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Now that the congressional standoff over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling has finally ended, here's a look back at the key events of the crisis:

Jan. 18

At a Republican retreat in Williamsburg, Va., GOP leaders agree not to force a debt ceiling showdown and to address deficit reduction demands later in the year.

Aug. 19

The conservative group Heritage Action's anti-Affordable Care Act town hall tour begins in Fayetteville, Ark. The tour features Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his father, Rafael Cruz, and Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint, the former South Carolina senator.

Aug. 21

80 House Republicans sign a letter to Speaker John Boehner urging him to "affirmatively de-fund the implementation and enforcement of ObamaCare in any relevant appropriations bill brought to the House floor in the 113th Congress, including any continuing appropriations bill."

Sept. 20

House Republicans approve legislation that would defund the health care law while keeping the government open through Dec. 15. The White House has already said the president would veto such a measure.

Sept. 24-25

Ted Cruz stages 21-hour speech on the Senate floor to protest the Affordable Care Act.

Sept. 26

Boehner says President Obama needs to negotiate with Republicans on raising the debt limit. The Treasury has warned it will run out of "extraordinary measures" it has been using to keep paying the nation's bills by Oct. 17.

All Is Lost

Director: J.C. Chandor

Genre: Action, drama

Running Time: 106 minutes

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.

With: Robert Redford

(Recommended)

The alternative approach for brewing sours is to go old-school and just let all the wild yeast and bacteria in the air drop into the beer naturally. It's risky but — when done right — can produce magnificent beer.

That's the strategy Ron Jeffries at Jolly Pumpkin in Dexter, Mich., uses. He's a pioneer of the sour movement in America, and he made some of the first commercial sours way back in 2004.

"There's wild yeast and bacteria everywhere, especially if there are orchards nearby," Jeffries tells The Salt. "When you make a happy home for them in your barrels, they just show up and spontaneously ferment — and sour — a beer."

"For thousands of years, all beer had sour notes to it," Jeffries says. "It was refreshing and crisp because people didn't understand how to keep things clean.

"Then with pasteurization, refrigeration and an understanding of how to keep cultures free of bacteria, beers started to become nonsour," he says.

A handful of breweries in Belgium continued to produce sour beers, known as lambics, Flanders ales and guezes. But it's craft breweries in America that are making them fashionable again.

"They're taking the beer style in crazy directions, just like they did with IPAs and porters," Jeffries says. "The reason why you're seeing sour beers gaining popularity is because they taste great, but also because of the creativity of American brewers."

Remember how that fight over the budget was all about Obamacare?

Seems like ancient history now, but House Republicans ostensibly shut down the government 17 days ago, demanding first a defunding, and, when that failed, a year's delay in the health law.

When it became clear that President Obama and Senate Democrats weren't going to yield to demands to stop or slow implementation of the administration's signature legislative achievement, Republicans looked for smaller changes.

They floated the idea of killing or delaying an unpopular tax on medical devices. Many Senate Democrats joined Republicans in a nonbinding vote of displeasure on the tax earlier this year.

The Republicans also looked to take away health insurance contributions for congressional and executive branch staffers. And they proposed to delay a temporary $63 annual per-person health insurance tax intended to build a fund to help pay for high-cost cases.

None of those things ended up in the final bill that reopened the federal government and raised the debt ceiling Wednesday night.

So what did?

Well, there was a little language related to the health law. It requires that the Secretary of Health and Human Services "certify to the Congress that the Exchanges verify" that individuals who get subsidies for premiums and cost-sharing are, in fact, eligible. And that the secretary "shall submit a report to the Congress that details the procedures employed by the American Health Benefit Exchanges to verify eligibility for credit and cost-sharing."

Sounds like a big deal? Not really. It so happens that the much-maligned "data hub" that's part of the health exchange already links to the IRS to verify income eligibility. So, basically, the law requires HHS Secretary Sebelius to write a letter explaining what the department is already doing.

But it's not just that the Republicans failed to make any changes to the health law in their 16-day tirade against the government. News coverage of the shutdown and potential default crowded out stories about the very rocky rollout of the health exchanges themselves.

As The Washington Post's Ezra Klein tweeted Wednesday:

Hearing from more people getting through http://t.co/iJrBCjFhBY. Ironic if GOP knocked it from headlines just long enough for it to be fixed

— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) October 16, 2013