La Crosse, Wisconsin

Recently my wife and I went on a little trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin. A small city in southern Wisconsin that sits on the banks of three rivers, most notably the Mississippi it boasts the record for most bars per capita. I am sure the tourism beaurau would prefer something else but this little tid bit of information seems to be most popular with the college crowd. La Crosse also was the home of the famed G. Heileman Brewing company which produced such gems as Old Style and Special Export, the later being a big hit with a lot of my friends. Why? I can only guess because of the novelty and the price. Towards the end went the way like a lot of other breweries but this one went down much later than the rest, 1996 when it was bought out by Stroh’s  and when they were done the Old Style and Special Export name and brewing went to Pabst who is of course owned by Miller. Today the old facility is owned and run by City Brewing who also were part of the Latrobe Brewing Company buy out or whatever that was and all the shit that went along with that. Researching this is really facinating but messy, breweries being bought by these guys but the brews going to those guys and buys outs and closures, it all gets jumbled. Check out the Wiki pages here and here to get a better understanding.

Used to have the Old Style logos, now it's LaCrosse Lager

Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to tour the brewery so I got nothing to show you inside but it’s an old school brewery and now it mainly used for a few beers, City beers obviously plus a few other “gems” but they also make energy drinks and Arizona Tea. All and all being that it’s still operational and is massive in size I get a feel that it’s used mainly for output and you won’t be seeing anything worth screaming about, unless you love Game Day Ice or Pit Bull Malt Liquor.

But if you are ever in La Crosse and you can only got to one place you better make that place Bodega’s. A beautiful pub that sits on the corner of 4th and Pearl Street this is a beer lovers haven in La Crosse. I mentioned earlier on how La Crosse is dubbed most bars per capita, though I don’t know if that is official or not but right across the street from our parking spot was a full block of bars, 4 bars all in a row, so I don’t doubt the legend is true. But from the feeling I get that most of them don’t have anything close to what Bodega’s has and that being said a lot of bars in any town don’t come close. 400 beers available and 15 on tap. They have this awesome cooler that is copper plated and all the beers are numbered and rotates inside it. So you give them the number and they spin it around to find it. It’s a very cozy place and something I will definatly go back to if I am ever in La Crosse again.

My poor pregnant wife. No beer for you

The infamous cooler.

Bodega's at night.

La Crosse also boasts a new brewery called Pearl Street which I did not get a chance to check out because it was getting late and we couldn’t find it. So if I do go back I will have to check that out as well. Anyways La Crosse is a fun town. I would love to go back after Kelly gives birth to our next baby girl so we can have a silly time. There are some beautiful scenery spots like Granddads Bluff and the river fronts. Some great restaurants like Pickerings, Buzzard Billy’s and Big Al’s Pizza. And of course, bars bars bars. I can see having a great time at night in the summer there.

 

Surly Fest 2010

First time ever to this event. And what a perfect day we had. Not too hot, not too cold and the sun was shining, birds were singing and the beer was flowing. I decided to do the right thing and bike there, and good thing I did because I could barely bike out of the parking lot, luckily I had my wife pick me up. 35 bucks got you the mug and 4 beer tokens and trust me, 4 was enough. You got you choice of many Surly flavors but the only sad thing was that there wasn’t anything “special” so to say. But that didn’t matter, they were all good. The Hell tasted especially good that day. Here are some more photos of the event. Cheers!

Title Town Brew Pub and Shipwrecked Brew Pub

Here is a quick picture post on my trip to Door County, Wisconsin. Title Town Brew Pub is located in, obviously, Green Bay. It’s pretty much right on the way to Door County. Door County by the way is the “thumb” of Wisconsin the jots out into Lake Michigan. I really like this brew pub, even with all the Packer crap. It is located right near the bottom Green Bay, the bay not the city so it is really located on the north end of the city. The building is an old train station and the trains still cross right next to it, or at least a train did when were eating. The beers were nice, nothing too far out there but they were brewed well. I had an IPA and I believe a Red which were both very nice. I even got a cool glass that I cannot drink out of because, well, its got green and gold on it but a cool football etch on the bottom. Some Packer fan will get this soon. There is another brew pub across the street but unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to stop there. I recommend stopping here if you are ever in Green Bay. Don’t forget to wear your purple

When we were staying in Door County we were very lucky to be next to the only brew pub in Door County, Shipwrecked. If you ever go to Door County you will find a lack of craft beer with this being an exception. Not saying that this is everywhere but they do sell them in 6 packs so that was nice to see. The brew pub itself is OK though. The beer selection was very thin with only 4 choices, a copper ale, an amber, a porter and a cherry wheat, the cherry wheat being very nice being that Door County is known for it’s cherries, any cherry flavored beer you get in the upper midwest is probably made with Door County Cherries. I was really hoping for something special here but then I am used to Town Hall and Fitgers so my expectations are always high, but still the selections were nothing to write home about even though I am writing about it, they really could use something bolder. But no matter what it is still nice to have a brew pub to go to when you are on vacation. So if you are in Door County stop on by, you really have no other choice.

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.

Angry Minnow Brew Pub, Hayward, WI

Hayward is a small city in the northwest corner of Wisconsin. Lot’s of cabins, trails and wooded areas. There is a big fish in town. Biggest muskie in the world in fact. There is a Main Street with lots of little shops and it always seems to be packed. I’ve been there I think 3 times in my life and have never bought a thing. I have always wondered how those stores survive, same with the stores on State Street in Madison. I really have no reason to go up there. However this last time we were there for a wedding which was at the Telemark Resort in Cable which is a city about 10 miles north of Hayward. The Telemark Resort is a great place. It was probably a little more classier in it’s heyday but I found it to be rather charming. This is where the Birkebeiner Cross Country ski race takes place. There are cross country ski trails all over that area, 40 km worth, and in the summer those trails are mountain bike trails, in fact on of the biggest off-road bike events, the Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival, is held there. I got money down on a Redline monocog and plan on doing this event next year or just going there for fun, the trails look slamming. The resort also has a great bar with shitty music on the jukebox, I mean real shitty, but when looking at the taps they had something I have never heard. Angry Minnow beer. They had two different styles, a Pale Ale and a Oatmeal Stout and both were very nice, especially the Pale Ale. I asked the bartender what the brewery was and with my luck the bartender knew his beer and with even more luck he told me that the Angry Minnow is a brewpub in Hayward. So the next day before the wedding, which was a hit by the way, you could drink during the ceremony, my wife and I hit up the Angry Minnow.

Approaching the place I was pleasantly surprised with its outer decor. Built in 1889 it’s an old brick building that housed the Northern Wisconsin Lumber company’s offices. It had a smaller porch in front and a very nice patio in back surrounded by brick archways. Inside is what I have to come to expect from the better brew pubs out there. The bar was beautiful. A mixture of old brick and new wood that had more little archways for the bartender to walk through and the taps were all made of wood, nothing cheesy. We ordered some food and I had a Gourmet Grilled Cheese which was good but my wife on the other hand had the Turkey Sandwich and that was something to die for. The meat was slow roasted with all these spices and it was the best turkey I have ever had. What I look for in a great brew pub is also great food and this place did not disappoint. Now the beers. What they had on tap was a pale ale, stout (both of which were at the resort), a light lager, honey wheat, a red and to make me happy, an imperial IPA. Obviously I took the IPA first and I found it to be a bit light on the imperial side but still very good. I even took home a growler of this. After that I just got samples of the other beers minus the two I had at the resort and the light lager, which was actually just two beers then. The red was decent but pretty tame, not much different from commercial reds. And the honey wheat was good but also nothing to scream about. I really liked the feel of this place but I wish there were more selections. But with 6 beers on tap and three being worthy I have to say that even though this place is young and in the middle of a very small town this place will be hit up by my on one of my adventures back home to Duluth, a little out of the way but I’ll make a day of it, maybe the Minnow for lunch and Fitgers for dinner.

Angry Minnow Brew Pub

B+

Dark Lord Day

Finally I am just getting over my exhaustion. Where do I begin? Well, I guess we can start from the beginning when Three Floyd’s Brewery announced Dark Lord Day was coming soon and the newly established ticket system, as opposed to a first come first serve system. Before, as I heard from others, was a very stressful and possibly disappointing day because there is no guarantee that you would leave with a bottle let alone 6, so people would be standing in line for 5 hours having driven possible 300 miles and when they get close, “Sorry folks, we are all out.” This happened last year to the people in front of us.

The Golden Tickets

So this year they decided to set up a “Golden Ticket” system where you would have to register on their website and then on the day of St Patrick the “doors” would open and you could buy up to two tickets per household for 10 dollars a ticket, proceeds going to charity. This was to ensure that people would not be disappointed and who knows, possibly prevent a riot. I was aware of this day since it was announced but felt it was too much money and too far away and just too much of a hassle so I did not register but was offered a chance to tag along with Aaron, The Captain, but was probably not going to do it and that was the end of that.

Then one day I got about 5 tweets from Dave the Drunken Polack saying he wanted to ask me something, he finally gave up and decided just to straight email me which we all prefer anyways, tweeting just seems dorky yet we still do it. And imagine my surprise when he said that he had two tickets yet was not able to go and he wanted to know if I would want them. Hells yeah I would, I knew I had a ride already and all I had to do was send him back his share which was no problem so it was a perfect scenario.

John reaping the reward

But after about three different scenarios came and went I settled on the best one, going to Madison and driving from there with my good friend John and driving back and staying with him and his family. So it was all set. I got the tickets and Dave’s money, saved up some cash myself and waited for the day to hit the road.

I left Friday morning at 10 a.m. with a cooler of Summit’s Horizon Red, a growler of Town Hall’s Masala Mama and a growler of Fitger’s Hair of the Monk which for trades that never really happened. It was a very nice ride that day if not too hot and I made it to Tyranena Brewery where I was meeting the Captain and his brother-in-law just in the nick of time for our 3:00 private tour with Jessie their Beer Ambassador.

The Captain and I enjoying a Scurvy.

We started off with a glass of Benji’s Chipotle Smoked Imperial Porter which was very well balanced, it had nice chocolate notes with a peppery aftertaste and a smoky body, not my favorite style but it was something that I enjoyed. The brewery itself is very small, not Flat Earth small but still one of the smaller ones I have seen, but possibly the cleanest, I was ready to eat of the floor. The bottling operation is all hands and that day they packaged and shipped out my favorite beer from them, one in which I have already reviewed, Scurvy. After the tour we went back into the bar and proceeded to have a Bourbon Aged Rocky’s Revenge and then at five they tapped the Scurvy, perfect timing for us I might add. We chatted with assistant brewmaster Nevin McCown who was very hospitable and we each picked up a growler of the Scurvy which I, John and Jenny (John’s wife) polished off that night along with a bottle of some Three Floyd’s Winter Ale and Stout.

Being that I am allergic to cats I stayed in the basement and to my surprise they did not bother me at all so I slept like a rock and woke up at 7 all set to go. After a hearty breakfast that Jenny made we hit the road at 8 and we were off to Chicago. We got a I-Pass from Jenny’s sister so that really helped us bypass the tolls quickly and after one stop we made it to Munster, Indiana which is just over the border of Chicago.

We made it!

Parking was a mess, we could tell that the road to the brewery was full so we parked at a park by the road and walked the mile to the brewery. Closer we got the more things were picking up. When we turned the corner there it was, the line. Now keep in mind that we got there about quarter to 11 and that is when the doors were opening but we knew it as going to be long but this was looonnnggg. It started at the brewery and went about 2 blocks down to about the end and then coiled around inside a parking lot, when we got there we were just at the part where the coil was perpendicular to the other part of the line but after about a half hour it was a coil about 3 loops deep, if that makes any sense, you can probably see it in the picture though this is after about an hour of standing in line. About a half hour later Aaron, his brother-in-law and a friend showed up and we let them in line , I hope no one was pissed but it was near the end and the line did move pretty fast, I know that there were people cutting in towards the front of the line and that to me was much worse that doing it at the end with friends. Anyways, standing in line was probably the best part of the day next to getting the Dark Lord, we met some cool people around us, we shared beer and brewing stories as well as talked about everything and anything. We were able to leave in groups to use the bathroom, the brewery was selling their other beer which you could buy whenever which I shared with the group.

The looonnnggg line.

I bought a sixer of the Gumball Head which was a very nice Wheat beer, a nice combo of wheat and hops, a much more hoppy wheat beer than others I have had but nothing “imperial” just a nice balance and I also picked up a bottle of a Three Floyd’s and Dogfish Head collaboration, Popskull which was a very nice German Brown Ale with Palo Santo Wood and Botanicals. Then, after about 2 and half hours we were getting very close, the lone guy without a ticket in our party moved our stuff to a location in the grass and we were set to enter the final stage of the line.

The parking lot of the brewery was a clusterfuck of tasting tents, guest brews, porta-potties and basically people standing around and getting sloshed. This is the area where you could get Vanilla Dark Lord and Oaked Aged Dark Lord and other stuff but if you know me well you know that the one thing I hate is thick, obnoxious drunk crowds, I would have loved to try these but it just wasn’t worth it for me and it seemed I wasn’t alone because I don’t think any of us went.

Chicago line friend and I enjoying the line.

Getting back to the Dark Lord line this is when it started to get hectic and discombobulated, people that were well behind us blatantly walked in front of us, I looked right at them and they really didn’t seem to give a shit. But the line just bolted, by the time we hit the parking lot and the door it was about 15 minutes to a half hour. The last part of the line was probably one of the coolest feelings I felt in a while. I mean, in the end it is just a beer but the moment of hearing about it, then getting tickets, then the journey and then the line and then actually knowing that you are going to have it because honestly I still was not 100% sure it was all going to pan out, I anticipated a car breaking down, tickets flying out the window, the beer running out, but after all this we were there, we got our beer and we hurried back to our spot in the grass and secured them with the rest of our booty. Now you got 4 bottles per ticket. For me I got two tickets and 4 of the beers were going to The Drunk Polack and I was splitting mine with John so in the end I got two which I really do not mind because that is plenty for me and it was nice just to experience the day. But to my surprise The Captain’s brother-in-law cracked open one and split it with all of us, very cool. And my god what a beer. Almost like desert. Just a mashing of flavors. I will actually reserve a review for the beer on a later date so I can explain it better. So it was roughly 2 p.m. when we were all back to base camp. We were leaving at 4 so we had a good two hours to mingle and enjoy the day. I talked with our line buddies from Chicago and got to try some home brews. I cracked open my Fitger’s Hair of the Monk Triple and share some with the crowd as did Aaron with his Masala Mama. It was around this time that I was starting to get tipsy as was everyone else including some poor schmo that ralphed in front of everyone.

Too much Dark Lord Day

I made the dumb mistake of not getting Dread Naught, I think I was all set but for some reason thought I would get a sixer of Alpha King instead. It hit 4 p.m., I grabbed a can of Bitter Brew for the walk back and we were off to Madison before hitting a liquor store to pick up something that we couldn’t get in Madison or Wisconsin which was nothing but two bottles of Three Floyd’s Barley Wine.

The ride back was wet and cold but fairly quick. We topped off the night with one of John’s bottles of Dark Lord, a bottle of Popskull, a bottle of the Barley Wine and we foolishly drank from John’s growler of his homebrew clone of Duvel, we were already in the bag by then.

John's Home Brew

Needless to say I zonked out and slept in till 10 waking up very fuzzy and being that I had a 4 hour drive ahead of me was something I was not looking forward to. Along the way was sporadic rain that was at times very dense that it made driving a pain in the ass, I also stopped at a liquor store to see if there was anything that I could not get in Minnesota, and there was, but it was all looking not very appealing to my current state so I bought no booze but instead some Taco Bell. I finally got home at 4 and saw my daughter Delia for the first time in like 3 days and she was probably the most beautiful person I have ever saw as was my wife, it is so good to get home. We played and hung out and Delia eventually went to bed and I finally felt better and had a few Alpha King’s which were excellent, bolder Pale Ale than some others out there. At about 9 p.m. Delia woke up screaming and proceeded to do so most of the night which kept me waking up on and off. She stayed home the next day so I went to work in the morning and left early, shipped out The Drunken Polack’s bottles and I went home to finally relax. And I did, Delia felt better, I went to be early and sweated out all the beer I drank this weekend and slept like rock and now here I am. What a weekend. Can’t wait to it next year.

Who says volunteering doesn’ t pay

Even without the beer it is a great gig. The owner Mark hung out with us today after the tour. What a superb organization. How I ended up in printing and not brewing is a mystery. Oh well, there is still time.

Summit Brewery Volunteer

You all are looking at the newest volunteer for Summit Brewery. I have been waiting for this for about a couple years now. It all started when my good friend Phil who works in the same building as me posed the question that if he got a chance, he is a volunteer as well, that he could get me on board if I would want to do it. Hell yeah I would, what better way to get closer to the brewing capital of Minnesota besides getting a job there. So a couple weeks ago Phil sent me an email from Big E, the lead volunteer, asking for people interested. I sent an email stating that I would be and sent him this blog link to show my love of beer. However I do not have any reviews of Summit but that is mostly because I try to keep it mostly unknown beers. Well right after my vacation I discovered an email from Big E asking for a “resume,” I use quotes because I had a feeling they were not looking for formal they were looking for personality. So I basically sent them something right off the top of my head. Here it is, keep in mind that there is a Simpson’s reference because I would get brownie points if I knew who the Stone Cutter were and there was a request to know my middle name as well.

Well, first off let me tell you that if I am picked I will still help to keep Atlantis off the map and keep the martians under wraps and will continue to make Steve Guttenberg a star, the last thing I want to do is have to pull the stone of shame.

Summit beer is is the reason I love craft beer. I remember picking up a six pack of Extra Pale Ale back in like ’96 or ’97 and thinking this is the most disgusting beer I have ever had. Keep in mind I had no idea of beer that is anything different than the macro domination that I grew up with. The disgust I had quickly went away after a second helping and I realized that not only did this beer pack more of a punch it actually had flavor. It did not take long for me to make your Great Northern Porter my staple beer for the next 3 or 4 years (Scandia Ale is now my summer staple).

The reason I think I would be great for this job is actually quite simple. I love beer. I don’t love beer as the way a college frat guy loves beer, I love to try all kinds of beer that is out there. Heck, I even still get a macro spin off just to see if they have finally got it yet… they have not. Summit was my catalyst, without it I would maybe be drinking wine or something. I love to get people trying new an exciting things and Summit is perfect because of its locality and the many styles that there is to choose from. Usually I start them off with a Pilsner, then a move on to Mai Bock and then start the IPA’s and Porters and you have all of those styles.

I am a beer lover. I blog about beer. I call liquor stores and bars ahead of time to make sure that they have what I am looking for. Heck I just got back from WI Dells today and before I left I posted a thread on BeerAdvocate.com asking what is the best place to get beer there (not a pretty picture by the way, one brew pub, one). I take it seriously. I am not out to get drunk, I want an experience, but if I happen to get drunk then so be it, I am not a snob. I am in the process of brewing my own beer. I read books on beer. I also like Star Trek and I am really into the Alt. country music right now but next year it could be something else. I know how to run a cash register, I can pour beer the proper way, I bike all year round, I can do public speaking (though to be honest I have never done it in front of a 120 person crowd but I am willing to dive right into it), and I can drink beer.

On, and my middle name is Danger… actually it is Ryan.

Thank you for your consideration.
Stuart “Danger” Raymond

About a week later I got the call to come in for the interview. Went in the other day, first person I met was Big E and the first thing we did was get a beer, I got the MaiBock which has a nice malt sweetness to it but not too rich, goes down nice and smooth. And then the interview began. Part of me thinks I already had the position, they just wanted to see if I wasn’t dressed as a pirate or wore a diaper on the outside of my pants. After the interview we had a couple more beers and I was on my way back home. Next day I got the email, I am chosen. So now I will have a once a month or more gig either working the gift shop, the bar, clean up and general assistance and eventually, the tour, which I have to say I am a bit nervous for that because I guess there can be up to a hundred people at a time. But they said they don’t throw people in there right away so I should ease into it just fine. Oh, and I get paid in beer and while I was there for the interview I was this close to getting a bottle of their new  Red Ale, maybe I will get lucky this Saturday when I go shadow. AWESOME!!!!!!!!

Wisconsin Dells Vacation

Last week was vacation time for my family. So we packed our bags and headed to to sunny Wisconsin Dells. Though the first day it was not sunny at all, in fact it was rather foggy because of a storm that was happening back home in Minnesota, but the days after that it was sunny, and like 10 degrees. Oh well, we were in an indoor water park, one made for children 10 and younger but it was still nice. My daughter Delia had a great time in the water, she is still very young, a year and a half, but she jumped right in and basically walked around splashing here and there.

Delia see's a daddy fish.

Wisconsin Dells in the winter is like an episode of Scooby Doo where some “ghost” is haunting an amusement park and people stopped going. The first day there we had the hotel all to ourselves, there may have been others there but I don’ recall seeing anyone, but there must have been someone because at 2 in the morning the phone kept ringing telling us that we were having a noise complaint, thing is we have been sleeping for 3 hours. On my initial drive to find beer I think I was one of three people on the main strip when in the summer it is constantly packed, but I will get to this story a bit later. If you are like me and can’t stand crowds then go here in the winter. Sure all the big outdoor attractions are closed but there are still plenty of indoor water-parks, more expensive then what we got of course but you can get day passes for them. One we drove by looked like a typical hotel though with wood siding but there were tubes coming out everywhere, like the Borg had just begun it’s assimilation on it. I really had a great time. We had two very good friends of our from Madison come up for a night and they brought their son who is about the same age as Delia and they had fun together so I think this may be a yearly thing, though next time I am getting the day pass, the slides where we were at just didn’t cut it.

So my beer run. Before I left I posted a topic in Beer Advocate asking where to get beer there, it was soon removed for reasons that were not clear, I think I broke a rule but I do not know which one, the only one I could think of was that it has been posted before but I couldn’t find anything. I have issues with that site but that is for another day. Anyways after our initial jump in the pool I went to the phone book to search for liquor stores, not a good outlook. I called the closest one to ask what their craft beer selection was like, what is craft beer they ask, great. So I decided to just go out and see what they had and if it wasn’t anything good I would find something. The store had nothing I have not seen before, there were a few thing I have not tried but was not very interested in so I grabbed a six pack of New Glarus Hop Hearty which was OK but I think it might have been sitting there for a while. And for some reason this one was making my urine smell like I have been eating asparagus, not sure what that was all about. So on my way out I remember seeing a convenience store on the way and decided to stop by there to see what they had. Good thing I stopped because there I as pleasantly surprised to see they had something I have never heard of before, Lilja’s Hop Nest Monster which they say is a primordial extra pale India Pale Ale brewed behind the Cheddar Curtain. Well hells yeah, sounds right up my alley. I was stoked to find something like this, there is nothing like being somewhere where at that time of the year could be considered the middle of nowhere and finding something like this. I remembered that I did not have a glass and there was no way I was going to drink in a plastic cup but there was close by a brew pub and I went there to get a glass, more on this brew pub in a moment. Hop Nest Monster was pretty damn good. It poured a nice golden color with a cloudy appearance even some floaties which would probably turn off a novice but to me this means that they dry hopped it, but I have no idea how much or what hops they used, online the is very little information about it, fine by me, that means it is underground. Actually this is brewed by Sand Creek Brewery but there is not information on their website about this. I have a feeling it is brewed by Lilja, if that is a real person, and distributed through Sand Creek. I have left them a message and hope to hear back soon when I do I will let you all know what this is all about. Back to the beer. Hops, and a well amount of them to boot. They danced on my tongue with their grapefruit flavor which leads be to believe that cascade hops or the equivalent were used. The bitterness stuck with me for most of the night and I was very happy that I found this that I ended up buying all the six packs that store had. I even was given a discount by that manager of A to Z Stop, right across from Marley’s , so if you are in town be sure to visit, the selection may be lacking but he is very helpful and he say’s that in the summer he gets a bit more variety. He also had Lilja’s Argosy IPA as well.

Next was our night out at the only brew pub in town Moose Jaw. I was looking forward to this as was my friend John who is a brewer and beer lover in his own right, he even brought me Some New Glarus Stone Soup (excellent) and Ale Asylum’s Ballistic IPA (also excellent). Moose Jaw is named after the city in Saskatchewan where Al  Capone got a lot of his liquor because of the railway that went from there to Chicago. Moose Jaw in the Dells holds a distinct Canadian atmosphere where most of their wood that is it’s structure was actually shipped from Canada. Their beer is also quite good, for the region that is. I have to admit I am very pampered being a regular at Town Hall in Minneapolis where their experimentation sets quite a high bar. But for Wisconsin Dells they do a very good job. I decided to go straight to the big beer and get their Big Winter Scotch Ale which boasts a high 8% and is really a well balanced brew. I didn’t have my notebook with me so I don’t have anything to break down, it was a great scotch ale and strong so that should be enough. John decided to get the flight and he said that they were all quite good, a couple were misses but all in all they were well worth it. I, being the hop head that I am, wanted to next get their Rye India Pale Ale, which I have to add that Moose Jaw uses local hops to make their beers, so this might account for their lack of having the type of hoped up beers that I love. The RIPA really didn’t work for me, not bad, nothing undrinkable but something that I would not get again.

Delia is amazed by all the big sippy cups

And last I had their Great American Beer winner Dells Chief Amber Ale. And you can taste why this won. I am not a huge fan of Amber Ales but the taste is perfect. Well balanced, not too malty or sweet or watery, It really gave me an appreciation for the Amber’s and this is something I will get again, though probably just a pint, as I said, I am not a fan of the Amber’s but I do know a well brewed beer when I taste it.

So all in all I had a real nice time, seeing friends, being with family, trying some new brews and just plain old not working. Vacations, though not rare for me, are days I cherish. I only get roughly two and a half weeks per year and I try to use them up wisely as opposed to just taking one or two days here and there, there is nothing like packing up the bags, leaving town and being with the ones you love. Granted it was cold and we did spend most of the time in the hotel just to be away makes it all worth it.

Surly’s 16 Grit Double I.P.A.

And just like that, it is over. Bizarre Minnesota liquor laws, or as the guy in Wisconsin’s liquor store Casanovas calls it, Minne-soviet liquor laws, we can no longer purchase growlers from companies that sell over an x amount of beer. And the popularity of Surly Brewery has now put them into this category. I’ve been getting growlers of Surly for just over a year now. They usually only had Bender and Furious but every once and a while they would have Coffee Bender or Cynic but still it was nice to take a drive there and get a nice jug of it. This law wasn’t always in the books, it was enacted yesterday but then again the sale of growlers haven’t been around for very long either. What this law also states is that Surly and other breweries that are successful in their sales cannot sell anything straight from their brewery to the consumer. So what this also means is no more Darkness Day or Surlyfest Day. You can read up on the new law here. Minnesota has some pretty odd liquor laws for being a rather progressive state. First the only beer that can be sold at grocery stores and gas stations is 3.2 beer. Only liquor stores can sell real beer and wine and spirits. And liquor stores are closed on Sundays. Some counties have boosted the closing time to 10 but most close at 8, except for Friday and Saturday. Here is a little over view of our states rules. People outside the state may find this to be a pain in the ass but us here have learned to live with it and at times I really don’t mind. Having that Sunday off is kind of a good thing, though we usually just stock up on Saturday and if needed Wisconsin is right next door. But this new growler law is a kicker but then again, we will learn to deal with it… while we are working to reverse it.

So what does our friends of Surly do about this? Why, make a beer that they will only sell in growlers and fill them up till the barrel is empty. And what did they decide to brew? How a bout a double IPA called 16 Grit. What they did was make a 30 bbls of this and we brought in our empties and they filled them back up on the spot. Opening day for this was Saturday the 27 and they started at noon and closed at 4. Sunday they were obviously closed Monday and Tuesday the 29th and 30th they were open from 10 to 6 and Wednesday, the last day of the year, they were open from 10 to 4. But that means nothing because they sold out by 11 on Monday. I got to the brewery at noon on Saturday knowing there would be a line and there was but luckily they opened a bit early so I only waited for about a half hour.

Here are my friends Slater and Steef who arrived at 5 a.m. via bike and set up camp.

After I got my beer I headed out to their camp and we all drank up the beers we brought, not many wanted to tap their Grit but I guess Omar, the Surly owner, came out and cracked a Grit for the early birds to sample before the doors opened. By the time I got my beer the line grew to out the door and the inside was packed, I had a feeling this beer would not last past the day but it did, barely. People brought all kinds of beer, I brought out some Founder’s Breakfast Stout, one girl cracked open a bottle of Darkness and some body brought a 40 of Colt 45 that a Surly employee found to be questionable.

So how should I enjoy this? New Years Eve of course. My wife and I do not go out this night. Sure I like to drink but I cannot stand drunks, especially lots of them. And driving is bad and it is just not a good night to be out in my opinion unless you like that sort of thing. So I bundled myself up, seasoned the chicken and went grilling in this 0 degree night. This DIPA 16 Grit is spectacular, they have to make more of this. Better than Darkness but then I was not a major fan of that beer, good do not get me wrong but I think that the hype was bigger than the actual beer. This was like Super Furious. It smelled like Furious but it had a more sinister aroma to it, pine and grapefruit but there was a hint that it was packing something powerful, it’s kettle hopped with Warrior, Amarillo and Glacier and dry-hopped (twice) with Glacier and Amarillo. The taste was a shot of bitter right up front but it mellowed rather quickly with a sweetness, in the end though the hops prevailed. The numbers for this is one part obvious and one part surprising. The IBU’s are 110 which I can taste but the ABV is only 9% which is no slouch but I thought it had to be 11. Either way after two glasses of this while grilling I knew that the rest of this would put me down. And it did. We ended up watching Walk Hard and I hit the sack at 11:00 right after I explained to my poor sober wife what is wrong with the country and all roads seemed to lead to Sarah Palin, so I may have been wasted but at least my thinking was straight . So is this the end of the 16 Grit? I have a feeling this will be back again in some form, something this good shouldn’t be left to fade into the history books.

Surly’s 16 Grit Double I.P.A.

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