In Search of an IPA

Becoming a beer lover and being so spoiled by all of the craft beer options in Colorado it had to drastically lower my standards when traveling. I went so long craving an IPA and still cant wait to crack open my favorite when back in Colorado.

When you’re from Colorado and traveling across the world there’s always one thing people say when they find out I’m a Colorado Native. Its always either “How’s the weed?” or “Oh nice, you got that good weed”. It almost never fails. Sometimes someone will bring up the Rockies (the mountains, not our shitty baseball team- though I think they’re trying to be good for once) or the Broncos. One thing that should be asked about and is very much missed is all of our amazing craft beer brewed with that fresh Rocky Mountain water. Going to school in Fort Collins with some of the larger craft breweries like Odell’s, New Belgium and Fort Collins Brewery along with dozens of other smaller ones scattered across the city I became a beer lover. This was very surprising to me as my brother had to literally force me to drink good beer when I got to college as I was so used to piss 30 racks from high school like Rolling Rock and PBR. Now I can’t even stomach those nasty drinks…I don’t even want to call them beer. 

First beer tower and introduction to ice in beer

Typical sight from a corner street bar in Hanoi

In Asia there is no such thing as craft beer. All they have are cheap drafts which are all pretty much the same type of lager. On top of that since it’s so hot they add ice to the beers when you go to a bar! It was crazy. They even have girls whose job is only to put ice in your cup! On the good side though all there beers some in 0.66L bottles and are most of the time less than a dollar. In Thailand it was all about the Big Chang ( a simple 5% lager) that become my go to beer. Laos’s national was BeerLao Lager(5 %), and Dark(6.5%). These were okay but still nothing to truly enjoy drinking. Vietnam had a ton of very cheap beers. The main one is called Bia Hoi. This is found is on almost every small bar and street corner in the cities. It is brewed daily and goes bad after that one day; not sure exactly how this works. It was a mere 3% draft lager but at average $0.25 per cup you can’t complain. Cambodia was similar to Vietnam and I’m not sure exactly what beer I drank there but it was most of the time $0.25 or $0.50 per glass so I’m not complaining. You can get drunk with like $2 it would be any alcoholics paradise.  So as you can tell I was not able to find anything great in SE Asia (I do still get a Chang when I get Pad Thai in Budapest) so the IPA craving was still there. Luckily my next stop was India so I should have no problem finding one there right? Wrong.

Chang with Pad Thai

Though India did not fulfill my IPA crave I at least was able to have craft beer again thanks to my good buddy Sharan and his new brew house/restaurant, Spindrift, in Mangalore. Here I got a few freshly brewed Wheat beers, lagers, and a believe a cherry beer. They were quite tasty and if you are ever in Mangalore then be sure to stop by and tell them Shawn sent you. I was very happy with this but was still craving my IPA on my way to Europe.

It’s been 9 months in Europe now. Beers are still cheap and better than Asia by tenfold but it’s still not US craft beers. As in Asia the size of beers here are bigger than home with a 0.5L bottle. This is awesome especially with most in Budapest being under $1. Mainly I drink Staropramen (from Prague) and now have been switching to Dreher (from Hungary). These are draft beers though and I can definitely say they’re better than US draft. It is possible to get craft beer in Budapest though with multiple craft beer bars such as Csak a Jó Sör  (Only Good Beer), Hopaholic, and Hops Beer Bar which always have some great selections of all types. Here I was finally able to get some tasty bitter fresh IPAs in my belly. These are great but I only try to go occasionally as they’re a lot more expensive (a whopping $4 average!), though still cheaper than in the US.

I was so excited when I saw this. Felt like a kid in a candy store

Now that it’s summer there are things going on all the time in Hungary. Some of these things are, to my great pleasure, Craft Beer (Sör) Festivals. I have been to two in the past month and have been very happy leaving each one. At one I was even able to find an Arrogant Bastard Ale , from Stone Brewery in California, which got me very excited. Through these bars and festivals I’ve discovered there actually are some good beers and breweries in Hungary.

Shown in order of Favorites: 

Legenda Sörfőzde Kelet-Indiai Társaság (East India Company) IPA (6.5%)-  By far the best and most flavorful beer I have had since I left the states and I need to find a place that sells in in the city. This is definitely one of the best breweries in Hungary.

Our small bottle collection

BrewDog Jack Hammer Ruthless IPA (7.2%)

Kézművessörök M61 Nohab APA (7.2%)

Rothbeer Tavoli Galaxis  IPA (6.1%)

Reketye with their Monolith IPA (only 5)%

*** All of these places have plenty of beer styles, which are also tasty, but pretty much all I drink are IPAs if you haven’t noticed.

So overall it is possible to find good beer here in Hungary and I’m going to Berlin in a week so hopefully the Germans will live up to beer expectations. Still cant wait for my O’Dell IPA though!

Living as an Expat

Check out my guest post on my good friend, brother and climbing partner's blog thisisyouth.org. This post gives some insight on my travels and how life is living abroad! Also you can enjoy his great travel blog as well! https://thisisyouth.org/2017/03/18/what-its-like-to-live/#comment-3759

Becoming a Citizen of the World; Why I love Travel

Traveling creates an experience that’s on a whole different level. When you are different parts of the world and witnessing how different and similar we are, how privileged life at home can be and yet still seeing equal amount of happiness you learn and grow a lot. I believe that travel (especially solo) is when you truly see the kind of person you are when you totally get away from all influential factors from home. All that is left is what you have learned in life from your time and experiences there that created you who you are. Travel becomes the challenge of letting yourself go in this world and see how you do. You have thrown yourselves into the categories of an explorer, an adventurer and a student of the world.  You will meet hundreds of people and hear able different parts of the world, gain new friends across the globe which creates further opportunities to explore more with your friends, new and old.

Its an interesting process to watch and coming up close to a year of this experience called life I have been able to see how this experience progress and you knowledge of the world and self increases. You make friends quickly and find people that will become a part of your life for many years to come even though we come from completely different backgrounds, stories and cultures. It is because of these things though create the feeling that you can connect to as you see how despite the difference the way you present yourself to the world and truly be yourself.  Everyone you meet is for a reason whether that be for a brief passing money to sticking with you through the times and journeys to come. You will spend a lot of time with these people, that come latter, and grow closer a lot quicker than you feel you could at home. These become travel buddies; people to visit and explore with, people to discuss things with freely, a companion and even lovers in some occasions.

Another great part of travel is allowing the local people you meet show you the local food, their favorite places to eat, and going on to explore the food and drinks of a region. I have learned to enjoy many new foods and FINALLY learned to use chopsticks after giving up a long time ago. I have eaten bugs, chicken feet porridge, and tons of local Asian foods. I love Pad Thai (Sometimes eating it for breakfast lunch and dinner), Cao Lau, Pho, Mutton Pepper,  Curries and the tarantula was the favorite of all the bugs I ate. My favorite thing to do would be to find a small local family’s restaurant and enjoy their meals and company all the time. This is a good way to try many new things and support the local people in the area you are in. I bought a shirt which contains a great slogan of “think global, drink local” its very true and applies to food as well. Beside the people and foods one of the biggest benefit are the places you get to go and see.

I have seen so many sites that I never imagines I would. I have explored Asian cities covered in trash and smog, seen lives in poverty in way worse conditions than at home. You meet people in these conditions and learn about their lives, their country and their culture. You hear stories like a man that sleep in his tuk-tuk (A small Asian open air taxi) and sends most of the money away to his family back home. He is only able to see his wife and son a few times a year when he has the time and money to stop working and go for a visit. Hearing stories such as this shows you how different life can be. You gain these small connections with the most random people around the world and know that you are helping to support them. You learn about the insides of life there instead of just looking out and making judgement or seeing only what you wish to see and making possibly incorrect judgments. Sometimes things get hard and when you see such horrible things it can be hard. An example of this was seeing the costs of warfare in Vietnam had all over South East Asia and the harm that my homeland cause to this area of the world which is still happening to this day. Learning about this has brought me to tears on multiple occasions. Seeing the effects of terrible things to happen in a country creates another view of the world and can very hard to hear such as acts of genocide or the living conditions creates for million. I have seen giant amounts of skulls and graves of peoples slaughtered throughout a dictator’s regime. I have passed trash piles outside small neighborhoods with children playing on them enjoying life or searching through them trying to find something to perhaps sell. Sites such as these make you think a lot more about the world. Both about how lucky you are to have everything you do, and how we should not waste so much. There truly is over-consumption in this world and we are trashing the earth more than cleaning it up.

On the other side of the equation I have seen beautiful scenes of nature in rain forests, on beaches, in mountains, in deserts, overlooking the hill lands. Seeing these sites are truly amazing and allow you to further fall in love with nature. There have been times staring of onto the open ocean on a beach while lying in my hammock, overlooking beautiful mountains covered in jungle for as far as I can see after a hike or drive on the scooter thinking about the beauty of life and how lucky you are to experience this all At one of the best sites, a beautiful waterfall in the jungle that had the view of paradise, I even began to fall in love with something besides nature. But that is a whole other story….

Besides nature I have witnessed many beautiful and truly wondrous creations of man in the building of temples, monasteries, statues, and architecture of cities. I saw many of temples that were breathtaking. Each contained so much detail and the craftsmanship that went into the creation is very impressive. The ancient cities in Angkor Wat and temples around the Angkor Area in which you can only imagine how long it took to create all this and imagine the life there, thousands of years past.  Now being in Europe I have been able to see old Gothic styles building and castles, beautiful buildings of Parliament, churches, historic Turkish baths and one of my favorites actual old cobblestone streets of the past.

I can go on and on about all my adventures, friends met, and experiences but that is not the purpose of this and I have wandered around in my reminiscing enough. The whole purpose of this is to show why I have loved my experiences as a traveler, how much you can learn, things to truly appreciate and how it can truly show who you are. I have always sought out challenges of live and I believe this is the ultimate. Adventure truly is the test of ones will, not everything that you experience will be easy. You will hit hard times, be low and need some help, and be challenged by life. It is at these times that you prove to yourself all that you can do.  I am very thankful for having been given this experience and hope that I will be able to bring experiences to many in my family, friends group, community and as many people in the world as possible.  In the meantime I will continue on my adventure and continue to learn how to be a citizen of the world.