April showers bring May flowers, right? We’re almost heading into summer here in Austin and wanted to bring you a recap of our adventures in April. Enjoy!

Travel

Baltimore & Northern VA

Hello East Coast! This month, Germaine and S (her boyfriend) traveled to Baltimore to visit her sister and check out Charm City. There is so much more to Baltimore than the touristy Inner Harbor and we spent a few wonderful days checking out the different neighborhoods in search of good seafood and beer! We even managed to squeeze in some morning workouts at Under Armour HQ to offset those beer calories.

Of Love & Regret Pub & Provisions, was hands down Germaine’s favorite spot. Located across the water in Canton walking distance from Brewer’s Hill, OLAR is gypsy brewer Stillwater Artisanal’s unofficial taproom. Stepping down into the cave like tavern style pub and seeing the 20 taps on the wall, we knew we would be there for awhile. Having never had Stillwater’s beers before, we excitedly worked our way down the draught list. They do not offer flights but do offer half pours at half price. The current offerings were largely sour forward and as a sour beer lover, Germaine was in heaven! Her favorites were Tropic Punch, Syrlight and Money Tree$. Do not be deterred if you are not a fan of sours, there are other options and they also have an excellent cocktail program and offer a big selection of Scotch. INSIDER TIP ALERT! Make sure you head up to the 2nd floor to check out their little “bottle shop”, they offer a Match the Draft discount for bottles to go which we definitely took advantage of!

The brewery we were most excited to visit was Diamondback Brewing Company. Located in a historic building at the base of a 100-year old smoke stack, they largely specialize in IPAs that lean toward the hazy, juicy NE IPA style and we were looking forward to drinking some freshies! When we visited, they had 3 IPAs; Green Machine, Jam Band and TPS Report. And a Pale Ale; Omar, on tap. They were all delicious but Jam Band, a session IPA was our favorite. It packed so much flavor yet was still light and crushable. We must have had at least 2 pints each! Diamondback definitely lived up to our expectations and we were so disappointed that they did not have any cans for purchase. If you ever find yourself in Baltimore do not miss this small brewery! The location is a bit hard to find but just follow the smokestack to beer heaven.

While in Baltimore, we decided to take a day trip out to Northern Virginia to check out some breweries with a friend. Loudon County in NoVA has started to make quite a name for itself as a wine and beer destination. We were surprised to find out that there are over 20 breweries located on what is affectionately known as the LoCo Ale Trail (https://www.visitloudoun.org/things-to-do/loco-ale-trail/).

For our little outing, we stopped by Crooked Run Brewery, Aslin Beer Company, Ocelot Brewing Company and Lost Rhino Brewing Company. Lots of flights were consumed and the standout beers for Germaine were; Noriega, a triple IPA w/ Pineapple from Crooked Run, Here Kitty Kitty, a RIS from Ocelot collab with J. Wakefield, Megaton Maple, a maple stout also from Ocelot and Alphabrett, a barrel aged sour brown with Brett from Lost Rhino. If you live in the DC metro area, let us know if you have checked out the LoCo Ale Trail and which breweries are your favorite.

Embroidery Projects

Our #cozybluestitchclub pattern for the month, Flower Patch, was an intense piece stitched primarily with two pretty but very time-consuming stitches. Satin stitch was used for the flowers and the green border. And colonial knots were used to fill in the patch. While this hoop seemed to take forever to complete, the end result was beautiful. Love the texture from the knots and the smooth fill from the satin.

This month Cheryl also completed a custom embroidery
hoop as a gift for her sister-in-law’s bridal shower! There are so many beautiful templates available online that can be easily transferred and customized to make special handmade gifts (lots are available for free too!). Check out our Pinterest board for tips on transfer methods and to see which templates we love and are inspired by.

 

Barks for Beer Giveaway + Winners

As both beer lovers and dog lovers, our favorite event of the year is Divine Canines Barks for Beers! We have participated in this wonderful event for the past two years and were thrilled when the opportunity came up to partner with them to giveaway two glasses/pawsports. Also our first giveaway, so double the excitement!

Congratulations again to our winners and a huge shout out to all who entered! Hope everyone has been busy conquering all 30 breweries and getting your pawsports stamped, we have loved running into fellow B4B-ers during our brewery visits!

Dogfish Head Bottle Share

Our monthly bottle share this time around featured all beers from our beloved Dogfish Head Brewing in honor of Record Store Day and their special seasonal, Beer To Drink Music To. We enjoyed 17 different DFH beers including a 12, 13, and 15 120 Minute IPA to finish off the “Minute” IPA vertical, as well as a 12, 13, and 15 Mile’s Davis Bitches Brew. Of course we listened to many great records while sipping these fines beers! Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and many others serenaded us through the night. Among the bottles enjoyed were 10 Caution Caps and 8 Pink Caps. Pretty impressive if we do say so ourselves!

Fitness

21 Day EmFit Superhero Challenge

Sometime in March, Kimberly decided to take part in a 21 Day challenge that Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and CrossFit coach Emily Schromm put together. This decision stemmed from the realization that what she was eating was negatively affecting the way she felt and she was frustrated because it seemed like there may have been other factors working against her.

The challenge started on April 2 and the premise was simple – don’t consume sugar, gluten, alcohol 😢, or bad oils; drink about half your weight in water each day and exercise for at least 15 minutes daily. The best thing was that there was an optional meal plan which made choosing the meals to eat even easier for Kimberly. Every day Emily would email the participants in the morning with a video message based on a health, nutrition, fitness and/or recovery topic to learn about and every other day she would give them a workout to do. She also encouraged people to partner up and check in with each other every day for help and support. The community surrounding the challenge was inspiring. There’s a whole Facebook group that consists of people who were both current and past participants there to give advice and answer other questions prior may have had!

Overall, the challenge was very refreshing, Kimberly had good willpower but broke the rules once or twice. The biggest benefit was getting down to the basics of eating clean to properly nourish the body and forming lasting habits of being healthy.

The Color Run

Early one Saturday morning, Cheryl and Kimberly traveled out to East Austin to participate in The Color Run. This was like no other 5k they had run before. There wasn’t a drop of competition in the air. Everyone went out there to simply have fun. They participated in Zumba for a warm-up before crowding into the gates with what seemed like millions of people and inched forward every few minutes. The girls finally got to the front of the gates where they were able to see what was going on.

Before they knew it, the starting tape was dropped in front of them and they had no choice but to start running. Kimberly decided to take it a little easy since she had not been running recently and most people were walking. Though they did continue to go through intervals of walking, running then sprinting through color stations roughly every half mile or so. These stations were more like enormous clouds of colorful powder with people standing in a line waiting for participants to come so they could coat them in even more powder. Until they made it through the last station which was made of bubbles and foam in order to get their unicorn medals. They were also rewarded with many snacks and drinks to fuel their post run recovery.

Beer + Sweet Treats

Chocolate Cake in a Cup

 

Our favorite feature beer recipe this month comes in the form of a sweet treat that is snack sized and fast to make! From “Cooking with Beer“, we gave “Beer Lover’s Chocolate Cake In A Mug”! Mixing the ingredients together took only 5 minutes, and its bakes right in the mug with only 3 minutes in the microwave! Here’s the recipe so you can try it out too:

 

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa
2 eggs
1/4 cup of milk
2 Tbsp favorite beer
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and pour into 2 large coffee mugs. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Cake will rise above edge of mug. Enjoy!

Our favorite beer we included was Community Brewing Company’s Vanilla Ascension Coffee Porter. What beer would you try this with? Let us know if you try the recipe!

Oskar Blues / Hey Cupcake Beer Pairing

Oskar Blues Austin always hosts amazing events. They have a massive venue for bands to perform, BYO Vinyl nights and yoga sessions regularly too. When they announced a Hey Cupcake! / Oskar Blues Beer pairing, we were all over that! The pairings went as following:

Mama’s Little Fella Pils paired with 24 Carrot (carrot cake)
Dale’s Pale Ale paired with Red Velvet
Pinner Throwback IPA with Buttercup (chocolate with peanut butter)

Our favorite was the Pinner Throwback IPA with Buttercup surprisingly! It paired really well together from the tropical fruits to the richness of the chocolate. We heard they going to do another pairing, so make sure you keep up with our events so find out where we’re going next!

Parties & Breweries

Barrow Brewing Company 1 Year Anniversary Party

Just off Main Street in the adorable little Texas town of Salado, is Barrow Brewing. The brewery has an industrial barn feel, with the salty smell of the brewery mom’s freshly made secret recipe popcorn. They are already canning 3 of their mainstays, but the real show stopper is their coffee lager, which despite my begging and pleading, is not leaving the brewery for a while. The perfect balance of lager and coffee had all of us going back for seconds and thirds! The anniversary party had great live music, food trucks, wonderful family friendly atmosphere and awesome glassware from Salado Glassworks made special for their Village Idiot Rye Beer. We highly recommend taking the little trip to Salado, Texas, enjoy a cold beer at Barrow and don’t miss out on the awesome antique shops on the town square!

Austin Eastciders Blood Orange Release Party

The one thing Kimberly broke the rules of her 21 day challenge for was the release of her favorite cidery’s new flavor. On April 5, Austin Eastciders held their first release party for their blood orange cider at Easy Tiger. Kimberly was so excited for the release that she knew she had to make one exception and indulge herself. She showed up 30 minutes early and waited until they could start serving. Plus, she was third in line!! Along with $4 cans, they were giving out blood orange koozies and Austin Eastciders bandanas, how could you beat that?!

Brew Crew does Lazarus Brewing

Every month the Brew Crew gets together at a local brewery to mingle and enjoy delicious craft beer in Austin. April’s meet up was at Lazarus Brewing on the east side. We’ve written about their soft and grand opening and we’re happy to report they’re still amazing. Their beer lineup is always changing, this time Cheryl enjoyed a Nitro Coffee Brown Ale called Ransom. They also have some of the best authentic tacos in Austin so don’t hesitate to come thirsty and hungry. The meet up happened to be during a Beerthoven Concert Series that was the perfect music for a hot Saturday afternoon. Make sure to hit up this brewery soon if you haven’t!

Guadalupe Brewing Company

The brewery, the myth, the legend – Guadalupe Brewing Company located in deep central Texas. It is the unexpected location of a stout mecca. It’s famed Ja S’more Bitte s’more stout with a freshly roasted marshmallow garnished on the edge of the glass takes the gold.

Among many other adjuncts are a Peanutbutta Stout with tons of peanut butter, Cocoa Reaper Stout with fresh and spicy Reaper Peppers packing tons of heat yet subdued somehow with mellow hints of chocolate, Maple Coffee Stout that tastes like breakfast, and the most Texas stout ever – Pecan Cocoa Stout with fresh Texas pecans and a light chocolate taste. But don’t be fooled by the hard hitting starting line up of stouts – this brewery has it going on in all the right places!

From a Mango SMaSH IPA to their Show De Bola, a honey golden ale with pineapple, cinnamon, and sugar, their lighter beers are just as great! We highly recommend to head out and enjoy a little taste of Texas Hill Country beer at Guadalupe!

Whole Foods 365 VIP party

The basics have been waiting for the new Whole Foods 365 in Cedar Park to open for months now. Not only do you get the quality of Whole Foods products , but it offers them at value prices every single day. Plus, Easy Tiger Bake Shop & Beer Garden opened their second location inside the store so you can enjoy all their breads, pretzels, sausages and beer while you shop! There’s also a Juiceland right as you walk in.

Kimberly won an Instagram contest for tickets to the VIP grand opening party two days before the store officially opened so she got to be in the first set of people to be inside the store. Everyone who entered was greeted with an iced sugar cookie in the shape of Texas and then headed straight to Juiceland. There were tables setup throughout the store handing out samples such as sushi, beer from Hops and Grain and cider from Austin Eastciders, coffee from Chameleon. But the jackpot was over at Easy Tiger where they had sandwiches, sausages, pretzels, beer cheese, and at least six beers on tap. It was amazing! And all free. Though it was difficult being able to walk around and see what the store had to offer and not be able to purchase anything since they weren’t open for business yet.

Austin Beer Guide Party

2017’s Spring and Summer Austin Beer Guide dropped on April 20th with an awesome party hosted at Draught House Pub & Brewery. Austin Beer Guide is divided into two releases: Spring/Summer & Fall/Winter. They also did a collaboration beer with Draught House to create a NEIPA which was so delicious and crisp! What we look forward to in the guide is the “This is The News” section, that highlights new breweries that are opening in the Austin area and big accomplishments for Austin breweries.

This season’s guide has a great article about Untapped and how consumer’s rate craft beers, to think before you review. One other thing we throughly enjoy is all of the creative ads by local breweries dispersed into the guide as well; they’re always so quirky and fun to see in print instead of always seeing their content digitally! Pick up a copy at your local brewery this season.