Same Time, Different Place - SMNDFBR Does Omaha

This week we took the SMNDFBR on the road, not all that far as it was just up to our neighbors to the east but a road trip none the less. Around the normal start time we gathered at the Alamo Drafthouse off of Giles to join in on the monthly Pint-a-gon ride which is a beer tour of sorts of the local taprooms on the southwest edge of Omaha. Who exactly it's put on by I'm not sure as their Facebook page doesn't really say but someone is organizing them.




Even though the event page said that the event was from 10 am to 3 pm, it turned out not to be the case as 10 am was the "registration" time... even though there wasn't anyone doing registration that I ever saw, nobody really taking the reins or leading this at all that I could discern. Luckily the Liquid Sunshine Taproom was on the ball and opened early for the ride so there was some place to go and sit while we waited, generally they don't open until 11 am and it was only 9:45 am. Those more familiar with the ride must have been in the know by coming to previous events because the crowds did eventually show as it got closer to 11 am.



There wasn't a posted route but more a list of breweries in the order that we were supposed to go in and no official ride leader, so we decided to leave a little bit before 11 am and ride on to Lucky Bucket. Thankfully I am a somewhat familiar with Omaha and where each of the taprooms are located, if you weren't at all familiar you could Google them but finding the best route would be a crap shoot left up to a mapping system primarily designed for cars.




The plan was a pretty good one because it wasn't long after we got there and ordered our drinks that folks started showing up and the line was out the door for beverages. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend the Certified Evil Blood Mary that they serve here. There isn't much for garnish but what it lacks in show it makes up for in taste, one of my favorites.





Sticking with our plan to try to stay ahead of the crowd, we left shortly after the line got super long... it wasn't like you were going to get a second drink quickly.



The next two breweries were just a few doors down from each other in the same strip mall, I was actually pretty excited to visit them as I drive by them weekly but hadn't ever stopped in until Saturday.





I was really digging Kros Strain and am sure I'll be back to this one, the beer was good and the ambiance was pretty rad as well, you could tell that someone had put some thought into the taproom when the decorated it. I think it's a must stop if you're deciding where to go for a beer on the southwest side of Omaha, it was that good.


I need one of these jerseys in my life, now to go and hunt it down on the interwebs.


Our next stop was Pint 9, as I said it was just a few doors down as you can see from this picture Kros Strain is at the left and Pint 9 is just to the right of the light pole. Didn't even need to repark the bikes to get there.





As much as I liked Kros Strain, I just wasn't feeling Pint 9. The decor was meh, meets the industrial look and it just didn't have the feel of a place that you would want to hang out it as much as Kros Strain. Another hit for me was that they had 12 taps but only had 5 beers, the best being their Peppercorn Wit which was a seasonal and not a regular, the others I found to be rather pedestrian as far as craft beer goes. In a booming craft beer scene in Nebraska, you really have to bring something that's going to get the butts back in the seats a second, third and subsequent times; I just wasn't buying into what they had going on here. Don't let my opinion sway you however, what one doesn't like, another finds fantastic... it just wasn't for me.



Because the two taprooms were so close together, we probably spent a little bit too much time at them and were a little behind the leaving early curve. The climb up 108th to Nebraska Brewing Companies taproom didn't help either, that sucker is steep and long.



NBC is probably one of my favorite taprooms in Omaha and one I used to come to weekly when I lived just down the road at 96th and Harrison, it was good to be back. There was a bit of a line already here but the staff behind the bar were on the ball and had it moving quickly. I had their new Gimme S'More brew and it did not disappoint, smelled just like s'mores and had just enough s'more taste to it to be recognizable without being over the top sweet. We probably spent a bit more time here than we did at the other places with the exception of Kros Strain but it was getting hotter and we were enjoying the A/C and good beer.


Twins!





We rolled into and out of Infusion Brewing's new taproom fairly quickly, we were way behind at staying ahead of the crowds at this point and Infusion was already really busy by the time we got there, on top of that we were all getting hungry so we pushed on back toward Alamo.


I have never quite figured out if they are supposed to be a bar/restaurant with a movie theater or a movie theater with a bar/restaurant but they have a pretty outstanding selection of craft beers for being a theater regardless if that's their primary or secondary business.


Our plan to skip Infusion was a good one as we beat most of the crowd back which enabled us to snag a table large enough for the whole crew. On top of a good selection of craft beer they also have some really good food as well, which was good because we were all starving at this point.



If beer isn't your thing they also have really tasty adult shakes, Joe was enjoying his a bit too much perhaps.


Too worn out to lift your own hands, they have that covered too as someone will come around and feed you if need be... ok, maybe I made that last one up but at least Stephanie got that treatment.


Once fully gorged on food it was time to take a picture with the Darth Vader chair and put a fork in another Saturday Morning No Drop Fat Bike Ride. Thanks to all who braved the drive from Lincoln to Omaha and made it out, one of the things I wanted when I started this ride was one that could remain flexible and not get bogged down with the same routes, the same riding surfaces or even the same ride format. To all of those who put up with my shenanigans week after week I am truly grateful, you guys help to make this a really fun, one of a kind ride and I am glad to call all of you friends.

Will we do another Pint-a-gon ride in the future? Who knows at this point, there was some feedback that these aren't the types of rides that everyone likes so I'll take that into consideration, discuss it with a few people and decide from there. I thought the ride was a blast, with a little more organization, someone to plan it a tad better and lead the group; I think someone could take the ball and really run with it turning it into a bigger ride than it already is; perhaps even snagging more of the Lincoln craft beer folks as well and enticing them to come up and ride. That's just my two cents though, whomever puts these on can of course run it however they chose and they obviously have quite a following already so what do I know.

Next Sunday is the gravel rides for the Cornhusker State Games so we will likely either do a shorter gravel ride or if weather permits,  more than likely we may just duck into Wilderness Park for a little dirt therapy and some easy miles.

As it turns out calendars are beyond my comprehension, the MTB races for the CSG are on Saturday the 22nd and the Gravel events on Saturday the 29th... so in light of this new discovery Saturday will most likely be a normal SMNDFBR and there will not be a ride on the 29th as I'll be racing in the gravel events for the CSG. Unless of course things change, as the often do, I'm helping with setup for the MTB races on Friday but if they need extra people on Saturday thing might change but only time will tell.

Tour de Brew LNK - Drinkin on Heaven's Floor

It's been a crazy two weeks, spent the last week and a half on vacation camping, riding and hiking in Glacier National Park and the great state of Montana (that's a blog post for later) with our first official day back at work being Wednesday. Not wanting to miss out on the Tour de Brew LNK ride but also not wanting to get fired for skipping out too early on the first day back to work, we ended up running a little later than normal getting down here from Omaha and had to skip the stop at Moran's and instead headed straight to Cycle Works. 

On tap this month were offerings from Empyrean Brewing Co., the one pictured here is their light, refreshing, summer sipping, Lemon Weizen. It's another great offering from their Carpe Brew'em series of beers and one I am looking forward to finding in bottles in the near future. 

It was another great turn out with all the usual suspects one had come to expect at these events, including the Kitchen Sink Cookie Company, which we of course had to indulge in again this month. I'm not sure if it was the vacation, the rush to get down to Lincoln or the driving version of jet lag but I felt a bit off of my photo game for this ride so there might not be as many pictures as usual. 

After a few beers, a few cookies and some of the usual schmoozing it was time to head out in search of food and parking spots for the bikes.

Kyle and his wife, Jen, decided to bring their bicycle built for two to the ride. 

Tandems have always looked like they would be a ton of fun... provided you are the person in the front or on a really short ride. Something about my hands, face and my me being that close to another person's sweaty hind parts and back side just seems unappealing to me but I'd ride the heck out of the front seat. 

It was decided by the herd that we would head to LeadBelly for food, which was just fine with me as I haven't found anything there yet that I didn't like. We even got to sit in the way, way, way back of the restaurant so far back that we almost weren't even in LeadBelly but rather ended up in the section  that is the caboose you can see from the street, the one that used to be The N Zone once upon a time. Ok, so it's not all that exciting to most maybe but I'd never been in there until now so I was digging it.

What I was digging even more was their extra spicy Large Marge Bacon Bloody Mary, the smaller one in the back is just the Marge Bacon Bloody Mary and it is in a pint glass for reference; the Large Marge is an entire quart mason jar of bloody, bacon-y, vodka goodness. I know it's supposed to be the Tour de BREW ride but I'm a huge fan of a good Bloody Mary and this one lived up to the name and the over the top size. 

I suspect that there was a little bit of alcohol in the quart of Bloody Mary because while sipping on it and deciding on what to eat, I spotted this and thought to myself, "huh, just one push and we could practically be sitting outside, I wonder if that alarm still works?"

It wasn't until I caught this look that I realized I had also verbalized my thought process and so no actual pushing of the emergency exits were done, twas a shame as it was a nice night out. Fun haters! 

Being someone who is always up for trying something new at least once, twice even if I don't remember the first time or am undecided on the results of the first occurrence, we decided to split the Fully Leaded Jacket and we were not disappointed in that choice either. If you've ever been to Leadbelly you know how large their portions are so finding something on the menu that we can agree upon to split is always a good thing, especially when you're downing a quart of vodka and tomato juice. 

After drinking some drinks and eating some eats, it was time to head to the Empyrean tap room for more beer and to stake out spot and await the raffle. Gary got himself a fancy new camera that takes those highfalutin moving pictures or so I've been told as I've yet to see any actual video.


The camera wasn't the only new thing Gary got since the last ride, I'm not sure if you'd call it a hair cut per se as there isn't really any hair left to be cut but it's a change anyway, here's hoping the clouds don't go away any time soon for Gary's sake.




Luckily it was just a hop, skip and a jump across the road to the tap room where the Moran's crew was already posted up by the front door greeting people and handing out the last raffle ticket.


Never noticed this sign before, it's a cautionary tail to all the backwards cap wearing, beer drinking, flip flop loving bros of the world. If you get drunk and run over the ledge bad things might happen, you are not lemmings and it will hurt or worse... your hat might spin around the right direction and that little plastic Y strap might pull out of the bottom of  the foam rubber sole of your flippy floppy. It'll be total bro-micide so act right!


If however, you manage to survive you will land somewhere near this sweet fat bike... light at the end of the tunnel and all that.



Do you know the secret about most tap rooms? The secret is that they have taps and inside those taps is beer and for a small monetary donation they will give you some of that beer, this tap room was no exception and soon the libations were flowing.

Never a lack of awesome prizes at these rides.



Something pretty cool were all the thank you cards on the tables from the kids at the Malone Center, this is what the rides are really about. Everyone who participates and donates during these rides should be proud of the funds that we are raising for the community.


Random picture time.... The crew for the ride.


Bob and his friend... whose name I am sure I was given but have since forgot, sorry Bob's friend.

Empyrean brew dudes doing impromptu fry inspections, quality starts with you.


A group of little people or someone lied on their waiver, they look a bit like minors and not the coal, gold, silver or other such ore extracting individuals.


Eric and the GF.


All the Bahms.


2nd Bike Pedalers t-shirt in as many rides, it's retro hip.

Custom painted storm cloud helmet, pretty fitting for the weather we have been having.


Support your local... hind parts? Good advice I suppose, don't nobody want saggy buttocks.


Alright enough with the random pictures, it's everyone's favorite time of the night... LETS GET REEEAAAADDDDDDYYYYYY TOOOOOOOO RRRRRAAAAAAAAFFFFFFFFFLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEE!!!!


Because we skipped Moran's we only had two raffle tickets for the evening but fret not, one of them was a winner.


I left the soiree with an awesome Moran's t-shirt and sticker.

Vince also scored a Tour de Brew LNK t-shirt and a sticker.


Kyle kept the t-shirt trend going with an Empyrean shirt.


Bob stepped up the game by winning a t-shirt, a hat and he got photo bombed... show off.


Michaela scored a Empyrean visor and a really sweet bottle opener.


Chris went home with a hat, an opener and a sticker. Gary had my roll for this ride and went home empty handed, I'd almost feel bad for him but he generally rakes in the prizes so one time without will help to keep him humble.

And just like that, the ride was over, goodbyes were said, plans were made for the next ride and all that was left was the cleanup...

Hard to believe that we are already at the end of June and that there are only three more Tour de Brew LNK rides left for the year, say it ain't so.

Also if you're unsure of the title of the blog, Google Empyrean, not the brewery but the meaning of the word and it will all become clear. See you all next month.