The fine line between being a fan and being a stalker...

Day two in Rehoboth, DE (Dogfish excursion #2)...

Carolynn and Murphy started the day with a leisurely dog walk (Scott slept an additional half hour), and once we were all awake ready to tackle the day, we enjoyed some coffee and trip planning for the remainder of the week. We completed our "housekeeping" tasks - including picking up the damned mouse poop again - it won't go away or take the sticky trap bait - UGH! Then we shoved off from our RV park home and took a little walk through the woods to try to exhaust the dog. We moved off the main roads and headed over to Milton, Delaware to visit the brewery operations of Dogfish Head... We were surprised (but shouldn't have been) to see that there were twenty other people at the 11 A.M. tour... on a Tuesday.

It was a brief but interesting tour of some of what makes a craft brewery and some of what makes Dogfish a very special craft brewery. The highlight of the tour was seeing the actual two keg brewing system that Sam Calagione started his brewpub with in 1995. To put that in perspective two kegs equals a barrel. He could handcraft up to three barrels of brew per day using his original system. That would equal about 750 barrels per year. DFH now produces over 80,000 barrels and Anheuser Busch produces 30,500,000 barrels per year.

The tour was followed by a tasting of four beers:

the Wrath of Pecant- a delicious brown ale with pecan smoked malt, plantain flour, and carob that we had previously tasted at the extreme beer fest in Boston
the Midas Touch- an ancient 2,700 year old beer (somewhere between wine and mead) made with honey
the Palo Santo- a very special caramel and vanilla tasting beer aged in an exotic Paraguayan wood
the festina peche- the sourest summery fruit beer either of us have ever tasted

We also got to taste an incredible beer made with black chai - Sah Tea. I bought two bottles (CP). I'll drink two bottles (SM). Not if I beat you to them (CP). Better not sleep tonight (SM).

We spent some (a bundle of) cash at the store and headed on our way....

Our second stop of the day was at a really cool farmers market in Rehoboth... You'll hear a bunch from us about these markets along our way across the US. With very little exception, farmers markets are one of CPs favorite places to visit...

It was a good sized market where we enjoyed some local oysters shucked on the spot by the farmer himself and eaten by yours truly(s). We moved on and bought a sprouted bean salad (might sound nasty, but rocked!), a local blue cheese, a fresh baguette and some farm fresh strawberries. Yes, all made their way into an impromptu lunch - in the RV - parked next to the local laundromat. Murphy begged we would be much messier eaters.

We returned to our campground, said goodbye to Murph, hopped on our bikes, and rode over to the beach for a rooftop round of mini golf (SM won but it wreaked of cheating). We had some local Oysters at a rawbar three blocks from the beach and then headed back to the Dogfish brewpub...

Don't laugh at us! We love their beer! The food is local and sustainable- grass fed beef- Delaware produce... besides, we came here for the free wi-fi so that we could update the blog that you are reading right now!

Soooo... we leave in the morning for a quick stop in Carolynn's former hometown of Washington , DC and then we continue on our way to Emporia, Virginia for the State pork festival... it's not our fault - who would have thought that a festival of such magnitude and importance would be occurring on the random Wednesday afternoon directly in the path of our traveling RV? We don't find these places... they fall in our laps...

If today was only day 2, this trip is NOT gonna suck...