It's always a joyful moment when I pull a beer from the fridge that was a gift from a brewer on their way through Chicago. Sometimes the memory is fresh. Other times, it's a time machine.
A couple months ago, Steve Bassaloff from pFriem Family Brewers schlepped this gem home for the holidays—a scotch barrel-aged Imperial Brown. And as I hunkered down in the kitchen this past Sunday working a lasagne bolognese and marathoning Black-ish, it was a nice little flashback to the day he popped in to the studio and shared some of his precious holiday time with a few strangers. Those little things can leave a mark.
—Michael Kiser