Tampa Bay Brewing Co. Old Elephant Foot IPA
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| Tampa Bay Brewing Old Elephant Foot IPA |
There is always lots
to do to keep the garden at El Paraiso looking nice. Leny, my mother in law, does a wonderful job
keeping the garden watered and the flowers and bushes trimmed. But she is 76 years old and recently had a
heart bypass, so she cannot do any lifting or mowing or weed eating.
Fortunately, our growing copywriting business allows us to
work from home and to work hours that to many would be unconventional. Instead
of commuting we walk for 40 minutes or so in the morning and ride our bikes for
about the same time in the late afternoon.
We tend to work in the business at weekends and take days off during the
week to work in the garden or go shopping when grocery stores are quieter or go
to the beach where we can more easily find a place to park.
We spent Friday morning and several prior days researching
and writing articles for two web companies belonging to Verified label, Print and Promotions Inc.
We sent the articles off to the owner of
Verified, breathed a huge sigh of relief that we’d finished our first
assignment, then broke for lunch.
The afternoon sun was intermittently hiding behind white
fluffy clouds when we decided to call it a day and do some work in the garden. The grass needed mowing and edging and we
wanted to move the outside table to a place on the lawn that was more in the
shade from a couple of the deciduous trees that had recently reacquired leaves.
It’s worth noting that we have around 2/5 of an acre (+/-
17,000 square feet) of grass, that we cut using a walk behind gas powered
mower. The grass has lots of flower beds
in the middle and along the sides, so there’s a lot of twisting and turning of
the mower, even though it’s basically driving itself. There is also lots of edging to be done with
the trimmer. The complete operation
takes the two of us over three hours and it is great exercise.
We have developed a routine where Patricia does the mowing
and I do the edging and help her with the grass and leaf clippings that collect
in the bag behind the mower. We use
these clippings as mulch in the garden and it works very well as a weed barrier
and fertilizer.
And off we went.
Mowing and edging and emptying the grass catcher while keeping a wide
berth around the Plumbago bush where the Cardinals had built a nest. Two chicks had hatched yesterday and were
being fed by their proud mother. Needless
to say, as the sunk slowly in the west and the shadows got longer our weariness
started to show and we were grateful to reach the end of the project and put
the mower and edger back in their places in the shed.
We were hot and sweaty and needed something to slake our
thirst and put the iron back into our blood.
Bad planning on my part had left us with one four-pack of beer in the ‘fridge,
Old Elephant Foot IPA, brewed and canned by Tampa Bay Brewing Company. So
this was the beer we were going to drink.
The beer in the glass has a lovely light brown color with no
hint of cloudiness. The first taste
knocks you back in your chair. This is a
serious beer for serious beer drinkers, it’s not a beer to be taken lightly or
frivolously, nor is it a beer to be chugged to slake a thirst. As I felt my throat constrict at the
sharpness of the hop taste I took a look at the can and read the description.
“Old Elephant Foot IPA has been brewed by the Doble family
since 1993. Throughout the 90’s many
people referred to this beer as over hopped and out of style; todays it is
known as west coast style IPA. Cheers!” and on the front of the can “alc 7% by
Vol. 80 IBU. DraftBeerToYourFace.com”
The IBU provides
a measure of the bitterness of a beer.
Generally speaking, a high IBU number means a beer is more bitter to
taste than a beer with a low IBU number.
I say ‘generally’ because the bitter taste in beer is also affected by
the quantity of malt used, but in most cases high IBU = a well hopped bitter
beer.
For this particular occasion Old Elephant Foot IPA was not
the best choice of beer. We found a way
to improve our enjoyment of the beer and to savor the full flavor of the hops
and the malt. We mixed the beer 50/50
with La Croix lemon flavor sparkling water.
That did the trick. If fact we
liked it so much we finished all four cans mixed 50/50 with the water while we
sat at the table in its new place on the lawn and watched the birds and the
ducks having their supper.
Life is good.
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