgium meets IPA ... my favourite of the four.
I am heading for the left coast tomorrow ... we'll see if the 'watcher' has something in store .... there was a sign today though .... literally ...
More later,
Forever Man
Speaking of birds and traveling to the left coast ...
Check this out ...
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