Sunday School

On Sunday we drove from Dallas to Oklahoma City. We left early in the morning because we needed to soundcheck at noon with a 2 p.m. performance. Whenever you're playing a venue for the first time you never really know what to expect. This show was free to the public and it was in a small lecture hall in the free public library. When we walked into the room I noticed a small permanently installed sound system. The promoter then told us that she was going to get the PA system and she returned with a small cart with several boxes on it. Here is where my day really starts. I spent the next couple of hours before the show setting up the mini-system and trying to tweak it to sound alright. Everything ended up being just fine. The audience was very nice and appreciative. When the show was over we had the rest of the night off so we checked out a spot called "Tapwerks" (pictured above with all the taps). Our friend, Brian, drove from Wichita and had read about this place on beermapping.com (a must visit site for anyone that is traveling and enjoys beer). The atmosphere in Tapwerks was very cool. They had lots of neat old beer memorabilia. I must say that the atmosphere was a little more impressive than the beer list. Although, I didn't expect much for Oklahoma City and it was better than what I had expected. I had a Anchor Old Foghorn Barleywine and a Great Divide Hercules Double IPA.

We decided to move the action back to my hotel room. Brian brought over a very nice selection of beers to sample (pictured above is the "kill shot" of those brews). Brian and his friend, Sarah, are the inspiration for this "beer diary". The have been bringing us delicious beers to sample for a couple of years now. It's always great to drink beer with Brian. He's extremely knowledgable and fun to talk beer with. He also hipped me to beermapping.com and for that, I can't thank him enough. My favorite beer of the night was the Boulevard Saison-Brett. This is a limited beer from a Kansas City brewery that has blew my mind in the last year. Their "Smokestack Series" is all of their big beers in 750ml. bottles and I have yet to try one that I don't like. However, the Saison-Brett is by far my favorite. This beer is dedicated to George Brett (Kansas City baseball player) so they used Brettanomyces yeast which is a wild Belgian yeast with a very nice "funk" to it. I love Brett yeast and I wish more breweries would use it. My ideal combo is brett yeast and strong american hops (an IPA with Brett yeast will be the next big "American" style... Just you wait!)

The night ends like most normal Sunday nights on a CGT tour. Hideyo reads random verses from the Bible while "Preacher Paul" educates us on what they actually mean. You can see for yourself what that is like in the video above. Next week we will continue on with "Sunday School". I will be learning some timeless Hymns to open the rest of the shows with on this tour. It should be fun! We'll do an audience sing-along that will go something like this:
"Paul loves Jesus yes I know, for the Bible told Hideyo so" ... Can't wait! See you Sunday!!!

List for Sunday:

• Anchor Old Foghorn
• Great Divide Hercules Double IPA
• Boulevard Saison-Brett
• Boulevard Imperial Stout
• Anderson Valley "Hop Ottin" IPA
• Bitch Creek ESB
• New Belgium Mighty Arrow
• Rocky Mountain IPA
• Boulder Brewing Mojo Risin' Double IPA
• Schlafly Irish-Style Extra Stout
• Left Hand Imperial Stout
• Left Hand Jackman's American Pale Ale