Ronde De Rosey 2017 - Pre Ride Festivities

When fellow Newtown Lunartics rider, Mike (aka Michelle) told me that his friend Greg from Boston, whom I met last year at D2R2, asked if I would like to join their team, the Dirty Half Dozen and ride this year's Ronde De Rosey. Of course, I couldn't say no. Since it was an 8:00 start, Mike and I planned to head up the day before and stay in Frammingham, which happens to be the home of one of my favorite breweries as of late, Jack's Abby.

We stayed at the cheapest motel we could find, the Econo Lodge on Rt 9 and then hooked up with Mike's friend Scott, who would also be riding the following day. I had previously contacted a friend from high school whom I knew lived in the area and knew all the breweries in area and had a few suggestions, too, so invited her to join us.

Mike, Scott and I took an Uber (never done that before) to Jack's Abby and after cruising the dining hall, which is what you have to do get a table in that joint, we were finally able to get a table.  My friend Megan joined us shortly thereafter.  Besides having dinner, we of course had a quite a few different beers. I finally had a Framming Hammer which you can't get outside of Boston.

After a short walk from Jack's Abby we found ourselves at Springdale Barrel Company which had a variety of ales and sours.  Not a fan of either sour beer or American styled ales I went for the German styled Alt Bier, called Ein Dussel.  

I immediately thought of Hannen Alt, a beer I drank a lot of when I lived in Germany, but something about this brew was a little off.  I couldn't pinpoint the difference it just seemed a little lighter.  I set my glass down for a minute and when I turned back to it, it was gone and I probably had a quarter to go.  The barmagdl game a fresh glass but thinking back I probably should have just let it be.

Megan took us down to Exhibit "A" where I had a real nice American Porter called Briefcase.  We struck up a conversation with this Barmaiden, who was really friendly, and learned that most of the breweries around Boston area won't fill growlers that were not exclusively their own. You won't see that out in Western Mass, though.