A Happy, Hoppy Farmer, Nate Versluis celebrates the release of his own beer at Harmony Brewing Company. First Prize for being just too awesome on a Fat Bike.
I am way behind on my always inaccurate and highly opinionated cycling scene news, and before time and my declining mental capacity completely wash away the past, along with the injection those Federal Agents just gave me, here's a quick look back.
One of the most important "cycle-happenings" this spring was the release of the Hoppy Farmer beer at the Harmony Brewery in Eastown, honoring The Farmer, a.k.a. Nate Versluis, of Farm Team Racing. The naming of the beer was actually an award for winning the Farmer's Fat Bike Race Series this past winter - since winter is when you race on those things and spring and summer is for not only celebrating your accomplishments on a Fat Bike, but also celebrating the fact that you no longer have to ride those miserable, overweight two-wheeled pieces of fad-a-licious velomonstrousities - at least until the snow flies again. Okay so one man's velomonstrousity is another man's Fat Bike - so don't name a beer after me, see if I care.
For those of you that aren't familiar with Fat Bike Racing, or the notion that anybody would even think of racing big lumbering two-wheel lorries, here's a taste of how The Farmer got his "Just Beersserts."
Harmony Brewing Company is where it all went down. Nice place, but park your #$^%!@!! Fat Bike at the curb, please. The Brew-house is one of 14,000,000,000 breweries now open in Grand Rapids. In fact all the home in GR are now Brew Houses and we have to all go to Rockford to sleep at night.
Mark Hendershot parked his Fat Bike at the curb, as did other celebrities that arrived for the Hoppy Farmer beer release. You can just see the fender of my Rolls on the left.
Nate even rode in on the Fat Bike that carried him to victory for the crowd to to see and admire its large an big tires - and to ride home - maybe.
The place was packed with people I knew and didn't know. Here's the Farmer's Wife, Sheri, right, toasting the Hoppy Farmer with two people I don't know and don't care about.
Kim Kordecki, Matt Mead and others beer and bike aficiandos crowd the bar waiting for a taste of the new Hoppy Farmer beer.
I even tried the Hoppy Farmer, though I'm not much of a beer critic - plus I don't have any tattoos which disqualifies me as a craft beer judge. My verdict, however: very good and tasty beer. While I could taste the hops, I couldn't catch a hint of any farmer - which is a good thing, I guess.
Cupcake seemed to enjoy the Hoopy Farmer, even though there wasn't any cupcake flavoring it. Or frosting.
Cupcake sported Fat Bike appropriate fashion for the occasion. This seems the perfect application for a Fat Bike - logging. I'm buying one right now, growing a beard, getting an axe and a plaid shirt.
The Farmer enjoyed his Hoppy Farmer Beer. Oh yeah ... he enjoyed the hell out of it.
... as did other members of the Farm Team like Joe S. Not that's not the camera that's blurred, that's Joe.
But just as every Fat Bike race season comes to an end with the melting of the snow, the celebration of a Big Fat Bike Series win has to come to an end as well ... as soon as the last keg is drained ...
No comments:
Post a Comment