Bellefonte Brewing Collection

The benefits of "dog sitting" for the ones who truly love and get you.

Two weeks have past since I posted about the #beersaturday I spent dog sitting one of my "grand dogs", while his masters were away on a road trip.

The Best Beer in the World!

Well part of the road trip turned into an opportunity to visit my old man, who I shared a beer with in a brewery by his house. A tale I also shared on #beersaturday.

AWOL for one #beersaturday

I guess our little escape to the brewery made an impression on the old man because he insisted on sending a few of the local brews my way.

So for the next few weeks of #beersaturday I will be sharing The Bellefonte Collection consisting of an IPA, a Cream Ale and something called a Zoo Brew!

Tonight I am cracking open Small Wonder an IPA.

I broke out the fancy glass to hoist a beer in honor of my father, who cared enough to send beer from a distant land. I wax poetic. This week we celebrated Thanksgiving, a celebration and gathering I shared with the Mrs. @handofzara with our son and daughters along with their husbands.

For the first time in decades, I suppose, we, and by "we" I of course mean the lovely Mrs. @handofzara and myself did not host. Nope, after decades of picking the right turkey and cooking the day before and the day of, I had been relieved of duty.

The only cooking I did this Thanksgiving was to bake the bread. Yea the old @handofzara is a great cook. I can whip it up and serve it hot! And yet this year all I did was bake the bread, the night before and drove to my eldest daughters home.

I promise, I will get to the beer in just one second. This temporary delay is caused by one event that occurred during Thanksgiving Dinner. An event that struck me as rather profound.

After we had finished the main meal, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, salad, more stuffing, rolls, cranberries and then some more food, suddenly out of nowhere, my eyes began to close!

They say turkey can put you to sleep. And although in years past I usually took some sort of nap after dinner, I always believed that it was because I had been cooking all day.

But this Thanksgiving, I excused myself from the table, before the pumpkin pie had even been served and sat in a side room. And although the football game was on the television and my family remained laughing and enjoying themselves, I fell fast asleep.

Not for the rest of the night but just for 30 minutes of a power nap, which when I awoke became a great topic of laughter.

And then my profound moment struck me. See my father, my old man, used to excuse himself from the Thanksgiving table and sneak off to take a nap.

I have become my old man!

So tonight I raise my glass to my old man and to everyone's old man!

The best part of this profound moment, is that tonight on #beersaturday my old man sent a beer to this old man!

God bless.

I will see y'all next #beersaturday!

BEER NAME: Small Wonder
STYLE: IPA
ABV: 5%
BREWER: Bellefonte Brewing Co. of Wilmington Delaware
APPEARANCE: medium amber, pours with a small head and cloudy
AROMA: hops
TASTE: hops with mild citrus
MOUTHFEEL: medium body, light carbonation the bitters linger in the finish