OK, now what?

Start homebrewing that’s what. After about 3 or more years I have finally got a home brewing kit. And now that I do I am sitting here thinking how to start. So this is where I come to you, fellow readers and hone brewers themselves. For starters I am going to head on down to Northern Brewer and see what is the best to start out with, I am guessing a pale ale. If any of you have pointers on where to start and how to please let me know. Or if any of you are not busy this Saturday and want to come on by or are doing a batch sometime soon and don’t mind if I watch I would be much appreciative. I am really excited to start brewing but at the same time very nervous. I know that I will make mistakes down the road but I at least want to start out on some solid footing, like making sure I have everything, where the best place is to put stuff and whatever else I don’t know but should know. Other than that I am stoked to be part of the club and able to use my new category on this site. I plan on documenting as much as I can and posting it here so people can get a feel for what it is like from the very beginning as this was my intention for this site all along. Cheers I will keep you up to date.

Thirsty Pagan Brewery, Superior, WI

Thirsty Pagan is a quaint hole in the wall brew pub in the wasteland us native Duluthians call Superior. Starting out as Twin Ports Brewery when it changed owners back in 2006 new owners Steve and Susan Knauss changed the name and expanded the place. Not only is it a nice brew pub but it also serves as a pretty nice pizza joint. I wish I could tell you more about that but I did not have any of the pizza but looking around there seemed to be no wimpy pies on the tables and from what I heard they do a very good job so next time I am going to give that a shot as well.

I swung by this place after I had a few pints at Fitgers and upon entering it was not like the usual brew pub. It seemed more industrial and not as cozy as the other ones. It resides in an old creamery building and the walls are tiled with off center floors and strange divisions that separate the bar area from the rest of it. It is littered with old beer signs that are on loan from a local beer memorabilia collector who happened to be in the bar that night and strangely enough who I already met when he did a Summit tour. When I first entered I was sort of skeptical about this place, it just didn’t feel right. As I said I am used to a more cozier style but this just seemed like a dive. And I don’t mind dives so it’s not like I found the place offensive, just different. Stepping up to the bar however I was welcomed with open arms. I decided to go straight to the heavy stuff and ordered the Sir-Hops-Alot, a hop bomb that more sweet than it was hoppy but none the less a fine brew. I mentioned to the bartender how I was a beer blogger and was curious about this place for some time and not 10 minutes after that she introduced me to the owner who was very outgoing and proceeded to give me and impromptu tour.

And let me tell you the tour did not take long at all. It is small, really small. Most brew pubs are but this one was almost shockingly small. As you can see in the picture in only houses two small kettles and six small fermenters which run none stop and they do constant keging. However they are expanding so that is a good sign for the place. The brewery portion and the kitchen share the same room so if you can see in the picture there is a structure being built and this will be a “cooler” so to say. It’s going to be a place for the fermenters to and such to go to keep it separate from the heat the permeates from the kitchen.

Going back to the bar I decided to delve deeper into the beers. Next up for me was the Setan Elap Ela which is not a chant but Nate’s Pale Ale in reverse. Hoped with Cascades its a decent beer that neither turned me off nor made me jump out of my chair. After that I went for the Fog Horn Stout which  is loaded with 7 pounds of Alakef Espresso. This one I really liked. Beautifully roasted malts with the espresso beans made this one the hit of the pub. I liked it so much I got a growler of it but then paid the price the next day. When I got home I knew I had to drink this tonight because it was a straight from the tap pour and when that is done it’s usually only good for that day or the day after. So at around 5:00 I flipped on the grill poured a glass, had two while grilling some chicken. Now I do not drink coffee let alone much caffeine so when I was done I had this trembling feeling and I thought I should stop drinking this. But like a fool I didn’t. Had the last two glasses while watching the Vikings loose to the Cardinals and I realized that the trembling did not come back so I thought I was cool. But when I tried to go to bed I noticed that it wasn’t that easy. Then at around 4 am. BAM! Wide awake and not only that, trembling caffeine feelings. I felt this way till about 10 am, then I felt much better. So while this beer was the best I had there for a non caffeine drinker I suggest only one pint.

But that mistake on my part should not discourage you from visiting the Thirsty Pagan in glorious Superior, Wisconsin. I highly recommend getting some pizza and I plan on doing the same. It may not be the fabulous place that Fitgers or Town Hall is but none the less it deserves our patronage. The beer list may be small but they are brewed locally and with the passion that we look for as a beer geek. And get some merchandise too. They have the perfect logo, a pentagram, and the bumper sticker really fits my personality.

Founders Cerise

Snow has finally landed in Minnesota this week. About maybe 4 to 6 inches which isn’t too bad but the wind was awful. People around here complain about the “transplants” that don’t know how to drive in this stuff but it doesn’t bother me, probably because I don’t drive that often and when I do it’s usually side streets too and from work, or I have become rather patient in my old age. I used to be a driving maniac, I would tail people and jot in and out of lanes while speeding. Then I moved to the cities and realized that kind of behavior was a bit more frequent and when it happened to me a few times I backed off, then I started taking the bus and biking and now when I drive I am probably looked down on as a transplant but really I am just a slow driver who has come to the realization that even if I drove 55 or 75 MPH my arrival time is really not too different, especially in the city with all the stop and go stuff.

I got to bike early in the morning when the storm was still going but tapering off Wednesday morning. The side streets in the Como neighborhood were not touched with a plow so I was lucky to get to trudge through it with my beater mountain bike. These are the dangerous times for us bikers. I know if you are a driver around here we can be quite a nuisance and I would like to assure you  that the great guy you know as Stu is not one of them, though I am not perfect. I do not takes the whole lane and if the path or shoulder is bad I will take the sidewalk but that is usually during storms because Minneapolis is pretty good at cleaning shoulders. During winter time my commute is only 3 miles and it’s the campus area so most paths are cleared out. I see so many people in these conditions doing some pretty dangerous stuff. Last year I was biking on the shoulder in Mounds View and I hit and icy spot and the bike flew out from under me and right when this was happening a car was passing and when I landed on the ground I saw the wheels buzz by my head, I learned a lesson, stay as far to the side as you can and if it is really that bad get yourself some Nokians or take a break and ride the bus. Bikes have the right to bike in the winter and I love doing it but there comes a time when your life is more important.

So after getting home from a hard bike ride and a long slow truck ride (I drive to the Como neighborhood and then bike the rest of the way to work during the winter) I had this nice little gem in my fridge. Founders Cerise was one of those beers that I frequently saw at the store but passed up for something else. Not sure why I did this, I think it was the combination of fruit beer and the 9.99 price tag for a four pack.  I like fruit beers but only in small quantities and the four pack was perfect, just the price though. Lately I’ve been limiting myself to only buying one or two beers a week, if that, so when I do I would like at least something that can carry me into the next day. But I thought, what the hell, might as well and I got my allotment of Summit so lets get this for the night to break up the Summit Horizon Red monotony, which I really don’t mind. Cerise pours a beautiful red, not bright red but a more cloudy, murky red. The aroma was faint with cherries but that is too be expected, in my opinion if a fruit beers bursting with fruit aromas, then something is fake in there, unless it’s New Glarus’s Raspberry Tart. The flavor was more subtle than I was hoping for. When I drink a fruit beer I want the fruit not a hint of it. The mouth feel was the best part of this. It was bubbly and made my mouth happy, it basically took away the lack of fruit that I was hoping for and made it fun to drink. It’s a really beautiful beer, all Founders needs to do is crank up the cherry and they got a winner that would be well worth the 9.99. Man, do I sound cheep these days or what.

Founders Cerise

B+

Potosi Brewery’s Holiday Bock

Not sure if this is a seasonal beer, you would think but there is no indication that it is. Either way, winter beers are here. Classic favorites for myself, Summit’s Winter Ale, Schell’s Snowstorm and Sierra Nevada’s Celebration Ale are in my rotation as well as picking up some new ones. This one comes from Potosi Brewery in Potosi, Wisconsin, a brewery that has been around since 1852 but had been shut down in the 70′s and has now found a new resurgence. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to visit this brewery but I plan to in the future. I go this from my good buddy Phil who went on a brewery tour in the lower west part of Wisconsin. Looking at the pictures and reading the history I am excited to check this place out, I love old breweries and especially the small ones that keep it real.

The Holiday Bock is a nice beer. Nothing extreme or potent. It seems to have been around for a while and I am not sure if it is the same recipe as it was decades ago. It’s not as heavy as one might like but very smooth. The malt characters are prominent with little hop flavors. I researched this beer as much as I could but really couldn’t find much except that it is there and was there before. It was fairly potent weighing in at 7% ABV so I suppose it could have been a traditional recipe but I am not sure if Wisconsin had a ABV law then, probably not, drunks. This isn’t a complex beer by any measure, it’s actually quite typical but there are times when beers like this really hit the spot. It’s not a bare bones lager but something drinkable yet flavorful.

Potosi Brewery’s Holiday Bock

B+