Touring Granite City

I’ve been on more brewery tours than I can count. Never before have I been asked if I had any alcohol in my system (unless it was followed up by, “well, why not?!?"). So when I was asked that today at Granite City I had to ask them to repeat the question, answered honestly that yes, I had a beer with a big burger for lunch a couple hours ago and then waited as the guy looked as if he was trying to decide if I should be allowed to walk the 10 feet through their kitchen to get to their brewing space.

Test passed, I followed Mike through the kitchen, into the locked brewing space. There isn’t much to say about the facility as it’s just a two room set up. One room holding the four, 500 gallon fermenters and a second, refrigerated room holding the eight determination tanks.

The most interesting things I gleaned from the tour:
* The Ellsworth, IA site was chosen for its well water and is within 500 miles of all 27 restaurants that operate in a nine state region.
* The transportation of the 33 degree wort between states is legal because the wort is not technically alcohol at this point.
* Of the 27 locations, only the Eagan and St. Louis Park restaurants were retrofits, being Sydney’s and Timberlodge respectively in their prior lives.
* The Eagan location has the smallest number of fermenters but sells more beer than any other location.

One more first for a brewery tour, I wasn't offered a single sample at the conclusion of the tour.

Drinkin' in Winona

Yesterday on our way to the Between the Bluffs Beer, Wine & Cheese Festival in La Crosse, we took the opportunity to stop at Wellington’s Backwater Brewing Company in Winona. While this place is not new, we haven’t heard much about it, have never seen them at any festival and honestly, had pretty low expectations for the place.

Wellington’s is located just off of Hwy 61 but you’d better have a sharp eye and other people in the vehicle with you or you’ll likely miss your turn onto the frontage road to get to it. Luckily we had both and made it there without having to whip any U-ies or other such not quite legal traffic maneuvers.

The exterior is less than inspiring and upon walking in it seems like the brewery part of the equation might be more of an afterthought rather than the main attraction. No windows to allow you to peer into the brewing operation and a short list of only four house made brews.

That being said, our young waitress was attentive and even before taking our orders, came to the table bearing a basket of popcorn from the popcorn machine greeting folks at the entrance. Make no mistake about it, ANY place that has a popcorn machine spewing that lovely salty, buttery goodness gets extra points in my book.

With only four of their beers available it was an easy choice to order one of each and the four of us would do our own sampling and tasting from there. (It should be noted, however, that our waitress did offer to see about a sampler of their beers even though they don’t officially have one.) Of the four, Steamboat Stout, Rivertown Nut Brown, Cat Tail Pale Ale and Wing Dam Wheat, I think it’s safe to say that all of us agreed the Wing Dam Wheat was the best. It wasn’t your typical wheat in terms of flavor, being both sweeter and maltier than expected, but very pleasant none the less and kept truer to style with it’s blond color and lack of filtering.

The other three offerings all had that similar combination of some expected characteristics for their style as well as some unexpected ones. Certainly none were undrinkable and should I be in that neck of the woods again, I’d stop by for a couple of pints with the grub that, although was typical of bar style food, was tasty and very reasonably priced.

Bad night for football, good night for beer

Last night Mag and I met up with Lori and Paul at Herkimer to watch the Vikes take on the Packers. We’d heard that Herkimer is a Packer bar and while it seemed that there were just as many Viking fans there as Packer fans it was a full house!

Herkimer had a game night special of all you can eat (BBQ pork, coleslaw, beans, potato salad) and all you can drink for $15 from 5-7. While Mag opted to go with his original plan of a fried egg samich, I took them up on the special and wasn’t disappointed. The pork was excellent, with some pleasantly spicy BBQ sauce on the side, and the potato salad was some of the best I’ve had. Not being a fan of German beers, the only one I had was the Alt but I must say whatever the new brewer has been doing is a good thing. This was the best version of their Alt I’ve ever had and the other three seemed to think the Gose was pretty tasty as well.

Although both my fantasy football team and the Vikings started off the season on a downer, I’m excited to have had a great eating and drinking experience at Herkimer. German beers aren’t necessarily my thing but I’d like them to have more of a presence in the local brewing scene. Maybe the new brewer is just what they need to make it happen.

Good Day for Beer - Bad Day for my Nipples

Yesterday's Brewers Bazaar was...well, interesting. It wasn't your typical beer tasting kind of event in that we didn't see very many familiar faces and the crowd was mostly a non-craft beer kind of crowd with pockets of beer folks. It was fun, nonetheless. And the breweries and brewpubs were well represented. Kris and I had previously had opportunities to meet and chat with Jeff Williamson of Flat Earth and Bob DuVernois of Great Waters, but yesterday we got to meet and spend some time chatting with Dave Berg of August Schell, a couple of the guys from the new Lift Bridge brewery in Stillwater, and Trevor Brau of Brau Brothers. Hell, even Mark Stutrud, founder of Summit, was there serving beer and chatting up the attendees. The guys from Fitger's (Brian and Bob, I think) were familiar faces and I think they work at the brewery, but I didn't ask in what capacity. I will, yet again, re-declare that most of the folks that I meet at these beer events, including the brewers and their reps are damn nice folks.

Now, let's talk about my nipples. I know you want to. When we were in Portland several weeks ago, I'd picked up a cool Rogue shirt (kind of a Hawaiian shirt). I washed it before wearing it, but didn't wear a shirt underneath it. The material was a bit rough and I'll be damned if it didn't start wearing my nipples raw. God that hurts. So, early on I was forced with a bit of a Sophie's Choice. I could soldier on with my beer drinking, leaving my nipples to the ravages of Satan's threads or I could swallow my pride and find some bandaids or tape to protect my nipples. Turns out I don't really have any pride to salvage, so I begged for some tape from the fest workers. At the end of the day, I decided I'd rather go through the excruciating pain of ripping packing tape off my sensitive and hairy nipples versus the excruciating pain of tearing my dried-blood soaked shirt away from the ragged stumps of what were once my nipples.

Gitchee Gumee 2008

Yet another successful and relatively safe trip to the Gitchee Gumee Brew Fest this year! We went up this year on Friday with Kat and Scott and had a chance to visit a few places we'd not yet been, including Sir Ben's and Thirsty Pagan. Hell, we even watched a few ships come into port. It was almost like a real vacation!

Gitchee Gumee was fun again this year, but its changing. It was still mostly a college crowd and that crowd was reasonably well behaved, but I think the over all quality of breweries and brew pubs went down...kinda sorta. I mean, home town hero Fitger's wasn't there and there were some other notable breweries missing, which was disappointing, but we did get a chance to see some new places (and I'm not talking about Landshark). Upland Brewing (Indiana) was the most memorable one in my mind, especially since the folks there were so damn nice. From a MN Beer perspective, Schell's, Surly, Flat Earth, Rock Bottom, Summit, Lake Superior and St. Croix were there (did I miss anyone?). And we got a chance to catch up with friends and make a few new ones.

Most memorable moment: Seeing some 6'6" dude hold back puke with his hand until he could make it to a garbage can. I mean, come on! Lightweight!

Favorite beer: Scott and I agreed that Muskie Capital's American Pale Ale was our favorite and Kat and Kris agreed that New Glarus' Raspberry Tart took the prize. I also got a chance to enjoy Schell's Stout. I thoroughly enjoyed it (but since 7 out of 10 doctors recommend pales over stouts, my vote goes that way).

Worst moment: Losing at Killer Bunnies...yet again...sonofa...

Too Much Beer vs. Too Little Beer

I've had a chance now to try out both Barley John's double IPA and Town Hall's double IPA. And, aside from a double dose of heartburn, found both really enjoyable. I think I enjoyed Town Hall's more, but it's a close one. Town Hall's aroma was slighthly more...hm, enjoyable I guess and, to me, that's a huge part of my beer experiences. Also, I think I could enjoy a couple of their double IPA's without palate burn-out. In any event, I highly recommend both.

So, now we go from a beer-filled last couple of days in the Twin Cities to possibly a beer-sparse couple of days in Dallas. It's not exactly a good-beer wasteland, but good beer is a little harder for us to find at Grammama's house. That's okay, I guess, since I'm sure we'll be make up our carb shortfall from a lack of beer by eating a few pounds of potatoes and bread a day. Gotta keep my playing weight up, you know.

MNBeer Meeting at Barley John's

Kris and I went to Barley John's last night for the express purpose of getting together w/ some of the folks who contribute to MNBeer.com to talk about a new Beer of the Month feature. Of course, drinking and talk of beer related things supplanted any "work" we intended to get done. Colin, of Barley John's brewing fame, joined us. I've got a couple of take-aways from the evening:
1) I know nothing about brewing and beer, except how to drink it...and I don't do that very well.
2) I continue to be delighted by the fine, friendly folks I meet at any brew-pub, beer event, etc. I attend. Or maybe I just like hanging w/ drunks...
3) Barley John's continues to make damn good beer. I had avoided their Wild Brunette for the last couple of years, not because I didn't enjoy it the first time I had it, but rather because I have a psychological aversion to non-traditional (whatever that means) ingredients in beer, especially rice. And also, there are always other, tasty options available. Well, I finally broke down last night and had a Brunette. I enjoyed the hell out of it.

...'nough said

2 in 1 night...we're party animals!

Last night Mag and I decided to head to Buster’s, under the guise of taking advantage of their beer special of the week- Bell’s Brown for $3 per pint. It is a mighty fine, easy drinking brown that went very well with the onion rings and Spanish Italian pizza. Mag tried to get a final glass of Surlyfest but they had just run the keg dry so it was Fat Tire for him. Surprisingly it was served in a 22 oz bomber. While Surlyfest fans may be sad to see it go, I was thrilled because to replace it Buster’s put a keg of Furious on. Go hops!! With our hunger sated and our thirst momentarily quenched we continued north to Town Hall. This was our first, but probably not last, visit for their Anniversary Week. I’ll be honest that I don’t remember what Mag had- maybe an Anniversary Ale, but I was impressed with both the Petunia’s Pumpkin Ale and the Belgian Raspberry Brown. I’ve been enjoying Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale for the last couple of weeks at home but Petunia’s is even better. The pumpkin flavor is deeper and the spices a bit more pronounced but still very smooth. While Steve tried to steer me away from the Raspberry Brown I took a chance and found it very much to my liking. We’ll probably be back on Saturday to pick up our newly purchased Pint Club cards and of course pick up our free growlers.

It didn't make me a man, but it sure was good

With only time for a short stop at Great Waters today, on the premise of getting a growler filled, I sampled two of their cask beers in those nifty half pints. The Bent Niblick Scottish Ale had the characteristic creamy cask head with a pleasant oat aroma. Colored slightly lighter than expected, more like an IPA, this is a very drinkable, slightly hopping brew that could nearly be considered a session beer. And if anyone is wondering about the name, apparently a niblick is a golf club and the bent part, well I guess the brewer makes beer better than he golfs. While the Niblick isn't bad I was completely bowled over by It Will Make You a Man India Pale Ale. Again, a creamy lasting head but with the beautiful hoppy aroma of an IPA. A true pleasure for any hop head and one I'll be sharing with friends this evening since this was the hands down winner in my choice to fill the growler. The other two casks currently on tap are their House Ale (an excellent session beer) and Black Watch Oat Stout. Their current pushed selection consists of Golden Prairie Blond, St. Peter Pale, Brown Trout Brown Ale, Pflugenpflagen, Time Warp Trippel and Black Watch Oat Stout. It's getting a little chilly to enjoy their patio but their beers have come a long way over the past few years making enduring their cold, loud bar worth it.

Town Hall brews...mmmmmmm

Town Hall makes great beer. Really. And no, I didn’t just realize this, I’m just restating what we’ve come to take for granted. Last night for pre-dinner club drinks we braved the tornado sirens and hail, ducking into Town Hall just as it really started coming down. Surprisingly for me my first beer was their Smoked Hefe. Normally I steer pretty clear of hefes although I’m always willing to try a sip of whoever has some. This time between the intrigue of a smoked beer and Scott’s glowing recommendation I startled myself and ordered it. I couldn’t have been more pleased with this beer. The smokiness was subtle enough to avoid being overwhelming while at the same time provided enough of a cover to the wheatiness to produce a very drinkable beer. Another interesting looking beer on their menu was MN Harvest. This was described as a lighter beer made with maple syrup and wild rice. Gene graciously offered to let me try some of his and although I don’t think I would have enjoyed a full pint of it, it was certainly worth trying. It was lighter than I was in the mood for but had a very pleasant, nutty finish. Next up was their cask IPA. I’m a sucker for cask beers in general and can say I’ve never had one I didn’t enjoy. This was no exception and I thoroughly enjoyed all the hops it had to offer. Before heading off to dinner at Kafe 421 I decided that with the great impression the Smoked Hefe had made on me that Mag would probably enjoy it as well and exchanged my empty growler for one of the hefe.

All-American Grill & Brewhouse

There's a new brewpub going up in Waverly, MN called All-American Grill & Brewhouse and they'll be featuring beers by Ugly Tree Brewing Company. Waverly's probably a good 40 minute drive from our joint in Eagan. Sounds like an opportunity for a road trip to me. They are opening their doors sometime in Sept. Part of me doesn't want to go until after they've been open a while so that I don't have to experience any of the newly-opened-restaurant-oopsies like we've seen at Buster's, but then again, I'm much too antsy about everything I do to bother waiting. Besides, it's nice to see the evolution of a restaurant from the very teen-like gangly, pimply awkwardness to...well, uh...a restaurant with a big rack and tight jeans??? Anywho...