32 Beers

32 beers on tap and I had 2. Yup. That sounds pretty bad, doesn’t it? I mean, how often does one get the chance to have nearly the entire line up of a brewery on tap at the same time?
Last night Stub & Herb’s hosted this amazing opportunity as part of the Minnesota Craft Beer Week festivities. Flat Earth loaded up their taps with a combination of standards, specialty beers, and infusions. And as much as I have loved some of those infusions, the two beers that captured and kept my attention for the night were Rode Haring Flanders Red Ale and Extra Medium.
For those unfamiliar with the beers, Rode Haring is a blend of Extra Medium (American wild ale) and Biere de Garde. It’s aged for over a year so once a batch is gone there’s going to be a bit of a wait until the next batch is ready. I finished my last bomber from the previous batch around the first of the year and have been thirsting for the new batch ever since. And rather than quenching that thirst, last night’s pints of these tart and kinda funky beers only primed me to get my hands on more.

Coffee and Beer

I love coffee. I really love coffee in my beer. And these days it seems like I have more choices than ever for coffee beers.

Not long ago most coffee beers were stouts or porters. These were big, thick beers suited for cold weather drinking and they were delicious. Now, though brewers seem to be branching out, experimenting by pairing coffee with other styles of beers, many of which are well suited for warmer weather.

One of the locals, Furthermore’s Oscura, has just come back on the shelves and it prompted me to do a mini head to head taste testing of some of the readily available bottled or canned coffee beers.

Mag and I sat down tonight with Oscura, Surly’s Coffee Bender, Flat Earth’s Black Helicopter and out of Portland, Maine, Peak Organic Espresso Amber. On any given day I’d be happy to drink any of these but having not had any of them in the same sitting, it was time to taste test them against one another to really tease out what characteristics of each spoke to me.
Both Coffee Bender (5.1% ABV) and Black Helicopter (5.2% ABV) were light on the tongue, finishing clean, with Black Helicopter having a bit more bitterness and smelling the most like a beer.

Espresso Amber (6.8% ABV) and Oscura (5.3% ABV) were surprisingly similar in light amber color with Espresso Amber having the strongest coffee aroma, like a cold espresso. They were more full bodied than Bender and Heli with Oscura taking the cake with its silky smooth mouthfeel, the result of the flaked maize.

From oatmeal brown to stout to amber to Mexican brown, these are all wonderfully made, easy drinking coffee beers. Tonight, however the Sconie beat out its Minnesota and East Coast competition.

What a beautiful night!

If you aren't outside on this beautiful Thursday night in Minnesota you are missing out! This is the time of year we have to remember both in the dead of January when it seems like the warmth and light of summer will never return as well as the dog days of August when we're wishing for a few flakes of snow to cool us off.

Even though I had to work later than usual today, all I could think about was getting home, grabbing a beer and getting out on the deck. The issue of what beer that would be was solved as I talked to Kat on my way home and she told me the Flat Earth Monkey Business (coconut infused Cygnus X-1 Porter) in my fridge tasted like an Almond Joy.

I'll have to agree with Scott that I'm not picking up quite that much coconut flavor but that doesn't mean it isn't just divine. A dark chocolate brown with Flat Earth's trademark head and just a touch of coconut to remind you this isn't the regular Cyguns, this is something special.

A beautiful evening on the deck with a great beer and Cleo hunting some little furry creature off in the woods. It really doesn't get much better than this...unless of course Mag stops on his way home and picks up something really tasty for dinner.

Festing the Firkins

Yesterday's Firkin Fest at The Happy Gnome was quite impressive. They had something like 66 casks of beer, compared to around 20 last year. And the brewer turnout was great. They may have had more firkins than the real ale tent at the Great Taste of the Midwest. The set up and overall format worked well also. $1 a ticket basically got you one sample. Here's what I liked and didn't like about the event.

Liked

• The two special tastings, Thornbridge Jaipur and Ola Dubh (Special Reserve 30) from Harviestoun, were more than worthy. I was especially impressed with the Ola Dubh. Hands-down my favorite beer of the afternoon. The Jaipur was great as well, but I kept finding myself comparing it to American IPAs, which does no justice to English ales and is shameful on my part.
  
• Well, I already said I liked the fantastic selection. I was very happy that our local heros were present, including Brau Bros., Flat Earth, Lake Superior, Lift Bridge, Schells, Summit and Surly. But I was also delighted to be able to get Dark Horse, Avery, Rogue, etc. Colorado was very well represented, and rightfully so, with Boulder Beer Co., Breckenridge, Flying Dog, and New Belgium, in addition to Avery.
• Sprecher had a Scotch Ale that was interesting. I didn't actually care for it, but the emotional response it illicited was interesting. The description Scott gave it was spot on, which is why this is a high point. He described it as the smell and taste of an ocean breeze mixed with seaweed. That fit it exactly.
• Kris and I also had a chance to re-try our first ever sour beer. A couple of years ago, we had a sour from New Belgium that we both agreed tasted like stomach bile. Interesting, but we didn't enjoy it. New Belgium had their La Folie on cask yesterday and we both tried it again. Our palates have evolved a bit since our first tasting. It is still quite tart, but I kind of enjoyed it. Kris didn't like it. Of course, if it isn't Duchesse de Bourgogne, it's crap in her book.
  

Didn't Like

• 1 oz pours just plain stink. I'm gonna pay $12 for a 12 oz. beer normally? In some cases, yes. Some cases. I know you're trying to make money and I won't begrudge you that. Heck, I support it. You wouldn't do the event if you couldn't make money. Makes sense. But c'mon, 1 oz pours!? Hell, and I'm not a tight-ass. I would've been willing to pay a bit more per ticket for a 2 oz. pour. 1 oz pours...sheesh. Didn't care much for $2 beer programs either.
• Some beers just don't work well in Firkins. I was disappointed in a few beers I had. I love Rogue, but didn't care for their Charlie cask. There were a few others that I normally like but that I didn't think worked in a firkin. And, inexplicably, the gold medal winner from the judges went to Two Brothers. Two Brothers makes some damn good beer, but their winning selection was blaise in my opinion. There were far more worthy beers available. I think Lift Bridge's crowd-judged gold meal Farm Girl Kimono was well deserved.
• Live music - meh. Live music is okay, but not when it is too fricken loud and about five feet away from you. We left after the live music began because you couldn't chat with anyone anymore.
• Why weren't there brewpubs represented?
  

Overall - a nice event and a great way to kick off spring. Thanks Happy Gnome.

Planned to get Surly, got Rode instead

Last night we headed over to Stub & Herb’s for their Surly night, featuring 8 Surly brews on tap. We weren’t sure exactly what time things were to begin (Mag thought he’d read 8 pm somewhere) but since we needed dinner anyway we went early.

Sure enough, when we got there the chalkboard proclaimed the festivities would start at 8. In the meantime they did have some Surlys on tap, just not all of them, but I wanted to see what else was available, thinking I’d wait until 8 for some Surly.

I could hardly believe my eyes when the third beer on the menu was Flat Earth’s Rode Haring. Trying not to get too excited just yet I ordered one, half figuring the menu was old and I’d be told they didn’t have it. The bartender hesitated upon hearing my order, thinking they didn’t have it. Taking a sample off the tap, he found they did indeed have it!! Apparently they had pulled it off a while ago so they could put Extra Medium on and now that that had been drained, the Rode Haring was back.

With this beer being virtually nonexistent (at least until 2010) I was in heaven and enjoyed every pint of it I had. Oh, and the Coffee Bender, served in the appropriate Surly coffee mug, was pretty darn tasty, too.

P.S. Thanks to the meter reader who took the time to read the note I had put on my dash, look at the meter and then leave me a note saying she had reported the dead meter to the shop.

Back in the Saddle

After a too long hiatus, last night I made it back to growler fill night at Flat Earth. Armed with a basket of freshly made brownie bites in honor of Mike’s birthday, I received a warm welcome and no jabs about where I’d been (maybe the brownies worked their magic). My favorite sample was of their raspberry infused Belgian Pale Ale. While I was bummed they had run out of growlers of it earlier in the evening I was thrilled to be reminded that this is on the menu for the upcoming Flat Earth Beer Dinner at The Dining Studio that we’re going to. Last time I checked the chef was still working on the food menu but whatever is created I’m sure it’ll be great…the beer menu certainly is.

Once done there, Kat & Scott chauffeured me over to Ngon (better than the alternative of Kat trying to talk me through getting there after an inevitable wrong turn), where a small group of us had decided to go for dinner. There wasn’t a cask option, and apparently wouldn’t be for a couple weeks yet so I defaulted to one of my favorites – Surly Coffee Bender. Regular Bender doesn’t do anything for me, but the Coffee Bender is one of the amazingly plentiful coffee beers around town that is harder to find than I’d like. But Ngon seems to always have it on tap AND they serve it in Surly’s glass coffee mugs. Very cool.

Much to my approval our appetizer order included Ngon’s Cha Gio (egg rolls). We had these the last time I was there and I have been thinking about them ever since. For my dinner I almost ordered Hu Tieu hoac Mi Thap Cam, a soup similar to Pho. But when the waitress was taking our order someone asked about the Com Tams. The description she gave sounded good and I took her up on her recommendation of the Com Tam Bi, Suon, Trung. She said if you’re a pork fan then this is the dish for you. I am and it was!

As the meal wound down, the dessert menu came out and I couldn’t resist ordering the chocolate fire cake. I don’t recall the exact name and since it’s not listed on their on line menu suffice it to say that it is a mini-bundt shape chocolate cake with some type of pepper spice. The combination of flavors reminded me of earlier in the evening eating a brownie while drinking some of Flat Earth’s Hold Your Fire pepper beer. Both were excellent.

Out late on a school night

Last night Kat and Scott graciously provided me a ride over to Stub & Herb’s for the Flat Earth & Lift Bridge tasting since Mag was in class and couldn’t partake in the fun until a bit later. When we showed up, just before the start of it at 7:00, there were already quite a few people there, enough so that we decided to grab a booth in the main bar area so we could get some food in before the drinking started in earnest.

Similar to the last tasting I attended, you could purchase a taster glass with tickets for one 5 oz pour of each of the beers they were showcasing. So last night’s tasting was Flat Earth’s Black Helicopter, Rode Haring, Cygnus X-1 Porter and Winter Warlock. Lift Bridge’s were Pale Ale, Biscotti, and Farm Girl. All for $5, plus one ticket for $1 off a pint of double-hopped Pale Ale…a pretty good deal as far as I was concerned.

Other than an incorrect name for one of the beers and a bit of a wait for some of the samples it seemed to be a much more organized event than in the past. Plus, Jeff, Cathie, Jim, Steve, Dan and Brad all took turns talking about their respective beers before the samples were poured. A nice way for people new to the brewers or their beers to get to know them a bit better and hopefully join us as fans of their fine work.

Mag was able to join us for about the last third of the tasting and thanks to Kat, managed to score one of the last pints out of the Lift Bridge cask. We finished off the last couple of beers in the tasting and the crowd started to thin out a bit. Switching over to pints I took the opportunity to enjoy the hard to find Rode Haring as Brad headed out with the now empty cask of dry hopped Pale.

At some point I saw someone’s watch. I believe it said 12:10. I almost fell over. How could it have gotten so late? So we headed home, with a detour to Wendy’s, and I believe I saw the clock say 1:23. Oh, it’s going to be a long day today.

Trees

Last night we cracked open the growler of Flat Earth’s Trees, the hazelnut infused Cygnus from their infused series at the end of ’08. This one was released the week of Thanksgiving, so had been aging for about six weeks in our beer fridge. I don’t recall the specifics of how the growler came to be mine but I do know that both Kat and Mike were instrumental in making sure it came into my possession. THANK YOU!!! This stuff is amazing! And of course, thanks to Jeff and whomever else was part of creating it.

I first had a hazelnut beer years ago at Papago in Scottsdale, Arizona while visiting Mag, who was there for work. I remember pulling up to Papago, sandwiched between some other businesses in an unimpressive strip mall, and both of us having our doubts about the place. Since we’d been to other iffy looking in the places in the past with good results we put those doubts to the side and headed in. In Arizona they allow “on-sale” and “off-sale” at the same location so it was part bar, part cooler lined liquor store. I’m sure we tried more beers than just their hazelnut but it was so good that’s all I can remember.

Since then, I’ve had a soft spot for hazelnut beers, which are few and far between. There have been a few, with Rogue making one of them, and they vary from the outstanding flavor I recall at Papago to one that is only vaguely hazelnut in flavor. I’m thrilled to say that Trees falls into the former category and I’m looking forward to enjoying the rest of the growler. I don’t know if there are any more growlers of this fine brew floating about but I’ll be keeping my eyes open for ‘em.

Gotta love the locals!

There are many reasons to love our local brewers and the beers they produce. Besides being cool people in general, with jobs most of the rest of us are envious of, they are extremely creative. Last night I made it up to Flat Earth’s growler fill day, lured by the introduction of Starman Porter, their porter infused with star anise from Penzey’s that had been soaked in Ouzo. I was pretty sure I’d at least like it but man, this stuff is really good! The anise flavor is certainly there but not overpowering and I’m going out on a limb betting that even black-licorice-averse Mag is going to enjoy it. Luckily after gabbing with Jeff, Mikey, Drunk Dave, and the other folks that showed up to get growlers Kat and I were able to score the last two growlers of this ambrosia. Note to self: Next time, buy first, gab second.

While I had planned to go straight home after picking up my growlers, and possibly doing something productive, Kat and I decided a better plan would be to grab some dinner. We offered to have Scott and Mag join us but they both declined so we headed off to Great Waters. Some event must have been going on from the looks of the parking situation and how full GW was but we were able to get a table in the bar with a minimal wait. Just after we ordered our drinks, Bob, who was there brewing with Joel came over to say hi. He confirmed our theory that while there may be a recession going on in some parts of the economy, that is not the case with the beer crowd. They have apparently been going through their brews at an incredible pace. Luckily I was able to have a couple pints of what I assume was brewed for Halloween, Hop Scare. It’s hoppy, but not over the top, and a true joy to drink. If I would have had an extra growler in the car I would have taken some home, but that not being the case I may have to resort to plan B: seeing if I can get Scott to share some of his.

Flat Earth & Lift Bridge

Yesterday after receiving an email from Dan over at Lift Bridge about their inaugural brewing day at Flat Earth I decided to head over there to say hi and of course to bring home at least one growler from Flat Earth.

By the time I arrived the brewing had been completed but two of the Lift Bridge guys were still there. As they always are, both the Lift Bridge and the Flat Earth folks were warm and happy to talk to whomever came in, including me. Farm Girl Saison was the brew made that day and I found out there are plans for additional brewing both of the Saison as well as some of their other recipes. After tasting their products at the Stillwater Brewers Bazaar I’m excited about this partnership and increased production ability.

Additionally, I’m really impressed with Jeff going to the effort to support another “new kid” on the brewing block. While it is true that all craft brewers are competing for essentially the same market I think being collaborative instead of competitive will help everyone to a greater extent in the long run. Certainly from a craft brew drinking standpoint I enjoy having options, especially really good options.

Along with the chatting, I also tried the two newest additions to the Flat Earth lineup, Ovni Ale and Convention Ale. I slightly preferred the taste of Ovni, and would never have guessed it weighs in at 7.1%. It’s that smooth and it has a dang cool, little green man label. In the end I stuck to my recent infatuation with Angry Planet and happily carted a growler of it home with me.

Beer and chocolate

Beer is tasty. Chocolate is yummy. However as much as I like the both of them on their own (and paired in a chocolate stout) it rarely occurs to grab a hunk of chocolate when I'm having a beer. Last night during a game of Killer Bunnies there happened to be some Chocolate Bridge Mix from Candyland at hand. At the other hand was a glass of Flat Earth's Belgian pale ale. Mag was the first to mention it and the rest of quickly followed suit to verify that indeed the milk chocolate brought out some very nice and pronounced floral flavors in the beer. If I've ever had beer and chocolate in the same sitting it surely didn't produce results like this! Next time a growler of the Belgian pale ale graces our house I just might have to make sure there's some milk chocolate around.

City Pages Hail & Rain & Drunk Fest

Well, Mother Nature did it to us again this year. About an hour into the City Pages Beer Fest it started raining big, fat, cold drops of rain...and then the marble sized hail came...lots of it. I happened to be outside the tasting area at the time so I was able to find shelter and Kris had her poncho with, so she stayed dry, but she ended up with welts on her arms from the hail. Luckily the rain and hail didn't last long, so the festing could continue. At least until the second band of storms came through. And for anyone wondering, there weren't really any wet, see-through t-shirts present. hrmmm

Kris was pleased with the event, overall. I was less so. The beer selection was as we expected; lots of crap which was made up for by great beers from some of the craft beer joints. One annoying thing about the fest is that most of the beer is served by volunteers who 1) don't know squat about beer (most of them), 2) were often pretty rude (some of them), 3) weren't even filling the tasting cups to the damn 2 oz. line (about half of them). And the crowd was mainly rude drunks who also didn't know crap about beer. I happened to be standing at the Flat Earth tent towards the end of the evening when some d-bag came pushing through the crowd, stuffed his arm over my shoulder, and shouted for Jeff to "Give (him) some of that dark shit. That dark shit is good." Of course, he was referring to Black Helicopter. *sigh* Too much of that. By the way, Flat Earth's dark shit is good if you haven't had it. Real good. Jeff used coffee from Paradise Roasters, a premier, local roaster in the beer.

Highlights:

• Flat Earth, Surly, Summit and Schell's were anchors of the event, in my opinion. The crowd didn't appreciate their "dark shit," so you could generally get a beer at their tents without too much trouble, unlike the Land Shark and Schlitz tents. And these breweries had representatives present and serving beer. There were enough other craft beers represented (e.g. Boulder Brewing, Boulevard, Bell's, etc.) to provide a good selection.


• Herkimer was there and I was able to chat with their new brewer for about 5 minutes. I enjoyed what I had of Herkimer's and liked what I heard from their new brewer.


• There actually were a few new beer offerings to be had. Peak Organic Brewing out of Portland, Maine had beers there, including a pale, nut brown, amber and maple oat. Decent. Atlantic Brewing Co. also had beers there including a blueberry ale, ginger, nut brown and a porter. They may have been there in the past. I don't remember.


• We bumped into a number of friends and it was fun hanging out.

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...