The Coast, Bunnies, Beers! Oregon Day 2

Recently my wife (Sarajo) and I took a week's vacation to the Beer Mecca that is Portland, Oregon.  While we did try out a nearly overwhelming number of breweries, we also took some side trips and ate at a wonderful plethora of places.  On our third day in, two of our friends (Kathleen and Shea) met up with us from DC and joined in the fun.  I'm going to blog about the trip in some detail, mostly to immortalize it in the written word, but consider it a starting point for your own Portland area trip!  Feel free to shoot me any questions or clarifications if you like.

Day 2

Dawn arrived at the tiny coastal resort town of Pacific City.  Despite threats of rain, the air was clear and brisk but with a firm grey cloud cover.  Hints of morning sun periodically winked through the looming clouds, illuminating the magical view from our room of Haystack Rock jutting out of the sea.  Side bar here: this was where parts of The Goonies was filmed and I made continual quotes about One-Eyed Willie and the Truffle Shuffle though-out our entire stay.  My wife is very patient with me.  Sometimes.

Camera in one hand, my lady's hand in the other, I made my way to the beach for a long walk.  The briny smell of the sea, the crunch of barnacles underfoot, the raucous cries of wheeling sea birds, all brought home how different this world was from our home in Minnesota.  We climbed on the rocks, looking at colorful anemones and hermit crabs trapped in their shallow depths.  Soon we walked up a huge sand dune to find a spectacular view of sandstone cliffs, a large cave, crashing waves, and gulls galore.  My kingdom for a tripod!

Finishing up our long walk, just as some mild rain started spitting, we stopped in to Pelican Pub & Brewery for a hearty breakfast.  9 AM and I am splitting my attention between hot coffee and Tsunami Stout.  Life is good!

Now full to the brim with breakfast foods, coffee, and stout, we checked out of our hotel.  While doing so Sarajo discovered bags of rabbit food for sale and we invested the 50 cents in a bag.  Taking our spoils out behind the hotel, flocks of black rabbits incautiously approached us and began eating out Sj's hand.  A fun little excursion before heading on!

Salem 

We took a bit of a long-cut by way of Salem (Oregon's capital) in order to visit a couple of breweries that were totally unknown to us.  We also didn't want to try too many of the Portland breweries without our friends so this was a nice way to widen our brewery net into new areas.

Our first stop in Salem was Vagabond Brewing, which we had discovered on our taster tour of local beers at ABV in Hilsboro the day before.  The brewery was started by a group of  Marine Corps combat veterans who had traveled extensively and discovered beer in all the places they visited.  Vagabond was the culmination of those travels, and the name nods to the wanderer.  They have a cute little kitchen that served up some great Native American style frybread to clear the palate after drinking through two sampler platters.  They had a few local ciders on tap as well so Sj was happy!

The beers were surprisingly good.  I gave nearly all of them 3.75 scores (from 0-5) which place them above average in my own personal tastes.  I really enjoyed the Attack Owl IPA--named for a local owl that was apparently swooping down on unsuspecting park-goers.  We tried the Redshift IRA which was a pleasant hoppy red, (and had tried this with guava previously).  Sj and I also liked the 50/50 Kettle Sour with black currants--a well done version of this style for sure!



After our pleasing stop at Vagabond, we moved over to Gilgamesh Brewing, also in Salem.  This place is tucked into the back end of an office park--they have a cool sign and water feature out by the road, but no signs on the actual building.  The space is more of a brewpub with a large kitchen behind the bar.  The place is a little dark, but cozy.  We of course shared the sampler to try through the beers and I discovered Hoot Attack--also named for the crazy owl--but this wasn't quite as good as Vagabond's version.  All of the beers were decent, with my average score coming in at 3.5.  Their Terry Porter and Springer IPA were my favorites of the bunch, and the Mamba (a beer made with black tea, bergamot, and tangerine peel) was the most unique.  None were seriously flawed, which is always nice to find!

Other than some unusually shaped tap handles, I felt that Gilgamesh didn't play into their Sumerian name enough.  Since one of our local breweries in Minnesota (Enki Brewing) does a better job of Sumerian branding I expect a lot! This place is worth a quick stop (and the food looks great) but I enjoyed Vagabond a bit more of the two.  Why visit just one?!

Portland

After our brief sojourn in Salem, we drove back into Portland to pick up our friends Kathleen and Shea, just arriving groggily on a long flight from the D.C. area.  This part of the trip was boring and did not include any beer.  Moving on...

We checked into our hotel for the following week: the McMenamin's Kennedy School.  For those who haven't experienced a McMenamin's property I'll give a quick lesson here.  The McMenamins have been buying up old historic buildings in the Oregon and Washington areas for over 20 years years, refurbishing them and keeping much of the charm of the original structures intact.  These range from hotels, to theaters, to brewpubs, and more.  While this is a "chain" every one of these places is unique and fun to visit.  Strange paintings, hidden faces, old enlarged photos, and more, abound.  Many of the locations have their own tiny breweries (of which some are better than others).  Two locations host distilleries which furnish spirits to the other properties. They roast their own coffee which is served through the other spots.  Now, they also have a passport that you can get to get stamps at all the spots, as well as for special experiences (having a beer or wine sampler, soaking in a pool, seeing a movie at one of theaters, etc.) This really encourages you to explore the nooks and crannies of each property and seek out others.  This is an unusual and intriguing empire!

The Kennedy School is an elementary school from 1915, and has a distinct age and history to it. I love this property and this is actually our second time staying there.  A theater (with its own bar) provides a couple of movies during the week.  There's a soaking pool for the weary traveler.  Multiple bars are present on the property, each with their own specialization (more on these in future posts!).  We started out in the restaurant for a late dinner with our new arrivals.  The food here over our stay was consistently very good, and you can't beat the location.  Antique hanging lamps and paper lanterns dangle in seemingly random abandon from the ceiling and a long bar lies along one side of the room.  An old squat wood burning stove hunches over in one corner--silent this night, but pumping out heat the next morning to fight the chill.

The Kennedy School has its own tiny brewery.  The McMenamin's breweries all have a few core recipes that are brewed at each place (Hammerhead pale ale, Ruby raspberry ale, and Terminator Stout) but the rest are up to the individual brewers.  Many Oregon brewers get their commercial start at these properties before moving on to bigger things.  Last time (3 years ago) we were at the Kennedy School the beers were not so great, but this time things had improved dramatically.  The Outdoor School IPA and the Jam Session session IPA were my favorites from the sampler and I got some more full pints later in the trip.  They also served up a very good off-dry cider from the Edgefield Estate that was a hit with our group.  We ended up getting an impromptu tour of the small but well decorated brewery the next day when we barged in on one of the brewers hard at work sparging a batch of cream ale.  I really appreciated him taking time out to give answer questions.

Check out the artwork on the brewery equipment!  

After dinner and beer it was time for bed...

Running Tally:
Breweries: 5
Pubs/Bars: 1

Birch's Please! Birch's On The Lake Review...

At this year's Winterfest one of the stand-out beers for me was one from the relatively new brewpub Birch's On The Lake.  I talked briefly with head brewer Brennan Greene and was intrigued enough to want to jump this place up on my schedule for brewery visits.

Greene is one of two owners of Birch's and has a pretty impressive resume.  He went to the University of Wisconsin Madison and got a degree in Philosophy.  He then learned (presumably) what most discover: that Philosophy degrees are not exactly great for finding a "real" job.  (I have a couple of friends who've been down this route.)  He ended up attending the World Brewing Academy, then started as the brewer for the Schlafly Taproom in St. Louis.  Shlafly was the first craft brewery to take on local favorite Budweiser...  I visited there in 2012 and my write-up is HERE.  I really liked the Tazmanian IPA when we visited (I gave it a 4 out of 5) and it turns out that that beer was Greene's recipe using then fairly experimental Galaxy hops.  I tried one of these in the bottle just last week and felt that the quality has dropped since it went into bottle production.  Knowing how many types of good beers Greene must have brewed at Schlafly, I was excited to try his newest venture with Birch's!

Birch's On The Lake is located in Long Lake (and yes it is right ON the lake, looking over the water.)  My wife and I arrived around 6 PM on a Tuesday night and the place was busy but we didn't have to wait.  There's a downstairs Brewhouse that's open Weds-Sunday and serves food and beers--unfortunately they were having an event down there when we visited so I wasn't able to check it out at the time.  When we entered the building and walked up a short set of stairs I was struck by the classy wine-bar or supperclub feel.  A rack of wines takes up the entire wall to the right of the host stand along with a gas fire feature.  The walls are a mix of dark woods and leather upholstery, giving the place and upscale and timeless look far different from any "brewpub" I've visited.  I felt a little shabby in my T-shirt and hoody compared to a bunch of the suited-up after-work crew.  But hey this is Minnesota, you can wear anything you like to most places!

We were seated in a high-backed booth covered in dark leather, looking out over the bar and with a partially obstructed view of the lake (until it got darker anyway).  The bar is shaped like a square, with seating all around, on a slightly lower level.  Seating at the back of the bar (by where we were sitting) is elevated and looking into the bar itself.  The bar is dark granite with white leather along the front.  The chairs are (imitation?) snakeskin and very comfortable looking.  There's a lot of space in the place for seating, and even more when the deck outside opens up for the season.

We had great service while we were there, attentive and knowledgeable.  We were served a strange little 1950's tray of radishes, celery, carrot sticks, and pickled peppers served atop shaved ice--odd but added to the retro steak-house feel.

They had 8 beers on tap, available as 2, 4, 8, or 16 ounce pours for all of them.  I had to try them all!   As usual, Sarajo tasted along with me, as well as gave me dirty looks for spending too much time taking notes on my phone.  Here are my brief impressions of the beers.  My scale is 0-5, with 3 being my standard OK beer, 4 being outstanding, and 5 being my white whales.

1) Kolsch Blonde Ale: This has a great German hop aroma.  Flavor is crisp, hop bitterness present.  Slight fruity esters of pear and white grape that put this in the top kolsch styles I've had in Minnesota.  This one is going to go fast come deck season.  4

2) Apricot Berliner Weiss:  Strong apricot aroma, borders on extract/fake.  Suitably tart but with a sweeter apricot finish.  One of the better kettle sours I've had in Minnesota this year so far.  4

3) Witbier:  Coriander and white pepper in the nose along with some Belgian yeast esters.  Coriander strong in flavor.  Perhaps too much clove and banana for Belgian Wit--more like German Hefe.  A bit sweet on finish.  Probably my least favorite of the bunch but still gets a 3.5

4) Coffee Chocolate Golden Ale:  This is a beer that should not work.  But it does!  A deep golden color with excellent clarity.  Fresh coffee and cocoa powder aroma is surprising for the appearance.  Flavor is full of bright light-roast earthy coffee, white chocolate.  Body medium--thicker than expected.  Simply wonderful.  4.5

5) Vanilla Milk Stout: Aroma is pretty subtle.  Roasted malt in flavor, hints of milk chocolate.  Mild vanilla.  Mouthfeel medium-plus.  Grainy finish.  Despite her love for stouts this was Sarajo's least favorite. 3.5

6) Simcoe IPA:  The aroma is bursting with catty (cat pee!) Simcoe hops.  The flavor is more balanced with mild caramel, but not sweet.  Lots of powerful citrus fruit of grapefruit rind and tangerine.  4

7) India Brown Ale:  Well balanced beer.  Mix of mild roasted grain with plenty of pine and earthy hops.  Very drinkable.  3.75

8) Double IPA:  Crazy aroma on this!  I get mosaic and simcoe for sure.  Flavor is sweet and fruity up front.  A bit of alcohol zip.  Honey character.  This reminds me of Hopslam about 3-4 years ago...in a very good way!  4.5

These beers are great.  Like really remarkably great!  Not since our visit to Junkyard Brewing in Moorhead last year have I been this impressed with beers from a relatively new brewery.  Brennan Greene knows what he is doing!  Tasting these IPA's, I remarked to Sarajo that they must be using reverse osmosis water and building it up--since it's quite difficult to get such a balanced flavor in hoppy beers with our hard Minnesota water.  Later we got to talk to the young and friendly assistant brewer Alex and he confirmed that guess.  Take note other small Minnesota breweries!

While I was finishing my nose-in-glass reviews of these remarkable beers, our food arrived.  I had spicy fried chicken that was quite good, (but messy to eat) served with roasted corn on the cob, sriracha honey sauce, coleslaw, and a wonderful cheddar-thyme bisquit.  Sarajo won this round of eating with her expensive but perfectly done Filet Mignon topped with marrow butter.  The food was stellar and far above what I was expecting.  For dessert, Sarajo had a 4 oz pour of the Coffee Chocolate beer and I finished up an 8 oz Double IPA.

Addendum!

On our first visit to Birch's, we found out that they do a beer dinner every month and signed up for it.  On a somewhat overcast Tuesday night (again) we trekked out to Long Lake to give the place another look.  We started out downstairs in the brewery this time, so I got to check out the mellow wood tones of the square bar, copious seating, and shiny stainless steel of brewing equipment.  We were greeted with a glass of the Kolsch (I'd like to try this side by side with Waconia Brewing's version).  While we sipped our beer, I wandered around taking pictures for this blog entry--most of which were pretty dark.  Eventually Brennan showed up and we got to talk to him a bit before the official tour began.  Once the whole group was ready, we all migrated to the brewing area and Brennan gave a really fun history-of-brewing talk that was one of the more entertaining that I've heard.  While we were on the tour, one of the servers brought us over sample glasses of both the coffee ale and the newest (tweaked) batch of the DIPA.  Yup, still just as good as the first time!

Soon we moved upstairs into a private dining room (this place is seriously huge) and were seated family style around one large table with about 10 other people. Over the course of the dinner we got to know our neighbors (this is not something I'm used to as a Minnesota native--but beer dinners seem to facilitate this process.)  One of the guys at our table--Jim--was the brother of one of my High School classmates!  Small world.  We had four courses of amazing food paired with different beers.  I've been to a lot of beer dinners, and I'd say that only The Happy Gnome and Butcher & The Boar have outdone this dinner for overall beer and food quality.  We got to try a new version of the Belgian Wit--this time with ginger and lemongrass--and I upgraded my score to a 4 compared to the previous version.  We also got to try the new Mosaic IPA that was perfectly balanced between the malt and hop bitterness and incredibly easy to drink (also a 4).  We had a sorbet made from the Vanilla Milk Stout as an apertif between the appetizer and main dish that was even better than the beer itself.  The best pairing was the most tricky: the rich and creamy lemon mascarpone cake paired with the zippy and fruity Apricot Berliner.

I almost don't want to publish this review, just to keep this place secret for myself and the other few in-the-know people who have been suggesting we visit.  The beers are amazing already at just 6 months in--far better than many Minnesota breweries that have been open for years.  The food and ambiance are upscale and somewhat fancy--not like any brewpub I've been to (other than perhaps Surly's Brewer's Table.)  The one potentially negative thing I will say is that most of the people in the restaurant were drinking cocktails and wine--so perhaps the craft beer may take a little bit of time and education for these guys.  I'm pretty sure we're signed up for the next beer dinner already!

Time For Grand Rounds! Grand Rounds Brew Pub

I never thought I'd be so excited to go to Grand Rounds.  As a Medical Doctor, I look back at much of my schooling with a thankfully distant sleep-deprived haze of ambiguity.  While I value the experiences and the things I learned during those years, it was punishing on the body and mind.  Nearly every week (depending on what rotation you were on) you were expected to go to Grand Rounds--usually a complicated learning case study presented in front of the other doctors.  These were usually open to the entire medical staff and required you to get in to the hospital even earlier (4-5AM) to see all those patients on the floor before making your way to the lecture hall.  On at least one occasion I had to personally present a case in front of all my resident peers, attending physicians, and more.  I'm a bit of a social-phobe, so this was quite upsetting to me.  Long story short (to late!) when I heard that Rochester, MN--the home of Mayo Clinic--had a brewery called Grand Rounds I had to try it out!

On this rainy fall day we drove into town and went straight to Grand Rounds Brewpub for an early day tasting.  The brewpub is located right downtown near a couple of other pubs and speakeasys, and across from part of the medical center.  The huge old solid building was built in 1866 (one of the oldest in Rochester) as a bank, and still retains some of its early trappings.  Entering the front door there's a host stand (empty this time of day) directly in front of you.  Entry to Tessa's Office (a super cute little upscale wine shop next door with wine on tap) is directly to the right, but was closed at this early hour.  To the left you enter into the very spacious pub area, filled with tables and chairs as well as plenty of seating along the bar.  An attractive stainless steel tap set-up behind the bar provides many different beers for tasting, and eclectic frames above the bar display the current tap-list.

Some of the fancy light fixtures are actually from the old Mayo building!  Our server on this day (Tap Room Manager Kelly Griffin) was kind enough to take us and another interested couple on a quick tour of the place as well.  The brewery itself is a 7 barrel affair using tall skinny wine fermenters nestled just behind the bar and visible through glass. Past the bar is a another large sectioned-off room for special events.  Then down some stairs into a darker low-ceilinged accessory lounge.  Beyond that was a veritable catacomb of hallways, storage, refrigeration, and even closed-off old tunnels that once led to Mayo!  This was one of the most interesting brewery tours I've been on, so thanks much for making the time for us!

Being a brewpub, Grand Rounds has food, and quite an impressive looking menu.  We got a big order of duck nachos to go with our beers and it was very good.  I imagine the rest of the food is good as well.  While sipping beers and eating our food, we also got to meet the very pleasant Tessa Leung, the Chief Operations Manager for the pub (and I'm assuming the brains behind Tessa's Office next door!)

How about the beers?  Well, I took copious notes for your reading pleasure!  We tried all the beers, 11 in all, including one infusion and one cask offering.  A huge variety for such a young brewery, and arranged with care by Kelly in best tasting order.  I'll give my quick notes and rating of 0-5.  I'll happily drink a 3, I'll search out a 4, and hoard a 5 beer.

1) KA Minnesota Kolsch--made with local honey from The Bee Shed.  I get light pear esters, honey sweetness, light sulfur nose.  Crisp with a light hopping (don't believe it is 72 IBU!)  3.5

2) 10,000 Lakes Sommerweiss--Very bright lemon, hint of esters like mild banana.  No clove phenols.  A bit of spicy wheat malt.  Hops present but in the background.  Well done. 3.75

3) CSI--Citra Session IPA--Aroma is crazy Citra cat box mixed with tropical fruit.  Fruity.  Dry.  Slightly astringent finish.  Tasty and easy to drink.  3.75

4) Grapefruit Rind Infused CSI--This has serious grapefruit aroma!  Bite-y and brisk flavor.  Actually overall a bit more mellow than the regular CSI.  Tastes like a Radler.  Still a hint of astringency on finish.  Body seems increased.  Head fades quick.  Tart.  3.5

5) Hop Bollocks Session IPA--Not much aroma.  Better body than CSI.  Pine and lemon flavors. Finish a bit astringent.  Nice overall.  3.5

6) Nelson IPA--Made with New Zealand Nelson hops 7.3% ABV, 75 IBU.  Strong aroma of grapefruit and white wine grapes.  Malty but not sweet.  Lingering grapefruit zest, muscat grape, and lemon.  4

7) VMO--Vienna, Marzen, Octoberfest.  Malt character in this is unreal!  Bisquit, bread, toastiness, with a grainy finish.  No hops.  Middle is very smooth.  Not crisp as some lagers are, but not overly sweet.   Malt more complex, flavorful, and dark than most Octoberfest beers, but this one hits right in my preferred heavier end of the style guidelines!  4.25

8) Freedom Scotch Ale--Makes me want to paint my face blue and wave around a Claymore.  Lots of dark fruit (possibly Special B malt) leading to raisin and prune flavors.  A hint of smoke, but not overwhelming.  A bit on the sweet side, but OK for style.  3.75

9) Coffee Stout--Light roast and coffee aroma, but mild.  Tastes like a dry Irish stout and is very roasty.  Pretty dry, but not astringent.  I get more coffee flavor and aroma as it warms up.  4

10) Hawii 507 Coconut Stout--on Nitro.  Very subtle coconut and vanilla in aroma, as well as flavor.  Very sweet up front.  Body creamy and mouth coating.  Vanilla accentuates the sweetness.  Yum.  4

11) Cask Coconut--More coconut aroma that regular version.  Smooth and medium body.  Less sweet than the regular as well.  Coconut flavor up.  4.5

I liked the cask coconut and the VMO the most. Sj liked the VMO and Scotch the best.  But honestly all of these beers were good to great in my book.  I'm impressed with the overall quality, especially knowing that these guys have only been open for a few months.  This was a really polished brewpub, with great customer service, very good beers, and a comfortable cool old building.  This one is highly recommended if you are in the Rochester area.  In fact, make a day trip of it and visit Forager Brewing as well!

Great Waters Brewing Company Review

I've focused recently on reviewing several of the new brewpubs in the Twin Cities, (see my entries on Free House and Day Block at these links if you haven't checked them yet,) but realized that I have not done reviews of many of the old veterans of the Minnesota beer scene.  With a recent trip to the Minnesota History Center to see their prohibition exhibit, I finally had a reason to return to Great Waters Brewing Company for lunch.  I'll be honest I'm a creature of habit and living in the Minneapolis (far) suburbs I rarely go to St. Paul.  My car's GPS also seems to dislike the Old City and will often send me on random wild goose chases at times.  It is always nice to get out of your safe areas and try new places though!  Sj and I met with our friends Bill and Jackie S. around 12:30 at the brewpub on a Sunday.  As with any review, I'll talk about the experience we had, but your results may vary!  I always encourage folks to comment on this post if you have had different experiences or thoughts--good or bad.

Great Waters Brewing Company opened back in 1997--one of the first brewpubs in the Minnesota and up until about a year ago, one of only about 4 that have remained in business over the years.  The brewery is in the Historic Hamm Building on St. Peter Street in downtown St. Paul.  I enjoyed walking past some of the old buildings after leaving the pub.  There is a pedestrian mall that abuts Great Waters and provides an outdoor seating area for warmer weather.  When we visited the temperature outside was just warming up and the Ice Patio from the Winter Carnival was just starting to melt.  I would love to be served a pint at the ice bar some time!  Yes we Minnesotans are incredibly weird.  Parking is at several area ramps as well as metered street parking (meters are free on Sunday!)

The quickly melting remnants of Minnesota ice culture...

The restaurant itself takes up a sizable area with a large bar at the entrance and a spacious dining area off to the right of the main entrance.  The bar itself is no shiny newfangled bar imported from Ireland, but rather a well-used working-man's bar-top.  The place has high ceilings and plenty of space to spread out in and get comfortable.  One can also see the small brewery through some logoed glass behind the bar.  The wall-paper and decorations are a bit dated, but not in need of desperate overhaul like some places I've been to.  The ambiance fits exactly with what this place is--an unpretentious and serviceable bar and restaurant. 

Regulars at the bar.

Where the newer brewpubs are trying unusual menus to differentiate themselves, (pizza, haute cuisine, smoked sandwiches,) Great Waters has a pretty old-school brewpub menu of sandwiches, burgers, pastas and salads.  They do have some fancier items like steak and duck breast on the dinner menu as well, but I can't speak to them at this point.  While I appreciate fancier foods, I'm also just as happy having a nice burger or some chicken wings with my ale!  I've had food here several times over the years and have not had a bad experience with it, other than the fact that those Rasta Wings are not "Minnesota Hot", they are "Jamaica Hot!"  On this most recent trip we arrived during Brunch on a Sunday and Sj got the Eggs Florentine, while I ordered the patty melt with fries.  The burger was done exactly to my specifications and my meal was exactly what I was in the mood for.  I think Sj was a little less excited about her meal, but I think she just wasn't completely sated after eating.  Bill ordered a huge open faced meatloaf sandwich smothered in gravy that he continued to rave about. 

Grilled meaty perfection...

Decent food aside, this is a brewpub--so lets focus on the beer!  This place has been brewing their own beers for 17 years, starting long before the current craft beer craze.  They were an anomaly back then but have waited out the years, continuing to craft unusual beers over that time.  Now with the craft beer boom, I feel like some of these old-guard places like Great Waters, Town Hall, and Barley Johns sometimes get ignored in favor of the next new thing.  I'll also admit, the last time I checked out Great Waters I was less than impressed with the beers I tried.  It has taken me well over a year to get back and try it again.  That last visit was right at the time when their old brewer left and they had just hired on Tony Digatono as the head brewer that very week!  I had just taken up using Untappd to keep track of my beer ratings around then and looking back now I was less than glowing about my tastings at that time.  Luckily, I was quite pleased by the improvement in the beers since that trip!

A nice mix of beers, with up to date info print-out to go give details.

Great Waters has an impressively large tap list of house brewed beers.  I ordered the full sampler to try them all and ended up with 10 different beers!  Their standard beers like the Saint Peter Pale, Brown Trout and Golden Prairie Blonde, were all decent and much better than I remember them.  The seasonals were interesting with a very flavorful and malty O'Byrne's Irish Red leading the pack.  But where the beers really shone for me were in the cask conditioned ales.  Firkins and casks have been getting more popular the last few years but these guys have been serving these for over a decade now!  I did not love the House Ale--it tasted a bit metallic to me--but the Joe Moment Mild and the Invidia Barleywine were very tasty and made the most of the smooth mouthfeel and warmer temp of the cask serving method.  And by far the best beer I had there was the Blackwatch Oatmeal Stout.  This is the beer I ordered a pint of once I had worked my way through all those samples, and may be one of the very best oatmeal stouts I've ever had! 

Overall I had a very pleasant experience at Great Waters, with tasty food, many good beers, and a great time hanging out with friends.  This type of place is really where the craft beer movement came from and it is worth it to pay homage to the folks who have been slowly and steadily educating our palates over all this time.  If you haven't had much experience with English cask conditioned ales, you owe it to yourself to check this place out--and get a pint of that Blackwatch!  Oh, and they have a nearly up to date tap list on line so you can get a good idea what's on tap before you head over!

Head Brewer Tony Digatono has been brewing for Great Waters over the past few years.  Tony is a really nice guy, somewhat quiet as many brewers are, and doesn't really live in the spotlight.  Because most of his work happens behind the scenes and only shows up in your beer glass, I thought it would be worthwhile to learn more about him.  Sj and I met Tony back when he worked for Town Hall and he was one of our favorite servers there.  We were very surprised and excited for him when we heard he had taken a professional brewer's job at Great Waters.  Look for Tony at beer festivals or Great Waters events and say hi--just look for the slim guy with the red beard!   

1) Tony, tell me a little about yourself: where did you come from and what did you do prior to becoming a brewer?

I went through my late teens and early twenties without any idea of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I started taking night classes so I had an excuse to go part time at my crappy warehouse job. Six years later I ended up with a B.A. from the U of M in Religious Studies. Naturally, after earning that degree I took a job as an apprentice with the plumbers union. Which, leads us to question two.

2) What made you want to become a professional brewer?  Did you have any formal training or did you just jump right in?

I made a ton of money working construction, but work became intermittent when the economy crashed. About that time I took up home brewing as a hobby. After getting laid off for the umpteenth time, I knew I had to do something else for money and wondered if it could be brewing.  I got my toe in the industry by getting a job as a server/manager at Town Hall Brewery.  Mike (Hoops) and his crew were incredibly generous answering my questions and letting me shovel grain on my days off.  After about two years, an assistant job opened up here at Great Waters. As soon as I accepted the job here, I signed up for the Brewing and Malting Science Course through the MBAA. The course was good, but in some ways I wish I could retake it now that I have more practical experience.  I am currently trying to find the right correspondence course to further my formal education. If I was younger and single, I would love to go through a long formal education.

3) I noticed that you guys had a LOT of different beers on tap at the brewpub.  Do you enjoy brewing this many different beers or is it difficult to keep up?

Yes and yes. I feel obligated to give our loyal customers something new to try when they come. I also feel it's good for the front of house staff to be able to have a wide variety of styles to recommend to their tables. At the same time though, I have to remember this is a business. Space is at a premium in the cellar and I can't risk running out of our best seller because I wanted to brew something fun for me.

4) Great Waters has always prided themselves on serving some of the beers in traditional English fashion.  Is it easier or more difficult to brew beers that will lend themselves to that method?

In my mind beers brew the same regardless of the style. We are very proud of casks though. Physically it takes a lot more work.

5) If you had to choose a style  (or styles) of beer as a favorite, what would you choose?

Like a lot of drinkers, my tastes go through phases. Right now my fridge is entirely full of German Pilsners. If I'm out to eat, I'm probably going to get a local pale. I'm also about out of my mind waiting for Maibock season to start.

6) Many of the beers on tap at Great Waters have been around for years.  Have you been able to experiment much since taking over as head brewer, or have you kept more to traditional Great Waters recipes? 

There's a reason those beers have been around so long. I count four former Great Waters brewers as friends and want to stay true to their legacy. That's not to say the recipes haven't been tweaked a little. Some tweaks were happy accidents caused by something being on back order and a substitution was necessary.  Other changes were made just to satisfy my curiosity.

7) Is there anything else you would like to talk to my readers about? 

I would like people to know how much I appreciate that their hard earned dollars allow me to make a living doing something I love. My assistant Shane and I are trying to make the best beers we can and always want the next to be a little better than the last.

Thanks again Tony! 

Cheers!

Day Block Brewing Review

I'll admit it, the frigid cold, ice-packed roads, and repeated snowmageddons here in Minnesota have kept me acting as more of a homebody than I'd like.  Several new breweries have opened since last Fall and I've been falling down on my self-avowed mission to review them for my readers.  This weekend we braved the arctic blast, heading downtown to check out Day Block Brewing.  Located on Washington Avenue, near the 7 Corners area, the brewery opened officially on January 27 2014.  As of this writing, they have been open just under two months.  I like to give brewpubs and breweries a little time to iron out the kinks and get a couple batches of beer under their belts before doing official reviews, and that time has now come!  Come along on a trip with me…

This particular trip was on a Sunday, around 12:45 in the afternoon.  Driving in from Waconia, I like to visit places on "off" days like Tuesdays and Sundays to avoid traffic and crowds.  This also usually allows more time for pictures and for asking staff questions about the food and drink.  On the other hand you do sometimes run into issues with restaurants having the "B Team" on those days and perhaps less staff than usual for a higher volume time.  In my opinion if a restaurant or bar has poor service on a day when there should be plenty of time, it does not bode well for busy crunch times!

The brewery is named after its location: the old Day Block Building, dating back to 1883.  There is a small parking lot behind the building, which is always convenient downtown, but if crowded you will need to find metered street parking.  The building itself is made of light colored brick, with thick walls made to last centuries and multiple fires.  I'm always happy to see historic and classic architecture reused rather razed for new high-rises, so this place had already piqued my interest.  I took along my new camera to test it out and hopefully get some good pictures of the place.  You can be the judge on how I did with that goal!  There is a small sign for the brewery on the street-side corner of the building, and a banner higher up on the front.  Walking from the parking lot, we passed two doors, each with an arrow pointing toward the main entrance around front.  Passing an unlabeled door, I reached yet another door, this one with an arrow pointing back the way I came from!  I would like to recommend that they add a Day Block Brewing sign directly over the main entrance at some point in the future, as I saw several other folks trying the wrong doors during my visit. 

Inside, the main restaurant, bar and small kitchen are located off to the right of the entrance.  There is a second bar area on the left, that was not open at this time, but gives them room to spread out during peak hours.  The 10 barrel brewery itself is located in a glassed in room behind that accessory bar, and is all fresh and glistening new stainless steel.  Both bars are of fine-grained lighter colored wood with a fairly large silvery tin-tiled back splash.  Growlers and glasses line the back of the bar and 6 hand-turned wooden tap handles are used to pull foaming pints of craft beer for thirsty patrons.  Brown painted tin tile lines the tall ceilings, criss-crossed by track lighting and industrial piping.  Exposed thick brick walls and a huge expanse of spotless glass windows line the room.  The overall impression is of extreme age with a fresh coating of paint, populated with new wooden booths and tables.  The look inside the building is pleasant and well-lit, but has a slightly generic feel to it.  The one thing I didn't see, that would be welcome, was some sort of Day Block sign over the bar.  Maybe they are not wanting to spoil the ambiance, but I think they could do with some branding here!  The place was very cold, with solid brick walls and huge expanses of glass radiating an icy chill through the pub.  We were forced to wear our winter coats through out our stay.  Summer will be nicer.

Artistic Licence!

Tell you more about the beer you ask?  They usually have six beers on tap at any one time, but had just run out of one during my visit.  With a small sized brewery, they are able to do many smaller batches and try more things, which is one reason I tend to like brewpubs.  They have listed the batch numbers on the beer menu, and at least one beer was up to batch seven.  This indicates that they have had time to dial in their system and hopefully make tweaks to recipes for fine tuning.  I ordered the six beer sampler for their 5 beers and got an extra pour of the rye bock.  Served in a long wooden paddle the flight certainly looked impressive when brought to the table.  I'll give my impressions of the beers as a BJCP beer judge, but keep in mind my tastes may be different from yours!  If you like a beer that I don't, that doesn't make you wrong.  The Winter Wit was a Belgian Wit style beer with a pretty strong orange character--I actually liked this one pretty well, but get migraines from wheat beers so let Sj drink most of my sample.  The humorously named Former Mayor Ryebock (R.T.Rybak for those non-Minnesotans out there) was a pleasant and malty maibock with rye and probably my favorite of the day.  The Black IPA was fairly good for what it was but I'm just not a fan of the style, so can't get too excited about it.  The Porter was decent, but didn't blow my socks off, seeming a bit thin in body.  My least favorite was the Frank's Red Ale.  I got diacetyl (buttered popcorn) and too much toffee sweetness from it that made it difficult to drink.

And the food?  I'm pleased at the new trend to go back to the brewpub model in Minnesota.  With Northbound Smokehouse, Free House and now Day Block taking this tack, there are more options recently for Minneapolis.  If I drive in from the suburbs I usually want some food with my beer, something that brewery tap-rooms can't do unless they happen to have a food truck stop by.  Brewpubs are also open on Sundays, unlike tap-rooms, but still can't sell growlers due to archaic post-prohibition laws about Sunday liquor sales in our state.  (Check the link here for more info on that particular problem via The Four Firkins.)  The kitchen at Day Block is tiny, but has an interesting mix of appetizers and pizzas.  We ordered the pickle sampler, which included pickled radish, kimchi, and regular pickles with hops in the mix.  All were good and refreshing.  We also ordered the much-discussed bacon flight: a mixture of three specialty bacons served end-up in tiny porcelain bowls filled with dipping sauces.  I love this idea and the sauces were really tasty (spicy chocolate, curry and another I can't remember) but at least half of our bacon was burned to solid black twigs of meat briquette.  If bacon is on your menu as a signature plate you really, really need to cook it correctly.  Sj ordered a Taco Truck Pizza topped with flank steak, cotija cheese, pickled jalapeno and radish.  This was good, but didn't "wow" either of us.  I ordered the Bahn Mizza: a pizza-fied take on the classic meat filled Vietnamese banh mi sandwich.  This one was a winner!  Slightly spicy with Asian flavors, pork and shaved carrots, atop a perfectly crispy crust.  Now this is a signature dish!

The burnt bacon was not as photogenic!

As hinted at earlier in my review, our service was a bit mixed during this visit.  When we entered the building, there were three guys at the bar and three other occupied tables.  We were not allowed to sit in one of the empty booths as they were reserved for parties of three or more.  I understand this policy, especially on a busy Saturday night, but perhaps they could have made exception for slow Sundays?  Our waitress did eventually push a second two-top table up to ours to give us more room for our apps, pizzas and beer flight though.  Our service was not fast, but we did find out later that our poor waitress had cut her hand and needed to take some time to get that dressed.  Ok, I'll give her some leeway there!  We did get our appetizers at the same time as our pizzas--a pet peeve of mine--but I should have learned by now not to order everything at once.

My overall impression of Day Block Brewing was favorable, but with some caveats.  I think the food was good, but they need to step up their game on that bacon.  Nine bucks for mostly burned bacon is nine bucks too much.  The beers were mostly good quality (minus the red) but none of them really excited me.  Perhaps my palate is jaded after years of chasing the next new hop or funky beer.  I'm hoping that these guys make full use of their small brew system and create lots of seasonal and one-off projects rather than sticking to a bunch of safe standbys.  I didn't mention it previously, but Day Block makes a note of trying to use as many fresh and local ingredients as possible--a policy I thoroughly agree with.  The beer they ran out of used a rare hop from Wisconsin, and I know they  use malts from Rahr in Shakopee, so they are trying to do this in their brewing as well as the restaurant.  I would certainly stop by here for a beer again, and perhaps a Bahn Mizza, but probably won't make the 45 minute trek from home just for that.  I hate to say it but Day Block is just too close to my old favorite Town Hall, and if I drive all the way to 7 Corners area I'm going to want to stop in there first. 

I'd love to hear what other people think of the place, so feel free to comment on this blog if you have anything to say!  Am I wrong?  Am I right?  Is there a new beer that I must get back there to try?

Update 5/13/14 Day Block Revisited!

After writing my initial review I was actually contacted by one of the owners, who seemed to really be interested in feedback.  He suggested I give them another try, so as of this update, that is just what I did.     This visit was also on a Tuesday at noon, but this time I took along my beer-loving mom for a late Mother's Day lunch.  The layout and vibe of the place is the same as my initial impression, though slightly less chilly this time.

We each got a 6 beer sampler and I have to say that I was very impressed with the results.  Out of all 6 beers the only one I didn't love was the Kolsch--and that was mainly because it was a Kolsch!  They had a Spring Lager that was hoppy, fresh and amazing.  The Block 21 Pale Ale was citrus-filled and entirely refreshing.  I'm always impressed when a small brewery can pull off lagers well and there were 3 excellent examples in this flight.

I ordered the bacon flight again, just to see what would happen.  This time the bacon was not burned and was heavenly!  One had a sweet maple dipping sauce, another was spicy jerk seasoned with a zippy pineapple sauce, and the last was chocolate dipped.  Yum!

For main dishes my mom got the Chimmi pizza, with beef chunks, pickled onions and spicy chimmichurrie sauce.  I got the Bahn Mizza again because it is worth making the trip for.  I won again, though both pizzas were good.

Overall, a few months after my first review I have to say that things have shaped up nicely.  Service was quicker, bacon was better, and the beers were even better.  I can now whole-heartedly recommend the place!

Freehouse Brewery Review

I've been looking forward to trying out Freehouse since I first heard rumors of it brewing late last year.  I have been a fan the Edina Grill and 3 Squares (also Blue Plate restaurants) for their casual but still upscale menus and good beer lists.  That being said, I have more recently been disappointed in the dwindling beer selection at Edina Grill.  So, a brewpub to open under this aegis?  Sounds like a perfect idea to me.  However, the place has sparked some controversy: even before officially opening, Freehouse made the national news with a somewhat ludicrous beer pricing scheme, that luckily they seem to have revamped since then.  I always like to give breweries and restaurants a little to time get through their initial growing pains before making an official ruling on them, which is why I waited a bit to get out there.

I picked up my mom in Maple Grove and headed downtown on a Tuesday for lunch.  The day was a bone-chillingly cold -6 degrees F, and we parked a few blocks away in a metered spot.  As we shambled ourselves over the poorly shoveled ice-slicks that Minneapolis calls sidewalks, we did see some parking spots near the restaurant that may have been fair game.  Oh well, I'm a suburb guy and don't know my downtown well!  The place is near Be'Wiched and Burrough, an easy walk to Fulton in warmer days.  A large metal grain silo emblazoned with an orange Minnesota, led the way to the building, drawing me like a beacon toward beer and blessed warmth.

A smiling hostess quickly opened the door for us and hustled us into the warm interior. Upon entering the large one story brick building I was struck by the contrasts.  Industrial girders and piping painted in white and black lined the ceilings and some of the walls--stark and monochromatic.  A large stainless steel square bar appeared just to the left of the entrance with a metal hanging shelf structure above it loaded with empty growlers.  Lots of windows offered good lighting, even on this overcast day.  Once we were seated in the restaurant proper at heavy light-grained wooden tables, I had time to continue looking around myself.  The dining area itself had soft booths of muted colors and despite the stark nature of the place it felt at the same time very comfortable and relaxing.  One can see the brewery itself behind glass at the other side of the dining room, with an animated Freehouse sign across the glass, bubbling with simulated carbonation.

The menu seemed a bit schizophrenic.  Classic pub fare like sandwiches, burgers and fish & chips vie for attention with breakfast items all day.  The appetizers were a bit out-there: oysters, bone marrow, oxtail croquettes, salmon Scotch egg, Korean riblets.  We ended up splitting two dishes so we could each try more things.  The fish & chips was very good, served with a wonderful house made aoli/tartar sauce, and a mint pea puree.  The star of the show was the strangely named $1000 Burger.  Served on a house made English muffin, the patty is a combination of flavorful cuts of brisket, short rib, sirloin and rich duck fat.  The flavors in this burger are crazy good and any extra juices soak into the muffin rather than escaping to the plate.  I'm usually a ketchup fiend, but I didn't even use any on this burger.  After trying these solid dishes, I'd like to sample some of the other wacky concoctions on this menu.

Let's talk beer, shall we?  Brewpubs are a difficult proposition, needing to succeed at both brewing good quality beers, as well as having great food.  This is the main reason there aren't a lot of brewpubs going up in the state.  With new taproom laws in Minnesota, breweries can sell pints at their own places without having to deal with running a successful restaurant as well.  However, nearly every brewery we went to in Oregon had their own restaurant, and most seemed to be doing great business.  The brewer for Freehouse is none other than Tim Piotrowski, (Pio for short,) most recently an alumni of the Minneapolis Rock Bottom.  Check this link to see last year's interview that he was kind enough to do for this blog.  At this point Freehouse has four house beers which I will touch on, but they also serve a limited supply of other craft beers along their own.  They serve beers in a pint, "middy" and 5 ounce sample glass so you can choose how you want it served.  I like having options.

1) The kolsch is a very light beer, obviously aimed at the casual beer drinker.  A subtle brew with a light fruity flavor, but I picked up a hint of plastic in the nose that I didn't love.  Luckily that faded quickly.
2) The brown ale was slightly more flavorful than a Newcastle, but in that vein.  Dry finish without a lot of body.  A light roasty flavor adds some complexity.
3) The stout seemed like a dry Irish stout but the lack of nitro tap to smooth the dry astringency of the finish and add mouthfeel knocked this down a bit for me.  My mom described it as "watery." 
4) The IPA was pretty mellow, but very well balanced.  This seemed more like a modern day pale ale, since IPA's have gone more over the top in recent years.  If I had tasted this 5 years ago I would have thought it was hoppy, but not today.  This was my favorite of the bunch, and I'd be happy to have a couple pints of it.  Very good with the fish & chips too!

When it comes down to it the beers were all fairly safe, but all were clean and drinkable.  Pio is known for well balanced, drinkable beers, and as such he is a good choice for this type of brewery.  All of the beers went well with the food choices we had, not overwhelming the flavors in the food--an important thing to consider when running a brewpub!  They are apparently working on a hoppier West Coast IPA and a wheat beer now, which bodes well for further experimentation in their line up.  It also sounds like they hope to feature some of the beers in the other Blue Plate restaurants as well, much like Town Hall and Fitgers have done with their off-shoot sites.

The service we had at Freehouse was stellar.  From the pleasant hostess to our knowledgeable and attentive server, I felt well cared for during my visit.  My empty sample glasses magically whisked away, and I never felt rushed or pressured.  At one point a jovial, bearded manager stopped by and seemed genuinely interested in what we thought of our experience and the beers in particular.  Everyone I dealt with seemed to know their beer and food well.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience at Freehouse.  Excellent service, good food and decent house-brewed beer made this a great place for lunch.  Having read an entertaining but less than glowing review prior to my visit, I had somewhat low expectations coming in.  I was almost disappointed not to be served a Lovecraftian dish, but my experience was apparently much better!  The setting was an interesting juxtaposition of industrial and comfortable.  At this point they lack a "killer" beer that I would make the trip out for specifically, but I look forward to stopping back in here again to try more beers over time...and to have another of those amazing burgers. 

Three Floyds Brewery

On a recent trip to Chicago, my childhood friend Bryan and his girlfriend Megan took me on a little field trip to the not-so-bustling town of Munster, Indiana for a visit to the fabled Three Floyds Brewery.  I've been a fan of their beers for ages, though I admit some of that may be the fact that I can't buy them in Minnesota.  In tone, the brewery has a lot in common with our home-team Surly Brewing: screw-the-man attitude, vibrant art style, irreverent beer names, and cult-like fan following.  All the things needed for greatness among the beer geek community.  And like Surly, they get by on more than attitude--they put out consistently good beer.

Waiting...

We arrived about 30 minutes before the brewpub opened to find a large line snaking into the parking lot from the main entrance.  This was no special event day, but apparently the place is always packed.  Luckily it was a balmy 50 degrees and sunny in small-town Indiana that day, but I wouldn't brave the elements in the middle of winter for it!  Squatting beneath the bulbous Munster water tower, the brewery building is essentially a large warehouse with an attached small brewpub.  There is a pub entrance and a second, smaller, door for walk in bottle sales.  A few minutes before official opening, an employee, using his best carnival barker's voice, explained the rules to those of us in line.  He explained the free tour times and allowed us to sign up for them.  Interestingly once in the brewpub, if your tour time comes up, they will save your seat for you until you return.  A nice perk since tables are hard to come by.  I do have to say, that the staff was great and despite being busy they really knew how to deal with crowds.

We were escorted to a small table near the rather minuscule bar and settled in for some great beers.  The bar itself is oddly decorated with a series of framed bottle art, Three Floyds event posters, and a mix of old toys and action figures.  Shelves of bottles, more toys and odd nick-knacks also surrounded the room.  Murals of Gumball Head the cat lined the walls near the restrooms.  Again I was shocked at how small the brewpub and bar is, with the popularity of the brewery such as it is.  Supposedly they had a recent expansion, but they obviously didn't go crazy with it! 

Bryan doing his "Robert The Bruce" impression!

They offer samplers of their four "regular" beers: Dreadnaught IPA, Alpha King Pale, Mild and Robert The Bruce.  All are good beers but RTB is far and away the best--a wonderfully malty and complex Scottish ale.  They had an extensive list of other beers, and offered most in full or half pints, though some were only served in 8 oz snifters (mostly double IPAs.)  Between the three of us we were able to sample many of the beers that fine day.  Still bloated from a huge dim-sum repast in Chinatown earlier in the day, we stopped drinking due to lack of room rather than too much alcohol.  I enjoyed the War Mullet and Permanent Funeral (both DIPAs) very much.  Bryan and I were very surprised that in addition to over-the-top hoppy, the brewery had several very restrained examples of classic Continental beer styles like and Oktoberfest (Munsterfest) and Schwarzbier (Das Kleine Schwarz Einhorn).  I wish there had been more time, and more room in my distended gut, to try everything, but we did fairly well.  Several of the beers on tap were collaborations with Metal groups, and similarly themed loud Metal music pervaded the pub.

We hit the free tour after our drinking was done.  You get what you pay for.  The entire tour took place in about 15 feet of warehouse space.  Our tour guide was good and knew his stuff, but this was a very fast tour that barely scratched the surface of such an infamous brewery.  I did like the artwork on the walls, including some old D&D art from the Dungeon Master's Guide of my youth.  Looking at the bourbon barrels filled with future incarnations of rare Three Floyds beer was intriguing.  They also had just received a large oak foedor as used by Rodenbach and New Belgium, but hadn't decided what to do with it yet.  I also spotted Brewers Supply Group malt shipments that my friend Chris is probably responsible for.  I was disappointed that we really didn't get close enough to look at the packaging line, or even the brew kettle, though I guess if you've seen one you've probably seen them all.

When done with our tour we joined the (now shorter) line for bottle sales and purchased some beers to take home with us.  They had a limitation to 2 cases of beer per person, and nearly everyone in line with us left with two big case boxes!  They did have a lot of t-shirts, but I was disappointed in the other brewery swag.  I would have bought a sweat shirt, or tin tacker or posters...but they were all out of those.  Pretty much beer, t-shirts and pint glasses only.  Come on guys, with your dramatic artwork and logo this is a huge area of potential money making for you!

I really did enjoy my trip out to the brewery, but have to admit I was slightly underwhelmed after the hype I have heard.  I wanted more grandeur and pomp!  I still need to get out there for Dark Lord Day one of these years (as seen on Limited Release in two separate episodes). 

Northbound Smokehouse: Smoky, Meaty, Goodness!

The other day Matt, Anna, Sj and I decided to celebrate Anna's birthday by doing a crawl of several Minneapolis breweries.  Despite being an avid beer fanatic, the long and endless winter here, paired with the distance from my home in the West has precluded me from visiting many of these newly opened breweries.  With an end to the glacial winter in site, we headed off first to South Minneapolis and Northbound Smokehouse.

Unlike the veritable glut of production breweries and taprooms now springing up in the Twin Cities, Northbound is a genuine Brewpub.  The old stand-bys of Town Hall, Great Waters, Rock Bottom and Barley Johns were all founded over 10 years ago, and this is the first brewpub to open since then.  As a guy who likes his food (see all my posts about beer dinners...) I was excited to hear about this place.  Now I'm sad that it took me so long to get out there and try it!

Upon opening up the car doors to walk over to the brewery, we were all hit by an amazing smoked meat aroma that caused instant belly rumblings and excessive salivation.  That smell can not be properly described for print, but stimulated that hind-brain where the Homo Habilus or Australopithecus still dwells, ready to club some animal into submission and throw it on a smoky fire.  The stated goal of the brewpub is to house smoke locally sourced meats, served up with high quality craft beers.  Located in the Oak Building, it is at the NW corner of 38th St. East and 28th Ave South.  The pub itself has an understated look with the name stenciled on the windows and some minimalist local brewery posters on the walls inside.  Everything is new looking and uncluttered, with clean lines and comfortable stools and chairs to sit on.  The general feel of the place is a comfortable corner bar and restaurant, but lacks a little character to differentiate it from others.  They do have a large patio area that will soon be crowded with locals, eating and drinking their hearts out.

Two chalk boards quietly post the current tap list.  They were serving five of their own beers, so all of us got samplers to test out our server's skills.  They also had several local guest beers on tap: Indeed, Schells, Surly, Fulton and Lift Bridge.  Their brewer, Jamie Robinson, apparently used to work at Town Hall, so I had high hopes for the beers.  Their current seasonal was the Small Ball--a sessionable pale ale made with Glacier hops, and very drinkable.  My favorite of theirs was the Porter, made with a small percentage of smoked malt--but not enough in my opinion!  The honey wheat was remarkably good for a style that is usually a throw-away at brewpubs.  The Light Rail Pale and the Big Jim IPA were both respectable but not outstanding.  Overall the house beers were all well crafted and clean, but I wanted a bit more out of them.  I think they should really embrace their smokehouse roots here and have a legit rauchbier or a gratzer rather than focus on the lighter ales.

Laine showing off her mad skills

What makes this place stand out is the food.  Sj and I split the Smoked Porketta sandwich which was amazingly smoky and flavorful.  We also split the Smoked Beef sandwich with horseradish and smoked Gouda.  That was meat heaven on a plate.  The cajun fries were some of the best I've had in the Twin Cities.  The down side to stopping here first on our pub crawl was that all of us ate way too much and had little room left for more beers!

Glad I had my lactaid...

Our server (wearing a Dangerous Man shirt,) immediately picked up on the fact that were   beer tourists and pointed us toward other local places to visit as well.  She was very knowledgeable about Northbound beers, as well as other local beers and breweries.  This was a very good place to have lunch and some beers.  I would be here a lot if I lived anywhere near the area, and highly recommend it.  About the only gripe I have with the place is that the decoration in the bar is a little generic--I think they would do well to play up their brand a bit more.  I have also been to another smokehouse (Black Dog in Champaign, IL) that serves pretty much everything on the menu smoked, including most of the appetizers, and I want the Northbound guys to take it to that level!  Go big or go home!