A Little Light in a Sea of Darkness

2020 – it has not been a great year on the macro or micro level. With any luck, it will prove to be an anomaly that cements in the minds of all that the Chinese saying “May you live in interesting times.” was meant as a curse.

Amid the challenges of figuring out the minefield that is school now, the joy of having my wife working from home and losing my office, and the demise of social life in general, lately there have been a smattering of green shoots of promise for the future. I found a job in the brewing industry and I work with a bunch of folks who are fun to be around and patient with an old novice. I got my Professional Certificate from SDSU for the first level of the Craft Brewery Management program, though I was hoping to have level two completed by now, this means I get an “alumni discount” on my remaining classes when we they are offered again. And not only was the San Diego County Fair Homebrew competition finally run after a delay of a half a year, but both of the beers I entered won ribbons, and Le Blaireau was the number one trappist style beer.

Of course, 2020 victories are bittersweet. In addition to the fact that I should have been done with my level two professional certificate by now, in normal times there would have been a big graduation blowout in the spring that is one of the more entertaining events on the brewery industry calendar. Similarly, there was no home-brew awards ceremony for the County Fair which would have involved family and friends joining me for a party where I received my ribbons. Instead they arrived unceremoniously in a manila envelope without fanfare or even a congratulatory form letter from the organizers.

But I take the good the universe has to offer where I find it. My hope was to win a ribbon in the home-brew competition, I won two and one of them was blue which is good stuff. I’ve decided to build on that and start brewing in preparation for next year with an eye toward at least one ribbon in every category of Belgian beers. And since the finals of the National Home-brew Competition are being held in San Diego next year, I will expand into the big leagues and see how I fare.

Keep things moving forward …