DRAFT Magazine

Ryan Van Duzer believes that if he rides a three speed bike across America, “more people can ride to the grocery store.”

Duzer is currently riding a New Belgium cruiser from San Diego to DC, and the Colorado brewery is sponsoring his journey.

“New Belgium gave me a cruiser last year and I jokingly said that I’ll ride it across America, and they took me seriously,” he told elephant journal.  “This ride fits in perfectly with their eco-minded mission. Oh, and they make good beer.”

If that wasn’t a challenge enough, he’ll be hauling a keg of New Belgium along with him. Wow.

“I’ll be pulling a pony keg of Mothership Wit, a nice wheaty organic beer that has been proven to be more effective than any other energy drink on the market!” he told elephant journal.

If you see him on the road, the least you can do is buy him a pint. Just like his grandma did during his ride from Maine to Key West.

You can follow his journey here.

We arrived promptly at SAVOR at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night in downtown DC. Only to find the sold-out crowd already forming a line snaking down the block. The $95 tickets were selling like Barack Obama memorabilia.

No matter. The crowd was good-natured while packing inside the National Building Museum. (Sounds like that’s a made-up satirical place in DC, but it’s real.)

My friends Jeff and Rick, my wife Jess and I immediately started sampling the 136 craft beers from 68 American craft brewers, from Abita to Weyerbacher. Not all at once, of course.

We also came all the way from Wisconsin to DC to indulge in… endless Wisconsin cheese. It was well worth it. Same goes for Sprecher’s Black Bavarian and Abbey Triple, two beers at the event that are brewed a mile or so from our house. Fortunately, craft brewers arrived from all areas of the country.

This was a mental game. The program spanned 32 pages and listed a mind-boggling array of perfect beer and food pairings, such as the Flying Fish Abbey Dubbel with Moroccan Spiced Lamb Burgers, or the Arcadia Brewing Co. Hopmouth Double IPA with Maytag Blue Cheese (to name just two of my favorites)

Three and a half hours later, we left very, very satisfied. The event is just unreal. In the words of Brewers Association President Charlie Papazian, “It’s a great time to be alive if you love beer.”

And as for that other pairing that goes perfectly with beer, we indulged in that while we were out east, too.

Hiking in the George Washington National Forest

A week from today, I will get in my car with my wife and our friend Missy.

We will drive approximately 800 miles and some 13 hours from Milwaukee to our nation’s capital.

There we will find our sweet, sweet reward:

SAVOR + mountain hiking.

In no particular order. They are both equally awesome.

Last year my friends Jeff, Rick, Emmett and I attended SAVOR and decided it must become a tradition. We were pretty sure we all must have fallen off a cliff while hiking Big Schloss in the George Washington National Forest — and this was heaven. That amazing, it is.

I will let SAVOR explain itself with Facebook fan page language:

A must attend for craft beer aficionados and foodies alike, the second annual SAVOR will offer a memorable craft beer and food experience to a limited number of attendees in the beautiful National Building Museum.

SAVOR the experience - enjoy a reception-style sampling of your choice of 35+ sweet and savory appetizers and 120 craft beers from 65+ breweries. Converse with the luminaries of the craft beer industry - brewery owners, brewers and representatives will be on-hand - serving your beer.

Or maybe a video will help do it justice.