A weekend of supporting my local breweries

Last Friday I swung by Surly Brewing to pick up my tickets for Surlyfest. I'm hoping that Paul is able to go with me but either way, I wanted to make sure I had a couple tickets. I also picked up a Surlyfest Tshirt and a Darkness goblet and chatted with Omar for a few minutes about the Vikes, tailgating and the Surlywagon which will have a presence in Minneapolis this fall at football games.

Had a wedding to go in Bloomington and decided to hit the area early to avoid rush hour traffic and have a beer in the meantime. Since Majors was just a mile or two from the church, it seemed like a good place to go. I saw they had Firebrick from Schell's on tap and had been meaning to try that again for awhile so I ordered. It happened to be happy hour so I got a 2-for-1. Nice. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not too familiar with that style (Vienna-style lager) but I wasn't able to pick a whole lot of flavors out of it. It's a solid beer that I rated a 3.3 but it didn't really stand out in the crowd for me. Of course, in a lineup of macrobrews, I'd order this every time. Here's my RateBeer review:
Tap at Majors. Deep copper color and a faint malty aroma. Medium mouthfeel, with the malt again coming through as the main flavor for me. Decent beer, I'll drink it again.

Saturday I went to the State Fair and of course my mission was to see what this beer on a stick from Summit was all about. So I took off, wearing my black Surly shirt to represent and was surprised by how many comments I got on it ranging from "nice shirt" to have-to-stop-and-give-a-high-five. Even the guy in the Summit booth liked it.

Speaking of Summit, the beer on a stick isn't exactly what you might think. It's a small paddle with holes cut out for you to put three 7oz cups of Summit into, one EPA, one Oktoberfest and one Horizon Red. At $7.50 it's not a bad deal for the State Fair, especially if you haven't had them and want to sample some of each. If you brought your paddle back you could get a "refill" for $6.50. So I did and since they let you call audibles I got one Oktoberfest for Allison and two Horizon Reds for myself because that beer is really growing on me.

Also traded in a 27" TV (the gigantic kind) for two four packs of Surly Coffee Bender. The price for electronics has definitely changed quite a bit in the past 5 years or so.

Went bowling later that day and had a couple Surly Benders on tap for only $3.15 which is pretty much like stealing. Check it out if you can - http://www.newhopebowl.net/ Great pizza, good deals on bowling and did I mention $3.15 glasses of Surly Bender?

Sunday was quite uneventful for beer due to back to back fantasy football drafts followed by volleyball at 8:00 but I had to have some beer or it wouldn't have seemed like a draft. Had a couple Coffee Benders during the first draft and a tall Honeyweiss during the second one.

Last night was pretty much the same story, had dinner downtown and it was accompanied by a couple Surly Furious pints. Looking forward to life slowing down again so I can get caught up with all the good beers I have on deck.

Cheers!

Last Weekend

Went to Mankato for a nice relaxing guy's weekend of football watching, golf, Tarantino and of course beer.

Mankato's MGM stores seem to have a great selection of microbrews for a big liquor store so I stopped by the North Mankato location to see what they had for me to drink during the Vikes game Friday night.

It took awhile to get things narrowed down because of the selection but I eventually decided to try a six pack each of Goose Island India Pale Ale and Bell's Kalamazoo Stout and grabbed a four pack of Surly Coffee Bender (why is that stuff so expensive these days?). Official ratings to come but after 2 of the IPA's and a Stout I could safely say I chose wisely.

Saturday morning I rolled out of bed for to relax for awhile before golf and had myself a Coffee Bender.

Decided not to have any while golfing but did have another Goose Island at the house before James and I took off at the bar.

While there I asked what they had for darker beers on tap and when I heard that they had Oktoberfests from both Schell's and Leinie's, I decided to start with a Schell's to support my hometown brewery. I'm not real familiar with Oktoberfests but James and I both thought it looked pretty pale and yellow to be one. No worries though, it tasted good and went down nicely. Found out when I ordered my next round that the first waitress was mistaken and the Schell's that I drank was actually Zommerfest and that my next beer would indeed be an Oktoberfest from Leinie's. That made a lot more sense after we found that out. Both beers were pretty solid and I had a second Leinie's which went down slow since a good dinner and the first two tall glasses filled my belly. Looking forward to my exploration of more Oktoberfests (including Schell's which should be out around now).

Sunday was quite eventful, just had one of the 32 oz mugs filled with Honeyweiss after our very successful volleyball match. Another good weekend with beer in the books.